This Girl’s Harrowing Facebook Post About How Kidnappers Could Be Luring Women Out Of Cars Is Terrifying

Ashley Hardacre had a terrifying experience this last week, a victim of an attempted kidnapping by men who surely had nefarious intentions.

She shared about the experience in a viral Facebook post because she thought it was essential that everyone knew the freaky tactics kidnappers are using to try to lure women out of the safety of their cars, and into their clutches.

Ashley works at a mall in Flint, Michigan. After finishing a closing shift, she walked out with her co-workers and got into her car. Unfortunately, that’s when she realized something was on her windshield. Here’s the rest of her story:

The flannel was totally wrapped around her windshield wipers, meaning that it wasn’t just discarded there by a random person. It was meant to be super inconvenient so that someone would have to get out of their car and remove it. 

Here’s a picture of the flannel that Ashley snapped from the inside of her car:

Ashley Hardacre / Facebook

Just reading that story and seeing that picture makes me gut drop. What would have happened to Ashely if she hadn’t known about this terrifying tactic, or if she hadn’t walked out of the mall alongside her co-workers?

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time stories like this have emerged. In the summer of 2016 there was a flurry of reports about rings or other valuables being put on women’s windshields to coax them out of the car to retrieve the “gift.”

Source: via Snopes

While police have historically expressed skepticism about some of these stories — they tend to be inconsistent with the typical profile of human traffickers — there’s no reason to not be extra careful. Doubtlessly, there’s some dodgy shit in the world, so always put your safety first.