Cut my walk short because of a man I met

[Rae34]

and feel quite stupid about it!

Went for a walk after work, a route I often do. I was halfway across a pedestrian bridge when a rough-looking man approached me. He asked me if I knew were X place was and I said no, sorry. He looked angry and said nothing, walking past me. As I walked on, my spidey sense kicked in and as I looked around, I saw he was now walking behind me.

It started to rain then, so I made a fuss of putting my umbrella up until he passed me. I let him go on ahead but then I remembered there was an underpass that he would have just passed through. There was no one else around. Well - I turned around and went back the way I came.

I was thinking about Sarah Everard and imagined being grabbed in the underpass. Would I have done this one year ago? No. I would've said 'don't be so ridiculous' and carried on. I actually feel ashamed of being so fearful and letting it affect a route I do all the time.

Smart move on your part!

You did the right thing. Never ignore instincts like that.

Normal thing to do, not silly.
Years ago I had to walk through an underpass every evening to get across a huge roundabout, no option. I was shit scared every dark evening.

Definitely trust your instincts, they're there for a reason and better safe than sorry!

Plus, you say stopping your walk and going home was out of character for you - well all the more likelihood you did the right thing then, if you felt so strongly about it.

I have stopped, assessed my surroundings and moved somewhere safer just from the way a male passer by looked at me before. He stared really intently and his eyes just bored into me in what felt like an evil way (stupid I know). I definitely don't have a history of being jumpy or oversensitive or wary of men or anything, it just felt wrong. So I know what you mean x

Too many men are predators and all women are the prey.

My DM always taught me to trust my instincts and not give two hoots about looking stupid or strange if something didn’t feel right and instead I felt like I needed to turn around or even run away. It’s saved me from who knows what two times in my life so far and I don’t see it as the “man” beating me, I see it as me outsmarting the “man” and taking care of myself. Yes we shouldn’t need to worry about being attacked whilst out walking alone but equally it is unfortunately a tiny risk that does exist and so I address and try to minimise that risk just I as I do any other daily possible hazard. If I happened to have been wrong and the person making me uncomfortable had no such harmful intentions then so what? No loss to either side as far as I’m concerned.

You absolutely did the right thing. It's a shame that, as women, we have to employ a 'trust your gut' or 'better safe than sorry' way of thinking, but we do.
My mum had a similar experience a couple of years ago with an underpass. She was on her way to the station but turned back. The dodgy man she was avoiding started swearing at her when she turned back, so she was right to go do! Missed her train, but that was preferable to what might have happened.

*to do so

This happened to me, only way home was threw an underpass and the man was waiting quarter of the way down, I put my head down, starting howling and ran past him as fast as I could. ( I was running anyway so had the shoes on). Wondered for years after if he was entirely innocent and what he thought to see this 6 ft tall woman, charging at him shouting “Aaah” at the top of her voice. He got out of the way quick enough.

@Temp023

This happened to me, only way home was threw an underpass and the man was waiting quarter of the way down, I put my head down, starting howling and ran past him as fast as I could. ( I was running anyway so had the shoes on). Wondered for years after if he was entirely innocent and what he thought to see this 6 ft tall woman, charging at him shouting “Aaah” at the top of her voice. He got out of the way quick enough.

Awesome!