10 Nightmarish TRUE Scary Stories | Home Alone, Stalker, Creepy Encounters - Reddit Stories

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
I want to start this off by saying that I
don't condone any of the behavior of what my friends
and I did on this particular night. I'm well aware
that this whole thing could have been avoided had my
friends and I not have been such dumbasses. I made
a huge mistake as well. It was Midsummer, like the
second week of August, to be exact. My parents were
gone for the weekend for some wedding out of town,

(00:34):
and I had the house to myself. As a seventeen
year old, I was pretty happy about being alone for
the weekend. My parents trusted me too, because I wasn't
really the type of kid to get into trouble really.
I mean, I had a few screw ups here and
there at school, but nothing major. I didn't smoke or
drink at all, and neither did most of my friends.
But this night was different. It all started out as

(00:57):
a normal night of me playing on my Xbox with
my friends when one of them mentioned that we should
sneak out. I wasn't necessarily opposed to this idea, but
I wasn't really fond of it, nor was I that interested.
It didn't sound like much fun to me. What were
we going to do anyway and walk around outside.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Then what you know.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
That's when Elias mentioned we should do something a little crazy.
There was this house down the street that was abandoned,
or so we thought at the time.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
They weren't one hundred percent sure.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Some weird girl that used to ride our bus for
years lived there, but they must have moved out because
one day she stopped getting on the bus and after
a few months this house looked like a ghost town.
The grass was really overgrown and you could tell the
property wasn't being maintained at all. Elias convinced me to go,
so I told him I was down, and I asked
him what our plan was. He told me, we'll figure

(01:48):
it out when we get there. The house hits on
a corner of two intersecting back roads in the country.
It's a two story white house with a big garage
behind it. We rode our bikes there because it was
kind of far to walk. When we got there, we
immediately hit our bikes and ran up to the back door,
but of course it was locked. We then tried the

(02:11):
front door as well, but it was also locked. We
ran back to the back door and we were going
to try to kick it down or break the handle
with a sledgehammer that we found sitting on the side
of the property.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
We started by.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Kicking the door, but it wasn't budging, so we went
to plan b Elia started hitting the door handle, and
after like five or six swings, he finally cracked it.
We opened the door and slowly stepped inside. All we
had was the flashlights on our phones to see. It
was pitch black in there, and the house was an
absolute mess. There were things scattered all around the floor

(02:45):
and it was nasty, definitely not cleaned by any standards
at all. As soon as we walked in, we noticed
the door that was adjacent to the door. He walked
in from it, led to the downstairs area. Took a
peek down there. Holy shit, dude, this place looks like
something straight out.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Of a horror movie. That gave me the creeps.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
I wasn't feeling ballsy enough to check it out down
there yet, not until we at least checked out the
rest of the house. Anyways, we scavenged her way through
the house and we didn't find much, just a bunch
of clutter and useless shit scattered around. He then walked
upstairs and checked out all the rooms. All right, bro,
we might as well just leave. I said, Wait, did

(03:28):
you hear that? Elias asked, what did I hear?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
What?

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Listen, dumbass? I froze in fear when I heard what
he was talking about. Dude, there's somebody in here. Shut
the fuck up, Devin, Elias said, Jesus, man, you're gonna
get us caught, idiot. We sat and listened for a
little while. As the noise continued. It sounded like somebody
was rummaging through a bunch of boxes or drawers or something.

(03:58):
Then what we feared most was coming true. We heard
steps heading towards the stairs. Shit, bro, let's go, I said.
He ran to one of their rooms and Alias hid
in the closet. But I, on the other hand, started
to open the window. I was making a lot of noise,
but I didn't really care. My only focus was getting.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
The hell out of the house. Wait, dude, what are
you doing. Don't freaking leave? What the heck?

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Come on, bro, I said, we gotta go. That's when
I jumped out the window. I got into the window
sill and I dropped down as carefully as possible. I
hurt my leg pretty bad, but I landed better than
I expected I would. Elias started yelling and told me
to wait for him, so I did. Hurry up, man,
you don't have much time, I said. That was when

(04:46):
I ran behind a tree to try and camouflage myself.
After that, Elias made a leap and he didn't land
as well as I did, and he ended up hurting
himself worse.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Luckily, he was still.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Able to limp a little on his own. He made
it his way over to the tree and he sat
down to catch his breath. Bro we seriously have to go,
I said, are you okay? By the way, he just
looked at me with an obvious look that I read no.
He obviously wasn't okay. Suddenly we heard some people talking
next door. Thankfully it was the neighbors. We started walking

(05:20):
that way. Keep in mind, this was the country and
the houses were pretty far apart.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
We realized we.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Couldn't look to them for help. Though, considering we technically
just committed a crime, I think we felt a form
of comfort though, realizing there were other people out there
if it came down to a life or death situation.
He walked away further from the vacant house and found
a better hiding spot to hang tight at while we
got Elias's ankle situated. After a few minutes, we started

(05:48):
to hear a bunch of loud noises and people yelling
from the house that we had just broken into.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
There must have been four or five people in there.
Then bam out of nowhere.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
We were like ten to fifteen rounds let off of
what sounded like an AR fifteen or something crazy like that.
We started to freak the hell out and we ended
up running away as fast as we could. With Elias's
ankle being the way it was, we had to take
a long walk back home. I'm talking about a three
and a half mile detour practically the whole way home.
I had to carry my half mobile friend, who could

(06:20):
barely even limp anymore without my help. Took us a
good couple hours to get home, and we heard more
gunshots from those crazy rednecks. I don't know what would
have happened if we would have run into them. I
don't know if they were squatters, or if they owned
the house, or what the hell was going on with them.
But a few months later we heard on the news
that someone was shot and killed in that house. They

(06:43):
never called the guys who did it, though, and ever
since I can't help but wonder what the fuck happened.
We never got a good look at the people either,
but I know that they knew we were there. We
tried to come back for our bikes a few nights later,
but they were gone, so they must have taken them.
It's crazy to think that someone died in that house,
literally murdered while we were there. That easily could have

(07:07):
been us. If we would have been found in there,
we would have been killed for being a witness. I'm
sure of it. I female, twenty three, was recently in

(07:27):
Africa on vacation with my family, and we stayed two
nights at a desert camp in the Sahara. The first night,
my sister and I were talking about hanging out with
the guys who worked there, who were all probably around
ages twenty to thirty five. Seemed like they were just
very friendly and harmless. I noticed at the campfire that
night that one of the guys started paying more attention

(07:48):
to me, and I felt a little uncomfortable by it,
but I figured it was just a language barrier or something.
So out in the desert, you can see the stars,
really well, and even the Milky Way on clear nights,
but you have to wait for the moon to go down,
which is around two am. I guess it's a normal
thing for the guys to come around to the tents,
which are luxury tents furnished with beds, lights, a toilet,

(08:12):
and shower as well. There's a lock on the doors,
so not normal camping. I guess it was normal for
them to come and knock on the door to see
if he were awake and want to come look at
the stars. My sister and I were sharing a tent
and my parents were in a separate one across the walkway.
The first night, around midnight, I told my sister I
was too tired to go out because I was falling asleep,

(08:34):
so she left to look at the stars without me,
and I didn't lock the door because I didn't want
her to.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Get locked out if I fell asleep.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Pass forward about an hour and I'm on my side
asleep when I wake up suddenly to see a head
peeking in from the tent door. I thought it was
my sister, so I groggledly asked her, what the fuck
are you doing? Because it was just weird the way
she was standing there. I start to wake up more
and I realized that it's this guy from the campfire
and his head was peaking in my room while I

(09:02):
was asleep. No, I know, it could have been a
simple misunderstanding, but I felt totally violated with my privacy,
especially because we were on their territory in the middle
of the desert. Like I'm not kidding, we had to
take a thirty minute truck ride into the dunes. I
was in fight or flight at that moment. He literally
woke me up with a panic attack, and I started

(09:23):
to feel extremely nervous and on edge. So I went
to the door and I told him I was tired.
Kept trying to get me to come out to the
dunes with a blanket, but I just kept saying no,
and that I didn't feel good and that I was tired,
which was true. At this moment, I don't know where
my sister is, and I don't know where my family is.
I'm disoriented, and all I know is that this man

(09:45):
is standing in front of me and was literally just
watching me sleep. I don't know how long he was
there for. It could have been a literal second, or
it could have been two minutes, but either way, I
was highy horrified. I told him no again, and I
said that I go look at the stars tomorrow night.
He told me that he wouldn't be at the camp

(10:06):
the next night, and that's why he wanted to go
out tonight, but I wouldn't budge. Once he realized I
wasn't going to come outside, he asked me if he
could have my number, and I told him no, that
I had a boyfriend. I don't actually have a boyfriend,
but it seemed like the only way this man would
respect my disinterest by knowing there was another man in
the picture. After I said that, he asked me for

(10:27):
my first name, and I gave it to him because
I thought it wouldn't do any harm. And then I
say good night and locked the door.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
This time.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
I went right to the bathroom and I had diarrhea,
not important. I just wanted to show that he scared
the little shit out of me. And while I was
on the toilet, I heard him come back and start
calling my name from outside the tent, but I just
stayed quiet and I didn't say anything. I finished in
the bathroom and I lied down in my bed, still
trying to calm down from what just happened, because my

(10:56):
heart was racing. I heard him come back again, calling
my name. I laid in bed still as I could,
and I didn't say anything. Tried texting my dad, but
he wasn't answering, and I didn't feel comfortable leaving the tent. Finally,
my sister came back and my dad was with her,
so I told him what just happened, and they were confused,

(11:17):
and they thought it was weird, and that was kind
of it. The next day, I brought it up at
breakfast again, and my sister and dad basically told me
I was being dramatic and that I should just stop
talking about it already and that it wasn't that big
of a deal. My mom was the only one who
agreed with me that it was weird. The second night,
my sister and I were both out under the stars,
talking to the guys and relaxing. Keep in mind, it's

(11:40):
very dark and you can't see any faces. So I
was having a normal convo with this one guy. I
couldn't see him, but all was well. After a while,
he asks me if I remember him, and I'm like, well, no, I.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Can't see you. Oh shan of light.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Then he said, so I do, and why didn't you
get it's the same dude from my ten as last night.
I especially wasn't expecting him to be the dude in
front of me because he had just told me he
wouldn't be there that night, which leads me to believe
he picked up a shift just to see me, but
I can't be too sure. Either that or he was
lying about not being there the next night in an

(12:17):
attempt to get me out there with him. But surprisingly,
he was fine that night and he respected my boundaries,
so I didn't say anything to the guys who.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Ran the camp.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
However, I was planning on doing so if he did
anything remotely that made me uncomfortable, but he didn't. The
next morning we left the area, and a few days
later I started getting message requests on Instagram. Would you
believe that this guy found me? I tagged the entire
desert in the picks I posted, like you're telling me
he found me based on my name and a location,

(12:47):
not even a specific location, an entire desert. My name
isn't unique either. Anyway, he messages me, and although I'm
creeped out, I'm also thinking okay, well, now he's harmless,
I might as well see what he says. He says
direct quote, you know, I'm really happy to find your account.
I was looking for a long time, which I found

(13:09):
highly creepy to even say to someone. But again, it
could just be a cultural difference.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Who knows.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
I didn't answer him, and he messaged me again a
few days later saying, hey, how are you, but I
didn't answer, So yeah, I guess I'm just curious what
you guys think about this and if I was really
overreacting or if you think my literal, gut feeling was right.
He seemed to be harmless in the end.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
But you never know.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
This whole situation started when I was a teenager. I
am now in my late twenties, and I'm a woman.
It was one small conversation that I had completely forgotten
about until two years ago. But in the past twoish
years more things have happened that made me really think
about that short conversation. I was about thirteen, and my

(14:05):
mom and I had just moved back in with my grandma,
where my uncle was already living, and at the time
his friend was living with us as well. He was
only staying for a few months. I never knew why,
I just knew he was staying there. One day, while
the friend was out of the house, my uncle sat
me down and told me he didn't want me to
be alone with his friend, that I needed to call

(14:27):
him if I found myself alone with his friend. Only
about a week after my mom and I moved in,
my uncle kicked his friend out. I was young and
I didn't think much about the conversation, and I had
completely forgotten about it. About two years ago, my uncle
very suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. After he passed, his

(14:47):
friend came back into my grandma's life. I think my
grandma kind of used my uncle's friend as a replacement
for my uncle. And at first everything seemed fine. But
after a few visits, I started feeling weird around him
and I didn't know why. And I remembered that conversation
my uncle had with me, but I tried to move
past it because it was over ten years ago that

(15:09):
we had that conversation and he is married to a
lovely woman, so I thought maybe things had changed. He
made a lot of dumb jokes that I never found funny,
but we're always harmless, Like here's an example, sometimes I
would come home with a bull of snacks in it
because my coworkers and I shared our snacks with each other,
and he would ask where his share was. Small stuff

(15:32):
like that. But then sometimes he made jokes about what
I was wearing that would make me feel a little uncomfortable.
But I was used to my family making similar jokes,
so I brushed it off, things like oh, who are
you trying to impress going out like that? And you
must be fighting off men and left and right in
other similar comments.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
I started to.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Avoid leaving my room at that point when he would
come over, But sometimes interactions with him were unavoidable because
he would be here when I was getting home from work,
or he would come over without warning. Another bit of backstory.
I'm engaged to a man who lives in a different country,
and with all the times that I've gone to visit him,
I have really fallen in love with where he lives.

(16:14):
On top of that, it's more affordable and overall much
safer for us to live there, so we are working
on moving me there to be with him. Well, I
don't tell my uncle's friend anything because he makes me uncomfortable,
but I know my grandma shares everything with him, so
he knows all about this situation, and he has on
more than one occasion ask me why I was moving

(16:34):
and I would explain that it's because that's where my
fiance lives and I absolutely love everything about where he lives.
My uncle's friend will always come back with, oh, of course,
it's for a boy, and he's also made comments along
the lines of, oh, I guess you're in love. I
just don't understand it, but whatever, Like he acts bothered

(16:55):
that I'm engaged in moving away. But again, I would
just hide myself away in my room and constantly convinced
myself that I was reading into things and overreacting. I
also knew I couldn't say anything to my grandma about
it because my family is one of those like, if
you don't want comments, you need to cover yourself up.
And I'm not allowed to wear shorts around male family

(17:16):
members because if they look at me and have bad thoughts,
then it's my fault. Now, all of these small instances
were very uncomfortable for me, but I just ignored them,
hit in my room, did what I could to avoid
the situations. But then something happened today and now I'm
just feeling icky. I went into work and my coworker

(17:36):
told me how yesterday a man fitting the description to
as Ea my uncle's friend, came into my work in
the afternoon after I had already left, asking about me,
and he knew details like what I looked like, where
I lived, even details about my move to another country,
and he made comments about being my uncle's friend. Now

(17:56):
I didn't hear any of this, as I already had
left for the day, But my co worker is a
very trustworthy person and doesn't just come up with this
kind of stuff for fun. She really even be the
first one to call someone out on their bs if
she catches them lying, So I trust what she's saying
is true. But he was saying however, since my uncle
had passed, he has been trying to see me more

(18:16):
and more because he just cares about me and sees
me as his daughter. That comment alone weirded me out
because I've barely interacted with this man and I avoided
at all costs, so why does he feel that close
to me. He also started talking at length about my
move to another country, and he wouldn't leave the topic,
just kept talking about how he doesn't get how I

(18:37):
could fall in love with someone so far away, and
how I should just stay here and find someone here
to fall in love with. He was making other comments
basically about how he doesn't approve and my move to
be with my fiance. This man is weirdly obsessed with me.
I never told him where I worked, but I know
my grandma probably did. It Still words me out that

(18:57):
he came into my workplace looking for me and then
talking at with my coworkers about my choices and my
future and how he doesn't like it when.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
I barely know him.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
I just can't wait to get out of this house
and move far away from him. So the story took
place when I was twelve. It is more than half

(19:26):
my life span ago, but I still get really uneasy
when thinking back to it. I tried to block her
from my mind and not guess as to what could
have happened if it wasn't for the two kinds strangers
that helped me. I was walking home from school one day.
It was a four kilometer walk along a busy road.
I was alone. However, at one of the intersections I crossed,

(19:47):
there was a tall, dirty looking man that noticed me.
I would guess his age was early thirties, but being
a kid back then, I struggled telling the age of adults.
He started following me and trying to strike up a
comp He kept telling me that I was beautiful and
that he wanted us to be friends. He asked me
where I lived and if my parents would be home,

(20:09):
and he asked me many more questions, but I tried
to shrug him off and be polite. I didn't really
answer any of his questions. I just increased to pace
at which I walked. When we were nearing the block
on which I lived, I started becoming really uneasy. He
was following me, and I obviously wanted him to leave
me alone.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
He gave off a weird vibe.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Because adults didn't usually speak to me that way. The
only way I could get rid of him would be
to give him my cell phone number and agree to
answer when he calls. Because the situation made me uncomfortable,
I gave him a fake number and I high tailed
it out of there. A few months passed without me
running into that man again, so I completely put this
out of my mind. He's probably just some weirdo, however,

(20:55):
as you can guess from here. Things did not stay
that way. Day, approximately four months later, I found myself
walking home after school again. I will admit that I
wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings. That was until
I heard what sounded like footsteps running up behind me.
My reflex as quickly made me turn around to look,

(21:17):
and it was that same creepy man that I had
encountered before. He slowed his pace as he reached me,
but he was yelling at me the entire time. He
figured out that I had given him the wrong number,
and he was furious. He kept yelling and yelling and
saying that I think I am better than him and
that was why I gave him a fake number. I
was terrified at that moment as he was really angry.

(21:40):
I was afraid that he was going to hurt me,
but I couldn't grab the attention of any motorists. Speed
walked to the closest petrol station, which was luckily not
too far, with him following behind me, still yelling the
entire time. When I got to the station, I immediately
got the attention of two burly men standing next to
their pick up truck. I've seen the terrified look on

(22:01):
my face plus the man following me, as they immediately
ran over to ask if I was all right. I
was too scared to speak. I just shook my head
frantically as I tried to get behind them. They immediately
demanded to know why the man was following me. He
fed them some bs, and the man tried to lie
and say he was my brother. I just silently kept
shaking my head. I guess they figured out what was

(22:23):
happening at this point, as I started yelling at the man.
They were accusing him of being a child predator. I
didn't stay to find out what happened. Took the opportunity
of him being distracted, and I started to run away.
The man noticed that I was leaving and he tried
to take off after me, but the men really took
offense to this, as they immediately tackled him and threw
him in the back of their pickup.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
He was screaming.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
At this point, I sped off with the guy at
inconceivable speed right past me and just kept going. I
was happy that they took him away, but I didn't
stop running until I reached home. I had no idea
what to make out of this entire exchange. But it
really shook me. I really don't want to know where
they took that creepy guy or what they did to
him after In all, honestly, I didn't want to know.

(23:11):
I told my parents, and I altered the route I
walked home from school. I never saw him again, and
I am thankful for that. Even though I could not
say what I needed at that moment, those two kinds
strangers saw that I was in distress and dealt with
it for me. Even after all these years, I still
remember the sheer terror and then relief when they took
him away. So I'm going to tell you this story

(23:46):
of my brief encounter with a man called Happy. I'm
sure it wasn't his real birth name, but it adds
to the creepy ambience of the story. Even though it
happened around nine years ago. Sometimes he still crosses my mind. Actually,
on gloomy, over cast days in LA just like the
day I met Happy. It was twenty thirteen. I'm working

(24:07):
out a cannabis dispensary in Venice Beach, a block from
the boardwalk. A good thirty five percent of our patrons
were unhoused people, occasionally someone experiencing severe psychosis would try
to come in, but if they were screaming or unintelligible,
security would not let them in. If they had and
presented the holy trinity of medical papers, ID, and cash,

(24:30):
they were good to go. We had a compassion program
where we'd bag up grams of shake leftover from the
bottoms of jars and give them away completely free, one
person per day to anyone who asked worried about this
quickly spread on the boardwalk. Generally of these people would
be the nicest, most polite, and considerate customers, even if

(24:51):
they did smell a bit stinky and their money got
pulled out of a sweaty sock. No one working there whatever.
Bat and I if someone came in smelling like they
just slept on the beach for week next to a
bottle of vodka, as long as they just call me
by their weed and be on their way like any
other customer. It was a foggy and chilly day around
the holidays. Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, someone called out

(25:14):
of work, so I was the only person in the
back bud tending. There was another employee at the reception
and the security guarded the front door, but I was
alone in the back room. There are cameras, but no
one is actively watching them. The skuy walked in after
being checked in at the front, and he was the
only customer at the moment, and I swear the whole

(25:37):
room gets a little colder.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
As he walked in.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
He was wearing a very worn in, deeply faded, wrinkled
floor length leather duster jacket, like a cowboy. It looked
like he lived and slept in these same clothes for years.
We didn't really allow hats, hoods, or sunglasses in the store,
so I'm surprised that the security didn't make him take
his hat off. His man was like six foot five

(26:01):
and built like a boulder. Not really obese, but just large,
pick you up and toss you like a rag doll
type large. The stench that comes with him is unlike
anything I've ever smelt before, though. It was beyond boh,
beyond piss or shit. Smelled like actual death, as if
he had raw, rotting carcasses tucked under his thick, long

(26:22):
leather coat. I thought I had been hardened by the
plenty of nasty body stink before, but this was absolutely
revolting and far beyond anyone who hadn't showered lately or
pissed their pants. I'm trying not to in hell very deeply,
and I say, hi, sir, excuse me, I'm sorry. Would
you mind taking off your hat? Just store policy with

(26:45):
a big customer service smile. What are you looking for today?
He grown steeply and is walking very slow, shuffling and
dragging his feet. His voice sounds like he gargles with gravel,
rough and wet, raw and angry. I don't take off
my hat, he said. At this point. I'm not trying

(27:05):
to argue with this man about his hat either. Let's
just get him in and out. I glanced down and
see that he's not wearing shoes. The bit I can
see from under his coat one of his ankles is
massively purple or blackish colored and swollen, like the size
of a melon. The bottoms of both of his feet
are bloody and torn up, and I realize he is

(27:26):
leaving a slight trail of blood as he dragged his
ragged feet across the concrete floor.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Of the shop.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
My first thought is why and how the fuck did
security let this guy come in? Second is this guy
is obviously injured, and that was concerning as a human being.
I'm making sure to keep the display shelf between me
and the sky, but that's only about a foot of space,
kind of like a bar. He gets closer to me
and the stench gets stronger. I meekly but sincerely, ask,

(27:56):
are you all right?

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Sir? His eyes then flared at me. What do you care?

Speaker 1 (28:02):
He said, And then in my head, I'm kind of like, well,
I tried, you know, not my life, not my problem,
not my monkeys, not my circus. Great, So what can
I get for you?

Speaker 2 (28:14):
I asked.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
He then pulls up one of his sleeves to expose
his forearm, and it was covered in a large amount
of burns, like from a cigar. Some were old, some
were healed, and some were fresh, pussy and infected. It
wasn't track marks, it was clearly third degree burns. He
also had a jagged, homemade looking stick and poke tattoo
of a smiley face, the crooked circle, two lines for

(28:38):
the eyes, and an eagerly looking smile. Pointed at this tattoo,
happy My name is happy, he said. The rotting stink
was so strong and I needed to breathe, so I
took little gasps at least amount impossible.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
I walked here.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
I walked all the way from Pasadena. Wow, sir, that's
a very long walk. Anyway, what are you looking for today?

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Just for you? He said.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
His eyes are dark and menacing. He smeared with a
layer of grime, like he lives in the woods. He
doesn't look like the average crush punk or disabled veteran
that you would generally see living on the beach. It
was hard to guess his age, but he wasn't that
old or young, somewhere between thirty and fifty. He looked
like he dragged himself from his log cabin, Like what

(29:28):
would happen if you entagled some quantum mechanics poorly and
mixed ed gean with an eighteen hundreds homesteader then transported
him to twenty thirteen Venice Beach. I, of course, have
never seen this man before, but once was more than
enough to make him unforgettable. He kept staring at me,
and I move as far back as I can to

(29:50):
the wall, hopefully out of his grasp. If he lunged,
I would need to walk out from behind the register
and around to him to get to the security guard.
I was weighing my options. I decided to grab a
bunch of Compassion grams and then I wighed out in
nath and I marked it down that i'd pay for
it later. And he's still just leering at me, wheezing
heavy breaths. We actually have a special today, only for

(30:14):
people who walked more than ten miles to get here.
This is all for you on the house. Thank you
for stopping by. He accepted the bag, but continues to
just stand there and stare at me. Thank you, Happy,
I said it actually worked. He grunted a guttural noise
that was not a word and slowly turns the shuffle

(30:35):
back towards the door. At the door, he turns back
towards me and says, I'll see you later. He finally
walked out, after leaving plenty of his residual stench of
death behind. Thank any and all the gods. I did
not see Happy later or ever again. When I asked
security why if they let him in, he said that

(30:56):
he had noticed his bloody feet and said, hey, bro,
are you all good?

Speaker 2 (31:00):
It looks like it hurts.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Apparently, Happy stepped up in his face and threatened to
choke him out and called him a stupid end word,
and since it was just him and to twenty two
year old one hundred and thirty pound girls, he wasn't
trying to die and hope that happy would just get
his stuff and leave. He was watching the cameras in
the back, ready to call the police and owners if
anything got you weird. Apparently we had different definitions of weird,

(31:25):
but I understood his reaction and ultimately we were all fine.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Just spooked and creeped out.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
But now we were left with needing to clean blood
off the floor with bleaching gloves and texting our boss
that he showed us free weed. He actually agreed, and
we all lived happily ever after. About ten years ago,

(31:54):
a few of my buddies and I went on our
short lived camping and fishing trip in a pretty remote
lake a few hours from our all town. We were
all packed and ready to go. The trip there was
pretty quiet until we started to get pretty close to
our destination. As we got closer, I think we all
started to get a little excited, and some of us
had that excitement adrenaline rolling through us. When we got there,

(32:17):
we set up camp, nothing too crazy. We only had
two tents between the four of us and our own
backpacks with what we need for the weekend. After getting
settled in, we grabbed all of our fishing gear, a
shit ton of beer, and headed off to the lake
to try our luck with fishing. It was probably around
three pm. We were all having a blast. Some of

(32:37):
us may have been a little bit more drunk than
we should have been, but that was all part of
the fun, just men being men. After a number of
hours rolled by, we were all ready to call fishing
a day. It was around eight o'clock and dusk was approaching,
so we started heading back to camp. We were quite
away from camp still, and we didn't realize how far
we went. We knew we were a ways out, but

(33:01):
I think we all sort of lost track of how
far we really went.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
It was no big deal though.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
The sunset was beautiful and we were approaching camp just
in time for nightfall. When Jimmy and Tom were getting
out of their boat, we noticed some flashing lights up
ahead through the woods past camp. When they disappeared after
a few seconds, we figured they were just passerby, so
it only shortly lived in our minds. Holy crap, guys, look,

(33:27):
Tom said. We all looked in the direction he was
pointing in, and there was a freakin bear now more
than fifty feet away from where John and Timmy were standing.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yo, just stay calm, dude, and he will leave us alone.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
We all quietly walked back to camp, relatively slowly because
we didn't want to set off the bear into thinking
we were pray.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Luckily, we all made it safely to camp. Just as
soon as we.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Thought all of our problems were gone, we heard a
car in the distance. It was rolling in closer now
and we started to see the headlights. In a few
moments after that, the car rolled up on us at camp.
Was in all blocked out. SUV my golden fear, as
I've heard horror stories of people being attacked in the
woods just out of the blue, and unfortunately that's what

(34:13):
my mind went to fight or flight. Felt a slight
panic inside. As the two men stepped out of the vehicle.
They both had to be over six foot one or
six foot two, and they were both tracked as hell.
They introduced themselves as sheriffs and they asked us what
we were doing out here. Tom said we were camping,
and that's when I blurted out.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
To leave us alone.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
I had a fishy feeling about what was going on.
We could barely see them in the darkness as they
were shining their dumb flashlights at us. They said they
saw us fishing and demanded to see our fishing licenses,
which we all had, so it wasn't really a problem.
I didn't want to give mine up, though, because I
started to wonder if they were even real cops. Plus,

(34:56):
we didn't do anything for them to suspect that either
of us committed a crime, and I verbally let them
know that I knew my rights as a US citizen.
One of them demanded I give them my ID, and
they threatened to arrest me if I didn't give it up.
I wasn't letting him scare me. Though My dad is
a cop and I know it's not normal for them
to abuse their power like this. My father always told

(35:17):
me what to do in a situation like this. I
told them my father was the chief of police for
the county, and I asked them what county they worked for,
but they didn't answer my question, of course, And yeah,
I did lie a little, but I was hoping to
build some street credit for our group. My dad wasn't
the chief of this county specifically, but the next county over.

(35:38):
After I told them that, though we could all tell that,
they were starting to get choked up, and they started
pretending like there wasn't an issue any longer. Sorry for
bothering you, guys, one of them said. Then they walked
away and got back in their car. As they were
walking back to the SUV, we noticed they weren't wearing
a traditional police uniform. They were just wearing normal flannels
and sweatpants. Maybe we should have chased them down or

(36:01):
called the police, but we never did. We were all
sure that they were fake police. When I got home,
I told my dad about it, and he never alerted
the station because none of us could give enough detail
about the men. Can't help but wonder what their plans were,
whether or not they were real cops or not. If
they weren't, were they going to try and search us

(36:22):
and disarm us of all of our weapons, then attack
us and rob us If they were real cops, were
they just.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
On a power trip.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
Who knows, But I'm glad nothing worse came of this situation.
I've hesitated to share this story for a long time
because I know how important the mutual trust between a

(36:51):
resident and their landlord or maintenance staff is and I
don't want to instill any unnecessary distrust in anyone's landlord.
I've shared stories before about dangerous and scary residents that
I've encountered while working at apartment complexes, but this is
a story about my time on the other side of
things as a renter. Before I had even graduated from

(37:11):
high school, I knew I wanted to live at Paradise Apartments.
I was a bit naive at the time, drawn in
by the many amenities that I would never use, but
I primarily wanted to live there because the complex was
pet friendly and within my small budget. When the time
eventually came for me to get my own place, I
got the only apartment they had available and I moved in. Unfortunately,

(37:34):
I came to realize the apartment wasn't as nice that
I had originally thought. The building was old but remodeled,
so it had all the typical plumbing issues and thin walls.
I also learned it was not the safest part of town.
I was primarily an online student, but I had one
class that met in person twice a week around eight am.
I am a bit of a home body, so I

(37:55):
really left during the day except for that class, the
occasional shopping trip, or to spend time with my boyfriend
the evening after he got off work. My apartment was
a bit of a Bermuda triangle. Even though it was
only six hundred square feet and I lived alone, things
had a way of growing legs and walking away. I
had two kittens at the time, and I blame them
often for things disappearing. Something odd that kept recurring, however,

(38:20):
was that I'd find my underwear box out and sitting
in the center of my bedroom floor on days when
I had class. I didn't have a proper dresser. Instead,
I was using an Ikea shelf with some Ikeia boxes
for designated clothes like socks, underwear, pants, and pajamas. I
always could have sworn I put the underwear box right
away after getting ready for class, but I chalked it

(38:42):
up to me forgetting as a result of having to
get up early and being focused on getting to class
on time. Arguably paranoid, I started to think that some
of my laundry was disappearing as well. His favorite articles
of clothing would go into the laundry hamper and seemingly
never come back with the clean clothes. Towards the end
of that's I was working one evening on a homework
assignment and my boyfriend called to let me know his

(39:04):
roommate had accidentally locked him out of their apartment. I
had a key to their place, so yes, if I
could run over real quick to let him in. Before
I left, I made a mental note that I had
literally left every single light in my apartment on. Because
I was living on a pretty tight budget, I normally
made a point of turning off all the lights when
I left. My boyfriend only lived about five minutes away,

(39:25):
so I knew i'd be there and back very quickly.
Sure enough, I got back less than fifteen minutes later.
I immediately sent something was off, as I could see
the lights were off all through the blinds. I called
my boyfriend and he drove over to meet me. We
unlocked the door and went in. All the lights were
off in my apartment. Thinking maybe I had a power outage,

(39:47):
I flipped on the main light and it came on.
My boyfriend checked the entire apartment, but.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
No one was inside.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Someone had gone through and systematically turned off every light
at their switch, including my lizard's basket light, the only
light that I always left on because it was on
a timer, and my laptop, which I left open on
my assignment, but now the computer had been powered down
and closed. Called the emergency maintenance number and I explained
that someone had been inside my apartment and that they

(40:16):
had to have used a key because there was no
sign of forced entry. The manager called me back and
told me I had to be imagining things. Maybe I
had forgotten that I turned off the lights before I left.
I assured him that I wouldn't have turned off the
computer or the lizard light, and someone had been in
my apartment. I told him I was really worried because
obviously this person had a key to get in. Either

(40:37):
they worked for the complex, or maybe it was a
previous tenant. I asked if they had changed the locks
after the previous tenant moved out, and they assured me
that they changed the locks after every move out. The
manager suggested them maybe he was a friend breaking me,
or someone else had given a key to the only
other people I'd given keys to were my boyfriend and
my mom, but she lived three hours away. In any case,

(41:01):
neither of them would have praying to me in this way.
The manager finally agreed to send someone out immediately to
change the lock for my peace of mind. I brought
up my concern that it was someone on the staff,
since they would be the only other people with keys.
The manager claimed the keys were locked in a special
safe that required a personalized code to track who took
what keys, when and where, and that they had him

(41:24):
in an office with a security camera. They changed my locks,
but I had my doubts that it would do much good.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
As far as I was aware, there.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Were only two maintenance men that worked at the complex,
one nice older man that didn't seem all that skilled,
and a younger guy with his scruffy beard that gave
me a bad feeling. I suspected that he had to
be the one that had been breaking in. When I
had first moved in, the manager had told me i'd
be getting a new kitchen counter within the first three days.

(41:53):
I waited to move my kitchen stuff, but after a
week they hadn't come, and then after a few months
I had completely forgotten about it. One day, I was
sitting in my living room and the scruffy maintenance guy
walked in without knocking or announcing himself, and I hadn't
received a notice to expect him. He said he was
there to replace my countertop, but it took him two
days to install one small piece of counter A few

(42:16):
weeks later, I was getting out of the shower and
I heard a single knock at the door. I called
out just one minute, and I hurried to get some close.
Not even two seconds later, the door started to open.
I had to slam it shut because I was still
wrapped in a towel to stop him from coming in.
He claimed he hadn't heard me call out, but I
had my doubts. I don't remember what excuse he had

(42:37):
for coming in. Another time, I found a note from
him that he had come in again, and it didn't
give me a reason as to why, but that he
made sure not to let my cats out. He also
made a note about my third cat being cute, except
I didn't have a third cat. I did, however, have
a picture of my childhood cat in my bedroom on
the ikea shelf where I kept my clothes. At that point,

(43:00):
I went to the office to ask him to make
a note of my file that A wanted at least
twenty four hours notice before entry, and B wanted to
always be present for future entry. Now that I knew,
without a shadow of a doubt that someone was coming
in secretly, it all made sense. It hadn't been long
after the surprise maintenance visit stopped that things had started
moving around in my apartment. He was also on site

(43:25):
all the time. Everyone on staff also lived at Paradise,
so he knew when I came and went. We knew
how many times he had snuck in, how many small
souvenirs he had stolen, could have been coming in while
I was asleep.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Even after the night with.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
The lights, I put my own lock on the door,
but I still didn't totally trust the apartment. I ended
up buying a condo shortly after. With help from my parents,
I subleased the apartment and moved. Right around that time,
I also got my first job, working in a different
apartment complex, and all days before I left, my mom
came into town to help me move my stuff. While

(44:04):
she was home alone I was at a class, she
caught the scruffy maintenance man trying to get his key
to work in my lock. She demanded to know what
he was doing, and he said he was there to
paint the front door. I hadn't received a notice though,
and he didn't have any paint or supplies. She told
him he could wait until after I moved out. A

(44:25):
few years later, I was stopped by the owner of
Paradise Apartments while working at another complex in town called
Okay Apartments. So basically shopping has when an employee from
another apartment complex takes it to or at another apartment
complex under the guise of wanting an apartment for the
purpose of gaining information that they might not otherwise easily
give up. Can also be performed by your own management

(44:47):
company to make sure that you're doing a good job.
There were certain tells of shopper always gave, like asking
specifically worded questions is it safe here, I'm a felon?

Speaker 2 (44:57):
Can I live here? You know?

Speaker 1 (45:00):
Ones that required specifically worded answers and were easy to
trip up on being too wealthy for the complex rolex, watch,
sports car, nice suit, etc. And being too flexible on
what they were interested in. They were interested in all
the layouts and they were open to move in whenever.
This guy seemed too old and too well off to

(45:21):
be randomly considering an apartment at okay, so we were
a yeared towards lower income folks. While I was giving
the tour, he asked if I had any opinions on
other apartment complexes in town, and mentioned Paradise specifically. Normally
I wouldn't bad mouth any other complexes. I preferred to
win them over by showing them.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
The positives of our community.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
But I told him that I probably wasn't the best
person to answer that question because I was probably the
only person to give Paradise.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
A bad review in the last five years.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
He asked me to elaborate, and I told him my
apartment had been broken into and I suspected it with
someone on their maintenance staff. At that point, he revealed
that he was the owner of Paradise and he was
very disturbed to hear I had this experience. He asked
me to describe the maintenance men in detail. I assured
him it was in the past and that I was
over it, but he insisted on calling the manager over

(46:12):
at Paradise, which was still the same guy, to ask
him over speakerphone if they had any issues with the
maintenance staff back in the year I lived there. He
answered yes, that there had been a scruffy young maintenance
man he had to fire because he had been caught
multiple times breaking into the apartments of single women. Satisfied now,
the owner probably told me that the issue had been

(46:33):
resolved and asked if I would be willing to change
my review. I told him no, that none of this
had changed the fact that I experienced this, but I
was happy he was actually able to validate what I
had suspected. In the years I worked as a leasing agent,
I learned a lot about where complexes will cut corners
to save time and money.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
From my experience, A.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Lot of complexes did not switch out the locks if
the tenant was good, and a lot did not require
background checks for himmployees, even though they did require them
from tenants. Keys also got passed out willy nilly to
vendors and maintenance during turns, and employees frequently got master
keys that would open all the doors. I won't go
so as far to say every complex operates this way,

(47:15):
but every complex I worked at was doing this when
I started there because of my own experiences. Once I
begin managing a complex, I enforced strict rules about changing locks,
tracking keys, posting proper notices, and requiring background checks for
all employees and tenants, at least here in Florida. With
me AS logging into effect this year, background checks for

(47:37):
employees and security measures for keys are required for all complexes.
Even still, if you're renting an apartment, stay diligent. If
you have a reason to believe someone is coming into
your home, should document it and let the staff or
police or your friends and family know. You never know
who might have a key to your apartment. In two

(48:07):
thousand and eight, I was in the market for buying
a new truck. I went to a few dealerships but
only found a few that merely caught my eye. I
was in no rush to get a new one. I
just wanted to make sure I was going to be
happy with the one that I was getting. That was
what was most important to me. I found a two
thousand and five f one fifty on Craigslist for a

(48:28):
decent price. It had low miles on it as well.
The only thing that needed to be replaced were some tires,
which was kind of a hassle, but I was still interested.
I figured I could talk him down the price for
the inconvenience of it gave me the supposed address of
where he in the truck was located, and when I
showed up, I was met with a nice, older gentleman,

(48:49):
probably late fifties early sixties. He seemed like an all
right man or a normal guy. He was very straight
to the point, and he didn't have much to say.
I asked him for a slight discount on the truck,
considering the tires, and he seemed reluctant at first, but
we came to an agreement. My fiance rode with me
to look at the truck in case I were to

(49:09):
end up buying it. That way, she could drive the
other vehicle home and I would drive for the new truck.
That's what ended up happening. After a quick test drive,
I decided I wanted it, so I gave him the
cash and we were on our merry way. I was
excited about it, and then I got a new truck
for such a killer deal. We went home and we

(49:31):
went on our about our day. It wasn't until later
that night when I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette,
I saw a shadow of what looked like to have
been a man standing in my driveway. Now I have
a long driveway and we live in the country. It
was really dark and all I could see was the
shadow of him.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
It was pitch black.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
I guess I didn't even know if it was a
man or a woman, but from the build of the person,
I assumed it was a man. I called out to him,
asking who he was, but he didn't answer. I threatened
to call the police if he didn't walk away, and
after that, he started walking towards me. I ran inside
quickly and I told my wife to call the police
and to let him know that there was an unknown

(50:11):
man in our driveway.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
I ran into our room and grabbed my.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Rifle and walked back outside to try and scare him off,
but he was gone.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
I was hoping he got the memo right then.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
I chuckled to myself as I thought I scared him off,
But I was completely wrong, because in an instant I
heard my wife screaming for my help inside. I ran
as fast as I could to her, and I saw
that the manitor pin to the ground. I ran over
to them and I hit him with the butt of
my rifle and I knocked him out cold. Apparently we
left the garage door unlocked, and that's how he let

(50:45):
himself into our house, put his zipsige around his wrists
and I put them behind his back in case he
were to wake up and try to run off. We
waited for the police to show up, and I wasn't
sure if he was even alive at one point, so
I checked his pulse. His heart was still beating, so
I was kind of glad I didn't murder him. The

(51:06):
cop showed up and arrested the man, but not before
taking him to the hospital. My wife and I were
taken in for questioning. But ever since then, I've been
in over the top, on edge paranoid kind of person.
I genuinely think I developed some sort of PTSD from
this shit. I learned that he placed some GPS tracker
under our truck before selling it to us, and that's

(51:28):
how he found us why, I'm not sure. The whole
thing is extremely strange. My wife and I still think
about it from time to time. We don't have a
clue what he had against us or why he would
want to do such a thing to us at all,
and the police never got a good answer from the
man and why I did it. It's clear there was
something mentally wrong with him, but still, what compels a

(51:49):
man to be violent like that for no reason. He's
honestly lucky he walked out of my house alive after
grabbing my wife like that, just saying so. For a

(52:10):
quick backstory, I've had a stalker for about four years.
He's never aggressive or set me proper threats. So stubborn
as I am, I did my best to ignore him
and not give him the satisfaction of showing him any fear.
To be honest, after a while, I wasn't even scared
anymore since he almost never came close to me. And
I know being stalk can affect people severely, even in

(52:33):
a case like mine, and that's totally valid. But I
guess I got lucky and I was never really psychologically
affected by it. His stalking behavior mostly just consisted of
sending me letters and gifts, such as photos of my
own apartment building from the outside, thinks he dug out
of my trash can, and so on. I called the
police many times, but they weren't able to catch or

(52:53):
identify him. Since I barely use any social media aside
from Reddit and have no personally identifying information here, I
didn't think he'd ever see it. One person even asked,
does he know you're putting him on blast on Reddit,
and I answered maybe maybe he would make him angry,
or maybe he'd be turned on, don't know, don't care. Well,

(53:16):
I know the real answer now. He did see it,
and he definitely didn't like it. Like I said, he
was never usually aggressive and he never came close to me.
The closest I know of was when he sent me
a picture of me about myself unlocking my apartment door.
I consider myself a pretty vigilant person, and I'm thinking
that he might have hit a camera there instead of

(53:37):
being there to take the photo himself. I think I
would have noticed him if he was physically there, but
I don't know for sure. I don't know how he
got wind of the AMA, but he did. The next
week was quiet, no letters, and I didn't see him anywhere.
Then he left me letters with printed out questions and
my answers from the post. He also left me along

(53:59):
time hateful letter towards my boyfriend about an issue that
I had posted on the German version.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Of r slash and by the asshole.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
His letters were never hateful like that before, though he
never seemed happy with my boyfriend. He wrote about how
I should share the spotlight with him, since I got
so much attention thanks to him. A few days later,
I got a gift, but this time he didn't leave
it in my mailbox or at my car like he
usually did. No this time he left it inside the
apartment building, right in front of my door. I didn't

(54:30):
take it inside my apartment, but I opened it outside.
It was a pretty big box, which was also unusual,
and it was also tape shot. As I'm typing this out,
I realized that it wasn't a good idea at all
to open it, and it could have ended badly for me.
But luckily he didn't send me a bomb or anything.
He did, however, send me several zip ties, a roll

(54:52):
of tape the kind you used to tape off walls
when painting, nothing you could use to restrain someone, a
TV remote with most spots picked off, a pack of
band aids with a few use ones not actually used,
just made to look like that according to police.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
And a framed picture of me.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Good tell The picture was taken a few days ago
and my boyfriend was next to me, but cut out
of the photo. The frame was shattered, and the package
was full of glass sharts clearly more than just what
could have fallen out of the frame, and they were
also intentionally put inside the crumpled newspaper that was stuffed
in there to keep it all in place. I called
the police right away and I gave it to them.

(55:34):
They were more concerned this time. Finally, they told me
they'd send patrol cars more frequently. He didn't show up
or leave me any letters or gifts for about another
week and a half, but eight days ago As started again.
Found letters in my mailbox where he wrote about how
he wasted his time on me, how I haven't been
appreciating his effort, and how he was wrong about me

(55:55):
being special. Five days ago, I left my apartment in
the morning and I heard a crunch sound as I
stepped on my doormat put broken glass under it. At night,
I went off to work in a hurry because I
was in a hurry and I was just going to
make my boyfriend call the police. But then I found
my car had also been vandalized. The sides were scratched,

(56:17):
lights smashed, and the windshield had a phrase painted on it.
The phrase read it's time soon miss with my first
and last name. I went back inside and I called
the cost myself. They found the same phrase on a
note under the doormat. This time, they really really really
took me seriously, which might have been because I was

(56:38):
just pissed at this point, which I made very clear
for some reason, you're like me and just too stubborn
to be afraid of a stalker like mine. Then all
of this, the letters, gifts, photos, even the damn glass
under my doormat are just really annoying and inconvenient. But
my car was useless to me now, and that threat
scared me. I did how I have a dash cam

(57:00):
in my car, and they caught everything. The police took
the footage as evidence, even though the dash cam footage
wasn't high of quality, and I had given them photos
of him that were just as good before, but they
said it wasn't enough. They told me they'll look into
it further and promised to send more patrol cards again.
Then it was quiet for two more days until two

(57:21):
days ago someone rang the doorbell just after four am.
My boyfriend and I got up, but we were both hesitant.
I saw blue lights outside, and just as I got up,
I heard them shouting, this is the police.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Open the door.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
They told us they were called by one of our
downstairs neighbors who came home from his night shift about
an hour earlier and heard someone else enter the building
after them before their door was fully shut. My neighbors
know of my situation, and I've asked them to make
sure they don't let strangers into the building before. This
neighbor then went into his apartment and looked through the people.

(57:58):
We have motion activated lights in the stairs, so he
waited to see if they turned back on, and they did.
Then he saw a middle aged man walk upstairs. Above
this neighbor are only me and my boyfriend and a
single mom with three kids who probably won't be getting
any visitors. At three am, they came and found my
stalker one half floor above me on the stairs. Should

(58:19):
have been able to see the cop car since there's
a little window up there and they had their lights on,
but he either missed them or he wanted to get caught.
He found a pocket knife on him and he confessed
to being my stalker right away. He's finally caught.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
They got him.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
It took four years, a provocative Reddit post and one
very vigilant and caring neighbor, but he's finally done.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
For now.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
At least he's facing several charges, and I've collected every
single piece of evidence over the past four years. I
don't know what kind of Alcolm I can expect, but
for now I finally got some peace. For some context,

(59:08):
I'm a thirty two year old female. This happened to
me when I was about twenty five or twenty six
or full time as a researcher at a university, which
is where these encounters took place. I'm not a professor
or anything, and because of my age at the time,
I could have easily been mistaken for just another student
wandering around campus.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
On some days when.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
The weather was nice, I would prefer to spend my
lunch hour strolling around the university grounds outside or sitting
underneath a shady tree on a bench. During that time,
I was not sitting in a cramped corner of a lab.
On one of these days, I was sitting on a
bench and enjoying the fresh air, and a male student
walking by asked if you could sit next to me.
I'm a pretty shy and awkward kind of person, so

(59:51):
even though I would really have preferred sitting alone, I
said sure. He initiated simple conversation, to which I obliged,
but being careful not to be too forthcoming. He mentioned
he had seen which department building I came and went from,
which slightly alarmed me, given I had never seen this
person before in my life, but I pushed the thought

(01:00:12):
from my mind. After all, the weather had been decent
lately and I had spent nearly all my lunch hours
for the past week outside. Yes, if I was studying
within the mentioned department, to which I told him that
I was not a student, but rather I worked here.
He told me he was an engineering student, and then
he followed up with asking me out to coffee sometime.

(01:00:33):
I apologized and I told him that I had a
boyfriend and that I would have to decline. He parted
ways after that, and I assumed I probably wouldn't see
him around again. About a week or two went by
and I was spending another lunch hour outside on campus,
sitting on a different bench somewhere, seemingly out of nowhere,
The same man from before asked if he could sit
next to me again. I don't remember what he started

(01:00:56):
talking to me about it. First, my mind was reeling
and I was rather uncomfortable having to potentially turn this
guy down a second time. Sure enough, he asked me
again if we could go out for coffee sometime. I
apologize and reminded him that I had a boyfriend and
that I would not be meeting him for coffee, and
again he left.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
After that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
I was feeling rather anxious now, but it still hadn't
reached a level where I felt like I had to
be too concerned. A few days later, I had finished
work and I was leaving the building to walk to
where I had parsed my car. The university charges of
fortune for parking passes even if you're employed by them,
so I had always opted for free street parking. About
a ten minute walk away from campus, a walking route

(01:01:39):
would take me down several quiet residential streets with minimal
car traffic. Even pedestrian traffic was pretty sparse on the
busiest of days. It wasn't until I was about halfway
to my car down one of these quiet back streets
that I noticed someone walking directly across the street from me,
but keeping a few paces behind, and noticed him form
my peripheral vision, and I didn't want to flat out

(01:02:01):
turn around to.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Stare at him.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
I mean, it wasn't uncommon to see someone else by
any means. I was just always trying to be aware
of my surroundings. When walking the streets alone, I had
to make a few turns coming up anyways, and the
chance that they would be going the same way as
me was slim.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
But he did.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
He made all the turns that I did, still walking
on the sidewalk across from me, a few steps behind.
Still did not want to look at whoever it was.
I didn't want him to know that I was aware
of what I thought he was doing. I quickened my
pace to a speedy walk. I was approaching the first
of the two busier streets before I would reach my car,

(01:02:38):
his pace quickened to keep up with me. That was
the moment I panicked, the moment I was sure that
he was indeed following me. After that, I started a
full out jogged across the first street of the busier streets.
He ran to keep up behind me and was now
on the same side of the street that I was.
I was now nearly at my car, but I had

(01:02:59):
to cross the line busy street and get about one
hundred meters and then I would be there. But it
was crossing the street that worried me. I often had
to stop and wait a good minute or so before
it was clear enough to do so. If this were
the case, he would catch up with me, as if
the stars aligned. As soon as I made it running
to the busy street, I had a gap to cross.

(01:03:20):
I booked it as fast as I could, finally turning
around once I'd made it to look and yell at
the man who had been pursuing me. It was him,
I could have suspected, but now I was confirmed. It
was the engineering student from whom I had turned down
for coffee. Stop following me, I yelled at him across
from the busy street. Can I just talk to you?

(01:03:41):
He yelled back.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
I didn't even answer him.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
The answer should have been obvious from a start, and
I was certainly never going to give my time to
anyone who had just followed me and then chased me
for about a kilometer. Kept moving quickly to my car,
so determined to get the hell out of there that
I didn't even care if he saw which car was mine.
He had given up following me and never tried to
cross the road too. To my relief, I got home

(01:04:05):
and I broke down. I mean, worst things had happened
to other people, no doubt, and I was not harmed, fortunately,
but I was shook had some anxieties walking to and
from work after that. I wasn't long before a coworker
and I would walk most of the distance back to
our cars together after work. I even changed where I
started parking for a time. A few weeks had passed

(01:04:26):
since the incident, and I had not seen him around
campus at all. I had started spending my lunches in
the lab instead of outside, but occasionally I would go
to the Students Center to buy lunch instead. This one
particular day, the food court in the students Center was packed,
almost shouldered to shoulder. I was standing in line at
a burger stall and I heard a guy trying to
get someone's attention through the crowd. I look up and

(01:04:50):
it's him again, waving to me and trying to make
his way through the people. I panicked, and even though
I'm terribly shy, I started a scene and I yelled
to him to leave me the fuck alone. His face
dropped instantly as people stared at us, and he slinked
back into the sea of students. My heart was pounding
and I was shaking. Don't even remember if I ended

(01:05:10):
up getting food. After that, I went back to work,
and from then on I was even more focused on
my surroundings than I.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
Ever was before.

Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
It's been five or six years since then, and I
still work at the university. I'm so relieved to say
I never saw him again after the food court, and
I haven't had any other harrowing accounts on campus. I'm
so diligent about being aware of my surroundings, especially when
I have to walk to and from campus alone. I
never asked this guy's name, so I couldn't even report

(01:05:38):
an incident to the campus police or anything. All in all,
I'm just glad I never saw him again, and I
can only hope he never did this to any other
girl before or after me. S

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10 Nightmarish TRUE Scary Stories | Home Alone, Stalker, Creepy Encounters

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}10 Nightmarish TRUE Scary Stories | Home Alone, Stalker, Creepy Encounters