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drjoker wrote:Op did good by trusting his instincts.

Wfahey wrote:

Medic624 wrote:

Excaliber wrote:

Wfahey wrote:

Medic624 wrote:... As he neared my 8 o'clock and about 50' to the left I rolled the window down about 3" and yelled "Get the heck away from my car!" This stopped him in his tracks and startled him enough that by this time the light had turned green and I went on my merry way.

Why'd you roll down the window? You were in a covertable!

Consider that the top may have been up and the windows closed.

BINGO!!

My bad. When you gave the description of the car and said convertible, I took that to mean the top was down.

Excaliber wrote:

Wfahey wrote:

Medic624 wrote:... As he neared my 8 o'clock and about 50' to the left I rolled the window down about 3" and yelled "Get the heck away from my car!" This stopped him in his tracks and startled him enough that by this time the light had turned green and I went on my merry way.

Why'd you roll down the window? You were in a covertable!

Consider that the top may have been up and the windows closed.

Keith B wrote:

texanron wrote:

OldCurlyWolf wrote:The only thing you didn't do which IMHO you should have done is call and report the pair to HPD. They would have sent a unit out to check out the pair. They might have ended up spending some time in jail or being transported to a shelter, whichever was appropriate.

I'm pretty sure in the two hours it would take HPD to respond, if they repsonded at all, the pair would've been long gone. Don't get me wonrg, I'm not trashing on HPD, its not their fault that the decisions makers keep making the worng decisions which has led to department cuts across the board.
Back to the topic at hand. I think the OP handled the situation flawlessly.

There is a piece of this that is frequently being missed when people say it would not do any good to call the police. That is there is now a record of you calling and making a report. It is just like unsecured rummaging through cars and minor loss of change or items. If there is no report made, then the police don't know it happened, and in turn can't see that there may be a trend going on in a particular area. It is up to the citizens to call and report suspicious activity and even minor crimes so the police can tell there is something going on in the area and add extra patrols if they feel it is needed. And, you probably don't have to stick around, just let them know there is something suspicious, what happened and then let the police take it from there. If you provide your cell number and they have questions or need additional information, they will call you.

Oldgringo wrote:I think you should have shot him, perhaps several times. There are wAy too many homeless people about plus we need test cases for situations like this. After your case wends its way through the courts, the rest of us will have some guidelines.

tacticool wrote:

Medic624 wrote:As he neared my 8 o'clock and about 50' to the left I rolled the window down about 3" and yelled "Get the heck away from my car!" This stopped him in his tracks and startled him enough that by this time the light had turned green and I went on my merry way.

If I yelled at everyone who got within 50' of my car in an urban area

PUCKER wrote:

VMI77 wrote:I've had people walk up to my car at Austin intersections numerous times and not felt threatened. If I felt threatened, other than make sure my weapon was ready for quick deployment as a precaution --as you did-- I'm not sure what I'd do, since I wasn't there to read all the signals. In all cases I'd be looking at their hands and checking them over for weapons and I'd scrutinize them even more carefully at night. However, in your case, at the point I felt sufficiently threatened, I would probably check the intersection clear and run the light rather than wait around and maybe have to use my gun.

I'd rather drive off if possible and create distance than be close (in a convertible as well).