I never held emotion in the palm of my hand or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree

I know I've written a lot about my second job at the movie theater, and sometimes I've made it look bad. I actually enjoy the job 99.9% of the time. Then there are the rare times when it becomes frustrating. Yesterday was one of those times.

Just to complete the week on my exercise, I ran for 2.56 miles in 30 minutes yesterday morning before getting to the movie theater at 2 pm. That was 5 times running in the week. Good for me, eh? Then I went to work.

The first 90 minutes went swimmingly. The usual cleaning theaters, straitening things and catching people stealing movies. Then I went to Theater 2 to clean up. I saw three people, two women and a man, sitting at the top row as the movie credits ended. I thought nothing of it. I sat down in the corner by theater 5. I saw these three people walk past the lobby and keep walking towards the other theaters.

After a few moments, I saw the two women walk back up the hallway to the concession stand to get free refills on their jumbo popcorn and jumbo drinks. At that point I figured they dropped the guy off at another movie, so I walked to Theater 11 and stood in front to check their tickets.

After a few minutes, I saw them turn the corner. The older woman had her jumbo popcorn and drink on one of the cardboard trays. As they approached me, I asked for their tickets. Without slowing down, the older woman said to me "We threw them away," and walked around me. I stepped back quickly and stood in front of them and said "I need to see your tickets to get into this theater."

The younger woman said "Didn't you hear her? We threw them away," and again they both walked around me.

I went around them again and stepped in front of them - again. I said in my sternest voice "I need to see your ticket to get into this movie."

The older woman shoved the tray into my chest, pushed me out of the way with it and said "I told you we threw them away and you can't see them." and walked down the aisle and walked up the stairs. I want to point out that the movie had been running for about 25 minutes at this time and there were a fair amount of people watching the movie.

I gathered myself and walked up the steps to the top, where they were sitting. I took out my flashlight and shone it down and asked for their tickets. The younger woman looked at me and with a sneer said "Can't you hear, they got thrown away and so we can't show them to you."

The older woman said "Are you security?"

I shone the light on the theater's emblem on my shirt and said "I work here and I am asking for your tickets, and if you don't have them you have to leave."

The older woman looked at me and said "You are an usher. Go clean another theater."

I will say that the man that was with them never looked away from the movie and acknowledged me.

I left and had my manager come in and talk to her. The woman refused to leave even when the manager told them to leave.

The manager had to call the police, and it even took the police almost five minutes to get these three people out of the theater. And the first thing the older woman said was "Why did they ask us for tickets? Is it because they are prejudiced?"

There you have it - caught stealing a movie, treating an usher and manager of the theater with disrespect at best and disdain at worst, and refusing to leave the theater asked, and it all comes down to a question of race. That must be it.