Woman Walks Into Empty Dollar General, Ends Up Calling 911 on Herself: ‘Could Have Ended Badly’

Sandra Vasquez thought she was making a quick late-night snack run — instead, she ended up locked inside a closed Dollar General with alarms blaring and police on the way.

Vasquez said she arrived at the store around 9:45 p.m., assuming it closed at 10 p.m., and walked right in without realizing employees had already shut down for the night, according to People, which published her account Wednesday, June 24.

Vasquez documented the bizarre ordeal on Thursday, May 28 on TikTok, opening one video with, “Watch me commit my first crime,” before detailing how her shopping trip took an unexpected turn.

“I noticed something seemed off while I was walking around and some aisles were darker than the others,” Vasquez said, per the outlet. “Also, it seemed quiet.”

She initially chalked up the dim lighting and eerie silence to employees dimming the lights to encourage shoppers to finish up, even joking in her video that the store felt “kind of creepy.” That theory fell apart the moment she reached the register. That’s when the store’s security alarm started going off.

“I was definitely confused but mostly scared,” she said, according to the report. “I knew right away I was alone in the store. I also figured I was about to be in big trouble, lol.”

Rather than sneak out unnoticed, Vasquez called 911 on herself, worried about how the situation might look on the store’s security cameras.

“I felt it was the responsible thing to do,” she explained, per the report. “There’s so many cameras. I could just imagine the employees watching the cameras and putting it on social media or something.”

Police arrived and quickly determined it was an honest mistake, according to the article. “The officers were professional and understanding,” she said. “They actually thought it was quite amusing.”

She was sent on her way without consequence, but the ordeal weighed on her enough that she returned to the store the next day to check on staff and apologize to management.

“I asked if anyone got fired and he said none had,” she said, per the report. “I was relieved.”

“The most surreal part was realizing I was standing in a store with no employees around and an alarm going off,” she said. “I was really scared the minute I knew I was there alone. It could have ended badly.”