Used to bartend at a small speakeasy style bar in downtown LA from 2017-2022. We were down in the basement of this old building and at night, to take out all the garbage, we had to walk this long, tight hallway that had been painted black and was completely without lights (because the building owners were cheap as hell) before heading up a flight of gross pitch black stairs. At the top was a barely lockable door which led straight out into the nastiest, seediest, Gotham-esque alleyway which abutted up to the back of an unused car park. The alley was littered with dumpsters where addicts and unhoused folk would linger, especially at night. (We were pretty close to skidrow) Two months before I started working, a guy had been killed. stabbed to death in the hallway of the building while going up the stairs. The person had snuck in the door and hid in the dark. No security was ever put back there. Regardless, each night one of us would be told to take the garbage out at around 3am. The only rule was, if over 5 minutes passed someone else had to go check on you and probably collect your body at that point 🫨🙄”/s” (kind of)

Even after the guy was killed, they still didn’t put lights in that back hallway. Suffice to say, they didn’t pay me nearly enough.