8x24: The Man with the Black Box - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, tickets are still available for the live Lets Not Meet shows. If you go to letsnotmeetpodcast.com forward slash tour or just follow the links in the show notes,

[00:00:10] you can get your hands on some tickets for both shows. The first of which will be at the Neptune Theater in Seattle, Washington on August 25th, followed by a second show at the Polaris Hall

[00:00:20] in Portland, Oregon on August 26th. Additionally, if you're from the area, you plan to attend one of these shows and you have a story that you'd like to share, by all means, send it to the story

[00:00:30] submission inbox at letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com and we'll see about getting it on the lineup for the live show. And remember, this podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. Enjoy the show. My name is Andrew Tate and this is Season 8,

[00:00:50] Episode 24 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. For a bit of background, I'm a 33 year old, 5 foot 2 female from Puerto Rico, but currently living in the states. This happened in two different time periods.

[00:01:37] The first part is when I was 13 and the second part is when I was 22. When I was 13, I used to hang out a lot at the mall with other goth kids. My parents are rockers

[00:01:51] and used to often go to concerts in the 80s so they were always very accepting of my style, and still are. One day I was hanging out with one of my friends and she introduced me to a guy who

[00:02:03] we'll call Oscar. He was a tall guy, he wore all black, boots, had short hair, a choker with spikes and was a year or two older than me. He just looked like one of us. He seemed to quickly

[00:02:19] take a liking to me and at first I thought he was really friendly. We hung out for a couple of hours at the mall with our friends. He was very expressive about his affection towards others,

[00:02:32] but mostly females. At some point we were in line waiting to see a movie when he pulled me close and just kissed me. I felt very uncomfortable but I didn't know what to do except nervously laugh

[00:02:45] as I pulled away from him and I said that I forgot to tell my mom I was going to see a movie, who was always around the mall while I hung out there.

[00:02:55] I never came back and I didn't tell my mom what happened. I stopped going to the mall for a bit just to avoid him, but he managed to get my house phone number and this was during a time when

[00:03:07] cell phones weren't everywhere and landlines with answering machines were the norm. He would call from different phone numbers and fill the answering machines with messages asking to talk to me every

[00:03:18] single day. I had no choice but to tell my mom what happened and luckily she didn't victim blame me, but believed me. My best friend's mom worked for a phone company and did us a favor for free

[00:03:31] and changed our phone number and that was the end of it. Or so I thought. Now comes the second part of the story. Fast forward to me being 22, going to university in Puerto Rico and having completely

[00:03:45] forgotten about his existence. I was standing in front of the university gates that day waiting for my sister and her boyfriend. Back then they would come pick me up and take me to my dorm which was

[00:03:57] out off of campus. I had a student ID in front of my straps of my backpack because a security guard would ask for it even if he saw you go in or out or had shown it to him one minute ago.

[00:04:12] So out of laziness I just put it there so it would be visible and quick. While waiting I noticed a tall guy nearby. He looked slightly familiar but I didn't think too much about it. I just kept an

[00:04:26] eye out for my sister. This guy notices me and gets closer. He says, Gabby is that you? I was thinking, how does he know my name? But then I remembered my student ID. He then says,

[00:04:42] don't you remember me? It's me, Oscar. I study here now. I froze and it was like a floodgate had opened in my head and all the flashbacks of who he was burst at once. I didn't say anything

[00:04:58] and he just kept talking about how amazing this was that he studies in the afternoons and what a twist of fate this was. I was frozen. Luckily my sister had arrived and honked from the car.

[00:05:13] It made me snap out of it and I went straight to her. When I got in the car my sister asked if I was okay because it looked like I had seen a ghost. I was so pale. I have tanned skin

[00:05:26] so the difference would be noticeable. I didn't want to worry her and she was too young to remember him anyways so I said I probably needed to eat and had been in the sun for too long.

[00:05:40] I studied during the mornings up to like 2pm unless I was staying at the university's library then I would head back to our dorm at around 4pm. So I thought that maybe I wouldn't encounter him

[00:05:54] because of our schedules. But boy was I wrong. The next day I was sitting in the cafeteria with a couple of friends. This girl who was a friend of a friend was crying because the guy

[00:06:05] she was dating suddenly broke up with her and told her that the girl of his dreams, his soulmate had returned. I had a bad feeling in my gut and stayed quiet. My friend asks who this

[00:06:19] guy was and she said, oh his name was Oscar. I thought, was he referring to me as his soulmate? I felt sick and left. Oscar was able to get my cell phone number by telling someone who studied

[00:06:36] with me that he needed my number for a group project and they gave it to him. It began again, constant calls from different phone numbers which I saved and renamed don't answer. He started going earlier to the university looking for me, following me everywhere. At one point he

[00:06:58] flat out told me, give me a chance and told me that I was the girl of his dreams and that after so many years he never forgot about me and wanted to be with me. I told him no, not only had I just

[00:07:12] been recently out of a long-term relationship that hurt a lot but most importantly he scared me and creeped me out. I would hide in the private small study group rooms with a computer,

[00:07:26] table and a whiteboard that you could reserve at the library which is where I would stay with my friends because it was our favorite spot to study or joke without interruptions or noises. One day during midterms I was in the zone focusing on my studying in there

[00:07:43] and I notice Oscar has found me and gone into the study room. I had headphones with the right side free in case someone said something to me. All of a sudden I hear a very loud sniffing noise next to my ear. They said,

[00:08:03] I love the smell of green apples on you. I immediately freaked out and yelled, what the fuck, go away! He seemed to move away and I went back to studying. He came back again and smelled my hair, loudly, again. As I was getting up to punch him,

[00:08:24] one of the guy friends who knew about the situation had just come into the room and went straight up to him. They said, leave her alone or I'll forcefully kick you out. Oscar said, fine, I'm leaving. But he stayed outside of that study room sitting nearby

[00:08:42] looking straight into the room which had a glass door to make sure that nobody was doing illegal stuff or you know college student hormones going crazy. I was escorted by

[00:08:54] several of my male friends and one of them gave me a ride back to my dorm to make sure that I was safe. Sadly, he continued to stalk me all week long. Let me point out that my private university

[00:09:08] campus was very small in Puerto Rico so not many places to hide from him. I told the campus security and was given the classic, nothing has happened so nothing can be done excuse.

[00:09:20] My grades went to shit because I was more worried about my safety and ended up just completely dropping out of university. I changed phone numbers and moved out of my dorm and back to

[00:09:30] my hometown where he had no idea where I lived. To this day, I can't wear anything that has a green apple fragrance that makes me want to throw up and it sucks because it was my favorite smell

[00:09:42] for many years. I created a separate Facebook account just to keep tabs on where he might be and blocked his accounts with my personal just to be safe. Last I saw, he was in a state far away

[00:09:56] from me and had gotten obsessed with guns. Hopefully, he didn't do it to anybody else or his behavior didn't escalate but creepy green apple sniffer stalker let's not meet again. This was in the summer of 2001. I had just graduated from high school and was dreading

[00:10:30] going to community college so soon. I was still living at my parents home and would only be two miles from home going to college in the very near future. So basically, I had to do high school all

[00:10:44] over again. I was expected to still follow all of the rules my parents had for me in high school. I'm not going to lie, I was reckless and this was the reason I was going to be going to community

[00:10:58] college just two miles from home. Not only was I reckless, I was hopeless and depressed. I met with so many different groups of people and always had some random person drive me home at the end

[00:11:10] of the night. I honestly didn't think anything of it but thinking back, this was a terrible decision. Being a young 18 year old girl, you don't really think too much about your safety. You feel invincible and that everyone you meet at a house party is your friend.

[00:11:31] This is the only reason I can think of why this happened. It all happened around four in the morning. I had just rolled into my parents house a few hours before. I was in bed sleeping when I was awoken by footsteps on the roof outside my bedroom window.

[00:11:51] My room was on the second floor, just above the attached garage. Having just been awoken by this noise and still being pretty fucked up from partying, I thought maybe somebody was doing some repair work on the roof.

[00:12:06] I know it was four in the morning because I looked at the clock on my nightstand. I can't believe it but I went back to sleep after hearing these footsteps. When my dad came home from work later that day, he mentioned that he saw somebody running away

[00:12:21] from our home when he left for work. I told him that I thought I heard noises on the roof at the same time he left for work. I looked at my bedroom window later that day.

[00:12:35] There was a huge hole cut in the window screen, as if it were sliced by a knife of some sort. All my hazy memories of that night before came back to me. All about me being awoken by the footsteps on the roof.

[00:12:53] The strange thing is, I don't know how someone got onto the roof. There was nothing around our home somebody could have used to get onto the roof easily. So long story short, who was trying to enter my bedroom? Was it somebody that I met? Or a stranger?

[00:13:12] What caused this person to stop their home invasion? And most importantly, did I continue to see this person after this event without me even knowing it? To the creeper on the roof, let's not meet.

[00:13:28] I am a queer man, and I've had a little bit of popularity on social media over the years. This story begins in 2014. I had an Instagram page where I would post some racy photos. This of course came with both wanted and unwanted attention from other men.

[00:14:03] There was this one person who actually creeped me out so much that I had to shut my IG down. I don't know his name, but we chatted in private message for a bit. I was looking for some texting buddies. We ended up interacting.

[00:14:19] We texted on and off for a week, and he started demanding private content from me. When I told him no, he would call me all sorts of explicit names, which eventually led to me blocking his number.

[00:14:33] My phone was then blown up with text messages from various numbers created with a texting app. I changed my number and was free of the creep. Now we jump ahead four years. I have just gotten myself into a relationship with my now fiancé.

[00:14:53] I was online again, finally creating a new Instagram, but not posting anything explicit. I befriended someone who calls themselves AJ. He paints me a story of his life that is eerily similar to my own, but I brush it off.

[00:15:10] We become fast friends and he starts referring to me affectionately as his twin, to the point that other people on social media start to think that we're actually related. He even took it as far as to tag me in his Instagram bio.

[00:15:26] Soon, AJ starts asking me to convince people to join a bunch of group iMessage chats because of my higher follower count and because I was so desperate to have friends. I was naive and willing to do it.

[00:15:42] The group chats all lasted for a few weeks and then all of a sudden the people would start to leave them and when I would reach out to them, they would lose their shit on me.

[00:15:52] AJ would reach out and they would tell him that I was playing games on their phone and sending them random messages signed with a pig face emoji. I was hurt and confused by this because I was genuinely trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

[00:16:12] AJ eventually introduced me to a friend of his named Izzy and the three of us would constantly talk on FaceTime or in a group chat. These were nice, that is until AJ started asking for other people to join the group and then the cycle repeated itself.

[00:16:32] I started getting dragged on social media and I guess cancelled. In 2019, Izzy had a suicide scare and AJ and I died. AJ and I decided that we would save some money and take a trip to his state to cheer him up.

[00:16:52] It ended up with me spending my money for a hotel and a plane ticket for AJ while I drove myself four states away because he swore his grandmother was this horrible person that was taking all of his money.

[00:17:07] While in the other state, AJ kept sexually harassing Izzy by groping him and touching him at inappropriate times. Some of the times he swore to Izzy that I had also touched him, which was of course untrue.

[00:17:24] We dropped Izzy off at his house on the last night of the trip and when we returned to the hotel room, AJ said that he had something to tell me. He asked me to sit on the bed and we both sat down together.

[00:17:38] I asked him what was wrong and he admitted that his grandmother wasn't stealing his money and that he had a full bank account the entire time. What? I growled. This entire time he had money and I was paying for everything that he ate and drank on the trip,

[00:17:58] plus his half of the hotel and the plane ticket. He then pulled me close and kissed me, which shocked me so much that I pushed him onto the floor. He sprung up and demanded to know what my boyfriend had that he didn't

[00:18:16] and I asked him what the fuck his problem was. That is when the look on his face became twisted and vile. He grinned like the Joker and started to laugh. I stood up and started to reach for my cell phone.

[00:18:31] He then slapped it out of my hand and started yelling at me. You are going to pay attention to me, you fucking whore! He screamed. I was really freaked out and terrified at this moment. I was taller and bigger than him but something about this man scared me.

[00:18:50] All these years of trying to get you to notice me and you choose now to be my friend and then when I work up the courage to ask you to be mine, you have the nerve to have a boyfriend. What are you talking about?

[00:19:04] I asked, even more confused. You don't remember IG back in 2014? He scoffs. Is it because I shaved all my hair and started wearing contacts? Wait, are you the guy who kept asking for my content?

[00:19:22] It was at that point that I dove for my phone and knocked him out of the way. I ran to the bathroom and locked myself inside. He began banging and ramming himself against the door. Let me in, I just want to be your man!

[00:19:38] He was screaming through the door. I began frantically texting my partner and it was a mess. My partner told me to call 911 but before I did, I got a disturbing response from Izzy. You earned this, whore!

[00:19:59] I dialed 911 and put it on speaker so that he would know that I was serious about him backing down. I'm not afraid of the fucking cops! He screamed. I cried to the dispatcher about the situation and she informed me that a squad car was on

[00:20:17] the way. AJ continued to attack the door for what seemed like hours. I was shocked when there was actual silence. I rose from the edge of the bathtub and slowly opened the door. The hotel door was now wide open and all of AJ's belongings were gone.

[00:20:39] I hesitantly walked outside and saw that his rental car was missing. I glanced over the room and I found a mask under one of the pillows on AJ's bed. It was a rubber pig mask. The cops arrived and I gave them all of the details.

[00:21:00] I would soon learn that nothing I knew about AJ was real and nothing I knew about Izzy was real either. The address of the house we picked him up and dropped him off at was actually a foreclosure. Neither of their names were what they said they were.

[00:21:17] So to whoever hears this story, I hope this serves as a cautionary tale about meeting people from social media without doing more research on them. So, stalker and his accomplice that harassed me, stalked me, framed me for their misdeeds and then attempted to make a move on me.

[00:21:38] Let's not meet again. This happened a few years ago when I was in my early teens. I recalled these events recently when a friend reminded me of them so I apologize for the fuzzy memory.

[00:22:04] For context, I'm a female living in a relatively safe country with very low drug use. This led me to not worrying too much about my safety when I was out alone. Until I met him. After school, I would take the bus home.

[00:22:20] Depending on the bus that I took, I had to cross a traffic light. I was waiting to cross the road when I felt like I was being watched. At first I was confused as this was in the afternoon with a decent amount of traffic

[00:22:36] but then I locked eyes with him. I immediately felt unsafe. He was significantly older and bigger than me. From across the street, I could see his eyes were bloodshot and he looked at me with this rage. I froze.

[00:22:53] Then he started walking toward me, through the rush of cars, almost getting hit in the process. But this didn't stop him, it only made him seem angrier and he moved towards me faster.

[00:23:06] This snapped me out of my shock and I walked as fast as I could away from him without running. I was convinced if I ran, he would start running after me. I had never imagined myself in this kind of situation so I panicked.

[00:23:20] I knew that I could not lead him near my house so I tried to lose him in between a random stretch of houses. This worked as he couldn't keep up and eventually lost me. However, without the sound of traffic, I could hear him speaking.

[00:23:37] He was just repeating these sentences, sometimes in a very short time. Something along the lines of, wait until I get my hands on you or girls like you are good for one thing. When I got home, I broke down and called my parents.

[00:23:52] I was convinced he would find me, home alone. We tried to file a police report that day but couldn't on account of him, quote unquote, not actually being a threat and him having a record of mental illness.

[00:24:08] I found out that he lived near my neighborhood which made me even more uneasy. I didn't see him for a few days as my classes would end at different times. I thought this was a single incident and hoped that I wouldn't see him again.

[00:24:23] However, the next week, as I alighted to a different bus stop, he saw me. I think this helped him find the general area of where I lived and I started seeing him around more.

[00:24:38] I would see him around after school, when I went out on the weekends and eventually in the morning before school. This went on for four months. Usually, he would come toward me in the same manner with that same rage and intensity just as the first time.

[00:25:01] But I realized he never closed the distance between us. I think he simply liked seeing people scared. My parents again tried to gather some evidence of the stalking to take legal action but it was brushed aside.

[00:25:16] They then tried to find the man themselves to confront him but strangely he never showed up when they were around. I believe he watched me and learned my schedule as he would appear at places where I should be but only show up when I was alone.

[00:25:37] What still scares me is that this makes him seem more intelligent than the authorities believed him to be. I thought this nightmare would never end but one day he just disappeared.

[00:25:48] No one saw him for a couple of years and in that time, I pushed the stalking out of my mind. However, I crossed paths with him near my house two years ago and I don't even know how to describe the exchange.

[00:26:02] My mind literally went blank and I don't remember most of it. It was his voice that I first recognized. What happened next was a blur and I can only describe it as a fight or flight response. The years worth of anger and fear took over my mind.

[00:26:21] I literally blanked out. He locked eyes with me and started coming towards me the way that he used to. Except this time instead of trying to get away, I went towards him. This, I assume, caught him off guard and he froze.

[00:26:37] I have no recollection of doing so and the only thing I remember is physically shaking and feeling cold from the anger. I heard myself yell something at him but I didn't process what it was. He then refused to make eye contact and I watched him walk past me.

[00:26:56] I saw him once again after that and he simply ignored me. Thinking about it rationally, I know what I did could have ended badly but I really don't know what came over me. This happened in October 2021.

[00:27:28] My boyfriend and I had recently moved to a new city right before he left for a six month deployment. I didn't know anyone in this city and had just started my job as an ER nurse so I didn't have any new friends yet.

[00:27:44] When my boyfriend left it was just me and my dog Loki. I worked nights at the ER and on my days off I would keep a night schedule. Since I didn't know anyone, I never had daytime plans so it was just easier to stay

[00:27:58] up all night even on my days off. One morning at about 4am I took Loki out for a walk around the apartment complex. It was gated in a nice city so I never felt unsafe. Plus, Loki is an 80 pound Akita.

[00:28:15] Even though he's a harmless goofball, he looks scary enough to intimidate most people. Just to set the scene, this complex is arranged in an oblong donut with two rows of buildings, one on the inside of the donut and one on the outside.

[00:28:33] There are two gates to come in and leave through. Loki and I started our walk and for some reason I decided to play some music from my phone which I had never done before, but I was feeling particularly comfortable in the early morning silence.

[00:28:50] As we went around the outer circle of the donut we were approaching the main gate when I noticed a man across the street from me. I rarely saw people out at 4am, but when I did I would keep a close eye on them.

[00:29:06] As an ER nurse, I'm pretty good at reading people and I have an above average situational awareness because I take care of a lot of crazy and violent patients. This guy was taller, maybe in his late 20s, and appeared to be wrapped up in his own thoughts.

[00:29:24] He seemed harmless so I just kept an eye on him as Loki and I continued on. As we got closer I noticed that he was sort of dancing in one spot and singing or talking to himself.

[00:29:38] I didn't see any headphones or hear any music, but saw that he was carrying a shoebox shaped black object. It was shiny like metal. The vibe that I got from him now was that he might be homeless and possibly mentally ill.

[00:29:56] On my early morning walks I had seen homeless people standing at the gates and sneaking behind the cars as they entered so it wasn't that strange. I still felt that he was harmless I guess.

[00:30:10] He hadn't seemed to notice me, but I did decide to turn the music on my phone off and keep a closer eye on him. After passing his position across the street from us I walked maybe 50 yards before taking a look over my shoulder.

[00:30:27] I'm not shy about protecting myself so I took a good long look. Squinting through the dark I noticed a head bobbing between the silhouettes of the parked cars across the street. It was him. I could tell because he was still faintly singing to himself.

[00:30:47] He was across the street from me walking the inner sidewalk in the same direction that I was walking but about 20 or 30 yards back. This creeped me out, but he hadn't done anything wrong yet so I continued like nothing had changed.

[00:31:02] About 20 more yards I looked back again and my heart stopped when I saw him. Now on my side of the street, tailing my dog and I. He was still keeping his distance but he was no longer dancing or singing.

[00:31:19] He was just silently walking with this strange black box under his arm. This time I quickened my pace but kept it to a walk to avoid alerting him. At the first chance I got I turned a corner down a street lined with garages.

[00:31:37] Once I was out of his sight I broke into a sprint and at the end of the row turned a second corner and immediately plastered myself against the first beige garage door in sight. I kept Loki pressed between the door and the back of my leg.

[00:31:55] I wasn't convinced that the man was following me just yet but wanted to be sure so we stood there silently waiting. It seemed like a long time had passed but it was maybe only 45 seconds when I suddenly

[00:32:10] heard someone's labored breathing to the left of us around the corner that I had just turned. My whole body went still, like even my heart wasn't beating. Time seemed to get slow.

[00:32:25] To my horror this man turned the corner and was walking past Loki and I just 5 or 6 feet away. We both stayed completely still, not even breathing as he passed. I watched him as if he were the only thing that existed.

[00:32:44] He walked hunched over peering through the darkness ahead. It felt like forever as he walked by. I was so afraid that he would turn his head and see us. But somehow miraculously he never turned to look.

[00:32:59] He didn't show any sign that he knew we were there at all. Even after he passed, we stayed still. I waited about a minute before leaning over and looking down the row of yes more garages to see if he was still there.

[00:33:16] He was still walking down the row. So quickly and quietly we snuck around the corner and then sprinted across the street. I wanted to be unpredictable so instead of following along the same sidewalk that I had

[00:33:28] been on, I cut through the park in the middle of the donut and I came out the other side. I decided to then duck into the covered hallways of random buildings. I went up a flight of stairs and stopped by a few random doors to wait.

[00:33:43] We waited there for about 15 minutes. While we waited I thought about the situation. There was no reason for him to have followed me around that corner. It was a big apartment complex and all that was over there were garages. None of them which were opened.

[00:33:59] None of them which he opened. And why did he cross to my side of the street in the first place? At this point, Loki was making a lot of noise. He was panting from excitement and his dog tags were jingling on his collar.

[00:34:15] I tried to get him to stop panting. I tried to get him to stop panting. He apparently was not clued into how stressed and scared I was. I took the dog tags off and put them in my pocket so that they wouldn't make noise.

[00:34:29] Before leaving the covered hallway, I also took the doggie bags hanging on Loki's leash off and ditched them since their crinkling sound was also making far too much noise. Carefully, keeping Loki close by my side,

[00:34:44] I approached the sidewalk and peered around the building to see if I could find the man. I didn't see or hear him so I slowly walked back out onto the sidewalk. I started heading back towards my apartment.

[00:34:57] I was shaking and stayed highly alert, constantly checking over my shoulder and down streets that I passed. I was so worried about leading this man to my specific apartment. I didn't want him to know where I lived.

[00:35:12] It wasn't until I was right outside my building that I saw him again. He was back by the first gate and this time he seemed to be looking around for something moving in my direction.

[00:35:25] Luckily, he hadn't noticed me yet so I ran behind my building and hid under one of the staircases. This was probably a poor choice because of the layout of my building. I essentially cornered myself.

[00:35:37] I didn't have a good vantage point to watch him without being seen and if he found me I had no place to run. I was trapped under this staircase frantically trying to figure out what to do next.

[00:35:49] Even though I couldn't see him, I could hear him still talking to himself. I couldn't make anything out of his tone but it seemed like he was coaching himself through his own investigation. There were two staircases that I could take to get to my door.

[00:36:05] The one I was under was completely exposed so if he saw me take it, he would know which floor I got off on. The other one was covered but it was much closer to him and he would definitely spot

[00:36:17] me if I tried to enter at the ground level. After stressing over what I should do for a few horrible minutes, I decided that the staircase closest to him was at least better than the one I was under.

[00:36:33] It was better than being trapped behind the staircase I was currently under. It took every fiber of my being to go against my instinct and I walk out into the open with this man.

[00:36:45] But if I was going to let him see me, then I had to make myself look as intimidating and unapproachable as possible. I stood up straight with my shoulders back. Loki, my big ass scary Akita, was tight by my side.

[00:37:00] With a big inhale to puff my chest out, we walked from behind the staircase and into the open. To my surprise, the man was nowhere in sight. I walked quickly to the covered staircase and as soon as I was covered, ran up to my third floor apartment.

[00:37:18] I busted through the door and locked it, almost in one swift motion, then quickly turned off all of the lights. Once the apartment was dark, I snuck on all fours to my balcony which overlooked the street that I had seen him on.

[00:37:34] From the balcony looking down, I could now see that the man had not even left. He was just hidden inside a public patio. He was still talking to himself, but this time he had a phone out.

[00:37:50] He wasn't really talking on the phone though, he just had it out and was sort of swinging it around as he paced. I nervously watched him for another thirty minutes to see if he knew where I was.

[00:38:02] After a while, he simply left the patio and disappeared down the street. I never saw him again. After that encounter, I started carrying pepper spray with me on all of our walks and only wore dark colors.

[00:38:18] It was lucky that my gray sweats and top helped me blend into the beige garage door that night, but it would have been much easier to hide if I would have just blended in with the shadows. I still wonder what his intentions were. Had I outsmarted him?

[00:38:36] Or were our paths an unfortunate coincidence and he wanted nothing to do with me? All I know is that his choices seemed intentional, like crossing the street to follow me and

[00:38:47] turning two corners just to walk down a row of garages where I happened to be hiding from him. Even though nothing came of it, that man definitely stole any naive sense of safety I had at that place, and I hope we never meet again.

[00:39:19] This was either my second or third year in New York City, so it was about eight years ago. I was living in the Lower East Side. I had just moved from Williamsburg, where most of my friends still lived.

[00:39:34] It was right across from the Williamsburg Bridge, and it took a huge chunk away from my commute. I worked in Chelsea, L-Train if you know. On the weekends I would usually go there, sometimes they would come here, but most of

[00:39:50] them lived in Brooklyn, so it was a normal occasion to spend my nights over there. We would usually go out, but loved staying in, ordering Chinese food and watching movies.

[00:40:02] I did know most of the bars, some of them I was a regular at since I used to live down the street. This night we were out at our favorite place. I remember it was winter and very snowy, so we decided to part ways sooner than usual.

[00:40:20] It was probably around 1am. I was in my twenties and this was New York City, so I called an Uber, and they were 10 minutes away. In New York standard, that is forever, so I cancelled. Luckily there was an unlit taxi coming down Berry Street.

[00:40:38] My friend insisted and flagged it down, so I got in. He had great intentions of getting me home safe. Everything went as usual and I told the driver my cross streets. Now usually going over the bridge is a reminder of why you love New York,

[00:40:56] especially after a few drinks, glancing out of the windows and seeing the amazing view of the city. My thoughts were immediately interrupted however by my driver. You're beautiful, do you have a boyfriend? I replied, uh yes I do, but I didn't. Wow what a lucky guy.

[00:41:19] And I shit you not, this guy reached his hand in the back and touched my thigh. I pushed it away as he was trying to stroke my thigh, but he still kept at it, getting a little too close for comfort if you know what I mean.

[00:41:34] I kept shaking my legs out of the way but he would clamp on and kept trying to slide up. At this point I was panicking. I sneakily texted my parents, who were states away, and told them what was happening.

[00:41:45] He kept asking me if I wanted to go out for a drink with him tonight. I obviously kept declining. But then I had a thought, if he drops me off where I asked, he'll know where I live.

[00:41:59] He kept on asking to go to this karaoke bar that I recognized in my neighborhood. Doing karaoke is scarier to me than this situation so of course I had never been. We finally came down over the bridge. I made the decision to agree.

[00:42:18] I would go in, I would tell the bartender the situation then get the fuck out of there. We park right in front and walk up. To my horror he hugs the bouncer and shakes hands. They are close friends.

[00:42:34] He then introduces me as his new blonde and we go in. I sit at the bar waiting to get the bartender's attention but she comes over and excitedly calls my driver by his name. Two drinks for us without him even needing to order.

[00:42:54] I didn't think I could even tell her. I'm not drinking anything this guy gets me, even if I see that it's made from this seemingly nice woman. I tell him I have to go to the bathroom, leaving just my coat and my jacket. Not to be suspicious.

[00:43:12] I look at my phone and I have 15 texts from my parents. I call them, explain and ask what I should do. They told me to walk straight out, grab my coat and leave as soon as possible. So I do just that, right after hanging up.

[00:43:28] And to my surprise this guy isn't even at the bar. Perfect. I beelined it outside. And there he is smoking a cigarette talking to the bouncer. As I go to leave he grabs my arm and asks where I'm going.

[00:43:45] And I just keep fucking walking, ripping his arm away. He then follows me for about two blocks, then confronts me again grabbing both of my arms. I pretty much yell at him that I'm not interested for the millionth time.

[00:44:00] And this dude throws my arms out of his hands so hard that I stumble and fall backwards. He towered over me as I'm now on the sidewalk and yelled that I'm a bitch and that I shouldn't have let him on.

[00:44:14] I can still remember his spit on my face as he yelled at me. Then he stormed off. I gathered myself and ran. Once I calmed down I looped around different blocks for an hour even though it was freezing before I went home. I still avoid that bar.

[00:44:35] And to that fucking handsy cabbie, let's never meet again.

[00:45:15] So, this week you have heard Oscar by FranPR1811. Creeper on the Roof by Bridget. My Stalker Pretended to be a Friend by Demir. He learned My School Schedule and Stalked Me by D'Tura Roth. The Man with the Black Box by Rose. And finally, Bad Cab Story by Liz.

[00:45:39] All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online.

[00:45:50] As always, if you have a story to share, send it to me at letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Don't forget to get your tickets for those Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon shows on August 25th and 26th.

[00:46:01] Again, you can just go to letsnotmeetpodcast.com slash tour or just follow the links in the show notes to get your tickets today. I'll also be at the Midsummer Scream Horror Convention in Long Beach, California at the

[00:46:14] Long Beach Convention Center on July 30th, just a couple of weeks away. I'll be telling some Let's Not Meet and my co-host for Odd Trails Brandon will be there doing some Odd Trails. Also appearing are two of our friends, Sapphire Sandalo and Shelby Scott of Scary to Sleep

[00:46:29] and Stories of Sapphire as well as some other podcasters. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a lot of stuff to do there. So come hang out, get yourself some stickers.

[00:46:38] We'd love to meet you all and just have a really good time there. And also don't forget about our Let's Not Meet TV series titled Let's Never Meet. We're still doing the Indiegogo fundraiser. We have a long ways to go. We're going to keep pushing it.

[00:46:52] There are a bunch of tiers there with different rewards just for donating to help us make this TV pilot happen. You can find out more at letsnotmeettv.com or just follow the link in the show notes like everything else. I appreciate you all.

[00:47:06] I'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet. Stay safe.

[00:47:42] In the summer of 2015, I'm 23 and getting ready...