Pax Jordana
Member
At the local convenience store a few days ago (ours is wawa) for my morning cream chipped beef and canned noncoffee energy drink. I had the pickup truck, which dad had taken out before, and has a penchant for leaving the back hatch unlocked on the bed cap.
So I'm out in the parking lot fiddling with the keys and cranking on the back hatch handle when behind me I hear, "yo man.." I turn around thinking, cripes, caught me with me kilt down.
Guy was black, 30something, underdressed for the cold, dirty. Something about a job interview, philly, SEPTA, could I have some money for the bus? At least he was courteous enough to keep his distance.. to the point that I might have half a second's warning if he pulled something.
Well I faced him full on and simply said, no. He said, ok, have a good day sir.
Admittedly they're pretty well buttoned up at work; the county's park police run security and despite the high volume of crank calls (remember I work with the elderly, the demented and the outright nuts) armed officer response time is still ~4 minutes, tops. They have a no ''weapons'' in the units policy, and the only time I'm out of my car during the commute is there at the wawa. Go figure, that's where I'm approached.
So my friendly reminder is, take another moment to look at your routine and see if there's anywhere you're undefended/unprepared/unawares. Especially during the holidays, when people are essentially nuts.
As a brief postscript, I picked up a CS mini koga SD (~$10 plastic pocket stick) which is going with me everywhere the gun or the knives aren't. It rode happily in my pocket today at the gym, pretty much unnoticed by myself and anyone else, during some vigorous cardio.
So I'm out in the parking lot fiddling with the keys and cranking on the back hatch handle when behind me I hear, "yo man.." I turn around thinking, cripes, caught me with me kilt down.
Guy was black, 30something, underdressed for the cold, dirty. Something about a job interview, philly, SEPTA, could I have some money for the bus? At least he was courteous enough to keep his distance.. to the point that I might have half a second's warning if he pulled something.
Well I faced him full on and simply said, no. He said, ok, have a good day sir.
Admittedly they're pretty well buttoned up at work; the county's park police run security and despite the high volume of crank calls (remember I work with the elderly, the demented and the outright nuts) armed officer response time is still ~4 minutes, tops. They have a no ''weapons'' in the units policy, and the only time I'm out of my car during the commute is there at the wawa. Go figure, that's where I'm approached.
So my friendly reminder is, take another moment to look at your routine and see if there's anywhere you're undefended/unprepared/unawares. Especially during the holidays, when people are essentially nuts.
As a brief postscript, I picked up a CS mini koga SD (~$10 plastic pocket stick) which is going with me everywhere the gun or the knives aren't. It rode happily in my pocket today at the gym, pretty much unnoticed by myself and anyone else, during some vigorous cardio.
