It's where you plant & harvest bodies.

I graduated from college mid year which isn't the best time to find a teaching position.

I was an assistant manager at Harold's in the Galleria - Dallas. One of our stock guys had not shown up for several days which was very unusual. He was always at work & it was a very busy time of year - right before Christmas. We had tried calling his home many times and were worried.

Several days before he told me about the strained relationship he had with his family. He was going through some tough times. He was on his own and had not spoken to his parents for awhile. I was worried he had maybe done something to himself.
He had just come out to his Mother and she had not taken it very well.

We called his family and they had not heard from him. Police went to his home for a welfare check. They discovered him on his family room floor. He had been bludgeoned to death & his home had obviously been robbed.

The same day the police went to check on him we had a customer come in who was looking for a gift for his girlfriend. We had a lot of SMU kids who frequented the store & he looked like he could be a college student. He found an expensive leather jacket and asked me to try it on (kinda creepy) because I was about the size/height of his gf. I did. He decided to purchase the jacket along with a few other items. He asked if we could wrap them. I told him we could, but he would have to wait a few minutes.

He handed me his credit card. It was a Harold's card. I didn't look at the card - just handed it to the girl who was ringing people up. She turned ghost white and looked at me with huge eyes. It was a Harold's employee card. It was our stock boys credit card! The guy wouldn't have known it was an employee card as they looked similar.

She showed me the card. It was very hard to remain calm. I explained there was a bit longer of a backup for wrapping than I had anticipated, but I would go back and make sure they were working on it. I ran to the phone to call the police.

At this time I had no idea Chip was dead. Police asked me to stall. They shut down the galleria doors. The guy disappeared before the police arrived. They caught him in Chips car outside of the Galleria.

This guy looked like some kind of SMU frat guy. He was straight, but had been meeting guys at bars and going back to their home to rob them. To my knowledge Chip was the first person he had murdered.

Very scary.

I was especially sad Chip's family never had the chance to reconcile with him. He was a really nice guy who worked hard. He had plans to go to college.

Short version: I modeled a jacket for a murderer who killed the stock guy where I worked. He was using our stock guy's Harold's credit card.

I love Harold's
and miss it...