Evacuation

I was standing at the guest service desk when two mall security guards came in to Target (as I’ve mentioned before, my Target is attached to a mall). They asked to see a manager. I thought maybe some thieves were spotted or something, so I called the LOD over.

Around twenty minutes later, I noticed that there were a lot of people leaving the mall in a hurry. Pretty soon, the lights in the mall were off, and all the stores were closed and locked up. I looked at my watch and noticed that the mall closed nearly half an hour early.

More minutes passed, and the mall security guards came back to talk to the Target Protection Specialists (TPS, or Target security guards). Finally, the LOD came rushing over to the overhead page system and announced that there was an emergency in the building and Target had to be evacuated.

After some orderly chaos (some of the guests were really attached to the merchandise they had spent an hour finding), the building was evacuated and locked up. Most of the Target team members ended up at our designated rally point. We learned that a suspicious package had been left outside one of the mall’s department stores, and the police told everyone to evacuate. We waited for a while to hear any updates (to see if we could go back in to finish working), but after half an hour or so, we were allowed to leave.

It was interesting to experience a bomb scare. Oh, the world we live in these days. I wasn’t afraid for my life at all; I trust that Target and its protocols would keep me safe. Even so, evacuating from a possible emergency is definitely surreal.