Strange incident in the woods

[Livelaughlovesigns]

It’s still playing on my mind and was just really odd.

Today, Dh and I took Dd, 5 and our dog in the woods/fields by our home. All was fine and we were heading back home, I was walking ahead keeping track of our dog and Dh was with Dd (she walks slowly, wants to stop to play/have adventures etc)
I saw a person walking behind Dh who was swaying from side to side and just seemed very odd, I felt a bit strange and started to call to Dd to run to me (as in a game-run as fast as you can/who’s the winner type thing) Dh had also noticed and started to walk more quickly, he then picked her up and started to hurry to me and we got to an open part where there were houses and cars. Dd was getting upset and shouting about why he picked her up etc and we were watching this person in the distance acting so strangely, staggering everywhere and then suddenly running.
A man came up talking on his phone (Russian I think and looking around everywhere) Dh asked him if he was looking for someone, the man didn’t speak English, so Dh started motioning towards the woods where the person had ran ( Dh says it was a woman)
Dh then went with the man to show him where she was and Dh said he saw this man find her
We explained to Dd, without trying to scare her.
As we were walking back we were discussing it and saying why did we try to run away, why didn’t we try to help them.
It was just a really really odd situation, we in these woods almost daily, nothing ever happens.

I keep wondering about this woman and what on earth had happened to her, Dh thinks she may have been drunk because of New year and wandered back and lost her way (the woods are next to the beach)

Would you have done the same thing? My initial feeling was fear and to get dd away

But apparently he was ‘maybe Russian’ and couldn’t speak English so the OP had no idea

did his ‘maybe Russian’ sound genuine?

The woman could have been having an asthma attack. We had a student have an attack, she was staggering and then collapsed on the front lawn of college, people thought she was drunk.

Who knows. Ask the op?

I just can’t understand why you and your DH were so afraid? If it was man, I totally get it. But both of you vs. A woman? Surely you could have approached her to ask if she needed help?

It was a really strange, scary situation, as I said, after it we discussed it and said how we would have done things differently, in that moment my initial worry was for Dd and Dh’s too
He has gone down to the station and we’ve posted it on our neighbourhood group as most walk their dogs there and likely would have today
It was a bizarre situation and scary in a place where we walk daily, it all happened so fast and was just strange and keeps playing on my mind

I would have been scared too.

I would have been afraid for my child's safety if alone with a child, but there was a grown man there too. A man whose first thought was to hurry away from a vulnerable woman.

👏

I’m shocked that two adults (you and your husband) took this approach. Surely one of you had a split-second where you thought the woman needed help?

@Pollyannamex We weren’t sure at first if it was a man or woman, especially me as I was a distance away, I assumed drunk man acting very strangely in the middle of the woods with no one around us and my 5 year old nearby, my initial thought was to panic and get her away, Dh too

Poor woman, I hope she is ok.

While women are at risk from those closest to them.. there may have been a simpler answer.. that the OP was right, this woman was drunk and lost and her companion was trying to find her. Not all horses are unicorns!

2 adults running scared from a vulnerable looking woman? Strange behaviour.

@FIuffy We did when we realised it was a woman, which wasn’t until later and thought we were helping by directing the old man worried and looking for her

What a tsunami of drip feeds.

If this is real, let's hope no one treats your Dd like this if she finds herself in trouble in the future, hey?!

It was a woman who you presumed to be drunk, and there were two of you to keep your child safe.
What were you so scared of?

@McMuffins We didn’t know it was a vulnerable looking woman at all, it seemed like a drunk very suspicious looking man in the middle of the woods with no one around us and a 5 year old, my instinct was to get away at first. We had no idea it was a woman or that she was vulnerable

She was so elderly your husband who was closest couldn't tell her sex, but was still afraid of her?

Is your husband usually such a wuss?

Op may have been right or she may not have been right! What concerns me is that when they realised it was a woman they didn’t check that she was ok? Instead her DH told a man, who he had no idea what his association was with this woman where to go and find her. All could have been dealt with in a much better way. Nobody knows if op was right but is it really worth the risk of leading a man to a seemingly vulnerable woman without knowing what her situation was?

I’d ring the police, it’s all very odd.

Oh come on, op. This is ludicrous.
How could this woman look like a "very suspicious looking" man?

I also think most likely explanation, especially given it's new year's day, is that she had had too much to drink and wandered off and husband going to bring her back, possibly she has an alcohol problem or they had a row but it isn't automatically that he's like a mafia baddie or something. Did you see them go back to a car, house, that you could try to check on her somehow?

And you said your husband told you it was a woman?

im not even sure this is real, you can’t keep your story straight at all

Ok I’m going to leave it there, I’ve said the situation

Dh isn’t a wuss at all, we assumed drunk/drugged up/acting very strangely man behind us and Dd in the middle of the woods with no one around to help

So what happened when you united her with the man? Did they seem fine? Did the woman speak English? Did they get in a car together? Did you take the registration plate just in case?