Australian woman issues warning after scary experience with creepy man at Manly Beach in Sydney

A young woman recounted the terrifying encounter she had on an Australian beach after a stranger followed her and persistently asked her to use her phone.

She said she was in Manly Beach in northern Sydney when a man approached her saying he was lost and asked her to look up directions on his phone.

The bather said ‘something was really wrong’ when the man’s accent changed during the conversation, he insisted on holding his phone and she thought two other men were watching her in the parking lot.

In a post to Life on the Northern Beaches On the Facebook page, the Sydney woman issued a warning to others in the area to be vigilant and stay safe after her ‘weird’ experience.

A young woman recounted how a man allegedly followed her as she walked on Manly Beach in Sydney and warned others to be extra vigilant when approaching strangers.

The woman, originally from the United Kingdom, said she was walking from Manly’s main beach to Queenscliff when a man with a British accent caught her eye and told her he was lost.

“Everything I said in the conversation was playing games with me for information,” he recalled.

He had followed me from where I took a photo and asked why I had taken that particular photo, which meant to me that he had been watching me.

The man, who sounded British, asked to use his phone because he said it was lost, but the woman refused. She also said that she noticed two men watching her in a van in the parking lot after he left.

She said the man walked with her until he stopped to tell her that he needed to use his phone because he was lost and needed to find Manly Towers.

‘I wouldn’t give him my phone. I kept wondering how far I was walking,” she said.

“He sounded like a Londoner, but when I said where he was from in the UK, his accent suddenly changed to that place!”

The woman added that the man said he was on vacation reuniting with his ‘lost’ family, divorced and needed a visa.

‘He probably saw that she wasn’t wearing her wedding ring?’ she guessed.

When she returned to her vehicle, the man “finally” left, but the eagle-eyed woman noticed something strange in the parking lot.

“I got to my car with two guys in a black Audi watching. Fortunately, there was a man in the parking lot and I remained closed and they finally left, ”she said.

‘Everything was weird!’

The woman added that she had reported the strange incident to the police, did not photograph the man who was following her and said he was wearing a hat and sunglasses that made it difficult to see his face properly.

‘Just be careful, these scammers are following people!’ she wrote.

I’m not sure of his intentions or if he was planning to steal my phone. But something was really wrong!

Online residents agreed the ‘scary’ experience was worth reporting to police and advised others to be ‘vigilant’ when approached by strangers.

‘Horrible. Stay safe everyone. There are too many horrible people taking advantage of the innocent,” said one user.

At best, it was inappropriate. You don’t have to be polite to someone who encroaches on your boundaries in this way. Your job is to stay safe and feel safe,” wrote another.

‘Always trust your instinct! I’m glad you’re okay and thanks for highlighting these tactics to others,” a third replied.