A Note About Safety

This is for everyone, but especially for the ladies...

First, some background information: I work at the post office. Because it's a federal building, even the parking lot is considered federal property and it's considered trespassing to drive through the lot if you're not an employee. The parking lot is fenced, and there are signs at the gates (which are always open, because we've got people working in the building 24/7). Also, the parking lot has slanted spaces, and we have a rule against pulling through spaces. I have a certain row that I always park in, and on days when we have a lot of mail, I might have to park close to the end of the row (pretty far away from the building).

Well, yesterday was one of those busy days, and when I turned down my row, it was pretty full. There was an old Isuzu SUV pulled through a space, and there was an empty space to the left of the vehicle (with another SUV parked on the other side of that space), and several empty spaces to the right of the vehicle. I wasn't really sure I had the mad parking skillz to park between two SUVs, so I decided to park on the right side of the Isuzu. I noticed that there was someone sitting inside the Isuzu, but I didn't really think anything of it because it's not unusual for people to sit in their cars talking on the phone before they go inside to clock in. So I went about my normal parking routine: turning off my a/c, shutting off the car, putting my keys away, etc. I happened to glance over at the guy in the Isuzu to see if it was anybody I recognized, and he was staring me straight in the eye. It made me feel very uncomfortable. I started to analyze the situation I was in: parked far away from the building, my driver's side right next to his driver's side, although there were a lot of cars in the lot there weren't any people...and this guy was staring at me with this creepy little half-smile on his face. So I turned my car back on and got the heck out of there. I found a space in my row that was very close to the building, and I hurried into the building to tell a supervisor. After she confronted him, he said he was looking for the gun show, and she said he appeared to be intoxicated. Personally I think he was making it up, but I guess I'll never know. I do know that in that situation, I felt very uncomfortable, and I think I made the right decision by following my instincts.

A few weeks ago, my stepmom gave me a copy of The Gift of Fear, by Gavin De Becker. At the time, I thought it was silly...I thought reading a book like that would just make me paranoid and more afraid and suspicious. Although I haven't read the book yet, I've flipped through it enough to get the basic message: follow your instincts. I don't know what that man's intentions were yesterday, but I know that I could have been the victim of a violent crime if I hadn't followed those instincts yesterday, if I hadn't been aware of my surroundings. So please, please, please follow your instincts. Be aware of your surroundings, especially if you're alone or in an unfamiliar place. It only takes a few seconds to look around and evaluate a situation, but it could save your life. If something seems 'wrong' or gives you a bad gut feeling, just go with it. Don't worry about seeming paranoid or prejudiced. The latter is especially hard for me...I feel guilty rolling up my windows or checking to make sure my doors are locked when I see someone of another race walking by my car. But it's never just because of their race...it's because of how they're dressed or how they're walking or because they're carrying a baseball bat or walking the streets at 2am. And as guilty as I feel about it, I'd rather be a little bit prejudiced than a whole lot dead. (By the way, the prejudice thing doesn't apply to yesterday...the man was a member of my own race, and I do have a rough idea of the statistics regarding violent crimes against women perpetrated by white men...I'm probably more suspicious of them than anybody else.)