Arizona woman notices an old man following her inside Dollar Tree, gets mortified after seeing what he picked up from the aisles: ‘I am sick’
I’d be so awkward.
We all want to be left alone while browsing the discount aisles for household bargains. But what if an unfamiliar stranger decides to trail your steps across multiple sections? Suddenly, the ordinary shopping run devolves into an uncomfortable game of cat and mouse.
For Arizona creator Alexis Simone, a content creation outing at Dollar Tree took an unsettling turn when an elderly shopper allegedly began shadowing her movements. In a candid TikTok storytime video, Simone broke down the bizarre encounter that sent her marching straight out the doors.
An old man reportedly began invasively hovering in the cosmetics section around Simone. But soon enough, his remarks and an eye-widening purchase left her thoroughly creeped out. Unsolicited stalking and boundary-crossing behavior like such create severe discomfort for solo shoppers like Simone in everyday stores. “Normally, if it was like a little old man, I’d be so nice… Grandpa gave me the freaks, that’s all I got to say,” Simone shared.
An old man shadowed Simone through the discount aisles
Simone explained that she was wandering through the store filming horizontal video clips for an upcoming project. She was alone, minding her business while testing angles and showcasing products. However, she soon noticed that an elderly man was perpetually loitering just behind her, matching her route down several consecutive aisles.
While browsing the cosmetics section, she felt the stranger step directly into her personal space. Turning around, she watched him pause, turn back, and initiate an unsolicited conversation about her phone. “He looks at me, and he’s like… ‘Is that something I need to know? You know, like shopping with your phone?’ And I was like, ‘No, I’m recording something.'”
After receiving her curt response, the stranger looked Simone up and down before continuing down the lane. Simone allegedly saw him move toward a store employee who was busy stocking shelves. He reportedly asked the worker where to return an item he no longer wanted. As he walked back past Simone, he allegedly made an unprompted remark longing for his youth.
“When he passed me, he’s like, ‘Oh, I miss being young,’ or like, something about being young,” Simone recalled. She noted that the unsolicited comment raised her internal alarms even further. However, the final straw came minutes later.
The old man was holding an unsettling shelf selection
Glancing back down the aisle, Simone watched in horror as the old man allegedly grabbed personal lubricant off the shelf, openly carrying the product around the store. “As I’m like continuing to like go down aisles, I swear to God that guy got like—lube. He purchased lube off the shelf, or like is walking around with it off the Dollar Tree shelf,” Simone claimed.
Mortified by the entire sequence of events, Simone clapped her hands and wrapped up her video. She also jokingly pleaded with viewers to keep their elderly relatives at home. “You need to keep your grandpas at home I am sick,” she shared in her caption. If an old man in the aisles makes you feel uncomfortable, trust your gut, keep your distance, and head straight for the checkout.
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