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surprise_i'm_armed wrote:KeithB:
Interesting tale from your workplace.

If I recall correctly, isn't your workplace directly across the street from the Plano cop shop?

If so, you'd think evildoers would give your place a wider berth.

SIA

Actually, my office is in Richardson along 75.

As of last week there had been 35 burglaries of motor vehicles in the Richardson jurisdiction in August. These 'smash and grabber's' target businesses with a lot of vehicles and try to blend into the normal flow of folks coming and going. They do their surveillance, then target something that is easy pickings and hightail it out of the parking lot.

There was one case this month where a lady was at the gym and took time to hide her GPS in the console, but left a diamond ring in the cup holder.
Another case was where they broke into the car to look under a blanket because they thought something was hidden under it.

It really falls back to the Lock, Take, Hide program that many police departments are pushing right now. Bottom line, make sure there is nothing left out were they can see it, lock your car and you will probably be left alone.

The Annoyed Man wrote:FWIW, my gut inclination would be to dismiss the fact that the folks in the car were black. It's irrelevant. What IS relevant is, color notwithstanding, what kind of people did they appear to be? Did they look and act hinkey? Maybe they were just poor and ignorant. Or not. The truth is that you could have been approached by a carload of white or Hispanic folks who were bent on doing you harm too.

I try to balance my natural suspicion with a little bit of grace, just in case the "apparently" innocent really do turn out to be innocent.

This is a good point. Just the other day I was approached by an extremely shiny vehicle model that I had never seen before. The four men in it said they were looking for a route to get back home. They really didn't seem to fit the normal type of person for the locale I was in, so that really made me suspicious. When they asked me to take a look in their vehicle, told them no thanks and pointed to the direction I thought they should go to get out of the area. The fact that they were green really shouldn't have played into the mix on my suspicions though.

Seriously TAM, you are correct. Just yesterday we had an ACTUAL suspicious vehicle in our company parking lot with a male driver and female passenger. The drove in, parked in a remote area, one person (the male) got out and walked through the lot, then got back in his vehicle and proceeded back to park beside a truck with his windows widely cracked. Just as he tried the door to the truck and started to reach down through the window he noticed an employee watching him. He immediately jumped back in the car and left. Got a good description of him and the vehicle (to far away in the lot for license number by visual or video though.) Had it not been for that employee sensing something was not right when they saw the car slowly progress across the lot, the police would not have as good an information as they got and the pickup owner might be filing an insurance claim. BTW, these individuals were clean cut and white, so nothing by their outward appearance would be a stereotypical trigger for most folks.

USA1 wrote:funny that i'm reading this as i just came from a gas station where i was approached by a guy asking for directions .

i almost drew down on him , till i saw his wife and kid waiting in the car .

i still didn't trust him

All jesting aside, there are legitimate times folks ask for directions or other information. Being in Condition Yellow when out and about is good, but unless there are other indicators that push the level to Condition Orange, then don't assume everyone is up to no good just because they ask a question of you. I have had people approach me because they needed information and I looked like the safest person to ask, even above the clerks in the convenience store.