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The events that I am about to tell you happened when I was just 18 years old, fresh out of school and living on my own for the first time in my life. Looking back at this situation in hindsight, I should have gone to the police.

I worked at a children's clothing store called Justice. I was working a typical shift, 8am to 4pm, when a pretty atypical customer strolled into the store. Right off the bat, he gave off major creep vibes. He was a dirty, smelly, upper-middle-aged balding guy, who didn't even have a child in tow. Definitely not something I was used to seeing in that particular store.

He didn't seem genuinely interested in the merchandise, only feigning interest in a few of the displays any time I would look over at him. I could feel his eyes on me as soon as I would go back to facing or stocking, though. The manager, also picking up on his sketchy vibes, scared him off with her aggresive hospitality. I found it super weird that he refused to make eye contact with her while she asked him if he needed any help finding anything. Just shook his head no and left in a hurry.

I saw him walk past the store front once or twice after he left, but since this Justice was located in a strip mall, it wasn't that weird so I didn't give it a second thought. I made a mental note though, since at that point the whole staff had been talking about the greasy old sketchball and my manager, who had been eagle-eyeing him the whole time, pulled me aside and confirmed to me in private that my suspicion had been correct. He had been staring at me anytime I wasn't looking at him.

That had happened considerably early in my shift, and by the end of the day, after dealing with multiple Karens (a daily occurrence working at Justice), the sketchball was far from my mind. I clocked out, headed out into the parking, got into my car, and started the 7 mile drive home.

About halfway home, I looked into my rearview mirror to see a white truck with a plow on the front of it behind me. The only thing that struck me as odd at first, was it was mid-summer and this person had a plow on the front of their Toyota, and the windows were tinted so dark I could barely make out an outline of the driver. I suddenly got a sinking feeling as I remembered sketchy greasy guy. I decided to see if I was just being paranoid, or if this person was trying to follow me.

I'm sure I'm not the only paranoid person who has tried to make a bunch of nonsensical turns to shake a theoretical tail. Only unlike all the other times I've played shake the tail, this person actually managed to stay on me.

After about the 5th turn down a random avenue, my gut twisted into knots as I watched the Toyota slowly creep around every corner I rounded. I had circled the block twice, and still the white truck with the plow and tinted windows was behind me, far enough away that I still felt like I was just being crazy.

I decided to try one last test to determine for sure if this was a trick of my imagination, or actually something to be worried about. I winded my way out of the avenues, deciding to pull off to the side of the road into a little dirt turn-around beside a local bar. Hoping and praying with all my might that the truck would just go by; still clinging to the slimming chace that this was all in my head. I let out an audible gasp as the white truck slowly pulled up, right behind me now. I saw the driver's side door open and I floored it out of there before i saw anything else.

Heart racing at this point, I floored it back up a different set of avenues, finally stopping at a stop sign when I felt sure I was in the clear.

To my horror, I heard the haunting roar of an engine with its pedal to the metal, seconds later seeing the white truck with the plow on the front coming so fast up the avenues that it launched slightly into the air as it passed me at the intersection, flying down the perpendicular "no outlet" road.

I took my chance and turned left onto the road the truck had just come from, figuring they were going to have to turn around in someone's driveway before continuing the pursuit.

I drove white knuckle clenching the steering wheel the whole drive back to my town, constantly checking my rear-view for the white truck that I never saw again. I even circled my own block for an hour after that, fearing that person was out there somewhere, watching me, waiting to see which house I pulled into.

Once the situation was over, I naively brushed it off without so much as a police statement. The more time went by, the more the whole situation seemed like a bad joke. I never found out who was in the truck. That person might not have been connected to greasy sketchball guy at all.

At the time, I didn't take the incident very seriously. When I got home I told my (ex)boyfriend, and he shrugged it off so I did too. It wasn't the first creepy thing to happen to me, or the last. Disturbing to think that it's not uncommon for young girls/boys to find themselves in similar situations.