I would say the most likely scenario is the one where they were attempting to get something from them. Based on the authors account, they weren't meeting for th

I would say the most likely scenario is the one where they were attempting to get something from them. Based on the authors account, they weren't meeting for the purpose of talking to each other, they were using social engineering to strong-arm the author into their group. It's kind of interesting knowing that if you can get a few people to do a thing that other people will go along with it because that seems to be the thing to do. For instance, if you and a few other people start regularly working out in a park there's a good chance regular passers by may ask to join in at some point.