Calling the cops would have been a big waste of time. They would have been hours getting there, then taken some statements, and then left. The cologne wouldn't have magically appeared and no one would have gotten justice. The cops don't give a **** about a missing bottle of men's perfume, and they aren't going to commit any resources to the hunt.
That doesn't make violent armed assault the right answer, but the idea that calling the cops would have accomplished anything of value is simply wishful thinking. It's not like he had the culprit red handed. All he had was his word that it was there before and it's not there now. Even in a world where the cops really do care about serving and protecting there's nothing there for the cops to do.
No. The correct answer wasn't call the cops and it wasn't grab a weapon and attack the guys in the booth. Who knows if they were even the guys working the shift when the bottle supposedly disappeared? He could have spoken to their manager, but most of the time that isn't going to accomplish anything. Unless he has some reason to believe one of his employees is responsible he isn't going to be any help either, and even if he does he may not care.
The situation sucked. But it got way worse, and for no damn good reason. What did the dad think he was going to gain from attacking those guys with a weapon? Probably nothing. It was probably the same mentality that he used in prison. There was a perceived loss of face and he couldn't allow that. And now his son is dead. And of course his son was gonna jump in and back up his dad. It's not because he was a chip off the old block in any negative sense, although he might have been, it's because that's his dad.
My dad got brutally mugged about ten years ago, and I tell you this truthfully. If I knew today who did that then I would do bad things to them they would never recover from. Because he's my dad. And if my dad started a fight, which he never ever would because my dad is just an old fashioned "nice guy," maybe I would try to pull him out of it. But once battle is joined, I can't just let him take a beating. Because he's my dad.
This is heartbreaking. Even if we assume the worst of everyone involved. An exciting night of celebration and transition into adulthood turns turbulent, violent, and tragic. I could literally weep. Even if the dad was a complete monster, his son is dead. And his woman's son is dead. And it's all his fault. And his unborn child will never know his brother, because his dad got him killed. For no damn good reason at all.
So sad. So unnecessary. It seems obvious who's at fault here, although it does seem weird that the attendants had machetes and homemade knives. I wonder what that was about. Maybe this isn't the first time they've been assaulted at work. Maybe they're crazy too. Maybe it's something that's perfectly normal and just seems odd because of the rest of the story. After all, I have knives in my car. All for perfectly normal non-crazy reasons. One is a utility pocket knife I keep in the center console, one is an old kitchen knife in the trunk I keep in case I ever need a junk blade while doing emergency auto repair. In the wrong circumstances I suppose that could make me seem crazy too, like I have a car full of strange weapons. But that was never the point. Maybe one of these guys is a machete historian in his off time and was planning to go to a machete convention that night after work, and the other guy makes war inspired art out of found objects. Who knows? But it does seem like there's probably still more to this story.
Still, the video doesn't lie. Dad went crazy, son got dead. Sad. Sad. Sad.
-Rob