BOZEMAN — A Bozeman woman made a routine stop at the Town Pump near Amsterdam Lane on April 10 when she had an unexpected encounter with a group of people that left her feeling scared and unsafe.
“I’m from Montana and I would have never thought something like this would happen at two o’clock in the afternoon in a gas station I always go to,” said Kimberly Hohenstein.
Hohenstein stopped for gas at the Town Pump off Amsterdam Road near the interstate.
“I put the gas nozzle back, and opened the car door,” said Hohenstein.
She hopped in the car and was just about to shut the door when she noticed a little boy standing in her way.
“He was probably about five years old,” said Hohenstein. “He was facing me, saying, 'Come here, come here, please, please, please.'"
As Kimberly began to panic, she nudged the little boy away from her vehicle.
“Get out of here,” she told the boy.
That’s when she noticed a woman standing behind the car door, holding it open, and a man standing on the passenger side of her vehicle.
“My first thought was, get your camera,” said Hohenstein.
Kimberly began taking photos of the people who showed up at the gas station in two vans.
“I felt that something wasn’t right—I felt really uncomfortable,” said Hohenstein.
She went inside the Town Pump to alert a manager and a group of women from one of the vans then followed her inside.
In the photos Hohenstein took, you can see the Town Pump manager approaching the vehicles. The women hop back inside, and they speed off.
Leaving Kimberlee thinking, what just happened?
“It’s hard to process — I think my fight or flight kicked in,” said Hohenstein. “Looking back I think I could’ve handled it differently, but it was very scary.”
Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer says if you see something suspicious, please call law enforcement immediately.
He says it’s difficult to investigate an incident after a significant amount of time has passed, but they are continuing to investigate the incident.
