A young shopper has shared the moment a Woolworths employee intervened after noticing a man was suspiciously following her from aisle to aisle.
Nafela was doing a late night grocery shop at a Woolies store in Sydney when she spotted a man smiling at her from across the fruit and vegetable aisle - but she didn't think anything of it.
When the unsuspecting shopper reached the checkout counter, a quick-thinking employee pulled her aside after noticing that a stranger had been quietly 'stalking' her throughout the store for 30 minutes.
'I experienced one of the scariest nights of my life. I actually wasn't going to speak about it, but I feel like I should because it might just save someone's life,' Nafela said in her video, adding: 'My heart is literally racing retelling what just happened to me.'
The shopper said she was grabbing her groceries when she realised the store was closing at 10pm so she made her way to the counter.
'I was heading out to pay for my stuff when a staff member approached me,' she said.
'She's like, "Excuse me, come over here please". She's whispering at me and she's like... "Please come here." I was like, "Is everything OK?" She pulls me over to the side and she's like, "Do you know that man in the grey hoodie?"
'I said, "What man?" She goes, "That man over there". It was the guy that smiled at me when I had first entered the store. I said, "No, I don't know who that is, why are you asking?"
Nafela has shared the moment a Woolworths employee intervened after noticing a man was suspiciously following her from aisle to aisle.
The employee told her she and her co-worker had noticed the man acting suspicious.
'She said, "He's been following you very suspiciously from aisle to aisle. He's been lurking from a distance and we noticed him, and we feel extremely uncomfortable for you",' Nafela explained.
The shopper said she noticed the man getting a 'bit creepy' when she caught him staring at her a couple of times but thought he was just being polite.
'I just thought maybe he recognised me or maybe he was interested or something because he kept smiling at me and he kept making eye contact and giving me these weird looks, but I didn’t know the guy, I’ve never seen him in my life,' she said.
Daily Mail has contacted Woolworths for comment.
Nafela said the employee then instructed her to pay for her groceries and wait inside until she got a male co-worker to walk her out to her car safely.
'So I paid for my stuff and I waited around while they organised someone to walk me out. Now, as I’m waiting for them to get a staff member to walk me out, that guy is now exiting the store, and what I notice is so weird,' she recalled.
She noticed the man had already purchased his groceries but had left his bags outside the supermarket.
Nafela believes the stranger returned to the supermarket empty-handed before he followed her around the store.
'He’d already purchased the stuff, left them outside, and then came back into the store to continue following me from aisle to aisle,' she said.
'If the employee and her male co-worker had not noticed he was following me, I would have been none the wiser.'
She saw the man exit the store, pick up his grocery bags, and disappear.
'I think it’s because all of the staff members at this point had gathered around the store, one because it was closing, but they saw the man stalking me because they had all become aware of him,' Nafela said.
'So he grabs his stuff and he hightails it out of there, and I’m waiting for them to organise for a male worker to take me out to my car.'
Nafela was doing a late night grocery shop at a Woolies store in Sydney when she spotted a man smiling at her from across the fruit and vegetable aisle - but she didn't think anything of it (file image)
A male employee walked Nafela to her car, making sure she was safe.
'So I hop into my car, lock my doors, and I start my car, and at that point, I look over, and I see the guy, the guy that was stalking me, he’s in a ute... and he puts on his spotlights to try and blind me,' she recalled.
‘I was like, what the hell, that’s that guy, oh my god... Then he just speeds off and he drives away, so I thought he’s gone, but little do I know he wasn’t actually gone.’
When she exited the carpark, she saw him wait at a roundabout down the road.
‘So, as I’m exiting, what do I see? I see this guy; he’s on the roundabout and he’s just going around in circles; he’s just doing his rounds; he’s waiting for me to exit to figure out which way I’m going,’ she said.
The quick-thinking driver said she decided to go the opposite direction because she didn’t want to lead him back to her home.
‘So I headed onto the highway, and he’s on my tail. I sped down the highway and he was following me,’ she said.
‘Not even joking, he was following me for 15 minutes until I got to a police station.
‘So I took him all the way to a police station, then he disappeared.’
Nafela said she has since reported the incident to the police.
By sharing her experience, she wanted to urge women to be ‘hyper vigilant’ and ‘hyper-aware’ of their surroundings.
‘If this employee had not noticed that this person was stalking me, I would literally have just been none the wiser, and I would have just left and gotten in my car and driven home, and this guy would have known my address,’ Nafela said.
‘I strongly believe that this person had intended to follow me home and probably do something, maybe break into my house later, or just know where I live because he had sick intentions.
‘So please, girls, whenever you’re shopping alone, or wherever you are, even if you’re at a café late at night, just be hyper-vigilant of your surroundings because you really don’t know who’s lurking and what sick intentions people might have.’
She added: ‘That was honestly such a terrifying situation to be in, but I’m so grateful for the young employee at this particular Woolworths. If you see this, honestly, thank you so much; you may have just saved my life.’