A 17-year-old mother said she went through a frightening encounter with a stranger while running errands alone at a Walmart parking lot. She shared the story in a TikTok video posted under the handle @its_sofyrodriguez, using the on-screen caption “walmart incident story time! *long story*” The woman, who goes by Sofy, said in the video that she had gone to Walmart alone with her one-year-old son while her boyfriend was at work. She said she wanted to buy ingredients for a hair mask and decided to film the trip for content. Sofy said she parked toward the back of the Walmart lot after finding no open spots near the entrance. She said a black truck was already parked nearby, with a man standing outside it, though she said she initially “didn’t think nothing of it.” Sofy says the man watched her from a distance and later approached her car Sofy said in the video that as she took her son out of the car and placed him in a shopping cart, she felt the man staring at her. “You can feel when someone is staring at you,” she said, adding that she kept looking back and noticed he was still watching her. Similar parking lot incidents can lead to misunderstandings, like when a comedian helping someone in Ohio had police called on him. @its_sofyrodriguez what happened to me at walmart! ladies please be careful even if you don’t think it’s that serious it is that serious and people are weird and crazy!! it’s always good to take precaution #foryou #foryoupage #storytime #scary #walmart ♬ original sound – sofy ♡ She said the man approached her as she walked toward the store and told her, “Your lights are still on on your car.” Sofy said she found the comment odd since her car’s exterior lights would have shut off automatically once locked. She said she had left an interior light on because she had been filming, something the man could not have seen from outside. Sofy said she brushed off the interaction and continued into the store, though she said she still felt like the man was staring at her as she walked away. She said she did not notice anyone following her once she was inside Walmart, since she “wasn’t looking out for that” at the time. After paying for her items, Sofy said she exited the store and saw the man standing at her car rather than his own. She said he appeared to run back to his truck once he noticed her walking toward her vehicle. “I don’t know what he did to my car. I don’t know if he did anything, but obviously immediately I’m scared,” she said. Sofy said she did not get into her car right away and instead called her mother, whom she described as “trained for this” kind of situation. She said her mother advised her to walk back into the store and stay near other people, and then contacted Sofy’s uncle, a former member of the military, to come to the location. According to Sofy, her uncle told her to eventually get into her car and drive toward his house instead of her own, in case she was being followed, so he could check the vehicle for tracking devices or other tampering. She said she stayed on a three-way call with her mother and uncle throughout the process. Sofy said that when she started driving away from Walmart, the man’s truck also began moving, and she noticed another truck with a different man inside it leaving around the same time. She said she felt “shaky” during the drive to her uncle’s house. Once there, she said her uncle checked her car and found nothing out of the ordinary. Sofy said she has not seen the trucks or the men again since the incident. She said she never called the police because she did not think the situation felt serious enough at the time, though she said she still chose to take precautions. Similar caution has led other women to recount frightening encounters with strangers, like a Boston woman who went bowling with a man she met at Home Depot. “I have no idea what they were trying to do, if they were trying to do anything,” Sofy said, adding that she would not necessarily describe it as being followed through the store, but that the situation felt “very creepy” and “very unsettling.” Sofy said the experience felt especially frightening given that she was alone with her young child. “It definitely was something really scary experience, and I’m just so glad nothing like worse happened,” she said. In the video’s caption, Sofy urged other women to remain cautious in similar situations. “ladies please be careful even if you don’t think it’s that serious it is that serious and people are weird and crazy!! it’s always good to take precaution,” she wrote. The video drew a large response in the comments section, with many users sharing their own safety tips. One commenter suggested Sofy check her license plate area for tracking devices, while another user referenced an AirTag as a possible concern. Other commenters discussed whether police involvement would have been useful, given that Sofy did not get identifying information about the man or his vehicle.