If you see a plastic water bottle on your car hood, here’s the creepy thing it might mean

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.