Los Angeles teen got cornered by a man at a grocery store. He didn’t care that she was 17: ‘We can still be friends’
No predator hunted came to save her.
After the gym, Talie Rutman (@talierutman) from Los Angeles, California, stopped by the grocery store. She didn’t expect to run into an insistent man during her quick grocery run.
“I think I turned 18 a week before, and I just gone to the gym. I did not look cute, okay? I didn’t have my makeup done, nothing,” Rutman told TikTok. At the time, she said she wore a baggy T-shirt and leggings. She clarified, “Not that it matters, but a lot of people like to ask what you’re wearing.”
She needed more protein powder and decided to stop by the grocery. Rutman went to the back of the store for protein powder, and nobody else was around. At 8:00 p.m., a man approached Rutman and asked for help. She said he looked to be in his late 30s or early 40s.
“I’m not really one to talk to people in public, like, anybody,” Rutman said. She initially just ignored the man and pretended not to hear him. But then, the man allegedly got closer, and she could no longer pretend that she couldn’t hear him. Rutman acquiesced and asked him what he needed help with.
“I’ve just seen the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my life in my life. I need help,” he allegedly told her. Rutman told him she couldn’t help him, but he insisted. He allegedly continued, “She has the most beautiful blue eyes I’ve ever seen. I need your help.”
Rutman understood that he was talking about her, since there were no other women in the grocery store. She directly asked him if he was talking about her, and he allegedly replied, “Oh, you clever girl.” He kept complimenting her, then asked for her number.
No Chris Hansen to stop a predator in the grocery store
Rutman was afraid to say no. Even though some women refuse advances, they fear the possibility of a man becoming violent upon rejection. One woman, who claimed to have been assaulted in campus housing, alleged that her partner almost threw her out of his room, naked for others to see, after she rejected him. Rejecting a man, even in a public setting, was just as difficult for Rutman.
“I’m trying to think of an excuse that would get this guy away,” Rutman said. She ended up lying to the man, telling her that she was still 17. Rutman thought that if she told him she was a minor, he would leave her alone. Instead, the man allegedly told her, “Okay.” She emphasized that she was still a minor, but Rutman alleged that he didn’t care.
“Okay, well, we can still be friends,” she recalled the man’s words. She let out a nervous laugh and started looking around for someone to come around and help her out of her situation. Unfortunately, nobody came, and Rutman alleged that he pressured her into giving him her number.
She initially entered a fake number and gave the phone back to the man. But then, he allegedly warned, “You don’t wanna find out what’ll happen if this turns out to be a fake number.” Rutman eventually gave her real phone number. After that, the man allegedly said he was excited to “get to know her” better. Then he asked for her birthday, and she gave her real birthday. Rutman lied that she was turning 18 the following year, and he allegedly commented, “That’s a long time to wait.”
A dangerous brush with a strange man
When the man finally left her alone, she dropped her groceries and dashed out of the grocery store. She ran to her car and drove away, like a mother being chased out of a Target parking lot. Rutman got home, blocked the man’s number, and got away unscathed. She commented, “No, it’s not all men, but this is why women are so wary of men, right? Because you just don’t know.”
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