Over the last few years, social media has been flooded with concerns about predators identifying potential victims by tagging automobiles. Some of these measures are said to involve zip ties on door handles, plastic water bottles stuck in a hub cab, or sitting on the hood.
Though officials claim that these messages are only “urban legends,” it is nonetheless advisable to empower oneself with knowledge.
Following a weird contact with a stranger in a parking lot, a TikTok member is now concerning others about perilous circumstances using “kidnapper tactics.”
Haley West recounts that after doing her shopping, she was returning to her vehicle, which was parked in the lot of a Cincinnati supermarket.
As she approached her car, a guy screamed at her.
She said on TikTok, “I’m literally shaking right now because the weirdest s**t just happened to me.” I’m leaving Fresh Thyme and parked in this large parking lot.” She goes on to describe the incident: “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?’ and I just ignored him, and I kept walking and he just kept following me.”
Ignoring him didn’t work, and he kept following her through the parking lot.
“This dude came up to my car and says, ‘Come look out my car, it’s wonderful, it’s a Lexus, do you like it?’ Like it’s my car, but I didn’t respond since it would have revealed that it’s my car, which I believe he already knows.
Instead of getting into her car, West explains she went across the street – shopping bags still in her arms – until it was safe to return to her vehicle.
When she got to her car, she saw a water bottle sitting on top of the hood.
She said, “I don’t know if the two correlate, but it’s never happened to me…I gotta get out of here.”
Before pointing out “Harpers Point, Cincinnati,” she adds, “I just wanted to highlight that you should always be mindful of your surroundings, especially if you’re a woman. “Be careful out there.”
After her video went viral, the woman followed up with a response from a viewer.
In a now-deleted video, the user wa:rns of a dark motive for the bottle on her car’s hood.
“This is a tactic used by traffickers and kidnappers to get you to exit your vehicle…If you have this happen and something is on the hood of your car when you come back to it, leave it there, drive away it’ll fall off on its own.”
Urban legends
In fact, following a viral post about a zip tie drug trap, Michigan State Police issued an advice against disinformation on social media.
“It’s similar to an urban legend or scare-lore. Lt. Brian Oleksyk told WILX10 that the objective is just to intimidate people. Speaking about other hoaxes, such as a flannel shirt on a car’s windshield or an elastic band around the side mirror, Oleksyk claims that fraudsters do not inform their victims.
“This is not the way it’s done…””They rarely prey on strangers,” he claimed. “It slows down our investigation of genuine crimes. We must establish that it is a bogus deception with no substance.”