A pregnant Melbourne woman has issued a warning on her Facebook page after being stalked by a “deviant” stranger at her local shopping centre.
Jennifer Price, 25, who is nine months pregnant, was doing some last minute shopping for her baby girl.
She was flicking through baby books at Target, in Westfield Southland when she noticed a man watching her at a distance.
Jennifer Price with her partner. Source: Facebook
"I kept looking down flicking through the book I was looking at and kept seeing this guy in the corner of my eyes in the store just roaming about on his own from a near distance continuously watching me," she wrote on Facebook.
He kept it up for around 10 to 15 minutes before approaching her, leaning in closely and saying "excuse me".
"That's the part that left me most upset, that he had no issues with following me and leering in for me in such an open place," she added in a comment.
"The fact that he was looking at me like prey and had something obviously going on in his head that he was oblivious to his own actions and behaviour.
Price later told the Herald Sun: "I asked for more staff to come as at this point I was so scared because of his demeanour; it was really scary and deviant."
Read the post in full here:
A female staff member stayed by her side until the man was gone, confiding he had been "lurking" around other pregnant women and asking to touch their bellies.
Price asked to be escorted from the store and security staff were notified and will check for any CCTV footage of the incident.
"I felt so unsafe, really targeted and concerned for what might happen if I wasn't with anyone else."
She described the man as in his mid-30s, around 170cm and with a small frame.
He was dressed in fluorescent yellow trade work wear and a black beanie.
A number of other women also came foward with similar stories after Price shared her post in a Facebook mother's group.
"This guy approached me in Big W in Southland back in February when I was pregnant," one woman wrote.
"He cornered me in a quiet isle and was kissing my stomach and asking me to take photos of it until I pretty much [bowled] him over to get away from him.
She said she felt "extremely violated".
A second woman said Price's description matched "exactly" with a man who had followed her and her son around the centre, although she was not pregnant at the time.
"He followed she down every isle (sic) of was suddenly in the next isle (sic)," she wrote.
"He grabbed my son at one point said he was just making sure he didn’t run off."
Since writing the post, Price has contacted the police.
Feature image: Wikipedia
Top Comments
Why didn't Target call the police, or at least have security remove him from the store???
Maybe there was no proof that he did anything illegal. Most ppl don't outright accuse other ppl of being a criminal or even just a creep. Innocent until proven guilty...
They still have the right to remove him from their property if he is disturbing their customers.
And the police are often called when there is suspicious behaviour. He was intimidating people and acting strangely.
Honestly, it sounds like there may be mental health issues, but in any case, it's not good for business to allow your customers to put in an uncomfortable situation
I find this particularly distressing as I'm frequently at Southland. For this to happen inside the shopping centre, in such a large & popular store, further angers me as the centre partially switches off the lifts after most of the shops close, but other shops are still open later. If you are parked on levels 2 or 3 you cannot use the lift to get back up to your car & have to find an alternate way back to your car - usually outside the centre & there is rarely security staff in the areas they expect you to use to go back to your car. You can have all the good intentions in the world of getting back to your car before the 'switch off' time, but we all know any number of things can hold you up, especially with young kids in tow! I would HATE to hear of anything like this happening to someone outside the centre while no security are around & if this can happen during busy shopping hours this just proves the point I keep ranting about every time I have to walk up outside ramps or use out side escalators to get back top my car. They're happy for you to spend your money there, but they're not happy to care for your safety simply because most shops are closed. It's disgusting!