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This evening after church my wife and I took a trip to Wally world for a movie and I managed to find some .45 rounds, my wife and I went separate ways and I was on my way to find her when I heard quick footsteps behind me and suddenly I was forcefully grabbed by my arm and shoulder from behind. I spun left keeping my strongside and my pistol as far away from my "attacker" as possible, at the same time I thrust my left arm in the air taking his arms up with it and exposing his chin which was to be my first target. My right hand was open and in motion for a swift strike with the heel of my hand to the "button" and that's when I realized that it was a kid from my church and his eyes were wide with fear and he didn't mean any harm by it. His mom came around the corner and made a comment that she would have laughed if I had hit her boy and I proceeded to tell him to be careful messing around like that. He kept saying that he thought he was dead meat and that I had a wild look in my eyes. I met back up with my wife and we checked out and left. To me this is a good example of how enough training can put you in this automatic defense mode and that you never know how far a little horseplay can go. Just some food for thought

Heard over Wal-Mart intercom system: 'Clean up needed in Sporting Goods'.

Glad it wasn't anyhting more than horseplay and all turned out OK. I am sure it will make the kid think twice about running up to someone like that.

If he got good and scared, and learned not to grab people from behind, you saved him from future harm.

Oh.

BobCat wrote:If he got good and scared, and learned not to grab people from behind, you saved him from future harm.

This was a good opportunity for him to gain an understanding of the fact that, when an apparent threat is presented to a trained person, he's going to react on the assumption that what looks like a threat is a threat until proven otherwise. This can result in a most unpleasant experience for someone who is used to playing jokes on sheep.

I taught a man in his 40's that lesson when I was about 16. I actually launched the strike and barely got it stopped before I made contact. He had the "Big Eyes" syndrome for a while. He thought he was going to get hurt until he realized I had actually got it stopped. That last part surprised me, I only had about 1/2 inch left before contact.

It changed his attitude about grabbing people from behind.

I agree that purposely surprising people is a bad idea. When I was about 19 or so, I worked a swing shift. It was about midnight and I was giving one of my coworkers a ride home. We pulled into dark gas station to fill up. It was almost deserted but we see one other guy, who we immediately recognize as another coworker who just gotten off shift, pumping gas. He wasn't paying any attention, so as I got out to fill up, my buddy gets out of the passenger seat, and charges at our friend. As he is about 6 feet away he screams "HEY!!!" at him. Our poor co-worker nearly jumps out of his skin, jerks and gas nozzle out of his tank and sprays his assailant. As he douses the goofball, he recognizes him, and stops.
We three are all just standing there staring at each other. The friend who sprayed his "attacker" was hyperventilating. I ask him, "what was that?" He goes, I don't know, I just got really scared and the first thought that came to me was to spray him and then throw my lighter at him! Well, needless to say, no one every tried to spook that guy again! On top of that, he was about the most gentle and non-confrontational guy you will ever meet, but he sure got aggressive when he thought he was in danger! My gas soaked friend had to ride the rest of the way home in the bed of my truck!

karder,

Did you ask him for a light?

...there are reasons that gentle, non-confrontational people are like that.

I have worked in a jail since age 19, and my wifes dad (gf at the time) did the same thing in home depot a few years ago. He thought he had snuck up on me and tried to grab my shoulders. I heard the steps and saw his shadow coming up from behind me. As he grabbed my shoulder i put him in a wrist lock and hip threw him into a straight arm bar. He was very suprised. He no longer trys to spook me.

karder wrote:I agree that purposely surprising people is a bad idea. When I was about 19 or so, I worked a swing shift. It was about midnight and I was giving one of my coworkers a ride home. We pulled into dark gas station to fill up. It was almost deserted but we see one other guy, who we immediately recognize as another coworker who just gotten off shift, pumping gas. He wasn't paying any attention, so as I got out to fill up, my buddy gets out of the passenger seat, and charges at our friend. As he is about 6 feet away he screams "HEY!!!" at him. Our poor co-worker nearly jumps out of his skin, jerks and gas nozzle out of his tank and sprays his assailant. As he douses the goofball, he recognizes him, and stops.
We three are all just standing there staring at each other. The friend who sprayed his "attacker" was hyperventilating. I ask him, "what was that?" He goes, I don't know, I just got really scared and the first thought that came to me was to spray him and then throw my lighter at him! Well, needless to say, no one every tried to spook that guy again! On top of that, he was about the most gentle and non-confrontational guy you will ever meet, but he sure got aggressive when he thought he was in danger! My gas soaked friend had to ride the rest of the way home in the bed of my truck!

I have to say that immediately after every thing settled down, you realized some very scary things could have happened.

But the thought of your buddy in the back of the truck riding the rest of the way home got a good chuckle out of me. Poetic justice and all that.

What would you have done if you didn't have a pickup?
Make him walk?

My brother did that to me in public once! Before I knew it I had him backed up against a wall. I do not like being approached from behind without some verbal headsup.

Back in the 70s, I used to run movie theaters. Needless to say, one of the most dangerous times is after all the movies have let out and you have to tour the entire theater, bathrroms, back stages, and so on. If someone wants to stay after the movie and try to ransack the place, then they are going to try to be hiding. I used to do the tour with the doorman that stayed until the theaters closed up. I would always warn them, when I first hired them, to never try to jump out of somewhere and try to scare me.

I still remember his name...Troy. He decided to jump out of a bathroom entrance at me, as I was walking in, doing the check. My fist almost instantly connected with his mouth. It was kind of bad because he was wearing braces and it caused a lot of bleeding. The fortunate thing is that I recognized him even while I was throwing the punch, and I backed off some. I felt really bad, but he was cool since I had warned him to not do the exact same thing he did.

I can only hope, 30+ years later, that I stil have good reaction times, and the ability to quickly make out when a situation may not be what it seems to be.

RJ

I guess I've been conditioned over the years to immediately assume that when grabbed from behind that it is someone playing a joke on me. Probably because I've never been attacked and the only times I've ever been grabbed from behind, it has been a joke. It never even causes an adrenaline rush. Maybe one day that will change and hopefully not to my detriment.

AJ80 wrote:I guess I've been conditioned over the years to immediately assume that when grabbed from behind that it is someone playing a joke on me. Probably because I've never been attacked and the only times I've ever been grabbed from behind, it has been a joke. It never even causes an adrenaline rush. Maybe one day that will change and hopefully not to my detriment.

What he said