( The names have been changed to protect the innocent)…
Hi Susan:
I know you come in contact with a lot of people so I wanted to share this with you so you could pass this information along and help keep woman and children safe!!
This past Monday I dropped Peter and Jessie off at school and Tom was home with lil JT so I decided to go to the Persian Market down crown valley before I came home. It was 8:45 and store didn’t open until 9 am, , so I decided to go across the street to Home Depot and pick up some flowers. I parked, went in to the garden area, picked flowers I wanted, checked out at 8:55 and pushed my cart to my car! When I opened my trunk (with my electronic opener), a man appeared very quickly from the side of my car. He approached me, and in a very nice friendly voice told me that someone stole his tail light and wanted to know if I would do him a favor and get in the driver seat and tap on the brake pedal so he could see if it was working. I told him NO that I would not do that. He asked several more times and I still stood there and said NO. He finally went between our cars for a minute and then came back out and said “so are you going to do it or what” I was still standing in my same spot and again answered NO! He said come on it will only take a second and I will help you load your flowers in your car, I said with a lot of force this time, NO and you are really starting to freak me out so you need to back away from me, I told you I am not going to do this for you and you need to leave me alone. He would not stop, he would say things like “what is wrong with you, you cant take 2 minutes to help someone”, “what are you too busy” and he was getting more angry. I let go of my cart and ran back towards home depot, which was only about 3 car spots away, grabbed the first guy I saw coming out and begged him to please help me. He said no problem and came over to the creep and asked him what did he need, the creep told him that his light was “broken” (which he told me it was stolen) and said he just needed someone to step on the peddle, so the nice guy said he would do it, he jumped in the blue/green Dodge Caravan and stepped on the peddle, BOTH TAIL LIGHTS WORKED FINE!!! The creep said “oh it wasn’t working” and started to get very nervous. The nice guy got out and stood by me, the creep jumped in his car and took off! I loaded my car very fast and asked the nice guy to please don’t leave till I was in my truck, he stayed with me and told me that he worked at Home Depot, and that guy was very creepy and something wasn’t right and he was going to tell his manager. I jumped in my car and went across the street to the Persian market and that is when it hit me that he was trying to get me!!! I called Tom hysterical and “Tom said stay where you are and call 911 I will be right there “. The police were there in 2 minutes and took this very very serious, with all the information that I gave them, surveillance cameras from Home Depot and the nice guy that helped me, we identified this creep as a convicted sexual predator!!!!! Yes Susan, he was going to take me, he most likely watched me go into Home Depot and moved his car right next to mine so I couldn’t see his car when I walked out, and he was going to take my 3 beautiful children’s mother away and god knows do what to me!!! He didn’t care that he would be leaving 3 children Motherless and scared for the rest of their lives!!! The police told me I did everything right and that I should be very proud of myself. They told me that you should absolutely never get into a car with anyone, once you get into the car your chances of surviving are about 10%!!! They said there wasn’t a crime committed because he “didn’t touch me” but they were very happy that I got away! They said they will be watching him, but I guess he has to attack again for something to happen! I guess a man on parole asking a woman to get in his car isn’t breaking probation!!!!! It’s sick!!! The worst part about it is he lives right by a school in capistrano beach! The good news is I am ok, I can’t stop thinking about what could have happened and I am so very thankful….I want to get the word out that this monster is in the area. He doesn’t know who I am or anything about me and I want to keep it that way. He scares me…and I am=2 0afraid for my kids. But, I do want to tell as many people as we can….don’t ever let your guard down Susan, and don’t be afraid to tell people NO!!!! I do believe it saved my life! Make sure you tell your kids….don’t ever ever ever talk to a stranger or get in their car!
Sorry this is so long..
Mary
