Sweet Buttery Jesus. That's freaky. Maybe she wanted to call you and ask you for tips on how to grow gorgeous rhododendrons.

Could someone have been doing something to your car behind you while she was distracting you?

I had a guy in Ravenna, at the 76 station there, once insist that I buy some speakers out of his van. . .new in the box. . .he was very, um, adamant about it. . mebbe since I had oregon plates and he thought I was a rube.

I finally disenged, and drive up the block, noticed a cop, and parked and mentioned to him what had gone on. The speakers were so obviously stolen, etc.

I have no idea if the cop did anything or not, as I was heading back to Oregon.

Must be something about Seattle. . .

I just assume that people who act like that are on drugs.

Yeah, I second that. Some kind of amphetamine by the sound of it (the looking over your shoulder stuff).

Maybe she had been kidnapped and was trying to let you know without letting you know. And now that you ignored her pleas for help... she will die. Badly.

Amphetamines make people look over over peoples' shoulders?

weretable: Thanks for the thought. :P

I thought about someone messing with my car, too, but there really wasn't anyone within 30 feet or so.

Freaky stuff.

No, but the constant need for your phone number and the repetition is kind of tweaky.

Well, hell, of course she wanted your phone number, honey! Who wouldn't!

She wasn't very skilled, though; I had your phone number before I even met you! *wink*

"friendly face", eh? maybe she thought you were, like, a speed dealer? ...or that you were "down with the scene", etc? (dont take that the wrong way... i have no idea what crank venders actually look like.)

≡ Click to see image ≡

^NOT a drug dealer!

OK, I have a weird gas station story. There's one in town that got really erratic with their hours, closed days at a time, never knew if they'd be open. I liked to stop there when I could because the smokes were a little cheaper.

I went in and asked for a pack. The women behind the counter has a ten year-old girl with her; the girl's eating on a Big Mac. Credit card machine not working, so I paid cash. Instead of ringing it up, she gets her purse off the floor to make change.

But there's a problem. She doesn't have enough quarters to do it, so she turns to her daughter and says "Gimmie that quarter of yours." The girl freaks, starts crying "No Mama, no!"

Fucking surreal - I gathered she had some special attachment to it. I mean the kid was freaked out to the point of traumatized.

I was on the verge of telling the woman to forget it when she got her daughter's purse and they sold each other change so that she could give me the correct amount and the girl could keep her quarter. I left and have never gone back.

I really hate it when I'm stone cold sober and someone acts like such a goddamned freak that I start to think *I'm* the one on acid.

You need an American equivalant to "flirt divert"

the Speakers Sold Out of a Van scheme is well-documented. i can't remember the gist of it, but i'm read about that before. it may be that they try to lure you elsewhere to complete the "sale" er something....

Non gas-station, but weird possible-scam encounter of my own: Twice now I've had a woman (probably the same woman, but it was a year apart) come up to me near City Hall and ask if I could drive her to a women's shelter. She didn't seem all that traumatized or urgent about it, and I don't have a car, and there's a police station right there if she's in dire need of help, so I apologized and said that I couldn't due to lack of car. Then she started quizzing me about whether my friends had cars, if I could call one of them to drive her. I just said no and walked away.

But... WTF? She never asked for money, but I don't know if it was supposed to be a round-about way of doing so, or if she's the head of some elaborate carjacking ring, or...?

I've been resisting posting about this, because there's a risk of appearing either racist, or hysterical, or both. To avoid running that risk I'd have to do a fair bit of research and provide some citations...and I really shouldn't spend the time, though it's been something I've wanted to do for a while.

When stuff like this happens, if it's not a crazy person, it can sometimes be a Romany (gypsy) scam. I know that sounds really old-fashioned and out there if you haven't lived where it happens, but I've encountered it a few times. Once a woman came to my door in Philly and asked for a ride to her house -- she had a long sob story about an ill dog, and an inability to walk far, and just desperately tried to convince me to drive her to her house, a few blocks away. I had a bad feeling about it. I told her I didn't have a car (a lie). I went and got the phone and offered to call the police or Samaritans to help her. She refused all my ideas. IT was years later that I read about this method being used in another community (in that city's paper). A person tries to get you to leave your home (or car) with them, and then accomplices complete a burglary while you're away.

Anyway, I'm always skeptical of these types of stories. More often than not, they're urban legends, or the stuff of horrendous local news sensationalism. But I've now read enough accounts of scams like this really happening -- and seen what I'm pretty sure was one tried on me -- that I do believe it. I just wish I had time to find a good source on it. This site might have something, but it's hard to evaluate right now. Occasionally I remember that I want to research this topic from a folkloristic curiousity, and just haven't given it the time yet that it needs.

That's interesting, Miko. The woman who approached me was black, so probably not Romany, but that gives me something to Google for a while, at least!

Though I'm still not sure how that'd work with the woman who approached me -- I was at least a mile away from home, walking through town. Just stealing the car, maybe? Directing me to drive somewhere where someone would rob me? It was so obviously a scam, since there was a group of police hanging around outside with their cars about a half-block away and she certainly could have asked for help there...

Weird.