Posted on 09/29/2012 11:24:54 AM PDT by Kartographer
A Detroit man says his business is being held hostage by a group of teenagers who continually loiter inside and out of his gas station.
"There's a lot of good people around here," said the station owner, who wished to remain anonymous. But now, those good people aren't coming as often to the Marathon station along W. 7 Mile Road on the city's west side.
"This is a Bad Crew gas station," said one teen loitering out front on Tuesday. When asked what that meant, he said, "If you don't know, I can't even tell you."
Surveillance video obtained by FOX 2 shows as many as a dozen teens hanging out inside the store, smoking cigarettes, sitting on countertops and even spitting into sinks.
The owner says as many as 40 teens can be hanging out in front of the station at any time. "Destroying my store. Destroying my business," said the owner.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxdetroit.com ...
Any Hells angle gangs in the area who would’nt mind some exercise or testing of some brass knuckles they might have??
Have they asked the owner if he wants protection? The loiters that is.
I was going to suggest playing Neil Diamond, but on second thought, that would drive everyone away.
“hire an off-duty cop to guard the store”
You said - “Not every station owner can add $100k in overhead and have any profit left.”
A voice of reason at last.
Somebody needed to say it. “off duty cops” don’t come cheap. Simplistic solutions never are as simple as they sound.
The owner himself may not be netting as much as he’d have to pay for security.
The police can’t or won’t do anything, lest they be accused of racism. Even if they could, some judge will slap the kids on the wrist. Then they’ll be coming after the owner.
Where I live, the police show up only when there is a dead body. Under any other circumstance, they don’t bother. In my neighborhood, gunfire is an every night occurrence. I just lock the doors and stay inside.
“Get a dog.”
That would have to be one highly trained dog to chase away the unwanteds but don’t threaten the paying customers.
Play classical music LOUD. It has been proven to keep teen-agers away.
Bad Crew need be acquainted with Smith & Wesson.
There have always been dangerous areas in the world, including the US.
One time during a youthful misadventure, a few friends and I took a wrong turn in Miami after leaving the clubs in South Beach. At the time when Miami was the most dangerous city in the US.
It was obviously a bad neighborhood and we stopped at some gas station to ask for directions.
The guy inside the small gas station building sitting behind bulletproof glass stared at us wide eyed when we approached. He said “what the F are you doing here at this time? Get inside quickly.” He opened the door and let us inside.
He explained “people like us can't be out here at night. Animals with AK-47s roam the streets here and they will kill you for your shoes. I'll call a cop over and you follow him out of here.”
Sure enough he called in a squad car that escorted us out.
If that don't work, play BOB WILLS and THE TEXAS PLAYBOYS.
When a customer drives in to get gas, automatically switch it to Classical.
"As someday it may happen that a victim must be found, I got a little list. I've got a little list...."
Works on teenagers, and tested on aliens.
You know that Aggravating little ring on cellphones that only teens are supposed to be able to hear download it and loop it to play on the speakers inside and out 24 to 48 hours your problem is solved drivem so crazy they won’t come around for nothing !
and fold the price of the guard into the price of their gas??? NO... make the useless ON DUTY doughnut eaters do their job
Play classical music over the loudspeaker.
“Not every station owner can add $100k in overhead and have any profit left.
Unless the police take care of this or this gang gets thinned considerably, this man is out of business.”
Yep.
Probably the best thing this guy could do would be to just gather up what stock he could remove, lock the doors, declare bankruptcy if necessary — and then move out for greener pastures somewhere, ANYwhere else…
There comes a time when one just has to stare reality in the face. And the “reality” of this situation is that Detroit isn’t any place to try and run a business like this.
Time to start playing embarrassing and annoying music.
I’m thinking It’s A Small World After All, We Are The World, a selection from Barney and Friends, sing along with Shirley Temple, Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, etc., etc.
YMCA by the Village People, maximum volume, permanent loop.
Even the six-legged roaches will leave.
And they wonder why nobody builds shopping centers or grocery stores down there.
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