In 1995, I returned from living in Japan and spent a few days in Eugene, Oregon, visiting a friend before returning to Montana to finish my first book Hard-Won Wisdom From The School Of Hard Knocks and then heading to Southern California to work and train with Marc MacYoung.
My friend obliged me by agreeing to go see Steven Seagal’s Under Siege 2: Dark Territory at the theater in the local mall. As we were nearing the building, a woman approached us. She asked for help, saying she was afraid of some man, and wanted us to go out to her car with her. Her car just happened to be parked way out at the edge of the parking lot. (The fringe area I discuss in the Safe Parking Rules article.)
Right from the start something felt wrong. And as I always tell people, trust those feelings and instincts. Far too many victims afterward say, “I knew something seemed wrong,” or “I had this feeling…”
I told the woman we should go inside and get a security guard or call the police. (We didn’t all run around with cell phones in 1995.) She didn’t want to do that. Hmmm… Smelling something funny here? I sure was. She was very insistent that we follow her out to her car to help her. I didn’t bite. I didn’t know what was waiting out near her car, but I knew it wasn’t anything good for me and my friend. I mean come on, she didn’t want police or security, but wanted us out in the fringe area. I guess I didn’t look like someone who was in the middle of writing his first book on self-defense.
I told her again she should get a security officer from inside the mall and we continued walking toward the building’s entrance. She didn’t follow, but rather headed out into the parking lot. Most likely to look for another mark. We told a security guard inside what happened and what direction the woman had headed, and then went to our movie.
The moral of the story is we must be careful and alert for set-ups, rip-offs and scams. It’s not that I’m against helping people. In fact, I am all about helping others. But it today’s society, we must be careful and look out for our own safety too. There is no reason for a woman to want me and my female friend to follow her out into the parking lot because she is afraid, rather than a security guard or police officer.
So learn from my story and be careful. Stay alert and stay safe.
