Real Encounters

*The Man in the Truck*

When I was 14, I was waiting for the bus and this pickup truck pulled up beside me. The driver kept waving at me to come closer and he held up a map. It seemed like he wanted directions. I went over to the truck and he rolled down the window. I didn’t realize what was happening until he reached out and tried to grab me by the hair. I dropped my bag and ran for it as he sped off. When I got home, I woke my mom and told her what happened. She flipped out. Then, we looked out the window. Surprise, surprise… The truck was sitting across the street and the man was sitting in the driver’s seat, staring up at us. That’s when I flipped out. My mom called the police and gave them a description, but the man drove off. Later on, the police called back to tell us they had pulled someone over and wanted me to take a look at him. They put me in the back of an unmarked patrol car with tinted windows and drove me past a guy who was being questioned outside his truck. It was him. I almost had a panic attack. They charged him with attempted kidnapping. It made all the local newspapers. The spot where they pulled him over was right in front of an elementary school and when they searched his truck, they found rope, duct tape and an axe.