14x09: We Unknowingly Stayed at a Cult Leader's House

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:40] This is a story I have debated over speaking about openly mostly because of how strange the whole thing was. This happened seven years ago back in my hometown in California. I'm a 24-year-old female and was 17 at the time. I was living with my mom and older sister in a tiny condo. We were a pretty devout Catholic family at the time and would attend holy adoration on Friday nights at our parish.

[00:01:10] Before we went, we ordered some pizza and chicken wings but the delivery was pretty late so we left without touching our food. We ended up just putting it all away to eat afterward. When we got home, we discovered our back door had been left ajar. As we began arguing over who left the door open, we stepped inside and found a pretty strange scene.

[00:01:36] The boxes from the pizza and chicken wings were all sitting out on the kitchen floor, stacked neatly one on top of the other. We were confused but simply assumed that our very food-motivated dog somehow had something to do with it since we were still not fully aware of the situation. When we picked up the boxes, we opened them and noticed that bites had been taken out of everything.

[00:02:04] I then went into the living room and found a pile of neatly peeled pistachio shells just sitting in the middle of the room. This was when we got scared since we knew that no dog would be able to remove the shells from the pistachios and pile them up that way. We were so excited that our family friend had been able to get out of the room.

[00:02:28] After taking a look around, our family friend seemed terrified and said he needed to go home to grab his gun. He was planning on staying the night with us just in case anything else happened. While he returned to his home to retrieve the gun, I went upstairs to go to bed. I was tired, scared, and hungry because the food I had been anxiously anticipating to eat had seemingly been devoured by someone else.

[00:02:57] My mom was with me as I was peeling the covers back on my bed to go to sleep. However, when I lifted one of the decorative sham pillows, I found a chicken wing with one bite taken out of it on the other pillow underneath it. My mom and I fell silent and just stared at each other in disbelief. We weren't sure what kind of sick joke this person thought they were pulling. Now fast forward a year later.

[00:03:26] I had moved away to college in Kansas where I was enrolled at a tiny liberal arts school. I was hanging out with some friends in the dorms when my phone started ringing. I didn't answer it, but it rang again, so I looked at the screen and saw that the caller had no caller ID. When I picked up, I was greeted by a male's voice. It sounded familiar.

[00:03:52] He casually addressed me by my name and asked how I had been doing. I asked the caller who they were, but I didn't get a response. Just some heavy breathing. When I asked the caller who they were again, I then heard giggling. He finally started speaking in a more serious tone and said that he knew me and would never reveal his identity if I helped him. I panicked.

[00:04:22] I hung up and he called again seconds later. He began taunting me. It was so strange, especially since he knew that I knew the guy's voice, but I just couldn't place it. I ran out of my friend's dorm into the bathroom that he had excused himself into before the initial call came through. Through the door, I told him that something weird was happening. My friend came out of the bathroom and the calls kept coming in.

[00:04:52] I kept rejecting them until my friend took the phone from my hand, picked it up, and told the guy to fuck off. I reported the incident to campus authorities and the local police. Both were at a complete loss. All they could offer was to arrange to have a student escort me to classes, just in case I was being watched by the mysterious caller.

[00:05:15] When the cops tried to trace the call, they had pinged off many towers in many different locations, but none of them were near me. They were all in California. I feel like it's possible that the person who had entered my home and took bites out of my family's food was behind those calls. Both of these incidents were so bizarre that I can't help but wonder if they're somehow connected.

[00:05:59] This is one of those stories that I forgot about until I recently spoke with an old school friend who reminded me of it. It happened when I was roughly seven or eight years old. My family had just moved to America and were renting the top portion of a regular suburban house in a cul-de-sac in a safe neighborhood. I had friends who were triplets who lived about three houses down from mine. They weren't far at all.

[00:06:26] I'd go hang out with them every day and at around 9pm, my older brother, who was 12, would take the two-minute walk over to their house to come and get me and walk me home. Since I was pretty young. One night my brother came to get me as usual. The sun wasn't fully down, but it was getting pretty dark. We started to walk home as normal when he started casting glances over his shoulder.

[00:06:53] I didn't notice anything was going on until he shoved me away from the sidewalk and in between two houses. Each house had a huge fence that separated their backyards, and he made me crouch behind it. I remember being very scared, but more so confused since I had no idea what the hell was going on. He was a pretty big prankster, so I honestly didn't believe him when he said,

[00:07:20] We need to walk behind the houses. I think someone is following us. Looking back now, he was probably trying to keep calm. However, any calmness remaining in my 8-year-old body was gone the moment I turned around and looked. The man had followed us behind the houses, and he was just by the edge of a house a few houses down, near a different fence line. He had a black hoodie on with the hood up.

[00:07:48] He had black sweatpants on with white sneakers. I was able to see with horrifying clarity that his jaw was just hanging open. He was standing there, with his jaw open, and it was horrifying. When my brother saw that I was on the verge of freaking out, he told me to run as fast as I could to our house, and we booked it. Neither of us looked back, but we were scared out of our minds.

[00:08:15] As I said, we only rented the top portion of the house, so the bottom part, which included the sliding door that led into the backyard, belonged to the other tenant. I don't remember if she was home or not, but I do remember tugging that thing open, bursting inside and locking it behind us as fast as I could. When I looked up, the man was there, in the yard, just a little ways away from the door, staring at us.

[00:08:43] My brother and I told my sister and my mother immediately, as my father was away on a work trip. But not much came of it. Until the next day. The following day, we went to meet my dad at his warehouse, which had a small live-in portion above it. We just sort of lazed around there until he was ready to head home with us.

[00:09:07] Around dusk, he came up to the live-in space and told us that we might have to wait since the police had just arrived. Then he walked us around to the back window to show us that the police were around the backyard area of the warehouses, where a white van was parked on the grass by the edge of the woods. I was pretty young, so I don't remember what was happening, but I do remember my dad telling me that the police found a man and a woman in the van.

[00:09:36] He said that the man's mouth was hanging wide open. He seemed disturbed as he talked about the whole thing, and wouldn't answer any questions about the woman, and this led me to believe that she had possibly been harmed. But I really have no idea. I know that the man was arrested on trespassing charges, though.

[00:09:58] It freaks me out to this day, and I still can't believe my brother and I were followed in our quiet neighborhood, and I never found out how or why he showed up at my dad's workplace.

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[00:12:16] We are Teresa and Nemo. And that's why we have to Shopify. The platform, the we used before Shopify, has used regularly updates, which have sometimes led to the shop that didn't work. Our Nemo Boards Shop makes the mobile devices a good figure. The illustrations on the boards come now much clearer, what is important to us and what our brand is also made out.

[00:12:43] Start your test today for 1€ per month on Shopify.de slash radio. My brother's partner, best friend and I recently took a trip to Kansas City to see Orville Peck. We waited until the last minute to reserve an Airbnb because we weren't 100% sure of who was going. Nonetheless, we found somewhere to stay just outside of Kansas City in a suburb called Grandview at a pretty reasonable rate.

[00:13:13] The host's overall rating was good and we didn't see anything out of the ordinary when reading the first few reviews, so we thought that we had snagged a pretty good deal. We arrived in Grandview a little after 3pm on the day that we were checking in. Our Airbnb was on the bottom floor of the owner's home. And as we pulled up to the house, we noticed quite a bit of religious signs and statues on the lawn.

[00:13:41] Don't get me wrong, I don't have any issues with people believing in what they want to believe in, as long as it doesn't infringe upon other people's rights. But here we were, a group of very visibly queer people, about to attend a gay country concert, blindly walking into a religious home where we would be staying for the next two nights. We decided that there wasn't anything to be worried about and reminded ourselves that we were essentially in the Bible Belt after all.

[00:14:11] We knew that we shouldn't have been surprised that we were staying in the home of someone religious. My brother and my partner called the host and met her at the door of our guest suite. She showed them around while the rest of us unloaded our suitcases. When they came back to meet us, they said that she was really nice, which further eased our minds. So after settling in a bit, we decided to hang out, order food and rest a little bit before we headed off to the concert that night.

[00:14:42] However, our comfort didn't last too long. While we were getting our suitcases unpacked and lying around, in one of the bedrooms of our guest suite, my youngest brother was casually looking through the drawers and dressers and side tables, as anyone would do. Most of what we found was normal. Extra bed sheets, pens, notepads, nothing out of the ordinary.

[00:15:08] That is until he came across something that would completely change our outlook on the trip. Inside one of the drawers was a Bible. This wasn't super weird considering where we were staying. But as he was flipping through its pages, a small tin foil packet fell out. For those of you who don't know anything about drugs, or what they look like, the substance that was contained in the tin foil that fell out of the Bible was heroin.

[00:15:38] That's right. Not even 30 minutes into our stay, my youngest brother found hard drugs tucked into the folds of a Bible. At this point, we weren't really sure of what to do. We didn't want to tell the hosts, and we didn't want to call the cops. We contemplated taking the packet and throwing it away at some random gas station, but ultimately decided to just put it back where we found it and act like none of us had seen it.

[00:16:07] We then got food and started getting ready for the concert. While the rest of us got ready, my partner, who wasn't going to the concert, started reading through the Airbnb handbook that the host provided. Everything stated in it seemed pretty standard, except for a few lines that read,

[00:16:36] Again, I don't have anything against people following their religions. But it just seemed like an awfully out of place thing to include in an Airbnb handbook for guests. There were also a few other books around the guest suite that stuck out to us. Some of the off-base titles that we saw on the books were

[00:17:07] We ignored these things for the most part, aside from my partner who was newly freaked out about being left alone at the suite while the rest of us went off to the concert. I told him it wasn't a big deal and assured him that he didn't have anything to worry about. He's a worrywart though, so as soon as we left he locked himself in the bedroom and started looking a little more into the books that we found. He came to the realization that the books were associated with a group called IHOPKC,

[00:17:37] which stands for the International House of Prayer, a prominent religious cult founded in Kansas City. A majority of its members live in the Grandview suburb, which was exactly where we were staying. I could write a whole separate story about the beliefs of IHOPKC, but essentially they are an evangelical Christian group that has a functioning 24-7 prayer room at their headquarters that has been going non-stop since 1999.

[00:18:06] There was also a murder associated with the group, but it was covered up and eventually ruled as suicide. Again, it's all too much to go over in the story, but it gets pretty dark. The rest of us got back from the concert very late. Not to mention a couple of us were still heavily intoxicated from drinking at the concert, so my partner didn't really mention anything about his discoveries that night, but he was quick to tell us about everything in the morning.

[00:18:35] At this point we shrugged it off and thought, okay, these people are a part of some weird church thing, whatever, it's fine. At least that explained what some of the weird rules and books were all about. The day after the concert we left our Airbnb for the day to hang out around the city. When we went back there to rest, my friend and partner started doing some more research on the group.

[00:18:59] That was when they found out that we were actually staying in one of the prominent leaders' houses. We figured this out by cross-referencing the names of our hosts with the names of the members who were high up on the organization chart of their website. After this, we started to snoop around the suite a bit more. We found large barrels of dried food and a jug of some liquid that we later found out was what they drank when they were fasting.

[00:19:29] We also found a lot more of their teaching materials. It seemed like they were completely prepared for some sort of end times rapture. We then went back and read more thoroughly through the reviews and found a few that would have set off some red flags. For example, one review stated that the male owner drew a gun in front of the people who were staying there. Also, any review that had even a hint of negativity had a snarky reply from the host.

[00:19:58] Needless to say, we spent as much time as we possibly could away from the Airbnb for the remainder of the trip. When my cat passed away recently, I was devastated. For days, I couldn't stop crying or thinking about her. But then, one day, my sister, who lives in a nearby city,

[00:20:25] called me about a stray kitten that she found next to their deceased mother near a pile of garbage. She suggested that we adopt the kitten, thinking that it might help ease the grief, while giving the tiny creature a chance at a better life. At first, I was uncomfortable with the idea. The pain of losing my cat was still fresh, and I had decided that I was never going to have another cat again. My sister understood but proposed a temporary solution.

[00:20:55] She said that we should keep the kitten for a few days until she found a new home for it. I reluctantly agreed, since I knew that I couldn't let the poor thing starve to death. The only problem was that my sister lived 45 kilometers away in a hostel, and getting there wasn't easy. Driving my scooter on the highway was very dangerous, so I decided to take a local train. The journey would involve going through five stops,

[00:21:24] with my destination being Bilay Nagar, which is a small district in the city of Bilay. Local trains in my state are unreserved and often crowded, especially during morning and evening hours. To avoid the rush, I chose a midday train that departed at 12.30pm. I arrived at the station early, hoping to find a comfortable seat, and was relieved to see that the train was only moderately crowded.

[00:21:51] I then settled into a seat next to a man who was traveling with his wife. As the train prepared to depart, a slim, bearded man with a large bag boarded. He took the seat beside me. I silently prayed for him to be just another normal passenger, but unfortunately my prayers were unanswered. This didn't help as I wasn't used to traveling alone, and I was already feeling uneasy.

[00:22:19] At first everything seemed fine. To pass the time, I took out my phone and began playing chess. Then, I overheard the bearded man as he was on the phone having a conversation. He said, Yeah, I was caught for that. But bail was posted, so I'm out now. I'll finish the job this time though. I froze. The man sitting across from me had also overheard the conversation.

[00:22:48] He and I exchanged a nervous glance, and his fearful expression mirrored mine. I tried to ignore it, reasoning that the man was unlikely to harm either of us on a crowded train. But he did continue making suspicious calls, casually discussing things that sounded like they were straight out of a crime novel. At one point, he mentioned that he was heading to Dirk, the station after Balainagar, for a court appearance.

[00:23:17] My unease grew when I noticed him blatantly staring at my phone screen. He wasn't even trying to be discreet. I was too scared to confront him or move to another seat, fearing that he might react badly. After what felt like forever, he finally stopped taking calls, but struck up a conversation. The game you're playing takes a lot of brain power, doesn't it? He remarked, referring to the chess app.

[00:23:47] I smiled awkwardly and looked away, praying that he wouldn't continue talking. Thankfully, he didn't. The rest of the journey was tense. He kept brushing his leg against mine, and glancing at me with a piercing gaze. I tried my best to focus on my game and ignore him. The entire time, I couldn't stop thinking about the worst possibilities. What if he followed me? Attacked me? Or worse? These thoughts consumed me

[00:24:14] until the train finally reached Balainagar. After I got off the train, I noticed him getting off as well. I was confused, but decided not to dwell on it. Balainagar was only about 5 kilometers from Dirk, so I assumed that he might have business nearby. I then stayed on the platform as I was waiting for my sister to arrive. I called her, but she didn't pick up. I figured she was driving,

[00:24:42] so I decided to wait a bit before calling her again. Then I saw the man, who was also on the platform, standing at a distance. He was staring directly at me. When he noticed I had seen him, he walked toward the front side of the station. Relieved, I called my sister again, and this time she answered. She told me that she was waiting at the back exit of the station, so I hurried over there to find her. She then handed me the kitten,

[00:25:11] which was so tiny that it fit in the palm of my hand, and I placed it in a small basket I had brought along. We decided to stay at the station until my return train arrived at 2.20pm. I told my sister about the creepy man, but she laughed it off, saying he was probably just trying to scare me. Her reaction irritated me, but I let it go. Then I saw him again. This time, he was walking on the bridge, heading toward the back exit.

[00:25:41] I pointed him out to my sister, who dismissed it as a coincidence. I tried to do the same, thinking that he might have gotten off at the wrong station and was waiting for the next train that was headed to Dirk. When my train arrived, I said goodbye to my sister and boarded my return train with the kitten. This train was crowded. I stood by the door, and about 45 minutes later, just two steps away from my destination, I spotted the man again.

[00:26:09] He was walking through the crowded train car, staring at me until he situated himself to stand directly in front of me. I tried to ignore him, but this made my anxiety skyrocket. As the train approached my station, he leaned into me and asked me about the basket. What's inside? He inquired. A kitten, I replied. My sister rescued it.

[00:26:38] He smiled and said, It's so rare to meet good people like you. The train stopped right as he said that, and I quickly got off without responding. Instead of exiting through the main station gates, I headed to the parking area, about one and a half kilometers away, where I had left my scooter. Nobody really walks through that section unless their vehicle is parked there. As I walked, I realized that the man was following me. My heart was racing,

[00:27:07] so I quickened my pace. So did he. By the time I reached my scooter, I was trembling with fear since he followed me all the way to the parking lot. I started my scooter and sped away, taking the longer route through secluded valleys to avoid traffic. Thankfully, he did not follow suit. I haven't traveled alone since, and I am terrified of the idea. His face still haunts me. And that three-hour ordeal

[00:27:37] was easily the scariest experience of my life. We are Teresa and... Nemo. And so we are to Shopify. The platform, the we used before Shopify,

[00:28:05] has used updates, which have often been used to have to have to have led to the shop that didn't work. Our Nemo Boards shop makes the mobile devices a good figure. The illustrations on the boards come now much more clearly, what is important to us and what our brand also makes us out. Start your test today for 1€ per month on Shopify.de This happened to me in Tempe, Arizona, not far from Mill Avenue where the bars are.

[00:28:35] One weekend I was out bar hopping with a group of friends. I was having a good time and wound up getting pretty wasted. I have this terrible habit of wandering off and getting lost when I drink and in doing so, on this particular night, I managed to get myself into a very dumb situation. After wandering down the streets for almost an hour, I started to realize that I was very lost. And to make things worse,

[00:29:04] my phone battery was entirely drained. At some point, I decided that I would walk back to my friend's house which I knew was somewhere north of the area where I was bar hopping. I should mention that I'm severely incompetent when it comes to directions and navigating around the city, so while I was confident in the general direction that I was headed, I didn't realize that I was 7-8 miles away from my friend's place. As I was stumbling confidently along the empty roads at 2am,

[00:29:34] a sedan suddenly pulled in front of me aggressively, almost blocking my path. Somewhat startled, I looked towards the driver's side and I saw a rather large and intimidating looking man staring at me. In situations like this, most people have one of two reactions. They either become scared and defensive or angry and aggressive. I was just drunk enough to have no sense of the danger that I was in,

[00:30:02] as I am your typical privileged suburban guy, and I'm not particularly big or threatening. I proceeded to wave at the guy and said, Hey man, what's good? I'm not completely sure, but I think I was probably smiling. I specifically remember the face that he made. It was this sort of confused and conflicted look. It was almost like I threw him off and he was trying to figure out

[00:30:31] what year it was. He paused for a second and then asked, Where are you going? I told him I was trying to walk to my friend's place and added that I had no idea where I was. After another pause, he told me to get into his car. Without thinking or asking questions, I walked around to the passenger side of his car and hopped right in. Of course this was a dumb idea, but at the time, it seemed like a good idea.

[00:31:02] Once I got into his car, I was able to get a better look at him. He was covered in tattoos and I noticed his arm was all bandaged up. He also had a pistol tucked into his shorts for some reason, but none of this fazed me at the time. He asked me where my friend's place was and I gave him directions. I'm pretty sociable and talkative when I've been drinking so I immediately started casually chatting with this guy. I don't remember

[00:31:31] exactly what we talked about, but eventually, he started telling me that he had just gotten out of the hospital after being treated for a gunshot wound on his arm. He was telling me about how he and his girl just broke up because of it. She didn't like that he was hanging around with this crowd which resulted in him getting in gunfights. Go figure. He then told me that he was really pissed off about both getting shot and the breakup.

[00:32:01] He said that he was out driving around looking for somebody to rob when he found me. He also mentioned that he had served time for robbery in the past. At that point, my drunken brain started to connect the dots and I thought about the roughly $200 that I had in my pocket at that very moment. But instead of freaking out, I stayed calm and said something like, Damn, man. That all sounds really rough. About 15 minutes later,

[00:32:30] we pulled up to my friend's place. Now this was when I should have gotten out of the car and thanked the armed man for the ride. But, I felt like I owed him one for taking me all the way to my friend's place. So I asked if he wanted to come in and smoke some weed. He said that he was down. At this point, my friends had already been back for a while and were all wondering what happened to me. As you might expect, they were awfully surprised when I showed up

[00:32:59] with a strange dude who I eventually learned was a gang member who genuinely debated robbing me at gunpoint. And what the dude did next sort of sketched everyone out. My buddy lives in a house with a few other people. His room is at the end of a hallway and that's where all my friends were hanging out and listening to music. He also had a huge safe in his closet and it's visible as soon as you walk into the room.

[00:33:29] I didn't realize it, but my new friend had brought his gun inside with him. Shortly after entering the room, he took his gun out of his waistband and put it down right on top of the safe in front of everyone. At that moment, it seemed like an odd thing to do. But it was a lot better than what he could have done. Also, I feel like it was maybe his way of showing the respect. Like he wanted to convey that he wasn't going to use it.

[00:34:00] Luckily, I have very chill friends, so they all kept their cool as we got ready to roll a blunt. A few minutes later, we went out back to smoke and left his gun in my friend's room. The dude chilled with us for a while longer, and he got along with some of my friends who had similar interests as him. Then, when he was ready to go, he went inside, picked his gun up off of the safe, and left without incident.

[00:34:29] Looking back, I realized this could have gone much worse, especially since my buddy had a lot of cash in that safe. This guy could have robbed us at gunpoint at any time. I like to think that, although he was a criminal and a gang member, he was also just a guy going through a hard time who needed a little kindness. I'm fully convinced that our kindness and marijuana prevented that night from going horribly bad.

[00:35:10] I'm a 14-year-old male, and something really strange happened to me six months ago. It started when I was lying in bed, trying to sleep. I heard this soft tapping noise. At first, I thought it was just the wind or maybe a tree branch, but then I heard it again. A very intentional tapping sound. It was coming from my window. I live in a one-story house, so the window is accessible, but it faces the backyard.

[00:35:41] I tried to ignore it, but the tapping wouldn't stop. It took me a bit, but when I finally worked up the courage to get out of bed and peek through the blinds, I saw him. There was a man standing outside, just staring at my window. He was tall, with a pale face that looked almost empty. It looked like there was nothing behind the eyes. He didn't move, he just kept staring at me. I panicked and ducked down.

[00:36:10] My heart was racing, and I didn't know what to do. After what felt like forever, I finally crawled back into bed and pulled the covers over my head. But I didn't sleep at all that night. The next day, I tried to convince myself that it was just my imagination and possibly a dream. But then it happened again. I heard the same soft tapping. I froze, assuming it was the same man outside my window.

[00:36:39] I didn't even bother to look though, I just hoped that he would go away. I told my parents about it the morning after the second occurrence, but they didn't believe me. They dismissed it and thought that I was having nightmares. I knew what I heard and what I saw, but they told me that I just needed to stop watching scary movies before going to bed. That night, I was scared to go to sleep. As I lay there in bed, I remember wondering,

[00:37:09] what if he comes back? What if he tries to get in? I checked the window multiple times to make sure that it was locked, but I didn't feel like that was enough. I ended up staying awake since I was too freaked out to sleep, and at around 2am, the tapping started. Upon hearing this, I swear my heart was going to explode, so I grabbed my flashlight and shined it at the window.

[00:37:39] That's when he said, Please help me, I'm lost. I froze. His voice, it didn't sound scary, it sounded more tired than anything. I was still very freaked out, so I just yelled, Who are you? But all he would say was that he was lost and didn't know where he was. I finally ran to get my parents, and my dad actually believed me this time, so he went outside while my mom called the non-emergency number for the police.

[00:38:09] It turns out, the guy was an elderly man who lived just a few streets over. He has dementia, and he kept getting really confused as he wandered into our yard. The police came, and they found his family. They were very relieved, and they came by the next day to thank us. They even brought cookies, which was very nice. My parents felt guilty about not believing me at first, so now we have motion lights outside, and they promised to take me more seriously

[00:38:39] if anything like this should ever happen again. After we helped out the man, he was able to get back on a regular sleep schedule, and I feel a lot better. We are Teresa and Nemo, and that's why we switched to Shopify. The platform,

[00:39:09] which we used before Shopify has used regularly updates, which sometimes led to the shop that didn't work. Our Nemo Boards shop will make on mobile devices a good figure, and the illustrations on the boards come now much clearer, what is important and what our brand also means to make us start your test today for 1€ per month on shopify.de. This took place a while ago, around 2015.

[00:39:37] I'll probably never forget it though. I was 21 years old at the time, and I was still fairly new in my city. I had just gotten out of a bad relationship, wasn't in the best place mentally, and didn't know a lot of people in town besides my ex and his friends. I was on a dating hookup app looking for people to hang out with casually. I figured maybe I'd find a friend with benefits or something like that. I had matched with a 25-year-old guy

[00:40:07] who I'll refer to as Simon. Simon and I talked sporadically in the app for a few days. He explained that he was in a band and living in a house with his bandmates. He sent me their music, which was just audio on YouTube with a heavily edited still image of four or five guys playing instruments, one of whom looked like him. The music was an interesting combination of styles, but it wasn't really for me.

[00:40:37] I was like, but he seemed like a nice enough guy. After he stopped replying for a few days, I figured that that was that and assumed he moved on. Then, one day, I was at work when I got a message from him apologizing and explaining that he had been busy. He wanted to make it up to me. He invited me to a barbecue with his friends and bandmates in their yard. He had explained that their quote-unquote band manager

[00:41:06] had provided them with the house that they were living in. Based on the lack of views on the YouTube video and the fact that I only saw one photo of him playing in a band, I thought that he was probably exaggerating about having a band manager. I figured that this band manager was more than likely a friend who was giving Simon and his bandmates a discount on rent. And honestly, I didn't think too much of it beyond that. Normally, I would have just said no

[00:41:36] to going to a barbecue alone at the home of someone that I didn't know too well. But I was bored. I saw this as an opportunity to overcome some social anxiety and maybe even make some new girlfriends there since he did make it sound like it was going to be a pretty big party. I put the neighborhood that he gave me into maps and it appeared to be a suburban area with a lot of family homes around. At least as far as I knew.

[00:42:04] I figured being in a yard on a nice summer day wouldn't be overly risky since I assumed lots of neighbors would be outside as well. Plus, it was just a few train stops away and I was off in a few hours. I didn't tell him I was apprehensive about going since I didn't know him well but I said I'd stop by for a bit if I didn't need to go inside the house at all. He said that was totally fine and this made me feel a lot better.

[00:42:34] I even made sure not to drink anything for the rest of my shift so I wouldn't risk needing to go inside to use the bathroom. As I was finishing my shift I was anxious about showing up to a barbecue with people that I didn't know as he implied that the event was already underway. So, I asked Simon if he could meet me at the train station since he said it was a quick walk from his place. He agreed and I let him know that I was leaving work and what time the train was going to arrive

[00:43:03] at his station. At around 5.30, I sent Simon a message telling him that I was there because I couldn't find him after looking around for a bit. He told me he was running behind and to just start walking towards the neighborhood. I was about halfway across the massive train station parking lot when I saw him slowly wandering toward me. I noticed his clothes right away as he was wearing bell bottoms which are pretty uncommon, especially for men.

[00:43:33] I also saw that his hair was long in the distance but up close his face looked rather different from the photos. He might have used some heavy-duty editing since he sort of looked like a different guy. He appeared to be older looking at least older than the 25 year old guy in the photos. This was the first real red flag I had clocked about him but I brushed it off. I thought maybe he was a self-conscious smoker

[00:44:02] who didn't wear sunscreen and hadn't taken any pictures in a while. This seemed entirely possible as all of his pictures looked candid so he wasn't much of a selfie guy. When it came down to it, I knew I was mostly there to make friends so I decided I shouldn't judge his appearance so harshly. He was also clearly already drunk but a lot of my ex's friends were heavy drinkers so that didn't seem strange especially since he stepped away from the barbecue

[00:44:32] that he was hosting. The second red flag came shortly after we arrived at his front door. I reminded him that I wasn't comfortable going inside the house but he assured me that we just needed to walk through the house to get to the backyard. It wasn't the kind of neighborhood where you could just walk around the house to get to the backyard. Although, we could have backtracked to the main road to go down the alley to get to the backyard. Instead of making him do that,

[00:45:01] I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed he just forgot what I said about not wanting to go inside. I didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble so I just went with it. We entered the house and he closed the door and immediately locked both the regular lock and the deadbolt behind us. I guess I didn't think it was too weird since a lot of people are just in the habit of locking the door when they go inside their house but it still made me feel uncomfortable for some reason.

[00:45:31] Simon then told me that he wanted to give me a tour of the rest of the house. I politely declined and reminded him that I'm just there for the barbecue. But he said that he and his bandmates had worked really hard to decorate the house and he was proud of it and wanted to show it off. At that point, I was feeling skeptical because I was still thinking about the band manager who got the house for him and his bandmates. I still felt this had to be exaggerated

[00:46:01] and usually when guys tell me things that seem a bit far-fetched, the truth generally slips out by the time they get me into their house. But still, I convinced myself that I was just being unreasonable. I mean, I was already in the house and he insisted that the tour would be quick so I figured why not. Plus, I had explained his red flags away in my head to the point that Simon seemed like a mostly dopey, artsy stoner guy.

[00:46:31] He didn't seem like a threat. He just seemed like an insecure oddball who really sucks at communicating and tends to fib a lot. I figured at worst he'd get handsy and I'd get called a prude for not sleeping with him. I didn't have a lot of self-worth at the time, so I just went along with everything. The tour started pretty uneventfully, but I did notice that the decor and the common areas looked like it was chosen by a middle-aged

[00:47:00] Martha Stewart enthusiast. It wasn't what I expected for a bunch of guys in a band and their band manager. I wasn't sure if this should make me feel better or worse. It looked like we were in somebody's mom's house. I figured whoever's mom was out of town and he didn't want to admit that he lived in either his parents' or his friend's parents' home. This was yet another total red flag, but I was able to rationalize it at the time.

[00:47:30] The bedroom doors were all closed so I didn't see into them, and the bathroom was unremarkable. Then he showed me the kitchen where I finally saw through the window that there was nobody in the backyard. There weren't even barbecue supplies around. No burgers thawing on the counter, no cocktail supplies, nothing. I asked him where everyone was and why he lied about the barbecue. He then told me that his bandmates

[00:48:00] were returning from being on tour. He said that they were just running behind due to some van trouble, but assured me that they would be back any minute so that we could start the party. I asked him why he wasn't on tour with them since he was also supposedly in this band. I don't remember what his answer was, but I do remember that it didn't make sense. At this point, I was done doing mental gymnastics

[00:48:27] to convince myself that this guy wasn't completely full of it, and I started feeling freaked out. Yes, I know it took me long enough, but I'm smarter now, so don't worry. Well, I then started trying to figure out a way to get myself out of this situation. I hoped that once he was done with our house tour, we'd go outside so that I could just leave. I'd been in some sketchy situations in the past, but luckily none of those situations had been bad enough

[00:48:57] to where someone tried to physically stop me when I walked away. I knew that I'd be comfortable walking away from him when we were outside, but I knew I wasn't comfortable doing so in such a vulnerable setting. You know, inside the house with the doors locked. I was grateful that I had enough sense to know Simon was full of it, but I had no idea how much worse it would get. So, as we continued talking,

[00:49:26] I instinctively pretended to believe all of his bullshit. He eventually offered me a beer, but I declined and explained that I had a work thing in the morning. He didn't press any further and just cracked one open for himself. Then he wanted to continue the tour downstairs. I could see from the top of the stairs that the basement was the dark and creepy kind, with very small windows. So I refused and asked if we could go back outside.

[00:49:58] After the tour, he nonchalantly said, as he started to descend the stairs. I pulled all of the stops trying to argue about how I wasn't going to the basement. I told him I had a spider phobia and that I really didn't like basements. It was all lies, but I was ready to say anything that didn't apply that he was the reason I was afraid. He started to get agitated about my reluctance,

[00:50:24] so I figured it would be better to just let him show me the damn basement so that, hopefully, he'd take me back outside. I didn't know what else to do. The basement was fairly unremarkable. All I initially saw was a couch, a TV, and an elliptical. But then I noticed something that gave me chills. I saw a door that looked like the heavy, foam-lined door to a cold storage room.

[00:50:53] My grandma had one in her house. It was the kind of door that only opened from the outside. It was like a smaller version of the big metal doors on commercial walk-in fridges and freezers. It was jarring to see as it looked particularly out of place in this house. As he opened that door, I made it apparent that I would not go anywhere near it.

[00:51:19] He explained that it was the band's soundproof music studio. I peeked inside from a few meters away, and it indeed did look soundproof. It was about the size of a bedroom. Mattress protectors were hanging on the walls. I could see a few guitars and amps in there, but there was no drum kit or any recording equipment that I could see.

[00:51:46] He insisted that I go inside to get a better look, while he stood outside the door and motioned. This made the alarm bells really start going off. I realized I could die if I wasn't careful. So I turned around and ran up the stairs. He closed the door and followed me, asking me what was wrong.

[00:52:08] He was acting like I was being unreasonable for not wanting to set foot into his weird little, incomplete soundproof studio. This made me feel like I was in a much sketchier situation than my abusive ex would ever have put me in. I was now freaking out. At that point, my main objective was to get out of that house. The front and back doors were both closed, and they were locked.

[00:52:34] So, if I tried to run, I knew he'd get to me before I could get any of the locks open. I also considered excusing myself to go to the bathroom, but it didn't have a window. This house had a convoluted floor plan that I wasn't familiar with, and he was much bigger than I was. He was the tall, lanky type, and I could tell that he would be able to run faster than me.

[00:52:59] So I stayed calm and pretended that I was okay hanging out with him in the house, in hopes that he would chill out a bit. We made small talk for a few minutes, and he cracked open another beer, which thankfully made him calm down. In desperation, I mentioned that it was beautiful outside and suggested that we go sit in the yard while we waited for his bandmates to return. He said no, and started to get agitated again, since he could tell that I was ready to leave already.

[00:53:30] I told him that I could stay, but explained that I really wanted to smoke a cigarette. He told me that we could smoke inside, and pointed to a cereal bowl full of cigarette butts. So we sat down at the table and lit some cigarettes. As he was smoking, he started rolling a joint, which he promptly lit as soon as the cigarette was done. He offered me some, but I said no thanks. He insisted, so I took the smallest puff that I could.

[00:54:01] I'm a pretty seasoned weed smoker, but I pretended to cough excessively as I choked out. I'm a novice, so that's more than enough for me. For someone who's a liar, he thankfully wasn't very good at picking up on the lies of others. After we smoked, he asked if I'd like to watch a movie until his bandmates came back. I told him that I had just been looking forward to spending the rest of the day outside after a long day at work,

[00:54:30] and suggested that we go for a walk to the park instead. He did not like or appreciate this idea. I was trying to keep as much distance as possible between us, but he stayed close enough to me that I could smell the beer on his breath. When he grabbed me by the waist, I backed away and asked what kind of food was going to be at the barbecue in an attempt to try and change the subject. I also wanted to make him think that I still believed everything he was telling me.

[00:54:59] He began to get angry and sternly reiterated that his bandmates would be home any minute. I tried to calm him down. My anxiety was through the roof as I scrambled to continue some generic small talk. Now, I don't know how I got so lucky, but the next thing that happened might have ultimately been what saved me. Simon went to the fridge to get another beer, but the case of beer was empty. This made him even angrier.

[00:55:29] So I went out on a limb and suggested that we go get some more beer for the party. I was terrified that this suggestion would enrage him even further, but I was out of ideas. I knew I at least had to try and get him to agree to go outside. Thankfully, he interpreted this as my best idea yet, and his eyes lit up at the possibility that I would be down to drink with him. So he agreed. As we were walking to the liquor store,

[00:55:57] I still didn't have a plan on what to do next since this guy was a fucking menace, and I didn't feel comfortable trying to walk away from him in this weirdly desolate suburban area. I was extremely relieved to be out of that house though. I walked with him to the liquor store, and when we got there, I told him I didn't need to go inside since he was just going to grab some beer. He insisted that I do, and I was so frazzled that I just went in with him

[00:56:27] and hoped that a good opportunity to leave would arise. When we got inside, he asked what kind of beer I liked. I reminded him that I had to work in the morning and didn't drink much. He demanded to know what kind of beer I wanted, and I just named the first thing that came to mind. We went to pay, and the cashier was kind of an asshole, so I didn't ask for help. I probably should have, but I panicked, and I didn't.

[00:56:55] I hoped that there might be somebody in the parking lot who could help me if I made a scene, but there wasn't anybody. I had one last idea before I took my chances to try and run or scream. There was a drug store across the street from the liquor store, so I told Simon I had to go buy a toothbrush or some shit that vaguely implied I might stay over. He eagerly agreed to this, but tried to follow me into the store, so I told him that he wasn't allowed to bring the beer into the drug store.

[00:57:26] I don't even know if that's true, and I highly doubt that it's any kind of law, but luckily this drunk douchebag believed it and agreed to wait outside. Once I was in the store, I thought maybe if I wandered around long enough, he would get the hint or get bored and leave. I wandered around the store for at least half an hour before peeking outside, and this jackass was still standing there, staring through the window.

[00:57:54] This creep never even took his phone out or tried to otherwise preoccupy himself. Every time I checked to see if he was out there, he was still staring daggers at me through the window. As I mentioned, I was new to this city, and I didn't feel like I had anybody I could call to come and help me. I also knew that the local cops didn't take things like this very seriously, and the workers at the drug store appeared to mostly be in high school,

[00:58:21] so I didn't want to drag them into this. At some point, I started to hope that he'd come inside the store so that I could lose him in the aisles and sneak out, but he never did. I ended up hovering around the tills and waited until a big group of friendly-looking people were paying. I followed them out of the store and immediately told Simon to go home and leave me alone. I said this firmly and loudly enough to imply that I would make a scene if need be.

[00:58:51] Simon looked at the people getting in their cars, who were now pausing and looking at us as I had essentially yelled at him. Then, he just turned around and left. It was bizarrely anticlimactic, which I was very thankful for since there was so much buildup. I then ran to the train station, which thankfully was in the complete opposite direction of his house. When I got home, I looked at the app that I met him on,

[00:59:20] and his profile had either been deleted or he blocked me. And I never heard from him again. Years later, after I stopped compartmentalizing the whole thing, I was reflecting on this and wished that I would have at least reported him or something. It bothers me when I wonder if he ever tried this with anyone else. If he did, I'm pretty sure he would have made sure the fridge was fully stocked.

[00:59:48] I never reported it to anyone at the time, since I didn't think anybody would take me seriously. I was also embarrassed about my choices, and I just wanted to move on from the whole thing. Plus, all the information I had on him was a likely false first name, and a general area of where the house was, which probably wasn't even his. I'll probably never know any more than I do now. And maybe that's for the best. So to Simon,

[01:00:17] let's not meet. Thanks for listening and stick around after the music if you're a patron for your extended version of this week's episode. If you want to get access, head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast and sign up to support the show today. You'll get access to ad free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate

[01:00:44] with bonus stories every week that you won't hear anywhere else. Again, that's patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. This week you have heard bizarre break in and possible link one year later by communist nymph, man in my backyard by Sanrio SCR, We Unknowingly Stayed at a Cult Leader's House by Emotional Mothman, A Journey I'll Never Forget by Dumb Riva,

[01:01:12] He Was Planning to Rob Me by Eccentric Shaman, The Man Who Tapped on My Window by Key Finish 4702, and finally, My Date Invited Me to a Fake Barbecue by Feral Doves. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's Not Meet a True Horror Podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. Send your stories in to Let's Not Meet Stories if you'd like to hear them on the show.

[01:01:40] Finally, make sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Odd Trails, Cryptic Encounters, and the Old Time Radio Cast all at crypticcountypodcasts.com I'll see you all next week. Everybody, stay safe.

[01:01:53] I'm a woman in my 30s and this happened in the spring of 2024.