8x03: The Priest - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. My name is Andrew Tate and this is Season 8, Episode 3 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast.

[00:00:32] I honestly can't remember how I met this guy as it was almost 15 years ago, but it was probably on MySpace. We're talking early 2000s. I was about 18 or 19 when I met this guy Jared on said social

[00:01:02] media format. We bonded over the fact that we were both in the same town. Jared had gone to the public school there while I attended a private Christian school. Now, I wouldn't say I was naive

[00:01:17] as much as I was just inexperienced with boys and handling situations outside of my private school bubble. Maybe I would be considered sheltered, but looking back on my life, I appreciate being sheltered. It's important to note that I am 5'9", female, and Jared was 6'3".

[00:01:41] I am very confident and have a strong personality. My height may have contributed a lot to that, but I was also very confident in my looks. I knew I was attractive as a young lady. I wasn't easily intimidated and pretty much thought that I was the shit.

[00:01:59] Anyway, there is a lot to this story that I'm going to skip because it's not relevant. The story basically starts after Jared and I got our own apartment after having lived together with his

[00:02:10] roommate. I was very spontaneous and a bit reckless at this age. I just wanted to experience everything and I wanted to experience it now. Jared and I had probably only been together 7 or 8 months

[00:02:27] at this point. I was working the graveyard shift at IHOP. I was preparing to leave for work that night around 9 when he and I had gotten into an argument. I honestly don't remember what it was

[00:02:42] about, but I remember him shoving me to the ground and standing over me, continuing to try and shove me, making it impossible for me to stand up. I finally held my arm up in a defensive position

[00:02:57] and told him that I needed to go to work. If I don't show up, they're going to wonder where I'm at. He then was in my face following me outside while taunting me. Once outside, he snatched

[00:03:12] my car keys from me and chucked them into the dark abyss of the night. I drive a 2008 Pontiac Vibe, the best car I ever had, but the back hatch lock was broken. This information is important.

[00:03:28] After he threw my keys, I ended up saying something along the lines of, well great, how am I supposed to get to work now? Surprisingly, he instantly felt bad and

[00:03:40] offered for me to take his car and he would go look for my keys. I agreed and hopped into the car and head off to work. I was about 10 minutes into the drive when he called to let me know that he

[00:03:52] found my keys. He told me to pull over somewhere and we could exchange vehicles. I don't know why he couldn't just wait for me to get off of work to get his car back. I mean, I'd be working while

[00:04:06] he should be sleeping, but whatever. I pretty much chalked this up to the stress of trying to adjust to living with each other. Well, fast forward about a month later. He and I are play

[00:04:19] scuffling on the couch. He has me in a headlock. I'm laughing and trying to get out of it, but his hold starts to get tighter. I'm telling him it's too tight. He doesn't loosen up or say

[00:04:35] anything. In fact, he tightens it even more. I start telling him to stop and he continues to tighten. I'm starting to panic. I tell him, Jared, please stop. And right after that, there's a loud

[00:04:51] pop sound in my jaw. He instantly lets go. I grab my jaw and I start crying. To my amazement, my jaw doesn't actually hurt. It just feels sore. I'm really just crying because I'm scared.

[00:05:11] Jared tries to console me and apologize, but I pushed him away. It's at this point I realize that I need to get out of this relationship. Now, my timelines are a bit fuzzy because not only was

[00:05:25] this many years ago, but this was also my first traumatizing relationship. My mind wants to forget it, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't long after that incident that I told him that we were over.

[00:05:38] He did not take this information well at all. He became very possessive and pretty much stalked me on social media and in person. He obviously knew what my car looked like and we both knew the town

[00:05:54] very well. It wasn't long after breaking up with Jared that I started talking to a guy that went to the college there in our town. We'll call this person Marcus. This was honestly just a rebound

[00:06:08] relationship. There was one night Marcus was walking me out of his dorm into my car. Marcus, as he usually did, got in the passenger side just to talk to me a little bit before I left.

[00:06:24] Just as we were both getting into the car, I look in my rearview mirror just in time to see Jared rising up from the back seat. I let out an, oh my god. I turned quickly to face Jared,

[00:06:41] trying not to let him or Marcus know that I'm internally freaking out. Jared remembered that my back hatch did not lock and had gotten into my car that way.

[00:06:55] This is where my brain starts to shut things out a bit. I don't know if I said something to Jared first or if he said something first, but my brain picks back up at Marcus asking me if I want him

[00:07:10] to stay and if I'm okay. Marcus was quite a bit shorter than Jared, but was a college football player and was, as you would say, stacked. So he could have taken Jared, but for some reason I told

[00:07:27] Marcus it's okay. I'm okay. I think I told him this because I saw the whole situation as my business and I didn't want to drag him into it. Opportunity number one, missed. Marcus gets out

[00:07:44] of the car and heads back up to his dorm. At this point, Jared tells me, drive. So I start driving. We get away from Marcus's dorm but stop in a different parking lot that's still on the campus.

[00:08:03] Jared starts asking me, what are you doing? What are you thinking? As I'm answering him, pretty much reminding him we're not together anymore, he starts climbing from the back seat and into the front.

[00:08:18] He then slaps me in the face. I start crying more, this time out of anger and frustration more than pain. Jared gets situated in the passenger seat and we start yelling back and forth at each other

[00:08:32] it has to be about midnight or one in the morning at this point. I don't know how long we had been yelling at each other, really not that long before there's a tap on Jared's window. We were so focused

[00:08:47] on our fight that we hadn't even noticed that the campus police had been coming up on us. I rolled down Jared's window from my main controls because Jared was sitting there like a deer caught in

[00:08:59] headlights. The officer looks at Jared then at me as I had been crying and asks me if I'm okay. I look at Jared who, as of that night, has proven to be very unpredictable and I say, I'm okay.

[00:09:17] The officer then says, are you sure? I say yes, once again not wanting to burden anyone with the consequences of my decision. Opportunity number two missed. The officer says, okay but we need to

[00:09:35] get off campus grounds and go home. I think the officer's presence sobered Jared up from his ego trip because he didn't have much to say after that. I just dropped him off at his car. Jared and I

[00:09:52] never had another physical encounter after that but I did have to block him on social media and change my phone number. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't been living with my parents at the time,

[00:10:03] I would have had to move as well. At the moment, I didn't think that I deserved the help that both Marcus and the officer were offering but over time I've come to realize that I was a victim

[00:10:16] and actually deserved and needed that help. If you ever feel in danger, you are always deserving of rescuing. No matter how you got into that situation, you are worth rescuing. Recently my husband and I moved our little family from the Midwest back to the East Coast where I'm

[00:10:53] from. During the long drive, I was listening to a podcast with my husband. One of the stories made him say, hey do you remember the time that almost happened to you? Apparently my brain had tried

[00:11:07] its best to bury the not too distant memory. I honestly hadn't thought about it for months but as the show helps others educate themselves and or their children while getting a chill or two,

[00:11:21] I thought that I would share. My story happened almost a year ago during the earliest part of the pandemic when most of the United States was shut down. We lived in a big but not quite metropolitan

[00:11:37] city in the Midwest at the time. Our particular city was having quite an issue with folks resource hoarding so having maximums and shortages on items in our city was pretty common. I had always been a buy-in-bulk person so my little family was mostly set. The only things we

[00:11:58] needed were the little things. Example, eggs and milk on a week-by-week basis. At this time however, because of the reasons stated above, the grocery stores were pretty picked over so sometimes it

[00:12:11] took a few stops in the week to get everything needed. This was Wednesday morning. Being my day off, I decided to run to the fancy grocery store in the affluent part of town. I just wanted to see

[00:12:25] if I could score some almond milk. This was the beginning of mask mandates and social distancing so I went into the store, got the items that I needed, and I was leaving. All while keeping

[00:12:37] respectful distance from other patrons. I will add for clarity, I am a head-on swivel kind of person. I'm barely five foot tall, I'm a female, and I look a lot younger than I actually am.

[00:12:50] So because of this, I noticed things that seem odd or out of place pretty quickly. As I was walking to the designated exit, I noticed a woman coming out of the bakery section of the store.

[00:13:02] I found this odd as at the time, the store had strict one-way traffic flow patterns and she was moving against it. She picked up a pastry from a shelf, opened it, and began eating it as she ran

[00:13:15] towards the exit where I was walking out. I thought this behavior was odd, but the woman all over seemed odd. She wasn't wearing a mask, she had flip-flops, and her clothing was far too light

[00:13:27] for the chilly spring weather, which also appeared to not be her own. They just didn't seem to fit. She stepped outside a few paces behind me and started yelling at me,

[00:13:40] Miss! Miss! She runs up to me and says that her ride had left her there and her phone is dead. Can she come sit in my car and charge her phone? I tell her no. My knee-jerk reaction was based on

[00:13:55] a few things. The encounter seemed off, this woman seemed off, and my gut said that it wasn't safe. Now this is the kind of store that would pay for an Uber to take her home or offer her a

[00:14:05] phone charger and a cup of coffee while she waited. She had no reason to leave the store for assistance. So I tell her no and I stop in front of the parking lot. I always park farther away from

[00:14:17] the door just because I like to have those spaces for folks who have trouble walking. My gut said not to let her follow me to the car. I'm glad that I listened and I didn't lead her

[00:14:30] to my actual car. Come on, she pleads. Women should help each other out. She then gives me the biggest red flag as she closes the distance between us and tries to touch me.

[00:14:43] I step back and jerk away so her hand can't reach me. I then reply, I don't have any chargers in my car and I can't help you. You should go inside. I'm sure an employee can help you. Now both of

[00:14:57] these statements were actually true. The woman lost it. She began screaming at me that she hoped I was never stranded and no one ever treated me like this. At this point, a store manager and a

[00:15:09] police officer began walking purposefully towards her. This grocery store actually had a police officer stationed there. She sees the employee and the police and takes off. So the cop follows her

[00:15:22] and the manager walks with me to my car asking me if I was all right. I said that I was and thanked them for the intervention. I got in my car, started the engine, locked the doors and called my husband

[00:15:34] to tell him what happened. Then I see the woman again. She runs up to the passenger door and begins pulling aggressively on the handle to get in. I tell my husband what's happening. I put my car in

[00:15:46] drive and take off. As I'm leaving, still on the phone with my husband, a large black SUV that had been in the parking lot, only a few spaces down from me the entire time, it comes and picks the

[00:15:59] woman up and they leave. I called the police on my way home and reported the incident. Luckily, the grocery store had surveillance footage of the incident and was able to identify the woman and

[00:16:11] the SUV that she left in. Apparently, it had been parked there in the same spot before I had unknowingly parked a few spaces away. After the initial review of the footage and my statement, we didn't hear anything and I forgot about this unpleasant encounter. It wasn't until several

[00:16:29] months later that we learned from a friend who happened to be a police officer for the city that we lived in that human traffickers had been targeting women in that affluent part of town

[00:16:39] and namely that grocery store that I was at. I get a chill every time I think about it. So the moral of the story I suppose is trust your gut, be aware of your surroundings and don't be

[00:16:50] nice to people who creep you out. To the scary woman who tried to get me abducted at the grocery store, let's not meet. I'm a long-time listener and always wanted to send in my story but I never thought I had a

[00:17:20] story to tell until I had a flashback of an experience that I had years ago that I completely blacked out of my memory. Trauma blackouts are real. This happened in 2018. I was flying home

[00:17:35] from a trip to visit my family for my sister's bridal shower. As I waited for the plane to board, a girl that I would say was probably 10 years old came and sat next to me in my row.

[00:17:50] She was visibly upset with tears streaming down her face. I noticed that she boarded the plane with another girl her age and a man in a pilot's uniform. I grew up flying standby because my dad

[00:18:04] works for an airline and the way that it works is that you sit wherever there's an open seat so most flights are with complete strangers. As a child, I hated and was often afraid when I had to

[00:18:20] sit next to strangers. I assumed the girl was upset about being separated from her dad. However, I was a woman in her early 20s at the time and I would probably be the best person to sit next to

[00:18:32] from a young girl's perspective. As she continued to cry, we took off so I asked her if she was okay. The little girl asked if she could use my phone. I said of course and let her make a call.

[00:18:47] After the call, the girl was still upset but ended up falling asleep for the flight. When we landed, I was able to take my phone out of airplane mode. I got a text from a random number.

[00:19:00] It was the phone number that the girl had called before the flight. The text said, thank you for letting my daughter use your phone and contact me. She and her twin sister have a court-ordered visitation with their father. He is a horrible

[00:19:17] person and if you google his name you will see why. Thank you for helping my daughter. She provided his name but I didn't have time to google it at that moment. I asked the girl if

[00:19:31] she was okay and she started to cry. She said she and her twin sister weren't really familiar with their father and that he had been very abusive in the past. They were forced to spend

[00:19:44] a week at his house with him without any phones and when they were boarding the plane, he told them that he was taking them and they would never see their mom again. Before I could even react,

[00:19:58] my phone rang. When I answered, I was surprised to find out that it was a police officer. The officer asked me about my experience with the girl on the flight. I told him everything and he

[00:20:11] said that they were trying to build a case to get the girls back, however, there wasn't much that they could do because it was a court-mandated visitation. After we hung up, I didn't know what

[00:20:23] to do but I knew I wanted to protect these girls from their estranged father. The girl and I were seated at the back of the airplane while her father and sister were seated more towards the

[00:20:36] front of the plane. I grabbed a flight attendant and quickly and quietly explained the situation. She looked at me like she had two heads. I repeated the story slowly and once she finally got it,

[00:20:51] she told the girl to stay with her in the back of the plane while it de-planed. I had a connecting flight that I needed to make and I felt comfortable knowing that the girl was in the flight attendant's

[00:21:04] safety. I gave the girl a hug and exited the plane. When I entered the airport, the girl's father and sister were standing by the gate waiting for her. He was demanding to know where she was.

[00:21:21] The gate agent said that she had to use the bathroom on the plane before getting off. As I walked by, I could see panic in his eyes. While I was waiting for my connecting flight at

[00:21:33] the gate, I finally decided to google the man's name. I read article after article about the man who was discharged from the Air National Guard and was arrested for threatening to crash his plane

[00:21:49] into Wall Street in New York City. When I was boarding my connecting flight, I saw the man with both his daughters rushing to make their connecting flight. His eyes were full of rage. This time,

[00:22:04] I was the one with tears in my eyes on my flight home as I sat the whole flight replaying what happened over and over again in my head. I was still in shock. I felt like I made the situation

[00:22:18] worse rather than better because in the end, the girls still had to go with their dad and he was probably very angry and embarrassed. I almost got sick thinking about those poor girls and what was

[00:22:34] going to happen to them. When my plane landed, I never thought about that experience and never told a soul because of how badly I felt about the outcome and how much I blamed myself. Thinking

[00:22:47] back now, I still feel horrible but I'm not sure if there's anything that I could have done to make the outcome different. The only thing that I should have done differently was to give the

[00:23:01] little girl my phone so that she could contact her mom during their stay. I had two phones with me at the time, one for work and one for personal use. So to the creepy man who threatened to crash a

[00:23:14] plane into Wall Street, let's not meet. This story takes place about two years ago when I was 16. I'm a female for context. For some background info, I was working at a Shell gas station

[00:23:44] in a small town in Utah. This gas station has a subway connected to it. At the time, I was working in the subway. It was summertime and this old man comes walking in. Let me start by saying I am a

[00:24:00] very friendly person. So this older guy, we're going to call him Alan, he walks up and begins to order. At the time, the subway was making us wear shirts with different words on them,

[00:24:13] bold, spicy, and I can't remember the rest. Mine said spicy. He looks at me and says, spicy, huh? You are kind of spicy. Whatever that meant. And throughout his order, he continues to

[00:24:30] call me spicy. While ringing him up, he asks me if I ever go to the pond in town to go swimming. I told him I do. Then he tells me where he lives, and the town being as small as it is,

[00:24:45] I know exactly where his house is. He then invites me to his house to come see his dog and wanted me to come hang out with him. I was trying to be polite, so I said oh yeah,

[00:24:57] maybe sometime. He then asked if I needed a ride home when I was off. I declined. He also asks who my parents were and where I lived. Now, I may be dumb, but I'm not that dumb. I

[00:25:13] didn't answer. I thought it was odd, but figured maybe he's just a lonely old man. I used to hang out with the elderly neighbor lady because she had no family. She was lonely. We did everything

[00:25:27] together. So I just brushed it off, and he left. All of a sudden, a girl from the gas station comes rushing over and tells me that I need to stay away from him. He's dangerous. He's actually

[00:25:42] supposed to be banned from the place, but he still comes in. She then tells me that he tried to pull a girl over the counter who used to work at the gas station and kiss her months prior. I was

[00:25:56] freaking out. For the next week, he came in looking for me. If I wasn't there, he'd turn and walk out without buying anything. If I was there, I'd hide in the back. I told my manager, and she called the

[00:26:09] cops because she knew what he was like, and he wasn't supposed to be coming in anyways. He was trespassing. She then gave me some pepper spray to carry on me. The cops said if he does come in again

[00:26:23] to call, and they will talk to him. Later on during the week, I get a call from my co-worker. We'll call them S. She tells me that Alan, the creepy old man, had come in looking for me,

[00:26:38] asking for me, and when he saw that I wasn't there, he got upset and left. My manager called the cops, and the cop drove to Alan's house and told him that he's not allowed to be there.

[00:26:49] Somehow, Alan knew my name. My full name. Even though I never even told it to him, I don't even wear a name tag, and no one else told him my name for my protection because everybody

[00:27:04] knew that he was crazy. He looks at the cop and says, it was that damn girl. She reported me, didn't she? And calls me by my name. Apparently, he also somehow knew my dad's name,

[00:27:21] even though again I never told it to him. I put two and two together and realized that Alan was actually following me home some nights. I don't know how I didn't realize it at first, but he

[00:27:34] would wait for me to get off and follow me for about five minutes to my house, and after the turn to my house, he would just drive away. I noticed several times that same white vehicle

[00:27:48] behind me. It was following me when I would get off of work, but I just figured it was just another person from town living in the same neighborhood until my dad and I drove by Alan's house,

[00:28:01] and that same exact car was sitting in the driveway. Anyways, I don't know what else happened while the cop was at Alan's. I just know that the cop told him to stay away.

[00:28:13] Then, the cop drove to my house and had me sign some paperwork. I guess it was to file a claim, and it was some kind of protection order. I can't remember honestly. While I was filling out the

[00:28:27] paperwork, the cop informed me that Alan was a registered sex offender. I know that he tried to come back one more time, but luckily there was a cop at the gas station who recognized Alan

[00:28:40] and made him leave immediately. Thankfully, I haven't seen Alan since. Now this isn't my only story to share. Fast forward about six to seven months from that previous story. I'm now 17 and working on the gas station side of the building. This story gives me goosebumps to this day.

[00:29:03] For some background info, the gas station was right off the freeway exit, so truckers could hop off the freeway and get right back on. We also had a lot at the gas station for truckers to park

[00:29:16] and rest in. It was just me and my other female co-worker. She was 18 at the time. So the day is going by slow, and my co-worker is cleaning while I'm watching the register,

[00:29:30] when suddenly the gas station phone rings. I answer, and on the other end, there is a man with a very thick accent. He tells me that he can't get a hold of his driver,

[00:29:43] and the last known place that this driver was at was our gas station. The company hasn't been able to get a hold of the trucker for 13 plus hours. He should be on the road. The guy gives me a

[00:29:58] description of the diesel and asks if I can look for it in the lot. I said sure, and I put him on hold. I popped my head out the doors, and sure enough, the truck that he gave me the description

[00:30:10] of was in the lot. The guy asks me if I can go to the truck, knock, and see if the guy is okay. Now, from my past experiences, I realize this is a red flag. I say no, I won't be doing that,

[00:30:25] and if he's worried, he can contact the cops. He says no, he doesn't want to call them, and begins to beg and plead with me not to call the cops and to just go check on the driver. I had an awful

[00:30:39] gut feeling. This seemed so sketchy. The guy calls five more times within five minutes of each other, and I'm starting to freak out thinking what if this trucker had a heart attack or he's dead

[00:30:53] and needs help. I pop my head out the door again, and I see that the truck is now running. I go back to the register and get a call again from the guy who's looking for the trucker. He said please

[00:31:07] send a girl out to knock on his door. Again, I told him no. His driver must be okay because his truck is now running. The guy starts to get mad and gets aggressive saying I or another girl

[00:31:22] needs to go out and check on him. I say no again, and that I'm calling the cops to come and check on the trucker. The guy starts to get hysterical begging me don't call the cops, but I hung up and

[00:31:37] did it anyways. As soon as I hung up, the truck begins to speed out of the lot like a bat out of hell. Turns out there was no guy looking for a trucker. He was the supposed missing trucker.

[00:31:53] He was also the guy making the calls. He would watch me poke my head out to look for the truck, and as soon as I came back in, he would call. I learned this all from the cops. They also told

[00:32:07] me that this was a sex trafficking scheme. I can't help but wonder what if I would have been dumb enough to fall for it? This was my breaking point. I forgot to mention, remember how the guy

[00:32:22] said that his trucker had been there for 13 plus hours? Yeah, we pulled the security footage. The truck had only been there for 30 minutes before he called. I quit that month, and I'm starting

[00:32:36] to wonder if the gas station is cursed because just a few months ago, a woman was discovered murdered in her car in that gas station parking lot. If you don't believe me, you can look it up.

[00:32:50] It's the Shell gas station in Mona, Utah. But anyways, to that creep trying to lure girls out to his truck so that he could do god knows what with them, let's not ever meet.

[00:33:18] This story takes place two and a half years ago. I live in an apartment building that has a total of four units in a quiet neighborhood. I live on the second floor, so I have a decent view

[00:33:30] of the street that I lived on, along with the front door of the building. I'm the type of person who likes to keep to myself and not get into anyone else's business. I find life more peaceful

[00:33:43] that way, I guess. So when I got a new neighbor on the first floor, that all went to shit for a while. She was an older woman and seemed nice at first. I smoke cigarettes and weed regularly,

[00:33:56] so I'm up and down the stairs often to go outside to smoke. This all started when I was sitting in a friend's car one night smoking a bowl or two when this woman approached the car. Keep in mind, this

[00:34:11] is the first time I had ever spoken to this lady. She started yelling about how often I'm up and down the stairs and that she could hear me. Now I'm six foot about 250 pounds, so I don't doubt that she

[00:34:26] hears me going up and down. Despite her losing her mind on me, I tried to keep it calm and told her that I was sorry if I make too much noise, but I pay rent and I live there so I can come and go as

[00:34:38] I please. But if it makes her feel any better, I would do my best to walk more light-footed while on the stairs. She seemed to calm down and it was left at that, for a couple of weeks at least.

[00:34:55] Shortly after that, her and the other downstairs neighbors started having issues, but again, not my business, so I kept to myself at first. A week or so after her and the other neighbors started having

[00:35:11] problems, she would start with me again. Every single time I went out for a cigarette, she would come running out of her apartment to say that she knows what I'm doing, texting everyone in the

[00:35:22] building letting them know that she was home so that they could fuck with her. I found this a little crazy because I don't even have anyone's number that lives in the building nor do I talk

[00:35:34] to any of them on that personal of a level. We had let the landlord know about the harassment and he pretty much told me that there wasn't much that he could do.

[00:35:45] This happened day after day until I couldn't take it anymore and I snapped. I won't say word for word what I said, but it was stuff along the lines of leave me the fuck alone and a bunch of fuck yous.

[00:36:00] I finally thought that it was time to call the police and they pretty much said the same thing as my landlord just to keep my distance. Eventually she did move out, but that's where the weird stuff

[00:36:13] started happening. About a month passed since she had moved out and one random day my doorbell rings so I look out my window down to the front door. It was an old man hunched over. I had never seen

[00:36:29] him before. I just ignored it thinking that he would go away, but I was wrong. He just kept ringing the doorbell over and over again so I got a bit irritated and went down to see what the

[00:36:41] problem was. I opened the door and instantly got creeper vibes from him and he looked all strung out. He said that he was a priest looking for the woman who had just moved out. I told him that she

[00:36:56] moved out and I don't know where she went. I also told him that I didn't talk to her so I wouldn't have any ideas as to where she moved and I kid you not, the man looked me dead in the eyes and said

[00:37:11] I know what you did to her then called me by my first name. By that time I was entirely freaked out, but I told the man to fuck off and closed the door in his face. I went back upstairs and

[00:37:28] watched him walk away from my window. What I found strange was that he didn't get into any car that I could see, he just walked to the end of the block and turned the corner and just like that

[00:37:40] he was gone for the next couple of months. I would see this man walk past my building and my initial thought was that maybe he really was looking for his friend until I caught him staring up at my

[00:37:53] window to my apartment for minutes at a time. As a father of young girls this made me worry so I took it upon myself to go outside and tell this man to stop stalking me and stay away from me and

[00:38:07] my family. He just looked at me and said nothing then walked away. I only had one more encounter with this man but it was the worst by far. One Friday night I was up late stoned playing some

[00:38:24] video games as I usually do when I hear my doorknob jiggle as if someone were testing it to see if it was locked. My heart has never dropped so fast but I was quick to get to my feet and go get my pistol

[00:38:41] then I ran back to the door. I yelled through the door asking who was there, there was no answer in return so trying to sound as scary as I could I yelled for them to leave and cocked my gun so that

[00:38:54] they would hear it. After that I heard someone run down the stairs and out the door. I run to my window to catch a glimpse of who it was but I saw no one. I called the police and informed them of

[00:39:09] what had happened and what has been happening with this older man. They said that they would take a look around, nothing came of it of course but now whenever I'm outside playing with the kids

[00:39:20] or even just outside having a smoke my guard is constantly up and I don't trust any vehicles that I don't recognize from the neighborhood. But for the past two years I haven't seen the man,

[00:39:32] not once. That creepy old man claiming to be a priest stalking my home, for your sake let's not meet again. I'm an aerial porter, a person who leads cargo onto aircraft. It's an honest job

[00:39:58] but it took a huge toll on me physically and mentally. On top of that I worked the night shift where usually nothing really significant happens during the dead of night, especially during major holidays. I was working Christmas Eve back in 2020. That night there was zero workload

[00:40:18] so the whole shift my co-worker and I were tasked to take care of dinner so that we could have our own little Christmas. My co-worker and I decided to go get some food off base hoping to catch a

[00:40:32] decent restaurant before it closes for the night. We left base through the back gate and headed down the poorly lit road. Our base is located near substandard housing areas and those roads at night tend to be unwelcoming and very dangerous to people who are not from those parts.

[00:40:54] Separating the road was a railroad crossing so after making a turn onto the road leading towards the substandard housing area we saw that a train was passing. We naturally stopped and waited.

[00:41:08] In front of us was another car waiting for the train to pass by. We were the only two cars waiting. Shit, my buddy said, we're never going to make it in time to get dinner. I told him that there's

[00:41:23] always a diner that's open 24 hours even on Christmas Eve so don't worry about it. My eyes suddenly darted towards the car in front of us. The driver, a man probably in his mid-20s

[00:41:38] in an oversized hoodie, opened the door and hopped out of his car. I noticed that his right hand was in the hoodie pocket clearly holding something. My buddy was still talking to me but my focus was

[00:41:54] on that man the whole time. It's like my instincts were telling me, just watch him. The driver then turned towards us and walked around his car towards the passenger door

[00:42:09] side of his car and leaned over the window to talk to someone. Now in my mind I was thinking, why the hell would he step out of his own car just to talk to the passenger who was still

[00:42:23] in the car? And with all the noise from the train it wouldn't make sense to have a conversation like that. A feeling of apprehension slowly came over me. I looked at my buddy and told him to keep an

[00:42:37] eye on him. He nodded and we both stared him down. Luckily, I had a little something for situations like this. I keep a registered firearm with me in my car so if he did try to do something I could at

[00:42:51] least scare him off. After a few minutes the man went around the back of his car, this time staring at both of us briefly then stopping by his driver door with his back turned to us.

[00:43:06] Okay something's up, this isn't right, I muttered to myself. The man suddenly pulled something out of his hoodie and whipped around to face us. My whole body tensed. In my mind I had three options,

[00:43:23] I could drive forward and run that motherfucker down but I was also thinking I could just hit reverse and duck down hoping that we don't get hit. Maybe I could wait for him to approach

[00:43:36] then I would have a clear shot through the door. Right at that moment the train fully passed revealing that there were also cars on the other side facing our direction. Unwary bystanders that could turn into potential witnesses if this guy decided to do something crazy.

[00:43:58] The man turned his head and realizing this swiftly stuffed what I could now see was a pistol back into his pocket and rushed inside his car to drive off. I let out a sigh of relief

[00:44:14] then looked at my buddy. We both laughed nervously and then continued our drive. I don't know if that man wanted to rob us and steal our car but one thing is for sure he had bad

[00:44:26] intentions that Christmas night. Whoever he was you do not want to meet me again. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast and don't forget if you're looking for the true paranormal the new episode of my other podcast Odd Trails

[00:44:58] comes out along with Let's Not Meet every Sunday. You can check it out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or just go to oddtrails.com wherever you get your podcasts. You know how that goes.

[00:45:09] I'm also reprising my role as the professor on the podcast Ghosters, a podcast that I appear on from time to time with some of my friends from the Krypta podcast which I've also been on. Check

[00:45:20] out both of them Krypta and Ghosters wherever you get your podcasts. The new Ghosters episode comes out tomorrow I believe this Monday February 21st. Please check it out you're gonna love it. It's hilarious. This week you have heard a story by listener Tori, wannabe grocery store abductor

[00:45:38] by Ray, the flight from hell by Kimball, two stories by Cash585, The Priest by Ryan and finally Railroad Crossing Story by Mr. Shubelig. 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

[00:46:00] horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. As always if you have a story to share send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. If you want to get access to the

[00:46:10] ad free extended version of this week's episode along with a higher quality audio bit rate head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up today and start supporting the

[00:46:20] show. I'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet a true horror podcast. So stick around after the music if you're a patron. Otherwise, I'll see you all next week

[00:46:30] for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet a true horror podcast. Stay safe. I'm a 21 year old woman living with four roommates in a house in a college