Why I Carry A Gun: Jeep Breakdown Scam

I just watched this video, and it reminded me of an incident I experienced where I believe that open carrying a firearm prevented a violent criminal act against myself and one of my friends.
 A few years ago, my buddy Paul and I were riding down a trail in one of my Jeeps. We were in the southern Appalachian Mountains, about fifty miles from a medium-sized city. A couple of miles along we found the trail to be blocked by an older 4x4 truck sitting in the middle of a mudhole. Several guys were standing around the truck, watching us approach. I stopped twenty or so feet behind the truck and Paul, not as suspicious of strangers as I tend to be, jumped out and approached the guys in a friendly manner. I stepped out of my Jeep but remained near it, saying nothing and listening to my buddy converse with them. One of the men stated that they had killed the engine when they drove into the water, then ran the battery down trying to restart it. They asked if we had jumper cables and Paul said "Sure, but we can't get around to the front of your truck to reach the battery. We'll have to pull it out or something, so we can get around you." At this point the guys suggested that we should all hang out and drink some beer before tackling the job at hand, and pulled out some plastic cups and a plastic one-gallon jug half full of draft beer. Paul accepted a cup of beer, but I did not. The guys then pulled out another, full jug of beer, poured themselves a drink and said, "You guys can have that one. We have plenty." I still had not said anything, but I moved toward the front of their truck to have a look at the engine. This brought the full-sized handgun I was carrying openly on my side into their view, and it had a strange effect on them. All conversation stopped. The guys looked at my holstered handgun, then at each other; then they jumped into their (miraculously fixed) truck, fired up the engine and left in a great hurry. Paul and I got back in my Jeep, turned around and drove back in the direction from which we had come. Within an hour, Paul became very drowsy from that one small cup of beer, so we poured the remainder out on the ground. Some of the criminal element are known to spike beer with various types of drugs, and I am convinced that is what these guys did. I don't even want to think about what would have happened had I been unarmed, especially if I had also drank some of their beer.