Were you ever been followed or stalked by a stranger that creeped you out?
No. I look at about my surroundings constantly when outside, and in public places. They would not be be a stranger for very long.
I’ve been stalked by an adult bully when I was in junior high and it ended bad for him. I was in the living room making ramen with my electric kettle, and he started to open my living room window. He got a face full of hot kettle water, and he retreated to the outside. It took 6 years for him to learn to leave me alone. Yes, a couple of times when I was in my teens. One time I was going into a convenience store and a sleazy-looking guy was standing outside. He said hey to get my attention and when I looked he glanced down. I looked down too and he had his hoo-haw out and was handling it. I gave him a dirty look and hurried inside the store.
I was 11 and walking a neighbour’s dog in the park. A guy came up to me and started a conversation. I got a weird vibe immediately, mostly because he was just too interested and sort of intense. I think I just said I need to go home, and he let me be.
But I saw him again a couple months later, on a local train. I was with my younger sister and I remember pretending to take pictures of her, but with the man in the background so I could show my mum later on. Unfortunately, he noticed what I was doing and confronted me (in Germany, taking pictures without consent is illegal). He got pretty scary, but there were lots of people on the train and he couldn’t do much.
When we got off the train at the main station, my sister and I were both really scared. He was following us. We were supposed to take a bus to a more remote location, and I didn’t feel like that was safe. So, instead, we used a trick we’d leaned from detective stories: when you think you’re being followed, take a nonsensical route. We went down to the subway station, and then back up. He was still following us. We ran for the first store that seemed safe enough, a small place with older ladies selling loose teas. As we were telling them that we were being followed, we saw the guy walk past outside and disappear in the crowd. He hadn’t seen us enter the store because we were so fast running up the stairs from the subway. I’m really glad it was daytime and that there were lots of people around or else I would've been killed. I stayed on the lookout for the man for months, but fortunately never saw him again. I remember being stalked by a slightly older boy when I was around 4 or five years old. We had just moved house and he kept watching and following me everywhere I went. I panicked and ran back into the house where I told my mother what had been happening. She said he was probably trying to make friends, a thought which hadn’t occurred to me.
I’ve been stalked by an adult bully when I was in junior high and it ended bad for him. I was in the living room making ramen with my electric kettle, and he started to open my living room window. He got a face full of hot kettle water, and he retreated to the outside. It took 6 years for him to learn to leave me alone. Yes, a couple of times when I was in my teens. One time I was going into a convenience store and a sleazy-looking guy was standing outside. He said hey to get my attention and when I looked he glanced down. I looked down too and he had his hoo-haw out and was handling it. I gave him a dirty look and hurried inside the store.
I was 11 and walking a neighbour’s dog in the park. A guy came up to me and started a conversation. I got a weird vibe immediately, mostly because he was just too interested and sort of intense. I think I just said I need to go home, and he let me be.
But I saw him again a couple months later, on a local train. I was with my younger sister and I remember pretending to take pictures of her, but with the man in the background so I could show my mum later on. Unfortunately, he noticed what I was doing and confronted me (in Germany, taking pictures without consent is illegal). He got pretty scary, but there were lots of people on the train and he couldn’t do much.
When we got off the train at the main station, my sister and I were both really scared. He was following us. We were supposed to take a bus to a more remote location, and I didn’t feel like that was safe. So, instead, we used a trick we’d leaned from detective stories: when you think you’re being followed, take a nonsensical route. We went down to the subway station, and then back up. He was still following us. We ran for the first store that seemed safe enough, a small place with older ladies selling loose teas. As we were telling them that we were being followed, we saw the guy walk past outside and disappear in the crowd. He hadn’t seen us enter the store because we were so fast running up the stairs from the subway. I’m really glad it was daytime and that there were lots of people around or else I would've been killed. I stayed on the lookout for the man for months, but fortunately never saw him again. I remember being stalked by a slightly older boy when I was around 4 or five years old. We had just moved house and he kept watching and following me everywhere I went. I panicked and ran back into the house where I told my mother what had been happening. She said he was probably trying to make friends, a thought which hadn’t occurred to me.
