the snark's sad tale just reminded me
when i was a child, i grew up in an area that had many parks. as it was the early 80's, mums were a bit less paranoid about stranger danger, including mine, which was why i was allowed to go to the park on my own.
on this particular day, i'd had a lovely walk, picked some flowers, the usual girly shite. lunchtime was fast approaching, so i decided to go home. as i headed towards the park gate, a tall and bearded man approached me.
"hello," he says, "can you help me find my dog? i think he's hiding in the bushes."
even as a child, the alarm bells were ringing. i had seen him walking up and down the path for at least 20 minutes, yet he had not once called to his dog, nor did he have a lead(leash for the merkins). it suddenly became very apparent that something wasn't right.
"sorry, i have to go home, my mum's expecting me back" i muttered, before scuttling through the gate.
i hurried down the road, heading towards home. looking back, i saw that the beardy man was following me. even worse, he was close and catching up.
i darted into a nearby phone box and called the police. i told them where i was and what the man looked like. he must have heard me, because he turned hurriedly and headed back to the park.
luckily, the police station was only at the top of the road, so a squad car was at the phone box within a couple of minutes and i was escorted home.
some time later that day, a police officer called at the house. they'd stopped the man, who claimed e was waiting for a friend and hadn't seen me, nor did he have a dog. they took him in for questioning. it seemed he was wanted for questioning about a string of indecent exposures in the area.
i dread to think what could have happened and am very thankful that, even at that age, i had the sense to know when something wasn't right.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 23:40, Reply)