Encounter In Wal-Mart parking lot

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Given that malls and big box stores are pretty much stupidity magnets (i.e. lotsa preoccupied people meandering about not paying attention), they also attarct a lot of predatory opportunists, and as the economy gets worse, so will the number of preditors out 'hunting' in a target rich environment. If you aren't seriously watching your "6" these days, you're pretty likely to have an unpleasant encounter, especially arond places like WalMart that cater to the less affluent/financially stressed. Fact of life.

I think the OP did a great job, no harm, no foul. From my keyboard, I have little doubt that he read the situation right, and kudos to his wife, too. Pax vobiscum.
 
"Trust your gut" is one of my cardinal rules in life. The OP trusted his, and it sounds to me as if he did exactly the right thing.

A friend of mine, who doesn't carry, once walked into a convenience store for a soda. She said something just didn't feel right; "the hair on the back of my neck was standing up." She decided to forego the soda and left. When she got home, she heard that the store had been robbed about two minutes after she'd left.
 
Amen to "trust your gut". There have been only a few times when this has happened to me, and I can attest that it never lies!
I think the BG is also running thru his script, and this is somehow broadcast to anyone who has his ears on; especially the intended victim. When you respond by running thru your own script, he senses that just the same. No matter if it's a BG, or dog or zombie. If you are thinking thru how to go about winning, he "feels" that. If you are thinking thoughts of fear and resignation, he feels that too. "Ain't skeered" is the correct answer. He starts to look harder at you to find out why.
Think of those times when you feel that things are amiss, but you are not armed. BLUFF!!!!!!!!!! -But bluff with your gut, and he'll back down.
 
I am a small caucasian female. I grew up in a black ghetto. When, as an adult, I lived in a particularly bad area (across the street from the projects near Fillmore in SF), my lack of fear was like shining armor everywhere I went.

I was never armed, but I was never scared. I made eye contact with everyone, I always said hello, and, frankly, alot of the BG's that many here would be uncomfortable around at the very least, were uncomfortable with me, because of my lack of fear, and some even figured I was crazy (although in retrospect many probably figured I was armed).

Because of the degree to which I took in and embraced my surroundings, I was able to establish a rapport with many of the icons of that ghetto, such that to this day I can show up, drop a name, and as long as there is no cross-fire, be perfectly safe. There were even times late at night I would hear one BG say to another, "don't mess with her, she cool." But nothing was better than the very oldest saying one to another, "...ooo, she walkin' *tall*."

Just food for thought.

Afterthought: What am I doing here? I really was so much safer back there. But as too many women will find out, the real threat is from those we let in and consider close friends and family. I'll take all the big scary bad guys the ghetto ever spit at me over the one guy I let myself consider "family" for one second too long.
 
Who knows?

I have been approached in parking lots before in my city by guys saying exactly the same thing.
They either wanted to sell me a speaker or gave me a sob story about needing gas money. I never gave them any business or money and I didn't feel threatened.
I don't know how the (possible)BG was approaching and no weapon was pulled so who knows?
 
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I have been approached in parking lots before in my city by guys saying exactly the same thing.
They either wanted to sell me a speaker or gave me a sob story about needing gas money. I never gave them any business or money and I didn't feel threatened.
I don't know how the (possible)BG was approaching and no weapon was pulled so who knows?
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Yes, I have had exactly the same experience. The guy asked if he could talk and never approached within 75 feet? I've been in his position before asking for directions. I don't especially see the threat, but hey, nobody got hurt or anything, so it came out fine. If people were in the parking lot they might've thought you were a jerk, but you're not there to make friends. I don't see what you'd call the cops for though. To report that a large guy asked if he could talk to you?
 
Sparks, putting him at 12 o'clock, setting the packages down, and saying "no you can't" in my view showed strength and that you were preparing to do battle.

In all likelihood, that's what changed the BG's mind.

/*tom*/
 
"...ooo, she walkin' *tall*."

I'll take all the big scary bad guys the ghetto ever spit at me over the one guy I let myself consider "family" for one second too long.
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Ginger:

Great post! I agree that (especially for females) the wrong guy allowed "inside the family" is more dangerous than anybody out in the streets.
 
Requisite Monday morning quarterbacking: - and this is something I'm trying to ingrain in myself - go ahead and get that flashlight on him right away. I think you were right in not clearing leather yet, but I think we are all a little to worried about being "rude" and lighting a questionable petitioner up. We should all have "tactical" grade flashlights, and should put them in play as soon as things start to deviate from Baseline Mayberry Standard.
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I too have gotten into carrying a flashlight at most times (I don't if I know for a fact that I will be home before the sun goes down) and I am not tactical.

I carry a single AAA LED $3 pen style light from Wally World that I put in my mouth (switched on, of course) and exit my vehicle.

I realize that it could make my head a target , but most BG's are going to have their eyes blinded by that intense LED in the dark.

In one pocket is a hand on a gun...

In the other is the house keys...

I do adjust accordingly when I have to carry packages into the house.

I dare some stupid, unprepared azzhat to think he is going to get his way with me.
 
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Hi all,
For the sake of argument lets say Spark's wife's water breaks. "Oh crap" I need to call 911 and dont have a phone. He jumps from the car and looks around a noisy parking lot hoping to find someone who can make the call for paramedics. "There's a guy" "Hey buddy, can I talk to you?" In the noisy lot he approaches the fellow looking for help after not hearing his reply from such a distance. At somewhere around 75 feet out he sees that the fellow is standing with a hand on a gun and he decides he will drive his wife to the hospital himself, hops in his car and takes off.
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As the father of two children (one being an ER visit premature birth) a real man doesn't start looking for a cell phone to call the Paramedics.

He gets on the gas and stops long enough to tell the cops to lead or follow to the the hospital.

Have you heard the story about the time I did 90 in a 40 zones to a hospital to save my Grandmother. You are below contempt in your defense of a potential murder of three...she is pregnant.

I am not a criminal, but I do remember that the basic rule is...Leave no witnesses.

Again I reiterate (buy a dictionary if your vocabulary is lacking)...you are a below contempt and I will (for the first time ever) call you a troll....

Mods, I do apologize... pardon my French?
 
I think the rude thing bears careful thought.

If someone asks me if they can pet my dog, I am put in a position of saying NO or of ignoring them, in other words, of possibly seeming rude. Ditto with a handshake...A man extends his hand to me, a lady, and I am put in a position of having to touch him, or of *seeming* unfriendly.

So when I say "no, thank you" and decline to shake his hand, or reply "do Not touch my dog," it's with confidence and comfort, as I have already taken the time to consider where the rudeness began.
 
Quote:
Had it been me I would have let the fellow come forward some and things might have ended tragically for one of us. (unquote)
So you actually WANT to get killed or kill someone?
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He said that he is 75 years old...he is ready to die at the hand of thug...I guess...

Or he is dumb enough to trust anyone.


It would help if you guys would read and comprehend the the whole post of the person you disagree with...
 
At 75 feet out I dont feel threatened by the guys actions. To let him come closer under the circumstances is not an invitation to victimize me either. Again, does anyone know what he wanted or what his intentions were? No.
Did this man threaten anyone other than approaching to 75 feet out?
Sorry guys. I still dont see the threat.
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You do know that a person like me (I am not a threat!!!) can take your crown off at 75 with my short barreled .380.

Professional criminals do practice with their weapons of choice.

Did I mention that the defacto standard is that you leave no witnesses?
 
..and a *much* more common hunting groung for the garden variety panhandler. "Hey man, can I get some gas money?..."
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(Marie Antoinette voice) Then let them beg at the gas station (/Marie Antoinette voice)
 
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"Trust your gut" is one of my cardinal rules in life. The OP trusted his, and it sounds to me as if he did exactly the right thing.

A friend of mine, who doesn't carry, once walked into a convenience store for a soda. She said something just didn't feel right; "the hair on the back of my neck was standing up." She decided to forego the soda and left. When she got home, she heard that the store had been robbed about two minutes after she'd left.
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There was one night, yeah, many moons ago, when I stopped for cigs at the behest of my friend.

I saw a car dart into the "stop and rob" and a (not a racist comment, just fact) black youngster jumped out of the the car and was walking very quickly to the entrance.

For whatever reason my friend looked back at me and I was on full alert, having seen what he barely noticed at first.

I made a motion that indicated that he return to to my car and we left at high speed.

Maybe dude needed to pee really bad....

I didn't want to find out one way or the other!
 
Holy cow!

Why are people getting so heated in their responses?

The only thing we know for sure is that the couple was approached in a parking lot by a guy, 30-40 yards away, who called out to them; didn't stop approaching them when prompted until he was 20 yards away; drove away when faced with a possibly armed person.

NOBODY knows for sure that person was out to kill the couple.

OK. The water breaking scenario was too fantastic to take seriously, but since the Wmart is just off a highway, what if it was a guy who pulled off cause he was lost and wanted directions? What if he didn't hear the negative response from 30-40 yards away and so kept on coming? Remember what the guy yelled to Sparks wasn't entirely intelligible to him from that distance. After saying no and a hand gesture from 30-40 yards out, do you give up on the non-deadly response? At what point does the gun come out? 18 yards? 15 yards? 12 yards? How about repeatedly yelling at the guy to stop?
Is that area of Ohio that deadly that you go straight from saying stop to the most extreme response?

I live in one of the deadliest cities in the country. Two blocks south of my door is busy with druggies and gunfire. I pass druggies all the time. People get killed in my neighborhood.(The nearest being half a block away, a day after I saw her working in her garden.) The park where I walk my dog and for which I coordinate monthly cleanups by concerned citizens is littered with drug bags around the benches. If I pulled out a gun(were I was allowed to CCW by my fair state) every time someone yells out something and/or approaches me, I'd be in a cell.

Maybe that's why I'm having a hard time relating to Spark's course of action in that situation.
 
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