I left work tonight around 1am (overtime) and I had to walk to my car which was parked about a block away. It’s not the worst part of town but it’s pretty empty at that time of night. So I make sure my keys are in my hand and my purse close to me… just being on the safe side.
I’m walking down the hill on the side walk when I look down and i see a human shape drawn in chalk… I freaked out… I never walked so fast in high heels. I know my imagination took over for a bit and having seen too many movies, but damn it was unnerving thinking there might have been a murder there. I was shaky until i got home. I gotta start parking in the building even though it’s 13$, my nerves are worth at least that much…
I just needed to share so i could to bed and not have nightmares… hopefully :rolleyes:
Oof. I would have been hauling ass to that car. My imagination tends to take the best of me in frightening situations. My heart races, I get sweaty…it’s not a pretty sight. I’m a big wuss.
Well, at least you’re all right though. All is well. If it continues to bother you that much after this though, I would suggest parking in the garage, if anything just for the peace of mind.
Yes, that’s a fa-reaky feeling. I remember when I saw my first (and only) chalk outline. And, it was such a TEENY woman. (wearing high heels, I might add.) Listen, pay the $13 and park closer. A block away from work is a long way to walk if you’re by yourself, regardless of the chalk outline.
-pink
Boy, can I sympathize. I work late too, and walk a few hundred yards to my car. Usually, when I get off work, there are lots of big trucks around, and people working, but when I get stuck working late (like tonight), it’s kind of unnerving. Plus we’re in a fairly rough area; it’s on Beale Street, but not the well-lit, tourist-friendly end of Beale Street.
Anyway, did you ever think of getting some mace/pepper spray? that stuff really works (I hear).
I love working at night, other than the fact that I have to record any shows I want to watch on TV and I can only go to the movies on weekends. I love getting off at 11, when it’s finally cooled down a bit, the traffic is light, and the stars are out.
I saw a moonrise a few nights ago, the first time I’d ever watched one. My drive home is forty minutes, mostly due east. I was driving through the countryside, watching for wildlife (other than the owl I hit, I love being able to see all the animals; in the past week I’ve seen two racoons, a possum, a whitetail deer, and a fox). I saw an orange/red triangle slowly creeping above the road at some unknown distance. At first I thought about a UFO, because I’d been thinking about the fact that I’ve never seen one at night, and that perhaps I should start making UFO hoaxes to entertain myself, but I digress.
As I continued my drive, the moon slowly rose above the horizon, gradually turning more yellow and less red as it had less wildfire-thickened atmosphere to shine through. It was still unusually orange for a non-full moon.
It was one of the neatest things I’ve seen in a while.
When I was staying in Minneapolis, I was known to go wandering around parts of town that were generally considered ‘bad’ and were the homes of many homeless. I think I spent more waking time in the ‘bad’ parts of town at night than I did in the ‘good’ parts during the day.
Why am I rambling about this? I don’t know, I guess I’m trying to be like the Flamster
Have you taken a self defense course of some sort? Maybe that would make you feel a bit better. It probably wouldn’t hurt to walk with a friend, though.
For what it’s worth, police don’t always do that any more. (Or at any rate, they aren’t supposed to.) It’s quite possible that the chalk outline you saw was drawn by some prankster, kids playing, or–who knows?–by some film crew for a movie or TV show.
Interestingly, a Google search on the phrase “chalk outlines” produces that Straight Dope column as hit number 10. Our plans for World Domination continue to advance on schedule.
Reminds me of a long time ago–I was out late at night walking around the campus and I heard a pop coming from a few miles away. I continued on my ramblings and an hour or two later, when I was in that area…I saw a chalk outline on the sidewalk. With attendant brown stain. Still have no idea what happened. It wasn’t in the newspaper the next day, I think.
I know in Chicago there were a bunch of faux chalk outlines all over the city a few years back…some sort of protest. They were jarring at first but upon minimal inspection were disproportionate – like, child sized but with too-short torsos.
I just saw a tv spot on women’s defense, and it said that a poll of convicted “grabbers” or whatever of various stripes said that the one thing they wanted to avoid was a situation in which they could get hurt before they even had a chance to grab.
This covered carrying pepper spray, mace, and even long umbrellas with pointy ends. I think I’m going to give my next girlfriend a pepper spray cannister, and periodically check her purse to make sure she carries it. IIRC, you don’t even need a special card to buy and carry that.
To be honest last night a part of me believed it was a hoax… but my imagination was winning over the rational!!! A since Montreal is a relatively safe city and I haven’t heard of any murders or even accident in that area.
Cardinal, I did have my keys between my fingers as I learned during a self defense class I took and I think that (fellow Canadians can help me on that) pepper spray and mace are illegal…
Anyways tonight the car is park indoors, next to the elevator… a bit poorer but safer and my heart will last a lot longer…
My point is that this show was specifically saying that the keys-between-the-fingers method isn’t worth as much as you would like, because if you can gouge them, they can grab you. This is why they recommended having something of a distance weapon.
Make sure of the laws in your area, and then buy what you can. The peace of mind a pepper spray cannister would give would be WELL worth the money.
As for being afraid at night, I can certainly relate. In fact, I had a discussion about this last week with a few people, and we concluded that men just can’t relate in the way that women can. (because they don’t feel quite as vulnerable going out to the corner store at midnight for a pack of smokes and some beer, whereas women quite understandably do) Usually, I’m with a bunch of people before I go out at night. If not, I make sure that things are safe. Still, you never know…
This reminds me of the routine that either Jeff Foxworthy or the “Here’s Your Sign” guy did about rednecks having a party:
“Hay, Officer Mitchell, I thought you said you didn’t want to come back here tonight!..Hay, Officer Mitchell, if I lie down on the ground, will you draw my picture with that little chalk y’all have?”
