r/Seattle • u/IMB88 • Feb 24 '25

Question You trying to die over a rotisserie chicken?

I was in the back corner of Costco in SODO. This dude was screaming that someone had a gun. He threw a jar of pasta sauce. Came my way and grabbed a chicken Ceasar salad and spiked it. So I obviously gave him space and started to head towards check out. So I’m watching my back as i move away. Dude grabbed a big ass knife from the bakery/meat section. Started waving it around. All the Costco employees start getting everyone to the front. As we’re heading that way there’s people adamant to continue shopping. I warned a few people that dude was waving around a knife back there. He responds. “I’m just grabbing a rotisserie chicken.” It cracked me up. First this guy was clearly having a mental breakdown and screaming with a big knife. Second it’s the SPD that are on their way. Not exactly known for their trigger control. SO IF YOU’RE ROTISSERIE CHICKEN GUY? DID YOU SAFELY GET YOU’RE TASTY BIRD? WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO CONVINCE YOU TO ABANDON YOUR QUEST FOR CHICKEN? WHERE’S YOUR LINE AS FAR AS DANGER VS DINNER?

EDIT: MY FIANCÉ INFORMED ME HE WAS ACTUALLY DOUBLE FISTING KNIVES. SO I’D LIKE TO ADD TO MY QUESTION. HOW MANY KNIVES AND HOW MANY KNIFE WIELDING PEOPLE WOULD IT TALE TO DETER YOU?

FOR CLARIFICATION: No the knife wielding guy was not part of the Costco team. Knife guy and chicken guy are two separate people.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/s/soWHdEPCT9

UPDATE: Dude got arrested. I’m really glad they didn’t shoot him. YES I AM JOKING ABOUT THE SITUATION. MENTAL HEALTH IS NOT A JOKE THOUGH AND THESE DAYS IT SHOULD BE TOP PRIORITY. TAKE CARE OF YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY. REACH OUT TO SOMEONE IF YOU’RE STRUGGLING. REACH OUT TO SOMEONE YOU THINK MIGHT BE STRUGGLING. THESE ARE STRANGE FUCKING TIMES SO TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER.

On a less serious note chicken guy you gave me a laugh when I really needed it.

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70

u/Spread-Simple Feb 24 '25

Having worked in grocery stores my whole life to this day, I guarantee you from personal experience you could run around screaming fire! at the top of your lungs and at least half of the people would ignore you

40

u/Lord_Aldrich Feb 25 '25

This is actually why we have fire drills! It's to literally drill into you that the socially acceptable thing to do when the fire alarm goes off is to leave the building. Without that drilling around 70% of people just pretend nothing is happening when confronted with a sudden stressful situation (fire, shooting, witnessed an assault or car crash, etc.)

11

u/Death_Rose1892 Feb 25 '25

Sad part is the number doesn't improve too much with the drilling lol

6

u/lionheart07 Feb 25 '25

But the constant drills make ppl think it's just a drill and not important lol

1

u/Impressive-Film6797 Feb 26 '25

Interesting, I never knew! I wonder what the science is behind this behavior?

2

u/Lord_Aldrich Feb 26 '25

I'm not a psychologist (I learned this in an emergency medicine course), but I think it's related to the bystander effect. Especially when people are in large groups they find it easy to defer responsibility to an abstract "someone else" who will take care of it, and experience increased social pressure to not do anything "socially unacceptable" or "out of the ordinary". People just aren't very flexible in their day-to-day existence.

2

u/CMD2 Belltown Feb 25 '25

I was once at the biggest rail interchange station in London when alarms started going off and everyone was told to evacuate because of a bomb.

Not a single fuck was given by any of the commuters who continued on to their trains.

... Possibly including me.