Meeting someone in real life after talking to them on the internet is always a little nervewracking. There are so many things that could possibly go wrong. What if the other person doesn’t look like their profile picture? What if they’re actually a lousy conversationalist? What if they’re actually looking for skin to make lampshades out of?

Well, a Georgia man got more than he bargained for–though not quite to the degree of that last concern–when he meet someone for a date he set up via an app.

Four suspects, including a 16-year-old, were arrested after allegedly robbing a Tucker man at gunpoint during a dating app scheme, authorities confirmed.

Nicholas Schafer, 18, of Porterdale, De’andre Smith, 18, of Covington, Ikaria Washington, 23, of Covington, and the juvenile were arrested after Covington police received an online tip last week, police spokesman Justin Stott told AJC.com.

…

When the man arrived at the meetup address, he was confronted by a woman and three gunmen, Stott previously said. The four suspects got into the victim’s car and rode together to a Wells Fargo branch off Ga. 142, he said.

One of the gunmen used the victim’s debit card to withdraw an unknown amount of money from his account, Stott said. The victim attempted to wrestle the man’s gun away and a gunshot was fired during the incident. No one was struck by the bullet.

There’s a lesson in this for folks.

No, it’s not to avoid dating apps. Well, maybe it is. I got married prior to their advent and never did the internet dating thing, so I’m not the one to ask about stuff like that.

The lesson I’m talking about is to be wary anywhere you go. Take your weapon, if you can lawfully carry one, everywhere you can. Yes, even on what are basically blind dates.

Apps like this make it far too easy to set someone up to become the victim of a crime. In this case, the victim was fortunate he wasn’t murdered for his money. However, being robbed was bad enough.

It’s especially worth noting that the man had enough fight in him to go after the gun. He wasn’t planning on being easy prey for the four men, so he definitely gets kudos for that. However, when it’s four to one and the only gun involved belongs to the bad guys, there’s only so much a single person can do.

Had he been carrying, things might have been quite different. Even outnumbered, criminals tend to balk at the idea of an armed victim. They rarely push their luck and instead scatter like the cockroaches they are when faced with a good guy with a gun.

That means if you’re going out on what amounts to a blind date, don’t go into it completely blind. Scout the area and make sure you meet up in a public place, especially at first. Also, listen to your instincts. If someone feels like bad news, they probably are. Your instincts are capable of processing a lot of information you don’t even recognize, so while your conscious mind may think everything is great, the subconscious is screaming that this person is going to sell your kidney on the black market.

Well, maybe not to that extreme, but the point is that your instincts are often right. Not all the time, so don’t be a jerk about it, but listen to it. If they’re legit, they’ll understand you trying to be cautious and take it slow. If they’re not, they just might tip their hands.

And carry your firearm, for crying out loud. If they don’t like the fact you carry, isn’t it better to find out on the first get together than after you’re emotionally invested in one another?