A gas station employee’s video capturing an exchange between herself and a male customer who made her feel uncomfortable while she was working alone overnight has stoked a conversation about men putting women in uncomfortable positions because they believe they are flirting.
The video, which drew over 3.6 million views, starts with a male customer referencing part of their conversation that happened before she started filming.
“Your front plate? What’s wrong with your front plate?” the worker, Sami Jean (@nobootyshakin), says to the customer. The worker clarified in the caption of the video that she was “printing the exact same paper over and over to appear busy” at the time of the interaction. Jean is also wearing a QuikTrip uniform in the video.
“It’s visible,” the customer responds, referring to his license plate.
“Why is that a bad thing?” she questions.
He doesn’t really respond to this question and instead references her “flirtatious laugh” when he asked her if she wanted to drive his car at a high speed. “I’m just laughing because I’m a bad driver, that’s why,” she says in response. He clarifies he meant the two of them would go for a drive and that she would merely be the passenger.
She questions why he keeps “looking back” and he tells her he’s just looking outside, at his car. She tells him she has to get back to work.
Throughout the course of the conversation, he asks her again if she would like to go for a drive, or if the two of them could stay in a hotel room.
“I don’t know about that one either, I have a boyfriend,” the worker, @nobootyshakin on TikTok, says in response.
He questions her, saying, “You didn’t mention him earlier.”
The conversation then ends.
@nobootyshakin me printing the exact same paper over and over to appear busy #creepyguy #redflags #awkwardlaugh ♬ original sound – Sami Jean
Viewers remarked on various things said by the customer that they found concerning.
“I listen to way too much true crime is first sentence about the license plate would have put me in full tear!” one commenter wrote.
“I think the only reason he didn’t do anything is because he didn’t take the front license plate off,” another commenter wrote.
Another urged Jean to take precautions before the man returns to the store.
Others noted how Jean’s experience is all too common for women in customer-facing jobs.
“Idk what’s scarier this, or the fact that because we’re women it doesn’t matter what shift we work,” one commenter wrote. “This still happens. Even if we’re not working alone.”
“The scariest part of this is that we, as women, have been conditioned to be polite to not escalate a situation and men like this think we’re flirting,” another said.
In a follow-up, Jean says she is a new worker at the gas station, which she says she strategically did not name out of fears it would receive backlash from viewers, and that she just finished training two weeks ago. She says the store usually schedules just one worker to work overnight shifts and that it has safety precautions in place, like an alarm that alerts her to anyone walking into the store and a button that alerts employees working at the company’s headquarters to monitor her when she might be in a dangerous situation. She also says since drinks are free for cops, they often frequent the store. Jean ends her video by saying the incident was the first time she’s felt “nervous” on the job.
The Daily Dot has reached out to QuikTrip via email as to @nobootyshakin via Instagram direct message.
Update 7:54am CT, Feb. 17, 2023: In an email to the Daily Dot, QuikTrip’s Corporate Communications Manager Aisha Jefferson-Smith shared the following statement: “QuikTrip’s top priority is the safety and well-being of our employees and customers, and we take this responsibility very seriously. We were disheartened upon learning of the recent unwanted interaction involving an unknown individual toward one of our employees. QuikTrip has a number of robust safety protocols and systems in place in all of our stores nationwide, and we will continue to take the necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that our stores are a safe place for employees and customers to work, refuel and shop.”
