I Just Had a Scare; Still Shaking From It; What Would You Have Done?

golding76 · ‎05-19-2012

Sorry for interrupting the important communication on a new forum for us, but something happened to me within the last hour, and I am still upset over it.

After my last post under "TV and Movies," I decided to shoot out of the house for a quickie trip to Dollar Tree, which is, admittedly, in the sketchiest strip mall around here. I went in, found what I needed within 15 minutes, took my cart to my car, returned the cart and then, when I stepped into the parking lot, a small, foreign-looking man stepped into my line-of-vision and kept staring at me.

I noticed that he started to follow me as I went to my car, which I had parked a short distance from the store but enough to give me a bit of a walk. When I noticed he was following me, I moved to another line of cars. At this point, he said to me, "Don't be afraid. I am not going to hurt you." Yes, he had a foreign accent.

Stubborn and determined as I can be at times, I kept switching lines of cars, sometimes going two or three to the left or right, up and down. Each time he followed me and uttered the same words about not harming me and not to be afraid. I'm freaking out at this point. I looked around for a man to help me at that point, but no one was walking in the parking spaces at that time. So, I saw a car pulling into a space at a distance, went to the driver's side and saw a woman. She kept her window up as I said,"A man is following me." I repeated it because she could not hear me (we were both wearing masks) and she waved me off before I could ask her to see that I got to my car safely.

I can understand the fright she might have felt, too, with my coming to her window and saying a man is following me. Still, I was deeply disappointed she decided to ignore me.

Of course I should have gone back into the store, but I remembered they had only three women on duty and they were all busy.

After I walked away from the woman's car, I saw that the little dude had decided to give up and was back up above the parking lot, on the walkway in front of the stores.

Perhaps I now feel some sort of false sense of safety because I am elderly and look like an older woman. It was already dark outside.

I felt the presence of menace in that little man. My gut told me to get away from him. And yet I stubbornly tried to get to my car. I don't know what it was all about.

tansy · ‎01-02-2011

Ugh. I am glad you are safe, @golding76.

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

Very scary experience, @golding76

~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Love my grandkids · ‎11-24-2013

@golding76 That's too bad. Being elderly (I'm 73) does not guarantee safety. In fact it makes us MORE vulnerable.

You should have gone back to the store. I don't think he would have taken on 3 or 4 women. He followed you cuz you were alone.

I've been told that it could help to start yelling "Leave me alone! I don't know you! Stop following me!"

Next time please be more careful. Foreign looking or not you are lucky nothing happened.

On It · ‎03-15-2021

@golding76 Thank goodness you kept moving. Of course you are shaken. I am just glad you were not hurt.

Etoile308 · ‎01-04-2014

Have you called the police?

golding76 · ‎05-19-2012

Thank you. I am now crying over it.

I was so frightened.

Was this man crazy? I don't know.

golding76 · ‎05-19-2012

Etoile308, I never thought to call the police. Would I report that he frightened me? Was a stalker?

They will look at me and laugh.

I must outweigh this man by 60 lb. He had a cane, did not look like a derelict but he did not mean well. I had this fear that he had a knife with him. True.