Woman warns TikTok about alleged 'kidnapper tactic' that she almost fell for: 'I'm so tired of being scared'

A woman on TikTok is warning others about a potential kidnapping tactic that was allegedly used on her in a supermarket parking lot.

Haley West trusted her instincts when a man approached her in a parking lot in Cincinnati. She recorded the aftermath and uploaded it to TikTok as a PSA for viewers.

“I’m literally shaking right now, the weirdest s*** just happened to me,” West said at the beginning of her video.

She went on to explain that she was leaving the grocery store when she noticed a man walking close to her.

“You could tell that he was staring at me while he was walking,” she said. “He yells over to me, ‘Hey what’s your name?'”

West ignored the man and kept walking, but the man continued following her. Then, the man walked right up to West’s car and asked West to come “check out his car.”

“I didn’t react to that because that would’ve given away that it’s my car, although I think he already knows,” West said. “But I went across the street to this TJ Maxx and I sat there for a while and got help.”

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But when she came out of TJ Maxx there was a half-full water bottle sitting on her car’s hood.

“I don’t know if the two correlate but that’s never happened to me,” she added. “Be aware of your surroundings at all times, especially if you’re a woman. Be careful out there.”

After West’s video went viral, another TikToker named Elle Ess replied to the video by claiming that finding a water bottle on the hood of your car can have sinister implications.

“This is a tactic used by traffickers and kidnappers to get you to exit your vehicle and take whatever is on top of the. car off,” Ess claimed. “If you have this happen and something is on the hood of your car when you come back to it, leave it there, dry away, it’ll fall off on its own.”

“I’m so tired of being scared,” one user commented.

“Sound advice like this will save lives,” another added.

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