5 TRUE SCARY STORIES Rest Stops

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This isn't quite my story, even though I was present.
This took place in the year nineteen ninety five. I
was about two years old, but my younger brother had
yet to be born. My mother and father were traveling
to Atlanta, Georgia, because my dad had a chance to
move up in the company he was working for. My

(00:23):
parents were young parents at the time. My dad was
twenty two and my mom was twenty one. They had
been on the inter state all night driving from South Florida,
and I was fussy when I awoke in my car seat,
needing a change. My father pulled into a rest up
right up to the bathrooms and briefly looked around. There

(00:46):
is no other cars or people in sight, so he
stood outside to smoke as my mother unstrapped me from
the car seat and proceeded to take me inside. My
dad has always been the paranoid type and always and
still does carry a handgun wherever he travels, just in
case of emergency. He collected the gun from under his

(01:09):
driver's seat and proceeded to light a smoke. As he
stood puffing on his cigarette, he noticed a shadow detach
itself from a far wall that had bulletin posters on it.
Because of the angle he was standing at, he was
slightly behind the car and hidden from view for the
man who was now making his way across the parking lot.

(01:31):
The man was a tall, skinny looking white guy that
was dressed in all dark clothes, dark jeans, black hoodie,
et cetera. My dad watched carefully as this guy looked
slowly around the parking lot and headed straight for the
bathroom that my mom had just disappeared into with me.

(01:53):
My dad casually stepped out into the light and flashed
the gun in his hand with a gentle shake of
his head and said not today. Apparently, the guy stopped
right in his tracks and stared at my dad. Somehow
he hadn't noticed my dad's presence in the car, possibly
due to watching my preoccupied mother. The guy put his

(02:16):
hands in the air and backed away slowly before high
tailing it out of there. My dad hollered for my
mother and high tailed it the fuck out of there.
This has always been one of my favorite stories of
my dad. I remember once asking him, what would you
have done if he had kept walking at you? My

(02:37):
dad smiled grimly and said, oh, he would have had
to kill me to get to your mom or you.
I wouldn't have let that happen, though, so would be rapist.
Let's not meet. This happened a couple of years years

(03:00):
ago when I was backpacking in Australia. I traveled around
driving a van, like many backpackers there do, as it
saves a lot of money with accommodation. I usually slept
in rest areas, gas stations, or wherever I could park.
This one night, I've been driving for a few hours

(03:20):
and started to feel sleepy. I decided then to stop
in the next rest area in the middle of nowhere.
Parking in that location during daytime would be a great idea,
but at night it seemed like a horror movie location.
There were no cars parked there. I know I should

(03:40):
park where there are more people around, but I was
really drowsy and there were no lights whatsoever. I turned
off the engine and closed the curtains of the van.
It wasn't long before dawn that I heard some heavy
knocking on the side of the van. Open up, it's
the police. Nothing wakes you up faster than that. My

(04:07):
heart was racing. I was just adjusting to the adrenaline
rush in my system. When they repeated the heavy knocking,
saying it was the police. My first thought was that
I had parked somewhere that I shouldn't, but then again,
it was the middle of nowhere and it was a
rest area. Before opening up with my mind telling me

(04:29):
that the situation was weird as fuck, I decided to
go slowly to one of the windows and look through
the gap in one of the curtains. I could clearly
see the shape or shadow of a guy standing beside
the van. His car wasn't too far, but it didn't
have any lights or flashing lights on. The guy was

(04:50):
definitely not a cop. Bringing up the courage I had left,
I just shouted, get the fuck away. I have a
gun and a calling the cops on the radio. I
didn't have a radio. Oregon