I think my dad saved my sister and me from being kidnapped or worse.

This happened a few years ago, and I'm still shaken.<br><br>It was late morning/early afternoon and my sister and I were walking down the street to get some lunch. We always did this - we live in a big city with lots of restaurants everywhere, so we'd often walk to a restaurant or bagel shop or something. (I know it's stupid to walk alone outside now, I don't do it anymore.)<br><br>Anyway, we're in the middle of getting food from a Chinese restaurant. There's a guy behind us, and he keeps clearing his throat. I think he's just being impatient, so I tell him to go ahead of us if it's such a problem. He clears his throat again and says "excuse me. Do you know how to speak Chinese?" I was surprised, but I said yes. I don't speak it fluently, but I can say basic things like "yes/no" "how much is this?" "I like this food" etc. (I'm Chinese, but my parents are from HK and they speak a dialect that's not exactly the same as the Mandarin taught in schools, so that's the dialect I know).<br><br>He goes on to ask me to help him order some food. I ask what he wants to order and he wants me to tell the owner "I want the Kung Pao chicken. Make it as spicy as possible". I said okay, because I was a fool.<br><br>So I tell the owner what the man wants, and the owner starts preparing the food. Then the man asks me to do something else for him. He wants me to translate "massage my lower back". I said no, I'm not going to do that, so he asks why. I tell him it's because that's inappropriate. He keeps pushing me, and I keep saying no. Then my sister says "what's going on? We don't have time for this." Then the man says "This is my daughter, and she has back pain. It's not a big deal." He then points to some girl in the corner, wearing a black dress and sunglasses. The dress was so short, it looked like it barely covered her butt. I don't think she was his daughter.<br><br>It was the girl in black that made me realize something was wrong. I told the guy I was going to go grab a table, and my sister and I sat down. A few minutes later, the guy comes over, holding the girl's arm. He says "I think you said you'd help me order the food?" which I hadn't, but I humored him and said "yeah, I don't have time for this. I'm going to order the chicken just like you asked. I'm not going to tell him to rub your back."<br><br>He nods, but I see him eyeing my sister and me the whole time. I ask my sister "do you think this guy is Chinese?" and she says "no, I'm sure he's not. But the girl is." My sister then asks the girl if she's okay, because the girl looks terrified. The girl says "We're just here for the food." My sister keeps pushing, asking more questions, until the guy gets fed up and yells "I said we were FINE".<br><br>He then says to the girl "Well, I think we're done here." and he grabs her arm and starts dragging her out of the restaurant. The girl looks absolutely terrified, and I think "oh my gosh, what did I just do? I should have called the police."<br><br>Then the owner comes over and asks if everything is okay. My sister and I explain what happened, and the owner says "yeah, I was going to call the police, but he left before I could." I ask why, and the owner said "I've lived in this city for decades, I can tell who's trouble and who's not. Those two were not Chinese, and they were trouble. I've had them in here before, I know when they come in here it's not for the food."<br><br>A few months later, my sister and I were walking down the street, and we saw the guy again. We recognized him because he was wearing the exact same outfit (black shirt, blue pants, red shoes), and when he noticed us, he looked shocked. He said "oh my gosh, it's so great to run into you! Are you going to help me buy some food?" and I said "no, I'm not going to help you" and then my sister and I crossed the street and ran away.<br><br>I told my dad what happened, and he was surprised. He said "Wow, that's crazy. They must have been preying on people." He also said that he'd heard stories of people just grabbing people and dragging them away. He said that's probably what they were planning to do to us.<br><br>Well, recently my dad told me that he had an incident where he almost got kidnapped. It wasn't exactly the same, but the situation was similar.<br><br>My dad was in a parking lot, walking to his car, when a woman approached him. She kept clearing her throat to get his attention, but he ignored her. She kept clearing her throat, until my dad had to say what was wrong. She asked if he spoke Chinese. My dad speaks Cantonese, so he can't speak Mandarin, but he can understand Mandarin. He told her yes, he spoke Chinese. She then asked him to help her break into her locked car. My dad said no, and she kept pushing. Then she asked him to give her a ride to somewhere else, and he said no. He told her that he was going home and he was busy.<br><br>She kept saying things to try to get my dad to go with her. She tried saying things about how she was a "big girl" and how she wanted to go "out" with my dad. My dad said no, he was married. She kept pushing and pushing, and my dad got fed up and said "Do you not hear me? I said I'm busy."<br><br>That's when she said "I'm busy too. Just help me break into my car and I'll give you money." My dad said no again, and she got angry and yelled at him in Mandarin. She told him to "fuck off" and "get out" but my dad couldn't understand what she was saying. It was my dad's coworker who told him what she said.<br><br>My dad told the story to his friend who speaks Mandarin, and his friend was horrified. He said "Do you know what she was saying? She was saying she was going to have you kidnapped!" My dad said what? His friend said "Yeah, I heard stories of people getting kidnapped in parking lots just like that. They'll ask for help, and then drag you away and kidnap you. Your friend was planning to kidnap you."<br><br>My dad was shocked, and I was shocked too. We can't let our guard down, especially not in public. We need to be more careful, because there are people out there who will take advantage of us when we least expect it.<br><br>Edit: I don't know who this man was, but I do know he was preying on women. As for my dad's story, I said what my dad said, which was that he was approached by a single woman.<br><br>Also, people in China don't speak English. Unless they're younger, educated, or wealthy, the average Chinese person doesn't have the opportunity to learn English. Even I don't speak English fluently.<br><br>This post has gone viral, so for those who are interested, I can give more information on how to stay safe in China.