ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - A mother is calling for more safety in public parking lots following an incident in the Albany Target parking lot that left her 16-year-old daughter shaken up.

The incident report was filed on June 28. It said the girl was startled when a strange man knocked on her car window, then tried to open her car door.

Fortunately, the man couldn’t get in, and he walked away. But the incident stayed with the girl and her family.

“This has really kind of rocked our world a little bit. I’ve grown up in Albany. It’s always been a great place, but it seems like it’s just getting worse and worse,” Stephanie Drawdy, the mother of the teenager, said.

Drawdy said her daughter was inside of her car attempting to leave Target when she was approached by an unknown man asking her to roll her windows down.

“She hit the lock button, and he was able to grab her handle and yank it, but thank God she was able to lock the door quick enough,” Drawdy said. “It’s not only traumatizing for her, but you as a parent also.”

According to the incident report, the girl told Target’s manager that the suspicious man had on a black wave cap, white tank top and blue shorts. The report also said a store employee reviewed store footage, but “did not see a male inside of the store matching the description.”

Albany police investigated the matter to see if the store’s only camera in the parking lot captured what happened. Albany Police Chief Michael Persley said the view from the surveillance camera was obscured by a tree.

Drawdy said the director of the Albany Target apologized for what happened, but the mother feels that one camera is not enough to keep the community safe.

“Our main goal is to get the word out and get awareness,” Drawdy said. “We want to meet with the police chief, the mayor, and we want some of the community to come together to come up with some good solutions so that this stops happening.”

Chief Persley told us he’s open to sit down with the family to hear their suggestions. He also said it’s important to park in well-lit areas, not too far into the back of a parking lot and to be aware of your surroundings at all times.

“Unfortunately, in this situation, we don’t know what the actual intent was of the subject, but it’s enough to be on the lookout for,” Chief Persley said. “If anyone else has encountered that situation that happened Saturday with a subject asking you to roll your windows down and then pulling on your car door handles, we need to know that.”

We did offer Target management an opportunity to respond to the report, but they declined.

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