Mistaken Objective?

One early morning while it was still dark, several years ago
as I observed under the heavily light-polluted skies of Midtown
Memphis, I spotted Venus just beginning her course in the east.
I thought, "Hey, what a great time to get out the scope," said
scope being a Parks PRT-813 80mm refractor, made in Japan.

Of course, Venus is very bright no matter where one observes,
and I found myself watching her from 5 or so in the morning...

....until sometime after 10 as the Sun was well on its way across
the sky, too. Venus, by that time, appeared as a pale beige and
seemingly sandpapery orb. Fancy my having been able to track
her for all that time with that low-cost equatorial mounting.

As I was about to call it...a morning, our neighborhood's "village
idiot," I never knew his name, had begun a transit of his own, but
around my block instead. Little did he know that the telescope
and I were stealthily-positioned just to the side of the rear of
my brother's car which was parked parallel right next to
the sidewalk. As he passed he glanced over(village
idiots have inklings, too, it seems), saw me looking
through the telescope and then at him, and
paused momentarily only to stagger back
a few steps, but then continued on
without appreciably interrupting
the slightly stumbling rythym
of his stride.

Since that time, I've often wondered as to what must've been
going on in his head as he staggered backwardly upon observing
me in my own observance. The only conclusion I could ever
arrive at is that he must've thought that I was engaged in...

....peeping, as the neighborhood is quite close-knit, in at least
residential proximity, if not in their hearts.

Which begs the question, has anyone else been mistakenly
suspected?

Alan