8x07: Fred - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content. 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 7 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. I live downtown in a major city.

[00:00:52] This is a long story that happened in 2018. I'll jump right in. In the shower, I realized that I had forgotten an ingredient for dinner so I finished up, got dressed and rushed over to the neighboring grocery store a block away.

[00:01:09] As I waited for the light to change on my way back to my condo, a good looking, tall, well-dressed man walked up and stood next to me. Initially, he didn't say anything but when the light changed, he started chatting with me.

[00:01:25] I took out one of my earbuds and I asked him to repeat himself. He said, Do you know where Sunnyside train station is? I admitted that I did not. I didn't take the transit often.

[00:01:41] He thanked me for my honesty which sounded a little weird then I smiled and put my earbud back in. I started to continue on my way when I hear him ask if he could take me out for tea or coffee sometime.

[00:01:57] I again removed my earbud and said that I was not interested. He still tried to push but I firmly said no, thank you, goodbye. I was very close to my condo at this point and was a little off-put.

[00:02:13] I didn't want to go back to my condo just in case so I immediately turned into a local fa place and waited for him to get out of eyesight before I made my way back home.

[00:02:25] I remember thinking that I looked like a drowned rat with my wet hair and no makeup due to rushing out of the shower so what was this guy even thinking? Fast forward to a couple of months later, I was walking my Pomeranian a couple of blocks

[00:02:42] from my condo when someone approaches me from behind. We aren't in the safest part of town but due to the number of people around and it being in the middle of the day and the easiest part to the river valley I walked through this part of town.

[00:02:59] He says excuse me, I ignore him. He says it again and again. I continue to walk pretending that I can't hear him through my earbuds. Unfortunately, a couple walking directly in front of me turned to look at me which meant I needed to give up the ruse.

[00:03:21] So I turned to look at him and a man in a tank top with unkempt hair was looking at me wide-eyed and smiling. I take my earbud out and he says can I pet your dog? I decline telling him that my dog is quite timid.

[00:03:39] He frowns, thinks and says hey do you know where Sunnyside train station is? I clearly looking confused admit carefully that I don't take the transit. He then asks can I take you out for tea or coffee sometime?

[00:04:01] At this point I'm freaked out this is a different person in a different area asking me identical questions as the guy from two weeks prior. I tell him I have a boyfriend but he pushes saying he was only looking for friends.

[00:04:16] I decline again and join the couple that disrupted my ruse earlier at a no walk light. The man eventually goes back to where he was previously. I am once again very careful not to let him see me walk to my condo before going inside.

[00:04:36] Fast forward to several months later. I'm in the mall with a guy friend of mine and I see the first guy walking in the opposite direction of me. He looks at me then he looks away.

[00:04:48] I tell my guy friend about my situation months earlier and how the guy who had just passed was him. The guy friend says not to worry and that there was no way that that guy would stalk me publicly in a mall.

[00:05:04] We end up at the other side of the mall in the far back corner of a store looking at the men's section. I'm examining a garment on a table when a guy walks up right beside me and starts looking

[00:05:16] at the garment right next to the stack that I'm looking at. It's weird. Why so close? Yes, this was pre-pandemic but even for then this was close. I look at him and of course, it's the guy.

[00:05:34] He ended up following me all around the store and then throughout the mall until we finally gave in and left. Why didn't I call the police you must be asking at this point? Because we're taught as women to be polite.

[00:05:50] To assume we're being paranoid and not to inconvenience people. So this entire time I feel crazy but nothing drastic has happened yet. Over a week later, I'm studying in a little salad fast food place sitting alone.

[00:06:08] No one else in the restaurant not even the staff as they were in the back prepping. There is a huge glass wall that separates it and the hallway. I see that first man slowly walking past the window when he sees me and immediately turns around and rushes in.

[00:06:26] Rushes like clearly runs to me. He says, excuse me. I'm now very annoyed and am no longer playing nice. I'm pissed. I look at him and say, I'm studying. I have an exam in an hour. I don't have any time.

[00:06:45] He said, do you know where Sunnyside train station is? I replied, I already told you I don't take transit. How have you not found it yet? He says, oh, well, can I take you out for tea or coffee sometime? The same script.

[00:07:07] I might have been burning holes into him with my eyes at this point but he still persists. He's now getting aggressive wagging his phone around that looked like a phone from 2005 in front of my face.

[00:07:23] I was saved by one of the employees who came out to see who had walked in. The man now irritated leaves in a huff. Am I ready to call the police yet? Of course not.

[00:07:34] As if that wasn't enough, I actually went and posted on my local Reddit community asking anyone if they had ever experienced anything similar. Multiple women had similar experiences with these men in the same areas, including the mall. Some were saying that it might be like that movie Hitch.

[00:07:55] Maybe they're practicing pick up lines on women while others thought that it was insane. I hadn't called the police yet. I finally did. They sent two officers to talk to me. I told them the story and afterwards apologized for wasting their time.

[00:08:13] They shook their heads and said that I should have called sooner and that this was very concerning behavior. Anyway, they took my statement and left. I get a call 10 minutes later from them. They're asking if they could come up again. I let them up.

[00:08:30] One of the officers showed me a photo of the second guy, looking haggard, clearly a mugshot, and asked me if this was one of the guys. I was clearly shocked and said yes. One of the cops told me, do not look at this man.

[00:08:48] Do not interact with him. Do not let him touch your dog. And if you ever see him again, immediately call the police. I asked why and they said that they couldn't tell me but they did note that there were several

[00:09:01] sex trafficking incidents in our city and to be mindful. I think they told me that piece of information so that I could understand the severity of the situation. They then left and I ended up at a party years later and spoke to a woman who was on prosecution

[00:09:20] for one of the guys and it turns out that he was involved in sex trafficking. They were targeting women downtown. I have yet to run into either of them since that year, but if they are still stalking women downtown, let's not meet.

[00:09:51] When I was about 24, I was always busy with work. I lived in this small historic town. So needless to say, I didn't get out much. Which is why I was so excited when my 30-something cousin came up from Fresno to visit.

[00:10:09] I was also excited when she wanted to go out and check out the scene on the first night that she stayed with me. As it turns out, she was a drinker so we headed down to hit up a few small bars in my town.

[00:10:23] We only ended up finding one bar that was kind of happening. It had a bowl table, plus it allowed smoking inside so we were solid. I decided to sit at the bar and my cousin headed off to play pool with some guys.

[00:10:39] As I'm sitting at the bar sipping my drink and checking my phone, I get a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see an older gentleman whom I don't recognize right away. Seeing my puzzled look, he exclaims, It's me! So and so's dad.

[00:10:58] I then instantly realized that he was the father of a boy that I had dated in 8th grade when I was about 14. The dad seemed nice enough, but I did remember that he was a pretty stern character back then.

[00:11:15] Sometimes as punishment for his son, he would have him dig trenches even in the summertime in the hard pan, rocky ground. I could even remember hanging out at his house back in the day, just getting this bad feeling about his dad.

[00:11:34] Though I never experienced anything about his dad that would justify that feeling. So of course, I was surprised that he even recognized me at all, all those years later. He bought me a drink and we started to catch up a little.

[00:11:50] As we're talking, my cousin comes over to check in with me, upon seeing how much older that man is at the bar speaking with me. Eventually, he suggested that we go outside to smoke since the bar was getting pretty smoky.

[00:12:06] Once we were outside though, I realized that we were pretty much alone. This was fine, I figured, since he was always one of my distant neighbors that I had known off and on for years. But I figured wrong.

[00:12:21] I began to understand that as soon as he started asking me personal questions. He started asking about whether or not I had a boyfriend and if I'd ever considered dating an older guy.

[00:12:33] I started getting uncomfortable so I suggested that we go back in where it was a bit warmer. But again, after a few minutes, he wanted to go back outside. At that point though, I was already trying to blow him off politely.

[00:12:48] My cousin was seeing all of this and she was walking over again to check in with me. She gave me a sort of warning look before turning and walking back to her game of pull.

[00:12:59] As the night progressed, he continued to try and get me to go outside with him. This time though, he wanted me to go back to his truck. Finally, he grabbed my arm and tried pulling me outside with him. Thank God for my cousin.

[00:13:15] She seemed to materialize out of nowhere and she grabbed me by my other arm yelling fuck off to him. He immediately backed off and disappeared into a small crowd towards the back exit. For the rest of the night, we enjoyed ourselves and had some much needed fun.

[00:13:35] It wasn't until about six months later that I heard the horrifying story about him from another neighbor. I was told that he was in prison, probably for life. Apparently, he had been stalking and watching his soon to be ex-wife at their former home for months.

[00:13:55] Eventually, he had decided to straight up kidnap her, tying her up and gagging her. He then put her in his truck in the back seat and drove down towards Mexico. In Los Angeles, he decided that they could stop for the night as it was about an eight

[00:14:12] hour drive from our hometown. All night on that stay, he repeatedly assaulted, beat and tortured her. He had apparently told her that he was taking her to Mexico to kill her. He had been treating her that way for years.

[00:14:32] I knew upon hearing that, that my bad feeling as a kid was justified. I'm now getting chills just writing this part. Somehow though, she managed to escape his brutal attack that night. He was arrested pretty quickly after that.

[00:14:49] So the guy who tried to get me alone outside at the bar that night to do god knows what, let's not ever meet again. My family used to live in a system of flats, two buildings 20 meters apart with 8 flats each.

[00:15:22] The land belonged to the town's police and the police station was only 30 meters away from our buildings. The entire land was surrounded by tall fences to ensure security. The only people allowed to live in said flats were the families of cops from this or any other town.

[00:15:42] After a long evening of messing around with my friend who lived two floors above the house, we were dehydrated. There was no way that we were going to go home to quench our thirst since it was getting

[00:15:53] dark and there was very little chance of our mothers allowing us to go out and play again that day. So we decided to head to the police station. My mom hated whenever I went there without the supervision of my older brother but how

[00:16:07] would she know if I ever went without him? The police station was a five story high gray building. As kids we went there every once in a while since it was a great hiding spot while playing hide and seek.

[00:16:22] The layout of the police station was somewhat like this. The staircase was 10 meters in front of the entrance, to its right was the senior officer's cabin and to the left was a water cooler. To the left of the water cooler were four big prison cells.

[00:16:42] One could hold up to three men but they mostly remained empty. Between the staircase and the entrance was a pathway, on either side of which were tables with landlines and computers. At any given time you'd find more than 10 officers on that floor scattered around.

[00:17:02] Trust me, these details will help you visualize the situation. Back to the story, my friend and I went to the water cooler and did our business. As we were about to head out we heard a noise, the one that you make when luring cats towards you.

[00:17:22] Our heads naturally turned towards the source which was to our left and my eyes met those of a man from within the cell closest to me. He was calling us like we were cats and motioned with his hands for us to come closer.

[00:17:41] Being the naive seven year olds that we were, my friend and I moved and were now just a meter away from him, only the tall bars separating us. The man was a mess, his beard was unkempt, hair was dusty, yellow teeth, he was dressed

[00:17:59] in a worn out cream vest and pajamas. He looked at me up and down, then asked how old we were. We said seven. He smiled and said, well I'm 50 years older than you but you wouldn't know such math. Talk to me like I'm your dad.

[00:18:25] All the jokes on him, I've never had a good relationship with my dad. He asked us where we lived, but as the daughters of cops we knew better than that. We didn't reply but neither of us left.

[00:18:40] My seven year old self was intrigued since I had never known a criminal's side of a story. I believed my friend felt the same way since she asked, why are you in here? He answered in a deep husky yet fake sounding tone.

[00:18:59] I sat down in a protest that turned into a riot. I didn't hurt anyone, yet these officers picked me up and brought me here. He never once broke eye contact with my friend while saying this entire sentence.

[00:19:15] He gave me a creepy smirk once he was done and even my seven year old self recognized that something seemed off. He asked my friend to give him her hand for a second. She said no, then took a step back. His smirk disappeared.

[00:19:35] Two officers entered the hallway, looked at us, then at the man and walked past. For some reason they didn't find anything odd about two kids interacting with a random inmate. When they were out of sight, the man's attention drew to me.

[00:19:54] His eyes widened and through the bars, he let his arm out and grabbed my wrist tight. I couldn't speak, I was frozen. However, being the wild and disobedient kid that I was, it wasn't too difficult for me to let myself free from his grasp.

[00:20:14] He was a bit older, even without any knowledge of a good and a bad touch. I shook my entire arm and pulled away. He let go, with no real emotion. We were too scared to stand in the awkward silence any longer so we stormed out and caught

[00:20:37] our breaths near our flats. At that moment, I thought I would get in trouble with my mom about entering the station without her knowledge. My friend and I both freaked out at the thought and ran home. Fortunately, that's that and we've since moved.

[00:20:56] It's been a decade and my friend's now in med school. We're out of touch but I wish her the best. I certainly sometimes wonder where the man is right now or if he's even alive, but I don't think I'd want to find out.

[00:21:14] The only threat my seven-year-old self sensed was my mother scolding me. However, I now realize that the threat was much more grave than that. To the man who preyed on two little girls from behind bars, I hope you rot in there and let's not meet.

[00:21:42] For context, I'm currently 25 years old. I'm a male. This happened when I was no older than 7 or 8 years old at the time. I was still relatively small for my age. I was always small in height until about high school, but I digress.

[00:22:02] My family used to visit my grandparents who lived in another city about three hours away every summer for about a week or so before they passed away. During this time, we would sometimes visit their local mall since it was twice as big

[00:22:18] as the one that we had back at home. My dad and older brother went off together to another part of the mall and I went with my mom to a bookstore that was in the mall.

[00:22:30] Now I have very bad ADHD so I was distracted easily and tended to wander off a bit, especially when I was younger. Even though I would wander off, my mom knew that I would always end up in some place like

[00:22:47] the kids section of the store so she was never too worried. My mom and I were in the bookstore when naturally something in the kids section caught my eye. I wandered off to investigate. After a few minutes of looking around the kids section, I noticed this other person

[00:23:08] out of the corner of my eye. Upon glancing over, I saw that it was a very tall man standing about 10 to 12 feet away from me. I can't remember what he was doing exactly but I remember I got this sense of unease as

[00:23:24] he just looked off in the distance. He was probably six feet or something tall. He had some muscle and was wearing a long brown trench coat. He had it open and some other unkempt clothes underneath. The weird cherry on top was that he was wearing fingerless gloves.

[00:23:50] I instantly thought that it was very weird that he was wearing a trench coat and gloves inside this building and it was summertime. My parents had always told me about stranger danger so upon following my nerves, I walked

[00:24:05] away and I noticed that the man had also started to move as well. It was like he was following me. He kept a distance and so I thought that I was just overreacting. I turned a corner just to test it.

[00:24:23] To my horror, I saw that he turned the same corner as I did. This immediately terrified me so I put every thought aside and knew that I had to get back to my mom. The problem was I didn't know exactly where she was in the bookstore.

[00:24:41] I started to pick up my pace. In doing so, the man behind me started to pick up his pace as well. I started walking even faster through the aisles desperately searching for my mom. The man followed behind.

[00:24:58] Eventually I started running all throughout this bookstore looking for my mom. The man kept pace still 10-12 feet behind me. Since he was very tall, he would take these big strides forward without even needing to run and without attracting too much suspicion.

[00:25:19] I remember really starting to panic at this point until I rounded a final aisle and found my mom casually walking and shopping through the aisle. I immediately ran up to her and threw my arms around her, finally breathing a sigh of relief.

[00:25:38] I saw the man behind me finally stop moving and take a look at me and my mom. Then he gave me this weird look and walked away. My mom didn't even notice the man and didn't question my behavior as she knew that my ADHD

[00:25:57] was all over the place sometimes. I never told my mom or dad about the experience or the man, at least not at the time. I don't know why I never did, but the whole experience was creepy nonetheless.

[00:26:14] So tall creepy trench coat guy who followed me around the bookstore with your giant monstrous strides as I ran for my mom. Let's not meet again. For some backstory, I was abused by a neighbor when I was very young.

[00:26:44] I have only come to realize some 55 years later that that violation gravely affected my every decision from that moment on. In my teens and twenties, I used a lot of drugs, was sex crazed, and poor decisions were my constant companion.

[00:27:02] In my mind, I was stupid, useless, and weak. I was lucky if any man showed any interest in me, no matter how low life and scummy they were. I struggled to find my purpose in life, ended up as a secretary, and hated it.

[00:27:20] I was always trying to figure out what kind of job I could reasonably expect to have. There was a commercial on TV for a slot machine repair person, and as I liked to work with my hands, I decided to attend.

[00:27:35] My self-deprecation was a way of life for me back then, and I would make jokes about myself in a clumsy attempt to make people like me. Some of those jokes involved being easy, as I said very poor decisions. One day I met another student, we'll call them Fred.

[00:27:56] Fred was handsome and charming with bright blue eyes. He seemed so easy going, and even better, showed an interest in me. I was over the moon. We started seeing each other, and after not too long he mentioned that he was sleeping

[00:28:12] on a relative's couch, and did I possibly have a room that he could rent for me? At the time, I had a female roommate, and she did not like him at all, but I thought that she was just jealous.

[00:28:26] The relationship between that roommate and I soured as Fred and I got closer. We ended up in a fist fight, and she moved out. On my salary, I could not live alone, and that left the door open for Fred. He immediately moved in.

[00:28:44] At first everything seemed great, but Fred was very sexual both physically and with the way that he spoke to people. I never finished slot repair school, and I ended up working with developmentally challenged people.

[00:28:59] Fred would come to work with me to help, but not surprisingly he said something very inappropriate to the females, and my supervisor told me that Fred was no longer allowed to come back.

[00:29:11] That should have been a red flag, but honestly I paid almost zero attention to my inner voice back then. At some point, I got pregnant with Fred's child. The really funny thing is, I always hated children.

[00:29:28] I mean like I avoided them at all costs, never wanting to be around them at restaurants or movies etc. But now here I was pregnant, so I decided to try and be a good parent.

[00:29:41] I don't remember how, but while I was pregnant, I found out Fred was seeing other women while living with me. Instead of doing the intelligent thing and throwing him out, I argued with this other

[00:29:53] woman on the phone then gave him the ultimatum that he must choose between us. I can only assume that it worked because I never heard from her again. About two months before our first child was born, my father passed away.

[00:30:09] He had left me some money, and I wanted to buy a house with it. But Fred said that he needed the money because he wanted to be a professional fisherman and he needed to buy a boat and gear. I wasn't a complete idiot, just a partial one.

[00:30:25] So I put a large down payment on a house, and then I gave him the money for his boat and gear. We struggled to pay the mortgage, and I was always having to ask my mother for help. Meanwhile, I don't remember Fred ever doing any professional fishing.

[00:30:43] What he did do was disappear for days at a time in our only car. I would be frantic calling hospitals and jails, and was too ashamed to let my mother know what a shithole my life had become.

[00:30:58] Fred would eventually show up with some bullshit story that I didn't believe, but by then we had a child, and I thought that it would be better with a father than not. Now I have no logical explanation why I married Fred.

[00:31:15] It probably had to do with my child needing a father. My damaged mind would not allow me to consider that Fred would never be a good one. While we were together, we had another child, and that only strained our relationship further.

[00:31:30] Money would disappear, and Fred had any number of excuses of what was happening to it. If I found a problem with this story, he would either make me think that I was mistaken or switch to another story. I started to question my sanity.

[00:31:46] Once, I left money on the table and told him to pay the mortgage. A week later, when the company asked why I hadn't paid, I questioned Fred about what had happened with the money. I had put it on the table and I asked him to pay.

[00:32:02] He said that he never even seen it, and actually blamed it on the dog eating it. He went out to the garage and came back with a corner of a bill as proof.

[00:32:11] I didn't believe him, and after we went to sleep that night, I got into his wallet and I found the bill that he had torn the corner from, and then I confronted him. He still denied it. We would get into terrible fights, and twice the police came.

[00:32:29] The first time, he had shoved me around and I grabbed a knife to defend myself. He had blocked me in a corner and had taken it away from me. I tried to run away, and he forced his way into the room I was in, so I bit him.

[00:32:46] The neighbors heard us and called the police. When they came, I was in shock and I wouldn't talk to them. Fred had a great story for them, complete with the bite mark of course, so they took me to jail for domestic violence.

[00:32:59] I had to spend 12 hours in a filthy freezing cell before I could be released. Because I was completely unable to make a rational decision during this point in my life, I went back to him.

[00:33:11] On another occasion, he destroyed some things in the house and took a shovel to my windshield. My parents had brought me the car, but by the time of this tirade, Fred and I were married.

[00:33:25] I called the police, but they told me he was entitled to do anything he wanted to our community property. I was finally starting to want out. I planned to sell the house and move away from him, but he convinced me we just needed

[00:33:41] to move out of state and start fresh. Again, I fell for his lies. So we sold the house, barely escaping foreclosure. I put our meager possessions in storage for the move, and we stayed in a hotel near the beach in California.

[00:33:59] But I could see that this was no life for two children. So I moved back to my hometown. I was sickened to discover he had sold everything in the storage while we were gone and spent all of the money. This included my own children's furniture and toys.

[00:34:20] I moved in with my mother, and then the real fun began. I got a job at a casino, and Fred started stalking me. He kept calling, begging me to take him back because he missed his children. I told him I didn't want him back.

[00:34:37] At Christmas, he said he had presents for the kids and asked me to meet him. He was staying in a big hotel, so I went to meet him there, where we were supposed to have dinner.

[00:34:50] He said the presents for the kids were in the room and asked me to come up with him to get them. I didn't trust him, but never did I think he would try something crazy in a public place.

[00:35:06] When we got to his room, he had a knife and forced me to put my purse in the room safe. The room was on a very high floor, so I had no chance of escaping out a window.

[00:35:21] He was between me and the phone, so I couldn't call for help. He pushed me on the bed then got on top of me. He said that he would gut me like a fish if I didn't take him back.

[00:35:32] He was so calm as he said it, and when I looked in his eyes, I believed it. I struggled to think about what to do, and then I remembered that we were supposed to have dinner.

[00:35:46] Someone was looking after me, because I was able to convince him to take me down to dinner, although he wouldn't let me have my purse back. As I went down in the elevator, other people were in there.

[00:35:59] I begged them for help with my eyes, but they either didn't notice or didn't know what to do. The restaurant was on the ground floor. We went in and sat at a table.

[00:36:12] When the waiter came, I was looking at him with as much fear as I could, but he only took our order. Then I got an idea. I said that I needed to use the restroom. He knew I was planning to escape, so he went with me.

[00:36:28] I went in, and he oddly thought he had a minute, and I watched him go into the men's room. Because I worked in a casino, I knew there were a lot of security people, so I bolted

[00:36:43] out of the ladies' room and found the first security officer that I could. Unfortunately Fred was right behind me, and convinced the guard that we were just fighting. I made the security officer come with us back to the room, where I demanded my purse from the safe.

[00:37:01] All three of us took the elevator back to the lobby, and when the security officer tried to leave us alone, I insisted that he escort me to my car. He then realized there was more to the story, and pulled me aside to talk to me.

[00:37:16] While I was telling him, Fred escaped. They searched the casino, but he had slipped away into the night. From that point on, I was terrified of what Fred would do. I provided the security officers at my place of employment a picture of my ex and told

[00:37:35] them they should shoot first and ask questions later, because most likely if he came for me, he would try to kill me. I bought a shotgun, went to the range and used it on some targets. I wrote Fred's name on all of them.

[00:37:51] I hung them up around the outside of my mother's house to show him that I was prepared for him. There was a guy that I worked with that I liked. We started dating.

[00:38:02] He was aware of the problem with my ex, and he helped keep an eye on me. He stayed over once, and he worked the graveyard shift but stayed over once. I got up to take him to work, and I looked outside to see some men around my car.

[00:38:17] I had no idea I was such a badass, but I grabbed a huge wrench and went out to confront them and they ran off. My friend ran out after me and pulled me back inside. When it was time to leave, we went out and got in the car.

[00:38:34] My friend was driving. As I put on my seatbelt, I looked to my right and I saw my ex coming around the side of the house, and in his hand I saw a gun. I told my friend to hurry because Fred was coming. He was armed.

[00:38:50] My friend gunned the accelerator and flew backwards out of the driveway while turning to face the direction we needed to go. Fred ran into the street and pointed the gun at us. I was screaming, trying to get down on the floor.

[00:39:04] My friend floored it, and at the same time I heard a gunshot and the windshield cracking. I asked my friend if he was okay. He said yes. He had just hit my ex.

[00:39:17] We didn't stop to check on him, and this was before cell phones so we couldn't call the police. We drove to a nearby police station, but then my friend told me he had a warrant and wouldn't stay. He took the car and went to work.

[00:39:34] I gave the police my story while they went to my house. All they found were cartridges from an air pistol. They said that the gun wasn't real, but I said I didn't care because it sure looked real and he was aiming it and firing at us.

[00:39:51] The police didn't believe anything else because my friend had run off with the car and there was no one to corroborate my story. I decided to move into an apartment so that my ex wouldn't know where to find me, and

[00:40:04] I would like to say that that was the end of my story, but unfortunately he had more surprises for me. My friend had issues and caused problems for me at my apartment, so we stopped hanging out.

[00:40:18] I started feeling safer as I hadn't heard from Fred in a while. I started seeing a different coworker and soon he moved in. One day he noticed there was an odd van driving around the complex. This coworker also worked overnight.

[00:40:37] I worked the day shift so when I got home I would go to bed and they would go to work. I got up the next day, I was getting ready for work and someone knocked at the door.

[00:40:49] I was wary, but when I looked through the peephole I saw a teenage boy standing there. Ignoring my alarm bells because I didn't want to ignore a child, I grabbed a knife from the block for protection. I answered the door with the knife behind my back.

[00:41:06] The boy said that he was stranded and wanted to use my phone to call for a ride. I didn't completely feel comfortable letting him in, but again I didn't want to leave a child outside, so I let him in. I left the door open, standing well back.

[00:41:25] Don't ask why I thought that was helpful though. As the boy was on the phone, in walked Fred. Then I realized this child was working with him. Fred quickly overpowered me and they both beat me up, trying to knock me out.

[00:41:46] But they were so stupid, they didn't realize it isn't as easy as they make it look in the movies. I saw that they had brought duct tape to tie me up. Fred let me know the kids and I would be coming with them.

[00:42:02] He was carrying a gun and he made sure to show me that it had real bullets in it. I was scrambling around in my brain trying to find any escape. I said I had to get dressed. Fred actually let me go into the room.

[00:42:18] I closed and locked the door. I knew I had a spare phone in my closet, but as I was looking for it to plug it in, Fred kicked in the bedroom door. I closed it again most of the way and looked out the window.

[00:42:33] I noticed some workers in a building under construction behind mine. I frantically waved at them and they noticed me. But then Fred came in and said that it was time to go. I gathered my clothes and toiletries for the kids and me while Fred and his accomplice rifled

[00:42:52] through my cabinets for things that they wanted. We went down to the car, but I got an idea and said that I wouldn't get in unless I could drive. Fred must have thought that it was good to have his hands and attention free, so he sat

[00:43:08] up front with me with the gun pointed at me while his asshole friend sat in the back with my children. I drove in the direction of the workers who had come down and started walking my way.

[00:43:23] I thought of ramming the car into the chain link fence surrounding the construction site as a distraction so that the workers could help. But I realized I may be putting them in danger of being shot so I decided against it. They watched helplessly as we drove by them.

[00:43:40] Fred gave me some directions and I drove a few blocks from the apartment complex. I noticed I was driving past a casino. Remembering the security, I made the heartbreaking decision to leave the kids with Fred to run and get help.

[00:43:56] After all, he had never hurt them and no one knew that we were missing. There were no places to hide or dispose of me. We stopped for a light in the left turn and I put my arm through the strap of my purse,

[00:44:11] took my keys from the ignition, and attempted to jump out of the car. Fred grabbed me and tried to pull me back in. I screamed at him that he had the car and the kids and that's all he really wanted anyway.

[00:44:26] I dropped the keys on the ground and amazingly, he let me go. I ran across the street and straight to the casino. It took a few minutes to get security to understand that I had just escaped a kidnapping and the kidnapper had taken our children.

[00:44:41] Finally they called the police and gave them my statement. I had to convince the news to share the story. They said it was just a domestic dispute but I helped them realize how serious it was.

[00:44:54] Fred had the kids for a week living out in the wilderness before he realized how futile this course of action was. He had no food or diapers for the children so he finally gave up. Fred was sentenced to two concurrent four year terms for kidnapping the children.

[00:45:14] But I think he only served two years before he was released. By that time, fearing for my life and for my children, I had moved far away and gotten remarried. Thank God I never saw him again. So Fred, wherever you are now, let's never meet again.

[00:45:47] If you're looking to get the extended version of this week's episode, ad free and at a higher quality audio bitrate, plus hours upon hours of bonus content and some exclusive merch, head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast or follow the link

[00:46:02] in the show notes to sign up and support the show today. If you're already a patron, make sure you stick around after the music for all those extras. Now I've been approached in the past by others about adapting a Let's Not Meet TV series.

[00:46:16] It never really panned out because I couldn't find the right group of professionals that wanted to make the show that I know you would all love to see. That is until recently I befriended a small group of very talented folks that shared my

[00:46:28] very specific vision of what this show could look like. They have some excellent work in their portfolio and I was drawn to their style immediately. Right away we jumped into scouring through stories to find the perfect lineup for a self-produced pilot.

[00:46:42] That's right, we're planning on shooting our own little true horror pilot in the true spirit of the podcast. So I'm happy to announce the starting of production of our new TV pilot titled Let's Never Meet.

[00:46:56] In the coming weeks we will have a bunch of updates on our progress with the launch of our Indiegogo fundraiser to try and raise enough money to get this thing made. There are a ton of costs when doing this thing the correct way, and we're starting this

[00:47:10] thing from scratch with nothing but a dream and a prayer. But until we get that fundraiser launched you can do something to help out. If you are an author whose story has been featured on the show and you'd like to see

[00:47:21] that story come to life, you can write to me directly at letsnotmeettv at gmail.com. This is a new email. Remember though, this is different from the new story submission email. That email will always stay the same.

[00:47:34] So if you have a story to share to the podcast that you'd like to hear, that will always be letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. So to reiterate, if you've already had a story on the show, write to me at letsnotmeettv

[00:47:47] at gmail.com, and make sure you reference the episode and story title, and we'll put it in the hat for consideration. That's all the info I have at the moment, but we are working at a steady pace every single week to make sure this thing happens.

[00:48:01] If we can finally get this thing funded and filmed, I really think we have a great shot at getting the series picked up online somewhere. The possibilities are endless. Thanks everyone, and thank you for listening to Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast this week you have heard.

[00:48:15] Stalker with Devious Intentions by A Listener That Asked to Remain Anonymous Near Miss at a Bar by SoNora The Creep Behind Bars by Listener T A Story from Listener ADTRFan1234 And finally, My Pathological Liar Psycho Stalker X by Miss Cat

[00:48:39] All 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.

[00:48:49] As always, if you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. And if you're looking for the true paranormal, don't forget to check out the new episode of my other podcast, Odd Trails, on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:49:03] See you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet. Stay safe. At the time of this story, I was living alone in a first floor apartment. My girlfriend had been sick at the time and ended up in...