We had a creepy little event transpire this afternoon...
Driving up to our house on our return from the market, I noticed that we had flyers on our front door handle. I looked around to see if anyone was still in the neighborhood and saw a guy walking up to another house, presumably the flyer-guy since he had papers in his hand.
We must note that upon first seeing him, I got a bad vibe. For no particular reason... My hairs just went up.
I drove into the garage, and told Katie that, this time, instead of her coming in and out with me while I unloaded the groceries, I wanted her to go into the house and stay there---because there was a stranger walking around whom I didn't trust. The hard part is that I need (or thought I needed to---Boppa talked me through how I could park differently) leave the garage door up to unload groceries (because the hatch opens so far). On other occasions, I usually drive in and close the garage door before we get out (unless I intent to check the mail).
So Katie was inside, and I am unloading the car, and I can see a shadow crossing the street but still on the side of the house where I can't see. Then suddenly the flyer guy is right there in an instant, coming into the garage. He said, "I don't want to scare you, but I want to talk with you..."
I said, "No! No!" and ran into the house and locked the door. The weird thing was that I ran then to the living room window, and I couldn't see where he went. I imagined that he might be hiding where I couldn't see him, or worse, waiting right outside in our garage for me to come out and get the rest of the groceries when I thought it was safe. So I called Amie and Boppa. Boppa came right over and we looked around and got the rest of the groceries in.
It is weird how we sometimes have "bad vibe" monitors. I mean, I do feel a little bad because it could have been nothing and I might have overreacted a bit and made the guy feel bad. But I also don't think he should have come up into our garage, do you? It seemed like an unwarranted intrusion and way too close to my personal space. Also, it should be common sense for any male these days that you do not approach a woman who is alone when she doesn't know you unless you want to be chivalrous in a very public space (like helping her pick up something she dropped or holding open her door). You certainly do not start encroaching on her home...
Also, we need to remember (as I did at the time), that he had already left flyers on our door (I had seen them there). He came to the garage holding out a paper and probably on the pretext of wanting to give me a flyer I already had. That didn't make sense either. The flyer, as it turned out was for a cleaning service: another pretext for getting into people's homes and lives, no doubt. Am I just untrusting and cynical?
Anyway, we are safe. Always listen to your gut! When you sense the presence of menace, do not second guess yourself. Especially as a woman, it is natural to feel a little guilty later (like maybe I judged too quickly), but it is important that we act on our instinct rather than letting emotions convince us that we need to be "nice."
