11x17: The Axe Man

[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've been a fan of the podcast for some time and like many other listeners,

[00:00:42] I finally felt like it was time to share my own story. Before I get started, I want to quickly note that all names, truck numbers, call signs, etc. have been changed for the safety, respect, and security of all parties involved.

[00:00:58] For some background, I work as an EMT in the Northeastern United States and I am encroaching on completing my first year on the job. As the medical field is dynamic and unimaginably fast, I still believe that I'm new to the job

[00:01:16] even though the average shelf life of someone in my position is only 2 years. The city I work in may not be the largest but it still has a diverse population, leading to a wide variety of patients and even wider variety of conditions, maladies, and afflictions.

[00:01:35] Before an EMT in my state is cleared to work on the road, they must first work a certain number of hours in an observational role. This requires us to work under the watchful eye of a field training officer which we'll call an FTO.

[00:01:52] This particular incident happened during my first week of FTO training, wherein I was expected to perform as a provider in my area normally would, though I would have a much more experienced provider watching over my shoulder in case I was in need of guidance or correction.

[00:02:08] We were nearing the end of our shift, having just finished up a long distance transfer, when my FTO offered to have me drive the box truck. The box truck is the stereotypical ambulance that most are familiar with.

[00:02:22] He offered to have me drive it back to the city while he sat next to me with his partner in the back of the ambulance. We were still an hour away from the city, which allowed me ample time to become familiar with

[00:02:35] driving such a hulking beast of an ambulance. Now this particular truck was a little quirky in the sense that the transmission often got stuck, making it difficult to move around through the different gears.

[00:02:48] I, however, was blissfully unaware of this little quirk, and my FTO failed to mention said quirk, as I assume he was quite used to it. Luckily, the drive back to the city went without incident.

[00:03:02] However, as soon as we crossed the border back into the city, we heard a beep. 827-827-Priority 1 in the city for a male in crisis wielding an axe, PD has been requested.

[00:03:15] For those of you who are unfamiliar, the moniker in crisis tends to refer to persons with an altered level of consciousness, violent behavior, or psychological condition that may warrant medical intervention. Anytime EMS gets sent one of these calls, the first priority is

[00:03:33] scene safety, hence why the police department was called. The main prerogative in our shoes is to prevent the number of patients from increasing as well as to ensure the safety and security of the patient and the healthcare providers in whatever position they may find

[00:03:50] themselves in. As such, if the call has the potential to be unsafe for the providers, like a man wielding an axe for example, EMS will stage themselves in a nearby location and wait for the police department to create a safer environment in order to work in.

[00:04:09] We were still about 10 minutes out from this call, so, as instructed by our dispatchers, we flicked on the lights, cranked up the sirens, and sped to our call. When we were about 3 minutes away from our call, we reached out to the dispatcher over the air

[00:04:25] to check on the status of the police department. The dispatcher responded, 827, PD states that they are about 5 minutes from your call. As we had some time, my FTO instructed me to flick on the lights, turn off the sirens,

[00:04:40] and make a casual pass by the address, which happened to be a liquor store that often attracted the wrong type of people. We wanted to see if we could spot the patient. My FTO checked the

[00:04:52] call notes on the monitor in our truck, and there wasn't anybody that we could see that matched the description of the individual in question. We made two more passes by the liquor store, and still,

[00:05:03] we couldn't identify anyone. After our third pass, we requested an update on the police department. We didn't see any cruisers. The dispatcher assured, 827, PD states they are on the scene for your

[00:05:17] call. Once again, we validated the address as there was no sign of either PD or the patient. My FTO instructed me, after confirming the address, to pull into the parking lot to see if we spot

[00:05:30] anyone either inside the liquor store or hiding anywhere else, as all was still quiet on the western front. As you can probably guess, this was not the best idea. However, this is where things

[00:05:43] got interesting. I pulled that behemoth into the lot, and sure enough, we finally saw a man who not only matched the description, but he was also waving a can of chewing tobacco around in a wild,

[00:05:55] frantic manner. But the good news was, no acts in sight. As we laid eyes on the patient, we still didn't have any eyes on PD. We decided to put it in reverse and get out of there. As I began backing

[00:06:10] up, however, a white Honda Pilot sped into the lot, preventing me from being able to reverse without wrecking her car in the process. As soon as I go to put the bus into drive to avoid said

[00:06:22] wreckage, I hear my FTO say, Pete, drive. What's wrong? I begin to ask. Pete, he's pulling an axe from behind the garbage can. Drive! My FTO said. I frantically pulled the stick down, and it was stuck.

[00:06:38] Pete, he's coming towards us with the axe, my FTO announced. I continued tugging at the first gear with no luck. Pete, he's getting closer, narrated my FTO. I managed to shift gears, but unfortunately,

[00:06:53] now I was in neutral. Pete, drive, now! He barked. I'm trying, I panicked. I continued to shift back and forth between not being in drive and being even further away from being in drive. All the

[00:07:08] while, my FTO was shouting frantically at me while a drugged up Michael Myers shambles his way over to the meek ambulance crew in their stubborn, dysfunctional bus. As he was right on top of us,

[00:07:21] the EMS gods decided to bless us, finally placing the truck into drive. Believe me when I say, I have never pulled out of a parking lot so quickly in my life. Just as we peeled out of there, a police

[00:07:34] cruiser calmly pulled into the parking lot. Seeing that the cavalry had arrived, we pulled over to the side of the road to watch how the situation unfolded. PD parked on the side of the lot and

[00:07:45] began looking around for the patient who was walking towards the road away from PD in an attempt to nonchalantly leave the scene. See, our friend with the axe experienced a moment when he

[00:07:58] saw the cruiser pulling up to the scene and he came up with the brilliant idea. He decided to shove the axe down his pants and conceal the axe head under his shirt. Flawless plan, except that

[00:08:11] there was one little thing our axe wielder did not take into account. He was wearing ripped jeans, which was very fashionable, though not the best for concealing anything, let alone a woodcutter's

[00:08:24] axe. He clearly was a dream big kind of guy as he did not settle for a knife or a hatchet in the first place. No, he selected a big and scary lumberjack tool. Efficient in practice, though

[00:08:37] difficult to hide, especially in pants where the knees have rips. As such, a good foot of the axe handle was slipped out from the hole in his ripped jeans. Not to mention, this way that he

[00:08:48] chose to store the axe caused him to limp whilst making his getaway not the least bit inconspicuous. This limp coupled with our frantic pointing in his direction led PD straight to him.

[00:09:00] The officer in front of him looked down at the axe. The axe wielder followed his gaze. The officer lifted his shirt, revealing the axe head. The officer and the guy looked at each other,

[00:09:12] then down at the axe, then back at each other, then once again back at the axe. The officer sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb as he said,

[00:09:22] Sir, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. Then his partner began placing the man in handcuffs. The FTO got out

[00:09:31] of the truck with his partner and assisted PD with getting the patient onto the stretcher and securing him to said stretcher in a manner that would neither endanger the patient's circulation nor endanger any of us. Mind you, I was still at the wheel, trembling like a dog on

[00:09:46] the 4th of July, and that's when I heard a knock at the window. Hey Pete, why don't you come in the back with us? My FTO said. Yeah, sure. I responded in a quivering voice.

[00:10:00] Once in the back of the ambulance, the patient began thrashing around as he no longer had the axe to hold him back. He was screaming, cursing and flailing all before stopping abruptly as he

[00:10:12] made eye contact with me. The devil is dead, he said with a blank expression. His eyes were wildly speaking of his many intimate encounters with mind altering substances. He then turned his head to the side to stare at his reflection in the plexiglass slider of our equipment cabinet.

[00:10:32] Then he suddenly let out an otherworldly scream which descended into this mad cackle. When we finally made it to the hospital, we brought him inside to the behavioral ER, where nurses, techs and security were already waiting in the wings. We brought him into the

[00:10:49] room, where he was flooded by staff attempting to keep him under control while we took off his restraints and moved him over to a hospital bed. Once there, he was placed in restraints once again, though he was still putting on a grand performance of cursing, spitting and thrashing

[00:11:04] about. To prevent any danger to himself or others, a nurse hurried over to sedate him. This lit a fiery passion in him and he managed to contort his body in such a way that,

[00:11:16] while restrained, allowed himself to thrust his hand into his pants for an emergency meeting with Johnson and Johnson. Before this could progress any further, the sedatives worked their magic and he went limp. To all of those in or thinking of joining EMS, please remember the importance

[00:11:37] of scene safety before arriving on scene for any call that may pose a potential danger. To all of those brave first responders who put themselves on the line to ensure that the scene

[00:11:48] is safe, thank you for all that you do. You ensure that, at the end of the day, we all get to go home in one piece. To all of the nurses and hospital staff, thanks for all of the help that you provide

[00:11:59] to those in need while having the bravery to look after those whose needs go beyond the hospital setting. And to our friend wielding the axe, I hope you found peace and happiness through less self-destructive means. But most of all, let's not meet.

[00:12:30] My friend group and I used to hang around my old hometown which was a very small and kind of sketchy place. In all honesty, we were the basic skid type of kids so this environment seemed

[00:12:43] normal. For reference, I'm a female. I was 13 at the time. I lived in the next town over from my hometown so my dad drove me to my hometown so I could meet with my friends since we made plans

[00:12:56] to hang out at a school that we often hung out at. My friends were running late and most of my friends couldn't afford cell phone plans so I didn't have the option to reach out to them.

[00:13:08] I just had to wait. My dad dropped me off and left. So I sat on a bench in front of the school and I called another friend, Cory, just to check on where my other friends were because he almost

[00:13:20] always knew where everybody was. Cory told me that they were at a restaurant about a 20-minute walk away from where I was so he told Colin and Mark, the two friends, to head over to me since it's

[00:13:32] where we agreed to meet. While I was waiting, I saw somebody walking up whom I had met once before. I hadn't really recognized him until he sat beside me and started talking to me.

[00:13:45] He was a strange guy and my friends had vaguely told me how he tried to tag along with them despite their continuous attempts to get him off their back. No matter how transparent they were

[00:13:57] with him, he always came back acting as though he were best friends with all of them. He was about 17 and all my friends were around that age as well. Even though I was 13, they never made it

[00:14:08] weird and always treated me like a little sister. As we were sitting there, this guy started talking to me about one of the other female friends. He told me that he was supposed to hang out with her

[00:14:21] that day. He said she was very upset since he knocked at the back door of her ground level apartment. He arrived without giving her any warning so she didn't answer the door when she

[00:14:32] saw him. He was particularly upset about this because he said that he wanted to kiss her. The more he was telling me his story, the more uncomfortable I got. He noticed this but continued

[00:14:46] talking and said that he needed to kiss someone no matter who it was. He even started complimenting me which made me even more comfortable so I got up and walked around the side of the school

[00:14:56] telling him I needed to call someone. I called Cory again and he told me that Colin and Mark hadn't left the restaurant to walk over to me yet. Cory told me to just come over to them

[00:15:07] since they weren't planning on leaving anytime soon. I then told Cory what was going on with the strange guy and he said that he wasn't surprised this was happening and advised me to

[00:15:16] get out of the situation as quickly as possible. Stressed out, I walked back to the bench where the guy was. I grabbed my purse and said, I'm going to find Colin and Mark. See you later.

[00:15:27] I was hoping that was straightforward enough to indicate that I wanted the conversation to end and that we would be parting ways but he quickly got up and responded, I'm coming with you. I didn't say a thing as we started walking. This guy continued to talk

[00:15:42] about how angry he was with my female friend. From the way that he was talking about it, I felt like he had very bad intentions with her. After popping off about it for the first

[00:15:54] five minutes of our walk, he shifted into complimenting me again. I was focused on walking as fast as I could hoping I could eventually get away from him. I didn't want to run

[00:16:06] as I was fairly certain that he would chase me. The next 15 minutes of the walk felt like forever. This guy's comments were getting increasingly vile and now lewd. Every time we passed a person

[00:16:20] on the sidewalk, I looked at them with the most fearful expression that I could muster, praying that someone would stop and interrupt this awful conversation. As we were coming up on a crosswalk which led to a McDonald's just across from the parking lot of the restaurant

[00:16:35] where my friends were, the guy asked, what would you do if I slapped your butt? I told him I definitely wouldn't like that or respond well, hoping that he wouldn't try anything. We arrived

[00:16:48] at the crosswalk which was button activated so we had to wait. As we were waiting for the light to turn, he did it. He slapped my butt. I gave myself blisters on the bottom of my feet from walking so

[00:17:01] fast. I started crying since I was terrified of this situation. I texted my dad who said that he was on his way to come get me. I gave my dad my exact location hoping that he would arrive as

[00:17:11] soon as possible. Instead of walking to the restaurant where my friends were, I told the guy through tears that I was going to use the bathroom at McDonald's. I walked into the busy McDonald's

[00:17:21] right away and sobbed on the way into the bathroom. I immediately called Cory and told him everything. He told me to wait in the bathroom while he sent Colin and Mark over to McDonald's.

[00:17:31] My dad also texted me and told me that he arrived so I immediately ran back outside. As I was trying to walk to my dad's car, that guy grabbed me and then pushed me up against the side

[00:17:43] of the McDonald's. My dad got out of his car and yelled at the guy to get off of me. I stood there blankly for a moment before running to my dad and hopping into the back seat of the car. My stepmom

[00:17:54] was sitting in the passenger seat and she held my hand while my dad called the cops. Meanwhile, Colin and Mark were now approaching the scene looking like they were ready for a fight.

[00:18:05] My friends took the guy inside McDonald's and talked to him about how awful he was being towards me. The cops came and took my statement. At this point my friends were yelling at this guy. The

[00:18:16] cop didn't seem upset with my friends as she understood why they were yelling at him. The cop also took statements from a few witnesses at McDonald's and reviewed the CCTV footage from outside of it. I wound up pressing charges and he pled guilty but skipped sentencing and meetings

[00:18:32] with his lawyer many times resulting in him only being sentenced to six months of probation. It's been more than a year since this happened and I still can't walk past that McDonald's without

[00:18:44] getting chills. I hate to think of where this guy is now but I hope we never meet again. I'm a 41 year old woman working as a food delivery driver in the central valley of California.

[00:19:11] Recently on Labor Day, I received an order at about 10 at night. I immediately accepted it seeing that the pay was very good. After accepting the order, I went to the burger place and picked

[00:19:24] up the food. After clicking picked up on the app and transitioning to navigating to the destination, I saw that the customer's address was up the mountains and in a very rural area. I had delivered to this house before but my previous trip there occurred during the daytime

[00:19:41] when it was nice and sunny out. I didn't think too much of it and just headed up the road. After driving out of the city, the main road turns into a windy two lane road going up the mountain.

[00:19:54] The main road was pitch black and I couldn't see the house from the road but I managed to make my way there in 25 minutes. The driveway leading up to the house loops up the hill and loops back down

[00:20:07] so there's only one way in and one way out. After making the delivery, I headed back down the driveway. Once I was back down at the bottom, I needed to turn left onto the winding road to get back

[00:20:19] down to the main road taking me back into the city. Since it was pitch black, I made sure to look both ways to see if any cars were coming before making the turn. I saw the headlights of a

[00:20:30] big pickup truck coming up the mountain so I waited for them to pass before turning left but the truck stopped right in front of my car blocking me and preventing me from turning left.

[00:20:43] I was so confused. Why were they blocking me? Was it someone who lived here? Were they trying to enter the driveway? Every time I inched my car forward in an attempt to pass them, they aggressively inched their truck forward to keep blocking me in. My only other option

[00:21:02] was to exit to the right and drive up the mountain away from my city. I went ahead and did that but then they started tailgating me, following my car up. The truck's headlights were so bright

[00:21:17] that I couldn't see well at all. After a few minutes, I thought I'd just drive all the way up the mountain to where the casino was. I used to work there and it's open 24-7.

[00:21:29] Then I remembered that all the cell phone coverage was lost on the way up there. With the truck on my tail, I pretended that I was going to turn left into a random dirt road.

[00:21:40] And the truck puts its left blinker on. I didn't take the turn and I continued up the mountain, but the truck did the same, still tailgating me with its brights on. I thought, there's no way

[00:21:53] I can keep driving with this person behind me. I saw a small turnout on the right side of the road so I pulled into it quickly, leaving no room behind my car. There wasn't enough room for

[00:22:04] another car to pull in front of my car either. It was just a small pocket on the side of the road. I thought that the truck had no choice but to pass me, but it didn't. It stopped on the road

[00:22:17] next to my driver's side. It stopped so close that it almost grazed my car. The truck was so big that it blocked the entire turnout. I couldn't get out. The truck was an older model with tinted

[00:22:30] windows. I couldn't see inside. I called 911 and spoke to a dispatcher who asked me for my location. I told her what road I was on, but there were no actual addresses anywhere nearby.

[00:22:43] A few moments later, another car was coming up the road. It had to stop since this truck was stopped on the road. I turned on my emergency blinkers and honked my horn repeatedly, trying

[00:22:55] to get the other driver's attention. The truck pulled forward to let this car pass them, and they continued driving on. This had given me just enough space to make a quick u-turn.

[00:23:06] The truck could not make a quick u-turn. It was too big, but it still made a slow, multi-point u-turn. As this happened, my phone call with the dispatcher dropped. I lost cell service as I started speeding

[00:23:21] down the road towards the city. The truck was now continuing to follow. After a few minutes, there was enough cell service to call 911 again. I spoke to a different dispatcher. He stayed on

[00:23:33] the line with me until I reached the city streets. My adrenaline was still pumping as I lost the truck and made my way home. To whoever was in that big old pickup truck, blocking me and chasing me for

[00:23:46] no reason at all, late at night. Let's not meet. When I was about 10 or 11, my family and I had a neighbor who was an elderly man. He was in his 70s. I don't remember what his first name was.

[00:24:19] I just called him Mr. Miller. He would chat with my parents often and reminded us that he fought in the Vietnam War, and he obviously had some PTSD from it. He slept all day but would be up all

[00:24:33] night. After a while, he kind of gave us this off vibe. He told my parents that he kept a bunch of guns in his house. Obviously, this worried my parents, so they told me and my older brother

[00:24:46] to be careful while playing outside. I've always been pretty empathetic as a person. I can feel people's energy almost instantly, and I have a pretty good intuition about what type of person

[00:24:58] somebody is, and I always felt uneasy about him. I felt that something was very wrong with him. Whenever I was playing outside and I saw Mr. Miller, I would immediately go back inside the

[00:25:11] house since I didn't want to be around him. I need to mention this because it's relevant to the story. My brother's then-girlfriend had a golden retriever that had a litter of puppies

[00:25:23] and she let us pick one out. We picked one whose name was Tommy. He was the sweetest dog, and my best friend. Since he was a golden retriever, he was nice to everybody that he met.

[00:25:36] My parents had a gated fence put in our backyard so that Tommy could run around as much as he pleased as we played outside together. One of the fences had a swinging door that we could get in

[00:25:47] and out of. The height of it was short enough to where you could reach your arm over and pet Tommy. This door was on the furthest end of the backyard, next to the other neighbor's house.

[00:25:59] We also had another entrance to the backyard from the inside of our house. There were French doors in our dining room that went out to the back porch and immediately to the right

[00:26:08] was Mr. Miller's backyard. Now Tommy would bark quite a bit. He mostly barked at the other animals and people running by on the street, as most dogs do. But his barking would get especially bad at night.

[00:26:23] As I said before, Mr. Miller was regularly up during the night. Thinking back on it now, it makes sense why Tommy barked so much at night. It was because Tommy could also tell that something

[00:26:34] was off about this guy. I remember one day I had come home from school and there was a voicemail on our landline phone. It was from Mr. Miller. I don't remember exactly what he said,

[00:26:48] but it was something to the effect of, if we didn't get a handle on our dog then, he would call animal control and have him taken away from us. This made me very upset and I was

[00:27:00] worried that Tommy was going to get taken away. My parents weren't too happy either, so my dad went over and had a talk with Mr. Miller about it. There's one particular instance that happened

[00:27:12] with Mr. Miller that my mom told me about. She told me that she had noticed a big tree branch was propped up against Mr. Miller's side of the fence, which was odd. She suspected that he was

[00:27:26] using this branch to poke at Tommy and get him riled up so that he would have an excuse to call animal control and have him taken away. This was later confirmed when my grandparents on my mom's

[00:27:37] side came over one day to feed Tommy while we were gone. They were standing in the dining room and they saw Mr. Miller standing against the fence with the tree branch in his hand. Once he noticed them

[00:27:50] standing there, he set it back down. Not too long after that, my mom was at home and had to go into the backyard because she could see that Tommy was visibly upset about something. The fur on his back

[00:28:03] and his neck were standing up straight. He was growling. He was in full protective mode. My mom kept trying to walk towards the fence, but Tommy wouldn't let her. Then she noticed that Mr. Miller

[00:28:16] was in his yard standing up against the fence. When Tommy saw Mr. Miller, he ran to the fence full force and threw himself up against it so ferociously that it shook the whole entire thing.

[00:28:29] My parents decided to set up a camera on a tripod inside the house to try and catch Mr. Miller in the act of whatever he was doing to Tommy. We ended up having to give Tommy away to some family friends

[00:28:42] for different reasons, but Mr. Miller ended up moving away. Luckily, we didn't see him again after that. I'm 30 years old now, and I still think about this childhood memory every so often. Mr. Miller, although I really hope you ended up getting the help that you so desperately needed,

[00:29:00] let's not meet again. When this happened, I was 18. I'm currently 27. I grew up in a very bad home situation. This caused me to move from Washington to Utah with a family who was willing to help me

[00:29:26] until I was able to get back on my feet. It was the first time I had ever felt free. After a couple of weeks of living in Utah, I was able to find a customer service job working at a

[00:29:38] car wash. At the time, the family that I was living with lived approximately 2 miles away from my new job. I didn't have my driver's license due to coming out of a strict living situation where my parents needed to heavily control every aspect of my life. That being said,

[00:29:56] I had no other option but to walk to and from work. I was on my way to work one crisp fall morning. It was about 7 in the morning, and I was about halfway through my walk to my destination.

[00:30:10] I was walking past a cemetery when I suddenly began to hear the sound of crunching leaves behind me. I immediately began to feel this large pit forming in my stomach, thinking that somebody

[00:30:22] was following me. At the same time, my rational brain made me think that I was just being paranoid. I started to tell myself that this was true and what I was hearing was probably

[00:30:34] someone visiting their departed loved one, so I pushed the feeling of dread deep down inside. After about 10 more minutes of walking, I could still hear footsteps behind me. Once again,

[00:30:47] trying not to freak out, I began to think maybe this person could be in a similar situation as me and doesn't have a car. But then I heard the steps pick up their pace until they turned into full-on

[00:31:01] running. In response to fight or flight, I tend to freeze so I refused to turn around and I kept walking. I then heard a male voice scream, STOP WALKING! I continued to ignore what was going on

[00:31:19] behind me and acted like I was completely oblivious, just listening to music. The man finally caught up to me and I felt this sharp, painful tug on my arm. I had no choice but to reluctantly turn

[00:31:33] and look at him. When I turned, I found that a large man was breathing heavily through his mouth while staring down at me. You're not an easy one to catch, the man said breathlessly.

[00:31:46] In my best customer service voice I said, what do you need help with? I'm in a huge rush, I can't be late. Still holding my arm he asked, do you have a boyfriend? I quickly pulled away and yelled, I'm sorry, I really need to go.

[00:32:03] I continued walking quickly until I reached work, feeling relieved since it seemed like the man was no longer following me. Or so I thought. I carried on with my work day and 9 hours later it was time for me to walk back to where I was staying.

[00:32:19] I changed out of the vans that I wore to work in and into my walking shoes. I stepped outside, ready to begin the 2 mile journey. That's when I saw the large man again. I avoided making eye

[00:32:32] contact with him and began walking. I heard footsteps behind me again, but stayed vigilant in my speed and stayed focused on getting to safety. I had reached the cemetery again when this man once again pulled my arm. He started bombarding me with questions. He was slurring in

[00:32:53] his speech, clearly on some kind of heavy drugs. I made up an excuse to get out of the conversation and I was able to get away from him. For the next 6 months, I continued to see this man by

[00:33:05] the cemetery every single day until I finally started dating a man who became my husband. Shortly after we started dating, he began to drive me to work daily. Eventually he taught me how to drive and I got my license and my own car.

[00:33:21] I was grateful that shortly after meeting my now husband, I never had to walk by that cemetery again. To the large man who was always at the cemetery and liked to follow a young girl

[00:33:31] to work, let's not meet again. The date was December 6th, 2019. At the time I was a 22 year old woman living in Mississippi and I was still attending college. I was living with my older

[00:33:54] male co-worker that allowed me to live in his spare bedroom in his townhouse. We'll call him Dean. Dean and I smoked a ton of weed and drank a ton as well. I trusted him as he had never made

[00:34:08] any moves on me. He spoke to me in a way that created almost a sibling type of relationship between us. Though most wouldn't believe there to be a possibility for a girl in her 20s to have

[00:34:20] that type of relationship with an older male co-worker. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a shapely woman and I often don't make it through the day without receiving attention or compliments.

[00:34:32] With that being said, the men that I was dating at the time didn't trust my living arrangements whatsoever. Anyway, like I said, Dean and I were simply co-workers. Most of our other co-workers also smoked weed. Honestly, there wasn't much else to safely do in Jackson, Mississippi given

[00:34:50] the crime rate is higher than the national average. Our co-workers would come over to our place to unwind and talk about how much we hated our jobs in the city. On this night in particular,

[00:35:04] I don't remember the beginning of the evening much because I was just so high. So very, very high. People spilled out one by one except for this one co-worker, Desmond. Desmond was close friends

[00:35:18] with Dean. Dean had either fallen asleep on the couch or hobbled upstairs to bed, but either way, Dean was out like a light and he was a very heavy sleeper. Desmond and I were playing Life is

[00:35:32] Strange and he kept getting closer to me. I was still heavily under the influence, so eventually I called it and I went upstairs to bed. As soon as I was in bed, I was ready to drift off to sleep.

[00:35:48] I then heard Desmond's footsteps coming upstairs. When I heard him, I asked myself why is he coming up here? Then something inside of me said, lock the door. I instantly complied and I jumped up to

[00:36:04] lock my door. He went to the restroom and to reference another podcast that I listened to, something was wrong. He had just been sitting steps away from a perfectly fine restroom downstairs after all, why did he have to come upstairs? Alarm bells were going off in my head

[00:36:23] because I had been assaulted by a friend of a friend before. This put me right back there and my heart was pounding in my ears, I was trembling. Desmond came out of the restroom. He then tried

[00:36:37] to open my door. No knock or anything, just one quick turn of the knob as if he were planning on walking right in. A moment of silence passed, then there was a light scratching at the door.

[00:36:54] He knocked lightly, then louder and then louder. I told him I want to go to sleep, to which he repeatedly said, no one would have to know, I can make you feel good.

[00:37:11] It can be between you and me. I just lay there weeping quietly, hoping that he would think I was asleep. The next morning, Dean told me that Desmond would not be coming over for a while

[00:37:27] as he stole all of the beers, half of the food and the only working Xbox controller. Being a woman in a patriarchal society, I went on with my life and continued working with this scum of the earth as if nothing happened. Desmond, you dirtbag, let's never

[00:37:46] meet again, because if we do, I'll give you what you deserve. This story took place sometime in 2013. I have long since contemplated sharing this story as it was a traumatic experience for me, however, I believe that maybe through sharing my story I

[00:38:23] can prevent others from experiencing the same. I was in my second year of college, I had just broken up with my first boyfriend. We dated through high school until my second year of

[00:38:34] college. I honestly thought that I was going to be able to spend my life with him, but it didn't work out. I was depressed and lonely, and I was doing terrible in school. My grades were failing

[00:38:45] and I got mixed up with the wrong crowd. I was partying and drinking on almost every single school night. It even got to the point where I was drinking all day instead of going to class.

[00:38:57] It was a rough time, and I clearly wasn't dealing with the breakup so well. I lived in a third world country that was and still is full of rebels and bandits. A terrible

[00:39:09] siege broke out in my city that year. The rebels had an uprising to overthrow the local government of our city. The entire city was on a halt. So many casualties occurred, and houses and properties

[00:39:22] were burned and destroyed by bombs and bullets. This siege lasted for 20 days, but the city's recovery took even longer. As the siege was going on, we were all locked in our houses, just tuning into the news and listening to the terrifying sounds of bombs and gunfire.

[00:39:41] My family and I were lucky that our home was situated near the military base, hence we were secured. During this time, I was bored out of my mind and trapped at home while nursing my still

[00:39:52] broken heart. While I know now that my personal problems were menial in comparison to everything else going on, it felt like I was falling into a black hole. This was when I developed a friendship

[00:40:05] with a guy that I met on Facebook. He lived in a different city that was two hours away from my plane. I had a falling out with most of my friends, so I only had a few people that I could

[00:40:17] talk to besides my aunt and her family, with whom I lived with as my parents were both working abroad. My friendship with this guy on Facebook started out just as friendly chats and banters,

[00:40:30] sending each other memes and whatnot. I was a little apprehensive at first as my gut told me that something felt off about this guy. I eventually asked him to provide me with a photo

[00:40:42] of him holding some kind of written note that said my name on it just to confirm his identity. I gave him 24 hours to send me the photo and let him know that if he failed, I would probably stop

[00:40:54] talking to him. To my surprise and relief, he was able to provide me with the photo that I requested. This caused me to lower my guard and I decided to give him my phone number.

[00:41:05] Warning bells were going off in my head as the voice I heard on the other line did not sound at all like the charming guy in the photos. It was very deep and intense, like it belonged to an

[00:41:18] older man. But I kept the photos that he sent me in mind and brushed off those alarms as paranoia. We continued talking daily through long phone calls and chats. Since I was trapped at home, he provided me with companionship and eased my loneliness.

[00:41:35] I inevitably fell in love with him through our constant 24-7 communication. After two months, school resumed and I saw my friends again. I was able to patch things up with them and I told them about my new long distance boyfriend. This didn't sit well with them,

[00:41:53] they tried to keep their opinions on the low as I was a bit oversensitive back in those days. They knew how my heartbreak nearly destroyed me and thought that if this new boyfriend would help

[00:42:05] me get back on my feet, they'd support it. Another month had passed and my relationship was still ongoing with this long distance guy. I had asked him to video call several times, however he made several detailed, believable excuses as to why he could not.

[00:42:23] My concerns about being catfished were growing as the days went by, but I brushed it all off. That is until one day when one of my friends sent me a video of a clip from a popular

[00:42:36] noon time show that featured guest contestants every day. My heart sank as I saw the face of the guy I had been talking to as one of the contestants. He had a different name and voice and was from a different place. My suspicions were then confirmed.

[00:42:57] With so much hurt and disgust, I tried to break it off with this guy and that's when things took a turn for the worse. I figured out that he lived in the same area and had been watching me for

[00:43:08] weeks without me realizing it. After I figured out the truth about him, he didn't even bother with being subtle about the fact that he had been stalking me. Then he started blackmailing

[00:43:21] me with intimate photos and texts that we exchanged. I wish I knew then what I know now about sharing intimate, private photos. I was so naive. The school that I was enrolled in was very strict about their students since it was a Catholic church. We weren't allowed to

[00:43:40] participate in competitions with swimsuit portions and we weren't allowed to post photos in bikinis so I knew that if my photos were leaked online, I would be expelled. And I couldn't get expelled. My mom had been working tirelessly in a foreign land to pay for my education.

[00:43:58] I couldn't stand the thought of letting her down. At first I thought that if I just ignored him, he would eventually stop. But one day, a student approached me and said that an older guy showed

[00:44:10] him a private photo of me and asked him if he knew who I was as I was his girlfriend. This sent shivers down my spine. It had finally dawned on me that I needed to take this guy

[00:44:23] seriously. I felt like I had to succumb to his demands so that he would delete the photos and finally leave me alone. He instructed me to go to a certain place in my city alone. Though, I know

[00:44:37] how stupid this sounds now, all I had in mind at the time was my mom and how I didn't want to break her heart. So I went. When I arrived, I saw that there were many people around outside as there was

[00:44:50] a small store situated close to his residence. This somehow calmed me and provided me with this false sense of security. He texted me and instructed me to walk up to his door, open it,

[00:45:03] and go inside the house. Which I did. The moment I closed the door behind me, a man emerged and I heard the door being locked from outside. It was a huge man covered in tattoos and looked

[00:45:17] to be in his late 40s. He looked so terrifying, like he could crush me with his bare hands. I started to tremble with fear as he slowly approached me. I knew what was going to befall

[00:45:30] me at that moment, so I started screaming for help. Nobody came. It was as if the herd of people outside of that house were all deaf to my cries. He gave me a strong punch to the stomach which

[00:45:44] blacked me out for some time. I felt everything as I prayed to God. Once he was done with me and I got my strength back, I slowly composed myself and picked up my bag. I asked him with a shaky

[00:45:59] voice if he could delete the photos. But he responded, I'm not done with you yet. Tears rolled down my cheeks and he continued, you better leave before I keep you locked in here.

[00:46:13] I'll see you another day. I walked out of that house. There was still a herd of people outside, but upon walking outside it was as if I were a ghost that nobody could see.

[00:46:27] I went straight to my best friend's house and cried my eyes out. No amount of showering can ever remove the disgust that I felt. I stayed in her shower for hours. I had come to know the guy

[00:46:39] that I had been involved with was a well-known notorious gang leader. I did not want to involve my family or the police out of fear of getting expelled or experiencing retaliation from the gang.

[00:46:52] I know, it's stupid. Luckily my best friend's boyfriend had a friend on the police force. This policeman was a godsend. He helped me out with recording my incident as a formal case.

[00:47:06] Apparently he was friends with one of the guys in the gang. He was able to convince this lowlife to delete my photos and leave me alone. He did so in order to respect the truce that he and his gang

[00:47:17] were enjoying with the police. And with that I finally had my life back. But it took so many years for me to heal and move on from this trauma. I wish that I had done things differently.

[00:47:30] After this I graduated and moved away from my home country. I'm doing well now, career-wise, but I still struggle with my relationships. If anybody out there has a similar situation, please don't hesitate to ask for help. Be brave and fight back. And don't place your trust in

[00:47:47] people too easily, especially when it comes to private information and photos. Be vigilant. I would like to think that this man was eventually slaughtered or is dying from a long and painful disease, but no matter where he is now, let's not meet.

[00:48:18] Thanks for listening, and if you're a patron make sure you stick around after the music for your extended ad-free version of this week's episode. If you want to get access head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. To sign up and support the show today

[00:48:30] you'll get access to all kinds of bonus content. This week you have heard The Axe Man by your friendly neighborhood medical man, A Friend of a Friend by Anonymous, Trapped in the Turnout by

[00:48:42] Miracle, Mr. Miller by Katie Cole, He Was Always at the Cemetery by Siobhan, No One Will Have to Know by Something Simple, and finally Catfished by a Gang Leader by Anonymous Please. All of the

[00:48:54] stories you heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. Make sure you send your stories in to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com if you'd

[00:49:07] like to hear them on the show. Finally make sure you check out the new episodes of all my other podcasts, Odd Trails, my true paranormal podcast, Welcome to Paradise It Sucks, and the All Time

[00:49:16] Radio Cast all at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you all next week everyone stay safe. 26 year old female