LUBBOCK -
It started out as a typical Sunday night for 16 year old Maggie Pequeño.
"I work at Taco Villa and I left work at around 9:40," Pequeño said. On her way home, Pequeño decided to make a pit stop at Walmart.
"We needed some house stuff," she said. "I needed you know, just like shampoo and stuff."
She drove to the new Walmart on Quaker and 114th.
"I called my mom, let her know I just got off of work, she said. 'I'm here at Walmart I'm going to get this, this and that and I'll be right home.' She said 'OK, call me whenever you leave.'"
Pequeño said she was browsing the aisles talking to a friend on her phone.
"I noticed a man came and he said 'excuse me' and I moved up and said yeah you know, 'you're fine,'" Pequeño said.
As she was heading to the registers, she said a woman tapped her on the shoulder.
"She whispered, 'hey I don't mean to scare you or anything, but this man's been following you and me and husband have been watching him watching you while you were on the phone and he didn't even put anything in his basket and he would only pretend to look at stuff and while you were on the phone he just looked at you up and down and he kept following you into every aisle you went into,'" Pequeño said.
Pequeño said the woman and her family got right behind her in the check-out line and escorted her to her car.
"I never got their names but, I'm really appreciative of them and what they had done for me," Pequeño said.
"I think there were angels there at that moment for my daughter. I just thank them very much. I hope that they do watch this and know that I'm very appreciative. I have seven kids and we could have possibly had one not coming home," Pequeño's mother Dalia Gonzales said.
Gonzales said she can't imagine what could have happened.
"There's a lot of parents that have their kids missing and just wait for the arrival of their kids. And that would have been me to not have that phone call of my daughter telling me she was on her way home. I was that close to not having my daughter home," Gonzales said.
LPD Lt. Ray Mendoza said it's important to have 'situational awareness.'
"Trust your gut instinct, if it doesn't seem right, go ahead and get help don't wait for anything else to happen," he said.
If you need to venture out at night, Lt. Mendoza said don't park in a desolate area. "If it's at night time you always want to try and find a well-lit parking lot or parking space."
Pequeño has a message for that family: "I probably wouldn't even be here, I appreciate them very much and I hope they watch this," Pequeño said.
Walmart issued this statement:
"The safety of our customers and associates is our first priority. We have been in contact with the family and are looking into this incident to determine how we can assist further."
As for Maggie, she said she's going to carry pepper spray from now on.
