For context. I met this friend online who really struggles with at-home things -- such as abuse; sexual assault; and many more. I will be calling him Ash.

Ash's life at home was disruptive, cruel and incredibly hostile with both of his parents abusing him throughout the day, locking him in his room, etc. At the age of 19, he had limited hours on his phone and social media and I, unfortunately or unfortunately, had met him on Roblox.

All of this happened about a year ago. We played games together, and it all seemed about the same normality I would have with other online friends. We talked allot, and that was starting to become a problem.

He started telling me in graphic detail about how he was abused, and sometimes even about his intimacy with his partners. (he was poly).

Obviously, I was incredibly disturbed and uncomfortable, as any person would be, about him telling me things and frequently changing the topics of our chats to this.

You may be wondering: "Why didn't you just leave?"

Because I felt sorry for him. I felt compelled to stay, to comfort him, to offer as much as a safe haven I possibly can. I started relying on him, for company, for anything but the loneliness that came with my life. I was an incredibly introverted, and I genuinely struggled to make friends in school, so he was the person I turned to daily.

But then it all went wrong. I felt fear of being rejected when I vented, because my things were small- I had a relatively good and normal home life.

So I started lying. I'm not proud of it. I feel guilty every time I see something about him or other friends that were associated with him. And I didn't lie small.

I lied about my household being abusive as well- about how my father supposedly harassed me, touched me, etc. Again. I'm not proud of it, and I certainly know now that it was NOT the right thing to do at all.

I've grown out of it, and I lie as little as I can now. I am disappointed in myself for what I had done.

But that's not all I'm guilty for.

A week before New Year. He had begun getting death threats from his ex, threatening his life and his pets'. (9 cats.)

And they came true. The night of his death, I was busy playing Pony Town with all of my notifications off. He had messaged me multiple times- asking for me, telling me that there was someone in his house. When I finally checked, I was met with a horror story.

His killer had took his phone and messaged me as well. Saying I'd never see him again, telling me that I'm next. (Which wouldn't be possible, as I live across the world.) I was scared for him, as I had previously stated, relied on him.

His new partner had texted me the following morning. Saying he had been stabbed about a dozen times, and had died in the hospital.

After that I had gone into a very dark, deep pit of a horrible mental state- I blamed myself for not being there, and the guilt of not being able to apologize for my lies was eating me up alongside that.

It's been almost a year.

I'm still guilty, but I don't feel that bothered by it anymore.

I had realized two months after that it was better this way. His company had affected me greatly, mentally at most.

I shouldn't have done what I did, but now I have learnt to live with it, and in turn, never lie again about something as drastic as I did.

I have learnt from my mistakes.

And I have advice for those who are going through the same as me:

Don't ever let an online person scare or convince you to do anything you do not wish to do. And don't get attached either.

If you feel unsafe or forced in the friendship, step back and leave. No one can hurt you.

Lastly, be safe on the internet. Don't tell anyone your private information, such as : the school you go to, your full name and/or address, etc.

This might not belong on this community, and maybe it does.

But I'm glad I could share my story one way or another.

Be safe, everyone.

- Ram

i was 19 and fresh out of high school working the closing shift at a 24hr coffee shop downtown. it was dead after 11 so i'd wipe tables listen to music and watch the parking lot. one night this older guy maybe late 40s comes in right before midnight orders a black coffee and sits by the window. he kept glancing over smiling a little too long. i smiled back because customer service but something felt off. he left after 20 mins. next night same guy same time same order. he starts asking my name where i go to school if i live alone. i gave short answers and went back to the counter. third night he shows up again but this time he parks his truck around the side where the security camera doesn't reach. i noticed because i was taking out trash. when i came back in he was already at the counter waiting. he leans in and says real quiet that he knows my schedule and that pretty girls like me shouldn't be alone at night. my stomach dropped. i told him i had to call my manager and he just smiled and walked out slow. i locked the door flipped the sign to closed 30 mins early and called my boss shaking. he had me stay in the back till the cops came. they said the guy had priors for following women home from bars. i still get chills thinking how easy it wouldve been for him to wait till i walked to my car alone. never saw him again but i quit that job two weeks later and started carrying pepper spray everywhere.

This is a bit of a strange one, but is absolutley one of the creepiest things that has happened to me.

Towards the end of covid, I (M22 at the time), at this point, I was living with my great grandmother half as a cartaker, half as a more comfrotable living place compared to my parents house. Around 5pm, I was heading home from work, feeling tired. At the time I was driving a red 2014 Chrysler 200 (I swear this is relevant). As I'm driving home, I glance out my side window and have that classic experience where to make eye contact with someone and give an awkward little smile. However, a coupel details about the person I locked eyes with struck me as interesting. Firstly, the way the driver looked. She looked to be a middle aged woman, slightly heavier set but not big, and she had this frizzy/curly orange hair that was unkept and sticking out in all directions. Furthermore, she was driving the same car as I was except it was silver/grey. None of this is particullarly interesting, just the sort of thing my brain takes note of and is why I payed slightly closer attention, which is why I noticed the first thing that bothered me on this night: her smile.

As I gave the awkward smile and nod you give in those slighly awkward moments, she smiled back, but it was no normal smile. She had as ear-to-ear a smile as a person could get, almost straining, with her eyes wide, unblinking. I looked away kinda creeped out, and in my tired "early 20s angst ridden' state, I looked away annoyed, but when I glanced back she was still looking at me with the same look.

"What the fuck...." mumbled to myself as I sped up a bit to put some distance between us. From there I kinda forgot about it, but as I approached the turn in to my neighborhood, I realized she was right behind me. Some neccesary context: my great grandma's (who I called Granny) house was the 4th house in from the main road, and I -- being a generally paranoid guy -- always hated when a car turned in right behind me because I didn't like that they would know where I lived. Seeing this strange woman right behind me I began getting nervous. It was odd, cause I wasn't afraid of her, but somthing about her made me distinctly uncomfortable. As I finished the turn, she followed right behind me. I pulled into the carpark, and she countinued into the neighborhood. I sat in my car for a moment and got to wondering: have I ever seen that car -- or that lady -- before? Now I'll admit, I obviosuly didn't know every person and every car in my neighborhood, but it was till rather small, probably less than 50 houses, it being a modest mobile home/manufactured home park. After a second, I realized I was being paranoid.

Now, I think a little more context is in order. Like I said, it was a moble home park, I'm never sure what name people use for them but those little houses that are pre manufactured that you see being towed down the freeway - thats what it was. Now there was a front and back door one on each side of the house. The front door you went though a short metal gate, probably wasit high, to get to. The back door was behind a tall wooden gate by the driveway/carpark. In our house, anyone that knew us came in through the wooden gate and the back door, and thus the metal gate always had a caribiner on it and the front door and security screen remained locked with a deperate key we ketp inside.

Sorry about the lengthy explanation. Now after I went inside, a few hours past, the sun went down and it got to be about 10pm. I was playing video games on on my PC, drinking a 40, and smoking some weed (a normal night) and my granny was having her night cap, a routine that had started to get her increasingly drunk as she got older, when suddenly the doorbell rang. The doorbell at the front door. At 10pm. This was incredibly strange. I go peak out one of my windows that is on that side of the house and there she is, the orange haired woman standing at the door, smiling that terrifying smile.

I immedietly get pretty stressed out, I'm an anxious person by nature and rush out to the living room to see my granny trying to get out fo ger chair to answer the door and I tell her its fine and I got it, that its nobody, then go back to my room to peak again and she is still there. I decide to go out the back door and go around. On my way out, I grab a hammer just in case she has someone with her. (I'm 5'8 and at the time probably 110 pounds soaking wet). I quietly go out the back door, out the wooden gate, and to the edge of the house. Right as I peak around the edge, she peaks her head around the other corner like a fucking cartoon, like she knew I was coming, still smiling that fucking smile and after a short pause said," Hi" in this overly chipper voice.

I start walking down the driveway, as she does the same on the opposie walk way.

I responded," What's up" with all the aggression I could muster as I notice her grey chrysler is parked along the street in front of the house, in betweeen us.

As we both reach the side walk she says "I saw you, and wanted to be friends" never for a moment breaking her smile.

We both hit the sidewalk, standing about 20 feet from eachother, me hiding the hammer trying to to aggravate the situation.

"You don't go to a strangers house at 10 at night."

She kept starting, smiling," I wanna be friends" she had almsot this eery cutsey higher pitch at the end of her sentences

"No, I think you should leave," I heard my voice waver. I was nerovus. She had such a strange energy

Still smiling she said "Why, are you scared?" and somehow her smile WIDENED and looked more i dont know, sinster?

I put every effort into making my nxt words sound forceful," No, I'm tired , and nnoyed and frankly pretty pissed off so I think you should leave." I almost yelled this in a tone I didn't now I had.

Her smile faded. Not into fear, not itno anger, but into an almst innocent confusion. She looked distinctly puzzeld by my response. Like she expcted me to react differently. She then just walked to her car, got in, and drove back into the neighborhood. And I went inside. I never saw that car or that woman again.

I can see how to many this may not seem particularly scary, but the vibe of this person, their mannersism,their voice, that smile. It was haunting. And then, what make sit live rent free in my mind is actually what happened the next.

The following day, hanging out with a couple of frineds I relayed the story, the grey car, the orange hair, the lady's general vibe and they got giddy with excitment. Apparently they had just recently been listening to an episdoe of Jim Harold Campfire (I think thats what its called? I cant remember, I wasn't particularly familiar with it at the time) and a woman called in telling a sotry about being on a drive with her dad, when a strange lady with a creepy smile, big orange hair, driving a grey car past them staring the whole time. SHortly after they noticed her, the car popped a tire. While stopping to change it, a truck hit and killed her father. The caller thinks the woman was an omen of some sort. My friends to this day are convinced that I encountered that omen.

I am not that spirtually or supernaturally inclined, but I will say I have ineracted with many a tweaker, many a mentally ill person, and many a simpy werid dude but nothing and no one has ever given off the feeling that this woman dide.

If you make it this far let me know if you want me to share the other strnage occurances in that house, like tha disembodied vocies or (more fitting for this sub) the naked dude who almost broke my bedrom window with his fist. Thnaks for reading!

Wrote this last night posting it now

Ok so I just got home and had a really unusual experience and needed to ask about it, chatgpt is useless so I'm asking here if someone has experience with this or maybe can help me read into this, it's almost 6am in my timezone I'm tired and a bit off

I (25m) went to pick up my girlfriend after dinner at 11pm, and we drove to an empty parking lot. We sometimes go there, it's in the beginning of a wood/field area, it's next to a football field and at night it's a pretty quiet zone

Should add, this is in Italy, completely unremarkable city, tiny, mountainous terrain, and that specific zone is off city, with fields around it, so there is nothing worth of attention.

it was raining a bit, we stayed in the car, played, talked, took videos, just had a good time, then we kissed and started caressing each other so we wanted to go somewhere more private (the parking lot has h24 lights on). Since the fields are just 500m away we drove there.

The road is completely flat and straight. There are mostly empty grass fields, a few trees, the mountains in the distance, and some hay bales. No constructions / no sites. There are power lines close-ish to the road. I parked in line with the hay bales, so that someone from the road wouldn't be able to spot the car super easily / it would kinda blend in, we were at like 30m from the road. Plus there was a couple of trees around, in total darkness.

I park, handbrake, and we go to the back seats of the car. We stay there for like 2 hours until really late, we had a good time. We check out phones and it was around 4:10am so we said fuck it's really late and we decided that we'd get going shortly, buy we continued kissing.

Then I see a light off in the distance. Premise: it's a minor road connecting two other roads, so it's a really strange deviation that only a local would take, as there is literally nothing there.

Sometimes cars pass by, not at this time usually but normally yes. Since it's a straight road, from when they come into view they appear still for a while since they are far and the angular deviation is small, then they get closer, you come out of their light cone and they pass by.

Only once it happened that a car at night was driving really slowly like 20km/h and breaking sometimes but it didn't stop so we just took it as it came.

This light appeared, so we stopped and looked at it. The windows were a bit fogged so we couldn't see really well, but from far away the light hit our car directly, there was no tree/hay ball in between.

Then the light stopped. I know it stopped because we were watching it a bit wondering where someone would go at 4am in a field road and it stopped. It was far, idk how much, but far. And I know it stopped because I was laser focused on it, head still, and the light was fixed. We looked at each other and tried to think of what to do, it felt a bit uncomfortable. It stayed still for around 15-20 seconds.

Then it shut off. Completely. It wasn't gradual it wasn't fading through a tree, it shut off. At that point I said let's go I jumped in the driver seat put on my shoes and turned on the car, tried to go without headlight but it was total darkness so I turned them on and drove pretty quickly on the road and far away, I know the roads well so I was quick.

I dropped off my girlfriend at home, we took some time to digest it and talk about it, and now that I think of it I don't know if it was a smart choice. I went back on that same road from the other side, because I wanted to see if the car was there. I thought it was another couple maybe parking in the field (although they would first turn on the field, then turn off the light). And it was totally empty from what I could see.

Now I'm home under a blanket, I'm a bit shook because it could have just been a random person, and it probably is, but it was scary to have this happen.

I think the reaction is justified regardless, but I wanted to share it, get a check in with other people and just process it

hello everyone, I’ve never posted on Reddit before and in fact made this account specifically because of this situation and needing advice on what to do and honestly don’t know who to go to. I will also be posting this on r/legaladvice to try and figure out my legal options a bit better. if anyone has any questions to better understand or give advice please feel free to ask as honestly I’m not sure what I should and shouldn’t include for context since I’ve never posted here or on Reddit to begin with.

so, to start this off with some context, I (22f) started working at a new place roughly a year n a half ago. when I started at this job I bonded with a fellow coworker (~26 not stating gender for identification purpose) over shared love for certain social media personalities and popular shows. we started becoming friends and were very close for the majority of our time working together. about 2-3 months before they were fired I found out that they had committed sexual assault against a minor a few years before we met and confronted them. I made it very clear I no longer wanted anything to do with them but would do my best to be cordial on the work floor and in front of our other coworkers (now their employees as they had been promoted to assistant manager) to keep from promoting a hostile work environment. after this things changed drastically. they started drinking even more than usual, including drinking on work premises after they had clocked out while waiting for a ride. ultimately this behavior, as well as several instances of being drunk on the company floor while interacting with customers and working off the clock and getting caught doing drugs in our office got them fired. it was a joint effort between the entire team as they had made multiple customers outwardly uncomfortable as well as the entirety of the staff working those nights (including our store manager). we all had to make written statements and reports and ultimately HR decided it was best to let them go. this is where everything got scary. after being fired I was told by multiple sources that I was being blamed as the reason they were ultimately canned and that they were actively texting our store manager about getting me sushi. for context I am severely allergic to any and all shellfish and this person was very much aware of that fact, i had even made jokes about “please keep your shellfish and sushi away from me cause I’d rather not die on company time.” when they’d order from the local sushi spots. I thought this was petty and stupid that they were threatening to essentially get me something they knew could quite literally kill me with a couple small bites so I let it go for a while and just continued about my life. then I found out they were texting another coworker saying and I quote “blank (my deadname) is dead. I know where she fucking lives.” and they do know where I live. they have my home address because I asked a manger for some help getting to work one day (I had $5 in my bank account due to rent and hours being cut) so our manager had them order me an uber that I was more than happy to reimburse upon receiving my paycheck. this ex coworker had multiple of our mutual friends reach out to me to tell me to essentially keep their name out of my mouth and threaten me as well. now, I understand how this can be taken as someone just lashing out with no actual intention to act upon the threats, however, what scares me is this individual is extremely calculated, going back to our coworkers and telling them after the threats “I won’t actually kill her, you know I’m not that kind of person” as well as playing off the sushi comment as if I had saved their life and that was my reward. they are incredibly manipulative and genuinely unstable, often talking about “I’m going to blow my brains out in the break room so all you motherfuckers have to see my brain matter splattered on the walls” when they were working with me still as well as constant talks of suicidal ideation and the thoughts of genuinely believing they can’t die in any way shape or form unless it’s their doing and choice. these texts where the threats happened were shared with HR and our district manager gave me permission to lock myself in our lock up room where we keep expensive product if they ever come into the store out of fear for my physical safety. ive also recently found out they have a tangible history of physically stalking victims in the past and even harassing them online through burner accounts/numbers. my concern is that I haven’t once gotten a direct threat sent to myself by them, only sent to coworkers and mutual friends to warn them or relay to me. another scary thing is that recently at my job we had an anonymous person call about this ex coworker, stating they are an active danger to women and people around them and this stranger stated my name specifically saying that they were concerned for my safety because this ex coworker is still making threats and continuously talking about homicidal ideation with me as the victim. I genuinely have no idea what to do as I’ve been told I most likely won’t be able to get an order of protection or restraining order as there haven’t been any direct threats sent to me specifically as well as too little tangible evidence i have access to. absolutely any advice regarding this is genuinely greatly appreciated as I feel I’m stuck between constantly fearing for my life or speaking up publicly and facing worse retaliation or even follow through regarding the threats. so uh yeah, please for the love of everything let’s not meet again.

I also apologize that this isn’t very concise and possibly very jumbled I just genuinely don’t know who to go to with this or where to go from here n simply need to vent about this situation with someone not in my immediate life.

I think I may have actually shared this story years ago, but a recent thread on a different sub brought it back to mind. I've gained a new perspective on the whole thing since then anyway, so I felt like sharing here (maybe to shake off the goosebumps it's giving me, idk).

I started 4th grade at a new school, after being placed in a ""gifted and talented"" program. This meant a much longer bus ride, since I was now being bussed to a school on the opposite side of town (technically it's more like a small city, in case that gives an idea of the commute difference). It also meant a special "bus stop" was created just for me, literally just right outside my driveway, and I spent the first (and last) 15+ minutes of it as the only kid on the bus.

Our bus driver, who insisted we call him by his first name, Al, was very... Friendly, from the get go. My friends who joined the bus ride after me loved him, because he was always talking to us like we were his adult friends. He also let us get away with all sorts of shenanigans, like climbing across the tops of the seats.

He had the bizarre habit of pulling the bus over any time he saw something left out on the curb for trash pickup that he wanted to take home, and bringing it onto the bus with us. A padlock, an old folding chair (that he let us set up in the aisle and sit in), you name it.

Since my friends loved Al so much, they wanted to sit in the very front seats of the bus so they could talk to him. This meant, when they got off, I was left sitting just a few feet away from the guy by myself. If I got on in the morning and went to sit anywhere else, he'd make a fuss about it, telling me to come sit closer to him since my friends would want me to anyway. I was starting to feel creeped out by the guy, but was also kind of scared of "offending him" by not sitting close, so... I sat right up next to him.

He started asking increasingly personal questions, and telling me and my friends increasingly intimate details about his life. I remember one time he told us all about the time he found his wife unconscious in the bathtub, and what he did to save her/resuscitate her, going into some fairly graphic details I didn't understand... My sense of uneasiness with him grew stronger, but my friends still found him endlessly entertaining for whatever reason.

He'd started to bring me gifts, that he'd give me when I first got on in the morning. He'd picked up on the fact that I loved to read (since I spent most of our "alone time" reading books, though that was partially to avoid having to speak to him too much). He brought me an old copy of a Sherlock Holmes book, and I'll admit I was kinda stoked about it. From then on he continued to bring me books and other little things, "just between us".

The truly messed up portion of this story began when one day, as I and everyone else got on the bus in the morning, he announced that he'd been called in for jury duty. Being 8- to 9-year-olds, we didn't really get what that meant (nor did we care very much), but he spent the entirety of the hour long bus drive explaining: he wouldn't be driving our bus tomorrow, so we would have a substitute bus driver, and he might be gone a while. He really kept emphasizing and bringing back up how he wouldn't be around for probably several days, maybe even weeks or months, as he would be involved in important jury duty things.

When we got back on the bus to go home, we got another hour's worth of unprompted proclamations of how he wouldn't be there the next day, how sad he was that he wouldn't see us for possibly quite a while, and expressing concerns about us being left with a substitute driver who "doesn't know us like he does". He also said to expect the sub to be late picking us up, not being familiar with the route.

The next morning I went and stood outside my driveway like always. I noticed a red pickup truck idling across the street from me, but didn't think much of it at first. A lot of people turned their cars on to get them warmed up before leaving for work/school/whatever, so it wasn't unusual in itself. The bus was late, just as our usual bus driver had predicted. So I was waiting there for a while, starting to wonder if I'd missed it... When who should step out of that idling truck but Al himself.

He started crossing the street towards me and I remember feeling the biggest alarm bells just clanging in my head. He smiled and waved at me, calling my name out, and started approaching more quickly. He got to within maybe ten or fifteen feet from me, then just stood there on the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets. He started explaining how he'd been really worried the substitute "wouldn't be able to find my stop", so he came to make sure I got on the bus okay. At this point I was on high alert, very conscious of the remaining distance between us. I smiled and nodded and thanked him for caring, while also racking my brain looking for a way out. I was about to tell him I was gonna go back inside and ask my parents to call the bus company, see if I'd maybe missed it, when to my (foolish) relief I saw my dad come outside to check on me.

It probably should be stated clearly upfront here: my dad lacks any innate paternal instinct. Let's just say my home life wasn't great in general, which honestly I think other people were able to recognize about me long before I was (like, for instance, when I was in 4th grade and met Al the bus driver). Among my dad's greatest hits are placing me in a tree branch above his own head as an infant (because "he could tell I was born to be a climber"), placing my infant brother in kitchen cabinets and closing them when he couldn't figure out how to get him to stop crying, and accidentally lighting my sister on fire after placing her (again, as a baby) on the stove while he was cooking. Among other classics. Hopefully that primes you for understanding what happened next.

My dad looked a little confused to see Al standing there with me, but absolutely failed to pick up on my growing desperation to gtfo of the situation or the visible nervousness of the 50+ year-old stranger standing outside with me. Al launched into a rushed explanation of how he was my usual bus driver, and he was here to make sure I made it on the bus okay... To which my dad responded with a "wow, thanks for going above and beyond!" He then stood with us for a bit in painfully awkward silence, before announcing he'd go back inside to call to see if I'd missed the bus. And then he did. Thanks, dad.

At this point, there's literally nothing standing between me and this exceptionally responsible/upstanding citizen of a school bus driver. I don't remember the following minute or two in exact detail, as at this point I think I was in full adrenaline-fueled survival mode, but I do remember the very end.

I remember seeing Al start to move towards me, taking a sudden, deliberate step forward, and looking like he was finally taking his hands out of his pockets (taking something out of them maybe?) - and right at that moment, I heard the unmistakable sound of a school bus turning the corner onto my street. A flash of disappointment on his face as I called out "oh look it's here I'm fine now thanks anyway bye", and practically sprinted to meet the driver. As I scrambled on, I looked back to see Al had somehow already disappeared back into his truck. He'd apparently made an equally speedy retreat from the scene.

Now, having plenty of other childhood horror stories to block out, I pretty much did the same with this. The next day, Al was back to driving our bus. He told us jury duty ended sooner than expected, so instead of possible weeks of substitute bus drivers we got to have him back right away. My friends rejoiced, and I didn't think twice about it. That is, until about a year ago, when a conversation with friends led me to sharing the nearly-forgotten memory. My friend, appropriately freaked out by my spooky campfire story, made a comment that somehow I'd never thought about: "Wow, so he made up the jury duty thing as an excuse... He must've been planning a lot in advance. He meant to be gone for a while."

My 9-year-old self did not understand jury duty enough to question his claims about it, and after the incident had no desire to speculate on "what if"s. But that comment hit me like an icy gut punch. I thought about how insistently he'd talked about how long he might be gone, how he told us to be prepared to have a sub for possibly weeks or more. And since it seems pretty clear in hindsight he'd shown up that morning intending to kidnap me... It hit me that he must have had plans for me, specifically, that extended well beyond just that morning. If that substitute driver hadn't swooped in and saved my butt... I genuinely doubt I would have lived to see my tenth birthday.

A couple years later, a classmate of mine shared a story of having seen a man in a red pickup truck sitting outside her bus stop every morning for a while. She told her mom about it, and they searched that sex offender registry site and found him. I asked her what he looked like, what the truck looked like, what his name was - and yep. It was good old Al. Thankfully her mom took it a lot more seriously than my dad did, and he stopped lurking around their neighborhood. My dad, for his part, apparently freaked out when he came back outside to find me, the strange man, and his pickup truck gone - so he called my school to make sure I got there. Since I did, he apparently learned nothing, but did feel proud of himself for being concerned enough to check lmao.

So... Al, let's please never meet again. I'm not above hitting a super old guy who was most likely at one point planning to bury me in his crawl space or something.

Also, sorry if the sorta flippant/irreverent tone I use to describe this stuff seems disrespectful to the gravity of it all. It's how I cope, but I never want to make light of anyone else's experiences so please feel free to call me out, if any of this was worded harmfully or something. Hope it wasn't, but always open to feedback.

Edit: typos

I posted a few days ago about my cousin and I almost getting kidnapped and it made me think of this. If you’re like me you have weird/bad/scary/funny things happen to you constantly.

Anyway, this is what happened..

This happened back in 2018, when I was living in what was probably one of the worst neighborhoods in Indianapolis. It was the kind of neighborhood where hearing gunshots and sirens throughout the night was just part of everyday life. Nothing particularly surprising about that.

At the time, I was living with my then-boyfriend, who was an absolutely terrible man. That’s a whole other story, but thankfully, I eventually got out of that abusive relationship, and life has been much better ever since.

Anyway, back to the story.

I was working as a flight attendant at the time and happened to have the week off. My big plans consisted of relaxing, spending time with my pets, and enjoying some peace and quiet. My boyfriend, who didn’t have a steady job or a car of his own, asked to borrow my car so he could go DJ at a park somewhere. At that point in our relationship, I wasn’t particularly interested in spending time with him. Finally! A peaceful afternoon to myself.

Or so I thought.

I went outside to let my Rottweiler, Jamal, out and check on my chickens. My plan was to spend the afternoon hanging out in the backyard, petting chickens, and playing fetch with Jamal.

Then, out of nowhere, I heard the sound of glass shattering.
I turned toward the neighboring house just in time to see someone climbing out a broken window.

But this wasn’t an ordinary person climbing out of a window.

This person was covered in duct tape. Their mouth was taped shut, along with their hands, legs, ankles… basically, they were wrapped up like a human package.

I had to hold Jamal back because he was going absolutely nuts, but somehow, the only thing that came out of my mouth was:
“Uh… can I help you?”

I mean, clearly, this person needed some help.
I told him to hang on while I grabbed some scissors and got my dog safely inside. I practically dragged Jamal into the house because he was determined to get to this stranger. Once I finally got him secured, I grabbed the scissors and ran back outside.
I started cutting the duct tape off the guy, and once he was free, he stood up.

Holy. Crap.

This guy had to be at least 6’5” and 250 pounds. He was HUGE. And honestly, a little intimidating. I didn’t know who he was, what had happened, or whether this could somehow be some kind of setup. There was no way I was inviting a complete stranger into my house.
Instead, I brought him to the front porch.
And because apparently my instinct in a kidnapping situation was to play hostess, I offered this enormous, clearly traumatized man a Sprite and some crackers. Like he was a sick kid home from school.

He was barely making sense. He kept mumbling that “they were coming back” and that he had been held there for three days.

By this point, I was already on the phone with 911. Police arrived within minutes, and before long, there had to be a dozen police cars outside. A detective was on the way, and the whole thing felt like I had somehow wandered onto the set of *Law & Order*.
I stood there watching officers surround the neighboring house, banging on the door and trying to get inside.

And then things got even crazier.
While I was talking to the officers, the people who had apparently been holding this man captive drove right past us.

We made eye contact.

I swear, my face must have turned completely white.

Before I could even process what was happening, the man I had just freed started screaming:
“THAT’S THEM!!!”

And just like that, a police chase was underway.
Meanwhile, I was once again standing there alone with the guy I had just rescued, trying to wrap my head around what was happening.
I called my boyfriend to tell him what was going on, and instead of being concerned about my safety or asking if I was okay, he was absolutely furious with me.

Why?

Because he had marijuana in the house and was convinced I was going to let the police inside. Apparently, his biggest concern wasn’t that I had just stumbled into an actual kidnapping situation. It was that the cops might find his weed.

He was racing home to make sure I didn’t make any “mistakes.”

Let that sink in.

My boyfriend arrived just as the police returned. The detective showed up shortly afterward to take photographs and interview me about what I had witnessed.

As it turned out, the police hadn’t managed to catch the people responsible for holding the man captive. And in one final bizarre twist, they ended up arresting the very guy I had just saved because he apparently had an outstanding warrant.

I mean, seriously. What a day.
After the detective finished interviewing me, my boyfriend eventually left. One police officer was still lingering around, and he came over to talk with me.

We chatted for a bit, and then he did something I wasn’t expecting.

He handed me his business card and told me that I really needed to move. He said I wasn’t safe where I was living and that I needed to get out of that situation.

Then he wrote his PERSONAL phone number on the card.

He told me he normally didn’t do something like that, but if I ever needed help, I could call him.
I don’t think I fully appreciated what that conversation meant at the time. Looking back, I think he saw something I hadn’t quite admitted to myself yet. I was living in an unsafe neighborhood, in an abusive relationship, and surrounded by circumstances that had become so normal to me that I didn’t realize just how dangerous my situation really was.

I ended up leaving my boyfriend not long after that.

There was another moment during that period of my life that I’ll never forget. I had witnessed a man die right in front of me while I was working. Despite everyone’s efforts, nobody was able to save him. When I told my boyfriend what had happened, he barely acknowledged it. He simply told me to stop and pick up Hardee’s on my way home.

I think that moment, along with so many others, says everything about the kind of person I was living with.

Leaving wasn’t easy, though. Especially because it meant leaving Jamal behind. He was my big, loyal Rottweiler, and saying goodbye to him was heartbreaking. Sadly, he passed away just a few weeks after I left.

I like to think he held on as long as he could because he wanted to protect me. Maybe that’s just something I tell myself, but I hope it’s true.

So, that’s the story of the afternoon I accidentally found myself in the middle of a kidnapping investigation, freed a man who had been held captive for three days, witnessed a police chase, and somehow ended up being interviewed by detectives.

All while my biggest concern beforehand had been spending a relaxing afternoon with my chickens and my dog.

Funny how life works.

This happened years ago but it still haunts me.

When I was 22 I had a boyfriend for 6 months. I'll call him Samael. At first he was kind, adoring, supportive. Everything I wanted.

Slowly he became more controlling, derogative, and dismissive. I slowly distanced myself from him and eventually broke it off. I thought that was the end of it. I was happy for it, lighter.

Unfortunately, I started getting emails from him. I had him blocked on my cell phone and social platforms but he would email.

They were rude, threatening, and very concerning. I ignored them, decided that he wasn't going to take any more from me. 6 months later, I got a new boyfriend who treated me much better, I'll call him Finn. I had almost completely forgotten about Samael.

Then one night, I was taking a shower. My boyfriend Finn was over, he had gotten out of the shower before me.

It was late at night, maybe around 11:00. When suddenly I heard a loud bang, like something big had fallen over or exploded.

I stood still for a moment, just listening. Then I heard yelling, two men. My heart rate jumped. I was still frozen. Next I heard what sounded like a scuffle, screaming.

I snapped out of it and stepped out of the shower, grabbing my robe and tying it around myself. My bedroom was right across the hall from the bathroom and I stepped into the hallway. I could see two figures in my room fighting on the bed, the lights in my room were off. Finn screamed, "Who are you?!" (Mind you Finn was naked because he got tackled and lost his towel.) My adrenaline was sky high now, I charged into the room. I'm a fighter, not a fleer. I grabbed hold of the figure that was on top of him punching him. As soon as I grabbed him I realized who it was.

I recognized the jacket, I bought that jacket for him. It was Samael.

I dragged him from the room, we were screaming at each other. He freed himself from my grasp and shoved me into the wall. He spit in my face and started ripping things off of the walls, screaming at me that I was a whore. I was screaming right back, telling him he couldn't be here, that he had to leave, what he did was wrong.

He smelt like alcohol, and his pupils were tiny. I knew he was messed up. I kept shoving him until we were at the front door. I told him I was calling the cops. He finally left after trying to punch me and missing. His condition wasn't making him a great fighter. Lucky for me.

He peeled off in his truck, I called the cops. I knew where he lived so when the cops came I told them what happened and where he lived. We realized that he had smashed his truck into Finn's car. We made a report on everything and I said I was pressing charges.

The falling/exploding noise I heard was Samael kicking in my front door.

Finn got beat up pretty good but he was okay. He didn't need to go to the hospital but he was definitely traumatized. I had to explain to him who Samael was, Finn said it wasn't my fault and that he didn't want me to blame myself for what happened. That was a hard conversation and I did blame myself for a long time.

We went to court for it and eventually I got a restraining order. Court went on for 2 years, I went to every court date to make sure he got punished.

I have dreams about it sometimes, I'll never understand what makes a person do that. We were broken up, it's not like I cheated on him. He was supposed to be in my past, but now he remains in my nightmares.

This all starts when I was 14 in 2016 and I live in Sydney australia, to any non australian people reading this most common gangs are based around zip codes or as we call it “post codes” being centred around one area. Most of the post code gangs are teenagers running around with machetes and harassing people, people get killed for walking around “their area”.In October of 2016 me and one of my friends we will just call Bill for the story (not his actual name) planned to go out later into the night around 1 in the morning, we set up a hangout with a few of our older friends at the local park its about a 15 minute walk from where we were. Once we reach the park we hear “Oi” and “Who the fucks that” as we walk closer we see around a dozen boys all in black hoodies but thankfully we see our friends (yes these friends were affiliated) they tell the other boys that were good and everything and so on.After a while of hanging out and getting to know the others who we never met, shit starts getting real. One of the other boys pulls out a bag of c0ke and setting up if you get what I mean. I see Bill standing around looking clueless but hes staring down them whilst doing the c0ke and of them aggressively yells “STOP FUCKING LOOKING” they all surround him and force to sit a decent way from them and to look away. At this point Im minding my business and talking with one of the friends we planned to hang out with until out of nowhere the same guys who told bill to go somewhere else go to me and say the same. Im sitting next to bill staring at the ground trying not to make them angrier but bill keeps on peaking and thats just making then angrier and angrier, eventually bill is finally not looking. About 2-3 minutes go by and me and bill are basically just having our own fun, but then bill starts to film me and him laughing at nothing. One of the boys doing the c0ke yells “Is that cunt filming?” and when I tell u I shat my pants. 3 of them walk over and start pressing bill and questioning him, they start yelling at him to hand his phone over but bill isnt doing it. It takes until one of them shoves bill backwards for him to hand his phone. They start going through his camera roll and finding embarrassing stuff and bill keeps trying to snatch his phone back but thats only making them pissed. One of them says “Swear to god Im about to punch this cunt in this chin” and they throw him of the rock he was sitting on, I get pulled up and one of them trips me over and starts kicking my ribs they steal my watch. When theyre paying more attention to bill i sneak over to one of my actual friends there and say “Bro get them to stop theyre about to fuck up my friend” he says “I tried bro they wont stop”. After a few minutes of them basically jumping my friend they pull him up call me over and 2 out of the 3 people take out machetes and say “you have three fucking seconds to get out my face or your both fucking dead” I sprint my ass out of my park in record timing same with bill there is 3 of them chasing us but one of them says “Your lucky i dropped my phone” and they stopped chasing us. Bill got his phone stolen and his glassesThe second i get home i instantly text one of my friends who was there (the one of who I talking to before) and say “BRO WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT I THOUGHT THEY WERE CHILL WHAT FUCKING HAPPENED” he replied back and said “I couldnt do shit” after a few minutes i get a voice message from him, and its one of the boys who had the machete and he said “ay your so lucky also thanks for the phone and if I see you again your dead” and he blocked me from my friends account.I dont go out for weeks.
And Im not trying to make this sound like a cliche story but I started learning how to defend myself at home and my motivation is building up so I finally get the courage to out at night.Im again with bill but were both at his house, we exit the house walk down the street. On his street there is a bus stop not too far from the house. As were walking we see a group of boys at the bus stop we look down and try not to interfere. Until we here “Yo” “You two” and they start walking toward us as they closer we start to recognise them and yes you guessed it, it was the same 3 boys. I stupidly say “arent you the people from the other night” and they say “holy shit” as they get close up to us they eye is down one of them says “fuck this we got unfinished shit” two of them go after bill and they corner him they both have machetes and one of them who doesnt have one,comes after me he punches me right in the mouth and Im backing away and saying “I did nothing to you” but he keeps going I start trying to defend myself. I wish I could tell you what I did but the adrenaline took over all I remember is I got a few good hits and he eventually ran to his other mates and I look over. I see them stab my friend and him on the floor crying and begging them to stop they’re punching and kicking him relentlessly. But they run off and leave him I run straight to him and hes in pure agony. I call 000 (australia emergency services) and a whole flock of ambulance and police come. I call bills mum and she rushes down over. I call my dad and he picks me up.Im at home and I dont know if hes gonna survive or what keep in mind this was all because of him filming himself and they were in the background doing drugs HOW IS IT THAT BAD??? I don’t leave the house (not counting school and other shenanigans) for a rough 6 months. Bill moves away and blocks every single person from where we lived. Ive left the incident in the past, i start going out more often and I finally become myself after dealing with insufferable trauma for months.But during one of my many going out days in the middle of the day I spot someone who I recognise but cant lay my finger on who it is, hes alone walking until he stares at me and freezes i say “yo?” I walk closer and I finally realise its one of the boys who stabbed bill. I start beating the shit out of him. And he runs off,
and brings all of his gang friends like the bitch he is. But instead of trying to fight me or anything they say this exactly “I thought you learnt shit from last time we saw each other, just so you know your fucked”
Once again were right back to constant paranoia every night every day every week.
On a random afternoon, watching the news.
“A Teenage boy stabbed in a gang related attack”
I dont think much of it
Hours later my dad comes into my room and says
“Hey so your friend bill has passed away, he got into a big fight with people. If you want to talk Im here”
I froze
I dont speak
It took me an hour to say to myself
“what the fuck”.
Since then Ive moved 5 hours away and only been back in that area once for a meet up with my old friends
To this day I grief and realise how easily it could’ve been prevented
I suck at telling stories and sorry for it
Also what ive heard is that theyve all mostly been put in jail

Real advice
You dont gain anything from you making people like that lose something otherwise you lose even more

I’ll start with some backstory, and setting the scene. Long story but maybe you’ll enjoy. So I am 26F from Texas, and when I was 18 I moved out and got my own place. I grew up all throughout rural areas, hated the idea of living in town or an apartment, and found an affordable duplex about 15 minutes outside the city limits. This was in the opposite direction of my mom or dad’s places and I was effectively a decent drive from anybody I knew.

The people in the other unit of the duplex were a really nice couple of ladies, their daughter and ones mom. I worked graveyards shifts, 5:45 pm to 6:15 am give or take. So I slept during the day, even on my days off, the majority of the time.

This means that all of my cleaning, cooking or chores etc. were done in the middle of the night. Often closer to midnight. At this point I’d lived there about a month, had introduce myself to the people I shared a wall with but had never once seen a single other neighbor in the area. One night at about 1 am, I was taking out my trash.

I kept the can by the road, and just walked bags out to it, so I could never forget to put the can out. My driveway wasn’t very long, maybe about 50 feet. It’s dark, there’s no street lamps, and my porch light is relatively dim. I can see the road, down it slightly, and bits of the field across the road from me. It was a calm and very still night. I still can’t comprehend how I didn’t notice him walking down the street. He had to have been standing off in the shadows next to the wood fence and trees bordering another house.

I lifted the garbage can lid toward myself, the opening of the can facing the road and I’m to the right of the can but sort of behind it, dropped in the bag, and dropped the lid, and there’s a man standing in front of me.

I’m 5’10, and relatively stocky, and this man is at least 6’3, and quite large.. I couldn’t much make out his face with such little light. My heart jumps.. I panic a bit and apologize, but I quickly start walking back toward my house. I hear his footsteps change, he’s not on the road, he’s walking in the dirt, my driveway. I’m about halfway to the door and I turn around and he was maybe 3 feet away.

I’m wearing small shorts and a tshirt. Cleaning the house, I’m comfy, it’s night time.. and he says in a very quiet low voice that those shorts look good on me. I say thanks and keep walking, watching him with my head turned out of the corner of my eye. I feel sick, my stomach is turning and I just want to get inside. He keeps following me, asking for my number. I keep telling him no, and I make it into the house and lock the door. Making sure all my windows and blinds are covered..

My dog, was not home with me. I worked long shifts, and often only had one day off. I would have him stay with my mom unless I had multiple days off in a row. I think nothing of this for a few days.

Then I see my neighbors one afternoon, I’d woken up early had errands to run and see one of them outside. She tells me that someone had been knocking on my door. She describes them, it was him. She said she had told him that I wasn’t home. I told her what happened, and that if she sees him again to please get rid of him, she said don’t worry, we’re armed.

He continued this, multiple times, knocking on my door, she’d see him tell him to leave and he would without a fight.. she says one day he was trying to look through my window. The duplex I was in had 2 bedrooms, I stayed in the back room, protected by a fenced in yard. So the only window he could look into would be the one in the spare room that I used for storage, it had sheer curtains but no blinds. My living room window was blacked out entirely.

I just continued trying to ignore this. Then one day, while I’m scrolling on a dating/friend app, called meetme, if anybody remembers it (originally called myYearbook) and someone messages me. He’s a bit odd. But didn’t look entirely familiar. We chatted as friends, I eventually invited him over to hang out. Stupid, yes yes I know stupid. He comes by, and man this guy is eeeeerrrily familiar.

He tells me he’s related to the neighbors, to my left. I tell him the story about, the guy, describe him, without not having details of his face because it was night time. And this person says it sounds like his cousin. But here I am starting to think, it’s him. I man up and find a way to get him to leave.. fast forward to me finally have a full 3 days off work. My dog is here, it’s day time, I have my back door open airing the house and I’m doing the dishes facing the back yard and my dog goes to run outside and stops at the door growling, and then backs up.

I stand in that back door staring out into the yard, until I eventually notice far the back, it’s him. He was in my neighbors yard, under a tree standing in or behind a bush, I can see his torso and face.. he’s in the corner of their property pretty much up against my fence, staring straight at me.

I dont know how long he had been standing there watching me, but it was 1000% the same person that had found me on meetme and that I’d mistakenly invited in.. thankfully nothing had happened. I slam the door cover all the windows lock everything and just stayed inside.

Now my dog was (RIP darling) a 120 pound European Doberman. He was huge, and the most loving wonderful protective dog. That very same night, I was expecting a friend to come over. This friend knew he could just walk in, but my door was locked.. I get a knock and without looking just open the door. This was not my friend, it was the guy. I panic, I have the door open only about 1/4 of the way, blocking it with my body. I try to close it, he pushes the door. I dont know what he’s saying, I can’t remember the verbal exchange I was in a panic., My dog comes, he gets very low and puts his nose by my leg trying to poke his head out and the guy sees his nose. “Cute dog.”

I collected myself.. looked at my dog.. and I trusted him.. I said here you can meet him and I just yanked open the door and my dog immediately begins growling AGGRESSIVELY.. the guy starts backing off.. my dogs hair is up, ears pinned and he’s circling him. The guy just says “well I guess you’re busy” I can hear his voice shaking a bit. My dog continues this behavior until the man is at the road. Then turns and trots back to me like nothing happened. I shut the door, the fear releases and I just sit down, call my friend and beg him to come over faster.

I never saw that guy again. Neither did my neighbors. I did have my mom get me a firearm for Christmas so I finally had my own.

I know I should’ve probably reported things, done some things differently. Though I did have quite a lot of confidence in my ability to defend myself, I worked in corrections, I still do. I’ve had a lot of physical altercations in my line of work and just believed I was capable of my own protection if I had to be… but it definitely didn’t make this any less scary for me.

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you're aware you're dreaming, but it feels completely real? This was one of those.

It started in complete darkness. Just a black void. A man approached me. I don't remember exactly what he looked like, only that he was older, large in stature, and had dark hair. I couldn't make out his face. He kept asking for my forgiveness over and over again. I was confused because I had no idea who he was or why he wanted forgiveness from me.

Then he touched me, and suddenly we were in an old house. I found myself standing in a corner, watching him murder a young woman. I won't go into graphic detail, but it felt as though he was showing me what he had done. At first I wondered if I was somehow witnessing a past life or something equally bizarre. I was completely confused.

The dream continued, and he showed me several different victims. Then we got to one scene where he was sitting in an older car with a child. That's when I snapped. I started yelling that I wanted out of the dream and didn't want to see any more. Suddenly we were back in the darkness, and he was once again begging for forgiveness. I kept telling myself it was only a dream, that I was in control, and that I needed to wake up.

Eventually, I did.

The dream bothered me, but I didn't think too much of it until I mentioned it to a coworker. She gave me a strange look and asked, "Wasn't there someone who tried to kidnap you when you were a kid?"

And that's where things get weird.

When I was nine years old, my mom's side of the family rented a cabin on a lake for a big family vacation. My mom has five brothers and five sisters, all with kids of their own, so there were a lot of us there. The adults spent their time boating, riding jet skis, and hanging out while the kids basically ran free. It was 1993, and things were a little different back then.

One day my cousin, who was ten at the time, said she was bored. I suggested we go for a walk and pick flowers. We left without telling anyone and headed down the road.

About ten minutes from the cabin, we noticed an old brown station wagon with two middle-aged men inside. One was short, heavyset, bald, and wore glasses. The other was much larger, with long dark hair and a bushy beard. They both looked rough and unkempt. The smaller man shouted something at us and pointed in our direction.

I immediately got a bad feeling.

I told my cousin we needed to leave and suggested we take a shortcut back.

We thought we'd lost them, but suddenly the station wagon appeared beside us. The bald man rolled down his window and asked for directions. He motioned for me to come closer, as if he had a map on his lap.

Thankfully, I wasn't interested in getting anywhere near that car.

I shoved my cousin down into a ditch and followed her. We heard the men cursing above us as we ran. Eventually we found ourselves near what looked like a construction site where houses were being built. There was a trailer nearby, and I decided to knock on the door.

A man answered.

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I swear he looked like he was glowing. He was probably around thirty years old, nice looking and had long wavy brown hair, a beard, and looked like he had stepped out of a painting. At nine years old, I remember thinking I was looking at Jesus.

I explained what had happened and told him we were scared. He calmly gave us directions and told us exactly how to get back safely. Looking back, I've always wondered why he didn't call someone or walk us back himself, but at the time we were just relieved someone listened.

We followed his instructions and made it back to the cabin.

I ran to my mom crying and told her what had happened.

No one believed us.

That's probably the saddest part of the story. When you're a kid and the adults don't believe you, you eventually just stop talking about it and try to move on.

Later that same day, my sister, the same cousin, another younger cousin, and I were having a dance party on the screened-in porch. As we were dancing, I looked out the window and saw that same brown station wagon.

I immediately told everyone to get down and hide.

The two men were slowly driving from house to house, while one was getting out and looking through the windows and trying door handles. When they reached our cabin, I remember praying they wouldn't see us. Thankfully, we had locked the porch door, even though it was only a screen door and probably wouldn't have stopped them if they were determined.

We could hear the door handle jiggling and we all held our breath. After a moment, they moved on to the next cabin.

Even after that, nobody believed us.

For a long time afterward, I struggled with nightmares. I was terrified those men would come back. I didn't want to leave the house. I refused to go to school and nearly failed fifth grade because of the anxiety it caused.

Years later, my mom finally told me something she had kept from me.

A little girl from a nearby cabin had been abducted that same day. Terrible things happened to her, and my mom didn't want me to know when I was a child.

I don't want to go into details out of respect for her and her family.

Even now, though, I still carry a sense of guilt about it. Not because I think I was somehow responsible, but because it's impossible not to wonder about the randomness of it all. Why did one child encounter those men and make it home while another didn't?

That question has stayed with me for decades.

Which brings me back to the dream.

Part of me wonders if my subconscious connected old memories and fears into something vivid and symbolic. Another part of me can't shake the feeling that the large man in the dream looked a lot like one of the men from that station wagon. To make things even stranger, I'm fairly certain I saw those two men featured on Unsolved Mysteries when I was in my twenties.

Maybe it's all connected. Maybe it's not.

What I do know is that I still struggle with anxiety to this day, and that dream brought everything rushing back.

In honor of Halloween tomorrow, I wanted to share a story that happened a few years ago that still keeps me up.

My friend, spouse, and I went a few hours out of town for a concert. We rented an airbnb near by the venue. When we checked in the airbnb was fine, nothing concerning about it at first glance. Shortly after checking in, we got ready and headed to the concert.

I drove us back to the airbnb probably around 1am. I was the DD so I was completely sober; my spouse and our friend could not say the same, as they both ate some mushrooms at the concert and drank.

When we get back were all sitting on the couch and yapping about the nights events. After awhile, I notice through the blinds there was a car that pulled up in our driveway, the lights beaming through the window. I thought it was strange. I mention it to the group and they all brush it off thinking maybe someone had the wrong address or were lost.

The car continued to sit there, running in the drive way.

I mention it to the group again, noting how unusual it was because it was so late. As im peaking out the blinds, another car arrives and parks behind the first.

A man gets out and pulls multiple suitcases and bags out of the trunk and brings it by the first car. My spouse and our friend decide to go to one of the bedrooms to get a better look through a different window.

Once they left to the other room, I see the man walk up to the front door and try the handle. I literally yelped in fear and my friend and spouse came racing back asking what had happened.

I told my spouse that the man tried the door. I saw the door handle moving back and fourth. In a drunken madness he opens the door and yells out to the people in the cars "Wrong house. We ain't the ones."

I scramble to pull him back from the door and a woman gets out of the first car staring their car had broken down and to mind our business.

I slam the door shut and run to the other doors to make sure they are locked as well as the windows. I felt helpless being in a home that I hardly knew.

After, I continued to watch from the windows, looking to see if they truly were working on the first car. They did not. After about 15 minutes they loaded the suitcases and bags back up and both cars took off at an incredible speed through the neighborhood.

I was paranoid and uneasy. I did not want to sleep incase they came back. My partner and friend went back to drinking and enjoying their night. Eventually the two of them went to sleep. I stayed up all night trying to understand what happened.

In the morning, I messaged the airbnb host to let them know what happened and asked if they had any cameras that may have caught the interaction. Unfortunately they did not.

The second night of the concert, my spouse drove us. I wasn't feeling well since I had not slept an ounce the night before. I ordered an Uber back to the airbnb. On our drive there, a man jumped out from the bushes into the street, like he was trying to get hit. The nice man from Uber watched as I got inside the airbnb safetly. Being exhausted, I fell asleep.

In the morning, my partner and friend told me how a man also tried to jump in front of his truck hours later when he was driving back.

We left a review warning others of our experience. I learned after that squatters will often rent an airbnb for one night, and try to come back after hoping the host was too lazy to change the code, that would explain the suitcases and bags.

It overall could have ended much worse. I explain the night as protecting two drunk monkeys from an alligator outside. I wish I could say I laugh at the situation now, but none of it was funny lol. Airbnb did take down the listing shortly after, so I still wonder if this happened again to someone else.

Airbnb squatters, let's not fucking meet again!

I work as a sound technician in a recording studio, so I've dealt with all sorts of wannabe rappers over the years. Most are harmless enough, even if they think they're the next Eminem. But then there was MC Ballbag. Now, before I start, MC Ballbag isn't actually his real name. That's just what we're calling him because, quite frankly, I don't think his government name need to be associated with this story.

He booked a two-hour recording session one afternoon and arrived 20 minutes late. He walked in wearing sunglasses indoors, a massive puffer jacket, a gold chain and sunglasses that looked like they'd come free with a bottle of cheap aftershave.

"YOU READY TO MAKE HISTORY, BABE?"

I smiled politely. "Yeah, mate. What are we recording today?"

He looked me up and down.

"YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND MY GENIUS."

Oh, here we go. He handed me a USB stick labelled BBC WORLD DOMINATION FINAL MIX 7.

I loaded up his instrumental, set the microphone levels and told him he could start whenever he was ready. He put on his headphones, closed his eyes and started nodding like he was having a spiritual experience.

The beat dropped. "MY BALLS ARE HEAVY, MY CHAIN IS LIGHT, I GOT BBC AND I'M FEELING RIGHT!"

I stared at the mixing desk. Was this actually happening? He stopped after 30 seconds.

"HOW WAS THAT, BABE?"

"Yeah, good energy. Maybe we could try another take?" He looked offended.

"YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND MY ART."

For the next hour, I was subjected to songs about his testicles, his underwear and how every woman supposedly wanted him. One track was called The Ballad of My Left Testicle. Another was called Big BBC Energy. Every time I tried to adjust the sound, he'd shout: "

MAKE MY VOICE SEXIER, BABE!"

I was beginning to question my career choices. At one point, he came out of the recording booth and stood directly behind my chair.

"YOU KNOW, YOU'RE QUITE PRETTY FOR A SOUND GIRL."

"Thanks. Can you get back in the booth, please?" He leaned closer.

"YOU COULD BE MY MUSE."

I wanted to crawl underneath the mixing desk. Then he started touching random buttons.

"THIS ONE MAKES ME SOUND MORE ALPHA."

"Please don't touch the equipment." He went quiet for a second before suddenly snapping:

"YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS! YOU JUST WANNA TRY MY SUCCULENT BBC!"

I actually froze. "Sorry, what?"

"YOU HEARD ME, SNOW BUNNY!"

He started laughing to himself, nodding his head and pointing at me.

"YOU KNOW YOU WANT A PIECE OF MC BALLBAG!"

I told him to get back into the recording booth and stop making inappropriate comments. His expression changed immediately.

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, BABE. I'M THE ARTIST HERE."

He slammed his headphones onto the desk. I calmly told him that if he couldn't behave professionally, the session would be terminated. He started pacing around the studio.

"YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME? JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE SOME LITTLE SOUND BARBIE?"

I ignored him and started saving the session. He then marched over to the mixing desk and pointed at the screen.

"TURN MY BASS UP!"

"Please step away from the equipment."

"TURN IT UP, SNOW BUNNY!"

At this point, I was genuinely uncomfortable. He was getting louder, standing far too close and refusing to listen when I asked him to give me space. I told him I was calling my manager. Suddenly, he started shouting:

"YOU'RE RUINING MY CAREER! I'M THE NEXT BIG THING!"

I pressed the studio intercom and asked a colleague to come in. As soon as he heard someone coming, he picked up his USB stick and started pretending everything was fine.

"NO WORRIES, BABE. WE'RE ALL GOOD. JUST A LITTLE CREATIVE DIFFERENCE."

My colleague walked in and asked him to leave. He wasn't happy.

"THIS IS DISCRIMINATION AGAINST REAL ARTISTS!"

He grabbed his jacket and stormed towards the door. Before leaving, he turned around and shouted:

"YOU'LL REGRET THIS! I'M PUTTING YOU ON MY NEXT ALBUM!"

I just stood there, completely speechless. I thought that was the end of it. Until the following week, when my manager came over looking absolutely baffled. "Have you heard from that rapper who was in last week?" My stomach dropped. Apparently, he'd emailed the studio complaining that I was rude, jealous of his talent and had refused to support his artistic vision. But that wasn't the worst part. He'd attached his final demo. The title?

MC BALLBAG FEAT. THE SOUND BARBIE BIMBO – BBC REMIX.

I nearly spat my coffee out. He'd apparently decided that because I worked with sound and was a woman, I was now his official Barbie Bimbo backing vocalist. He'd even tagged the studio on social media, announcing that his new single was dropping soon. I blocked him, deleted his files from my personal workspace and told my manager I wanted absolutely nothing more to do with him. A few months passed, and thankfully, I hadn't heard a single thing from him. I assumed he'd found another recording studio to terrorise and that I'd finally escaped the BBC remix nightmare. Life went back to normal. I'd go to work, spend my days behind the mixing desk and go home without having to listen to a grown man rap about his testicles. Or so I thought. One evening, I'd just finished work and was walking home. It was getting dark, and I was a couple of streets away from the studio when I heard something absolutely ridiculous approaching behind me. At first, I thought it was a car with dodgy suspension. Then I heard music. Not just music. RAPPING. I turned around and nearly stopped breathing. There, crawling down the road towards me, was a HUGE lime-green lowrider. And when I say lime green, I mean radioactive highlighter green. The thing was bouncing up and down on its hydraulics like it was having a medical emergency. The front end would lift up, drop down, then lift up again. It was genuinely one of the most ridiculous vehicles I'd ever seen. Then the driver's window rolled down. And there he was. MC Ballbag. Sunglasses on. Gold chain out. One hand on the steering wheel and the other holding a microphone. He was LIVE.

"YOOOOOO! SNOW BUNNY! WHERE YOU BEEN HIDING?"

I genuinely couldn't believe my eyes. He had actually found me. I sped up my walking. Unfortunately, he matched my pace, slowly bouncing alongside me in this ridiculous lime-green monstrosity. He started rapping directly into the microphone.

"THERE SHE GOES, MY SOUND BARBIE QUEEN, SHE MIXED MY TRACKS BUT SHE KNOWS WHAT I MEAN!" I kept my eyes forward. He turned the music up. "BBC BALLS, I'M BACK ON THE SCENE, SHE BLOCKED MY NUMBER BUT SHE KNOWS I'M A DREAM!"

I wanted the pavement to swallow me whole. The worst part was that he wasn't even driving normally. Every few seconds, he'd press a button and the entire car would start bouncing. He was literally performing a hydraulic dance routine while following me home. I crossed the road.. I turned down another street. He turned down the same street. At this point, my stomach was in knots. He lifted the microphone again.

"COME ON, BABE! DON'T BE LIKE THAT! I'VE GOT A NEW ALBUM AND IT'S CALLED THE RETURN OF THE BALLS!"

I shouted that I wasn't interested and told him to stop following me. He just laughed.

"YOU'RE STILL MY NUMBER ONE FAN!"

I was absolutely NOT his number one fan. I was a woman trying to get home without being serenaded by a man in a lime-green bouncing aquarium. He continued following me for a couple of blocks, rapping practically non-stop. At one point, he actually leaned out of the window and shouted:

"I'VE WRITTEN YOU A NEW VERSE, SNOW BUNNY!"

I didn't even turn around. Eventually, I reached a busier road where there were other people around. He slowed down, gave the car one final enormous hydraulic bounce and shouted:

"REMEMBER ME! MC BALLBAG NEVER FORGETS HIS PEOPLE!"

Then he sped off, still rapping into his microphone. I stood there for a moment, trying to process what had just happened. I'd gone from working a normal sound technician shift to being followed home by a man in a lime-green lowrider performing an unsolicited live concert about his BBC. And the truly terrifying thing? I had absolutely no idea how he'd known what time I finished work. I went home, locked my door and immediately told someone what had happened. Also called the police. So creepy rapper lets not meet.

So this happened a quite few years ago, and luckily (or not for my curiousity) there was never any reveal to who did it....

Me and my partner were chilling on a normal evening together, doing typical stuff, you know watching youtube movies, eating snacks, chatting, when his phone rang. He picked it up on speaker and there was a long pause and then a woman said something along the lines of: "Hey, it's Gemma from the gym the other day I thought I would ring you after our night together, as I really want to see you again." He frowned and tried answering "Hey, I don't know you you must have the wrong number," and the girl went on as if she didn't hear him, "so I was thinking we could meet at a hotel." He hung up, and I was shocked.

Who was this girl?? He pointed out that it didn't sound real (this was before AI was a thing) and that she didn't seem to register his response. This was true and it did seem almost pre-recorded. We shrugged it off as a cold call and then went back to what we were doing.

15 minutes later his phone went off again, he picked up again on speaker, this time it was different: "Hey, this is Carol and we need to talk, because I think I might be pregnant," we didn't respond this time as we could tell it wasn't a real person on the other end and we just hung up.

We discussed what we thought it was, an ex or friend messing with us and trying to cause arguments? Someone random trying to scam us? A youtuber making prank calls for reactions, etc? Well we proceeded to get about 7 more calls over the next few hours with various girls and everytime a new story.

We presumed it was a scam and not someone going to that much effort when it would clearly be more effective with one call rather than several. So we started messing with them, responding thing like "oh my god, this is his gf I'm so outraged [blah blah blah]" or making fart sounds, or pretending to be someone else. Yes, we are a little childish but we found this funny.

By the time the 8th call came, we joked and said some stupid stuff and then a man's voice came on and it said MY NAME in a long drawn out breath....there had been someone listening in the whole time.

To say we were freaked out was an understatement. We immediately hung up and checked outside our building, locked the doors etc. There had been someone listening in the whole time. The weirdest part is we can't remember if we said my actual name or not while we were on these calls. We didn't think we did, but somehow he knew it...

We ordered pizza that night and stayed very close to each other barely leaving the other's side. Fortunately for us nothing else happened that night, that was the last call, we never found anything else out.

Ok so I am posting on behalf of my husband (30) since he doesn’t use this app but we need advice. Last night, my husband comes home at 5:30 in the morning, wakes me up, and tells me this insane story of how a man ended up following him for an hour.

There’s a few ways to get to our house, and my husband works nights, and usually on nights he takes the back roads, which are usually the quickest, but also can be dangerous if you’re not driving safely. My husband is going at the speed limit, and it is on a windy back road and a black car is following so close behind my husband that he can’t even see his headlights. My husband then decides to pour a little bit of water out of his water bottle to maybe catch the driver’s attention, since if he were to break check, they would both get into a pretty serious car accident. After doing that, the black car decides to follow my husband all the way to our house. Since my husband is a smart man, he decides to drive right past our house and circle around the neighborhood to see if this man is following him, and sure enough he is. Then my husband decides to go to the gas station and get gas even though he doesn’t need any but at this point, he doesn’t know what else to do. Sure enough, the car followed my husband, parked on the street, and waited for him, and then my husband got in the car and drove away, and the car followed once again. After this had been going on for a decent amount of time, my husband decides to park again, and the man parks near my husband’s car and gets his iPhone out and starts flashing the light on and off through the driver window.

After this, my husband called the cops, told him what was going on, was waiting for them, then decided to leave, but the car followed him again, but luckily enough, my husband was safe enough to drive away. This went on for about an hour, and in the early hours of the morning. My main question is I feel like this is too bizarre for a normal road rage encounter. Please let me know your thoughts

My name is Stella (Fake name of course), I'm 18 years old and a girl. I suffer from schizoaffective disorder and have been formally diagnosed for the past few years. I'm not sure if what's been happening to me is just my paranoia, or if there is someone actually stalking me.

I live in a small town in New England and I've lived in this town all my life. At around September of 2022, when I was 14, my parents and I moved into my grandmother's house due to money issues. It is in the same town as where I used to live, just on the opposite side. Nothing weird happened until around a year after I started living here. I don't know the exact date when it started but like I said it was around late 2023. It was just a small thing at first. A small thing that could be chalked up to some sort of simple forgetfulness.

Basically, my underwear had been going missing. A super common thing, I know, but not like this. At the time I had bought at LEAST 40-50 new pairs a bit before Christmas of 2023 since all of mine were old and I just needed new ones. However, within a year more than 60% of the pairs were gone. I didn't have a lot of friends so it's not like I was bringing them in my bag and forgetting them places, and we don't have a washing machine or go to the laundry mat (we wash our clothes in the tub) so it's not like they could've disappeared in a washer.

They're just simply gone.

The only place I would go a lot of the time is my mom's house (parents are divorced and I live mostly at Grandma's with my dad.) I have recently moved out of my mom's and even after cleaning and packing everything up, they were still nowhere to be found. Now in 2026 I can't find any of those pairs of underwear, I maybe have about 3 pairs left of that bunch I had gotten before but it's been years so I guess that makes sense.

A little weird, but could be explainable somehow. I'd like to add that nobody in my grandmother's house locks the doors. My dad lives in a small apartment like area in the basement, and my grandparents are old and just don't care for locking the doors. But because of whats been happening, within the past year i've started locking the doors at night, every night.

The next incident was also something that could be explainable.

I had only had two people sleepover when I had found this, one of which had no piercings, and the other had a few but none that have this type of bar. I had come home from my mom's house and sat down in my bed, I moved my pillow to get comfortable, and right underneath it was a straight barbell piercing, such as a bridge or tongue piercing. However, both balls on the sides were screwed on. It's not like my friends or anyone I knew even has a piercing with this bar, but the fact that both ends were on means that it didn't just fall off of someone but was deliberately placed under my pillow. That's when I started getting extra weirded out.

Next was the calls. I started getting constant private number phone calls. I never answered them since my parents told me that if you answer a scam call, they will keep calling. So I for the most part never answered. But when I was with my friends they would dare me to answer and so sometimes I would, and the time I would actually answer id immediately say hello but then put myself on mute. Every call was always silence. And if it wasn't pure silence then it was just nothing but with quiet breathing. I would immediately hang up after that.

This is what started making my paranoia immense. As I said I have schizoaffective disorder which is a branch of schizophrenia. I have severe paranoia and I sleep with multiple knives in my bed, blankets always covering my windows, and every time I go to the bathroom I have to check every nook and cranny for a person or a camera. Sometimes I'm completely unable to sleep for days because I'm scared something or someone is going to get me. It's an absolutly horrible way to live. It wasnt too bad until all this stuff started happening.

My mom lived about 20 minutes out of town from my grandma's house. She lived in an apartment building where there were three floors but two apartments on each floor. The front door to the actual building had a lock, and our individual apartment had a lock of course, so I felt a bit safer there. But one day, luckily when I wasn't there. The police showed up at the door.

The told my mom they had gotten an anonymous phone call about someone being in my exact closet, in my exact apartment number saying they were being held hostage and were stuck. They searched the apartment, along with all the other one in the building and of course nothing was found. This one is a stretch but it's still a creepy and weird thing I figured I'd mention.

The calls kept going, and still happen. This is just the start of the weird stuff.

There was this one call in particular I got where they actually left a voicemail. The song is called morning mood, and if you don't know what it is please look it up, it's sort of creepy orchestra song that came out in 1875. It's not necessarily that rare but it is also definitely not that common. It is a very important song to me and my childhood because it was the background song of a video game I used to play with my dad every single day as a little girl.

This song was left as a voicemail, but not in the elevator music type of way. Someone was recording it from another device because you can hear them breathing and shuffling in the background. The creepiest part was that the voicemail cut off before they could finish playing the song. So they called again right after that and left another voice mail to finish the audio.

There was a small break in anything weird happening other than the calls, of which I would get mostly while changing or going to the bathroom, and a few knocks on my window sometimes here and there for a few months, now it was around September of 2025. I was on the phone with my friend, I'll say her name was Caroline. We were on FaceTime and it was night time but my window had been open about a foot from earlier on in the day and I forgot to close it since I had a thick blanket covering it and didn't realize it was open.

I had just walked back into my room with her on the phone after getting food and about 30 seconds after I close the door I hear little shimmying In the window, it sounded exactly like someone sliding up the net of the window quietly. So I turned my phone down, and stood there staring and listening. Then I saw movement behind the blanket and basically screamed. Right when I did it was like I scared away whatever or whoever it was. The net of the window sounded like it was slammed shut and the broke tractor right under my window sounded like something heavy jumped off of it and clanked.

Now this was near unexplainable. The single only thing that I would possibly think it was is my grandma's outdoor cat, she's a bit heavy, but it doesn't explain the sliding net or how the thump was that loud. I didn't let go of my knife or sleep that night.

About 2 months later I went to my friend's house and there was about 5 of us sitting down in my friends room. She has a big window which was open and right next to her street. I got a call from a random number and it made me think about all the weird stalkerish experiences, so I told all my friends about it. Just as I finished describing all of what had been happening, another number called me again. Here is the transcript of what it said:

"Hi, I'm sorry to bother you. You've been on my mind for about a week now. Sorry, I can't tell you who I am because I have a secret crush on you. I've just seen you around. I love your hair, the way it falls to your shoulders. The way you giggle when someone says something funny. I'm not a big fan of the way you walk, though. It's a bit mannish. We need to change that. Sh, sh. I do have a crush on you. I just think you're like the coolest chick I've ever met. Look, I'm going to reveal who I am tomorrow. I can't stop thinking about you. I'll see you tomorrow."

Now this wasn't actually a person talking as I soon learned, it was from an automated prank call website. And no it was not sent from any of my friends not one of them even touched their phones ONCE when I told them what happened, and they wouldn't do that since they know what it would do to me. I went on the website to see how it works. You have to pick a specific prank call to send, and then enter in the persons phone number to send it and it sends from a randomly generated number that you can choose from with local area codes.

That means that someone was listening to me talk about my stalker story, chose that exact call to send once I was finished, and entered in my phone number. Like i said her window was open to the street and it was dark so even if someone was standing close we couldnt see them.

That was basically solid proof to me, but it still technically could be explained since a month prior I had broke up with a toxic boyfriend who of course had my number and knew about my paranoia with the possibile stalker. So it could have somehow been him prank calling me at the perfect timing, but I truly don't think it was.

About 2 weeks later since it was now December of 2025, it was snowing. I looked out my window one morning and there were clear as day foot prints leading from behind my old pool shed to my window. Human footprints. The old tractor was still there and there were marks on the seat of it as if someone had been kneeling on it. Then there was a path of foot prints leading away to the front of my house and the street.

Now once again, could somehow be explained by some sort of animal maybe, that's what I try to tell myself. I keep trying to tell myself there isn't something going on and I'm just crazy and in my head. But I even sent photos to my friends and they said that for a 100% fact that those were human foot prints in the snow.

A few months later in about February-march 2026 I got a private number call, like usual. I was with my friend and she dared me to answer. So I did. It was a guy's voice. It sounded so eerily familiar but I have no idea from who it could be. He said "hello" in a slightly questioning tone. I just hung up and didn't say anything. Then the private number called again. And in a deeper male voice maybe the same one but with a deeper more stern tone, once again said hello. I didn't respond and stayed on mute then a few seconds later in an annoyed higher pitched whine he said "OH MY FUCKING GODDDD UGH" and then hung up.

I still don't know who it was

Then, just a few months ago the scariest thing of all this happened.

I was at my friend's house and my dad called me around 9-10 pm. Be told me that he actually locked the door for once since he had a bad feeling that day. Like I said earlier he lives down in the basement and he was hanging out with my uncle. They start to hear banging from the side door and after going upstairs the find that the side door was bashed inwards, and with even just a few more hits it would've broken open. Someone tried to break into my house.

This could be related. Or it could be unrelated

A few other more minor things had happened. Such as me sleeping over my friend's house and seeing a phone flashlight in her window. Then a few days later while she was alone at home she saw the same thing.

At my other friends house she saw a phone flashlight shine through her window too.

One of my friends was sleeping over and we wanted to see if there really was someone there and if we could catch them in the act of being outside my window, so as we were hearing crunching in the grass and taps on my window, we opened It and put my phone recording in the opening. When listening back to that video we hear someone gasp as if they had to duck down/move fast to not be seen in the video.

Please tell me if I'm just crazy and these are all coincidences, or if someone could be genuinely stalking me.

And if someone is stalking me. Dear stalker who has terrorized my life and caused me to look over my shoulder even in my own home. Let's not meet.

Have you ever met a person and said to yourself, "this person is strange."

Let me give you some back story.

I moved into a duplex with my BF and we were alone in the duplex for a couple of months.

Well when our neighbors moved in we didn't think anything about it. Until one day we were cooking out in the back yard and they came out and were talking like normal neighbors. Then suddenly the wife said "dang I'm hungry, what should we do for dinner, while staring at me."

I just turned away. Not thinking anything of it. Then he was like "idk, but those burgers smell amazing. "

At that point I knew they wanted us to offer them food.

My bf finishes cooking and we go inside. Not thinking anything about them.

They later cooked their own food.

A few months down the road and there was a note on my door saying "I hope (enter sons name) wasn't too loud. We try to keep him from jumping.

I wrote a note back stating it's fine and I appreciate them trying to keep it to a decent sound level. In all honesty their kid is ridiculously loud, but whatever he's a kid and he's all of like 2 or 3 years old.

A couple of months go by and I'm on the phone with someone in my living room and these people are standing in the hallway listening to my conversation. When I finally get up, I hear them rush out of the front door. This happens multiple times before I call the police. Which they then came up with the excuse they were locked out of their house and waiting on the landlord.

Well a year goes by and I'm woken up out of my sleep by my BF calling and telling me to check our cameras.

There's cops and ambulances and fire trucks EVERYWHERE.

Found out they overdosed. The woman died. The man was out of the hospital in a couple of days. The kids were taken for about a month. I honestly don't know how he got those kids back.

Ever since he came back home, I constantly feel like I'm being watched and that he knows where I am in my house at ALL TIMES. He is constantly following me. If I go in a room, he walks into the same room. I feel like there's a camera pointed at my house in all angles at all times.

He baited my bf into pushing him. Then he called the cops like a little bitch. Then I got him on camera saying all kinds of stuff about getting paid and that we're going to get kicked out. Just acting crazy. Talking to himself.

I keep telling the landlord all of the things that are going on and NOTHING is being done. I just need these people gone.

This happened to me a few years ago when I (female) was in my mid 20s. I was drunk and I recognize now that I was being a dumbass (and tbh I probably recognized it then too, but I carried on anyway).

ANYWAY, I had a habit of drunkenly walking my dog late at night. I lived in a suburban neighborhood with relatively low crime and my dog was a badass (although she was getting up in age and didn't look as intimidating at this point as she once had), so I felt safe going on these late-night walks.

So, we're slowly making our way down the street and she's stopping to sniff every blade of glass along the way. The city had recently installed a pretty gnarly speed bump on my road and I hadn't gotten used to it yet. Cars would frequently slow way down next to us and my hackles would go up before I remembered that they were, of course, not paying any attention to me and were actually just trying to keep their suspensions intact. So on this night, this car slows down next to us, I get spooked, I realize they're just going over the speed bump, and I breathe a sigh of relief and laugh at myself as he carries on to the end of the road and stops at the stop sign. Only, he just stood there, idling. I didn't think too much about it - it is late at night so it's not like there's any traffic waiting behind him, and he's probably just looking up directions on his phone or something. Meanwhile, my dog is slowly progressing in her sniffing, but my gut is telling me to stay away from this car, so I covertly take a handful of treats out of my pouch and toss them into the grass. She notices them immediately and her interest in sniffing this particular flower bed is renewed, giving me an excuse to stay where I am instead of walking closer to the stop sign where this car is still idling. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime but was probably only 2-3 minutes, the car turns right.

Alright, well, now I have to laugh at myself for being paranoid. We carry on to the end of the street and turn left onto the main road. I've shaken off the bad feeling and we're having a nice walk, enjoying the summer weather, when the same car passes us. He's going pretty fast and doesn't slow down when he passes us, and then he's out of sight. I'm guessing he took a wrong turn, whatever.

We carry on down the main road and turn left onto the next cross street. This road is only a block or so long before it ends in a dead end. There is a paved nature trail that starts there and leads into the woods. People really only come down this street because they either live in one of the few houses there, they are parking to walk the trail, or they are teenagers sitting in their cars late at night to make out or smoke weed.

As we're walking down the road towards the nature trail, I notice two things: first, there are two Adirondack chairs sitting on the curb with a handwritten sign saying "FREE." I'm thinking "HELL YEAH," I've been wanting some chairs for outside but I'm broke as hell so I make a mental note to swing by on our way home and pick them up. And then, I notice the second thing: that same damn car. It's just sitting there at the end of the road, idling.

My mind is immediately looking for a rational explanation, so I tell myself that it's probably some kids who have come here to smoke. I glance at them as I walk by and the person in the driver's seat is turned away from me. It's dark, so I don't get a good look at them, but I'm pretty sure it's a man, or at least a teenage boy. I'm down to mind my own business if he minds his, but at the same time, I realize I no longer want to walk down this dark, secluded nature trail as I had originally planned to do. Instead, I cut down a small, lit path that leads between two back yards, back up to my street. As we're making our way up the path, the car makes a three point turn and leaves, and I don't know if I should be uncomfortable or relieved.

This is when I do something really stupid though. Thinking the coast is clear and this guy has moved on, I go back for those fucking chairs.

I glance down the street and there's no sign of this car. Cool. These chairs are coming with me. I'm waddling my ass up the main road carrying these big ass plastic chairs, dog awkwardly maneuvering her leash around them, when guess who drives by again? Again, he doesn't slow down or stop, but I can no longer come up with an innocent rationalization for his behavior, so I decide that if I see him again, I'm abandoning the chairs and booking it home. I consider calling someone, but it's after midnight, my roommate is asleep, and my phone will likely die the moment I press the dial button. I know that if this man tries to approach me, my dog will not hesitate to defend us, but I also don't want to put either of us in that situation and who knows how many people are actually in the car and if they're armed?

Fortunately, we made it onto our street without seeing him again. We're basically home free, just a couple houses down from where I lived, when I see the car again. This time, it is CRAWLING down the street at just a few MPH. I look over as he approaches and this man is looking straight at me with the most sinister expression on his face. My blood ran cold but I tried not to show my fear as we held eye contact until he had fully crept past us. In retrospect, it was probably very obvious from the deer-in-the-headlights look on my face that I was very much afraid. He slowly continued up the street and turned his blinker on to turn left as he approached the first cross street, and my stomach dropped as I realized he was almost certainly going to loop around again. Meanwhile, I had arrived at my house but, not wanting him to know where I lived, I continued walking past it. Once he was out of sight, I turned around and ran my dog (and my stupid fucking chairs) up the driveway. I threw the chairs in the back yard where they couldn't be seen from the road (at this point, I was afraid that leaving them in the street in front of my house would be a pretty clear indicator of which house I had gone into), got my dog into the house without turning on any lights, and locked all the doors.

I assume he made another lap or two, didn't see us, and gave up. I am fortunate enough to not know what actually ended up happening. To whoever was driving that fuckass car, let's not meet.

Hello!
So I’ll be honest when I’m drunk I don’t make the best decisions, but this was the one time where I was being responsible and still got creeped on. My friend and I were at this club in Tampa, it was pretty risqué in there so dress code was pretty lax just have to be alternative. I was dressed up is what I want to say.

I’m not being demeaning to myself when I say this but I am not the first person people usually try to hit on or harass appearance wise you know? So this freaked me out pretty bad.

We were leaving the club when this guy leaning out the passenger side of the white van starts shouting to me, “hey girl I’ll be your uber driver, let me take you home.” I lie and say, “haha no thanks my friend is taking me.” He says something I can’t remember and drives away. We wandered a bit looking for food but everything was closed nearby since it was 3am. At this point we decided to just call it a night.

I get an uber that is 5 minutes away. She walks to her car since we figured, hey what could happen in 5 minutes. I’m leaning on the wall and I hear from the parking lot across from me, “I said I’d take you home.” It was the same guy still in the van with his buddy. He also sounds kinda mad and aggressive at this point so I start freaking out. I tell him I have an uber, and at this point he decides to get out of the van and walk across the street to me. He starts trying to flirt with me and I’m trying to just stare at my phone and be as bitchy as possible.

I tell him aggressively that I am married, he goes, “So? Why’s that mean I can’t get your number.” Finally my uber pulls up and I launch myself into the car and tell the guy to get the fuck out of there. I was so scared cause we were next to an alleyway and the guy had friends with him in the white van. A white fucking van.

One of the scariest encounters iv had.

I've considered sharing this story before, but I've always been hesitant because of how naive I was at the time. It's been a couple of years, though, so let's go. Hopefully, this fits the rules of Let's Not Meet.

I do want to mention that I am autistic, and at the time, I was a bit gullible. I think this is important to mention because I've read that autistic women experience sexual assault at alarmingly high rates, somewhere around 88–90%. Ugh. I digress. I was not violated this way from this experience, but it's relevant to my behavior.

I was 26 and had just left my husband due to domestic abuse. It's okay, yes, I'm okay, and honestly, I needed a big wake-up call that I couldn't write off or justify. I'm very happy to have survived that day and to be here! It did make me very unfamiliar with the apps and dating scene. I had been with my husband from 20–26.

But this is relevant. I'm wordy, and it's my story.

I hadn't felt safe dating anyone on any app for a long time. At this point, though, I was coming up on nine months single and decided to try Bumble.

I immediately matched with a pretty handsome man, and we seemed to really get along. He kept pushing me to go on a date that same day. I should've known a blond man would only bring me grief! 😂 (No offense) I heavily prefer darker hair.

Now, I mandated three days notice to avoid low effort men hitting me up solely to get in my pants. You've got to plan a date with me in advance. I do NOT do same day anything.

He was really pushy, but I said no.

It was a Saturday morning, and we kept flirting and chatting. Eventually, after the third time he asked, I said yes.

My friends had been encouraging me pretty heavily to be more spontaneous, and I decided a spur of the moment (🤮) midday date might actually be nice.

He asked, "You wanted to meet at a public place, right?"

I had never said this, so I assumed he was confusing me with another woman. But I DID want to meet in a public place, so whatever.

He told me he worked between my state and Colorado and had recently been in an accident in Colorado that left his car in the shop there. He would need a ride from a friend, and he'd also broken his ankle.

Okay...

So he asks me to go on a walk at the lake. The lake paths were highly public and very open and popular. We don't have a ton of trees around, and it's mostly restaurants and a few parks.

I immediately ask about his ankle, and he tells me it's fine and that he doesn't want it to lock up.

This made absolutely no sense to me, but I certainly wasn't being paid to parent an adult, so go off, dude.

We set a time, and I get ready. He tells me he needs to secure a ride.

Okay, sure.

I arrive at the lake, stay in my car, and text him.

No reply.

After 20 minutes, I tell him that if I don't see or hear from him in the next 10 minutes, I'm going home.

He finally texts me and begs me to come to him instead. Apparently, his ankle is hurting more than he thought, and he doesn't think he can walk. He'd taken pain killers.

Now, his profile said he lived in a neighborhood I knew well.

He insisted I could share the address with everyone and that he genuinely just wanted to watch a movie. That's usually code for a hookup but that was flat out not happening with me.

I was NOT going to be assaulted, and I stay strapped.

This next part is hard for me to recount because I sound SUPER dumb. I assure you, I am intelligent, and I never did this shit again. Friends, never go to a strangers house as a first meeting. Do not do it. The risks are just too high.

I sent his address to SEVEN of my friends. Maybe he didn't expect me to actually do that and hoped the option alone would be reassuring enough. I can't know.

And I decided to go.

The address he gave me was much farther out of the way than I anticipated. Eventually, I found myself on dirt roads, and my GPS was taking me toward a crossroads.

A lot of rural addresses are nonspecific like this, though. Sometimes you just have to pull up to a house or trailer.

On the way, I told him he'd have to call me as I got closer because there wasn't a direct address.

He texts me:

"You'll have to share her with me."

I know.

I KNOW.

I ask him what the fuck he's talking about, and he says he means his puppy. Apparently, she's a sweetie who wants all his attention and will be thrilled to meet me. A dog was not in his photos btw.

Obviously, at this point, I'm feeling a bit freaked out.

When I'm about 15 minutes away, I call him.

He doesn't answer.

I do eventually find the house, and I can see a dog in the fenced yard.

I park, but by this point, I've decided I'm remaining fully inside my locked car.

I text him that I'm there and tell him to come outside.

Five minutes pass.

I text him again and tell him that if he doesn't come out, I'm leaving.

Finally, he shuffles outside.

Walking perfectly fine, mind you.

I roll my window down less than an inch. My car is running, and I have my switchblade in hand.

He looks entirely disheveled. Dirty hair, dirty clothes, and not at all ready for a date.

Worst of all, he looks visibly guilty.

He can barely meet my eyes, and I don't even like eye contact.

He tells me we need to run an errand.

There's a black truck in the driveway, and apparently, we just need to pick up something he forgot down the road and come back.

I say absolutely not.

I ask about his car, and he tells me the truck belongs to a buddy.

I tell him I can wait until he comes back, but I'm not going anywhere with him.

Then I ask about his neighborhood.

He tells me this isn't actually his house.

It's his friend's house.

The entire time, he looks so guilty and ashamed that I was very uncomfortable and anxious.

Eventually, he tells me he needs to go inside for a minute because of his foot.

At this point, I start texting all my friends, asking if I should leave Murderville.

Of course, all my friends are like, GET THE HELL OUT.

While I'm texting them, I notice two huge older guys, probably in their 50s, come out from the back of the house.

They get into a golf cart and drive off somewhere for about three minutes before returning.

I'm still texting my friends.

When they come back, both men walk toward my car.

One approaches my window.

And this is the part I will never forget.

The way they looked at me was disgusting.

It was a look that made me feel, deep in my soul, that I was going to be r*ped. That I would probably die if I wasn't extremely careful.

There was so much vile lust in his eyes that I felt a chill in my soul, head to toe.

He approaches my window and, in a commanding, aggressive tone, asks me why I'm not inside.

I decide my best option is to play dumb and pleasant.

I tell him, "He said you guys had an errand to run and you'd be right back!"

He looks at me, and through clenched teeth, in the most demanding, authoritative voice, he says:

"You're supposed to be inside."

He says it slowly.

Forcefully.

I cannot emphasize that enough. Like he assumed this would make me comply.

I essentially repeat the same thing, pretending everything is perfectly normal.

Looking back, I realize that if I'd simply walked up to that door, three men would have been waiting for me in the middle of nowhere.

One for each arm.

And honestly, I think that would've been the best case scenario under the circumstances.

The older man is visibly angry now. He tells me he's going to go inside and talk to him.

And I decide I do not need a second opinion on not dying.

I'm leaving.

I start driving, but I go the wrong way.

That's when I realize someone has blocked off the dirt road to the left of the house, farther down the way.

You couldn't see the blockage from where I'd parked because we were on a hill.

But seeing that road blocked off really solidified my belief that these men intended to hurt me. By blocked off, I do mean that there were stacked cinderblocks blocking that road off. So it felt intentional.

I make the fastest U-turn you've ever seen.

And I HAUL ASS.

As I'm leaving, I look behind me and see all three men come outside, get into the black truck, and start following me.

When I tell you I caught AIR because I decided to say fuck it and go 80 down those dirt roads, I am not kidding.

I genuinely felt, in my soul, that these men would have r*ped and murdered me.

I eventually lost them.

But I didn't go home.

I drove around the city for THREE HOURS.

I don't know. I just couldn't stop driving.

I couldn't handle the idea of them following me home or finding my neighborhood.

At the time, I didn't go to the police because I honestly didn't know if they would care.

No crime had happened that I could prove, and from a previous stalking case, I knew that sometimes they didn't seem to care much unless you'd already been hurt.

I did report him to Bumble, and his profile disappeared. Either they took it down, or he blocked me.

But here's the kicker.

HE TEXTED ME AND TRIED TO RESCHEDULE.

So I guess I appeared more stupid than intended.

Hey, can we reschedule your r*pe?

No thanks, bestie.

Anyway, these days I'm in a loving relationship with a man who is, thankfully, brunette. I'm kidddding. I mean he is. But I am thrilled he isn't a killer more than anything really. And I stay properly strapped.

Stay safe, ladies and gents.

To the three men waiting for me to come inside that night, let's not meet.

Edit: if you would like to read my story on your channel (I have been asked) please do ask me. Also, please do not remove anything about my autism, past relationship, or change the story. I find it extremely insulting to essentially make a fanfic of one of my scariest memories. Thank you

It was a Friday evening in 2018 and nothing was abnormal. My best friend at the time, Abby, was at my house spending the night and we were hanging out in my room scrolling through our phones like we usually do. I look at my friends snapchat stories and one of the girls I go to BOCES* (boh-seas) with posted. The girl, Bethany, posted that she was going to perform at my local theatre with her dance class and how none of her friends or family were going to be there. I asked Abby if she wanted to go, she didn’t want to, but I convinced her to go with me. My mom didn’t want to get up out of her bed to drive us and my dad wasn’t home, so we walked. It’s about four blocks away and only a ten minute walk, and it was cold because it was December so we put our jackets on and went out.

We got there and the theatre seemed normal on the first floor, but there were just too many people there, so we went up the stairs to the balcony seats. The smell was not good. It smelt like mold and just, old. The walls were moldy and the wallpaper was falling off. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t get cleaned up there. Anyways, Bethany and her dance class do dances to christmas songs and whatever a dance class does, Bethany was pretty good.

When the dances ended we left and started walking home, of course because what else would we do? We walked the way we came and we got to this street we had to cross. It’s a pretty busy street. When we were walking up to the intersection I noticed a car driving slowly to the right of us, but not how a car normally slows at an intersection.. It gave me creepy vibes. The car drives through the intersection, then we cross the street. As we crossed, I noticed the car pull into a driveway, pull out then park on the side of the street that we were walking on, facing us with its lights on. At this point I’ve told Abby my suspicions of the car and she doesn’t believe me then I notice a man get out of the passenger side of the car and walk up the driveway they pulled in to. Fair enough, they could just be picking someone up and we’re looking for the right address.

We walked past the car and I looked up the driveway to see the man that got out of the passenger street talking on the phone in the middle of the driveway. We kept walking and I told Abby what’s going on behind her so she doesn’t look behind her. The man, still on the phone, started walking behind us. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, it sounded like he was on the phone, but he was following us and I could tell. I told Abby my plan to get into my house, which was a half block away, while simultaneously losing him. My house being a half block away was the easiest and safest route run. We are two small girls who couldn’t outrun a grown man, I had to think quick.

My yard is sort of a triangle shape with train tracks behind my house going into the intersection we were at to get to my house. There’s a tree line bordering the yard at the tracks and a large, thick pine tree at the point of my yard. It was a perfect cover to sprint straight to the house and into the side door.

We reach the intersection with the train tracks and the pine tree and I tell Abby, “On the count of three, run behind the pine tree and run along the tree line to run into my side door.” I count to three and start running. Abby doesn’t, I urge her to run with me. She starts running when we reach the intersection, we run around the pine tree and run towards my house. While running I tell Abby to not look back, neither do I. I get to the door first to open it for Abby, she gets in the house and I run in after her. I turn around to close the door and I look out the window and I see the man running across the street we were just running on. I close the door behind me and told my brothers and Abby to turn off all the lights and lock all the doors and windows. My brothers were confused and didn’t do anything. I try to explain what I thought was happening. I run upstairs to grab a piece of wood from an old tv stand I had taken apart before and got ready to attack if the man approached my house. After about thirty seconds of me looking through my front door and side door to see if the man was approaching the house, I decided to tell my mom what happened. She didn’t believe me. I go to Abby, who was in my room and she was fine. I don’t think she believed me either, but she just went along with what I said to make me feel better.

The Monday after this happened, I get into my BOCES class and when my class starts, my teacher asks us what we did over the weekend and I raised my hand and said, “I’m pretty sure I almost got kidnapped.” Of course when someone says this, everyone gets concerned even if you don’t like the person. Knowing my class, they loved drama, so I explained what happened and my teacher, who was a police officer for about eight years said, “He was probably going to ask for directions.” This doesn’t make sense because he had a phone, we weren’t in a dead spot, and if he was asking for directions, he would have had the driver of the car stop beside us and ask us instead of doing what happened or just use his phone.

Years later, no one believes me except for new people I met who seem to have more common sense about the situation than my police officer teacher. Also, that teacher turned out to be a pedophile. This is probably one of the most interesting stories I have and I’m not great at explaining everything, but I hope I did it well and hope you can learn from my mistakes.

*BOCES is Board of Cooperative Educational Services, it’s a school some high schools let their students go to to learn trades like building houses, culinary, cosmetology and security and law enforcement, which is what I took. Taking Security and Law Enforcement taught me the basics of being a police officer, how to properly arrest someone, a few laws we should know, and defensive tactics, ya know, in case we get into a situation like Abby and I experienced.

In very early 2022 I was 19f and getting off work around 2am. I worked at a movie theater and had been waiting for the last movie to get out. I was starving and decided to drive to a local store open 24/7 to grab something easy to make.

I pull into a practically empty parking lot with nobody actually in sight when this white jeep like vehicle pulled into the spot diagonal from me. It immediately caught my attention as this parking lot was very large when quickly it pulled back out and whipped around to the spot right next to my drivers side.

I could see in the passengers seat what I assume was a woman wearing what looked like a thin pink flannel but her hair stood out the most. She was leaned in a way where I couldn’t see her face or skin at all and her hair was platinum blond and pin straight. What I struggle to describe is that it somehow looked natty at the same time. Like a wig that the bottom layers weren’t fully brushed out. Too perfect in some ways but just not right.

Looking back I should have just left then but a panic set in and I hopped out of my car and quickly walked into the store. (This store has many handicap spots so it’s still a distance from the building)

I spent quite awhile walking around the store partially not knowing what I wanted but partially panicking about what just happened. Eventually I picked up some taquitos and a few other things and went to check out. There was only one line available with the clerk, one person ahead of me and one person behind me.

I spent the whole time checking out debating asking them if someone could walk me to my car but not wanting to seem like a paranoid kid I decided that they might not even be there anymore and to just go by myself.

I walked outside when I saw the car was still there. I kinda froze and just stood there for a minute. The car was off and i could no longer see the woman. I started weighing my options. Convincing myself they were probably in the store. I saw a teenage boy pushing carts towards the building (opposite side of the parking lot) and knowing that the person behind me in line would probably be coming out soon, I figured if needed I would be able to scream for help.

Just incase though I walked quickly to my passengers side, unlocked the door, got in the passengers seat and immediately locked the doors again. For a moment I felt better but as I set my stuff down and shimmied into the drivers seat (all of this is happening very quickly) the car next to me turned back on. I looked and could see the woman again in the same leaning position and I hear a door shut. As I’m turning my car on I see a man with a half smoked cigarette come around the back of this car, put his hand on the handle to the “trunk” (it had more of a door like a van then a typical trunk of a car) and he made direct eye contact with me. Seeing I was in my car already he very quickly got back in the car and sped out of the lot.

I still don’t know what their plan was but afterwards I was certain they wanted to do something to me. I pulled out my phone and tried to take a picture but with how dark and fast they were going it’s nothing legible.

From the second I saw that car I had a horrible gut feeling and I have never gone back to that store.

I have a story to tell you that happened to me on Sunday, October 29, 2022.

My father, for the story, will be Daniel Trucmuche, and I, Joan Trucmuche.

I currently live near the Swiss border but reside in France, originally from Grenoble, where my entire family, parents, and sister live. My parents live in their apartment on the outskirts, and my sister lives in Grenoble.

After a pleasant weekend with my girlfriend, visiting our families, we return home. After a 1.5-hour drive, we grab some McDonald's and settle in front of a series.

At that moment, I receive a call from an unknown number (starting with 07) at 9:00 PM. Generally, I don't answer unknown numbers, especially at this hour, due to harassment issues in school that left lasting effects (I'm 26). However, I felt a strange sensation and decided to answer, thinking it might be important.

I answer, and after saying "Hello," someone immediately asks, "Are you the son of Daniel Trucmuche?" I, of course, answer yes. It didn't surprise me at the moment because my father has been a salesman for 35 years in the same company, and my phone number was his 15 years ago. So, I sometimes get calls from very old clients of his. We don't have the same voice, so it didn't surprise me to be asked, "Are you the son of?"

After confirming, the person says directly, "Your father had a car accident." Panic rises in me; I start trembling. My girlfriend is next to me and immediately senses that something is wrong. I was petrified because the tone used by this stranger clearly meant "he is dead." In panic, I ask: where, how, and the crucial question: WHO ARE YOU?

They tell me they are a witness to the accident, and my father was taken to the hospital. I panic and shout, asking where, where did the accident happen, how? The person says the car flipped. Trembling, I explain to my girlfriend, and he says he wants to call his wife. I hang up immediately.

At that moment, I conclude that my mother wasn't with him. For your information, my parents sometimes have significant arguments, and my dad occasionally goes for a drive. My mother has been ill for years and goes to bed at 6:00 PM every day, so I knew I wouldn't reach her, but I try. I call my mother, no answer, and I call my sister, who is more sensitive and has a panic attack, screaming on the phone. I tell her to wake up mom immediately because she's not answering the phone. At the same time, my girlfriend calls her mother to ask her to call hospitals around Grenoble to find out where he is.

Meanwhile, I call the number again for more information, repeating: where did it happen, where? The person avoids the question, and after a few seconds, gives me the road number. I shout at him: WHO KNOWS ROAD NUMBERS? Toward where, which city, which village? He says towards Angers.

And then it clicks; I think: wait, I was with my father at 5:00 PM, I'm home now, it's impossible for him to have traveled from Grenoble to Angers in 4 hours! At the same moment, my girlfriend, with an incredible reflex, hears me say "Angers???" and immediately calls my father on his mobile. My father answers disdainfully: "Yes?" She says, "Daniel, you didn't have an accident," and he laughs and says: absolutely not, I'm on my couch, watching football.

I tell the person on the phone that my father is online. He says: "But you're not Matheo Trucmuche." I reply that I have no Matheo in my family and that I am Joan.

The man apologizes, but in a way that gave me a chilling feeling, as if he had achieved what he wanted, to see me panic.

And I asked him five times how he got my number, and he never answered. He says, "Sorry for scaring you," I hang up, inform my sister, calm her down.

Later, I exchanged messages with him because I didn't understand how he got my number, which is literally nowhere on the Internet. He told me that my number was displayed on the first page of Google in a directory.

I searched the internet thoroughly with my girlfriend that evening, and it's impossible.

And the messages were strange. He mentioned a Laurent even though he clearly said my dad's name, he apologized for his clumsiness, that he managed to contact his wife, that this person is deceased.

After a few days, my sister-in-law, who is a surgeon, told me that it's the firefighters who contact the family, not random people like that, even those involved. Moreover, when there are deaths on the road, there is always a press article, or even an obituary that I never found.

I tried calling the number a week later for answers, and the number was no longer assigned.

Was it a bad joke? Was it someone who wanted to see me panic? How did he get my number? Just writing and remembering this moment gives me chills.

This happened four years ago, when i was 15 and just started high school in a different city. I was living alone in a small apartment. Yes, i know how that sounds, letting a 15 year old live alone in a different city, but it was the apartment of a relative who wasn't using it and they lived less than a 10 minute drive away so i don't think it was a problem.

I enjoyed the comfort of living alone and nothing really happened there, except on some nights. Once or twice every month, usually between 11pm and 12 am, i could hear a women's laughter in the hallway, pretty close to my door. It would last for about 30 seconds. It wasn't a normal laugh, it sounded like the craziest laugh I'd ever heard, one that you would hear in a horror movie. It always sounded the same way.

Every night around that time i would think about that laugh. Will i hear it tonight? Will it sound any different? Even now i think about it sometimes, even if i don't live there anymore.

Of course, the thought of it being something paranormal came to my mind a lot. It was probably just someone pulling a joke tho, i lived on the ground floor so it wouldn't be hard for someone to get inside and for it to sound like it's close to my door, even tho doing it multiple times is weird.

There was also a woman in the apartment complex that other people would call crazy. I don't know why, i talked to her a few times and while she was a bit odd, she wasn't that bad. I did think it might be her but it just sounded too different from her voice and her laugh.

I never tried going outside to see what it was, i never recorded it either and i regret that. The relative that owns the apartment lives there now and they've never mentioned hearing any laughter so i don't think I'll ever find out what it was.

So, to whoever was laughing like that, let's not meet.

Hi there. Anyone know how to deal with this situation?

For context, I moved in 2 months ago, have a bigger dog with distinctive patterns, and live alone. We’re near a university, but it is not my university.

I’m in my early 20s going to university here and I noticed the feeling of being watched while I was unpacking my boxes. A few days later I was working at my desk when I noticed binoculars. He was in a scanning motion of my building - up and down the windows. At first, I wanted to brush this off as maybe he’s sight seeing. We’re in a city. There’s light pollution…. And it’s just buildings around us and from where he is, it’s just my building. The mountain is in my view.

From August 31 - October 15 I have noticed him with his binoculars scanning and I’m sure there have been times I haven’t noticed. Luckily, I don’t change in front of windows or do anything lewd. The most I do is work with my view. In this time, I called the non emergency line and they said to call 911 right when the next time happens.

Come October 16, yesterday. I was laying in bed at 4pm and I felt someone staring the second I laid down. I jolted up and went to my window because I knew who it was. He seemed shocked to be confronted like this and I wrote a message on my phone that read “I’m calling the police creep”.

And then he makes a motion that can only be taken as a homicidal threat. So I start flipping him off and talking shit, I know he can’t hear me. I called the cops and he watched me do it. They came to my apartment about 4 hours later and were very kind. Essentially saying nothing can be done if we do not know who he is.

Im in contact with his building, I don’t care to know who he is but just so the police do.

Do I have grounds to press charges? I would be the second girl in my building to do so in the last month.

EDIT: I can’t sleep. I genuinely feel threatened but I don’t have proof of this threat. I have proof of him peeping.