5x17: It's Following Us - Let's Not Meet (Feat. Sapphire Sandalo)

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content. The stories in this show can be disturbing and frightening for some. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail dot com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:16] My name is Andrew Tate and this is season 5 episode 17 of Lets Not Meet A True Horror Podcast. This happened to me a few years ago. I was probably 32 at the time. I was driving back home from visiting my mom 30 minutes away, 3 kids in tow. Thankfully they were asleep

[00:01:29] through this entire happening. Living in Texas, the weather here is insanely unpredictable, no matter what the weather app says. So with my luck, it began to rain as I headed home.

[00:01:43] I don't mind driving in any weather, but I don't trust others who do not know how to drive in such conditions. So I drive with extra caution as I pay close attention to drivers around me, especially

[00:01:58] on the interstate. As I am about to signal onto the passing lane, I see what I believe to be a PT cruiser coming. So I wait for it to pass before I signal over. We both eventually pass the 18 wheeler

[00:02:16] that I was behind and eventually the PT cruiser crosses over to the right lane. I pass it and when I get far enough ahead, I too cross over to get out of the passing lane. Then I notice the

[00:02:31] lights behind me start flashing. They began driving a little more erratic. I'm confused at first thinking maybe I forgot to turn my lights on because nightfall was approaching. I looked down and then remembered they are automatic. And I thought maybe my taillight's out. Maybe I left

[00:02:56] the gas lid open. My mind floods with a million things that could be wrong with my vehicle. Maybe I just didn't see any of them. The vehicle got close enough behind me that eventually I saw

[00:03:11] it was a man driving. They had glasses, they were balding and they had a woman in the passenger seat heavy set long brown hair. He was still flashing his lights and then proceeded to cross lanes.

[00:03:28] I hoped he would pass me and that would be the end of it. As he passed, they both looked over at me in a way that gives me chills. I slowed down to allow them to pass me and he did.

[00:03:44] They passed and got in front of me. I thought maybe he just got a bit upset that I passed him initially and maybe had a bit of road rage. My exit was approaching but I didn't signal as I normally

[00:03:56] do. I figured if he was still angry, I didn't want him to try and cut a sharp turn to exit off in front of me. As he realized I was exiting, my stomach churned as I saw him merely miss the same exit.

[00:04:15] He stopped on the highway but by this point it was too late for him to try and backtrack. I crossed the bridge to go over the interstate as he continued on.

[00:04:27] I was scared. I drove down the back road. I wasn't worried about them cutting back to find me because I figured they were just interstate travelers and if you don't know your way around, you don't know

[00:04:39] how to get off the next exit to find the entrance on the street the back road led to. I reached a gas station at the end of the road and parked by the gas pumps. I got out to inspect my Tahoe.

[00:04:53] No flat tire, nothing hanging off that I could see that would cause harm. My lights are all fine. I just didn't understand. I got back in and went to the exit to finish my journey home

[00:05:07] then all of a sudden, I froze. My heart was in my throat. The man and woman were back and clearly looking for me. I see the woman point towards me and I turn to the opposite direction they came from.

[00:05:24] They make an illegal u-turn. I try and call my husband who is a cop because at this point, I'm panicking but he didn't answer. I thought okay maybe this is just a coincidence

[00:05:39] and instead of turning where I normally do, I'll keep straight and if they follow, I'll for sure know that they're following me and to no surprise, they do. I get to a light and said I'll turn right

[00:05:55] if they follow, I'll make another right and by then I'll know 100% I'm not losing my mind and call the cops. I know by now you're probably thinking that I'm crazy for not calling when I

[00:06:09] saw them point at me but I watch and listen to a lot of true crime and murder stories and I didn't want to overreact. If all else fails, my husband bought me a gun for Christmas

[00:06:22] that year before. I got my concealed carry license so I feel safe if anything were to happen. Nonetheless, as I turned right for the second time, I called the non-emergency line and explained

[00:06:37] what had transpired. She asked me if I felt safe stopping and waiting for a cop to arrive. I told her no, I have sleeping children with me. She then asked me how far I was from the police

[00:06:51] station and I told her not far. She instructed me to drive there and an officer would be waiting. I gave her the type of car and license plate number and a description of the man and woman.

[00:07:03] I ended the call and drove to the police station all while the same couple are still in pursuit. I pull into the same street as the station and to my surprise, I didn't see a single cop car

[00:07:15] in sight. So I don't stop but as I look in my rear view mirror, I see the couple had turned off to avoid passing the police station. I kept going straight, called back and told her I didn't

[00:07:30] see anyone and I didn't feel safe stopping. As I drove down the street, I turn around I turn around and to my horror, there they are again just staring at me in anger. I tell the

[00:07:45] dispatch woman what's happening. She doesn't end the call with me this time and instructs me to drive back to the station. I told her that the driver will most likely turn away and not drive

[00:07:58] past the station as that is what he did earlier. She said that that would be okay, that there are officers waiting. I got closer to the station and this time I see a cop at the police station

[00:08:12] and the couple turn off as I knew they would. I stopped with the officer. I point to the vehicle and then seemingly out of nowhere, three cop cars give chase for the man and woman.

[00:08:27] I feel some relief as I'm explaining the chain of events to the officer and I start shaking uncontrollably and crying. I was so scared. He took some information and told me that I could

[00:08:39] go home. I told him I was scared, I didn't want to be followed because I would be alone at home since my husband works nights. I didn't live far from the police station and he told me that they

[00:08:52] would stay with the vehicle long enough to see me get home. He ended with, if you see the vehicle in your neighborhood, give us a call immediately. I was scared but I did go home. I was on edge all

[00:09:07] night. I called later to see what their explanation was for following me. They said that the driver simply stated it was a mere coincidence. Nothing can be done of course because nothing had actually

[00:09:20] happened. I found out a few days later from my husband that the vehicle was registered to a house just two blocks away from us. I never saw them again since that day. I hope I never do so creepy man and woman from Texas, let's not meet again.

[00:09:51] I grew up in upstate New York in a very picturesque town with gorgeous Victorian houses lighting the streets that at night seemed to have an eerie feel to them. At this time I was

[00:10:06] around 13 years old and my sarcastic ways were just beginning to form. I had recently moved into a five-bedroom turn of the century house with the library and maid's quarter turned into an apartment

[00:10:21] in the back. The house was smack dab in the middle of town with all the other gorgeous houses that have metal radiators you shouldn't touch, squeaky original wood floors, and a rock throw away from

[00:10:36] your neighbor. I lived with my mom, two sisters, and our black lab Joe who was quite keen on biting strangers. I had two best friends. They happened to be twins who one summer night were spending the

[00:10:51] night at my house. We had a friend for anonymity reasons that we'll call Julia. Julia happened to live on the street behind my house and probably five or so blocks down. We asked my mom if we

[00:11:06] could walk to Julia's for a bit and then come home later that night. It being summer of course, the answer was yes. Now this is the part where I'll fill you in on what had been happening in

[00:11:19] town lately. The news had recently had a story of a man in an older four-door sedan described as yellow or beige who was driving around town attempting to abduct young girls. If I remember

[00:11:34] correctly, he had actually pulled one girl into his car only for her to barely escape. I suppose when you're young things like this seem so far out of the realm of your own reality that

[00:11:47] you don't necessarily take a serious note in your mind of such happenings. But I heard the story and moved on with my 13-year-old mash playing AOL messaging life. Back to Julia's. We made it there,

[00:12:04] the events of which I have zero recollection of because the later scenario is now in the forefront of my memories. I'm unsure if we walked there or had my mother drop us off but nonetheless

[00:12:17] we had arrived. Once we were ready to leave, Julia's dad offered to drive us back to my house since it was late and now extremely dark outside. We declined. Our 13-year-old selves quite enjoyed

[00:12:32] the independence of walking freely here and there while taking our time to mess around on the way. So here we are, walking down the sidewalk in the black of night with only front porch lights to

[00:12:47] guide us and a streetlight here or there. We were laughing hysterically at something that now just seems moot. We were about halfway down Julia's street heading in the direction towards my house

[00:13:03] when up ahead just a decent way we saw an old pale beige rundown boxy car sitting under a streetlight on our side of the sidewalk. The car didn't seem like it was running from the distance

[00:13:19] but it absolutely looked out of place for the area and quite sketchy. So here we are, me and my two twin friends giggling and laughing. I'm using my sarcastic newly found

[00:13:33] personality by making a joke and saying, look at that car it looks like the one that was described and the kidnapping. Ooh it's going to get us. We were still pretty far behind this car.

[00:13:49] It was just sitting motionless in the dark. My friends left and we kept joking about the car and then eventually moved on with our conversation. That is until we got closer. I remember walking closer to it and getting the feeling you get when you know something is wrong,

[00:14:09] when you know there is another person there that you can sense but cannot see. Almost like the feeling you get when you're sleeping but wake up because you can feel someone staring at you.

[00:14:22] I could now tell from 10 feet away that the car was indeed running but the headlights were off and every single window was tinted pitch black. You could not see in even if you wanted to.

[00:14:35] I made another sarcastic comment to which I do not remember any details but at this point it was more to try and mask my own terror I was feeling inside. I remember my two friends visibly

[00:14:48] scared now and us walking by the car in silence. Silence turned to hushed tones of the car is moving. We could hear the car inching along right behind us while we walked.

[00:15:05] Every step we took was followed by a creeping car. I looked back and the window was now cracked just slightly. The windshield was also black. Under my breath I said, it's following us.

[00:15:22] Walk faster. No more jokes, no more witty remarks. We were now just starting to feel this empty pit in our stomachs. We walked faster and the car was now not creeping behind us but moving slowly

[00:15:38] at our pace right next to us. We mentally synced up and all decided to start running at the same time the car now sped up to match us. We immediately turned down a side street

[00:15:51] and this person turned down the side street only to make a u-turn in the middle of the road when we backtracked to try and get away. This was no longer a coincidence. This was either someone

[00:16:03] trying to mess with us or someone extremely dangerous and I do believe to this day it was the latter. There was always one massive Victorian that resembled the house from Monster House, just for reference. There was never anyone at this house. The windows were all blacked out.

[00:16:24] It seemed abandoned. This of course was the house we were in front of when one of the twins decides to run up and bang on the door to try and get help. The other hiding behind bushes in front

[00:16:38] of the house. I turned around and both my friends were no longer beside me but the car was right behind me. Door ajar. All I remember was screaming, run his door is open, run.

[00:16:55] The door to the car stayed ajar. It stayed that way until the last time I looked back. I've never ran so hard in my life. My body was numb, my chest heaved, my breath hurt,

[00:17:09] every intake of air. I looked back to see my two friends right there. The car was still there and I decided I would not turn around again until we made it somewhere.

[00:17:21] We ran to a house that the twins knew and they banged on the door. And I mean banged, ringing the doorbell over and over, banging, pleading for help. They answered. Then the car

[00:17:36] was gone. I remember not calling my mom for her to come pick us up but I do remember being absolutely astonished that she would have the nerve to show up to get us by walking there with

[00:17:48] the dog. After all of that, we had to walk the rest of the way home yet again. We absolutely would have preferred a car ride but at least this time we had a mother and a usually vicious

[00:18:04] to strangers dog. Both of which you would not want to mess with. We didn't sleep that night. We stayed up cringing at every car door that we heard. Each creak in the house, the old house

[00:18:19] with the apartment in the back. The apartment that needed to be leased out. A while later, we got tenants. The dad had a very strong resemblance to Marilyn Manson. The wife kept

[00:18:34] quiet and never really said a word but the son who also didn't say much just stared in a way that made you really uncomfortable. These tenants, they were rarely seen. Now that I think about it,

[00:18:49] they had a very familiar looking car. A faded yellow run-down boxy sedan. I'm not sure if they ever caught the person who was attempting to kidnap young girls but since then I stiffen

[00:19:04] when a car drives by me and those tenants still make me wonder. So to the stranger in the beige sedan, let's not meet unless we already did. My guest this week is returning friend of the show, Sapphire Sindalo, one of the most talented

[00:19:37] people that I know. We're happy to have her back. You're probably familiar with her show Stories with Sapphire. She has a new YouTube channel. She's putting out new animated spooky videos every other Wednesday at youtube.com forward slash sapphire sindalo and new episodes

[00:19:53] of Stories with Sapphire the podcast are released in between those weeks. For more info, head over to storieswithsapphire.com that's storieswithsapphire.com or follow the link in the show notes. Enjoy the show.

[00:20:22] I had just gotten to Oregon from California to visit my dad who lived in a tiny town amongst miles of Douglas fir trees. It was a beautiful and fresh January with nothing to do and no one

[00:20:35] to talk to. I was staying at my dad's house but we both worked remotely most days and only got together at night to make a big delicious dinner followed by dessert, conversation, and probably a

[00:20:47] movie. It was a great bonding experience for us since we hadn't been living in the same state for about four years but I was hoping to meet some people my age while I was in town. Since I was

[00:20:59] working remotely all the time, I decided to stay in Oregon until further notice since I had given up my apartment in Los Angeles to travel for a bit. After posting a few photos on Instagram during

[00:21:12] my first week in Oregon, I noticed a new follow, an Instagram message. It was from a guy I'll call Dominic. His message said, you're from LA? I'm Dominic. Cheers from Oregon. I thought I'd entertain

[00:21:28] the idea of talking to someone locally and plus he was cute and looked to be my type. Dominic lived about an hour and a half east of where my dad lived at the time so he was pretty far but what's

[00:21:42] a little conversation right? Who knows maybe it'll go somewhere, I thought. Dominic then went into how he had just moved to Oregon himself about six months prior from northern California. He liked

[00:21:55] where he lived because he had a suite cabin that was removed and in the forest. He said it could be a bit isolating but hey, it was better than being in the bay because the bay isn't affordable.

[00:22:07] And then he made a very strange comment that I kind of laughed off at the time. After describing that it's not affordable in northern California, he added, and for an apartment with human brains splattered on my front door? Well, I don't mind the brains. I am bothered by

[00:22:24] the increase in the cost of living lol. I fully ignored this comment and just thought maybe he had a weird sense of humor but I responded to the other messages. He then went on to send me

[00:22:35] photos of his idyllic cabin and told me about how it's just him and his pitbull. Since he was pretty lonely and hadn't met anyone in the area yet, he said he would love to pick me up sometime and hang

[00:22:47] out. I had mentioned that I didn't have a car since I was technically just visiting. Dominic explained that he was very intrigued by me and hadn't met anyone that interested him like I did

[00:22:59] in a while. I didn't like the idea of him picking me up nor did I like the idea of visiting his cabin in the middle of the forest alone before getting to know him more. But a part of me also

[00:23:12] romanticized the idea. Dumb, I know. To give myself more time to assess if I wanted to meet him, we switched to texting and got to know each other just a little bit more.

[00:23:24] To preface, I was 23 at this time and he was 30 but the minor age difference didn't bother either of us. As we talked about our interests and exchanged random photos of our day, I noticed that he was very into the occult. There's nothing wrong with that, of course,

[00:23:41] and we bonded over being interested in true crime, horror movies, and mysteries. But the occult isn't something I've ever been into. He was deep into it though. He was covered in tattoos, which I really

[00:23:55] liked, but also wore lots of dark themed t-shirts, necklaces, and spiky bracelets. But he had a very handsome sweet face and nice hair. He just looked like a retired emo kid, but he wasn't full goth or

[00:24:11] anything. As we continued to chat, he reminded me again how interested he was in me and how much he wanted to meet me. He even planned out a spooky day for us in Portland. I still wasn't sure if I was

[00:24:25] interested, but he was really sweet. Whenever I took a while to respond to his texts due to working and I would text him to apologize later, he would say things like,

[00:24:36] don't be so sorry. I've been sending a lot of texts actually, so sorry about that. Have a good work day and we'll talk later. And he really did text a lot, which was a bit off-putting. But again,

[00:24:50] I thought he was cute and seemed like a really nice guy. He told me all about his interests in poetry and writing, and I was smitten. When I asked him to share his work, he said he would,

[00:25:04] but he warned me that a lot of what he writes is grim and violent. He never ended up sending any, as we continued talking about other things. And then he started talking about how he was looking

[00:25:15] for work in butcher shops and how he was considering going to school to study mortuary science. Typing this out now, I am almost laughing at all the red flags that I somehow didn't think

[00:25:28] were that weird before. At this point, I was feeling weird about him and was pretty sure I wanted to stop talking. So just a few days into us texting, I decided I should probably just stop

[00:25:41] replying. Then the cherry on top of the cake came the next morning when I awoke to six texts from Dominic. He enthusiastically texted me, along with two YouTube links to satanic occult-related videos that were pretty disturbing. Then, a photo. The photo was of an altar in his house.

[00:26:06] On it were red roses, a ring of huge old keys, two wine goblets, a satanic skeleton figure, and various candles. The photo was dark and the candles were lit, and the photo didn't include

[00:26:21] any context whatsoever. But that was the last straw for me. I didn't respond to any of the messages and then got a text from him a couple days later asking me how I was doing. I don't

[00:26:34] like to ghost people, but I was so creeped out by him that I really didn't even know how to exit the conversation nicely. With that, I think he got the message because he never texted me again.

[00:26:47] Funny enough, the very next day I met my now-fiance when I went into the city for the night and we've been together ever since, which for context has been three years. Did you think the story was over? No, no, no. It actually gets creepier. I haven't thought about

[00:27:07] this guy in years, but today I was listening to Let's Not Meet while I made lunch and one of the stories was about a girl who had been talking to a guy online. For some reason, before Andrew could

[00:27:20] even get into the details of this other girl's story, Dominic popped into my head. And I remembered how weird that week was while I talked to him. I wondered for a moment what he was up to now.

[00:27:33] My curiosity got the best of me and I decided to look him up on Instagram. By this point, we had long unfollowed each other, but I found his username in an old screenshot I had taken

[00:27:45] of our Instagram message to send to my sister for a laugh. When I typed his username into the Instagram search, no accounts came up, just a hashtag. I wondered why he had a hashtag

[00:27:57] and decided to click on it to see what was there. All I saw were mugshots. Horrified, I clicked on the first post I saw, which included a series of photos and screenshots from over 10 women blasting him on Facebook and Instagram for his disgusting tendency to abuse and manipulate

[00:28:20] women. Many of them even said he was kicked out of the Bay Area because of his history of abuse. As if the people there didn't want him there because of what he had done to so many local

[00:28:33] girls. And then I remembered him telling me why he left the Bay Area. Remember, the human brains on the door that he didn't mind and the increase in living cost? Included in one of the posts was a list of crimes he'd been charged with, including assault in the

[00:28:50] third degree, coercion, strangulation, and menacing. Multiple women and men in the comments told stories of him being a sociopath and a psychopath and that he lures girls in with his sweetness, then hits, strangles, and beats them. I was filled with disgust and shock and fear

[00:29:13] thinking about how I considered meeting up with this guy. What would have happened if I had agreed to let him pick me up and take me to his remote cabin? Especially looking back at our old texts

[00:29:26] about how interested he was in the occult, mortuary science, violence, and death. This guy has future or current serial killer written all over him. He was arrested a couple years ago, but according

[00:29:41] to one of the photos, his parents bailed him out and I believe he is still out. All the posts are warning women not to date him or talk to him, which makes me happy that there are at least this

[00:29:54] many people trying to stop him from hurting more women. All of these posts were made two years ago, one year after we talked, but it appears people are still talking about what a monster he is

[00:30:08] according to my Google search. Moral of the story, notice the red flags. Also, Google the guy before you meet him. I don't think that would have saved me since all the posts and articles on him are from the last two years, but it could save you.

[00:30:39] Let me preface this by saying that my boyfriend does not have a car, so we often will hang out and if I'm not staying over, I'll head home. One night a few months ago, I dropped my boyfriend

[00:30:55] off at his apartment. This was no different from any other night except maybe that it was a little later than usual around 10 p.m. For context, I drive a very small and old car with no automatic

[00:31:12] locks. After taking him home, I started driving my usual route for my 20-minute drive home. There wasn't much traffic as it was somewhat late at night and it was a nice fall evening, so I had

[00:31:27] my windows partly rolled down and was singing to music as I always do when I'm driving. In an instant though, my carefree doing what I often do sort of night took an unsatisfying turn.

[00:31:43] I rolled up to a stoplight that had just turned red. I was jamming to my new playlist that I had made when suddenly my passenger side door opened and a hysterical lady quickly helped herself into

[00:31:59] my car. Mind you, this is during COVID-19, so my first thought was this lady is definitely not six feet away from me and does not have a mask on. But my next thought was who the hell is this lady

[00:32:14] and am I in danger? I have a lot of experience working with kids and keeping calm when they're upset, so I managed not to panic. The light soon turned green and I started driving like I wasn't

[00:32:30] scared. I asked the lady if she was okay. She told me that she was escaping a domestic abuse situation and needed money for a hotel for her and her kids. I apologized about her situation and told

[00:32:47] her I was glad that she could escape from what she was going through and then immediately asked her if I could call her an Uber. She said no and I tried to explain that I could pull over and wait

[00:33:03] with her until the Uber came. I would pay for it and everything. She refused and started crying again telling me that she just lost her job because she's bipolar and has no money and needs

[00:33:17] to go to a hotel to stay. Now this is different from what she had told me, but I didn't question it. I asked her if I could drive her to the hotel. She stopped mentioning her kids, so I stopped worrying

[00:33:32] about if the kids were stranded somewhere. I then asked if there was a friend's house that I could drive her to. She told me no and to keep driving and that she just needed money. I started stressing.

[00:33:46] I said I couldn't give her money for a hotel, but I could drive her somewhere safe if she had friends or family to stay with in the area. By this time I have no idea where I am as she had

[00:33:59] been directing me down certain roads to turn on and I'm definitely not going in the direction of where I need to be going. As I kept driving she would stop and start crying on and off.

[00:34:12] When she wasn't crying she was asking me about myself. What I do? Am I a student? How old am I? I just answered them because I saw no real threat in any of the answers that I gave as I gave no

[00:34:27] specifics. I just wanted to keep her distracted from getting upset again, but once again she started crying and getting angry telling me about how her boyfriend just left her because he's gay

[00:34:40] and how she was so mad that he had left her. I told her that I had just made a breakup list for my friend who was broken up with and asked her if she wanted me to play it and she said yes.

[00:34:55] That seemed to help and I let her keep talking but then she suddenly stopped and told me to turn into a bank with an ATM. I did not know where I was and the whole area was

[00:35:09] very dark. I said I could not give her money but she insisted and since I wasn't sure of what else to do and I didn't know what was in her very large purse, I pulled up to an ATM. I calmly told her

[00:35:26] that I will give her money but said that I would only give her money for one night at a hotel and then she could call a friend or someone else the next day for help. She seemed content with

[00:35:38] that and I talked to her the whole time while withdrawing money. I was slowly starting to lose it internally. It is quite scary being forced to go to an ATM late at night with no one around

[00:35:54] and withdraw money for a stranger who's in your car when you don't know if they have any weapons or alternative motives. Thankfully everything went fine and I turned away from her when I needed to.

[00:36:09] Otherwise keeping her in my periphery the entire time. I handed her the money and she didn't say anything. Her demeanor changed. I asked her what hotel she wanted me to take her to but

[00:36:25] she just told me start driving. I was only directed a few blocks down the road and was told to turn onto a dead-end road with tons of apartment complexes. As I was driving she told

[00:36:38] me to stop so I just stopped in the road right where I was. She opened the door and got out. She didn't say thank you or anything. She just picked up her purse and shut the door and started

[00:36:54] walking towards the apartment buildings. I didn't stick around to see where she went. I just wanted to get the hell home as it was already 45 minutes after I had left my boyfriend's

[00:37:06] house. I pulled up the directions on my GPS and drove home in silence. I think I was so overwhelmed with feelings of what the fuck just happened and I could have died that I wasn't processing any of it.

[00:37:23] Once I got home I locked the door and broke down. I was so confused by what had just happened and so glad that I was safe. I called my sister and told her what happened. She told me I should have called

[00:37:36] the police but I was more concerned about not upsetting the stranger in my car. Plus, I don't know how I would have discreetly called the police without alerting her to what was going on.

[00:37:47] My sister helped me to talk through my emotions and told me I seemed to have handled this situation way better than she would have. I didn't want to but we had to end the conversation as I had to

[00:37:56] sleep before an early work shift. I didn't tell anyone about it for days because I was too scared and felt like I had done something wrong. Like, why didn't I lock the car doors? Was I stupid for not

[00:38:10] refusing to drive until the lady got out of my car? There were so many questions running through my head about what I did wrong and what I could have done but ultimately I came to the conclusion that

[00:38:22] it's easy to think about what you will or shouldn't do in a situation but until you're in that situation where you're taken off guard and fearing for your life, you won't know how you will respond.

[00:38:37] I ended up telling my best friend about what happened one night when I was over at her house and she told me that she had recently read the news about a lady getting into people's cars at

[00:38:47] stoplights and telling them she needed help. In an odd way, it's comforting to know that I'm not the only one who formerly drove with their doors unlocked but it still had me questioning if

[00:39:00] I should have reported the situation to the police. I figured it was just too late to report the incident so I just let it be and was glad that it was over with. Anyways, to the hysterical lady

[00:39:14] that helped herself into my car and forced me to drive her to some random location, I hope you get some help with whatever you're going through but please stop getting into people's vehicles without permission and let's never meet again. About a year ago, our landlord offered my husband

[00:39:43] and I a nicer bigger place with a nicer backyard. I was very pregnant at the time and we were living in a small one-bedroom house with our dogs so we didn't hesitate to jump on the opportunity.

[00:39:57] I sat vacant for nearly a month while the landlord fixed up a couple of things. Once we were able to move in, we did so pretty quickly. There was only one night where we had

[00:40:10] half of our belongings in one house and half in the other. By that second day, we were all moved in and I had already gotten accustomed to some of the features and quirks of the new house like the

[00:40:22] fact that the locks on the handle of the back door were the kind of locks that unlock themselves for convenience if the handle was turned from the inside and it creaked very loudly when it opened.

[00:40:37] I had ingrained this into my brain that when I wanted to lock the door, I had to make sure that the little switch was sideways and not vertical. So that second night before we went to bed, I locked the door and even specifically remember

[00:40:52] the handle from the outside before shutting the door, double checking and reinforcing that sideways meant locked. Satisfied, I turned off the lights and joined my husband who was already asleep in

[00:41:05] our bed. A short while later, I was alerted to the sound of our two dogs going crazy and barking aggressively. Out of character for them, especially in the middle of the night. Just as I was about to

[00:41:18] hop out of my bed, I froze because I could have sworn I heard the back door open. Somehow even with the dogs barking like this, my husband was still sleeping. Unsure if there was someone in

[00:41:31] our home or not, I woke him up in a panic. He honestly was just annoyed by this and was probably convinced in his half-sleep state that it was nothing and I was just overthinking some new

[00:41:45] house noise and being dramatic. He just wanted to go back to sleep but I continued to tell him I'm serious, you need to go check on this. So he reluctantly gets up and goes to see.

[00:41:59] When he comes back to the bed, he states in a very annoyed manner, you really need to be locking the doors before you come to bed at night. Confused, I just look blankly at him. The back door was wide open, he continues, still annoyed.

[00:42:18] My blood ran cold and adrenaline rushed through my entire body. I just stared at him, wide-eyed, sputtering. I locked it. I even double-checked that I locked it. He wasn't having it. He berated me for leaving the door unlocked, probably assuming I was lying about it because I didn't

[00:42:39] want to admit that I had woken him up over nothing other than the fact that I had irresponsibly left the door open. I was still pretty freaked out and trying to convince him that I knew I had locked

[00:42:51] that door but he simply wasn't having any of it. And he was grumpy and annoyed at the fact that he was even awake at all by this point. I told him that I was really freaked out and asked him if he

[00:43:06] had made sure that no one was in the house, especially since the stairs to our basement were right in front of the back door. So if someone wanted to try and hide down there,

[00:43:16] it would be very easy. His response, he yelled, fine, there's someone in the fucking basement. Before rolling over, wrapping himself in our comforter and going back to sleep practically instantaneously. I don't think he meant this outburst to be as frankly traumatizing

[00:43:36] as it really was. He had already gone into the whole situation under the preconceived notion of it being nothing. Therefore, it was easy for him not to take it so seriously. He was the classic

[00:43:50] tired and grumpy husband who didn't want to hear any of it anymore and just wanted me to leave him alone and let him sleep. However, as you can imagine his reaction in that given moment took

[00:44:03] my anxiety and fear to a completely new level. And I felt scared and alone. I sat in our bed paranoid and wide-eyed crying all night, trying to come up with every possible method of fighting

[00:44:19] off whoever I half expected to see sneaking into our bedroom at any given moment. My senses were heightened and I jumped at every little shadow or sound. Looking back now, I'm shocked all the

[00:44:32] stress of this didn't send me into labor. When my husband woke up the next morning at six and saw me tear streaked and curled up in the fetal position wide awake, but still in bed next to him,

[00:44:43] I think it hit him that his groggy version of events from the night before were much different than mine. He asked me what happened since he had been out of it and barely even remembered.

[00:44:57] And I proceeded to explain the events of the night before lightheartedly calling him a dick. I know he felt absolutely terrible and he apologized profusely. I told him it was okay because I could see how guilty and bad he felt for not snapping out of

[00:45:14] his sleepy state to listen to me. He says that it isn't okay and he should have comforted me and made sure that we were safe. He struggled with the feeling like he had failed in that sense.

[00:45:25] Although to be honest, by this time I was just incredibly relieved that we hadn't been murdered and that we woke up cuddle in bed and were safe despite how shaken up I was.

[00:45:36] This comforted both of us and we were able to go about our morning. Upon further inspection, I concluded that someone had in fact come to the house in the middle of the night, perhaps expecting it to be empty and full of belongings like it had the night before.

[00:45:52] You see, the night before there weren't two dogs in the house. Maybe they had gotten there just after the lights shut off and hadn't realized we moved in. They must have gotten as far as

[00:46:06] opening the back door to sneak inside when they were met by the barking of our two large dogs. I imagine this both surprised and scared the person into running away before someone could

[00:46:18] see them without even bothering to close the door behind them. Who they were or how they unlocked it, I don't know. I just feel very lucky that we have our dogs and I get goosebumps as I

[00:46:30] wonder what would have been different if we didn't, especially after what I'm about to tell you. I know you may be wondering why during all of this I hadn't called the police and to tell you

[00:46:41] the truth, I didn't because I felt like they wouldn't take me seriously when not even my husband did. I had second guessed myself and didn't want to call them just for them to find

[00:46:53] that it was nothing, annoying my husband even further. Stupid, now I know that. We got right back to normalcy and continued life without incident for about a month. During this time snow had started

[00:47:08] to melt outside. One of those sunny spring mornings I was sitting on the steps out back drinking my coffee and playing with our dogs when I noticed that in the garden bed to the left of

[00:47:21] our back door there was a rock that looked out of place. It looked fake. I picked it up and instantly realized it wasn't a rock, it was a box intended to hold spare keys and it was empty.

[00:47:36] A chill ran down my spine as I recalled what had happened earlier that month. This validated my version of events for me and gave me the answer as to how the person had managed to open the door.

[00:47:49] I don't know who they were or how they knew about the spare key, at least not until this happened a couple of weeks later. After the strange occurrence I'm about to describe, I suspect that I know the

[00:48:02] answer to both of these questions. Originally I had led myself to believe that the person breaking in was a robber, someone after materialistic things and what they believed to be an empty house.

[00:48:14] But what if I'm wrong? I was home enjoying a nice day out back with my dogs and newborn baby, who I'll just call babe for the rest of this story. My husband was at work, it was around dusk

[00:48:28] and we were enjoying the last of the nice day before nightfall. I should pause here for a moment to describe a couple of things about my backyard for context. Our house is on a normal

[00:48:38] street lined with nice old homes and friendly neighbors and the exception of a fairly run down overgrown half abandoned trailer park that is right next to our house. The side of our house

[00:48:50] parallel to the trailer park has a nice old wooden fence for privacy that extends from the front yard all the way to the back where the horse pasture is behind our home. In our yard lining this fence are

[00:49:03] a few beautiful lilac bushes that were just starting to bloom. So as I was saying before, I was out back with babe and the dogs who were busy playing and chewing on some marrow bones

[00:49:15] on the other side of the yard. I was standing right up against the fence showing babe the lilacs for a few minutes before turning my back to the fence and walking about 15 feet away to show babe

[00:49:26] the pine tree that we had out back. I was standing there with my back turned to the fence letting babe smell the pine needle that I had snapped between my fingers. I can't explain it but suddenly out of

[00:49:38] nowhere this uneasy feeling crept over me and my senses heightened. I just felt seen. The hairs on my neck raised as this sudden onset of awareness overtook me and in response to this creepy feeling

[00:49:52] taking over I reflexively spun around on heel just in time to see, to my horror, a man in a red shirt completely pressed up against a crack in the fence looking right at me and babe through an eye-sized

[00:50:07] hole. He seemed just as surprised to have seen me so suddenly spin around towards him although judging by his reaction I don't think he knew I had actually seen him. You know when you're a

[00:50:22] little kid playing hide and go seek and you're hiding behind a door? You watch as the person trying to find you looks in your direction so you hold your breath and slink back slowly away

[00:50:34] from the crack in the door trying to get out of sight without catching their attention or being found? That was what this guy's reaction was. He didn't run or try to approach me he just ever so

[00:50:47] slowly and silently took two steps back still facing me and began slowly methodically slinking along the fence trying to make his way down and out of my sight. I'm glad he hadn't tried to come

[00:51:02] towards me because I was frozen with fear. My dogs had caught on and were now barking. This broke my trance. I held babe tight to my chest and booked it inside. The house was starting to

[00:51:16] get dark as I ran around frantically locking every door and every window. I called my mom in hysterics and she immediately drove to my house to wait with me for my husband to get home. It was the longest

[00:51:27] 15 minutes of my life. It was dark by the time she got there and I hadn't so much as turned on a light for fear that it would illuminate me for the man who could have been watching me from the

[00:51:39] horse field he had snuck back to for all I knew. Honestly, I'm able to laugh now at how fucking psychotic I must have looked waiting for my mom to show up with the baby in the playpen by my side

[00:51:53] and a shotgun clutched in my grip as I scanned the backyard in a paranoid state from my dark kitchen window. I felt like the kid from a Christmas story daydreaming about defending his house from

[00:52:05] burglars with a Red Ryder BB gun. Finally, my mom arrived and consoled me until my husband got home a little later and I told him everything. Once again, we stupidly decided not to call the cops.

[00:52:17] I know, what the fuck, right? I felt like I didn't have an adequate description to give them. I was too scared to try and see what he looked like and it was hard enough to see through the fence

[00:52:29] in the fading light. I know now that I still should have called and reported it but in the moment I didn't. I said I would if I ever saw the guy again and at least to my knowledge I haven't.

[00:52:43] We got a home security system and our landlord changed our locks. We've been living happily in our home without incidents since. So to the guy in the red shirt who watched me and babe through the fence and might have stolen the spare key to my house

[00:53:01] and tried sneaking inside. Let's not meet ever. This is a new segment of the show I like to call Cat's Corner or rather Countdown to Cat in which we reach out to Cat Dennings to try and convince her to come on the show and tell some stories. We

[00:53:35] know you're a listener of the podcast and the fans have spoken. We want you on Let's Not Meet. You know where to find me. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true

[00:53:45] horror podcast. This week you have heard Man and Woman Follow Me for 20 Miles by listener Orphan Annie. It's Following Us by Nicole. Satanic Cabin Man by Gemma. Stranger in My Car by Elle.

[00:54:02] And finally There's Someone in the Basement by Ray. 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. As always if you

[00:54:18] want to hear your story on the show send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com and if you have any questions or inquiries email me at letsnotmeetpodcast at gmail.com. Also as always if

[00:54:29] you want to get access to bonus weekly half-hour episodes of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast as well as all kinds of other exclusive content and merchandise head over to patreon.com

[00:54:40] forward slash let's not meet podcast to join today and support the show. This podcast is not possible without the patrons. Thank you so much for all your support. I'll see you guys next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. Stay safe.