What do a business trip to South Korea, a fake phone booth, an entire workplace quitting before someone's first shift, a Russian liquor store, and a Hollywood movie shoot mistaken for a real gunfight have in common? They all happened to real people, and they're all waiting for you in Episode 8 of I Used To Work There. From laugh-out-loud moments to stories that will have you shaking your head in disbelief, this is one of our strongest episodes yet. The truth really can be stranger than fiction.

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So the first morning I get to the branch and there is nothing.

There's no there.

The lights are off.

I get to the parking lot, there's no cars in the parking lot, lights are off, door is locked.

So I'm very confused.

So I get a call from the gentleman who hired me.

He says, jamie, the keys are in the mailbox.

Can you please open the store, turn the lights on, start up the computers?

He casually just tells me the entire staff had quit last week and I was the only employee there.

Welcome back to I Used to Work There, the show about the jobs we survived, the people we worked with, and the stories we still can't believe actually happened.

Before we jump into today's episode, I want to take a moment to say thank you.

Over the last three and a half months, the show has officially surpassed 50,000 downloads.

When I launched, I used to work there.

I knew there were incredible workplace stories out there, but I had no idea how quickly this community would grow.

Whether you've been with us since episode one or you just discovered the show, thank you for listening, sharing episodes, sending in stories, leaving reviews, and helping us build something special.

This show only works because of you, and I'm incredibly grateful for every single download Follow Message and Story Submission we appreciate your support more than you know, and so happy that so many of you are enjoying the show.

And speaking of incredible stories, today we have an incredible show for you.

A business trip to South Korea that turns into one misunderstanding after another, a woman who accidentally walks onto a Hollywood movie set, a first day of work where everybody had already quit, a cashier left completely alone during a rush, a wild trip to a Russian liquor store, and last but not least, a Hollywood shootout that brought the police running.

Before we get started, our Employee of the Month competition is officially underway.

If you have a true workplace story that is funny, unbelievable, chaotic, inspiring, creepy, or just plain strange, I want to hear it.

Pull out your phone, open your voice recorder, find a quiet place and tell your story just like you're telling it to a friend.

And then email it to H R. I used to work there Dot com.

I'll follow it up with a guest release and you'll officially be entered to win our $500 employee of the Month grand Prize.

The only question is this.

Will you be our very first Employee of the Month?

All right, let's get into it.

Our first story comes from a Very familiar voice.

If you've been listening to the show for a while, you may remember Darrel from Russian Train Ride, one of the most talked about stories that we have ever featured.

Well, Darrel is back, and this time he found himself in a business event in South Korea where one misunderstanding after another led to one of the most awkward nights of his entire life.

Today we're talking all about a Korean picnic.

Darrell, welcome back to the show.

Tell us what happened in the early.

2000S prior to going on the Russian train ride.

We had to build some modules in Korea.

So I was there for about six months while we were building these modules.

So this company that I was working with, I had to deal with the big manager.

And, you know, the culture's totally different there.

Everything's different, you know, like, first thing I said was, you know, where's the coffee machine?

And his response was, oh, no, just.

Just wait.

We will have a woman bring you the coffee.

Yeah.

And I'm like, well, that's very nice of you, but I can get my own.

But anyways, I could not get my own.

He would not show me where the coffee machine was.

So he said, wait here.

So I had to wait from sitting there.

And this lady comes around the corner with this tray and pours my coffee and puts my cream and my sugar and stirs it around and hands me the cup.

So, you know, that was all good.

And then she's just standing there for a minute, and I'm like, oh, thank you.

And then she says, oh, your eyes are like the ocean.

Oh, wow.

I'm like, oh, thank you.

So anyways, she goes out later and I guess, you know, it's probably an afternoon night.

Decided I wanted another coffee, right?

So I asked him again where the machine was, but he said, yeah, I know the girl will bring you one.

So anyway, she came again, brings me coffee, same routine.

And then she says.

She rubs my arm and says, oh, you furry.

I'm like, well, hey, I guess so.

But I don't know if that's a compliment or not, but thanks anyways.

So anyways, as we.

As we went along, we went in the shop, we looked around, seen the welders working and all the good things that was happening there.

And then I met the big boss.

So this guy was like the big boss.

Like, he had, I think he said he had 10,000 employees that were working.

Wow.

Yeah, and he had 10 different divisions, and each division, I guess, had about a thousand employees, and they did different things throughout.

Throughout Korea.

And anyway, so I get to Korea, we go down.

It's in Ulsan, so different south of Seoul.

We're getting things going.

And each day they would take me out to different places for lunch and things like that.

They basically wanted to do business outside of the office.

They'd never talked to me in the office.

Like, I'd ask them a question, oh, I'll tell you later, and, you know, take you out and have a few drinks.

And then he would talk business, Right?

Yeah.

So anyways, it was going along for a while and I was getting a little.

I couldn't take it.

Like every night he wanted to go out.

Right.

And when it was business, it was from like 7 till 4 in the morning.

Right.

That was business.

So I'm like, no, I. I can't do that kind of business anymore.

I need to.

I need to get some sleep.

Yeah.

So anyways, after a couple of months there, we got to know.

I got to know him really well and, you know, kind of became friends and we talked lots about different things.

And anyways, he.

He told me we're not going to be working this Friday.

And I said, why?

And he said, it's Korean picnic day and we have the day off.

And I said, oh, well, that's great.

I said, what are you going to do on Korean picnic day?

And he's like, well, he says, I got my 12 divisions or 10 divisions, and we're going to go have.

I have to have dinner with each one of my managers.

And I said, all in one day?

And he's like, yeah.

He said, this often is all.

One day, one evening.

Wow.

Yeah, that's what I said.

Then he says, and he says, and he says, I have a special surprise.

He says, you're gonna come, my honored guest.

Oh, it's awesome.

Yeah.

Anyways, we go along.

We go to this first meeting and I get into the restaurant and it's one of those tables that are about a foot off the ground, right?

Yeah.

With your legs crossed and try and eat.

Anyways, I'm halfway through the dinner, my legs are cramping up.

So I stretch my foot underneath the table to stretch it out.

And you know when you get that twitch that just happens uncontrollably, Your foot just twitches.

Yeah, that's what I kicked straight up.

Everything in the table flew above, landed back down perfectly, and we continued to eat.

Nobody even said so.

Anyways, their traditions that they have are, you know, a little different.

You pour soju for them, they pour for you.

You know, you do a couple of cross the arms, you Drink.

And so lots of drinking involved and lots of introductions.

And then they want to.

A lot of the younger executives wanted to talk to me because I was the honored guest.

I was a client, right?

So they wanted to talk and they practice their English and different things.

So each one took about an hour.

But anyways, by the time we got to the last one, not even the last one, I'd say probably the sixth one, I was loaded already and I wanted to go home too much soju, but we had to keep going.

So anyways, we went and we went to a few other runs, and then we went to another restaurant, had the little table, and I'm like, oh, no.

But then they had a big pit underneath that you drop your legs in, right?

This is the American table.

Yeah.

I'm like, oh, okay, I'll take that.

Right?

So I'm sitting there in a meeting and.

And then they've got all different kinds of stuff in little bowls, right?

So everybody just kinds of grabs out of the bowl.

So after six rounds of soju, I was having a little problem using my chopsticks.

And they're stainless steel, right?

Because that's their regular utensils, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So he's seeing me struggling, and then he's like, oh, wait, he says, I will get you something that we have for the children.

He comes out and he brings me these wooden chopsticks, right?

And I'm like, sweet.

This is good, man.

I rip everything now.

This is awesome, right?

Yeah.

And then they had this bowl and it had these white.

It looked like shiny water chestnuts or something, right?

So I took a.

Everybody was eating them.

So I grabbed one, I threw it in my mouth, bit down.

Oh, my God.

It was.

A big chunk of garlic came out of me ears.

I'm sure it was coming out of my ears, man.

My eyes were watering.

And, like, I wasn't gonna get sick for, like six years after that joke anyways.

I didn't wanna be rude.

I just ate it nicely and had garlic breath like everybody else.

But.

So anyways, as we started going, we get to this one restaurant and this guy, these executive guys are all around me and they're talking and, oh, do you have a family?

And I'm like, yeah, I got a family.

And.

Oh, you have any pictures, right?

And I'm like, yeah, I got a picture of my daughter, if you wanna see, right?

So I give them the picture, and they're all passing it around.

They're talking in Korea, and all I can hear is mumble, mumbling all around the table.

And then I hear this one guy go, oh, movie star.

Oh, well, that's great.

My daughter looks like a movie star.

Yeah.

Anyways, we kept going and we went to a couple more restaurants.

Then I think we're maybe at the second last one and we're walking down the street.

We had to meet them at this other place.

And then we walked, had a couple of drinks, then we went to the restaurant.

And so as we're walking, this guy grabs my hand and wants to hold my hand.

And I'm like, I shook him off.

I'm like thinking, I'm not that drunk.

But I didn't realize until a couple of months after I finished the job that that was a tradition with them, right?

Like it's like, you know, it's a friendship or just, you know, something nice like that.

But for me, it was kind of offensive.

I wasn't sure what was going on.

You're like, I've had a lot to drink.

Yeah.

So anyways, we finally finish up the very last one and I'm like, great, I get to go home.

Call me a cab.

I want to go to my hotel.

And go to bed.

Then he says, oh, we have a special place we're going for you.

And I'm like, no, I need to go to my hotel.

That's the place that's pretty special for me right now.

I need to sleep.

So anyways, we drive and we're driving in this car and we're going.

It's pitch black in this area we're going through and then there's a few street lights and then it's pitch black again and probably about a 20 minute drive.

And we drive into this place and we walk in and it's like it looked like something from American Idol or something, right?

This big giant stage with all these, all these tables with white tablecloths, People dressed in like tuxes and suits and nice dresses.

I'm wearing my jeans and my T shirt.

Anyways, we sit down and I'm like, what is this place?

And then the interpreter says to me, oh, this is very special.

He says, we're here for you, right?

So that big boss goes up on the stage and I'm like, oh, he's gonna say a speech or something, right?

He goes up there and grabs this mic and he starts karaoke, right?

But I'm talking like, this guy's serious.

He's like sliding on his knees and he's thinking he's going up to the front and he's touching people's Hands like a super.

Like.

Just like American Idol.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then.

And then I'm like, wow, this guy's really into karaoke.

And he finishes up, and then he comes off the stage, and then he hands me the mic, and I'm like, hold on, hold on.

No, no, no.

I don't karaoke.

I don't do that, man.

And then he's like, the interpreter's there.

And he says, oh, you must.

He says this.

He came here specifically for you.

Like, this would, like, dishonor him if you don't do it.

And I'm like, oh, my God.

Like, the pressure.

But I'm like, okay, bring it on.

Give me that mic.

Yeah.

So I'm up there, I'm looking through the screen, and I see Billy Joel, Piano Man.

And he said, push the button.

All of a sudden, the music starts.

I got this mic, and I'm looking around.

There's like 300 people in this place at least, right?

It's like wedding or whatever, right?

And I'm up there, and the song comes along.

So as it starts, I'm really, really bad, right?

Like, I could tell I'm really, really bad.

Yeah.

But then as I started going in my mind, I thought, I'm doing pretty good now.

Yeah, you got through the jitters.

Yeah, through the jitters.

I'm kind of singing away and going along, and everybody's.

You know, I'm just looking around.

There's no expressions at all.

There's not anybody laughing or not anybody smiling.

You have zero indication of how good you're doing.

Yeah, exactly.

And I'm like, I'm either.

I think I'm really doing bad, actually.

But anyways, I finish up, I look out at the crowd.

I've got this mic, I'm done.

And it's.

I could hear crickets, right?

It was so quiet.

I'm like, oh, my God.

Like, I'm like, that was the worst experience of my life.

I'm thinking that I'm trying to get off the stage and hand this mic off.

And then just as I hand the mic off to the guy, he turns me around and says, oh, you have to bow.

So then I bowed, and the whole place gave me a standing ovation.

Oh, wow.

I'm like, wow.

I didn't realize I had a second talent.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So anyways, after that, we end up leaving that place, and I'm thinking, okay, finally I get to go home.

It's like two in the morning now.

Yeah.

No, he stops at some other place.

Oh, just one more.

We'll just stop and have one drink.

And I'm like, okay.

And we go in this room, and there's, like, me, the big manager and the interpreter, and one other guy.

There's four of us.

But this table we're sitting at is for, like, 30, and it's in its own separate room on the side, right?

So I'm like, well, it's weird.

What's going on here?

Real pretty exciting place you got here.

Four of us, nothing.

Nobody else is in the room, right?

So we're sitting there for a minute.

He orders this bottle of.

Little bottle of whiskey that was like 800 bucks a bottle.

And he orders two, right?

So we're having a couple shots.

And anyways, all of a sudden, there's, like a hundred women come in there, right?

And they're feeding you grapes, and, you know, they want you to buy them drinks and whatever.

And I guess this place that we went to, they don't let the Koreans in there.

So you have to be an expat to get in there.

So that's why they brought me.

I was their ticket in, right?

So we get in there, and there's all these girls, and they're feeding you grapes, and they're bringing you drinks, and on and on.

Anyways, finally getting to the end of the night, and I'm like, listen, I really have to go.

Can you just call me a cab and tell the guy where my hotel is?

Because I said, if you don't tell him where it is, I'll be blocked.

I'll never get home.

So he's like, okay, it's all arranged.

So I go to the car, go outside.

There's a cab.

And just as I'm walking towards the cab, these two women hop in.

I'm like, okay, maybe that was their cab.

I'll wait for mine, right?

Yeah, no cab, but that cab just sitting there.

So I go back to the interpreter.

I'm like, hey, did you call me a cab?

And he's like, yeah, yeah, it should be there.

And I said, yeah, but there's two women in the backseat.

And he goes, oh, yeah, those are for you.

I'm like, no, no, no.

I'm like.

I said, I got a wife at home.

And I said, why hopping that back?

This is not going to.

That's going to be a very, very expensive cab ride for me.

So I think I'll just.

I'll just get my own cab, please.

Wow.

Yeah.

So that was Korean picnic day.

Wow.

Wow, man.

I like.

I honestly, I hear stories like this.

Like, Russian train ride, Korean picnic.

We had another one that was basically like a guy gets on a last minute Learjet to Milan and I'm like, I can't.

I think one of the most surprising things about this show, Darrell, so far is that I'm hearing stories and in my mind I'm thinking, how is this even real?

Because honestly, what I'm learning at this point is the truth is absolutely stranger than fiction.

Oh, and it's true.

And especially, especially when you're in other countries, right?

You got different cultures, they got different ways of doing business.

They got, you know, so everything's different, right?

Nobody speaks English.

You're, you know, you're the oddball in the place.

Right.

You're not used to that.

Right.

And you know, like, like, you know, you're walking down the street and all the little kids are turning their heads and staring at you.

Yeah, he's different, right?

No, this was incredible.

Korean Picnic.

Darryl, this is going to go down as one of the, one of the top shows for sure.

Thank you so much for sharing another incredible story.

Anytime, buddy.

From Korean Picnic day to the bright lights of Hollywood, it is my pleasure to welcome John from Southern California back to the show.

He has another incredible story from a movie set that he was working on about a fake phone booth.

And trust me, you gotta hear this one to believe it.

John, welcome back.

Tell us what happened.

Okay, again, thank you, Kelly, for allowing me to basically go back in time here.

This is, this movie was way back.

Again, this movie was probably done about 20 years ago as a fun movie.

It was a family film with some pretty big stars in it.

I'll kind of set the stage.

It's a scene where the star of the movie is waiting for a phone call in a phone from a phone booth.

And he's waiting very carefully about the health of somebody if somebody's been injured.

And it's kind of a, he has to, it's a sort of a secret thing.

So he goes to a place and if people know we're in Los Angeles, Griffith park, there's a big carousel there.

And so what we did, what we did is we actually got a fake phone booth, kind of put it about 50ft away from the carousel.

So we had a beautiful angle up here's this phone booth and there's a carousel in the background.

Yeah, this is a big movie.

We're talking, you know, crew of 80 people, you know, took up half the parking lot with tractor trailers and all that stuff.

And pretty much 90% of everybody, including in the Carousel were all extras, but there were people we didn't, you know, we let tourists and people that are at this park, you know, wander around.

Kind of didn't want them to be too much.

But so we're.

And I'm actually.

I'm the camera director, photography of this movie.

So I'm on this big camera crane.

And we're kind of set up right in front of this phone booth with this nice angle of the carousel in the back.

And the shot I have to create is the lead actor walks in front of the camera.

Walks.

So he disappears in front of the camera and the camera booms up.

Then he's revealing the phone booth.

And as he walks up, you hear the phone ring, which is all sound effects because it's a phony.

It's not a real phone booth.

Yeah, phone doesn't work.

And as he walks up, Abe basically gets on the phone and then we do all the angles.

You're used to seeing the guy inside the phone booth talking.

Very simple shot, sort of.

Well, we do the rehearsals.

Everything's fine.

Get back to what's called set to position A, which is everything.

Back to the beginning before they call action.

The actors underneath the camera ready as I.

As he walks forward.

And then I do my camera.

Boom.

And as I'm focused, we're always tunnel focused.

While this is all going on, some random lady who's not on working in the movie at all goes into the phone booth.

And I immediately go out of my left eye because my right eyes in the viewfinder, I go, wait a second.

We call them bogeys.

We have a bogey.

And everyone looks in.

John, our lead actor, goes.

He laughs at me because he's just right next to me and next to the camera.

I'm on the crane really low.

And he looks at me and laughs and he goes, let her go.

Let her go.

And so she's trying to put money in the machine.

It's not working.

Is not working.

And then.

So he motions to the director.

Call action.

Call action.

I said, oh, this will be fun.

So what ends up happening?

This lady, we call them civilians or bogey.

She just.

She's very frustrated.

She's about 70 years old.

Nicest looking lady you've ever seen.

Yeah, all dressed really well.

So the call action.

Now, keep in mind, huge camera crane.

You've seen him probably in movies and all that gigantic lights everywhere.

Sound guy with a microphone hanging over the top.

20 People, makeup artists.

I mean, literally, we're all in about a 15 foot semi circle around A shot.

This is not some out in the middle of nowhere shot.

There's this lady right in front, and she.

We got these gigantic booty lights blazing in there.

Yeah, yeah.

And so, I mean, she.

You know, my gosh, it was.

So basically, we start the move.

Action.

And John goes up to the.

To the.

Just to the door of the phone booth.

And he goes, are you having a problem?

He goes, yeah, the phone won't work.

I put three dimes in.

It won't work.

He goes, well, let me try for you.

And so she goes, yeah, there's a trick to this phone.

There's a trick to this phone.

And this actor.

I wish I could say his full name, he was.

He's very funny.

And he gets sense of humor because I have tricks.

I can make this phone work for you.

So she kind of steps out, he gets in there, he puts his own dime in.

He taps the phone on the side a few times, wiggles it, and then he does a funny little dance.

And he goes.

Because she had dialed it.

And he put it in.

And so he goes, oh, what's your.

And he goes, what's your friend's name?

And he goes.

He pretends like he's talking to his friend, her friend.

And then he hands the phone to her and he very elegantly does a pirouette, walks out so there's room for him to her to walk in.

She gets on the phone and she's just, like, talking for a minute, like, not even acknowledging that there's really nobody there.

There's nothing on the phone.

Yeah.

And then finally she turns back to and says, it's not working.

She grabs.

He grabs her by the shoulders, turns her, pulls her up, turns her towards the camera.

At this time, my lenses, cameras six feet away from her, and there's 80 people she's looking at with four big movie lights.

And, yeah.

He goes, man, this is not a real phone.

We're making a movie right now, and you're in the movie.

And she looks so surprised at first, but not to the point where you expect one of many reactions.

All of them probably, you know, acceptably interesting or funny.

She just looked kind of big eyes and goes, was it a good take?

And I go.

And basically, actually, I. I shouldn't have.

The camera guy is not supposed to talk.

There's a wonderful take and.

And then John says, it was great.

It was a great take.

And basically she got all excited and then he walked her off the.

Off to the side of camera.

And they did.

We did several other takes.

Of it.

Yeah.

And that was it.

But at the end of the day, you know, I'm, as you know, I was headed.

Focused on just doing.

Continuing on, doing shots of the day.

Next thing I know, I see her in all these other scenes because they've now hired her as an extra.

And literally she signed her paperwork and now she's working on the film as an extra.

Oh, wow.

And to this and to this day, I don't know if she's a very clever person knowing how to get work real fast.

People might take some lessons on this one or if it was truly just a series of circumstances.

But I just remember it's one of those things you can visualize.

This phone literally is this dropped.

The phone was just dropped in the middle of nowhere.

So that.

That was a fun day.

Those are the kind of things you don't expect.

And that was.

It was a good one.

That is hilarious, man.

I had such a good laugh.

And.

Yeah.

It's like I can just see right now somebody walking up to an old phone booth, just assuming that the thing should work.

But, like, just being so unaware, like, so in their own mind about what they need to be doing.

Yeah.

They are not paying any attention to what is going on around them.

And let's be honest, John, that's not so dissimilar from all of us staring at our phones in the modern day.

It is.

Exactly.

We call it what you like, tunnel vision.

Phone vision.

It's.

But the interaction between John, the lead actor, and her was literally a level filmmaking.

Did it ever make, like a blooper reel?

It was.

It was, you know.

You know, one of the things about moviemaking, people, you know, who are filmmakers, a lot of probably content creators are listening to show.

Acting is a natural talent.

Practice is what brings it to the surface where you as the audience accept this actor.

You actually, subconsciously, the actor becomes real to you.

It emotionally connects in multiple areas of your emotions, whether it's the good guy, the bad guy, the.

All the different aspects.

You believe this actor.

They resonate with you.

And this has a lot to do with natural body.

It's, it's.

It's, you know, we'll call it charisma.

Yeah.

And the movie industry called the ick factor.

Doesn't mean you have to be pretty handsome or anything.

Like, it's about your voice, your eyes and your body movement.

And your eyes and voice are it.

And this scene was the scene that you would expect a list actors pull off, including this woman.

Wow.

Because it was natural.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the dialogue was natural.

There was no extra words added.

Every, only.

Every word was only necessary to get the points across.

Just like a good movie should.

Yeah, so it was, it was fun.

Do you know, John, if that scene ever made a blooper reel.

Yeah, it's in the movie.

Yeah, it has to be in the movie because.

Oh, yeah.

John purposely, who is a producer in the film, also creatively made sure that it had to be in the movie.

So when we continued the takes of the movie, she always ended up walking away.

The two other takes are called safeties.

Was him already in the booth talking as he gets in.

Yeah, after her.

So we needed to do one more take of her walking out a properly exiting frame so he could, we could get him all by himself.

So we did do two takes of her really quick.

So, yeah, it's in the movie.

Okay.

Amazing.

Well, you know, props to you guys if you can figure out what movie it is.

But thank you for another incredible, incredible story.

John.

For our next story, it is my absolute pleasure to welcome a very special person to the show.

It is my pleasure to welcome Jamie Crozier.

And for those of you who have not heard that name before, he is the president of Atlas Elite Auto Lifts.

And for those of you who have listened to this show for a little bit, you might recognize him as the title sponsor of this very show.

And so, Jamie, honestly, it's an honor and a privilege to have you with us.

It's cool to have you come on and actually share a story and participate because you're already participating in such a meaningful way.

And I know the listeners are super psyched about the story competition that we're doing right now.

If you're hearing this show and it's the, you know, it's new, it's just been released.

Best, wildest, most impactful story, judged by yours truly, will win $500.

And the winner will be announced in our very first show in August.

So if you're hearing this, please send us your story.

HR used to work there dot com.

Pull out your phone, take a voice memo, email it over.

I will follow it up with a quick consent form and you are entered into our competition.

Jamie, you have an incredible story for us.

Tell us what happened.

Thanks, Kelly.

Great, great introduction and obviously a huge fan of the show.

Thank you so much for having me here.

I have a couple of stories, but, you know, for the purposes of this one, I am thinking of One story in particular, and it was, I was coming out of university and it was a really rough job market.

No job opportunities, very, very few opportunities.

So I took, so I took a job at a dollar store.

And I realized quite quickly this was not something that I was interested in doing full time.

Not exactly a long term career opportunity.

So I was really trying hard to find another job, anything really, that was paying more than minimum wage.

So I had handed out a bunch of different resumes.

Finally, I landed an interview with a large industrial distribution company for an outside sales role.

I was so excited at the time.

I was making, I think $11 an hour.

They offered me $19 an hour, which.

Was, yeah, you know, life changing money for me at the time.

It doesn't sound so great right now, but it was amazing.

Yes.

So I knew nothing about sales in university.

I did political science and philosophy.

I knew nothing about sales.

But for 19 bucks an hour, I was willing to try and figure it out.

So, you know, if I look back, I basically asked no questions about the job.

I was just so excited about the 19 bucks.

I didn't ask about the business, I didn't ask about the team.

I didn't ask about turnover, training, culture.

I didn't ask anything about that.

Show me the money.

Yeah, I was just so excited about getting away from the dollar store.

So anyway, so I, my first day, you know, the guy who interviewed me, he said, here's, you know, here's where you go, here's your first day.

So the first morning I, I get to the branch and there is nothing.

There's the lights are off.

I get to the parking lot, there's no cars in the parking lot, lights are off, door is locked.

I said, huh, this is not really what I was expecting.

So I thought, you know, am I early?

Am I even at the right place?

I mean, it's got the business name on the front door, but, you know, maybe I went to the wrong location.

Yeah.

And I, so I'm very confused.

So I get a call from the gentleman who hired me.

He says, jamie, the keys are in the mailbox.

Can you please open the store, turn the lights on, start up the computers.

And I just remember being so confused.

I didn't know.

I literally had no idea what was going on.

I tried to sound calm.

I was like, what do you mean there's no the lights are off?

What do you mean the keys are in the mailbox?

Yeah.

He casually just tells me the entire staff had quit last week and I was the only employee there.

Oh my God.

No manager, no sales support, no warehouse staff, no training.

No.

No one.

There was no one there.

I was.

I was the.

The brand.

Right.

Like, I was everyone.

Yeah.

In hindsight, I probably should have just turned around and left.

But again,.

I was so excited by the opportunity I had, you know, I. I stayed.

I wanted to make the most of it.

I remember, you know, trying to handle the first customer interactions there.

You know, customers are.

It's still an operational branch.

Customers didn't know that everyone had quit.

So I'm trying, you know, I'm trying to answer the phones.

I'm trying to figure out what, you know, what this guy means when he says turn the computers on.

I don't know any systems.

I don't know anything.

Right.

Yeah, I'm day one.

I don't even know the passwords.

I don't know anything.

Oh, my gosh, Jamie, that's ambitious.

I can't believe you stayed.

I. I think it was.

It was two things.

Right.

You know, it's.

It's perhaps being a little bit naive, but it's also wanting to learn and wanting to do a good job.

Sure.

And.

And, you know, I took it in the first couple of weeks.

You know, I never even thought about anything.

Right.

I never thought about, you know, why I stayed.

I never thought about, you know, how important it was to stay or to learn.

I never thought about any of that stuff.

It was like, just trying to make it through.

But then I, you know, later on, as I reflect back, it was, you know, taking the opportunity to actually learn something.

And, you know, people always talk about, you know, being thrown to the fire, and some people thrive and some people that don't.

But it's really great way to learn about business, learn about customers, learn about how to do it by yourself.

My question to you is this.

Why did everybody quit?

So the branch had been struggling for a very long time, and there was a core group of staff.

And one gentleman had wanted to leave.

It was too hard.

And he said, you know what?

I'm done.

And he was the main guy.

He was, you know, the head of the branch.

He was the general manager.

And after he made the decision to leave, everyone else followed suit.

No one wanted to stay there.

He said, I can't, you know, no one wanted to work there without that guy.

It was too hard.

I knew none of that.

I knew none of that.

I found out months later.

Yeah.

And, you know, it was a struggling branch for years and years and years, and so just everyone got set up.

Okay, well, Jamie, I have One more question for you.

If somebody shows up on their very first day and the doors are locked and the keys are in the mailbox and they are asked to open the store, what what would you say to them?

Run away.

Immediately.

Run away.

Oh, Jamie, this was incredible.

First off, you know, thank you for all of your support in everything that I do.

You know, you've been so supportive of all my shows, not just this one.

And I just wanted to say that I appreciate you greatly.

These listeners appreciate you greatly.

If you're hearing this show and you just want to follow an awesome person, hop onto LinkedIn, search up Jamie Crozier, Atlas Elite Lifts and let him know you appreciate him supporting this show.

Jamie, thanks for coming on.

Thank you so much, Kelly.

That was fun.

For our last day shift story of the episode, it is my pleasure to welcome Stephanie to the show.

Stephanie is a fan and she submitted her story.

Thank you, Stephanie.

Her story is about something we have all experienced.

Our very first day on the job.

But this day was harder than most.

Stephanie, tell us what happened.

Okay, so here is my work story.

I was 17 years old.

17 Years old.

I got my first job as a cashier and I was barely trained.

So here's my story on a Saturday morning.

A Saturday morning, 17 year old me and what happened next.

All right, here it is.

At 17 years old, my first job was a cashier.

I was so proud.

After my very short training, I was given the 8am shift on Saturday morning.

My register was right next to the manager's office and the all announcement backbone.

I was a happy 17 year old ready to take on the world.

Three customers came to the line and boom, all checked out.

Four more customers came through and boom, same.

I was on a roll, baby.

Now here's when it got really interesting.

I looked down for a second and I don't know what portal door opened up, what spell was cast or what.

But that line suddenly grew to going up the first aisle.

Now we've all been in grocery stores and we know how people get with the lines.

You know, if there's only one register open or two, people get very frustrated.

And especially if the line grows from the cashier and starts going up the actual food aisle, it becomes a problem.

So back to the story.

Panic set in.

I immediately grabbed the bat phone and asked for backup.

I was 17 in a spiral of anxiety and fear.

Now the line had grown to the center, center of the aisle.

It went from my register to the center of the aisle.

Need I remind you there was only one register and it was just me manager nowhere to be found.

To say that I was a little bit scared was an understatement.

Again, I grabbed the back phone.

I call for backup.

One register, and me manager was still MIA.

Did I mention I was just 17?

Well, at that point, tears quietly started rolling down my face.

I was completely alone.

The customers, a line down the aisle, and me.

But check it out.

The line was funeral quiet.

Not one customer said a word.

They just watched quietly because they could see what the situation was, and they could have simply left.

But everyone stayed.

One customer said to me, sweetie, I'll pack my own order.

You just ring it up, okay?

Check out what happened next.

I heard the voices of my mom and dad speaking to me very clearly.

They said, stephanie, help is not coming.

Accept it.

Dry the tears.

Set your face to stone.

Laser focus now.

Get it done and do it now.

And that's exactly what I did.

I wiped my face.

I set it to stone, and I saw nothing but those register keys.

Now.

Now.

I was angry.

I was in the zone, and I destroyed that line.

I didn't even look up.

It was just me, the register keys, and the customer.

The only thing I said was next, and I stayed in the zone, and I got them out of there.

I destroyed that massive line and got those customers rung up, packed, and gone.

Then when the line was gone, I snapped out of the zone, looked around.

That's when my manager shows up.

Mm.

He apologized for being unavailable and took over the line with his money tray in the register.

That was when all of my tears came flooding back.

Manager said, stephanie, take a break.

You need one.

Grab a soda on me and go downstairs and take a quick break somehow.

Now the store was quiet, and there was no line anywhere.

I took out my register drawer, and the entire money tray fell to the ground.

The dollars were secure, but loose change was everywhere.

My manager said, stephanie, pick up as much loose change as you can find.

And don't worry about sorting anything.

Just get it in a drawer, okay?

And please take that break.

So, Lesson learned at 17.

Sometimes help is not coming.

It's just you and the situation.

But you have to execute regardless.

Get the tunnel vision.

Find your flow and execute to the best of your ability.

A powerful Lesson learned at 17 that I have used throughout my professional career.

Thanks, mom and dad.

Get your tunnel vision.

Find your flow, and execute to the best of your ability.

Thank you so much, Stephanie.

That is an incredible story, and I'm not really sure whether to like your manager or not like him.

We'll let the listeners decide.

And with that, things are about to get a little bit darker.

We are entering the night shift after a very quick sponsor break.

Welcome back to I used to work there.

It is time to enter the night shift and boy, do we have a wild shift for you guys tonight.

For our first story of the night shift, it is my pleasure to welcome Darrel from Edmonton back to the show.

He had some more stories when we dug a little deeper from his time in Russia, from a liquor store run that almost ended him trapped in Russia, to a money exchange that might not be so credible.

All the way to a worker with a longtime grudge.

Darryl, welcome back to the show.

Tell us what happened.

Yeah.

So when we used to fly to Russia, we were working on Sakhlin island, which is just north of Japan.

So we'd fly into a city called Yuzhou Sakhalinsk.

It was kind of like a big town.

It wasn't really, I guess it was a city.

But anyways, we'd get there and we'd have to stay in this.

These kind of condominiums for about eight hours.

You could have a nap or whatever before you get on the Russian train ride, Right.

So at that particular time, you could carry like, you know, bottles of whiskey or Russian vodka or whatever in your carry on, Right.

So I used to always go and get about three or four bottles and I bring them home all the time.

So anyways, we're in the hotel there and we used to just hop in the cab and we had a card with the name of the place we were staying.

So I'd just show the guy and then he'd take me there.

Yeah.

So we went and we'd buy these bottles of vodka or whatever we were looking for.

So anyways, every time we'd go, there was a taxi stand there.

So we knew when we came back, we just hopped on this taxi, right.

And it was all good.

Yeah.

So this particular time we go and there was four of us at first, and we're looking around and going around and I wanted this one particular Russian vodka.

It was in the shape of a.50 caliber bullet.

It was a red bottle with a black cap.

And it was said on there had a note that said, only for the Russian generals and blah, blah, blah.

So it was really cool and I wanted to get one.

Yeah.

So we went to this first liquor store and.

And they were about two or three bucks a bottle.

But the Russian one for the Generals was about 5.

It was a little more expensive.

Right.

So the guy in front of me, he's sitting there and he's like, oh, I'll take one of these, one of these, one of these.

And then they show them the Russian vodka shaped like a 50 caliber.

And they say, $5.

And he's like, oh, no, that's way too expensive.

I don't want one.

So then I'm next.

I'm like, I want that one.

Give me that one.

I'll take two.

Yeah, exactly.

I was going to take two, then I had three other ones, so I thought, that's too much to carry.

I'll just leave it.

So then he goes up and he goes, that's cool.

I like that one.

This guy was from Texas or whatever, and he's like.

He's like, hey, I saw him two more books.

He said, I'll take one of those.

I said, well, go get one then.

Hurry up, because we're waiting to go hop in a cat.

Yeah.

He walks up there and he's like, yeah.

He says, give me one of them 50 caliber things you got there.

And that guy goes, oh, sold out.

I said, see, you cheap bugger.

If you would have paid the extra two bucks, you would have had it before me.

But no.

So anyways, we're walking around and we're trying to find this 50 caliber bottle for him, right?

So we're going to all these different liquor stores, and we don't speak Russian or English.

I'm showing them my bottle, okay.

Oh, you take a look.

And we couldn't find one.

So anyways, we get out, we go to the taxi stand.

There's no taxi.

Uh, oh.

And we're waiting.

So I thought, okay, surely they'll come.

And we're waiting.

And we're waiting.

Wait probably about an hour and.

And our train was going to leave in about two hours.

So I'm like, yeah, we got to get back, man.

Like, no taxi.

No taxi.

So at this particular time, I probably knew maybe 20 Russian words and two phrases and there's no taxi.

So anyways, I see these girls getting off a bus and, you know, they were young Girls, like maybe 16, probably high school students type thing.

Yeah.

So I walk up to them and I'm like.

I'm holding up my hand like a phone and I'm like, taxi.

Then this girl goes, you want the taxi?

And I'm like, da.

So she calls the taxi and it shows up and I'm like, yeah, see, you only need to know a few words and good hand motions and some sign language and you can communicate with just about anybody.

Wow.

Yeah.

What I Wouldn't have done for, you know, Google translator at that time.

No kidding.

No kidding.

My gosh.

Yeah.

Nothing like getting stuck in Russia without a taxi.

Oh, exactly.

Yeah.

And even.

Even when I.

Even when I, you know, you come here and I get some rubles before I leave home, and then the hotels or whatever would give you an exchange rate.

So my driver was this Russian guy, and he says, oh, I'll get you a better exchange rate.

I'm like, how much?

And it was like 20% better.

And I'm like, how do you get that?

And he goes, oh, don't worry about it.

I'll just.

I'm gonna do it.

He drives down the start place, back alley someplace, goes in the basement.

I'm like, I don't know if I'm ever gonna see that money again.

Right?

Then he comes up.

But apparently, I guess it was, you know, someone from the mob or whatever, but they liked us one hundreds better than rubles because you'd probably need a stack about a foot and a half high to equal a hundred bucks.

Wow.

When I bring my.

My US $100 bills, they were all over that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

My gosh.

Yeah.

I can't.

I can't imagine, you know, what that time must have been like, honestly.

I imagine it wasn't a very great time for Russia.

No.

You know, and the thing was, is, like, you always have this perception of someplace from what you see on tv.

You know, deep people, you know, thinking like it's.

You know, they're all bad people, but, you know, most of the people are normal.

You know, they just want to have a job, raise their families and stuff.

Although they do like looking at pictures of tanks and shit.

Come on, Darrel, everybody loves looking at a picture of a good tank.

Come on.

You know, but they'd be sitting there at their desks, and I'd see them looking at stuff.

And we had this Turkish contractor on site, and I don't know, I guess they didn't like the Turks or whatever.

And he kept.

He was a welding inspector, and he kept calling repairs on him.

So I'd have to go out and look, I.

Look, I'm like, it's okay.

It's good.

No, he called more the next day.

I go back, I said, listen, I'm going to show you one more time.

This is okay.

And I said, what's your problem?

Like, why.

Why do you always call repairs on those guys?

Well, we had a war with the Turks.

And I'm like, listen.

I said, I. I'm not a. I'm not a history enthusiast by any means and I know a bit, but since I've been alive, I do not remember the Russians fighting the Turks.

And he goes, no, it was 200 years ago.

I saw get over it.

Like, jeez, take a girl 200 years ago.

Oh goodness.

You know, you got to, you got to let stuff go.

Just chill.

Oh my gosh.

Thank you, Daryl, for another wild Russian story.

If any more come to mind, let us know, man.

They're all always, they're always entertaining.

Well, I was there for two years so a lot of stuff happened.

No kidding.

No kidding.

Looking forward to the next one.

Darrell, thanks for coming back.

All right, thanks Alex.

For our final story of the night, it is my pleasure to welcome back to the show John calling in from San Diego.

Over the years John has worked on some incredible movie productions.

Earlier on in this episode you heard the phone booth story in the day shift.

But this one is totally different.

What started as a routine day on a movie set quickly spiraled into complete chaos when members of the public mistook a staged gunfight for the real thing.

Before long the police were responding, the production was scrambling.

And what happened next is something that John still can't quite believe.

Today we're talking all about a Hollywood shootout.

John, welcome to the show.

We're on the edge of our chairs, my friend.

Tell us what happened.

Hi again Kelly.

Thank you very much here this opportunity.

Well we're going to go way back in time again in my back history of filmmaking.

In the mid early days of filmmaking I was as a cameraman working on films.

I also did a lot of what's called aerial stunt photography, basically action movies.

And I specialized in very, very dangerous setups that necessary to get these action car chases and gun chases, big explosions, all that stuff I was specialized in that I didn't just do that but I got called to do a lot of those movies.

This one particular film was a pretty well known action adventure cop movie and it was about a cop who had basically with psychic accountability could see in the future what would happen next.

And there was a serial killer that was, it was terrorizing the city.

And he was very eccentric policeman, detective.

And so the movie basically was about him stop finding this perpetrator who was not your normal perpetrator.

It's kind of almost like a Jekyll and Hyde story.

And in the process of this we had, we.

It was a two month shoot.

Most movies are six, eight weeks long.

This was literally, it was almost two months of action photography.

Four cameras going every Day, big budget.

We're shooting in an area of Los Angeles called San Pedro.

Where when you get to recognize where all these great action movies at Fast and Furious.

There's all these movies shoot there.

Yeah, it's kind of combination of oil, oil refineries, shipping docks, cannery row, where the big, you know, freight, shipping, freight things are.

It's just a beautiful area.

And they have a bridge, kind of like the Golden Gate Bridge, one of those suspension bridges, connects that water district through all those.

I was mentioned to the main part of the city.

And so I spent a lot of time, two weeks in and out of a helicopter filming car chases and part of an action car chase.

Especially the long car chases to go on.

Highways through bridges and towns usually cover it with the camera trucks with cameras mounted on it, cameras on the ground, hidden behind trees and usually a helicopter.

And I was on the hell I do the helicopter work.

And again I was the director of photography.

So I always picked the best, funnest thing to use the camera.

And so, you know, back then in order to get the real, real meticulous shots.

Now you have robotic cameras, you know, you have your remote handles.

But back then to get really discreet shots, you had this special chair.

You sat on the side of the helicopter.

Wow.

And it was a gyroscopic thing that you sat.

It's well bolted into the side and the hamper, the helicopter actually flies sideways because you're shooting out the side.

Yeah.

But it gives helicopter smoother, believe it or not.

And so this particular day the assignment was to shoot car chase starting down at the docks.

And our famous detective is driving by arguing with his partner, which you have to in a top movie you gotta argue with your partner.

And he sees the perpetrator's car, which is an old burnt out Mustang looking thing, all primer gray kind of stuff stashed behind to the side of this cannery road building.

Slams on the brake.

Keep in mind we have the camera cars, the two cameras on it, the helicopter, we're doing this aerial frontal shot.

And basically he sits there and there's exchange of words, a lot of takes and cuts that we do later on that are not moving shots.

And the next thing you know, the perpetrator comes running out of the warehouse.

Obviously he's just killed somebody in there.

But our detectives more interested in catching him and finding out what the heck he was doing inside.

And they in the chase commences.

So at this point we pick up the chase.

Here he is now our, our lead cop is driving a custom Dodge Charger with a giant blown engine in it.

We give a little hint of what the movie might be.

And.

And it's super fast car, real fast car.

We actually build it in the studio.

It's a real race car.

Wow.

And the chase goes on.

So the helicopter, I keep in mind the helicopter.

I'm anywhere from being 8ft off the ground, going 80 to 100 miles an hour, helicopters flying sideways down the roads, where I'm literally, I can put my foot on the hood of the car out of the helicopter, to shots where I'm 80 or 90ft in the air, 100ft in the air.

So we're all over the place shooting these shots, side shots, close ups, all these things we're moving along.

And the finale of the shot, we go over the San Pedro Bridge, which is this huge suspension bridge, like the Golden Gate, painted green.

And the whole.

This is where you get those cool shots where you got the.

Then now they've actually, they're shooting guns at each other.

The guy, our super cop and the guy in the Mustang, he's got a guy in him and they're shooting shotguns back and forth at each other.

Now, generally speaking, kind of jumping around here.

When we're filming, we have a full police team with us and we're assigned by the local police department.

In this case, we had four policemen, a dispatch officer in our base station that would basically block off the roads before where we began the shot and where we end the shot.

Yeah.

So no civilians can be in the middle of all this action or the stunts.

And we generally block off intersections.

People may have seen it in the past.

And then we'll usually have one or two police cars that are not marked, just to kind of let everybody know by radio how the things are proceeding.

Because it's.

Things get spread out pretty quick.

Yeah.

And at the same time, our.

The head police supervisor assigned to our movie calls local dispatch and says, we're shooting on this road and this road from 8 in the morning to 10 in the morning.

We'll be on this road and this road going east, west, north, south, all.

All the data necessary.

Yeah.

Well, this particular morning,.

And we've been.

Shooting for four weeks, non stop action.

The supervisor forgot to tell them we're shooting on the bridge.

And.

And we're, you know, and this is la.

This is not like a small town.

We're not the biggest story in the police department.

So they're not going.

I wonder what they're doing today.

Yeah.

And so any case, we, we set up for the beginning of the bridge, you know, all the cars, the stunt cars, all about 10 stunt cars are just cars to be there, to get out of the way.

And they zigzag through and all that stuff.

And I'm in the helicopter to get the cool shot, which is where all the bridges, you know, vertical support structures are strobing in front.

I got a close up of everybody and the strobing action and all that.

Really cool shots, super cool shots.

And we're in the helicopter and some bridge is really high up.

It's about 180ft up.

And so we set up the shop, the action's called, and the guns start blazing away.

One guy's hanging out the back, our super cops shooting with his left hand while driving.

And the other guy's out the window, shooting.

Sparks are flying, windshields are cracking, all kinds of stuff happening.

And I'm getting, we're all getting a shot.

Everything's wonderful, it's going very well.

And it's.

We end up doing one take from one end to the other.

They would turn around because of the sun.

We, we turn around on the opposite direction.

We just drive back.

We don't do a shot because this doesn't work for the angle of the sun.

Yeah.

And do it again.

Now, at this point, someone has just called in the back, is called into the police station that there is a gunfight on the San Pedro bridge and two cars are shooting at each other and basically just driving dangerously.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, the police station's about.

Oh, it's not that close to the bridge.

It's about 20 minutes away with traffic in LA kind of thing.

Yeah.

So any case, we set up the shot again, helicopters in position.

And because I'm the director of photography, I have to call the cameras to get all that ready and all the positions they're in.

They'll say, camera one, camera two, camera three, camera four, camera five.

Speed.

Ready, go.

And the director says, action, action, action.

And it all starts.

And the, you know, we all have headsets, we're all listening to each other, you know, talk to each other and this and that.

And then at.

Then all of a sudden we get a call from base station, our production manager, who's kind of the lead calm communications center guy, when he talks, we listen.

Yeah.

On the headsets.

But he says, guys, guys, guys, big problem, big problem.

Shot.

Shot.

Not called into police dispatch.

The army's on its way.

And then we had, it was called code red, Code red.

Back to base station, Back to base station.

10 Minutes immediately.

And when you get there, park your cars, put.

Pull the cameras off the cat.

The trucks go to the lunch truck.

Helicopter, helicopter, helicopter disappear.

Go away.

Any case, this helicopter pilot, very famous, the most famous helicopter pilot in the world, completed that genius helicopter pilot.

So he's going, oh, this isn't good.

I mean, we're flying in a million dollar piece of equipment.

And his, his, his, his rate, he could live half a year off of the rate this guy makes every day.

Yeah.

And so, holy mackerel, he's, he's not messing around.

So what happens?

We end up, we're doing the shot, we decide, well, we're going to go, let's film the shot.

Come on, film the shot.

Keep rolling because you know we've got to get back to the bait.

We're going towards the base station anyway.

So as we're racing back, we're up in the helicopter, we get to the end of the bridge, right?

Done with my shot.

There's no more of it to get from my zip per second.

We, we go up, get up to about, I don't know, 9,100ft.

And I can see through the, off in the distance almost about a mile and a half away, two miles away, the red flashing lights, almost a quarter mile of them.

Wow.

Basically, if you can imagine, you know, these like three story buildings on a city street.

You can't see the cops cars, but you can see red lights, rows of red lights.

Midday.

And I go, yeah, they're on their way by the looks of it.

They're about 15 minutes from base station.

And they go, sh.

And they're, I won't.

Basically they're saying this is bad, this is bad.

And, and then now the, the policeman comes on and goes, okay guys, I'm taking control here.

That we go on sideband, channel four, side band, channel four, sideband.

Okay, you guys, it basically says get in your, get it back here, get base station.

Everyone get away from your equipment.

Hide the truck cameras where you can and helicopter, you have to come back to base station.

And so a pilot says, no problem.

But in the meantime we're in the, we see them, the police cars getting onto the bridge and we're in a position, we're actually hiding in this point behind big giant oil tanks.

We're looking between two oil tanks, those big giant white tanks you see at refineries.

Yeah.

Looking through the crack and see them.

He says, there's no way we'll be known.

They'll see us, they'll know us.

So he goes, I Can't do.

So what we ended up doing, very low, about 20ft off the ground behind the refinery.

Go around and we hide along the road.

These cypress trees, those long tall pine trees are very skinny, but long, really tall ones.

About 60ft long.

Tall and wide stretch.

Kind of a windbreak on the side of the highway at the end of the bridge.

We slowly creep around 20ft off the ground, hiding below their point of view of seeing us.

And literally hover behind these cypress trees.

Yeah.

Literally 60ft away, maybe not even that 30ft away from the highway, watching literally 20 cop cars go by us at 80 miles an hour.

And we knew that just as they were passes, they still had another 2 1/2, 3 mile, 4 miles to get around to our base station.

But we could be there in a couple minutes in the helicopter.

Yeah.

As soon as they were just getting around the bend, he immediately went full speed ahead.

This went full up vertical.

And we just is charged to the parking lot where all our equipment was.

Base station.

And we land as quickly as we possible possibly can keep on those helicopters.

Rotor blades keep going.

You probably notice, you just don't stop.

And it stopped.

Yeah.

So basically immediately he says, pull the camera off the rig.

It's like they'll take an hour.

Just pull the camera off.

Not the whole rig.

Yeah.

I get the camera off as quick as I can.

Heavy camera.

It's about 70 pounds of gear.

Wow.

And running off.

And he's sitting there slowly with this like clutch thing getting the rotor to stop spinning.

And it's not healthy for the helicopter.

And he finally had to stop.

And we both run to the catering truck and it's, you know, all.

We're all breathing hard, all looking about as guilty as you can imagine.

And then the police guys are in their cars having, you know, all the whole idea is look nonchalant.

And so finally what ends up happening, we're all watching.

We get there.

We're in the base camp.

We see the army of police cars flying by.

They fly right past us because we're at kind of a T bone of a road.

And they're still thinking they're tracing perpetrators.

Sure.

Yeah.

They don't know.

They have no idea it's us.

And three of the cars hold back and go into the parking lot.

And because we're right against the the road where in theory the bad guys have driven by.

Yeah.

And they go to our supervising policeman and say, have you seen these cars?

Can you answers, what do they look like?

He says, we don't know this Is we only have one camera on one end and that's basically.

This is a weather cam.

And he goes, do you know what anyone reported, what it looked like?

No, just kind of two souped up cars.

And.

And I'm pretty close, so I kind of wander by.

I want to listen and you know, so I'm hearing and meaning there's no witness to the cars.

No one knows what the kind of cars they were.

And he goes, no, we didn't see anything go by, but we heard something,.

But we didn't see anything.

And he wasn't lying because he didn't see anything go by.

Yeah.

And I think this was a police supervisor, any case, so they go off, continue chase.

And then, you know, about an hour later you start seeing a bunch of the cars filtering back.

They're all going back to, you know, done.

They didn't catch them bad guys because the bad guys never existed.

And the supervisor, you know, it was.

He screwed up.

But, you know, there was no way to harm his way.

The only reason anyone called in it was the oncoming traffic, which we.

There's no way we could hurt them.

Sure.

Because there's a big divider on the bridge.

So, you know, harm.

No felt kind of.

And you know, this guy kind of really lost his job.

A lot of bad things could happen.

So in this day it doesn't matter.

He's probably well retired at this point.

Sure.

And to.

For who knows.

But bottom line, that was another case of protocol being a little sloppy on the job.

You know, we were very, very safe what we did, theoretically.

But that was one of those experiences like wow.

And I, I think the action of us having to dodge the police, hiding behind trees and a hovering helicopter getting back, trying to get the blades of the helicopter to stop so they're not spinning still when they get there.

Yeah.

Guys moving cameras around, you know, off of trucks.

Normally I'm sitting there waiting for these.

The camera systems to pick up.

Come on, hurry up, hurry up.

How long does it take to put this camera on off?

And I mean it was like they did it in 1/16 the time.

And so it was, it was a fun experience and a wild one.

And it, we kind of laid it.

We laid cool.

And we rescheduled how we shot.

So we didn't do any helicopter shooting for a week.

We went somewhere else to shoot for other things.

Yeah.

So that's, that's another adventure and crazy action filmmaking.

Hollywood.

Wow.

Yeah.

What a wild story that is.

And you know what?

I imagine that actually happens more often Than people think.

Right.

Like that is such a human mistake.

It is again, it's.

Forgot to call it in.

And again, the protocol for that's, you know, pretty strict.

So it was, again, it was fun.

And I must tell you, this helicopter pilot I worked with, I've been working, I worked for this helicopter pilot a lot.

Yeah.

His father was a famous helicopter pilot for movies and TV shows.

All of them are ex fighter pilots.

Super interesting guys.

And one of the things about helicopter in the movie industry now, they use drones a lot.

But still the big action shots still use helicopters.

Especially the big, you know, Mission Impossible movies and all that.

You go into these, you know, I guess boys and their toys.

Not to sound weird, but when you go into their shops and they're.

They've got $10 million worth of stuff and you see these helicopters and they have in there this one group you work with, they don't.

They.

That we work with, they don't just have helicopters.

They have Lear jets with cameras mounted on them.

Yeah, biplanes, you name it.

And you go, wow, these guys are set up.

Yeah, I bet.

And they're like humblest guys in the world.

But the amount of danger in doing helicopter photography is really not what you.

It's very dangerous.

Yeah, yeah, very dangerous work.

Helicopters are.

I love helicopters, but they're not safe.

No, no.

And, and especially not like that.

Not when you're flying like that.

No, not at all.

Yeah.

John, that was an incredible story.

Thank you so much for the insight and the wild stories and yeah, looking forward to the.

Thank you.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of I Used to Work there.

Before we go, I just want to say thank you.

Thanks to all of you.