Very strange experience

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22 Dec 2002
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Teesside, UK
Left work at 5pm earlier tonight. On my 1/2 mile walk to the train station I popped in some grubby little news agents. Was queuing up behind some guy and some girl was behind me. As the shopkeeper is serving me he gives me a strange look. Kind of as though he knows me or recognises me from some place. I don't recognise him and so continue getting served and walk out. Shopkeeper looks about 55-60 years old.

I'm walking about 20 yards before turning left to the train station and for some reason I look behind. There he is outside his shop looking at me. Weird I think. Maybe he's an uncle I don't remember. Now I'm at the train station and can't stop thinking what he was looking so strangely at me for so I check my watch - 10 mins till train.

Now I'm a little angry here but I'm not sure why. Just feel it was a little rude and there is no way I want to get on my train without finding out more so I walk back to his shop and ask him 'Do I know you or do you know me'. He shrugs his shoulders and says 'no', so then I say 'What was all the about. Why were you watching me walk and why the strange look when you served me'. This is where the conversation just goes plain weird.

I'm getting more angrier and can't believe I'm speaking to this guy. He actually says 'Do you want me to look at you'. Stunned for a few seconds I ask him to repeat it and he says it again. I then say 'what the are you talking about' and he says 'Do you want to stay here a while'. At that point I walk further towards his shop counter and ask what the hell he's getting at. He then appears to be pressing some kind of security button. I can't confirm this of course but it looks like it. Then he leans back away from the counter and shrugs his shoulders again. At that point I call him a weirdo and walk out the shop and go catch my train. I never looked back this time.

Now here I am thinking was that a disturbing gay flirt or more along the lines of the beginning of a horror film. It's certainly got me a little tense.
 
wow you called him a weirdo?

You went all the way back to ask why he was looking at you? maybe he thought you nicked something, but didn't fancy getting knifed in the face that day?
 
It was too strange a look to ignore. Definitely not the kind of look you'd give a potential shoplifter. It was more the look of him knowing me.
 
Perhaps there's a shopkeeper's forum somewhere and he's started a thread along these lines, "I was in my shop today, when a weird guy gave me a look, then 10 minutes later came back yadder yadder etc" :D
 
tbh mate I'd say you was the one that was out of order, so what he gave you a strange look, any reason to go up to him and give him jip about it, sounds like chav mentality to me, sorry.

Giving strange looks to people you don't know for no reason is more of a chav mentality then asking what their problem is IMO. It's provoking a response.
 
Freaky stuff but then again there's some weird characters out there, I wouldn't let it play on your mind to much ;)

I'm sure he's freaked out plenty of people before, you weren't the first and wont be the last.
 
Sounds like he was giving you the eye, and you got angry because of it, so he panicked and pressed a security button. Does sound a bit odd.

Indeed it does. Maybe he never pressed any button. That's just what was running through my mind at the time as his hands went under the counter. I never really showed any anger and asked him quite calmly at first. It was the 'Do you want me to look at you' that made me feel uneasy, followed by him asking if I want to stay a while. After this I suppose I did look peeved off.

If for a second I thought I was in the wrong I'd quite happily apologise for any misunderstanding, but this shopkeeper was very disturbing.
 
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Freaky stuff but then again there's some weird characters out there, I wouldn't let it play on your mind to much ;)

I'm sure he's freaked out plenty of people before, you weren't the first and wont be the last.

I would have thought the strange person was the one who walks all the way back to a shop to ask why the owner was "looking at him weird" before getting angry.

Tbh the owner was probably bricking it thinking he was going to get his shop smashed up, or hurt.
 
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