An experience an author and a babysitter had in a Target has women everywhere agreeing that women have to look out for one another.
Children’s author Jerrica L. DeLaney (@j_o_jones) says in a TikTok that she stepped in to rescue a stranger from a man who was “harassing” her in Target. She was so concerned for the girl that she followed her to her babysitting job.
DeLaney says she walked up to the checkout where an older man and the girl were both standing. She initially assumed the man was talking to the cashier, as they were much closer in age. Then she realized he was actually talking to the babysitter, who she says is “tiny,” roughly 5’1″ and “100 pounds soaking wet.”
Then DeLaney heard what he was saying. “He’s like, ‘I could follow you if you want me to.’ She’s like, ‘No, I’m OK. No, it’s OK.'”
That made DeLaney pay closer attention.
“She cut her eyes over at me. Her body language was giving ‘save me,’” DeLaney says in the TikTok. “Like she was so tight, holding her stuff like this,” she continues, clutching her arms to her chest.
Some people may have ignored the situation and gone about their day. Not DeLaney.
“I instantly was like, ‘Girl I was looking for you all over. Where the hell you been at?’” she says. “She was like, ‘Girl, I was looking for you too but I just figured you checked out already.’”
Then she invited the girl to the Starbucks in the store.
‘I’m saying the conversation is over’
The man, DeLaney says, did not take too kindly to being interrupted. She says he said, “I see what’s going on here,” to which she replied, “I don’t care what you see.”
Then she says she told him to have a great day. He responded that he doesn’t like her because she didn’t tell him to have a great life, DeLaney says.
“I said, ‘Sir, go on about your day…. We’re saying the conversation is over. You’re making her uncomfortable,'” she says.
Finally, the man left and DeLaney resumed talking to the girl.
“She was like, ‘Oh my god thank you so much,'” DeLaney says. “The cashier was like, ‘No I was telling him, she’s not interested. You’re making her uncomfortable.'”
Target security gets involved
After the man left the Target, one of the store’s security workers walked up and asked what had happened. DeLaney says she told him that the man had been “harassing” the girl.
The worker responded that they’d have somebody walk them out, she says. They left, and DeLaney and the girl went to wait by the Starbucks.
The author notes that there was a man behind them who didn’t say a word throughout this entire interaction.
“Who’s raising y’all? Because my husband would’ve been like get,” she says with obvious disgust.
A few other women walked up to them at the Starbucks and started talking about what happened.
“She was like, ‘You know what? It takes us to save us,'” one said, per DeLaney.
DeLaney was not pleased when the security guard finally returned. She says he had what looked to be the remnants of a meal in his hands. So she asked if he took a lunch break while they were waiting to be walked out, which she says he denied.
Target did not respond to an email sent Friday morning.
Lingering in the lot
The man was still outside, DeLaney says. Once they figured out where his car was, she, the girl, and the security guard went outside.
She asked the guard to stand in the way of the man’s car, DeLaney says, so he couldn’t follow them. Then they left.
According to DeLaney, her husband often urges her to carry a “pew pew,” but she didn’t have it that day.
“Baby, that was one of the times I would’ve been like, ‘Back the [expletive] up. Back up. It’s gonna be hot in this [expletive],” she says.
To err on the side of caution, she says she followed the girl to her babysitting job “because this man in Target was harassing her.”
@j_o_jones The creeps are at target this morning #girlsgirl #creeps #target ♬ original sound – Gain&Motivation
After DeLaney posted her TikTok, a college student commented to say that she is the girl from Target.
The girl didn’t respond to a direct message sent via TikTok Friday morning.
“I love you for being there,” she wrote.
DeLaney replied, “You’re more than welcome. I would do it all over again.”
“You are an angel from god,” the girl wrote in response. “I swear this women everyone deserve the world.”
People in the comments agree.
“It takes us to save us,” one woman wrote.
Another said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man intervene in this type of situation. It’s always a woman who immediately jumps into action.”
DeLaney didn’t respond to an email sent Friday morning.
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