- Olympic bronze medalist Ilona Maher suffered a scary experience in a beauty salon this week
- The athlete was encouraged by staff to wait in the premises until the predatory man had gone
- Maher shared her experience with her Instagram followers
She was one of the brightest stars of the Paris Olympics.
But it seems even bronze medal winners such as Ilona Maher are not exempt from awful behavior.
The rugby union player, 28, took to Instagram to warn her 4.1 million followers to be safe when a man accosted her after visiting a beauty salon.
Holding a glass of wine, Maher sighed, “I went and got a pedicure and I went there about an hour [or] an hour and a half before they closed so I was one of the last customers to be in there. As I was in there, employees were leaving [and] all the customers were gone. It was just me and two ladies.”
Continuing that she was in the middle of getting her treatment when the incident began, Maher revealed a man walked into the salon asking for a pedicure as well.
“So they sit him down and you know we’re both getting worked on,” she recalled. “And mine gets done but I got regular nail polish, I didn’t get gel this time so it means it has to take time to dry.”
“I wait there for, no joke, probably an extra half hour [to] 25 minutes from when it was all done. Then they finished up on him, [and] he leaves. Then finally they’re like ‘OK, we’ll close you out now.’”
‘It’s insane out there’
While Maher was ready to leave, the workers apologized for keeping her longer than they initially expected and explained their reasoning.
“Then they said, ‘Sorry we kept you so long. We just wanted you to be here with us while he was there.’ And I was like I totally understood then why they did that,” she said. “It’s a crazy world out there.”
Things took a turn for the worse when the man waited outside for Maher.
“As I’m walking out, this guy looks me in my eye and says ‘Can I go home with you?’ And then I’m like, ‘No.’ and he says, ‘Why not?’ I just keep walking,” she said. “It’s insane out there.”
After the night’s drama, Maher encouraged her fans to be vigilant.
“I want you to know you can keep me for as long as you want. You can keep me for another hour,” she added. “I’ll cancel my plans if you want me for safety or you want somebody there just [to] be a presence.
“Since I did my vigilante stuff tonight I bought myself mozzarella sticks. That’s my oven that’s going and I’m having a glass of wine. Seriously, stay safe ladies, travel together. Do your thing.”
Although Maher turned the comment section off her post, it racked up almost half a million likes.
