Mum mocked for ‘overreacting’ to stranger in car park – is she right?

A US mother is copping heat for “defending” herself against a stranger in a car park – but was her reaction to the man justified?

A US mum has been accused of overreacting after detailing the time she reprimanded a stranger for approaching her in a car park when out with her son.

Danielle Mitchell posted a video sharing the “scary” encounter on TikTok where it amassed 1.9 million views.

But the mum divided commenters after she revealed she “yelled” at the stranger causing him to immediately back off – with many debating whether her reaction was justified, The New York Post reports.

“I’m literally shaking right now,” a breathless Danielle – who posts marriage and parenting tips under the handle @living.transparently – described in the video, which shows her sitting in her car on the day of the alleged run-in.

She goes son to describe how she was “alone” with her son in the carpark when a male approached her and said: “Excuse me, Miss.”

Danielle Mitchell has been accused of overreacting after yelling at a stranger who approached her in a carpark. Picture: TikTok/@living.transparently

“I didn’t know why in the hell he was approaching me or what he was trying to do,” she continued, explaining the man was probably “30 feet” away when he addressed her.

Instinctively, Danielle took action.

“I turned around and I literally yelled at him and I said, ‘Do not approach me,’” she declared.

Her outburst reportedly caused the stranger to “immediately start going in the other direction,” per the clip. All the while, she said, she kept imperiously repeating this command “over and over”.

At one point, the stranger asked what her “problem” was, before resuming his retreat.

“He crossed a couple cars down from my car and he didn’t come anywhere near me,” she explained, adding that he started “cussing” at her.

She then doubled down on her over-the-top-seeming warning, declaring: “I say ‘You do not approach women in a parking lot.’”

In a follow-up video, the mother explained that she learned this defensive move in Gavin De Becker’s 2000 book ‘Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane)’.

The book “shatters widely held myths about danger and safety and helps parents find some certainty about life’s highest-stakes questions,” per the description.

These include tips on spotting “sexual predators” and teaching children about risk without “causing too much fear”.

Danielle, for one, believes it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

“No male should ever approach a woman in a parking lot,” she concluded in the initial vid. “And if a male does approach you, you need to turn around and use the strongest voice that you can possibly use with them.

“Don’t be polite, they should literally screw off.”

Commenters found her response a bit overzealous, with one appalled poster writing: “Isn’t it a little hysterical?”

“OMG, do you react with all men like that,” inquired another, while one concerned person wrote, “you have absolutely lost the plot.”

Another declared that her pre-emptive reprimand is how innocent people wind up in jail.

“This was a little extra. How do you know he wasn’t trying to tell you something?” inquired one flabbergasted viewer, to which she replied, “He wasn’t.”

Some commenters provided alleged personal anecdotes illustrating why one should never jump to conclusions when a stranger approaches.

“A lady did that to me once and I understood her concern,” recounted one. “I then did not tell her about the gas hose hanging from her car.”

Some sympathised with Danielle’s methods of avoiding potential stranger danger.

“Better to ‘overreact’ and live than be ‘polite’ and end up dead,” advised one. “Predators rely on people being ‘nice’.”

“Lot of people hating on her but I get it. Had a normal-looking guy whip out his gonads to me in the middle of the street walking alone,” another said. “You have enough weirdos approach you and your first instinct becomes aggression for self-preservation — especially with her kid there.”

In response to critics, Danielle posted a follow-up video to provide some “much-needed context” for her actions.

“You guys just think I scream at guys in parking lots for fun and that is not the case,” she insisted.

“That has never happened to me before and I hope it never happens to me again.”

She added the shopping centre carpark was “completely dead” and that the stranger was the “sketchiest-looking guy” she had ever seen in her “entire life”.

“I think he was trying to ask people for money because then he proceeded to walk down the rest of the parking lot looking for people to ask,” she claimed.

She later defended herself against the huge backlash. Picture: TikTok/@living.transparently

As Danielle didn’t have any form of protection, she said, she didn’t want to let him get anywhere near her to where he could “knock me out and rob me”.

She also clarified that the guy “definitely” wasn’t trying to help her as she hadn’t dropped anything and was buckling her son into his car seat.

“In general, I’m not a super paranoid person, I don’t scare easily,” she said.

“My husband has actually had to tell me ‘You need to take a little more precautions because there are bad people in this world.’

“I did what I needed to do to protect myself and my son and if that was an over-reaction, then so be it.”

Danielle’s rebuttal did little to change the minds of the TikTok commentariat, who felt some of her details didn’t add up.

“It wasn’t really dead though was it, there was plenty of cars around you and one driving away,” observed one viewer, referencing her initial video.

“You said the mall was dead and then proceeded to say he went to ask other people on the parking lot,” another argued.

“You judge a book by its cover, just because you say someone looks scary,” summed up someone else.

This article originally appeared on The New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Mum mocked for ‘overreacting’ to stranger in car park – is she right?