Today I was at Target with my 3 year old daughter, and my sister. I’m 37 weeks pregnant and needed to buy a few last minute items like breast pads, nipple cream, etc. I was in the baby aisle and my daughter ran down the aisle playing around. I called for her to come back to me, and when I did I said her name. I called her name once and she came back to me right away. When I looked up to get her and put her in the shopping cart I noticed a lady following her into the aisle and looking at her. It made me uncomfortable but I didn’t think anything of it. She came up to me and asked “how old is your daughter? About 3?” And when I didn’t answer she added “I’m only asking because my granddaughter is 3 and I’m looking for a new car seat for her.” I told her that she was right she just turned 3, but told her I couldn’t be of much help as the only car seat I had was one I was gifted at her baby shower, and it was a grow with me one. Plus she was kind of creeping me out, but her saying she was shopping for a grandkid kind of eased my mind. However she only looked maybe 50 at the oldest. Still I don’t like speaking to strangers at stores.

I went to find my sister so we wouldn’t be alone and went on with my shopping. Didn’t see the lady the rest of my time there. When it was time to pay there was a long line and I needed to pee. I took my daughter with me as it’d been a while since she last used the restroom. She peed first, and was waiting in the stall as I used the restroom. As I’m using the restroom she gets restless and starts crawling under the stall to get out. I call her by her name and tell her to stop. She’s already out the stall at that point so I hurry to wipe and pull my pants up. As I’m pulling my pants up not even five seconds later I hear someone call her by her name, and tell her to come here. At first I thought it was my sister but realized it wasn’t her voice so I immediately open the stall with my pants not even fully up. It’s the lady that had stopped me earlier. She was holding out some candy to my daughter. Luckily my daughter doesn’t take to strangers and was holding onto my stall door and didn’t go near her. As soon as she saw me she hurried out the restroom. I grabbed my daughter and without even washing my hands I went to the nearest security guard and described what happened.

Thankfully the security guard didn’t brush it off, and told me to wait. He asked someone to let me look at some security footage and I pointed out who the lady was. I waited half an hour and he came back to tell me after looking through footage they noticed that same lady had been there 3 times that day, and noticed she stopped other moms that were alone with their kids too. I had to stay a while to finish a report but it was worth it. They now have the security on alert for that woman and alerted authorities as well. Especially because this target is right across the street from a public park.

I’ve heard stories of things like this but never thought it’d happen to me first hand. So to all my mommies out there: be aware of your surroundings. It’s horrible, but we can’t even call our own children by their names in public places I guess. From now on I’ll never use her name in public and I’m seriously thinking of buying one of those kid leashes for her. Not because I can’t handle her, but because I’m scared for her safety. There are some seriously messed up people out there. Keep your babies safe !

Edit: For anyone wondering; this took place in SoCal in the city of Carson .