Look after your drunkies, and they'll look after you.

Two weeks ago I had some girls steal on my at the bottleshop I work at. One of them asked me questions regarding pre-mixed rum in the fridge on one side of the shop. As I turned and helped her, three other girls came in, walked to the other side of the store where the straight spirits were and took off with 2x1L bottles of rum each. A guy I was serving just earlier saw it all happened, and followed them down the streets to this house on his push bike. He then came back and told me the address and what he saw.

Today he dropped by for a purchase and told me that that night they were actually hiding behind some random house because they thought he was some rogue cop with a torch or something. He later followed them silently and told me that they zig zagged their way to the train station shortly afterwards. Sitting down on the opposite platform, he observed that there was an older girl who was directing the group. She sat on the chair on the platform as the other three hid in the shadows while waiting for a train. When the doors opened, the leader blew a whistle to indicate that all was clear, and the entire bunch rushed onboard the train that headed out into the city.

He told me of a similar encounter one time where he witnessed a theft in a liquor store at a different suburb that he used to live in. A week later he saw the same guy at the local train station, chatted him up, got his name and address, went back to the bottle shop and disclosed it all.

Plus the fact that I also had a terminally ill, son-of-a-5th-Dan practitioner promise me he'll kick down the door of whomever I wish (as he's got nothing to lose) when I paid the difference for his purchase, I conclude that it's better to have drunkie friends than drunkie enemies.

True story.