"Lets Read" - Lengthy Scary Stories Podcast - Sharing My Own Scary Stories - Part 3

This post is going to be another that several "hoax" or debunking sites have said is a fake story, however I am going to share my situation and thoughts on this as this happened to me before I ever saw the email telling women to beware of this situation. 

Years ago, I was doing some grocery shopping. The store where I was shopping is in a small town in the west and was located less than a mile off a major interstate that travels from near coast to coast. 

I was by myself. It was daytime. The parking lot was not very full as this store was the smaller of the two stores in town and was a home town operated grocery store, where as the other store more downtown was a chain store, so mostly locals living at the edge of town and people exiting the highway would visit this store. It has since closed down due to not enough customers and later after many unused years, became a chain to a large Farming supply store. 

While I was coming out to my car, there was a woman and a man watching me go to my car, when I had just about reached my car, they approached me quickly and asked something about perfume and the woman was really nervous, but almost seemed to me like the man behind her was pushing her to approach me. 

What was distressing to me, was how persistent they were trying to get me to SMELL the perfume sample. Like they were trying to get really close to me. I wouldn't stop or give them eye contact and repeated several times I didn't wear perfume. I actually do wear perfume and have several scents that I LOVE. My sweet daughters get it for me almost every year for my birthday or Christmas, and I still have a few bottles of some other favorites over the years I wear when I am going out but maybe to the store just to use them up. 

I was really uncomfortable with them and noticed another man sitting in a car nearby. The feeling I had was almost like the girl was being forced into this and the man was there to keep her in line or maybe to keep her from asking someone for help or something as he was like glue on her. It was SUPER weird and awkward, but I hate being approached by sales people at home or in public places where there shouldn't be sales people. I expect it at the mall and don't mind it there because I am there shopping and may be looking for an item, but when I am at home, I find it invasive and really disruptive. 

I think if they had acted normal, or it was just a girl, it may have been fine and who knows if I would have tried smelling the perfume, but to me, it was just OFF! It didn't feel like they were just going to sell me the perfume. The man was close enough that if I had passed out, he would have caught me, or if I fought, he could have held me. There is that personal space distance that a sales person usually won't come into, but it was too close for comfort for me. 

It wasn't until later that I read the email warning women to be careful and not smell anything in parking lots. 

Once again, similar to yesterdays post, I think there has to be some foundation for the story or a person wouldn't spend that much time making something like that up. I would take an hour of my time to warn someone about a possible threat as it happened to me. However, I would not spend an hour of my time trying to come up with a story I could share on social media to scare women, especially saying something like don't smell perfume in a parking lot! Because, it doesn't even make sense that I would think that someone may approach someone in a parking lot to sell perfume! 

It would be like warning someone to wear a life jacket while driving their car! It isn't a logical thing to warn someone about as it isn't a normal progression of a situation! Maybe if you warned them not to smell perfume at the sales counter in a department store, that would be logical. 

I went online again tonight to see what I could find on a few of the regular debunking sites and most of them said it was a hoax or untrue. I linked one below. However, there was one that said there were cases and they sited cities and police departments where there had been cases of people being sprayed with perfume by a woman selling it in a parking lot. 

You can believe what you will. but being a fairly intuitive person, I believe I was in harms way that day and did NOT feel safe in that parking lot and got out of there as quickly as I could. 

Here is a link to Hoax-Slayer.net where they say that this story is untrue and has never been verified.

The site "Truth or Fiction" linked below related that they found several cases where people were sprayed with perfume in a parking lot where someone approached them to sell them perfume and they did have reactions and one even did pass out after walking into the building after smelling the perfume.

Also, the original post from a woman in Mobile, AL that started the email rally situation regarding this, said she was approached by a woman selling perfume and woke later to have her car and herself in a different place with a much lighter purse having been robbed and had a headache.  

You can read about those cases sited with the police departments named in this link here. 

I will never know what may have happened, or if they were really just selling perfume, but either way, it could not be the best approach to find people to buy them. Even if they had a little table with samples on it, or even having a small sign, they could sell them with people approaching them, but to me, it seemed like they weren't legit and this way they could have a quick get-a-way.  

I don't know if anyone finds these situations scary or not but I do have others that have haunted me for years I will share next week. 

Have a Blessed Day!