Could Have Been Something, Could Have been Nothing. I'll Never Know

[Trunk Monkey]

I was out walking my dog tonight. I was approaching a T intersection, I notice a young guy on foot turning the corner at the intersection. He looks up at me and cuts straight across the street headed directly at me. I can’t tell you why but the hair on the back of my neck went straight up.

I’m wearing a jacket I have my gun in my right hand in the pocket. I turn to face the guy and pull my hand to the edge of the pocket so the back of my hand is showing but no part of my gun is visible or even printing in the pocket.

The guy looks at me turns 90 degrees to his left, walks back over to his side of the street and walks away.

Like I said, could have been something, could have been nothing

 

[JRH6856]

What kind of dog do you have?

 

[critter]

ALWAYS trust your 'spidey senses'. If it WAS something, you did good. If it WAS NOT anything, no harm, no foul.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

What kind of dog do you have?

Norwegian Elk Hound who was paying zero attention to the guy.

 

[xXxplosive]

You failed the Interview..............Lucky.
And he wasn't committed.

 

[JRH6856]

Norwegian Elk Hound who was paying zero attention to the guy.

But he may have been paying attention to the dog. He may have liked dogs and seen yours as interesting, and also been SD savvy. He saw you and your dog, wanted a closer look at the dog and headed your way. You assumed a defensive posture which an SD aware person might easily interpret as such. So he realized you weren't "receiving visitors" and turned away.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

No harm no foul, you trusted your senses as you should.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Doesn't cost a thing to say, "That's an interesting dog - what breed is it?" from across the street.

He wasn't interested in the dog IMHO...

 

[Hometeached1]

Sounds like you did fine. That why I like carrying a BUG or what I think of as a alternative handgun in a pocket so that I can have a hand on it in case things seem "funny" and no one will know.

Wow I just keep reading about all kinds of near misses or bad situations happening when people walk their dogs. Glad I live in the sticks, we have had several sales men get out of their vehicles with there hands up saying "hey I'm just selling (fill in some product). We live off the main road by about 100yds so they may get the feeling that we don't want just everybody combing up to the house.

 

[JRH6856]

No it doesn't hurt, but dogs of that type generally act as a deterrent, though not when the interest is in the dog. I'm not criticizing, I would have reacted the same way, but the presence of the dog just presents an alternative possibility to an "interview".

As he said, we'll never know.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Doesn't cost a thing to say, "That's an interesting dog - what breed is it?" from across the street.

This actually happens frequently when I walk the dog but it's generally people that live in these apartments so if I don't actually "know" them I recognize them.

This guy was a stranger

No it doesn't hurt, but dogs of that type generally act as a deterrent, though not when the interest is in the dog. I'm not criticizing, I would have reacted the same way, but the presence of the dog just presents an alternative possibility to an "interview".

I agree that this is a possibility which is why I titled this thread as I did

 

[Trunk Monkey]

He wasn't interested in the dog IMHO...

I’m not sure if I can express this clearly enough but I didn’t do anything overtly threatening, all I did was turn in his direction (could have just been watching the dog) and move my arm. Unless you knew what you were seeing you wouldn’t have known what you were seeing.

If his attention wasn’t focused on me instead of the dog he wouldn’t have caught it but he did catch it and he did correctly interpret it.

That’s why I think he wasn’t interested in the dog

 

[skoro]

Like I said, could have been something, could have been nothing

I'd say it was more likely something that turned out to be nothing due to your quick reaction.

 

[BWB]

I agree. This is the essence of self defense. Situational awareness. Act on your instincts with an appropriate response before the problem gets bigger. Well done!

 

[PistolPete45]

My humble opinion . from what was said . He was up to no good > you faced him he took off . Be alert America needs more lerts Condition Orange kicked in from Yellow Had you been a Condition white you might have got mugged and robbed . You did
perfectly

 

[Doug S]

I think you did fine. I am surprised the Elkhound didn't react. My Elkhound is a mouthy thing, and he doesn't like strangers.

 

[george29]

The Crazies worry me, so unpredictable. Sounds like you got off easy (which is good).

 

[ericbc7]

Deterrent is a legitimate use for handguns, just be prepared to actually use it.

 

[stressed]

Be a hard target. I am never messed with. Same process in military. You have to be careful when having your hand on your gun. If I passed you with your hand on your gun and spotted part of the gun, I may draw on you thinking you are going to rob me. I've seen on the news instances of ccw holders firing at each other in misunderstanding. Not everyone is a bad guy. In fact there is a lot more of us good guys out there.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Sounds like absolutely nothing malicious just as easily as it has been interpreted as being nefarious. In fact, it sounds like either the guy didn't initially see Trunk Monkey when Trunk thought he looked at him or that the guy thought he knew Trunk Monkey and when he got closer realized that he did not.

Just because one is vigilant does not mean that ordinary behaviors of others are nefarious.

 

[rudeguy]

ALWAYS trust your 'spidey senses'. If it WAS something, you did good. If it WAS NOT anything, no harm, no foul.

Yep. Trust your instincts.

Glad nothing happened OP. I mean it.

 

[230RN]

OP said,

I’m not sure if I can express this clearly enough but I didn’t do anything overtly threatening, all I did was turn in his direction (could have just been watching the dog) and move my arm. Unless you knew what you were seeing you wouldn’t have known what you were seeing.

OK, it was out in the boonies, but I recommend practicing checking around you for confederates in more urban areas. Had a lot of "approaches" in downtown Denver (which is turning into a manure pile) and found that my biggest problem is focusing on the approach and getting all tunnel-visioney on him.

Had to (surreptitiously) practice scanning around on detecting the "approach" phase and although I haven't been down to the manure pile since I retired, I still practice that in more innocent situations.

Next time, try a couple of side-steps as if to get out of his way and see if he changes direction to meet you in your new position. Don't fall off the curb doing this, though.

Terry, 230RN

 

[ChCx2744]

stressed said:

You have to be careful when having your hand on your gun. If I passed you with your hand on your gun and spotted part of the gun, I may draw on you thinking you are going to rob me. I've seen on the news instances of ccw holders firing at each other in misunderstanding.

^This +1

If I see someone passing me in public and they seem as if they are about to reach for a gun or draw, I'm going to do it too. Sorry, I've seen precursors several times in my life and I'm not going to risk my safety on another's misunderstanding of the situation.

 

[JRH6856]

^^^ And the prospect of that happening a lot is what gets antis in a dither. That is all they could talk about when Texas finally started issuing CHLs. "It will be a bloodbath", "People shooting each other over simple misunderstandings." I have friends in CA who are seriously afraind that is what the Peruta ruling will being, and friends in NY glad that Cuomo and Bloomberg are keeping it from happening. (I'm trying to convince them otherwise, but I suspect they will have to live through it not happening to really believe it).

 

[Trunk Monkey]

I walk my dogs all the time with my hand in pocket. It just happens that I'm holding a gun in the pocket and I doubt anyone even notices it.

In this case I was responding to the other guy’s actions. I wasn’t just walking past some random person and reaching for my gun, the guy was going out of his way to get into my bubble. All I did was turn to face him and move my hand