First time DGU

Sorry, this will be a long one. This happened last summer. I posted this story shortly after it happened but removed it soon after because I didn't want to impact my job. Hindsight is 20/20 and I know what I did right and wrong, I just wanted to share a data point for you guys.In the summer of 2019 I was working for a ride sharing company in downtown San Antonio, Texas. We rented dockless electric scooters and bikes. I was a field technician on the bike side, which meant my job boiled down to driving a ProMaster around downtown SA swapping batteries on bikes and recovering bikes from homeless guys. I'd say it was mostly a 50/50 split. I was pretty good at both. Some personal background. At the time I was 21 years old, but I looked a good bit younger. About 180lbs at 6' and looking kinda skinny. I would usually dress like your normal college kid, and something about my presentation made me attract homeless like flies. Asking for money or free scooter rides and stuff. This wasn't the first time I had an incident with a homeless guy but it is the first one where I felt relieved to be armed. On one occasion a guy repeated "I oughta beat your ASS!" over and over after I locked his stolen bike.One day I was walking a couple bikes to a corner when a homeless guy passes by me on one of our scooters, going the opposite direction. We'll call him Toothless, simply because he doesn't have teeth. He saw me looking at him and said, "the fuck are you looking at?" Unlike the bikes, the scooters can be deactivated remotely with the use of our iPhones, I would just need the ID number of the scooter. I probably could've found it on the phone, but our software was somewhat experimental and I wasn't familiar with the scooter side of the app. So I locked one of the bikes I had and powered up the other, hopped on and went after the scooter to get a look at the number. I caught up to him at a corner where he asked why I was following him. I told him I was just "goin where I'm goin." He takes off again around the block and I take a second before following. I find him up the block stopped under a small tree and I have a good view of the scooter number. He says something like "see! I knew you were following me! You don't want to turn off my scooter, you'll get someone in trouble." As if one of our other field techs unlocked it or something. He was trying to talk me out of turning it off as I was entering the number in my phone. After I had the number, I kept going around the block on my bike as I was turning off the scooter on my phone. I make it a couple corners around the block when Toothless comes speeding up behind me, apparently the scooter hadn't powered down yet. This part I don't remember so well, my nerves were high and to be completely honest he was a scary dude. He's a little behind me following me and saying something about being in a gang, and that they'd be looking for me, I'd better watch my back and the suchlike. The scooter finally shut down and he threw it into the street, and started yelling at me. At this point I'm headed back to where I left the other bike, and my partner was waiting for me there. My back was to Toothless, but he said something that made me slam on the brakes, drop the bike, and turn to face him. I can't remember what it was, but it really struck a nerve. Probably another semi-credible threat. I know I should've kept going since I had the mobility advantage, but I had to work around these people and in the moment I thought standing up for myself was the right move. Again, hindsight is 20/20. He's walking toward me yelling, maybe 20 yards away or so. With my left hand I lift my shirt and display my HK P30. This seemed to phase him somewhat but he said something like he was "gonna take it from me and shoot me with it." I pointed with my right hand down the street and told him a couple times to "FUCK OFF." I don't remember what all he said but after a moment he turned and left.The next day Toothless told one of the other field techs I pulled a gun on him. The field tech was an ex-military guy we called Bear. Bear is a hard dude, and his immediate thought was "wtf, no way HodorFirstOfHisName carries a gun," a sentiment fortunately shared by everyone at the company. I guess it pays off to avoid wearing gun culture merch. I was called back to the warehouse early, where I told my boss the story, but swapped the gun for my Benchmade auto, which everyone knew I had. Other employees had been fired for carrying guns on the job, so I didn't want to tell them that I did. I walked away from that one with a formal warning. In an effort to lower my profile, I swapped my HK for my Glock 43, and a few people asked if I had lost weight. "Yeah maybe about a pound."The day of the incident I went to the tactical store and bought a big can of OC spray. It occurred to me I didn't want my first and only line of defense to be shooting someone. I ran into Toothless a handful of times after that and did my best to avoid him. One time he spotted me and I turned 180 degrees and hauled ass on my bike to the Alamo because there's always a ton of cops there. Anther time he came up to the window of my van and yelled at me to roll down the window, to which I simply said "no, why would I?" That time I saw a pretty good sized knife in his waistband.Some lessons learned:It's always better to escape a fight than win it.It does you no favors for people to know you carry weapons.Train cardio more than draw stroke. via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/2z0EaIn