Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 16x09: Weird Encounter While Hiking

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Send your stories to [e-mail].    Stories in this episode: Uneasy Stay in LA Airbnb | jennamott (0:39)Was Followed for Miles in Backwoods Alabama | scienceforbid (10:01) Weirdos I House-sat for | rosssettti (18:51) My Experience Walking Home | kittymac (26:03) Weird Envounter While Hiking | Anonymous (32:44) Creepy Guy at the Beach | MeasurementDeep (38:12) Weirdo Film Producer | Sea_District_4711 (43:15) The Make Up Bag | Anonymous (46:47) Extended Patreon Content: The Person on the Swing | JessTheMess1026The Loft Party | Lone AvengerMy Halloween Happening | Lone AvengerThe Subway Ride Home | Lone AvengerBad News Boss | Essay 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/84WXQud4gEFollow:- Twitch - https://twitch.tv/crypticcounty- Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/- Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast- Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/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.This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. Your emotional well-being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/NOTMEET. Right now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order. Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code MEET.

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We'll call her Kelly. She was attending college at the University of Santa Cruz, and I went to visit her. A few of our hometown friends tagged along, and we stayed at her apartment for a day while we were on our way for our bigger trip to L.A. Along with her college friends, we rented a minivan and drove six hours down to West Hollywood. There were seven girls total on this trip, and it was all going really well. We went to the beach in Malibu, had breakfast at the hotel, and then we hiked to the Hollywood sign. Our first two nights were joyful. Before I go on, I'd like to provide a bit of description of our Airbnb.

It was in a sketchy area, and there was a shed in the backyard that we were told not to go into. This was among the overgrown plants. There was a high chain link fence surrounding the property, and you had to enter a code onto a padlock at the driveway to get the key. The house itself was a single. single-story home with three bedrooms. There was a glass window front porch, which was where we hung out and smoked weed. The back porch was similar, but more run down. We kept both doors locked at all times, and we kept the gate to the driveway locked as well. On the last night of our trip, which was a Saturday night, we were hanging out on the front porch. What was so weird was that, while on the front porch,

we heard the padlock and chain jingling around down at the gate. We couldn't see through all the brush, but I remember we retreated inside for a bit until we worked up the courage to go back out and finish the joint. A bunch of us went to bed early that night, figuring we had to be up early to drive back to Santa Cruz, and some of the girls still needed to study for finals, so I remember smoking and then heading back to bed at around 11.30.

my other friend whom we'll call Gabby was the last to go to bed at 1.30. Kelly also stayed awake for a while, talking to her crush on FaceTime. I had been sleeping for a while when I was woken up by one of the girls in a frantic state. She was pleading with me to come out into the living room since she said she thought there was something in the house.

I was honestly pissed off at first since she couldn't figure it out herself and had to wake me up. but I also didn't fully know the desperation of the situation yet. So, I walked into the living room and everyone was there except for one of the girls who was sleeping. From the living room, you can't see into the kitchen, and that was also where the bathroom was.

I then sat on the couch and they all simultaneously were trying to tell me what was going on in whispers. Again, I was annoyed, so I said, if you really think something is going on, why didn't you just call the cops? And then they all told me to be quiet. So I shut up. After I quieted down,

I heard movement in the kitchen. It almost sounded like someone was putting something in the sink or moving cups around. My heart dropped, and I jumped up off of that couch so fast, in a manner I'll never forget. I then gathered all of the girls into one bedroom, went to wake up the last girl,

and we all took safety in the same bedroom. We put a chair under the door, and I stood by it with another girl just listening to the noise in the house and guarding the door. At this point, we were all doing a mix of fear pacing, crying, trying to breathe, and going non-verbal. I was trembling, and Kelly was on the phone with the cops.

The other door guard started filling me in on what had happened since I had been asleep. She said that Kelly was still on FaceTime and started hearing things going on in the bathroom. She said that Kelly heard drawers opening and our cosmetics being moved around and stuff like that. This was at around 3 a.m. Kelly didn't remember that I had gone to bed so she thought it was me and she called out my name twice. This woke Gabby up. Gabby came out asking what was going on. It caused the other girls to come out and check it out as well.

One of the girls then chimed in and said that she had heard spoons rattling and her voice was shaking. They thought that it could be an animal, so they went by the open kitchen doorway and banged a water bottle against the frame and yelled to scare it off. But obviously that didn't do anything, and that's when they came and woke me up. At this point the cops were taking a very long time to get to us, of course,

and all of the girls were feeling different, wild emotions. There was a huge window in the bedroom, and I just remember feeling so terrified that whoever was out there could climb through it. The other girl at the door with me then looked at me and whispered, Wait, put your ear to the door and listen. When I did, I heard footsteps. I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry or throw up. I whispered back and said that we weren't going to share this information at that particular moment.

The cops finally arrived, but they weren't allowed to enter without us letting them in. This caused another problem, and Kelly was fighting with the dispatcher on the phone. I asked if they could just come in through the window since we didn't want to go out into the house. Eventually, the other girl at the door with me gained the current. courage to go out there and let the cops in. I've had many experiences with cops, as I live on a bad block myself, but this experience will be one that I always remember. There were two female cops at the door, so you'd think that they would understand our fear,

but they didn't, not in the slightest. They came in and said that they, quote-unquote, searched the home and saw nothing. They didn't even ask any questions. They weren't even curious. They just wanted to leave. They kept glancing at the weed on the table as if they were implying this was all happening because we were high.

Mind you, some of us weren't smokers. And those of us who had smoked stopped hours ago. It was well past 3 a.m. We asked if they had searched the backyard since there was a rundown shed back there and they were hesitant to even do that for us, which surprised me since that should have been the first place they searched.

They laughed after that, and Kelly looked at us and said, I don't know about you guys, but there's no way I'm sleeping here tonight. I want to leave right now. The rest of us immediately agreed. It was probably around four in the morning at that point, so we then packed up our stuff and left for the six-hour drive back to Santa Cruz. During the drive, as the sun rose, I texted my parents, and Kelly messaged the Airbnb host.

When the host woke up and replied, she didn't have a helpful response, and I honestly don't think there was ever much development after that. My friends from my hometown and I were in California for two more days. I remember Gabby and I just hung out at the beach while Kelly and the girls went to college and took their finals. But it felt so weird. The way our trip in L.A. ended was the only thing we could think about and talk about. At one point, Kelly broke down crying because she had been holding her strength about the situation for so long, trying to be the dominant one. It was sad to watch her

breakdown, and when she did, we all gave her a group hug. The situation didn't feel real, and our brains were just trying to come up with any explanation, trying to piece it all together and make sense of it. The event took up space in my life for a while. I was so strict about having all of my windows and doors locked back at home, especially at night, and I would always check them three times. I was pleading with my dad to get a new updated alarm system, and I even put a baseball bat under my bed. This, honestly, is sadly all of the stuff we should be doing already,

but this situation pushed me into doing it. I don't know who was in the house with us that night, but I learned to always bring my portable door lock to Airbnbs with me, and I urge others to do the same. Around 2007, I was getting my PhD at the University of Florida. I'm a woman, and I was around 30 years old living in Gainesville in a condo that I owned by myself. I had a friend whom we'll call Captain, who was walking across the USA at the time. Captain decided to spend the winter at my house, so he had a mutual friend of ours drive him from Alabama,

where he had last stopped walking, to my house, in Gainesville. Gainesville. We had a pleasant Thanksgiving, and then Captain just kind of chilled at my house for the next several months. It didn't seem like a big deal because I was mostly staying at my boyfriend's house, but it did end up being a bit much. When it was time for him to get back to walking, he asked if I would drive him back to the exact location he had left off with his walking back in Alabama. Looking forward to having my place back, I agreed to drive him when I had a day free from school. I don't remember what route we took or where his drop-off point was exactly,

but I do remember that the drive wasn't that long, relatively speaking. It seemed like it should have been, but I guess the drive was about five to six hours one way. I dropped him off early in the evening and headed right back to Florida. This meant I was driving at night by myself in an unknown part of the country. Conveniently, the GPS technology

that we had at the time provided me with an extremely backwards route back to Florida. To get where I had dropped captain off, we stayed on the freeway for most of the time, and only about 10 miles of the drive was off the freeway. Well, whichever map his GPS was using decided that the faster way was to route me through all of these little backroads, through the backcountry of Alabama, which had some serious deliverance vibes. So needless to say, I was a bit freaked out on this route. I occasionally checked in with my boyfriend who just let him know where I was.

I had driven at night by myself, but my history has made me hypervigilant. At some point I became aware that there was a car behind me. I didn't assume that anything was weird until the car stayed with me for several miles, but since I was on a back road, I brushed it off

and just assumed that they were on the same route as me. Since I was paying so much attention to the car behind me, I didn't notice that I was about to take a left turn at the wrong intersection as I was pulling through some small town. There were two intersections that were very close together, and I was accidentally in the left-turning lane at the intersection before the one I was supposed to turn at.

This didn't strike me as a big deal, though. It was two in the morning, so when the light changed, I drove straight through the intersection and took a left at the next. The car behind me did the same thing. So it was then that I realized I was definitely being followed. I immediately called my boyfriend and asked him to look up the non-emergency police number for the area I was in

and I tried to give him the nearest location. But he thought I was overreacting. He was in the middle of something, so he didn't take me seriously, and he didn't look up the number for me. In retrospect, I should have just called 911 but I didn't want to make a big deal out of something that could have been nothing, but that nothing quickly became something.

I had been back on the roads in Alabama without a gas station in sight for a long time, and my car needed gas. That meant I needed to actively search for a gas station and get out of my vehicle once I found one. On top of that, since it was late, I knew that whichever gas station I found was surely not going to be well-staffed at that time of night, so I was freaking out. It didn't help that I couldn't see the driver of the car behind me. It was dark, and the car had dark-tinted windows.

Also, Alabama backroads are pretty damn dark. I kept looking in the rearview mirror, but I couldn't catch a glimpse of the driver. I honestly could not figure out why this person targeted me. At first I laughed at off as some kind of southern football vendetta, since I had a University of Florida license plate frame. So I was trying to convince myself that this person was trying to scare me because they were a fan of one of our rival schools.

I'm not sure if the person following me could tell I was a woman driving this car, since it was probably difficult for them to see, but either way, this person was clearly following me. And given that I had to stop my car, I was feeling increasingly at risk. Finally, my backwoods route took me to a relatively larger metropolitan area. I was finally on streets with streetlights and businesses were still lit up. I started to feel better, but I still had to stop for gas. I had already made a plan as far as that was concerned.

I wanted the guy behind me to know that I was onto him, so at the first intersection that was well lit, I fully turned around in my car seat and stared at him while pretending to talk on the phone. I did this for the entire time that the light was red, and I wanted to look like I was describing the car behind me, and whatever features I could see to whomever was on the phone. Not long after this, I found a gas station that was well lit.

I was driving on fumes and praying that I wouldn't run out of gas in Backwoods, Alabama. I pulled into the gas station so that my driver's side door was adjacent to the door of the gas station, then I jumped out and I ran inside. I let the attendant know that I was being followed. He walked out from behind the counter and walked to the window and said that no one was out there. I was sure that the car had been behind me

when I pulled into the station, but I guess once they saw that I ran inside, they must have driven off. I still have no idea what the driver's intentions were, but they easily followed me for an hour and a half. They followed me for a hundred, miles. It felt predatory. Thankfully, I was able to gas up my car under the watchful eye of the gas station attendant,

and the attendant told me the quickest way to the freeway from there. My trip was uneventful after that, but I was still shaking and thoroughly pissed at my boyfriend for not taking this situation seriously. Please stay safe out there. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. March includes International Women's Day, which is a moment to celebrate women and all that they carry at work and relationships and families and in the many roles that they hold every day.

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And live sessions average a 4.9 out of five rating based on over 1.7 million client reviews. Your emotional well-being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash not meet. That's betterhelp.com slash not meet. This story took place in early 2017. I had recently moved from a major city to a small, town in the Midwest to get myself together and separate myself from the bad habits I had developed. Previously, I had been living on the West Coast, and I worked for a couple who were pot farmers, just trimming their weed for one season with a few other tremors. Nothing major stuck out to me other than the guy who was in his mid-30s. He was a major asshole, and super protective of his

weed. His girlfriend was someone I wouldn't normally get along with, but she was all right. So, I trimmed their weed that season, and they paid me a portion up front. Then he said the rest would come to me, after he sold a few pounds or whatever, because that was how the business went. They did end up paying me the remainder within a few weeks, so all was good with me. However, after I moved, the man kept texting me with some random, hey, how are you doing? check-ins. I never liked the guy since I got bad vibes from him from the get-go, but his girlfriend was a friend of a close friend,

so I sort of gave them the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, then the girlfriend started messaging me around springtime after I had worked for them, trimming weed the previous fall, asking if I would be available to house-sit for them while they were on vacation out of the country. At that point, I was living in Colorado, and their farm was in California. I didn't have a permanent job set up,

and they were offering good money to house sit. Plus, I'd make some extra money trimming the weed that they had left over from the season, so I naively took the 17-hour drive over there with dollar signs in my eyes, and all was hell from there. I'll try to set up the scenario for you as best as I can. They have a full house with a garden,

gardener's quarters attached to the main house. There was one bedroom, one bathroom, and a kitchen area with an electric stove and a kettle in the gardener's quarters. From this area, there's a doorway that leads to the main house, but it's blocked by a bookshelf on the other side. When they invited me to stay and house sit, they were there for two or three days, and while they were still around, they had me drill the door of the gardener's quarters shut on the opposite side so that the main house could not be entered from there. I was going to be staying in the gardener's quarters, and it didn't bother me that I wouldn't have access to the main house.

Honestly, I understood why they might want to lock their house up. But things got really weird afterwards. I had been there alone for a few days, just trimming weed, walking the dogs, filling the hummingbird feeders, and watching over the property like I was supposed to. Truth be told, this house was out in the middle of nowhere, so I don't even think anyone would have come there

if it were left unintended anyway. The girlfriend would call from Morocco every so often to check up on me and I always told her everything was fine since I genuinely thought everything was. But then, I started to hear water running from the kitchen inside the main house, the part of the house that I had no access to,

but was directly connected to. When I started hearing this, I immediately called the couple, or texted them maybe I can't remember, but I told them I could hear that there was somebody in the house. Their response surprised me when they said, it's none of your concern what you hear on the other side of the wall. My stomach turned at this response.

I was in the middle of nowhere, essentially locked in the gardener's quarters of their property, where they hired me to house sit and watch over things, and yet when something was going on with the house, suddenly it wasn't supposed to be my concern. This freaked me out. I still had two more weeks left of this bizarre house-sitting gig at this place, and I was officially freaked out.

Over the next few days, I kept going back and forth between feeling scared and calm, and these feelings would come in waves. At one point I was sitting outside with the dogs, and they all ran up to the side of the house, wagging their tails, like they were greeting someone. and I heard a very quiet, sh, followed by the sound of footsteps pattering off.

I continued to hear the TV, microwave, and water running from the main part of the house. I also noticed that the language the girlfriend was using with me via text was far too personal in regards to what I was saying. I mean, sure, they might have had security cameras installed, but I searched and didn't find any devices. Once I realized that, it seemed like I was also being spied on in some weird way as I was house-sitting. So I started to have fun with it.

I'm not sure if I thought I was going to die, or maybe I just figured that if I acted crazy enough, they wouldn't want me for whatever they had in mind. One night, I was out on the small porch, hanging out on the steps, having a very late-night cigarette. It was around midnight, and I could hear someone walking around the perimeter of the house. So I stood up, opened the door to the gardener's quarters, and closed it, as if I walked back inside. I didn't actually go in, I just opened the door and closed it, to give them the impression. I stayed on the porch with my cigarette, though. Someone immediately walked from the side of the house because they thought I had gone inside.

When they noticed me, they ran into the woods. In my mind, I set this tiny trap to see if I was delusional, and I finally proved that I wasn't. so I started doing dumb celebratory stuff since I finally proved that I was right and I wasn't alone. I didn't do anything too wild, I just set up their garbage cans like a drum set, blasted the backstreet boys and walked around topless.

Honestly, I thought that if these people were crazy enough to mess with me while I was house-sitting for them, I had to do something more ridiculous to push them away. Maybe that doesn't make sense but I can't help but reference the Hey Arnold episode where the bully is after him and he says, don't hit me, I'll hit me, I'm crazy.

Anyway, the couple finally returned from their house in Morocco and acted like they didn't want to pay me. After some pulling and tugging on my part, they did. But let me tell you, don't ever go house sit, at least not unless you really know the people your house sitting for because, turns out, it's a really shady business. I'm a female, and this happened to me three years ago when I was 19 as I was walking home. I don't live too far from my favorite coffee bean,

and I really wanted to go there since I had finished school already, and I was attending community college and taking the bus everywhere, but since the coffee place was right near my house, I decided to walk. It was around 2 p.m. when I got there, and everything about the trip was normal. It wasn't until I walked back home that I felt uncomfortable. I live about half a mile away, and when I crossed the street leading to my block,

I saw a man with red hair, like box-died red hair. He seemed young, but was growing stubble and looked older than me. He had a drawstring bag and was walking opposite me on the crosswalk. While I was passing, he asked me if I had a cigarette, and I said, no. and I continued walking. I figured he was just some random guy who couldn't afford cigarettes,

considering there was a smoke shop about half a block away. As I kept walking, not more than 20 steps into the next block, I heard someone walking very fast behind me. I assumed it was someone on a run or something like that, so I moved to the side.

But when I turned to look, it was the same man. I guess he decided to start walking the opposite way, to where he was originally headed, just to talk to me. He then started saying something to me, but I didn't understand him, and then he asked if he could use my phone. He told me he was a college student,

and he said that he needed to call his mom. Then he asked if I went to school in the area. I asked, what school? Then he cryptically replied, The college near here. I could tell that something was up, so I was getting scared. He was talking to me in an empty neighborhood

and I was a young-looking girl by myself. I just lied and told him no. For reference, the college that I went to was a mile away from where we were, but it struck me as very strange that he didn't even name the school. He then asked me if he could use my phone again, but I was nervous.

I stood there for just a few seconds contemplating what to do, and I don't know why, but I said okay. I was half expecting him to run off with it, but he dialed a number and held it to his ear. He didn't say hello or tell anyone that it was him. He just said, okay, bye, and hung up.

Then he handed my phone back to me, and I told him I was leaving, but he told me that his mom said she'd call him back. Why would his quote-unquote mom say that if he was calling from an unknown number? They barely spoke for one second, and he never said it was him who was calling. I don't understand how she even knew it was him. I told him that there was a restaurant down the street and suggested that he go there

and asked them to use their phone instead, and he replied, Oh, yeah. I then started walking away to head back to my house, and we were on the corner of my block already at this point. He continued walking the same way as me. and asked if I lived there. I said no, and that I was waiting for a friend. Then he asked if I was walking in that direction, the one I was already headed toward,

and he kept following behind me, but hung back about ten feet. I ignored him, and he asked if I had a boyfriend, so I told him yes. It was true, but I mostly said that so that he would leave me alone. When he was around 20 feet behind me,

I decided not to go around the block and just go inside my house once I got there. I guess I just felt too weird since the neighborhood was so empty and I didn't have a car or anything, so I didn't know what to do. I pretended someone was talking to me on the phone and I grabbed my keys out of my bag. Then I quickly walked to my house, unlocked the door, and closed it, and locked it behind me. Within a minute of locking it, knowing he was still behind me and hearing his footsteps, the doorbell rang. I was scared because I was home alone,

and this has never happened to me before. Then I decided to look at the call log, and I found the number he called. The person never picked up. It just said, call canceled. I blocked the number just in case he called himself or something, but I felt scared. I just kept thinking about how his footsteps got louder,

and faster each time I got in front of him. And this whole situation really freaked me out. I started paying attention to the small things that keep my energy steady throughout the day. And hydration is one of those things that makes a bigger difference than I used to think. And that's where drip drop comes in. Drip drop is doctor-developed, proven fast hydration that helps your body and mind work better, which is exactly what this year needs. If you've got busy days, long workouts, and everything in between, you need drip drop.

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To make it easy, DripDrop has flexible subscription options, too. You're never stuck without proven fast hydration. Right now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order. Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code meat. That's dripdrop.com promo code meat for 20% off. Stock up now at dripdrop.com and use promo code meat. This happened in upstate South Carolina in 1970. To start with a bit of background, I grew up in a very emotional and physically abusive home. I never had anything but negativity spoken to me. And as a child, I believed it.

My self-esteem was rock-bottom early on, and I believed I was no good and that everyone hated me, just as I was being told. I was very shy and withdrawn as a person. I really made a little effort with friendships. I held everyone at arm's length, but was desperate for any small scraps of positive attention that came my way. I found positivity in a wonderful young couple who came to my family's church to be youth leaders. I was bullied terribly by the kids at my church. I hated going until this couple came there. They were sweet, young, and kind,

and they went out of their way to be especially nice to me. They arranged a picnic and hike at the state park close by on a Saturday. I was around 11 years old and ordinarily I wouldn't participate in these outings, but since they were both going to be there, I was excited to go. So, we met at the church. and got on the bus. I heard a few of the kids whisper, Why is she here?

They made comments about my clothes, but I ignored them, and I just sat by myself in the back of the bus. When we got to the park, I mostly hung out with the couple, whom I'll call Stan and Claire. We had a big cookout near the lake and went for a hike afterwards.

There were quite a few kids there, so Stan and Claire had their hands full on the hike, trying to keep everyone on the trail. I, of course, was at the rear of the line. The kids I was behind started making fun of me, and they told me I was too lazy to make the hike. They kept saying no one wanted me there anyway.

Then they ran ahead, laughing. I slowed down until they were out of sight. Then I sat on a rock and cried. A minute or two later, I heard someone speaking to me. I looked up and wiped my eyes, and a man was standing right by me, even though I hadn't heard anyone walk up the trail. So I stood, as he asked if I was okay. I nodded, and then he told me that I looked sad.

Then he asked me what was going on. I opened up to him, told him why I was upset, and I said that the other kids, who I was there with, didn't like me, and they didn't want me there. He then asked me for my name, where I was from, and how old I was. Being an 11-year-old kid, I was completely honest with him. He appeared to be in his mid-20s, and he had looked like an unassuming guy with blonde hair. I actually thought he was cute.

I was thrilled that he was being nice to me. He hugged me and said that I could hang out with him, and he'd take me back to the group once they were returning from the hike. Then he took my hand and told me we'd go for a hike down a different trail that he knew. And I agreed. Then suddenly, I heard Stan yelling out my name. He told me to stop and get away from the guy who was trying to guide me away. Then Stan came running up and got between the blonde guy and me

and asked him what he thought he was doing. The guy just shrugged and started walking away through the trees, not on the trail. Stan then asked me if I was okay and asked if the guy had hurt me. I could tell Stan was angry, so I teared up again because I thought I was in trouble.

Then Stan squatted down in front of me and told me that I wasn't in trouble, and he said that I hadn't done anything wrong. I told him that the guy and I just talked a bit, and he told me he was going to show me another trail to hike. Stan nodded and told me we were going to catch up with the other.

When we rejoined with the rest of the group, Stan pulled Claire aside and they talked quietly. She motioned for me to come over. Then she put her arm around me and we sat on a rock and talked and laughed. She had me walk beside her on the way back down and sit with her on the bus. The two of them made the rest of the day nice for me. It took me years to realize what could have happened to me that day and why Stan was so angry. Obviously, once Stan and Claire got to the stopping point of the trail, which was at a stream with a sliding rock, they realized I was missing,

so Stan came down the trail looking for me. If he had been just a few seconds later than he was, I would have been gone with that man, and God knows what his plan was once he got me out of sight. So my poor guardian angel surely did her job that day. I have no clue if they reported this encounter to the Rangers or not, but I hope they did. My friend and I had a beach day as a way to decompress and catch up.

It was fun all the way up until the end. We were sitting behind this older guy who was there by himself, and next to him, a few feet away, was a mother and her adult daughter. Up until this point, we hadn't seen him do anything or even looked at him long enough to notice him. The lady and her daughter started to pack up their stuff in leave, and then she came up to my friend in me and warned us. She said,

watch out for that guy, he's being creepy to the girls, and I just noticed that he was sitting and staring at you too as well. We thanked her and kept talking with her. While we were talking, the creepy guy called over to her daughter and said something to her that we didn't hear.

Then she came back over to us, looking upset and angry. Her mom asked her what, happened and she responded, nothing, he just said to have a nice day, but she was clearly upset. She then grabbed her mom, and we set our goodbyes, and they left. After that happened, my friend and I laid back down to finish tanning. When I set up again, I noticed the creepy guy was no longer there. He was in the water. I told my friend it was going to be the best time for us to go since we wouldn't have to walk past him, and it was about to rain anyway. As we started to pack our stuff up to go,

this man got out of the water and sprinted to us from the water to start asking us questions. He asked us about the lady who was talking to us, and he asked us if she had said anything about him. He told us that she was a crazy bitch. We denied that she said anything and said that she was just talking to us. He then told us what he asked the daughter before she appeared to be so upset. He told us, I told her she was beautiful and asked if she'd like to go home with me. My friend and I were completely shocked, but we stayed quiet and kept giving each other this look, essentially telling each other, let's try to get out of this as quickly as possible. Then he started complimenting us, and he told us that we were beautiful,

and he was trying to guess our ages. We were frightened and just told him our ages, assuming that he'd go away, but that backfired. He then tried to touch my friend's arm, as he was saying that she had a beautiful smile, and he remarked that he had a daughter her age. He even said that my friend's smile reminded him of his daughter's smile. Then the creepy guy came over to me and said,

you're beautiful but I could tell you're shy I'm just a nice guy trying to get to know you guys I began to shake with anxiety and although I was freaking out I was trying to keep his attention on me so that he wouldn't keep going to my friend little did I know she was doing the same for me since he was speaking to the lady and her daughter in Spanish

the creepy guy then asked me to teach him some Spanish I gave him some minimal response, and he said, It's cute how shy you are. I love it. You're a beauty, and you don't know it. He then grabbed my face. I was in shock. I couldn't even move.

I'm a survivor of assault, so this triggered me. My friend then told the man, okay, well, it's going to rain. We're going to leave. She grabbed my hand and bowled me away. As we were leaving, he kept going on. He said that our bodies were beautiful, which made me want to throw up. Or better yet, it made me want to go back over to him and beat the hell out of him, but I couldn't.

I was too scared to even go near him. My friend and I then left the beach and drove back home in silence. Once I got home, I talked with my boyfriend and he comforted me, while also making sure to stick to the boundaries that I have when I'm triggered. I'm just disgusted by all of this. I hate that things like this happen all too often. It's been several days since this happened, and I'm still sick to my stomach about it.

I asked my friend if she was okay, and I let her know that I was there for her if she needed me. This happened sometime around 2014. I'm a writer, and I have done some stuff on YouTube, but in my early years, I was trying to get whatever writing jobs I could in TV and movies. I was trying to make contacts

and meet people in the industry and hope that they would make one of my movie scripts. I came across this one guy on the internet who had a page online introducing himself as a movie producer, who was based in my neck of the woods

in Manchester, England. His profile mentioned that he had made a bunch of movies. I was pretty young and naive, so I contacted him, and he seemed really interested in meeting with me to discuss working together. We had a video call, but he said his camera wasn't working, so I was on screen, but I can only hear him. On that call, he said he wanted to meet me face to face, so he arranged to meet me at a cafe in a run-down

part of town. I agreed, and we set up a time and met at this cafe. He was short and stocky, wearing all black and a baseball cap. We started talking about movies and movies we liked. With the few people I had previously spoken to in the film industry, usually these people know a lot about films and had their finger on the pulse of what just came out and what was just about to come out. But when I asked this guy about movies he was into,

he only talked about The Hangover, which had come out at least five years earlier. I tried to probe him more about what else he was into, but that was all he would mention, the hangover. Then I asked him about the films that he had made. He claimed he had made a movie called For Ireland, which was apparently an action movie that ended up with the Irish Newking London. He said that he also worked with Stephen Seagall.

I had a feeling that this guy was full of it, so I just shook hands with him and promised to stay in touch and work with him in the future, but in my head, I knew he wasn't the real deal, and he was striking me as a bit odd. I tried to look the guy up online afterwards, but I couldn't find any evidence of his films, and there was no movie called For Ireland. To this day, there has still never been a movie ever made that's been called that. Looking back now, I realize he was essentially making stuff. up on the spot. After that, he started to text me about wanting to speak to me again. He said that he

had just finished constructing a giant movie studio. This was weird because the guy looked like he didn't have a pot to piss in. I didn't respond, but he kept asking me to come to his new quote-unquote movie studio so he could show me around. He cryptically said, I really want to show you something. I just ignored him. but it creeps me out thinking that he was trying to get me to visit him at this quote-unquote studio. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of creepy things he might have been up to. I don't remember his name, but hopefully there isn't anyone else in Manchester who has come across this creepy character.

I'm generally pretty cautious when it comes to online dating. I'll chat with someone until I'm comfortable, and then if I decide to meet someone, I'll meet them in public. and have friends knowledgeable of my whereabouts just in case. The dates are usually fun or end up being duds, but I've never had an issue, and I've never been fearful. I've made some great friends in the process, but there have been some others with whom I've never heard from again after meeting them,

but all in all, it's been simple with no harm and no fuss involved. I recently met this guy online through plenty of fish. He and I talked quite a bit through the app and then for hours on the phone. He seemed like a great guy, so we decided to meet. He lived about 45 minutes away in a town that I don't really visit often, so I was unfamiliar with it, and we had talked about me staying there

if I decided to go there to grab drinks with him. I thought maybe I'd just get a room for myself. I wasn't planning on staying at his place right off the bat. I don't know why, but a lot of my usual good judgment blew out the window at some point, and we left my car near a park. I had no idea how to get back to it from his place if I needed to, because he took so many twists and turns on that drive while I was in the back. Oh yeah, he suggested that I get in the back of his van,

because it was a small town and he didn't want anyone to see me. Now, I'm not sure why I didn't just turn around and walk back to my car upon hearing this. He also took my phone to lock it in a box to hide its location. Now, I know, I realized this should have been a red flag, but as I said, I don't know what I was thinking at the time. I think that maybe I thought that based on all of our conversations, this might have been some kind of game. He was even kind of presenting it as such. Well, when we finally arrived at his place to hang out, we watched movies, talked, and had some dinner.

It was all going seemingly normal. But then at some point he began acting sort of off. He started asking me a lot of questions in this slightly intimidating tone, intentionally trying to make me feel inferior. He was dissecting everything I would say, constantly pacing and chain smoking, His vibe was just intense overall.

I began to feel a little uncomfortable. I even suggested that he'd drive me back to my car and call it a night so that I could get home, since there was never a guarantee I would stay, but he refused. He thought I was joking. He said if I wanted to leave, I could call a cab. I couldn't afford to allow the meter to run while I tried to figure out where to tell the cab to find my car. By this point, I did have my phone back, and I had messaged a friend to stay on call for me in case of a 911 come and get me emergency.

Things settled, though, and we felt a bit more comfortable. I just wanted to sleep and get the night over with and get back to my car in the morning, which is eventually what ended up happening, as I did make it home safe. After that night, this guy and I kept talking via text and occasionally on the phone, We both agreed that the night we met was intense and awkward. However, he apologized, so we tried to hang out again, and it was loads better. I felt comfortable. There were a lot of laughs.

It was good, actually. I willingly stayed the night this time rather than feeling trapped. He offered to grab my pillow from my bag for me when he went into the other room. When he did, my makeup bag had fallen out, which is actually relevant. He returned it to its place and let me know. This wasn't a big deal to me, and we fell asleep talking. Then he drove me to my car the next morning. We didn't talk much for the rest of the day.

I was pretty busy doing bridesmaid things and such, but he texted me in the evening, and I told him that I would call him later if he'd like, since I was busy. I didn't get a response, so I texted him when I was free to see if he was awake and still wanted to do. to chat. It was around 2 a.m., but that wasn't an abnormal time for us to chat. But I also didn't want to

call him and wake him up. This was when he first went off on me. He asked me what the hell kind of script I had prepared for him and what I actually wanted from him. I remember thinking, what script? And then I told him that as we already discussed and agreed upon, I'd like to start as friends while we get to know each other. Then he told me, I was just a stupid out-of-towner, toting around a makeup bag as a facade, like some kind of smoke screen. He said it was sloppy of me, and he said the fact that I said I would call later was some kind of red flag, even though he knew I had things to do.

All I kept thinking was, what is going on? He told me not to text him again. So I took that as an opportunity to just lose all contact, and at this point I was fine with parting ways because he was saying some pretty nasty stuff, so I just deleted everything. It was easy for me to just leave it all behind. But then, one week later, I got a voicemail from him,

demanding that I call right away. I was at work and my building had bad phone reception, so I didn't see any missed call notifications. I just suddenly had a new voicemail, so I had no idea when he left it. I went back to listen again about an hour later, so that I could check the number the message was left from, and the message was gone. I knew I had saved it, though. I even checked the deleted messages, but the message just wasn't there.

The same thing happened with the message that he left the following night. He said some heinous things, just awful. He said, listen, and he called me a name. You want to come over here with your makeup bag full of fucking gels and stupid bullshit, trying to collect evidence at my place so that you can fucking put people in cages and torture them, and you want to talk to me about being a good person? Fuck off, you stupid fucking whore. Run and hide.

As I said, you deserve to be hiding. Enjoy the prison that you've put yourself in by being so dumb. Enjoy it Hide And don't fucking lie That you're going to be sleeping In the fucking bed next to me While you're going to be up

Doing your fucking little detective work I ought to slap you in the mouth So far That's the last I've heard of him Thankfully he knows Very little personal information about me He doesn't know where I live Or anything like that

This kind of thing has never happened to me before I'm not sure how to respond I'm just hoping that it doesn't escalate any further. I went down to the police station to file a report just in case. Unfortunately, the officer I talked to didn't really seem to care much about the situation. I wasn't able to tell too much of the story. The officer I spoke with said it wasn't entirely considered harassment, and he told me that he wasn't the Facebook police and there was no physical threat to my health or my life. He said that this guy sounded like a pain in the ass. He did,

however record that we talked, and I was given an incident number, so I guess there's that. He also suggested that I get a restraining order if he contacts me again, and if he contacts me despite the restraining order, it would be an immediate violation and he'd be jailed. I also let my employer know about the report and gave them a description of the guy and his vehicle just in case, but everyone be careful out there. Stick around after the music if you're a patron for your extended version of this week's episode. If you want to get access, go to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up and support the show today. You'll get access to ad-free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate and stories and those bonus extensions that you won't hear anywhere else every single week.

Again, that's patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. If you have a story to share, send it to let's not meet stories at gmail.com. Be sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcast. like Odd Trails and the Old Time Radiocast at Cryptic County Podcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts and follow me on Twitch at twitch.tv.tvac County. This week you have heard Uneasy Stay in LA Airbnb by Jenna Mott. I was followed for miles by Science Forbid. Weirdos I House Sat for by Rosetti.

My Experience Walking Home by Kitty Mac. Weird encounter while hiking by Anonymous. Creepy guy at Beach by Measurement Deep, Weirdo film producer by C District 4711, and finally, I should beat you to death with your makeup bag by Anonymous. 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 of the message boards online. Again, if you have a story to share, send it to Let's Not Many Stories at gmail.com. We'll see you all next week. Stay safe. my friend and me about 10 years ago back in 2016.