**Mobile user here (in case of formatting issues)

22 female here, this takes place 3 years ago when I was 19.

I was on vacation with my best friend(26 female, then 23) in Toronto. She had just gotten out of a long term relationship and I had been single, so we were excited to explore a city we never been too. It was pretty lively at night except for certain areas of the city. One of our first nights there we wanted to check out a smoking lounge. We chose to walk as it was only about a 15 minute walk from where we were saying.

Anyway, we got lost, what a shocker. So we found ourselves pretty much alone at night and our only surroundings was a gas station and dark buildings. We were across the street from the gas station visibly talking, trying to figure out where we were. This person came up to us, it was dark, they were wearing a wind breaker type jacket with a hat on and glasses. They asked if we were from around there and if we needed help. My friend told the person the address we needed to get to. We were told it was “right over here” and to follow this random person that we just met. I was pretty naive so I started to follow. My friend started to walk but then abruptly stopped. She said “this doesn’t look like the way” as she was looking at google maps for street names around the lounge we wanted to get to. “No it is follow me” the person got more insistent. I slowly took another step but I looked at my friends face and stopped. “No it’s okay we’ll find our own way” my friend said and told me to come to her. I saw our “helpful guide” get annoyed, sigh loudly and all but stomp away rapidly.

I’ll admit I kind of just wanted to follow this person. My friend apologized to me as we waited at the gas station for a Lyft. “I just had a bad feeling and that was not the right direction.” Our Lyft picked us up and yes, took us in a complete different direction than we were being initially led in. This experience just reminds me that I was young and naive and it was obvious. Perfect prey. I am lucky my friend had a better gut feeling than I did. Now, I am very cautious especially in unfamiliar areas and I always keep my guard up.