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.

Nope but I am a large middle aged man ,that looks like I could kill ya just to watch you die.

Once, as a child.

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 learned from detective stories: when you think you’re being followed, take a nonsensical route to confirm. 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 too fast running up the stairs from the subway.

I’m really glad it was daytime and that there were lots of people around. I stayed on the lookout for the man for months, but fortunately never saw him again.

Nope. Guess I’m too mean looking.

When I was a not-fully-grown kid, yes. My friend and I ran, and used our intimate knowledge of our neighborhood to lose them.

Wow, @RedDeerGuy1 and @SQUEEKY2 and @NoMore, I sure am glad that you three are on the side of the good guys.

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.

No, but if I was I’d be oblivious to the situation.

I spent a lot of my working life working late shifts, so yes, often.

It’s kinda creepy how I could almost put myself in your shoes reading these stories. eeks!

I was living away from home and attending a large university. I had been studying late at the library, and I was walking home, I was halfway home when some guys in a car started following me. I ducked into somebody’s backyard, so they pulled into the driveway. I hopped over a fence, and they found me on the next street. I tried pounding on doors trying to get someone to open the door, but they always pulled up before I could stay long enough to get the people to answer. Eventually I managed to hide in some dense bushes, and they gave up looking for me.

A similar thing happened during the giant snowstorm in 1978, only I was skiing to the store with the intention of bringing back groceries in a backpack. These guys followed me in a 4-wheel drive. I’m not sure why they quit, but I’m sure glad they did.

Yes, a couple of times walking down the street I was followed.

One time I was with my sister and we sped up and lost him turning a corner in a crowd. Took us out of our way a little, but just a few blocks.

Another time I turned into a hotel to try to lose him, and he followed me in, so I went into the hotel store, and he followed me in there too, and I waited there for a while acting like I was shopping until he left and then I waited more until I finally left out of a different hotel door to a different street from where I came in. Nerve racking.

Stalked a few times. One former girlfriend was sitting at my doorstep as I was coming home. I saw her there and just drove by. Went back home a couple hours later. This happened a few times and I filed a “no Contact”, “Stay away” restraining order. I moved a couple months later.
Also had a coworker stalk where i lived and did drive byes and actually told me that she did. It lasted a few years, filled with odd confrontations with sexual innuendos while at work or out with colleagues after work while she tagged along. She eventually got fired.

I’ve had moments where I THOUGHT I was being followed….but it’s just that a person behind me was going to approximately the same place. Which I surmised well before it was confirmed because I’m generally not a paranoid person. But when you make several turns and notice a specific person who was behind you still is…you can’t help but think about it.

Years ago, while I was still single, I adopted a dog from a family member. During our first evening together at my home, she started barking frantically at a window. I opened the back door to investigate and saw a man running away in the dark. Clearly, this person had been peeking through the cracks in the windowblind, trying (perhaps successfully) to look inside. The incident never reoccurred, but there was a series of break-ins and sexual attacks in my neighborhood. I’ll never know if I might have been been next, but the thought is terrifyng.

I was about 26 years old and out walking my elderly dog at night. I noticed a car drive by me, turn around and drive by again. I turned down a one way street that he couldn’t turn into. (Because criminals follow traffic laws, right?). He drove by the end of the street and stopped and yelled “come here!” I just stopped in my tracks. He yelled again “come here, I want to f@@@ you.”
I picked up my dog and ran as fast as I could through an alley to my home.
It scared me badly.
It was a long time before I was comfortable with walking my dog at night.

@chyna OMG! OMG! I literally don’t know what to say. I am staring shaking my head..

I’m sure almost all women have, including me, with multiple instances.

Must be hell being a female. Makes me happy that folks who don’t know me think I’m mean and belligerent. I’ve had folks try to give up their place in line at a convenience store to me. I always say no no, you’re ahead of me. Makes me feel like a bad gunslinger in the old westerns. Wtf?

@NoMore Will you be my body guard? :)

Sure! @RayaHope

Good lord @chyna! That’s horrible.

Not a stranger, but in 8th grade our house started getting prank phone calls all hours of the night. Hang ups. Heavy breathing. Went on for a while then my parents finally got the police involved.

In this pre-digital age, we had to document the calls in a notebook for a couple weeks which the police used to trace the calls.

Turns out it was this girl who was part of my friend group. We talked. I saw her pretty regularly.

Instead of pressing charges, we asked the cops to just go to her house and tell her to cut it out.

Turns out, her mother had died a few years back and her dad was an alcoholic who barely talked to her. She had no siblings. She apparently liked me and just wanted attention.

I tried talking to her after that, but she stopped coming around. I’m sure she was embarrassed.

@cookieman You and your family handled that so well. And the fact that you tried to continue talking with her just shows what a good guy you are.

Now I know who is good looking. I am not good looking enough, so there are pros and cons to a lot of things.

Or you can be mean looking like peeps say I am. “Marshall Dillon, Six Gun Sam is town”. Lol

That could be too.

I know @cookieman is such a gentlemen and I bet he’s really good looking too. ;)

@chyna: Like my dad said, at the time, “There’s no point in punishing her any further.” Life had done enough to her.

@RayaHope: You might lose that bet. :^)

@RayaHope I have personally seen a pic of @cookieman. You are correct.

HAAA! I knew it! He is good looking! He just don’t want me to start calling him. lol!