nizo's Journal: What the hell??

So I was driving home from class and I stop at a red light. Some guy wanders up to the car in front of me and looks inside the car (like, cupping a hand and peering inside). At first I thought he knew the person, and then he walks to my car and does the same thing, like really really taking a looooong hard look inside my car; meanwhile his hand is concealed in his long tshirt, possibly holding a gun (at which point I think, "fuck, he is about to try to carjack me"). Even as he did this, the light turned green and I blew out of there around the corner, where I called 911 and reported the dumbass. Either he was looking to carjack someone, or selling or something, I couldn't tell. Damn I hate people sometimes.

At Least...

[eno2001]

...you didn't give him the finger like I did to someone once. The guy started trying to slash me with a paint scraper.

because...

[macshit]

... as we all know, looking inside your car is a major terrorist threat.
God forbid, he might actually have ... touched it (that's grounds for the death penalty in texas, I hear)!

Luckily, you were on top of things, and "blew out of there".

Rational reason?

[benhocking]

Can you think of a rational reason for that guy's behavior that doesn't involve something unsavory? I can't. (Sure, it could be anything from the guy being simply drunk/stoned up to the somewhat less likely but not impossible carjacking scenario, but none of it sounds good to me.)

Re:

[weierstrass]

Maybe it was mercedo looking for the girl from Trecca.

Re:

[nizo]

Yeah I suppose he had a perfectly legit reason for cupping his hand and peering into passing vehicles while concealing something in his shirt, but damn if I can figure out what it is. It felt like he was scoping out cars to carjack (it was late and rather dark so he couldn't just glance into cars, but had to make a serious effort to see in, thus the hand cupping), but then again I am pretty paranoid.

Re:

[eno2001]

One man's "paranoia" is another man's "smart". You were smart as hell for getting out of there. BTW... I was serious about the guy with the paint scrapper. He wanted me to step out of the car for flipping him off and when I didn't he ran around to the passenger side, tried to open the locked door and then started lunging at me through the open window with the paint scrapper. Total freak. He deserved to be flipped off. But in retrospect I'm much more judicious about who I flip off these days. No need

Re:

[subgeek]

if you want to be the "bigger person" or whatever and try to engage people in conversation when everything about their behavior is looking suspicious, good luck.

there's a big difference between something being a bad idea and its being illegal. just because someone isn't breaking the law at the moment doesn't mean it's a good idea to wait and see if that person actually does something illegal, especially if it looks like that something might be killing or injuring you. "blowing out of there" was a good opt

Re:

[nizo]

Thats ok, I found a $20 bill floating down the street on the way home from the State Fair today. Sweet! :-)

You did the right thing

[Shadow Wrought]

One other thing to remember at red lights and stop signs is to leave enough space for you to maneuver out of the traffic jam if you need to.

You should see if you can get ahold of the police call logs and see if anything happened...

Better reaction than I had

[Marxist Hacker 42]

This happened to me one night, and the guy actually tried to kick in my window as I hit the gas- it was funny seeing him spin around and end up on the ground....rubber has a lot of traction on glass.

You are at far more risk of carjacking than

[WillAffleckUW]

terrorism.

Remember your military training (ok, so most of you didn't do that) and that any object can be used to distract someone.

Quarters from the cup holder or a coffee cup thrown in their face work wonders.

Actually, you're at more risk from slipping in your bathtub than from any terrorist attack.