Hehehe...Do Not Challenge Me Ye Mortals!

So I'll admit, I'm a lumens junkie. I don't care about tint, beam quality and that stuff all the time. Sometimes I just want lotsa lumens. Now I don't own any of the big hitters, but to the mere mortals out there in the dark most of my lights are insanely bright.

A little story of what happened tonight. I took the dog for a walk as I do 4-5 times a week. My route takes me through dark parkland, semi-lit streets and back into dark parkland. It's a fairly safe area and in the 14 years I've been walking these streets I've never had a problem or felt unsafe.

Anyway, I was walking tonight and decided to take my Mac's Customs modified maglite, the SST-50 drop-in. As I was walking I came upon a stretch of poorly lit road walking with my light off but set to high mode. Another walker on the opposite side of the road was walking with a flashlight that was throwy, but only made what looked like about 30-50 lumens.

As I got within about 40 metres of this guy he shone his light at me and kept in on me which I thought was a bit rude as I'm just a guy walking his dog, so what to do? Well I lifted my modded maglite upon my shoulder, pointed it straight at him and hit the fire button at about 30 metres.

Lit him up like daylight and he nearly fell over. I gave him about a two second blast, switched it off and kept walking. I heard the faint sound of swearing but really, I don't care.

These mere mortals, will they ever learn...

Cool story bro...

Bet he didn't know what hit him!

That must have been quite the lesson in manners :devil:

P.s. On a more serious note we should make sure to remember not to bother others with OUR flashlights when we're out and about. Otherwise we might get lit of with some sort of HID as punishment

LMFAO!!! Good one! Mortals...pffshhh....

Maybe he was trying to show off his light because someone told him it was bright. Surprise!

Lol yeah same situation here a few weeks ago. I walk my dog every night around 10 or 11. I have a side road across from my driveway, I go down that then turn the corner onto the next street that is always pitch black. This guy walking his mastiff shines his little Eveready 20 lumen led in my face, I count to 3 ..1..2...3... Maglite 3d modded to a Terralux TLE-300M-EX with a 5 1/2D NiMH battery pack on high in his face, 700 lumens of sun, LOL even the dog turned away. He cursed and said sorry man. lol I just smiled.

2 sides to this one IMHO... first yes it generally is rude and offensive to light someone continually at night like that. So he was clearly guilty of that. The flip side of it though is that there are a LOT of STUPID & IRRESPONSIBLE dog owners. They dont discipline/teach their dogs proper behavior in public and around others. They dont keep them on a leash, and they DEFINITELY do not clean up after them (THE most annoying thing IMHO). In fairness to the 50 lumen guy, he could have just wanted to keep an eye out for his own protection from a poorly disciplined canine.

I do a nightly jog-walk, and when I encounter dogs I dont take any chances. You never know when a poorly disciplined one is going to turn aggressive on a whim, so they get my lumen treatment. Its better to identify a threat at 50 meters out and avoid conflict.

I walk at night quite a bit.

I never use my EDC lights (Preon 2, HDS Rotary) unless necessary for the task, and I enjoy moonlight.

If a dog walker is coming by me on the sidewalk I generally give a small burst of 15 lumens or so to let them know to walk the dog onto the grass. Never shone it in the face, usually just at the ground.

Two nights ago I was walking on the sidewalk in the direction of traffic on a dimly lit road. An oncoming car put his high beams on right in my face, and kept them on. I brought my little HDS up and dished some photons right back at him. To his credit, he got the message and flipped the beams off.

Another night, same kind of thing except a little different.

Car pulls up beside me around 11pm. It was a police car and the street was moderately lit. They pulled up beside and shone a decently bright light straight in my eyes. That ticked me off a little so as per usual I bounced about 100 lumens back at him. He got the message and he flipped the light off, then asked me to stop and they got out and proceeded to do their duty and enforce some of the more draconian laws in our region, based on reasonable suspicion. I respectfully grilled them on the exact laws they stopped/searched me under as well. They were courteous--after the initial rude introduction--and it ended with a handshake and him inquiring about my light.

--

There are other small stories like those, however what I'm trying to convey is that I don't use my lights unless necessary or in response to rude behavior.

Just my humble opinion, but I believe police have the right to shine a light in my face if I'm walking at night. I would just smile and wave. They were likely just checking for a suspicious situation. All good in my book.

Yeah, I wouldn't go pointing anything at the police if they stopped me. If they've stopped you and are lighting you up, they're already suspicious. If you raise your arm at them with your light in your hand, they may think it's a weapon; plenty of cases out there where people have been shot because they were holding something in their hand (cell phone, cordless drill, etc) that the cops thought was a weapon, especially at night. Just stand still, be polite, and keep your hands visible.

nice story broseph.

On a night a few months ago, I heard a helicopter flying low around our neighborhood, so I stepped out of the sliding glass window to my backyard to see what was going on - turns out it was a police helicopter, and he was maybe 30 feet high and 50 yards away, when he hit me squarely with his HID searchlight. Rather than make some sort of sudden movement, I just glanced around the yard without looking at the chopper to let him know I was being aware of my space and could potentially help him find what he was searching for. The light moved away and the chopper carried on searching elsewhere. I went back inside and waited for my vision to return.

Protip: When police shine a light at you, don't reach for your belt line to pull out a black metal object and point it at them..

StarHalo said:

On a night a few months ago, I heard a helicopter flying low around our neighborhood, so I stepped out of the sliding glass window to my backyard to see what was going on - turns out it was a police helicopter, and he was maybe 30 feet high and 50 yards away, when he hit me squarely with his HID searchlight. Rather than make some sort of sudden movement, I just glanced around the yard without looking at the chopper to let him know I was being aware of my space and could potentially help him find what he was searching for. The light moved away and the chopper carried on searching elsewhere. I went back inside and waited for my vision to return.

Protip: When police shine a light at you, don't reach for your belt line to pull out a black metal object and point it at them..

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30 feet?? thats crazy

EASTWOOD said:

Maybe he was trying to show off his light because someone told him it was bright. Surprise!

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LMAO! My light is brighter than yours...oh wait Ouch my eyes!

Our local police chopper used to use a searchlight, but now they have really good thermographic infrared video camera, so they never use the searchlight at night. They fly overhead a lot, but never light stuff up. It's usually either a person or a pursued car they're looking for; and either a person who is/has been running or a car that has been thrashed recently glow like a christmas tree with the infrared camera... Long story short we never see their searchlight on as they fly around searching for stuff at night these days.

I have to agree that shining your light at a cop in middle of the night is not a good idea. They might be looking around for persons of interest, and most of the time they get really ambiguous descriptions on people that they have to look out for. Male, 5'8", dark hair, fair skin, medium build is not a lot to work with, and the small distinguishing features can be easily missed without ample lighting, so don't be surprised when a cop shines a light at your face at night, even with streetlights.

On a lighter note, several of my friends were hanging out as a group a few nights ago. Most of them had the flashlights that I had gifted with them. As I walked toward them, they all shines their lights at me from about 50 meters away, as they all knew about how much of a light freak I am. Most were A3 EOS with some PD30's thrown in. I whipped out my Scorpion V2, cranked it on turbo and then unleashed the beast. Needless to say, they were all complaining about giant green blotches for the next 10 minutes.

I figure if the cops ever stop me when doing night walks that lights would be a conversation starter.

Rich

Sorry, a simple "Hi what's up?" would have sufficed instead of shining a bright light in my face on an already lit street (intersection).

Doesn't matter who it is--copper or thug-- I find it extremely offensive, especially since he is a public servant and I was minding my own business on a sidewalk. Wasn't like I was peering through bushes into somebodies window or vandalizing.

I would not reach for my belt, I had it in my hand at the time.

One thing I failed to mention was that I ended up selling him a Fenix LD20 later in the week.

richpalm said:

I figure if the cops ever stop me when doing night walks that lights would be a conversation starter.

Rich

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If it annoys him as much as it did when I flashed my brights at one with his brights on, it's not going to be a conversation you'll enjoy.

Jash said:

So I'll admit, I'm a lumens junkie. I don't care about tint, beam quality and that stuff all the time. Sometimes I just want lotsa lumens. Now I don't own any of the big hitters, but to the mere mortals out there in the dark most of my lights are insanely bright.

A little story of what happened tonight. I took the dog for a walk as I do 4-5 times a week. My route takes me through dark parkland, semi-lit streets and back into dark parkland. It's a fairly safe area and in the 14 years I've been walking these streets I've never had a problem or felt unsafe.

Anyway, I was walking tonight and decided to take my Mac's Customs modified maglite, the SST-50 drop-in. As I was walking I came upon a stretch of poorly lit road walking with my light off but set to high mode. Another walker on the opposite side of the road was walking with a flashlight that was throwy, but only made what looked like about 30-50 lumens.

As I got within about 40 metres of this guy he shone his light at me and kept in on me which I thought was a bit rude as I'm just a guy walking his dog, so what to do? Well I lifted my modded maglite upon my shoulder, pointed it straight at him and hit the fire button at about 30 metres.

Lit him up like daylight and he nearly fell over. I gave him about a two second blast, switched it off and kept walking. I heard the faint sound of swearing but really, I don't care.

These mere mortals, will they ever learn...

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PWND!

You pwnd him.