A time to talk and a time to fight.

G

GP44

Member
A few years back and being a bit of a night owl I drove the few blocks to our only all night gas station late one night.
I parked just to the left of the door in front of the building and went inside and made a purchase and while paying for it the attendant said.
“See that guy out there at the pump, I’m pretty sure he is the guy who robbed me before.”
One reason why she was sure was because she recognized the kind of red shoes he had on.
You could tell that she was scared while telling how he had hit her over the head with his gun when he robbed her before.
I told her that I had my gun on me and that she needn’t be scared because I would hang around for a while.
I went back out and stood on the other side of the front of my car and watched the guy at the pump. I had the feeling he knew I was watching him although he never looked directly at me.
She came outside and stood behind me.
A police car drove by and she tried to flag it down but it just drove on.
It was dark and quiet only myself and the attendant and the guy who was messing around over by the pump.
He must have got in and out of the open drivers door five times and walked around his car sometimes opening the back door and reaching around in there.
I stood there with my hand on my gun in my pocket ready in case he drew a weapon from his car.
Finally after about fifteen minutes he got in his car and left.
I drove around the block a few times and around town and he was gone.
I told about this on a defensive forum and the guys said it wasn’t my place to protect her but I think that she was too scared to stay inside and call the police and although I had a cell phone I was intent on keeping an eye on him.
At a time like that you are either in or out and it’s either time to talk or time to be ready to fight.
That was another time when I won the war of nerves without having to draw my gun out to where anyone could see it as a threat to them.
 

There's a time to be a night owl and now, hopefully, a time to stay home at night.
I'm glad you protected her but there are all kinds of scenarios there.
Good thing you had your firearm though.
 

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! :cool:

So, she may have been scared, but I can't grok that she was too scared to call the police, especially with your protection.
 
GP44 said:
A few years back and being a bit of a night owl I drove the few blocks to our only all night gas station late one night.
I parked just to the left of the door in front of the building and went inside and made a purchase and while paying for it the attendant said.
“See that guy out there at the pump, I’m pretty sure he is the guy who robbed me before.”
One reason why she was sure was because she recognized the kind of red shoes he had on.
You could tell that she was scared while telling how he had hit her over the head with his gun when he robbed her before.
I told her that I had my gun on me and that she needn’t be scared because I would hang around for a while.
I went back out and stood on the other side of the front of my car and watched the guy at the pump. I had the feeling he knew I was watching him although he never looked directly at me.
She came outside and stood behind me.
A police car drove by and she tried to flag it down but it just drove on.
It was dark and quiet only myself and the attendant and the guy who was messing around over by the pump.
He must have got in and out of the open drivers door five times and walked around his car sometimes opening the back door and reaching around in there.
I stood there with my hand on my gun in my pocket ready in case he drew a weapon from his car.
Finally after about fifteen minutes he got in his car and left.
I drove around the block a few times and around town and he was gone.
I told about this on a defensive forum and the guys said it wasn’t my place to protect her but I think that she was too scared to stay inside and call the police and although I had a cell phone I was intent on keeping an eye on him.
At a time like that you are either in or out and it’s either time to talk or time to be ready to fight.
That was another time when I won the war of nerves without having to draw my gun out to where anyone could see it as a threat to them.
Click to expand...
Could be the "would be robber" was waiting for you to leave, it took too long for him and so he gave up waiting and so took off.
 
Yes I would help if I could, I've always had a strong protective instinct. But the very first thing I would have done was tell the clerk to call the police, or do it yourself. For the two of you to stand outside giving the guy the stink eye is an approach I dont understand.
 
OldFeller said:
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.
Click to expand...
Some of these thugs have IQ's that are lower than a football game score. "Oh, wow, last time went quite well.....maybe I'll meander down there and rob her again!"

I read a lot of stories where the crooks do some pretty stoopid things.
 
She needed to call the police if she felt the guy was a threat. Lock the door and call the police. Why in the world would she have "tried to flag down a police car" instead of calling them? :unsure: Ya know, in a movie, the clerk and "loitering dude" would have been working together to rob an unsuspecting customer late at night... clerk goes outside with customer and has a signal to tell loitering guy whether or not to jump customer. If customer mentions he's carrying, no go and guy drives off. Hmmm....

So.... she tried to flag down the police... I'm guessing it was when they'd been so far away that there's no way they could have seen her doing it? And loitering guy opening and closing his car doors... maybe waiting for a signal from clerk?

Yep, I'm just thinking aloud and it's completely farfetched, but it makes more sense than not simply making a phone call and deciding to stand in the parking lot. 🤷‍♀️
 
jujube said:
Some of these thugs have IQ's that are lower than a football game score. "Oh, wow, last time went quite well.....maybe I'll meander down there and rob her again!"

I read a lot of stories where the crooks do some pretty stoopid things.
Click to expand...
I considered that along with people of that time of night.
But I also wonder about a person who would continue to work there after a frightful experience.

Also, is this a constantly crime ridden area of a city.
In the city where I live there are perpetually criminal areas where every night there's a shooting on the news.

And the people that the news interviews are just peeking out their doors enough to talk to a reporter.
 
CallMeKate said:
She needed to call the police if she felt the guy was a threat. Lock the door and call the police. Why in the world would she have "tried to flag down a police car" instead of calling them? :unsure: Ya know, in a movie, the clerk and "loitering dude" would have been working together to rob an unsuspecting customer late at night... clerk goes outside with customer and has a signal to tell loitering guy whether or not to jump customer. If customer mentions he's carrying, no go and guy drives off. Hmmm....

So.... she tried to flag down the police... I'm guessing it was when they'd been so far away that there's no way they could have seen her doing it? And loitering guy opening and closing his car doors... maybe waiting for a signal from clerk?

Yep, I'm just thinking aloud and it's completely farfetched, but it makes more sense than not simply making a phone call and deciding to stand in the parking lot. 🤷‍♀️
Click to expand...
There are so many elements in this story that just don't make good sense.

You begin to wonder.
 
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.
 
Weapons non deadly, quick acting physically, built only for sale for civilians? But the same for military and Police?
 
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?”
 
Oh who knows why a person reacts the way they do when under a (possibly) dangerous situation?? And what about the guy thought may be suspicious of bad intentions? Was he?
 
GP44 said:
A few years back and being a bit of a night owl I drove the few blocks to our only all night gas station late one night.
I parked just to the left of the door in front of the building and went inside and made a purchase and while paying for it the attendant said.
“See that guy out there at the pump, I’m pretty sure he is the guy who robbed me before.”
One reason why she was sure was because she recognized the kind of red shoes he had on.
You could tell that she was scared while telling how he had hit her over the head with his gun when he robbed her before.
I told her that I had my gun on me and that she needn’t be scared because I would hang around for a while.
I went back out and stood on the other side of the front of my car and watched the guy at the pump. I had the feeling he knew I was watching him although he never looked directly at me.
She came outside and stood behind me.
A police car drove by and she tried to flag it down but it just drove on.
It was dark and quiet only myself and the attendant and the guy who was messing around over by the pump.
He must have got in and out of the open drivers door five times and walked around his car sometimes opening the back door and reaching around in there.
I stood there with my hand on my gun in my pocket ready in case he drew a weapon from his car.
Finally after about fifteen minutes he got in his car and left.
I drove around the block a few times and around town and he was gone.
I told about this on a defensive forum and the guys said it wasn’t my place to protect her but I think that she was too scared to stay inside and call the police and although I had a cell phone I was intent on keeping an eye on him.
At a time like that you are either in or out and it’s either time to talk or time to be ready to fight.
That was another time when I won the war of nerves without having to draw my gun out to where anyone could see it as a threat to them.
Click to expand...

How dare you be a kind, understanding, and protective human being. It's 2025 man, and this type of behavior is unwelcome. In fact, knowing the woman was in fear, you should have told her to put her hands up and hand over the cash.

;)
 
January said:
Are red shoes that unusual that they are an identifying feature?
Click to expand...
They can be an identifier. Many Americans wear fashionable brand name trainers, with bright coloured lettering on them, advertising the maker's symbol or brand name. Combined with other specific items of clothing, a person can be identified on store security cameras, which is one of the first things that Police will look at, during the first phase of an investigation. Compiling a physical description of a suspect is a standard part of any investigation. JIMB.
 
There are a lot of good suggestions here.
First of all this wasn’t something that I had a lot of time to think about ahead of time.
Yeah! I could have taken my eyes off of him long enough to call the police or take a picture but that might have been all of the time it would have taken for him to reach in his open door and come out with a weapon.
The fact that he was at the first pump next to the door is probably why the attendant didn’t feel real safe staying inside.
I doubt if the windows on the gas station are bullet proof.
I didn’t know how long he was going to mess around out there but he did take a ridiculously long time for somebody who wasn’t checking his oil or washing his windows.
Judge me all you want but I did the best I could under the circumstances.
This isn’t necessarily a bad area but the only business that stayed open all night in our rural area.
 
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One night our town cop got suspicious of a car load of kids riding around and past the gas station.
He followed them for a ways and then stopped them.
He was standing next to the car he had stopped when another car came past and swerved into him.
He was able to hold the carload at gunpoint while calling for help.
They caught the one who swerved into him and found out that the carload of teens were wanted out of Indiana for murder. The one who swerved into him was with them of course.
Like I said we are a small village about five miles from the Indiana state line.
Man eldest son and his wife lived in the other half of the duplex with the cop and his wife so we knew him very well.
This gas station closes at night and we have an all night truck stop now at the junction of the road going out of town and the highway.
Don’t hear a lot about what all happens out there.
 
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OldFeller said:
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.
Click to expand...
This guy drove in at night and got gas and was hanging around his car at the pump.
Late at night. I said late at night but it was actually about 3:00 am and I had just done a few things in my detached garage before I drove over to get a bag of ice.
I paid for the ice when I went in but didn’t pick it up until it was all over with and I was sure he was gone.
Wasn’t like he went in and bought a hot dog and was standing around playing with his phone or something.
Yeah I can believe that if a guy got by with one robbery he would go back again some time and hit the same place again.
She could have been wrong about that being the guy that robbed her before but I think he might have been because of the way he messed around going around his car like he did and opening a back door and acting like he was rummaging around and then walking around it again.
Sit down for a minute and never closed his drivers door and back out.
I think every time he sat down in the car was when he was looked to see if I was still there- probably in his rear view mirror or something.
Anyway I never drew my gun from my pocket holster so I was not lawfully guilty of anything.
All it cost me was a few minutes of my time on a night when I couldn’t sleep anyway.
 

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