Hypothetically,if you were in my place what would you have done?..Here is what happened, I was driving home, waiting at a red light, and a couple of desi guys pulled up into to the lane next to me, I happened to look over and saw both buddies turning their heads, looking my way and talking amongst themselves, I didn’t think anything of it and just looked ahead with an intention to not to look back at them…The light turned green and our road ahead merged into one lane and now they were directly behind me. The traffic was slow because it was 5 PM after work traffic, and these guys were driving bumper to bumper with me. At one point I look up in my rearview mirror to see them smiling back chatting away with each other, I keep a poker face, & I excuse it with traffic congestion. Finally traffic cleared a little and I got off that road… I find out they are still behind me and driving very close, occasionally they poked their heads out of their passenger windows to flash a smile… at first I thought we were headed in the same direction, and eventually we will meet a fork and go our separate ways. When I am only 2-3 mins away from my home, just to confirm my fear I turned on my indicator to turn into the lane for the library and they followed suit they turned on their indicator and switched lanes with me, so I switched out and they followed me back, now at this point my gut feeling is: I am being chased.
I didn’t want to drive home because I didn’t want them to know where I lived. So the next 15-20 minutes I kept driving around trying to lose them eventually got on the freeway (which they did too), and after sweating some bullets of fear,finally finally God answered my prayer and I lost them. Anyways after a nerve-racking 20 minutes car chase I finally came home.
So I shrug the incident off and two weeks later I find my friends cousin updating her twitter “OMG are these desi guys really chasing me, it’s been 25 miles now”, I don’t know if they were the same guys but it sounded like my incident. What is the best way to deal with a situation like this (not that it happens every day)…but would anybody else have done anything different? Is it wise to just keep driving, or should I have slipped into a store? Every parking lot I drove past that day was not full enough, looked so vacant at that time.
you should have called 911 from your cell fone and the police would have checked them out [following someone the way you described is pure intimidation with intent to sexually harass you]. if it ever happens again, God forbid, plz do NOT hesitate for s second to call police and keep driving and let them keep tailgating you.
i had witnessed similar incident some months back and the girl had called 911...i witnessed the police flagging them down and i'm sure they were charged for at least reckless driving and intimidation.
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remember...you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by calling 911**!
Call the police, and stick to places that have people around. Go through a drive through etc. Do NOT drive yourself to some highway with thin traffic. Did you get their car registration number? If yes you could report them to the police, you could file a report if if you don't remember the plates. You must have some idea about what kinda car it was, color, make etc and the police might have more complaints about them. You should definitely report this.
I didn't get the registration number because it was not in my field of view, I didn't know it was criminal at that time nobody I told afterwards really took it seriously...but going through a drive thru would have stalled them because they would be expected to order....
I didn't get the registration number because it was not in my field of view, I didn't know it was criminal at that time nobody I told afterwards really took it seriously...but going through a drive thru would have stalled them because they would be expected to order....
Not necessarily, they could just drive straight through without ordering. But it'd give you the chance to stop and make the call, while waiting for your order.
These things should be taken seriously, you don't know what their intentions were. I don't want to scare you but, it's better to be safe and assume the worst.
this happened to me once in the city and i called the police while they were following me. i got their plate #, called the cops, someone pulled them over within a few minutes.
yeah I know they were in no mood to order burgers and fries, it would’ve given me a chance to make the call but although I was scared I kept minimizing the situation in my mind…now I don’t know why!
I feel better knowing I’m not the only one who dealt with this…thanks for sharing. I now I wish I had done the same.
I know I’m so glad I didn’t show them my house and at least I lost them on the road somewhere before I reached home.
Yes at that time I was feeling maybe I am over reacting but once I merged onto the freeway and saw from my side view that they merged too, THAT was when I was like this is insane.
Not all of them, only the pathetic one’s do this, the well behaved ones don’t seem to know we exist.
I think I remember seeing a Allah tassle in their car, not confident in that though, we don’t have any Indian muslims where I live, only Pakistani’s…
I think I remember seeing a Allah tassle in their car, not confident in that though, we don't have any Indian muslims where I live, only Pakistani's...
I'm glad you're okay, but do you work for the bureau of census to make this statement?
I'm glad you're okay, but do you work for the bureau of census to make this statement?
No I didn't mean any offense, Reflecting on the musjid population I would say we don't have many, we have one ?Indian family and the lady made a statement a while ago about how in our city Indian muslims are almost non-existent, she would know better than I, I was reflecting on her statment.
No I didn't mean any offense, Reflecting on the musjid population I would say we don't have many, we have one ?Indian family and the lady made a statement a while ago about how in our city Indian muslims are almost non-existent, she would know better than I, I was reflecting on her statment.
No offense taken. It's all good. You said they were following you for a while. They could even been from out of town or whatever. Anyway the important thing is that you're okay and next time you can call the police if you are scared. Be safe!
No offense taken. It's all good. You said they were following you for a while. They could even been from out of town or whatever. Anyway the important thing is that you're okay and next time you can call the police if you are scared. Be safe!
I actually learned from here today next time I will definitely call the police...I just thought they were horseplaying and it couldn't be proven that is why contacting the police didn't cross my mind, cause if the police approached them they "looked" nice, they could have easily smooth talked their way out but that's just a guess.
Call 911 and keep them chasing you till cops arrive. While on phone you can give car make/model, color and some info about appearance of the guys. This will make sure that even if they try to go away after seeing cops around, they cant.
If for some reasons, you can not call cops, stopping and going inside fast food restaurants is always a safe bet during day time.
So I shrug the incident off and two weeks later I find my friends cousin updating her twitter "OMG are these desi guys really chasing me, it's been 25 miles now",.
She was doing it while driving?
Now this is scary.
