Guy tries to beat me up because he broke the rules

As this subreddit gets started, I figured I’d drop one of my more crazy stories from over the years. If any of you guys know me, you know that I worked at Six Flags Great Adventure for 8 seasons. Particularly back in 2020 and 2021 guests were SUPER rowdy (presumably because everyone was stuck inside and didn’t know how to act anymore). SFGADV is pretty strict on ride rules and lose articles for not only the safety of guests and employees, but to cover the park’s butt since they have had some pretty bad incidents with phones and loose articles hitting people in the past. I was the supervisor of Bizarro (Medusa) back in 2020 and during one of our busier days (even during covid we had a ton of people which is crazy) this guy and his group got assigned the front row. He was on the phone with somebody while waiting in line and continued talking as he started boarding. Once everyone was settled and we began our restraint checking process myself (who was at the "unload" position at the time) and the other attendant (loader) asked him if he could secure his phone or put it to the side. The guy apologized and put it in his zipper pocket.

After checking the rest of the restraints on the train I walked back to my position and we did our visual scan. As soon as the operator said all clear over the mic and the floors started moving down (Bizarro/Medusa is a floorless coaster) he said "Cancel Hands Off" and removed his hands from the dispatch buttons. This means there was some sort of problem discovered after the ride started moving out of the station. My operator who was also a close friend of mine started talking over the mic to the front row asking someone to put their phone away. Whoever it was must have put their phone away because my operator asked the crew for a visual scan to restart the ride. Not even a millisecond after the train starts moving out of the station he takes his hands off the panel and goes "SIR you NEED to keep your phone away or we cant start the ride". At this point the train is out of position so we basically need to send it out at this point. The front car was about to exit the station so we could no longer reach it. However, I went up there to see what was going on. It was the same guy (go figure) and we explained to him that if he took his phone out again the ride would be stopped and his phone would be confiscated and handed to security.

For context, in New Jersey it's illegal to break any rules of the ride and you could legit face jail time for breaking rules on a ride. There's a sign at the front of every ride stating the rules as well as the statute saying if you break these rules you could face xyz penalties. So with that being said, we do have the power to confiscate a phone or any item once the ride starts (we usually just stop it on the lift hill, walk up the stairs, take it, then put it to the side in the station and give it back to them afterwards with a warning to please not do it again). However, in cases like this where there were now MULTIPLE warnings so we would usually call security.

He says "my bad, didn't realize it was that serious" and puts it back in his zipper pocket. We send out the train and the crew is keeping a close eye on it as it went up the lift (even the guests in the station were doing it lol). As soon as it crests the top of the lift (we can't really stop it at that point) he pulls out his phone. At this point my operator calls security and we moved a little slower to allow security some time to get up there. Once his train arrived in the waiting position behind the station I went to the back of the station (he was still recording crazily enough) and said "dude you must have gotten such a cool video security wants to see it". His face went from "I got away with it!" to having the worst day of his life. I ask my operator to switch positions so I could sit down in the op booth and write a witness statement since security always wants one whenever something happens.

As we brought his train back in he was screaming "bro you suck, just do your job!" over and over again. As soon as his harness unlocked he ran to the entrance to the op booth and started screaming at me. I just told him that security wants to talk to him and him yelling at me is just making it worse for himself and his party. Security was walking up the exit ramp at this time so I was just trying to de-escalate. Next thing you know it he takes a step into the booth screaming at me to "do your ****** job bro, just let people have fun" and calling me every name in the book. I told him that I quite literally just did my job and I noticed my friend who I switched positions with was ready to help me out if need be. He then threatened to beat me up so I stood up and told him to leave the booth since he couldn't be in there and things would NOT end well for him if he kept this energy. This guy had to be a whole foot shorter than me so one if he hit me he would 1.) definitely be banned from all six flags properties, 2.) I could press charges if I wanted to and 3.), I was twice this dudes size so if I needed to defend myself not only was he going up against a dude twice his size but three other team members on the ride crew, as well as security who was now about to enter the station. He backed up for a second and then went to throw a punch but completely missed since he was more than likely drunk or something. At this point security ran up the final level of the exit ramp and bear hugged him and dragged him out of the ride area. I was like ok cool back to business and just kept the ride running since we had a 90 minute line and we were understaffed like crazy. Keep in mind that his party members just DIPPED the second he started acting like this and did not even entertain the idea of helping him or at least being on his side.

A security team member came back like an hour later and I asked him if he needed the witness statement still since they witnessed the end of the altercation and that alone is grounds for removal from the park, and I forgot to finish writing it. He told me "yeah I mean give it to me anyways just to follow protocol but not only did we ban him but he got arrested". Turns out when they brought him to the security office and told him he was getting a two year ban from the three NJ properties he pulled down his mask and spit on the security manager that was telling him he was banned. Jackson PD and State Troopers were in the room and since it was during covid, apparently spitting on someone's was WAY worse than normal in terms of the law (makes sense). So yeah he definitely found out LMAO.

Moral of the story? Don't use your phone on rides I guess.