re: What was the scariest “We need to leave… now” gut feeling that you’ve ever experienced?

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I reckon, but it's very common for a stranger to ask me what I am looking at or for, especially when I have a big camera around my neck.

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Don’t talk to strangers, we learned that as kids. Maybe I’m antisocial but I’m not striking up a conversation with someone in that situation. It’s one thing in a public place where you normally go, not in the middle of nowhere. The survival instinct in us has to kick in from the get go.

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Something felt eary

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"You ain't supposed to be here". She told me the directions and said to leave quickly and not make eye contact with anyone.

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But we’re the racist and violent ones.

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I am very cautious about getting gas at night and way more situationally aware since then

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If I’m filling up at night and sometimes during the day depending on where I am, my pistol is in my pocket and my head on a swivel.

Ain’t catching me slipping’.

Stopped at a gas station in BR once when I was 18. Normal looking middle age white guy approached me as I was walking to the front door and starts telling me how his car broke down a little ways down the road, his wife and kids are inside, and asking me for a ride back to them. Something seemed off about him, but I couldn't put my finger on it, and the story seemed legit to 18 year old me and I was considering giving him a ride. He followed me inside the store to the drink cooler, pressing me harder for a ride and getting more intense. As I reached down to get a bottle of coke I happened to glance at his hand and saw "Slick" tattooed across his fingers. Jailhouse tat. It was like immediately the veil down and I knew this guy had bad intentions. I got a cold chill. Forgot about the coke, looked the guy in his eyes and said sorry I can't help, and got out of there as fast as I could.

Another story that happened to my mother when she was a college student in Texas. She was alone going to the grocery store one evening, and noticed a shady looking guy lingering around in the parking lot when she pulled up. 15 minutes later she comes out and the guy approaches her as she gets to her car and asks her if she knows what time it is. She had just happened to check her watch as she walked out of the store so without breaking eye contact she tells him the time. The guy got a weird look on his face and she knew she needed to get out of there asap. A few weeks later she is watching the news and there is a story about a guy being arrested for the abduction and assault of several women, and guess what his M.O. was? Yep, would approach women in parking lots and ask them the time, and when they looked down at their watch would make his move, force them into the car and drive off. Scary stuff.

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ASVAD

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It’s ASVAB sparky.

Makes a joke about an aptitude test and gets it wrong.