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“I was crying too hard to drive”

December 2, 2010 By Contributor

Today I was in my favorite chain of gas stations in town. They are always well lit, clean and have 5 attendants on the clock at all times.

I went to the ATM,and got out my money (hovering close to the screen to block the view) and walked to the counter. Some guy got into a spat with a woman behind him because she would not buy something he wanted, she said “Son, we don’t have the money for that” and turned to go get into the far line away from me.

As I walked this dirty looking guy walked up behind me, and stood in line. I only noticed him because he was watching me closely, and he was the guy that snapped at his apparent mother.

My first thought was he might think of taking my money he looked at me so intensely, so I tucked my purse under my arm and zipped it up.

As the clerk came to me and I started counting the money, I felt the guy behind me get very close to me, close enough to feel his breath on the back of my neck. He finally bumped my ass, and I could actually feel his hand through my slacks!

I turned around abruptly and screamed at him, “Do not touch me! I don’t know you! You have plenty of room to stand here, you do not have to be so close to me!”

He jumped back and started calling me names and saying, “That guy behind me pushed me.”

I yelled back, “I don’t fucking care you have no right to touch me, back up right now!”

He looked about my age (early 20’s). I looked around the store at this point everyone was staring like I was a crazy woman. I even saw his mother and she was looking at him like…I don’t know like she expected it? Kind of a “Oh my god not again.” I turned back around, because now I knew everyone was staring at him. He kept calling me names, under his breath and i finished paying for my money order, and left.

I was so humiliated! I even stood up for myself, but by the time I was out of the store and driving home I actually had to pull over in another gas station and have a panic attack there locked in my car because I was crying too hard to drive.

– BME

Location: Tulsa, OK

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Filed Under: public harassment, Stories Tagged With: assault, gas station harassment, groping, public harassment

Comments

  1. Golden Silence says

    December 2, 2010 at 10:25 am

    Awesome that you stood up for yourself, but NOT awesome that no one jumped in to defend you. Sure, they all stared at King Loser, but I cannot understand for the life of me why no one, not even his alleged mother, told him to shut up.

    So sorry about that! You have my support.

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SSH will not publish any comment that is offensive or hateful and does not add to a thoughtful discussion of street harassment. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, disabalism, classism, and sexism will not be tolerated. Disclaimer: SSH may use any stories submitted to the blog in future scholarly publications on street harassment.
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