My intuition is on point

Tonight a man got on the streetcar. Slight build, well dressed and groomed. Business casual. He sat across from me. In a flash, I thought: this guy smokes crack. And he's going to do something not very good - I should get away from him.

What happened? First he took two stuffed animals out of his coat. They were brand new with tags on. He placed them on the seat. He took his hat off and placed it neatly on the seat next to the stuffed animals. Then he stood up. Oh, he's going to smoke crack, I thought. Then he stood up, walked to face the door of the streetcar and I shit you not he took out a crack pipe and lit it up.

I was out the door in a flash.

Years of accurately sizing up and yet not trusting my gut when it came to creepy dudes, and now this shit is so reflexive, it freaked me out a little bit. I kept thinking, how did I know? I analyzed it a bit and what I came up with was:

-Eyes: something wasn't right, so I scanned him for further info...

-Down at the heel: his shoes were designer but literally one was slightly down at the heel, his foot wasn't all the way in it properly. Who wears their shoes like that in minus -5c weather? Druggies and drunks. He wasn't drunk so...

-Took children's toys with tags out of his coat (shoplifting for someone).

-Took his hat off and placed it on the seat with the toys and then moved away from his personal items. Why would anyone move away from their own personal items in public? Paranoia...

-Stood facing door with no hat on, so he wasn't going to exit, he wanted to conceal what he was about to do...

And then I saw him reaching for the pipe.

I can analyze it now and break down how I did it but at the time it was one seamless thought process that told me to move away from this unstable person. Gavin de Becker talks about this in his book, the Gift of Fear. When I got off the streetcar I started crying because once again the point was underscored that my intuition is spot on and it is there to protect me and always has been. I always KNEW what men in my life were up to and I IGNORED those signals. From this day forward I will never ignore my "ugh" or any danger signals ever again.

Also: this city is wild.