Drunk man

Not sure if this belongs here or LNM because while I did fear for my safety, I wasn't actually the target of what happened so mods be sure to wag a finger at me if I made a bad call. On to the story (written on mobile so sorry if something goes wrong, TLDR at bottom, this was a long time ago and I'm 27 now)

So I'm originally from MI and my family had what they affectionately called a cabin waaaay up state almost to the UP. If you've never been to upper MI then I can describe it with one word: trees. Literally miles and miles of trees with maybe a river just to spice things up.

The cabin which was really a two room dwelling with no electricity, no ventilation only a wood stove if we got cold, and worst of all no indoor plumbing which meant either a 10 minute drive to a camp ground to use it's more modern outhouses OR braving the wooden outhouse my grandpa had built which had a habit of attracting spiders. All this plus barely any signal and no WIFI meant teenage me was suuuuuppper thriller to visit it for a week during summer (can you just taste the sarcasm?)

I was going with my mom (dad was out of the picture), my two aunts (never married), and my grandmother. The lack of any male figures is important to this story.

For some reason my families idea of a vacation has always been "go to the most remote place they can find and sit outside in lawn chairs" while I was more the "can we please go do something, ANYTHING" type so I was kinda left to my own devices most of the time. As a peace offering to me for the lack of anything to do and no privacy (the cabin had literally ONE queen sized bed which my grandma got, everyone else got crappy roll up cots) my mom set up a large 4 person tent in front of the cabin and got a camping cot for me. This kept me happy enough.

So how nights would go is we would have a fire, cook food, talk a lot (I'd mostly be texting my then boyfriend, now husband, when the signal was decent), then they would go inside and I'd go into my tent to change and go to sleep. When we were visiting the door to the cabin was only locked by a hook and that was just to keep the door closed rather than serious security and normally the door would squeak so much it would wake me up from my tent.

I would pull a blanket over my head to block out the morning sun and as extra security to any bugs that had gotten in. My tent only had my suitcase, backpack, and a table with a lamp and bug spray next to me. I remember being asleep one minute then awake the next because someone was unzipping my tent. I need glasses to see so when I opened my eyes I noticed it was super early in the morning (it was that time of morning when everything is grayish blue and just enough light to see) and I remember seeing a really tall figure standing halfway in my tent. I also remember immediately knowing it wasn't anyone in my family because the size and shape was all wrong.

I was frozen on the spot, peeking out from under a blanket as this man I have never met and can barely see starts looking around my tent. I'm only 14-15 at the time and I'm sadly very much aware what grown men can do to teenage girls. This guy is looking around for what feels like eternity and even starts coughing a bit (which really hammered home this was in fact a man because of the deep sound) before pulling back out of the tent and moving away towards the cabin.

I am still frozen in fear with a million thoughts going through my head. "Who is this guy, what does he want, is he gonna hurt me or my family" etc. We had homes close-ish to us but most of the owners were gone for vacation or the homes were for vacation themselves and empty, plus I really didn't know anyone in the area like my family did. I hear this guy walking around and I think checking the cars nearby to see if they were unlocked (they weren't) so I broke free of my fear and grabbed the only weapon I had/could think of; the can of Off Deep Woods.

I remember thinking I could use it like mace if he came back (cuz compared to other sprays the deep woods stuff stings like a mother fucker when it's blown into your eyes, trust me) and just waiting to see what he would do. The next thing I heard was our cooler opening (we had two outside for drinks and unopened meats, everything else was kept inside) and him rummaging around in the ice along with more coughing. Sounds finally stop when I hear him tip one cooler over and then footsteps heading behind the house and up toward the outhouse.

I'm still terrified this guy is around and I can't move, I'm practically crushing the can in my hands, and I force myself to count to 30 before I can move. It was less than 20 feet from tent to door but I sprinted it and immediately began banging in the door as loud as I could, calling for my mom. My aunt opens the door and all I get out is "there's a man outside" before I'm grabbed by my pj shirt and practically flung inside the house by my 5ft 2in fifty something pacifist aunt and didn't stop till I almost hit the other wall.

By now everyone is awake and the adrenaline finally wears off because I break down in tears while my aunts lock down the cabin and my mom, now also crying, holds me while I tell her what happened. Phone calls to the police are made and turns out we weren't the only one reporting a strange man walking around our property because the cops are already looking for this guy. Someone comes and checks out our place (the dickhead had stolen some meat along with dumping our drink cooler, my mom thinks looking for beer) before going up the hill behind the cabin to HIS property.

Turns out he was super drunk and had spent the whole night walking the woods, drinking, and looting what he could before going home to sleep it off. He denied ever seeing me (either due to my blanket or due to being wasted) and I don't think anything serious ever came about it except maybe a drunk and disorderly along with trespassing. The guys brother came by later that week to apologize and pay us for what was stolen, and my mom slept out in the tent with me for the rest of the trip (more for her sake than mine)

I still remember once we had calmed down my mom asking me why I had a can of bug spray and me getting embarrassed as I told her it was my makeshift mace. Everyone in the cabin laughed at that, I think more out of nerves than anything else.

The bittersweet thing is I don't ever have to worry about that guy again cuz we sold the cabin just this past year to the people next door (who paid over value because they were really interested and I got a slice of the profits). I hated the cabin but I will miss the memories now that it's only my aunt, mom, and me left from that side of the family. Sorry if this wasn't super exciting but I can promise you it was far more intense living it than reading it.

And to the drunk asshole who thought it was ok to go running around people's property and terrify a teenage girl; I still buy Off Deep Woods and I'm far less afraid to use it on your dumbass.

TLDR: drunk man invades my (14-15 F at the time)tent as I'm sleeping, terrifies me and my family, would have gotten maced with bug spray but instead gets cops called on him for D&D along with trespassing