“Years ago now, my best friend and I were in a cafe just wasting time, and we saw a man watching us through a mirror hanging on a nearby wall. Something about this man was so bone-chilling, so creepy, that our instincts immediately kicked in and we both looked at each other in horror. He continued to watch us, so we left the café and joked about it on our walk home. We were about sixteen and just brushed it off. About a week later, this man came into my work, his face and whole presence was unforgettable. I texted my best friend and informed her that he was at my work, yet again, staring at me without ever looking away. He was pretending to browse the store’s inventory, but he obviously intended on not buying anything. He just stared and stared. I told a co-worker and walked away for a bit. Strange, but it was a small community, and you see the same people everywhere. Side note, both my best friend and I have lived in this community for most our lives, and we had never seen this man.
Alright, fast-forward to a few weeks later, and we were at a store late evening in a completely different part of town. We were browsing, and the man was there, at this shop that we hardly visit. He walked in the downstairs entrance and looked directly up at us, as we were looking over the upstairs railing. We nervously giggled and shouted profanities in disbelief at how crazy this whole thing was. We told our other friends we were with what was happening, and we immediately left. A little later, he returned to my place of work, spooking me just as much as he did the first time I saw him. My co-worker and manager told me to go upstairs and pretend to do something to not be around him, but he immediately followed me upstairs.
He hastily walked up to the desk I was behind, and before my manager could pull him away from me and ask him to leave the store, he looked right at me and said, ‘Can I ask you something? Do I make you uncomfortable?’
I don’t know what it was, but something took over my body and I filled with dread. I immediately started crying. I have never had anything like this happen to me. This man had never talked to me before, just look at my friend and I really intensely. My manager told him he needed to go now and never come back. The thing was everyone immediately picked up on the very strange, creepy, and uncomfortable ‘energy’ he put out. My co-worker had no idea what he looked like, but he immediately pointed him out when he entered our work and asked if that was him. Everyone agreed something was very, very off. Our HR woman asked that I be walked to my car when I was getting off work late from that point on. I wish I could convey with better and more descriptive words what kind of feeling this man put off. My best friend and I still discuss it, even though it was nine years ago. He was banned, and all the managers were notified of who he was.
But one day, when we were packed with people, this man finally returned. My coworker informed me he was here, and my manager ran to tell this man to leave. Unfortunately, the owner had something else in mind. He got to the man first, shook his hand, and he proceeded to walk this man up to me to talk. I was about seventeen, and this was a grown man. I started to cry and had to leave work immediately.”
