She went to Walmart to buy her daughter’s shoes. Then, a man secretly watched her while she browsed the aisles: ‘Pay attention to your surroundings’

Katie Chikova (@katiechik) shared her unsettling shopping experience at Walmart on TikTok. She went to a branch to return a couple of items and to shop for her daughter’s shoes when a man started tailing her from the shadows.

“Today, something extremely scary happened to me. And it happened to me at Walmart, a weekday, at 11 o’clock in the morning,” Chikova told TikTok. She planned to get shoes for her daughter because they were going to take family photos. While she was in the women’s clothing section of Walmart, Chikova said she kept seeing a man she presumed was at least ten years older than her.

“He kept walking by very slowly. He didn’t have anything, and he just kept very pointedly looking at me,” Chikova alleged. He didn’t try to approach her, unlike this woman who had a similarly unsafe encounter at Target. Regardless, Chikova kept her guard up, and when the man hovered over her a third time, she was alarmed. She explained that the women’s and children’s clothing are near each other, and the men’s clothing is on the other side of Walmart.

“So, there’s not really a reason for him to be over in the women and children’s clothing, unless he was looking at women or children’s clothing. Which I’m not saying that he can’t, but he wasn’t,” Chikova alleged. Instead, she argued that the man kept walking along the walkway and kept circling her. After it happened for a third time, Chikova said she made eye contact with the man and shot him a dirty look. He wasn’t deterred and just smiled at her, teeth out.

He kept following her through Walmart

“I’m looking around and trying to figure out where he’s going,” she said. Chikova went to the shoe aisle and saw a Walmart employee putting stuff away. After getting away from the man, she continued shopping. Chikova said she crouched down and compared the shoes she brought with her to one of the shoes. When she got up, Chikova said she saw the man again. She tried to avoid him, but Chikova said he kept tailing her.

“And he is like, following me all over the store, and he’s not trying to hide it,” Chikova alleged. Alarmed by the man’s behavior, she called her husband and asked him to stay on the phone with her because a stranger was following her through Walmart. She reached the self-checkout aisle and described the man to her husband.

She doesn’t know why he kept following her around

As she looked around for him, Chikova found him standing about two feet away from her. He had a bag with him for checkout, and Chikova believes he was waiting for her to leave. She assumed something could go wrong, so she went up to a worker and reported the man, telling them he was following her.

When Chikova told them about the man, she said he ran to the exit on the other side of the store. Following the incident, Chikova said Walmart called its undercover security. She commented, “They took it very, very seriously.” Chikova said they took her to the office to identify the man. After reviewing the security footage, Chikova said the situation was worse than she thought.

“He was like, hiding places, and looking for me while I was in the store,” Chikova claimed. When she crouched down to compare shoes, she alleged the man started looking for her. But when he left the store, Chikova said he didn’t leave the area immediately.

“After I went up to the workers, he actually sat in his car, which was like, facing the exit, for over ten minutes,” she alleged. Chikova also advised, “Pay attention to your surroundings.” She couldn’t discern the man’s intentions, but she left the encounter unharmed. Chikova also thanked Walmart for taking her report seriously. But not all uncomfortable shoppers get the help they need from staff, and a man at the grocery store cornered this woman from Los Angeles until she gave him her number.

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