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lost_survivalist t1_je1xsjz wrote

Oof reminds me of the time a classmate of mine warned me about taking uber, when it was new, and she claimed she was being kidnapped until she lied about someone waiting for her at a nearby gas station. Dude was driving in the opposite direction too. She told me to always pay attention to the map.

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Kennaham t1_je1y6fq wrote

Fuck. I move to the area in 2 weeks and have kids. Really woulda thought the capital would be safer. Glad you’re okay!

−16

CommanderSherbert t1_je20emm wrote

Oh OP, I'm so sorry this happened to you! I'm petite and same happened to me when I lived in FL (also major sex trafficking problems) and I was carrying a bag of garbage to the dumpster. You doing okay? If talking to a stranger with a similar experience helps, I'm happy to talk.

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MarkinDC24 t1_je21k4z wrote

Thank you for notifying the public. As it is important for us all to be better community members, is there anything you’d like the public to know? I am a jogger, if I need to help kick someone’s butt I would be happy to do so. Just don’t know if there is some universal signal for I am being kidnapped. I assume not everyone screams, since it could happen so quickly.

So sorry — and I hope you feel safe walking your dog soon.

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daveed4445 t1_je23voi wrote

On no, so sorry that happened to you. I live just a metro stop over in Waterfront but am by Navy Yard all the time. So scary, glad you got away safe even if very rightfully shaken

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Nuchal t1_je24jby wrote

I've had a similar experience but with online dating! A man was waiting to grab me outside the restaurant.

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Stock-Medium-4255 t1_je24mg5 wrote

do you mind sharing around what time this happened and a cross street? I’m concerned

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dudeitsrazz t1_je25ouq wrote

Im glad you’re OK. What part of DC did this happen? What streets?

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EllieAntsRAwesome OP t1_je26tcy wrote

Sorry! Im takin so long to respond, as you may have guess it’s been a tough day for me.

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EllieAntsRAwesome OP t1_je28woc wrote

Replying to TussxWock (#2,428,920)

I was right around N St SW & 4th when I noticed him trailing me. Then I continued to see him follow me all the way until I got closer to L St. I walk my dog a few miles a day so we’re usually making large circles in the area.

7

ksb_blossom t1_je29kbr wrote

Replying to EllieAntsRAwesome (#2,429,298)

Wow. I'm so sorry this happened to you and disturbed that anyone would attempt this in general, but especially in an area with so much foot traffic and a lot of potential witnesses. N St seemed especially busy today with people at the stadium for spring training.

Hope you're taking care 💜

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synth_stryder t1_je2hnal wrote

Thanks for sharing, hope you're doing a bit better. That's scary and I'm sorry it happened to you

−1

CajunDragon t1_je2n9b4 wrote

Click on a persons name to see other posts they have made. What a horrendous run of luck.

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NPRjunkieDC t1_je2qh9k wrote

Last week i think someone posted something similar.

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PhillyMila215 t1_je2qww0 wrote

Just wishing you well. I am so sorry this happened to you, but I am glad you are safe. I am sure this has shaken you, there are still good people out there. Get well soon.

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J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J t1_je2w5sc wrote

Please share the police report number, case officer name and number.

−10

robotnique t1_je2xq0y wrote

Replying to PenisTriumvirate (#2,431,096)

Sounds like more an attempted rape situation than "sex trafficking." Virtually nobody is abducted off the street randomly to be trafficked. There's no need, when they can just pluck kids out of poor neighborhoods, or, even more likely, prey upon immigrants illegal and otherwise.

That being said, what happened to OP is scary and she doesn't need some internet nerds like you or me telling her "well ackshually" right now, I'd wager.

−2

Misswinterseren t1_je2y40q wrote

I would go to those businesses around where you got attacked and ask them if for the video cops around here really don’t do their job they’re quite lame.

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ibeerianhamhock t1_je2zous wrote

Wait so he circled around a few times and noticed you? I’m not trying to invalidate your feelings and I think you were wise to get the fuck away…but it sounds like a pretty extreme leap based on the info you provided to say he was trying to kidnap you? I think we have to balance PSAs for safety with fearmongering.

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IAmTheJudasTree t1_je327tm wrote

Replying to ibeerianhamhock (#2,434,422)

It's also not factually accurate to say DC has a "huge sex trafficking problem." I'm curious what OP has in mind when they say sex trafficking, because in the context of them saying that they were almost kidnapped, the implication is that there's a "huge" problem in DC of women being kidnapped off the street and whisked away into a sex slave network.

There is no such huge problem in DC. That said, it's always good to be safe, and the city can always be safer, that's a laudable goal, and I'm very glad that the OP is okay.

45

dashingthrough t1_je34gap wrote

Replying to robotnique (#2,434,050)

... you can't be serious.

How is someone supposed to distinguish between a singular attempted rape and sex trafficking? The only way to find out would be to let the events play out, which would be horrific.

If she reported it to the police and still calls it potential sex trafficking, then just let it be that instead of splitting hairs on such a sensitive and traumatic ordeal.

You absolutely would wager correctly because "well actually it was rape" is an insane comment to make and lacks so much empathy.

1

middlegray t1_je352q6 wrote

Replying to robotnique (#2,434,050)

>Virtually nobody is abducted off the street randomly to be trafficked.

>There's no need, when they can just pluck kids out of poor neighborhoods, even more likely, prey upon immigrants illegal and otherwise.

Wait so if you're poor or undocumented you're virtually nobody?

−16

LeoJawn t1_je36gx2 wrote

Hey OP. I live in the area and I frequent this street a lot and it can be a little sketchy. Please start carrying mace or some type of protection on you.

−1

Huge-Bar5709 t1_je36ve3 wrote

Replying to middlegray (#2,435,563)

The comment was not well worded but people are not often trafficked by random kidnapping , people in bad situations are normally lured in, its a pretty common myth that traffickers will just go and pick people at random off the street. There are plenty of sources to back this up.

https://www.verifythis.com/amp/article/news/verify/social-media/most-human-sex-trafficking-victims-not-abducted-kidnapped-by-strangers/536-68b63413-81be-490f-aa66-9000d44650c5

https://letgrow.org/do-human-traffickers-kidnap-children/

https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2020/01/police-survivors-debunk-human-trafficking-kidnapping-myths.html?outputType=amp

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robotnique t1_je36yqb wrote

Replying to dashingthrough (#2,435,445)

The truth is that there is a lot of unwarranted hysteria about sex trafficking. You get these weird rumors passed around suburbia that sex traffickers are sneaking about and marking the cars of single women in shopping malls and other absurd things. And if you take the time to research the trafficking that largely occurs, it almost never involves snatching somebody off the street.

And I was replying to somebody who said that things "didn't add up" and I was trying to explain why they might feel that to be the case.

OP was the victim of a violent crime, and luckily was not a further victim of a worse crime. I'm certainly not lecturing her nor even directly addressing her.

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eponinesflowers t1_je38sey wrote

Replying to IAmTheJudasTree (#2,434,908)

For the record, I work for an anti-trafficking nonprofit and DC doesn’t have a very high rate of reported trafficking cases in comparison with other states (source). Also, sex traffickers tend to build a relationship with the potential victim and then force them into sex work using a variety of coercion tactics. While there are cases of people being kidnapped off the streets and forced into a trafficking situation, the statistics show that it is not common.

It’s absolutely awful that this happened to OP, and I imagine that it was scary and traumatic. But there is unfortunately a lot of misinformation about trafficking, which it makes it more difficult for victims and survivors to recognize when they’re experiencing it

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SeattCat t1_je39eq7 wrote

I walk a dog in SW (wharf) and I’ve had a weird experience on N St too. We turned onto N off the main road going toward the Anacostia trail. A dark green SUV pulled up a little behind the dog and I and followed us for a block. At first I thought they were just looking at addresses (it is a residential area…) but at the end of the road they pulled across the sidewalk and then sped away when the dog and I looked back at them. She was on edge too. Part of me wants to give them the benefit of the doubt (lost, didn’t realize it was a dead end, whatever) but it was still spooky.

Edit to add: I’m in my early 20s but a group of middle schoolers asked me if I went to their school while I was at a bus stop so I guess I look younger.

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okurman t1_je3clql wrote

I’m so sorry this happened to you :( this shit is so maddening how the hell does it even happen?! Who are these people??

−1

John_Mason t1_je3dvqi wrote

Replying to eponinesflowers (#2,436,363)

Thanks for sharing that link. Your statement “in comparison with other states” makes me wonder if the city of DC is being compared to entire other states. Do you by chance know how it compares to comparable cities like NYC, Miami, Boston, LA, or San Francisco?

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trev1997 t1_je3e1nf wrote

This subreddit is turning into Facebook lmao

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j8sadm632b t1_je3uf9r wrote

Replying to CajunDragon (#2,431,942)

Sad to see this happened to a person who has also witnessed a carjacking in NE and seen someone get shot in NW as well as having photographed the expired temp plate of someone who hit their car and ran all in the less than a year they've lived here. And now an attempted kidnapping?

Just unlucky, I guess. Rough year. If it weren't all definitely true I'd have trouble believing it.

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Brave_Bird84 t1_je45m48 wrote

Glad you’re safe! So sorry this happened to you. 💞

−1

Formergr t1_je4dbkd wrote

Replying to EllieAntsRAwesome (#2,437,172)

You just said this happened in NW, then SW, and now SE. Which is it?

No matter how new you are to DC, you should understand that quadrants are different parts of DC.

Are you just on here to shit-stir?

> I’m new to DC & I was constantly told to avoid SE.

Oh wait, you said in an old comment you live in SE, Anacostia to be specific. So yeah, troll.

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eponinesflowers t1_je4po2m wrote

Replying to John_Mason (#2,437,346)

I don’t, unfortunately. The issue is that a lot of the city statistics focus on number of cases per capita, but DC has a smaller population in the city than most of the comparable cities, which makes the rate of trafficking look higher.

Speaking from personal experience, I’ve noticed that the most prevalent areas for trafficking in the U.S. are California (LA/SF), Florida (Miami/Orlando), New York (NYC), and Texas (Austin/Dallas)

7

j8sadm632b t1_je4rjpd wrote

Replying to borg359 (#2,442,017)

For any number of reasons, as well as for no reason at all.

Attention, lulz, genuinely delusional, exaggeration because they think they're directionally correct but it won't land unless they take it up to 11, not lying and simply being wrong, etc

I'm not saying it's impossible I'm just saying maybe take testimonies from Anon Doe with a grain of salt the same way you would with any given random bullshit you read online

9

CriticalStrawberry t1_je4vi8j wrote

Replying to TussxWock (#2,429,465)

There was no attack and no getaway. OP saw a car circling and left the area. After that, they came here and posted that they got away from kidnapping and that DC has a huge sex trafficking problem, which it doesn't.

If you take a look at their post history, you'll quickly question the validity of any of this. Either they've been the unluckiest person on Earth to have directly witnessed so much crime in such a short period of time, they're hyper scared of cities and overreacting to small things, or they enjoy making up stories and posting them here for karma.

12

CriticalStrawberry t1_je4w04a wrote

Replying to robotnique (#2,434,050)

Yeah... No. One look at OPs post history pretty clearly shows they're a troll.

>they're new to the city and have always been told to avoid SE

>claims to live in Anacostia in a previous post

>took like 7 comments to decide which quadrant of N St this happened in.

8

metrazol t1_je4w7ve wrote

Replying to trev1997 (#2,437,374)

Nextdoor more like. This is, "I spotted this suspicious car and this man, whose race I can't say, because the libs..."

"Becky, that's me, that is my car. I live next door to you."

11

dman7456 t1_je4wc35 wrote

Replying to borg359 (#2,442,083)

Misinformation about sex trafficking is dangerous. It has historically been used as a cover for draconian laws and enforcement against sex workers, who are often charged with sex trafficking crimes for as little as letting a fellow sex worker use their apartment. I went to a long talk on the subject by a former sex worker a few years ago.

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putinsbloodboy t1_je4xuf1 wrote

Lol post removed, y’all fell for a fake story.

Newsflash people, drivers can get lost, be looking for parking, or anything that causes them to circle the block. Doesn’t make you the center of their attention and idk how someone makes the logical jump from a car circling to “attempted kidnapping,” especially when OP never said anything about them getting out of their car.

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eponinesflowers t1_je52gcu wrote

Replying to borg359 (#2,442,083)

No, I work for an anti-trafficking organization and they are absolutely correct. We receive a lot of tips that have no correlation to trafficking, such as “I saw two men with children, they must be involved in trafficking” or similar vaguely suspicious situations with no concrete trafficking indicators. It is dangerous and harmful to spread misinformation about trafficking, and it redirects resources for trafficking victims and survivors towards non-substantive reports, making it more difficult for people who are experiencing trafficking to get the help that they need

5

j8sadm632b t1_je55mz1 wrote

Replying to Formergr (#2,443,013)

Ehhh see that I'm sympathetic to; someone moving here is probably going to be warned about SE in some capacity but the financial reality is that some of those people are gonna live there anyway because it's cheaper. I don't think there's anything inconsistent about that.

Nor is there anything necessarily inconsistent about anything else they've said. Though I do still think it's overwhelmingly more likely that they were not being cased to be abducted into an underground child sex trafficking ring, and that this story is either fabricated wholecloth or somebody with an anxiety disorder blowing up a sincerely unnerving but ultimately benign interaction with somebody driving slowly near them.

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IAmTheJudasTree t1_je5qgmg wrote

Replying to metrazol (#2,446,418)

When I looked at this subreddit yesterday two of the top posts were:

One, this one, implying that a "Latino" man was trying to kidnap OP, though now that they've commented more it sounds like it was probably just a guy looking for parking

and

Two, a guy claiming that armed robberies are "exploding" in DC right now and saying that we all know the races of the perpetrators, implying that obviously the problem is black people - and when I looked at his post history he was a BMW obsessed bro living in the Wharf area and he actually said that he thinks the National Guard should occupy DC "24/7" to crack down on crime. The guy was unhinged.

It's not an easy job (and also a job that they don't get paid for), but the moderators will have to keep an eye out for crime-panic posts that don't really have merit.

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borg359 t1_je6dun9 wrote

Replying to eponinesflowers (#2,447,740)

It what you’re doing is also harmful. Instead of pointing out what real sex trafficking may look like, you’re basically telling people that your suspicions are false and it’s likely not sex trafficking. The exact opposite of what raising awareness of sex trafficking should look like.

−2

eponinesflowers t1_je6jm8a wrote

Replying to borg359 (#2,457,217)

Thank you so much for telling me that I don’t know how to do my job and that I’m not aware of what trafficking recruitment patterns look like. I love how you have a problem with professionals in the anti-trafficking field providing information about what trafficking actually looks like.

How many trafficking victims and survivors have you personally spoken with? How much trafficking data have you taken and/or analyzed to determine what are legitimate trafficking patterns and what is misinformation? How many talks have you attended that discuss trafficking misinformation and disinformation? I would love to hear what expertise you have in this field, since you’re so quick to dismiss my experiences and patronize me

3

eponinesflowers t1_je6lcd6 wrote

Replying to borg359 (#2,458,568)

I addressed in another comment that the vast majority of sex traffickers recruit potential victims by coercing them into a romantic/sexual relationship and then force them into engaging in commercial sex against their will. It is very rare for traffickers to abduct strangers off the street and force them into trafficking. There is a ton of information online from legitimate sources that are working to combat trafficking, I can’t do all of the work for you.

But you didn’t actually answer any of the questions that I asked you

2

eponinesflowers t1_je75ttl wrote

Replying to borg359 (#2,463,046)

They were extremely relevant to the conversation at hand, I asked how much experience you have in anti-trafficking work since you were denigrating my experiences as someone who works in the field. You quickly dismissed my points and told me that I don’t know how to raise awareness for trafficking, so I figured you must have some knowledge about trafficking awareness due to your willingness to criticize how I broach the topic

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borg359 t1_jecb5d7 wrote

Replying to eponinesflowers (#2,467,440)

I don’t know the best tactics for trafficking awareness, that’s the whole point of my original comment. Coming on here and saying “it’s likely never sex trafficking” does not help raise awareness, if anything it does the opposite. I never said I was an expert, but apparently you are, but you took the time to chid OP and remind everyone that it’s likely not sex trafficking. Thanks.

0