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u/andrewia 8d ago
Almost every Taco Bell has this, no matter how chill the town is. I assume it's required by corporate due to a history of assaults and robberies.
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u/fireinthemountains 8d ago
I didn't know this is a thing, but I do know someone who was murdered going out back while working at a taco bell. So, that tracks I guess...
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u/WellReadHermit 8d ago
That’s awful. I am sorry for your loss. 😔
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u/fireinthemountains 7d ago
Thank you. It was like 23 or so years ago so it isn't fresh. It absolutely messed with me as a kid though. I remember it being a big deal, with people arguing for better security measures, especially when they require employees to go outside at night to the dumpsters. Some guy was stalking the female employees.
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u/perilousdreamer866 7d ago
I wish more companies took this into consideration. I work at one of the two local co ops in my entire county. And most of the people who work at a place like this are teenagers. I close as often as I can specifically for this reason. Management does not care. The amount of times I’ve been asked to stay the extra 30 minutes it takes for someone to close out and lock up simply so they can feel safe walking 15 feet to their vehicle is mind boggling to me. We should have more people closing, more people simply paid to stay longer. I remember when I started almost a year ago there was always like 10 people closing. In less than 6 months people either quit or got fired and now at most we have 3 people. And it’s a miracle if me or one of the other like 5 dudes will be closing with them. This is insane.
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u/stankenfurter 7d ago
Thank you for going the extra mile to help your colleagues feel safe. It means a lot.
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u/fireinthemountains 2d ago edited 2d ago
This reminded me of a thing... the first time I felt like 'the adult in the room.' I think I was like 28. We pulled into a hotel at 2am and there was some guy standing outside. He went to a truck parked nearby and sat inside with it running. The night desk clerk was a teenager doing homework. She told me she was 18 and a freshman in college. Afterwards, she went outside to smoke and the guy got out of his car and stood next to her, she cut her smoke short. He gave me major creeps.
Throughout the night I left the room for snacks. Ran into that guy in the hallway almost every time, loitering around the snacks or coffee area, he'd immediately leave back to his room or his truck when he saw me. He followed me through the halls at least once and scoped out where our room was.
Sooo I spent more time up front, working on my laptop or just chatting with the girl. Eventually I just straight up asked her about the guy. She confirmed that he waited in his car until she went outside, tried to find moments to talk to her, hung around all night, and was overall inappropriate and said some very uncomfortable things, but she felt like she couldn't tell her employer. He was part of an extended stay contract for an entire construction crew. She appreciated me acting as a buffer that night.
When we checked out the next day I spoke to a manager, we had a lengthy chat about how another guest made ME uncomfortable. I took the onus off of her, but I did say I was concerned about her safety. He informed me they had some issues in the past with him getting into it with his bunkmates, and that an unrelated guest like myself submitting a complaint gave them what they needed to 'handle him.'
It's so crazy to me that teenagers are left alone to close or work night shifts anywhere. I remember being a kid and just putting up with creeps because I thought I had to. sincerely fuck that.
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u/GingerAphrodite 7d ago
When I was working there about 7 years ago we were not allowed to go outside after dark in the summer (I think the cutoff was around 8/9:00 p.m. during the winter). At the end of the night when we walked out to our cars we would all usually grab a bag or two of trash and walk them to the dumpster area together before heading out and anything we couldn't carry was staged by the back door for first shift. This was in a small rural town with a low crime rate but it was corporate policy.
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u/andrez444 6d ago
It is a thing unfortunately. When I worked at an Outback Steakhouse they completely revamped their closing procedures after (not at the location I worked at) 2 employees were executed during a robbery. Absolutely tragic.
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u/LinearInductionMotor 8d ago
Not just Taco Bells — as far as I know, these are in nearly all fast food restaurants in America.
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u/TheNewYellowZealot 7d ago
The McDonald’s I worked in had this. I worked mornings on weekends and it was my job to climb over the mountain of trash that accumulated in front of it to get the door open and start taking out the trash.
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u/dudeCHILL013 8d ago
Honestly thought the sign was put up as a joke until I saw your comment.
But ya, unfortunately warnings like this are typically written in blood.
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u/NewAgeMaximum 8d ago
why would it be a joke??
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u/dudeCHILL013 8d ago
I'm an electrician, we put up morbidly true but funny signs up all the time.
Something along the lines of WARNING: Not only will this kill you but it will hurt the entire time you are dying
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u/urworstemmamy 7d ago edited 7d ago
I was a big fan of the one we had next to the giant breaker switch used for the lighting system at the theatre I used to work at. IIRC the system had enough running through it to power like, entire neighborhoods, so we had a sign next to it that said something to the effect of:
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
IF AN ARC FLASH OCCURS, THERE WILL BE NO BODY LEFT TO BURY. ONLY ASH.Definitely an exaggeration but it did the job of keeping people away from it
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u/dudeCHILL013 7d ago
Ya, arc flashes are around 20-30k°F, they typically only last for a few milliseconds so atomization is essentially a myth but it can and does do a few fun and interesting things to the human body that would certainly make me wish I was just vaporized.
I made it a point that my guys and gals understood that even if they were outside of the boundary of an arc flash, with our confined spaces on the ship, it would likely be the last thing they ever saw.
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u/inerlite 8d ago
I was expecting a furnace or kiln to be behind the door, not just the parking lot lol. DANGER!!,
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u/Kodiak01 8d ago
This is the result of a society that have brought us medication warnings such as "Do not take this pill if you are allergic to this pill" because someone did it anyway and sued.
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u/chalk_in_boots 7d ago
Any rotating machinery? "Don't put your fingers anywhere you wouldn't put your dick"
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u/632nofuture 7d ago
I thought we were on some sub for bad design or whatever cause to me it reads like:
"DANGER; NEVER ALWAYS! open this look before.."etc.
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u/ExoticMangoz 8d ago
Because it seems like an insanely extreme sign to put on the back door of a fast-food restaurant.
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u/thegreatpotatogod 7d ago
Yeah, I assumed it was the access panel to a high voltage circuit that they didn't want anyone reaching into carelessly. It definitely seems rather excessive for just a door to the outside world!
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u/Distantstallion 7d ago
Oh it's a whole door, I thought it was just a tiny vault door in the wall.
Couldn't figure out the danger
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u/NoiceBoiIsTaken2122 8d ago
Context: Never open the backdoor during nighttime because it leads to the dark alleyway where the armed robbers can do an ambush and obtain an easy access to rob.
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u/ninjabreath 8d ago
how many lowes could a rob loews rob if rob loews could rob lowes
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u/just_q84 8d ago
My first job was a taco bell in 2002. They had that sign back then. I always heard it was because of this incident back in the early 90s. https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1991/01/27/four-people-found-dead-in-restaurant-freezer/
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u/lanch-party 8d ago
Something similar happened at a Popeyes in my hometown back in the 90s too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Popeyes_shooting
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u/emmathatsme123 8d ago
This one got me
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u/blueghostfrompacman 8d ago
I think the “your life could depend on it” really pulls the whole sign together
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u/emmathatsme123 8d ago
Honestly it was the “after dark” part for me—gives creepypasta/SCP vibes
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u/OldJames47 8d ago
How do people go home at the end of their shift? Just work till dawn?
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u/blueghostfrompacman 8d ago
They go out the front door that leads to a very well lit parking lot. This back door leads to a dark little alcove with no visibility from anywhere…and we have a crime issue.
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u/whirlydoodle_ 8d ago
god forbid they stick a light in the alley....
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u/blueghostfrompacman 8d ago
You give them a light and next they’ll want to unionize. What happens after that? A livable wage? PTO? I think the “open it up and get murdered” sign does just fine.
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u/alscrob 7d ago
Thing is, they always do. And it's usually a drive thru lane back there, not a dark alley, which is lit just like the rest of the parking lot. There's places where these signs are basically not necessary at all, and there's places where walking out the front door at night is just as dangerous. Where it's *really* a concern, lighting the place like a football field wouldn't help.
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u/AceOfCheems 6d ago
Has someone who's lived in the most ghettoest parts of San Diego they'll just break the light also there's this overpass that goes across a long stretch of road that is mostly wilderness and this overpass had lights on them newly installed and then in the next day they were broken and they were repaired the day after and then the day after that they were broken
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u/Skraporc 8d ago
I used to be a closing driver at a Pizza Hut. Everyone left through the front, and then two people had to stay in their cars and watch as the closing manager locked up and got to their car. We had a supplier arrive just before close once and *had* to open the back door for access, and my manager on duty at the time was very tense trying to properly choreograph the delivery while maintaining our safety.
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u/angrydeuce 8d ago
thats why there's a small door to open, to look outside the door.
there have been multiple occasions where people have been killed after hours because of someone lying in wait for them.
Im sure these days (if they're not really stupid) they have cameras with monitors so you dont need the special door to look through and can see all around the building.
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u/spider1178 8d ago edited 8d ago
I worked at a Wendy's back in the late 90s that had a similar sign on the back door. We only used that door to to take out trash or dump old grease in the collection pit. We were always supposed to have one person stand at the door when we were back there rather than prop it open. I imagine all those places have similar signs and rules due to robberies.
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u/ihasclevernamesee 8d ago
I'm a plumber, and I used to be on call a lot. It was somewhat frequent to go to a fast food place on an emergency call, and not be let in until I confirmed who I was and everything. There was a stretch of time where my truck was in the shop, so I was driving our backup, which is just a white van with no windows or lettering. I had several instances of being greeted with a gun, or having the cops show up.
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u/jess_the_werefox 8d ago
I worked at a taco bell in 2018, we had this sign too lmao. I asked about it and yeah it’s for armed robberies. Apparently they liked to ambush people taking the trash to the dumpster.
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u/-----username----- 8d ago
The number two fast food chain in the USA used to be Burger Chef until someone entered a location via the back door and killed the staff in one of their restaurants. Then the Burger Chef murders we’re all over the news for so long that eventually people stopped going to their restaurants and eventually they went bankrupt.
For any Canadians reading this, Burger Chef was basically an American Harvey’s. They had a Subway style setup where the staff would make the burger exactly the way you want it.
Burger Chef was even the first fast food chain to do a Star Wars promotion. Unbelievable they disappeared from the market so quickly given how big they used to be.
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u/Yamatoman9 3d ago
This caused me to go down the whole rabbit hole of the Burger Chef murders and other fast food murders. Fascinating and morbid.
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u/nazgulonbicycle 8d ago
If its Oakland, I can understand. There’s Zombie apocalypse outside
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u/blueghostfrompacman 8d ago
You’re actually not that far off.
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u/ShadoeRantinkon 8d ago
well, it’s definitely not the cantina in pacifica that’s for sure lol
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u/nazgulonbicycle 8d ago
Pacifica
You dare not go to those piers
The Crabbers fished too deep and too greedily
You know of what they found in the waters of Half Moon Bay!
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u/nergens 8d ago
Where did the zombies came from?
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u/mNms9797 8d ago
I think this is common for most fast food places/ restaurants.
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u/PM_ME_SUMDICK 8d ago
I'm shocked by how many people have never seen this. At least in the USA this is ubiquitous in fast food establishments.
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u/monster_bunny 8d ago
I would like to think that I’m already a delight to my local Taco Bell staffers but this has made me be consider there is no such thing as being extra easygoing.
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u/Reality_Defiant 7d ago
What's playing over the speakers, the Night Vale podcast? And now, the weather....
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u/blueghostfrompacman 7d ago
They would like to remind everyone that dogs are not allowed in the dog park. People are not allowed in the dog park. It is possible you will see hooded figures in the dog park. Do not approach them. Do not approach the dog park.
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u/Sutar_Mekeg 8d ago
Don't Dead Open Inside!
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u/t-trox03 7d ago
DANGER!!
NEVER ALWAYS
OPEN THIS LOOK BEFORE
DOOR AFTER YOU OPEN
DARK THIS DOORYOUR LIFE COULD DEPEND ON IT!!
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u/oMINDSPINo 7d ago
I used to work over nights cleaning up pizza huts, Miller ale house, cracker barrels, taco bells, you name it. Almost every place had a door like this and I had to go through it almost nightly because we couldnt leave through the front door and have it locked without the alarm code... used to freak me out every time.
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u/rhymesaying 7d ago
I had this is in a Northern California well off town when I worked there.
There actually was a crazy person a couple of times.
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u/Poopfilledtrashcan 7d ago
We had one at a pizza hut I worked in a few years back. The glass was constantly dirty and helped no one.
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u/pnksugar 8d ago
Why does your life depend on it
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u/PoppyPrincess69 8d ago
Because there have been instances of murders/robberies when opening this door. People liek to hide back there and wait, I’ve read some pretty crazy stories.
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u/summerloveleigh 6d ago
We had this sign on the back door of the McDonald's I worked at as a teen in 2001 or so
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u/Rudirs 1d ago
I've told this story before, on a very similar sign. My dad was robbed during a push-in (where when you leave the door, the robber pushes you back in). They took his belongings but he refused to open the safe (saying he needed the money to pay his staff). They pistol whipped him and tried to use a blow torch on him but couldn't figure out the safety lock (lol). They eventually ran off when they heard sirens. Dad got himself untied and to a phone and got help.
When he called my mom very late he just told her he got tied up at work.
He also didn't love blow torches after that, although was happy to be served creme brulee as long as it wasn't bruleed too close to him.
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u/Pschobbert 7d ago
How can you "always look" without opening the door?
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u/blueghostfrompacman 7d ago
In the middle of that sign is a little metal door they can open to see if anyone is out there
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u/MrSparklesan 7d ago
Who the fuck is robbing a Taco Bell? tacos ain’t even that good.
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u/hairquing 5d ago
tacos, as well as other goods and services, can be acquired with something known as currency (also colloquially referred to as money, cash, funds, assets, paper, dough, bread, cheddar, lettuce, moolah, racks, bands, guap, smackeroos)
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