To be a bit shook up about this?

[AriesTheRam]

Walked ds to school (keyworker) and decided to walk up to the local supermarket about 1.5 miles away.Im wanting to lose a bit of Xmas weight and I really enjoy walking.Noticed a black SUV passing which then reversed to come onto the road I was on, Man asked if I was going to supermarket or new build estate and did I want a lift? I said no,he then asked again.He drove off but now I feel a bit nervous out and about.Things like that aren't common where I live and I don't know any man who would offer a stranger a lift.Would you be suspicious or just think he was a chancer trying to chat up a woman?

@Mmn654123

When I was 18 I had just moved to London and a car slowed beside me like this - driver offered me a lift and I realised it was my landlord (had only met him once - along with his lovely heavily pregnant wife). Stupidly I thought that meant he wasn't a stranger. So I got in the car.

And?

On the flip side another time when it was raining heavily dp said he'd collect me from the shops . The rain was so heavy I jumped onto the passenger seat of a red car ( huge belly 9 months pregnant) but it wasn't dp haha the driver looked terrified lol

@Biffbaff I think this is referencing Fred West

Why are you using a critical worker space if you’re walking to the supermarket? I’m assuming you’re working later in the day?

THIS is what you're taking away from the post?

@Plump82

Are you in the Bristol area. I follow a couple of people on Instagram who have both put a warning of a strange man approaching women in the Bristol area.

I'm in Gloucestershire. There was a spate of attempted abductions of school children, boys & girls (Ys7 to 10 approx ) in and near my area tail end of last year, over several weeks. I remember a couple involved more than one man, and not always the same vehicle, though the attempts were otherwise similar. I'm glad you reported it, OP, and nothing happened to you otherwise. There are some vile people around.

I start work at 11am

I think that doesn’t seem right at all!

Although there is a small chance he really thought he knew you. I once offered a girl a lift back from uni when it was pouring down and she had her hood up. I thought it was someone I knew from my year group... she got in and it was actually a girl 2 years below me I still gave her a lift.
But I’m also a woman (22) and had my university ID on the seat as I need it to get onto campus and it’s common for people to offer anyone they see walking home from uni a lift if the weather is bad.

@m0therofdragons I'm not "taking up" a place ds school has a policy where children have to be in school 8.40-3 regardless of their keyworker parents hours of work

I'm a little concerned that even one person has said that this man may have just have been being nice.
Nice men do not offer women help who do not need it. Its definitely a creepy thing to do.

Imagine your Dad, your brother, your husband just stopping their car because they saw a woman quite happily walking along, and just had to offer them a lift to wherever they were going? Nice men wouldn't make it anywhere on time if this was the norm.

It’s male privilege isn’t it? Not realising that a woman can’t accept a lift from a man without fear of what he will do to her.

My dad was a taxi driver and all of the taxi drivers at his company that I’ve met are lovely. I still use the same cab firm he worked at (since I was a teen) and I still get nervous in the back of the cab if it’s dark.

I'm a little concerned that even one person has said that this man may have just have been being nice.
Nice men do not offer women help who do not need it. Its definitely a creepy thing to do.

Completely agree.

I'm a little concerned that even one person has said that this man may have just have been being nice
Nice men do not offer women help who do not need it

Yep, a fine example of the mysoginistic society we live in. Women should put aside their discomfort in a situation so as not to offend the man who may just be being "nice" despite the fact she was in no way,shape or form asking for help.
Men like this know exactly what they are doing and hope women will just shove aside their feelings and get jn the car. They often get annoyed when the pesky women dont just accept the lift like they're supposed to.
And yes, ask yourself would your dh etc do this? Just approach a random woman and offer her a lift? My dh certainly wouldnt even if it was chucking it down. Because he has common sense and knows it would potentially be awkward and come across as weird.

Were you on a normal street with pavement, or walking on eg a lane with no pavement? Are you sure he’s not one of your neighbours (thinking why he mentioned new build estate - do you both live there?).

I offered a woman who works in my local supermarket a lift once, because she was walking up a long hill with shopping bags and it was drizzling. I almost offered a lift to a walker (male) who was looking a bit dismayed at the timetable of a bus stop in Cornwall, too, because it was raining (and I figured the buses weren’t that frequent). Realised he was going in the opposite direction, though. I used to hitch into town frequently as a teenager, and have picked up the odd hitchhiker, too.

Most people aren’t out to do you harm, though I totally understand by this was unnerving. More likely to be an innocent explanation than a sinister one.

That's awful, I think even the most kind hearted, friendly, chatty man realises that it's incredibly dodgy to just ask random women to go in a car with them.

In a nearby town, there's been one or 2 men like this recently trying to get random secondary school children in their cars.

I watch/ listen to way too much true crime to get in a car with a strange man, or a strange couple (Fred and Rose West used this ploy) The whole thing sounds fishy.

OP be careful, I was targeted by someone a bit like this not long ago. In my thirties, I thought I was too old to have to worry about being targeted by creeps, and therefore stupidly just thought he was very clueless about social cues. I didn't get in his car but he glued himself to me following me around for days, insisting on sitting at the same table as me at coffee shops, kept trying to talk about really disgusting sex acts (at me... I wasn't replying or even looking at him) and "randomly" appearing in places I was at, and I had to get the police involved. I was alone as DH was working abroad and I was absolutely terrified.
Anyone offering a lift in a pandemic is automatically an idiot at the very least. Get a photo of his registration plate if you see him again.

@AgeofExploration on a normal street,definitely didn't know him and he wasn't acting like he knew me

Bit weird to offer a lift to a stranger. He was probably trying his luck.

But, umm, Covid???

@contrmary

Might have just been being nice.

I wonder if he would have stopped had it been an old man or a less attractive women? And he also asked again when she said no?

Dodgy AF.

It's weird covid or not!

I’m not even giving my own relatives a lift at the moment because of covid. A stranger stopping and offering for you to come into close contact with them for no reason?! Dodgy as fuck.

Might have just been being nice

Someone normal wouldn't offer a strange woman a lift , COVID-19 or not . I wonder if there were men in the back of the SUV, out of sight.

You did the right thing by logging it. I would be shaken up too.
Hope you are okay

It was unusual in the sense that there was no smiling or flirty behaviour which you'd expect if it was someone trying to "pull".

@AriesTheRam oh that is pretty weird!

If it were me (I’m really face blind) I’d probably realise weeks down the line that it was a friend’s husband or distant neighbour or something. 😄