Caught in condition white. Good thing it wasn't real.

[JJohnston015]

I'm leaving the grocery store, 5 PM on Saturday (plenty of daylight left). I'm parked in the lane straight out from the door, at the far end, on the left side. About halfway down the lane on the right is the "cart corral". Just as I came out, a uniformed store employee was pulling a long train of carts out of the corral and across the lane, blocking all but a narrow spot on the left (convenient choke point). Right at that spot were two kids (early 20s), one male, one female, not uniformed employees. Each was holding a flourescent green piece of paper, like a flyer.

As I approached them, they were both looking at me; male was closer, looking like he was getting ready to say or do something. I expected him to try to hand me the flyer (it just so happens the grocery store workers are striking right now, but not at this particular store - I assumed it might be related).

Instead of handing me the paper, he said something unintelligible (classic decoy). I'm still not sure what it was, but I thought it was, "You dropped your pocket", and he gestured back the way I'd come. Reflexively, I looked back over my left shoulder. At that moment, I was in the narrowest part of the choke, with him at my 10 o'clock, an arms length and a half away, and the female at my 11.

I didn't see anything, and as I looked back around, he said something like, "Just joking. Got you."

The joke really was on me, because (I realized a half second too late) I'd just given him a big fat chance for an easy sucker punch. They used classic tactics: a choke point and at least 2 diversions (the "you dropped" and the flyer, although that may have been a coincidence).

I should have recognized the choke point right away (or the significance of it), and the fact that of all that great big parking lot, those 2 kids chose that narrow spot to be in. I could easily have waited for the store guy to clear those carts out of there.

Thoughts?

 

[TheeBadOne]

Most lessons in life are negative. The important thing is to learn and not to repeat. I'll bet a large lump you'll spot this very quickly the next time you see it.

 

[DMK]

That young man did you a favor without even realizing it.

A possible scenario to think about. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[BerettaNut92]

DJJ...I know how you mean...sometimes my friends like to sneak up on me.

I almost took a guy down at a restaurant because for a second I thought he was walking into me! He was just going around my friend and between us and the front door of the restaurant

 

[Sven]

Skunk: I don't play games like that with my friends. I can only imagine what sort of response a 'game' like that would garner from some of the folks on this board and others.

 

[BerettaNut92]

I know, Sven. I don't play that with other people, but I'm usually in Condition Friendly so I don't stick my paws in their eyes at church in front of hundreds of other people or at other people's homes....

Some people need to grow up that's for sure.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Contrary to what folks tell you, even folks from training schools who claim to be in Condition Orange ALL the time, everyone spends time in Condition White when ideally they should not be in Condition White. Nobody can remain in Condition Orange for the rest of their life as that is a level that nobody is able to maintain 100% of the time. The trick is to be able to recover from being caught off guard in a Condition White episode and transition accordingly as needed.

At a Rangemaster "Advanced Combatives" class held in Dallas a couple of years ago, Dane Burns made a big deal about his martial arts training and always knowing what was going on around him and how skilled he was at situational awareness. It was lunch and after running another errand, we made it to the Subway for lunch. Burns was there with a couple of students from class. His back was to the door. I had a question for him and so I approached. He was talking about his new grooved substitute for strap checkering and going on and on about it. He had not seen me and I was waiting for him to finish before asking my question. Well he just kept on talking and I realized that he had no idea I was right behind him. I leaned in close behind one ear and when he finished, I started sharply with "DANE, I was wondering..." Sure enough, he jumped. I had startled the man who was always situationally aware. More over, he never even managed to transition into any of the defensive positions, configurations relevant to his martial arts training or gun handling that he explained to us as being second nature to him. Here he was, in Texas, far from home, at a place he had never been to before and he wasn't being situationally aware. My point here is not to pick on Burns as much as to note that being in Condition White happens to everybody when it should not happen, even the professionals, so you need to work on learning to transition as needed to deal with situations that arise.

 

[wingnutx]

Skunk- sounds like you have your own 'Cato'.

 

[Hardtarget]

This situation awareness is a tough ( impossable) thing to master. I got caught last week. Wife and I going to her sister's house. As I pulled through a 4 way stop, I had a car to my left and truck straight ahead. As I passed middle of intersection, truck driver opened his door and stepped out.I looked for a weapon but he just checked something in bed of truck.
Wife asked"what if he'd had a gun?" All I could asy was "I'd have tried to run over him". Just like you in the parking lot...it can happen so fast, you can't see it coming, can't plan for every possibility, can't help but be "condition white" some times. I guess we're lucky things don't go bad very often.
Mark

 

[Don Gwinn]

Believe it or not, I was walking out of a Wal-Mart at midnight the other night and got caught! That's not a place you'd expect to be in white. In fact, I had looked--I thought--360 degrees and found no one anywhere near, marked a couple of kids holding up the wall about 50 yards off, and considered myself in the clear. I was watching the area around my car. Even more embarassing, I was talking to myself in a low voice about all the stuff I had to get done in the morning. At some point, something seemed weird, and I half turned just far enough to catch a woman walking only about three feet behind me. I shut up and detoured to my right, as much to cover my embarassment as to escape a possible threat. Her nose was buried in her receipt and she may not even have been aware of me.

The point is, even when I thought I was being alert, she got into my blind spot completely by accident and was able to stay there for far too long because I relaxed.

 

[Sven]

"Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing." -William Congreve

"Expectation is a Prison" - R. Fripp

Stay awake.