So this happened to me today and I felt like sharing
PART 1:
I drove to a nearby shopping center and parked my car in the parking lot. Very popular shopping center, tons of shops. A little behind it is the library. Library opens at 10:30, I pulled up around 9, I figured Id just wait in the car and bide some time.
A vehicle pulls up on my right hand side. Its blond haired lady and her child. You know how you make brief eye contact when people pull next to you in spots? Simple eye contact exchange, nothing out of the ordinary. She takes her child towards a Day Care Center, I continue browsing on my phone in my vehicle. A couple minutes passed and the lady leaves the Day Care Center, Im just scanning around in intervals... back on my phone. After another few minutes, I notice the lady is hanging in front of the Day Care, she is making a phone call. Again, nothing wrong with this picture. Totally normal.
Couple more minutes pass, and it seems the lady's car died... She's waiting by the car. Eventually a guy with a white truck pulls up. Obviously, she called for a jump. Back into my phone..... When I look up again, I notice there is now a Latina woman talking to the Blond Lady and Guy (he's jumping the car) near the front right of my vehicle... Okay, totally normal lol. The blond lady gets her car started and she pulls off.... Back into my phone.....
I look back up.... The Latina woman is talking to a SUV Police Cruiser, a little to the left of the Day Care entryway in front of me. Shes talking to the officer for a decent amount of time. Maybe 5-10 mins? Okayy.... Police usually cruise my area, nothing major... It is kinda early? lol. Then the Officer slightly pops his head out the vehicle and looks over at me.... Haha its definitely me. He continues talking with the Latina lady and then makes a left to enter the parking lot Im in....
I notice the Latina lady walks over across the lot behind my vehicle... I take a look and.... yup, there is another officer in an undercover Ford. She's talking with him for a decent minute as well. So yeah.... this is definitely about me. So at this point, I just wait patiently, keep looking at my phone and just anticipate them to come talk to me
I sit in my seat, and yup I see the officer walking up to my side
Officer knocks on window
Me: Hey, hows it going!
Off: Hey man, how ya doing?! We just got a call saying someone thought you were passed out in your vehicle, we just wanted to make sure you were okay and check on you.
Me: Oh yeah? yeah, Im doing fine, just parked over here waiting for the library to open up.
Off: Gotcha, yeah man, sounds good, we just wanted to check in, makes sure everything's good!
Me: Thanks! No problem! You have a good day!
Off: You too man, have a great day!
Officer starts to walk away, then his partner runs up past him over to my window
Off2: Hey! The call described you as a 40 year old and you DO NOT look 40 man!
Me: Man! I hope not!!
We all laugh, Officers leave... They were very pleasant and jovial. A total non-issue. I laugh about it, and go back to my phone.
PART 2:
Im still in my car. Same spot. Prob 20-25 mins later, Another car pulls up on the right hand side. It's the Latina lady from earlier. She signals for me to come towards her, So I get out my car to talk to her. For the sake of this story, I will call her Maria.
I walk up to Maria's car and I notice that she looks a lil distraught. She introduces herself to me, shes the owner of the Day Care Im parked nearby. She starts apologizing to me about what happened earlier because she said it has eaten her up all morning. I tell Maria to not worry about and not to take it so hard but she adamantly tell me that she refuses my advice.
Maria: "What happened this morning is going to bother me so much, Digital. I feel really ashamed that I had to be involved in it. It simply shouldn't have happened. I wanted to sincerely apologize to you"
Me: "No need to beat yourself up Maria, you have to abide by your client's concerns. It's literally your responsibility to adhere to that, so the blame doesn't fall on you. Don't hold on to it"
At this point, Maria starts crying. She's really hurt by all of this. To be 100% honest, I didnt feel anger about the situation. I wasn't bothered. I wasn't annoyed. Maybe because it went so smoothly, and I was more relieved at how it resolved itself? I let it wash over me in a way even as I type this, I don't feel any way about it.
Maria and I begin to talk about what happened so we can process it all. She tells me that the Blond Lady came into the Day Care was completely incensed about me being in my car in the parking lot. She said a "40 year old black man is in the lot, he looks like he's hitting himself and looks completely high on drugs". The Blond Lady was adamant that the police should be called. The daycare called the police, and this is when I saw Maria outside with the lady while her car was getting jumped.
Maria was telling the lady "Are you really sure about this report? Thats clearly a kid/young man in the car, he's not doing anything, he's just on his phone"
The lady said "Im absolutely sure, he's clearly high off drugs. Somethings not right"
This was when the lady left. When the police showed up, Maria said she was begging the officers not to approach me. She told them that the report was very obviously played up and that she saw me in the car and I wasn't doing anything wrong. She said that she felt she had to say something and interfere because if something went bad, she couldn't live with it. I told her that the police were very jovial and happy when they approached me and she informed me that they definitely weren't that way when they first pulled up. lol, matter of fact, she said they were "ready to go"
Maria is still crying while she's telling me all this. She's still trying to rationalize the Blond Lady's thinking.
"I just can't believe she would do something like that. You did nothing wrong! You could have been hurt for no reason! I just don't understand why she would do something like this. I can understand someone posing a threat to our center, but we have security! You are just sitting in the parking lot... when I came out, I saw you just looking at your phone, you were in Instagram world (lol) or whatever, you didnt even notice what was going on. This isn't right, none of this is right. Does this woman even know what she did was wrong? Im angry for you... I feel ashamed for you... Im just so scared because I have a 19 year old son, and he has autism and sometimes he has trouble communicating and I can't imagine how he would cope in a situation like this."
I straight up told Maria that Im used to it. Its 100% not right for sure.... But it is what it is. This wasn't my first rodeo, Ive had cops called on me before for no reason. Its just a reality of the country we live in and a sign of the times basically.
She said "this country has always been like this"
I explained to her that people come with judgments and preconceived notions. Everything is about pushing fear nowadays. The blond lady didn't know me. She doesn't know Im waiting for the library, She doesn't know I have law enforcement family, just that something about me bothered her, and she followed her instinct. Maria told me again that "it doesnt make her right".
Maria is clearly torn up about it. I told her again not to internalize it, and to don't let it ruin her day or take over her thoughts. Again she told me "Im going to do the opposite Digital, Im going to find a way to share this because I never thought Id see it up close... you hear about it... but to see it? Its already stuck in my mind. When the lady comes to get her kid, Im going to tell her about this."
Maria is a good person. Like I said, I honestly felt no way about it all.... but to see her reaction... that shit moved me man... I felt bad seeing her feel so bad about it all. Its really something to think about. And this was a 100% benign situation. No violence. No yelling....
I figured Id share my story today. Im going to get Maria something to say thank you. Flowers, chocolates, something, drop em off by the daycare later... She was way more involved then she needed to be trying to defend me. Im really grateful for that.
PS: No I wasn't high on drugs.
PART 1:
I drove to a nearby shopping center and parked my car in the parking lot. Very popular shopping center, tons of shops. A little behind it is the library. Library opens at 10:30, I pulled up around 9, I figured Id just wait in the car and bide some time.
A vehicle pulls up on my right hand side. Its blond haired lady and her child. You know how you make brief eye contact when people pull next to you in spots? Simple eye contact exchange, nothing out of the ordinary. She takes her child towards a Day Care Center, I continue browsing on my phone in my vehicle. A couple minutes passed and the lady leaves the Day Care Center, Im just scanning around in intervals... back on my phone. After another few minutes, I notice the lady is hanging in front of the Day Care, she is making a phone call. Again, nothing wrong with this picture. Totally normal.
Couple more minutes pass, and it seems the lady's car died... She's waiting by the car. Eventually a guy with a white truck pulls up. Obviously, she called for a jump. Back into my phone..... When I look up again, I notice there is now a Latina woman talking to the Blond Lady and Guy (he's jumping the car) near the front right of my vehicle... Okay, totally normal lol. The blond lady gets her car started and she pulls off.... Back into my phone.....
I look back up.... The Latina woman is talking to a SUV Police Cruiser, a little to the left of the Day Care entryway in front of me. Shes talking to the officer for a decent amount of time. Maybe 5-10 mins? Okayy.... Police usually cruise my area, nothing major... It is kinda early? lol. Then the Officer slightly pops his head out the vehicle and looks over at me.... Haha its definitely me. He continues talking with the Latina lady and then makes a left to enter the parking lot Im in....
I notice the Latina lady walks over across the lot behind my vehicle... I take a look and.... yup, there is another officer in an undercover Ford. She's talking with him for a decent minute as well. So yeah.... this is definitely about me. So at this point, I just wait patiently, keep looking at my phone and just anticipate them to come talk to me
I sit in my seat, and yup I see the officer walking up to my side
Officer knocks on window
Me: Hey, hows it going!
Off: Hey man, how ya doing?! We just got a call saying someone thought you were passed out in your vehicle, we just wanted to make sure you were okay and check on you.
Me: Oh yeah? yeah, Im doing fine, just parked over here waiting for the library to open up.
Off: Gotcha, yeah man, sounds good, we just wanted to check in, makes sure everything's good!
Me: Thanks! No problem! You have a good day!
Off: You too man, have a great day!
Officer starts to walk away, then his partner runs up past him over to my window
Off2: Hey! The call described you as a 40 year old and you DO NOT look 40 man!
Me: Man! I hope not!!
We all laugh, Officers leave... They were very pleasant and jovial. A total non-issue. I laugh about it, and go back to my phone.
PART 2:
Im still in my car. Same spot. Prob 20-25 mins later, Another car pulls up on the right hand side. It's the Latina lady from earlier. She signals for me to come towards her, So I get out my car to talk to her. For the sake of this story, I will call her Maria.
I walk up to Maria's car and I notice that she looks a lil distraught. She introduces herself to me, shes the owner of the Day Care Im parked nearby. She starts apologizing to me about what happened earlier because she said it has eaten her up all morning. I tell Maria to not worry about and not to take it so hard but she adamantly tell me that she refuses my advice.
Maria: "What happened this morning is going to bother me so much, Digital. I feel really ashamed that I had to be involved in it. It simply shouldn't have happened. I wanted to sincerely apologize to you"
Me: "No need to beat yourself up Maria, you have to abide by your client's concerns. It's literally your responsibility to adhere to that, so the blame doesn't fall on you. Don't hold on to it"
At this point, Maria starts crying. She's really hurt by all of this. To be 100% honest, I didnt feel anger about the situation. I wasn't bothered. I wasn't annoyed. Maybe because it went so smoothly, and I was more relieved at how it resolved itself? I let it wash over me in a way even as I type this, I don't feel any way about it.
Maria and I begin to talk about what happened so we can process it all. She tells me that the Blond Lady came into the Day Care was completely incensed about me being in my car in the parking lot. She said a "40 year old black man is in the lot, he looks like he's hitting himself and looks completely high on drugs". The Blond Lady was adamant that the police should be called. The daycare called the police, and this is when I saw Maria outside with the lady while her car was getting jumped.
Maria was telling the lady "Are you really sure about this report? Thats clearly a kid/young man in the car, he's not doing anything, he's just on his phone"
The lady said "Im absolutely sure, he's clearly high off drugs. Somethings not right"
This was when the lady left. When the police showed up, Maria said she was begging the officers not to approach me. She told them that the report was very obviously played up and that she saw me in the car and I wasn't doing anything wrong. She said that she felt she had to say something and interfere because if something went bad, she couldn't live with it. I told her that the police were very jovial and happy when they approached me and she informed me that they definitely weren't that way when they first pulled up. lol, matter of fact, she said they were "ready to go"
Maria is still crying while she's telling me all this. She's still trying to rationalize the Blond Lady's thinking.
"I just can't believe she would do something like that. You did nothing wrong! You could have been hurt for no reason! I just don't understand why she would do something like this. I can understand someone posing a threat to our center, but we have security! You are just sitting in the parking lot... when I came out, I saw you just looking at your phone, you were in Instagram world (lol) or whatever, you didnt even notice what was going on. This isn't right, none of this is right. Does this woman even know what she did was wrong? Im angry for you... I feel ashamed for you... Im just so scared because I have a 19 year old son, and he has autism and sometimes he has trouble communicating and I can't imagine how he would cope in a situation like this."
I straight up told Maria that Im used to it. Its 100% not right for sure.... But it is what it is. This wasn't my first rodeo, Ive had cops called on me before for no reason. Its just a reality of the country we live in and a sign of the times basically.
She said "this country has always been like this"
I explained to her that people come with judgments and preconceived notions. Everything is about pushing fear nowadays. The blond lady didn't know me. She doesn't know Im waiting for the library, She doesn't know I have law enforcement family, just that something about me bothered her, and she followed her instinct. Maria told me again that "it doesnt make her right".
Maria is clearly torn up about it. I told her again not to internalize it, and to don't let it ruin her day or take over her thoughts. Again she told me "Im going to do the opposite Digital, Im going to find a way to share this because I never thought Id see it up close... you hear about it... but to see it? Its already stuck in my mind. When the lady comes to get her kid, Im going to tell her about this."
Maria is a good person. Like I said, I honestly felt no way about it all.... but to see her reaction... that shit moved me man... I felt bad seeing her feel so bad about it all. Its really something to think about. And this was a 100% benign situation. No violence. No yelling....
I figured Id share my story today. Im going to get Maria something to say thank you. Flowers, chocolates, something, drop em off by the daycare later... She was way more involved then she needed to be trying to defend me. Im really grateful for that.
PS: No I wasn't high on drugs.
