Diane, a vigorous retired nurse who is rehabbing after knee surgery, walks daily through the streets of Golden Valley. (I met her and heard her story as we chatted on my street.) To vary her routes, she sometimes stops off in a new neighborhood when she returns home from an errand. After a trip to Costco not long ago, she took a different way home and decided to explore a residential area bordering a small park.

Since the narrow street had No Parking signs posted along the park, she left her old Ford Focus in front of a home across the street, and sauntered off. Half a block away she remembered her phone, still in the car, and went back for it. Counting her steps on a phone app was part of her rehab.

As she walked through the winding streets, Diane encountered a a slow-moving police car. Then another. Once again. The police presence in the quiet neighborhood surprised her but, determined to enjoy her walk, she pressed on. Finally returning to her starting place, she noted a patrol car parked behind her Ford and decided to ask the officer what was going on. He told her they had received a call about a wandering elderly woman who seemed to be lost and distracted. They had been combing the area but hadn't found her yet. "We think that might be her car," he said, as he typed on the computer in his squad. "That's my car," Diane said. "I was out for walk."

The officer looked at her, looked at the car, closed his computer screen.

"Have a nice day," he said.

Now Diane recalled the man who had eyed her suspiciously as he read a newspaper on his front porch. When she'd tried to make eye contact, he had raised the paper to block his face.

Even if Diane appeared lost and confused when she went back to retrieve her phone, would you have called 911? Was her older car a valid mark of ill intent? If someone was concerned about her welfare, why not walk down to check on her? What would you do?