This Guy Wrote An Open Letter To The Woman He Followed On The Street. But Wait, There's A Twist

How many times have you felt you're being followed on the street? How many times have you then reached for the pepper spray in your bag or gripped your keys between your knuckles wondering if it'll even work when it has to? If one were to make a list of all the times they've experience something like this, women aren't done writing it yet.

Being stalked, stared at or catcalled is a daily nightmare, of sorts, for women anywhere in the world. Now imagine the person who stalked you, wrote to an open letter to you about it. The cringe and creeps there are endless. But this is where this story is different. Way different.

(Also read: Woman Shares Chilling Incident Of Being Stalked All The Way To Her Apartment & It's Terrifying)

Unsplash/Ioana Cristiana

Trigger warning

A user on Reddit who goes by the name 'u/Karlosmdq' wrote an open letter to the girl he "followed today for almost four blocks to her car."

He noticed that she had seen him and was reaching for her phone, shoulder tense...

We were walking in oposite [sic] directions near the new studient [sic] accomodations, you briefly looked at me and kept walking and a couple of seconds later I turned around and started following you, I notice the moment you realised that I was following you by how your pace changed, your shoulders squared and you grabbed your phone.

But that didn't stop him

That didn't stopped [sic] me, you just kept walking and I maintained the distance (some 50 feet behind you) pretending to talk on my phone, I thought a couple of times on closing the distance and introduce myself, talk to you, but I didn't, so you kept walking, throuwing [sic] glances to check where I was.

He knew at this point she'd have probably started to run had he running shoes on...

Unsplash/Alexander Popov

I could also tell you that once you turned around the corner to the dead end street next to the motorway (the only one near the city centre were parking is not measured) were [sic] your car (and mine) was parked that if you had being wearing tennis shoes you would probably have started to run, but wisely you kept you pace in your high heel boots.

Luckily, he stopped by his car while she took a photo on her phone

I stopped by my car, yours was further down the street, and used my phone again, and I saw you taking a picture or video of my [sic] when you passed by my side in your car.

But here's the twist:

What you probably never noticed was the other two guys.

The ones in [sic] the other sidewalk, the ones that pointed at you and started to follow you before we crossed the first time. You didn't notice how they looked at you or the fact that they seemed to be on drugs, or a bit drunk, or maybe both.

These other guys, they were waiting at the corner of a dead-end street...

You also didn't notice when you passed me in your car that they were in the corner of the dead end street, looking at you in your car passing by and then at me.

But our guy, meanwhile, was waited for the cops to arrive

Unsplash/gdtography

You also missed the next ten minutes while I waited in my car for the police to arrive (that I called while you were getting into your car), the 15 minutes of questions that followed and me showing them the picture of the two guys that I took while I was following you.

Turns out, the woman wasn't the only one scared

I [sic] really sorry that I scared you, but to be completely honest, I was really scared myself, I'm no hero by any means and my instinct was telling me to get the f*** out of there.

And here's the real reason why he made sure she made it fine

You could have been my wife (she parks in the same street) or my daughter and I wouldn't fogived [sic] myself I something happened and I did nothing to stopped [sic] it.

After writing the anonymous open letter, u/Karlosmdq goes on to give the location where incident took place: Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

Reddit/u/Karlosmdq

(Also read: This Woman's Abusive Ex-Partner Took Control Of Her Smart Home Devices To Stalk And Torment Her)

He then goes on to explain the reason for writing the open letter

I shared this because the situation scared me, and if a similar situation happened somewhere else I wish that the situation is not ignored or shrugged off.

And it's strange that the unlikeliest of items could trigger this response from two guys looking to make a quick buck

She was carrying some sort of briefcase alongside her purse and was well dressed, I think that the briefcase was what called those guys attention [sic].

Here's why he didn't approach the woman he was following

Unsplash/Tycho Atsma

They seemed to be waiting for an opportunity, that was the main reason why I didn’t approached, I was afraid that I would sort of trigger them and offer a second target.

And it didn't seem like this was the first time these guys chose a 'victim' either

I called the police because if those guys were trying to assault her, more than likely it wasn’t the first time and / or they would go for another victim, if it was a mistake worst case scenario they spent 10 mins talking to the police (no idea if they caught them).

His advice is this:

Probably just this: if you think that you are being followed or that something is wrong, don’t wait to see what happen, call the police, call a friend, a family member, knock on a door or get into a shop, worst case scenario you’ll look a bit paranoid.

His absolute final advice before signing off is better yet:

Be safe out there and never be afraid of looking foolish if that will keep you safe.

All images for representation only.