Someone tried to scam my son tonight

[priler]

Does your son carry? if not, perhaps it's time.

I would have kept the guy talking, slowly walk behind his car like if i were inspecting damage and written down his plate number. at that point, he would have probably gone away but i would have called the police anyway and given them full details of the guy, car and number........just to have it on record in case anything else happens.

 

[ctechbob]

I often see "drive to the nearest police station" mentioned in threads discussing potentially hazardous situations.
But how many people really know where the nearest police station is ? It's not something that you want to be looking up on your phone or navigation device if in a potentially dangerous situation. I know where the closest Sheriff's substations are and either one is about 20 miles away. So that isn't a viable option in my community. Where any police stations are in neighboring towns are is a different story. I have no clue.

In any case the OP's son at least went to a public place where presumably there would be witnesses and security cameras if the scammer tried to pull anything. It could have been worse, it could have been a hijacking. Certainly one should never pull over on the side of the road if they are being followed or suspect something is amiss.

Most places also don't have their station staffed 24 hours. None of the agencies in my county do. Everyone that is working at night is in a car out patrolling. Now, if you call 911 and ask them to meet, they will absolutely go there and meet you, but just rocking up to the building isn't going to get you much other than maybe scare the idiots off.

 

[dubber09]

Sounds like extortion, not scam.

 

[MHartfield]

It's not mental illness. It's a known scam designed to victimize the old, young, vulnerable. It is all about getting money out of the victim.

I agree. "Mental illness" is simply an excuse today.

 

[LDB]

I'll have to try that in my car tomorrow. I've said "directions home" and "directions address" and it has navigated to both. I'm going to try "directions police station" and "directions fire station" tomorrow and see what happens. This thread is a good reason for having Car Play set up. Glad to hear it turned out ok.

 

[spasm3]

I don't go to malls, they seem to attract the risks of theft, carjacking . At least in area anyway.

If being followed, i probably would not stop, but stay in a well populated area, and call law enforcement with a description of your car, and the one stalking you. Tell them where you are headed.

Stopping allows the chance of an interaction that you don't yet know the nature of. Even though i carry, this is what i would do.

Either they would eventually give up , or the police will intervene.

 

[spbonus]

a few months back my sister was backing her car out of a supermarket parking lot when i guy tapped the back of her car and said she hit him. Lucky there was a witness who was very vocal and said that this person has been trying this scam a few times already. He left and no harm done but no police report was filed and I am afraid this person would try again.

 

[TomYoung]

Mental illness is a very real and serious thing. That's not what this is and I probably agree with what I think is your point, which is that criminals use mental illness as a bogus excuse for committing crimes.

 

[supton]

The wife and I were just talking about this the other day, where to tell the kids to drive to if they think someone is stalking them (don't drive home!). Police station was first guess, but we are pretty sure they aren't manned 24/7. I think our new fire station might be...

Could drive to the town over as I think the gas station is manned 24/7 but that's a bit of a drive with long stretches without cell service. Not that we have cell service in our town anyhow.

Thankfully it's not something we deal much with.