I had a crazy experience today while at Bass Pro Shops in Grapevine. My buddy (the one I bought the gun for) and I show up at 8:15 am to buy him a set of rings and mount the scope I gave him. When I got out of the truck I didn't know how long we might be inside, so better safe than sorry (so I thought), I took my 10/22 with me inside. It's a takedown model and was folded up.
We walk in and there is one guy working the gun counter, we're next in line. The worker is helping these two hispanic folks that don't speak too much English. They are shopping for scopes. We must have waited about 30 minutes before a second worker finally shows up to help us out. He shows us to the rings, gives us a recommendation, and takes us to the gunsmithing room to mount the rings and scope. Meanwhile, the two fellas looking at scopes continued to do so.
Fast forward about 5 minutes or so... the gunsmith is installing the rings on my buddy's 10/22. This is when the two folks looking at scopes come in - they finally decided on a scope and have now made their way into the same room that we were in and are next to have the gunsmith work on their rifle.
What happens next I was not prepared for. I still can't believe this actually happened. I replayed this multiple times in my head and I have my own criticism of how I handled the situation. If you stick with the longwinded story, I also have questions on legal implications and what you would do had you been carrying (which I was not.)
The best way to explain the sequence of events that happened is probably by using the below map and using the numbers to describe the actions taken by the person who bought the scope and was having it mounted. He was with his brother, wife and 2 kids.
1: Ok so the scenario has been set. There are 5 people in the room as seen below. No one moved except for the hombre who is assigned numbers on the map. Everything at this point is normal - he purchased a scope, already paid, and is having it mounted. His brother is closest to the door and is looking at something in the glass. The gunsmith is working on my buddy's rifle. As we are waiting, my rifle - which I took into the store to ensure my truck wouldn't be broken into in the parking lot - is sitting on top of the glass counter and is within arm's reach of me. It could also be described as "in possession" by my buddy as he is the closest to my rifle at this point.
2: Very quickly without any sound the guy has moved next to my friend, and in a split second picked up my gun as I watched out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head and I watch him take possession of my rifle. *I did not say anything at this point. The time where the guy was in position two was very short. Less than two seconds. He walked up, grabbed the gun, and went to position 3 very quickly.
3: Within a split second he has backed up to position three and starts looking through the scope. (It is in it's takedown/folded position.) The best way to say it is my brain immediately cleared and I watched intently to see what the f--- he was going to do. I examined everything he did, trying to figure out why this happened and his motive while at the same time figuring out action plans for the different types of reasons he took the gun. Two or three times he took the scope back up to his eye and looked through it. At this point, I determined one of two things is happening... 1) If you're trying to steal my rifle, you've got to see that I am staring you down, or 2) I'm anticipating a question because it's a bit unique looking in the takedown position, the carbon fiber barrel, the magpul stock... Eye-catching may be used to someone who isn't around firearms. I surmise that he most likely was intrigued by the gun. I felt given how clearly obvious he took it, and how I was watching him every move, and if you're taking something you would see that the person in front of you won't break his attention, so this seemed to be the least likely of the two scenarios. Still, I have sized him up and if I felt he was going to walk off, I felt I was getting ready to go into a chaotic frenzy and whoop his A--. He was bigger than me but less athletic and I would have gone absolutely berserk.
I continue to anticipate a question being asked, or "nice rifle" and setting it back down, to which I would say thanks, think poorly of him but go on about life and having a story to tell about the guy who just has no regard for people's property. Perhaps 6-8 seconds has gone by in total now.
4: Already thinking this is a weird situation, I am continuing to fixate all attention on this guy. My friend said something to me but I don't recall what. I just focused on this guy as he turns and whistles VERY LOUDLY - the type I remember as a kid when my dad was calling me home - as he starts walking towards the exit of the gunsmithing room. At this point, I speak up and say, "HEY - What are you doing?" "Oh, this is yours?" "Yeah..." "Sorry, sorry."
5: Now caught, instead of walking towards the door, he immediately diverts his intended course and walks to his brother, making about a 45* shift and says, "Sorry, I wanted to show my brother the scope." Now the Gunsmith says, "That was yours?" "Yeah," I confirmed... He gets onto them about safety and never touching anyone else's rifle - ever. He then starts walking back towards me and sets my rifle back down, say's he sorry 4-5 more times, and says he wanted to show it to his wife. She was about 25 or so yards away. This explains the whistle, but he said he wanted to show his brother. If that were true, you don't just walk off and whistle immediately.
So that's what happened. In the end, everything ended up ok. At the time though I thought he was trying to steal my gun or was a complete dumba--. As I continued replaying the situation in my head, I have landed on he thought the gun was out on the counter, perhaps someone left it, and I think he saw an opportunity to try to walk out with it. I think he was whistling at his wife to put it in their shopping cart. I am not sure someone could be that dumb and not have malicious intent.
Here's where I am a dumba--... 1) the rifle shouldn't have left my hands. Period. I felt comfortable for the 5 minutes it was me, my buddy and the gun smith and let my guard down. I should have picked it back up. And 2) Given the situation, I saw him pick it up and I didn't say anything. No one should ever touch my rifle without my permission, period.
As we ate lunch and hashed out the events later that day, I thought about what would have changed had I been carrying? To be honest, I think I am glad I was not. That would have added so much more stress and different options - whether right or perhaps ovbiously wrong - and it would have further clouded my judgement.
I don't think there is reason to draw in this situation. Someone else picked up my gun and walked off with it and I don't know his intent. Is this something from a legal standpoint where someone in my situation could have drawn? It never crossed my mind until lunch that the gun had a lock on it, mandatory when I entered BPS. He picked up a gun, and I don't know his intentions, and I don't know if he has any ammo... This is a weird situation that I'm interested in hearing what you guys think when it comes to how carrying changes anything. It would have added more to think about and I find this as an opportunity to think and learn on this... Thoughts welcome. Thanks!
We walk in and there is one guy working the gun counter, we're next in line. The worker is helping these two hispanic folks that don't speak too much English. They are shopping for scopes. We must have waited about 30 minutes before a second worker finally shows up to help us out. He shows us to the rings, gives us a recommendation, and takes us to the gunsmithing room to mount the rings and scope. Meanwhile, the two fellas looking at scopes continued to do so.
Fast forward about 5 minutes or so... the gunsmith is installing the rings on my buddy's 10/22. This is when the two folks looking at scopes come in - they finally decided on a scope and have now made their way into the same room that we were in and are next to have the gunsmith work on their rifle.
What happens next I was not prepared for. I still can't believe this actually happened. I replayed this multiple times in my head and I have my own criticism of how I handled the situation. If you stick with the longwinded story, I also have questions on legal implications and what you would do had you been carrying (which I was not.)
The best way to explain the sequence of events that happened is probably by using the below map and using the numbers to describe the actions taken by the person who bought the scope and was having it mounted. He was with his brother, wife and 2 kids.
1: Ok so the scenario has been set. There are 5 people in the room as seen below. No one moved except for the hombre who is assigned numbers on the map. Everything at this point is normal - he purchased a scope, already paid, and is having it mounted. His brother is closest to the door and is looking at something in the glass. The gunsmith is working on my buddy's rifle. As we are waiting, my rifle - which I took into the store to ensure my truck wouldn't be broken into in the parking lot - is sitting on top of the glass counter and is within arm's reach of me. It could also be described as "in possession" by my buddy as he is the closest to my rifle at this point.
2: Very quickly without any sound the guy has moved next to my friend, and in a split second picked up my gun as I watched out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head and I watch him take possession of my rifle. *I did not say anything at this point. The time where the guy was in position two was very short. Less than two seconds. He walked up, grabbed the gun, and went to position 3 very quickly.
3: Within a split second he has backed up to position three and starts looking through the scope. (It is in it's takedown/folded position.) The best way to say it is my brain immediately cleared and I watched intently to see what the f--- he was going to do. I examined everything he did, trying to figure out why this happened and his motive while at the same time figuring out action plans for the different types of reasons he took the gun. Two or three times he took the scope back up to his eye and looked through it. At this point, I determined one of two things is happening... 1) If you're trying to steal my rifle, you've got to see that I am staring you down, or 2) I'm anticipating a question because it's a bit unique looking in the takedown position, the carbon fiber barrel, the magpul stock... Eye-catching may be used to someone who isn't around firearms. I surmise that he most likely was intrigued by the gun. I felt given how clearly obvious he took it, and how I was watching him every move, and if you're taking something you would see that the person in front of you won't break his attention, so this seemed to be the least likely of the two scenarios. Still, I have sized him up and if I felt he was going to walk off, I felt I was getting ready to go into a chaotic frenzy and whoop his A--. He was bigger than me but less athletic and I would have gone absolutely berserk.
I continue to anticipate a question being asked, or "nice rifle" and setting it back down, to which I would say thanks, think poorly of him but go on about life and having a story to tell about the guy who just has no regard for people's property. Perhaps 6-8 seconds has gone by in total now.
4: Already thinking this is a weird situation, I am continuing to fixate all attention on this guy. My friend said something to me but I don't recall what. I just focused on this guy as he turns and whistles VERY LOUDLY - the type I remember as a kid when my dad was calling me home - as he starts walking towards the exit of the gunsmithing room. At this point, I speak up and say, "HEY - What are you doing?" "Oh, this is yours?" "Yeah..." "Sorry, sorry."
5: Now caught, instead of walking towards the door, he immediately diverts his intended course and walks to his brother, making about a 45* shift and says, "Sorry, I wanted to show my brother the scope." Now the Gunsmith says, "That was yours?" "Yeah," I confirmed... He gets onto them about safety and never touching anyone else's rifle - ever. He then starts walking back towards me and sets my rifle back down, say's he sorry 4-5 more times, and says he wanted to show it to his wife. She was about 25 or so yards away. This explains the whistle, but he said he wanted to show his brother. If that were true, you don't just walk off and whistle immediately.
So that's what happened. In the end, everything ended up ok. At the time though I thought he was trying to steal my gun or was a complete dumba--. As I continued replaying the situation in my head, I have landed on he thought the gun was out on the counter, perhaps someone left it, and I think he saw an opportunity to try to walk out with it. I think he was whistling at his wife to put it in their shopping cart. I am not sure someone could be that dumb and not have malicious intent.
Here's where I am a dumba--... 1) the rifle shouldn't have left my hands. Period. I felt comfortable for the 5 minutes it was me, my buddy and the gun smith and let my guard down. I should have picked it back up. And 2) Given the situation, I saw him pick it up and I didn't say anything. No one should ever touch my rifle without my permission, period.
As we ate lunch and hashed out the events later that day, I thought about what would have changed had I been carrying? To be honest, I think I am glad I was not. That would have added so much more stress and different options - whether right or perhaps ovbiously wrong - and it would have further clouded my judgement.
I don't think there is reason to draw in this situation. Someone else picked up my gun and walked off with it and I don't know his intent. Is this something from a legal standpoint where someone in my situation could have drawn? It never crossed my mind until lunch that the gun had a lock on it, mandatory when I entered BPS. He picked up a gun, and I don't know his intentions, and I don't know if he has any ammo... This is a weird situation that I'm interested in hearing what you guys think when it comes to how carrying changes anything. It would have added more to think about and I find this as an opportunity to think and learn on this... Thoughts welcome. Thanks!
Attached Files
Comment