Scary stuff...

Copied from a fwd-ed e-mail I got:

"Please read this, a new twist on kidnapping, a very smart survivor.

"About a month ago there was a woman standing by the mall entrance passing out flyers to all the women going in. The woman had written the flyer herself to tell about an experience she had, so that she might warn other women. The previous day, this woman had finished shopping, went out to her car and discovered that she had a flat.

"She got the jack out of the trunk and began to change the flat. A nice man dressed in business suit and carrying a briefcase walked up to her and said,"I noticed you're changing a flat tire. Would you like me to take care of it for you?" The woman was grateful for his offer and accepted his help. They chatted amiably while the man changed the flat, and then put the flat tire and the jack in the trunk, shut it and dusted his hands off. The woman thanked him profusely, and as she was about to get in her car, the man told her that he left his car around on the other side of the mall, and asked if she would mind giving him a lift to his car. She was a little surprised and she asked him why his car was on other side. He explained that he had seen an old friend in the mall that he hadn't seen for some time and they had a bite to eat and visited for a while he got turned around in the mall and left through the wrong exit, and now he was running late and hiscar was clear around on the other side of the mall.

"The woman hated to tell him "no" because he had just rescued her from having to change her flat tire all by herself, but she felt uneasy. Then shere membered seeing the man put his briefcase in her trunk before shutting it and before he asked her for a ride to his car. She told him that she'd be happy to drive him around to his car, but she just remembered one last thing she needed to buy. She said she would only be a few minutes; he could sit down in her car and wait for her; she would be as quick as she could be.

"She hurried into the mall, and told a security guard what had happened; the guard came out to her car with her, but the man had left. They opened the trunk, took out his locked briefcase and took it down to the police station.

"The police opened it (ostensibly to look for ID so they could return it tothe man). What they found was rope, duct tape, and knives. When the police checked her "flat" tire, there was nothing wrong with it; the air had simplybeen let out. It was obvious what the man's intention was, and obvious thathe had carefully thought it out in advance. The woman was blessed to have escaped harm. How much worse it would have been if she had children with her and had them wait in the car while the man fixed the tire, or if she had a baby strapped into a car seat? Or if she'd gone against her judgment and given him a lift?

"I'd like you to forward this to all the women you know. It may save a life. A candle is not dimmed by lighting another candle. I was going to send this to the ladies only; but guys, if you love your mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, etc., you may want to pass it on to them, as well.

"Send this to any woman you know that may need to be reminded that the world we live in has a lot of crazies in it....better safe than sorry.

"PLEASE BE SAFE AND NOT SORRY! JUST A WARNING TO ALWAYS BE ALERT AND USE YOUR HEAD!!!"

Wow, that's scary! Reminds me of the rumor about a serial killer in Louisiana a few years back who was said to have used the tape recording of a baby crying to lure women out of their house at night. I'm pretty sure that was just a rumor, and I hope this is too... There are a few things in the story which make me think it is.

When I bought my bike about two months ago, I had a hard time getting it in my car in the store's parking lot. The lot was mostly empty, so a man talking on his cell phone about 30 feet away could clearly see that I was having issues as there were no other cars blocking the sight-line. After he got off the phone, he opened his car door and kinda shouted over to me asking if I needed any help. I was kinda leery about accepting his help since I was all alone and he was at least 6'4" and probably easily had 100 lbs more muscle than I do, but I just said, "Uh... maybe?"

He came around my car and looked at how the bike was *not* going into the backseat and asked if I thought it would fit in my trunk. I said it was worth a try and popped it. He just picked up the bike like it was nothing and started trying to fit it in the trunk at different angles... It was not working either. Then I remembered that my backseat folds down. So I brought that down and he guided the bike in, while I pulled it halfway into the backseat. Then he secured it with a beach blanket I still had in my trunk from 4th of July weekend so that it wouldn't ding anything if it shifted during the ride home because it still wouldn't go all the way in to my trunk so that the lid would close. He said, "I think this will stay. You don't have too far to go, do you?" I said no, only about 5 miles, and he said, "Oh, it'll be fine. Guess, I've done my good deed for the day," and smiled. I thanked him and shook his hand, and he gave me a couple business cards and said if I ever needed help with a mortgage or a real estate agent to give his wife and him a call. I took the cards, thanked him again, he went back to his car and I got in mine, we both left the parking lot and that was that. And my bike did stay in place all the way home without incident. He was a good guy, obviously, and I was very lucky of that, 'cause even if the story in the forwarded e-mail isn't true, Lord knows there are a lot of creeps out there.