Since moving here in February I have seen some really insane stuff. I started keeping a journal about it and I have been updating it whenever I see something weird, awful, or dangerous. Here is Part 2 to my journal.

• Middle aged man is walking around my parking lot screaming about someone named Linda. He is calling her a whore and screaming about her being unfaithful. I am just smoking a vape pen and this guy is walking back and forth screaming about killing her. He just walked past me and yelled, "I fucking want her dead NOW!" He is now walking in traffic.

• Two men in their twenties are already on one. Just opened the store at 7am and we already have tweakers yelling at each other and fighting over some dirty plastic bottles. One of them is riding a small child’s bicycle. After a few moments they both go their separate ways. The man with the bike rides off into on-coming traffic.

• I was trying to hit my vape pen before work and a guy walked up to me on the sidewalk and started harassing me. He claimed that I was “bending over for him” whatever the fuck that means. He then asked if he could walk by, I said, “Yes, I moved over for you.” And I motioned up the sidewalk. He didn’t go through. “Why’d you do that man?” The guy asked me. I got confused. “Do what? I moved over.” The guy then says, “Why did you bend over in front of me like that?” That caught me by surprise. “What are you talking about?” he started getting aggressive and I wasn’t having it. “Okay man move on.” I said. But he stayed and dropped the paper bag he was carrying. “Why are you racist? Why are you talking to me like that?” He started walking towards me. At this point I said fuck it and walked away. “Whatever man, Go Away! Get out of here!” And he started calling after me. “Why’d you do that dude!” He yelled out at me. I turned and saw him approaching again. I yelled this time, “GO AWAY!” He got confrontational and I threatened to call the police. This is when my manager came up to us, “Why are you being racist asshole!” the man yelled at me. I again sternly told him to leave. My manager chimed in and told the man that he is on our property and that he has been told to leave. The man then walked to the sidewalk and said that if we called the police he would just run away. He then tried to tell my boss that he wanted to talk to him privately. My boss refused. I called the police and the man ran away. Middle aged, short cut faded hair, neck tattoo that reads “Half-Life” a star on the side of his neck that says est. 19.. I couldn’t read the rest of it. He was dark skinned but I couldn’t say if he was black, hispanic, or pacific islander. Skinny and standing at about 5’10 or 5’9. Gray shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers.

• A guy came into my shop and was being loud and obnoxious. He said that he wanted to see everything. I asked for his ID and he presented me with his phone. I told him that we couldn’t take IDs on phones. He said that we take IDs like that all the time and I assured him that we didn’t. Then he told me, “Fuck it then, I’ll just have someone else shop for me. So tell me what's good!” I refused and told him that I can’t do business with him because he doesn’t have an ID. He called me names and said he was just going to send his girl in. I said that’s fine but she can’t shop for you. He laughed at me, mocked me, and insulted me and left. He is very slim, taller than me, perhaps about six feet tall, he has a dirty black shirt, black pants, and a chopped up afro that looks like it was set on fire in the middle. It appears like he is balding but it is intentionally cut that way. Generally scummy looking. A few moments later a regular customer came in, light-skinned, with light eyes, and a tattoo that says “Golden” on his right forearm, and bought an eighth. He left and walked off to the market. Another shrimpy looking old man (44 but looks 54) came in and acted weird but I didn’t think anything of it. This man looks incredibly old and wears skater clothes like he is trying to fit in. He also ordered the same eighth. This guy had come in a couple of times before and his ID was valid. He left and I watched him walk over to the market (the next business over) and hand the weed to the guy I kicked out. The second customer was also walking away laughing. The guy I kicked out ran up to our store laughing and yelling at me. Pointing at me and laughing, calling me a bitch and telling me that he can get whatever he wants and I can’t do shit. HE opened the jar outside and smelled it in front of the store, mocking me and laughing at me. He called me names and left. I am banning all three customers from buying cannabis here.

• Got to work and a stolen truck is parked outside on the street. It has an American flag attached to the back. There are various stolen tools, parts, and junk all around it. The license plate is registered to a Buick car, there are stolen U-Haul parts, and attached is a stolen/stripped U-Haul trailer. While looking at the truck outside, someone started screaming about “Being the King” and smoking something with a torch outside of the Restaurant across the street. He moved on after smoking outside.

• A guy just came into my store and told us that he just assaulted someone on Burnside outside of his market. The guy had some cuts on his knuckles. He said that he walked to the market this morning and saw someone smoking drugs outside of the store. He asked them to stop and they disrespected him and kept smoking so he “knocked them out”.

• A homeless man with a shopping cart full of trash bags is blocking our sidewalk, doing heroin or shooting something else into his veins. He nodded out and just slumped across the sidewalk. After forty-five minutes or so he begins to get his stuff together and walks off with the shopping cart, walking in the turn lane up to the intersection where he is rustling with the garbage bags.

• A guy is selling stolen Milwaukee tools in our parking lot. He has them in four plastic target shopping bags. I let them know that they can’t sell the tools in our parking lot. The guys insulted me and called me a bitch. I informed my bosses but they don’t want to do anything about it except lock them out.

• A man aggressively walked up to the building with a baseball bat in his hand and a 4 Loko can. He came inside and was angry and yell-talking about some “Bitch that stole my shit this morning!” he said, “If I catch that piece of shit then I am going to beat the ever loving shit out of that fucker.” I had a customer at the time and he said, “Don’t Worry.” to her. I quickly ended the sale and got her out of the store. The man threw a $5.00 bill at me and said to give him the most weed for that. I asked for his ID and he got agitated and said he didn’t have it. He started getting his stuff together. I said, “Sorry man, I can’t help you without an ID.” and he muttered, “Let me catch you out there.” when he left. I felt that was a direct threat and reported it to my boss.

• Walked outside to clean the parking lot and saw a guy just sitting on our curb without a shirt who was smoking something out of a plastic pen. This guy is melting and inhaling burnt plastic while trying to get high. He left and left the Pen/Pipe behind. I threw it away without touching it. The guy walked off somewhere.

• Overnight, someone busted our lock off the side of our building and went back there to shit on the side of our building. It’s everywhere. Gross.

• There's a tree that I sit under and eat my lunch around 11:30 everyday. A guy in a green Honda just pulled up near me rolled his window down and called me a piece of s*** white boy and ask what my f****** problem is. I just ignored him. He called me a stupid white piece of shit and he drove off. While I'm writing this into my phone, a homeless guy walks up to me and asks me for crystals. Gross.

• At 6:45am, a man without a shirt on is screaming and kicking at the door to the general market on the corner. The man is yelling at everyone around him including some women that were opening the nail salon next door to the market. He screamed that he would kill them. Then he screamed about someone stealing his gun with his initials scratched into it. But he doesn’t care, he doesn’t need it and he’s going to kill “those motherfuckers” anyway. He started walking off down the street screaming about this.

• A woman was slowly walking down the street with a jacket dragging behind her. She stopped near our parking lot and started talking with some bearded guy. The two looked like they were arguing. The bearded guy left and went to the market, he came back with a bottle of water. He and the woman walked over to a shady corner of our parking lot and started getting ready to shoot up. My boss went out and told them to move along. They started screaming at him but left and moved on.

• There is a very emaciated looking homeless/without care woman that is in a wheelchair outside of my business. She is asking people questions. A well dressed white male with grey hair, nice sunglasses, clean/pressed clothes, clean jorts, and clean nice shoes, seems to be getting very argumentative with her. He was yelling in her face at one point. I went outside but she wheeled off down the street to the market. The older man started walking away but then walked off toward where she went. Now they are yelling at each other outside of the market. I cannot make out what they are arguing about.

• A woman walked up to a man on a bike and took off her clothes right in front of him and in front of our store. She is missing a lot of teeth. She and the man on a bike are going through a backpack and dropping paper trash in my parking lot. They walked off to the apartments next door. I had to go outside with a grabber and clean up their mess.

This is an on-going diary that I have been keeping of all of the crazy stuff I have seen since moving here. Not like, "Oh there are so many homeless people." And more like, "There is a huge mental illness problem in this city." I love this place. Portland is beautiful and it's such an interesting place. I have seen so much beauty here. However, unfortunately I have seen SO MUCH crime or dangerous activities. This list probably doesn't even include half of what I had witnessed. Just when I remembered to document it.

Edit: Spelling, Removing Personal Info, and added the ending blurb.

Link to Part 1