If you find a shirt 'intentionally' tied to the wipers of your car - do not go out to take it off!

Unfortunately, it is not always safe out there, and especially for women who are more vulnerable to certain crimes.

It's not uncommon for women to take precautions when leaving their house, especially at night. Maybe they will go with another friend, and they will always be environmentally aware at all times.

And this is exactly the attitude that Ashley Hardacre from the United States had, and fortunately, her awareness has helped her greatly recently.

Ashley, who is 19 years old, works at a mall in Michigan.

After finishing her night shift, she went to her car in the parking lot. But it was only after she got into the car that she noticed a flannel shirt that was strangely wrapped around one of the wipers on the front window.

She looked around and noticed two cars parking close to her. The situation was suspicious in her eyes so she did what her gut feeling told her: she immediately drove away and when she got to a safe place she stopped and removed the flannel shirt off the window.

Ashley later described what happened in detail on her Facebook account, and asked everyone to be careful. Here's what she wrote:

"I got in the car and locked the door immediately as I always do and noticed a blue flannel shirt on the windshield.

I turned on the wiper to try to take the shirt off the windshield, but it was bound on the wiper. I was reminded of posts I saw recently of people finding strange things on their wipers in our area in an attempt to get girls out of their cars.

I don't know why the shirt was on my car but it sure was intentional because of the way it was wrapped. I can not think of another reason why someone should put it on my car".

Please be safe guys pic.twitter.com/o6MkU3zV3Z

— Ashley Hardacre (@anh_102) February 17, 2017

Strange prank

Ashley's Facebook post went viral, eventually reaching local police as well. One of the officers contacted Ashley and asked for more details about the incident. The police collected security footage from the mall.

"Such a thing has not happened here before. There have been no such incidents. It is not clear why they did it and who did it", the policeman said.

Police were able to identify two men who put the shirt on Ashley's car window and questioned them.

The men reportedly told police it was just a prank and they did not understand that placing items on car windshields could look like an assault attempt. Because the men were seen leaving the parking lot more than an hour before Ashley arrived in her car, police concluded no crime had been committed.

Listen to your gut feeling

As for Ashley, she was just glad she listened to her gut feeling and immediately drove away.

"It's something you do not expect to happen to you or someone to try to hurt you, but I was just in shock", Ashley said. "And now, I'm already past the fearful stage, but I want people to know that it's something that can happen to them too".

Please share the story to warn others to be careful and always listen to their gut feeling!