Celebrities
Harriet Brewis
Apr 05, 2021
juliaapic/TikTok
A fitness influencer was left horrified and stunned during a workout session when she noticed something by chance in the mirror.
The TikTok user Julia (or juliaapic) had begun filming her leg workout when she spotted a man walking behind her.
Her recording of the incident shows the bemasked stranger strolling casually in the background before suddenly squatting down.
He can then be seen through the gap in her legs with his phone apparently angled straight ahead. In other words, pointed towards Julia’s posterior.
He then paces back and forth and then starts chatting to a friend as the pair look down at their phones.
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In a caption to the clip, Julia said the unwelcome encounter occurred back in January, but it was “a bit too sensitive at the time”, which is why she waited until last week to post it.
In a voiceover to the video, she says: “He denied taking a picture which made me feel crazy for thinking it.
“So I’m curious, what do you think?”
The moment the man crouches down directly behind Julia
The video has since been viewed more than 16 million times and garnered 1.8 million likes as fellow TikTokers reassured her she wasn’t imagining things.
“He absolutely did and he showed it to his friend. I’m sorry,” wrote one user.
“He did sis. You ain’t crazy,” added another.
“Some men still don’t get why women are sometimes nervous to be alone,” another said.
“Submit this video to the front desk/management!” another commented. “This guy does not belong at a gym.”
And another said: “Seeing your face just immediately drop made me so sad. I’m so sorry that this is a reality.”
The man can be seen chatting to his friend in the background
Julia allegedly later explained in a follow-up video – which has since been removed – why she kept quiet at the time.
“I honestly wasn’t going to report him at first because I was too scared,” she said, according to YahooLife.
“I didn’t want to make a scene and I wasn’t 100 per cent sure about what happened.
“But then I saw him eye up the girl on the machine next to me, and I (thought) if he did that to her I would hate myself for not saying anything.”
Julia said she told staff who then confronted the man about it, adding “he got mad and he left”.
“He then came back in to tell the staff that he was mad and I just tried not to watch because I was extremely uncomfortable.”
She said staff “made a note on his account” but she hasn’t dared return to the gym since.
In an even more sinister twist, Julia said she’d posted about the incident on Instagram back when it happened and the man somehow saw it and messaged her.
She didn’t respond.
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