Pandemic
Log: Wednesday, 8th
April 2020
Since the lock down began a few
weeks ago the streets around our neighbourhood have started to get more desolate,
and I have noticed some sketchy men wandering around at night.
Last night, when I was out waking
my dog I saw a man walking towards me. He was behaving very erratically and
looked threatening, but as I turned onto the street, he kept going up
the avenue.
From the corner of my eye I spotted a
young woman walking alone in the same direction that the man had just walked off in;
instinctively I doubled back towards the avenue.
Sure
enough the man had started
to menacingly block this woman's path. Clearly scared she crossed the
street to avoid him but he proceeded to follow her;,crossing diagonally
so that he
could stay a few feet ahead. As she proceeded, he moved
to block her path again. She said something and then turned and started
to walk faster, and he picked up his pace to follow her.
Again she began to cross
the street and again he followed; now openly chasing after her.
At this point I picked up my dog and
walked into the middle of the street, to meet her halfway, and said to her, "Walk
with me."
She was visibly shaken but
grateful as we started walking together. He had again followed and was
now approaching us head-on. She told me that she said to him that she was not
carrying money, but that he just kept coming at her. I told her that, I had
noticed him behaving erratically.
As we walked past him, I put
myself as a buffer between him and the girl and looked him in the eye, at
that point he mumbled something about looking for someone and then crossed and skulked away.
She kept thanking
me and saying me how grateful she was, and how she never felt unsafe
on the Upper West Side before. I
told her I was happy to walk as many blocks as she wanted, but
after about three blocks when it became clear that he was not turning back, she told me she was fine.
She
thanked me again, and I told her it was not necessary, but added that I
had seen a lot of strange folks wandering around out at night and it
was probably better to walk during the day, for now.
Nobody should feel unsafe walking our streets at night, but these are strange times...
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