Working as a crossing guard kind of has its extremes. Some times of the day are extremely busy, while other times an hour can go by without anyone needing to cross the street. Since most kids leave school all at once in the afternoons, the latter end of my afternoon shift is usually quiet. I am permitted to bring a chair with me to sit down during lulls. Since I usually go straight to another job where I’m on my feet for several hours, any opportunity to sit down is nice since it gives my feet a break and helps me keep my stamina for my next job that day.
Today I was working my afternoon crossing guard shift, and was faced with a deluge of middle schoolers trying to cross the street. While I was earnestly controlling the flow of a tidal wave of people, somewhere in the chaos some smartass thought it would be funny if he or she took my chair when I wasn’t looking :mad:
Last week, a fellow guard at another corner had warned me that kids will steal chairs the first chance they get. While I did not doubt that, I was confident that I could catch the enterprising thief in the act. However, when there are literally one hundred teenagers all crammed at one street corner, its impossible to keep an eye on my sign. I gotta make sure none of the students decide they have a death wish and try to dart across traffic. When I’m stopping traffic, I have to make sure some joker in an Urban Assault Vehicle doesn’t try and swerve past me despite my sign indicating him to stop. I have to make sure there are no glass bottles or other projectiles aimed at my head, hurled by ungrateful students. I have a million things to watch out for, everything happening in several short seconds, than in all this chaos my attention got diverted away from my chair.
sigh I really miss that chair. 
I had it since I started working as a crossing guard three years ago. I will get a replacement, but at this point I think it is prudent if I wait until I get assigned a less crowded corner to bring it with me in the afternoons.