These men potentially tried to trap a woman by lying in the middle of the road. They weren’t counting on her being smarter than them.
Being a woman is dangerous business. You have to constantly assess risk, read between the lines, and stay alert to your surroundings. A wrong turn, misplaced trust, or even a casual conversation could lead you to a sinister situation.
There are a growing number of scams specifically designed to put people in a vulnerable position where they could get robbed, hurt, or even trafficked. People pose as delivery drivers, fake Uber drivers, or lace a seemingly normal piece of mail with chemicals to put you in a compromising position.
But this woman’s instincts ended up potentially saving her life.
Woman shares important PSA
In a trending video with more than 420,000 views, content creator Emily Mercer (@emilymercerhome) shares the uncomfortable predicament she was in and how she got out of it.
“If you’re a girl, you might want to listen to this because I almost died. And this might save your life,” Mercer says.
She explains that she was driving with her two dogs from Memphis to Houston. And about an hour outside of Houston, she ended up in a wooded area.
It was dotted with a few houses here and there and eventually turned into a trailer park neighborhood with no cell service.
As she went around a corner, she says she noticed a man talking on his cellphone who looked at her a bit weirdly. “That’s strange,” Mercer says she thought to herself. Then, she says she saw another guy lying in the road.
“I was in my crime junkie era, and I honestly think that’s what saved my life,” Mercer says.
Had it not been for her recent true crime kick, Mercer says she is sure she would have stopped to help the man.
“Something in me told me to go around him,” Mercer says.
As she drove away, she notes that she could see the man in her rearview mirror. She recalls that he sat up and threw his hands in the air in frustration, “Like, why’d you pass me?”
Further around the corner, she says another man came out of the woods and watched Mercer pass by.
“It was like it was a setup,” Mercer says.
Lo and behold, she says she later saw people on Facebook warning others about a similar scam that ends up in your car being hijacked, sometimes with you in it.
“It was so frightening because for like 20 minutes I did not have cell service or even know where I was,” Mercer says, adding that she was hyperventilating.
“If you are a woman, be alert always, because as awful as it sounds, this world is really scary and you gotta always be on guard,” she notes.
Commenters react
“Babyyyyy I ain’t stopping to help no one. I’ll call the cops for you as I roll by. I can’t do anything anyways,” a top comment read.
“Female intuition is NEVER wrong – glad you’re home safe,” a person said.
“They know they’re in a dead zone with cell service. I’m sure it’s part of their plan,” another wrote.
“This is very scary. The guy on the phone was probably talking to the other guys to tell them when a car was coming,” a commenter speculated.
@emilymercerhome PSA forreal
♬ original sound – Emily Mercer
The Daily Dot reached out to Mercer for comment via email and Instagram direct message.
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