The Lets Read Podcast - 93: Episode 083 | Vacation & McDonald's Stories | 21 True Scary Horror Stories

Episode Date: March 9, 2021

Welcome to the eighty-third 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 horrifyin...g stories about Vacations, McDonald's & Coffee Shop Creepers... 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 Update Description

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Starting point is 00:00:48 Find a Toyo Tread Experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExperts.ca A little background on me. I'm a 19-year-old male and I was traveling with my girlfriend. We were on a road trip to visit my grandparents who lived a few states away. They said we could stay at their place for a few weeks over the summer and it seemed like a no-brainer because they lived on the beach. The path to getting there though was really long and it was a painful drive. My girlfriend and I both disliked driving but we figured that we could
Starting point is 00:01:46 take turns and it wouldn't be so miserable. I think the total time on the road was about 10 hours. We were about 5 hours into the drive when we decided to stop off at a rest stop. I'm not going to lie to you, we stopped quite a bit. I'm a little compulsive with drinking water because I like to stay hydrated. As you might imagine, there are some consequences of being hydrated. It irritated my girlfriend, but not very much. I think she secretly liked that we were stopping on my sake and not hers, because she always seemed to buy something every time we stopped. This one rest area was not horrible or anything. It wasn't in a bad area or anything like that. It seemed like a very typical safe rest stop.
Starting point is 00:02:28 But this is where one of the most horrifying experiences of my life took place, at least the first part of it. This has simply been one of the many times when I had to pull off the road to go pee. When I saw that there was also a McDonald's near this one rest area, I decided to wait until we got there. I normally don't eat McDonald's, but I let myself do it on special occasions like road trips. It makes the drive go by a little better, even if it makes my stomach feel like garbage. So I went to the bathroom and she bought more cigarettes. We had already made our way to the McDonald's when we had our first appearance with Creepy Guy. We actually did talk to him a little bit. Let's call him Joe.
Starting point is 00:03:14 Joe may have been the strangest looking man I'd have ever laid my eyes on. He looked like he didn't come from this country or something, and not on a racial basis or anything, he just looks like he had a completely different lifestyle, as if he lived off the land and had never used electricity. His beard went all the way down to his stomach, and if you looked at it for long enough, you could see food particles in there, and some of them not even from a meal that he had eaten that day. So that should give you a good idea of his level of cleanliness. The rest of his outfit followed suit. A dark pair of jeans that looked like they hadn't been washed in a decade and a large leather jacket that looks like the oldest thing I've ever seen in my life.
Starting point is 00:03:56 I'm sure it actually wasn't that old, but it had a timely appearance to it due to it being in such poor condition. Anyway, we spoke to Joe because he awkwardly sat next to us at McDonald's. I thought this was extremely strange and it definitely weirded me out. I'm an introvert by nature and talking to people is extremely taxing. My girlfriend is an extrovert and always attracted people that were interested in conversation. I just found it strange because I've never had someone randomly sit at the same table as me when they were complete strangers. I figured that it was because my girlfriend attracted talkers, but looking back, it was probably because we appeared to be easy targets.
Starting point is 00:04:37 Joe sat down right next to my girlfriend and started asking us where we were going. My girlfriend, being the optimistic and unsuspecting person that she is, gave him the entire story. That we were basically five hours away from anyone that we knew in any direction. I tried to give her a look that she needed to shut up, but she didn't get the hint. We had already ordered our food and we were eating when he sat down. He didn't order anything, he just invited himself to our table and talked to us for the entire time we were there. At first he was rather polite but had a really thick accent that didn't seem like it belonged anywhere. I couldn't tell you where
Starting point is 00:05:18 the accent came from because I've never heard anything like it in my life and this is coming from someone who knows plenty of people from the north, midwest, the south, Australia and anywhere else. This accent just didn't seem like it came from earth. After a painful experience of trying to get away from Joe, we got back in our car and started up on that journey again. As we got to our car, I also noticed that Joe had gotten into his car as well. As we had pulled out, Joe was a good distance away from us. I thought this was extremely strange, and the warning sign in my head went from flashing to high alert. I knew that we were in some kind of danger.
Starting point is 00:05:59 I was driving and I tried putting the pedal to the metal. The next half hour or so I had probably sped more than I did my entire life. I was normally a really safe driver but this guy was really freaking me out. I tried telling my girlfriend that this guy was tailing us but she didn't believe me. She thought I was just being paranoid. But what are the odds of seeing this guy at a gas station and then him being behind us for 30 minutes after we got on the road? She told me to pull over at the next rest stop and we would know for sure if he was trying to do us harm. Stupidly, that's exactly what I did.
Starting point is 00:06:36 And my worst suspicion was true. He pulls off at the same rest stop and parked right next to us. My adrenaline was rushing as I got ready to fight this guy. I didn't know what else I could do. I told my girlfriend to call the police and then I got out of the car. He was easily a foot taller than me and he was a little older and probably not in the best shape. I had the benefit of being an athlete wannabe at my college. I did all the intramural sports stuff like that so I was in pretty decent shape but none of that mattered when Joe pulled out a knife. The understanding that he was out
Starting point is 00:07:13 to do us harm and I was going to have to fight him. I waited for him to approach. About 30 seconds went by before he started walking in my direction. My heart was pounding. I started screaming every insult that I could. I called him a degenerate and an old man who was way over his head and then I was about to whoop him. It didn't scare him though and when he got within 10 feet of me, I thought it would be a good idea to tackle him. I was hoping to take him by surprise but I didn't. I tried getting him off of his feet and onto the floor but when I tackled him he plunged the knife right into my back but that was the only good hit he got on me I managed to get him on the floor and after that I started kicking his head ferociously
Starting point is 00:07:59 I don't know how I managed to do it but he was on the ground seemingly unconscious and I was standing there. I could feel the blood flowing down my back and I got back into the backseat of my car and yelled at my girlfriend to drive me to the nearest hospital. I was questioned a few days later at the hospital about what had happened. I guess the police showed up after we had left and found Joe still there unconscious. He was in a coma and the police didn't know what to think. Once they got mine and my girlfriend's version of the story they seemed to believe it and so that was that. I don't know when or if Joe will ever wake up from that coma. And honestly, after he almost killed me I kinda hope he doesn't.
Starting point is 00:08:44 That was an extremely traumatic experience for me and my girlfriend. Obviously, after he almost killed me, I kind of hope he doesn't. That was an extremely traumatic experience for me and my girlfriend. The good news about the situation is that I can tell people that I put someone in a coma once and they don't listen to me. They're next. I'm not sure if this is the creepiest or the most disgusting thing to ever happen to me, but here it is. I'm a 17 year old female and this happened about 3 months ago. Me and my friends always liked to go to McDonald's after we had a good yoga session. You could call us regulars. We probably did yoga together two or three times a week and it wasn't a class or anything. It was just me and three of my friends.
Starting point is 00:09:30 We had another friend Olivia who occasionally joined us but she was kind of flaky. If she didn't feel like doing yoga that day we just went ahead and did it without her. We had been in this routine for a couple of weeks at this point and we always look forward to getting some nice junk food. There was something about McDonald's that was like the guilty pleasure of my entire existence. I normally didn't get it otherwise but I really look forward to the couple of occasions that me and my friends went there. But this one experience was horrible. I had been there enough that I started to recognize the people that worked there. I never had conversations with them but I knew their faces well enough to
Starting point is 00:10:11 spot when someone new was in the back working. That's exactly what happened this one Wednesday afternoon. I noticed this guy with really thin hair. He had a really creepy face and I'm not sure how to describe it exactly. His eyes were humongous. They looked like the eyes of a bug. And then he had this really strange body language that always kind of freaked me out. It was like jumpy or something. If he was deep frying french fries for example he would stand perfectly still for a second and then really quickly submerge them in one motion and it would splash grease all over. This was very unusual considering I had seen enough people put down fries that there was an easier way he could have done that. He didn't have to splash it like that. I was watching him one day and we made eye contact. It was really unusual too because I was looking at him as my mom's
Starting point is 00:11:06 credit card was processing to pay for my meal. He had his back turned toward me. I was trying to figure out if I knew who he was and then he just spun around to look at me and it was all in one motion. It was just really freaky. So I started noticing him more and more. He was always working whenever my friends and I got finished with our yoga. It didn't bother me too much. My friends also noticed how weird he was and told me about similar experiences. It wasn't creepy enough that we stopped going or anything, but it was certainly enough to notice. I remember the day in particular. It was a weekend because I didn't have school that day
Starting point is 00:11:46 Me and my friends had just finished a really good yoga session and we headed over to McDonald's Anyway, my friends and I ordered our food and were waiting for a few minutes It took a little bit longer than usual which isn't really an issue because we're not impatient or anything But here was the weird part They weren't busy. We were basically the only people in there waiting for food, and I think they had one other person who had already ordered who was sitting down and already eating. I didn't see any cars in the drive-thru, and I just found the whole situation extremely bizarre.
Starting point is 00:12:20 I had noticed that the creepy guy was working, but I didn't see him for a very long time. He went behind a wall that I couldn't see him around and I wasn't sure why he did this either. Life went on and we got our food and sat down. I normally start by eating my fries and then have whatever my main meal is after that. Today it happens to be chicken nuggets. I got a ten piece. As I was eating I felt that creepy guy's watchful eyes looming over us. I felt really freaked out and I convinced my friends to take our meal into the car to leave. As we left I looked back to see him frowning at me.
Starting point is 00:13:00 I didn't stop walking. Well we got out there and for a few minutes I felt like I was being paranoid and I overreacted. My friends thought so too, until I looked at my chicken nuggets. I looked inside of the box they were in and they seemed to be covered in some kind of weird substance. I couldn't quite make it out and I didn't know what to think. My immediate reaction was that they had put mayonnaise on it or something. Thankfully, I was smart enough to ask my friends before I took a bite. My one friend screamed, That freak jizzed on your nuggets.
Starting point is 00:13:41 The more I analyzed the strange substance on my chicken nuggets, the more convinced I became that it really was, in fact, that. That certainly explains why it had taken so long for us to get our food. I didn't quite understand how he was able to pull it off, though. He was one of at least five other workers there. It's not like they would have just allowed him to do this, right? Whatever the case may have been, I didn't feel comfortable eating those chicken nuggets and I threw them out without hesitation. My friends and I were all really freaked out that this had happened to us.
Starting point is 00:14:19 My friends threw out the rest of their food just to be on the safe side. We weren't really sure if we should have reported this incident to the police or something. We really didn't know what to do. We just kind of laughed it off as being one of those crazy life experiences and that was it. I haven't gone back to McDonald's since this whole experience. But yeah, that's the story of how I ordered chicken nuggets one time and the freaky guy working there put his secret sauce on them. Okay, I don't think you guys are even going to believe this story, but it's 100% true. Just happened last week.
Starting point is 00:15:05 I don't know how else I could even preface this dumpster fire of a story but here it goes. I'm a 22 year old male and I live with my fiance. We had a nice apartment but we were really looking to buy a house. I know, a little young for that but we both landed really nice jobs after college and figured that it's better to get it out of the way now and start settling down. We're kind of old-fashioned like that. My fiance's grandmother owns a home and no one lives in it. She had it for about a year since a family relative passed away. No one wanted anything to do with it since there was a lot of work that needed to be done, like painting the walls and redoing the floors and just various tasks like that. It wasn't completely horrible inside, but there was enough work that it literally sat there for a good little while. Well, my fiancé and I started talking to
Starting point is 00:15:58 her grandmother after buying the place. She told us that she would sell it to us for a low enough price that we would be able to afford all of the renovations and whatnot. We were really excited about it. It was really exciting to think we were going to have purchased our first home together so shortly after graduating from college. But here was the problem. She had a lot of people in her family who started feeling left out. It was my fiancé's aunt and her two sons. Their father had died shortly after the second son was born and the mother had a hard time coping with everything.
Starting point is 00:16:32 She was a regular drinker and arguably an alcoholic. My fiancé told me that they were extremely negative people and after meeting them a few times at family functions, I was surprised at how right she was. They lived in government housing. She collected disability fraudulently and her two sons didn't work, despite one being 24 and the other being 19. There were whispers of drug abuse in there too. Suffice to know that these were not the kind of people you wanted to associate with. When word got out that we were buying the house from her grandma, they started feeling really left out. There were a few occasions where they'd try offering to watch the house, very obviously an attempt to get in there and do god only knows
Starting point is 00:17:16 what. We politely declined and did everything we could to avoid them. I happened to be at the house one day. My fiance was working and I work remotely online so I was home alone. I happened to be at the house one day. My fiancé was working and I work remotely online so I was home alone. I had just walked down the street to buy a lemonade when I saw someone at her house. It was extremely unexpected. I got ready to confront a potential burglar when I noticed it was my fiancé's cousin trying to break in. He was startled when he saw me and froze for a minute. I asked him what he was doing and he told me something about thinking he saw a car he didn't recognize in the driveway. I explained that it was my car and he left without any big confrontation. As he walked away though I heard him start cursing under his breath.
Starting point is 00:18:01 This was the point when I started feeling like we had something to worry about. Not feeling safe inside your own home is the worst feeling ever, especially being two young recent college graduates. We both worked really hard to make this happen and the idea that it made us feel unsafe there really bothered us. I still didn't even understand what they wanted out of the whole ordeal. They didn't have enough money to afford the property tax alone, forget about utilities and anything else. About two weeks went by without any kind of confrontation. I had falsely convinced myself that they'd finally leave us alone. I was dead wrong. We went to McDonald's one day,
Starting point is 00:18:44 exactly one week ago today, the day I'm writing this. Me and my fiancé both just wanted to be out of the house for a little while. Considering we were in the process of buying a house, we didn't want to go eat anywhere expensive so McDonald's just seemed like a logical decision. Now before I continue, I feel the need to explain something about my fiancé and I. We are normally very serious people. We work very hard and we're both kind of workaholics, but when we get together to have some fun, we go hard. Work hard, play hard, right? Well, we got kind of silly when we played.
Starting point is 00:19:21 Let me cut to the chase. We were both playing in the ball pit at our local McDonald's. We always enjoyed goofing off like that and we weren't too concerned with what people would think of us. We'd only been messing around for five minutes when her cousin showed up at McDonald's too. It was creepy. He walked right in, looked at us the entire time. Before he even opened the front door, his eyes were stuck on us, and they felt heavy. My fiancé immediately knew something was wrong when my facial expression changed and she darted around to see what I was looking at. We both watched as her cousin made his way out to the ball pit. He stepped outside. As he walked, he moved his body to grab something out of his pocket.
Starting point is 00:20:07 I couldn't see what it was, but my first thought was a gun or a knife. The look in his eyes told me he was out to do serious harm. He jumped into the ball pit in my direction. I luckily landed one solid punch in his face as he came down. It threw him off. I had an advantage. He kicked me in the stomach, but I landed a few more punches on his face. He started screaming for me to stop and that I was killing him. I would have kept going if my fiancé hadn't been watching. He started this, not me. We got out of the ball pit. He then began telling us that he was going to press charges on me for assaulting him. I wasn't even fazed by this. There were plenty of witnesses
Starting point is 00:20:51 there that had seen the whole thing transpire. I started telling him that I was calling the cops and I was going to press charges on him. He got really panicked and ran back to his car and drove off. I'm not going to lie to you, this whole thing really shook me up. I didn't know what to think. I didn't know what to do. I looked around online and found an easy solution. A restraining order. My fiancé and I had both gotten restraining orders on her aunt and her two cousins. I didn't know why we didn't think of this sooner. They really solved the issue and once they understood that we had a restraining order against them,
Starting point is 00:21:29 they buggered right off. I haven't seen or heard from them since. And thankfully, and hopefully, that's the end of my story. I was 19 years old at the time. I had a really good opportunity to go to college but things fell through a couple of months into it and basically I wasn't allowed to go back at that college. I'm not going to go into the details but I found myself stuck. I was living at home with my parents and working at McDonald's most of the time. I was really disappointed in myself especially because I didn't have anyone else to blame but myself. I seem to be your typical college dropout that ended up working at fast food but while I was working there I had a couple of really strange experiences. So the first one happened like this.
Starting point is 00:22:25 There was this really creepy customer. He was an old man and he just seemed like the most insane individual ever. You just have to think of the physical embodiment of Florida man. He always wore this bathroom robe with a stained white t-shirt underneath. Or shoes. He had these really old Nikes that seemed like they had been completely covered in mud and never washed. Everywhere he stepped there was some residue coming off of his shoes. I don't know how far he lived but this guy came in to eat at McDonald's four or five times a day for as long as I worked there. I never personally had any horrible experiences with him. It wasn't like he was this unruly customer.
Starting point is 00:23:06 He always asked for extra ketchup, but it's not like that was a crime or anything. The story is weird because I remember talking about him with some of my co-workers. I had one friend there that I had became rather close with. I remember talking with her about this creepy guy that had just came in to eat McDonald's all the time wearing his pajamas. When you work with the public, there are so many people and faces that you see all the time, and none of them mean anything, it's just another customer. But when you have someone like this, it almost makes the job a little bit more bearable, as weird as that might sound, a little bit more consistency to the job.
Starting point is 00:23:50 Plus, making jokes about someone like that was kind of fun. But there was one day when the jokes weren't funny anymore, because he stopped coming in. They couldn't find out why either. I mean, when you see someone multiple times a day, every day for months on end, you get a little surprised when they stop showing up. It all just seemed, I don't know, unusual. I remember talking to my friend about it. Neither of us could imagine why he stopped. I remember getting a phone call at 2 in the morning that night though. I guess my friend had gotten curious and looked around online. She's a bit of an insomniac. I guess he had been arrested on multiple drug charges. She had found a picture of him in the public database for our county's police department. In the mugshot, he was wearing that exact same bathrobe that we always saw him wearing. That was interesting. Really weird to think that someone I saw and interacted with
Starting point is 00:24:43 multiple times a day was an actual dealer. But I guess that was that. My other experience working at McDonald's was really bad. Not going to lie to you, it really freaks me out and really made me question humanity. So it happened like this, right? I was working the graveyard shift, it must have been around 12am and we didn't have any customers. We already cleaned all the machines as much as we could and there really wasn't anything to do. We lived in a smaller community so there weren't too many people coming in to eat at such a late hour. We had a few here and there but we were mostly just sitting around, particularly slow this night. I remember going over to check the garbage cans for the other
Starting point is 00:25:26 side of the store. Occasionally we would forget to empty that garbage pail. It was directly behind a booth and out of sight from the area we normally worked in. I remember going over there and there were two big bags of garbage that needed to be taken out. They were too heavy to take out at the same time so I did what any sane person would do. I carried one out at a time. I remember bringing the first one. I threw it into the dumpster and I remember hurting my back a little when I did it. I went for a little bit of a theatrical throw and really felt it there. I went back into the store to get the second bag of garbage and I made my way outside. I got about 10 feet away from the dumpster when I saw something that shocked me.
Starting point is 00:26:10 I dropped the bag of garbage. I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a mutilated puppy. Its entire snout had been cut off. I wasn't sure if it was alive or not. It wasn't moving or anything. I took a step closer to try to see a little bit more and I just felt my heart drop into my stomach. It was the most horrifying thing I'd ever seen in person. It was definitely dead. It wasn't leaning up against the dumpster and it was just a horrifying thing to see. I ran back inside and asked my co-workers what we should do. We decided to call the police but they didn't really help much. We were really freaked out at who could have possibly done this and why they would put the puppy there of all places.
Starting point is 00:26:57 The part that still freaks me out is that whoever had done this had been waiting for me to go back inside of the building and in the few seconds before I came back out, put it right next to the dumpster. I figured they must have been watching me. Didn't know what else to think about it though. Our McDonald's didn't have an outside camera other than the drive-thru so there was no hope of trying to identify the person that did this. But it still makes me sick to my stomach to think what that person could be like. This story happened a couple of years ago,
Starting point is 00:27:40 about 8 years ago actually. I was 10 years old at the time and it's the reason I haven't gone back to McDonald's for nearly a decade. I never plan on going back there again actually. The story itself is pretty unbelievable but it is what it is. He didn't have to live through it but I did. My mother worked a really decent job in the city. My father was out of the picture so that left my brother and I to be taken care of by our grandparents most of the time. That's not the worst thing in the world, my grandparents are the best. But my grandmother is kind of a health freak. This meant that we weren't allowed to have any kind of sweets, soda, junk food or anything else that was tasty. Their house was always a
Starting point is 00:28:21 lot of fun but we never got to enjoy the food that we really wanted. So whenever my brother and I were with our mom we tried talking her into bringing us to McDonald's. We loved going there. I particularly loved the french fries, chicken nuggets with a milkshake. I got that every single time I went. It was my absolute favorite. But as much as I loved that meal, this one experience was so bad that I never wanted it again. And it goes like this. My mom had gotten off work a little early this one day and picked us up at 4.30 in the afternoon. This meant that she was going to be able to have some time to bring us to McDonald's, which we had been begging her to do. We made our way there and I
Starting point is 00:29:03 remember singing some goofy song on the radio as we drove there. My brother and I were so excited and my mom was happy that she could make us happy. My mom was not a fan of eating in the car. She really liked her car and wanted to keep it clean which meant no eating so we went inside to eat. When we were in there everything went just as you'd expect. We ordered our food, sat down, and ate. That's all there really was to it. The bad part didn't come until we started to leave. We were making our way out of the McDonald's when a Hispanic man with a really strange mustache started saying something to my mom. I remember him being somewhat incoherent because of a thick accent and many of
Starting point is 00:29:45 the words were ones that I had never heard before. I immediately identified this man as problematic and could tell by his body language that he might be a threat. But after all, I was only 10 years old and couldn't do a whole lot. My mom got my younger brother into the car, put his seatbelt on and closed the door. She told me to get into the car too. I can tell by her panicked tone of voice that she was extremely worried by this guy. No matter what he said, she didn't reply. My mom got into the driver's seat and started the car in the same motion and then went to close her door. But by this point, the man was already close enough that he could hold the door open and stop it from
Starting point is 00:30:26 being closed. My mom started telling this guy to back off but he only got more aggressive. He started saying stuff like you can't run from me chica and other stuff like that. That was one of the only phrases I remember him saying. Again a lot of it was incoherent to me. My mom never did get her door closed until she started backing out anyway and knocked this guy onto the floor. I guess he wasn't expecting her to actually go but this only antagonized him even more. I remember watching him as my mom was peeling off. He got back up immediately and ran to his car which was only about 4 parking spots away. He started it and started following us. He wasn't trying to run us off the road or anything but he was definitely following us. I remember asking my mom what we were going to do.
Starting point is 00:31:17 She said that I had to be quiet and let her think. Well, we drove around for about 20 minutes. I could tell that it wasn't the path to go home that we always took. I remember it feeling like a really long time that we were on the road. The sun started to go down and we all felt a lot of tension. My mom eventually had the good idea to go to the police station. She called the police on her cell phone before she got there and told them about the situation. When we got there, there were policemen waiting in the parking lot. Despite there being cops all over the place, this guy still followed us, parked right behind us, and got out of the car, running at my mom. It was honestly terrifying.
Starting point is 00:32:00 Thankfully, a police officer had tackled him and they took care of him from there. They put him into handcuffs and took him somewhere into the station. They eventually brought us in and asked us questions about what had actually happened. My mom told them the whole story from start to finish and then we went home. It was really scary to experience as a kid and I still think about it sometimes. The craziest part is that this guy was confident enough to still go after my mom with police around in front of a police station. I don't know what kind of judgment he had but whatever it was, it was probably impaired by drugs or something.
Starting point is 00:32:37 A couple of weeks later, a lawyer had contacted my mom. He was trying to prosecute this guy for multiple crimes. He claimed that this guy, who had tried to abduct my mother, was actually a leader in some kind of gang. It wasn't MS-13 or anything, but it was a fairly significant street gang in our area. My mom told him no because it would mean putting herself and her kids in danger. She knew that there was going to be a risk of testifying against a gang member And she didn't trust the police officers to keep her safe My mom didn't tell me that last part until a couple of years later
Starting point is 00:33:12 I must have been about 15 years old when she finally told me I totally understood why she refused I'm not sure whatever happened to this gang member But he did a really good job of intimidating people into not testifying against him. I can't even imagine the kind of person this guy was though. Imagine going to McDonald's, seeing a mother with two kids, and then wanting to abduct her, and then being crazy enough to follow her on the road for a half hour and park behind her in front of a police station, and even then, he still got out of the car and ran toward my mom.
Starting point is 00:33:48 I don't know what happened to that guy to make him like that. I just seriously hope that this prosecutor was eventually able to get him on something and locking him up for life. I don't know how people like that are able to roam the streets so freely. 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. Toyo's open country family of tires will get you through tough weather in a variety of terrains. Until May 31st, save up to
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Starting point is 00:34:58 Like Toyo's open country family of tires. Find your pro at your local Tread Experts. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExperts.ca tires. Find your pro at your local tread experts. This happened a couple of years ago. I was a freshman in college, my second semester. I was kind of a loner if I'm going to be honest with you. Still am. At the time I had a small YouTube channel here where I made enough money that I didn't have to work a regular job. Most college students had to work fast food or whatever and I was fortunate enough to not be one of them. Don't get me wrong, I was poor and still lived with my parents but I made enough online that I was comfortable enough.
Starting point is 00:35:41 I remember my schedule was pretty hectic the second semester. I had a really long day on Friday. Every Friday, my first class was at 7am and my last class of the day was at 4pm. There were a couple of hours between classes throughout the day and I think I had about 4 in total. I lived too far from college to be able to justify driving back home, so I just kind of had to wait around on campus all day long. It was only about four weeks into the semester when I was really tired of this routine already. I seriously thought about dropping one of the classes, but I figured that it was going to be worth it if I could graduate when I planned to. At the end of this particular Friday, I was starving. I didn't like to eat anything on
Starting point is 00:36:25 campus because I didn't really trust the staff. I know that might be bad to say, but there was this one time that I ordered food from the cafeteria on campus and got food poisoning. They're a little infamous on campus, and there are a few people that regularly eat there. Understandably so. I just found myself waiting until I got out of class to eat. And then I can eat somewhere that I actually wanted to. I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to eat after class and I just settled on grabbing some McDonald's on the way. I was originally planning on picking up some at the drive-thru but I also had to really go to the bathroom by the time I got there. I just figured it would be easier to go in and order inside. I always found it difficult to order at the drive-thru anyway.
Starting point is 00:37:11 I had a hard time understanding what people were saying through the microphone, so I got in there, ordered my food, and I was good to go. I was just going to bring it into my car and eat as I drove home, but I noticed something weird going on. Right outside of the McDonald's, two people were having an argument. They looked like they were around my age, probably late high schoolers or college students themselves. I stood there for a moment watching to see if the argument between these two people escalated, and it did. The man started holding the girl's arms down and pinned her against the car. I was assuming it was one of their cars. I wasn't sure if they were together or what the situation really
Starting point is 00:37:51 was. I didn't really want to intervene because it was somebody else's drama and not really my problem, but I got more and more anxious about the girl's safety. This guy was a lot bigger than her. He at least had a foot of height and he looked like he was an athlete. I stood there for a few more minutes watching to see what was going to happen. I couldn't really hear what they were saying but I understood that the situation was getting worse. It eventually got to the point when he opened the car door and threw her inside. I mean literally pushed her and flung her inside the car. She didn't scream or anything but it looked very startling. Made me jump a little bit and then he went inside the car
Starting point is 00:38:32 too. They were in the back seat and I immediately got suspicious when he closed the car door behind him. I heard the girl start screaming from inside the car and immediately knew that I had to do something. I put my McDonald's food down on the sidewalk and then ran over to the car. I opened the car door and he was very obviously surprised that I had done so. I saw that he was about halfway through taking off his belt. I punched him in the back and this antagonized him. He struggled to get out of the car so that he could fight me. Thankfully there were a few other people who had gotten involved before me and him had a go at it. There were two older men in their 40s who happened to be walking into the McDonald's that turned around and came over to help. When the other people started getting involved, he got anxious and just got in his car and drove
Starting point is 00:39:18 away. I asked the girl what had happened. She told me that she didn't know that guy and he was just some random freak that wanted to use her. She claimed that he asked her to do it, but when she declined, he started getting confrontational about it. And I guess that was when I had noticed what was going on. This guy wasn't very smart. We were eventually able to identify him and he was eventually charged with assault. The situation could very easily have been bad. If I hadn't intervened, he may have been able to do God knows what to this poor girl. It's crazy to think that such a horrible crime was almost committed in such a public place.
Starting point is 00:40:00 I mean, people are always at McDonald's. The thought that someone could even attempt such a violent and repulsive act in public like that blows my mind. The girl thanked me profusely as I had just saved her a lot of physical and psychological torment. I told her that I didn't do anything special and that I was just trying to do the right thing. I witnessed someone end their life at McDonald's. It happened a couple of years ago and I don't really like to think about it too much. I thought sharing my story with people online would make it a little easier so here it is. This is kind of my attempt to make peace with the situation and I hope that the soul of this poor man is resting in peace. I don't remember a lot of the details, it all seems really
Starting point is 00:40:51 fuzzy. Like it was all just a bad dream that never should have happened. I do remember some stuff though. I remember it was raining. It was two weeks before Christmas. I remember that I had just finished working overtime so it was pretty late. I wanted to grab a quick bite to eat but didn't feel like eating in my car. I always hate doing that especially because of the smell so I went in. I got a Big Mac from McDonald's. I was sitting in the corner of the store when I noticed a really tall man walk inside. He was dressed in standard winter clothes and had a long blue hat on.
Starting point is 00:41:26 There was a lot of empty space inside of the hat on top of his head and I don't remember exactly why it caught my attention. I watched him for a few minutes. I wasn't particularly interested, I was just sitting there eating and didn't really have anything else to look at. My phone was dead and he was the only other customer in the McDonald's at the time. His body language stood out to me though. I could tell that he was not in a good frame of mind. I mean, looking at this guy for a minute told you everything you needed to know about him. He was suffering and in a lot of pain. I'm not sure exactly what kind of pain. I could only make guesses. Maybe his wife had left him. Maybe his kids died. I'll never know what happened to him. All I will ever know is that it was bad
Starting point is 00:42:11 enough to push him to the very edge and enough to make him jump off. He stood in front of the cashier for a few minutes while he appeared to be looking at the menu. To this day, I don't know if he was actually considering ordering anything or if he was just waiting for the right moment to. So, this was the layout of the store. On one side of the McDonald's, there was the counter where people could order their food, but the counter area didn't take up the entire wall. There was a separation between that and a small hallway that brought you to the bathrooms. I was on the other side of the McDonald's looking on. He had been standing there for a few minutes when he randomly decided to start walking down the hallway. He moved really slowly, like he was really trying to take his time. Step by step, he came closer and closer to death. And the weirdest part about the whole situation was that he didn't seem sad, didn't feel like he
Starting point is 00:43:07 was depressed. It was more of an apathy, like he had suffered so much that he just didn't care anymore, couldn't bring himself to bother with being alive. I don't know, maybe I just feel that way after having thought about this experience so much over the last few years. As he continued down the hallway, he got slower with each step, finally coming to a halt in front of the men's bathroom. He stood there for about 45 seconds. I'm not sure what he was planning on doing. My first reaction was that there was some kind of sign in front of the men's bathroom that it was closed, but that wasn't the case.
Starting point is 00:43:45 I saw him pull something out of his coat pocket. He very slowly pointed it at his head. It was a pistol. It wasn't until I heard the gunshot that it registered what was happening. I saw blood go all over the place. His body fell to the floor with a thud. I screamed. I didn't know what else to do. I remember vomiting everything I had just eaten on what was left of my meal. If I hadn't been so disturbed, I would probably have been extremely grossed out, but I was in an absolute state of shock. I started speaking with one of the employees after a few minutes had gone by He screamed what had happened I told him that he pulled a gun out of his pocket and shot himself with it
Starting point is 00:44:31 One of the employees there was convinced that he had been shot by someone else Strongly hinting that it was me I didn't quite understand why they thought so Some disgruntled old woman She was old And told the police that she didn't think that the guy ended his own life. Whatever her motivation was, it really didn't matter. The police didn't take her very seriously from the start, and this obviously was done by his
Starting point is 00:44:59 own doing. The security tapes proved as much. I'm not going to lie. It really bothered me that she had to make an already bad situation worse. I already answered some of the questions from the police officers about the story. I remember driving home that night. I remember how alone I felt. This had really taken a toll on me. I pray for that guy's soul every day. I really hope he's in a better place. I can't imagine how horrible things must have been for him that he would have offed himself in a public place like that. I haven't eaten out since this whole experience. I have this strange fear that I'm going to witness another one in public like that. I know it's not rational, but I definitely feel that way. I'm not sure why. I'm not sure why this happened.
Starting point is 00:45:49 And I probably never will. 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,
Starting point is 00:46:22 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. Mom, Mom, did you see my race? Of course I did, darling. Look, you did your best. You tried. The thing is, it's not about winning. It's about taking part.
Starting point is 00:46:43 Next year you might do better. But I did win, Mom. You did? When it's sunny, make sure you can still see. At Specsavers, get two pairs of glasses from $149, and one can be prescription sunglasses. Hey, the sun won't wait. Visit specsavers.ca for details.
Starting point is 00:47:00 Conditions apply. For reference, I work as a barista in a coffee shop inside a larger store. I'm one of a handful of male baristas at my shop. I am gay and very open about this. I wear pride shoes, I have a pride flag attached to my name tag, and I have a couple of wristbands with rainbows and phrases like Orlando Strong and a local LGBT plus center. So the other day I was working my shift at the register. A gentleman comes up to me and smiles. I think he noticed the pride flag on my
Starting point is 00:47:33 name tag but he didn't explicitly mention it at first. He says he doesn't know what to order and asked me for my opinion. I'm not particularly a coffee drinker but I know what drinks fit what tastes so I asked him what he likes and I try to give him recommendations as I'm talking I can tell he's paying more attention to me than what I'm saying which I'm completely okay with he was a shorter but well-built man had beautiful eyes and a nice beard, basically the perfect dilf. Eventually he decides on a super sweet ice drink that we have and I go to make it for him. As I'm making the drink, one of my co-workers leans over and whispers, I think that customer just took a picture of you. That was a bit of a red flag but I thanked her and kind of brushed it off.
Starting point is 00:48:23 I give him his drink and he smiles. He points to the pride flag and says, I love that flag. Where can I get one of those? I laughed and said I got it from a pride event I went to a few years ago. He then said, where can I get the person that's attached to? I immediately feel a rush and I start blushing but trying to act professional I brush it off. He eventually takes his drink and sits at one of the tables. I continue going out about my day debating whether I should give in to this guy or not. Every now and then I would glance at his table to see him looking at me. No matter when I looked, it seemed like he was looking at me. I started to get that weird feeling of heart eyes with red flags. Then I
Starting point is 00:49:11 noticed that he hasn't taken a single drink out of his coffee. Remember, it was an ice drink so I could see the clear plastic cup. When I have a break and go to wipe down some of the tables, I stop by his table and ask if he didn't like the drink And if not, I could make him a new one free of charge He hands me the drink and mentions he's not sure if it's too sweet for him or not and asks me to try it I politely decline, telling him I don't drink coffee He's shocked and asks me why I'm working here and blah blah blah. As we're talking though his questions start to change. So do you lift at all? No not really. How much do you think you
Starting point is 00:49:55 could lift if you had to? The job requirement is 50 pounds so I guess at least that much. Well I learned that it's good to be able to lift at least half your body weight. How much do you weigh? Immediate red flags go off. There was something about the combination of the drink and the two questions that made me feel like I was being asked how much of a fight I'd be able to hold, especially if I was drugged. I've been drugged at a party before and these things are red flags that I've learned to pick up on so I kindly and quickly end the conversation and go back to cleaning up tables. As the hours go by he continues to sit there not drinking his drink. Other employees and a couple of managers ask if everything's okay and he says he's perfectly happy. Every now and then he takes a phone call and at one point I swear I can see a
Starting point is 00:50:46 guy on his phone at a different part of the store talking opposite of the guy at the table. Suddenly I start to feel like there are more eyes on me than I realize. I pull one of my managers to the back and tell them I'm getting weirder and weirder feelings about the guy and the manager says we'll keep an eye on him. Now I was closing on this shift and so as we got closer and closer to closing time I noticed him still sitting there. When the announcement that the store is closing in half an hour is made he comes up to the counter and asks if he could walk me to my car after I get off. I tell him our closing duties take us at least 45 minutes after we close and he says he'd be happy to wait.
Starting point is 00:51:27 I politely decline and he asks when I work next. I tell him I'm off for a couple of weeks. Well, then I feel like I should walk you to your car, especially if I might not be able to see you for a couple of weeks. No way. I politely decline and eventually he leaves leaves I finish my closing duties and head to the employee area as soon as I get down there I tell one of my managers about the situation and ask if I can take the side exit from the store at our store we exit out one of the main doors after we close but there's a single door that we use to get into the building before we open and that managers use to get out after we close. He agrees and tells me he'd walk with me
Starting point is 00:52:11 to my car to make sure I'm okay if I'm cool with waiting a little while. I am. So I walk out the side doors with a couple of managers. I get into my car and as I'm driving away I see a large van with extremely tinted windows parked in front of the front door. The passenger window rolls down oh so briefly as I pass by and I'm instantly able to make out that the passenger is the same cute but creepy customer and there's clearly someone else in the driver's seat. There's no way to know for sure the customer's intentions or if maybe he was just coming from work or not but I knew that I was not about to stay to figure out and I took a long and winding path home that night. When I was in third grade there was this girl in my class.
Starting point is 00:53:07 She wasn't particularly liked by anyone as she was quite the bully and overall a rude person, even to adults. She was known for having anger issues and getting mad at people for what seemed like no reason. I was no exception. Her name was Carly. She had been mean to me in the past but that didn't deter me from going to her house one day after she had been nice to me all day at school. Naive, I know. So before leaving school that day I called my mom to ask if I was allowed to go to Carly's house. She said yes and to call her when I get there so I can give her the address. Now when I think back I wonder if she had a bad feeling about the situation since she doesn't normally ask for the address and she isn't picking me up since Carly's house was about
Starting point is 00:53:55 two blocks away. When I got there after calling my mom of course Carly insisted of making me look pretty aka wetting my hair and brushing it. I let her. Then she told me to close my eyes and that she was taking me to the living room. I closed my eyes and she began to guide me towards the bathtub. We were already in the bathroom so the tub was a solid two feet away from where we were standing. I opened my eyes just enough to see where she was guiding me. My foot hit the side of the tub and I said that this doesn't feel like the living room. She said it was and that I just need to step over the gate. I tell her that I know this is the bathtub. She stops trying to get me into the tub and brings me to the kitchen instead. She says she's going to make cereal.
Starting point is 00:54:44 I was standing behind her when she reached into her dishwasher and said she was grabbing a spoon. The way that she clarified that she was grabbing a spoon immediately told me what she was really going to grab and it was for sure not a spoon. I can still remember the feeling of dread that overcame me when she said those words. She pulls out a large knife and backs me up into a counter, holding the knife only inches away from my neck. I can't remember if any words were exchanged during this, maybe I was just too shocked to say anything. I only stayed there for maybe 30 seconds before I pushed her aside and ran towards the door. I grabbed my backpack and put on my winter boots. By the time I had my boots on, Carly was trying to block the sliding door. I rushed past
Starting point is 00:55:31 her again and flung open the door. I ran down her patio steps and out her front gate, not bothering to close it. I just wanted to get home to where I was safe. I remember her yelling at me as her dog escaped through the open gate. I didn't care. One of her neighbors who was in their front lawn waved and smiled at me, clearly oblivious to what had just gone down. I ran down the road into my house, not stopping once. It wasn't until I was in the door of my house that I broke down. I began to cry and yell for my mom. My two older sisters yelling at me to shut up. My mom walked over to me and immediately knew something was wrong. I explained what happened and she was very understanding and freaked out. I can't remember if it was the same day or the next day that I had to talk to a police officer
Starting point is 00:56:22 about what had happened. He asked me what kind of knife it was and what not. I think my mom relayed most of the story to him because I don't remember having to say much. They got in contact with Carly's foster mom and Carly got in big trouble for it. At the school Carly yelled at me for getting the cops involved and tried to guilt trip me by saying that her mom threatened to put her back in foster care if she did anything like that again. I told her I didn't care. The school was also notified of the situation and the teachers were made sure to keep an extra eye on her but that didn't mean I wasn't paranoid around her. I made sure to keep my guard up for the rest of the school year which was true. She had it coming. I always thought that it was a bit extreme to involve the cops but I ended up making Carly never mess with me again.
Starting point is 00:57:13 I ended up moving after that year for unrelated reasons only to move back before I started 6th grade. The first day of middle school I was awaiting for them to call my name so I knew which class is my homeroom when I hear an all too familiar name, Carly, and then her last name. I watch as no one goes up to join the class. Was she not here? Next I was called. I go up to join the class that she would have been in. I found out later when the teacher was doing attendance that she had moved three hours away just before the beginning of the school year. It's been three years since then and I can only hope that she doesn't come back but if she does I'm not too concerned and if she does I'll make sure that she stays away from me. That incident has given me some trust issues but at least now I know to choose my friends wisely.
Starting point is 00:58:15 So this was about 5 months ago. I don't remember it with complete clarity and I'm not the best at telling story events for my life but bear with me. This was about 2am in downtown Denver. A friend of ours hosts a D&D session every Sunday. Me and my partner normally stay the night but we had plans the next Monday and had to go early. We say our goodbyes to everyone and grab our bags and head out. It wasn't a long walk at all to the car, not even a block away. Me and my significant others started walking and chatting about the session. Then we both got silent at the same time. Someone was behind us. I don't know how, but we both knew he was going to be bad news.
Starting point is 00:58:59 He continued to follow us to the parking garage and right before we entered he spoke up with a, are you ladies 18 or older? Now I'm a bigger girl, 5'10 and more than knew how to hold my own against creeps. This guy struck me as different, he was a good foot taller than me, blonde blue eyed male with one heck of a disgusting smile. Me being the dumb polite person I am I said something like um yes why and he proceeded to start saying things like do you pay your taxes? With a quick response of sorry we aren't really at that stage of our lives yet. He quickly responds with a long rant about how taxes are terrible you should never pay them you're using our taxes to kill people all the time. The government is killing people, everyone's killing people and they get away with it so easily. At this point he begins to move closer and closer to us.
Starting point is 00:59:56 My partner is backing up into the garage and my dumb self is too scared to move, just trying to keep him focused on myself rather than her. He gets within a few inches of my face. I try to casually step away, keep my movements looking natural and straighten my back out, compensating for the fact that this person is larger than me. His breath was horrible. He could smell the alcohol with every single word that came out of his mouth and his blue wristband was still on. Don't know if that's a bar thing, all I know is he had one. He continues on with his rant. My significant other tries to argue back a bit. He starts to move away from me towards her. After a few glances between me and her, we catch on that we just need to go with whatever this guy says. When she stops arguing, his rant goes from taxes to political figures and genocide.
Starting point is 01:00:49 You know I could kill anyone I want and get away with it. Anyone. Anyone can. The government is watching you, but they don't care. They'll never know. His words were not making sense at all. We're killing this planet and it all could be solved if we just had less of a population. Mind you, this guy was back in my face, staying as close as possible. If either of us went on our phone or our watches, he'd shift to them. Not to compliment him, but he was really
Starting point is 01:01:19 perceptive for someone I assume was drunk out of their mind. The conversation continues for about 5, maybe 10 minutes. It felt like an hour though. I felt disgusted with myself for it but I'm agreeing with everything he's saying at this point. I seem to completely forget about my significant other. I introduce myself using my character name and shake his hand which allowed me to see a bunch of track marks on his arm. I'm freaking out on the inside thinking I'm going to get stabbed today. I've never even been in a fight. How do I handle this? All the while smiling and agreeing. Then his behavior shifted, still staying way too close to me, he starts scratching himself all over, reaching into his left pocket
Starting point is 01:02:05 over and over every time he references ending someone's life. Honestly at this point I was more angry than scared and started trying to work around him as stepping back was just leading me to a wall. It wasn't working no matter how I tried to walk or where I tried to go, he was always right there in my face talking about hurting people. He wanted that it would solve the world's problems if people just went out and just hurt a few hundred others. I got fed up with it, stepped to my right then quickly to his left and backed up straight out of the garage. He followed, so did my partner behind him. We were finally out in the open again. I sensed so many desperate looks to people walking by as he kept getting more and more pushy and
Starting point is 01:02:51 ever closer to me so much as he was almost chest to chest with me. I don't know what came over me but I grabbed my significant other's arm. Missed it by a long shot she said what I mustered the best smile I could and said, I just wanted to hold your hand. As a gay person, either a few homophobic and crazy people encounters, this was the worst idea ever. She handed me her hand, though I pulled her by me, and this man that seemed like a huge threat backed up so quickly, saying, Oh, you two are together? Yeah, I'm cool with that. Have a great night. This boy had been doing whatever he was doing, turned tail because we were gay.
Starting point is 01:03:37 The one time my preference has ever probably saved me rather than put me in danger. We waited until he was far up the street then went straight to the car. The second we got in we locked the doors and drove off. I was shaking the whole car ride home. We actually passed him and saw him twitching later on down the road. Me and him contact. It was around 1.30pm when my dog started barking for me to take him outside. I put him on his leash and walked outside my first floor apartment, leaving the door unlocked behind me like I had done a million times before. Seriously, I never thought twice about it as I live in a really safe neighborhood in an extremely safe almost boring town. In my 27 years of living here
Starting point is 01:04:32 nothing had ever tested that sense of security before. My dog is 15 so he moves a little slow and really loves taking his time sniffing around. He'll usually stop and pee three different times and that day was no different but suddenly a big white truck filled with lawn equipment slowed down in front of me. Hey make sure you pick up after your dog. I looked up and saw a man in his late 40s or so wearing polarized sunglasses and a bandana around his lower mouth and neck. Uh, he just peed. I responded with a little bit of an attitude like, thanks, I got this, now drive away. I looked up again and he gave me a wink and lowered his bandana to blow me a kiss before he drove off. He instantly made me feel uncomfortable. But as a young Hispanic female, I had been used to older Hispanic men being inappropriate and making me feel like that for years. It's just a sad reality.
Starting point is 01:05:30 So once again, I thought nothing of it. I was walking back to my apartment when a woman came out of her apartment in the next building over and stood on her patio motioning for me to come to her. I've never met this lady. I had seen her around the complex and she seemed nice enough but ultimately I didn't know this woman. I've watched Dateline. I'm not going up on her patio. I asked her what she wanted and she just insisted I go over there so she could tell me. I told her I needed to bring my dog back inside but maybe I could help her from outside where I was if she just told me. Next thing I know this woman is freaking running towards me. I picked up my dog, ready to run home myself and then she stopped probably 5 feet away from me.
Starting point is 01:06:16 Please listen to me. A man walked into your apartment while you were walking your dog. I think he was one of the mowers. I was sitting in my car when I saw him walk in and I know you live there alone. I called 911. They're on the way. I could feel my face burning as I tried to process what I'd just heard. I'd watched the man I had talked to drive away. I didn't see his truck anywhere. How could that be possible? What I didn't realize was that while I was talking to him, he had positioned his truck right in line of sight of my apartment. I couldn't see my door so I was distracted and looking away while another man walked in. If my neighbor hadn't happened to be sitting in her car on the phone, I would have walked
Starting point is 01:07:00 into my apartment completely unaware that someone would be inside waiting to do god knows what. I'm so thankful she was so observant even prior to the incident because she knew there shouldn't be anyone else in that apartment and had a gut feeling something was wrong. The police arrived not even five minutes later and arrested the guy. He said he had my permission to use my restroom which was obviously not true. Since my door was unlocked and we can't prove for sure what his intentions were when he entered, he was only charged with trespassing. That's a misdemeanor in my state and he did no jail time which obviously freaked me out because this guy knew where I lived. The man driving the truck technically did
Starting point is 01:07:43 nothing wrong but it's scary to think that they might have been working together. I stayed with my parents until we were able to find a legal loophole to get out of my lease and move out of that apartment. I moved into a house with an old friend and got a ring system installed that same day. My dog has a backyard now, my dad mows the lawn for us and I still get coffee with the neighbor who called the cops for me this happened about two years ago I was hanging out with my friend Ivana at a bar in Manassas it was around 9 p.pm and we were just chatting and
Starting point is 01:08:25 getting a few drinks. She was telling me about a guy she's been talking to on Tinder. She showed me his photos and a glimpse of their conversation. His name was Omar and he seemed like your average guy. He was pretty attractive. They've been talking for a few days now and haven't met up yet. She tried several times to get him to text her outside of the app but he would give her the same excuse. I want to give up my number to a stranger I haven't met yet. It's a bit unusual but totally understandable so I told her that he's being smart. She was on looking at her phone for a few minutes and then squeaked, oh my god. I started giggling and asked her, Jesus, what was that? Did he send you like a wiener pick or something? She laughed, no,
Starting point is 01:09:14 but Omar wants to meet. I told her to go for it and if she wants I can leave. She said, he wants me to come over to his house i immediately said oh no she seemed to agree and continue to respond to omar i was now hesitant of leaving because a part of me is scared that she would change her mind i told her to tell him to meet her at the hookah bar across the street she thought it'd be weird to meet him with me with her I told her I'll head over there after and act like I don't know her and just sit across from her she said okay and left it was now 10 20 and it's been about 15 minutes since she left I proceeded to go across the street I entered the hookah bar and after ordering my blueberry mint hookah I looked around trying to find her. I saw her sitting at the table
Starting point is 01:10:05 closest to the door across from Omar. I sat at the table across from them and started smiling from excitement because I found this whole thing so entertaining. I have a great view of her face and his back. Ivana seemed to be happy and laughing while talking to him. She was really cute. I got my hookah and I just sat there playing with my phone. I was texting my boyfriend and telling him what was going on. While I was mid-typing, I got a text from Ivana. Amy, I don't know about this. I looked up and saw her face. She seemed pretty uncomfortable. Being the nosy friend that I was, I asked what's wrong and she responds,
Starting point is 01:10:45 he keeps asking me to come home with him. I smirked and responded, he's trying to get some. She wasn't looking at her phone for a couple of minutes and I saw her stand up. She smiled at him and headed towards the bathroom and she called me. Amy, I need to freaking leave now. The smile disappeared from my face and I started to worry. She seemed genuinely scared. Whoa, what's going on? He asked me like 10 times to come over and when I kept saying no, he laughed and said, don't make me kidnap you. He's probably joking, but I don't know. He's probably just joking, but that's still pretty creepy. Amy, what do I do? I was about to answer when I saw Omar get up and walk towards the bathroom. I thought he was just going to the men's room, but that's when things got weird.
Starting point is 01:11:40 He stopped right outside of the ladies' room and put his ear to it. Ivana, don't say anything else. He's right outside your door. At this point I knew something is definitely wrong with this guy and we need to get out of there. He took his ear off the door and sat back down at the table. I reassured her that things were going to be okay because I was here and that we'll leave soon. Ivana came out of the bathroom shortly after and sat down in her seat. After a couple more minutes of forced awkward conversation between them, it was time to leave. I saw them get up to pay and walk out the door. I got up to pay then left.
Starting point is 01:12:23 I walked by the both of them standing at the front and just went straight to my car. I just watched them from my car making sure she's okay. I couldn't hear anything but from what I could tell she seemed to be fake smiling and I think trying to leave. She pulled out her phone and I saw him snatch it. He held it in the air laughing as she was trying to grab it back. He then started to walk backwards toward a blue car I assumed was his. She wasn't smiling anymore and her face was clearly upset. I rolled down my window to listen since there are now only a couple of cars in front of me. Stop playing around, give me back my phone. Get in the car, Ivana. What? No, give me my phone back already. Get in the car now. I can see her crying now and all I could think was this had gone too far.
Starting point is 01:13:12 I jumped out of the car and called my boyfriend. I walked straight to them and with my boyfriend on speakerphone I yelled at him, give her her phone back and get out of here. He seemed startled and asked me who I was. Ivana was shaken up at this point, but all I could feel was rage. I'm her friend, and I've been here the whole time. My boyfriend's on his way. If you don't give her her phone back and leave before he gets here, then I swear to God, you're going to be screwed. He handed her her phone back and started laughing. I was just joking around. Jesus. He got in his car and left. I finally calmed Ivana down and let her spend the night at my place.
Starting point is 01:13:54 We thought about calling the police but we saw that he had deleted his tinder. I was upset that my idiot self didn't bother to get his license plate. I'm not even sure if Omar was his real name. She told me that she paid for the hookah so we didn't even have his credit card info. I've learned a lot of things from the scary situation in my life. This taught me that unless you know someone very well, always meet in public and it never hurts to have a friend close by. This is a bit of an older story as I'm in my late 20s now and this happened while I was in high school as a junior. When I was 17 I was dating a kid who went to the same regional high school as me. He lived in the city that was next to my small town so the kind of environment we were used to were completely different. He could walk barefoot down the street in my town or leave your front
Starting point is 01:14:55 door unlocked at night. He could definitely not do that where he was from. One day our school has an early release day and myself and my boyfriend, we'll call him D, and his friend J all decided to walk to J's house to hang out. It was a long walk from the school to J's house, but it was in broad daylight and there were three of us so we didn't feel uncomfortable walking through the rougher parts of the city. I paid close attention to the route we took, walking along a busy and populated street with storefronts through an alley in the back of an old factory building repurposed to hold a boutique in a sports supply shop through an area with some construction. I'm normally bad with directions,
Starting point is 01:15:37 but these landmarks helped me to figure out the path we took. We finally arrive at Jay's house and get some snacks, hang out at a local playground to use the swings Then Jay has to leave to go to guitar practice And Dee and I hang on our own for a bit Dee eventually gets a call from his mom Saying that he has to come home because of some dumb reason His mom was pretty unstable And would ground him for the dumbest reasons sometimes
Starting point is 01:16:01 This time she said that he hadn't told her he was going to hang out with friends after school, even though he did, and to come home immediately. D was pretty used to nonsense like this from his mom and was convinced that if he just went home really quickly and talked to her, that he could come right back to the park to hang out with me. He had me stay at the park because if he had brought me back with him it would likely make her more angry. Well things didn't go so well and he hasn't been allowed to come back and get me and I'm left on my own. So now I'm in this park in the middle of the city by myself. Okay I say to myself I know how to get back just go to the landmarks this is
Starting point is 01:16:43 how I have to navigate. I start working to get back. Just go to the landmarks. This is how I have to navigate. I start working my way backwards, through the streets we took, through the construction area, past the factory building, through the alley. It was daytime, but these were supposed to be the most sketchy areas our trip took us through. I made it through them just fine. I finally came to the busy street with the shops. Cars passed every few seconds and there were people coming in and out of the shops almost constantly. It was broad daylight and the area was well kept and neat. It should have been the safest way to go home, right? As I'm making my way on the sidewalk, a car pulls down a side street in front of me. I think that he's trying to merge onto the main street and into the traffic so I stop to let him go. Instead of pulling forward he rolls down the window.
Starting point is 01:17:32 It's an older man, maybe early 60s. No real discerning features other than short grey hair. Seems normal enough and he speaks to me. Excuse me, do you know how I would get to Jefferson Street? I'm not from the city so I honestly wouldn't know how to give him directions, but it's a pretty well known street. There were tons of major businesses on that street. It seemed weird for an adult not to know how to get there. It was like not knowing how to get to Main Street, but I was a kid who didn't drive so I didn't know.
Starting point is 01:18:13 No, sorry, I don't. Are you sure you don't know how to get there? No, sorry. He pauses. Why don't you get into my car with me and you can show me how to get there? Wait, what? Now, if you've ever been in a weird situation like this you might be familiar with that time stop sensation. It's like you're looking at everything from far away for a moment and you can take everything in. In this moment I'm thinking a few things. This guy just pulled up on a 17 year old girl in broad daylight on a busy street. He's blocking my path. I just told him I don't know how to get to Jefferson Street, but he's now asking me to get into his car to show him how to get to Jefferson Street. What? Those little red flags are popping up everywhere. The buzzers and sirens and stranger danger lessons my parents taught me since I was in primary school are screaming in my brain and if this
Starting point is 01:19:05 guy's weird vibes didn't show up before, they were now. I didn't like what I was feeling. This guy was either a creep or just completely senile. I looked at the old man and am very wary of him. A part of me is telling me to turn around and walk away. Sorry, I can't. I'm gripping the strap on my backpack. His face changes. I had never actually seen this kind of thing happen before, where someone's face actually makes a shift, and this is the only time I've ever seen it.
Starting point is 01:19:40 He immediately looks angry. He doesn't seem like a senile old man anymore. He yells, Get in the car. He confirmed the bad feelings in my stomach. For me, the adrenaline is now flowing, and I'm both scared and angry at the balls of this old man. I don't know why this came to mind, but all I could do was scream at him to screw off. I'm standing on the sidewalk with my backpack. There's barely anything in it other than my phone, notebook, and some toiletries. There's nothing I can use to defend myself. I'm trying to figure out how big this old man could
Starting point is 01:20:18 be but I can't tell. I'm 126 pounds soaking wet at this age with little upper body strength. I don't know if I can do anything if he decides to get out of the car. He's by himself but what if he has a knife? I have to go in front or behind his car to keep taking this route home. If I do, will he try to hit me? Will he try to knock me down or back over me with his car? It felt like all these thoughts were happening in an instant and I was confused. I just want to go home. He stares at me from inside the car with this look of anger but he doesn't say anything. It's just silent between other than the sound of the cars going by and he's just staring. It was only like this for a few seconds but it felt like forever.
Starting point is 01:21:04 Once the road is clear, he peeled out into traffic and was gone. I was left standing on the sidewalk of that busy street, confused, tired, and shaking with adrenaline. I just keep thinking to myself over and over again. What was that? I'm not sure whatever happened to that man. I'm sure he had some sort of plan figured out. Find a girl. Ask her how to get to a well-known street.
Starting point is 01:21:29 Let her list off the directions. Pretend to be a feeble old man that needs help getting there. Then hope she's naive enough to accept your request of being the co-pilot. I don't think he was counting on someone not knowing how to get to that street. I really hope he didn't go on to perfect this method and use it on some girl or boy in the future. I think back on this now and I wonder if I would have reacted differently. I wish I had seen his license plate at least. I don't think that just because you're on a busy street in broad daylight that you're safe or that nothing could happen to you. Keep your eyes peeled, be prepared, and don't worry about not being polite.
Starting point is 01:22:11 When your gut is telling you something is up, listen. For context, I'm a girl and the major part of the story happened when I was in 8th grade. I lived in the same house from the age of 4 until I turned 21. It was a duplex, meaning there were two houses on the same property with a large backyard. Our property manager had turned part of his garage into a small bedroom and had rented it out to a man. My family moved into the home closest to the backyard when I was four. My dad, being the friendly guy he is, made friends with a man living in the small bedroom across from our home. This man was older, maybe in his late 40s,
Starting point is 01:22:56 early 50s, always reeked of alcohol and cigarettes, wore glasses and had crooked teeth. The works. Over the years, he'd watch me closely in a creepy way. He'd only leave his door cracked open about an inch and I'd see his glasses gleam as he watched me play with friends or by myself. He would always try to tempt me to come to him with money or candy. As I got older, I started inviting my middle school friends to my home. A few of them would comment on the weird man staring at us. I remember a time where I said, He's staring at us again.
Starting point is 01:23:33 And one of my friends responded with, He's not staring at us. He's watching you. My best friend is Karen. Karen and I have always been super invested in Naruto. We'd always watched it in our spare time together. One of the characters, Jiraiya, was a super pervert who would lurk around women. Naruto called him Pervy Sage, so we started calling the creepy old man Pervy Sage as well.
Starting point is 01:24:00 Sorry, Jiraiya. Late one night, maybe at around 8pm or 9pm, when I was about 13 or 14, Karen and I were in my dining room area, sitting at the computer with my dog on my lap. My parents were at work. My older brothers were in their room. They shared the master bedroom. They were hanging out with their friends. I recall hearing my front door open but not thinking much of it. That's until I smelled the stench of cigarettes and alcohol. We looked to our left and saw him inside my home. But neither of us said anything. Karen and I were both in shock. He walked up to us and stood behind me.
Starting point is 01:24:39 He began to play with my hair, asking what we were doing. Karen and I just sat there, not knowing what to say. He knew my parents weren't home. She blurted out we were doing. Karen and I just sat there not knowing what to say. He knew my parents weren't home. She blurted out we were ordering pizza online and typed in Pizza Hut on the search bar. She later told me if we ordered pizza a grown up would come and we could tell him or her what was wrong. The man did not budge. He continued to play with my hair. Karen got up and nervously said, I'm going to ask your brothers if they want anything on their pizza. And with that, she ran to her right, straight down the hallway and bolted through my brother's door. I just finalized the pizza purchase and heard her
Starting point is 01:25:17 scream, Purdy Sage is acting weird. The man only spoke Spanish. I doubt he knew what she said. But with that, I grabbed my dog and ran towards my brother's room and repeated it Pervy Sage is acting weird Both Karen and I were blurting out how weird he was being and how he came in uninvited I can imagine we both looked hysterical My brothers told us to get the F out of their room I'm not sure if they were trying to look cool F out of their room. I'm not sure if they were trying to look cool in front of their friends, but I knew how they were. If I didn't do as they asked, I'd get beat up or told off. Karen and I looked at each other, sort of defeated. We closed
Starting point is 01:25:57 their bedroom door and stood in front of it for a second. We looked back at where we originally sat, but the man was not there. Karen and I ran to the kitchen, grabbed two knives and ran into my bedroom and locked the door. She sat on the bed with my dog and I sat on the floor, trying to listen or feel if he was walking around my house. My house was old, it would easily shake when someone walked around so I felt if I sat on the floor, I'd feel it if he were inside. My bedroom had two doors, one with a lock that connected to the hallway, the other with no lock connected to my parents' room which was right next to the front door of the house. Karen and I heard his footsteps in the living room once more than silence. We both looked at each other in horror. We both rushed to the second door and pushed
Starting point is 01:26:46 against it just in time to stop him from opening it. The man pushed for about 30 seconds before stopping. The moment he stopped, Karen and I took the opportunity to push a dresser in front of the door to barricade it. About 50 minutes of us sitting on my bed, knives in hand, we heard the pizza guy arrive. With that, the man was gone, back in his hole of a bedroom outside my home. We locked the front door and ate our pizza. We didn't call the police because of where we lived, we thought, who'd believe two kids? A few days later, Karen and I reported everything to our school counselor. She was an amazingly caring woman.
Starting point is 01:27:26 She was always there for us no matter what we needed, so we trusted her enough to tell her what had happened. She made a full report and interviewed us both separately to make sure we weren't lying. She called us both into her office the next day and let us know that she had called the police to report the incident, but they told her we cannot do anything until something actually happens. Karen was furious. Are we supposed to be found dead in a ditch for them to do something? I can still hear her saying this to this day. Our counselor called our parents to report the incident. Karen's parents didn't seem to care. Their divorce was more important. My dad asked
Starting point is 01:28:06 if it was true and said he'd talk to the guy. My brothers came to me saying, if he comes near you, you tell us. And all of a sudden they cared. My dad remained friends with the man. The man stopped talking to me for years but never stopped watching. When I was 16, Karen and I were hanging out near the front of the property. The man had ridden his bike near us and said, your attitude has changed. He said this in Spanish. This was the first time he said anything to me since the event two or three years prior. So I told him, I'm not a kid anymore. I know what you are, and I can fight back. Karen glared at him. He moved away shortly after. Karen and I lost touch after he moved away. We both went to different high schools,
Starting point is 01:28:53 and for the first two years, we tried our hardest to remain in contact, but we grew apart. That and her mom had her moving from place to place after the divorce. I grew up with trust issues around men due to that man, just something I'm slowly trying to get over. I'm 24 now. The last time I saw him, I was in my dad's car, and he was riding his bike down the street, but that was back when I was about 18. I haven't seen him since.
Starting point is 01:29:31 Mom, Mom, did you see my race? Of course I did, darling. Look, you did your best. You tried. The thing is, it's not about winning. It's about taking part. Next year you might do better. But I did win, Mom.
Starting point is 01:29:44 You did? When it's sunny, make sure you can still see. At Specsavers, get two pairs of glasses from $149, and one can be prescription sunglasses. Hey, the sun won't wait. Visit Specsavers.ca for details. Conditions apply. Oh, excuse me. Why are you walking so close behind me? Well, you're a tall guy. You throw a decent shadow when I'm walking in it to keep out of this bright sun. It hurts my eyes. Thank you. Mmm, not far. Come on. Let's hurry then! To my count! One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two...
Starting point is 01:30:25 Visit Specsavers.ca for details. So a few years ago, my boyfriend's dad's family decided to get together and all chip in to rent a condo in Ontario and get together. There was a big extended family over there that his dad never saw, because he only really got along with one of his three sisters. My boyfriend's mom had talked him into going though and they let me tag along because I'd been around long enough that they liked me and trusted me. I can't remember where everyone else had gone.
Starting point is 01:30:56 I think it was the beach for what was possibly like the third time that day. It was just me and my boyfriend at the condo because we were kind of sick of the beach and just wanted to do nothing in the shade for a while. We were sitting outside, looking over the water and just kind of talking about life. I had just finished reading the Harry Potter series, so we were just kind of talking about that for a bit when this woman comes out of the brush beside the condo. Just for an idea, this condo was about an acre of land, maybe. It was kind of out in the middle of nowhere. The front of the condo was probably 70 feet from a dirt road, no one traveled down really, and there were some dense trees and brush and whatnot that surrounded three
Starting point is 01:31:38 sides of it. This woman comes out of the wooded area and I immediately knew something wasn't right. She was limping and she only had on one sandal and frankly looked terrible. She was pale and her face was gaunt. She was really, really pretty but she just looked exhausted. The thing that immediately caught my attention was her baby, who she was holding pretty tightly in her arms as she started to come towards us. I didn't really know what to do, but my boyfriend immediately got up and walked over to make sure she was okay. I couldn't help but think of all the awful things that might have happened.
Starting point is 01:32:17 After spending so many hours hearing these horror stories on Reddit, I was just terrified she'd do something. My boy is a lot more trusting than I am though, and he's always had the first instinct of what's the problem and how can I help? He's never assumed the bad in anybody. So this woman is just sobbing by the time she gets to the porch of the condo, and she looks like she's just been through a war zone. She's shaking, and hyperventilating and crying, and she's telling us that basically her boyfriend had been drunk for a while and he's been getting worse and worse and he's been an overall abusive guy. He'd get angry whenever she was focusing on the baby instead of him and part of
Starting point is 01:32:56 what made him mad was that it wasn't his kid so he kind of didn't care about the baby at all. She told us how this time in particular he was drunk and she was driving home. With the baby in the back seat, he grabbed the baby's booster seat and tore it out of the car and threw it out the window while they were driving. She got the baby out of the seat or something, I don't remember how because as she's telling us about how he started hitting her before she took the baby and ran, we hear this yelling and we turn and see this angry dude walking up to the condo and she starts losing it. Drunk and angry, this guy followed her to our condo and was starting to come up to us.
Starting point is 01:33:36 He was trying to act like he wasn't mad. He was doing an, oh you guys found her, thank you so much, maybe let's go home kind of thing, but he was slurring his speech and not doing a good job of hiding how mad he was. My boy has always been a pacifist. Honestly, he's even kind of a pushover. He's really non-confrontational and tries to find a way to talk stuff out and come to an agreement before doing anything, but before I could even say anything he's across the yard and approaching this guy. As much of a pacifist as he is he's also huge. He's built
Starting point is 01:34:11 like a football player. He's 6 foot 3 and at the time he was 230 pounds. I've known my boy since we were 10. At the time we were 20 and we'd been dating for just over a year. I knew him better than anyone. He's never done anything like this before and he goes up to this guy and goes, Not another step, dude. And he's shaking as he says it. The guy tries to walk around my boy and goes, No, it's okay. I'm just here to take her home.
Starting point is 01:34:45 And he steps in front of him and shakes his head. You're drunk, he said. So I'm going to pretend like maybe you didn't get what I just said. Don't come any closer. It's at this point the guy stops trying to pretend and he says something like, You don't know what's going on. That's my girlfriend and I'm going to take her home. And he tries rounding my boyfriend again.
Starting point is 01:35:11 And one more time my boyfriend blocks him and goes, Stop. I've never heard this tone in his voice before or since. It was scary. It wasn't him. This guy tried one more time before my boy finally put his hand on his chest and pushed him back a bit keeping his hand on the guy's chest. I'm telling you right now, you're not going anywhere near that girl and her child, so turn around and walk away. This guy was about 5'6", maybe 5'7", so when he looked up to threaten my boyfriend he had looked like a kid. The guy finally
Starting point is 01:35:47 looks up at my boyfriend and he says something that I couldn't hear. My boyfriend said something aback and then the guy stared at him for a moment like he was deciding whether or not to do anything. My boyfriend finally pushed him away and the guy stumbled back and then started pointing at me and the girl as he was saying something and then started to walk away. I didn't learn till the next day but the guy had told my boyfriend that he had a gun and that he was coming back and that he'd kill him and I if we stopped him again. My boyfriend's response to this changed depending on who's telling the story. Origin told me that he told the guy he'd feed him his own teeth, which made me laugh because he's such a dork and he got that from a movie and ever since then the line he tells everyone else is
Starting point is 01:36:35 I'll be waiting. The woman was sobbing. The baby was sobbing and I was shaking because even though he didn't throw any punches or anything, I could tell that he was ready to hurt this guy if anything else had happened. We called the police and didn't really do much of anything outside of make sure everyone was breathing and take the girl to her sister's place. We didn't really hear much from her after but I know my boyfriend sent her an email once or twice and she's married now to someone else and had another kid last time they talked. It was a really nice trip despite that part and a fight my boyfriend's dad got into with someone in his family but I had pee mail for the first time and it wasn't too bad. In December 2013, during my sophomore year of college, my at-the-time boyfriend David had a fraternity dinner banquet that I attended with him. It was a nice event, requiring everyone to dress up.
Starting point is 01:37:39 He was in a suit, I was in a dress and heels, this is important for later. We had a good time and then went back to his place to drop off the award David had won and changed into tacky Christmas sweaters for a party we had later that night. It was maybe 7.30pm, but given that it was December, it was already dark out when we pulled into the parking lot outside David's apartment. At his place, there was one road with parking on either side, spots against the building and spots against a fence that lined the edge of the complex property. We parked in a fence spot with the trunk of our car facing the building,
Starting point is 01:38:15 directly across from the stairs leading up to David's door, maybe 30 feet from safety. David and I got out and went to the trunk to get his award when a man started to approach us David noticed him and said hey what's up man the man said nothing and kept walking towards us as he got closer I could see that he was wearing baggy black sweatpants and a camo hoodie he had the hood on and the drawstrings were pulled tight so I could only see about half his face. Both his hands were in the front hoodie pocket. David said again, What's up?
Starting point is 01:38:52 This time the man answered, Get up against the car. Confused, I said, Wait, what? The man pulled a gun out of his hoodie pocket. I said get up against the car. David got against the back of the car while the man put the gun against his back. I was in utter shock that this was happening, so I took a step back, now trapped between two cars,
Starting point is 01:39:18 a fence, and a man holding a gun to my boyfriend. He told David to give him all the money he had. We both really only used cards and never had cash on us. Unfortunately though, while home for Thanksgiving, his parents had given him $200 in 20s, all of which went into the hands of our mugger. Then he turned to me, pointed the gun at my face, less than a foot away, and said, Your turn. I was dressed up and only carrying a small clutch purse. I literally only had a phone and lip gloss on me. I stammered out that I didn't have anything while staring at the gun he pointed at me. He then went back to my boyfriend.
Starting point is 01:40:01 At this point, I felt my blood starting to boil. I was becoming less frightened and more angry, outraged that this man was aggressively stealing from two broke college kids. How dare he treat other people like this, I thought. Couldn't he tell that we were coming from an event and he was going to ruin our night? I wanted to kick him with my big clunky heel so badly, but thankfully I realized that that probably would only make him mad. I grabbed my phone, keeping my hand in my purse and tried to dial 911. Unfortunately, my purse was too small to hide any movement and I was worried if he saw me trying to call for help, he'd shoot. So I just stood there, staring at the gun being pressed into David's back.
Starting point is 01:40:45 Finally, he took David's wallet and car keys and threw them in one direction, ran off in the other, hopping the fence, separating the apartment complex from a small neighborhood. David and I stood in silence for a second trying to grasp what just happened. We slowly gathered his keys and wallet then went inside and called the police, definitely in shock. This is where the story gets really interesting. The police had an officer patrolling the other side of the apartment complex. It was a group of 26 buildings. We were in 26. The cop was over near one, because they had gotten a call the previous day about the same guy mugging someone over there. Police and detectives come over and took our story and asked us questions
Starting point is 01:41:25 for about an hour. When they left, it was still relatively early, maybe 9pm. We were still shaken up, but David and I decided we'd still go to the tacky Christmas party we had planned on attending, thinking it would help us take our mind off this horrible encounter. Our friend was hosting a pregame at his apartment in building 3 of the same complex. Even though we decided not to drink that night, we headed over after getting into our tacky sweaters. The pregame got a little rowdy and we heard a knock on the door. We opened it to see the person who lives next door to our friend. He said, Hey guys, you might want to keep it down. I don't want to get anyone in trouble.
Starting point is 01:42:05 I have police and investigators at my apartment right now because I was mugged out here last night. I heard two more people got mugged tonight, so just please be safe. David and I look at each other then back at him. Oh, hi, that's us. We're the two people that were mugged tonight. Nice to meet you, fellow mugging victim. He laughed and shook our hands. Neighbor and David compared knives that they were now carrying as personal defense weapons before he went back to his place. Later on down the road, David and I had broken up, but the security at the complex was amped up. More lights were installed in the parking lot lot and my girlfriend and I moved in. We had to park in the same set of spots where I was held at gunpoint. Probably concerned with consequences, I was introduced to a guy
Starting point is 01:43:10 through a mutual friend that was well-connected. It took me forever to figure out how this guy could stock a veritable roving pharmacy in his vehicle, but at the time I wasn't so much concerned with how, just the when. Like, hey man, when can I purchase an irresponsible amount of diverted prescription medications from you? As I got to know him more, I learned more about a purveyor of happy pills, and he thoroughly threw off a bad vibe. I would do my absolute best to avoid the post-deal hangout, but the guy was clearly and completely socially maladroit. Eventually, dealer, I'll henceforth refer to him as D, starts attempting to insinuate
Starting point is 01:43:53 himself into my group of friends more and more. He would call me constantly, text me like an abandoned tinder date and generally harass me to hang out. We would casually drink beer in the backyard of my house and he'd happen to be in the neighborhood, just like he'd accidentally take a load off and decide to stick around. I am not a complete jerk, so it was difficult to sell someone a clue who doesn't have a proverbial nickel to his name. I specifically remember a night when each of us were recounting macho stories of tussles and scrapes we'd been in, and D decided it was his turn to contribute. It went something like this. Oh, that's nothing, man. One time I shot a man in the face with a
Starting point is 01:44:35 sawed-off shotgun and beat the rap on a self-defense technicality. We all sort of went slack-jawed at this moment and nodded our heads, mumbling uncomfortably. Wow, pretty cool. At that point I think we all just assumed he was a one-upper and would say whatever to reinforce the tough guy persona he was so desperate to have us believe. I should have realized then that maybe D wasn't exactly an asset to the societal fabric. But, you know, I didn't exactly an asset to the societal fabric. But, you know, I didn't want to hurt the guy's feelings. Plus, drugs. A few weeks later into the summer, and some of the boys and I decide to tie one on and head downtown to the clubs. Now, I know for a fact that I hadn't committed the felonious sin of imparting knowledge of our physical location to D,
Starting point is 01:45:25 but somehow he materialized by my side as I was ordering a drink. Even in my own, greatly impaired state, I could tell D was in a knee-walking, gutter-sucking blackout. It took me all of 30 seconds of surveying his slack expression, coupled with those glassy black eyes doing the thousand-yard stare, to surmise that D was not going to be a fun man to be around on this night. My hypothesis soon proved all too accurate when he began pushing random people on the dance floor, accosting women in front of their respective boyfriends and husbands, all the while fiddling around in his pockets for something. Starting to get why D wasn't a pillar of social proficiency. Eventually he was ejected from the club and, as a mission of pure mercy,
Starting point is 01:46:13 I went outside to make sure he at least found a cab home. That's when I discovered what D was looking for in his pocket all night. As I walked outside, I could see several bouncers warily surrounding this portly whirling dervish of an idiot as he's brandishing a freaking six foot serrated fold-out knife at them I still have no idea what possessed me to step in and corral him and I still believe that's the only reason I wasn't cut to absolute ribbons is because of the Gumby-like flexibility I'm afforded under the influence of alcohol and prescription medications. I was finally able to convince him into a taxi and sent him packing. At this point, I made a firm decision to stop doing drugs
Starting point is 01:46:56 and, by proxy, stop seeing D. Ever. I blocked his number and refused to go out. It's lucky that I did because some months later, he found himself once again in a scuffle at that very same establishment, only this time I wasn't there to rescue him. He stabbed a man seven or eight times and hot-footed it into an alley in some pitiful attempt at an escape. The police didn't have to do much sleuthing as there were plenty of bystanders willing to point out its location.
Starting point is 01:47:27 D is now in a level 4 prison and isn't eligible for parole for another decade or so. And I say good. D, let's not freaking meet again. I can't remember exactly when this happened but I think it was March 2019 when I was 17. I quite often get the train into London to visit my boyfriend. I go up on Friday and Saturday and come back Sunday evening. My parents always told me, quite rightly, to try and get an early train home on Sunday in order to avoid traveling late by myself but me being naive and stupid always accidentally miss the earlier trains in order to spend more time with my boyfriend. This particular Sunday I was getting a train that got into the station
Starting point is 01:48:16 where I lived at around 9pm. My station is the last stop on the line and where the train terminates so by the end of the journey it is always relatively empty. Sometimes I'm the only one getting off aside from the guard. Usually I would just put my noise cancelling headphones on, settle down and zone out whatever was happening around me. I'm quite an anxious traveler so blocking out the sound helps me relax. I also try and sit at the end of the carriage where there aren't as many people as having a lot of people around can make me more susceptible to anxiety attacks. After this evening I always made sure to sit near people. I'm sitting with my headphones on
Starting point is 01:48:57 tucked away with my suitcase in the footwell of the seat next to me and a pair of seats next to a window sitting in the window seat. When I notice a man stumble into the seat next to me, and a pair of seats next to a window sitting in the window seat, when I notice a man stumble into the seats adjacent to mine across the aisle. He leans across the seats, looking directly at me and mumbles something to me. He was wearing all black, a massive black coat and had a big duffel bag. I, a little anxious because I'm not the biggest fan of talking to strangers, take off my headphones and politely ask him to repeat himself. His speech is slurred, making what he is saying completely incoherent, but after he's repeating himself several times I realize he's asking if I know if there are any taxi companies at my station.
Starting point is 01:49:39 I say no sorry and put my headphones back on. He leans over again and asks me the same question. I take my headphones off and give him the same reply. No, I don't know of any sorry. He says something else. I ask him to repeat himself because his speech is so slurred I don't know what he's saying. This strange conversation goes on for about 20 minutes. I can't understand much of what he is saying. He's sort of half mumbling, half speaking and he's not really making much sense. He keeps asking me how I'm getting home and where I live.
Starting point is 01:50:14 I just say by car and don't say anything else about where I live. I'm super nervous now because this guy just gave me the creeps. I had a feeling something bad was going to happen and he is starting to make me uncomfortable. There was just this vibe about him that he was bad news. He then asks me if I'm going to call the police on him. I say no and he starts mumbling and swearing profusely. He mumbles something about beating my brains in. I'm really starting to freak out now. All of a sudden, he moves across the aisle to sit in the seat next to mine, trapping me in my seat. I cannot escape. I'm sitting next to the window and he's completely blocking the aisle.
Starting point is 01:50:58 I'd have to awkwardly climb over to him to leave. I've decided he must be high or drunk because his eyes look absolutely crazy and his speech is so slurred. He tells me I'm very beautiful and asks if I have a boyfriend, moving closer until I could feel his breath on my face. I look around to see if there is anyone in the carriage with me but I can't see anyone. He leans in really close and I'm freaking out now, but luckily the train guard comes through from the next carriage, sees me looking very scared and comes over to ask if everything is okay. Immediately this guy's demeanor changes. He leans away from me and he waves his hand as if to say nothing is wrong. I say yes, everything is okay, but by the look on my face the guard can tell I'm super uncomfortable. The guard makes small talk with the guy and then moves to stand by the door behind us.
Starting point is 01:51:51 I don't know what to do. Even though the guard is behind me, I feel really unsafe and know I have to get away from this man. I ask the guy if he would move back to his seat and say I don't want to talk to him as he's making me uncomfortable. He moves back and starts muttering and swearing again, mumbling half-formed threats under his breath. I call my dad who's picking me up and when he answers the phone I immediately say, hey dad. The guy looks at me and says, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't know you had a dad. He tries to talk to me whilst I'm on the phone. He's talking over me the whole time but I can't actually make out what he's saying.
Starting point is 01:52:30 I have no idea how to try and communicate to my dad that I'm not feeling safe and this weirdo is talking to me without him overhearing. The train is pulling into the final stop so I pull my suitcase out of the footwell to try and make a quick exit from the train. The guy gets up really quickly and goes in front of me, then grabs my suitcase to take it off the train and steal it, presumably. I still had my hand on it and managed to pull it out of his hands. He gets off the train quickly and I stand next to the guard for a couple of minutes because I didn't want to get off the train at the same time as this guy. The guard asks me if I'm okay and I burst into tears. I'm already anxious and tired and this may seem like something insignificant but I suffer with really bad anxiety and it really creeped me out. A lady comes over.
Starting point is 01:53:18 I don't know how she knew I was crying about what had just happened with this guy. She must have seen him getting off the train. She says he was asking her about taxis and making her feel uncomfortable until she told him to ask someone else. She apologizes for sending him my way. They both offer to walk me to my car. Luckily my dad is sitting in the parking lot and I get in the car safe and sound. There's no sign of where the guy on the train went and I wish the story stopped here. We make a stop at a small supermarket on the way home and usually my dad would send me to get whatever we needed but because I'm still feeling upset from the train I sit in the car in the deserted parking lot. As soon as my dad enters the supermarket, a car pulls up on the other side
Starting point is 01:54:05 of the lot. I see the same guy from the train in the passenger seat and my blood runs cold. The car he's in isn't a taxi either which I found strange as that's what he originally was asking me about. I sink down into the seat a bit hoping he doesn't see me but it's like he already knows I'm in the car. He starts pointing at me and talking to the driver. They get out of the car and start walking through the lot towards my car. I immediately lock the doors. My phone is in my bag which is in the boot so all I can do is sit there and pray my dad is going to come back at any moment. They've nearly made it to the car when my dad gets back. He was only going in for bread. They see him and start walking immediately in the other direction towards the supermarket. I yell at my dad to get in the car. I'm crying so hard and by the time my dad has gotten to the
Starting point is 01:54:57 driver's seat, the men are nowhere to be seen. I manage to calm down enough to tell my dad between sobs about how the guy from the train was in the parking lot in the car with someone and that they were walking towards me. I point at the car they were in and my dad doesn't say much and just starts driving home. When we got home and my mom has managed to calm me down a bit, my dad tells me he noticed the same car driving behind us when we left the station, meaning they must have followed us from the station to the supermarket. I felt really embarrassed, like I was overreacting and making a fuss over nothing because I'm just oversensitive with bad anxiety. When the guys started talking to me on the train, I felt physically sick and just had this overwhelming feeling something bad was going to happen. Even though I have anxiety, I usually don't get these feelings, just from talking to a stranger.
Starting point is 01:55:58 This happened a little before my 20th birthday, so about 4-5 months ago. It was about 5pm and I was waiting for a friend at a bar and he was running a little late. So I went ahead and got my first drink while waiting. As I was sitting at the bar a guy came up and started talking to me. Definitely nothing to worry about yet. It was a bar and he definitely seemed like he was just trying to pick me up. We had a light conversation. He offered to buy me a drink and I accepted. He called the bartender and I ordered. We talked a little more and exchanged numbers. I told him I was waiting for a friend and he asked if she was as pretty and unique as me. Being an alternative girl, guys never really know how to compliment. I laughed and said no,
Starting point is 01:56:42 he is definitely prettier and with almost perfect timing my friend messaged me that he was there but couldn't see me. I told him I was sitting at the end corner of the bar and he came and found me. I gave my friend a hug and introduced the two. The guy started to act a little strange now saying that he didn't want to interrupt our night and being kind of standoffish. He said he had to go and just up and left. I wondered if maybe he was intimidated by my friend because he's like 6'4 but like lanky so probably not. I had his number and thought I'd message him tomorrow. I had a nice night with my friend and we had some drinks and then went and got food and more drinks. It was about 11ish and time to say
Starting point is 01:57:23 goodbye so we walked to the train station because we live in different areas took different trains. His train showed up before mine and we said our final goodbye as I waved him off. I had another 10 or so minutes before my train so I just took out my phone and browsed my socials. This is when I got that feeling of being watched. I looked around and see no one looking at me and since I was in the city, even though it was kinda late, people were still about. So I went back to browsing and had someone sit down next to me. Thought it was you, the voice said. I looked up and was surprised to see the guy from the bar.
Starting point is 01:58:02 I asked if he was also heading home. He said he was and that he needed to feed his cat. As a cat person I asked more about that and he showed me pictures. He asked if I wanted to come home with him and see her. I told him maybe some other time and he was pretty insistent but I still refused. My train was coming and I stood to go wait for it as I was about to turn and say goodbye, he was standing as well. He said he was taking the same train and at this point I was a little suspicious but it was a main train so we got on and I sat down and again he sat next to me. I had to get off in two stops then, get on another train for another two stops and he also got off at
Starting point is 01:58:44 the same stop and on the same train again. The whole time having normal conversation with me. Obviously I was freaking out a little so I messaged my housemate and asked him to wait for me at the station. Luckily him and his missus were still up. He asked why and I told him to just do it. When we got off at the station, that was only a short walk to my apartment, I said it was a funny coincidence that he also lived around here. He turned to me and said, No, you're taking me to your place. I apologized if he had misunderstood me, but I never said anything like that.
Starting point is 01:59:21 He said that he was already all this way and that I should just let him come over. Like he was ordering me around. It all just felt gross. At this point I was in full panic mode. There weren't that many people at this stop as we are in a suburban neighborhood now. This is probably when I looked noticeably panicked and my housemate saw this and came out of the car. He's 29 and quite a big guy. He came over and asked if there was a problem. The guy said that he was my date and that I was taking him home. I said that was a lie and my housemate just walked me to the car and mean mugged the guy the whole time. Sitting in the car I got a text. It said, I'll see you again. I'd totally forgotten I gave him my number. I looked up to see him still standing at the station. We locked eyes and he smiled and waved. It wasn't a creepy smile. It
Starting point is 02:00:14 looked nice and genuine and I think that's what made it creepier. I purposely avoid that bar from now on. I met him in high school because we rode the same school bus. I was a freshman who was new to the area and he was a sophomore. He would get off the bus three stops before me. After a month, he started sitting in the seat behind my usual spot on the bus and then would get off at the same stop as me. The first time it happened I think it was weird but figured maybe he had a friend in the area. I never made contact with him and just walked home. It happened several times after and I had an eerie feeling he might be following me and that's why he sat behind me on the bus so I wouldn't suspect him. But I soothed my worries again with the thought. He might have a friend that lives down
Starting point is 02:01:10 here and maybe he didn't want to walk as far so he got off at my stop. I did turn back once to see where he went after he got off the bus but never saw him. It was like he disappeared. He started showing direct interest in me in the hallways. Somehow without us being in any classes together he learned my name. He would say hi to me by name in the hallways as I'd pass by and he would always wave. I never stopped walking to have a chat with him and I found the interaction rather odd because he always did this when he saw me. Even if he already said hi to me that day, it was always the same words. Hello, say my name, and then wave. I typically wave back to be polite
Starting point is 02:01:54 during these brief encounters but after a few weeks of that happening it seemed really weird. I asked my brother about him as they were in the same grade and he told me his real name but he said he goes by the name Goggles because he wore these thick coke bottle glasses. He also confirmed my thought that Goggles had some strange fascination with me. I figured he had a crush on me but I wasn't attracted to him at all. I really wanted nothing to do with him but did maintain my politeness of waving hi to him in the mornings. Then something really creepy happened. One day he showed up to my house, on a weekend, unexpectedly. He rang the bell and my mom let him in when he asked for me. She yelled for me that I had a friend stop by and
Starting point is 02:02:37 when I saw him at the bottom of the staircase in the entryway of my house, I freaked out inside. I greeted him and asked him what he was doing here. He said he wanted to hang out, and then he proceeded to ask my mom if we could hang out at his house. I was still upstairs and absolutely baffled by how he was actually inside my house that I didn't have time to think of an excuse of what I was busy doing. My mom, who was extremely excited I had a friend since I was new to the area Quickly gave him permission to hang out with me and usher me to come downstairs I ended up leaving with him
Starting point is 02:03:11 I thought if anything, I'd have a chance to clear the air with him and see what his deal was We started to walk and I asked him how he knew where I lived He said from riding the bus he saw me coming home one day He said I always seemed really nice so he wanted to get to know me. I talked about how I was new to the area and what I thought of the school. I asked him what he planned for us to do at his house. He said he didn't really have a plan but he made sure to tell me his parents weren't home. I expressed how I was confused by why he told my mom we were friends when we barely know each other.
Starting point is 02:03:46 He said, don't you want to be friends? I didn't know how to answer that truthfully without sounding rude, so I said, yeah, instead. We got to his parents' house and I felt really awkward but went inside. The place was barren, almost like no one even lived there. No couch, no TV. I asked for a second time what he wanted to do. He didn't come up with an answer, again besides hang out. The truth finally poured out and I told him I felt unsure about this whole thing and said I didn't understand why he wanted to hang out at
Starting point is 02:04:17 his house if there wasn't a plan. I told him I didn't want to hang out that day and that I better go home. I let myself out in a hurry and basically ran home. I never said anything to my mom about that day. I really don't know what his true intentions were. So as the months go by, I don't make eye contact with him on the bus. I do, however, make sure he gets off the bus at his stop and isn't following me home. He even stops saying hi and waving to me in the hallways for a while. The school year ends. My sophomore year starts and he's saying hi and waving to me again in the hallways every time we pass each other by. Sometimes I wave back and sometimes I pretend not to notice. I feel very annoyed when he does this multiple times in the day so I go out of my way to find a new route to my next class so he won't see me.
Starting point is 02:05:08 My brother gets his license so we never have to take the bus again. My junior year, Goggles is still waving and saying hi with each sight of me. I'm very fed up at this point and always ignore him and never wave back or say hi. I did see him once in the computer lab prior to my graphic design class starting. I sat down at my assigned computer and he said he found my myspace and he confessed he was looking at my pictures all night long. I get red in the face and don't know what to say. He tells me we should hang out again and that it was fun the last time we did. A few of my peers from my class overhear this and make comments on what he was doing with my pictures that night. Ew. I avoid him like the plague the remainder of the year. He graduated after my junior year was completed, thankfully. I move about 20 minutes away at the start of senior
Starting point is 02:05:55 year and start working at the local movie theater. That's where he finds me next. He comes in with his mom and I'm at the concession stand and have to wait on them They make weekly trips to the theater and always get in my line for concessions We make no small talk during these interactions, but I understand Why do they always choose my line? He starts to frequent the movies alone and try to talk to me at the concession stand on slow nights For a while, he was there twice a week I started calling, telling my co-workers that he's my stalker. Someone tells me they heard a co-worker of ours give him detailed information
Starting point is 02:06:32 on my typical work schedule. I was mad and stopped being friends with that co-worker immediately. She then gives him my cell number out of spite. Meanwhile, every time I see him come to the concession stand, I try to hide in the back room to avoid him I start to get calls every night from the same number The caller wouldn't typically leave messages or anything However, there was one really creepy message of some heavy breathing that was left I asked my dad to help me block that number We went to the cell provider and they said I can't block one number
Starting point is 02:07:02 It's either block all numbers or none at all. So I don't do anything. Dad doesn't want to change my cell phone number. So I graduate. Haven't had any interaction with Goggles since I started to hide from him at my job and the random calls became less frequent. Until I went to Wendy's with my friend and I'm wearing a mini skirt and tank top. We get behind the first customer in line who was paying all in change and I realize it's him. I freak out inside and whisper to my friend that it's my stalker and I hope he doesn't notice me. Of course he notices me as soon as he turns around. He checks me out and asks,
Starting point is 02:07:42 hey, did you go to this high school? My friend stupidly says, yeah, we did. He then asks for me by name and my friend says, yeah, that's her. I wanted to smack my friend for saying this to him. He says to me that I look really good and ask if he could sit with us when we get our food. I quickly tell him no. He then goes to find a seat and we order I want to leave ASAP at this point My friend wants to eat there and she won't leave with me
Starting point is 02:08:10 So we sit down and Goggles changes chairs to sit at the table right next to ours I ate quickly and in silence and it was so awkward He kept asking where I was living now as he saw I no longer lived in my old house I didn't tell him anything and said he didn't need to know. I see him the next time at the local grocery store. He's retrieving carts from the lot. I had no idea he worked there but when I saw him I ran inside as quickly as I could hoping he wouldn't see me and you know what? He did. He stopped retrieving carts to follow me from the parking lot into the store,
Starting point is 02:08:46 referred to me as Miss, and asked me in two different aisles if he could help me find anything. I told him no both times. When I was ready to check out, he opened up his own cashier lane and another worker ushered me over to him. I said to him he didn't need to follow me around the store or open up a lane for me but he said he wanted to help me and that we should hang out sometime. I told him he needs to leave me alone. I am attending community college and guess who is also there? Goggles. I notice him following me on routes to my class and he starts waiting outside the art class room I'm in for me to leave to follow me again. One day I'm waiting
Starting point is 02:09:26 on getting coffee from the vending machine and he runs up to me and greets me like I'm his long lost friend. He gives me a tight long hug in the hallway. I'm mortified and I'm standing there with arms flat at my side, not hugging back. He finishes the hug and I say, was that necessary? Don't ever touch me again. I ended up dropping that class to avoid him and file a police report. This is the last time I saw him. I've since moved multiple times and I think he finally got the hint. I don't ever know why he chased me or followed me for so long. Maybe I was just too nice. This happened about a year and a half ago. So there was this parkway that I used to always drive to. It was just a single road that went up a mountain with quite a few pull-offs
Starting point is 02:10:25 where you could see these beautiful views. This one specific pull-off is one that I would go to the most. It was a place where you had to go through some trees but would end up on a rock that looked over a huge mountain view. I would go to this when I felt like I needed to breathe and take a break from life. It took me about 20 minutes to drive to that specific spot after entering the park itself, so one day I decided that I needed to just let myself breathe and drove up. All was normal. It was actually a pretty day with the bright skies and puffy clouds around maybe 3pm. On the way driving to the spot, I passed quite a few cars. Not many. It was normal to see cars, but not a lot when it's the middle of a weekday.
Starting point is 02:11:08 I got to my spot, relaxed for maybe 20-30 minutes, then decided that helped but was time to head down. Pretty sure my boyfriend was about to get off work. So I start heading down and maybe at about 5 or 10 minutes into it I see a red car parked on the side of the road with its hazards on. I right away remember seeing that car on the way up but didn't think anything of it. Maybe they just heard or saw something and needed to check out their car. I though did not pull over to check if they needed help. Like I'm a good person and all but I've heard all the stories. I'm just keep driving. I also know that it's in the middle of the day, but I just honestly think I wouldn't be able to help them even if I wanted to.
Starting point is 02:11:54 And this is when it got weird. Right, and I mean right when I passed them. They turned off the hazard lights and got behind me. Still at this moment, no red flags are going off, maybe they figured out the problem was just waiting for me to pass to get back on the road. The only thing is at this point they were really riding my bumper, like it didn't matter how much I sped up they were right there with me. At this point I look at my phone to realize my boyfriend has texted me. Obviously, I'm not going to text and drive. I'm on a swervy mountain and a car that is not letting me be, so I make a plan. I will
Starting point is 02:12:32 quickly get off and to a pull-off to text him back and if this car does decide to follow me, I'll get back onto the road and won't stop. I was thinking rational but was paranoid at the same time. I'm driving at least 60 miles per hour down this road, speed limit was like 45 and the first pull off I see I quickly turn on my blinker and turn really fast into it. Wasn't smart but didn't know what else to do. But thank god the guy actually didn't turn into the pull off with me. I take a sigh of relief and concluded that I was overreacting, so I thought. I text my boyfriend back, sit there for another five or
Starting point is 02:13:12 more minutes just to make sure the car would be out of the park by now before continuing back down. So I'm literally about to be at the end of the park before I have to turn onto the highway to head back to my town. I see the now leaving sign, but that's not the only thing I see. Right on the side of the road, the same car was parked. At this point, I now knew something for a fact wasn't right, and again, right when I passed them, they pulled out right behind me. Oh no. I raced my car as fast as I could to the highway, barely stopped to make sure cars weren't
Starting point is 02:13:46 coming. I just pulled my car out as fast as I could, left onto that highway. I looked to see in my rearview mirror and they did the same thing. They're still right behind me. It wasn't even a question anymore of are they following me, it's how do I lose them to stop following me? So I did what an insane person would do. I sped like an insane person. They were behind me for probably another three more minutes before I started going into and out of cars to lose him. It worked and at this point I think they slowed down because they realized they couldn't have done anything anymore with how many people were around now. I knew I felt bad for the way I was driving around, but I was too scared to think what to do otherwise. Look, this could have been just someone trying to play around and scare
Starting point is 02:14:36 me, but all I need to say is it worked. To be continued... 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. And if you want to support me even more, grab early access to all future narrations for just $1 a month on Patreon and maybe even pick up some Let's Read merch on Spreadshirt. And check out the Let's Read podcast, where you can hear all these stories in long compilation form and save huge on data, located anywhere you listen to podcasts. Links in the bio. Thanks so much, friends. And remember, goggles want to fondle. To be continued... out taking part. Next year you might do better. But I did win, Mom. You did? When it's sunny,
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