We are all vulnerable to attack once in a while. During my vacation to Spain last week, I had a situation which luckily ended well. A man approached me, asked if I spoke English, and asked me to help him find a street on his map. My guard was already slightly up, but I apprehensively began to look at his map. We were suddenly approached by another man, who held out a badge and said "police" and asked to see our passports. I immediately got a rush of adrenaline and fear. Somehow, I got control of that, and asked to see the "policeman's" badge again (he had put it away really quickly). He took it out, and it was not a metal badge, but a patch. He was not in uniform. It just felt wrong, so I said "no!" really firmly, and quickly walked away.

I did not look back at first, but I was ready to run and/or yell my head off if I heard them coming towards me. I got out of there safely. When I did look back, they were gone. I have since read about similar scams, where they impersonate police to rob tourists, on the State Dept website.

You did great. Going to your friend's house shows you were thinking, considering your options, and you chose the one that made the most sense. The rush of adrenaline can be either incredibly powerful or immobilizing for me. I have been "frozen with fear" once in my life when I was a teenager, and I've held my head on several other occasions since then.

Always, always, always trust your instinct. When you feel like you're being followed, don't talk yourself out of it, and convince yourself it's your imagination. That's really easy to do. You're better off being embarrassed for being wrong than finding out you were right.