Sports, Safety, and the Unpredictable A Personal Odyssey

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Welcome to another episode of the Nighttime Scary Tales Podcast, where we explore the dark side of storytelling. Tonight, prepare for spine-chilling tales featuring original horror stories, eerie supernatural encounters, and real-life crime that reveals the darker aspects of human nature. Each story is designed to keep you on the edge of your seat long after it ends. We’d love to hear your thoughts! Share your most chilling moments by leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. More haunting stories are coming, so keep your lights on and your doors locked. Sweet dreams… if you can find them!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
I've been a lover of sports my entire life, and
ever since I was a little kid, all I ever
wanted to be was a professional athlete. I was really
good in high school and received a scholarship to play
football in college as well, and I wanted to have
a good college football career, actually, but nothing near what
it would actually take to get to that next NFL level.
I was able to make a little money after college,

(00:39):
doing commercials for local businesses and doing some autograph signings,
but that quickly faded away and I moved on to
life after sports. I've had a pretty successful career as
a working professional, but my biggest accomplishment and the pride
of my life has to be my family. My beautiful
wife and our amazing daughter. My daughter has taught me

(01:01):
how to be a better person, and I love her
more than anything else in this world. And I'm sure
if some of you reading this her parents, you can
relate to those sentiments. About two years ago, I was
invited back to the small town where I played college
football for an events surrounding the completion of their new
facilities on campus. They were going to do a tour,
a dinner, and obviously some drinks and snacks in between.

(01:25):
They invited alumni, sponsors and some higher end boosters to
try and get everyone together to network and more obviously,
to fundraise, as I'm sure the new facilities were not cheap.
I really didn't feel like going, but my daughter seemed
interested in taking a trip with me, so I figured
that we'd go and make a little daddy daughter date
and have some fun and head out of there early.

(01:47):
Once I arrived, though, I wondered if I had made
a mistake. The last thing I felt like doing was
schmoozing with all the boosters and talking about the good
old glory days. I prepared myself for having the same
conversation about a dozen times, but since I had my
daughter with me, I figured most of my attention would
be devoted to her and I wouldn't have to really

(02:07):
entertain a lot of other conversations, at least for a
long period of time. That was one person I didn't
recognize who seemed to keep giving me a bit of
a side eye or looking at me like he seemed
annoyed that I was even there. Every time I caught
him staring, I would look over in his direction and
he would immediately look away. As I made my way
around the room, I felt like this person was kind

(02:29):
of shadowing me, always staying a fair distance away, but
every time I looked up, it felt like I could
see them, which I hadn't noticed with any other person
at the event. I was so busy that I eventually
shook it off and made sure my daughter was having
enough to eat and drink and that she was having
a good time, and as soon as she got bored,
I was going to head out of there and just

(02:49):
take her home. She really enjoyed our tour of the
new facilities and even got to see the mascot and
take a picture with them. We got some freeze shwag,
which she really enjoyed as well well. It was well
worth attending to see the consistent smile across her face.
And my daughter and I were sitting at a two
person high top table and the dean pulled me aside
for a conversation. I got up from the seat, grabbed

(03:12):
my daughter's hand and told her that I was going
to be right there, and then I was just standing
up to talk to a few people. My daughter was
still directly to my left, so I could see her
while I was having a conversation and shaking some hands,
and the dean introduces me to the new head football
coach and we make some small talk and share a
few laughs. I'm making sure that every few moments look

(03:34):
back at my daughter, who was playing with a team
branded fidget Spinner, and I entertained the conversation, which felt
like another thirty to forty five seconds, and said, well,
I'm going to get back to my daughter and see
if she wants to hit up the dessert table with me.
And as I go to sit back down, I realize
my daughter isn't there. My stomach immediately hits my throat

(03:59):
as I dart up on my toes to see if
I could see if she walked away or maybe she's
hiding under the table. I saw her walking about fifty
feet in front of me down the hallway, exiting the
main room and heading towards the new facilities or the exit,
and she's too far away from me to see who
she is with, but it's clear that she's with another man.

(04:20):
I yell out to her and beelined through the crowded areas,
barging through people and yelling my daughter's name. It makes
quite a bit of commotion, and I can hear people
begin to get quiet to see what's going on. I
catch up to her and pick her up and ask
her what she is doing and if she's okay. But
she's still smiling and as happy as can be, and
my attention immediately turned to the well dressed guy who

(04:43):
was seemingly escorting my daughter somewhere. Seeing his face, I
realized this was the same guy who had been staring
in my direction all night. I ask him what the
hell he was doing with my daughter and contemplate knocking
his teeth in Before he even gets a chance to answer,
he gives me some weak answers, and to be honest,
as shocking as it is, I don't remember exactly what

(05:06):
he said. I just remember saying that I'm calling the cops.
Apparently this guy was some big donor to the school
and was known by most of the people there, And
before the police arrived, I absolutely ripped into the dean,
asking him what type of people they allowed to donate
to the school. I don't think I could have done
anything more to show my disappointment and outrage. All the

(05:27):
while I was trying to do all of this without
making my daughter upset. The guy must have weaseled his
way out of the room when a lot of the
commotion was going on, because I didn't see him again
after that. I did make sure that I talked to
the police and that all his information was provided to them,
as a lot of people at the event knew who
he was. I got out of there shortly after and

(05:49):
took my daughter for some ice cream, letting her know
that nothing was her fault, but that in new places
she should always stay with me and never walk away,
especially with people she doesn't know. I don't know whatever
came from the incident. I don't know what, if any
laws were broken, and I don't know what excuse he
actually gave. I would assume and I hope that this

(06:10):
matter would have been taken seriously. But once I got
back to my home many towns over, I never heard
anything back from the authorities or ask for any additional
information or statements. Looking back, I'm just glad my daughter
was safe, but I was able to step in before
anything terrible happened. It just goes to show you that
no matter how diligent you are, you need to be

(06:32):
even better to protect your children. When I was in
high school. I loved the game of basketball, and I
was one of those kids from the late two thousand
era when ball was life. I knew I was not

(06:55):
good enough to play at the next level, but it
didn't stop me from playing the game I loved. When
I was back in high school and I played with
the same group of guys for years, and by the
time we became seniors, our team was making a run
for the playoffs and it was a very exciting time
and the whole community was buzzing around it. And after
a very massive win, our team was only one went

(07:16):
away from a sectional title, which was just about the
greatest accomplishment I could have ever made in high school.
And the sectional game was six days away from our
last win, and our coach did something a little unorthodox.
He set up a scrimmage for us so we could
stay in game shape. And for anyone who doesn't know,
setting up a scrimmage this close to a big game

(07:37):
is kind of a recipe for disaster. As a coach,
you're risking your player's durability and potentially opening them up
to an unnecessary injury. As players, we didn't really care, though.
We wanted to play as much as we could. We
were high on winning in any chance to improve our game.
We wanted that and the main reason our coach set
up this scrimmage was to really test our skills and

(07:58):
start to push us to the limit. The team we
were set up to play was a team made up
of players from all over the state that didn't belong
to one school, and these were essentially the best players
in the area. It was going to be a test
for us. If we were able to hang with this
team on the court, we could be more than ready
to compete in the sectional game. The game was on

(08:19):
a Thursday evening after school, and we played the game
at a neutral location and the gym was nice, but
the surrounding area had seen better days. It was one
of those sort of run down parts of the city.
One of the downfalls the gym was that it only
had one locker room, which the other team used and
my team was forced to change in the basement and
basketball season is in the winner for anybody who doesn't know,

(08:41):
so let's just say that the basement of this building
was absolutely freezing. Not only was it freezing in the basement,
but it was very dark even with all the lights on.
It fell kind of dim. Something about the basement was
just off though. It was creepy down there, and not
just because it was a dark basement. From the moment
I got down there, I was joking around with the

(09:01):
team that this basement felt off and was weird, and
most of the guys just kind of laughed it off
and called me paranoid, which I'll be the first to
admit I am kind of a paranoid person by nature,
listening to podcasts like Let's Read. And while we were
in the locker room before the game, we were all
joking around, just being typical high school idiots. I continued

(09:22):
to press my teammates about something just not being a
right about this place, and one of my teammates was
using his cell phone to shine a light in the
dark corners of the basement, but it just looked like
junk and boxes everywhere. This was two thousand and nine,
so the flashlight on the phone wasn't as powerful as
it is today. And eventually the coach joined us, and
once we got focused on the game, I forgot all

(09:44):
about that creepy basement. And after the game, which we lost,
by the way, we went back into the locker room
to discuss plays and talk about what went right and
what went wrong in the game. After our coach gave
the final speech, he left the locker room with the
other two assistant coaches, and my team got dressed and
continued to talk about the game, and one by one

(10:06):
the players started to filter out of the locker room
until it was just me and another player, and just
as we were finishing up, we heard a loud crash
come from the back of the room. It was a
loud and very jarring sound that caused us both to
freeze in our tracks. And as soon as I heard
that loud crash, that horrible feeling about the creepy basement
started to come back. My buddy asked me if we

(10:29):
should go investigate, which I was completely against, and I
didn't want to scream like some cowards, so I just
sort of went with them. Now this time it wasn't paranoia.
As he shined the weak cell phone light into the
back corner of that basement, standing as still as a statue,
was a man, a man I would say was maybe

(10:50):
in his thirties at the time. He looked very disheveled,
and he looked angry, and my friend and I both
just stopped and sort of stared at the man. All
three of us now just stood completely still. These few
seconds felt like the longest stretch of time I had
ever experienced, and just as my friend tried to say something,

(11:11):
the man just started to scream. It wasn't even words,
it was this weird growl of a scream, and we
both decided to run whatever was happening. We didn't want
to find out the result of his screaming. As we
sprinted towards the stairs, this man ran after us, and
he was fast fast enough that he was able to
grab my hand and yank me down to the ground.

(11:34):
Fortunately for me, he fell on the ground in the
process of pulling me down, and with the momentum I
had from both of us falling, I was actually able
to bounce back up pretty quickly and continue running out
of the basement, screaming. My friend and I ran into
the parking lot screaming our heads off, and the rest
of the team and the coaches were waiting outside. I

(11:54):
couldn't speak, but somehow my buddy was able to concisely
explain to the coaches what had just happened, and to
both of us in the basement. One of the assistant
coaches stayed outside with us and the rest of the
team and called the police, while the head coach and
the other assistant coach ran inside to confront this man.
I still have no idea why they did this. I'm

(12:15):
sure in the heat of the moment, they probably felt
compelled to defend us, I guess in. A few minutes
passed and the police showed up and ran into the building.
It was the first time in my life that I
had ever seen the police spring into action like that.
We were all freaking out because during that time, the
coaches never came back outside. A minute or two after
the police ran into the building, the two coaches finally emerged.

(12:39):
The assistant coach had his arm around the head coach,
who was holding his arm as if something had happened
to it. From our vantage point, we couldn't really see
exactly what was happening. The only thing we could see
for sure was that the coach had what looked like
blood all over the front of his shirt. And not
long after the two coaches had come out, the police
came outside with that man handcuffed. It didn't seem like

(13:02):
he was struggling or resisting at all. I do remember
that he had this sort of wicked smile in his
face as he just sort of stared blankly ahead of him,
And that's where the nightmare ended on that specific evening. Now,
it wasn't until years later when I ran into my
old coach at this fundraising event that he finally told
me what happened. And he told me that he and

(13:23):
the other coach ran into that basement shouting. They thought
that we made it up at first because they didn't
see anyone down there, and while we were standing near
the stairs, the man jumped out and cut the coach's
forearm with some type of switchblade or something. The coach
thought that it could have been a box cutter ran
after he got cut. The other coach tackled the man

(13:43):
to the ground and basically detained him by sitting on
him until the police showed up. The coach had to
get stitches in that arm and all types of blood
tests because they didn't know if the blade was actually clean. Thankfully,
he was fine, and it was arguably the scariest part
of the story was that nobody knew anything about this guy.
He seemed to have no identification, and he was clearly

(14:05):
not right in the head, and the area that I
live and unfortunately, has always had issues with people with
drug issues, and as far as my old coach knows,
this poor man was just another unfortunate soul whose mind
was lost on the streets. And if it wasn't for
my assistant coach, my head coach might not have been
alive to tell that story. And that's something that still

(14:26):
freaks me out to day. I remember when I was
a kid, I would watch and even attend some football
games with my dad and it was something that we
bonded over. When he passed away, when I was in

(14:49):
the tenth grade, I stopped watching football though. It just
didn't appeal to me like it did when I would
watch it with my father, and a few years ago
I fell in love with the game all over again.
Now for some context, I was twenty seven years old
when I started following football again. I would watch the
games with one of my best friends and his wife,
and Sunday nights became a tradition at his house. Good food,

(15:11):
good friends, and good times. Falling in love with the
game again started to bring back so many fond memories
that I had with my dad. I know a lot
of people out there may not enjoy sports, especially American football,
but sometimes the memories you can make can go far
beyond the game itself. However, the memories are not always good.

(15:32):
In this story that I'm about to tell you happened
last year, and instead of a fond memory, I was
left with a very lasting nightmare. As I mentioned a
moment ago. I got back into football a few years back,
but I wasn't able to attend the game until last year.
My buddy surprised me on my birthday with tickets to
an NFL game, and I was beyond pumped. This was

(15:54):
going to be the first game I attended since before
tenth grade. My town unfortunately doesn't have an end NFL team,
and the closest stadium is almost three hours away. I
didn't want to drive all the way home after the game,
so I decided to actually book an airbnb close to
the stadium. My friend who got me the ticket was
also attending the game with me, and he was bringing
his wife as well. They didn't want to stay after

(16:16):
the game, so they planned on driving home after and
this was honestly fine with me. I was actually looking
forward to the quiet evening to myself, the game was
awesome other than one minor hiccup towards the end, and
the score was tied in the fourth quarter and our
team actually had the ball and a crazy series of
plays transpired, and as you might expect, the crowd was
going insane, so insane that someone actually bumped into me

(16:41):
and caused me to spill some of my beer onto
the gentleman in front of me, and he wasn't pleased,
and I apologize, but he continued to lay out this
very verbal assault. After a minute or two of getting
yelled at, the man went back to watching the game,
as did I. Not long after the game ended in
our team came out victorious and we cheered and celebrated

(17:02):
with the rest of the home team fans. I won't
say what the team was for my anonymity. And that
night I got back to my airbnb and just kind
of hung out and relaxed. I decided to order myself
a pizza and just sort of enjoy my little scenic
get away. The place was very cozy and on the
outskirts of that town, and it wasn't like in the

(17:23):
middle of nowhere or anything like that, but it definitely
felt kind of secluded. I'm not exactly sure what time
I fell asleep, but it was late after midnight for sure,
and at some point during the night I woke up
because I thought that I could hear this very strange noise.
I sat in bed for a minute, trying to focus,
and I didn't know if it was just my imagination

(17:44):
or if I actually had heard something. A few seconds later,
I heard it again, and then again right after. This
wasn't creaking floorboards or any of the other things that
people say when they think you're being paranoid. This was,
without a doubt, the sound of something being thrown at
the side of the house, something small, almost like a

(18:05):
rock or a pebble. I got out of bed and
turned most of the lights on, mainly because I was
a little spooked, but also because I didn't know the
layout of the house and I didn't want to stumble
my way through the darkness. I'm a bit clumsy and
I have a knack for breaking things. And I made
my way to the window that was on the other
side of the house, and that's where I had heard
the sound coming from. I cupped my hands and looked

(18:28):
into the darkness but I didn't see anything, and I
was convinced that whatever I had heard was probably nothing,
and being the anxious person that I am, I just
decided to go investigate outside. I understand this may seem
like the worst idea in the world looking back, but
I had convinced myself that nothing was out there except
maybe some wild life, and I just wanted to make sure.

(18:50):
I spent a few minutes outside, walking around having a smoke,
and I didn't see anything weird or out of the ordinary.
I did see a few small rocks on the side
of the house where I had thought I had heard
the sound, but it was a pretty wooded area and
those small rocks could have just been there the entire time.
I decided to chalk up this entire ordeal to just

(19:10):
my anxiety and nerves and being away from home. I
started making my way back to the house, and that's
when I froze. Because I had turned a lot of
the lights on, I was able to see inside the
house from outside, and there walking through the kitchen was
a person someone who was wearing a hood. I was

(19:33):
able to see them through the room clear as can be,
and I immediately took cover behind a tree ducking down. Thankfully,
I had my cell phone with me, and immediately I
called nine one one. While I waited for the cops
to show up, I just sort of watched this figure
through the windows, slowly creeping through the house. He seemed

(19:53):
to be opening doors and even checking closets. I had
my small duffel bag on a little table in the kitchen,
and this person went through my bag. He even grabbed
my wallet and went through it a bit, but didn't
even take anything. After a couple of minutes, this person
started to move a little faster. He was whipping open doors,
and he looked like he was looking for something, and

(20:15):
he looked frustrated. He must have heard the police, because
as soon as the cop car showed up, he jumps
out a window and starts to flee into the dark.
I came out from behind the tree and flagged down
a cop and tried telling him that the intruder had
just ran, but they were very focused on calming me
down in that moment. Finally the police were able to

(20:36):
take my statement, but by that time this intruder was
long gone. To my knowledge, they never caught this person,
and nobody knew what he was doing. Or who he
was looking for. The owners of the house were alerted
by the authorities, and they claimed that they had no
idea why anyone would do that, and I believe them.
I remember telling my buddy the story that next morning,

(20:58):
and he believed that it might have actually been that
disgruntled fan from the football game, the one that I
spilled beer on. I think it would be outrageous in
borderline improbable for an intruder to have followed me all
the way home, But the more I thought about it,
this person did fit the profile of that crazy fan.
He was even wearing the same color as the team,

(21:20):
but that might have been common for the area as well,
and this all could have easily been a coincidence, but
I don't know. It really made me think, and it's
really scary that sometimes people out there can just do
things like this, and we truly will never know why.

(21:46):
I played volleyball all the way through middle and high
school and didn't want to give it up just because
high school was over, and I ended up joining in
an adult league after high school and played whenever I could.
When I was twenty one years old, I blew out
my knee was more devastated by the fact that I
couldn't play volleyball for a whole year. By the time
I was twenty two, I realized that I had lost

(22:08):
a lot of bursts from my knee injury, and I
decided to try one of those over twenty one year
old adult leagues. I was never a fan of them
because they seemed like it was more about drinking, but
I decided that I was ready to start a new
chapter of my life. I could honestly say that I
loved it. It was a weird adjustment at first, but
before long I was all about it. I made so

(22:30):
many friends and that became my life for the next
ten years. Last year was the last time I played,
and I think that I need to take this year off.
And this is the first year I'm not playing since
I started the twenty one and over league. And let
me tell you about what happened last year, and you
can tell me if you think I'm overreacting. It was
the first or second game of the season, and we

(22:51):
played a team of three girls and a guy. It
was a co ed league. The game started like most games.
It was fun and competitive and had just the right
amount of trash talk to keep those things interesting. At
one point during the game, my teammates set the ball
for me and I attempted to spike it over the net.
I was met in the air by the man on
the other team, who lightly tapped it back over on

(23:12):
my side. The play caught me off guard and we
lost the point. Once it was dead ball, the man
came over to me and told me that it was
a great attempt and better luck next time. He was
handsome and he flashed his pearly white teeth at me.
I laughed, and we joked about it for a few minutes,
and I felt like we were kind of vibing. But
I think he was just a nice guy and I

(23:33):
was overthinking things. And we finally went our separate ways
after the game, and he asked if he could buy
me a drink, but I declined. He then told me
and my friends that we could join his team in
the bar to hang out again, but again we declined.
Not because we were sketched out or anything. This all
felt very normal and nice. We were just covered in
sand and wanted to be done for the night. My

(23:56):
friends and I talked in the parking lot for a
few minutes, and eventually we all set our good. I
was standing outside my trunk, putting my bag away and
getting ready to leave when I heard someone clear their
throat loudly behind me, like the type of noise you
make when you want to get someone's attention. I turned
around and standing behind me was a small, blonde woman,

(24:16):
and I recognized her right away. It was one of
the players from the team we just played. She wasn't
saying anything at first, and she was just kind of
looking at me, and I asked if I could help
her with something, and she just continued to stare at me.
I ended up just saying whatever and got into my
car and drove off, and I was weird. I looked

(24:36):
into the mirror once and the woman still seemed to
be just creepily staring at me. It wasn't objectively scary
or anything, but it was very creepy. And that night
I got a bunch of phone calls from a restricted number.
I answered a few times, but it ended up just
being breathing. And I also got some dms on Facebook
from a clearly made up profile that started calling me

(24:59):
some pretty offensive of things. I was annoyed, but just
ignored my phone for the rest of the evening, and
this went on for a few days, but then stopped
completely On the fourth day. I figured whoever had a
problem with me was over it by now. The next
week came and so did our volleyball game, and after
the game, we decided to hang out for a little

(25:20):
while before calling it a night. Inside the bar, I
saw the handsome man from the previous week. He said
hi to me and I simply waved back, and that's
when I noticed the blonde woman standing behind him, and
I started to put together some pieces. He's probably dating
that woman and she's jealous. Well, I didn't want to
be some home wreckers, so after my little wave, I

(25:41):
just pretended like I didn't see him, and the rest
of the night I could feel her staring daggers at
me from across the room. It was uncomfortable and I
just wanted to leave, and so eventually I did. Those
restricted calls came back that evening, but I just turned
off my phone and nothing happened all week until it
was time for volleyball once again. The night was like

(26:03):
all the others, except I did feel a little anxious.
I didn't want to see that handsome guy again and
then just be weirdly stalked by this strange blonde woman,
and I was doing my best to focus on just
the game, which was going good for the moment. And
at some point during the game, I heard someone yell
behind me, watch out, and I turned around and saw
a volleyball fly by my head, and before I could

(26:26):
see what was happening, that small blond woman ran from
the side with a bottle and smashed me over the head,
screaming at the top of her lungs. I felt the
bottle crack my head, and I'd vaguely remember trying to
get myself into sort of a fetal position so this
woman couldn't cut me or anything with that now broken bottle.

(26:48):
To me, this all felt like slow motion, but it
was only about ten seconds. Two of my teammates grabbed
this woman and held her down as she tried to
whack me again with this broken bottle, which would have
done some major damage. She wasn't saying words either, just
screaming like a banshee. The cops arrived. After they subdued

(27:10):
her and arrested the woman. I was being looked at
by the e m T probably going to need stitches
when that man came over and apologized for her behavior,
and he went on to tell me that she was
not his girlfriend and never had been. She was a
friend of one of the girls on his team, and
she apparently was obsessed with him. He had to tell

(27:30):
her several times that they weren't together because she kept
telling people that they actually were dating, and she even
made a joint Facebook account for the both of them,
even though there weren't any pictures of them. I'm not
sure why they kept this woman on their team, but
it was clear to me that her marbles were messed
up from the very beginning, and I'm lucky I left
that altercation with just a minor laceration, because it could

(27:52):
have been much worse. Anyway, I'm done with volleyball for now.
I don't want to show up to that bar one
day and take a shot to the head from a bottle.
And I hope that woman found the help that she needs,
because you can tell by just looking into her eyes
she was not well. When I was eighteen years old,

(28:21):
I went on my first major trip alone without my family.
While I wasn't completely alone, I was with my friends
Mike and Stan. It was twenty thirteen and we made
the voyage to a small town on the outskirts of
New Jersey for WrestleMania. And let me first say that
the three of us are huge wrestling nerds and still
text about it to this day, even though we all
live in different states. Back in twenty thirteen, this was

(28:44):
going to be the greatest weekend of our lives. For
those that don't know, WrestleMania is kind of like the
super Bowl for wrestling fans, and this event was going
to be at MetLife Stadium, which is where the New
York Giants and Jets usually play. The main show was
on Sunday, but the entire weekend was filled with special events.
The hotel that we were staying at offered a free

(29:05):
shuttle service anywhere within ten miles, which was pretty amazing,
and we planned on taking the shuttle on Saturday into
town to do some of the activities. Stan got the
address of one of the venues and we gave it
to the man who provided the shuttle service. There was
a clear language barrier, but after a little bit of
back and forth, we figured out where we needed to go.

(29:26):
The man dropped us off and we got out of
the shuttle like three excited idiots. We didn't even look
where this man dropped us off. Once all three of
us were out of the shuttle, we realized that we
were clearly not in the correct location. We were in
a sort of run down and sketchy part of town.
It seemed like everything looked abandoned, almost condemned. Stan called

(29:49):
the hotel and told them that we needed to pick
up but the lady on the phone told him that
it was going to be a little while because the
shuttle service was already on another call. We begged her
and told that he literally just left less than a
minute ago, but she didn't seem to care. In us
being younger, we didn't really fight it and just sort
of accepted that we were basically stranded in this sort

(30:09):
of almost abandoned part of town. We wanted to get
mad at Stan for giving the driver the wrong address,
but we honestly didn't know if it was our fault
or his. And we put the address into the GPS
of where we needed to go, and it was about
a ten minute drive from our current location, so we
didn't want to walk it. And this was also before
Uber was very big things, so we couldn't just easily

(30:32):
uber ourselves, and being young and naive teenagers, we decided
to walk around this sort of beat up area. It
was scary and unsettling just being in this area, and
we saw people living on the street too, were pretty
messed up on something. It was scary, but truthfully, it
was just kind of sad. And while we were blissfully
walking along, Mike noticed that someone had been kind of

(30:54):
following us for a few minutes. He told us that
classic line of don't look now, but it looks like
some one's kind of tailing us here. Stan didn't care,
but me and Mike started to feel a little uneasy.
We started to move a little faster and noticed that
the person following us was matching our speed though, and
it was obvious now that whoever this person was, they

(31:15):
were on our tail. It wasn't long until we broke
out into a straight up sprint, and to none of
our surprise, this person actually begun to run after us.
Miken stand we're both great athletes and were able to
create some distance from the guy, and I, on the
other hand, am a horrible athlete, and the man was
closing in on me pretty fast. I didn't know what

(31:36):
to do so. I decided to stop and step up
to the man, and there was a horrible mistake. This
guy didn't stop when I did, and he just barreled
into me, knocking me to the ground. Now, while I
was down, with no warning or threat, he buried an
elbow into my eye with a lot of force. He
hit me so hard that everything just went black for

(31:57):
just a second. And while I was down, the man
grabbed my wallet and ran back from the way he came.
Mike and Stan ran back and helped me up. They
called the cops, who showed up but didn't do anything.
They told me that this area is very bad and
people get mugged all the time. The likelihood of me
getting my wallet back is slimmed to none. I was

(32:19):
defeated and heartbroken and just wanted to get back to
the hotel. Stan and Mike were shaken up as well,
and they decided that we'll just hang out at the
hotel and watch basketball or something and get ourselves excited
about the big show on Sunday. They told me not
to worry about the wallet until after the show and
then they would help me replace my ID and figure
everything out. The cop I reported the mugging too, was

(32:40):
at least kind enough to drive us back to the hotel,
and I really did try and forget about that mugging,
but I just couldn't get the guy's face out of
my mind. Not to mention, my face felt like it
was smashed with a shovel. That night, all three of
us were woken up by the sound of a very
loud bang. As I jumped out of bed, I saw
this single worst thing I could ever imagine. It was

(33:03):
someone trying to open our hotel room. They had the
door ajar, but thankfully I locked the latch so this
intruder couldn't get inside completely. I ran to the door
in an attempt to slam it shut, and in the
brief moment before shutting the door, I saw someone on
the other side. I screamed, telling Mike to call the police.

(33:23):
Stan tried to be some hero and unlocked the door
to chase after this intruder, but by the time Stan
got to the hallway, all he saw was the door
to the stairs slamming shut. While we waited for the cops,
we were trying to figure out what had just happened,
and then it dawned on me someone might have stole
my wallet, and inside the wallet maybe there was a

(33:44):
room key which not only had the name of the hotel,
but also a little piece of paper with the room
number on it. I don't know. The cops came and
we all just reported the incidant of the hotel, which
was able to move me and my friends to another
part of the hotel and the rest of the night.
I remember looking out the window at one point in
the middle of the night and I saw a man

(34:05):
walking around the parking lot. I called the hotel lobby
because being young and stupid, I was scared to call
the police a third time, and by the time I
got off the phone, this guy was gone and I
never saw him again. We did get to the show
on Sunday, but I couldn't enjoy it. Every person I
saw with a dark coat made me freeze up. And

(34:26):
when we got home on Monday, stand in Mike helped
me to pay for a new idea and even lent
me some money until I got back on my feet.
Somewhere out there in the world, some guy has my wallet,
and even thinking about it now makes me cringe. I'm
just happy that I remember to latch the hotel room
door that night. Maybe it wasn't related, maybe it was

(34:46):
someone completely different, in which case that might have been
the worst night of my entire life. The story I'm
sharing with you today took place around ten years ago.

(35:09):
I've always been a huge sports fan, from watching my
favorite teams or playing sports throughout high school and into college.
As a summer job during college, I became an umpire
for a softball rec league. Baseball was always my best sport,
so I figured my game knowledge would transfer easily to umpiring,
and from what I remember, I think I had to

(35:29):
take a brief course to be qualified to ump, but
there were no other qualifications other than experience within the
sport and maybe a high school diploma or something. The
league was desperate for help, so I was brought on
right away, and this story takes place literally while I
was umping my first game. Everything seemed to be going well.

(35:49):
I shook off the first game jitters and was settling
in the game itself was back and forth, and we
hadn't gotten any arguments or comments from players or fans.
Forward to the final out of the game and there
is a close play on a catch in the short
outfield and I immediately called out. Now, from my angle,
it looked like the ball was trapped in the glove

(36:11):
and caught for an out. I was pretty sure that
I got a great look at it, which is why
I made the call. And at the same time, the
head umpire called safe and waved his arms saying that
there was no catch, and both teams are yelling and
looking for clarification, so the head umpire comes up to
me to discuss it again. This is the last out
of the game, and the head umpire says that he

(36:32):
had the best angle and that we're going to have
to stick with his call. Being my first game, who
was I to argue, so I just let him make
the final call. He then told me that I should
get out of there quickly because people were probably going
to be upset, and that he would try to take
some of the heat off if needed. We clarified the
call and stuck with safe, which allows a winning run

(36:54):
to score, and the team that had the call reversed
was beside themselves, jumping up and down and rushing onto
the field. I immediately head to my car and get
out of there as fast as I possibly can. I
don't really know what happened, but remember some of the
things being shouted at me as I made my way
to my car. Now, I'm a very anxious person already

(37:16):
in my daily life. It's something I've tried to deal
with and also been medicated for. I couldn't stop dwelling
on the game and how upset the people were, and
as hard as I tried, wasn't able to shake it
out of my mind. It was consuming my every thought
and I couldn't focus on anything else. I knew the
best things were allowing time to pass and distracting my
brain with something else. I decided to try and run

(37:39):
some errands to preoccupy my mind and distract myself. I
grabbed some groceries and snacks at my first stop, and
as I got back to my car, I could barely
get into my driver's side door. The truck park next
to me was so close that there was barely any
room for me to get in. It was a black
truck with some rust, and it had one of those
stickers of the cartoon character peeing on a sports team logo.

(38:02):
The dashboard was also a mess, and I mumbled something
under my breath as I tried to get into the car.
Since I was already in a bad mood. Next up
Barnes and Noble to grab a few books since it
was close to the grocery store. Looking around the store
did help temporarily get my mind off of things, and
I grabbed a few books that were on sale that
I figured I could start later that night. Now. For

(38:25):
some reason, though, I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.
As I was reading the synopsis and walking through the aisles.
I had this uneasy, tense feeling, but agreed that it
was my anxiety taking over and manifesting itself into different forms.
I walked back to my car, got in, and as
I got ready to leave, I saw that same black

(38:46):
truck was parked across from me in the parking lot. Weird,
I thought, but no one was in the car, so
I chalked it up to just simple coincidence. I grabbed
some food, just wanting to get home and up on
the couch and watch a movie. I got home, closed
the blinds, put my phone on the other side of
the couch, and turned on the movie Clue, and just

(39:08):
started eating. About fifteen minutes into the movie, I heard
a loud noise. It sounded like a card door, but
the sound was so loud that it sounded like the
door fell off the damn car. Five minutes later, I
heard the same noise, a noise. I got up to
look out of the blinds, and there was a truck
parked directly across the street on the curb in front
of my driveway. I rolled my eyes, thinking like, well,

(39:32):
I guess I'm not going back out tonight, so don't
have to worry about backing out of the driveway. I
headed into the kitchen to get more food and felt
like I had heard it might be raining outside. I
didn't think there was supposed to be any rain. I
thought that that was kind of weird. And then the
rain turned into hail and it sounded like it was
smacking off my roof. I looked out the back sliding

(39:53):
glass door and the motion light turns on and I'd
see no rain and the noise also stop. I headed
to the front door, opened it and saw that a
person was standing at the truck, aiming something at my house.
I immediately slammed the door shut and ducked for cover.
I called the police and let them know what was

(40:15):
going on. They said on the phone with me for
a while, but it seemed like it was silent outside.
Then I heard someone yelling outside my house, but I
couldn't make out what was being said. I screamed out
that the cops are on the way, and then heard
the man say something about being lucky. I look out
the window and the truck door slams and starts to
peel off. I immediately turned my cell phone to video

(40:38):
and actually was able to grab an image of this
guy's license plate. I tripped over myself trying to run
to the door after the car had started and began moving.
I zoom in as much as I can on the
back of the truck as it screeches down the street,
and I run back inside the house, waiting for the
cops to arrive and try to rewatch this video to
see if I can actually get the plate. As in

(41:01):
playing back the video, I noticed the same sticker that
I saw on the black truck from earlier that day,
and my heart felt like it skipped or momentarily stopped.
I don't know if I was having palpitations or a
shot of adrenaline in my system. It all clicked that
it was some one following me around from the game
earlier some deranged lunatics took adult sports way too seriously.

(41:26):
I couldn't believe that's why they were following me and
why they were screaming and shooting outside of my house.
I was able to figure out the license plate, or
at least what I thought was an accurate license plate
in the video. The police arrived shortly after, and I
filled them in on all that was transpiring and what
I thought happened, and gave them a vehicle description also
a copy of the video. They had to calm me

(41:48):
down a few times as my anxiety was causing me
to stutter and shake. They were extremely nice and seemed
like they took that threat seriously. The cops did an
inventory of the damage to the house and came back
to me and said that, thankfully, it looked like it
was only paintballs and maybe a pellet or a BB
gun as well. There was paint, but it also looked

(42:08):
like some small indentations on the siding that would have
been made by a BB gun or something similar to it.
It made me feel better a little bit that someone
wasn't shooting an actual gun at my house, but it
still took me a very long time to get over
the incident. I never heard anything back from the police,
which I thought was surprising. But I'm honestly glad that

(42:28):
I never have to deal with the person or that
interaction ever again. After it happened, I just wanted to
forget to not have to deal with that person or
an escalation of the incident ever again. And I never
officiated any other game These days, I just stick to
pick up baseball or open gym nights with my friends.
I'd be interested if anyone else has had any crazy

(42:50):
experiences with a fan or a player from an adult league.
Feel free to reply to the story below and let
me know what happened to you. There really isn't an
atmosphere like a college sports game. The student section alone

(43:12):
usually makes the ticket worth the price of admission. Even
people who don't like sports know how contagious it can
be to be a part of that atmosphere. Unfortunately, there's
always a downside. Some people can't control their emotions and
let the game become more important than it needs to be.
And let me tell you about something that happened to
me a few years ago, and I'm only realizing recently

(43:34):
just how dangerous it was. And I guess, all things considered,
I'm lucky to be alive. It was a college basketball game,
and like always, the home crowd was amazing. It was
loud in the arena before the game even started, and
it was impossible not to get swept up in the
emotion of the crowd. I had decent seats for this game,
and the section I was sitting in was filled with

(43:55):
mostly fans of the home team, and before the game started,
I struck up sort of the visual conversation with the
guy in front of me. He seemed like a good
dude from just our short conversation. It turned out he
was one of the few guys in the section who
was cheering for the other team, and we laughed about
it and had some friendly debates before the tip off
of the game, and once the game started we gave

(44:17):
each other a sort of fist bump and tuned in.
The game was late into the season, so the outcome
kind of had a lot of weight on the remainder
of the season. It didn't take long for the crowd
to start getting borderline hostile to the other team and
the referees. I admit I was caught in the heat
of the moment and I started the channelong with the crowd.

(44:38):
I swear sports crowds are sometimes like a mob mentality.
You just want to jump right in with your pitchfork.
And shortly before halftime, it could tell my new buddy
from earlier was starting to get kind of irate. He
was getting loud and throwing his hands up, complaining about
every call that didn't favor his team. I could feel
the legitimate anger in his voice, and there was this

(45:00):
I said a call right before halftime started that caused
the whole arena to erupt with cheer, and as a result,
my new buddy threw his hat on the ground. I
know what I did next was wrong, but like I said,
I was caught in the heat of the moment, and
I put my arm on his shoulder and said something like, sorry, dude,
maybe we'll get better calls in the second half. I

(45:21):
definitely said it with sort of an arrogant attitude. He
violently shifted his entire body to get my arm off
his shoulder, and he screamed, shut up, get your hands
off of me. I was more surprised than anything else,
but just sort of laughed it off and headed to
the concourse to grab another drink. I got my drink quickly,
and on my way back to my seat, I ran

(45:42):
into a couple of my old friends. I stopped for
a little while and caught up with my friend before
the beginning of the second half. While I was standing
in the concourse, my new buddy bumped into me aggressively
and said, in a clearly ironic voice, Oh, I'm sorry
about that, buddy. Maybe next time I'll see where I'm walking.
I was annoyed, but just ignored him. I could smell

(46:04):
the alcohol in his breath, and I just assumed he
was drunk. My friends laughed and were confused by the
weird interaction, but I just shrugged it off and told
my friends it was just some salty, drunk guy, and
the rest of the game went much like the first half.
My new friend would get angry and say some passive
aggressive comment, and the only difference from before is that

(46:25):
this time I was just completely ignoring him. I could
tell that this guy wasn't right, and I didn't want
to enrage him or make him angrier than he already was.
After the game, I was walking to my car and
you'll never guess who came up behind me and continued
to try inverbally spar with me. That's right, the guy
from earlier, and I ignored him all the way to

(46:47):
my truck, which wasn't easy. Imagine a big, burly guy
yelling at you at the top of his lungs and
a packed parking lot, and I bet you would struggle
to ignore him as well. And when I got to
my truck, I finally turned around and told the guy
to get away from me. They started to laugh and
just stood there As I got into my truck and
started to drive away. I thought this annoying ordeal was

(47:09):
over when I finally got home that night, and it
took me forty minutes to get out of the parking
lot traffic, and so between the drunk fan and the traffic,
I was all done and just wanted to just unwind
on the couch and watch a movie. Before I knew it,
I had watched two of the Batman movies and realized
that it was after two in the morning. I wasn't

(47:30):
tired for some reason, so I decided that I was
going to put on the third film in the trilogy.
Only a few minutes into the movie, I saw these
bright headlights shine in through my windows several times. I
lived on a pretty quiet street. It was rare to
see headlights at even seven at night, and it was
extremely rare to see them at two in the morning,
but not impossible. But then I saw them again a

(47:54):
few minutes later, and then a few minutes after that,
and something felt wrong. After the third time, I decided
to glance out of the window, and I couldn't believe
what I was looking at. Some one was out there
looking into the windows of my truck, which was parked
across the street from my house. None of the houses
on the street had a driveway, so the residents just

(48:14):
parked in the road. I could see the person trying
to open my truck door, thank god it was locked,
and once he gave up on the truck door, I
saw him looking around and that's when I noticed his face.
It was that dude from the basketball game. And I
was even in more shock now, and I grabbed my

(48:35):
phone and called nine one one, and while I was
on the phone, I saw the man making his way
to the house directly across the street from my own,
the house where my truck was parked in front of.
It was clear that the man was trying to break
into the house. He must have thought that the house
across the street was my own, and that's what I
told the despatch woman. And I could see from my
living room window that he was ramming his shoulder into

(48:57):
the door trying to get it open. And I find
most disturbing now and didn't realize was that big of
a deal back then, was that he clearly had some
kind of weapon in the back of his waistband, something
I'm sure, in his wacky state of mind, he wanted
to use on me. Thankfully, the police showed up Quicky,
and thankfully they arrested him before he successfully broke into

(49:19):
the house of my neighbor across the street. When the
cops were taking him away, it was clear that this
man was belligerently drunk, and honestly, in my opinion, he
may have been under the influence of something else as well.
When he finally sobered up, this guy had no memory
of the game or the horrible events that followed. I
have no idea what horrors this man had intended for me,

(49:42):
And even more terrifying is that this man didn't even
know what horrors he had planned, and it scared uponder
what his intentions were in his messed up state. I
also have no idea how he found my house. I
guess the true horror here is just how a seemingly
normal and nice individual can turn into a literal demon. Hey, friends,

(50:10):
thanks for listening. Click that notification bound to be alerted
of all future narrations. I release new videos every Monday
and Thursday at seven pm EEST, and there are super
fun live streams on Sundays and Wednesday nights. I'd love
to see you there. If you get a story, be
sure to submit them to my email at Let's Read
Submissions at gmail dot com and you might even hear

(50:32):
your story featured on the next video. And if you
want to support me even more, grab early access to
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click that big join button to hear about the extra
perks offered from members of the channel, And check out
the Let's Read podcast, where you can hear all of
these stories and big compilations located anywhere you listen to

(50:53):
podcasts links in the description below. Thanks so much, friends,
and remember, don't forget to wash your butt with soap.