Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 4x18: Cover Your Windows - Let's Not Meet

Episode Date: September 28, 2020

Stories in this episode: Creepy encounter as a teen with possible sex offender/someone on parole - nikkigw1. I was almost kidnapped in front of my parents - supersneakykitty3. Joe From High School - Listener Gillian.  Old Man tried to Kidnap Me and My Friend - chaosmolotov. Cover Your Windows - poe_tic_justice.  Visit betterhelp.com/meet to get 10% off your first month! Join the over 1,000,000 people in taking charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional today.  Visit PrettyLitter.com today and use promo code 'MEET' for 20% off your first order.  Email you paranormal/supernatural encounters to [e-mail] to hear them on my new and upcoming podcast Odd Trails!  Follow Let's Not Meet: - Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/433173970399259/  - Merch - https://letsnotmeetmerch.com  - Twitter - https://twitter.com/letsnotmeetcast  - Website - http://letsnotmeetpodcast.com  - Patreon - http://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast  - Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/letsnotmeetstreams  

Amplify your career through training and development solutions specifically designed for federal government professionals. From courses to help you attain or retain certification to individualized coaching services, to programs at home, your leadership skills, and business acumen. Management concepts optimizes your professional development. Online in-person, individually, or groups. It's training that's measurably better. Learn more at managementconcepts.com. That's managementconcepts.com. My name is Andrew Tate and this is season four episode 18 of Let's Not Meet a True Horror Please don't judge some of my incredibly stupid decisions during this creepy encounter. I was very young.

When I was 15, my sister and I ran away from home. Dumb decision number one. I was gone for a total of about six months. At some point, for about two weeks, we were living in a run-down motel. One night, while I was by myself, I was sitting on the stairs of the motel flipping through a magazine. A grown man walks by me and starts to talk to me. He asks my name and why I'm sitting outside. I asked him if he's a cop.

He asked me, do I look like a cop? He didn't. He said he had some alcohol in his room. He was willing to share if I'd like to come up and drink with him. At 15, to me, free alcohol sounded great. I said okay, and I went with him to his room. Stupid decision, I know. We got to his room, and began drinking, and talking a bit. I forget what I asked him. But at some point I asked him something that made him get out his ID and show it to me. Under his name I noticed that it said,

offender and red. Warning bells went off, and I asked, what that meant? He replied, what do you think it means? At that point, I just want to get the hell out of there. As I'm thinking that an additional grown man walks into the room. He sees me. He smiles, and they both nod to each other. I am now locked in a motel room with two grown men. I turn to the first guy and tell him something along the lines of, I have to get something out of my room real quick. I'll be right back up. I must have sounded believable, because he said,

you'll come right back? I said, of course. I want to keep drinking. He then asked what room number I was in. I lied and made one up, of course. By the grace of God, he let me out of that room. I briskly walked back to my room. Not even a minute later, the phone rings. I pick it up. Why did you lie to me?"

He said. I said, what do you mean? You lied about your room number. I watched you go into your room. I told him it must have slipped my mind as I was talking to him earlier. He then told me to come back upstairs to his room so that we can keep hanging out. I told him I'd be right up. I then proceeded

to unplug the phone from the wall and curl up in a ball since I was so afraid that he would try to come for me. Still to this day, I do not know why he let me leave. He didn't have to. Lord knows what would have happened. Scary to think since I was a runaway, no one would have known anything. I had no ID, and I was going by a different name. I looked up what offender means. Most websites said that it meant the person was either a sex offender or just on parole. I was so lucky that night.

Surprisingly though, it took me becoming an adult to realize the danger that I was in that night. To me, at 15, he was a creepy guy and I instinctively knew what I had to do to get out of there. But it wasn't until years later that I really, really understood how bad that situation could have become. This was back in November of 2018, and takes place in North Carolina. That was 14 at the time. My family and I had just moved across states. We had just gotten to the city

where we planned on living after a long road trip. We were all hungry, so we decided to grab dinner before we went to pick up the keys to our new house. We went to this local pizza shop. Since we had our dogs with us because we hadn't moved into our house yet, we decided to eat in the car. I'm a pretty fast eater compared to the rest of my family, so I finished way before them. After I was done, I decided to bring my puppy out to do her business.

We were standing just a little ways up in front of the car, playing in the leaves on the ground. I grew up in Florida, so I wasn't used to saying piles of autumn leaves. So I was just living my best life, not paying attention to my surroundings. When a man taps on my shoulder, my dog notices him and immediately tries to jump on him, as she does with anyone, so I pull her back while I'm backing away from him. He looks to be in his mid-forties or fifties.

He smiles creepily at me, like it was forced. He says in his scruffy southern voice, you have my dog, my border calli. Immediately a red flag goes off in my mind as my dog looks very obviously like a boxer, nothing like a border calli. Now let me tell you I'm horrible at confrontation. So I just say nervously. I think your mistake, sir, This is my dog. Not even telling him how my dog doesn't look anything like what he was describing. I look over to my parents' car. It was just a couple of feet ahead of me. I'm sure of what to do. They hadn't even noticed the man approach me. They were on their phones. The man now asks me, well, would you be able to come help me?

Look for my dog? I can feel my stomach drop in that moment. I still don't want to make a scene, as I'm probably overreacting. But I have read my fair share of kidnapping and sex trafficking horror stories, so I have an idea in the back of my mind on what's going down. He then says something along the lines of, perhaps some money in my truck for you. If I went with him, my hands are sweating at this point. This is something straight out of all the reddit threats. He points over to a very sketchy, run-down-looking truck.

I tell him I'm busy, and I have to go. But the best of luck in finding his dog. Still trying to keep him on my good side. Looking back on it now, I don't know why I didn't tell him my parents were right there. If I would have, I think he probably would have backed off. I overly worry about what others might think, so I was just trying to be polite and not make him mad. He then decides to grab my dog's leash and say that he has dog treats at his truck and starts to walk away with my dog. I pull the leash away from him, and I said sternly, I have to go now.

As I'm walking away, he then grabs my wrist and rips the leash out of my hands, throwing it to the ground. He starts pulling me with him, mumbling something along the lines of, just come see what I have for you. My dog, the sweet good girl that she has follows after us and starts barking, while he starts dragging me with him. I'm pretty small, 5'4", and I have no upper body strength. So I just start screaming, to let go of me. My parents, alarmed hearing my scream and our dog chasing after me barking sees this man

pulling their daughter against her will. They immediately start sprinting after me. I start screaming, Mom, Dad! I think he got alarmed when he heard me yell up Mom as she started running towards us. The sudden realization that my parents were right there in the car the whole time. He makes a run for it. And we didn't run after him. My parents were just glad that they had me. This is definitely not a good way to start off our new life in North Carolina, but not even having

lived there a day yet. I do not wish this to ever happen to anyone, as it was terrifying. But my advice for you is don't be afraid to use your words, even if they offend the person. That's not a good time to worry about what others think. I can't tell you how much talking to somebody has helped me. Therapy is a complete life changer, and I'm seeing it change my life slowly every day. If there's something interfering with your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals, better help will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. You can start communicating in just under 48 hours. It's

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forward slash reviews. It's amazing what they're doing for people. You can visit BetterHelp.com forward slash Meet. That's betterhelp.com forward slash Meet. And join the over one million people who have taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional. In fact, so many people have been using BetterHelp that they're currently recruiting additional counselors in all 50 states. There's a special offer for Let's Not Meet listeners to get 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com

forward slash Meet M-E-E-T. Again, that's 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com forward slash Meet. Now back to the show. I was an elementary school, sixth grade. When I met a student in our school, let's call him Joe. He was in his fourth year of high school, tall, dark-skinned, and I had heard that he was very good and math. As our school is private, only a few people in our town could afford to send their kids there. That made the school population low, and so all of us knew each other one way or another. I came to know Joe since I had cousins who were in high school and went to the same school that I did.

But what really caught my attention was when I heard that he had a crush on me. It didn't bother me at all. There was only a four-year gap between us. He was crushing on all the other girls as well. And I didn't like him back, so I just kept my cool. It is important to note that I knew who the other girls were that he was crushing on. Well, fast forward, to when I'm a freshman in high school, Joe had graduated by then and was already in a different city for college. Now our school is very much open to visitors.

The security guards are very friendly, and they pretty much let anyone in as long as they recognize their faces, or if the visitors were parents, guardians, or whatever. We live in a small town where there is almost no threat in the community, so I understood why they were relaxed most of the time. Above all, the alumni was always welcome to visit anytime. One afternoon, Joe decided to come home from the city and visit our school. It was around four or five in the afternoon, and me and the girls were in our classroom, cleaning and sweeping the floor. It was only after this incident when I knew that Joe had been around the campus since after

lunch that day. As my friends and I were talking and giggling away, guess who decides to come into our room? Joe. Apparently, he was looking for me, so he started to walk towards me to strike up a conversation. I did a little yes or no here and there. That was an interest at all. There was something off about him, but I probably just decided to brush it off and thought maybe I just didn't like him liking me. As I grew more uncomfortable, I walked around from one place to another, pretending that I still had a lot of cleaning to do, hoping that he'll get it and just walk away.

When that didn't work, I sort of gave up and sat on the wooden platform in front of the room. You know, the one platform that the teachers use, so they're slightly elevated, and people at the back can see them. When I sat down, he sat down right beside me. I could tell the girls were already concerned about me So they sat on the platform as well But since I was sitting on the edge they had to sit on the other side putting Joe between me and them

I couldn't remember what else we talked about as this happened eight years ago The girls were trying to join the conversation as well Maybe to keep me company somehow, but I just remember getting fed up and decided that I should just stand up and walk away. However, as soon as I stood up, he grabbed me by my waist and pulled me in, forcing me to sit down, leaving my friends shocked. Nobody saying a word. Now, I live in a conservative country, which deeply roots from Catholicism. I grew up in a conservative culture, and was in Catholic school.

I don't know if it may seem harmless to some of you, but for me, it felt like I'd been touched inappropriately. Well, anything inappropriate is harassment, really. If you want to stop a girl from mocking away, you don't grab her waist. As soon as I was seated again, I decided enough is enough, and so before he could say another word, I leapt out from the platform and made a run for it. I'll give you a picture. Our classroom was located at the end of a hallway.

Next to it was the women's comfort room. On the other side was another classroom with third year high school students. I did a full on sprint and ran towards the women's comfort room. Big mistake though. I could have ran to where the third years were and asked for help because I had a lot of guide friends there,

but instead I hid in one of the cubicles, locked the door and crouched beside a toilet. I still regret this decision to this day. Joe followed me all the way to the cubicle. Slowly, like a killer in one of those horror movies, where they just know they're going to catch up no matter where you go. He must have seen my feet under the cubicle walls, so he stopped at my door.

As tall as he was, he was able to hover over the top of the door, and our eyes met. I froze. I didn't know what else to do. I had nowhere to go. He stared at me for what seemed like hours, smiled, half-smirked, with a huge grin, and slowly walked away. After I calmed myself down, I made sure that he wasn't there anymore. I walked outside. I couldn't see him anymore, but I made sure I was around a huge crowd just to feel safe.

Later that afternoon, the teachers were told about Joseph Ventures. Apparently, all the while he was around campus, he went to visit each and every girl that he had a crush on and harassed them. One girl had been chased down the hallways, another was being stalked by the canteen, and he grabbed another girl's butt while she was leaning over a window. She went home crying. And then there's me, and all the other girls whose stories I didn't know of. All of these happened in just one afternoon.

Once the guys from the higher-year levels knew about this, they were totally pissed. They went into a full rage and chased him off, but they didn't catch him. One of the teachers called Joe's residents and let the parents know about what happened, but it was Joe who answered the phone and said confidently. There's nothing you can do about it. I'm no longer your student." This left the teacher shaking an anger as Joe dropped the call. The school called the attention of the parents of the harassed girls.

They held a meeting to explain to their parents what happened and to ask them to be more alert and cautious. My father was the one who attended the meeting. He didn't say anything about it afterwards though. Days later, he saw Joe and one of the gas stations working as a gasoline boy. He was able to recognize Joe's name from the nameplate as he filled the car tank my father was driving. My father decided to just keep quiet instead of confronting Joe. Weeks later we heard that Joe had been using drugs when he started college.

He must have been so out of his mind that he decided to just visit our school and harass girls. I don't know where he is now. I'm just glad nothing else happened within that cubicle or the story would have taken a very dark turn. So Joe, wherever you are, let's not meet again. 18T Fiber presents A Straight Forward Moment You're wine? Thanks.

I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a Gigillionaire? Yeah, I have 18T Fiber. The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this wine. I'll around the age of 7. I remember not thinking it was too much of a big deal back then, but in retrospect. I used to live in a bad neighborhood, next to a lot of criminals and sex offenders. The friend that I've included in this story had a sister that while their mom was getting

them ready to go to school, got kidnapped. Luckily they found her, along with a bunch of other little kids in this guy's house. But that happened right by her mother in the span of 40 seconds. So yeah, bad neighborhood. But I had a couple of friends I would spend my days playing with until our mothers would call us in for dinner, Fabian, Valerie, and Jacob. Jacob was about in my age and had an older brother who was 17 with autism. Sometimes we kids would all play with Gabriel, the older brother, because his brain conjured up some very fun imaginative storylines for us seven and nine year olds. But on this day, it was just me and Jacob. We had been

hanging out all day, playing around with these new walkie talkies that we had just got. And allow me to describe the environment. I lived in a weird upstairs downstairs apartment, like a single one. So it looked like a big house with the staircase up the side. We had a shed and a yard on either side of us was a wall separating us from an apartment complex. On the left of where I lived, from the angle of the driveway, was the complex where Fabian lived. And about 25 feet of wood chips separated me from Jacob's house.

A strange layout I know, but I could just walk up and knock on Jacob's door any time. So we were on the complex on the left playing with our walkie talkies, seeing how far the range would let us speak from. We started waiting on the steps of Fabian's house for him to get back home from the mall. We waited for about 20 minutes, and noticed an old man looking at us through his window. We didn't think much of it, and we got bored and decided to start using the walkie talkies again, testing the range, saying things to each other that were comedy gold standards for seven-year-olds. When a door opened, out walks the old man that had been looking at us.

He had a strange, short top hat with some 70s-era round-colored tinted beetle glasses on. Along with a white thermal sweater, tan brown pants, and suspenders. He had a beard as well. He smiled at us and said hello. We had seen him before a few times, so we said hello. He started talking about various things. I can't remember exactly what. But he eventually moved on to about how he had all these cool collectible antique figures, toys, action figures, dragon statues. It made my little seven-year-old self go wild. He invited Jacob and I and to see them. So we went. It's stunk in there.

It was damp, musty, humid. He smelled like cigarettes. And other things I can't really put my finger on. There was a strange hum coming from his house as well. And he was talking, just sort of directing us around and telling us stories of the figures. I started feeling a bit odd, and he said he needed help with his dishes, as he walked me into the kitchen. I didn't fully enter, but I got close enough that I could see a filthy kitchen that stunk badly, visibly infested, and I mean infested with cockroaches.

My parents had taught me about stranger danger, and my dad actually taught me some self-defense, and ran little kidnapping drills on me. He isn't a military man at all, but he'd given me lessons and all of that. My alarm bells started ringing. I said no, as polite as I could, and he said, oh, come on, you can't spare some time to help a poor old man. And I felt him move behind me, something in me just new, and I turned,

and he was shutting the front door that had been opened this whole time. I was always a quick thinker, so I jammed my foot between the door and the frame to wedge it open and said, no thank you." And he said, oh, no really. Come on, it's okay. I started thinking about ways to defend myself. He was old, so I knew that I could take him if I had to.

My dad had taught me a way to hit somebody in the bottom of the nose with your palm and really screw them up. Jacob had been looking around this entire time, and had been in the corner for the past thirty seconds, and he started to notice what was happening. Jacob started saying things, and the old man started trying to shut the door, and just then, Jacob's mom furiously screamed his name. Now Jacob's mother, to put it lightly, is a vile woman. She got angry at all of her kids to an inhuman extent over practically nothing.

But she didn't want Jacob over at this complex, and he knew that. He said, oh crap, crap, I gotta go. As he ran past and shoved the door open, causing the old man to stumble. I took the only chance I would probably get and ran out. I remember not wanting to face the reality of that situation, so I kept downplaying it in my head back then, convincing myself that it wasn't that bad. Still, I didn't ever want to see him again. In retrospect, it was stupid. I did tell my parents, but I never told them the full story because, well, Fabian lived in that complex, and I didn't want them to stop me from going over there to see Fabian.

I know it's stupid. But I still wonder about that old man, and I wonder what was up with him and the apartment in the smell. God, the smell. I honestly don't want to think about what would have happened if I missed it by a second to lodge my foot in the door. 4 years ago, when I was 17, my best friend Hannah, who was also 17, came over to my house for the weekend.

I believe it was a Saturday night when it happened. We stayed up late, ate some junk food, watched movies, etc. It was around 1 a.m. when I decided to take a shower and head to bed. After our horror movie marathon, that was pretty paranoid, so I asked Hannah to sit in the bathroom with me while I showered, so she did. She sat on the toilet and played some music on her cell phone, and we talked about whatever we had going on in our lives while I showered. Finally, after my probably 20-minute shower, I got out and grabbed a towel. Hannah was still sitting on the toilet, and she said my name, so I turned to face her.

That's when I noticed movement in the bathroom window above her head. The window-cling distorted it slightly, but I immediately knew what I was looking at. A man's face. Smirking at me from the other side of the glass. The man ducked out of view, and I quickly faced away, wrapping my towel around me. I whispered to Hannah that there was a man looking in the window, and she laughed, thinking that I was messing with her. So she bravely stands up, and to her horror becomes face to face with this creep staring and smirking.

We ran out of the bathroom to wake my parents, but the creep is already gone by the time my dad gets outside. And he better be glad for that. Next day, my parents investigate outside of the window. There was a cinder block underneath it, that the man had been standing on indicating this probably wasn't the first time he's looked in at us. Then stuffed between the block and the wall, a bag of illusions. The window-cling was useless, as you could see everything inside the bathroom clearly from the outside. But we didn't know that at the time.

I still can't shower without having the bathroom windows covered. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet a True Horror Podcast this week you have heard. Creepy Encounter as a teen with a possible sex offender on parole by Reddit user Nikki GW1. I was almost kidnapped in front of my parents by Reddit user Super Sneaky Kitty 3. Joe from high school, from a listener named Gillian. Old man tried to kidnap me and my friend by Reddit user Chaos Molotov. And finally, cover your windows by poetic justice.

All the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors and Let's Not Meet is not associated directly with Reddit or any other message boards online. If you want to get access to all the bonus episodes head over to patreon.com forward slash Let's Not Meet Podcast. This week I told some of my new favorite stories of all time on the Patreon episode. And I'm not trying to sell it to you all, but yeah, the stories this week really gave me the creeps and I won't forget about them for quite some time. So again, check that out patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast.

And thank you to everyone for supporting the show as well as the sponsors this week better help and pretty litter. Y'all are the best. everyone for supporting the show as well as the sponsors this week better help and pretty litter. Y'all are the best. See you guys next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet. AT&T Fiber presents a straightforward moment. Your wine? Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a Gagillionaire? Yeah, I have AT&T Fiber.

The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this wine. I'll fetch you a better one. Straight forward is better. No equipment fees, no data caps, no price increase at 12 months. Live like a Gagillionaire with AT&T Fiber. Limited availability in select areas, visit AT&T.com slash Hypergig for details. AT&T Fiber presents a Straight Forward moment.

Your wine? Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a Gagillionaire? Yeah, I have AT&T Fiber. The Straight straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this wine. I'll fetch you a better one.

Straight forward is better. No equipment fees, no data caps, no price increase at 12 months. Live like a Gagillionaire with AT&T fiber. Limited availability in select areas, visit at AT&T.com slash hypergate for details. details.