An LA woman’s routine afternoon errand at Target reportedly took an unsettling turn when she noticed something suspicious in the parking lot. While she initially passed it off as paranoia, the two men were allegedly coordinating their positions across the property painfully obviously. TikTok creator Tali (@talierutman) recounted the alleged experience in a video that has drawn thousands of views. After parking her car, she reportedly spotted a vehicle and a lingering onlooker outside, only to walk inside and find a second individual waiting right at the entrance. The unusual positioning left Tali questioning whether she was witnessing an organized setup or merely overthinking awkward public encounters. With no easy way to avoid the exit, she says she spent her shopping trip calculating the safest way to get back to her car without walking the lot alone. Lingering stares in the parking lot raised immediate red flags for Tali The unease reportedly began the moment Tali pulled into an open stall outside the big-box retailer. Her attention immediately drifted toward a nearby van that she felt bore an uncanny resemblance to the abduction vehicle from the horror film The Black Phone. @talierutman stay safe #storytime #fyp #scaryexperiences #foryoupage #story ♬ original sound – tali While Tali initially laughed off the cinematic comparison to herself, the mood shifted sharply when she caught sight of a man standing nearby in the lot. Rather than going about his business, the stranger allegedly kept his eyes locked on her well past the point of casual public observation. Like any solo shopper trying to rationalize uncomfortable moments, she tried to shrug off the stare as harmless weirdness. “Then I noticed like a guy in the parking lot, and he’s like looking at me like a little bit longer than I feel like is like socially acceptable to be looking at somebody. But I’m like, okay, like whatever. Maybe my a is out, I don’t know.” Tali’s assumption that the interaction was an isolated coincidence evaporated the second she pushed past the sliding glass doors. Just inside the door, she reportedly saw a second man standing without a cart or basket, who also immediately made direct eye contact with her. An interior lookout allegedly kept watch right by the store’s doors The second man then allegedly turned his gaze out the glass toward the exact area of the lot where the first man was lingering. Trying to dismiss the suspicion that the two were communicating, Tali grabbed her items and attempted to finish her run, hoping the man would be gone by the time she wrapped up. However, when she circled back to check the front of the store, the man had reportedly not moved an inch. He remained anchored by the exit doors, actively monitoring shoppers as they exited into the parking lot. “He was literally still there,” she recounted. “He was watching the people as they were leaving. It was weird. It just made me feel like really, really nervous. I felt like I was just actually very, very uneasy.” Realizing she had to walk past the same exit to reach her car, Tali decided against making the walk across the asphalt alone. She explained that she lingered near the registers until she spotted two families walking out together, quickly falling into stride behind the group to use the crowd as cover. As she slipped past the doorway, the man by the glass allegedly made brief eye contact with her once more before she cleared the building. With the coast somewhat clearer, she made a direct beeline to her vehicle, locked the doors immediately, and drove away without spotting the initial stranger from the lot. It is easy to second-guess yourself in moments like this and write off gut feelings as unnecessary paranoia, especially when nothing overt happens. But when two strangers are loitering at opposite sides of a retail entrance watching shoppers come and go, taking extra precautions is the smart thing to do.