The Attack of the ACs

ACs is shorthand for "Anal Cavities", the PG way of describing two women whose antics I witnessed at the Mission Viejo Mall last night. My daughter was getting new glasses and whenever I go to the mall with the ladies in the house I usually bring a book and find a comfy spot to sit and read. The Mission Viejo Mall has lots of nice cushy chairs that are perfect for that activity.

I was sitting on the second floor at one end of the mall (right in front of the jewelry store that was robbed in March). There is a security guard posted down there all the time now since the robbery and shooting, and as I read I heard him say "No, no, pick those up!", directed at a group of four people who were walking away from us in front of the Abercrombie & Fitch teen porn shop. There were a couple of yellow warning signs in front of the store that had been apparently knocked down by a kid in the group. Things got interesting pretty fast.

There were two women with the kids. I'm not sure their relationship, but they immediately started yelling at the guard as the kid picked up the signs. They acted like he had just shot their dog. The reaction was totally uncalled for and way out-of-control. The guard did his best to walk away peacefully and they went on their way, fuming all the while. At that point they earned the "AC" nickname. If it had ended there I never would have mentioned it on the blog.

However, about 10 or 15 minutes later the ACs came back and demanded the guard's name, which he provided quite politely. Here's where it got good. As the ACs walked past those same warning signs THEY PURPOSELY KNOCKED THEM DOWN, making sure the guard saw them do it! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The guard took off down there and for the next few minutes all three of them were yelling at each other. Another guard finally intervened and got the ACs out of the area. When the first guard came back by me I volunteered my name and phone number in case he needed a witness to defend him to his boss. He didn't do anything out-of-line at all - the ACs were, well ...ACs.

They later went and complained to the mall's Security Director, and so far I haven't heard from anybody, but maybe they'll read this post. The guy doesn't deserve to get in trouble because some idiots can't control themselves.

It reminded me of something that happened 15 or 20 years ago in the post office right next to the mall. I witnessed another customer going nuts over nothing and yelling at a postal clerk who hadn't done anything wrong. The clerk became quite upset and had to leave the counter. I felt sorry for the girl, so when I got back to my office I wrote a quick letter to the postmaster explaining what I saw and defending the postal clerk. A few days later I got a letter from the postmaster thanking me for letting him know what had happened and taking the time to defend the clerk.

As someone who has spent a fair amount of time working with customers, I don't care what the axiom states - the customer is not always right. Just as I would hate to be treated unfairly by a customer, I hate to see someone else get in trouble for fights they didn't start.

ACs need to be stopped.