Am I only one who thinks this is a huge overreaction? It used to be that people routinely published their physical addresses in the phone book. They weren’t terrified of the bogeyman coming for supper.

Obviously there are creepy people out there, but please: a little perspective. The chance of someone deciding to cause harm to you or your family after coming across your profile on an ecommerce website is vanishing to nothing. You expose yourself to vastly greater risk every time cross the road.

And I think it’s sad, frankly, that we seem to have become so suspicious as a society. When every metric tells us we are growing safer, and that violent crime is decreasing, why do we continue to feel more afraid?

On a lighter note, back when I had a horse farm, a young couple – cyclists with breath-takingly expensive bikes, gear and outfits – knocked on my door one evening to ask brightly if they could “sleep in the hay” for the night in my barn.

Now, this was no picturesque, old Norman Rockwell hay barn – it was a show stable, and I had highly strung show jumpers under tight security in them thar loose boxes. The only “hay” in there was in the horses’s stalls – and they were eating it for supper, thank you very much. The insurance risk alone boggles the mind, let alone leaving 2 people who had obviously never seen a horse in their lives to spend the night alone with mine, sleeping on my horses’ breakfasts. Without a washroom (betcha they would have brightly knocked and asked to take showers, next).

So I was left startled and boggled on the doorstep. They seemed deeply hurt and even more surprised than I was, when I impulsively blurted out: “Absolutely not!”

These two city newbs obviously had some romantic vision in their wee heids. But when I said the words “insurance”, the man’s face cleared and he said, as if A Great Light Was Dawning: “Of COURSE!” (The woman was muttering: “They have insurance on *barns*?”)

But it all goes to show, ya just never know who’s going to be standing there, wanting a favor, when you answer those unsolicited knocks.

As far as this guy being “nice’. That’s insane. the fact that he showed up to your place at all shows insanity IMHO. Not only that but he only waited 24 hours to hear back from you. That isn’t a whole lot of time.

I say this dude was insane. Just because he came across as “nice’ means nothing. Many insane whackos come across as what people think of as “nice’ but really what they are is shy yet deranged.

I say you got lucky. Coulda been a nasty situation.