8x06: Awkward Joe - 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 15 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. Intro

[00:00:47] This isn't something I've spoken about for a very long time, but it still comes as an intrusive thought every now and then. I was a sophomore in college, about 19 years old.

[00:01:00] I had made friends with a good group of people, a lot of whom were oddballs, you know, Mohawks, steampunk attire covered in tattoos and piercings, but we all loved each other. We would talk to anyone. We understood not fitting in and just wanted to be welcoming.

[00:01:17] This unfortunately did not go very well in one instance. We used to sit outside the library between classes, drinking way too much coffee and smoking. One day, as we were just being loud and goofy, quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail,

[00:01:34] an older gentleman who we'll call Joe walks by and hears us. Joe gets so excited that we know this movie and kind of jumps into the conversation, which we don't mind at all. He was around 40 and pretty awkward, but we all chatted for a bit and went inside.

[00:01:57] He started coming back every day when he saw us outside the library. He would talk to us about all kinds of things, but things took a weird turn this one day.

[00:02:09] He started telling my friend Kelly that it would be so hot if she and I were together sexually. Naturally, this made us both very uncomfortable, but we brushed it off. He started making more suggestive comments though.

[00:02:25] He would stand too close to me, stare at me for long periods of time, and if I'd move away from him, he would just adjust his position to either be staring at me or to get closer to me.

[00:02:39] I mean so close that his stomach, and he was kind of heavy, would be touching my arm or my back. A lot of my friends started getting weirded out with his behavior as well and started mentioning how creepy he was with me in particular.

[00:02:55] I still kind of figured he was just a little awkward until one day, I was in front of the library with one of my friends. Joe walks up to us, and we three are the only people around outside in the entire quad area.

[00:03:11] To set the scene, in front of the library there are three round tables with attached benches all the way around each table. The tables are backed up to the front of the wall of the library with a gap between each table so people can walk between them

[00:03:28] and get to the benches that are closest to that front wall. I happened to be standing in one of those gaps when Joe arrives. He decides to stand in front of the gap that I'm standing in.

[00:03:41] The three of us, my friend, Joe, and I, chat for a bit, and by this time I'm very uncomfortable being around this man and try to avoid him as much as possible.

[00:03:51] I make up an excuse that my friend needs to drive me home so that I can work on a project. Joe, pretty aggressively, tries to convince me that he'll drive me home instead. I decline. When I try to leave, Joe is blocking my way.

[00:04:10] He won't move until I give him a hug. My only other option is to climb over the table. My only other option is to climb over the table. I was nervous and didn't want to make him mad so I hugged him briefly

[00:04:26] and left as fast as I could. On the way home, my friend mentions how creepy this guy is and it's getting out of hand. We should say something to him. I kept second-guessing my bad feelings that I had.

[00:04:42] I thought maybe this guy's just awkward and he can't read social cues. Well, the next day we're outside of the library as usual. Joe comes up and asks if we can speak in private. We walk away from the group and Joe starts saying how he

[00:05:00] tried to have sex with some woman last night but couldn't get it up because he felt like he was cheating on me. I couldn't make myself speak. I felt afraid and gross in this moment. I tried my best to say something like,

[00:05:16] we're just friends you do whatever you want to and I made my way back to the group. I relayed what he said to my friends with a unanimous agreement. I decided to say something to him.

[00:05:29] I sent him a Facebook message that night telling him how uncomfortable I felt with him touching me and making sexual comments like that. I was 19 and he was 40. It was inappropriate and I wanted it to stop. He replied back saying things like, I never touched you.

[00:05:47] I thought you were an adult. Funny how you're only uncomfortable with those things once your friends bring them up. I brushed it off. He sort of stopped hanging with us but I'd see him here and there. I started noticing him on campus at night. I had night classes.

[00:06:07] He didn't live on campus but I would see him around maybe 8 p.m. One day he walked up to my friend Kelly and I. I ignored him and kept walking. He stopped her and said, I'm really worried about Liz. Look at how easy these are to make.

[00:06:25] I made this for a class and I just want to be careful. He handed her a piece of paper. Kelly caught up with me and handed it to me. She told me what he said.

[00:06:39] I unfolded it to find a forged STD result with my name on it saying I tested positive for syphilis. What the fuck? I immediately go to the administrative office and get a no contact order through the university. He backed off for about a month.

[00:07:01] Then he started peeking around corners and weaving at me, staring at me, conversing loudly about the situation with my friendly group while I was around trying to gain sympathy. One night I went to get some food at around 8 30 p.m.

[00:07:20] I go into the dining halls to find Joe there. He notices me and stares. I go to leave and so does he. I was scared so I called my mom. I had started carrying pepper spray at this point in case he decided to do something.

[00:07:37] She, thank God, felt bad about the situation and called the police. The cops showed up and started questioning him. He laughed in their faces and denied ever even knowing me, ever touching me or saying inappropriate things or making those fake STD results.

[00:07:58] The police asked me to come to the station and make a statement, which I did. I printed our Facebook messages for them to see and had a copy of the forged document that he created. One of the officers said that he had a bad feeling about this guy

[00:08:14] and decided to do a little docket search on him. It turns out he was arrested and tried for molesting a girl from the time she was 10 until she was 15. Her mother witnessed it but wouldn't testify in court so he was acquitted.

[00:08:32] I decided then that I was pressing charges because he had also been a creep with a number of other girls that I knew and had other no contact orders against him. He was eventually banned from the campus.

[00:08:45] He had also been evicted from his trailer for harassing female tenants in the park where he lived. Eventually, he went to court. I asked a lot of my friends if they would testify to what they saw and they agreed.

[00:08:59] Joe wanted a jury trial and I knew that I'd need witnesses to win. A few months before trial, I started double checking with people to see who would testify. All but one backed out. I was devastated. How would I win a case without witnesses?

[00:09:19] The district attorney said they could force a non-jury trial but that they would have to drop the charges to a summary offense which can only land someone in prison for a max of 90 days but typically no jail time is served.

[00:09:33] I figured this was the best route to go so that he could at least be found guilty of something but I was afraid of what might happen afterwards. The DA told me that he was dangerous at that point because he had nothing else to lose

[00:09:48] and that I needed to be careful. I started looking to purchase a gun because I was so afraid that he would come after me. I'm 5'3 and about 120 pounds at the time so I knew he could overpower me without one.

[00:10:03] During his summary trial, the judge asked me if I'd like to make a plea bargain. During his summary trial, the judge asked me if I'd like to make a victim impact statement. I walked up to the bench and was so scared I was shaking violently.

[00:10:19] I couldn't get my words out because my mouth had gone dry. Just feet away from me, Joe was standing with his attorney. He was sighing loudly, whispering to himself, grunting and just trying to intimidate me while I tried to read my statement.

[00:10:35] Soon enough, he started walking away from the bench saying loudly how he didn't even know me. His attorney tried to calm him down and Joe shoved him and was yelling. Suddenly, there was a deputy trying to cuff this man.

[00:10:53] He resisted the deputy and it ultimately took four of them to take him down and get him in cuffs. The DA rushed me out of the courtroom. I really don't remember even leaving the courtroom. I sort of blacked out and when I regained awareness,

[00:11:09] I was being hidden in a back office space, hyperventilating and sobbing. The judge even had to be taken to his chambers for safety. He went to jail and awaited his sentence after that.

[00:11:23] Ended up giving himself a few felony charges along with the harassment and stalking charges that I had on him. At sentencing, I was finally able to give my impact statement. I was still afraid but I could speak that time.

[00:11:39] Before the judge sentenced him, he asked Joe if he had anything else to say to the court. Of course, he couldn't resist. He went on and on about how he had no idea who I was, that I was lying and the like. At this point, I'm livid.

[00:11:56] At this point, I'm livid. After all this, he was still denying it. I couldn't believe him. I was crying, angry and shaking. Luckily for me, the judge saw right through it.

[00:12:09] He told Joe that he had no doubt in his mind that he had done something to scare the shit out of me and that he'd be going to jail for several years. Thankfully, during his court session, there were some other inmates being sentenced.

[00:12:25] One of them saw how visibly upset I was during Joe's rambling and when I made eye contact with this guy at some point, he mouthed to me the words, We'll fuck him up.

[00:12:39] So Joe, I hope I never see you again and to the random inmate who hopefully kicked the shit out of you, Thanks a million. When I was a senior in college, I lived with three other girls in a small four-bedroom apartment.

[00:13:08] The apartment was a typical shitty college apartment, but it was cheap as hell so it didn't bother us at all. One snowy, frigid Thursday night in February, two of my roommates decided to go out with some of our friends for Thirsty Thursday in the downtown area.

[00:13:26] One of my roommates, the one whose room was directly next to mine, had gone home to stay with her parents for the weekend. I offered to drive my two roommates who were going out because it was cold and snowing.

[00:13:41] I decided not to join them because I had to wake up for work at 8am. They both took me up on the offer and I dropped them off downtown at around 9pm. I got some homework done and went to bed around midnight,

[00:13:57] expecting that my roommates wouldn't be stumbling in until the bars were closed, which was about 2am. At around 3am, I woke up to people loudly talking in the kitchen. I got up to see what the commotion was.

[00:14:14] One of my roommates was in the kitchen with two of our guy friends. She looked upset. She drunkenly explained that about 15 minutes ago she was cooking something to eat when there was a knock at the door. She wasn't expecting anyone so she thankfully looked through the peephole

[00:14:32] and noticed a guy standing there in front of our door in the hallway with a black hoodie, with the hood over most of his face so she could not see who it was. She asked who it was and he didn't respond.

[00:14:47] Instead, just stood there in silence, standing still in front of the door. Then he knocked again. My roommate was not able to mince words, so she immediately told the creep to fuck off

[00:15:02] and called our two guy friends who lived close by to come over because she was creeped out. The guy finally left and once our friends arrived, he was nowhere to be found. They looked through the three floor apartment building on all floors and stairwells

[00:15:19] as well as outside but found no one. My roommate was visibly shaken as she explained the story to me so I told her that if she had trouble sleeping, she could come sleep with me and I went into my room to go back to sleep.

[00:15:35] Our guy friends eventually left. I tossed and turned for a little while and ended up taking a medication so that I could fall asleep at around 4am. I eventually did. I woke up and I was in my room.

[00:15:49] I looked at my digital clock on the desk and it said that it was 4.45am. I then noticed that the door to my bedroom was half open and the light from the kitchen was still on and shining directly into my room.

[00:16:06] I immediately thought that it was my roommate coming into my room to sleep with me and I rolled over to scan the room for her. It was then that I heard a loud noise. I looked for her.

[00:16:18] It was then that I saw a dark figure hunched over at the end of my bed. That figure was wearing all black with a hood over their head. It immediately clicked that it must be the guy that my roommate had seen earlier at the door.

[00:16:37] I shot up in my bed and without thinking screamed at the person, who the fuck are you? Get the fuck out of my room! It must have startled them because they immediately stood straight up and ran out of my bedroom, through the kitchen,

[00:16:51] and out the wide open door leading into the hallway of the apartment building. I ran out of my room and to the other end of the apartment to find both of my roommates still awake in their rooms talking on their phones.

[00:17:05] I ran into my roommate's room who had seen the guy earlier and I panicked and screamed. He was just in my room, the guy from the door! She initially looked confused but then quickly realized what had happened when she saw me hysterically trying to explain.

[00:17:23] She hung up the phone and handed it to me telling me to call 911. We both went into the kitchen to see the door was still wide open. She slammed the door and locked it while I spoke with 911. I told dispatch what happened and they sent two officers over.

[00:17:40] I was still in my pajama shirt and underwear when they arrived, too scared to realize that I barely had any clothing on. I explained to the two officers what happened and my roommate also explained what she experienced earlier. They immediately suspected that the individual was probably drunk

[00:17:59] and accidentally entered the wrong apartment, which happens all the time in a college town. I pushed back quickly and explained that he wouldn't have run out of the apartment so quickly if he had been intoxicated to think that he was in his apartment and not a total stranger's.

[00:18:16] One of the officers got on his radio and asked the other officers to be on the lookout for a man matching my description in the area. As they were asking more questions, they got a response on the radio that said that they had found someone walking around

[00:18:31] that vaguely matched the description. They had him in an alley nearby. I finally got some clothes on and got into the back of their squad car to go to the other officer's location to confirm or deny

[00:18:46] if the person they had stopped was the same guy in my room. Unfortunately, the guy they stopped was much taller and not wearing the same colored pants as the guy who had broken into our apartment so they let him go.

[00:18:58] They drove me back to my apartment and gave me a report number and said that a detective would follow up with me in the next couple of days, then left. My roommates and I decided to sleep in the living room together by putting our mattresses on the floor.

[00:19:15] We put a chair under the doorknob of our front door for extra precaution. My roommate said that she remembered specifically locking the door after the guy friends left because she was so frightened because she was so freaked out.

[00:19:30] So this is an absolute mystery as to how he got into our apartment to begin with. It was especially creepy that he entered the apartment when the living room and kitchen lights were on and my two roommates were clearly still awake.

[00:19:45] When I finally went back into my room and took a look around, I noticed that I had two bras and some underwear laying on the floor where the guy was hunched down at the end of my bed. This really freaked me out.

[00:20:02] What would have happened if I had not woken up in that exact moment? Was he just a creepy voyeur or did he have plans to do something more sinister? I slept with my bedroom door locked and a chair under my doorknob for months.

[00:20:18] We got the locks changed the very next day. When I got in touch with the detective, my roommate and I went to the police station to speak with him together. We explained again both of our experiences.

[00:20:31] He agreed that it was likely not some drunk guy thinking that he was in the wrong apartment. He also explained that he had two other similar cases that happened recently. He then said that there were two men who had a history of committing similar crimes

[00:20:46] but they were currently located at a halfway house for men on probation and parole. The detective must have seen the look of horror on my face because he asked what was wrong. I told him that I was currently interning at said halfway house and had been since September.

[00:21:06] I had not had any problems with the men at that facility since I started but now my mind was reeling with possibilities. The detective said that he would look into both of the men that he had in mind

[00:21:19] as their whereabouts were fiercely documented by staff at the facility. A few weeks later, I heard back from the detective that one of the men's whereabouts were unaccounted for but would likely not be able to confirm or deny that it was the man responsible for the break-in.

[00:21:38] I had a decision to make. To either continue with my internship through May, knowing that someone at the facility may be the man who entered into my room while I was sleeping, or quit. Or quit.

[00:21:53] I decided to continue with the mindset that I wasn't going to allow someone to affect my experience at the internship that I fought very hard to get. The person at the facility might not have actually done this

[00:22:07] and there was no way to prove it at this point according to the detective. I made sure that I was aware of my surroundings at all times when I was walking around campus

[00:22:18] and back to my apartment to make sure that no one was following me for the rest of the year. So to the fucking creep that entered my room while I was sleeping and planned to do who knows what else, let's never meet again.

[00:22:34] My husband and I bought tickets for a concert at MSG back in February. A few months after purchasing the tickets we decided to make it a long weekend trip since we haven't done anything too exciting together for about a year. We were planning on spending Thursday through Sunday,

[00:22:58] but we decided to do it on the weekend because we were both going to be at MSG. We were planning on spending Thursday through Sunday, doing all of the touristy things since I had never been to New York City.

[00:23:13] I definitely wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, but everything was so expensive. Luckily I found a free ferry that would take us right past it. Perfect. That night we made our way to the ferry terminal. We got hot dogs while waiting to board,

[00:23:31] looking out the huge window towards the Statue of Liberty. All was well. We boarded with no problems, got a nice rail spot on the side facing away from the statue because the other side was so crowded.

[00:23:46] We weren't too worried because we would be riding the ferry back again after we explored Staten Island for a while. As the boat began to dock, the crowd moved towards the exit of the boat and so did we. It was packed tight, shoulder to shoulder.

[00:24:03] We shuffled our way out. Just as we stepped off of the boat, I saw a man out of the corner of my eye with his phone pointed towards me. He was maybe in his mid to late 30s. Now let me set the scene.

[00:24:18] We're walking through a guided walkway to the terminal. It's pretty crowded. My husband is walking right next to me on my right side. This guy is on his right side. No joke, this guy was walking shoulder to shoulder with my husband and is looking straight forward

[00:24:34] but holding his phone up, filming my direction, pretending like he wasn't. At first I was like, maybe he's filming all the people leaving the ferry. Maybe like a time lapse or something. Don't be so paranoid. But it just kept going on and on.

[00:24:53] It was looking directly at me. I got so uncomfortable, I put my hand up over my face. I took my husband's hand and asked to slow down. I asked my husband if he noticed the guy and he did. When we slowed down,

[00:25:09] the guy ended up taking a few steps ahead of us and I kid you not, this guy held his phone on his side and continued to film directly at us while pretending to look forward. This is when my husband decided to confront the guy.

[00:25:25] Mind you, we're walking in a crowd. He said to him, excuse me but is there any reason you're filming us? The guy just stared at him and then looked away. No response, nothing. Maybe he didn't speak English. We kept walking but it kept happening.

[00:25:46] I just held my husband's hand and held my other over my face covering it. I was so creeped out. Once we were in the terminal, you could either go right and exit to the island or go straight up some ramps. We were freaked out.

[00:26:04] I said, we're gonna go this way now and we walked up the ramps and tried to let him drift off with the crowd and exit. At the top of the ramp, there were buses. We didn't plan on getting on a bus.

[00:26:18] We weren't sure if they were guided tour buses or what. It didn't look like we could technically exit from there so we waited a few minutes to make sure that we lost the guy and then headed back to the terminal shopping area. It was pretty empty.

[00:26:33] It looked kind of like a mall. With a gift shop, a little convenience store, ATM, et cetera. We stood right in the middle of this almost empty terminal area while my husband looked up some things to do in Staten Island. Then I saw him again.

[00:26:48] He walked like 10 feet away from us, still pointing his phone at us. I got ridiculously panicked and I thought, we have to go. He's there still. At this point, it was painfully obvious that he was filming us. My husband wanted to ignore him

[00:27:05] and pretend like he's not there just to see what he does. I try but he was literally lurking right there recording us. I decided to make intense eye contact with him. Like, I see you, stop doing this, eye contact.

[00:27:21] He then drifts over to the ATM with his phone still up and while looking at what he was filming on his phone he pretends to push buttons on the ATM. No card. Not even looking at the ATM, just pretending to use it while looking at us and filming.

[00:27:36] I grabbed my husband's arm. I said, okay, we're leaving now. We went back to the mass of people waiting to get back on the ferry. There were three police officers and a canine. We stood behind them watching the doors the entire time

[00:27:51] to see if he came back in. If I did see him come back in I was going to grab one of the police officers but we didn't see him. Now the ferry runs every 25 to 30 minutes so we had to stand there and wait. We were so panicked.

[00:28:06] A family from England wanted to strike up a conversation with us about their vacation that they were on but I was so damn focused on watching for this guy that I couldn't even invest myself in the conversation. From waiting on the ferry

[00:28:20] to the ferry ride itself back to New York City to three hours after we got off that ferry we were constantly looking over our shoulders to see if the guy was following us. I've never seen him in a long time. I've never felt so uneasy in my life.

[00:28:37] I felt like something horrible was going to happen. I couldn't shake it. Was I being paranoid? I don't really think so but I'll never know for sure. Was this someone that wanted to hurt us or rob us? Just some fucking weirdo filming people to get a rise?

[00:28:55] I didn't have any idea. But some man out there has so much footage of me it makes me sick to my stomach. Man on the Staten Island Ferry lets never meet. Ever. In August of 2020 I moved 12 hours away from where I was living to attend graduate school.

[00:29:23] It's a relatively small town. A few restaurants and takes no more than 15 minutes to get on the busiest street and get from one side of town to the other. I was very nervous considering the pandemic and starting a graduate program where I didn't know anyone.

[00:29:40] I became quick friends with a girl in my cohort whose hometown was not far from where I went to undergrad. We'll call her Marie. We would study together and go out for drinks on occasion. This is where my story really starts.

[00:29:56] Marie only lived a block away from the downtown area where the bars are located so I would park my car at her apartment and we would walk back together. Where my car was parked was not visible from the downtown street. This is important.

[00:30:12] One evening I parked by her place as normal then we walked downtown. Started at one bar then went to another then sat at the bar. About 20 minutes after we had been there a man came in and sat two seats down from where Marie and I were sitting.

[00:30:30] This guy, we'll call him Jacob. He awkwardly keeps looking at his phone then over at me and my friend. I made a smart remark to Marie about it and he overheard and moved closer and began talking to us. It was just normal small talk

[00:30:46] since neither of us were interested and talking to our now boyfriends. Both Marie and I got weird vibes though so we left. We talked about how he seemed off we walked back to her apartment then did some tarot readings and I left.

[00:31:03] We went out a few nights later but this time I had to park on the main street because I couldn't find any other parking but I parked two blocks away from the bars where we were going to. It's important to note that I have an out-of-state plate

[00:31:18] and it's pretty rare to see in this area so it does stick out and I try not to draw attention to it. We started at that same bar then Marie suggests that we go to the second bar location as last time. They had really good drinks

[00:31:33] so we walk over there and we had been there for maybe 20 minutes when that Jacob guy walks in the door again. Marie and I give each other a look and try not to face wherever he was. He sat at a table by us

[00:31:48] and kept trying to engage in conversation but we kept it to small talk again. I turned to Marie and say hopefully loud enough for Jacob to hear Can he not take a hint? We're not interested. He tried to buy us drinks

[00:32:04] and we declined saying that we can pay for our own drinks. We left shortly after and waited at her house for a while before I left. This same interaction happened three more times. He was charismatic, decent looking, and well-dressed

[00:32:20] but there was something in his voice and his eyes that made my gut tell me to run. I trust my gut. I went to the restroom at the bar texted Marie and told her that I'm leaving out the back way this time and she should come too.

[00:32:35] She told me she saw a few friends of hers and she was going to stay a little longer. I told the bouncer I was leaving and pointed at the guy that made me uncomfortable just to make sure that he didn't follow me this time. He agreed.

[00:32:48] I went out the back and started walking to my car. I crossed the street. My car is in sight. Jacob startles me as he comes from around a car and says, your friend is still at the bar. Are you not coming back?

[00:33:04] I bluntly tell him no, I'm not feeling well. I need to go. I didn't want to walk up to my car because then he would know which vehicle was mine. Remember the out of state plate? It makes it so much easier to find me when driving around town.

[00:33:19] So I stood there and began to fawn. My fight or flight responses would not have helped me here. The sidewalks were empty, no cars. He began asking me questions about myself and I answered them with no real answers and I would turn around and ask him questions

[00:33:38] about himself that were very specific. I tried to act interested in the questions but they were all very detailed about who he was so that I could have information on him if this ever escalated. Like where are you from? What are your tattoos of?

[00:33:52] Do you go to college? What's your major? Where do you work? What kind of car do you drive? He openly offered more than enough information that would allow him to be found in this town. But the last question I asked him was what car you drive

[00:34:08] and he pointed to a bright green motorcycle a few spots away. He said, this one's mine. He says he picked green because he loves Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. He showed me his phone screen and had Mike Wazowski on his screensaver. I walked around the bike

[00:34:29] and memorized the license plate but was just acting interested. I really had to go though. When I went to the restroom it was an escape plan. I didn't actually go I just needed to get out of there. So I told him have a good night

[00:34:47] and I began walking back towards my car. I realized that he would know what vehicle is mine but I'd be able to tell if a motorcycle was following me home and I could go to a gas station or something. I turned both ways before crossing the street.

[00:35:02] He didn't cross with me but I pulled out my keys and he was walking right next to me. My gut immediately told me run now but instead I froze. Jacob walked next to my car and patted the driver's door with his hand and said, is this yours?

[00:35:21] I nodded. I noticed he never removed his hand from patting the car and it was put directly on top of the driver's door. I realized that I couldn't get into it. His hand was on the driver's door to prevent me from even getting in.

[00:35:39] I started getting sweaty from the severity of the situation and I needed to think of a plan fast. I began acting giggly and more drunk than I was walking around and swaying with my keys and my hands.

[00:35:53] I decided that I needed to get through the passenger side door. I make it over to the passenger side and I realized that it doesn't have a keyhole. I'd have to use the button that unlocks every door for the car. Jacob would see me.

[00:36:09] He would know that all the doors were unlocked. In a split second decision, I clicked the unlock button, opened the passenger door, got in then locked all of the doors. I crawled over to the driver's seat, sweating bullets, hearing Jacob tap on the window. My hands were shaking.

[00:36:24] I could barely turn my car on. I pulled out and drove away. My heart was racing. I looked in the rearview mirror and he just watches me drive away in the middle of the street. I take the longest route home to ensure that I wasn't being followed.

[00:36:41] I made it to my apartment which is tucked behind other apartments and my car isn't visible from the street. You'd have to know where I live to find it. There's also a lot of apartments in my building so you'd have to see me walk up to my door

[00:36:55] to know which one was mine. All the doors do lead right outside, not to any hallways or anything which is important. I texted Marie to call me when she made it to her apartment as I sit there shaking in mine. I made sure that every window was locked

[00:37:11] and my door was locked. She called me about an hour later and I filled her in. After I told her the story all that she said was, oh, I gave him your number because he said that you guys hit it off. Jacob now has my number.

[00:37:30] I know the moment he texts me I'm going to block it. I told her not to give out my number anymore and hung up and went to my computer and opened up a blank document. I typed up all of the information that he told me.

[00:37:43] Every single detail that I could remember. I tried to find him on Facebook so that I could add a picture to his document. His Facebook had no information and one photo. So I put it in the document anyway. I sent it to my sister with the subject line,

[00:38:00] if something happens to me, this guy did it. I became terrified to leave my apartment and drive around in case he was following me. I was terrified every time my phone rang or I got a text that it would be Jacob. A week went by and nothing happened.

[00:38:19] I didn't go out except to class. Well, exactly one week later, I do get a text. He said, this is Jacob. Get some shoes on. We should go for a walk. I didn't respond. I was watching TV in my pajamas and it was early evening.

[00:38:39] Two minutes later, my doorbell rang. My heart jumped. Adrenaline raced through my veins. I never told my address to anyone in this town. I knew it was Jacob. I grabbed a taser that my dad gave me for protection and slightly opened the door.

[00:38:57] There was no chain or anything. So if he really wanted to, he could push the door. There's nothing stopping him but me. I'm a female, five foot four, 135 pounds and he was about 5'10", 200. I didn't stand a chance. I opened the door and firmly said,

[00:39:13] you need to leave now. I was freaking the fuck out because I didn't know how he knew where I lived. He had to follow me that one day. There's no way anyone could find me this easily. He said, no, we should go on a walk. It's nice out.

[00:39:32] I said, no. I began to shut the door but he put his body in the way so that I couldn't. I put my hand on the taser button and got ready. He said, do you wanna kiss goodnight? I felt my stomach turn.

[00:39:48] This is about to go very bad if I don't do something. I told him, move your fucking foot right now or I'm going to call the police. These apartments have cameras. I pointed to a camera at the top corner of the building.

[00:40:02] I honestly had no idea if they worked or if they were just for show but I needed him to think that they worked. He moved his body, winked at me and put his hands in his pockets and walked away.

[00:40:14] I shut the door, locked it and put on the safety bar. I fell to the floor and began sobbing. I no longer felt safe. I was terrified. What was I supposed to do? I block his number. The following week, I was leaving class

[00:40:29] and I saw the green motorcycle that he showed me. I pulled up the document and made sure that the license plate was the same. It was his. I tried to get out of there as fast as possible but a guy walked up to the bike. It wasn't Jacob.

[00:40:45] He was about to ride away. Jacob lied to me about that being his bike. I never saw him on it. I still see it around town. Jacob is never riding on it. Fast forward to February 2022. I went to dinner with a new friend. We'll call her Clarice.

[00:41:06] She had mentioned a stalker in her town. So I told her my story. I pulled up the document and she read the information and saw the picture. Clarice stated, He's not in my program and I've never seen him in our building. If what you're saying is true,

[00:41:24] I would know him. Clarice is very involved in her field and she knows everyone. I believe that she would have at least seen him or had a class with him. She kept looking at the document and said,

[00:41:37] He can't have a job where he told you he did either. You have to have certain certifications and those aren't provided at our college. He's lied to you about everything. I sat there stunned. I had moved past this event and went to therapy. I thought if anything,

[00:41:53] I had this document about him but now I found out it's all false. She was comforting me and told me that if she ever saw him, she would let me know. I was in shock. Who was Jacob? Was that even his name? If something happened to me,

[00:42:08] they would only have his picture and possibly his name. I now have begun to worry again, scared of anyone walking past my door. Jacob was very confident in his answers but I knew there was something wrong. He tried to be charming but I saw through it.

[00:42:27] I knew something was off and I trusted my gut. This could have gone either way. I could have gone very wrong but now the safety that I thought I had is shattered by the information that he is in fact not who he said he was.

[00:42:42] I kept my guard up everywhere, always wearing my hood up or a hat whenever I go anywhere. I graduate from school in May. Hopefully he won't find me before then. To the guy who tried to do God knows what and stole what little safety I thought I had,

[00:43:00] not meat. This story still haunts me to this day. This takes place around 10 years ago when I was about 8 or 9. I lived in a pretty shitty neighborhood and what was at the time a really run down city. It wasn't good but it wasn't bad at the same time.

[00:43:34] Just a few bad apples in the tree. Anyways, enough background on the neighborhood let's get to the story. My friends and I loved to play outside. It was the only thing that we could do. No one in the neighborhood could afford any sort of electronics

[00:43:51] or any sort of fun machine to play with. We loved to just run around through people's yards, cutting through houses if they just so happened to leave their door open. Now looking back on it it's probably the dumbest thing kids our age

[00:44:07] could have been doing in a neighborhood like that. This story doesn't really have anything to do with running into people's houses I just wanted to let you know how dumb we were as kids. On one fateful day we were playing hide and seek with four of us hiding

[00:44:23] and one of us seeking. We thought that it would have been a funny idea to go to the other side of the neighborhood so that the seeker could never find us and we would obviously win. We liked to call that part of the neighborhood the rich part

[00:44:40] because they had two-story houses over there and a forest with a creek in it. We were just doing our usual thing cutting through people's yards and jumping fences when we heard the loudest scream maybe four to five houses down. After hopping off of the fence

[00:44:59] that we had just jumped we all stopped and looked around wondering where it came from. I noticed that one of our hiders wasn't with us anymore. Three of us left. Where's Isaac? I exclaimed. We heard the scream again. I pointed towards the sound and where it came from.

[00:45:25] We all jumped back over the fence and ran towards the scream. When we all thought that we got to the spot where the scream was coming from there was nothing there but an empty plot of land and the forest. We all started to get scared.

[00:45:42] Did Isaac get lost in the forest? Did he get taken back there? Then we heard the scream again. It was definitely Isaac. I decided to be the man of the other eight-year-olds and go into the forest to make sure that Isaac was okay.

[00:46:03] As I started my way into the trees I took one last look at my friends and saw how horrified their faces were. I knew at that moment I was the only one that was going to go down into that forest. Making my way in

[00:46:18] I could feel all of the heat in my body fading and some sort of dread starting to take over. As I walked further in it started getting darker. It was harder to see. I was whisper yelling my friend's name Isaac. Isaac!

[00:46:35] He responded in the most shaken up voice Down here! Be quiet! I finally got to him and asked him what happened. He told me this story of how he got tired of running and decided to take a break on the curb to catch his breath

[00:46:54] and that instead of being out in the open and risking the chance of being caught he decided to go into the woods and hide. He said that after about five minutes he sat down and he heard talking. Nothing that he could make out just random nonsense.

[00:47:14] He looked around and saw a man in a black hoodie hiding behind a tree on the other side of the creek staring at him. But the man took off before my friend could even get up and run away. And this is where he said he started screaming

[00:47:31] at the top of his lungs and hid somewhere else in the forest which is where both of us are now hiding. I kid you not as soon as he told me this we heard a twig snap. We both look up to see him then looking for us

[00:47:51] in some of the shrubbery on the forest floor. I couldn't make out any facial expressions or anything on his face. I could see that he was holding some sort of blade or knife. I couldn't really tell what kind. All I knew is that we needed to run.

[00:48:12] So, when he turned his back we got up and started running. We didn't care how loud we were we just knew that we needed to run. We got out of the forest and told all of our friends to run as fast as they could down the street.

[00:48:27] We kept running until we got to the other side of the block and we all turned around to see the empty street. No one. Not a single car. And from the distance you could hear a roar. It was the sound of a very loud engine.

[00:48:46] Shortly after that initial roar the silver 2000's Mustang with the darkest windows comes peeling around the corner faster than I had ever seen a car go headed straight towards us. I've never had my body tighten up like that. I knew it was the same guy from the forest.

[00:49:06] I told all of my friends to split up. Run into people's yards. Hide. So as we were all hiding and running through the alleyways and jumping fences you can still hear his engine. It was like he was targeting only me. I can't even tell you

[00:49:22] how far I ran. I got to the point where I don't even think I was in my neighborhood anymore. But still I heard the engine coming up on me. I kept running. I was so exhausted. The sun finally started to set and I could hear the engine fade.

[00:49:38] Almost like he had forgotten about me or just given up. I start to make my way back home scared shitless. Checking back every so often. Making sure that I wasn't being followed. Once I made it home I went right to bed and I cried until I was dead.

[00:49:57] Until I fell asleep. For months after that that 2000's silver mustang would follow us. Stalking every corner that we played on. We'd see it at our school. At the grocery store. Hell, it could have been a coincidence that our little minds are now perceiving things around us

[00:50:19] but either way I think he was stalking us. Nothing actually came of him following us. He never did what he did that first day but it was still so scary seeing that car everywhere we went. I didn't know what or how to tell my mom so I didn't.

[00:50:41] I still haven't. Funny enough the seeker didn't know what happened until the day after when we were at school and told him. He still doesn't believe us and says that we just went inside so that he would have to look for us all night.

[00:50:55] But to that man that decided to chase a group of eight to nine year olds in his silver mustang let's never meet again. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. And don't forget as always

[00:51:22] check out my other podcast Odd Trails if you're looking for the true paranormal at oddtrails.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This week you have heard Awkward Joe by Liz Creep at the End of My Bed by Trisha The Man on the Staten Island Ferry

[00:51:41] by Rachel O'Clara College Stalker Shows Up to My Apartment I Never Told Him Where I Lived by Rachel Solomon And finally Man in the Black Hoodie with the 2000s Silver Mustang by Stupa. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced

[00:51:59] 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 got a story to share send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com and I'll take a look.

[00:52:13] And if you're a patron don't forget to stick around after the music for your extended ad-free version of this week's episode at a higher bit rate and if you want to get access to that and much more head over to patreon.com forward slash letsnotmeetpodcast

[00:52:26] to join the family and 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. For context, I was 19 just about to turn 20 and living in Australia where I live now.