Kids love kidnapping stories. I don't know why, but they really like my near kidnapping story. I think in some way they think it is cool that I fought off a bad guy and got away. So here is the scariest experience of my life.
I was nearly 13 years old and it was the night before my first girls camp and I needed to bring a sack lunch. I decided to walk to the grocery store that was pretty close to home to get some things that would make it really good for this special occasion. It was evening when I set out and it would be getting dark soon. Grandma R. called out from the front of the house and asked me not to go. I brushed aside her concern. I loved walking around in the dark. I had always enjoyed being alone in the night. It was beautiful and different and I wasn't scared at all.
So I set off for Dan's grocery store. When I got there I browsed leisurely. I remember looking at the different choices on one of the end caps and getting some bottled water and I had a hard time choosing between Clearly Canadian and Evian. Because bottle water are all so different. ;)
Anyway, as I returned home I was on a main road and didn't have any thoughts of fear. Until I passed a vacant house and suddenly a man stepped out right in front of me onto the sidewalk. There was a tree next to the streetlight that was really overgrown. This man had been hiding under the tree and was completely concealed until he stepped out just a couple of feet from where I was walking. Maybe he saw me pass earlier and was waiting for me when I returned. I don't know. But I was completely terrified, but as I looked at the busy road there were a lot of cars that were coming and he stepped back in the overgrowth.
I debated what to do. First I just wanted to put some distance between us. I kept looking behind me and he wasn't following me. My Sunday school teachers were two houses away and I thought about knocking on their door. But when I turned to go down the street to my house he still wasn't following me. And there were people sitting out on their porches, etc. so I felt like I wasn't alone. I decided to keep going, after all I really wasn't very far from home.
I was about a hundred yards from my house when I heard a man's voice call to me, "Come here, I have to ask you a question." I turned and it was the man that I had seen. He had a white tee shirt wrapped around his hair. He was shirtless, with cutoff jean shorts and white boat shoes. He was next to a silver truck that had a white shell on the back of it. I am not sure how I didn't see him coming. I was immediately terrified again, realizing that he had followed me. I yelled, "go ask someone else," as I turned and started running. He got out of his car and started chasing me. He grabbed me around my arms and my memories start getting more vague. I have a great memory but I think the reason why I don't remember everything exactly from that point on is because the adrenaline kicked in. My limbs knew what to do, and my brain was just on overdrive referencing what I should do. I remember my thoughts. I just don't remember all that happened. I did a lot of babysitting, and the first thing that struck me was "baby drop" when the toddlers would throw all their weight into their lower body, it was really hard to pick them up. I slithered out of his grip. I wanted my back against the ground. I was kicking and screaming and felt like it was easier for me to fend him off in that position. I thought about my friends little niece that had been attacked while waiting for her bus to come and how she kicked and screamed and got away.
My attacker had really glassy eyes and longish hair under the t-shirt. He put his hand over my mouth and told me not to scream. I bit down as hard as I could and kept screaming. I kicked so hard my my shirt came up and my back was full of grit and rocks. It crossed my mind that he might have a gun. And I thought he is going to have to shoot me then because I am not getting in that car. I wondered why no one could hear me and no one was coming to help. I saw headlights coming up the road and I was pleading, "don't turn!" Just before the car reached the stop sign closest to us the man ran across the road, jumped in his car and took off. The car stopped and there were two women inside. They asked me if I was okay and if I needed a ride. I told them that a man just tried to kidnap me and I pointed to my house and said I just lived right there. I was paranoid at that point and wondered if these women were the "plan b" and were going to try to take me too.
I ran home crying and as I walked in the door I told my parents and grandma that a man just tried to kidnap me. They called the cops. A few minutes later the women came to our house. They tried to chase the man to get his license plates, but he got away. They gave the police a description: 6'2" lanky build.
That night I slept in my sisters room. The next day I still went to girls camp. It was strangely normal. How could things be normal after something like that? It felt like it didn't really happen. I hated sleeping alone for a long time. I worried that he knew where I lived. Hearing footsteps behind me also caused me to panic. During a track meet the following year I started feeling a lot of anxiety just from hearing the footsteps of the runner behind me. I dreamed that I had bought the Clearly Canadian in the glass bottle and chucked it at his head when he was chasing me and knocked him out with it. I also had a lot of hate for men. :) I know that sounds weird, but I was so angry that someone would actually do that. I wondered why and what was his plan? I was just mad that someone would think nothing of me as a person and would actually try to take me.
I think I gained some maturity from the experience as well. I wasn't as naive about the world. My 7th grade year was spent goofing off and trying to find fun and as a result I got kicked out of all my honors classes. We had moved to a new area, and I had a lot of hard changes which contributed to me not being responsible. Starting 8th grade after my experience I had classes with a bunch of punk boys who were absolutely the most perverted, disgusting kids ever. The things they said in class were horrible. They were incredibly disrespectful to women and girls and it was harder for me to ignore. I was very motivated to get back into the honors classes and escape these losers. I think I lumped them into the same category as the guy that attacked me. Their gross comments made me feel they were capable of similar behavior.
At this point in life that experience is mostly just a creepy story that my kids like to hear. They are forbidden from walking around at night, and they know why. I think it really helped me to know what other people did when they were in similar situations. Fighting back came naturally to me. Just about a year before I was attacked I was in a singing group and we'd do school assemblies for the Safety Kids. The Safety Kids is a program with songs by Janeen Brady, etc about different types of safety, one of which is what to do if someone tries to kidnap you. Though extremely embarrassing for a sixth grader, I think that helped too. As a kid I had tons of kidnapping nightmares in which a similar scenario happened and I'd talk with my friends about what we'd do if we were in that situation.
I also am very aware when I am out on the street of my surroundings. If I'm out for a run, I see all the bushes, trees, etc where people might be hiding and even in day I think about it. A few days a man crossed the street to where I was running. Although I knew he was probably just going my same direction, I still think of what I can grab or do if he grabbed me.
I am glad that I was prepared somewhat. In high school some guy was teasing me and he lifted me up and I could not get out of his arms. It was frightening in a way. I wonder how I did it when I was almost 13. I think adrenaline plays a big role, and also not holding anything back. When you are fighting for your life there is a much different intensity.
I learned a lot from this experience. I knew that I needed to be more cautious and that there really are lots of evil people in the world. I also learned that I'm feisty and a fighter. Preparation and role playing was REALLY helpful.
Its pretty sad to me that my situation isn't uncommon. Yes attempted stranger kidnapping is rare. But there is a whole cluster of violence against women that isn't rare. I heard a statistic once that 30% of girls experience sexual abuse, etc. I thought that seemed really high at first. But when I stopped to think about it, with my five sisters at least two of us that I can think of had some really scary situations that required a lot of action to prevent. And lasting fears associated with those.
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