I'm like Carol...if my gut says, "Something's not right here," I listen to her and leave. There's a very interesting book titled "The Gift of Fear", by Gavin De Becker. In it, he describes why we should listen to our intuition rather than try and be polite. Women, especially, have been cultured to not give offense, so we so often are victims of a crime because, in many cases, we don't want to offend that guy who has been following us as we walk down a street.
I was in a laundromat doing laundry, many years ago, and was nervous. It was not a bad part of town, but...it was a dicey area anyway. As I pulled up, a couple of punks came out of the laundry without laundry, got into a beater and left. There was a man inside, doing his laundry, as well. His car, out in the parking lot, had a military gate entrance sticker on the windshield, so I knew he was military. We struck up a conversation..he was retired Air Force and had then gone into the police force.
He told me that when he got into the luandry, the punks ran off..they'd been trying to break into the change machine and he'd identified himself as a police officer when he realized what they were up to. He told me that the best thing for a woman in a situation like that to boldly ask the bad guy "what are you doing!", "in your best grandmama's voice' unquote and to always carry yourself 'as if you can kick their ass up between their ears. Never let them think you're afraid of them."
That advice has carried me through some situations....but I'm also the first one to turn around and leave if my gut says, no, this isn't a good place.
Although, these days, it seems like the punks have no problem with just shooting you.
Edited by Meadowlark, 20 November 2019 - 08:31 AM.
