Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries - 130. Scary Reddit Stories: Terrifying Encounters (feat. Investigator Slater)

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

From dodging serial killers, to fake ride share drivers, to finding someone in your room in the middle of the night, today we're talking all about terrifying close encounters. Find Psychopedia and Slater on Socials! @investigatorslater @psychopediapod Psychopedia Episodes Mentioned: EP42: Sex Parts: Severed and Stored  EP130: Greyhound Bus Beheading EPS 113 & 114: Pinup Predator: Serial Killer Harvey Glatman (Parts 1 and 2) EPS 134 & 135: The Serial Killer Next Door: Joel Rifkin (Parts 1 and 2) Heart Starts Pounding Episode Mentioned: Listener Stories: Sleep Demons, Ghost Children, and morehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP1Wqa_oCkc Subscribe on Patreon for bonus content and to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society. Patrons have access to bonus content as well as other perks. And members of our High Council on Patreon have access to our after-show called Footnotes, where I share my case file with our producer, Matt. Apple subscriptions are now live! Get access to ad-free episodes and bonus episodes when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Follow on Tik Tok and Instagram for a daily dose of horror. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right. I'm here with Investigator Slater once again on Heart, Heart, and Spounding. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me back. Yeah, I'm so excited to have you back. I'm really excited for this episode because on Psychopedia, I feel like you cover really, really dark cases. That we do, yes. Yeah, I have to decompress sometimes after I listen to episodes.

So the theme of today's episode that I wanted to have with these stories is like close encounters. I wanted to just find like a bunch of really scary close encounter stories for us to go over, because I feel like that's your wheelhouse. It is. Well, my wheelhouse is definitely close encounters, but also like full blown encounters. You know what I mean?

Yes, no, of course. Yeah. You cover a lot of encounters. Has there been an episode you've done recently that's really stuck with you? SHANNON COFFEY So I recently covered the case of the Greyhound bus beheading in Canada. SHANNON COFFEY Oh! I feel like I remember when that happened, but do you want to give me a quick refresher? SHANNON COFFEY Yeah, I'm sure you do remember.

I feel like anybody who was, you know, alive when this incident happened, not only remembers it, but feels traumatized by it, which is completely understanding because it was such a horrific event. And the way it concluded, it just leaves everybody so incredibly uneasy. So, in July of 2008, on a Greyhound bus,

which is a public bus, a man that was struggling with mental health issues boarded the bus with a knife that nobody saw, of course, and he sat next to a young man only 22 years old. His name was Tim McLean, the victim, and he was just sleeping. He had his head against the pillow, excuse me, against the window.

And this man, Vince Lee, boarded the bus and just decapitated Tim McLean. I mean, it's what nightmares are made of, truly. Absolutely. And it was totally random. It was not targeted at all. Not targeted at all. Vince Lee had been, you know, struggling with severe, untreated, unchecked,

unmonitored mental health issues. And it just kind of came to a head in this absolutely horrific incident. Um, and that event has stuck with me for a number of reasons. First of all, because it just sheds a light on how society, in so many ways, doesn't... doesn't take a proactive approach to mental health, but rather a reactive approach, which that is just a completely perfect example

of why you can't do that. Cause there were so many signs basically, and so many times that he wound up, you know, in mental health facilities, and then it was just released without any monitoring or surveillance or support. So it stuck with me for that reason. Of course it stuck with me above all else,

because this poor man, Tim McLean, and just the way he was killed and brutalized, and also just sort of at the end of the case, the way it wrapped up is that the perpetrator was released from prison, and he is completely now unsurveilled, unmonitored, and just out in society because of the way the trial went down. Basically, he was deemed sort of not responsible

for his criminal act because of his mental health state. So once they felt that his mental health state was treated... Wow. ...they released him back into society. I did not realize that. Yeah, that's one of those cases where you see the headline and then you never see the follow up. Right.

So I'm sure so many people don't even know that that's how that concluded, which is horrible. Wow. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't mean to scare anybody, but you asked for a case that like has stuck with me. That has. Yeah. No, I want to go back honestly and listen to that one because I am curious how the trial

happened. Like how all of that went down. Like that is crazy. That's really dark. Wow, thank you for sharing that. I'm so sorry, and you're welcome. Um, and do we want to jump right in to our stories today of close encounters? I'm very curious. So I haven't heard your stories,

you haven't heard my stories, and what I like to ask the audience before we jump in is as we go, I'm very curious what the audience feels like is the scariest story. Because last time that we did this with Morgan Absher, it was all over the map, what people found the scariest. That one we did like a mix of kind of grounded and supernatural stories. Some people thought the grounded stories were way scarier.

Some people thought the supernatural stories were way scarier. So I am curious, for those who are listening, to let me know, wherever you listen in the comments, what story is the creepiest? Because I think I know from the ones that I have, which one I'm gonna say is the scariest, but I'm excited to hear yours later.

SHANNON COFFEY Oh, I can't wait. Oh, my God, I love this. You wanna, yeah, do you wanna start? Okay, let's go. Okay, so story one is called, Fake Uber driver tried to lure me into his car. Already my worst nightmare. Already, I hate this. Okay.

And this is from Reddit user, fossilfool12. Fake Uber driver tried to lure me into his car. This happened about a year ago. There were so many terrible factors working against me that night. I'm astounded I got away unscathed at least physically This all begins when I'm at my friend's apartment who lives in a really rough part of town in a series of poor decisions That night I decide to get beligerently drunk and take a few pills of God knows what I know I know safe to say after a solid night of partying, around 4 a.m.,

I was not in the right state of mind. My drug-addled brain decided that instead of staying the night at my friend's apartment like I normally would, I wanted to Uber back to my own apartment. My friend's apartment had two separate entrances slash exits to the building, one in the back, unlit, parking lot of the building, and one facing the street. They had two sets of keys for each door, and I only had keys to the one in the back of

the apartment. Since my Uber would obviously arrive at the street, and the door in the front of the building locks itself behind you, I exited this way when the driver was soon to arrive. Looking back, standing outside that apartment, I realized I looked like the easiest target on the planet. I'm a small petite female in my early 20s and I can hardly stay upright. I'm using a street lamp to prop myself up and not doing a good job at that either. The light was basically a beacon for any nearby predator saying, come get me. I'm not paying attention to my surroundings at all in this state, despite the fact that

there was literally a bullet hole in the front door I just came out of. Not good. I remember checking to see what car I was getting picked up in and was only able to pick out the fact that it was a black sedan. Soon after stepping outside, a black sedan pulls up to the curb and starts rolling down the window, so I step forward. Before this man even spoke, I could feel something was wrong. Little PSA, this is Slater speaking,

never ignore that gut instinct. Never ignore the voice inside your head. Okay, back to the script. He had an expression like he was tearing me apart with just his eyes. After seeing that look, I understood why they used the word predator to describe a criminal, because I knew what it felt like to be prey.

He basically barks at me, I'm your Uber driver. This was the second red flag that somehow made its way through my brain. Normally Uber drivers just roll down the window and say Uber for Slater or any version of that, but always including your name. I think I just stared at him for a second, my brain slowly piecing together

the situation I was potentially in, and I ask him, what's my name? He immediately is enraged and starts screaming about how he doesn't have time for this and just get in this stupid car, etc. etc. etc. I don't think I've ever sobered up so fast in my life. I'm completely panicking. Obviously this wasn't my Uber. Quickly checking the license plate, I immediately see it's not a match. Meanwhile, this guy is still screaming at me and I have absolutely no idea what to do. If I bolt in either direction, this guy could easily outrun me or have

a weapon. I'm also pretty sure at this point that if he's trying to nab a random girl off the street, he must have a weapon of some sort. I can't run back inside the apartment door right behind me since it locks behind you, and I don't have the keys nor the time to unlock it. Running towards the back door would do nothing as well, as he's idling right by the mouth of the driveway towards the back parking lot, and again, I would have to take the time to find the right keys and get in. If I screamed, I'm not exactly in the type of neighborhood where someone would try to be a vigilante,

and I can still hear the music radiating from my friend's third-floor apartment. I knew they wouldn't hear me. Also, it's 4 a.m., and absolutely no one is around. People talk a lot on this sub how they either sprint into action or freeze, but I felt incapable of doing either. That's because, by the way, side note, this is later, it's not just fight or flight, it's fight, flight or freeze.

So that's a completely normal reaction to have. It was the absolute worst feeling I have ever felt in my life. Everything in me wanted to run, but I felt that if I did, it would be the end of me. But if I kept standing there staring in shock at this screaming man, the result would be the same. From when he started screaming at me to this point, I'm guessing only 20 seconds passed, but just as he's looking like he's getting ready to get out of the car, another black started screaming at me to this point, I'm guessing only 20 seconds passed. But just as he's looking like he's getting ready to get out of the car, another black sedan pulls up right behind him. Checking the license plate as quickly as I can, I realize it's

my actual Uber and I make a full sprint to the car, really only like six steps, and throw myself in screaming at my real Uber driver, what's my name? The poor dude looks terrified but responds with my name quickly to which I reply, get me the hell out of here, that man is trying to kidnap me. If I was in this Uber driver's position, I think I would be too shocked to react as quickly as he did, but my dude flew out of there, offered to call the cops for me, which I declined and now regret, and then walked me to the front door of my apartment, ensuring that I got inside safely. Yeah, five-star review for that guy.

Truly an incredible human being. You can rest easy knowing he got the fattest tip my college student bank account would allow for, although he deserved much, much more. P.S. Although it took a while, I'm doing great now. Stay safe, y'all. And that's the story. Wow. Have you heard of... the fake Uber drivers, like, happening in real life? I haven't heard of it actually happening, but it doesn't surprise me that it happens, you know?

I knew a girl who... This was probably like 2016, 2017. It was like a friend of a friend who was in town for the weekend, and she got into a fake Uber. Because they, like, specifically, they were targeting people outside of bars, like drunk girls coming out of bars. Which it sounds like this person was doing.

They just look for the easiest target. And so, and because sometimes when you're so drunk, outside of bars, like drunk girls coming out of bars. Which it sounds like this person was doing. They just look for the easiest target. And so, and because sometimes when you're so drunk, you don't think to ask the name, you don't think to check on your phone. Like, thank God this person decided to check on their phone for the license plate, because she just got in thinking, this is probably my Uber driver.

And I know he drove her to the middle of nowhere and left her on the side of the road. I don't know the details of exactly what happened, but she was beat up pretty badly. Oh, my God. Horrible, horrible stuff. And because it's not a real Uber driver, there's no paper trail, there's nothing on the app

that says who this person was. Like, there's really no way, if you don't remember, like, the license plate, there's no way to go after this person. Yeah, I mean, you have to hope that investigators do their due diligence and look for CCTV or, you know, things of that nature to try and, like, back into who this person could be.

But we covered a case on Psychopedia. There was a... It was actually Hong Kong's first known serial killer. His name was Lam Khor Wan, or he was known as the Rainy Night Butcher. Basically, he drove a cab. He was really a cab driver, but he would use his cab for nefarious reasons.

This was back in 1982, and he would do the same exact thing that you just described. He would wait outside of bars, where people would come out, women, really, really drunk, intoxicated, just not in the right state of mind, and he would abduct them. And then, I mean, he would do the absolute unthinkable. Basically, let's just say that when investigators ultimately tracked him down, they found severed body parts stored in Tupperware containers beneath his bed.

Because that's the level of depravity we are talking about with this case. But, yeah, I mean, you're very vulnerable when you're getting into a car with a driver that you have never met. Like, even an Uber driver, you're in a vulnerable state. You know, but certainly one who's posing as one. That is terrifying. I know, for this episode, I was trying to think of jobs

that people have where you're just one on one with a client. Because it goes the other way too for cab drivers. You don't know who's getting into your cab. You don't know who's getting into your Uber necessarily. You could have fake passengers. There's just so much risk when you work at a job. I have a family member who's a real estate agent and she has terrifying stories of men that would,

like she's showing a house in the middle of nowhere and like a creepy man shows up and like you're just by yourself in this location with someone and you don't know what they're capable of. That's so scary. You can't ignore your gut instinct and you can't be too polite to get the hell out of there. You know what I mean? Like, you can't...

If you get... If you, let's say, you're a real estate agent example, like, if you're showing a property to someone and your Spidey senses are firing on all cylinders, don't feel too polite. Like, you can't say, you know what, I'm out of here. I actually had this recently. Okay, can I tell you this story of...

It wasn't Uber, it was Lyft that I got into, which I had never had an issue with Lyft. So I was shocked that this happened, but I had to call my sibling and I were going home for the weekend for a funeral. So we're already in like a head space. Yeah, I'm sorry. And it's like four in the morning. We have to call an Uber to get to the airport to take a super early flight. And I call this Uber, we're at my apartment. He shows up immediately from getting the notification of who the driver was. I get like a weird feeling like his pictures, strange, the car

he's driving is doesn't look like it would be used for like driving drive share services. And he pulls up and we go outside and the vibes are really bad. It's four in the morning, we're by ourselves. It's just this man who gets out of the car. He goes over, pops the trunk. There's a bunch of just garbage in there. So we're like, is this even a, like,

do you really drive lift? Like why your car is a mess. And we get in the car and I'm not kidding you, on the Bluetooth was, like, he had clearly been watching porn. Because the title of what he had been watching was, like, on the Bluetooth. Oh, my God. And I immediately am like, we're having an emergency,

we have to get out of this car, can you please pop your trunk? Good for you. And I got us out of there, and I got us back into our, into my apartment building, and he starts messaging me like, if you have a problem with me, we should have been able to talk about it, why don't you come back out and we can talk about this? Like, I'm not gonna cancel your ride for you

because I'm gonna get dinged. And so I can't call another car because, like, on the app, he won't let me cancel the ride for you because I'm gonna get dinged. And so I can't call another car because like on the app, he won't let me cancel the ride and it wouldn't let me cancel the ride because he had already arrived. Whatever like the situation was like, I wasn't able to cancel the ride to call another car. So I'm like texting him, begging him like,

please just cancel. Like, I'm sorry if you have to eat the $5 or whatever. Like we're having an emergency, we can't do this. And he won't stop trying to like call me and contact me through the app. And my sibling is there, like bless their heart. They're not the most attentive person and they weren't wearing their glasses.

So they had no idea what was happening. They were just like sitting in the car, like they couldn't read what was happening on the Bluetooth. Then I had to like debrief to them and also explain to them like, hey, if you're getting into a lift at four in the morning, like maybe wear your frigging glasses so you can see what's happening.

The whole thing was just so spooky. Well, thank goodness they had you there to be the eyes and the instinct behind getting the both of you the hell out of there. That's, you know, you could always say too, the emergency was really quick thinking. I really, truly believe if you tell anybody driving any vehicle that you are about to puke,

they will pull over faster than you can imagine. SHANNON. That is such a... I didn't even think about that because they're not gonna want you in the car if you're gonna vom. SHANNON. No. So if you don't know, if you're not comfortable lying or whatever, you're not sinking fast you in the car if you're gonna bomb. No. So if you don't know, if you're not comfortable lying, or whatever, you're not sinking fast enough in your feet, just remember, I think I'm going to throw up,

and you will be on the side of that road, I hope, if you need to be. That is a great tip. For everyone listening, keep that one in the back of your mind. I do like the people on TikTok that are like, play this audio if you don't feel safe in your Uber. I've seen that. If you don't feel safe in your Lyft, and it's like,

"'Darling, I just got out of prison.'" SHANNON COFFEY LAUGHS There is this guy, I don't think I follow him, but he's like always showing up on my feed, so I must have like, at some point, clicked and watched and stuck around long enough for the algorithm to constantly hit me over the head with him. But he has like a fake conversation into the phone

so that you're supposed to be on the other end. He'll be like, hey, babe, how was your night? He waits a few seconds, presumably, for you to be like, it was good, how was yours? Yeah, it was good, I'm just hanging out, what's up? You know what I mean? Like, so that whoever you're feeling threatened by hears that you are having this conversation with a real human being.

It's just terrifying the lengths that people have to go to, to feel so vulnerable that we actually have to prepare for situations like that. I totally agree. But I think what's important and the person, the woman in the story does a good job of it is like, the best time to get out is as soon as possible, like before the car starts moving.

So you don't want to be in the situation where the car is already in motion, you're locked in the back seat, and then you have to take this fake phone call. Like if you get a bad vibe, just try to get out before you're even in the car because just the further you go with this person, the more dangerous it's going to get. So, obviously, like, anytime you realize you're in a bad situation, just try to get out then, even if, you know, the car's moving, like, that's fine, just, like, try to figure it out. But, like, if you can do it before you get in the car,

like, this woman did, like, definitely try for that. Yep, that's great advice, honestly. Better to have some man yell at you through the Lyft app than to be traveling with him to God knows where. Take the advice that you would give to somebody you love. Yeah. You would tell somebody you love, do not get into the car.

So give yourself that same level of protection and don't get into the car. That is great advice. This is a true story. It happened right here in my town. One night, 17 kids woke up, got out of bed, walked into the dark, and they never came back. I'm the director of Barbarian.

A lot of people died in a lot of weird ways. We're not gonna find it in the news because the police covered everything. August 8th. This is where the story really starts. Weapons. All right. Do you want to hear the one that I have for my first story? Okay. So this story is called...

The title is just got spooked while alone at school. And this comes from Reddit user Darklon. So this one goes, I'm a music student at a small town university in Canada. Okay, also Canada. Since I was staying the summer and not going back home, I asked the director of my program for a key to a rehearsal room so that I could stay fresh over the summer

and have a designated practice space. The building is very old, musty and has so many hallways, open spaces, practice slash green rooms, stairwells, etc. Also for reference, this school and this area sits near a walking trail in the woods. It's on the other side of a marsh and then there's a huge basin that leads into the ocean. I had classes in this building during my first term and I've spent a lot of time in there. I never once felt uneasy while spending time alone in the building, whether during the day or at night. Sometimes I would stay and play music until one or two in the morning and would only ever see security doing their 11 p.m. patrol. Never had an issue and they always announced their presence. The other night I was in a large room that I cleaned out and converted

into a sort of studio rehearsal space. It used to be a wood shop for theater students. And now there's two ways into this space. First through a main large double door that leads into the common area and then the other entrance is through the percussion room door, which is then secured by another door. Basically, when I'm in this room, I am locked in from both ends. The other night, while I was practicing,

I heard a door open from out in the hallway and just assumed it was another one of the five-ish students who were also staying over the summer, no big deal. A little while after that, I heard some of the music students returning gear from the show that they played that evening. Again, I'm thinking, no big deal. One of them even came in and knocked

and announced themselves just wanting to say hi, knowing that I was in the big room rehearsing because I had a lamp on. A few hours after that, probably around 1.30 a.m., I started to wind down and pack things up. Now, I'm not supposed to be in there that late, but I had an important show coming up and I've been practicing really hard.

So I'm sitting down near the large double door and I can hear footsteps on the other side. I sort of freeze up and I stop what I'm doing just to listen. Now there's a square hole in the wall, probably an inch and a half by an inch and a half, where I assume an exhaust vent used to be installed to remove sawdust and all of that when the theater students would be building props. While cleaning the room and turning it into my rehearsal space, I put this thin piece of plastic over this hole.

Not for any reason, I just found it when I was cleaning and was like, huh, that would fit right over this hole. So I put it there. As I'm sitting in the chair, continuing to quietly listen, staring at the door, I literally see someone bend down and look into the hole, into the practice room at me, and then quickly straighten up back and out of sight. The hole is probably thigh height. I was so focused on the door

and looking at the crack underneath that I only caught the person out of the corner of my eye. And then they quickly moved away from it. So I barely saw who it was, but they were wearing brown and had black hair. No other student that was in the space that night matched that description and security would not do that. Security always announces themselves. They will demand I open up the room and show my

student ID, et cetera. And especially not at 1 30 a.m. They would have for sure kicked me out and probably have been pretty upset that I was there at that time. I froze, not knowing what to do, I nervously asked, hello? Who's that? Nobody answered. I felt so creeped out and spooked that I just sat there in absolute silence, waiting for the sound of someone to be like, oh, hey, it's just me. I'm messing around with you, but nothing. I sat there for like five to 10 minutes, just looking around quietly, goosebumps, spooked. And after five to 10 minutes, I around quietly, goosebumps, spooked. And after five to 10 minutes, I could hear the sound of someone walking away towards the front of the building, like the sound of jeans rubbing together as they were walking and a jacket and all that.

I packed up so fast, leaving most of my music stuff set up and I just exited through the main door and out the fire exit as fast as possible. Luckily I live a five minute walk away, but I was checking over my shoulder to make sure nobody was following me. I'm sure it wasn't someone dangerous, but it freaked me out and I know all of the music students who are staying over the summer. They for sure would have said hi or something. Security would have kicked me out. My only worry is that someone was doing something sneaky or trying to steal something from the

school or something worse. Now I'm thinking I should bring this up to security so that they are a little bit more thorough not saying that if this was a squatter it was a squatter that was bad or dangerous but I was just really creeped out and this was really unexpected. This is also 100% true and I never come on this subreddit. I just had to share, enjoy. And then they left an update and this update kind of spooked me even more.

So the update is, I went to school yesterday and the afternoon and all the doors were locked. I called security and then immediately they asked me what I was doing in there suspiciously, perhaps questioning if I was actually a student or not. I had to go to security with my ID and get my key card updated. They didn't mention anything about the person that I saw, but I have a hunch that they did catch someone

because now the doors are locked all of the time. And that's where the story ends. Okay, so... my first, my feeling throughout this whole thing was, it's a ghost. Um, I was immediately thinking about The Sixth Sense, the movie, and there's a scene when he's in, when the little boy who can see dead people's in a theater,

and the theater at one point burned down, so all of the people who were killed in the fire are there, but only he can see them. So I'm like, is this some kind of theater ghost that only this girl can see? SHANNON COFFEY Right, because it is, that whole area was used for the theater. So that makes sense.

SHANNON COFFEY Right, exactly. And I'm thinking supernatural with this one. SHANNON COFFEY It's interesting because I always pose this question to the Hearts are Spounding community. I'm like, what's worse? If this is a ghost or if this is a person? And this is one of those stories where I feel like that's exactly right, where I would almost be praying

that it was just a poltergeist or just a ghost and not some person who wandered in. Because right, the practice area is by like a marsh and a forest and the ocean. Like, not someone that just wandered in, because right, this, the practice area is by like a marsh and a forest and the ocean. Like, not someone that just wandered in from the marsh and was watching me through a little peephole as I practiced at 1.30 in the morning. Oh, it's creepy no matter how you slice it, honestly.

Or someone, we were talking about this in an episode I did on, um, I did listener tales, and I got this listener story from someone who said she went to school, and one day, there was like a bunch of journalists and a bunch of emergency services outside of like the area by the cafeteria. And someone had been living on campus, like basically in a closet that had this freezer,

and they'd been sleeping in the freezer, and they accidentally trapped themselves and died. Oh. Oh, no. Oh, my God. And so, it's also like, yeah, was this someone who lived basically, like, in the back rooms of the school, and like, the crawl spaces of the school? Which is also a possibility and... Terrifying.

Yeah. And sad, if somebody is living in walls and creeping around, you know, with no place of their own. Yeah. But terrifying all the same. I mean, honestly, I hate to be somebody who lives in the world like constantly afraid, but I don't know that as a student, I would be in a pretty much abandoned building slash studio

at 1 30 in the morning. It's not her fault. If somebody was there and messing with her, she's not to blame, right? I'm not victim blaming. Well, because it's also like the summer. It's one thing if you're like, it's schools and session, I'm at the library, it's 1 30 in the morning. But...

Everybody's up late, it's finals week or whatever it may be. Yeah, I feel like... Again, it's 1 30 in the morning, but... Everybody's up late, it's finals week or whatever it may be. Yeah, I feel like... Again, the victim is not to blame, and it's not that anything happened to her, but I'm just saying, like, situationally, the victim's not to blame, but... I don't know, personally, I would avoid that scenario

because if it's a person that's squatting or a ghost, I'm not prepared for either. Right, right. So, I don, I'm not prepared for either. Right, right. So, I don't want to be confronted with either. But yeah, but you gotta live your life too, right? This person was practicing, like... She was practicing, she had a big recital coming up.

Like, at the same time, it's like, I knew music students when I went to school, and they were always, like, cramming for their recitals and practicing at like four in the morning to get ready for something. You have to put in serious hours to be a very good musician. Yes. So, I get it. Like, that tracks with all of the music students

I've ever known, but just the fact that someone was in there. Because that person probably knew that there was always students in there, right? Ugh. They didn't mess with her. They didn't, you know, it was a quick little looksy-daisy. And then, uh, you know, whoops, somebody's in there. Excuse me. Backs up and that's the last you ever see of them. You know, a very polite ghost, if it's a ghost.

If it is a ghost, yeah. A rather polite one. A very polite squatter, if that's what we're talking about. But I think the creepy part here is the extra little bit at the end that when she went back, all of a sudden, the security was like locking the doors now and things like that. And the detail about the hole being thigh high for some reason really just freaked me out because it's one thing if you're looking into someone's eyes, but any, like, below the waist,

that just adds like a whole other... That's true. For Slater, it'd be eye height. Yeah. Eye level. I'm good with thigh high for a normal person's size. That's, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's very creepy. I don't... I'm glad this person is okay. Yeah, me too. And I'm glad this person is okay. Yeah, me too. And I'm glad, it sounds like they probably did catch someone.

And so they put the school on lockdown a little bit, but had to share that one. That one gave me goosebumps when I read it the other night at like midnight. So had to share. Yeah, I can see why. All right, do you wanna share your next one? I do.

Okay, this one is titled, My Husband and I Think We Dodged a Serial Killer. Reddit user who uses lemon pepper. That's the name. Who uses lemon pepper. Love it. Two years ago in the winter, my husband and I bought and moved to a farm in small town Appalachia. We decided to go down to our local tractor supply

to buy a propane tank. As we were in the checkout line, a man in his late checkout line, a man, in his late 50s, I assume, walked in and stared at us. He grabbed a random women's shirt off a shelf, then turned back, stared at us some more, and stood behind us in line. He stood so close, I could feel his breath on my neck. I was extremely uncomfortable, but I figured it's a small town, so everyone is just overly nice. So I turned toward him, smiled, nodded, and said good morning,

hoping the man would feel as uncomfortable as I did and back up a bit. He did not. Instead, he started talking to us. Initially, starting with pleasant small talk, quote, the weather's getting quite cold and this line is taking forever, telling us about him picking up his great aunt Initially starting with pleasant small talk, quote, the weather's getting quite cold and this line is taking forever.

Telling us about him picking up his great aunt from the airport in two hours, etc. But it wasn't long before he got into more intrusive territory, like, where are you guys from and where are you living now? How old are you guys? For context, though I was in my late 20s and my husband was only a few years behind me, our baby faces could have easily passed for 2021. When it was our turn to check out, I said have a good day to the man and went up to the register.

As the guy behind the register started to explain their propane pricing, the man started to flip out. I mean he started yelling at the poor 17 yearyear-old kid working his weekend job, saying, I can't believe y'all are charging them so much for a propane tank, and they're a young newlywed couple, why can't you give them a break? He just kept going on and on, cussing beneath his breath at the guy behind the counter. Then he once again turned to us, saying, Hey, I have a hundred pound tank I'm not using at my house.

I'll let you have it for free if you want. You'll just need to come with me. My husband thanked him but declined. He said, Are you sure? My house is only 20 minutes from where I could even give you guys two tanks. Again, my husband declined. He continued,

We have to do it now though because I have to go to the airport and leave town in two hours. This was a slip up we hadn't noticed until we got home later that day. Remember, first he said that he was picking up his aunt. At this point I said, no thank you, in a bit more assertive tone. Getting what I assumed was annoyed, he dropped his items and stormed out. As we went outside to get our tank filled up, the man pulled up in a parking spot next to the fill-up area in his pickup truck. He got out and went back at it.

"'You should really think about getting a second tank. It'll save you a trip and it would last you longer,' he continued. "'If you don't want to both go, only one of y'all can just come and ride with me and the other can meet me at my place.' Oh, God., no thank you." Oh, I replied, no thank you. We're good. Then he said, come on, it's a small town, it's safe, I would never hurt such a lovely

young couple. At this point, the outdoor employee came out of the propane area and told him to get the f- out of there and to stop bothering us. So he got into his truck that he did not have a license plate on and drove off. The other day while filling our tank up, the guy helping us asked us about that day and if we ever saw that guy again. Apparently he comes by in the winters when it's quiet and only talks to young couples. Major creepy vibes. And that's the story.

There's a few... huge red flags about that story. The first one is whenever someone offers to do something nice, when they start demanding that they have to do that nice thing for you, it feels like there's a bad intention behind it. Completely agree. I've seen that nice thing for you, it feels like there's a bad intention behind it. Completely agree.

I've seen that with a few stories where it's like, I just want to help you, let me change your tire, let me give you my propane tank. And when you're like, no, thanks, like, that's very sweet of you, but no, thank you. And they're like, no. Like, just come to my house and I'll give you the propane tank. Like, I'm trying to do something nice for you. Like, why do you need me to go to your house and get this propane tank so badly?

Why are you insisting instead of offering? Which by the way, offering even in and of itself is creepy, but insisting? Yeah, the insisting. Exactly, exactly. But that goes back to what we were saying, you know, a little while ago, like, people are wired, you know, especially kids, to be polite. Yeah. Right? Like, I'll tell you as a parent, like, of course, I'm always teaching my children,

like, be polite, say thank you, give eye contact, be respectful to adults. So it's a little bit tricky, like, the lines get a little bit blurred because your instincts, like even how the story, she started out like, oh, no, thank you. Like, she felt like it was weird. This guy was literally breathing on her neck, standing so close to her.

And she's all, no, thank you. Da-da-da-da. It's okay in those situations to be like, no, thank you. And also, can you please take a step back? You know what I mean? But we're just wired to be polite and it can obviously do us a disservice. Thankfully, obviously, she and her husband didn't sort of like cave, and they listen to their instincts.

I know, it's almost like good in a way that he is propositioning couples, because I know I feel more empowered to say no if there's another person with me, especially if like I can tell that they're getting weird vibes too. If I was by myself, I worry that I would try to be too polite. Like, I worry if either of the couple was by themselves,

that they might be like, oh, yeah, I can go grab a propane tank from you, like, if you really want me to, thank you. SHANNON. Especially they just moved to that small town, so you might think, like, maybe this is what happens in small towns. JILL. Yeah, maybe people are nice here. I don't want to be labeled the big city a-hole.

You know what I mean? Like, so yeah. It kind of reminds me of, like, because the name of the story was, like, uh, what was it? My... Oh, like, dodged a serial killer? Yeah, like, my husband and I dodged a serial killer or whatever. So, have you heard about the couple that literally ran up against Ted Bundy who had just killed a woman?

And didn't even realize it? It's just like showing you like how you don't necessarily, obviously know the quality of person that you are randomly meeting in life, right? Whether it's this Reddit story or there's this story of this couple, they were on a date, they were walking together and one of them felt their shoe, I believe, hit something sus, right?

Like kind of mushy, kind of whatever. And they didn't even speak, they just looked at each other and high-tailed it out of there. And while they were running backwards, a man was watching them run away. Who was that man? Ted Bundy. And he had killed a woman. And Ted Bundy later said,

had that couple gone a little bit further into the woods or realized that they had, like, stepped on a body, I would have had to have killed them. Oh, my goodness. Wow. So this couple, yeah, their whole thing is like, how we literally almost got, you know, confronted by a serial killer. Wow. So that, I guess that's something I want to ask you too,

because I can't think of any examples in my head, but this guy was propositioning couples in a very aggressive way. I feel like it's rare for, if this person was a serial killer. Like, I can't think of any other serial killers that specifically targeted couples. I feel like normally they target just one person because that's easier. Yeah, that's a unique victimology to go for two.

Um, two at once. Yeah. There's one serial killer that we covered on Psychopedia. His name is Harvey Glatman. We covered him in a two-parter called the Pin-Up Predator, that's what we named the two-parter. Now, he did not target couples, but there is one victim that he was targeting who, when he approached her

in Central Park in New York, had her boyfriend with him, and they took him on, and they got... And they escaped, whereas like his other victims didn't, except for his final victim, which is ultimately how he got caught. Um, but yeah, in terms of a victimology, it's obviously not a smart thing to go for a twofer. Yeah, right. So, I wonder... when you're thinking about that as, like, the couple,

are you even really considering that that's a possibility? And then, but, like, in hindsight, you think about how weird it was, and you're like, oh, my God, I think that guy was gonna do something really bad to us if we went and got that prop a possibility. And then, but like in hindsight, you think about how weird it was and you're like, oh my God, I think that guy was gonna do something really bad to us if we went and got that propane tank. But yeah, I could see in the moment just like, I'm a big, like I'll talk myself out of things in the moment, especially if I'm starting to panic.

Like, I'm always like, you're making a big deal out of nothing. Like, I just worry if I was in that situation. I totally understand people who try to be polite. STACEY KAPLAN Right. And then you would look at your partner and be like, should we? Should we? I mean, two propane tanks. KESHIA POLLACK Yeah. And if that person said yes, that makes it even harder for the person that has the bad vibe to speak up. STACEY KAPLAN Right.

KESHIA POLLACK If someone else is going along with it. STACEY KAPLAN If it was a serial killer who targets young couples, then I'm going to go out on a limb. I'm going to profile him in my completely unprofessional FBI profiling position here. And I'm going to say that that person is a sadist and that that person will enjoy watching one of the partners, enjoy watching them watch as their partner gets attacked,

humiliated, tortured, whatever it may be. I'll be like, I feel like if you're targeting two, there's a sadistic element there. And it's because you want to see the pain and devastation on let's say the woman's face as her husband is getting killed. SHANNON COFFEY That's true. And actually, now that you say that, I can think of, like, Golden State Killer, right?

He would attack couples. I think BTK would also go after couples that were at home together. So, maybe it actually isn't as rare of a thing to want to go after two people. SHANNON COFFEY Yeah, I don't know that it's rare. I think it's a move. I think you have to be seasoned and very manipulative to be able to persuade two people, you know, if you're not chloroforming them and getting them

into your car, like to get them to agree to walk into your car, that takes some level of manipulation on a psychopathic level. Yes, I absolutely agree. And with that, I want to read you the next one that I have. Let's go. So this one, I wanted to find kind of like a summery one because we're in the middle of dark summer

here at Heart Starts Pounding. So we're going through a lot of like dark cruise ship stories, like vacation disappearances, scary camping tales. So this one I found has a very summery vibe to it, and it is also very terrifying. This story was just called The Man with the Wooden Leg, and it's by Reddit user OKFaithlessness9628. And it starts by saying,

hey guys, a quick thing before I dive in. I'm a French guy posting this story. I did my best to translate all of this by myself. A little help from Google Translate, It starts by saying, hey guys, a quick thing before I dive in, I'm a French guy posting the story. I did my best to translate all of this by myself. A little help from Google translate, but please excuse any mistakes. I'm 24 now, but when this happened, I was just 12. So I live not very far from Paris,

but I've loved traveling since I was a kid. For five summers straight from 2009 to 2013, my mom signed me up for summer camps every July. These camps were amazing. I traveled all over France, camping, hiking mountains, doing caving ropes, courses, so many fun activities all since I was young. And I loved every minute of it. But then came 2013, which turned out to be the worst year of my life

and the last time that I went to camp that summer. The camp was on an island in Western France connected to the mainland by a big bridge. The island is known for being really hot in the summer. There's amazing local food, nice beaches, and especially this famous monument called Fort Boyard, which is an old prison in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that once held criminals. The camp was set in the middle of nature. Imagine a group of small buildings arranged in an L shape. On one side was the entrance and on the other was just thick bushes that led into the forest. The buildings were divided between the kids' dorms, the laundry rooms, the dining hall,

and the instructor's dorms. At this time in my life, I was pretty rebellious and I didn't like to listen. Two of my friends, Malik and Enzo came with me so we were all set for this crazy time that summer, maybe too crazy. Everything was fine during the first six days of camp and we had so much fun. But on the seventh day, things started to go wrong, mostly because of us.

That night we had a campfire game session, playing board games like UNO from 8pm to 11pm. And after that, the instructors announced lights out and everyone went to their rooms. Malik, Enzo, and I shared a room, so we brushed our teeth and went to bed. But about 25 to 30 minutes later, the instructors turned off all the lights. And around midnight, I came up with a terrible idea. A night walk in the forest with my two friends. Even though we were only 12 or 13 years old, we opened our window, looked around pretty quickly, and saw that none of the instructors were awake. They were all asleep, probably too tired after the day's activities.

We quietly crossed the camp courtyard, sneaking past the buildings, and entered the bushes on the far side of the site. We walked about 10-15 minutes into the forest. While walking, I was joking around and trying to scare my friends with creepy stories. Suddenly, we arrived at the fence of an old abandoned house. The house looked really run down and creepy, like something out of a witch's story. Being young and dumb, we decided to at least go into the garden. And to our surprise, the gate was open, so we stepped inside. As soon as we started walking into the garden,

we heard a huge loud scream coming from a man with a deep, scary voice. We were so scared that at first, we couldn't even understand what he was yelling. Then the front door of the house under the porch opened, and we saw a man running towards us. We panicked, nearly crying, and instantly reopened the gate behind us. We ran as fast as we could back towards the camp, and we managed to get back and woke everyone up

in the middle of the night, so stressed, scared, and panicked that I was crying a lot. The instructors obviously scolded us for being reckless and dangerous, but it was clear from our faces that we weren't making this up. We told them what happened and we finally went back to our rooms and I couldn't sleep at all that night. I just kept replaying the scene in my head. And one detail really stuck with me thanks to the little bit of moonlight that shone through.

The man limped and he had a wooden leg, but even so he ran really fast. And I don't know why, but I had this really bad feeling about the whole thing. And I wish that was the end of the story, but no, it gets worse. On the ninth day, which was the last day of camp, we were outside doing various activities

when the instructor asked if we had our swimsuits ready because we were going to go to the pool. I said no and that I needed to go get mine from my room. So I ran alone to the dormitory about 10 meters away. I opened my door and then closed it behind me for some reason without turning the light on. It was almost completely dark, but some little holes in the wood led a little bit of moonlight in. At that moment, just about five meters from me, I saw a tall human-like figure standing still. I couldn't see his face, just the silhouette. I didn't understand what was happening, but I was frozen and I couldn't move. What felt like an eternity, probably just five or six seconds,

I suddenly turned, opened the door, and ran outside screaming that someone was in my room. I ran crying towards the center of the camp where everyone was. An instructor immediately went with some colleagues to check my room, but it was empty. And suddenly, one of the instructors called everyone to come over

because they found something terrifying. On the floor was a piece of paper with the words, I will come back tonight written on it. I literally froze and started crying twice as much as before. That night, the instructors stayed in pairs outside of every door so no one could enter any rooms. Thankfully, no one came back to my room that night. We left camp the next day, but because of those incidents, I never went back to camp after that, after I was 13 years old. It took me a long time to want to travel again

with friends or family to places I didn't know. It wasn't until I was 19 that I dared to even go on a vacation again. When I told my mom about what happened, she told me I was incredibly stupid, also brave at the same time for my age and that I did the right thing because whoever was in my room that night did not mean well, especially with that note they left behind. But honestly, going into the forest was so stupid.

I don't know why we went and did that. Even 12 years later, those questions still haunt me. Who was that person in my room? Was it the same man that chased us into the forest? What did he want? And how did he find my room? These questions keep me awake many nights and I still have a lot of nightmares. Like I said at the start, even if I mostly laugh about it now, sometimes I still get anxious over small things. So to the man in the woods who chased us and then appeared in my room, let's not meet ever, ever. Yeah, let's not.

That's freaky as hell. It is very scary. Sometimes I think about summer camp. I worked at a summer camp all throughout college. Some of the best memories of my life. Some of also the scariest experiences I've ever had. Oh, yeah. But it is just a big group of children. Like, and the people in the town know that it's just all these kids

and that it's just 19-year-olds watching them. Like, the ability for someone to just kind of sneak in there, you're basically, like, you have no guards on any side. You're isolated. Anyone can come in from any angle because it's just woods around. Yeah, it's interesting. I never really thought about that. My kids don't go to sleepaway camp,

but they go to day camp. It's just, you made me think of something because my younger son is, like, having a little bit of a hard time at camp this summer, whatever. And my mother was like, well, why don't you talk to the counselors? Because the counselor is a fetus. The counselor is 15. The counselor is a fetus.

The counselor is 15. The counselor was a camper last year. Exactly. And they aged out. They made him a counselor. Like, I don't know what kind of, you know, what you think he's gonna help my son with. You're still dating one of the campers. Like, that's always the case.

Exactly. But it's so interesting because I worry about, do you have enough lifeguards? I worry about things like that, but I never think about, until now, thank you very much, Kaylyn, security at camp. Like, the first thing that I thought about was like, yeah, really, really great in this story that counselors were stationed outside of the kids' rooms. Not good enough. Like, I want to see some uniforms.

That's also not every night, right? Usually, like, there's not... At least how it worked at my summer camp was, at night, all the counselors would go, they would have their night off starting at 10 p.m. And then one counselor, which was me sometimes, would have 12 cabins of children that I just had to kind of rotate between

and make sure everyone was behaving. Um, craziness. Right, you're looking for behavioral issues. You're not looking for a one-legged, you know, monster. Like, you're, you know what I mean? Like, you're not looking for what this person described as being a terrifying, you know, person with nefarious intentions. Right, right.

And that was always, I was actually just talking to Matt, my husband about this, but like the oftentimes the towns that the camps are in are just these like really small podunk towns where the people who live in the town don't send their children to that camp. Like, my camp was, that I worked at, was really expensive. And like, everyone in the area was basically priced out of going there.

So they also just didn't feel any sense of community with the camp. They would often be, I think, like, kind of angry with the camp. Probably annoyed, yeah. Annoyed with the camp. And so, you just don't know the people in the area. There was one night, too, where people from the town, like, just came with the camp. And so you just don't know the people in the area. There was one night too, where people from the town like just came onto the camp premise and that was like a huge security breach and they were trying to like find the people and get them out. And it was just like

drunk teenagers. So it ended up being fine, but it was still really scary. Well, the thing is too, is that just predators in general, obviously, are attracted to areas that provide access... Yeah. ...to what they're hunting, right? So, you know, somebody who's out to hurt a child, yeah, and an isolated sleepaway camp in the middle of nowhere is, you know, is as good as it gets for someone like that. Yeah, that's really freaky. It sounds like this person, this Reddit user,

understandably has some PTSD going on. You know? Also, on top of all this, kind of like, the former camp counselor in me is like, it was way too easy for those boys to just walk away from the camp. Yeah. They were the ones that went and found this person,

and if the story ended there with him chasing them out of the garden, it would fully be on these kids for trespassing in this guy's garden. But the fact that he maybe showed up in their cabin afterwards is really, really scary. But it's also just, yeah, kids can just wander away. Well, it's on the kids in that, you know, obviously, they were the ones who put themselves in that situation.

But like, they are children with underdeveloped frontal lobes. Like, they are not, literally not designed to be making good decisions. So, why are those windows opening? If they're opening, why is there no alarm getting tripped? You know what I mean? Like, it... At the end of the... I mean, listen, I... I'm not always thinking about liability,

but like, I'm also thinking like, it's not really these kids' fault for doing what kids do. Which is pushing the boundaries. Like, camps need to be on it better. You know what I mean? If they're not already. Like, they were not in this case. I don't know when this was, too. I mean, I think nowadays people are a little bit more

on top of their security game than they used to be, like, when we were campers, you know what I mean? Yeah, they said it was 12 years ago. It was like 2013, which also was when I was a counselor at camp. So, a little bit of a different time, but not that different of a time. No, not that. I was a counselor, but I was a counselor like 13 years before that.

You know what I mean? That was a little bit of a old school type of vibe in retrospect, you know what I mean? Oh, I bet, I bet. Yeah, I'm curious, anyone who's listening, if you send your kids to camp, because I know we have a lot of listeners with children, or also a lot of listeners that probably were campers.

Summer camp, scary stories are some of my favorite scary stories that exist. So I am curious what your scariest camp stories are, anyone who's listening. Yeah. And you worked at a camp and you still send your kids to camp. So that's a good sign. Like we've seen how the sausage is made there.

We know how hungover those 19-year-olds are while they're watching kids swim. And you still, you know, and so, yeah, it's just part of it, I guess. All right. Want to get to the next one? Okay. The next story is titled, Careful what you say at breakfast in a hotel dot dot dot. And the Reddit user is Jazzy Josie. When I was around 22 years old, I had a scary encounter while staying at a hotel for a job. Around 2010, I was working for a traveling photography group that took church directory

photos. Each photographer drove separately from all over the place. So I was in Harlan, Iowa at the time. And I was staying at a hotel along with other photographers who joined me. I believe there were four of us, two guys, a girl, and myself. One morning I went to breakfast and I was watching the TV in the hotel breakfast area. Someone was also down there nearby, a guy. When he looked at me I said good morning, as I do wherever I go, just to be friendly. He said it back and we had just a polite exchange. Something you would do with a stranger you never

thought you would see again. He mentioned he was staying there with his team for a construction job. I go to leave and I say something very casual like, have a good one, see you later. He said something like, we would hang later. I didn't think anything of it. I just brushed it off like, yeah, maybe. I don't remember if it was the same day or not as I didn't work until 11 a.m. We tend to work from like 11am to 10pm give or take,

depending on the size of the church, etc. I decided to go take a nap since I didn't sleep well the night before. While lying in my room, I kept receiving phone calls to my room phone. I wasn't used to getting calls like that ever, so I just picked up. I would say hello, but nobody would answer. After a few times I eventually took the receiver off and placed it beside the phone so it would just stop ringing. When it was time to get up and leave, I left my room and saw the guy was there in the hall. I waved casually, still not thinking anything of it. He asked where I was going and I said I had to go to work. My

friend showed up, the female photographer, and I went with her to her car where I was going and I said I had to go to work. My friend showed up, the female photographer, and I went with her to her car as I was going to ride with her to the church. I told her about getting strange phone calls and she mentioned that she did as well. Later that night, there was a thunderstorm. Of course there was a thunderstorm. My photographer group and I stood by the hotel lobby door watching all the lightning. It was thundering and it was extremely dark. There were chances for tornadoes, so we were keeping tabs with each other.

Eventually I go to my room for the night and I hear a knock on my door. I really didn't want to answer it. However, I did, cracking the door to see who it was. It was the guy. He talked about how I said we could hang out and I told him I was too tired after working all day and that I needed to sleep. I shut the door. Now I can't remember if this was the next morning or still night, but I recall him knocking again, but I wouldn't answer. I pretended to either be out or sleeping. I called my mom and

I started talking to her. I told her what was happening. And although I was scared, I almost acted like I wasn't when I was speaking with her. Suddenly I had a weird feeling. I whispered to my mom, mom, hold on a second. I need to check something. I tiptoe as quietly as I can over to my room door. I look out the peephole, and I see him. And then see him turn his head to my door

as if he was listening for something. My heart started to pound. It said race, but I wanted to say pound, for obvious reasons. I then saw him move to the side. You know how the wall sometimes goes in for the doors so there's like an indentation in the hallway for each room? Well, he goes to the wall away from the room that juts out. I think he thought he was hiding because he would try to lean his head around the corner out of the jut

as if he was listening for something. I walked to the further side of my room quietly and I whispered to my mom about how I'm scared. I called the front desk to complain, which is what my mom suggested. I can't remember if I also texted my friend or called her, but she also complained to the front desk about the various phone calls that she received. Eventually we were given new rooms and the construction group manager was told by the hotel about one of his guys and that creepy guy was told to stay away from us. I even told some of the church people about the situation and they all said if we needed to stay with them we could. All very nice, but still all strangers to me and I didn't trust anyone at that point.

I'm not sure what happened to him as I didn't see him after that. I was a little jealous of my friend because she ended up with a hot tub in her room and I didn't but it was fine. However, after that, I was more aware and careful with who I talked to and what I said. And that's the story. I think the scariest thing for me, because this is something that reading and listening to like survivors of stalking talk about their experiences, usually when they're saying, like, how the interactions began, or, like, how the stalking started,

how did this person become obsessed with you? It's always some really mundane story like that. Like, this guy at breakfast asked me a question, I responded, and all of a sudden, he, like, hyperfixated on me. I remember there was one girl, I was listening to her story, and she just had a class with this guy and he just sat behind her and became obsessed with her

and she had no idea for years. And then it wasn't until like five years that he started like trying to contact her, but it had started like way earlier than she knew about, but that is a huge fear that you could just be nice to someone and say something and they'd like hyperfix it on you. It is. It is, but again, you... What are you supposed to not say hello to a stranger?

No, of course. No, and I know that's not what you're saying. I'm just kind of like riffing. Like, you know, what kind of world would we live in, right? Like, if we did not say hello to each other, if we didn't talk about the weather passing by, you know what I mean? It's just... Yeah.

It's just rolling the dice, unfortunately, right? Like, chances are, you are not going to encounter a stalker. Statistically speaking, the guy next to you is not a serial killer. It's just a damn shame when he is. Yeah. Yeah, I just went back and revisited. Did you ever, um... I think it was also a Reddit post,

but this woman had so many receipts. She uploaded, like, this whole journal. But she basically went on vacation. She had just quit her job, and in, like, the weeks since she quit, she went on vacation. And when she gets back, she gets a call from the police, and they say, "'Hey, we just wanted you to know we arrested someone

outside of your building, and they were waiting for you. And she's like, what the heck? And the police go on to explain to her that the guy they arrested outside of her building, first of all, he had rope, he had duct tape, he had all this stuff, his plan was to kidnap her. Oh, my God. It was a guy from her previous job.

Oh. She had never spoken to him, not even one single time. Over the years, she had worked there for maybe two years. He had kept a journal of every day, what she was wearing, what she said, how she looked, who she interacted with. And it was completely all invented in his mind. Like, I know that you wore this because you know I love this shirt the most.

Like, I know you're thinking of our future children when you do these things. And they, they, she ended up uploading some of this journal to Reddit, or like, it was like, Imgur, wherever she like, had uploaded the journal to. So you could read it in like, the guy's handwriting, and it was so scary. Just the amount, and she had no idea the guy's handwriting. And it was so scary, just the amount.

And she had no idea the entire time, not until he was getting arrested outside of her building. That's terrifying. I'm researching a case right now. I'm recording it in a couple of days from now, so it's not out at the time of this recording. Serial killer Joel Rifkin, Long Island serial killer.

And he went on to kill 17 women horrifically. But it's sort of... He had a whole background, so I'm not doing the story justice. Definitely go over to Psychopedia to hear that case, because it's going to be an in-depth two-parter. But the short of the long is he went through an internship where he met a woman, never even spoke to the woman, but he developed this whole relationship with her in his head. And then he also developed her slighting him and rejecting him in his head. They never spoke a word to each other.

It's possible this woman didn't even know that Joel Rifkin existed. But in his head, she rejected me. And that was like the straw that broke the camel's back for him. And after that, he was like, it's time for me to take control back and to sort of like put these women in their place. Oh, my gosh. And it was like not even a real slight, like no one had ever, and he still felt the need to go and do that.

He had been slighted in life by loads of people. When he was a child, he was bullied relentlessly by boys, girls, so it wasn't specific to women. But the way it manifested with Joel Rifkin, I mean, he started developing these really twisted fantasies in his mind that featured exclusively women. And then just the way all of the chips fell, you know, nature, nurture, like the whole storm kind of came together.

And it... he became a ruthless, actually, New York's most prolific known serial killer. Wow. And so he was also in Long Island, but he's not Rex Hewerman, the other Long Island serial killer. Wow. And so he was also in Long Island, but he's not Rex Heuerman, the other Long Island serial killer. He's not... That's why I say the original Long Island serial killer. No, he's not Rex Heuerman, but he's... You know, he actually... I'm from Long Island, and I'm here still.

So all of his hunting grounds and whatnot are like, paths that I take on the regular, roads that I drive daily. It's wild. It's just, it's not just like that this case hits home, it is home. So it's really extra eerie for me. Yeah. Yeah, you can see the spots and like... Perfectly. Yeah. Perfectly. Definitely. That is very scary.

I actually... You said that episode's out now? I'm recording it two days from now. So by the time this episode releases, it will be out. Okay, great. I am very... Because I had never heard of him before, so I'm definitely gonna check that one out because that sounds absolutely terrifying. It is.

Well, that is all I have for you today. These were our creepy encounters. But also, like we said, this was a very big trust your intuition episode. Yes, agree. This was crazy fun. Kaylyn, thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming on. No, seriously, I love having you on.

My audience loves you. They love Psychopedia. And everyone who doesn't listen to Psychopedia, go check it out. We talked about some of the episodes, and I'll link some of those in the description so people can go straight there. And you have a new show that you're working on too. Is that right? Yes. Yes. A new podcast.

It's called Girl on Gore. Love the title already. Thank you. It's sort of this plunge into the not-so-true crime genre. That's what I'm calling it. It's like a fictional bloodbath laced with forensic facts and like pitch black humor, basically. It's created and written and hosted by me. And it's going to be a series that I drop

on the Psychopedia feed. So anybody who's subscribed to Psychopedia will see the notifications that that will be dropping that I drop on the Psychopedia feed. So anybody who's subscribed to Psychopedia will... will see the notifications that that will be dropping in the end of July. Now's a good time to say if you're not subscribed to Psychopedia, maybe go ahead and do that so you don't miss all this stuff.

But it's going to be a series about this really, really dark, true crime, or excuse me, not true crime, true crime adjacent. Because I pull in a lot of true crime elements and true crime cases and real forensic facts and real legalese and things of that nature, but the plot itself is completely made up. So it's this mesh.

Oh, interesting. Okay, so it's fiction. It's fiction with nonfiction elements. I love that. If that makes sense. It kind of hits all areas that I'm passionate about. I'm excited to check that out. I am excited to check that out. I think that's gonna be really interesting.

Yeah, because you do such a good job with that series, talking about like the nitty gritty of those jobs that people don't really know how they work. Yeah, yeah, they, you know, I really believe the people that are like, literally and metaphorically getting their hands dirty are the ones who know the most about the crime itself. Yes. Oh, that is so true. So I kind of play off that thinking a little bit

in two minutes or less on socials, but the Girl on Gore podcast is gonna allow me to expand on that. Wow, I love that. No, that's a great idea. Um, okay, so everyone can check that out. It's going to be dropped on the Psychopedia feed. So if you're already subscribed to Psychopedia, you'll see it in the feed. If not, go check it out. Yeah. And thank you to everyone who listened to me on your show today. I appreciate everyone. Yeah. And I can't wait till the next time.

Thank you. This was awesome. Perfect. And anyone who's listening, wherever you listen, let us know too, like, any trust your intuition moments that you had. Because I'm really curious to hear from the community what their big, like, trusting their gut, trusting their... Like, anytime you got, like, a feeling where you knew something was off, because I think we can all learn a little bit from those kinds of stories. All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you.