7x07: Daisy - Let's Not Meet

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

[00:00:18] My name is Andrew Tate, and this is season seven, episode seven of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. This story started in the early seventies when I was 19 years old. An elderly lady in our church started bringing her 21 year old grandson, who

[00:01:05] I'll call Todd, to church with her. He tried to date another girl at church, but he was getting nowhere with her and decided to turn his attention to me. We hit it off and he seemed like a pretty nice guy.

[00:01:21] My parents liked him, and about six months after we had met, we actually got married. I know this was not a lot of time to get to know someone, but my family was very religious and would not approve of us living together.

[00:01:35] We bought a mobile home, which my father co-signed the loan for. We moved into a trailer park about five miles from my family. Now we had a rough start and I thought that I had made a big mistake several times.

[00:01:51] I wanted to leave a couple of times, but four months after we were married, I got pregnant with our son. Todd seemed very happy and said that he always wanted to be a father.

[00:02:03] I hoped that we could become a family at last, but this did not turn out to be true. Todd just couldn't keep a job, yet he never seemed to have trouble getting another one. If I asked what happened, it was always someone else's fault.

[00:02:19] He began to leave at odd times to quote, go to the gas station or meet some friends or some other kind of excuse. We were rarely intimate and began to fight frequently, yet every time I threatened to

[00:02:32] leave, he would straighten up and become the model husband just for a while. When our son was about a year old, my cousin and his wife moved to a small town in Kansas because they had gotten a good job at a concrete plant there.

[00:02:48] He said there was an empty lot where we could move the mobile home to and Todd could probably get a job at that plant as well. We didn't really think too much of it at the time. Todd had been acting very strange as of late.

[00:03:05] He was still changing jobs frequently and had begun bringing things home from these jobs and telling me that they gave stuff to him. One night, we had gone to dinner and his grandmother and some other family members

[00:03:20] I noticed two men at another table staring at us the entire time. Finally, one of the men got up, came over to our table and started getting in Todd's face while Todd did his best to try and ignore him.

[00:03:35] The manager made the man leave and Todd swore he didn't know who the guy was, but he was very uneasy and kept looking all around when we left. The rest of us just chalked it up to some random crazy person in a restaurant, but I

[00:03:49] now believe something sketchy was going on between the three of them. Right after that dinner incident, Todd came home from a job he was working at night. He was really shaken up because a jealous husband had come into the building and shot

[00:04:05] his wife after accusing him of being a sex offender. He swore to find out who her boyfriend was and shoot him too, then took off. I always wondered if it was the shooting or the fact that he might have been the other

[00:04:21] target that influenced his decision to make the move to the small Kansas town. We lived in that little town for several months. We were very happy with the way things were going. We lived in that little town for several months until finally my cousin's wife decided

[00:04:40] that she missed her mother and they moved back to the city about 30 miles away. Todd started the disappearing acts and the job changing again, and before long we moved that mobile home to a trailer park about 10 miles from the city my cousin had moved back to.

[00:04:59] We continued to fight and generally could not stand each other. When he was gone, I didn't really care. Things finally came to a head though when I came back home one day and one of our neighbors

[00:05:12] came to tell me that the sheriff had come by to talk to me. Apparently Todd had been selling drugs out of the only gas station in town and I guess everyone pretty much knew but me. I was shocked, but a lot of things finally made sense now.

[00:05:28] I had been sheltered, a little church girl, and didn't really have much contact with drugs or people who used them. We had a huge fight and I told Todd I was done with him and was not going to jail for him selling drugs.

[00:05:44] I took my 18 month old son and went back to my parents. He tried all sorts of things to get me to come back. He even went so far as to fake an accident by pulling his car into a ditch, pretending

[00:05:57] to black out and waiting for someone to find him. Then he called me and said he was in the hospital. My father and I went to the hospital and found out that he was fine. He had faked the entire thing.

[00:06:09] I told him that he was crazy and I was getting a divorce. I never wanted to see or hear from him again. He called me all kinds of nasty things as we left. I honestly don't know why he was so upset.

[00:06:23] Now he would be free to do as he pleased. After he sold everything we owned, he moved out of that mobile home and disappeared. Since my father had co-signed the loan for the mobile home, that meant that he would

[00:06:38] have to finish paying it off or let the bank repossess it. We decided to move it back up to the city where my parents lived and my sister and I would live in it and I would finish paying it off.

[00:06:51] Now I want to mention that the trailer park we moved it to was very close to Todd's grandmother's house. You could see the back of her house from the large bay window in the front of the mobile home.

[00:07:04] I used to look out the window and see the house was a mess. Grandma had quite a bit of money, which she had made from selling property and real estate and some of that property that she had sold had become the trailer park where I now lived.

[00:07:20] Grandma was not happy when Todd and I split up. I suspect he started going to church with her. I don't know if he was happy when Todd and I split up. I don't know if he was happy when Todd and I split up.

[00:07:34] Okay, now we get to the creepy part though. Sorry it took a bit to get here, but I thought you needed a little bit of backstory so you could have an understanding of the type of person that I had been married to.

[00:07:48] I was about 22 and had been living in that trailer park with my eight-year-old daughter and my two-year-old son. I was about 22 and had been living in that trailer park with my eight-year-old daughter and my two-year-old son.

[00:08:02] I was about 22 and had been living in that trailer park with my 18-year-old sister I'll call Lucy for maybe six months. We had not seen or heard from Todd and I just got on with my life.

[00:08:16] The mobile home was pretty typical, kitchen in the front, living room, and a hallway with two bedrooms with a walkthrough bathroom between them. In the first bedroom and my son in the back one, which was a little larger so he could

[00:08:31] have a place for toys and room to play. One morning I woke up to see my sister wide awake and staring at me. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she had heard someone walking around in the front part of the trailer last night.

[00:08:49] Immediately I felt alarmed and asked her why she didn't wake me up. She told me that she was afraid that I would make a commotion and it would be better to stay quiet and let whoever it was think we were asleep.

[00:09:03] Quickly I jumped out of bed then ran into the living room. The front door was still locked and our purses were sitting untouched on the floor right where we left them. I went into the kitchen and one of our four smaller windows that made up the bay window

[00:09:20] was opened about six inches or so. I said maybe a cat got in and that's what you heard. I was trying to think of a rational explanation but she said no cats don't open and shut drawers and cabinets.

[00:09:35] Then she told me she heard whoever it was walk down the hallway and then back to the living room. I felt sick thinking about someone sneaking around in our house while I was asleep and my poor sister just laying there listening.

[00:09:52] They must have opened the window just enough to climb in and snoop around but why? We were unharmed, nothing was taken. My sister was probably right about staying quiet but seriously we told our dad and he

[00:10:08] put an extra lock on the door and we made sure that those windows were shut and locked from then on. We never had another incident after that and we never found out who it was.

[00:10:19] Now Lucy had a Chevy Vega that we shared because I didn't have a car of my own. Most of the time she would ride to work with our dad since their jobs were so close together and I would drive the Vega to my job.

[00:10:35] I don't remember how long this was after the trailer break-in incident but one day I drove the Vega to my job. Which was mostly highway and maybe 30 miles from where we lived.

[00:10:49] Dad dropped Lucy off at my job after she got off of work because Lucy was going to be in a wedding and we were going to go to the mall when I got off of work. I was driving and we started off down the road.

[00:11:04] Suddenly we heard a loud rattling noise coming from under the hood so I pulled onto a side street. We got out, looked under the hood but we couldn't see anything that was loose so we

[00:11:18] looked underneath the car to see if anything was dragging on the ground but we didn't see anything. We got back into the car and drove a few feet and the rattling started again.

[00:11:31] We played drive, rattle, stop, then look just a few more times until finally a man in the neighborhood came out and asked us what was wrong. We told him and he got in the car and did the same drive, rattle, stop, and look routine.

[00:11:50] Finally he told me to get in the car and drive slowly while he walked along beside the car and listened intently. Suddenly he said, stop. So I parked. He went and got a screwdriver and pried off the hubcap on the front driver's side and examined the lug nuts.

[00:12:12] I felt my stomach turn over when he looked at me and said, all of your lug nuts have been loosened. If you drove this very far or very fast your wheel would have come right off. Is there somebody who doesn't like you?

[00:12:28] I knew exactly who didn't like me. He tightened everything up and we left. I still don't know how I managed to drive almost 30 miles down the highway and not end up having some kind of bad accident, which probably would not have turned out well for me.

[00:12:49] I know beyond any doubt Todd loosened those lug nuts and I also believe he was the one creeping around the trailer a few months before. It occurred to me later that he may have had the crazy idea to take our son.

[00:13:04] He was the first grandchild and spent many nights at my parents when I worked and I don't recall him being there when this happened. I can't think of anyone else who would have had a reason to do these things and he had

[00:13:19] the perfect place to spy on us from his grandma's house. Todd eventually went on to his next victim. A detective called my parents one time to see if they knew where he might be.

[00:13:31] It seems he cheated his wife out of a large amount of money and took off. She wasn't happy about it. Eventually I remarried though. I moved to a different state. Todd would call my parents once in a while trying to find out where I lived or get a

[00:13:48] phone number so that he could call me. Of course, they wouldn't tell him. I just want to tell Todd I'm glad that for the last 40 years we never had to meet again. This happened about 8 months ago. I'm a stay at home mom.

[00:14:11] I was taking my 3 young children for a walk around my neighborhood. At the time, I was in the middle of a school project. At the time, my children were a newborn, 1, and 3. We live in a sleepy heavily wooded valley in the Pacific Northwest about 20 minutes

[00:14:35] from the nearest small city. Seeing as it was the height of quarantine and it was an unusually sunny and warm winter day, I decided we should take advantage of this sunshine and get some fresh air.

[00:14:50] I strapped my 2 youngest children into my large double jogging stroller and my oldest walked along beside me. We were both meandering through the windy and hilly streets of our neighborhood with no real purpose or direction, just enjoying the day and saying a socially distanced hello

[00:15:09] to several neighbors who were also out enjoying the sunshine. We had walked about 3-4 blocks uphill and turned around to head back towards our street when we noticed a man on the left coming towards our path on the side street.

[00:15:27] He was an average looking middle aged man walking a small fluffy white dog. He looked like he was headed in the direction that we were coming from so I said hello as he was about to pass us.

[00:15:39] People are friendly in my neighborhood as it is a smaller community. The man then abruptly turned towards us and walked directly up to the stroller and said this is Snowy. I assume this was his dog's name.

[00:15:56] At first I didn't think it was odd because we have a newborn and cute well behaved kids, people often want to stop and chat. It was odd though because he addressed the children and not me. He was staring in a way that I just didn't like.

[00:16:13] He had one hand in his windbreaker pocket in an awkward way. Uncomfortable but thinking I was being paranoid I said hello Snowy, enjoy the nice day. And we continued on, chatting away about things we saw on the walk.

[00:16:29] We had gone about half a block when I noticed that the man who had initially passed us had turned around and was now following us. I thought ok he just wants to take a short walk and he's doubling back to get to his

[00:16:42] street so I kind of slowed down because it makes me uncomfortable to have people walking close behind me. I thought maybe he'd pass us. He didn't. I stopped on the side of the street under the pretense of showing myself to him.

[00:16:57] I stopped on the side of the street under the pretense of showing my son a small flower. The man also stopped. I looked around and of course there were no other walkers, joggers or cars.

[00:17:09] I asked my older son to hurry up because the baby needs a bottle and I thought since this guy was creeping me out we would just book it back to the house and lock the doors. I was still telling myself that it was probably nothing.

[00:17:23] We walked up to turn right onto our street. A winding narrow steep and heavily treed street with about a dozen houses spread pretty far from each other. The woods and wetlands in between.

[00:17:39] Our neighbors aren't far from us but with the terrain you can't really see any of the other houses from ours. This is important. I know our neighbors and this man wasn't one of the people who lived on our street.

[00:17:51] There really is no reason to walk on our street unless you live on it as it isn't a through street. Soon after we turned the man also rounded the corner about 15 feet behind us. It was then I got this sinking feeling.

[00:18:07] I remembered that I had left my garage door standing wide open, something I didn't think twice of before this day. I didn't want him to know where I lived and I was starting to get creeped out because

[00:18:19] I wasn't sure I could maneuver three small children and a large stroller down our steep driveway and into the garage and get it shut quickly enough without him following me. I was recovering from a c-section.

[00:18:31] Like I said, we have neighbors on our street but there are no neighbors in sight of our house. I was to all intents and purposes completely alone. I had gone about another 10 feet and I was stopped by a tree that my son likes to play

[00:18:47] under and again I thought that this would give the man a chance to pass us but I was wrong. The man walks right up to us. He stood maybe six inches shoulder to shoulder with me, watching my son play about eight

[00:19:05] feet in front of me under the tree. He said nothing. He still had one hand in his windbreaker pocket and the other one holding onto the leash of the dog. He didn't acknowledge me at all. He just stared at my son.

[00:19:22] Now, my son is particularly cute with strawberry blonde curls and he does tend to attract the attention and comments of others but this was different. This went on for several minutes. I was afraid. I didn't know what to do. I started to panic.

[00:19:38] Any other time someone else would have walked by but not on this day. I reached into my stroller and pulled out my pepper spray. I carried this because in Arizona a coyote followed me once with a stroller and we have cougars in our neighborhood.

[00:19:56] It never occurred to me that it might be used for self-defense in this neighborhood. I was disturbed and scared enough that I was no longer worried about being polite and I made sure that the man saw what I had in my hand.

[00:20:10] I started to be concerned about what might be in that pocket that he was holding onto as he never removed his hand. He looked at the pepper spray. Then at me. Then just unimpressed looked back at my son. He was emotionless and unafraid.

[00:20:31] Unconcerned with the fact that he was obviously making me uncomfortable. I called my son sternly and turned and began to walk towards my house. The man passed us also walking that way. Now about 25 feet ahead of us but almost in front of my driveway.

[00:20:51] My house was just up on the left but I was afraid to go to it while the man could see us. I stopped relieved that he had gone so far ahead and I thought I'd give him a chance

[00:21:03] to get out of sight and then we would scurry inside lock the doors set the alarm and call my husband. But when I stopped he stopped again. Right in the middle of the street. Again we began this pattern if I went he went if I stopped he stopped.

[00:21:20] After several minutes of this it was enough for me now terrified tears stinging my eyes and my heart pounding out of my chest. I put my oldest son in the front of the stroller and told him to hang on tight.

[00:21:34] It was time to walk fast and I wanted my children all where I could see them. I was beginning to get afraid that he'd try and snatch my oldest son. I walked or jogged as fast as I could again I was recovering from a c-section.

[00:21:52] I made it to the end of the street and turn the opposite way to go down the hill to the next block over which led to a big cluster of mailboxes thinking this was our best bet to run into other people.

[00:22:05] As I walked I called my husband who works two hours away he headed home right away but two hours seemed like an eternity. I then called my brother-in-law who works from home about 20 to 25 minutes away.

[00:22:19] We're close and always friendly but I don't ever really call him directly so I think he knew something was up right away. He answered immediately. I said without greeting I'm walking with the kids and a man is following us.

[00:22:33] I'm really scared he's staring at them I'm afraid to go home. Without question he said I'll be there in 15 minutes and hung up. When I hung up I looked back as I turned the corner towards the mailboxes.

[00:22:47] The man was just standing there about 20 feet back in the middle of the street not moving just staring with these horrible blank dead empty black eyes. It made my blood run cold I knew something just wasn't right. I turned the corner out of his sight.

[00:23:05] I made it halfway down the street towards the mailboxes when I turned back again and again this man had followed and was now standing in the trees behind us staring. He was stalking us like prey now making no effort to hide the fact.

[00:23:21] He seemed to be enjoying my distress my terror all the while. We're seeing no cars passing and no other people walking. This is when I saw a younger 30-ish man working in his yard. I was so relieved to see another person.

[00:23:38] He said hello to be friendly and I stopped hesitated not wanting to seem crazy and then decided safety over pride and pushed my kids right up his driveway and told him what was happening.

[00:23:49] He immediately picked up his wood chopping axe and walked into the road and saw the man had been following us. The neighbor stared him down. He then turned and began to walk away from us rounding the corner towards our street and out of sight.

[00:24:07] I was panicking that he'd guess which house was mine and was headed back to wait for me inside and ambush me. I told this kind neighbor my brother-in-law was on the way and asked if I could wait in his driveway.

[00:24:19] He said yes and that he would continue his work but would stay close by to make sure that we were safe. He said that he had been a bartender for many years and in his experience if a woman said

[00:24:32] something didn't feel right to her he should listen to her intuition. I don't know how my brother-in-law made it to us so fast but 15 minutes later he was He pulled up practically screeching the tires.

[00:24:45] Have I mentioned he has known me for 15 years and I'm not an alarmist and I never ask for help. He escorted us back to our house safely and checked the house for us, every nook, cranny

[00:24:56] and closet while I cowered in the entranceway with my children ready to run. After we talked it over I decided to call the police. I filed a report but they didn't have much to go on. I didn't know the man's name or where he lived.

[00:25:10] The officer drove around looking for him but didn't have any luck. My husband did the same thing when he came home. Again, no luck. My brother-in-law stayed with us until my husband made it home and soon after I collapsed sobbing in tears.

[00:25:28] I kept thinking about how I could have handled it better. I should have pepper sprayed the creep and called 911 right away. I have seen the man walking twice more in the last 8 months while driving with his little

[00:25:39] white dog and it honestly gives me chills even to drive past him. The day after the incident I received a box from my dad who had overnighted me a box full of more pepper spray, loud whistles and a telescoping metal defense baton.

[00:25:56] He told me to stash them in every stroller, every vehicle, etc. To be honest, I haven't felt safe walking with my children in my neighborhood without my husband since this happened. I hate how he made me afraid to walk my children in my sleepy little valley.

[00:26:11] I don't know if this man was a creep, a pedophile or if he had plans to hurt us or was just simply awkward but my gut tells me he meant us harm. And that way that he looked at my little boy was wrong.

[00:26:26] It was just a bad idea. It was like prey. So to the man who stalked me and my children through our neighborhood, you had better hope we never meet again. Because this time I will pepper spray you first and ask questions later.

[00:26:48] In 2019, I had been going through what I now realize was a mental health crisis. I felt like my life was boring and depressing. I decided to download Tinder as a way to make my life more exciting by engaging in some reckless behavior. Some relevant background information on me.

[00:27:16] I'm a lesbian, I was 21 at the time and I am specifically attracted to older women. I was also incredibly naive and looking back, I'm embarrassed about my behavior. I had set my profile age to 25 in order to be taken more seriously by women who were 40 plus.

[00:27:34] It's not right, I know. I successfully met some older women for hookups. Everything had gone fine thus far and I was surprised at how many matches I was getting given the age gap.

[00:27:48] I became somewhat addicted to the app and the attention that I was getting but I never felt unsafe. Her profile stated that she was 47 and she was married. Her husband was 40 and they were looking to find someone to join them in bed or meet with just the woman.

[00:28:06] I was incredibly attracted to her and she stood out from all the other women as she had an alternative look. Bright pink hair and a punk style, lots of tattoos and a black dress. She was a very feminine person.

[00:28:18] Despite not being attracted to men in the slightest, I swiped on the profile out of curiosity. It was a match. I don't remember much about the initial conversations but I recall her messaging me fairly quickly. The messages were always very long and full of flattery.

[00:28:38] I was shocked at how many messages she had sent me. I was surprised at how many messages she had sent me. I was shocked at how many messages she had sent me. I was shocked that someone as attractive as her was attracted to me.

[00:28:52] As I say, I have mental health issues and low self-esteem comes as part of that. Something I think she picked up on. On the same day, I believe we moved into WhatsApp and she added me to a group chat with her husband.

[00:29:10] I had told them that I wasn't sure I wanted to go through with anything and that I had never been with a man before and I wasn't sure I wanted anything to do with him.

[00:29:20] They were very persuasive and said that I wouldn't have to do anything I wasn't comfortable with. I've always been very passive and scared of upsetting people and they seemed really excited and were quite persistent so I kept chatting with them and convinced myself that

[00:29:37] it would be fun as I didn't want to let them down since I had initially led them on by swiping. The messages started off very friendly and they seemed pretty cool and were kind to me.

[00:29:50] They asked me a lot of questions and told me deep things about their personal lives. Stupidly, maybe because I didn't have many friends at the time, I opened up to them about my struggles with my family and my mental health issues.

[00:30:06] Basically, I gave them everything that they needed to manipulate me. As the days went on, my phone was going off constantly with messages from the group chat. I suppose at this point, I was still flattered that they liked me this much. I believe the term is love bombing.

[00:30:26] They would tell me how they'd never chatted with anyone like me and how special I was as well as how attractive I was. They would message me these types of compliments constantly. Alarmingly, at one point they asked if I wanted to come live with them.

[00:30:42] At the time, I thought they were just being overly kind because of what I had told them about my troubled home life. My phone was going off every five minutes now. Something that I now realize was a manipulation tactic that worked very well.

[00:30:58] The next week or so, I agreed to meet with them in the park in my city for a picnic. It was an hour's drive away for them. I found it really difficult to say no at the best of times, but felt like I really couldn't

[00:31:12] because of how much they wanted to see me and the time and attention they were giving me. To be honest, I was still very attracted to Daisy, so the idea of sleeping with her was very appealing. Shallow and stupid, I know.

[00:31:27] I can't believe I didn't realize how sketchy this was. I was ill at the time, so my judgment was severely clouded. What I thought was going to be a two-to-three-hour long picnic lasted nine hours. Yes, nine hours.

[00:31:43] During this time, they had told me that they hadn't been honest with me and that they had something to tell me. They had lied about their ages on Tinder. Her husband was actually 50 and she was 59.

[00:31:56] I was taken aback, but felt like I couldn't judge them as I had done the same thing and confessed my true age as well. Pretty much the entire time, Daisy held my hand and wouldn't let go.

[00:32:09] Not to be horrible, but she was less attractive in person and had clearly been using a lot of filters or editing software. She kind of reminded me of an old store mannequin, as she seemed to have a lot of plastic bags and a lot of hair.

[00:32:24] As she seemed to have a lot of plastic surgery. She was overly touchy-feely and wouldn't stop looking at me. They then suggested that we get up and walk. I was more than ready to go home, so I agreed.

[00:32:39] However, we went to a more wooded area of the park and Daisy's husband went to go pee, leaving us alone. That's when she kissed me, which I can still remember because of how awkward it felt. I just wasn't expecting it.

[00:32:55] She kept saying she had never felt like that after kissing someone, and she had never been more attracted to someone, not even her husband. A complete overreaction to a very awkward kiss. This made me feel really weird because we barely know each other and this was only

[00:33:12] meant to be a hookup situation. When her husband came back, she asked if he could kiss me too and I said okay. It was pretty disgusting. Rough and sloppy. After this, I said I had to go and they walked me to my car.

[00:33:30] They asked if I would come over to their house soon. I panicked and said yes. I drove home and when I got my phone, it was blown up with more love bombs from them. Focused mainly on the idea of me coming over.

[00:33:46] They asked what food I like and told me they would have a big surprise waiting for me. Daisy had messaged me privately too though and said that if she weren't married, we could have moved in together by now. We'd only been talking for just over a week.

[00:34:03] This really freaked me out and I told her that I was a bit uncomfortable with that. She apologized for her intensity and opened up to me about her own mental health issues. I told her I was there if she needed me and hoped that she was okay.

[00:34:16] I think she sensed that I didn't want to engage any further due to my responses becoming shorter and more dry. I guess that's when she upped her game by calling me when her husband was at work, crying

[00:34:30] and telling me sob stories about her health issues and how her marriage just wasn't great. She thinks that she's a lesbian. She told me about cheating on her husband and she opened up to me that she's attempted suicide before and told me in great detail about it.

[00:34:48] Now I felt scared but also felt really bad for her as she seemed like she was having some kind of breakdown. I did my best to comfort her, but it was relentless. I was receiving what felt like hundreds of messages a day from her and every spare minute

[00:35:04] I had was replying to her, making sure that she was okay. I got a Snapchat notification one day and I checked it. It was Daisy requesting to add me as a friend.

[00:35:16] I asked her about it as I hadn't given my Snapchat to her and she said that she had created a profile and found me on it as she wanted to talk to me in private without her husband seeing any messages.

[00:35:29] She began sending me explicit photographs and telling me about specific fetishes that she had, which included being cut and stabbed with knives. She told me about how obsessed she was with me and how she wanted to be my girlfriend

[00:35:43] and asked how my mom would feel about me dating a 59 year old. At this point I began to understand how crazy this woman was, but I blamed myself for leading her on. The group chat was also still active with them badgering me about visiting them at their

[00:35:58] house and telling me that they had built something for me and had lots of surprises in store for me, something that also really freaked me out. At this point I wasn't interested anymore, but was quite worried about Daisy because

[00:36:13] of how upset she had been getting and how much she had latched onto me. I was scared of what would happen if I stopped talking to her completely. Around this time I went to my friend's house in another location for an overnight who lived

[00:36:28] in the basement of a townhouse where the signal was terrible. I hadn't spoken to Daisy or her husband for one day and when I left my friend's flat my phone was full of messages from Daisy which sent chills down my spine. She was unhinged, extremely obsessive.

[00:36:48] She had messaged me over and over again, starting off with love bombs as usual, and when I hadn't replied or sent her goodnight messages she had convinced herself that something happened to me. She described the scenarios that had come into her head about me, terrible things, the

[00:37:04] gist of that being that I had been assaulted or murdered and left for dead in some kind of ditch. I freaked out at this point and finally sent a message saying I no longer want to engage with them and blocked them.

[00:37:18] I remember feeling really scared at the time doing this, as if I knew what was going to happen afterwards. This is when the stalking begins. I started receiving calls from different numbers, both mobile and home numbers.

[00:37:34] The home numbers had the location attached so I knew it was her. I blocked all of these. At the time I had a YouTube channel and ran my own podcast. She would message my YouTube and leave comments on the podcast's social media pages.

[00:37:50] She found my friends on social media and would relentlessly message them asking if they can get me to talk to her. I asked them to block her too. Every so often I would get a message from someone asking me if I knew who this woman

[00:38:04] was as she had messaged asking about me. She had a couple of aliases too. Each time this happened my stomach would sink to the floor in fear. I hadn't heard from her in months, thankfully after blocking her on everything and had started seeing someone else.

[00:38:21] I was still looking over my shoulder when I was out and about and still very paranoid. But as I hadn't heard from her I thought she must have given up. I had her blocked on everything and deleted any social media that had my name on it.

[00:38:36] But then one day I got a notification on Twitter. She somehow managed to find my anonymous Twitter profile and requested to follow me even though I didn't have my number or email linked.

[00:38:49] She must have gone through my friends' followers lists or something and worked it out from there. I told my girlfriend about the whole ordeal from start to finish and she seemed quite weirded out.

[00:39:01] She asked me more and more questions about what Daisy did for work and where she lived and the more I told her the more worried she seemed. She told me that her friend, who has since passed away, was stalked by a man and woman

[00:39:17] matching their description and location and while it was never confirmed it seems very probable that this was the same couple. Apparently they made her life a living hell. At this point I was absolutely panicked. My girlfriend then went onto her Twitter profile and posted a picture of herself.

[00:39:37] She checked her followers, all 7 of them, and discovered that she had moved onto another young girl, maybe 17 to 21 years old. She messaged the girl to warn her and tell her about what had happened to me and what she said chilled me to my core.

[00:39:54] She basically said the same things that had been happening to me, relentless messages, the crying on the phone. It all happened with her. Alarmingly, the girl had agreed to write love letters with Daisy and apparently had

[00:40:10] become very alarmed when Daisy sent her a photograph of the girl's front door. I reported her anonymously to Crimestoppers as I didn't want to be involved with the police but I never heard anything back.

[00:40:24] I can't believe how naive I was and I still blame myself for most of the events that happened. I'm just so glad I never went to her house or saw the surprise that they built for me. I shudder to think what it was or what would have happened.

[00:40:40] For now, she hasn't bothered me and I've been doing much better with my mental health since then. I'm in a much better place now. I hope the girl is okay too but Daisy and your husband, let's not meet again.

[00:40:59] I'm a large guy, both muscular and just all around large so I normally don't worry when I'm out and about late at night. I was visiting my parents over the holidays. They live in one of those quiet drinking towns with a hunting problem.

[00:41:29] It's in the middle of New Hampshire where everybody knows everybody. One of the more notable neighborhood characters was Barefoot Jogger Guy. He was locally famous for exactly what you'd expect with that name. He jogs almost daily wearing a reflective vest and no shoes.

[00:41:51] On the night in question, my friend and I were out longboarding on some freshly paved roads because when it's 65 degrees Fahrenheit on the day after Christmas, you have to find some way to make the most of it. At about midnight, I realize I have to relieve myself.

[00:42:09] Fortunately, it's a very quiet road so I tell my buddy to go on ahead and I step off to the side of the road to answer the call of nature as it were.

[00:42:20] At this point, I look over my shoulder to see the Barefoot Jogger Guy on his way up the road so to be polite, I finish up quickly and go back to my board.

[00:42:31] Now, I wasn't going as fast as I could but I was still on a longboard on a flat freshly paved road. I should have been at the same speed as the jogger, if not faster, but somehow he was gaining on me.

[00:42:46] Now, I've been the kind of person who falls asleep listening to scary stories since middle school so of course I started to get a little weirded out but I didn't think too much of it and picked up my speed.

[00:42:58] I looked over my shoulder about 30 seconds later and he was still gaining on me. Now, I start to freak out. I push faster and turn up a different road knowing that his normal route took him straight and he shouldn't be turning up the road where I went.

[00:43:15] Like I said, everybody knows everybody. At this point, I don't need to look back to see if he's turned too because I can hear the slap of his bare feet on the pavement.

[00:43:29] I lose control of my board out of fear and hit some gravel which makes me fall off my board. My board shoots across the road. I don't know what this guy had planned for me and I wasn't sure what I was going to

[00:43:42] do to defend myself but I was gritting myself to do whatever I could when I heard a rolling sound from up the street and like some angel in flannel. My buddy comes riding towards me and hops off onto the road next to me.

[00:43:57] The barefoot jogger guy went past us up the hill but as he passed, he said something that still haunts me when I'm out at night. I didn't realize there were two of you.

[00:44:10] I've moved farther away and only go back to my parents' house twice a year but still, barefoot jogger guy, let's not meet again. I'm not letting you off the hook just yet. This week, I've included a couple of bonus stories. I dug these up from the old episodes.

[00:44:44] I may do this from time to time as we just have so many of these to get through and they're requested pretty often but don't worry, we still have a full Lost Stories episode for you on Halloween night so don't miss that.

[00:44:54] This first story is titled Creepy Man Somehow Knew Where I Lived and Came at Night by Redeemed by Water. It was originally narrated back in 2018 by Sarah Steele of the podcast Let's Talk About Sex, an award-winning podcast focusing on different cults each episode.

[00:45:14] Check it out wherever you get your podcasts. After that, it's an old recording I did of a story called I Was Almost Kidnapped by the Cartel by Science Musk. Both are presented in their original form with the music and sound effects. Enjoy.

[00:45:37] So I live on a remote New England street, just moved here recently from New Mexico. We moved into a gorgeous house about four driveways up from a Mormon church. This church has services at random times. I'm agnostic and not really tuned into the schedule they keep.

[00:45:56] So tonight, I was driving home from work and listening to a new episode from True Crime Garage podcast. I didn't want to stop listening, so instead of driving straight home, I slowed my speed

[00:46:09] so I could finish my episode and decided to do a slow turn around the church as I listened. I'm super paranoid because of all my true crime obsessions, so my car doors were locked. But since we live in a safe and upper-class neighborhood, I wasn't terribly on alert,

[00:46:26] even though the church was dark. But as I cruised around the church lot to enjoy my podcast, a man stepped out of the shadows of the church's dumpster and into the light. He was walking in a bizarre stumbling gate and actually lunged at my car door.

[00:46:43] He had a beard but was otherwise kempt and clean looking, so it was the odd manner of his gate that scared me. I floored it and drove off as fast as possible as he lurched at my SUV, his fingernails actually scratching at the metal of my back door.

[00:47:01] I was so freaked out that I drove for a while, not going home but just circling streets until I finally went home. My husband is out of town for a training, he's military, so it's just me and my two pitbulls.

[00:47:16] They make me feel pretty safe, and I do have a gun that my husband leaves me, but as a true crime addict, I'm always on edge. I called my husband, Aaron, and he reassured me that it was probably a homeless guy but

[00:47:28] to keep the gun nearby and the dogs by the bed. So I do my nightly routine and head to bed. As I'm falling asleep, my dogs go wild. Barking, rushing from door to window.

[00:47:43] I lie stock still upstairs and keep my hand on my gun as I listen to them barking. Over the pounding of my heart, I hear the front door knob downstairs rattle, rattle as someone tries to twist it open.

[00:47:57] I can hear my dogs barking and snarling, and after a few seconds one of them hits the window downstairs barking his head off. I slid off my bed and grabbed my cell, dialing 911 from the floor.

[00:48:11] About 30 silent minutes later, cop cars pull into my yard and start to chase me. I'm scared, but I can't help but run and take my statement. I was still terrified and shaking, and when I went to the door to talk to them, the porch

[00:48:27] light illuminated footsteps all around my door in the snow and around each window. I can only imagine it was the guy from the church, but I have no idea how he knew which house was mine.

[00:48:40] I park in the garage, so he must have been watching as I came home and pulled in, recognizing my vehicle. I'm still scared stiff. I don't even want to walk in front of our un-curtained French doors. I'm terrified.

[00:48:59] I'm writing this as a memoir of what happened while it's still fresh in my mind, and to share it with all of the amazing people here at Let's Not Meet. I've been reading all of the stories for almost a year now, and I feel like I should

[00:49:13] share my story. I'll have to leave some details out for reasons you'll soon learn. This happened one year and two days ago. It was the day I never expected to come. It changed my life in so many ways that I still feel like I can't digest it.

[00:49:34] I want to start off by saying a little bit about myself, so you understand the context and why it was so weird and foreign for something like this to happen to me. I'm a fairly geeky guy. I love science fiction and video games.

[00:49:49] I worked, at the time, as a design engineer in a factory and spent most of my weekends with friends hiking, playing board games, or just watching movies. So you realize nothing I did would attract any attention of the cartels. I do not have a lot of money.

[00:50:09] I just live a lower middle class type of life here in Mexico. But the real issue was my sister, who was a high ranking position in the public security area of politics. That is the reason I was targeted. It was Tuesday morning, very early.

[00:50:28] I was on my way to work, which started at 6am. I remember that day I took my dad's SUV because they were away on vacation and I was supposed to pick them up at the airport after work that day. Plus, I have a small sedan.

[00:50:44] I lived about half an hour away from work, so I left about 5.25am every morning. When I was leaving, I saw a pretty shady SUV parked like a block away from my house and

[00:50:58] honestly, after my sister took her job, I was more aware of things that I saw out of place. I felt a little paranoid because weeks before it happened, I felt like someone was following me.

[00:51:11] So yeah, I passed this SUV and saw a guy in the driver's seat with a baseball cap. I stopped for a bit, looked him straight in the eye, and he just looked down and covered his face. I honestly didn't think too much of it.

[00:51:29] My family had been telling me weeks prior that I was just overreacting and no one was following me, so I thought it was just some random guy waiting for someone.

[00:51:39] I took off to work, and for me to get there, I have to go through a really ugly neighborhood which is poorly lit and has a really bad reputation. I was in a two lane street that's only one way.

[00:51:54] I was in the right lane at the time and saw the Jeep Cherokee just speed by me in the left lane and then continue its way in front of me.

[00:52:03] When we arrived at the end of the street, I had to turn right to get to work and the Cherokee just completely stopped on the right lane in front of me with their blinker signaling to the left.

[00:52:18] I found it kind of weird, but I did not want to be an asshole and honk at them and wanted to give them a few seconds to move. While I was waiting, a freaking Explorer came screeching on the left lane.

[00:52:33] It stopped next to me and four guys came out with guns and one with a baseball bat. The guy with the baseball bat smashed my windows and hit me in the face while another put a gun to my head and said, This is real, asshole.

[00:52:51] Get out of the car. So please understand that at the moment I did not feel like they wanted to steal my car. I already knew they were trying to kidnap me. If I knew they just wanted my car, I would have given them the car.

[00:53:07] But I pieced it all together. The cars I felt were following me at night every day. The guy just sitting in the SUV outside of my place and obviously, the guy with the baseball bat was my sister's job. It all added up.

[00:53:22] I knew that if they took me, it would be torture followed by certain death. And if they really wanted to kidnap me, they would not kill me. So I stepped on the gas. I smashed between the Cherokee and the Explorer and ran over one of the guys.

[00:53:41] I fucking sped as much as the SUV would give me and honked so I could make a lot of noise so people would notice. My hope was to get to my workplace, which had private security and call my sister so she could mobilize the police.

[00:53:56] With all of the adrenaline on me, I passed the entrance to my work and tried to turn back. But it crashed on a corner. At that moment, it honestly felt like my heart would come out of my mouth. Everything moved so slow. I tried to calm myself down.

[00:54:14] I breathed. Saw through my mirror if they were going to follow me. And I saw no one. An empty street that was already lit by morning dusk. And this SUV was still working. I turned around, got to my work, yelled at the security guards to open the door.

[00:54:36] I parked at the entrance, got out of my car and called my sister. After that, I went inside and talked to my boss about what had happened and went to the restroom to clean the glass and blood off of my hair and face.

[00:54:51] When I came out of the restroom and out to the parking lot, there were about 10 cop cars outside of my workplace. My sister had already told me to speak with a specific police officer and confirm his name. Everything went smooth and I felt safe and protected.

[00:55:08] After that, I moved into my sister's house which has police guarding it. I have bodyguards that are with me every time I go out. This has cost me my job, relationships and lifelong friendships.

[00:55:22] Everyone is afraid to hang out with you when they know you are a target for the cartels and that is understandable but it does not make me feel any less shitty. Investigations continued through the beginning of 2017.

[00:55:39] I later found out through security camera footage that there were 3 SUVs in total with about 12 people trying to kidnap me. I found out that the cartel that was after me was one of the most powerful cartels in

[00:55:53] the world and that the person who was in charge of investigating my case was killed. So right now, I am working for the Mexican government. It's a low profile job which does not pay much and does not attract too much attention.

[00:56:11] I have looked for ways to leave the country but I do not have enough money or qualifications. I'm a college dropout. I'm still living with my sister while people are protecting me and my family 24 hours a

[00:56:23] day and the guys who tried to kidnap me are still at large. I'm trying to make the best of this situation. I've lost a lot of weight. I spend more time with my nephews and recently got into a steady relationship but honestly,

[00:56:40] I'm always on edge and feel like I'm in imminent danger. So to the guys who tried to kidnap me, let's not meet. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast.

[00:57:02] Don't forget if you're a patron, stick around after the music for your extended ad-free version of this week's episode. This week you have heard A Bad Egg Just Gets More Rotten by Ray Nell. Creepy Neighborhood Stalker Staring at My Children by Mother of Three Under Four.

[00:57:19] Daisy by Zbornak. And finally, a story by listener Benjamin B. 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.

[00:57:37] As always, if you have a story to share, make sure you send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. If you do want to get access to the extended episode as well as all of the past and bonus

[00:57:47] episodes, head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to support the show today. I'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. Stay safe.