Get-Tar Region
Target, or Get-Tar Region as Chris refers to it in Sonichu comics, is an American-based retail store, with some locations in Chris's state of Virginia.
For Chris, it is most well known for an infamous incident from 2005 in which he was kicked out in humiliating fashion over his refusal to listen to store management after they had asked him to stop loitering.
July 2005 incident
On 20 July 2005, Chris felt it'd be a great idea to head down to his local Target store, located in Charlottesville, Virginia,[1] and continue his Love Quest there. After being told to leave because he was loitering and disturbing customers, Chris fought back and was eventually restrained, handcuffed at his wrists and ankles, and even worse, cuffed to a wheelchair like a slow-in-the-mind. Chris was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct in the aftermath of the incident, though the state ultimately decided against taking the case to trial.[2][3]
In Chris's own words
Chris described the incident in an entry to CWC's Diary.
| "July 20, 2005: … I was at the new Target store, just hanging around, not bothering anyone. And, from out of the blue, these two Manajerks asked me to leave, because they said that I was loitering; I was NOT! I was there hoping to find an 18-23-year old, Boyfriend-Free girl, like I usually do.
Then, from out of the blue, after I told them off, they came back with two Jerkops! I was slightly intimidated, but mostly annoyed and ready to strike back on them. They asked me to leave, and never return. I did not want to leave. I would have left peacefully, in fact, I was ready to go, but I had a prepared speech to say to them stupid Jerkops. And, during the middle of my speech, they chased me, pulled my pants, and pinned me to the floor. Five Jerkops dog-piled on me as I struggled to get free. A thousand pounds of sausages on my 180 pound body was seriously a cut-off for my Breathing Flow. They handcuffed my wrists and legs, and they hog-tied me! Not only did I felt humiliated from being the victim, but I was angry at them! Not only for handcuffing me, but once again thwarting my efforts in trying to find a Boyfriend-Free Girl. They drove me to the county jail, but fortunately, they did not keep me there; I was released to my family. But now I have to go to court on July 29 at 9:00 AM at the Albemarle County Courthouse, close to the Downtown Mall. So now, I feel very miserable, sad, lonely and rejected. And, while I had the handcuffs on me, both my hands, mostly my right, were seriously cut off from blood flow, and they both felt numb. It was terrible. But my mother and I are going to get back at them in court, in fact, I learned that the Jerkop who arrested me was called Bagget (that was the only thing about the situation that was hilarious; replace the “B” with an “F,” and you can see how funny it was). |
The correspondence with Jackie revealed that in the ensuing court case, Chris thought that his work with the Pokémon TCG League let him off the hook.[4] In reality, the charges were likely dropped due to insufficient evidence, and/or the state just not considering the case to be worth pursuing, due to the comparatively minor nature of the charges and Chris being a first-time offender who could fall back on the autism card. Chris probably mentioned the volunteer work because he believed a person's merits, no matter how unrelated, would automatically make one innocent of all charges. It is also telling that he recounted the charge as "Soliciting", whereas the actual charges were "Disorderly Conduct" and "Trespassing"; he feels that he was only persecuted because of his Love Quest efforts, and not because he was tard raging.
LoveYouLongTime offered another perspective of the incident:
| “ | I'm sure you all remember the Target incident. Where he got "hog tied" by the jerkops, had his pants pulled down, face rubbed against the carpet and cried a tear of blood? Yeah, about that. First, he was kicked out within a few days to a week of Target opening. That's just sad. When he was approached by management to leave, he ignored them. When they kept pressing, he finally back talked them and called them jerkops. When the cops came, guess what Chris did....He tried to fucking run. Hence why he was hog tied and I'm sure in that struggle his pants just happened to come off. | ” |
| LoveYouLongTime | ||
In the comic
The incident distressed Chris so greatly that he adapted it into Sub-Episodes 7 and 8 of Sonichu #4, entitled "Off-Target." "Cleverly" renaming Target as "the Get-Tar Region" (which causes many newstarters to the series to think Chris is talking about the guitar retail chain Guitar Center), the story seems surprisingly faithful to what really happened that day, at least until the sword-fight and the part where his imaginary twin sister saves him from a Transformer.
What's interesting to note about the story is how Chris betrays himself in his attempt to whitewash the story to make himself the hero. At the beginning of "Off-Target," he all but admits that he plans to use the new locale to sit around all day, using The Oversized Drinking Straw of Fail to fill the singularity inside his gut with its soda, drawing his shit comics, and waiting for teetotaling Aryan supermodels to show up and bear his children.
| “ | This is a great set-up.. an open bar facing the path to the exit, a dollar for a drink with free refills, and all the ladies will have to walk by me. I'm bound to be found by a Boyfriend free, 18-23-Year old girl now. Especially since this Love Quest has been going on for about two years now. Toodie-Froodie, drawing comics all day long. Only three days since I skipped my last deadline! :) | ” |
| Christian Weston Chandler, Sonichu #4 | ||
So by Chris's own admission, his intention was to pay the good people at Target a dollar a day to let him sit in their store and bother female customers until he got laid or died, whichever came first. Strangely, the management wasn't really thrilled with this arrangement, and as the comic shows, Chris clearly can't understand why loitering on private property is bad.
Instead of focusing on the Manajerks'/Jerkops' motivations, Chris simply infers that they despise him for being a virgin with rage, and places the most attention on the indignity he suffered from his arrest. Hence, the comic shows Chris being tackled (albeit by a giant robot), "hog-timed" (complete with apple, as if he were about to be rotisseried), and hauled off for trial (by Mary Lee Walsh, in a scene ripped off from The Transformers: The Movie).
In another example of how selfish Chris really is, he writes his own mother out of the story, and has Crystal rescue him instead. That's gratitude for you.
Other mentions of Target
Chris evidently started shopping at Target again an indeterminate amount of time after the incident, either through the store employees agreeing to drop the ban, or just forgetting about it.
In August 2009, Chris was goaded by Kacey to consider applying for jobs around his area, and settled on Target as his choice.[5] Chris initially stated he received an e-mail rejecting his application, allegedly because "they got enough people as it is right now."[6] However, things seemed to work out the next month, as he managed to snag a job interview at the store. Following that, Chris failed to get a hold of his interviewer and allegedly received another rejection e-mail,[7] eventually conceding that he wasn't hired. This would be the final time that Chris ever attempted applying for a job. It's unknown if this was the result of the management not wanting to hire him based off the previous incidents (if this was the same location), a particularly poor showing at the interview, or knowing Chris, some combination of the two.
Chris visited Target on 16 November 2014, as part of his Sonic Boom Protests, where he apparently planned to vandalize any Sonic Boom-related stock that they had. However, he found out that they kept copies of the games in a locked case and, clearly forgetting any lessons learned nine years prior, settled for raging at a couple of employees over the store's decision to stock the games.
Chris was photographed at a Newport News Target in April 2019 by a fan.[8] The photo shows a prominent bald spot on the back of Chris's head. His mental state also seemed to be in decline based on the fan's account:
| “ | I walked back by him again as he was in line at the food avenue to get the shitty Pizza Hut pasta and he was just muttering really loudly. Couldn’t make out what he was saying... I kept looking around hoping to see him shopping around but never saw him again... | ” |
In July 2021, Chris claimed to The Knights of CWC group that he had gone to Target to hunt down the My Little Pony G5 toys to magically phase them out of existence.[9] How much of this is wishful thinking on Chris's part is unclear, or if he physically attempted to hide the products.
In December 2024, Chris tried to promote his custom Transformers as if they were being sold at retail shops such as Target. To effect this, he brought his custom boxed toys in, set them on shelves in place of actual stock, and photographed the displays to post on social media. He also hashtagged toy company Hasbro while promoting the "merged" figures.[10]
Gallery
An artist's rendition of the target incident.
The Jerkhief puts his thousand pound sausage in Chris.
HOG-TIME HIM!
Chris created a TSSSF card based on the incident 15 years later, depicting it as it happened to Chris Chan Sonichu.
See also
External links
References
- ↑ Google Maps page for the Target in question.
- ↑ Disorderly conduct charge, 20 July 2005
- ↑ Trespassing charge, 20 July 2005
- ↑ Jackie e-mails Part 2#Chris lies about The Game Place
- ↑ Kacey Call 4
- ↑ Kacey Call 11
- ↑ Kacey Call 23
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/ChrisChanSonichu/comments/bdnxp3/saw_him_at_target_today_wanted_to_say_hi_but_got/
- ↑ The Knights of CWC chats (July 2021)#Triggered by MLP G5 Toys
- ↑ December 2024 social media posts#Merged figures are appearing
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