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.