Keeping my eyes open

A couple of months ago I was driving in to work in the morning; I was just a couple of blocks away from the office. A man was standing in the middle of the street flagging me down. He was an older Black man--probably in his early 60's--well dressed in a neat suit and topcoat and hat (I say this to differentiate him from the homeless people who occasionally walk out into the street and try to flag down cars).

It felt rude not to stop, so I made sure my doors were locked, and I rolled down my window a little bit. He said that he had run out of gas and he wanted me to drive him to a gas station so he could get some. I apologized and said no, that I was late for a meeting and had to get to work. He insisted, and I rolled up the window while he was still talking, and drove on. I watched in my rearview mirror and saw him try to flag down someone else.

I felt bad about it, but there's no way I was going to let some stranger in the car. The area of town where I work isn't a bad area, per se, but I wouldn't want to be walking around down there by myself after dark. And I wouldn't pick up a stranger, in any event. Also, of course, it's a commercial area with a lot of small businesses--it wasn't as though by not picking him up I was leaving him stranded in the wilderness.

I pretty much forgot about the incident until one day last week when he was out there trying to flag me down again!

I thought, "Wait a second. Isn't that the same guy?" Same guy, same topcoat, pretty much the same spot in the road. Yeah, right, I'm sure he had just run out of gas again and needed a ride to the gas station . . .

I just shook my head and drove on, not bothering to roll down the window to listen to him this time. At least it made me feel better about not having "helped" him last time. And then, this morning, there he was again! A little bit further on down the road, and it wasn't me he was trying to stop this time, but a guy in a pickup truck. Who stopped, rolled down his window, and listened. I sort of wanted to park and wait and see if he let the guy in the car, but I didn't, I just drove on to work.

I'd really like to know what the story is. I can't imagine that he's conning people into letting him into their cars and then robbing him--not that that's an unbelievable scenario, but at 9:00 a.m.? And at the same place every time? Could be, I guess. I'm wondering, though, if he's just a guy without a car, and every morning comes out to see if he can get someone to take him someplace. Maybe the gas station was just my story. Maybe he's telling the guy in the pickup that he needs to get to the drugstore to pick up a prescription.

Or maybe he's just crazy. I'm keeping my eyes open.