Radio Rental - Episode 73

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

On today's tapes... >> Business Trip > Grindr Guy

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The following podcast includes scary stories with content that could be triggering to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Take a break from the same old boring blockbusters and experience a new kind of movie night with Radio Rental. At Radio Rental, our videos come to life in your living room, defy all logic and reasoning, and make you question your own reality. This is not your ordinary Video Rental store. At Radio Rental, we carry one-of-a-kind videos,

so frightening, so mind-bending, you won't be able to sleep at night. You've gone Radio Rental. Hello? Hello? Quiet. Hello. Welcome to Radio Rental, a video rental shop with a collection of the scariest true stories you've ever heard. Hey, hey, you, whoever you are, over here! Ha ha ha ha ha ha. I'm sorry about that. Please ignore that wooden chest in the corner. Over here, let me out! Someone was being naughty and needed to be put in time out. Anyway, I'm your host, Terry Carnation. Replace me as host of the show you can my house my rules no wrong doll's house dolls

rules anyway your job is easy human watch dear customer would you like to hear the first story how about I pop it in for you here we go Here we go. Stupid doll. It's the one with the triangle on it. Quiet! Or I'll add two more hours to your time out. This was in 2016. I moved here with a previous relationship that didn't really work out.

We split up pretty quickly and I was in this city for like a year. I didn't really know anybody. I didn't really have any friends besides my coworkers. So I thought my next course of action would be to download these applications and try to meet people online. He messaged me first. We just hit it off pretty quickly. I just thought he was a really attractive person. He was funny and we had like the same sense of humor and like that's what I look for in like a person that I'm like trying to be friends with or more, whatever, whatever I'm trying to find from the application. I really didn't have a set goal of what I was looking for. He was a super nice guy, so we decided we would just continue talking through the application.

And then about like a week later, we decided we liked each other enough that we would just meet up at like a local cafe and like see where it goes from there. I was super stoked to like meet this person in the flesh. To have someone that was super kind and that had a bunch of similar interests with me, it was like a breath of fresh air. I put on my best t-shirt, clean pair of pants, and I was feeling good. It was like a first date. That's what I took it as.

And I was as nervous as anyone would ever be. He walked in, and I immediately knew it was him because it was who he said he was in his photos. That was a huge relief to me. You never know who you're gonna meet off the internet. And we just started talking, hit it off immediately. I was pretty at ease when I talked to him. Everything was just normal.

I felt like I knew him from previously meeting, which is different. I ended up showing him the stupid photo on my phone. I have a whole folder of cat reactions. So I was going through those and then he pulled out his phone and had a whole folder of memes. We started just sharing memes with each other on our phones. He kind of just nonchalantly grabbed my phone out of my hand

and just kind of started swiping through. I was looking at his phone and he was looking at mine. We both have iPhones. He had my phone in the palm of his hand and his phone was he was looking at mine. We both have iPhones. He had my phone in the palm of his hand and his phone was laying on the table so he could see what I was doing on his phone but I couldn't see what he was doing on my phone. But he was making the swiping gestures. He was like laughing and like reacting to things on my phone so I was like okay he's still just looking through

my photos. Nothing is weird here. There was like, okay, he's still just looking through my photos. Nothing is weird here. There was nothing that indicated that he was doing anything other than looking at my photos. And then he just gave me back my phone, and then we were just continuing to laugh at memes and stuff like that. Nothing about this interaction was off to me. We just continued talking. I think it was around 9.45. Starbucks closes at 10.

He was like, hey, do you still want to hang out? Sure, that sounds like fun. Did you have anything in mind? He was like, well, I'm not really from the area and everything is closed, so maybe we could just drive around for a little bit. That sounds fine with me. We're driving around the city,

going in and out of like inner streets. I was comfortable because we were downtown. If anything happened to me, I could just jump out of the car. I was thinking like what ifs, but I pushed them to the back of my mind and just got in the car and like things were fine. Things are totally fine. We're at this red light and he looks at me and he says, so do your roommates know that you're out with me tonight? I just snapped back immediately like no, are you gonna kill me? He just laughed and he was just like, maybe you should use your roommates as an emergency contact. I said yeah, maybe you're right.

We both have a dark sense of humor. Morbid jokes have like always been kind of the normal in these conversations, so it was not anything that kind of struck me as odd. His demeanor was just totally normal. It's nearing like midnight. We're driving and I asked him to drop me off at the train station that was near my house because I didn't feel comfortable with him knowing my apartment complex just yet. It wasn't anything about him.

It was just that I just met him online two hours ago. So I didn't want him to know exactly where my house was just yet. He just said, yeah, that's fine. And he dropped me off at the train station and I got home. I went to send him a text message telling him that I got home safely and that I had a good night. I opened up his chat log and at the very bottom, there's like a receipt that just says,

you started sharing your location with Guy at 805. About the same time we were both at Starbucks. I like put my glasses on to make sure that that's what I was I was reading, because I definitely didn't do that. I turned that off as soon as I saw it, and then I just wrote it off. I was like, maybe I just did that on accident. I've been known to send butt text messages and call people on accident, So I just turned it off and sent him a text message and I was like, hey, like I had a really great night.

I hope that I can see you again soon. He replied. It was like a short text message and I was like, okay, whatever. So I went to bed that night. And then I woke up the next day and I sent him another text message just like, hey what's up, how's your day going? No response. I get it. This is the internet. If things don't click on like the first meet, it's not totally cool to go someone, but like that's what happens. That's what I thought was happening. The conversation kind of dwindled over time.

Like, he would still send me text messages, but it wasn't what it was. And then a few weeks later, I was at the grocery store around here, and I was just picking up some food for the house. There he was, in line, buying a drink, like a soft drink, just a single soft drink. It struck me as odd because he told me previously that he doesn't live in the area. And he said, like, hey, what's up? It's so weird to run into you here. I was just like, yeah, like, how's it going? He was like, oh, it's great. do you hear?" I was just like, yeah, like, how's it going? He was like, oh, it's great. He had a drink and then behind him like a cart with his dog food because he had a dog

at the time. Okay, well, maybe he was just buying dog food here for some reason. I went home and I didn't hear from him. I sent him a few text messages after that. Everything was just radio silence. A few days later, I was sitting there watching cartoons, just eating cereal, and it's near midnight. And there's like a bang on the door. I'm not going to answer that. Didn't even react to it. I just continued to eat food and watch cartoons.

I wasn't expecting anyone. I just wanted to ignore it, hoping that they would go away. Maybe they just had the wrong house or something. Like I wasn't too concerned about it. There is more bangs on the door. So I went and looked through the people and there were two people. The first guy was wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap.

And the second guy was just wearing a hoodie. They weren't looking at the people or anything. They were both facing, like, the door with their heads down. With what they were wearing, they were trying to hide their figure. All I could see was was like, mouth down. I immediately recognized the online guy as the guy in the hoodie and the baseball cap because he had a super defined jaw.

100% knew that that was him immediately. Not only is he at my apartment after I wanted to be dropped off at the train station panic, it was more panic that there was a second person. That's when everything started clicking. The meeting at the grocery store. The timestamp on my phone. I put it together that he figured out where I was staying because I didn't immediately turn off my location so he could have been watching me walk from the train station to back to my apartment. And I'm here alone and

I'm 5'3 and not even 130 pounds. It really freaked me out. I just went to my bedroom and I called my roommates and I was like, you guys need to get home, like ASAP. I think there's someone trying to break into the apartment. That was the only thing that I thought that they wanted to do is just rob me. Cause I've heard of people being robbed off of Tender and Grindr.

That's what he was trying to do, obviously. My roommate gets home and I ask him, did you see anyone outside the apartment complex? And he's like, no, everything was silent. There is no one around the apartment complex. I told them everything and they were like, do you want to call the cops? I'm like, I don't know yet.

So we didn't call the cops, but after that happened, I kind of like gave it a few hours after I was done freaking out. And I logged onto the application to send him a message and see what the fuck was up, just to see like if he was last online or something. I just wanted to see what he was doing on the application because you can see when they're last online

and how far away they are from you. I try to find his profile and it's gone. He blocked me. It's a blank profile. Like there's nothing there. Everything was just like solidified. It was him. From what I gather,

they were trying to do more than just rob the place, but I am unsure. Even thinking about it still like, freaks me out, because obviously there was more of a motive there than just robbing. And I just don't know what it was. And I don't think I ever will. He's out there right now.

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You simple-minded loser. Ha ha ha ha. Stick some stones. See if I care! That actually does hurt my feelings a little bit. Okay, my dear listener. On to the next scary story. Here we go. As if I wasn't already on edge.

This particular experience was my first time going to Mexico City. I had contacts locally that had helped to find a hotel, make hotel arrangements, and they were all waiting for me to arrive. They'd picked a hotel that was in the city center near what's called the Zocalo in Mexico City. There were warnings all around the airport saying, make sure to only use licensed, approved taxi services.

Book your taxi service here. There were kiosk booths and people out front of those kiosks trying to pull people in to buy their taxi service. And I was a little concerned that I was going to be taken advantage of. I was fairly confident in my ability to get around. I understand Mexican culture well enough.

I'm fluent in Spanish. And I just thought, I don't need somebody to arrange this for me. And they're probably going to charge me a lot more than if I were to just sort this out on my own. I'm not some helpless tourist showing up in a country where I don't speak the language. I can figure this out on my own, rather than risking being taken advantage of. So I decided while I had internet connection at the airport to just use a different service that I had happened to find over the internet on my phone.

Found a ride to take me into the city. The ride pulled up. It looked like it was a pretty legitimate taxi service. There was a sign from whatever taxi company or ride service I had called confirming that that was the right car to get in. I had no real concerns with getting in, so I did. I jumped in the cab and got started on my way to the Socalo. Feeling really proud of myself for doing this on my own and not paying extra for a cab that I didn't need arranged for me or felt like I didn't need

arranged for me. I got to talking with the driver. He was surprised to learn that I was fluent in Spanish. So we had a good conversation, asked what I was doing in Mexico City, shared with him what my job was a little bit, but also trying to be mindful of not sharing too many details with somebody that I didn't necessarily know. He asked if I was meeting up with people

or if I was by myself, if I knew anybody. And I said, yeah, I have some friends, some colleagues that have arranged this hotel that you're taking me to. It kind of started going in a weird direction when he started talking to me about the area of the city that I was going to. He just said, you know, this place that you're going to, it's not a good place for Americans.

He was telling me about how dangerous that part of the city is, how I really shouldn't go there. He didn't want to take me there. All the Americans go to this other place. I take them to this other place all the time. So let me take you to that place. You're going to have a much better time. We were having a friendly conversation,

so I didn't think too much of it at the time. But I kind of chuckled and pushed him off and just said, no, I need to get to where I'm going. I'm here on business. I'm not here on a vacation or anything. So I'm expected to be at certain places. So no, I need to go to that hotel. Kind of kept going back and forth a little bit.

He became a little more pushy about it, saying things like, I can't in good conscience, take you to this place, part of the city that I know is dangerous. Since we were getting closer, he was like, this is the exit, let me just take you there. You can take a look at it, you can see if that's what you wanna do.

And he got off of the highway on off of this exit. He takes me off on this ramp. And that's when I first start to panic and become more alert. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't, no, no, no. I told you where I need to go. I told you I have people waiting for me.

Maybe some other time, but you need to get back on the highway and take me back to wherever we're supposed to go. Not only did I get a little more aggressive with him, but I was even like, look, I'm expected somewhere. I'll pay you extra to get me there. Just take me there. Don't take me anywhere else. I'll give you like an extra 100 pesos to take me where I need to go." And he just said, oh, okay, fine. You don't need to be difficult about this. I'll get back on. And he got back on the highway and we kept driving toward the Socalo.

We get back on the highway and he and I are both kind of quiet for a little while. I think it's just because he's embarrassed, but I'm also annoyed and also kind of much more alert now than what I was at the beginning of the ride. I'm watching the street signs, like, okay, we are going in the direction of the Socalo. the street signs like, okay, we are going in the direction of the Sokalo. After a little bit of silence, he starts in again about, the city center is very dangerous and I don't like taking Americans to the city center. I don't care if that's where your hotel is. You really should have let me take you to this resort. You're not safe." And I said, well, I have locals, I have friends that made this arrangement for me. They wouldn't send me somewhere that is unsafe. And I'm not by

myself. I have people waiting for me. It was a repetition of the same conversation. On his side, it was, you're too vulnerable and you're gonna get mugged if I take you to this place. I can't take you there. And I'm saying, you have to take me there. I have people waiting for me. Nothing has changed. There are still people there waiting for me.

I felt like things had been kind of averted Nothing has changed. There are still people there waiting for me. I felt like things had been kind of averted and he was going to get with the program. And even though he was being pushy and more hostile and kind of aggressive about not wanting to take me to the city center, we were going in the right direction, it seemed. As we got closer to the Sokalo, he just kept muttering like, this is no place for you. I don't want to take you here. You're going to get mugged.

You're going to get in danger. I'm going to be in danger. I don't even think this hotel exists. Whoever you were working with that's local was probably lying to you. They probably want to get you somewhere. This probably isn't even a real hotel. There is no such place. I have never heard of this hotel. I have never heard of this street that it's on. I don't think this is a real place. Let's turn around. I'm going to take you back." He even like asked me, do you have phone numbers for anybody?

But I didn't have anybody's phone numbers. And I said, no, I've got this confirmation from the hotel that I've printed out. It's real. It has to be. I have this document in hand." That repeated idea that the locals were wrong, this place doesn't exist, I'm gonna take you to the better place, trust me, don't trust your friends, your the locals, I know what I'm doing. That started to really concern me. It became an argument, especially as we were in the city center itself.

I was arguing with him, no, you have to take me to the hotel, I have people waiting for me. You cannot take me anywhere else. That's where people are waiting. But he would always come back with, yeah well if this place is even real. I still think that you've made this up. I think that this other person or whoever you've talked to has completely made up this place. I can't find it. I've never heard of it. I'll spend ten minutes looking for this place, and if I can't find it, I'm taking you

where I was gonna take you originally. That really sent my adrenaline up, really got me panicked, got me worried. I was in danger and in a bad situation. It became clear that something was going on that I didn't intend to happen, and if I wasn't postured correctly, if I wasn't looking around, being observant of my surroundings,

I was going to get into some real trouble. We're in the city center. He pulls up to some people on the street occasionally, talks to some people, asks them, hey, have you ever heard of this hotel? Hey, do you know where this place is? But it seemed pretty clear that he was targeting people that were not locals. He would pull up alongside other foreigners and ask, have you heard of this hotel in Spanish? And sometimes they would say, no hablo espanol and just move on. Other times it's, no, I'm not from here. So it almost seemed like it was intentional. He was trying to find people that definitely would not know where I was meant to be.

It got close to the end of that 10 minute span. We turned off a larger street onto a smaller one where there wasn't really anybody there. And he stopped the car and turned to me and said, I have a friend in this shop. I'm going to ask them where this hotel is. I don't think it's real. And he's probably going to tell me it's not real, but I'm going to go anyway. I'm locking you in the car. I will be back. And if my friend tells me that this place isn't real, you're not going to argue with me. There's no more discussion.

I won't leave you here in the middle of Mexico City. You're coming back with me to the place I told you I was going to take you to originally. And I don't want to hear another word about it. You have no choice in the matter. And I don't want to hear another word about it. You have no choice in the matter. He gets out of the car, but leaves the driver's side door open and leaves the car running

and just disappears through the door into this shop. If I was concerned about being kidnapped before, I was frozen with fear that that was what was happening at that moment. The door is wide open, the car is still running, and I'm stuck in the back seat but the door is locked. Somebody, anybody can now slip into the driver's side door and drive away. Maybe this was part of the plan all along. To get this foreigner to the location that I want them to be in. And if that doesn't work, then bring them into the city and then disappear and let someone

else jump in the front seat and drive off with them. And I just knew this is where I get kidnapped. This is where my story ends. Somebody is going to slip into this car, jump into the driver's seat, and hit the gas and drive off. And I am in the most vulnerable position I've ever been in my life. I'm in real danger. I was frozen, sure that I was going to be abducted at any point. Sure that somebody was going to slip into that driver's seat and just take off. So I'm panicked.

The only thing my brain could think of was get help, make noise, shout, get attention. So I started making noise. Rolled down the window. Ayuda! ayuda, peligro, peligro, danger, ayuda, peligro, help, somebody, help. It took a minute or so of really making noise until the guy came out of the shop and was like, what are you doing? But thankfully somebody had heard me and approached at the same time as the guy came out of the shop

and started shouting at the driver. What are you doing? Why is this guy in your car screaming? Why is he shouting? What are you doing with this guy? Why is he alone in the car? Where were you? He definitely knew that there was a larger plan in play

and that this was a potential kidnapping attempt. And the driver was angry that he was put in this situation. I'm a driver, he hired me. He wants me to take me to this place that doesn't exist. He's putting me in danger. He's been difficult and annoying this whole time. I'm just trying to help him. And so the stranger asks him, like, what's the name of the hotel? And the driver tells him and he goes, I know exactly where that is.

It's not made up. It's three blocks away. I know exactly where it is. I'll take him, open the door. I'm going to take this guy with me. I'm going to walk him to the hotel. But by that point, I was so wary of anybody that was supposedly trying to help me. I insisted that I would go with this guy, this new person, if he walked alongside the car. And if the driver would drive slow enough so that this guy could walk along and show us where to go. The stranger was like, deal, I'm in. But the driver still was pushing back. I don't even know this guy, I don't know you. What are you going to do and getting involved in this?

I've got him. He's my fare. Are you going to come and like steal my money? It was two against one. There was now somebody else there that was involved in the situation. He didn't have a choice. He gets back in the driver's seat and we very slowly drive a few blocks away until we get to the hotel. And I can see that it is the hotel, like the marquee has the name of the hotel that I have

written down on my paperwork. And so I very quickly got out. I paid him because I didn't want to create more issues. And he sped off and just was gone. I was a little calmer. The stranger that found me was helping me to try to relax, to come down from the situation, but then he also pointed out what you did was very dangerous. There are kidnappings of foreigners that happen around here all the time. And the airport has signs all over the place warning foreigners in English and Spanish, do not use a rideshare service, do not accept a taxi from the street, go to one of those booths with the licensed taxi drivers certification and get your taxi through them. While you're staying at the hotel,

don't go out to the street to get a cab, ever around here. Have the hotel call you a cab. Otherwise, you're going to be in this exact same position, and I won't be here to help you." It was intense. I was relieved to be done with the whole situation, relieved that somebody came to help me in the moment. And I was able to find the locals that had arranged everything else, the hotel and all of that, for me, told them about what happened.

They also told me that was a really stupid move. And we should have warned you, of course, but still, have you never been here before? And I'm like, no, I've never been to Mexico City before. I know the rumors, but I don't want to base all my actions off of what I hear. I don't want to base all my actions off of what I hear. Ever since then, every international trip I've ever made, and now that we've got smartphones, I download the map of the city that I'm going to be in, and then make sure that while I'm in the backseat of any cab,

that I'm following the route. I don't know how I could have interpreted it as a misunderstanding in the moment that he left me in the car with the car running. I still think something was wrong. I am convinced that I was in real danger. There was no confusing that in my mind. I need a little break. Let's take a break for ads. If you keep trying to host this episode, I'll take away your water bowl. Okay, okay, okay.

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Thanks so much for joining us today. I'll be your host for the rest of the podcast. No, doll. Wrong. Yes, doll. Right. Your time is done here, Terry. Okay, that's enough. Seriously, that's enough. Get me the hell out of here. You'll get out of there when I feel like it. Or when you stop being such an annoying, know-it-all hack. Or when you get scarier stories.

Shut it, doll! Or when you learn to stop talking about yourself 24-7. Or when you finally give Dolly her own show. Shut it, doll, or I'll run you over with my Toyota Celica. Radio Rental is created by Payne Lindsay and brought to you by Tenderfoot TV. Lead producer is Eric Quintana. Executive producers are Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright. Hosted by Rainn Wilson as his character, Terry Carnation.

Written and produced by Meredith Stedman. Additional writing by Mark Loughlin. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Associate producer is JaJa Muhammad. Editing by Eric Quintana, Mike Rooney, Steven Perez, and Meredith Stedman. Sound design by Cooper Skinner. With additional sound design by Steven Perez

and April Ruha. Mix and master by Cooper Skinner with additional sound design by Stephen Perez and April Ruha. Mix and Master by Cooper Skinner with additional mixing by Stephen Perez and Devin Johnson. Original Score by Makeup and Vanity Set with additional score by Jay Ragsdale. Video Editing by Dylan Harrington. Cover artwork by Trevor Eyler and Rob Sheridan. Special thanks to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTI, the Nord Group, Station 16, Beck Media and Marketing, and the team at Odyssey.

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