Folks are funny like that. I filled up with petrol at a filling station opposite where I worked in Reading back in the mid '80's. I think it is now a Lidl supermarket.
I filled up here often, normally late in the evening and one day, having filled up during the 'night shift' I went to pay. The cashier wouldn't let me pay unless I took my helmet off! Strange how he let me fill the bike with it on and I would have left without giving them my businiess had he insisted.
Anyway, I thought for a moment and wondered if I should just ride off, the security cameras would have it all recorded anyway. Of course, I would have called the police but mobile phones were bigger than my bike and I didn't have one. I decided to take a ride into town to the local police station. I wasn't sure what was going to happen but anyway...
I told the guy he either took my payment or I was going to the police.
Well, he flew into a rage and stormed out of the locked pay booth and started throwing punches at me, still with my helmet on. Just as I landed a really good right hander on him a police car pulled up on the forecourt to fill up.
Naturally the guy claimed I had tried to leave without paying but a woman who was behind me told the truth and the guy was hauled off to clink for the night. Turned out the copper was a class 1 police rider and not well disposed to cashiers picking on bikers. He wondered why I hadn't headbutted the eejit
The police called later that night to ask if I wanted to press charges and told me the manager of the garage had sacked the guy once he saw the video footage. I declined, reckoning my taxes were better spent elsewhere.
The upside was that the woman got her tank of fuel free and I got my couple of gallons free to boot as a gesture of 'goodwill' from the manager.
But, strange as it may seem, it bloody hurts! There is a bigger target to hit and getting the chinbar whipped round is most uncomfortable, I can tell you
