Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 16x13: My Best Friend's Mom Almost Got Us Killed

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Send your stories to [e-mail].    Stories in this episode:My Best Friend's Mom Almost Got Us Killed  | Decent-Anywhere6411 (0:43)They Mistook Me For Someone Else | timothystuba (10:04) The Human Skull Piece | Silver_Construction4 (19:47) Possible Grab and Go Attempt | AmayaOkami (25:31) Why Are You Mad I'm Not Drinking? | SerenityAngel1990 (32:16) Bus Stop Man | Homie (36:20) He Pulled a Knife on Our First Double Date | NarwhalWonderful3533 (40:25) Worst Data Recovery of My Life | Violet (43:39) Extended Patreon Content:The Serial Killer You Know | EssayThe Red Cans in the Woods | EssayHammer Man | VindhyaDog Sketched Out by Family Friend | TanyaHe Used a Nightmare to Keep Tabs on Me  | AnonymousDue 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/ Try Gusto today at gusto.com/meet, and get three months free when you run your first payroll. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.  When life feels overwhelming, therapy can help. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/notmeet.  If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at mintmobile.com/meet. 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. The stories shared on this podcast are told from the perspective of the authors. Their accounts and opinions are personal and do not reflect the stance of the production team. 

This podcast contains adult language and content. The stories shared in this podcast are told from the perspective of the authors. Their accounts and opinions are personal and do not reflect the stance of the production team. If you have a story to share, send it to Let's Not Meet Stories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. To respect my best friend whose life was a total mess as a child, I've been keeping this story under wraps for a long time. I've kept it so quiet that I haven't even spoken a word of it to my mother.

At first, it was mostly because there was a fear of getting social services involved, but they got involved anyway. I still never brought anything up to my mom about it, though, because I guess I thought too much time had passed. I just figured she never would have benefited from knowing. Well, this all happened when I was 11. I'm now 29. It all sort of feels like a dream looking back on it, and this feels like the approach. appropriate place to get it out. The names I'm using in the story have all been changed. When I was in elementary school, I was an awkward child. In Canada, elementary school is K-3-6.

Now, I have high-functioning autism, and while my grades were great, my social functioning was lackluster. It still is, if I'm being honest. This left me with a fairly small but very colorful group of friends. Two of the closest being Jesse and Katie. I came from a fairly overprotective household. My mother watched me like a hawk, and thus I was a naive kid. I didn't really understand that a lot of the oddness and dysfunction that would come out of my two friends had to do with problems that they were facing at home. We were never allowed at Katie's house. I think her mom was extremely overweight to the point of hardly being able to move, and she had been embarrassed by it. Jesse's house, however, was only a few blocks away from my school.

So we ended up there a lot. Her parents were divorced, and her mom was deaf and mute. My mom and her would communicate through notes when I would go over there, and at first, while she did seem slightly erratic, there weren't any real red flags. When I first started going there, Jesse's mom was living with her boyfriend, as well as her boyfriend's parents. Everyone in the household was deaf, except for Jesse and her younger brother, but both of them had limited hearing.

I think for the first year or so that we were hanging out there, the boyfriend's parents kind of kept everything from getting too out of hand, but it was pretty clear it was a dysfunctional household. After they moved out of the house, it was just Jesse's mom and her boyfriend. They would often lock us in the basement when I would spend the night, but one time they forgot to lock it, and we walked in on them shoving needles under the table. Again, we were too young to understand what was truly going on, but we did understand that we walked in on something bad.

From that point on, we would be designated to spend our sleepover nights in her garage as it was furnished with carpets and couches. Jesse's mom always kept the door locked so she knew that we wouldn't interfere with their activities again. This fully banned us from the rest of the house, so when one of us had to use the bathroom, we would have to knock on the basement window until Jesse's little brother would hear

and let us through the window so that we could pee. This was a challenge since he was hearing impaired, so sometimes it would take an hour of absolute banging on that window until he finally let us in. We were young, and this felt as close to freedom as you could get, so I don't think any of us saw any inherent issues with this. We didn't really understand why it could be dangerous for Jesse's mother to essentially sequester us in the garage like this.

None of us ever really clocked this as being wrong, so I never told my mom what was going on, and it just kept going on, and I kept going over there. One night, we were doing our normal sleepover, playing Pokemon Gold, trading and battling with link cables, and waiting for Jesse's mom to bring out the oven pizza that she said she was cooking for us hours ago. It was about midnight, which might seem late, given that we were so young,

but there was no bedtime in that household. Katie said she really had to go to the bathroom, but she was trying to wait for Jesse's mom to bring the pizza so that she could go inside through the door. but she had been waiting for so long that she just couldn't hold it anymore. So she went outside by herself to approach the basement window and try and rouse Jessie's little brother, Aaron. We were expecting it to take her a little while,

but to our surprise she came back extremely quickly, locking the garage door behind her and latching the lift door. She looked really startled. She told us that she was knocking to try and get Aaron's attention when she heard a rustle from the bush next to the gate going to the front yard. It took her a minute or two to realize what she was looking at, but standing about five feet from the gate and about 15 feet from the window that she was at was a very tall man dressed completely in black.

She said it seemed like he just appeared out of the darkness, like he was waiting for something. He asked her if she managed to lock herself out. out while slowly stepping towards the gate. As she took a step back, his pace quickened towards her, so she sprinted back into the garage. At first we thought she was just messing with us, so we laughed at her and told her to stop messing around. Then we heard it.

There was a hard twisting of the locked doorknob. Then, worse, the sound of scratching metal against the knob. The guy Katie had just told us about was really. really out there, and he was trying to pick the lock. We stood in absolute fear for just a moment, then grabbed the only pathetic things around us that we could try and use to defend ourselves. Then it just abruptly stopped. There were no windows in Jesse's garage and no peephole on the door.

We couldn't see what was going on. We waited for about ten minutes, having no idea where the man was, if he was still out there, where Jesse's mom was. or when that pizza was finally going to be brought to us. But we were like sitting ducks out there. He had clearly failed to pick the lock, but who knows what he would have tried next. So, this was incredibly naive of us,

but we were stupid, scared children. We grabbed our weapons, which consisted of glorified sticks, and we left the garage. At first there was no sign of the man, so we moved toward the downstairs window. and we started slamming on it. We were screaming and pleading for Aaron to open it. That was when we heard him.

It was almost like this sing-songy voice. It was such a mocking tone that rang out. Well, hello again. This time, there were three men. All three of them were dressed in black. The one in the middle had spoken. They made a move forward, and once again we sprinted back to the garage.

This time they tried to kick the door in. All three of them were stomping and kicking. It was close to giving in, but then everything stopped. Jesse's mother had finally come out the back door, with a fucking pizza in hand, which startled them. She then ran back inside and got her boyfriend and his two friends, since users travel in packs. They chased the two men outside with some actual weapons,

at least, I'm guessing that they had actual weapons because we were still in the garage and we could only hear what was going on. Then the adults stayed in the backyard all night, weapons in hand. One person even sat on the roof with a compound bow. Yes, a compound bow. When the morning came, things seemed to settle down.

We never stayed at Jesse's house for sleepovers after that, and she was put into the care of her grandparents shortly after. It took me a really long time to actually grasp what happened that night, but considering they never called the police, I'm fairly sure we almost got literally fucking murdered over some drug debt Jesse's mother had. I can't even imagine the evils that could have gone on that night if fate hadn't been on my side.

Something tells me that those three men were far too happy to find children to take his penance, and it would hardly have been a straightforward murder. Thinking about this still makes me shudder. This happened about 10 years ago. My roommate at the time had gone up to the foothills to spend Christmas with his family, and he was there for about three days.

On the 27th of that month, at around midnight, he asked if I could go get him because he didn't want to stay another night. Now, I didn't mind since we had been best friends for four years at that point, and I was used to driving him into the city. For a little backstory, I live in a small rural area. There are only two ways to get from our town to the next city, both of which take an hour and a half round trip. One road is the main highway, but it doesn't lead directly to the foothills,

so it would take me about two hours to reach him. The other road is a back road that leads straight to the foothills, so naturally I took that road. Now this road is surrounded by nothing. but desert for 20 miles, with occasional housing developments, so it's really dark at that time of night. It's also very secluded,

and a road less traveled. The only reason people take this road is to get to the foothills, the college, or if they're leaving the county. There were about four cars total going that way while I was driving, and they all passed me within minutes. The speed limit is 65,

and I was going 55 since there was something wrong with my car. It would shake if I drove over 60. After a while, it was just me on the road. About 15 minutes into the drive, I saw a car coming up behind me, but I paid no mind to it, and I figured they would just pass me, as the other cars would. It came up right behind me and was right up on my back. I wasn't scared, though.

I found this more confusing than anything since no one else was on the road, and I was driving 55 in the sloth. low lane. I didn't allow this to pressure me into going faster, and I also didn't move, which I guess egged them on, because they kept turning their brights on and off and started swerving behind me. This thoroughly freaked me out, but I kept hoping they'd either leave me alone or another car would drive by, but neither of those things happened. They kept this up all the way to the foothills, and I remember thinking, okay, so I guess they're going to keep following me or

turn somewhere? Then they kept following me, and I was nearing the exit where my friend was, so I was afraid that they were going to see where my friend lives. I found this concerning, since I didn't want this person to potentially hurt my friend's family. So I called my friend, and I told him to meet me at the convenience store. I just told him to do this since I wanted to get something to drink. I didn't tell him about somebody following me because I didn't want to freak him out. Once I got to the store,

I watched the car drive past me, which finally calmed me down, since I figured it was probably just some asshole messing with me. So then I met up with my friend, and we got drinks and snacks and left. For the first half hour of the drive, things were fine. We were just talking about what we did

during the holidays, joking around, stuff like that. I honestly had completely forgotten about the car until it started happening again. The reason I didn't tell my roommate about everything to begin with was because, as I said, I didn't want to freak them out, but also, he kind of has a temper,

especially when he's scared. Whenever he gets scared, he gets pissed. So when this car started following us, not only was he pissed at the car, but he was pissed at me for not telling him about it before. He was screaming at him. me to stop the car so that he could deal with this asshole man to man, but I refused. My roommate was a tall bodybuilder. He was probably around 5'10, so he was pretty intimidating.

While I, on the other hand, was 5'6, and the only thing I had going for me was the fact that I carry a hatchet with me everywhere I go. So he's used to being able to naturally scare people off. He kept asking me to stop, but I told him that we were going to the police. station in our town, which seemed to calm him down a bit. As we got to the station, the car disappeared again. We sat there for about 15 minutes, and we waited to see if the car would circle back. In hindsight, what we did was kind of stupid. We ended up not going into the station to ask for help or file a report. We just went home without thinking anything of it, even though they might have been waiting for us to leave. We were constantly looking behind our shoulders while we were

driving, making sure that nobody was following us, and when we got home, we thought they were gone. Now, this is the part that truly scared the hell out of me. We had been home for hours. My roommate was already passed out in his room, and I was the only one awake. It was four in the morning, and I had gone to the restroom, which was right across the hall from my room. Now, the way our house was set up is that the kitchen and living room were separated by a wall with a four-foot-wide, space as an entrance, and the living room was connected to a 10-foot-long narrow hallway. From the living room, you can't see most of the kitchen or passed two feet into the hallway, and from the hallway, you can't see half of the living room when you're by the bathroom.

When I was done in the restroom, I saw lights flashing through the living room window. I was in the hallway, but I was too afraid to move and get my phone or wake my roommate up, but my bedroom door was open so I softly called out for my dog my dog was a miniature husky he barks at anything that moves so I was hoping that he would scare away whoever was out there

just as I thought once he saw the lights he went fucking nuts however he's short so he couldn't reach the window so he was just standing on the coffee table parking I then saw the lights turn off

and I waited for about five minutes, and then my dog started barking in the kitchen. My roommate was now awake, asking what was going on. I told him, and he went back into his room, got his boxer on her leash, and told me to get my hatchet and my phone. As I was getting my stuff, I heard a thud against the back door,

and then another. Whoever was out there was trying to kick the door. I called 911 and explained the situation, and they said that they would be there in 10 minutes. I got back to my roommate, and we headed to the kitchen, where he opened the back door and in stumbled two guys, my height, dressed in all black. They looked up at us and started freaking out

because they weren't expecting to see two guys with two fairly large dogs. These guys certainly didn't expect to encounter one guy who looked like a bodybuilder, and the other guy wielding a hatchet. One of the guys screamed. This isn't her house. How did we fuck this up? The other guy was bawling his eyes out.

Apparently, they were going to break into one of the guy's ex-girlfriend's houses who happened to be my next-door neighbor. They were planning to kidnap her. One of the guys got the houses wrong and mistook me as the guy's ex because I had my hood up and he couldn't see my face. And I guess I have the same buildings. her. The cops arrived shortly afterward and took them. It was scary. And I hope it never happens

again because I don't know what we would have done if they were really after us. You know, running a show like Let's Not Meet or just a podcast production company like Cryptic County means I'm constantly buried in the creative side of things, researching stories, recording, editing. The last thing I want to do at the end of a long session is dig through tax forms or try to figure out payroll. And for a while, that admin stuff was genuinely eating up all my time. That's why I want to talk about Gusto. Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one, remote-friendly, and incredibly easy to use. You can pay, hire, onboard, and support your team from anywhere. We're talking automatic payroll tax filing,

simple direct deposits, health benefits, 401k. Gusto makes it sense. simple and has options for nearly every budget. And you're not going to deal with any hidden fees or surprises, just one monthly price for unlimited payroll runs. Honestly, it's the kind of thing that makes you feel like your business actually has its act together, which can be rare these days. It's also really quick to switch. You just transfer your existing data and you're off. It was so easy. And you don't have to pay a cent until you run your first payroll. Try gusto today at gusto.com slash meet and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash meet. One more time, that's gusto.com slash meet. This happened about 10 years ago.

My mother and my stepfather bought a house in southern Europe. It was a bargain back then. Prices weren't skyrocketing like they are nowadays. The house was built sometime in the 1950s. It originally belonged to our current neighbor. Her parents built it after the war. They later built a newer house right next to it and are still living there. She and her husband are now both over 70 and very kind people.

Neither my mother nor my stepfather knew anything about the house's history when they bought it. I guess they just wanted to start a new chapter in their lives. It was a tough time back then because we were basically living on a construction site

while they renovated a lot of things themselves. Now, while doing so, we found a few relics in the house. We found an old sewing machine and some old war postcards that were hidden beneath the basement floorboards, but nothing too unusual. The property has two buildings. There's the main house with a basement and a smaller second building. We later found out that the second building was used as a goat stable.

During renovations, they needed to remove the floor there, so they had to dig into the ground. They were pretty new in town at the time, and if you've ever lived in a small community, you know how interested people tend to be in newcomers. I'm sure we were the main topic of conversation back then, especially after what we found. While digging, we uncovered several animal remains. If I remember correctly, the first thing that we found was a good one. goat's pelvic bone and maybe part of a spine. It's been so many years that I don't remember exactly, but then we found something much more disturbing. It was the top part of a human skull. It was very

clear that it was real. You could see the seams where the human skull fuses together as it grows. My mom and stepfather didn't know what to do at first. What we had just found was clearly a human bone buried in the stable. I pushed my mom to call the police, and she finally did. Several police cars arrived along with the local town doctor, who came to examine the bone. You can imagine how many neighbors showed up as well since they wanted to see what was going on.

The doctor and the police confirmed it was indeed part of a real human skull. They asked if we had found anything else besides this and the goat bones, but we hadn't. strangely, they brushed it off as something a previous tenant must have left there. And as quickly as they arrived, they left. They didn't even take the bone with them. They just told us it was up to us what we wanted to do with it.

A few days later, we talked more with the neighbors who had previously owned the house. At first, they were happy that we bought it, since it seemed like we were a normal family, finally bringing some life back into the place. But my mom wanted to know more about the house. house's history, and they told us what they knew. Some years before we moved in, they had rented the place out before eventually selling it. The first tenants, according to them, were a very troubled family.

They had a daughter who was well-known in town. I don't know how much of this is actually true, but the neighbors claimed they were running some kind of brothel involving their daughter. I have no idea how long this supposedly went on or how many quote-unquote guests this place had. Her room was still in its original condition when we moved in. There were some satanic symbols and strange writings and paintings on the walls. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the skull, bones, or the symbols, or even the writing on the walls. This family had a very bad reputation in town, and the community was relieved when they moved away.

After them, a psychologist moved in. She lived there alone. Our neighbor told us that she displayed animal skeletons around the property and even left them hanging on the outer walls to dry. They described her as very strange and eccentric. As you can imagine, she also had a bad reputation in town. I had never seen or heard of someone openly drying animal skeletons where everyone could see them.

As all of this unfolded, I couldn't help but look up the psychologist online. As far as I could find, she's still practicing today. To this day, we never found out why that human skull fragment was buried in the stable. We have no idea how it got there in the first place.

My mom once suggested that maybe the psychologist had ordered it from a university for study purposes, but we'll probably never know for certain. This happened about 10 years ago. I was 11. Now and then, I still think about this, as it was so strange. I still don't know where someone could even order something like that.

But if it was for study purposes, why would you bury it in such a random place? To whoever was responsible for storing part of a human skull there, let's not meet. This encounter happened three years ago. I'm a woman and I was 30 years old at the time. I was catching up on my chores, running around, doing some last-minute shopping on my day off, and I was on my way home and had stopped at a gas station to fill up, so I wouldn't have to worry about it the next day before work. The gas station I had stopped at is usually pretty dead,

but it's a decent-sized station with about 24 pumps. Due to the direction I was heading next, I parked at the very last pump furthest from the store. At the time there were maybe half a dozen other people at the pumps, but they were at the complete opposite end, so there were about eight empty pumps between me and the closest cars. I honestly wasn't paying much attention to anyone until this old, beat-up-looking van pulled up to the outside pump

on the other side of mine. I'll admit I'm a pretty big true-crime nerd, and I started reading true-crime books when I was 11, which got a lot of notes sent home to my parents from my teachers, but that's a different story. What I'm trying to say is having this van pull up right next to me put me on high alert, because I already knew to be on high alert.

I tried my best to remain casual, but kept my attention on the van and tried to move in a way so that the pump wasn't blocking my escape route. I then positioned to myself toward the side of the pump closest to the building, keeping the pump between me and the stranger. This middle-aged-looking man then got out of the van and walked toward the other end of the pump, trying to get close to me,

and this got my attention. I didn't get closer, but I did lean forward to try and hear what he was saying. He then quietly asked if I could help him with some gas, and I stressed quietly because I had to lean forward and ask him, I'm sorry, what? A few times to even catch what he was saying. I even had him repeat himself a few times.

He never got closer to me and kept urging me to move closer to him so that I could hear him. But I wouldn't. I would only lean in. When I finally realized what he was asking, my first assumption was that he was asking for money, so I told him I didn't have any cash.

He only repeated his request, though. He just repeated that he needs, needed help with gas, and then he motioned to the pump. The whole situation felt so weird. And then I realized he was actually wanting me to go to his side of the pump. He was parked in a way that his van doors were right next to the pump, and I noticed that he made a point of not standing in front of them. I also noticed that he was positioned in a way like he was trying to stay out of view of the security cameras.

At that moment I figured he was trying to steal my card or grab me because he had set himself up so well and we were far enough away from other people. We were also next to a busy highway where no one would hear me if I yelled. Honestly, I also had a shred of doubt. I thought maybe I was being rude. What if this guy really needed help?

However, ultimately, I couldn't shake the feeling that something felt wrong. So, I took two steps back, making it obvious that I was putting distance between us. Then I flat out said, no, and went back to looking at the pump. Any guilt or doubt I felt instantly vanished when he got back into his van and drove away. Mind you, there were still half a dozen people on the other side that he could have asked. He also could have gone inside the store to ask an employee or someone else. why did he only ask one person for help and then leave?

I'm convinced this was some kind of grab-and-go attempt that failed, so he bailed before any attention was on him. If he genuinely needed gas, why did he drive away before exhausting his chances of asking other people for help? And I know that he didn't come to me last because I watched him pull in. Now there's still a chance that he really needed help, and I was being rude, but, as a lone woman, I'd rather be an asshole than be dead.

I just thought I'd share this story as a PSA. I have always tried to go to the quiet places because I hate crowds, but I can see how that can be dangerous. Just bite the bullet and deal with the crowds. The more witnesses you have, the less likely someone is to try something. If you have to be out and about on your own out there, stay safe. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. You know, let's not meet as a show about real encounters, real fear, people, and situations that leave a mark.

And one thing I've noticed is that a lot of the stress people carry isn't always from a scary moment in the woods. Sometimes it's quieter than that. Sometimes it's looking at your bank account and feeling that slow, creeping dread. Financial stress is something almost all of us have felt, and it does more damage than we give it credit for. It messes with our sleep, our relationships, and even a sense of self-worth. There's about 80% of Americans who have reported feeling some form of financial stress at the start of 2026. And honestly, that number doesn't surprise me at all. Money worries have a way of making you feel like you failed somehow, even when you really haven't.

And that's where therapy can really help. And I want to be clear, this isn't financial advice. Therapy is about working through anxiety. the shame, and the weight that comes with stress. Having someone help you unpack your relationship with money and build healthier ways of coping, well, that's very valuable. BetterHelp makes that accessible. They have over 30,000 licensed therapists,

and they match you based on your needs, with over 6 million people served in an average rating of 4.9 out of 5. BetterHelp just works. When life feels overwhelming, therapy can help. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash not meet. That's BetterHELP.com slash not meet. I like to go to the local bar almost daily. I don't drink alcohol there.

I just get a regular Coke and wait for my ride home. It's my usual hangout spot after work. I just sit and chill out there and mind my own business. A few weeks ago, I went there as usual and had just gotten off of work. I was chilling in my usual spot and sipping on my drink while working on a new pendant that I was making. I had recently started wire wrapping crystals and making them into jewelry.

I didn't think anyone would try to talk to me since I basically blint into the walls. But this guy I had never seen before came over and sat at my table across from me. I was surprised and I looked up at him and struck up a small conversation. He started to ask him, asked me a few questions about myself that I thought were normal, and it flowed together pretty

normally, so I wasn't thinking too much of it. I had consumed three glasses of soda by then and needed to use the restroom, so I grabbed my phone in my purse and I went to the restroom. Now, I wasn't really worried about being abducted, but I did worry about my identity, cash, and contacts. I returned a few minutes later and went back to working on my pendant since none of my stuff had been touched. I then called a waitress over and asked her for a new drink, as it had always been ingrained in me

that you should never leave your drink unattended. If you do, always have it remade. She nodded and brought a new drink over to me just moments later. As she was going to grab my old drink though, which only had a few sips taken out of it, The guy got a bit huffy with me. Isn't it wasteful to get a new drink so soon? He asked.

What business is that of yours? I'm paying with my money. And refills on the soda here are free anyway. I said. Well, you're just making more work for the bartender and waitress for no reason, he argued. This really annoyed me. And I told him again that choosing to get a refill was my business, and I let him know that if it bothered him,

he could always just leave. He then tried to wave the waitress off without letting her change my drink, but I'd had enough of this nonsense, so I said, then you drink it, if you think it's such a waste. He was caught off guard by this, and it shocked him. He then left the table angrily. I looked at the drink, handed it to the waitress, and I told her that something didn't feel right about that guy.

I told her that she and the bartender needed to keep her, an eye on him. I was picked up shortly after, and I found out the next day, after work, that he had been arrested for assault. But I didn't find out exactly what happened until recently. Turns out, he had gotten into a fight with the bartender working that night. The bartender caught him putting something into a girl's drink when she wasn't looking, and he stopped her from drinking it. The guy got mad and started a whole fight. The cops were called, and now he's waiting for trial. He was trying to see if he could get someone who always has their guard down, someone with low confidence, I guess, someone like me.

So it seems like he thought I'd be an easy mark with just a little attention. But when I didn't just drink my drink, after I came back from the bathroom, he just had to try it on another girl. Thank goodness for those old lessons about safety growing up. I also have to thank my mom and dad. To the guy at the bar, let's not meet again. I was eight when this happened. I used to take the bus on the way home from school.

I live in Sweden and some children live in the countryside, so we have small buses that take them home. Now, I was the only one at the bus stop at that time, since no other kids my age lived around that stop. My family and I lived in the woods, and our neighbors were scattered in the area. There was a setup of everyone's mailboxes at the end of, a gravel road, which made it convenient for mail to be delivered out there.

This is so the delivery driver didn't have to drive to each house. While I was walking from the bus stop, I noticed a man by the mailboxes. He was just messing with them, and I had never seen him before. I knew my neighbor since I had frequently seen them pick up mail, and it was always a big deal if anyone knew moved into the neighborhood. The area between the mailboxes and my house was just a small gravel road surrounded by thick forest, and the distance was about a ten-minute walk. This seemed long for my little legs at the time. Well, as I continued walking along the road,

he started walking behind me for about a minute or two. He was mumbling. I don't know about you, but when I was eight, I wasn't very good at identifying odd behavior, so I just didn't pay much attention to him. I would always bring a Nintendo 3DS on the bus with me, so I started playing that, and he stopped mumbling. This was the turning point. When I started playing, he asked what I was playing in this weird, creepy voice. I can't describe it exactly, but it shocked me and caught me off guard. He kept repeating his question until I turned around and finally told him I was playing Super Mario. When I looked at him, he stared at me, like he was about to kill me.

That was when the reality of the situation set in, I was in a desolate area with this strange man, whom I didn't know, who seemed genuinely dangerous. I was overwhelmed and scared, so I started to cry. I didn't want him to pick up on the fact that I was scared, so I turned my head away from him.

And seconds later, he just ran past me and then took a sharp left turn into the woods. Nothing had provoked him to do that, so I felt like that happened out of the blue. I began running and calling out my mom's name after that. I was still crying and still had about seven or eight minutes of walking left until I'd be back at the house. Maybe I could have made it there in five minutes if I ran,

but I could hear him screaming in the distance. However, I couldn't see him. Well, it wasn't technically a scream, actually. It was more like a shrieking kind of laugh. It was like he was trying to make the whole world hear it. It started as laughing, and then it sounded like pain and agony, and then laughing again. I heard it the whole way home.

When I got home, I realized my mom and dad hadn't come home yet, since we only had one car at the time, and it wasn't there. I later found out that my dad had to take a different route home, which took them an extra house. hour that day. In the end, my parents got home about five to ten minutes after this happened, since I only had time to lock the door, go to the bathroom, and then look out the window for a bit. I told them about what happened, but I'm not sure if they ever called the police or filed a

report or anything like that. I never saw the guy again, but just in case, let's not meet. When I was about 23, my friend Emily was using Tender and matched with this guy. She sent him a photo of me, and he told her his friend was interested. Before I knew it, we were planning a double date. Their idea of a first hangout was going on a hike. This guy picked us up and drove us to a desert-like trail, where you could only see the city and neighborhoods from far off. I felt a bit uneasy, but I hadn't promised anything,

and I was just along for the ride. As we began climbing higher up the trail, I noticed my friend Emily and her date were walking further ahead. They turned a corner and disappeared down a hill. This left me alone with my date. The second they were out of sight, I felt his arm wrapping around me

and then something pressed against my neck. I looked down to realize it was a pocket knife. I let out a nervous laugh, probably just out of pure shock. He then grinned and said, You laughed. You're my kind of girl. He then slipped the knife back into his pocket

and kept his arm around me as if nothing happened. After that, I tried to move forward quickly and get through the rest of the hike. When we were done, we went over to Emily's Dates' family's house. Apparently, they were really wealthy. I left my sweatshirt there by accident.

Later, he sent a picture of it to Emily, saying I'd get it back next time I came over. But there was no next time. I never wanted to see him again because I didn't want to have to see his friend. Let's not meet. Are you one of those people that actually likes your money? Unfortunately, traditional big wireless carriers like your money too. So if you're tired of spending hundreds on crazy high wireless bills,

bogus fees, and free, quote-unquote, free perks that cost you more in the long run, then a premium wireless plan from Mint Mobile for 15 bucks a month might be right for you. Honestly, when I think about how much people overpay for wireless just because that's how it's always been, it's just kind of wild to me. Mint exists purely to fix that. Their plans start at just 15 bucks a month, come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text on the nation's largest 5G network. You can even bring your own phone and number,

Activate with ESIM in minutes and start saving right away. No long-term contracts, no hassle. So ditch the overpriced wireless and get three months of premium wireless service with MintMobile for just $15 a month. If you like your money, MintMobile is for you. Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash meet. That's mintmobile.com slash meet. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month five-gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 per month. New customer offer for first three months only. Then full-price plan options available. Taxes and fees extras. Emit Mobile for details. This happened to me four years ago. It still weighs heavily on my conscience. I'm happy to say that most people in this country go their entire lives without encountering some of the monsters

that exist in this otherwise beautiful place. Unfortunately, I haven't been so fortunate. Before we start, I should begin with some backstory. I have been working as an I systems administrator for a while now, and I've met many people with whom I occasionally moonlight as a repair woman. And yes, I do pay taxes. Over the years, friends have told friends that I do this, so I occasionally get messages or phone calls from strangers. They're basically looking for inexpensive computer repairs. For years now, I've been overly cautious of people, places, and even objects that don't feel right. I've looked at. I've looked at. I've learned to always trust my gut instinct and to err on the side of caution.

This story, however, is the one and only time that I ignored that instinct. Four years ago, I was contacted over text message by a man who lived locally to me. He was direct and straight to the point, so our conversation was pretty basic. He asked me if I could look at his computer, as he heard about me through a friend of his. I said yes, and he explained the issue that. that he was having. He said that his PC had suddenly stopped booting. He told me that occasionally he could manage to get it running, but it would operate incredibly slowly or crash quickly. I told the man that it sounded like a textbook hard drive failure. However, I would need to

inspect the PC myself. I then asked the man to call me at a later time to discuss our options and coordinate him bringing the PC to me to look at it. His response was, I don't want any phone calls about this. Where can I just drop it off at and win? I need things from it as soon as possible. This seemed sketchy to me at first, especially since most people like to talk over the phone about the issue that they were having

so that they could try to sort it out remotely. Plus, at the very least, discussing over the phone would let me know how much it was going to cost. This was very bizarre. I eventually brushed it off, off, though. I figured perhaps he was just well off and looking for a fast turnaround on computer repair. So I discussed a time when he could drop off the PC at my work, and I asked what time he would like to do it. He didn't say anything.

The next morning, at the door of my workplace, there was a PC on the ground with a post-it note that had been crudely written with black felt tip marker. It had my name on it. My boss was concerned, because our business was quite strict with security. Members of the public are not usually allowed onto the premises after hours. I was ultimately confused, because, as I said, I never got a reply from this man, so as far as I knew, I wasn't even getting this PC. By this point, I was convinced this guy had some sort of social anxiety. At least that's what his refusal to talk on the phone and dropping. the PC off without a word or warning beforehand at my workplace, which was not a client-based business, was adding up to in my head. Even so, alarm bells were starting to ring. But there still

wasn't any reason for me to truly worry, so I wasn't. Not yet. It wasn't that he seemed on edge or dangerous, though we only communicated through text messages. Well, I proceeded with inspecting the PC and moved forward with the repair as planned. I started by running diagnostic tools, and after confirming it was a dead drive, I removed the drive and replaced it with a repurposed one. Then I reinstalled the operating system and proceeded to start the recovery process.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this process, here's a basic rundown. After pulling the old hard drive out, it can be plugged into a working PC either directly or with a dock to create a virtual clone of the drive, and then recovery can be performed using specialized software on the clone. This can't be done on the actual hard drive, as it may fail during the process. Now, I did this with good results and managed to recover pretty much everything.

I copied all of his files over to the new drive, reinstalled the applications that I could see he had, and sent the computer on its merry way. Later that day, I sent the man a message, stating that his computer was fixed, and he could come pick it up sometime during business hours. He responded a few hours later, saying he wasn't going to be available until after work. I thought that was fair, and I didn't think much of it. The man then asked if he could meet me at my house after work the following day, which was definitely too weird. I quickly declined and insisted on meeting him at the local post office at around six.

At this point, I was kind of getting some pretty bad vibes, so I decided to have a friend come with me just in case things got weird. Luckily, a male friend, who I worked with, was happy to come along. We arrived at the post office a little early and sat on the small park bench out front. About 15 minutes passed, and by the time the guy had, finally arrived, it was getting pretty dark. Thinking back now, I'm pretty sure he delayed his arrival as much as he could. The band slowly walked up to us in his oddly predatory way.

He was creeping towards us, trying to make as little noise as possible. Even though we knew he was approaching us, his gray jeans were stained with what looked like white paint, and he was wearing a dark hoodie that was covering his head, so all we could see was his face. It was protruding, long, gray, with a tattered beard. The man stood in front of us while I introduced myself and my friend. The man didn't react at all.

Instead, he seemingly looked me up and down for what felt like several minutes. I could smell his breath from where I was standing, and his silence was only broken by the sound of his nose whistling as he breathed. I eventually tried to talk to him about his PC, stating that it was in fact a dead hard drive. However, before I could finish speaking, he interrupted me mid-sentence with this raspy voice. His voice was the kind of voice that makes you feel a tingle in the back of your throat. Is that the computer? he asked. Yeah, I responded.

Did you get everything back? The man quickly asked in more of a statement rather than a question. Yes, I told you about the recovery and the text message, I explained. He got angry and then asked me, Did you go through any of it? Of course not, I said. Are you sure? He questioned.

I was getting very weirded out, and my friend could tell I felt threatened. I don't deal with older men well, and my friend knew this, so he intervened. He said, look, man, the computer's fixed. You've got all your data back. do you want it or not? I looked at my friend and back at the man

who looked me up and down one last time. Then he thrust some cash into my hand and quickly grabbed the PC before swiftly and silently walking away to the car park. My friend and I then got back in the car and I soon realized the man had paid me 400 bucks

for a simple repair. We never discussed the price as that usually happens early in the discussion or when they return for their computer but usually this would only cost around $150. I was shocked, but very happy. However, my friend was not.

Something was very off about that guy, and now I'm even more convinced. Did you notice how intent he was on you not going through his data? My friend asked. I agreed. Something weird was going on. Although I wasn't supposed to, and was doing somewhat of a breach of privacy,

my itch to know what he was so paranoid about was strong. The next day at work, having been bugged by my friend, I finally decided to take a look at the contents of the cloned drive. I noticed quickly that it was quite large, around 250 gigs for what was essentially a Windows install with some basic applications, photos, and a few downloads. It can be tricky to find what's taking up so much space sometimes, but using a tool like Space Sniffer can really help. I booted the program up. and quickly found a zip file hidden in his Windows folder under a very long tree of folders.

Inside these folders were other empty folders. Some had empty documents in them, while others were completely empty. I jumped straight to the zip file and opened it. Usually when somebody hides a zip that deeply, its password protected, but this one wasn't. What I found inside made me sick, even more so, given what I had been through in my life.

There were thousands and thousands of images and videos of children. Some suggestive and some more. I immediately felt lightheaded and sick, so I quickly closed the zip folder, feeling shocked. Oddly enough, it didn't settle in until sometime later what I had found. All I was thinking about before was what would happen and if a colleague in the building saw those images. Well, I told my friend who told me to call the police as soon as possible.

I did, and I was asked not to touch anything on the clone drive any further. I also needed to go into the station to make a report with my friend. They later confiscated the drive I had copied the clone to, and I never got it back. I was told by the police a week or so later that the phone number the man used to send me a text, was a web-based application, and the phone number was fake. However, thanks to the metadata stored on the hard drive clone, they were able to identify the man. They said that he probably didn't realize a copy was made of his drive

in the process of recovery. They also told me that the man was being looked for as his last known residence was in a different state. The police believed he was staying somewhere without a lease, with a friend or simply squatting, and has since skipped town. It's been several years now that I haven't heard anything.

I'm still paranoid that he's going to come to my office building or follow me home. I've surrounded my house with self-defense items just in case and my home feels safe. However, work, not so much. As I said earlier, most people go through life without ever seeing the scum of society. I have experienced it myself three times now

and I'm done, so I hope to never experience it again. So please, creepy man with the most spine-chillingly raspy voice that I've ever heard, please do not come to my workplace. You almost cost me my job. And the thought of what you might have done in the past or what you might do in the future haunts me to this day. Please let's not meet again.

If you're a patron, stick around after the music for your extended version of this week's episode. If you'd like to get access, go to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast and sign up to support the show today. You'll get access to ad-free versions of all of the episodes at a higher bit rate, with stories you won't hear anywhere else in those bonus extensions every week. 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, my True Paranormal Podcast,

and the old-time radiocast at Crypticcountypodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts. And follow me on Twitch at twitch.tv.tv.com. If you have a story to share, send it to Let's Not Meet Stories at gmail.com. This week you have heard, as a child, my best friend's mom, almost got us murdered by Decent Anywhere 6411. They mistook me for someone else by Timothy's tuba.

We found a part of a human skull by silver construction for. Possible Grab and Go attempt by Amaya Okami. Why are you mad I'm not drinking by Serenity Angel 1990? Bus Stop Man by Homey He pulled a knife on our first double date by Norwal Wonderful 35333, and finally Worst Data Recovery of My Life by Violet.

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. Again, send your stories to let's not meet stories at gmail.com. We'll see you next week.

Stay safe.