Erin The Great

I was driving home from work yesterday when I noticed one of my friends crossing the street. He was with what I thought was a friend of his and since it was about 3 degrees outside, I decided to pull over and offer both of them a ride.

Both of them had been in the car for about two seconds when the guy that I didn’t know started asking me some interesting questions that were pretty personal for someone I had never met before. Assuming that they were friends, I didn’t want to be rude so I vaguely answered as my friend in the back seat chuckled heartily at the awkwardness that had set in.

As I dropped the unknown kid off, I couldn’t help but feel that something was off about the situation.

Soon after I was told by my friend that the other guy was a complete stranger and that he was asking him a bunch of weird person questions as well and wasn’t leaving him alone.

This got me thinking. I live in a college town where everyone basically knows of everyone else, and if you see two people walking together, you can safely assume that they at least know each other.

I wonder if serial killers and predators prefer this scenario because the people around where I live just assume nothing is wrong. If there’s someone random lurking around your house, people around here just assume someone is playing a prank on you. If someone is bothering someone else and another person offers them a ride, and the friend was trying to shake the other person, does this potentially put both parties in danger?

Are people preying on others they feel are just too nice to tell them to go to hell? We as people don’t want to be rude right?

Is assuming getting people hurt or even killed? Are we just so imbedded in a false sense of security that if anything does go terribly awry, will others even know something is up? This is a spooky thought indeed.