Emily (0:05)

I usually don't bother to post anything on Reddit, but I figured typing the situation out might make me feel better. So I'm 23 years old, female, and live on my own. I just moved out to the area for school and I went to my local Walmart to gather supplies for cleaning. As I walked in, I took note of an older man near the entrance that I had briefly made eye contact with and nodded at and and just kept walking. I looked at folders for a bit, then made my way towards the electronics section at the back to look for a charger. I was making my way through the aisles on the way down, looking at all the fall decorations. Lots of them were geared towards kids, so I just glanced at them quickly and then turned around to leave. The same man was there and he was holding and inspecting some paper plates with childish Halloween designs on them for children. I didn't hear him walk into the aisle. I thought that was a little strange, but brushed it off thinking he had grandkids. I left and I made my way to the electronics section where they kept chargers behind locked glass doors. I'm there for maybe about seven, eight minutes and the same old man shows up and I see in the reflection of the glass that he's looking at my butt as he walks by. At this point I was pretty far from when I last saw him. I brushed it off though, because I'm used to men making quick glances like that in public and leaving it at that. His looking at the display behind me on the other side goes to leave. And then this is where it gets creepy. He stands right behind me and starts aggressively eyeing me up and down while licking his lips, paying particular attention to my backside and my legs. He's basically undressing me with his eyes. At this point he was giving off massive creep vibes and I started shaking with adrenaline and I was afraid that he would try and grab me. I was all alone in the aisle with him. I stayed calm despite my throat feeling like it had a ball in it and waited for him to leave. He does. Then I went to a random aisle nearby electronics, but in the general part of the store there were two men behind the electronics counter and I wanted to stay near them if something went wrong, and I waited a few minutes just standing there to see if he showed up. I wanted to confirm if he was following me or not. Sure enough, five minutes later he was there. I caught him quite literally speed walking down the main walkway, looking down each aisle as if frantically looking for me. He stopped dead, saw me notice him and then promptly scurried off. I went to the electronics section and informed them that I was being followed and that I wasn't comfortable and asked if there was security. They don't have any, just theft prevention and they offered to check me out there or accompany me to finish shopping. They were very kind and I took them up on the offer to get my cleaning supplies nearby. As we turned together, the same guy was standing further away, staring. He literally just increased the radius he was using to follow and was watching from the front by the registers. Now I get my stuff, check out, and then weave through all of the clothing sections to leave from a different section than the one that I originally entered and saw him from. I didn't see him at all this whole time. I go to my car, promptly drove to my new place, but stopped halfway at a random neighborhood. I pulled over and pretended that was my house to see if anyone told me I didn't want this guy finding out where I lived. Then I drove home when I didn't see anyone. I may be overreacting, but this is a new area to me and I've never had someone be quite that creepy and persistent in following me. I've done things on my own plenty of times and have never had an issue. This all happened in the middle of the day at like 3pm too. I was wearing loose clothing and I just wanted to make a quick trip in and out. I have no idea what could have happened if I didn't notice or what his intentions might have been. I can't imagine they were good. Maybe he would have followed me to my new place. Who knows? Either way, the whole encounter was scary. He had no clue. I saw his reflection and the nasty expression on his face. Just stay aware guys and watch yourselves. I, a female, was 22 years old when this happened. I worked in a grocery store which had been featured in the news. You could actually see me in the clip and it was clear where I worked. I just came back from vacation and a co worker told me that some guy had been coming around every day for a week asking for me. When I asked who or why, they told me they had no idea but that he was around my age and that he seemed a little off. A few hours passed by and my co worker came and told me that the guy was back and asking for me. Let's call him James. I can't remember his real name. In the back room we had a computer and you could see all of the camera footage from all over the store. I looked And I didn't recognize who James was, but decided to go ask what he wanted. He was clearly drunk and he said that he had seen me on TV and wanted to ask me out. I replied back with oh, I'm sorry but I'm in a relationship even though I was single. I then said I needed to get back to work and he asked me if he should come with me. I was confused at that and said that I'm working. He then left, but I could see him through the cameras outside of the store drinking. A few hours passed by and he was still waiting for me outside so I had to use another exit when I left. The next day I came to work and I saw him waiting for me outside the store. He had a huge smile on his face and he walked up to me. He was really shy and he didn't say a word until I then said hey. While passing by to get into the store. He followed me inside and he said that he needed to talk. I asked him what's up? And then he said, how about we go to the movies? He was really creepy and I replied back with I'm sorry, but I have a boyfriend. Remember I told you. As I was walking away, he had started following me and asking if he should come help me with my work. No thanks, I replied. Once again I looked at the camera footage and yet again he was waiting for me outside. At this point, I'd started asking a male co worker to escort me safely to the tram every night when my shift ended. I started getting really scared. Once this had been going on for a good while and he clearly wouldn't leave me alone. I asked my brother if he could drive me to work on his motorcycle and hug me outside of my workplace so it looked like he was my boyfriend and then James would maybe leave me alone since I knew he was somewhere watching and waiting for me to get to work. It didn't help. I had started getting messages like, is that your boyfriend? And he doesn't need to know if we go out. I was totally confused about how he even got my number in the first place. I asked all of my co workers and a new one said that she'd given my number because he said he was a friend of mine. I was pissed. At this point I had asked all of my male coworkers to throw him out if he ever came back, which was a lot. A couple of weeks went by without any harassment and I finally thought he had left me alone. Boy, was I wrong. I came to work one day and I was in the changing room and I heard that we have a new co worker and it's his first day. Didn't think anything of it and proceeded to change my clothes. Once I got out of the changing room, my jaw dropped. Another co worker then said, hey, this is James. I looked in horror as she asked me what's wrong? I said, I know this is the creep that's been stalking me for weeks. As James then smiled, I went and searched for my boss to ask him what the hell. My boss said he had no idea that this was my stalker and he kind of just laughed it off as no big deal. I told him either he leaves or I will. He said that I wouldn't have to work the same shift as James, but that he couldn't fire him. He lied. I had a lot of shifts with him and wherever I went, he always followed without saying a word. He just kept following me. I would often have my lunch break by the computer so I could see where he was. And every day I could see him just staring at me behind me as I ate. We had cameras there also. This went on for a while. He would text me every day, but at work he didn't say a thing, just stared. My boss finally understood what a freak James was and that he didn't do any work, just stalking and started to think of new ideas on how to fire him. One time I noticed James was clearly drunk at work and I told my boss he got fired and this is when the stalking finally stopped. I'm not gonna add a lot of specific details here because I feel like if I do, someone will figure out I wrote this, but I'm a 17 year old female and I'm a junior in high school and my dad's friends had a small meetup sometime a while back and one of his friends was there at the beginning of the party and he was acting fairly normal and I didn't really think much of him then. He had started touching and caressing my knee whenever we sat down in a very uncomfortable way. He'd even been so bold to caress my thigh Sometimes. Sometimes he'd just do this randomly, but other times he'd do this and start talking to me, getting real up close to my face with really long and uncomfortable eye contact. I felt a little concerned, especially because he kept asking me about what I'd do in my free time and whether I liked any boys and what me and my friends talk about. This alone wouldn't seem too weird to me, but it was combined with everything else that made me feel really weirded out. He kind of talked to me. Not like I was his friend's daughter, but like I was his friend. One time I remember getting up to get some lemonade. All of the adults were in a separate room and he'd come right behind me and caress my back and ask more about my life with again, really freaking uncomfortable closeness and eye contact. Whenever I sat down, he'd make extra sure he was near me. Another time he just sat next to me and slung his arm over my shoulders and he kept asking me stuff, which I awkwardly but very politely responded to. And while this was happening, he said, I think I should spend more time with you, just you and me, with a horrible smile. That smile irked me so horribly I felt like running. When we were leaving, he was the only adult who hugged me and he hugged me for a long time. He specifically put his arms around my waist and gripped it really tightly, which I've been told is an extremely intimate way to hug, but I could be overblowing it. After he hugged me several times, he asked me where I could see him next and how he really wanted to see me again. I told him I was unsure. Then out of nowhere, he had started helping my mom and dad bringing their stuff to the car, which is extremely unnecessary since we only had a few bags which we could definitely carry ourselves. But we didn't say anything. He continued getting very touchy feely with me until we made it to the car where he insisted another hug and I gave it to him after which he said, please come here again sometime, please, really insistently. To which I said I would see if I could. To a normal person, he probably just seems like a really friendly and genuine guy, but I have a really bad gut feeling about him. The worst part is my dad witnessed most of this, but he said nothing. He just continued like normal. I thought maybe at least after the party he'd blow up or tell me to never be alone with that guy again, like ever. But he just said nothing, which makes me feel like I might be overreacting. I don't know, I'm not sure. I really need some assurance or maybe even clarity about what exactly this is. If he really does turn out to be a creep, it's absolutely sickening. This guy had even held me when I was a baby. What the hell's wrong with him? It's just disgusting in my mind. Ok, so this post got quite a bit of attention out of nowhere, but I just wanted to clear up a few things. By the way, this was intended as A throwaway account. So if one day I suddenly go inactive, it's because I don't see a point to keeping the account any longer. Anyways, I'll be referring to my dad's friend as the Creep since I can firmly establish that he's creepy now. First off, I just wanted to say thank you for all the sweet comments, concerned about my well being and wishing the best for me. It really means so much more than you guys could ever know and I wholeheartedly appreciate the care you guys put into the advice and comments that you shared. Secondly, I want to address the amount of concern for me in these comments because to a certain extent I feel like people think this event has traumatized me. And I would like to clarify, I am in absolutely no emotional or physical distress over this. I mean, of course this event disturbed me and it made me want to avoid the Creep altogether, but I would never let my life be demolished over a man who's balding. Not gonna lie. Now this isn't to shame or downgrade the experiences of people who've actually been traumatized by stuff like this or worse, because I've seen the terrible impact it can really have and how seriously it can mess you up. I guess I should have been more careful with my wording. I was uncomfortable, yes, but I was also mostly annoyed at it. It wasn't like I was scared, I just felt awkward about wasn't much better. But I'm not in as terrible of a state as you guys think I am. I just wanted everyone to know that I am doing fine. College applications and graduation stresses me out way more and takes up more of my time and headspace than this event. So don't feel too bad for me because my life is actually pretty good at the moment. I don't see the creep that much at all and even when I do, it's in large public areas where friends and family are around so I don't feel suffocated or controlled or helpless around him. And I guess I should have clarified this, but I did try to make attempts to shrug him off and he did retreat back a lot of those times only for him to do it again. Which yeah, is crazy. I feel like people think I just let myself be a sitting duck and I guess it's my fault for that. I apologize, but I will be more vocal with my discomfort next time. Thank you guys. Thirdly, to everyone telling me to inform my parents, which is basically all of the comments. I appreciate the advice and I know where you're coming from. People in this situation should tell their parents. But telling my parents would probably do nothing. The thing with my parents is that they're very, I guess you could say emotionally unintelligent. They won't be able to understand what exactly or how exactly the creep's actions make me uncomfortable. I could try explaining, but that is a long, tedious process and it could just lead to a big fight in the end with everyone hating each other. So I've decided against it unless I see a change in them, which I highly doubt is going to happen. But you guys are right. If not my parents, I should at least tell a trusted adult. I just need to figure out who and you guys can be rest assured I will tell a trusted adult. Fourthly, everyone calling my dad out and saying he enabled the creep to do it. I know where you guys are coming from again, and I even agree with this to a certain level about why he didn't even say a thing. Most fathers would freak the hell out. Sadly though, my father is not most fathers. Not to say he's an awful father, he's just not the best. As I said, my parents are very emotionally unintelligent. I'm not sure how both of them are this way, but it's the cards I've been dealt and I have to sort of deal with it. So I'm pretty sure when my dad saw this happening, he had misinterpreted the entire situation. Or maybe he just didn't understand that this was highly inappropriate. However, my dad does get mad at crap like this when he recognizes it. One time when another creep was sniffing and playing with my hair on a subway, I'm pretty sure that guy was mentally not sound. But anyways, my dad pushed him and stomped on his foot pretty aggressively. My dad's also a pretty big dude, so the guy got scared crapless, so I know he doesn't enable it and I highly doubt he'd let it slide just cause the creep's his friend. They don't even talk to each other until they meet up, which is only like once or twice a year. So I'm pretty sure of this theory of mine. I think he just didn't recognize a more subtle form of creepiness or played it off because he thinks his friend wouldn't do that. A lot of people in the comments have shared this theory as well, and I highly agree with it, knowing my dad. A second theory is coming from the fact that my dad is a very strict disciplinarian and he didn't want to cause a scene at the party or in front of me because he didn't want to be seen as emotional or aggressive. He's had a complicated past of anger issues and is trying to learn how to control it, so I'm pretty sure if he recognized what was wrong with them, he would have talked about it with my mom privately. I don't want to talk about it with my dad or mom because I know they both don't know how to handle it or talk about it well, so it's better if they just figure out their own crap and just keep a secretive protection protocol or whatever whenever this happens. As for my mom saying nothing, well, she wasn't around me for most of the night. She was busy talking with her friends, so I'm pretty sure she didn't notice either. I know this may be a biased opinion from a young, naive teenage girl, but I think it's most probably likely fifthly. I'm going to go to college next year, so I'm probably gonna meet the creep like once again in the entire rest of my life and I can protect myself pretty nicely, especially when there are people around. I will try to be more vocal about him trying to touch or feel me now whenever he does it. Thank you guys for telling me that I don't want to think about this knife for the rest of my life because it was like a scar on my psyche because an honest truth Regardless of the creep's weird behavior, I really had a lot of fun with my siblings and cousins that night and I don't want to take that fun with whatever that guy has going on. I'm gonna be going to college pretty soon and I want to be able to leave all this crap behind. I want to be a new, better person with new friends and new experiences, but still have a little bit of the old with me as well. So I can honestly say life's got bigger plans for me than this and I'm certainly not going to let it drag me down. Over the years I've been on Reddit, I have shared a handful of stories to this sub. This is the one that I've been saving for whatever reason and I think I'm ready to share. This is probably my last post in Lets not meet since it's not very often that something happens that is worthy for a let's not meet post. Definitely not a bad thing. I've also shared my other few experiences and I think I've saved the best for last. Everything mentioned here is 100% factual. It's gonna be long but I believe it's worth it. I grew up in the South. Tons and tons of beautiful places to see that haven't been taken over by concrete yet. It's nice, but along with that, it's also pretty boring. Being a teenager and wanting to go out and have fun led to mostly improvising with your buddies and hoping something good will come out of the night. There wasn't really a local spot to go hang out at, like a club or a cool bar. And the places that were close to this were boring because you did them so many times. I'm sure if you've ever lived in a rural area, you can understand that feeling completely. Something that I found a ton of enjoyment in as a teen was just cruising around super late at night just listening to music. I would fill up my gas tank, grab something to drink, a cigarillo, and I would just take off driving around until the sun came up. It was a way for me to just clear my mind and relax. Those country back roads were always fun to drive down at 2am and were also just the right amount of spooky. Well, one night I absolutely got more than I was to bargain for. I can't remember what month it was exactly, but I know for a fact it was in the summertime because I was out of school. And I also remember it being a comfortable chill night. So if I was to guess, it had to have been around July or August. I was cruising around like I always did and was completely worry free. I had music blaring and I was in my zone. I decided to head down to a park just out of boredom. This particular park is at the very end of a long stretch of desolate country road, but it's a really pretty drive because of that. When I say desolate country road, I don't mean that it's just some dirt road that goes through the woods or anything crazy like that. It's a normal paved road, but there's really nothing on it. After a certain point, the entire road takes about 20 minutes to drive down to get to the park, and after about 10 minutes into the drive, the houses start to get spread out further and further to becoming no houses and just roads leading into the park. I think a lot of the reason I like this drive at night is because of how creepy it was and I looked at it as some sort of adventure or whatever. The park isn't open for camping or anything. It's mostly just a lot of land with walking trails and biking trails set up through miles of woods. So obviously at around 3am in the morning. It's pretty dead. I made it there and just did a slow normal little loop around the park. The night before it had stormed very badly. So badly I remember my parents and I had to take shelter because of the threat of a tornado touchdown. There ended up being no tornado but the storms were pretty damn rough. Because of this I came upon a fallen tree in the road that looped around to the exit of the park. That must have happened because of the storm. It wasn't some massive tree or anything though. But I know for a fact that there was no way I could have gotten over it in my car. Obviously it was pitch black everywhere besides the front of my car because of my headlights and because of that I immediately ruled out backing up the entire way. I just drove. When I entered the park I knew that was super dangerous and there was no way at this spot on the road. There was flat land on each side of me. I figured that it would make the most sense to just back up in the grass beside me just a little and then drive back the way I came. It was a one way loop around the park but I wasn't really worried about going out the wrong way since it was so late. So I had started to back up off the road so I could get my car turned around. All was good until I went to pull back up on the road. I totally didn't take into account how wet the grass was and the amount of mud. My car went absolutely nowhere. My bag tires were completely stuck and were spinning in place as I was trying to ford the gas pedal. I had started to become pretty scared at this point. Not the most ideal situation to be in. I immediately took my cell phone out of my pocket and saw that I had service. Super huge feeling of relief. I called my parents and told them what happened and where I was. They were pretty pissed at me but they said they will pay for a tow truck to come get me out. My parents Both drove small four door sedans and they would have been zero help in this situation. I was about 45 minutes away from my house and the rest of most human civilization. So I realized that I would be stuck out there for at least an hour before someone was able to come get to me. Freaky feeling. But I tried getting out of my head and just continued to listen to music and be on my phone in the car while I waited. Not really much more I could do. After I kind of calmed down from the initial anger I had, I had started to check out my surroundings. I Didn't even notice at first because of everything going on. But in front of my car's placement was a field that was full of the most amount of deer I think I've ever seen at once. There legitimately must have been like 40 deer in this field just walking around and eating the grass. The field wasn't directly in front of my car, but if I was to get out and throw a rock in that direction, I would have easily been able to hit one of them. So if I was to guess they were about 30 yards out, this didn't really help. With the creepy level going on, looking out in front of your car and seeing 80 eye reflections staring right back at you is a bit of an alarming feeling overall, but I was relieved it was just a field of deer. I watched them for a little bit, but I was quickly over it and started to just browse through my social media apps while waiting. They seemed to have been over it quicker than I was because they all went back to walking around and eating once they figured out I wasn't going to attack them or anything. After browsing my phone for about 15 minutes, I finally get a call back from my parents letting me know that the tow truck guy is on the way. And about an hour and a half from my location. Still to this day, I remember hearing that and having the thought, you've got to be kidding me. I understood that I and I alone was the reason I was in this situation, so I couldn't really be mad at anyone else. But that was very obviously not what I wanted to hear. I decided that the smartest thing for me to do was to make sure that all my doors were locked, lay back in my seat and take a nap to pass time quickly. So that's what I did. Okay, here we go. So I woke up 45 minutes later to the feeling of being watched. I'm not really sure if anyone has ever experienced that feeling before because I don't know how common it is, but there was a sixth sense alarm going off in my head telling me that I needed to wake up. Waking up to that feeling in the situation I was in and in the surroundings I was in is probably the worst case scenario. I sit up and immediately check my surroundings and see nothing. I looked through my car very quickly for any sort of weapon and I found a pocket knife. A freaking pocket knife. I was very scared to say the least. Even though I saw and heard absolutely nothing. That feeling is terrifying. I was shocked to see that the field of the deer in front of Me was still full of deer. I don't know anything about the animals, but I guess I always just assume they don't hang out in the same place for long. Not sure why I thought that, but I was surprised to see them nonetheless. I had called my parents back to see if they had heard any kind of update from the tow truck dude. I decided to not mention the feeling I was having because I didn't want them to worry more. And I also knew that it was literally nothing more than a feeling I had. And I had nothing to back up why I was feeling that way other than just being spooked out. In general, no update from the tow truck guy, so we all assumed that everything was still the same on his end. The call had lasted just a few minutes because I felt like such a dick. They both had to wake up for work in just a few hours and now they have to spend a random hundred dollars plus. And on top of all that, they were worried about me. I could tell they were annoyed at the situation, but also worried. I told them I'll make sure to tell them when the guy arrives and I'm sorry. We hung up and I looked up from the phone and immediately it went from 0 to 100 in panic mode. Let me remind you that There are around 40 deer in this field. Every single one of them were stopped dead in their tracks, standing completely still looking at something. I put on my high beams and stared, waiting for absolutely anything to happen at all. Nothing. I tapped my horn real quick. They didn't even budge or look my way. They were all still completely glued to what was by them. The way the tree line was. I couldn't see that far over in the field. I know they were looking into the woods by them, but where I was at, I was only able to see them. I could hear my own heartbeat. I grabbed that stupid pocket knife and just waited for something to happen. I would say it was about a minute after I honked and every single one of them in unison had started running the opposite way. They were running in full speed and within 20 seconds the field was completely empty. I was petrified in fear. I knew that staying in my car is what would be the safest thing to do. But it's the worst feeling in the world when you feel like a sitting duck. My head was on a swivel. I was freaking out in every way possible. I assumed that it was a bear or something, but it could have been absolutely anything. I was convinced at that point that it was the devil himself. I didn't know what to do. I knew that the tow truck was close by, but I had no idea where he was. I began to shake because of nerves, and I just looked around to make sure nothing was by me and focused on the field in front of me. I did this for what felt like an actual eternity. Sitting in complete silence and darkness in the middle of nowhere, waiting for something to jump out and attack you. 15 of the longest minutes of my life go by, and I start to see lights break through the tree line on the road. As it gets closer, I see it is the tow truck guy. The lights on his truck felt like it was Jesus coming from heaven to rescue me. He gets up to me and I jump out of my car. And I immediately ask him if he has a gun on him. I tell him very quickly what just happened to me and that something is definitely out here nearby. He let me know that he had a shotgun in the truck, and he assured me that it was most likely a bear or a bobcat. He gave me the whole, they're more scared of you than you are them. Bullcrap. The tree was small enough for him to sort of bulldoze it out of the way with his truck. And then he attached my car to his and pulled me out of the spot that I was stuck in. He was very nonchalant about what I had just experienced, but I was pretty badly shaken up from it. The whole time he was doing his thing, I still had my eyes glued out in that field, just waiting for something. He was completely done with everything in about 15 minutes, and he told me to follow his truck out of there onto the main road again. I got in my car and was ready more than anything to get the hell out of this park. We had started to drive away from the spot I was in, and I still had my head on a swivel, completely shook up. As we were driving away, I looked up in my rearview mirror. We were down the park just a tiny bit, but I could still see the spot I was stuck in, partially lit up from the vehicle's lights in the moon. I watched in my rearview mirror a man come out of the treeline behind where my car was and then walk into the middle of the road and watch us drive away. My heart stopped beating legitimately. I lost my breath, and my eyes started to get full of tears because of how absolutely scared I was at that moment. I couldn't see any sort of details like what he looked like or even necessarily what he was wearing. And to be honest, I don't really care. The feeling that I felt driving away from that spot, knowing he was right there the whole time, watching me, watching me as I was freaking out, looking around, watching me as I was completely alone for such a long time. Maybe even coming up right up to my window and watching me as I slept. That's a feeling that is something I can't necessarily put into words all these years later and it still messes me up quite a bit. The entire time we were driving off, as long as I could see him, he didn't move. Just watched us on the road. A million things went through my mind. I was scared. There may have been multiple people up the road waiting for us. I was trying to figure out if I should start beating on my horn like crazy to get the tow truck guy to stop or not. I decided that all I wanted to do was get out of there more than anything. The second that we finally got out of the park and was able to be on a two lane road again, I flew past the tow truck driver and I did nothing below 70 mph the entire way home. I flew through stop signs and stoplights. I absolutely did not care. The only thing on my mind was making it home. I got home, ran inside very quickly, acknowledged my parents and said sorry and thank you and then went to my room. I didn't get a single second of sleep the rest of the night. I was searching for any sort of records of things happening in that area, escaped convicts, similar stories, etc. I eventually came to the conclusion that the man was some sort of squatter or homeless. I read many things online about how it's common for homeless in rural areas to build shelter in the woods, which does make sense to me entirely on why they would do that. But obviously the unknown is the scariest part of it all. What if he wasn't homeless? What if he was just going to hurt me? What if, what if, what if? There's so many possibilities of what could have happened, but the outcome that did happen is what I'm most grateful for. I never told my parents the story until many years after it happened and I was already an adult and moved out. It freaked them the hell out too when I told them I never went back to that park ever. Even though I no longer live there. I still have no desire at all to ever go back there. I don't think I could, even in broad daylight with a ton of people around. I also made the decision to stop doing those late night cruises. I did a few after that time with other people but even then I felt very uncomfortable and on edge. I'm 24. This happened two years ago on Memorial Day weekend. After a solid weekend of partying in Las Vegas, two of my friends and I had to endure the horrific drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. We're all dudes of the same age, by the way. If you haven't done this drive before, it's typically a five hour stint through the desert. But on a busy weekend it can be extended to seven, nine hours. And hungover from a three day binge, it is always painful. Our other friends that were flying out talked us into staying for the better part of the day to wait out the traffic. We had a buffet and lazed around the pool a bit more, hoping to recover. We decided to leave at 3pm Perfect. We'll be home by 8. Wrong. Two accidents and a billion people on the road hindered our progress greatly. It took us six hours to get to Barstow, typically two hours. We filled up, got gas and coffee and hit the road again. The stop took an hour due to the mass amount of people passing through the area. Back on the road at 10, more traffic and a wrong turn. It's now 2:30 and we're passing through Santa Clarita, about 45 minutes from our destination. This is important. It sounded like a piece of steel ripping like paper and then exploding. But I managed to pull the car off the freeway and onto a side street. I called AAA and they said it should be about 30 minutes. Crappy situation, but 30 minutes isn't too bad. The neighborhood we were in was alright. Multiple gated communities, but the road we were on was desolate and a bit of an artery between communities. We all napped and maybe about 15 minutes later I was awoken by a car driving by in the opposite direction. It was some piece of crap SUV with like four people in it. Maybe a Toyota 4Runner. I couldn't tell what they looked like, but they were all looking at us. A few minutes after that I got a call from aaa. Apparently when I called they thought that I said Santa Clara, which is six hours north in the San Francisco area. It would be another hour before they could reroute someone to us. We go back to sleep and roughly 30 minutes later that same SUV drives by our side on the road, going much faster this time. And as they pass, they flash a light into my car. A 2001 Nissan Xterra. I'm not sure if it was to scare us or just to see if there was anyone inside. Windows were fogged by the way, but my red flags went up. For safety reasons, I always kept a bowie knife and a miniature bat under my seat. I know, I know it's childish, but it makes me feel safe. So I took the knife and handed my buddy in the passenger seat the bat. He was asleep and he didn't understand what was going on. So I briefed him, but he passed it off and was out again. 15ish minutes later, the SUV pulls up about 300ft behind my car. Brights on and I officially begin to freak the hell out. I wake up my two friends without moving their heads so the creepers in the SUV can't see. We begin forming strategies, but we're genuinely scared since we're stranded and outnumbered. The SUV turns off the lights and I can see them passionately talking about something. So we sit there freaking the hell out and looking at them, just waiting for something horrible about to happen. By now we were swapping ideas of their intent. I decided to call AAA again and they gave me an ETA of 15 minutes. Home stretch. The passenger and driver's door both open and two linebacker sized men get out, hoods up, all in black. The driver leans against the grill of the car and smokes a cigarette, staring at us. The passenger pisses on the sidewalk. It felt like they were playing mind games. Maybe they saw the light from my cell phone. It felt like the passenger was pissing forever. The three of us are just sitting there, stewing in our own fear. The passenger zips up and talks with the driver. The other two doors open, revealing one small person with a beanie pulled low and another large hooded man walking out. The four begin to talk and walk casually towards my car. I pull my knife ready. My buddy has his bat and my other friend pops his fist like a fighting Irishman. They get close and then stop. About halfway in the distance were the lights of the tow truck. I looked back and saw them get in the SUV as the tow operator gets out. We get out and then he starts his business. The SUV speeds off fairly quickly. We didn't get home until 5am I'm not entirely sure what they were planning. I'm assuming they thought the car was abandoned and wanted to take it. That or something more sinister if they knew we were in there. My friend in the backseat has long hair, so maybe they thought he was a girl. I'll never know, but it was an intense night. Moral of the story? Never leave Vegas late if you're driving and maybe buy a shotgun. Thanks for listening.