Driving to the gym this morning and this Uhaul style small moving truck pulls up next to me. White male, late forties, short cropped hair, slightly overweight. The truck was all yellow but had "DEVL" painted on the side in graffiti style lettering.
Green light and his lane moves a little faster than mind so I think "Is that a business?" and check for the license plate. No license plate. "No license plate? Is that normal?"
He keeps going straight and I merge onto the freeway and it's just bugging me. Do I call 911 just in case? And say what? That I have a weird feeling? I live in a very religious area with very low crime where I'm sure cops are afraid to profile people and here I am asking myself if that's all I'm doing. I try to find a reasonable explanation why a man that age would be driving a truck like that with no plates and no business insignia aside from the letters "DEVL" painted on the side in teenager-vibe graffiti style and I just can't square it.
I get to the gym parking lot but I can't get out of the car I just kept thinking "What if?" I can feel the tug of war going on inside. Do I trust my instincts or explain them away? I look up "DEVL" and "DEVL moving trucks" online and don't see anything. So I think "What's the worst that will happen if I'm wrong and I report this guy? He gets pulled over there's a good explanation for why he doesn't have a plate and everything checks out and he thinks 'Hey, if I don't want to get pulled over maybe I shouldn't drive around in an unlicensed truck with the word "DEVL" on the side?
Eh. So I call. What the hell. The guy should expect this, right? If he wants to have an edgy truck that raises eyebrows, fine. Maybe he's a great guy. Then again, maybe he's a fucking kidnapper/trafficker, I don't know.
I read this book a while back titled "The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals The Protect Us From Violence" by Gavin de Becker. He's supposedly an expert on the protection of public figures and has worked as a security adviser for three separate U.S. Presidents. He says that "Denial is a save now, pay later scheme." Thinking about that is what ultimately made me decide to call.
I don't know. Maybe it was nothing. But I don't feel like that often, and I can usually feel what other people are feeling. If I'm wrong, I maybe have just inconvenienced a perfectly innocent person for a few minutes. And maybe I waited too long to act on my hunch and I just let a serial killer get away. I don't know. Hopefully I did the right thing, and didn't wait too long. If it ever happens again, I don't think I'll hesitate so much.
I say good job.
Years ago I lived in an incorporated area, inside city limits so there were police patrols. I worked a lot of late and odd hours back then, was always coming home or leaving in the wee hours. I was always in my work truck.
I was pulled over quite a few times by police who saw me cruising through the neighborhood, each time I asked and they would say 'just checking why people are cruising in here this time of the morning/night'.
They would see my address was up around the bend and apologize to me for the stop, and each time I thanked them, told them I was GLAD they were out doing their jobs, keeping my Wife and Kids safe while I was at work.
I see these things like that. We either ARE a moral Society or we are not, we either WANT the Rule of Law or we do not. If we want the Rule of Law we must each help enforce it, we must police our Society.
Being a Citizen comes with Responsibilities, with Rights come Duties. Not just jury duty, voting and such things but also the actual rules' enforcement of Society. Pretending to not see something and ignoring it only weakens Society, weakens Law.
What you did is not 'swatting' or being paranoid, it is simply you reporting something you see on the streets of Society. If the guy had no plates he needs to be questioned, at the very least questioned.
I grew up being profiled, was a Hippie in Texas when that was worse than being a bank robber. Was a Hippie with long hair and a motorcycle which gave me bonus power ups to being profiled. I knew why I was profiled, it was understandable, back then we didn't choose to be offended we accepted Reality.
So I'm saying simply don't worry about what 'others' think, Do The Right Thing. It takes courage to act, and you should always question yourself for motives... but ACT when you see cause.
Thank you.
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