So on Friday, I went with my friend to lunch at 5 guys. She drove. We were pulling into the parking spot we wanted next to this big old suburban and got about half way into the stall but stopped because the owner of the suburban had his door wide open. Since we were so far into the parking spot, we decided to wait for him to finish what he was doing. Well, this seemed to anger the man who decided that to prove a point to us, he would begin to move much more slowly. He glared at us while he took off his jacket, took off the badge hanging around his neck, and then this other thing (guessing a phone harness) and then even more slowly (and with a deeper scowl) he began to put his jacket back on. We were just talking to ourselves while he was doing this. After he got done and shut the door, he started pointing at the other two open parking places we could've moved to but we pulled in anyway. He didn't move until we were parked. Then he decided to come about 2 inches away from my window and stare at me. He was blocking my way of getting out. I almost started laughing because honestly, who does that? I thought it had to be a joke. I tried to roll down the window a bit to find out what his deal was but locked the door instead (not my car). Suddenly I got this feeling that I wanted out of the car but he's standing so close to the car so I carefully started opening the door very slowly so I wouldn't hit the guy with it and said, "Excuse me, are you going to move? I'd really like to get out." (shocked at how sweet it sounded). I placed my hand in a spot to control the door but without knowing what he was going to do, it was a dangerous place to put my hand. Using the hip of his body, he hit against the door shutting me in! The force pushed him away from the car so I acted. A normal person would've just sat there until he moved completely away but he started yelling don't hit me, don't you hit me and I got confused. He's attacking me and yelling at me to not hit him? What?? So his pushing against the door moved him away enough for me to open my door and I start to get out, my foot is actually in the doorway but he starts using both his hands and is trying to force the door shut on me! He pushed several times and I'm just yelling at him to move away, my foot is in the door and he's hurting me and I think he realized he's not going to get the door shut so he darts away and I got out and said, "Excuse me!" and he turns back and kicks the car! My mouth dropped. What is happening?? So then I thought, 'holy cow, he tried to keep me in the car and then kicked the car. He's unstable! If tries to hit or kick me or my friend, I'm going to have to defend us both and I will but I honestly didn't want to have to. So I yell at my friend, Amanda, to get back in the car, get her phone and call the police and to give me a pen. When he walked away, I got out and got his license plate number and then Amanda got out to get a picture of the car where he kicked and we saw him coming back so I ordered Amanda back in the car. He decided he needed to also take pictures. We got back in the car and waited for the police. When they finally got there, I told them about how he kept me in the car and then kicked it and they asked Amanda to go to the front of the car while I stayed at the back of the car. The guy was with one cop, Amanda was with 3 and I was left alone. I could hear the guy at the end of the parking area telling the cop, "they hit me and then threatened me with the police." and "it doesn't make sense for them to hit me and then call you" and then "I just want to scare the girl so she doesn't do this again." I knew then that he was playing the system. I saw Amanda wiping tears yet nobody is talking to me, the only one who actually got attacked. I started shaking because I knew I could defend myself against this guy, I could've kicked him into his own car while he was trying to keep me in but I didn't. I stayed calm and because of it, this guy is blatantly getting away with his actions. Well the guy goes into 5 guys and two of the cops talking to Amanda go over to the cop that was talking to the guy and they all look like their in a hurry to leave. I'm wondering if anyone is going to talk to me but the last cop is still talking to Amanda so I decide to join them. As I get there she says thanks to the cop and starts to walk to her side of the door. The cop is walking around my side, again nobody speaking to me about what's going on. I ask the cop and he says a bunch of crap about how neither is going to file the report and how the guy is a jerk and we just picked the wrong day as our parking next to him set him off and a bunch of fluff. The officer wanted to leave too so I say thanks and get in the car. THEN Amanda tells me that if she filed a report against this guy, he would've too. Her report would've been that he kicked her car which is just a misdemeanor. His report would've stated that she hit him with her car. WHAT??? When did that happen because I never saw the car hit him. He hit & pushed the car door repeatedly while I was trying to get out and then he kicked the car. The police said that because there was no witnesses, if they both filed a report, Amanda would go to jail. It's word against word and they said hitting someone with a car was a felony of an "assault with a deadly weapon". AGAIN, the only person assaulted was me and he used the car to do it. Yeah, some people really know how to play the system. Why didn't the police ask if I wanted to file a report? Because I wasn't driving the vehicle. Makes sense doesn't it?
I had to remind myself that God will be the judge in the end. But what if I did something wrong?? I don't know what happened to this guy's thought process or how he saw the actions that took place. I remember teaching something about communications, how people in the same situation can have different views of the story and not only one person is right even though they were experiencing the same thing and I really hope this guy wasn't maliciously acting the way he was but at the same time, who blocks a girl from getting out of a car and then feels like they have to shut the door on her repeatedly?? Although I know how to fight, if you saw me for the first time, I'm not a threatening looking person!
I am proud that I didn't lose control and cause injury on this man, I could've. I know how and it would've been easy. But I didn't. It scares me though to think this is how the world is becoming. People lose control of their emotions like that and take it out wherever they are. I'm grateful to know that if I need to defend myself, I can and will. I'm even more grateful to know that if we are spiritually prepared and alert, in situations like this, we can have a greater strength against the adversary or weak minded people. We don't have to overact like that. We can have control over our actions. I feel like I need to work harder to do that. It's a great reminder of how things are. Now is the time to prepare.
