Anatomy of a personal defense situation or how they sometimes occur.

DoctorWho

I have been thinking on how many situations occur / unfold, and how things can quickly escalate and get out of hand, and when you add drugs and alcohol even mental illness psychotic behavior into the equation, people with little to no judgement will not act in a manner consistent with normal human or civilized behavior.

I try to stay away from areas and places where trouble can occur, and I don't poke My nose where it does not belong.

Last night it seemed trouble came calling, I end up working late every night, I have to manually shift lots of stuff & large tools and other items that gets put outside the garage bays during the day and returned at night after closing time.

I also have to park the customer cars inside the service station area, tally up the days receipts, so it gets late quickly, as I am moving the roll back truck into its slot, I see a small Honda pull off sharply to the curb outside the service station and two guys get out and open the hood.

I finish parking the tow truck and am going back to the office to start the paperwork and days receipts etc... when the guys push the car rapidly onto the property and under the awning over the fuel pumps, I thought one of the guys looked familiar, but then I realized I did not know either guy.

It was around 10 pm and I approach carefully and wait a bit for some sort of greeting etc, they ignore Me and talk for a while, two guys in their early 20s, it was raining and I was prepared to be civil, so I ask them hows things, what is up etc, they look in My direction and ignore Me.

They did not ask for permission to enter or anything, as if they were the new property owners.

So I inform them that the service station is now closed, and no one is permitted to do any work near the gas pumps due to safety regulations, could they please move the car,
The white guy looks at Me and makes a pfffft sound and keeps on talking to his partner.

So I inform them again the service station is closed, they are on private property and trespassing and they now have 30 seconds to leave, the same guy looks at Me and responds "or else what ?

I had not given them an ultimatum or "an or ELSE" or anything.

They should have been able to see I had reason to be there, worked there, gas station uniform & a ball cap with the word Security on it.

So I go to the office and call 911 and tell the dispatcher I have two trespassers at the gas station which is now closed and they refuse to leave, three marked patrol cars show up within minutes and the Officers get out and question the guys who are now choir boys and look all innocent and wide eyed, they produce IDs for the Officers etc. check for warrants, 0 warrants etc.... they sounded like little lost children wailing some song about burning wires etc..

The Officers tell them to leave and they start up their crumbly Honda and blatt loudly out of there, I was chatting with a female Officer that seemed to want to know what had happened, I explained and added, had they been civil, they could have remained there a while, She said, "Oh, so they were jerks about it huh ?" yes, they were, and it seemed they were a bit menacing when I told them to leave, it is late, I am here alone, I still have loads of work to finish, and I am not going to be nice to jerks, I have too much to do.

I thanked the Officers for their quick response time and told them how much I appreciated them being there and they seemed to genuinely appreciate the acknowledgement.

Folks today are not civil and do not act many times in a normal manner, it seems folks want to do anything they feel is right, not ask permission etc, things like this may not happen often, however it is a good idea to be mentally prepared in case it does, and not escalate a situation into a physical confrontation if at all possible.

Dr. db

The guy who came to our school started shooting because the kids liked the school and he didn't when he went there for a short time 18 years before. You never know.

DoctorWho

Dr. db wrote: »

The guy who came to our school started shooting because the kids liked the school and he didn't when he went there for a short time 18 years before. You never know.

After dealing with the public for over 30 years, I have a pretty good idea by now of what people are capable of.

Dr. db

I didn't mean to offend. Just that those two guys could have been operating in a different reality. I think you were completely justified.

DoctorWho

I knew you didn't, but at this point I am jaded from having seen what people do sometimes.

bobbyrlf3

You definitely handled that situation well. Glad to know you came out of it unscathed.

Uncle BS

I tend to take a "kill them with kindness" approach, it doesn't always work, but if the situation does escalate I am absolutely sure that I did everything I could to prevent it. Let me be absolutely clear, I'm not saying one should be naive or a pushover, but just being friendly and nonthreatening while you "take their temperature" can greatly influence the outcome of a given situation. This is not a criticism, simply my SOP.

DoctorWho

And you are right, I was prepared to do that, I still had plenty of work to do, hungry from lack of food, and needed to get My work done without them around, plus the fact that too many people have left cars parked in front of the pumps causing Me no end of grief, I also can't have people working on cars near the fuel pumps either, so there is kindness, and then there is "I can't let people do dangerous stuff" and then get into problems and have to answer as to why I allowed them to be there in the first place.

mythaeus

Respect can't be returned unless it's been given. You did good, Doc. :up:

Al

Uncle BS

DoctorWho wrote: »

And you are right, I was prepared to do that, I still had plenty of work to do, hungry from lack of food, and needed to get My work done without them around, plus the fact that too many people have left cars parked in front of the pumps causing Me no end of grief, I also can't have people working on cars near the fuel pumps either, so there is kindness, and then there is "I can't let people do dangerous stuff" and then get into problems and have to answer as to why I allowed them to be there in the first place.

Fair to say that you kindly prevented them from blowing themselves up. With the way they responded, I would have ended up calling the cops too.

UndaCovaBrother

Thumbs up on how you dealt with the situation!! I have to agree that most people these days know nothing about manners, which sometimes makes it difficult to deal with them. I've been taught while growing up to respect my elders, can't say that I always do it. But I try to at all times. Hopefully they will learn in the future that respect and manners will take you far in life. :beer::worthy:

DoctorWho

The best incident like that was in a parking lot used for LE parking, and this douche parks in a way that blocked me in, so a bunch of My buddies actually picked up his car so I could get My car out, then picked it up again and put it down in a way that he could not get out at all, between two walls, an impressive feat of strength considering the size and weight of that car.

The look on his face when he saw his car was priceless.

1965Jeff

In high school a friend was wanting to cozy up to another guy's chick, other guy drove a little honda that we would lift over the parking lot cement divider. Other guy would then have to round up his buddies to remove car from high centered position so he could go home.

samzhere

Doc, you handled the situation properly, imo. And thanks for sharing the story in detail. It's always good to have knowledge of situations and how they went down, good to file away in the old noggin.

bruchi

We presently live in the world of SELF INDULGENCE, whatever works for someone regardless of others is the thing to do and no one has the right to question this self appointed birth right.

Jeeper

Awesome job. Textbook case of what to do in a situation where you have the time and opportunity to resort to the local authorities.

Luis

jbohio

Doc, I had several very similar experiences when I worked at an repair shop/gas station. It's not fun. I actually had a group of guys start moving towards me around midnight one night. I backed right in the door, locked it, called 911. They were sweet as pie when the police arrived. I don't know why, but it's like some people think they have a right to be at a gas station. I called 911 several times, many of them when people walked up on me as I was hooking their car, about to drag it to our impound lot.

Dr. db

Unclebs: seem you use verbal judo?

DoctorWho

Jeeper wrote: »

Awesome job. Textbook case of what to do in a situation where you have the time and opportunity to resort to the local authorities.

Luis

There is that moment when you realize it is not yet crunch time in any way, and the CCW stays in it's place and you call 911, because you realize that escalating things will help no one.