Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 15x03: Scariest Lyft Ride I've Ever Given

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Upcoming Live Shows: 11/17 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge - TICKETS 11/19 - St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club - TICKETS 11/20 - Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen - TICKETS Tickets for the live shows go on sale at 10:00 AM PST! Stories in this episode: Someone Broke Into My Apartment | valentine (1:04) My psycho story | Sophiesteacated (6:22) I Think I Came in Contact With a Cult | Acrobatic-Battle-bot (15:35) Thank God for My Dog | Mommashark1104 (18:54) Was I Almost Kidnapped?? | elatm93 (22:50) Someone Chased Me at Midnight | Shiru (29:41) Followed Off Trail | kermit the forg (39:19) Scariest Lyft Ride I've Ever Given | GenericUsername2034 (46:32) Extended Patreon Content: Mary Mary Quite Contrary | Ronnie B. Unwelcome Visitors | Anonymous Sketchy Hotel Experience | Lara F. The Shadow That Followed Me | Alice 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].  Head to Hungryroot.com/meet, and use code meet to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com/notmeet. Right now, when you sign up for a yearly Fireflies subscription, you get your first two months FREE! Just go to Fireflies.ai/meet. 

This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstoriesatgmail.com. Enjoy the show. I'll be back on the road with Let's Not Meet for a few live dates this year. On November 17th I'll be in Phoenix, Arizona. On November 19th in'll be in Phoenix, Arizona. On November 19th in St. Paul, Minnesota. And finally on November 20th in Chicago, Illinois. You can get tickets at letsnotmeetpodcast.com slash tour or click the links in the show notes. Tickets will

be available today, Monday, July 21st at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. I'll see you there. This happened a bit ago but it still scares me and my family. This instance is the reason why I check our house every night before bed. The apartment that I live in isn't big so it won't take long for me to describe the layout. My room is directly across from the front door. To the left of the front door is the living room and kitchen. If you continue door is the living room and kitchen. If you continue going past the living room and kitchen, there's a hallway leading to my mom's bedroom and the bathroom, and there's a storage closet to the right of the front door across from my room.

The fire escape is next to my bed, and at the time, we were breaking a little rule since we had put an AC unit in the window. We had to do this since my asthma kept acting up whenever I would get too hot. This happened on a Friday, around the beginning of the school year, so it was still a bit hot. It was a Friday, so I was allowed to stay up late like every other kid who was excited to chill for the weekend.

When I got home from school, everything was alright and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. My older brother, who was 20 at the time, was at work, so I decided to do a bit of studying. I then went to my mom's room to play with my four-year-old little brother. We'll call him Asher. Sometime after 9 PM, I was still in my mom's room, watching a show with my mom, while Asher preoccupied himself with his tablet. My mom went to eat some leftovers from the other night, when she suddenly heard shuffling coming from my room. She was confused, but initially brushed it off,

and thought that it was one or all of our three cats. But then she turned to the cat tree and saw two of them there, and then the third one in her room with me and Asher. She then heard a bang come from my room, which made her even more nervous, So she went to check it out. She opened the door and saw a woman's foot on my bed. This woman had her leg through the window and was attempting to crawl into my room.

While I was still in my mom's room, I overheard her say, you can't be here. My mom liked to joke about there being a ghost in our apartment, since the light by the front door was faulty at first, so I thought she was reciting a little joke for me to hear. So I was entirely oblivious to the real situation that was happening inside my room. My confusion quickly turned into fear when I realized my mom kept repeating similar things, trying to keep somebody out of my room. I got even more scared when my mom called for me and told me to bring something with me. So I headed to my room and grabbed a hammer and a broom.

While I walked into the room, I saw the woman. She was pale and looked exhausted. She had bags under her eyes and she was holding some sort of pole in her hand. She was wearing black shorts and a tight black top. My AC unit was on the floor and my stuff had been thrown around. The lady had my makeup case and other trinkets of mine around her. I was shaking and wanted to cry.

I felt a nervous laugh coming, but I held it back. The lady begged and pleaded with us to stay. She said, please let me stay. My mom just died and my girlfriend broke up with me. I have nowhere to go. Please let me stay. My mom obviously declined to let her stay in our house, so she left soon after. My mom then grabbed some hardware from my old bed set.

We were getting ready to discard it, but she ended up attaching part of it to the window to keep it shut. Then she called the police and they arrived quickly and took a few items to try and analyze for prints. This felt reassuring, but I was still shaken up all night. The police eventually informed my mom that they had located the woman since she was attempting to break into the unit above us. My mom saw the woman outside in the hallway and she was being taken away.

the woman outside in the hallway and she was being taken away. After all of this, my mom and I talked all night until sunrise. She told me that a woman in our building had given her a heads up about a woman who was breaking into people's places through fire escapes. However, at the time, my mom brushed it off. Now every single night and every time we leave our place, we make sure that my window and the fire escape are secure so that we don't have to worry about another intruder entering our home without our knowledge. I advise anyone who's living under similar circumstances to lock and secure their windows

so that nothing like this happens to them as well. This happened when I was fresh out of a three year relationship. He was manipulative, and I still lived with him. I was 19 and still discovering myself. I matched with a guy on Tinder, and for the sake of the story, we'll call him Jack. I thought he was pretty decent looking, not that I have a type. I especially didn't have a type after my relationship ended. Jack lived a couple of hours away by train, and I invited him to join me for

a university night out, which included pre-drinks and clubbing. He came to chill with me and my friends before we went over to my other friends. Keep in mind, I wasn't in the right mental headspace, and I was drinking straight gin. I ended up losing a few drinking games which led to me having a lot of mixed alcohol. We still proceeded to go to a pub, and at this pub in particular, drinks could be ordered to specific tables with an app. So Jack began buying drinks for me. He just kept buying me shots, one after the other, strong stuff.

Drinks were being ordered a lot. And when I questioned that, he said his friends back home downloaded the app so that they could also buy drinks. I just wanted to let loose, so I drank whatever was given to me. I also left my drink unattended multiple times throughout the night. At 10 PM we decided to move on. We went to a club, and this was when the evening took a bad turn. I had barely been in there for 10 minutes, and I was overheating, stumbling, and blacking

out. I figured it was the alcohol, so I stepped outside alone. A friend of mine eventually found me outside, sitting on some stairs with my head between my knees. We were lucky enough to see that there was a safe bus nearby. It was stationed with paramedics who were there to help those who needed it, so I went over. I proceeded to throw up at least ten times. I felt like I went over. I proceeded to throw up at least ten times. I felt like I was dying.

The paramedics said I looked distant and white as a ghost. I said it was probably the alcohol and then proceeded to spend quite some time on this bus. Jack randomly appeared out of nowhere, came onto the bus and tried to usher me off, even though it was evident I was very, very sick. Eventually, I put on a brave face and we left, and the paramedics did their best to try and help me on my way. I had previously agreed that Jack could stay at my flat. I warned him earlier that my ex would be in the room across the hall. He acted strangely when he found out, and he became visibly fidgety as he asked if I

thought my ex would be home when we were there. As we were headed to my flat, I was leaning on my friend for support. Unprompted, Jack then said, you know, my friends think I'm a psychopath. They think I give serial killer vibes, but don't worry, I'm not. This weirded us out. We were very uncomfortable. When we finally arrived at my place, my friend didn't want to leave, but her partner was there to pick her up.

I said that I would be fine and insisted I was feeling slightly better. So she went ahead and left. Then I was alone with this guy, and I was hoping that my ex was home. My ex treated me like shit, but I knew that if I screamed for help, he would come. After we walked into my place, Jack instantly went to my bed. He made himself comfortable and tried to convince me to sleep next to him. I said no and explained that the motion of the bed would make me throw up again.

So I said I'd sleep on the floor. So I settled on the floor while Jack stayed on my bed and eventually I passed out. I woke up at some point during the night and my head was spinning. But I felt the unmistakable sensation of somebody watching me. Then I opened my eyes and rolled over to see that Jack had relocated to be on the floor right next to me. He was facing me and his eyes were closed. I sat up and drank some water, and he rolled over.

But I could tell he was pretending to sleep. I remained sleepless for the rest of the night. I felt so sick and so afraid. I felt like he could do anything to me. My mind was racing, but every once in a while, I dozed off since I was still feeling the effects of the alcohol. At 6 AM, I finally decided I had officially had enough, so I got up and went to the bathroom.

I came back not long after, and he was standing in my room looking very suspicious, but I let it go. He asked me how I was feeling and if I needed anything. I said no, but let him know I was going to call my dad since he had me on a tracking app. My dad tracks me on an app for my safety, I explained. He knew I was out last night, so he's going to come by with some stuff for me. We then heard noise from my ex's room, which made Jack act a bit weird.

It was like he had forgotten about him. He asked if I would see him again, and I said, maybe. He left at 7 AM to catch a train, and I locked my doors. I waited until after he let me know that he was on the train before blocking him on everything. After he struggled to get through to me later, he found my friend's Snapchat and added her. Then he began obsessively messaging her about me and how he wanted to see me.

He kept asking my friend to specify why I blocked him. This went on for days until she put her foot down and said that I wanted nothing to do with him. Because of this experience, I was scared to go out at night for a while. To this day, I'm fairly certain that I was drugged that night, since I would have never been as sick as I was just from alcohol. I also moved out of that place two weeks after this happened. But during my last few weeks there,

I was so paranoid that Jack would come knocking. I essentially led with my naivety in this situation. But I definitely learned something, and I've matured. I gained a serious interest in true crime media after this happened. As such, all the what-ifs started circling in my head. But I made it out okay. I've still made other naive decisions, like getting into other bad relationships or being too spontaneous with guys, but I'm armed with a lot of knowledge of what not to do. It was another long night, rain tapping on the window, inbox full of chaos, fridge full of nothing, presented with a mystery I had solved one too many times.

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I'm a 26 year old female and I live in the northwest of the US. About a four hour drive from Salt Lake City. For context, due to the general area, I have religious people, mostly Mormons, come to my door from time to time. I'm always polite to them, and I listen to what they have to say, but ultimately I just say no thank you at the end. Recently, I had three guys come to my door. I think they were around 16 to 18 years old, maybe slightly older.

They were wearing nice dress clothes. They stated they were Mormon and said that they were trying to get a law passed to increase taxes for unmarried individuals versus married couples. I let them know that taxes were already higher for those who were single. They then asked me what I did with my time, and asked if I ever felt loved or accepted. I replied, I'm in college pursuing my bachelor's degree, and yes, I feel loved, but I can't say that I'm always accepted. They said they knew what it was like to feel unaccepted, and they said that their group

could help. They said their group was full of love, and since I wasn't married, they said that they could have a husband arranged for me. I would get a choice, and I could pick my husband out of five different suitors that they had selected. They also said I'd never have to work a day in my life, and I'd never be lonely again. They let me know that I'd get to be a housewife and wouldn't have to complete their 18-month

recruitment process as long as I produced a child within two years. I told them I already had a significant other and let them know I wasn't lonely. They asked if I was going to marry them within six months, since they said that I would be married within that time frame if I joined their group. I said I was content with where my relationship was, and then they said that he could have another wife to assist with the housework so I wouldn't have to be overwhelmed. Now, this was only getting stranger to me, so I tried to shut it down by saying that

we were monogamous and fine with our relationship as is. They then offered to employ my partner. They said that he could come work for them, go to trade school, and have it fully paid for by them. They also disclosed that they would give about 15% of his salary back to the church to go to food banks, healthcare, and anything else that we would need. I just said I wasn't interested in joining their group. My significant other told his co-worker, who was Mormon, all about this, and he confirmed that yes,

those employed by the Mormon church must give a certain percentage of their income to help with food banks and those in need. But he said that everything else sounded off, and he said that a cult must have approached me. Now I've seen cults on TV like Heaven's Gate, or the ones that get busted by the feds, but I never thought I'd come in contact with one myself. This happened several years ago, but so much of it is still fresh in my mind.

My husband, son, and I were visiting a local park with a great playground and a long paved trail next to a lake. My husband would stay with my child while he played, and I would walk the dog along the trail listening to a podcast. This park is usually very busy, but this happened in early spring, so the weather wasn't great. The sky was gray and the wind was coming off the lake, and it had a bit of a nip to it. I didn't let that deter me though.

I had serious cabin fever and was ready to stretch my legs, so me and my pup, Bebe, set off. It had been about 15 to 20 minutes when I noticed my dog acting strange. She was pulling on the leash a lot and seemed anxious. It was then that I realized we were almost completely alone. I glanced back and there were two men walking behind me at a pretty quick pace. There was nothing outwardly strange about them, so I attempted to brush it off. I shrugged off my unease and told myself that I was just being paranoid.

I also decided to slow a bit and let them pass, which they did. I felt immediately better once they were well ahead of me. They were a ways ahead, but still in line of sight as I continued to walk with Bibi. Several minutes later, they stopped, and one of the men leaned into the other and whispered something in his ear. Upon hearing whatever was said, the man nodded and started walking ahead. While the man who whispered to him turned around and started walking back towards me. I found this to be weird, but I explained it away.

I figured the man let his friend know he had to leave or go to the bathroom or something. As he passed, we made eye contact, and I reflexively smiled and nodded at him. The smile I got from him in return makes my skin crawl. And when I reflect on this moment in particular, I distinctly remember that my dog positioned herself between me and him. I kept walking for a while, even though I knew at this point I probably should have turned back, but I hesitated for some reason. For the next five minutes or so, everything was fine, but then I realized I couldn't see the other man anymore.

There was a bathroom right next to the trail, so I thought he was likely in there. As I was processing, Bebe was pulling on the leash and looking behind us. I looked back and I saw the man who walked past me had turned around and was coming back up behind us fast. He wasn't quite running, but speed walking. So I decided to sit down on a bench and get on the phone with my husband while he passed. I put my husband on speaker and loudly said, I'm turning around now, I should be back shortly.

Right then, my dog who truly deserves the Friendliest Dog in the World award, and loves anyone who will scratch behind her ears, lunged at this man. She's part Norwegian elkhound, so her snarling and barking were pretty jarring. She had never once done anything like this in the six plus years that I have had her. Her behavior made the man sidestep us, and he scurried away.

As soon as he seemed to be far enough away, I got up and I booked it back towards the lake to my husband. I'll never know for sure what either of these men were up to, but I genuinely believe that if my dog doesn't like you, it's for a reason. A couple of years ago, I needed to pick up a Facebook marketplace find, but I didn't have a car.

I found an ad on Facebook for a guy with a truck and asked if he could meet up at the pickup spot. He met me and helped me load the stuff into his truck. My house was just up the street, so I asked if he could give me a lift back, and he did. I ended up calling the guy with the truck a couple more times over the next few years, and so did my husband. My husband also accepted rides from him in instances when he needed one. Sometimes, if we had a lot of stuff, this guy would bring a friend with him

to help with moving everything. He was a really quiet guy. He never said much. He would just show up and do the job, then leave. One day in April of 2024, I saw a bunch of furniture on the side of the road for garbage day that I wanted to save. The homeowner let me put it back on their porch,

so I texted my truck guy to ask him if he could help me. He said he would be available the next day and asked if I needed a second person. I said no. He quoted me a rate of $100, which I thought was reasonable, if not cheap, considering he had to drive almost an hour to get where I was. I never said anything about this and

figured it was up to him to set his own rates. The following day, my husband was away and the pickup spot was just down the street. As I was walking, I saw the guy with his truck. I then noticed that there was someone in the passenger seat. His windows are very tinted, so I initially thought that I was mistaken. Even so, this still put me on edge, since I said I didn't need two people for the job.

I told the truck guy as much when I booked him to help me. As I got closer and walked around to the passenger side of the truck, I saw a woman sitting there, but she didn't get out. The guy got out of the truck, and he was unexpectedly cheery to see me. He asked me how I was doing, and before we started loading the furniture, he asked, So are you going to ride with me again today? This caught me off guard, but I responded, Oh, no, don't worry about it, I just need to go up the street. He said that it wouldn't be a problem,

and he cleared out a spot in the back seat behind the passenger seat. As we started loading things, the woman finally came out, but she didn't say anything to me, which I thought was weird. She just started loading things up into the truck bed. I then texted my husband and let him know that something seemed weird since the guy was pushing for me to get into his truck. My husband told me not to get in there and said to send the guy's license plate number to him.

So I snuck a look at it and sent him the plate details. When the truck bed started to get full, I put some of the last items in the spot behind the passenger seat that he had cleared for me. Both he and the lady who was with him told me, no, that's your seat. And they moved the items to the truck bed. When we finally finished loading, the three of us were standing outside of the truck. I told them I'd meet them down the street, but then they got insistent about having me

right in the truck with them. This back and forth between us continued for so long. They were both so oddly adamant that I'd get into the truck. It made me feel increasingly flustered since I didn't understand why they were pushing for this so much. Finally, the girl asked, would you feel more comfortable if I sat in the back seat instead and you could sit up front? I was confused, but my heart and my mind were racing.

They weren't budging at all, so I just blurted out, I'm not getting in the truck. I listen to too much true crime, and I don't I'm not getting in the truck. I listen to too much true crime and I don't feel comfortable with getting in the truck. I then started walking while they drove over. By the time I got to my house, they had dumped the furniture in the front yard. The woman stayed in the truck and the guy hardly said a thing to me. He was back to his usual quiet self as I told him

that I'd sent him an e-transfer to pay him. When he was done, he and the woman left in a big hurry. The weird thing is, ordinarily, I would have gotten into his truck. Initially, that was my plan all along. Had he not acted so oddly cheerful and different when I first saw him, I would have gotten in without thinking about it. This unexpected shift in his demeanor, not knowing who the woman he brought with him was, and his insistence that I get into the truck made me feel like something was up.

Even after I was expressing my discomfort, they kept pushing for me to get into the truck, which felt sinister. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Workplace stress has quietly become one of the biggest threats to our well-being. In fact, 61% of the global workforce is now experiencing higher than normal levels of stress. And while most of us can't just walk away from our jobs, we can take small steps toward better mental wellness. My therapist has helped me to understand that the little habits, like stepping outside for

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Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash not meet. That's BetterH-E-L-P dot com slash not meet. Given that I have a pretty busy schedule as a 17-year-old student and the fact that I have household duties to attend to, I don't always have the flexibility to do everything consistently. As such, sometimes I have to compromise on scheduling when something arises. I do want to mention that I am a male. I have a small shorty named Abby, whom I dearly love with all my heart. However, the fact that she's only two years old and

is always bouncing around the house means I have to take her out at least twice a day so that she can do dog stuff. Otherwise, she's going to pee on the rugs and my parents are going to scold me. On this particular day, I had to go to a club event. I had to take a bus because my parents couldn't drive me that day. It was a long ride that required a transfer. It would be great if the bus schedules would coordinate. However, their schedules do not.

One of the buses that I took arrived so late that I was an hour late coming home. At this time, it was already around 9 PM and I still had to finish up some chores and do my homework. I figured that this in total was going to take me around an hour to finish. So I put off walking Avi and went straight to work. Now I was wrong about how long all of that stuff was going to take. I didn't finish until practically 1130 PM and I was wrong about how long all of that stuff was going to take. I didn't finish until practically 1130 PM, and I was dead tired. However, Abby was whining and licking me profusely, and

I had to go out to walk her. So I grabbed her leash and my shoes before stepping out with her. I decided to make a few rounds around the neighborhood complex. Our last walk is usually around 10. Even though we were out a little later than usual, it didn't bother me at all, especially since there is usually nobody out at this time. Most of the people in my neighborhood are older,

so they were fast asleep. At this time, I had my guard down. I was just aimlessly walking around with Abby. Now, my complex is like a square, and I was planning to just go around that. Imagine a square where the four lines are major roads. Other than that, there are just small roads going through my complex. And my house is somewhere near the bottom left corner of the square. through my complex, and my house is somewhere near the bottom left corner of the square. Within the square, there are small roads and alleyways that I have come to know.

This becomes most useful when I am playing hide and seek with the neighborhood kids. One major factor that you have to know is that there are very few streetlights on the roads to illuminate the way. The major roads are brightly lit, and there are only two other busy roads that are lit within the complex. My house, as it's by the main road, is beside a rather well-functioning street light. Anyway, I was walking with Avi rather calmly, and I felt like I was barely awake.

I was just a walking zombie. But I knew the way well, so I wasn't too concerned. Everything went rather well as I made my way up to the major road that was all the way to the right. That was when I noticed someone in front of me. It was a man, and he was wearing a cap and a hoodie with the hood pulled up. He was basically wearing clothes that seemed like he intentionally wanted to conceal himself. I was wearing a blue jacket, jeans, and sneakers.

The thing that surprised me the most was that the man was also walking a dog. It somewhat looked like a pit bull, but I'm not great with identifying dog breeds. If this guy's dog were a pit bull, it seemed kind of small. Something you have to know about Abby is that she is a very sweet and docile dog. She doesn't bark unless she senses something is wrong or out of place. For example, she barks when she senses someone behind doors in our house. She rarely barks though, but when she does, it instantly makes me alert. I know most of the neighborhood dogs as we are pretty tight knit in this

community, and I know their names and what they look like. But I had never seen this dog nor its owner before. Looking back now, I should have just said hello and gone on my way, but I was half asleep and not in my right mind. Abby obviously gravitated towards a dog, and they started playing and scratching at each other in a friendly dog way. A few seconds after Abby dragged me over there, she started barking like crazy. She was specifically growling and barking very loudly, at the man.

He then suddenly pulled the dog away and kept walking. I didn't think anything of this until I noticed that he was making glances at me as he was shuffling away. And even though I thought this was odd, I called out, sorry, as I tried to restrain Abby. After that, I just continued on my way. Now this is where I really got creeped out. Remember how there are only so many street lights in my complex?

Well most of them aren't maintained too well, so they only illuminate a small portion of the area. As I was walking down the road, I suddenly had this feeling that I was being watched, but I brushed it off as just my imagination. As I went along, I went through the first street light and I saw the same man just standing there, looking to the right. I thought I'd go up to him and apologize about Avi, but as I was, Avi started going maniacal again, so I just went the other way and waved at him.

He then looked my way and I swear, I had the most chilled feeling running up my spine. I don't know how to describe it, but at that point, my instinct kicked in and I ran. And guess what? He gave pursuit. I was freaking out, but blindly running. I'm a pretty fast runner as I do cross country, but the season ended long ago, so I wasn't exactly in shape. However, the adrenaline of that just gave me a huge speed boost, and I sprinted out

of there. Avey runs fast as well, so it wasn't hard for her to run alongside me. At this point, I was on the bottom road and running towards my house. But after hearing so many stories like this, I realized my best course of action would be to not go straight home. The man was behind me, still running, but I had quite a lead on him. Instead of going to my house, I immediately turned right into a small

alleyway that led to a playground. I thought I was safe until I remembered Abby's collar. It made this clinging sound whenever she walked or made any movement. The noise of her collar kind of gave us up. So he ended up turning and coming in our direction. Thinking quickly, I picked her up and ran towards an alleyway that led to another main road. This specific alleyway is notorious for having tall grass, which I generally avoid walking through, but it didn't matter to me because I was terrified.

By the time I came to the main road, I was out of breath, but I immediately turned towards the road on the left. I was holding Avi in my left hand, and I had my phone in my right. I was getting ready to call someone, but then I realized the phone was dead. At this exact moment, I heard a dog barking and running. And I knew it was this guy's dog since seconds later, he came up behind me. I was already out of breath. I felt like collapsing, but I made myself run again.

I've heard stories where people are in situations like this and they start screaming or shouting like a madman to draw attention. So that's exactly what I did next. Doing this may very well be what saved my life because as I was near the end of the road with him several paces behind me, a car was driving by. The car pulled up to me and a woman opened her window and yelled out to me. The man stopped in his tracks, turned around, and ran in the opposite direction. Right at that moment, I dropped to the ground, exhausted.

Meanwhile, Abby looked like she didn't even care about what happened. The woman who stopped happened to be my neighbor. She's a middle-aged woman who lives with her elderly mother. When she got out of her car, she was chewing me out for screaming. She said that she was driving down the road when she heard someone. And since I was running, she said she assumed I was some kind of mental detainee. Now, when she realized it was me, she threatened to tell my parents. I apologized to her and explained what happened.

She apologized for berating me. She then took me home and told my parents. They were worried, but our neighbor commended me. She then took me home and told my parents. They were worried, but our neighbor commended me. She said, that was very smart of you to start screaming to draw attention to the situation. Even though I possibly disturbed the neighborhood, I think doing what I did saved my hide. From that point on, I decided I was never going to walk Avvy past 10pm anymore. To that creepy man who ran after me, let's not meet. When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time at the local park.

I always tried to find the most solitary spots so that I could smoke weed. This meant most of my hiking was done on overgrown trails, if not completely off trail. You have to pay a fee to get into the main part of the park that I went to, but it's relatively large, so there are spots on the west side of the park that have free entry. Those spots are not quite as kept up and definitely not as observed, so obviously that area is full of kids who just came out to smoke and do some graffiti. Of course, as it is a public park, there are still some runners, people fishing, and people

walking their dogs who choose these entrances as well to skip out on the $5 fee at the main entrance. One Sunday I went to smoke at the park while my family attended church. At this spot, I had a solid trail that led to a very secluded part of the park. I frequented this spot in particular, especially when I just wanted to smoke without walking around or exploring. When I pulled in, there were already a few cars there, but one of them stuck out to me.

It was a very clean black car parked right in front of the main trail. As soon as I got out of my car and approached the trail, this man, who seemed to be in his late 30s or early 40s, stepped out of the car. I kept my eye on him as I entered the trail, and he seemed to be keeping an eye on me, too. But once I was just a few steps into the trail, another man stopped me. This man told me that someone had driven a car into the reservoir the day before, and he asked if I was going to look at it. I said no, and I noticed that a small crowd of people was on a cliff on the trail.

Once I saw them, I figured I could let my guard down a bit since everyone was going to be preoccupied with that so that I could smoke in peace. After the man that I was speaking with walked away, I looked back to see if the man was still standing at that black car, watching me. I didn't see him anymore, so I continued on my way. So I went on the trail that I attend to frequent, and I hiked up to this secluded spot. I also decided to go slightly off trail to enjoy even more privacy, and I found a fallen tree to sit on while I smoked.

As I reached into my bag for a blunt, I looked up, and just a few feet in front of me was the man who was standing at the car watching me. He was facing me, and he didn't seem fazed when I realized he was there. My heart sank and my stomach turned. I listened to a lot of true crime podcasts, so immediately in my head I thought, don't act like a victim, be confrontational. So I firmly said, can I help you? He grinned as he replied, no, just looking.

So instead of my blunt, I grabbed my pepper spray and my phone to text my family and tell them where I was. I kept my eyes on the man the whole time as I did this, but he didn't move an inch. He just stood there watching me. After I sent the text, I put my phone away and just watched him right back with my finger on the trigger of the pepper spray. He then suddenly started to move, so I stood up. He didn't get any closer, but started to circle me just a few feet away.

Remember, we were off trail, so as he moved around me, it was harder to see through all of the shrubbery. So I stayed on my feet and made sure that I was facing him the whole time. He tucked his face away from me so he wouldn't make eye contact, but I could tell that he knew I was watching him. After he made a full circle around me, he turned back to the trail and hesitated before walking back to the main trail. Now I was afraid of losing sight of him, so I followed him back down from a distance. He never turned back to look at me.

When we finally got back to the busier part of the trail, I spotted a woman walking her dogs. He started to go off on another trail, so I approached the woman and warned her that he had been following me. I tried to point him out specifically to her, but he was gone. She told me that sounded scary, and I just told her to be careful before going back to my car to leave. It was a very creepy encounter. It's always felt like a close call to me, and I can't help but wonder if there's a little bit more to the story. On this show, we talk a lot about how things go wrong when people stop paying attention,

when the details slip, or someone forgets what they said or what they heard. And honestly, that kind of thing happens in real life more than we want to admit, especially in meetings. That's why Fireflies has become the AI teammate so many people rely on to keep them from missing crucial details. Fireflies transcribes, summarizes, and analyzes conversations

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like Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, Asana, Zapier, or your CRM. Plus, you'll get collaboration features like real-time web search inside meetings, shareable sound bytes, timestamped notes to pinpoint key moments, and bookmarks to highlight the important stuff. This is the kind of stuff AI is good for. Fireflies also lets you control who can access and share meeting notes, and even lets you choose where your recordings are stored. and share meeting notes, and even lets you choose where your recordings are stored. What are you waiting for? Join the over 500,000 companies already using Fireflies and start turning your meetings into action.

And right now, when you sign up for a yearly Fireflies subscription, you get your first two months free. Just go to fireflies.ai slash meet. That's right, two months free when you go to fireflies.ai slash meet. That's right, two months free when you go to Fireflies.ai slash meet. That's Fireflies.ai slash meet. For context, I'm a 29-year-old male transitioning to female, but I present masculine for work-related purposes such as ride sharing. Essentially, this means I don't really get tilted by people referring to me as he or

him because, well, I don't really get tilted by people referring to me as he or him because, well, I don't pass. Anyway, I use both Uber and Lyft, and I usually don't have any problems. The riders are generally pretty nice and quiet, and honestly, I enjoy giving rides. I don't make a whole lot of money, but I make enough in between paychecks at my big girl job, and ride sharing is enjoyable to do when I can. However, as I was cruising off from a ride, I got a new request for a pickup, who had a $20-30 trip.

This wasn't an uncommon request, but sometimes that means the trip is fairly far. This one in particular seemed like it was going to take about 45 minutes, so it wasn't too bad. Plus, you know, money. So I was driving to the passenger's pickup point, and it was at a decently fancy Japanese grill and a sort of rundown dispensary. I parked out of the way of traffic and notified the passenger in the app to let them know that I had arrived. A few minutes later, a woman walked up to my car and she approached my door.

Here's where the scary stuff starts. She didn't immediately open the door. She reached for the handle, but she then proceeded to lean forward with her body completely against the rear passenger door. As her body was pressed into my car, she began laughing. Then, she bent herself all the way backwards. Her legs were almost at a 45-degree angle. After that, she finally opened the door. My last rider had left something in the back seat, and when she spotted it, she stopped laughing and began snickering. I hit her with the usual, hi, are you, insert rider's name here.

I did this in my forced masculine voice. In a creepily cutesy voice, she replied, yeah, that be me. Someone dropped a thing in your back seat, Mr. Uberman. That be me, someone dropped a thing in your backseat, Mr. Uberman. I asked to take it and keep it in the front seat with me so that I could return it later, and remarked, oh damn, I guess my last passenger must have left it on accident. Then, while looking at me in the rearview mirror, my new passenger asked, ain't you gonna call her?' I let her know that I would do it once the request came through to return it, like I usually do."

Now a quick aside to explain the characterization I've made of the woman so far. I'm not going out of my way to be any kind of prejudiced. This passenger legitimately spoke this way, and it seemed to be beyond just a country vernacular. She spoke as if she weren't well read. As someone who worked with people with traumatic mental disorders and people who are severely mentally disturbed, I tried my best not to be annoyed or bitchy in these situations. Anyway, we headed off towards her destination point, which was a 45-minute drive away.

She asked me to stop at a UPS store on our way to her destination. I didn't think that this was a big deal, so I opened up Google Maps to find the nearest one. She then backtracked and said, oh, you don't have to. But I have to get my friend out of jail. If I don't get this package out, he's gonna be there overnight. I asked, not getting what the package had to do with jail, but playing along. Well, she continued, it's just that he's gonna be in there all night.

And if we don't get him out, he's gonna kill somebody, and he's already in jail for killing. After I freaked out visibly but not audibly, she smiled and said, Oh, we don't have to go there, let's just keep going. You know, you Uber guys need to make more money. Yeah, Uber drivers don't make a lot of money, do they? I thought that the conversation took a weird pivot, but we kept going. I laughed nervously and said, yeah, I don't mind if you need me to stop.

She then continued to stare at me in the rear view. Every time I glanced in the mirror, she was looking right at me. She next spoke when we were on the highway. I like this car, she said. What car is it? I told her, she continued. It's nice. Do you like it?

You like this car? I nodded and started to say, yep, it's a pretty nice car. But then she turned to the empty seat next to her. And to nobody, she argued, no, it's his car. No, I don't think he wants to do that. Stop it. Is everything okay? I asked.

Oh, my friend just said your car is nice, she explained. I was a bit freaked out, but I tried not to think too much of it. People are weird, and that was something that I knew firsthand working with the general public. Then she asked, Mr. Uberman, do you think it's okay to steal if you have to? I shrugged and replied, what do you mean? She elaborated, like, if I was at the grocery store and wanted bread, I should be able to take it, right?

Especially if I worked there. I just shrugged. I ain't no thief, she said. It's cuz I need it. I got money, right, Mr. Uberman? I got a job, so I got money. As she was getting visually more agitated,

she then turned toward my trunk and said, what? No, you tell him to simmer down. He's a nice man. She then turned toward my trunk and said, what? No, you tell him to simmer down, he's a nice man. She went on this long rant about how she wasn't a vagabond and she had a job. As she was ranting, she kept looking back and forth between the seat next to her and the trunk. Eventually she stopped and smirked. It was really off putting.

Now, do I necessarily care if someone is talking to themselves in a ride share? No, I don't judge people, life is hard. But when her imaginary friends started sounding like they were saying unfavorable things about me, I started to mind. So I continued driving but started keeping to myself. Whenever I looked in the rear view mirror, she was still smirking at me. She then softly asked, aren't you sleepy? Are you hungry, honey?

They're saying you're sleepy. I found this to be very unsettling. So I then gripped the steering wheel and avoided eye contact entirely. Oh, no, I replied. I'm okay. unsettling. So I then gripped the steering wheel and avoided eye contact entirely. Oh, no, I replied. I'm okay. Thank you for the offer, though. I'll pay if we stop, she said in this sing-songy voice. Let's stop. Maybe you could even nap for a bit. I was internally screaming. I just wanted this ride to be over with as soon as possible, so we just kept driving.

Well, you killed her, so it is what it is, she randomly said towards the trunk. Then we got to a stop sign, and she stared at the headrest and leaned forward. Then she stuck out one of her bony fingers and poked my shoulder. How does your body feel, Mr. Uberman? Hmm? Are you sure you don't want something to eat? I could feed you if you just pull over somewhere. Then to the seat next to her, she said,

he's sleepy, ain't he? He's gonna kill someone if he don't get some sleep. Someone's gonna die. Mm-hm, he's got two choices. I then asked, who is going to kill someone? Her expression grew angry, and then she said, nothing, no one. After that, she consistently gave me a death glare while continuing to mutter to whoever she was talking to in the back seat.

Eventually we arrived at her destination and she got out. Thank you for being so patient. Make sure you don't forget to eat. She said this with a strange, deliberate pause as she walked around to my window and smiled at me through the glass. I drove home right away after that and didn't drive for lift at all for a whole week. To the woman who kept asking me to pull over to get something to eat or sleep while she was in my car. Let's Not Meet. Be sure to get your tickets for the live Let's Not Meet shows while supplies still last.

Again, on November 17th, I'll be in Phoenix, Arizona at the Rebel Lounge. On the 19th of November, in St. Paul, Minnesota at Turf Club. And finally on November 20th, in Chicago, Illinois at Beat Kitchen. All the ticket links are in the show notes or you can just go to letsnotmeetpodcast.com slash tour. Again, those will be available at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time today, Monday, July 21st. If you're a patron, stick around after the music for your extended ad-free 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 single episode, plus bonus content in those weekly extensions every single week with stories you won't hear anywhere else. Again, that's patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. Finally, make sure to head over to cryptic county podcasts.com to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like odd trails and the old time radio cast, or just listen on your podcast platform of choice.

You can follow my live streams at twitch.tv slash cryptic county. This week, you have heard someone Broke Into My Apartment by Valentine, my psycho story by sophies tkated, I think I came in contact with a cult by acrobatic battlebot, thank god for my dog by mamashark1104, was I almost kidnappednapped? by Elatm93, Someone Chased Me at Midnight by Shiroo, Followed Off Trail by Kermit the Frog, and finally Scariest Lift Riot I've Ever Given by Generic Username 2034. 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.

If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. We'll see you next week. Everybody stay safe. I grew up with an extremely overbearing and strict father.