Not too long ago, I had something really strange happen. It was just a few weeks back, and I came home from work one day, just like any other. I live by myself in an apartment, and I've lived here for about two years.
It's a decently nice place. Probably 10 or 20 minutes after arriving back from work, at about 4 in the afternoon, there was a knock on my front door. I went over and opened it up to see a woman standing there who I did not recognize.
She said that she had witnessed somebody seemingly trying to break into my car just minutes prior. I was told by her that she saw me leaving my car, and a man then walked by several minutes later and tried the doors and windows. She said she just wanted to let me know.
Of course, I was very concerned about it. I wanted to know who and why someone would try to break into my vehicle, although I didn't really have much of anything worth stealing in the car. So, I left my apartment, and then the woman walked out with me to my car.
I always parked in the large parking lot right outside of the apartment building and usually in the same space. Lots of other cars were in the parking lot as well. When we got to my car, thankfully, it looked fine.
None of the windows were smashed or anything, and the doors were all closed and locked, so it looked like the man didn't get in. After seeing this and looking around, I didn't see the guy that the lady had described, so I told her thanks and then I went back into the apartment building. That was weird enough, but things got weirder the next morning when I was leaving for work, like usual.
I noticed one other car running a little ways away in the parking lot. The car was kind of behind me and up against the end of the parking lot. I didn't think anything of it; however, when I was driving away and I went past it, for whatever reason, I looked over.
I'm not really sure why I did, but I noticed that the same woman appeared to be behind the wheel who had talked to me. I assumed that she just lived in the complex. Now, I had never seen her before prior to when she showed up at my door, but the building was fairly large, and I certainly didn't know everybody inside of it.
I didn't see her for the rest of that day. The next day, though, when I got home from work, I parked in the same space that I usually do. Just seconds after parking, a car entered the lot and parked against the back of the lot behind me a ways.
I looked over and saw that it was the same woman; she was parked in the same general spot that I had seen her before. Remembering the previous events, I did not get out of my car right away. I wanted to see what she would do, so I stayed inside of my car.
When I did, she did the same thing. After 10 minutes, the woman had not gotten out of her vehicle, and neither did I. It was almost like she was watching me or something.
Finally, I got tired of waiting, and I got out, and I went in. The woman stayed in her car the entire time. By this point, I didn't know if I was being paranoid or if something weird was going on; I just tried to forget about everything.
The next day, I didn't notice the woman at all, but the following one, I was staying up really late. It was much later than I usually do, probably like 1 or 2 a. m.
I was just hanging out in the living room and watching movies on TV when, out of nowhere, I heard this noise that sounded like somebody was trying to open the door to my apartment. I looked over to the door and saw the knob starting to turn. Luckily, it was locked and didn't open.
I had no idea who would be trying to enter my place; I certainly don't have any friends that would just walk in. I expected someone to maybe knock on the door or something after that, but nobody did. I quietly got up from the couch and walked over to the door.
When I got there, I looked through the peephole. I saw the same woman standing there on the other side. I could not believe it.
Why was she trying to just enter my apartment in the middle of the night? I almost opened the door and confronted her, but I decided not to. Instead, I just kept watching her.
She stood there right in front of my door for maybe 30 seconds, then she just turned and walked away. I was left very confused, and since then, I haven't seen her. I don't know why this woman is seemingly stalking me.
I'm pretty sure that she does not even live in the apartment complex. I've looked in the general area of the parking lot where she parked those times, and I haven't seen her car. I even saw a few of my neighbors in the hallways, and I asked them if they had ever seen the woman or knew if she lived in the building.
Nobody knew her. I'm hoping that I never see her again. I'm a female, and this happened one summer when I was home from college.
During the summer, I was living at my parents' house and working at a retail store nearby. I remember that at one point, pretty early on, some guy messaged me on Instagram. I didn't pay his profile too much attention, but I could see that he was much older than me and that.
. . I didn't know him; he just said hi to me, but I did not respond.
I've had random guys message me over the years, and usually, I just ignore it, and most of the time they don't message again. However, this guy did not give up. He sent me another message on Instagram saying hi, and then a third one when I didn't respond to that.
After that, I got annoyed, and I blocked him. I thought that was that, but that was not that. Probably the next day, after I blocked him, I got a friend request from the same guy on Facebook.
I declined it. I should have blocked him right then and there on Facebook, but I didn't. The next day, I saw that he had liked a bunch of my posts on Facebook and commented on some of my really old pictures and posts.
He was making comments on the pictures of me, but he was also telling me to accept his friend request and stuff in the comments. At that point, I deleted all of his comments, and then I blocked him on Facebook as well. I really didn't know who he was, but I didn't really care either; he was being a creep and shouldn't be messaging me when I clearly didn't want anything to do with him.
After that, things were fine for a few days, but one day when I was at work, he showed up at my job. The first time I saw him there, I didn't recognize him; I'd only seen his profile picture from the times that I was blocking him. I thought he was just an average guy shopping at the store, and I wouldn't remember him from his picture.
I was working as a cashier, but the guy approached me with no items, so I knew something was up. He then said hi and brought up the Facebook and Instagram stuff. He asked me why I kept blocking him, and he claimed to be a nice guy.
That's when I realized who it was, and I was really creeped out because, to tell the truth, I didn't even think this guy lived in the same state as me; I thought he was just some random guy on the other side of the country stalking me on social media. So when he said that in the store, I really didn't expect it. I remember he started asking me what time I was off of work and stuff.
I did not tell him, and I told him instead that I was not interested and said that he should leave. At first, he acted all defensive and asked what my deal was, but eventually, he walked away and left. However, he showed up at my job again several days later.
This time, he did not come up to me and talk but just walked around the store. I saw him pretending to shop and then look over at me a few times. He stayed there for about 30 minutes and then he left without buying anything.
After that, I told my boss about it, and my boss said to let him know if the guy came back in the store. Well, luckily, I didn't see him in the store again. However, just a few days after this, I got home from work one night at about 8:00 p.
m. or so. My parents were gone someplace, so I was home by myself.
About an hour after I got home, at roughly 9:00, I heard a knock on the front door to the house. I left my bedroom and went to the living room window to look outside and see who was there before answering. When I did, I saw that the same guy was there.
This was really creepy because I had no idea that he actually knew where I lived. I didn't waste any time, and I got out my phone and I called the police. I told them that some guy was stalking me and he now showed up at my house.
Then I went back to my bedroom and waited for the police to get there. For the next 10 minutes or so, I was on the line with the 911 operator. Thankfully, the man didn't break in or anything.
Soon, the police got there; they found the man in the backyard trying to find a way to enter the house. He was arrested, and I told the police the whole story about him stalking me. I'm really glad that he was caught; I haven't seen the man since, and he's still not allowed within a good distance of me.
I work a pretty typical office job in the city, and I live in a house about 15 minutes away. I drive the same route every day, and there's usually traffic by the city, obviously, but closer to my house there's much less, especially in my neighborhood. I tell you this because one day I noticed this random woman following me home for most of the drive.
I obviously didn't notice, but when I started approaching my neighborhood, things got quiet, and I noticed the same car taking all the same turns as me. Eventually, we reached my street. I knew many of the cars that lived on my street, and this wasn't one of them.
I looked in my mirror and saw a woman with blonde hair driving, but she was wearing sunglasses. On that first time that I noticed her, I just drove to my house as usual and pulled into my driveway. She drove right past but did slow down a little.
I wasn't 100% sure that she was following me, but I thought that she was. The very next day, I was driving home from work again, and I noticed the same car. This time, I thought that she had to be following me for sure, so when I.
. . Got to my neighborhood before pulling onto my street, I went around the block once.
The car followed me the entire way, proving that this woman was deliberately following me. Then I went to my street again and pulled into my driveway. Once more, like the previous day, she just drove past.
I kept an eye out my window that night a few times but didn't see her or anything suspicious. So, the next night I noticed her following me again. I was getting frustrated now, and I decided to confront her.
When I was almost to my neighborhood, I pulled over on the side of the road. At first, she started to pull over as well, then she abruptly veered back onto the road and drove away. I continued with the rest of my drive home, not noticing her again that night.
I was glad that she had stopped following me then, but she did also know where I lived. Anyways, I was trying to figure out who she was and stuff, and I didn't recognize her from what I saw, and I really couldn't think of anything. The next day after work, she was driving behind me once again.
Now I really couldn't believe it—so many days in a row she was just following me home from work. Did this woman have nothing better to do? So, around the same spot as the night before, I once again decided to pull over to the side of the road.
That seemed to work the previous day when I did so. This time, however, she pulled over completely as well. Both of our cars then sat there on the side of a pretty quiet street.
I then decided to get out; I was going to confront her and get to the bottom of it. But just as I stepped out, I saw the two rear doors of her car open up. These two large men both got out; they were much bigger than me and not nice-looking guys at all.
I had a bad feeling, and I decided quickly to get back into my vehicle. So, I jumped in and then quickly drove away from there. I saw in my mirror, though, the men running back to the car.
They got in, and soon the lady started following me again, and they were quickly able to catch up with me. At that point, I called the police. I reported how the same woman kept following me and stuff.
I gave my address of where I was driving, and I was told that the police were on their way. Unfortunately, though, the woman stopped following me before the police arrived. She just randomly turned and went out of my sight.
I still talked with the police about it that night. Unfortunately, there wasn't really much that could be done. I didn't get her license plate number, and I just knew the car type and very basic description of the people.
The next day was a Saturday, so I didn't have to go to work. Instead, in the morning, I took my dog on a walk around the neighborhood. I try to walk my dog as much as possible, and he loves the exercise.
So, I remember that I got near a park just a couple of blocks from my house. As I was approaching the park, I saw two men walking down the street towards me. They were a long way away, but I soon recognized them to be the same two men who had gotten out of the car with the woman.
When I noticed them, I turned around and just sprinted with my dog all the way back home. I was able to make it, and I'm not even sure if the men chased me or not. I didn't see them or the woman for the rest of the day, and after that, I haven't seen any of them since.
I haven't been followed home and haven't seen the lady or those guys. It's all very strange. I'm not sure what was going on there, why I kept getting followed, or what the men wanted.
When I lived in the city, I would walk to and from work every day. It took about 15 minutes, and I disliked it when the weather was really cold, but normally it wasn't too bad. I would just take sidewalks and go along city streets to make it to my job.
I obviously had an apartment that I lived in, and I lived there for several months. Some strange things happened, and I think I was being stalked, though the first time that I noticed it was one night when I got off of work kind of late. Normally, the sidewalks would not be super busy, but there were always people walking behind me.
It's a pretty large city, and people are always out. However, sometimes I do work late, and in the really late hours, only a couple of other people might be walking. So when I was maybe halfway back on this night, for whatever reason, I glanced behind me.
I wasn't even aware of anybody being back there, but when I did, I saw a man walking down the sidewalk a long ways back. For some reason, he just looked suspicious to me. Maybe it was because he was wearing all dark clothing, a hooded sweatshirt, and looking down at the ground with his hands in his pockets.
He was a really long way back, though, so I didn't get a great look at him. I kept walking, and like five minutes later, I turned around a corner and happened to hear footsteps a ways back. I looked over and saw the same guy, but now slightly closer.
Over the next part of my route home, I turned two times in a matter of two blocks. To my surprise, the man made both of these turns. me, and I held my breath, feeling my heart race.
The footsteps stopped right outside my door; I could hear them lingering for what felt like an eternity. Just when I thought they might try to open my door, I heard a voice say something, but it was too muffled to understand. I was terrified and wished I had taken self-defense classes or something.
I stayed completely still, hoping they would give up and leave. After a couple of minutes, the footsteps moved away from my door and began to wander around the house. I could hear drawers being opened and closed, and the sound of things being knocked over.
My mind raced with possibilities, and I prayed that the police would arrive soon. I felt a surge of anger and fear thinking about the neighbor from a few days ago. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he had something to do with this.
After what felt like forever, I heard loud sirens outside. Suddenly, the intruder's movements became frantic; I could hear them rushing toward the back entrance of the house. I stayed in my corner, still on the phone, whispering to the dispatcher about what was happening.
After a few moments, I heard the front door burst open, and I could feel relief wash over me as police officers entered, shouting commands for anyone inside to come out. They quickly searched the house, and after a tense few minutes, I was found in my bedroom. I was shaken but unharmed.
They assured me that everything was under control and that they would find the person responsible for the break-in. After that night, I felt a mix of fear and anger. I put in a security system and became more vigilant about my surroundings.
I didn't see the strange neighbor again, but I stayed alert, knowing that I had to protect myself and my home. I wished that I could put the incidents behind me and find peace in my new city, but the memory of that night haunted me for a long time. My bedroom door, and I was terrified.
Soon, whoever it was tried the handle, which was locked. After the door didn't open, they slowly walked away. I hoped this meant they were leaving, but it didn't.
Just about two or three minutes after that, I heard footsteps approaching in the hallway again. But before they reached my door, they once again turned around and walked away, this time rather quickly. Around that same time, I also heard cars driving down the street outside.
I realized that the police had gotten there. The person in my house tried leaving, but they were caught. It turned out to be the same man who I kept seeing walking by when I was gardening, and as it turns out, he was not even a neighbor; he lived in the next city over.
But he had somehow been stalking me for weeks. They found photos of me in his house—some from my social media and others taken of me gardening without my knowledge. I was very creeped out by that, but I'm really glad that the guy was caught.
