I was OC at Great Lakes again today. I go there alot for the exercise, OC itself, and to look at the girls.
Well, Its Friday, and very busy up there today, 5:30ish, and the weather is good. I see 3 Auburn Hills officers and a security guard 4 abreast, and I recognised 2 of the officers. One from the mall, and the other from an OC encounter at Best Buy when the Mgr asked the police to have me leave. (no CC either). Anyhow, I went right up to him and shook his hand, saying I remembered him. He was really cool to me last time. The other officer said, "Hi Neil", I responded that he was better with remembering names than I was. The first officer asked for my ID, I gave it to him. I know I didn't have to. He wrote down my info, and said something about me still wanting to OC. I explained that I wanted to promote OC, and that while suspended, I had to do it that way. While we were talking, a customer sort of pushed his way into the conversation, and asked them If I could actually do that. (pointing at my gun), at which point the officers told him that I could. I said to him that if the owners asked me to leave, they could, but security has always been good to me up there. By this time, we got a bit of a crowd going, as they expected to see me disarmed, and arrested I'm sure. Well, you can imagine their surprise as the police and I politely shook hands with a smile, and parted in separate directions. As I walked away, some lady gave me a high five/handshake, and said something like "way to stand up for your rights man", I thanked her heartily.
A couple minutes later, this guy working at a cellphone booth flagged me, asking if I was undercover. We wound up talking about OC for about 20 minutes, he was really interested in getting a gun and OC in general. He asked if he could get a CPL because of a misdemeanor pot thing, I told him that it was a 3 year prohibition on a CPL, but that he could still OC. We talked alot about what you can and cannot do, and I gave him one of the MOC pocket cards, and jotted down OCDO for him, strongly cautioning to know the laws and check into the sites before OCing.
Two other people came up to me asking if I knew where a store was, they thought I was a cop I guess.
Then I went to McDonald's, and was approached again, and talked to this guy in line, (making sure the other family behind could hear too), he asked me If I could really do (that) with a "CCW", so that led into a 10 minute conversation about OC. I was able to give him a brochure as well, and he seemed like he would actually check into it.
Its usually not that busy for me up there, but today, WOW!. Normally I get to talk to a person or two every day I go out, sometimes none, but today was an exceptionally productive day.
And yes, I have a voice recording of the police encounter. Im about to put it on a CD.
