16x24: Crazy Lyft Sugar Daddy

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[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_09] This podcast contains adult language and content. The stories shared in this podcast are told from the perspective of the authors. Their accounts and opinions are personal and do not reflect the stance of the production team. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_09] Last year, my fiancé and mom both passed away, one right after the other. After they died, I obviously fell into a deep depression. Though I thought I was pulling off the whole I'm fine thing, my friends could clearly see through it. A close friend almost demanded I move in with her and get out of the apartment I shared with my fiancé for 10 years.

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_09] She wanted me to start fresh, and while I didn't think I was ready to move on, the idea of not living alone was appealing. Plus, her apartment is in a much nicer neighborhood than the one I was living in. So I agreed. Living with her has been fantastic. Plus, our schedules are opposite, as I work days and she works nights, so we both get alone time. But we also have at least one day a week together so that we can hang out when our days off line up.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_09] Moving has also allowed me to be able to walk to work as it's so close. I thought that would be a godsend until my 10-minute walk caused a two-month-long nightmare. I decided to sit in the park that's between my apartment and my job one evening after work. As I was sitting there, a man approached me. I saw his face first. It didn't occur to me that this man was anything but a mildly handsome 40-something-year-old guy,

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_09] so I smiled and I looked down at my phone, expecting him to just walk on by. He asked me what time it was, and when I looked up to tell him, I noticed all of the stuff he was carrying. It was so random. He had a kid's chalkboard with nonsense written all over it, a paper bag full of old magazines and paperwork, and a steel shelf that at one point would have held CDs.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_09] Needless to say, it finally dawned on me that this was not going to be a normal encounter. He started talking non-stop. Some of it was nonsense, but some of it was coherent. Of the parts that I could follow, he told me that he had just been released from prison, and he was looking for a tattoo shot because he wanted to get Fuck the DOC, as in the Department of Corrections, along with the number 34 tattooed on him.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_09] I guess the 34 was because that's how many DOC violations he had while in prison. He also said that he wanted the DOC to pay for the tattoo. Then he noticed a button I had on my bag that had a logo for a local gay bar on it. He told me that he had gone there one night and went home with a guy. Then he looked me up and down and said, However, young ladies are my problem.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_09] I gathered my stuff up and left immediately. Now, I love the apartment that I live in with my friend, but it has its drawbacks, which became glaringly obvious after this encounter. The apartment is on the first floor. I love it because you can walk out the sliding glass doors right onto this awesome gated patio that has tables and grills for barbecuing. It's awesome in the summer. I now hate it because it's right on the street,

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_09] and the fencing is clearly very easy to scale. One early morning, around 5am, I heard a man scream, What the fuck are you doing? It was so loud and so close that it woke me up from a dead sleep, and I legitimately thought it was coming from inside my bedroom. As it turned out, it was coming from outside. A neighbor had been leaving for work and discovered a man, the man from the park.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_09] He was sleeping against my sliding glass door. The guy got scared off and my neighbor checked in on me afterward. I had no idea that the man was out there, so I freaked out. However, once I calmed down, I chalked it up to a fucked up coincidence because I didn't think the guy knew where I lived. But then, two weeks later, I was sleeping and at some point, the same man came onto the patio and was tapping on my sliding glass door.

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_09] When I saw him, I honestly just laid there, frozen in fear. When I wouldn't open the door, he began kicking the glass, and when I turned the light on to grab my phone, he took off. I called the police and they came over to take the report and to look at the footage from the cameras in the building. The footage confirmed it was the man from the park, and more disturbingly, the footage from the hallway cameras showed that on more than one occasion,

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_09] he had slipped into the building behind a resident and sat in the lobby for several hours. He was seen on the footage going down the hallway and trying my doorknob and my neighbor's doorknob to see if our doors were locked. He even went so far as to hide in the little mailbox room when he saw my roommate coming in from work. The police think he either followed me to the park or had just happened to notice me when I was on the patio,

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_09] and he fixated on me from there. It's been a few weeks and I haven't seen him. No one has reported seeing him in or around the building either. My roommate bought pepper spray for me, and my kooky, albeit well-meaning neighbor has made it very clear that he's retired military and a bit of a gun nut. He checks on me nightly, so I'm not as freaked out as I could be, but still, crazy guy from the park, let's not meet again.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_09] This happened about a year ago. I'm in a long-distance relationship, and I fly out to visit my boyfriend pretty often. Since I usually don't have a ride arranged from the airport, I just use Lyft or Uber to get where I'm going. This particular ride started completely normal. At the beginning of the ride, he was making the usual small talk that most rideshare drivers do. He asked things like, where are you flying from? Are you in college?

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_09] Do you have family here? Things like that. We got onto the freeway, and traffic was awful. I had had a layover during my flight, and all the airport outlets were being occupied, so my phone battery was already hanging by a thread. I was hoping that the traffic would clear up because I needed to stay in touch with the people I was going to stay with. Of course, with my luck, the Lyft app suddenly crashed and said,

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_09] you have arrived, while we were literally in the middle of the freeway with no houses or destinations in sight. I was annoyed, and the driver suggested pulling into a nearby Walmart to figure out what had gone wrong in the parking lot. Apparently, he had a very old phone, and it wasn't giving him proper directions, so I told him we could use my phone instead, but I needed to charge it first. He asked me to sit in the front seat so it would be easier

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_09] to plug it in and follow directions. At the time, that didn't seem strange, so I moved up front. He then told me that he would take me the rest of the way for free without using the Lyft app. So I then entered the address, and we got back on the road. As we were leaving the Walmart parking lot, he asked how old I was. I told him I had just turned 18, and that was when things began to get weird.

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_09] He seemed noticeably more interested after hearing my age, and immediately started asking questions like, why don't you live here? You should move here. You could go to college here. Why don't you? Then he casually mentioned he was a doctor, and that driving for Lyft was a side job. He said he had plenty of money. This guy was at least in his mid-40s. I explained that I had just become a legal adult,

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_09] and definitely didn't have the money to randomly move across the country and start college somewhere else. He then said, I can take care of you. I'll buy you a little apartment, a nice car, pay for your college, and take you out. At first, I thought he was joking. So I laughed awkwardly, and told him I wasn't interested. But he kept insisting, and the more he talked about it, the more uncomfortable I became. I didn't want to jump

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_09] to conclusions, and I tried convincing myself that maybe he was just awkward or unfamiliar with social norms, but the entire conversation was starting to creep me out. About 20 minutes later, we were only 5 minutes from my destination. Unfortunately, my phone kept doing that annoying thing where it switches between charging and not charging because of a loose cable. I had had that phone for quite a while, so this wasn't unusual.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_09] But it meant my battery had barely gained any charge at all before dying again. Since we were so close, I told him I knew the rest of the way and could direct him. The problem was that every time I gave him directions, he seemed to do the exact opposite. I would tell him to turn right, and he would go straight. I'd tell him to go straight and he'd turn left. Every wrong turn was brushed off as an accident. Before long,

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_09] we were completely lost. I wasn't very familiar with the area beyond the immediate neighborhood where my boyfriend lived, so I couldn't easily correct our route. Then the driver mentioned that he lived nearby. At that point, my imagination immediately went into overdrive and I became genuinely scared. I started wondering if he was intentionally driving me around and whether he was planning something worse. I actually felt

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_09] the tear roll down my face, but I remember trying to pull myself together because for some reason, I had convinced myself that showing fear would somehow make things worse. So I sat there trying to look calm while internally freaking out. Eventually, he turned around and headed back toward the correct area. But as soon as we got close again, he started making wrong turns all over again. By this point, I had managed to get my phone to around 5% battery. While we were

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_09] stopped at a red light, he suddenly reached over, grabbed my phone, and rated himself five stars on Lyft, added himself as a friend on Facebook, and entered his phone number into my contacts. Then he told me to call him if I ever needed anything, and suggested that we go out sometime. I gave him the fakest smile of my life because I was absolutely terrified and just wanted to get out of that car safely. Finally,

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_09] I'd had enough. After we stopped at another red light, I jumped out of the car and I said, thanks, but you're really scaring me. Bye. I then immediately called my boyfriend with my precious 5% battery and told him where I was because I was genuinely afraid. The driver was shouting out the window for me to get back in the car, but there was absolutely no chance that that was happening. I walked to a nearby area with a lot of people and waited there

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_09] until my boyfriend arrived. The entire ordeal lasted around two and a half hours. I'm not even exaggerating. This should have been a 45-minute trip, even with traffic. Afterward, I contacted Lyft and reported everything that had happened. I was told that the driver was removed from the platform, which was a relief. So to the random Lyft driver who wanted an 18-year-old sugar baby,

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_09] I don't know why you drove me around for hours while ignoring my directions, but let's not meet again. This episode is sponsored by our friends Smalls, and I want to share something. One of their customers wrote in and said, it seemed like

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[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_09] This happened a few years ago when I was in Hawaii. I was 20 at the time and I was raised being told that there were creeps and murderers everywhere. So I always have a watchful eye. I started going to a small group run by the church I attend that met on Friday nights near where I lived. We would meet at the courtyard in the middle of a busy strip mall. The courtyard was between Jamba Juice and Starbucks. In the courtyard there were

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_09] a few tables around and one big table in the middle. We would always meet at that big table. One day I got there and I noticed a man sitting at one of the tables towards the back closer to the Jamba Juice building. He looked like he was in his 30s. I didn't take notice of him at first but started getting an unsettled feeling when I realized he wouldn't stop looking at me. Wherever he was seated whenever I looked straight ahead I would see

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_09] his face. Now I've had the occasional creep try to talk to me but there was something more intense about this guy. I never had a more disturbing vibe come from someone before so I tried to brush it off and enjoy the evening. It was nearing the end of the night and I started to take my keys out of my bag because I was planning on leaving shortly. When I did that I noticed this man picked up his food and he threw

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_09] it in the trash and started gathering up his things. When I saw that I got a bit freaked out. I didn't think it was a coincidence. This was further confirmed when he just stood there even after I didn't get up. I ended up staying a bit longer because I was still talking to one of the girls but when I decided I was really about to leave I looked up again to see if the strange man was still there and he wasn't. I let out a sigh of relief

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_09] and I figured he must have left after all but I felt uneasy so I scanned the area. Luckily he was wearing a bright pink shirt so he wasn't hard to miss and wouldn't you know it he was still lingering in the grassy area between the courtyard and the parking lot. he had his arms folded and he was just staring at me. I was panicking I knew I had to have someone walk me to my car

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_09] so as I got up to leave I stood with my back turned to him he was probably 50 to 75 feet away. I then called the leader of the group over and asked do you see that guy behind me staring this way? He's been looking at me all night and I don't feel safe walking to my car alone. Is there any way that your family or someone could walk me to my car? She replied oh yeah of course he's been there a while. He was

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_09] here when I got here. She agreed that something was off about him and she and her family walked me to my car. Thankfully he didn't follow and I watched in my rearview mirror the whole way home to make sure that no one was following me. I made it home safe but I really thought that if I walked to my car alone something would happen. A week after this event I went back to the small group. I remembered that guy

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_09] and the feeling I had but didn't think that he would be there again. I went to our normal spot and I arrived early so only the leader and another woman were there already. As soon as I got to the table the leader hugged me and said I don't want to alarm you but that guy is here again. I looked over at the table where he was seated just like last time and sure enough there he was. I tried not to freak out

[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_09] but I definitely was. I talked to the girls while we waited for the rest of the group. During that time I must have had an uncomfortable look on my face and I think I kept inadvertently glancing in his direction because both women turned around and looked at him. The older woman noticed that he had a clear view of me so she moved her chair to block his view. But that didn't stop the creep. He literally picked up the small table he was sitting

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_09] at and moved it. Then he moved his chair all so he could see me. He was looking directly at me during all of this. This was when I knew there really wasn't something right about this guy. The night went on and I still stayed with the group but I saw that the creep got a phone call at one point. He went to answer it and started walking behind the Jamba Juice building. Before he disappeared completely, he arched his back so that

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_09] he could continue to look at me while he slowly made his way behind the building. It was the creepiest thing I'd ever seen. Needless to say, I kept an eye on him the whole night and before I could even ask the group leader, she offered for her and her family to walk me to my car again. I'm sure you're wondering if I ever saw that guy again after the second sighting and thankfully I didn't. My cousin started baseball practice and I had

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_09] to start taking him there on Friday night so I ended up missing out on the group's nights. I still wonder if he was there that following Friday though, just waiting for me. I wouldn't be surprised. I did go to the group night one last time a few weeks later. It was a few days before I left for Hawaii. I was anxious wondering if I'd see him there, but I was relieved when I didn't. After that, I bought pepper spray. The moral of the story is, if you feel uneasy,

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_09] don't be afraid to tell someone. I was lucky I was with a group of people, but if you're alone and something like this happens to you, find a group of women or an authority figure and don't be afraid to say what you feel in your gut. It's amazing how much our gut feelings can be right about things. Stay safe out there.

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_09] I recently booked an Airbnb in another country as I was traveling there for a concert. The room was cheap, but I was aware that I wasn't staying at a five-star hotel, and it was only for one night so I didn't mind. All that mattered to me was having a bed.

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_09] The trip didn't go so well because my data roaming apparently didn't work in that country at all. I logged into the wifi at a cafe and planned my route as best as I could. I was able to get to the Airbnb on time for check-in, rang the bell, and waited, but nobody came out. I repeatedly rang and waited for five minutes. I noticed that the door had a slot for mail, so I looked through it. I was shocked to

[00:24:23] [SPEAKER_09] see the entryway looked like an abandoned barn. There was a very dusty couch right in front of the door and other pieces of furniture covered in cloth. The room that I was looking into was very dirty, extremely old. I usually love old houses, but that just did not look like a house that was in use or prepared for guests at all. I wondered if I was at the wrong house and what to do now,

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_09] as a super old-looking guy walked towards the door from the street. I then asked him if he knew where my Airbnb was. He mumbled something, which I interpreted as positive, so I asked him if he was my host, Tim. He said yes and opened the door for me. Well, I already described the entrance, which he led me through. Then he led me up the super creaky staircase that went to the upper part

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_09] of the house. I followed him up there as he was heaving and coughing. The second floor was also abandoned looking. It was really dark, with clustered furniture with cloth draped over it. After I got up another staircase, we then arrived at the hallway where my room was. This was honestly the worst part of the house. There were cracks in the walls and creepy antique paintings with crosses hung up next to them. It seriously looked like the

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_09] set of a horror movie. I usually don't have a problem with decor like that. I have a bit of a goth aesthetic myself, so anything darkly inclined is my jam, but everything looked so run down. Nothing was taken care of. So I got major creepy vibes from this house. Then Tim showed me the bathroom, which had a huge hole missing in the bathtub tiling and in the wall. Everything

[00:26:21] [SPEAKER_09] looked extremely dirty. He showed me to my bedroom, which was honestly alright. There were a lot of creepy dolls on shelves, which threw me off, but the bed seemed fine. I asked him if they had wifi and he said no, so that wasn't ideal. I really hoped that they would have, since that meant I had no way to communicate while I was there. He then shuffled up to the fourth story. I looked up there and it was pitch black.

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_09] That was creepy. I definitely didn't want to get into the shower, so I just quickly changed and charged my phone. When I went to the bathroom, I realized I didn't even notice the creepiest part. There weren't any locks. At all. Not in the bathroom, not for the toilet, and not for my room. I already made up my mind that I definitely would not stay at this house. house. My mind was just spinning with scenarios,

[00:27:22] [SPEAKER_09] and I was very scared. I seriously debated whether I should take all my stuff to the concert because it didn't feel safe in the slightest. But my back was already hurting from the heavy backpack, so I just took my essentials and left the room as soon as I could. Not without sliding a folded paper under the door so I could tell if someone tried to get into the room while I wasn't there. When I was coming down the staircase, I heard someone turning

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_09] a key in the front door. I was a bit confused, but in the advert it did say that a couple lived there, so I expected to see the partner of the guy that I already met. But the middle-aged man that entered said, Hi, I'm Tim. All I could think of was, who the fuck was that other guy? I had a brief chat with the actual Tim before finally leaving the house. I was uneasy to say the

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_09] least. Luckily, I made it in time to the venue and the concert was worth it. Afterwards, I was so tired, but I knew I couldn't stay awake the whole night, so I checked into a hostel. This place wasn't perfect either, but at least I had a door with a lock. The next day, I had to leave the hostel at 10 a.m., so I went back to the Airbnb to get the rest of my stuff. I'm not sure why, but when I went back there, I looked through the mail slot again.

[00:28:51] [SPEAKER_09] I jumped back when I saw that the old guy was just snoring on the couch directly in front of the entrance door. I tried my best not to wake him up and snuck up into my room to get my stuff. The paper I placed at the door was still there, so the door had not been opened. Thank God. Once I had my stuff, I got myself out of that godforsaken place. I don't know what was up with that place, but something was off. From the two Thames to the

[00:29:20] [SPEAKER_09] missing locks, it just seemed so sketchy. Usually, I love solo traveling, but this was just too much.

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[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_09] I'm a 23-year-old woman, and my 27-year-old boyfriend and I went on a month-long camping trip through multiple states. Everything had been going really well until October 9th. We decided to ditch a campground reservation and randomly pitch our tent in the mountains of Utah. We parked our car around three miles from the campground, which was closed for the season. Admittedly, it was a little tense because this was our first

[00:32:15] [SPEAKER_09] attempt at dispersed camping, and we didn't have any proper backpacking gear. Upon arrival, we realized that the area where we wanted to pitch our tent was about two miles uphill. At this point, we started to express regret as we had a planned campsite that we decided to skip on a whim. After grumping around a bit and having a large lunch to avoid packing food, we packed our backpacks with the best gear that we had to get through the night, as it was

[00:32:45] [SPEAKER_09] going to be 25 degrees. We then set out up the trail, seeing the occasional family or couple heading down the mountain. As we trudged on, we both started to feel strange as if we didn't really know why we were doing this. We even felt as if we should have just gotten a hotel instead of trying to pretend to be backpackers for the night, but we both felt like we had something to prove, so we continued. Fast forward a little

[00:33:14] [SPEAKER_09] while later, and we made it up to the lake. It was empty, nothing like the pictures. I think we both thought that it was a bit eerie, but we brushed it off, and we kept hiking further and further. We were attempting to find somewhere flat and secluded to set up camp. We eventually stumbled upon a decent space. I saw a small cave in the distance and pointed it out to Jason to deliberate if it was a hell no kind

[00:33:42] [SPEAKER_09] of situation, but after he checked it out, it seemed like a crawl space of some kind for a small animal. No biggie. We then set up our camp as nightfall was about to approach, and we played some cars, bundled up, and decided to go to bed early at around 8.30pm. We planned to leave as soon as possible the next morning, maybe as early as 5am. We both dwindled slowly, and after what felt like 30 minutes, I woke up

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_09] abruptly at 11.24pm. I had this feeling that I had never experienced before. I woke up wide awake. I remember feeling scared, but it also felt unprovoked. Jason was still asleep, so I let him be, and just lay there, alert, trying to listen out for anything that I could hear, which was nothing. It was very silent. At around midnight, Jason woke up stirring, much to

[00:34:40] [SPEAKER_09] my delight, so I didn't have to feel alone in this strange situation anymore. I told him I couldn't sleep, but he suggested that I rest my eyes as we were leaving early in the morning. I initially agreed, since I didn't want to disrupt his rest too much, and I didn't want him to know that I was scared. However, this ended up being very short-lived, because Jason couldn't fall back asleep, so we ended up just lying there together, trying to sleep.

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_09] I finally just blurted out that I was scared. He heard me out, but calmed me down, and we ultimately agreed that it would be fine for us to just stick it out and stay put through the night since it was already 2.30 a.m. Plus, we had a small axe and a pellet gun for protection, so I figured there was no need to be frightened. Not even five minutes later, we were still wide awake, and Justin's head perked up so fast my heart jumped out of my chest.

[00:35:38] [SPEAKER_09] I whispered, what is it? He replied, be quiet, just listen. We then distinctly heard the sound of gravel crunching under boots, as if someone walked up to our tent, stopped, and then walked to my side of the tent. I felt the blood drain out of my face instantly. In real time, this all occurred in no more than ten seconds, but my mind flashed a million thoughts, and for a millisecond, I was convinced

[00:36:07] [SPEAKER_09] it was a ranger coming to tell us that we could not camp there. So I called out, hello? Since my brain was entirely certain about what we had heard. Within two to three seconds of hearing the footsteps, Jason grabbed the pellet gun and burst out of the tent to confront this person, but there was nothing. Nobody was there. As soon as Jason burst out, I went after him. We heard someone walk up so

[00:36:36] [SPEAKER_09] clearly, but nobody walked away. Hardly exchanging two words, we started packing up our stuff. We were looking over our shoulders, terrified, feeling watched, and once we had all of our stuff, we booked it down the mountain with only the moonlight guiding our way, since we were too scared to turn our flashlights on. This was the worst thirty minutes of my life. I kept expecting to look over my shoulder and find someone following us.

[00:37:05] [SPEAKER_09] When we made it to our car, we locked the doors and started the descent out of the mountains. Almost completely speechless and scared out of our minds. We didn't reach town until 3.30 a.m., and we slept in a well-lit parking lot of a grocery store. We have since discussed what happened that night, and were both haunted by the sound of those footsteps.

[00:37:47] [SPEAKER_09] I work at a bar that throws events so often that I'm used to dealing with drunk people, and I've had creepy encounters with men. However, this one stands out to me. I was working at a wedding, and a man came up to the bar. However, he started talking to me about work while my colleagues served him. He was really nice, and we had a good laugh. He asked if I was the manager, I think as an icebreaker more than anything, and after that, he asked for my name.

[00:38:16] [SPEAKER_09] I gave it to him as I was wearing a name badge and I didn't feel uncomfortable or in any danger. Then, as our conversation continued, he reached his hand over the bar and said, Look at this! We were talking about work, so I thought, oh, he's a good man. He's going to show me a scar that he got from his job, or whatever. And then he said, Hold it. I was confused, but I still wasn't feeling uncomfortable or weirded out yet.

[00:38:44] [SPEAKER_09] So, I went to hold his hand, and inside was an item. He made it clear that he wanted me to shake his hand, but he wasn't really shaking mine back. He was just sort of holding it. I'm honestly not sure how this even happened. It just did. Anyways, I didn't understand what was going on, but he continued holding onto my hand, but he wasn't holding very tightly. He was holding pretty gently, and he asked me, Feels right, doesn't it?

[00:39:14] [SPEAKER_09] This was when I finally thought it was getting weird. It felt like lines had been crossed, and I felt like he was officially being creepy. I was uncomfortable. I laughed nervously and agreed, since I wasn't sure of what else to do. He said something else after that, but I didn't quite catch everything that he said over the loud music. But I caught the end of what he said. He said, Or I could just lean across the bar and kiss you right now.

[00:39:44] [SPEAKER_09] I didn't say anything, and then he quickly continued, Oh, but wait. There are cameras. I confirmed, Yes, there are cameras staring right at us. I knew the cameras probably weren't working, but saying this probably kept me safe. My colleagues were right beside me this whole time, but they didn't really know what was happening, as they couldn't even hear the guy. He then told me to meet him outside. I agreed, trying to keep myself safe and get this situation over with.

[00:40:15] [SPEAKER_09] I should add that he still had a hold of my hand. He said, You probably won't meet me outside though, will you? Really? I assured him that I actually would. I said I'd definitely meet him outside, since I was unsure of what to say, and unsure of what he would do if I said that I wouldn't. He finally left after a bit more convincing, and then I quickly turned to my coworkers and loosely explained the situation.

[00:40:42] [SPEAKER_09] Then I saw him appear at the window that looks in right behind the bar from outside. I told my coworkers I was uncomfortable and let them know that I was going upstairs for five minutes. On my way up, one of my managers passed me, and when I ran to her, I told her what happened, and she said that she would be downstairs for the rest of the night. The guy stayed at the window all night. He kept looking over. I was still a bit shaken up, but I started to brush off our interaction as I wondered what the fuck really just happened.

[00:41:13] [SPEAKER_09] The end of the night approached, and I started to go around to the tables doing my shut-down duties with one of my other colleagues. At one point, we were just standing there, but I can't remember what we were doing since the evening was kind of a blur. I think we were just folding tablecloths or something like that. Suddenly, I felt someone's hands on my arms. They then whispered in my ear, You left me hanging. Before I could even process what happened, I was screaming.

[00:41:43] [SPEAKER_09] I only realized what was happening when my brain heard my scream and my body reacted. I then ran to my manager, who was just ahead of me. I refused to look back, but I heard the guy say something like, Bloody hell, that was one hell of a scream. My manager seemed unfazed by the situation, and I started to feel silly for screaming and running away, but that was just how my body reacted. The guy didn't approach me again after that, and I left shortly after.

[00:42:12] [SPEAKER_09] I felt so scared and uncomfortable all night. I drove home with his voice in my head, afraid that he was going to pop up from the back seat, even though I had checked them before I started to drive.

[00:42:40] [SPEAKER_09] This happened nine years ago. I was in my twenties. I was living in Mexico to escape life for a little bit, post-grad, and I was in a city that is known as a dangerous place. Many people from other areas were living in the city where I was, but I hadn't heard of any safety concerns yet. I was living with my cousin, who works from 8am to 7pm. The houses are in a pretty good area with a

[00:43:09] [SPEAKER_09] school, a nice hotel, and a Starbucks within walking distance. It was a pretty unassuming neighborhood. This incident happened while my aunt was visiting from Mexico City. She stayed home all day with me while I usually studied and watched Netflix. On this day, I was planning on having a pretty chill day. I had woken up at around 11.30am. I was watching something on my computer when I

[00:43:38] [SPEAKER_09] started to hear loud pounding like someone was working on something with a hammer. This was at 12pm. I thought that my aunt had let someone in to repair something. I was under the assumption my aunt was still in the house, so I wasn't too worried, and I continued to watch my show. The noises stopped, and I heard two male voices talking casually. This made me feel even more confident that there was someone fixing something, so I got up from

[00:44:07] [SPEAKER_09] bed to grab my phone to message my aunt on Facebook to ask what was going on. I didn't get a reply from her, so I just took it as she was busy, and I resumed lying in bed without thinking anything of the noises. Five minutes later, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Keep in mind I was lying in bed with my back to the door when the door opened and I saw a man. He was a pretty ordinary-looking guy with facial hair who was dressed rather normally.

[00:44:36] [SPEAKER_09] Honestly, he wasn't someone you would think twice about. As soon as he saw me, he shut the door and went downstairs. Then I heard another huge noise that I later realized was him slamming the front door shut. My room is the first room directly above the stairs, so my first thought was this repairman accidentally opened my door. I thought maybe he was trying to get access to our patio.

[00:45:03] [SPEAKER_09] I was confused, but again, I still didn't think anything of the situation. I then slowly walked down the stairs, calling out my aunt's name, but I didn't get a response. As soon as I made it down the stairs, I heard my aunt say, in a panicked tone, They robbed us! They took our TV! It turns out she had stepped out to go to the store, and when she did, she forgot to lock the security door in the house, which

[00:45:31] [SPEAKER_09] made it easy for them to break open the second door. That's when she said she was walking back from the store, and she noticed someone by the house. She asked him what he wanted, and he said that he was looking for a teacher. Then he got into a car with another man that he was with, and they left. She didn't notice the TV in their car or anything suspicious until she got into the house. She mentioned that someone had rang the doorbell before she left for

[00:46:01] [SPEAKER_09] the store, and when she went to check, nobody was there. She believes that they had been watching her and my cousin, so they probably thought the house was empty. When they opened the bedroom door, they were probably caught off guard, seeing me there, so they dipped. It's really frightening to think about what could have happened if they didn't get scared off by me. The cops came, and they were telling me that they often can kidnap girls or

[00:46:27] [SPEAKER_09] assault them, so I know that I got lucky.

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[00:49:22] [SPEAKER_09] I've always been borderline obsessive about locking my doors. I did it as a kid, and as a teenager I learned through experience that a locked door is at least a deterrent and can give you a warning that a person wants to illegally enter their space. Checking that the door is locked is something that I'm known for. Even at social gatherings, I will lock doors that I come through behind me without even thinking about it.

[00:49:51] [SPEAKER_09] I've definitely heard someone say, Hey, who the hell locked the door? This is generally followed by a flush of embarrassment because, of course, it was me, and I generally have to cop to it. For over a decade, I've done nightly checks because I can't sleep without doing so. Knowing this is a preface to my story and highlights how strange this situation really is.

[00:50:17] [SPEAKER_09] I had only moved to the area I live in recently, about five months ago, from a way more heavily populated place in my state. The house I live in is set far back from the paved road, separated by two dirt roads and two private driveways. My rental is on another person's property, so you go down their private driveway and off to the side to locate my private driveway.

[00:50:47] [SPEAKER_09] Essentially, what I'm trying to say is I've never even seen a pedestrian back there. It's very private, and no one can even really navigate their way back there without explicit instructions. Even so, I often have to meet someone down the road to guide them here, as GPS is a bit off. It usually places my house a few fields south of where it actually is.

[00:51:14] [SPEAKER_09] This place is rather secluded, but it's a paradise for people like me, who value their privacy and don't like having visitors drop by without prior notice. The house is semi-surrounded by trees and brush, with a field on the other two sides. It's rural, and it took a bit to get used to, hearing coyotes often and sometimes cows screaming in the night,

[00:51:38] [SPEAKER_09] and it was an adjustment getting used to the darkness of having no nearby sources of light pollution since the nearest town was over 20 miles away. But I eventually got used to all of it. Another relevant tidbit that I should share is that I don't sleep in a completely dark house. I always leave a light on in a common area. I usually only leave one light on, though.

[00:52:05] [SPEAKER_09] The back door of the house leads directly into the trees, but it didn't feel too creepy, because a few yards into the tree line, there's this six-foot-tall wire fence, laden with vines, which offers further privacy. One month into living there, I found myself locked out. Unfortunately, I often lock the door handle on my way out as a reflex. It was the back door, and I figured I could just pop it to get myself back in.

[00:52:34] [SPEAKER_09] But I checked the door out, and it was pristine. There weren't any of those small scratches present that are generally there when people use flat metal objects to pop the lock, and I didn't want to damage it. So I swallowed my pride, and I called the landlord, admitting that I had locked myself out, and I needed to get back in. He came and let me in, and I worked on being more mindful about it. A little more than a week later, I woke up thirsty. So I groggily walked to the kitchen,

[00:53:05] [SPEAKER_09] and as soon as I opened my bedroom door, I realized it was way darker than it should have been, because the light I always had on was off. I briefly wondered if it was a power outage, but I heard my fan behind me in my room, so I knew that couldn't be it. As I took another step, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I was overcome with the feeling that someone was watching me.

[00:53:33] [SPEAKER_09] After taking another step, I was beyond a feeling, and it was now a conviction. I turned my head to the left, where instinct said that someone was standing, and for a split second, I was relieved because nobody was there. However, in the next instant, that relief abandoned me, as I noticed I could see stars, where only darkness should be, since my back door was open wide. I then took two very fast steps backwards,

[00:54:03] [SPEAKER_09] and out of view of anything that could be in my backyard. Knowing I was responsible for more people's safety than just my own, I didn't retreat for long. I almost immediately stepped toward the door, and reached for it. But in doing so, I just knew someone was out there in the darkness, waiting until I was close enough to snatch. I still reached out into the pitch darkness for the knob, totally expecting to feel a hand close over mine at any second.

[00:54:34] [SPEAKER_09] After moments of panic-driven fumbling, my hands made contact with the knob, and I pulled it shut with a slam. Then I went to turn the lock, and found it still engaged. So I think that maybe the door wasn't completely shut, so maybe the latch hadn't completely engaged. The light being turned off remained a mystery, though. Both of my boys said it wasn't them, and I believed them, because they've never turned it off.

[00:55:05] [SPEAKER_09] Both of them like having a light on, just to find the bathroom and such. So I wrote it off as strange, but nothing else was amiss. So it was just one of those things that I figured I would never have a full explanation for. From that point forward, I put my weight into the door anytime I checked or locked it from my rare but occasional trips to the backyard. Life went on, and I almost put that strange occurrence to the back of my mind until three weeks later.

[00:55:36] [SPEAKER_09] I awoke from a nightmare, and my mouth was dry. My bladder was throbbing. It was one of those bad ones where you wake up making inarticulate sounds, trying to scream from a sleep-paralyzed mouth. Well, after my bathroom trip, I was experiencing deja vu. I emerged into a dark kitchen, and two steps in, I felt like someone was watching me. And the back door was open. I even had that same quick,

[00:56:06] [SPEAKER_09] panicked retreat, followed by a fear-fueled moment of bravery, where I rushed forward to close the door. And just like last time, I was sure at every moment that I was about to be torn out of the house and into the night to be slaughtered. This was strange, because I knew for sure that the door didn't pop open on its own this time, so what was going on? My adrenaline rush finally crashed as I lay there in bed,

[00:56:36] [SPEAKER_09] trying to figure out what happened. I left my bedroom door open this time so I could hear any goings-on in the house, and finally fell back asleep with two hours to spare before I had to get up. When I got back up to wake up my boys, I was halfway to the coffee maker before I saw that the back door was open again. This time, I didn't feel like I was being watched, and the light was still on in the kitchen.

[00:57:04] [SPEAKER_09] I did what I already should have done, and checked the door and the jam for evidence of tampering. Sure enough, there were new scratches and bend marks where the aluminum gave when being pried. Two weeks after that, the chickens, pinned 30 feet or so from my bedroom window, were making eerie little screams. It made my sleep fitful, not very restful, so I woke up at 2 a.m.

[00:57:34] [SPEAKER_09] when my fan stopped. It seemed like the power was actually out, so I got up to go to the bathroom, but before doing so, I lit a couple of candles to help anyone else out who needed to get up that night. Again, two steps in, cue the hair rising on the back of my neck, and this time I can hear the crickets before I even turn my head. The back door, of course, was open. After I survived another door shutting,

[00:58:02] [SPEAKER_09] I spent a lot of the day thinking about this. There was more damage to the door, more scratches and gouges to the jam this time. I tried to rationalize how this could happen, but I couldn't think of anything that made sense. I decided to change the deadbolts around. The front door had a square cord lock and the back a sloping one. The night I decided to do this, I was exhausted. I couldn't find my Phillips head, so in place of changing the locks,

[00:58:32] [SPEAKER_09] I put Christmas decorations adorned with bells on the door handle before going to sleep. After I did this, I went to bed early for once, and I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow. Thankfully, I didn't experience hearing any Christmas bells for the first few nights. But then, after those few nights, cue the nightmares. So a few nights after setting up these Christmas decorations, I woke up at around midnight,

[00:59:01] [SPEAKER_09] and I was greeted by a dark kitchen. The back door was open again. I pulled it shut and went straight back to bed. I fell back asleep, woke up at 1.30, and the back door was open again. I got up, shut it again, and surprisingly, I was able to fall back asleep again after that, but I woke up at 3. Thankfully, this time, the door was still shut.

[00:59:29] [SPEAKER_09] I talked to my boys that morning, and I asked them if they had heard anything the night before. My 13-year-old said, no, nothing at all. But they stopped for a moment and continued. I got up at 2.30 to pee, and the back door was open, so I shut it. I asked him about the bells. He was pretty sure they were there on the handle. I went ahead and switched the locks after that. A few days ago, there was more damage to the door, but so far,

[00:59:59] [SPEAKER_09] the switched lock is holding. So to the creepy, door-opening stranger, let's not meet. And quit breaking into my house, stealing nothing but my sense of security. So we found an update online regarding that final story from the author, and it turns out, things went quiet pretty quickly after she spotted someone

[01:00:28] [SPEAKER_09] bolting from the tree line outside her house one night. She said she heard heavy footsteps running away from her and found tracks in the dirt the next morning. There weren't any scratches on the door, no more waking up feeling watched, no more things going missing. And the atmosphere at the home shifted. She just went from desperately wanting to move to actually feeling comfortable there again. And she didn't even know why at first. But she had this conversation with her landlord that kind of put it all together. The neighbor to her left, this antisocial guy, never waved,

[01:00:58] [SPEAKER_09] reportedly had some very outdated views on women and appears to have skipped town just ahead of a foreclosure. The sheriff in town showed up with papers, but nobody answered. When she lined up the timeline, his disappearance matched almost exactly with when everything stopped. And he would have known her property well enough to know exactly which angles her security camera couldn't cover because she did set one up. But obviously, she doesn't know what the endgame was, whether he was just working himself up

[01:01:27] [SPEAKER_09] to something worse or just trying to scare her off. But whatever it was, it seems like it's over. So we're glad she's okay. Thanks everyone for listening. If you're a patron, stick around after the music for your extended version of this week's episode. If you want to get access, go to patreon.com forward slash letsnotmeetpodcast. You'll get access to ad-free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bitrate, plus bonus stories and those extensions every week. Stories you won't hear anywhere else. Again, that's patreon.com forward slash letsnotmeetpodcast.

[01:01:56] [SPEAKER_09] Be sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts, like Odd Trails and the Old Time Radio Cast, and follow me on Twitch at twitch.tv slash crypticcounty. If you have a story to share, make sure you send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. This week you have heard Moving to a Nicer Neighborhood Turned into a Nightmare by Strange Fits of Passion, Crazy Lyft Sugar Daddy by kgordon98, Creep in Paradise by Adventures of Faith. I didn't sleep in my Airbnb

[01:02:24] [SPEAKER_09] because I thought I might get murdered by Magazine Ghoul. Someone walked up to our tent while dispersed camping by AppropriateDiet6019, Creepy Customer by Few Distribution 6433, House Broken Into While I Was Inside by UO DuckUO, and finally, Someone Keeps Breaking Into My House for No Apparent Reason by 404 User Not Found. All of the stories you've heard this week

[01:02:53] [SPEAKER_09] 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. We'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet. Stay safe.

[01:03:04] [SPEAKER_09] When I was a senior in high school,

[01:03:35] [SPEAKER_09] I had this fringe friend.

[01:03:38] [SPEAKER_00] This is Kristen Davis from Are You a Charlotte? For timeless style that still feels fresh and modern, Tucker Nook has become a favorite shopping destination. From elevated classics like denim, striped tees, and crisp button downs to chic looks for weddings, vacations, and everyday life, Tucker Nook makes getting dressed effortless. Plus, they curate an incredible mix of brands with new arrivals dropping daily.

[01:04:08] [SPEAKER_00] Visit tnut.com and use promo code IHEART for 15% off a first purchase.

[01:04:16] [SPEAKER_03] Identity theft can cost more than you think. Drained investment accounts, stolen tax returns, lost wages, expenses for lawyers. It's a lot. That's why LifeLock is backed by the Million Dollar Protection Package, which covers up to $1 million each for stolen funds, fees for experts and lawyers, and out-of-pocket expenses. Don't face the burden of identity theft alone. Protect your future and finances with LifeLock. Join now and save up to 30% your first year at lifelock.com slash iHeart. Terms apply.

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