CNY Woman Warns of ‘Evil Close to Home’ After Scary Parking Lot Run-In

A scary parking lot moment with a stranger has a Utica woman warning others. "The evil we hear about all the time is very real and close to home."

Vanessa Dingle was stopped in the Price Chopper parking lot by a man as she was getting out of her car. She describes him as a white male in his late 30s to early 40s. "He looked like a regular middle classed clean cut guy. He was in a dark gray Jeep Cherokee with tinted windows."

The man told Dingle he was trying to get home to his family and needed money for gas. "I told him to go across the street to Fastrac and I'd put a couple dollars in," Dingle wrote on Facebook.

Dingle claims when she drove across the street, the jeep pulled up, blocking her from going into the store. "He said come here I just got to show you something. I quickly walked between our vehicles around the back of his and went into FasTrac."

While Dingle was in the store, she says the man drove off. "Luckily I'm smart enough and paranoid enough not to have gotten that close."

The scary few moments has left Dingle thankful she's safe. "Thank God I was able to make it back home to my sick children right here in Utica."

Dingle isn't alone. "The same thing happened to me 1/2 hour before that," said Kris Marie. "I didn’t call the cops either. Stupid on my part. Just wasn’t thinking and wanted to get away quick."