Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 16x18: Baby Face Man (Extended)

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

This episode includes 30 minutes of bonus content thanks to all of our amazing patrons! If you like what you hear, Join our Patreon  for over 100 hours of bonus content, with new exclusive stories every week, and it's all ad-free! Story Submissions: [e-mail] in this episode:Someone Tried My Door Handle Every Night at 2:17 AM | Scary Time (0:43)Skinny Dipping Stalker | LuzSluz (5:36) A Stranger Tried to Lure Me Into An Empty Room | OldLady (11:20) Spare Key | hazel (16:06) Baby Face Man | Meow (20:39) I Work the Night Shift at a Gas Station | ScaryTime (26:52) Stranger Followed us at Camp | Ok-Bear733 (33:35) I'm Glad I Thought to Run | Tsunami (41:20) I Was Nearly Kidnapped Near my Flat | helpcreepylandlady (46:30) Extended Patreon Content:A Close Call | Michael (Dedicated to Robert Shaul, 1995-2015.) (1:00:21) My College Experience Was Different | Brittany (1:04:49) Creepy Hoarder Bike Theft Guy | Vesper Vale (1:11:35) Breaking and Entering | FawnFanatic (1:21:20) 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 LNM:- 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 firstpayroll.Right now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order. Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code MEET.Start building credit with Kikoff today, and get your first month for as little as one dollar. That’s 80% off the normal price when you go to getkikoff.com/meet today.If you want to invest in your cat’s health, Smalls is giving you 60% off your cat’s first order, plus free shipping and free treats for life, when you go to Smalls.com/MEET. This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. You don’t have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/notmeet.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. Welcome to the show. This week, we're sharing another Patreon preview episode, which means everyone gets to stick around for the Patreon extension,

and listen to those bonus stories that are normally reserved for patrons only. If you like what you hear, please head over to patreon.com forward slash Let's Not Meet podcast to sign up and support the show today. In addition to these weekly bonus stories, you'll also get ad-free versions of every episode of Let's Not Meet. For now, let's get to the show. I never used to be paranoid about locking my door.

I live in a small rented property at the end of a quiet street where nothing really ever happens. It's the kind of place where neighbors know each other and the nights are usually silent. And that's why the first time I heard the sound I convinced myself, it was nothing. I woke up randomly in the middle of the night to the sound of a soft metallic click.

At first I thought it was part of a dream, but then I heard it again, a slow, careful rattle. It was my front door handle being pressed down. I grabbed my phone, and when I looked at the time, it was 2.17 a.m. I was frozen in bed, staring into the darkness,

listening to the handle move once more, ever so gently. It was like someone was trying to test it without wanting to make a noise. After a few seconds, it stopped. The next morning I told myself it was probably the wind or the metal shifting because of the temperature. Even though deep down, I knew exactly what I heard. The next night, I was awake when it happened. I remember checking the time at 2.16 a.m. before setting my phone down. A minute later, I heard it again.

Click. It was slower this time, more deliberate. My heart started pounding so hard that I could hear it in my ears. Whoever was outside wasn't aggressively trying to break in. They were calmly testing the handle, like they were hoping that it was going to be the night I forgot to lock it. I didn't move. I didn't turn on any lights.

I just stayed there in bed completely still, until it stopped. By the third night, I knew it wasn't random, so I turned off all of the lights and I sat quietly in the living room, staring at the door. Sure enough, when it was 2.17 a.m., I watched as the handle slowly pressed down right in front of my eyes. The door shifted slightly in its frame, but the lock held. My entire body went cold, but I forced myself to get up and walk over to the door as quietly as I could to look through the people.

That was when I realized something even worse. Whoever was there wasn't standing directly in front of the door. They were positioned slightly to the side, out of view, as if they knew better than to stand in direct view of the people. I installed a small motion camera the next day, so that night right on top of the people. time, at exactly 2.17 a.m., my phone buzzed with the notification. Motion had been detected. My hands were shaking as I opened the app. A man in a dark hoodie was standing there beside the door. His face wasn't fully visible, but I could clearly see the lower half of his face. He was smiling calmly. It was like this was a routine for him. He tried gently with the handle,

then leaned closer to the door for a moment before stepping back and walking out of frame. The police took it seriously after seeing the footage and increased patrols in the area. After that it stopped, and there was no more rattling at my door. There were no more 2.17 a.m. visits after that. Months have passed, and I suppose I'm safe now, but I still wake up almost every night at around the same time, instinctively checking the clock as it turns from 2.16 to 2.17. The door handle hasn't moved since, but I can't shake the feeling that he wasn't in a hurry to get inside. It felt like he was so patient, like he was waiting for a misstep.

Sometimes, when I step outside in the evening, I catch myself scanning the street, half expecting to see a man in a hoodie standing at the corner, not looking at any other house, except for mine. On this particular night I was hanging out with three friends, Sarah, Nick, and Mary. We were celebrating Nick's birthday at his place, which happened to have a hot tub in the backyard. After a couple of hours and a few too many beers, we jokingly suggested skinny dipping in the hot tub

as some kind of birthday present for Nick. It would have been just merely a suggestion, but due to our drunkenness, we said screw it and we decided to actually go skinny dipping. For context, Nick's house was by a forest, so it was very isolated from neighbors. On top of that, it was past midnight, so anything past the Christmas lights that were arbitrarily hung around the yard was basically pitch black. Nick's parents weren't home, and by no means were we brave people, so I think the only reason we were out there was because of the wonders of inebriation.

So with that, I followed my friends into the night with a towel on my shoulder. We reached the hot tub that was alarmingly close to the edge of the woods and just started stripping. Everything was fine for the next 30 minutes or so, except for the fact that we kept hearing the occasional branch cracking. We weren't thinking too much of it. We were just having fun, telling stories and rambling about random stuff, so if any of us were scared, the fear quickly faded. That is until the deafening shriek came from the darkness of the darkness of the same. the forest. We all fell silent and stayed silent for what seemed like hours. Nick even lost his skinny-dipping excitement in a matter of seconds. We didn't dare try to look into the forest, except for Mary,

who seemingly grew a pair of balls out of nowhere. She picked up her phone and instinctively turned on the flashlight. We couldn't help but follow the light as she pointed it at the forest, which seemed unaffected by it as the darkness swallowed her puny light. There was nothing there. As we were about to stop looking, it felt like a void was staring back at us. Mary shone her light far behind Sarah, and it reflected a pair of eyes and a form in the distance.

And that was the straw that broke the camel's back. We then rushed out of the hot tub without even a single thought about gathering our clothes. Mary and I screamed We all ran back towards the entrance of Nick's home as fast as possible Nick immediately got a knife while we locked every door and window We wanted to call Nick's parents or the police or anyone But our phones were over by the forest where we had left them

Seeing no other choice Nick put his shoes on and made a run for it He was able to get his phone But he heard loud breathing coming from the forest meaning whoever it was hadn't left. What followed were the shittiest two hours of my life. Nick got his parents to make their way home, handed us towels so that we could finally cover ourselves, and we gathered in the basement where there were no windows.

We spent most of the time in silence, waiting for something to happen. Half an hour later, we heard another shriek, but it sounded further away. It was shortly followed by knocks on the door that couldn't possibly be Nick's parents. Sarah actually started crying, but thankfully the knocking stopped after that.

Nick's parents arrived and allowed us to stay over and sleep in the basement for safety. They hadn't heard or seen anybody, and they were pretty sure that we were imagining things. We hardly slept, and once it was morning, we went outside to get our stuff. Our phones, keys, and wallets were all where we left them. The only things missing were not.

Nick's shirt and Sarah and Mary's underwear. I wasn't wearing any that night. To the creep who was roaming around out there, let's not meet. You know that feeling when you finally clean out the junk drawer that's been bothering you for months? That's what switching to gusto felt like for my business. Payroll, HR, benefits, all the admin chaos that had been piling up finally organized in one place.

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Thank you. This happened back in 2009. I went to culinary school, and my program had an underground parking lot attached to a lounge of our own located behind the cafeteria. Couples liked going there because it was always empty and particularly dark.

I hated it because it had a backdoor leading to the parking lot that wasn't well lit. Barely anyone parked there, and I found it creepy. Plus, being a horror fan, I thought it was the perfect setup for things to go wrong. Long story short, I was leaving class one day, and this guy that I didn't know approached me,

almost seeming confrontational. I had my knife set with me, so I had my hand on a handle ready to pull one out to defend myself. He stopped and handed me a note. The note said, Meet me in the lounge. I looked at him confused and asked, Who is this note from?

Is this from my boyfriend? Someone from the culinary program? The guy just shook his head, and he said that he didn't know. He said I should go. I tried to ask him what the person looked like, but he refused to give me any more information. I just laughed nervously, put the note in my pocket,

and walked past the kid to head to my next class. He started following me, asking me if I was going to the lounge, I tried ignoring him and started heading towards the library instead just to get into a public space. He followed and kept telling me that I needed to go there. I glared at him. I picked up my pace and I tried to head downstairs to the cafeteria in hopes of finding a classmate and ditching this kid.

He kept up with me and told me that he didn't understand why I wasn't going to the lounge. I finally said, because I don't want to. Now go away. He then headed into the cafeteria. By then, I was thoroughly creeped out by this guy. So, I was getting ready to grab my phone to call the police. But I finally saw a classmate, so I ran towards him.

The guy was still following me. He was pointing towards the lounge and telling me I was going the wrong way. Once I reached my classmate, I told him what was going on. He then approached the guy and told him, to leave me alone. He told him that I had a boyfriend and I wasn't interested. The guy then said, they're waiting for her in the lounge. But he still wouldn't specify who. He told me not to take too long, and his words gave me chills. The classmate then walked me to the lounge and asked some others to come with us as well. Three of our other colleagues came with us, but nobody was there.

I was freaked out after this, so I decided I needed to go home. Then my colleagues walked me through campus to the parking lot, where I called my parents to get a ride. One of them stayed with me while the classmate, whom I initially ran into, went to report the behavior to our teachers. He then came back to tell me that they were going to investigate and keep an eye out for that kid and any other suspicious activity. A few days later, I learned that a girl had

been assaulted in that area, having parked there during finals, and going through the lounge. The school newspaper had reported it, but there were no details as to who was responsible and if they were caught. I literally felt my stomach drop. I had always hoped that the girl was okay and that whoever harmed her was caught. I reported my incident to the newspaper team, but between my claims and hers, they never found the suspect. My mom is glad I listened to my gut and never went to that lounge. To this day, I still get chills thinking about the situation. Turns out the girl recovered from her encounter. She got jumped, but had no money, so they just left her. But at least she only incurred a few minor injuries.

The attackers were never caught, and I never saw the strange guy again. I'm just glad that the girl was okay and that I listened to my gut. Who knows what would have happened if I had trusted that note. I'm a woman, and this happened when I was 24 years old. I used to live in a trailer park with a roommate. The neighborhood never felt particularly safe. There were sketchy neighbors, flimsy locks, and absolutely no streetlights, but the rent was cheap, so we made the best of it. There were two keys, naturally, but as my roommate didn't have a car, thus no key ring, and was chronically forgetful, we figured the easiest thing to do was to keep the spare key under an ashtray on the porch. I know, we were very naive for doing this, but thankfully this is one of those we learned our lesson

kinds of stories. I usually got home around 9 p.m., and she worked at night, so, more often than not, I came home to an empty house. On this particular night, I stopped by the store on my way home, so as I was walking up the steps to the porch, I had both arms full of groceries while I was fumbling for my keys. Keep in mind it was pitch dark outside, because our porch light didn't work. When I finally found my house key,

I blindly aimed at the lock, but something was wrong with the knob. As I felt around, I realized, the spare key was sticking out of the lock, and the door was open. My blood ran cold, and for a few seconds I wasn't sure of what to do, but I told myself that my ditsy roommate probably just forgot to take the key out and stuck my hand inside to switch on the lights. I then took three slow steps into the trailer,

eyes darting around, looking for anything unusual, but everything was exactly as I left. left it. Just as I was starting to calm down, I heard this low whistle from somewhere behind me. It was long and breathy. It was the kind of whistle a person makes when they're amazed or impressed by something. I had no idea where it came from, but it was so clear, it may as well been right in my ear. That's when my what do I do, fear, straight up turned into run. In what felt like one motion I dropped all of the groceries on the floor

ran outside and slammed the door behind me. I then dove into my car and I was shaking so badly I had trouble getting the key into the ignition. I kept my eyes on the trailer the whole time. To this day I can't be certain of this but I think I saw a silhouette moving in the kitchen. I then tore out of the trailer park

as I called my roommate. When she answered, I asked as calmly as possible if she had used the spare key that day. When she said no, I started crying, and I told her what was going on. I was absolutely hysterical by the time I got where she worked.

I called 911 and described as best as I could what happened without losing it again. When we arrived back at the trailer, there were four squad cars in our driveway, and all of the lights were on inside. Officers looked through the trailer and didn't see any sign of anyone, and nothing had been taken. I told the story again, and despite the smirks from the cops, the officer I was speaking to could see how shaken I was. He was very kind and understanding. He assured me that I did

the right thing, and he told me not to hesitate to call if we noticed anything strange. I was in pieces for the rest of the night. I spent the night with my parents and my mother's bed, no less, and I cried and shook for hours trying to fall asleep. I think the worst part about it was how hysterical I was

versus how calm everyone else seemed to be. I felt naive for getting so worked up, but I couldn't stop thinking about that silhouette in the kitchen and that whistle. I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was waiting for me to come home, Obviously, we never left the key outside again, and I never felt safe again until the day I finally moved out.

I'm a 26-year-old woman, and this happened to me just a couple of years ago. I lived in the suburb of a big city and was visiting my then-boyfriend's office at the time. When we pulled into the small lot, there was a young man who appeared to be in his late teens or somewhere in his 20s. He had a small backpack and a pennyboard. He was standing in the shade just outside. It was a fairly small office complex, where people were rarely seen. We caught eyes with him, and something about his gaze was unsettling. But my boyfriend and I continued walking into this office building.

We talked about it briefly once we got in, and my boyfriend remarked that maybe the guy was just avoiding this son, and he made light of the situation, and then we went back out to get coffee. When we returned about 20 minutes later, I expected the guy to be gone because I didn't see him as we pulled back up. Honestly, I felt relieved.

However, when I walked through the front door, he was there again, this time crouched, somewhat hiding behind in the front door of the office. This was a see-through plexiglass door, so it was an odd place for him to try and quote-unquote hide, as anyone passing by could see him.

When I discovered him, I screamed and sort of jumped because I have some trauma, and to be honest, he did scare me. I noticed something when I screamed that really creeped me out, though. It seemed like he wanted to scare me intentionally. He seemingly had this twinkle in his eye about it. I was thoroughly creeped out, but I also wasn't convinced that it wasn't something in my own head. I was also lethally hungover, so don't judge my critical thinking here.

When my boyfriend and I got back to his office, I knew I'd have to pee because I have a small bladder. I knew the guy outside who saw me go in with him to his office would then see me go into the hallway because it isn't that long. I figured that if this guy was really crazy, he would follow me and my boyfriend would see it, and that would be the end of it. So I let my boyfriend know I was going to the bathroom, and I told him to keep him to keep. keep the office door open and keep an eye out. I explained my concern before walking down the hallway. As soon as I got to the bathroom, I bolted the lock. But I got the weirdest sinking feeling.

I suddenly knew that when I finished using the bathroom, I would have to run for my life to get out of there. I had no idea how I knew this I just knew. I also had a secondary thought as I was finishing up. I had this feeling that I would have to be. to call the police on this man afterwards. Again, no idea why. So before I opened the door, I mentally prepared myself.

I took deep breaths, and once I swung the door open, the guy was right there. I screamed so loudly that I scared him and he jumped back. I then booked it down the hallway. The look in his eyes when I first opened the door, pre-scream, however, told me that he was planning. to push me back into the restroom. If I hadn't been paying attention, I think that's exactly what would have happened. Obviously, I can't be sure,

but my intuition was strong that day. Once I got out of the bathroom, I ran screaming until I was back at my boyfriend's office. Then I swung the door closed and told him to call the cops. He didn't believe me. Neither did the officers until they finally arrived, and they found the guy still hunched behind the glass door in front.

He didn't even leave the scene. He just stayed there waiting. The police said that he had a warrant for his arrest, which was unsurprisingly assault-related, and they took him away. I then chewed my boyfriend out for months because, how did he not believe me? So to the violent offender who likely tried to push me into a bathroom to do God knows what, let's never meet again. Between non-stop work, travel, and trying to stay active, I can feel when water just isn't cutting it. that's when I reach for drip drop to help me rebound faster and stay sharp no matter how

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That's dripdrop.com promo code meat for 20% off. Stock up now at dripdrop.com and use promo code neat. I've been working the overnight shift at a small gas station just off the highway for about eight months now. It's not a busy place after midnight. Most of the customers are truck drivers, the occasional ride share driver, or somebody grabbing cigarettes before heading home. After 2 a.m., it usually goes dead quiet. The hum of the refrigerator gets louder, the fluorescent lights are harsher, everything seems bigger. than it should be. I got used to that silence, until the night this guy showed up. At around two in the morning, a dark sedan pulled up to one of the pumps. I noticed immediately because I hadn't

seen a car in over half an hour. The vehicle stopped, but no one got out. The engine stayed running, and I waited for the driver to step out and start pumping gas, but nothing happened. Five minutes passed, then ten, and the car just sat there with its lights on. It was parked facing, door. It was parked-facing, directly at the store. Eventually, the driver switched the lights off, but the engine was still running. That was when I started to feel uneasy. After almost 20 minutes, the driver finally stepped out.

He was an average-looking guy, who appeared to be in his mid-30s. He was wearing a dark hoodie and jeans. Nothing was obviously strange about him except for the fact that he didn't reach for the pump. He didn't even look at it. He just stood beside the car, staring straight at the store. He was staring straight at me.

Now I tried to act normal, pretending to straighten up the counter, but I could feel his eyes locked on the building. Then, after another minute, he finally walked inside. He didn't browse or grab a drink or anything like that. He just walked straight up to the counter and stood there silently. So I casually asked, Hey, how's it going? He didn't answer initially.

He looked at me expressionless. Then after a few seconds, he asked, What time do you get off? The question hit me wrong. Customers sometimes make small talk, but this just didn't feel like that. I told him 6 a.m. even though the shift ended at 5. He nodded slowly, like he was storing that information.

Then he glanced around and asked, Are you here by yourself? I lied and said that. my coworker was in the back doing inventory. He still didn't buy anything, or say goodbye. He just turned around and walked out. But he didn't leave. He got back into his car and he stayed parked at the pump.

The engine was still running. Fifteen minutes had passed. Then 30. I kept checking the security monitor, hoping to see his brake lights flicker on and watch him drive off. Instead, had I remember. Around 3 a.m., he moved the car, not towards the exit, but into a parking spot directly in front of the store. Only then did he finally turn off the engine.

And that was when I locked the door. We're not supposed to lock it during the overnight hours, unless it's something serious. But something in my gut told me this was one of those times. A few minutes later, he stepped out again and walked up to the entrance. He then pulled on the handle, but the door didn't open. He looked up at me through the glass and smiled. It's really hard to describe the smile. It wasn't friendly.

It wasn't aggressive either. It was calm as if he expected the door to be locked. He tried the handle again, slower this time, then leaned slightly to the side, trying to see further into the store. I then picked up the phone and pretended to be in the middle of a call. He watched me for a few long seconds before. walking back to his car. I thought that that would be the end of it.

But he didn't drive away, he just sat there completely still. The parking lot was empty except for just his car. The highway, in the distance, was quiet. It felt like the entire world had shrunk down to just me and this guy. I finally called the non-emergency police line and explained that this man had been lingering outside for nearly an hour and asked what time I got off of work. While I was on the phone, I saw his brake lights flick on.

My heart jumped, thinking he was finally leaving. Instead, he pulled forward and parked along the side of the building out of view of the main windows. And that was when I really panicked. There was a blind spot along the side wall where the dumpsters are. The security cameras cover most of it, but not the very edge near the back door. I kept staring at the monitor terrified that I would see him walk past the camera towards the employee entrance

minutes felt like hours the dispatcher told me that officers were on the way I then saw movement on the screen he stepped into frame from the side of the building walking slowly towards the front he didn't try the door he just stood there looking in waiting After what felt like forever, police lights finally flashed across the parking lot.

The moment that he saw them, he got back into his car and drove off before the officers finished pulling in. They took my statement, checked the area, and reviewed the footage. There wasn't much they could do since he hadn't broken in or threatened me, but they advised me to call immediately if he came back. He didn't return the next night, or after that. But about two weeks later, I was checking me. the cameras during another quiet shift when I felt my stomach drop. A dark sedan slowly drove past the station without turning in.

It didn't stop. It didn't even slow down that much. But as it passed under the street light, I saw the driver's face clearly for a second, and it was him. He didn't even look at the pumps. He didn't look at the road. He was staring directly at the store windows. I haven't worked a single shift without wondering if one night he's going to come back. and this time not leave at all.

In July 2025, my group of friends and I went camping at Bear Brook State Park in Allentown, New Hampshire. In total, there were seven of us. There were my friends, Joe, Danny, Mitch, Nate, Mack, and me. We were all aged 18 to 20. Mack's dad, Ben, was in his mid-50s. On the last night of our trip, at around 12.15 a.m.,

I was half asleep in my tent, while Mac and Ben were at the campsite waiting for my other friends to come back from the bathroom so that they could take one more person with them to go out as a group to take out our trash bag to the dumpster up the road. The bathroom was just across the road from our campsite, so it was visible from all of our tents, and it took about 30 to 45 seconds to walk there. It was very close.

My friends Joe, Danny, Mitch, and Nate were in the bathroom brushing their teeth, getting ready for bed, They might have been fooling around a bit, maybe, but nothing too crazy. Apparently, my friend Nate, unplugged my friend Danny's phone, and Danny was sort of jokingly yelling at him. Nothing too loud or crazy, but there was definitely some obscene name-calling and yelling going on. Then, suddenly, this man who looked to be in his mid-30s or 40s came into the bathroom. Mitch was kind of in the man's way, so when he noticed, this, he moved and said,

Oops, sorry. But the guy ominously said nothing. He just went to the journal, did his business, flushed and washed his hands, then walked out, not saying anything. Nobody really thought much of it, but they noted that the guy looked kind of dead inside.

They said that he had this thousand-yard stare, which was definitely creepy, but other than that, there wasn't anything too strange about him or their interaction, especially considering it was late. The bathroom had this row of windows at the very top of the walls that were way too high to look through.

But they were open, so you could hear something if it was directly outside of the bathroom. After the guy left from the bathroom, my friends heard footsteps pacing back and forth on the gravel outside of the bathroom. My friends said that they stopped dead and just listened, completely freaked out,

thinking that it was going to be that guy. Other than continuing back on, the road to return to the campsite. There really wasn't any reason for someone to be on that side of the building like that. Then, the same guy returned to the bathroom again and went back to the same urinal, like he was pretending to use it but wasn't actually doing so. At that, my friends were super creeped out, so they decided to get out of there and get back to the campsite. As they were walking out, they thought they heard something behind them, but they did make it back to the campsite to reunite with Mack and Ben, and very quickly told them what happened in the

bathroom. That was when they turned around and aimed their flashlights back in that direction. I then heard Nate suddenly say, look, there he is, behind that tree. They saw the same man from the bathroom. He had followed them back to the campsite. Half of his body was illuminated by Nate's flashlight since he was peeking out from behind the tree. When he noticed the light being shown on him, he looked like he sort of tried to walk away and play it off or something. But then he realized he was in too deep and he stopped and said, Put the light down, little boy, go to bed.

That was when Ben, Mack's dad, intervened and said, Stop following my boys. The man then replied, I was going for a walk when I heard them hootin and hollering in the bathroom. They were super loud for it being so late. Ben then sort of called him out, so the man turned around and left, walking off into the dark,

without turning on a flashlight or anything. The whole time I was in my tent, so I only heard the conversation as it was happening once my friends shown their light on him. But the one thing I experienced that nobody else really did was that my intuition made me feel like he actually veered off of the road and cut across the open field next to our campsite instead. This didn't lead to other campsites or anything like that. It just led to a pond. But I felt

this so strongly for some reason. The feeling that came over me made me feel ill like someone was looking at me. I felt that from inside the tent as I was lying on the mattress. It was like I could feel someone passing by behind us, cutting through the open field instead of continuing down the road like someone normally would if they were to return to their campsite. We were pretty scared, so we called the park ranger, but nobody picked up.

We then called the cops, but it took them a bit to get there. When they finally did, we told them what happened. They said that this wasn't an uncommon thing, as we might expect, but they said that there had been times when people went into other people's campsites,

looking for supplies and things like that, so they searched the area, but didn't find anything. We ended up just packing up and leaving that night. The next day we called the campground people and reported everything, giving a full and accurate description of the guy. They let us know that to their knowledge

there was no camper who matched that description. I have no idea who the guy was. Why was he following my friends and what were his intentions? I think that we dodged a bullet by noticing him hiding behind the tree. You know how it's already May and it genuinely feels like New Year's was three weeks ago? Time is flying, but no matter how fast it moves, it's never too late to make progress,

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Average first year credit score impact of plus 86 points between August 2025 for kickoff credit account users who started with a score below 600, who paid on time, and who had no delinquencies or collections. their credit profile during the period. Late payments may negatively impact your credit score. Individual results may vary. This happened a while back when I was around 10 or 11 years old,

meaning my brother, whom we'll call Alex, was around 8 or 9. He and I were walking home from the bus. This took us about seven minutes. I noticed something seemed off that day. I didn't see anything at first, but I just felt that something was off. My brother and I then started walking home

as we were the only ones who got off at our bus stop. Then this blue and silver beat-up truck drove past us. At first I thought nothing of it since it never slowed down or stopped. It just kept going. Alex and I were holding hands. My grandmother always told me to do that with him. Nothing happened initially, but then that same truck drove around again. It turned around and was driving in our direction since there was a cul-de-sac at the end of our road.

It was driving slower as it drove past us. this second time, and it went up the road, turned, and then it was out of sight. By then, Alex and I were nearing a three-way intersection that connected the coldestack road to the other side road, right off the main road the man just drove down. I happened to look down the street and I saw the truck driving very slowly down the street towards us again. Right when I saw it, I knew I had to run. I knew there was no other option.

I knew that if we didn't, my brother and I wouldn't be safe. I don't know how I knew this, but I did. As soon as we passed the house that blocked us from the view of this vehicle, I turned to Alex and said, Don't ask, just run. And we did. In our driveway, which was about 100 feet long, by the way, there was this row of bushes and some pine trees that divided our home

from the home next door to ours. I dragged my brother into the bushes, and I told him to be quiet, and that I'd explain later. I watched as the same truck drove down and around the cul-de-sac again before coming to a stop right in front of our house. I had to hold my brother's mouth shut because he was crying, and I was scared that whoever was following us would hear him, find us, and then hurt us. I was more worried for my brother than for myself at this point. I was the big sister. I had to protect him.

I looked at him and said that the truck was following us and I told him not to be scared. I said I wouldn't let anyone hurt him. and that seemed to calm him down. After what felt like hours, but was probably just only minutes, the door to the truck opened and outstepped the man. He was tall, skinny, and looked messy. His short hair was covered by a torn baseball cap,

and he was wearing ripped jean shorts and this green tank top. He then entered our yard and looked around a bit. Alex and I were still in the bushes. I was trying to find a way to get into our house, safely without getting this guy's attention. The guy then left after what felt like forever to get back into his truck. He eventually started it and drove away slowly.

I waited a few minutes to make sure that he was gone before turning to my brother and saying, We need to run. When I count to three, we're going to run behind the house into the back door, okay? Alex understood, and we waited a few more seconds, and then I started counting. I still didn't have a good feeling about the plan, but I knew I couldn't stay in the bushes forever, and we had to move, so I started counting. As soon as I hit three, we booked it across our driveway

and into our front yard to get around the house. As soon as we left our spot, we heard the sound of accelerating, and he saw us. He was waiting for us to come out of our hiding spot. He chased us up our driveway as we were running around the side of the house. I grabbed Alex's hand, practically dragging him around the house, and made him run about 20 feet ahead of me to the garage to see if it was locked while I searched for my house key.

Luckily the garage door was open, but I saw the man rounding the opposite corner of the house as we were just about to enter the house. We made it inside, slammed the door, and locked it, dead bolting it. I didn't stop running until I opened the door leading inside the house. I then ran downstairs with Alex, screaming our safe word. My grandmother made a safe word for us, that was an everyday word that we could use when we were in danger. Basically, if we screamed this word, it would be no big deal to anyone else, but she would know we were in trouble.

This woke my aunt up. She worked the night shift. We told her everything, and she stayed up with us until my grandmother returned home. Then we called the police, and that was my first time interacting with an officer. The man was never caught. To this day, I don't know what he wanted, but I'm sure it wasn't good. I'm just glad my grandma drilled stranger danger into my head. I don't know where my brother or I would be right now if she hadn't. So to the sketchy man in the blue and silver truck, let's not meet again. I'm currently in the UK, and the town where I live is known for its drug scene. But it doesn't have a violent crime problem to speak of.

I think that's why I found what happened so shocking, because I lived in London before, and while some messed up stuff did happen to me there, It was nowhere near the level of what happened to me this particular year. My partner and I live together in our flat, which is in a relatively busy residential area. I work from home. However, he's out of the flat quite often. So I guess to an outside observer,

it may appear as if I do live alone. Our flat complex was once an old factory, and we have these huge industrial windows, so people walking on the street have a pretty clear view of our dining room, which is where I work during the day. It all started in July of this particular year. I'm ashamed to say that I can be a major rubberneck when it comes to a lot of drama that occurs on the road outside of our flat,

so I look out the windows often during my workday for some light entertainment. I once got to watch a two-hour breakup between a couple unfold and the car, parked just below our window, but that's beside the point. One day I got up to make myself a cup of tea. I looked out the window in the kitchen, and I saw this guy staring at me. I was struck by how intense he was and how he didn't look away,

even when it was obvious that I was looking back at him. I felt a bit creeped out, but I tried not to let it bother me. We have a lot of drug addicts and other characters who hang around outside in our area, so it didn't seem like a big deal. I just went back to work, and by the time I sat down at the table, he was gone.

About one week later, my partner had gone to visit his dad for the weekend, so I was excited to hunker down and catch up on some of my favorite shows alone. About 30 minutes after I sat down, the buzzer on the flat went off. The buzzer is so loud that it scared the heck out of me. I was lucky my popcorn didn't go flying out of my hands.

Now our flat complex has this big porch where teenagers and addicts love to hang out because it provides shelter from the rain, and about four people can sit down inside of it. Sometimes people lean up on the buzzers by accident when they're hanging out on the porch, so I assumed that's what happened here. But after a few seconds, however, the buzzer went off again, and again.

Someone was pressing it intentionally in this rhythmic pattern. This was something I knew my partner did when he had forgotten his keys, and it was kind of our code for him to let me in, which is why I found it so disconcerting. At first, I was worried that he might have missed the bus to his dad's house and had decided to come back to the flat. I was about to buzz him straight in when I thought, it would be a good idea to pick up the phone first and check who it was.

As soon as I picked up the phone, the person standing near the intercom must have heard because they said, Hello? It was definitely not my partner. I asked who it was, and why they were buzzing the flat so late at night. All they said was,

Can you let me in? I asked why they wanted to come in, and they said, You invited me. remember? While they were talking, they kept kind of laughing under their breath

and the whole exchange put me on edge. I told them I had no idea who they were and just hung up. I was half expecting them to start pressing the buzzer again but they didn't.

After a few minutes, I crept out of the flat to have a look at who was on the porch, but they were gone. My partner has to get up early for work, whereas I'm more of a night owl. Most nights I'm up till around 2 or 3 a.m. working on my laptop while he's asleep. A few nights after the intercom incident, I was on my laptop watching YouTube videos and I realized that we had forgotten to take out the trash.

This happens a lot, and it's not uncommon for me to take the trash out at around 1 or 2 a.m. At least, it wasn't until I had that late night visitor. I went ahead and put my slippers on, grabbed the bag of trash, and took it out to the curb, outside of the flat's main entrance. When I looked across the street, this guy was standing on the opposite street corner. He was watching me. His eyes followed me all the way from the front door to the curb.

I noticed that he was smoking, so I assumed he lived in one of the houses across the street. As I kept an eye on him, I even remember thinking, wouldn't it be creepy if he tried to come over here? As I put the trash bag down, I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and I saw him walking

in a straight line across the road. He was coming straight towards me. His eyes were fixed on me the entire time. I don't know how to describe it, but the look on his face filled me with this instinctive sense of dread. It felt like someone had turned my stomach inside out. I pulled my keys out of my pocket of my hoodie,

turned around and ran to the front door. I was scared. I never felt like that before. It was like my body was compelling me to get as far away from this guy as possible. I then quickly got into the building, slammed the door behind me, and rushed to my flat without looking back. I didn't even want to know whether he had followed me or not. I told my partner about the whole thing the next day and how shaken up I was.

We agreed that we would be more proactive with the trash, and I haven't taken it out late at night since. Fast forward to the beginning of August, about two weeks after the trash incident. By then, I had pretty much forgotten about all of it. I was still too scared to go out late at night on the road, but nothing weird had happened since then. I went to bed at around 2 a.m.,

but I felt restless for some reason and struggled to get to sleep. By about 3 a.m., I was contemplating whether or not to give up or go do something else when I heard this scream. The sound cut right through me. There was something visceral about the terror in that scream. I knew it was bad because my partner went from being stone cold asleep to sitting straight up in bed. He asked me what that was and I said that I didn't know.

I went to the window right away and I looked outside. Down one side of our road, near the flat, I could see headlights. but I couldn't get a clear view of the car. The screaming continued in bursts, and after a while, I could make out words. It was a woman saying, get out, over and over again. I'm used to hearing all kinds of domestic arguments

take place on the road outside our flat, especially since we're so close to the university, and several popular bars, but this was different. There was this raw fear in her voice that made the hair on my arms stand up. I turned to my partner and I said I had to call the police. When the police picked up, I explained what was happening. They seemed disinterested at first, but the operator's tone changed

when I told them where I was. I think they must have been getting calls from all around the area about it. It was sometime during this phone call that I heard the screeching of tires, and then the screaming stopped. The operator asked me to go to the window and describe what was happening. When I looked down, there was a black car sitting on the road. One of the neighbors from across the road was speaking to the two guys in the car. I had to twist to get a good look at them, but one of the guys in the car looked uncannily like the man that had been watching me when I was taking out the trash that late night. At first the conversation seemed congenial, but it took a turn when the neighbor asked them some sort of question

that I couldn't quite hear clearly and then they sped off down the road. Within no less than 10 minutes, three police cars arrived and blocked off the roads leading to our flat. They were then knocking on doors and asking to speak to all of the neighbors. I told my partner that we should go out and speak to them

since we saw a lot of what happened and thankfully my partner had the foresight to write down the license plate of the black car. When I went out, these two girls were talking to one of the officers. They were both shaking and one of them looked as though they had been crying. I decided to stand nearby and wait for the girls to finish before speaking with the officer myself. What they said made my blood run cold. They were from one of the houses that looked out directly onto the road where I had seen the headlights.

So they had a clear view of what happened. Like us, they had been alerted by the screaming and gone straight to the window. From what I could gather, the black car had cut off a small red car on the road, and that was what caused the girl driving the red car to scream the first time. They thought it might have been some kind of misunderstanding, but then they watched one of the guys from the black car get out, walked to the red car, and jump through the window. That must have been the point when the girl was screaming,

get out. There had been a struggle and the girls watching said that they assumed that the guy was trying to steal the car. But then he forced the driver into the back seat, and that was when he drove off. The two girls were both hysterical by this point, and it was clear that they felt guilty for not intervening. I could feel that same guilt. After the guy had driven off in the red car, these two men and the black car had gone the opposite way and turned the corner onto our road, but had been stopped by another neighbor. Although this neighbor had been alerted by the screaming, he hadn't witnessed what happened. So he had stopped the black car to ask what was going on, without knowing

that they were involved. And that was the exchange that we saw. When the guys started acting suspicious, he asked them if he could wait for the police to arrive. And then, That was the point when they drove off. It wasn't until we got back to the flat that I started to put two and two together. I have a small red car, just like the one that the girls had described. And I normally come back at night on that day of the week, since it's the day I go to visit my parents. I had come back early on this particular occasion because I needed to let the plumber in to do some work on the flat. What if they had been waiting for me?

And they got the wrong car. Over the next few days, I contacted the police several times and checked the local news, but I never heard anything about the girl who was kidnapped. I still have no idea what happened to her. All I know is that they found her car abandoned somewhere not far from where she was taken, but she wasn't in it, and it still gives me chills just thinking about it. This episode is sponsored by Smalls, and I want to share something that a friend of mine told me after switching her cat to Smalls,

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One last time, that's 60% off your first order plus free shipping and free treats for life when you head to smalls.com slash meat. This took place in the late summer of 2014. I was 18 years old at the time. I had a friend named Rob who was temporarily living with my mom and me and he slept on the couch that was in my bedroom. When I got home from my shift, Rob and I would venture out late at night to smoke and find new places to chill. Rob was the kind of guy who would say yes to most things. If we had to walk 10 miles, for example, he would say, cool, and just get on with it. We did everything together

during that time. One night, Rob and I were walking down a narrow country road surrounded by trees, and it was very dark. I suggested going in this big, abandoned storage shed that I used to sneak into as a kid. It was on the same road that we were walking on. This place wasn't far from town or other houses, but it was isolated, and being there made you feel like you were practically in the middle of nowhere. As we're about 30 to 40 meters away from this shed, two cars passed us. We didn't think anything of it, but since we were walking in the middle of this narrow road, we stepped the side to let the cars pass. About 20 seconds later, if that, we reached the shed. We had to climb a small gate to get onto the property where it was, but as soon as we were over it, we were only about

eight meters from the shed. The path leading to its doors had overgrown to about groin length. There were stinging nettles and all sorts of overgrowth, making it less accessible than before. It had been years since I had been there, so it was surprising to see that. As we were slowly navigating our way through the grass, not even one minute after the cars had passed. The same two cars were coming back. We knew it was the same two cars due to their loud exhausts. They pulled up just before the gate. I was closer to the shed and Robb was closer to the gate. I had gotten further through the overgrown mess, so we weren't right next to each other. We heard the men get out of the cars and shut the doors. We both decided to duck

since we had nowhere to go. The grass wasn't tall enough to hide in, but it helped. One man from the group said, Where are they? Another one said, They must have run. They then climbed the gate

and leaned over shining their lights from their phones into the grass. Rob and I stayed still. We both had our hoods up. I could see Rob, and that's how exposed we were, but they still didn't see it.

Their light was literally shining on me, and I have no idea how we weren't called out. I can't express how close they were to us. I don't know what confused me more, them not seeing us, or why they were looking for us in the first place. Either way, I'll never forget the adrenaline I was experiencing. Then, after the longest minute or two of my life, they eventually got into their cars and drove away. I felt so alive after that. I remember feeling awake. It didn't seem real.

I don't think I ever felt so confused or so shaken up. I don't think these guys would have killed us, but we definitely would have been hurt or at least mugged by them. I'm not sure why because Rob and I hadn't done anything wrong. We were good people. They clearly saw two young men walking down a dark, quiet road, and I think they saw us as targets. They must have been baffled themselves

because we were on the road one minute and then by the time they turned around to come back for us we weren't anywhere to be found, according to them. It was very lucky that I was showing Rob this abandoned place. Otherwise, we would have stayed on that road for who knows how long. So to the group of men in those cars, let's not meet. This happened when I was in college.

My college experience was a bit different. I went to a work-study college. where the students did everything. Some students ran the on-campus hotel, health clinic, and restaurant, while others did the plumbing and groundskeeping. Another group of students was in charge of fire safety. There was even a cattle and hog farm that was student-run.

You name it, and a student took care of it. This place was essentially its own little town overlooking a beautiful river, where we pumped our water that ran through the canals connecting each building. It was very conservative, Now, I don't subscribe to those beliefs anymore, but at that time, it was all I knew. I was deeply in the closet for my own safety.

You could be a member of the LGBTQIA plus community and go there, but if you acted on it, you would be unceremoniously kicked out. Thankfully, the college is accredited, so even though you would miss out on graduating debt-free, at least your credits would transfer. I graduated without debt, but I feel like I sold my soul in the process. I'm now healthier both mentally and physically, and at the present, I'm as happy as can be. I'm glad I survived, as this story was almost my last. When you arrived on campus as a freshman, you were pretty much guaranteed to be assigned to one of the four jobs,

groundskeeping custodial, working at the hotel and restaurant, or the student cafeteria. I was assigned to work at the cafeteria, which was known as the calf. And I quickly learned how to work almost all of the stations, the grill, hot food, dish pit, salad bar, you name it. One of the adult supervisors really liked me and hired me on the actual payroll to work catering events for her. Then, during my sophomore year, I was promoted to student manager, which carried a one-year contract.

My first six months as a student manager were great. I loved training the newbies and seeing them succeed at being able to make four omelets at once, and I loved watching fellow students having fun during theme nights like sushi night, the annual Hawaiian pig roast, and late-night breakfast during finals week. At the end of finals, the adult managers would take the student managers out to celebrate. During wintertime, they'd take us out to a nice night. restaurant, and during summertime, they would take us out on a boat trip to the lake. I was excited to start my summer semester as a lead and train the new leads, including a young

lady whom we'll call Callie. Callie had an old Hollywood glam look to her, but she was also tough. Her black cat eyeglasses fit her face and personality, and I found myself developing a bit of a crush on her. We became friends and she liked to mess with me. I was pretty easy to mess with. I've always struggled with my weight. I'm neurodivergent and was used to soft bullying as I experienced it basically everywhere. During one of the themed nights at the calf, I guess it was a barbecue or something because they had us decorate the tables with country-style knick-knacks and burlap. I have a mild allergic reaction to Burlap, so I was trying not to come in contact with it. Well, Callie decided it was time to mess with me.

She picked up the roll of Burlap while I was distracted and started wrapping me up in it and spun me like she was wrapping toilet paper around a kid for a mummy costume. She would pull little pranks on me throughout our tenure as co-student managers and it was annoying. I was also tired of the adult cook's bitchiness and the adult manager's perverse behavior.

I wanted to try a new on-campus job, so I was ready to take my finals and take my celebration boat ride. I figured I had earned it. The boat was a pontoon style, and the lake was man-made by damning the river, so the water was ice-cold. I was wearing a brown t-shirt dress over my swimsuit.

No one wanted to swim, so we just kind of sat on the boat and relaxed. After a while, we docked in the middle of the lake, and I got up and walked over to the edge of the boat, taking in the serenity and the smell of the lake, having a moment of quiet reflection. Callie then came over to me. I turned around to face her,

she said something I don't remember, and roughly shoved me off the boat. As I fell, I hit the side of the boat, and it knocked the wind out of me. I then went under and started sinking. I didn't have anything left in me as I felt myself go deeper into the cold, dark water. Then I felt a strong tug on the back of my dress pulling me up. This snapped me out of it and I kicked as hard as I could.

And in a few moments I gasped as I broke the surface. No one was in the lake with me. Everyone was still on board the boat. I'm not sure if anyone except for Cali knew I had gone under. I then climbed back on the boat, and I went to the benches to dry off in the sun. I never said that Cali pushed me in, and I avoided her as much as possible, until I got a new job in custodial. I want to say the remaining years at college were easier, and they were because no one except for my brain and my uterus tried to kill me,

but college was not a fun time. Thankfully, I joined a good group of friends, graduated, and fell in love with my best friend. friend, and he loved me back. We've been married for almost seven years now, and we have a cat. I'm thankful for this podcast, and for all those who have shared their stories of survival, they have taught me that I need to be more aware of my surroundings and look out for those signs. To anyone who's struggling or feels like there's no way out, just know that we love you and hope that you feel a tug at the back of your dress to give you the strength to keep fighting for better days. And to Cali, and most of the people at that college, I do forgive you. I want you fed,

just not at my table. Let's not meet again. I'm a woman. I'm about five feet tall, five two in work boots, and I have an athletic build. I wouldn't say I'm gorgeous, but I've had my share of crepes and cat collars. I work in a non-sworn position at a police department in a small, relatively safe city. My job is to take report calls, which can range everywhere from someone stole my bike to my coworker punched me to, I've been in a serious accident and need help. Essentially, what I'm trying to say is that no two days are the same, and I never really know what I'm walking into. This day in particular started slow and quiet, but it wasn't a normal quiet. It was the kind of quiet that felt borrowed. It felt like the world was holding its breath and I didn't know why, but since I was

unsuspecting at the time, I was grateful for it. Then came a call. Somebody was reporting a bike theft. This still seemed simple enough. I received calls like this all the time, so I took down the details and I drove out to the address. The moment that I pulled up, my stomach tightened. The house looked old, but not charming old. It didn't look historic. It just looked left behind. The paint was faded and uneven. The windows were clouded and it looked dull. When I stepped out of my unit, I noticed the driveway immediately. There were a bunch of belongings in it, stacked waist high on an average height person. Remember, I'm five too. I looked at the lawn and I saw a bunch of animal statues, dogs, cats, deer, birds. There were

dozens of them, many of which were cracked or chipped. The faces were all worn down. No matter where I stood, something was staring back at me, and mixed in with all of this were stuffed animals. They were old, dirty, and sun bleached. One of them stood out to me, a giant white tiger. It was overstuffed and slumped sideways. I remember that exact tiger from my childhood, but seeing it there just kind of felt wrong. As I approached the front door, I noticed it was covered in white lace. The lace was pulled tight over it like a curtain. I remember feeling watched.

I knocked on the door since the doorbell didn't work, but there wasn't an answer. That wasn't unusual on calls like this, though. Plus, this was a two-story house. So I walked around to the side and I called out, but there was nothing. By then, my unease had sharpened into instinct. I had a quiet internal voice telling me that I needed to leave while I still could. I was already thinking about clearing the call when this man came outside. He was an older guy, and at first glance, nothing seemed immediately alarming.

He just seemed like an elderly man who, I assumed, wanted to report this stolen bike. So I introduced myself, explained why I was there, and started asking the standard questions. I asked him what he wanted us to do, and if he wanted to file an official. report. He just kept staring at me. He didn't seem angry or aggressive, but he was just blankly staring. It was like he was looking through me. But I couldn't tell if he was confused while slowly processing the situation or just watching something. Then he interrupted me by asking what my name was. Normally I don't give out my name. There are no reasons to. But with older people, sometimes you have to bend the rules, so I told him. He then repeated my name back to the

to me very slowly, syllable by syllable, like he was savoring it. He complimented me on it. That part wasn't too terribly strange. My name was pretty unique, so it happened a lot. But what was strange was when I realized he had moved. At some point, without me noticing, he had backed me into a corner of his driveway. He then leaned against his car casually. He seemed relaxed. Behind me were piles of junk and tall privacy bushes. so there was nowhere for me to step back to. That was when I really looked at him. Honestly, he looked like some kind of serial killer.

He reminded me of BTK. Once that comparison clicked, I couldn't unsee it. He had his hair neatly combed on the sides, and he was balding on top. He wasn't tall, but he was stocky, and he had a solid build. He was wearing thick wire-rimmed glasses. He had suspenders and jeans,

with a flannel, and he had a gold watch on his wrist. I also noticed that his hands were really large. I could tell that they would be able to grip pretty impressively, even for his age. He was definitely strong. I asked him again, Sir, what is it that you want me to do today? He ignored me and asked,

Are you married? No, I answered. Why not? He replied. Because it's not the Lord's timing, I said. He stared at him. me like I hadn't spoken a word. And I remember hearing that when you meet someone really dangerous, you can feel it.

And at times, their eyes look dead, even when they're bright blue. His were. Sir, I said, trying to redirect. We need to get back to your report. Do you have any brothers? He asked. Yes, four, I said. You are the only girl?

He replied. Yes, I confirmed. And what order are you? he asked. I'm the oldest, I said. He nodded slowly and then said, huh, your family must love you. They do, I said.

They care about me a lot. Then his eyes moved over me slowly. He looked me up and down, and he wasn't even trying to be subtle. He then tilted his head slightly and almost seemed disappointed. I realized how exposed I was. even though I work in a safe city,

sometimes that makes me forget how quickly safety can disappear. As I stood there, I thought about that movie Don't Breathe, the one where everyone assumes an old man is harmless until you finally realize is actually very dangerous. Age doesn't necessarily mean weakness. Then out of nowhere he shouted, What's his name? I froze as he stepped closer and shouted again,

what's his name? Whose name? I asked. Then he chuckled before responding, your boyfriend, what's his name? I don't have a boyfriend, I quickly snapped back. You mean to tell me someone as good looking as you doesn't have a boyfriend? He replied.

He stepped closer again, and that was when I had had enough. I'll keep an eye out for your bike, Mr. White, I said sharply. I then moved around him to leave, but he barely shifted. He left just enough room for me to squeeze past him in the bushes. As I walked away, I could feel his eyes burning into my back.

He called out telling me to have a blessed day, saying I blessed his. I didn't look back. I drove away and checked my mirror. He was just standing there watching and waving with those blue empty eyes locked on me until I turned the corner. I didn't take a report, and I'm not really sorry about that. He didn't care about his bike.

All he cared about was making me uncomfortable. As an unarmed, small woman, he intentionally backed me into a corner and made it personal. Normally, I walk into people's houses to take reports, but that day something felt wrong, and thank God I listened to my gut, and I felt that something was off. Creepy hoarder guy reporting a stolen bike,

let's not ever meet again. This episode is sponsored by, I better help. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I think it's worth actually pausing on that for a second, not just letting it scroll by, because if you listen to this show, you already know that life can get dark and heavy in ways that are hard to put into words. And a lot of us are carrying things quietly that we've never said out loud to anyone. Trust me, I know. Whatever's keeping you up at night right now? Stress, anxiety, feeling stuck, feeling like you're just going through the motions, those feelings are more common than you think,

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The story is about something that happened to my ex-boyfriend's sister as well as me. Luckily, the danger wasn't as serious or traumatic for me, but it definitely affected the ex's sister. I'll start off by explaining what happened to them. For the sake of anonymity, we'll call her Demi. For some background information, Demi was 22 at the time and had just moved out of her parents' house. She had recently given birth to her son and moved in with her boyfriend

in a generally good area. The apartment complex they lived in was nice, and my ex and I would frequently visit them to smoke and socialize. On a Saturday night in the summertime, Demi heard a knock at the door when she was alone with her son while her boyfriend was at work.

She heard a loud sequence of knocks, and since she was curious as to what it was about, she approached the door and looked through the peephole. The peephole had been covered, but she heard a girl's voice that sounded like it was in their early teens. They said that they needed help urgently.

They were asking if they could borrow Demi's phone and call the police. Demi, in good human nature, wanted to help this girl. I'll refer to the girl as Brianna. So, Demi cracked the heavy apartment door, and when she did, Brianna used her weight to force the door fully open. Brianna then pointed a gun at Demi and told her to hand over her phone and grab her car keys.

Demi did what she was told and gave Brianna her phone and retrieved her keys from the counter. While she was still holding the gun, Brianna told Demi to drive her somewhere and she'd give her directions. Trying to be one step ahead, Demi had retrieved a pistol from the cushions in the couch while grabbing her phone. They then went to Demi's car in the complex parking lot and began a stressful drive. Demi had placed her pistol between her legs

and began to drive to the next state over. For clarification, we lived 15 minutes away from a major city in the closest neighboring state. This city is notorious for carjackings, murder, and theft, and it has a crappy metro police department that only patrols the downtown area. As they took the highway to cross over the river separating the two states, Brianna noticed the pistol between Demi's legs and snatched it away from her. She was then pointing Demi's own gun at her,

and she instructed Demi to pull over immediately on the side of the highway. In fear of her life, Demi quickly pulled the car over. Brianna told Demi to get out of the car and leave the keys in the ignition. Demi was shocked because this girl didn't seem to be any older than 14, so she couldn't drive. Either way, she had a gun pointed in her face, so she did as she was told. Demi then exited the driver's side door and stood on the side of the road while Brianna got into the driver's seat and sped off in her car.

Demi flagged someone down that was driving on the highway to call the police. for her. She filed a police report and was driven home by her mother. Turns out Brianna had accidentally accelerated too hard when reversing into a garage parking spot and rammed the vehicle so hard into the concrete that it was inoperable. After that, Demi asked people to stay over at her apartment while her boyfriend was away because she feared that Brianna would come back. Brianna had jailbroken Demi's phone, meaning you could access the phone without a password, and she turned off its location tracking. Demi's mom had messaged Demi's Instagram account, mouthing off, and threatening Brianna with the police. Brianna then threatened Demi's mom back and said that she would come

back to the complex and shoot Demi with her own gun. Demi constantly called the detective handling her case to give additional information and ask for help. but they were useless and unresponsive. The receptionist at the police department had told her that they were busy with many other cases, and we'd get back to her when they could. Demi had to replace her phone and get another car. Brianna was never caught or reprimanded.

Although they did find out her identity because she was related to a string of carjackings, she couldn't be pursued because she was a runaway foster child with no documentation. The next part of the story is where I explain how it almost happened to me. Three years after this, when I was 20 years old, my best friend had requested that I cat sit for her while she went on vacation. For context, my best friend and I are both female and were both the same age.

We used to live together, but I moved out because it was putting stress on our friendship. I left my cat with her since we didn't have to separate our cats because they were so close. She was still living in the same place, and I still had my own key, so I let myself into her apartment when I got off of work. This incident had also occurred less than a mile away from where my ex's sister lived. It was nearly midnight at the time, and I had been watching the kitties for about an hour. They were snuggled up next to me on my best friend's bed, and I was watching a TV show. I was enjoying my best friend's streaming services that I didn't have myself. Over the loud music, I could hear a knock at the heavy door.

Being a woman and a horror fanatic, I knew this couldn't be good, and it was way too late for someone to be knocking on the door. Also, I was in recovery for people-pleasing at the time, so I didn't give a shit about being polite when I felt unsafe. I slowly crept into the bedroom hallway, which had a clear view of the front door. I kept the loud TV playing so as to make it seem like I wasn't checking out the noise.

I also know that sometimes when looking through a peephole, the person on the other side can see you. I then crouched low to the ground and quietly made my way through the hallway to the front door. I waited for another set of knocks before I checked the peephole. Absolute horror, overcame me when I looked through the people and I saw it was all black. I didn't see the bright lights of the outside hallway as usual.

That meant that someone was intentionally covering it so that I couldn't see them. I double-checked that I had locked the door when I came inside, and it turns out I did. While I was thinking about what to do next, I heard another loud set of knocks at the door as if they knew I was standing there. I felt my heart drop. I had always listened to horror podcasts, but never thought anything like this would happen to me. So I quickly crept back to my bedroom and started to call 911. Without prior knowledge of what happened to my ex's sister,

I probably would have ignored it and gone back to my best friend's room. I probably would have done nothing. However, I felt like I knew who was at the door, and what they had planned to do. As I was calling 911, I heard her knocking at another residence door. I had told the operator this, and they said to call back if anything else happened.

Well, five minutes later, the operator called me back to tell me that the police were on their way since they had gotten several calls from other residents at the same complex about their doors being pounded on. I crept to the front door again, and when I realized that whoever was out there,

was knocking on the apartment directly across from the hall. Imagine my horror when I saw that it was Brianna. She was wearing a black hoodie and skinny jeans. She had her curly hair pulled back into a bun. I guess she dropped the whole I Need Help act when she realized people would just call the police for her instead of letting her in. I didn't look for more than five seconds

before calling the police back and telling them that she was still there knocking on doors. Then about ten minutes later, which felt like an eternity, I looked out the living room window, which was level to the ground, so I was able to see the entire parking lot. Brianna seemed to have left by then, but there was a police car parked in the parking lot with their lights off. No officers came in to talk to me or the other residents. They just sat there and did nothing.

This angered me. I could have been robbed. anyone could have been robbed, seriously hurt or even killed. I was thankful that I did not hesitate to call the police and didn't open or answer the door. I didn't even make a sound to indicate that I noticed her or knew her. I hope that this story can help other young women and possible victims know to trust their intuition and please don't open the door to anyone who's knocking on it late at night, especially if they have the people covered.

I called my best friend and I let her know what happened. She was thankful for my safety and gut instinct not to open the door and put myself at risk. Please stay safe out there. And Brianna, I hope that we never meet and I hope you reflect on the trauma that you caused to all of the people around you. I also hope your childhood improved and you were able to put yourself on a better path. Thanks for listening. And again, if you enjoyed this week's extension, make sure you head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast

to sign up and support the show today. So you can check it out every single week, along with ad-free versions of every episode. Again, that's patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. Be sure to check out the new episodes at my other podcasts, Odd Trails, and the Old Time Radiocast at Cryptic County Podcasts.com and follow me on Twitch at twitch.com. And follow me on Twitch at twitch.com.

If you have a story to share, make sure you send it to Let's Not Meet Story at gmail.com. This week you have heard, someone tried my door handle every night at 2.17 a.m. by Scary Time. Someone was hiding in the darkness by Luz Sluzz. A stranger tried to lure me into an empty room by old lady. Spare key by Hazel. Babyface Man by Meow. I worked the night shift at a gas station by Scary Time. Stranger followed us and hid behind a tree during a camping trip by OK Bear 733. I'm glad. I thought to run by tsunami. I was nearly kidnapped near my flat by Help Creepy Landlady.

And for our Patreon stories, we had a close call by Michael. My college experience was different by Brittany, creepy hoarder, bike theft guy by Vesper Vale, and finally breaking in a drink by Fawn Fanatic. 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. It's not associated with Reddit or any of the message boards online.

We'll see you all next week. week. Thanks for all your support. Stay safe.