A few years back, my wife and I were in New York City and walking through the Diamond District. It was a chilly evening in December, and we were just walking down the street looking in the windows of the stores. We were walking behind two gentlemen (looked like they were in their late 30s or early 40s) who were maybe 20 feet ahead of us and we were keeping pace with them. I remember the gentlemen on the left was wearing a full-length, black leather trench coat.
As we continued to walk, we noticed a town car pulled up a bit ahead of the men walking in front of us, and out crawls an older man that appeared to Jewish and Orthodox. As Leather Trench Coat Guy gets closer to him, the Jewish man bent down on one knee, and the man in the leather coat nonchalantly extends his hand out and allows the elderly gentlemen to (what looked like) kiss his hand and pass. All of this happened without anyone missing a beat in stride, or barely even acknowledging each other (other than the kissing of the hand). After Leather Trench Coat Guy passes the Jewish man gets up and walks across the sidewalk in front of us with his keys in hand, to unlock what we assume was his store or one he managed. We weren’t behind Leather Trench Coat Guy for very much longer. We stopped in somewhere and or crossed the street or something.
So what may have been going on here? My wife likes to speculate it was something mob-related, but if it was, I find it a bit odd that some enforcer or mob boss was just casually walking down the street at night in NYC.