LIKE any woman who enjoys weight-lifting, Chelsie knows exactly what it's like to put up with unwanted male attention in the gym.
But over the past few months, the TikTok user has been regularly harassed by one man in particular – and it took her posting terrifying footage of his behaviour online to finally get him banned.
Last month, the 20-year-old decided to record her workout so she could later analyse her performance.
In the viral clip, Chelsie is seen standing in front of her gym's mirror as she lifted weights.
"I was just trying to work out when this happens," she wrote. "I've never met this guy and he's been harassing me for months."
Out of the corner of the screen, a man dressed in all black started circling Chelsie and trying to talk to her.
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Trying not to engage with him, she continued: "This time I kept my headphones in and tried to ignore him."
At first, this approach seemed to work and the man began walking away.
Terrifyingly, he then spins on his heels, starts aggressively pointing his finger and whispers in her ear that she's a "traitor".
Dropping her weight to the ground, Chelsie instinctively replied: "Don't come here."
She then sarcastically captioned the clip: "Being female is fun."
Her video has now racked up over 31.8 MILLION views – and Chelsie filmed two follow-up videos where she revealed the man has now been banned.
She explained: "When I first had an interaction with this guy, he seemed like a random nice guy.
"He'd come up and talk to people in the gym [and he told me] my form was looking really good."
Initially, the man tried to strike up conversation by giving Chelsie feedback on her workout – which she says she "blew off".
For weeks, she claimed he would come up to her during every workout and would ignore her when she asked to left alone.
After this video blew up, we got his name, he's banned and he can't come back. When I got to the gym last night, they informed me that he tried to come back and the police were called and he was arrested.
Detailing some of his strange behaviour, Chelsie claimed he would share his conspiracy theories and insist he was being followed by black vans.
She continued: "[He told me] his girlfriend is Taylor Swift and she's having his baby and I'm really missing out by not being with him."
For two months, Chelsie claims the gym was "well aware" of his behaviour but weren't doing much because it was "all verbal and not threatening".
After telling him to "f**k off" while she was working out with some friends, Chelsie says the man started following her all around the gym – which eventually led to the incident she caught on camera.
How you can get help
Women’s Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, where you call 999 and press ‘55’ if you can’t safely speak.
- Always keep some money or a bank card on you, including change in case you need a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to move towards an exit if you are inside the house and get your phone in case you need to call for help.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other potential weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom.
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available every day from 10am-6pm or email [email protected]
SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – [email protected].
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
Insisting that she was "never unsafe", the keen gym-goer claims the regulars and staff members would always walk her to her car and keep an eye on him.
Initially, she only shared the footage on Snapchat where it was seen by one of the staff members who immediately came to check on her.
She explained: "After this video blew up, we got his name, he's banned and he can't come back.
"When I got to the gym last night, they informed me that he tried to come back and the police were called and he was arrested.
"They found he already had a warrant out for stalking another girl."
Although viewers were relieved the gym took action, concerned users urged Chelsie to also take out a restraining order.
"I have 15 years in law enforcement," one said. "Get a restraining order and ALWAYS watch your surroundings when you leave the gym."
"Be careful out there," another added. "Stalkers don't stop just because. Get that restraining order as suggested."
"Hey girl," a third wrote. "I had a similar situation. Switch up your routine. Don't go to the gym everyday at the same time. Walk a different route too."
For more real life stories, this mum-of-eight revealed she's viciously trolled and people call her a s**g & scrounger – she's even had to call police over death threats.
And this mum-of-seven revealed she's trying for another baby and having quintuplets – now they’re 1 & crawling it’s a madhouse.
Plus this woman revealed her mum gave birth to her at 18 years old, people mistake them for sisters
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