A bar has a way of bringing out the best, worst, and weirdest in people. And no one sees it all quite like the bartenders working behind the counter.
So when a Redditor asked them to share the strangest things they’ve ever witnessed on the job, they had plenty to say. Ill-advised dance-offs, impromptu stripteases, wrestling matches between strangers—you name it. Find their stories below, and if any of them sound a little too familiar, well, consider it a sign to rethink that next round.
#1
Had a brief run as a summer job and once had this dude apparently try to roofie his date but seemingly grabbed the wrong drink and roofied himself instead. He collapsed suddenly and was rushed to the ER.
Image credits: Heroic-Forger
#2
West coast Canada here. I worked at a downtown pub and we had a British tourist who stayed in town for a month and came in everyday. He was probably late 60’s or early 70’s in age. He took a shine to one of our blonde waitresses. She was average looking at best. He got friendly with her and one day made her a proposition. He offered her $750k to spend the night with him. She called her bf and he gave her the green light. She went down the street and setup a bank account that could accept a large transfer from his British bank. Once the funds were confirmed deposited she went to dinner with him and went back to the hotel and did the deed and spent the night. She quit the restaurant immediately as the gossip train was crazy. Her bf and her went to Australia for a long vacation, got engaged, bought a large house and eventually got married and had kids. No idea what she does now. But that’s one of my craziest stories. I have more.
Image credits: Decent-Box5009
#3
Oh boy this one will stay with me forever. During one of the big events of the year we had a full on brawl break out in the parking lot between old dudes most of which are vets and young college aged kids, after we broke it up and got them all apart we asked what happened... the folks who started a brawl were a father and son who hadn't seen each other in a long time and both agreed to meet up and catch and introduce significant others and turns out they were both dating the same girl.
Image credits: Halycon1313
#4
I’ll spare you the stabbings, the shootings, fights, the urinating, the llamas, the constant people attempting to go behind the bar (to fight, to hug, to call the police because they were going to kill themselves), the whatever, to tell you the tale of The Costume.
It was Halloween, long ago and I was either Hermione Granger or Data. A nice man comes in, dressed in a hooded black robe, nothing too exciting, with his friend and a massive duffel bag. I assumed it was full of d***s because this is the type of bar we were. He and his friend are very pleasant, ordering dive bar margaritas and wings. We talk about Halloween and when it should get busy for the evening when the man asks if I want to see the rest of his costume. I am not phased by this as a young woman working alone because if it turns out to be his p*nis I have many large friends nearby to call and make him regret this decision. And I love a good costume.
So the man bends down to slowly unzip his duffel bag and carefully grab the contents therein. IT WAS MASSIVE BOA CONSTRICTOR, which he then attempts to hand to me over the bar.
I was so shocked I just said that was a health code violation and service animals had to be performing their tasks otherwise he needs to be back in his bag. I am also terrified; I do not trust things with too many legs or too few. They pick up on this and apologize and close out their tab, but man, that was a big snake, and I hope it had happier days after that than being carried around in a duffel bag and foisted upon unsuspecting strangers.
Image credits: thecreaturegollum
#5
Car plowed into the bar I was working in, coming all the way in, and flipping a pool table on its side. Pinned three off duty Applebee’s waitresses against the bar. No one was hurt and the woman who was driving tried to order a drink.
Image credits: Velvet_Pearll
#6
A man dressed all in denim walking in with a pet chimp. Ordered two beers. The chimp proceeds to drink hers over about 5 minutes as did the man. He thanks me and they wander away. It's an enduring regret I didn't ask what's with the chimp.
Image credits: maximumpow2
#7
A drunk girl at the bar was getting some unwanted attention. Told the guy to leave. Took a swing at me. Some other girl floored him with a bottle.
The rest of her night was on the house.
Image credits: dogsbikesandbeers
#8
This isn't the wildest thing but it always stuck with me...
One time this lady asked me for a buttery nipple. I told her I didn't have any butterscotch schnapps. Then she asked me for a butter packet like you would put on bread. Proceeded to pop her ti**ty out and butter it up right there at the bar.
"Now that's a buttery nipple!".
Image credits: entheocybe
#9
I had a drunk woman put her head down on the edge of the bar and throw up underneath. When we told her she had to leave she stood up, slipped on her own puke, slammed her head on granite bar top, and fell into her own mess. When she stood back up, she had a cartoonish sized knot on her forehead. She then smiled and asked I'm what I was doing later… I respectfully declined.
I’ve got hundreds of stories after bartending for 25ish years.. good times!
Image credits: BoozeSlinger32
#10
I saw a guy stab our bouncer in the neck with a screwdriver. It turned out this guy had previous violent felonies. Our bouncer recovered after surgery, the guy got 20 years in jail.
Image credits: insanahmainah
#11
I was bartending at a strip club and a guy had been there all night buying drinks for everyone on his tab and he was ultra annoying and really feeling himself. At the end of the night at last call he had a seizure and it was a whole thing and he was hitting his head on the tile floor. His friends were freaking out and we called the cops and paramedics and he was rushed out and conveniently had left a declined card behind. The cops came back later and told us he faked the seizure and ended up getting charges for that and not paying his tab. I have seen a lot of wild things in strip clubs in 20 years but that sticks out. It’s always the full moon people.
Image credits: moonlitcornfield
#12
I was probably 22. First week bartending at a country club that did weddings on the weekend. I was training under another bartender who’s been there for years. A group of bridesmaids come up right before all walking down the aisle and ask for the “the coolest shots we could come up with to help ease the nerves.” Senior bartender decided on ‘Flaming Dr Pepper’ shots. He lines the shots up on the bar top, lights them on fire, and tells the ladies to blow them out before drinking. One of the girls quickly turns to get her phone for a picture. Unfortunately, the amount of hairspray she had literally set her hair on fire from being in close proximity.. 5 minutes before walking down the aisle.
Image credits: Dazzling-Food9542
#13
A lightbulb fell out of the fitting, and hit a guy on the head. He thought someone had thrown it. A massive pub brawl ensued.
Image credits: Mysterious-Eye-8103
#14
Working a bar in Charlotte on a Saturday night, out front having a cigarette when I see this group of fellas (whom we had tossed 15 mins prior for being too rowdy) struggling with their one friend who was the main reason they were removed.
This man was adamant about getting back inside, and his four buddies could barely hold him back. They ended up all falling thru a chain link fence into a freshly dug pit in a construction zone across the street, and he came scrambling up on all fours like a demented spider monkey, rushed across traffic and back towards my bar.
Also outside with me was our head of security, who I will call Vance. Picture a man that is 6’3 260lbs and looks like a black Mr. Clean. Vance wasn’t paying attention to the fracas developing because he was on the phone talking to some of his employees.
The RedBull/GHB-fueled dumb**s went running straight towards the front door, and Vance was about a couple feet off to the side with his back towards the street.
What happened next was magical. Somebody hollered “Vance, look out!” And he immediately turned and unleashed the most bad**s roundhouse kick you have ever seen. Like, it would have made Chuck Norris cream his britches. Without hanging up his phone call he pivoted and launched that a*****e back towards the curb. Dude was knocked TF out, his buddies collected him and apologized and we let them GTFO before anything else happened that might require police assistance.
So what, you say? Bar fights are nothing THAT memorable if you’ve been behind the stick for many years, right?
***The next morning*** I am setting up the BloodyMary bar for the Panthers tailgate pregame b******t, when I hear this incessant knock at the front doors. Finally go to answer it and *it’s the douchebag human piñata*.
“What do you want?”
“Sir, I’m really really sorry for my behavior last night, I was out of control and I am so very sorry. But at some point last night I lost a tooth and I was hoping you either found it cleaning up or maybe I could check to see?”
Sure enough the dumb**s was missing one of his front teeth, like a bicuspid or something I don’t frickin know I’m a bartender not a dentist. I didn’t think he would find it because the altercation happened *mostly* outside, but since he *was* carried out last night by security and his friends I decided to humor him.
I let him look around the floor while I continue setting up, when I hear him choke and snort. Bending over to look had caused the tooth *which was lodged up in his sinus cavity* to work itself loose.
Y’all, Vance kicked that man so hard his tooth got stuck in his nose for 8 hours. Still one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed.
Image credits: JoeyPole
#15
8 month pregnant woman come in with her partner/husband, he orders a load of very expensive booze, gets pissed off about something and storms out. She stays, drinks ALL the booze and is super shouty and lairy then leaves, or at least we thought she did. General manager catches her on her knees in the men’s room blowing some other guy. He asks them to leave and makes the mistake of not following them. She ducks into the laundry room as she’s leaving, squats down and pisses all over the floor. This was a Michelin starred restaurant.
Image credits: Hashtagbarkeep
#16
I was a baby bartender at Red Lobster. It was a slow lunch shift and I was serving two girls who couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. I mean, I don’t think shrimp scampi is THAT sexy, but who am I to judge. At any rate, they finish their meal but excuse themselves to the bathroom right before i drop the check. They have been gone for a minute so I mention it to Barb, our “mom” server that is in her 50’s and worked at the Lob for like 20 years. She says, I’ll go find them. She pops into the restroom and immediately comes out screaming. Turns out she saw one of them on the counter and the other one having “dessert.” Why someone would decide that a Red Lobster bathroom in El Paso on a Wednesday afternoon was the perfect place to get their swerve on is beyond me. They tipped okay, though!
Image credits: Lamescrnm
#17
Used to work in a nightclub in Helsinki. Didn't witness this first hand because I was upstairs in the club, but I'll never forget the night a girl came into the ticket room downstairs, had some kind of fall out with the staff and proceeded to lift up her dress, squat right there in front of the desk and s**t on the floor. I am grateful I didn't see the deed myself and I feel so sorry for everyone who had to clean that up. It was about 10:30pm. On a Tuesday.
In all my years of working in that industry (including 10 years in Amsterdam city centre), I saw some wild wild things.
Image credits: Donnymcfarlane
#18
Butt a*s naked kid maybe 5-6 years old came in. Reactions ranged from WTF to laughter to attempts to help. Kid went straight to this lady, an every night regular, who turned out to be his mom. Apparently he hid in her car and she was too zonked on various substances to notice. Kid was naked because he had literally nothing to wear, I later learned, and their duplex apartment a few blocks away was a vermin infested Hellhole. Mom was a serious addict. Her kid following her to the bar was the impetus that led to him being taken away and her getting sent to rehab. I learned all this after the fact. But the kid walking naked into the bar was definitely among the most unexpected things I’ve ever seen.
Image credits: BlusshyQueen
#19
A dude got asked to leave so proceeded to dive on the floor, grab the bouncer by the ankles, and try bite a chunk outta his leg.
Image credits: milkandket
#20
Former bouncer. I'm walking in to set up for the night and there's a group that's paid extra to get in before things are open. There's a guest of honor sitting in a chair and a giftwrapped box maybe the size of a large microwave on the floor maybe 10 feet in front of him. I paused to watch, and a little person jumped up from under the box throwing it aside and then proceeded to strip while giving the guest of honor a lap dance. I shake my head and continue setting other stuff up.
10 minutes later I'm headed outside to help set up the door and the event is still going on. One of my coworkers walks up to the door and I say "Dude, Tommy, go inside quick, you gotta see what's going on." Tommy rushes in, and comes back out 5 minutes later saying "Damnit Fox, I can't unsee that...".
Image credits: FoxtrotSierraTango
#21
I was bartending and this guy came in and said he had just drove 19 hours from his hometown to move to Colorado and was going to get the name of the first person he met tattooed on him. I was the first person he met and he told me he was going to do this and I thought he was joking. He came back the next day with my name tattooed on his arm.
Image credits: shayryan
#22
The week bud platinum came out. I was tending bar at the Buffalo wild wings in the Atlantic terminal in Brooklyn. I've never, ever seen so many vomiting drunks in a single bar before. We had tried to warn them just how much more alcohol was in the platinum compared to the light. Three people threw up on the bar top in a half hour. Novelty wore off quickly thank f**k.
#23
I used to work in a bar with an upstairs that was more like a pub and a downstairs that had a dancefloor and club nights etc on.
One night downstairs it was crowded and 2 lads downstairs started arguing. One of them was part of a larger group, who all began to hassle the other lad.
The other lad snapped, grabbed his pint glass and smashed it into his face, and then his friend's face, and then his other friend's face. People were dropping like flies on the dancefloor and there was blood everywhere. The DJ pulled the music off instantly and we had to get police and paramedics in immediately.
We usually closed around 3am but I was there until 8 the next morning giving statements to police and cleaning blood from the floor, it was f*****g horrible.
After that we switched to plastic glasses and cans downstairs.
Image credits: tempingupstairs
#24
We had a guy come in and absolutely pound glass after glass of water. Like, an insane amount. He got drunk. Off water! We called the cops because he wouldn't leave and was being a problem. He was an escapee from a mental hospital. Day pass. This is what he did on his free day. I've never seen anything like that since.
Image credits: JenDidNotDoIt
#25
Ahhh the memories - On busy Saturday night a few years ago a middle aged couple was deep into making out at a high top table by the bar. No problem at all, fairly normal late at night. What isn’t normal was a couple of minutes into their high school parking lot make out session a very drunk dude stands up from his seat at the corner of the bar, turns around and whips out his d**k and starts p**sing on them thinking he was in the bathroom.
While most people would wonder to themselves “why is my leg getting soaked and everyone starting at us” and stop … they just kept going at it never missing a beat while the guy drained his bladder with a perfect p**s arch onto them. Bouncer comes over and doesn’t notice the dudes arch of p**s and almost walks into it. The shock and awe of what was happening caused him to freeze and let the guy finish while the couple were completely oblivious to what was going on. Needless to say, homeboy was arrested and I’m assuming the couple fought in the car as to who p**sed themselves.
Image credits: Stake1551
#26
I was at a bar as a customer, there was a UFC fight on that I didn't know about (because I don't care) and 2 dumbass drunks thought they'd have their own UFC fight in the bar, before we knew it the one guy threw the other guy through the front window of the bar. F*****g stupid.
I don't go to bars anymore. Especially not that one.
Image credits: XtremeD86
#27
The street outside our college-town bar was under construction. Everything was fenced off at the sidewalk. The road was removed, piles of dirt and materials everywhere, heavy equipment, and portapotties. It’s midnight on a Saturday and the line outside is growing faster than it’s moving. One guy, needing to use the bathroom, hops the construction fencing to use a portapotty. Once he’s inside, 2 of his friends also hop the fencing, take a 3-point stance, and bull-rush the potty. It tips over onto the door. The smell reached the line waiting to enter and people scatter. After a few moments of hollering from inside the plastic s**t cube, the “friends” roll the thing over and sprint up the street. I can still hear him gagging as he slowly emerged, stripped naked, and disappeared, staggering away into the night.
Image credits: On_The_Isthmus
#28
When I lived in Hell's Kitchen (NYC) I bartended at an Upper West Side restaurant that was a known hangout for members of the Serbian mafia. Often they had Croatian and Yugoslavian friends, and Russians as well – including regular visits by Russian cast members of *The Sopranos,* which was on the air at the time.
One night, the most vocal Serb patron was making thinly veiled, racist comments about an African-American customer sitting at the bar. I asked him to take it easy, telling him that wasn't okay. He proceeded to lose his gd mind, screaming obscenities and starting to throw rocks glasses at my head from across the room, as his compatriots tried to escort him out the door. I'm talking about the heavy type rocks glasses: like, if one had landed, it would've broken bones, because he was *throwing* them *hard* toward my head. I was ducking behind the bar each time he wound up to throw. It was insane.
The next afternoon, he walked in like usual, as if nothing had happened. He came up and smiled and said he is a "very passionate person," and he hoped I "could understand." I was not trying for a repeat of the previous night, so I nodded, and started pouring him his regular drink. He put a small paper packet on the bar and said, "so no hard feelings then." It was an eight-ball of almost uncut cocaine, on top of a $50 bill. I used the money to buy the AA patron a glass of Johnnie Walker Blue later that night.
That place was wild.
Image credits: ArtPeers
#29
Waterfront bar I worked at had a few themed music nights a month. Some were rowdier than others, but brought out different types of crowds based on the music. This particular evening brought out a couple who proceeded to have sex up against my bar for everyone to see until security c**k blocked them and escorted them out. Had to shut down my particular bar entirely because of the health code situation and moved to a different bar across the platform. Happened again with a different couple.
Image credits: tintedrosie
#30
Gordon Ramsay walked in, ordered a 1/2 sized margarita, and told me it was perfect after he finished it. he was a f*****g gentleman and even bowed and said thank you on the way out. I later learned they were filming an episode of Kitchen Nightmares around the corner and he knew the chef who owned the restaurant where I was bartending. He came in the next night too. I had a convo with f*****g Gordon Ramsay two days in a row.
Image credits: SapphiireGyal
#31
A pretty dodgy woman came in to the pokies room in our venue (gambling/slot machine equivalent that we have in Australia) and demanded for us to find an outlet for her to plug in her charger for her phone, so we found her a machine near an outlet and left her to her devices. Later one of our staff was waved down by another stressed patron who said that a woman was moaning in the pokies room - went in to find out she’d actually plugged in a vibrator and was going to town on herself in front of everyone.
Image credits: GlimmerrDiamond
#32
An annulment that happened at a wedding reception.
The bride, her mom, her dad and her maid of honor all got cut off but other guests kept feeding them drinks. Bride pukes on the dance floor, slips, stumble-runs out onto the patio and eats concrete. The groom sheepishly walks over and asks for another bourbon on the rocks "or anything to forget this night".
Sorry, I feel for you, but that little incident just closed bars early. My hands are tied after witnessing something like that.
#33
Had a famous Rapper from the UK drop into the Bar with a friend and two girls. He just gave a concert at a venue next door to the bar I worked . The artist and his friend wanted to order a bottle of hennessy. We were more of a hipster place so no bottle service so he ordered the most expensive gin we had. Eventually his friend came over asking us whether we sell condoms. We just gave him a couple for free. Half an hour later the artist and one of the girls are taking turns on each other in the womens bathroom. I ask them politely to continue in the Nightliner bus which is parked outside. Then my colleague finds the Artists friend and the other Women shagging in the drinks storage behind the bar. They had to climb a fence to get there. I still dont get why they didnt just use the Bus. But yeah, fun story i guess.
#34
DJ (with encouragement of management) was telling all the girls to dance on the bar and the best dancer would win $100. A girl fell down on the bartender side of the bar right on her back and broke it. It was terrible. She made a full recovery though.
#35
I bartended at a marina about 20 years ago. This was the kind of place that had several-million dollar yachts that the owners would basically treat as hotel rooms for several weekends of the summer (and never leave the slip).
Anyway, this couple rented a slip one weekend and came into the bar on Friday night. As the night went on, rumors started to circulate that they wanted to find 3-4 guys to go back to their boat to bang her while the guy watched. A couple of the regulars that I knew obliged and said it was a pretty weird scene back there.
The couple came back the next night and she was dressed in a fishnet top with nothing underneath. They weren't there long before finding another group of dudes to repeat Friday night's excursion.
#36
Not me, but a coworker.
A guy walked up to the bar and asked for a drink. He was visibly hammered so coworker said he was going to close the guys tab and get him a cab.
Drunk guy responded surprisingly well. Said “ok, I just need to go to the bathroom first and I’ll be back”
Like a god damn toddler, this guy drops his pants to the floor and just starts p**sing. Bartender screams “ARE YOU F*****G P**SING ON MY FLOOR?” And the dude sort of snaps into reality, looks horrified at his d**k, and just runs.
#37
College bar in the 90s - Several drunk girls were getting in a heated debate on the proper way to give a guy a BJ. This went on for 20-30 minutes before one of the girls says “Here - I’ll show you”. She scans the bar for some random dude, and four drunk girls took random dude into the women’s room and locked the door.
My fellow bartender and I look at each other with a “No way they are doing this” look.
20 minutes later the door opens and the girls sit back in their seats and continue the discussion. Random guy walks out with everyone staring at him. Never seen a guy with a bigger smile on his face.
#38
Couple trying to have s*x at the bar. She was wearing a skirt, sat on his lap, I noticed them fidgeting a bit with her hands below the bar. I walked over and said:
> If you're doing what I think you're doing, you need to pay your tab and leave right now, before I call the cops and you have to tell your neighbors why you're on a list.
They paid their tab, tipped very well, and left.
#39
Had a guy come in and sit down at the bar, dressed in a full tan suit. Didn't look like it fit him too well. He had dark sunken eyes and ordered a shot with his drink. He put a few of those away but wasn't causing trouble nor did he talk to anyone. (in my experience the people who don't talk and looked like this guy, have some real s**t going on)
One of my waitresses was walking past him and overheard him saying something along the lines of "...there's nothing we can do about it now...". Shortly after this man comes in, a regular of mine also joins the bar and after a quick chat we start trying to involve the man in the tan suit.
They start talking and eventually go outside for a smoke, about 25mins pass and the man in the tan suit comes back in with a ghostly look on his face, what I can only imagine could resemble shell-shock. Casual, slow and deliberate he pulls out a huge kitchen knife from his suit jacket. He didn't make any sudden movements, just kind of looked around at everyone staring at him.
I think I said something like "woah man, it's all good let's just calm down.." I don't even think he really registered what I said before he starting running out of the venue. I followed him at a distance and watched him shove his suit jacket and knife in a bin and he stumbled into a more populated area. Against all odds for this area I run into 3 police officers, I give them the story, the description and then returned to my bar to assess the staff etc.
I found my regular back at the bar who look shook. He explained to me that the man in the tan suit had just recieved a diagnosis for stage 4 stomach cancer and he just had his 3rd child. He was on the phone to his mom about it.
Fast forward maybe 2 weeks later and a suburb that was close to me reported a DV dispute where in cops were called to a house. The man in the house charged 4 cops with a knife and he was shot dead on the scene.
Guess he was just looking for a way out, even standing there with the knife in his hand I can honestly say he just looked more devastated than threatening.
#40
Not the craziest but the most memorable. A girl (25 at most) grabbed a clean pint glass, urinated into it, then put it in the pick-up area. Another customer walked over and grabbed it, then dumped it on her.
#41
Used to have a customer that people said inherited a lot of money. Apparently some biker type dude found out while dating her. Dosed her a ton of acid and stole her money. She was homeless and a little looney and would come to the bar where I worked. She was always wearing odd, random outfits that looked like she went into goodwill each day and just put stuff on. Imagine Jim Carrey’s outfit when he pretends to be insane in Ace Ventura while searching for answers about snowflake at the insane asylum and you can pretty much understand what I mean about how she dressed.
One day I see her and she’s rubbing mustard all over her arms. Like taking the heinz squeeze bottle and squeezing it into her hands and then rubbing it all over her arms. I asked her what she was doing. She thought it was lotion. Everyone knew her and knew her story so she just sort of hung around. It was a wild dive bar sort of place with lots of live music.
Had another cheap a*s customer order a shot of tequila. Then proceeds to spill it on the bar. Asks me to replace it. Nope. For others, sure, for you? Not a chance. She proceeds to scrape the tequila off the bar top into her glass and then take the shot. We’re talking about a bar top made of concrete. Porous concrete that smelt like d**k no matter how much you cleaned it. Nasty a*s people in this world.
#42
Might be a bit late, but I bar managed at a spot that was open for food until 3:30 (college area, late night food rushes were nuts), so we always had late night crowds.
We had a bricked in and gated dumpster/oil dump in the back, and as I was taking out some of the trash for the night (about 2:45) I opened up the gate to a drunk couple that closed down the bar going at it. He had her bent over holding onto the dumpster as they were going to town.
After the initial shock I told them I needed to throw the garbage bag away and the guy literally reached his hand through the gate and said he'd toss it. I was laughing so hard I just handed it to him. To his credit, he did toss it in the dumpster and they kept going at it.
#43
Oh I have a good one!
It was a Monday night, shortly before Covid. I’m working alone on a normally sleepy shift, maybe 30 or so people expected at a maximum. Suddenly, 50 people walk in at the same time. They order 50 shots of tequila and 50 shots of brandy. Seems to be a celebration of life, so I oblige. Takes about 20 minutes to get thru the round since I don’t have 100 shot glasses, even with backups I only have about 35.
Things start to get a little rowdier. Most of the regulars clear out. Theres some increased general volume and some shouting between two groups of people. I tell them to cool it or I’m done serving, which elicits a response that “I just don’t know how people talk to each other” and I’m misreading the tone.
I assure them that I’ve seen people talk this way after consuming alcohol, and it doesn’t usually end peacefully. The shouting continues. At this point I shut down the bar. No more drinks will be sold tonight.
The desired effect was that everyone would leave, but it had the opposite effect. The crowd got rowdier, and eventually a punch got thrown. I sighed, put down the rack of clean dishes I was carrying, and made my way to the phone to call the cops. The scuffle started a fight that eventually ballooned into 25-30 people in a knock down drag out western movie style bar fight. I am not exaggerating when I say I saw the following things:
-five or six different groups of people fighting
-a man picked up a bar stool with one hand and windmill swung it before releasing it. It hit someone in the head.
-another man picked up a person and smashed them down onto a table
-someone broke their leg
-multiple pint glasses were thrown
By the time the cops got in the door, 90% of the people were gone. The only ones left were the people that either couldn’t leave because they were too injured (see bar stool to head guy and broken leg guy) or the few regulars that were keeping their distance in the other bar area. Nothing ever came of it, despite knowing the identity of several (found a couple wallets, cops knew of one of the people based on footage).
Blood everywhere. Bar completely ransacked. The owner came down and we just had a beer in the middle of the destroyed bar after everyone left, and then cleaned it all up. There’s still a long scuff on the floor where a table was shoved. Nothing that bad has ever happened there again.
#44
~2007. A local, very “famous”, real estate agent from where I am, came to the bar with his wife at the time, Charlotte. She had been involved recently in a hit and run and wasn’t doing very well. Gary, the multi-millionaire agent to the stars, made the executive decision that they don’t use their car anymore.
Gary had 6 macallan 18s. Charlotte had 6 glasses of sauv blanc.
Charlotte noticed Gary talking to two gentlemen, also regulars at the restaurant, and starts berating him incessantly “GARY! YOU’RE SO GAY GARY! WHY DON’T YOU JUST MOVE IN WITH YOUR F****T FRIENDS!?”
To which I immediately said, “miss, we can’t use that kind of language… anywhere. Please. We can discuss this ouside.”
She shut her mouth. I still asked them to leave.
Sorry Gary, I know you just trying to live life, she was a b***h.
#45
Girl openly m*sturbating at the bar. Not hiding it at all. Cambridge Massachusetts.
#46
Had a customer order a Balvenie 14 Carribean Cask with: soda water, bitters and olives. Humans truly are capable of atrocities.
#47
Many years ago I worked at a small dive bar. One night the owners son came in with a friend. He goes over to another table and sits down and starts talking to the man sitting there. No biggie right?suddenly the son runs behind the bar grabs a bottle of liquor,runs back to the table and smashes the man on the head with the bottle. All hell breaks loose and his friend grabs the son and runs away. I'm left with everything had to call police and ambulance. The man was taken to hospital and ended up with 18 stitches in his cheek. I was left to clean up everything. Broken glass,chairs and tables +super scared customers .Will never forget that one 😂.
#48
A heavy set middle eastern man was drinking heavy and got very drunk at my bar. When he went to the restroom his prime rib dinner had arrived. I think he shot-up some smack in the stall cause when he came back way drunker. He then cut a long big strip of prime rib, about the size of a thick hot dog, then while glaring at me, threw his head back and proceeded to swallow it whole like a baby bird would a worm from its mother. It of course got stuck in his throat choking him and he passed out and fell on the floor. I/we cleaned out his air passage and gave him CPR. 10 minutes passed and he was still unconscious when the paramedics arrived. He left with a heart beat but died later that night in the hospital.
#49
A younger couple came in rather late on a Tuesday, dressed up pretty nice. They were pretty open and jovial so I assumed they came from a work party or something, as he next hour went on I came to find out they had just come from a funeral and took a bunch of molly to celebrate. How did I find this out? The time it took me to take a drink order outside, walk inside to make the drinks and come back out, they were half naked f*****g on the pool table without a care in the world when I tried to intervene. That one was just a weird experience all the way around.
#50
Oh man here we go. This happened 15 years ago but it’s still burned in my mind.
2 guys come in, one just got out of jail. They were celebrating, drinking and eating. Now they clearly were hitting their limit so I politely cut them off at the bar. They get upset but go sit on the patio. I let the server know that I wasn’t going to serve them drinks as they were drunk. She agreed, BUT secretly poured them drinks while I was in the back swapping out kegs. It was caught on camera and the thing that saved my job and me getting jail time. I find out and cut them off with my manager asking them to leave. They throw a fit, threaten us, knock stuff off the table. My manager then calls the cops and lets them know. They get pissed but run out as one of them still has warrants, we found out after the incident. As they are backing out, they gas the truck hitting a curb and knocking the back end of the truck up. Picture a truck launching off a ramp backwards if that helps. Their bumper and tailgate end up smashing into a car that was coming in. The trucks back bumper hits the passenger side of the car, smashing the door and severing the arm of the woman in the passenger seat. Realizing what they did, the guys bail out and make a run for it. Poor girl was life flighted and the guys were caught trying to hitchhike a couple miles away. The waitress was fired and I got extremely lucky that I didn’t go to jail.
#51
Private party is going off, dude grabs a bottle, jumps up on top of the bar and starts going down the line pouring it into people's mouths. This goes fine until he plows his head the running ceiling fan above the bar which confuses him a bit and he steps back. Not to be deterred he goes for it again with the same result and after this happens a third time he notices everyone freaking out at the bar and realizes something is up. Turns out, every time he hits his head the fan deeply gashes his head, spraying blood all over the people at the bar. The party was a little less rowdy after that and dude ended up with some pretty nasty scars.
#52
Oh god, idk where to even begin… The context - I ran a very prominent and successful college bar in a big party college town. A handful that come to mind:
Fighting some m**hed up brothers until the cops could get there to tase them and watching/helping the cops fight them into submission, because the taser didn’t exactly help.
Stopping someone with a knife from stabbing someone on our patio, in what I still think was an intoxicated d**g deal gone wrong. Obviously not their story though.
Walking in on a mom who was only there because of “parents weekend” performing sexual acts in the bathroom on a college kid she just met, while at the bar with her daughter.
So many more….
#53
I had a customer leave after having a great time and immediately trip over the parking curb stop out front. Full face plant, knocked out two teeth, there was blood everywhere. She got up, dusted herself off and got in a cab as if nothing happened. And that is why I have someone else’s tooth in my dresser drawer.
#54
I was working at a college bar and it was a place some football players liked to hangout. One night some stupid frat guy got mouthy with one of the offensive lineman and the next thing you know this guys is being picked up and thrown through a window. Cops rolled in and the football players were told to leave, poor guy I’m sure needed a bunch of stitches but he got pretty messed up.
#55
I had a customer sitting on a barstool with another woman on her lap facing forward. I’d told them they needed to move to separate chair and they both toppled out. Bottom one’s teeth bit the base of the tops back and broke skin, tops chin split open when she hit the ground. Had to hold her chin together waiting for an ambulance because she was bleeding heavily and the bottom woman was still trying to talk her into going to her place.
#56
Poop snowballs-this is the only way that I can really describe what we saw.
Totally normal regular goes into the bathroom and leaves the bar shortly afterwards(he was the first customer and only person to use the bathroom that day up until that point). A staff member goes in the bathroom shortly afterwards and comes out screaming. We all rush to see what was wrong.
On the walls of the bathroom were what can only be described as poop snowballs. Tightly packed blobs of feces smashed into the wall about 6 inches in diameter...I don't know how he did it or why he did it but he certainly did it.
#57
Medical college rugby team pouring beer directly into each others stomachs through a funnel and tube. One of my colleagues saw them in a different bar later on doing... the other end.
#58
Tiny lady left a huge bouncer blind by hitting him in the eye with a woman shoe, stiletto or whatever it's called.
#59
Back in the late 80's I was tending bar at a Bennigan's. Dude walks in around 11 pm. Walked, talked and looked sober. Ordered a wild turkey boiler maker. We chatted, I ran his card for the tab, set the drinks the bar, and walked to the kitchen to grab a food order. A few minutes later I turned around and he wasn't there anymore. I looked over the bar to find him on the ground in a pool of his own p**s. I call the manager who comes with a busboy to clean up the mess. While waiting for a cab at the host station, dude gets back up takes a swing at the manager falls flat on his face, blood splatter from his busted nose went everywhere. Before the busboy could get to the mess, dude pisses himself again. This time we called the cops. Dude admitted to popping a couple Xanax just before walking in.
#60
Worked bar for 15 years but this one sticks with me. Maybe there’s others but I don’t remember because I fell into the bartenders trap and my memory isn’t all that.
So it’s Crazy a*s dance/industry night with lots of college students. A guy racks a big tab and then doesn’t pay. Doesn’t walk out mind you, but makes a big stink and show about he’s not gonna pay. Turns out the cops were there doing rounds so the door guys point him out. Cops put him in an arm bar and basically smashed his face into the atm until he pulled the cash.
Broke his arm and I still remember the sound of a man in his late twenties screaming and sobbing in pain while two cops basically ground him into an atm machine for five minutes. After patron was hauled away in a cruiser the cops were totally unphased. Everyone on shift was pretty shocked, even a usually blustery door guy who was a marine in Iraq was quiet for the rest of the night.
That was when I went from ‘cops are a necessity because bad folks exist and who are you gonna call to your grandmas house and dust for prints when it’s gets burgled’ to ‘cops are a gang with a license from society they ab*se on the regular’.
#61
Worked at a dive bar for a couple of years, and a lot of these stories seem like a regular Wednesday to me.
But the one that sticks with me is... guy comes in super jovial and having a good time. Buys the whole bar a round. There weren't many people in there but was spreading the joy around. Goes to the bar next door, and 15 minutes later, I hear about 7 gunshots.
The dude is lying dead on the ground with the guy that shot him on the phone, calling the police saying he shot him.
Fast forward a couple months and find out that apparently a flip had switched and was trying to pick fights next door. Not even 15 minutes later, he's dead. Guy that shot him never had any charges filed as it was called self defense.
#62
Two girls come in late afternoon. Order doubles and some appetizers. Told me they had to go dancing later.
One leaves to finish getting ready. Other one asks me. "Do you have any food that isn't pasta?" (This is an Italian restaurant)
I for some reason that day before my shift. Put a banana in the cooler behind the bar so I could eat it later. Say to her. "Nah it's pasta and paninis, but I do have this banana here."
She takes the banana from me, staring into my eyes as she puts almost half of it in her mouth, peel and all. Takes a bite of the banana. Chews twice and spits it into her napkin. Says thank you and leaves.
#63
Bunch of cops came to my bar regularly. One night, one of the guys got into an argument with his lady friend. Apparently she saw him texting another woman.
She tried to leave and he kept grabbing her and getting between her and the door. It was quickly escalating. Me, and another bartender, went around to assist her and deescalate. By the time we were able to interject, she had made it to her car and he was not letting her open the door.
She walked around the car, with him following her. I was standing by the driver door and my coworker was by the trunk. She walks past him, and then the guy pushes my coworker out the way. She was able to open the driver door and get inside. He then walks up the driver side and pushes me out the way, and proceeds to prevent her from closing the door.
As he talks to her, we are trying to get him to let her leave. He continued to ignore us. After 15 seconds or so, I put my hand on his shoulder/chest, hoping to get him to retreat. He then turns to me and says right in my face:
“You better get your hands off me or some faces are about to get bashed in”
As a 20 year old, this sudden aggression startled me a bit. This guy was taller than and bigger than me ( i’m 5’11” and 170).
Right as he said that, a few cop cars pulled into the lot and my coworker and ai retreated. Turns out the guy was a STATE TROOPER.
Those cops couldn’t have timed their arrival better. A minute later, and I may have sent to pound town.
#64
A guy I was asking to leave thought I was getting around the band playing. I was actually telling him he was currently p**sing his pants and he should go.
#65
Probably not even close to the wildest but what comes to mind:
I used to work in a bar frequented by players from the local MLB team. One night this kid was chirping the hell out of the starting catcher who was in that night. He took it in stride, laughed it off, which is usually how these things go. The kid got more drunk and just kept going and going until finally he was kicked out.
Somehow the kid managed to sneak back into the bar (via the back door where the staff and some regulars would go out to smoke) And got right back into the back catchers face giving him s**t. Until finally dude had had enough and socked him in the face a few times, breaking his nose and causing it to leak blood like a small volcano. He absolutely deserved it.
The kid spent years trying to sue the bar, the team, the player, everyone. He was unsuccessful.
#66
Let's share two. 20+ years ago, one gross, one nice (for me at least).
Worked at a student base at the time, run by and for, well, students.
Had a customer who claimed to have narcolepsy (sleeping sickness). Never ever did anything happen, thought it done mind if attention seeking. Until after hours, I find him sleeping in the urinals. We hash those broad aluminum ones, guy just fit sitting with his legs stretched. Woke him up, he just stood up and left. That 'll have been one hell of a hangover.
Another time we had a "Norske Fest" (don't remember the correct spelling). A Norwegian Party, with ONLY exchange students from, well, Norway. Think 95% blonde girls, wearing close to nothing. Bartenders were assigned per a lottery, everyone wanted to work those parties!
Girls drank A LOT and could hold their liccor. By the end of the evening you'd have had a lot of fun but also worked your a*s off. These people all pay for their own drinks...
When cleaning up, sweeping the floor we'd find a lot of money. I mean, easily tripling an evening's wages. These girls didn't wear a lot of clothing, using bra streps and "other places" to store their cash. Where it evidently fell out while dancing. Happy times.
#67
Was bartending a wedding at an event center. My straw and napkin caddie was in arms reach of the public. Had an intoxicated lady wearing a short skirt walk up and order shots of jager. As a rule we don’t serve shots after a certain hour and she was clearly f****d up, so I denied her.
She grabbed the 2-300 straws out of the caddy, squatted, and proceeded to flick her bean with the straws.
She was not hot.
#68
A bar back putting his hand in the blender.
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