I Own a Mother Bear Hat. Do You?

On the way to take my oldest to school this morning, I noticed a man slouched down low in his parked car near the school crosswalk. (Car windows were tinted.) I drove extra slow through the stop sign (like I would if I was putting on my lip gloss) and did a double take, then a triple take at him.  Why was he there?  The bus that picks up the middle school kids leaves 15 minutes earlier so he wasn’t waiting for the bus or dropping off a student. And, it was too early to be dropping off an elementary student at the school as well, plus he was in a weird spot. I made a mental note of it and continued my drive to school with my son.

Fifteen minutes later, he was still there.  Hmmm.  My gut said this was now officially “odd”.  I drove on home to make beds, get my breakfast and then proceeded to take my younger son to his school. (Along the way, we see a red fox sauntering through the front yards across the street as if he lived there.  Very cool.)  More than 30 minutes has now passed and he was still there, but now was getting out of the car and leaning against the back portion of his car.  He was too far away from the crossing guard to have a conversation, and appeared he was looking for someone.  Still, my gut said, “weird”. Anyone who lives in our neighborhood knows that five minutes before and after the start bell, that street is impossible to get through. He was completely blocking the flow of traffic and would soon have 200 minivan driving mothers, honking at him. He was not from this neighborhood.  I couldn’t stick around to watch, so kept on driving my son to school. 

After a trip to the grocery store to replenish my diet Pepsi supply (that’s another blog for another day) I wondered if he was going to be there.  As sure as I was having a Pepsi fit, he was, but had moved around the corner 30 feet and was sitting in front of a house, still slouched down low with his lights on.  I immediately put on my “Mother Bear” hat and drove down out of site, made a U-turn and came back up from behind to get his license plate number and then went home the back way.   He had been there over an hour and fifteen minutes and definitely did not belong there.  So, I called the police and reported it.  Maybe I was reading too much into it and went a bit overboard in my translation of my gut feeling, but I couldn’t take a chance.  I had to act.   I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 13 years and it just didn’t feel right. 

In my heart, I thought, if the police stop and question him and find him to be of no harm and let him be on his merry way, then no loss.  Perhaps there would be a bit of embarrassment on his part at a minimum.   But, if I didn’t call and later heard something on the news, I would never be able to forgive myself.  Which would be worse, blushing from embarrassment or parents now missing a child? Did I do the right thing?  Did I stick my nose in someone else’s business? Maybe, but I think I did the right thing and acted on the side of caution and if nothing else, I embarrassed a grown man on a Tuesday.  What would you have done?