Body language works both ways

[steelheadfever]

Yesterday while I was detecting alone at a sports field I noticed a man, in a heavy coat with his hand in his pockets, walking down the sidewalk towards my area. If you will recall in my previous post that I said it was colder than a well diggers behind. Well anyway I continued to detect in the grass when I noticed him step off the sidewalk and begin to walk straight towards me. As he got closer I saw that he was a Hispanic male dressed in dirty cloths and he looked pretty tough. What really got my attention was that he was looking straight at me as he took took both hands out of his pockets and they were both clinched. This guy had something on his mind and I knew I wanted no part of it. I raised my detector to be about parallel with the the ground with the intentions of seeing how many times I could wrap my detectors shaft around his neck before my new 10" DD coil met with his skull. Well I think he could read my body language and actions because he quickly turned his head away from me and veered off in another direction to miss me.. Did he have intentions of attacking me? I think so. Did he know I was prepared to defend myself? I think so. After 25 years of law enforcement I think I am a pretty good judge of bad guys body language, but I think this bad guy had the same ability to judge someones body language as well. The moral of the story is pay attention to your surroundings especially the people in those surroundings, because you just never know in this day and age and its always in your best interests to be prepared. HH Dennis in Idaho.

 

[Nancy-IL]

Dennis, you said it all. Thanks for enlightening everyone. I'll be watching my back if I'm ever up your way and see some guy with a metal detector walking around in parks. Seriously, you were lucky and educated. Thanks to Larry, I don't hunt alone. Also another tip is to only cover one ear with the headphones when in a bad area. ME? I won't go there. Thank Dennis and BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! HH to all, Nancy

 

[ohio fred]

n/t

 

[hank1]

A good reminder Dennis. When you get preoccupied enjoying what your doing, your guard is down. When I'm suspicious of surroundings, I keep my shiny Lesche digger in hand and obvious.

 

[padiggin]

Dennis - I'm with ya on that one. After 10 years on the street as a beat cop and 8 as a fed, I'm pretty good at judging others intentions as well. I posted on here a while ago about an incident that happened to me while out in a deep wooded area (which I thought I was alone) and some man approached me while I was detecting. It was in a city owned area, up on a mountain and I was looking for old coins. This guy approaches me and starts conversation with me on how he thought I was the guy that "sucks *&^%$." I was shocked that this guy approached me and asked me that - I immediately informed that I was not that guy and that he had better leave me alone. He saw the look on my face and left. He got the message quick. Little did he know that I was also carrying my Springfield Armory XD .40.

I'm still young and fit and I do carry a hand gun while in these types of areas, so I'm very prepared for the worst case scenario if anyone has any bad intentions. But I know not all of us carry or want to carry or are allowed to carry. I dress to look intimidating as well in my camos, so that usually keeps a lot of miscreants away from me while in wooded areas. We all have to be careful of our surroundings in this day and age because the lunatics are out there just waiting to prey on someone.

 

[ohio fred]

n/t

 

[BarberBill]

I mostly use a screwdriver to pry coins out of the groundl, but I always have my Lesche digger on my belt in case I should ever need something for self defense. On the other hand the screwdriver may be nearly as good, also.
HH
BB