The Lets Read Podcast - 243: MY TERRIFYING SUMMER CAMP EXPERIENCE | 32 True Scary Stories | EP 231

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

This episode includes narrations of true creepy encounters submitted by normal folks just like yourself. Today you'll experience horrifying stories about summer camps, bad Tinder matches, & working gas station nightshifts HAVE A STORY TO SUBMIT? www.Reddit.com/r/LetsReadOfficial Or over email: [e-mail] FOLLOW ME ON - ►YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/letsreadofficial ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsread.official/ ► Twitter - https://twitter.com/LetsRead ♫ Background Music & Audio Mix: INEKT https://www.youtube.com/@inekt

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Like Toyo's open country family of tires. Find your pro at your local Tread Experts. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExperts.ca Growing up, I never went to summer camp, mainly because my parents couldn't afford it. I remember asking one year if I could go, but it got shut down quickly since my parents could barely make ends meet. However, I was able to attend sports camps in the summer. It was similar to your typical summer camps except you mainly focused on a specific sport. In my case, it was basketball. It was just for one week out of the summer and you would do drills, play games, eat, make friends, and just have a good time.

After graduating, my life took a turn in a direction I never expected. I started coaching basketball at the high school level and teaching the fundamentals of the game to grade school children. After a successful first year as a coach, I reached out to the community to see if a basketball summer camp would be something that they were interested in. I was overwhelmed by the support that I got. So, before the end of the school year, I found a gym to rent out and I decided to host a basketball camp for kids from 4th grade through 10th grade. It would be first come first serve and when all the spots are filled, that would be the end. The camp would be Monday through Saturday and it would be a sleepover camp as well. And to my absolute joy, every spot was filled within just a couple of days.

I couldn't wait to get started in this venture of mine. When we were packing up our stuff on the last day of signups, a very angry man entered the gym screaming, saying, hey, where do you think you're going? I'm signing up my boy right now, so hold on. I was immediately annoyed by this guy's tone, but I still calmly said to the guy, sorry sir, every spot's been filled, I apologize, I wish I could take every kid. Well, this guy wasn't having it. He started making a scene, kicking over chairs. I tried to get him to calm down so I could explain to him why I could only take a certain number of kids, but he wouldn't stop his freak out scene. I felt bad for the kid,

honestly. Thankfully, the kid wasn't with him, so I didn't have to witness that, but I understand what it's like to want to give your kid something, and sometimes the world says no. He finally left after a few minutes, ranting about how I haven't seen the last of him, and I'll be sorry. Now, as a coach, I have been threatened by parents a million times, and I never take it seriously. Most of the coach, I have been threatened by parents a million times and I never take it seriously. Most of the time, parents just want what's best for their kids and they'll say stupid stuff all the time so I treated this incident no differently. And finally, camp time was here. I ran the camp a lot like basketball camps I went to when I was a kid.

Drills, scrimmages, downtime, and even some fun games for character building and team camaraderie. My staff of coaches and I really worked the kids hard on the first day. That first night, almost every camper was asleep by 8 or 9pm, which was great for us since we didn't have to try to wrangle and calm dozens of teenagers down. This pattern of hard work and early nights continued for a couple of days. By Wednesday, I only had one kid that wanted to go home and after a nice conversation we convinced him to stick it out and stay. That night at around 11pm I was making my rounds to make sure all the kids were asleep or at least in bed and not being a distraction for everybody else.

The location of the camp was in an old school that wasn't used for classes anymore, but was updated and really nice. To paint the picture a little better for you, the campers slept in various classrooms. Before you scratch your head and say, how? Before the camp started, we went in and converted the classrooms to some livable quarters. They were much like cabins you would see in an outdoor summer camp just inside an old school. Now after my walkthrough I was able to confirm that most of the kids were asleep or at the very least in their beds. On the other side of the sleeping quarters was the gym. To get to the gym you would have to walk down a long hallway and then cut through the

cafeteria which also held the stage where students at one time performed plays and band shows. While I was walking through the cafeteria, I could hear something coming from the stage. I shouted up to the stage asking whoever was up there to come down. I figured it was just one of the kids or a coach or something, but I couldn't figure out why they would be up there. I shouted again and got no response. It was clearly someone up there because the noise I heard was blatantly footsteps. That was unmistakable. In my stern, coaching voice, I shouted,

Alright, I gave you a chance. I'm coming up there. I jumped up on the stage and was shining my flashlight all around. I couldn't see anybody and now I couldn't hear anything. And just as I was about to walk away, from behind one of the curtains, I hear a voice. It was angry and low and he said, I told you to be sorry. I shined the light in the dark pockets of the curtain and from that sort of black void, I saw someone charge at me. Immediately I could tell, it was the guy, the angry parent from the signups, and before I could

even react, he's tackled me on the stage and started throwing punches into me. One of the other coaches heard the commotion going on, running in, and thankfully ripped the guy off of me. This guy was going crazy, flailing all over the stage. I had no choice, but once we subdued him, I called the police. Thank god they came quick, and they escorted the man out of the building. But believe it or not, this is where the story actually gets crazy. The man's kid was already signed up in the camp. He was separated from the kid's mother and didn't have custody of him. Apparently the man wasn't mentally well either, which is pretty obvious now. The mother told us and the police that she informed him several times that she signed up their son for a camp and I guess he was upset

that he didn't get to sign up his son himself, claiming that it was a father's job or some weird reason like that. It was a very messy situation and I had to spend most of the next day contacting parents and letting them know what happened and that their children are safe. That was the only incident that ever occurred like that and I'm thankful that it didn't ruin the camp. It was scary in the moment and every year before camp I think about that guy. I have no idea how he got in since all the doors were locked and there weren't any windows for him to get in. The only thing I can think of was that he arrived the first day and was hiding in the school the entire time that we were there, which just the thought of gives me the

chills. It just makes me think, even when you think you're safe, you just really never know who might be watching you. I didn't realize how messed up this story was until just recently when I told my girlfriend and all her friends what had happened. I guess I'm sort of oblivious to certain things and I'm horrible at picking up signals. My girlfriend was flirting with me for weeks and I had no idea, so yeah, I'm not the best at overthinking things. Now years ago, when I was 15 or 16 and I don't remember the exact age, I attended a Christian summer camp. It wasn't like in-your-face religion or anything like that. It just plastered that Christian name to get people to come to the camp.

In this part of the country, you're either Christian or nothing. My parents also thought that it would be a good idea to send me to camp. They thought that it would help me to socialize and meet friends, since I am pretty awkward. Well, they were half right. I met Petey on the first day of camp and he was wearing a Captain America shirt. I was wearing a Captain America hat and we both laughed about it and instantly bonded. Petey was just like me. Socially awkward, dry sense of humor and gigantic comic book nerd.

We'd spent literally hours talking about comics and what we would love to see in movies someday. And this was long before the MCU was a thing. I believe Iron Man 1 had just come out before camp had started, and this love of comics was what ultimately separated Petey and me from the rest of the camp. Everyone would break off into huge groups and do all sorts of activities, and we'd stay back just to hang out. We both hated the water, so for any swimming activity we just sat that out. One day Petey brought me a bunch of notebook paper and showed me his skill at drawing. The guy was a freak when it came to drawing. He told me to write some of the ideas for my superhero stories and he would illustrate them. I loved this idea. It got to the point where I

didn't even realize that I was at camp anymore. I was sort of blind to everything else in the world except for my new buddy and it seemed like he felt the same. We would stay up in the early hours of the morning, writing and illustrating our own comics. And one night, one of the counselors decided to do a night walk. He saw us awake with our flashlights, drawing and writing and he didn't get too mad because we weren't doing anything bad but he still made us put everything away and go to bed. We were annoyed but neither of us were a rule breaker so we did what we were told. The next night we stayed up and did our thing. We talked about making sure that we were a little bit more vigilant and if we heard something to make sure that we ducked down right away so we didn't get in trouble. During the night at some point, we heard someone outside though.

We put our flashlights out and jumped into our beds. We could hear the walking outside of our unit. The walk continued until it was in front of the building, and the walk was slow and it just didn't feel right. I thought maybe that he was trying to be sneaky, to catch someone breaking the rules, but it felt wrong for some reason. Petey and I slept on the far side of the room so the door was probably 20 feet away if I had to guess. We could hear the doorknob beginning to shake, but for some reason nobody was coming in. Petey and I both made eye contact and he mouthed the words, what is going on? I just shook my head because I didn't know. Petey got up and started walking towards the door. He whispered,

hey, who is it? Nobody answered right away and he looked back at me and shrugged and then a whisper came from the other side of the door. Hey, it's John. Open the door real quick. We were both confused. There was only one John that we knew at the camp, and he was sleeping in our unit. Petey whispered back and said, sorry, who? The only John we know is he's sleeping right here. The voice paused again and didn't answer. And then the doorknob started to shake again. Whoever this was, they were trying very hard to get into the unit. Finally, he'd said something again.

Just open the door, bud. I'm just trying to make sure everyone's okay. PD made the wise decision and said, Sorry, man. Counselors have a key. Go ask them. He started walking back to bed and whoever this was started to try opening the door again. We both stared for a few seconds and then we started to hear the loud thud of whoever was outside and they were now throwing their body against the door.

They only tried to do that about two or three times and then immediately stopped. We both got into our beds and just stayed quiet. We didn't have any clue what that was about. After several minutes we heard the doorknob one last time and then it stopped for the last time that night. We heard the footsteps creep by outside of the unit and then they were gone. The next day I saw a bunch of counselors talking and they looked frightened about something. We didn't say anything because we figured that it was probably someone playing

a prank or something and we didn't want to get in trouble. The rest of the camp continued and Petey and I noticed that the counselors were now monitoring all night long. It seemed like one was awake at all hours of the night. On the last day, we told them what had happened that night and he turned white as a ghost. He goes on to say, Oh, uh, it was probably just someone playing a joke. Nothing to worry about. He then went and immediately started talking to another one of the counselors. We went home and honestly I didn't really think about that incident too much until the story came up organically recently when we were all hanging out. I'm still incredibly close with Petey and I even called him the night that I told my girlfriend and he corroborated the entire story. She thinks whoever

this John guy was, he had bad intentions. And maybe he did. His attitude and everything about him just seemed off and when I think about it, and I think about how everybody acted after that night, it makes sense that it could have been someone with ill intentions. But what do you think? Did this guy have those bad intentions, or was it simply a camper doing a joke that might have gone too far? When I was younger, I was desperate to fit in and I would do anything to be considered one of the cool kids. Now when I was 15, my parents sent me to summer camp. I was excited at the opportunity to make new friends and hopefully try to convince the other campers how cool I actually was, or maybe even convince myself. Now when I showed up, I instantly gravitated towards the kids that I thought looked fun. There was a group of four guys standing by one of the cabins.

They all had shaggy hair and looked like skaters of sorts, which at the time was what all the cool kids were doing, at least in my mind. Now the ringleader of this group, which seems like an appropriate way to put it, was a boy named Russ. He was wearing a Dallas Cowboys hat backward and was entertaining the other boys with certain jokes. As I approached the group, I started to laugh at Russ's story, even though I didn't get his joke. My fake understanding of the story was enough to be accepted into this group. Now a few days into camp it was clear that I did choose the cool group. All the younger campers thought that they were pretty cool and all the campers our age always laughed at what we said.

And we quickly became the funny guys as we're getting in trouble almost daily for fooling around. This was right during the time of Johnny Knoxville on MTV and all that kind of stuff, so we thought we were cool doing dangerous tricks and stunts all around the camp. Russ even convinced one camper named Michael to jump off one of the roofs of one of the cabins onto a tree, claiming that he'd done it a million times. Well, Michael did this, and the tree branch snapped, causing Michael to fall, and I actually think he broke his arm. Russ didn't get in trouble, and Michael was forced to leave camp. And that was the moment that I started to realize that Russ may not have been the cool guy that he thought he was. As camp progressed, I started getting

more annoyed with Russ. Maybe I was growing more mature, or maybe I just saw through his little game, but either way, I was kind of going through the motions now. At first, everybody laughed at Russ and loved him, but now, everyone was starting to get annoyed with him, much like I was. He was obsessed with these pranks and playing pranks on campers that he deemed to be nerds or lesser than him. And one night, our group was sitting around our bunks telling scary stories and stories about things that happened in our hometowns. And that's when Russ stepped in and had to one-up us. In a confident and almost arrogant

voice, Russ started to tell us a story. And he said, You guys think those are scary stories? When did you hear this one? I was waiting for the right time to bust this out, but tonight seems like a good night. I told you guys before that my brother went to this camp years ago when he was my age. He said that in the woods, there's an abandoned shack. It's not far from here, but it's in the direction that we don't travel for hikes and other activities. This shack is haunted, like actually haunted. The old camp director used to murder his victims in that shack until he was caught and died trying to escape the cops. They say his spirit still haunts the shack and if you go visit the haunted shack on quiet nights like this, you can hear the ghostly spirits of all the

poor souls the camp director took. I didn't believe it for a second. I'm not a paranormal guy, but apparently the rest of the guys were, and since they all looked like they were going to cry, I rolled my eyes and Russ continued his story. Since I didn't believe my brother, he told me exactly how to get to the shack. If you guys are down, we could find it right now. There was an immediate protest from the group. I spoke up first saying, no way dude, not because I'm scared of your stupid ghost, but I'm scared of getting caught and kicked out of camp. Russ laughed and called me something I'm not going to type here, and he always had a way of manipulating people into doing what he wanted. After a several minute debate, he got everybody to agree to go

except me, and I was labeled the coward of the group. He says, if you're not afraid of the ghosts, then you won't mind being the one that enters the shack. If you do that, we'd have to tell everyone here how tough and brave you are. Yeah, sadly, that's what he actually said, and that worked on me. More out of anger and annoyance, I just finally agreed to go. We started walking into the thick brush of the forest, and once the camp lights were out of sight, we turned on our flashlights as we traveled through the part of the forest where there weren't any trails. There was barely any room to even walk. I'm not sure exactly how far we walked, but after a little while, I couldn't believe my eyes. There in front of me was an old, decrepit shack, dominated by nature surrounding it.

I started to hear some of my bunkmates saying no way and other forms of just banter and I started to think to myself, maybe Russ was telling the truth after all. He demanded that I go check it out and I was scared. I thought about his story and even though I don't believe in ghosts just being around this abandoned shack in the middle of the night after hearing that story, I honestly felt like I was going to pee my pants. I started to get egged on by the group hearing things like, you were so tough, what happened? And other forms of mockery. I had to check it out since I did make it here, might as well. And I slowly made my way to the door.

I barged through, was able to make it inside, and this was bigger than a shack. It was more like a small cabin, maybe the size of a studio apartment or something, or even a one-bedroom apartment. The inside was completely destroyed. And as I walked through and shined my light, I noticed something strange on the ground. There was a bottle of beer, and I'm not joking, it was cold when I touched it. I could see the perspiration ring from the bottle on the wood floor. I shined my light up, and further in the distance was a plastic bag, and coming out of the plastic bag was an open bag of chips. At this moment, I couldn't put the pieces together in my head fast enough.

I was intrigued, scared, and confused all at the same time. In the back of the shack seemed to be a small room, and when I eventually made it to this room, I stopped and shined the light all around. As the light got to the corner of the room, I saw it. A woman standing there. and I swear to God my skin legitimately turned cold, and I immediately felt sick. She held her hands up, and sort of in like a quivering voice she said, Don't say anything. She didn't look scared. She looked almost angry, like she was warning me. I heard Rush shout from outside if I was okay and I

didn't answer because the woman was shaking her head at me not to. After my brief silence, and against my better judgment, I decided to scream the word, run, and I started to run out of the shack. I heard the woman curse something but I didn't turn back, but I could hear her struggling to run through the shack, seemingly giving chase. When I got outside, I screamed at the group that someone was in there and we needed to run. They all looked confused like I was messing with them, but then the woman jumped through the doorway, screaming something unintelligible at us, and we immediately all ran back to the camp screaming. We immediately were met by half the staff who were rubbing their eyes but incredibly upset that we snuck out. I tried to explain to them what happened, tried to explain that there was a squatter living inside that camp, but they didn't believe us. They said that they were going to call

our parents tomorrow morning, which I was thrilled about. Now I wanted to go home. And the next morning the camp director came into our bunk and sat us all down. He told us that they woke up early and went to the shack in the woods and saw exactly what we described. They even found multiple footprints that went in and out the other direction. For our safety they ended up calling camp early for everyone, not just our group specifically. They didn't know if this woman or maybe multiple people were dangerous and

it definitely wasn't worth risking our lives. I'm so thankful that I got out of the situation unharmed. And it's affected me mentally for years, but I eventually came to peace with the incident. I never spoke to any of those guys again, especially not Russ, even though they did say that it was kind of hardcore to do all of that. At the end of the day, I have no idea what happened to everybody and it wouldn't surprise me if that idiot's in jail or something, but I'll be honest with you guys, be careful who you trust and hang out with because they might just lead you into a situation that could be your last. When I was in my junior year of college, it was recommended to me by one of my advisors and mentors to volunteer at a summer camp for young teens. The idea of a summer camp wasn't really my thing, but this was one of these gigs that would look good on my

resume for a potential employer given my degree program. And before the end of the year, I researched the area around my hometown and found a camp only about an hour away, and they were looking for counselors. I jumped on the chance, and after a phone interview with a guy named Stan, I secured my position. This particular camp started right after the 4th of July and ran until the 3rd week of August. During the duration, we would see several different iterations of campers. On July 5th, which was the day before camp started this year, I drove up to meet Stan and all the other fellow counselors, the staff, and most importantly, to get familiar with the grounds, which were

quite large. I arrived at around 11am, and standing right outside of a big house was a tall, burly man, and they were waving. To the left of the house was a parking lot, and the man was gesturing for me to pull in over there. After I parked, I started approaching the man with my hand extended to shake and the man started laughing. In a sort of jolly southern accent he said, Hey, we hug around here friend. Name's Stan. You must be Cassie?

Being hugged by a strange man would usually send me into sort of an uproar, but this guy had a real sort of Santa Claus quality about him, just with a black beard instead of white. I realized quickly while talking to him why all the kids loved him and why this camp had glowing reviews. Stan was a tremendous human being, and he just had a presence that you wanted to be around. He gave me a map and personally started to escort me around the grounds. When we arrived at the lake, in his still ever cheerful voice, he said, I'm going to hand you over to my wife now.

I have some formality things I need to get done, but you're going to love her, and she'll take you to where all the girls bunk. I looked behind me, and a beautiful older woman was making her way to the lake. She smiled and waved, and in an energetic voice said, Hi Cassie, I'm Paula,

Stan's wife. Let me show you where the girls sleep and then I'll show you where you'll be sleeping and introduce you to the other counselors. The entire walk with Paula was much like the walk with Stan. She was lovely and just a joy to speak with. She showed me the cabins and showed me which cabin I would be solely responsible for since every counselor would be responsible for one bunk of campers. Then we made our way to a huge wooden building which was the recreation building. It was where the campers would eat dinner and partake in camp activities. And this is where I met all my fellow counselors and we all clicked right away. I was excited about the weeks ahead and figured this wasn't the worst way to spend summer.

That night I couldn't sleep. All the counselors had their own cabin to sleep in and it was much nicer than you would expect. It was two of us in a room and the rooms were spacious enough that we would have privacy if we wanted. Since I couldn't sleep I figured that I would take a walk around the grounds. My roommate Ashley was sound asleep and didn't wake up when I left the room. I didn't feel like I was sneaking out since Stan and Paula both told me numerous times that the grounds are now my home and I can do whatever I like when I'm not with the children. The grounds were somehow even more beautiful at night. The number of stars in the sky was staggering compared to what I was used to.

While I was walking, I remembered I had a book in my car and I figured I could grab it and read it in my room until I was tired enough to fall asleep. On my way to the car, I passed by the big house that I noticed when I first pulled in. It was a big white mansion and the lights were on inside. I didn't mean to snoop, but as I walked by, I just happened to glance in the windows. I saw Stan and Paula talking to two men I didn't recognize. These two guys were definitely not staffed from the camp. I try not to judge people, but these guys looked like pretty questionable folks. The demeanor of Stan and Paula was also different from how they carried themselves earlier. I couldn't hear them but from what I could see, it looked like Stan was yelling at these guys. I honestly didn't think too much about it, it could have just been friends or even family and it wasn't my business and I just carried on as

such. I grabbed my book and started to walk back to my cabin. I passed that white house and just kept walking. When I was about 30 yards away, I heard someone shout my name. I turned around and Paula was practically chasing me. She seemed to get defensive and asked me if I was looking in on them or invading their privacy. I was honest with her and told her that I couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk and just grabbed my book. She had a look that I can't really describe, but it felt like she didn't believe me. In a dismissive tone, she says,

Okay, dear. I head back to your cabin. We got a big day tomorrow. I went back to the cabin and tried to read, but I was too distracted by that weird interaction with Paula. I thought about it for a while, and I eventually fell asleep. I woke up the next morning feeling great, even with lack of sleep, and the campers arrived and camp had officially started. The week went on and I eventually forgot about my sort of run-in with Paula, and one night, about a week into camp, I couldn't sleep again. It was around two in the morning and I was just laying there. I jumped up because I thought I had heard a noise. I went out into the hall, figuring it was one of the counselors just going to the

restroom or maybe even coming back to the cabin after sneaking out. When I got to the landing of the stairs that overlooked the living room, I noticed that all the lights were still off. Even in the dark living room, I could see two figures seemingly going through bags. There was enough light shining through the window from the outdoor sensor light. I didn't say anything at first because I still figured that these two people were probably counselors. I started to slowly creep down into the living room and when I finally reached the bottom, the one figure turned and looked at me. I recognized him right away. It was one of those

two guys that I saw my first night walking by Stan in their place. His eyes were wide and his cheeks were completely sunken in. I tried to scream or say anything but I just felt paralyzed. He started to approach me slowly and at the same time he reached for something in the back of his waistband. I finally was able to let out a scream and the other man grabbed him by the shoulder and said, we gotta go now. The man never broke eye contact with me and moved backwards until he stepped back through the door and seemingly ran into the night. Seconds later, a bunch of counselors ran out and saw me shivering at the base of the steps. I was stumbling over my words, but I was able to convey to them what had just

happened. One of the counselors called Stan who came down in his four-wheeler right away, and I explained to him what happened, and then out loud in front of everyone, I said, It was those two guys I saw you talking to on the first night here. Stan looked confused and just sort of laughed. In that same jolly voice, he said, Why, sweetie, I don't have any earthly idea what you're talking about. I don't remember talking to anybody that night unless they work here at the camp. The back and forth continued for a while,

until finally Ashley grabbed me and pulled me away because she could see that I was getting ready to lose it. Stan left eventually and told us that he would be alerting the proper authorities and that we had nothing to worry about. After he left, a few of the guys who left their bags in the living room noticed that their wallets had been stolen. And as terrible as that is, thankfully not all of us had been robbed. The next day I told Paula what had happened and that a few of the guys had got robbed.

She looked right at me and said, Whatever you think is going on, you're wrong. There was a terrible incident and it will be taken care of. I decided to leave right after that conversation. Since I didn't sign some contract or anything crazy like that, I felt like it was within my rights to just say goodbye. And I marched over to Stan and basically told him that I quit in so many words. He didn't stop me from leaving and just apologized for my unpleasant stay. I never pursued this any further and never got really any answers as to who those guys were,

what they wanted and what their relationship with Stan and Paula were. I figured that any legal recourse that I took would basically be a dead end so I just left it alone. This is the first time I'm telling this story since my brief stay at that summer camp over 15 years ago. I know I made the right choice leaving that day. I had a bad feeling in my stomach that I would certainly see those intruders again if I stayed, and I'm happy that I never had to deal with summer camp ever again. We'll be right back. We're all Tread Experts. Conquer rugged terrain with on-road comfort. Until June 15th, receive up to $60 on a prepaid MasterCard when you purchase Kumo RoadVenture AT52 tires. Find a Kumo Tread Experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations.

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and the Pink Dragon Booster Mixer. Three epic menu items to conquer your cravings. Booster Juice, Canadian-born, blending since 1999. When I was 16 years old, my parents made me go to a summer camp that was several hours away from my hometown. Yeah, that's right, I said they made me go. At the time, I started some extracurricular activities that were bringing my grades down and ultimately got me into some legal trouble right at the end of the school year. To keep a watchful eye on me and make sure that I wasn't doing anything illegal, my parents assumed sending me to a camp would be the fix.

I hated it at the time and resented my parents. I now realize over a decade later my parents were just trying to help and didn't understand the best course of action. This was one of those camps that lasted the entire length of the summer. It was almost like a boarding school, but instead of school school you were doing more outdoor activities and campish things. You could send your child there for an entire summer or week depending on how much you wanted to pay. I was able to compromise with my parents and we agreed that I could go for three weeks. I was miserable on the car ride up. I was thinking about all my friends hanging out, the girl I liked, and most importantly at the time, my precious Xbox 360 that wasn't going to be played. One thing I noticed right

away was the lack of campers my age. This camp had a ton of junior high kids and only a few high schoolers like me. In my cabin where I slept was a group of seven other guys, at least close to my age. These were mostly outdoorsy type kids. They loved hiking, s'mores, and everything about camp. I was an outsider right away. All my cabin mates were returning campers that had been coming for years. They told me right away that I would grow to love the place, that my shy and negative demeanor would wear off, and I didn't believe that for one second. I have never been into the whole kumbaya thing. It's why I never got into sports or any team activities. As far

as I was concerned, these three weeks were a jail sentence and I just needed to wait out the clock until it was time to go home. The first five or six days I did just that. I kept to myself and did some mandatory activities. Most of the time I spent in the common room, it was a big cabin in the center of camp that had a pool table, a bunch of books, and most importantly, it was quiet. Most campers spent their days and afternoons out swimming, hiking, and doing all sorts of activities that the camp provided. Toward the end of my first week, one of my cabin mates suggested that I go swimming with them. I said suggested, but he practically begged me to go. I was reluctant because I wasn't fond of

my cabin mates or anything about this camp, but I was hot and went anyway. I was shocked to admit to myself that I actually had a great time, and this is when camp started to feel like something more than jail. I was having, believe it or not, fun. I couldn't believe it. After that afternoon, I don't think I ever went back to the common room. I spent my time with my cabin mates and even met a girl named Amy. Being the older kids at camp, we had a much stronger relationship with the counselors. I appreciated that they didn't treat us like children and talk to us like peers. It was always respectful and professional, but at the same time, it felt like we were talking to one of the guys. The last weekend of my stay came before I knew it, and I was upset to leave.

I almost couldn't admit it, but it was the truth. My parents were coming to pick me up on Sunday afternoon, so my cabin mates and I agreed Friday and Saturday night that we were going to go out of our way to have a memorable weekend. Since I was the quote bad guy of the group, I stole a bunch of snacks and we loaded up our cabin. We were going to stay up all night playing card games and just hanging out, nothing too crazy. Now ordinarily I would suggest something like sneaking out or something like that, but I didn't even want to do anything that crazy. I just wanted to hang out with my new friends. A little after midnight, a few of the guys fell asleep. Four of us were playing blackjack and using some mini candy as bedding chips. One of my friends who was lying in bed but not sleeping jumped up erratically and shouted, whoa, what the heck was that?

His sudden movement and sharp tone caused us all to be a little alarmed. We asked what he was talking about. He paused for a minute and staring out the windows he said, I swear I just saw someone in that tree and when we made eye contact he just jumped down and ran. Then we all laughed, thinking that he was just being an idiot. The windows aren't like normal windows. Across the top of the cabin where the walls meet the ceiling is a long window that goes around the entire perimeter of the cabin. He got upset and even had tears in his eyes. Now if this was a joke, he was fully dedicated to the prank at this point. One of my friends doubted him, claiming that there was no way that you could see out the windows of the cabin, especially at this hour. And he began to disagree, passionately.

He told us to lie down on this bed and stare up at the window. And by God, he was right. He could see the trees out of the window, and in a loud, nervous voice, he said, I was just looking for the tree, and I thought I saw a face. I know that sounds crazy, but I just kept staring and didn't say anything. When I started to really focus, I could finally see it. It was a face and it was staring right at me. When I reacted, he jumped down.

I heard his feet hit the ground, dude. One of my friends suggested that we go outside and look at the dirt below the tree. If it had footprints or any sign of activity, we would alert the counselors, but if it didn't, we'd just chalk it up to his imagination. Two friends and I went outside and we didn't even need to make it to the tree. Standing right beside the cabin, almost like he was hiding, was a person. We stopped abruptly, pointing, and the man heard us, looked with one of the most horrifying faces I'd ever seen, and ran into the woods. We all ran as fast as we could back into the cabin. We were shouting, but not loud enough that the counselors would have heard us.

Instead of waking them up for some reason, we decided to deliberate on the situation and figure out the best course of action. Before reaching a decision, without notice, one of the counselors ran into our cabin, shut the door, and immediately locked it. He was tense, and in an almost shout he said, turn off the lights, get into your beds. We tried to ask what was wrong, telling him what we saw, but he was almost ignoring us. A few minutes later we saw the lights of the park ranger trucks. The counselor ran out to speak with the rangers and seconds later, all the other counselors were

there speaking to the rangers, and one of the rangers was a blonde woman. I couldn't hear what any of them were saying. He looked erratic and nervous as he was shouting at her. She pointed to the forest and nodded and then the rangers got into their trucks and started to drive away. The counselors all stayed out in the center of the cabins talking for a few minutes. Each one of them eventually went to the various cabins and told us it was a false alarm and that we needed to go to bed. We were furious and wanted to know what was going on and if it had anything to do with what we just saw and instead of answering us, they just kept shushing us and telling us that it was nothing, nobody was there. We didn't sleep that night,

and honestly nothing happened the next day. I tossed and turned all night on Saturday night as well. Sunday morning came and my parents came to pick me up. I told them what happened and they asked the camp director, who told my parents that one of the campers was playing a prank and scaring the other cabins. One of the counselors thought it was a real threat and called the rangers in. He assured my parents that it was a false alarm and nothing to

worry about. But I didn't buy that for one second. I saw that man's face clearly, and even though it was dark, the man was at least in his early forties. To this day, I'm still friends with the guys from the cabin cabin and just recently, we all caught up and reminisced about that night and every single one of them remembers it the exact same way as me. I don't know what happened that night. I don't know who that guy was or what he wanted. Most importantly, I don't know why the camp wouldn't admit anything. Maybe it was bad publicity. But either way, that was one of the most horrifying experiences of my life, and I'll never forget the look

on that creep's face. I've always loved camps and summer camps, even stemming back to movies like Heavyweights or Camp Nowhere that I watched before I even attended any summer camp. There was a popular summer camp here in the northeast that I started attending when I was maybe 12 or 13 years old. We had a family friend that worked there and was able to give my parents a discount because otherwise they wouldn't have been able to afford to send me. I attended camp almost every summer during my teenage years, creating great memories and friendships that lasted a very long time. Once college came along, I took a break over the summer to do internships that were required for graduation. I was also working part-time at a local grocery store to make some actual money to do things with my friends, pay for a cell phone, etc. After graduation,

the first thing I wanted to do was find a new job. I had enough retail work for the rest of my life and wanted to try to find something different. I got a few interviews but wasn't able to land anything concrete. June rolls along and my parents have that same family friend over for dinner that still works at the summer camp. My parents mentioned that I had been looking for a job and she says, well why don't you come work at the camp? They're always looking for help and I could put in a good word. Sure, I thought. It beats the hell out of scanning and bagging groceries and putting carts away. I had a very informal interview over the phone and basically talking about myself and

experience as a kid at the camp. They basically gave me the job on the spot because after a few questions they said I would work two weeks and could either go home for a week or stay and work through while the session changed over. Campers could stay in between sessions as well, but at this camp the main sessions were two week overnights. I decided that I would work two weeks and then take a week off and if it went well then I would consider stay during the shift week to make some extra money. The job was really easy. I wasn't really a counselor. I helped more in the kitchen or with some of the outdoor activities and really just floated around to whichever area needed me or needed the most help. I had made it through almost the entire summer without

incident. I hadn't messed up on the job and all the kids were pleasant and we didn't really have any major issues. Since we weren't counselors, we had our own living quarters and places to sleep. The counselors and co-counselors stayed in the bunks where some of the other workers had a little more freedom. Some of the other workers in similar positions to mine lived close enough to just go home each day. And I remember one night in, I think August, it was especially hot. I was having trouble sleeping, I couldn't get comfortable and was tossing and turning for hours. I decided to get up, grab some water and just pop outside to see if the night air was any more refreshing. I quietly ducked out the main door and was relieved at how nice the night air felt, much more comfortable than it was inside.

I took a few sips of water and started looking up at the night sky when I noticed something out of my peripherals. There was something flashing outside of one of the bunks, like something was blocking or shaking the light outside one of the cabins. I started to move closer and saw something outside the door under the light. I thought maybe it was a raccoon. I even remember thinking, please tell me it's not a baby bear. But as I got closer, it was a kid.

A little boy. He was pointing at the light and waving his arm up and down while still pointing. Hey there, are you okay? I whispered. He just kept pointing at the light and then every ten seconds or so, slowly moving his arm up and down while still maintaining the pointing motion. Is this your bunk? I said, and still nothing. Okay, okay, let's go inside and go to sleep now. And the boy obliged and headed inside with me when I opened the door. I woke up the co-counselor and said, hey,

there was just a kid outside your bunk. Someone who could have easily wandered off. He was surprised and said, how did he get outside? I shrugged and just said, I don't know. He looked annoyed and responded, I'll talk to Alex tomorrow and see what happened. I remember just walking off annoyed and upset. I didn't know the rules, but I did know that there were training and safeguards to make sure that the campers were safe at all times. And clearly, some type of protocol was bypassed for a camper to be out at night unattended. The next day was really busy and the incident left my mind briefly until I headed over to the main building with some arts and crafts supplies for a project the kids would be working on. When I got to the art room, there were a few kids

fishing up some projects and getting ready to head down the hall to eat and I saw the same boy from last night. This time he was standing in the corner with his face looking directly at the wall. I looked over to one of the co-workers and said, what's going on? She looked at him and she said, I don't know. He isn't responding to me either. I walked over to the corner. Hey buddy, do you remember me? What do you say we go and grab something to eat?

And no response. But I did notice it wasn't completely silent. I was hearing something like whispers, like someone was talking but I couldn't make out the words. As I got closer it grew a little bit louder and I could now see the boy's mouth moving and his eyes were closed. He was whispering very fast and very low. I tapped him on the shoulder and he bolted with a huge smile on his face. Hi, I'm Timmy. He said as he turned away from the wall and started skipping towards the door to head to the cafeteria.

Another day passed and I was up out of bed early just like every morning. I usually took a walk before I showered and I like to be up before the day got too busy and everyone was up and using the facilities. But this morning there were a lot of my co-workers already up and outside. They were all huddled together talking so I slowly walked over and said to them, wow you're all up early today. Yeah, we didn't get much sleep. One of Alexander's campers had to go home in the middle of the night. It sounded like he had some sort of episode. It freaked out a lot of the other campers and a few of them got picked up by their parents as well. It was the talk of the camp for the next few days, with stories playing the game of telephone and becoming more and more exaggerated every time I heard it.

One thing that I did hear from a senior counselor that I was never able to confirm is there were scratches of some type of carvings under the little boy's bunk, and that he decided to replace a few of the boards, but I think they may have just been camp gossip, but not actually real. I haven't been back to the camp in years, but every now and again I think about it and all the good memories that I've made. And every so often I think about this story and wonder what really happened with that poor boy. I love being alone. I secured my dream job when I was 20 years old and I moved to a secluded area near a lake to be alone. My job is all on the computer and I'm able to design my products in solitude and send them in. I know most people think I'm depressed or angry, but the truth is, I just love quiet and my own company. A few years ago, a family bought a ton of land near me and opened

a summer camp. I was furious about this. I just prayed that it was far enough away that I wouldn't be sucked into the ruckus of the camp. My nightmares came true. At the beginning of summer, I would hear all of the cheering and activities all day long. Even some nights were loud. I fought for any kind of justice, but they weren't doing anything wrong. Annoying me isn't a long, even some nights were loud. I fought for any kind of justice, but they weren't doing anything wrong. Annoying me isn't a crime, even though I wish it was. It took me a few years when I finally got used to all the noise. I remember I had a run-in with one of the staff members one time because he was trespassing on my property and I'll never forget his smug attitude. He looked right at me and said, settle down lady, I didn't know, you're acting like the Grinch. And he walked away laughing.

After that day, occasionally a few older kids will walk near my house and I can hear them saying things like, that's where the Grinch lives, and other things like that. I didn't care about that and I sort of embraced the nickname after a while. I eventually got the owners of the camp to put these yellow markers on my property line. This would show the staff and campers not to go past the line and to the owner's credit, he enforced it. I even heard a story that he sent a kid home for walking past the line. I don't know if that's true, but it's what I heard. And it took time, but they eventually started to mind their own business altogether.

I ended up getting cameras installed on the property, and truthfully, I never saw anyone messing with me for several years. Until last year, and that's when everything hit the fan. Camp started like it did every year. I geared myself up to deal with it for the next several months. One night, I got an alert that my camera picked up. It was far too late for any of the campers, so I figured it was a bear or something like that. It was well after 3am and I pulled up the feed. And I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was a group of three campers. It was two boys and a girl. And I was beyond angry. They were just standing on the line of my property, but not passing it.

I couldn't hear them on the camera, but I could see that they were pointing at my house. I could see them laughing and sort of shoving each other. One of the boys decided to venture onto my property, and I lost my mind. I grabbed a metal cane that I owned, and I was nearly about to go outside and give these kids a I lost my mind. I grabbed a metal cane that I owned and I was nearly about to go outside and give these kids a piece of my mind and when I turned around, all three were gone. I didn't know if they went back to the camp or if they were fully on my property now, but the next thing I knew, there was a knock on my door and I froze. I started making my way to the front door and there was a knock on the back door. I started walking toward the my door and I froze. I started making my way to the front door and there was a knock on

the back door. I started walking toward the back door and I looked out the window and I saw one of the boys standing at the door. While I was looking at the back door I heard the front door open. Now I know I locked it so whoever this kid was he somehow broke the lock and opened the door and I heard this cocky voice echoing down the hall. Hello Grinchy, are you in here? We just want to see you. I heard the girl and he were laughing and I hid behind the door to my back room. I heard one of the kids open the back door and say, This is Grinchy's house. You think she's home?

I was scared. I know these were teenagers, but it was three against one, and these two boys were big for teenagers. I heard all three of the kids exploring my house and whistling and calling me by my camp-given nickname as I told you. I know at least one of them was upstairs because I could hear the footsteps above me, and another one walked into the room that I was hiding. He was going through desk drawers and looking through all my stuff. They finally left, after what seemed like forever. And when I looked at my house afterward, I felt sick.

They stole a bunch of stuff from me and just made my house look like a complete wreck. I couldn't understand why anybody would just do something so horrible for no reason. I immediately called the police and they got to my house in about 30 minutes. I reported what happened and of course I didn't have proof. One of the teenagers, one of my computer, seemingly deleting all of the video files that I had connected to my camera, and I didn't know if there was a way to retrieve them or not. I went to the camp the next morning. I told the owner, who basically accused me of lying since our relationship at that point had not been the best. He thought I was trying another attempt to ruin him and his camp.

Those were his words, not mine. I put the house up for sale not long after that incident and moved to another beautiful secluded location. I don't know how scary this story may be for you, but when you're trapped in your own house and you have unpredictable teenagers who actively don't like you, sneaking around, you let me know if you're scared too. I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with but what those kids did to me is completely uncalled for and just goes to show you that some people are just horrible human beings. I've heard dozens of horror stories about dangers of dating online. Whether that be looking for love or looking for something a little more

casual, we'll say. I never cared much about the warnings though. Since my identity is hidden behind this computer screen, I have no problem admitting that I've been an avid user of a certain dating app for a long time, and the app that I'm referring to is Tinder. I've used this app for years, meeting women and going on a ton of dates. I'm also upfront and honest with the women I match with on Tinder. I tell them what I'm looking for and if they're looking for something more serious than me, no hard feelings and we end our conversation. A couple of months back, I had my first real scare with the app. I got lazy and didn't care as much about being careful who I met.

I matched with a beautiful girl named Teresa. She reached out to me before I could even message her. Right away the conversation turned in the direction that, let's just say, I was looking for. Teresa didn't pull any punches. She was upfront and to the point and I liked that about her. I eventually asked her if she wanted to come over and hang out and that's when her tone finally changed. In so many words she basically said that she didn't want to leave her house because her dog was sick and she wanted to stay with her dog. Then she said that

she was embarrassed to have me come over because she doesn't live in a great area. I assured her that I didn't care where she lived and that I didn't mind at all coming over to her place. She seemed flattered and agreed to have me come over. Then she dropped a new wrinkle into the operation, you see. She said that she lived with her aunt and that if I was going to come over, I needed to come over tonight when her aunt wasn't going to be home. I should have seen all these stipulations, but I didn't. I was just excited to hang out with her, and I agreed to come over that night and ask for the address. She told me that I had to wait an hour and then I could come. What was weird, but I didn't realize at the time, was that she didn't send me the address right away. After she said to come over in an hour, she never responded.

I asked for the address twice and I never got a response. About an hour later, she finally responded with the address and told me to message her when I got there. She said something about the door being stupid or something and that it would just be easier for her to come outside and get me. I put the address into my phone and made the 20 minute drive to her house. She wasn't kidding about the area. It was a street of just old broken down houses. Garbage was everywhere and there was one street light that worked for the entire street. When I stopped the car on the road, I messaged her right away. And while I was waiting for a response, I noticed none of the houses had any lights whatsoever coming from them.

Most of them were boarded up and seemed to look abandoned. And then it dawned on me. I didn't even see numbers on the houses. I had no clue which house belonged to Teresa. She messaged me back, I see you, with a smiling face emoji. I scanned the area from inside my car and didn't see anybody and I messaged back, can you come outside? I have no idea what house is yours. A moment later, I saw some figure come to the door of the house across the street. I couldn't see their face, but they were waving at me. I messaged her and said, is that you in the black sweatshirt? I didn't see her message back to me, but I received a message back almost instantly that said,

yeah, it's cold in here, hopefully I'll be warmer soon, and she added a wink face emoji. I turned my car off and started to get out. I saw that she wasn't standing where she was just a moment ago, and I slowly started making my way across the street, and as I approached the front door, two guys emerged from the driveway. I instantly threw my hands up in self-defense, but it was no use. Before I could even react, one of the men was hitting me with a bat or something like that. The other guy was just kicking me while I was down. The person inside, who I thought was Teresa, then ran outside. And not only was it not Teresa, but it was a huge dude. He grabbed my wallet out of my pocket,

and the three men ran down the road into the darkness. Thankfully, I left my phone in my locked car, and these guys didn't steal my keys for some reason. I was able to crawl to the car, and dialed the authorities and told them what happened. Never in my life had I felt so disoriented. Eventually, the one officer basically said that he couldn't do anything. The profile on Tinder was already deleted and since I didn't really get a good look at any of them, there was no way that I could identify them.

And the only thing that sucked about losing my wallet was replacing my ID at that time. The joke was on them though, since they pretty much robbed a broke man. I think I had $4 in cash in my wallet and my debit card had virtually no money on it, and I cancelled my card and went to the ER that night. Turns out, I had two broken ribs, and I think all things considered, I was lucky that's all I walked away with during this complete nightmare. I do think about that night all the time. I can't believe how stupid I was. I had tons of red flags in front of me, and I ignored all of them for some fake girl. It makes me angry that these monsters are still out there, probably tricking idiots like me into similar situations.

I wish that I could say that I learned my lesson about Tinder and meeting people online, but I didn't. I'm still out there meeting new people, I'm just extra careful now and using my head more since you can never be too careful when it comes to online dating. is foretold of a smoothie so delicious and refreshing that it could quench the thirst of a fire-breathing dragon. But it's also a great pick-me-up after a workout. The new Dragon Slaya Smoothie from Booster Juice, a legendary blend of dragon fruit and mangoes, destined to be your next obsession.

Try it today along with the new Dragon Booster Ball and the Pink Dragon Booster Mixer. Three epic menu items to conquer your cravings. Booster Juice, Canadian-born, blending since 1999. pink dragon booster mixer three epic menu items to conquer your cravings booster juice canadian born blending since 1999 about two years ago maybe a little bit more i got out of a long-term relationship being that i'm the shy type I wasn't good at asking girls out, and for some reason, it gave me crippling anxiety. I'm not sure if it was the fear of rejection or the embarrassment of my peers,

but either way, dating was not my strong suit. When I met my ex, Tinder was just becoming a thing, so I never used the app. And now that I was single, I had a chance to try it for myself. I must admit, I was single I had a chance to try it for myself. I must admit I was excited. I know a lot of my friends have had success on Tinder and various other dating platforms. I had the app for a few months and nothing exciting happened. I did meet one girl at the park but that date lasted all of like 20 minutes. She got the classic phone call move saying that she had gotten called into work and then I never heard from her again. I was just about to consider the Tinder experiment

a failure and then I matched with Danielle, Dani for short. She was beautiful. I half expected that I was being played actually. At one point I thought for sure that this girl was going to be a 50 year old dude or something but I continued to talk to her anyway. We agreed to meet at the local park in our area. The park is a beautiful place. There's a big lake in the middle and massive series of trails that go all around the lake, and we agreed to meet at 5pm when we both got out of work. I showed up at 4 just because I was nervous and waited around until I got her message. A little after 5, she messaged saying that she was walking to the pavilion where all the picnic tables were. I messaged back and told her that I was heading that way as well.

I was beyond happy when I walked up to the pavilion and sitting right in front of me was Dani. The same Dani from Tinder and not a 50 year old man. I sat down and we talked for a while. She had this way of calming me down and telling me to not be so nervous. Whatever she was saying and doing, it worked. I was head over heels for this girl already and I thought that I may have been doing a good job on the date since it had been a few hours and she hadn't left yet. We decided to go for a walk on

one of the trails even though it was starting to get dark out. Ordinarily, I would have never agreed to do this, but I felt alright with Dani for some reason. I reached for her hand at one point and I nearly melted when she allowed me to hold her hand, and for the first time in a while, I felt something special. We walked for a long time until it was dark. She suggested that we should turn around and start making our way back to the cars, since we had no idea how much longer this trail went for, and it was almost pitch black on the trail. The walk back was nice for a while.

Danny was holding my hand and cuddling up against my arm. We weren't far from the lot when I noticed somebody standing in the walkway. I could barely see him, and if it wasn't for the faint light of the moon shining through the trees, I probably would have missed him. I stopped abruptly and asked Danny if she could see him, and she said that she could. She shouted and asked the guy if he needed anything, and the person just stood there. I was terrified, but I didn't want to seem too scared in front of Danny. I just suggested that we move and that it was probably just some fool trying to play some joke on us.

She agreed and we slowly continued walking toward the person. As they became more visible, it was becoming more scary. As the figure hadn't budged an inch and now we could clearly see that he was concealing something behind his back. When we were about ten feet away, the man finally moved his hands from behind his back and in his hand appeared to be a knife, but I wasn't sure, and in a low and rough voice the man said, turn around and put your hands above your head. I had no idea what to do. Danny being the little spitfire that she is started to argue with the man and before I could even realize what was happening she charged right into the guy,

knocking him over and she shouted for me to run so I did. I could hear the man running after me as we made our way off the trail. We both ran to her car. She got into the passenger seat and we drove off. I could see the man in the parking lot as we were departing from the park. Along with my car, there were three other cars in the parking lot which made me think, was this guy alone or were there more people in danger in that park? When we were a safe distance away, we decided to call the police and report what had happened. The man was long gone and the only car in the lot when the police arrived was my vehicle. I remember having the thought at one point that Danny was setting me up, but thankfully after her apparent heroic action, that thought was put to bed.

After that horrifying interaction, we went to a late night diner and just stayed up all night talking. It was like that event brought us together closer for some reason, and in a lot of ways I have mixed feelings about Tinder. The app almost got me killed, but I also met Dani there, and now she's my fiancé. Whenever we tell people how we met, it's always fun to watch the reaction of people when we tell them that we met on Tinder and almost died on our first date. I still can't believe what she did that night and that we were able to actually get out of there unharmed. It just goes to show you that sometimes, good things can come out of the bad. Due to the nature of my job, I never found a serious relationship.

I've had some semi-serious flings, but nothing that lasts more than a few months. It's one of the few things about my job I don't like. While I'm still somewhat young, I'm using this job to travel and see the world. In the three years that I've worked here, I've seen just about every major landmark in the United States, and I've even got to visit some other countries. I'm just now getting to the point in my life, though, where I'm trying to settle down. Or maybe I'm just lonely, I don't know. But a few weeks ago, I had to travel to the other side of the country for work. The city that I was staying in was fairly large and I figured since I was going to be staying

there for a week, maybe I can try and find some companionship. A friend of mine told me to check out Tinder. I must have been out of touch because I thought Tinder worked for your hometown and I didn't realize that it was based on your current location. I set up my app and started swiping as they say. I worked all day and that afternoon when I checked my app, I was surprised to see how many matches I actually had. Since it was early enough in the evening, I decided to try my luck and see if I could get someone to go out and get a drink with me. The first few conversations failed miserably.

I then messaged Jen. She seemed like a free spirit and someone I wouldn't mind hanging out with. After a few minutes, I asked her if she wanted to go grab a drink, and she was totally down. We agreed to meet at 8.30 at some local bar. I talked to one of my friends before meeting her, and he joked around for me to be careful meeting women online. We both laughed, and I was honestly putting zero stock into this. I was just looking for some company and then who knows, if we clicked maybe we could hang out again. I arrived a few minutes early and by chance she was arriving at the same time.

We both embraced awkwardly outside the bar, had a quick chuckle about it and made our way inside for a drink. The first thing I was happy about was that the woman here was the exact same woman in the Tinder profile. I feel like I hear stories all the time of people getting played or catfished or whatever, so it was nice to see the woman that I actually thought I was talking to. Now a few hours into our date, we were getting along very well. We were making each other laugh and I don't know, it just felt good. All of it felt good. A few drinks in and she started to give me those friendly touches on the arm or on the hand. It was something about those soft and delicate touches that made me feel

comfortable and that this was evolving into maybe something. I had to keep reminding myself that I didn't live here though and telling myself that I can't fall too deep for this girl. I think it's worth noting that at this point of the night I had zero doubts and zero red flags about this person Jen. And close to midnight she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. As I smiled she leaned in and whispered softly, We should go back to your place. I could feel my heart racing and I'm not gonna lie, this is what I wanted. I nodded and we caught an Uber back to my Airbnb and before heading inside

she paused. I asked if she was okay and she said in an embarrassed voice, I'll meet you inside. I don't want you to see me but I smoke. I'm embarrassed by it. I'm trying to quit but it's a process. I assured her that I didn't care but she was persistent that I didn't see her smoke. Not wanting to upset her I went inside and started getting changed into some comfortable clothes. A few minutes went by and I noticed that she still wasn't inside. I went and looked out the front window and she was nowhere to be found. I stepped outside and shouted her name a few times and there was no response. The house that I was renting had this small wraparound porch and the front of the house

on the porch was a bench and I sat down on the bench and messaged Jen on the Tinder app. While I was waiting for her to respond, I was starting to get kind of nervous. After all, I didn't know this area and I started to think maybe it wasn't a safe neighborhood to be in, and the thoughts of something horrible happening to Jen started to flood my mind. Then I heard some commotion coming from the house. I turned around and looked through the window into my rented house. There she was, clear as day. Jen and two other random dudes. They seemed to be sneaking around my house. I just instantly, instinctually ducked down. I could see Jen whispering something to them but I couldn't hear what it was through the thick walls.

I saw her pull out her phone and she started to text. Seconds later, I got a message on Tinder from her saying, hey, where'd you go? I'm inside and I can't find you. I didn't respond. Jen and one of the guys stood in the living room, looking constantly around and over their shoulders. The other guy was not in view, which made me really nervous. Now, I should have called the police right there and then, but in the moment I couldn't think straight at all. I was still trying to put puzzle pieces together in my head and after a minute or two I saw the other guy whom I couldn't see a moment ago carrying some bag of some kind and it looked pretty full. I finally realized what was happening. I was pretty sure that I was getting robbed,

or at least the house that I was staying at was getting robbed. I saw the man with the bag head over to my laptop which was on the desk in the living room, and my entire life was on that laptop. I watched him follow the wire from the back of the wall and then he unplugged it. I couldn't let him steal that. I messaged Jen back and said that I called the police and will be here in less than 30 seconds. Obviously, that was a lie. I hadn't even called them yet, but I wanted to see her react. She screamed at them, saying that they had to go or something, and then the three of them ran out of the front door, running directly by me. Thankfully, they couldn't see that I was crouching over in the corner behind the bench.

I just sprinted inside and saw my laptop was still there. My wallet was also right next to the laptop, which contained all my credit cards and about $500 in cash, and luckily for me, this thief was either an idiot or completely blind. I did call the police and I told them everything that happened and no surprise, that Jen person was completely fake. We contacted the owners and I tried to figure out what they stole and it didn't look to be anything too valuable. Maybe some random pieces of art I guess or silverware, I don't even know, but they were

just from HomeGoods or TJ Maxx or something. They weren't any valuable things, and I stayed at a hotel for the rest of my stay, and I completely deleted my Tinder account, obviously. What disturbs me is that this woman is still out there, tricking people into letting her into their homes and robbing them. My sincere hope is that I never see Jen again and that I never have to return to place approximately six to seven years ago. I had recently gotten out of a long-term relationship and moved back to my hometown with a buddy of mine who was living by himself in a house that he recently bought. He had plenty of space and gave me a great deal on rent. I remember being very appreciative of the offer just because so much of my life had changed. I had gotten out of a relationship, started a new job, and would now be in the process of moving.

Now living with my friend Calvin, we'll call him, was fun right off the bat. I think the first night after I officially moved in we cracked open a bottle and just had some drinks while we were cooking dinner. I'm not normally a big drinker but I remember being hungover the next day at the job that I had just started not more than a week prior. But anyway, all of my single friends were on Tinder and trying to convince me to join. I wasn't much into social media, and the thought of meeting someone randomly on an app did not seem very appealing. Also, the stories that they would tell me about their interactions and encounters certainly didn't make it any more enticing for me to join. I decided to hard pass on downloading Tinder and was actually looking forward to being single for the first time in a while. It was none of the ordinary for Calvin and I to have people over at the house on the weekends. We never really had parties, but usually would have about five or six people over if there was

nothing else going on. I remember one night specifically we had more than just a few people over. Each person we invited brought a friend or two. A few people at the house asked if they could set up a table to play beer pong. We didn't care and let everyone have at it. One of my really good friends, Kelsey, came over that night to see the new place and just hang out. We hadn't seen each other in at least a year and I was excited to see what was new with her. We sat on the couch and talked for at least 45 minutes, updating each other about our

families and what was new in our lives. I grabbed us both a drink and sat back down and she said, I saw you took the plunge, eh? I looked at her confused and said, What? She smiled and responded, Tinder, I came across your profile. I didn't swipe right because I didn't want to be weird, but you could have picked pictures with better resolution.

Very funny, I said. And she looked at me kind of confused as I told her that I wasn't on Tinder. And she says, well, if you're really not on Tinder, someone's using your name in pictures on there. I didn't read the profile, but it was definitely you. And it was definitely your name in pictures on there. I didn't read the profile, but it was definitely you, and it was definitely your name. I looked at her, dumbfounded, and said, uh, well, that's pretty creepy. Do you think you could find it again? She wasn't sure, and she shouted for her friend and said, hey, Kristen, come here. Can you get on Tinder and just, can you just keep scrolling until you find him?

Maybe try and limit it to local or something so not as many counts show up? Kristen knew what was going on and gave the thumbs up and went back over to the pong table. We moved on with our conversation and switched to updating the playlist that was playing on the speakers at the party. In the middle of a big laugh about one of the songs that we chose, Kristen came over and said, I think this is you, buddy. It was me. She had matched with my fake Tinder profile.

I asked her to scroll through the photos, and there was one really old photo from when I had Facebook, and a couple of pictures from my Instagram account that I had not posted something new on at least a few years. The profile did have my name, but there wasn't really anything in the bio. I honestly don't recall if it even said anything. I asked Kristen if she could message them and ask them for their number. She did and the person responded right away. Instead of providing a number, they sent her to go to an Instagram account. I asked her to send it to me so Kelsey and I could see what the Instagram was. I figured it was going to be one of those Instagram accounts that said for only $4.99, we would give you 10,000 followers or something insane like that.

But when we got to the Instagram account, which was not private, the profile picture was a picture of my face and had my full name. And this is when I started to get a little angry and pretty concerned. I immediately went to message the account and said something along the lines of stop using my name in photos. I told the account that I had come across this page as well as that of Tinder account and I'll be reporting it to the police if it's not taken down. We waited 10 minutes or so and there was no response. I put my phone away and said let's go sign up for beer pong and the rest of the night was relatively uneventful. A couple of friends crashed on the couch and we cleaned up a little bit before deciding that we would save the rest for the morning. I remember putting on Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors as I cleaned up my room

and got ready for bed. Even though it was late in the night, I wasn't feeling tired, but as soon as I got into bed and turned on my fan, I passed out instantly, and that was until about 3am or so. My phone buzzed loudly. I usually keep my phone on silent or do not disturb, but I must have completely forgotten, and it was an Instagram notification. It was from the fake account, and it was just a smiley face. Not an emoji, literally the colon and parenthesis. Even though I was half asleep, I typed back demanding again that they delete the account and stop using my name in photos. I must have fallen back asleep because when I woke up in the morning, I had another response and it said, anything for you.

Very creeped out and annoyed, I noticed that the account didn't have my profile picture anymore. It was just a black circle and my name had been removed from the profile. Finally, I thought it was the end of this annoying BS. The topic had honestly slipped my mind for a while and till the following weekend when I had the house to myself. I wasn't feeling great and wanted to stay in bed and relax. Calvin went out to a bar and restaurant downtown with a group of friends. I was in bed watching TV and I got another alert on my phone. It was another Instagram message. It was from the same account and it said, I know where you are. Smiley face.

I looked at the message trying to think of what to type back and before I could respond an image came into the chat. It was a picture, and it was the outside of Calvin's house. It looked like it from across the street, but it was hard to tell exactly where it was from because the only light was street lights. I got out of bed and made sure all the lights were off and that the doors and windows were locked, which thankfully were. I didn't respond to the message, I don't know why. Honestly, it was probably because I was terrified and I didn't want to have a confrontation. If someone really was outside, I didn't want them any closer to the house. I sat there in silence with just my TV screen on and the volume on mute.

I was really anxious and just hoping that I wouldn't hear anything else, and I didn't. Well, for a few hours, that is. I think it was two or three hours later when I felt another buzz from my phone. This time it said, I know where you sleep. Smiley face. My heart sank. I had a baseball bat under my bed and I grabbed it.

My phone lit up again and it was a picture of a window. It was impossible to make out where it was but I think they were trying to insinuate that they were outside my window. I grabbed the bat, slung open the back door and screamed that if you come anywhere near this house our dog will tear you to shreds and the cops are on their way. I slammed the door shut and locked it, terrified that I even went outside. Also, we didn't have a dog but thought that that might deter someone if they actually were outside. About 15 minutes later I heard rattling at the front door and the door swung open. As I decided if I was going to take a swing with the bat, Calvin said,

What are you doing? I explained the entire thing to him and after debating if we should call the cops we decided to just block the account and see if anything else happened. Thankfully nothing ever came of the incident. I didn't receive any other messages or have any other friends tell me that they found fake profiles of me. I know you're probably thinking that that was my last experience with Tinder. Well, you're wrong. About six months later, I did rejoin Tinder, and I have a bunch of different stories for a different day, but thankfully, this is my a generation of online dating.

I remember being in high school, and online dating was something that losers did. It was for people who couldn't get dates in the real world, I thought. When I was in college, not only was that previous statement incorrect, but it was the primary way my generation met people for dates and various other activities. I was even a frequent user of dating apps by my mid-twenties. My favorite one to use was Tinder, obviously. I just found that most of the time on the app I found people that were into going out, grabbing a drink and just hanging out. One of my more unique stories from meeting people on Tinder was the night that I met

Felicia, and that chick was awesome. We started messaging earlier in the day and we agreed to hit up one of the bars near her house that night. We met up and started vibing right away. As the night progressed, I saw her expression and mood instantly change. Getting to the point where I couldn't ignore it anymore, I asked her if she was alright, and she said in a whisper I could barely hear, You see that guy with the Yankees hat across the bar? That's my ex's best friend. He's been staring over here for the last hour. My ex is, well, he isn't a good guy. I'm sure he's probably texted him and I'm just nervous about him showing up. I didn't care about her ex. I've dealt with crazy exes before and I assured her that I was okay and that I could take care of myself.

She gave me kind of a half smile and asked if we could leave. Of course I agreed and we decided that we could go back to my place for the night. On our way out the door, her ex's friend confronted us. Not even acknowledging my existence, he looked right at Felicia and said, Hey, can't say hi to me? And you're leaving already? Well, that's crazy. Why don't you just come back in and just buy me a drink, huh? She said no thank you pretty politely and he started begging like a child. Come on, just one drink. Before she could answer, I stepped in front and extended my hand and introduced myself.

He laughed, looked right past me at Felicia and said, really? And then walked away laughing. Ordinarily, that would make me mad, but I let it go since I could see how much this interaction bothered her. We finally went back to my place and nothing crazy happened. We actually played Mario Party on the Nintendo Switch and had a couple more drinks and fell asleep on the couch together. When we woke up, we both were happy and agreed to see each other again. I watched that happiness disappear from her face when she looked at her phone. She had a message from a friend of hers that was at the bar that night and apparently, not long after we left, her ex showed up at that bar. She started to apologize to me again and told me that she understood if I didn't want to see her again because of this craziness and I reassured her that I'm not scared of any ex-boyfriends.

We went on a few more dates and never went back to that bar specifically. And the rest of our dates had been to outdoor places like parks and beaches and she started staying over at my house a few nights a week. I was kind of starting to fall for this girl and I believe that she was starting to fall for me as well. I remember asking her if she wanted to stay at her place one night and she just said something along the lines of she had too many roommates or something and we wouldn't have any privacy. It worked for me because I'd rather stay home anyway. One Saturday night,

a few weeks removed from the bar incident, Felicia stayed over at my house. It was a great night as always and we got into bed to pass out at around midnight. I'm not sure how much longer it had been but I woke up to Felicia screaming on the phone. Her ex called her, and apparently was freaking out on the other side. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but I could hear his tone on the phone, and he was definitely hollering. She hung up the phone in a rage and threw it across the room. I had to hold her and try to calm her down, and eventually she did start to calm down, and we just laid down in bed together. As we were laying there together, we heard the sound of two car doors shut right outside the house.

She started to repeatedly yell the word no as she gripped the blanket. I ran to the top of the stairs, which has a window that overlooks the driveway. I could see a large man in a Yankees hat and another large man with a short, almost buzzed haircut. When they got closer, I could clearly tell the one guy was the guy from the bar. I asked her if her ex had a buzz cut and she said yes and that we needed to go right now. I wasn't about to back down. These two guys didn't even try knocking. They both started just kicking the door in an attempt to break it down. Felicia ran to the door and begged them to stop, but they didn't.

Then she did something that I'll never understand. She unlocked the door, allowing these two absolute maniacs to barge into my home. Once I saw them run inside, I just hid in the closet. I'm a strong guy, but I'm not about to win a fight against two dudes way bigger than me. Her ex started freaking out instantly, demanding that I show myself. I could hear her saying, please, just let's go home. I'm so sorry. I'll never do this again. I couldn't see, but from what I could hear, it sounded like he was ignoring her because he kept just shouting for me. I could hear things banging and smashing downstairs and Felicia just kept yelling for him to stop.

After a couple of minutes they left and I heard him shout one last time that this isn't over yet bro. I heard the car drive off and when I left the closet and went downstairs, I saw that they had destroyed my living room. I sat on the couch and contemplated calling the police but I started to think about what she said. She said, let's go home and I'll never do this again. And then the wheels started turning in my head. Was this girl in an active relationship? Was I the other man? I didn't have any social media at the time because I found it extremely distracting and I had one of my friends look Felicia up and I couldn't believe my eyes. Not only was she in a relationship, but she was also married to this dude. I felt terrible.

I found his name on Facebook and I sent him a private message from my friend's account and told him that it was me messaging him from this account and I apologized and told him that I had no idea and if I had known that she was married I would have never continued talking to her. Believe it or not he actually went on to accept my apology and he also apologized for being an absolute loon. He agreed to pay for any damage to my house and I agreed to never talk to Felicia again and I never did. I blocked her number and I don't even know if she tried to reach out to me again. I definitely think this dude overreacted, but I'll be honest, I get it. Sometimes heartbreak makes you do some wild things, and someone told me that he saw them out together recently so maybe they did fix their marriage. It's just crazy to me that so many signs were in front of my face and I was blind to

them. He worked overnights, which is why I was able to spend so many nights with her. She did an excellent job of convincing me that this guy was her ex, but my advice to anyone out there using Tinder, or really any dating service, just be careful. People do have agendas, and they do have baggage. You may be just having a good time, you know. But the person you're with may be doing something much shadier than you expect. By 2022, I had my fair share of Tinder dates, some great ones and some that I'd rather never think about again. Around that time, I was just trying to casually meet people and wasn't looking for anything serious. I ended up matching with a guy named Kyle.

He seemed alright when we were chatting and I figured that I would let him take me out. We went and grabbed a drink at a local bar and I had a nice night. We talked, laughed and agreed that we would see each other again soon. That night we were texting back and forth and trying to figure out a plan to see each other again. I agreed to a dinner date next Sunday and maybe some drinks after, depending on how late it got. He tried to get me to go to some party on Saturday night, but unfortunately I had to work and wasn't into getting ready and going out after work. At the time I was a waitress at a restaurant that was open until midnight on weekends and we were busy right up until that point usually. He seemed cool with it and we agreed on the Sunday night date.

Throughout the week we messaged back and forth on the Tinder app. I'm not sure why we never actually exchanged actual numbers, but this was alright with me. Saturday arrived and I was receiving messages all afternoon saying things like he was going to miss me tonight and that he wished I could go. That night at around 8.30, the hostess came to me and said that she just sat me a table of six that requested me as their server. Curious, I looked over the ledge and I couldn't believe my eyes. It was Kyle, with five of his friends. I was happy to see him, but a part of me wished that he would have told me that he was coming. I don't really like being blindsided, but I appreciated the effort. I came over and right away his friends were acting like teenage boys even though we were all well in our mid-twenties. They were howling and just being idiots. Kyle apologized

and I just shrugged it off. Anybody who has ever been a waitress knows that you will always deal with stupid people. It's unfortunately part of the job. It seemed like every two minutes the table was calling me over for something. Most of the time it was for stupid questions on Kyle's behalf, and once I was officially annoyed, Kyle called me over and asked if I would please reconsider and go to the party with him. I didn't want to go at all, and after tonight I was kind of all done with Kyle, you know, but I did something that was probably a little mean just to see if he would do it. In front of all of his friends, I told him to get on his hands and knees in the restaurant

and beg me to go, and if he was sincere, I would go. His friends erupted in cheers and laughter. He had no choice now. He had to do it, and to his credit, he got down there and sincerely begged me to go. While his friends were dying of laughter, I told him that I would go after work, but the only condition was that I was going to drive myself because I didn't know what time that I was getting out and I needed to go home first no matter what. He agreed and told me to message him when I was close. I wasn't thrilled about going, but I told myself that I could use a fun time out. I worked the rest of the shift and I was able to leave right at midnight

which was nice. I drove home quickly, got dressed and then asked Kyle to send me the address. He messaged me back right away, gave me the address and sent me a kiss face emoji. The party was 36 minutes from my house which really annoyed me since I wouldn't get there until nearly 1am. When I was close, I realized that we still hadn't exchanged numbers, so I couldn't call him. Wherever I was, it was pitch black, and it was seemingly in the middle of nowhere. I finally pulled up to a small farmhouse and all the lights were off. I sat in my car for a minute and messaged Kyle a few times. Finally, he answered and said that he would come out and get me. He said the party was in the back

of the barn. A minute later, he emerged from behind the house, wobbling around, and he was clearly messed up by the time I got there. He could barely form complete sentences. I was about to get in my car and drive home, which I should have, but since I had taken all the time to drive out here, I figured that I would at least see what the party's all about. Kyle put his arm around me and was sort of guiding me behind the house. And not far from the back of the house was a decent sized barn and I could see lights coming from the open door.

We made our way into the barn and I instantly regretted my decision. Inside were two guys I didn't recognize. These were two older men, easily in their forties or fifties. All the guys he was with at the restaurant were nowhere to be found. There were no girls, no music, no food, no anything. It was just me, Kyle, and these two sketchy dudes. I wasn't about to take any chances. I looked to Kyle and said I'm leaving and that I'd talk to him tomorrow. In a straight and serious voice, Kyle said, no you're not. You're not leaving. And he wasn't mumbling anymore. It almost seemed like it was all an act to get me to walk behind the barn. I turned around, and one of the guys was behind me,

and the other was next to the barn doors. You see, I always keep pepper spray on this keychain that I had, and I had no regrets. As I sprayed the older guy, I made a dash for the barn door. Luckily, I was able to get out before the other guy was able to shut the door. And while I was running to my car, I could hear Kyle screaming my name and begging me to come back. This time, I was smart and I just kept driving. I drove past my house and parked at a 24-hour gas station.

I went through our entire Tinder conversation to see if I ever told them where I lived and thankfully I never shared that information. I never went home that night and drove to my parents' house and crashed on the couch. The next day I told my parents about what had happened. We alerted the authorities just to see if there was anything that could be done. The Tinder account was deactivated, and since I never had a phone number or anything, I couldn't give the police any information, and since nothing physically happened to me, they didn't seem all too interested. I guess they did check out that farm, but they found nothing suspicious other than an elderly man who lived on the farm.

And to this day, I never had seen that Kyle or any of his friends again. I don't know what was going to happen, and I don't know if anything would have even happened, and I often go back to that night mentally and try to see if I was misremembering anything. But I remember it as if though it happened yesterday. I'll never have any answers as to what Kyle intended, and I'll always be left with the memory of that nightmare. About a year ago, when I became single for the first time in years, I was reluctant to get back into the dating scene.

I felt tired of the thought of dating and getting back out there, as they always say. A friend of mine suggested that I just check out Tinder. At first, it was an easy pass for me. I know what kind of men are on Tinder, and I definitely wasn't looking for that. However, I did let the idea marinate for a little while. I found out that one of my co-workers that became a close friend found her husband on Tinder, and she told me that not everyone on Tinder is gross, you just need to take some chances. So I finally created my Tinder account, added some cute pics and waited. I got some hits on my profile after a while and most guys were either pigs or they were as boring as watching paint dry. And just as I was about to call it quits on the dating app, I got a match with a guy named Ron.

He was a good looking guy, and from what I could tell in his pictures, he seemed tall and in shape. Some of the pictures on his profile were of some basketball thing, so I was able to see his height compared to others around him. He had shoulder length brown hair and a beautiful smile. The smile was probably his best attribute. After we matched, he messaged me not long after. We made some small talk for a little while and then the conversation evolved. Before I knew it, I had been messaging this guy for a few hours. He finally asked me for my number and asked if we could go grab a cup of coffee or something.

I was happy that he asked me to go get coffee and not a drink. I'm not a big drinker and I don't like bars very much. It just seemed like every match I had gotten before Ron wanted to take me out for a drink and it was refreshing to have someone offer something else. So we picked a date and time and I told him that I would meet him there since I would be in that part of town. That was a lie. But one of my friends told me to always have a getaway strategy on the first Tinder date, just in case it goes sour. I showed up at the cafe a few minutes early and scanned the area. I didn't see him so I ordered my coffee and sat down by one of the windows. After about 15 minutes I was starting to feel like I was being stood up. I looked around and one minute prior I had a message from Ron asking where I was. I responded, telling him that I was there and that I had been there for 15 minutes. I looked around the cafe and standing by the counter I saw a large and nearly balding man.

I didn't recognize him when I initially looked around the cafe because this guy looked nothing like the pictures from his profile. I started to wave and that's when he noticed me. He flashed a smile and started to jog over to me and as he jogged over I realized right away that this was the guy from the photos. It's just those photos must have been older. I knew because of that smile. As he pulled away from a very awkward hug he noticed that I was drinking a coffee and he said in an annoyed voice, uh is that a coffee? I smiled and laughed telling him that I was more than capable of buying my own coffee. He just stared at my hand holding the coffee and said some stupid line about how he should have bought the coffee since he was taking me out. I told him not to worry about any of that

and that I wasn't that type of girl. So even though this guy looked way different from his pictures, I wasn't going to judge that. He sat down and I was excited to actually talk to Ron in person and get to know this guy that I had vibed well with over messaging. Well, I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but I swear to you, he spent 90% of the day talking about how much money he has, how much money he makes, and when, not if, when we get married, I will never have to work another day in my life. I was polite enough to let the date go for about an hour or so and then I told him I had to leave and that I would be in touch. I'm sure he caught the vibe that I wasn't into this at all. He looked annoyed that I was ending the date. As we were walking to our cars, he said, you're not going to invite me over?

I wanted to see that world-famous golden retriever you always talk about. He giggled in a weird way, and I just told him that we'll do that another day. And with a smile, I told him that I had a family dinner to get to and I needed to run. I got in my car without giving him a hug, and when I looked in my mirror, I saw him standing in that same spot, just kind of watching me drive away. I'm not sure why, but at that moment, I felt very uneasy. That night, my friend Tess came over and I told her about the date and how he was just off from the start. She laughed and said that she would have probably done the

same thing. Now around 11, I asked Tess if she would stay over at my house. I don't know why I couldn't shake that feeling of anxiety, but it got worse as the night carried on. She agreed and we both decided to stay in the living room like a sleepover. She passed out quickly, but I ended up wide awake on the couch just scrolling through my phone. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me at one point but I had been so focused on my phone that I didn't even realize there were lights shining into my living room window. Since I live on a moderately busy street, it's not that uncommon to see lights shining through the window as cars drive by but these lights were not moving and

were shining for several minutes now. I got up and made my way to the window and right before I pulled back the silk curtain, the lights went off. I looked quickly and the lights were not from the road, they were from my driveway. Right there, parked behind my car in the driveway, was some red pickup truck. I ducked down and peeked from the corner of the window trying to see if I could identify who the driver was. I figured that they must have been lost or something. And right at that moment, at 1.27am, I got a message from Ron saying, are you kidding me? I had no idea what he was talking about. I didn't respond. Seconds later, the truck turned back on and pulled out of my driveway. As I watched the truck driving away, it clicked.

I'd seen that truck before. I went back into Ron's Tinder profile and the last picture of him was standing next to a red pickup truck. I messaged him back a question mark and then asked if he was just at my house. No response at that moment, and I never got another response from Ron again. I told Tess about it in the morning and she freaked out, claiming that I should have called the police. But I was scared and not thinking straight, and I really didn't think the cops could do anything at this point. I mean, what if it was just a coincidence? I don't believe it was, but I also don't have 100% proof that it was him either. The reason I'm writing this story now is that I just started seeing someone new and coincidentally, I started seeing a red pickup truck everywhere I go, but I can't seem to get a glimpse of the driver. A few nights back,

I saw one parked across the street from my house the entire night. I haven't reported it yet, but I am close to acting. I tried reaching out to Ron one time, and I think that he has my number blocked or something. If anything happens, I'll update the story and share it with you, but until then, be careful meeting people online. You never know who are truly creeps. When I was 15 or 16, I used to sneak over to my boyfriend's house that was just around the block. I wasn't allowed to date him because crazy stepdad and all. Anyways, I leave his house to meet up with my friends. It's summertime in Chicago, about 5.30 or 6.

Still light out, but the sun is starting to set. In my town, a bunch of kids would meet at this convenience store that was kind of in the middle of our tiny town. My boyfriend and I lived all the way on the opposite side of this middle part of town. It's a super cute town, all the houses look the same, some bungalows. Trees line the nicely manicured lawns and no matter where you are, you know someone that lives on a street or two away. Well, I was walking maybe five blocks away from my destination, alone. I remember crossing the street and seeing this young guy cross from the opposite side of the road onto his side of the road. Think rows of blocks. I'm on a side, he's on a side. Not weird,

but my Nana always taught me to be suspicious of anyone. Yes, I know it's not a healthy way to be, but this is what generational trauma does. So the guy is on the opposite side of the road, a little behind me. I'm aware of him and make sure that he knows this as I look at him. And this is something I've learned growing up, and I'm just going on my way, not really concerned at this point. Now a block later, he crosses over and speeds up closer to me. I can't describe how or why, but this is when all my senses went to high alert. He's close enough that I can see his face and the look in his eyes. Maybe this is when I should tell you that I'm not even five feet.

At this point in my life, I was well under a hundred pounds. I'm very tiny. So I grabbed my phone and I pretend to call someone yelling so he can hear me saying, I'm coming up the stairs right now. Hurry. Obviously panicked. I dart up some random stairs to the front door. When I looked back, he was right at the bottom of the sidewalk, out of breath, and made this look like F you and started to walk away. I snuck behind some bushes and waited a bit to make sure that he left and called my boyfriend and ran the last few blocks to meet up with my friends. I mean, maybe it was nothing, but my gut tells me different. I still remember that guy's face and from time to time, to look up to see if anyone matches his description in the news. I was released from a mental health section in 2005. I was left homeless and had to move in with an old friend as my family had disowned me. During this time my friend's best mate from the

flat above befriended me and me and Ryan became really good friends. The more I lived in this block of flats the easier I had made more friends. Sadly we were all alcoholics and we would wake up early to start drinking and we called ourselves the breakfast club as we would get up early and just drink away the day. One particularly sunny morning we decided to go sit by the canal and have a more scenic view for our liquid breakfast. As we were joking, a man we didn't know approached us and asked for a cigarette. Ryan obliged and we accepted him into our little group and we continued to drink. As it started to enter late afternoon we decided to go our separate ways and we accepted him into our little group and we continued to drink. As it started to enter late afternoon, we decided to go our separate ways and we walked back to our flats. Ryan took home this stranger as he had said that he had more booze at home

and they seemed to enjoy each other's company. My friend Annie and I thought nothing of it as we said goodbye. As 8am the next day rolled around, we were surprised Ryan had knocked on the door to rouse us of another summer day of drinking and laughs, so we made our way up to the next floor to see if he was ready to come to the shops. There was no answer from us obnoxiously ringing the doorbell or knocking, so Annie opened the letterbox to shout Ryan, and that's when she looked at me frantically saying, there's blood. I can just see blood. I asked what was going on and told her to stop being silly but then I looked through the letterbox myself. I was left panicked as the only thing in this flat I could really see was just

covered in blood. Annie in a total confusion and, ran back down the stairs to get Ryan's spare key. As we entered the flat, the stench of iron and blood filled our nostrils and as we approached the kitchen, we found Ryan, dead, almost decapitated, lying next to his hatchet that he had kept for self-defense. The man we had befriended had been the murderer, and to this day I feel guilty for it. The man had claimed that Ryan had flirted with him, and he had felt afraid, so he killed our good friend in what he described as a gay panic self-defense. The brutality he displayed seemed to go beyond self-defense though. He even removed his own clothes and put on some of Ryan's before being caught on CCTV leaving the block.

This monster received only four years in prison for taking the life of our wonderfully bright friend who had never wronged anyone. He was gay, but was harmless, and regardless of what this monster had said. And soon after, I left the block and rebuilt my life. I'm now the only remaining member of the Breakfast Club. Annie carried the guilt of allowing Ryan to bring that man back, and she died at the age of 44 from a broken heart and her alcoholism. I'm now 44 with three kids and a better life, and I'll never forget those people. They taught me a lot about life and they took me in, and I just wish that they could have achieved more and known how much they were loved. I don't usually write a lot, but there's something that's been weighing heavily on my mind,

and I feel the need to share it. It happened when I was just 13 years old, and although it occurred fairly recently, there's certain details of that incident that still remain a hazy memory. Nevertheless, I'll do my best to recount the night that forever changed my life. The amusement park, the only renowned one in our state, had recently opened its gates as the seasons transitioned into summer. For privacy reasons, I won't disclose the park's name or the ride where this unsettling event occurred. Typically, I visit the park once or twice a year with my friends, family, and occasionally my parents. We would roam around, indulge in tasty treats, and experience the thrill of the rides, just regular kid stuff.

However, this particular visit was destined to make me swear off amusement parks for the rest of my days. It was a chilly night, that mix of cold and warm, however the sky remained clear, which was all the confirmation my friends Nick and Caden and I needed to ask our parents if we could go. Miraculously, they agreed, and in no time, we found ourselves being dropped off at the park's entrance, brimming with excitement, ready to immerse ourselves in the vibrant, thrilling attractions. Among them, there was one ride that stood out as my personal favorite, and I'm certain my friends felt the same way. Housed inside a dome-shaped building, this exhilarating ride dazzled us with a whirlwind of spinning lights and adrenaline-pumping speeds. It seemed

like the perfect choice, except for one thing. The dreaded line. Not only was it a claustrophobic person's worst nightmare, but it almost always guaranteed an agonizing wait of at least an hour. On that particular occasion, the line stretched so far that it reached one of the neighboring rides about a hundred yards away. Seeing this, we let out exasperated sighs, realizing that we had no choice but to endure the line before we could move on. We figured we might as well just get it out of the way early. As the line snaked its way forward, we noticed that on the left side, where the line extended towards the forest,

there were shrubs and bushes. My friends and I didn't pay much attention to them at first, which is why we failed to notice something peculiar until we reached the large sign bearing the ride's name. It was Caden who first spoke up, excitement laced with a hint of concern evident in his voice. Did you guys see that? He exclaimed, pointing in the direction of the forest. No, what are you talking about? Nick replied, glancing over at the bushes. Curiosity peaked, I looked in the same direction. There, crouched down among the foliage, was a person wearing a Jason Voorhees mask. Initially, we found it amusing, thinking that it was part of some Halloween-themed event or party that the amusement park occasionally hosted in October. However, it was July,

a fact that should have raised some more suspicion. Whether it was ignorance or just us being naive kids, we chuckled, assuming it was some kid playing a harmless prank. Our attention quickly returned to the ride and we dismissed the incident as an inconsequential oddity. We endured the line for a grueling two hours and despite the relatively brief five-minute ride itself, it was undeniably worth the wait. Afterward, we decided to grab a bite to eat and enjoy a few more attractions. Time flew by and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the parking lot where our parents would be waiting. Unlike other kids who would typically complain, we welcomed the idea of

leaving as exhaustion started to creep in. Amusement parks can be quite demanding. Navigating through the throngs of people, also making their way towards the exit, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, a glimpse of that very same Jason Voorhees mask. This time I managed to catch a glimpse of the full figure behind it. The person was massive, towering at least 6'6 with a build reminiscent of a freight train. This man was a behemoth and it became glaringly evident that it wasn't just some kid playing a childish prank. Subtly urging my friend to quicken their pace, we hustled toward the exit.

As we reached the dark expanse of the parking lot, I finally gathered the courage to share what I had seen. I told them what I saw, and how big the guy was, my voice trembling with a mix of fear and disbelief. Yeah, right, Nick responded, who was always the skeptic, especially when it came to this sort of stuff. Caden, however, remained silent, his gaze fixated on the park behind us, an uneasiness apparent in his eyes. No, seriously, I insisted, my voice growing more urgent as Nick and I engaged in a brief back and forth. Caden's next words cut through our heated exchange, causing us to pause and snap our heads back in the direction of the park.

Little did I know that his revelation would unleash an unprecedented terror, leaving an indelible mark on my childhood memories. Guys, look! Caden screamed. His voice tinged with terror as he began sprinting toward the parking lot. At first, all I could see were the masses of people flooding out of the park. I didn't understand what had spooked him so profoundly, and Nick appeared equally confused.

And then I saw it. The Jason Voorhees mask once again. This time, the significance of its presence registered in our minds, and we bolted in sheer panic. The colossal figure, adorned with the mask, was hurtling towards us at an alarming speed, clutching something in his hand, a mysterious cloth that I never had a chance to examine closely. We ran as if all our lives depended on it, eventually catching up to Caden in the vast expanse of the parking lot. Together, we gasped for breath, scanning our surroundings in a frenzied state until we spotted my parents' car. Without wasting a second, we scrambled inside, screaming at them to floor it. Although they wore expressions of bewilderment and concern,

my dad pressed down on the accelerator, propelling us away from that nightmare as swiftly as possible. Interrogation became the theme of our one-hour car ride back home, and it was Nick who mustered up the courage to offer brief one-word answers to our parents' relentless questions. In truth, all of us were still reeling from the shock, struggling to process the enormity of what had just occurred. To this day, I remain baffled by the man's intentions. What did he want with us? Why did he single us out? Why did he do this with a ton of people around?

And what horrors awaited us if he had managed to close the distance between us? I vowed never to return to that specific amusement park, although I've visited a few others since then. Nevertheless, you can bet your bottom dollar that I always keep a vigilant eye, forever wary of the lurking shadows, for you never know who might be hiding in the darkness, waiting to pounce. I'm a 24-year-old female. I used to live in an old Victorian house in Maryland, and at the time of this story, I was 10 years old. This house had been turned into a duplex that split the two floors and basically just rented them as apartments.

I lived in the upstairs. There was a university nearby so we had a lot of college students and we also had a lot of drug issues in the area. People were always getting their houses searched or getting into fights over it and I don't remember much crime happening there that was unrelated to drugs. The owner of the house had told my family that the people who had rented the upstairs previously had given him a lot of trouble and he had to kick them out. My family had just moved there for my dad's new job and we didn't have a place to live yet so we were thankful that their contract ended early so we could take their place. If there was anything

else the owner told my parents it was not shared with me. I was homeschooled online and an only child, so my parents would leave for the day to go work while I stayed in the apartment and did my schoolwork alone. Maybe about a week after we had moved in, there was this loud banging on the door. I had ran down the inside stairs to open it and there was this tall, thick man dressed in all black, with a black mask over his whole face, with holes for its eyes and mouth. As immensely stupid as this sounds, no alarm bells went off to me. This place was cold year-round, and I stupidly assumed that his snow gear just happened to be black. Behind him I remember seeing a car parked next to the building that was still running.

He just stood there silently for a couple of seconds, and I felt felt awkward so I said, hi, can I help you with something? He continued to just stand there for what felt to me like forever before saying something like, I'm just here for the mail. I'm smiling and saying something like, oh sure, you must have just moved out. My dad already brought the mail in this morning, let me go see if there's anything. So I turned around and let the door wide open and ran inside to find the mail pile. I looked through it but didn't see anything that didn't have my family's name on it so I went back to the door. When I went back to tell him the bad news, he was gone and so was the car. When they came home that evening,

I told my parents, unaware that the previous renters had stopped by and asked for their mail. My dad had a fit and said that I shouldn't have opened the door while I was home alone and that apparently our mail comes from the owner since he separates it before bringing it to each renter's box since we had the same address so we wouldn't have gotten in any mail that didn't belong to us anyways and that the previous renters would already know that. He was furious with me for being a moron and that was before he thought to ask what they look like and I described the all black suit and mask. I know enough to know that I handled this situation entirely wrong and beyond stupid and I'm not looking to get berated for it.

I would actually like to hear if you think if this suspicious guy had malicious intentions, why didn't he do anything? I was home alone. It was morning, so my parents wouldn't have come back until evening anyways. I don't even think that the other renter was home. I clearly didn't suspect anything from him and left the door wide open while I turned my back to him and ran inside the house. I am immensely thankful that nothing happened to me. I don't ever want to appear as ungrateful that

this didn't take an awful turn. I just don't understand what protected me, if that is actually the case. This happened to me a few weeks ago in New York City. I, a 23-year-old female, was walking to an appointment in Midtown. It was morning. I had my headphones in. This older woman was walking towards me and started urgently waving me down as I passed her. I slow down and take an earbud out because I'm curious. She immediately starts telling me how her friend was supposed to meet her right where we were and wanted me to call him for her because she didn't have a phone. Then she's like, it'll be just a second. His number is

and starts rattling off a number. I don't know why but I found myself starting to actually type this number out to call it when everything clicked. I don't want why but I found myself starting to actually type this number out to call it when everything clicked. I don't want this random guy that she's calling to have my number. My gut said it was a bad idea to call and also I was going to be late to my appointment. I was just like, actually sorry I gotta run, try using a phone in one of the stores. She flips a switch and starts yelling at me, telling me to go F myself, etc. I put my earbud back in and just hauled it away from her. When I was a bit further away from her, I looked back and saw that she wasn't stopping anyone else. Anyways, you'd think

this was some kind of scam, maybe drug related or just a crazy person, or something more sinister. It was pretty freaky either way, especially the way that her demeanor just changed on a dime. To be continued... It wasn't that long after that we entered that my dad approached me and gave me his clothes to hold as he wanted to smoke a cigarette outside. I had always stuck to the buddy system when alone, but I figured as my dad couldn't see me and I was within earshot of my sister that I was able to browse the clothes. There wasn't much at our goodwill. It was after I turned down an aisle where the books and CDs were that I noticed a man in a bright blue shirt was behind me. I had initially thought nothing of it and browsed through the records, but I started to get this weird and itchy feeling after I noticed that he kept on inching closer. At the time I already found a record and was debating if I should quickly turn and walk off,

but I was admittedly stupid and didn't get away as fast as I wanted to. He seemed really icky and creepy when he was pretending to browse the lack of books. I wasn't there for a long before my dad had found me and told me it was time to go. I was incredibly grateful for his timing as I was feeling really tense and anxious. My dad even told the man to back up and watch how close he was but the man didn't even react. He just stayed hunched over looking at the same shelf of books. I quickly turned the conversation to something light as my sister came over when we were walking to the counter and kept it that way for the rest of our outing. But what made me feel worse was the fact that the man, not even five minutes later as we were checking out, had moved from the spot and was now looking at us.

Not only that, but he had moved to another location in the store, further away in the women's section, and staring at us for a bit and then started to act like he was looking around. The whole ordeal was really uncomfortable and was the first I'd ever experienced it first hand. Even I had doubts that maybe he was browsing and wasn't being a creep but the fact that he kept on inching closer and even watched us check out continued to stay on my mind the whole time. It just made me feel really out of place. He didn't come out of the store or follow us from what I can tell. We went to three other places afterwards, but it was such an unforgettable experience. My friend and I are both young females, small petite build. We had been drinking at a hotel and decided to walk to the main strip, about a 20 minute walk at around 9.45pm.

We're laughing, listening to music and just having plain fun at this point. Now this is when things started to go south though. Out of nowhere, a lady pops out in front of us. She obviously looks like she's on something. She's twitching, walking super funny, and she's on the phone. This is important. So my friend and I stepped around her because she was initially going the opposite way of us.

Then all of a sudden, she walks past us, and while she's getting ahead of us, she's looking back and speaking into the phone. I for some reason was already feeling kind of uncomfortable, so my friend and I slowed down to let her stay in front of us, but we decided to go to the other side of the street because why not? The lady sees this, speaks into the phone again, and crosses with us. I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt thinking that maybe she's uncomfortable and feels unsafe and is trying to use us as a cover, but my gut was telling me otherwise. So while she's walking

in front of us, she still frequently is looking back and talking into the phone, so we cross the street to put some distance between us. This time, the lady almost turns down a street where a man wearing all black walks out in the same direction we were going. The lady stops at this cross street and just stares at us, and then she steps behind some kind of bush, I guess. The man went about 300 feet in front of us on the opposite side of the street and then turned around and walked back to the same cross street the lady was at. We were still speedwalking, so where they supposedly stepped off to was now out of sight. My friend was local to the town that I was staying in, so she was already calling a friend who lived two blocks down to come and get us. Around this time, I look back and see both of them speed walking towards us. At this point,

I'm trying to make it obvious that I've noticed them by turning around, pointing, and even yelling. Luckily, when they were about two blocks away, her friend arrived and we were able to speed off. I just wasn't sure if their entire plan the entire time was some type of kidnapping or trafficking expedition. Okay, so a few years ago I lived in an apartment complex in San Antonio, Texas. I, a 26-year-old female, lived there for about four years with a couple of my best friends. So over the years I would run in a neighborhood that was close to our apartment complex. I've actually had a couple of weird things happen to me throughout the years running through there as well as at our complex, but this event was the most terrifying moment of my life and caused me to stop running in that neighborhood altogether until life finally found my friends and I moving to different cities.

So over the years of running in that neighborhood, I became familiar with this one house that gave serious trap house vibes. It was very out of place for the neighborhood as there was an elementary school just up the street and the area is not a high crime area. It was a corner house that was at the first stop side of my running path, so closest to my apartment, and housed a group of about six huge men. That's usually about how many I would see together at one time, and they always had people coming and going, and it sounded like they threw a never-ending party, and their property smelled strongly of weed. As a woman and an avid watcher of crime documentaries, I'm constantly paranoid and observant of my surroundings, which is why I'd come to know that house so well. Throughout the years, I'd always managed to see them, but they never saw me.

But the last year we lived there, that changed. Just so y'all know, it was not dark at all during this event. The sun was out and shining brightly and it was about 5.30pm or so. So I'm at the start of my path and I'm coming up to that first stop sign in the house. Per usual I look for them and their vehicle and any potential traffic and I see that they aren't home. They only had one vehicle that they would all pile into and it was a big black Tahoe or something. I continue on my run, which takes me further up past that house into another neighborhood where I would run around in a cul-de-sac a few times

before running back down that path. I'd say about an hour and a half passes by and then I decided to head home before the sun starts to set and it gets dark. As I'm running home and coming up to that house and the stop sign, I'm listening to music and running and see that I'll need to stop at the stop sign because of traffic. I'm coming up to that sign, which puts the house to the right of me and stop sign for the four-way intersection to the left of me. I credit what happened next to trusting my instincts, remaining observant and being in band and softball. I was honestly really tired for my run, so I was kind of looking down at the ground rather than ahead, but I always utilized

my peripheral vision. Shout out to being a band nerd if you know, you know. So I take off to run across the street to the sidewalk that will take me to the fence on the side of my apartment complex. It didn't have a door. I would just either hop it or slide under to run down that path, and I see that the vehicle had been stopped at the stop sign perpendicular to me in the vehicle that I know to belong to that house that was just on the right of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see them turn like they're going to go down their street when I think, hmm, that turn seemed too wide like a U-turn which is weird since their house is right there. I take all of two tired

steps, I was out of energy at this point, before I get this sinking gut feeling. I have never in my life felt this feeling before but I immediately felt danger at my back and everything in my body and mind told me to run for my life. So I did. And with that feeling of fear in my stomach and danger on my back, I sprinted down the sidewalk with renewed vigor and slid under the fence like I was sliding to home plate. I immediately popped up and turned around to look outside the fence where I had just been, and I saw them. The group of men that I had only ever seen in passing were sitting in their car on the street outside my apartment complex fence with their windows down and all six of them staring directly at me. We stared at each other for what seemed like a long

time before I watched them drive away and once they were out of sight, I ran like hell to my apartment and locked myself in there, scared to show them exactly where my apartment was as I was worried that they were circling the complex lurking for me. I told my friends what had happened and spent the rest of the night full of adrenaline, pacing and reflecting on what had happened. Those men purposely chose to not go home but pull a U-turn to follow me as I ran. Recounting the story over the years, I've had people tell me it was so they could view my butt as I ran, but when I remember that feeling in my body that was almost a voice in my head yelling at me to run like my life depended on it and think of their blank faces and dark eyes staring at me from inside that vehicle,

I seriously question what their true intentions were that day. Hi, my name's Addy. I've been listening to some podcasts, which is why I ended up here. For the introduction, this story happened in 2019. My sister and I were international students in Sydney, Australia. Since we were on a tight budget, we rented a room for about four months. The house had three bedrooms, but none of them had locks. The first room was occupied by the brother of the owner. Let's call him D. D was in his early 40s, around 5'11", had brown skin and an average body type. The second room was occupied by D's friend, let's call him F. F was in his early 60s, probably 6 foot 1 tall and also had an average body type. Lastly, our room, the third room, was shared by me and my sister. It wasn't a big deal for us since we are very close and as I

mentioned before, we were on a tight budget. We knew D because he was a friend of a friend of my aunt. Now to the story. I arrived from work, rested for a bit, and then went to take a shower. It was probably around 7ish PM and since it was winter it was pitch black outside. When you enter our shower, on the right side there's a big sliding glass window painted white so that no one can see inside unless you open the window. Behind the window was our backyard with the table and chairs. As I went for a shower, I noticed that the window was slightly open, just a bit. I didn't pay much attention, thinking that I couldn't be seen from outside because it was only a very small opening. After finishing my shower, I was going to the kitchen to get some

food when D came in from the backyard with his dog. I sat high and continued with what I was going to the kitchen to get some food when D came in from the backyard with his dog. I said hi and continued with what I was doing. And months had passed, and my sister and I were studying and working, so most of the time we weren't home during the day, only using the room to sleep at night. One time my sister had a late afternoon shift, which was not her typical schedule as she usually worked in the early morning. I left for work and my sister was still sleeping, covered with a blanket since it was winter. We have the same body type, 5 foot and petite, so sometimes you can't tell if there's someone under the blanket or if it's just pillows. My sister then woke up as she heard some noise in

the room. She opened her eyes and saw some of our panties scattered on the floor. She thought that I might be running late and just threw everything on the floor. Then she saw our housemate F searching in our laundry basket looking for something. She also noticed that F was sniffing our panties. She was horrified and scared because F was a huge man. My sister pretended that she didn't see anything and asked F if he was looking for a charger. F was shocked to see that my sister was in our bed and he quickly said yes that he was just looking for a charger. After a few minutes, F came back to our room and asked my sister not to tell anyone about what had happened earlier. My sister agreed because she was afraid that F might do something bad to her. She went to work and texted me about what had happened earlier. My sister agreed because she was afraid that F might do something bad to her. She went to work and texted me about what had happened. I was shocked and

afraid to go home because I usually got home first. My sister then told D what had happened. I didn't go inside the house without D being there and I waited outside for him. We went inside without any conversation. He then installed a lock on our door that night, and after that my sister and I moved out after a week. But before we moved, I was folding all of our clothes and I remember that I still had some clothes hanging outside in the backyard. It was pitch black, but when my eyes adjusted to the dark, I went to go get our clothes. As I looked around, my eyes caught sight of a very small opening in the shower. And to my shock, even from outside, through that very tiny opening,

you could see everything happening inside the shower. And that's why D usually stayed outside in our dark backyard. He could see everything inside the shower without us noticing him, since it was pitch dark outside. I live in a small town and a few years ago our local market had taken up new owners. They fired all of the employees and completely redid everything including obviously hiring an entire new staff. At the time I'd been a regular for around five years. It was super convenient because I lived down the street. I didn't have a car then so I shopped there daily, sometimes multiple times a day. I had built up a rapport with the original owners, the elderly, and banter with the original employees, older locals. I only knew one person's name because she asked after a year of exchanges

and turned out we shared the same name. But that's about where any passing relationships ended. Moving forward, new owners reopening new staff. I got a new car and my business there wasn't as frequent but still pretty consistent, needing a drink, snack or missing an ingredient for dinner. I'm a relatively friendly person but also super anxious, especially with men I don't know. So when the new staff came in, I would wait in line, smile, say hi, pay, thank you, and dip. They were all friendly, but one cashier was just a little too comfortable. He would lean over the counter, and when I said I didn't need a bag,

he would put my stuff in one anyway and touch my hand, casually I guess, when handing it over. It made me feel super awkward and off. I also did a local yoga class and after class and me and the other woman would go get drinks at the market and walk around to catch up. The creepy cashier would always make weird conversation about our class. I stopped going for a little bit, and then my car decided to stop working and I had no choice but to start frequenting the market again. The creepy cashier was excited to see me and asked where I had been. I don't remember what I'd said, but kept it casual. Over the weeks, he creeped on me. He never asked me my name, but had asked if I was married, seeing my ring. He also asked a million times if I had Instagram or Facebook. I glazed over the Instagram question

by saying that I haven't had Facebook since high school, which is true, sort of bypassing lying about not having an Instagram. They usually work and ended our conversation. Finally exhausted evading his questions, I caved when he asked again if I had an Instagram. I said yes and that I don't really use it a lot. Oddly, during that transaction, the register was quote-unquote on the fritz, as he would put it. My card wouldn't swipe, so I handed it over and he had to manually add the card and I was on my way. I went home, made dinner, put on something to watch and scrolled on my phone. I saw I had a friend request and my jaw dropped. It was the creepy cashier.

I instantly lost my appetite and felt so uncomfortable. After deducing that he got my full name off my debit card and then looked me up made me sick. I denied the request. Several hours later, another request, along with a message. What you up to? Denied the request, ignored the message. Over the course of two days, there were multiple requests with multiple messages saying, how are you? How's your day? Hey, a heart, trying to engage me in conversation with multiple selfies who send selfies anyways. I continued to ignore him and then I just blocked him. I ended up talking to a friend and she said that she always felt uncomfortable and that he tried to walk her home one night. He stopped

working there a couple of weeks later. Apparently complaints were made, I'm not shocked. In retrospect, I should have been more direct and no-nonsense in my response with him, but it felt so anxious and uncomfortable, especially since it was down the street from my house. I would like to preface this by saying that I was 17 when this happened and was incredibly dumb, mentally ill, and addicted to drugs. I'm now 26, and I'm well aware of how dangerous of a situation I'd put myself in, but with that being said, let's begin. I was out with friends on campus drinking and smoking all night. I separated from them at some point and ran out of cigarettes. I was doing uppers all night and really needed them. I went to school right outside of Yonkers in the Bronx, so it was not the safest area in the world by any means, but I didn't care.

So I walked down to the nearest bodega to get some cigs. The cashier wouldn't sell me any because I was underage and didn't have my ID. There was one other man in the bodega, a 65 plus year old scraggly looking man, who overheard our transaction and began to defend me to the cashier saying things like, come on man, she just wants some cigarettes. The cashier wouldn't sell them to me and wouldn't let the other customer buy them for me so this man, Carl, told me that he had some cigarettes at his house which was only a minute away. Like I said before, I really wanted a cigarette. So I hopped into his

beat up truck and he starts asking me why I'm out so late and my intelligent self told him that I was out partying all night and was currently on a bunch of coke. He started telling me about himself. He said that he was out picking up old appliances and selling the scrap for money and asked if I wanted to help him. I thought, why not? This will be a funny and random story. So I said yes. We go around to a few different neighborhoods and houses picking up air conditioners and heaters. I remember that I got a cut from the metal at some point and was bleeding a little but not seriously. And so we do that for about an hour and then he's like, oh right, your cigarettes, and says we're gonna stop at his house. We pull up, he opens the door

and I barely walk inside because this is obviously weird plus there were about 10 other guys in there, mostly younger, like 25 to 30, who were kind of looking at me weird and they were being nice but looked a bit confused and didn't talk much. Carl said he just had to get something, but all he did was pace chaotically back and forth around stacks of papers and backpacks and never actually took anything new with him. He didn't even grab the cigarettes. The vibe was off, and I wanted to leave so I didn't bother saying anything. We got into his truck after that, and I wanted to leave so I didn't bother saying anything. We got into his truck after that and he offers to roll up a blunt. I said yes and so we smoked and sat in his car on a random street in the Bronx. He's been giving me small compliments all night

and I didn't think anything of it. I knew this guy was kind of creepy but I figured I could use it to my advantage to get what I wanted. But he started talking more deeply about how beautiful I was and then directly after tells me he has a daughter my age and I kind of look like her. Gross. I am kind of concerned at this point but didn't really know how to end the interaction as I was sitting in his car on a random street in a potentially unsafe area. Mind you, I was in my freshman year and only two months in so I had no familiarity with the area. After we finish smoking, he offers to take us to

the deli for some cigarettes, finally, and a breakfast sandwich. How could I refuse? He goes in and gets us two bacon, egg, and cheeses and a pack of Marlboro Red 100s for me. He gave me the sandwich and then asked if I wanted to keep hanging out with him, but he also made it clear that if I didn't want to, that's okay, and he would drop me off back at campus, and I said I wanted to go home. He takes me back, which was only about three minutes away from the deli we went to. I said thank you for the cigarettes and sandwich sandwich but before I got out of the car, Carl tells me that he wants to see me on Valentine's Day. I said maybe and he became adamant that I hang out with him on Valentine's Day so I eventually just said yes and get out of the car.

I got home at around 5am. This whole interaction only lasted about two hours so there was no lapse or me forgetting a period of time. And thank God my friends were still somewhere on campus to retrieve me. I told them everything, and they were so mad that I would do all of that alone, and thought that it was weird as hell that I picked up scrap metal with him. It was. A few months later, I get a text message. I gave him my number. Really, really stupid.

And it's a picture of a very young, probably around my age at the time, clean and handsome Hispanic man, while the man I was with was a 65-year-old scraggly black man. He sent the picture along with, Hi, do you remember me? I obviously blocked the number and then nothing ever happened again. Was this just some random, slightly creepy and lonely man who wanted something similar to a girlfriend experience for the night? Or something way scarier? I was thinking maybe he was going to try to take me back to his house and try something weird but then realized that there were a bunch of people home so he couldn't and

just backed out, smoked a blunt and dropped me off. Who knows, but it was definitely super creepy and regardless of his intentions, I think I came out of this situation very lucky. I am from Tampa, St. Pete area and came across the cutest little beach access at Upham Beach that never closed and the beach chairs were never put up at night. I had been there once or twice late at night with friends so I totally thought it was safe. I wanted to take my girlfriend so one night on a full moon we both went and we were just chilling and having a good time. There was a group of guys of about a thousand feet from us partying but eventually they left and we were completely alone. The full moon illuminated the sky beautifully that night. My girlfriend and I, both women, 21 at the time, were hanging out on the beach chairs when I decided that I wanted to go see the water. She told me to be careful and that it was dark down

there. The beach chairs were maybe about 20 feet away from the shoreline. I told her I'd be fine and went to watch the waves, which were especially loud that night. My girlfriend was just messing around on her phone and I was watching the water. Probably about two minutes into being down there, I had a feeling that I needed to check in with her and looked up to see her screaming my name and waving her hands, trying to get my attention. I looked to the left of me and across the way, there was a man in a hoodie staring at me. I had no idea where he came from. I was alone just a moment ago. I started running up the sand dune to get back to her at the beach chairs and she told me that the man came from the parking lot, running at me full force until

we realized that she was sitting up there. The guy followed us up to the section of chairs and was staring at us from the other side of them with this sort of eerie stillness about him. No one made a single movement or sound and we could just feel his piercing eyes burning into us. We both felt like he was making a decision in his mind of whether or not he should continue whatever it is that he came for. It felt like forever and he was looking at us like we were prey but, it was only about a minute or so before he simply just rushed away. So many scenarios were going through our heads, and we both felt in true danger for our lives. We were petrified. We immediately ran to our car and called the police, but we never heard anything back from them. We both recollected this night many times and agree that if this was all a big misunderstanding and he never truly meant us any harm, he would have

said something or apologized when we were cornered at the chairs. The way he looked at us and the vibes we got from him that night, I can't even imagine what his intent was. Thank God my girlfriend got the feeling to look up from her phone and see him coming at me before it was too late. I have searched for articles of incidents like this near the area and have never found any other experiences like mine. All I know is that it was my last time going to the beach at night, alone or not. Definitely stay away from this place, and it still makes my stomach crawl thinking about it. So I'm going to start off by saying that I'm non-binary and was assigned female at birth. I also really love trades work as it makes me feel empowered. Working with heavy machinery, wood, and other forms of trades excite me. Today I started a masonry class that goes on for four weeks, twice a week. Masonry,

in case you're not familiar with it, involves brick and block laying, working with mortar and learning the different branches of work in this trade. I was super excited. Some of my friends were there and it was great. We were working in the shop on small incomplete walls, smearing mortar so that we could prepare for block laying. Cue the creepy teacher. We have two teachers to ensure that everyone can learn the technique and proper work methods. Their names are Anne and CT. At first, I thought that CT was sort of funny, considering his age. However, the first time he tried to get my attention, he touched my arm and I felt very uncomfortable. I assumed that it would be a one-time thing. For context, being touched unexpectedly by people I don't know

seriously freaks me out to the point of panic attacks. I have no idea why. Unfortunately, it was not the last time. He soon came back, and this time from behind. He placed his hands on my shoulder and I could feel how close he was. He whispered something about my technique in my ear and, to get me to step aside, put his hand on my waist. I had never had this experience with a teacher before, let alone one I hadn't met. Shortly after, it was lunchtime. I found the woman who connected me to the class and explained that I needed to tell her how deeply inappropriate and uncomfortable he had made me feel. And long story short, the issue was escalated to the boss's boss. I don't know exactly what was said, but I know he received a formal warning about touching

students without consent and was instructed to keep a distance of at least a meter from me or my work. I should also mention that most people in that class are cis men and he never touched them or got that close. Needless to say, this is one of the creepiest teachers I've ever met. In my teen years, think late middle school, high school, my family had a seasonal site at a campground. I spent most weekends during the summer and a couple of long holidays there. We had a small group of friends, mostly consisting of other kids of seasonal campers, and befriending random one-off campers was not uncommon. One particular weekend towards the end of the season, I met Mike. We quickly hit it off and became really good friends, playing and trading Pokemon on our Gameboys,

hanging out at fires, playing some basketball, and doing usual camp stuff. Mike's dad had invited a few family friends for the weekend, including Andrew. Andrew was a couple of years older than me. He could drive and had a big van to which he attached a tent through the trunk, and to have what we thought at the time was a pretty sweet setup. During the long weekend we all hung out and had an awesome time. Come Sunday, Mike, his dad, and most of the party left. Andrew stayed behind. We hung out a little and he would brag about dirt bikes, ATVs, and TVs and other stuff that he had an abundance of and he kept implying that we should hang out sometime outside of camp. I responded with something like, yeah, maybe, knowing that typically camp friends were

never more than camp friends. Eventually, he went home on Tuesday, and I didn't hear from him after that. He gave me his number, but I told him I didn't know mine off the top of my head, but I'd call him. Important for the rest of the story, Andrew never knew more than my first name. My mom remarried, and I do not have the same last name as her or my stepdad. Now fast forward about a year, I'm using AOL Instant Messenger and get a message from someone with the exact same name as me, with an added number. After a few reluctant messages, they reveal that it's Andrew. It's a bit off putting so I just block him. Then I receive a second random message from him using the same

name but increasing the number and the screen name. We go through this for about a week during which I block about 8 of his fake accounts. It gets so bad that I create a new profile with a different email and make sure not to include any personal information, although I'm still pretty sure that the original account had none included. About nine months go by and I don't hear anything from him. One evening, while my family is eating dinner, there's a knock at the front door. My mom calls my name and says I have a friend visiting. It's Andrew. We politely ask him to leave and after about 15 minutes or so he finally gives in and goes.

And then the calls start. First from a number registered to him which we screen with caller ID and then restricted numbers which we ignore. After that, calls from random numbers with local area codes. When he manages to get through the screenings, usually when younger siblings would answer, he acts like we're best friends, asks me to hang out, and offers me free stuff. I tell him to stop calling, but he doesn't listen. My mom tells him I moved in with my dad, but the calls keep coming. Eventually, my mom tells him that she's going to call the police and things calm down a bit. One more year passes.

Back at the campground I'm walking a lady friend that I had met that weekend to her campsite when a van pulls up alongside us and I hear someone call my name. I look over to see Andrew leaning out of his van. We booked it and ran into a small patch of woods, and then returned to my family's site to tell my mom what was going on, and she flipped her lid. She ended up pounding on the campground owner's door, waking them up as it was about 11pm at this point. The police got involved and he was told to never contact me or show up at my house again.

The next morning, a family staying at the campground came over to talk to my parents. Apparently they knew Andrew's parents and shared stories about episodes he would have. They mentioned that multiple people would need to hold him down until he calmed down because he would lose control and act sporadically and sometimes violently. I saw him once after that about three years later, driving the very same van slowly out of an apartment complex I had moved into. Nothing came of it, but knowing that he saw me and the fact that I never saw him again makes me feel very uneasy about why he was there that day to begin with. This happened when I was seven.

I was living in upstate New York with my two slightly older brothers. We would often hang out down the street at our friend's house. Our friend's name was Ben and he was around our age. One late afternoon, my brothers and I went to Ben's for pizza and a movie. We spent most of the day there, so by the time we were done, it was pretty late. It was dark out and we decided to head home. When we left we saw a woman standing across the street from Ben's house. We were a little weirded out but she seemed to be minding her own business. At this point we were still in the driveway about to leave and then this lady

looked right at us and sprinted in our direction. Ben's mom always had her car parked in the driveway so we sort of booked it back and around the car to try and hide slash get away. She continued to try and follow us around the vehicle and she kept trying to switch which direction she was running around the car and attempt to get us. The whole time she seemed to be laughing maniacally like some witch, saying how she wanted to catch us, and we were deathly freaked out of course. She only stopped when Ben's mom came out and asked what was going on after hearing the commotion of the cackling witch lady chasing us, and this crazy lady laughed while sprinting off and was never seen again, and Ben's mom walked us home that night. This was about 20 years ago when I was in elementary school, so I apologize for not being able to provide more details. I was probably around 10 or 11 years old, which is the age when etiquette and dance classes typically begin. The school organized a final

dance or ball as a culmination of our lessons, and it was an occasion where we'd dress up. Being a shy kid, I felt relieved when an adult asked me to dance because it meant that I didn't have to worry about awkwardly conversing with another child. I had never seen this adult before, and I don't believe that he was part of the school administration or a teacher. Initially he asked me regular questions, but then he posed a question about sensuality and instantly I stopped dancing and sort of just froze. I didn't say a word because I had no idea how to respond to an adult inquiring about such an intimate topic. Due to the passage of time and only recently recalling this incident, my memory is quite hazy. All I recall is that he either grew bored because he was dancing with someone unresponsive, or I mentioned feeling tired

and needing to sit down. He left me alone, and I don't remember dancing with anyone else that night. What I do vividly remember is seeing another girl at the dance, who was crying, and I noticed police lights flashing outside. At the time, my 10-11 year old mind couldn't comprehend what was happening, whether he had said or done something to her. However, it's only recently that I realized whatever transpired that led to them calling the police on him could have happened to me as well. I feel guilty for not immediately sharing what he said with someone as they could have taken action and removed him from the event. So I'll admit this is pretty mild compared to a lot of stories, but it was creepy enough to make me nervous. I was walking to work this morning and I passed by a park where a few homeless people tend to congregate. As I'm walking by I hear, hey, and I glance over to my right and there's two guys sitting at a picnic table maybe 50 feet away and a few other people milling about

a little further away. Wasn't sure who the hey was directed at so I just kept walking. Then I hear, hey shorty. I ignored it. Then it was, hey shorty come here. I called back, I gotta go to work. An excuse that happened to be true. Didn't think too much of it until I got about a block past the park and heard faint voices behind me. I looked and two guys, I assume the same two guys since there was no one behind me previously, were walking behind me. It didn't seem like they were trying to catch up with me but I picked up the pace and crossed the street to a gas station. I wandered a bit through the store and picked up a few things for lunch and then went to get in line to pay. Just then, two disheveled guys walked in the door, saw me, and were both eyeballing me hard and kind of whispering things to each other.

And this is when my nerves really started screaming because I immediately knew that they were the two guys from the park, and they were both huge guys. Not fat, but very tall and very husky. I'm only 5'2 and they were easily 6'3". I checked out and went by the door on my phone acting like I was waiting on a ride or something but really I was watching them and waiting for an opportunity to leave safely. They kind of half-heartedly browsed around not actually picking anything up and the second they were out of sight behind a shelf I booked it out of the store. I immediately got out of sight of the store windows weave betweenaved between a few buildings, and crossed a couple of streets so I was a few blocks away pretty quickly. This way, they wouldn't be able to look down the main street and easily see where I had gone. It was about half a mile more before I got to work and made it without incident.

It could have been nothing. They might have been planning to go to that gas station anyways, but my gut was telling me otherwise. I have been a big fan of this channel for a long time. I had never had a story that made me think that it was worth sharing until recently. This is my first time posting something like this, but I felt like I should since it is something that will most likely stick with me forever. For context, I'm a male and I work at a gas station in the deep south, a part of Louisiana that most people have never even heard of. I'm talking about dirt roads with no name, thick trees that seem to swallow darkness, and you might be lucky enough to

see a streetlight every other mile. The little gas station that I work at is located in the trifecta of all these elements. I, of course, work the overnight shifts. The gas station doesn't see much excitement. There are either the ten customers that come in between the hours of 10pm to 6am, or the random possums that decide to make the trash cans outside their personal drum set, but I digress. The night started like any other night. Make sure that the coffee is fresh, check. Make sure all the snacks, cold drinks, and beer are properly stocked, check. Now all that is left for me to do is, well, wait. I stood behind the counter, looking at inventory, listening to music, and just pacing around for the first couple of hours.

You know the thing that people say, time flies? Yeah, that didn't apply to that shift. As I got bored, I decided to leave the register and check out the items on the shelf to, you know, make sure nothing majestically sold itself. While I was on one of the aisles, I heard a man call out, Hey, y'all open? I turned around to see that I had two customers standing at the checkout. Now I should mention this gas station does not have that fancy system that makes the doors go ding when someone comes in. Top line security, right? So I was caught off guard that two customers had come in without my knowledge. I quickly walked up to the register and apologized for the wait.

As we were making the usual conversation of, hey, how you doing, and man, it's dark out here in this area, the customer asked another question that is usually always asked. How long is it until I get to the city from here? I answered it with the same answer that seems to automatically live in my mind rent-free. It's a good couple hours from here, just go towards the lights. Corny, I know, but that's my thing. Anyway, after scanning the customer's items, which literally was a candy bar and a bottle of water, I told them, be careful out there, y'all. There's a tornado warning in this area until 7am and the rain's picking up.

In this area, even on a clear night, it's hard to see what is ahead of you on these dark, desolate roads. As I went to look at the second customer, I realized there was no second customer anymore. I chalked it up to the guy not wanting to wait any longer and decided to just leave. I mean, from what I saw, he didn't have any items with him and probably only needed some cigarettes or something that was behind the counter. I told my customer farewell and was ready to grind out the rest of these hours, but just like a psychic, my own words had foreshadowed my fate for the night. Not long after the customer left, it might have been an hour or so, the sky could no longer hold its sorrow and just wept gallons of tears from above. To me, this is not a big deal. Bad weather, rain, and possums,

yeah, I still have it out for them, happened a lot in my area. So much so that I call the experience HWA, which stands for Humid, Wet, and Annoying. As the rain and wind picked up, I started to feel a little uneasy. Mostly because, honestly, I would rather be at my. As the rain and wind picked up, I started to feel a little uneasy, mostly because honestly I would rather be at my house when the rain and wind decided to battle for dominance. With that being said, the inevitable happened. The power lines were no match for the relentless punishment from the elements and then darkness, silence, aggravation. The power had gone out, and there was no backup generator for me. I was just there, standing in a blanket of darkness so thick that it seemed to cover everything in its embrace. I called my manager to let him know that the power had gone out and

asked him what I should do right now. Of course, with it being so late slash early, whatever 4am means to you, there was no response. I thought about locking up and just buckling down at the gas station until the storm passed. After all, I was getting paid. But that's when I heard it. Between the thunder, between the rain, between the wind. I heard a slight crunch coming from one of the aisles further away from the entrance of the station. At first, I paid no mind to the sound. I believed it to just be store items shifting with all of the

terrible weather. Darkness had a way of bending your mind, making you see and hear things that your mind usually dismisses as just the wind. But after sitting there for a while, upset of course, but getting paid, I called my manager again, but unfortunately no answer. Then, right after the light of my phone faded and my eyes were trying to adjust to the darkness, I heard it again. Movement. Movement, but this time closer, and right in between my phone call and a thunder strike. Like I said, I have listened to this channel for years, so now I'm on high alert. Someone was in here. I was not alone. I just knew it. I tried to calm my nerves, not wanting to be that guy who overreacts, but I asked myself, can you ever really be too safe? I made a potentially dangerous and thoughtless move. I stood up and yelled,

is anybody still in here? I got no response, but that didn't mean that there was no one there. The air felt thick from humidity. Not just that though, that feeling you get when you're not alone. The feeling of being watched, as cliche as it sounds. I remembered something that I knew all along. There is no ding on the door to let me know when customers enter or exit. That and the thought of that second customer came to mind. I never saw him leave. I just knew that he was there and then gone. Automatically, without a doubt, felt that something was strange, something was not right. So I did what any gas station worker would do in the pitch black, pretended to be a ninja so that I could slowly make my way to the source of the noise without being caught.

As it turns out, I'm not a ninja. The moment I stepped from behind the counter that I had been sitting behind, a voice stopped me in my tracks. Give me what you got. Was all that the void softly spoke to me? I froze, scared, too scared to say a word or move an inch. When I called out, I wasn't truly expecting a response. Soon I heard footsteps, slow but getting closer. My mind yelled, do something, run, charge at the sound and hope for the best. After all that though, I did nothing.

Then his face appeared. A face that I wouldn't have seen if my manager hadn't called me back at that moment, allowing my phone to light up. The second customer. As it turns out, he never left. I pretended not to see or know that I recognized him and again he repeated, Come on, give me what you got, now. Still in a calm and calculating way.

I spoke for the first time after noticing that I was holding my breath the whole time. All I have is $250 in the register. He was quiet for a while but then told me, Give it over. I wish that I could say that I pulled out some special move that brought the guy down, allowing me to hold him until the police showed up. But this is real life. I gave him the money and luckily for me, he accepted it. He knew that the police would not be here in these parts

at this time and with this weather and even if called, it would take at least 30 minutes to get there. A local, I assumed. It had to be, to be so confident. I talked to the manager and the police after all was said and done. My manager apologized that I had to go through that and also apologized for not answering sooner. I told him no worries, everyone deserves sleep. I got to leave early and the manager closed the store for a couple of hours until the next employees came in. I was so lost in a trance after that situation that I truly believed that it still couldn't be real. That couldn't have just happened to me after a couple of years of working there. And that was that, I thought. A funny plot twist. Two weeks

later a man was caught trying to hold up a gas station close to where my job was located. A man that I remembered from that flash of light on my phone. The only difference is, he didn't get away this time. The thing that I can really say that I've learned from all of this is, no matter how comfortable, or how much you think you know how each day will play out, always, always be on guard. To be continued... If you get a story, be sure to submit them to my subreddit, r slash let's read official, and maybe even hear your story featured on the next video. And if you want to support me even more, grab early access to all future narrations for just $1 a month on Patreon, and maybe even pick up some Let's Read merch on Spreadshirt. And check out the Let's Read podcast, where you can hear all of these stories in big compilations

and save huge on data, located anywhere you listen to podcasts. Links in the description below. Thanks so much friends, and I'll see you again soon.