My Stalker

These kinds of stories often give us a thrill. We read books/articles and watch movies about this very thing. It is entertaining... until it happens to you. Don't get me wrong, there is some part of me that still finds this topic interesting to read about, but it took me a while to get back to this point.

This article is pretty lengthy, but worth it in the end, trust me.

First, I'm going to tell you a little bit about the city where I grew up, so I can paint you a picture. It's just big enough to be a city, or at least it felt like it. The closest city where you could see concerts, see an NHL game, go to good shopping malls/movie theatres or find a Costco was about two hours away. Our city did have two malls; a five-minute mall and a ten-minute mall. The five-minute mall had a big brand furniture store, a Dollarama, a hair salon, nail salon, and a Blockbuster that eventually turned into a locally owned movie store. The ten-minute mall was the most popular, and it had "everything" you needed. There was a pharmacy, grocery store, three clothing stores, a food court, a movie theatre and a few others. Our ten-minute mall even had a small car dealership in it. Here is a terrible map I drew of the areas important to the story:

As a typical 16-year-old, my friends and I would go to the mall and hang out in our spare time. We would check out the cute boys, have lunch, and try on clothes that we had no intention of buying. It was great.

In the fall of 2006, I was working as a cashier and part-time supervisor. The store I worked in was new to the city, so it was usually pretty busy. Even with lots of new faces coming in every day, you got to recognize the regulars. They could have been the elderly couple coming in around 10:00 a.m. every morning to get their paper or the lottery players who would come and get their tickets a few times a week. Remember when I told you that there was a car dealership in one of the malls? Well, there was a guy who worked there, let's call him Jake. He wasn't ugly by any means; he would hit on us, we would feel awkward and walk past him, not paying any attention to him. Jake was in his mid to late twenties, and to be honest, he creeped us out. Well, for a few weeks, he had become a regular at my store too.

It was a Saturday, and a friend of mine, let's call her Katie, and I were going to see the late showing of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" after my shift. My Mom was out on a date that night; they went to see an NHL game (Leafs vs Senators) in that big city I mentioned earlier. Because she wouldn't need it, she let me drive her car that day.

I worked the closing shift, which ended at 7:00 p.m. (we usually were out of there by 7:30 p.m. at the latest). I was the supervisor that night, and it was a typical closing shift. Pulling down tags from the previous week's sales and putting out new tags for the sales that started on Sunday. I was in the cosmetics department, where the perfume and cologne were displayed, trying to finish everything before we closed.

I had just put out the last tag when I heard a voice say, "Hey Sam, can I get your help with something?" I turned around, and it was the creepy guy, Jake. I was immediately uncomfortable because I had no idea how he knew my name. Then I realized that I was wearing my name tag and telling myself to stop overreacting (in hindsight, this is where I realized I should have listened to my gut). He wanted me to help him find a cologne that the "ladies would like." I told him I had no idea what the ladies liked and that different colognes smelled differently on everyone, so he would have to see what he liked best. Was it rude? Maybe, but it was almost closing time, and I didn't care about him or what he thought. He was a creep. As I walked away, he said: "Well, I want to get one that you think smells nice on me." Uggghhhhh! He seriously could not take the hint. I told him that, unfortunately, I had to close the store, and he would have to come back tomorrow (when I wasn't working, muahahaha).

After work, I ran home, changed, picked up Katie and went to the theatre. We got our snacks and went to find our seats. As proper movie etiquette would dictate, we turned off our cellphones (I had the pink MotoRazr, I know, I was SUPER cool) and got comfy, ready to watch the show. We really liked the movie, and it scared the s**t out of us. When we got out of the theatre, the entire mall was closed, as we were about to exit, my friend had to use the bathroom. When we eventually did leave the mall, the parking lot was practically empty. Considering the movie we watched, we were understandably scared to walk to the car. A nice man who worked as a cleaner at the mall walked us there, making sure we got in safe and sound.

Once we were in the car, I turned my phone on just before we took off. As I was driving, when my phone was able to connect to the towers, it started beeping like crazy. We thought something happened to my Mom, so I pulled over right away and looked at who called. There were 18 missed calls and 12 voicemails. I didn't recognize the number, which made me even more concerned, because I thought it was Mom's date calling me. So I checked my voicemail (on speakerphone because my friend was just as worried as I was), and it wasn't Mom or her date that called me. It was Jake.

'How the fluff did he get your number?!" (she used a different word haha).

"I have no fluffing clue!!" (I also used a different word).

So we continued to listen to the voicemails. Jake's first few messages started with him asking what I was up to, saying that I looked beautiful that day, and how he'd like to take me out sometime. Then he started saying that he was watching the hockey game and he wanted me to come over for a few beers and watch the game with him. I was suspicious of him because, at that time of night, the game was almost over. "I know you're not at the legal drinking age yet, but that can be our little secret. We could have all kinds of secrets if you wanted." Oh boy. It went from that to him getting upset and pretty angry that I wasn't answering my phone. Then he said that when my movie was over, he's going to come to get me. What the fluff?! How did he know I was at the movies?!?!

At this point, I just stopped listening to the messages. I thought that if I didn't listen to them, I'd be fine, and it would all be over. I know I was naive, but it was very late, and I have never dealt with anything like this, so I didn't realize how dangerous the situation was. Here is another terrible map I drew showing you the route I took:

I drove to Katie's house to drop her off. In the picture above, you'll see that her home is right across the street from an intersection, which was usually pretty busy. Since I was a novice driver, I pulled into someone else's driveway on the side street so it would be easier to back out. Even then, I was the kind of person to wait for the person to get in their house with the door closed behind them before I drove off. Once she was safely in her home, I backed out of the random driveway, drove towards the intersection and started taking my usual route home. When I pulled onto the main road (that Katie's house was), I noticed a car pulled out from the street I was just on, not stopping at the stop sign, going at least 15km/h. It doesn't sound that fast, but considering how busy that street was (even at that time of night) to say it was odd would be an understatement.

When I turned, it turned, when I sped up, it sped up. When I went 5km/hr to get them angry enough to pass me, they just matched my speed. I came to the terrifying conclusion that this was probably Jake.

Terrified, I called Mom and told her what was going on. She said they were on their way back, going as fast as they could, and they should be back in just under a couple of hours. She also told me to go back to Katie's house.

However, she wasn't answering her phone, and I was too afraid to exit my car to knock on her door with him following me. I decided to keep driving.

So, I went back to the mall and drove in circles in the parking lot, hoping Jake would get bored and leave. He drove in behind me and parked at the other end of the parking lot.

I was s****ing my pants at this point. Mom was hours away, and none of my friends were answering their phone.

I was on my own.

After getting somewhat dizzy from driving in so many circles, I decided to leave. The car had a full tank, so if I had to drive around until Mom got home, I could safely. AS SOON as I started to drive towards the exit, I heard tires squeal, and within seconds the car was behind me. Then my phone rang again. It was him. I answer...

I s**t you not, after a few seconds of heavy breathing he says:

"Hey, beautiful."

I realized how much danger I was in, and it sent shivers through my whole body. I was SO angry with him. Who the hell does he think he is?? So I aggressively asked him how he got my number, and why he was following me. I was sitting at a traffic light, looking in my rearview mirror, and could clearly see it was him, on his phone, illuminated by the city and traffic lights. After I asked him this question, he just laughed, but not a normal laugh. It was flat, lacking emotion. I also watched him in the mirror, and he didn't even smile while he laughed. He was staring blankly at my car.

"Why are you following me?"

"I'm not following you; I'm sitting on my couch, watching the game, drinking a beer and waiting for you."

"You're not at home, and I can see you in the car behind me."

*More heavy breathing.* Silence.

"What do you want from me?! I have absolutely no interest in anything to do with you!"

"I told you in my message; I'm coming to get you." That was it; I wasn't going to deal with this anymore. I hung up my phone and just kept driving. He was tailgating me; if there were more than a foot between our vehicles, I'd be surprised. I continued to drive (you can see the routes I took in the above-mentioned picture) until I came to the entrance of the marina. I signalled, made a quick right turn without slowing down, and he followed. Right when my car was about to straighten out, I pulled the e-brake and made an abrupt left turn to get out of there, followed by another left turn, going back the way I came. I thought I had succeeded in shaking him, but at a red light on the way home, I saw him behind me again.

I had enough of this cat and mouse game, so I slowed down and drove directly to the police station. I parked in front of the building, had my cellphone in my hand, ready to call them if Jake decided to get out of his car and approach me. Thankfully he wasn't THAT stupid. After waiting for about five minutes, he left. I stayed parked there until I got a text from Mom saying that she was 5-ish minutes away from the house. Then I went home, finally feeling safe for the first time in hours.

Phew, it's over! Time to change my number and put it in my past, right? WRONG!

On Monday after school, I got to work and started cleaning up the shelves in the laundry detergent aisle. I'm crouching down, tidying up the bottom shelf, and who do I see walk around the corner and start walking towards me? That's right; it was Jake. It felt like all the blood left my body, I felt like I was going to pass out. So I ran into the stock room and started bawling. I collapsed, and thankfully as I was falling, the owner caught me, he sat me down on the floor and asked what was going on. I told him what happened, and as he stood up, Jake's head just popped up in the window of the stockroom doors. My boss was pi**sed. He took a box cutter and left the room to greet him. My boss shouted at Jake, told him that he was no longer welcome in the store, and if he ever saw his "pedophile ass" in the store ever again, he wouldn't make it to the parking lot.

I can't tell you how grateful I was for him after that. To this day, I thank him for doing what he did.

Jake ran out of the store as fast as he could and ripped out of the parking lot even quicker (almost causing an accident). The two cashiers at the front had no idea what was going on, so they called the owner to the front, thinking that Jake ran out because he stole something. After explaining what happened, that he had been kicked out of the store, they revealed a piece of information that showed just how bold this jerk was.

After what happened on Saturday night, you would think that it was a clear sign that whatever he thought was going on was over, right? NOPE! He showed up on Sunday, walked around the entire store for almost an hour, refused help when it was offered, and all he asked for "that cute blonde, Sam."

When I got the nerve to walk past that car dealership again (a couple of weeks after the incident), I noticed that he wasn't there. After not seeing him for several weeks, I felt particularly bold. I went in and asked if he still worked there, they told me he quit.

Thankfully this is where the story ends. I know there will be many of you who are going to say, "Why didn't you tell the police?!" My answer is that they can't do anything unless he does any physical harm to me, so I saw no point. I wish I knew how this all started so I could give you some advice on how to avoid it, but even to this day, I have no answers. I don't know how he got my number, how he knew where I was going, and unfortunately, if Jake followed me from the store, he would have been able to find out where I lived.

So please be careful, be observant and listen to your instincts. If something feels wrong about someone or something, vocalize it to someone you trust.

Stay safe.

You never know who's watching.