Yesterday my girls and I went to Smiths in the morning to pick up some snacks for our drive to Wallsburg. Just going about our business... picking out drinks, crackers, and then the candy aisle. A man followed us down the candy aisle (for all I know he may have been following us before that, but this is when we first noticed him.) Brittany moved the girls out of the way and told him to go ahead. He stopped right next to them and said "it's okay I'm looking at this." Seemed kind of weird, but the girls caught up with me and we continued.
Next we needed to get a juice box for Sydney. Juice is in an aisle at the OPPOSITE end of the store. We head down there looking for the juice boxes and suddenly the same man comes walking down THAT aisle, slowly passes us and stands right next to us looking at the diet drink mixes (Crystal Light and such, he did not seem like the Crystal Light drinking type.) Brittany and I looked at each other, thinking the same thing... this is getting creepy. I moved the little girls to the other side of me while I quickly grabbed the juice and we left.
We went to a checkstand and Brit kept an eye out for the guy. He lingered around the self checkout looking a bread and stuff while we waited in line at a different checkstand. Then as we were paying, he went through the self checkout. So as we left the store, HE FOLLOWED US OUT! As we hurried and got in the car he said, "I promise I'm not stalking you." Maybe he wasn't, and maybe it was a complete coincidence, but this was an eye opener for me and a good lesson for the girls.
As close as he was hanging around, if I had let Madi look at something at the other end of an aisle like she does sometimes, he could have had her around the corner and gone in a matter of seconds, while I read a label or something.
Had I been thinking, I would have gone down the diaper or feminine hygiene aisle to see what would happen, even snapped a pic with my phone, or took down his license plate # (since he was parked right next to us.) But we just wanted to hurry out of there!
I will admit, when I hear about kids being abducted in stores, I tend to think... "the parents should watch their kids better." Well, from now on I will be watching my kids a bit closer and have talked to the big ones about keeping the little ones close if they are out together.
Buddy system, holding hands, all that good stuff that my mom taught us kids is very important for all kids to follow at all times. Maybe this guy wasn't a creep, just weird, but there are creeps out there, so be careful! Life as we know it can change in an instant.
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