Her account is scary - but it's a necessary warning for adult women and young girls in Rochester to heed.

I'll be honest with you guys. Stories like this scare me.

Apache Mall via Facebook
Apache Mall via Facebook
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I want to begin by writing that as of this moment, no official investigation has been launched into these matters. The woman who told the story is just happy that she and her daughter are safe.

She wrote on Facebook yesterday,

This afternoon I was shopping at Apache mall with my 7 year old daughter and a man began to follow us. At first I paid him no attention because its the mall and you're allowed to walk there. But, we entered Macy's where I needed to return an item. My daughter and I took a very meandering path through the cosmetics department. This whole time a big white male was very close behind us talking loudly on a cell phone. I started to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I realized that he never stopped talking, giving a person on the other end of the phone a turn to speak. He wasn't having a conversation; he was just talking.

 

As we got to the purse department and he continued to walk right with us I got really uncomfortable. Luckily I had my daughter by the hand just because we like holding hands. When he started to look at the sparkly purses you only buy to match an evening gown, I knew. I wasn't being paranoid. He was a predator. He lingered behind a rack of purses while I did my return. My daughter tried to step away from me to look at something... I didn't want to let go so I just said really loudly, "No, I'm not letting go of you right now because I don't like how closely that man is following us." We finished our transaction and the man disappeared. At this point full on mama bear instincts took over and adrenaline was rushing. I kept my daughter by my side, made her crawl in our van through the front seat so I could guard her the whole way into the locked vehicle.
I realize now that I should have called mall security even if I felt crazy or if my gut was wrong. It was stupid not to let security know, if not for me, to protect the next woman and child.

The moral of her account is that we all should be more aware of our surroundings. She trusted her gut. Trust yours. She goes on to detail a description of the man, but since no official investigation has been launched, we'll leave that to police to disclose when/if this is reported. We're also protecting her name until that time - however, some of you may have seen this post already.

If you feel unsafe, call for a security escort. They provide them. Use them. Speak up. Report whatever you might find suspicious, and let security/police handle it from there.

Trust your gut.

 

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