"I'm going to rape you."

This happened in 2017 when I was 18. I live in a city so it was odd to see a guy who looked like a mountain man roaming around on my street. Think of a typical mountain man: long hair, bushy beard, flannel shirt and ripped jeans, and leather boots. There was no doubt in my mind he was homeless. I say all this first because I think his (lack of) appearance contributed to my parents' reaction to this whole situation.<br><br>I had a week off from work after my best friend died, and my parents let me stay at my grandmas house for a few days to get out of the house and be by myself. My parents didn't check on me or make sure I was okay, and they never asked what they could do to make things easier for me. When I told them I was going to stay with my grandma for a few days, they just kind of ignored me and didn't ask about it again until I got home. This was a very painful time for me, and I don't know why they treated me the way they did. I couldn't get out of bed for more than an hour without collapsing from crying and feeling sick, and at the time they made me feel like I was a burden to them for needing to grieve. <br><br>Anyway, I was staying alone at my grandmas house, which was in a new neighborhood that was built on top of a trailer park. I felt safe staying there by myself since it was a new build in a gated neighborhood. The day this happened, I went to the grocery store a few houses down from grandmas house. It was a short drive, and I didn't lock my door. I figured I wouldn't be gone for more than 10 minutes, and I was just blocking the street so I could park and run in to grab a few things. <br><br>When I parked and ran into the grocery store, I saw the mountain man walking on the other side of the road near grandmas house. After I got my stuff and left the store, I realized I had forgotten to lock my car, and the mountain man was leaning against my driver side door, smoking a cigarette and staring at me. He was only 5 or 6 houses away, so I didn't have time to drive off or go back into the store before he got to me. He was already smoking a cigarette near my car when I came out. <br><br>I didn't know what to do, so I drove down the street, parked at grandmas house, and ran inside without even looking at him. I didn't feel like I was in danger until I was already inside the house, and at that point I couldn't look out the window without him noticing me. I didn't know if he followed me or not, and I didn't feel safe to check. I called my mom to tell her what happened, and she kind of shrugged it off and said "well what did he look like," like that was going to change anything. I told her I thought he might be homeless and described what he looked like. <br><br>When I told her what he looked like, she immediately wrote the whole thing off. Her exact words were, "Oh okay, so he's just crazy then," like that should've made me feel better that some random guy was leaning against my car smoking a cigarette and staring at me. <br><br>That night, I went to check my car before I went to bed, and all of my doors were unlocked. One of them was even wide open, and I knew I had locked them when I first got in my car after it happened. I felt a sick feeling in my stomach when I realized he might have been in my car. <br><br>I wasn't comfortable staying alone at grandmas after that, but I didn't want to tell my parents I was scared because they would just shrug it off. I decided to park my car in the garage, bring my laptop and phone to bed, and keep the house as locked down as possible. I stayed up for awhile before I decided to go to bed, and I remember setting multiple alarms in case I fell asleep and someone tried to get in. <br><br>I had been sleeping for maybe 30 minutes when I heard a loud banging on my window. It sounded like someone had thrown something at the side of the house. I looked at my phone and saw it was 2am. I felt cold and sick all over my body when I heard my name. "Heather." It was a man's voice. "I know you're in there." I stayed frozen in bed, too scared to even call the police or look out the window. <br><br>That's when he said it, the sentence that still makes me feel sick. "I'm going to rape you." I finally got the courage to call the police after that. I whispered to them what was going on and they stayed on the line with me until they got there. I stayed frozen in bed, too scared to move, until I heard the police knock on the door and say they were there to help me. <br><br>I was so stupid for not locking the door to the garage, because when the police went out into the backyard, they found my garage door wide open. They found footprints and mud in the garage, and the basement door connecting to the garage was open. They told me he had been in the house. They followed his footprints through the neighborhood and lost him in a nearby neighborhood. When I described him to them, they told me other people in the neighborhood had also reported seeing him around. <br><br>The police told me I shouldn't stay there alone and I should go stay with my parents. I called them and told them what happened, and they came to grandmas house to pick me up. My mom didn't say anything until we got in the car and were driving away. "The police didn't find anyone?" She asked. I told her they lost him and he was probably in a nearby neighborhood, but they knew who he was. My mom opened her window, looked out the side of the car, and kind of "hmphed" in disgust. She never said anything else about it. She never asked if I was okay or how I was feeling. She never even acknowledged she had brushed it off when I first told her what happened. <br><br>That was that, nothing came of it. They never found him and nothing happened again after that night, but this one incident I found extremely terrifying. I think it's because my parents reaction (or lack thereof) exacerbated the whole situation. To this day, I still remember him saying, "I'm going to rape you," and it sends chills down my spine. That's something I can never forget.