Fabricator
Regular Member
With all the trouble some OC'ers have had with LEO's I wanted to post some good news. My wife asked to meet her and the kids at a local (NE Georgia) Chick-fil-a after I finished in our shop this afternoon. When we arrived at Chick-fil-a, there was a Gainesville fire truck, and 3 Gainesville PD cars, along with numerous officers, in the parking lot. As it turns out, they were part of a "car-seat safety" training/inspection sponsered by local groups. We went in and ordered, and got our kids situated, and they played with the large helium balloons strewn about the dining area. I was carrying my "daily gun" (2" barrelled Taurus .38) in a Fobus paddle holster on my right. Unlike most of the times I am in public, today I was neither particularly clean or neat; thus being the nature of our fab/machine shop. While ordering, I was aware of 6-7 "soccer moms" aproaching behind me to place their respective orders. All went well, and during our meal (seated in a corner by a window) I noticed two of the moms speaking to an officer outside, and trying not to make her frantic pointing in our direction very obvious. It became further evident that I may be having my first "LEO discussion" in weeks of OC when two officers came directly in the dining area and headed our way. Once inside, they passed out stickers, shaped like PD badges to all the kids. They took their time walking around to our table. One of the officers walked up on my right, bent down at nearly eye level with my holster, and gave our 2 1/2 yr old daughter a nice shiny sticker. He looked directly at my wife and I, as he said "have a nice day" pleasently. As he walked away my daughter decided to liven this moment up for the officer and I: She tried to peel the freshly placed sticker off her extra large helium balloon with the expected result..... It popped loudly!!! Both the officer and I looked at eachother in horror as the entire establishment went silent... I got up, snatched another balloon for my little girl, and he went back outside laughing. The customer chatter slowly returned, and all was well. The officers' went back out to the group of moms, and I can only hope, explained that I was not a criminal. Hopefully any future public concerns go so well!
Cheers,
Fabricator
Cheers,
Fabricator