I conversed with a group a teens hours

This occurred outside my home roughly 10 days ago. It’s just past 5pm and I’m watching TV with my dog. My wife looks out our living room window and says to me “there’s four gentlemen huddled next to your car.” I get up and look out the window to see a couple teenage boys and a couple other slightly younger boys, eyeing my car on the street. I grab my keys and walk out our front door, unlocking the car remotely which startles them. Immediately, the eldest boy says to me “hey, I know this looks bad, I’m just using your car for a mirror.” The rest of the boys stay silent and look away. I reassure him and say “all good, I’m just grabbing something from my car” as I shuffle around and grab my sun glasses. I shut the door and casually ask “so what’s going on guys?” The eldest is the only one to speak, and says “nothing, we’re just waiting for a friend to pick us up” I tell them to stay safe, give him a fist bump, and head back inside. They walk away shortly after.

The next day, my wife shows me a news story of a 64 year old Uber driver who had been shot by a group of four teens. Too much of a coincidence I thought, but the ages of the boys in the article matched what the group of boys outside my house appeared to be the previous day. I shrugged it off as happenstance, and went about my day.

Three days later, a couple of the boys were shown in court on the news, and sure enough, they were the same group I had spoken to. Aged 11-17. It could have been me who they shot and stole a car from, and I wonder today why they didn’t. Simply because I treated them with respect?Counting myself lucky.