This Mom’s Story Proves You Should Never Hand Your Phone to a Stranger (2 of 3)
Emma hesitated for a beat, but handed over her phone. The woman took a few steps back, framing the shot carefully. She even suggested they move slightly so the sunlight caught their faces just right. The kids giggled, Mark put his arm around Emma’s shoulders, and in that moment, it felt… nice.
The stranger handed the phone back, complimented the kids, and melted back into the crowd.
It wasn’t until days later, as Emma was folding laundry, that her phone buzzed with a notification from an unfamiliar number.
“You don’t know me, but I need to tell you something about that day at the ice cream shop.”
Emma’s chest tightened. She hadn’t given her number to the woman.
The next message came seconds later: “I was going through my camera roll this morning and found the pictures I took of you. Not on your phone — on mine.”
Emma read it twice. Her stomach turned cold.
The woman explained that she often took photos of “interesting families” she spotted in public, saving them to an album she called her “favorites.” She claimed she liked “capturing moments,” but as the messages went on, the language became more unsettling. She mentioned the kids’ names — names she shouldn’t have known. She described how “photogenic” Emma’s daughter was, how her son had “such a unique smile.” She said she “looked forward” to seeing them again.
Emma dropped the laundry basket and called Mark at work. By the time he got home, the number had gone silent. No reply to their demands to delete the images. No explanation of how she’d gotten Emma’s contact.
They went to the police. An officer took a statement, but the response was cautious — vague privacy laws, difficulty proving intent. “It’s creepy,” he admitted, “but she hasn’t technically broken a law yet.”
For nights afterward, Emma barely slept. Every time a car slowed near their house, she peered through the blinds. At the park, she caught herself scanning for familiar faces. The thought of her children’s images sitting on a stranger’s phone made her skin crawl.
