 I actually have to ask myself, am I willing to take this guy's life if it comes to it? How good are you at recognizing danger? Oftentimes, our little signs are easy to miss. Today, we're going to examine an online video that had a sinister intent. Then I'm gonna recall a personal experience I had a few weeks ago, and after that, we're gonna test your observational skills. The best self-defense technique is the one that you don't have to use. Or rather, an action or decision that can circumvent a situation from occurring. Often easier said than done, but sometimes, being aware of what is going on around you can be paramount in deciding whether or not you become a victim. I came across a security video the other day, and I thought it really highlights this point, and it was worth taking a look at. Many times, warning signs may not be obvious and require a keen eye. After that, I'm going to share a brief encounter that I had recently in how I used situational awareness to make my decisions. And for those of you who stick around until the end, I'll review what we've hidden in this episode, and the first person to find it will get their comment pinned. So enough small talk. Let's check out the video. So initially, nothing out of the ordinary stands out. It appears to be a small marketplace, people having conversations in the background, a man on his phone, and a little girl buying ice cream from a vendor. Seems like any other day. But the person in question here is this man who appears to be on the phone. Nothing about his behavior stands out as wrong, though notice that the second the vendor goes inside, he immediately turns attention to the little girl and begins to inch his way closer. Now, unfortunately, we don't have audio with this one, so we don't know what's being said, but he makes a very clear effort to get her attention and to wave to her and she waves back. Now, from her point of view, nothing stands out as odd. He's just a nice man saying hi. But from our point of view, it does seem a little weird that he's making such the effort to do so randomly. There is also something else in the scene that's very disturbing that I myself didn't notice until the very end of it and highlights just how easy some warning signs can be to miss. So he turns and continues his phone call when the woman comes back with a little girl's change. We don't know if the girl says anything to her, but suddenly she looks over to him and he's made some distance, but he keeps looking back. There is a clear dialogue exchange between the two of them that we can see right away that the vendor is clearly suspicious of something. The man keeps his back to her and after the initial approach to get the young girl's attention, notice how even though he's pacing, he's staying in the same general location. And here's where it gets scary. The vendor bids the girl farewell and you can see she's unsettled by this man. Now, it turns out her instinct was correct. Watch what happens when she suddenly decides to accompany the girl from the area. The man made a very clear gesture towards the little girl, towards the car door that just happened to be open. Now, how many of you picked up on that little detail? I admit, I missed that on my first viewing. Now, you could say that this is just a matter of reading into things. Perhaps it was just a coincidence and sure, totally. But there are some pretty specific circumstances here. One, he made a very clear attempt to be friendly to her and to get her attention. Two, he ignored everyone else. Three, the car door just happened to be open and he just happened to be keeping himself in line with it. And four, his phone call, phone call ended awfully suddenly. And finally, if that's not enough to tell his intent, it was his reaction afterwards. After the woman joins the girl, he very clearly shifts his body language from what appears to be the beginning of a low shove to suddenly reaching for the car door to close it. Why did it suddenly have to be closed right at that moment? He then puts the phone away and quickly walks over to get into the car and he looks back, either out of surprise or disappointment, but it's clear by his body language that something didn't go as planned and he was getting out of dodge. The video ends with the woman rushing back to grab her phone and to get a picture of his car before what it appears to be her calling the authorities. Now we can speculate a lot here, especially since we don't have sound or an origin of this video and we can't even surmise that perhaps this was staged, but in my personal opinion, it doesn't appear to be. It is in my personal opinion that this woman's keen observation or spider tingle may have saved that little girl. Honestly, regardless, this video creeps me out every time I see it. So what do you guys think? How many of you noticed that the car door was open and did you think that there was any malice intent here? So I recently had a brief encounter a few weeks ago that at the time seemed very shady to me. I had done, I was doing errands and I ran to Walgreens to pick up a prescription for my wife and I'm making a habit to always take a look at who's around me. I look at movement. I always, we've done enough videos on here. I always try to take stock of my environment and I noticed that while I was in line, behind me, I saw a particular young man. I didn't look at him directly, but I could just tell that he was going back and forth. And at one point in time, he walked by. I kind of glanced over my shoulder. We made very brief eye contact, but he kept walking on the aisle. I'm like, okay, that's odd, but whatever. And because of COVID, the pharmacy had the big plexiglass shields over the registers. So I could see in the reflection, I could see that he was still going back and forth and he kept glancing my way. Once I was done, I checked out, I was walking away and I noticed that he had ducked around the aisle in the same general direction as I did. So I'm like, okay, still can be circumstantial, but kind of weird. And I decided to, as I'm walking to my way to the front of the store, I chose some odd paths. I walked around this aisle, this aisle, this aisle. And I noticed every time I turned to Pacific Isles, I could see out of the corner of my eye, he was matching me. And I'm thinking, this is starting to, I started running through scenarios of my mind. Do I try to confront him here? Do I risk causing the scene here for something that might not be anything? Do I just try to get out of the store? What's going on? So for a moment, I didn't see him. And I continued to walk my way out of the store and as I approached the front doors, again, I'm walking past the aisle. I see out of the corner of my eye. I see him kind of coming down towards the aisle, towards the door with me. He didn't stop at any registers. He didn't have any products in his hand, but he had something in his hand that couldn't make out what it was. So at this point, I'm thinking, all right, something's up here. This isn't normal. So I'm walking out into the parking lot and I'm halfway across the lot. I'm just kind of looking around, making sure they can stop the traffic. And the thing that concerned me was my car was parked in a corner. So I was kind of like in this little pigeonhole area and I wasn't really comfortable with that. So I'm thinking, I've got two options here. If I feel this guy is a threat, I can either stop and turn and confront him right now and see what he wants. Or I can try to get to my car as fast as I can and get the car out of that situation because I don't want to be pinned in there either. And the thing that was, I kind of glanced over my shoulder and he was far enough away where I'm like, if I turn the face to him now and he does have a bad intent and he does have a ranged weapon, I'm kind of at the loss. You're like, there's nothing I can do. And I was close to my car. I'm thinking I can get to my car faster than he can get to me or that we can have an interaction. So I decided I'm just getting my car. I unlocked it through my prescription, closed door, put the car in reverse and almost out of nowhere. I don't know if he ran or what, but out of nowhere he materialized right here at my window. All I could see was just chin down to like waist. He had one arm down, something was still in his hand and he was reaching towards my window. And at that point I'm thinking, nope, something's off here. So I floored it and went back. And we kind of startled each other because as soon as I went back, I quickly put my car into drive and he jumped back like this and I could see he had a phone in his hand. Thankfully he kept his hands up because the whole time I watched his hands, I'm like, if this guy draws for a weapon, I'm running through scenarios in my head. And the reason I pulled out so fast was a stranger shows up at your car window reaching towards your door with something in his hand. I'm like, I wasn't gonna take a chance because if he pulled up a gun or pulled up a weapon or anything, I'm kind of a sitting duck. So I wanted to get out of that pigeon hole because now I'm thinking, all right, I have two options now. If he tries anything, I can see my rear view mirror. I've got a clear path behind me. I can go reverse or if he produces a weapon, clear weapon, I can go forward. And the thing that struck me at that point in time was I actually had to ask myself, if he reaches into his pocket or if he reaches out and he produces a weapon, I actually had to ask myself, am I willing to take this guy's life if it comes to it? And for a brief moment, I'm like, I'm just watching, I'm watching and thankfully he kept his hands up and we looked at each other and he stayed at his distance and he was kind of still in front of my car and I rolled down my window just to crack and I'm like, what's up? And he goes, hey, whoa, man, because you scared the hell out of me, are you okay? I'm like, yeah, what's up, what do you want? He's like, well, I noticed you looked at me back in the store and that's when it occurred to me the man was Hispanic. I'm thinking, did he think I was profiling him because to be honest with you, I didn't even know what nationality he was until he showed up until that moment because at that point I hadn't seen his face. I just saw this person following me and I said, no. And he goes, well, I just saw that you looked back a couple of times and I said, I looked because you were walking back and forth and I noticed movement. He goes, okay, well, I just didn't know. I'm like, didn't know what, what do you want? He's like, oh man, because you scared the hell out of me. I'm like, what do you want? And basically he's like, I don't know. He goes, I just thought maybe you were interested or like I wanted my number or thought I was handsome or something and at this point I'm thinking I'm going like my BS meter was going off but at the same time too, that explains the phone in his hands because if someone has malintent or they're going to try to rob you or do something they don't usually do it with their phone in their hands but I didn't know it was his phone at the time but so I don't know what this guy's story was. Was he hitting on me? I don't know. That's besides the point but the thing that was like, I'm like, no. Man, so I'm sorry. I said I just saw movement and I was just leaving. And he's like, oh, okay. He goes, well, he basically admitted to me that he was interested. And I'm like, no, I'm good, man. I'm sorry, you have a good day. And then he moved out of the way and I left. And when I got home and I thought about it, I'm like, okay, it does kind of make sense. He was a younger man. He was well dressed and he had a phone in his hands. So maybe that was what his intention was but bottom line, whether or not that is your intention he really shouldn't have been following me and I don't know what his strategy was to run up to my car door and try to either open the door or knock the window to know what his game plan there was but generally speaking, if you think someone's interested in you and they're walking away from you faster and faster and faster that usually means no that they're not interested. As much as I didn't know who he was, he doesn't know who I am either. So he has no idea if I was profiling him or if I had a weapon in the car or what my reaction could have been. I almost hit him with my car. He kind of startled me. He just showed up at my window reaching for me. I got out of there. I didn't want to get pinned in. I had to put myself into position where I'm like, I have options. I had to give myself options. So just basically seeing this guy's body language and him following me out to the car. I asked myself, what's my best position? And at this point in time, it was to pull out of the spot. Now technically I'm armed with a vehicle. If I have to do something, I can escape or I could move forward if I have to. If I feel he's a threat, at least there's cameras in place that people are around. So like, I had all these options running through my head at the time and all I kept doing was washing his hands because I was just kind of prepared for any moment for him to reach down for something. Thankfully he didn't. So looking back now, circumstantially speaking, it probably was just him being interested and thought I was interested in him. I don't know. A word of advice out there, whether you're interested in the man or a woman or whatever, generally if someone's interested in you, they're going to make more of an effort to communicate and not necessarily speed up to get away from you faster. So chasing the person to the car is probably not the best approach. I found that behavior very shady. It might have been innocent. It didn't matter. I took in what I saw was going on around me. I was watching them in the glass. So reflections are a big thing that you can do to watch your environment. I just make it a habit to pay attention to whoever's around me because you never know. There's so many people who walk around all day with their phone, either facing their phone or crossing the street and all that, know what's going on around you. That was that encounter. I just thought I would share it because that just kind of felt like it fell in line with this whole being aware of what's around you and environmental and situational awareness. And for those of you who run schools, I think this is something important to instill in kids as well. So like always teach your children, whether they're your students or your own children, just to know what's going on around them and be conscious of their environment. And when I did teach kids, I would run a gym with them every now and then. I would have them all line up in a group, like kind of just kind of mingle around the classroom. I send one kid out and while that kid was out, I would have them rearrange spots and bring the kid back in and say, okay, who switched spots? You know, what's different about the room? Just little exercises to have them pay attention to their environment. So they're not buried into their vices, which they all are these days. Just it's a good lesson to teach these kids to always know what's going on around them because you never know what signs you might pick up. Some signs are easier to see than others. So I'm curious to hear what your feedback is on today's video. What was your impression on the security camera footage? And I'm curious to know what you guys would have done in my situation. What do you disagree or agree with? And are there any observations that you would have made? And speaking of observations, let's see which one of you has the sharpest and the fastest eye. For those of you who know White Belt Zach, he makes the occasional guest's appearance on this channel when his assistance is needed, including this episode. There is an image of White Belt Zach hidden somewhere in this episode and the first person to leave a comment in the find where he is, along with the timestamp, we'll get their comment pinned. So like, subscribe and share all that and happy hunting.