First situation that caused me to "react"

[A_F]

I was walking to the car from the grocery store with the 12 year old. I loaded the bags in the car and I heard someone talking a little ways away.

When I looked up, the kid says "yeah i have a pen" and runs over to some guy who was about 4-5 cars away. Its angled parking, nose to nose so I could see him clearly.

I didnt want to charge over there and yell at him to stop trying to pick up underage girls ( i mean, i wanted to, but i didnt).

I always carry my glock in my hoodie (in a holster) so I leaned against my car with my hands in my hoodie and watched. I told myself if he makes any move towards her i dont like, its on. He used her pen to write something down (like what???? what could you possible need to write down while standing in parking lot?) then handed it back to her. When she got back to the car we had a nice little chat about running off to do favors for strangers.

i mean, who the hell asks a freakin KID if they have a pen? If you are a middle aged man you have no business talking to kids you dont know. in my opinion.

[Chuck]

Sounds like your Spidey sense kicked in just right. He was probably just a panhandler looking for "spare change", but had a slight potential to go downhill. You handled it correctly being prepared, but not drawing, not even to low ready. The wife will think about things and eventually take back the stupid comment, but don't count on it ever being out loud.

I considered low ready but there was a solid 10ft between us and I could see both of his hands. If he had had his hands in his pockets I probably would have went Defcon 2 (low ready).

As far as the stupid comment, after 15 years I know it will never be verbally taken back but it did earn me a slap on the butt as she walked away to look at another car. I'll take that as a Thank you hon.

That made me smile

[hillbilly]

JohnD. you did good. Do not ever ignore your instincts. The fact that he changed his direction after he knew he was "made" confirms he was planning on doing something.

hillbilly

[wobblygoblin]

Good reaction. There was no reason for him to be on a path to your wife. Sure he could have only been going to ask for some change, but maybe not.

Your instincts told you there was trouble, good you listened to them. After all, those spidey senses have gotten us out of caves and from prey to top of the food chain.

[wobblygoblin]

Friend of mine who does the same type of work around the statehouse told us today of his encounter. After dinner he walked down an alley behind the Rhodes Tower. Those familiar with Columbus will know where I'm talking about. It's where the Attorney General has his main offices (and where I worked for two years). So yeah, not too smart walking down the alley at evening time but it is busy and there is a diner in the alley.

He said out of nowhere this meth head comes up to him. He's got tear drop tats on his face and a Cleveland Browns tat on the other side of his face (maybe the tear drops are because he's said because the Browns are bad ). He says to my friend, "I just did meth and I want to do more. Give me some money." My friend fumbled for five dollars and gave it to him and got out of there.

Likely just a request for money but, whew.

[Ole_grizzly]

I had something similar where i made it clear I was carrying without drawing or really knowing for sure if there was a threat. Went to meet a friend after work about 5:30 at Melt in cleveland heights. I parked across the block, took my laptop bag with me to prevent it from being stolen, and was standing in the lobby. There's a large opaque wall that divides the lobby from the dining area, but you can see straight through to the bar, (although no one was at the bar). There was an older couple in front of me, and a hostess. She took them around the wall to my seat. All of a sudden I noticed someone invading my personal space staring at me hard, like I had slapped his mother. His face couldn't have been more than 12 inches from mine, and he moved there quietly. He was a kid, anywhere between 15-20, with a not freshly laundered white t-shirt. I took a step back, flipped my shirt out of the way, and rotated towards him with my hand on the butt of my sig p938, and his eyes widened. At that moment the hostess came around the wall, asked if there were two of us, and I said that I needed a table for two and he just grunted. I walked around, made sure my back wasn't to him, and then he proceeded to walk out of the restaurant. Nothing happened, I made sure to watch all around when I finally left the restaurant, and I hope that maybe he was just a weirdo. However, I had some adrenaline flowing and I was really glad I had decided to forego beer that night so that I could carry. The part that helps me confirm my suspicions were that he left right away before the hostess even came back.

[fyrfytr310]

I had something similar where i made it clear I was carrying without drawing or really knowing for sure if there was a threat. Went to meet a friend after work about 5:30 at Melt in cleveland heights. I parked across the block, took my laptop bag with me to prevent it from being stolen, and was standing in the lobby. There's a large opaque wall that divides the lobby from the dining area, but you can see straight through to the bar, (although no one was at the bar). There was an older couple in front of me, and a hostess. She took them around the wall to my seat. All of a sudden I noticed someone invading my personal space staring at me hard, like I had slapped his mother. His face couldn't have been more than 12 inches from mine, and he moved there quietly. He was a kid, anywhere between 15-20, with a not freshly laundered white t-shirt. I took a step back, flipped my shirt out of the way, and rotated towards him with my hand on the butt of my sig p938, and his eyes widened. At that moment the hostess came around the wall, asked if there were two of us, and I said that I needed a table for two and he just grunted. I walked around, made sure my back wasn't to him, and then he proceeded to walk out of the restaurant. Nothing happened, I made sure to watch all around when I finally left the restaurant, and I hope that maybe he was just a weirdo. However, I had some adrenaline flowing and I was really glad I had decided to forego beer that night so that I could carry. The part that helps me confirm my suspicions were that he left right away before the hostess even came back.

I'm not a big fan of alcohol anyways but this makes my constant sobriety easier to justify.

[jburtonpdx]

I was walking to the car from the grocery store with the 12 year old. I loaded the bags in the car and I heard someone talking a little ways away.

When I looked up, the kid says "yeah i have a pen" and runs over to some guy who was about 4-5 cars away. Its angled parking, nose to nose so I could see him clearly.

I didnt want to charge over there and yell at him to stop trying to pick up underage girls ( i mean, i wanted to, but i didnt).

I always carry my glock in my hoodie (in a holster) so I leaned against my car with my hands in my hoodie and watched. I told myself if he makes any move towards her i dont like, its on. He used her pen to write something down (like what???? what could you possible need to write down while standing in parking lot?) then handed it back to her. When she got back to the car we had a nice little chat about running off to do favors for strangers.

i mean, who the hell asks a freakin KID if they have a pen? If you are a middle aged man you have no business talking to kids you dont know. in my opinion.

Adult strangers have no business interacting with kids that are with other adults without first at the very least acknowledging the other adult. Except in a situation it would be normal - retail of some sort, something like that... You are right to find this odd

Considering what I wrote above I would not think it would be out of place for you to at least chase down and drag your kid back with you to your car. It's not your job to educate that adult but there is nothing wrong with dragging your kid where you want them to be...

I'm very glad you had a chat with the kid about favors for strangers... We want a nice society where people are polite and helpful but that needs to be balanced with safety and the ability to get out of bad situations should they develop. A 12 year old child in most cases has almost no chance of escaping the grip of an adult male if that had gone bad.

It's one of those things - possibly completely innocent and possibly not. It could be a situation where the bad guy was just getting started at being a bad guy. Learning how to work up the nerve to talk to children. Or the dude might have been writing down a phone number a friend just gave him over his cell phone before he forgot it... Either way, no reason to take what could be a life or death risk for a child or even for some adults.