u/_QuitePossibly

This happened a few years ago, and I still randomly think about it because I’ve never experienced anything like it before or since. I was at a fair with some friends. Everything was completely normal. We were walking around, having fun, and eventually decided to get food.

I ordered a funnel cake and when I went up to get it, I locked eyes with the guy behind the counter who was handing it to me.

IMMEDIATELY I had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to get away from him.

There was nothing obviously strange about him. He looked completely normal. He didn’t say anything creepy or threatening. As far as I can remember, he didn’t actually do anything.
But the second we made eye contact, I felt physically sick. Just this horrible, disgusting feeling in my gut that something was very, very wrong and that I should not be anywhere near this person.

It was so intense that I couldn’t even stand there long enough to take the food I’d already ordered.
I just walked away without my funnel cake. (And I love funnel cake)

My friends were confused, and honestly, so was I. I couldn’t explain what had happened because there wasn’t anything specific I could point to. I just knew I wanted as much distance between myself and this completely ordinary looking stranger as possible.
I’ve obviously felt uncomfortable around people before, but this was completely different. It felt almost primal, like my body had decided this person was dangerous before my brain had any idea why.

I’ve never experienced that feeling again.

I still wonder what my brain picked up on… or if it picked up on anything at all.

Has anyone ever looked at a complete stranger and immediately had every instinct in their body tell them get away from this person, despite having absolutely no logical reason why?

I recently remembered something that happened when I was 16. As an adult, it seems bizarre.

I worked downtown and didn’t have a car, so I took the trolley and walked home. My shift ended at 10 p.m., which was also when the curfew for minors started in my city. One night I was stopped walking home from work during a curfew sweep and cited.

I was placed into what was the Juvenile Diversion Program. This is an alternative to juvenile court involving workshops, community service, an essay, parental involvement, etc.

One of the officers involved was also one of the officers who originally detained me. He was a military veteran and became very interested in convincing me to join the military.

One day, he came to my high school, pulled me out of class, and drove me to a Denny’s in another city for breakfast. I don’t remember my parents arranging this or being told beforehand.
During breakfast, he tried to convince me to join the military. He then drove me to a recruiting office in that same neighboring city, where they told him he needed to take me to the recruiting office that handled my city instead.
That always struck me as odd. He was a local police officer who knew where I lived, so you’d think he would have known that.

The much weirder incident happened at my house.

One day I was asleep in my bedroom when he showed up. My mom knew he was planning to stop by, but she later told me she didn’t think he would just enter the house… much less my bedroom. We’re still not sure how he got inside. We think my brother may have let him in.

I woke up to this adult police officer in my bedroom, pulling on my leg to wake me up.

I was wearing an oversized shirt and small pajama shorts because I was literally asleep in my own room.

Later, he told my mom that I had tried to seduce him because of the shorts I was wearing.
My mom initially believed what he was telling her because he was a police officer. I had to explain that I had been asleep in my bedroom and hadn’t even known he was in the house. Once she understood what actually happened, she believed me and was disturbed by it too.

At the time, I think I rationalized a lot of this because I was 16 and he was a police officer connected to a program that was supposedly there to help teenagers. I didn’t feel like I was in a position to question him.
Now I’m wondering whether any of this one-on-one involvement was actually a normal or authorized part of juvenile diversion.
Has anyone who went through one of these programs or worked in juvenile diversion/law enforcement heard of an officer doing things like this?

Because the breakfast and military recruitment stuff was strange enough, but an adult officer entering a sleeping 16 year old girl’s bedroom and then accusing her of trying to seduce him because of her pajamas feels wildly inappropriate.

Looking back now, I seriously doubt I was the only teenage girl he behaved this way toward.