Were you ever approached by someone when you were younger/asked if you needed a lift?

sunflower27 · 15-07-2011 10:00AM

Was getting a taxi to a friend's place one time and the taxi driver said he knew where to go. Turns out he didn't and he took a wrong turn and we ended up in some nearby estate. Taxi driver was getting irate at me :rolleyes: so I suggested he ask someone where the hell we were.

There were a couple of kids playing nearby so we went and asked how to get to a certain address. One of the boys (probably about 10) offered to hop in the taxi and take us there as it was only a few minutes away.

I was horrified. Kids can be so innocent.

4zn76tysfajdxp · 15-07-2011 10:42AM

sunflower27 wrote: »

Not that I can recall. Although I do remember being wolf-whistled at by a guy in his 40s when I was about 12. That freaked me out no end at that age. And I looked 12, I wasn't one of those girls that looked older.

You weren't a Spanish student at the time, by any chance?

sunflower27 · 15-07-2011 10:43AM

Victor Inexpensive Technique wrote: »

You weren't a Spanish student at the time, by any chance?

A school student. Not Spanish.

G86 · 15-07-2011 10:49AM

It's mad now when I think about it, but when I was a kid I'd always be offered lifts on my way to the local shop and because I lived in a rural area I always assumed it was someone my Aunty knew or something, so even if I didn't know them I never thought twice. I'd kill either of my siblings if they did the same now.

A few years later, I was hitching into town (again, didn't think twice), and the guy started trying to chat me up so I felt pretty uncomfortable. I panicked then when he drove past my stop and told him to stop the car and that I was getting out, I think he genuinely just missed the stop and thought I was a headcase then.... but it stopped me hitching!

secrecy_ie · 15-07-2011 11:01AM

When I was about 14/15 I was walking down a quiet country road to my friends house. A car drives by and stops beside me, the middle aged man driving the car opens the door, smiles and asks me;
'Are you going to the shop, I can give you a lift?'
I was very suspicious, as I had never seen him before in my life. I just shook my head and said 'no'. He gave me the dirtiest look like I was the biggest b**** in the world, slams the door shut and speeds off down the road.

thefinalstage · 15-07-2011 11:17AM

secrecy_ie wrote: »

When I was about 14/15 I was walking down a quiet country road to my friends house. A car drives by and stops beside me, the middle aged man driving the car opens the door, smiles and asks me;
'Are you going to the shop, I can give you a lift?'
I was very suspicious, as I had never seen him before in my life. I just shook my head and said 'no'. He gave me the dirtiest look like I was the biggest b**** in the world, slams the door shut and speeds off down the road.

I can understand why he reacted like that if he was just being nice. Lack of manners.

cassid · 15-07-2011 11:41AM

this thread has made me realise I will have to have a talk to my little lad who is starting school next month for the 1st time:eek:

One of my neighbours was taken by a guy in a car but she managed to open it and escape, so we all the warmed about accepting lifts from an early age. My mother even warmed me about priests, there was one priest who used to wait outside the school and bring kids home and he always had sweets. I used to be really annoyed at my mother because I was not allowed to get into his car for the sweets!

Got followed home twice with my sister in broad day light and had cars go slow beside me a few times and with ole lads winking at me, God was only about 7 or 8.

secrecy_ie · 15-07-2011 11:42AM

poisonedstream wrote: »

I can understand why he reacted like that if he was just being nice. Lack of manners.

I was scared, didn't mean to be rude. It wasn't the fact that he was offering me a lift, it was the look he gave me when he said it. Creeped me out, I didn't know how to react. I was a teenager, but I looked very young for my age, most people thought I was about eleven or twelve when I was fifteen.

sunflower27 · 15-07-2011 11:48AM

poisonedstream wrote: »

I can understand why he reacted like that if he was just being nice. Lack of manners.

What? She said no, she didn't spit in his face!

secrecy_ie · 15-07-2011 11:48AM

cassid wrote: »

this thread has made me realise I will have to have a talk to my little lad who is starting school next month for the 1st time:eek:

One of my neighbours was taken by a guy in a car but she managed to open it and escape, so we all the warmed about accepting lifts from an early age. My mother even warmed me about priests, there was one priest who used to wait outside the school and bring kids home and he always had sweets. I used to be really annoyed at my mother because I was not allowed to get into his car for the sweets!

Got followed home twice with my sister in broad day light and had cars go slow beside me a few times and with ole lads winking at me, God was only about 7 or 8.

I remember when me and my folks moved down the country. My Mum's friend and her husband helped us with the move. I was twelve at the time and the car was packed with my parents, their friends, me and stuff we were bringing to the new house. The husband of my mum's friend was sitting beside me, and for the whole journey he stroked my leg. I didn't know what was going on, my parents were in the car, but couldn't see anything, I kept quiet because I was so scared. It wasn't until many years later, when this man's brother was found out to be a paedo priest that I told my parents about this incident, I think I had just pushed it to the back of my mind until then. They were furious with him, of course, but they haven't talked in years anyway.

Seloth · 15-07-2011 04:04PM

Live in the country so it was quite common but in general it was someone I knew or my parents did(Or literally just a friendly person who lived in the area).

The last time I was offered a lift I think(at kidnappable age) was when I was 13-14 walking up from a Marina near by after a sailing course thingie.I had a big bag with me and was walking up a hill and a car pulled up and the guy shouted across asking if I needed one.I said No thanks as I was literally around the corner and he said no bother and drove off.He had just come from the marina or the restaurant there so there was nothing devious about it.

It was only recently I found out why my parents said not to take sweets of strangers was because they contained drugs like sleeping pills in them :eek:

Around the time of Robert Houlihan before anyone knew what actually happened I was only 13 and I can remember my parents and my friends ones being very nervous!

On a lighter side though I can rember years ago my tekwando instructor warning of getting lifts with strangers and said how in one of this other places (where my cousin was from)one of his students was asked to get into a car by a stranger.I found out a few years later form my cousin the guy was actually bull****ting.

LeeHoffmann · 15-07-2011 04:28PM

I once got caught in a thunderstorm miles from home with my younger brother and friend. We had been at a family event but the place was quickly deserted once the rain started. I phoned some people to come collect us but could only get through to my friend's Dad. He cam and collected his daughter but left me and my younger brother there. A man in a car offered us a lift home saying he was friend of my Auntie. I refused the lift politely but asked the man to tell my Aunt we were there. It turned out he did know her. She came to collect us but ate the head off me for not getting in the car with him. Mixed messages eh? We've got to be careful to reinforce the safety messages we give kids, just in case.

RichieC · 15-07-2011 04:42PM

Me and my mate were at the waterworks and a man asked us to help him put a couch in the back of his van... I'm not making this up.

We walked over and began to help but I got a chill and made eyes at my mate to do a runner. we belted over the gate and made off into the distance.

Never found out if he did actually need a hand or if it was a weirdo..

BettePorter · 15-07-2011 04:43PM

When i was about ten I went out after school one day delivering 'church dues' (how ironic )on my bike. This car pulls up and waves me down, guy pulls down window and asks me do i know where elizabeth murphy lives. Just out of pure coincidence he had stopped right outside 'Murphys' house so i said, 'in there'. He immediately dismissed this and said ' no no thats not her' . He was moving about in the seat and i obviously now know he was having a **** but at the time i just thought he was acting weird lol and i remember consciously bringing my pedal round to a take off position should i need to take flight yet my main concern was not being rude to him. He wasn't making a whole lot of sense and started telling me how he had met her one night blah blah blah and i continued to listen to him then to my horror he said ' you see i have a really big cock and i want to get it up her'..........it horrifies me now that still at that point i was more mortified than scared. he didn't attempt to get me in the car or anything. He left only when i almost apologised saying i had to go (wtf) and i turned the bike and went straight home. I said nothing to my parents out of sheer embarassment i think. When i think of it now and it horrifies my. if such a thing happened to my niece i would hunt the fu5ker down and cut bits off him.

Knight who says Meh · 15-07-2011 04:43PM

Oh great. Another Church bashing thread:D

Ditch · 15-07-2011 04:58PM

RichieC wrote: »

Me and my mate were at the waterworks and a man asked us to help him put a couch in the back of his van.

Was his arm in a plaster cast ....? :eek:

secrecy_ie · 15-07-2011 05:40PM

BettePorter wrote: »

When i was about ten I went out after school one day delivering 'church dues' (how ironic )on my bike. This car pulls up and waves me down, guy pulls down window and asks me do i know where elizabeth murphy lives. Just out of pure coincidence he had stopped right outside 'Murphys' house so i said, 'in there'. He immediately dismissed this and said ' no no thats not her' . He was moving about in the seat and i obviously now know he was having a **** but at the time i just thought he was acting weird lol and i remember consciously bringing my pedal round to a take off position should i need to take flight yet my main concern was not being rude to him. He wasn't making a whole lot of sense and started telling me how he had met her one night blah blah blah and i continued to listen to him then to my horror he said ' you see i have a really big cock and i want to get it up her'..........it horrifies me now that still at that point i was more mortified than scared. he didn't attempt to get me in the car or anything. He left only when i almost apologised saying i had to go (wtf) and i turned the bike and went straight home. I said nothing to my parents out of sheer embarassment i think. When i think of it now and it horrifies my. if such a thing happened to my niece i would hunt the fu5ker down and cut bits off him.

That reminds me of a trip to France when I was sixteen. Me and some classmates were on an exchange trip and the french kids we were staying with were sitting their exams when we arrived, so we decided to go to the cafe beside the school. It was in the morning but a lot of cafes over there serve alcohol aswell and when we went to the counter to order coffees this creepy old man stinking of booze stared at us the whole time. We took our coffees, found a table and only a few minutes later, we noticed the same man, standing outside the cafe. The walls were full glass windows and he was standing in front of a skip of rancid meat from the supermarket next door - w***ing. We got so freaked out we left, but this only prompted him to turn around to us and well...continue....ugh!!!

Knasher · 15-07-2011 05:46PM

Back when I was 5 I went to the same primary school as my sister, however the school was split administratively by gender and occasionally one side would have the day off while the other didn't. So one day my mother dropped in my sister and me and in and left before realising that I had the day off. Being a bit of an independent child I decided to walk home, which was about 4 miles away.

I got about a quarter of the way home before a neighbour recognised me (although I doubt I recognised him) as I walked past and offer me a lift. And being the innocent type I accepted and he dropped me home safe and sound.

When my mother asked me what the hell was I thinking, my reply was; I figured I'd have walked back by about 2 o'clock and if it came to it I always had my lunchbox so I could stop for a snack. Not a clue that I shouldn't get into strangers cars.

dlofnep · 15-07-2011 05:53PM

Not a lift story, but one to make you weary of strangers.

About 24 or 25 years ago around the corner from me - a man offered a few young lads if they wanted to go up the field with him to earn some pocket money. All of them said no except one of them. The man ended up murdering the poor young lad who was only 8 at the time.

The fella responsible got out of jail a good few years back I think. Hard to believe someone like that could be back in society.

punchdrunk · 15-07-2011 06:39PM

when I was about 17 or so I was running late for work,walking to my job in the omniplex in santry when a man in his 40's or early 50's pulled up in a car asking where the omniplex was.
me thinking i was being very clever said I was going there to work and if he wanted I could show him the way there if he gave me a lift (it was about 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning so feck all buses around to catch)

I got in the car and started to chat,small talk stuff
he wasted no time in asking about where I went out in town (in fairness I'd only just started drinking in town so I think I named one of maybe three pubs I'd ever been drinking in)

he started to ask about the George and did I know of it,and how that's where he liked to go I pretended not to know of it
(of course I knew what the George was-who hasn't heard of it!)
the way he said it and the expression on his face when he did was truly vile like a vulture hovering over a fresh corpse,

at that point he locked the doors with the central locking which truly had the hairs on my neck standing up,I was trapped and completely helpless
I started pumping sweat
I stopped talking and tensed myself up
in my head I was planning to start hitting his face as hard as I could if he so much as took his hands off the wheel.

"why me? I'm too old!"
"where is he going to take me"

he never asked directions,he knew exactly where he was going
amazingly after a few minutes he took the right turn and pulled into the cinema car park.I was convinced he wasn't going to...
he parked the car at the opposite end of the almost completely empty car park far away from the entrance and well away from the couple of people around
he turned the engine off and as soon as he did,through a trembling mouth I managed to say
"can I get out now I'm late"

he was absolutely beaming with a smile by this point,I was at his mercy
obviously I was very visibly terrified and he seemed to revel in it.
as soon as he unlocked the door I bolted from the seat and ran all the way to the building door,the car started and he drove off-obviously he wasn't at all interested in going shopping...

I never told anyone except the guys in work,I'd definitely never have told my parents about it cause I figured they would kill me for being so stupid

at the time I wondered why he didn't try it on with me
I could only figure that I must have had a determined look on my face and that he knew I'd be trouble (I was 100% convinced that if I had to I was going to sink my thumbs into his eyeballs if necessary)
either that or he realised that I was slightly older than he at first thought
(I wasn't very tall for my age and was pretty baby faced at the time)
somebody above was definitely watching over me that day

I very quickly forgot that it ever happened,I've never really thought about it since.
but I always regretted not getting that reg plate...

Hank Scorpio · 15-07-2011 11:54PM

Knight who says Meh wrote: »

Oh great. Another Church bashing thread:D

No wasn't intended that way. Read the original post again, great replies everyone thanks

epgc3fyqirnbsx · 16-07-2011 12:03AM

Until the age of 18 I always lived in small towns, villages or countryside in the west of Ireland and I walked miles and miles. Ofter had to walk miles just to get to a shop. Many many times a car would pull up and I'd hop in without even looking, they invarioably knew my parents and recognised me even if I didn't recognise them.
A couple of times they just saw a young fella on a bad road and decided to give him a lift without knowing him or his folks but that was just part of the relaxed trusting ethos that existed.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist now, I'd be terrified to give a kid a lift unless I knew the family for fear of innuendo and mud that sticks. A good national debate is needed on this and I look forward to it, it is a little sad where an adult male would probably walk by a crying child or seek out a woman to deal with it

And, as stated in the thread umpteen times, you gotta give your kids some independence. Fail to do that and you handicap them, practical life experience is invaluable and while risks exist, such risks are negligible unless incredibly unlucky

Derfil · 16-07-2011 12:05AM

When I was younger we'd cycle to a mates place about 3 miles away It was a secluded road forested on both sides for a large part and on occasion we used to get followed by a guy in a car for a long part. He always hung back and never passed us. Never did the trip alone thank god. Have a fair idea who it was because of what came to light in later years and from my memory of him. He's very well known nationally and wouldn't have lived a million miles from the area.

sadman18 · 16-07-2011 12:37AM

I remember when I was about 13. I was outside in the front garden of my house. I live on a busy country road as it is often used as a short cut to get around town. In 2006 ald grey VW Golf passed my house driving really slow and it stopped just past my house infront of a hedge that wasn't in view of the house. A man in his 50's with a lot of tattoos got out and tried to grab me from the front wall of my house. I just ran inside and let him. I will always remember that day it was really scary at the time.

Senna · 16-07-2011 01:45AM

Christ, this is a scary thread. I was that stupid when i was young i would have gotten in anyone's car that offered a lift.
I remember being dropped off at school when i was 8 by my dad on a really windy day, once i got up to the gates i heard that the wind had done some damage and the school was closed for the day. I remember just standing there not knowing what to do when this man offered to drive me home, i accepted and got in the car. I know now he was the father of a fella in my class (he was in the car too), but for the life of me i cant remember if i knew that before i got in the car, probably not.

Needler · 16-07-2011 02:25AM

If you don't already know them, and they're walking along the road or in a town looking to go someplace. Is it bad to lull them into a false sense of security that strangers give lifts to people without killing them? and could it back fire if someone later found out you gave the child a lift?

I'm a bit behind the times, maybe I should be more suspicious of people. I live in small town Ireland where its still somewhat acceptable (i think?) and I'm recently back from Shetland where giving lifts is normal.I travelled around there for 3 days only by getting lifts from strangers and a bit of walking.

Should I drop down a gear and put the foot to the floor when I see some lad ambling along in a heavy downpour lest I be accused of being a dirty paedophile and end up on the front page fo the Daily Fail?

Kojak · 16-07-2011 02:28AM

If you offer a child a lift, no matter how well intentioned, you will be labelled a pedo, so the answer is that its wrong to offer a child a lift.

x_Ellie_x · 16-07-2011 02:29AM

One time when I was about 11, I was offered a lift by a stranger. It was early in the morning & he asked me if I wanted a lift to school. It was the middle of the summer so there was no school! I didn't even stop to answer him. I ran off. I did what my parents always told me to do in that situation, and legged it in the opposite direction the car was travelling in (that way he car couldn't follow you).

Another time a car spent half an hour following my friends & I home from school when I was about 13 or 14. It was driving really slowly so we knew it was following us right away. We walked around in circles and it still followed us. None of us wanted to go home cause we didn't want him to learn where we lived so we walked all the way to the shop where my friend's mam worked and she drove us home. The car took off the second the man saw us walk out of the shop with an adult.

ordinary_girl · 16-07-2011 04:24PM

I remember in school there were always rumours, usually as summer was approaching, that there was a man in a white van that was snatching kids. Always with the white vans, eh?

I'm sure that I was approached by someone when I was younger, infact I'm pretty sure I was but I can't remember for certain.

Ditch · 16-07-2011 04:55PM

Kojak wrote: »

If you offer a child a lift, no matter how well intentioned, you will be labelled a pedo, so the answer is that its wrong to offer a child a lift.

The saddest part about this is that it's probably true

Yet, when did it become so? Look at how many people here have said something like; " Turns out they knew my folks ..... " And no one, in those days, pointed the finger.

Yet, yes; My neighbour has kids. That puts me into this 'Friend of / Knows my folks' safety zone? Yet, I've seen them out in his front garden some times and have been mortified when they called hullo to me. Because that mean't I had to acknowledge their existence.

As an older man who lives alone? I feel it's more in keeping that I should not even acknowledge them as appearing on my radar.

Truth to tell? I guess kids practically scare me now. Because so much as glancing at one could lead to vile rumours.

Where the fuck did it all go so wrong?

Were you ever approached by someone when you were younger/asked if you needed a lift?

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