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20 security guards share stories that made them think: 'I don't get paid enough for this.'

Security guards work an incredibly high-stress job. Hyper vigilance is one of the biggest challenges of the job, as your shift can go from boring to high-action in a matter of seconds.Unlike other jobs, where a slow day is an excuse to text away, security guards are tasked with the assignment of spotting and apprehending potential danger quickly, and there&#39;s a lot of ways this can manifest. All this is to say, there are some days on the job as security that are worth the salary of a full slow month.In a popular Reddit thread, security guards shared their &quot;I don&#39;t get paid enough for this&quot; moments.1. From GreatJanitor: I was a security guard 20 years ago at a mall. So yeah, rent a cop. I was in training when my trainer mentioned the codes that we used. He said: &quot;[code] means bomb threat.&quot; He asked, &quot;What do you do if I give the code for a bomb threat?&quot;  I said &quot;I make $8/hour. You give the call for a bomb threat and my a** is out the door before everyone else.&quot; He laughed and said &quot;Good. I hate working with a**holes who want to be heroes.&quot; 2. From TallpsychNP: I was always the biggest nurse (male) on the psychiatric unit I used to work on, and I would be called upon if we had to get physical with a patient, like with restraining them from harming themselves or others.  You haven&#39;t lived until you&#39;ve had a 400 pound woman barreling down a hallway, screaming at you because you served her a food that is red in color, because &quot;I CAN&#39;T EAT RED FOODS IT&#39;S IN MY TREATMENT PLAN&quot;! When all you did was serve her the food someone else prepared for her. She ran at me full force, so I simply stepped out of the way and she careened into a table. She blamed me, but the security footage didn&#39;t lie. I felt like I deserved a bonus after that night. 3. From OiKay: I know a security guard who works in a casino. They opened up a concert bowl and one of the first shows was a Bret Michaels concert where some guy got too drunk and caused either a fight or some big scene. Whatever he did, He was held in an office until the police came because I guess he caused some damage and they were going to press charges. This kindly older lady came up to security and the manager of the space and said that that was her son and she just would like to have a word with him before the cops take him away.  So the guy left this old lady in there and she just starts beating the s**t out of him because he embarrassed her at this concert. So she ended up in her own office and also arrested. Apparently they got outside security after that for their concerts to help out because everyone that worked there was not down with dealing with that every weekend. 4. From Hansen_spiker: I had a buddy who worked as a security guard at this gallery, located about 15 minutes from town. He usually worked day shift, but volunteered to cover his buddies night shift. He asked if I could take care of his dogs that night at his place, so I did, because his house was much nicer than my little apartment. Around 2AM he calls me and he&rsquo;s full on hysterical. Swears up and down that spooky s**t was going on all night, apparently he kept seeing a humanoid figure moving in the corner of his eye. He keeps doing security sweeps and not finding anything, but he seriously feels like someone is in there with him.  I don&rsquo;t know what to tell him, so we hang up and I went back to sleep. He comes back in the morning and is in rough shape. He tells me that he thinks the gallery is haunted. Must&rsquo;ve been a seriously bad experience because he just up and quit the following day before he was supposed to go back to his normal shift. Never even went back on the property. This structure is very old, and has been repurposed many times, so who knows what he saw. 5. From Mandongopeepeepoopoo: Prior to my transition to doctorate school, I was a security manager at store. Drug addicts come and go quite often and would lay their tents underneath out palm tree. It was smart because it concealed their tents and belongings from the road. One day, the owner was walking the grounds and found the tent. I was called upon to remove them from the premise and clean the area. The amount of needles, blood related products, s**t, and more s**t I could ever deal with. They were using the palm tree shavings to wipe their arseholes, smearing the poop on the store walls, planted marijuana with poop circling it (for fertilizer?) and more s**t (the one that comes from the bootyhole).  That night, our store got broken into and I had to respond. The ransacked the place and took a fat sh*t in the toilet (thankfully). However, the toilet was clogged beyond belief. It flooded the whole system and floors. S**t was smeared on the walls and mirrors of the bathroom. I had to clean it all up.  Plumbing was called that morning and plumbing said they screwed the tubes. It wasn&#39;t paper but clothing that they shoved down the pipes. It got down as far as two feet. I didn&#39;t get a raise. Proceeded to use my two weeks paid vacation plus four sick days in a row and subsequently quitting. 6. From oisir: I work private security at a fab building, but typically end up at the front desk as reception. I had a man call in, going off on me about how the company I&#39;m contracted to was screwing over their investors and we should be ashamed of ourselves, etc. etc. etc. Like, dude. I don&#39;t actually work here? I&#39;m literally just the schmuck at the front desk. Chill your tits.  Then there was the lady who wanted insider trading tips... Seriously. Do not get paid enough for all the BS I have to go through as the front desk. 7. From AnchorBuddy: Stoners smoking in the parking garage of the mall I used to be a seasonal guard at. I was in my early 20s and smoked myself, the security chief was an ex cop who was on a constant power trip and I knew he&#39;d try to get them charged so I just walked up to them and said hey I don&#39;t care but my boss does and we can smell it all over the garage.  Usually people left and were out the dollar or 2 for the underground parking ticket but I don&#39;t blame them considering they probably could have been found with the camera footage if the chief was motivated, but overall unless someone was threatening/endangering others or visibly stealing s**t I had no interest in policing people&#39;s lifestyles. They also told us to keep homeless people away from the mall (it occupied an entire central downtown block) but I just told them to stick to the side walls away from entrances so no one else would force them away. Didn&#39;t kick anyone out unless they were begging inside the mall. 8. From wickedblight: We got a bunch of new responsibilities with COVID like checking everyone&#39;s temp when they come into the building. We did not receive compensation for these new duties and the boss basically sent out an email saying &quot;Smile or leave&quot;, well losing health insurance during a plague isn&#39;t great so we&#39;re all stuck here. 9. From rtschellinger89: Does bouncer count? About 10 years ago I was working at this night club. Around 10:30pm a very heavy set women in a skirt came in and sat right next to the dance floor. She sat there until 3am when we closed. When the lights came on, she stood up and leaked a substantial amount period blood all over the dance floor. 10. From Detroitbeardguy: For a short stint I work for a security company. We were working the Detroit Hoedown and towards the end of the shift a saw about five of my colleagues running in one direction as my walkie talkie started blaring about a fight breaking out...I decided &quot;nope&quot; I&#39;m staying put. Not getting in a fight for minimum wage. 11. From CannibalHarpy: This was a few years back, most of my job entailed sitting at a desk and ensuring people who came into the condos signed in/had the proper ID and such. After around 9-10 pm the doors would automatically lock and you could only enter with a swipe of your keycard. I was not, under any circumstances, allowed to let anyone in, and the boss checked the cameras so I was damn sure I kept my a** in that seat.  Usually it was just people who forgot their card and would shout at me from the door to let them in as I shrugged and went back to whatever book I was reading, assuming they&rsquo;d see the phone number posted on the door for the guy that was paid 3x my minimum wage and actually -could- open the door. But on this night around 4AM or so, I heard the most vibrant sploosh sound, like a waterfall of wet napkins tumbling over, and I looked up to see a woman, completely nude and fractured out of her f**king mind.  She was too s**tfaced to open the door on her own and kept hitting the door with her card (how she had it given she was bare ass I have no idea) and the splooshing sound was coming from her repeatedly vomiting on the door/ground/bushes. Eventually she passed out on the ground and I called the non-emergency number to do...something...about her. Eventually they found a pizza box and put it on her and kind of scuttled away. When my boss showed up and gave me s**t for not letting her in, I think I gave up on life and quit shortly thereafter.  The bonus joke is she didn&rsquo;t even live in our complex and she was swiping a credit card, not our door access cards, so I would&rsquo;ve been in even deeper s**t if I&rsquo;d let her in anyway. 12. From ProbablyBait: A previous coworker found this supposedly homeless guy in a stairwell asleep and tried to tell him to leave since it was privately owned property. The man attacked her when he found out he wasn&#39;t going to have his way and stay. She&#39;s not that tall and the guy was easily 6&#39;2 and was beating the f**k out of her until she managed to run away (it was an unarmed post since we worked around a bunch of suits and the contract didn&#39;t want their clients to feel intimated by us) and he was chasing her until she got to the break room. She managed to grab a butter knife of all things to defend herself with and when he continued to try and attack she ended up stabbing him and puncturing his liver. Later found out he died and she lost her job but due to ample evidence from cameras she never got into any trouble legally due to obvious self-defense. 13. From nuboots: I worked for a security firm. I watched a great video once of a guard that had to walk a patrol through a parking lot that had a goose nest in it. Pretty sure that guard was 100% done after that. 14. From Negerliefhebber: Busting shoplifters and then have a crowd form around me accusing me of profiling. 15. From Educational_Ad3101: Anything that puts your personal safety at risk. Minimum wage work. We are not paid enough to risk an injury as severe as a paper cut let alone loss of life. Yes there are those that compensate for insecurities by pushing forward into situations best left to them. I am all for it. Those insecure ones are the front line and I support them.  Even doing personal protection you are not paid enough. The only issue with that is occasionally you are in a situation where both your safety and your clients become one. But don&rsquo;t listen to the lies kids. I put out fires occasionally but won&rsquo;t risk life and limb for that money. 16. From Spidermanmanspider: A friend&rsquo;s dad worked security at the arena near me. There was a metal band playing there in the 2000s, I think it might have been Korn? Well, anyway, this band is playing, and an unconscious girl is crowd surfed over the barrier and into security dude&rsquo;s arms. She&rsquo;s cracked her head a bit and has blood dripping down her face. Dude is about to hand her off to the paramedics when she regains consciousness, goes batsh*t crazy and tries to accuse him of molesting her, ends up punching him, before passing back out again. 17. From Clashdrew: I work grave shift at a medical school, so pretty much nothing but watching cameras. We have two buildings next door with the same company so on rare occasions there&rsquo;s an issue in those, I get a call from dispatch to check it out since they&rsquo;re unmanned. Once I got a call to kick a homeless person out of the underground garage, so I grab my weak flashlight and head next door and hop in the elevator. My dispatcher only told me he saw someone near the stairwell door, so when I get out and walk over I&rsquo;m confused because no one&rsquo;s there.  I call him on our work cell and he then tells me &ldquo;Oh I think they went into that area where the furniture is. By the way I think I saw more than one.&rdquo; So on the lowest level they have a bunch of random crap, desks, construction equipment, etc. it&rsquo;s very dark and walking in there reduces visibility severely since most of the junk is close to my shoulder. No way I&rsquo;m walking in there winding through stuff when anyone could surprise me at any time. I called back and said it looks like they already left and booed out. 18. From c127726: My dad is a security guard and one night he was alone in the building (it didn&#39;t need much security because there is no cash). He sees someone at the vending machine, that person sees my dad and runs off into container area. It&#39;s dark and it looked like he had a gun, so my father follows him carefully. The guy climbs on a container to try and get over the fence, but that doesn&#39;t work. As he sees my father he charges at him with the shining object in his hand my father gives a push against the containers bringing him off balance - causing him to fall. Later my dad discovered the object in the guy&#39;s hand was a screwdriver and he broke into kinda theater to rob a vending machine. 19. From nightmareonmystreet1: I was working a run-down mall which was basically a long hallway. Some douchebag decided to rip off a few grand in jewels from a Kays or Zales something like that. For whatever reason he decided to try to bowl me over as he attempted to exit said mall/hallway.  Honestly if I had seen him coming my 6.50 an hour wasn&#39;t worth dealing with that s**t but as he extended his arms out to shove me out of the way I ducked extended my arm and watched him trip and sail head first into a wall. Store manager was on his heels and started beating the s**t out of the guy while dragging him back to the store asking me to assist.  &quot;Nah man I don&#39;t get paid enough for that s**t&quot; was and is my answer by the time the cops came and took my statement my boss was there screaming at me for not assisting the manager in apprehending the suspect. No bill, I&#39;m not a cop nor a employee of that store you&#39;re lucky I chop blocked him as it is.  I quit on the spot wasn&#39;t worth the bulls**t. Found a better paying less insane security job working for the government shortly after. 20. From d3adandbr0k3n: I was working at an apartment complex as a security guard, it made no sense as to why they had security in the first place, but they had a drive-in gate and a walk-in gate and an exit gate. Residents had to make a call to the guard house to let us know what the guest name is and what car they are driving in. We had to leave the guard shack and actually go to the window of the car to check IDs.  The guard house windows were bullet-proof, the walls made out of wood, and the guard shifts were 5AM to 3PM, 3PM to 11PM. and no one there from 11PM to 5AM, meaning the gates stayed open the entire time through this.  I had a guy pull a gun out on me when I was at the passenger window. The guy in the passenger seat stuck his arm out with a gun. I grabbed his arm and put all my weight on it bending it backwards against the door frame basically breaking his elbow by bending it downwards. after the police came. The guy is on the ground screaming in pain, his buddy screaming and freaking out, it turned out to be a lighter in the shape of a gun.  But there were also other things leading up to me saying &quot;f**k it, I am done.&quot; Like this guy jumping the back of the fence on the other side of the building, and hiding from the police. People walking in the gate who weren&#39;t supposed to be there, because the gate was too slow to close. People giving fake IDs and pretending its a real ID. The list goes on, but the gun being pulled on me was enough.  To top it off, they didn&#39;t give us any mace, I wasn&#39;t allowed to have a taser or anything else. According to the manager of the apartment they were going to fire me, because I broke the guy&#39;s arm, even though it was self-defense. glad I walked off from there. 