Episode 2
S1E2: Police Chase, Greece Yacht Invite, Harassed at Work
Episode 2 of I Used To Work There brings together a mix of unbelievable moments that prove just how unpredictable life at work can be. What starts as a simple shift serving tables turns into a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to sail through the Greek islands. A routine day on the job suddenly escalates into a full-blown police chase, complete with chaos, confusion, and split-second decisions. And in another story, a workplace interaction crosses a line that no one should ever have to experience, revealing how quickly a professional environment can become deeply uncomfortable.
These stories highlight the extremes of working life, from incredible opportunities to intense, high-stakes moments to situations that demand courage and action. They’re a reminder that the people we meet, the choices we make, and the environments we’re in can shape us in ways we never expect. Some moments stay with you because they’re unbelievable. Others stay with you because they change you.
Have a story of your own? We want to hear it. Send us a short summary of your experience to HR@iusedtoworkthere.com and someone will be in touch with an intake form.
Transcript
All of a sudden, while we're sitting there, he starts this creepy commentary.
Speaker A:So I can't see what on his screen, but he's going like, ooh, like, nice.
Speaker A:Ooh, that looks nice.
Speaker A:Ooh, ooh, bikini.
Speaker A:Oh, we're at the beach.
Speaker A:Oh, Shelby in a bikini.
Speaker A:And I'm like, what is he talking about?
Speaker A:So I come to realize he's got my Facebook open and he's scrolling through all of my pictures and he's commentating on my body, what I'm doing, how I look, and it's deeply uncomfortable.
Speaker B:Welcome back to I used to work there.
Speaker B:My name is Kelly Kennedy and I am your host.
Speaker B:I hope you all enjoyed the very first episode as much as I did.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:As you all know, the world is full of crazy stories and so many of them happen at work.
Speaker B:If you have a work story, we absolutely want to hear it.
Speaker B:Please do continue to submit your stories hrused to work there dot com.
Speaker B:And let's keep this show going.
Speaker B:Our first story today starts on the day shift and it's all about those weird coincidences that happen to us at work, at and in life.
Speaker B:It's my pleasure to welcome back to the show Jillian from Edmonton.
Speaker B:Jillian formerly had a story with us about working in prison corrections, but you have some more as we figured out down the line.
Speaker B:Jillian, you used to work somewhere.
Speaker B:Tell me all about it.
Speaker C:Okay, I've worked a lot of job.
Speaker C:I told you I could probably fill like the whole fucking episode with just a bunch of work stories.
Speaker C:Okay, so worked at Earl serving way back when.
Speaker C:And you know, as I was going through university, I meant like, who didn't work at Earl's, by the way?
Speaker C:Anyway, it was super fun, great people.
Speaker C:And one day, I remember this man walked in and he just looked like really opulent.
Speaker C:Like he looked like a who's who guy, you know, like he just, there was something about him.
Speaker C:He was actually wearing tinted glasses.
Speaker C:You know what I'm talking about?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I'm like, you're a fancy guy.
Speaker C:Like you're, you're someone important.
Speaker C:Like, you don't just wear normal glasses.
Speaker C:They're like rose tinted glasses.
Speaker C:And so he was sitting at the table and I was bringing over, he'd ordered tea and, and I spilled tea.
Speaker C:Like I spilled it on the table.
Speaker C:And I was like, oh my God, I'm so sorry.
Speaker C:And he goes, oh, don't be sorry.
Speaker C:You know, in my culture, if you spill, it means you're going to take a trip.
Speaker C:So I'm like, okay, I'll Be right back.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So I go get napkins or whatever to clean up the, the tea.
Speaker C:And so he's piqued my fucking interest.
Speaker C:And I'm like, okay, well if you were gonna go anywhere, like where would you go?
Speaker C:And also, you're welcome, you are welcome for spilling honey.
Speaker C:And he was like, well, I'm going to Greece this summer with my family.
Speaker C:And I was like, me too.
Speaker C:I was going with a friend.
Speaker C:I was going to do at that time an archaeological dig actually with the
Speaker B:U of A. Wow.
Speaker C:And yeah, like I tell you, I've done some crazy.
Speaker A:Kelly.
Speaker C:So I was going to Italy to do the dig and I had planned to go to Greece as well and France and just like make it a reason to go around Europe for the summer.
Speaker C:So I was like, oh, I'm going there too.
Speaker C:And he's like, when are you going?
Speaker C:It turns out we're going at the same time.
Speaker C:So literally he goes, well, do you want to come on on a boat with me and my family?
Speaker C:And I'm like, fuck yeah, I do.
Speaker C:So lo and behold, me and my friend meet with him and his daughter for lunch one day just to talk and be like, for real, like this is like, we're gonna literally come on your boat for a week in Greece.
Speaker C:And we did.
Speaker C:After I did my, my archaeological dig, I met my friend, we flew to Greece and we.
Speaker C:It was so funny because I remember I didn't get much information around like which boat or like I just knew the dock.
Speaker C:I didn't know like exactly.
Speaker C:I, there was so much I did not know, so many questions I did not ask.
Speaker C:Cuz this is kind of how I roll.
Speaker C:Which makes life really magical and sometimes kind of frustrating.
Speaker C:My friend's like, I'm going to push you off this dock.
Speaker C:But.
Speaker C:And, and we were about to give up cuz it was like we got in at midnight, it was like two in the morning trying to find the boat.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:And then lo and behold, we see the sign and it's the boat.
Speaker C:And it was them.
Speaker C:And so we literally like just traveled around the Greek islands with them on a, on a sailboat.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker C:For like five days.
Speaker C:And it was the coolest experience ever.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:That is a frigging cool experience.
Speaker B:So like, yeah.
Speaker B:Random spill at Earl's turns in.
Speaker B:Turns into a hangout for a week in Greece on a sailboat.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And like with Greek, like they were Greek.
Speaker C:And so it was like this, it was just such a fun, wild experience.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker C:And what's interesting about that is that it must have been, like, literally 20 years later.
Speaker C:I'm now doing photography and design.
Speaker C:And, well, this was when I was doing photography and design.
Speaker C:I roll up to a client's house to do photos, branding photos for her, and the woman who answers the door looks so familiar.
Speaker C:And the whole.
Speaker C:So she was doing makeup.
Speaker C:And the whole time we're just like, I know you.
Speaker C:Like, I. I have no idea how I know you, but I just know that I know you.
Speaker C:And so, you know, it's in the back of your head.
Speaker A:Back your head.
Speaker C:And I'm sitting there.
Speaker C:I'm literally just watching, and I'm just, like, just kind of allowing it to drop in.
Speaker C:Then I was like, holy Christina.
Speaker C:Like, that's her name.
Speaker C:We were on a yacht to get.
Speaker C:I was on your yacht.
Speaker C:I was on your boat in the Greek Islands.
Speaker C:And he's like, we just.
Speaker E:Oh, my God.
Speaker B:Like, wow.
Speaker C:And then we talked about her dad, and he was just like.
Speaker C:And there was nothing.
Speaker C:You know, I know this story, especially working at Earl's could sound really, like, quite, you know, sure dodgy.
Speaker C:Like, why is some man inviting these two young girls to his boat with his friend?
Speaker C:Like, but there is no shady.
Speaker C:Like, it literally was just like, a really good person, an amazing family, and sharing their abundance so generously and just.
Speaker C:Yeah, it was like, the more the merrier mentality.
Speaker C:It's always really stuck with me to just be that kind of person who just, like, with the right people, you just give them awesome opportunities, man.
Speaker B:And, like, for me, too, it's like, what are the odds of, like, I look at something like that, and I just think, like, yeah, that's like, synchronicity at its finest.
Speaker B:How is.
Speaker B:And I'm sure we're gonna get a lot of that on this show, and I'm kind of excited for that, but I think there's just so many situations where it's like, what?
Speaker B:How?
Speaker B:And it's like, how in the world.
Speaker B:Like, the funny thing was you said in the beginning that it's like, if you spill, it means you're going on a trip.
Speaker B:Now I wonder, was it not for you instead of him?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Or both.
Speaker B:Or both.
Speaker C:I spilled.
Speaker C:You got spilled on.
Speaker C:Literally spilled the tea.
Speaker B:I was going to say my kid.
Speaker B:My kids spill their drinks every time we go to Boston.
Speaker B:So I. Yeah, we should be set for life.
Speaker C:So good.
Speaker E:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker B:This is awesome.
Speaker B:Thank you, Gillian, for another incredible story and looking forward to the next one.
Speaker C:Stay tuned.
Speaker B:Our next Day Shift story is all about the mistakes we've all made as younger workers and of course, the great leaders who have stuck with us, inspired us and made us the people we are today.
Speaker B:It is my pleasure to welcome Trevor from Edmonton to the show.
Speaker B:Trevor, thanks for believing in me.
Speaker B:Thanks for believing in the show.
Speaker B:Tell me your story.
Speaker F:Oh, I love it.
Speaker F:When you had reached out to me.
Speaker F:I've had lots of jobs over my career and over my life and I was trying to think of the stories and all the different places that I had worked and really well I worked.
Speaker F:I remember one time I was in high school and I was working at a tire shop in the local community that I, I was at a gas station tire shop and I was in grade 11 at the time.
Speaker F:And I ended up going out.
Speaker F:It was, it was end of, end of semester and I ended up going out with some of my friends and having a few, few too many beers and I had to work that afternoon and we ended up.
Speaker F:Long story short, guy was driving my truck and ended up getting stuck in a swamp and had to call and say it was going to be late.
Speaker F:And so I was late for, for my job and I was not in really good shape when I got there.
Speaker F:And so, so they, I was so fortunate.
Speaker F:Like they didn't fire me.
Speaker F:Yeah, instead they, they had like 2 acres or acre and a half or so, a backyard and it was where all the old tires got put and they just let the grass grow really tall there and they gave me a hand sickle and they, they put me out back there for the whole shift.
Speaker F:And then, and so I'm sweating everything out and I am like not doing very good.
Speaker F:And I thought, okay, well, I had paid, I had paid my penance and I had to work the next day on the weekend for the whole shift.
Speaker F:And I went back there and they made me finish it and then, and then in the ditch in front of the place, do the entire ditch.
Speaker F:I, for eight hours.
Speaker F:I ran a circle the day before for four hours.
Speaker F:But I didn't lose my job and my parents didn't end up killing me.
Speaker F:My dad had to come pick me up because we couldn't get the truck out of the small hump.
Speaker F:And so I actually learned a lot about, you know, I had leaders and bosses who treated me well and gave me breaks thankfully because yeah, I did some stupid and I was fortunate enough that, you know, people cut me some slack and believed in me and, and, and you know, my leadership style and it's really heart centered.
Speaker F:And I remember working for a company, I was, I Was already a instrument mechanic.
Speaker F:And I started with this company in a different, in the industry, still in the oil and gas industry, but it was a service company and it was a mechanical service company and I didn't have a lot of experience there.
Speaker F:I was coming in as an instrument guy, as a manager.
Speaker F:And I remember that those guys worked like way too much like that were, worked in that branch and they worked for this general manager and they would do anything for him.
Speaker F:And I remember anything like, and I remember even I would do anything for him.
Speaker F:He could call at, at 2 in the morning and say hey, I need you to get on the road or you're coming home from being out of town for a week and say hey, can you turn around and go to this other place?
Speaker F:And they just never said no to him.
Speaker F:And I always was like, that's interesting because, because when he got replaced there was the next person in.
Speaker F:They were like, you know, fighting him all the time on stuff.
Speaker F:And I really paid attention to that and wondered what, you know, what was the difference?
Speaker F:And it was that, that, that manager, I'll, I'll call him Bert.
Speaker F:Bert was, you could tell he cared like when, when people on his team would be out of town for two, three weeks at a time or longer and it was winter, he would send somebody, he would hire somebody or send somebody to their house to shovel the front walk for their family or to mow the lawn or to take supper to them.
Speaker F:And that was the kind of leader that I wanted to aspire to be.
Speaker F:Somebody who is like I appreciate you so much and I understand the sacrifice that you make so much.
Speaker F:And I, and I'm just going to try and alleviate some of the stress for you and your family and that, that too I, and I really modeled myself.
Speaker F:I've had so many amazing, amazing leader.
Speaker F:So I really modeled myself around him.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:Trevor, thank you for that.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for the amazing story.
Speaker B:I can't wait to get this out there and looking forward to the next one, my friend.
Speaker F:Yeah, this is awesome.
Speaker F:Thank you.
Speaker B:Trevor's story really resonated with me because I had a funny similar situation when I worked in electronic sales as a young 19 year old on Christmas Eve.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Long story short, had a few too many drinks stocking shelves and had to call for a ride home.
Speaker B:This next story, although it's a day shift, I'll kind of let you guys decide.
Speaker B:It kind of fits somewhere in the middle.
Speaker B:But what happens when the person who's supposed to be keeping you safe at Work maintaining safety is actually asking you to do something not just wrong but illegal.
Speaker B:It's my pleasure to welcome back to the show Amy from Edmonton.
Speaker B:Hey Amy.
Speaker G:Hi everyone.
Speaker G:Thanks Kelly for having me on again.
Speaker G:I don't know if it's good that I have all these stories but yeah, they're definitely kind of some reflections.
Speaker G:So.
Speaker G:Yeah, so, so started out in, in oil and gas as, as kind of that eager person.
Speaker G:Right.
Speaker G:Just it's a new industry trying to make my mark.
Speaker G:I, I, I didn't you know, study that or, or have any kind of technical background.
Speaker G:So really just trying to understand where I fit in this particular organization.
Speaker G:So had been with this company for probably about a good, I would say five months and really enjoy, enjoyed everybody in the team and got to know some, some senior leaders and ended up essentially kind of working late one day where a senior leader was, was also working late.
Speaker G:Didn't really talk to him.
Speaker G:He was, he was definitely one of those gentlemen that, you know, kept to himself, very busy, you could tell.
Speaker G:Always kind of checking emails on his phone and things like that.
Speaker G:So ended up leaving the parking lot and, and it's tough right?
Speaker G:You're a young person, you've, you know, you don't have a lot in common with, with senior and experience kind of professionals.
Speaker G:So ended up kind of making that awkward eye contact in the parking lot.
Speaker G:Everybody loves that where you're just like, oh God, what am I gonna say?
Speaker G:Yeah, did he see me?
Speaker G:Did I see him?
Speaker G:So you know, he didn't even, didn't even pretend to know my name.
Speaker G:He was like, hey you like how are you?
Speaker G:And I was like doing good, thanks.
Speaker G:And he's like, how long have you been here?
Speaker G:So it just became like a bit of a questionnaire as to like, who are you?
Speaker G:What's, what's your name?
Speaker G:How's everything going?
Speaker G:So nice enough guy so ended up, you know, he went to his car, I went to my car.
Speaker G:I was like cool.
Speaker G:You know, maybe, maybe he'll say hello again in the hallway at work or whatever.
Speaker G:So end up going to, to leave and then I just get this like knock on my, on my door like, or, sorry, my, my car window.
Speaker G:And I just remember being like what?
Speaker G:Like is it me?
Speaker G:Is there something wrong with my car?
Speaker G:I was, I was, I was driving my dad's kind of beat up Toyota.
Speaker G:He's like beautiful car.
Speaker G:And you're just like.
Speaker G:So he, he ends up kind of like motioning for me to roll down the window and he's like do, do you have a minute?
Speaker G:And I was like, yeah, okay.
Speaker G:So end up, you know, getting out of the car.
Speaker G:And he kind of.
Speaker G:It's almost like he, like, you know, prompted me to go to his car.
Speaker G:So I'm thinking in my head, like, I don't know anything about cars.
Speaker G:Like, if you think you're gonna get something out of me, like.
Speaker G:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker G:Not happening.
Speaker G:So he.
Speaker G:He opens his car door.
Speaker G:So the.
Speaker G:The driver's side, and there's this thing.
Speaker E:And.
Speaker G:And.
Speaker G:And I call it a thing because even today I looked at it like it was a space.
Speaker G:Space alien.
Speaker G:Like, I was just, what the hell?
Speaker G:This?
Speaker G: , is this one of those, like,: Speaker G:The bar thing?
Speaker G:I'm just like, what is happening?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker G:Just very casually, like, you know, like, I'm taking his subway order.
Speaker G:He's like, you know, how much have you had to drink today?
Speaker G:And I was like, I. I think it may have been a Tuesday or a Wednesday.
Speaker G:Like, it was just a very mundane day.
Speaker G:And I just, you know.
Speaker B:Yeah, I just.
Speaker B:I just.
Speaker B:It's just work.
Speaker B:And not to mention, aren't you working in safety at this time?
Speaker E:Yes.
Speaker G:So I'm thinking that maybe there's, like.
Speaker G:I'm thinking maybe there's, like, an HR in the back and is, like, going
Speaker B:to, like, Candid Camera or something.
Speaker G:Nothing.
Speaker G:So I'm just like, what?
Speaker G:Like, I just.
Speaker G:And I think in all fairness, all other communication just stopped at that point.
Speaker G:Like, I just.
Speaker G:My.
Speaker G:My entire reaction was like I was just frozen.
Speaker G:Like, I'm just looking at.
Speaker G:I'm looking at his.
Speaker G:His steering wheel, and he's looking at me like, what's the next phase of this conversation?
Speaker G:And I just remember him, like, kind of brushing me aside with his hand and being like, never mind.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker G:And then he just kind of shooed me over and.
Speaker G:And what was funny was he did watch me get into my car.
Speaker G:Like, almost like, okay, you're safe.
Speaker E:You.
Speaker G:You can go kind of thing.
Speaker G:And, you know, I. I don't really remember what happened to him after that.
Speaker B:That's such a weird situation.
Speaker G:It was just one of those things.
Speaker G:I. I don't think I ever really put myself in that scenario again where I was alone and the park came out with.
Speaker G:With.
Speaker E:With any.
Speaker G:But.
Speaker G:But it just.
Speaker G:It just.
Speaker G:I think for me, that entire experience just made me recognize how innocent I was at that time.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker G:Where, you know.
Speaker G:You know, you're in an industry for a lot longer, and you're just like, ah, that happens all the time.
Speaker G:Like, what are you talking about?
Speaker G:But I think at that point it was just, my reaction was just so innocent and seen.
Speaker G:And I can honestly say from a process improvement, the oil and gas sector has obviously gotten a lot better since that.
Speaker G:That was many, many, many years ago.
Speaker G:But it's always kind of interesting to look back and be like, yeah, that happened.
Speaker B:Oh my goodness.
Speaker B:Oh my goodness.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's absolutely crazy.
Speaker B:So this guy was your boss?
Speaker G:Sorta kinda like he was, he was a corporate.
Speaker G:I can't remember.
Speaker G:He was tied to what I was doing for sure.
Speaker B:Okay, okay.
Speaker B:So he had some involvement in safety and yet he's asking you as a new safety person to fix his blow box for him.
Speaker B:Okay, people, this is the kind of stories we are absolutely going to get a lot of when I used to work there.
Speaker B:I can already see it.
Speaker B:Amy, what a crazy story.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for coming on and sharing it with us and thanks for doing the right thing and not helping that guy drive drunk.
Speaker B:That's amazing.
Speaker B:All right, we'll see you on the next one, Amy.
Speaker G:Yes, for sure.
Speaker B:That takes us to the end of our day shift stories.
Speaker B:It's time to get a little bit darker.
Speaker B:We are starting the night shift with a story of exploitation.
Speaker B:It is my pleasure to welcome VJ from Edmonton.
Speaker B:Vajay.
Speaker B:Tell us your story.
Speaker D:Yeah, I had some good stories.
Speaker D:Here's a crazy one, right.
Speaker D:I used to work in a company in the US in the past and so here's what happened actually.
Speaker D:So I was, this was like a software kind of like a firm and things like that.
Speaker D:I got the offer.
Speaker D:It was a super low ball offer.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:It was a super low ball offer.
Speaker D:I didn't know it was a super low ball offer.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:And I asked my friends and they said, well dude, like how are you managing it?
Speaker D:Like I was paying rent and then I had $100 left.
Speaker D:That's it.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So it was super low.
Speaker D:Maybe I'm exaggerating, Maybe I had $500 but.
Speaker D:But it was, I couldn't manage then like my wife and my kid at the time had to come and I was in a different state and they had to fly from a different place.
Speaker D:I didn't have money to buy their ticket for my wife and son.
Speaker D:I don't want to name them but one of my colleague helped me out to buy the plane ticket and they were able to come and I went and picked up.
Speaker D:So it was really interesting with what was offered.
Speaker D:So I went Back to the company and asked like, hey, look, look.
Speaker D:Seems like I was supposed to get like, probably twice or thrice the amount of this thing, but can we do something about it?
Speaker D:I don't think I can manage with this kind of the salary.
Speaker D:And they said, yeah, yeah, yeah, don't worry about it.
Speaker D:It's totally cool.
Speaker D:It happens.
Speaker D:Totally cool.
Speaker D:Just give us about like 30 days.
Speaker D:Everything will be set.
Speaker D:I gave them like a good 30.
Speaker D:45.
Speaker D:More than 45, 60 days.
Speaker D:And I went back after like 60 days.
Speaker D:Hey, you said, like, we'll take care of it.
Speaker D:What happened?
Speaker D:Yeah, and the crazy part is, like, I knew the company a little well, and I knew how the people a little well.
Speaker D:And I was clearly expecting none of that is going to happen.
Speaker D:And I had to take the situation in my own hand because I was.
Speaker D:I was in a foreign country.
Speaker D:I was right.
Speaker D:So it was new for me.
Speaker D:The country was new for me as well, so I had to take care of it.
Speaker D:Family was there, so.
Speaker D:So what I ended up doing is, like, I was doing my own research and like, I was looking for alternate jobs and things like that.
Speaker D:I was constantly in.
Speaker D:In that they said come after one month.
Speaker D:I actually went after like two or three months.
Speaker D:Then in that in between two, three months, period, I was able to find a much better job, the kind of salary I wanted and things I wanted.
Speaker D:Then I went back and I kind of knew the answer that they were going to tell me, right?
Speaker D:Hey, Vijay, wait us a little bit longer.
Speaker D:Can you wait?
Speaker D:Come back after like three or four months and maybe we can have this conversation again.
Speaker D:I said, like, that's fine, guys, no problem.
Speaker D:But I have an offer at hand.
Speaker D:I'm happy to stay if you're ready to meet that offer or exceed the offer, but otherwise I will have to move, unfortunately, because of all the situation.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:And they didn't expect that.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker D:And right.
Speaker D:And they were like, right.
Speaker D:Really?
Speaker D:For real?
Speaker D:And like, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker D:This is the offer.
Speaker D:I have it, like, and this is the.
Speaker D:If you are ready to me made it, it's great.
Speaker D:If not, unfortunately, I'm gonna have to move forward.
Speaker D:Forward.
Speaker D:And they were so taken aback by that.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker D:Because like, they.
Speaker D:They thought, this guy is going to stick for another three years and whatnot, and I'll get the faculties.
Speaker D:Like, they were billing me for $120, $130 an hour, and I was paid like $19 an hour or.
Speaker D:Or even less.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker D:And it was like super low salary.
Speaker D:And like, they were just like, having.
Speaker D:Making a living out of it.
Speaker D:So I, I said, it's not going to happen.
Speaker D:I'm going to take a situation in my control.
Speaker D:And like, finally I had to, like, the hot conversation happened, and the CEO, I think of the prison, he said, like, okay, all right, if that's what it is, give the laptop and get out.
Speaker D:That's what he said.
Speaker D:My gosh, I couldn't care less.
Speaker D:But, like, that really happened.
Speaker D:So I used to work there.
Speaker D:And it happened.
Speaker B:So it happened.
Speaker E:It happened.
Speaker B:My God, there's.
Speaker B:There's a lot of dirtbag employers out there.
Speaker B:That's just the simple truth.
Speaker B:That's just simple truth.
Speaker B:Like, was that just you or was that just the way that this particular company operated?
Speaker D:There were like 18 such employees who joined with me.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:And I spotted I'm good at spotting trends, actually.
Speaker D:Unfortunately, the discernment is.
Speaker D:I think it's one of my superpower.
Speaker D:I. I have gotten to know in the last 10 years, but discerning is something comes naturally to me.
Speaker D:I was able to discern that it's not going to work.
Speaker D:Seventeen other employees joined with me, and I was the first one to get out and followed me.
Speaker D:Well, 10 other people followed me.
Speaker D:So thank God I was able to process it and take situation and under control.
Speaker D:So that was one situation.
Speaker B:So, my gosh.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I'm sure, you know, I mean, I'm sure I will get many more calls like this from not just United States.
Speaker B:I'm sure from Canada, too, where, you know, we have foreign workers coming over and doing jobs that are just frankly getting taken advantage of.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:And because I didn't know what, what was a fair salary, what was a fair wage.
Speaker D:I just trusted the process and went with it.
Speaker D:They said, like, they were.
Speaker D:They were nice.
Speaker D:They.
Speaker D:They did the visa and stuff.
Speaker D:Like, I didn't know anything.
Speaker D:And like, then later I told my friend, hey, this is what.
Speaker D:Hey, that's.
Speaker D:That's not a good offer.
Speaker D:I mean, like, yeah, so this.
Speaker D:Anyway, it happened and, and it was good.
Speaker D:But I think the lesson learned is not just doing more research and things like.
Speaker D:Internet was not as popular and that deep back then, Kelly.
Speaker D:I mean, it was.
Speaker D: I'm talking about: Speaker D:And there was not enough information also to find out what's going on right now.
Speaker D:Not enough people making YouTube videos explaining the stuff, internal, external, and whatnot.
Speaker D:So that was a really scary period for a good few months.
Speaker D:But we moved east coast.
Speaker D:It was fine.
Speaker D:There's another incident.
Speaker D:You want to learn about It.
Speaker B:Please go ahead.
Speaker D:So this one, this was a crazy thing.
Speaker D:So I was in a different company.
Speaker D:And this is a peer pressure.
Speaker D:Colleagues operating in a different way.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:And I had really very amazing colleagues, amazing friends.
Speaker D:So some of them happened to be lifelong friends.
Speaker D:So one such guy.
Speaker D:So I joined a decent push in.
Speaker D:I was called like, I think.
Speaker D:What was it called back then?
Speaker D:A specialist or something, A senior specialist or something.
Speaker D:And the next role is a supervisor push in.
Speaker D:Like a manager kind of a push, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:So I joined at that level.
Speaker D:So there's a guy who's already working there at the exact same push in, Right.
Speaker D:And he's probably been there at the same push in for.
Speaker D:Already for the last eight or ten years.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker D:So he happened to be a peer.
Speaker D:I'm the new guy starting in that special position.
Speaker D:He has been there for a decade.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So you can imagine the thing.
Speaker D:So I'm young, I'm new in the country, and I'm really competitive when it comes to, like, I'm not like beating others down, but at the same time, what I'm supposed to do, I try and do to my best, Right.
Speaker D:So he felt a lot of peer pressure and felt I was a competition and whatnot.
Speaker D:There were other colleagues who were like super friends, right.
Speaker D:This guy felt the pressure and got nervous about it.
Speaker D:And I don't know what happened.
Speaker D:So this is the backstory, right?
Speaker D:And so there was a bunch of trainees in a season we were taking interns and I was training them.
Speaker D:And he had a bunch of interns.
Speaker D:He was training them.
Speaker D:So I was training, he was training as well.
Speaker D:So at the end of internship, after three months or four months or six months, whatever the time period is.
Speaker D:So the normal practices, like the intern, like, some stay, some leave.
Speaker D:So because like they got a better offer or they want to continue in the same same office.
Speaker D:Depends on that.
Speaker D:So one such intern I happened to work with, so it was his last day.
Speaker D:It was Friday, and I had to leave a little early.
Speaker D:It was like Friday.
Speaker D:I left at like 5, 5:30 or something.
Speaker D:And he stayed a little longer.
Speaker D:Vijay, I'm gonna finish some of these things.
Speaker D:I'm gonna leave.
Speaker D:Okay, no problem.
Speaker D:Take care.
Speaker D:And he left around like 6:30 or 7 that day because it was last day.
Speaker D:And I said like, okay, yeah, when you finish this, just hand over the laptop to that guy, the other guy I was talking about, the senior specialist.
Speaker D:So he handed over the laptop to him and he left.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:After about three months, I get a call from the Admin from the IT desk saying that, hey, Vijay, you're supposed to return a laptop.
Speaker D:Because I had actually taken those infrastructure for those trainees, right?
Speaker D:So I'm responsible for it.
Speaker D:I signed for it, I'm responsible for it.
Speaker D:And I get a call from the ID desk saying that, hey, Vijay, you borrowed a laptop.
Speaker D:We didn't get it back.
Speaker D:And like, I was wondering what happened.
Speaker D:No, he's supposed to give back.
Speaker D:So I had the number of the intern.
Speaker D:Hey, it looked like.
Speaker D:Did you return the laptop?
Speaker D:He said, yeah, I return on the exact same day.
Speaker D:I gave it to that guy.
Speaker D:I don't want to name his.
Speaker D:I wouldn't give his name.
Speaker D:But then I was in a weird situation.
Speaker D:Then I went next day and asked him, hey, dude, like, I got a call.
Speaker D:Did you have the laptop?
Speaker D:Maybe it's sitting there somewhere.
Speaker D:Maybe you forgot about it.
Speaker D:He said, no, I don't have it.
Speaker D:He never returned it.
Speaker D:And he's the guy, like the peer pressure guy.
Speaker D:And like, he would, he would just straight to the face.
Speaker D:He said, no, I don't have it.
Speaker D:Yeah, you can look, I don't have it.
Speaker D:Like, okay.
Speaker D:And I was really worried what's gonna happen.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:Then I told my one other friend, he's also at the same person, like, but he's really understanding.
Speaker D:And he, dude, like, this is what happened.
Speaker D:My trainee returned a laptop, but this guy says he doesn't have it.
Speaker D:I just don't know what to do.
Speaker D:And this guy and the other guy, they are neighbors, actually.
Speaker B:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:And so this good guy, what he did is like, dude, don't worry about it.
Speaker D:I have a way.
Speaker D:I have his locker keys.
Speaker D:When he's out for lunch, let's go check it out ourselves.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker D:So we went, we did that because it's going to be a black mark on my career.
Speaker D:Because, right.
Speaker D:This is like, it's going to be three, $4,000 laptop and I have to own it.
Speaker D:It's not just the money, but it's also black mark.
Speaker B:Of course.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It gets sent to the appraisal, the
Speaker D:perception, because you lost a company property and all of that, right?
Speaker D:So he said like, he understood.
Speaker D:And like, so we went during the lunch and we checked the drawer and everything.
Speaker D:It was sitting on the last drawer, a bunch of files at the bottom of the drawer.
Speaker D:The laptop was sitting there.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker D:And it was exactly sitting there.
Speaker D:It's the intern's laptop sitting there.
Speaker D:Then we didn't take it.
Speaker D:We didn't take it.
Speaker D:We closed the drawer back and he said, vijay, don't worry, let him come back from lunch and let's go ask the same question again.
Speaker D:I'll come with you.
Speaker D:So he came with me and he asked the same.
Speaker D:Asked the same question.
Speaker D:Hey, what about that laptop Vijay's talking about?
Speaker D:Inter.
Speaker D:Looks like something is going on.
Speaker D:Can we.
Speaker D:Did you have it?
Speaker D:He said, no, I don't have it.
Speaker D:I already told Vijay yesterday.
Speaker D:Is he coming back again?
Speaker D:Vijay, what did I tell you yesterday?
Speaker D:And maybe can you check?
Speaker D:And he's no, I don't have it.
Speaker D:And he was like doubling down, dribbling down and he said, why don't you check your drawer again?
Speaker D:Again.
Speaker D:And like we kept pushing and finally we pushed him to check the drawer and I think he clearly knew he had it and.
Speaker D:And after about 20 minutes confrontation, he opened the drawer and showed it and we took the laptop.
Speaker D:But man, that, that was quite a. I've.
Speaker D:Yeah, it was intense actually to even to get the bottom of it.
Speaker D:I was getting mentally ready to pay that amount, whatever may happen.
Speaker D:But like, yeah, such people exist.
Speaker B:Some people really suck.
Speaker B:That's just the truth.
Speaker B:Some people suck.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:This is good.
Speaker D:This is good.
Speaker D:I'm happy to be on the show.
Speaker D:Thank you.
Speaker D:Thank you for thinking about me, Kelly.
Speaker D:I appreciate it, man.
Speaker B:My pleasure.
Speaker B:Our next story delves into something quite uncomfortable.
Speaker B:Workplace harassment.
Speaker B:It is also our very first subm recording to the show.
Speaker B:If you submit a story to us, you have the option to self record and email me the story.
Speaker B:We will respond with a quick release form and we are off to the races.
Speaker B:It is my pleasure to welcome Shelby to the show.
Speaker A:Hi Kelly, I have a quick story for you.
Speaker A:So when I was 18, I was kind of freshly out of high school looking for something to do with myself, some purpose, some function.
Speaker A:I ended up getting a job with a large Canadian truck and transport company.
Speaker A:And I loved the job.
Speaker A:I was, you know, keen to work hard and kind of go above and beyond.
Speaker A:And very quickly I started to receive a lot of attention as being possibly a good fit for a leadership and management position, specifically a training manager.
Speaker A:And so, you know, within a year of working there, I successfully was promoted into that role and very eager to learn from all of the people around me.
Speaker A:I just really wanted to do the best possible job that I could and I genuinely enjoyed the position a lot and the work that was involved with it.
Speaker A:So anyway, shortly after being in this role, within that first year, the company decided to bring on a new position, a quality manager.
Speaker A:And my role would report directly to this role.
Speaker A:So they found a successful candidate.
Speaker A:They brought him in.
Speaker A:He's this British guy.
Speaker A:Seemed to have, you know, a lot of knowledge, a lot of experience.
Speaker A:He's more than twice my age.
Speaker A:You know, he seemed a little bit full of himself.
Speaker A:Like, nobody's perfect.
Speaker A:But he always kind of seemed like he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
Speaker A:Like, came off a little bit aggressive.
Speaker A:But it's like, you know, who knows?
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:Different cultures, different backgrounds, and so you give people a lot of grace.
Speaker A:And for me especially, I was young, and I certainly saw the good in.
Speaker A:In everyone.
Speaker A:And so, anyway, throughout our time together, because we were put in an office together, so previously I had been in my office by myself.
Speaker A:They put this guy in the office with me.
Speaker A:So now it's him and I.
Speaker A:We each have our own desk and our computers in there.
Speaker A:And his desk was set up to my left, so I'm kind of facing out the window, and he's facing me.
Speaker A:And I couldn't see at any given time what was on his screen, but he could kind of see what was on mine.
Speaker A:So one day we're in there, and, you know, leading up to this moment, there was a lot of these little passes or like, these moments where you're.
Speaker A:You're kind of your.
Speaker A:Your senses go off, and you.
Speaker A:You feel this little red flag of like, was that what I think it was?
Speaker A:But like I said, I'm young, I'm eager to learn.
Speaker A:He seemed to have a lot of experience.
Speaker A:As far as I knew, he was, like, engaged or married.
Speaker A:He's twice my age.
Speaker A:So I'm thinking, you know, it's fine, it's nothing.
Speaker A:Carry on.
Speaker A:But this particular day, I'm sitting there and I'm working, and he's working.
Speaker A:So I think all of a sudden, while we're sitting there, he starts this creepy commentary.
Speaker A:So I can't see what on his screen, but he's going like, ooh.
Speaker A:Like, nice.
Speaker A:Ooh, that looks nice.
Speaker A:Ooh.
Speaker A:Ooh, bikini.
Speaker A:Oh, we're at the beach.
Speaker A:Oh, Shelby in a bikini.
Speaker A:And I'm like, what is he talking about?
Speaker A:So I come to realize he's got my Facebook open, and he's scrolling through all of my pictures, and he's commentating on my body, what I'm doing, how I look, and it's deeply uncomfortable.
Speaker A:Like, that's all I can say.
Speaker A:I'm like, Once I realized what was happening, my body went into that freeze response of like, is this really happening?
Speaker A:You're just kind of in a state of disbelief.
Speaker A:Because to this point, this person is, you know, you're in a professional environment, you're.
Speaker A:This is my superior, he's literally my boss.
Speaker A:And I remember I got upset and I reacted.
Speaker A:Like I showed him that this was an upsetting experience.
Speaker A:And I don't remember exactly what I said, but I remember I got, you know, outwardly upset and angry with this experience.
Speaker A:And so he did back off.
Speaker A:I remember in the moment he kind of like backed off.
Speaker A:I think he tried to make a joke of it, like, oh, haha, it was just all in good fun.
Speaker A:But for me, like, that was that, you know, this was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Speaker A:This relationship was not gonna fly and there was zero percent chance I was sharing my office with this crate.
Speaker A:So, you know, looking back, I'm proud of myself even at my young age for having, you know, done that uncomfortable thing.
Speaker A:But I will say, say it is incredibly challenging and difficult for women, and maybe especially young women at that, at my age, at the time, to, to do that.
Speaker A:It's, it's just, it feels unfair and you're like this asshole, you know, like, it's just crazy.
Speaker A:So I promptly went home, wrote down every fact, detail, incident that I could recall leading up to this one, put it in writing, signed my name on it, made it official, made it real promptly, handed it in to HR the very next day.
Speaker A:And I will say this company shocked, shocked the hell out of me when they immediately let this guy go.
Speaker A:I never had to lay eyes on him again.
Speaker A:I never had to interact with him again.
Speaker A:And they just acted promptly, swiftly, without question, believed me and respected the boundary that I had requested.
Speaker A:Because I remember in my letter basically saying something to the effect of like, if this individual continues to work in this capacity with me, I cannot continue in my position.
Speaker A:Like it was that it had been, it had shooken me to my core, like I was not going to continue.
Speaker A:And they met me, they met me right there.
Speaker A:They followed through, they let him go.
Speaker A:And I remember I felt really supported, really supported and validated.
Speaker A:And I remember the manager at the time saying, like, you know, watch your back.
Speaker A:Because I think he had at this point kind of showed his true colors and revealed that, you know, his intentions were maybe not that good.
Speaker A:And I don't think he took it too well when they let him go.
Speaker A:And he had become pretty aggressive.
Speaker A:And then a couple weeks later, my counterpart from out east had come to town and he said, oh, you know, he noticed this guy was gone and he's like, where's Such and such.
Speaker A:And we're like, oh, you know, he's gone.
Speaker A:This was all, of course, confidential as to what the reason was.
Speaker A:There was only a couple of us that really knew what had happened.
Speaker A:And he looks at me and he goes, well, you know, like, this guy was coming for you.
Speaker A:I'm like, what?
Speaker A:What do you mean?
Speaker A:And he goes, he was coming for you.
Speaker A:He was coming for your job.
Speaker A:And that kind of had me wondering whether or not he had intended to kind of whittle me down or make me so uncomfortable that I would quit or that he was trying to do something, trying to get ahead professionally.
Speaker A:And maybe this was a strategy of a very bad strategy.
Speaker A:But that comment after the fact I remember always kind of made me wonder if he just thought, if I just make her life, you know, a living nightmare, maybe she'll just go away.
Speaker A:And that did not work out for him.
Speaker A:So anyway, that's my.
Speaker A:That's my story.
Speaker A:Thanks for listening and take care.
Speaker B:Thank you, Shelby, for that story, for sharing, and obviously for having the bravery to stand up and do something about it right there in the moment.
Speaker B:Congratulations to that company.
Speaker B:What an exceptional way of handling it.
Speaker B:Also, it's not my first rodeo with someone gunning for my job.
Speaker B:And while it wasn't sexual harassment, it was a horrible situation.
Speaker B:It was challenging to navigate and I feel for you.
Speaker B:Thank you again, Shelby.
Speaker B:Once again, it was our very first show submission.
Speaker B:That was an email submission.
Speaker B:We would love to have more of those.
Speaker B:So if you have a story and maybe you don't want to do an interview, you're more than welcome to self record and email me a story.
Speaker B:Please just don't do it from a moving vehicle.
Speaker B:Never a good situation.
Speaker B:For our final night shift story of the evening, we are talking with an ex police officer who has an absolutely unbelievable story.
Speaker B:And while I'm not sure that it fits squarely in the night shift territory, I will let you guys decide.
Speaker B:It has quite the outcome.
Speaker B:For our next story, it is my absolute pleasure to welcome Randy calling from beautiful Guadalajara, Mexico.
Speaker B:Randy, welcome to the show.
Speaker B:You have an incredible story for us.
Speaker B:Go ahead.
Speaker E:Well, nice to be here, Kelly.
Speaker E:And it's actually fun to get a chance to tell this story and get it recorded because I've told this story so many times over the years.
Speaker E:So as you know, in my 18 different careers that I've had ranging from, you know, television, radio, investment banking, you know, the Internet back in the dot com boom to.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:To the questions experience which I'm now doing, people are always Quite surprised to learn that I spent six years as a police officer.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker E:In a little rural municipal police force that doesn't exist anymore called the county of Park.
Speaker E:At the time it's called the county of Parkland Police Department.
Speaker E:The county of Parkland still exists.
Speaker E:It's a rural area west of Edmonton and it used to.
Speaker E:We used to have offices in.
Speaker E:In Stony Plain where we had our lone little jail and Wabamon and Drayton Valley.
Speaker E:And Drayton Valley is actually no.
Speaker E:No longer part of the county of Parkland.
Speaker E:So this is back in the late 70s, early 80s.
Speaker E:And so you know everybody.
Speaker E:I'm sure everyone knows someone who's a cop and you know, if you get.
Speaker E:Give a couple of beers into them or whatever, they'll.
Speaker E:They'll tell you some cop stories and.
Speaker E:And then there's a lot of cop stories you don't really want to hear about.
Speaker E:You know, probably most of them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:Because it is a.
Speaker E:It is a job that you're basically.
Speaker E:I'll.
Speaker E:I'll never forget taking my friend who was a television director who I was actually working with at the time, even though I was a cop, out on a ride along and he got about three quarters of the way through and nothing really happened that night either.
Speaker E:But three quarters of the way through he said to me, I finally figured out why I'm so nervous riding along with you in this police car.
Speaker E:I said, why is that?
Speaker E:He said, well, I just figured it out.
Speaker E:We're out looking for trouble.
Speaker B:That's true.
Speaker E:So anyway, so most.
Speaker E:A lot of times and this, this is, this is a story that, you know, it's a.
Speaker E:It's a sad story in a way because it involved a police officer being badly injured and I believe he, he never actually worked on the job again afterwards.
Speaker E:So it's.
Speaker E:There's a tragic aspect to it.
Speaker E:However, I'm going to tell it from.
Speaker E:With all due respect to him, I'm going to tell it from the perspective of how funny it was after it was all done and in looking back on it.
Speaker E:So for those of your listeners that are viewers that might not know, Edmonton is in Alberta and Canada at this time is probably a pretty good sized city.
Speaker E:Half a million people, they have their own police force.
Speaker E:West of Edmonton.
Speaker E:We had the rcmp, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who to this day still consider themselves superior to all the other police forces.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker E:But you know, keep that in context.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Like compared to the United States, Randy, the rcmp, they're like the FBI.
Speaker B:Is that.
Speaker B:Would that be a fair Comparison, they're
Speaker E:supposed to look after federal policing.
Speaker E:However, in western Canada, particularly, for whatever reason, which has never made any sense to me, they get contracted by the provinces, the four western provinces, and then even by municipalities, because policing is not a federal jurisdiction, except for federal crimes and, you know, certain types of.
Speaker E:Like the FBI.
Speaker E:So there's.
Speaker E:In the US Every local jurisdiction has its own police agency, and the FBI come in for like, major crimes or, you know, where it crosses state lines and so on and so forth.
Speaker E:So we have the.
Speaker E:The rcmp, who consider themselves an elite police force doing essentially municipal policing, contracted to do municipal policing.
Speaker E:The other interesting aspect to it is that they.
Speaker E:They at that time, I don't know if they still do, they had a rule that if you joined the RCMP in Alberta, you could not work in Alberta.
Speaker E:They would shift you to another province.
Speaker E:And it was based on an old concept that, you know, you didn't want the police to get too close to the public because they.
Speaker E:Which is completely contrary to.
Speaker E:To modern community policing.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:You know, so.
Speaker E:So the result was most of the RCMP officers in this area were from other provinces, many of them from Quebec.
Speaker E:They didn't even speak English very well.
Speaker E:So it's.
Speaker E:It wasn't.
Speaker E:And they really didn't want to be there.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:You know, so it.
Speaker E:You know, and God bless them, you know, all great people.
Speaker E:And they actually treated us, the county of parkland police, even worse than they would treat the city of edmonton police, who they thought they were superior to as well, but particularly us.
Speaker E:They called us the county mounties and we had disparaging name for them as well.
Speaker E:But we basically didn't get along very well because the county of parkland formed its own police force even though the county was not responsible for policing.
Speaker E:The county fell under the provincial policing jurisdiction, which was the rcmp.
Speaker E:But they never felt satisfied with the service they got because they were always undermanned and they always had other priorities.
Speaker E:So this particular county went ahead and formed their own police force.
Speaker E:Anyway, so it was a dual policing situation.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker E:So anyway, this.
Speaker E:I. I actually owned the local newspaper in spruce Grove at the time.
Speaker E:And this was actually before I joined the police department as a regular constable.
Speaker E:I was working this particular night as an auxiliary constable, like a volunteer police officer, no gun and second man in the car, sort of like a, you
Speaker B:know, like a ride along.
Speaker E:Yeah, well, I was there.
Speaker E:I was in uniform.
Speaker E:We had a little bit of training and the public didn't know other than if they noticed I didn't have A gun, that was only difference.
Speaker E:And I was sworn in.
Speaker E:Well, I was just there as a citizen supporting the regular member so I could assist with any arrest or whatever.
Speaker E:On this particular night, I think it was like a Friday night in the.
Speaker E:In this.
Speaker E:In the spring or summer.
Speaker E:And we're.
Speaker E:We're patrolling west, just west of the city.
Speaker E:So the city of Edmonton, the boundary at the time was just a little bit to the east of 199th street, if you know where that is.
Speaker E:It used to be called River Valley Road.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker E:And we used to hang out there a lot because there's more activity the closer, you know, people used to come and sort of get out of the city and go have a big bush party or whatever.
Speaker E:They figure, oh, we're out of the city, we're free and clear.
Speaker E:So if we're looking for trouble, we would be often on that road.
Speaker E:And on this particular night, it was kind of dusk and my fellow constable, who was the actual sworn in member, and he was actually a former RCMP officer, his name was constable Hominuk, he and I had stumbled across a woman in the ditch of river Valley Road and we stopped to see what was going on.
Speaker E:And she said, yeah, I lost my hubcap.
Speaker E:So as two, you know, good samaritan police officers with nothing to do, we.
Speaker E:We parked the car and we went down in the ditch and started looking for her hubcap.
Speaker E:And of course she didn't know exactly where it went.
Speaker E:So here we are, two county mountie bumpkins in the ditch looking for a hubcap.
Speaker E:And all of a sudden we hear not the sound of sirens, but the roar of an engine.
Speaker E:And we look, we both of us look down the road and we can see on this River Valley road, probably like close to a mile away, that we hear this roar of a sports car engine.
Speaker E:And the guy is pinning it, you know, like he's coming and that this is our jurisdiction now.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:And we mostly do traffic enforcement.
Speaker E:So, you know, we sort of look to each other other than thought, damn it, I wish we were set up with radar right now.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:But as soon as we looked, we saw also red and blue lights.
Speaker E:So.
Speaker E:And as the car came closer, and this is all happening pretty fast, we realized he's going like about 100 miles an hour.
Speaker B:Oh, wow.
Speaker E:And he's got obviously like police cars chasing him.
Speaker E:Although here's the interesting tidbit of information.
Speaker E:This was a time when police departments were switching over from one single red light to red and blue lights.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker E:And the RCMP still had A single red light.
Speaker E:And the Edmonton police only had single red lights.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:So however the county park line because we're smaller and more nimble, we already had light bars with red and blue.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:So we are, we're processing all this.
Speaker E:This car is coming towards us.
Speaker E:There's red and blue lights behind two cars and we're thinking who the hell is chasing this guy?
Speaker E:It's because it's our guys.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:We don't have two cars in that area.
Speaker E:It's just us.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:So that was the first confusing point.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:So I, I immediately did the translation in my brain.
Speaker E:I thought this is a high speed chase and I don't know who the.
Speaker E:How the heck.
Speaker E:It's county cops chasing him but we're going to get into this high speed chase.
Speaker E:So I raced to the driver's seat because I wanted to drive and I was authorized to drive.
Speaker E:To drive.
Speaker E:So hominuk and I are both racing to the driver's seat and I beat him there.
Speaker E:And by this time now the car is like very close and hominuk puts his hat on and goes, stands out in the road.
Speaker E:It's just a two way, two lane paved road.
Speaker E:And he literally goes like this, you know, puts his hand up like stop.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:And this guy driving the who eventually, his name is Philip, he starts flashing his lights saying hey buddy, I'm not stopping.
Speaker B:Yeah, get out of the way.
Speaker E:That was a weird aspect of it.
Speaker E:So Hominuk thought I guess I'll give it a try, I'll try to stop him.
Speaker E:And we didn't have the time to sort of, we, we didn't think of blocking the road somehow.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:And that, that would have been disastrous anyway if I would have pulled out because we would have got completely t boned.
Speaker E:So I jump in the car and I look back and Hamanuk realizes I better get the hell out of the way.
Speaker E:So he runs back in the ditch, you know, and whoosh.
Speaker E:I don't know whether you ever had a car go by you.
Speaker B:Not at that speed.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker E:So it's whoosh.
Speaker E:Tomonok jumps in the passenger side and then boom, the two police cars.
Speaker E:And we kind of see, oh, they are edmonton police cars.
Speaker E:They're marked Edmonton police cars and they're, they're barely keeping up with this guy.
Speaker E:So they're maybe like I know, 50, 100 meters even behind.
Speaker E:So I put her into drive.
Speaker E:We're joining the chase and of course we don't have radio communication with the Edmonton police or the rcmp.
Speaker E:We just have Our own communication.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker E:So but we're gonna assist.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:So I gun it.
Speaker E:And we do happen to have a, a pretty fast car.
Speaker E:So off we go, hit the lights and siren.
Speaker E:I'm thinking, wow, we're in a high speed chase for first one ever, which is, by the way, Kelly, most police officers will not admit this.
Speaker E:They joined the police to help people and to serve the community and, you know, whatever.
Speaker E:No, they joined the police for the action and to get.
Speaker E:To drive a police car with the lights and siren on and get in a high speed chase.
Speaker E:Let's face facts, Kelly.
Speaker E:If you were thinking of joining the police, that would be why.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:I always admitted.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:So here we go.
Speaker E:So they're so far ahead of us, they're like, I don't know, half a mile, three quarters of a mile.
Speaker E:I'm using mile instead of kilometer because they hadn't turned, switched it over back in the day or maybe they had.
Speaker E:Anyway.
Speaker E:So we're just hoping we can catch up.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:And we have that tunnel vision come in that happens in high speed chases that you get trained that, you know.
Speaker E:So we weren't looking behind us to see whether there was other cars coming.
Speaker E:We were just trying to stay focused.
Speaker E:And this Philip Worch car got to about four miles south of Highway 16 and we could see him turn onto a gravel road.
Speaker E:And we saw the two police cars following him.
Speaker E:And again, we're, we're probably like a good at least quarter mile, half a mile behind.
Speaker E:And then it's just a big cloud of dust.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:So we, we turn down and follow.
Speaker E:And then we see that the dust continues down another side road, continuing south.
Speaker E:So he went one mile over or whatever it was, started heading south and it's all dust.
Speaker E:You can't see anything.
Speaker E:And we're following along and you know, we're, we're driving probably too fast for the conditions, but we know they're far enough ahead of us.
Speaker E:We're just trying to catch up.
Speaker E:And we come up over a hill and all of a sudden, blast.
Speaker E:The whole sky lights up.
Speaker E:Like a lightning bolt, it felt like.
Speaker E:And remember I said it was kind of dusk, early dusk.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:And what had happened is Philip had lost control of his vehicle and smashed into the ditch into a telephone pole, bringing down the electrical wires.
Speaker B:Oh, wow.
Speaker E:And they were, they were, you know, exploding, basically.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:So as we, so we see this all light up and we come over the hill and again, we're probably like 20, 30 seconds behind.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:And as we come over and we're slowing down.
Speaker E:We can see that he's hit this pole and he's bailing out of the car and he's starting to run.
Speaker E:And the two edmonton police cars have stopped and two guys pile out, one out of each car and two dogs.
Speaker E:And we realize those are dog cars that are chasing them.
Speaker E:So this is great news.
Speaker E:Like the, the dogs are gonna catch him.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:So we sort of look around and we see that he's going diagonally across like a summer followed field.
Speaker E:And the.
Speaker E:The we're watching and he's got a head start on the.
Speaker E:On the cops.
Speaker E:So he's running like a maniac.
Speaker E:And we're looking and the wires are hanging down and we think, hey, let's go ahead and see if we can get onto that field on an approach and sort of cut him off with the car, Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:But we don't know whether we can clear the low hanging wires.
Speaker E:And we look over and there's a guy on a horse and he's like, yep, you're good.
Speaker E:We're just, you know, you're gonna make it.
Speaker E:So we get waved through by a guy on a horse and it gets better.
Speaker E:Make note of that.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:So then we're gunning it and we're looking across the field and werch is running like hell.
Speaker E:The two cops are running like hell.
Speaker E:And they're about 100 meters behind him and the dogs are running like hell.
Speaker E:And the dogs catch up to worch and we're thinking, oh good, they're going to get them.
Speaker E:And they run along beside him and then they back off and then they speed up and you can see the cops going, get him.
Speaker E:You know, get them, get them.
Speaker E:And they're.
Speaker E:They're these dog.
Speaker E:Two dogs, like they're out for a family romp.
Speaker E:They're not taking this guy down.
Speaker E:We were like, what the hell?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:Well, then we.
Speaker E:We sure enough, we get up to the.
Speaker E:To there's a.
Speaker E:An approach to that field and we go, great.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:And there's no fence or anything.
Speaker E:And we just.
Speaker E:And I just start pinning it and you know, we're.
Speaker E:I'm looking to my left and I'm seeing that we're going to intercept him for sure.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:And until hominut goes, look out.
Speaker E:And because I'm looking to the side, I'm just about to drive straight into a slough.
Speaker E:So I look forward, there's this huge slew there and I just crank the wheel and I managed to get around the slough, but the mud is throwing up and Everything.
Speaker E:And I.
Speaker E:You know how it is if you avoid an accident.
Speaker E:Like, I got through and then I'm back and then I.
Speaker E:Well, let's keep going.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:So imagine if.
Speaker E:If we.
Speaker E:If the.
Speaker E:The city police end up apprehending this guy and the RCMP show up and there's the county police car stuck, submerged in the middle of a.
Speaker E:That was quite possible.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:So sure enough, and we still can't figure out what's wrong with the dogs, but we do cut off fellow.
Speaker E:Like, we pull up and this guy did the weirdest thing as we sort of pulled up and slowed down and he's running.
Speaker E:He goes like this.
Speaker E:Like he's diving into a pool and dives in front of the car.
Speaker E:I don't know whether he was, like, doing a suicide move or what.
Speaker E:What was happening.
Speaker E:But anyway, I stopped.
Speaker E:My partner jumps out of the passenger seat and runs over to him.
Speaker E:He gets up and my partner, like, kind of tackles him and tries to put him in an arm lock.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:So he's got it.
Speaker E:He's got him down on the ground with his arm around his neck and the dogs are there.
Speaker E:They're not even barking.
Speaker E:They're just like.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:And so later we find out they were on their first day of dog training.
Speaker B:They're new.
Speaker B:They're new, their new dogs.
Speaker E:They had no clue what they were supposed to do.
Speaker E:And also, now, this is the point that I'm going to tell you why they were chasing Philip.
Speaker E:He was.
Speaker E:You're familiar with the streets in Edmonton.
Speaker E:They had a speed trap set up on 156th street and about 107th Avenue or something like that.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker E:Philip drove up, he was speeding.
Speaker E:They waved him in, he stopped.
Speaker E:But he was an unlicensed driver and he had warrants out for his arrest.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker E:So he pulls up and stops, and one of the Edmonton police members goes over and says, okay, can I have your driver's license, whatever.
Speaker E:And Philip puts it in drive and pins it.
Speaker E:And the cop just instinctively tried to grab.
Speaker E:When he saw him putting it into gear, he tried to grab up.
Speaker E:Grab.
Speaker E:Reach in and grab the.
Speaker E:The steering wheel or like, not allow him to.
Speaker E:To proceed, and went ahead anyway.
Speaker E:And now all of a sudden, the cop is stuck on the side of the car, hanging on for dear life.
Speaker E:Drove up 156th street at like 60, 70 miles an hour and literally swerved into oncoming traffic to try to knock this police officer off the side of the car.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker E:And the reason we know that is because nothing to do with the speed trap.
Speaker E:These two dog cars just happened to be driving through the speed trap at that exact time.
Speaker E:So when Philip pulled out, they were right behind him.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker E:So they.
Speaker E:They're like seeing this and they're of course, radioing.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:So.
Speaker E:And I tell you that because these guys didn't know whether their friend had been killed because Chad to slow down and went up on a curb at stony plain road because there was traffic was all stopped up and the cop managed to let go and roll over.
Speaker E:But as far as the cop, the dog cars that were chasing them, they did.
Speaker E:It looked like the guy was dead.
Speaker E:Like they thought their partner was probably killed.
Speaker E:Right?
Speaker E:Sure.
Speaker E:So by this time there and then they chase Philip all over west Edmonton and he heads out to the west.
Speaker E:The chase had gone on for like, you know, five or 10 minutes.
Speaker E:So my back to my partner being on the ground with in a headlock these guys that had been chasing him.
Speaker E:The two dog car guys are screaming at the dogs, bite them.
Speaker E:Bite.
Speaker E:This is not good police procedure, by the way.
Speaker E:But anyway, they were a bit emotionally involved at that point.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker E:And the dogs are just.
Speaker E:And so one of the guys comes up and tries to.
Speaker E:You know, no names are being mentioned.
Speaker E:I don't even know who these guys were, but literally tried to kick in the head.
Speaker B:Oh, wow.
Speaker E:But unfortunately he missed and he kicked my partner right on the elbow.
Speaker E:And he's.
Speaker E:And homin goes, ow.
Speaker E:What the hell?
Speaker E:I turn and look, and there are at least a dozen police cars because every police car in west Edmonton headed west.
Speaker E:Plus, it's a drive in the country, right.
Speaker E:It's.
Speaker E:It's like some.
Speaker E:Plus, they're all just coming.
Speaker E:So they're all coming along that gravel road.
Speaker E:There's all red, mostly red lights.
Speaker E:Now it turns out those two dog cars were for two of the very first Edmonton police cars to get fitted with the new red and blue lights.
Speaker E:Okay, Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:So.
Speaker E:So there's all.
Speaker E:So it's dusk now, and there's all these red lights flashing on all these cars.
Speaker E:And I look up and the guy with the horse is galloping towards the scene.
Speaker E:And as he gets closer, I'm looking and he's got an rcmp Sam brown, like the belt with the gun.
Speaker B:No, no, he's just.
Speaker E:And he's like on a freaking horse now.
Speaker E:He's not in uniform because he just happened to live across the street.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker E:But he was out on his horse, and when he saw this happen, he ran in and got his gun and figured I. I can come and help.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:So there's.
Speaker E:So these two Edmonton cops and all these other Edmonton cops are, are running across the field to get there and they're swarming around this guy and I'm thinking, what the hell is this?
Speaker E:And the guy goes, he's kind of looking over like this, you know, have the RCMP been notified?
Speaker E:He said, because it's the Edmonton police in their jurisdiction, they're trying to beat the.
Speaker E:Out of this guy.
Speaker E:I don't know whether I should be telling that part of it, but it's.
Speaker E:It.
Speaker E:My God, back in the day it was a normal thing that, you know, if you, if you were in high speed chase and you were trying to escape the cops, the cops would get a couple of licks in before they arrest you.
Speaker E:So that's just the way it was.
Speaker E:I didn't want to see it and I sure as heck didn't want the RCMP to see it.
Speaker E:So.
Speaker E:So I run up to the horse, I go, he goes, have the RCMP didn't notify it?
Speaker E:And I go, I am sure they have, but we've got everything under control, sir.
Speaker B:I'm just thinking like the Canadian ness of this story.
Speaker B:What are the odds that there happens to be an RCMP officer who happens to live right there, who happens to be on his horse?
Speaker E:He made this up.
Speaker E:People would say, oh, come on, you know, that's where truth is stranger than fiction.
Speaker B:Oh my goodness.
Speaker B:No kidding.
Speaker E:Anyway, so here's the denouement of the story.
Speaker E:Horse.
Speaker E:They arrest him, they charged him with attempted murder on fleeing police and attempted murder of a police officer because they had good evidence and he got convicted of that too.
Speaker E:However.
Speaker E:So the next night, Hominuk and I are out again in this place called Parkland village, which is nearby in the county of Parkland.
Speaker E:And we see what looks like Philip Carr driving along and we go, that looks like the same car which was towed, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:And I think it was Friday that it happened and this was a Sunday.
Speaker E:So we go and we pull it over and the guy pulls over, sure enough, it's Philip frickin already out on bail.
Speaker E:It must have been Monday because he wouldn't have been in court until Monday, but they released the guy on bail and gave him his car back.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker E: , it wasn't much different in: Speaker B:Oh, interesting.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because I know that's definitely something that you hear come up quite a bit is that, yeah, people are getting out.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And a lot of people saying, too, it's not the police's fault.
Speaker B:I think maybe that's important.
Speaker B:The police are out there doing their job.
Speaker B:They're not the ones that are doing that well.
Speaker E:They're totally frustrated.
Speaker E:We couldn't believe it.
Speaker E:Yeah, you couldn't believe it.
Speaker E:And he was cooperative and everything.
Speaker E:So maybe he was drunk or something the night before.
Speaker E:But I mean, a guy that's charged with attempted murder of a police officer isn't kept in custody.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker E:So anyway, that's my story.
Speaker B:What a story it was.
Speaker B:Randy, that was incredible.
Speaker B:Thank you for your insight into.
Speaker B:Into policing, something that I know very little about.
Speaker B:So, like, I love.
Speaker B:I love the insight, I love the depth and, you know, thank you so much for your service.
Speaker B:As somebody who grew up in Parkland county myself, at one time, it was you.
Speaker B:So I appreciate that greatly.
Speaker B:And thanks for the great story.
Speaker E:I love all your interactions with the county of Parkland police.
Speaker E:If they were still around when you were.
Speaker E:We're positive.
Speaker B:You know what?
Speaker B:I think it was RCMP when I was growing up.
Speaker B: s, early: Speaker B:But yeah, you know what?
Speaker B:I can't say that I ever had a negative interaction with the police force.
Speaker E:There you go.
Speaker E:You're a good boy, Kelly.
Speaker B:Well, most of the time.
Speaker B:Thank you, Randy, for the incredible story and looking forward to the next one.
Speaker E:Okay, have a great day, Kelly.
Speaker B:And that takes us to the end of today's episode of I Used to Work There.
Speaker B:If you have a story that has stuck with you, whether it's crazy, scary, exciting, inspiring, or just plain hilarious, I absolutely want to hear it.
Speaker B:Please do submit your stories to hroustoworkthere.com it can be an interview style just like this with me.
Speaker B:It can be a story submitted via email that's recorded on your phone.
Speaker B:Please just don't record in a moving vehicle.
Speaker B:It does make the sound really hard to process, but we are going to need as many submissions as we can.
Speaker B:So if you have a story, if this show resonated with you, please do send it in.
Speaker B:HR used to work there.
Speaker B:Dot com.
Speaker B:Until next time.
Speaker B:I'm coming.
Speaker B:Kelly Kennedy.
Speaker B:See you next shift.
