The other day, I was driving home from work. It had been a long day and I was exhausted. I was stopped at a light that had just turned green when a car pulled up next to me. Two men were in the car and the man on the passenger side had his window down and was calling for me.

I figured that they would only be stopping traffic if it was super important. Maybe there was something wrong with my car and they were trying to let me know. So I lowered my window.

The man told me that he saw the dent in my car (one that I had gotten a few weeks ago) and that he works for a company that could help fix that. I was in disbelief that they would stop traffic just to advertise their company. The cars behind us were honking relentlessly. I quickly told them "no thanks" and that I didn't want to hold up traffic and drove off.

It wasn't until I had parked at my apartment complex and gotten out of the car that I realized that they had followed me. They drove up to me and asked me whether I wanted to use their service.

I was so shocked that they had actually followed me home that I didn't know what to say. I told them no and they tried to insist, saying, "We're not thieves or anything. We can help you."

After saying no again, they drove off. Once I was sure they had gone, I ran to my apartment.

The experience was unsettling, but I figured they had gone and I could move on with my life. I recounted the experience to my friend/roommate, who is a criminal justice major.

She told me that following someone home is a crime, no matter the intention, and that I should call the non-emergency line of our police department.

At first, I was going to say no. I thought I was being overdramatic. They had already left, so I wasn't in any immediate danger. They were probably just two guys who had no idea what good business practices were.

But she insisted that I call, just in case they do it to someone else, so I did. And as I was talking to the woman on the phone, I began tearing up. As I filed the report, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders that I hadn't even known was there in the first place.

I thought more about the incident after calling and it had occurred to me that the car they were driving in didn't have any sort of company logo. I was suddenly very happy that I wasn't alone.

I was also mad at myself for not having yelled at them for following a girl home and for not having gotten any information about their company, the type of car, etc. for the police report. But I have since realized that blaming yourself in these situations is never the way to go. All I was focused on was getting them away from me as soon as possible.

My friend who urged me to call the police also told me about a phenomenon known as "underreporting," which is when women don't report crimes that really should be reported out of fear of seeming overdramatic or overemotional.

But this kind of thinking is incredibly destructive. Those guys could have been clueless, yet harmless businessmen with no social graces, but they could have been more dangerous.

There's no way to know for sure, but I would rather be overdramatic than kidnapped or dead.

So please, even if you're in a similar gray-area situation where you're not sure if a crime was truly committed, call a non-emergency line and report it anyway.

Now, when I'm driving home, I double check that no one's following me. And I always check my apartment complex's parking lot for their car. If I can spare another woman the fear and dread that those men caused me, it was all worth it.