Always Carry a Mobile Phone While You’re Exercising

Neighbor Sarah sends this note about an encounter she had yesterday in Prospect Park, reminding us that if you’re out exercising at any time, though you might want to travel light, please always carry a mobile phone with you for safety.

She was exercising at about 6:30am with two other women and a man on top of the hill in the center of the park, and another woman was on her own nearby doing yoga. As she and her friends were leaving, they saw a man appear:

He passed the woman doing poses and stared lewdly at her as he passed her, heading down the stairs. Then as we were about to round a corner, he started back up the stairs at her, with arms outstretched, lewd gestures and yelling threateningly at her. I thought he meant to rape her. She was frozen. We decided to go back for her, and the guy with us trotted up to her and escorted her down to leave the area with us. When he did, the man shouted obscenities at him, threatening to f*** him up for coming back to get her.

It was very scary. We all got out fine. She was very grateful though none of us said much. None of us had cellphones and none of us called the police (that I know of). I just tried to file a report now but they won’t take it over the phone. They have to dispatch a cop car to the scene (I am at work now in Manhattan). Just a note to let people know to carry cellphones when they exercise in the park early in the morning.