Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 14x26: He Knew Too Much

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Stories in this episode:  The Time I Was Hunted | TheJedibugs (0:40) The Man at the End of My Driveway | Buzzo14 (16:57)  The Late Night Creeps | Montyy5133 (19:32)  Almost Kidnapped in a McDonald's | Marshall (22:43)  Almost Kidnapped at 7-11 | thechaosbrat (26:18)  Strange Man in Rural Ireland | emplaystheblues (31:54)  Creepy Lady in the Alleyway | handhuhia (38:44)  He Knew Too Much | SielSkywalker (49:05)  Extended Patreon Content:  Crazy Lori | nerdqueen3599 The Red Jeep | Elliot High and Horrified | Alli He Wanted to Tuck Me In | K An Unsettling Walk in the Snow | Anonymous  Due to periodic changes in ad placement, time stamps are estimates and are not always accurate. Want Bonus Weekly Stories? Hate Ads? Join our Patreon for only $5 a month for over 100 hours of bonus content, and it's all ad-free! Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/84WXQud4gE Follow: - Twitch - https://twitch.tv/crypticcounty - Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/ - Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/ - TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@crypticcounty All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. To submit your story to the show, send it to [e-mail].      Go to Hungryroot.com/meet and use code meet to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life.

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active ingredients in Wigovie or Ozempic but for 80 to 90 percent less. That's Pound250 keyword care. but for 80 to 90% less, that's pound 250 keyword care. This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. Back in 98, I was pretty broke. I was a 19-year-old guy and living with a roommate named Steve. Steve was about my age, maybe a year older.

His dad had passed away a few years prior, and he left Steve a trust fund which covered all his bills and gave him a weekly allowance on top until he reached a certain age. At this particular age he would receive his full inheritance. Steve and I got along pretty well, but he was the kind of guy who liked to remind you when he had some degree of power over you. That aspect of his personality, butted up against my own stubborn, prove-the-world-wrong attitude on this particular night, and it led to the events I'm about to describe.

Steve and I went over to our friend Trevor's house on Siesta Key one night. Steve drove, as I didn't have a car. I don't remember why we went over there, and I don't even know that I remember any other instance of the three of us hanging out. I just know that we went there later in the evening. Maybe around nine or so. At some point, Steve and I got into a disagreement over something. I have no memory of what it was about, except that I seemed to recall that it wasn't anything

important that impacted our lives in any way. of what it was about, except that I seemed to recall that it wasn't anything important that impacted our lives in any way. Something akin to disagreeing about movie trivia, or something as inconsequential as that. Steve must have felt that he was losing the debate, because he took the opportunity to remind me that he had the car, and I could always walk home. Now there are a few other things to note here. First, walking home from where we were would have been a 13-mile walk.

I could not have told you this at the time, but I just looked it up for the story. Second, we were at my best friend's house. I had stayed over there countless times, and absolutely could have that night if I needed to. Third, my best friend also had a car and he likely would have given me a ride if Steve ditched me. So Steve's threat was empty, whether he realized it or not. Ultimately, all that was happening at that moment was that Steve, the trust fund brat,

was just exerting control over me since his ego was bruised over something so trivial. And I was stubborn, I was a hothead. I would absolutely not stand for that. So I silently decided that I would walk home, just to fucking spite him and show him that I wouldn't be intimidated. So a bit later, under the pretense of going to use the restroom, I left the room and quietly left the house to start the 13-mile walk home. I should note that while I knew this was a long walk, I didn't quite understand how long it was.

But that didn't matter. I needed to prove my independence. It was probably 11pm or so when I left the house. I anticipated that they would come looking for me when they discovered that I had left. So I tried to stay off the main path as best as I could, determined to complete the whole walk in order to make my point. This may be a good time to quickly remind you that this was in 1998, and a good two or three years before I got my first cell phone.

The first hour and a half of the walk went by without incident. I made my way all the way to downtown Sarasota. The more direct route would have been to follow the main road along the waterfront, but I cut through downtown, still looking to avoid Steve spotting me on his way back home. This is an area that I was super comfortable with. I spent most of my childhood in the area and, especially in my teen years, explored every nook and cranny of the downtown area. It was also an affluent area, full of high-rise condos that overlooked the Gulf of Mexico.

This area was also known for its theater and art galleries, as such, even past midnight, it didn't feel menacing at all, just quiet and empty. The path I had chosen through downtown went along Pineapple Avenue, which was mostly art galleries and upscale shops. As I walked along, I saw a red hatchback sitting in the middle of the road. It was just a little ways past an intersection up ahead of me. I noticed that it didn't have a license plate, but I didn't think anything of this. As I got closer, the car stayed put.

The interior light was on, and I could see that there were three or four guys in there. Seeing that the interior light was on made me assume that they were looking at a map or something like that, though I couldn't make out the inside of the car well enough to see anything more than the general shapes of the people. As I crossed the small intersection, maybe 30 to 40 feet away from the car, I suddenly got an overwhelmingly uneasy feeling. I don't know if it was the car being there, or maybe I thought the figures inside were too still

or something. Whatever the case may be, I was just suddenly hit with this strong feeling of unease. A gut feeling. So instead of continuing, I casually turned down the street to my left, and as soon as the corner of the building blocked me from their view, I bolted. This was a spot where a small access road ran behind these buildings, and then connected to a few alleys. One of the alleys was this very thin alley that ran alongside a church before spilling back out onto Pineapple Avenue, right where that red car was. I ran this sequence of alleys and popped out just in time to see the rear end

of the car vanish down the side street I had just run down. At this point, I wasn't scared. I had the idea that the guys in the car had something unpleasant in mind for me, but I knew damn well that I had given them the shake. mind for me, but I knew damn well that I had given them the shake. There was no way in hell that they'd expect me to be back where they started. If they were looking for me, it was going to be elsewhere. So I continued along, feeling smug. After 10-15 minutes, I pretty much had to get off the main road because the alternative

was walking through a seedy neighborhood that I wasn't nearly as confident about as I was downtown. As I approached the first big intersection along the main road, I saw the red car up ahead, very noticeable by the lack of a license plate. I sort of grinned to myself about having foiled them. On this big road, there were some other cars here and there, even at this late hour, so I felt a bit less isolated and more at ease. But then I saw the car slow down to a crawl, despite not being anywhere near the light

yet. Suddenly I found myself wondering if they had possibly spotted me, so I decided to just cross to the other side of the street. We were on a US highway, so it was several lanes wide, with a median down the center. Being on the other side would put me at a fair distance from them. But when I got to the other side, that's when I realized I was in actual danger. This red hatchback suddenly sped up, racing to the intersection ahead, then they zipped over to the left lane, where they banged out a tire-screeching U-turn and headed back in my direction.

Where I had crossed was a nice green space between the History Center and the Garden Club. There was a gigantic tree standing there. On the other side of that green space was a parking lot, some buildings, and the bay. I wasn't familiar enough with what was back there to be able to pull a trick like I had before, so I climbed. I got up as high as I could into the tree, as fast as I could. I always dressed in all black back then, so I was pretty confident that I'd be nearly

impossible to spot as long as they didn't actually climb up after me. So I got up and nestled into the most hidden spot that I could find and tried not to make any noise. Hiding up in the tree, I was surrounded by so much foliage that I couldn't see what was going on. On the plus side, that meant it was highly unlikely that they would see me. On the other hand, I didn't know what to prepare myself for, so I sat up there, running through scenarios in my head trying to plan my next move. Even if I hadn't been outnumbered, flight was my only option.

As speedy and scrappy as I was at 5'3", no fight that I put up was likely to do much. As I sat on that branch, trying to plan my next move, my blood ran cold. Any remaining doubt about what was happening, any fleeting hope that I was just being paranoid, flew out the window as I heard the car doors open and close. I then heard footsteps crunching the grass. And eventually, an angry male voice said, where is this motherfucker? Followed by another who said, look over there, I'll check this area. It was official, I was being hunted.

I don't know how long I stayed up in that tree. It couldn't have been more than ten minutes, and more likely it was quite a bit less than that, but it felt like forever. At some point I decided to risk another flight, though I can't remember what triggered it. Maybe the car doors? The car driving away? I just can't remember. I do remember jumping from the tree and landing with a hard thud and bolting back the way

that I came as fast as I could. I was terrified that whatever sound that made me feel like it was safe to come out was a ploy to draw me out. At the intersection where they had made the U-turn, there was a 24-hour gas station. Of course, from where I was, this was across both roads. All I could think was that, if I could make it there and get inside, I would be safe and I could call the police. That run was a total blur, but I remember walking through the door and seeing the look

on the clerk's face as she saw my panicked expression. I called the police, explained what happened, and waited inside for them to arrive. When they got there, I went out front to meet them and explained everything to the only officer who spoke to me. He was not sympathetic. I had described the car in detail, as well as all of the events, and he said that they probably thought I was a male sex worker and they were trying to pick me up. I thought to ask him if sex workers get a lot of business by fleeing from prospective

johns and hiding in trees, but I was distracted by the sight of the red hatchback slowly cruising by, watching me talk to the police. I pointed to the car and exclaimed that that was them. The police seemed entirely uninterested. The cop glanced at the car for half a second, looked back at me, and asked, what do you want me to do about it? I don't want to walk anymore, I exclaimed. I'm sure there were better ways that I could have articulated that people were attempting

to capture me for unknown nefarious purposes, and that I was in fear for my life should they encounter me on the street again, but I don't want to walk anymore, was all that I was capable of saying at that moment. The cop then pointed to the side of the police car and said, you see what that says? It says police, not taxi. His condescending attitude was doing a great job to replace my fear with some of the brash attitude that had gotten me into this situation in the first place, so I replied,

It also says to serve and protect, and I'm asking you to protect me because I think I'm in danger. He sighed in response like a teenager being asked to do the dishes and told me that he couldn't take me all the way home since I lived in the next town, and county, over. But he said that he'd take me to the county line, which is another major intersection along the same main highway. That was still a good five and a half miles from my house. Again, a number I just looked up for the story. But it got me off of the road for almost three miles, making it seem less likely that these people would find me again.

The cops dropped me off in front of the museum, and from there I walked two hours looking over my shoulder constantly. I was ready to run down side streets or jump into bushes if need be. My girlfriend's house was slightly closer than my own, and with the sun now rising I knew she'd be okay with me stopping by. In the end, I made it to her place safely and never saw that red car again. Almost thirty years later, I still wonder what might have become of me if they had gotten their hands on me.

The determination they showed in pursuing me leads me to believe that nothing I can imagine, no matter how bad, is outside the realm of possibility. So to the hunting party in the Red H parts of my week, but since my wife and I started using Hungry Root, it's honestly felt like we have a personal assistant who just gets how we eat, no more back and forth, begging each other to make the decision. Hungry Root takes the stress out of mealtime by planning a week full of meals tailored to our tastes, and it gets smarter with every order.

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Hungryroot.com slash meat, code meat. This happened a few years ago. I've never told anyone about it. I'm only sharing this now since it's been on my mind and I feel like I have to get it out. When this happened, I lived pretty far out in a rural area. It was just me and my dog, we had no neighbors close by, and it was usually pretty quiet. I liked it that way.

One night, I woke up in the middle of the night to the motion sensor light going off outside. At first, I thought it was just an animal, maybe a deer or something. But when I looked out the window, I saw this man standing at the end of my driveway. He wasn't moving, he was just standing there, facing my house. I don't know why, but I froze. I kind of just stood there staring at him. But he didn't move at all. The light went off again after a while, and even though everything went back to being dark and quiet, I didn't sleep much after that. The next night, it happened again. The light came on, and there he was. He was in the same spot, maintaining that same stillness,

just standing there and staring at the house. By this point, I was starting to get freaked out, so I called the sheriff's department, and they sent somebody by to check it out. However, by the time they got there, he was already gone. The deputy told me that it was probably just some drunk guy or somebody passing through. Either way, he said that I shouldn't worry unless he started coming closer. This didn't make me feel any better, but I tried to move on. This continued for a week, every single night, like clockwork.

I'd wake up to see this strange, unknown man standing at the end of my driveway. The scenario was always the same. He never moved, never said anything. He just stood there staring at my house. Even when I made sure to close the blinds at night, I still felt like I could sense that he was out there. And then just like that, it stopped. I never saw him again after that week. Much like when he started showing up, there was no explanation and no reason for this.

It just simply ended. This happened when I was 14. My best friend at the time was also 14, and we were having a sleepover at her house one night. We were pretty bored, and at about 9pm we thought it would be a good idea to walk to the Dollar General to get some snacks for the night. There was a shortcut behind her house that went through a church parking lot. From there, we had to take a little pathway to get to the Dollar General. So we made our way to the Dollar General and we got all the snacks that we wanted, and then we went back the way we came and headed for her house.

We went down that pathway again. As I said, it was 9pm, so it was dark outside. As soon as we reached the pathway, my friend turned her phone flashlight on to illuminate the very short pathway. We didn't have long to go before we were back at the church parking lot, and we were just casually making our way. At the end of the path, we went to take a right, and boom! We ran right into an older man with a thousand-yard stare.

My friend screamed, but she quickly apologized to the man. He just stood there, though. He didn't move or change his unsettling, vacant expression or anything. He didn't even speak. While he continued to stand there, unmoving and total darkness, my friend and I just kept walking through the church parking lot. My friend started to brush it off, but I kept my eyes on the area where we saw him. To do so, I was walking backwards while she was walking forwards.

We kept talking and walking, but I just couldn't brush it off. I couldn't help but feel that something was up. Then, as we were walking about halfway through the parking lot, I saw about six men emerge from different points out of the darkness, and they all bolted right at us full speed. Luckily, we were decently far ahead of them, so I screamed at her and told her we needed to run. They're coming, I warned. So we booked it.

We probably should have just gone back to her house, but we decided to hide behind an air conditioning unit behind the church. As we were hiding, we heard them running past. They were talking amongst themselves in Spanish, and we didn't understand what they were saying. As soon as we knew that they were gone, we ran the rest of the way back to her house. Her house had a fence right behind it, and as soon as we got there, we could see through the slats.

They were still running around out there looking for us. Thankfully, they never saw us or where we went. But it still scares me to this day when I think about how we ran into that man who was seemingly just hiding in the shadows with his friends waiting for us. What if he hadn't given us that head start? What if he had just attacked us right then and there? What if they found us hiding before we got the chance to get back to her house? So many things could have happened, and it'll always give me chills when I think about it.

As a child I was very bad at understanding social etiquette, and more specifically, how to not over-share or talk with strangers. I continued to do this no matter how many times my parents warned me not to. This happened when I was around 8 years old, when I was in my prime for being overly talkative. My mom had brought me to McDonald's with her friend, who had a daughter so that we could play at the indoor play place together after eating. It was late at night. I don't remember why we were there so late or what we had done earlier that day,

but McDonald's was pretty much empty except for us and the staff and one guy sitting alone at a table near the play place. Of course, for whatever reason, as soon as I saw this person alone, I went up to them with my friend to strike up a conversation. I introduced myself and her before talking about my interests, my school,

and all kinds of other things that I don't remember. I don't even remember him replying, but we eventually left him alone after he called someone on his phone and started speaking in a different language. I didn't recognize it back then, and I don't remember it enough in detail to guess what language it could have been. My friend and I just kept playing until the man left. And then a lady, a big man, and a young girl, who was roughly our age, entered the McDonald's. The girl ran up to the glass dividing the counters from the play area and yelled my name excitedly.

I approached her despite not even recognizing her. She began telling me a bunch of facts about myself, implying that she knew me and we had met before. She told me that I must have forgotten her. She wanted me to come play outside and hang out with her. As an adult, I realize now that the things she was saying were the things that I had told the man before he got on the phone. But since I was an oblivious, naive child, I was ready to go outside with her. When my mom finally caught on to what was happening, she ran over to grab me.

She dragged me out of the other exit into the car. She was clearly terrified and stressed, but I was confused as I demanded to know why she wouldn't let me hang out with this other girl. My mom wouldn't answer. And as she tore out of the parking lot, the man with the little girl got in his car. From what we could see as we left, he began chasing us. My mom went down several different roads away from our home until she was finally able to lose him.

I was in serious trouble when I got home, and my mom explained that this was most likely a kidnapping attempt. She told me that I really needed to stop telling random strangers so much information about myself. I didn't understand how a little girl my age could be involved with the kidnapping of another kid, not to mention I didn't understand the motivation of kidnapping at all, either. I definitely get it as an adult. I now realize this was truly a horrifying situation that I narrowly avoided because of my mom.

I have so many encounters that I could write about since I seem to be a magnet for all kinds of weird and creepy happenings. This occurred when I was around 20 years old. My life was a mess, to say the least, and I was under a lot of pressure. One of my favorite things to do was to go to a used bookstore that I've gone to since I was little. You can exchange books for store credit, so I hadn't had to pay for a book in years. This bookstore was in a strip mall, where there was also a 7-Eleven. I would often go there and get myself a soda or sometimes cigarettes.

The people at the bookstore really didn't care if I had a drink in there. One day, I went to that 7-Eleven, and there were some men in there who seemed to be in their 40s. They were checking me out and making some comments. As I was purchasing my cigarettes, the cashier checked my ID and saw that I was over 18. He remarked, Wow, you're 20? I thought you were much younger.

Doesn't she look younger? The other man who was working there agreed, and it seemed like such an odd thing to say. I wanted to sit at the Starbucks across the street, but there was no seating. So I lit my cigarette as I hung out in front of the 7-Eleven. The cashier decided to take his break and smoke at the same time. I tried to be casual and not seem creeped out, but my guard was up, so I wandered over

to the bookstore to stay away from whatever he was doing. I was in the bookstore for a while, and somehow I lost track of where I parked. I swear I could lose my car anywhere. When I was wandering around the parking lot looking for my car, I stepped between two trucks. Randomly, the 7-Eleven worker stepped in front of me, saying that I had to come back in. I dismissively told him that I had to get to work and stepped forward. He then repositioned himself so that I could not pass him without walking under his arm.

He claimed that the cashier really needed my number. Now it was around 4.30 and he told me that they were leaving to go to a party at 5. And then he told me I should go with him to the back of the store and drink until they were going to leave. I again told him that I had to work and tried to move around him. He took a few more steps forward so I had even less room. But since I'm small, I backed up to try and go between other cars. After a couple of minutes of this, I decided to follow him back inside the store since, at least, it had cameras.

I saw two cops walking out as the employees led me in. I wanted to stop them, but they were moving too fast for me to try and grab onto one of them or something like that. In hindsight, I could have just yelled or something, but I just couldn't think of that at the time. I also have notoriously bad luck with cops, so that just didn't feel like the safest option. When I came back into the store,

they had already selected a mini bottle of liquor for me. The cashier was explaining how this party, which was on a Wednesday at 5 p.m., was going to be awesome. He said that there was going to be a bunch of substances and alcohol there, and I was going to have awesome. He said that there was going to be a bunch of substances and alcohol there, and I was going to have so much fun. I kind of just kept saying uh-huh and yeah throughout since I knew there was probably no real party.

Finally the cashier got around to what he wanted, which was demanding to get my number. The other employee moved to the door as the cashier was hounding me to give him my number. I decided the best route was for me to give him a number with a 555 prefix, since those are all phony numbers used by Hollywood as phone numbers. They tried to get me to go into the back of the store, but I said I had to work and that I'd go to the next party with them. I was trying to placate them and get out of the store but I said I had to work and that I'd go to the next party with them.

I was trying to placate them and get out of the situation. Somehow nobody else was inside this 7-Eleven so I was fending off these two creeps with nothing but a soda and a bag of books. When I finally appeased them, I walked out of the store but knew they would be watching me. I knew I couldn't walk to my car since I didn't want them to see my car. So I walked as calmly as I could to another store, and frantically called the dad of the kids I was supposed to watch. At this point I broke down. I was shaking and crying. His wife was at work, so he was really my only hope of getting out of there quickly. Once he pulled up in front of the store, I jumped into his car.

As we drove away, I caught a glimpse of one of the guys in 7-Eleven looking out the window, but I don't think he saw me. Later that night, we returned to pick up my car. After sharing this story with friends, everyone is torn about what these guys wanted. I'm not sure if they were attempting to kidnap me or just hold me in the store. Whatever it was, they definitely didn't have good intentions. Looking back, I can laugh a little because as soon as the dad of the kids that I nannied came, I noticed a hammer in his car. I asked him if he planned on attacking them, but all he cryptically said was

You never know when you might need a hammer My best friend and I are both from London, but her family on her dad's side is from Ireland, so she goes there every summer for the entire summer. Last summer, I went to go and stay with her for two weeks at her granddad's house. Her granddad lives in rural Ireland. The town that he lives in is very rural. It's at least a 40-minute drive away from civilization, and his house is the only building in the area. His property backs into a massive forest, and it faces a lake.

It's quite beautiful, but that's beyond the point. The rest of the family, besides us, were going out to the pub one evening. They invited us, which was a tempting offer, but we declined as we were excited about the prospect of having the house to ourselves. This was something that didn't happen often, given that we were teenagers. So we decided to stay behind and have a chill evening in. Of course, if you've been to Ireland,

you know that going out for a quick pint is anything but quick. Her family had been gone for some time by this point, and it was approaching 10 p.m. We were watching a movie in her living room when we heard a knock on the door. We reckoned maybe it was someone from the family who had forgotten their key, so we went to answer it. Her granddad's front door led to the conservatory, which then led to the actual front door of the house.

So, as we made it to the conservatory door, we were fully expecting her family, but instead, there was another man at the door. Slightly confused, we just kind of looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to say something. During this time, I took in his appearance, and there was something off about him to say the least. He looked bizarrely alert and slightly scary. I can't quite explain it, but if you know, you know.

He told us that his car had broken down and he needed to use a phone to call someone to pick him up. I looked out but I couldn't see a car at all. So I said something like, where's your car? He explained, it broke down about 30 minutes down the road. I didn't know what else to do so I just started walking until I found a house. Given that my friend's granddad lives in a fairly remote area, this seemed entirely plausible. With slight hesitation, my friend passed him her phone and said that he could call

whoever he needed to call and wait on the doorstep. He didn't accept the offer. Instead, he just kind of ignored it and started asking if there were any adults or parents in the house. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and assumed that he was asking this as maybe he felt more comfortable sharing his predicament with an adult rather than to teenage girls. We didn't know if we should tell him we were alone or not, and we would usually know better than that but given the situation, we explained that they were out but should be back soon. He then started to look past us and into the house. He began insisting that we let him in the house as he wanted to use the landline.

We were more than suspicious because if he wanted to call somebody, why not just use my friend's phone? He was acting erratically, continuously insisting that we let him in. At that point, my friend told him he had to use her mobile or leave. She added that beyond that, there was nothing more that we could do for him. He again insisted that he come into the house, so we just shut the door on him, locked it, and then locked the door to the actual house. Freaked out, we sat in her living room trying to peek out the window to see if he had gone.

He lingered for a bit and looked into the windows. We thought he was possibly looking for a way in. But then we saw him leave, though we couldn't make out which direction he went in. We were very scared. To add fuel to the fire, my friend explained that the nearby town was pretty small and everyone in the area pretty much knew each other. She said she had never seen him in her life, which scared her as she was acquainted with most of the town by now.

We contemplated calling her dad, but since it had been about 30 minutes with no further disruption, we just left it and continued with our night. Later on, her dog was getting restless and her family was still out, so we let her into the back garden. After about five minutes, we heard her barking, but it was too dark to see what she was barking at so we chalked it up to more than likely being a goat, since that was usually the case. And with that, we called her in and went about our night.

We then realized her family probably wouldn't be back until the early hours of the morning. Instead of waiting for them, we decided to head up to bed. Shortly thereafter, I went into the kitchen, which was at the back of the house. I wanted to get us some water, and that was when I heard someone shaking the handle of the back door trying to get in. The thing is, it's a very old house, so I didn't exactly put all my faith in the door holding up against the weight of what I suspected was a full-grown man. I screamed bloody murder.

My friend then ran down the stairs. He was now banging on the door, like his life depended on it. And I swear to God, I felt my heart drop. My friend shouted back that she was going to call the police, since she thought this might be a deterrent. Luckily, this did seem to scare him off. He stopped banging, and we heard his footsteps move further away until we couldn't hear them anymore.

Once he was gone, we were literally frozen in fear. We couldn't even speak to each other. Then we heard the front door open and pretty much thought that was it for us. On instinct, my friend grabbed a knife and we hid in the pantry. You can only imagine our relief when we heard her dad call out for us, saying that they were back. We were absolutely dazed, and I'm sure that they could tell, so we frantically asked them,

did you see a car on your way here that might have been broken down? They responded that they didn't. And I swear to God, they responded that they did not. So to the strange man who tried to break into my best friend's granddad's house, let's never meet. I've been working as a fast food delivery driver for about 8 months now. Due to how my contract works, I need at least 3 evening shifts with 2 of those being between Friday and Sunday. I don't really mind working in the evenings, since it has a nice vibe to it.

It's typically very calm. Just throw on some headphones and a good playlist or a podcast, and you're good to go. Plus, I never work for more than four and a half hours, since I like to work on an e-bike. I can't do longer shifts without my battery dying, and I always need to keep in mind that I need enough battery for the bike to take me home as well. Apart from some stupid encounters I've had with teenagers trying to be funny in front of their friends, like biking after me or asking for food, maybe pretending to be the customer, for example, I've never had anything creepy happen to me.

But that changed just a few weeks ago. It was a Thursday evening. I had a shift from 5.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. Where I live, we delivery drivers are paid per hour instead of per delivery. This has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that the delivery drivers can't decide any orders on our end. If we for whatever reason can't take an order, we have to talk with the company we work for. So for the most part, whatever trip is thrown at us, we have to take. Up until this point, I kept getting good close-by deliveries from nice local restaurants routed

to me. None of my journeys were to faraway places, which was good. The weather was fine. It was cold, but if you layered up well enough, it wasn't bad, as long as it just didn't rain, which luckily hadn't. On this evening, around 8.15pm, I got a McDonald's order. The customer lived around 12 minutes away from the restaurant, which wasn't ideal, but it was fine since I had only lost one stripe of battery so far.

The McDonald's location that I had to pick up from was a good one. It was nice and accessible for me, since the only time I needed to get out of the bike lane was to cross a few roads. Other than that, I could complete the entire journey there in bike lanes. After waiting around for 15 minutes, I was able to pick up the order and head over to the customer. So, with food in hand, I got back onto my bike, chose a playlist, and headed to the customer's address.

The streets were pretty quiet at this time, which set the vibe. As I got closer to the customer's house, I made my way onto the sidewalk and cycled slowly, trying to find the house number, which can be a bit of a pain at night. When I eventually found it, I locked my bike up, walked over to the door, and knocked. After a few seconds, I heard some commotion inside, so I placed my transport bag down and started taking out the food. The door opened and a lady greeted me with a smile. After I handed her the food and told her to enjoy, she thanked me and gave me a tip before closing the door again.

I then got back onto my bike and unlocked it. I had been charging my phone with my power bank, but wanted to take the charger off since my phone had a decent enough charge and dealing with the wires sticking out of my jacket pocket was a bit of a hassle when I tried to take off or put on my backpack. However, I always feel awkward staying in the front yard of people's places for too long. It makes me feel like I'm being watched, especially when they have doorbell cameras, so I made my way over to a small alleyway close to the house. As I turned my bike off again, I took my power bank out and turned it off. Then I changed my playlist, and as I was putting the power bank back into my pocket, I heard slow footsteps creeping up closer to me from behind. Now the alleyway that I was standing in was pretty narrow and small,

so I was probably blocking it. I quickly moved and got off of my bike, holding it close to me as I pressed myself against the wall. I politely excused myself and made a gesture, telling this person to go ahead and pass. Instead of thanking me and continuing ahead, this person just kept standing there. So I finally looked up. I was met with a tall, skinny woman

who was standing just a few inches away from me. Her face was slim, almost gaunt, and her hair was resting on her shoulders. Her face looked pale, and she looked like she was possibly an addict. She looked me dead in the eye without any expression and was breathing through her mouth. She was wearing brown jeans and a blue hoodie, with the hoodie pulled up. Can I help you? I asked, after painful moments of silence. She looked at me for a few more seconds before saying, you have my food.

I froze. In our app system, there was no way to actually confirm that the customer was the right one since we don't have any security codes to ask for. Since I was busy with my power bank, I hadn't completed her order yet. I checked my phone and decided to ask the lady questions about the order. I think another driver has your food. I just delivered someone else's," I said with a smile. Then I asked, where did you order from?

If she was right, I figured I could easily help her by getting a refund right then and there. However, she just stared at me. I watched her expressionless face turn into a hard, ugly glare. No, that was my food, she said loudly and insistently. Again I tried to reason with her, asking her her name and what food she had ordered. I'm trying to help you ma'am, I said. Check your app, your app should tell you how far away your delivery driver is." To this, she stepped back and pointed at me and demanded,

"...my food, I need my food." At this point, I figured she must have been very hungry. "...I have some food if you want some," I offered. Now, I always keep snacks on me in case I have a long wait for an order, or I have a lull between orders. Sometimes we wait around for orders a lot since we can't turn them down, even if they take too long to be made. My go-to work snacks are protein granola bars.

They're easy to keep since they don't take up too much space and they can be eaten fast. I decided to give her a box and hoped that she would be satisfied. I took one out of my backpack and handed it to her. She took it from me, damn near snatching it out of my grip, and stepped closer. I want my food, she stated sternly as her glare sharpened. I let out a breath since I was getting pretty creeped out and I asked her to once again check her app and give me the name that she put with her so-called order. She took a big breath and before I could say anything, she exhaled and screamed bloody

murder, making me flinch as I pressed myself under the wall. I struggled a bit but eventually got back onto my bike and I pedaled away while the lady was still screaming her head off behind me. Once I reached a fence with an opening that didn't allow cars to come through, I slowed down a bit and tried to situate myself. This was enough time for the woman to catch up to me. She even grabbed onto the back of my bike. I let out a yelp as I could feel her trying to push me. She even grabbed onto the back of my bike. I let out a yelp as I could feel her

trying to push me. I also heard something scraping against the wall right next to me. I didn't want to look, so I put my bike on a higher assist mode, which I normally never would do to spare my battery, and I pedaled away like my life depended on it. Once I got past the fences, I put my bike on an even higher assistance setting and cycled away. I could hear the woman yelling, calling me a food thief as I took off. When I glanced back, I saw that she was holding the box of granola bars above her head, and she threw them at me.

They landed about a meter away from me. I also noticed what was causing the scraping noise that was making me nervous. She was holding a knife in her hand. I then focused back on the road and cycled away, while the lady was still screaming, yelling, and trying to run after me. Eventually, I went back to the app and finally clicked Finish on the order. I was hoping to get a new order right away since I didn't want to aimlessly cycle around the area.

I was fearing that I would run into her since she probably knew all of the shortcuts in that neighborhood. I did end up getting a new order right after that. It was from a kebab place nearby, around 8 minutes away. This was a place that I was sent to a lot. The owner was very friendly, always asking us delivery drivers if we wanted something to eat or drink on the house. I got there and was slightly out of breath. He asked me what happened and gave me some water to drink,

which helped me calm down. He then gave me some food. After I told him, he talked to the company and told them that I was in no condition to keep doing deliveries for the night. My work agreed and allowed me to end my shift earlier, and one of my co-workers came to collect the pickup instead. Since this delivery was just outside the city center, I biked back to the city center, where it was still busy, and then headed home after that. I am very grateful for the timing of that last order, my coworker, and the owner of the kebab shop.

I don't even want to know what that lady would have done if she had successfully pulled me off my bike. I'm French and I want to share something that happened to me when I was 21. I'm 29 now. At the time, I was living alone in an apartment in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. My building faced another one, separated only by a narrow two-way street, and if you know Paris you know that the buildings are very close to each other. I worked as a bartender in a night bar at the end of the same street. So every night after work I'd walk home.

I didn't have a license. I didn't really need one since honestly owning a car in Paris is kind of useless. One last piece of context that I would like to include before we begin is that I'm not the kind of person who scares easily. I've got a strong personality, and I never panic for no reason. On a winter night, I finished my shift at around 5 a.m., and as usual, my coworkers and I stuck around for a drink before heading home. I left the bar at around 6 a.m. and started walking to my apartment.

As I was walking, I noticed a police car slowly creeping along next to me. When I turned my head, I had to peer past my hood police car slowly creeping along next to me. When I turned my head, I had to peer past my hood since I had it up due to the cold. I couldn't see much as I looked to the side, but I saw that the officer was alone in the car. I wasn't panicking, but something felt off about having a solo cop following me around like that. He drove ahead a bit, then stopped and rolled down his window, and asked me to get in.

I ignored him and kept walking. Then he got out, came toward me, and said, Sorry if I scared you, that wasn't my intention. I just want to get you home safe. I'll explain why if you get in. If it helps, you can talk to my colleagues on the radio." I hesitated, but I ended up getting in the car. As we were driving, he told me to look in the rearview mirror. I saw somebody turning around and walking away. The cop said that it wasn't the first time this guy was behind me. He said that he had been following me for a while, but every time he got close, the

guy would notice and run. That night, he wanted to stop it for good. The next day, three officers came to my place, including the one who drove me home. They wanted to check in on me. They told my manager what was going on, and he immediately decided to pay for taxis every night so that I wouldn't have to walk home anymore. But then, a few weeks later, I started noticing these flashes of light outside my apartment. At first, I thought it was a storm, as it was winter.

That made sense to me. And like I said, I never really freak out or jump to conclusions. But the flashing just kept happening at all hours, day and night. Then, one day before work, I checked my mailbox as usual and found a letter. No envelope, just a piece of paper folded in half with cut out letters from a book or magazine. It described my underwear in detail. Now to get to that mailbox,

you had to get through one door with a code and another one with an intercom. The mailbox was between both doors in an area that really wasn't accessible to the public, so that meant that someone had to know the code or have a key badge. I shoved the letter back in and went to work. When I came home at around 6am, there was a doll in the mailbox. A little thing that kind of looked at me, sitting next to the same letter. I told my friends, and they thought that it was just some weird prank.

Honestly, I wanted to believe that too, but then the letters began to get more detailed. They listed descriptions of the moles on my body, what I liked to wear, and what I did when I came home. Whoever was leaving these letters also started leaving me things like roses, chicken feet, and other random creepy stuff. Some letters warned me of who I should bring home, and even said that if I quit my job, they would pay for everything. One night, a friend was sleeping over.

I woke up earlier than her and went to shower. When I came out, I saw the flash again. And this time, so did she. She freaked out and insisted we go to the police with all of the letters and the things that I had saved. Because of what happened before, the police took me seriously right away. They searched the building across the street since it was the only possible angle someone could take these pictures from.

In one of the empty apartments, they actually found a camera tripod along with cigarette butts and beer cans. Shortly after, I started dating someone, and he stayed at my place a lot. However, the letters kept coming for a bit, but not as often. I received maybe two to three more letters after that, but then they suddenly stopped coming. They never found DNA, so they never ID'd the guy. This went on for six months.

The letters got more aggressive, threatening to strangle me or kidnap me. I brought every single one to the police, and I carefully bagged them so that I wouldn't touch them directly. I still don't know who he was, what he wanted, or why he was after me. Thanks for listening. Stick around after the music if you're a patron for your extended version of this week's episode. If you want to get access, go to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign

up and support the show today. You'll get access to ad free versions of every episode at a higher bit rate, plus weekly bonus content with stories you won't hear anywhere else. Don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like odd trails and the old time radio cast at crypticCountyPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow me on Twitch at Twitch.tv slash Cryptic County for my livestreams. This week you have heard The Time I Was Hunted by The Jedi Bugs, The Man at the End of My Driveway by Buzzo14, The Late Night Creeps by Monty5133, Almost Kidnapped in a McDonald's by Marshall,

Almost Kidnapped at 7-Eleven by Chaos Brat, Strange Man in Rural Ireland by MplaystheBlues, Creepy Lady in the Alleyway by Handuia, and finally, He Knew Things About Me No One Else Should Have Known by SealSkywalker. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission new things about me no one else should have known. By Seal Skywalker. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast, is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. Send your stories to letsnotmeetsstories at gmail.com to hear them on the show.

We'll see you next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet. Stay safe. So this happened in the early 2000s when I was really young.