My First Van Life Scare

I almost crashed my van

My First Van Life Scare

I had just got off work and needed to go the grocery store to pick up a few items. One thing I ALWAYS do before I exit my van is scan the area for anything that may look unusual, it’s something I picked up from my time in the military more specifically from the 13 months I spent deployed to Iraq back in 2003. As I scanned the area around me, I saw a red Ford pickup truck drive slowly passed me and I noticed an older white male looking at my van as he drove by.

What caught my eye was that not only did he drive slowly passed me, but he also drove around in circles looking at my van multiple times. Usually, people that look at my van because they like it will look for a few minutes and move on, but not this guy. Something wasn’t right about him. After he drove around my van multiple times, he parked one row behind me. Then, he got out of his truck and analyzed every square inch of my van then walked up to the driver side door and looked through the window.

At that time, I had crouched behind my driver side seat and watched as this guy looked in my van. Thereafter, he got back into his truck and parked right next to me on my passenger side, but not in his assigned parking spot. He parked so close to me on my passenger side that there were inches between my van and his red Ford pickup truck, as you can see depicted in the picture down below (actual picture of his red Ford pickup truck). I couldn’t open my door even if I wanted to. He blocked me in.

actual red Ford pickup truck

I was blocked in on both sides. I had his truck on my passenger side blocking me in and the metal grocery store cart holder on my driver side blocking me in. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see him looking over his left shoulder in the direction of my van. At this point I was trying to figure out how I was going to get out of this situation. I couldn’t drive forward because he was too close to me on my passenger side. So, I waited to see what his next move would be.

After waiting for about 10 mins, he repositioned his truck right in front of me as depicted in the picture down below. At this time, I figured this was my best chance to leave. I started my van and didn’t take down the front window cover. I just pulled it down far enough for me to see out the window. I put my van in reverse because I figured if I drove forward, he would try and stop me somehow. As I backed up, he jumped out his truck waved his and ran towards me. I almost hit the cart holder as I drove away.

actual red Ford pickup truck

I was almost out the parking lot when I noticed him following me. I sped out the grocery store parking lot and crossed two lanes of traffic into Lowes parking lot where I exited out the back of the lot. I drove for an hour just to make sure he was nowhere in sight.

I can safely say, I will not go back to that grocery store for a good minute.

Living in my van has been one of best decisions I’ve made, but when living the lifestyle that I live you have to have a heightened sense of awareness and you have to trust that small still voice inside your head that says danger. Never second guess yourself. Now people might say, the guy just wanted to look at your van and asked you questions, and my response to those people would be… He might have wanted to do some pretty bad things to me.

My gut told me something was off about him. First off, he had a handicap blue permit hanging on his rearview mirror, but at no time did he attempt to park in the handicap designated parking spot. Also, he did way too much in the 20 minutes or so that I encountered him to leave me to believe the worst of him and what he could have done to me had I opened my door and got out my van.

You truly never know the state of mind people are in and society is worst off today than it was when I was growing up. The world has gone mad, and people don’t value human life. They’ll take your life without a second thought. I leave you with this piece of advice. TRUST NO ONE! ALWAYS EXPECT WORST, but HOPE FOR THE BEST!

You are loved and valued

-Nomadic Introvert