Stranger Danger!

That term has never meant more to me than it did tonight. I don't think I've ever been this creeped out before.

There's this little old man that comes into my work all the time to get ice cream. He always seemed kind of lonely, so I would have little conversations with him when he came in. One day, he brought me and another girl at work some flowers. At the time, we thought it was cute.

Today he came in and started talking to me about the boats that he's fixed up. I'm used to him rambling on about random things like that, so I chatted with him for a little while. Soon it got busy, so I had to go back to work. He asked me what time I got off. That should have been a red flag in my mind, but I was kind of preoccupied with other customers, so I told him that I was done at nine-thirty.

When I was leaving work, he was waiting. I made a few friends stay behind and wait for me to get rid of him, hoping that the crowd would make him leave faster. It didn't work. He tried to get me to get into his van with him to look at pictures of these boats. I told him that my sister was waiting, and she would get worried if I was late getting home. I was trying to get the point across that someone would notice if I went missing.

"Do you always go home right after work like a good little girl?"

"Yeah, actually, I do."

He offered to drive me home after that. I told him that I had to take my car home. Around this point, one friend had to go and catch the bus, and the other's ride showed up. Luckily, she was pretty suspicious of this guy and she convinced her dad to wait for a few minutes. Meanwhile, this conversation continued. I really couldn't seem to get him to give up and go away, no matter what I said.

He told me to start my car so it would warm up, then get in the van to look at the pictures. He drove over to my car to wait for me. I was beyond freaking out at this point, and I was just about in tears.

So my friend and her dad told me to get in my car and drive away as fast as I could. They followed me part of the way home to make sure that the guy wasn't following me. I was so incredibly grateful that they did that for me. Otherwise I might not be able to sleep tonight.

I'm really, really hoping that this guy doesn't show up again tomorrow. My sister told me to call her if it happens again and she'll come pick me up so that I don't have to go through that again. I definitely need a new job. This was pretty much the last straw at that place.

Maybe I overreacted, but I grew up in a small town. I'm skeptical of people, and It takes a lot to earn my trust. I do not get into vans with creepy old men. And I don't like it when they don't take no for an answer. Even if he had the best intentions in the world, how could he not see how sketchy that situation was? Wouldn't you have done the same thing?