Barney Fife here

[finsgirl]

My girlfriend and I have this route through a really nice neighborhood that we take rollerblading because it's a level road with few cracks, no hills, and nice houses to look at. We always begin and end at a parking lot at the children's playground. So this afternoon, after rollerblading, we were chatting on the grass near our cars when my girlfriend notices that there is an older man in an Infiniti about 10 feet in front of us drinking beer. He had his windows down and you could here the bottles clinking together and every so often he would toss out a bottle cap. This was making us seriously uncomfortable so I took note of his license plate and walked near the back of the playground and called the town's non-emergency police station to ask them to check it out. Ten minutes later, two police cars pull up and two policemen walk over and start talking to the man in the car. He made up some bogus story about watching his kid at the playground but when asked to locate him he couldn't. A few minutes later, they asked him to lock up his car and he got out and STAGGERED towards the police car where they put him in the back seat and drove away. My girlfriend and I, being the nosy-bodies that we are, peeked in his car and saw a 6-pack of beer in the back seat with 5 empty bottles, a bottle opener in the front seat, a couple bottle caps on the ground, and a county map on the back seat.

So what do you think? Could he have been a potential child molester??Why would a normal man park at a children's playground and drink beer in plain view in the middle of the afternoon in a NICE, AFFLUENT neighborhood?? My girlfriend and I sometimes leave our kids at this playground while we go blading but after today, I'm thinking they are safer at home.

I'm a little spooked to say the least.

Angie

 

[67firecracker]

Ewwww! Creepy! I'd say, I wouldn't leave my kids there any more! Unless that man is wanted or is under a restriction from a previous incident the most they can charge him with is open liquor - and maybe not even that depending on your state. He may be back. Creepy! I'm glad you saw and did something about it.

Trish

 

[t_jania]

Yeah for you!! I think it's possible you thwarted a potential disaster. What if he'd tried to drive!? He could have hurt someone seriously. And with the Eww Factor thrown in, you could have saved more than that. I'm proud of you for following your instincts and calling the law on this fool.

 

[Timber99]

He could be. Or he could just be a boozer, vagrant, loner, etc. It never hurts to be careful with your children, intermittently checck where they play, teach them again what to do in the event of an issue, etc.

 

[finsgirl]

Thanks, Tammy - I agree. Even if he did not have the intention of taking a child, he should not have been drinking because how else was he going to get home??! After 5 beers, he was definitely affected and could have hurt or killed someone.

Angie

 

[finsgirl]

Timber99 - even though my kids are a little older, I still remind them what to do and not to do when approached by a stranger. In the past, we've always left a cell phone with them in case they needed to get a hold of us when we're rollerblading. I still think from now on, we'll leave them at home!!

Angie