It's a story they'll never forget. Women share stories of the creepy men that followed them and the things they did to escape. Stories are slightly edited for clarity.
No Hard Feelings?
“I was legitimately stalked my first semester of college. The guy was in my same English class, second or third week we talk a little after class and find out that we live in different dorms, but in the same complex. Now the dorms were towers, 17 floors with 35 or so rooms per floor. Huge buildings. One day, him and his roommate show up at my door… except I never told him which floor I lived on. So he had to go to each floor and try to find me. He then proceeds to come into my room while my roommate and I are doing work and lays on the floor. Finally his friend tells him he’s being weird and that they should go.
Then he started just sitting outside my dorm room. I would come back from class and he would be there, just sitting and waiting. He would leave notes on the whiteboard that he just wanted me to read his essay for class, he just wanted to talk to me, why wouldn’t I give him a chance???
He then started sending me creepy song lyrics over MySpace. About how he was going to burn down the dorm to get me to have to leave my room. I printed those up and got my English teacher involved (a lovely grad student who luckily was a women’s advocate.) She got her supervisor involved. My teacher started walking with me to my next class, all the way on the other side of the (very large) campus. He followed us the whole way, even when we made detours to the bathroom or to get coffee.
Finally the teacher had us write an ‘ode to our favorite study spot.’ Kinda weird but whatever. He wrote about sitting outside my door, how he felt powerful when he knew I was trapped inside, and even put my room number and other identifiable stuff in it.
That ended up getting turned over to the university, in addition to the song lyrics, and there was a whole hearing, with myself, my roommate, and some others having to give statements. Unfortunately they never told me what happened, but he wasn’t at the school the next semester.
The next year, his roommate happened to be in one of my classes. Very first day he comes up to me and says that there’s ‘no hard feelings for what you did to my friend.'”
More Then A Delivery
“A delivery driver dropping off a package at my job tried to follow me home. I passed him in the hallway as I was leaving. He just looked crazy/off and gave me a really bad feeling. He was parked right out front and by the time I got to my car he was heading down the driveway to the street. He turned right. I turned left. I checked my rear view mirror just as he made a bad U-turn.
I was on edge at that point but didn’t want to make assumptions, so I decided to continue with my plans to stop at the store. He followed me three miles. When I parked, he parked a row away facing me. This just confirmed he was stalking me. I was very familiar with this Super Walmart and knew they had many security cameras. I casually walked inside as he waited in his vehicle. Once inside I ran to the manager’s stand and told them what was happening. As I’m talking, crazy guy comes in the store looking for me. He guessed incorrectly that I’d gone down the main aisle on that side when in fact I was hiding next to the manager. The manager had an employee walk me to my car. Luckily a police officer had just pulled someone over two rows away. I drove over there real fast. As I waited for the officer’s help, I saw crazy dude leave the store. He was looking for me but left when he didn’t see my car. The officer just wrote down what I told him.
The next morning I reported the incident. It was escalated and I got a visit from the HSE (Health, Safety, Environment) Director. Turned out he knew the owners of the delivery company and found out this guy had some major issues and lengthy criminal background. Crazy guy was taken off of his route and I never saw him again. The HSE also made the local police department send an officer to take a statement. I was given tips on staying safe if it happened again. It didn’t make me feel much better, mostly because the officer told me maybe the guy probably didn’t know how else to get my attention. Like what in the world. All I did was walk past the guy, we never spoke.
I had to work on that secluded job site next to the woods another month after. It was creepy as anything being alone in that building at night after everyone left. I’d work until 11pm some nights. There was no possibility of remote work back then, ugh.”
Too Hot To Handle
“That is like my story of the hot fireman!!
When my kids were younger, I was taking them to get their hair cut. As I drove past the fire station, a pick up truck pulled out of it. I think it said, Fire Chief on the side. I then went down a busy street and one of my sons said, “Hey mom, that fireman is totally checking you out!”
I looked over, and sure enough, he was! And he was SUPER ATTRACTIVE!
Being a kind of tired looking single mom, I felt really excited about this. It was nice getting checked out by an attractive guy.
I looked away, but my kids kept saying, “Mom, he’s still totally checking you out!”
Then, he pulled behind me. I didn’t think anything about that.
Then, I pulled off onto a side street and he did, as well. I still thought nothing.
Then I pulled off onto another side street and I was kind of weirded out when he followed, but who knows? There was a Canadian Tire on that street so maybe he was going there…
But then I pulled into the mini mall where the haircut place was. The only other stores there were a laser tag place, an aquarium place, a juice place, maybe a ladies clothing store..
He pulled in, as well.
We parked in front of the haircut place. He parked across the parking lot.
A tiny part of me was thinking that he thought that I was so amazingly gorgeous that he was afraid to never see me again.. so he was going to try to talk to me…
But then the saner part of me was like, ‘no way… this guy is a total freak!..
As we got out to go into the hair salon, he got out of his truck and just stood there, staring at us. Then he got on his cell and was just talking to someone, but staring at us. I was able to keep an eye on him as my kids were getting their hair cut.
At one point, he got back in his truck but sat at the wheel, never taking his eyes off of the salon.
When we came out, he started his truck. I pulled out and signaled that I was going left.. but then at the last minute, I turned right.
He turned left, so I hightailed it out of that neighborhood, taking as many odd turned as I could.
Instead of going home, I took my kids out for lunch in a totally different area of town. I kept my eyes peeled the entire drive home.
I lived a few blocks away from that fire station but I never took that road down that way ever again. It was kind of a weird road, anyway that I didn’t generally take.
And no, I never bothered to call and complain. If he had approached me or said something weird, then I may have called the cops, but at that point, I already had my angry ex husband on an EPO, and I just couldn’t handle any more drama.
But yeah, so weird. It could have gone really badly if I had maybe approached him or was flirtatious. I could tell, from the way that he stood staring, at the hair salon-there was a rigidity that kind of looked like anger issue type stuff. So freaky!”
Keep The Change
“Creepy dudes are….really somethin’.
I had a similar problem, but luckily(?) he wasn’t just fixated on me. We mostly just tolerated him and told him to go away with varying degrees of success (he would usually cry first.)
But then one night he came into my room unannounced. I was alone so I was wearing nothing but a flannel shirt. He took it as an invitation and climbed into my bed and asked me to make love. I said “of course, no!!” and he took a bunch of quarters out of his pocket and put them on my nightstand. “Here,” he said, “I’ll pay you. Look! You can do a load of laundry.”
Everything else aside, that was really insulting, so I filed a joint complaint on behalf of the whole dorm. We collected his creepy notes and took screenshots, and wound up getting him banned from our dorm. Not sure if it was an official restraining order, but a few years later he showed up at my work and tried to apologize. I simply said, “I have a restraining order. I’m going to count to 10 and if you’re not gone, I’m calling the cops.” He began to cry again, and he left.
Last I heard, he was working at Papa John’s. I don’t think he graduated. I honestly feel really sorry for him and I hope he got some help, but if I ever see him again I’m probably gonna kick him in the nuts.”
He KNEW I Knew
“I don’t drink but I frequented the bar by my house (pre covid) just to meet my neighbors so to speak. I knew almost everyone there. It’s a small bar tucked in a shopping strip type thing behind a stand alone restaurant. My friend who brought their dogs to the bar asks me to watch them while he runs into the bar to get a drink. While I’m watching his dog, a man I’ve never met before or seen at the bar asks me if the dogs are mine. I let him know they are not and that they are my friends dogs. That’s it. All he said. All I said. He walked away and I went about my business.
Two AM rolls around and the bar is closing. I say my good byes and head to my car parked on the other side of the Mexican restaurant (out of sight of the bar. Dumb I know but there was no other parking). I’m sitting in my car looking for the right song when I feel someone watching me. It’s the man who asked about the dogs motioning to me from his car. I crack the window to hear what he wants because I’m not yet too scared but I am cautious. He asks me what am I about to do, where am I going, do I want to go home with him, can he come home with me. To which I reply to all his questions no absolutely not.
Now, I’m on edge. I figure I’ll let him back out and leave the parking lot first so he can’t follow me. He doesn’t. It’s a stalemate. We are sitting there for way too long. The parking lot is becoming more and more empty and I don’t want to be left here with him staring at me though the window. So I pull out in a direction that I pull out behind his car and grab his plate number in my head. I keep repeating it over and over in my head just in case.
He pulls out behind me. We leave the parking lot and hit the first light. I tell myself not to panic anyone leaving this bar has to hit this light and he could go any direction. He takes a left after me. Next light we come up on I make it thought but he doesn’t. However my turn for my neighborhood is right after that light and he will see me turn in from there. So I keep driving and luckily I live two more lights down from the police station for my district. I pull into the parking lot for a few minutes and turn back around and head to the gas station near my house to get gas for the morning.
As I’m pulling into the gas station he’s pulling out. My luck, right? Should’ve waited longer. I pull into a parking spot and watch my mirror as he flips around and comes back to the gas station and pulls in to the spot next to me. I’m already in reverse and I leave out the side entrance to the gas station and go down to the road I was just on. I’m waiting at the light to turn left and I can see him at the entrance that meets the road I’m turning left on. He’s just sitting there at the gas station exit waiting for me. He could have pulled out a trillion times. There where no cars. My lights turn green and I make my left and he pulls out in front of me and goes really slow. It clicked. He did this so I’d pass him and it wouldn’t be suspicious that he was following me because I’m the one that passed him, right? Wrong! I said forget it let’s go dude and passed him. I drive down the road using my turn signals each time I needed to, drive nice and slow. Make sure to not lose him at any of the lights. I turn down a side street. He’s behind me. I turn in to the police station parking lot, look in my rear view mirror, and watch him gas it down a 25mph residential neighborhood because at that point he KNEW I knew.
As soon as I parked I cried my eyes out. Entire time I was calm, collected, and aware as I could be but as soon as he was gone I was a hysterical mess. A volunteer patrol officer (retired police officer that still wants to be busy) found me and took me inside where I gave them the accurate license number and the make model and generation of his vehicle. (They ran the plates and confirmed the plates met my description so yay for my memory finally working for me!)
I was actually surprised about how the whole thing was handled. I was surprised they would do a report even though nothing illegal technically happened I don’t think. I’m surprised they didn’t question if the hysterical woman crying uncontrollably was inebriated or lying. They even had a patrol car follow me to my house and wait out side for me to check each on of my rooms for an intruder.”
Like The Plot Of Taken
“I was studying abroad in Eastern Europe as a junior in college. One weekend myself and two other girls in the program drove to the capitol of Slovakia (Bratislava) to spend the day.
We were strolling around the most touristy area of the city on a summer evening. It was peak dinnertime in a walking district, so there were lots of people about except on these little connecting side streets that would be mostly empty.
While taking one such connecting street we were excitedly gabbing away when all of a sudden I got that cliche-but-totally-real feeling of hair standing up on the back of your neck. I suddenly realized there was a man walking behind us. He wasn’t obviously suspicious, but he was only about 10 feet back and I think my subconscious noticed he was maintaining that distance, rather than trying to get around us (there was plenty of room) or us outpacing him.
My fight-or-flight kicked in but my gut said to be cool. I have no idea what one of my friends was saying but I completely cut her off with a “hey guys, actually lets go over here!” and immediately turned a 180 back the way we had come. I didn’t look at my friends or anything so don’t know their reaction but they went with it.
As soon as we turned around the man stopped. He was close enough the 3 of us had to split to get around him, and as we did he just stood there. Then after we passed, he turned around on the spot and started walking behind us again!
The street led into a very large, open square with a coffee shop nearby. Thankfully the shop had a little outdoor seating and an empty table so I speed walked up and plopped myself down facing out as my friends quietly took a seat, too.
To my astonishment, the man continued walking toward us, maintaining eye contact with me as he did so. It was at this point my friends noticed the man. My heart was pounding FURIOUSLY thinking there was going to be a confrontation, when at the last second he just passed by.
The whole encounter was less than a minute, but I was SHOOK, worried we had just dodged a Taken storyline. A young waitress came out and thankfully she spoke enough English for us to explain sort of what happened; she allowed us to sit a few minutes without buying anything to recover and make sure we didn’t notice more funny business around us.
We were on guard the rest of the night, but nothing else happened and we never saw the man again. Part of me wonders if I was just being a paranoid weirdo, but the feeling that something was wrong was so random and powerful I can’t blow it off as imagination.
Unfortunately we were broke and had to sleep in our car that night. Suffice it to say we did not sleep well.”
Parking Lot Stalker
“I was in Walmart looking at duffel bags. Some guy came up to me and asked me the time. I told him and he thanked me but continued to hang around. It was obvious he was pretending to look at things – just randomly picking them up and putting them down and looking at me from the side. It made me uncomfortable so I grabbed a random bag and walked to another part of the store to get some toothpaste.
I wandered around for a bit, paid and walked to my car. I didn’t see him after I left the duffel bag aisle so I let my guard down as it was about 30 minutes later.
I walked to my car and as I was climbing in the drivers seat, the same guy appeared out of NOWHERE. This guy followed me around Walmart and out into the parking lot to my car. He put his arm on my open door and stood in front of me so I couldn’t leave or close my door. He then proceeded to tell me how he thought my body was gorgeous and introduced himself. I simply stated “I’m married.” He responded with “Well let’s make love.”
I continued to say no without trying to anger him. He kept saying how he thought my body was gorgeous and continued to ask if I wanted to sleep together. After a few minutes he eventually walked away. That entire situation terrified me because it could have gone a completely different way.”
Lucky To Be Alive
“My story involves two creeps and one amazing person.
I was visiting Berlin for the weekend with some friends and we went to a fancy club. While we were there this guy kept following me around and asking if I wanted a drink. He seemed normal and nice so I said okay. He ended up buying a whole bottle of Jack and a whole bottle of coke from the bar instead of letting the bartenders make the drinks. I ,of course, watched him make the drinks to make sure he didn’t roofie me and the friend I was with, but what I didn’t think about was how much Jack he was putting in the drinks. They were probably 10% coke and 90% Jack Daniels. We both got ridiculously inebriated because he kept pressuring us to drink faster and making more and more drinks for us. Eventually it dawned on me that he was literally plying us with Jack so I said to my friend, “We need to get out of here”.
So we left and started to walk back to the hotel but by this point we had gotten so incredibly inebriated that neither of us could walk properly. We tried hailing down taxis and finally one pulled over. We got into the “taxi” and it had three strange men in it. We told them where our hotel was and they started driving. We were so inebriated that we didn’t realize they were taking us in the wrong direction. Turns out they had been tailing us since we left the club because we were easy targets. I again realized what a horrible situation we had gotten into. The second they stopped at a red light, we got out of the car and booked it into a strange part of a strange city. It was definitely not a nice part of town and the only thing open was a seedy bar so we walked in asking for help. Luckily a kind man saw we needed help and called us a cab. He knew what hotel we were talking about and came with us in the cab to make sure it wasn’t another fake. That man most likely saved our lives and I am grateful to him everyday.
When we did finally get safely back to the hotel, we found out the first creep at the bar had gotten another girl from our group super inebriated and had tied her up and took advantage of her. We missed several bullets that night.
We were young and reckless and I am so lucky it wasn’t worse.”
Terrifying Walk Home
“One time I was walking in my neighborhood, it was evening in the early fall and I living up north the sun sets faster than you’d expect. A car pulled up next to me and said, ‘hey, need a ride’ or something, I said no and kept walking but he rolled next to me trying to get my attention until a car pulled up behind him and he had to drive off. I thought I was in the clear so I kept hurrying home, but he just pulled around the block and rolled next to me again this time saying things like ‘come with me’ and ‘I wanna make love to you’. I was 14 or so and didn’t have a phone, and couldn’t see anyone else outside to go to for help, so I kept walking until another car made him pull away again. Worried he’d come back I dashed down a side road and hid between some cars for maybe 10 minutes hoping he’d give up and I could make it home. I was the kind of kid that aways carried a pocket knife so I opened it slipped it up my sleeve in case I needed it in a hurry. If I was smart I would have picked a random house and gone there for help, but the closed doors seemed just as scary as the guy in the car. Eventually I started heading home again and was half a block from my house when guess who pulled up, but he didn’t have more than a couple seconds before he had to move on for another car. I waited until he had rounded a corner before I ran the rest of the way home and got the door safely locked behind me.”