Mannequin News

I was standing motionless in the corner of the tool shop facing the door, as I had done many times before.  It was a busy Saturday morning and the shop was full of customers. All the staff were occupied serving customers at the counter at the other end of the shop.

About mid morning, I notice two guys come into the shop, both looking quite nervous and shifty. Normally I would have winked or moved when they walked passed, but I decided to remain absolutely rigid to see what these two were up to.

One of them was hovering around the door, while the other was walking round the shop; he did a few circuits and on one of them came up to me and gave me the once over. I held my breath and didn’t move a muscle for what seemed like ages. After examining me closely, he smiled to himself; Somehow I knew that I had not given the game away and he thought that I was a real mannequin. He did a couple more circuits, examining what was on display in the shop while regularly looking over at the staff to see if they had noticed him, which they still hadn’t. His confidence seemed to increase moment by moment.

Eventually he homed in on a pile of boxes in the centre of the shop; These boxes, from what I could see, contained cordless drills and all famous brand names, so not cheap.

He then knelt down and started sorting through the boxes, either moving one to a right hand pile or a left hand pile (What I later learned was that most of the boxes were empty and he was feeling the weight to determine which boxes actually had drills In them).

After he had two boxes the right hand pile, he proceeded to look over at his mate, who was still loitering by the door. This seemed to be some sort of signal and the mate very quickly left the shop but continued to hold the door open while standing outside the shop. The shop staff still hadn't noticed what was going on.

At this point I knew what was about to happen. Within a second, the guy had grabbed the two full drill boxes and had started running towards the open door. For a few milliseconds I was in a dilemma, should I do something about this? and then reveal myself to the customers. But as this was happening I knew it was wrong and automatic pilot took over.

I leapt over the boxes on the floor and grabbed the two from the guy was trying to leave with. He turned round, and I boomed at him "I'll take those". He froze in horror at what had just happened; the mannequin he had seen earlier in the corner of the shop, had come to life and was standing behind him. In his stunned state he let go of the boxes and was dragged out of the shop backwards by his mate, leaving me holding them and the rest of the shop looking on in amazement as to what had just happened.

The shop staff were really pleased that the would-be thieves had had their plot foiled.

So, living Human Mannequins better than shop security guards?

well more entertaining anyway!