Was followed today.

Challenged

Challenged

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Challenged
I flew my family to the beach for vacation this morning, but that's not what this post is about.

We were just followed back from the beach by 3 Hispanic guys in a white van. They pulled up behind us at a traffic light and the guy in the back seat scooted up towards the front of their van and it looked like he started filming us with his phone (was looking in my rearview mirror). I thought it was odd, but didn't mention it to my wife. I then drive a ways and we turned off on our road and I noticed they turned off too. Not a big deal since it's a decently popular road. However, I decided since I wasn't in a hurry to get home, and I had this strange feeling about the situation, that I would just turn off on a random side street and they turned right behind us. I then turned around in an empty doctor's office and they followed right behind me turning around in the empty doctor's office parking lot, at which point I was 100% confident they were following us.

So I floored it back in the opposite direction away from our house and waited to make sure I had lost them and we then headed home. My best guess is they were looking to steal the car, it's sort of a pimped out Chrysler 300 rental car.
 
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Did you get their license plate? That doesn’t really sound like a car theft to me, but I don’t know what they’d be up to being that obvious.
 
I didn't get their plate unfortunately. My main concern was getting away from them once I realized I wasn't being paranoid, so I got out of there as fast as I could, and neither my wife nor I had our phone up front with us. I guess I didn't expect my suspicion to be correct, so I was a little shocked when they followed us into the turn off. This was a dead-end street with just 2 or three houses and a closed doctor's office.
 
There was an occupied fire station nearby that my wife pointed out after I zoomed out of there, but I missed the turn. That was the next place I was headed if they kept at it though.
 
My wife had that happen when we were dating. She left my house after midnight and called shortly after saying she was being followed. I told her to make an obvious 180 and see what happened. He stayed right behind her, so she came straight back to my house. I stepped outside, out of view, when she pulled up and he followed her up to my drive. I walked out and he took off before I could get a good description. I don’t know what he was up to but it wasn’t good I’m sure.
 
Always armed, and have had plenty try to follow me in my past, & it would depend on my mood, I may play follow the leader, and more than 1 person has had a car accident trying to keep up with me when they crashed, if you don't know the mountains you have no business going fast, I actually could take pics of 55mph roads where you know much over 15mph would be dangerous. or I may stop & get out and have my gun in hand but concealed & see what happens.
 
Challenged said:
I flew my family to the beach for vacation this morning, but that's not what this post is about.

We were just followed back from the beach by 3 Hispanic guys in a white van. They pulled up behind us at a traffic light and the guy in the back seat scooted up towards the front of their van and it looked like he started filming us with his phone (was looking in my rearview mirror). I thought it was odd, but didn't mention it to my wife. I then drive a ways and we turned off on our road and I noticed they turned off too. Not a big deal since it's a decently popular road. However, I decided since I wasn't in a hurry to get home, and I had this strange feeling about the situation, that I would just turn off on a random side street and they turned right behind us. I then turned around in an empty doctor's office and they followed right behind me turning around in the empty doctor's office parking lot, at which point I was 100% confident they were following us.

So I floored it back in the opposite direction away from our house and waited to make sure I had lost them and we then headed home. My best guess is they were looking to steal the car, it's sort of a pimped out Chrysler 300 rental car.
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Time to start carrying.
 
old_biker said:
Always armed, and have had plenty try to follow me in my past, & it would depend on my mood, I may play follow the leader, and more than 1 person has had a car accident trying to keep up with me when they crashed, if you don't know the mountains you have no business going fast, I actually could take pics of 55mph roads where you know much over 15mph would be dangerous. or I may stop & get out and have my gun in hand but concealed & see what happens.
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Back in PA I'd always meet people who were coming to buy things by the highway. It was twisty hilly backroads that I knew like the back of my hand, and I could lose anybody not familiar.

My guess as to the OP's being followed, either carjacking or human traffickers. Obviously the latter is much more concerning.
 
New van? Old van? Black with red stripe?

Around Houston race is meaningless compared to what they were wearing, how they acted. Everyone is hispanic. My yard guy, my boss, our department managers, the welders, my attorney, the police chief, etc.
 
Our neighbor is a sheriff deputy, he was operating in the unmarked Dodge Charger He basically had the same following thing happen to him.. He call for back up, 2 State Police and another Sheriff showed up and placed all 4 perps under arrest.
3 of them were illegals that already had warrants out standing the 4th was out on bail.
 
B43ABBD2-56A6-46FF-B298-F5FDEC64382A.jpeg Once you felt rather sure they were following, I’d be leaning 911. If they were up to something, oftentimes they already have a record.

I called 911 about a year ago, guy was driving like an azz in traffic. I gave the car & plate, then exit, don’t know any outcome.

I have plenty of shooting irons around. Any miscreants can deal with the dog 1st, I’m Reserve.
 
Once I was cutoff in traffic by some silly lady on her phone so I honked my horn at her as she nearly hit my car. For the next 3 miles or so I followed her making every turn that she did. As we approached a left land turn into a neighborhood, a cop car pulled in behind me and after I followed the lady into the neighborhood, the cop turned on his blue lights and hit his siren once. I pulled into the third driveway while the lady drove on and the cop pulled in behind me. I parked my car, shutdown the engine, and was getting out of my car when he yelled at me to get back in. I complied. He came up to my car and asked for my license and I asked him what the problem was. He said that the driver of the car I was following called 911 because I was following her and she was scared. I then asked the cop if he noticed any similarities between the address on my driver license and the address of the driveway we were sitting in. He looks at both then a look of “oh fudge” comes over his face as he stammers “is this your house?” to which I reply that it was and that I simply had been driving home from work and that the car in front of me must have just happened to be going to the same subdivision. He tells me to wait in my car as he goes back to his car with my license. A couple of minutes later he comes back to my car, hands me my license, and apologizes for the mistake. So I asked him if I did anything wrong and he says no. So I ask if I can get out of my car and go in my house. He said to wait until he drove off. I laughed but complied.

The really sad thing is that after leaving my driveway, the cop left the neighborhood and did not go to the woman’s house to admonish her.

So, my take is that many people watch too many crime shows and movies and become paranoid. Be sure of the facts before causing anyone any trouble by calling the cops or pulling out a gun and trying to be Charles Bronson. You are more likely to be wrong than right in my opinion.
 
I have had more than most here would believe, let me give a few examples, car with thugs passenger partially out window, something in his hand & wrapped with a towel demanding I pull over, swerving at me, when I stuck my pistol out window, guy got back into car, started beating the dash & yell get out of here to driver.

I guess I took to long to pass someone, where I was doing 3-4 mph faster than vehicle I was passing, as soon as I got past, vehicle behind me got beside me & guy was pointing a shotgun at me, I produced my pistol, he freaked out, swerved went up a bank & flipped.

when I was young, after a rival game in a different city, "kids" in back of a pickup, wanted to beat me up, because I was in their territory, other kids had been beat just for being in wrong place at wrong time, so I played follow the leader, even with them holding the roll bar on the truck they were in wasn't good enough, when their truck almost flipped, kids were thrown out of the bed at speed.

trust me I have only scratched surface, but growing up, my parents insisted I carry a gun as a child, & without getting into legality disputes, I have carried 46 years, & I am 52, so far never had to use it, had to pull a few times, but just having it was enough to stop threat without having to take a life.

to keep it plane related, the first time I flew on a plane I had a gun on me, I was out riding my Harley, saw signs out of town for air show, stopped went through side to field, looked at many aircraft, had a blast & was hooked, 1 guy I was talking to offered to take me for a ride to next airport for a burger, & after the air I thought about my gun, asked him about metal detectors & if had a place I could leave it while we ate, he got ****ed, turned around, came back & told me to get off his plane. but that's my first ride that got me hooked.
 
Dang! Where do you guys live? Do you drive around looking for the rough parts of town, or what?

I've been driving for 30 years now, lived in about 10 different states, visited many others and have never had any of the problems you guys have. Nobody following me, nobody pulling a gun on me or making me wish I had a gun with me...
 
SkyDog58 said:
So, my take is that many people watch too many crime shows and movies and become paranoid. Be sure of the facts before causing anyone any trouble by calling the cops or pulling out a gun and trying to be Charles Bronson. You are more likely to be wrong than right in my opinion.
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RussR said:
Dang! Where do you guys live? Do you drive around looking for the rough parts of town, or what?

I've been driving for 30 years now, lived in about 10 different states, visited many others and have never had any of the problems you guys have. Nobody following me, nobody pulling a gun on me or making me wish I had a gun with me...
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Well, it hasn't happened to us here in Upper Suburbia, at least not on the roads near our house. When we lived in urban Cleveland, though, or Lawton (even the cops call it Lawless), OK, that's a different story. I was working as a mainframe computer tech in Cleveland, and there were areas where I wouldn't go unarmed, period. The house down the street from us was shot up one night; cops were policing up .223 brass all over the street. And this was 1985 or '86.

And it's not like my wife or I go looking for trouble. We try to avoid it as much as possible. The only place I won't back down or turn and run is my own house. And even the really nice neighborhoods aren't havens any more. The scumbags have figured out there isn't anything worth stealing in their own little slice of paradise, so they come out to our part of town. We've had cars stolen, houses broken into, and a bank less than a block from my house robbed.
 
SkyDog58 said:
So, my take is that many people watch too many crime shows and movies and become paranoid. Be sure of the facts before causing anyone any trouble by calling the cops or pulling out a gun and trying to be Charles Bronson. You are more likely to be wrong than right in my opinion.
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Years ago, one my survey crews called and said they were being shot at. They told me they were bunkered down in a creek bed, scared to move. I called the cops and immediately left to go the house adjacent to the property we were surveying.

The guy told the officer he had no idea my crew was back there. This was out in the country, nothing stopping the guy from shooting on his own property. I believed him, no way he could have seen my crew from his house. He gave me a verbal beating that I generally don't take from anyone, but I deserved it for the trouble we caused.

I knew that particular crew chief was prone to overreacting. I should have told him to get his butt out of that creek bed and get back to work.

Coincidentally, or not, that crew chief got fired shortly after when everyone in the company got tired of his crap.
 
One has to be careful waving a pistol around, a ‘brandishing’ charge can follow.

I have a dash cam recording in front, about $110 on Amazon.
 
SkyDog58 said:
So, my take is that many people watch too many crime shows and movies and become paranoid. Be sure of the facts before causing anyone any trouble by calling the cops or pulling out a gun and trying to be Charles Bronson. You are more likely to be wrong than right in my opinion.
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Sure, I'd agree. I've had plenty of times it looks like a car is following me and then they turn off. Just coincidence. However it seems like the OP had done enough due diligence to confirm he was being followed.
 
Challenged said:
We're in Destin, near 30A
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Until recently, I vacationed there every winter (in-laws snow bird down there). There are still the insurance scams where the bad guys cause accidents, and some of them target rentals for robberies. I always carried down there. And up here. And once in a police car.
 
Come to Texas next time. Mustang Island is fun. Rockport or Freeport was too. S. Padre is close to the boarder so expect it to be little Mexico. Galveston is a nice town but water dirty. Or try Venice LA, Tuna Town USA.
 
I only got followed once, and not really sure what the guy's issue was. I just got done instructing my martial arts class, and had a hankering for some McChickens (yeah, I know). So I go to the McDonald's around the corner. This McDonald's had two entrances, one from the back and one from the main road. I was coming in from the back entrance, and pull into the drive through lane just as a car is even with the front of the McD's - about 150 ft away (just measured on google maps). Well evidently he took that as me cutting him off. And as I am placing my order, he runs into my bumper. At the time I think "well, his foot slipped off the brake or something" I place my order and pull up to the next window. Oh, he's in a car, and I'm in a truck with the offroad package and body lift. He places his order and then bam, hits me again. OK, not an accident. I pull forward slightly, then put it in reverse and stomp on it. Not sure what damage I did to his car, but none to my bumper. As I pull out I make it look like I pull into the adjacent mall parking lot to eat, but had set it up so I was ready to enter the main road. He decides he's going to "cut me off" and beat me to somewhere in the parking lot I guess. He goes in the other entrance to get a head of me, but misses the only outlet to the main road. So I'm on the main road, and he's paralleling me in the parking lot. Road was a boulevard, and as he's racing to pace me in the parking lot (separated by a berm and curb from the street) I make a u-turn in the next turnaround and head the opposite direction.

Still no clue what was going through that guy's head.
 
A few things to think of.

1) You were flying a plane. Do you imagine they could have started scouting you from the point you left the airfield? I say this, because drug trafficking occurs all over the U.S.. They could have been wanting to extort or threaten you for access to a pilot and plane.

2) Your family was with you. Were there any kids? Especially girls. A white van, with three Hispanic males, following a family with kids and recording is a massive sign of human trafficking. Not to alarm or be paranoid, but this is a scary reality.

3) Even if you were carrying a weapon, and they attempted to commit any of the above, the chances of you succeeding against three "mafioso" type males is extremely low and would probably end up in your entire family being injured or worse. It is nice to have a weapon for protection, but they all three very likely had weapons as well.

You saw three guys in the van, there could have been more. There could have been a backup vehicle nearby scouting for police while these guys followed you. Just a bunch of things to think about.

In this situation, I would have called 9-1-1 after they followed you into the parking lot. At that point, you are 100% sure that the safety of your family is in jeopardy, no matter the severity of their intent. 9-1-1 would have talked you right through it and you could have helped take a small chunk out of the criminals roving the streets.

Chances are, they moved on to the next target if they were planning anything nefarious.
 
SkyDog58 said:
The really sad thing is that after leaving my driveway, the cop left the neighborhood and did not go to the woman’s house to admonish her.
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Why would she need admonishing? How was she supposed to know you lived there? Road rage and following is real so I'm not sure why you deserve benefit of the doubt.
 
Josh Jackson said:
A few things to think of.

1) You were flying a plane. Do you imagine they could have started scouting you from the point you left the airfield? I say this, because drug trafficking occurs all over the U.S.. They could have been wanting to extort or threaten you for access to a pilot and plane.

2) Your family was with you. Were there any kids? Especially girls. A white van, with three Hispanic males, following a family with kids and recording is a massive sign of human trafficking. Not to alarm or be paranoid, but this is a scary reality.

3) Even if you were carrying a weapon, and they attempted to commit any of the above, the chances of you succeeding against three "mafioso" type males is extremely low and would probably end up in your entire family being injured or worse. It is nice to have a weapon for protection, but they all three very likely had weapons as well.

You saw three guys in the van, there could have been more. There could have been a backup vehicle nearby scouting for police while these guys followed you. Just a bunch of things to think about.

In this situation, I would have called 9-1-1 after they followed you into the parking lot. At that point, you are 100% sure that the safety of your family is in jeopardy, no matter the severity of their intent. 9-1-1 would have talked you right through it and you could have helped take a small chunk out of the criminals roving the streets.

Chances are, they moved on to the next target if they were planning anything nefarious.
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You watch too much TV.
 
I was passing a semi truck and had a pickup truck come roaring up behind, I signaled to move over to the right lane and as I cleared the semi, this idiot cuts me off and the semi as he goes by me on the right I look over this guy is pointing a gun at me, I slam on the brakes to put some distance between us if shoots, then he pulls in front of me and stops straddling the middle line, gets out and point the gun at me in a shooting stance, I am stopped and say wtf is this guy doing, he then get back in and takes off, I had the license plate, driver, and vehicle description, called 911 go the dispatcher merry go round, got now where, we are now moving down the road and I can see this guy up ahead, he blows by a cop fast, the cop did nothing, guess where ATL

Next up driving my motor home through some where in VA, I am in the middle lane and need to get over to exit the next exit, this idiot is in the right lane and as I try to move over with plenty of room he speeds up so I can not move over, then backs off, repeat six times, I miss the exit, then he gets in front of me and starts waving a gun at me and pointing that he wants me to come next to him, my wife is on the phone with the cops, again the dispatch merry go round, even though the mile markers were being given, this went on for 15 miles and since traffic was light the gun waver stayed in front of me and I kept backing off no exits, finally some cars get in front of me and we were able to exit and get away from the gun waver moron, I had the armory on the dash just in case, , I was glad I had Mr Smith and Mr Wesson. A.R. on board that day and his pal Mr 357, and who says black guns do not matter, they do,

There are endless fools on the roads, be safe,
 
Mtns2Skies said:
You watch too much TV.
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Not really. I was on the highway a few years back later one night, and there was a guy driving pretty fast in left lane. 100+mph at times. But when he would come up on a vehicle in the right lane, he would move over behind them and turn his brights on. Follow them, then pass them. Repeat for every car he passed. I'm watching this happen as he comes up on me, does the same thing to the cars in front of me. So I called the popo and trailed the guy by about 1/4 to 1/2 mile. Got the make and model, and it was without a license plate. Just a dealer paper tag where the plate should me. I called 911 and explained the situation. Tailed him for about 25 miles and stayed on the phone with the police until he pulled into GRR airport. He drove all the way to the end of the pax terminal and parked. When I was leaving a police car was pulling in to check on the guy.

Also called the dealership the next morning and told them what was up.
 
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