I had a possible situation today that I thought was going to go bad. I park my car under an interstate (I83 in Baltimore) when I have to work in downtown Baltimore. It is metered parking and the area is sort of secluded. You can tell by the smell that the homeless sleep there at times. Since I started parking there I try to keep my head on a swivel.
So I parked the car and fed the meter. I then went to the back door of the car to retrieve my bag. As I'm getting the bag I see a real sketchy looking guy walking down the lot getting closer to where my car is. This guy is now staring at me and he slows down and stops behind my car. He's about 15 feet away from my car but directly behind it and stopped and staring at me. Now the only way out is to the rear of the car towards him. There is a fence in front of the car. I moved to the front of my car to put the car between him and me. Now here is what I think is the important part; I put my hand in the outside pocket of my bag. This is a fairly large bag that has lots of compartments and pockets. This particular pocket is about 8 inches wide. Certainly wide enough to hold a small pistol or knife. I now keep a defensive pen in there, but I didn't pull that out. I just put my hand in there and stood there a second. He then started moving on and then I moved on.
Now I need to add that being in The People's Republic of Maryland, I can't carry a gun. But besides that, I have to go into the courthouse for my work so any type of weapon is disallowed. So the combat (metal) pen is about the best I can do. But in this instance, I think the turning point was putting my hand in the pocket of the bag and just leaving it there. Now this dirtbag doesn't what I've got in there (gun, knife, pepper spray, etc...)
Maybe the guy was going to try to rob me. Maybe just bum a few bucks. Maybe he was just taking a break. Who knows. But there was no one else around, he stopped directly behind my car, and was staring at me.
So everything worked out. I think I did the right things under the circumstances. I didn't see him when I was parking the car or feeding the meter. He materialized after that. I feel a little better having the pen, but I think putting the hand in the bag is what kept me out of trouble.
So I parked the car and fed the meter. I then went to the back door of the car to retrieve my bag. As I'm getting the bag I see a real sketchy looking guy walking down the lot getting closer to where my car is. This guy is now staring at me and he slows down and stops behind my car. He's about 15 feet away from my car but directly behind it and stopped and staring at me. Now the only way out is to the rear of the car towards him. There is a fence in front of the car. I moved to the front of my car to put the car between him and me. Now here is what I think is the important part; I put my hand in the outside pocket of my bag. This is a fairly large bag that has lots of compartments and pockets. This particular pocket is about 8 inches wide. Certainly wide enough to hold a small pistol or knife. I now keep a defensive pen in there, but I didn't pull that out. I just put my hand in there and stood there a second. He then started moving on and then I moved on.
Now I need to add that being in The People's Republic of Maryland, I can't carry a gun. But besides that, I have to go into the courthouse for my work so any type of weapon is disallowed. So the combat (metal) pen is about the best I can do. But in this instance, I think the turning point was putting my hand in the pocket of the bag and just leaving it there. Now this dirtbag doesn't what I've got in there (gun, knife, pepper spray, etc...)
Maybe the guy was going to try to rob me. Maybe just bum a few bucks. Maybe he was just taking a break. Who knows. But there was no one else around, he stopped directly behind my car, and was staring at me.
So everything worked out. I think I did the right things under the circumstances. I didn't see him when I was parking the car or feeding the meter. He materialized after that. I feel a little better having the pen, but I think putting the hand in the bag is what kept me out of trouble.