I was at Target with three of my friends (all girls) and one of them wanted to get coffee from the Starbucks that was inside the Target. So the four of us went over and waited in line and it was moving pretty slowly and after a while this guy came up to us. He had a big cart and kindly asked us to let him through and as he was passing us he stopped. He stood really close to us and said, “Did you know that, in my past life, I was hanged for killing young intelligent women like you? I ran them over in a place just like this but of course it wasn’t called Target back then.” We all just stared at him. We were so creeped out. He continued, “Haha I’m just joking. Thank you pretty ladies for taking the time to let me joke with you today.”
None of us were amused or thought he was joking.
Fast-forward about 10 minutes. We had discussed creepy man and one of my friends said he reeked of alcohol and we had seen him talking to another group of people from our school (we were 14/15 at the time) and he touched one of their shoulders so when we had our drinks we got the hell out of there. We were trying to leave before he saw us again and just avoid him all together but that didn’t work so well. He abandoned his cart and followed the four of us for almost five blocks. He even took shortcuts to catch up to us and we sprinted away because we were so terrified.
We were so focused on getting away from him that we forgot about the police station right across the street that everyone said we should have gone to.
Optional: Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?
Educate people Educate people about how it is actually offensive and creepy, not a compliment.about how it is actually offensive and creepy, not a compliment.
– Anonymous
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.
