So yesterday I was walking to the city campus of my university along a busy main road. It's broad daylight, midafternoon and this guy pulls up in a car and asks me if I "need a ride anywhere?". It was definitely creepy and definitely rapey (as much as I dislike that term it's the only one I can think of in this situation).

I looked at him like he was an idiot, said no, and told him to fuck off with appropriate shoo-ing hand gestures. I thought little of it but posted a Facebook update for my friends to share around as a warning, as we tend to do when these sorts of things happen. A couple of people said "wow you should probe at least tell campus security about this guy" but again I thought little of it. I'd dealt with a conman earlier this year and the police said there was nothing they could do about it so I didn't think they'd be helpful.

Until I saw (you need an account to see links) on our usually shitty newspaper's website while searching for an unrelated article. It kinda set of little alarm bells in my head so I called the anonymous 'Crimestoppers' line that we use here. They said I should call the non-emergency police line right away. Turns out I needed to consider how I could be helpful.

When I did call the non-emergency police call centre they immediately forwarded me to someone who would forward the details of the incident straight to intel. THAT was a wake-up call and a half. I felt mad stupid because I could've called them then and there and they could've found him and like what if he was the guy from the article blah blah blah. Thankfully I could still give them details of the guy's car, clothing etc. but it's still left me a little shaky.

Guys remember it's always worth telling at least the local authorities about these sorts of incidents - you could be helping to save someone from some serious shit.