creepy homeless man at work LNM

note: this is nothing too crazy, but freaked me out enough to keep me on edge from then on.

backstory: I, 18F, have been working at a local restaurant for the past 2 years. the restaurant itself is manufactured from an old train station, so there’s inactive railroad tracks behind (to give a visual). I also live in a pretty small town with a known homeless/drug population that’s far too high for the low population density.

we have homeless people, some new, some regulars, that come in for food and drinks when they can afford it, and most end up staying for hours-even occasionally for my whole 4 hour shift- but my boss (the owner of the restaurant) tells us that since they buy food/drinks, we shouldn’t kick them out.

it’s also important to note that in my 2 years of working here, i’ve had to call the police 2 separate times, one for people shooting up heroin in the bathrooms, and one for a fight between a homeless man and a super roided-out gym bro.

that being said, nothing like what happened 2 months ago had ever happened before.

so, around two months ago, myself and 3 other coworkers (all female) were cleaning up the kitchen and dining room, getting ready to start closing with the hopes of getting home early. then, a homeless man in jeans and a stained brown tee came in. he had a black backpack and his hair was light brown with a slicked back, messy appearance. he smelled heavily of marijuana and if I had to guess he was maybe mid 30’s- early 40’s, and he just ordered a soda.

nothing out of the ordinary at all, this happens so often that our danger radars aren’t exactly as strong as they should be. a lot of the homeless people in my town are friendly enough, so my coworker took the cash and they had a few seconds of small talk, most notably when the man asked if she was working alone tonight. she was professional and said no, that there were 3 other ladies working with her tonight, and he nodded and sat down at a table in the corner.

fast forward to 20 minutes later, it was 8:00, time to officially close and lock the doors. my coworker politely told the man that we were now closed and apologized, but told him he had to go.

he got up and meandered towards the door with his backpack, throwing his bottle away as he left and that was it, he just walked out the front door.

another fast forward to about 30 minutes after he left, we had cleaned and put everything away, the only thing left to do was take the trash out. my coworker and I went to carry the 5 bags of trash across the railroad tracks, across the street, into the back alley to the dumpster while my manager and another coworker stayed and checked everything was closed.

as we made it to the alley that contained the dumpster, the man in the brown shirt came from about 15 feet behind and asked, “you girls need any help with those?” scared shitless as of course anyone would be after an unrecognized voice calls after you in the dark, I whipped around and answered “no thanks! all good!” in a friendly but shaken-up tone.

we then finished throwing the trash away and started heading back down the alley to bring the keys back inside and finish closing. before we got out of the alley, the guy popped up again in front of us this time and started asking us questions that were honestly more annoying than creepy. “how old are you?” “how long have you worked here?” “you guys ever get scared walking in the dark?” and stupid things like that. we were both exhausted, my coworker and I, so we both gave him short answers and started to briskly walk back to the restaurant.

we passed him on the side and walked in front of him in order to get back to work, and then he started asking more direct and odd questions such as “where do you go to school?” “any plans after work?” and making gross comments about our appearances. I can’t really remember everything he said but the one thing that stuck out to me was when he said “you have a very lovely figure, it’d be shameful of me to just let you walk away.” and at that point I had genuine goosebumps and both my coworker and I exchanged concerned glances and ran across the street and over the railroad tracks to get back inside.

immediately we closed the back door, but we knew we’d have to leave out that same door to go to our cars and get home. the 4 of us decided to all walk out together and immediately get in our cars, lock them, and then one by one pull off to make sure we were all safe.

I was the last one to leave, as I literally live 2 minutes from my work, and as I pulled out, I saw him about 20 feet away in my rear view mirror jogging and waving his arms as if trying to get my to stop. holy shit when I tell you I almost peed my pants; I literally felt a cold shiver throughout my entire body. when my thoughts settled and my fear reaction kicked in, he was pretty much right behind my car, so I cracked my window slightly and tried to tell him that I wasn’t interested and that I just wanted to go home.

he seemed absolutely furious and started clenching his jaw and threatening me to try to get me to walk out of my car. after about 30 seconds of threats and toddler-like outbursts, he started walking towards my drivers side door with his fists clenched and forehead veins popping. I took that opportunity to put my car into reverse and stepped on the gas firmly to get away quickly.

I don’t really know if he would have harmed me or what he would’ve said or did had I not left, but to the homeless man in the brown shirt and blue jeans, let’s NEVER meet again.