Woman Films Creep Leaving Water Bottle On Her Car, Others Warn Its A Kidnapping Tactic

haleywestco/TikTok

February 9, 2021, 6:48 am

One woman’s creepy experience with a dude in a parking lot is reminding everyone to stay aware of their surroundings and stay safe, even in public areas.

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Haley West’s experience isn’t necessarily unique. While in the parking lot for a big shopping center, she says some guy was walking nearby and “you could tell he was staring at me while he was walking.”

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“And he yells over to me like, hey, what’s your name?” West told viewers on TikTok after the incident.

Despite not engaging with him, the man kept following her, and ultimately even tried to show off by pretending West’s Lexus was his own car.

“I didn’t react to that because that would have given away that it’s my car, although I think he already knows because…I’ll show you,” she says.

After spending time inside a store and waiting to make sure that the man had left, West says she came back out to find a water bottle on the hood of her car, something that felt off to her in the moment, all things considered.

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Fortunately, the story ends with West driving away with the water bottle still on the hood of her car, nothing more than a little shaken up about the whole thing.

But commenters on TikTok shared their concern about the incident, noting that, at the very least, it’s irksome to not be able to even go shopping without being made to feel unsafe and uncomfortable.

Several people suggested West not go straight home after the incident, just in case she was being followed even in broad daylight.

And others brought up the possibility that leaving items on a car’s hood or windshield might be used to distract the driver long enough to kidnap or rob them. There’s no proof of something like that, and a similar theory that human traffickers pull this trick in order to overpower new victims has generally been debunked, but it never hurts to play on the safe side and drive away without getting back out to remove the object, just like West did.

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“Be careful out there,” she said.

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*First Published: February 9, 2021, 6:48 am