All I could see was a faint outline, but with a few moments of focus, I was able to make out that the man’s left hand was tucked into the inside of his jacket. I watched for a few moments only to see his hand slowly slip out of the jacket with something sharp in it.

“You gotta come down here a little closer to check,” the man said calmly as I started to slowly back away.

I didn’t want to run. I didn’t want to set him off. I let him know that I saw the knife or whatever sharp object he had in his hand.

The man turned in my direction and revealed what was in his hand. A harmless pressure gauge. He stuck it onto my tire and checked the pressure.

The two of us exchanged an awkward glance. I’m sure he wondered why I was suddenly a few yards away from him.

“You should be good to go,” the man said with a tone that suggested he might have been a little bit hurt by my clear fear.

I watched the man pull the gauge off the tire, extend up onto his feet and step away from me a little bit.

“You can give the thing a try. I’ll wait in my truck and come back out if it still doesn’t work,” the man explained sheepishly.

The man gave a strange, half wave you might give to a co-worker you really didn’t want to talk to when you bump into each other on the way to bathroom and then scurried off to his truck.

I piled back into my car and locked the doors. Took a few moments to catch my nervous breath and then put the car in drive.