To think you don't just approach people in the street

[littleme2016]

..and start asking them personal questions.

So this afternoon, round 4pm, still bright. I was walking home from the hairdressers. Its about a fifteen minute walk at most.

All of a sudden this random man (I would say Turkish, maybe mid 30s. I'm 28) comes up behind me and does the whole "hi, merry Christmas" and then starts firing off a load of questons: 'what's your name?" "Where do you live?" Where do you work?". I was a bit unnerved and very vague with everything... I did tell him my first name but just said I lived about the road (very big road) and worked in an office.

He then proceeded to ask me did I wanna go for tea/coffee, I declined, he was very insistent but I think he finally got the message and more or less sprinted off.

Am I justified in thinking its a bit strange/sinister in the fact that I didn't know him nor him me from Adam but he wanted all my details...I mean I can understand someone saying 'hi' or smiling but all that.

I told my sister when I got home and she stated I should have told him to go away from the outset... Looking back I feel she was right..

Or am I just antisocial..

[UnicornInDMboots]

Yeah that's weird!!! YANBU! I'd have been really freaked out !!!

[Aeroflotgirl]

Think he was trying to hit on you, or after something.

[GeillisTheWitch]

He was a weirdo. I had a similar situation with a man who kept earwigging on a conversation I was having with a friend and asking questions about it, I'd never met him before and had to tell him quite bluntly to get lost after a couple of times. Some people have no clue about social etiquette.

[Loraline]

Distracting you so someone else could pick your pockets?

[Candlestickchick]

A man came up to me in the supermarket the other day and asked me for help choosing which tampons to get for his wife. Not cool.

[Elland]

I was reading a magazine on the train once and could see the guy next to me looking at what I was reading, as I was about to get off the train he asked me "is that what women really want what it said in your magazine" turns out he had read some sex stories/tips that were on the page I was looking at! Weird!

[sj257]

Sounds like he might have had some kind of learning disability? A bloke approached us today asking my husband to help him as his zip on his coat was stuck. My hubby sorted it and we started to walk off and he called us back asking what had made it get stuck. I said it was the flap of material inside the zip he said OK, we walked off again and he kept shouting after us. The whole thing had obviously made him very anxious. I think he was a resident from a local home.

[StoorieHoose]

I had this once. Turns out he was a distraction while his accomplice was stealing my purse out my bag. Fuckers

[WhisperingLoudly]

When I was about 22 whilst on my lunch break I was politely approached by a very attractive, well dressed guy wh asked me about my shoes (very lovely red leather heels from Karen Millen).

It was only when he asked me to take my stocking foot out of the show so he could see the inside that I decided it was all a bit weird and made my excuses and returned to the office.

Replaying story to my boss he was crying at my naivety in not realising I'd been cornered by a total fetishist

[Bananalanacake]

I've had this twice though over 10 years ago. Random men coming up behind me in Tesco car park, London street asking my name, do I want a drink? they weren't English and I assumed they were after a passport, I walked off and ignored them.

[littleme2016]

The purse theft didn't even cross my mind til I got home. I checked my bag and all was still there.

I seriously doubt he was trying to hit on me...I was in a comfy, old oversized hoody, trackbottoms and trainers...it was a 'I can't be bothered day'...

There is a development round there which is known for housing unsavory characters and also a sort of halfway house for people with addictions so I suppose that could have been a possibility.

I guess I'll focus less on being rude and more on my own personal safety when out and about...its not the first time something like this has happened.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

How was his English?

I had a very interesting (though limited) conversation with a bloke from Azerbaijan. He was lonely and missing home and practising his English.

[Natsku]

I wonder if he was an immigrant who had been receiving language lessons, because I had similar with a refugee who asked me very personal questions such as do I have children, where do I work, am I married, because he had been taught those questions in class and tried to use them as ice breakers.

[Farmmummy]

My DH has this weird thing that if someone asks a question it never occurs to him never to answer them. I dread going past the broadband/energy people who start out with "just a quick question..." he tells them his whole life story and I got rid of our landline after he fell for some Euro scam and I had to pretend to be a hotshot solicitor to get them to fuck off after he gave out too much info. Me I'm the opposite I never answer a personal question if asked my name I'll just say if you don't know you don't need to know. In a case like that of a total stranger I'm downright rude!

[littleme2016]

His English was really good...he didn't seem to hesitate or struggle at all.

[littleme2016]

He didn't volunteer any information about himself other than his name and I didn't ask cos I didn't wanna look interested in case he was sinister or trying to hit on me (just recently came out of a relationship that didn't end well..just trying to focus on me at the moment..don't want any of that complicated stuff for a while)

[previously1474907171]

I had this happen to me in Oxford St. some years ago, walking along minding my own business when a well dressed man with a foreign accent stopped me and I thought was going to ask for directions, however he was trying to pick me up.

I shook my head and walked off, and realised that there were people watching, maybe he had done it to other people before me. It also happened outside Selfridges, by the hotel, a gorgeous guy but still it was a no from me.

[TheProblemOfSusan]

I would say hitting on you too. For some reason no one ever bothers me when I look everyday nice, or even dressed up, but if I go to aldi down the road with greasy hair, no makeup and tracksuit bottoms on, I get worrying amounts of attention.

I'm quite concerned about that self-esteem of some of the men outside the pub if they'll only hit on me when I look grotty. (Of course it's also appalling behaviour they should stop, so I don't care that much.)

[Sharptic]

It's reminds me of a time in my first job. I was 16/17 at the time and had a walk by the river into the city centre on my lunch break.

A man started walking beside me and asking me questions. I can't remember exactly what, it was 20yrs ago. He started saying I was a 'nice English girl' and couldn't shake him off.

I had to run off and rushed back to work in tears. He was pretty harmless I think, didn't lay a finger on me, but it was the persistence and questioning that scared me.