A woman shopping at her local Walmart noticed two men taking photos of her, setting off alarms in her head. That’s because the men had “ear pieces, no buggy, and no actual items from the store,” letting her know that they were only there for her.
In a now-removed video with over 491,000 views, Callyn Jo, a mother, explained how she noticed something was off at her local Walmart. Three Sprinter vans were parked together outside, and two men seemed to follow her inside the store.
Alarm bells set off in her head, but nothing entirely suspicious had happened quite yet. Then, she explained in her TikTok how the men followed her around the store from aisle to aisle.
“While I’m there, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna go pick up some meat for dinner’… I see one of them take a picture, and he caught me off guard,” Jo said. “And so I swung around really fast and he immediately puts his phone away and turns his shoulder.”
She tried to test their intentions by walking to a completely different aisle, but she noticed them trailing her there, too.
“I go down a random aisle, the makeup aisle, and I start playing with mascara… Sure enough, they did [follow],” she said. Completely set off, she decided to contact her husband. As soon as he arrived, the men “ran off.” From there, she and her husband made the decision to report the incident to Walmart security, who then suggested that she make a police report.
“ The store associate is like, ‘Let’s get security. We’re gonna walk you guys out….,'” she added. “By the time we got security involved, the guys had already fled and all three sprinter vans had left the parking lot.”
A sketchy situation
Many commenters echoed Jo’s discomfort at the situation, which made some feel conflicted about shopping at Walmart altogether.
Echoing the fear that a lot of women feel while traversing public spaces, a viewer added, “Our cemeteries are filled with women who gave ‘the benefit of the doubt,’” a true statement considering the risk of human trafficking, which preys on marginalized and vulnerable communities.
Viewers claimed that incidents such as this one happen at “every Walmart.” They claimed it’s not worth shopping at the mega stores for that reason. In a reply, Jo emphasized that she delivers or picks up her groceries now for that reason.
Some viewers suggested checking store security footage. One commenter added, “The cops should check cameras in the parking lot.”
Jo responded and explained that it wouldn’t be possible: “Long process to get camera access from an establishment and since they didn’t technically ‘do anything’ to me there wasn’t a case to be made so they couldn’t.”
Is it a trafficking incident?
Later, while speaking to the police, Jo started to gain some clarity on the incident. Based on everything she described and despite being in a nicer part of town, police officers thought there was a chance that it could have resulted in a trafficking incident.
A police officer reportedly told her that, “trafficking is more prevalent in areas where moms feel safe, ’cause they let their guard down.”
Toward the end of her video, she offered advice considering how scary her encounter was: “I don’t tell the story to scare you, but to just say like, moms trust your gut. If something feels off, it probably is. And if you can help it, try not to shop alone.”
The Mary Sue has reached out to Jo via TikTok direct message and Walmart’s press line for more information.
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