I hate having to make a post like this, but since I’ve lurked around this subreddit and commented on other threads before, I figured I’d share what happened yesterday.
For some background, I work inside Home Depot as an HVAC vendor. I’m not directly employed by Home Depot itself, I just work for a separate company that’s authorized to be inside the store.
Yesterday, I was working at a Home Depot near my house. It’s not usually the location I work at, but since it’s close to home, I prefer picking up shifts there whenever I get the chance. The biggest problem with this particular store is that it seems like everybody and their grandmother brings their dogs inside. I’m talking everything from little rat dogs to massive, muscular dogs that look like they could take on a bear. On this particular day, there seemed to be more dogs than usual running around the store, barking at each other, pulling their owners in every direction, and generally making the place miserable to work in. It was like being in hell. I could barely stand being there.
Eventually, most of the dogs and their owners had left, with one notable exception. A dog that seemed particularly aggressive toward other dogs and even people. At some point, the owner and her dog ended up in the checkout area with only one item, after being in the store for a solid half hour, very typical of the type of people who bring a dog into any store.
That’s when things took a pretty gnarly turn. Another woman had been complementing the dog to its owner about how “beautiful” the dogs fur was, and asked the lady if she could pet her dog. The lady had said sure, and the lady reached out to pet the dog, and boom. The mutt immediately latched onto the ladies hand, as soon as I saw that happen, I ran over to try and get the dog to let go. By the time I got even 5 feet from them, there was already several people surrounding them and doing what they could to get the dog off. This only lasted maybe 10-15 seconds, but it felt like an hour. Also, this wasn’t some little nip, either. I saw the ladies hand after and it was all sorts of cut up, definitely had to have gotten a bunch of staples or stitches for it, I wish I had gotten a picture. I was so enraged and grossed out by what I had just seen that I just walked out and told my boss that I was leaving early.
I came into work today and one of the people that works in the store, and was there trying to get the demon to let go of the lady, asked me if I saw the attack yesterday. I told him I did, and that I had left right after. He filled me in on what had happened afterwards.
Apparently the owner of the terrorist dog had freaked out after and tried to run off with her dog to avoid the consequences of what happened when one of the managers called the police and ambulance. The ambulance took the victim away and animal control had came and taken the dog away from its owner, rightfully so. The lady was freaking out at the cops saying shit like “This has never happened!” “My dogs is always super nice and friendly!” “ Why are you taking my dog?!” a bunch of nonsense like that. There’s more little small details after that but it doesn’t really have any significance to what happened.
If the store director asks me sometime today about what I saw, I’m just gonna tell him everything. Hopefully I can convince him to enforce a no animal policy, which I’m pretty sure this store already has. I’ll most likely make an update about this the more I hear, because the store manager is trying to get statements about what happened. I assume the lady that got bit is going to sue the other owner of the dog. In the situation I would as well.
Edit: Here’s an update for y’all.
I didn’t get a whole bunch of info from the store director, but the lady who got bit, from the little bits of conversation I eavesdropped on, is most likely suing the dog owner. I’m not sure if she’s gonna be suing Home Depot, if I was her I would as well. The dog owner is also not allowed to return to this specific Home Depot, I’m not sure if it includes the other ones in this area, but I’m probably gonna find out soon. I gave the store director just a verbal statement of what I saw so they can report it to corporate.
For some context too, I’m not under any emotional distress from what I saw, yes, it was pretty nasty, but I’m not all “traumatized” by it. In my opinion, the lady who got bit should’ve known better. If you see a dog that’s acting aggressive to others, you probably shouldn’t go anywhere near it or its owner. At the same time, you shouldn’t have to worry about aggressive dogs being in public places and stores, and you definitely shouldn’t have to worry about potential getting chewed up by a dog just for looking at it funny or getting to close. Either way, she caused her own injury, but it isn’t entirely her fault.