Aussie influencer details 'scariest' encounter with man while driving

An Australian TikToker has recounted a horrifying ordeal that happened to her while driving home alone.

Rory Eliza has over six million followers on TikTok, where she usually posts light-hearted videos.

However, over the weekend she shared a video telling her audience about a truly harrowing encounter she had while driving home.

"I just experienced one of the scariest things I've probably ever experienced," she said, looking visibly shaken up.

Rory explained she was driving through a "dodgy" area, going about 30km/h while on the phone to her dad using Bluetooth.

"Suddenly, a guy in a fluorescent vest ran out in front of me and tried to open my side door to get in my car," Rory said in the video.

"He timed my car perfectly. He ran out just in front of me just as I was getting to him — he timed this and it scared the hell out of me."

Luckily, thinking quickly, Rory locked her door and "put her foot down", dodging the man on the road.

Rory told Yahoo News Australia when she first saw the man standing on the side of the road she didn't think anything of it and didn't realise it was anything too sinister until he ran to the driver's door.

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She said if she hadn't driven around him, he may have been able to get into her car, saying she could see his face through her window.

"It was so quick but I'm so lucky I dodged him. Girls, lock your car," she said in the TikTok clip.

"It is the one thing I can tell you. I need to learn to auto-lock my car. But girls, just look out for yourself, men look out for yourself, there are scary people out there."

Following the incident, she was worked up and paranoid, she knew she needed to stop driving to slow her breathing, but she was worried to even do that.

"It's crazy that it actually happened. You know, you see it in a movie and then when people say 'this has happened to me, too'. It just makes you realise that there are scary people out in the world," she told Yahoo.

"So I just think we need to look after ourselves and take every safety precaution that we can."

In the caption of the video, Rory explained a few years ago another man tried to get into her car while she was parked on a curb.

Luckily, when that incident happened a few years ago, her car was also locked.

"I can’t believe I experienced this again," she wrote.

People in the comments shared their own terrifying experiences.

One person said a stranger tried to approach their vehicle a few years ago while they had a newborn in their car.

Another said they had an incident just like Rory's and are now vigilant about locking their doors.

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