He said he was my dad
I was living in a Scottsdale Arizona at the time , I believe it was around 2000 and I was 8 or 9 depending the month I’m not 100% sure. We’ll there used to be a huge park just behind the row of houses that were facing mine. I could walk there in less than 5 minutes and I did frequently because I was new to the neighborhood and was hoping to me meet some friends to play with . After a while of doing that I had a few people I would call friends.
One weekend I head over to the park after saturday cartoons, everything was going well until some alcoholic man pulls up and starts yelling at me from his pick up truck, I ignore him and keep playing on the monkey bars. He gets out of the truck and starts chasing me , I was always playing tag and running with the friends that i had made so I easily ran through the playground and avoided him for a little while. But I was really scared and then I see a woman with a baby sitting in the shade 60 yards away so I ran as fast as I could to her and then he decides to walk over to her to avoid suspicion.
He tells her that he’s my dad and Im grounded and shouldnt be outside . I explain to her that Ive never met him and hes trying to kidnap me and she confronts him and tells him to go away. Luckily there was a nice lady with a baby other wise I might not be here.
“Stay at least 3 yards behind her or she’ll notice”
I live in a semi-sketchy town in the Pacific North West. About two blocks from where I live, there’s this bridge over the ocean (with a little beach) where a lot of crime takes place. Lots of things like bodies being found there, rapes, etc. So I got off the bus that takes me to this bridge (it’s the closest bus stop to my apartment).
Three teenage boys cross the street towards where I am. I cross the street away from them to get to my building. They cross back. I thought that was weird but whatever. I start taking this narrow path up the beach towards another street, and they’re following me. I pick up the pace and glance over my shoulder. I’m a 21-year-old woman and these guys looked maybe 16 but I’m 5’4 and pretty skinny so I’m doing that thing that a lot of women do when they think perhaps they’re being followed and weigh the odds of fighting them. This path I’m taking is fucking desolate and no one’s around but there’s still some light out and I was glancing over my shoulder as they were filling the gap between us.
I couldn’t be totally sure they were following me until I heard one boy say, “Stay at least 3 yards behind her or she’ll notice.” When I turn the corner out of sight, I sprint behind a hedge and wait for them to head out once they realize they lost me. I text my boyfriend that I’m being followed and he agrees to leave work early to meet me where I am just in case. They turn the corner just then and I realize the middle one, the tallest and possibly oldest, has a fucking knife on him. I hear one of them say something like “She’s probably on the street over there,” and they leave.
My boyfriend meets me soon after. I’m so glad they didn’t figure out that I lived like almost right there.
