A woman’s TikTok went viral after she said a Starbucks barista came to rescue her from a man hitting on her outside the store. The video, posted Oct. 1 by user @savbmitchell, received over 204,000 views and 18,000 likes in 20 days.
In the video, which is almost 2 minutes long, the TikToker records herself talking to a man off-screen who approaches her to ask if she is an “adventurer or hitchhiker or something” because of her boots.
The TikToker tells him that she’s “just hanging out,” but the man continues to ask about her shoes. “What type of boots are those?” he asks. “Are those like hiking boots or something?”
After the TikToker explains that she is wearing Blundstone hiking boots, the man asks if she goes hiking in the area. “I don’t,” she says. “I was in Colorado for three months, though, so I went hiking a lot there but—”
Before she can finish, the man interjects and begins “saying a bunch of random stuff about Colorado,” the on-screen text reads. The man says that he’s “heard there’s mountains” and mass shootings.
“Isn’t that the state where that Batman movie shooting happened or is that somewhere else?” he asks, referencing the shooting at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater in 2012.
The TikToker tells the man that she’s not sure, then turns and smiles at the barista off-screen.
According to the on-screen text, the barista whispered “If you need anything, I’m right inside. Just let me know.” The TikToker wrote in the caption that the barista was the “sweetest” and that “we need more ppl like [the barista] in the world.”
The man continues to speak to the TikToker after the barista leaves. After exhausting his knowledge of Colorado, he introduces himself and asks for the TikToker’s name and number.
The TikToker, who introduces herself as Savannah, thanks the man for complimenting her but tells him that she’s not interested because she has a boyfriend. He proceeds to ask if she has an Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, or other social media account that he can follow her on.
“I actually don’t have social media now,” she says.
Many commenters applauded the TikToker for remaining calm and telling the man that she didn’t have any social media.
Others felt she was too nice, however, and urged women not to be polite if they are uncomfortable. They also stressed not providing real answers to questions, especially if the question is “what’s your name?”
Some commenters didn’t understand why the TikToker was uncomfortable and called her “dramatic” for making a video about a man who was just “being social.” However, others wrote that something was clearly wrong if the barista came to check on her.
Several also wrote that the barista came to check on the TikToker because Starbucks employees are trained on how to handle such situations.
“I used to work at a Starbucks and we had a girl come inside and tell us a man was following her & she knew we could help her,” wrote user @stepnola. “We’ve seen some shit and we will always be there to help.”
The Daily Dot reached out to @savbmitchell via TikTok comment and to Starbucks via email. Neither immediately responded to the request for comment.
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