Adventure (gear) - why I carry a flashlight and what it is

I got up at 4am this morning. My wife opens at Starbucks at 0430 and I need to give her a ride in as the buses don't run that early/late here. We were walking up to where my truck is parked, I had my flashlight on, and I saw a guy crouching and trying to hide in the bushes up by the parking lot. I clocked him the whole time and he ran up to the sidewalk and tried to make it look like he was just walking down the sidewalk.

My wife and I approached my truck and the white male adult said, "Have you seen a small black lab? I'm looking for it."

"Nope." my Surefire Executive Elite was in his direction but I did not pop him in the face with it as it is 100 lumens. He then walked over to the bus stop across the street and sat down.

My wife got into the truck and called non emergency to report it while I scanned the parking lot. Saw my neighbor's scooter's cover was pulled off. I looked closer and you could see the cable lock (to a cinder block) was in disarray. Anyways, it got reported, the guy got up and walked down the street as he saw we were checking things out, and we went about our business.

I'm pretty sure if it weren't for the flashlight I would have not seen that guy when I did (from a good distance and in the bushes). Not going to be all dramatic and say it saved my life but it sure helped me out this morning. On a more mundane note I use my flashlight pretty regularly to find files that slipped off the shelf and fell behind/under it, look under desks for things, signal to cars I am a pedestrian and crossing the street, lighting up an alley so I can use them as a short cut... there are many common tasks I do normally with a flashlight. half the time it's in my pocket, the other half of the time it's in my daily commuter bag.

I used to carry a MiniMag, we've all seen them and we can still find them at almost any store. I used to be in the "who needs all the lumens camp" until I did a search and rescue training course at the local fire department training center in 2005. I was the last guy in the line of my 6 person team, my job was to  make sure we could find our way back out of the structure in case we needed to get out of it. My MiniMag worked fine until the trainers filled the room with smoke and told us we needed to leave and my MiniMag was bright enough to illuminate the smoke in a way I was totally blinded.

I'm "feeling" my team out of the building when the guy next to me says, "Here dude, use this." and he handed me a Surefire G2. Not only did it throw down some serious illumination, I swear it made that training smoke move out of the way. I got us out in less than one minute.

My buddy told me he was National Guard, got deployed to Iraq in 2004, and they all got those flashlights. Said it was the best flashlight he ever had. I bought one for myself for Xmas a few months later. Pricey but worth it. Then I became a flashlight junky.

Anyways, I carry a good flashlight because I found it comes in very handy. Also, a majority of the time I have a pistol near me for self-defense. One of the Cooper Rules is "know your target" and being able to see, clearly, helps with that.

All the above said, when people ask my advice on what kind of flashlight to get (which I turn around and ask what they plan to do with it) and most of the time I end up suggesting the very available and affordable Coleman

It's very bright at 90 lumens, I've seen it go as cheap as $16, runs on AAA batteries, is usable-y sturdy, and is a good utility flashlight. I would not go much cheaper than the price of this thing... I've yet to find a decent flashlight in the sub $15 range that was not a mini light you put on a keychain or something.

Or you could be like me and blow $100 (on sale) on a Surefire.