A Wisconsin woman hopes to warn others after a frightening encounter she said she had at a Kenosha beach last week.
Haley Oscar wrote on Facebook that she was tanning along the lakefront when a man approached her and started a conversation.
The man began by asking her about her tattoos, but Oscar said “that’s not the freaky part.”
That’s when she writes he began asking strange questions, like “do you have a lot of people who care about you?” and “do you have good credit?” and even “how far of a walk is it from here to where you live?”
The man told Oscar he was from Waukegan and was at the lake by himself. Though she ignored him and asked him to leave her alone, she said the questions continued.
“I was terrified to stand up and go to my car because 1. It's a lot easier to grab someone standing up than it is laying down and 2. Because I didn't want him to know what car I drove or to follow me home,” she wrote.
It wasn’t until Oscar’s friend called her that she says the man “practically ran away.”
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Still, she claims he continued to circle the area for several minutes before leaving entirely.
“Please be careful ladies, if you go to the lake alone make sure someone knows where you are and bring protection!” Oscar wrote. “I don't think a man has EVER made me that uncomfortable and scared for my safety.”
Her post was shared more than 8,800 times in the days following.
Kenosha police did not immediately respond to a request for comment surrounding the incident, but have reported on numerous abduction attempts in the area.
Last month, the department said it was called to a Buffalo Wild Wings for an abduction attempt involving two men in a pickup truck, possibly armed.
Hours later, a woman was taken from Milwaukee to Kenosha County, where she was assaulted and left on the side of the road, NBC affiliate TMJ4 reports. A suspect in that case was reportedly arrested soon after near Louisville, Kentucky.
According to the station, the mayor of Kenosha said police are increasing patrols in the area where Oscar was confronted. A detective who specializes in sex trade investigations with the Kenosha County Sheriff has also been in contact with Oscar, she said.
