So this is a post because 1. it was strange; and 2. I hope this might serve as a warning. Yesterday I took Johnathan on a little grocery trip to one of our local Food Lion grocery stores. Now, let me give you a little background on this Food Lion. First let me say that I have NOTHING against Food Lion and typically enjoy shopping at any of their locations. This particular store is in a rough part of town, and typically I won’t go there after dark, whether the kids are with me or not. There is a cop posted there pretty much 24/7, of course there wasn’t one there yesterday when I REALLY could have used one, but I digress.
Back to the story at hand. . . Johnathan and I just finished shopping and I pulled the cart up to the trunk of the car and unloaded our goodies. And let me set the scene for you. Picture it, if you will. My car is parked in a space DIRECTLY next to a cart return location. The cart return is on the driver’s side (or left side) of my car, so that my rear bumper is adjacent to the entrance of this cart return. Get it? O.k., moving on. So with and empty cart I find it was just easier to push the cart forward, thus blocking the driver’s side door, so it is cart return, my cart, car. I start to take Johnathan out of the cart when this, well let’s say “intoxicated” woman begins to approach us. She is heading straight for us, but she is approaching the end of the cart so it is physically between us and there is not an inch between the cart return or the car and this cart. She’s saying “hey, hey, hey, it’s. . . what is your name again” and like a freaking dope I say “um, Beth”. And she says in kind “right, right, right Beth, gosh your little boy is getting so big. Come here and give a girl a hug” O.K., I don’t know this person and even if I did I’d be reluctant to hug her. I offer a hand to shake at best, hoping this will satisfy her and get rid of her. It does not. She says “here let me get this cart out of your way”. I said, “no that’s really o.k. the cart return is RIGHT here” and it didn’t make any sense as to why she would want to do this unless 1. she is trying to get to me or Johnathan or 2. she wants my purse. DING, DING, DING! Give the lady a prize! I’m pretty sure she thought she could make off with the cart, with my purse still in it. At this point I make a move to take Johnathan AND the purse all in one fell swoop and get both into the car as fast as I can, being sure to maintain the cart between me and crazy lady. Once Johnathan was secure in the car I was going to do whatever I had to do to get rid of this chick, but guess what? She was gone. POOF! Vanished. Which is now freaking me out more because I don’t know where the heck she went. So I chuck the cart in the return, get in the car, lock the doors and took a crazy route home because I didn’t want this woman to know where I live and I wanted to be sure she wasn’t following me. Paranoid? Maybe, but I felt better believing I alluded this crafty criminal, who by the way had a grape Faygo, but I’m pretty sure it was more than Faygo. YIKES!
So, note to all you girls, and guys for that matter, who shop in riskier parts of town and even the not so risky. First, don’t be an idiot, like me and tell the fool your name. If they don’t know it they probably don’t know you. And just be protective of yourself, your loved ones and be familiar with your surroundings. I’m just glad this was 4:00 in the afternoon and it was daylight and there were people around. I think if it had been dark and we had been alone it might not have gone the same way. All I know is I won’t be going back there for awhile.
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