BAR HARBOR — Sometimes scary events can lead you to good people. That’s what a Canadian woman said she recently found out after a frightening interaction on the streets of Bar Harbor, in a video she shared online that’s been viewed by thousands.
Catherine Laquerre was visiting Bar Harbor with her husband when she was followed on the street on the evening of Friday, May 3. Her retelling of her experience in Bar Harbor had received over 186,000 views on TikTok as of Wednesday morning. She said she was surprised by the number of people who watched the video. Her typical views range between 300 to 5,000.
“So, something really creepy happened while we were in Maine, USA,” the video begins. “I had a ten-minute walk at 8:45 p.m. from one restaurant to another.”
In the almost six-minute video posted on May 9, Laquerre relays her thanks to a Pennsylvania couple who helped make her feel safe and comfortable after the experience.
“I just wanted to share so maybe even if only for one person it could help to have the reflex of asking for help and finding a group [with women in it] if ever they feel unsafe, and to say thank you to that Pennsylvania family,” she said on Tuesday of this week. “I’m so grateful…. I really don’t know what could have happened without their help.”
According to the video and comments beneath it, Laquerre and her husband were finishing up appetizers and listening to live music at a location in town. She is unsure of the name of that restaurant, she said.
They wanted to have dinner at the Thirsty Whale because she hoped to try its chili, and she knew that the restaurant was only serving until 9 p.m. before the kitchen closed. She went ahead, she says in the video, so that they wouldn’t miss the window to order, and her husband stayed behind to pay the bill.
As she was walking, she saw a man leaning against a wall who gave her a funny feeling. “He’s not really looking at his phone or anything, he’s just looking around,” she recalled.
He looked at her when she was about 30 feet away and turned his ball cap to the front, which obscured his face, she said.
“I walk past him and as soon as I walk past him, he gets up and he starts following me,” she said.
She walked faster. He walked faster. He called after her, “Hey, where are you going with those long legs?”
He followed her, she said, and screamed inappropriate things. This happened for about two to three minutes, she said. Her nerves and adrenaline were racing, and she knew that she had to turn left onto a street to get to the Whale.
The streets, she said, were empty, and the restaurants were closed because the tourist season hadn’t fully begun. She spotted a family walking out of a restaurant with two women about her age in it.
“I just ran into their group and said, ‘Hey, can you pretend to know me because there is a guy following me?’” Laquerre related.
As soon as the man saw her talking to the family, he sat down and waited and stared, she said.
The group from Pennsylvania then walked with her to make sure she got to the Whale and waited with her until her spouse came to the restaurant.
“It was super scary,” she said. “I was so grateful for this family and for the timing.”
However, she said, “It’s so sad. I only had to walk [from] one restaurant to another.”
In a follow-up video, she said it was important to note that the Maine people she met were nice. She said that she loved the state, the ocean, the forest.
“And the moose,” she said, “there are so many moose everywhere.”
However, she and commenters said that scary things can happen anywhere, even in the safest of places. She also said on Tuesday via message that the man did not touch her, and she wanted to stress that she wasn’t physically hurt during the encounter. Her gratitude toward the Pennsylvania family is what she wanted highlighted.
According to state data for 2020, Maine’s crime rate was 12.85 per 1,000 people, and Bar Harbor’s was 5.83 per 1,000.
On social media, many people sympathized with Laquerre’s experience and some questioned why she didn’t immediately call the police for help. Laquerre is Canadian and was uncomfortable calling the police in another country, she said. She also said that in the moment, she was just so stressed that she didn’t think of it.
Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Chief David Kerns said Wednesday morning that Bar Harbor has had no stranger assaults reported to the police in the last year at least.
Laquerre reached out to the police via email on Wednesday at 11:35 a.m. This was verified by the police.
This story was originally published by The Bar Harbor Story. To receive regular coverage from the Bar Harbor Story, sign up for a free subscription here.
