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[–]mafiaking1936 309 points310 points  (28 children)

Don't see what the problem is, whenever I go in there there's already way more employees working the floor than customers anyway.

[–][deleted] 19 points20 points  (7 children)

"Do you need any help finding anything?"

No thanks :D

"Hey you need any help finding anything today?"

No thank you :)

"You looking for anything specifically today?"

No...I'm just browsing :|

"YO MY MAN YOU LOOKIN FOR SOME SICK NEW GEAR?"

... >:(

[–]exoendo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

you're more patient than me. My base level starts at :|

[–]7thhokage 3 points4 points  (2 children)

that and half of those people probably knew more about the products than the real employees

[–]ThisIsNotNate 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I mean if I was working there for just over if not minimum wage I wouldn't put in much extra effort into trying to learn more about the products than I already know

[–]laststance 6 points7 points  (0 children)

When you're at work you normally look at everything as "worst situation possible" especially in stores like Best Buy where there are some big ticket items. There has been flash mobs in the past or groups disguised as flash mobs who end up just doing a huge version of smash and grab. Sucks, but they have to be on guard for it.

[–]Errigan 69 points70 points  (6 children)

see those sweet tv's on the wall? must be a recent video.

[–][deleted] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

The xbox 360 display gave it away for me haha

[–]_stayhuman 14 points15 points  (3 children)

What about the guy with a belt clip for his monster iPod?

[–][deleted] 141 points142 points  (4 children)

"We're not going to arrest anyone for wearing a blue polo shirt". As if this needed to be said

[–][deleted] 25 points26 points  (2 children)

Best buy is the store that had someone arrested for paying in $2 bills... Never know

[–]kyu2o 147 points148 points  (30 children)

He says 80 people in like the first 10 seconds of the video, lol.

That cops response was amusing, "I'm not gonna arrest people for wearing blue polos, there's really no reason for us to be here." Like, what'd the manager think the cops were gonna come and haul off 80 people for their choice of clothing? Even if they were doing something illegal, that's a pretty tough situation. People are dumb.

[–]CupBeEmpty 107 points108 points  (17 children)

No the manager almost certainly just wanted the cops there in case people started grabbing stuff as a group or refused to leave.

I am a bit surprised so many people think it was weird to call them.

Flash robs and group smash and grabs happen.

[–]Runemaker 15 points16 points  (1 child)

People think its weird because they have context. They know the crowd isn't there to steal anything, so the police presence is absurd sounding.

In the moment, as it occurred, there is no way the manager had that context, making their choice reasonable.

[–]edelsahale 18 points19 points  (5 children)

I've literally never heard of a smash-and-grab where the participants weren't all described as "youths" or 20-somethings. Wearing a uniform to a smash-and-grab is like wearing a traffic vest to a burglary.

[–]quigilark 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Look up flash 'robs', the idea is to overwhelm and confuse the store employees then use that time to steal stuff.

[–]Trigunesq 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you were a store manager, would you take the chance? If they didn't call the cops and stuff was stolen, I can't imagine it would go over well with corporate. The manager did the right thing calling the police and the cops did the right thing by doing nothing.

[–]Dystopiq 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am choosing a dvd for tonight

[–]Mharbles 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, in developing countries or shitty neighborhoods.

[–]shoziku 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But if they had called the fashion police the employees would also get arrested.

[–]whozurdaddy 13 points14 points  (4 children)

cool! next, do it at a Victoria's Secret!

[–]yParticle 13 points14 points  (0 children)

"Yeah, I'm just waiting for my wife."

So your wife's changing?

"Oh, I'm not married."

[–]CupBeEmpty 21 points22 points  (1 child)

Someone watched the Thomas Crown Affair recently.

Perfect heist. Someone definitely left with an XBox or something. Or put an XBox back without anyone knowing.

[–]l3ane 15 points16 points  (2 children)

"check every bag and purse that leaves the store" Yeah, that's not how that works. They have zero right to look through your things if they haven't witnessed you take anything.

[–]PurpleKrill 3 points4 points  (1 child)

At a certain pet store, the policy is now that even if we know you've stolen something, there is nothing we can do about it. Basically it's down to a verbal warning to not come back but that doesn't stop anyone.

We have a man who comes in every week, grabs a bag of dog food from the shelf and returns it at the check out.

[–]xMYTHIKx 2 points3 points  (0 children)

80 people.

[–]CoachBrickma 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Those tube TVs though..

[–]liarandathief 9 points10 points  (5 children)

not one of their better ones.

[–]Anonymoustard 5 points6 points  (4 children)

yeah, they did a similar one to Abecrombie & Fitch when they sent ordinary shirtless men into the store. At the time (maybe still) the salesmen were all shirtless men with highly athletic physiques. It was brave, funny and made a point. This was kinda boring.

[–]I_bape_rats 9 points10 points  (3 children)

At the time (maybe still) the salesmen were all shirtless men with highly athletic physiques

Uhhh......

[–]GOA_AMD65 6 points7 points  (2 children)

Unless A&F went crazy at the end of their run, they never did that.

[–]spectrehawntineurope 9 points10 points  (9 children)

Does the US not have a non-emergency number for the police? I often see people calling 911 for the most mundane things they need the police for. Unless it's an emergency (which this absolutely wasn't) then they shouldn't be contacting the police through an emergency number.

[–]Piratedan200 22 points23 points  (0 children)

All local police departments have a non-emergency number, but it's a normal 7-digit number, so most people don't know theirs.

[–]Theklassklown286 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We do depending on the area but no one ever knows it

[–]rm78noir 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And they were still better at the job than the people actually paid to do the job.

[–]pm_me_your_tanlinez 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This has got to be sponsored by Amazon!

[–]trueplayer31 16 points17 points  (6 children)

Back when pranks were harmless fun.

[–]magisama 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So many people took part. Probably it was difficult to collect all of them. Very impressive.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (9 children)

Is it really "improv" if you plan the whole event in advance?

[–]forensic_freak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Improv Everywhere" with perfectly choreographed dance numbers. This ain't no 80s movie

[–]seanspotatobusiness 0 points1 point  (7 children)

The date and time of an improv doesn't have to be improvised. In fact, that could work very badly when such an event requires the attendance of multiple people.

[–][deleted] 20 points21 points  (13 children)

I fucking hate improv everywhere. There's an amazing This American Life episode about a man who was a target of one of their pranks and how it really fucked with his head. Then the creator of the group comes on and basically refuses to understand that he is knowingly disrupting a social contract by doing these "ooo look at me, I'm a part of some collective art piece" and ignoring the needs or desires of people who don't want to be a part of the skit. Do this shit in theaters, not in public.

[–]heartx3jess 7 points8 points  (3 children)

Could you find a link? I'd love to watch that

[–]PairOfBearClaws 10 points11 points  (1 child)

prankee: "you fucked with my head and it made me and my band real sad."

improv everywhere guy: "no, i created something beautiful and wonderful and it made you happy!"

[–]Firewasp987 8 points9 points  (0 children)

To be honest, i dont think its that bad. Even if they aren't real fans, imrov everywhere probably gave them new fans because of the exposure

[–]LambKyle 4 points5 points  (5 children)

What did they do exactly? They don't usually have "targets" for their pranks. Most of their stuff is like "freezing in place in a mall" with a big group and shit like that. I don't see how anything like that could seriously fuck with someone's head

[–]overthemountain 5 points6 points  (2 children)

Looks like it was this prank: Best Gig Ever (not a great representation of what was going on, I wonder if they've since taken down the main video)

They showed up to some unknown bands first gig and acted as if they were all huge fans. I could see how they might see it as a good thing - I'm sure at the time the band was excited to discover all these fans but probably disappointed to realize later it was all fake.

I think the one where they go to a little league game and act like huge fans of the teams works better, as it's more absurd. The kids knew it wasn't normal and could just enjoy it.

With the band they probably thought they had real fans.

[–]Randym1982 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Though the band DID get publicity BECAUSE of the prank. So it's not all THAT bad.

[–]LambKyle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The band had people listening to their music. I'm sure a lot of the people who went, and listened to their songs a bunch of times to learn them, ended up becoming fans. And because of their video, they got huge publicity. Sure that got some people making fun of them (it's the internet, that will happen to everyone) but also got WAY more fans than they would have otherwise.

[–]bolderbagel 5 points6 points  (1 child)

This belongs in /r/madlads

[–]blizzard_man 4 points5 points  (0 children)

No, it doesn't. It's not like they think they're being edgy.

[–]0rgal0rg 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Oh my god it's Nathan Fielder with facial expressions and a bit more weight!

[–]madman1101 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean, This is great, but there's better reactions in the Cell Phone Symphony and Car Alarm Symphony, not to mention the 1860's bar was fucking perfect.

[–]wiseguy_86 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Tube TVs, what year was this?!

[–]Garconanokin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That one Best Buy employee was very quick to profile. Interesting.

[–]killrwr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Call 911! we're gonna need the fashion police for this one

[–]everno99 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I can't stand best buy,

bought a broken fan from them and they wouldn't take it back.

[–]Bdoggs87 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would have gotten a basket full of items and of I got kicked out, I would have just handed it to them.

[–]itsintentional 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow, I wish I was apart of this ahha

[–]TalShar 3 points4 points  (2 children)

This could have been easily handled by the staff with a PA message consisting of "Best Buy would like to remind our shoppers that all Best Buy employees wear Best Buy nametags. That guy over there in the blue polo might not know about all the features of the new Samsung Galacticus X387 (on sale now!), but all nametag-wearing Best Buy associates can tell you anything you want to know about it!"

Short, to the point, lets the pranksters know they've been noticed, and helps mitigate any confusion while communicating good humor.

Instead these dimwits called the police.

[–]Monkeymonkey27 3 points4 points  (0 children)

They didnt know it was a prank. It could have been a robbery

[–]traxter 2 points3 points  (6 children)

Is it really improv if it's a planned prank?

[–]whm1971 3 points4 points  (3 children)

+1 for making me think about this question way to long. Good one.

[–]Anyone_2016 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. Improv involves creating a situation that has high potential to be funny and then do something unscripted which (hopefully) is funny.

[–]sxbennett 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean typically improv starts with a situation to set it up, there's just no script. So I guess the improv is their interaction with the people in the store, not the fact that they're all going to the store dressed like that.

[–]Market0 1 point2 points  (6 children)

I don't mind innocent pranks, which this looks like not much was affected, but I guarantee you that customers gave the actual employee's hell after this. I bet the managers gave hell and got hell from their bosses as well.

I worked these jobs and it isn't worth it. Let's just not fuck with minimum-wage-ish workers, yeah?

[–]iamaquantumcomputer1 0 points1 point  (4 children)

I bet the managers gave hell and got hell from their bosses as well.

Why?

[–]TallMime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The original good guy pranks

[–]konbon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

New Title: "How to lose business by being a dick."

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

TIL: Best Buy employees have no sense of humour.

[–]makenzie71 2 points3 points  (3 children)

As a store owner/employee that would be annoying as fuck...and as a customer that would be annoying as fuck. It seriously wasted a lot of peoples' time who were just trying to get stuff done.

[–]Gullex2 3 points4 points  (9 children)

"Check every bag and purse going out the door"

Lol, no manager man, you're not checking my bag.

[–]ideed1t 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that one guy in the front didnt get the memo about the shade of blue. He went Aqua blue.

[–]thatgoodfeelin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

sour.

[–]devinylcountdown 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I went into Target with a red polo and khakis once. I was approached several times before I realized what I had done.

[–]2time_nutter-butter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like some Oceans 11 shit is going on here.🤔 Better check the inventory fast, those 60inch tv's don't weight much anymore

[–]tjboom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What year was this? those box tv's look old af!

[–]renikulous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was hoping to see more of santa.

[–]isoent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's the same group that rides the subway without pants as a yearly thing.

[–]TheHydrogen401 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Now do this with Target

[–]Klin24 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gap prank is better.

[–]Tanhausergates 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Huh, interesting. There were two different geek squads in the same store acting independently.

[–]Pustuli0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As I recall getting the cops called was an expected reaction, as the original inspiration was a couple of publicized incidents where BB employees called the cops over minor misunderstandings with customers.

EDIT: Like this one

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you should call the boys in blue lol

[–]DerpThePoorlyEndowed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

God I hope this was someone's first day working at that location.

[–]sk8_birder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pretty sure I listened to an episode of This American Life by NPR about this guy, like they met up at a bar and just started wishing a random guy happy birthday and making up stories about how they new him. It was pretty interesting, I'll have to dig around for a link. Here we go: https://m.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/286/mind-games

[–]ticoesteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What! No tasers?!

[–]PUMKIN81 0 points1 point  (0 children)

George RR Martin will do anything to get out of finishing those books.