11x05: Lost Stories 16

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. Welcome to Lost Stories number 16. With so many of these stories to get through and with such a big response from

[00:00:43] listeners to hear more, we figured we should again take that journey all the way back to 2017 and hear some more classic stories from the bygone era of Let's Not Meet. Per the usual disclaimer

[00:00:54] for these Lost Stories episodes, if you're new to the show, these are some of the lost and thankfully recovered recordings from the earlier days of the show that, until now, were no longer

[00:01:03] available online. The audio quality and performance are both ancient and should be listened to with a forgiving ear. That doesn't mean they don't still pack a punch. We have some very creepy classics

[00:01:13] for you this time around. Enjoy the show. I'm a 27 year old female and this happened when I was 24. I live in Los Angeles and have for my entire life. I was feeling lonely and so I decided to go on

[00:01:46] to Craigslist to try and find someone to hang out with. I know, it's kind of dumb. I wasn't necessarily looking for somebody to date but someone just to chill with and if that led somewhere, so be it.

[00:01:58] That was my thinking. I emailed a few guys, one of which stood out to me. He sent some pictures and I was fine with how he looked and he seemed nice enough. We agreed to meet and go have coffee.

[00:02:12] It took him a lot longer than he said it would for him to get to my place and once he did arrive, I instantly regretted what I was doing but being overly polite and feeling awkward, I went along.

[00:02:26] I got into his car and instead of heading to Starbucks as planned, he drove to a CVS. I asked him, what are we doing here? To which he said, I have to return some stuff to CVS so that I'd have

[00:02:40] money. I was super uncomfortable already and just wanted to get out of there but again, my shyness got the better of me and I just waited it out. Once he had returned whatever it was he was returning,

[00:02:53] he then said that he had to stop by his apartment. So we pulled into his underground garage and he said that he'd be right back. You don't know how badly I wish I had run right then while he was gone

[00:03:05] but I didn't. He got back in the car and I could tell right away that he was on some kind of upper, probably meth. Having been in rehab before myself, it was obvious. I told him I had gotten an emergency

[00:03:18] phone call while he was upstairs and that I was sorry but I had to be taken back. I told him he could just drop me off at the nearest train station. I lived in a city that was about an

[00:03:29] hour away so I wasn't about to have him drive me all the way home. We got on the freeway that was the fastest route to the train stop but we ended up passing the exit. I had told him a few miles

[00:03:42] ahead of time which one it was but he didn't say anything, seemingly ignoring me. I thought maybe he just didn't hear me. So I said, hey that was actually my exit you just passed it. Instead of

[00:03:56] pulling over to the right lanes he kept pulling farther and farther over to the left until we were all the way in the far left lane. I asked him what he was doing just trying to keep my cool.

[00:04:08] I can't honestly remember his exact words but it was something along the lines of I'm not dropping you off we're having sex. Why do you think I did this? I looked at him

[00:04:21] and my jaw dropped to the ground and I asked him so you're refusing to drop me off? He said yes and sped up the car. The first thing I thought of was obviously calling the police so I pulled

[00:04:34] my cell phone out then he turned towards me and hit me in the face hard and I dropped my phone because I was so shocked. The phone had fallen somewhere below his seat somewhere. I couldn't

[00:04:46] get to it. I was panicking as we continued to drive. I desperately tried to think of what I should do. We came up to another interstate for the five. For some reason seeing the freeways

[00:04:59] intersect and seeing that we were about to get on yet another freeway was ominous to me and I decided I could not let him get me onto the next freeway. I couldn't jump out of the car. I'd die

[00:05:12] instantly so I did the only other thing I could think of. I took a breath and I grabbed his steering wheel and turned it as hard as I could to the right. He was so shocked that he didn't even try

[00:05:25] to grab it back from me as we crashed into two cars and then finally into the side barrier. He turned toward me and started hitting me while screaming, you bitch, you fucking bitch, you fucked everything up. I put my legs up to block the

[00:05:40] blows from his fists and it worked until I ended up falling backwards out of the car. I ran to one of the cars we had crashed into that had pulled over behind us. They had their

[00:05:50] window about a third of the way down. The guy in the car was on his phone presumably calling the cops. I knocked on his window screaming that the psycho was trying to kidnap me and then he

[00:06:01] rolled it all the way up. I couldn't believe it. When I looked back, the psycho was coming towards me so I said fuck this, clearly no one's going to help me so I ran towards the fence. Now,

[00:06:14] I'm already not in amazing shape and was even weaker because of what had happened so I literally had to lean on the fence until it bent enough for me to fall over it. Climbing up a chain link fence

[00:06:25] was not an option at that moment. Luckily, instead of following me, he ran in the other direction and he just left the car on the side of the freeway. Once I was over the fence, I realized that I was

[00:06:36] on some horse trails that I was familiar with because I had worked at the equestrian center nearby so I just walked through the miles of trails until I got to the nearest city which

[00:06:45] was Burbank. Then I called the cops from a bowling alley. I never found out what happened to that psycho. The cops never told me after I made the report but I hope he got in some kind of trouble

[00:06:57] for, you know, trying to kidnap me. So let's not meet. This story takes place three or four years ago when I was 24. I am a female, recently single and living happily alone. I left work around 3am

[00:07:29] which is one of the joys of the service industry and I had given a ride home to one of my co-workers who lived close to me. It wasn't a bad part of town per se but not the greatest but whatever, I had

[00:07:40] time to head home and get myself some sleep. Patiently waiting at a red light while the streets are all void of cars and anybody else at 3am, I noticed a man and woman stumbling down the sidewalk

[00:07:52] to my right. The man comes and knocks on my car window and I flinch. My car doesn't have any electronics or anything like that and my window was already an inch down. Maybe he just needed some help or something, why else would they be staggering around at 3am?

[00:08:11] Her ankle is broken, she can't walk, the man said. The lady is kind of swaying just out of my view, moaning in either pain or inebriation. I frown. I can call somebody if you like or there's a gas

[00:08:26] station over there, maybe you could... and just then the guy interrupted me by opening my front passenger door. My co-worker hadn't locked it. The woman staggers into my car. It happened so fast

[00:08:40] that I was stunned and even more so when the guy squeezed in beside her. Two people somehow fitting into the front seat of my Toyota Corolla. I was supremely conscious here of the woman's leg which

[00:08:53] was pressed against my purse at her feet. Inside there was my phone, kindle and my wallet with all of my hard-earned money that I had made in the past two weeks waiting tables. Now these guys

[00:09:04] reek of alcohol and their eyes have a glaze to them. They have to be high as fuck. The guy tells me you're going to drive us to the Kroger. I responded you mean the Walmart just up the street?

[00:09:18] Drive! Go! Drive! He yells at me. Okay I stammered and complied. I don't know if they were armed but I didn't want to find out. The guy was drinking something out of a bottle from a brown paper bag

[00:09:31] like a class act. What would they do if I refused? They were clearly in an altered state, unpredictable and dangerous. I didn't want to escalate or provoke. I pressed my lips into a forced smile

[00:09:46] and decided that I would be as calm and polite as I could manage and maybe they'd have a second thought about murdering someone so nice or at least feel a little bad about it.

[00:09:57] They tried to engage me in conversation as we drove. The woman seemed about 40 years old, leathery skin and quite manic. She would rattle off some schizophrenic nonsense one minute and then become incredibly lucid and well-spoken on a complex topic like computer science for the

[00:10:16] next. Watching her go back and forth between these two states was truly surreal. She told me I didn't need to be scared. They weren't going to hurt me, just needed a ride. I nodded and smiled

[00:10:32] and continued to scream internally. The man seemed to be much older than she was, maybe in his 60s, bald with a wisp of white hair. Maybe it was her uncle or father. He would only

[00:10:45] speak up to give turn-by-turn directions and would absolutely lose his shit at me if I so much as changed lanes unexpectedly. As the neighborhood deteriorated around us, I desperately scanned the roads for a police car on patrol. I would call attention to myself somehow, run a red light,

[00:11:04] honk, swerve at them, anything to draw attention and I would be saved. But I had no such luck. My passengers were becoming increasingly agitated and paranoid as we neared the destination. They could sense my fear because the woman began to play with my hair and stroke my cheek.

[00:11:24] Hey, don't be scared. We're not going to hurt you. You're such a nice girl, she cooed into my ear. You're so nice, such a pretty white girl. The man chuckled. I see the Kroger across the street and they screamed, no turn left into the sketchiest apartment complex ever.

[00:11:44] My heart sank. This is how it ends, I thought, raped or dead or both. So they have me idle in the parking lot and the guy gets out. I'm going to be right back. Make sure she don't go nowhere.

[00:11:58] We got more stops after this. So I just, I'm thinking, hell no. The woman stays with me in the car and the guy disappears into one of the units. This is obviously a drug deal. I idly wonder

[00:12:11] if I'm guilty of a crime now, an accessory to something. I wonder if they'd try and get me to come quote unquote party with them later on or some shit like that. That's not going to happen.

[00:12:23] I knew that if they'd got me out of the car, it'd be the beginning of the end for me. So once the man leaves, the woman spreads out in the passenger seat. I think she's just making herself comfortable until her legs part suggestively and she begins

[00:12:39] this sexy slow dance in my 2008 Toyota Corolla to some Evanescence song, My Immortal. She looks over at me with her most lustful set of bedroom eyes, bites her lip and her hands travel

[00:12:53] up my thigh. She asks me, you like what you see? Is this really happening? Did she just proposition me while dancing to Evanescence? As if this night couldn't get any more bizarre. I break into an

[00:13:09] apologetic smile. Uh, no, thank you. I don't swing that way. I hastily switch one of my everyday rings to my wedding finger and hold it up and regretfully smile. I'm married, you see, and my husband is expecting me home soon. Her seductive demeanor drops like a curtain,

[00:13:27] her face twisting with fury and indignation. Uh, what do you think I am? Do you think I'm some kind of hooker? It wasn't like that. I didn't mean it like that. Oh, no, no, no. I didn't think

[00:13:42] that at all. I'm sorry. I'm just very tired because I worked all day and it's late. She stares at me hard, eyes wide and struggling to focus until her face breaks into another wide

[00:13:55] manic smile. She slumps back into her chair, seemingly satisfied with my answer, and we share this uncomfortable silence. I had to do something. No way was I going to see how this night played

[00:14:09] out with me and the two of them. My eyes dart to the unit the man went into, and I lean over to the woman. My face is a mask of concern. Hey, he's been in there a long time. Do you think you

[00:14:22] should maybe go check on him? Make sure he's okay? Her eyes narrow suspiciously, and she gives me a wry smile. You won't just drive away? I summoned every ounce of angelic calm and poured it into

[00:14:37] my voice. Of course not. You promise? Yes, I smiled warmly. I promise. Dying a little more inside. Imagine my surprise when it actually worked. I watch her get out of the car and close the door.

[00:14:55] I fucking book it. Rubber screeching, heart pounding. It's so dark that I don't bother even looking back. I try to leave the complex, but there's only one exit, and that's the way that

[00:15:07] came in, which is right where I dropped them off. I pull into a random parking spot several buildings away, turn off the car, and duck into the seat. I should have called the police then

[00:15:19] and there, but I didn't feel like I was out of the woods yet, so I ended up calling a friend and broke down into tears, explaining everything over the phone. Once the adrenaline wore off,

[00:15:29] I started my car back up. No sign of anyone watching the gate or looking for me. I make my getaway and arrive safely home about 30 minutes later. I called the police then, and an officer was sent over to take my statement.

[00:15:43] I really didn't expect anything to come of it, but I at least wanted to get a record of the events in case there was any kind of retaliation. They knew where I worked because of my uniform,

[00:15:53] which also had my name prominently displayed, as well as what car I drove, obviously. The officer asked where I ended up taking them, and from my vague description, he instantly knew the location. It was a high crime area with a lot of drug-related incidents, so that's great.

[00:16:11] I still drive that 2008 Corolla, however my next car will have electric locks, so let's not meet. This happened just last night, and honestly, I'm still a little shaken up over it.

[00:16:45] I'll try to retell the tale exactly as it happened, but my fear is sure to have fudged my memory a little bit. I work evenings as a dispatcher in a medium-sized midwestern city. I was driving home

[00:17:00] about 2am when I had stopped for gas. In retrospect, it was stupid to have stopped at all. The gas station was poorly lit and completely empty of any other customers, but I knew the shady

[00:17:13] areas of town, and this was not usually one of them. As I was pumping gas, I noticed a middle-aged woman sitting on the curb across the parking lot. It was a cold night, and it had just started

[00:17:24] raining. The woman was not wearing any weather-appropriate clothing, so she was drenched. When the woman saw that I was watching her, she called out to me from across the parking lot.

[00:17:36] My second of many stupid decisions that night was choosing to engage with her. I was worried for her, so I approached her to see what sort of help I could offer.

[00:17:47] Hi beautiful, I'm just trying to get home, but no one will help me, she said. I'm trying to get to the city, but the cab ride is $60 and I only have $40. Can you help me? I usually don't give money

[00:18:02] to panhandlers, but this woman just seemed so genuine. The weather was terrible, and my job centers around helping people, so I agreed. I told her I didn't have any cash, but if she would

[00:18:14] come inside with me, I'd take some money out of the ATM and I'd give her a few dollars. But the ATM wasn't working, so I apologized and told her there was nothing else I could do for

[00:18:25] her. She followed me back outside, idly chatting with me as I opened my driver's door to get in, and then she got in my car. I was too shocked really to say anything. I sat there, just staring at her as she buckled herself into my passenger seat.

[00:18:44] As soon as she got into my car, her demeanor changed entirely. She no longer seemed forlorn as much as she did seem extremely excited and restless. Just take me to my aunt's house, she said. She can give me money. Of course, alarm bells are

[00:19:02] going off in my head. Although my first instinct is to tell her to get the fuck out of my car, my gut tells me that would be dangerous. She'd already proven to be unpredictable.

[00:19:13] She seemed to be high, and I didn't know if she had any weapons on her. Forcing her out of my vehicle, I thought, had the potential to elicit a violent reaction.

[00:19:23] Where are you asking me to take you? I finally said. Just start driving, and I'll tell you where to turn. No, if you want me to consider driving you somewhere, I need you to tell me where we're

[00:19:35] going. I had no intention of driving her anywhere. Oh, don't worry, honey. I'm not going to rob you or nothing. Just drive. No, I repeated. What's your aunt's address? So she tells me what street

[00:19:49] it's on. What's the house number? As I was asking her questions, she got really agitated. We still had not left the gas station parking lot. I considered getting out of the car and going

[00:20:02] into the gas station for help, but A, she'd seemed to know and be friendly with the one attendant that was inside when I tried to get money, and B, I wasn't about to leave her alone in my car.

[00:20:15] Finally, she snapped at me and said, why are you asking me so many questions? I thought we were friends. You don't trust me? Is it because I'm black? I work at a police department, I said.

[00:20:27] It's my job to ask these sorts of questions. She flipped the fuck out, started yelling at me about being a snitch and about trying to get her into trouble, just in general losing her damn mind.

[00:20:39] At this point, I'm more scared than ever. I just wanted her gone, but my instincts told me that asking her to get out of my car wouldn't work. So I decided to take a risk. I'm not a police officer,

[00:20:52] I said. I just work at a police department. Why don't I take you to Walmart and see if they have an ATM that works? My idea was to get her out of the car as peacefully as possible, then lose her

[00:21:04] in the store. She liked my idea and immediately calmed down. I knew that driving off with this woman in my car was incredibly risky, but it seemed like the best option open at the time.

[00:21:17] As we were driving, she keeps talking to me. Her thoughts were erratic, bouncing all over the place. It sometimes seemed difficult for her to follow through with one thought, but this is roughly how our conversation went. I'm glad we're friends now, she said.

[00:21:34] I have about five or six people trying to get me. I'm going to come to your work tomorrow so we can go arrest them together. Okay, we can talk about that tomorrow, I said. I thought you were trying

[00:21:47] to get home. Yes honey. And here she started telling me she needed to get to a different city than she originally said, then continued saying that the cab ride was $40. I corrected her at

[00:22:01] all these turns saying, you said you have $40. She would say things like, oh I do baby, I have $40 but the cab ride is $60. After all this confusion, there was just silence. Are you sure you can't take me to my aunt's house? And then she named a different street

[00:22:20] than she originally did. I thought you said she lived on a different street. Oh no baby, I meant this one, but it doesn't matter because she won't give me money anyway. You sure you can't take me to the city? It was terrifyingly obvious that this woman was

[00:22:38] completely full of shit because the details of her story were constantly changing. When we pulled into the Walmart parking lot, she finally got out of the car, only after I got out

[00:22:50] first and followed me into the store. I told her before I went to find an ATM that I needed to use the restroom. My plan was to call the police from inside the stall, but she followed me into

[00:23:03] the bathroom and that's when things got really weird. She grabbed me from the crook of my arm and whispered into my ear, if you don't got no money, that's okay, but let me ask you something

[00:23:16] sweetie, do you like getting your sweet pussy ate? I told her no as forcefully as I could imagine, bolted into the stall and locked the door as fast as I possibly could manage.

[00:23:30] As soon as I had the barrier between us, I said, you know, I have some friends at the police department, they can probably help you better than I can. I'm just going to call them

[00:23:40] and we can figure this out together. Again, at the mention of cops, she started screaming at me. I just kept reiterating that the police would help her. She snapped at me that she was just

[00:23:51] going to have to leave and stormed out of the bathroom, but it wasn't over. I waited to make sure that she was really gone. Sure enough, not 60 seconds after she left, she came back into

[00:24:03] the bathroom and started banging on the stall door. And she said something else that scared me more than anything she had said. Hey, come back to the car with me. I left my beer in your car.

[00:24:15] I tell her no. I saw her get into my car and she had absolutely nothing with her other than the clothes on her back. After that, she left the bathroom and didn't come back. I waited a good five minutes before exiting the bathroom. I immediately found the manager

[00:24:32] who called the police for me. Thankfully, it was a different police jurisdiction from the one I work in because I was mortified at how entirely stupid I had been the whole night and would have died of embarrassment if any of my co-workers had responded.

[00:24:47] The officer that responded took my statement and advised me to be more careful in the future. He said that sometimes panhandlers turn violent, and that just recently there had been a report

[00:24:59] of a woman who matched my description assaulting a good Samaritan that had stopped to try and help her. I definitely learned a lesson on stranger danger, and I'm lucky to have come out of it

[00:25:10] unscathed. I'm glad my stupidity didn't kill me, so Reddit, the next time you try to help a stranger late at night. This story is one of the most terrifying experiences that I've ever had in

[00:25:38] my life. I live in a small city in a small country in the South Pacific. While there is definitely weird shit that goes on in my country such as hitchhikers being murdered and gangs, etc.,

[00:25:53] it's nothing like some of the strange backwater towns of America and is generally considered to be a safe place. I am a female, and this happened to me last year when I was 24.

[00:26:06] I sometimes go for walks late at night when I can't sleep, and as I live in an apartment in the middle of town, I walk in areas that are very well populated in the day and weekends but

[00:26:18] deserted on weeknights. One night, I was feeling particularly down in the dumps and couldn't sleep so I decided to go for a walk. I walked up a long empty street and then around

[00:26:30] the block and made my way back down one of the busiest streets during the day but, being around 2am, it was dead. Even though it was brightly lit, it still had an eerie feeling of emptiness.

[00:26:44] When I was a few blocks away from my apartment, I saw a guy standing on the footpath ahead. It was nothing unusual but he looked at me as I approached and wanted to talk with me.

[00:26:56] As I passed him, he handed me a pamphlet and, being the overly polite person that I am, I took it. As I walked away, I looked at the pamphlet and I saw that it was some

[00:27:07] kind of Christian thing which was talking about sinners and hell. It was weird that this guy was out at this time of night handing out pamphlets but I just thought whatever and continued on my

[00:27:18] way. I got to one of the busiest intersections in the city where 5 streets meet. I pressed the button waiting for the signal to go green so I could cross. There wasn't any traffic but I also

[00:27:31] wasn't in a hurry and, due to racing cars which sped through the city at night, I decided to wait for the signal. As I was waiting, suddenly pamphlet guy was standing next to me grinning.

[00:27:43] He said, Hi, what's your name? Can I walk you home? Where do you live? I ignored him as I waited, starting to feel uneasy. Just as the signal went green, my phone rang. It was my sister calling

[00:27:59] from Switzerland. She must have got the time zones mixed up to be calling me at this time but I happily answered. I crossed the road while I was talking to my sister and got completely engrossed

[00:28:11] in this story she was telling me, to the point where I briefly forgot about the guy. Part of the way down the road, I looked over my shoulder and saw that the guy was walking behind me a little

[00:28:22] ways back and I started getting quite nervous. I told my sister what was happening while telling myself I was being paranoid. I got to the front door of my apartment building and saw that the

[00:28:34] door was standing open. There was a restaurant in the building and the employees sometimes leave the door open when they're sorting out the rubbish at the end of the night, which is actually against

[00:28:44] the rules of the body corporate. I pressed the button to the lift and just as I got in and turned around, I saw that the guy had come through the open door and was sprinting towards the lift.

[00:28:57] The door closed just as he was reaching the lift while I repeatedly pressed the button to close the doors, silently panicking. Despite the fact that I could hear the button outside of the lift

[00:29:07] being hurriedly pounded on, the lift thankfully lurched upwards and a huge wave of relief just washed over me. I told my sister what was happening and she said to hurry to my apartment and lock the

[00:29:19] door. The lift stopped at my level, which was the third story, and I got out and walked to my door. I fumbled around with my keys as my hands were just shaking. Just when I got them out, the door

[00:29:32] which leads to the stairs swung open. It was the pamphlet guy. He must have seen which floor the lift stopped at and ran up the stairs to my level. I jammed my key into the lock and shoved my way

[00:29:45] inside, but before I could get the door closed, he stuck his foot between the door and the door frame. I screamed and pushed as hard as I could, slamming the door. After several slams, he pulled his foot

[00:29:58] out and I managed to close and lock the door, putting on the chain. It was then that I realized, in my panic, I had left the key in the door on the outside. I watched through the peephole

[00:30:13] and saw him look down and take the key out of the door. Then he stared at the peephole with the creepy, twisted smile on his face. Even though I knew he couldn't see me, it felt like his gaze was

[00:30:29] boring a hole straight into my mind. I was so scared that I froze with my sister still on the other end of the phone, which was now lying on the floor. My heart was pounding faster and harder

[00:30:41] than I've ever felt it before, and I could hear a rushing noise which seemed like it came from inside my head. After what seemed like 10 minutes, even though it was probably around 1, he turned

[00:30:55] and walked to the door to the stairs. As he opened the door, he turned back, looking straight at me as he held up the key, swinging it back and forth, grinning, then disappearing through the door.

[00:31:14] I started crying and picked up the phone, explaining what had happened to my very worried sister. She told me to call my mom and that I should stay with her for the night, so I did.

[00:31:25] Of course, the next day I got the locks changed, but I'm still terrified that he'll come back and try the key. I'm now much less naive and have stopped going out for late night walks. So, creepy Christian pamphlet man, let's not meet.

[00:32:04] I grew up in a small cold town in the Appalachian Mountains, on the side of one of the mountains that borders the valley of the town. It was a wonderful place for an outdoorsy kid,

[00:32:14] and we had no immediate neighbors and acres of woods to play in. Above our house was a ridge that ran along the border of the state park, but all the trails in the public areas were far in the

[00:32:26] valley below, separated by a thick forest and plenty of no trespassing signs. So, we very rarely had hikers crossing into our land. From our house, there was a dirt road that wound up the mountainside

[00:32:39] to the top of the ridge, where there stood the remains of a burnt down cabin. From there, you could follow the ridge up to the flat area popular with dad's hunting friends, one of whom posted a

[00:32:50] trail cam during the off-season just to monitor the wildlife activity. We had coyote, the occasional bear, mountain lions that the DEP refused to acknowledge, bobcats, and a veritable fuck ton of deer. From there, you could continue up the ridge to a clearing that hosted lots of flat boulders

[00:33:09] and a giant electrical tower that was fun to climb on. I'd venture up there often with the family's black lab and spent hours reading, climbing, and generally enjoying nature. One early fall day, when

[00:33:22] I was around 13, I headed up there with a backpack full of snacks and a book. I had taken care to avoid the trail cam, as it was the old film variety and I'd gotten into trouble for inadvertently

[00:33:35] filling entire rolls of film goofing off in the area where it was posted. I reached my favorite rock at the edge of the clearing near the power lines and just settled down to read when Felicia

[00:33:46] started to bark and growl rather aggressively. At first, I paid no mind as she loved to chase deer, but this time, she didn't bound off into the woods after her quarry. Instead, she stuck next to me,

[00:34:00] growling at something unseen in the thick tangle of bush and trees on the steep mountainside that faced the park. Now, I considered hiking down that way into the park on occasion, but it was an easy

[00:34:11] passage. The area had been cleared for years before to install the electrical tower and in its place had grown a thick mass of briars and weeds. The rocks that made great for climbing up at the top

[00:34:23] of the ridge became difficult obstacles on the steep slopes below, not to mention there was much easier access closer to the park entrance. This way brought you down to the undeveloped area at

[00:34:36] the very back of the campgrounds that was easily accessible to cars or hikers, so I was taken off guard to see a man fighting his way through the brush from that direction. Nervously, I called out

[00:34:48] hello and gripped Felicia's collar. She had a tendency to jump on people when she got excited and I didn't want her to tumble down the mountain. I'd overheard my parents arguing about lawsuits

[00:34:59] when she barreled a jogger over the trail in the park. The man smiled, extracted himself from the thorns, and made his way up the hill to the base of my rock. I didn't know if it was Felicia's reaction

[00:35:12] to him, the growling and sticking to me instead of barking and rushing to jump on him, or the rather remote impassable way he'd come from, but his presence made me very uneasy. He seemed normal

[00:35:24] and friendly enough. He was probably in his mid to late 20s, average height and build, and rather unremarkable looking. No backpack or supplies, but he was dressed as a hiker would be. I didn't like

[00:35:38] the way that he looked at me, although at my young age I couldn't place why it unsettled me. As a grown woman, I can look back and I realize he was sizing me up. From his smile, he seemed to be

[00:35:52] pleased with what he saw. Hi there, where do you come from? He had no trace of any accent, which struck me as odd. Our area has a pretty strong regional accent and we don't get a lot of outsiders.

[00:36:07] I live just down the hill and I was hiking my dog. She seems like a nice dog, he told me, with no trace of irony. Felicia was snarling and vibrating with malice, but he seemed unconcerned.

[00:36:22] You should have her on a leash though, wouldn't want to get in trouble with the park. We put her on a leash when we were down in the park, but this part is our property. No reaction to learning he was essentially trespassing. Still, you're so close,

[00:36:40] you don't know who you might run into up here. No one from the park comes up here, I told him. I was being a bit rude, but I was annoyed that some stranger was telling me what to do with my

[00:36:53] dog on my property. I'm from the park, he said, still grinning. I'm one of the rangers and I wanted to see the property. What would you have done if she had attacked me? You could get in big

[00:37:09] trouble. At this, I immediately chilled. We only had one ranger and he was a close friend of the family. This guy was definitely not him, but I was afraid to let on that I knew he was lying,

[00:37:22] so I dug out Felicia's leash and clipped it on her then stood up, slinging my backpack on. Sorry, we'll let you get on with your hike. I have to get home.

[00:37:32] Your parents know you're up here? Oh yes, they expect me home soon. Do they come up here often? Dad does. He comes up here to check on the trail cams. I improvised on a whim. This was the first

[00:37:45] time I saw the friendly stranger's smile falter. Trail cams? Yes, there are lots up here. He and his friends like to hunt. The smile returned, but it looked cold this time. Well, these would make excellent hunting grounds. He took a step toward me and Felicia lunged, nearly yanking

[00:38:08] the leash out of my hands. I managed to haul her back in time to keep her from tearing the man's smile right off of his face. He didn't so much as flinch. You should maybe head back. Keep a tight

[00:38:21] hold on that leash now. Maybe I'll see you up here sometime. Yes, maybe, I said secretly thinking to myself that I'd never step foot in these woods again. Well, bye. I quickly dragged Felicia away,

[00:38:36] looking over my shoulder every now and then. He remained motionless in the spot where I'd left him, staring after me with that same fucking smile. Once he was out of sight, I picked up the pace.

[00:38:48] Felicia growled over her shoulder a few times, and occasionally I heard branches snap behind me, but glancing back, I saw no sign of him following. I cut straight across the clearing with the trail

[00:39:01] cam, not bothering to avoid it in my rush to get away from the stranger. Once we hit the road that led home, I unclipped Felicia from her leash and broke into a jog. She remained by my side until

[00:39:13] I got home. I didn't mention the strange man to my parents at first. They were wary about me hiking alone, and I didn't want them to forbid it. Furthermore, by the time I'd gotten home,

[00:39:25] I'd convinced myself that I'd overreacted to the whole thing. He was probably just some hiker that made up a bit about being a ranger to fuck with me since I was giving him attitude. Still,

[00:39:36] I didn't hike back up to the ridge that week, and instead stuck to the woods below my house. At the end of the week, I came home from school to a pissed off dad, demanding to know if I'd

[00:39:47] messed with the trail cam. His buddy had come up to collect the film and discovered that the cam had been switched off with only a few frames taken. At first, I was only concerned with getting

[00:39:59] in trouble and desperately professed innocence. And then I remembered the stranger. After telling dad about him, which at first he thought I was making up the story to cover up for messing with

[00:40:11] the cam, he called the park ranger and asked if there was a new ranger we didn't know about. The ranger said no, but after hearing my story, he told dad the campground attendant had caught an out-of-stater overnighting in an unauthorized area back behind the campgrounds that previous

[00:40:27] weekend. He assumed that the guy was trying to get out of paying a camping fee. Young guy, they'd said about average looking, very friendly, and apologized for what he said was a mistake, and then took off. Shortly afterward, we heard from dad's buddy with the trail cam.

[00:40:46] He'd gotten the roll developed, even though there were only a few frames filled up. The last one was of me and Felicia cutting across the clearing. Thank God I told the stranger that there were multiple cams. I imagine he'd gave up once he couldn't locate the other ones.

[00:41:02] My parents have since moved into a snug little neighborhood down in the valley, and I've moved out of town. In my parents' backyard on the riverbank, there's a mound covered with Easter lilies that marks Felicia's final resting place.

[00:41:16] The house I grew up in fell into disrepair after it was sold and was eventually burned to the ground. No one lives on the property now, but the clearing at the top is still popular with hunters.

[00:41:28] When I'm home visiting for the holidays, I still like to hike up to the ridge. I wave at the trail cams, and I always bring a dog. So, smiling stranger at the ridge, let's not meet. I've read so many stories here, and I decided to submit mine.

[00:42:03] About six years ago, I was with my friend Tom at my parents' cabin. We decided to head off to the casino located on a reserve about 40 minutes away. The entire stretch of the highway is heavily forested and has no lights, meaning it can get incredibly dark.

[00:42:24] We got there and played some poker, tried a few table games, and grabbed some dinner with our winnings. It was a pretty successful night overall for both of us. We ended up leaving

[00:42:35] the casino around 1am. That was a little later than I would have liked given the lack of any street lights. We drive for about 20 minutes on the highway without passing any other vehicles

[00:42:48] when I notice two green orbs just off the highway before a hill. Realizing it was a deer, I slammed on the brakes and waited. Several deer crossed the road, and we resumed driving. The car was going slowly up the hill because it was a starting stop.

[00:43:08] As soon as we make the crest of the hill, Tom screamed, Holy shit! Right in front of us was a young woman walking in the middle of our lane towards us, no more than maybe 30 feet away. I slam on the brakes again and come within 10 feet of her.

[00:43:29] Thankfully, slowing down earlier and climbing the hill meant we weren't going very fast, but what was going through my mind wasn't the fact that I nearly ran over someone. It was that this young woman with pitch black hair was wearing a white nightgown with no shoes,

[00:43:48] and was still walking towards us, with a blank expressionless face. Now, I'm not going to lie, that image frightened me because it looked like something straight out

[00:44:01] of a horror movie. Tom and I waited to see if she was going to pull up to our window and maybe ask for some help or something. She made it to the front of the car and went around the driver's side.

[00:44:16] She didn't stop, but she raised her hand and dragged it across the side of the car while she continued her walk. At this point, Tom and I were obviously both very freaked out.

[00:44:31] I asked Tom what do we do? He said that we should just get out of there, but for whatever reason, I just didn't feel right about leaving and not asking if she was alright. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw that she was still walking.

[00:44:49] Having almost hit her and knowing that something just wasn't right, I decided to do something. I told Tom that I was going to ask if she was okay. Tom pleaded with me that we just go and

[00:45:02] get out of there. I put on some bravado and told him not to worry that I would be right back. I put on my blinkers and stepped out of the car. I left the door open to provide some light

[00:45:16] and walked around to the trunk of my car. The interior lights didn't do much, but the blinkers allowed me to see the outline of her slightly down the hill. Now I was only able to see every other second and I half yelled,

[00:45:33] are you alright? She finally stopped walking, but still faced the other way. There was no response. I heard Tom's door open as he was getting out to join me. Suddenly, she started screaming.

[00:45:52] Tom and I ran back into the car and floored it. I got a lot of shit from Tom for the remainder of the ride back to the cabin. I haven't heard or seen anything like that on the highway since,

[00:46:04] and I'm pretty thankful for it. That was the creepiest moment of my life, so... Woman on the highway in a nightgown with no shoes, black hair and screaming at the top of her lungs?

[00:46:16] Let's not meet. Back in college, my friends and I got into the habit of exploring abandoned buildings. We've seen some incredible places and have gotten some pretty cool souvenirs. I don't really condone taking stuff from buildings, but if it's about to be torn down

[00:46:53] and contractors have taken out everything they deem worthy of something, then I'll gladly take that depression glass they left behind. But I digress. It's a small group of friends that goes exploring with me, and I love introducing new people to it.

[00:47:10] A friend of mine had asked me on several occasions if I could take him somewhere because he never went exploring before. I decided to take him to an old paper factory that didn't have much inside, but had an absolutely beautiful view of the city from the roof.

[00:47:25] Also, it was incredibly easy to get in and out of. We went with a few other people, but two of my friends had decided to wait outside for us since they had been in the building a few too many times

[00:47:36] to find it interesting anymore. As we went to climb inside, a drunk couple came out, which is not unusual. A lot of people use the building to smoke, drink or even paint in, and we asked if

[00:47:49] there were many people inside. They said they thought it was mostly empty, but they had heard someone banging around a few floors up and it startled them out. They said he sounded angry

[00:47:59] and maybe we should avoid the roof. Since we weren't there to drink or anything, the roof was our only real goal. We decided we'll take our chances and head up. After all, it's a massive

[00:48:11] building and we didn't think we would run into this guy. We walk up 10 flights of stairs and then climb up the ladder to the roof. My friend is impressed with the view. It's awesome. As we

[00:48:23] are about to head back down, my friend waiting out on the street calls us. He says that a man has passed out on the street and two of them pulled him out of the way of traffic and called an

[00:48:33] ambulance for him. They suggested that we wait out on the roof to avoid exiting the building when the cops are there. Neither of us can afford the $5,000 fine or two-week jail time just for looking at the

[00:48:46] city from an abandoned building. We wait, but we probably shouldn't have waited on the roof. We get the all clear from my friend to come back down and we head down the ladder.

[00:48:57] My friend goes first, then our flashlight dies. The ladder is tricky to get onto when you can't see it and it's missing some rungs. So I come down very slowly in the dark, afraid of hurting

[00:49:10] myself. I hop down and my friend tells me very quietly that he hears someone in the next room. I shrug it off. We already know people are in this building. Then the screaming starts.

[00:49:23] At first, it almost sounds like one of my friends who waited outside yelling my name. I hesitate at the top of the stairs, just outside of the door of the room the guy is screaming from,

[00:49:35] trying to decide if it's him and he's playing some sort of prank. The guy I came into the building with grabs my wrists and we start running down the stairs. At this point, it's obvious that

[00:49:46] it was not my friend and it was just guttural, intense screaming. We start running down the stairs and then we hear a really loud banging to go along with the screaming. It sounds like this

[00:49:58] guy has a very heavy object that he's using to swing at the walls and expose pipes with. There's only one flight of stairs because every other way down is out-of-order freight elevators. So we are trapped in this stairwell and it's 10 flights till we reach the ground floor.

[00:50:18] Then we have to book it to the opposite side of the factory and back out the hole we climbed through. Besides screaming and swinging that heavy object, we hear him barreling down the stairs behind us.

[00:50:30] But he is at least one floor behind. Whatever he's using to hit the walls and the pipes is clearly enough to do some damage to our skulls because a bit of brick chipped off the wall

[00:50:42] and followed us down the steps. And that's when my friend grabs my wrist again and throws me through the nearest door. We've only made it down three floors and at the beginning of

[00:50:52] each flight of stairs, there was one door that opens to the entire level. In other words, it is painfully obvious where we've gone. After flying into this room, we notice that it's been gutted

[00:51:04] like every other on the floor, but more of the windows are boarded up and it's very dark. All that's in this room to hide behind are some pillars. We got behind one and huddled together.

[00:51:16] This guy stops outside the doorway to the room we are in and he's still screaming. It's terrifying. Then he starts swinging his weapon around and slamming it into the doorframe.

[00:51:28] We're sure he's going to come in and the only way out is the door that he's currently standing in. Neither of us ever look around the pillar to see the guy and we have no idea what his weapon is.

[00:51:39] Nearly four minutes pass and he hasn't stopped screaming. For whatever reason, he doesn't come into the room we're in, but he just starts running down the stairs. We can hear him hitting on pipes and smacking the walls while we just wait.

[00:51:54] We have seven floors to go down and we could pass him in any doorway on the way down. Eventually, the screaming and the banging stops, but we still think we should wait. That's when we hear something from a different corner in our room.

[00:52:11] There's just enough light from the window in the back that hasn't been boarded up where we can see a figure get up from the floor. This person has been in the room with us for the

[00:52:21] entire seven to eight minutes we've been in here and they haven't let on until now. This person, who was in front of the only light source so we can just see a totally black figure, is now shuffling towards us without making any sound.

[00:52:36] It's exactly like a zombie from a movie, so we run. We don't bother to find out what this person's deal is and temporarily forget about the first, clearly dangerous guy. For an asthmatic, I hauled ass down the stairs and never paused to catch my breath even once.

[00:52:56] As we reach the bottom of this stairwell, the screaming starts again. It's coming from the room next to us, but we don't stop running. The hole in the wall that we climbed through

[00:53:06] to get into the building is yards away and this man comes crashing out of the room behind us. We never even looked back and we climbed through the hole so fast I don't even remember doing it.

[00:53:20] Our two friends are waiting for us as we threw ourselves into the car. They asked what happened because apparently that man was so loud that they could hear him screaming and breaking things from the outside of the building. They thought we were making all of

[00:53:32] that noise and were going to give it a few minutes before calling us to remind us that the police were still patrolling the area for drunk underage college students, and we should

[00:53:42] probably shut the fuck up. We tell them what happened and decided to carry on with our plans for the night because beer was totally necessary after that. So horror movie weirdos in the abandoned building, let's not meet. Thanks everyone for listening to this week's Lost Stories episode.

[00:54:15] Don't forget if you're a patron stick around after the music for your extended ad-free version of this week's episode with some bonus stories. If you'd like to get access head over to patreon.com forward

[00:54:25] slash let's not meet podcast to sign up and support the show today you'll get instant access to hours and hours of bonus content. This week you have heard taken in Los Angeles by an author that asked

[00:54:37] to remain anonymous, I got myself kidnapped by scroobs, stranger got into my car at an empty gas station by psychedelic goat 42, a christian pamphlet turns dark by an author that asked to remain

[00:54:50] anonymous, the smiling stranger on the ridge by sale the tethys, a creepy encounter with a woman on the highway by seegerman, and finally urban exploring in a horror movie by perda vengral. All the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of

[00:55:05] their respective authors. Let's not meet a true horror podcast is not associated with reddit or any other message boards online. As always if you have a story to share send it over to letsnotmeetstories

[00:55:15] at gmail.com and we'll take a look and don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like odd trails, my true paranormal podcast, welcome to paradise it sucks, and the old time radio cast

[00:55:26] which we've resumed releasing new episodes of this very week. We'll see you all next week for a brand new episode everyone stay safe.