Tuesday, December 7, 2004

Mace or Pepper Spray?

My dad, my brother and I took four South Korean students to the Playdium in Mississauga two weeks ago. Richard and a few other friends came along with us as well. After a few hours in the Playdium, Richard and I went to the parking lot to take a break and to get a drink. We were sitting in my van when we heard shouting coming from a couple of parking spaces away.

Richard, being the man that he is, immediately opened the door with the intent of going over to help stop the fight. (Apparently that's not uncommon for him, whether it's at work or just randomly downtown.) We were both looking over and we saw two guys outside of a car and two guys inside the car, with much yelling between them. One of the guys outside was trying to open the driver's side door.

The driver rolled down his window a bit and reached out with a can of something, spraying the outsider directly in the face. The car then drove off, leaving the assailant (or victim?) clutching his face in pain and crying as he stumbled about for several minutes.

As soon as the can was sprayed, Richard quietly got back into the van and closed the door. We sat there until the two men in the parking lot eventually got into their own car and drove away.

So my question is, what do you think the can contained? Apparently mace is illegal but pepper spray is fair game. It may have been a can of something else entirely, though. Any guesses? The can was fairly large, like a hair spray can.

1 comment:

Amanda said...

Interesting, did you know that mace and pepper spray are probably illegal, but that bear spray is not. Bear spray that can be bought for about $30/can at Young's General Store is essentially the same thing, except intended for bears. Well actually it's technically illegal, unless you are using it for bears, but I have heard of people using it instead of pepper spray.

Also, it is definetly a big no no on airplanes. I worked for a fly in fishing lodge, and they definetly asked if you had bear spray before you boarded the plane.

At any rate, breath mint spray or perfume in the eyes can work pretty good too, in a pinch.

Then again there is always Abe's patented fighting move of...run really fast in the other direction! ;-)

Cheers,