Woman says she went to Dollar Tree to buy car cleaning supplies, claims she narrowly avoided being kidnapped in the store: ‘He lunged forward at me’

A woman claims a routine trip to Dollar Tree for car cleaning supplies turned into a frightening encounter after she noticed several men allegedly following her through the store. In a TikTok video posted by @kyndallwynn, she said one of the men even lunged toward her, leaving her convinced she may have narrowly escaped an attempted kidnapping.

The woman claimed that she was browsing the cleaning aisle when she noticed a man carrying a basket containing canned food, Gatorade, and a cleaning product. She described the combination as unusual and “just weird stuff” and became more concerned when he allegedly followed her as she moved between aisles.

She professed that she tried to avoid him by walking toward the shampoo section on the opposite side of the store. However, she eventually returned to the car cleaning aisle to get what she needed. By then, the man was apparently “standing in the mid section between the aisles where you can like see down all of them, and he’s like scanning the store like he had lost somebody.”

Apparently, there were multiple men

The situation allegedly became more alarming when a second man appeared near an open doorway leading to a dark storage room. “The guy looks at me, looks in the room, and goes, ‘Is anybody in here'” she professed. The room was seemingly empty, so no one answered, which prompted one of the men to turn toward her and lunge forward as if he intended to grab her.

She immediately ran toward the checkout, later asserting that she would rather risk overreacting than ignore a potential threat. “I’m like not getting kidnapped today. My heart literally drops to my stomach,” she described.

At the front of the store, she apparently asked another customer whether she could walk with her to the parking lot. She then reportedly overheard the first man telling someone, “I don’t know where that girl went, but I’m going outside,” seemingly making eye contact with her while saying this.

The woman also noticed another man standing behind her in the checkout line. When she asked whether he needed assistance, he allegedly said he was looking for the bathroom key. She alerted an employee, and the man eventually walked away. She estimated that around four men were involved, with two additional men allegedly switching checkout lines when another register opened.

Fortunately, another female shopper also noticed that something seemed wrong. According to the user, the woman offered to accompany her outside, and the shoppers walked together to their cars. The user later said she contacted police, but claimed officers advised her to “find another Dollar Tree store” and said they would document the incident.

The woman urged other shoppers to stay aware of their surroundings, avoid becoming distracted by their phones, and trust their instincts when something feels wrong. She also acknowledged that she could not know for certain what the men intended, but said she believed the situation could have ended very differently if the store had been empty.

The incident also raises questions about how attempted kidnapping is treated under U.S. law. The U.S. Code notes that attempting to commit a kidnapping covered by the federal statute can carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years. However, the law requires specific elements to be established, and simply following someone or behaving suspiciously does not automatically constitute attempted kidnapping. The woman’s account does not establish whether any crime occurred.