By Diane C. Lore
Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) A Michigan woman is sharing her message regarding women’s safety via social media. Her message has gone viral on Facebook with more than 100,000 shares in less than a week.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.
A Michigan woman’s warning to her peers about staying safe in large dark parking lots has gone viral on social media.
Ashley Hardacre said she was leaving her job at the mall when she says she saw a dark-colored plaid flannel shirt wrapped around the windshield wiper of her car.
But wary of putting herself at risk in the dark, deserted parking lot, the 19-year-old woman didn’t pause to remove it.
Instead she got in the car, locked the doors and drove away.
Now she’s encouraging others in similar situations to follow her example in a message that has gone viral on Facebook with more than 100,000 shares in less than a week.
“There were two cars near me and one was running so I immediately felt uneasy and knew I couldn’t get out to get it off,” Hardacre explained in the post.
“Luckily, I knew better than to remove the shirt with cars around me so I drove over to a place where I was safe and quickly rolled down my window and got the shirt off.”
Hardacre later told CBS News that her mother had warned her of people trying to trick women into leaving their cars in the dark, and said, “A lot of people think it is fake or it won’t happen to them. But you can never be too safe.”
Hardacre said she posted the photo to warn others, adding that “it can happen to anyone.”
