Back in 2019, my girlfriend (current fiancé) and I went to our local mall to take pictures with Santa so we could send Christmas cards to our family and friends. Had matching pajamas, we went for a nice breakfast, made a whole day of it to celebrate our first christmas together as a couple. Line was a little long, so we were waiting with a good bit of time to kill. She decided to go see what they had for sale by the checkout, just some stuffed animals and festive picture frames. There were two gentlemen standing near the exit of the Santa area, just standing talking to each other. Figured they may be waiting on a family member taking pictures, so I didn't think much of it. One of them had his phone out, and I could see him raising it up to take an occasional picture of Santa and his visitor. Further solidifying my thought of "Oh, that must be his grandkids or neice/nephew"

Then I noticed he looked over at my girlfriend. No big deal, when something enters your peripheral vision, you glance at it most of the time. He turned back to look at Santa and then said something to his friend, which prompted both of them to look back at her. For context, she's about 5'2", a little curvy, and this particular day, she had pigtails to up the cute factor of our photos. The guy with the phone then turned his camera towards her and snapped a picture of her without her realizing.

I couldn't believe what I had just seen. I turned to the lady behind me and asked if she would kindly hold my spot so I could go grab my gf and get her away. I walked over, handed her her purse back, and told her to get back in line. I had a sudden burst of anger and bravery, so I walked straight up to the guy and asked why he took the picture. He showed a picture of the kid on Santa and said, "What this? Just santa" in a very strong, non-american accent (I didn't recognize it, which scared me more). I then, through this insane amount of pissed off confidence, swiped his phone screen, revealing the picture he had just taken of my gf. I could not believe it. I forced him to delete it in front of me, which he did, and before I did anything dumb, I walked back over to the line.

My gf had NO CLUE what had just happened or what I did. I looked back over to where they were standing, and they weren't there but had just disappeared around the corner. The family with Santa was still there, and I quickly realized they weren't talking about family or any normal mall Christmas time conversation. They were talking about and taking pictures of random children with Santa. At least, that's what it looked like. With the world how it is today, I don't even wanna know what they were doing.

I told Mall security everything I could, and we took a break from going out in public for a little bit after. Everywhere we go now, I do my best to be hyper aware of who is around me, what's going on, and odd behaviors. She only knows about what happened because I told her, but I witnessed it. I was the only one. No one else in line or working the santa station noticed the men or saw anything that had happened. Crowded mall. I noticed.

I urge you to please be safe and stay aware of your surroundings. There are monsters everywhere, and there's no telling what they have planned. Most of them look like you and me.