When she got to her car, she saw a water bottle sitting on top of the hood.

She said, “I don’t know if the two correlate, but it’s never happened to me…I gotta get out of here.”

Before calling out “Harpers Point, Cincinnati,” she adds, “I just wanted to say, be aware of your surroundings at all times, especially if you’re a woman. Be careful out there.”

After her video went viral, the woman did a follow-up with a reply from a viewer.

In a now-deleted clip, the user warns there was a grim reason behind the bottle on the hood of her car.

“This is a tactic used by traffickers and kidnappers to get you to exit your vehicle…If you have this happen and something is on the hood of your car when you come back to it, leave it there, drive away it’ll fall off on its own.”

Urban legends

Despite the fear of tagging that’s propagated by social media, authorities say it’s very unlikely it’s a method used to identify vulnerable victims.

In fact, after a viral post about a zip tie sex trafficking trap, Michigan State Police delivered its own warning about misinformation on social media.

“It’s essentially like an urban legend or a scare-lore. The whole idea of the intent is just to scare people,” Lt. Brian Oleksyk told news station WILX10. Speaking of other hoaxes, like a flannel shirt on the windshield of a car, or an elastic band around the side mirror, Oleksyk says that criminals aren’t in the habit of warning their victims.

“…This is not how it’s done…Very rare is it for them to prey on a stranger,” he said. “It slows us down from investigating real crimes. We have to prove that it’s a false hoax and it’s got no material to it.”

What do you think of criminals tagging belongings to identify victims?