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Thread: 360 awareness while pumping gas

  1. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by ToddG View Post
    Panhandlers at gas stations have become a common sight in our area recently. They range everywhere from the stereotypical homeless EDP to thug wannabes to lazy high school kids who expect me to pay for their Mountain Dew. I've actually started specifically going to certain stations where it's a particularly common thing because -- don't laugh -- it gives me a regular opportunity to practice my MUC skills. So far the only guy who has needed anything beyond a polite "no, thank you" was actually not a panhandler... it was a dude who'd set up a sales tent and was hocking some kind of super car cleaning liquid. After being told I wasn't interested he tried to apply the stuff to my car anyway. Loud voice followed.

    Thanks to Jody for posting the vid, though, because I was able to show it to MrsG and reiterate why she's supposed to keep her gas tank at least half full and never get fuel after dark.
    MUC? What's the acronym?

  2. #22
    Managing Unknown Contacts - Google that plus SouthNarc.
    "Specialization is for insects." -Robert A. Heinlein

  3. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by NETim View Post
    I dunno about the car door thing. An open door may slow down an attack from that direction, but I can sure see it making for a good corral should it come from the other direction.
    It wouldn't be of much use as a solitary tactic. You would have to combine it with situational awareness for sure. If someone is at the rear bumper of your car before you realized it, then you are way behind the curve.

    Another added benefit of leaving the drive door open is your ability to get in it and drive away, or access whatever tools you have in your car. There was a similar situation at a gas pump some years ago, two on one, at night, and he manage to get to his pistol in the driver door pocket and plug one of them.

    You do bring up a valid drawback in the theory though.
    Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
    -General Mattis

  4. #24
    Member NETim's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bcauz3y View Post
    It wouldn't be of much use as a solitary tactic. You would have to combine it with situational awareness for sure. If someone is at the rear bumper of your car before you realized it, then you are way behind the curve.

    Another added benefit of leaving the drive door open is your ability to get in it and drive away, or access whatever tools you have in your car. There was a similar situation at a gas pump some years ago, two on one, at night, and he manage to get to his pistol in the driver door pocket and plug one of them.

    You do bring up a valid drawback in the theory though.
    Surprisingly enough (ahem), it appears to boil down once again to that situational awareness thing.
    In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

  5. #25
    I have occasionally had to gas up late at night in bigger towns.

    It always seems that, although the station was quiet when I drove in, it got busy as soon as I got out of the car and started gassing up.
    Not just other cars either, random walkers showing up out of nowhere. Never had a problem yet, but maybe my scanning and cranky demeanor
    prevented one.

    Now I try to go into cities with the tank above three quarters and fill again, in daylight, as soon as it gets to half. Then I try and get out of town ASAP.
    I prefer places where trees outnumber people by a significant margin.

  6. #26
    Deadeye Dick Clusterfrack's Avatar
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    360 awareness while pumping gas

    (I couldn't find a better thread for this uneventful but possibly interesting MUC story, so let's resurrect this one). Last night my martial arts group was training outdoors on a school field, in low light. There has been increased criminal activity in the area, including a homeless camp where people attacked firefighters, three major burglaries, vandalism, and assault of a gas station worker. Because of that, we always pay attention. Around 9pm a fit, grungy looking dude in his 20's approached carrying jumper cables and asked if any of us had a car. Just as I was about to tell him we were busy, the instructor volunteered to help. The three of us went to the guy's vehicle. I had time to grab a flashlight and put my CCW on.

    The dude's car was parked in a weird place, next to a large dumpster behind a grocery in a location mostly hidden from view. He was acting very nervous and kept fishing around in his pocket. While our third guy (6'4" 240lb active military) positioned his vehicle to provide light, I looked for any other individuals and couldn't see any. The instructor jumped the dude's car, and I was well positioned with my handheld light. I tried some friendly conversation with the dude, but he didn't seem like he wanted to talk. The whole situation seemed like a robbery waiting to happen. But nothing did. The car started, the dude got in his car with a mumbled thanks, and started talking on his phone. We left and got back to training.

    Afterward, I realized why the dude was so shifty: he was terrified of us--three guys hitting and grappling each other in the dark, and one of them a monster.
    Last edited by Clusterfrack; 03-03-2021 at 12:24 PM.
    "You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
    Shabbat shalom, motherf***ers! --Mordechai Jefferson Carver

  7. #27
    I just leave my wife in an Overwatch position.
    Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.

  8. #28
    Site Supporter Totem Polar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Clusterfrack View Post

    Afterward, I realized why the dude was so shifty: he was terrified of us--three guys hitting and grappling each other in the dark, and one of them a monster.
    There is a point that one can arrive at where the gentle prey become more dangerous than the predators. Lifetime gentle folk, long being used to staying alert and on the defensive, may not always recognized when that point arrives.
    ”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB

  9. #29
    Member snow white's Avatar
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    Its stuff like this that makes me really appreciate where I live. Not that it can't happen anywhere but things like that are just about unheard of in my area. Then again....Travel 40 minutes south and its a different story.
    Come, mother, come! For terror is thy name, death is in thy breath, and every shaking step destroys a world for e'er. Thou 'time', the all-destroyer! Come, O mother, come!

  10. #30
    Chasing the Horizon RJ's Avatar
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    Jan 2014
    I think it was this gas-station scenario that caused me to realize how useful a small snubby in the pocket is. It's another on the long list of situations that I discovered I needed a snubby for, after I bought one. They are just so dang convenient to throw in a pocket, "just getting gas", or walking the dog, or going to the gym, or working on the car outside your house/apartment.


    On topic: can't agree more on the comments above about gas stations being predator watering holes. My radar kicks into high gear when I have to fuel up at a strange place on the road. I am constantly on the lookout for people, standing on the edge of the building, not doing anything in particular, but surveying the customers. Generally everybody who stops at these places is in motion; getting fuel, or going to and from the shop to pay, or to the restroom. So anyone who's at rest catches my attention.

    One of my abiding memories of John Murphy's session at Tac Con in 2016 was his statement "unexpected movement towards you is one of the most common preassault indicators." I have research a bit of Craig's MUC class online, but I am sure just reading about it can't give you the experience of having the problem in front of you at training, or in real life, of course. Another reason I need to take ECQC. Soon.


    Regarding "it's not likely to happen in my area" I totally get that. For the folks who carry "only in the bad part of town" (no one on this forum) I ask them, what do you do about the two dudes who just took the off-ramp from the freeway cruising down your street. As Tom Givens explained it in class, they just need your car, and you need to be dead. It's nothing personal. The story of the Petit murders is also a sobering read, if you are not familiar.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheshi...vasion_murders

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