So this happened only a few hours ago (last night) and has me a little shaken but increasingly thankful nobody got hurt. For context I live in a nicer area of New Orleans which has been without power since the hurricane came through on Sunday. My house was burglarized yesterday morning and they stole some random crap and a ton of keys including those of half a dozen of my neighbors’ houses all of which have long since evacuated. So, all the lights are out, home alarms are down, security cameras are down, phone service is very limited and 911 is slammed AND some thug has keys to my house and a bunch of my neighbors. Neighbors are gone, NOPD is basically useless and our private security guys ran out of gas for their units, so I’m pretty much on my own if these guys come back and use the keys to burglarize the houses. Worried that the criminals will come back and burglarize everyone with the keys stolen from my house, I’ve been sitting in my car watching the street since dusk.So around 10:30 at night a big unmarked pickup truck that’s not from the neighborhood starts up comes down the street while blasting me with its high beems. The truck passes me then stops in the street about 20 yards behind me. Shortly thereafter the driver and passenger exit the truck. I’m sure they saw me in the car when they drove past me with the blinding headlights on and I can’t watch them when they’re at my 7 o’clock, so I exit my car. I’ve got my CCW concealed and a TLR-1 flashlight in my left hand. I can see the passenger is a few feet from the truck and has stopped walking while the driver is doing the same. I turn on my flashlight and look at the driver who is facing away from me with his hands near his waistband and I ask “Can I help you guys?” The driver respond with a quick “no” and turns around still messing with the front of his waistband. I ask “what are ya’ll up to, where are you heading?”. The driver does not respond and instead starts walking quickly and deliberately in my direction with his hands manipulating something around his waistband in the centerline of his body as I stand by my car. I see pistol on his right hip but wasn’t sure it wasn’t a cell phone due to the blinding light from 30 seconds before. This is the point when I start asking myself if I need to draw before this guy does and/or start yelling at him to get back. Instead, I just stood there as he approached, but he looks older, clean cut, and doesn’t seem like the burglar type. I’ve got 15-20 years, 75lbs and 6” on him so I’m not super worried about him trying to beat me up in the moment. I keep my flashlight on the driver as the armed man quickly approaches. I just barely begin to see what I think says ATF written in about 2-3” tall letters on one corner of his shirt (no badge visible). He’s got on kaki’s and his t-shirt doesn’t look official so I wasn’t sure if he was legit. I say “ATF?” And he responds “yeah”. This till unsure if it’s a trick, he keeps walking toward me I start wishing I began the interaction with my engine block between us while blurting out “I was burglarized this morning.” He stops about 8 feet from me as I lower the beam of the flashlight out of his eyes so he can see me and says “I’m taking a piss, don’t shine that fucking light on me.” The booze on his breath hit me like a ton of bricks. I then say “I can smell the booze on you from here.” The next thing he does made me believe he really was ATF because without saying a word, he turned around and quickly walked back to his truck. Neither of us said anything after that and he drove away. I’ve been sitting in the car most of the time since and he hasn’t returned. I spoke with another neighbor and he confirmed seeing them in the daylight and that they are actually ATF just providing a little extra security for a rich neighbor. Anyway, I’m glad I kept my cool and didn’t draw or anything and nobody got hurt, but I’m also kind of concerned he was able to get that close to me without a challenge. The whole thing happened in like 20-30 seconds and I kind of expected them to either start shooting or run away when I turned the light on rather than head straight for me while armed in a T-shirt. I think it was a gut feeling more than anything else that made me wait/not draw and thank God I didn’t.Maybe a good policy would be to require agents who open carry to also have a visible badge. It would also be nice if they would drive drunk, piss in the street, or get mad when they get caught doing the same.In sum, I’m just glad it ended with everyone safe. What do you guys think I could have done better or differently (other than not being out there or living in NOLA to begin with?) I’m looking for some constructive debate in the comments. I may not have internet but I’ll respond as soon as I do.Thanks!!! via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/3n0snQU
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