So, I go into the local army surplus store to look for goodies.
After browsing around for a while, I've seen what there is to see, and am ready to make my purchase. As I hand the guy at the counter a brand new fifty, he looks from me to the stuff on the counter and back, and gives me an odd look. Wondering what's up, I look down at my items. Without giving anything a second thought, or really keeping track of what I had, I've ended up with a black watch cap, black glove liners, 100 MPH tape, 550 cord, a large duffel bag, and a black balaclava. It strikes me that these things put together might give the impression of unwholesome plans for the future. Paying with a large, factory fresh bill probably didn't do anything to discourage the idea. I hastened to assure him that the contents of my order were purely coincidental.

So, have any of you absently put together a purchase and later realized later that your various items, when put together, could easily give standers-by the wrong idea?

Buying several boxes of condom... ... before a photographic safari in Kenya....
Unlubricated, they were the best way to protect my different lenses from that african red dust, that goes inside every piece of gear, enters any case ...

Testing the load distribution of my ditch kit when I switched to a true chest rig- I started out with a one peice MAV, and had a half dozen pouches in ACU on it. (Not a fan of it, it looks like bad couch upholstry, but I got them cheap on eBay.) Road walk, at night, I have a state cop pass me. And turn around....

Yeah. People wonder why I like a lower profile. :P

"Wrong Impressions" are why I try to keep people from seeing the inside of my garage.

For low profile you need to dump anything that looks military surplus, specifically military camo when you aren't trying to hide. Some of it is good stuff, but there's good stuff in the civilian world too. That said, I like the looks of the MAV, may need to try one -- no ACU

Look here http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.ph...=true#Post97067

I've swapped the black "water bottle" pouches for tan ones (almost matches), and move them to the ends so I can get to them better if worn as a buttpack, and there have been some changes to how the right hand pod is packed, but it is pretty much the same. I'm currently fussing with how to get a scraps of fleece onto Molle-type straps. Add two big "fly patchs" to the front of the front of this when worn on the chest, and now one will thing twice. Better camouflage than my traditional patches are, I'm thinking.

Just giggle quietly to yourself as you browse, puts them at easy every time.

A nice SpongeBob backpack perhaps?

I carry all my gear every day to work in a blue consumer hiking lumbar pack along with the de rigueur 1 liter nalgene and i never get a second look. There is a problem with the mall ninja look, black, camo or even desert tan, besides a lot of the consumer gear is lighter and better designed that the milspec or military style packs.

That would attract another type of negative attention