Thursday, April 27, 2023

Guy stuck his hands in my car window


This happened a few years ago and I was just thinking about this event and what I would do differently. I was driving down Halsted St in Chicago and it was about 15min before sunset. There were some cars in front of me and a stop sign up ahead, so my speed was probably 10-15mph.Around here is where it happened: https://goo.gl/maps/epXW4tvLzFgUsgJf7A work van on the opposite side of the road drove past and then all of a sudden a guy walked/ran into the driver side of my car and smacked the mirror, folding it inwards. I guess he was crossing the street and crossed behind the van and didn't look at the opposite side or didn't see me. After the mirror smack, I immediately looked into the rear view mirror and saw the guy with a dumbfounded look on his face. He walked over to the sidewalk and started walking in my direction.Since several people witnessed it happening and I wanted to make sure the guy was okay, I pulled over to the closest place I could find (the road was lined with parked cars) which was on the next block. As the guy got closer, I was watching him in my mirror and I could tell something wasn't right. He was kind of stumbling and I could tell he was drunk or high. As he got closer to my car, I rolled the passenger window down about 1/3 of the way and yelled "hey man, are you okay? Do I need to call anyone?"I thought he would stop a few feet away and tell me he was okay or injured but instead he got right up to the side of my car, and started putting his hands in the window about halfway between the wrist and elbow and talking gibberish. My SO was sitting in the passenger seat and freaked out and started rolling the window up which ended up ended up pinching the guys hands. She told me to drive away but I couldn't do that with his hands pinched in the window. I told her to stop trying to raise the window and I lowered the window an inch or so and the guy pulled his hands out then I drove away. As I drove away, I saw him walking across the road again and heading the opposite way.I was carrying at the time but never felt the need to unholster it and that may have even escalated the situation.Wow, what a crazy incident and this was one of the "final straw" moments for me that made me move out of Chicago. I thought about what I would do differently and I'm not sure about that. Originally my mentality was to stay in the car because I always think it's better to be in your vehicle than outside. The vehicle offers protection and you can drive away if something crazy happens. Also, based on the guy's body language, I didn't like the idea of getting out.Rolling down the window more than an inch or two was the mistake here, especially with my SO sitting in the passenger seat. If I had to do this a different way, I would roll down the rear window instead or roll down the driver window and make him come to my side.What do you guys think? Would you have unholstered? What would you have done differently? via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/k3hQNiE

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