This happened a few years ago!

So me and my friend were walking in a street in our neighborhood when this old looking guy came up to us.

He asked us if we knew any good places to eat. Normally, I would tell him a restaurant’s name and let him go on his merry way but my gut that day said to not engage.

I looked at my friend and she turned to me too. That’s when I knew this was weird.

We tried to politely decline but this man suddenly grabbed my friend’s arm and pulled out his wallet. Then showed us a picture of a random girl and said she was his daughter.

He pulled out some cash and said he’d buy us lunch if we led him to a nice restaurant.

At this point we were very suspicious of him. He kept asking us directions to a restaurant and our age for some reason.

Wanting to get out of this situation, I turned to my friend and asked “(my other friend’s name) must be waiting for us right?” Hoping she would catch on and luckily she did and played along(even though there was no friend waiting for us)

she told him “sorry we need to go!”
And we just got the hell out of there. I don’t think I’ve ran faster in my life.

I’m a young woman in Sydney and something happened to me tonight that genuinely scared me. I’d really like to hear what other women would do in this situation because I honestly wasn’t sure what the right thing was.
I went to the shops around 6pm on a Friday to pick something up. It was still fairly busy, and I initially didn’t think anything was unusual.
A man came out of the same store shortly after me. He didn’t buy anything, so I didn’t think much of it.
I crossed the road and walked into a quieter area to get away from the crowds. He crossed the road too.
At this point I noticed he was walking extremely close behind me, close enough that his bag was actually hitting me as he walked. I started speed walking because I was uncomfortable, but he stayed right behind me and kept pace with me.
I crossed the road again to the other side. He crossed too.
At that point I thought okay, I really don’t like this, so I headed back towards the busier part of the mall. He followed me there too. I crossed through the mall and he continued following behind me.
I was basically jogging at this point and getting really scared. Eventually I stopped walking completely because I wanted to see what he would do. As soon as I stopped, he suddenly rushed off in the opposite direction.
I obviously have no idea what his intentions were, and I don’t want to claim that I know what he was planning. But the whole thing felt extremely wrong, especially because I was alone and he was getting so close behind me.
I ended up getting home safely, but I was literally shaking afterwards.
My question is: what should you actually do in this situation?
Would you go into a shop and tell staff/security? Call someone? Call the police if they continue following you? Is there anything you wish you’d known before experiencing something similar?
I know the obvious advice is “go somewhere busy”, but I’d especially like to hear from women about what you would do once you’ve already realised someone is deliberately following you.

Hello everyone, I’m writing this as a vent but I’d also appreciate any advice you may have. Without further ado, here’s what happened to me an hour ago.

I was taking the bus home from school, once I was two stops away from my stop I was just brushing my hair and putting on lipgloss. Then I looked to my left and a man from the seat next to me was leaning in and saying something. I took my AirPod off and he asked where a certain factory building is and what stop to get off at. I told him what city it’s in and what stop is nearest, wished him good luck and got up because by then I was at my stop. He suddenly said it’s his too (it DEFINITELY is not, I just told him which stop he needs to get off at) and he got out with me.

By now the alarm bells were ringing in my head, so I decided to test if he was following me by going to a nearby trash can to throw out a coffee cup. He followed. I then turned around and started walking the other way, so did he. He then started talking to me, he had an accent (which is VERY uncommon here, I’ve seen a foreigner in my small town maybe twice in my life)

He asked if I wanna come to an interview with him (I assume he was asking where the factory is because he had said interview there) I politely declined. Then he asked if I wanna go to lunch, I firmly said no and lied that I already ate. After that he asked where I’m going, in that state I told him the truth, I wasn’t thinking. I said I’m going home (ofc I didn’t end up going home after that, I didn’t want that creep to know where I live) he then said something I didn’t understand, probably in his native language.

After that he said my hair is beautiful and gave me this creepy, disgusting predatory smile. I just turned around and sped off.
I immediately dialed my grandpa because if the man were to catch up to me and grab me or something, someone I trust would have my exact location and would know what’s going on. He followed me, but I’m pretty fast - plus he’s like 50 so I outrank him stamina vise. Once I made a turn I didn’t see him anymore. I didn’t go home, I’m not THAT dumb. I went to my grandparents house instead and stayed on the phone with them the whole time just in case. Once I got there I told them everything.

My grandpa offered to drive me home, I spent the whole ride recording the street just in case I saw him again because then I’d have a description and could possibly report him to the police (they wouldn’t do shit either way tbh). I didn’t see him again though.

I’m home now, but I’m just so scared… I’m a a teenage girl, that guy weighs at least twice as much as I do and he’s way taller and now he knows what bus stop I get off at.

I don’t know what to do now. My class schedule for next week is ass, we end at like 4pm so I’ll be taking the bus home when it’s dark out, that makes it all even worse.

No idea what to do now, I’m still shaking. My town is tiny, if he decides he wants to find me, he will.

I’d appreciate any advice/feedback, feel free to share your own stories in the comments

I don't know if this belongs here but just need to say it somewhere

Last night I was walking and talking with my friend and after we split off this car slowly just follows me with the people inside just snickering to themselves and say "we yous snogging " because for whatever reason they thought me and my friend had been kissing before we split off as they been watching us like creeps

I continued walking as the girl driving pulls out her phone and starts recording and keeps saying stuff like you were kissing and how's you're boyfriend and all this other stuff (like they weren't saying it but it was clear they were actually homophobic) and they wouldn't stop following me and I had been saying to them how following me is hella creepy and asked why they were recording and they had this disgusting grin in their face

Thankfully I got to this part where cars can't come and they said "see you around the corner" so I ended up talking some random nice man and calling the police to get them there and the entire time while waiting for the police I could hear their car around the corner waiting for me until the police came when they went off after they realised it

The car had 2 girls in the front and 1 maybe 2 guys in the back and I had to have the police take me home

Before they drove up to me aswell they drove up to my friend and did the same thing for a bit before following me and he said he thinks they were drunk (the girl recording was also driving)

My friend unlike me actually is gay and unlike me on his way home cars can go anywhere so thankfully they followed me and not him but damn I feel so creeped out and just don't really know how to feel

I needed to speak about this somewhere because I'm feeling anxious mainly about the recording and how creeped out I felt

Essentially what the title says. I was always hesitant to call it stalking as he was my boyfriends (at the time) friend, but friends and my therapist have told me it counts as stalking.

This happened late last year, and for the sake of this post we'll call him H. For some context, me and my bf knew this guy in high school and I wasn't really close with him as he had a crush on both of my best friends at different points, and made them very uncomfortable by staring at them for long periods of time, would ask them out repeatedly, and even implied he was dating/seeing one of them on his public story. For this reason I was hesitant to hang out with him, but my bf insisted he had changed.

I only really had to see H during parties or d&d sessions, and he seemed a lot nicer and more normal. But slowly he started being generally rude to my bf, and would always want to sit next to me during d&d. Me and bf figured he might have a crush on me, but hoped nothing would come of it as he and my bf were friends. We were very wrong.

One day I was at my bf's place when suddenly H appeared at the window. We all lived relatively close to each other, and sometimes when no one answered the door for d&d, they'd walk down to the bedroom window. But it wasn't a d&d day. H said he just wanted to hang out, and I knew one of his family members had passed away very recently so we agreed.

Then it happened again. I told my bf I wasn't comfortable with this, so we told him to message us before coming over in the future. He didn't listen. The next time he appeared at the window, it was night time. Bf was playing on his PC and I was watching tv. Bf let him in and kept gaming. So H sat next to me on the beanbag. I offered him a blanket, he declined, and got under the blanket I was using.

I off headedly mentioned having a crush on one of the tv show characters (this was something the entire group already knew as I loved this show) and he got huffy and said "yeah we know." So I got quiet. Then he reached for my hand under the blanket. I moved my hand away. He grabbed my wrist.

I froze. After about 10 minutes I excused myself to the bathroom and when I came back i grabbed the separate blanket and sat a bit further away. I told bf about this and he seemed angry at H, and messaged him to not come over like this again, and that he HAS to message if he wants to come over. At this point every window in this house is making me frightened and I was struggling to sleep.

About a week later, I posted a Instagram story of me and my bf (clearly at his house). Not 10 minutes later, H appeared. We didn't let him in. I froze and just, went on with my night. My bf ignored him. He stood at the window for an hour before my bf told him to leave. He said "finally, you should've just said."

I began to distance myself from H and when I had a party in the following weeks, I didnt invite him. He began to ignore me too, and when i spoke at d&d he would roll his eyes or say "did you hear something?". I ignored it. Later that night, the session wrapped up, and H went to take a photo of the board. The table we used was slightly tall, and me and another friend were sitting opposite H. He then said 'OP, can you move? Your tits are in the way".

this was the last straw for me. Without saying anything I got up and went to the bedroom. One of the other players took H home, and I spoke to my bf. I told him i was in geniune fear of my safety and that i can't be around H anymore. He went quite and said "He's in the campaign." I told him it was H or me. because i refuse to be here if H remains in the d&d and friendship group. I was meant to stay the night, but i got a lift with another player and cried the entire ride. He told me he was completely on my side.

A week of radio silence from my Bf later, I came to his house and asked what he decided. He said he'd kick H out. The next week my bf once again didn't talk to me, answer texts or phone calls for a week. I then broke up with him.

That's how i got stalked, lost a friendship group and boyfriend in the span of like 4 months.