I was propositioned by a drug dealer yesterday…
Did that grab your attention? Good. It was supposed to.
But, there is more to the story than that. So, let’s look at a few more details of the situation.
It happened at the community college across the street from my house. While I don’t live in the nicest neighborhood, I was still a bit surprised when the nice man said hello and asked if I wanted to buy some weed. It is, after all, a college campus…
Okay, so that doesn’t really work as an argument either way does it. A place of education and partying… But, still, I often frequent the school and it had never happened before. Plus, it was daylight, not yet dinner time. And it was a bit unsettling that he was so forward about the transaction he wished to make.
So, okay, while that threw me off a bit, it certainly didn’t help that I was jogging. Out for some fresh air and exercise. The campus has an attached sporting complex that offers a nice little loop I can run around. And, I was on my way home. Hot. Sweaty. Tired. And, he thought I’d be interested in buying from him in that state?
I wondered if he’d had much luck selling to runners before. I also wondered how many people out for a jog carry cash with them, because I don’t. Was I just in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time? Was I close enough to his normal clientele that he thought he could maybe get a sale from me?
Which brings us to the oddest bit of the whole scenario. I wasn’t alone. I was pushing the Little Prince in the jogging stroller. Dad and toddler out for some afternoon sunshine and playtime. There is a park next to the sporting complex where the kiddo can run wild for a few minutes while I catch my breath and get ready for the run home.
So, if we revisit one of my earlier questions: Are father’s out for a jog, pushing their child in a stroller, this man’s normal clientele?
The whole interaction, lasting the two seconds I was within earshot of the man, seemed wrong.
But, funny too.
I wonder if he was serious or just trying to be humorous…
What is the oddest situation you’ve been in where somebody asked you something inappropriate?
Damn.
Just damn.
I was a little confused at first. Then I was kind of pissed. Then I was concerned about how close I was to my home… and now I think it is mostly funny.
Wow.
I’ll have to get back to you on the inappropriate thing, but for the moment let’s just say you win.
Hahaha
Victory!!!!
Marvelous. *rubs hands together and grins wildly*
um.. wait… I’m not sure I wanted to win.
Hah! Well, you’ve got me there. I can only imagine…
Well, let me tell you that women get a whole different sort of inappropriate propositions while out on the trail.
Just to let you know that women runners commonly get other kinds of inappropriate propositions.
Not to self… never let The Queen run alone again…
Thanks for the heart attack.
How odd. ‘Tis a perplexing tale indeed. Maybe he was using his own product and was taking a mind vacation when he saw you as a good mark?
That would add some semblance of logic to this tale, yes.
Oh also, I have to say, I thought your post was going to be about a doctor’s visit, lol.
That’s hilarious! And, far less absurd than the truth.
Happy Earth Day?
Hahahahahahaha
😀
Why not.
I was on my way to Myrtle Beach with two girl friends and a guy friend. We stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. I ran in to use the restroom. While my guy friend perused the store’s merchandise, a guy approached him to sell him some pills so he could specifically drug the girls he was with, aka me and my friends. Luckily, my friend is nice and said no 🙂
It’s good to have friends like that. 😉
How very interesting… I wonder how many sales that guy made in that store.
Did you consider calling the cops?
No, we were slightly intoxicated so we got out of there fairly quickly 🙂
Ah, yes, good move then.
I thought about calling the cops yesterday… But, you know, by the time I got to a “safe” distance to pull my phone out the guy would have been out of line of sight and I couldn’t have described him other than to say exactly where he had been sitting as I ran passed… So, meh. Maybe if he is there the next time I go running and asks me again….
Not to downplay it but at least it wasn’t meth or heroine?? I’m trying at a silver lining here 🙂
Agreed. And thanks for pointing out the “it could have been worse” scenarios.
Back in my college days, while walking from the light rail station to the campus, I was hit up by a bum to buy some tampons he had somehow gotten ahold of. Yes, tampons. I declined the offer…
While I give the guy props for doing something different and trying to do a trade rather than just asking for handouts… I think perhaps he should have known that he’d only have luck with a certain gender.
Unless there is some use for tampons I’m not familiar with and don’t want to be familiar with…
Well, our dog back in the day thought they were chew toys… but I don’t recommend them for that purpose.
I’m thinking even the female gender would be a little leery of buying sanitary products from someone living off the street… then again, in an emergency….
Emergencies do throw normal caution to the wind… Or, so I’ve been told.
Wow. That dude must have been desperate to sell.
He didn’t seem to be… Just lounging on a grassy area next to one of the parking lots. He was laying on his back until he heard me coming and then he sat up…
Which does lend some credence to the idea that perhaps he had partaken in some of his product.
More than likely.
I hadn’t even thought of that… The good sellers don’t normally do that. I think that makes me less happy about the whole thing.
It might be less inappropriate to be asked about getting high outside an establishment like a “Blue Note” but nonetheless I can’t help but think “what makes you so certain I’m not a cop?” Living in a college town that houses one university and two colleges, I’m inclined to ask if you have a psychology department. I’ve known them to pull stunts like that, which I consider the height of inappropriate.
I think the college does have a psych department, yes, but I’m not 100% on that. When I was studying pysch in college several years ago we didn’t pull any stunts like this, but we did do a lot of surveys around usage and experience… and some professors ran experiments about brain function while under the influence
Here it happens. Ethics is low on the list.
Ethics shall not stand in the way of science and progress!!
😛
Really? I wouldn’t have guessed you thought that by your post. Enjoy being a test subject then! All best. 🙂
Hahaha, yeah, sometimes I spout off nonsense just to be silly. I think it is absurd sometimes the leeway that science (or other industries) are given in the name of “progress.” At some point we gave up or common sense, or decency.
My first thought was of the Little Prince that you were pushing along. Mom alarms went off for a couple of reasons, first, what kind of a skeezey clown asks a man pushing a baby if he wants to buy pot – is he stuck in the 60s – second how typical for a low-life applied psychologist wannabe to impose. Either way, what’s wrong with this picture? Plenty.
When it comes to children’s safety, having tea with an upright grizzly is preferable to dealing with me.
You are hired for all future Little Prince guard duty. 😀
Ha!
Do you work for cookies?
Cookies! I’ll make that a goal…
We always have plenty of cookies.
Wait, does that make them worth less as a monetary source if there are a lot of them?
I may need to rethink this…
Wow, that is inappropriate. A maybe appropriate response might’ve been, “I’m off duty and I’m with my son. Today is your lucky day.” Watching the blood run out of his face would have been priceless.
If I ever thought I could pull of being a cop I’d have to try that. Unfortunately I think anyone would know I’m bluffing.
Don’t sell yourself short. When I was studying LE, I worked security and would be picked for stings because of my unassuming looks as well as the fact that I could make myself seem stupid (trust me it wasn’t a stretch from the real). But…in reading the comments, he could have been a cop pretending to be a drug dealer. You would be a mark pretending to be a cop. Interesting!
And, isn’t impersonating a cop a misdemeanor something? If we were both pretending to be something we weren’t, where would that get us?
Idk. Nowhere.
Pretty much…
Except for the possibility of a good laugh and a fun blog post, maybe?
Apologies, again.
Wait, why are you apologizing?
I’m always apologizing. Actually, you wouldn’t have done anything illegal merely by saying you were off duty. The assumption that you were a cop would have been his to make.
Excellent point.
I think, though, if I see him again and he asks again I probably will just call the cops.
Umm.. hell, I can’t think of anything. Matt wins.
I do enjoy winning! 😉
Aw, don’t rub it in, wiseguy. (wink)
sorry, I take it back
I loathe winning… the spotlight, the obligations, the speeches, the… *shudders* nightmares!!
Hahaha… right.
😀
Exactly.
I think the important question here is how much did you buy, and was it quality weed?
Hey, would you look at the time… I’d love to answer but I’ve … got that thing, that starts … well, soon, and I’ve got to rush. But, remind me tomorrow and I’ll answer then…
*backs away grinning wildly and then flees for the exit*
Yes.. you definitely got my attention. giggles… thanks for the ping back…I haven’t read that post yet…lengthy…will get to it. I shall have to give some thought to the oddest question I have ever been asked…does it have to be by a stranger? 😉
Nope, definitely doesn’t have to be a question from a stranger. Often times we get the most interesting ones from friends and family anyway. They are the most comfortable to ask us them…
The pingback was for a story a friend and I are writing that spans the blogosphere, we mentioned needing to get to the blogger interactive meetup in Long Beach, so, when we got there we had to write you and Deb in. 😀
In that case…I have a couple of doosies….When I was 16 a guy my mom was dating asked me and my boyfriend at the time, if we would star in a porno….I know right…wtf? Of course I declined…but my boyfriend was totally down..sighs… cut to 30 years later…my wife’s ex asked both of us if we would be willing to perform sex acts with him on our own porn channel…he truly did his best to convince us how rich we could get if we were willing. sheeesh! Of course we both said hell no! Nice try buddy…perhaps just one of the reasons he’s an ex. LOL
Yeah, that’s a pretty good reason for him to be an Ex. Ridiculous…
And, so much worse than the harmless drug dealer.
Maybe if it happens again, you can try stunning him with a wink and claim of your own, superior stash!
Hahaha
Gutsy. But alas, not my style. I’d be too worried he was the cop trying to find out who on campus is buying/dealing.
O: What if he WAS?
Undercover, approaching random people — he has nothing to loose after all…
Super sneaky… plus, I feel like that sort of behavior breaks some laws too… unless it is part of some RICO case or something like that, right? Entrapment? Is that a real thing?
Entrapment is generally frowned upon, and does not hold in court 100% and can be used as a defense. Sometimes, the prosecution is asked to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they did not entrap, or the defense is required to prove that the defendant was indeed entrapped.
It does depend on the jurisdiction though.
Not so sure about the RICO, I’ve heard of it but I’m not so sure because our laws for that may differ. (I’m not American).
Well your are a heck of a lot more knowledgable on the subject than I am! 😀
I was actually pretty surprised that you took the statement seriously, I thought you were pulling my leg too so I rode the “joke” (((=
confession: I asked google D:
Hahahahaha
How fun. What did we do before Google? Oh yeah, encyclopedias… I still have some of those somewhere.
We have some too and to them I owe… a lot of things as a child haha books are just fantastic in a different sense, don’t you think? (:
Oh definitely. Books, books, books… I can’t imagine where I’d be without them. Certainly I wouldn’t be here writing these bits of silliness and magic.
People just don’t think. lol
Not usually, no. Which is sad, but, I guess we should just accept is as the current way of the world.
Doesn’t make it much easier…
True.
We’ll just have to struggle through.
Somehow, someway…
I suggest.. well, something other than beer.
Haha.
Laughter! Yes, that will do the trick. 😉
Always! 😉
Hooray for laughing!
🙂
Considering the way my daughter has been acting lately, I think I would have taken him up on his offer.
Hahahaha
Yeah, I hear that. The Little Prince is already a climbing handful. I can only imagine what that turns into when he is a little older, a little stronger and even more stable on his feet (and hands, and head, and…)
that is crazy
I know!!
But, the more time that passing the funnier it gets.
I live in Washington state, so, supposedly, it’s legal here. Never had it, but I’d rather have it in food in careful doses than smoke/vaping it. I dated a pothead many years ago and I’m not interested in stoner culture.
I’ve heard rumors about its legality in your state recently, and I have to say, I’ve very curious to see how it all plays out. Back to our discussion on plans verse reality, in theory this plan could be a great source of income for the state… fewer people in jail keeping costs down, and tax revenue from sales.
That’s the hope, anyways. Currently, the main issue is licensing stores to sell, and some cities have imposed moratoriums (i.e. they are flat out disallowing sales in their limits).
Hooray for local, state, and federal governments not agreeing on something. 😛
Honestly, I read this and thought you were kidding, so wow and maybe yikes as well.
Haha
I sort of wish I was kidding.
I sort of wish I misheard him too.
But, it is what it is. And perhaps it is time to move.
I live in a “nice” neighborhood and there was a home invasion right behind me, so maybe it is time for you to move, but you will always have to pay attention to your surroundings anyway. A bummer of a thought, sorry…
No such thing as a perfect neighborhood. The “nice” ones have higher incidents of burglary/home invasion. The “not nice” ones have other issues. Sadly, it is just the world we live in.
I agree, so I guess that we have to just teach our kids to keep aware of their surroundings and to go running anyway.
Yep, that’s the plan.
That is definitely weird. I can’t really say I’ve ever had a strange experience like that. (oh, my sheltered life)
What? No odd experiences? Drop what you are doing and go to a bar… any bar… a typical bar. Imbibe alcohol and wait for shenanigans to ensue.
Maybe he was just desperate to shift some stuff? Or maybe a plain clothes cop trying to trap people?
Yeah, the cop idea is interesting… that could be it. Still, why would he even have tried to target me while I had my child with me? That’s kind of messed up if he was a cop.