# Scary stranger at a bus stop? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 20, 2013, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800 "2013-05-20T09:26:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/21 "2013-05-20T13:25:59Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I pictured a guy in disheveled clothes. He was tall and slim, and had longish black hai parted on one side. He didn’t have a face, just a blank white nothing framed by his hair. Yes, I would imagine seeing Slenderman board a bus would freak a few people out. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/22 "2013-05-20T13:32:40Z")
The stranger is big but is wearing such large articles of clothing that it’s impossible to determine any other physical features. I myself have been walking down what I thought was a safe, well-travelled city street when I saw a person of average build just hanging out on an intersection in a face-obscuring hoodie a couple blocks from me. And there were no other cars or humans around at all, so I doubled back without taking another look. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/23 "2013-05-20T13:36:20Z")
Well yeah, it’s the behavior that would cause me to be nervous, but as far as what he looks like in my head (heh, “he”), he’s a lanky white guy with meth hair. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/24 "2013-05-20T13:41:29Z")
This little old lady knows self defense. I would get up and move away from the creepy guy, but damned if I’m going to the next bus stop. Any person who tries to talk or act creepy around me gets told to knock it off before I knock it off. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/25 "2013-05-20T13:46:28Z")
I don’t have a mental picture of what such a person would look like, specifically, but the more items on the list below that fit, the more I would feel at risk: [ul] [li]Drunk or otherwise intoxicated[/li][li]Unreasonable (i.e, ranting or making demands)[/li][li]Stupid (doing or saying stupid things)[/li][li]Reckless[/li][li]Apparent inclination to violence[/li][li]Physically strong[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/26 "2013-05-20T14:08:28Z")
Dirty and smelly is all I get. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/27 "2013-05-20T14:27:32Z")
Muttering. I’m in the “more behavior than appearance” camp. Long ago I read some of a book about intuition - that it’s socialized out of us and that we really ought to follow it and try not to socialize it out of our children. An example in the book is that if you’re waiting for an elevator in a parking garage and the door opens and there’s a guy in a trench coat (or a hoodie or whaterver) and your heart jumps in your throat and your brain says it doesn’t want to ride with that guy DON’T RIDE WITH THAT GUY. Would I move to a new bus stop? Is the behavior making me uneasy or actually threatened? Is it dark out? Would moving increase my chances of missing the bus and therefore delay my arrival at home for 40 minutes? If my brain hasn’t sent me any “we should really move” signals I would stay put. I also wouldn’t use that time to open up my purse and organize the bills in my wallet. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/28 "2013-05-20T14:29:24Z")
It’s the behavior that would get me, but in my head this person was definitely a man. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/29 "2013-05-20T14:30:59Z")
They’re smoking, or talking to themselves. (No, I’m not just hating on smokers here - there’s a reason for it. Smoking is illegal inside bus shelters here, and people have gotten angry or dismissive when I’ve confronted them about it. Smokers who smoke outside of bus shelters, I have no problem with.) ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/30 "2013-05-20T14:40:39Z")
He’s a man in a coon-skin hat; he wants eleven dollar bills, and I’ve only got ten. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/31 "2013-05-20T14:45:41Z")
_I tell you right now. He look-a like a man. You know?_ PS. The mentally ill often talk to themselves and some homeless do it just to keep people from messing with them. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/32 "2013-05-20T14:46:49Z")
Dirty white guy, making odd jestures and talking to either himself or me, I can’t tell. Although, this actually happened to me recently and it was a woman who might have just gotten out of the hospital. She kept trying to touch me. I retreated politlely at first, then it was just easier to walk away. Heck, now that I think about it, the previous time was a woman in Georgetown who was slapping people on the arm. I crossed the street to avoid her. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/33 "2013-05-20T15:13:51Z")
Spider Robinson wrote a funny anecdote-within-a-story about this. Will spoiler out so as not to hijack. Character talks about having to wait for a bus late at night in a bad part of town, and walks up to the bus stop where is standing the biggest, meanest, blackest dude he’s ever seen, hands jammed in his jacket pockets. Four or five things go through his mind and he finally manages to quaver out, “Um, crosstown bus run all night long?” The huge guy scowls, slowly pulls his hands out of his pockets… and with a huge grin claps them and finishes, “Doo-dah! Doo-dah!” ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/34 "2013-05-20T15:22:23Z")
It’s difficult to answer this one honestly without sounding biased. But to be truthful, as a white retired woman, mindful of statistics, my first thought was a group of rough-looking young males talking rudely. Based on past experiences, Black young males first, white second and Hispanic third. Asians never entered my mind. Where I live they are all in the library up on campus. 😉 Is that bias? I don’t know. I meet everyone on equal ground until they prove otherwise. I’m not afraid of the mentally ill or homeless unless they are sending out cues that they are about to expode. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/35 "2013-05-20T15:25:10Z")
How he/she looks or acts isn’t going to get me to move on to the next stop. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Now, how they SMELL… ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/36 "2013-05-20T15:27:50Z")
Without reading the replys: I pictured Ron Perlman as his SOA character. Question: is this about racism? ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/37 "2013-05-20T15:44:04Z")
But if you move to another stop, isn’t this person still going to be on your bus? Unless, in the process of moving to another stop, the bus comes and goes, and you get the next bus. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/38 "2013-05-20T16:25:20Z")
Skinny white guy in jeans and a flannel shirt, with a scruffy beard and meth sores, clearly on speed and talking to himself in an agitated manner. I live in the city and ride a lot of busses. Just being intimidating looking wouldn’t be enough to scare me off a bus stop. You have to be actively doing something really out of place. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/39 "2013-05-20T16:45:22Z")
I have lived in a big city and rode the bus, and been around all kind of people. Ugly people, homeless people, dirty, scruffy people, people of all races, creeds, colors, sizes, ages, looks, and smells. Nobody would bother me, no matter what they looked like, as long as they were acting normal. What really put me on alert was if they intruded on my personal space. We’re the only two people there, yet you have to sit right next to me on the bench? I’m moving over there and I’m keeping an eye on you. You follow me around when I do that- I’m moving on the next bus stop, if we are the only two people there. You keep trying to make me have a conversation with you and forcing a kind of personal familiarity with me- that’s when I move to the next bus stop, if we are the only two people there. I only had problems a couple of times, though, because I can put out a real “don’t mess with me” vibe that even crazy people can pick up on and heed. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800/40 "2013-05-20T16:45:38Z")
Yeah it would have to be how they act, not how they look. I have two junkies living across the street from me and they look like the scariest guys in the city, but we always say hello to one another. It would take someone clearly not handling their high or acting straight up crazy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-stranger-at-a-bus-stop/658800.md?page=3)