It all started back in '90-'91. I was attending SIAST in Regina and I was taking Office Education. I needed a place to live while I was there and my Aunt had a friend who had a basement suite for rent. I believe the house was on Retallack but it could have been on Rae Street about a 25 minute walk from the school. I usually took the quickest and safest route, Albert Street, which was where I usually caught the bus as well.

I had a few school friends who lived around my area and when walking home we would take side streets or simply walk around the area. On one of these streets, I keep thinking Osler, there was a small, family owned, Chinese market. I loved it because their prices were cheaper and they had home made bread and buns. On days I went to the store, I would enter the back alley behind my house and go in the back gate because it was closer. Anyway, early in the fall, I had noticed a white panel van driving around but I only seemed to see it when I was alone. I assumed they lived in the area because it was always parked in front of a house just down from the market. I remember the driver always had a beard and long hair and the passenger always wore a tie dyed t shirt and his hair was always tied back in a pony tail.

One morning, as I was waiting for the bus, the van circled the block slowly about three times. There were other people at the stop with me, one being a young gentleman with long messy hair. I just assumed they knew someone at the stop or that they were looking for something. I got on the bus and went to school. I walked home alone that day and stopped at the store. As I came out, this van came around the corner and slowed down. I immediately got that creepy feeling, the hair was standing up on the back of my neck, I turned around and went back in the store; but not before seeing the dude from the bus stop. They stopped out front and waited for a few minutes and then left. I waited a few more minutes and when I didn't see the van again I left. By this time it was getting close to 4:30 in the afternoon and the street was quiet.

As I left the store, I looked around to see if there was anyone I could talk to if they came around again. I saw a young mom with two kids at the school playground about two blocks ahead so I crossed the street hoping that, if nothing else, I could at least ask if I could go to her house and use her phone. About half way there she left and the street was quiet. I started walking faster, I crossed a back alley and all of a sudden the van came out and drove slowly beside me. It went up the street and parked at an angle across the street so I couldn't cross. The driver was laughing and I noticed about five guys in the van. I went into the school yard hoping the school doors would be open, they took off. I tried the doors and they were locked. I came out the other side of the school and knowing I was only a few blocks from home, decided to get to a small, out of the way walking trail I had found. This would take me about three doors down from where I lived.

As I ran across the street, they came from the other direction, I ran down that path and I heard someone yell "F**K!" I kept running, pulled out my keys and as I got to the end of the path I saw them coming down the street and fast. I heard someone say "We got her." I turned around and went down the street the other way, turned the corner and hid between a few cars. They drove by and I heard someone say, "We'll get her in the back, that's where she lives." I ran fast, turned into the driveway, ran to the back, dropped my backpack on the step and opened the door because I could hear them coming. My land lady was away at the time so I closed the door and went upstairs and peeked out her window and sure enough there they were in the alley.

I double locked the door and went downstairs. For the next few hours I would peek out my bedroom window and they were in the alley. Either just leaving or just coming in. The doorbell rang a few times and someone knocked so I got even more creeped out. Garth had to drive in to Lethbridge the next day so I called and asked to stay there for a few days. I did, we drove around looking for the van after that but we never saw it, at least not on my street or the street where this all started. I moved shortly after and never had that problem again.

So tell me, was it young guys being a-holes and my paranoia or was it an attempted kidnapping gone bad?