[DavidI]

Yesterday morning, my wife and I drove to Costco to fill up one of our cars with gasoline. There were six rows each containing four pumps. If you have ever filled up at Costco, you know the madness of the lines. It was finally my turn to pull up and the available pump was the first one closest to me. For reference, there were three pumps ahead of me in the same row, each being used by a customer. The design of each row allows cars waiting in line to bypass any of the used pumps to access one further in the row.

While I am standing next to our car filling it up, a car in an adjacent row honked his/her horn to indicate there was a pump open so the car in front of him/her could drive forward.

A man sitting in the car directly behind me started cussing out the person directly behind him believing that this person honked at him, but it was the adjacent line. Two cars in front of me finished filling up, so I walked back to the man sitting in the car to let him know that the pumps were available. He was visibly agitated and all I was trying to do was inform him to speed up his filling of his car.

As soon as I neared his car, he started cussing me out ordering me to "Get the fu## away from his car!" He also called me a "Motherfu$$er" and told me he would get out of his car and kick my "a$$." I was confused and attempted to de-escalate the situation by telling him I was only trying to help him and let him know that the pumps in front of me were available. He continued cussing at me and was extremely agitated screaming that he will kick my "motherfu$$ing a$$." There were a lot of people around and many scrambled to get back into their cars. I was not looking for a fight at all. I walked back toward the front of his car when he began to open his driver side car door.

I immediately stopped and faced him. There was no way that I was going to allow him to run up behind me to hit me. In my mind, the game had changed. I told him to get back in the car and that I was not looking for trouble. He opened the car door, but did not exit yet. I told him that if he exited the car in an aggressive manner and walked toward me, I was going to seriously hurt him. I think this caught him off guard because it seemed that the crazy agitated behavior he displayed had scared others, but I was willing to engage him. I had nothing to prove because I know my skill level and would have preferred a peaceful resolution.

He closed his car door, rolled up the window, and continued to scream at me. I walked back to my car and finished gassing it up. Other customers in the gas line who witnessed the encountered started clapping for me. The ones who got back into their respective cars got back out because they saw that this man was a punk when he ran into someone who was willing to take him on.

I thought it was a very strange that his reaction was so utterly crazy! Even my wife, who abhors violence, agreed that standing up to this man was the best thing because he frightened so many of the other customers.

After all was said and done, no fight, no violence, no cussing or yelling from me and I went about my merry way.

I don't understand idiots like this!