Being a woman shouldn’t be any different from being a man, but it is.
When you’re a woman, there are certain situations where you feel you have to be on guard.
It’s common for women to take extra steps towards protecting themselves if they have to leave home at night or walk alone through a quiet neighborhood.
Texting a friend to tell them where they’re going, wearing brightly colored clothes, and even carrying a rape alarm are all things that many women feel they have to do to avoid being the victim of an assault or attack.
How an attacker chooses their next victim can be pretty disturbing, as one woman found out.
TikTok user @sheridanellis shared a video explaining the scary situation she found herself in after an evening out for dinner with her friends.
In the video, she explains that she had taken a purse out for the night, which she didn’t usually do. Today, though, she was armed with birthday decorations, and it just made sense to bring something to put them in.
The night went smoothly, and Sheridan didn’t come across anything suspicious… until she got home.
She was clearing out her bag at the end of the night when she came across a small, square piece of technology.
For anyone who hasn’t seen this item before, it’s a tracking device. It’s totally legal and can be really handy – people put them on their keys or in their cars so they can track them down via a mobile app if they go missing.
The chilling thing here, however, was that the tracking device wasn’t Sheridan’s.
In the wrong hands, devices like these can be used to track unsuspecting people. And that seemed to be what had happened with Sheridan.
Speaking in the video, Sheridan says:
“It’s basically a tracker. You know, people put it on their keys and whatnot. It’s not mine. I don’t know how it got in my purse.”
She continues:
“I immediately took the battery out. Check your purses and stay safe out there.”
It’s pretty scary. Sheridan might have taken the battery out, but she had already been tracked home.
Not everyone would clear their bag after getting home, too.
We’ve come home from a night out and been too tired to do anything other than brush our teeth and collapse into bed.
Sheridan’s bag – and tracker – could’ve sat in the corner of her bedroom for days, without her knowing that her location was being tracked on a stranger’s phone.
The post went viral, and commenters could see just how dangerous the tracker could be.
One person said:
“The police can definitely find out who purchased that and who downloaded the app registered to it. Go to the police. That’s very scary.”
Someone else had a suggestion for catching the person responsible for the tracker, writing:
“Set up a sting operation! Put the tile on one of your huge male friend’s doorstep and monitor it with their Ring doorbell! Free 24 hour surveillance!”
Scarily, a few people in the comments claimed to have experienced something similar to Sheridan. One person wrote:
“Wow… My kids found one in my bag a few weeks ago and I had no idea what it was!”
It’s worrying stuff, but important that word is spread about how these trackers could be used by the wrong people.
You can watch Sheridan’s TikTok video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
@sheridanellis
Check your purses …🥴 ##fyp ##psa ##forwhatitsworth ##safety
