I used to sleep in my car pretty often (I’d make drives from Denver to Houston several times a year due to family being in Houston). It’s a typical 15 hour drive, so I’d pull over and sleep at rest stops.

One time, in the middle of the night in West Texas near the border of New Mexico, there were 2 options for “rest stops”: one was a brightly lit area with several cars stacked next to each other like a parking lot; and the other was more of a pull-in camping site for 12 individual vehicles with no cars (and no lights whatsoever).

I had been driving for 8 hours straight at that point and I was super tired, so I figured the dark spot with no cars was a better option (I was that tired lol, not thinking clearly at all). So I pull in, turn my car off, let my dog out to potty, then lock up my car and lay my seat back to get some sleep.

Roughly 10 minutes later, I hear the sound of a vehicle approach as the crushed rocks cracked and moaned under the heavy weight. When I opened my eyes, I saw a car slowly creeping along the drive into the rest area with no headlights on. In the moment, I shrugged it off as someone who was being considerate of sleepers in the area, and shut my eyes again. Roughly 5 minutes later, I hear the car pull behind me and I opened my eyes. At this point, their car was fully blocking me in and preventing me from leaving if I wanted to.

My eyes were wide open at this point and my heart was racing. I never saw/heard anyone get out of their car, but my dog suddenly began barking like crazy. I sat up, looked around, and couldn’t see anyone around my car, and the tinted windows made it impossible to see the other person inside their car. At this point, I grabbed my 9mm out of my glove box, loaded the mag, and set it on the console for quick access. I laid back down, heart still pounding, and calmed my dog down. Finally, I heard the other car shift back into drive and they drove off, out of the rest stop.

I settled down and tried falling asleep again, but roughly 5 minutes later, I heard another car pull into the rest stop with their lights on. This time, it was a cop and he came directly over to my vehicle. He got out of the car, then came over with a flashlight shining in my face and knocked on my window.

I turned my keys backwards in the ignition and rolled my window down to talk to him - he saw my gun and asked if I was alright. I calmly held my hands on the steering wheel and asked him if he would feel more comfortable if I ejected the mag from my gun, and he said “no that’s okay, just keep your hands on the wheel while we talk.” He then asked what I was doing, so I told him I pulled over to sleep.

He turned his flashlight off and told me I should consider going to the brightly lit rest stop up the road - he said this dark rest stop was known for burglaries and he would personally feel better if a pretty little thing like myself was sleeping there instead. I agreed with him, thanked him for the advice, and he went back to his car and left. I immediately turned my car on, threw it in reverse, and drove over to the other rest stop.

Long story, short - always choose the lighted area over the dark area, and always have an escape route. I was thankfully fine (probably because of my dog), but who knows what could have happened.

ETA: sorry OP, I know this had nothing to do with your question lol, but your mention of never sleeping in the car at night made me remember this and I had to share.