As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 130 - Scary Late Night and Stalker Stories - 10 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

Welcome to the chilling 130th episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today, we will step into the shadowy corners of reality, where everyday life takes an eerie twist & ordinary people experience the extraordinary. Today we will be diving into stories about The horrors of late night, and scary stranger/stalker stories! So, turn down the lights, tune in, and let the haunting tales of everyday people take you down that dark and creepy road. Remember, these aren't just stories... these are true experiences that remind us that our world can truly be scarier than fiction. Have a Story To Submit? ➤ https://www.astheravendreams.com Or Post to the Subreddit ➤ https://reddit.com/r/TheRavensDream Support the channel for Early Access AND more! Patreon ➤ https://patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Join ➤ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkW0ihdMHfBUjQrMKjRto6g/join Or Check out the Merch Store! ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in today's Video... AlwaysOnTheRun, Cindy Cleveland, Sandra, Fanfictionmusiclover, Carla Base, Kenneth, Heather, Iron_Deficient_Nerd... As Well As Any Author That Has Requested Anonymity. 'As The Raven Dreams' is a community where we explore the darker parts of human existence through true and harrowing stories. From sinister encounters with strangers and stalkers, to terrifying experiences that defy explanation and unsettling mysteries that linger in the shadows, I am here to tell you the most haunting narratives ever whispered. Much Love, and Sleep Well... ----- #TrueScaryStories #AsTheRavenDreams #RedditStories ➤ Stories include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Viewer discretion is always advised. ➤ ALL Audio of this Podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format, without explicit permission ➤ If you like any of the following stories, consider subscribing! - Dark Web horror stories, creepy lets not meet stories, stalker stories, Glitch In The Matrix Stories, Unexplained Horror stories, Paranormal stories, cryptid encounter stories, Crazy ex lover stories, creepy neighbor stories, quantum immortality, true scary stories from reddit, or any other True horror Stories! ➤ And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And profite. Viarai, the voice that we love that we love. If you have a story you would like to hear featured on this podcast, please go to as the ravendreams.com and click the button to submit your story. Also, if the platform you're listening on has the option to rate this podcast, please, consider are doing so. And thank you. So, I just got home from the police station due to a related event that happened two months ago. Now that there was a slight update on the situation, I wanted to share this here. I'm an avid walker, and I love walking at night the most. I love the quiet and stillness of the

world at night. There are no cars driving around, no honking, not even dogs barking. depending on my mood it's just the slight padding of my feet and the clicking of my dog colonel's feet or maybe some music in my ears it was always so therapeutic to me so per my norm on this night i put on my workout clothes pulled my hair up and got colonel on his leash and headed out the door my walk was typically around the block and if we were feeling up to it we may cut through part of the walking trail across the street That night I was tired, but I still needed to walk, so I was just planning on walking around the neighborhood. As we walked, I became lost in thought, enjoying the peace and solitude of the night, as well as thinking of my plans for the following day. Over the hill in front of me, I saw the headlight of an oncoming vehicle that seemed to slow down as it passed me. It continued on, so I thought nothing else of it at the time. Shortly after, I heard the low whirring sound of a motor from behind me. A car was now coming from the opposite direction.

I watched the headlights grow wider as it got closer to me, and in my peripheral vision, I saw the car slow to a halt until it was matching my walking speed. I, of course, looked over as they rolled down the window. I immediately noticed that there was only the driver in the vehicle. Colonel was immediately doing his protective growl, but it was quiet. He knew he wasn't supposed to do it, as he typically did it to all strangers at first, but I also know that it's something to pay attention to. Dogs aren't typically wrong when it comes to knowing a person, right?

He greeted me with a smile and asked me for directions to the closest gas station. I thought it was kind of odd because, if you were from the area, you knew of the two closest ones. But if you weren't from around the neighborhood, you may not know about the one that was hidden away. But if that's the case, why were you in this area in the first place? The road that I was walking was all residential. It wasn't a main road that had a lot of businesses on it. You either lived here or knew someone that did. Keeping this in mind, I just told him the direction of the larger, more known gas station in the area. He thanked me, and then, to my surprise, he asked me if I needed a ride.

I thought this was weird. I was clearly walking by choice. I had active wear on and had my dog. But I let it go, letting out a slight laugh and politely declining, saying that I was enjoying my walk. He nodded, thanking me again and drove off. I watched as he drove past me, and instead of turning left, like I had explained, he turned right. This immediately put me off of this whole situation.

Did he just stop to talk to me? Did he just want to offer the ride to get me in his car? Whatever the case was, I didn't want to go towards the car, so I turned around. I had only gotten halfway through my walk when I saw the car, so turning back, I just had to take a left and then down the end of that road and across the street. I picked up my pace, and Colonel quickly picked up my plans as well. He moved to my right, keeping himself between me and the road. After turning left, I was feeling more at ease, knowing that I was almost home.

But then I saw a tree being illuminated by something more than just a streetlight. It was headlights. Slowly I watched a car turn right onto the street that I was on. Colonel was immediately on guard again. watching the car as it slowly approached us and once again came to a stop. It was the same car, only this time the passenger door opened and a man got out. Colonel lost it. He started barking and snarling like crazy, which terrified me even more.

I started backing up, but Colonel stayed in place barking. I tried pulling on him, but he wouldn't move. I wasn't about to leave my faithful dog either. The man continued to approach me, but as soon as he got by Colonel, he tried to go for a kick, but Colonel was faster, and immediately latched onto his leg. I was freaking out, not wanting him to get hurt, but I didn't know what to do. The guy was screaming and flailing and demanding that I get the dog off of him, but I was frozen. Finally, I called for Colonel and he let go, but continued barking and jumping at the guy. He ran back and jumped back into the car, and then they sped off.

I stood there for several seconds, taking in everything that had just happened. When I finally came to, Colonel was at my side whimpering. I was worried he had been hurt, so I looked him over right there, but there wasn't a scratch on him. I hugged him as I couldn't have been more thankful for him in that moment, and we ran back home. I was standing in front of my neighbor's house and looked at work. around one last time, I didn't want to go in my house in the case that they came back, and they would then see where I lived. When I saw the roads dark and empty, I quickly ran inside my home, locking the doors.

I ran to grab my phone, feeling like an idiot for not taking it with me for once. I didn't feel like listening to the music, and since that's all I used my phone for while I walked, I had decided to leave it at home that night. I called the police, and they said that they would send someone out. Shortly after, two cops arrived and took my statement, and I gave them as much information as I could remember. Unfortunately, I could tell the car was dark, either gray, maybe black, and other dark metallic colors, but I didn't get the make and model. I also gave a description of the guys in it, but that's about all I could do.

They said they would contact me if anything came up. They also did a quick sweep of the area, but didn't find anyone, unfortunately. This was a terrifying situation for me, and I fear what could have happened to me if I didn't have Colonel with me. However, I don't like to live in fear. I chose to learn from this experience. I got a wristwrapped to carry my phone with me, always, and I also have a small can of mace that fits on my keychain.

But, as I mentioned in the beginning, I had recently gone to the police station. Why? That's because I got a call from one of the officers that was there that night, asking me to come in and look at some pictures. They had received a report of a similar incident that happened nearby at a local bar. A woman was leaving, walking home, when she was stopped by a car asking if she needed a ride. and she said that she was going to take it until she approached and saw a man in the back seat. When she saw this, she declined, but the guy in the back got out trying to pull her in. Thankfully, she had screamed enough to catch the attention of people nearby and they took off.

Her description of the vehicle and the two men matched mine. And being close to the area, they suspected that it was the same guys. But this time, one of the witnesses caught the type of vehicle. And when they showed me pictures of different ones, I was able to confirm that it was the same kind. So, now, there are at least two reports of these men trying to snatch women. And while I'm happy to hear that they have more information and are taking this seriously, I'm now worried all over again. I worry if they'll continue to try.

I worry if they have been successful and no one knows. However, I will be amping up my safety even more now. If they come back, I will be prepared. Hopefully, they just get caught before it comes to that. I've had multiple internet stalkers in my life. Nine, to be precise. Three of them were genuinely scary. One might say that I should learn my lesson and shut social media down, but I'm a self-published author and artist, and the only way to promote my work is via the internet.

Also, why should I run and hide and not display my talents because of a few delusional lunatics? This must be part and parcel of being a creator. This was 2013, and I ran two blogs, a Facebook page, and a Twitter. I'll keep it vague so as to not identify myself, but something happened that year that was historically significant. History nerds worldwide were excited. I had drawn a caricature of a crazy historian involved in the event that went viral online. Because of this, I gained numerous followers and attention, including from a famous author who happened to be my celebrity crush.

Some attention was pretty negative and even vicious. But I made real friends out of it. Life was good. I also had a Tumblr where I blogged about this history topic. The blog sort of evolved into a classic rock thing after the history community on there became toxic, with other stalkers. That's a story for another day,

but you'd be surprised how nasty and tribal history nerds can be. Eventually, I deleted the entire Tumblr and started afresh. It was such a release. About a year after the history community drama, someone who I will call Autumn Girl, followed me on my new Tumblr and I followed them back without thinking too much of it. I followed people all the time. Then, over on Twitter, I received a message from a woman who I will call Benny, thanking me for following her on Tumblr.

I was shook because I didn't post anything on my new Tumblr that connected me to my Twitter. I didn't post any art that could link me to the viral drawing, no history nerd stuff. It was just about old rock bands and memes and music. I looked through her Twitter likes and noticed that she had liked my comments to a prominent historian way back in 2013. So, somehow, a history community person had found my new Tumblr despite no art nor history on there. I must have done something to identify myself, but I couldn't think of what. I didn't put photos of my real face on Tumblr, but I did put photos on my Twitter. It might have been a post about the band, Queen.

Perhaps she recognized the way I wrote about the band from my old Tumblr. When I scrolled through her posts, I saw that back in 2013 she had posted a photo of my face that hadn't come from Twitter at all. It was my art website profile photo So she was subscribed on there too I'm able to see subscribers email addresses So I could see her email was Autumn Girl Like her Tumblr username The viral drawing was for sale on there

So I guess I was easily findable But posting my photo That's just creepy behavior It showed that she had been watching me for a year before contacting me and had somehow tracked my new Tumblr down without me sharing links. Shortly after, I received a Facebook message from Benny, so she knew my full name. I was furious. I only revealed my first name on Twitter. My art website had a different name, I write novellas under a separate pen name, and I had never put any part of my name on Tumblr.

I went to check my other serious blog that was strictly from my books, and surprise, Benny was on there, too. It was linked to my art website, because I'd draw my own covers, and directed people to buy my art from there. At a guess, I think she had stalked all the pages related to the history community and found my face in there. But she must have been operating under a fake profile. She wasn't in any of my Facebook groups. groups I had left because of the crazy fighting in the history community. I simply assumed that she was one of those stalker trolls. I blocked Benny on Facebook, as I don't allow strangers,

but stupidly decided to communicate with her on Twitter just to see what she wanted and who she really was. She acted like a massive superfan, tweeting me all day, every day. My phone was vibrating constantly in my pocket. pocket at work. Mostly she was bragging, showing me all the stuff that she received for free at events, which, I suspect, were actually the spoils from a serious shoplifting habit. She also claimed to have a range of rare diseases and kept sending me photos of piles of pills that she was supposedly prescribed. One morning I woke up at 7 a.m. and my phone buzzed 36 times. All tweets from her in the early hours of the morning. That was the final straw. I blocked her on every platform. The following part is my fault.

In the past, I had a lot of problems with my family who are highly dysfunctional. Back in my angry young student days, I vented about my family problems on Twitter. Benny also had an abusive mother and found my years-old tweets and commiserated with her own very wild stories of parental mistreatment. I really regret not deleting these tweets. The moment I blocked her, she went through the electoral register, which we shouldn't have been on in the first place, and doxed my mother on Twitter. She sent my tweets about my mom to her Facebook,

which caused an almighty row at home. She wrote to my celebrity crush author telling him what a lunatic I am with a demand to stop following me. Worse, she tracked down one of the history freaks, a previous stalker, and falsely claimed that I had racially abused her as she's half Japanese. I am autistic, and she contacted the National Autistic Society to ask if vain narcissistic behavior was a symptom of autism, tagging me in it from a new account, so I got the notification. She contacted other followers of mine who I knew from university, and told them to pass messages on,

complete with knife emojis and photos of blades that she had bought off the internet. And she was apparently cursing me with witchcraft spells. To my relief, there was a sudden hiatus where she was harassing someone else. I thought it was over, until a year later. I was on holiday in 2015 when she reappeared with a new Twitter. In late 2014, I got into doll collecting and photography. So, from seeing me comment on someone's Tumblr post, blocking didn't work properly back then, she started messaging my friend that I still play with Barbies.

I don't tell people about my doll collection. It's strictly between me and the fellow adult collector community. There was really no escape. Benny had come for my history nerding. She'd come for my art and writing. She'd gone for my celebrities, and now she was interfering with my doll hobby. More knife photos were sent, for which I called the police,

who simply advised me to delete social media, and with it all my book in art sites. But no. I decided to play her at her own game. She began bragging about her art skills and how she was better than the autistic doll freak. I did a reverse image search on her painting, and it brought me to an art site for Autumn Girl.

She was offering herself for commissions with her email address, phone number, and university. Through her university site, I found her real name, and then her home address. That weekend, I signed her up for hundreds of pieces of junk mail, adult magazines, really weird random catalogs about farming and fishing, and then I sat back and watched her have an epic meltdown about how I, who she was now calling her long-term jealous stalker, had planted a GPS tracker on her and was threatening to come to her home. She deleted all of her accounts,

and it's been nine years since I last heard from her. I genuinely think that she was schizophrenic, because just before she deleted everything, she was claiming her family was trying to drug and kill her. Half of her pills were vitamin supplements. She was insane. I hope that she never finds me again. My art is no longer for sale, and I only do book-cover commissions these days.

I hope that she's getting some genuine medication now. I wanted to share something that happened to me just last year. 2023 was a very difficult year for me. My father had died from lung cancer, and my mom and I had never really been close, so when I was distraught and looking for comfort, she wasn't there. They got divorced when I was a teenager, and since then, when it came to my father, she was indifferent and dismissive. I was in a pretty serious relationship, but right before my father passed, my girlfriend left me,

due to me, apparently, being too emotional and not caring enough about her. I had actually just financed an engagement ring and was planning on proposing. Shortly after she left, I learned that she was seeing my so-called friend, and the math didn't add up between us breaking up and her getting with him, which was pretty heartbreaking. So within six months, I lost my dad, my eight-year relationship, with my girlfriend, my friend, and emotionally, my mom. Needless to say, I was in a pretty dark place.

One night, I was having trouble sleeping and contemplating the future of my life. I needed to get out of my little apartment and clear my head, so around midnight, I decided to just drive around. Sometimes a quiet drive on an empty road late at night, can't. be pretty therapeutic. At the time, I just drove where I wanted. I didn't really have a destination in mind. I didn't use GPS. I just drove and turned where I was drawn to turn. I didn't even care if I was back the next day for work, or if I came home at all at that point. I'd been driving for a few hours at this point, but I wasn't quite ready to go home yet. However, I was not. I was going to need to refuel.

I finally pulled off the highway when I saw the next exit for gas. When I rolled into the gas station, it was honestly pretty unremarkable. It wasn't the big ones that I was used to, like Casey's or Quick Trip, I'm from the Midwest, so I don't remember the name of it. There were two pumps, and it looked pretty ancient. The screen was digital and based on the looks of the place, I'm sure that was fairly new for them. Another thing that made it seem new was that it couldn't even take cards at the pump.

You had to go inside. So I made my way into the store to pay. Next to the store, there was a woman sitting on the concrete, in front of the ice box. She looked pretty normal, in the sense that she was wearing shorts, a tank top, and flip-flops. She had shoulder-length, dark curly hair, and appeared to be playing some game on her phone with a severely cracked screen. She looked up at me and smiled, and I just nodded back to her and went inside. I bought a candy bar and 20 bucks worth of gas, and the attendant bid me a good night. As I was walking back to my car, someone called out to me just saying,

Excuse me, sir? I was the only one around, so I assumed it was towards me. I turned around to see the same woman as earlier walking up to me. Seeing her walking closer to me, I could tell that she looked a little rough. Her legs and feet were really dirty. The shirt was pretty faded and looked almost too big on her, and she honestly just looked tired. And, to be honest, I sympathized with her.

Maybe that was my fault. She asked me if I had a cigarette she could have, and I declined. I didn't smoke, so I just apologized. I got to my car, took the cap off my tank, and she seemed to just be pacing in the parking lot, looking around. I felt bad, so I pulled out a few bills that I had and waved over to her. I asked if she might be able to buy a pack with it. She smiled and thanked me a dozen times before. running into the gas station.

I began filling up when she came back outside drinking a soda. I made eye contact with her, and she walked over to the pump I was at. She held up the bottle and said something about it being cheaper and better for her than cigarettes anyways. I laughed and agreed with her, and she again thanked me, holding out her hand and telling me her name. I had no reason to lie, so I did the same. We had a very short conversation while I was refueling.

Where are you from? It's quite hot out right now. Shared some grievances about hating the heat. But when I was finished was when things took a hard turn. I shut the door to my tank and nodded to her to signal that I was leaving when she stopped me. She put her hand on my chest, and she asked me if I would take her home with me. I stepped back. again, laughing.

Sometimes I often do that in awkward situations. Her smile faltered a bit, and she said that she was being serious. I then politely declined, saying that I wasn't interested in that, and her smile completely vanished. She threw her arms down to her side, and much like a child throwing a tantrum, she started screaming. She was calling me names. She said I was just like all the others.

I was taken aback by this outburst and slowly backed away from her. I was walking to my door so I could just get out of there, but she seemed to notice that, too. This lady jumped on the hood of my car, crawling across it to the driver's door and stood in front of it screaming. I was trying to calm her down and reason with her as stupid as that was. Why did I need to explain to a stranger why I didn't want them to come home with me? But no amount of reasoning seemed to be working, as she pulled out a knife. It looked like just a plain old kitchen steak knife. I couldn't even begin to figure out where she was concealing it.

She held it up, ready to strike me, and I took off towards the building. I didn't even notice the attendant was standing outside watching us. We made eye contact, and before I could say anything other than, I just... He motioned for me to step aside, and he made his way towards the woman who was now kicking and slicing my poor car with this knife. I watched as they yelled at each other, and she charged at him, but he smoothly dodged her, grabbed her hand that was wielding the knife, causing her to drop it. He then wrestled her to the ground, where he held her there. He hollered for me to grab something in the store, which turned out to be a package of zip ties, and he bound her wrist behind her. and brought her over to sit by the pump, where she continued to kick at it, with blood running down her leg.

I'm guessing that that was from wherever she was keeping that knife. He came over and asked if I was all right, and I told him that I was. He then explained to me that she was a regular around there, and she regularly loitered, mooching off of people, but she rarely went to berserk like that, joking that I must have done something. something to piss her off. I explained what happened while he waited for the police to show up. The man told me he was a retired police officer, so he knew how to handle the situation, not to mention her normal tactics. When the police arrived, they quickly got her up and started talking to her, calling her by name, so they were obviously familiar with her too.

I had to give a statement because I was still paying for my car, so I had to report this all to my insurance, unfortunately. Before she was put in the cop car, she looked over at me and smiled like I had just given her the money for the soda. The man apologized for the scene that she had caused, and afterwards, I was back on the road, ready to go home. The whole event from the time I pulled into that gas station to leaving, only last. I missed it a few hours, but by the time I got home, I was beyond ready to crash. I left my apartment in hopes to clear my head, and I guess in a way it kind of worked. I was going through a lot, and I thought that I was helping another person by giving her some cash, just trying to be friendly, but it all backfired.

If I hadn't reacted fast enough, she could have stabbed me in my shoulder, or worse. Hell, had I decided to take her home, what if I said something there that upset her? Or while we were in the car? Maybe that was her plan from the beginning, but who knows? I'd like to think that she was just having a really bad day, but the fact that she had that knife did not leave me with any good feelings about her. Ultimately, I was just glad that everyone came out of this situation, mostly unscathed. I am in a better place now, for the most part, but more importantly, I hope that she is also in a better state of mind, too.

Hi, Raven. This story could fall under the vacation or late night scary stories. It's both. In the early 1990s, my family went on a summer vacation. We had a nice time and were on our way back in the car that we had rented. It was around 11 p.m. We all needed the bathroom and a snack break and a good old-fashioned rest stop. We were just over the state line between two southern states.

We came to a rest stop area very quickly, and we pulled in. There were a few cars there and some tractor trailers off to the side for the night. My family got out of the car and walked toward the building. As we approached, I saw three people in an apparent heated discussion on the sidewalk. As we got closer, I saw that it was a man and a woman talking to a third person. We couldn't see who the third person was because they were mostly blocked from view by the man and the woman. Suddenly, the man turned away from the third person, and a nearby light in the parking lot illuminated his face. He wore an expression of pure terror.

I realized then that something was horribly wrong. The man quickly grabbed the woman by her arm, and he wore an expression of pure terror. and pulled her toward their car. As they moved away from the third person, I saw the reason for their terror. The third person was a man holding a 45-cali caliber pistol on them. Oddly, he was wearing sunglasses at 11 o'clock at night. I thought that he was going to shoot the man and the woman, but once they had moved, he saw us. They made it to their car and drove out of their fast.

The rest of my family saw all this at the same time that I was. I did. My dad immediately urged us to run. We scattered in different directions, trampling the grass that had big signs saying not to walk on it. I made it to the building alone. I wasn't sure where everyone else had gone, but I didn't see the creep with the gun anymore. I went down the east side of the building. It was dim, and I felt that it was my best chance to hide. I then came upon a bathroom, but decided not to trap myself in a place like that. I kept going, wondering what the man had planned to do to us. Was he going to kill us? If he did, he would probably leave our bodies in the woods. Animals would scatter our bones and no one would ever know what happened to us. We'd be one of those

unsolved cases. How did a whole family disappear at the same time? The idea made me very angry, and I was determined to get us out of there alive. So I formulated a plan. My dad had brought his rifle with him, and since we were staying in a rural area during our vacation, he would practice with it. The rifle was in the car. My dad had the keys. The only thing that I could do was try to get back to the car and kick a window in. I continued down the side of the building, and as I reached the corner, I crouched down low to peek around it. it. The creep was not there. No one was there. I made my way along the back of the building and crouched again at the next corner. Again, no creep, thank goodness. I followed along the west

side of the building, which would take me back to the front. At the front corner, I carefully peaked around to see who was in the parking lot. There was no one. I listened. There were no sounds of movement, so I dashed for the nearest vehicle and ducked down behind it. I didn't hear anyone. I looked underneath it for feet, but no one was to be found. So I carefully wound my way towards our parking space, keeping low behind the cars and watching for feet. I was gauging how hard I would have to kick the window in to be able to break it. At last, I reached our vehicle. At the same moment, so did my dad. He quickly unlocked it,

and seconds later the rest of our family came running to the car. We drove out of there as fast as possible. The creep had reached the front of the building as we were exiting the parking lot. I didn't know who he had been tailing or where he had been,

and I felt numb as we drove away into the night, but also, thankful to have gotten out of there safely. This happened to me back in the 80s when I was working at the bank in Richmond. My friend Marty and I would eat lunch together most days. We worked at a data center, where there wasn't much around us except a sub-shop across the street. We would get our food and walk back and eat in our lunchroom.

Most of the time, we would get a 12-inch sub and split it between us. On this particular day, we decided to go and get our normal 12-inch tuna sub and split it. We purchased the sub like we did all the other times and brought it back. We both took half of the sub. I was the first to take a bite. After I bit into the sub, it started crunching, and it wasn't lettuce. Marty was looking at me so funny. I spit it out and ran my fingers through it,

and all throughout the sub were tiny pieces of glass. That freaked us out. I'm so glad that I didn't swallow it. We got both halves of our subs to take back over to the sub shop. We walked in and she looked surprised to see us back. We told her what we found in our food and she thought it was funny. That pissed us off. She asked if we wanted another sub and we said, no, we want our money back.

She went back and got the manager and he acted nonchalant about the whole thing. Well, that put Marty and me into a revenge kind of mood. I could have really been injured. We got our money back and went back to the office. We looked up the number for the health department and Marty called them. She explained what we had just been through and they told us they would check it out. A couple of days go by and the health department calls us back. They went to the shop and they were using a cracked crock pot to store the tuna in.

Well, they gave them 24 hours to get a new crock pot and they needed to discard that tuna immediately. When they went back to check if they had complied, they were still using the same crock pot. I guess they thought it was all still a joke. They ended up getting closed down, and it turned into a car lot. But it is so scary what could have happened if I swallowed that glass. Well, this is my scary sub-story. It may not be the scariest, but it sure as hell freaked me out.

I believe in the power of positive actions. I think that when you put positivity into the universe, positivity comes back to you. For that reason, I tried to spread positive energy, saying hello and smiling, asking people about their day and caring about their response. One summer, I took this to another level. As I walked into Wallyworld one day, I noticed an elderly woman waiting for the trolley that my town provides to take people from here to there in town. It's basically a small bus. It's for the elderly and for students, and the service is free. For everyone else, the cost is very minimal.

After I finished my shopping and exited the store, I noticed the woman was still standing at the trolley stop. I asked her if she was waiting for the trolley, because the schedule on the pole at the stop indicated that the last trolley from this location had left a few minutes before I got there. The woman explained that someone had cut in front of her in line in the store, and she was afraid she had missed the last trolley, but that she knew the trolley driver and was hoping he would come back to pick her up.

Since it had been about 30 minutes since the trolley left, I wasn't convinced that was going to happen. I asked her if she lived nearby, and she said that she lived about a mile away. I told her that if she would allow me, I would be happy to drive her home. She agreed, and we put her shopping cart and groceries in the back of my SUV. I drove her to her home, rolled her shopping cart up the driveway, and left it and her on the front porch of the house. I waited for her to get safely inside, waved to her, and then went about my business, feeling pretty good about myself, actually. Riding high on my good deed, I encountered an older gentleman a week or so later.

He was also stranded by the trolley. I drove him home, and he thanked me, and again I moved on with my life. Here's where the story gets crazy. One evening, I remembered that I was low on gas. The next morning, very early, I was expected to be present in my company's office. I normally work at home, but from time to time we are called in for a meeting or some other get-together at the office. So I decided to drive about a mile and a half from my house to a convenience store gas station to get gas so I wouldn't have to get up extra early and deal with it in the morning.

I normally just wake up in the morning, throw on some leggings in a t-shirt, and start my day. But going into the office meant that I would have to get up extra early to put on makeup, do my hair, and find a reasonable outfit for the office. So, at about dusk, I got in my car and headed to the gas station. I pulled up to the pump, got out, inserted my credit card, and started to fill my car with gas. As I completed gassing up, a young woman approached me. She looked to be in her early 20s and had a really strange look on her face. She said that she'd had an argument with her boyfriend and that he left her at the gas station with no way to get home. She asked me if there was any way I could give her a ride home.

She told me she lived just right up the street, close but too far to walk. I felt a little reluctant. I don't know if it was just kind of a feeling, but I agreed, telling her I had to go into the gas station store and get one more thing and that I would be right back. When I entered the store, the clerk had a weird look on her face. She asked me what the young woman had said to me. I told her the story and that I was going to give her a ride home. The clerk told me to wait right there. She said that I should not go back to my car outside.

She even asked if I had locked the doors, which I had because I'm completely paranoid about somebody hiding in my back seat. I asked the clerk what was going on, and she said that the police had been called. She turned her computer screen so that I could see it. There was a picture of the young woman from the parking lot with the word alert above her head. My blood ran cold. After what seemed like forever, three police cars roared into the parking lot with their lights flashing. The police approached the young woman, who attempted to run, but they apprehended her and put her in handcuffs. I looked in the back of one of the other police cars and saw a young man.

A few minutes later, one of the police officers came into the store and began talking to the clerk. I asked the officer what was going on. She said that this young woman in her boyfriend had been stalking people at gas stations and convenience stores and convincing them to give the young woman a ride home. When the person obliged, the young woman led the Good Samaritan to a dark street where her accomplice would wait. The two then robbed the driver, beat them, and stole their car.

They had apparently been doing this all across the south, mainly in small and friendly towns. I didn't mention to the officer that I had agreed to give the young woman a ride. I just walked to my car, got in, locked the doors, and drove home. I shook all the way home thinking about what could have happened to me that evening. When I got home, I hugged my daughter extra tight. My good deed could have made her an orphan. It took a little while before I felt safe going out in the evening or at night.

I still try to spread positivity into the world, and I am kind to people. My philosophy is never be anyone's last straw. However, I no longer give strangers rides. My sister Paula moved into a brand new house in a very pretty neighborhood and was very excited. Once she moved in her furniture and winter was approaching, she planned a huge Christmas party to beat all parties. She had a male and female caterer come who prepared everything and even carted away the dishes. Wow.

After the fabulous party, I could not sleep, and something inside me kept going over and over everything. We always lock up well, so why the unease? Paula came over to my house the next day, and as she told me about her, fitful night and how she couldn't sleep, I shouted that I too had the same issue. Suddenly she bolted up and said for me to come. We talked while driving there saying all the same feelings, fear and concerns about security that I'd had. When we got there, all was well and quiet.

She said that we were going to check every window downstairs and then upstairs methodically. What we found was that someone had tried, from the inside, to take off the cat stand for him to be able to look out the laundry room window on the front of the house. But we had rigged it so that it was very secure, thankfully. But it was definitely disturbed. But over in the next dining room window, it was unlocked. When she'd bought the home, she'd changed and upgraded all the locks, and also checked that

every window was secured. But here it was, unlocked. Upstairs, one other window was also opened straight above the other one in the front bedroom. My uncle had his own security business and quickly installed a nice system for her because she had lost all sense of safety now. He explained one person drives up in the driveway, then another two go through the house, with one on each floor to save time. Then one drops a pillowcase of your things out of the time.

window, then the other from the first floor, and then the driver takes off with everything, in under seven minutes, even in a four-bedroom home. It could have been a catastrophe, because we believed they were about to return after having set the house up. We were glad that we listened to that little voice. So, later, we also found a torn bathroom screen cut to push out in a V, and even the metal bending tool still on the ledge for further use. With all the nice security system and camera features, she really felt good about her house again. She'd had her air-conditioned serviced, later on as the season changed. The man had acted rather forward with her,

flirty and coming on to her after wrapping up the details of paying his company for the seasonal maintenance. It was crazy. They'd always been good and professional. We'd used them many years and not. her family. He left, and she was glad, living alone there. Later the next day, she became angry with a new malfunctioning alarm system. A zone that didn't exist reported a problem, and a red light was on at the back door. She was exasperated. My uncle got on the floor looking at the details when I said I was going to look downstairs. This was a hard-wired system

before the wireless ones had come out. As he checked, he checked. his wire in her back door frame, I looked in her basement, and bingo. There, tucked up into the basement rafter, was a wire to her back door, cut, like gardeners do, at an angle like you would cut a rose. But electricians cut copper wire straight across to save all that they can of it, since it's expensive, and you may later need just to stretch it. We knew nobody but him had been in that house. We quickly repaired it. and set that alarm religiously. I really feel the first people intended to burglarize her house,

and the second furnace man was going to assault her by entering her back door quietly, knowing that the back door was cut, and then was going to ascend the steps to her bedroom. Thank God it was all averted by listening to our gut and acting quickly to secure her home, and not procrastinate. Don't be scared, be prepared.

I've never really had many encounters with the paranormal, besides seeing a shadow figure occasionally while growing up, and still do, and constantly having lucid-ish dreams of my running through a forest. Same thing every time, but I don't know if that is paranormal. Anyway, this happened on August 23rd. It was around 10 p.m. and I was home alone. My dad was driving back from dropping my older brother, brother back off at college, which was about an hour away. I was sitting on my couch, the recliner

up, and had my blanket over me because it was cold. My dog is a chihuahua and a black Labrador mix. Her name is Lulu. Lulu was under my blanket and laying between my legs like she normally does when I'm sitting in the living room. I was watching Criminal Minds, the episode seven seconds, and was at the part where Reed and Morgan were searching the girls' family's house. Lulu has separation anxiety, and if I leave a room she has to follow. She doesn't like me going to the bathroom without her, and sometimes I'll actually shut my room door when she's still in there, social scratch, and wine at the door, which is fine, but on this particular night, reminder she's practically in my lap it's dark in the house because i like watching the tv in the dark

and my room doors closed it's at the end of the hallway and i suddenly heard what sounded like lulu whining and scratching at my door it sounded just like her the way her nails would sound on my door the way the door would shake and even the high-pitched cues like she's being murdered and for a split But second, I thought it was her. But then Lulu shot up from her spot on the couch and gets out of the blanket. She climbed on to me a little and just started growling. And I got freaked out because the sound from my door was still happening. I moved my dog off me and get up.

The sound stops when I stand at the end of the hallway, but I'm still freaked out and turn the hallway light on. I grabbed the pocket knife on the table and opened my door, And there's nothing there. There's no marks on the door. Nothing. So I think I'm going crazy, but my dog, who followed me, is still growling in on edge. So I just close my room door and go back to watching criminal minds. My family doesn't believe me, and I still have no idea what that was.

It's never too early to plan your summer story in Europe. With WestJet, from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets. Begin your next chapter. Book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent. WestJet, where your story takes off. Hi, a few hours ago, I listened to your recent video titled Six True Creepy Encounters with Stalkers and Strangers. And as I was laying the laundry and heating up my lunch, I wondered if I ever had a stalker. and four events came to mind, but the worst of it all happened in 2018.

In early October of 2018, I moved to a big city near my hometown, called Thessaloniki here in Greece. If I said that wrong, I'm sorry. In general, that period of my life was a whirlwind of new experiences. I had just returned from spending a few weeks in Italy with an Erasmus Exchange program, and I had a few weeks since losing another family member, the third in a three-year span. I was emotionally a wreck and at the same time on high alert and numb. God knows how I could be all these conflicting emotions at the same time. I moved to my aunt's place, and one of my duties was to maintain, keep it clean, and stock the fridge and cabinets.

But Thessaloniki is wildly known for its water and a little bit of the same. electrical outages. The city is so old that it was never designed to handle so many people, and many times around the spring to summertime, if there hasn't been rain in a lot of the city, it runs out of water. Or if it has been a rainy or stormy weather, some electrical poles or grids have been damaged, some causing power outages for hours and up to days. In 2018, it was a similar situation around the months of March, April, and May. In March, I experienced my first announced water outage, but I'm a seasoned veteran when it comes to both water and power outages. I lived through them

when I lived on an island that could go for weeks, up to a month without water or power, and even then we would have food shortages due to horrific weather conditions. So I did what I was trained to do. I bought water bottles and shut the toilet flasher, so when and if, if, If the water comes back, the power of the water running through the pipes does not do damage to the flasher or the pipes. I would slowly open it an hour after we get water. That way, I would be safe. My aunt had told me to log into a local Facebook group to get updates for which region of the city has power or water, and to check regularly with the Facebook page of the public water company, as they were posting updates.

I was at the Facebook group for the city when five hours into the water outage. Someone posted that their water had come back, and it was in my region. I quickly checked, but nothing yet. I knew these things took time. My region was a large one, so I had to be patient. Under the comments of this status, there was a guy named Abdullah, who was writing and asking if the water in the neighborhood of Saint Pantelemone was back. and the original poster said that he resided in the same area as Abdullah,

and that he had water just fine. Abdullah then went on to post on the group, saying that his entire apartment block doesn't have water, and that he felt it was discrimination, because the majority of the tenants were Middle Eastern. People in the comments were trying to calm him down and tell him to be patient, and that the infrastructure of the city hasn't been updated since the 1960s or 80s at best.

and I dumbly decided to comment under Abdullah's post saying that I lived in the same neighborhood and didn't have water and I advised him to be patient as it can take hours for the water to be fully restored because we are so many people. Abdullah just liked my comment and I went back to studying for college. Three hours later, the water was back and I was filling up plastic buckets with water and watering the plants and was planning to start cooking food for days and have a bath.

I was seeing posts to people saying now that they had power outages, so I was preparing for that. When my phone pinged with an Instagram notification, Abdullah had somehow found my Instagram and followed me. Mind you, back then, my Instagram was not connected to my Facebook account, and it was under a nickname of mine and didn't have a profile picture of my face. unlike my Facebook account, nor had I posted my face on Instagram.

I was strictly doing landscape and nature landscape photography, but I had posted multiple insta stories detailing the water outage saga in a funny manner, but they were viewed mostly by my real-life friends and four online friends. I never had a huge traction on my Instagram. Abdullah sent me a message on Instagram asking how the water pressure is for me, and I told him that all was normal and asked if the water was back for his apartment block. He confirmed that the water was back on, and now they were all preparing for the power outages in the early hours of the morning.

I wished him good luck and started meal prepping, and I dumbly posted about it on Instagram. The second this story was up, he asked me what food I'm making, and he shared his meal prep. We talked for a bit. while we were both cooking. It was nice, and there was nothing ominous. But as I finished cooking and was planning to have a bath and unwind,

I wished him a good night. But I did keep talking with my sister and some other friends on the app, and even posted a story or two, if I recall correctly. Then, at 1 a.m., I noticed I had a message from Abdullah asking me quite rudely why I was not sleeping, and why I kept posting since I wished him a good night, and asking why I was a liar. I just told him that I was talking with my family before bed.

He then started sending multiple messages calling me a liar because I posted I was watching a TV show while eating. I ignored his messages and silenced him, continuing my night peacefully. In the morning, as I was getting ready for class, I saw the new messages, and he was calling me horrible names. And then he stopped for six hours and had just sent a good morning text.

I grew angry, and I told him that he was being rude into stop calling me names. Then I went about my day. It was around 12 p.m. when I was in class, and I was busy trying to connect some cables to a very expensive camera and its tripod, when my phone rang loudly. I apologized to my professor and checked who it was briefly. It was Abdullah calling me through Instagram. I declined, silenced, and disconnected from the internet, and then went back to my task.

We were then taken out of the campus on an assignment. We had to shoot a small interview with the journalism class and interview some local vendors for a fake news report. and I was on duty to shoot landscape scenes in case the video footage my classmates shot was terrible, and we could use it as a plug-in with voice over for the interview. So, I was taping the open market and the people, when my team partner found a great shot area and called me over. So I went. Once everything was done, we met back up in class and reviewed the footage.

When my classmates and professor noticed in most of my shot, there was a man always glaring at the camera from the sea of people. My professor zoomed in, and I got my phone out because this man was familiar. It was Abdullah. Thankfully, the shots weren't ruined, so they were used. I was a bit paranoid, though leaving the campus and running my weekly errands after that, and even going home. I always checked over my shoulder, but saw nothing.

Five hours later, I reached my home and my phone connected to the Wi-Fi, when I was flooded by messages of Abdullah asking me who was the mail that was with me, why did I have a camera, and then went on to ask why I wasn't answering and slut-shaming me. I wasn't as brave back then, and not as wise, so I just asked him to stop speaking to me this way, because if he continued, I would block him. He apologized and then started calling me, deer or my dear.

Those brought such an unpleasant shiver down my spine, and my gut was telling me that it was bad news. I ignored the pet names and asked him to not call me those because I wasn't his dear. From then on, he would spam me with likes on my stories and photos. I would be cordial with him on messages, but the moment that I took more than a minute to reply to his texts, he would start calling me names, and then apologize and call him. call me dear. This went on for two weeks. I know, I should have ended it on day one. Someday out of those two weeks, I was on break in between classes, and because I was the only female in my class, I was hanging out with my male classmates, outside, since the majority smoked.

That's when my phone pinged with an Instagram message from Abdullah asking why I'm hanging out with so many men, and why is one of those men hanging on my shoulder? Confused? I looked around me, but I couldn't see him, and the classmate that was holding my shoulder noticed my tense posture and scanned with me the area, when I told him about the creepy text I had received. He was holding my shoulders because he was telling me about the time he got sunburned, and we argued that cold yogurt would stand on the shoulder long enough to alleviate the burn. It can, by the way. I demanded from Abdullah how he knew, and he said that he saw me. I then boldly told him that we aren't dating, and that it's the 21st century, and that

women can hang out with whomever they pleased, and that I don't have to answer to him. He was quiet for the rest of the day after that. It was the next day, and I was back in the same class with the professor who sent us on an out-of-campus assignment. having a fun discussion about Adobe Suite and the amount of times that it's crashed on my professor the previous day, while he was on set filming a hit late-night show in my country, and how stressful it was, and he advised us on what to do when and if we find ourselves in a similar situation. That's when my phone rang with an Instagram video call from Abdullah disturbing the class. I don't know what my face was, but I remember the fear and anxiety freezing,

my hands and I started to shake. Back then, Instagram showed you the other person, but he couldn't see you yet. You had to hit Accept and then it connected to your front camera. I had no time to do anything because the phone was snatched from my hand, and my professor answered it pretending to be my very angry father, demanding to know why he was video-calling me this early in the morning. Abdullah hung up while mumbling a week. Sorry.

My professor wasn't a big guy, but he had a blonde, thick beard, long curly blonde hair tied in a ponytail, and wore a biker scarf on his neck, and was jacked with tattoos, and his voice was booming regardless of whether he was happy or angry. Honestly, when he was angry and yelling at us, he could easily play a Viking god in a Marvel movie. The moment Abdullah hung up, he handed the phone back and jokingly referred to me as his daughter. I was just frozen in shock. Class resumed for three hours more. After class, I remained back and thanked him for scaring Abdullah,

and he smiled saying that he saw how tense I was last time we were outside and I got a text and started to scan the area. He suspected I was in an abusive relationship, and he couldn't stand by and watch, but he advised me to go to the police right away. walking out of the building, I checked for the nearest police stations, and there was one across the street from my campus. I just had to cross the street. Then, I noticed the unread messages from Abdullah, slut-shaming me and saying that he knew where I was going to college, and that he would soon find out where I lived, because he knew what bus I frequently used.

And once he figured out that, he would come and take his revenge for not being good to him. I'd had enough, and I started taking screenshots of the entire conversations and made a folder on my phone. It took ten minutes, and then I decided to go to the police. I was walking out of the building when I saw the classmate from the Sunburn story, and we chatted a bit saying how he was heading towards the bus stop outside the police department, and that we should walk together. We were waiting for the green light to cross the street, when I noticed Abdullah staring at me from across the street,

where I had to go in order to reach the police station. I gasped, and my classmate noticed the whole thing and asked me if that was the creepy dude. And I said yes, not making any physical movement that would alert that I had told him who he was. I was just standing frozen in a blinking war with Abdullah when my classmate grabbed my arm and started walking forward.

fast in between moving cars, saying how I had to go to the police now, and that he would be my witness. We went to the police and reported him, emailed the photos to the police officer who took my case, and he would let me know if anything happened. Walking out of the police department, my classmates said that Abdullah's eyes when he was staring at me were so angry that they scared him. I was very careful for the rest of the year with my posting habits when on the face book group about the city.

The owner of the group announced that Abdullah was a band member, and that he was arrested for stalking and even having attacked women all around the city, and told us to be aware of his many aliases online. I was shocked, but at the same time relieved that he was behind bars. A year later, around May of 2019, I received unknown text messages of someone saying that they would come to my house and assault me. I went to the police in the same department as before, and by midday I was told that it was Abdullah's new phone number, and that he was out of prison. I then put a restraining order against him, and I have never been so careless since.

I had come home late from my sister's house, which is not far from my own. We had opened our business that year, and sometimes we found that we were working out details for hours, as it got later and later. I made it inside my house, enclosed and locked the door, as usual, and hung up my heavy coat. I called my sister briefly and said that I was home. It all was well, and she hung up. I had a quick bath and couldn't wait to hit my bed. I laid there for only 15 minutes, when my sister reminded me of the presidential debates.

They were on now. I decided that I did want to see it, so... I hold myself out of bed, and my miniature white poodle, mini, rest in peace, and I sat in a recliner and she was right on my lap. And I had the debates on medium settings, and she went fast asleep. I started getting into the jibes and sarcasm, the poking and pruning and manipulation and wordplay jousting. Suddenly my little dog awoke, stood up and growled and let out a ferocious bark, and a loud shot. rang out. It sounded like it was inside my house.

I have really nice replacement windows in my house that make it super quiet. Generally, I hear nothing outside. But it was so loud that my ears rang. I recalled that my windows are triple pane and argon gas filled, which ensures the quiet and prevents temperature changes, keeping warm air inside in the winter and cool air inside in the summer. so they save you money with their good thermal insulation. If you were to have someone break, or yes, cut that window,

then the gas pops loudly, causing an unbelievable sound that would have set off my glass brake slash percussion sensor. But though I had my security system on, it didn't go off. My dog awoke and stood and growled and barked and I'd said, A bad dream? And then I heard that loud shot. What the hell? The next day I inspected all of my windows and found nothing.

The bricks of my house, everywhere that I felt the sound emanated from, and it was definitely behind my head from the living room window at the front of the house. To this day, I've never found a slug or break in the window. But I am glad that I had my poodle witness. Hey there, friends. I hope that you enjoyed this collection. collection of scary stories on this episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. If you did, make sure that you follow the podcast on whatever platform that you're utilizing.

And if the platform you are on has a rate the podcast option, please consider doing so. Those ratings push the podcast into the algorithm, and we all know how the algorithm controls everything, so yeah. I also do have a Patreon if you go to patreon.com slash as the Raven Dreams. You can support the channel further. For as little as a dollar a month, you can get early access to all of my content in audio format. The content's a little different as it's based on what I upload to my YouTube side, but it's the same stories. Just in different collections of stories than how they're presented here.

Speaking of stories, if you have one you would like to submit to me, please go to as the ravendreams.com and click the button in the middle of the screen that says submit your story. These stories are mostly sourced by listeners, so let's keep the podcast alive. If you've got one, I'd love to read it. Anyways, friends, I hope you're all having a beautiful day and a lovely week. And I hope I see you again very soon. But until then, remember you're loved, you're valid, you're important. You're the best you that you can be, never forget it.

And until next time, much love and sleep well.