Working nights in a big city?

[BUCKSHOT Member Find all posts View Profile Close BUCKSHOT]

Anyone here like working nights in a big city? I just love it. All the weird things happen at night. Also there is nothing like the lights of a big city at night and listening to late night radio!

[Hank1 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hank1]

Anyone here like working nights in a big city? I just love it. All the weird things happen at night. Also there is nothing like the lights of a big city at night and listening to late night radio!

Tampa is a moderately sized city ( I'm from NYC) and yes, I enjoy it very much. Generally speaking, my shift is 1700-0300hrs., and from time to time I work to 0500. But, I have a take home car so it is really not too bad. After midnight, there are only two types of people outside......Good guys and the bad guys.

[Curtis Baillie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Curtis Baillie]

Many years ago I had all of the Blockbuster stores in NYC. Lots of night work there . . . and the beat goes on.

[mh892 Member Find all posts View Profile Close mh892]

Anyone here like working nights in a big city? I just love it. All the weird things happen at night. Also there is nothing like the lights of a big city at night and listening to late night radio!

Never worked nights (or days) in a big city. I've always enjoyed the work on open ranges and secluded sites. There have been some times of unexpected excitement.

Did a short tour at a beach resort and at an industrial plant to fill in for a freind who was opening accounts and initialy short of guards. Interesting work.

My most enjoyable and memorable work is as a FEMA Contract Armed Security Officer at FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers and Trailer parks. Never a dull moment.

[Badge714 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Badge714]

I worked nights in the big city - Minneapolis/St. Paul, for 25 of my 30 years. I prefer working midnights more than any shift.
My favorite night shift post was Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. The cemetery was nice and quiet-most of the time. My supervisor was scared to come into the cemetery to make unannounced inspections, preferring to call me on the radio to come to the gate.
Between rounds, I'd put up a 100' long wire antenna between two monuments and listen to shortwave or distant AM radio stations. When I'd get sleepy, listening to some ghost stories on Art Bell or reading Stephen King would help me stay alert.
I would have an occasional visit from wiccans having secret meetings, teenage girls with Quija boards, and Goth kids wanting to write bad poetry and make love on the graves. Chasing them around the tombstones was a fun diversion.
I still prefer nights, but as an area supervisor, my bosses and our clients like to be able to get a hold of me right away if they have a problem.

[Hank1 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hank1]

and the beat goes on.

LOL....You said it!

Be safe,

Hank

[copelandamuffy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close copelandamuffy]

After 17 years of working 2300-0700, your body and mind begin to wear down. Yes the shift differential 0f 15% was nice, but I always felt tired
And commuting out of Boston going home was nice as traffic jams were
on the other side of the highway

If your married with kids, it is not easy for kids to be quiet on a summer
day so daddy can sleep. And even with an air conditioned bed room sleeping
on a summer day with the sun high in the sky was no fun.

I read some where that those who work years and years on the night shift,
it saps three years off your life


I am glad to be on days 0600-1400 hours

[JSam21 Member Find all posts View Profile Close JSam21]

After 17 years of working 2300-0700, your body and mind begin to wear down. Yes the shift differential 0f 15% was nice, but I always felt tired
And commuting out of Boston going home was nice as traffic jams were
on the other side of the highway

If your married with kids, it is not easy for kids to be quiet on a summer
day so daddy can sleep. And even with an air conditioned bed room sleeping
on a summer day with the sun high in the sky was no fun.

I read some where that those who work years and years on the night shift,
it saps three years off your life


I am glad to be on days 0600-1400 hours

I love working nights. I too work from 2300-0700 and do I see some of the oddest people that St. Louis has to offer. I have my frequent fliers such as Willie Lotto. We call him Lotto because he will give you numbers to play on the Pick 3 or 4 then ask for 50 cents or a smoke.

We are a level one trauma center so every GSW North of Highway 40 comes to us. Therefore we get the cream of the crop of the urban community coming in every night.*please note the scarsam*

And Hank you are 100% correct. Working nights there are only good guys and bad guys... mostly bad guys.

[NRM_Oz Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close NRM_Oz]

I worked as a relief manager so you moved around alot and were sent to work at different sites as required or to sort out personnel problems. I loved nights as I enjoyed the summer nights and would enjoy getting set up for a good 12 hour shift.

Working with the buses as an Inspector (relief only) was an experience. Drunks, pavement pizzas (think about it), girls nights, boys nights, pick pockets, beggars, kids scamming passengers for $$, homeless men setting up to sell newspapers in the early morning, IT staff coming home from afternoon shift, lost tourists, USMC boys rushing back to barracks before 0400 passes expire, geriatric men who only come out at night from their hostels, same customers at McDonalds every shift, garbage workers cleaning up the city and the early morning deliveries of food and newspapers.

I could go months without working on this assignment but I would see the same people still follow the same routines over and over again. Life was never boring - especially at 0300 when the taxis were changing over and people were abusing me for not having more taxi's on a weekend night.

[Bill Warnock Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bill Warnock]

Hank, JSAM21 what ever happened to the catch phrase, "At this time of night the only people are out are bad women and robbers." I guess that dates me from the late 60s, early 70s.
Enjoy the day,
Bill

[HotelSecurity Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close HotelSecurity]

For badge714. Were people dying to get in?

I have spent most of my 30+ years working the 15h00 to 23h00 shift then going home & being the "On call supervisor" until 05h00. In the hotel business the most action is between 15h00 & 23h00. Everyone is out during the days. Night have more dramatic incidents but less of incidents in general than the afternoon shift. However if I had to do it all over again I would choose the overnight shift. The 15h00 to 23h00 is terrible on family life. I'm surprised I'm not divorsed but understand why I only have 1 child

[copelandamuffy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close copelandamuffy]

Yes the thrill of the night life can be loads of fun.
When my wife and I were younger we would be
out at discos in Boston till two in the morning, and
stop off at all night diners for a bite to eat.

But as you get older,and I hope wise I try to recall these works


Nothing Good happens after Midnight

As per my previous post, I did this from 1979-1996
And yes it is hard on family life. Thank God I have a very supportive
woman who stood by me. You go to hockey games your daughter
is playing in, and daddy is up in the stands sound asleep.

My wife called me one morning at work at 0300 hours. She told me
she was laying on the floor talking to me, because outside our home
where about a half a dozen Massachusetts State Police Cruisers, K-9 dogs,
and State Troopers running through the woods. We live only a few miles
from the county prision and there had been a mass escape. One of the State
Police Officers actually tried opening our bulk head, and went into our tool shed. My wife was shaking with fear

For those who work days, think about this call from your wife in the middle of the night, and your at work.

That got me to thinking of getting off nights. And one night
I left work exhausted and just dang tired. I fell asleep at the
wheel, and I believe I drove throught a red light. Thankfully
I must have been doing no more than 5-10 miles per hour.
What woke me up, was the fact I was approaching a railroad
crossing. The sound of the crossing arm bells,and the train
engineer blowing his horn startled me out of my slumber and
woke me. Shortly there after I had enough of 17 years of this

[SecTrainer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SecTrainer]

I loved nights in LE because the calls were more interesting (except alarms) and there was lots less BS work like serving bench warrants, running cars to the city garage for maintenance and funeral escorts (B O R I N G).

And, best of all, it was easier to sneak up on things. We weren't supposed to run "dark", but we all did it, and it was on just such a run that I glided down an alley and noticed a pair of legs sticking out of a building, flailing frantically. This seemed odd to me, and checking my police manual I found that sure enough, there aren't supposed to be legs sticking out of buildings. I must investigate this mystery further, I thought.

It was a metal panel industrial building and the clown had unbolted one corner of a panel and pried it away enough to wriggle through, figuring he'd beat the alarm system. Well, he got about halfway through when the panel snapped back on him; his belt caught on the sharp corner of the panel and it pinned him like a butterfly. I toyed with the idea of leaving him there hoping a rabid raccoon would nibble on his hiney, but the sergeant said no he didn't think we should do that, so I threw him in the slammer instead. Good collar.

[JSam21 Member Find all posts View Profile Close JSam21]

Hank, JSAM21 what ever happened to the catch phrase, "At this time of night the only people are out are bad women and robbers." I guess that dates me from the late 60s, early 70s.
Enjoy the day,
Bill

Bill it sounds vaugely familar... but not to make you feel old... I was born in the 80s so...

[Hank1 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hank1]

Hank, JSAM21 what ever happened to the catch phrase, "At this time of night the only people are out are bad women and robbers." I guess that dates me from the late 60s, early 70s.
Enjoy the day,
Bill

Bill~
I have never heard of that particular phrase.