Hi all,
I went for a walk along Honor Oak Road this afternoon about 12.30 and noticed a van turn into Horniman Drive, where I was crossing. I had headphones in at the time but the driver said something to me through his open window. I carried on walking but could hear he was still trying to speak to me, so turned round to speak to him. He asked for directions to HOP station, which I gave him and then I carried on walking.
I was expecting him to then drive past me, but noticed this hadn’t happened yet as I turned up Canonbie Road to continue my walk. At this point he also drove up Canonbie Road and stopped just before the brow of the hill (I had paused by the building site). I knew this was not the way I had directed him too, so became suspicious and turned around and ran back to HOP Road and crossed down to Tyson Road. Part way down Tyson, he appeared again in the van behind me. I was very concerned at this point so managed to speak to a man who was walking towards me and explain the situation. I could see that the van driver had seen that I had engaged the guy in conversation and at this point done a u-turn and then continued back up Tyson Road to HOP Road and turned right towards HOP.
Thankfully the guy I spoke to was very understanding and walked with me part of the way back, before I came across a lady walking her dog who walked back towards FH with me and was also very understanding and kind.
The van in question was a long wheel based white van with a 2001-2002 registration and I’ve reported the incident via 101.
I just want to say thank you again for the people who helped me this afternoon, but also to alert others to this incident as I’m concerned he may be on the look out to try something similar again to other lone walkers (even in the middle of broad daylight as this was).
