Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 16x06: I Locked My Intruder in the House

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

Send your stories to [e-mail].   Stories in this episode:The Creepy Coworker | mawi (0:39)I Locked My Intruder in the House | A.Cos (13:39)Death Valley | RiverChoice3799 (20:14)Be Careful Who You Hire | Ch1ldofSatan (27:18)Encounter with The Backpack Murderer | kattenz (32:46)I Thought They Wanted to Help Me | Sobaby (39:50)Extended Patreon Content:Boarding Group F | KaleighHe Was Not a Worker | bitterpotatoesss27Stationery Shop Stalker | EllaDue 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/84WXQud4gEFollow:- Twitch - https://twitch.tv/crypticcounty- Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/- Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast- Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/Right now, Wildgrain is offering our listeners $30 off your first box, PLUS free Croissants for life, when you go to https://Wildgrain.com/MEET to start your subscription today.Head to mood.com, browse by mood, and find what fits you best. And don’t forget to use promo code MEET at checkout to save 20% off your first order.Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to Joindeleteme.com/notmeet and use promo code NOTMEET at checkout.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.

Access Storage presents ski cross racer, Reese Howden. Hi, my name is Reese Howden. I'm a member of the Canadian ski cross team, and we'll be going to the 2026 Malato-Cortina Olympics. Being able to represent a country that has done everything to support my dreams is unreal. Being able to stand on the podium and hear the national anthem and hold the flag, I don't take it for granted at all. I'm really happy to represent Canada at the Olympics.

Let's go Canada. Access Storage, proud partner of Team Canada. This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to let's not meet stories at gmail.com. This event happened in 2018 when I worked at CTAC Airport, which is probably the smallest international airport I've ever seen. The airport was so small that your workstation almost forced you to work alongside other jobs.

In this case, I worked in sales, and we were stationed next to the wheelchair lane, which typically had one wheelchair pusher in it. I was only 19 when this incident happened. I tended to be a sweet person who went out of my way to start conversations with people who looked bored since I worked the night shifts. Nights were always calm.

There was practically nobody flying, and there would be more workers than passengers around. This is where I'll introduce Mike. He was in his early 20s and was one of the wheelchair pushers. He typically looked completely out of it, and he didn't seem talkative. Mike and I worked side by side in our respective lanes. He would usually come to give the person in the wheelchair lane their lunch break and then proceed to go back to pushing people in wheelchairs throughout the airport.

The 30 minutes we saw each other every day were completely quiet. They were awkward as well, until one day. He overheard my coworkers and me having a conversation about depression. Once he overheard this, he sat up in his chair and chimed in. Yeah, I agree with you. Depression sucks. And that's when I realized the kid didn't just look depressed. He probably was depressed. After that small interaction with Mike, he started joining in on our other conversations,

and he even went out of his way to say hello to him. us and give us a big hug when he saw any of us throughout the airport. One day my lead suggested that Mike and I should go out for tacos since we both kept complaining about how nothing was open late at night, and we were always hungry. By this point, my coworkers and I had known Mike for about a month, and his depressed-filled body started filling with joy every time we would find out we were stationed next to each other.

At first we laughed off the suggestion and said, No way, since we thought it would be too weird if we went alone together. I was single then, and was in no way attracted to or interested in Mike like that. But then Mike looked at me and said, I actually know this really great Mexican spot nearby if you're hungry. They have the best fish tacos. I loved eating late at night, and Mike never gave me Stranger Danger vibes. so I agreed because I didn't see any harm in going out to get tacos before going to sleep.

So we exchanged numbers, and I headed home first since I clocked out an hour before him. When I arrived home, I was getting dressed to go out and eat. The plan was to just meet up at the spot since the Mexican spot ended up being only five minutes away from my house. I got a text from Mike, and he was offering to pick me up, but I declined, since I had recently gotten my driver's license and I wanted to drive myself. Plus, the place was only five minutes away, like I said. After almost 40 minutes of insisting,

I finally gave in and let him pick me up, which I would regret later. Now, I should mention I was larger than Mike. He was quite thin and short, so I wasn't really worried about him overpowering me if he were to attempt anything. But I told him to pick me up on the show. street down from mine because I didn't really want him to know exactly where I lived.

As I stood outside waiting, his beat-up trashed Toyota pulled up, and we headed to the Mexican spot. We got our food, and it was so amazing that we even ordered seconds. We also had a good talk while watching telenovela. After we were done eating, we went back to his car. He was supposed to dropped me off back in my neighborhood, but he stopped. Then he looked at me and said, Can we talk in private? I know a spot. I politely declined and explained that it was already 2 a.m. I told him I should be getting back home. He replied, I know it's late, but I just have a lot going on in my life, and you're the only person who's really hung out with me like this. As naive as I was, I agreed. As he started driving down the road,

I was already seeing so many red flags. The next thing I knew, we were in a desolate area with way fewer streetlights, and his mood and tone were starting to change. There was a complete difference in the atmosphere around Mike, and then he said, I sure do hate the society about women nowadays. They all have this stupid standard. I hate them.

I didn't say anything. I just sat there and thought, Did I just find out he's a woman hater? It seemed like every time he attempted to talk to a woman, he was blatantly rejected, and he was expressing his frustration with this. I honestly was too stunned to speak because I felt like he was projecting all of his frustrations onto me,

and it was jarring since he was suddenly a different person. We eventually arrived at an abandoned skate park in the middle of God knows where, and he told me to get out of the car. Well, I listened, and there we were at 2 a.m., sitting on cold concrete and freezing temperatures. He continued telling me how he hated women and how he would lie to the passengers that he pushed on his wheelchairs

and tell them that he was from the UK. He would speak to them in a British accent and everything. I was overwhelmed. I didn't really understand what was going on. Then he started talking to me, me in this British accent. And he did so from then on. He was telling me how he would give up his life for God

and said that God was the only thing keeping him chained down. He then looked me dead in the eyes and said, God would want me to castrate myself since he doesn't want me near a female creature for my safety. I was completely quiet the whole time. After 30 minutes, I was getting cold since this female creature, as in me, was anemic. I told him I would like to go home, but he said no,

then proceeded to talk in this British accent about how God was coming to rescue him. I felt like I was in a movie because I couldn't believe what was happening. When he finally noticed I started shaking my leg, he said, I guess we can proceed back to the car. So then we went back to his car, and a miracle happened. My mother called me. I was expecting her to scream at me asking me where I was

and demanding I come home like she usually did, but this time I answered the phone to her calmly asking, Where are you? I told her I was out getting food with a coworker, and she surprisingly said, Okay, have fun, and just hung up. Again, I was in disbelief since she seemingly didn't care where I was, and it was nearly 3 a.m. at this point.

But I pretended that the call was continuing and I lied and said, Oh, what? Oh, you want me to come home? Ah, okay. I guess I'll start heading there now. I then pretended to hang up the phone. I then looked at Mike and said, Sorry, my mom wants me to come home now.

He then punched his wheel as he sighed loudly. This gave me a jump scare for a moment. But then he started his car. He just sat there and said, silence, clearly annoyed for a moment. Then he airily grinned at me. As he eventually started driving, he pulled his phone out and literally threw it at me. Open it, he said. Exhausted and in disbelief of what was happening, my eyes grew wide when I saw he had over 100 notes on his phone. What is this? I asked. He said they were songs and poems he's written. Then he said, he said,

said, go ahead, pick one. I don't quite remember what the note I chose said verbatim, but the key words I saw that stood out were betrayal and woman. He said, ah, that one, would you like me to sing it to you? I just said no, but he proceeded to sing it anyway, in a British accent. The whole drive was him singing to me in this British accent about how God planned to stray him from the human race so he could overcome himself.

But I just zoned out on the whole trip. It didn't feel real. My sense of danger felt low due to how exhausted I was, even though I was listening to how this man wanted to eradicate the female species from the face of the earth. When he dropped me off in my neighborhood, he dared to say,

I had such a lovely time with you, darling. I didn't say anything in response, though. I just slammed his door shut and ran down to my street before he had a chance to even start his car up again. After that incident, I ignored his messages, and he texted me at length about how he was sorry

and how he believed God would put us together. Whenever I saw him at work, I stood in the back of my station to avoid talking to him, but he would try to follow me back to the break room. Thankfully, my manager was there and yelled him to piss off, so he eventually got the hint, and I guess he wasn't interested anymore, but he did continue to stare at me every second he had to share the same space with me. Luckily, right around that time, I found his second job, so my whole schedule was changed,

and I stopped seeing him shortly after this. I haven't seen him at work since. I did see him at Target once, but I quickly ran back to my car before he had the chance to walk up to me. I later found out Mike was living with one of my coworkers on her couch. I told her everything he said and did, and she was completely shocked. She never saw Mike like that. She just said that he was very quiet and would crack a joke here and there. I advised her to keep a close eye on him. She thanked me for relaying the information,

and eventually she had him move out of her place. So, Mike, let's never meet again. This episode of Let's Not Meet is brought to you by Wild grain. One thing I didn't realize I'd appreciate as much as I do is having really good bread ready whenever I want it. That's been my experience with wild grain. It's the first bake from frozen subscription box for sourdough breads, artisanal pastries, and fresh pastas, and everything bakes in 25 minutes or less. What I keep coming back to is the sourdough. Pulling a loaf straight out of the freezer and baking it until it's warm and crisp really feels like cheating, but in a good way,

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and free croissants for life when you visit wildgrain.com slash meat or you can use promo code meet at checkout. I'm a 17-year-old male, and recently I was home alone while my family stayed in their cabin a few kilometers away. Everyone in my family was at the cabin

except for my 21-year-old sister who was at work. I'm used to staying home alone, and this is very common in the summertime, especially when I'm working, and I can't travel from the cabin and back. Now, I'm not usually jumping, or afraid while I'm home alone anymore since I'm used to the odd creeks and settling noises of our old house.

I was especially comforted by the fact that my sister's dog was also in the house with me, and most of the noise could be attributed to him. Plus, if anything were to happen, he would act as a guard dog of sorts and alert me to anything odd. He is the type of dog to bark at any noise or person walking past the door or windows, so I'm used to hearing him bark or growl at night. Even so, on this particular night, the sound of his barking at nearly 12 a.m. was disconcerting. Despite my comfort with staying home alone,

I'm still terrified of the premise of a break-in or some other uninvited human interaction at midnight. When I heard him barking, I let him bark for a few seconds, telling myself it was just somebody walking past our glass door, in the adjacent alleyway, and he would quiet down once they passed. Needless to say, that wasn't what happened. He kept barking and growling for a few moments too long, so I finally got out of bed.

My room is in the basement, so I walked upstairs to check it out, as I suspected my sister's dog was fully alert, standing at the glass door. I was comforted for a moment until I walked over, ready to close the curtains, and go back to sleep. But then I saw the door was open about two to three inches. I froze. I knew I had let Boss go out earlier that night, but I also knew I had closed the door.

I have never left that door open. I'm paranoid. I have anxiety, especially when I think about break-ends and the like, so I would never forget to close the door, and I'm 100% sure about that. But at the time I didn't let myself think about these facts or even acknowledged that they could have left the door open

because I knew I would have sent myself into a spiral and I possibly would have gotten an anxiety attack if I couldn't explain this away. So I closed and locked the door double-checking that it was most certainly locked. Then, using the flashlight on my phone, I kept the interior lights of the house off as I looked around the entire second floor of my three-story house.

I also looked in the closets and other reasonable hiding spots just to put my mind at ease. Upon finding nothing, I went back downstairs to my room. As I was down there trying to push away the fear, I could hear Bosco walking around on the floor above my bedroom. I thought I was overthinking it when it started to sound like human footsteps that were accompanying Bosco's steps.

Bosco walked around for about 10, minutes before I finally put my earphones in and talked myself down to fall asleep. My sister was to return home from work at 2 a.m. that same night. I woke up a few minutes before this to Bosco in the basement, which never happens. There's even a gate to stop him from getting into the basement. When I got up to let him out, my sister walked in, and we let him out the front door rather than the glass patio door. We talked for a while before I went back downstairs, and my sister went to the bathroom. I forgot about the incident of finding the door open

since I was so busy with work for the next few days, so I forgot to mention it to anyone for a while. Then one night, my sister and my mom were home with me. We were watching a movie while my dad and brothers were staying at the cabin. I suddenly remembered the door situation when we were picking out a horror movie to watch. I was sharing it as a creepy, almost funny story until my sister spoke up.

My sister then said that on the same night, an hour or so after she got home, the door was open. The same door that was locked from the inside had opened again. My stomach dropped and I started shaking the second she revealed this. We began trying to explain it away. Maybe she had let Boss go out and forgot to close it until we both recalled that we had used the front door. We then tried justifying a reason. someone would break in only to steal nothing, then proceed to stay for two hours before finally leaving. Ultimately, I realized that I quite possibly locked someone in the house with me,

then forced them to hide upstairs while I searched the second level of our house. This would then mean that the person would be trapped up there, knowing that this house that appeared to be empty was actually not empty, and there was a dog who would bark if they showed themselves again, which would alert me to their presence. Then, when I was in the basement and my sister was in the bathroom, they had to have taken the opportunity to run out the glass door, which was timed perfectly to when my sister said that she had found the door open once more.

The thing is, when she found it open, it was much wider than when I found it. It was as though the intruder was in a hurry on the way out. Perhaps they left it open for a quick escape, or to stop the loud sound of it meeting the doorframe. either way, it ties together too perfectly for me to reasonably brush it off. I haven't been able to make any sense of this, and I'm shaken up thinking of the possibility that someone was in my house while I was asleep,

alone in the basement. There's a part of me that doesn't believe it, but I can't shake the many coincidences that all tie together to make this a reality. A few years ago, my partner and I decided to take a trip to California to see some of the state parks, ghost towns, and things off the beaten path that don't get a lot of tourist traffic. For the first leg of the trip, everything was great. We camped in our car, found some really great picturesque landscapes, creepy ghost towns, scenic views,

and forgotten highways. I loved it. After about a week and a half on the road, we decided it was time to start heading back to Oregon, which was our home base. but we decided to take the scenic route for some of it instead of just driving straight home on the five. Our meandering path took us to the Death Valley area. There was a short hike to a beautiful waterfall we had seen online and we wanted to check it out before heading back. In lieu of my experience,

I've chosen not to share the name of it for everybody's safety. We found the trailhead without issue and began the mile-long trek to the waterfall. Death Valley is pretty, desolate, and I'm not going to lie, it's pretty creepy. That in and of itself scared me bad on more than one occasion, but something about this trail was different. I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched. I didn't know why I felt this way, though. I couldn't hear anyone around us. Also, I hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, and there were no cars at the

trailhead when we got there. So I figured we were alone, but I didn't feel that way. This feeling persisted until we reached the end of the mile hike and saw the waterfall. We then reached the waterfall and sat for a moment, took a few pictures, and started hiking back towards the car. It felt like something was wrong, though. I still felt eyes on us, and I had the feeling of dread for seemingly no reason at all. I tried to shake it off, but I couldn't. I started walking a bit quicker to our car and felt grateful when I got there without incident. Once we were there, we started throwing our hiking poles and water bottles into the backseat of the car. It was then that I noticed there was suddenly a black SUV with dark-tinted windows parked directly

next to us in the trailhead parking lot. It wasn't running and I didn't see anyone around it. It didn't seem like anyone was inside, but where was the driver? The only place the driver could have been was on the same trail as my partner and me, but I hadn't seen or heard anyone else on the trail. It was an out-and-back trail with steep rocky cliffs on either side of the trail, so the chances of us seeing this person on the trail should have been very high. The chances of the driver possibly being off the trail were very slim, as the undergrowth was extremely heavy

until you got to the cliffside. I'm also very certain that we would have heard somebody crashing through the undergrowth near the trail. As I was thinking about this and getting more and more anxious, a huge man silently emerged from the bushes next to the trail to the waterfall. And when I say silently, I mean it.

He made no noise whatsoever. He was easily six, five covered in tattoos, and he looked very strong. He was wearing a baseball cap that he had pulled low over his sunglasses, a rifle of some kind slung across his back, and a large hunting knife on his belt. Had he been out there at the falls this whole time? If so, why hadn't I heard or seen him?

He was holding what appeared to be a cell phone in his hands and waving down my partner. My partner is 5-5 and skinny. In a silent panic, I grabbed him by the arm to keep him from getting too close to the man. I realize now that this huge man had a gun, and to distance him was irrelevant. But as I said, I was in panic mode. The man said that he had found the cell phone that was in his hands near the waterfall and didn't want us to leave without it.

We both quickly checked our pockets and realized we both had our phones. So we jumped in the car since we assumed this could have been some kind of setup for a robbery or something worse. We then fired up the car and drove up the dirt road as quickly as we could. The guy just stared at us through the weird window as we drove off. It scares me to think about how he was out there with us the whole time while we were hiking and we didn't see or hear him. We didn't even know he was there.

It made me wonder how many other times had something like this happened to me? This experience made me think twice. about hiking alone in the woods or in isolated or desolate areas. I also find myself wondering, what would have happened had we chose to engage with him? I've had nightmares about this several times since it happened. I think that a lot of people assume cannabis has to be complicated or sketchy to buy. But that really hasn't been my experience with mood.

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And don't forget to use promo code MET at checkout to get 20% off your first order. Again, that's Mood.com promo code meet. I'm an 18-year-old female living in a small town in Michigan. When this incident took place, I worked a few hours a week at a small pizzeria. It was in my town, and I had been working there for about a year when my boss decided to go on vacation. She and her family lived in an apartment below the restaurant, and two other apartments were overhead. In order to get into these apartments, you had to go in the back of the building and down a sketchy set of stairs or the grass slope.

From there, you would find her door and the doors leading up to the other apartments above. Beyond that, there was the yard and then some woods. I think it's important to mention that there was absolutely no reason to be behind the restaurant unless you were trying to enter the apartments. Now, I usually work with my mom

because we work well together, and I hate answering phones, and she usually does it. for me. But one night, my mom was feeling ill, so I had to work with another lady. This other lady was very sweet, but not very efficient, so I was working hard to keep up with everything. Since I was so focused on getting stuff done, I got a bit agitated when this lady told me that we needed more parmesan cheese. I agreed to get some from the store down the road if she promised not to make me answer the phones for the rest of our shift. There were only about two hours.

hours left, which were normally pretty slow, so I guess it didn't really matter that much anyway. As I was getting into my SUV, I saw a guy pull into the parking lot in a beat-up car, and he parked near the back. He was lanky and wearing oil-stained shop clothes, which wasn't normal to see. He then got out and retrieved a bag from his trunk and headed down the grassy slope towards the apartments. I knew that the guy wasn't a renter because I had never seen him before, and the renters frequently ordered pizza. It was possible that he was a friend of one of the renters, but something didn't seem right. It was about 9.30 at night, and one renter was a single mom, while the other two were brothers

who were pretty antisocial. I was getting a bad feeling, so I grabbed my knife from the center console and tucked it up my sleeve. Call me paranoid, but there had been a lot of car fires and break-ins around that time, so I was nervous to go anywhere unarmed. It might have been an impulsive thing to do, but I consider my boss a friend, and I didn't want this guy to hurt any of the renters or steal from any of the apartments, so I decided to go and see what he was doing, just in case he had any ill intentions. I got out of my car and quietly walked over to the slope. There were motion-activated lights, which he had already activated, so I could easily see what he was doing. He was fiddling with an old key ring and trying to gain entry to my boss's apartment.

I then loudly asked, what are you doing? I did this so that my co-worker would hear me through the back open door of our pizzeria. He was startled, but he smiled at me and said that he worked for my boss's husband, and he was there to feed the dog and let it out. His smile was creepy. It was the kind of smile that a liar has when they're trying really hard to convince someone of something. My boss did have a dog,

and her husband did own a fabrication shop, so the story seemed to check out. But I still wasn't fully convinced. But I decided to go and get the cheese that we needed and just check back in when I returned. Okay, well, let me know if you need help with anything, I said, trying to sound as normal as possible, even though I was pretty sketched out.

Then I hustled my way to the store and got back as quickly as I could. I had been gone about 15 minutes, and by the time I returned, surprisingly, he was already gone. I was feeling suspicious and bad for the dog, who had been shut in a good portion of the day, so I decided to text my boss when I got off of work. Now, fast forward two hours. I got home from work and got to my door when I decided to change. check Facebook. As I was scrolling, I saw something that made my stomach drop. It was a picture of my boss and her dog on the beach from earlier that day. I called my boss right away. I then called the

police to make a report. It turns out that guy had been fired from my boss's husband earlier that week for making an inappropriate comment about his 19-year-old daughter and repeatedly harassing other female employees. This guy had planned some sort of revenge scheme, but didn't know that they had left on vacation. His bag was full of tools and a couple of knives. When he was questioned by the police, he told them that the only reason he left their apartment was that he thought I was watching him. Thankfully, he went to jail for that and a couple of other things that he had been wanted for previously. This still creeps me out and I hate to think about what could have happened if they had been home. This is a story from my mother and father. They got married in August 1980 in Australia,

and it was their honeymoon. They were driving alongside Bruce Highway into a city called Rockhampton in Queensland. It was late at night, around 8 p.m., and they had been driving most of the day. There is a very long stretch of road before you enter the city that is just bush, and it spans kilometers. At night the bush can be very scary. They had not passed cars for some time, probably an hour or two, but then out of nowhere headlights appeared a long ways behind them in their rearview mirror. They didn't think anything of this and just kept driving along as normal. The headlights then started to get closer and closer.

My dad was driving and said something along the lines of, What a bloody turkey. Look how fast he's driving. Then the car came right up to them, with its high beams on, and followed them for about five minutes. My mom and dad had a conversation, wondering why the person couldn't just go around them. And then the car completely packed off.

The car suddenly slowed down, almost to a complete stop, and hung back about two. kilometers away for a good 10 to 15 minutes. My mom and dad thought that this was really weird and kind of creepy, but they just kept driving. Then the car sped up. They did the same tailgating thing with their high beams and sort of swerved onto the other lane as if they might go around, but they just stayed behind my mom and dad. This went on for another five minutes. My mom and dad were both really scared, and these were the days before cell phones. Besides, even if those were around,

there would have been no reception in that area for them to call for help. It's not over, though. The car backed off again, but it didn't hang back as far as it did before, but after a minute or so it hit the gas, flying past my mom and dad. There appeared to be one person in the car, but they really couldn't see what they looked like. There was also no plate on the car to identify, it, and I know my dad has told me heaps of times before, but I actually can't remember what sort of car this person was driving now. I feel like it was some sort of sedan or something. I do remember it was definitely white. The car then disappeared up the road, as if it was never there. My mom and dad were shaken to their core, but pleased that it was seemingly over. The road then became a bit

windier, whereas up until that point it had been an almost straight shot. My mom and dad came around a corner, and the car was parked in the middle of the road facing them with the tie beams on. Both the driver and the passenger doors were wide open, and they could now see that a man was driving the car as he was standing in front of it with his arms spread wide. He was spreading his arms out as if to make them stop their car, and my mom screamed, just hit Don't stop, just hit him. My dad, being the bloody hero that he is, did not stop and drove around the man's car on the right-hand side,

which was the passenger's side, as it was parked facing them. The man then tried to get in front of my dad. I assumed to stop him from driving off, but he didn't quite make this maneuver in time. He got close to the car, though, and my dad nearly hit him. Once my dad passed him, he absolutely floored it. My dad said that he was driving around 130 to 140 kilometers per hour just to get away from the man. They aren't sure how long they drove like that for, but they didn't slow back down to the speed limit until they started hitting the city limits.

They made it to their hotel and parked the car at the back of the hotel so that it couldn't be seen from the road. It was on a highway and passing traffic could see cars that were parked there. My mom was understandably quite hysterical as she told the receptionist what had happened. They called for the police and reported the incident, but they never found the car or the driver. Fast forward many years later, my mom was watching the news and the man responsible for the backpack murders had been arrested. My mom screamed and called my dad into the lounge room. They both agreed that the man who was arrested was the man that they saw that night, and they were absolutely adamant about this.

From what I could tell, this was before his activity as the backpack murderer, but I'm glad that my parents didn't officially meet him that night. Delete Me makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. I've used Delete Me for years now,

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slash not meet code not meet. This happened a few weeks ago at the end of November. I'm a student and I'm struggling financially. But that month in particular, I was in desperate need of money. I barely had 10 bucks in my account and I was looking for a new place to live because of complicated family matters. Anyway, since I didn't have a huge budget, I resorted to using websites and apps to look for an apartment or a roommate's situation. That's when I found this one ad that said for $270, I could live at this lady's house. It sounded like a good offer, so I clicked on it right away.

When I started talking to someone, it seemed to be a guy on the other end. We talked for a while. I told him about my situation, and he ended up giving me the number of the lady in question. I then went on to contact this lady that same night, and we had a really bizarre exchange. It seemed quite normal at first,

but then she asked these extremely personal questions. She started with questions like, will you have people over? But then she asked if I had a boyfriend. I told her no, and then she made some crude remarks. Now, I don't understand why it was relevant, but I ended up brushing it off and assumed she probably just didn't want people around her house.

So after having my privacy majorly invaded, she revealed that she had already selected someone to live with her, and she told me that she preferred living with people who were of the same religion as her, and she said she had a friend who might be able to help me. I agreed to let her give her friend my contact information, and some introductory information as well. So she did. I waited for her friend to reply.

This lady told me that I would be in good hands, since her friend was so benevolent, and he had helped so many young students like me. The man replied, and we began talking. I was just explaining my situation, and by this point, I was so tired because these people were so talkative and intrusive, yet it felt like we were getting nowhere.

I had been interacting with them the whole night, so I just wanted to call it a day, but the man then said, How about you come to my store tomorrow and we can talk more? I agreed. We set a time, and then I called it a day. The next day, I only had one class, somewhat late in the afternoon, so the plan was to swing by his store on my way to uni, and that's what I did. I arrived at 4 p.m. and saw a scrawny old man sewing in the back of a very messy shop. I greeted him and we talked for a bit. He seemed friendly and concerned about my situation.

Then he said there might be an apartment available for three months, starting in December, in the neighborhood where the shop was. He told me that a woman he knew was going to travel or something and wanted to sublet her apartment while she was gone. He also assured me that he would convince her to let me stay after she came back, which didn't seem ideal to me.

But I really wanted to get out of my complicated family situation, so I told him that he'd have to look for a second girl to share the place with me since my budget was so low. We agreed on that as well. After that, he contacted me and asked if I wanted to come to his store again and help out a bit in exchange for some quote-unquote pocket money. This offer sounded strange to me, but I agreed since I definitely needed the money.

So that Sunday, I went in and cleaned his shop. That place had a particularly unpleasant smell. It was extremely messy, especially in the back where he told me to organize and fold the clothes. While I was doing that, he started telling me about his life story. I prefer tranquility and peace and was definitely not interested in hearing about his ex-wife and cousin and whatnot, so I was rushing to try and get out of there as soon as I could, and I started to try to give excuses to leave, but then he told me we could go visit the apartment.

We then closed up the shop and took his car over to the apartment. His car was very dirty, which wasn't surprising since I saw how he kept the shop, but at least it didn't smell bad. So we went and saw the place, which was decent, but the woman who lived there seemed as insufferable to interact with as this man was.

She was very rude. When she was done giving us a tour of the apartment She literally pushed me out the door I told the man that my family was waiting for me at home And he said Didn't you tell them you were working I said yes even though I didn't No one knew where I was or what I was doing

Instead of letting me go He said that he needed to show me his apartment first And since I was in his car There wasn't anything I could really do about it He was the one driving So we went to his apartment and he showed me his room, which was very dark, dusty, and cramped. He told me that if I really needed a place to stay urgently,

I could stay there with him. He then insisted, another girl stayed here with me already. I remember thinking, oh, hell no, I'd never stay here. But I politely laughed and said, okay, and then we left. When we were back in his car,

he paid me a pretty good amount, and then dropped me off at the metro station. After that day, I just got this feeling that I should probably not take the apartment that he offered me and stop interacting with him altogether because something seemed off. So I avoided his texts about coming to work with him again the next weekend. I didn't answer him when he asked if I still wanted the apartment. He was trying to tell me that other girls were interested in his offer, so I finally replied and said that my situation is,

been resolved and that he could give it to them. He then gave me this speech about how he'd always be there for me and that I should come work for him again as soon as I could. I didn't plan on doing that at all, of course, but as life has it, something happened and I really needed some money. So that weekend came, and he happened to ask if I would come and work, so I agreed. Now that day was different from the previous time. I mean, he was still going on. and on about his life, but what he was saying started to get stranger. He started talking about those quote-unquote students

that the lady had told me he helped. He told me stories about how he took them to hotels and gave them money. He talked a lot about money. It was like he was trying to make it seem normal to me that he slept with so many of those girls that he helped. I finished my work pretty fast, and even when I said I was done, he kept talking,

and I was trying to find excuses to leave again. But then the conversation shifted, and he started asking me about my experiences, just like the lady did at the beginning of my story. He asked me if I was interested in trying on new clothes at his suppliers, but there weren't any fitting rooms there, so I'd have to change in front of him. He insisted,

Another girl has done this already, and she was very comfortable. with it. Just to appease him, I said I'd think about it. Then he said, you must be used to doing it with your boyfriend, right? I told him I didn't have one, which might have been a mistake on my part, because at that exact moment I saw his gaze completely change. It was like he suddenly had this excited look on his face. It felt like he was trying to suppress his urges or something. That's the best way I can describe it. He then asked, You've never had one?

I knew a girl and I respected her wishes to remain a virgin. She was working here sometimes like you, and she needed the extra money. I told her that for a little more we could spend the night together, but we did everything with our mouths. Of course, now every alarm bell was ringing in my head. I just wanted to get out of there. My heart was racing.

I never said anything that could have made him think I would have ever slept with him. So then I told him I really needed to leave. I didn't want to just run off after working so hard, so he said he was going to grab some money and stuff that he wanted to give me from the back of the store, and he told me to come with him. I had a really bad feeling,

so my body began shaking, and everything in me was telling me to get out of there. I didn't follow him too far, I just stood around the corner. He came back with a bad, bag full of stuff and the money. He handed them to me. I reached out with my trembling hands,

but then he did that thing where you pretend you're giving somebody something and then pull back at the last moment. Well, I was confused, so I looked up at him, and he asked, how about we go to my place for an extra 20? I froze. I told myself I was completely screwed,

since he always makes me work on Sundays, and that's the day when there's never anyone else around, just the two of us in the dimly lit store. I blurted out something about needing to do that next time because I really needed to get going, but he was agitated. However, he asked me to promise. Then he gave me the bag, but he still wouldn't let go.

How about a kiss then? he asked. My eyes dropped from his dry lips to his dirty fingernails, still holding the bag. The thought of any part of him coming in contact with me made me want to gag on the spot. So I told him, next time. He finally let go, saying that he'd text me next weekend, and he told me that I should let him know whenever I was in need of money again. But I just rushed out of there. Once I was gone, I completely freaked out over what could have happened to me.

me. I was disgusted, but I couldn't stop shaking. I threw away the bag without even looking inside, and I went on a metro ride to calm down. I immediately blocked him and the lady who put me in contact with him as well, since I didn't want to risk hearing from either of them. I didn't even tell anyone afterward, except for one of my friends. I just went home as if nothing happened. I didn't know what to do at the time. But after that, the man I was originally talking to on the app sent me a message saying he found a room for me, and he could help me pay if I didn't have the money, if we acted fast. He said that others were interested in the offer, but he preferred helping me. I replied and said I wasn't looking anymore and would rather not be indebted to anyone. I blocked him as well.

I'm fine now, but that experience could have ended with me getting assaulted or worse, and no one even knew my whereabouts. I'm glad I didn't get tangled up further with that man because if I had taken that apartment out of desperation, I wouldn't have been able to run away from him. I'm not sure if I ever fully grasped what these people wanted from me or what they were fully up to, but let's not meet again. Stick around after the music for your extended version of this.

week's episode if you're a patron if you'd like to join and get access today go to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast you'll get to listen to all of the back catalog of let's not meet ad free add a higher bit rate for the best listening experience plus bonus extensions every week with stories you won't hear anywhere else again that's patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast be sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like odd trails in the old time radio cast at cryptic county podcast dot com or wherever you get your podcasts and follow me on Twitch at Twitch.tv.tv slash cryptic County. This week you have heard creepy

co-worker by Maui. I locked my intruder in the house by Aeco's. Death Valley by River Choice 3799. Be careful who you hire by Child of Satan. Encounter with the backpack murderer in Australia in the 80s by Katens and finally, I thought

they wanted to help me. By Sobaby. 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 Let's Not Meet Stories at gmail.com. We'll see you all next week. Everybody, stay safe.

This happened a few months ago when I was traveling.