August 11, 2013
I went with my girlfriend to IHop on 202 which has usually been completely uneventful...
Although today it was rather crowded. We walked in and put our names down and as we walked back out, I noticed one lady with her young son on the bench by the door. When I walked by she was smiling and talking to her son and I believe I heard her say "See, he has a gun." She didn't seem alarmed at all, but rather simply either curious or even happy. When we get outside my girlfriend said "EVERYONE noticed this time". As soon as we got out the doors, a man walked out behind us and approached me. He asked the first question everyone asks "Are you LE?" to which I replied "No, why?" He mentioned that he OC's too and just wanted to talk to me. We spent a good 5 minutes chatting and discussing our experiences. He mentioned that he was asked to leave the Concord Mall recently, which was extremely ironic because that is where we'd planned to go after breakfast. We said our goodbyes and my girlfriend and I went in to eat. We sat there for a while and a group of about 5 people (black, and I don't mean to be racist or stereotypical, but I just want to point out that the only people who have shown any concern about me carrying have seemed to be black) were seated at the table next to ours. I thought I overheard them saying some things but I really wasn't paying attention to them, although when my g/f went to the restroom, there was a shuffle at the table. I looked over and noticed the man closest to me had moved to another chair away from me. And then I heard the woman next to him say something like "Are you paranoid or what?" I didn't hear the rest of it, but I could tell the entire group was really unnerved. Right before we left, the entire group was completely silent. When we got up, they all actually physically leaned back slightly while they watched me leave. When we walked by the glass window next to the exit I looked over and the one girl was still staring at me. I simply smiled and shook my head in disbelief.
So, because the man we met when we entered had mentioned he'd been asked to leave the Concord Mall, my girlfriend hadn't been to the Christiana Mall in a while, and I never...and the fact I'd seen on here people have carried there recently with no issues, we decided to go to the Christiana Mall to cash in her VS coupon.
I was there for probably 45 minutes before there was a DSP officer standing outside one of the stores I was in....when I walked out he was engaged in a conversation with someone so I walked past him....a few minutes later I noticed the same officer a short distance off as I left another store....after leaving a third store walking down the hall, I noticed he was standing off to the right and for some reason I just knew he was waiting for me to walk by.
As I walked by, he started walking toward me and actually walked behind my girlfriend whom I was holding hands with and approached me.
He was extremely polite and said that he needed to speak with me for a minute. His first question was that if I was LE, to which I replied "No sir". He mentioned that he knew the DE OC laws and that he was supportive of carrying, but that the mall was private property and that if mall security noticed me carrying they would ask to me leave. He never actually asked me to leave or take my sidearm to the car, but he implied that it would save me the hassle of dealing with the rentacops. The impression I got was that he thought it was stupid, but that he was saving me the embarrassment of being harassed by mall security because he was borderline apologetic about even mentioning it to me.
Now, I know I probably should have directly asked him if he was asking me to leave on behalf of mall security, but because he was so polite and never once got tense or "uppity" with me, and my girlfriend still hadn't made it to VS yet, so I obliged by returning my sidearm to the car (which I wasn't thrilled about) and went back in to get what we'd came for. As I returned I passed the same Trooper and nodded at him as I walked by with my empty holster and he just smiled and gave me a thumbs up.
So today was my most interesting OC day by a mile, lol.