Momma on High Alert

So the last few days I have been noticing an older (like 1980s) blue Chevy van driving around the neighborhood. I normally don't pay attention to the junk driving down our street. But this van was driving around and around and around. Plus it looked like the stereotypical child molester van. Cardboarded up windows and all. So yeah, I noticed it. I had just guessed that they were new in the neighborhood and were lost or something.

My next door neighbor, Kari (also my current BFF) came by today while I was feeding the boys lunch to tell me to be careful because she and Mark had an "encounter" with this van and the dude driving it.

She is a big bad biker chick and doesn't spook easily so I am totally taking her advice.

She said that while she was in the gas station yesterday, she saw this creepy guy standing at the door, watching her walk around the store. When she got in line to pay, he came and stood behind her. Her cashier was slower than the other one so the creepy dude was checked out before her. She watched him walk over to the van. She watches him watch her walk across the parking lot and get in her Blazer. When she gets out on the street, he pulls away from the gas pump and follows her all the way home.

Why she went home instead of the police station when she figured out he was really following her is beyond me. At this point in her story I interrupted her and asked WTF she was thinking because now he knows where she lives. She said that she wasn't scared for herself, she was scared for me and the boys.

When she got home and all locked up inside, she called Mark and told him what was going on. Somehow he saw the van parked across the street from one of his friend's house. Mark pulled up behind the van and looked inside. He says that the whole van was full of kids toys. The creepy dude comes out of the back yard of the house he is parked at. When Mark starts to walk up to him to find out why he was following Kari, the creepy dude takes off running.

So instead of chasing him, Mark gets back in his truck, calls the police and tells them what has happened so far. The police run the license plates. The information from the plates comes back clean (not stolen, no warrants, etc) but the police have already heard about the creepy dude.

As it turns out, there have already been 12 individual women that have called the police about this creepy dude. They also said that he is probably targeting not only women but little kids as well. That makes sense because of all the toys in his van.

BUT, then they said that there wasn't really anything they could do until he actually does something.

Wait, hold on a minute. Since when does following a woman home (numerous women) not count as DOING SOMETHING????? Is he going to have to break into a house or snatch up one of our kids before something is done to him?

Heaven help the man if he shows up at my door or sneaks in my back yard. I have a 9mm handgun and I sure as shit know how to use it. It is a Star something and it looks just like THIS one.

So other than having a gun and knowing how to use it, keeping the doors and gates locked, not letting the kids play in the front yard, not letting them play in the back yard alone, and being aware of MY surroundings, what else can I do to protect myself and the kids?

FWIW, I don't think I am getting overly worried about this. We are a small, tight knit town where everybody knows everybody else. We try to look out for each other. Non-locals stick out and word travels fast when something isn't 100% normal, like this creepy dude. Plus there is that mommy intuition that I try to listen to whenever it rears its head.