Paula’s Story: Trusted Men of Uniform

I bluffed my way out of being taken. I took a deep breath and turned on the predator, looked him in the eye with wrath and then side stepped and began to walk toward a truck in the next parking lot where a young couple had just pulled in to go boating.

We had been camping in south Yellowstone and this man had been watching me for a day, walking back and forth until I was so nervous that I would lay in the forest to be out of sight. I had gone down to re register for a second night since my husband was laying I’ll in our van. A grey Tacoma truck with North Dakota license plates pulled in behind me, motor running, door open and two other men waiting inside as he came in behind me pushing me into the V shaped information board. He spoke loudly about it being end of season and there being no park staff in the campsite. He was so close that I could feel his breath on my neck and he was unmistakably a weight trainer. He was built like a bull. I am a disabled senior but to him I was a piece of meat! I used every bit of bravery I had to bluff myself away.

As they pulled away I saw that they were either firefighters or paramedics as the license plate was issued with the symbol. I know that they have practiced this sort of thing before and may have had other victims and in all likelihood will try again. As a Canadian tourist what would I do. I had gotten away so the police would laugh. Also, they were men of uniform and I am simply an old woman. Do you believe that police officers would believe bad of them?