As The Raven Dreams Podcast - 2 TRUE Scary Online Dating Horror Stories (Vol. 2)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Quick warning, the subject in these stories may be sensitive to some viewers, and viewer discretion is advised, as always. And if you have a story you want to send my way, please do so at astherravendreams.com slash submit. Thank you. Back in the early 2010s, I was a very lonely person, and I was a bit desperate when it came to dating. I would oftentimes find myself putting myself back together after a failed attempt at love. and setting sail into the ocean of other desperate and lonely people. I won't mention the specific dating site that I commonly used for the sake of not wanting the company to sue me or something stupid like that. So I'll just call it OK Fish.

Starting point is 00:00:58 I had very little luck on OK Fish. In fact, every date that I went on seemed to end the same way. I ended up paying for the meal or whatever fun thing. we went to go do, and would then end up ghosted. Or I would get a message about how they enjoyed it, but they didn't see there being a future. I wasn't really looking for someone to marry at the time. I was just looking for a friend with mutual interests that I could spend some time with. And maybe it could turn into something more.

Starting point is 00:01:34 I know, it sounds pathetic, and it was, but whatever. I decided I would just keep trying, and I would just keep trying, and eventually I would end up finding the exact person I was looking for. This event took place, I believe, in 2012, and was one of the things that got me to finally delete my OK Fish profile. After spending the day going through my inbox and clearing out all the spam and scam bots, you know the type, the send me Bitcoin and you can come over to my place, kind of spam bots,

Starting point is 00:02:07 I noticed that I had a message from someone with the username Jumpin' Josh 87. It was a pretty basic message that seemed like a real person. It basically said, Hey, I saw your profile and wanted to introduce myself. Let me know if you're interested in talking. As far as messages go, it was a bit stiff, but I kind of liked that. It was actually nice to get a message from someone that was direct and to the point. And none of that, oh, you're so beautiful or please sleep with me, crap, that usually came through on these apps.

Starting point is 00:02:44 Because of how direct he was, I decided I would go ahead and message him back, just with a basic, Hey, I'm interested. What would you like to talk about? After a while, he hadn't replied yet, so I went ahead and closed the app and moved on with my day. Around six that evening, I got a message back from him. He apologized for not getting back to me sooner and just told me that he was at work, so he hadn't seen my message. I told him that was fine, and then I figured I would start the conversation off by asking him what it was that he did. He was a bit evasive at first, but I pressed it, mostly out of curiosity, and he told me that he was involved in what he referred to as e-commerce. I wasn't about to ask him what dark web dealings he was.

Starting point is 00:03:35 was likely involved in, as it really wasn't my business. So I moved on from that, and I asked him what he was into. We chatted for a while in the app. We talked about things like what kind of movies we liked, what kind of music we were into, and various other things that people that just met seem to talk about. After a bit, we moved the conversation from OK Fish to text message, as it was easier to get the notification. and the conversation was actually starting to interest me.

Starting point is 00:04:10 I thought that Josh was a pretty interesting guy, which I came to find out was his actual name. He was friendly enough, and we had a few similar interests. We had shared a couple of friendly photos of ourselves, and I thought he was fairly attractive, too. So, overall, it was a win. Of course, there was the final test, which would be getting together to me. meet each other, the first date test, which is one that I had had a lot of trouble with in the past. I mentioned to him that I wanted to meet up at some point so we could have a conversation in person, and I told him about how my previous dates had gone.

Starting point is 00:04:52 He mentioned that he would like that, and that we could get dinner at a local bar and grill-style restaurant. We'll just call it peppers. I agreed. I liked peppers, and it would be nice. to go have dinner with him. We agreed on a date and time, and we kept talking until that day rolled around. On the agreed day of our date, Josh was strangely quiet.

Starting point is 00:05:19 I had messaged him earlier in the morning and was pretty excited to get out that evening, but it was complete radio silence from him. I messaged him back around noon and then a couple hours before we were supposed to meet up. Nothing. Not a single message back to acknowledge. knowledge that he had seen my texts, nor anything confirming that we were going to meet up. I was a bit annoyed with this and was about to just call it a loss, when he finally messaged me back about half an hour before we agreed to meet up. The message simply said,

Starting point is 00:05:53 Hey, I'm sorry, I had a family emergency and I haven't been able to respond. Can we reschedule for next weekend? As upset as I was, I wasn't going to let it get to me. We had just met, and this was a first date situation, so he really didn't owe me anything. I just asked him if everything was okay and then asked if he wanted to talk about it. I was trying to be nice with that statement more than anything. I wasn't expecting an actual response, but he texted me back and told me that his mother was in the hospital, that he wanted to be there with her. I wasn't going to pry, nor would I hold that against him.

Starting point is 00:06:34 family is everything. I told him to not worry about me and to spend as much time with her as he needed. I told him that we would get together eventually and to not even think about our date while he was there. He thanked me and agreed that we could get together soon and that he just needed to take care of this. A few days passed, and I hadn't heard from Josh, which was completely understandable given the circumstances. I did message him once or twice, basically just saying that I hope he's doing well, and that I would keep his mother in my thoughts. I wanted to let him know that I was thinking about him, but also didn't want to be pushy.

Starting point is 00:07:18 It's a delicate balance, honestly. He didn't respond much to me for the week, but again, I was okay with it because it made sense with what he was going through. To my surprise, he actually messaged me on Friday night, asking me if I still wanted to meet up with him for dinner at Peppers the next day. I was a bit surprised, but I agreed. We set up for the same time, and all seemed well. The next day rolled around, and it seemed about the same as the last one. I messaged him and didn't get a response.

Starting point is 00:07:56 I was a bit annoyed this time around. While at the same time, I didn't want to be upset with him in case he was still helping his mother. I didn't know why she was in the hospital, if it was a permanent or final kind of situation, but then why agreed to set up a second date if he didn't think he would be able to be there? I messaged him again around noon, and then again a couple hours before our set time for dinner, and got nothing. Again, about half an hour before we were supposed to be meeting up, he finally responds. But this time, it was him saying,

Starting point is 00:08:33 Hey, I'm running a bit late. I'll be there about ten minutes after the hour. At this point, I text him and asked him if he didn't just want to reschedule again, and he replied with, No, I'll be there. Things have been complicated lately. I'm sorry. There's not really much I could have said to that.

Starting point is 00:08:54 I didn't know his situation, so I just agreed and put myself together for our dinner. I got in my car and drove to my local park. peppers, which was about a 15-minute drive. I got a table, I ordered my tea, and I waited. Six rolls around the time that we agreed on, and he wasn't there yet, which fine. 6.10, still nothing. 6.30, and he still wasn't there. Around 10 to 7, I got a text saying,

Starting point is 00:09:28 pulling into the parking lot now, which, I'll be honest, kind of set me off mentally at first. But again, I took a deep breath and decided that if nothing else, I would give him a chance, and we would have a nice dinner. This thought was completely thrown out the window when I finally saw Josh walk into the restaurant. At first, I saw him, and I was a bit shocked

Starting point is 00:09:55 at how different he looked from his pictures, including the ones that he had been sending me through text. His hair was a mad at. he was balding in the back, and he had also put on a good amount of weight between whenever the pictures were taken and that day. I'm not really a judgmental person. I can see past appearances,

Starting point is 00:10:14 but I was still surprised at the contrast between the person I was expecting to see and the person I was seeing. Then I saw the wheelchair. It wasn't Josh in the wheelchair. He was the one pushing it. In the chair sat an old woman that looked like, like she was very heavily sedated.

Starting point is 00:10:35 She had a neck brace on, her face was heavily bruised, and her left leg was in a full-on cast. She looked like she was pretty beat up, though. Again, she also looked like she was very heavily sedated. They both approached the table, and he sort of shoved the old woman, who, I assumed was his mother, over to the wall next to the table, and then pulled up a seat across from me. He smiled at me, and I kind of just stared with my mouth slightly open. I know it's not polite to stare at people, and even less so to stare at those that are in her state, but I was shocked.

Starting point is 00:11:17 I asked him if that was his mother, to which he said it was, and then he pulled her chair closer to the table. I just remember him patting her leg and saying something along the lines of, Why don't you say hi, ma? She was completely unresponsive to him and just stared at me with her glossed over eyes. He then shook her leg and said it again, but this time sounded angrier. I heard what sounded like a grunt of pain coming from the poor old woman,

Starting point is 00:11:47 and the look he gave her was nothing shy of terrifying. I won't repeat what he called her, but he strung together some expletives at her and then grabbed the menu before letting out an angry sigh. Now, I'm not really sure how to better explain what was going on in my brain. I was confused as to who this man in front of me was. I was shocked that he brought his mother, which seemed incredibly out of it. I was just as shocked at how disrespectful he was being towards her,

Starting point is 00:12:21 and I was completely unsure of what I should do. Out of nowhere, he started talking to me about the hospital, his mother was at the previous week. He starts telling me about how the doctors don't know Jack, how the nurses were all terrible at their jobs. He goes into detail about how much the food sucked, about how rude the various employees were to him, and much, much more.

Starting point is 00:12:47 He almost made it sound like he was the one in the hospital instead of her. At one point, I accidentally asked how his mom ended up in the hospital. and yes, it was an accident. I wasn't going to ask. It was just one of those things you think about and then your mouth starts going without you thinking about it. When I asked, he kind of chuckled and then looked at his mother and then back at me.

Starting point is 00:13:15 He then says, well, Ma and I had a bit of a disagreement the other day, and then she had a bit of an accident. He chuckled again and then nudged his mother. Paint that right, Ma? It was an accident. I once more heard that same grunt of pain come out of the old woman beside him, and he just stared down at the table with a sickening grin on his face. I stared at him, and he stared at the table, and I absent-mindedly asked him,

Starting point is 00:13:48 what kind of accident? Like a car accident? He laughed again, and then looks up at me. "'Look, unless you know, the better, just in case. "'It was an accident, and it happened because she's clumsy "'and doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut. "'The look on his face as he said that was just nothing short of sickening. "'It was the kind of look that basically screamed,

Starting point is 00:14:14 "'I did this to her and I'm not afraid of doing it again.' "'Then he said, don't worry about it. "'You don't look like you're as clumsy as ma. I doubt this would ever happen to you. At this point, I dropped it, and I told him that I needed to use the restroom. I hadn't ordered anything but the tea, so I didn't really feel bad about sneaking out the front door and ghosting him.

Starting point is 00:14:41 It wasn't him I was worried about, though. It was her. I wanted to call the cops, but I didn't know Josh's last name. I couldn't call the hospital to report the abuse, because I had no idea where he had taken her. The next day, I actually drove down to the station and spoke with an officer about my options and what I could do. The only thing I knew about the man was that his name was Josh, and I had his phone number. They wrote up a report, took my info and what I had on him, and they pretty much told me they would look into it.

Starting point is 00:15:18 I did get some very angry text messages from him that same night and the next day, I didn't reply at all. I have no idea what ended up happening to his mother, but I hope the police at least did something to look into what was going on with them, and I really do wish I could have done more. After this event, I blocked his number, and I then deleted my OK Fish profile. This was the nail in the coffin for me,

Starting point is 00:15:48 and I was completely done with online dating. To start this story off, it's probably best that I give some context. I'm currently a 30-year-old woman and am married with a child. Back when this took place in 2015, I was 25 and hadn't yet met my husband. I've always been a fairly small woman, like just under five foot, and rather skinny. On top of this, to say that I've always looked really young is an understatement. I 100% have a baby face.

Starting point is 00:16:36 Back when I would use dating apps like Tinder and all the other ones that I honestly can't remember, I would constantly get messages from guys asking me how old I was, despite the fact that it was a prominent part of my bio that I was well into my 20s. I would tell them how old I was, and sometimes they would reply joking about how I looked like I was no older than 14. Sometimes the responses would go from these jokes to the level of super creep. And the guys would then comment at how attracted they were to the fact that I looked like a teenager. One time I even got a guy that seriously messaged me,

Starting point is 00:17:20 telling me what he wanted to do to my childlike face. Yeah, he used those words exactly. Childlike. Let me tell you, nothing gets us late. going like knowing that a guy is a legit, peto, creeper. I would just respond to the weirdos by saying that I was reporting them to the authorities and then block them. It was mostly an empty threat, really, but looking back,

Starting point is 00:17:49 I probably should have reported some of them. I'm sure the FBI could have found something on them. I hope I at least gave some of them enough of a scare to screw off and leave people alone. So, obviously, being a petite and young-looking woman, but being of legal age, attracted some of the very best men out there. That part should be apparent. There were a few guys that I matched with that weren't super creeps, but those never really went anywhere,

Starting point is 00:18:22 and for the most part, we mutually moved on after there wasn't much of a connection. Honestly, I had very little luck with online dating, and I was pretty much just perusing the apps for the fun of it by the time that this happened. I'd been talking to people on Tinder for around eight months, and not one of them had made much of an impression. Then, as would be expected, with me at the end of my rope with people and ready to uninstall the app permanently, I got a message from a guy that I matched with named Trevor. I honestly don't remember why I swiped on him.

Starting point is 00:19:05 I was probably in one of those weird mindsets where I just swiped on everyone. It happened more than I would like to admit. Anyways, I get a pretty normal message from Trevor. It basically just says, hey, you're really pretty. And that's about it. At first, I was going to ignore it mostly because it was, pretty generic, but then I figured why not give this guy a shot.

Starting point is 00:19:31 I told him thank you, and then asked if he only swiped on me because he thought I was attractive. He said that was one reason, but he actually matched with me because I mentioned how much I loved Ryan Reynolds as an actor in my profile. I'd honestly forgotten what my profile said, but this response actually got a chuckle out of me.

Starting point is 00:19:53 We talked for a while through messages, and just spent a bit of time getting to know each other. Overall, conversations went pretty normal, and there weren't any red flags that I could see when we chatted. After a few days of messages, a few days of texts, and then a couple phone calls, we decided that we wanted to meet up for a first date. I was pretty excited.

Starting point is 00:20:20 He seemed like a nice guy, and we had agreed to meet up at a local coffee shop, That was a few miles from my place. Overall, it seemed like it was going to be a pretty normal meetup. The night got there and we met up at the coffee house. The conversation while we had our coffee seemed incredibly genuine. There was nothing about it that made me think that anything was wrong with the situation. We spoke about ourselves, who we were, what we did, basically the things that people just getting to know each other conversed about.

Starting point is 00:20:54 After we finished our coffee, he made a comment that he really wasn't ready to head home yet, and that he wanted to go to the park to watch the sunset. Honestly, this was one of those comments that absolutely won me over. I loved the idea of ending a first date watching the sunset in a park. We got up and walked outside, and he mentioned that he could drive us there if I didn't want to follow him. I kind of paused when he mentioned this. I started to hear a bit of an alarm bell in my head.

Starting point is 00:21:28 But at the same time, I was sitting there thinking that this guy was pretty normal, and I'd had a great time. I asked him how far it was, and he told me that it was literally just a couple of blocks away, and for some stupid reason, I decided that was a good enough response for me to go with him. So we walked out to the parking lot, and I got into the passenger seat of his.

Starting point is 00:21:54 his truck. He had an older Toyota Tacoma with a camper cover on the bed, which really didn't stand out as anything important to me at the time. We drove off and out of the parking lot, and he started talking to me about random things. He asked me what I did for work. I told him that I was working at an office as an admin assist, which was true. He asked me about my parents. If I had any siblings, asked me if I had any roommates, and in my ignorance I actually told him all about myself. I told him that my father had passed away a few years back and that I didn't have any siblings,

Starting point is 00:22:37 and then I told him that I only had one roommate. At first, I was a bit confused on why he was randomly asking these questions now and not earlier when we were getting to know each other. Then it kind of clicked. mostly because I realized that we had been driving for a while, much further than a couple of blocks. He was pretty much asking me about my home life to see if anyone would notice if I didn't come home,

Starting point is 00:23:05 and he was asking these questions rapidly like this to distract me. What's worse, is that I pretty much just told him everything he needed to hear. I felt like I was about to have a panic attack for a moment, when it all fell into place. But I kept my calm and took a few deep breaths, all the while focusing on everything around us. I then decided to ask him where the park was that we were going to. He chuckled a bit and told me that it was just down the road. I said okay, and was taking in everything around me.

Starting point is 00:23:42 After a few more moments, he pulls the car in what appeared to be an abandoned lot for a building, just without the building. Basically, it was an empty parking lot with a cement base for a building, but it was completely and totally abandoned. I asked him why we were here, and again, he chuckled before looking over at me. He then said, look, we both know why we're here, and I don't want to have to hurt you, so if you just go along with it, it'll go a lot easier. and then he started to reach down to undo his pants. I was horrified, and I guess it was obvious based on him laughing at me. He then started talking again.

Starting point is 00:24:30 Look, I have a knife in my door on this side if you want to do this the hard way. I'd rather just get it over with and take you back to your car and move on. He stared at me with a serious look and motion toward himself. Then he made the mistake. of trying to put his hand on my face to pull me closer. As soon as his hand got close to my face, I opened my mouth and latched on to one of his fingers. I bit down as hard as I could,

Starting point is 00:24:59 and I kept pushing my jaw together as hard as I possibly could. If it tells you anything, I bit his finger so hard that I swear I felt bone against my teeth. I could taste the blood from his finger as I ripped into the skin. His scream was seriously blood-curdling, and I'm just glad that he focused more on me ripping his finger halfway off than he did the knife that he claimed to have. Obviously, I didn't know if he actually had one,

Starting point is 00:25:28 but I had to assume that he did. After a few seconds, that felt like forever, I let go of his finger and quickly threw the door open, and then I ran in the direction of the closest house. As I ran off, I saw him start the truck and drive away, screeching the tires on the asphalt as he gunned it away from the area. When the person answered the door finally, I explained to them what had happened and asked them to call the cops.

Starting point is 00:25:56 Honestly, as crazy as it may sound, I had completely forgotten that I even had a cell phone in my purse. I was shaking and running on pure adrenaline at that point, and I was basically just yelling at this random person asking them to call the police for me. When the cops did show up, I explained to them the whole situation. I told them that it was a first date and that everything seemed normal, and then told them about how he said he was going to be taking me to the park, but we ended up in the parking lot.

Starting point is 00:26:33 I then explained that he had threatened me and that he attempted to sexually assault me. I described the truck to them, told them which way he went, and then I told them that I had practically bitten one of his fingers off. But, in the end, there wasn't much that could be done, mostly because he was long gone and there was no real proof of what happened. The cops drove me back to my car, and they told me that they would follow up with me if anything happened. They never got back a hold of me, so I have to assume nothing did.

Starting point is 00:27:09 The only real positive that came out of this, was that I learned it was possible to pretty much bite through someone's finger, and I'm pretty sure he'll never forget me. Hopefully he never tried this again, and I can only hope that I was the only person he had ever tried this with. In the end, I deleted my profile, blocked his number, and I moved on from the whole thing as best I could. It really could have been much worse,

Starting point is 00:27:40 and I'm thankful it didn't go that way. Thankfully, as I said earlier, I am now married and have a very happy life, and I plan to keep it that way. So, Trevor, I hope your finger never healed, and also let's never meet again. You absolute creep. So this was two dating app horror stories. I never used dating apps. I never dated in my adult life. So there's that.

Starting point is 00:28:24 If any of you have any dating app horror stories or just first date horror stories, anything like that you want to send them my way, as the Raven Dreams.com slash submit or links down below, I would genuinely appreciate it. I love doing these stories. People seem to enjoy them as genuinely terrifying as they are. And hopefully, these can serve as educational material to some people. some people are creeps that's never going to change unfortunately so it is what it is if you enjoyed the video

Starting point is 00:29:00 please do consider hitting that thumbs up button also subscribe to the channel if you're new and if you would leave me a comment it can be any comment you want write me a two sentence scary story if you want to that sounds kind of cool let's do that if you want to

Starting point is 00:29:16 it's entirely optional but you know I would appreciate Another thing that's optional, but I would appreciate, is if you would consider looking into my channel memberships or my Patreon. For as little as $1 a month, you can get up to 24-hour early access to all of my content. And yeah, I post a lot. And on Patreon, for higher tiers, you get cool stuff like merch and posters and all that good jazz. All that good jazz, apparently. Anyways, I hope you all have a beautiful day,

Starting point is 00:29:46 and I hope I'll see you on the next video. But until then, sleep well.

As The Raven Dreams Podcast - 2 TRUE Scary Online Dating Horror Stories (Vol. 2)

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