9x12: Old Man in the Woods - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:00] It's time to mark your calendars again, Lets Not Meet's live Halloween stream will be airing on October 27th at 7pm Pacific over at twitch.tv forward slash cryptic county. A bunch of our favorite guests will be returning along with a handful of brand new ones.

[00:00:16] All of our stories will be told on camera and it's going to be an entire episode packed with creeps and Halloween scares. So if you weren't able to make any of the live dates this year, join us live on Thursday

[00:00:28] again that's at twitch.tv forward slash cryptic county. And as always, this podcast contains adult language and content. If you'd like to hear your story on the podcast, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:47] My name is Andrew Tate and this is season 9 episode 12 of Lets Not Meet, a true horror podcast. Intro I grew up in the suburbs of Maryland in the 90s. From the time I was 5, I lived with my grandparents, whose house was near a metro center.

[00:01:37] You could even hear the sounds of the metro day and night from our house. However, you get used to the noise over time and no longer notice. At night, my grandmother and I would fall asleep while listening to the police radio scanner.

[00:01:51] There was a small device in my grandmother's room that would broadcast local county police communications. This was my grandmother's way of checking in on the safety of my grandfather, who was a cop. I should note here that my grandmother couldn't hear very well.

[00:02:08] She chose not to use her hearing aids and therefore turned up the sound on all of the electronic devices to level 500 so that she could hear. One fall night when it was just starting to become cold outside, we were listening to the scanner as usual.

[00:02:26] I was attempting to fall asleep between police codes and back and forth communications still on level 500. We heard a report come across the scanner about a hockey stick wielding man in the area. In fact, the dispatcher was sharing information with officers about the report of a man with

[00:02:47] a hockey stick who was using said hockey stick to try and break into homes near the metro center. The exact same metro center that our home was about a mile away from. This woke me up right away. My grandmother and I sat and listened intently.

[00:03:07] The house was quiet minus the sounds of the metro in the distance. After some radio silence, the scanner began blaring at full volume. We suddenly heard loud banging on our front metal screen door.

[00:03:22] I remember thinking as a nine year old, oh shit, the hockey wielding maniac is trying to get into our damn house. That, and praying that he sticks to the metal storm door and doesn't think about hitting

[00:03:35] up against the full front picture window to the right of said door. Luckily this hockey asshole must not have been too bright and continued banging on the metal part of our house. To deter the hockey stick asshole, my grandmother yelled at him through the front door.

[00:03:54] My husband is a police officer, you better get out of here buddy. She also said, I've got a shotgun with me, it's right here. Thankfully my grandmother stopped yelling through the door during all of that banging to dial 911.

[00:04:09] Before the cops arrived, the hockey dude was on his way to the next house. The police finally arrived and made a report. They made sure that we were all safe and checked out our nicely dented but still standing metal storm door.

[00:04:26] We never found out who was up for hockey that night or where they ended up. So to the hockey stick wielding asshole, let's not meet. I'm from Canada and I live in a city that is extremely proud of its river valley and

[00:04:54] ravines as it creates such a beautiful place for hiking and other activities throughout the entire year. Even in our negative 40 degrees Celsius weather, you'll find people being active in the river valley. In its beauty, I still know and truly believe that everyone need to be cautious going in

[00:05:15] it alone. For some background, I'm a 5'4 woman average sized and I was 26 at the time of this story. I think most women are cautioned to be wary of their surroundings and other people's intentions, particularly towards other men.

[00:05:34] I believe the caution that my parents drilled into me at a young age has likely saved me from something awful. It was the summer of 2018. I was in the process of training for a half marathon. At the time, my husband and I lived with a roommate.

[00:05:53] My husband and our roommate had left to play flag football in the evening while I went for a 16km training run in our area. I was excited and nervous as this would be the longest distance I had to run at the time.

[00:06:09] One of the things that my parents and I discussed during my training was to always check over your shoulder if you pass by somebody to be sure they aren't following you. About 8km into my run, I've been steadily keeping up with said shoulder checks, especially

[00:06:27] since I've got my earphones in. I get to an area in a residential block that's quieter and I end up jogging along the same sidewalk towards three men. Two of the men have white beards and are wearing their cultural traditional clothing.

[00:06:45] The third man is dressed in a red t-shirt and jeans, no beard or white hair. I distinctly remember noticing the differences between the traditional and casual clothing. As we get closer and start to pass each other, I do the polite thing and give a quiet hello

[00:07:04] and a smile. It wasn't an overly friendly greeting more so just an acknowledgement in passing. As we pass each other, I keep up with my routine and take a few steps then check over my shoulder.

[00:07:18] They're heading away and not looking back at me, but something seemed off with them. I continue jogging through a more secluded area through a walkway beside a house. I check over my shoulder again for them and there's nothing.

[00:07:34] A couple of minutes of continuous jogging go by and I arrive along the ravine. I've already decided I want to just run along the edge of it but not to go in by myself, just to be safe.

[00:07:49] I figured running along the top edge while still near the residential homes should be safe. The edge of the ravine ends up being more private than I realized as there is a small hill blocking the view of the ravine from the homes.

[00:08:04] I decided to pick up my pace a bit and try to get out of the area quicker. I saw two cyclists, they were coming towards me. They were the first to pass me in a while.

[00:08:16] After they pass me, as usual I do the shoulder check to be safe. And that's when I see him. The man in the red t-shirt from the group of three men that I had passed earlier. He's by himself and he's running my exact path.

[00:08:32] This was a rural path along a ravine not a high traffic area that people use to get around. I looked back multiple times and he continued jogging but he was staring right at me. If this were a normal person they would realize that they're creating an uncomfortable situation

[00:08:50] and back off or something. I called my sister as I was running and loudly stated that a man was following me but he continued to follow me. My sister encouraged me to get out of there as quickly as I could.

[00:09:05] I started jogging faster but couldn't help but think that I was possibly being corralled towards the two other men that I saw with him. Luckily I never saw the other two men as I got out of the ravine area and back to the residential streets.

[00:09:21] When I looked back over my shoulder again, the man in the red t-shirt was nowhere in sight. He would have had to duck into the trees in order to not be visible at this point. There was nowhere for him to disappear to so quickly. It's impossible.

[00:09:39] I finished my run but spent the remainder of it feeling very skittish. I began to think I was possibly overreacting as I have a tendency to be unsure if I'm misreading things. When my husband and roommate came home, I couldn't shake the dread.

[00:09:56] I was thinking what if those cyclists hadn't been there? I told my husband and roommate about what happened fully expecting them to blow it off and say that I was probably misreading the situation.

[00:10:06] They're not assholes, they just know I often read too much into things and I'm a natural worrier. I watched as both of their faces became very serious. They asked if I was okay as well as other questions as to where and what the man in

[00:10:25] the red t-shirt looked like. I knew I was right to have been scared. A few months ago I saw an article for a man who eerily matched the description of the man in the red t-shirt.

[00:10:36] He assaulted women in that same ravine, about 12 blocks south of where I was being followed. I cannot say for sure if the man in the article was him because I didn't get to see all

[00:10:49] of his features up close but the age, location, approximate height and ethnicity all matched the man who followed me. I'm truly thankful that those cyclists rode by because I'm not sure if I would have looked back again if it weren't for them.

[00:11:06] I always carry dog or coyote spray when I go for a run and I turn on my phone's safety app so that I can press for help if an emergency arises. I urge everyone to be careful and remember to check over your shoulders and take those

[00:11:21] extra safety precautions. So to the man with the red t-shirt, along the ravine, if you have in fact been assaulting women, I hope you've been caught and no one ever has to meet you again.

[00:11:52] I've actually debated for the last few days as to whether to write about this guy as it actually happened almost 20 years ago when I was still in high school. After googling him recently and finding out some really bad stuff about him, I decided

[00:12:08] to throw caution into the wind and get it off my chest. For context, I'm now a 36 year old female and I live in Queensland, Australia. Way back in 2002 when I was about 15, I had just started grade 11 at the local Catholic high school in town out west, Queensland.

[00:12:29] I've moved a lot through my life due to my mom's job and have always had a bit of a tough time making friends due to this and due to my inability to really properly trust people due to my issues in my childhood. This is relevant.

[00:12:46] Since I had gone to a boarding school for my first year of high school and had a terrible time due to the issues I mentioned as well as mental abuse inflicted by the staff, my

[00:12:57] mom decided to move to town out west so that I could move back in with her and finish my schooling. I was a shy girl, coming from an all-girls school with a class of 300 pupils to a small town class of roughly 30 pupils.

[00:13:15] I escaped into my shell even more, but as time wore on, I made some friends. Fast forward to grade 11, our school had just implemented grade 11 and 12 and our class size had shrunk to around 15 students. There was a new guy who started.

[00:13:33] I wasn't much interested in dating or anything like that. In fact, I didn't find the idea of dating appealing. Why date when I could curl up with a good book? The girls I had made friends with at school decided to try and set me up with the new

[00:13:50] guy. I was hesitant because I don't like close relationships all that much. I agreed to let them set me up on a date with the new guy and we'll call him Ben.

[00:14:02] Ben and I went to the movies, which is the simplest thing to do in small town Queensland because there's literally nothing else to do. This was the early 2000s so mobile phones weren't really a thing and everyone in Queensland knew each other anyway. Ben was a nice guy.

[00:14:19] He was kind and had a cute smile, I guess, but I wasn't smitten. I was indifferent. It was a bit of a whirlwind because he was my first real boyfriend and I didn't know how to act or whatever. I'm an only child to older parents.

[00:14:37] I didn't have a figure to learn these kinds of things from if that makes sense. When my dad first met Ben, he took an instant dislike to him. After Ben left, my dad took me aside and told me not to tie myself down.

[00:14:52] He wanted me to see the world before I got myself into a serious committed relationship. Also, Ben gave him a bad vibe. I chalked that up to him being an overprotective papa bear.

[00:15:05] As a side note, my parents separated when I was about 3 years old but continued to be best friends until the day that my father passed away in 2012. After Ben met my dad, that's when he started acting weird.

[00:15:20] He would show up unannounced, which was odd but never when my mom was home. As a result, my mom and Ben never actually got to meet. Ben started acting like he owned me.

[00:15:33] He would talk down to me and make me feel like crap but only when we were alone, never when my dad was around. One day we were walking through the streets.

[00:15:43] Ben wanted to hold hands but it was late summer, around the end of February and this was in Outback Australia. It was hot so I told him no. He started berating me for not wanting to be a proper girlfriend and started alluding

[00:15:58] to the idea that I was probably more interested in a fellow classmate of ours than him. The way that he was speaking to me was really annoying so I stopped walking with him, turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.

[00:16:14] I don't like being talked down to and certainly don't like someone making me feel like crap. He ran after me and apologized. Like an idiot, I forgave him and we just continued walking. We would hang out at school but I still preferred being left alone with my books.

[00:16:34] One day he brought a guitar to school and tried serenading me with some kind of religious song. I told him quit it because A. I was reading, B. his playing was dreadful and C. I was and still am an atheist.

[00:16:48] I was beginning to think that dating him was a bad idea and I was also trying to think of a nice way to break up with him. He continued playing his guitar when a fellow classmate and coincidentally the guy Ben accused

[00:17:00] me of liking who we'll call Jimmy came up and told him to piss off, that I didn't want to be disturbed. Johnny told Ben he was being a dick. Ben got angry with Johnny for sticking up for me and hit him over the head with the acoustic guitar.

[00:17:17] Johnny was a gentle giant who came from a large semi-religious family and his father was a pastor. Johnny was nice as pie to you if you were nice to him but get him mad and he would hulk out with a flash fire fuse.

[00:17:32] He'd get his anger out and be done with it. Johnny and Ben began yelling at each other. Johnny told Ben to meet at the skate park after school and they would have it out. Long story short, Johnny got in-house suspension for giving Ben a black eye.

[00:17:49] The issue was dropped when everyone, including me, started sharing the whole story and we sided with Johnny. Ben was pissed. That same day after school, I was on the internet at home doing whatever it was that I was doing when MSN pinged with a new message.

[00:18:08] It was Ben. He told me that I was a whore for siding with Johnny. I told him that we were through and I didn't want to date him anymore.

[00:18:18] If he was going to insult my friends for standing up for me when he was being a dick then I deserved better. He got offline and didn't talk to me for the weekend. Monday came and he thought everything that happened had all just been a big joke.

[00:18:34] I told him no and I meant what I said. We were through. I told him I wasn't interested in him and he could move on. A few days later Ben stopped showing up at school, no word, no reason. He just stopped. Again, it was the early 2000s.

[00:18:52] All internet was dial-up, especially for those living out in the boonies, and mobile phones were expensive so there was no real way for me to contact him. He had never given me his phone number.

[00:19:03] As it was grade 11 and I was an average student at best, I kind of forgot about Ben and focused on other things in my life. Anything but schoolwork, as long as I'm being honest.

[00:19:15] I had a part-time job at a grocery store as well as another part-time job at a performing arts society that I was a part of. When the performing arts society put on a performance of a musical in which I had two

[00:19:27] small parts, that's when Ben suddenly began to show up again. On opening night he gave me a rose and told me how well I had done as the lead. I told him to stop trying so hard because if he had seen the damn show he would know

[00:19:42] that I wasn't a lead part. I tossed his rose in the trash and went home. After that nobody heard from Ben again. He dropped out of school and the rest of us went on with our lives.

[00:19:56] The girl who had set us up apologized to me because they hadn't realized how weird he was. A few years later I graduated and moved out of my parents' home. I was unemployed but working toward a business certificate at the technical college.

[00:20:14] I went out to lunch with some of my classmates because our class let out early. I heard my name being called and I turned to see Ben. At this point I had been out of high school for two years.

[00:20:26] As we all do at that age, I thought that I was grown up. I was polite and even friendly during our encounter. My classmates were commenting about Ben saying they thought that he was cute and I should have lunch with him. I shrugged. Fine, whatever, we're adults.

[00:20:44] He said that he was in town for the Christian music festival and was in one of the bands. I told him that I was still an atheist but urged him to go have fun since it wasn't my scene.

[00:20:55] Ben and I had lunch together while he was still in town. While we were out to lunch, Ben showed me a photo of his daughter and his wife. I was polite about the picture show. I even told Ben that his little girl was cute.

[00:21:09] Ben said that he made up his mind to marry her mother only one day before his daughter was born. They had gone to the local courthouse literally the day before she gave birth. I felt that pit in my stomach.

[00:21:22] I can't exactly tell you why I felt that way but I think I began to understand my dad's vibes about him. And that was years ago at this point. And I was really getting the bad vibes. After lunch I said goodbye and began to head off.

[00:21:40] Ben grabbed my hand and tried to set up a coffee date with me. He told me that he wasn't over me and he wanted to try again. I was not into that. He had a wife and a daughter. I was getting more and more bad vibes from him.

[00:21:55] I told him no and headed off. He managed to get my number from a classmate. After graduating from technical college my mom had gifted me a mobile phone so that we could keep in touch.

[00:22:09] A classmate of mine had willingly believed whatever tell he spun and gave him my number without consulting me. Needless to say I was really pissed off at her. I got a barrage of text messages over the next few days asking me about the coffee date.

[00:22:29] I told my best friend the whole story and asked her what she thought. She said to accept the invitation but that she was coming with me. The three of us met at this popular hole in the wall coffee place.

[00:22:44] Ben, who didn't have a valid driver's license at that point, arrived on his skateboard to meet us. When he saw I arrived with my best friend, he shut down. He kept making allusions to how God would smite the homosexuals. He assumed without asking that we were lesbian lovers.

[00:23:05] There are a lot of people who think that me and my besties are lovers, even now. Hearing Ben say all of this was making me feel awful. It took me many years to realize that I was part of the quote unquote alphabet mafia and

[00:23:21] a couple more years on top of that to realize exactly where I fit in. Anyway, my best friend, we'll call her Ann, didn't like his implications. Ann didn't deny anything and started in with her own brand of humor that makes people who aren't exactly used to it uncomfortable.

[00:23:41] Ben was not used to Ann or her humor and excused himself to go back to the Christian music festival. He made a quick exit after finishing his coffee and I bought Ann lunch after that as a thank you.

[00:23:55] Another handful of years later, Ann and I move in together as friends and roommates. We often discuss that coffee date and have a good laugh. I decided to sign up for Facebook and started looking for former schoolmates.

[00:24:10] Ben isn't on social media and I'm okay with this, but I add a few of the girls from high school and Johnny. All is well with them. I often think of my first foray into romance and laugh. That is until recently.

[00:24:27] For some reason, I had this feeling to look Ben up. I decided to google Ben's name. I have no idea why. This little inner voice was telling me to look him up. Just to see if any social media came up.

[00:24:43] I searched for his name and my jaw dropped. I saw his photo on a news website. I clicked the link and read in amazement about how he had been caught and charged with possession of child exploitative material on his computer back in 2015. I felt absolutely sick.

[00:25:05] As a survivor of sexual abuse from the son of a family friend, I felt sick to my stomach. I read about how he had been caught with hundreds of images on his phone and computer, which he obtained apparently when he was looking for legitimate pornography.

[00:25:24] I had to question the idea that if he was looking for legitimate pornography, why did he save those files? I had to get this off my chest. It's been festering. My friends tell me that I dodged a bullet.

[00:25:38] My old classmates, who are mostly parents, are disgusted that we went to school with this kind of scum. But to sign off on this long-winded rant, Ben, let's hope that we never meet again. I'm an advocate for the abused of all kinds and I will come out swinging.

[00:25:59] You better run. I was 18 years old and went through a very intense breakup. I went home to San Diego for winter break and I was partying a lot to try and get over it. I was on Tinder and matched with a surfer that was 25.

[00:26:28] I don't remember what name he had on his profile, so we'll call him Chris. I thought Chris was cute and he wanted to meet me at the beach that night. I was stoked that I had found another distraction and wouldn't be alone with my thoughts.

[00:26:45] I was doing whatever I could at the time to cope with my breakup. I wasn't thinking about my safety much at all. I didn't have a car so Chris offered to pick me up at my parents' house.

[00:26:56] I was naive and normally I would have felt comfortable accepting an offer for a ride, but something told me not to. I insisted on taking an Uber to meet him. On the way over, the Uber kept asking me if I wanted him to take me back home free

[00:27:13] of charge. The Uber driver must have had a feeling that the situation just wasn't right. I declined his offer and told him that I was fine. Chris texted me while I was on my way over and told me to meet him in his car so we could

[00:27:30] smoke a joint. I assumed that he wanted to smoke in his car rather than the beach to avoid getting busted. I got into his car and looked at him. I was shocked. He was the same man from his picture, but much older.

[00:27:47] He had slicked back chin length hair and these weird, dull eyes. He smiled but his eyes weren't smiling if that makes sense. He must have been about 35. I felt nauseous. The beach was down the cliff below us.

[00:28:06] The dead end street that we were on was so dark and secluded. If I ran away, he could easily catch up to me in his car and pull me back in.

[00:28:16] He told me that he had just gotten out of jail for dealing meth and that in prison he was protected by other Russians. He talked about being in LA working on advertisements for a toy. He asked me if I wanted to take a Valium.

[00:28:33] I lied through my teeth and told him that I had already taken Molly with a friend before I got ready to hang out with him and I was still really high. He seemed to be satisfied with that answer. He said that he had already taken Valium.

[00:28:48] He seemed very anxious and agitated. I told him I had to get back to go to bed early because I had to catch a flight in the morning. He grinned and said not to worry because he'll take me to the airport in the morning.

[00:29:02] I kept smiling but inside I was devastated. I dug my nails into my skin to try and distract myself from crying. I couldn't let him know that I was panicking.

[00:29:14] I didn't know if he had a weapon with him but I knew that as soon as he sensed I was trying to get away my chances of escaping would be a hell of a lot harder. Chris chuckled then grinned at me.

[00:29:29] You have no idea what I'm laughing about do you? He said. In this moment I felt I had totally detached from my body and I was outside of myself observing myself. I asked him to take me to a gas station because I had to pee.

[00:29:47] He said sure then started his car. As we pulled out and onto the street I saw a woman walking a dog. If I had just stalled a second sooner I could have ran to her for help but it was too late. We passed the gas station.

[00:30:04] I told him I have to go pee please stop somewhere I've got to use the restroom. He ignored me. He then picked up the phone. He said to whoever was on the other end I'm with a very beautiful lady right now we'll be there in 15 minutes.

[00:30:22] I thought fuck, fuck no. I would jump out or crash the car before he took me to wherever he planned on taking me. I decided to try and jump out. I opened the car door and the street was a blur below my feet so he sped up.

[00:30:40] I couldn't bring myself to do it. He began laughing. He had to slow down at a stoplight though. Before he came to a full stop I was already jumping out. I stumbled a bit and ran as fast as I could into a Mexican restaurant.

[00:30:55] I was crying and hyperventilating. The people in the restaurant looked embarrassed for me but I was confused. I just said out loud that man is trying to kidnap me. I pointed to his car through the window. He was holding up other cars at the green light.

[00:31:12] This guy walking out of the restaurant smiled and asked if I wanted him to go beat him up. I stuttered that I needed help. I was in shock. I realized he was joking. None of my friends that lived nearby answered when I called them.

[00:31:29] I went up to this woman who avoided eye contact with me. She looked pained that I had chosen to talk to her. I asked her if she could give me a ride home. She said that she would have to ask her husband first but I immediately declined.

[00:31:44] I didn't want to get into another strange man's car again. I couldn't call my parents. I didn't have a good relationship with them. I called my friend who was about an hour away and she came to get me. I got into her car and told her what happened.

[00:31:59] Chris texted me and said, don't worry baby, I'm not going to hurt you. My friend said he's trying to get you back and at that point I had a full mental breakdown. I texted him back, if you ever hurt me I'll kill you and immediately blocked his number.

[00:32:18] The next day I decided to go to the police. I initially didn't want to report it but decided to because I knew that Chris would move on to preying on the next girl. I went to the police station.

[00:32:32] The sheriff was disgruntled that he had to come in on a Saturday to meet with me. He treated it like a date gone wrong or something. I'll never forget how the officer cut me off and laughed when I said that I was kidnapped.

[00:32:46] He said, he didn't kidnap you because you voluntarily got into his car. He also demanded to see my bruises because he didn't believe that I jumped out of the car. I felt so small and stupid. He didn't bother to take down a police report.

[00:33:03] I had Chris' Tinder picture ready to give to him. I remembered Chris saying that he was out on parole as well so I wrongly assumed that me making a report would get him sent back to jail. I sent his information and his picture to Tinder.

[00:33:17] They told me that they would take down his profile. My friend saw Chris back on Tinder a few months later and I was horrified. I almost flunked out of my last semester returning from winter break because I felt so unsafe.

[00:33:32] I didn't feel like I could even leave my dorm. My advice to anyone who is preyed on is to look up victim advocacy services in their city. They sometimes provide free legal advocacy. I bet that a police report would have been taken if there were a lawyer present.

[00:33:50] There are also hotlines to call for support. I would suggest calling an assault hotline before anyone else because being invalidated after being violated is doubly traumatic. To Chris or whatever your real name actually was, you better pray that we don't meet again.

[00:34:26] When my sister and I were younger, our neighborhood definitely wasn't the safest. This was mostly due to gang violence. There was always something happening on our block. Drive-by shootings, street fights, car theft, you name it.

[00:34:44] My parents have always worked very hard for us and would get stuck with evening shifts. They were only able to pick us up from school on their days off. My sister was 12 and I was 13 at the time. We lived about a 10 minute walk away from school.

[00:35:02] There was a main street that all of the students would walk on with smaller residential streets intersecting with that main street. One day, we were walking home from school and once we got to our block, and we had a

[00:35:16] bit further to go since our house was all the way at the end, we were about 6 houses down when we noticed this man standing on the sidewalk next to a large tree. He looked like he was probably a thug, but I had never seen him before.

[00:35:33] I could only assume he was a friend of one of the other thugs living on our block at the time. He noticed us and gave us a menacing smile. This made me feel anxious and that's when he moved to hide behind the tree as if he

[00:35:47] were waiting for us to come by. I froze but only for a second. I looked over at my sister and she hadn't even noticed. She was still walking. I tried saying something to her, but she just looked at me, confused.

[00:36:07] He heard me trying to talk to her and he peeked around the tree. He noticed that we stopped walking and started heading towards us. He wasn't smiling anymore. He looked angry. I grabbed my sister by the arm and we made a run for it.

[00:36:23] We headed towards the main street where thankfully there were still students walking by. I quickly glanced around to see if we were being followed. I went into a sheer panic when I saw him sprinting, now only a few feet away from us.

[00:36:39] I yanked my sister hard and yelled at her, run faster! We finally made it to the crowd of kids and tried blending in with them. I turn around and I see that the man has stopped right before the crowd. He had that menacing smile again.

[00:36:57] I was holding onto my sister as we were walking away, all while maintaining eye contact with this man. He even lifted his hand up to wave goodbye. I felt sick to my stomach. My sister realized what had happened. I could see her trying to hold back tears.

[00:37:18] We went into the next small street and hid by some bushes to wait for a while and make sure that the man had not followed us. About an hour went by and we finally felt safe enough to head home.

[00:37:33] When we got there, we walked in to hear my mom speaking with the police on the phone. As soon as she saw us, she let them know that we arrived home and apologized for calling. My mom began yelling, then crying.

[00:37:47] My sister and I weren't able to hold in our emotions either so the three of us just stopped together while hugging. We didn't know that our mom wasn't working that afternoon.

[00:37:58] She said she wanted to surprise us and pick us up at school, but when she got to the school we weren't there. She assumed that she missed us so she went back home and waited.

[00:38:08] As time passed that afternoon, she panicked and that's when she decided to call the police. Mind you, we're in the 90s so having a cell phone at our age was a major luxury. Needless to say, we got cell phones after that day.

[00:38:26] We told our mom about what happened to us and she began to cry again but was grateful that we were able to make it home safe. I'm happy that my instincts kicked in that day.

[00:38:38] I was able to save my sister and I from who knows what kind of fate. I still don't know what that man was trying to do, but I'm glad we did not stick around to find out.

[00:38:49] So to the man who scared my sister and I, let's not meet. This story takes place in a town in Alaska where I'm from. Alaska is known for its vast wilderness and there are many backwoods folks who value its solitude.

[00:39:19] People here are very protective of their property and will defend themselves against trespassers. This event was something different though. My friend, we'll call her Elle, and I decided to take a hike on a sunny summer day around our favorite lake.

[00:39:37] For context, we are both pretty small women and we were around 20 years old at the time. Admittedly, Elle and I looked like we were teenagers. There is a vast trail network right behind this lake that I had often hiked alone.

[00:39:55] This area is known for occasional bear attacks but also happened to be the dumping ground for a recent murder. A man had snatched a woman from a coffee shop and eventually dropped her body at the lake. I wasn't too worried about spending time at this location.

[00:40:15] Lightning doesn't strike in the same place twice, you know? I'll admit, this was very naive of me. I knew the trail like the back of my hand and would often wander around for up to 8 hours during any given summer day.

[00:40:30] Elle and I packed our inflatable kayak in the car and chose not to hike on this particular day. Usually, we would carry our things and hike the trail to get to the lakefront but there is a parking lot right next to the lake that has paid parking.

[00:40:47] We were feeling lazy so we decided to park. We inflated our kayak and set off across the lake. It was a blast. The sun and the water on this day were perfectly warm and it was just the two of us out on that quiet lake.

[00:41:03] The wind slowly guided our little kayak towards the shore on the far end of the lake. As we drifted towards the shoreline, we decided to get off and walk around to dry off.

[00:41:16] The entire lake is public property and I knew that the trail connected right where we were so I thought that there wouldn't be any issues. We ditched the kayak on the shore and followed a little footpath into the woods.

[00:41:31] Further down the trail, it connects to a dirt road. We're talking, distracted and just meandering up this road when we see a red truck about a mile or so away. It's making a turn but the driver seems to slow down when they spot us. The driver bolted away.

[00:41:50] Maybe we shouldn't be here, Elle said. Even though the lake is public property, I agreed that we should turn back. As we were walking back to the lake, I hear the crunching of tires. The red truck was now driving towards us.

[00:42:07] I told Elle just to keep walking like normal and pretend that we don't notice. The truck pulls to the right of me and a scraggly old man rolls down his window. He had a shotgun. He said, what the fuck are you doing here? This is private property.

[00:42:27] Chills ran down my spine at the way that he looked up and down at Elle and I. We were both wearing swimsuits and he obviously seemed to get a thrill out of this. Oh, I'm sorry sir, we're just leaving, I answer, strutting forward with confidence.

[00:42:45] He says it again, you're not supposed to be here, little lady. The way that he said little lady made me stop breathing. I replied, yep, just making our way back, sorry. I tried to remain calm as not to agitate the man with the shotgun.

[00:43:03] However, Elle did not react the same. She started running. This is where things get chaotic. As soon as Elle picks up the pace, the man with the red truck chases her down. He revved his engine and slammed the brakes just before hitting her.

[00:43:21] It looked like he wanted to run her over. I started sprinting to catch up to Elle. I screamed at her, get off the road! We get onto the foot trail and we're running as fast as possible.

[00:43:32] Behind us, I heard the man's truck scraping against the bushes and trees as he continued to chase us through the woods. He was able to drive his truck for just a bit. Once the woods narrowed too much for him to continue driving, he got out of his truck

[00:43:46] with his shotgun. He moved scarily fast for his age. The look in his eye was ungodly. He wasn't just protecting his property, he wanted us. Elle and I sprinted for our lives in our swimsuits down the trail. We didn't even have shoes on.

[00:44:04] Right before reaching the lake, the trail diverges into two paths. One side takes you deeper into the trails and the other to the lakefront. I'm so thankful that on this day we decided to be lazy and not hike because we jumped

[00:44:17] into our kayak and paddled away just as the man caught up to us. Had we been hiking that day, I think that old man would have caught us. That stupid little boat saved our lives. He watched us with his shotgun raised as we paddled away.

[00:44:34] Luckily at that point, there were people out on the lake. The other people definitely would have heard gunshots and I think this is why he didn't try shooting at us. I have no idea what he would have done to us if he got us.

[00:44:49] I can't think about it too long without severe anxiety setting in. If this man really did own the property and thought we were trespassing, is this really an appropriate measure to take with two teenage looking young women? I fear his intentions were far worse than I imagined.

[00:45:09] So to that old man in the woods with the shotgun, let's not meet again.

[00:46:23] This week you have heard Hockey Stick Asshole by Ali Red T-Shirt Man by Nicole My First Boyfriend by Minty Contessa How I Escaped Kidnapping by ThirteenTwelve Creepy Man Behind the Tree by Shan Liz And finally, The Old Man in the Woods by Riley

[00:46:43] All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. And don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts, Odd Trails, my True

[00:47:05] Paranormal Podcast, and the Old Time Radiocast. You can find those at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll see you all Thursday for that live episode at 7pm Pacific Time. Again, that's twitch.tv forward slash crypticcounty.

[00:47:21] If you're not able to make it, don't worry, I will be releasing the videos on my Patreon as I do every year. And you'll be able to catch the audio version of that episode the following Sunday night, just as you would any regular episode.

[00:47:36] So none of you are missing out on these frightening tales. See you then. Stay safe. I met this person. Let's call her Allison on a dating app.