Monday, August 10, 2020

Truck Stop Employees' Most Bizarre Stories


Someone on AskReddit got a thread going about truck stop and interstate employees' most bizarre stories from their days on the job. It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that those long, winding, dark roads are filled to the brim with all kinds of unexpected characters. Truck stop employees can really be put through the rounder. As will happen in these kinds of threads, we've got plenty of accounts from people that didn't work at truck stops, but were just passing through. That story about the mayfly hatch madness is something else. 

1.

Text - Neeraja_Kalrapindhi • 9h 1 Award Not an employee, but a frequent cross-country traveler. Weirdest was pulling up to a truckstop to fill up in southeastern South Dakota during the height of the mayfly hatch, millions of bugs all over. I started filling up and was getting ready to clean my windshield and I happened to look over across the way and there was some dude driving a big box truck in the diesel fueling area. He was scraping them off the front of his truck...and eating them by the h

2.

Text - PurplePoppy12345 • 6h Years ago when i was a kid we were travelling with my mum, her best friend and my sisters. We were pretty tired and pulled into a truck stop for some food and bathroom break. We walk in my mum asks a guy where the bathrooms were he points us in the right direction and off we toddle. We come out, take a seat and wait for the waitress to come take our order, she seems to be taking awhile but we figure she's probably busy and will come when she can. eventually she comes

3.

Text - LaxerRL • 7h 1 Award I didn't work there but I was at a truck stop in West Virginia where a very fat trucker was trying to buy a Twix bar from the vending machine. He paid for it but the bar got stuck on the last loop of the dispenser. So the trucker starts shaking the machine (don't try this ever) and it comes toppling down onto his legs, pinning him to the floor. "Ah fuck" he says nonchalantly. Everyone hears the crash and comes rushing over to help while a worker calls 911. It's at thi

4.

Text - SaviorSixtySix • 12h Not one anymore, but when I was a maintenance worker for a truck stop, I got a call over the radio saying there were two women in the parking lot covered in chocolate. I thought, "well, as long and they don't come into the store." I went outside to find two women, completely naked, covered in a brown substance (I hoped to God it was chocolate). The sheriff was called and apparently, they were both completely sober. They were there for a sorority thing. They were issue

5.

Text - Wick0158 • 7h I worked at a gas station/truck stop for over a year in high school. I have lots of stories. So, one time l'm closing up the station. I was starting to count the till, before I turn on the security system and leave. I've got a wad of twenties when 4 cop cars come ripping into our lot. I run to the windows, 2 cops go to the back and the other 2 position at the corners where it's hard to see them through the windows. Now, I'm an idiot high schooler, so l'm trying to look out t

6.

Text - They were nice but clearly frustrated that I set off the alarm. I tell them 4-5 times that the alarm was not set, but they insist that l'm wrong and that they had a clear security report. Sol took them to the panel, verified it was off. Then my smarts kick in. "Hey guys, what address was the alarm for?" "303 Baker. Why?" "That's not our address. That's ABC supply a block north". They moved quickly to that business. I heard later that the safe was taken from that supply store. Reply 636 ..

7.

Text - nathanj594 • 11h I'm not an employee but I once witnessed a squirrel run into the women's room (it was one of those outdoor rest area bathrooms with no door that you turn into the building around a corner) and then like 20 women come out running for their lives and screaming 10 seconds later. It was like something out of a movie Reply 574

8.

Text - Ellijah92 · 7h 1 Award Not an employee of one but a friend of mine from highschool and I were cruising the back roads of our town and having a good time listening to music and just cruising. We decided to stop off at the truck stop in one of the towns we had ended up in and get some food and drinks. Suddenly she comes up to me excited and freaking out. I ask her whats wrong and she tells me she just seen Lance Bass of *NSYNC go into the men's restroom. I tell her I honestly doubt that con

9.

Text - FastWalkingShortGuy • 12h Not an employee, but once at a rest stop in North Carolina, a dude came up to me and asked me for gas money. This was is 2003, and I was driving a 1994 Saturn. He said, "Hey, man, I can tell by your car you don't have a lot of money, but can you spare a couple of bucks for gas?" Неу. Fuck you, man. I didn't give him any money. Reply 578 ...

10.

Text - slowdownskeleton • 6h I am not an employee, but once at a rest stop I parked and exited my car to have a woman approach me and start screaming in my face that I stole her pet turtle when she wasnt looking a few miles back up the road, and that she had followed me to get it back. I was completely confused and didn't know what to say but really had to pee, so I went inside and did. When I came back out she was gone but my car was covered in napkins with writing on them I couldnt read. I nev

11.

Text - CurlSagan • 10h 6 Awards Oh fuck. I have some stories for you. I used to work at a gas station straight out of the X-files. You know: long empty highway curving through the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Then there's a single, lonely gas station that you drive past at 60 miles per hour while thinking, "Yeesh. Who would stop and go into that dump?". Then there's like 50 miles of road until a town where racist redneck lumberjacks have a perpetual, poorly-disguised hatred for the native and

12.

Text - I think that most of our customers were people who drove past the shady-looking station and then realized there's not gas for quite a while, so they would turn around and reluctantly come back to fill their tanks. They go inside. The only other customer is a trucker whose pants are so low that you can see that he's wearing an adult diaper. He's gazing at the nudie magazines. The weird gas station attendant looks like he could feasibly be an alien wearing human skin. That guy was me.

13.

Text - Kevin, the owner of this creepy gas station, believed in Bigfoot down to his very soul. He sold all sorts of Bigfoot garbage and really pushed for people to buy those old 35mm disposable cameras, just in case they see 'ol B-foot. My boss saw Bigfoot several times, claimed. I sometimes wonder if he hired me only because, from a certain angle, I could be mistaken for Bigfoot, or at least Bigfoot wearing human skin. In the corner of the gas station, Kevin set up a tiny Bigfoot "museum" where

14.

Text - In the museum, there were castings of shallow Bigfoot footprints. Every few days, I liked to remind my boss that Bigfoot would have to weigh like 90 pounds for those footprints to be so shallow. Kevin did not like that. He didn't like science. Bigfoot, for him, was a matter of faith. A few days would pass. I would leave at the end of my shift and hand Kevin a detailed picture I drew of my revised Bigfoot theory where Bigfoot was being lightened by a huge bunch of helium balloons, thus exp

15.

Text - The next day, I asked if any Bigfoot searchers had ever thought to look up, because Bigfoot might be floating through the trees with the help of Bigfoot's big balloons. Kevin hated it when I talked about Bigfoot. Life was great. I have made up a lot of bullshit about Bigfoot, among other things, just to annoy Kevin. These were the days before cellphone cameras and the ubiquity of technology. That was the golden-era of Bigfoot hunting and stupid stories of The Strange Things That Happen to

16.

Text - men who despise themselves when they are emotional. A man walks into the forest and he feels... something. It's hard to put into words what all these trees and wildlife do to your mind and your heart and your soul. A person who has never been in the woods can walk into them and suddenly realize an epiphany: "I am an outdoorsman." He thinks, "Holy shit, I'm not Jeff from Accounting, l'm actually an Outdoorsman. What am I doing with my life? Oh god! Oh god."

17.

Text - So, once upon a time, a man felt changed by the woods during his walk through them. And he decided, subconsciously, consciously, or sciously, to manifest this feeling into the form of a being. The legend of Bigfoot was formed. He didn't see a giant furry creature bounding through the woods, he saw a reflection of himself. He saw a viable explanation for the emotion in his chest. He hallucinated Bigfoot into existence in order to face himself. Anyway, when you tend a shitty gas station in

18.

Text - One time, I came out of the bathroom to what I thought was an empty 2 AM store, stood by the register sleepily. Then I just let go of the biggest post-urination fart of my life (You all have dads, right? You've heard strange noises in bathrooms before.) And suddenly, there was a nice woman who looked up from the chips section. Apparently, I didn't hear the doorbell, which played not a doorbell sound, but a cow's moo whenever someone walked in at 2 AM. I wasn't even embarrassed about the f

19.

Text - Anyway, sometimes I just liked to stand as still as possible in the Bigfoot Gas Station and stare-off into the distance so that anyone entering the gas station could be impressed by my ability to blend into the ample selection of cigarettes behind me. I bet that some of the wandering-eyed locals were jealous of my natural ability to stare at one single locus at the horizon, rather than two places.

20.

Text - My ability to stare is without competition. Why stare at all? Why creep-out gas station customers? Well, my explanation is as follows: When the entire world sees you as weird-looking, it's actually not a curse. It's a blessing. It's freeing. If, no matter how you act, you will be perceived as weird, then you are free. If the consequences are certain no matter your actions, then you are free to do whatever you want. Julius Caesar said something like that, probably, just before inventing th

21.

Text - CurlSagan • 10h 3 Awards What was I talking about? Oh the time I farted and then got robbed. Anyway, that lady bought her chips and pornography, as usual, and then left and then, obviously, I got robbed. But the robber walked right into the cloud of fart particles and my brain was like, "I'm going to remember every detail of this moment, forever." So instead of useful information in my head about mathematical formulas and "how to be sexy", I just have like 100 terabytes of mental footage

22.

Text - a Sheriff's Deputy, so being robbed was always a nice time to chat with him and catch up on local weirdo stories. We collected weirdo facts and data, like scientists who studied weirdos. This uncle, by the way, is now a massive pothead. I have known some big potheads in my day (despite not really being one, believe it or not), and my stupid cop uncle is currently the highest stoner l've ever known. He's perpetually up in the clouds, probably floating with Bigfoot. Last week, he forgot the

23.

Text - When people talk about cops being good apples or bad apples, I think that there is a third option of "fermented apples". Uncle Bob, in this example, is apple cider distilled into high-test moonshine. When he was a cop, I'm not entirely sure if he knew that he was a cop. I think he drove around just thinking he was a taxi driver or some shit. The only times he arrested people were when someone else blatantly had to ask him, "Well?... Bob?... Are you going to arrest that guy or what?" Then

24.

Text - This is a guy who shot a mirror accidentally while practicing to draw like in a Western. This wasn't when he was a kid. He was an officer of the law and like 35 with 3 little girls. This is a guy who once pulled the front end off of his car when he tied the winch to the wrong spot when trying to get out of ditch that he drove straight into for no reason. Uncle Bob was an idiot, but I have to love him because he's family. His insanity and my own, although disparate, are just branches of th

25.

Text - So when I farted, got robbed, and then called 911, my Uncle Bob showed up. I showed him the shitty, low- quality VHS security footage. It was mainly me standing perfectly still for several hours for maximum creepiness, staring at a single point in the distance. Then I drew a picture of Bigfoot surfing or something. Then I went to the bathroom. Then farted. Then a lady smelled the fart. And then Bigfoot came in and robbed the store. He also smelled the fart. You heard that right, Bigfoot r

26.

Text - "Aww fuck!" I thought to myself, because I knew what would happen now. I didn't want this to look like a Bigfoot robbery, because Kevin is going to be all over this stupid footage as proof of Bigfoot's existence. He would tell me that I saw Bigfoot and that I can't deny it now. He'd probably have a photo taken and blown up and put in the Bigfoot Museum, and then point at the photo and then point at me behind the register, and even though I wouldn't be able to hear what bullshit he was tel

27.

Text - So l just made up shit about Bigfoot. It was a different story every time. I didn't even care any more. Life was not great, you guys. I was working at a gas station with nothing but my own imagination. This was after a life of isolated homeschooling with nothing but huffing gasoline and my own imagination. Jesus, why am I even writing all this? None of it's true. You should not believe me. Aww fuck, my life is like a trainwreck going down a staircase off a cliff. It's all lies.

28.

Text - Anyway, so back to Uncle Bob and the video, Uncle Bob went out and actually found and arrested the robber. That's right, the guy who looked kinda like Bigfoot on VHS was caught, and he didn't look like Bigfoot at all, as I suspected. This was argued by his lawyer in court. They won. I laughed so fucking hard I think I shat my pants, right there on the wooden religious pews of the county courthouse. This, I knew, was going to be worth posting to the internet once someone would please inven

29.

Text - Anyway, hicks in Western Washington State are a real different breed of shitbags. There is no coincidence that, if your mouth is full of gross chewing tobacco, "Bigfoot" sounds kinda like "bigot". Oh, l'm not white, by the way. I guess I should mention that. Fuck it. And I want to mention this point because of one detail: A lot of people's Bigfoot stories boil down to, at their essence, "I saw a non-white guy in the woods." There is a very good chance that someone out there believes they

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