I was standing by Baggage Claim 2 in Terminal 2 one Sunday afternoon waiting for a cruise guest to show up when a woman in her 30s proceeds to the double doors beside me with the following sign on them:
PLEASE USE THE NEXT SET OF DOORS.
Does she read the sign? Of course not. She approaches the doors to make her exit, when I suddenly call out, "Ma'am, you can't go out that way. It's an emergency exit." She literally jumps out of her skin. I must have startled her. She looks at me and frowns. I repeat, "It's an emergency exit." Then I point at the door's sign. She looks at the door, then back at me and nervously smiles and walks the other direction.
One of my cruise guests shows up and is now waiting for her luggage when a short, young, bald-headed man walks towards the emergency doors. He too doesn't read the sign. I bark out, "Sir! The alarm's going to go off if you go out that way." He looks at me then stares long and hard at the door as if he's just now realizing oh yes, a sign in BIG, BOLD, RED LETTERS is staring back at him. He doesn't even smile at me. He just runs away. Sorry to embarrass you, man, but had I not warned you, you would have been even more embarrassed once the entire terminal shuts down all because you did not read the sign!
My cruise guest has retrieved two of the three bags she's brought with her. She goes back to the carousel to look for her missing luggage when another woman, this time in her 60s, goes towards the double doors. "Excuse me ma'am, but that's an emergency exit. You want to exit these doors right here," as I point towards the next set of doors to her right as the BIG, BOLD, RED sign indicates with an arrow. She exits the non-emergency doors.
