Okay so the more I’ve thought about this, the more freaked out I’ve gotten. For reference, I’m a young, pretty attractive college girl that lives alone.
I was at home depot about a month ago and there was a group of two men and a woman also in the store. It was about 9 pm and there weren’t many people in the store, and they were getting ready to close. As I was shopping, I heard a man walking behind me comment to someone that he liked my outfit. I ignored it because he wasn’t talking to me directly. He then repeated himself loudly and was like “that girl right there” which made it hard to ignore so I kinda laughed and said thank you over my shoulder and didn’t think much of it.
After a few minutes of shopping I walked down an isle and they were there. When I went to walk past, one of the men stuck his hand out in front of me for me to shake, also blocking my path. He looked like a fairly normal, average redneck. He was with a woman that looked about the same vibe as him. But there was another man with them that looked homeless. He had a crazy look on his face, long tangled hair, and was COVERED in grease or dirt of some kind. He looked unhinged.
The redneck guy asked my name and then said “He loves Amys, why don’t you shake his hand Amy?” referring to the scary looking guy. (not my real name, but unfortunately I did tell this guy my real name). I reluctantly shook the other mans hand and he looked me up and down. His hand was black from whatever he was covered in and I obviously didn’t want to shake it but I didn’t want to be rude.
The redneck keeps asking me a lot of personal questions (where are you from, are you a student, etc.) and keeps looking at the dirty guy as if he’s like gauging his reactions to what i’m saying. After a minute or two, the redneck asks me where i’m going. My jaw kinda dropped and the woman smiled creepily and said “She’s probably going back to her apartment, right sweetie?” and I just nervously laughed. At this point I’m obviously very uncomfortable and so I say I have to go and walk away.
I put down all the stuff I was carrying and immediately speed walked to the exit. As I was getting in my car, I see the woman leave the store from the other exit and stand by a sketchy looking SUV and pull out her phone and make a call while looking at me. I got out of there and made sure no one followed me.
At first I thought I was just being paranoid but no encounter has ever unsettled me like this one. It’s pretty common for people to strike up conversations with me while i’m out and about, but something about these people and the way they were looking at me made all the alarm bells in my head go off. Also, they never told me their names or anything about themselves, and they weren’t buying anything. I’m okay, but I’m never going to Home Depot alone at night again.