Today me and my girlfriend went to the mall. Just outside the entrance we went it was a guy sitting on the curb, seemed to be minding his business, but being with my girlfriend and just the odd way he looked, kinda grungy, shadowy guy, I glanced at him again when we passed, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. My parents had dropped us off because they were in town and my car isn’t running all that well, and my dad saw this guy also (they dropped us just a hundred feet or so away)… He said (I talked to him that night) that after I looked at him and me and my gf kept on walking the guy really checked out my gf then got up and started to follow us. Just as we got inside my dad said the guy looked like he saw something and quickly came back outside. My dad got out of the car (he saw us go into the movie theater, us not knowing anything was going on) and reported the guy to security, then followed the guy as he went to the other entrance and quickly followed another girl, as mall security showed up and kicked him off the grounds. I’m just scared to hell what could have happened, this wasn’t just some guy checking out girls, he was seriously up to something. Just the idea that some fucked up asshole might’ve come so close to fucking up my life today just scared the hell out of me, this wasn’t any small guy, he really could’ve grabbed my gf if we went to an area without many people (like the movie theater about 5 minutes later, with a direct exit outside). Scared the shit out of me, now I’ll be a lot more careful around people. Scared the shit out of me…
Thats a scary thing to havehappen to you and I hate that you had to go through that, but at least you now realize how dangerous people can be without anything actually happening to you.
Glad it worked out okay. Very unnerving to be that close to a creep like that. Good your dad was alert and responsible.
I grew up in a small town in NE, where nothing awful ever really seemed to happen. Well, last year a high school girl was kidnapped in the mall parking lot (yes, we do have a mall, although it’s a small crappy one). It turned out okay–they found her in Idaho and got her away from her kidnapper) but the point is it can happen to anyone, anytime. Of course, chances are that you’ll go through life without anything horrible like that happening to you, but it’s worth being alert, just like you were.
I’m glad it turned out okay.
The one thing I’ve learned from this is that I will never go into a large place like a mall and assume that just because there’s a security guard somewhere around there that I’m safe. Please, just keep an eye on those you think might be even a little threat, just be alert. I’m not saying don’t go to malls or any public places, just stay in areas where there are a lot of people, go in groups of 2 or 3 when in the parking lot. I never even thought about this before yesterday, but now… Just be alert.
Brrrr! Something akin to that happened to my mom and I one night as we were leaving our local mall laden down with Christmas presents. The exit had two sets of glass doors. As we walked to the first set, we passed two guys who seemed to be studying some appliances rather intently. So we went through the first set and Mom looked at the reflections in the second set and noticed that a) they looked up at each other after we passed and b) wordlessly decided to follow right behind us. She slapped her forehead with her palm and pretended that she forgot to get something. So we went back inside and they continued on out.
We contacted mall security and they looked around, but found no one lurking in the parking lot. It could have been perfectly innocent, but I doubt it. Glad your story turned out well too.