PLAINFIELD — An Indianapolis woman told RTV6 she was shopping at a Plainfield Walmart with her daughters and their friends. She noticed a man following them throughout the entire store.
"I think if he had the opportunity. He would have grabbed them and been gone," Fordena Wilson said. "I don't feel safe going by myself anymore."
She said a man followed her as she was shopping at Walmart for a sleepover party. The incident happened just a few weeks ago.
"My daughter was showing me an outfit, and then we looked, and he was standing right next to her to the side," Wilson said. "I said, 'wow that guy is pretty close to her.' And told her to come hold onto the cart."
Wilson said it did not end there. The man - who didn't have a cart or any items - followed them to every section in the store. Eventually, Wilson said she confronted him.
"I just told him I had my mace. If he came in arms reach with my daughter's friend again, I was going to spray him with that," Wilson said. "We came around to the next aisle, and he was there again within arms reach."
The mother quickly alerted a Walmart employee of the situation.
"He said, 'Sir, why are you following these girls?' And he just ran as fast as he could."
While unsure of the man's intentions, Wilson immediately thought of the worst possible situation.
"I was just scared he was going to grab them. You hear about all the sex trafficking and stuff that's going on - that is the first thing that came to my mind," Wilson said.
According to the most recent statistics from the Indiana Attorney General's office, 178 trafficked youth were identified in 2016 alone. The youngest was 7-years-old.
Wilson is now making her daughters aware of the risks, to protect them.
"There are people in the world that wants to do harm. I felt like this guy was one of them," she said.
Police say Wilson did everything right. By alerting the manager and making sure they did not walk to the car alone.
RTV6 checked with Walmart's corporate communications team, and they always advise customers in this situation to file a police report. That way officers can review surveillance footage.
In this case, Wilson said she didn't think a crime was committed, so she did not file a report. Plainfield police aren't aware of any reports like this in recent months.
