I have two very similar, but completely unrelated incidents I'd like to share.

One time, I was at the mall and realized I had forgotten my cellphone in my car. I decided to walk back out to my car to retrieve it. As I reached into my car, I glanced in my rear view mirror and noticed a man that walked between some cars in the aisle behind me, but didn't get into a car. I immediately became suspicious of him. In hindsight, I should've immediately left. But instead, I grabbed my phone, hit the video record button and started walking back into the mall. Sure enough, this guy got about 20-30 feet behind me and followed me back into the mall through one of the department stores. Once back in the store, I decided to play a cat and mouse game to test him. As I would move around the store, sure enough, he was always nearby, "pretending to shop", unaware that I was onto him.

At one point, I acted like I was heading to leave the store and walk out into the main corridor of the mall. He was walking ahead of me and anticipating my move, he sure enough left the store. He looked back at me, I shot him a dirty look and then immediately cut to the side and remained in the store. Not surprisingly, he turned around and came back into the store. At this point, he knew that I was aware of what he was doing. He walks past me and says "You look very nice". I glanced at him and didn't say anything.

Now at this point, he was putting a lot more distance between himself and I. After a while, I looked around and didn't see him anywhere, but I knew he had to have been watching from afar somewhere. I decided to use this buffer to make a break for it. I hit record on my phone again, and immediately speed walked back out to my car. Just as I was getting into my car, I spotted him again walking towards my car. I threw my car into gear and got out of there.

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My next experience is very similar. Again, I was at the mall (A different mall). As I was walking in the corridor, some guy clocked me. He was walking ahead of me, but kept glancing to the side, where he could see me in his peripheral vision. I didn't think too much of it because I'm used to getting occasionally clocked. Most people just stare for a brief moment and then carry on. I had no reason to think this would be any different. Feeling like I was done shopping, I decided to turn around and walk in the opposite direction. I traversed the entire length of the mall to the exit where my car was parked. Before exiting, I looked back to make sure nobody was following me, then proceeded to leave. Even once outside, as I walked down the long parking aisle, I looked around again, and still didn't see anything concerning. I then got into my car and as I was backing up, the guy appeared again in front of me. We made eye contact and I shot him a dirty look, while he had a look of disgust on his face. I then drove off and he started walking back to the mall entrance. I could see in my rear view mirror that he kept glancing back as I drove away.

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I'll never know exactly what their motives were, but stay safe out there, girls! There's some real creeps lurking about. I have pepper spray, and plan to get more serious about carrying this on me when I go out dressed.