Stranger Danger

I read a lot of crime stories, so maybe I'm a bit of an alarmist, but I can't help feeling unsettled after an encounter I had last night.

I stopped for gas at a local place and was trying to get the stubborn gas pump to work, when two ladies on the other side of the pump asked for my help. They were a little older, and very flustered, and they were having trouble getting the machine to take their credit card.

The door of their car was wide open when they asked me to walk over, and I had my own credit card out so I could pump my own gas. Walking over to their car could have been an invitation for them to grab my card and run, or to shove me into their vehicle and drive me off into the middle of nowhere. The fact that they were older ladies was the only reason I actually walked over to them. Had these two been men, I would have just said, "I don't know" and driven away as fast as I could.

It was only later that I thought of the safety of the two ladies. They, too, had their credit card in hand, ready for the snatching, and with the car door wide open, I could have gotten in and driven off, possibly shoving one of them in first. If the person who had pulled up to the opposite side of the pump had been some scary creep instead of me, who knows what might have happened to them.

They asked me for directions to a certain restaurant, which I happily gave them, but they said they'd been lost for awhile and were a little flustered as well. The restaurant was only a few miles away, and very easy to find, but I feel a little guilty that I didn't just drive to the place and have them follow me. It wasn't that far out of my way, and I would hate to think that these two ladies got lost again and had worse luck with whoever they found after they spoke to me. This area is very safe, but you never know who you're going to meet, and you can never be too careful.

I just hope that the ladies got to their destination -- and home again -- safely.