Man Pretends To Be Friends With A Woman To Help Her Escape A Creepy Man
Every woman has a story of being harassed by a man who won't leave her alone despite obvious cues, and from wanting to be polite to being paralyzed by fear, it can be hard to remove ourselves safely from the situation.
Seeing that a woman was uncomfortable after being harassed by a stranger, a TikTok user decided to come to her rescue. It's a lesson that, regardless of gender, we need to support each other.
Get The Message
Whether you're at a nightclub with friends or enjoying some quiet time at a coffee shop, almost every woman has found herself in this situation before—a man is harassing you and won't leave you alone.
You tell him you're not interested, that you have a boyfriend, and even try to ignore him, yet he won't take the hint. There have been numerous cases of women identifying other women in these situations and pretending to know them in order to get them away from their harassers. But, it's not just women.
The TikTok
Brandon Robert, also known as @thebrandonrobert on TikTok, recently went viral after a video he posted garnered over 52 million views and 16 million likes.
The TikTok is captioned, "There is this weird man making this girl uncomfortable in the store. I'm going to pretend I know her."
Long-Lost Friends
Brandon then approaches the young woman and the man who's harassing her and greets her as if they are old friends.
Thinking of a way to remove the woman from the situation, Brandon asks if she wants to leave because his "Aunt Claire" is there to meet him. The woman plays along and pretends to know his fictitious aunt, and then says, "Let's go." The pair walk away together.
A Dangerous Situation
The two continue conversing and Brandon says he was compelled to act because he was watching from across the room and noticed the man was touching the woman, making her clearly uncomfortable. He then asks her what it was that the man wanted.
"He was saying if I wanted to go back to his place," she says.
"Thank You"
As Brandon and the woman are walking out of the store together, he asks her if she's okay and she responds that she is. Before the video ends, the woman has one last message of gratitude for the man who came to her aid.
"Thank you for helping me," she says.
In Closing
The video went mega-viral on TikTok and users praised Brandon for coming to the woman's defense. Whether you're a man or woman, this behavior should be normalized. Many users even suggested "Aunt Claire" be used as a codeword for people who find themselves in a similar situation. Brandon himself later posted a follow-up comment with a simple message.
"I'm happy this is sending a good message to my fellow gentleman," he wrote. "Protect our ladies."
