13x25: My Sinister MSN Crush

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_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.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_00]: When I was about 9 years old, in the early 90s, my family and I lived in a house with a fairly big wooded area that stretched beyond our backyard.

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I call it fairly big, because it wasn't big enough to get lost in for very long, but it was big enough to walk in for a good 20 minutes before making it to the center.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_00]: The tree line was so thick in some areas that you couldn't see any of the other houses in the neighborhood once inside.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_00]: To my friends and I, this wooded area was a magical world. We played in those woods all summer long.

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_00]: My mom would let us go in there as long as we were back by sundown.

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, this was the early 90s and times were a little different back then.

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: My best friend would come over and we would run out there to play for hours.

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_00]: We played hide and seek, army, star wars and anything else that you could think of.

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: But our very favorite thing to do was climb trees.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, we had a favorite tree to climb. It was this huge pine tree out towards the middle of the woods.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_00]: The branches at the bottom were low enough that we could grab on and pull ourselves up.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And the branches leading up were very strong.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00]: We were able to easily climb really high and see a view from above most of the other trees.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes when I got bored at home, I'd go out there by myself.

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd climb really high in that tree and just think about stuff.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I loved being way up there. It was so peaceful and calm.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_00]: One Sunday, I decided to go out on a solo mission to said tree in the evening.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I knew I didn't have long before dark, so I hurried into the woods to get a good climb in.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I was up in my spot in no time.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I remember that it was late summer and the weather was still warm late into the evening.

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_00]: My plan was to see a little bit of sunset and then climb down and hurry home.

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Once I was situated in my spot, I just sat up there and daydreamed as I waited for the sun to begin to set.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I then heard a twig snap on the ground and I looked straight down at a man standing at the base of the tree looking up at me.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I remember that he was wearing a brown jacket and he had a patchy beard.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_00]: His hair was sticking up in random places and he looked like he had been relentlessly running his fingers through it.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: He was just staring up at me with a bizarre expression that seemed to be one of wonder and delight.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: It was an extremely unnerving look.

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_00]: It was almost the look of someone who just realized they stumbled upon gold at the end of a rainbow.

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00]: That's the only way that I can describe it.

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: It made my blood run cold.

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I went completely numb.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_00]: It was like ice cream had been injected into my veins.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know how long he had been watching me before I noticed him.

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Thinking about that in particular still makes me shiver.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_00]: We just stared at each other for a moment.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't say anything.

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Neither did I.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It sounds strange, but I didn't want to scream or tell him to go away because I had this feeling

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_00]: that told me not to provoke him in any way.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: After a few minutes, he finally spoke.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Are you coming down anytime soon?

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I shook my head back and forth.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know what to say to him.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_00]: It was clear that I was very uncomfortable at this point, and that should have been enough

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: to make a decent person go away.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: But he just continued to grin at me.

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Then, he reached his hand up and grabbed the bottom branch of the tree as if to test to

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_00]: see if it could hold him.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that he may have been planning to climb up to me, but that lowest branch was flimsy,

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00]: and it wasn't strong enough to hold a grown adult.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank God for that.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: He soon realized this and gave up, but I had seen enough.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I finally broke my silence and started to yell for someone to help me.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I kept screaming and screaming.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: The man then backed away a step or two from the tree, but began to mumble and curse under

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_00]: his breath.

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_00]: He started flailing his arms in the air in a rage and began making a motion like he

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: was pushing an invisible person in front of him.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, he turned and walked away, stumbling with each step.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that anybody heard my cries because nobody came to help me.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I stayed up in that tree for what felt like hours because I wasn't sure if he was really gone.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Finally, I climbed down because the sun was beginning to set and I couldn't bear to be

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: out there at night.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Once I hit the ground, I bolted for my house.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Along the way, I was positive that he would pop out from a shadow and grab me, but he never

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_00]: did.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I made it home and told my parents.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: My dad went out to the woods to look for him, but he never saw anybody.

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: We stayed in that house for about another two years before we moved across town to a bigger

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_00]: house.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: However, I never played in those woods again for the rest of our time there.

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I still think about that man sometimes.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: What would he have done if I had come down?

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I have no idea.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_00]: But that question does keep me up some nights.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: This happened a few years ago, but still rattles me when I think about it.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: For context, I'm a female and at the time I was around 25 years old.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I worked in an office of around 150 people.

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_00]: One day I received an email from a coworker, but didn't recognize his name.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: The email said something along the lines of, I'm sorry if I did something to offend you.

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Given the situation, if you'd prefer never see me again, I understand and I will avoid

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_00]: you in the kitchen.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I was very perplexed as I had no idea who this guy was, but from my understanding, something

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: offensive seemed to have taken place.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I responded, I'm so sorry if I offended you.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes I zone out and my expressions can be perceived as rude, so I apologize.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: After this response, he started getting irritated, basically denying my apology and acting passive-aggressive.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I wish I had kept a screenshot of these emails since he was confusing the hell out of me with

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: this misunderstanding.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: So I sent him a message and suggested that we resolve this confusing issue in person.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Big mistake.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: He agreed to meet me in the kitchen of the office, so I went there and immediately saw this tall

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_00]: guy.

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_00]: He appeared to be just about 30 years old.

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Prior to this, I had seen him around, but I hadn't ever met him before.

[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I approached him, apologized, and explained that I truthfully had no idea who he was.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I said, we've never met before and I don't want any issues.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I was confused.

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_00]: What happened next made me very concerned.

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_00]: His face flushed bright red and he looked visibly angry.

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_00]: He was stuttering and denying that I didn't know who he was.

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_00]: He said, you've been staring at me for months.

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_00]: When we finally made eye contact, you gasped and ran away.

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I strongly denied this and I told him any staring was obviously unintentional as I was completely

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_00]: unaware that I was doing it, but he kept insisting that I had been staring at him for months.

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_00]: He said he always saw me doing it.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, I realized he wasn't one to reason with and decided to end the conversation.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Upon reflection, I realized that it's possible that he thought I was staring at him because

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_00]: in the hallway next to the kitchen there's a room with a bunch of desks.

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_00]: His desk was right in the line of sight if I would happen to be walking down the hallway,

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_00]: but I never recall looking at him.

[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I do remember he had a funny sticker on his desk that I'd look at sometimes, but that seems

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_00]: like a huge stretch.

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_00]: After this incident, a co-worker pulled me aside and asked me why I was talking to him.

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_00]: So I explained the situation.

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_00]: She looked scared and told me that last year, he came into the office in a bathrobe, raving

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_00]: like a madman at everyone, and he still didn't get fired.

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Was I dealing with someone in the midst of psychosis?

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Was he dangerous?

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have any clue, so I reported it to my manager who took it seriously enough to tell

[00:10:07] [SPEAKER_00]: his manager.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think he works there anymore.

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, I left the company two weeks later, but I was very cautious not to go anywhere

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_00]: near this guy.

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[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_00]: This was back in 2017.

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I had a best friend named Alicia, and in May of that year we traveled to Germany together.

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_00]: We live in Sweden.

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_00]: The flight to get there was just a few hours, and we were there for 5 days.

[00:12:30] [SPEAKER_00]: We didn't really have any specific plans when we arrived.

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: We just took every day as it came, which mostly meant that we went shopping, ate at restaurants,

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_00]: explored the streets, etc.

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_00]: There was a grocery store very close to where we were staying, and on one sunny, warm day

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_00]: during our trip, we were on our way back from the store.

[00:12:52] [SPEAKER_00]: We were walking on the opposite side of the road, and right outside of the hair salon, there

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_00]: was this guy who complimented Alicia's shirt.

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: She was wearing a rock band shirt, something like ACDC.

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_00]: We stopped and talked with him for a while.

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_00]: He said that his name was Teddy, which I thought was an unusual name.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_00]: He had an African accent, and was very friendly.

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_00]: He asked how old we were, and where we were from.

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_00]: We told him that we lived in Sweden, and that Alicia was of Indian descent.

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_00]: He asked how old we were, and Alicia was 18 at the time, while I was 22.

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_00]: He said that he could show us around the city, and offered to take us to a bar downtown.

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Afterward, he said that we would take a walk, and he would show us the beach.

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_00]: He kept stressing how lovely and beautiful that the beach was, and insisted that we just had

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_00]: to visit it before we went back home.

[00:13:52] [SPEAKER_00]: This put some red flags in my head immediately, but Alicia said, of course, that sounds wonderful.

[00:13:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I played along as Teddy told us to return the next day, and meet him outside of the salon at noon.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: We told him, sure thing.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And then we continued walking back to our place.

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_00]: When we got inside our room, I immediately told Alicia, no way we're doing that.

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_00]: What?

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_00]: She replied, shocked.

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, come on, it could be fun.

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought that she was joking at first, but she was 100% serious.

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_00]: She wanted to let that stranger get us a drink at a bar, and then take us to a remote beach.

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember how the conversation went exactly, but after a while, she managed to convince me.

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_00]: She said that we could just go to that bar, and if we felt like we couldn't trust him,

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_00]: we could just tell the bartender that we needed help or something.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I remember her saying, there are two of us, so what could happen?

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_00]: We have each other.

[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_00]: So the next day came, and we went back to that salon.

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_00]: We arrived at noon and waited a bit, but we didn't see that Teddy guy anywhere.

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_00]: We were just about to give up and go to the store when some random man showed up.

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you were supposed to meet Teddy here, right?

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_00]: He asked us.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Alicia and I looked at each other in confusion and replied,

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Um, yeah.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Where is he?

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_00]: The random guy just said that Teddy couldn't come, and he said that he would hang out with us instead.

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_00]: We were both very skeptical.

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_00]: He then asked us to come inside the salon to meet his family since, apparently, they were the owners of this place.

[00:15:38] [SPEAKER_00]: We agreed and walked inside.

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Some women in there greeted us right away.

[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_00]: If I understood correctly, they were his mom and sisters.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_00]: We talked with them for a bit, but felt extremely awkward.

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_00]: We noticed that the women kept giving us these weird looks.

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_00]: It was as if they knew something that we didn't.

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_00]: At least, that was the feeling we got as we stood there and looked at the portfolios filled with pictures of women with different hairstyles.

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_00]: The guy said that he just needed to go up to his apartment for a moment and told us to wait as he went to his apartment right above the salon.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_00]: As we waited for the guy, we talked to the women about the hairstyles that they were looking at.

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_00]: They were still acting a bit suspicious as we chatted, and they exchanged the same apprehensive looks as they did before.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_00]: When the guy came back down, he was expecting us to follow him somewhere.

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_00]: But we had already decided that this situation screamed get away.

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_00]: So we told him we changed our minds about going to a bar and would just buy some liquor at the store and have a night in.

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_00]: He quickly retorted,

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, then I'll go with you to the store because I need some groceries too.

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Then he stayed right behind us as we went to the store.

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Alicia and I were getting scared at this point because this guy just seemed so strange and we had no idea what he actually wanted from us.

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: As we walked around the store, he stayed so close behind us that if I stopped for a moment, he would have walked right into me.

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Whenever we rounded a corner, he ran to catch up with us and kept an eye on us every single second.

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_00]: As this was happening, Alicia whispered,

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_00]: He's been watching us the whole time.

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_00]: I replied,

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've noticed.

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_00]: When we went to pay for our groceries, we noticed that he hadn't grabbed anything,

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_00]: even though he said that he would go with us since he also needed to get groceries.

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_00]: As I paid for our stuff, he packed the bag for us.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_00]: When we walked out of the store, he was holding the bag so I tried to take it from him.

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_00]: But he tightened his grip so as not to let me take it.

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_00]: He said,

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me bring this up to my apartment so we can drink and have fun together.

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I sternly replied,

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_00]: No, we told you that we wanted to go back to our motel and have a night in.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Give me our bag.

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I then tried to take the bag again, but he kept tightening his grip.

[00:18:15] [SPEAKER_00]: He kept trying to get us to agree to spend the evening at his place.

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_00]: We kept saying no and eventually, I grabbed his fingers with my other hand and bent them back so that we could take the bag.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I then curtly said, No, goodbye.

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And we ran away from him.

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_00]: We took a long detour back to our place and walked down all kinds of small roads with a lot of turns.

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_00]: We kept looking behind us, making sure that he wasn't following.

[00:18:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, only after we were certain that he wasn't behind us, we went back to the motel and settled in for the rest of the day.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_00]: My heart raced when I realized we could have become victims of assault, or even worse.

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_00]: For the rest of the night, we drank our liquor and had fun trying to forget about the whole ordeal.

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_00]: During the remaining days of that week, we made sure not to walk past that salon again.

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Luckily, we didn't see him or that Teddy guy again for the rest of our trip.

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Years later, I told this story to a guy that I know.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_00]: He knows a lot about how human trafficking works, and in his words, this was very likely one of those situations.

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Whether this was one of those cases or something else, I know that those guys didn't have good intentions either way, and I'm glad that we got away.

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_00]: It's an experience that I'll never forget for the worst reasons.

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a 22-year-old female.

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm petite, very pale, and I always have messy hair.

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_00]: This happened when I was outside smoking and sitting on a chair in my front yard.

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I live in the countryside, so my street leads to fields and forests.

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_00]: When you live somewhere that remote, nighttime hits different, and the sky offers some great masterpieces in the form of starry nights.

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_00]: As I was smoking, I was hyper-focused on the sky.

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I stood up and decided to take a picture since I wanted to reproduce it as a painting.

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I was really disappointed and unimpressed by my camera, so I decided to head inside to grab one of my parents' phones since their camera quality was so much better.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_00]: While I was trying to take some pictures, I felt a gaze on me.

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_00]: It was my new neighbor.

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_00]: She was staring at me as I was in the front garden, just in front of her house.

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I was waiting since my front yard has automatic lights that flash at any moment and lasts for like 20 seconds.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_00]: So, I was only visible for a few moments before it was pitch dark again.

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_00]: For context, I'm a night owl, and I love art.

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not unusual for me to be outside standing in front of my house or in the middle of the driveway past midnight, taking pictures, smoking, or just contemplating.

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_00]: So, this wasn't the first time I had spooked my neighbor.

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_00]: As I was taking these mesmerizing pictures, out of the blue, the flash of the phone that I was holding was activated somehow.

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_00]: So, it started lighting up.

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_00]: The moon was on the left side of her house, so I'm pretty sure it looked like I was taking photos of her house.

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_00]: When I heard her screaming, I put my hand over the light of my flash until I was able to turn it off.

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I was petrified.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know which option was the best.

[00:21:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know if I should flee to the house right away or go and talk to her and explain what was going on.

[00:21:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I also had the option to just disappear into the dark and wait.

[00:22:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I went with that one.

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I decided not to move and just wait.

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_00]: But as I was standing there, I thought, should I continue taking pictures?

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Then I heard loud voices and the neighbor's front door opened.

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I heard them walking slowly towards their car and whispering, so I quickly snapped one last pick before heading back inside of my house.

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, the flash went off with the last pick and I heard her say,

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Again with this?

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_00]: As soon as I got back into the house, I decided I needed to find a way to reassure her that I was and am inoffensive.

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_00]: This time, I was the creepy encounter.

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[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_00]: That's p-d-s-d-e-b-t dot com slash meet.

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[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_00]: When I was 14, my stepmom, three of my siblings and I stayed in a motel in a small tourist town while going to Atlanta.

[00:24:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a visibly trans guy, however, I don't pass well enough for people to look at me and assume I'm male.

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_00]: But I passed well enough for people to assume that I'm transgender.

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_00]: My siblings were in the room while my stepmom and I were outside talking and sitting on the stairs.

[00:24:40] [SPEAKER_00]: This random man, who had seen my stepmom at a bar downtown earlier, approached us and began chatting.

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_00]: He brought beers for my stepmom and popsicles for me and my siblings.

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_00]: There was this weird grossed out feeling that I got in the pit of my stomach when I saw this guy.

[00:25:02] [SPEAKER_00]: But I decided to let it go and kept sitting with my stepmom and eating the popsicle.

[00:25:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I was a greedy kid and I ate them all before my siblings even knew that there were treats.

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_00]: While as we were sitting outside, I noticed that he kept glancing at me, mostly towards my crotch and then my chest.

[00:25:25] [SPEAKER_00]: When it was around 2 a.m., I went back to my room.

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_00]: My siblings were already asleep, so I deadbolted the door and texted my stepmom to let her know that I was staying in the room since I felt sick.

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I sat on the floor in front of the toilet for what felt like hours, dry heaving and trying to make my head stop pounding.

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_00]: An hour later, I heard a knock at the door and then my phone went off.

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Can you unlock the door? My stepmom texted me.

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_00]: My heart felt like it dropped into my stomach when I opened the door and I saw her and the man standing there.

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_00]: The man kept staring at my chest and then back at my face with a weird, creepy smile.

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_00]: My stepmom then said goodbye to the man and walked in.

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_00]: The man waved at me before turning around to leave.

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I shut the door and locked it again, looking out the peephole to make sure that he was really leaving.

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_00]: My stepmom then laid down beside me and my little brother and almost immediately fell asleep, but I stayed awake, terrified.

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_00]: A few hours later, at around 4 a.m., I heard something scraping against the concrete floor outside my door.

[00:26:45] [SPEAKER_00]: My blood ran cold as I walked as silently as possible to the door and looked through the peephole.

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I saw a man standing there, reaching for the doorknob.

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I tried to suppress a sob as I stepped back.

[00:27:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Then I dug through my duffel bag and retrieved my pocket knife and pepper spray.

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Just in case.

[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I tried to wake my stepmom up, but she was completely knocked out.

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_00]: My siblings are extremely heavy sleepers, so I wouldn't have been able to wake them up either.

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Then the dreadful, awful nausea came back in full force.

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't do anything to prevent myself from puking all over the floor.

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't suppress the noise of doing that and, just after hearing me vomit, the man started trying to open the door.

[00:27:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I was dizzy.

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I could barely think.

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_00]: But I held my knife and pepper spray tightly as I stood by the door waiting.

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_00]: It took a while, but he eventually stopped trying to open the door.

[00:27:51] [SPEAKER_00]: When I built up the courage to look through the peephole, I saw that he was still standing there, staring into the peephole and smiling.

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I also saw that he was moving his hands up and making gestures.

[00:28:04] [SPEAKER_00]: First, he pretended to slit his neck with his thumb.

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And then he made that gesture with his pointer finger, going in and out of a hole.

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Then slowly turned and walked away.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I stayed at the door and stared at the peephole for a long time.

[00:28:21] [SPEAKER_00]: When I finally felt safe enough, I walked away.

[00:28:25] [SPEAKER_00]: But heard this large thump behind me.

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_00]: My heart pounded in my ears as I slowly turned around.

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I was expecting to see the man, somehow in the room, smiling at me.

[00:28:36] [SPEAKER_00]: But it was my brother.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_00]: He rolled out of bed in his sleep and hit the floor.

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I helped him up, warned him to avoid the throw up on the floor, and put him back in bed.

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I then cleaned it up before sitting in bed again.

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_00]: When my stepmom woke up, I told her about what happened with the man.

[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_00]: But she couldn't remember a single thing from the night before.

[00:29:01] [SPEAKER_00]: She was so groggy, and I was still nauseous.

[00:29:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm certain that he roofied our drinks and my popsicles.

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_00]: He was likely expecting all of us to be drugged and asleep so that he could come into our room and do God knows what.

[00:29:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So to the creepy man at the Motel 6, let's not ever meet again.

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a 28-year-old female, and I live in a small, seemingly safe, but not aesthetically nice-looking subdivision.

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_00]: My partner, who's a 30-year-old male, works in law enforcement, so I'm home alone many nights throughout the week.

[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_00]: A few months ago, we adopted a small dog, and since I work remotely, I frequently take our dog on walks throughout the neighborhood for exercise and to help with potty training.

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_00]: We've lived in the neighborhood for several years, but before getting the puppy, we didn't walk the neighborhood that much, so we didn't know much about our neighbors.

[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_00]: But, after being out and about with the pup, I started to meet more of them.

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_00]: For the most part, our communication is a simple hello in passing, but there are a few neighbors I now speak to frequently.

[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone seems harmless and friendly except for this one neighbor.

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_00]: We'll call him Bob.

[00:30:36] [SPEAKER_00]: He appears to be around 50 years old.

[00:30:40] [SPEAKER_00]: One day, I was out walking my dog, and as I passed Bob doing yard work, he stopped me and said,

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_00]: What a cute dog.

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Then he launched into telling me about his time in the military, and how he had trained bite dogs.

[00:30:56] [SPEAKER_00]: He also told me about how he was shot and had remnants behind his heart.

[00:31:01] [SPEAKER_00]: While these were odd topics to chit-chat about, the tone of our chat seemed friendly enough.

[00:31:07] [SPEAKER_00]: But what I thought was going to be a quick, five-minute conversation turned into 90 minutes of me smiling, politely nodding, and slowly backing away.

[00:31:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm trying my best to share the rest of the conversation from memory, but that'll be hard since Bob was just all over the place.

[00:31:29] [SPEAKER_00]: His stories weren't cohesive at all.

[00:31:32] [SPEAKER_00]: While they were specific, they were very over the top, and very embellished.

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Due to the specificity, I won't give too many details to preserve anonymity.

[00:31:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Essentially, he went on about how rich and important he is along with his family, yet he lives in a mobile home.

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_00]: He said he's so important that he's had every member of the presidential cabinet on speed dial.

[00:32:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And the government has flown him around the world on Apaches to top-secret missions.

[00:32:06] [SPEAKER_00]: He also said his family's gotten away with murder since it's been swept under the rug by the government.

[00:32:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And he mentioned that if anyone so much as Googles his name, it will result in having the authorities sent to their door for questioning.

[00:32:21] [SPEAKER_00]: He then went on to say that he used to be in construction and did masonry work for a bunch of celebrities who he still hangs out with.

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_00]: He said that he spoke seven languages, has a black belt in martial arts, and can wrestle alligators.

[00:32:36] [SPEAKER_00]: He told me to feel his arm muscles as he lifted up his shirt to show me his scars.

[00:32:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I could literally go on and on about all of the crazy and incoherent things that he strung together.

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_00]: At first, I mostly just chalked it up to the ramblings of someone who just wasn't mentally okay.

[00:32:54] [SPEAKER_00]: But it took a turn when he asked,

[00:32:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Your old man is the cop who lives down the street, right?

[00:33:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I wish I hadn't have made the mistake of saying yes.

[00:33:07] [SPEAKER_00]: But as a woman, it can be hard to set boundaries with people like this for fear of confrontation or having things escalate.

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Bob then proceeded to tell me about how his son, who went to high school with me and my partner, doesn't get along with my partner.

[00:33:26] [SPEAKER_00]: He said he thought it was something to do with my partner and his son's baby mama, as he put it.

[00:33:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Now for context, my partner and I are high school sweethearts, but we never spoke to Bob's son during high school, as he was in a different grade than us.

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_00]: We certainly never spoke to him after graduating, and neither of us knew the mother of his child.

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Bob also started making comments about my hair, which is red and can be fetishized.

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Bob also said,

[00:33:58] [SPEAKER_00]: He asked me to take off my sunglasses so that he could see my eyes.

[00:34:02] [SPEAKER_00]: He said I reminded him of an old neighbor, but he also said I reminded him of his daughter.

[00:34:09] [SPEAKER_00]: He kept repeating,

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_00]: You're a very pretty girl, and you remind me of my daughter.

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_00]: He then moved on to tell me about all of the attractive women that he's slept with, and how he's been to court for over 50 paternity tests.

[00:34:25] [SPEAKER_00]: He even said that he was curious to know if he was my dad, which is impossible as I'm not originally from the area that my partner and I live in.

[00:34:35] [SPEAKER_00]: My parents have been together for 33 years. No, there is no way that Bob is my dad.

[00:34:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm probably leaving out a bunch, but you get the gist of it.

[00:34:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, I was able to make a break for it and finish my walk, then head home.

[00:34:53] [SPEAKER_00]: This conversation happened about three months ago.

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I no longer go for walks with my dog. Instead, I just take him to the park or a friend's house.

[00:35:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Since then, Bob has come to my house and knocked on my door three times.

[00:35:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I obviously never answered.

[00:35:10] [SPEAKER_00]: The first two times, I was home by myself when he knocked, and the third time, my partner was home.

[00:35:15] [SPEAKER_00]: But he was sleeping as he was on the night shift.

[00:35:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I ended up looking Bob up on our county's clerk of courts website, and wow!

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_00]: He has a very long rap sheet dating all the way back to the 80s, to the present day.

[00:35:29] [SPEAKER_00]: It started with traffic infractions, such as careless driving, running stop signs, etc.

[00:35:36] [SPEAKER_00]: But it quickly escalated to possession and dealing of meth and cocaine.

[00:35:41] [SPEAKER_00]: There were several charges for this, too.

[00:35:45] [SPEAKER_00]: I also found charges of soliciting prostitution, two charges of kidnapping, and a ton of battery charges.

[00:35:56] [SPEAKER_00]: He's also been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, grand theft of firearms, burglary, armed burglary, domestic violence, violation of a protection order.

[00:36:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And that was all I saw before I had to stop.

[00:36:12] [SPEAKER_00]: His record was so extensive.

[00:36:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought that maybe I was looking at the wrong person.

[00:36:18] [SPEAKER_00]: But I was able to confirm that it was him, since I had his full name and date of birth.

[00:36:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do some more digging, but honestly, I'm a little freaked out and I'm not sure of what to do.

[00:36:32] [SPEAKER_00]: My plan is to keep ignoring him, but I'm afraid that it will escalate.

[00:36:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm also afraid that I'll run into him outside, since I still have to take my dog out to go to the bathroom.

[00:36:45] [SPEAKER_00]: My mom suggested having my partner go talk to Bob to see what his problem is or what he wants.

[00:36:52] [SPEAKER_00]: But I think that's a bad idea.

[00:36:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Please let me know what you think.

[00:36:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you think I have something to worry about here?

[00:37:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I've considered sharing my story several times, but I've hesitated because absolutely nobody knows about this.

[00:37:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Not my family or friends.

[00:37:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I've held onto this for over 10 years and figured it was time to let it out.

[00:37:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Plus, I think some valuable lessons can be learned from my experience.

[00:37:36] [SPEAKER_00]: For reference, I'm a 27-year-old female and this story took place 10 years ago when I was 17.

[00:37:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I had just started university and was excited about having a fresh new start after I had been a nerdy outcast all throughout high school.

[00:37:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I had never had a boyfriend before.

[00:37:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I had never even been on a date, so I was naive and optimistic about boys.

[00:38:01] [SPEAKER_00]: My introverted and awkward personality didn't magically change after beginning university,

[00:38:07] [SPEAKER_00]: so it's safe to say that I didn't meet any interesting guys at school.

[00:38:12] [SPEAKER_00]: One late night, I was in my room working on an assignment on my laptop when I received a request on MSN Messenger.

[00:38:20] [SPEAKER_00]: The email was a boy's name with some numbers.

[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_00]: The name was clearly ethnic and indicated that this person was likely someone from the same heritage as me.

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I was immediately intrigued, so I accepted.

[00:38:34] [SPEAKER_00]: For the sake of this story, we'll call this boy Ken.

[00:38:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Ken and I got to chatting and I asked him how he got my email address.

[00:38:42] [SPEAKER_00]: He dodged the question, but I let it go, not thinking anything of it.

[00:38:47] [SPEAKER_00]: This was also happening at a time when it was normal to accept anyone and everyone as a friend on Facebook or other social media platforms.

[00:38:57] [SPEAKER_00]: As Ken and I continued dogging, I learned that he lived in my city and wasn't much older than me.

[00:39:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And as I guessed, our roots were in the same country.

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_00]: We'll just call it the motherland.

[00:39:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I asked him why he hadn't set a picture of himself as his display picture,

[00:39:15] [SPEAKER_00]: and this prompted him to suggest that we turn on our webcams since he wanted to meet me too.

[00:39:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I declined, but he insisted.

[00:39:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Somehow he convinced me and we both turned on our webcams.

[00:39:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I was pleasantly surprised and somewhat relieved to see that Ken was a young, good-looking guy,

[00:39:36] [SPEAKER_00]: chatting to me from the comfort of his bedroom.

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_00]: It was all seemingly very normal.

[00:39:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Our MSN chats carried on for a couple of weeks, which developed into texts,

[00:39:48] [SPEAKER_00]: after I agreed to give him my phone number.

[00:39:51] [SPEAKER_00]: We even had a few phone calls, so I started to develop a little crush on Ken.

[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_00]: He asked me to go out with him a couple of times,

[00:39:59] [SPEAKER_00]: but I was always pretty busy with school or our schedules just weren't lining up.

[00:40:04] [SPEAKER_00]: But then finally we found one afternoon when we were both free and decided to schedule a lunch date.

[00:40:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Ken had a car and offered to pick me up from my university after I was done for the day.

[00:40:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So I was a little too dressed up for my C-plus programming class,

[00:40:22] [SPEAKER_00]: but just right for the lunch date that we had planned at a local vegetarian restaurant.

[00:40:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't tell any of my friends where I was going or who I was going with

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_00]: because I was embarrassed about going on my very first date,

[00:40:36] [SPEAKER_00]: especially at almost age 18 and with someone who randomly added me on MSN.

[00:40:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I was waiting outside my building when a black car with heavily tinted windows pulled up beside me.

[00:40:50] [SPEAKER_00]: The passenger side window rolled down and sure enough, there was Ken.

[00:40:55] [SPEAKER_00]: He was sitting in the driver's seat.

[00:40:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I was happy to see that he was just as cute in person as he was over webcam.

[00:41:03] [SPEAKER_00]: However, what I wasn't expecting was the intense smell of weed coming from inside the car.

[00:41:10] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not necessarily relevant, but it was just part of the first impression.

[00:41:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Admittedly, I was taken aback and concerned that he might be driving under the influence.

[00:41:20] [SPEAKER_00]: He then unlocked the doors and motioned for me to get in.

[00:41:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I was taken aback and said,

[00:41:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I did without dispute.

[00:41:27] [SPEAKER_00]: As I sat down in the passenger seat,

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_00]: he immediately put his hand on my thigh and I nervously shifted my leg away.

[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_00]: So, I started,

[00:41:37] [SPEAKER_00]: do you know where the restaurant is?

[00:41:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I can guide you if you want.

[00:41:42] [SPEAKER_00]: He smirked, but didn't say anything and just started driving.

[00:41:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought that that was kind of weird, but figured maybe he was just nervous or awkward,

[00:41:52] [SPEAKER_00]: or both of which I could sympathize with.

[00:41:55] [SPEAKER_00]: So, I let it be.

[00:41:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Just as I was about to try my hand at a little small talk, which I'm no good at,

[00:42:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I noticed him heading towards the highway on-ramp.

[00:42:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I began worrying, because the restaurant wasn't that far from my campus,

[00:42:12] [SPEAKER_00]: and there was no reason for us to be getting on the highway.

[00:42:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Um, you don't need to take the highway, I piped up.

[00:42:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The restaurant is close by.

[00:42:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I can guide you.

[00:42:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I tried to keep my voice steady, but I could hear my own nervousness.

[00:42:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Then Ken finally spoke for the first time since I had gotten into the car.

[00:42:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought that maybe we could just go to my place instead.

[00:42:36] [SPEAKER_00]: We can play Need for Speed, and I can make you lunch.

[00:42:40] [SPEAKER_00]: He replied.

[00:42:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I was 17, on my way to the house of a guy I had just met for the first time,

[00:42:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and I hadn't told anyone where I was going.

[00:42:50] [SPEAKER_00]: My mind was racing as I knew this would be utterly stupid.

[00:42:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Despite having clear red flags waving in my face,

[00:42:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I decided that I didn't want to ruin our first date by rejecting his offer

[00:43:03] [SPEAKER_00]: to make me lunch and play Need for Speed together, which I told him I liked playing.

[00:43:08] [SPEAKER_00]: So I reluctantly agreed to his plan to avoid being rude.

[00:43:14] [SPEAKER_00]: We made it to his house, which was his family's home,

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_00]: and was situated in a shady neighborhood.

[00:43:20] [SPEAKER_00]: We stepped inside, and of course, nobody was home except for us.

[00:43:25] [SPEAKER_00]: It was sparsely furnished, and it looked unkempt,

[00:43:29] [SPEAKER_00]: which struck me as odd for a family home.

[00:43:32] [SPEAKER_00]: He informed me that his Xbox was in his bedroom.

[00:43:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I hesitated in the doorway, but he sat at the foot of his bed, in front of the TV,

[00:43:41] [SPEAKER_00]: and patted an empty space beside him for me to sit.

[00:43:46] [SPEAKER_00]: There was nowhere else to sit in his room, so I cautiously sat down,

[00:43:50] [SPEAKER_00]: keeping as much distance as possible between us.

[00:43:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I relaxed as we played Need for Speed, and he then made us some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat.

[00:44:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I was about to laugh at myself for being so overly paranoid,

[00:44:05] [SPEAKER_00]: when Ken did something bizarre.

[00:44:08] [SPEAKER_00]: He got up onto the bed and sat down directly behind me,

[00:44:12] [SPEAKER_00]: his legs on either side of me.

[00:44:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Sitting in this extremely awkward position, he tried to guide my hands on the controller.

[00:44:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I started to ask him what he was doing, and as if this wasn't uncomfortable enough,

[00:44:25] [SPEAKER_00]: his hands moved from the controller and under my shirt.

[00:44:28] [SPEAKER_00]: That's when I started to panic.

[00:44:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I was scared he was going to try and grope my chest,

[00:44:33] [SPEAKER_00]: but instead, he started squeezing and massaging my belly.

[00:44:37] [SPEAKER_00]: You can imagine what that might have been like.

[00:44:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I dropped the controller in pure shock and stood up quickly.

[00:44:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I fixed my shirt.

[00:44:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I was at a loss for words, and he didn't do anything,

[00:44:49] [SPEAKER_00]: but smirk at me like he liked it.

[00:44:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I felt completely disgusted and violated.

[00:44:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I had had enough.

[00:44:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I lied and told him that I needed to go since I had a group project to work on.

[00:45:01] [SPEAKER_00]: He then asked where I lived so that he could drop me off at home.

[00:45:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, I had the common sense not to tell him

[00:45:08] [SPEAKER_00]: and asked him to drop me off back at school instead

[00:45:10] [SPEAKER_00]: as that's where I was supposedly meeting my classmates.

[00:45:14] [SPEAKER_00]: He obliged.

[00:45:16] [SPEAKER_00]: After our very first uncomfortable date, I decided I didn't want to talk to Ken anymore.

[00:45:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't block him on MSN on my phone, our only two methods of communication,

[00:45:26] [SPEAKER_00]: but I rarely responded to his messages and ignored all of his calls.

[00:45:32] [SPEAKER_00]: One night, after I had been dodging him, he messaged me on MSN at around 11pm,

[00:45:38] [SPEAKER_00]: asking me to come over and telling me that he would send a cab to bring me to his place.

[00:45:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Thoroughly annoyed, I responded,

[00:45:45] [SPEAKER_00]: What do you take me for?

[00:45:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Why do you even think that I would want to do that?

[00:45:49] [SPEAKER_00]: He replied saying,

[00:45:52] [SPEAKER_00]: No sex, I promise.

[00:45:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It was bizarre.

[00:45:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I was disgusted so I didn't even have a response.

[00:46:01] [SPEAKER_00]: He continued trying to stay in touch with me for months before he suddenly vanished.

[00:46:08] [SPEAKER_00]: When that happened, I figured he finally got the point.

[00:46:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I wish that the story ended there, but it doesn't.

[00:46:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I last heard from Ken in late February.

[00:46:19] [SPEAKER_00]: He stopped trying to contact me shortly after Valentine's Day.

[00:46:23] [SPEAKER_00]: In April, two family members and I went on holiday to visit another relative,

[00:46:28] [SPEAKER_00]: who we'll call Anne, who was living in the Caribbean at the time.

[00:46:30] [SPEAKER_00]: She considers herself very spiritual and is an active member of a large, well-known, quote-unquote, spiritual organization.

[00:46:39] [SPEAKER_00]: She is deeply connected with Motherland, more than the rest of us are, and she goes back for frequent visits.

[00:46:47] [SPEAKER_00]: While we stayed with her in the Caribbean, she told us about her most recent spiritual trip to Motherland,

[00:46:52] [SPEAKER_00]: where she met a wealthy and well-connected local woman through the organization, who quickly became a very close friend.

[00:46:59] [SPEAKER_00]: We'll call her Connie.

[00:47:02] [SPEAKER_00]: During our visit, Anne introduced us to Connie virtually over Skype, because Connie lives in Motherland.

[00:47:09] [SPEAKER_00]: We chatted with her several times throughout our vacation via Skype and got to know her a bit.

[00:47:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Little did we know back then that Connie, who Anne had spontaneously met halfway across the world in Motherland,

[00:47:23] [SPEAKER_00]: would soon wreak havoc on our lives.

[00:47:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, that's the story that I'm just not or may never be ready to tell because of how many lives were affected

[00:47:34] [SPEAKER_00]: and the severity of the damage that had been inflicted.

[00:47:37] [SPEAKER_00]: But what you need to know is that Connie was an outright criminal and con artist

[00:47:42] [SPEAKER_00]: who had been targeting our family long before Anne had met her.

[00:47:47] [SPEAKER_00]: So, their meeting was no coincidence.

[00:47:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Not only did she manage to steal over $100,000 from our family,

[00:47:56] [SPEAKER_00]: but she took any peace of mind or sense of security that we ever had.

[00:48:01] [SPEAKER_00]: When we finally caught on and confronted her,

[00:48:04] [SPEAKER_00]: she insisted that we were mistaken but disappeared into thin air once we forced her out of our lives.

[00:48:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, you're probably wondering what on earth this has to do with my story about Ken.

[00:48:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, get this.

[00:48:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The situation with Connie lasted many months.

[00:48:23] [SPEAKER_00]: The whole thing is kind of a blur for me now, but when we first spoke online in April,

[00:48:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I remember the whole ordeal lasting well into the fall.

[00:48:33] [SPEAKER_00]: While she normally resided in motherland, Anne had invited her to visit and stay with us where we,

[00:48:39] [SPEAKER_00]: my whole family and I, presently live.

[00:48:43] [SPEAKER_00]: That's when things took a turn for the worse.

[00:48:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of the things that I clearly remember and are important to the story were that,

[00:48:50] [SPEAKER_00]: one, the whole time she was staying with us,

[00:48:53] [SPEAKER_00]: she was trying to convince me to transfer schools to a very obscure school and program in the U.S.

[00:48:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't even live in the U.S., and she was getting very pushy about it.

[00:49:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And two, she had asked me if I was a virgin and told me to save myself for my husband.

[00:49:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Disturbing, I know.

[00:49:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, during this time, I was so emotionally drained and stressed that I didn't think of anything but the situation at hand.

[00:49:20] [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I had stopped socializing almost entirely and even started habitually skipping classes.

[00:49:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I had lost contact with my high school friends and my university friends were still too new to care,

[00:49:32] [SPEAKER_00]: so my strange behavior and new destructive habits went unnoticed.

[00:49:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward to one day after Connie's final disappearance in the fall.

[00:49:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I was at home with my dad when my cell phone rang.

[00:49:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I looked at the caller ID and it was a number that I didn't have saved,

[00:49:51] [SPEAKER_00]: so it was showing the contact information as whatever name the phone was registered under.

[00:49:56] [SPEAKER_00]: When I read the screen, my heart dropped.

[00:49:58] [SPEAKER_00]: My phone displayed a first name, a man's name, but the last name was the same as Connie's.

[00:50:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I started to panic as I ran to my bedroom to answer the call.

[00:50:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I had no idea what to expect.

[00:50:12] [SPEAKER_00]: When I picked up the phone, I was greeted by a familiar voice.

[00:50:16] [SPEAKER_00]: It was Ken.

[00:50:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I honestly thought that I was going to puke when I suddenly realized that they had both been a part of this whole sick plot.

[00:50:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, I didn't have any hard evidence to prove that it was connected to Connie, but let me explain.

[00:50:32] [SPEAKER_00]: First, there's the timing of his appearance and reappearance into my life.

[00:50:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Then, there's the last name on the caller ID.

[00:50:39] [SPEAKER_00]: It was a fairly unique last name, originating from the distinct part of Motherland where Connie is from.

[00:50:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Plus, he contacted me out of the blue, and I had no idea how or why.

[00:50:52] [SPEAKER_00]: All of this was just too bizarre to be a coincidence.

[00:50:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, I freaked out at Ken when he called and told him that if he ever called me again, I would call the police.

[00:51:03] [SPEAKER_00]: His response was just a weird, dry, half-laugh.

[00:51:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And then he said,

[00:51:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, okay then.

[00:51:11] [SPEAKER_00]: In the creepiest voice you can think of.

[00:51:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And hung up.

[00:51:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I knew in my gut that this was their last attempt to get back in touch and somehow slither their way back into my life or my family's.

[00:51:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, I never heard from Ken again after that day.

[00:51:27] [SPEAKER_00]: A while after this ended, I was having a conversation with a family member who was also closely involved in all of this.

[00:51:33] [SPEAKER_00]: We talked about the whole ordeal, and she told me that she sensed something was extremely wrong with Connie, because she was pushing to have me sent off to the US, to that obscure school.

[00:51:45] [SPEAKER_00]: She had an unshakable feeling that Connie was involved in some sort of human trafficking scene, and that if I left, she would never see me again.

[00:51:55] [SPEAKER_00]: The horrifying pieces all came together for me at that time.

[00:51:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Before then, I had just been too damn naive to have seen it.

[00:52:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Memories flooded back to me when I heard what my family member had to say.

[00:52:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought about how Ken told me,

[00:52:09] [SPEAKER_00]: No sex, I promise, when he invited me over, and how Connie was telling me to remain a virgin.

[00:52:15] [SPEAKER_00]: As I said, I had never told a soul about Ken or the V-card conversation with Connie.

[00:52:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I strongly and firmly believe that Ken had been some sort of player in Connie's game,

[00:52:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and was just there to keep me away from guys and prevent me from having a boyfriend.

[00:52:34] [SPEAKER_00]: For those who may be wondering, we never called the police on Connie or Ken because nothing illegal happened.

[00:52:39] [SPEAKER_00]: At face value, at least.

[00:52:42] [SPEAKER_00]: It's very hard to explain.

[00:52:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd also like to mention that I tried to find Ken online many times after this ended.

[00:52:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why.

[00:52:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess I just wanted to expose him or call him out.

[00:52:53] [SPEAKER_00]: But I was never able to find even a sliver of information about him.

[00:52:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Not by the name he initially gave me, nor by the name that was displayed on my caller ID.

[00:53:03] [SPEAKER_00]: It was as if he didn't exist.

[00:53:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Also, I'm awful at directions and didn't remember his address or where his house was.

[00:53:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I hope this can serve as a warning to young people not to trust so easily.

[00:53:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Do your thorough checks on people, especially those that you meet online,

[00:53:22] [SPEAKER_00]: and be very aware and weary of people's intentions.

[00:53:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Also, from this incident onward, I haven't been able to stomach any of these spiritual organizations.

[00:53:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I never liked the idea of them to begin with.

[00:53:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Especially now that I've truly experienced how they can attract both vulnerable people and unsavory characters

[00:53:42] [SPEAKER_00]: who are looking for someone vulnerable to prey on.

[00:53:46] [SPEAKER_00]: However, there is no judgment from me.

[00:53:48] [SPEAKER_00]: For those who are into that sort of thing, I just know that these organizations are definitely not for me.

[00:53:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Stay safe, everybody.

[00:53:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And to Ken and Connie, if I see either of you again, I'll kick you in the face.

[00:54:29] [SPEAKER_00]: You can also get access to ad-free versions of all of the episodes at a higher bit rate

[00:54:33] [SPEAKER_00]: and extended episodes every single week with stories you won't hear anywhere else.

[00:54:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're a patron already, stick around after the music for your extended version.

[00:54:42] [SPEAKER_00]: This week you have heard Creeper in the Woods by LiquidPenChamber1019.

[00:54:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Coworker convinced himself that I was staring at him for months by PalpitationQueen.

[00:54:52] [SPEAKER_00]: The Time My Friend and I Could Have Been Abducted by Queen Jen.

[00:54:56] [SPEAKER_00]: When You Are the Creepy Encounter by Anxious Hippie Vibes.

[00:55:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Motel Creeper by Potassium Queen.

[00:55:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Creepy Neighbor Keeps Knocking on My Door by Bunny Queen.

[00:55:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And finally, my MSN crush was involved in something sinister.

[00:55:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And I Was the Target by Stupify92.

[00:55:14] [SPEAKER_00]: All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors.

[00:55:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online.

[00:55:25] [SPEAKER_00]: If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com.

[00:55:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Finally, be sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Odd Trails, my true paranormal podcast,

[00:55:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Cryptic Encounters, and the Old Time Radiocast at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:55:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll see you all next time, everyone. Stay safe.

[00:56:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a female. When I was 14, almost 20 years ago, I lived in a small city in Canada...