A lot of women know the uncomfortable feeling of trying to stay polite while realizing a man is starting to cross the line.

For this server, it happened at work after a customer who had asked her out before ended up sitting in her section again. What started as an awkward interaction quickly became uncomfortable after he grabbed her hand and continued flirting with her even after she mentioned she was married.

Hoping to avoid any further interaction, she stayed away from his table for the rest of the night. But the man had different ideas.

He lurked around the restaurant for over two hours before the manager called the police and asked them to handle it.

Read on to check out the full story.

Manager called the cops and trespassed a customer for me

I (28F) have a customer (50ishM) that I have served a couple of times before. He asked me out sometime in early 2020, pre-COVID, and I told him no.

The day after Christmas, this man came in alone and sat in my section. I was hoping that he wouldn’t recognize me this time because I was wearing a mask and I had changed my hair.

Unfortunately, he did remember me, but his meal was fairly uneventful.

The issue started when I dropped off his check. As I reached to pick up his payment, he grabbed my hand (during a global pandemic) and said, “I love you.”

He pretended not to see her wedding ring.

I was very caught off guard, so I just gave an awkward laugh and walked away to swipe his card and get him outta there.

When I walked back with his receipt and card, he asked what I was doing for New Year’s Eve and if I would like to go out with him.

I replied no and that I would be home with my HUSBAND.

He said, “Oh, I didn’t realize you were married,” while looking at my wedding ring.

She thought this was the end of it, but he didn’t leave.

He then added, “Well, he’s a lucky man,” with a wink.

Gross. I told him to have a good night and walked away, deciding I was not going back to my section until he got up because he was creeping me out.

I figured that would be the end of it, and I could go on with my night. No such luck.

He sat at the table for another 15 minutes waiting for me to return. I refused to go over there, so I asked other servers to run my food, and I helped run their food to other parts of the restaurant.

Then, her boss started hovering around her.

He finally got up but then he went and stood by the host stand for another 20 minutes watching me.

At this point, I was feeling super uncomfortable and getting very anxious about him still being there. I finally told my boss what was going on and that I was uncomfortable so he kept his eye on the customer for me.

When he finally left the building my boss came to tell me that he watched him get in his car and I could relax.

About 30 minutes later, my boss started hovering around my section and told me I didn’t do anything wrong, but he was going to be spending some time in my section. He did this twice and over an hour after the customer had left, he pulled me to the side to talk to me.

The manager was worried and called the police.

Turns out the guy never left and was still sitting in his car. He had walked into the restaurant twice looking/wandering around and went to the bathroom.

My manager was worried about me and called the cops on the guy.

The cops came in to ask me what happened and asked if we (my manager and I) would like to have him trespassed.

My manager told me it was my choice, and I said yes because after this I couldn’t imagine having to see him again.

The cops pulled him out of his car and told him he would be arrested if he ever came back to our restaurant.

Confused, she didn’t understand why he was acting like that.

This incident gave me pretty bad anxiety for a week or two after it happened.

Why was he sitting in his car for so long? By the time the cops got to him he had been at our restaurant for over 2 hours after he finished eating and paid for his meal. What would have happened if my manager wasn’t watching him?

I wouldn’t have known that he didn’t leave. Was he waiting for me to get off so he could follow me, kidnap me, **** me, ****** me?

Several weeks later a manager is still walking me to my car every night that I leave.

Looking back, there were many things she could’ve done differently.

I’m grateful my manager had my back and took my concerns seriously. But I hate that it went so far.

I wish I would have had the quick thinking and the courage to tell him, “DON’T TOUCH ME.”

I wish I could be more verbal and stand up for myself sooner instead of having a freeze and appease reaction. But I do feel like I learned from the situation and hopefully if there is ever another time I’m in a similar situation I will be stronger.

Wow! That actually sounds like a pretty scary situation.

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit would’ve done in this situation.

She should consider this advice.

This person’s just happy the manager took it seriously.

For this reader, it’s about learning to defend herself.

Let’s hope he never comes back.

Women should not have to worry that rejecting someone politely could turn into a safety issue later in the night.

A lot of women freeze in situations like this or try to stay polite because they don’t know how the other person is going to react. And after hearing that this man sat outside watching the restaurant for hours, it’s pretty easy to understand why she felt so anxious afterward.

Thankfully, her manager noticed the behavior and took it seriously instead of brushing it off.

Managers should take note, because this is how you care for your employees.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a cashier who met a customer outside of work, and now they can never go back to their old relationship.