So, in 5th grade I was a safety. I was a kid with good grades so I was chosen to stand at a corner of the school and make sure the younger kids crossed ok and report any weird shit happening.
Why that responsibility is put on children, I will never understand.
So, normal day. I was standing on one of the corners right before school was getting out, probably 2:45pm or so. Now this is the farthest corner from the school, like there's the school, playground, basketball court, then a large yard area for soccer and what not AND THEN this corner. So I am very very far from the school.
So I'm standing there, bullshitting, waiting for school to get out and this grey van drives up to the stop sign, and of course it's one of those creepy rape vans with no windows except on the driver and passenger side.
There were two men in the van, the one in the passenger seat opened his door, unbuckled his seat belt and turned towards me but was still sitting in his seat. He made a kissy face at me and asked what I was doing standing on a corner by myself. I RAN. I was a kid but I wasn't a stupid kid. My mom was sexually abused when she was really little and had always instilled in me and my siblings what to do if something like this happens, you run, scream, do whatever you can to get away and get someone's attention.
So I ran to the school and a teacher came running outside cuz I was screaming help, and she grabs me and brings me inside. They of course lock down the school, call the cops, calls my mom and my gramma and they come to the school. I was pretty distraught, my mom took me to counseling, took me out of school for a week, I clearly wasn't a safety anymore and they changed it so that there has to be more than one safety on the far corners of the school grounds.
So, fast forward like 6 months. I always walked home from school. I lived very close to my school. And my sister went to the same school, she was in kindergarten or 1st grade I believe, so I would walk to the other side of the school, get her and we would walk home together. Now after the first incident, my mom or my gramma would go into work late to take us to school and would leave work early to pick us up. There was ALOT of police presence after that incident as well. But it was like 6 months or so later and things had quieted down so we started walking again.
This was a Friday, my sister was supposed to go to a classmates house for a sleep over, which was on the way home, she brought her overnight bag to school so I could walk her straight to her friends house. So I'm by myself now, walking home, I'm about 2 blocks away and this exact same van drove past me, I recognized it INSTANTLY and remember the cop last time asking me if I got a plate number, this time I did. I didn't really have time to grab a pen and paper out my bag so I just said it over and over in my head and out loud so I would forget it.
Anyways, these men must have noticed me? Or idk, thought I was another kid to try to abduct and they turned down the block in front of me and basically went around the block and back to me. Well they have a broken muffler, which I know now as an adult, but it was loud like POP POP POP POP, so I could hear the van coming up the street, I had slip-on shoes on and I kicked those off and ran. I ran the opposite way to the church and ran behind it because there was a wooded area. I didn't want to run home, then they would know where I lived. My socks were SOAKED with mud and I just took them off and kept running once I didn't see the van again.
We had a lot of creeks in our neighborhood so I ran down into the creek and walked along it to the intersection of my street and booked it home. Our "babysitter" was there, she wasn't really a baby sister, more of a family friend that checked on us while my mom was gone. At this point, I was late coming home, she had called my mom, my mom called the police, thinking the worst with the incident from 6 months ago.
So I get home finally, no socks or shoes, and I must have dropped my backpack somewhere, I don't remember what I did with it, I was just so scared. The cops were already at the house and seen me coming down the street and they came running and met me and the cop picked me up and ran me back to our house, put me inside, told us to lock the door in case they followed me and they circled the neighborhood looking for this van. 3 cop cars total, 2 officers walked around on foot near the creek.
They never arrested anyone, the found the van, cuz I remembered the plate and wrote it down soon as I could get to a pen and paper. The cops found my backpack near the church and my shoes in the street. The van was stolen, of course, from a body shop near by. I gave them a description of the guy but nothing came of it. Not that the cops weren't working diligently, but the guy probably left the state or town or something, shit, I would if I tried to snatch the same kid twice.
I have to say, my mother and I don't have a great relationship but I have to give her the credit she deserves for teaching me to be aware of my surroundings and to try to take care of myself to the best of my abilities.