Undue excitement

Tonight I made a late-night, last minute run to Walmart to grab some things for tomorrow. Well, the closest 24-hour Walmart is at Manchester and 141. So I drove down there, and as I exited 40 to get onto 141, I noticed that it seemed like someone was following me.

Talk about creepy! He (the car) was following really closely, so at first I sped up and got over, thinking he wanted to get around me. Nope. He sped up and got over behind me. So I tried slowing down. I changed lanes a couple more times. I even cut someone else off in the hopes of shaking my apparent tail. The further I drove, the more I was freaking out! I turned off 141 to go to Walmart, and the guy STILL was following me (in a black car with very darkly tinted windows). Fortunately, there's a police station just across from Walmart, so I pulled into the police station, ready to run inside if the person chose to pull in behind me, and assuming (correctly) that whoever it was would leave me alone if I went to the police station. The person drove away, so I pulled out and went over to Walmart, checking as I walked in to see if anyone was paying me any undue attention. Nope.

So I did my shopping, figuring it was all over and everything was fine. Well, as I was walking back out to my car, I noticed a police car waiting outside. I didn't think anything of it since the station is so close. So I started putting my groceries in the car. When I turned around, the cop had pulled up next to the car and gotten out!

After his initial "Hi, ma'am, how are you tonight?" the cop explained to me that someone had called in on me to report me as a drunk driver!!!! WHAT?!? I probably looked fairly stunned, and then it clicked. I explained to him that someone had been following me the entire way down 141, which made me incredibly nervous (being a young woman, alone, late at night), and that I'd been trying to get away from the car following me. Which would have looked like erratic driving. He seemed fairly satisfied with my answer, and asked if I'd been drinking. I told him no. Obviously by this point in our conversation, it was clear that I hadn't been, and he seemed to realize it. He said he just needed me to follow his finger with my eyes really quickly, did a couple of passes, and told me I was free to go. He apologized for inconveniencing me, which I thought was nice of him.

The drive home passed without incident, although admittedly I was nervous the entire way home.

Seriously, though? If you're following a couple of feet behind a car for several MILES, following their every move, don't you think they'd drive a little erratically to try to get away from you? I thought I was going to be attacked or something! Yikes!