"I know I'm a big, scary, Black man..."

[Ginger's Mom]

Some of the comments on here are very interesting. I think a lot of the different perceptions come, of course, from our different experiences. I agree with most of those who have said that they would have believed that the person had some sort of "scam" or ulterior motive in his approaching Lobodeb. But then I am a big city girl, and have seen it all too often. At this point in my life my response would be to tell him that I would be happy to call the police and have them send someone around to assist him. I wouldn't necessarily leave someone in honest need out in the cold as it were, but I would not take the responsibility for this unknown person's welfare on my own.

Also, I found it interesting, I thought ES was speaking in more general terms, meaning she had encountered someone like him, not had actually (perhaps) had encountered the same person. Thanks for clarifying that Jen and Sara.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

What I find interesting is most people seem more worried about hurting someone's feelings rather than staying safe. Maybe it's because I'm from a smaller town where we don't have much pan handling going on but we do have cases of people disappearing only to end up dead in a field or river somewhere. To me there is not even a question in my mind what I would do.

Guess it's all perspective.

[lizbud]

What I find interesting is most people seem more worried about hurting someone's feelings rather than staying safe.

That's very true. Women more so than men I think.

[Pam]

What I find interesting is most people seem more worried about hurting someone's feelings rather than staying safe. Maybe it's because I'm from a smaller town where we don't have much pan handling going on but we do have cases of people disappearing only to end up dead in a field or river somewhere. To me there is not even a question in my mind what I would do.

Guess it's all perspective.

MOFF I agree with you completely. I love Court-TV and Forensic Files in particular. I think it is fascinating how sophisticated the methods have become to catch a killer but that's beside the point. So many people have met tragic ends by being nice to strangers. We can all still help by notifying the police or in some other way. Some of the most horrific killers looked like nice guys and were very polite.

[Miss Z]

To me, he sounded a con artist, definitely. It's sad, but the world is full of them. I believe you did the right thing by driving away, it was the safest thing to do.

[TamanduaGirl]

I was actually expecting this post was going to be by someone who considered themselves a big scary black man, lol, would have been interesting. Not that it isn't but I've nothing new to add.

[Daisy and Delilah]

I am also pretty intrigued by the responses in this thread.

I live in an area of the country that is dominated by tourist trade. With that, comes a very high crime rate. We're warned frequently, by the media, about local operational scam networks. We have con artists and panhandlers all over the place. Most of us are afraid to unlock our car doors, no matter where we go, much less, open our windows to a stranger.

I think it's all about location and fear. I would love to help anybody that needs help but, around here, we must be aware of what might happen and act accordingly.

Lobodeb: In your case, if the man appeared to be legit, I would have taken his comment as an icebreaker too. I would think of him as a person that didn't know any other way to communicate, possibly.

However, I also feel that he could have used other means to solve his problem rather than walking up to a woman's car like he did.