DJEEPER
Regular Member
Preface: I rushed out of the house and realized I forgot my pistol about half way to work. I didnt have time to turn around and get it so I just kept going. This is probably the first time without it...and will be the last time. Mistake #1.
This was a good wake-up call with no harm done. Without a keen eye on what was being set up, this could have been much worse. Situational awareness and keeping my head on a swivel probably saved me from a bad situation.
After work (2200) I was gassing up my jeep and noticed a younger black male riding a bike very slowly out of the shadows and eyeballing me hard. He never dropped eye contact. This sort of put me on the alert and I grabbed my big heavy flashlight in the center console and put it on my drivers seat, next to where I was standing.
Next thing I know a 40ish year old black guy is coming up along the other side of the pump line, just out of my view, but I saw his shadow. He popped up around my pump and quickly introduced himself and held out his hand, taking a couple steps towards me.
I told him to stop and to give me a little space. He held his hands up and said "yeah man yeah man, no problem i respect that you go space man, no problem man etc etc etc"
He was still standing there with his hands up and after a few seconds and I sternly said "hey man, look, i need you to just back up and leave me alone."
He said "ok man yeah man no problem man i respect that i know man aiight man" and turned and walked away to the next parking lot over which was Waffle House.
At that point I felt like I was in a bad place so I just put the pump handle up and drove out of there. Now... up until this point I was thinking it was just some tweaker looking for a handout or something. But, as I was pulling out of the gas station, I noticed the same guy coming from the Waffle House parking lot to a parked vehicle on the side of the road with the lights on. He jumped in the back seat and they drove off.
After talking to one of my police officer buddies he said that this is a very common set up where you have the frontal distraction (the handshake guy) and the guy who comes up from the side or back and pistol whip the victim then rob them. Then the nearby vehicle is the getaway.
I feel like an ass for not helping someone, but that is just the kind of mentality that these people prey upon. I will stop in an instant to help someone who drove into a ditch or needs a jump or something.... but this just had a stank about the whole situation.
This was a good wake-up call with no harm done. Without a keen eye on what was being set up, this could have been much worse. Situational awareness and keeping my head on a swivel probably saved me from a bad situation.
After work (2200) I was gassing up my jeep and noticed a younger black male riding a bike very slowly out of the shadows and eyeballing me hard. He never dropped eye contact. This sort of put me on the alert and I grabbed my big heavy flashlight in the center console and put it on my drivers seat, next to where I was standing.
Next thing I know a 40ish year old black guy is coming up along the other side of the pump line, just out of my view, but I saw his shadow. He popped up around my pump and quickly introduced himself and held out his hand, taking a couple steps towards me.
I told him to stop and to give me a little space. He held his hands up and said "yeah man yeah man, no problem i respect that you go space man, no problem man etc etc etc"
He was still standing there with his hands up and after a few seconds and I sternly said "hey man, look, i need you to just back up and leave me alone."
He said "ok man yeah man no problem man i respect that i know man aiight man" and turned and walked away to the next parking lot over which was Waffle House.
At that point I felt like I was in a bad place so I just put the pump handle up and drove out of there. Now... up until this point I was thinking it was just some tweaker looking for a handout or something. But, as I was pulling out of the gas station, I noticed the same guy coming from the Waffle House parking lot to a parked vehicle on the side of the road with the lights on. He jumped in the back seat and they drove off.
After talking to one of my police officer buddies he said that this is a very common set up where you have the frontal distraction (the handshake guy) and the guy who comes up from the side or back and pistol whip the victim then rob them. Then the nearby vehicle is the getaway.
I feel like an ass for not helping someone, but that is just the kind of mentality that these people prey upon. I will stop in an instant to help someone who drove into a ditch or needs a jump or something.... but this just had a stank about the whole situation.