The Time I Was Almost Sex Trafficked

This evening Dakota and I watched Limitless. Surprisingly, I’d never seen it before. As Lindy tried to escape her attacker we started discussing kidnappings, teaching our child stranger danger, putting an airtag on their clothes, etc. As we continued to discuss abductions and common techniques abductors use, I randomly remembered the time I was almost sex trafficked. So let me tell you all about it.

It was the summer and I had an internship in a big city a few hours away from our college. Dakota had an internship a few hours in the exact opposite direction. Over the summer we’d meet roughly in the middle at his parents’ house and spend the weekend together.

I got off on a Friday and hopped in my car. I’d be able to see him by dinner.

As I’m driving the long, boring, desolate highway – jamming out to whatever the summer songs of that year were – a car pulls up next to me. I look over into the car because they’re driving right next to me. Not passing. Maintaining right next to me.

They’re looking back at me. They make some hand motions that I try to decipher. I look at my hood. No smoke. Maybe I had been lightly traumatized by my last car that was an absolute beater. It leaked coolant so fast I just filled it with water instead in the summer. But this car was fine, never had an issue like that and didn’t appear to now.

They kept motioning to me so I looked in the mirror at my gas cap. It looked closed to me.

I turned down my radio so I could listen. I didn’t hear anything odd and didn’t feel my car pulling weird as if a tire was flat.

They continue to motion to me and I figure out they want me to pull over. Okay. I get behind them. As they take an exit ramp and I’m about to follow, a vision flashes before my eyes. I picture pulling over, rolling down my window, and instead of speaking to me they reach in and grab me. They take the exit and at the very last second a veer away from the exit and continue straight.

Had that been the end of the encounter I probably would’ve thought I overreacted. They were probably nice people.

But that wasn’t the end.

They took the offramp and immediately got back on the on ramp. They were following me.

I sped up. They sped up. I sped up more. My car couldn’t outrun theirs. I was going over a hundred. I didn’t care if police lights popped up. In fact, I was begging for it. For protection. I would've grabbed my phone and called 911 but I had no idea where I was. I hadn’t seen a town in nearly an hour.

They’re now driving right next to me again, keeping pace with me. I was in the right lane and they were in the left. Both barrelling down the highway at nearly 110mph (177kph for my European readers).

Another exit was coming up quick. At the very last minute I slammed on my brakes as hard as possible and swerved for the exit, them shooting by in the far lane. I pulled off onto a small gravel road. The only thing I could see on this exit was farmland.

I called my mom and explained what happened. I don’t think she fully understood the danger I just escaped because honestly I didn’t either. I took the time while I was parked to figure out where I was. I told my mom on the phone and texted Dakota the information as well.

I got back on the highway, nervous the car would reappear. But it never did. I made it to Dakota’s parents’ house and told him and his mom what happened. We all agreed it was very strange. But I quickly forgot about this encounter.

Until several months later when I was reading an article. A string of abductions and subsequent sex trafficking had been reported over the last few months… on the exact stretch of highway I was on. My stomach dropped. Something in my brain rang alarm bells at the time which is obviously why I escaped them, but it had mostly been chalked up to someone being weird and just making me uncomfortable. Not actual danger. I had no proof my catastrophizing wasn’t exactly that.

But as I read the article and what had happened to others I became 80% sure this is what almost happened to me. I am so thankful my brain wasn’t a single second slower. That I didn’t trust them one ounce more. It might be the only reason I’m alive today, which is a crazy thought to realize.