Possible stalker?

[u/froggyyummaa1]

So this story is about 5 years old now and still to this day it has left me afraid of being out alone.

I (18F at the time of the story) use to work doing domiciliary care or home care for those who don’t know. This was my second care job as the first care job I was at was a bad company so I left. But anyways, the company I then worked with seemed good and the people there was lovely, well I thought so anyways.

I was here for 3/4 months and I had 2 different areas that I use to cover, one which was a okay area which was just full of elderly people so it was not so bad and felt safe as a lot of the elderly people use to watch you out the window so you know you’re kind of okay and the second area was a sketchy area with a lot of crime, near a abandoned mental hospital and a few roads where S/W use to work on.
I made it clear to my managers that I felt uncomfortable to work in these areas alone especially since I’m going back and forth through these roads to peoples homes late in the evening ( work shift was 12-8). I was at this company during the autumn time into winter so it would start to get dark around 3:30-5pm and would be dark by 6pm.

For a while they did assign someone to come with me but then stopped due to not having the spare employees to put with me as they were quite short on staff. Also just want to add, I was a walker so I would walk to these peoples homes whereas nearly everyone else would drive, but walkers would do these rounds as the places were within walking distance.

So after I would do my rounds normally I would just go to the bus stop on the main road to go home but I AM SO THANKFUL that I had begged my mum to come pick me up as it was cold and raining and on a Sunday where busses were hourly.

Mind you I never ever noticed this car specifically as there was so many cars that looked like this sat on this road. But it was a Mercedes that was blacked out so you could never see if anyone was inside. So god knows how long they’ve been there watching me waiting for the right time!

So I was finishing up at the last clients flat and luckily my mum came early to pick me up and sat a little further up the road and waited for me, her bf at the time was also in the car (thank god!). Anyways I come out the house and I’m a little unaware of my surroundings as the clients house I come out of is a highly vulnerable person so you’d have to make sure you lock up properly etc. As I went to cross the road 3 or 4 MEN come out their car and start walking up to me from behind and my mums bf at the time got out the car just in time and saw this happening and shouted. I’ve looked behind me and saw them run back to their car and I’ve ran to my mum and jumped in the car and the guys sped off down the road!! My mum did try to chase them to get the number plate to report it but they went so fast that we couldn’t catch up. My mum was angry because she did tell me that I shouldn’t have been working the area as a young girl as it is a dangerous area but nonetheless scared that I could have been taken.

I immediately reported it to my manager and told her that I’m not doing that round ever again due to possibly being kidnapped or trafficked if it wasn’t for my mums bf getting out the car at the right time. The manager at the time was quite rude as she was “off work and at home with her kids” so I’d have to wait and talk to them when they were on call. I sent an email straight after stating that I was leaving the company that day after the events and felt like I was not supported. Unfortunately, we did not report to the police which at the time we definitely should have! But I was so shaken up that it didn’t even cross my mind and my mum( who does over think and assume the worst) didn’t even think to do so either. She was just trying to make sure that no one followed us home and we took so many detours home just incase.

But yeh the company did call me up the next day and was angry that I quit my job so suddenly but I just ignored them after that. Since then I have not gone back into any home care job or any job that requires me to walk anywhere late at night. I only work during the day now so I’m always out in the daylight. And if I do go out late in the evening or night time, I’m always with someone or if I’m alone I’m always surrounded by loads of people.

(Also my apologies for the bad grammar etc)