True Scary Encounters while Shopping | Compilation - Scary Stories from Bad Vibes

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
So this happened to my mom maybe three years ago.
My mom has now passed away, but she was maybe
forty at the time. She was a very pretty woman,
looking young for her age. She often had total strangers
proposed to her. Everyone was pretty much obsessed with her.
That being said, she was no stranger to dealing with creeps.

(00:28):
So one day she was at Woodman's, a grocery store.
For those who don't know, it wasn't really a bad area.
Bo was close to a bad area and was right
off the freeway, so it could be a little sketchy.
She always told me that she didn't want me going
there alone, especially at night. When I would go with
her at night, I would not leave her side, even

(00:49):
though I was eighteen to twenty at the time. So anyways,
she was there during the day doing her grocery shopping alone.
She knows the man and the same aisle as her.
He was looking at her and when she turned to
look at him, he would look away and act like
he was looking at something else on the shelves. Honestly,
she didn't think much of it. As I mentioned, she

(01:12):
dealt with her fair share of creeps, so she grabbed
what she needed and moved to another aisle. That is
when she noticed him again in the same aisle as her,
doing the same thing. This time it kind of rubbed
her the wrong way, but she went on with her
business and again moved on. The man kept following her
throughout the store. Now it's worth mentioning that my mom

(01:35):
was not one to be messed with. She was very confrontational,
never backing away from a fight, has beaten the shit
of men taking beatings for men usually carried a weapon,
So as she was getting ready to check out, he
was still following her. Now she's pretty pissed off and
didn't feel safe leaving. She alerted an employee who went

(01:56):
to go get a manager. My mom took this uppportunity
to tell him off, saying something like, can I help you?
What the fuck do you want here? Replied dear, saying
you look like the kind of girl who looked really
good in someone's basement. At this point, she was not
only mad, but absolutely terrified. The manager came and while

(02:18):
my mom was telling them about the guy and what
he had said, he ran off. The police were called
and they were able to locate him in or around
the building. They escorted him off the property, but that
was all. My mom was so afraid that the guy
was lurking somewhere. Wait you see what car she got
in and then proceeded to follow her. She ended up

(02:40):
calling me in tears, saying that she was afraid that
she was going to be followed or abducted, and that
she wanted someone to know. So she and I stayed
on the phone till she was home. It took a
lot to shake or scare my mom, but she really
had a good intuition. So for her to be as
shaken as she was, he had to be as creepy
as they come. His comment to her only proved that further,

(03:04):
and then she was okay. But I can't imagine what
would have happened if she didn't tell someone, or if
he did wait for her and followed her. I was
about fourteen at the time. I had skipped school and
decided to go to the mall. Not the smartest decision,

(03:27):
especially since this particular male had a reputation. It was
known for having creepy teenagers and grown men who stalked
or harassed girls. I had had a few minor runnings before,
but it was eight am, broad daylight I figured I'd
be fine. I was wrong, and I haven't gone back
to the mall alone since. I got off the bus

(03:50):
and headed to the entrance with a small playground in
front of it. I thought being near kids and families
would be safer, so I sat on the swing and
pulled out my phone to pass some time before heading home.
There was an older woman and her granddaughter playing nearby,
and their presence made me feel a bit more secure.

(04:13):
Maybe five minutes passed before I heard loud voices and
laughter teenage boys. I looked up and saw them running around,
causing chaos. My stomach dropped. I recognized them immediately. Pretty
much everyone in town knew who they were. Trouble makers,
older than me, and definitely not the kind of people

(04:33):
you wanted to be alone around. They started moving in
my direction and suddenly moving closer. I stood up quickly
and went inside the mall, hoping to lose them in
the crowd. I ducked into a store to buy something
small and distract myself. I didn't see or hear them
during the walk to the store or on the way back.

(04:57):
I sat down on one of the couches in the
mall and tried to calm down. For a moment, I
thought I lost them, but I still didn't let myself relax,
not fully. A few minutes later, I looked up from
my phone and saw them again. This time, I didn't hesitate.
I got up and headed straight for the bathroom. The

(05:17):
hallway to the restroom was long and mostly empty, but
I walked faster. When I noticed them trailing behind me,
I rushed into the girl's bathroom and locked myself in
the stall. I stayed there for what felt like forever,
probably thirty to forty minutes, just scrolling on my phone,
waiting for them to give up and leave. When I

(05:37):
finally stepped out and washed my hands, that moment of
a relief vanished. There they were six boys peeking into
the girl's bathroom. There was no door just to open entrance,
and some of them were already halfway inside. I heard
one of them say yeah, I think it's her, and
they started laughing. I froze. My brain was racing. Should

(06:01):
I just walk past them and hope for the best.
Should I call someone, should ask for help? I looked
around and saw a few women in the bathroom. One
of them, maybe around forty, was drying her hands. I hesitated, well,
she think I was overreacting crazy, but I couldn't risk it.

(06:21):
I built up the courage and asked, trembling, excuse me,
Can I walk out with you? There's a group of
boys who have been following me all morning and they're
waiting outside. There was a pause. I immediately regretted speaking, but
then she nodded. Of course. We walked out together, and

(06:41):
her husband was waiting just outside the bathroom. Seeing him
filled me with a massive sense of relief. I knew
those boys. I wouldn't think twice about following me now.
She quickly filled her husband in. He looked confused at first,
maybe not fully convinced, but when she had asked if
he would walk us to the main exit, he agreed.

(07:04):
As we walked, I explained the situation more clearly. They listened,
and I could tell that they were beginning to understand
the seriousness of it. When we reached the end of
the hallway that turned into a store, I continued towards
the exit, walking as fast as I could. I passed
the security guard on the way out, and while I

(07:24):
felt a bit safer, I didn't breathe easy until I
was outside finally getting some fresh air. Only then did
I realize how panicked I had been. I ran to
the nearest bus stop that felt far enough from the
mall and waited there. I didn't care if anyone found
out that I skipped school that day. I just wanted
to get home. Since then, I've done everything I can

(07:47):
to avoid the all. I still think about how things
could have gone differently if I hadn't been paying attention,
or if that woman and her husband hadn't been there.
I don't want to imagine what would have happened if
I had walked out of the bathroom alone to that couple.
Thank you. You probably have no idea how much you
helped me that day. This happened about three years ago,

(08:20):
so I was sixteen at the time. I remember it
being a warm September day. I had a day off
from work and decided to hang out with my best friend,
we'll call her Abby. I just got into my license
that spring, so I was super hyped about driving around
town on my own. I pulled up to Abby's place

(08:42):
and we were trying to figure out what to do.
We decided to skip making plans with friends and instead
cooked dinner for her mom's stepdad. So we hopped in
my car and headed to Walmart to grab the ingredients,
and of course we couldn't resist grabbing some cake mix
on the way out. While we were shopping, we kept

(09:03):
crossing past with this guy, probably in his mid fifties,
but didn't think too much of it since the store
was pretty crowded. We checked out and walked to my car,
and that's when we noticed the same guy loading groceries
into his trunk. I remember joking to Abby saying something like, oh,
is that your new boyfriend? Why don't you go get

(09:25):
his number? We laughed, maybe a little too loudly because
it caught his attention. He turned to us and complimented
our hair, then asked if we were sisters. We told
him we were, which wasn't true, thanked him and wished
him a good day. Honestly, in our town, guys randomly

(09:45):
complimenting girls isn't unusual, so we just brushed it off.
We got into my car, I locked the doors as always,
and we laughed about how creepy his eyes look. But
here's where things started to get weird. A parent he
saw us walk to my car because instead of heading
towards the exit. He drove slowly behind us, opposite of

(10:07):
where the exit was. I saw him staring at my
car through the rear view mirror and looked at Abby like,
holy shit, it's the same creep. We burst out laughing again.
Probably has a way to cope, and once he drove off,
we did two. The rest of the night was chill.
We made dinner, hung out, and eventually crashed. A few

(10:31):
days passed and Nat had completely forgotten about it until
one day at work. I was running food to tables,
helping out the servers when I dropped a playoff to
a guy who looked way too surprised to see me.
At first, I didn't recognize him until I saw his
eyes the same unsettling stare. Yep, it was Walmart guy.

(10:56):
I quickly placed the food down, asked if he needed anything,
and booked it to the bathroom de TeX's Abbey. Dude,
that creepy guy from Walmart is literally at my restaurant
right now, and I just served him. Hours went by
and he stayed at the bar drinking alone. I mentioned
it to some co workers and they were like, Eh,

(11:19):
he's probably just a lonely old guy. Eventually, my manager
sent me home since it was slow. As I walked
to my car, I heard the restaurant door swing open,
and there he was, following me. Behind me. He called out,
trying to start a conversation. I turned around and he
hit me with, so does a pretty lady like you

(11:42):
have a boyfriend. I told him I did, and then
my boyfriend worked at the restaurant, A total lie. He
got closer, close enough that I could smell the alcohol
on his breath and said would he mind if you
and I became friends. I was totally creeped out. I
panicked and blurted out I'm sixteen, thinking that would get

(12:02):
him to back off. Spoiler alert, it didn't. If anything,
it seemed to make it more interested. I quickly said goodbye,
walked to my car and drove off, hearing him mumble
something under his breath as I left. I was shaken.
I called Abby, then told my mom when I got home.

(12:23):
She warned me to stay alert because clearly this guy
had to think for underage girls and didn't care who
saw it. Fast forward a week. I'm at work again
and guess who's back. Yep creepers at the bar, slamming
beers like it's his job. I told my manager I
wasn't comfortable serving his area and filled her in on

(12:44):
the whole story. She got it and moved me to
the registers instead. At one point, he stumped off to
the bathroom and slammed the door so hard the whole
restaurant went silent. He looked back at everyone and locked
eyes with me again. I'd had enough. I just walked
back into the kitchen and hid. Ten minutes later, the

(13:07):
police showed up asking to review footage from the previous Saturday.
My manager took them to the office and we were
all kind of confused about forty minutes past, and the
cops walk over to the bar and rest him right
then and there. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
I ran over to my manager, like what just happened.

(13:29):
Turns out he was under investigation for spiking a young
woman's drink at our restaurant. The cameras caught him in
the act after she filed a police report the next day.
I haven't seen him since except in my nightmares. Hopefully
still rotting in jail somewhere, finally getting help or at

(13:50):
least a harsh wake up call. Anyways, ladies always keep
your eyes off for each other. Creeps don't always wear
red flags. They come in the form of a lonely
old guy with a drink in his hand and way
too much interest in teenage girls. I stupidly made the

(14:17):
decision to get gas at eleven PM one night because
I didn't make time before work to go. So I'm
pulling up to the gas station and there were a
couple of cars at the pumps, which I sort of
felt relieved at and more safe going in. I go
inside to pay the clerk since I'm using cash, and
as I'm going to the pump to put the gas in,

(14:39):
most of the cars are leaving except this one truck
park two pumps beside me. I get in my car
and wait for my gas to be filled, and I'm
on the phone, and all of a sudden, I see
this guy walking around the front of my car very suspiciously.
I sort of glance up to see what he's doing.
At this point, I had made eye contact with him. Shit.

(15:00):
He then proceeds to ask me if I have any
change for gas, and I nod no. Sorry. He says, Okay,
that's cool. Hey, do you want me to remove your
gas pump for you. I say, no, I'm good. Thanks.
At this point, my guess is filled up and he knows,
and he's kind of fidgeting as well, and walks away

(15:20):
behind my car. I'm trying not to glance back and
be subtle about looking where he was, because I didn't
want to alarm him with how terrified I am. In
my head, I'm thinking about how I can leave the
car with him still around my car. At this point,
no one is in the lot, and I'm waiting till
another car pulls up five minutes later, nothing, so my

(15:45):
fight or flight responses are really kicking my ass on
what I should do next. It's really cold out. I
haven't turned my car on because the pump is still
in my car, and I don't know where this man
is at. Then I finally see him walk towards the truck,
but not entering it, just around it. But as soon
as this beck is towards me, I go for the

(16:07):
pump and take it out, and he knows me and
quickly approaches me and says, oh, hey, you're really beautiful,
still walking towards me, I nod and quickly and subtly
put my gas cat back on. He says, I don't
look like a serial killer, do I, with this crazed
look in his eyes, like, yeah, motherfucker, you actually do.

(16:31):
But at this point I bolted to my car and
drove off quickly. So ladies, please avoid going to the
gas stations at night or carry some sort of protection
with you, because I sure as hell will from now on,
and I've learned my lesson. It wasn't as bad as
it sounds, but it definitely could have taken a different
turn of events had I've done things differently. I was

(17:00):
about fifteen or sixteen, and my older brother that went
to the same high school as me, would drive us
to school most days of the week when our parents
stopped wanting to get up early, since we both had
zero period that began at seven a m. One day,
on the way to school, we stopped at a donut
shop that was in a sort of remote part of
town on the stretch of the highway. It was still

(17:22):
kind of dark outside before six thirty a m. This
was in the late nineties, before it was coming for
teenagers to have their own cell phones, so I didn't
have a way to call or text. This shop had
nothing around it except for trees and a stretch of
empty land. The parking lot was too big for how
small this place was. He didn't park us in the

(17:45):
very front spot by the door, and to this day
I have no idea why he didn't. He parked us
about a row and a half from the front door
and walked in. No one was at the counter, so
I watched him wait for service. While he was waiting,
my eyes wandered and paned suddenly to a man's face
staring daggers at me from one of the tables in

(18:06):
the shop. It was very startling. It was like in
movies when they looked through binoculars and see someone staring
at them through a scope. I immediately looked away and
down because it freaked me out. At first, I thought
maybe the man was just tired and just kind of
spacing out because of how early it was, But I

(18:28):
still felt his eyes on me. After a few minutes,
and although I fought myself to look up, I glanced
up and he had a creepy smile on his face.
He had short, bobbed hair, like a dude would have
in the seventies. I looked at my brother and it
felt like an eternity as he picked out donuts. He
had turned around once and I tried to get his attention,

(18:50):
but he turned back around and kept choosing. When my
brother was talking to the cashier, I noticed the man
at the table get up. He never took his eyes
off me, and I remember my heart beating hard in
my chest as I looked down. Since I couldn't think
of anything else to do, I hoped that he would
just walk away, but out of the corner of my eye,

(19:12):
I noticed he was approaching the truck. My first thought
was to reach over and honk the horn as loud
as I could, but he was already about one straight
away from the truck driver's side. And I noticed then
that the door hadn't auto locked. It was a kind
that had a little pop up button lock. I only
had seconds to choose to lock the door or honk

(19:33):
the horn, so I practically leaped over, and I can
remember slapping down the lock button. Not but two or
three seconds later, the man pulled on the door handle.
He turned and walked away, but then turned again and
tried to pull harder. I then honked the horn to
get attention, but I saw that my brother had walked
to the other side of the counter, out of you.

(19:56):
After I honked the second time, the guy walked off
pasted the car across the street, where it was a
bit wooded before the highway resumed. When my brother came back,
he asked me why I was honking and being impatient,
because it was still early and we wouldn't be late.
After I told him that some creep tried to get in,
he drove around the area, but no one was around

(20:19):
since it had been five or more minutes before he
got to the car. Creepy smile, he zoned out. Donut
shop guy, that's not me. I don't usually shop late,
but this happened about six months ago when I had

(20:40):
one of those weird restless nights where nothing feels right.
I couldn't sleep, I scrolled through every app on my
phone at least twice, so by that point, suddenly going
to Walmart at one thirty am to buy a frozen
pizza feels like the best plan I've had all day.
So I got in my car and drove to the
twenty four hour Walmart a few miles away. The parking

(21:03):
lot was mostly empty, except for a couple of cars
clustered near the entrance and an old RV parked further
out under a busted light. I remember it because it
looked like it hadn't moved in days. Inside the store
was dead quiet. There are maybe four people in the
entire place, including two employees who looked like they wanted

(21:24):
nothing more than to be literally anywhere else. I wasn't
even in there for five minutes when I saw him,
A tall guy, maybe in his forties, dressed too clean
for that time of night, pressed slacks, button up shirt,
black shiny shoes. He did have a cart or basket
or anything. He just walked slowly down the cereal aisle

(21:47):
with his hands folded behind his back, as if he
was inspecting something. What got me was how quiet he was.
No footsteps shuffle just appeared. When I turned around the aisle.
I gave him an awkward nod that you give people
when you're passing by, and he just smiled, tight lipped,
didn't say anything. I moved on quick. There was something

(22:10):
about his eyes that felt wrong, not dangerous exactly, but off,
as if he was watching something behind me. I got
my frozen stuff some snacks, and started heading out towards
the checkout. When I noticed something strange. Every aisle I
went into he would show up too, not right away,

(22:31):
but like thirty seconds later. He would just be there,
sometimes at the end of the aisle, sometimes halfway down,
staring at the shelves but not really looking at anything.
Still no cart, still nothing in his hands. I started
getting paranoid. Maybe he was just another late night shopper
with weird habits. Maybe I was just overthinking it. But

(22:53):
then came the toy section I cut through to get
to the front faster. It was completely empty. Lights were
sort of dimmed until I walked through, triggering them. I
was walking past the accident figures when I heard something
drop behind me. I turned around. No one was there,

(23:14):
but there was a small rubber ball, a bouncy ball,
rolling slowly towards me from the end of the aisle.
I picked it up, looked around. Still no one. I
started walking again, and that's when I heard a voice
from behind me, low and calm. He dropped something. I

(23:34):
turned around fast. He was standing ten feet away from me,
the man from earlier. His hands were still behind his back.
He was smiling, but this time it looked almost proud,
like he was happy. I turned around. I didn't say anything,
just held up the ball and said this isn't mine.

(23:55):
He tilted his head and then, without a word, turned
and walked away. I waited a solid minute before moving again,
just standing there, heart racing, listening for his footsteps. Nothing.
I went straight to the self checkout and paid as
fast as I could. When I left the store, the
parking lot was even more empty than before, just my

(24:18):
car and the RV. Its curtains were still drawn, no
lights inside. I got in my car, locked the doors immediately,
and started the engine. Before I could put it in gear,
I looked in the rearview mirror. The man was standing
in the middle of the parking lot, no bag, no car,

(24:39):
just standing there, facing in the direction of my car.
I reversed and drove off without even looking back. Now
here's the part that really messes with me. A couple
weeks later, I was scrolling on Reddit late at night
some thread about creepyer life encounters. Someone mentioned a guy
at Walmer w i am, tall, clean clothes, no cart,

(25:03):
always smiling. They described the exact same smile. Someone else
chimed in and had almost the same exact story from
a different state. The one similarity that was always the same,
was the words you drop something. I don't know. It
can't be the same guy, but it's just creepy and

(25:24):
I don't think I'll be going to Walmart late at
night anymore. My mom and grandparents lived in the same
small town for years. My grandma was a physician now retired,
and my mom was a child's psychologist. Since there aren't

(25:48):
many stores in the area, they frequented one in particular,
where all of the staff knew them well. One winter day,
my mom went to the store as usual. While she
was picking something off the shelf, a little girl, maybe
eight or ten, came up and stood right next to her.
My mom looked at the girl, expecting her to say something,

(26:11):
but she just stood there silently. My mom didn't think
much of it, picked up her item and moved to
another shelf. A few seconds later, the same girl followed
her and again stood close, pretending to look at an item,
but not speaking. It was odd. My mom changed aisles

(26:31):
again and eventually lost sight of the girl for a bit.
Then she noticed the girl speaking to one of the
saleswomen and pointed in her direction. My mom still didn't
think much of it and went to the register to
pay before she left the store. The next day, when
she came back, one of the saleswomen approached her and

(26:51):
quietly said, hey, just so you know, the girl from
yesterday wanted us to call the police because she said
you were acting like a pedophile towards her. Needless to say,
my mom was shocked. Luckily, the staff didn't act on
the accusations right away. They knew my mom and family

(27:12):
well and decided to check the security footage first. On
the footage, they saw clearly that the girl had followed
my mom around the store and had approached her first,
not the other way around. When the staff member confronted
the girl, but what she said, she left quickly. Two
men were waiting for her outside. A few weeks later,

(27:36):
my mama saw the same girl again, this time on
our street. She was walking quickly flanked by two men,
one on each side. It was the middle of the
day and our street is usually empty, so my mom
didn't feel safe, but think it was wise to approach them.
She never saw the girl again after that. This happened

(28:06):
about two years ago and I still think about it.
It was a Wednesday afternoon in May. I was at
a large outdoor mall in Columbus, Ohio, planning to do
a little shopping before heading to work nearby. At two pm,
I parked on the first floor of the parking garage,
just a row across from the main entrance to the

(28:26):
indoor section of the mall near the back. As soon
as I parked, I made eye contact with this guy
walking down the next row over. I was twenty six
at the time, and he looked at me about my age,
maybe a little younger. He suddenly turned and started walking
towards me. I immediately looked down and began gathering my things,

(28:49):
hoping you would just pass by. But then knock, knock,
he tapped on my window. I can't remember if my
window was already halfway down or if I rolled it
in more, but it was partially open. He asked me
if I knew where the nearest restroom was. I told
him that there was one just inside the mall entrance,

(29:10):
literally right across from us. He said he didn't know
where that was and asked if I would show him.
I pointed and said, just walk down this road and
go through those doors the signs right there. He didn't budge,
he just stood there staring at me through the window
like he was waiting for something. The silence stretched, and

(29:31):
I realized he was expecting me to physically get out
and lead him there. When it became clear I wasn't
going to move, he suddenly asked, can I hop in
your back seat? Real quick? My confusion turned to fool
and panic. I froze. I don't even remember what I said,
if anything. Things started doubling down. He asked again to

(29:54):
get in the back seat, and then said, do you
want to hook up in the back I was in
total shock, and for some reason, probably out of nervous politeness,
I just blurted out no, thank you. I have a boyfriend.
I'm sorry. He smiled and said that's okay. I have
a girlfriend. I love her. The conversation kept going like that,

(30:18):
me awkwardly apologizing, saying I needed to leave to get
to work, while he kept texting on his phone between sentences,
barely acknowledging my words. I was terrified to make a
sudden move, afraid that locking my door might trigger him
to do something worse. I didn't know if he was alone,
I didn't know if someone else was watching. My brain

(30:40):
was screaming don't escalate it. Eventually, I worked up enough
courage to start a car. I put it in reverse
and peeled out of there as fast as I could.
I drove a few blocks away to my job, rushed inside,
and immediately called Mole security. I have no idea what
his intentions were where. Maybe he generally wanted to hook up,

(31:03):
which who approaches someone in a parked car like that.
Maybe it was bait for something worse, robbery, trafficking, or
who knows what. He looked like a totally normal guy
until the conversation took a sharp, creepy turn. What's even
more unsettling is that I was driving a rental car

(31:24):
at the time. My own car had been stolen just
three weeks earlier. I'm so thankful we didn't see what
I usually drive in case he caught the plate maker
model to find me later. This whole encounter still gives
me chills. What do you think his deal was? Has
anything like this ever happened to you? I sold the

(31:52):
socks off my feet for ten dollars. Yep, someone literally
bought the socks off my feet at the grocery store.
For quick context, I'm a thirty year old woman. Living
in Midwest USA. This happened a week ago at my
local grocery store. I was doing a quick run for
a few things and noticed the man near me in

(32:13):
the dairy section giving me that look, you know that
one just a little too much eye contact. I gave
him a polite smile and kept moving. After checking out,
I'm bagging my groceries, I headed to my car. I
started loading things in my trunk when I suddenly noticed
the same man pulling up behind my vehicle. He gets

(32:36):
out and says, hey, I have a question for you.
Thinking nothing much of it, I said, sure, what's up?
Can I buy your socks? I blinked, Sorry? What? He repeats?
Can I buy your socks? I'll give you ten dollars
for the socks on your feet. At this point, I'm

(32:58):
just standing there like I hear that, right? So I asked,
uh why? He shrugs and says, you know, it's kind
of my thing, like a foot finished thing. He nods, yeah,
something like that. Now, as this incredibly bizarre conversation is happening,

(33:19):
he has this car positioned in a way that blocks
my hand and starts reaching into his inner jacket pocket.
Now listen, I'm a woman, I'm always aware of my surroundings,
and in the second he started to reach into his coat,
my brain went full of deaf con one. I'm thinking
he's about to pull something out, and I'm about to

(33:40):
be unalive over a pair of target ankle socks. So
I say, hold on, let me just put my cart back.
I used my walk to try to calm down and
gather my thoughts, but when I got back to my car,
he had gotten out of his vehicle and was now
standing right next to the driver's side activated. At this point,

(34:02):
I was full on fight flight or freeze, and I froze.
I sat down in my driver's seat with a door
still open, and with shaking hands, I peeled off my
socks and handed it to him. He smiled, took the
socks and said, thank you. You're beautiful. Your feet are
so pretty. Then he handed me a crumpled up ten

(34:24):
dollars bill and walked back to his car, and just
like that, he drove away. Let me tell you, this
is by far the creepiest, weirdest, and most unsettling thing
that's ever happened to me. And yeah, I haven't worn
socks in public since so what do you think? What
would you have done in this situation. This happened recently

(34:54):
when I'm still a little shaken up. I'm a nineteen
year old woman and I was shopping a litt at
my local Walmart late in the afternoon. I only needed
a few things, so I grabbed a car and headed
straight to the home and pharmacy section. I stopped in
the aisle with the protein bars to look for something specific,

(35:15):
parking my car to the side. The store wasn't crowded,
and at that moment, the aisle was completely empty. That's
when a man suddenly approached me from the side and
said something. I had never seen him before. I didn't
see where he came from. He didn't have a car
or any items with him, and he was way taller

(35:36):
than me, which immediately put me on edge. Since I
was alone, I stayed alert and kept my distance. I
didn't catch what he said the first time, so I asked, huh.
He repeated himself and asked if I was from a
certain township, one that's forty five minutes away from where
we were. My gut immediately told me something wasn't right.

(36:00):
I quickly said no and started to walk away, trying
to end the conversation, but then he said, you're very pretty.
At this point I gave him an awkward smile and
kept moving, clearly uncomfortable and not interested in engaging. But
he kept going and asked are you single. That's when

(36:22):
I snapped out of any politeness and said firmly not interested,
before walking away as fast as I could. I felt
completely unsettled. Something about the way he approached me, seemingly
out of nowhere, knowing I was alone, asking him I
was from a random town, then immediately complimented me set

(36:43):
off all of my alarms. He didn't look threatening, but
the situation itself fell off After that, headed to the checkout,
constantly skinning the area to make sure he wasn't nearby.
I saw him walking down the opposite direction, which was
a huge relief. I got to my car quickly, made

(37:04):
sure no one was around, and left right away. Maybe
he was harmless, maybe he wasn't, but his behavior, his
body language, and the fact that I was alone all
combined into a huge red flag. I'm really glad I
trusted my instincts. This story isn't as dramatic as other

(37:32):
ones on the sub, but it was incredibly terrifying for
me to experience. It happened to me yesterday, late in
the afternoon. I had just finished buying some snacks from
the gas station when this man approached me as I
was walking home. It was dark out, so the only
thing I could make out was that he was about
two inches taller than me, had a green jacket on

(37:53):
with a hood, and had fair skin. He asked me
what's in my backpack? I tried walking away, but he
grabs my bag and refuses to let me go. He
demands I hand him my bag. I tried my best
to plead with him, saying he can just have the
food inside if he was hungry. He didn't care. He

(38:13):
kept fighting me for the bag. I did my best,
holding my ground and putting up a fight. Several drivers
passed me, but none of them bothered to stop and
help me. I was all alone in a dark and
empty sidewalk. The gas station was in a pretty bad
part of town, bunch of drug addicts and violent people.
I used to live there, so I knew the cops

(38:35):
were regularly called into this neighborhood. I'm glad I managed
to escape an environment two years ago. Eventually, this man
removes his hand from his pocket, and I start fearing
for the worst. I almost expected him to pull out
a knife, but thankfully it was only his fist. He
begins bringing hard on my fist to the point that
they start to bleed. I couldn't take it anymore, so

(38:58):
I handed him the bag and watched him run off.
There was only some chips and juice in there, so
it's not like I lost anything valuable. I walked the
entire way home, constantly looking over my shoulder in case
that bastard came back for more. I didn't call the
police because I knew nothing would be done about it.
I barely even had a description of this guy, so

(39:19):
they wouldn't really have anything to go off of. I'm
currently at work with a bandished hand, trying my best
to get through the day despite the pain. I hope
this guy who did it ends up messing with the
wrong person and gets the help beating out of him.
I wish I never went to that neighborhood. I wish
I had stayed home. Just got back from work late

(39:47):
at night, and I stopped at the gas station on
the way for context. I'm a guy in my thirties.
As I pulled into the gas station, I noticed an
old Beater sedan with its lights off, parked on the
side of the building. As I pulled past the car,
I saw that someone was in there, so as I park,
I look over and the other car starts moving with

(40:07):
the lights off and parks two spaces down from me.
I keep looking because it's late at night and weird behavior.
I see this guy, mid fifties, white guy with a
baseball hat, turn the interior light on and just stare
me down, not moving, just staring. I'm like whatever and
go get my stuff inside. The guy never gets out

(40:30):
or goes inside. As I'm leaving the store, I could
see he hasn't moved an inch, just following me with
his eyes. As I walk back to my car. At
this point, I'm holding a knife I carry in my pocket,
ready for this guy to try something. I make it
to my car and climb in. After I start my car,

(40:50):
I look over again and he's still completely ummoving, just
staring straight at me with his interior light on. We
were the only two cars that at this point. I
think he's either an unmarked cop or a fucking ceial killer.
I slowly pull out and watch him stare at me
the whole time I drive out of the gas station.

(41:12):
He never pulled out or followed. Honestly, this is probably
a boring story for you guys, but it was so
uncanny and unsettling I wanted to post it here to
see if anyone had a similar encounter. When I was
four years old, my family, newly arrived from Mexico visited

(41:35):
Walmart in South Texas. My parents, still learning English, asked
me to stay with my father while my mother shopped.
As I walked towards him, a woman in her thirties
approached me. She spoke to me in English, which I
didn't fully understand at the time, and suggested we find
my parents together. Confused and trusting, I followed her to

(41:58):
her car and we drove away. Meanwhile, my father searched
the store frantically, starting in the hot wheels aisle, but
he couldn't find me. Panic set in and he alerted others,
and soon an amber alert was issued. After two days,
the woman was apprehended when authorities traced her vehicle's license plate.

(42:19):
It was later revealed that she was mentally ill. This
incident occurred in twenty fourteen, and although I was young,
I still vividly remember her face. It taught me that
not all kidnappers fit the stereotypical image. Some appear ordinary,
blending into everyday life. My girlfriend and I were thrifting

(42:49):
at Goodwill recently, and she went to go look at
some clothes in front of the mirror. I stayed by
the cart, probably fifteen feet away, and kept looking at clothes.
I looked over her and noticed the bald, punchy guy
with the sun that looked to me about five years
old behind her. He hit his phone pointed towards her,
and I really don't want to think that this guy

(43:10):
was taking pictures of my girlfriend's ass, so I kept watching.
He acts like he's looking for toys with the sun
for a second. Then when she turns around again, he
takes his phone out and points it at her. I
immediately get filled with so much rage and walk over
to him. I asked him if he's taken some pictures,
and he says, yeah, of my son. Isn't he cute?

(43:34):
I say, no, he isn't. You're taking pictures of something else?
He said he wasn't. I said, show me your camera
roll and he said he didn't have to. I told
him I really don't want to smash your phone and
beat you in front of your child. Then he started
deleting the pictures while his hands were shaking, and I

(43:55):
made him go to his recently deleted folder and permanently
remove them. Then I all them a piece of shit
and to never do that again. I really regret not
whooping his ass, though I've been super angry at the
thought of him doing that to other people, and I
want to make him suffer. Some background info. I was

(44:21):
twenty four at the time, and so is my husband.
Our daughter was two at the time. We were on
a road trip to see some family. About twenty minutes
outside of the town we live in was this big
gas station with a wide variety of snacks. Whenever we
go on a trip, we would always stop there for gas,

(44:42):
drinks and snacks. It's in the middle of the day,
in the middle of summer, so we pull in. My
husband finds a pump to fill up at. We had
all gone to the bathroom before leaving the house, so
I left our daughter in the car while he filled up,
and I went inside to fill our water bottles and
grab some snacks. Like I said, this gas station was

(45:04):
fairly large for the area, but not like huge or anything.
The bathroom and the water fountain were down a fairly
secluded hallway. There was only one cashier, and the line
was kind of long, so I decided to buy snacks first,
then go to the hallway to fill up the water
bottles on the way out in case the line got longer. Meanwhile,

(45:25):
my husband had finished pumping gas and pulled into the
parking spot in front of the building to wait for me,
but all the windows were covered with posters and stuff,
so I didn't notice anyway. While I was in line
holding our snacks and water bottles in my arms, a
couple guys immediately get in line behind me. They're all tall.

(45:46):
I'd estimate they were six feet at least. They were
very nondescript clothes, khaki shorts and blank gray T shirts.
I didn't hear them speak any English, and I can't
one hundred percent confirm what language which they spoke, but
it's down in Middle Eastern Although they were Caucasian, not
super unusual for the area because there's a big college

(46:08):
town nearby. I don't really like anyone being directly behind me,
so I turned so the guys wearing my perfial vision
and I looked at the display of toys while I waited.
I do this move a lot when I'm waiting in line,
and basically every time nobody notices or cares that I
turned so I could see people, and they certainly don't

(46:29):
move around while waiting in line nearly as much as
these guys did. One of them was full on staring
at me, and his expression was plainly unsettling to me,
but he hadn't done anything to me, so I just smiled,
gave a half nod, and looked away while still keeping
them in my field of view. They were whispering among themselves,

(46:50):
even though nobody could understand their language, and it wasn't
exactly quiet in there. I just had a kept feeling
that they were talking about me, because they both kept
openly still at me and nobody else, even though it
was fairly busy. Then they started to move, so they
were directly behind me, and for four minutes straight, as
I looked at my phone every time I moved because

(47:12):
I was uncomfortable with them being directly behind me, they
moved to be directly behind me again every time they
would look at something on display, but just seemed so forced,
like they weren't actually interested in the unicorn toys and
we're just looking at them to be behind me. About
every fifteen seconds for four minutes while we were in

(47:32):
this line, it kept happening over and over again. They'd
even go back and look at something they've already looked at.
They went back to the same unicorn toy four times.
I felt like I was crazy because maybe one of
them had a daughter or niece who would like it.
But every time I look close enough, they were staring

(47:53):
at me, watching me. I was seriously freaked out, but
I kept telling myself that we weren't going to do
anything to me. But just to be safe, I decided
not to go fill up the water bottles and just
go straight to the car. It wasn't worth risking it.
I was still three people away from the front of
the line. There was some sort of issue with the

(48:15):
membership card that held up the line, and more and
more people lined up behind the men. One was the
middle aged woman with her teenager. The woman saw my
discomfort and saw how they kept getting behind me over
and over again, so she sent her teenager to see
if the self checkouts were open at this gas station.
There was a fifty to fifty chance that they were.

(48:37):
They went down a lot. Meanwhile, those men are getting
closer and closer. I had already gotten as close to
the person in front of me as socially allowed, but
they were breathing down my neck, even brushing against me
while they looked at displays of candy and unicorn to ways.
I was contemplating leaving this next at the counter and

(48:57):
just walking out. The teenager came back and must have
whispered to the woman that the self checkout was open.
The woman walked up to me, took me by the arm,
and led me to the self checkout. We watched each
other's backs while we checked out. I looked up and
saw them still staring at me, and this time they

(49:18):
looked fully angry at me. They were about to come
and talk to me when she grabbed my bag and
receipt and walked me out to my car. Somehow, she
was so smooth with everything. I don't even think the
teenager noticed what was going on. Once we got outside,
I saw my car right there, and my hubby and
kid were inside. I gave her a hug and thanked

(49:42):
her for the help getting me out of there. Then
we parted ways. I told my hubby everything, trying not
to get too emotional about it, just stating the facts
about what they did and how they behaved. He seemed
equally freaked out by my description of the events and
wished she would have a chance to probably thank the woman.

(50:02):
I filled our water bottles at the next gas station
and we moved out of that area about six months later. Anyway,
that woman sees this, You're my hero. Thank you. I
don't think I can fully describe how deeply uncomfortable I
was in that situation. I was generally scared that they
would follow me to my car or something. I'm a

(50:33):
thirty three year old female. I went to a convention
with two female friends and stayed in the downtown area
hotel near the convention center. Caddy corner from our hotel
was a chain drug store. It was still light outside
and we decided to get some snacks two weeks while
we were watching Netflix. That night, while my friends were

(50:54):
looking for candy, I stood back because I wanted some
chips and noticed a man next to them. He wasn't
looking at the candy he was watching them. They hadn't noticed,
so when they picked their candy, I whispered them to
follow me. I picked up the paste, turned quickly down
the middle and down an aisle. I told him there's

(51:16):
a creepy guy there and to stay together. That's when
I noticed he's on the other end of the aisle.
We kept taking turns down the various aisles, and he's
following us, but walking where he's between us and the exit.
At this time, we're basically trapped in the back of
the store near the pharmacy. The line for the pharmacy

(51:38):
was long but was full of men, so we got
on line and started talking to the men in front
of us, hoping that was scare off our stalker. We
could still see him in the big globe mirror one
aisle down, waiting for us. We waited in that line
for thirty minutes to ask for security. The security swept
the pharmacy and the stocker guy had left. We were

(52:00):
extra thankful when the security guard offered to walk us
back to the front of our hotel. I don't know
what the intentions that guy had for us, but I'm
glad I'll never find out. This happened when I was
about twelve or thirteen, and I had went back to

(52:21):
look at the books on the other side of the
store by myself while my parents were shopping. When I
was there, I noticed this guy that was about five
feet away from me. I didn't really pay much attention
to him and just went to the other side of
the shelf, but then he also went to the other
side when I did, I was a little uncomfortable, but

(52:43):
I thought it was just a coincidence, so I went
back to the other side again. When I went to
the other side, so did he. He started getting closer
and closer to me, making me a little more freaked out,
and he still followed me every time I would go
to the other side. At this point, we're just circling
the shelves. So when he was still walking to the

(53:04):
other side, I went to the DVD section that was
next to the shelf. I saw him look around, and
then a woman who assumed was his wife appeared next
to him, and he whispered something to her and they
both started looking around. I was kind of shaking because
I knew that they were looking for me. Fortunately, my
parents came just in time, and when we were leaving,

(53:26):
I saw them again glaring at me. This happened two
days ago. I'm a twenty two year old female. I
live in an apartment in a large downtown area right
next to my university. So I was pulling into the

(53:47):
parking lot of the CBS near my apartment and I
noticed a woman standing at one of the other cars
near mine talking to a man's side. When I got out,
they started walking in, and the woman tried to flag
me down and talked to me. I just ignored her
and walked into the store. The man who was in
the car got out and followed me in. He followed

(54:09):
me through several aisles before stopping me to ask if
I wanted to be on his only fans and make
porn videos for him. I told him that I wasn't
interested multiple times, but he continued to ask me questions
about myself, my name, where I work, live, and if
I have only fans. He started to describe sexual acts

(54:30):
he wanted to do with me for as o F.
I was so scared in the moment and wasn't sure
what else to do. But eventually, after I turned down
his offer enough times, he walked away and left the store.
Without buying anything. What was really weird is that he
was wearing an obviously fake lap coat and said he

(54:50):
was in town for a pharmacist convention. I don't know.
When I got to the register to check out, I
noticed the employee looking out the window, and one of
them told the other to call the police if they
saw that woman again. When I got to my car,
the man was still sitting in his car right next
to mine. Luckily, I don't think he was able to

(55:11):
follow me out due to the busy area I was in.
In retrospect, I think this guy might have been a
human trafficker looking for easy targets. I just hoped no
one else was bothered by him and decided to go
anywhere with him. Stay vigilant, ladies at it. I did

(55:32):
make a report to my local police in case anyone
else had an encounter with this guy. Also, I do
carry maids, So this happened about a year ago, and
I still don't return to the store without my husband.

(55:52):
So last July, I took my then four and six
year old sons to Target to shop for back to school.
Since having kids and hearing all these horror stories, I
am very observant of my surroundings when I'm out anyways,
Wall and Target. Like most women, I looked through all
the sections. When in the women's clothing, I noticed two

(56:15):
older men close by that kept looking over our way.
I thought maybe I was just being paranoid, so I
kept going on with my business, but keeping my boys
super close. We go to the baby section, then pop ups, toys, makeup,
and the same thing. I was really feeling uneasy because
they seemed to be everywhere we were, and they never

(56:37):
had a car. One guy was holding one little thing.
I go to check out and wait for a big
group of nurses leaving Starbucks to walk out with. I
threw my boys in the car without buckling them and
locked the doors. As soon as I look up, the
two guys walk out empty handed, looking around. I didn't

(57:00):
think they saw me, so I started to leave. When
I look in the roarview mirror and saw them behind
me in a truck. I stopped right there, turned around
and took a photo of them, making sure that they
could see me. They turned like they're going back to
the store and park a couple stores down where they
can no longer see me, and I call the cops.

(57:23):
Wall On the phone with them in a full blown
panic attack. I watched one of the guys change his
shirt and go back inside. I waited until the police
got there so I could make sure that they got
and had the right guys. I don't know what their
plan was for that day, but my mama gut told
me that it wasn't anything good. I'm so thankful that

(57:45):
my babies and I are okay, okay. So I just
want to start off by saying, I'm posting this just
because I want to vent about what happened yesterday, because
I'm still freaked out. So this all started because my

(58:05):
mom needed a few things from Walmart, and I was
going there anyways, so I decided to save her the
trouble and get them for her. I get what I
need and check out. I walk outside and realized I
parked on the other side of the store, so I
started walking. I had this uneasy feeling, but I pushed
it away by saying it was just my social anxiety

(58:27):
kicking in. So I get to the wrong parked in
and I'm closing in on my car when I noticed
these two guys walking behind me. I thought nothing of
it because Walmart was packed. When I went in, so
I just ignored them until I realized that they weren't stopping.
They were following me all the way back to my car.

(58:48):
To put it in perspective, I parked on the way
and away from everyone else so I wouldn't get my
car doors smacked in. They stopped a few feet from
my spot beside me and watched me get in my car.
They had to be about late twenties early thirties. They
stood there for a minute, but walked away when they
saw me pull my phone out. I called my dad,

(59:11):
shaking and explaining everything to him. He stayed on the
phone with me until I calmed down enough to drive home.
You might be saying, well, that's not that bad, but
it gets worse. I'm still on the phone with my dad,
trying to calm down when I noticed they came back,
but this time they're in their car. They slowly drove

(59:33):
by my car, and the one in the passenger's seat
looks at me with a creepy smile and waves at
me in a flirty way, and then they drove away.
Let's just say I didn't leave that parking lot for
a long time. Side note, I was so shaken up.
I forgot to pay attention to the road and almost
crashed into a car that was speeding in the parking lot. Also,

(59:56):
I know the men knew I was only sixteen or
eighteen years old, because I have a squ parking lot
passed on my Ruvy mirror. I was about twelve. Me
and my mom had gone to town forty five minutes
out to do some shopping with some of her friends.

(01:00:18):
I had a corn snake at the time, so I
asked her if I could walk around the pet store
one door down from the mini supermarket she was shopping
in to compare prices of frozen mice with her local cellar.
She said sure, just to be back as soon as
I was done the pet store. I'd been there as
long as I can remember. It had a very warehouse

(01:00:38):
feel about it and was poorly lit by dim fluorescent
lights too far above the ground. Before checking out the mice,
I just wanted to check around the rest of the store,
being the curious twelve year old I was. As I
was roaming the aisles, I noticed him. He was in
every aisle. I strolled down middle Age a bit tubby

(01:01:02):
wearing dark plumber overalls over a white shirt. It was
summer and it was hot. I remember thinking, why on
earth would you come into a non air conditioning building
like that? He carried a basket, but there's nothing in it.
He slowly stalked me down the aisles. I noticed his
basket wasn't getting any fooler. I started walking faster, taking

(01:01:27):
random turns down different aisles to see if I was
just being paranoid, but he was always ten to fifteen
feet behind me. At some point I finally thought I
lost him. I power walked out of the pet store,
and as soon as I cleared the doors, I sprinted
down the street to the mini supermarket that my mom
was in. She hadn't even made it down the second

(01:01:48):
aisle completely. I caught up to her immediately stripped off
my bright pink hoodie and slung it in the cart,
as well as ripped out the hair ties in my hair.
I was smart for doing that, because when I look
back at the door, he was standing there, still carrying
the basket from the pet store and scanning the store
for any side of a twelve year old girl in

(01:02:09):
a bright pink hoodie and ponytail. When we left, I
saw you in your van as you drove away a
plain white van, like something out of a true crime
documentary or horror film. I think about him sometimes and
how if you would have caught me before I got
to the supermarket on a quiet Wednesday afternoon. What horrors

(01:02:30):
could have been waiting for me in the back of
his van. Guy in overalls who followed me out of
the pet store without putting down his basket. Even after
ten years, let's not ever meet again. This happened almost
ten years ago when I was eighteen. I wanted to

(01:02:52):
go pick up some groceries at her local Walmart. It
was around eleven at night and I just got off work.
I usually have no going anywhere by myself, but on
this night, my inner self was telling me to invite
a friend to tag along. I am roughly five feet tall,
female one hundred and five pounds, but I don't get
spooked too easily and always carry pepper spray with me. Anyways,

(01:03:16):
back to the story, I call my friend and ask
if she'll accompany me and I go to pick her up.
We walk into the produce side of Walmart, and almost
right away I noticed this man staring at us very intently.
He was around five to five, kind of heavy, had
a Hawaiian shirt on and looked up a Hawaiian descent.

(01:03:38):
So we're over by the fresh produce and I'm keeping
an eye on him as he pretends to be looking
at bread but clearly keeps putting things back. I turned
it back for a second to grab something. Then I
hear a man's voice ask, Hey, do you guys know
how anywhere I can get food? This late? Four? More

(01:03:58):
background information. I live in a city of about fifty
thousand people. Right across from this Walmart was apple Bees,
which stays open rather late, of mc donald's a quarter
mile up the road, and other various places to get food.
Plus we're in the middle of Walmart, duh, So I
don't beat around the bush and faintly tell him that

(01:04:19):
there's a couple of restaurants around where we were. He
then asked, well, what's fun to do around here? It's
late at night, so nothing really to do except maybe
go to apple Bee's or a local bar. I tell
him apple Bees is open, and we have bars downtown,
but that's all I'm aware of. He proceeds to ask

(01:04:42):
what we were doing when we leave, and I tell
him we have to leave now he apologizes and said
he didn't mean to be creepy. We walk away and
are looking in the frozen aisle when I spat him
on the opposite side walking by. I tell my friend
I've had a bad feeling about him since we walked
in and wanted to test out if he was following us.

(01:05:03):
We walked a few aisles, and sure enough, he was
on the other end, nonchalantly walking by, pretending not to
see us. I backtrack a couple ales to get something,
and he walks up, pretending to look at things. I
finally ask him if I can help him with something.
I think he's threw him off guard by being so direct,
because he stutters and asks what aisle the milk is

(01:05:26):
on or something. I tell him and we leave to
check out. Well Onun't you know it, he's in the
checkout right next to us with a pack of gum,
no milk or whatever else he was looking at. He
finishes first and watches us leave the store. ME, thinking
he's gone by, now tells my friend let's just run

(01:05:46):
to the car. So we run out to the car,
look around to make sure we didn't see him. Now
here's the real creepy part. As I'm leaving the parking lot,
we see him sitting on the trunk of his car,
watching people leave Walmart. I drove by to get his
license plate number. He sees us and rushes into his car.

(01:06:09):
I sped off as quickly as I could so he
can't see where I went. I then called the cops
and tell them about what just happened, and relayed the
license plate number to them. So creepy Hawaiian shirt guy
who was supposedly looking for places to eat while in
the middle of Walmart, please let's never meet again. I

(01:06:35):
was in Walmart earlier this evening with my two daughters,
one elementary school aged and the other middle school. We
looked around for school supplies for a minute and then
rounded the corner to see the Halloween candy on display.
As we turned the corner, a slightly older guy came
really close to us like he was in a hurry,

(01:06:55):
and almost hit our car. He didn't have a car
or any items. I said, oh, excuse me, and then
stopped in front of the candy to let my youngest
ask a bunch of questions about the candy pumpkins. The
man stopped quickly and started rummaging around the candies right
next to my daughter. He was listening to our conversation

(01:07:16):
and reacted strangely when my daughter said that she wanted
to take a picture of the candy. He was twitchy
and caught my eye and looked away quickly. We moved
on to the women's PJ section to look around for
a few minutes, and I noticed the same man passed
by really close again. He was turning to the right
towards his shoes, with a big bag of candy cradled

(01:07:38):
in his arms. My girls went across the aisle to
the boy's clothing section while I finished deciding, and when
I was catching up to them a couple minutes later,
the guy was wandering through the boy's clothes towards my daughter.
He paused and looked confused but still like he was
in a rush, and watched me to discuss sizes with
my youngest. This is when I started thinking something was

(01:08:01):
off with this dude. I mentioned him to my older
daughter and then we moved through the partition into the
girl's clothes. I didn't see him again for a few
minutes and figured it was nothing, but then he came
into the section and was acting like he was trying
to pick out a Justice shirt. He still had the
big bag of candy that he kept adjusting his grip on.

(01:08:24):
I kept seeing him take quick peeks at my girls,
but every time he saw me watching him, he pretended
to be occupied in his shopping. I told my oldest
I thought he was following us, and she said that
she noticed the same thing. I made my youngest get
in the cart so he could keep them both close.
They both tend to wander a bit. The guide then

(01:08:47):
walked out of the girls section, passing close behind me,
but he looped around the partition back into the boys
section and stopped at the opening on the other side,
but still straight in the line of sight. My eye
again and twitched. Then pulled out his phone, texted something,
and walked away. By this time I was on high

(01:09:08):
alert and possibly quite paranoid. I looked around and saw
two slightly older men standing around. One was in electronics,
kind of looking at a half empty display of something,
but I swear he glanced at me several times, even
though there were three or four racks of clothes in
a hallway with occasional people in between. The third guy

(01:09:31):
had wandered into the girl's section and was apparently considering
buying an A Justice shirt too. Every time he saw
me notice him watching us, he wandered down to the
baby aisles, but keep coming back. After a couple minutes,
I realized now looking back, that if I suspected something bad,
I should have just gotten my girls out of there.
Close shopping for a picky preteen isn't fine, and I

(01:09:54):
wanted to get it done and over with. On top
of that, I kept second guessing myself that the other
two guys were just a coincidence. I kept my girls
really close to me after we moved to the woman's
section and I didn't see any of them again, and
I stopped feeling creeped out like we were being watched.
Now it's the middle of the night, and I'm pretty

(01:10:15):
freaked out wondering what could have happened if I didn't
notice the first guy and continue to let my girls
wander around. Should I report anything? I can't really imagine
anything would be done just because I noticed some guy
watching my daughters in Walmart. So a couple days ago,

(01:10:37):
I was headed into the grocery store and waited for
our car to pass so I could cross. While he
was driving very slowly, I saw I had a digital
camera in his hand, and he snapped a picture of me.
The flash went off, the windows were down, and everything
like he's fully prepared to do this, and he's probably

(01:10:57):
done it many times before. I very audibly said what
the fuck? And by the time I realized what had
just happened, he had driven away. It sufficiently freaked me
out to the point where I asked all my female
friends if they've ever experienced anything like that before. Of course,
all of them had a different but equally creepy encounter

(01:11:19):
with a man, because why wouldn't they. I feel like
a lot of women are constantly put into uncomfortable situations
because a lot of men just can't act like women
are actual human beings. I'll be staying away from that
store for a while. Maybe not creepy, I don't know.

(01:11:43):
I'm a twenty three year old female. A few years ago,
when I was eighteen, I was going grocery shopping. As
I was walking down the aisles, I noticed this older guy,
maybe in his late fifties early sixties, who seemed to
be following me every aisle I went down. He was
at the other end staring at me. I'm a bit
paranoid because I'm five foot three and ninety five pounds

(01:12:06):
and know that I would have a hard time fighting
someone off if I needed to. I kept my eye
on him, and when I went to check out, he
goes right behind me. I stupidly at the time didn't
ask someone to walk me out to my car because
I carried tons of self defense stuff like pepper spray, screamers,
window breakers, and seatbelt cutters. I was meek and didn't

(01:12:28):
want to bother the busy workers. I booked it to
my car and saw him following me. I locked my
doors and sped out of the parking lot. I'm thankful
I checked my back mirrors because he was still following me.
At this point, I kept circling the same block over
and over. After like five minutes of doing this, he

(01:12:50):
finally got the point that I was onto him and
would keep circling the blocks until he stopped. He drove away.
I circled a few more times and then to my
friend's house because I was scared that he were still
out there and would find out where I lived. What's
also scary is a similar thing happened the next time
I was shopping. It wasn't the same guy, but it

(01:13:11):
was still just unnerving. I told my mama. She gave
me the rules of having someone walk me to my car,
and if someone's following me, to pull into a police station.
I usually don't bother to post anything on Reddit, but
I figured typing out this situation might make me feel better.

(01:13:36):
So I am twenty three years old, female and live
on my own. I just moved out to this area
for school and went to my local walmart to gather
supplies for cleaning. As I walked in, I take note
of an older man near the entrance that I briefly
made eye contact with and nodded at, and just kept walking.

(01:13:57):
I was looking at folders for a bit and made
my way back towards the electronic section at the back
of the door to look for a charger. I was
making my way through the aisles on the way down,
looking at the fall decorations. Lots of them were geared
towards kids, so I just glanced at them quickly and
turned around to leave. The same man was there and

(01:14:20):
was holding and inspecting some paper plates with childish Halloween
designs on them for kids. I didn't even hear him
walking to the aisle. I thought that was a little strange,
but brushed it off, thinking he had grandkids. I left
and made my way into the electronic section where they
kept the chargers behind locked glass doors. I'm there for

(01:14:43):
about seven minutes and the same man shows up, and
I see the reflection of him in the glass that
he's checking out my ass as he walks by. At
this point, I was pretty far away from where I
last saw him. I brushed it off because I used
to men making quick glances like that in public, and
left it at that. He was looking at the display

(01:15:04):
behind me at the other side, goes and leaves, 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.

(01:15:25):
At that point, he was giving off massive creep vibes
and I started shaking with adrenaline. I was alone in
the aisle with him. I was afraid that he would
try to grab me. I stayed calm, despite my throat
feeling like I had a ball in it, and waited
for him to leave. He does. Then I go down
a random aisle near the electronics, but in the general

(01:15:47):
part of the store, and waited there for a few minutes,
standing there to see if he would show up. I
noticed that there are two men behind the electronics counter
and wanted to stay near them if anything went wrong.
I wanted to confirm if he was following me or not.
Sure Enough, five minutes later, there he was. I caught
him quite literally, speed walking down the main walkway, looking

(01:16:10):
down each aisle as if frantically looking for me. He
stopped dead, saw me notice him, and then promptly scurried off.
I went back into the electronics section and informed them
that I was being followed and was not comfortable, and
asked if there was security. They didn't have any, just
that prevention, and offered to check me out there or

(01:16:32):
accompany me to finish shopping. They were very kind, and
I took them up on their 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 me and watching me
from the front of the registers. Now I get my

(01:16:54):
stuff check out, and then weave all through the clothing
section to leave at a different section than the one
I originally entered from and originally saw him. I didn't
see him the whole time I did this. Got to
my car, I promptly drove to my new place, but
stopped halfway in a random neighborhood. I pulled over and
pretended that it was my house to see if anyone

(01:17:17):
was following me. I did not want this guy finding
out where I lived. 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 never had
an issue. This all happened in the middle of the day,

(01:17:40):
at like three p m. I was wearing loose clothes
and just wanted to make a quick trip in and out.
I have no idea what could have happened if I
didn't notice where what his intentions might have been, I
can't imagine that they were good. Maybe he would have
followed me to my new place. Who knows either way.
This whole encounter was scary. He had no clue. I

(01:18:03):
saw his reflection and the nasty expression on his face.
Just stay aware, guys, and watch yourself. Two years ago,
I lived near a big city well taking care of
my great grandma. One day, me and my mom decided

(01:18:24):
to get some groceries, but we did not have a car,
so we had to walk. We were almost there when
I heard my first name being shouted. I ignored it
at first, thinking I was hearing things. But then this
random lady that looked pretty disheveled and scared ran up
to me, grabbing my arm and kept repeating my name.
My name is not a common name, and everyone I

(01:18:46):
know called me by a completely unrelated name, so there's
no way that she overheard someone else saying it. She
looked so frightened, and I'll never be able to get
her face out of my mind. She was holding onto
my arms with a really tight grip, and I remember
being surprised because she was very skinny and frail looking.
Her grip left bruises on my arms for a while.

(01:19:09):
My mom ended up grabbing my arm and dragging me away.
She was freaked out too, but didn't say anything. She
just kept praying. When I got home, she prayed a
lot and blessed me. I was not scared of the lady,
just more confused. How did she know my name? Why

(01:19:30):
did she look so scared.

All Episodes

True Scary Encounters while Shopping | Compilation

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Fudd Around And Find Out

Crime Junkie

24/7 News: The Latest

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}True Scary Encounters while Shopping | Compilation