The Lets Read Podcast - 31: Episode 030 | Kidnapping & Fake Electrician Stories | 30 True Scary Horror Stories

Episode Date: April 14, 2019

Welcome to the thirtieth episode of The Lets Read Podcast! This podcast includes narrations of true creepy encounters submitted by normal folks just like yourself. Today you'll experience horrifying stories about Kidnapping, Homeless Stalker & Fake Electricians.  HAVE A STORY TO SUBMIT?► www.Reddit.com/r/LetsReadOfficial FOLLOW ME ON- ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsread.official/ ► Twitter - https://twitter.com/LetsReadCreepy ►YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/letsreadofficial ♫ Background Music: Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFvrqVSJE8E PATREON for EARLY ACCESS!►http://patreon.com/LetsRead

If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get it from our Tread Experts. Until May 30th, purchase four new Michelin passenger or light truck tires and receive up to $70 by prepaid MasterCard. Conditions apply. Details at Michelin.ca. Find a Michelin Tread Experts dealer near you at TreadExperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at Treadexperts.ca slash locations. Everyone's got a pro. Need tires?

I've got a pro. Car making a weird sound? I've got a pro. So who's that pro? The pros at Tread Experts. From tires to auto repair, Tread Experts is always there, helping you with Michelin tires you can trust. Until May 30th, receive up to $70 by prepaid MasterCard with purchase of four new Michelin passenger or light truck tires.

Find your pro at your local Tread Experts. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExperts.ca back when i was a kid my mom and i had a deal she'd schedule all my scarier appointments like dentist visits and vaccines in the morning and if i went without whining or fussing too much i get to play hooky for the rest of the school day and we'd get lunch, go to the mall and see a movie. This was one of those days. It was a few weeks before Christmas but the mall was pretty quiet because it was around one on a weekday. I had taken my picture with Santa, we'd done some Christmas shopping and had lunch at my favorite restaurant, and we were going to finish our day off with whatever kid's Christmas movie was playing at the time. I don't remember which one it was, but I remember how fun and pleasant the day had been.

The theater itself was almost empty, just my mom and I and a few parents with kids too young to be in school. A few minutes later, a single man walked in. I remember him entering because I thought it was weird that he didn't have any kids with him and because he seemed to spend a long time surveying the theater the way people do when they're trying to find a seat or two in a crowded auditorium. I remember him staring at me for quite a while but then he sat down near the door and I didn't think too much about it. A girl I played with in my neighborhood had really strict parents

and they always went to see kids' movies alone first to be sure they approved of them. Maybe his kids went to school with me and he recognized me and that was why his eyes had lingered. Just as the previews started, I realized I needed to pee. I had just turned eight a few months earlier and my mom was finally letting me do things without her accompanying me. As I got up to go, my mom slipped me a $10 bill and told me to get us some candy and soda. A real treat in my house. I was so excited to be trusted

to go by myself and to get candy that I almost didn't notice when the man from earlier got up and followed closely behind me as I left the theater. Almost. As I was allowed to do things by myself more my parents had drilled into me that I always needed to be aware of my surroundings and anything that felt off and the way he bolted from his seat to follow me out of the theater felt off. To give a little context the movie theater was attached to the mall so the main entrance was through theater felt off. To give a little context, the movie theater was attached to the mall, so the main entrance was through the mall itself. To make getting out a little easier, there were a few exit-only doors that led to the parking lot. The restrooms were right next to these. The man followed me all the way to the women's bathroom, not close enough to immediately

spook me if I hadn't noticed him, but close enough that any passerby would assume he was a father trailing behind his daughter. After I got to the restroom, I peeked out. He had stationed himself just outside the entrance to the bathroom on the side closest to the exit. I told myself that maybe he needed to use the bathroom too, but clearly he didn't. So I went and then I waited and waited. I heard a man's voice just outside joke with someone how he was waiting for his daughter who was dawdling. I knew my mom wouldn't get worried and come look for me immediately because she would assume I was in line to get snacks but I couldn't get back to her without going past the man. Finally, a nice looking older woman came in.

As she was leaving, I told her I'd forgotten how to get back to my theater where my mom was waiting and could she walk me there. I held her hand tightly as she cheerfully told me she was glad to help. As we left, the man waiting took a quick step forward like he'd been waiting to grab me. When he saw that I was with the woman, he turned around and left out the exit door. I made it back to my mom without incident. I told her I didn't see any candy that I wanted and I was kind of full from lunch anyway. In hindsight, I should have told her right away about the creepy guy who followed me but

I was afraid that I'd lose my precious new independence. But looking back as an adult I still can't figure out any benign intentions that would explain his actions and I desperately hope that he didn't catch some other little girl unaware. I am a 16 year old male and I don't really partake in any sports. I'm a computer programmer, gamer and avid comic book movie enthusiast. That being said, to compensate for my lack of physical activity I work out at least four times a week to maintain a good physique. I have a membership at my local 24-hour gym.

I started going two years ago. It's a pretty big establishment. They have multiple floors, but I usually spend my time in the main floor, which has a spacious room with all the workout equipment you could want. I usually do a full-body workout when I go, so I tend to use all the equipment. That being said, about last week this started. After I finish my cardio, I go down to the padded area where people typically do their ab workouts, and I get started going through my routine.

I'm in the middle of doing my plank and I notice a guy ostensibly staring at me. He was on my right and was wearing sunglasses so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and wrote it off as him looking at something else as I couldn't see his actual eye. As I proceed to my next exercise he quickly leaves my head until I get to doing my squats. That's where he is very obviously staring at me. His head was turned in my direction, there was nothing else to look at. I give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was just thinking about something. That thought was completely diminished when he came over and, without solicitation, touched me proclaiming

that I wasn't doing my squats right, which I of course knew was complete bullcrap. At this point, he has his hand on my glutes. Let me also say that I am very clearly underage. I don't look a day over 15. Everything about this situation was just wrong and I knew it. I was honestly paralyzed. After I snapped out of it I thanked him and told him that I got it. He smiled with the most perverted and creepy smile ever. He goes back to his area and continues to stare me down like a hawk stalking its prey. I stupidly don't report him and don't tell anybody about the situation. I was extremely perturbed nonetheless. I go back the next day and I pray that he isn't there. But lo and behold I see him sitting around with his creepy sunglasses. When he sees me, he smiles creepily at me and waves.

I don't reciprocate at all. I wanted to avoid all confrontation with this guy. Anyway, I do my cardio without incident and when I get to the padded area, he is ostensibly not there. But in the middle of my workout, the guy plops down next to me and asks, Hey buddy, how often do you come to the gym? I was honestly startled, and responded with a slurred, when I can. I put back in my earbuds and hoped that he would give him the signal that I had no interest in conversing. I start doing my pushups, and out of the corner of my eye, the creep is just laying there, analyzing me.

He then decided to give me an anatomy of the bicep. He started touching my arm. He was almost caressing it. I just awkwardly said, Okay. I was trying to be as cordial as possible since I didn't want to retaliate and potentially mischaracterize him. I go to this gym often and didn't want to retaliate and potentially mischaracterize him. I go to this gym often and didn't want to develop a reputation. He then started putting his hand toward my

genitalia and that's when I sprung up and just left. The people around me look disconcerted and one woman went up to me and asked if I knew this man to which I replied no. I still don't report the guy as I feared that I misconstrued what he was doing and he was just trying to help. The next couple of times I went I didn't see him at all but yesterday is when things escalated to the point where I knew this guy had malicious intentions. I am back at the ab workout area and the guy doesn't confront me at all but has his phone pointed at me in a suspicious way. It looked as if though he was taking pictures of me or recording. I was freaked out but I couldn't say anything because for all I

knew he was reading an article or something. I was unsettled but continued my workout. This isn't even the worst part. After my workout, I go to wash my hands in the locker room. People in there have a tendency to walk around naked which I find to be really repulsive. But there's no rule against it. So this sick creep is in the locker room and I curse myself under my breath. While I'm washing my hands this guy comes up literally right behind me and says After working out you should shower. Come with me I'll help.

I tell him and I'm immediately reporting him to the gym and the police. Everybody else in there hears this and I don't know what happened to him in there as I halted out of there as quick as possible. I do act according to my threat and report him to the gym, but I didn't have a name and there are no cameras in the locker room so the only evidence I have is him touching me in the gym. I tell my father and he is infuriated. My father goes to the same gym and when I described the guy to him, my father said that he recognized who I was talking about. He said that the guy is always talking to younger people in the gym and it has always creeped him out. No, that's all for now. We're going to file a police report pretty soon and I'll post as soon as there are any further details. Greetings from India.

We are pretty close, my sister and I, even though I'm older than her by four years. This happened last November on my birthday. As you all know, our country is not the safest for girls. Not advisable for girls to travel alone. But we usually find a way around to do normal things and have normal experiences and dodge idiots. I live in one of the metro cities in the south so it's comparatively safer, but all girls who are born here or live here have a radar of finding or dodging the weirdos. I had just gotten out of a really long relationship, almost 11 years, and wanted to celebrate my first single birthday in a really long time,

away from the city and people I know. I had gone on a couple of solo trips and was pretty confident about taking care of myself and sniffing out the bloody weirdos, so we both decided to go to the beach destination I used to frequently go to. This would be my fifth time there. Every time I've been there, I've stayed at the same shack, so the folks running the place are familiar with me. We decided to stay at the place as we felt it would be safer since the season had just begun. This place had more tourists compared to the other places, because you know, it's always safe to be around people. We were wrong. This beach gets a lot of tourists who first come to visit but decide to stay back indefinitely cause it's spiritual, well known for the temple and town.

It's beautiful, affordable, around 3-5 dollars per night and they usually get a discount from the shack owners if they're staying for long, and cause of you know, the eat pray love sort of thing. This time around there were around 50 to 60 tourists on the beach so it was pretty private and secluded. We reached the day before my birthday and checked into our shack. We noticed a big group of guys staying in the shack opposite to us. They seemed to be in their own world and didn't bother us. Apart from the big group of guys, about 8 to 9, we met and shared a smoke with a French couple

who were staying at the same place. We decided to unpack, change, shower and head out to do some exploring. On our way out we passed by the owner of the shack chatting with a couple of the tourists and regulars. I saw a couple of familiar faces, shack owners wife and some tourists who I've seen on my previous visits and I'm guessing he stays there now. We walk around, read, play with the beach doggies, and have dinner at a neighboring place and are back to our shack by about ten something in the night. We chill outside our

shack, listen to music, talk, and by twelve something, it's my birthday now, we decide to call it a night. I made sure we leave the light outside and the door on, that way we can see through the blurred glass if someone's outside. We had played in the beach earlier so we had put our shorts out to dry. Shack is pretty small. Our bed was facing the door and a double window right next to the door, so this shack is basically a hut made of bricks with a tiled roof. There's a small gap where the roof meets the walls so we can hear everything happening outside and vice versa. My sister is out cold once we hit the bed and I was up for a bit replying to my birthday texts

and passed out by 1.20am. I remember this distinctly as that was the last text I sent to my friend. At some point I wake up with someone knocking on the door. At first I thought it was just a dream and decided to go back to sleep and as I was about to shut my eyes, I see someone outside the blurry window. Now I'm wide awake and on high alert. It could just be one of those other folks staying there, just walking around, but why would they be knocking on the door at 2 in the morning? I give it a minute or two to see if I was just imagining the knock. Maybe I heard loud footsteps or someone passing by.

The weirdo knocks again. Not mistaking this for loud footsteps or anything else, I'm torn between waking my sister up or not. She panics easily so I nudge her to wake her up and whisper that there's someone at the door. She thinks I'm dreaming so she's asking me to go back to sleep. That's when we see the figure outside the window but this time this fool is trying to open the sliding windows from the outside. I usually travel with a pepper spray and a Swiss knife so I get up to get both. I was mad. I plan to stab this guy in his hand if he opened the window. He takes a turn between trying to push the door open and trying to get the window open. Since the outside light was on we could see that

the person is shirtless and fair-skinned and wearing blue pants or shorts. My sister's anxiety increases every time he's at the window trying to get it open, so on his fifth attempt she says, Who's out there? He stops then and starts walking around our shack in circles. Earlier we had noticed a couple of old chairs and tables stashed between our shack and the next one. We could hear him fiddle with the chairs and tables, maybe to find access, I don't know. At least he's given up trying to break in. No way we can go back to sleep now, so we put the lights on so he knows we're awake

and on guard. We were both furious and ready to kick this guy in the face. He stopped circling the shack after a good half an hour. We packed the next morning and decided to move to the next place. We stepped out of the shack and noticed the clothes we had hung out to dry are missing. I talked to the owner's wife and tell her about last night's incident. She seemed apologetic and said she heard the big group of guys making noise and playing loud music till late in the night. We heard them too, but we know the music and party stopped way before someone tried to break in cause we would have heard it otherwise. I tell her this and she

seemed a little off and confused about the timings. We were waiting at the cafe for the owner's wife to return. She wanted to make sure that there were no damages, the usual protocol. We were waiting at the cafe for the owner's wife to return. She wanted to make sure that there were no damages, the usual protocol. We see the same tourist who was chatting with the owner the previous day, the same guy I've seen before during my last few visits. He's never talked to me before or the previous day. As he's passing by, we see he's wearing jean shorts. He stops to say hi and asks how our stay is and if we're having fun. He can clearly see us with our backpacks and that we're angry. We had passed this guy many times the day before, but he decides to say hi and talk to us now and ask if we're having fun.

At this point, the owner's wife is back after inspecting the shack for damages and she tells the guy we're leaving because of the noise in the night. He has the balls to tell us, are you sure? Maybe another night here will change your mind. He proceeds to ask us if we know where we were staying. I tell him even if I did know, I won't tell because I don't want that noise to follow us to the new place. He smirks and says, let's hope. I'm not entirely sure if this guy was the person who was trying to break in, but the whole weird conversation and sudden interest in us made it convincing. Maybe we were just assuming it's him. Maybe he saw we were angry and wanted to have a conversation Luckily we moved to a better shack and made friends with the owners Had a fun birthday after that But to the creep who tried to break into our room on my birthday

Next time We'll be prepared for a fight I'm a 27-year-old white woman living alone in Belize for almost four years. Small, 5'1", 115 pounds. I don't like to think of myself as easily scared. I work with gang-involved youth at the country's juvenile detention facility and at an outpatient mental health clinic. I have to admit, for a while before this incident, I was a bit more on edge because there had been a slew of Americans and Canadians that were taken out. Although all had been retirement age, criminals see this as having money.

A few weeks ago, I was sleeping. It was already around midnight. At this point I had been sleeping more than a couple of hours. I try to get to bed by 9pm because I have to catch my bus at 4.40. Anyway I was sleeping and I am suddenly woken up by a light shining on my face. Someone was outside my window with a flashlight. Immediately, and I never have responded this way to being scared, I jump up out of bed and get to a point where he can't see me, in between my bedroom and kitchen, and start screaming at him. After my first episode of cussing at him he says, I'm here to check your water. I replied with more cussing and tell him that is not what he is there for since it is midnight. Then this man asked if I had any water to give him.

I was very confused by this but I kept cussing and screaming at him. He just then quietly left. I called my landlord to let her know what had happened and she thinks it's one of my neighbors. As I recall, when I first moved in there was a man upstairs that my landlord introduced me to, and at the time jokingly mentioned how he knows he likes white girls. I didn't sleep at all that night and it took me three nights to go back to my bedroom. I moved my bed away from the window to the middle of the room. I did not call the police because they hardly do anything, even whenever something terrible is involved.

Street harassment is terrible for women here, but it is a whole other story for white women, making walking in some areas less than pleasant. So, I am coming to you all for tips, tricks, and words of wisdom. I have a two-hour commute to work both ways, ending in December when I get a transfer. My schedule is pretty set, and it would be easy to guess when and where I am if anybody were to watch. I have bars on my windows and locks on my doors. I want to know what I can do to help me be more safe. I can't get a dog since it's a very small apartment with no yard space.

Once I get wifi I can look into cameras. Any recommendations? And I already have a taser and mace. Let's start this off with some background on me back then. At the time I was already a hardened recon trooper. This was my first long term tour of combat. I had not even a month prior seen one of my best friends killed right in front of me while two others were permanently maimed in a horrible ambush in the city. It was a nightmare watching my friend die from massive bleeding. Us not being able to do much except give him morphine

and keep him from the pain. That was terrible and I will never forget that, but not even that spooked me to the core as much as this did. After that ambush we were moved to this city to an FOB, Forward Operating Base, like a small city walled in with concrete, T-wall barriers and HESCO barriers. Think big 4x4 boxes filled with earth and stacked 16 feet tall to create a huge wall, about 1 meter by 1 meter stacked 4 meters high. This particular FOB was interesting in that some of its barriers to prevent easy entry in were simply huge mounds of dirt with guard towers planted on top of them to ensure people and vehicles didn't just run in at random. Being a recon force, we were tasked with constantly going outside the wire to do patrols and be the land and airspace quick readiness force if something happened and someone needed fast and skilled firepower or extraction. For this duty, we were assigned helicopters and light

armored Humvees and we lived next to the improvised airfield on the outskirts of the FOB. Our housing consisted of tents covered in an insulating foam to provide a more permanent structure, with air conditioning units to keep us cool as we slept and worked, maintaining our gear or whatever else. We lived four guys to a tent as each of us had a ton of gear we had to keep mission ready for a variety of missions. There were 20 of us in total separated into two squads or teams and we shared this little tent village inside the wall together. In this instance, we had just gotten back from a late night air assault mission. Fly to a place in a helicopter, shoot some bad people, grab intel,

and the important bodies and go home. Everyone had gone to bed after having finished cleaning our gear and eating. In the middle of our tent village was the latrine trailer. A house trailer fitted with showers, sinks, and toilets so we could keep ourselves clean. I woke up around 4am and needed to drop a deuce so I grabbed my headlamp, flashlight with the headband so I could see in the fob, my rifle and one magazine as mandated by command and headed out of the tent to the john. As I was walking to the trailer, something just fell off. Maybe it was a slight change in air pressure. It didn't fully register in my mind as I just had to go so I quickened my pace to the trailer, went inside and did my business.

I pulled my shorts back up, washed my hands and walked outside staring at the ground to make sure I didn't fall down the stairs in the trailer or stumble on some rocks. As I rounded the corner, I lifted my head and saw a pair of green glowing eyes set in the darkest fur I had ever seen, twelve inches from my face. I'm not a tall dude, around five foot seven, and maybe it was just the adrenaline kicking in, but I swear this thing was looking me eye to eye. I figured I must be seeing things because I'm so tired, so I turned my head and when I looked back, there was nothing there but a wisp of dust in the air. I stood there for a second trying to collect myself and then I looked back at the ground and saw paw prints that were at least 4 inches wide, approximately 10 centimeters. If I hadn't just relieved myself seconds earlier, I probably would have at that point. I was shaking and sweating like I had just been in a firefight. I locked and loaded my rifle and peeked around the corner to make sure it wasn't still there.

It made my way over to the radio tent to tell the two guys still awake what just happened and then carefully made my way back to the tent and went to bed. The next day, one of the first bullet points on the daily briefing was about some huge panther that had escaped a local sheik's compound and was eating local shepherd's sheep at night, and how we should be on the lookout and never leave your tent without a battle buddy, as the guys all chuckled. There were signs posted at the chow hall and in the tiny shop on the FOB too. We never did see that thing again and I don't know whatever happened to it but

I know that whenever I walked outside my tent late at night after that, I was always 7 or 8, I was living with my family in their small apartment in a large city. The complex was pretty dense, lots of neighbors, lots of strangers. There was always a lot of traffic coming through, even through the night. So hearing someone walk up and down the stairs at 3am is pretty normal. I remember that my brother, around 5 years older than I, had only just began staying with us for a short time, and that we had, presumably, his Wii set up in the living room, though it could have been mine, I can't quite remember when I got my own. The Wii was a newer system at this time and I was a game junkie so I was excited to play the system, especially with games like Guitar Hero already

set up and ready for me. For the couple of weeks in the summer he was there I was constantly playing the Wii in the latest hours of the night, usually staying up until 3 or 4am, rocking out or bowling or Mario, you know the drill. I was already staying up pretty late before we got the Wii but this was my excuse to keep doing it. My brother would often fall asleep on the couch behind me while I was playing around 1am and I'd play a little quieter until I finished. Although I was young and carefree at the time, I've always had a sort of knack for remaining situationally aware, and since I was especially good at eavesdropping, it was almost second nature for me to be

consistently listening, for anything and anyone, and pretending like I couldn't hear anything going on around me. Of course, I didn't realize I was doing this at the time, but I've had several years of growth and introspection since that time and I've come to learn the patterns of my behavior that remain even today. At first everything was dandy, business as usual. Lots of gaming and lots of progress. After a day or two I would notice people going up and down our stairs a lot more often. There was just a ton of rumbling outside at all hours of the night after midnight. I even heard a bit of talking, though I couldn't understand it, whether it was muffled or they were speaking Spanish. I'm still not sure to this day.

A week or so after my brother was home, I have a distinct memory of hearing a sound and seeing an immediate flash of light outside. But when I turned my head to look at the window, covered by long vertical blinds except for one that had come off at the end, so the only view was a small sliver of our porch or balcony, all I saw was darkness. I turned back to my game and pretended to continue playing, hoping that nobody was outside, but also hoping that if anyone were there, they didn't notice me turn my head. I heard several distinctly mechanical noises throughout the rest of the night and that I'm fairly certain were the sounds of the shutter of a camera, but no more flashes. After about 3am I decided I was probably hearing things from our neighbor's house and ignored it, packed it up and went to sleep. This continued for about another week. The sounds

of the camera and people walking back and forth throughout the night, that is. I didn't think it was really anything to worry about. I basically assumed at this point that it was all next door and that it didn't matter much. I never mentioned to my brother while he was there, nor my parents. I just continued my nightly ritual of playing the crap out of whatever game I could. After a week of hearing those noises outside I had become curious about what was going on. I played that night until my brother went to sleep and carefully positioned myself in a way that I could hear quite well outside but that it looked like I was entranced by my game in case anybody was watching me. I wasn't really sure that that was even the case but I knew it was at least a possibility and wanted to appear oblivious if so.

I had heard the characteristic rumbling of people going up and down the stairs and I remember it quieting a bit around 1 30 a.m. However I didn't hear the mechanical sounds and I didn't see any flashes, so I decided I was going to go outside to check it out. To paint the picture, our apartment complex was set up so that there were 8 units to each building, 4 in the front, 4 in the back. There are 2 units on the ground floor and 2 units on the second floor on either side of each building. Our apartment was on the top floor at the far end of one of these units, so you had to walk up the stairs and through an uncovered walkway to our balcony. There's a small porch right by the front door for seating that we had somewhat filled with

various things. I remember specifically that there was a large printer or fax machine of some sort right on the ground in front of the window, basically centered below where the last blind gave way to the inside of the home and a chair beside the printer, facing towards the open area between the porch and the walkway. So I quietly and slowly move below the window, view from the window blocked by the couch that was up against the wall and crawl to the front door. Slowly as ever, heart pounding from both anxiety and excitement, I unlocked the front door and tiptoed onto the balcony. There was nobody on our porch, and I didn't hear anybody walking outside next door.

I peeked through the railing beside the walkway and my breath caught as I noticed several, maybe five dark figures standing in front of the entire unit, near a tree in between all of the units around. I couldn't tell who they were but they all sounded male. It didn't appear that any of them saw me so I continued to watch in silence for a time. Normally it wouldn't trip me out much but there was something just generally weird about the way that they were talking that felt suspicious. They looked wary, and the way they spoke sounded like they were angry, but I couldn't understand them. I thought they might have been where all the camera sounds were coming from, but I didn't see any cameras. I thought it was dark, and those faced away from me could have easily

been carrying one. They didn't look like anybody I had seen in the complex before. I watched and listened for a long time, probably a half an hour, trying to see if they were the ones going up and down the stairs. However, they didn't appear to be leaving or doing much of anything at the time. I took that as confirmation that my suspicions were in vain and that they were up to adult stuff that I didn't need to worry about. I turned around and went back into the apartment and decided I didn't need to stress about it anymore. The next night I think my parents were upset that I had been playing video games all night for the last few nights because at about midnight I feigned sleep on the couch adjacent to the one my brother had been sleeping on. A while later I heard my parents check the living

room and stalk back to their bedroom. I quietly stood up and turned the Wii on. My dad had started up the shower and my mom was watching videos on the computer so they didn't hear me playing. I did also keep the volume quite low. I was able to get some serious gaming done for a few minutes. At around 1am I started to hear the rumbling of the stairs. Although I had decided that what was going on was unrelated to me, I remember still feeling on edge about it. Then, a few minutes after hearing people come up and down the stairs, I began to hear a very distinct sound. The sound of some big object squeaking. I didn't understand what the noise was at the time,

but it basically sounded like hardened plastic being bent and grown from pressure. It also sounded extraordinarily close. I was sat on the floor in front of the couch my brother was sleeping on, so the window and front door were to my right, and I had a pretty clear view to the porch through the area that the blind was missing. It was dark outside so I couldn't see anything but once I heard this sound I had major goosebumps and something felt off so I kept glancing at the sliver of window I could see. At this point I was scared. I didn't understand what the sound was. I kept hearing people moving outside and I didn't understand why. I assumed that they were right in front of our apartment and couldn't figure out what to do. The sound of pressure on plastic continued for about two minutes or so

before it quieted down. At that point I would hear the creaking of hard plastic every 30 seconds or so, maybe a little bit more frequent. I had the game on and kept moving my arms as though I was playing, but I wasn't paying attention to the game in the slightest. I don't even remember which one was on. Out of nowhere, everything went silent. I could hear no creaking, no shuffling of feet, no rumbling of the stairs, no voices, nothing at all. This put me over the edge and for some reason I knew there was something seriously wrong. I was terrified.

I thought they might be getting ready to break into our house and rob us or something of the sort. I didn't really know what to think or what to do. A final roaring screech of plastic bending filled the air. I immediately turned my head all the way to the right, not caring whether they knew I could see them or not. I stared for a moment at the blackness and a couple of hundred dollar bills shone through it, illuminated by the light inside our house. It took a minute for me to comprehend what I was seeing. At first all I saw was the money money slowly being moved back and forth in front of the window. I was in shock at having my suspicions that there was something outside confirmed and it took a minute before I saw gloves holding the money and arms extended into the

darkness beyond. After a moment of utter confusion I finally realized what was going on. There was somebody kneeling on top of our printer shovingving money at the window, trying to entice me to come outside. At this point, my fight or flight response kicked in and being a scrawny seven or eight year old girl left no option but the latter. I screamed as loud as I possibly could and bolted out of the living room towards my parents' room. I remember the sound of the shower shutting off,

my mom screaming what happened or something of the sort, and my dad eventually falling through with the same. Only about 30 seconds had passed and I was filled with tears. All I could do was cry, eventually mumble something about there being someone outside. My dad, my amazingly protective dad, immediately grabbed his gun and went outside. It's about 1.30am at this point and my mom held me while I cried in the living room and we waited patiently for my dad to find out who was out there.

My dad came back a few minutes later and stated that he didn't see anybody out there anymore, but that he was going to stay outside with his gun and wait there for a while. I was tired from the anxiety and finally having this all come to a head, but I could not find sleep. The only thing I could do was listen to my heart beating and wait. My dad sat on the chair of our porch all night quietly waiting with his gun for anyone to show. My mom consoled me the entire time and told me that if this ever happens again, to walk calmly to their rooms so that my screaming doesn't scare them away. I didn't tell her about the fact that I had been hearing these people outside for the last few weeks, and I never mentioned that I thought that they had a camera or that they

may have taken photos of me. I don't know why, I was just so shaken up, and by the time I even thought about the noises I'd heard, it had been long enough that I didn't want to talk about it. They didn't contact the police, and my dad stayed out there until the sun finally surfaced at around 6am. My dad never saw a soul, in a complex that was nearly always busy. Only then could I finally find sleep

and needless to say, the blinds were covered from that point on. I stopped staying up at night, especially alone, and we moved away from that complex shortly thereafter. I actually developed a fear of open, unobstructed windows and especially refused to be near a window at night. It still affects me to this day, though not nearly as bad, unbeknownst to anyone I associate with, even my fiancé. I didn't really understand why my parents didn't call the cops, but later on I found out that my parents used drugs and I assumed from then on that it was just to make sure that there weren't any issues with CPS or getting caught. However,

I had to talk with my parents about it several years later and they assumed that I had a bad dream after they saw I was asleep in the living room and that there was never anybody there. It hurt when they told me about that and due to their apprehension to believe me, I've never told another person. All I have is my own memory and only I know what truly happened in those weeks. Recently I've had a bit of a rough time, with old childhood memories that I suppress being brought to the forefront of my mind, and though I don't have the time or energy to tell them all, I may perhaps come to terms with them eventually and I'll continue to tell my story on my own time. For all I know, if my dad wasn't there that night, I'd be kidnapped and God knows what else.

It has been super rainy lately and we finally had a sunny day. So despite the cold weather I packed up my son, almost two, and headed for the park. The park we went to is about a five minute drive from our house and has always seemed safe to me. I did hear from a friend that they knew someone whose car was broken into while their kids were playing. But other than that I'd never heard of anything bad. I called my brother-in-law and nephew to come along, and they came a little bit after we did and met up with us. This may sound odd, but this park is made up of three playgrounds that are very close together. The first one is close to the parking lot,

and as you keep walking the opposite direction from the parking lot, you reach the last two, which are directly across from each other. Anyway, I was holding my son and walking toward the playground and leaned up against the wooden fence where this man was wearing a Carhartt jacket, sunglasses, and a beard. From here on out, we will call him Mr. Carhartt. He turned to face me and I nodded my head as a greeting and he just stared. I thought it was awkward but brushed it off. We arrived at the first playground and my son wanted to go through this wooden train. It is basically a long arch that is designed like a train. We were walking in and out of the train and I happened to glance up and standing in the corner of the playground I see Mr. Carhart. Maybe

he had a kid on the playground and he was just keeping tabs. There were a few other kids in the playground. I look at him for a few seconds and he just stands still and looking in our direction. It is hard to see if he is actually staring at us or not because of his sunglasses. I start to get weirded out so my son and I move to the next playground. The next area has swings for toddlers and babies so I put my son on one and started to push him. We were the only two on this playground. Had we been secluded this probably would have been a bad idea but we were very close to other people on the other playgrounds so I didn't think anything of it. I keep looking around for the next five minutes

and didn't see him so I started to relax. I turned around to face the trees because I was showing my son squirrels and birds and when I turned back around there was Mr. Carhart again. He was sitting on a bench where parents usually sit between the two playgrounds about 30 or so feet away. He was turned and looking in our direction once again. This weirded me out big time because we were the only ones on that playground. I met his gaze, well, with the sunglasses and held it. I called my brother-in-law about what was happening and to tell him to hurry up. I never took my eyes off of Mr. Carhartt, but he slowly stood up and walked toward the parking lot like he was leaving. I couldn't see from the playground if he left or not but assumed that he did since he was headed out. We finally headed over to the last playground which is a huge connected wooded playground

apparatus with lots of places to climb, hide, and slide down. This is usually for the bigger kids so parents on this playground typically sit and watch their kids play. Since my son is still so young and this area has a lot of places for him to fall down from, I tagged along behind him. We were climbing up these little stairs when my son suddenly decided to turn around and change direction. When I turned around I was face to face with Mr. Carhart. I grabbed my son and pushed him behind me.

Mr. Carhart stared at me with this smirk on his face. I had loudly and angrily said, Can I help you? I said it loud enough that some other parents turned and looked towards us. They slowly backed up, climbed down and backed off the playground and walked toward the parking lot once again. Just about that time, my brother-in-law and nephew showed up. I figured the guy got spooked and left because for the next half hour we saw no sign of him. It started to get dark and really cold so we decided it was time to go. My nephew had to use the restroom and my toddler was throwing a

teetotal fit so my brother-in-law took my nephew and took my son onto the car where they would meet us in a few. I looked around and didn't see anything sketchy, so I went ahead to buckle my son in his car seat. As I'm buckling him in, I see lights flashing from my left side. Looking toward the back of my car, I look up and lo and behold, there is a black sedan with Mr. Carhartt on the back side of the next row of cars. I started to freak out, particularly when I noticed there was no child in his car, just him. He didn't have a kid there at all. I looked around and in the distance I could see my brother-in-law and nephew so I just started yelling for them as loudly as I could and start pointing at the guy's car. My brother-in-law takes

off sprinting and upon seeing this Mr. Carhartt gets spooked and drives off. We wait about five minutes and then take a long way home and the whole way there I am checking my rear view. It was hard to see because it was pretty dark but when we got under street lights I never saw a black sedan behind me. I don't know who that guy was or what his intentions were for me and my son. The story happened to me my senior year of high school, so about three years ago now.

It's a little cloudy, but I remember what is important. After a night of smoking up and kicking it with friends, I was alone on my way home and decided to stop for a fountain drink for the cotton mouth. This was around 1am. The way this particular store was set up, the parking spots are around the side of the building and those blinding fluorescent lights in the front only stretch so far so it's pretty much dark back there. I park next to this SUV with two older guys, maybe late 40s or 50s standing outside talking. I note their faces but just mind my business as always and not think anything of it.

I go inside and start to grab a cup and one of the men from the SUV outside was standing literally right next to me. Thought that was weird, but I just keep going on about my business. Begins to strike up the conversation. Is that your car out there? Yep. I said while avoiding eye contact. It's really nice.' When he said that, I absolutely knew something wasn't right about this guy because I drove a 2000 Ford Focus that my brother had just gotten me from the dump.

"'Does it get good gas mileage?' "'I don't know. I think it's in need of a tune-up or something.' Why I didn't just say yes and no to him I have no idea. Maybe I didn't want to sound rude. At this point in my life I'm pretty spineless so lonely strangers would trap me in cringy conversations all the time and I felt like I just had to stand there and listen. I thought this man was no different and that he would be out of my hair soon enough. Oh the naivety. He then proceeds to tell me that other thing needs tune-ups too sometimes. Not so subtly motioning down towards his crotch.

At this point I am very panicked because this was one of my very first experiences as a young girl dealing with creepy older men. Fortunately and unfortunately I am used to that now and have no issue telling anybody big or small to kindly buzz off. So I'm just like uh and then he asked me how old I was and I lied and said 16 even though I was 18 because I thought maybe this old man trying to pick up young women in a circle k at 1am has an ounce of decency and won't go for a kid. Wrong again. He keeps going on about trying to get me to go with him, asking if I drink or smoke. I said no, telling me he's got gobs of liquor and a whole big jar of bud for me,

asking me if I want to come lay on his bed and watch his big old flat screen TV. I just keep saying no, I need to get home, my mom is expecting me, but he keeps going on and on. This man is literally on my heels following my every step in the store. Now mind you, I am not a small girl, I'm about 5'9", 160 pounds. This man was literally towering over me, at least 6'4", 270. Finally, he got distracted by something and I quickly went over to the clerk and paid for my drink. What made me the most nervous was the fact that I parked right next to him in the dark. I whispered to the cashier that this man was making me extremely uncomfortable, mentioning the parking situation and could he please distract him

to keep him in the store while I make my way to leave. Thank god he took me serious and did so. I left safely but shaken. I guess I just considered myself lucky because my hometown is right along I-5 which is notorious for kidnapping and trafficking. I feel bad and try not to make a big deal about these things telling myself, oh he was just talking creepy, what are you tripping about if he didn't physically touch you? And then thinking how far it could have gone without anyone else around. About the women who never make it back to their car. What women go through in society every single day period and how scary it can be.

This gross experience certainly humbled me. It was the first creep I can clearly remember, but definitely won't be the last. A creep is a creep, and I wish I could say let's not meet again, but I can't because I continue to meet them time and time again, and probably will forever. I was reading some posts on here yesterday which reminded me of something that happened to me when I was 15. I was going to Camden Market by myself and I traveled alone a fair bit in London, so it wasn't a one-off occurrence. I knew where I was going and felt safe as usual. It was February, I think, and it had been raining the day before because I remember I was wearing a raincoat in case it rained again.

A few stops after the tube left my station, my let's not meet got on. It was obvious from the start he wasn't right. Everyone was wearing coats or jackets of some sort, but he got onto the train wearing a vest, shorts, and flip-flops. So straight away I'm thinking, what a weirdo. He gets on the train, starts looking around for a place to sit. I make an effort not to make eye contact because he looks like the sort of person who would come and sit with you if you didn't meet eyes with him. He sat down a fair way away at first so I was relieved but out of the corner of my eye could still see him looking around constantly. A few stops later he moved to a seat closer to me. I'm thinking, oh god, but try to reassure myself it was nothing

and I was just being paranoid because my mom was always very wary of creeps and drilled it into us to be suspicious of everyone. Next stop, as people were getting on and off, he moved closer again. I could feel him watching me this time which creeped me out and he started tapping his flip-flopped foot on the floor which was quite unnerving. I made a point of going on my phone so that I wouldn't have to look at him and thought about texting my mom but I didn't want her to worry and didn't want her to make me come home. A few stops before King's Crossing he moved to the seat opposite me when it was empty. At this point I knew something was really wrong and it wasn't just a coincidence he had moved this close to me. I made the mistake of

looking up at him and this idiot was staring right at me, licking his lips. I started to get really panicked then, but I was getting off at King's Crossing to change to the northern line and it was only a stop or two away, so I was thinking to myself, just hang on, you're getting off in a minute. Get to King's Crossing, I get up to leave and he stays sat down, thank god. I'm free of him. As I'm walking away from the platform though, I turn around just to be sure, and lo and behold, there he is, walking a short distance behind me, obviously having got off too. I started walking quickly at this point, all the time thinking, it's King's Crossing, everyone gets off here, it's nothing, you're just panicking. I was walking really, quite briskly,

and had to go down two escalators to get to the Northern Line platform to get to Camden. I kept looking behind me and he was there the whole time, making eye contact with me. Instead of waiting and standing going down the escalator, I kind of ran down the right side, hoping to be shot of him, but when I turned around to check, he too was coming down the same side of the escalator rather quickly, all the time still maintaining eye contact with me. I realized then that he definitely was following me, and was rarely panicking. If you've ever got the northern line from King's Cross towards High Barnett to go to Camden Town, you'll know what I mean when I say there's a lot of little entryways to the platform within the wall, like a lot of tube stations.

I walked down the central bit in between the two platforms, weaved in and out of the walls that broke up the entryways to the platform, and then when I was sure he was on the platform, I waited behind one of the walls and made sure he got on a train. The whole time I was watching him to make sure he got on the next train that came. He was quickly looking around for me and still licking his lips. I guess he assumed I was on that train because he hadn't seen me leave the platform and got on to keep looking for me. I was so shaken up I just went straight back home. I realized on my way home that one of my earrings had fallen out, probably because I was moving my head around so much. I remember being really annoyed because I'd only bought them a week or so before. Now to the weirdo

who followed and chased me at King's Crossing. He scared the life out of 15 year old me and made me lose one of my new earrings. This happened just last night, so I wanted to tell it while it's still fresh. My good friend and I hadn't seen each other in a couple of weeks, so we decided to go to the arcade bar downtown to hang out and catch up. She picks me up, we get to the bar and order drinks and then station up at Tetris. Now a little bit of additional context because in hindsight I feel like it could have been a bit more important to consider. We're both female in our 20s and aren't exactly the most subtle or modest when we're together. We aren't rowdy or chaotic, but we joke around a lot, laugh loudly, and are usually dressed to impress. We were having a good time, dancing along to the music as we

played games, and really just sort of stood out a bit from the more casual atmosphere of most other patrons. We had arrived at around 9.30 to 10pm and ended up staying until about 12.40am. The arcade bar closes at 1am so we finished our drinks, played one last game and then decided to drive to another bar for the remaining two hours before everything closed at 3. Driving under the influence, very dumb I know, we had only a couple of light drinks though and weren't planning getting crazy. We live in a good sized college town but due to the weather being a little rainy and cold there weren't a getting crazy. We live in a good sized college town but due to the weather being a little rainy and cold there weren't a ton of people out and about on the streets as we walked back to her car which was on the opposite end of the block but still the same stretch of

road as the bar. Once we get in we sit in the car for a couple of minutes talking about various things. She was trying to pull up music on her phone but the app was having connectivity issues so it was taking much longer than it should have. In that time a large white van pulls up and parks directly beside us. I remember pointing it out when it parked next to us because it was huge. She drives a 2018 Jeep Wrangler and this van's windows were on par width or taller than our windows. It was pretty much the stereotypical creeper van, but I remember thinking it looked really nice, new and shiny. At that point though, nothing was out of the ordinary and we continued on talking and fiddling with the radio for another five or so minutes. Eventually, we give up on the music and start

backing out of the parking space to head to the other bar. Coincidentally, the van starts up as well and backs out of their parking space just as we drive off. We never saw anyone get out of the van, so it seems strange that they were suddenly now leaving after having just parked next to us ten or so minutes ago. Now, being two young women at the bar scene in a college town, we are always on the lookout. We are immediately suspicious of this van when we notice it was behind us, but we write it off initially as a coincidence. To explain the setup a bit, our downtown is designed with essentially all north to south streets being alternating one ways,

with a few exceptions and nearly all east and west streets being alternating one-ways, with a few exceptions, and nearly all east and west streets being two-ways. Sometimes to get to certain places, you're basically forced to take certain routes because of the one-ways. To get to the next bar, we turn left onto a one-way south, and then left again to go east on a two-way. At the very end of that street, about five blocks, was our destination. The van followed us the entire way and at this point we were certain that it's not just a coincidence. We were trying to be hopeful that maybe they were just going to a bar as well, but as my friend later recalled, they never used any turn signals while behind us and made sure to keep a close

distance. There was a small parking lot behind the bar we were headed to and because of the one-way street next to it, there is literally only one route you can take to get to it. So, we turn right onto that street, drive about 40 feet and then immediately turn into the parking lot. Because of the bar itself, the parking lot is invisible from the two-way street we initially turned off of, meaning that the van wouldn't have been able to see us go into the parking lot until after they cleared the intersection. The parking lot is also sort of a C-shape with one strict entrance and one strict exit, so if you missed the entrance, you technically would have to drive all the way around the block again. Thankfully, there was another car at the intersection that got between us and the van, so we had more time to essentially hide in the parking lot and see if the van would also come around the corner. My friend immediately turned the jeep's lights off.

Funnily enough, we actually parked right next to another jeep wrangler, and we watched. Sure enough, within a few seconds, the van made its appearance, but did not turn into the parking lot and instead drove past it. However, this is why knowing about the one-ways is important. Because of the way the street is set up, there would have been only two logical reasons why they would have to turn after us on that one-way street. A. They were indeed going to a bar as well when we're going to park in this parking lot or the one next to it. It's 1am so all nearby restaurants are closed. Or B. They were going to continue straight down that road and go into the residential areas to go home. They did

neither of these things and instead turned right back towards the main downtown area which heavily suggested that they were heading back to loop around the block again because they potentially saw us in the parking lot but was too late and had missed the turn. After that, we were on high alert. Abandon our bar plans and immediately high-tailed it out of there while they were still headed around the block. We took routes that were not the main or more obvious ones but still in populated areas so we had as much of a chance of losing them as possible. Thankfully, we never saw them again after that point. For the entire duration of all of this, my first thought

was that it was an undercover cop trying to catch us with a DUI because I was buzzed and paranoid. Maybe they saw us leave the bar and get into our car and decided to follow us. Afterwards though, as my friend and I were talking about it, that seems unlikely. Why would they follow us for nearly six blocks and never attempt to pull us over? Wouldn't they flip on their lights once we started driving or whenever the other car was going to get between us at the intersection? It just feels more sinister than that. I'm extremely thankful that we noticed them immediately and we never got out of the car at that second bar to allow them to catch up to us.

If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get it from Tread Experts. Until May 30th, purchase four new Michelin passenger or light truck tires and receive up to $70 by prepaid MasterCard. Conditions apply. Details at Michelin.ca. Find a Michelin Tread Experts dealer near you at TreadExperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at TreadExperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there.

TradExperts.ca Discover the exciting action of BetMGM Casino. Check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer or enjoy over 3,000 games to choose from like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz. Make instant deposits or same-day withdrawals. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly.

If you have questions or concerns about gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I work at a gas station in New Zealand and despite the downside of terrible customers, I have genuinely always loved my job. The station I started at has a lot of homeless people, or people who do have a home but are hard off and still beg. One homeless man in particular is my stalker.

When I first started, I was told by my co-worker that this man would come in and we would give him a free cup of hot water to which he would add some sugar packets to help him get by. They said he's a bit weird but harmless beside his tendencies to swear a lot. Him being homeless and all made me feel sorry for him especially in the winter time when I first heard of him so I happily provided him with his water. This man however wouldn't get the water and leave. He would rant and rave about all kinds of nonsense and I could never understand what he was on about. It was the f-word every second and nonsense every other. Some co-workers stopped letting him in as he disturbed customers but me and one other

co-worker would. I guess the problem began here because he would stop coming in during the day and whenever somebody else was in even my workmate who would still serve him said after a while he never saw him anymore. He would just come in when I was there alone. I worked 2 p.m to 11 p.m and he would always come at night. Every day without fail he would come in when I was there alone. I worked 2pm to 11pm and he would always come at night. Every day without fail he would come in at night and linger. Never on my days off would this man come and my days off are different each week so he had to have done a walk by during the day to know when I was working, which I also saw him do all the time.

I started to become uncomfortable with his presence and the way he looked at me but being raised in a Christian family made me reluctant to turn him away. My grandpa always said to me as a kid manners are cheap and never turn your back on charity. So I didn't but he started to make comments about my looks and then my body and he stopped asking for water. He just wanted me. He would come in, beeline straight to me and linger in the store for what felt like hours. My final straw was when he winked at me and said I always had a friend in him. The way he said it made my blood run cold so I stopped letting him in. The minute I went to sole charge I locked the doors as I knew he

would appear. The problem was I knew this man was watching me. I could sense it, and the minute the final customers left the forecourt, he was approaching the doors. I actually caught him watching me from alleyways and bushes multiple times a day. We got this man trespassed and hoped this would work. It didn't. He'd watch me, try to get in, and scream at me through the doors when I wouldn't let him in. Of course, I was calling the police every time he arrived, but he'd escape every time. For months and months on end, I was scared 24-7 at work and having nightmares at home. This went on for so long I couldn't list half the times he harassed me, tried to get in, or I saw him watching me. But the worst incident was when I was on forecourt duty filling cars and

cleaning the pumps. We have speakers at all pumps which are connected to an intercom inside so we can communicate with customers outside without having to run out there. It's a big site with 12 pumps. I was outside when I heard my co-worker call me inside from the speakers. Her voice panicked. It was daytime so my first thought was the customer was being difficult. I came inside and instantly heard the doors locked behind me. Look over by the bushes, she said with wide eyes. I did and sure enough, there he was, peering in. The scariest part? He was standing with one foot lunged forward like he was ready to run and pounce the minute the doors opened. My heart dropped and I called the police who arrived

insanely fast, as in they were there as I hung up the phone. The officer taking the statement told me he would be charged with criminal harassment and a restraining order was in place. The downside was legally they have to give a warning before he can be arrested for it and he was released the same night. But enough was enough. I couldn't do it anymore and I was scared all the time. It wasn't a question if he would be back but when? I handed in my two weeks notice the very next day. Management did want to lose me and offered me a site transfer to a site a good distance away that he'd never find me at.

At least that's what we all thought. I agreed to take the transfer and I moved to this new site and it was great. All staff were told not to tell anybody where I had gone, even the regulars. They were to say I no longer work for this company. For around three months it was blissful. No stalker, a fresh start and I felt safe. I wasn't looking over my shoulder every two seconds but the relief didn't last long. Only about a month ago I was informed by the officer handling my case I had to appear in court and testify against him. I was terrified of seeing him again but I told myself it was for the best. I had just accepted I could do it and

I would send him where he belongs when the worst happened. He found me here. I don't know how he did it but my best guess is he asked a new employee at my old site who didn't know about him and the stalking and restraining order and they told him. He must have caught a bus in or made an incredibly long walk. This man was approaching the doors quickly when I saw him and bolted. I nearly knocked over my boss who saw my face and asked what was wrong. I can't even remember what I said in my state of shock and fear but my manager locked us in her office and she was amazingly supportive. She rang the police and handled everything. I was shaking and in shock. We all thought I was safe here. The police officer in charge said he'd never find me here.

Whilst we had the police on the phone we saw him circle the site at least three times before the police arrived, found him, and arrested him. Thank God. Safe to say I got no sleep the next few days waiting for court. The fear of him being released was too much. Two days before court I prayed. I prayed he'd get convicted and I would be safe. I honestly have no idea what I would do if he was released and he knew where to find me again. This may sound dramatic but anybody who has experienced the trauma of being stalked will understand. I even made the comment, if he gets away, I think I might end myself. I truly felt that hopeless. Praise the Lord, my prayers were answered. The next day, the officer handling my case called me. I've got some good news. He changed his plea to guilty.

I was at work and jumped up and down in front of customers. This is the safest I've felt in nearly a year, the longest year of my life. But it's over for now, mostly. I have a sentencing case coming up where it will be determined how long he gets, but for now I will relax knowing this monster is off the streets, and most importantly, can't get anywhere near me. Deep down, I know it's not over. My gut tells me when he's released, he'll be back. This man is obsessed and mentally ill. The only thing getting me by is that saying, don't borrow trouble before it shows up at your doorstep.

But that's the problem. I know he will be back at the doorstep as soon as he can. Strange things can happen to anyone at any time. So hopefully my encounter will encourage you to be more aware of your surroundings. This event happened to me when I was a sophomore in high school. I am now a junior at university. It was a beautiful Sunday in late May and everyone was excited for summer break. I knew that soon I would have to start my summer job so I decided to go for a bike ride

so that I could have some time myself before I start working. I embarked on my 30-ish mile journey at around 3 p.m. The town I lived in at the time is home to the start of a long walking biking trail that takes you directly to a larger nearby city. I planned to ride the trail to the city, explore a bit and ride back before dark. I set off on my journey and I was enjoying the late afternoon sun as well as the sounds of nature. The ride to the city went extremely smoothly, no problems whatsoever. The problems started when I first arrived on the outskirts of the city. I should add that this is a very safe area, minimal crime and there are many large shopping centers nearby such as Sam's Club and Walmart, meaning there are always people around.

When on the trail you cross a bridge that goes over a very busy road, then immediately after crossing said bridge you make a left and the path continues parallel to the road below. The path eventually connects to the shoulder of the road just for a short distance. I am biking up the path parallel to the road and eventually reach the part where it connects to the shoulder of the road just for a short distance. I am biking up the path parallel to the road and eventually reach the part where it connects to the shoulder. Where the path meets the road there is an intersection with stoplights. I'm going to try to explain this part as best I can so bear with me. I was going to turn right at this intersection which would take me in the area with Walmart and Sam's Club.

I glance on the opposite side of the road and in the left turn lane there was a car whose passenger was standing on the road, yelling and banging on the window of the person who was in the straight lane. I remember thinking to myself, huh, road rage much? But I made my turn and kept on my way, not thinking anything at all. Since I was turning right and the car with the road rage guy was turning left, that meant that they would pass by me when their light changed and allowed them to execute their turn. Sure enough, I felt their car come up behind me. There is no sidewalk on this portion of road that I was on so I temporarily had to hug close to the

curb. Since I knew that they could be trouble I kept my head forward and didn't react as they drove past me. As they go by I hear them yelling expletives at me as well as calling me things that could be considered offensive. I don't really pay too much attention to them as they pass however I do notice the passenger's head out the window. The vehicle was speeding quite heavily but from what I could notice the passenger's head out the window. The vehicle was speeding quite heavily but from what I could tell the passenger had a dark hoodie or mask covering his entire face. I didn't really know what it was at the time but I would soon find out. Before going any further I should explain how this area is set up. Basically from where I was

Walmart and Sam's Club were in the back left corner. If I continued biking straight on the street I was on I'd end up behind a long strip mall. This is where those guys drove and it was where I was originally planning on going. When I saw that's where they went I noped out and pulled off in front of some closed shops. I pulled out my phone and called my mom to tell her what had happened because I was honestly so confused as to what just went down. I wish this is where it ended. We talked for a couple of minutes and I kid you not,

the second I hung up I see the car pull up right next to me. I remember thinking, what could these guys possibly want? The passenger opened the door and swung his legs onto the ground. It took a minute to realize what I was seeing. The guy was wearing an extremely detailed devil mask. I was so confused and we just looked at each other for about five seconds. Then my senses kicked in and I pushed forward on the pedal to get the heck out of there. Devil mask then sprinted from the passenger seat to block me from going anywhere. At this point he raised his fists and started rocking them up and

down like a boxer does when they are sizing up their opponent. He was about 6 inches from my face, his fists half the distance. In this kind of situation you always think you'd be tough but believe me, when your fight reaction gets denied it is hard to do anything but freeze. I wasn't sure if he was trying to rob me or what so I kept my eyes on his fist to make sure that they weren't going to reach for anything. I remember saying man what are you doing just please don't hurt me. I know, sounds pretty weak but that's all I could manage to get out. After several seconds he jumps back in his car and the driver floors it, going down the wrong way of a one-way parking lot. I honestly do not recall if the driver of

the vehicle had a mask on or not, either way it was still creepy. I didn't even think to get the plate numbers of the car. What I do know is that the vehicle was a red Honda Accord sedan from around the 2007 model year. Luckily a couple doors down in the strip mall was my then neighbor's business. Thankfully he was there being it was a Sunday. I was able to stop in and explain what just happened. We both stepped out to look for the car but to no avail. I called my mom from there and she came to pick up my bike as she was already in the area. I stayed in my neighbor's office for some time and then I rode home with him. Our conversation on the way home mainly consisted of self-defense tactics and

he told me stories about some sketchy experiences he has had. He said one day he was coming out of the same office, and there was a group of several people who surrounded him, blocking him from entering his vehicle. I cannot recall how that story ended, but it changed my perception on what I thought was a safe area. Honestly, the experience was pretty spooky and all, but I would say I was more confused than anything. First of all it was the middle of the day on a Sunday so there was a lot of people out and about.

So if these guys meant harm why were they doing it when anyone could easily see them? Although they were menacing I am pretty sure they were doing it just to get a scare out of people and I just happened to be a victim of one of their pranks. These pranksters will eventually mess with the wrong person who will either beat them senseless or pull a firearm. I can tell you these guys did not seem harmless as I felt very threatened especially when the masked man ran to cut me off. So to the weird devil masked man and his accomplice, I hope we don't see each other again i mean that too as i now carry the necessary tools to protect myself wherever i go for all i know you could be listening to this right now since you probably enjoy spooky things to wrap up my story i urge

everyone to carry mace a blade and anything that you legally can do so. And please, watch your surroundings. I was 17 when this happened. I live in Finland and never really felt unsafe. Of course I knew that people got harassed, etc., but it never happened to me and I never thought it would happen to me. I was walking home from the grocery store pretty late at night at around 8pm. It was winter so it had gotten dark hours ago and it was incredibly cold outside so I decided to take a shortcut. A bad idea I know. The shortcut to my apartment was next to a few terrible bars that were full of local drunks since it was a weekend night. As I was walking past the bars I saw a man walking behind me. I could tell he was intoxicated from the way he was walking. It spiked up my

anxiety immediately and as I started walking faster he did too. He was getting pretty close to me and I could hear a zipper being pulled down. A short zipper like the one in his jeans. Now I was full on panicking and decided to call someone. I pressed the first number on my contact list and it just happened to be my sister's girlfriend at the time. As soon as she picked up I had loudly told her where I was and what was happening. I think the man heard me because after that he turned and started walking the other direction. I got home safe after all but as soon as I closed my apartment door I broke down. I was so scared. I had never experienced anything like that before. I know this story may not sound scary to some people but

I'm sure I'll never forget it and I sure learned my lesson to never take a shortcut home alone late at night. I'm an 18 year old student and I take the train and bus to school and back. And since I'm a female my boyfriend likes walking me to the station since my school city isn't the safest of all. But on day one he accepted a ride home from his sister who works in a drugstore near our school so I didn't mind and gladly walked back to the station alone. I missed my train and waited in the underground tunnel since it was very hot outside and the tunnel had a lot of shade and was a bit less over the top hot and this guy shows up and walks up to me. He looked to be in his mid

30s to me but he could have been older and he asked if I was still in school which I said yes to since I was and I was hoping that would kind of scare him off since he never asked my age. So I guess he would think maybe I was underage which I was kind of hoping for and he would leave me alone. So he asked me some more useless questions about school but never which school I go to or what I do. He then asked which train I took which I answered correctly but I lied about taking the bus so he would think I lived in the city. He said that he took the same train and had the same stop and that creeped me out a lot and I was hoping he didn't ask to go together which

he didn't ask thank god. He then asked if I had a boyfriend and I told him I had one and that bummed him out since he was looking for a girlfriend apparently. He talked a bit more about that and asked some more about my boyfriend but I never mentioned any names of him or me because he didn't ask and I would have made up some names of course. So the man eventually says he will stop bothering me and then asked for a freaking kiss when he said goodbye. I turned that down. Then he asked for a hug. I turned that down as well. Then he tried a handshake, so I gave him one. But then when he leaves, he goes the wrong direction. He walked all the way to this underground tunnel. He had to go through the station first to get there, and going in the tunnel means you wish to take the train,

but then he just leaves where he came from. I kind of think that's suspicious. Why go to the train station if you aren't going to take a train? After he left I directly got up the stairs onto my parent. I had to be where people could see me and called my boyfriend about this. He was so angry that it happened the moment he wasn't there with me. I think I should have reported this at the locket since this happened inside of security cameras. And to be honest, I feel stupid I didn't. When I was in 5th grade I lived quite close to my school and often walked home by myself. My parents got me a phone at the beginning of the year so I could call or text them and let them know I was home safe.

For the first half of the school year, everything was great. I loved walking home and felt like an adult because of it. Enter the stereotypical white van. At first, the van was no big deal. I assumed they lived in the area as I would see it drive around quite often. I hadn't seen the driver. He didn't try to speak to me and he never slowed down when he passed me while I walked home. It was no big deal, just a strange looking van that someone nearby drove. The first incident occurred at my school. I was walking back to my school for

violin lessons. School ended at 3pm and lessons were at 4.45, so I would usually go home and take the dog out, eat a snack, grab my violin and make my way back to campus. As always, I was walking alone with just my phone and a big violin on my back. I started to hear this strange noise when I made it to the school's parking lot. I, being the oblivious person I was, finally realized the noise was coming from behind me and looked over my shoulder to see what was causing it. The van. It crept behind me at a snail's pace about 20 feet away. The school was basically empty. Everyone who was there was already inside the building. Now I may have been oblivious but I knew when it was time to remove myself from the situation. I sprinted to the music room door and started pounding on it,

pretty frantically. There was no outside handle and someone had to open it for me to get in. The van very calmly sped up to a normal pace and left the parking lot before my very concerned music teacher opened the door. I made up some story about a really spooky bug chasing me or something like that and kept that event to myself. I'd convinced myself that I overreacted and it was probably some parent that had just dropped off their kid and was texting while pulling away. The next, and luckily final, incident happened a few weeks later. There had been a lack of creepy white vans, and I stupidly assumed the driver had moved away or gotten a better car.

By this point, I was back to my normal self, walking home and hanging out with just my dog until my parents got home or my older brother got back from his friend's house. On this particular day there wasn't school, I believe it was during spring break, but my friend who lived directly behind me and was a little older than me suggested we walk to my school and play on the playground. Both my parents worked 9 to 5 jobs so I called my dad and let him know we were going to the playground and that I'd call when we got home so someone could be aware of where we were. Playground is fun. We stay for like two hours and then decide it's time to go home because it's hot and my phone had died. We walk our normal route and as we turn onto her street my stomach drops and I panic because there's the van. It's past her cul-de-sac and

it looks to be parked but I just got this really bad vibe. I tell her that we should run the rest of the way because this van is creepy and she agrees. We take off, cutting through yards and trying not to stumble over any lawn decorations. Turns out Van is not parked. The guy must have just been sitting in his car waiting. I think he probably saw us go to the school and just waited for us to come back. The van makes this awful squealing noise when this guy tries to speed towards us and it gives us a tiny bit of a head start which, turns out, may have saved us. We both slam against her front door crying and panicking. No one is home so the door is locked. She pulls out her keys and drops them while trying to unlock

the door. She scoops them up right as the van comes to a screeching halt in front of the driveway. She managed to open the door and we both scrambled inside at the exact moment we hear the van's driver's side door open. Driver's side was turned away from us. That gave us a little extra time too. I slammed the door behind us, locked the deadbolt in the handle before closing the curtains over the window on the door. I'm hyperventilating and crying but my friend pulls herself together enough to make sure the other doors are locked. She had a living room with a bay window that faced the road. The window had no curtains so it wasn't hard to see the house. She runs out of the room and I hear her drop to the floor and start frantically whispering at me. I ran towards her and she held up a hand to tell me to stop and pointed at the window. Terrified, I peeked out from

behind a wall to look out the window and there he was. The van's driver looked like a homeless Santa Claus with a hint of meth and he was just standing on the passenger side of the van, staring into the house with his dead expression on his face. We both hid behind the wall and silently cried for probably 25 minutes, too terrified to find a phone to call the police. Finally, after what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than 30 minutes, we heard the van make the squealing noise and popped our heads around the corner in unison to see the van speed off and leave the neighborhood. Did we call the police? No. I had never called 911 before and I was scared we would get in trouble for something like that, being out alone. Dumb, I know. Instead we called our parents who seemed

sympathetic but obviously didn't believe us because they were not particularly concerned. We both cried some more and questioned if it had really even happened before triple checking all the locks and watching a movie to distract us until our parents came home. A few months ago I adopted a dog and ever since I started taking him for walks, it has opened up many opportunities for weird and creepy encounters. My dog is a Dalmatian, very handsome and very friendly so he draws a lot of attention to us. Everyone wants to come over to say hello and give him pats. I'm a very shy, anxious person but since getting him I have been able to come out of my shell and feel more comfortable interacting with strangers, which is the opposite of how I was before. Dalmatians require a lot of exercise and on a regular day we do around 10 kilometers worth of walking.

We live in a cute little town with lots of historical homes and most of the locals here know each other. A lot of the time I will pick a route that takes us through a nice park and streets lined with heritage homes from the mid-1800s. On one of these routes we always passed a house where an old man lived and every time we went by he was tending to his garden or having a friendly chat with someone who had stopped. One day he said hello to me and I politely said hello back as I walked by. For a while we would either wave to each other or say a quick hello. I usually walk at a brisk pace because that's how my dog likes it and one day as we went by the man's house he commented that I was always in a hurry. I laughed it off and joked that this is the pace my dog prefers to walk me at.

Then one morning as we walked past his house and I said a polite hello the way I did every other day, the old guy asked if there was a chance I might have some time to stop in and have a coffee with him. He explained that he was very, very lonely. His wife had died and he really missed having someone to chat with. Now I have a pretty soft spot for the old folks. My grandfather and I are very close and he is extremely important to me and he has been struggling since my grandma passed and he was left on his own. I visit him when I can but he lives in a different country so we talk a lot on Skype instead. I was caught totally off guard by the old guy and really didn't

know how to respond. I'm a pretty anti-social person and really awkward around strangers so the idea was horrifying to me because of my social anxiety. Not because I felt that it was unsafe to go into a stranger's house and let them make me a drink. I was pretty hesitant at first. I find dealing with strangers really draining because it's stressful even though I'm medicated for anxiety. But I thought about my grandfather. Every week he tells me how lonely he is and how much he misses my grandma. I always feel helpless that I can't be there with him in person so I thought that I would be doing a good thing giving this lonely guy some company.

I also had my dog with me so at least I wasn't going in all alone. I never feel unsafe when he's by my side. Most people see a Dalmatian and think oh how sweet but actually their temperament is very similar to a German Shepherd so not a dog you want to anger. I went inside the old guy's house and it was pretty standard. Lots of old furniture, family photos, and just a pretty regular old person's home. He invited me to take a seat while he put the coffee on and we chatted. He talked about his life, his kids and grandkids, and thanked me profusely for being so trusting and willing to have coffee with him. Then he started to lay on the compliments pretty heavy.

I'm a female in my 20s and normally wear 1940s clothing. It's a personal aesthetic preference, not because I'm some sort of fundy zealot or right-wing nutjob. When I take the dog out, however, I keep things low-key. I don't have my hair set and I don't wear makeup. So usually I'm in a plain dress and wear a big hat because I live in Australia and it's hot. My appearance that day was certainly not worth complimenting, that's for sure. I was looking especially greasy and sweaty from our long walk and the heat, but I was polite and thanked him, saying he was far too generous with his words. The rest of the conversation was pretty innocent

and the coffee was decent. My dog chilled on the floor next to me and was not at all stressed, which I took as a good sign since he is a very good judge of character. The old guy then started telling me how much he hated his wife and how miserable their marriage had been. Well, that's awkward for me. He said he was relieved that she was dead and that now he's able to live his life. Both of them were Greek immigrants to Australia in the 1950s and their marriage was arranged by their families. I listened to him without knowing what exactly I was supposed to say. It was pretty weird and TMI to unload on a stranger, more the sort of thing you go to a

therapist for. He went on about he always loved beautiful women but never cheated on his wife because he was a nice guy even though they didn't really have a relationship. This was followed by complimenting me some more which at this point was getting too weird because I looked awful and probably smelled even worse from the heat and the walking. He asked me if I had friends that were like me, as in dress vintage and I said that yes, in fact I did. To which he replied he would love to meet them and that I should bring them over and maybe we could all go out to lunch. After an hour my dog got restless and that was my cue to leave. The old guy asked me if I'd be

back another time and I awkwardly said sure because as odd as some of what he told me was it wasn't really that bad and I kind of felt obliged that I had already gone in and had coffee with him once or at least that's my anxious socially awkward mind's way of thinking. I had a habit of going along with stuff that I really don't want to do sometimes because I hate letting people down or risk upsetting them. I'd rather have a terrible time doing something that I don't enjoy than disappoint someone. I didn't go back for a month because I kept going back and forth with myself because I wasn't exactly dying to go back, but I felt like it was probably the right thing to do and I'd already said I would.

My neighbor is a lovely old lady and we chat fairly frequently so since everyone in this town knew each other I decided to ask her about the old guy to get a bit of information and some background check on him that I reasoned would help me decide whether I would go back again. And sure enough my neighbor knew the guy. She worked around the corner from his house and knew him and his wife. She only had nice things to say and assured me that he was harmless. I ended up going by his house and arranged another coffee date for the following week. This time, I turned up without my dog and had my hair and makeup done and was wearing a nice dress and hat, 1940s style as usual,

and wasn't sweaty or reeking of BOs since I'd come straight from my house. Normally if I'm going somewhere or meeting someone I will put effort into looking presentable because I see that as the polite thing to do. This time the guy had covered the whole table with different traditional Greek sweets and encouraged me to help myself, which I did, since it would be rude not to and the food was pretty tasty. I chatted with him while he finished making the coffee and then he tried to give me a hug. I am very, very reserved when it comes to physical affection. I don't even hug my family members or friends unless it's a special occasion. It just isn't my thing, not at all. But

I recognize certain cultures are more physical and it's a normal thing to give someone a hug so I didn't want to be rude or insensitive. And then a few minutes later he wanted another hug, and another, and another. At which point the hugs also included kisses on the cheek and face. At which point I was horrified and really struggling not to freak out. I still brush this off as a culture thing and decided not to make a fuss since I know certain European cultures are like that. We sat down to eat and he again brought up how awful his wife was and how they slept in separate beds and never had any fun. Again very awkward and I had no idea what to say

and tried changing the subject. No matter how hard I tried to keep the conversation light-hearted and change topics frequently he would keep coming back to that and then he decided to bring up my private life with my husband and started asking questions which no one should ask which is a big nope. So I decided to say that my husband and I are both asexuals and that we were both celibate and stressed the fact that it was not only something I was not only not interested in doing, it was definitely not something I wanted to talk about. As stupid and trusting as I was to get myself into this situation, this is where I realized that I messed up really badly and needed to figure out

how to get myself out of there. Yeah, you better believe I felt stupid that I had been eating and drinking the guy's food this whole time. Oh boy. The asexual comment had done nothing to diffuse the topic. If anything, it only made things way worse. One thing I know about predators and their instincts is that you must never trigger their prey drive. If you go into flight response then that will make them go after you before you had the chance to figure out how to get out of there. My dog loves ripping small wild animals to pieces so I guess I've learned a thing or two about predators and how they make their moves. So instead of freaking out and giving the guy a piece of my mind, I kept calm. I just sat there and listened to him go on about how he had many opportunities

to cheat on his wife but didn't because he's such a nice guy. He said how even though he is 84, he definitely didn't feel his age and asked if I knew anyone my age who might be interested in a relationship with him. What about those girlfriends of mine who dress vintage, would they be interested? I explained that they were all in their early twenties, and he said that it didn't bother him at all and that he preferred young women, not old ones, and that I should definitely bring some friends over next time I came over. Yeah, for sure. I played along for a little while longer and then said it was time for me to head off.

I remained cordial and let him give me a tour of his garden, my way of securing my exit, and assured him I would be back. And then I'd bring my friends next time too, the really good looking ones. I went home, told my neighbor the whole story. She could not stop apologizing and we had a good laugh about it. I still take my dog for walks in the same area every day but specifically avoid that street. I had this bizarre and chilling experience back in 1999. At the time, I was working at one of the national institutes in Mexico. For reference, I was born in the US, but as fate would have it, I ended up working in a semi-high position at this institute and raising my family in Mexico. I had recently changed from working in the area where I had been for some

years to another area. Same job level but a totally different physical space and set of responsibilities. It was a pretty big challenge for me and given my high work ethic I naturally want to excel in my new position as quickly as possible. It was Friday and I had several reports that I wanted to be ready for Monday and my daughters were away with their father so I decided to work from my office that night after the rest of the staff had gone so I could focus without distractions. By late evening there were still a few people finishing up working. I could hear their murmurs and an occasional crescendo of laughter but little by little it grew silent. I decided

to take a short break and open my door for the first time in a couple of hours. As expected, most of the lights were off but it was bright enough to move about so I decided to stretch my legs a bit and walk down the hallway to the main building. Now the main entrance to the building opens up to an impressive four-story open patio, three sides of which are lined with the interior office windows along the halls. I could see a few lights still on and could hear the muffled voices of people still trying to get some late-night work done like me. This was the original building where my office used to be, but in my new position, my office was located in a recently built wing. I returned to my office and got back to work on my reports. I decided to leave my office door open just because there was no need

to shut it since everyone was gone. 20 or 30 minutes had gone by when suddenly I heard the curious noise of what sounded like a ball bouncing down the hallway. Strange given the time and place but I figured that someone had come in with their kid to get something done so I decided to get up and close my office door again. I could just imagine the soon-to-come voice of a loud child or worse yet children forced to come into work with one of their parents on a Friday night and frankly I just wanted to finish up and go home. I got back to my computer and was immediately focused on my numbers again but after a few minutes went by I didn't hear any follow-up voices.

I thought it was odd. You know like when someone calls out to you and you answer and then they say nothing. But I thought that maybe the kids ball had accidentally bounced into the hallway of the new wing from the main building, been recovered and they had left so I returned to work. A few minutes later I heard the faint sound of the ball bouncing again. I stopped working and mindfully waited to hear the voices that would normally accompany the sound of a bouncing ball but they never came. Now I like spooky things just as much as the next guy, maybe a little more, but this seemed a little too odd for my comfort and quite honestly I was beginning to feel that eerie nervous feeling.

I took a deep breath, shook my head and decided to brush it off. Besides, what could happen? Several minutes passed while I worked away and then I heard it again, but this time it sounded like the ball was bouncing on the other side of my office. That meant that my office was now between the main building and the ball. There was no way that anyone could have gotten past my office without me hearing something. I was officially freaked out but remained rational. I figured that there were only two possibilities. The ball had bounced away from the

kid who was either too scared to walk down the dark hallway alone or not given permission to retrieve it or the kid had quietly run past my office door and grabbed the ball without me hearing this. Either way I was not happy about it. I decided to call out and see if anyone would answer. But no one did. I wasn't able to focus anymore so I called it quits and packed up my work to go home for the night. I carefully opened my office door and peered out. Looking up and down the hallway before exiting my office. Why did I do that? Well like I said I was definitely having an eerie feeling.

There was no ball and no one to be seen. I closed my door behind me and started for the exit to the main building and then I heard it. The distinct sound of a ball bouncing behind me raised the hair on the back of my neck. I spun around and froze. There was nothing there. I never thought that something like that could happen to me but there I was, standing there like a statue. My mind was racing and without thinking, I called out in Spanish, is anyone there? I could just hear scary movie cliche oozing from my ears

but it was the only thing that occurred to me. No one answered. That was good enough for me. I was just about to get out of there when I heard it again but this time it sounded like the ball was bouncing away from me just around the corner of the end of the hallway. That was it. My heart was racing but my mind desperately needed some rationalization and I did what I always criticize in horror movies. I went to investigate. The sound faded away as if the ball had stopped bouncing. When I got to the end of the hallway I slowly looked around the corner and was immediately overwhelmed with the most horrific stench of decay.

I've smelled dead animals enough to know what that stench is but this... This almost made me vomit right then and there I threw my hand over my nose and mouth turned around and got out of there I never did see a ball but my story doesn't stop there during the weekend I calmed down and of course let my rational brain wrap around my experience. There must have been a dead mouse or something trapped somewhere in the wall and as for the sound of the bouncing ball I rationalized that it must have been something that just sounded like a bouncing ball. After all there was all sorts of computer equipment in the area and a special AC unit so that must have been it. That and my wild imagination. So Monday morning when I arrived for work the place was already busy with people working here and there. I walked into my office,

dropped off my suit and headed back out for coffee. I decided to walk toward the end of the hallway first to make sure that the smell was gone and sure enough it was. I mentally patted myself on the back for being right and went to the secretarial area to get some coffee. There were several people there doing the same and I nonchalantly commented to them in Spanish, hey I guess the security guards reported the dead animal at the end of the hall. They all looked at me completely confused realizing they obviously wouldn't have known i was talking about because they weren't there during the weekend i explained that's when they all exchanged a look that made my heart drop to my gut

my assistant was among the group and asked if she could speak with me in my office that made me feel somewhat nervous but played it cool and she said she would meet me there in a few minutes. I got my coffee and returned to my desk. A few minutes later she knocked and came in with one of the veteran department heads and they shut the door behind them. Now I was really getting curiously nervous. She asked me if I would mind telling her what happened, and I simply told her that I had smelled a dead animal at the end of the hallway Friday night, but that it was gone now, so obviously security had notified maintenance and someone had recovered it. There it was again.

They exchanged the same look. This was getting entirely too unnerving for me. Alright, what's going on here? She hesitated and then asked me flat out if anything else strange had occurred before I discovered the smell. That was when I knew for sure that something other than Denmark was rotten here. When I told them about what sounded like a bouncing ball, they both literally turned white, so I sat back and listened. During the construction of the new wing, one of the construction workers had brought his son to work. Apparently, he was working with the crew on the cement pour to connect the exterior walls of the main building to the new wing. The kid was supposedly at a safe distance, but somehow lost control of his ball and went bouncing towards the poor.

The boy tried to catch the ball, but just as it fell between the walls, lost his balance and fell in after it. Since the body was lodged in the cement between two monstrous-sized exterior walls, it was literally unrecoverable. It became his tomb. She told me that other people had similar experiences with smells, sounds, and even sightings, but for me, that was more than enough. I don't know how, I never heard about that, but given the tragedy of the event, it's not surprising that it was respectfully played down. I was told that a memorial plate was placed in a little garden area outside of the street entrance to the institute. I had never even noticed it from my car before

until the next day. When I was a toddler I had this caterpillar toy I would play with all the time, and it would talk and spell out the alphabet. So one night as my mother and I were sleeping in her room, she woke up to the sound of the caterpillar going off in my room next to hers. She was confused because she remembered it being off. My mother then got up and went inside my room to turn it off, but once she heard what it was saying, she immediately frightened. The caterpillar toy was spelling out the F word over and over again. She picked up the toy and went to turn it off again, but like how she remembered, it said it was off. Being even more freaked out, she took out the

batteries and went outside to throw it in the dumpster because she did not want that demonic toy in the house. Her telling this story to me when I was older made me question a lot of things that happened in that house because not the weird things happened as well but thank goodness we moved away years ago. Thinking back it makes absolutely no sense why the toy would have spelled out that word because it was a toy made for children and it had been off. So maybe there was a bad energy living in that house of some kind but who knows honestly. I do remember however being scared all the time to go inside my room. It felt like I was being watched constantly by something.

I would refuse to sleep in there so I ended up sleeping with my mom inside her room where I felt more safe. I would constantly have the same nightmare over and over again each night for a long time but one day it just stopped. In the nightmare I would be looking out the windows of my house and I would see this train. I would try to hide from it because I knew it was watching me and wanted to hurt me. It's weird I know but it's even more weird that I would dream about this each night and had this feeling of being watched all the time. My mother later told me that she always did feel uneasy in that house as well. Ever since I can remember, I have always had a love for the paranormal.

I was raised in a household that believed in spirits, even though we were Christian. My mother even claimed to have precognition. She would get bad feelings and images of things that would happen she was almost never wrong i've strayed here a bit but i wanted to provide some insight i was never taught to be afraid i never even thought it was real to be completely honest it was until my grandmother died She wasn't just some old lady that we visited begrudgingly. She was my best friend, a mentor, someone that I always understood. You could go to her with the worst thing you had ever done and you would leave with peace and love in your heart. And of course, since she was a wonderful person, she had cancer.

Soft tissue cancer so rare it took doctors years to diagnose it. It was terrible. She went through the whole nine yards. Chemo, radiation, experimental medicine. It did nothing to slow the tumors from growing. Finally, she decided to opt for quality over quantity. I lived with her for two years and took care of her. It would never amount to all that she did for me but it was something I could do for this angel of a person. I watched the cancer change her from a high-spirited sharp-witted woman to a bedridden shell of a person. She was in so much pain she was losing her mind. Dementia ran in her family and she was showing the signs. Every other conversation was how she

was ready to die ready to see her husband my grandfather again we would watch ghost shows together daydream about contacting the dead she told me that when she died she would come back and send me signs the time came and she got her wish. She died that fall. I was devastated. I desperately searched for the signs that she had promised, but I got nothing. I was so lost and hurt. I didn't know what to do. I'd lay in bed at night and talk into the darkness in my room. I would obsess over the paranormal, even downloaded Ouija boards on my phone. I would do EVP sessions. Still, I got nothing. I resigned myself to the thought that there was no life after death. God was a lie. There was no point to it all. It took years to heal. Who knows? Maybe I am still damaged. I only started noticing

strange things two years after she died. I moved away to a different state. I needed a change. The new place was not isolated or old. It had only about three previous tenants. All alive and well, I checked. It started with odd feelings. Like someone was there. Voices down the hall in my kid's room.

A water bottle was actually thrown across the dining room. I came up with logical reasons for it all. The walls were thin, the bottle could have been sitting on something unbalanced. Until one night when I was sitting on the couch. It was late, everyone was asleep. I felt like someone was staring at me, glaring even, like they were standing in the hallway ready to run at me. There was cold in the air that sunk into my chest. I was absolutely terrified. I did not understand why. It lasted for what seemed like hours but was only actually a few minutes. I went straight to bed. A few weeks later we moved to a different city to an apartment. It was from the 80s and not very well kept up. The owner lost it in a card game we were told from the other tenants.

So when I heard odd noises I thought nothing of it. I would feel like someone walked into a room only to look up and see no one. I sat on the couch in the living room and saw the recliner just start moving. No one even close to it. No pets to brush up next to it. There would be small pops and cracks like someone dropping something metal. I would never go to investigate. It was like it wanted to be known.

The more I ignored it, the worse it got. In the middle of watching a movie, I felt the couch sink ever so slightly. Then a tingly cold feeling slowly moved over my hand at my arm. On everything I own, it felt like a hand brushing up my arm. It felt... well, it felt lonely. I had a strange feeling like it was just a person longing for human interaction. I told it out loud, I know you're here. As long as you leave my kids alone, I'm okay with you being here.

Something in me told me that it understood. I could not explain how or why, I just felt it in my heart. The activity had almost completely stopped after that. It was months until I actually saw it. I was alone in the house. I was lying on the couch looking at my phone. All of a sudden I felt it was there. I looked up and to the left saw a white shadowy figure in the shape of a person. It walked from my left to the right in an odd way, like it was taking large steps. I jumped up and ran out of the apartment. Before you start to think about it being just my eyes staring at my phone, the shape was not rectangular like my phone. It was higher up than I was holding my phone. It was human shape. It took hours and a lot of cigarettes to work up

the courage to go back inside. I closed the door behind me and spoke to it again. You have to leave now. You're not welcome here anymore. I do not want to see you and I don't want you here. I was so scared I just wanted it to leave, Whoever or whatever it was. I didn't care anymore. It made my anxiety so much worse. It seemed to work. A year later we moved again. This apartment was warm and homely. I felt good there. It had the aura of a welcoming home. It was a year before I felt anything but God help me it did. It happened again. Again it started with strange feelings like someone was there staring at me. Drawers opening by themselves, cold spots in odd places. My dog would bark at random places in the apartment. It was only once

but she even growled and barked. She is an English bulldog and very sweet and quiet like her breed usually is. It was the first and only time she growled. I feel like either I am being followed by the same spirit or I am attracting them somehow. I have theorized that maybe my constant videos and movies and TV shows about ghosts and demons may have opened the communications. Maybe I invited them. It is scary and exciting all at the same time. I want to know more but am afraid of the consequences. Can anyone provide insight? Maybe tell me what I did to start all of this. this happened back when I lived in the old house where I grew up it was built in the 1930s or 40s nothing ever happened that my skeptical mind didn't dismiss as some mental trickery stuff like seeing someone move by out of the corner of my eye or hear people talking when no one else there.

On occasion something would happen that even I couldn't explain. Like when the old peaceful dog would start growling at the closed basement door. Only for me to open it and go down there to find nothing weird. Or hearing someone walking up the old and very creaky stairs. But I would look down and again nothing would be on the steps. It all just seemed normal though as I had grown up with this stuff so I didn't put much thought into these things. That was until one night. I was lying in bed which was next to the second floor window so I could turn and look right out the window while lying down. It was about one

in the morning and I couldn't fall asleep so I was just staring at the cluster of tall pine trees in one of the nearby backyards. There wasn't much going on out there but that's when I saw something in one of the higher up branches of the trees, like a large shadow or something. My eyes focused on it because it was almost the size of a full grown adult but it was climbing on all fours when its back hunched up like a scared cat. Not to mention that it was on a very thin branch too small to support something of its weight. Almost 80 feet in the air. The thing sort of shuffled around the branch, which bent slightly and swayed with its movements. It moved from the shadow of a higher branch, and I noticed it had light tan Caucasian skin,

and it looked almost malnourished. For a while, I just stared, racking my brain for an explanation, trying to think of any kind of animal that would look like that and was native to the Midwest. Then, as though startled by something, it turned its head around, scanning the ground far below. Its face had a large looking mouth with no noticeable nose, and what looked like one large eye socket, a shadow cast over its eye. It looked down, then it began to move its gaze upward, looking over the rooftops for something. Then it looked right at me. We just stared at each other for what felt like hours, its eyes still hidden in shadow. Then slowly it backed into the tree, the branch bouncing slightly as it backed away, then stopped moving after the thing disappeared.

I never saw the thing again after that, maybe because I moved soon after, but even after almost a year I still can't get the emotionless face out of my mind. I can't find any kind of urban legends or myths about anything like that, so if anyone knows about this mysterious creature, please, I would like to know. Two years ago, my significant other and I found the perfect place to rent. It was a small tract of fabricated homes. The neighborhood was nice. It was quiet, which for two college seniors wanting out of the noisy dorms was heaven. Now because this was Arizona, it was pre-fab houses.

Most of the folks that lived in our neighborhood were 60 or older, save a few. To our left, Sandra and David, an awesome couple in their early 60s, both retired postal workers. They spent summers in Maine and winters here. To our right, Carol, a 40-something who supposedly owned her home business. She looked like she perpetually was sucking a lemon and she was just off. At first, she would occasionally join my significant other for a smoke on the porch or if we barbecued with Dave or Sandy we would invite her over. To say she was awkward was putting it lightly. We suspected maybe she was on the spectrum. We would be eating and she would describe how her mother died a slow agonizing death when a tumor in her throat burst,

or there was the time where she described in great detail her latest yeast infection. I kid you not. Sometimes I would work out on our porch. I had a small bench with a bar and some weights. One day I am lifting when I almost dropped the bar on my neck. Leaning over me was Carol. I could have snapped your neck like a twig, she mumbled. I sat up. Pardon? I asked. I said you could have really hurt yourself, she said. I doubted what I had heard, chalking it up to not hearing her correctly, but she had this smirk on her face. After that I tried my best to ignore her. However I had not told my significant other my suspicions that maybe old Carol was a bit insane. I come home from class one evening and my significant other and Carol are on the porch.

I went inside because I was coming down with something and just wanted to go to bed. My significant other comes in and tells me she is going to her job. She worked nights as a dispatcher for the campus police. I am out of it so she kisses me goodnight, says she will lock up the house and will see me in the morning. Around 1am I wake up covered in sweat. I go to get a glass of water and drink it down. I see my significant other who I assume is my significant other, on the couch. I am so out of it that I crawl back into bed and fall asleep. The next morning I wake up and my significant other comes in the door, telling me that work was crazy.

Wait, you weren't at work, you were here. She looks at me funny. I get a sick feeling in my gut. Fever or no fever, I know I saw someone on the couch. My significant other writes off as a fever dream. The house was locked up. I forget about it. Life goes on.

Graduation is approaching. Things with my side of the family, well specifically my egg donor go badly, long story. Significant other is offered a job back in her home state of New York, in the city, so we give notice to our landlord, we let Sandy and Dave know and one night we tell Carol. She blinks at us and gets up and heads over to our house not saying a word. We just brush it off as weird old Carol. That night we are asleep when I hear creaking coming from the living area. I sit up.

No significant other hears it. She grabs my arm. I grab the metal bat under my bed. Who's there? I ask. Whack the door thuds. Thank god it's locked, my significant other dials 911. Meanwhile, I am watching as someone is recreating the door scene from The Shining, except whomever was doing it was using a small hatchet. They still were making progress in the

door as it was pretty much hollow. The six minutes it took for the police to get there felt like a lifetime. I can now see the hatchet tip in the door. Suddenly we hear the cops tell someone to put their weapon down. I had no idea who it was until we were led out of our place. On the couch in cuffs is Carol. We learned after that she had been in and out of jail. Supposedly she went wacko for cocoa puffs from long-term use of meth. She was arrested and charged with breaking and entering and destruction of property. They tried to get her on attempted

assault but she made a plea deal that included some kind of psychiatric treatment. I never could prove that she was in my place that day I was sick but I'm sure it was her. As we were moving I was messing around with our storage space, really a crawl space under the home. We never used it. Curious, I crawled around underneath the house and saw if you kicked hard enough you could get through the screen that led to the outside easily. Who knows how many times she might have been in our place or under the house listening to us. We still keep in touch with Sandy and Dave. The unit Carol rented was sold. They haven't seen her since she was carted off to jail. Thankfully, we are thousands of miles away and have never seen her again.

This happened about two years ago. For context, I was living in college apartments for students, but unofficially and my unit was on the first floor. It was a three bed, but I only had one roommate at the time who was away for the weekend. I'm a small person, 5'3 and 120 pounds, and my dog is about 25 pounds and not fully equipped for self-defense. It was around 10pm on a Saturday night and I was taking a bath. I heard my dog growl as her haunches went up and I thought it was weird because she hardly does that. I thought, whatever, it's an apartment, somebody's probably partying.

So I go out, got dressed and laid in bed with my book. I heard a knock at my door. Hello? I saw your light on. I'm just wondering if I could use your phone. I was working on the lines around here and my truck battery died. I need to call into work and my phone died. So I ignore because I'm fully aware it could be dangerous. I don't respond but looking at the peephole I see an older man around mid-sixty wearing a blue jumpsuit and a white toolbox. He has grey hair and a grey mustache and I'm wondering why he's working on lines. One, on a Saturday and two, around 10pm. It struck me as odd so I didn't respond.

About three minutes later he knocks again, saying something like, if I could just use your phone I could get out of your hair. Sorry, I just need to call my boss and tell him. So I check the peephole again and notice there's no name tag or company on his jumper. I'm silent. My dog growls again, this time more angrily around the front door. She starts pacing and getting frustrated. I texted a friend or two this was happening. Again, this time after about seven minutes, he knocks more abruptly. You don't want me to keep knocking, let me use your phone so I can get a ride.

I know you're home, I see your light. He was beginning to sound frustrated and angry at being ignored I continued to ignore him and my dog began to show her teeth she directly faced the door teeth bearing and began barking viciously I've never seen her do that before or since he pounded the door again and didn't say anything this time I look back out the peephole, becoming scared for my safety and my mind thought, why does he have his toolbox if he could have left it in his car? And why does his company uniform not say the company's name? Why hasn't he moved to another unit? I continued to ignore him but at this point more out of shock.

He pounded the door once more and my dog barked louder and more aggressively. He said, Fine, I'll have to walk down the street and ask for a phone there. Thanks for nothing. She barked for another minute or so and eventually he left. I was concerned about him entering my side doors so I locked them and just hoped he didn't as I called some friends. Maybe this man genuinely needed help, maybe he was working overtime, but it still bothers me today. Why did he focus in on my

unit for so long? He spent maybe 15-20 minutes trying to use my phone it's possible his work uniform just wasn't labeled but why bring the toolbox with you to ask for help i didn't see what he had in the toolbox but i would think it'd be heavy and he'd leave it in his truck he said i know your home maybe this one is small but in a three-bedroom unit, why would you specifically address you? Why not say somebody? The most terrifying thing is later that week, around Tuesday or Wednesday, I told my facility's manager there was a man on Saturday from the electrical company trying to get help for his truck battery. She said, um, our maintenance men do any work on electrical lines. We don't hire contractors. They finished their electrical work near your unit last month, so there'd be no reason to work there.

I don't know why he lingered on my unit so long. I felt like prey, likely because I was. I had seen a white truck in the lot outside my building for a couple of days before and just assumed it was somebody's friend or something. Lots of people go in and out but I really think this guy was there college and decided at the urging of some of my friends to do an open invite D&D session at my apartment. It was really close to the college itself but not on campus and it wasn't part of the dorms in any way. It was above a restaurant and everything so it was pretty clear that my apartment had nothing to do with student housing. This is important for later. So the night comes and the stage is set. All in all everyone seems nice and things are going well enough. Except for one guy. There always has to be that one guy so I try to let it slide. He's being really pushy and going on and on about his

character's background and this and that when we have not even got to him yet and are just trying to set up the story and play the game. Then, because he has some grudge against another guy there, he starts passing me notes and trying to get me to randomly help him kill this guy's character for no reason. First of all, that would have made no sense in the setting of the game. Secondly, that would accomplish literally nothing for those who don't play D&D. It's not like if your character dies in a random one-off game you have to trash it and never bring it out again. Thirdly, this guy was just all up in my personal space, whispering in my ear and passing me notes

and telling me how to play, like he was in control of the game or me in any way. It was really uncomfortable and weird. I didn't want to make a scene since I didn't know how everyone who showed up knew one another and decided to just ignore him and try to have a good time, despite the fact that he would not get out of my personal space. When it became clear that I was not going to listen to him and help kill that other guy, he had a complete meltdown. He literally stood up and started throwing D&D books at my head, all of them he could reach and screeching that I should have done what he told me to do and this was my punishment and next time I better listen. What? Oh no, no, no, not in my house. I opened the

door and screamed at him to get out. He told me I couldn't kick him out, so and so had invited him. I told him I didn't care who invited him, that it was my apartment that I paid rent for and I had every right to kick him out and he was lucky I wasn't calling the freaking cops. The rest of the table backed me up and pretty much ended up having to shove him out the door and down the stairs to get him to leave. The dude could not grasp the fact that no means no and his actions had consequences. I'm 100% sure no one had ever made him follow through on any sort of punishment before, but the baffled look on his face says I closed the door and locked the door behind him and went back upstairs. So I get back upstairs and people start apologizing to me and telling me he is like that all the time

and they didn't actually invite him. He just shows up wherever they go and they can't get him to leave them alone and every time they try he throws a tantrum. We get back to the game and things are going pretty well for about 20 minutes until I hear my doorbell ring. So I go downstairs and it's Tantrum Guy with some other dude I've never met before. Tantrum Guy is standing behind this new guy with his chest puffed out and this whole look about him like you're in trouble now. So I open the door and ask if they are here to apologize for Tantrum Guy assaulting me earlier and New Guy immediately turns around to look at Tantrum Guy and it's clear he did not get the whole story. I tell New Guy what actually happened and he tells me that he is an RA with a school

and I have to let Tantrum Guy back into my apartment if I am holding a school function. I tell RA that, first of all, I rent this apartment and it is not part of student housing, as should be apparent from the fact that it is, again, above a restaurant. Secondly, even if he wasn't RA, which I have no proof as, he could just be one of Tantrum Guy's friends, that does not give him authority over any building I'm living in because he is not my RA. But that doesn't matter because again, I don't live in student housing. I live in an apartment above a restaurant. Finally, this is not a school event. It is a private gathering which he would know if he was a real RA and not some guy Tantrum Guy snagged to come back here to try and do I don't even know what at this point. This RA guy keeps insisting that I have to let him in my apartment and that if I am a student

then whatever I live in is student housing and that he needs to come in and inspect the place and this that and the other every time I make a point. It becomes more and more clear that this is just some random guy and they want into my apartment for probably nefarious purposes, thinking that I'm here alone for some reason. I tell them they are not getting in and if they continue to stand there and try to get me to let them in or if they try my door after I leave, I'm going to call the cops and proceed to shut the door and head back upstairs. Everyone at the party asks who that was and when I tell them, they all decide it's time to head home.

I tell them they really don't have to but they tell me it's getting late and this whole thing is starting to weird them out and escalate in weird ways and I can't really blame them for that. When I go downstairs and open the door for them, Tantrum Guy and the would-be RA are across the street and seemed amazed for some reason that these people were still in my apartment and were now leaving. I never had any more trouble with either of them, but I also never had another D&D night. It just didn't seem worth it. I still play, but just with groups, I know. This happened a couple of years ago. I don't like talking about it that much, it just never

seemed like a big deal to me as a kid, but the older I got, the more I think about it and the more it haunts me. It was New Year's Eve 2011 and me and a kid but the older I got, the more I think about it and the more it haunts me. It was New Year's Eve 2011 and me and a couple of my friends were having a sleepover. My friend's neighborhood was relatively new so there were still houses being built around him. We had all stayed up until midnight but were still hyper on sugar and had no intention of sleep. One of my friends had the idea of going to play hide and seek in one of the houses being built. We asked his mom and she was okay with it but she gave us her phone and told us to text my friend's dad in case anything happened. We took the phone, got our coats on and headed

outside. The house was only about a hundred yards away from the front porch so it wasn't that far of a walk. We jogged across the street since it was relatively windy out and we didn't want to stay in the cold air. We decided to play in pairs but if you were hiding you had to stay with your teammate. I volunteered to be a seeker. So the two hiders headed into the house while me and the other seeker began to count. Once I hit 60 the game began. The house was dark and cold and the only source of light was the bright moon shining through every window and door. We were standing in the empty shell of someone's home. No inner walls had been put up yet and there was no carpeting on the floors.

The only thing on the inside was dozens of thick wooden beams. I told my friend I'd take the first floor if he wanted the second, and he agreed. He walked past me and up the steps. I was now alone. Something about being in there boosted my confidence, like I was an adventurer or something like that. I walked around the first floor with a smile on my face, braver than ever. I called out the names of my friends, trying to hold in my laughter. Since the house was so dark, you could only see about five feet in front of you,

so I made sure to check every nook and cranny. That's when I found the basement. It was dark and eerie, a hole in the floor, really. It looked like it could swallow anything that walked into it. It couldn't have gone down there, I thought to myself. There's no way. But I had checked the entire first floor and heard nothing from my friends upstairs so I sucked it up and began down the steps. I walked down slowly, taking careful steps because it was nearly impossible to see anything.

My footsteps echoed throughout the dark room and I was only able to see to the tips of my fingertips. I walked slowly, listening for any types of noises in the darkness. Then I heard something. The slow moving of feet. Hello? I said, following with my friend's names. No response.

For a quick second I contemplated turning back around, but I knew if this was them, they wouldn't say anything back. I called out their names again, no response. A smile came across my face. I had found them. Come on out, I said as I walked towards the source of the noise. I heard you guys move. I began to see the silhouette of something in the corner of the basement. It was a person, but only one. Didn't we say the hiders had to stay together? I said to the person. They didn't move, just stayed crouched down in the corner, facing the wall. I began to walk closer, fully convinced it was one of my friends.

Hey, I found you, you're out. I said. At that moment I just wanted to get out of the basement. I continued to walk closer, I still wasn't close enough to make out any body features. Whoever it was was breathing rather loudly, loud enough for me to hear it from a couple of feet away. Me being the naive kid I was, still thinking it was one of my friends just trying to scare me, smiled. I didn't know what else to do, but I wouldn't take a step closer. That's when the breathing was overpowered by laughter and loud footsteps from upstairs. I found you, I heard through the ceiling. I quickly turned around and ran back upstairs

to see who was found, hoping whoever was in the basement with me would follow. I waited on the first floor as I heard them coming down the steps. Got them both, my friend said as he came into my view. I stood there, a confused look on my face. How did you find both of them? I thought to myself. But to my surprise, here came both of the hiders walking from upstairs. My heart dropped. I felt the blood rush out of my face and my legs go weak. I slowly turned around and stumbled towards the front door without saying a word. Where are you going?

They asked. I couldn't open my mouth to speak. There was only one thought in my head at this time. Who was in the basement with me? I made it to the front door, slowly turned the knob, slipped outside, and began running back up to my friend's house. I wanted to get as far away from that house as possible. I began to feel tears welling up in my eyes. I made it to the front porch and collapsed, barely being able to catch my breath because I was so hysterical. I lay there for what felt like ages when I heard my friends come up behind me. I don't even remember what they were saying. All I could think about was the person in the basement. After I calmed down, I told them what happened,

and they all seemed as freaked out as me. The fact that I had talked directly to the person for so long is what scared me so much. We decided not to tell his parents, since we figured they wouldn't believe us. I didn't sleep for about a week after that, and I still have nightmares about it sometimes. A few months after that night the house was finished and a family moved in, and I have never heard any complaints about a squatter or anything. The older I get the more I've come to realize it was probably a crackhead or something like that, and sometimes I feel guilty because I know we probably could have helped them, but it still is terrifying to

me. For reference, I'm 22 and female, but I'm also very small and have always been small my entire life. So when I was around 7 or 8, and my brother, who was a year younger than me, was between 6 or 7, my sister came to visit. My sister is actually 15 years older than me and she wanted to spend the day with my brother and I, so she took us up to a bigger city about 45 minutes away that had much more to do. We ended up going to the river and the place we went to was interesting. It's a very popular spot and is in the middle of a town so it's relatively safe. It's actually in a U shape so usually when people bring their kids they're at the tip of the U because that's where the water is safest.

So my sister didn't really want to swim but my brother and I did so we put on our little swimsuits and ran in. Not too long after we were playing around a man came over to me. I've never been one to judge but little me thought he looked dirty and smelled gross. He was basically totally naked except for some ratty underwear which I didn't think was a big deal at the time. The man came over to me and said, hi pretty girl, how are you? And I had never been taught stranger danger. I lived quite the sheltered life, private school my entire life, overprotective parents that rarely allowed me to leave the house without them. So I thought the man just wanted to be friends. He asked for a hug and whenever

anyone asked me for a hug I would give them one so after hugging me he grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go. He then says, is this your brother? And I said yes and he said something along the lines of, you're both so pretty. He was still holding my hand tightly and he says, how would you guys like to go on an adventure? My brother and I were excited because we didn't understand that we would not like this adventure. He said, okay, you just have to come with me, but let's make it a surprise for your mom. And I said, she's my sister sister and he said, even better. Which I still didn't understand. He started to pull me away from my sister who had looked away because someone she knew had stopped to say hello to her and he told my brother to come along. All of a sudden I hear my sister

scream my name so loud everyone within earshot looked over. She started yelling things like, let go of my sister and I'm calling the cops, you give her back, things along that nature. Actually other parents who were around were grabbing their kids as a precaution but someone seemed like they were ready to help the guy put up a fight. My sister who was not in a swims, ran into the river to pull me out of his grip and she grabbed my brother's hand while carrying me away. She decided that she didn't want to let this creepy dude ruin mine and my brother's fun. She let us go to a different part of the river in the same area that was still very popular and had lots of kids and families.

My sister was sitting and watching us and we were not too far from her when I said, Hey look, it's my friend. And my sister lost it on the dude. He literally tried to say to her, Come on, I'll watch your kids. You go shop for a few hours and you can have them back when you are done. I'll have fun taking care of them. And she told him he was sick and twisted and he was going to regret touching me if he ever tried

it again. He once again tried to convince her to let him take me and he was edging his way over to me and my brother again so my sister punched him in the face and then kicked him in the leg and told him he would get a lot worse if he dared to do anything else. We told a police officer but they said it was probably just a homeless man and there was nothing that they could do about it. So my sister got my brother and I ice cream so we felt better about having to leave early. My dad was not happy when the first thing that we told him was that my sister beat up a guy. But he was even more furious when he learned what happened. What happened? So this is a story that I've debated sharing for a very long time.

It's something that happened over several years and I feel like it's something that I need to get off my chest. At the time of this story I was in high school. I had began to grow quite a following on a website called DeviantArt and had made several friends out of my watchers. At one point I decided to make a group on Google Hangouts where I'd be able to talk with my friends and watchers more often. That's when this one person started talking to me. For the sake of the story, let's call him Jackson. Jackson started off as a kind of awkward guy who would rarely join the calls when we had them Eventually he got comfortable enough to do voice calls and quickly bonded with a lot of my online friends As we grew close he told us that he had autism

Looking back that may have let us excuse a lot of red flags and toxic behavior as he was not the only one in the chat who had autism The problem was Jackson was very aggressive towards my other autistic friends. This would range from him hinting that he thought they were ugly to flat out yelling at them if they said something he didn't agree with. There was even a point when he threatened to hurt my friend's cat if she didn't shut up. This caused her to stay away from the chat for weeks. Whenever we would confront him about it, he would blame it on his autism and talk about how much of a curse it was, which in turn would make us drop the subject. After a while, Jackson began to help some of

us with our comics and art projects, and by help I mean he would try and find ways to force his ideas and characters onto us. When we would try to give him criticism or tell him that we didn't think his ideas would fit with our stories, he would lose it. We later found out that he would do this because he didn't like how some of us had a larger following than him, and he thought if he was part of our stories, he would get some of our followings. It eventually became something we grew numb to as artists. Then one day when Jax and I were in the call alone, he confessed that he had feelings for me and asked if I could be his girlfriend. Being a teenager with low self-esteem, I said yes. The relationship didn't last long as he would constantly do things that I told him made me uncomfortable.

Like he asked if I would pleasure myself when I thought about him, etc. At first I didn't mind it but eventually it was all he would ever talk about with me. I would tell him I wasn't comfortable with him asking that and he would continue despite this. We broke up two months into the relationship. He still wouldn't give up though. Whenever we would join the calls now, he would comment about how good looking I was or how because I was chubby that meant I was automatically adorable and would constantly compare me to the other girls in the chat to make them feel terrible. Once again, whenever we would bring this up with him, he would blame it on his curse that was autism. It got worse when he started dating someone who had recently joined the chat. Her name is Lucina.

Jackson and Lucina happened to live really close to each other and after a while began to date. I was relieved as I thought this would stop him from constantly making inappropriate comments towards me. It didn't. Whenever Lucina wasn't in the call, he would continue to make comments towards me. At that point, I had given up trying to make him stop and simply ignored it. Then one of my stories in particular started to get popular and that's when I met my current boyfriend. Let's call him C. C joined the hangouts chat when we instantly began to bond. After a few months of talking, C and I started dating, much to the dismay of Jackson.

He then began to aim inappropriate comments towards me when C was in the call. Unlike me, C would always call Jackson out on this. Jackson continued to blame his autism for his behavior. The final straw was when Jackson threatened to dox me, find out where I live, and hurt me. All the while, C was in the call. C and I had enough at this point and we told Jackson that what he had just did was not okay, especially when he had a girlfriend. He then told us he didn't love Lucina and that he was only dating her to make me jealous so I would date him again. C lost it at that point and called Jackson every name under the sun before kicking him out of the chat. No less than a

couple of hours later, Lucina joins the call in tears. She tells us that Jackson had broken up with her and that he was screaming and yelling how he was going to dox me and C for kicking him from the chat. He would say things like how he was kicked out of school for nearly strangling a kid and that he could do it to one of my friend's pets. Thankfully he was bluffing and nothing ever came of the threats. After that he tried to persuade my other friends that we had bullied him and wrongfully kicked him from the chat. Thankfully my friends knew of his toxic behavior and just blocked him. It's been years since I heard anything about Jackson. One of my friends who lives near him told me that he had been

arrested for assault. I don't know if that's true or not, but I honestly wouldn't put it past him. I am very close with my boyfriend's seven-year-old son, and last Saturday I took him out to one of our local parks to go sledding. There is a dedicated sled hill there that tons of families use in the winter, which is actually a wide dam that goes across the top of the dam and leads to either a main road sidewalk or curves back down to continue the path at the bottom of the other side of the hill. We got there just before 3pm and had a blast all afternoon sledding and venturing out on the frozen lake. It was a fairly busy day at the park but around 5.30 it starts to get dark so the temperature was dropping and people started to go home for dinner. None of these things fazed my little man because less people meant free reign of the hill to claim better sledding territory. While we were playing I noticed a man walking along the path at the top

of the hill but didn't think much of it because there was still one other group sledding. I did watch him though because I thought it was a little odd to be taking a walk in the dark alone, no dog or anything, when it's pretty cold out and I also felt he probably wasn't a park employee doing a safety round because it wasn't late enough for them to be out and they usually are in warm vehicles. So, a little weird but he just walked the path with his head down and when I saw him pass totally, I let us continue sledding. When I got to the top of the hill, I looked to the bottom of the other side and saw him walking along the path there. I brushed the weird vibe off to me being too paranoid about serial killers, kidnaps, and the like. I generally did not even notice the other group leave because of how engrossed we were in

our little racing competitions. I also didn't have my phone out much because I didn't want the cold to drain the battery faster, but going from when I made the call to my boyfriend, I think I saw the guy again at around 6.30. I was at the bottom yelling taunts up to the kid that he couldn't surpass the distance I had gone when I saw the man walking again, right in my boyfriend's son's direction. The height, coat color, and demeanor of this guy were all the same, but other than that, I can't be 100% sure it was the same person. I looked around and realized how dark it actually was, how far away my car in the parking lot was, and how very much alone we were. The only other

people near to us were maybe three people still out in their ice fishing huts about half a mile away on the lake. I yelled hurry up and hurry up as playfully as I could. Kids let it down and Guy was passing by the same way he did before. At that point, I was very uneasy and told my little buddy it was probably time to go. He insisted I go up one more time to see if I could beat his distance. This kid had been waiting forever for this sledding day and was having so much fun, so I quickly got up the hill and got ready to sled down. The guy was to my left now, a good distance away, and looked like he was just going to walk the same path.

I started to sled down while keeping my head turned toward him. He was almost to the main sidewalk when, all of a sudden, I watched him turn and head diagonally down the hill towards us, fast. He was making a beeline for right where we were. I was scared, almost paralyzed. I hit the bottom of the hill, stood up, and ran over towards the direction of the parking lot in front of us. Boyfriend's son was half focused on the fact that I didn't let my sled ride out to its full distance, and half focused on finding his water bottle before we left, which was somewhere on the ground in the snow. I didn't want to scare him but

I said, leave it, we need to leave, leave it. The guy was approaching, head down and one hand in his coat pocket and we were flat out retreating. It didn't feel dangerous enough to break out into a run, plus my car was at the back of the lot and the ground was quite slick, or to call 911, but I got scared enough that I felt a rush of adrenaline and shoved the kid, still complaining about the bottle, behind me, pulled out my phone and called my boyfriend, who I prayed had gotten off of work because I didn't even comprehend the time until later, about 6.45. He answered and I loudly said,

Hey bud, dad's on the phone. Yeah, we're just leaving the park. What would you like me to pick up for dinner? I was afraid this guy was going to pull out a gun or a knife and try to make us go somewhere else and I know a phone call probably wouldn't intimidate someone who really wants to hurt you, but it was what my hyped up scared self decided to do. I went on to ask my boyfriend what time he got off of work even though I know when he's got off exactly and other questions that might tip him off to something going on. He just answered them as if I were an idiot and as he talked to me the guy passed us very closely. He was tall and had a hood on but I could see his face in glasses. There was so much

free open space around us and he walked so close to me his coat nearly brushed me and the fog from my breath touched him. He kept his hand in his pocket the whole time. I'm 24 years old, 5'1 and didn't even have my pepper spray on me because my purse was in my car. Thankfully, he just kept going, didn't look back and disappeared behind a truck in the parking lot. Very quietly, I whispered to my boyfriend who was getting annoyed with the random lines of conversation. Will you just stay on the phone with me? He paused for a minute and asked, Are you scared? What's going on? I quickly explained it and pulled my protesting kid along to my car where I shoved the kid in,

shoved the sleds in and got out of there. I think there's something in your brain that makes you want to believe a bad situation isn't happening. I kept trying to minimize everything as it was happening probably to keep myself from panicking. Now I just keep thinking about how creepy it was that he to keep myself from panicking. Now I just keep thinking about how creepy it was that he came back after everyone had left and seemingly made a decision to turn back around and rush down a hill towards a woman and a child who were all alone in the dark park. If he didn't have bad intentions at all, I'm sure he could tell I was scared by the way I reacted to everything he did.

He was either a creep or really lacked awareness in what he was doing. From now on, we go home when we see the last few people go home and it starts to get dark. This happened in the summer of 2013 when I was 27 and living in a rather large city in Texas. I lived in a historic district that had gorgeous old mansions from the late 1800s and early 1900s on one block and crack houses on another. The area was and still is in a perpetual state of transition and I lived on the cusp of the two sections. I had moved to this area in January from an even shadier part of downtown to an old house that was split into four units. Each of us had one fourth of the house, so two upstairs and two downstairs, with a common foyer area where the mailboxes were. I lived in the

bottom right unit, if you're looking at the house from the street. Despite the shadiness of the area and the crackheads that wandered around at night, I mostly felt safe. I liked the house and liked the other tenants, all female like me and all around my age. The girl who lived in the unit across the hall from me, Gigi, was a little quirky but she was nice and had a gorgeous cane corso named Carlo. One day in early August I ran into Karen who lived in the unit upstairs. She told me she was moving out later that month to live with her boyfriend. I was a little bummed because she was nice and quiet but otherwise didn't give it much thought. She moved out during the day on Thursday,

August 22nd while the rest of us were at work. I had plans to go to my then boyfriend's house that evening so I got home from work that evening and grabbed my dog, Leopold, German Shepherd that I had just gotten in July and walked out the front door. I was locking up and was startled when a guy, about my age, came up the walkway and spoke up from right behind me. Hey. I jumped and turned, feeling mostly okay because I had Leopold even though he's a huge baby. He looked scary so I said hello back. Here's what followed. You guys live here?

Uh, yes. I do. Why? Stupid to admit, I know, but I just walked out, locked up, and had my dog with me, so I didn't feel like I could reasonably deny it. Are you moving? No, I believe one of the other tenants moved out recently, but we don't interact a lot, so I'm not 100% sure. Well, her movers assaulted me today today and I wanted to press charges. Really sorry to hear that. Did you notice the name on the van of the moving company? If so you could contact the company and let them know what happened. Note he looked just fine so I didn't really know what he meant by assaulted. Yeah, thanks, bye. I thought nothing of the encounter. He seemed normal-ish, so I went

on my way, spent a few hours at my boyfriend's house and headed home. I pulled up to my house around 9.15pm to see three cop cars with their lights on and flashing and a lot of commotion in the front. I walk up to see that the glass in the front door had been busted. As I walked up, Gigi stopped me and she was pretty hysterical. She said she was in her place when she heard a loud noise that was the glass shattering. She opened her door to look. Remember, we have the bottom units in the foyer so our front doors were right at the front of the house. To see a guy running away, the glass broken and a note on the glass. The note said, watch your back. Gigi then told me that Karen told her that she was

moving out. Her movers got into a kerfuffle with some guy because he kept trying to aggressively sell them drugs and would not leave them alone even when they asked him to. One of the movers pushed him and chaos broke out. When Karen and her boyfriend got into their car to drive away, the guy got into his car and followed them on the freeway, honking and trying to make them crash. They eventually lost him. I knew immediately who they were talking about and told the police and Gigi about my earlier encounter. The police wrapped things up shortly after and our landlord, who came when Gigi called, promised to fix it the next day. They couldn't find the culprit and I didn't know where he lived, only that it had to be close by because of how he

left on foot after speaking with me. I went to bed thinking things would be okay but I was so wrong. I went about business as usual the next day and went out with my boyfriend for a while. We returned around 11pm and parked his car out front, next to mine. There was gated parking in the back, but that night I didn't park back there. The windows and blinds were open and we were playing records and drinking scotch. All was well. Until I noticed movement outside. It was the guy. I watched as the guy started circling my car erratically, almost like

he was possessed and dancing around the vehicle like he was getting ready for some ritual. I alerted my boyfriend and he came to look out with me. All of a sudden this guy goes into a frenzy and starts beating my car with a tire iron. I freak out, my boyfriend runs out to tell him to stop and I call 911. I'm on the phone with the operator telling her what's happening. At this point my boyfriend was yelling at the guy to stop and the guy told my boyfriend that he had a gun and would hurt him as he continued to smash my car and then moved on to my boyfriend's.

The operator heard him threaten us and told us to get inside and not engage and that's what we did. I stayed on the phone with her for a very long time and watched as he yelled incoherently at me. It was directed at me but I had no idea what he was saying. He kept yelling terrible things about me and to watch my back and attacked my vehicle in a violent frenzy. It took the cops two and a half hours to show up. I was livid at the lack of response given the active threat and damage to property. He was nowhere to be found when they got there but on the plus side I figured out where he lived.

He lived in an apartment complex across the street. When the police arrived, they assessed the damage to my car and it turns out he had also decided to key my car all over. I didn't notice it when we got home because the street was rather dark and it was late. I hadn't paid attention. On the driver's side door, it looked like he had tried to spell out some terrible words. Unfortunately the police couldn't find him and were absolutely useless. I barely slept that night and was incredibly upset but the story doesn't end there. On Sunday, Gigi called me again.

The guy was loitering around the house and staring at it from the sidewalk. She got spooked and called the cops again. Nothing happened. They still couldn't find him and honestly I can't remember why he was so hard to find for them. I only remember being angry at them and him. A few nights later Gigi heard sounds outside again and called the cops. Again. This time he had left a brick and another note that read, watch your back, but he had laid it outside my window. At this point the same cops had showed up a few times and Gigi is in the foyer telling him that

she had heard weird sounds and muffled talking. One of the cops looked at me quizzically and said, Miss, did you know this gentleman before? No, I had never met him until he approached me on Thursday to ask about Karen moving out.' "'Are you sure?' "'Yes, I'm sure.' "'Are you positive you didn't have any sort of relationship with him previously?' "'Yes, I am. Why are you asking?' I was getting really annoyed at this point. "'Well, I think it's a little weird that this guy seems to be focused on you.

I'm wondering if, given the word he had carved into your car, and what he was shouting a few nights ago, if you didn't have a previous relationship with him that ended poorly, and now he's taking it out on you. I was really angry at this insinuation. It was as though I was someone to blame for this. It was as if for him to do what he did, it had to be because I'd done something.

It couldn't just be because, you know, he's a psycho. I can't remember exactly what I said to the officer because I was so upset and Gigi, bless her heart, was extremely offended on my behalf. However, in between Gigi's feminist rant, my growing anger and frustration, and my dog's whining and pawing for attention, the officer said something I didn't process until a little later. He said it was obvious I was the target of a lot of actions, not Gigi. There was only me and her there at the time, so the upstairs was empty, and that if, if it's true I didn't know him previously, that he thought it was likely that he approached the movers and me intentionally and he thought it was likely he had been watching me for a while.

I went back to my place shortly after and stood in my anger while drinking copious amounts of box wine. A few nights later, we are now at the beginning of October now, I woke up in the middle of the night around 2.30am incredibly thirsty. My room was at the beginning of October now, I woke up in the middle of the night around 2.30 AM incredibly thirsty. My room was at the back of my unit and house so I walked from the back bedroom to the kitchen which was in the middle of the unit. I'm not sure why but for some reason I had the urge to peep through the crack in my blinds in the living room. At the front, facing street, and there he was.

My house was pitch black so he couldn't see me but there he was, standing on the sidewalk in front of my unit just staring at my windows. I jumped back and started hyperventilating, made sure the doors were locked and contemplated calling the police but axed that idea because I was so angry at them. I stayed standing and watching from the cracks in the blinds. He barely moved for almost an hour and when he walked away, it was obvious from the way he moved he was either intoxicated or on something. I made sure the doors were locked and ran back to my bed and checked on Leopold, who was snoozing peacefully on his bed in my room. I couldn't fall back asleep. I was anxious all of

the next day. I was also scared that Leopold was home alone and was scared that maybe the guy would break in my window this time and get in my unit and somehow hurt my dog. I was just a nervous wreck. The next night I couldn't sleep. Around 3 am I made my way to the front and there he was again. That night played out like the night before. This sick dance went on for weeks until he started leaving the sidewalk and walking into the yard and getting closer to the house and my window. I watched every night as he got closer and I was terrified. Eventually one of my friends gave me his gun and another one gave me his shotgun. And yes, I knew how to use both. I have

my concealed carry license but didn't have my own gun at the time. They didn't really make me feel any better. Those weeks were some of the longest of my life and every night was the same. I didn't sleep, work was hard because I wasn't sleeping and I was worried about my dog. I was just a ball of panic and fear for most of October. I watched him watch my windows and get closer and closer until one night he was right outside my window. Right outside. I was frozen on the other side, scared if I moved too much or looked through the crack he'd see me. Somehow I worked up the courage to peek a little and my blood froze. He was peeing on the house right under my window. About a year prior I had seen a movie with Sally Field called An Eye for an Eye where she obsessively stalks her daughter's killer who

got off on a technicality. She follows him while he's working delivering groceries. After he delivers groceries to this woman's house one day she watches as he urinates on the woman's fence before he leaves. He returns shortly thereafter to do terrible things to the woman. So needless to say, I was freaked out. I called the landlord in the morning and let them know I needed to move and relayed some of the information and asked him that he let me out of the lease. He agreed. He knew he could easily find another tenant so he wasn't worried about letting me go. A little while later I was driving around with Leopold just to cruise and listen to music and mull over my living situation. I was still on my street but further up in the nice part with the old mansions.

I love this part of the street and it's a relatively well-known street in my city. I was admiring the house when I saw a sign that said that there was a back house for lease. I had loved this house since I was a little girl and it was a huge corner lot with a massive gate circling the backyard where the back house was located. I called immediately. I spoke to the owner who said he could show it to me that afternoon. So I called immediately. I spoke to the owner who said he could show it to me that afternoon. So I called my mom to come look at it with me and I loved it. He didn't mind that I had a dog and said the dog could have the run of the yard as long as I cleaned up after him. He asked why I was moving and I explained the situation to him. He told me that he was a retired police chief of a relatively big city nearby and assured me that no one was getting through his fence and security system and that he'd look after me.

I moved later that week and ended up spending almost four years in that back house. I'm afraid the end is very anticlimactic. The story is not as scary as others on here, but I was terrified for the duration of this time. I never saw the guy again despite being in close proximity and I never want to again. I really suppose it just all came down to the fact that he was just some druggie and his mind was so fixated on one thing. After reading multiple stories on here, I became extremely grateful I had never had any creepy experience. However, today something truly creepy happened and I thank this thread for making me more diligent. Today, after my four-year-old's basketball game, I picked up his younger sister. Not my child, that's another story. So they could spend some time together.

She is too. We planned to go to Chuck E. Cheese with my friend and her son, but we had about an hour to kill. I decided to take them to the mall. My son needs new shoes. I had a return to make and the mall has some little quarter rides to entertain them. I understand the story. It's kind of important to know the layout of the mall. The mall is basically a cross shape. The four exits are at the ends of the lines in the cross. In the middle of the cross there are food stands and random booths like selling phone cases for example. It is also really important to understand that when you are walking with a 2 year old and a 4 year old you are walking slow, like really slow, like a walk that should take 1 minute turns into 5.

So we park and enter the mall. We go into the shoe store first and get my son some shoes. After that we head back towards Victoria's Secret to make my return. Victoria's Secret is a different line in the cross shape so we have to pass through the middle area and then turn left. As we are walking I notice a guy in front of us keeps staring back and looking at us, like a lot. He's pretty far ahead of us but also slowing down to shorten the distance between us. Of course he turns in the direction we have to go but I try to slow down. Finally we get to the Victoria's Secret and he is still a ways ahead of us but just staring at us as he walks over his shoulder. At this point I was angry and decided it's better to call him out on his stuff.

Maybe he'll stop. As we are walking in and he is staring I make direct eye contact with him and say, hello? Not in a friendly way but more like, can I help you? I see you staring, I'm not dumb, cut the crap. He just looks away and keeps walking. I thought that was the end of it. Anyway we spend a good 25 to 30 minutes in Victoria's Secret. I'm no longer thinking of the guy. After that, it's time to leave, so we walk back out the way we had come in, meaning once again we have to walk through the middle and then now turn right and walk down to the exit. As soon as we walk out the Victoria's Secret, the guy is standing maybe

20 feet in front of us, literally standing behind a pole and staring at us, like he was waiting for us to leave. As soon as he sees us, he begins walking to the middle. So once again, he is in front of us. He lingers in the middle area and we turn right. He then turns right and walks past us and into the shoe store we had already gone into. When we reach the shoe store he is staring at us from within, like he is waiting for us to pass. Then he walks out and walks away from us, back to the middle, but is still staring. When he gets to the middle he turns around like a u-turn and is now walking behind us. Slowly, like really slowly because we are already walking slow. At this point, I've had enough. I immediately duck into a store and tell the guy working to call security I need an escort to my car.

I am not sure if he saw us go into the store because about ten seconds later, I see him walking by the store looking around. I assume he then walked outside since it was by the exit. Luckily, everything was fine. I'm not sure what would have happened or if anything would have happened at all but better safe than sorry. This was not a normal coincidence. This was straight up being stared down and stalked while in the mall. I don't know if this was about me or about the children or maybe he wouldn't have done anything at all. But either way, not taking the risk. But something interesting to add, often times these stories are people,

mostly girls or women, who are on the small size. I even saw a comment the other day pointing out how these people tend to be targeted more. I'm 5'9 and 160 pounds and thought maybe this was partly why I've been so lucky enough to avoid these types of encounters. I find it pretty interesting that this experience occurred when I had my hands full with two little little kids. Seems like these type of people target those who are more vulnerable. This past September I had taken a road trip to Myrtle Beach with my family. It was myself, my mother, my sister, her husband and their two kids. We had used my car and both my sister and husband's car to transport everything and all of us. We had rented a beach house for a little over a week and a pretty great time. I was in the middle of a difficult point in my life and struggling with employment and being between jobs and having just started two new jobs fresh. I was a little low on

funds and worried about making my car payments and the like so I opted to head home two days early with my car so I could try and get more hours at work. My family expressed being nervous as I planned to leave after dinner and drive through the night to get home. I consoled them that I'd be okay to be up all night and I'd head straight home and only stop for gas and food as needed. I'm an excellent driver, a tad impatient, so I tend to go until I absolutely had to stop and take a break. However, this would be a 12 hour trip and I knew I would need breaks. So I made a point to stop at every rest stop at least to get out and stretch so I stayed awake and didn't get too sore. Going through West Virginia, I'm sure you guys know how secluded their rest stops and visitor centers and the like are. Especially when you're heading north from the south going through the mountains I stopped at a visitor center because they advertised having a fast food joint and I had to pee like a racehorse

This was sometime very late at night, maybe 1 a.m. To 3 a.m. Sometime Side note that sends shivers down my spine after what happens. I like to drive barefoot. So I pulled in, noticed the buildings with fast food were closed, so I drove around the lot and parked under a street light in front of the visitor center so I could use the restroom. Leaning out of my car door, I took my time putting my shoes on to walk inside, having looked around and not seen anyone out of the ordinary. I checked my phone and grabbed my wallet before standing up to walk in, making sure my car horn beeped to signal my doors were locked. Walking towards the center, I saw a man in a white hoodie standing at the edge of the

sidewalk leading into the center. I didn't think much of it until I passed him and got an off vibe. I glanced over my shoulder and he was watching me walk in. For some reason, I glanced to my left as I turned back to face forward and noted another man sitting at the benches that were on the other side of tall thin bushes. Instantly, I thought, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. I went in and peed and before I walked out of the bathroom, I called my roommate, as dumb as it was because he was a good 4-6 hours away. I just felt

safer. I gave him a quick rundown of my situation and made him stay on the phone with me. I started to walk out and I couldn't see the man at the front of the sidewalk anymore. I glanced at my now right and saw both men standing next to a bench. Facing forward, I saw a couple walking in to presumably use the restroom as well. I had an impulse to ask them to walk with me, but my paranoia kicked in because I knew something was wrong somewhere in my situation and I didn't ask, thinking they might know the men. Walking briskly to my car I explained to my roommate that the men were by the benches. During the smallest of peaks over my shoulder again I saw the man in the white hoodie walking towards me and I told my roommate.

Walking a few more paces forward I looked back again and saw his pace had quickened. At this point I told my roommate he's following me to my car and I booked it. I thankfully had a key fob, got my key out and ready and unlocked my car and practically threw myself in. Not daring a glance back, I threw my car in reverse and gunned it backwards before going back into drive and sped off and didn't even stop to vote my seatbelt on until I was at the exit to leave the parking lot. I didn't look back once. I stopped at the next toll road and filed a report and the workers called for state troopers to head over and check things out. I didn't stop shaking for hours and I refused to get out of my car until I was home. I horrified myself at the thought of,

if those guys had paid attention and made their move more quickly, they could have incapacitated me at my car while I was facing the ground, and putting my shoes on, and I could have had absolutely no defense. Hey friends, thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and click that notification bell to be alerted of all future narrations. If you got a story, be sure to submit them to my subreddit, our Let's Read official, and give and receive feedback from the community.

And maybe even hear your story featured on the next video. And join my Discord to interact with me and other listeners directly. 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.com. Links in the bio. Thanks so much, friends, and I'll see you again soon. When you want to bet on sports, play it on a field or ice or course. BetRivers is the place.

Over, under, money, line. Same game, parlay, it's all fine. You'll put a smile on your face. Bet on the sports you love with BetRivers Sportsbook. Take a chance. Must be 19 plus. Available in Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

please contact ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.