I grew up in the suburbs of Sacramento, California, in an area that was very middle class and a place where it always felt safe. As a kid, I would walk home from school with my neighbors, we would play hide-and-go-seek, street basketball and so on. We never had any strange encounters, until one specific day. I am currently a thirty year old male and it is still weird for me to think about this story. Anyways, during the weekends when I was a teenager, I would ride my bike for hours at a time for around a 10 block radius from where my house was. In Sacramento, we typically had good weather in the spring and most of the days were mild temperature with a decent amount of clear skies and sunlight. I'm a pretty introverted individual and also pretty naïve to things around me. I vividly remember one time when I was thirteen years old and riding my bike in the neighborhood. I had a speedometer on my bike and I always traveled around 12-16 MPH in the right hand side bike lane of the street. While I was cruising on my bike, a windowless white van pulled up to left side and matched my speed. I remember glancing over and thinking nothing of this since it is a neighborhood street and it would be weird if a van sped by me at 35 MPH. Within a few seconds of the van matching my speed, the right side door slid open. I remember seeing two guys in the back and one guy driving. I look over and notice the van getting uncomfortably close to me and one of the guys said quite loudly, "Get in the van." I didn't reply but started peddling faster and reached about 18 MPH, which I know isn't very fast compared to a van and isn't going to get me away from it, but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. The van accelerated to match my speed. I glanced over at it. It was weird on the inside, I remember seeing no seats in the back. I also remember seeing the metal flooring of the van, and some rope. The guy beckoned, now in more of an insisting tone: "get inside the van." and reached out since I was within arms distance. At this time, we were traveling straight, but literally just as he was reaching out, the road we were on intersected with another street that I instinctively turned a hard right onto. They were forced to keep going straight otherwise they would've flipped the van to follow me. I knew the area well, and started weaving in between the residential streets that consisted of lots of curved roads that looped and resembled a maze. In hindsight, it wasn’t so smart to be in that area, they could've easily found me as I couldn't have seen them coming up on me because of the curved roads, but luckily they didn't make another pass. Nowadays I look back and wonder what they had intended to do. Were they just goofing around? Or did they actually have a malicious intent? Did they ever do anything to anyone else who couldn't get away? These questions still linger with me. I went home and never told anyone about it, until now… This was about 4 or 5 years ago, but still gives me nightmares to this day. At the time, I was attending college that was only about a 10 minute walk from my Nana's apartment. In between classes I would walk over and visit her. This was in a sketchy part of town, so I would dress very frumpy. Sweatpants and an oversized sweatshirt, always with the hood up. I figured that was nothing attractive or flashy and was a plain message of "don't bother me". My mistake was thinking that if if walked there in the middle of the day, no one would try and do anything. I'm not calling attention to myself so I'm practically invisible. I couldn’t have been more wrong… I was leaving my nana's house heading back to campus when I notice a plain blue van slowly driving next to me. Inside the van, a man asking me directions to a well known hotel with giant signs posted all over the side of the road. I don't answer him and keep my head down, walking a bit faster. I see him pull into the parking lot to turn his car off and hop out. He's now walking next to me, telling me I'm pretty and asking questions like "what's your name? Know any places to party? Why are you being so shy? Do you need a ride" I don't know why I did this. I probably thought if I act tough (which I'm definitely not) he would leave me alone. I stopped, looked him in the eyes and said "Take a hint. If I'm not answering you it means leave me alone." The look he gave me sent chills down my spine. This completely expressionless face with a creepy, cold " okay...little girl" as a response. He walked away staring at me the whole time. I saw him hop in his van and fly out of the parking lot in the opposite direction. I felt relieved as I saw him drive away and continued on my route. As I'm crossing the road the same van came screeching towards me. He drives up halfway on the sidewalk in front of me blocking my path and says "Get in the van...Now." I'm Frozen in fear. I'm terrified and in shock this is happening. I just stand there telling myself to run but my legs wont move... He gets out of the front seat, opens the back door and repeats "get in the van...Or else." Just he said that, I hear a man's voice yell from the hotel right next to us, asking what the hell is going on. The creepy guy tells him to mind his business. Another man from across the street began yelling at him as well. When the creep turned around to tell these men to shut up, I booked it. I ran faster than I have ever ran in my entire life. I somehow made it back to campus, crying and gasping for air while people stared at me like I was a lunatic. I told campus security what just happened. They promised they would look into it, but I never heard anything about it since…