It was 2:00 A.M. last Sunday morning. I was in my car. I was alone. I was being followed by a red F150 truck.
I know what you are wondering because it would be the first question on my mind. Why are you out alone at 2:00 A.M.? The answer is simple. One day per week, I help my father-in-law with his part-time job as a rural route delivery person.
I knew that I was being followed pretty quick. The first indicator was that prickly feeling at the back of the neck. There are not many cars on the road at 2:00 A.M. which makes other vehicles very noticeable. I am familiar with the area, so I drove in a big circle to determine if I really was being followed. The truck took a wider circle and ended up behind my car again. The truck followed me for a few minutes. We were both driving a normal speed. I approached a stop sign and made a left turn. The truck sat at the stop and watched my vehicle. I kept an eye on the truck and continued with my job. After a few minutes, the truck backed up and pulled into a driveway.
I have been thinking about being followed....wondering...What did I do right?...What did I do wrong? Should I have done something else?
What did I do right? I am proud that I did not panic. I realized that I was being followed. I was aware of my surrounding and not distracted by the radio or a cell phone. My doors and windows were locked and my cell phone was turned on. I did not speed up or engage the other driver. I knew the location of the closest open gas station. I did not go home because I did not want the driver of the truck to know where I live.
What did I do wrong? I should have called my father-in-law who was close by in another vehicle. I could have called 911. I wish I had the license number of the red F150 and a description of the driver.
In retrospect, the driver of the red F150 could have been following me to make sure I was not doing anything suspicious. Perhaps they were part of a neighborhood watch program. Once the driver watched what I was doing for a while...they went home. The entire event lasted approximately ten minutes.
Have you ever been followed? Do you have tips on how to deal with being followed?
4 comments:
I was followed once while driving from Augusta to Nashville. About 10pm there was a heavy cloudburst, enough to make visibility really poor. A car that had already been behind me for a while (I wasn't sure how long - reasonably busy highway) glued itself to my back bumper - even though he had halogen headlights, and thereby much better visibility than I was likely to have. After a few miles, I pulled off an exit with a hotel, and he followed right behind.
I parked directly in front of the door and went in. The dude from the car behind me came in while I was registering, and got a room himself. He requested the same time wake-up call I had asked for. So I got out and to my room before he was done registering, then called the front desk and moved my wake-up call forward by two hours.
I was up and out in record time the next morning. His car was still in the parking lot.
Wow. That was smart moving your wake-up call forward. I don't think I would have gotten much sleep.
I was followed by an ex-boyfriend (RM)on and off for about a year. He had this crazy little red VW Beetle. When I would see it in my rear view mirror, I cringed. He would come to my work place (a fast-food resturant) and just sit there and stare at me. I would tell the cook to pile the black pepper on his burger then serve up the special treat to him and he still would sit there grinning ear to ear.
One day he followed me on my day off when I was on my way to visit my new boyfriend. I spied him just in time and sped past my boy friend drive way and then lost him by taking a quick turn towards a resevoir above my boyfriend's house. That is, I thought I lost him. He apparently spied my car at my boyfriend's house later, as the next day when my boyfriend was out jogging, he got run off the road by a crazy little red VW. That was the topper.
The next time he showed up at my work place, I told him I would meet him in the local movie theater parking lot when I got off that night. He, of course wanted me to run away with him, and I of course told him no. He then said if I was going to kill my mom. I told him, that if he did that I would never forgive him. He then told me if he could not have me, that he would marry someone in my class so he could see me at my high school reunions.
The next week I had a car accident and totaled my car. It was a good thing though, I no longer got followed. At the end of the summer, I got a new car and went off to college.
I never saw RM again in person, but one day after I had graduated from college and was looking thru a high school friend's (AM) wedding pictures, I saw a ghost. It was RM and AM's friend (DH) dancing. I asked AM who that person was and she said some strange guy named RM that DH is getting a divorce from. Whew!
Rabbitfoot: Thank you for sharing your story. Whew is right! I thought being followed for ten minutes was bad...you were followed for a year.
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