20 times men pretended to be friends with women to protect them from creepy guys

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on March 18, 2022. It has since been updated.

Nearly every woman has at least one story of a man refusing to take no for an answer and violating their personal space and security. Women are generally alert, aware of safe spaces and possible exits of every room and aware of every potential risk in the room. However, there are times when men that are complete strangers wade into a dangerous situation to bail out women being creeped out by other men. One Reddit user asked others to share similar experiences and it was eye-opening.

Here are some of the top responses we came across: 

1. 

"This happened to me about three years ago. I was in Home Depot and a young woman (about half my age) walked up to me, with a guy right on her shoulder babbling about something, and she said "Uncle Steve! I didn't think I'd see you until Mom's birthday party!" I looked at her a little confused, but she made a "help me!" face, and so I said "Well, you're in town already! This is a fun surprise! You wanna shop together? We can talk a little while we get our stuff." She gave the kind of look I expect Superman gets when he plucks somebody from a burning building. The creepy guy was still there, so I made my voice a little gruff and said, "Do you need something?" He said no and went away. We shopped and got our stuff, checked out, I walked her to her car and watched while she drove away." – u/DrenkBolij

2.

"I'm 6' 3 ~250lb and I cannot count on both hands how many times a scared woman has joined my brothers and me or my friends and me, asking if we can pretend to know her because of some guy not taking no for an answer. We've walked people to cars, gotten people cabs, waited with them until they felt safer. I am always happy to help them because I hope someone will do the same for my female friends, but it's sad that the need is there." – u/Sagoingne

3.

"Actually happened to me once. Girl approached my wife and me at a bar and asked if I could pretend to be her brother, some guy was creepin' her out. I was just like "Hey, there you are...didn't you see us sitting here?" Dude left." – u/Lt_Jay

4.

"A guy was hitting on me at a party and I pointed to my brother next to me and said I'm with him, and this little douche stands next to him and goes "your sister is really cute" and my brother replied, "yeah, and she'll kick your ass." He looked very uncomfortable and left xD I love that my brother still gave me the power but made it clear enough that he's my backup xP." – u/Sumoki_Kuma

5.

"Happened to me. Or close to it. She wasn't being followed, but a creepy person was trying to intoxicate her in a packed bar. I noticed, approached her, and said "oh, heey!! Long time no see, how are you doing?" She immediately reacted and started chatting with me. After a while the person tried to pull her back saying "hey, she's with me" and I was like "oh not right now dude, we haven't seen each other for a long time." We ended up dating." – u/chaoticcneutral

6.

"Back when I was 19 I was at a work Xmas party and noticed a girl I was good friends with getting harassed by a much older guy who was a manager. Not only was he a creep but I'd met his wife and child. I stepped in and asked her to dance and we spent the evening together. Didn't deter him, he kept getting in her face and trying to shoulder me aside. We decided to leave together and called a taxi and when it arrived he tried to leave with us. I managed to push him out and we got away safely. Two kids and 4 grandchildren later we have been married for 39 blissful years." – u/Housebitchhere

7.

"This happened to me in Vegas…it was wild. Two girls walked up to me and a friend of mine at a bar with a creepy older guy hovering behind them. They started talking to us as if our parties were together. I was so confused but caught on, and awkwardly asked if they wanted to go get another round at the bar before realizing their drinks were full. I joking grabbed one of their cocktails and downed it to give us an excuse to go - it was one of the last things I remember from that night. The guy had roofied her drink.

I’m not a small dude (easily had the girl by 70lbs) and within 30 mins (I’m told) shit went sideways for me. Before I lost track of everything, I distinctly remember him watching us like he was waiting for something. To this day I’m grateful I picked her drink." – u/apolicywonk

8.

"I remember being at a bar and telling this guy I had a boyfriend and still getting harassed, dude was all up in my personal space, like, right up in it, and some big Viking-looking dude put his arm around me, looks the dude in the eye and goes "I'm the boyfriend." I was left alone for the rest of the night haha. I don't know who you are big Viking dude because you disappeared into the night, but I hope you're living your best life." – u/foldbackclip

9.

"This happened to me once. I was at Preston station and a girl approached me and said can we pretend to be friends and chat as there's a creepy guy that keeps following me around the station. I probably shouldn't have said, "how do you know I'm not a creepy guy too?" But it did make her laugh. We chatted, and when the train got arrived we sat together. When we got to Lancaster she met a friend, said thanks, and we went our separate ways. And thankfully no problems with the creepy guy. God, it must be shit being a woman at times." – u/Gazebadly

10.

"This actually happened to me in the autumn. A girl sat next to me on the train because a creep was following her. It was funny because I think I look like a creep." – u/Errormacrothe

11.

"When I was about 19 years old I was at my favorite bar having a drink and waiting for a friend to show up. They had a warm smoking area you could drink in. This dude who I know as a regular at this bar via my mom's friend (who says he raped her and had bruises and everything) kept trying to force me to heavily drink. Then he tried to convince me to go to his house to do coke. This guy was like 50 and "just wanted to have a good time." Another man was sitting across from me, and after creeps left to go get a drink, another dude made sure to look right at me and say, "no matter what happens, I won't leave you with him. Is someone coming for you?" Damn near cried into my beer and assured him someone was coming for me." – u/Rapidbetrayal

12.

"Been in a similar situation before, I was going home when I saw 2 teenage girls walking and behind them were 2 grown-ass men on pushbikes wolf-whistling to them and catcalling! I asked the girls if they wanted me to walk with them until they got where they were going! Men disappeared and one of the girls' parents then accused me of hanging around with teenagers until their daughter stepped up and said what was happening, her dad then wrapped his arms around me and said 'what a man, thank you for being a great bloke.'" – u/Lifelongfailure

13.

"Only time this has ever happened to me was when I was 18 (37 now) down at Ozfest in Milton Keynes and a girl about my age (who looked like a proper rock chick who wouldn't be scared of anything) asked if she could walk with us after the day had ended along a few dark paths. (3 of us) We said hell yeah and walked her 20 mins along the road and she said thank you so much and went on her way. We all felt pretty good that she asked us ha. I get some men to get offended by the whole "not all men" thing. But to women, it is potentially every man. So I just do what I can and my friends are all the same. Gotta look out for each other man." 

14.

"One time in a bar, years back, a girl came up behind me and said urgently “pretend to be my boyfriend. Please.” I see an angry guy shoving his way through the crowd towards us. I casually put my arm over her shoulder and made eye contact with him. She was trembling violently. He slowed a bit. I’m 6’4, 240. I just glared at him. We’re standing at the bar; he’s approaching from behind, she’s on my left staring straight ahead and with her back to him, I’m looking at him over my left shoulder. I kinda growled “what?” at him as he stopped. He mumbled something I couldn’t hear over the music and cleared off. After a minute, she stopped shaking, said thanks, and left. And that was it." – u/Obsidian-Thain

15.

"Years ago I was at my favorite bar, ordering a drink and I see this guy kinda hanging on/around this girl. She just looked really uncomfortable. I kinda assessed the body language for some minutes longer trying to figure out if they were familiar like is this a “my boyfriend is drunk and I’m embarrassed” or a “this is a rando and I cannot politely excuse myself” situation. Figured out it was the latter. Drank my shot. Pretended to stumble upon her presence. Faked a big huge smile and said “Omg, I haven’t seen you in forever” and put my arms out for a hug. She looked hella confused (how many of us have made some bar friends that we couldn’t pick out a lineup lol) but went in for the hug. At which point I whispered in her ear “you don’t know me but you look really uncomfortable are you okay”. I felt her body relax as she began to thank me profusely. Just told her to pretend we know each other and we proceeded to converse until the creep meandered away. Moral of the story, they don’t always come up to you. Please practice situational awareness, it could really help someone." – u/shayetheleo

16.

"Woman here; I've done this before in the past. Was at a club, lost my friends and this creepy dude kept following/pestering me. It was so crowded I couldn't get to the security guy at the back so I turned to another guy and said "there's a creepy guy following me, can you pls help and pretend that we're friends?" and without missing a beat, he said "don't worry", then he turned his back to a creepy guy who was looking at me, blocked my body with his and stood there. When the creepy guy got closer and tried to talk to me again, he kept blocking me until the creepy guy said "excuse me" and tried to pass the guy; the guy turned around and said "what do you want with my girlfriend?" and the creepy guy said sorry and left." – u/Rudebish

17.

"A version of this actually happened to me. I was in a bar with my sister waiting at a table for dinner and two girls near us were being bothered by a somewhat drunk guy. My sister asked me to intervene so I went over and pretended to be an old friend for high school, luckily they picked up on it pretty quick and I situated myself in between them and the drunk guy and eventually, he left. I ended up dating one of them for a few years and we are still good friends to this day." – u/Nightsounds1

18.

"Happened to me before, I replied "okay, roll with it." "Hi sweetheart you're late as always!" put my arm over, feigned a kiss, held her hand, and walked her home. Creeper followed us the entire way so we carried on walking until we got to a house of a friend of hers, went in had coffee, and waited for the utter weirdo to leave. Made some good friend that night though." – u/Tevakh2312

19. 

"I had a girl do this at a concert. She walked up to me hugged me and said something like pretending to be my boyfriend some guy is being creepy. We talked about the show for a little while I kept an eye on the guy until he walked away. She thanked me and went to find her friends. I'd do it again." – u/Rallings

20. 

"Back in the '90s, I pulled up to the bank ATM on a Saturday. There was a guy at the ATM, and another lady in her car - I was third in line, so I just sat in my truck to wait.

The lady got out and walked up to the ATM booth about the time the guy was finishing up, and I heard her ask him if he would mind waiting there until she got done. It took me a few minutes to realize that it was me, unshaved, wearing my old field jacket, sitting in a 20-year-old project truck with a different color cab and bed, that she was nervous about.

But the guy stayed there in his car until she got back into hers, so... you know... that dude was a good guy." – u/itdubass