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Car Troubles

Suddenlyscared

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Oct 11, 2019
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Hello all,

I have been having a new issue recently that is becoming really annoying to deal with. Over the past four months, I have been chased and perhaps threatened by three vehicles (two cars & a motorcycle) while on the sidewalk.

To give a bit of background, I am 16 years old and a white male. I do whatever is in my power to avoid talking to people I don't know lol. Admittedly, if I had to choose between fight or flight, I would choose flight... Unfortunately I've had to make that choice way more frequently than usual, lately.

First, in June, I was on a walk in my cousin's neighborhood with two siblings and my cousin. About halfway through the all,a black pickup arrived about 100 feet behind us and was playing rap stuff. The car was obviously being obnoxious and watching us walk - driving back and forth on the backstreet and such. Anyway, my cousin must not have liked their t
music because she started giving them the finger. I immediately said "Don't do that, these are idiots we can just ignore." Although I already had the sinking feeling that trouble was gonna arise. The truck revved its engine and sped towards us. As it passed, the drivers were shouting/laughing/cursing at us. Yes, my cousin provoked them, but she is about half their age and they were harassing us beforehand anyway. I assumed I'd paid my dues with this type of situation, and I did get a few months off, but then...

Last week I was at XC practice and running laps around the park with a few other kids. Near the very end of our run, we passed two kids standing next to a motorcycle. One of the kids was kicking it to try and start it up. My friend (who is usually good at dealing with obnoxious people) said something like "It's not working, dude" and the kid (probably three years older than us) was VERY offended. He said "Yeah, I'd like to see you try and start this bike", and then he got the engine to rev-up. A few seconds later he zoomed up right in front of my friend on his bike, basically blocking him from escaping. He kicked dirt up into my friends' face with the bike, before turning back around to go to his friend, I guess. He was never seen or heard from again - by us lol.

Just five days later (today), I was running laps around my block since my Cross Country practice was cancelled due to weather. Because it was so rainy, my shoes were really heavy with water from the start and the ground was really slippery with algae, so I decided to run barefoot. I ran a few laps around the block, before deciding it was too wet to run. I turned down a culd-a-sac to get to my house when a car started to slow down next to me. At first I thought I was being paranoid since it had happened so much frequently (and never before this Summer!), but a kid yelled "Nice running, boy!" (hey, it was wet and I wasn't sprinting, lol). I figured they'd leave it at that, but they came to a dead stop and all started telling "Get in our car" and then "We're gonna get you!". It sounds silly and they didn't appear much older than me, lol, but remember that are in a big car and in a group. I sprinted back up the other way to get to my house and stopped a couple of doors down and told a man walking his dog what was going on. That's another issue, I act like a crazy person after being pursued lol. Anyway, this man didn't care much and continued on his way (I thought I lived in Maryland, not New York, lol). I went inside and just told my siblings to hide in the upstairs bathroom. I know that's a big overreaction, but better safe than sorry IMO. I have no idea what provoked this, although I probably looked wild - running in the rain, without shoes on, looking all over the place. I'm sure I appeared to be an easy target to mess with. I am getting increasingly concerned and frustrated with the uptick in these things. It's getting to the point where I only want to run in groups.

I hope I did this right; this is my first post. Feel free to respond with advice, whether I'm overreacting or any other response that's somewhat relevant :p

Thank you! :)
 
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All I can say is you're 16, right? And I presume most of the people harassing you are around your age as well, give or take a few years. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Many people your age are jerks. There's no getting around it. They don't yet have the maturity to know how to be decent human beings. It doesn't mean you did anything wrong. They just noticed that you appear to be a pretty shy, quiet kid, and therefore seem like an easy target. I got picked on in elementary school, well into high school, so I should know.

Maybe next time if this happens again, see if you can get their license plate numbers and report it to the police if you feel you are in any danger. Definitely be sure to do what you can to stay safe.

Apart from that, don't worry. Your teen years will be over soon enough, and everyone else will be too busy dealing with their own crap as adults to even care about what you're doing. You'll be OK.
 
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