Working in a music store, we get more than our fair share of just absolutely crazy people. Maybe it’s something to do with that old adage of music ’soothing the savage beast,’ but I’d venture to guess we have an almost equal number of crazy and sane regulars. Most of the time I don’t mind them. There are quite a few crazy folks that are entertaining or just plain ignorable. We have one crazy in particular, let’s call him Mark, that is absolutely batshit insane, almost in a ‘danger to society’ sort of way. There are days you would think that Mark actually works there. Sundays seem to be a particular favorite, as he often comes in up to 3 or 4 times in the 7-hour span of time that we’re open on Sunday (dipping out in between visits to go to one of the restaurants around here that serves beer on Sundays). Mark takes his medicine I would imagine, but the problem is that he likes to wash it down with several beers, in effect nullifying any effect his medicine would have had in the first place. It should also be noted that Mark has time and time again continually proven himself to be bad with money, which he chalks up to some degree to the “voices.” For instance, Mark has bought several albums, sold them back the next day because they “freaked” him out, and then come in the very next day to rebuy the used copies he sold back the day before. This happens quite a bit, with Motorhead being the usual culprit, but lately TV on the Radio, David Bowie and My Bloody Valentine have joined the ranks. This whole cycle happens at least once a week.

The other day Mark walks into the store and approaches the front counter (not unusual), and then plops down a wallet stuffed with about $250 in cash and numerous credit cards and other potential ‘valuables.’ As it turns out, Mark found the wallet in the parking lot and turned it in without so much as removing a dollar from it. We contacted the owner as soon as possible and he arrived the next morning to pick up his wallet, amazed as we were that everything was intact. He ended up leaving Mark a reward for us to give to him, which took little time to be claimed (Mark walked in about 10 minutes after the guy left). I guess the moral of the story is that you never know who can be trusted. It’s damn lucky Mark found the wallet too, as we’ve had our share of people we’ve had to run out from the front of the store for bugging people for money and whatnot.