A time to talk and a time to fight.

[GP44]

Foremost, I applaud your reaction to stay and protect the clerk. However, the best fight—especially a gunfight—is the one you avoid. I wasn’t there, so I can’t judge the circumstances firsthand. But even if I were armed, my first move would have been to call the police. Engaging in a fight, let alone a gunfight with a suspected thief, would almost certainly land you in the legal system, spending large sums to defend yourself. And the very first question you'd face is: “Why didn’t you call the police?”

Odd to me that the clerk didn't call the police, especially while you were out there keeping her safe. Also, I don't think that having on red shoes is enough evidence to arrest the guy, but the police showing up may have at least persuaded him not to come back to that station. Or, who knows, the police might have gotten fingerprint evidence (or other evidence, somehow) to either clear the guy or arrest him.

I'm glad you didn't end up in an altercation with the man such that you would have had to use your gun. It is fishy that he spent 15 minutes at the gas station. I can't think of a good reason for that, actually. I would have been quite suspicious, were I you. I'd probably have tried to photograph him, his car, and his license plate; I figure you didn't have the opportunity to sneakily do that.

I've had two crimes committed against me. The worst one was being kidnapped. That was really terrifying, but I managed to trick the kidnapper and get to a phone and call the police.

The other one, I called the police as soon as I scared the guy enough to make hastily leave my house. I knew his first name and that he belonged to Mensa. I called Mensa and they happily gave me his address and full name. This was 50 years ago, and it was easy to get information about people. Of course, I passed that info along to the police. Both times, I was unarmed. Except for the two appendages hanging off my torso, I have never been armed. I am good at figuring out a way to intimidate and scare people, in an emergency. The rest of the time, I am sweetness and light!

So, she may have been scared, but I can't grok that she was too scared to call the police, especially with your protection.

Wow! Got kidnapped one time! That’s pretty wild.
Most of the scary things that have happened to me was from big dogs.
A pitbull or two and a pair of Great Danes that had us trapped in our detached garage on a hot summers day. Those were all before I started carrying a gun and I felt lucky to survive.

 

[GP44]

yes Jim, I accept that - but deciding a person is same person as before based solely on fact they have same looking red shoes?

rather a stretch.

She had other reasons to believe that it was the same guy but she mentioned that he had the same shoes on too.
I won’t go into a lot of detail about his description but he would have stood out in a lineup.

 

[GP44]

The Canadian perspective on this story. It is all most impossible to become a LEGAL hand gun owner in Canada AND even if you are approved and get a restricted hand gun license issued by the Federal Government......you CANNOT carry it around with you. The hand gun can only be transported ( in a locked case, without any ammunition ) from your home, to an approved gun range, and directly back home , again. Even our "Off Duty Police officers " are not armed when they are on days off.

So, we Canadians depend on our Police services to react quickly to calls for emergencies. In the situation outlined in this thread, the very first thing to happen would have been a call to 911, to request an immediate priority response from the Police.

Our population is now over 41 million people. In this country, about 6500 people who work in VERY remote parts of Canada as trappers, mining exploration crews, surveyors, and bush pilots can be granted a hand gun license, to protect themselves from bears, and cougars while working in the wilderness. JIMB.

Yes the police can be there in minutes like they were at the Walmart stabbing scene three minutes after 11 people were stabbed.
An armed citizen made sure that the guy with the knife didn’t stab any more people.
I like to read about what happens when there are mass attacks in countries where citizens aren’t allowed to carry weapons to defend themselves.
Some citizens have gotten pretty inventive like the ones at the mall in Australia that subdued the attacker.
Been a while since I read about it but if I remember right one guy pinned the assailant with a chair while others sat on him and disarmed him.
I believe that was about some crazy guy who had a knife that was stabbing people.

 

[GP44]

What I said was ONE OF THE REASONS WHY SHE SAID SHE WAS SURE IT WAS HIM.
I don’t know a lot about shoes but he had on a pair of those kind of canvas or what ever they are made of these days.
Pretty sure you could pick this guy out of a line up of about fifty people as long as you had to pick within a month of seeing him.

 

[GP44]

Foremost, I applaud your reaction to stay and protect the clerk. However, the best fight—especially a gunfight—is the one you avoid. I wasn’t there, so I can’t judge the circumstances firsthand. But even if I were armed, my first move would have been to call the police. Engaging in a fight, let alone a gunfight with a suspected thief, would almost certainly land you in the legal system, spending large sums to defend yourself. And the very first question you'd face is: “Why didn’t you call the police?”

I’ll try to remember that if there ever is a next time.
Like they say it’s hard to remember that the main objective is to drain the swamp when your waist deep in alligators.
Almost 5:00 AM now.
Hot day today so I got up early to take the trash out.
Today is garbage day.

 

[Sunny]

Your story, while you are trying to sound heroic, is a sad example of the sick love affair some Americans have with guns.

If any of this story is true, your behavior was foolish at best, and life-threatening for you and the clerk at worst. Obviously, the clerk should have locked the doors and called the police immediately. You should have left, and when safely out of reach, called the police.

Your gun should have no place in this story. This is not the wild west, and you are not a hero in a movie. Look at what just happened in New York.
There are too many trigger-happy people out there, creating more crime, mayhem, and general danger than there was to begin with.

But the story may just be fiction (I hope it is) and you are trolling.

 

[WheatenLover]

Wow! Got kidnapped one time! That’s pretty wild.
Most of the scary things that have happened to me was from big dogs.
A pitbull or two and a pair of Great Danes that had us trapped in our detached garage on a hot summers day. Those were all before I started carrying a gun and I felt lucky to survive.

Did you get bitten? Where did all those dogs come from? Were you a child (under 18) or an adult? I'm sure that was a traumatic event.

Luckily, I have never been bitten by a dog. Currently, I am partial to big guard dogs.

One of the cats that lives with us bites me about once a week. It stings, but he doesn't break the skin. And I make it clear to the cat that I don't approve of this behavior. The vast majority of the time, he is very loving.

 

[Babs2u]

li never got the impression that the poster was trying to sound heroic.

 

[Murrmurr]

So a guy who robbed a gas station and physically assaulted the clerk still hangs out at that gas station?

That seems so highly unlikely.
She could've been wrong about the guy at the pump being the perpetrator.

It isn't at all unlikely. It's likely, especially since the robber, if that was him, recognized the female clerk and knew or was trying to ascertain that she was alone. He'd hit it before and got away with it.

I lived in a high-crime area here in my city for well over a decade, and it's fairly common for an offender to return to what they call a soft spot (an easy mark).

Yeah, she could have been wrong, but there's a very good chance she will never forget the scum who did that to her.

 

[Murrmurr]

@GP44

You did exactly the right thing. If that was the guy, he was waiting for you to leave. I don't doubt that even slightly.

Good on you, and excellent idea to patrol a few times after leaving.

 

[squatting dog]

Your story, while you are trying to sound heroic, is a sad example of the sick love affair some Americans have with guns.

If any of this story is true, your behavior was foolish at best, and life-threatening for you and the clerk at worst. Obviously, the clerk should have locked the doors and called the police immediately. You should have left, and when safely out of reach, called the police.

Your gun should have no place in this story. This is not the wild west, and you are not a hero in a movie. Look at what just happened in New York.
There are too many trigger-happy people out there, creating more crime, mayhem, and general danger than there was to begin with.

But the story may just be fiction (I hope it is) and you are trolling.

It must be nice to live in never never land.

 

[DaveA]

It amazes me how often folks carrying weapons encounter other people who are armed and threatening.
I've owned a handgun a rifle and a few shotguns over my lifetime. Never carried any of them except the shotguns when occasionally hunting in my younger days or the rifle to a target shooting range.

All of the wepons were handed down to me by my dad and granddad. I've reached 91 without being accosted or threatened. Seems odd that mostly weapon carrying "good guys" are always running across threatening situations?