A man comes into the shop two days ago and inquires about Pennsylvania's waiting period to purchase a handgun.
I inform him that Pennsylvania has no waiting period. As long as he has current state identification and can pass the background check he can walk out of store with his new gun.
I'm with him for about 45 minutes discussing different guns and helping him choose one that fits his hand and his likes.
He settles on a Ruger P89 and I go to get his paperwork started.
He hands me his ID and I ask him if the address on it was his current address. He says it is not and hands me his change of address card.
I go to make copies while he fills out his paperwork.
After all forms are filled out and he's paid for his background check, I take a seat at our phone to call in the background check.
I get transfered to the operator, which is not that unusual, and answer all of the standard questions and get placed on hold.
The minutes tick by but I think nothing of it. I'm singing away to the hold music and discussing lunch menus with a fellow coworker when the operator comes back on the line and tells me that there's been a delay and that it will just be a few more minutes.
This hardly ever happens. When the operators come back on the line it's usually to give you an answer: he's been approved, put in research or denied, and that's the end of the call.
At this point my manager comes around the corner and says, "How long have you been on hold?"
"About ten minutes," I reply.
"That's not good," he says.
The coworker I was discussing ordering pizza with looks at the clock and says, "Uh oh, I think they're coming to get him."
Another six minutes goes by and the operator comes back on the line to say, "I'm so sorry, Ma'am, my whole system has crashed and I need to start all over. Can you please reverify all of his information, please?"
That's when I knew it was all over for him.
I give her his hight, weight, eye and hair color as well as confirm his social and his name, then slyly tell my coworker to start watching the back door. I point the guy out to my manager and my coworker tells me that when the police arrive he's going to wave to me and ask me if I'd seen my boy, Jesse, yet today (code, of course, as I have no friends named Jesse).
The operator comes back on the line and tells me they are having more delays and that she's terribly sorry, but if I could just hold on a few more moments she'll get back to me.
My manager takes his gun from off the counter in the back and holsters before going out into the store again.
At this point it's been almost 20 minutes and the customer is getting restless. He sees me in the office and asks me why things are taking so long.
"I'm sorry, sir," I start. "It's late in the afternoon on a weekend and sometimes they get really backed up this time of day. It shouldn't take much longer."
He nods and continues looking at things.
Suddenly, an employee who works up front comes in the office from the back way and asks me if I'm running a background check.
I say that I am and his eyes get huge when he says, "THE COPS ARE HERE!"
The customer is towards the end of the gun counter where he picked out the gun of his liking, which is furthest from the front door. The police come around the corner and one of the officers calls his name.
He turns, sees the uniforms and BOLTS.
The officers take after him while my manager runs to cut him off at the front door.
There's a brief scuffle, but he's soon taken down and while the cuffs are being put on he's screaming his innocence and asking what he did all while I'm being serenaded by "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" being played over the telephone.
The officer replies that he's being arrested under federal warrants.
At this point the operator comes back on the line and says, "I'm so sorry, just a few more screens and we'll be through..."
I cut her off with my laugher and say, "Don't worry about it, ma'am. The police are here and they already got him."
She starts laughing, too, and says, "OH, Okay, never mind, then. Can I please speak with the arresting officer?"
I go to get him, but they've got their hands full and my manager offers to take over, which I gladly allow him to do.
We get back on the phone with the operator and my manager says, "So, I guess this means we can assume he was denied?"
The operator shares a good laugh with us and we check off the little box titled, "DENIED" on his form.
There's a small sheet of denied customers on the back of our office door; a sort of running tab of people to look out for. I got to add a name to that list today and in the 'notes' field beside it write, "Out the door in hand cuffs."
The operators aren't allowed to tell us the police are on their way, they are supposed to delay us in hopes to delay the criminal and keep him there until police arrive, but when you've been doing this, even for a couple of months, you know when something is wrong.
Believe it or not, it was a mistake on my part that brought this guy down and we didn't even notice it until it was all over.
His ID and his change of address card were both expired. For some reason I did not pick up on this, even though I wrote the expiration date on one of the forms, and I ran the background check when I normally would have turned him away and told him to come back with CURRENT ID.
I think this is the only time in my life I've ever been praised for making a mistake.
All in all, it turned out well and left a couple of the customers on the edge of their seats and asking questions for a few minutes.
When all was said and done my manager came up and said, "Where were you with your .45? I only have a .40 and the cops were carrying 9s. You had all the stopping power and you stayed out of the action." He shook his head and made a "tisking" noise of disapproval.
I laughed and said, "Have you ever heard the expression, 'Too many cooks in the kitchen?' Everything was handled well and I wasn't getting involved unless he came back in the office after me. Besides, I was on the phone."
We all laughed.
The Ruger went back on the shelf and the bad guy went to jail. Another day done.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
