16-year-old speaks out after escaping man who allegedly stalked, harassed her
A teen girl and her mother are speaking out after the 16-year-old escaped a man who allegedly stalked and harassed her, an incident that was caught on camera.
In surveillance video obtained by Philadelphia ABC station WPVI, Ariana MacMillan can be seen walking home along a busy road outside of Philadelphia when a man begins walking closer to her and, according to Ariana, making inappropriate comments.
"I kept on hearing this guy, but I was just like, 'It sounds like an older man. I don't think an older man would approach me that way,'" Ariana recalled to "Good Morning America," saying the man eventually "ran up to me" holding a "very large bottle of liquor."
"He pushes me a little bit, [saying], 'We better start walking.' And in this moment, I had a sense of panic in my brain that I needed to do something immediately," she continued.
According to Ariana, she felt scared, thinking the man might "kill her," and made a quick decision to run to a nearby shop.
"I just was like, 'There's a woman there and I'm gonna run to her,'" she explained. "I saw, like, someone had a sign in, like, their yard or something that said something about someone named Rachel. So the name, I just went, 'Aunt Rachel, Aunt Rachel is that you?'"
Ariana's mother, Christina Pino, said her daughter's callout served a key purpose as a distraction.
"It distracted whatever that gentleman was trying to do," said Pino.
The woman Ariana called out to turned out to be shop owner Tina Moss, who said she saw the teen running toward her and started to play along, returning a hug the girl gave her and taking the girl into the store with her husband Bill Moss.
"[The man] followed her directly from the store to the window and banged on the glass," Bill Moss recalled.
Ariana said the Mosses called the police on her behalf shortly after.
"Once they came, he still was banging on the doors and wasn't stopping," said Ariana. "And they were trying to arrest him."
The man has now been charged with stalking and harassment, according to Ridley Township Police in Folsom, Pennsylvania.
Pino said she commends her daughter for identifying someone who could potentially help and said she considers the Mosses her daughter's "guardian angels."
The store owners say they're parents as well and hope someone would do the same for one of their children.
