Posts
I've had to interact with two people this evening that I seriously worried would be sporting 9mm holes in them.
The first was at Wal Mart and this really twitchy nervous guy kept edging closer every time I tried to look for the elusive funnel.
If I looked right at him for a few seconds he'd back off, but as soon as I wasn't looking right at him he'd start closing in again.
I did remember to keep an eye out for someone in the other direction. Pats self on back.
Finally I exited stage left to see if there were other places Wal Mart hid funnels.
Eventually I ended up back were Mr Twitcher was and he started sidling towards me again.
So I said, "I think you need to get away from me. Now!"
He looked like I'd slapped him across the face, but depart he did.
That left me time to find the funnel. And see the shoplifter...
Looking back, I wonder if loss prevention was so quick because they were watching twitcher.
The second time is at the liquor store.
Just your basic panhandler.
He was accosting a different customer in their car when I arrived, but was loitering nearby when I came out.
After pointedly keeping my car between him and I by going down the passenger side instead of the driver's side it appeared that he was going to ignore me. But as soon as I had deposited the IPA in the hatch and opened the driver's door he started over.
"Go away!" I said in my best Sargent's voice. That worked like a charm.
But some people are pushing the boundaries lately.
Keep your head on a swivel and your wits about you.
They were clearly trying to strike up a conversation and maybe get a helping hand. Yep. Walmart, grocery stores, hardware stores. Just looking for a bit of the milk of human kindness. I'll have to work on that Sargent's voice. I know I have it arround here, someplace.
ReplyDeleteAround here it seems like there are beggars on the medians at many of the major intersections. What I usually do is stop a bit short like a car length or so of where they are at then roll up the window. As they shuffle towards me then I roll up and past them. The other day I did that and guy got mad as hell... started waving his arms and yelling. However, he at least did not come back towards me, he kept moving on to the car behind me. There have been others that were in much more danger of developing leaks. One of the reasons I've adopted this tactic is I've had a few either come up and tap on my window or even worse make motions like they were trying to reach into my car.
ReplyDeleteWe rarely get panhandlers "working" up near the stores as they usually get trespassed off the property if they try begging there.
When I was last out visiting my brother in Riverside, CA, there were homeless people just about everywhere. Once John and I were going to the drugstore and we had to pull back out of a parking space that had looked open because some smelly bum was passed out in the middle of it, right on the pavement. John was irritated and so was I.
ReplyDelete