Many years back I was in a late bar one sat night, left about 3am and realised I’d lost my phone. Couldn’t get a taxi waved down so started walking home - it was summer and only a couple of miles so didn’t bother me to walk.
As I’m walking along the very quiet route (heading out of city centre towards an area with a mix of residential and shops), I notice a girl way up ahead of me on the other side of the road, on her own but walking in the same direction as me. She’s in a short dress and clearly inebriated given how she’s all over the place and staggering a bit.
It’s quite dark with limited street lighting but as I’m looking, I notice the silhouette of a man on the other side of the road also, walking about 100 yards behind her. I’m naturally observant and also naturally suspicious (not always a good thing!) so I keep watching him and notice that he’s walking quite slow but in a deliberate way, he isn’t staggering and doesn’t seem to be drunk. And when she stops occasionally, so does he. And when she speeds up or slows down, so does he. It quickly becomes very obvious he’s following her but I have no idea if he’s a stranger, or if it’s a boyfriend/girlfriend argument and they’re just walking apart.
I have no phone, there’s no phone boxes that I can see, so ringing the police is not an option for me. And if I lose sight of them maybe something will happen. I decide to keep going as I am and keep an eye on her.
5 or 6 mins later, the girl cuts down a residential tree lined street and he does the same. It’s going totally off my route now but I cut across and also follow them. As we go down that even darker street I can see he’s picking up pace and starting to edge a little closer to her. He clearly hasn’t noticed me, and I decide at this point that he’s up to no good so I break into a jog (still on the opposite side of the road) and come up parallel to him. I cross over in a brisk walk and end up slightly in front of the girl - I’m very wary of scaring her but equally, if I don’t do something, I’m worried she could be attacked. I ask her calmly but quickly does she know the man who’s walking behind her and she looks round at him, then says no. At this point the we have all stopped dead in the street. I shout to the man and say I want a word, and almost immediately, he takes off sprinting back the way he came. Not the actions of someone with innocent intentions.
I didn’t chase him but tried explaining the situation as best I could to a fairly drunk girl and managed to get her to her front door further down the street. Then when I eventually got home I reported it. Never heard anything back so no idea if the police ever followed it up.
I constantly stress to my sister and other female friends, never ever walk home alone. Even in a seemingly nice area.