A woman is issuing a warning to women everywhere after a terrifying experience at Walmart left her in tears. Perhaps the only reason this woman was able to share her warning was because of a “sweet soul” who happened to be at the right place at the right time.
In a clip posted on Saturday, Lanae (@lanae__marie) tells the story from inside of her car as she tries to hold back tears. According to the TikToker, she was shopping at Walmart when she felt a man “run up on [her]” and nearly run into her. The man looked away when Lanae turned but purportedly kept following her from aisle to aisle in the back corner of the store.
Then Lanae spotted another shopper.
“She’s on her phone and I’m praying, ‘Please look up. Please look up,’” Lanae says.
The woman looked up.
Lanae wasted no time mouthing to the woman that the man is following her.
“She goes, ‘I know,’” Lanae recalls. The woman then used a tried-and-true tactic women everywhere have had to employ at least once: pretend to know the woman in danger.
“She comes up to me and she goes, ‘How have you been? I haven’t seen you in a really long time,’” Lanae says the woman told her.
The woman hugged Lanae and told her she noticed the man had been following her two aisles ago. She then turned and asked the man, “Can we help you?” which Lanae says led to him screaming at them.
It doesn’t stop there
Lanae says she decided to go to the electronics section to find an employee and report the man. But as soon as she does so, the man is once again behind her. She describes the man to the employee and at this point, they walk her out of the store, the whole time with the man nearby.
She says the workers were going to call the cops and have him escorted.
“I just wanted to get out of there,” Lanae says. She concludes her video by being grateful that another woman was able to recognize the “fear in her eyes” and play along, essentially saving her from whatever hidden agenda the Walmart creep had.
In a follow-up TikTok responding to a commenter who told her she should’ve screamed, Lanae explains that the incident was a “30-minute ordeal.” As for why she didn’t scream, Lanae says her body went in fight-or-flight mode and chose the latter, and having never experienced something like this before left her wanting to simply vacate the premises.
Why are men following women around stores?
Unfortunately, stories like Lanae’s aren’t uncommon. In a story the Mary Sue previously covered, a woman caught a man following a young woman around Target. The scenario was so intense, the woman offered to escort the young lady to her babysitting jo, and a security guard had to stand behind the man’s car so he wouldn’t follow her.
In another viral clip, a woman was shopping at Walmart when she felt a man following her. She also had to have a worker walk her to her car, where he told her that this situation had occurred at least “three times” over the past month.
@lanae__marie Ladies, please always be aware of your surroundings. This has to be one of the scariest things to ever happen to me and I’m pretty sure I will have nightmares for weeks of his face. ##fyp##ladies##beware##walmart ♬ original sound – MamaLanae
What should you do if you feel like someone is following you in a store?
If you begin to feel unsafe while shopping or feel like someone is following you, your first step can be to alert store personnel. However, if there are none to be found–as was in Lanae’s case–the best course of action can be to move to a well-lit area or try to find other shoppers and let them know that you feel unsafe, and if they can help. If no one is around to help, don’t hesitate to call 911 and report the situation.
A WREG article recommended using a shopping cart to either defend yourself or put distance between yourself and the person following you.
An expert the outlet interviewed shared some other safety tips, which included:
- Rely on the buddy system, try to shop with a family member or friend
- Ask your family member or friend to watch your back as you place bags in your car
- Report problems to a store manager
- Ask for an employee to escort you to your vehicle
The Mary Sue reached out to Lanae via TikTok direct message and to Walmart via web contact form.
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