Tonight, after being thwarted for two days, Ronald Payne and I went to see Harry Potter V possibly one of the best movies of all time. This is consistent with my belief that Star Wars III, Transformers, and Matrix Reloaded are legendary in film or will be in the near future. Ron and I met at the movie theater at around 9:30pm, about twenty minutes before the movie was to start, and I had not bought a ticket yet.
While Ron and I talked a strange person decided to join us. He was taller than us and seemingly older. He had on a white t-shirt with a blue icon on the front, jeans, presumably tennis shoes. He had short curly brown hair and had a pale Caucasian complexion. It seemed a little strange that he would only have a t-shirt on; I was comfortable only when I had my sweatshirt on.
He approached us asking for help giving me the early impression that he was in need of money. I am not a very charitable person on the spot and would have refused him if he had asked. I feel there is a difference between supporting charities with my time and simply giving out cash to people, especially cash that is not really mine to give out. Instead the man asked if we would do him a huge favor to which I inquired what it was.
He basically wanted me to find shrooms and if I were to agree he would help us tremendously. The guy however, couldn’t stay on topic though. He declared that if we were to follow through with it he would give us grand spiritual powers. He demonstrated this by holding out his hand which presumably had invisible fire emitting from it. I didn’t care to deny his belief that his hand controlled fire. He went on to say that he was God and/or Christ and the God and/or Christ was speaking through his human body as if to convince us of the importance of his demand. He gave us a convincing case as to how he could be God and/or Christ. But I found myself unconvinced but decided not to question him on it.
After he was done with what could be considered a pitch he wanted to know if we would help him. I told him that we were going to see a movie in ten minutes and that we would have to do this later. He didn’t seem to accept that and so I asked where I could find these shrooms. He answered in ironic fashion that he had planted shrooms in my backpack. It was at this time that I became confused as to what he meant. If he had planted shrooms in my backpack what did he need me for? He said he would give me $30.00 if I assisted him in getting shrooms, or maybe he meant that he would sell them to us for $30.00. Either way, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
As I was still on the fence about this I asked if I could make a phone call to a friend and that I needed some time to think this over. He didn’t find this satisfactory and told me that if I were to call a friend it would bring demonic ruin to me and even more so to Ron since it was his phone. After playing along with this guy for a few minutes he found my lack of cooperation unsatisfactory and took off north on
After he was gone I quickly checked my backpack and found nothing unusual. It was later confirmed by Ron that the guy did not mess with my backpack during the conversation. Sure the guy was gone I went to the other side of the movie theater and asked for Ron’s phone. In my zeal for righteousness I called 911 and got the CHP computer which then informed me that all of their operators were busy. I then called the Davis Police Department using the information off Ron’s ID card. Calling the Davis Police Department number it took a few minutes to get to their operator to which I described the altercation.
They asked all the right questions and I provided a detailed account, almost as detailed as what I am writing right now. Since the movie was going to start in 10 minutes I request that a cop car go after the suspect and have a chat with him. This was complied with and I left the DPD to handle him.
It is unknown to me as to whether the DPD actually found him. If they had they would probably find him mentally unstable or having possessed or being under the influence of some drug. The odds are I believe is that the cops never found him, but I can find out later.
Now, I could have done a few things differently than what had occurred. I could have been a jerk and told him to scram immediately but then that could have caused a fight. I could have walked off, but then he might have followed. With these options I decided to locate myself right in front of the theater in front of a large group of witnesses. I also kept the conversation going for me to memorize his physical details and for potential line up purposes. But at times he even patted me on shoulder in a friendly manner.
As for reporting the individual I decided that if this guy were to hurt or cause injury to another on F street or elsewhere and I didn’t report it I would feel morally responsible. Ron concurred with this judgment. Also, I really had a great satisfaction in busting a druggie and possible drug dealer. I realized soon thereafter that if they caught the suspect the Court might require me to attend as a witness, even so I found that to be intriguing.
But it was also personal. This guy invoked religious arguments to try and convince me which is something I don’t take lightly. Both Ron and I are quite skilled in Christian thinking and this guy was annoying my moral sensibilities. It reminded me of an event in which Ron dealt with someone who was trying to sell off prophecies near a local church. It was later determined that he was not a registered prophet. During the conversation I almost thought that he seriously wanted us to exorcise demons or something to which I would reply that I would have to get a signed document from the dioceses in order to proceed. Thankfully this do not occur for it could have caused him even more anger. There are procedures after all. It was one of weirdest conversations I have ever had with a human being.
In any case Harry Potter V was well done but I would objectively give it a B grade. I found Ralph Fiennes to be the best character in the movie.
