AIBU to be completely shaken up after this happened while I was driving with my 6yo?

[hoopladelicious]

I’m posting because I’m still really shaken by this and would appreciate some advice and support.

Yesterday evening I was driving home with my six-year-old daughter after taking her to a sports session 20 minutes away. I live in a small town and the sports location is rural. The session finished at around 7pm and it was dark outside.

On the country road home, I became aware of a vehicle following very closely behind me. Suddenly the vehicle then overtook me, stopped abruptly in the middle of the road and a large male got out on the dark road.

He approached my car shouting and swearing at me. He could clearly see that I had my six-year-old daughter in the car.

I was frightened and tried to get away from the situation.

I tried to overtake, and another vehicle behind the first one then overtook me and positioned itself in the right-hand lane, facing oncoming traffic.

At first I thought I might be able to follow this vehicle and get away from the first driver, but I then realised the second vehicle appeared to be involved too.
The first vehicle was blocking the left-hand side of the road and the second vehicle, a huge Hilux, was positioned on the right-hand side, facing the direction of oncoming traffic.

It was a narrow, dark, bendy country road. I couldn't get past them, and I didn't feel I could safely reverse my small car either. The larger vehicles could manoeuvre much more easily than I could.

At that point I was trapped with my little girl in a dark isolated country road with an angry man with an accomplice. There was no connection on my phone and i was shaking like a leaf.

The second driver wasn't the person who had been shouting at me, but the positioning of his Hilux meant I couldn't get past, and I had no idea what was happening or what their intentions were.

I put my hazard lights on, started sounding my horn and was screaming because I was so frightened.

The driver of the Hilux could see that I was distressed and that I had my child in the car.

I honestly thought I was being carjacked.

I was terrified that one of them might force me out of the car, that the situation could escalate, or that either me or my daughter could be harmed. I was also very worried about the Hilux being positioned facing oncoming traffic on a narrow bend at night and the potential for a collision.

Eventually, because other traffic was coming through, the vehicles moved and I was able to get away and continue towards home.

Afterwards, the Hilux continued to weave through traffic in a way that interfered with my journey and made me feel intimidated. I don't know what happened to the first vehicle at that point.

I got the car registration and reported it to the police. I'm not sure what they did was even a crime? I don't know what is going through peoples minds to do this to someone on a dark country road. Working in tandem? I can only imagine they are awful people.

AIBU to think this was extremely frightening and potentially very serious, or am I catastrophising what happened?

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

And is there anything else you think I should be doing now that I've reported it to the police?

According to Google, the most likely reasons are 1. "crash for cash" insurance scams and 2. staged carjackings.

Targeted abductions are another one but rated as extremely rre.

I would consider that to be threatening. Please invest in a dashcam and if anything like this happens again, please ring 999 stating you are a lone female with a young child

Is it possible that the second driver was intending/trying to remonstrate with the driver or passenger?
It doesn't help the OP and folks should consider whether their actions make it difficult or impossible for others to escape the situation.

This happened to me before, except I was on foot. Two men in separate cars. They indicated to each other to stop with me in the middle of the cars. One of them got out and was coming towards me. I abruptly crossed the road and they drove away, but as they went they drove their cars into people’s bins and knocked them flying 😵‍💫 They left an overwhelming smell of drugs in the air behind them. They were from the travelling community.

Very scary, but very unlikely they were trying to kidnap you or your daughter. If they were going to do that they would just smash your car window and frag you out. Speed is of the essence.

What is more likely is that one car had some damage and 5hey were going to pretend you had crashed into the car, and the other car was the witness who happened to be driving by. Because you reacted as if it was a kidnap, they had no choice but to abandon this attempt.

It sounds very very scary. But I hope you are reassured that they were trying to scam you, not kidnap you.

God OP, this is terrifying. You poor thing. I have a young DD and often drive with her at night, the thought of this makes my blood run cold.

WELL DONE YOU! You DID protect her, you beeped your horn, locked the doors and got her safely away.

I know you’ve reported it to the police but please do chase them for appropriate action. Something needs to be done about this.

I’ll be getting dashcam for my car now after this!

I’m not trying to victim blame here, but could it be possible you were driving too slow or dangerously and they were angry about this? Obviously that doesn’t justify their behaviour but I think it’s interesting that when PP asked you what he was actually saying when he was shouting, you just said that you tried to record it….. You dodged the question

I wonder if it would be worth posting on your local facebook page, in the hope that either the unrelated car that appeared, giving you opportunity to escape the situation has dash cam or can give some more info. Or even that someone recognises the description of vehicles and maybe sends you information?

She had replied to this question, and you ARE victim blaming.

I see you've got an old car. Most newer cars have an SOS button that connects you to emergency services and should have better service than your phone. It's worth checking if your car has one?

I bet your report isn’t the first, there are some fucked up people in the world nowadays doing all sorts of madness. Hope you are doing a bit better today OP

If posting on local faceyB,I would recommend doing it anonymously if possible

That sounds awful, you poor thing.

It happened to me about 10 years ago, on a slip road into a motorway of all places, at midnight. I was terrified. It was only one car and luckily they drove off eventually.

That is terrifying. I'm so sorry you went through that.
I do hope the police take it seriously.

And fwiw - no driving mistake you may unknowingly have made could ever justify such a reaction and shame on anyone even hinting at it.

Agree 👍🏻 or perhaps don’t put on FB at all for your safety

What have the police said? Do you think this was one of those insurance fraud things, that they were trying to force you into?

I was leaving my BF's house many years ago to drive back home. It was after 10pm at night. I drove down this isolated and dark country lane and there was a shop dummy (a mannequin) lying across the road. I locked my doors and a car came towards me. He stopped his car and looked at the dummy and then before he drove off I jumped out of my car and picked up the dummy and threw it on the grass verge feeling safe that he/she was there should anything happen to me. I got back in the car and drove off as did the car that had stopped.

I went further down the lane and pulled over and rang my BF. He told me to call the police which I did. I turned the car around and drove back and it scared the life out of me when i saw the mannequin had been repositioned in the lane again. I reversed my car away from it and when there was enough distance between it and me did a 3 point turn and drove home. Eventually the police rang to say they had gone out to the location and could find no evidence of the mannequin anywhere.

A few weeks later on the same stretch of road someone had left a no entry sign attached to a wooden post in the middle of the road with a glass bottle lying in the gap between sign and verge. The inference being that you'd have to drive over the bottle and presumably get a puncture. Again I rang 999 to report and they came out, moved the offending items and spoke to the house nearest who happened to have teenage children. The conclusion the police drew was that the kids had left both the dummy and the sign and bottle as 'a bit of fun' although it was never proven.

Both these scenarios involved the potential for the driver to get out of the vehicle in order to move the items left and it was suggested it had been an attempt at car jacking or assault of what may have been a female on their own.

To this day it scared me.

Nope, definitely not 112, that a 999 call all day long. It was an active, ongoing situation that needed intervention. Luckily that came from the presence of other motorists, but if no other cars had come then police attendance may well have been necessary, and you’re only going to get that from 999.

Also as an aside, if you (anyone) do need to phone 999 and have no reception it’s always worth trying anyway as phones aren’t restricted to their normal network for emergency calls so even if it’s showing no reception, it may well be picking up a signal from another network and can use that for emergency calls.

How awful. It's hard to think about these things after but you did all the right things. The police can prosecute if you can give them anything so please do that.

Gently, they probably weren't going to hijack your car as they would need someone to drive it and if your car didn't have autolocking it doesn't sound like a £200k sports car.

Sounds like a complete lunatic so no idea why they did this. You probably did something 'wrong' in their eyes (you totally didn't but his was his crazy).

I would have tried to reverse and get way? And as others have said get a dash cam.

definitely YANBU and I am glad you are safe. Similar happened to a mate of mine a few years ago...a hulking male rugby player type and it scared him.

Can’t understand why you’ve got 4% who think you’re unreasonable!!!!
I’d phone the police again and report how intimidated you are - did the idiots follow you home btw?

Could they have mistaken you for someone else?

People are absolutely mad these days..
I was to enter a busy roundbound and a car from right drove a bit fast in so I stopped to give way, there was a car behind me but not so close so enough for him to stop/ slow down. When i left the roundabout the driver who was behind me pulled next to me with opened windows screaming and gesticulating.. some idiot in old BMW. I just ignored and looked away.

@HangryBrickShark did I read that correctly? You got out of the car when the guy was still sitting there and you threw the mannequin away or tried to? Why?!

@hoopladelicious I’m really sorry this happened to you. It does sound like one of those attempted insurance things with the two guys.

I’m convinced they pick on women. After joining this site, I’m convinced they think a woman with a little kid is an even better target.

I no longer drive, but if I did, I would have dash cam for sure. It’s dreadful.

someone mentioned a staged car jacking. I haven’t come across that before. Staged for online clicks or something?

I really hate this sensation that the world is completely bonkers.

This morning I got gestured at walking through a car park. I’m not even kidding. Some bloke was driving at speed through the car park and got annoyed when he took the corner and I was there! I was literally just walking through because it was pouring outside and it connects the two buildings where I had meetings.

But he should expect to see anybody walking through surely - because their car might be parked there! His car was still there when I left - I imagine he was late for work or something. I was actually walking through with my client, but she said she doesn’t know who he is. I’m sure she doesn’t want to open that can of worms either.

it sounds minor, but it is a real arrogant shit who is confident enough to do that in his workplace.

112 is fine to call