My stalker disappeared after three horrifying years

When I was a teenager, I was home alone one day when a white car stopped near our mailbox. A person remained inside for several minutes without getting out, then drove away. I assumed the driver had mistaken the address or was looking at a nearby property.

Soon afterward, while leaving a movie with my boyfriend, I recognized the same white car in a parking structure. A man sat inside with the engine running. When he noticed us watching, he switched on the bright lights, nearly hit my boyfriend’s truck, and sped away. We later saw the car parked nearby with its lights off, but the man did not follow us home.

Over the following years, the encounters became more frequent. The man appeared only when I was alone or with my boyfriend, never when my parents or other friends were present. I began finding cigarette butts around our house even though no one in my family smoked, and I sometimes smelled cigarette smoke without finding its source.

A friend who lived several miles away later told me that a strange man had appeared on her back porch. She and another friend had smelled cigarette smoke and discovered him standing outside an open window. He stared at her with dead eyes and continued smoking until the cigarette was finished. Police found cigarette butts on the porch and throughout the yard. The man was the same person who had been following me.

I reported the encounters repeatedly. Officers believed me and responded quickly, but the stalker always disappeared before they arrived. We suspected he might have been monitoring police radio traffic.

One evening my boyfriend and I returned home before my parents. We stayed inside the locked truck because we were afraid to be alone outside. Headlights suddenly appeared in bushes across from the driveway. The stalker had hidden his car there and was waiting for us.

He walked slowly toward the truck while my boyfriend called the police and I called my father. The man stopped beside my window and stared at me. He never touched the door or said a word. My boyfriend grabbed a baseball bat from the back seat, but the man did not react. He looked at the bat, smiled broadly, then returned to his car and drove away.

There were many other incidents. Dead animals were left near our front door, flashlights shone into the windows, and my brother once tried to chase the man through the woods but lost him. In all the years he followed me, he never spoke a single word.

Then, as suddenly as he had appeared, every trace of him disappeared. I never learned whether he was arrested, died, or simply lost interest. I have never seen him again, but the experience left me wary of anyone who watches from a parked car or lingers near a house. A person can look ordinary while making someone else’s life terrifying.