Tanger 2 Outlets employee reports harassment from male customer

An employee at Tanger 2 Outlets reported an unknown man was frequenting her place of work and attempted to get her in his vehicle after work, Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputies said.

The employee told a deputy Monday that she noticed a man was hanging around the Guess Factory Store a couple of weeks ago and “just gave her a bad feeling,” according to a Sheriff’s Office report.

The man would wander around the store for two or more hours at a time and never purchase anything, the report said. When other people weren’t around, the employee said the man would attempt to talk to her.

On Sunday around 7:30 p.m., the employee was waiting outside the business for her roommate to pick her up when she saw a white truck pull up and stop in front of her, the report said. She said the driver was the man she had seen earlier at the store.

He then began asking her what her name was, where she lived, and if she needed a ride home, the report said. The employee told the man to leave her alone, and that she had a ride. At that point, she said two women walked up to her and started talking to her, causing the man to drive away.

The man somehow figured out the woman’s name and began messaging her on Facebook, according to the report. The woman asked him to stop contacting her online, and the man said he would, but that he “had a present for her and hoped some day she would accept it,” the report said.

The deputy who took the woman’s report instructed her to call the Sheriff’s Office if the man came back to the store, in order to obtain a no-trespass notice. The deputy also advised the woman to block the man on Facebook and to not answer any more of his messages.

When the Sheriff’s Office checked if the man had any outstanding warrants or if there were any additional information about him, nothing came up, the report said, noting it appeared that the name he gave the woman was fake.

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Tanger 2 Outlets employee reports harassment from male customer."