Teen Girl Escapes Potential Stalker Thanks to Some Quick Thinking, Police Say She Did Everything Right

A 16-year-old Pennsylvania girl’s quick thinking to avoid a man following and intimidating her is being lauded this week.

Ariana MacMillan and her mother Christina Pino appeared on Good Morning America on Friday, April 25 to share the unique tactic she deployed to avoid a strange man who began following her on Tuesday night.

The scary encounter happened shortly after 7 p.m. on Tuesday night in Ridley Park, Pa., according to WPVI, when MacMillan says a man with a liquor bottle suddenly began following and talking to her.

“I kept on hearing this guy that I was just like, it sounds like an older man, and I don’t think an older man would approach me that way,” MacMillan recalled. “And he finally ran up to me.”

MacMillan told GMA that the man then began making “inappropriate” comments to her before pushing her.

“He did have a very large bottle of liquor in his hand and in my eyes, I saw that as a weapon,” the teenager told GMA. “He pushes me a little bit [and says], ‘We better start walking.’ And in this moment, I had a sense of panic in my brain that I needed to do something immediately.”

Then, MacMillan said, she made the sudden decision to run to a store she just passed by, where she pretended to know the shop owners — a move that ultimately distracted the man long enough for her to get to safety.

“I was like, there’s a woman there and I’m going to run to her,” the teenager said. “I saw someone had a sign in their yard that said something about someone named Rachel, so I just went, ‘Aunt Rachel! Aunt Rachel! Is that you?’”

The shop owners, Tina and Bill Moss, told WPVI they sensed the teenager was in danger and played along with her tactic, acting like Tina was “Aunt Rachel.”

“Protect the kid. Protect the kid at all costs,” Bill told WPVI he remembered thinking.

MacMillan’s mother told GMA she believes the role-playing may have saved her daughter from danger.

“It distracted whatever that gentleman was trying to do,” Pino said.

While MacMillan’s quick-thinking move distracted the man, it didn’t stop him from continuing to harass her while she was in the store, Bill told WPVI.

“He followed her directly from the store to the window and banged on the glass,” the shop owner said. “We locked the doors, called the police.”

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WPVI and GMA reported that officers detained the man and he was later charged with stalking and harassment. The Ridley Township Police Department did not provide the outlets with the man’s identity. 

PEOPLE has reached out to Ridley police for an update on the man’s arrest and charges, but did not immediately hear back on Friday morning.

Pino met with Bill and Tina Moss this week, according to WPVI and GMA, which showed video of the teenager’s mother hugging the store owners and thanking them.

“We’re just normal people,” Bill told WPVI. “We’re parents…we just own a store in our town. So we want to make sure our town is safe and we’re here for you.”