Woman Films How A Creep Left A Water Bottle On Her Car, Another Woman Explains It's A Tactic Used By Human Traffickers

Two women’s TikTok videos about staying safe are going viral and it’s quite shocking how scary the world can be at times. Haleywestco, aka Haley West, explained what happened to her outside a supermarket and it’s raising a lot of eyebrows.

In her video, Haley from Cincinnati details her incredibly weird interaction with a suspicious creepy guy who seemed like he was hitting on her while she was parked in her car. But he might have had very nefarious purposes in mind. Haley felt weirded out, so she went to a store to hide. When she came back, however, there was a water bottle perched on the hood of her car. Sounds innocent, right? Not so much.

Another TikTok user, Ellessb423, aka Elle, claimed that putting a water bottle on someone’s car is a tactic that some kidnappers and human traffickers use. She warned people not to get distracted and to leave the bottle be and to just drive off—the bottle will fall off on its own. How Elle knows about this tactic is on a lot of people's minds; she mentioned having been in contact with kidnapping and trafficking survivors and goes into more detail about this in her follow-up videos which you can find on her TikTok channel. Meanwhile, we've reached out to Haley to hear more about her situation.

Haley recounted what happened with the man: "I'm leaving Fresh Thyme and I'm parked in this big parking lot. This guy was walking like kind of close to me, kind of not, but you could tell he was, like, staring at me while he was walking, and he yells over to me like, 'Hey what's your name?'"

"This man walks right up to my car and he's like, 'Come check out my car, it's nice, it's a Lexus, you like it?' Like it's my car! Though, I didn't react to that, because that would have given away that it's my car, although I think he already knows."

That’s when Haley decided that she didn’t feel comfortable. She went to a nearby store, got some help, and made darn sure that the guy wasn’t in the parking lot anymore. "I then went across the street to this TJ Maxx. I got help, I made sure he wasn't still out here."

That’s when she saw the water bottle on the hood of her car. She warned everyone to be aware of their surroundings at all times.

"When I came back out there is a water bottle on my hood. I don't want that to correlate but that's never happened to me. I just wanted to say be aware of your surroundings at all times, especially if you're a woman, be careful out there."

Meanwhile, Elle explained what could be hidden behind Haley’s experience. “This is a tactic used by traffickers and kidnappers to get you to exit your vehicle and take whatever is on top of the car.”

Elle also suggested that, if you feel threatened, you should drive to a police station or even an auto-body shop so they can check to see if anyone’s attached a tracker to the bottom of your car.

"If you feel extremely threatened by a person who's following you, drive to a police station or an auto shop, they can look underneath your car and see if there are trackers there. Yes, believe it or not, GPS trackers can be put on the bottom of your car and they can give out your location for a certain amount of time. Never go straight home."

Now, that might sound a tad paranoid or even fantastical, but Elle pointed out that GPS trackers are a real thing (it’s not just something that we see in movies and on TV after all).

“Traffickers don't care how old you are, they don't care what you're wearing they don't care about your size, if they want you, they'll try to get you. Always be aware of your surroundings, try to go shop with a friend, I know it's hard during COVID, keep pepper spray or a protective device on you. Please stay safe,” Elle warned.

Previously, Bored Panda wrote about how some criminals leave messages around their potential victims’ homes. You can read about that right here.

Not all theories about kidnappers’ and criminals’ tactics are true, however, and some of them have been proven to be internet hoaxes. For instance, officers debunked the theories that zip-ties around safety mirrors or flannel shirts on the windshield are traffickers’ ways to distract their targets. The police pointed out that traffickers don’t warn their victims. That’s what makes them so dangerous.

What did you think of Haley and Elle’s videos, dear Pandas? Were you aware that some kidnappers and traffickers might use tactics like this? Have you ever had something like this happen to your car? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below.