Sorry this may be long but everything included is important for the story.
So this story happened to me when I was 25 years old living in Las Vegas with my then husband and our son who was 4 years old. Our schedules were pretty much the same every day. My husband would leave for work at 5:30am & got home around 4:00pm Monday-Friday and I was a stay at home mom.
Usually after he got home from work I would take our son with me to the grocery store to grab dinner a few hours later & give him time alone to unwind. The Smiths grocery store by my house was literally less than a 2 minute drive away & it’s one of those grocery stores with the gas pumps in the parking lot so once a week after grabbing groceries for dinner I’d go to the pumps and fill up my car while my son slept in the backseat.
On one of my daily trips to the store that included a stop at the gas pumps I was pumping gas & a truck pulled up to the pump on the opposite side of mine. The man quickly did whatever he came to do and pulled off. As I was finishing up & walking around my car he pulled up alongside my car and rolled down his window & said, “I just needed to tell you that the only reason why I pulled up to the pump was to get closer to you. I saw you & just had to tell you how beautiful I think you are.” He looked like Ted Bundy on crack. I was nice though & politely told him, “I’m flattered but I’m happily married with a son.” He responded with, “I know, I just had to let you know how I felt…” and started to pull off but stopped & backed up rolling his window back down he said, “By the way if you tell your husband what I said I’ll fucking kill him!” and then he sped off.
I was shocked and immediately got in my car & called my husband & told him what just happened. He told me not to drive home incase he follows me & to just run the 1st light I come to & speed & when I get pulled over tell the officer what happened. I did and the officer who pulled me over was very understanding and drove me to the substation near my house where we left my car and he took my son, my groceries and I home & my husband went & picked up my car the next day. I thought that was the end of it but somehow I knew it wasn’t.
I told my husband how it bothered me how sure of himself the guy seemed when he said he’d kill him and how he responded with “I know” when I told him I was happily married with a son. Was it possible that he already knew where I lived? How long had he been stalking me before he approached me that night?
A few nights later my husband realized we were out of cigarettes and decided to run to the store to get some. It was late so our son was fast asleep & I was playing on the computer. He left through the laundry room door into the garage where our cars were. Not long after he left I heard the laundry room door open again & someone came inside. I called out to him, “honey what did you forget?” But I got no answer, however I could hear someone moving around in the laundry room. I called out to him again this time a little nervous, “Honey is that you? Your freaking me out…” Still no answer & I’m realizing that I’m completely unarmed.
My husband is a US Marine and a Federal Employee so we had an arsenal of weapons but they were all in our master closet on the top shelf and I’d have to run past the laundry room to get to my room so there would be no way if someone was in there that I could get to my gun before he got me so I just sat there frozen & terrified. I could feel the weight in the room as I sat in fear waiting for him to round the corner knowing that with my son sleeping down the hall I’d do anything he told me to keep my baby safe & that when my husband returned home he would have the element of surprise on his side not to mention his family hostage so he wouldn’t stand a chance either.
My heart was in my throat and I couldn’t breathe as I heard his footsteps coming towards me when suddenly from my bedroom I heard the deep growling of my 2 Pitt bulls, Ruby & Darlene, and before I could think I saw both dogs dart into the laundry room. At that moment I heard the garage door open and slam shut as a man screamed. I shot up from the computer desk with my phone in hand & bolted into my sons room and shut the door, locked it & sat against it.
I quickly called my husband, “Please tell me you’re home & messing with the dogs!” But I could hear in the background, the cashier bringing stuff up & knew he was at the store and whoever was in my house was definitely not my husband! “Someone’s in the house get home right now, please be careful when you get here! I don’t know where he is but I think he’s in the garage. I’m hiding in our sons room with the door shut & locked.” He told me to stay put until he got home & came & got me.
Waiting in the dark in my sons room while he slept waiting for my husband to come home felt like an eternity. When he came to get me from our sons room I was relieved but for months afterward he never left us home alone after dark. I know he was just as scared as I was that the man would come back. About a year after the incident we moved out & bought a new home.
I always think about what would’ve happened if he hadn’t let the dogs in before he left that night. I don’t know what he had planned for me but I know it wasn’t good & my son would just be a tool to control me, while my husband would of just been something in the way to get rid of. I have no doubt that Ruby & Darlene saved all our lives that night. Now that they’ve crossed the rainbow bridge from old age & my husband & I are no longer together & our son is grown we all still sleep with dogs in our rooms from that night.