Hm. Something a bit similar happened to me yesterday early eve (around 7pm, dark already) walking home from HOP station. I try to always ensure that I am aware of who is walking in front and behind me, and usually feel very safe walking in HOP as lots of people tend to get of the trains even late at night.

As I turned right into Grierson, I noticed a young guy on a bmx bike going very slowly on the pavement (err, yes, pavement) and stopping each time I turned around to look. Just seemed odd, but at first I thought he was just a young kid on the way back from footie or other sports, and probably kept checking his mobile as they do, hence the frequent stops and slow cycling on the pavement. But it just felt very strange that he kept his distance and stayed behind me, in no hurry or not trying to go anywhere, still on the pavement. I then continued into Garthorne and he continued to do the same. Once I reached my house, I decided not to go in but stop and stand on the street, fiddling with my car keys instead and getting a large umbrella from the boot in case he decided to make a go for my bag. He slowly approached and again stopped right behind me on the pavement, and didn't move. When I turned around to stare at him, he seemed unsure what to do and then slowly continued to near the end of the road, where he stopped again and just stayed there. I stood on the street for quite some time, but he didn't move. So I went in and had another look from the window - he stayed there for quite some time and finally left. Just very odd, and the first time I've encountered this sort of behaviour. A lot of kids go through Grierson/Garthorne on their bikes quite regularly, but even when they send sms or chat on their phones, they usually just cycle on after a while.

I sincerely hope I'm just paranoid! In any case, this guy was somewhere between 15-20max I'd say, light black skin, sport clothes, hair in braids. If this was actually you or your son, simply killing some time and moping about - do give me a shout and I'll feel a lot better!

This post was last modified: 15-10-2013 09:50 AM by Tinkerbell.