A Long Island woman said she and her best friend were left shaken after an employee at a Target store repeatedly banged on a bathroom door while they were inside, then gave her “the nastiest look” when she confronted him afterward.
TikTok user Kristinaa (@kriistiinaa4) shared the account in a recent video. She said the incident happened at a Target location on Long Island, though she did not name the specific store.
In her caption, she wrote, “do better please @target,” and used hashtags including #girlsbeaware, #scaryexperience, and #targetexperience.
Woman says man blocked the bathroom doorway after banging on the door
According to Kristinaa, she and her friend, identified only as Taylor, went to the Target to use the restroom. A man wearing an orange-yellow vest was standing outside the ladies’ bathroom and waved them in, which she took to mean it was clear to enter.
While the two were inside, they heard a loud banging noise, which stopped them from finishing at the sink. The noise happened again moments later, this time directly on the bathroom door as they reached for the handle to leave.
The banging was so loud and aggressive, Kristinaa said, that she and Taylor believed a shooting was taking place in the store. The two considered whether to run or hide before deciding to open the door. Bathroom door bangs aren’t the only frightening encounter reported at the retailer, as a pregnant woman in Tennessee said a stranger stopped her in a parking lot and reached into her bag.
When they opened it, a man was standing in the doorway, blocking their exit, according to Kristinaa. She said he asked them, in what she described as a hostile tone, whether anyone else was inside the bathroom. Neither of them answered, and they walked away.
After they stepped past him, Kristinaa told the man, “Oh my God, you scared the heck out of us.” He did not respond, she said, and instead gave her a hostile look before walking back into the bathroom. The two then approached a loss prevention employee and asked to speak with a manager. He walked them to a manager at the front of the store, where they explained what had happened.
The manager appeared to identify the man from a distance as an employee who collects shopping carts. According to Kristinaa, the manager said knocking on bathroom doors to check if they are occupied is part of that employee’s job. For Target, unsettling encounters in stores can take many forms, such as when a Dallas woman noticed a man circling her before realizing he was a store walker.
After hearing more details about how the interaction unfolded, the manager said the behavior did not match how a bathroom check is supposed to be conducted, Kristinaa said. The manager also apologized, saying the employee “scared” them. While they were speaking with the manager, the employee could reportedly be seen watching them before speaking into a walkie-talkie and saying, “I just did my bathroom sweep.”
Kristinaa said she still had questions about the incident, including why a male employee was stationed outside a women’s restroom and why he waited before knocking if he intended to check whether the bathroom was occupied. She said she plans to avoid the store for now, calling the experience “traumatic.” She added, “Can’t believe those words just came out of my mouth.”
Several viewers responded to the video with comments about the location. One commenter wrote, “Shouldn’t you say which target so people can be more vigilant that makes more sense to me in my opinion.” Another commenter wrote, “This is either Bayshore or Sayville as these two locations I’ve seen numerous posts about stalking stories.”
Kristinaa did not confirm either location in her video and said she was intentionally not naming the specific store.
Published: Aug 17, 2026 08:30 am