Ex-girlfriend of mine was in college in Dublin in the early 90's. She worked for Xtra-Vision, it's like an Irish version of Blockbuster, a video rental shop that closed at midnight.

On her second night on the job a junkie comes in with a syringe full of blood and held it to her neck. He told her that he was HIV positive and unless she emptied the cash register that he would inject her with his blood.

She gave him the money. Nearly collapsed out of fright. Called the cops. Called her boss. She was totally distraught. The boss came was understanding, commiserated with her and sent her home for the night with double pay. She cried herself to sleep and vowed never to work there again.

The pay, however, was very good and her boss was cool. So she went back. She worked for another month and it happened again. Another junkie, another syringe. This time she didn't bother calling the cops but called her boss who came in and let her go home for the night. With pay.

It happened again about a month later. This time when she calls her boss, he asks her "You OK to keep working?" She says "Yeah, I guess!" and goes on with her night like nothing had happened. Boss didn't even bother coming in!

She worked there for a year and was held up 7 times. Always by junkies. Always with syringes full of their blood. And the kicker is - any time there was more than twenty notes in the till it was dropped in a time safe in the floor. The junkies only made ten to fifteen notes at a time. The owner just treated it like a legitimate business expense; he reckoned it was cheaper to lose out once a month to junkies and pay his staff that little bit extra than hire a security firm.

Dublin in the early 90's was in the middle of a heroin epidemic. Crazy fuckers. They wouldn't, necessarily, hurt you but, if you didn't comply, well, let's just say you should comply...

TL;DR An ex-girlfriend of mine got so used to having junkies threaten her with HIV infected blood that laughs about it now.