New/old CCW ... or BG?

[P95Carry]

Just got back from Dollar store ....... and had an ''interesting'' experience.

Went to back of store for what I needed and then ambled back down to register ... sorta browsing and looking all around. Guy comes in ...... looks like he slept under a bush ..... and unwashed etc. OK, plenty of guys working round here get pretty messy but .. this didn't really ring true for some reason.

So .. continued to watch tactfully ... he walks up toward my direction ...... and I notice his pants look one side heavy .. closer look suggests right pocket contains a piece ...... had to be a revo ... printing quite badly too.

Continued my ''browsing'' and moved around so as to better still watch the guy .... he looked quite furtive too ..... just giving off bad vibes.... how else do you define that ''feeling''?

Anyways, he picks up a can of bug spray (probably needed it on himself!! ) ..... and makes for register ...... I follow at discrete distance ...... feeling condition yellow.

He pays for goods, from left pocket money and leaves .... still looking very furtive...... and goes out to get in a real beater truck (plenty of those around here too!). I pay for my stuff and leave very soon after .. get in my truck and watch him leave.

Point was ... deciding what threat level there was ... if any. Doubt if anyone could have decided for sure .... and this wasn't a paranoia situation ...... just one of those ''bad feeling'' scenes.

I thought ..... maybe he is a legal old CCW and just plain casual ... and perfectly sensible and safe (if too casual for a good CCW) .... or he was a new CCW holder and just hadn't gotten used to carrying ... maybe explained the furtive element.

Finally ...... could he have been a BG? In which case was he considering a robbery? I treated the situation as latter .. just for the preparedness aspect .... in fact chances are he was one OK dude who had worked too much overtime on road works nearby and was genuinely dead beat tired and sloppy with his carry.

There is no answer here i think and I sure wasn't gonna make waves by reporting the guy ..... that could have spoiled his day and mine .... but then there is the thought .. what if? if he was a BG, and decided to ''do'' another store instead ...... would I have contributed to the deed thru my complacency.

Sorry ..... very poor coherence here .... just thinkin out loud. And wondering .... was he good or bad? maybe I am too suspicious but it is a long time since I got these sorta vibes from anyone.

 

[boing]

Well if I had do-gooder super-hero citizens checking me out, I'd look pretty furtive, too.

Just kidding. He didn't do anything wrong. He just gave you (and your condition yellow) a bad vibe. 99% of the time your instincts will turn out to be nothing, so just let it go. It's good practice, though.

 

[Standing Wolf]

if he was a BG, and decided to ''do'' another store instead ...... would I have contributed to the deed thru my complacency.

No. Each of us is responsible for his or her own actions. At best, your alertness prevented a robbery. At worst, you spooked a dishevelled guy for no good reason.

No harm.

 

[TonyB]

If this guy was going to rob this place......it's a DOLLAR store....bad choice
I think you did good.Maybe HE got vibes from you and decided not to go thru w/ his plan.
it's always good to be alert,you never know.

 

[P95Carry]

Well ..... no robberies since than in the neighborhood .. that I about anyways!

Guess I was just over cautious ..... but perhaps the main reason for posting was regarding the possible number of options presented ... and the difficulty of knowing which ... for sure!

I did not make it very plain in the main post .. I was about as subtle as one can be when watching him .... and am not sure that it was enough to even ''spook'' him. Maybe tho he did just see me 'make' him re his pocket bulge. That coulda been it.

Still ... keepin alert is never a bad thing IMO.

 

[seeker_two]

He ain't a BG unless he does something BG-worthy.

But it doesn't hurt to be aware...

 

[Ky Larry]

Several years ago my wife and I stopped at a rest area by I-40 in Tennessee. There was a van parked next to us with several guys milling around in front of it. As I started to get out of my car, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I got a very bad vibe from those guys. I shut my door and we left. I don't know if it was a warning or just silliness on my part. There is nothing wrong with trusting your instincts.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Do I have this right, P95Carry? Some 'furtive' unkemp bad vibes guy comes into the store you are in, you watch him 'tactically' (furtively as well, by the way), and you spot a gun in his pocket. You have all this visual clues that indicate to you that something isn't right and that the guy posed a potential threat. With all those clues, rightly or wrongly assessed by you as you perceive them to be, why did you remain in the store? Should something have gone wrong for you in the store, then you have quite possibly compromised your ability to escape as he could get between you and the exit. On top of that, being in the store means you only have a limited amount of room to move.

By remaining in the store, exactly what was your goal(s) to deal with in the situation? Were you trying to protect the merchandise, cashier, or what? I know that by staying in the store, you have opted to put the clerk and goodies welfare ahead of your own.

I can hear it now in a post analysis debriefing that would have come about if you had to shoot, that "I thought the guy would be trouble and I knew he had a gun. I stayed relatively close soas to be able to keep an eye on him. And sure enough, things went south and he shot me."

Ideally, you should have left the store. If you opted to remain in the store and keep an eye on the guy, then you should have tried to accomplish the task by some form cover that might be present and to try to open of the distance between you and the bad guy.

 

[sm]

Can't judge a book by its cover...
First time I saw an LEO buddy whom had been undercover for a bit he came into my office. I didn't recognize him, of course he had been working with the feebs. " '73 got your hand on that commander under that desk, don't ya?" I did of course. He was tanned, scrungy, had been a bum for surveillance.

I know others this way, one gets a funny look from the wife at the time, when one goes to a bad part of town to donate food and $ to a homeless guy, actually I/we exchanging info for his superior. They have to speak to me first--I never know if they're on the job.

 

[themic]

incidentally, dollar stores are great places to rob... typically lots of cash on hand instead of credit card receipts.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

yes, but they are all $1 singles, lots of them!

 

[Gerald McDonald]

P95, I wasnt there but gut feeling would be the same as yours. As far as leaving the store I would feel pretty ????ty if a 17 year old store clerk got killed in a robbery and I knew I sensed it but still hauled ???. As far as vibes go, they work both ways. You might not have looked much like the victim sort of guy. (plus you never know he might have thought you printed).

I remember when I was just a kid we had stopped at fruit stand in Wyoming on vacation. There was a sedan backed into the parking lot with one guy behind the wheel and another James Dean looking guy standing of to the side of the stand. My Dad noticed that the young lady behind the register's hand was shaking uncontrollably as she gave change to the lady in line in front of us. His gut feeling led him to move out of line, walk back to our car which was parked next to the backed in car and ask my sister to hand him his pistol (loudly I might add) the guy in the car started it at once and when the other guy looked at him he made a motion to get in. They left PDQ. We hung around for about 20 minutes until the guy who owned the stand showed up and then we left. The girls hand had quit shaking by the time we left. Moral of the story is trust your instincts, I know my dog does and shes usually right.
Gerald

 

[P95Carry]

DNS ..... late reply, sorry ..... been away a week plus and just got back (4,000 miles later!!) ......

I was in the store already .. and browsing ..... so when this guy came in ... I was just watching, as i looked around. Sure, something coulda ''gone wrong'' as you say but ... I was in a purely observational mode really ..... being aware of the look of this guy. To be honest, the thought of leaving, because of him didn't seem to apply.

I guess I was ''playing it safe'' ..... by watching him - ''in case''. Didn't in fact add up to a severe perceived threat as such ... just a ''bad vibes'' thing. hard to know what is best in these situations .. i think you sorta play em as you feel best at the time!

Thx for all the comments.