Mich. woman warns others after finding shirt tucked into her windshield

A Michigan woman said she heard about people putting things in car windshield wipers to lure women out of their vehicles, so when it happened to her she knew not to get out of her car. 

Ashley Hardacre said in a  Facebook post  that on Feb. 16 she walked to her car after work at Genesee Valley Mall in Flint, Mich., and found a shirt draped over her windshield and secured in the wiper. She posted a photo of the shirt taken from the inside of her car.

Hardacre explained that she didn't see the shirt until she got into her car and noticed there were two cars near her, one of which was running.

"I used my windshield wipers to try to get them off, but the shirt was completely wrapped around my wiper blade," she wrote. "I had seen posts lately about people finding things under their windshield wipers in the Burton/Flint area as an attempt to get girls out of their cars and distracted. Luckily I knew better than to remove the shirt with cars around me, so I drove over to a place where I was safe and quickly rolled down my window and got the shirt off.

"I don't know why the shirt was on my car, but it had to have been intentional the way it was put on there," she wrote. "I really can't think of another reason as to why someone would put it on my car."

Hardacre's Facebook post has been shared more than 100,000 times.

Flint Township Police Detective Sergeant Brad Wangler said he found out about the incident through social media and reached out to Hardacre. He said they are investigating, but there haven't been any reports of anything similar happening in the area.

"We have a listserv email with all our detectives in the county and surrounding counties and nothing like this has been reported," he told USA TODAY. "There have been no other incidents like this."

Wangler said the police department has an officer staffed at the mall and encourages anyone who feels uncomfortable to be aware of their surroundings, stay in groups and call 9-1-1 or security if they feel uncomfortable.

"If something doesn’t seem right its probably not," he said.

Hardacre told CBS News that while nothing happened she hopes her experience will make other people think twice if something similar happens to them.

“I posted about the incident to inform others that it can happen to anyone and that they shouldn’t fall for it,” Hardacre told CBS News, which reports the local police department is investigating the incident. “A lot of people think it is fake or it won’t happen to them. But you can never be too safe.”

Ashley Hardacre - As some of you know I work at a store in... | Facebook

Follow Brian Manzullo on Twitter: @BrianManzullo.

Mary Bowerman contributed to this report.