Women Should Not Have This Fear
As a man, sometimes I forget how tough it is to be a woman. Seriously, no joke here.
Stop Street Harassment, a blog for women about the constant harassment they face on America’s streets, blogs about a Delaware woman who was followed by a man in a pickup who was subsequently arrested.
Men, think about this for a moment, you never have to worry about this, but your girlfriend or wife has probably had this experience more than once in her life time.
Nemski,
Since I live in the area we have been receiving emails from the women involved – I’ve copied them below. Pretty frightening.
Last week, a friend of a friend was jogging (alone) near Rockford very early in the morning and realized she was being followed by a man in a small pick up truck. He was onDel Ave and followed her block for block as she was running up Willard toward the park. By the time she got to Greenhill, she said her instincts kicked in and she turned onto Greenhill instead of heading straight (toward Red Oak/the park) and she sprinted all the way home. When she was running on Greenhill, she noticed that the man had assumed she was going to run up to Red Oak – he had pulled over and was out of his car waiting for her. She was so scared she couldn’t get her cell phone out to call 911 so she sprinted right to her house and then called the police later.
We sent an email out to as many people we could think of who run… but then today, he followed another friend/colleague. She was in the same exact vicinity – she was out at 5:30am, doesn’t run with headphones and so heard his car and noticed she was being followed. She started sprinting and zig zagged a bit down different streets – at one point, he was driving down Bancroft Parkway chasing her, going the wrong way on the street! She managed to dart down a different street and get to her house w/out him seeing her. Then her boyfriend hopped in his car to go and try to find the guy. Luckily, along the way, they saw a police car and stopped it – gave the full report to the officers right then and there – and they caught the guy right on the 1900 block of DE Ave (I think it’s near Del Ave and Union).
Apparently he was wearing a blue stocking on his head – and when he was pulled over he had a knife on the passenger seat and a bag of stockings on the floor. So scary.
He’s in custody now – but not sure if they can detain him, so chances are he’ll be back out again at some point so BE CAREFUL.
—————————
Girl from today:
I was coming up Lovering Ave towards Rockford Park and he went by going the opposite direction. I almost got to Rockford Park and then he flew up behind me and turned left on the street across from the park entrance. I thought it was weird so I slowed down and I saw that he was waiting in the middle of the road, I’m assuming to see where I went. I doubled back, made a right on Bancroft Parkway and ran up a block and I heard him behind me. I guess he made a circle because I made it past the school, maybe three blocks up and I saw him waiting on the side street just sitting there. At this point I’m SPRINTING trying to make it back to Johnson’s and he turned down Bancroft but was directly behind me going the wrong direction. I don’t think he saw me make it and then I ran in the house, woke him up and we got in the car and just happened to see a couple of police cars, so we reported it then. As we were doing that, I guess they pulled him over. He was driving an old, silver Mitsubishi truck with a loud muffler…that’s how I knew he was following me b/c I don’t wear my headphones when I’m running.
It was pretty terrifying…I’m fast but he kept sneaking up on me. I’m waiting for the detective to call me this morning, to follow up.
Girl from other day:
it was scary. last week i noticed a white truck while i was running but thought nothing of it. however, i did say something to jess burns and we joked about what we would do if we ever got attacked. then i saw it again. stupidly, i was like thats weird but continued my run. monday i was running up willard ( my parents house) and i see him the next block up on rockford. he kindof slowed down when he saw me but i kept running up the street. by now he was parallel with me on delawareave. at the end of each block on willard i would turn and he would be on de. ave. at the stop sign. finally my sense kicked in at greenhill and willard and i realized he was waiting to see if i would go one more block up where it was completely dark. i literally had a split second to decide to run back to my parents or home because i had a feeling i was about to be attacked. i could not get my phone open bc i was shaking so hard but i sprinted down greenhill. out of the corner of my eye as a i was crossing de. ave. i saw he had parked, was out of his car, and was heading to where he thought i would be. he saw me too. i have no idea if he chased after me because i didn’t look back.
They haven’t showed up yet, so let me channel the gun nuts… wait for it…
“This is proof of why everyone should walk around packing heat. This type of activity wouldn’t happen if creeps thought every jogger was armed.”
Did I do them justice?
You get a gold star, ai!
The interesting thing is that fear stopped these women from using their cell phones.
It is scary being a woman sometimes, and I am sometimes glad that I’m approaching middle age. We live in a sex-saturated society, so much so that a woman’s body is considered public property or something. The stories highlighted above are scary, but are far too common. Incidents like those above are why I am so glad that cell phones are common now. When I had experiences like that in college and grad school, I had no where to turn. You just kept walking and ignoring, hoping they would go away.
It irritates me all to hell that you are penalized for being a woman and simply appearing in public. You should be able to go jogging or go shopping without having to worry about harassment. Word to everyone out there, cat calls and wolf whistles are not flattering, not really.
is this the same guy with the same truck every time?
Yes.