The whole point of listening to your gut instinct is to prevent something happening. There's a fascinating book about it. One of the examples (it was a long time ago I read it so I might be misremembering) but there was a woman coming home with shopping. A man offered to help her up the stairs to her flat with them. He was quite insistent about it. Immediately her gut was telling her no. But she didn't want to seem rude/impolite. Short story, he raped her.
The fact that you responded to your uneasy feeling is what kept you from possible/potential harm. Now you can say - he didn't actually do anything and be here on MN with essentially a non-story (that's not me being critical - just stating the current situation).
Women have far better spider senses and that's biologically hardwired into us because we're the prey.
We notice micro facial features, mico aggressions, the undertone in a conversation, the ever so slight movement of a mouth, an expression that doesn't match the words, the things that just isn't right.
It's the woman who has been conditioned to switch that instinct off or never really been taught how to develop it - that is really vulnerable.
The women raised by car key mothers - do better. You're just a car key Mum, OP!
P.s a car key woman is a woman who puts her car keys between her fingers when she's walking somewhere at night. A car key Mum, is a mother who teaches and shows her daughter to do the same and is hypervigilent in those moments to her surroundings. Teaching her young girl at the same time.
A Mum that says to her daughter - urgh that guy is giving me the creeps, let's keep walking. Or, I didn't want to stop to help that man there was something wrong about it - teaches her daughter - it's ok to be aware and it's ok to keep moving.