“This is a reminder to always check your surroundings. ‘Cause you hear these stories and you think ‘That will never happen to me’… It happened to me today.”
That’s the alarming opening to a video from TikTok influencer Gabrielle Moses in which she reveals that she had just experienced something terrifying, something that seems far-fetched and unlikely to happen in your everyday life — but which Gabrielle’s story makes abundantly clear certainly can.
Gabrielle was driving around, running some errands, when something peculiar occurred at a stoplight. A car in the lane next to hers was honking a lot in a bid to get her attention. Once she looked over, the driver pointed at the vehicle behind Gabrielle in her lane; a white U-Haul van with no front license plate.
Now alerted to the van’s presence, Gabrielle took a few turns in order to test if the other vehicle was following her, and sure enough it was. A quick Google told her the nearest police station wasn’t anywhere close, so an anxious Gabrielle decided to go to the busiest place nearby — a Costco.
Freaking out by now, Gabrielle lingered in Costco in the hopes that the van driver would get bored and leave her alone. At least 35 minutes later, however, the van was still there, circling the parking lot and clearly trying to locate Gabrielle’s car. Filming the evidence, she finally called 911 and the dispatcher offered to send officers out to investigate. By this time, though, Gabrielle had lost sight of the van and it appeared to have driven away.
Going by Gabrielle’s follow-up videos, she didn’t see the van or its driver again, but her story serves as a valuable list of do’s and don’t’s in case anyone else finds themselves in this situation. As many pointed out, Gabrielle really should’ve called the cops straight away once she got to Costco. In an follow-up, however, she admits that initially she thought she might’ve been imagining or worrying too much about the situation.
Many commenters also encouraged Gabrielle to get her car checked over, in case the van driver had AirTagged it while she was inside Costco. Unfortunately the police were slow in checking up on her, but at the great advice of a friend, Gabrielle went to the fire department instead so they could help her out. Luckily, they didn’t see anything.
What’s more, it also helps that Gabrielle drives a Tesla, so any footage of anyone that gets too close to the car is recorded. Again, this didn’t reveal anything sinister in the Costco parking lot, but Gabrielle stated that she was planning to take her car to a mechanic the next day to give it one final check-over.
As an ultimate, and very intelligent, precaution, Gabrielle explained that she wasn’t going to spend the night at her apartment, having a friend pick her up so the car would remain there. Another precaution Gabrielle could’ve taken was pointed out in the comments: “NEVER TURN ON THE LIGHTS IN YOUR APARTMENT WHEN YOU 1ST GET HOME. If you’re ever followed they’ll watch to know which place is yours.”
While a god-send of a gadget for those looking for lost luggage, Apple AirTags have sadly become irrevocably related to more nefarious purposes too. As per ITV News in April 2024, incidents of GPS tracking in stalking cases have risen 317% over the past five years, thanks to the leaps forward in technology. In this case, Gabrielle is thankfully safe, but her final warning is one that everyone should bear in mind: “Ladies, watch your back and know how to protect yourself.”