Flashlight Stories

[Clobbersaurus]

I'm stuck in the house, hunkered down from the falling snow and drivers who have no clue how to drive in it. I had a thought that it might be fun to stress the usefulness of EDC flashlights. I'm not saying it was a good thought, but it's a thought and I'm bored.

If you have a story about using your EDC flashlight in ways other than lighting your way through the dark, and feel like sharing it, please do. I'll start with some fairly lame stories, but I'm sure the members here will have much more interesting tales to tell.

A few years ago we lived in a much smaller house in a more densely populated neighbourhood. It was nice, quiet neighbourhood until new next door neighbours moved in; two young men, brothers, from South Africa. They had come to Canada to attend school. Everything was fine for the first several months.

Eventually the oldest brother, we'll call him "Y", started playing loud music on his patio at all hours of the day and night. The patio just happened to be close to my master bedroom. One night, about 12:30am, after listening to him play The Game's "My Life" at full volume over and over for an hour, I had reached my limit. I grabbed my Fenix LD12 and went outside. I blasted him full beam in the eyes at about 15 yards, not saying a word. Interestingly, he immediately stood up and turned off his music, shielding his eyes. I lowered the light for a second so he could get a look at me.

Y: Clobb, is that you?
Clobb: Yes (shining the light back in his face). You need to turn that music off. It is far too loud and it's after midnight.
Y: (Hands shielding his eyes). Can you turn off that light?
Clobb: No. Go back into your house and keep the music off.
Y: Ok, I'm sorry.

He went back into his house. I lit him up until he closed his door.

Unfortunately that dude later tried to break into my house during a domestic dispute with his brother. We later found out that he suffered from addiction problems, but that is a story for a different thread.

The next quick story was a few weeks ago.

I now live in a little mountain suburb and it sometimes gets very icy in the winter. I was coming home from the movies with my family and was unfortunately driving my non AWD car. We got halfway back to the house and it was so icy it was just too dangerous to continue driving. I pulled off to the side of the road and we decided to hike up to our house.

On the way up we saw the extent of the problems the ice had caused. Cars were all over the road, bouncing off curbs, smashing into fire hydrants. A major issue. As we progressed further up the hill I tried to stop several cars from going down the hill and approaching the mess of cars and ice below them. I waved my arms and tried to flag them down. Nobody stopped for me. I pulled out my LD12 and started flashing it towards the oncoming cars. Every car I flashed with my little light stopped, and I'm certain we saved a bunch of them from fender benders by stopping them when we did.

My LD12 is an older 125 lumen model, so it seems lame by today's standards. I believe the new LD12 is 320 lumens, so it probably time to upgrade. I like it for it's small size and AA battery. I dislike the push button adjustability and wish I could find a simple, robust, AA flashlight that has two modes; On and off.

[BehindBlueI's]

The Mag-light I carried in uniform was called "Capt. Thumpy" by my beat partners. You can sort of figure out the stories that go along with a flashlight earning a nickname. On a completely unrelated note, it throws a comet shaped light, almost as if the head were warped somehow.

[RJ]

Good thread.

Had a flashlight for scuba diving, several, actually. I remember diving in the Red Sea off Ras Muhammad. At night.

So we are 35' on the bottom, and DM signals to put our lights on the sand, upward, to attract krill. We were hoping bigger critters would happen along.

I out with my dive light, an 8D cell King Pelican (with dual Halogen bulbs!) and light it up.

Not five minutes later, a black Manta Ray the size of a car swoops past my shoulder and spends the next 15 minutes eating his fill of krill. It was...magical. He just kept circling and diving past us and through us. It was the most memorable dive I ever had.

I used that light the whole 7 days diving, with a bunch of night dives.

(BTW: I'm far from a flashlight expert, but reference simple AA lights, I had a Lenser P2 AAA I carried at work for...a long time. It's down to the aluminum now lol. The Lenser P5.2 is a single AA with on/off; maybe worth a look: LED Lenser - P5.2 Flashlight, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0054KWJKK..._3UNLybW4RE0VN)

[scw2]

The Mag-light I carried in uniform was called "Capt. Thumpy" by my beat partners.

I recall mr Givens using a phrase along the lines of making suspects see the light, one way or the other.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Behind my city place there's a "greenway" which is really nice 99% of the time, but also seems to be the site of occasional drug deals involving a bunch of somali guys that live a short way away.

Anyway, one night a couple of years ago one of them approached me a little aggressively, in that "sort of want to be a bro, sort of want to sell you drugs, sort of want to fight you" kind of way that some guys have. I don't remember exactly what he said but IIRC it was a cross between, well, pretty much the above three sentiments. Basically "buy drugs or GTFO because you're going to get your ass kicked now" kind of a thing.

I lit him up from a low overhead index with the 480 lumen Klarus I had in my left hand, and said "Sir, can I ask you to take a step back now, please, sir." That's maybe not perfectly verbatim but close; I was shooting for the "technically polite professional diction of a Canadian cop" line. Right hand was going to my belt line. No reason. After all, this is Canada.


Man, that guy was apparently on the track team because he had some running practise he wanted to get in just then.

[Coyotesfan97]

The Mag-light I carried in uniform was called "Capt. Thumpy" by my beat partners. You can sort of figure out the stories that go along with a flashlight earning a nickname. On a completely unrelated note, it throws a comet shaped light, almost as if the head were warped somehow.

The last use of force I had involved a Maglite and a common peroneal nerve. Ensign Thumpy perhaps?

[voodoo_man]

I carry a streamlight DS hl led on duty. It's the 800 lumen version and is super effective at making people uncomfortable.

There were many occasions during which I'd blast a guy with the light and have him show both his hands trying to block the beam.

One particular evening a local hood rodent decided that he was going to steal a bicycle. Except that the owner of the bicycle was still attached to it. After the robbery, he rode off. A co-worker saw him and gave chase, I ended up down the block waiting for him. I took my flashlight out and as he was riding up on the sidewalk I flashed him with the light with my left hand and ASPd him off the bike with my right. It was funny because he used both hands to block the light and ended up hitting a car after going out of control.

[Clobbersaurus]

I carry a streamlight DS hl led on duty. It's the 800 lumen version and is super effective at making people uncomfortable. It was funny because he used both hands to block the light and ended up hitting a car after going out of control.

Awesome. You have to find the joy in the little things in life.

[Chuck Haggard]

As far as I know there is still a car somewhere driving around with my SL20 sticking out of the windshield.

[tusk212]

A few years ago I took my then 4 year old son to the "The Lego Movie". It was a matinee showing so it wasn't pack. About halfway through the movie a little boy a few rows away tried to stand up on his seat. As he stood up, the seat folded and one of his legs slipped between the seat cushion and seat back. Kid and grandfather both began to panic as he was stuck pretty good and they couldn't see. I walked over and lit up the seat using my E2D and we were able to get him out quickly.