There are times when people are out and about, having a good time, and then all of a sudden, an overwhelming sense of fear comes over them. At bars and clubs, this usually happens more often than not to women patrons, but it can happen to men too. They might need to get away from some guys trying to come after them, maybe they have to get away from that crazy girl that has tried to latch on. Either way, they need an out, and thankfully for these guys, they ordered the right "drink" at the bar and got away without harm.
There’s A Uh…Problem With Your Card, Ma’am
“I used to bar tend and work the front desk at a hotel. One of my regulars was in for the week, real nice guy, very friendly and happily married. We also had a cuckoo bird lady staying with us that week. She was decent looking but definitely had the ‘crazy eyes.’
They were both at the bar, and they were talking for a while. Him being a nice guy, didn’t want to outright blow her off I guess. He stops at the front desk to say what’s up, and we talk for a bit while the girl is just standing behind him. He shoots me a look that says get me out of this situation as he starts walking towards the elevator.
Once she gets in the elevator I called him back to ask a question about Detroit because ‘I was going there next week.’ He got off the elevator but so did she. Then I told the lady there was a problem with the card she had on file (there wasn’t) and he slipped away.
He called me thanking me a few minutes later.”
That’s Not Supposed To Go In There
“I used to bar tend for a gay bar. One night I had a group of guys who seemed to be having a great time. After another round of shots, one sticks behind at the bar and asks for an angel shot. I bring him behind the bar and into the office. He was with a couple coworkers and their friends. He knew the coworkers were gay, and would be taking him to a gay bar, but apparently things started to get out of hand when they started trying to grope him. I tell him he can chill in the back room for as long as he needed, he hands me a handful of crumpled 1s and asks for a burger. We didn’t really serve food besides crummy bar snacks, so I hand him back his money and give him a couple bags of chips.
About half an hour later I go to check on him, and notice that he’s really messed up. To the point where he can’t even talk. Definitely got slipped something more than just a drink. Luckily all his idiot friends were still there drinking, so I called the cops. He’s rushed away in an ambulance immediately. I shut the bar down so the cops and I can go through the security footage. We managed to catch two of the guys he’s with putting some powder into his drink. Both of them were arrested, the other two were somewhere else at the time, and were let go.”
5 On 1 Seems Like A Pretty Unfair Advantage
“I work in a nightclub in a small city in England. I once had a guy who seemed to have recently turned 18, ask if Angela was working. I knew about the Ask for Angela scheme and immediately brought him into the glass wash room. Turns out there were a bunch of lasses encouraging this one lass into seducing him, grinding up on him, trying to kiss him and groping him. This apparently continued even after the man had walked away into other parts of the nightclub after saying he wasn’t interested.
I had reported this to my supervisor who was a little hesitant at first but eventually called the bouncers into the back room too. We explained the situation to them. Now these guys are basically 200-300 pound tanks who you would expect to joke about this and tell this guy to man up and enjoy it but to my surprise, they took it seriously as well.
They managed to track down this group (five women including the one who was doing the grinding) and they kicked all of them out of the building. Meanwhile, a taxi had already been prepared by my supervisor and the taxi firm was literally down the road, so it didn’t take long for it to arrive. I shuffled the man through the back stairs that continued down to the stock cellar but leads off to the side exit of the building near the bins. A taxi was parked just outside.
It would be a rare occasion when someone uses ‘Ask for Angela’ where I work, let alone a man, so I’m really glad that all the staff took it seriously and helped as much as they could.”
“She Belonged Next To That Tomato, On The Floor”
“I had one horrible date that stands out. I knew the bartenders because I was a regular, she was from out of town (20 minutes away, not far) and when I met her a few things stood out.
First off, she was nothing like her online profile. Second, she kept talking like, I don’t even know how to describe it. Saying weird stuff and using weird words like ‘it’s all ok, when I die I’m going to levi-orsk up to heaven,’ and she kept using words that have no relevance to English to describe the act of dying or being dead.
I’ve dated religious people, all kinds of stuff, but I’ve never found another psychological specimen quite like this one. The thing that really broke the camel’s back was when she took the tomato off her burger and just THREW IT ON THE FLOOR, saying that ‘all vegetables taste like dirt.’
I asked Chuck, my bartender, if he could distract her, and he did. I left a $100 and promptly left. The bar staff got a $40 tip, and they never forgot that. To this day they still make me good drinks and cut me good deals. Love them all. That girl probably tasted like dirt, and her personality belonged next to that tomato, on the floor.”
Pay Up Or Get Shut Down
“It doesn’t often happen, but it did one evening at the nightclub I managed.
Turned out the woman he was with was a call-girl, and she had threatened him saying guys were waiting outside to beat the snot out of him unless he paid up so many hundreds more than what they had agreed earlier. We immediately got the police involved instead of just escorting him out. Basically, she went absolutely crazy at my staff when she clocked something wasn’t right. She smashed some glasses and stormed out of the venue. Police arrived, took the CCTV footage and statements. She was picked up later that evening, no idea how far it went or what happened though. As far as we could tell there never were any bad guys waiting outside, my guess is it was just some scam she tried to pull on her clients, who knows. All I care about is none of my patrons or staff were injured.
Good memories working in the club industry.”
Not What You’d Normally Find In A Woman’s Purse
“The safe word drink in my hotel is ‘The Blue Red.’ So, a guy came to the bar with his weird date, like her hair was all nasty, and she kept getting in small verbal fights with other people. Something happened and I saw the lady whisper something in the guy’s ear, his eyes immediately opened wide, and he started panicking to the extent of sweating profusely. The guy was so nervous that he kept shaking the entire time. I got worried and asked him what drink he wants with my hand on the emergency button ready to call security.
Guy: ‘Can I get warm sake please.’
Me: ‘Yeah, sure you want anything on it?’
Guy: ‘Yeah, lemme get the blue red.’
I pressed the button and security came from behind in like two seconds and had already called 911. My guy immediately tackled the lady with her hands behind her back and held her for 10 minutes until the cops arrived. Apparently the lady got into a verbal altercation with a big guy in our bar, and she asked her boyfriend to fight him, or she was going to harm him and the big dude with the kitchen knife she had IN HER BAG! Thankfully the guys went home unharmed.”
Not 1, But 2 Manhattan’s
“I’ve unintentionally used the safe word drink before. I went to a bar with my now fiancée and ordered two Manhattans (which was apparently the safe word, bad choice in my opinion, but in the bars defense, not exactly the place you would normally order one). I was very nicely asked come over to the side bar (what kind of drink do you want) and the bartender asked if I needed a cab or if I was in a dangerous or uncomfortable situation. I was quite confused.”
How Do YOU Know What He Wants?
“I worked in a nightclub that was popular with the gay community for a couple of years. We didn’t have a safe word but one night there were two guys clearly hitting it off. They were flirting and having a great time. After a couple of drinks, one of the guys was clearly being very forward and touchy, the other was not enjoying this and had withdrawn. He attempted to walk back to his friends but the first guy wasn’t having this and pulled him back. In an attempt to get out the guy started vigorously shaking his head anytime one of the bar staff walked by. After this happened a few times we realized something needed to be done and spoke to the guy that was being all forward and explained that we didn’t think the other guy wanted to stay at the bar with him. He got aggressive and then and started screaming at us because how would we know what the guy wanted; although it was blatantly obvious.
Eventually we got security down to kick the guy out of the place so that the guy who had been trying to get away could go back to his friends, have a good night and not have to leave.”
“Total Bro Behavior”
“My friend’s roommate was the bouncer at our college bar.
My friend broke up with his girlfriend, and she wanted him back. She kept threatening to make an assault claim against him if he didn’t get back together with her. After a month of not talking to her, he thought the situation was done with.
I ended up seeing him at the bar one night, and we’re just drinking and chatting it up. Out of nowhere his ex appears and starts flirting with him. We are both frozen in fear because he’s gotta walk this fine line of not ticking her off and not getting back together with her.
Another bouncer bursts in and booms, ‘I told you to get out?!? What’s wrong with you two!?’ He leads us to the back, exit-only door where my friend’s roommate was standing.
The roommate saw the ex creeping in and had his back. He sent one bouncer to kick us out (I was let back in), and another bouncer to stall the crazy ex, so he could escape.
Pure bro behavior.”
Wrong Drink, Wrong Time
“I’m a line cook, not bar staff, but at my last job, we had cameras in the bar area (cash register) and I was talking to our night bar gal.
She said a guy had asked for a taxi because he felt dizzy and disoriented, and didn’t feel safe, his girlfriend was chiding him, BUT it turns out it wasn’t HER that spiked the drink! The cameras caught the guy NEXT to this couple, putting something in his drink, for HIS girlfriend, and he messed up which one, because they both had the same drink! So, two couples, one guy accidentally doses a guy’s drink by mistake! The girl with the dosing guy left without him (apparently he was impatient when it wasn’t working). THE WORST PART? We thought he was a cool guy, he was a regular. They caught him next time and called the cops and showed the tapes and last I heard he was being charged with attempted assault.”
When The Whiskey Is Good, But You Don’t Drink Whiskey
“I am a bouncer. We had a regular meeting an online date. She was pretty attractive and I gave him the thumbs up. She was very polite and nice, two drinks later she became an utter witch. I walked up to him to see how it was going, and he explained while she was in the bathroom how much a snob she was being to everyone.
He came up to me, said how good the whiskey was, and I knew straight away (he’s a beer man through and through) he wanted to bail. I asked him if he would stay if he didn’t meet her, he nodded. So I kicked the girl out and told her she was too drunk.
He met his girlfriend of the past three years a couple of hours after I kicked the first girl out.”
Ask For Angela
“I work in small cocktail bar in Sydney, Australia, prime date night joint. We have something called ‘Ask for Angela,’ where the idea is you just ask the bar staff if Angela is working tonight and that’ll be the hint to keep an eye on things or even call a cab.
I’ve only had one customer, man or woman, ever use it, a nice younger guy on a date with an older gentleman. The issue was threefold.
The venue at the time had quite a few backpackers on working holidays that were completely unaware of this protocol, we had a lovely Chinese girl who went by Angela working that night, and that the date was going poorly in such a fashion that to the untrained eye, it looked like two work acquaintances having a drink. There was that little chemistry between them.
Apparently the older gentleman followed the younger to the bathroom and copped a feel, prompting the ‘Ask for Angela.’ It was a huge runaround to be honest. It took quite a while for a native English speaker to tune into the argument behind the bar where Angela was explaining that she had no idea who this guy was. So eventually he got some help.
He ordered two cocktails at the bar, asked if Angela was working tonight, saying she made them the best. We ended up ordering an Uber for him while he feigned an emergency, and brought their drinks out in time that the older bloke sorta felt obligated to stay and finish them, just as his Uber arrived.
Unfortunately a lot of bars have joined the ‘Ask for Angela’ campaign (it’s government sponsored), posted the signs in their ladies rooms, and called it a day. No staff training. This is because it puts you on a government list of ‘safe bars’ and, well, nobody can give up free publicity. Very disappointing. I also believe it needs to better extend to men on poor dates as well, I rarely see the posters in men’s rooms.”
This Situation Needed The Police, Not Just The Bouncer
“I worked in a pub in Ireland as a bouncer. It was not a common thing here to have the ‘get me outta here’ shot. So no signs for that but there was some Facebook post calling them angel shots that did its rounds. Girls would say they’ve ‘got to go’ to us, and we’d know. No code words or nothing.
Anyway one night I’m doing my thing in this nice bar, and a guy approaches me in front of a group of friends being a bit boisterous from a fancy restaurant across the road, and he says he needs an angel shot. So we let them in but I hold him there ‘questioning his ID’ as his friends make fun of me and him as I’m 22, this guy was maybe 35ish, and I was a ‘kid telling a man no.’ I tell him no he’s had too much tonight, I hail a taxi down, and he pretends to resist getting in, so I basically pick him up and carry him into the taxi. He throws some cash into my jacket pocket discreetly and the taxi goes off. Nothing big.
Two days later I’m working again, same bunch of guys from the restaurant come over. The angel shot guy isn’t there.
Three days later angel shot guy comes but very early and explains it all to me. Turns out his friends were doing some illicit substances (all professional people) and a girl was assaulted in the bathroom. He said at first she wanted to get with one of them but then two guys came in, then she wanted out and couldn’t. This guy tried to interject but couldn’t and then felt uncomfortable and didn’t want a part of this, so he wanted to leave but was told if he did they’d hurt him and the reason they all returned two days later was his going away drinks that he didn’t attend.
The guys were then charged like a month later.”
The Virgin Vodka Did The Trick
“I was working for a smaller bar with a mixed crowd in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
We had ‘safe drinks’ for both men and women: virgin vodka for men and virgin tequila for women. In total, I saw these ordered two times.
The one that sticks with me the most was for Christmas Eve, this night we had mostly gay guys hanging around in the bar and some students. After a while, one of the students (S) was getting a lot of attention from one of the gay guys (GG) (hand on leg, a lot of too personal questions, touching backsides) and the student told him he was straight and not interested.
This got the bartender that overheard this on alert, and he put a napkin on the bar near where he was sitting with a red exclamation mark, so all staff knew something was up.
S goes to toilet and the GG orders a round of vodka shots. The bartender didn’t see S, so he poured the order and placed it on the bar. S comes back and GG tells him to ‘help him empty the glasses.’ S starts drinking and suddenly looks very pale and sweaty as soon as the vodka is done. GG smiles and walks to toilet. S looks worse by the second and asks for virgin vodka, at this moment two of the bartenders get him to one of the other bars owned by my boss and call an ambulance.
The rest of the crew created a diversion for GG as soon as he came from the toilet, telling him S left for a phone call. The ambulance noticed S seemed to be a bit off. GG was drinking something else by then (watered down cocktails without him even noticing) and we alerted the police, who found 4 tubes of tranquilizers on him.
In the end GG was arrested and S rushed to hospital.”
If You Don’t Have A Free Drink Coupon, Don’t Try This Method!
“I worked at a brewery for eight years. There was only one time did I have to actually save a guy, other than the funny ones where I’ve helped them slip out of an awkward situation.
This guy met a girl at the bar seats, they get drinks, 10 minutes later, round two. Seems normal. They appear to be hitting it off. Out of nowhere this gal starts flipping out, and he couldn’t understand most of what’s coming out of her mouth. She was screaming about this guy trying to assault her, phone in hand, threatening to call the cops, involving other women and stuff. I had to settle this lady down for a second and grasp what was going on. No dice, she won’t chill out, she runs out of the bar at full speed and takes of in her car.
Never saw her in the bar again.
I know this guy didn’t do anything, but had to talk to cops anyway. Make a report blah blah. Couple weeks pass by, same guy at the bar chatting with me. On the T.V. (local news) is that woman, arrested, for assaulting a guy, whom she accused of the same thing then trying to flee.
It was her way of getting FREE DRINKS. What in the world is wrong with some people.”
Need Escape Please Help
“My old regular bar had a drink called ‘Neph’ (Need Escape Please Help). Not really the name as it is another language, but that is the idea. If you order it, they call you a cab, and one of the waiters will wait next to the toilet, allowing you to pay your tab there and let you in to the back so you can leave unnoticed. It was available for men and women alike to get out of bad dates (though they will not really let you use it to skip on your date).
They didn’t advertise it really, but regulars knew it existed. They would also actively offer someone that drink if they feel their date is going to the wrong place.
I saw a man being offered it once when his date was verbally abusive to him, and a woman whose date was so arrogant and creepy and talked down on her. I’ve never actually used it myself. I actually thought it was relatively common in most neighborhood bars to have this type of ‘drink.'”
He Wasn’t “One Of Them”
“This guy was in some kind of rush and wasn’t exactly in the best of ways. As he gingerly made his way in, I could see past him and saw three rather large men following in behind him, and they were clearly walking with a purpose.
He came right over to me and said he needed to see Angela if she was in, so I took him to the office out back and sat him down.
As it turns out, this guy had started dating one of the three men’s little sisters, and he didn’t like that because he ‘wasn’t one of them.’ They’re the not so nice traveler type, the kind of people that tarnish the name ‘gypsy.’
During this conversation, I checked in on the CCTV and saw at least four cars pull into our parking lot, all loaded with people who were then greeted by one of the three blokes that followed this man in who seemed to gesture inside, and they all followed him in and were then waiting near one of the doors to the back of house office. Police were called, and he was driven home discreetly while the guys after him were handled.
Fortunately that’s the only time someone has ever asked for Angela at that pub.”