I bet if the police find the guy and checked on the guy, they'd find he has a long list of priors, most likely petty thefts, maybe a burglary, probably a history of drunk and disorderly conduct, larceny, passing bad checks, etc...
I doubt he'd have a record for things such as murder and armed robbery, but you never know...
My guess is that he is a petty thug, with a history of petty crimes, and he is moving his way on up, testing the waters so to speak... He is getting the feel for how things go when you directly confront somebody face-to-face, over something that is as mundane as gasoline... Next time he might move on to car-jacking or forcing somebody to withdraw hundreds of dollars from an ATM.
The woman freaked out and sort of blew it, since she should have at least called the police and/or taken down a license plate. I've had confrontations before and I've tried to get as much information as I possibly could.
I'm not going to go into exact details but I have used the THREAT of lethal force or strong hints of potential lethal force (even when I didn't have a gun on me, but rather had one close by) to avert a number of nasty confrontations that would have ended with my being seriously hurt, or to avert potentially deadly confrontations before they began to escalate...
My most famous was when I was 14 and I was in Chicago, and caused 2 thugs (possibly crips or bloods judging from their attire, I was only 14 and was somewhat scared, so I don't recall their exact clothing patterns/colors, I think they had red on, which would typically mean Bloods) just by reaching for my fanny pack while telling my mother "the heck with this, I'm getting my gun out"...
I'm going to discuss this situation, but that's about it... Just so folks can see the power of bluffing (with a combination of some sincerity and potential to follow through)...
I was 14 years old, in Chicago with my mother. I had a snub nosed .38 revolver that my father had bought for me... I was wearing a t-shirt which read GLOCK, I had on a fanny pack given to me by my mother, who had gotten it from a drug company, it read VICODIN, and I had a camo hunting hat on... I didn't have the gun on me, but I had the speed-loaders loaded and I left it in the back of her SUV.
We had been going around seeing some things, and we were thinking about going northwest into Illinois to some resort area or something, or to look for a hunting/gun supply store for me... I think we called a store just across the border and they said they really didn't sell anything to Illinois residents, and since my mother didn't have a FOID at this point in time, that sort of put a damper on things (I don't remember all the details since I was 14 and wasn't really paying attention or caring, since I had enough ammo for myself anyway, mostly, courtesy my home state)...
We decided to stop in a small grocery store and get some supplies to make our own lunches (after all the money we spent going places and having fun, we had to manage to find some savings somewhere), plus it was going to be a long drive back to her house...
While standing in line, two young black males, approximately 17-19 years of age, began to look at me, flexing their muscles, making fists, showing off the tattoos on their arms, and then making sexually lascivious gestures at my mother. One of them started to move a few steps towards me, at which time I stood up straight, said to my mother, "the hell with this, I'm getting out my gun" and let my right hand noticeably go towards my fanny pack, at which time both of them turned for the door and bolted from the store.
I suppose that the combination of my confident stance, my camo hat, my handgun t-shirt, and my fanny pack, made it seem plausible to believe I was carrying a gun... I was not... Said gun was in the rear of my mother's vehicle, and our rehearsed plan was that if trouble began, I would do my best to fend off attackers in hand-to-hand, or as I told her, "take a huge beating from whoever," while she rushed to get the revolver, load it, return to wherever I was, and save me from being stomped to death. Their first thought upon seeing me was that I was probably some easy mark, a 14 year old nerdy white boy with his overweight mother, obviously from out of town... Well the glock t-shirt, the fanny pack, the camo hat, and the confident way in which I carry myself, in which I walk, how I talk, and how I posture myself, made them think otherwise...
It was the most legal and plausible way to have a gun and have it somewhat useful without breaking possession laws, state CCW laws (Illinois being NO ISSUE, as we all know), and still have some measure of safety...
Personally, as a licensed adult, I'll carry anywhere I feel the need to carry, knowing that since I'm not going to cause trouble it won't be an issue... Aside from trying to carry into an airport or a government building, since those are major law issues and people would immediately find out... As far as it goes, my gun would only ever come out of my holster if I was in fear of imminent bodily harm or if I felt that no resistance short of that with a firearm, would be sufficient to deter or halt an attack or serious crime/wrong against my person or that of a close relative. I've stuck my neck out for strangers before, and I've just gotten burnt over it...
Unless it is readily obvious that what I am about to intervene in is a genuine assault/rape, rather than just a domestic quarrel (where I later see the woman right back with the guy two hours later), I am not going to involve myself in such a thing, ever again... I learnt my lesson there... As I said, I have a lot of stories, they're all true, you can believe them or not... I choose not to share them on a publicly viewable forum with people I hardly know...
I shared one, I hope somebody can find some useful in it...
Bluffing can work, particularly when you're not fully bluffing, since the plan was, while I used a pocket knife to fend off one or two attackers, or just took a beating from them, my mother would be slipping away and then bolting for her vehicle, and she'd be back within 60-120 seconds, with some .38 JHP solution to the problem.
If you're tough, you can avoid being picked as a target for attack, or you can present yourself such that attacks are aborted before they become outright physical.
Doormats just get walked all over...
It's my guess that on that day, those two thugs were either unarmed, armed with something less than a gun, or they had guns but didn't want to get into a shoot-out over whatever it was they were planning and about to attempt to do to my mother and I. Of course they could have drawn guns and opened fire on me, but if I hadn't tried to bluff them out, they very easily could have "escorted" my mother out of the store, dragged me along, and taken us anywhere and done whatever they wanted...
When your choices are limited, you have to go with what you think will end the situation in the most advantageous way. Doing nothing is an option, it's the default option. Indeed most people pick the default option, they do nothing... Then they wind up at the mercy of whoever is going after them. I've learnt that you can NEVER let the other guy have the initiative, you have to be the one who calls the shots (no pun intended). They have a plan in their mind about how things are going to go down, even if you don't have a gun and all you have is a 3.5 inch hunting knife, you have to make it obvious that whatever their plans are, they are not going to work and that you have surprises in store for them. Then you hope for the best... Sometimes that is all you can do.
