23 True Scary Walking Alone Stories Told In The Rain

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I was an an eleven year old boy walking home
from school around four pm. I was on an empty
road about five minutes away from my house. There are
a few houses around and a couple of alleyways. As
I was walking, a nineteen year old guy and a
black hoodie was walking behind me. He asked me, excuse me,

(00:33):
are there any alleyways around here? I was a dumb
eleven year old and he didn't see this as a
suspicious question. I thought maybe he'd use it as a
landmark so he could remember where he was going. I
pointed one out that was very close by and continued
treading along. About ten seconds later, I felt an explosion

(00:53):
of pain in the back of my head and was
grabbed and frog marched towards the alley. I realized he
had sucker me, and even as I was being frog marched,
I remember thinking this must be some kind of joke.
We got to the alley, I was sobbing a bit
here and he must have wanted to shut me up,
so he pinned me against the fence, grabbed my head,

(01:14):
put it against the stone post, drew it back, and
told me to just close your eyes. He then shoved
my head towards the stone pillar and an attempt to
knock me out. Luckily, I threw my hand in front
of my head to cushion the blow, and it wasn't hurt.
He probably watched too many movies and thought that that
would knock me out instead of causing brain damage. He

(01:35):
then decided that this was getting too risky. He simply
walked away and I ran back home. The police were cold,
and the last I heard he tried to do it
again with someone else, except this time the child's father
saw him do it and sat on him until the
police arrived. This happened nearly ten years ago, and I

(02:00):
have never been able to forget it. It was mid
July and I was out for a run important contexts.
The path I usually took, with some variations, ran through
a large public park, but the way back to the
house allowed me to take a short cut through a smaller,
non connected park if I deviated from the main road
and passed through a neighborhood. I usually didn't bother taking

(02:24):
that route, but this particular day I was a little
uneasy because a car was circling around the big park
with some jerks leering and calling at me. Wanting to
avoid the main road, I cut through the neighborhood and
entered the small park. It was pretty empty, which was
kind of odd for that time of year. As I
was walking down the path they passed the playground, I

(02:45):
noticed two people heading towards me. A man who seemed
like he was maybe in his mid thirties and a
girl no older than fourteen or fifteen. They didn't seem
like they were together, but they were close enough that
I wasn't completely sure. The girl was wearing a bright
pink shirt and was holding a skateboard under her arm.

(03:05):
As I went past them, they spread out a little
more and I had to pass between them. The man
nodded at me, but the girl didn't even glance at me.
Something about this whole situation set off alarm bells, but
I assumed that I was just being paranoid because of
my earlier running with those jerks at the big park. Still,
I passed by music, but left my headphones in. I

(03:28):
passed through the parking lot and made it to the
sidewalk that led to the pedestrian street crossing that would
eventually lead me home. The sidewalk was shaded by a
bunch of trees, and I was avoiding some larger branches
and twigs that had fallen during the recent storm. Then,
as the crosswalk came into view, I shit, you not
a branch snap behind me. I turned and looked behind me,

(03:52):
and the girl was springing towards me, skateboard held over
her head like a bat. I didn't even think. I
just took off to the crosswalk and stupid lee I
stopped there, staring at her. We made eye contact, and
her face was completely blank. She lowered the skateboard, took
another second to stare at me before turning and walking

(04:13):
back into the park. I booked at home, and I
didn't run again for the rest of the summer, though
I never told my family why. For the rest of
the time I lived in that area, I avoided that
park unless I was with a group of people. I
never saw that girl again. This story is one hundred

(04:38):
percent true and has always creeped me out. I think
about it a lot. About three years ago, I was
out for a late night walk at the park that
was about two blocks away from where I lived. At
the time. It was a pretty safe neighborhood, so I
often felt comfortable walking around alone. During these late hours.
I remember being three thirty in the mo morning. Don't

(05:01):
ask me why I was out so late. We're walking
around during this time. Let's just say I was going
through some stuff. In hindsight, I know it wasn't smart,
especially as a young woman. Anyway, I approached the park,
which was lined with large bushes. There's also a street
next to the park, and on the other side of
the street a large grassy field. Suddenly I spotted a

(05:24):
bald man carrying large objects wrapped in black plastic. He
had on blue surgical gloves and a long plastic jacket.
He seemed to be transporting these bag items across the
street from the park and into the field. I stopped
and watched for a moment as he began crossing the
street with more bagged items. He stopped when he saw

(05:46):
me and ran towards the bushes. He stuffed the bag
into the bushes and hid them. I could see him clearly,
and the whole situation gave me bad vibes. I quickly
turned around and started walking back home. I glanced back,
making sure he wasn't following me, and I saw his
bald head peering over the bushes. Staring at me. I

(06:09):
started speed walking, and when I was a block away,
I saw him sprint across the street and hide behind
a large tree. Again. All I could see was his
bald head peering around the side of the tree, staring
at me. By this point, my heart was racing, but
I kept walking quickly. I didn't want to run because
I didn't want him to know I could see him

(06:29):
following me. My thought process was, if a lion is
stalking you, it's not a good idea to run, because
they'll start chasing you. I just focused on staying calm
and getting home safely. Finally, I've reached my house and
locked both the front and back doors. I tried to
shake off what happened to go to sleep. The next

(06:50):
day was completely normal. I decided to walk to the
park in daylight when there were a lot of people around,
and I checked the bushes to see if he left
anything behind behind nothing. I decided not to go on
any more late night walks after that incident. Even though
nothing happened to me, it was creepy and I realized

(07:11):
it could have turned into a bad situation. You never
know what someone's capable of. It definitely seemed like I
caught him doing something suspicious. Later that night, I sat
down to watch a movie. While I was watching the movie,
I got up to grab a glass of water. My
kitchen window was next to the sink with a view

(07:31):
of my backyard, and I always kept the kitchen lights
off at night so I could keep an eye on
the yard without anyone being able to see me. When
I looked into my backyard, to my surprise, I saw
him standing in the middle of my yard, just staring
at my house. I knew it was him because even
in the dark, I could make out his pale, bald head.

(07:52):
I immediately cracked open the window and yelled hey. He
took off running, leaving the gate to my fence wide open.
Since then, I haven't seen the man again. I still
have no idea what he was doing that night, or
what his intentions were following me home and stocking my house,
but I don't think I want to know. I'm a female.

(08:20):
At the time this encounter occurred, I was nineteen years
old and I just closed this door I was working
at with another coworker. They drove me home, and since
I lived right across the street that they dropped me
off at I thought it was a safe walk home alone.
After all, it's a two minute walked to my apartment.
The apartment I lived in had an auto shop below

(08:40):
the building, which my uncle owned. This is important, trust me.
It was around nine thirty at night, so it was
pretty dark out and the roads were empty. Not even
ten seconds after I walked across the street, a dark
blue mini van pulls up behind me out of nowhere.
It's kind of startled me, so I looked at the
driver confusion. I was carrying some bags of stuff I

(09:03):
brought to work, and the guy driving the van noticed
and asked me if I needed a ride. I kindly
declined his offer and just told him I lived a
few minutes away, and I started to continue walking. The
guy started slowly following me and continued, are you sure
you don't need a ride? I don't mind, and again

(09:23):
I declined and continue to keep walking, but he was persistent,
and this started to creep me out, so I started
walking faster and ignored him as he repeatedly said things like,
come on, get in the car, Get in the car,
come on, get in. I was afraid to run inside
my apartment because I really didn't want this creep to

(09:45):
know where I lived, so I was just gonna loop
back around the building to lose him. Thankfully, I noticed
that the auto shops lights were on and the garage
store was open. Manco must have been working late in
the shop, so I sped walk towards the open garage,
and the van sped off in a hurry. As soon
as they were about to pass the open garage store.

(10:06):
I told my uncle what has happened and waited a
few minutes before walking out to get to my apartment.
I locked all my doors and windows and stayed in
the living room until my dad came home from our
cousin's house. Thankfully I never saw the van again. I
did finally buy some pepper spray after the incident. I
usually always had my weighted pocket knife with me, but

(10:28):
I had actually left at home that day using it
to cut through thick string for some craft that I
was working on. To everyone, even if you only have
a two minute walk to get to your destination and
you think you're safe, please treat it like a twenty
minute walk home at night. Always be on high guard
and continue with caution when going anywhere alone. I grew

(10:56):
up in a very small town next to the Mexican
border in America. My family had always taught me about
being cautious of human traffickers or drug traffickers in the
area because of recent cases. Not quite sure if that's
important to the story, but it definitely helped with how
I acted. My best friend and I, who were both

(11:17):
fourteen at the time and in high school, decided to
take a walk in a nearby park. It was a
popular park and was within walking distance from both of
our houses, so off we went. As we were walking
around and talking, a grown man, maybe in his forties,
came up to us. He said he was new to
this town and didn't know where anything was. My friend

(11:41):
and I both gave each other a look of slight nervousness,
but kept our cool. We didn't engage him much in
the conversation, but it was getting more and more uncomfortable.
He asked if we went to the local middle school
down the street, and I said no, we're high schoolers,
but didn't mention when it already bothered me that a

(12:03):
grown man wanted to talk to who he thought was
a middle school kid. Then I noticed something and gave
my friend a signal with my eyes. There was another
man behind us, also following us. I wouldn't have even
noticed him if the guy talking to us didn't give
him a smile when I confirmed that we were under age.

(12:23):
This man kept his head down when I looked back,
and wore a hat seemingly to hide his face. As
we walked around the park and the first guy kept
asking questions, the second guy didn't stray too far. I
didn't even try to act as though he wasn't following us.
This was getting too much for me. The first man's

(12:43):
questions were either about our small town or about our
lives in the town, nothing too invasive until he asked
for our phone numbers. This was almost ten years ago,
and even though smartphones were a thing, I had a
flip phone. We were broke teens. My friend claimed that
she didn't have a phone. I can't remember if this

(13:04):
was true or not, but I do remember knowing I
couldn't pull the same sentence dude to being on my
phone fiddling with it. It was a foot phone, so
there wasn't much I could do on it in the
first place, so I just admitted that I'd rather not
give out my number. He started telling me things like, oh,
come on, why not you girls can show me around

(13:27):
things like that. I explained that I had limited texts
and minutes, so I didn't give out my number easily.
This is when I noticed how dark it was getting outside.
His questions kept us stuck in the park till dark,
because we were too scared to try to walk home
out of the fairly popular park where there were other
people who we could run to if worse comes to worse.

(13:49):
These guys were much bigger than us, and we didn't
find anyone we knew. I knew we couldn't keep the lane,
so I just bit the bullet. I told him it
was getting dark, and we started heading home, then directing
my friend towards the edge of the park to our houses,
but that didn't stop him. He followed after, saying that
he could drive us home and we wouldn't have to walk.

(14:13):
I lied and claimed that we were just down the block.
It was really about five very long blocks away. Google
says it's a twenty minute walk. He claimed to be
wonderful right letting two young girls walk home alone, and
then he pointed to the nearby parking lot, saying, look,
my car's not too far let me just drive you home.

(14:35):
At that moment, I noticed the second man following us
was suddenly only two or three steps behind us, instead
of the distance he had been at. Nope, nope, nope,
not dealing with this. I said, it's faster if we
just walk, then quickly said bye, nice to meet you,
and sped off. My mom had always taught me to
be polite, and looking back, I wish she hadn't. Ladies,

(14:59):
please don't be I like to men that creep you out.
I was too young, but if this happens now, I
wouldn't be so polite. Anyway, my friend and I sped
across the street, only to see both men hurry to
the parking lot. I didn't think much about them hurrying away,
only feeling the rush of a relief that they weren't
following us anymore. The relief, however, was shortly lived. We

(15:24):
were on the left side of the road. While walking,
we noticed the van turned onto the street on the
right side of the road. It was freaking them. They
were obviously on the opposite side of the road, but
they were a hardcore, staring at us as they drop by,
only to do a sharp turn at the end of
the block. Feeling a bit weary, we decided to cross

(15:44):
the street just in case it was the right decision.
They came right back to the road. Luckily, this time
we were on the right side of the street and
they were on the left side. Luckily, these streets were
pretty big, so they couldn't just drive to the opposite side.
More stairs as they drove past, only to do another
sharp turn at the end of the block. There was

(16:06):
nothing for us to do in the middle of this
long block except for hide and hope for the best.
We ducked behind a car parked and someone's driveway and waited.
An old lady spotted us and seemed suspicious, but didn't
say a word. She watched the street as well, and
there went the same van. We couldn't see them at
our angle, but we knew it was the van. The

(16:29):
van drove by much much slower. We felt like it
was taking forever for them to clear out the block.
They left. You should be good, said the old lady.
We thanked her, then ran towards where we lived. My
friend lived closer than me, so I made sure she
was home. I then ran all the way to my
house non stop. I kept around on the street for vans,

(16:52):
but they either lost us or gave up. I've still
never been more scared than the moment I had to
run two blocks home at night by myself. This happened
shortly before weed was legalized in Germany. In Berlin, regulation

(17:14):
was already quite loose. As long as you didn't bother anyone,
you usually wouldn't get arrested for smoking in public. I've
been smoking daily for years. I know it's not great,
but that's besides the point, so I can function pretty
well when I'm stoned. However, I almost never smoke in public,
partly to avoid trouble, but mostly because I enjoyed the

(17:37):
comfort of my own home. One late night, around three am,
I was chilling online with friends, ready to call it
a day. I wanted to relax with a joint and
one of my favorite shows, but unfortunately I had no
snacks left. Determined to end a night with a proper
MUNCHI session, I decided to hit up the nearby convenience store.

(18:00):
At that hour, only the sketchiest ones are still open,
often operating illegally. I grabbed my coat in keys, but
stopped short before leaving. Why not add a little joy
to this cold walk, I thought. Rolling a small joint,
I lit it as I stepped outside, braving the freezing breeze.

(18:20):
The area I live in is pretty rough, mostly foreign residents,
many from Arabic countries. Poor integration has led to the
crime in violence being all too common. Even so, I
was in good spirits as I strolled towards the flickering
neon sign of the convenience store. Just one more intersection
to go. A group of men stood at the corner.

(18:43):
They looked middle Eastern, a bit older than me, and
watched me as I walked by. It felt normal, nothing
to worry about, I thought, already a little high. I
crossed the street without giving them much thought. Then I
heard a voice call out, routine ID check, Please show
me your identification. My heart sank. Of course, this happened

(19:06):
to me the one time I smoked in public, I thought,
turning to the police. Only they weren't police. It was
the group from the intersection, now slowly approaching me. Routine
ID check, Please show me your ID. We're undercover cops,
one of them said, with a smug grin. I froze
the fact that they weren't cops became clear when, despite

(19:28):
their demand, none of them breached for any identification. You
know smoking wheed is illegal, don't you, the man continued.
His pupils were enormous, like saucers. It was obvious that
these guys had no authority whatsoever. They began to circle me.
Show us what's in your pockets, the leader demanded. So

(19:50):
it's the robbery. I thought, as long as I don't resist,
maybe I'll only lose my phone and a few bills
I brought for snacks. Then a wave of a dres
hit me. My weekly tips, about three hundred in cash,
were also in my pocket. I had forgotten to deposit
it earlier. Losing that money would crush my tight budget

(20:11):
for the month. But now, as I slowly reached into
my pocket, the leader pressed me was taken so long.
I pulled out an old packet gun and some broken headphones,
hoping to satisfy them. Where's your wallet? I need your ID,
he insisted, still fumbling, Too stubborn and too stupid to

(20:33):
hand them my tips, I inevertently revealed something that shocked
even me. The glint of the glock tucked into his belt,
Knives and metal rods are typical weapons here, but a
gun that was insane even by my local standards. German
gun laws are incredibly strict. My adrenaline spiked Slowly, I

(20:53):
pulled out five euro that I had planned to use
for snacks, trying to keep my expression neutral. You've got
no wall, well, it basically growled at me, his face darkening.
My brain screamed at me to do something, anything, before
this escalated further. Then a desperate thought flashed through my mind.
The Arabs in this area had a well known fear

(21:15):
of Russians, with frequent clashes between the two groups. Maybe,
just maybe I could use this. In a heavy Russian accent,
I stammered, my friend's on my wallet. They're coming soon,
we meet here. To my surprise, their poor English comprehension
worked in my favor. They exchanged glances, muttered in German,

(21:40):
and decided to wait. I forced myself to look confused,
maintaining the bluff. It worked. Their effort to translate or
figure me out must have seemed like too much trouble.
Their leader finally pointed out my five euro. All right,
then you get us something to drink. Reluctantly, I followed

(22:00):
them into the convenience store. They grabbed a six pack
of coke and I paid. Heart pounding, I was certain
this wasn't over. They'd either searched me themselves or retaliate
when my non existent friends didn't show up. But then
just like that, they left, no violence, no further questions, nothing.

(22:21):
I stood there in shock, unable to process what just happened.
Looking back, I can't believe I bluffed in such a
dangerous situation. It could have been my last day on earth,
all over three hundred euro. I've learned my lesson these days.
I avoid walking around late at night when the streets
are empty, and to those guys from that night, let's

(22:43):
not meet again. Ever, I don't tell people this story
because it sounds made up. It's not. I don't care
if anyone believes me. It happened, and it's still messages
with me when I think about it. Back in twenty eighteen,

(23:05):
I was living in a small apartment on the edge
of town. Nothing fancy, just a one bedroom. The building
was old, smelled like flower and wood, but it was
cheap and quiet. I was doing contract work from home,
so I would often go on long walks at night
just to clear my head. My route was always the same,

(23:28):
up two blocks, cut over through a small park, then
looped back down towards the grocery store and home. It
took about forty minutes. I usually started around midnight, not
for any spooky reason, just because I kept weird hours
and liked when the streets were empty. So one night,

(23:49):
late September or early October, I went out as usual.
The air was damp and cool, high humidity. I had
headphones and podcast playing Hoodie on normal night, Everything felt
fine until I turned off the main road and cut
through the park. There's a narrow sidewalk that runs along

(24:12):
the back edge of the park, pass some trees, and
then splits off into two directions. Left takes you towards
the residential streets. Right cuts down towards a quieter area,
mostly old industrial buildings and a dead own street that
backs up into the woods. I had taken the right
path a few times before, but not in quite a while.

(24:37):
That night I went right. I don't know why. I
wasn't thinking about it. It just felt like the way
to go. Almost immediately, it felt wrong, not scary exactly,
just off, like the air felt heavier. My footsteps sounded

(24:57):
louder than usual, and the street lights that usually lined
the section, only one of them was fully lit up.
It was maybe fifty feet ahead, and it flickered every
few seconds. I took my headphones out. I couldn't hear anything,
no wind, no cars, not even my own breathing. For

(25:19):
a second, it was like I stepped into a bubble,
but the sound just didn't carry right. That's when I
realized something even stranger. I didn't recognize what street EYE
was on. Keep in mind, I've walked these neighborhoods dozens
of times. I knew every turn, every crack in the sidewalk,

(25:39):
But for some reason, the street didn't look familiar at all.
It was narrow, darker than it should have been, and
something about the houses on either side looked weird. Shapes
of houses but little detail, no mailboxes. I didn't see
any cars in any driveway. I like to see what

(26:00):
street I was on, but I couldn't find a street sign.
That's when it hit me. Every street in the neighborhood
had a sign, eating alleyways had signs, but this one didn't.
All I could find was a bare metal pole with
nothing on it. I stopped walking. I was confused. Something

(26:21):
in me, something deeper than fear, told me not to
keep going, told me that it made a wrong turn
that didn't make sense. I could still see the park
path and a glimpse of the street light, maybe a
two minute walk back. But before I could move, I
saw something up ahead, a person leaning up against one

(26:43):
of the broken light poles, not really moving. I couldn't
make out much as it was kind of dark, but
they were tall, maybe six feet, leaning perfectly still facing me,
not doing anything, just there. I always said I would

(27:03):
be the person that chose flight, but I stood frozen,
trying to decide if I should call out or just leave.
And then the closest light to me flickered once more
and then went out. It was almost completely dark. I
didn't wait. I turned and started walking fast back towards
the park, slightly running, but more like those fast paced

(27:27):
walking competitions. I told myself I was just being paranoid,
that it was probably just someone having a smoke or
waiting for a ride, that I just let everything get
to me and I was overthinking things. Then I heard it, footsteps.
They were coming from behind me and sounded like they

(27:48):
were matching my pace. I sped up, and it sounded
like the footsteps behind me sped up. I suddenly stopped.
They stopped, so I turned around. No one was there,
at least I couldn't see anyone, just the empty street.
I couldn't hear anything either. That's when I know something

(28:11):
even worse. I wasn't standing on pavement anymore. I was
standing on wet dirt. In my confusion, I had walked
off to the side next to the park, but within
the trees, and these trees were pretty thick. I don't
know how it happened. I hadn't turned, I hadn't left
the street. I thought I was walking straight the whole time,

(28:35):
and now somehow I was deep enough in the trees
that I couldn't see the light. I panicked, full on panic.
I turned around and started running, no idea if I
was going the wrong way, hoping that I would see
something familiar. After about two minutes of running, I stumbled

(28:56):
on the front of the park, the opposite side of
where I was standing before. And now I was on
the street that now looked very familiar. It was a
street by my apartment. Somehow I had come out two
blocks from where I went in the park was now
behind me. I walked back the next day in the daylight,
trying to trace my steps. I found the path through

(29:20):
the park, found the split where I went right, but
I have no idea how I got into that street.
I still don't know what street it was. There's no
street sign, and everything looked different in the daylight. I
don't know. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me.
I haven't been back that way since I'm a twenty

(29:50):
two year old male. It was a regular morning. I
just got off the bus and was walking five minutes
to campus. Put my headphones on. University was massive, plastered
with signs. You can't miss it. It's an important detail. Still,
a dirty, little mini van pulled up beside me. The

(30:11):
man inside looked to be in his forties. His clothes
were grimy. The van was grimy, but nothing strange. It's
normal for these local vans to hauld all kinds of junk.
He asked gently where the UNI was. I pointed, smiled
and told him it was straight ahead and declined. His

(30:31):
offer for a lift seemed generous. He drove off. I
put my headphones back in and kept walking. One minute later,
the van was stopped in front of me again. Get in,
he said, I'll give you a ride. I smiled and
repeated the same no thanks. I was a few feet away.

(30:55):
He stared at me for a few seconds, then drove away.
I kept going. My friend called me, telling me that
he'd be late and to wait at the cafeteria. As
I talked, the van rolled up beside me for the
third time. He asked again, but this time the tone
had shifted. He looked at me longer, his gaze slid

(31:18):
from my chest to my feet. He wasn't offering me
any help. He looked tense, like someone who expected to
be obeyed. I took the phone away from my ear
and told him, dude, the UNI is literally two steps away,
and I pointed, thanks, but no. He watched me for

(31:38):
a few seconds more and drove off. The road was
nearly empty. Then I realized he wasn't lost. If he
wanted to get to campus, he'd already be there. He
looped the block he was circling me. My first honest
thought was confusion, then anger, why had I been so polite?

(32:00):
And then a sharper feeling concern. I flipped on survival mode,
and even if he wanted to rob me. He had
many chances to do that, as the road was very empty.
One minute later, at the edge of campus, he stopped
me again. Get in, I'll give you a ride. This

(32:21):
time I looked at him dead in the face and
said no. Now you can go wherever the hell you
want to go. He didn't even look at my face
at all this time. He stared at my hair, then
my body for thirty seconds straight, slow and hungry, like
a predator deciding which move to make. I couldn't read

(32:42):
his eyes lust something darker. Honestly, I didn't want to know.
I knowed something in the passenger seat, a rope. It
was a small detail, but it landed like a weight
on my chest for a second. I imagine scenes. I'll
jump him, I'll punch him, I'll teach him a lesson.

(33:03):
I felt that boiling superhero instinct, the idea that I
could handle it because I'm a guy like him. I
wasn't a very strong guy, but I thought I had
a good chance, or because I can't let the slide
because I'm a man. I crossed the road and slipped
through the university gate, leaving the van behind me. But

(33:25):
the van pulled up near the campus walls and parked.
I stopped inside the door, frozen and shaking with a
mess of emotions, shock, confusion, anger. I even told myself
out loud, maybe I should have gotten in the van.
Maybe I should have let him put his hands on
me so I could beat him when he had his

(33:45):
guard down. I wanted him to meet the wrong person,
believe it or not. I turned around and was heading
outside the campus back to him. Then my friend messaged me, Okay,
I just arrived, wish your study. He called again, telling
me to hurry up so we can get a good
spot in the library. I let it out aside and

(34:07):
walked back inside. Now that I'm writing this, I know
how reckless that impulse to be a hero was. It
was raw motion, not strategy. I'm calm and gentle by nature,
but men sometimes think they can handle sexual assault like
it's a problem they can fix with fours. That's not true.
It can go wrong in a second. I'm very lucky

(34:30):
it didn't for me. This happened a few years ago.
It was a short encounter, but definitely lasted. It was
New Year's Eve, twenty eighteen. I was nine, my brother
was six. I was at a friend's house, watching the

(34:52):
fireworks from her back garden. We left around ten pm
and begin the four minute walk home. It was dark,
but we were comfortable walking home as we had many times,
and could see my house. As we got closer, my
brother stopped talking about the fireworks and asked, who's at
our house. I didn't think much of it, and she

(35:15):
said Mom, why, He said, well, who's she outside with?
I was obviously confused and looked up to see two
men leaning against our wall. Late thirties, my neighbor at
the time often through parties, so I assumed it was
someone from her house and gave him a simple don't know,

(35:36):
took his hands and continued walking. We got about twenty
feet from my house when they stood up and began
walking towards us, barking. I grabbed my brother and ran
with him back down the street. At the end of
my street, there was a ghinnel leading to the back gardens.
I crossed over the street and hid behind the end

(35:57):
house with my brother. I called my mom, yes I
was nine with a phone. She answered and started having
to go at me. She assumed I was joking and
went to the front door, expecting no one to be there.
I heard the door open and it was silent for
a few seconds. Then I heard her yelling, what the
fuck are you doing? Sat on my walls. I heard

(36:19):
frantic apologies coming down the phone, then her yelling again
and why the fuck are you barking and changing my children?
She later said they apologized and ran down the opposite street.
My brother was too scared to move, and whatever adrenaline
I had was gone and I couldn't carry him anymore.

(36:40):
We asked around and no one saw anyone. Our curfew
was then moved to eight pm. She said they didn't
seem drunk, but they didn't stick it round enough for
her to be sure. Shortly after, I was in the
same backings with a friend around seven. The area had
back gardens, garages, and a circular road around the garages.

(37:04):
We were sat at an elderly neighbor's garage when a
fully tinted van came in. We ignored it, assuming it
was here to fix something. After ignoring it, we could
fully forgot about it and began to skip in the road.
The van began driving behind us. It chased us three
times behind the backings. After the third time, we had

(37:26):
the bright idea to leave the bakings and close the
gate behind us to avoid getting chased. I mentioned it
but brushed it off, and I never really mentioned it again,
but I imagine it could be connected. And we moved shortly
after after this, and honestly still now. My brother suffers
from severe anxiety when it comes to going anywhere alone.

(37:51):
It's gotten a lot better in the recent years, though
I used to walk a lot at night. I live
in a small town the kid where most people are
asleep by ten PM, and the streets get so quiet

(38:11):
it's almost peaceful. I put in my headphones, listen to
a podcast or some ambient music, and just wander around
for a while to clear my head. This happened in
the late October of last year. It had been raining
on and off all day, and by the time it
cleared it was already around eleven thirty pm. I remember

(38:35):
checking the weather and seeing the rain was supposed to
hold off until the morning, so I figured I'd go
for a quick walk before bed. My usual loop is
about thirty minutes a few neighborhood streets that circle back
to my place, but that night, for whatever reason, I
felt like doing something different. There's a wooded trail near

(38:57):
the edge of town and not super deep into the
worlds or anything, just a short footpath that cuts through
a patch of trees and connects two neighborhoods. I take
it in a few times during the day, but never
at night. It's not lit or maintained well, and after
a storm it can get muddy. Still, I don't know.

(39:18):
Something about the night felt calm, the air smelled clean,
and I had a strange sense of nostalgia I can't explain,
like the kind you get from an old song you
can't quite place. So I took the path. It starts
at the end of a cul de sac that dips
into a small slope. I stepped around a few puddles.

(39:43):
I kept walking, music low in my ears. I was
maybe five minutes in when I noticed something weird. No wind,
no bugs, no distant cars. It was just so quiet.
It was so quiet that I took my headphones out confirm.
That's when I realized how unnaturally silent everything was, even

(40:06):
in the middle of night. There's usually some sound, leaves
moving distant, barking, a plane overhead, but there was nothing,
just my breathing and the squeaky sound my shoes made.
I started walking a little faster, not because I was
scared exactly, just unsettled. Then I saw someone up ahead,

(40:31):
not close, maybe thirty to forty feet away, just standing
in the middle of the trail, no flashlight, no phone,
not moving. At first, I thought maybe it was just
a sign or a tree, like my eyes were playing
tricks on me. But the shape was too human, shoulders, head,

(40:53):
arms by its side, just still. I froze. I tried
to clear my throat, say something like hey or okay,
but my voice caught and the longer I stared, the
more wrong it though, Like something about the way the
figure stood didn't look right, too stiff, too balanced, almost

(41:17):
like it was being held up. After a few seconds,
I took a step back, just one, and I swear
to God. As I did, it tilted its head, not slowly,
not naturally, but like a jerk, a sudden, mechanical tilt
to the side. My legs moved before I had time

(41:40):
to think. I turned around and started walking fast, not running.
I didn't want to make it chase me, if that
makes any sense. But I was moving quick, watching the ground,
trying not to slip. Then I heard it splashing sounds
heavy foot just behind me, hitting puddles, not running, just walking,

(42:04):
but hard getting closer. I didn't look back. I cut
through the trail faster than I ever had, hit the
edge of the cul de sac on the other side,
and booked it down the street. I turned corner after corner,
not stopping until the main road with street lights and houses.

(42:25):
Only then did I glance behind me. Nothing, no one.
The street was empty. I walked the rest of the
way home in the days my clothes were soaked, even
though it hadn't rained. I remember locking the door behind
me and just standing in my living room trying to

(42:45):
process what the hell just happened. Okay, this is a
pretty weird one. It happened to me when I was
about sixteen or seven. I can't exactly recall fully, but
when I was around that age, I often traveled back

(43:06):
and forth on foot from my friend's houses if they
weren't that far away. For context, I live in a
small village in the UK. It's often really quiet besides
a few mischievous teenagers, and as a teen myself, I
was flat broke, and public transportation didn't run too late.
Bus routes were also ass so I would often walk.

(43:29):
One night after a few drinks at my friend's house,
it was probably around eleven pm. I begin my usual
walk home, listening to some music and chilling the usual.
On my route home, I usually would take a shortcut
through the suburban estate of old people's homes and bungalows.
It's pretty dark, as the street lights are scattered a bit.

(43:52):
As I was walking through, I saw a scrawny figure
in the distance with a large silhouette of hair, stumbling
a little, almost like they were. As I approached, I
could make out an old, wrinkly guy, probably about five six,
with gray, long missy hair, wearing a long cream mac raincoat,
kind of an Einstein esque look. I tried to swiftly

(44:16):
pass him, but before I passed him, he turned to
me and grinned with white eyes, saying, I like little boys?
Do you like little boys? I rested past him, quite
scared and just said no, sorry, mate, or something to
that effect. As I got further away, I began to

(44:37):
run a little, and I turned back to see him
slowly following me. I eventually shook him off and got home.
This may not be the most interesting story, but that
night has always stuck with me, and I think about
it often, as I usually take the same shortcut. All
these years later, I'm a twenty two year old female.

(45:05):
I'm not sure if this really counts as a creepy encounter,
but it's been on my mind all day and I
can't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. This happened
to me last night, literally less than twenty four hours ago,
and I still feel uneasy walking past my own front window.
I live in a small town in the north of UK.

(45:25):
It's that kind of place where everyone more or less
knows each other's faces, and after eight pm the streets
are basically dead. I got to a local shop just
before closing to grab milk. The air was very cold,
that damp chill that you get when fog starts rolling in. Anyways,
when I come to a stop, I noticed a man

(45:46):
standing by the cash machine. He wasn't using it, just
standing there with his hood up. I'm five to one,
and from what I can't remember, he was a lot
taller than me, I say, around six foot. I didn't
pay my attention to him and started walking home. A
few minutes later, I realized he was walking behind me.

(46:08):
At first, he didn't feel like anything same direction. Maybe
he lived nearby. But I crossed the road out the
roundabout and felt the hairs on my neck immediately go up.
As I turned back around and noticed he crossed too.
Something felt strange, like he was deliberately mirroring my steps.
I slowed down near a bus stop and pretended to

(46:30):
check my phone. I expected him to pass, but he didn't.
He slowed down as well, keeping the same distance between us,
no footsteps, overtaking, no change in pace. By the time
I turned onto my street, I could feel my heart
beat in my throat. I didn't want to make it
obvious that I was scared, so I kept walking as normal.

(46:53):
Both hands were shaking so badly I could barely unlock
my phone. My street is quite short, lined with terrace
houses and street lights that didn't reach all the way
to the end. My house is in one of the
darkest spots. When I reached my door, I just wanted
to get straight in. I didn't even look back. The

(47:14):
second the lock clicked, I slipped inside and went straight
to the window. Beside my door. He was standing at
the corner, not moving, just facing my direction. It was
like he was trying to see which house I went into.
I stood frozen behind the curtain. He didn't take out
a phone, didn't smoke, didn't even look around, just stared.

(47:40):
After maybe thirty seconds, he turned and walked off, slowly,
but back the way he came from. I didn't see
his face properly. The hood shaded most of his face,
but I could see the lower half was clean shaven,
possibly like thirties, early forties. I just remember his dark
coat and the sounds of his shoes echoed on the pavement.

(48:02):
I didn't call the police because I kept thinking maybe
I was overreacting. But all day to day I've been
having this feeling like someone has been outside or is
watching me. Maybe it's paranoia, but I've never felt this
kind of fear before. I don't know what to do now.
Has anyone ever had something like this happened to them?

(48:22):
What did you do after? Should I inform the police? Update?
So it's probably nothing, But this morning I noticed fresh
footprints right outside my door, like someone had been standing
there facing it. I should mention it was raining on
and off all day yesterday, so this must have been recent.

(48:43):
I didn't hear anyone knock or anything. A few people
suggested getting a ring camera, so I've ordered one for
a bit of peace of mind. I'm a seventeen year
old fie. Email for a little bit of context, I
live in a fairly small town with not a lot

(49:05):
of people. At the time that this story takes place,
I'd been working at a local burger king for about
two months. I didn't have a car or any way
to get a ride, but it was about a ten
minute walk, which worked for me, and due to the
tight knit community, my dad didn't think it was dangerous.
I was still in school at the time. I was

(49:27):
only allowed to work until eleven PM, and my typical
schedule was usually three to eleven. One night, I'm scheduled
at three to eleven sucky shift, asshole customers, all the usual.
The night ends and I start walking home on the
same route I always walk. As I'm about halfway through

(49:48):
my walk, I noticed a guy walking down the street
in the opposite direction. It was dark, and the only
thing I could actually really see was that he was
actually there. He apparently didn't know that I saw him,
because the moment he saw me, he stopped walking and
crouched into a bush. The bush was basically right in

(50:09):
front of the root I usually take home, but I'm
not that stupid. At this point, I'm like, hell, no,
don't care what this guy is doing, but I want
no part of it. I start walking in the other
direction to take a different route, and all of a sudden,
this guy starts calling out to me, asking for help.
When I turn around, he was starting to run in

(50:29):
my direction. My heart was in my stomach. I'm certain
that I've never ran that fast in my life. I
ran as fast as I can and eventually get to
my house. I get the door unlocked and slam it
shut as fast as I can. I'm pretty shaken by
this scenario, but I really have no clue what he

(50:49):
was actually trying to do, so I brushed it off
and decided that I'd carry pepper spray in the future.
A few days later, a girl from my school was
almost kidnapped by a man who was following her home.
From that day on, I never walked home again. For
anyone who thinks that it won't happen to you, you're wrong.

(51:13):
Always be safe, because it really could be you. For
some context, I'm now fourteen, and I'm a female. I
was around eight or nine years old. When this happened,
it was around five or six am. Everyone was going

(51:33):
to work and school. Normally at this time, my brother
would drop off my mom to work. I lived with him,
my mom, some lady, and my mom's boyfriend at the time.
I changed and walked out with my backpack. I'm supposed
to go to school way later, like around eight am.

(51:54):
As I'm walking out, the lady that lived with us
looks at me while she's doing the dishes and just
let's me walk out, knowing that my brother and mom
had already left and that it's unsafe. Oh and for
some more contexts, that lady was my mom's boyfriend's ex.
Why she was living with us, I don't really know.

(52:14):
She just gives me a glare and I walk out.
I have no idea that my brother left with my mom,
and assume he had left me. Seeing no car outside,
I began crying and crossing the street, hopelessly calling out
for my mom. I then see these big trees and
two guys. They were really skinny and looked to be

(52:37):
about twenty to twenty five. Their clothes weren't the best,
and they had these weird grins on their face. One
of them spots me and tells me, we know where
your mom is, makes a motion with his hand for
me to follow him, and they go back behind a bush.
But I'm forever thankful that I turned back around and

(52:57):
went into my house. It was still dark outside. I'm
scared to think of what could have happened. This may
not be the most interesting story, but it hurts me
how at such a young age these things can happen
to you. Stay safe and take care of your kids.

(53:30):
I was seventeen years old and I lived close to
a buddy of mine named John. He lived three blocks
away with a circle k on the way. It was
a random week of night, around eleven pm, and he
asked me if I wanted to come over play zombies
and smoke because his parents were out of town. So
I agreed. Of course, my parents weren't cool with it,

(53:53):
but I have done it before and decided to worry
about the consequences. Later, I snuck through the back door
and made my way to his house. I lived in
the older duplex, run down suburb, but it was very homey,
quiet and chill. It was late summer early fall in
West Texas, so I didn't need a sweater. As I

(54:18):
approached the circle k, I spot a man on a
bike across the street and he began to pedal towards me.
He was about fifty years old, baggy, stretched shirt, ripped pants,
and messed up hair and teeth. He asked in Spanish
if I had a dollar. He spotted the yellow bick
lighter I had in my hand and asked for it.

(54:40):
He asked what I needed it for and asked if
I smoked weed. I said, yeah, I do. He then
said he doesn't and that he smokes ice instead. I said,
cool man and fast walked into the store. I didn't
have any money, but I knew how to get into
a well area away from that guy. After about ten minutes,

(55:04):
I crossed the stoplight street and got to John's house
to see him waiting for me in the front yard.
I told him about it, but we didn't dwell on it.
After a couple bong ribs, joints, zombie rounds, and red
velvet cake, I knew it was that time and I
knew it couldn't stay the night. I said my goodbyes,

(55:25):
thank John, and made my trek home. I was still
stoned and mainly paranoid about the cops since I was
seventeen and had a little pot on me. But after
I crossed the street and pasted a circle k I
felt better since I could see my duplex. As I
walked towards my home, I heard a bike pedaling around,
and because it was three am, you could hear everything.

(55:49):
I saw the same bike guy from earlier, and he
was eagerily riding in circles under the street lamp at
the very end of my block. My heart sank. I
darted to my apartment, and when I did, he spotted
me and yelled oh. I ignored him and ran the
same direction he was pedaling towards, but I made a

(56:09):
sharp turn left and hopped into my backyard and snuck
back inside. He was about two hundred feet away from
me when I jumped into my yard. I locked the
doors and kept the lights off and went to the
front window, where I could have a better view of
the street. I saw him looking through the neighbor's driveway.
He eventually pedaled away, but safe to say I didn't

(56:31):
sleep out all that night. I just have to share
the story because I keep trying to come up with
my own answers as to what happened in the situation,
and it's been confusing me. Just yesterday, I was walking

(56:52):
at my local park, which I do fairly often, probably
about three or four times a week. I've had situations
happen here to this extent. The park has two separate tracks.
The track I was on goes around the soccer fields,
and the curve around the track has one hill on
one side that leads up to the soccer fields and

(57:13):
woods on the other side. I'm very aware of my
surroundings when I'm walking the backside, because if you go
back there, nobody would be able to see if anything happened.
I had just come from the parking lot and was
walking back down to the backside. I noticed a man
about five hundred feet in front of me that I
didn't pay much attention to because it's a walking track.

(57:38):
The only thing that caught my eye about him was
that he was dressing all black, black hoodie, black jeans
when the weather was sunny and sixty five. Anyways, I
walked down the hill and went around the corner that
brings you back up to the parking lot, and I
quickly noticed he was no longer in front of me.
There is no way he could have completely made it

(58:00):
out of my sight by the time I went around
the corner. I started looking to my left to see
if he had gone up the hill towards the soccer fields,
but didn't see him. When I looked to my right,
I noticed he was standing behind a tree in the
shallow part of the woods. At this point, he was
probably only ten feet away from me. My stomach dropped.

(58:20):
I turned around and started running. The first thing I
thought to do was to call my boyfriend, who was
fairly close by working. I ran all the way back
to the track and the only person I saw was
the older man, who I quickly told what happened, and
he pretty much laughed at me. When I turned around
to point where he was, the man was about four

(58:41):
hundred feet behind me, so I kept running. I ran
back to my car, got in, unlocked the doors, and
noticed a car leaved the parking lot, circle around and
park about four spots next to me. I could feel
the man in the car just staring at me. Shortly after,
my boyfriend arrived and I was a bidding calling for

(59:02):
help because I wasn't sure if I was just being paranoid.
There's a pavilion area in middle of all the baseball
fields where I saw him standing for about five minutes
until he started going back and forth on his phone
on a nearby sidewalk. My boyfriend was standing at my
car window, and I was telling him everything that had happened.
When the man started walking towards my car, I panicked

(59:26):
and told my boyfriend, we need to go now, but
he said nothing was going to happen with him standing
at my window. He walked by my car with his
phone in his ear, almost as if he was recording me,
because a second he turned onto the next sidewalk he
was off the phone. Shortly after that, I left and
my boyfriend followed me home. I called the police and

(59:50):
followed a report. There was lots of people at the
park it was ten forty five am, but unfortunately, no
one was walking around the track at the time that
this happened. There was no reason for him to be
standing in the woods right there at all. I keep
thinking about the what ifs, what could have happened if
I wasn't paying close enough attention and kept walking. I

(01:00:13):
have no idea what the intention was, but it definitely
did not feel right at all. This entire situation was
a wake up call for me to never feel weird
for paying close attention to my surroundings, as you never
really know what people are capable of. I would have
never considered myself a target for anything this situation could

(01:00:34):
have led to, but unfortunately, it can happen to anyone.
I was in high school and I had to walk
to and from school every day because it lived too
far to catch the bus. There was an allie I
usually took as a shortcut so I wouldn't have to

(01:00:55):
walk all the way around the block. It saved time
and never fell on san but I had to stop
using it for a while. My mom had recently been
stopped by a man while she was alone. He asked
for directions, then asked for her to get into the
car to help him find the street he needed. She

(01:01:16):
didn't and he came home safe. But the whole thing
rattled me, so I avoided the alley until one day
I was tired and didn't feel like taking the long
way home. It was a short alley, just passed through
between a couple houses. Nothing had ever happened before. I
thought I would be fine. I barely entered the alley

(01:01:36):
when I noticed the car behind me on the street.
Something in me just new to look back. There's a van,
an older guy inside, flowing his vehicle down, and he
was staring straight at me. I kept walking, trying to
act normal, but something was off. My gut was screaming
for me to turn around, go back the long way

(01:01:57):
and somewhere public where people could see me. But I didn't.
I didn't want to look paranoid or dramatic. Maybe he'd
just drive by. Maybe I was just overthinking it. Still,
the way his eyes followed me made my skin crawl.
Something screaming in me that something was about to go down.

(01:02:18):
That's what I thought. Get your phone out, pretend you're
on a call, so I did. I held it up
to my ear and started fake talking. My phone didn't
have minutes. I couldn't actually call anyone. That made me
panic even more. What if something happened. I was still walking,
pretending to talk when I heard a car coming from

(01:02:40):
the alley. It was that van. He had turned into
the alley. I felt my stomach drop. All they could
think about was my mom's story, how the guy tried
to lure her into his car, the weird vibe, the
wrongness of it all. Now I was living it, and
I was alone a child. The van crept up next

(01:03:02):
to me and slowed down. He stopped right beside me,
looked me up and down, then asked if I could
help him find the street. I said I don't know
street names, and he just stared at me, silent, like
he was thinking, measuring, calculating that he was weighing the
pros and cons. He was looking at me, looking at

(01:03:23):
my phone. I was frozen. Every part of me was screaming,
don't run, don't blink, don't even breathe. I was frozen, solid,
my mind completely blank. Maybe the cons outweighed the pros,
because finally he just drove away. As soon as he
turned out of the alley. I ran all the way

(01:03:45):
home without stopping. I looked over my shoulder the whole way.
I told my mom what happened. She accused me of
making up a story for attention. The next day, she
had her boyfriend walked me to school. When nothing happened,
she doubled down and called me attention seeking liar. She
said I was trying to copy her. She had no

(01:04:07):
idea how scared I was as a teenage little girl.
She never believed me. Later on, after I moved away,
I kept hearing stories women and kids taking off the
street in broad daylight, just gone, and I doubt if
I hadn't pulled out my phone and made it look
like I had a witness, I would have been one
of them. To this day, I still wonder what would

(01:04:30):
have happened if I hadn't pretended to make that call.
And no matter how long it's been, thinking about it
still makes me feel cold. I think it always will.
I grew up in a small town primarily Hispanic. Everyone
knew everything. We had some things here and there, of course,

(01:04:52):
but other than that, not too much stuff happens here.
I'm overweight, to put it simply, and not to the
standards of beauty. Really. I remember reading a meme online
once where they joked about can't catch me or kidnet me,
since you can't carry me, keep eating cake, and laughed
at that and was like, so true. God, I didn't

(01:05:15):
realize how that would come back and bite me. I
believe I was nineteen and it was nighttime. My weed
plug was doing a stash and dash and being broken desperate,
I went for it. I figured I grew up here,
I know all the areas. What made this more temptings.
It's actually not far from my area at all, so

(01:05:38):
I said fuck it. I was on a video called
my boyfriend and told him I was going for it.
He stays on the phone with me as I head out.
Mind you, it's late. The areas I have to cross
are not well lit, and I left with nothing on me,
not even my taser alarm and pepper spray that my

(01:05:58):
dad made me have. Oh and what makes things worse,
I stack out because I didn't want my dad to
know I was hunting for weed. So this was already
starting out great. I set off. I have to cross
the railroad tracks to get to the area, which was
pitch black, only the main road in the distance lighting

(01:06:18):
it up in some lights from warehouses nearby, but other
than that it was hard to see. I make my
way towards the main road and notice the semi parked
on the side of the road. Not unusual. Semis parked
there all the time, so nothing weird. Then I hear
a O lah hey. I look over and see a

(01:06:40):
man in a semi truck. He looked generic a Mexican
man with a red long sleeve. He looked like any
other man i'd see around town, but his smile, I
don't know. He was just off. I waved, being polite.
He gestures for me to come. I'm over and start

(01:07:01):
speaking in Spanish, but I don't know Spanish. I know
what you're thinking. One, why don't you know Spanish if
you grew up in a Hispanic town? And two why
aren't you running? My parents never taught me, sue me?
And two he was far away, so I kept walking.
I just sheepishly respond that I don't speak Spanish. I

(01:07:23):
said this in Spanish. I learned the phrase just to
say it to people. I wave them off, quickly walking away.
My boyfriend asked me, who's that? I just tell him
some random semi truck driver. I go on with the night.
I think I've been out for forty minutes at this point,
and I realized I'm not going to find it big sad,

(01:07:46):
so I start heading home, still on the phone with
my boyfriend. I keep talking to him and my phone
is dying, which is actually what made my boyfriend tell
me to just go home. So I start to walk back.
I go down the road look down the pitch black
area where the railroad is, and I stopped. I just
had a bad feeling. Something told me not to go

(01:08:08):
home just yet. I tell my boyfriend I'm gonna look
at the other end of the street that was towards
where the warehouse was giving off light, past the empty
trailers partially hidden by the shadows. I start walking into
the light and I hear movement behind me, and hey.
I turned around hella quick and saw the same semi

(01:08:30):
truck driver with the same smile he had. He came
out from behind the trailer he was hiding behind. He
had his right hand tucked in his pocket and was
posturing in his body in a way where he was
hiding whatever he had. He told me to come here
and started getting closer to me. I immediately tell my boyfriend

(01:08:51):
to wake up his dad and come get me. I
backed up quickly and was trying so hard to think.
He saw that I was on the phone and immediately
had I'm mad and an annoyed look on his face.
He stopped and actually began hiding behind the trailers. So
I booked it down the road. Tell him my boyfriend
to come get me or have his dad come get me.

(01:09:12):
I didn't want to call my dad because even at
that moment, for some reason, I was still terrified of
getting caught sneaking out. I ran across the main road
to his little mini mart across the street and hid
behind the ice machine. I told my boyfriend I needed
to call someone, and hung up on him. I called
my friend, who thank god, was out with his girlfriend.

(01:09:33):
I tell him I'm in danger and needed him to
come get me. Then I tell him where I'm at.
While I was waiting for them, I stayed behind the
ice machine and saw his semi. I saw him look
around for me and shake his head in disappointment before
driving off. Even in that moment, I didn't feel safe,
not until my friend pulled up. Everything hit me once

(01:09:57):
he got out of the car and I hugged him, crying.
He and his girlfriend calmed me down and took me home.
I got a lecture from my boyfriend, but I'd rather
take that lecture than anything else. I was lucky, way
too lucky. The false sense of security my weight and
looks give me really shattered after that, and I'm glad

(01:10:20):
for it. It terrifies me to think of how things
could have turned out if I didn't have my boyfriend
on the phone with me. So, semi truck driver, that's
not me. I never want to see that smile ever again.

(01:10:41):
Something weird happened on a walk tonight. I was on
a walk with my dog, same routine, same time. I
was walking my normal path, and this part of the
walk happens to be the darkest part. There's an alley
on the left that has absolutely no light. My dog
was set on high alert and was barking like crazy.

(01:11:03):
I had my headphones on, but I knew something was wrong,
and I looked to the alley but didn't see anything
at first. When my eyes suggested, I saw a very
tall and skinny man standing there. He didn't move, he
was just facing me and staring. From what I could tell,
he was all in black. His pants and shirt were long,

(01:11:24):
which is weird because it's been ninety two one hundred
all week, not to mention it's tempium at night, and
this man's wearing a giant black sun hat. I kind
of froze it went uh pretty loudly as I turned
my headphones off so I could listen in. The man
standing there says nothing, and so I'm turning towards him

(01:11:45):
but walking forward. After a second of him being silent
and me trying to walk away, kind of chalking it
up as creepy but harmless, he starts to follow me.
This man follows me for about two to three minutes,
saying absolutely nothing, just staring at me. When I felt
like I could finally speak, I yelled out, my dog's

(01:12:06):
gonna fucking bite you. That seemed to scare him a bit,
because after that he slowly followed me for about thirty
seconds more. Then he slowly went onto a sidewalk and
went a different way. When he turned around to get away,
he had a huge backpack on. It was extremely full.
I have a really uneasy feeling about this. I go

(01:12:26):
on this path almost every night, and this man just
so happened to be standing there in the darkest alley.
There's a missing woman three minutes away from me, and
it's alleged that she was assaulted a few days prior
to her sudden disappearance. Should I report this to the
non emergency line? I don't know where to go from here.
I'm very freaked out. This happened to me about two

(01:12:57):
or three years ago, when I was sixteen. I used
to work at a fast food restaurant and lived in
the place where we have all seasons. At this point,
it was winter, so it got dark pretty early around
five or six pm. I was called to come into
work this particular day, but the weather was kind of bad,
causing us not to have any customers. As a result,

(01:13:20):
we had to close the store early. There was about
five thirty pm when my manager left, locking the store
and making me wait outside for my ride. About twenty
minutes had passed since she left, and I was really cold,
so I decided regrettably that I walked to my friend's
house just a few blocks away, about a ten minute walk,
and wait for my ride there. The store I worked

(01:13:43):
at was on a busy street that was near a
residential neighborhood. As I walked away from the store, I
start walking down the residential street behind the store. I
was walking on the sidewalk to the left of the street,
as there was only one sidewalk on the right side
of the street. If I walked on the right side walk,
I'd only walk on it for a block and then

(01:14:05):
I would have to walk the rest of the way
on the road. There were also woods on that side
of the road. It was convenient as well, because the
less side of the street was my store and there
were no street lights. I walked about three fourths of
the block when I got this feeling that I was
being watched. The neighborhood was really dark at this point,

(01:14:26):
and I had pretty much reached the end of the
block and was getting ready to cross the street when
I noticed a silhouette of someone walking on the right
side of the street near the woods. They were about
five nine to five ten and looked to be maybe
one hundred eighty two hundred pounds. I couldn't make out
any features, though I'm the type of person who's very
aware of my surroundings and slightly paranoid as I've been followed,

(01:14:50):
almost kidnapped, stalked, you get the gist. So when I
noticed him, I stopped walking and immediately get a sick
feeling in my stomach. The man then noticed me and
proceeded to walk slowly and yelled out to me. He says,
you'll come here. I want to talk to you. I
say back, no, I'm good, I'm only sixteen. Then I

(01:15:11):
turn around and start walking back to the store. He
continued to yell things at me, trying to convince me
to come to him. At this point, something in me
told me to run, and I did just that. As
I'm running, I know I shouldn't have, but I turned
my head to see if he was actually chasing me
or not. Into my horror, he was, so I turned

(01:15:33):
up the speed and ran as fast as I can. Thankfully,
as I reached the store, my ride pulled up, so
I ran to the car. As I tried to get in,
the door was locked. It took about twenty seconds for
them to unlock the car, which felt like hours. Eventually
I got in and just broke down crying, not gonna lie.

(01:15:54):
I was kind of out of shape, so my back
was hurting from breathing so hard, and I was all frazzled.
This was the first time I was chased on foot,
and let me tell you, it's way more scarier, surreal
and intense being chased on foot than someone chasing you
in the car. Still, to this day, I've added trauma
from this incident, and it makes me hard to go

(01:16:16):
anywhere by myself, especially in the dark. Said to the
man that chased me in the dark, let's not meet again.
I live in an astoundingly safe place, and walking along
a particular canyon road is very normal for tons of

(01:16:38):
people in the community. Around twelve forty five pm today,
I was walking with my dog on this particular road
when a large white truck got real close to me
and slowed down as they passed me. They continued to
slow their roll for about fifty feet until they stopped
and turned around. Luckily, I got the creepy vibes and

(01:16:58):
ran into the woods on the road. I gave them
the benefit of the doubt and considered that I was
overreacting until a lovely woman in a van, thank you
so much, whoever you were, that had followed the truck
and turned asked if I was okay because that was
super suspicious of the truck, and then notified me that
they could still see the white truck stopped ahead on

(01:17:20):
the road where I had first passed me. Luckily, I
was able to run to a nearby community building and
eventually saw the truck drive away. Was this actually suspicious?
Were we both overreacting? I don't know. I'm just glad
in hope that there are women like the lady in
this van. So this happened about a month ago, while

(01:17:50):
I was working in London. I had gone on a
date with this guy and decided where these heels I
had to test and see how good they would be
for walking around a city. To know surprise, they were
not comfortable at all. So by the time I get
back to the station closest to where I was staying,
my feet hurt like hell, so I was walking kind
of slowly since there were blisters for days. As I'm

(01:18:13):
leaving the station, I'm on my phone with my mom
when this guy walks up to me and asked if
I've been drinking. I had not been, but I suppose
it looked like I could have been, since my steps
were a bit unsteady due to these uncomfortable danged shoes.
So generic looking frat boy want to be asked me
if I'm okay. I tell him I'm sober, that my

(01:18:35):
shoes were just uncomfortable. Now. I think that's that, and
head towards the stairs to go down into my neighborhood.
But as I'm walking, Captain Dipshit decides to try to
talk to me once more. I tell him that I'm
on the phone and to go away. I don't need help.
Does he listen, of course not. Now's something to know

(01:18:57):
about me. I'm pushing six feet tall, and with the
heels on, I was definitely over six feet, so I'm
by no means a small person. When I reached the
base of the stairs, they of course, walks down ahead
of me. What does he do when I reached the
base of the stairs. He shows me a video of
a woman sucking a dick and tries to hint that

(01:19:19):
I should do that for him. But here's where this
absolute dumbass made a mistake. I've dealt with far worse
than some jackass on the street, and do have some
extensive combat experience, so my initial response was to ask
him if he had a death wish well giving him
my best death stare, and I have a very good one.

(01:19:41):
I told him fuck off now and pointing towards the stairs,
telling him to go back to the station. This guy
was absolutely dumbfounded, but did indeed fuck off right back
to the train station. So at least he had good
sense to leave me alone after that. And keep in mind,
this all happened while I was on the phone with
my mom. It's absolutely astounding to me the audacity of

(01:20:05):
absolute fuck wits like this, but needless to say this,
jackets will probably think twice about harassing random women near
the train station. Now it doesn't happen often, but I
do take the joy when I teach some creep show
a lesson not to think so casually about harassing women.
Stay safe, ladies, and remember, don't be polite to these creeps.

(01:20:27):
Be loud, make a scene, act like an absolute crazy person.
These assholes are looking for people who would be meek
and quiet. Be bold, and know that you have as
much right to a space as everyone else. Thanks for
coming to my ted talk. I'm now a forty one

(01:20:51):
year old female, but when I was twenty years old,
I attended college in northeast Pennsylvania. I lived off campus
and had a part time job at the local mall.
The mall was just over a mile away, and I
would walk to and from work regularly. The mall generally
closed at nine PM, and I would finish up my

(01:21:11):
closing tasks and start walking home around nine thirty pm
or ten at the latest. Occasionally I would get a
ride home from a coworker, but most of them were
high schoolers getting picked up by their parents. One night,
I was walking my familiar route home. There are never
many people out and about downtown until I got back

(01:21:32):
onto campus, which I would cut across to get home.
This night, I was only a few blocks from the
mall and I noticed the van parked next to the corner,
but didn't think anything of it. Initially, there were always
a smattering of cars parked around. The van appeared to
be running and the headlights were on. As I got

(01:21:52):
a bit closer, I noticed the sliding door on the
side was open. I definitely noticed, but assumed that someone
must be loading something in and out of one of
the local businesses along the street. As I walked past
the van, there's a sudden flurry of movement. To my left.
There had apparently been a man crouched by the dumpster there,
and he was running straight at the open van door.

(01:22:15):
The scary part was that I was directly between him
and the open van door. He was trying to shove
me inside the van. I screamed, and I can only
credit my complete awkward lack of coordination for what happened next.
I tripped and stumbled when he surprised me, so when
he hit me, I was already falling down to the ground.

(01:22:35):
The force he hit me with only got my head
and shoulders into the open door wall. The majority of
my body was outside on the ground. I remember he
grabbed me around the waist and was trying to hoist
me up through the door, but I was just discombobulated
dead weight. He jumped over me into the van, grabbed
a handful of my hair, and started pulling me off

(01:22:56):
the ground into his van. This is when headlights of
a car turning down the street washed over me, and
I could briefly see that this was a white guy
in a black hoodie. When I saw the car, screamed
louder and started wildly flailing my arms. I heard their
brake screech, and then the guy let go of my hair.
I jumped back in the hooded bastard slammed the door shut,

(01:23:18):
and seconds later accelerated away. A cute, little, white haired
Polish woman had been in the car that turned down
the road at the exact right moment to save me.
She hugged me and told me I was safe, and
it was then that I realized I was still screaming.
She sat on the sidewalk with me and then walked
me to her car. Cell phones were relatively new, neither

(01:23:42):
of us had one. She drove me to the police
station and stayed with me while answered questions and made
a reporter. As far as I know, they never caught
the guy my housemaid with a car let me borrow
it any time I was going to work after that,
and I never walked down town after that. I had
nightmares for a while. I can't help but think what

(01:24:04):
could have happened to me.

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