Worker Spots the Same Person Sitting Outside Their Job and Asks, “When Should I Contact the Police?”

A worker said an unsettling pattern outside their workplace left them wondering when a person sitting in the parking lot stops being strange and starts becoming something police should know about.

The worker shared the situation in a post on r/legaladvice, explaining that someone had been sitting in the parking lot at their job often enough to make them uncomfortable. The concern was not a single parked car or a customer waiting for a ride. It was the repetition.

That kind of situation can be hard to explain without sounding dramatic. Plenty of people sit in parking lots. They take phone calls, eat lunch, wait for someone, check directions, or kill time before an appointment. But when the same person keeps appearing near your workplace, especially without a clear reason, it starts to feel different.

The worker’s question was simple: when should they contact police?

That question showed how unsure they were about the line between caution and overreaction. They did not want to waste police time or turn an odd situation into something bigger than it was. But they also did not want to ignore a pattern that could become a safety problem.

The setting made the concern more serious. A workplace parking lot is where employees arrive, leave, walk alone to cars, and sometimes close up after dark. If someone is sitting there repeatedly and watching the area, employees may start changing their routines without even realizing it. They may rush to their cars, ask someone to walk them out, check mirrors, or wait inside until the person leaves.

The worker did not describe a dramatic confrontation. There was no report of the person charging toward them, making a threat, or blocking the door. But a lack of open confrontation does not always mean a situation feels safe. Sometimes the fear comes from not knowing why someone is there.

That uncertainty is what made the post feel real. The worker seemed to be looking for a practical threshold. Should police be called only if the person approaches them? Only if they follow someone? Only if they make a threat? Or is repeated suspicious behavior outside a workplace enough to ask for help?

There was also a workplace angle. If an employee feels unsafe coming or going, management has a role to play too. The person may be on private property. The business may be able to ask them to leave. If they return after being told not to, the issue could become trespassing. But if no one reports it, management may not know how often it is happening or how uncomfortable employees feel.

The worker’s post sat in that awkward space where something may not yet be an emergency, but it also should not be ignored. The person in the parking lot might have had a harmless explanation. Or they might not have.

That is why the worker wanted advice before waiting too long.

Commenters generally told the worker that they did not have to wait for something worse to happen before telling someone.

Several people suggested starting with management. If the person was sitting in a workplace parking lot without a reason to be there, a manager or property owner could ask them to leave. If the person refused or kept coming back, that would give police more to work with.

Others said the worker could call the nonemergency police line rather than 911 if there was no immediate threat. That would let them report the pattern, ask for advice, or request extra patrols without treating it like an active emergency.

Commenters also urged the worker to write down details. That meant dates, times, the vehicle description, license plate if visible, how long the person stayed, where they parked, and whether they appeared to watch employees, approach anyone, or move when people came outside.

That documentation mattered because a vague report of “someone is always out there” may not go very far. A list showing the same car parked outside on multiple days at the same time looks more serious and easier to explain.

Some commenters also suggested safety steps: do not walk to the car alone if the person is there, ask a manager or coworker for an escort, park in a well-lit area, avoid giving the person personal information, and do not confront them alone.

A few people warned that if the person followed an employee, blocked a car, approached aggressively, or made any kind of threat, the situation should be treated more urgently. At that point, calling 911 could be appropriate.

The larger message was that the worker was not wrong to pay attention. People often second-guess themselves because they do not want to seem paranoid. But patterns matter. A person sitting in a parking lot once may be nothing. A person repeatedly sitting outside the same workplace with no clear reason is worth documenting.

The post did not end with police removing the person or management identifying them. It ended at the point where the worker was trying to decide what counted as enough.

That is often where public-safety concerns begin. Not with a clear crime, but with a pattern that makes people uneasy. A car that keeps returning. A person who always seems to be there. A parking lot that suddenly feels less safe at closing time.

Commenters did not tell the worker to panic. They told them to report the pattern through the right channels, document what they saw, and involve management before the situation grew.

The practical answer was that they did not have to wait until the person did something openly threatening. If the behavior was repeated and made employees feel unsafe, it was reasonable to tell management and call the nonemergency police line for guidance.

Because by the time a parking lot concern turns into a confrontation, the best chance to build a record may already have been missed.