3 November 2022
Aged 18
I met a man who introduced himself to me as Adam (although this might be a fake name), at a Halloween themed event in Blackpool. We exchanged phone numbers and I gave him my name, and after that I thought I’d seen the last of him.
I was quite confident that I wouldn’t meet him again since he told me that he lives in Blackpool, whilst I live over Wyre.
I received a lot of missed calls and texts for the next few days which I didn’t reply to and, at about 20.40 on my walk back from work, I noticed that I was being followed home.
I started to walk a bit faster and toward the curb once I noticed his shadow, and once he noticed my attempt to cross the street he shouted my name and put me in a ‘friendly’ headlock.
I was stuck with him for about 10 minutes, in which time he tried to kiss me, force himself onto me and asked me to marry him! He then refused to let me walk home any further, and said he had parked his car nearby so he would drive me home.
As much as I kept refusing to go with him, the man pulled me along in his grip while I tried to get back on track to go home. This went on a bit until he sat down, held my hands, asked me to marry him again, and so I agreed to meet him another time when I wasn’t busy.
This worked, and he eventually let me leave after he had finished.
I walked for a short while in shock, and it was quite dark out and I wasn’t sure if cars were following me or not. I called a friend and got home safely that night.
I found the interaction scary because the man was acting so oddly friendly to me, and was speaking to me as if we’d known each other for years. Even the headlock felt like a very firm hug, and I didn’t really have time to notice what was happening until afterwards!
Also he had messaged me the day before he followed me out of work asking for [XXX] lessons, which happens to be my job. We hadn’t spoken about my work at all before he mentioned it to me. When I asked the man how he found me, he said he saw me as he was driving by, parked up, and came to greet me. I find this unlikely since he said he lived in Blackpool, the parking in Cleveleys outside of Wetherspoons generally doesn’t have any free spaces, and he had been following me for quite some time (about three minutes quietly).
I also dress with lots of layers when I walk home from work, partly due to the weather, but also as an attempt to appear more scary and bulky to try to keep safe (I had a cap and AND a hood!) so either I was doing a really bad job of acting tough, or the man did his research.
There are just too many coincidences!
I did contact the police about this a few times, but I never heard anything back. I feel a bit let down by how the situation was handled. The man is still making new snapchat accounts to get in contact with me but I block them as soon as they come up.