SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- Debbie Robbins, a Poway mother, said her daughter had a frightening encounter walking down the street in their neighborhood recently.
“As she started walking, a white van began to follow her. He pulled over and tried to trap her towards the bushes and he started to get out,” Robbins said.
When Robbins’ daughter called a friend for help, she said the white van drove off.
“I’m terrified. I am scared to death every time she walks out the door. I don’t sleep at night,” said Robbins.
Another Poway woman, Abigail Herbicek, said she had a similar experience this week in the same area. The 18-year-old said she had just parked her car to go grocery shopping at Aldi on Poway Road when she noticed two men in a white van acting unusual.
“Immediately, when I got out of the car… I saw these two guys just standing outside Harbor Freight, which is right next to Aldi … just staring,” Herbicek said.
She told ABC 10News the two men got out of the van, and as she started walking towards the grocery store, she saw that the men looked inside her car.
“I was kind of scared now because I was like, ‘Why would they go up to my car?’” said Herbicek.
She said the two men followed her throughout the store and kept their eyes on her the entire time.
“They pretended to just browse around the store the whole time I was shopping and ended up just getting one item, so I knew they were following me,” she said.
Herbicek said one man was behind her in the checkout line and the other went to wait by the exit.
Feeling scared, she called her family friend to pick her up. At that point, Herbicek said the men decided to leave. But not before her friend captured photos of the van, which they turned in to police.
“They almost hit her trying to leave so quick,” she said.
Both Herbicek and Robbins said they filed a police report.
“I’ve heard people say that it’s not true, that there’s not human trafficking around here. But they need to know that it’s real and the police told us that it’s very real,” said Robbins.
Both women are hoping that others in the neighborhood remain aware of their surroundings and report any similarly suspicious behavior to police.
ABC 10News reached out to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department for the latest on the investigations.
The department did not respond as of the publication of this story.
