My mom's plan to keep me safe pretty much saved my life.

When I was growing up, I used to get these panic attacks where I thought someone was in the backseat of the car. It was pretty intense and my mom eventually got annoyed of it because we were already running behind schedule, and it still persists to this day. So she came up with an idea. Whenever we were driving, she'd have me look through the rear view mirror and make sure no one was there. She told me to do it frequently, to make sure no one had hopped in while we were driving. So I did. I looked almost every 5 minutes, and I got over that fear pretty quickly.<br><br>A few years went by, I had gotten my drivers permit, and I would usually drive to school. I never really drove anywhere else except a few times to the store. I'd still look in the rearview mirror every 2 - 5 minutes out of habit. One day, I was driving home when suddenly through my rearview I saw a man's head pop up from the backseat. I slammed on the brakes, and he went flying into the passenger seat. There was a guy in my backseat. I put the car in reverse and sped backwards, behind another car for cover, and ran to the nearest store. I called the police and they came to take my statement. They looked in my car, lifted up the backseat, and found the guy hiding. When they asked him what he was doing, he said he had been hiding for over two hours, waiting for me to drive alone so he could "rape me in the car." I pressed charges, and he went to jail. <br><br>If it wasn't for my mom telling me to look in the rearview every few minutes, I would have been raped or killed. If I hadn't slammed on the brakes, who knows what would've happened to me. My mom might have never seen me again. The guy was a convicted felon and was out on parole. A lot of things went through my mind as to what would've happened if I hadn't looked when I did, and they still cross my mind. Let's not meet again, dude who hides in backseats. <br>Sorry if this is poorly written lol, please tell me any errors I made.