Life experiences can be very different for men than women. While a man may not worry about walking by himself to an isolated parking spot, a woman might feel very nervous, especially if she’s being followed.

Imagine being a woman who knows she’s being watched by some men at a cafe. If one of the men started following you when you left, would you feel nervous, ignore him, or simply stop and talk to him?

In this story, one woman is in that situation, and she feels very uncomfortable. Talking to the man doesn’t make her feel any better about the situation.

Now, she’s wondering if she overreacted or if her feelings are valid. Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AIO: scared of man in parking lot

While getting coffee today, I (26f) noticed three men seem to stare at me from an outdoor table.

Despite my intuition that one of them was going to approach me, I chose to sit outside as well as we were surrounded by many others and didn’t feel unsafe.

But she eventually did feel unsafe.

When I finished my drink I started walking towards my car, which was parked in a low visibility, tight spot at the end of the parking lot.

As I was walking towards the lot, I realized one of the men got up and was following me, and hurried to catch up.

I turned around and he said “excuse me, but you are very beautiful.”

Suddenly I felt very uncomfortable/nervous.

She’s wondering if she overreacted.

I said thank you and then turned around to sit in another public outdoor spot until I felt confident that he wasn’t around anymore.

I told a friend (m) about it and he agreed this was an annoying interaction, but I actually found it to be very angering/upsetting.

While the likelihood of something actually dangerous happening was low, it makes me upset that someone would follow me into a parking lot and put me in an uncomfortable situation just so that he could pass on a “compliment” or shoot a shot. I think it’s selfish and entitled at best and malicious at worst.

Am I correct here, or is this just not that big of a deal?

I don’t think she’s overreacting. They may not have meant to make her feel uncomfortable, but I can definitely understand why she felt that way.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a thrift store worker who is absolutely exhausted by having to thwart theft attempts until after closing.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person would’ve felt uncomfortable too.

He really should’ve talked to her sooner.

A guy weighs in.

This person has a theory.

While the guy may have been harmless and she may not have realized he was doing anything to make her feel uncomfortable, that doesn’t change the fact that he was in fact being creepy.

If he wanted to talk to her, he really should’ve gotten up the courage to do if when she was still at the cafe. Chasing her into the parking lot is not normal or acceptable behavior, especially when they’re alone.

It might be hard for guys to understand how uncomfortable it is for women when men act this way, but that doesn’t make it okay for them to act this way.

Her feelings are valid. Maybe next time, she should park in a spot that isn’t tight and dark. Maybe next time she should eat inside instead of outside when she knows she’s being watched.

But maybe she should’ve also told the guy that being followed into the parking lot makes her feel uncomfortable. He’s probably completely unaware how he made her feel, and I worry that he’ll keep being creepy if nobody tells him he’s being creepy.