11x15: Karma

[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. I went to a boarding school during high school. It was in a mid-sized industrial city in a not so safe neighborhood.

[00:00:47] Despite its location, it was a great school and I generally felt pretty safe. I was a soccer player and during the off-season I played at soccer clubs. So for the first two years of high school,

[00:01:00] my mom would pick me up at school, take me to the soccer club practice, and then drive me back. This was a lot of work so for my junior year, I switched clubs. This is important for the rest

[00:01:11] of the story, so I'll explain a bit more. Soccer club practice took place during the winter at an indoor facility close to my school. I arranged with my school to have a security guard drive

[00:01:25] me to practice 5 minutes away and then come back to pick me up. It was a small school with only 5 or 6 security guards. They rotated shifts, but I was pretty familiar with them. When they drove

[00:01:37] me to practice, I was always driven in a van that had my school's name printed on it, and the security guards usually wore a reflective vest or some sort of uniform with bright yellow stripes of fabric.

[00:01:51] They never drove me to practice in their personal vehicles, although sometimes I saw a red Dodge that belonged to one of the security guards driving around the school's campus doing rounds. In the spring, soccer club practice moved outside and it was from 7.30 to 9 at night.

[00:02:12] The soccer club leased out the turf fields of my boarding school for practice, which was one of the reasons I switched to this soccer club in particular. My school's turf fields were about

[00:02:23] 2 blocks away so I no longer needed a ride since I could just walk to the fields. Typically, when I walked to practice, I exited through the back gate closest to the street. On my route, I had

[00:02:36] to walk past an elementary school and then take a tiny pathway that cars couldn't drive on. It was light out during my walks to practice, but on the walks home, it was dark. I'm kind of afraid

[00:02:50] of the dark and typically don't go out at night alone, but I was new to the team and the soccer club I switched to so I had yet to find somebody to potentially ask to drive me back to school.

[00:03:03] I didn't want to burden any of my new teammates even though it was a very short 2 minute ride, so I would just walk home after practice. Stupid, I know, but I was young and idealistic. For reference, I'm an average sized female, about 5'5 and a slender athletic build.

[00:03:22] I pride myself on my independence. I had a loose rein as I was pretty self-sufficient in terms of managing my schedule and time. My mom trusted me to go out with friends and run errands on

[00:03:34] the weekends when I was home. I only lived at school during the school week. She didn't feel like she needed to know my every move. I did everything that I could to not break that trust,

[00:03:45] too. We had and still have a great relationship. She's my only parent and I love her to death, but I thought that I would be fine walking two blocks alone as I had been fine so far.

[00:03:57] I didn't tell her I was walking home by myself that night because I knew that she wouldn't approve of that. This was wrong, but I figured, what's the harm? One night after practice ended,

[00:04:08] I put on a sweatshirt, took off my shin guards and cleats, and then changed into sneakers to start my walk back home. There were two parking lots on opposite ends of the field. One lot was

[00:04:20] close to my school and the other was just off a main street. The other girls on my team drove to practice, so they parked in the parking lot off of the main road opposite the field where I walked.

[00:04:32] There were one or two cars pulling out of this smaller parking lot as I walked by. I also noticed that there was a gray pickup idling in the lot. As I walked on the sidewalk

[00:04:44] just across the street from the little path I took to walk back to school, the truck flashed its lights at me. I thought maybe it was a parent thinking that I was their

[00:04:54] kid and they were trying to get my attention. I looked at the truck and I didn't recognize the person inside, so I kept walking. The truck started to drive towards me, so I started to

[00:05:06] get nervous. Now I scare easily, but I'm pretty hyper vigilant, so I was aware of the red flag right away. The truck pulled up right next to me and rolled down the passenger side window,

[00:05:18] as that was the one closest to me. A man inside of the truck said, security, where's your car parked? At first I thought maybe it was possibly one of the school's security guards, but they didn't say my school's name when they said that they were security.

[00:05:36] We were on part of my school's campus, so that struck me as odd. I've watched too many crime procedural TV shows to not question this. Literally anybody could pull up next to somebody

[00:05:49] and say security. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to make myself seem more vulnerable than I already was, but I was flustered. I replied, I don't have a car and kept walking.

[00:06:03] The man followed slowly and asked again, where's your car parked? With a bit more aggression and then asked if I wanted a ride. I responded hastily, I'm walking, I live near school, while gesturing vaguely. There were multiple schools in this area and I sure as hell was not

[00:06:22] telling this man which one I attended, especially since I also lived there during the week. I continued walking and was almost on the other side of the street on the pedestrian path. The pickup truck kept following me and stopped diagonally across the street. It was obvious,

[00:06:41] clear as day that I didn't want to talk to this man, even if he was a security guard. I didn't want his help. I turned back around and the man said that he would wait in case I

[00:06:53] changed my mind. I said okay, then whipped around to the path and took off running. I was thoroughly creeped out. I was not about to risk it so I ran past the elementary school

[00:07:06] and crossed the street to one of the gates to the main campus, but it was already locked up for the night. I glanced all around and kept running, trying to get to the main entrance

[00:07:17] of the school that I knew would be open. It was just around the corner and next to a busier street. This was comforting, but I was worried that I would see that truck in the line of traffic at

[00:07:29] the intersection. I continually looked behind me and winced as a motorcycle approached me from behind because I was on high alert. I finally ran through the school's main entrance and there was

[00:07:40] a security guard, as usual. He was in a van with the school's name painted on the side, ready to stop and check in with the cars as they entered the school's campus.

[00:07:50] I know I should have stopped to ask if there was another security guard on duty driving a gray pickup truck that night, but I just wanted to be in my dorm so I ran right past the guard.

[00:08:02] I made my way to my room and entered, out of breath. My roommate was doing homework so I immediately told her everything while frantically looking out our window. The main entrance of the

[00:08:13] school could easily be seen from our window and I wanted to make sure that there wasn't a gray pickup truck entering. To my dismay, the gray pickup truck pulled up to the security guard in

[00:08:26] the van. It sat there for about 20 minutes so I thought perhaps I overreacted and it was actually a security guard in the truck. I watched, assuming the two were on duty and just catching up. After a while, it came around the loop of the school entrance and exited.

[00:08:45] After that day, I never saw that gray pickup truck or the man that was inside on or around campus again so he was not a real security guard after all. This man in the gray pickup must have been

[00:08:59] talking to the security guard since he was trying to enter our campus that night. Luckily, nothing further happened but after that night, I finally asked my teammate to drive me back to school

[00:09:11] after practice. I didn't tell my mom about the incident since I didn't want her to freak out and I learned my lesson. I hope this story leaves the listeners with a takeaway to remain vigilant.

[00:09:23] I don't want to think about what could have happened if I had trusted this man and gotten too close to his truck or god forbid, I got in for a ride thinking it was a trusted security guard. So to the fake security guard, let's not meet again.

[00:09:57] In the 7 years I have spent working at a tanning salon, I have had quite a few creepy encounters. In the area that I live in, it's well known that most salons are staffed with young women

[00:10:08] who typically work alone. I work for a rather large chain and our owner does a great job of taking all possible measures to keep the staff safe. The police regularly patrol our parking lots

[00:10:22] and each salon is equipped with cameras as well as panic buttons. Even with these precautions, you are bound to experience some sketchy situations. This is one that still scares me. This situation occurred about 2 years ago. I was a regional manager at the time and was

[00:10:41] responsible for overseeing 5 of our salons. It was a sunny Friday during our slow season. I was working at one location when I received a call from Jen, an employee who was working at

[00:10:54] another one. Side note about Jen, to put it bluntly, she was a big pain in the butt. She loved to challenge me on every decision that I made and she went out of her way to make my life

[00:11:08] difficult. To her credit, she worked for the company for years and had just recently graduated college so she was just over it and ready to get onto a different career path. That being said,

[00:11:22] Jen never calls me to chat so when she calls it's usually because something is up. I was thrown off when I answered the phone and heard Jen saying, hey Rachel, please pretend to be on the phone

[00:11:36] with me. She said this in a whisper. I replied, what's going on? Do I need to call someone? Ignoring my question, she went on to chat about the weather, what she was going to be up to later,

[00:11:50] and other kinds of nonsensical things. As I said earlier, we encountered our fair share of odd characters while working alone and pretty much everyone has used the phone call to appear unavailable. This usually works to make somebody continue on their way when they have

[00:12:09] overstayed their welcome. For some reason, this call felt different. Jen's voice was shaking so I knew that something was definitely wrong. Jen ended up stepping outside of the store so that she could tell me what was happening. For more of a visual, I'll explain the layout of the

[00:12:27] store. This particular store that Jen was working at has two front doors that lead into a large open lobby and the front desk. Behind that desk, there's a wall with two hallways. These walls

[00:12:38] do not fully run up to the ceiling so the hallways feel more open. The left hallway has a right turn leading to an open vanity area where it meets the hallway to the right. The hallway on the right

[00:12:51] continues down to the back of the store where the back door and the restroom are located. It then makes a sharp turn to the left and ends with the tanning rooms. So once you walk down that

[00:13:01] hallway on the right, you have to come back that same way until you reach the vanity area. Now back to Jen, who's outside, in front of the store. Oh my god Rachel, I'm freaking out, she said. She filled me in on what had just occurred.

[00:13:16] A young man came in for a tan about an hour prior to her making this phone call. He was in his late 20s and was very normal looking. He had tanned with us a few times before but it had been a while

[00:13:30] which was nothing out of the ordinary. He paid Jen for the tan and headed to a room located in the back of the store. Fast forward 45 minutes, Jen was walking down the hall to refill her water

[00:13:43] bottle in the restroom. She pushed the door open and the man was standing in the pitch black bathroom. He was facing her as she walked in. She did what any other human would do. She screamed,

[00:13:58] what's going on? You scared me. Then she said that the man mumbled that he was sorry and on his way out. Jen booked it to the front desk and that's when she called me. She was initially embarrassed

[00:14:12] for walking in on a customer in the bathroom and about her reaction so she wanted to look busy as he exited the store. Jen and I had been on the phone chatting for about 15 minutes but this man

[00:14:24] had yet to come out from the back. We have bells that ring whenever somebody enters or exits the salon and Jen was positive that she had not heard the bells go off after the restroom incident. So

[00:14:38] I told her to call the police and have them check it out but she began to second guess herself. She had been cleaning and trying to look busy so she thought that it was possible that he may have

[00:14:50] slipped out but her gut continued to say that something just wasn't right. The majority of our salons are located in strip malls and this was no different from the location where Jen was working.

[00:15:02] Our locations generally happen to have a subway directly next door and over the years we have become very close with the guys who work there. Jen and I decided that if she wasn't going to call

[00:15:15] the police then she should have Chris from Subway come over and check out the store to make sure that the guy was definitely gone. Now this might sound silly to some of you but due to the amount of weird

[00:15:26] stuff that we deal with, we try to cover our bases before calling the police for every little thing. So Chris from Subway came over, made his way through the store and found nothing. He spent a good 20 minutes checking every room as Jen was visibly shaken up.

[00:15:43] Chris headed back to Subway telling Jen not to hesitate to call if she needed anything else. Jen called me again a few minutes after Chris left. She was practically crying. She said, Rachel, I know he's still here. I just know it. I'm so scared.

[00:16:02] We decided that Jen needed to call the police if for nothing other than her own peace of mind. Officers arrived shortly after they were called. Jen explained the situation to them and they began

[00:16:14] to search the salon. The officers ended up finding nothing and told her the man probably left when she went over to Subway. Jen insisted that they search the store one last time. They were a bit

[00:16:27] annoyed but agreed to take one more look to appease her. They swept through the floor and were on their way back up to the front when Jen heard one of the officers yell,

[00:16:38] Hey you! What do you think you're doing? Moments later an officer walked up the hallway with the man in handcuffs. The man had been hiding in the store switching from room to room as they were

[00:16:50] being searched. Our salons have massage beds that are on wheels and the man pulled one of the beds and hid underneath it. His feet stuck out though so he ran into one of the other tanning rooms

[00:17:04] when the officers went to search the massage room. Since the walls did not reach the ceiling, the man was able to hear where the officers were within the store to move around seamlessly without

[00:17:16] being found. The only reason he was caught was because the officer decided to glance back down the hall after checking the rooms. The officer was perpendicular to the door of a room and could see

[00:17:29] two eyes peeking through a crease in the door jamb. The man was hiding behind the door trying to be as still as possible. When he was asked why he was hiding in the store for over three hours,

[00:17:44] fully aware that a young lady was working, he responded, My girlfriend and I just broke up. My girlfriend and I just broke up. I'm having a rough day. The cops were unable to arrest the man but told him he would be arrested if he were to return to

[00:18:02] the premises at any time. They then came into the store to warn Jen that it would be in our best interest to get a restraining order against the guy so he wouldn't be allowed in any of our stores

[00:18:14] in the future. They believed that he was hiding behind the door waiting for a girl to come in so he could do god knows what. They were pretty certain he had malicious intent.

[00:18:25] Our owner followed the advice of the police. The man was not allowed anywhere near our salons and we haven't seen him since. The moral of the story here is trust your gut.

[00:18:50] For a little bit of context, I'm a male and I'm 19 years old. I grew up with my parents in eastern India but then for my university level studies, I had to shift to southern India. I call it a

[00:19:04] shift instead of a relocation because I had rented an apartment in southern India but I often flew to my parents house either for work or to be with them during the weekend. The point is, I traveled a lot

[00:19:18] up and down the country. As a result of my short trips, I carried nearly no luggage, just my backpack for my laptop and some necessary stuff. No clothes were required because I was going to

[00:19:31] be at my parents home and I still had clothes there. On the day that this took place, I was going to my parents house. It was around a 2 hour and 45 minute journey in the air. My flight was

[00:19:45] scheduled to take off at 9.53 at night. Since the city in which I lived had a lot of traffic, I always departed from my apartment a bit early in order to avoid getting stuck in traffic and

[00:19:59] missing my flight. At the airport, I was sitting in the lobby chatting with my girlfriend. The lobby was nearly empty and suddenly a woman walked up to me and sat opposite me. She looked to be in

[00:20:14] her mid-40s. I sensed nothing unusual about her other than the fact that she didn't carry any baggage. She had no backpack or a suitcase. I assumed she didn't carry any hand luggage and

[00:20:27] must have given all of her luggage to the airline to be checked. She sat there and checked me out. She was just sitting but staring at me. I looked at her and flashed a smile. She didn't react.

[00:20:42] I started feeling uncomfortable. I took my laptop out of my backpack and pretended to type something on it just to avoid her glare. I could have gotten up and sat somewhere else but my manners

[00:20:54] would not allow it. A couple of minutes passed and she abruptly got up from her seat and sat right next to me. I gave a quick friendly hey and returned to my laptop, flashing another awkward

[00:21:09] smile. She leaned in closer to me. Now her shoulder was brushing against mine. She looked around and then looked at me. She then asked me something which utterly startled me. How did you manage

[00:21:24] to get through? She asked. Excuse me? I replied. How did you breach the security and get through? She elaborated. I told her, ma'am I don't have any idea what you're talking about.

[00:21:38] I think you've mistaken me for somebody else. I was so confused. I had no idea what she was talking about. She got up from her seat and was about to ask something when an announcement was

[00:21:50] made that the boarding for my flight had started. I excused myself and quickly got in the line. I completed the boarding formality and got onto the plane. I had the window seat and the two seats next to me were empty and unreserved.

[00:22:08] The passengers were boarding. I was almost settled in my seat when a person came up to my row and took the seat next to me. It was the same woman. I cursed

[00:22:18] my luck and felt that it was the worst coincidence in my life, but I was wrong. She sat next to me and again started to give me the same stern glare. Then a tall man in a suit came up and demanded

[00:22:34] that the seat in which she was sitting was his. He flashed his boarding pass and he was right. Her eyes went red, still locked on mine. She again leaned closer to me and asked, where have you kept it? Frustrated, I explained,

[00:22:52] ma'am, I really think you've mistaken me for someone else. Please leave me alone. Throwing out all my manners at this point. Red-eyed, she got up from her seat and yelled at the top of her lungs pointing at me, this man has explosives in his bag. He's going to

[00:23:06] blow up the aircraft. I was baffled and everyone on the aircraft was on high alert, even the man who came to get his seat backed away. I tried protesting, but I saw a cabin crew member

[00:23:21] talking on a walkie-talkie. Soon after a group of security from the airport authority came rushing in and asked me to hand them my luggage. I was trying really hard to make them understand that there had to be some kind of misunderstanding, but it was too late, I guess.

[00:23:38] Now, as I said, I flew up and down India so often that I hardly had any luggage, just a backpack. They took my backpack with them while they escorted both me and the woman alongside.

[00:23:52] The woman kept on yelling about me having stolen items and I was doing unlawful things. I kept quiet because I knew the truth would eventually come out. I was ushered into a room along with a security member and he asked me several questions while they were checking my

[00:24:10] backpack. I told him that it was a mistake and I told him about all of the experiences with the woman. I also told him about how she was glaring at me and asking how I managed to get through

[00:24:21] security. After some time, he stopped questioning me and we sat there in silence. He took my phone and everything. They checked me with a couple different beeping machines. I have no idea where the woman was. She must have been escorted somewhere else. Finally, after 45 minutes or so,

[00:24:40] a bald man came running into the room carrying my bag and handed it over to me, repeatedly apologizing for the woman's behavior. He assured the security member whom I was entrusted with that they had found nothing suspicious in my bag and returned my property to me.

[00:24:57] I was escorted back to my seat and all of the passengers were frustrated. They had enough reason to be. The flight was delayed by an hour. I never saw the woman board that flight again.

[00:25:09] I don't know why she did what she did or what the security did with her. The flight landed safely and there was no such blast. So to the woman who I assume watched Final

[00:25:20] Destination one too many times and who tried to get me caught for a crime I didn't commit while getting herself in trouble in doing so, let's not meet. In 2011, my friend and I bought an established yoga business that was one of the first yoga

[00:25:45] studios in a large city in Louisiana. We were the third owners of the business and the studio had been remodeled right before we bought it. An updated reception area held a long granite-topped counter and heavy 10-foot tall French doors were added to the entrance.

[00:26:05] We had a large parking area with neighboring restaurants, bars, and shops. It was a busy area with a lot of foot and car traffic. When people came to class, they would check in, take off their shoes, put their keys in or on their shoes, and leave their

[00:26:21] purses and other items in the reception area before going through the smaller French doors leading to the studio area where classes were held. The yoga instructor would greet the students in the reception area, make transactions as needed, and then go into the studio to lead the class.

[00:26:40] The original owner relied on the trust system. Students would put money in wicker baskets that sat on top of the desk to pay for classes and take their own change as needed. The second owner, who we bought the business from, added a metal box to the updated counter

[00:26:58] for students to slide their payments in for their classes. We wanted to continue the tradition of trust because we figured who would steal from a yoga center? During the first year, we started to

[00:27:11] notice little things would be out of place, moved, or missing. We noticed that change in small bills in the drawer would be missing. Things on the desk would be moved. Students would come out of class

[00:27:24] and find their keys or belongings had been moved or tampered with. Or they would notice that things were missing from their cars. Wallets and purses began disappearing from shoes. Yoga mats and blankets started disappearing as well. And then the metal box on the counter that held the cash

[00:27:40] and checks was stolen. Even worse, a student's car was stolen from the parking lot. There wasn't a pattern to all of this happening. It all seemed so random. Classes were held in the morning, at

[00:27:53] lunchtime, and in the afternoons and early evenings. We had two self-employed massage therapists and six yoga instructors, and my partner and I would hold private yoga sessions. People were going in and out

[00:28:06] of the business even when classes weren't being held. We started to lock the front French doors between classes, and we added additional locks to the back door. We instructed the massage therapists

[00:28:19] to lock the doors when the clients were there, and we affixed a new metal lock box to the countertop and began to lock all of the drawers that we were able to lock. Students were instructed to take all

[00:28:30] of their belongings into the yoga studio during classes, yet little things still seemed to go missing or be moved. If a drawer was left unlocked, it would be opened when we returned. We installed

[00:28:43] cameras for the hall and front entrance. We hated to think that it was a student. One of our massage therapists, or even an instructor as most people who practice yoga or other mind-body approaches

[00:28:55] aren't usually thieves. One afternoon in early 2013, I was waiting for a private yoga client to arrive. After he arrived, we went into the studio and I made my rounds. I locked the front door with the

[00:29:11] heavy slide lock and checked the back door. It was triple locked. As we prepared for our session, I heard the faintest sound of a drawer being opened and closed coming from the reception area.

[00:29:27] I'm not even sure how I heard it since it was the slightest sound, but I jumped up and ran out of the studio and into the reception area, and there he was. A young man who was about six foot one.

[00:29:41] He was behind our counter and he was rifling through all of the drawers. I can still vividly visualize the hunch of his shoulders. When it comes to fight or flight, my default is fight,

[00:29:54] which at times may not be the smartest thing. It's probably why I do yoga. I yelled in a very non-yogi way asking them what they were doing here, who they were, and what they wanted with

[00:30:06] expletives. I also said some other choice curse words. He was startled, jumped around the counter and ran towards the door. I ran towards him and tried to tackle him to prevent him from leaving.

[00:30:20] He didn't make a sound as he easily pushed me aside. He looked right at me. The lack of expression in his eyes was bone chilling. There wasn't anything there. I'll never forget that

[00:30:31] blankness. He pushed through the front door as I continued to scream at him. It turns out, the DA for our city frequented the pub across the street at that time of day, and when I called the

[00:30:43] police he showed up immediately. He looked at our cameras and asked if they were hooked up. Unfortunately, they had not been hooked up yet. My heart was pounding from the adrenaline. I was

[00:30:54] shaking and I wanted to cry. My client didn't know what to do. He was eventually caught and he confessed to robbing us the whole time. He learned that all he had to do was stick a credit card

[00:31:06] into the horizontal slide lock to move it aside. After that, we installed a vertical bar lock at the top and bottom of the doors. To the dead eye punk who destroyed a peaceful trusting community

[00:31:20] by robbing a yoga center, karma will get you. Let's never meet. I'm a 20 year old female, but when this occurred I was 16. Here's some background. I had a girlfriend who was a year

[00:31:51] younger than me. We'll call her Lily. Lily and I had been together for two months and we were keeping our relationship a secret from our families. Both of our families were not accepting

[00:32:02] of gay people, so only our group of friends knew about us. One day, Lily and I decided to go on a date to the movies. When we got to the theater, there was a guy outside smoking. He didn't really

[00:32:17] catch our eye at first, but I got this weird feeling when we walked past him. I didn't tell Lily how I felt because I assumed it was nothing. After the movie, we decided to go to McDonald's

[00:32:30] since we were hungry. When we got outside of the theater, I saw the guy again. That seemed a bit strange to me because the movie was about two hours long, so I wasn't expecting to see him still

[00:32:43] lingering around. I calmly mentioned it to my girlfriend, but still wasn't too freaked out, so we continued walking to McDonald's. It was right around the corner from the theater, so it wasn't a long walk. It was getting dark though, so we decided to make it quick.

[00:33:00] Once we got our food and sat down, we noticed the same guy from outside the theater. He was now at the McDonald's. We walked into the restaurant and sat down without ordering anything. Upon realizing

[00:33:13] this, Lily and I decided to hurry and finish our food, then start walking back to our neighborhood. We lived in the same neighborhood as the theater and McDonald's. Her house was at the very end of

[00:33:25] the street, but mine was closer. We exited the McDonald's and started walking home cautiously as it was completely dark at that point. After walking for about five minutes, I had this weird

[00:33:38] feeling again, so I decided to look behind me and there he was again, the same guy. He was slowly walking about 15 feet behind us. He was wearing a dark hood with both of his hands in his pockets.

[00:33:55] He was staring right at us intently, but looked away quickly once we noticed. I nudged Lily and I whispered that the man was walking behind us, and Lily doesn't do well in

[00:34:06] stressful situations. She has a tendency to freak out or freeze up. She slipped her hand into mine and squeezed it tight. I leaned in and assured her that everything would be all right, but I don't

[00:34:18] think that that helped much. I continued to glance back at him and I noticed that he was getting closer. We started walking faster, but that just made him pick up the pace. I was too scared to

[00:34:32] call someone and tell them what was happening since this creepy guy was right on our tail. Then finally he spoke. He said, hey, are you two girls heading home alone? It's too dangerous.

[00:34:45] You need a man to protect you. Don't worry, I'll walk with you. His voice was deep and his speech was slightly slurred. No, we're good. We're almost home. I said with a stiff response,

[00:34:58] trying to steady my voice so it wouldn't crack. A lump was forming in my throat and I almost started to cry, but I knew I had to keep it together since Lily was absolutely frozen.

[00:35:10] She was still walking and squeezing my hand tighter than ever. When I looked at her face, she looked absolutely terrified. The man who wasn't taking no for an answer said, come on, I'm offering you guys help. Then he called us names.

[00:35:27] He then slipped between us, which made her let go of my hand. He put his arms around our shoulders and walked with us. He reeked strongly of weed. I tried to shove him off, but he gripped my waist

[00:35:41] and pulled me close. Lily finally snapped out of it and tried to get out of his grip as well. He grunted and started yelling at her for trying to escape. She started trying to pry me out of

[00:35:52] his arms, and I was also trying to free myself. When she finally pulled me out of his grip, I grabbed her hand and we ran. We ran as fast as we could. We still had a decent way to go

[00:36:03] before reaching our homes though, and he was running after us now, catching up fast. Now, I knew somebody who lived nearby, so I decided to head for their house and just hope that they

[00:36:13] were home and that they would help us. My legs were burning, but I didn't care. We both ran like our lives depended on it, and I believe that they did. We finally made it to the house that I

[00:36:25] was looking for and ran up the steps. We didn't even bother knocking because he was right behind us and getting ready to climb the steps to the porch. Luckily, the door of the house was unlocked,

[00:36:35] so we swung the door open, shut it immediately, and locked it behind us. The man jiggled the door handle. The family that I knew who lived in this house hurried into the

[00:36:45] room that we were in. They had obviously just woken up from sleeping. The dad asked what was happening. Through our sobs, we explained the situation. The mother ran to the back door and

[00:36:56] locked it, and they called the police and our parents. Once the police got there, they said they couldn't find the person we described. To this day, I don't think they ever found the creepy

[00:37:07] guy who followed us that night. Lily and I are still together, and we still have nightmares about that night, but we're always there for each other when it happens. So to that creepy guy who followed

[00:37:17] and chased me and my girlfriend that night, I hope we never meet again. I have a story to share which took place in 2013. I was 20 years old and recently came out of the closet, so I was having

[00:37:44] a fun time. This happened in a park in western New York, close to Buffalo. I recently started dating a guy. We decided to go to this park with two of our close friends after hours. To give you

[00:37:56] an idea of the layout of the park, when you pull in from the side road, you are immediately in the parking lot. From there, you can either enter the park through the wooden bridge trail or walk up to

[00:38:07] the playground situated next to a large hill. The park is within the Great Beehive Swamp, so there are typical wetland, swampy trails there. The hill in this park was mainly used during the winter for

[00:38:21] sledding and other various winter activities. We decided to start our evening by walking the trail. Having grown up close to the trail, I was very familiar with the area and could comfortably get

[00:38:34] around without any issue. After reaching the end of the trail, we decided to turn around and walk back towards the parking lot area. It was only around 10 at night at this point, but we were

[00:38:46] unwilling to go back home, so we decided to walk up to the playground to explore. The playground had your typical amenities, such as swings, raised tunnels to climb through, different exercise

[00:38:58] equipment, and a tower of sorts that looked like a treehouse and acted as a connector for some of the previously mentioned tunnels. The four of us ultimately got up to the tower and sat down in a

[00:39:11] square formation facing each other. We were just chatting and laughing about whatever. The walls of the upper deck of the tower were slitted so that you could see all the way around while sitting

[00:39:23] in the nook of the tower. After about 20 minutes, we saw a car pull into the parking lot. It drove past my car, which was the only other car in the parking lot. Then it faced us with its headlights

[00:39:37] about 100 feet away. No more than a minute after arriving, the car began to flash its high and low beams in a distinct pattern. Regular lights, low beams, high beams, regular lights, low beams, high beams,

[00:39:52] and so on and so forth. Being angsty young adults, we took out our phones and turned on the flashlights in a yes we see you fashion. The flashing light sequence continued for another few minutes,

[00:40:05] then the car turned around and left the parking lot. We were a bit unsettled but also kind of laughed it off since we were naive young adults or whatever. Then 10 minutes later, we were in the

[00:40:18] middle of our conversation when my then boyfriend said, look at the top of the hill. Once I looked over, I saw three individuals wearing hoodies standing there. At least that's what we could make out that they were wearing from the reflection of their flashlights. These individuals began flashing

[00:40:37] their flashlights at us. Two of them had flashlights and one of them was using his phone light. They were using the same flashing pattern as the car that we saw before. This was probably a stupid

[00:40:49] choice but I wanted to look brave so I shouted, I'm calling the cops! They immediately turned their lights off so we thought perhaps this ordeal was over. We started our conversation again and while

[00:41:01] I was talking, I was interrupted by a clunk against the roof of the tower. Someone had thrown by the sound of it a heavy rock in our direction. This was followed by a barrage of similar pings and pops

[00:41:13] around us so we sprung up and raced towards the car. Looking back, I saw the outline of individuals hauling it towards us. We luckily got into the car and backed out of the parking spot as quickly

[00:41:26] as my little Prius allowed. When I put the car in drive, we saw the reflection of masked men running full speed alongside my car hitting the sides of it with their fists. After bolting out

[00:41:39] of there and catching our breath, we looked at one another in pale confusion. We realized we probably just merely escaped some kind of terrible situation. Was this a drug deal or a drop or something else? Who knows? To those masked individuals who scared us, let's not meet.

[00:42:07] This story took place in the early 2000s. During that time I was a middle schooler. I would take the school bus to and from school. In the mornings, I would walk to the pickup point and in the afternoons I would walk back home from the drop-off location.

[00:42:22] It wasn't far. I lived about a block away from the bus stop. First, I need to describe this bus route so you can understand my story a bit better. In the morning, the bus would stop at my bus stop first

[00:42:36] to pick up passengers and then after school our stop was the last stop to be dropped off. There were only four other students who used this bus stop and counting me there were five. But during sports season, club meetings and other school events, other students would take

[00:42:53] their friend's school bus to get to their friend's houses. This would leave the bus ride home empty for me sometimes if I didn't have any plans to go with friends. Now at this time we had a new

[00:43:05] bus driver. It was a man who looked to be in his mid-40s. He had long oily brown hair slicked back into a ponytail. He also had a long unkempt beard that looked like it needed to be washed.

[00:43:20] He would always comb through his beard with his fingers as he made each stop. I was a naive middle school girl. I believed that adults were the ones we were supposed to be able to trust

[00:43:33] and they would protect us in return. As I de-boarded the bus each day, I would always say goodbye or yay I'm home. The bus driver started to notice my comments and he asked where I lived. I told him

[00:43:47] that I would point it out one day. A few weeks later, he asked me where I lived again as I got on the bus after school. I said I'll point it out to you. I chose to sit closest to the bus driver

[00:43:59] as we made our way home. On this particular day, I luckily had another student getting off at my stop with me so I wouldn't be alone at the last bus stop. As we approached our stop, I told the

[00:44:12] driver if he looked left that was my house. He said, wow you live there? It's nice. When we arrived at the bus stop, he opened the door of the school bus and said goodbye. I replied, alright bye see

[00:44:27] tomorrow. As I got off the bus, the other student did as well. Then the bus driver drove and took a right instead of going his usual direction. It was unexpected but I didn't think much of it and I

[00:44:42] just walked home. A little while after getting home, I took my shoes off and got ready to watch Avatar on Nickelodeon. I was home alone for about an hour each afternoon during the week before my

[00:44:55] dad got home from work. He got off of work at about 3 30 in the afternoon and typically arrived home at around 4 30. As I settled in to watch my show out of the corner of my eye through the window,

[00:45:08] I saw the school bus pass down the street. My street is narrow and has a roundabout but this didn't seem unusual so I didn't think anything of it. In my driveway there was only one car which

[00:45:22] was this deadbeat car that my dad was trying to fix. Although I was home alone, this probably created the illusion that somebody was home with me. A few weeks later, there was a big football

[00:45:35] game and a lot of students stayed after school to wait for the football game to start. I chose not to go to the game since my friends weren't going. So I boarded my usual bus and went home. The other

[00:45:47] passengers who got off at my stop weren't on the bus that day and I didn't realize it until we were at the bus stop before mine. As I watched everyone deboard, I realized I would be the only one who was

[00:46:00] dropped off at the last stop. It was customary for students to move closer to the exit as the bus cleared so I got up and sat closest to the bus driver at the front of the bus. During the drive

[00:46:13] to my bus stop, the driver asked some questions. He asked what I like to do for fun, what I do on the weekends, and what I like to do after school. I didn't think anything of these questions and

[00:46:26] answered them honestly. I don't remember saying anything too specific except for I liked watching TV after school while waiting for my dad to come home. Upon hearing this, the bus driver pursed his lips together and started to hum. I realized he passed the bus stop

[00:46:46] and I told him this. He replied, oh don't worry, I can just drop you off in front of your house. I was surprised and responded, really? Okay. Now I thought this was cool because I was getting

[00:47:01] the VIP experience and I didn't have to walk. As we turned onto my street, he began to slow down and stopped right in front of the wrong house. Then he said, all right we're here. I looked at

[00:47:14] him and said, no that's not my house. He smiled slyly and said, show me which one is your house. I got up eagerly and stood in the middle of the aisle a little closer to the stairs and

[00:47:27] the windshield of the bus. When I saw my house, I pointed and said, there it's the dark blue house. Then he pulled in front of my house slowly, stopped, and turned off the engine.

[00:47:40] But I noticed that he didn't open the door. I said, okay well, that's my house. He looked at me then got up. At that moment, I was pulling my backpack over my shoulder and the bus driver got really close to me. The expression on his face changed.

[00:48:00] His eyes were fixated on me as if he were imagining something. I felt my gut drop. I sensed the change in the situation and said, excuse me, aren't you going to open the door?

[00:48:13] I need to go home. As he spoke, he was so close to me that I felt his breath brush against my shoulder. The bus stop driver replied while staring straight at me. I can open the door for you.

[00:48:28] My legs were frozen. I kept thinking to myself, come on legs, move, go. I managed to rush down the few steps and exit. I stood in front of the door, which he hadn't opened yet.

[00:48:42] I looked back at him and demanded, you need to open the door right now. His face and his gaze never changed. He pulled the lever to open the door and I booked it to my house.

[00:48:56] Once I was inside, I locked both locks on my front door. I ran upstairs to peek out the window. The bus was still there with the door still open. I kept staring, concentrating to see if

[00:49:08] he was still on the bus. Then I saw him come from behind the bus. He was acting as if he were checking the bus to see if it had broken down. I ducked down since I was scared for him to

[00:49:21] see me looking out the window. I was afraid that he would come into the house. I ran back downstairs and checked the back door and windows to make sure that they were all locked. Then I went into

[00:49:32] my room, closed the door and locked it while I waited for my dad. While waiting, I actually ended up falling asleep. I woke up to my dad calling my name and knocking on the bedroom door.

[00:49:44] I couldn't find the courage to tell my dad what happened. Instead, I just kept it inside. I was too afraid to go to school on the bus the next day. So I asked my dad if he could drop me

[00:49:53] off. I told him that I had an early morning meeting even though I didn't. I was feeling much safer at school so I went to the school library and just waited for school to start. I did that

[00:50:05] until I ran out of excuses to be brought to school early. About a week later, I had to take the bus again. I stood at the bus stop. I was thinking that I would be met with my demise but instead

[00:50:19] I was greeted by a substitute bus driver who eventually became the permanent bus driver. It was a relief but I haven't been able to look at or sit in a school bus or any other kind of bus

[00:50:31] comfortably after this. I don't know what happened to that bus driver but I know that he had horrific intentions. So to the bus driver who tried to trap a little girl on a school bus, let's never meet

[00:50:44] again. The Old Time Radio cast is finally back. Multiple new episodes will be released every single week and you'll always have some classic radio creeps to keep you and the entire family entertained. For the newer listeners out there, we take some of the most horrifying tales from

[00:51:12] the golden age of radio, clean them up and remaster them for you, preserving the very best era in audio entertainment with stories of suspense, mystery, and horror. And I'm not just dumping the entire catalog of Old Time Radio shows on the feed, you're getting hand-picked top

[00:51:27] quality episodes of suspense, dark fantasy, the whistler, and many more. So make sure you check that out along with the new episodes of my other podcasts, Odd Trails and Welcome to Paradise It Sucks all at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This week you have heard

[00:51:43] Fake Security Guard by Anonymous, He Hid in Our Salon for Three Hours by Rachel, The Woman on the Plane by Anup, Karma by Yoga Warrior, Our Creepy Third Wheel by Anonymous, After Hours at the Park

[00:51:58] by Michael, and finally He Tried to Trap Me on the School Bus by Mayflower. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. If you

[00:52:08] have a story to share, make sure you send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online.

[00:52:18] If you want to get access to the extended ad-free version of this week's episode and a bunch of other bonus content, head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up and support

[00:52:28] the show today. If you're already a patron, just stick around after the music for all of your bonus content. We'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet. Everyone stay safe.