Chicago woman aggressively harassed, followed by man in Gold Coast

A Chicago woman is sharing her story of being harassed and followed by an aggressive man demanding her phone number in the city's Gold Coast neighborhood.

Sidney Arhart first posted about her harrowing experience on TikTok in May. The college student spoke between sobs, saying she was approached by a man who told she was beautiful. He insisted on getting her phone number and then things took a turn.

"He essentially has me pressed up against a pole and is refusing to leave me alone. I told him multiple times I have a boyfriend. I have a boyfriend and he's not leaving me and he's saying, 'Well we could be something else. Well we could be something else,'" she recounts in the TikTok. "Again, he has me pushed up against this pole and the look in his eyes. I've never seen a look like this in a person's eye's before.  I thought he was going to beat me up."

Arhart took CBS News Chicago to the spot where the incident happened.

"He had had his hand like hovering on the small of my back like he was about to grab me or make some sort of unwanted advance towards me," she said.

At that moment, Arhart said she made eye contact with a valet driver outside Maple & Ash.

"He was waving me over. He was calling me like this. He was mouthing to me, 'Are you OK? Are you OK?' and he was recording the whole thing," she said.

She made her way to the valet, who brought her inside the restaurant. But the man still won't leave her alone; he even tried to follow her to the third floor when staff put her on the elevator. The valet called the police. The man left before officers arrived.

"I'm super grateful to them and there was other staff members too besides the valet driver," Arhart said.

Arhart said she wanted to share her story, in May and now, because women face harassment daily and aren't taken seriously about it.

"'I think just for the sake of women, I think a lot of women feel when they get harassed on the street or anything like that, or have unwanted advances made toward them, I feel people don't tend to take it seriously, so I feel as women we kind of  need to band together and make sure we're having these stories out there," she said.

She said she hopes the man who assaulted her is mentally well.

"It kind of seemed like from my perspective he was going to stop at nothing to get to me. So I think it was really horrifying," she said.

Arhart said Maple & Ash staff member told her they spotted the same man outside the restaurant a few weeks later. CPD said he was approached women and making unwanted contact with them. He was arrested and charged with trespassing.

Arhart said she believes it's the same man, but there's still no arrest in her case.