12x15: The Whistler In The Woods

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content.

[00:00:02] Listener discretion is advised.

[00:00:04] If you have a story to share, send it to LetsNotMeetsStories at gmail.com.

[00:00:09] Enjoy the show!

[00:00:30] 3 years ago, during the height of COVID-19, a group of my friends and I wanted to live

[00:00:46] with each other while we were completing remote learning at university.

[00:00:51] We were attending a very popular school in California.

[00:00:55] There was a group of girls living together during these times we spent most of our nights

[00:01:00] watching movies, drinking wine and hanging out together.

[00:01:04] Let me give some context by describing the layout of our house since it is important

[00:01:07] to know that we were living in this massive house that was renovated into three different

[00:01:12] apartment units.

[00:01:14] We chose our unit specifically because it was in the very back of the house.

[00:01:19] This made us feel safer since we were further from the street and it was nearly

[00:01:23] impossible to see us from outside.

[00:01:26] Inside our apartment unit, we had four bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom right off of the open

[00:01:32] concept kitchen and living area.

[00:01:36] The ground floor bedroom faced our tiny garden and tiny parking lot which could accommodate

[00:01:42] three cars.

[00:01:43] Our kitchen and living room space was facing a little alleyway that ran alongside our

[00:01:48] house which led to the front door.

[00:01:50] It was a pretty big apartment.

[00:01:52] The bedrooms were small but the communal kitchen and living room area was a great hangout spot.

[00:01:58] Now since we got the apartment in the middle of COVID-19, we hadn't furnished it properly

[00:02:03] and we didn't have any curtains or blinds on our windows but they had some flimsy bug

[00:02:08] screens on the outside.

[00:02:11] In the weeks leading up to this incident, my friend who was the one living in the

[00:02:15] bedroom on the first floor was complaining to the other four roommates.

[00:02:19] She was saying that if we wanted to bring anyone over, we needed to be at the door to

[00:02:24] grab them so that they didn't jiggle and try to open the locked door every time.

[00:02:30] She said that she frequently heard footsteps right outside her window that faced our tiny

[00:02:35] parking lot.

[00:02:37] She also told us that she sometimes heard somebody trying to open the front door

[00:02:41] or window.

[00:02:43] Looking back on it now, I don't understand why none of us were freaked out when

[00:02:46] she told us this.

[00:02:48] I think we just had such a false sense of security since there were so many of us

[00:02:53] living together.

[00:02:55] We did have boys coming in and out of our house at night so I guess we didn't

[00:02:58] think it was very unusual for her to be hearing footsteps.

[00:03:02] After a while, my friend's complaints died down so all of us forgot about any

[00:03:06] issue that had happened.

[00:03:09] Besides, we constantly got into fights because we were all cooped up inside

[00:03:14] all of the time.

[00:03:15] So things were said but they just went in one ear and out the other.

[00:03:20] That is until this happened.

[00:03:22] All five of us, plus two of my roommate's boyfriends, we were all sitting in the

[00:03:27] living room for a Harry Potter movie marathon.

[00:03:31] We had three couches placed in a U-shaped formation surrounding a tiny

[00:03:36] shitty TV that we bought at Best Buy for $150.

[00:03:41] So it was a tight squeeze for all of us but it felt so safe having so many

[00:03:46] people around especially since there were two huge guys hanging out with us.

[00:03:52] For our marathon, we all thought that it would be kind of cute to make Harry

[00:03:56] Potter themed treats so we made cupcakes and filled them with different

[00:04:00] colors representing all of the houses and one of my other friends made a

[00:04:05] sparkling cocktail so we were all having fun with it.

[00:04:09] We had all of our lights turned off because as many of you probably know,

[00:04:13] the Harry Potter movie series was filmed with a lot of darkness.

[00:04:17] Since our TV was so crappy it was genuinely hard to see what was going

[00:04:21] on at some points but we were enjoying the film.

[00:04:25] Suddenly one of my friends asked to pause the movie.

[00:04:29] She explained that she had been hearing some crunching noises or

[00:04:33] maybe footsteps coming from outside for the past 30 minutes.

[00:04:38] This was my bad entirely but I didn't take her concern seriously.

[00:04:43] I told her to stop scaring all of us and said that our building had two

[00:04:48] other apartment units and those tenants occasionally walked by our front door

[00:04:53] after they've parked.

[00:04:54] Then we went back to watching the movie but we started hearing giggling.

[00:05:00] It was just a short burst of laughter and then dead silence.

[00:05:05] We all went silent.

[00:05:06] It was almost like we couldn't believe we heard the giggling so close by.

[00:05:12] We turned the TV off again because it was just really unnerving.

[00:05:17] We sat there stunned in silence and there it was again.

[00:05:23] Whoever it was was right outside of our door giggling and

[00:05:26] it didn't sound like a child's giggle either.

[00:05:29] It was more like somebody, an adult imitating a child's giggle.

[00:05:34] It really freaked all of us out.

[00:05:36] We went to the bedroom window which was right above the front door so

[00:05:39] that we could see if anybody was outside but there wasn't.

[00:05:44] There wasn't even anyone in the alley.

[00:05:47] The boys decided that they would check the perimeter of the house outside and

[00:05:51] our parking lot and garden to see if they could find anyone or anything.

[00:05:55] The boys came back and said that they didn't find anything weird or unusual.

[00:05:59] They said that we were probably hearing noises from our neighbors

[00:06:03] since they were throwing a little kickback.

[00:06:06] Maybe it was the false sense of security coming back into play but

[00:06:09] we were pretty satisfied with that answer.

[00:06:12] Plus, the boys weren't freaked out at all so

[00:06:15] we figured why should we be freaked out?

[00:06:18] So we decided to turn the TV back on, make some popcorn and chill.

[00:06:23] Once again, maybe it was that false sense of security but

[00:06:27] we opened one of the kitchen windows for

[00:06:29] some air since one of my friends burned the popcorn.

[00:06:33] The kitchen window we opened was on the very far end of the kitchen,

[00:06:37] which was the window furthest away from where we were.

[00:06:40] So I guess it felt better knowing that even if something were to happen,

[00:06:44] at least we had some distance.

[00:06:47] As we settled back into watch TV, we heard another giggle.

[00:06:51] This one sounded almost like it was forced.

[00:06:55] It was so odd.

[00:06:57] We looked towards the open window and we didn't see anything.

[00:07:01] We were all silent again, so one of the boys decided to shout out,

[00:07:06] shut the fuck up.

[00:07:08] For a little comic relief I guess.

[00:07:12] We decided to continue the movie and

[00:07:14] seconds later we heard another giggle.

[00:07:16] This time when we looked over at the window, there was a man's face

[00:07:21] pressed up against the bug screen.

[00:07:24] He was opening and closing his mouth as if he were trying to

[00:07:28] chomp through the screen.

[00:07:31] His eyes were wide open, just staring at all of us as he kept chomping.

[00:07:38] Literally all of our survival instincts went straight out the window because

[00:07:42] while the boys ran to the window to try and shut and lock it,

[00:07:45] everybody else was just screaming, running upstairs and locking themselves in

[00:07:50] whichever bedroom they got to the quickest.

[00:07:53] I cannot recount how this ended since I ran upstairs but according to

[00:07:57] the boys, after they were able to shut the window and grab one of the kitchen

[00:08:01] knives, the guy continued to press his face against the window making the same

[00:08:06] chomping motion all while not blinking.

[00:08:10] They said that he stayed like that until he suddenly whipped his head back

[00:08:15] and disappeared into the darkness.

[00:08:28] There are some stories about my mother's life that I honestly never get tired of hearing.

[00:08:39] From hilarious to heartfelt, tear jerking to plot twisting, her retelling of the

[00:08:44] events always brings me joy.

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[00:10:25] Now back to the show.

[00:10:39] This happened when I was 18.

[00:10:42] I'm currently 33.

[00:10:44] I grew up in rural Kentucky.

[00:10:47] I used to live next to the senator of Kentucky who had bought our neighborhood when it was all just

[00:10:52] old farmland in woods.

[00:10:55] She's quite old and she's still alive today.

[00:10:58] She had bought this land back in the 70s before she was the senator

[00:11:03] since she had a lot of money from her parents.

[00:11:07] The yard of my house backed up to the senator's house.

[00:11:11] When I was 18, I worked for her on her farmland doing chores.

[00:11:16] Just to make some extra cash in the summer.

[00:11:19] The senator's land was massive and it borders on some unused public land that's relatively

[00:11:26] desolate and goes on for miles and miles.

[00:11:29] This land mainly consists of tiny streams, fields and trees.

[00:11:34] Nothing too exciting.

[00:11:36] This area is next to a small highway that needed to be crossed in order to get

[00:11:42] to the next part of the woodlands.

[00:11:44] My friend who we'll call Annie also worked for the senator doing chores and land work.

[00:11:50] He had a little brother as well who we'll call Willie.

[00:11:53] He was 15.

[00:11:55] We all grew up in an area that was pretty safe so our parents generally let us do whatever we

[00:12:01] wanted to do just as long as we were back home at a decent hour.

[00:12:06] We often explored these lands during the day to see how far that we could go.

[00:12:11] We also liked going into the woods to see if we could find anything cool to explore.

[00:12:16] For the most part, we didn't find anything much.

[00:12:20] Usually just some makeshift campsites which we assumed were for hunting.

[00:12:26] One day we were out exploring.

[00:12:28] It was pretty close to dusk but we happened to bring flashlights just in case it got too dark.

[00:12:35] This was around the fall of 2008 so the leaves were falling from the trees

[00:12:40] and they were coating the ground pretty thickly.

[00:12:43] As we were walking I started noticing that we had been going in a circle so I assumed

[00:12:49] that we were lost and we could no longer hear the highway that was close to us.

[00:12:54] The sun was going down fast and we had maybe an hour left of daylight.

[00:12:59] When it eventually got dark we started walking around the woods with our flashlights.

[00:13:04] It just kept getting darker and darker and the next thing we knew it was around 10pm

[00:13:11] and we were still lost.

[00:13:13] And before anyone asks why we didn't call anyone on our cell phones I need to explain that

[00:13:18] I grew up modestly so I only had a cheap flip phone and the service back then was terrible.

[00:13:26] Throughout the night we were trying our best to backtrack to go back the way that we came

[00:13:31] but it was nearly impossible to retrace our steps in the dark and the woods were very thick.

[00:13:37] My dad always told me when in the woods if it becomes extremely quiet at any point

[00:13:42] it means that there is a large predator or a threat of some sort in the area.

[00:13:48] Now mind you we are technically in the Appalachia area and we have all heard stories about

[00:13:54] what not to do while in the woods specifically at night.

[00:13:58] So Annie and Willie and I were walking when suddenly everything in the area fell extremely quiet.

[00:14:07] It was totally silent except for one noise which was whistling.

[00:14:14] We all stopped dead in our tracks and began to look around in every direction

[00:14:19] in an attempt to verify where it was coming from.

[00:14:23] Annie unintentionally whistled back and we all know that whistling in the woods is not advised

[00:14:30] especially if it's a response to an unknown whistle and again this was at night in the Appalachia region.

[00:14:39] This wasn't a good idea for several reasons so I hit Annie with my hand and asked why would you do that?

[00:14:47] And with that the whistling immediately started to grow louder.

[00:14:52] So I told everybody to start running. As we ran the whistling grew softer until it eventually went away.

[00:15:01] We were relieved by this but if we weren't lost before we definitely were after running away from

[00:15:07] the whistling. We continued wandering and it was around midnight so the full moon was lighting

[00:15:14] the area we were in somewhat well. We happened to come across an old rundown shack

[00:15:21] otherwise known as a shanty. It looked like it still had somewhat of a door on it so we peered

[00:15:28] through the door and saw a small fire going. As any naive or hopeful person would do we

[00:15:35] cracked the door open and asked if anybody was around. At that exact moment we heard leaves

[00:15:42] crunching so we all turned around but nothing was there. Then right on cue as if it were

[00:15:50] a horror movie the whistling started again. It sounded like it was right next to us.

[00:15:58] We all turned towards the sound and there she was. A woman wearing tattered clothing

[00:16:04] was only about five feet away from us. We slightly shifted back and we just looked

[00:16:10] over at her with our flashlights pointed at her. Then in unison the three of us all said

[00:16:18] hello and as if we said something to make her lose her mind she began screaming at the top of her lungs.

[00:16:27] It wasn't normal screaming though it was primal. Then she lunged at Annie and out of reaction

[00:16:35] Annie swung his flashlight directly at the lady's face and she fell to the ground.

[00:16:41] We started running right away because we were terrified and she chased after us while

[00:16:46] still screaming. We were hauling ass through the woods for at least 15 minutes and she continued

[00:16:52] chasing us. We eventually lost her or so we thought so we took a break to catch our breath behind some

[00:17:00] bushes and we started hearing the whistling again. We sat there for at least an hour before

[00:17:06] we worked up the courage to come out from hiding and keep running. When we started running again

[00:17:13] we could hear someone close to us running as well. We no longer heard the whistling

[00:17:20] so we assumed it was the screaming lady and she was near us. We finally started to hear the

[00:17:26] highway again so we got onto it and started walking alongside it. Assuming she was still

[00:17:32] chasing us we got as close as we could to the highway so that we could try to flag somebody

[00:17:37] down. We were terrified that she was waiting somewhere in the wood line so we were frantically

[00:17:42] waving people down even though traffic was scarce. It wasn't looking good at first since the few cars

[00:17:49] we saw kept going but someone finally stopped and let us in. He was pretty spooked by our faces,

[00:17:56] they were extremely pale, he asked us about what happened. We explained and he told us that people

[00:18:03] who are in dire circumstances tend to live in these woods. He then took us home and we never

[00:18:10] went that deep into the woods ever again.

[00:18:29] I worked the night shift so I sleep during the day.

[00:18:32] Sleeping during the day may sound strange to some but if it's something that you need to do

[00:18:39] you learn to get used to it. For reference I live on a farm out in the middle of nowhere,

[00:18:45] my closest neighbor is half a mile away. One evening at around 6 p.m. I heard what I thought was some

[00:18:53] loud knocking. It was coming from outside and the dogs went absolutely ballistic.

[00:18:59] I woke up due to hearing the noise from outside but I didn't think anything of it since my

[00:19:05] neighbors like to shoot their guns and this happened during hunting season.

[00:19:10] As I was starting to fall back to sleep my heart started fluttering oddly as if I knew

[00:19:17] something wasn't right. That's when I heard loud footsteps throughout the house.

[00:19:23] My dogs were still barking but they were starting to quiet down

[00:19:28] and that's when I really began to worry. The footsteps continued around my house

[00:19:34] until they stopped on the other side of my bedroom door. I remember thinking to myself

[00:19:41] this is how I'm going to die. Although I had a weapon in my room I knew that I could not get

[00:19:48] to it without being heard by whoever was standing right outside my bedroom door.

[00:19:54] It felt like an eternity before the steps continued moving around again

[00:20:00] and whoever this was headed towards my brother's room.

[00:20:04] Some of his friends like getting themselves into seedy situations so I figured it had to be one

[00:20:09] of them right? Rustling could be heard throughout the house as things were being thrown around.

[00:20:16] I heard the footsteps coming back to my door and the doorknob began to jiggle.

[00:20:22] I immediately turned my back towards the door and closed my eyes tight.

[00:20:27] I put one hand over my mouth to avoid making any noise.

[00:20:32] I heard my door open but that was it because then I heard a car approaching my house.

[00:20:40] When that car pulled up whoever had just opened my door walked out of my room left the house

[00:20:47] and got into the car outside. I finally gathered enough courage to get out of bed

[00:20:53] when I heard the car leaving. Everything in the house seemed to be present but my brother's room

[00:21:00] was a mess. I immediately called my brother and asked if any of his friends were coming over.

[00:21:06] He said not that he knew of and I told him about what happened.

[00:21:10] He got off the phone with me and started calling around.

[00:21:13] We moved out to the country to get away from the activity of the city life.

[00:21:18] I guess we let our guards down too much since something like this happened.

[00:21:23] Sometimes country life isn't so safe after all.

[00:21:36] The show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Right now my social battery is maxed out. I'm full of energy

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[00:23:07] Now back to the show.

[00:23:16] I'm a female and I was 25 years old when this happened. It was five years ago.

[00:23:34] One day I had a little time to kill before picking up my kids from school.

[00:23:39] Since it was a gorgeous day, I decided to spend some time cruising the back roads in my small

[00:23:45] rural hometown while listening to music. I passed by this guy with his thumb out trying to catch a ride

[00:23:52] and I almost picked him up. He appeared to be in his late 30s or early 40s and he was

[00:23:58] carrying a fishing pole and a backpack. He was relatively innocent looking, I guess,

[00:24:05] but see I was a lone female. I had been taught all I needed to know about hitchhikers

[00:24:12] via the hundreds of hitchhiker pickup gone wrong stories that I had heard so I just kept driving.

[00:24:20] As I continued driving, I was having this internal dialogue with myself because I felt guilty about

[00:24:27] my decision not to pick this guy up. I remember thinking, you know if I were hitchhiking I really

[00:24:35] hoped that somebody would pick me up. I mean really what's the worst that could happen?

[00:24:40] I was also on a self-improvement journey. I was trying to start doing things that I wouldn't

[00:24:46] ordinarily do as well as things that scare me as often as possible. So I decided that if he was

[00:24:53] going to be walking on the side of the road when I looped back around, I would pick him up.

[00:24:58] And sure enough about 10 minutes later he was still there.

[00:25:02] He was still there. I was feeling a little nervous as I pulled over to get him and once

[00:25:09] I was in the process of doing so, I knew there was no going back. What could I do in that instance?

[00:25:17] Peel out while he was trying to get in my vehicle? Well I went through with it and as

[00:25:23] soon as he got in I realized I potentially made a horrible mistake. This was because one,

[00:25:30] he seemed like he was tweaking and two, he was looking at me like I was a feast and he was starving.

[00:25:40] I didn't realize exactly how rattled I was by making this decision to pick him up

[00:25:45] until he asked me for a smoke. My hands were shaking so badly that I was barely able to pull

[00:25:52] one out of my pack without breaking it. At least driving made it easier to hide my nerves

[00:25:59] since I could steady my shaky hands on the wheel. But I was internally freaking out as I was trying

[00:26:05] to figure out how I would beat this guy's ass if you tried anything. He told me that his name was

[00:26:11] Wayne and he lived about five minutes away from where I picked him up. He told me how he lost

[00:26:17] his license due to multiple DUIs and he explained that he was living in a house nearby with an

[00:26:23] older man. As he talked about the old man that he lived with and the house, he was also trying to

[00:26:31] talk me into hanging out with him at said house. He invited me to come over for a drink with him

[00:26:38] the next day. When I finally got him to his destination I was met with a little shack-like

[00:26:44] thing surrounded by all these junk cars and appliances and stuff. When he got out of my car

[00:26:52] he was trying to get me to come inside with him but I told him I couldn't stay and I left.

[00:26:59] As I drove away I felt relieved and a little proud of myself for helping somebody while facing a

[00:27:06] fear of mine. Fast forward to the following week an instructor of mine was talking to me and they

[00:27:14] said holy shit somebody got murdered on the back roads do you know anyone down that way?

[00:27:22] Then they mentioned the exact same road where I picked up the hitchhiker. I replied wow you know

[00:27:29] that's really weird I drove a hitchhiker down that road last week I think his name was Wayne.

[00:27:36] Not even 15 minutes later I saw Wayne's picture all over Facebook saying that he had been arrested

[00:27:42] for stabbing someone to death at that very house I dropped him off at. He stabbed his victim in

[00:27:49] the lungs and the victim bled out in that little shack. I never figured out if his victim was the old

[00:27:56] man he was quote unquote living with or not who knows if that old man he was roommates with

[00:28:02] even existed all I know is I swear I'll never pick up another hitchhiker in my life.

[00:28:20] When I was 17 my bedroom had a window looking out at my backyard. The backyard was fenced in

[00:28:28] but on the other side of the fence were some woods and a retention pond.

[00:28:34] I had never been scared of this so I kept my blinds open that way when the sun rose

[00:28:41] in the morning the natural light would help wake me up. One night I was up late on my phone

[00:28:48] with my dog lying in bed next to me at around 2am my dog jumped up and started barking at my window.

[00:28:56] At first I thought that he was just barking at his reflection so I told him to stop but then

[00:29:03] I realized he was looking at the left side of the window while his reflection was on the right.

[00:29:10] I couldn't see what was outside the window because the lamp on my nightstand was on all

[00:29:16] I could see in the window was the reflection of my bedroom not wanting to alert whatever might be out

[00:29:23] there. I faked a yawn set my phone aside and turned off the lamp I then got into bed facing the

[00:29:31] window and as my eyes adjusted to the dark I saw a set of human eyes looking back at me

[00:29:38] from the left side of the window. I drank a lot of water at night so I had an empty bottle on

[00:29:46] my nightstand I grabbed it and pretended that I just realized it was empty I turned on the lamp

[00:29:53] and acted like I was going to get some water I went straight to my parents room and my dad told me

[00:30:00] not to worry because we had these motion activated floodlights and they hadn't turned on

[00:30:07] he assumed that there was no way anything was out there so I went back to my room and I told

[00:30:13] myself I was just seeing things I closed the blinds turned off the lamp and tried to get some sleep

[00:30:22] when I woke up in the morning I went to take my dog out and I decided to check out the pine straw

[00:30:29] that was stored underneath my window it was visibly disturbed I did my best to ignore that

[00:30:37] and remember what my dad said about the floodlights I was on board thinking that everything was in my

[00:30:44] head until my dad tested the floodlights later that day and found that the bulbs had burnt out

[00:30:51] I'm 22 now this was five years ago so I'm far enough removed from it that I can mostly just

[00:30:58] look at it as a strange experience that I had but there is a degree of paranoia left from this

[00:31:05] and other things I've encountered to everyone who has had a similar experience I hope everything

[00:31:13] turned out okay for you and I hope that you're doing well in sharing this story I've interacted

[00:31:19] with a few who have had similar experiences and they are extremely strong people do anyone who

[00:31:26] does this peeking through windows shit fuck off to this day I keep my blinds closed and my lamp off

[00:31:34] when I sleep I don't want to risk anyone being able to see me to whoever or whatever was at my

[00:31:41] window that night let's not meet

[00:31:58] I was 13 when this happened and it still gives me nightmares thinking about it

[00:32:04] my parents wanted to go out on a date night so they left me home alone on a Friday night

[00:32:09] we had a one-story home with a daylight basement that had its own entrance

[00:32:15] we lived on a dead end street that's pretty quiet in the evening so not many cars come and go

[00:32:22] my neighbors are pretty close to my house too so I never felt uncomfortable being at home by

[00:32:27] myself my parents left at around 6 p.m for their dinner reservations and I had a nice hot pizza

[00:32:35] delivered and was ready to watch some scary movies all by myself I was excited I locked the door behind

[00:32:42] them and popped the TV on I was scrolling through the movie options and decided to watch one of the

[00:32:49] Halloween movies I then snuggled with my nice warm fuzzy blanket on the couch got comfy and began

[00:32:56] my night alone about an hour had passed and I got up to use the bathroom while in the bathroom

[00:33:04] I thought that I heard noises coming from the basement it sounded like somebody or something

[00:33:10] was moving around but I figured since I was home alone it couldn't possibly be anything so I

[00:33:16] brushed it off as nothing then I went back to my couch to finish the movie another five

[00:33:23] minutes passed and again there were moving noises in the basement I started getting that nervous

[00:33:30] feeling in my gut so I stopped the movie to listen for more noises I thought about that

[00:33:36] entrance door down there and wondered if it was locked I assumed my parents locked it

[00:33:42] they had to right I didn't know what to do I took a deep breath and I decided to walk

[00:33:50] towards the basement and put my ear to the door I heard footsteps coming up the stairs

[00:33:56] I froze in fear this had never happened to me before I had been home alone in the past

[00:34:04] but mostly only during the day I know the obvious thing to do would be call the cops

[00:34:10] but did I do that no I ran outside went to my neighbor's house and banged on their door

[00:34:17] thankfully they were home and let me in I was out of breath and scared

[00:34:21] I couldn't get the words out fast enough can you please call the cops somebody is in my house

[00:34:27] hurry please they called 911 and the cops arrived within 10 minutes I also called my parents to let

[00:34:34] them know what was going on I let the cops check out the house while I stayed at my neighbor's

[00:34:39] house where I felt safe after some time one of the cops came over to my neighbor's house

[00:34:45] and said that they didn't find anyone in the house but said that whoever it was

[00:34:50] came in through the basement entrance which must have been locked nothing was taken and everything

[00:34:56] was in its place my parents got home and of course they were upset and scared the cops assured us

[00:35:03] that the house was clear and they advised us to lock our doors and windows at all times

[00:35:09] they think that whoever it was must have been watching the house and when they saw my parents

[00:35:14] leave they likely assumed that the house was empty needless to say that night we all made sure

[00:35:22] every door and window stayed locked they still left me alone after that but they started letting

[00:35:29] the next door neighbors know when I was going to be alone just in case I think about this

[00:35:35] night and it gives me nightmares please stay safe out there and always lock your doors you never

[00:35:42] know who is lurking around your neighborhood waiting for an opportunity

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[00:37:10] I've told this story probably over 100 times and despite it being the most terrifying thing

[00:37:28] that's ever happened to me I have come to appreciate what makes for a great story so

[00:37:34] I figured I'd share it with you all here I should start by saying that I hated going camping

[00:37:41] my parents sent me to summer camp every year in Colorado which involves at least one camping trip

[00:37:48] into the woods despite the brevity of these trips I always resented them the heavy bag

[00:37:55] the lack of toilets the spiders that always found their way into my tent just to name a few

[00:38:00] inconveniences when I turned 16 I became a camp counselor in training however my distaste for the

[00:38:07] whole experience briefly changed at that age we were only a few years older than the oldest campers

[00:38:15] but we were given considerable amounts of leeway and what we were allowed to do

[00:38:20] most nights we would have to stay in the cabin with our campers

[00:38:25] and it would be rumored that the counselors in training would get drunk smoke weed and hook up

[00:38:30] with each other after everybody else went to sleep what I didn't know was that the events

[00:38:36] of this camping trip would dissuade me from ever going camping in the woods again

[00:38:43] the trip began as any other all together there were around 30 people on the trip

[00:38:49] four counselors in training four counselors and around 20 or so boys and girls between the ages

[00:38:56] of 13 and 14 walking in a single file line up and down various trails you could hardly hear any

[00:39:04] sounds of nature over the conversations and laughter among the campers several hours went by

[00:39:11] and we made our way through a dense marshy area and up a steep incline with evergreens

[00:39:18] and aspens I wasn't the most athletic kid so it was around this point that I found myself at the back

[00:39:26] of the line with one of the other counselors in training Jordan we were with two of the campers

[00:39:32] who were also struggling to keep up the four of us started chatting in our distracted state

[00:39:39] we began to fall more and more behind the rest of the campers until the last of them

[00:39:45] faded out of view around a bend about 50 feet up ahead

[00:39:50] unconcerned we just kept walking at the same slow pace but after about 30 minutes or so

[00:39:57] the trail started to level off and I began to feel increasingly anxious not only had the

[00:40:03] rest of the group disappeared way ahead of us but we had entered a stretch of completely dead

[00:40:09] evergreens half of which looked scorched by a wildfire and the other half appeared to have been

[00:40:15] killed by some sort of disease the eeriness of the landscape was punctuated by a small derelict

[00:40:21] cabin sitting in the middle of the scorched forest but seemingly untouched by the fire that must

[00:40:28] have spread through the area we were so enraptured by the scene that one of the campers

[00:40:35] actually screamed when a twig broke behind us Jordan and I started laughing a bit but we quickly

[00:40:43] stopped when we turned to look at where the sound came from not even 20 feet behind us was a man

[00:40:50] with his eyes locked on us he had a messy nest of black hair and a long black beard

[00:40:58] he was slowly making his way up the trail he didn't appear to have any hiking supplies on him

[00:41:05] and we had no idea of how long he had been walking behind us being young teenagers

[00:41:12] we were naturally freaked out but Jordan managed to give the guy a slight wave before saying to the

[00:41:19] rest of us come on let's speed it up and we'll get back with the rest of the group as we turned

[00:41:26] and continued our way up the path the man mumbled a question that was hard to hear

[00:41:32] and I was shocked when Jordan turned around to ask the man to repeat himself

[00:41:37] the man muttered again slightly louder going camping Jordan replied to the man saying yes we

[00:41:46] were going camping to which the man smiled slightly before ominously stating better be careful

[00:41:54] we nodded and gave him a half-hearted thank you before continuing to try and find the rest

[00:42:00] of the group this time at a much faster pace although the man had been walking up the same

[00:42:06] trail as us when we saw him he didn't continue instead he just stood there in the middle of the

[00:42:12] trail and watched us we made our way up the winding path until we disappeared from his view

[00:42:20] finally we managed to catch up with the rest of the group who had been waiting for us

[00:42:24] and we told the adult counselors about our interaction with the man they just shrugged it off

[00:42:30] and told us that the guy probably lived in that cabin and just wanted to know what we were doing

[00:42:36] near his property still I felt very unnerved about the encounter and when we finally arrived

[00:42:43] at the campsite I couldn't shake the feeling that the man had somehow followed us eventually

[00:42:50] though I did put it out of my mind and I managed to enjoy myself just a bit after everyone else had

[00:42:58] gone to bed Jordan and the other counselor and training from the boys cabin had brought two warm

[00:43:04] Mike's hard lemonade that they had swiped from the counselor's quarters and I took out the joint

[00:43:10] that I had stashed away for this exact occasion to avoid getting in trouble we decided to hike

[00:43:16] into the woods just a bit to smoke the joint and we had made our way to the edge of the river where

[00:43:22] we washed our pots and pans earlier in the day the spot was eerily silent and the thought of the man

[00:43:29] from earlier kept popping into my head assuming that I was cold not anxious Jordan gave me his

[00:43:37] blue hoodie this prompted one of the other girls to suggest that we switch tents for the night

[00:43:43] so that I could sleep in the same tent as Jordan and she could sleep in the same tent as the other boy

[00:43:49] I had absolutely no problem with this so after smoking the joint we made our way back to our

[00:43:55] tents which were pitched slightly away from the others we discreetly sipped on the Mike's hard

[00:44:01] lemonade while telling scary camping stories some time had passed and one of the boys

[00:44:08] in the middle of telling a rather muddled story that was clearly being made up on the spot

[00:44:13] suddenly stopped in the silence we could hear what sounded like footsteps crunching on pine needles

[00:44:19] about 40 feet away near one of the other campers tents as we strained to listen to what was going on

[00:44:26] the noises stopped we assumed that it was one of the campers getting up to go to the bathroom

[00:44:33] but being stoned and hopped up on the scary stories we decided to call it a night and go

[00:44:39] to our respective tents Jordan followed me into a tent and we awkwardly made out before

[00:44:46] eventually going to sleep I don't know what time it was it must have been quite late when suddenly

[00:44:52] I woke up to the distinct sound of footsteps walking around near my tent shot with adrenaline

[00:45:00] I tried to lie there as still as possible and quiet my breathing from the sound it was apparent

[00:45:07] that somebody was less than three feet away from the front of my tent seemingly pacing back and

[00:45:13] forth I turned to wake up Jordan but I was immediately put at ease when I saw that he wasn't next to me

[00:45:22] assuming Jordan was the one that I had been hearing walking outside of the tent

[00:45:27] I just closed my eyes and was beginning to drift back to sleep

[00:45:31] when I heard the tent unzip I felt him lie next to me and after a few moments he put his arms around

[00:45:37] me and began to spoon me after nearly drifting off to sleep again I realized I had to go to the bathroom

[00:45:44] and I muttered something about having to pee before beginning to unzip my sleeping back

[00:45:50] seemingly annoyed by the disturbance Jordan lazily turned over pulling his hoodie up over

[00:45:56] his head before going still again quietly so as not to wake him up I unzipped the tent and quickly

[00:46:05] scanned the campsite for any movement I comforted myself with the fact that Jordan had just gone

[00:46:11] pee and returned without incident so I put my shoes on and began making the trek across our

[00:46:16] campsite to the designated pee zone I had just made it to the area and pulled my pants down

[00:46:24] when I heard wrestling coming from the campsite as if someone were rummaging through our supplies and

[00:46:30] bags still slightly drunk I tried to pull my pants up in my haste I lost my balance but

[00:46:39] tried to catch myself on a branch it made a loud snapping noise when I grabbed it

[00:46:45] I tried to recover myself as quietly as I could but when I finally managed to look up

[00:46:50] I could see that there was a figure making its way across our campsite in my direction

[00:46:57] before I could even think I was blinded by the bright light of a flashlight

[00:47:02] shining directly into my eyes the light was getting bigger so whoever it was

[00:47:08] they were coming toward me I was frozen and I panicked the figure was just 10 feet in

[00:47:15] front of me I then heard Jordan's voice say sorry it's just me I breathed a sigh of relief

[00:47:24] but then Jordan asked me something that really confused me

[00:47:28] have you seen my blue hoodie I know you gave it back to me but I think one of the campers

[00:47:33] might have stolen it from my back while I was sleeping after a brief pause I managed to

[00:47:39] stutter you were just wearing it when you got back into the tent with me

[00:47:46] what he said next made my blood run cold what are you talking about it's been missing since

[00:47:52] we got back from the river I even went down there to see if I had left it by accident

[00:47:57] but after I couldn't find it I thought I'd go and check the boys bags and that's when I saw you

[00:48:02] my confusion quickly turned to terror as I realized that the man in the blue hoodie who got

[00:48:09] into the tent with me just moments prior had not been Jordan sensing that something was wrong

[00:48:18] Jordan asked me what happened I somehow managed to explain that whoever stole his hoodie

[00:48:25] was sleeping in our tent Jordan was apprehensive so he insisted on walking back to the tent to check

[00:48:32] it out then as slowly and as quietly as possible we made our way to the side of the tent when

[00:48:40] Jordan flipped on his flashlight and shined it through the nylon lining he let out a high

[00:48:46] pitched scream we could both see the clear outline of a man's shadow lying still inside our

[00:48:53] tent what happened next was a bit of a blur but we ran to the pod of tents on the other side of

[00:49:00] the campground where the older counselors were sleeping we frantically unzipped their tent and

[00:49:06] started yelling for them to come out since there was a man in our tent I remember panic

[00:49:12] setting in as our counselors slowly and groggy woke up but after a bit more frantic yelling

[00:49:18] they finally managed to understand the severity of the situation when a commotion broke out on the

[00:49:25] other side of the camp near our tent by the time they ran to the scene however they only found an

[00:49:32] unzipped tent and a bunch of our things littered on the ground that the man had apparently knocked

[00:49:38] over and thrown during his escape after that we heard the counselors radioing back down to the

[00:49:45] camp to call the police and we could tell they were as scared as we were I don't think any of us

[00:49:52] were able to go to sleep after that luckily we only had to wait a few hours for the sun to come back

[00:49:59] up and by that time a few of the other counselors had arrived with guns to escort us back to camp

[00:50:07] on our way back down one of the campers found Jordan's blue hoodie tied around one of the

[00:50:12] trees on the path like some kind of marker needless to say he didn't even want the hoodie back so we

[00:50:19] just left it there to this day I'm uncertain if the man who was in our tent was the same guy that

[00:50:26] we ran into earlier on the trail but this camping trip and that night in particular still haunts me

[00:50:46] thanks for listening and make sure to stick around after the music for your extended version of

[00:50:50] this week's episode with storage you won't hear anywhere else if you'd like to sign up for a

[00:50:55] patreon to get access head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not need podcast to sign up

[00:50:59] and support the show today you'll get access to ad free episodes and all of our bonus content

[00:51:05] there are hours upon hours of bonus stories to check out this week you have heard the man in

[00:51:10] the window by flowers flowers 200 the whistler in the woods by tyler home invasion by spooky

[00:51:18] midnight the first and only hitchhiker I have ever picked up by salty siren xo my dog alerted me to

[00:51:27] something at my window by a girl disco I was 13 and left home alone big mistake by glittering

[00:51:34] return 316 and finally stalked by a psycho at summer camp by emo 94 all of the stories you've

[00:51:42] heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors

[00:51:47] let's not meet a true horror podcast is not associated with reddit or any other message

[00:51:51] boards online if you have a story to share send it to let's not meet stories at gmail.com finally

[00:51:58] make sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like odd trails my true paranormal

[00:52:03] podcast and the old-time radio cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts

[00:52:09] we'll see you next week everyone stay safe

[00:52:39] the elementary school playground