Stalker

Yesterday I had an odd interruption to my perfect summer schedule.

I was in my car about to pull out of my garage (on my way to do a 5 mile walk around a lake) when I looked in my rearview mirror and there was a man standing in my garage! I am very easily frightened, so this little shocker literally sent my stomach to my throat. It scared the living SHIT out of me. I turned around to make sure I had seen correctly, and sure enough, there was a man in the back of my garage.

He waved, and made his way over to my window. I rolled it down, and what happened next was a jumble of fast talk on his part and confusion on mine.

These are the important things that came out of the conversation:

1. He claimed to live in the neighborhood (over there - he pointed in a general direction)
2. He claimed that his parents were the owners of a mexican restaurant in town
3. He claimed to know Mike and have spoken on a couple occasions

Because of these things, when he asked for a couple of dollars to pay for gas to go pick up his paycheck, I didn't think anything of giving him $5.

He promised to come to pay me back later after he cashed his check.

Things about the whole thing that had the hair on my back standing on end:
1. He was talking VERY VERY FAST and was not making sense at first. I had to clarify exactly what it was that he was asking for
2. As soon as I opened my garage door, and I was ready to pull out, there he was. What exactly was he doing standing by my garage? Or was it just really perfect timing on his part?
3. Besides asking for money, he apparently was scoping things out in my garage because he was asking about a computer that was in there and if my husband might sell it to him
4. He wanted to know what time my husband would be home that day so that he could pay back the money and talk to him about the computer
5. He skipped a beat when I told him what time Mike would probably be home. (I'll get back to this point later.)
6. He never showed up that evening to pay back the money and ask Mike about the computer despite his insistence that he would.

It's the very last point that made me nervous about the whole thing.

Mike is a very suspicious person, especially of men. I attribute this 60% to his Marine Corps training and 40% to his protectiveness of me. I figured when I told him this story that he would be VERY concerned about it. However, I also figured that when the guy came back to return the money, Mike would be able to scout out the situation himself and figure out if he felt the guy was legitimate or not. Unfortunately, the guy never showed up. So, all we are left to do is speculate about What the F$*K this dude was up to.

It wasn't until after he didn't show up that I let myself really register the *surprise the man had exhibited when I gave him a time for Mike's return that evening. Mike is convinced that the guy thought Mike was deployed which is why he was snooping around and asking so many questions about him.

I don't know. All I know is the whole thing really sucks because I have always felt 100% safe in my neighborhood, and currently, not so much.

Last night I even broke down and went to Mike's soccer game with him because I did NOT want to stay home alone.

We were joking with Mike's soccer teammates that I have a stalker. In my mind, though, that's 60% joke and 40% fear.

Let's just say I am 100% happy that this did NOT happen when Mike actually was deployed.