Josie Bowers, a Canadian lady, shared a TikTok video, on June 20, a year ago in which she described how her police officer stepdad’s tip may have saved her life.
There have been more than 10 million views of the video that Josie shared. She related a story from when she was a teenager in which a stranger tried to enter her hotel room. She demonstrated in the video how a device might be smuggled into a hotel room door and how a stranger may attempt to open the door from the outside.
She was vacationing with her family at the time in Ocean City, Maryland when a man opened the hotel door from the outside using a device.
Josie, a 15-year-old girl, was the only person in the room when the intruder slid the tool under the door’s frame and used it to lower the handle from the outside.
Her account soon gained popularity after she posted a series of videos on TikTok in which she relived the “scariest moment” of her life.
The 19-year-old claimed that while the rest of her family was at the beach, she was staying at the Hilton in Ocean City, which is directly on the water. “I was by myself.”
“My main thought was holy s*** I’m in a towel right now and someone is about to break in and get me. So the door opens a crack, and I just slammed it back shut and put the deadbolt on.”
After that, the man claimed to be there to mend the door, but Josie had her doubts.
“So they tell me your keycard is broken and we need to get into the room and fix your keypad for you,” she continued. “And so I open the door a tad bit, to see if it was a worker. It clearly wasn’t, they were in jeans and a T-shirt. Hilton keeps it pretty classy, not the attire.”
Josie, though, recalled a tip she had received from her stepdad, a police officer, even in the heat of the moment.
“So I think I’m very smart for this one, my stepdad is a police officer, he taught me never to let people know you’re alone.”
“I yelled ‘Hey dad, there’s someone here to fix the door.’ As soon as they thought that I wasn’t alone – and potentially my dad was there – they ran, they were gone.”
Josie shared her experience in the hopes that it will warn others about the risk and inspire them to keep cautious.
“I’m glad I had this experience so I can teach people about it. Obviously, I’m safe but it could have ended up a lot worse,” she said. “Be safe, you can get door stoppers, always put on the deadbolt.”
Sources: Awm, Tiphero, Goalcast
