When I was 19, my girlfriend and I had to make a 3 to 4 hour drive about every two weeks because she lived in northern Germany and I lived in central Germany. So we would take turns staying at each other's places.
We usually left in the late afternoon, but sometimes it got later, like it did on this particular night.
It was around 10:30 PM in November. We had already been driving on the highway for about two hours when my girlfriend said she really needed to use the bathroom.
I normally hate stopping at rest stops, especially when it's cold, dark and lightly raining outside like it was that night, but it was the quickest option. So I pulled into the next rest stop.
To our surprise, the place was completely empty, which is actually pretty unusual in Germany. It wasn't one of those bigger rest stops with a Burger King or a gas station either. There was literally just a small five sided bathroom building lit up by fluorescent lights and nothing else.
My girlfriend got out and went to the bathroom, and I walked her there. Our car was parked about 10 meters from the bathroom.
I stood impatiently outside the door, keeping an eye on the entrance to the rest stop, but also on everything else around me. Nobody feels particularly safe at a completely deserted highway rest stop at night.
Finally, my girlfriend came back and we slowly started walking toward our car when suddenly another car pulled into the rest stop.
It was blue, some kind of small car, but I couldn't tell what brand it was. The only thing that really stood out was the license plate, which I had never seen anything like before. It was hanging slightly crooked.
The driver drove quickly toward the bathroom and parked two spaces away from us.
My girlfriend and I looked at each other and immediately had the same thought: get in the car. Now.
The car was now parked to our right. Normally I would have just pressed the unlock button, but my car's battery was dead, so I had to unlock it manually. The car could only be opened from the passenger side.
So I had to walk around to the left side of the car, open the door for my girlfriend, walk around the car again and then get in myself.
I was just unlocking the passenger door with the key when the man got out of his car.
He looked kind of disheveled and was wearing a brown jacket. I honestly can't remember much else about what he looked like because I was mainly focused on his right hand.
He had been keeping it behind his back the entire time, ever since he got out of his car.
I was just around the back of my car when he was suddenly only about two meters away from me. He started walking toward me quickly while saying something I couldn't understand.
I ignored him, yanked the door open, immediately slammed it shut behind me and locked all the doors from the inside.
While I was starting the car as quickly as possible, he was still standing right next to the window.
It was only when I put the car in reverse and started moving that he finally stepped back a little.
Unfortunately, I couldn't see what he was holding in his hand in the rearview mirror, and to this day I still wonder what exactly he wanted from us.
Obviously, I know he wasn't approaching me because he wanted to hand me a suitcase full of money. He clearly didn't seem to have good intentions.
But at the same time, he somehow seemed way too scruffy and disheveled to be some kind of kidnapper, human trafficker or organ thief...