A man who posts on TikTok as Peter Butler (@voycebutler5) described an encounter inside a Walmart in a video that has drawn 1.4 million views, 124,700 likes, and more than 4,570 comments. He said he was shopping and minding his own business when a woman walked up right beside him.
Butler said she quietly whispered, “Can you pretend you came here with me?” He recalled looking at her in confusion and asking what she meant. She then spoke more loudly and said, “There you go. I thought I lost you.”
He stated that he realized something was wrong and decided to go along with her. Butler said he told her, “Yes,” and then, “Yeah, come on, I’m almost done.”
The woman said two men without carts had been following her through the store
Butler said the woman moved closer and whispered, “Please don’t let- don’t leave me, two men have been following me.” He described looking back and seeing one man at the end of the aisle and another farther behind him. He noted that neither man had a cart or a basket.
He said that when he and the woman started moving, the two men started moving as well. Butler asked her when it had begun. He said she told him one of the men had approached her in the parking lot and asked if she needed help. She said she told the man no.
Butler said she then noticed that same man inside the store. A second man, she told him, started appearing in a different aisle. At that point, he said, she became scared and walked up to him.
He said he told her not to go back outside by herself. They headed straight toward the front of the store to find an employee, according to his account. Butler said that as soon as one of the men saw them talking to staff, that man turned around. The other man disappeared as well, he stated.
Butler described the woman as shaking when security arrived. He said she explained what had happened, and he told staff what he personally saw. Security then checked around the store and made sure she was not walking back to the parking lot alone, he said. Such concerns about safety in stores are not unfounded, as a Texas woman once reported being followed by three men at a Walmart before police revealed their identities.
Before he left, Butler said the woman told him, “I’m sorry, I just, I just looked at you and felt like you would help me.” He said he replied, “You don’t have to apologize.” He added that he still does not know what those men actually wanted, but that if somebody walks up to him terrified and says to pretend he knows them, he is not ignoring that.
Viewers responded with their own accounts and reactions after the video spread. One commenter called the woman’s choice of helper a high compliment, writing, “bro, that is the HIGHEST compliment a woman can give.” Another commenter made a similar point about trust in public, writing, “a woman seeing you and deciding you’re someone that she’ll be safe with is a huge compliment these days.”
Some viewers said they had faced comparable situations at Walmart. One wrote, “this happened at Walmart to me and my daughter too.” Another described being followed to a vehicle and asking strangers for help: “Some man followed me out of Walmart to my car. I asked a really nice couple to stay with me as I got into my car. They did. People are crazy.” This pattern of harassment is not isolated, as a Florida woman recently alleged an old man looked her up and down before two men started following her at a local Walmart.
Other commenters focused on how to respond in the moment. One wrote, “normalize calling these creeps out LOUDLY and PUBLICLY.” Another asked why the woman had not gone to store staff or called police sooner: “why didn’t she just go to the office or call 911.”
A further commenter said, “I’ve heard stories like this before and I just don’t understand why people don’t call the police. You can call the police from inside a store.” One viewer praised the man in the video, writing, “We need more men like you in the world!”
Published: Sep 22, 2026 08:00 am