Real Horror at Work | True Scary Stories from the Workplace - Scary Stories from Bad Vibes

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
So I was telling the coworker this story, and she
suggested I share it here. Sorry in advance if I ramble.
I tend to remember more random details every time I
tell it. Back when I was about seventeen, around two
thousand and nine, I worked as a courtesy clerk at
a grocery store, bagging groceries and bringing in the carts.

(00:29):
My mom and sister also worked there, so this.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Place felt like family.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Most of the guys I worked with were very protective
of me, which honestly was a blessing. I got hit
on by older men all the time. My boss would
even follow me home some nights just to make sure
no creeps were trailing me. One incident, though, has stuck
with me. It was an insanely hot day. I just

(00:56):
finished wrangling the mounting the carts and ducked into the
little pizza corner of the store to cool down. Out
of nowhere, this man in his twenties or thirties came
up to me and handing me his number. He didn't
say much, if anything, and just walked off. I was
too overheated to react. The next day, a silver minivan

(01:19):
pulled up next to me outside I noticed baby shoes
hanging from the rear view mirror. The man tried talking
to me, and I remember cutting him off and saying
I'm seventeen and I have a boyfriend. Usually that would
scare men away, this one didn't. That night, near closing time,

(01:41):
my cashier whispered that someone was watching us. I turned
and saw the same man from the minivan standing around
the corner, just staring. I told my night manager, who
immediately opened his office door while counting tills to keep
an eye on things. The guy eventually left the store,
but just waited outside. My manager ended up following me

(02:04):
home that night. A few days later, my aunt randomly
texted me, which was unusual. We hardly talked.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
She sent me a.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Link to a Craigslist misconnections post and asked if it
was about me.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
It was. This post is something like.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Saw you working in the grocery store. You were cute,
You wore bowing your hair, suspenders hanging from your shorts,
a bunch of wristbands, and had bright colored hair. Your
name tag said Garrett, I'm forty and would like to
meet up. The Garrett part really freaked me out because

(02:45):
Garrett wasn't me. My coworkers, and I used to switch
name tags sometimes just to mess with customers and see
their reactions. So not only was this guy watching me
closely enough to describe my entire outfit, but he also
memorized the name I just happened to be wearing. That day,
I ran to my day manager and showed him the post.

(03:06):
He immediately replied.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
With, too young for you parent. After that, things got weirder.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
I'd see the same silver van around, but sometimes I
wasn't sure if it was even the same guy. Once
I rushed inside after spotting it, and suddenly the man
was already following me down the aisle. There was no
way he could have parked that fast and got it inside.
When I screamed, he bolted before anyone else saw him.

(03:37):
The police got involved and gave me an escort home
every night that week. Eventually, I was transferred to another
store in a different town, and I never saw the
van or that man again. Being hit on by creepy
old men unfortunately never stopped. But that Craigslist post still
gives me the chills to this day. I wish I
could find it again. It was so insane reading how

(04:00):
he described me so to the man who wrote the
Craigslist post about a seventeen year old girl that's not me.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Update.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Not too long after this happened, the cops posted a
sex trafficking ring in my area and arrested around forty people.
When I saw that on the news, it really made
my stomach drop. I'll never know if that guy was connected,
but it honestly feels like he could have been. Thinking
back on how he looked at me, the way he lingered,
and how off everything fell, I still get chills. So

(04:43):
I'm going to start this off by saying that English
is in fact not my first language, so there might
be some mistakes here and there. So this story happened
at work, i'd say about two years ago. I'm a
female and was nineteen at the time. I worked at
my local coffee shop and I still work there. I

(05:03):
usually work closing shift, which ends at ten o'clock. During
dead times, we have to close the shop alone, which
I did that day. So about fifteen minutes before I
close my shop, an unusual client entered the cafe. I
say unusual because most of my clients are regulars. So

(05:25):
this dude, i'd say he's in his mid to late thirties.
He comes in and asks me for an empty cup,
which I gave him. Nothing seemed weird at first. The
guy goes into the corner to pop open a bottle
of champagne. He chugs about half of it and pours
the other half in that same cup I gave him.

(05:48):
I did think it was weird, but I didn't want
to confront him because remember I was working this shift alone.
So after chugging his huge amount of alcohol, he just
started dancing around the corner, which I definitely found weird,
but I really just wanted to finish my shift and
go get wasted with my friends. So it's about five

(06:10):
minutes before closing hour. I go around the coffee shop
and let the clients know that we're closing. Before leaving,
the dude comes up to the counter and slides the
chocolate bar and just says thank you so much. I
smiled and said, no problem. Then he left the shop.

(06:30):
At first sight, the chocolate bar seemed normal, but after
a further investigation, I noticed that I was cutting half
inside the package and it seemed to be sealed back
up with a hair straightener or something hot, which I
found concerning. To say the least. One thing I didn't
mention at first is that my friends were sitting at
a table inside the coffee shop. But during the time

(06:52):
that he was there, I didn't talk to them at
all since I was trying to finish my task as
fast as I could, So at first sight they did
it looked like they were my friends. Whatever time goes
by and ten o'clock finally comes around, I locked both
front and back doors. When locked, it's possible to use

(07:12):
the back door to exit the restaurant, but not to enter.
But while I was counting the till investing around my
three friends, one of them goes to the bathroom. It's
important to note that she used the handicap bathroom, which
shares the same wall with a men's bathroom. Kind Of annoyed,
the same friend comes out and asks who knocked on

(07:33):
the wall While I was pissing. Me and my two
friends look at each other confused because none of us
pulled that prank. Safe to say, we were kind of concerned. Naturally,
we went into a quick check of the men's restroom.
We didn't open the stall that was right against the
handicap bathroom because we were a little too scared meaning

(07:55):
the man might have been crouched on the toilet. After that,
I finished closing work, I turned off the lights, and
as I'm about to enter the code to exit the building,
I hear the back door open and close. I think
it's pretty obvious that someone was in fact hiding in
the bathroom. All that made me connect some dots. What
if I really was alone that night? What if, for

(08:18):
some reason, I ate that chocolate he gave me. Would
he have attacked me, rape me, kill me? All that
might seem like a bit of a reach, but you
never really know someone's intention. So many questions still unanswered.
But this situation still keeps me up at night. I
hope we never meet again. This happened twenty some years ago,

(08:48):
but it's still really vivid in my mind. I, a
forty year old female, was working alone in sort of
a CD area in my hometown at a twenty four
hour adult video toy store. I more often than not
ended up working in the overnight shift, which wasn't usually
too bad. Occasionally we get drunk guys from the bar

(09:10):
next door, but mostly the customers were pretty respectful. A
guy came in after midnight. I was never sure of
his age. He seemed like the sort of guy who
was fifty but also possibly twenty five or somewhere in between.
He had the same haircut as Johnny Depp in that
god awful Wonka movie, and he talked in this weird

(09:33):
falsetto Michael Jackson voice. It made my skin fucking crawl.
He asked me to call him a cab, and I did.
I nervously told him he could wait in the front
of the store for it, and probably made up something
about paying customers only inside the store. But he ignored me,
slowly making his way further into the store and making conversation.

(09:57):
I kept thinking this guy was definitely on something, and
he was definitely going to skin me and wear me
like a people's suit. He was standing right next to
the phone on the counter, sort of leaning against it.
I kept telling him that his taxi would be there
any minute, and he ignored me, still asking me questions.

(10:17):
I just remember him asking, do ye have any pussy cats? No?
I was led to believe that I could find some
pussy cats in here if I had a dildo to
brandish as a weapon within reach, or spray him with
loup to make makeshift pepper spray. At that point I
would have used it. Thankfully, this beautiful angel of a

(10:39):
man who decided to rent porn after midnight came in.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
I immediately greeted him.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
And said, oh, I need to talk to you about
your special order. When he came over to the counter
to ask what I meant, I whispered, please stay and
sort of jerked my head towards the creepy guy who
was just smiling at us. My guardian porn runner went
along with a ruse and thank you, Baby Jesus. The

(11:05):
creep went out to get to his taxi. The customer
asked if I was okay, and I said I was,
so he went to brows. I gave him a free
rental as a thank you. I swear to God I
could still hear the creep's voice when I think about
this so possible serial killer Willy Wonka, let's not meet again.

(11:34):
This happened several years ago when I was working at
a downtown jail in a large city as a councilor.
I worked a weird shift and got off at two
a m. So it was obviously dark when I got
off work, and most people on the roads were people
who just closed down the bars downtown. At this job,
I interacted with inmates who were various levels of stable

(11:56):
and sober, and sometimes they were released at the same
time I was leaving work. The garage where I parked
was a couple blocks away from the jail, so I
was cautious walking back to the car, but I usually
didn't have issues.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
This particular night, I got to my car safely and
started home about a twenty five minute drive. Very quickly
after I pulled out of the garage, I noticed the
car right behind me with its high beams on. It
followed me through the downtown, onto the highway, and then
exited on my exit. I wasn't too freaked out yet

(12:31):
because I live off a major road, but then it
took every turn I did, and it pulled into my
apartment complex right behind me. Well, at this point, I'm
getting concerned, but it's a big complex, so I just
head towards my building.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
The car is right behind me.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
I usually back into a reserve parking spot, but this
car was so close I literally can't I pull him forward.
The car drives up behind me and stops blocking me in.
At the point I'm scared, I started calling someone, but
all my friends are probably asleep because it's three am.
Calling nine one one feels like an overreaction, so I

(13:10):
finally die nine one one on my phone, but don't
press the call button and step out of my car.
A man gets out of the other car. He's tall, white,
wearing a vest and a fedora. I'm a female, twenty
six blonde by three. He stares at me for about
ten seconds and says oh, gets back in the car
and drives off till one of the weirdest.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Encounters in my life.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
This just happened hours before posting this. I'm currently off
work and decided to deliver for door Dash to get
some extra.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Money on the side.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
I was on my way to deliver someone food when
I actually almost hit a guy while changing lanes. I
don't know if I just didn't see him, or like
he's to get in front of me or whatever, but
he took it very personally and went back into the
left lane, and he sped up and brake checked me.
Then I stepped out of red light. He got out

(14:12):
of his car and hit my window. The light turned green,
so I sped off and then he pulled up next
to me. At the next light. He was shouting at
me a bunch of nonsense, so when the light turned green,
I sped off again and I thought I lost him.
I delivered the food and decided to go home. On

(14:32):
my way home, he found me and pulled up next
to me, shouting again. I called my dad while I
tried to lose him. Eventually I pulled into a gas
station and he drove off. My dad came and we talked.
While we were talking, I saw a car that looked
like him drive by, but I'm not sure if.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
It was him or not.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
After that, my dad and I drove home, so to
the cycle with anger issues that looked a lot like KEESO,
let's not meet again. I work at a retail grocery chain,
and within the store there's a liquor department that is

(15:13):
separated from the rest of the grocery section. One day,
I was working in that department when a man came in.
He had bought a few alcohol shots and struck up
a conversation with me. Everything seemed normal at first, but
then things took a very strange turn. He pulled an
axe out of his backpack. I was completely shocked. It's

(15:37):
hard to explain how surreal it was to see a
man rambling about how nobody would dare mess with him
because he had an axe. He held it out in
the open, talking about how sharp the blade was. To
prove his point, he cut his receipt in half from
the counter right in front of me, demonstrating the sharpness
of the blade. He went on about how the axe

(16:00):
to cut through bone and flesh. I was to my
best not to escalate the situation, so I tried not
to react or say much. Honestly, I was kind of
frozen and didn't tell him to put the axe away
or leave. My goal was to stay calm and get
him out as quickly as possible. As soon as he left,
I immediately let my supervisor know. She pulled me aside

(16:24):
to ask for a description.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Of the man.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Our security officer was able to spot him on the
store's camera footage, and my store manager ended up contacting
the police. I gave a statement to the police officer,
who told me he had spoken to the man outside
in the parking lot and the man would be trespassed
from the store. Looking back, it was a deeply unnerving
experience being alone in an isolated section of a store

(16:49):
with someone who seemed mentally unstable and holding a massive axe.
So I work in a small, family owned shop in Australia.
We get odd people here and there, but this guy
was next level. He was all around creepy and off putting.

(17:13):
It started fine. He asked me some questions about what
we had, where it's from, what the best things are,
you know, normal things where I work. He then went
off to do his own thing for about five minutes,
and then he came back to me. This is where
it gets weird. He said something along the lines of
do you have social media? I say yes. He replied

(17:37):
with I feel like I've seen you on websites before.
I take a second to reply and say I don't
post myself on social media. I don't think I'll be
on any websites. He goes, you don't have to lie
to me, winked, I won't tell, and again I don't
know what to say. He just walks off and says

(18:00):
I'll see you later, and winked again. My coworker was
there when this happened, and she looked just as shocked
as I probably would have. I had no idea what
this man meant. I'm definitely not in any websites. I
don't often post myself face or anything. I've never seen
this man before. I'm a nineteen year old female. I

(18:26):
work at a small shop in the UK. This shop
has no cameras or security measures. Today a man comes
in and starts pressing me for personal information. He asked
my age, exact birthday, parents' names, surname, the town I
am from, and the school I went to. I didn't

(18:47):
feel good about him, even though everyone says he's harmless.
He apparently did this to another young girl working there.
He came in three times today, and he also claimed
that I didn't give him enough cash back. Other customers
took up for me and said that he was being aggressive.
I don't want to work on my own anymore, so

(19:08):
I've asked my manager if I can work with someone else,
but she says she ought to ask her manager. I'm
only attempt so if they say no, I'm handing it
in my notice. What do you think his intentions are?
We'd love to hear your thoughts. Also, we'd love to
hear what you think regarding people without brush off this
behavior or on support of managers. I work at a

(19:37):
large retail store as a self checkout host. Most of
my days involve walking laps and hearing customers say things
like I don't work here, or why aren't you at
a register? I get it, it can be frustrating. Usually
there's two or three of us manning the self checkout area,
with a couple of regular registers open. I had a

(20:00):
new guy, let's call him Terry. He always wore a mask.
Since it was twenty twenty one and COVID was still
going strong, I was training him, telling him to stock
the candy and bags, and he asked me the usual
questions if I was in school, if I had a girlfriend.
I live in a small city that's big enough to

(20:20):
have a decent college, so students from allover tend to
end up either at the prison or in retail. I
usually asked them the same questions. I told him no,
did both. Then he asked me if I ever went hunting.
Our town is surrounded by forests, so it's a common question. No,
I don't like guns, I told him. He casually replied, well,

(20:44):
I'll have to take you one day. A few days later,
he was back on my side of the store. He
asked me if I had family in town, and if not,
where they lived. I told him I lived just three
doors down from my mom. Then out of nowhere, he
started talking about hunting again. He said he was out
with his friends and they started using pack tactics to

(21:07):
corner their prey and finish it off. I thought that
was strange, especially for deer, since they usually run away
got the first sound of noise. He was off for
a few days. New hires often have trouble getting hours
the first few weeks. And when he came back, one
of my coworkers pulled me aside. They told me that
Terry had been talking a lot about me. The next

(21:29):
time I saw him, his questions took a darker turn.
How tall would you say you are? How much she weigh?
How well do you know the woods half so and
so street. I'm a big guy, six feet tall, three
hundred pounds. And when he brought up hunting again, it
fell off. A chill ran down my spine. Come on, man,

(21:51):
he said, leaning in a.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Little you'd like it.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Just some good old boys shooting the shit ld at
night in the middle of the woods. Then the real
fun starts before dawn. They won't know what hit them.
The mask covered most of their face, but I could
see his eyes when he smiled. I don't know what
made him think that that was a good way to
convince someone, but it definitely creeped me out. I felt

(22:16):
like he was implying something much darker than just a
hunting trip. Honestly, the whole thing sounded more like a
horror story than an invitation. I must have made a face,
because he suddenly turned and walked away quickly. I told
a couple coworkers about it, but that ended up being
his last day. I never saw him again, and honestly,

(22:37):
I'm hoping we never crossed paths again. I was eighteen
years old when this happened, and I'm thirty two now.
I worked as an assistant at the fire department. One night,

(22:58):
a woman called in saying that she was the widow
of a deceased fired man and was looking for someone
to fix her grandson's computer as he lived with her.
By that time, I had already completed some IT courses
and was used to receiving calls from family and friends
to do task like that, so I took her number
and told her that I would call her back later.

(23:20):
I asked a sergeant about her and mentioned the name
of the deceased husband. He confirmed that she was who
she says she was, and that they were very familiar
with her calls for help like this. I called her
back and told her I could help. I quoted her
price for the job. She agreed, and we scheduled a
day to get it done. On the scheduled day, I

(23:44):
gathered all the necessary equipment and went to the address
she gave me. It was in the city center. When
I arrived, it was a really old building and the
bill wasn't working, and as the man exiting the building
told me, I waited around thirty to five forty minutes
for her to answer the phone to let me in.
She lived on the fifth floor and there's no elevator,

(24:06):
so I took the stairs. When I finally reached her floor,
she opened the door quickly and let me inside. As
soon as I looked around, I couldn't have been more disgusted.
The apartment was filthy and the smell was unbearable. I
know this might sound like I was judging her for
a lower status, but since she was a widow of

(24:28):
a fireman, she receives a pension that should be enough
to take care of herself and her grandson. There were
cockroaches everywhere, and I had to hold myself back from vomiting.
She guided me to the computer, and as we passed
the bathroom door, I noticed the bathtub looked like it
had never been cleaned. Once I started working on in

(24:49):
the computer, she kept talking to me about how lonely
she was and how handsome I was. She offered me
food and drink several times, which I obviously declined. Then
her grandson came into the room. He looked about seven
or eight years old but spoke like a baby. She
kept telling him how nice I was and that I

(25:09):
was going to fix the computer. The boy asked her
for a cup of milk, and she went in to
prepare it. During the entire time she was in the kitchen,
the boy just stared at me. I tried talking to
him a few times, but he didn't respond. It felt
like I was in a horror movie and I could
be a victim of murder at any moment. I'm not

(25:30):
sure why, but I didn't feel safe there. She came
back with milk for the boy, and I noticed that
she was holding a knife in the other hand. She
said that she was preparing lunch and went back into
the kitchen. At that point, I was sure that something
was going to happen to me. I quickly finished the
job and called her into the room. She came in

(25:52):
still holding the knife, and I told her I had
finished and that I was leaving. She insisted that her
grandson needed to test her first, since she was still
holding the knife.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
I agreed.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
The boy tested the computer and told her it was
faster now. At that moment, she turned to me and
said that she didn't have money with her. I just
told her it didn't matter and that I could come
back and collect the payment later. She finally let me leave,
and I almost ran for the exit. This happened back

(26:31):
in October, but I haven't been on Reddit for a
while and stumbled across the sub on my page and
realized I finally have something to add. I wish I
didn't though, after this experience, this is the most danger
I've ever felt in my life. I'm a nineteen year
old female. Let's start off with some context. I work
at a typical photo studio that is placed within a

(26:53):
retail store. Not going to name which one, but your
first guest is probably correct. On this particular day, I
was scheduled to work three to seven, which was our
closing hours. Unless there's an oversaturation of appointments in a
particular time, it's usually one employee working at a time.

(27:13):
It's in the basement of the two retail stores, tucked
away in the little back corner. When I arrived that day,
my manager and co worker were both still there getting
off At three point thirty. I cluck in and started
chatting with my boss about how things were going. There
was one family in the camera room running a little behind,
and she gave me details about my assigned family. She

(27:37):
also encouraged me to try to get a pool in,
which is when we tried to get customers from the
retail store to take photos in exchange for two free pictures,
fully printed and shipped. That's when I noticed a man
in a prison looking outfit. It seems a little off
though it looked like a costume, not something real. It
was October, so costumes weren't totally unusual, but it wasn't

(28:00):
Halloween weekend or anything, so I thought it was a
bit strange that he was just wandering the store with
no appointment, especially in such a quiet part of the
retail store near the photo studio. I don't think my
boss fully registered how odd this behavior was, because she
approached him and asked him if he wanted to take
some pictures. She mentioned his costume would be perfect for

(28:22):
a shoot. I didn't catch much of it since I
was busy checking in the next family. My boss walked
by me while I was setting up the studio and
let me know that this guy was interested in photos
after my current appointment. The family I was working with
was great and everything was going smoothly. But I noticed
the man had come over and was sitting on the

(28:42):
bench closest to the studio. No big deal, though. The
bench is usually for parents to watch or put their
things on, but it wasn't a huge deal that he
didn't know that. Before leaving, my boss popped into the
photo room and said something like, Hey, I'm getting some
weird vibes from that guy, so I'm gonna have Andrew

(29:04):
check in on you to make sure everything is fine,
the retail store manager. After I finished taking the family's photos,
it took me a few minutes to edit them. They
headed out while I stayed on the computer working on
the edits At that point, the man started walking into
the studio asking if it was his turn. That's when

(29:24):
I noticed a crowbar. It was real, not a prop,
and he was swinging it around. I started getting nervous
and told him to wait outside for a bit. While
he was outside, he sat on the bench, twitching, nodding off,
and getting up every now and then.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
I could tell he.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Was on something and it was just me, him and
the single mother with their two kids. I stopped focusing
on editing and started watching him closely. He was making
the family uncomfortable. He kept waving the crow bar around,
and I started getting really concerned about the glass window
and my own safety. He came into the studio a
few times demanded to know when it was his turn.

(30:05):
His blank stare was n settling, and at that point
I was on edge. When I finished editing the family's photos,
I was shaking as I went through the checkout process.
The mom quickly picked up on the situation. The guy
kept peering over the computer to look at her photos.
She eventually snapped loudly, asking can I help you. He

(30:28):
rambled on about how he was supposed to be taking photos.
She leaned in and whispered to me, asking if I
was okay. I scribbled something on their appointment paper, trying
to suddenly communicate that I needed help, and wrote that
my manager was supposed to come over. By then, it
had been an hour and a half since my coworker left.

(30:48):
The mom was still uneasy, but we finished the transaction.
I felt paralyzed. I was once wipe away from being
alone in the studio with a man who had a
crowbar and was clearly on drug. When I went to
swipe the mom's card, it didn't work in our system.
If the car doesn't work locally, we have to process
it at a regular register in the retail store. I

(31:11):
saw this as my chance to get out. I grabbed
a new transaction receipt and walked her over to the
registers in the salon area. The second I was out
of the man's line of sight, I burst into tears.
I explained everything to one of the salon employees, and
they immediately paged the manager. They asked if I wanted
to wait in the breakroom or the salon, but I'd

(31:33):
had to walk past the man to get to the
break room, so I stayed in the salon. The mom
reassuring me, telling me that there's no way she was
leaving me alone with him.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
That made me.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
Feel a little better, but I still had to wait
it out while the manager and another guy went to
confront him. After about fifteen minutes, I peeked out to
see if he had left, and thankfully he had. I
was so relieved that I didn't have any more appointments
that night, but I still so I had to sit
alone in the studio for the rest of my shift.

(32:03):
Every time the elevator doors opened, I flinched. It took
me a while to calm down, and I still feel
an easy when I work alone sometimes. The scariest part, though,
came after about forty five minutes later, the store manager
came to check on me. I asked him about the
guy and how things had gone when they confronted him.

(32:24):
The manager told me that the guy absolutely flipped out,
throwing the crowbar on the ground near them. After more
security arrived, they were able to escort him out, but
I still can't shake the fear of what could have
happened if I had been left alone with him. I
planted away for an uber after work, but instead I
waited in the studio to get a rat home with

(32:44):
my mom. I was nineteen and I had been with
my fiance for about a year. He was my boyfriend
at the time. We both worked at the same same
chemical manufacturing company. I was a night shift lead on
my team and we had just hired this guy, Gabe.

(33:08):
Gabe was probably in this late fifties or early sixties.
As a shift lead and trainer, I did interact with
him no matter what. On the night shift after two PM,
my team and my fiance's team were pretty much the
only people around. This is important because it meant I
had very limited options to avoid Gabe. So Gabe started

(33:33):
talking to me about his preferences in women. At first,
I didn't see how this was relevant to me, and
I made it clear that I didn't care about his preferences.
I was trying not to make a big deal out
of what seemed like small talk, but he kept going.
He started sharing his ideas about women's roles, saying things
like it's fine for women to work temporarily, but eventually

(33:56):
they should settle down and have kids. It worked better
when one person works to pay the bills and the
other manages the household. I'm all for respecting people's life
choices even if they don't align with my own, and
I realized many people live this way personally. I didn't
agree with his views that women should always be the
one at home, but I let him talk.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
I didn't see the.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Reason to get involved since it wasn't about me, and
I figured I was the opposite of his ideal anyway.
We even got into a heated debate about the economy once.
Gabe said that the economy was great because everyone could
be rich, to which I explained that it's impossible for
everyone to be rich in an economy. But beyond that

(34:41):
things were fine. Then my boyfriend had to leave the
company for health reasons, and when unemployed, since we only
had one car and I had a lenur's permit at
the time, I wasn't coomfortable driving alone back home at
one am, so I gave my boss three weeks notice
to ensure that they could train the next person up properly.

(35:01):
My boss appreciated this and told the team that's when
Gabe started acting differently towards me. During the first week
of my notice, I had hickey on my neck. My
boss knew about it, but he didn't care since we
didn't interact with customers and it didn't affect my work.
But Gabe evidently did care. While I was working, he

(35:23):
tapped me on the shoulder and I assumed he had
a question. Instead, he addressed my hickey. Don't you think
it's a little unprofessional? He asked. I replied that no
one needs to put on a show for anyone, and
that it didn't affect my ability to do my job.
He came back with, well, what if it bothers people

(35:45):
or our boss that you're parading your personal life like that.
I told him that my boss has no issue with it.
I would take care of it. Since no one had
said anything, I assumed they didn't care. That's when Gabe asked,
so you don't care to hurt someone's feelings. I found
that response strange. I didn't see how my hickey would

(36:06):
hurt anyone's feelings. If it bothered someone, that was their issue,
not mine. Gabe walked away, and I thought that would
be the end of it. Later, Darren Lunch, I noticed
Gape holding his phone at a weird angle, and it
looked like he was taking a picture of me. I
didn't want to jump to conclusions without being sure, but
my instincts told me that he was taking a picture.

(36:28):
I didn't know for sure, but it would be confirmed later.
By my last week, I was completely fed up with Gabe.
I trained the person taking over my position, and I
told her that she would be the one making the
decisions during my last week. I also privately told her
I wouldn't engage with Gabe anymore, and I'd appreciate it
if she handled him from here on out. She agreed,

(36:52):
but Gabe wasn't ready to let it go. He pushed
for conversations with me, and one day he said, I
just don't think I can take.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Orders from a woman. She can't be my boss.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
I reminded him that I had been to his boss
before and that the boss above me was also a woman.
He didn't want to accept it, so I told him
it didn't matter how he felt, because I was leaving
and my replacement was in charge. If he didn't like it,
he could quit. On my last day, fate decided to
throw me a curveball. My replacement had an emergency and

(37:26):
had to leave early, so it was just me and Gabe.
I had no choice but to direct him again. As
we were leaving Gabe stopped me and asked me a
question that made everything click into place. I know your
boyfriend is unemployed now, so how would you feel if
someone asked you if you're going to leave him for
someone who could provide you with a house, a car,

(37:47):
and everything you need.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
I lost it.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
First Off, I love my fiance deeply. We've been together
for over six years now. Second, I've always worked hard
for everything I have. The idea that I'd be with
someone just for their money was deeply insulting. I'm not
shallow or materialistic, and I've never relied on anyone but
myself for support. So I told him honestly that I

(38:12):
would be extremely offended by such an assumption. It showed
such lack of understanding of who I am and also
insulted my character. Then I left, ready to never deal
with him again. It became clear to me that from
the beginning, Gabe had been approaching me with romantic intentions.

(38:33):
What made even worse was our forty year age gap.
I was disgusted by the whole thing. After I left,
I kept in touch with a woman who took over
my role, and she told me that Gabe had been
telling people that we were in love and that I
was going to leave my fiance for him. He even
showed the people a picture he had taken of me.
I was glad it was confirmed that he had indeed

(38:54):
taken that photo. Three months later, Gabe texted me ay
with a smiley face, because I had given my number
to employees just in case they had to contact me.
I immediately told him never to contact me again, that the
only reason why I ever communicated with him was because
I was his boss, and that there was no reason

(39:16):
for us to ever speak again. Then I changed my
number to make sure he couldn't reach me again. This
is a long story, so stick with me. I'm a

(39:37):
twenty three year old female and I'm a bartender. I
have some stories where I've been generally scared for my life,
but this has got to be the worst. I'm working
at Double at the restaurant. Around eleven am, a delivery
man comes in with a package that I needed to
sign for. He comes, I signed for the package and

(39:59):
tell to have a good day with a smile. I
continue my shift per usual. This was a Friday or Saturday,
I can't remember, but later on we got busy the
restaurant and parking lot are full. I see a lot
of different people daily, plus seeing someone for the second
time ever out of their uniform, you may not recognize them.

(40:23):
Fed Ex driver comes and sits at the bar. I
don't remember him from the twenty five second interaction we
had that morning. I start talking to him, as I
do all my customers. I get him a drink, appetizer,
another drink, entree, et cetera. Our conversation started, how long
have you worked here? A few years. I've worked my

(40:46):
way up. How do you like it here? Just a
regular conversation with bar guests. It slowly became not so regular.
Yesked if I had a boyfriend? I said yes. He
would change the subject and then go back complimenting me,
saying how beautiful I was every few minutes. Can I

(41:08):
have your number?

Speaker 2 (41:10):
No?

Speaker 1 (41:10):
I don't think my boyfriend would appreciate that. Okay, what's
your last name? We could be Facebook friends. All annoying
but normal interactions I've had with men in this industry.
He started to become really pushy over time, pressing for
my phone number or social media. I continue to politely

(41:31):
decline and laugh it off. He then tells me I
actually came this morning to drop off a package with
fat X. You signed for it. I came back just
for you. I smile, continue with my stupid customer service.
Oh yeah, I remember you, and then smile laugh it off.
I even't stepped in the back to vent to my

(41:53):
manager at this point about how he was extra pushy
and uncomfortable last ford. About an hour, he pays his
tab and leaves. I'm just glad he's gone out this point,
we'll say as a guest, it was about seven pm
when he leaves. We are still busy, and we close
at ten pm. We finished dinner service, customers slowly start

(42:17):
to leave, and the restaurant is finally empty. I've been
cleaning for a while and I'm finally finishing up. It's
about ten thirty pm at this point. I'm cleaning the bar.
I look up. The whole front of the restaurant that
is facing me consists of a large window that faces
the parking lot, and I see one car in the

(42:38):
parking lot I noticed as a delivery driver guests from earlier.
He is standing outside the car, walking around and seeming
like he's cleaning the back seat. Out door opens and
he's leaning in and out.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
With a bag.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
As soon as I realized it was him who left
almost four hours ago, my heart sank. Why is he
still here? Why was he cleaning the back seat out?

Speaker 2 (43:03):
I freak.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
My manager and I are the only people left at
the restaurant at this point, it's almost eleven. I rent
here and tell her everything about how he came back
just for me, and about how he had seemingly left
four hours ago, and I made her come from the
back of the restaurant to behind the bar up front
so she could see him in the parking lot. She

(43:26):
says she's going to call the police. At this point,
my boyfriend and I had an apartment literally five minutes
away from the restaurant. I told her not to worry
about it. I'll just call my boyfriend to come get me.
I did just that, but my boyfriend could immediately tell
something was wrong, and when I'm scared or anxious, I ramble,

(43:48):
so I gave him a quick debriefing of what's going on.
He said that he'll be there soon and hung up.
My manager made me sit in the office until he
got there, so I didn't see this go down. All
I remember is my boyfriend coming into the restaurant to
get me, walking me to the car through the back door,
and getting me home. My boyfriend, who is very confrontational

(44:10):
and protective litter, tells me that he pulled into the
parking lot to see a FedEx driver sitting in his
driver's seat of his car. My boyfriend walked up to
the car and knocked on the window for him to
roll it down. He does, and my boyfriend tells him
something along the lines of you need to get out
of here. This is where the scariest thing happens. The

(44:32):
dude responded to him in a different language, mumbling and
acting like he didn't speak English. My boyfriend says something like,
I know you speak English. You've been talking to my
girlfriend all night, and you need to get out of here.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
The dude continued.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
Rambling in a different language until my boyfriend raised his
voice and basically said, you have fifteen seconds before I
pull you out of this car, and you never leave
this parking lot before the guy finally put the car
in drive and sped off. I was on the edge
for weeks after this interaction, and I've considered switching jobs.
Why was he still sitting in the parking lot that long?

(45:08):
After we closed and hours after catching out his tab
and why was he cleaning out the back seat to
the creepy bar guest delivery driver. Let's never meet again.

(45:29):
I'm a property manager and one year postpartum, so I
returned to my company part time. This was fun because
I got to float around to different apartment communities who
needed help and just help were needed. In September, I
helped a property about an hour away from my house.
It was a bit of a drive, but fairly small

(45:52):
property with relatively no big problems, so easy money for
the day, uncovering for the manager outification and of course
it's the dreaded sixth of the month. This means I'm
handing out letters and making calls unfortunately, definitely not my
favorite part of the job, but it's necessary. The one

(46:13):
thing I hate about floating is the residents don't know
me well, so I'm delivering late letters and calling and
they don't even know me. Again, not my favorite.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Part of the job, but it has to be done.
So here we go.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
I had about ten letters to deliver. All was going
normal and fine. Some people answer the door and say, yah, sorry,
I'll have it paid on such and such date. Another
person didn't answer, so I left the info on the door,
but they flipped me off as I was walking away.
All pretty normal stuff. When it comes to the job,

(46:50):
I get down to the seventh.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
Or eighth person.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
I walk up to this apartment and I can tell
from now side that the occupants have.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Absolutely destroyed this home.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
I smelled cigarettes, cat urn and general mustiness before I
even knocked. All blinds were broken, blankets up on the windows,
all the works. I get to the door do my
normal knock, waited about five seconds and was ready to
post the notice to the door. Right as I was

(47:20):
folding it up to put it in between the door,
the door slightly swings open. A gentleman wearing just boxers
and half a cigarette hanging out of its mouth opened
the door, but he doesn't unlatch the security lock, so
the door does not open all the way. What do
you want, he says, as he's giving me a death glare,

(47:41):
but also looking me up and down inappropriately. At the
same time, I explained that I was just there to
deliver the late letters and that i'd be on my
way now. As I'm explaining this, I noticed he keeps
looking over his shoulder as if someone's standing next to him.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
Behind the door.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
I find this odd, as if someone was hiding from me,
especially because this gentleman won't open the door all the way.
I hear some whispering, and now I'm sure he's communicating
with someone. The gentleman at the door asked me to
wait and says he has things in his apartment that
he needs me to look at. I explain that I'm

(48:20):
just there for the letters, but he can send photos
to the office and that I can get work orders in.
He begins complaining about our maintenance team and stays he
really wants someone to take a look in person. At
this point, I feel really uneasy. Typically I would enter
to help with no problem, but between the looks that
this guy was giving me and the creepy who knows

(48:43):
who's behind the door, I'm just not feeling safe. At
this point, I defer again, trying to make myself sound
unimportant and just say that I'm a floating person. I
can't do anything without manager approval, so there's really no point.
At this point, something catches my eye. I see the

(49:03):
window blind move. I noticed two additional guys upstairs who
were both staring down at me, I'm so uneasy I
could be sick. At this point, I tell the gentleman
that I won't be entering without maintenance or a property
manager present, due to it being an ongoing maintenance concern
and there not being much I could personally do. He

(49:25):
looks annoyed and finally slams the door in my face.
I get back to the office and grab the maintenance
supervisor for the property to chat about things regarding this encounter.
The maintenance supervisor explained to me that there used to
be an old man that lived in the apartment, but
then the sun took over the lease after he died.
He told me they he noticed a lot of strange

(49:46):
activity and individuals around the home since the dad died,
but he hasn't personally witnessed anything illegal yet, so he
just let it go. He explained, they plan to make
them move when the contract is over due to the
conditions of the home. While I can't prove something horrible
was gonna happen if I entered the premises. This is

(50:07):
by far the creepiest encounter I have had as a
property manager in seven years. I used to work in
a kitchen design studio. We had a host desk at
the front to answer quick questions and handle small customer

(50:28):
service issues. One day, the host, twenty one year old female,
needed her break, and I, thirty four year old male,
told her that I would take her spot for her break.
About ten minutes into her break, a scuffy looking dude
with the unlet half cigarette in his.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
Mouth came in.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
I give him the usual welcome in how can I
help you service in your seat greeting, and the dude
just looked at me silent for about two minutes. Then
he walked over and started rubbing my shoulders while saying,
you're a good man, It'll be okay. I just kind
of froze. I didn't know what to do. He wasn't

(51:06):
attacking me, but it was super unnerving. I told the
host about it, and she said that she was glad
it happened.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
To me instead of her.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Anyway, that guy got arrested after lighting half the block
and sidewalk on fire. Let's start with the basics. I'm
a twenty six year old male and I work at
a blind store where I'm alone during all my shift.

(51:38):
I work from nine am to seven pm Monday through Friday.
It's a very simple job most of the time as
they just look at the computer, do some customer service
offer quotes to the very few people that enter the store,
and so on. So, like I said, it's very boring
and not much happens. But lately something started to catch

(51:59):
my attention. I noticed across the street someone looking directly
at the store, more precisely, looking at me. I don't
handle cash to the store. We mostly work with credit
cards and debit cards, so I don't think they were
planning to rob the store or something like that. I
noticed that there's a telescope on the window and it's

(52:21):
pointed directly at my desk, so I think it's very
obvious to say that the person who's looking at me.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
I left my phone.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Recording while I was at work for about an hour,
hour and a half, and I can see in the
recording that this person moves the telescope once in a while,
and that was when I would go to the restroom.
The telescope moves while trying to find me. So yeah,
I've not seen this person's face or anything, but surely
enough this is creepy. Update one, thank you so much

(52:51):
for your comments and responses.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
To this post.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
I didn't expect this to get any attention. So here
goes with some more info about the situation and more
details about the store. This person is looking at my
desk through a door, so my blinds can't protect me.
In addition to this, I moved my desk closer to
the wall so the person can't see me anymore. I

(53:14):
did this just because I'm getting video proof of this
person's behavior. I just found out about the stalker this Tuesday,
and I don't know if he or she has been
doing this for weeks and I just noticed it now,
so I'm already being careful when I get off work.
After reading all your suggestions, I've decided to go and

(53:35):
have a little chat with the building administrator and show
her all the evidence I have collected. I would do
this today. I may update this in a week if
something worth mentioning happens. If not, then Monday I'll update
the post update two. So I already showed the evidence
to the building administrator let's call her Anna, and she

(53:57):
was shocked even more when she actually saw that the
telescopes showing through the window of the apartment.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
She told me that the apartment that.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
Had the telescope is being used by two girls, maybe
in their twenties, and these two girls are weird. Their
apartment is small, but they are not cheap, and these
two girls started living there almost two months ago. She
told me that she doesn't see these girls leave the
apartment often, and most of the food and groceries are
delivered to these girls via delivery drivers. But something that

(54:29):
does occur is a man comes to the apartment every
two or three days and leaves early in the morning.
The man is the one that actually made the rental
agreement and pays for the apartment, so he's probably paying
for food and rent for these two girls.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
Now.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Anna says, when the rental agreement took place, the man
said these two girls would be living there because they're
in college. But she hasn't seen the two girls go
to college or anything like that, so yeah, this is weird.
Anna is going to speak about this issue with the
owner of the building and the man who signed the
rental agreement, so this activity stops. Last update. Okay, so

(55:08):
this weekend I didn't think too much about the situation anymore.
I tried to enjoy my days off without worrying about
my job. So just today I come to work, opened
the store door and began to work. I then noticed
that the windows to the apartment was closed. This window
was always open, and I noticed that the telescope was

(55:28):
no longer there. I sent a message to Anna asking
if she could tell me anything about these girls and
if something was being done about the stocking. Apparently, Anna,
the building manager, and the mysterious man had a short
conversation this Saturday. They called the man on the phone
and asked him if he could talk about some complaints

(55:48):
about the apartment. Then they told the man that the
girls were harassing the stores in front of the building.
Luckily they didn't say it was me who was complaining.
They told the man that this behavior should stop because
that's not something in tendant should do. So far, the
man has been listening and paying attention to the requests.

(56:08):
Everything was normal up to that point. But then the
building owner had a question. It was a quick question,
what career are they studying. Anna said that the man
changed his attitude completely, said that he should mind his
own business and just left. Sunday comes and the man
calls Anna to give it the keys to the apartment.

(56:30):
He didn't explain why or you said anything else, he
just gave it the keys and left. She was very
confused and also worried about the girls, mainly because she
didn't see them when they left. I told her maybe
they left early in the morning like the man used to.
I asked if there was something wrong with the apartment,
like missing stuff or damages, but Anna said everything was fine,

(56:54):
nothing was stolen or broken.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Also, I asked if.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
She heard noises, yelling, or anything that Saturday night.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
Nothing. She says.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
She's thinking about finding a complaint with the police because
it feels wrong that they would just leave like that.
If you ask me, I think the reason why they
left was because the building owner asked about the girls.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
I don't know what to think about this.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
If Anna does end up going to the police, I
will probably provide my testimony.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
Or something if it's helpful.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
I hope I don't have another update to this post,
because I wouldn't want to know more about this than
I should. From the age of thirteen until almost fifteen,
I had a paper row. I delivered papers to people's

(57:47):
doors six days a week. All of my customers, asides
from an occasional grump or chatterboxes, were absolutely wonderful. Most
of them are older, and any of them were happy
to see me every day just to have someone to
talk to. Most of them would leave me things like
granola bars, water bottles, and even tips. Winter holidays wear

(58:12):
a great time because everyone who could left huge tips.
It was pretty good for first official job. Eventually, some
of the snowbirds moved back and became my customers. One couple,
Lois and Gerald, will always stick in my mind. They
started off normal, pretty friendly people. But I noticed one Sunday,

(58:34):
the only day I had to get up early to
deliver papers, that Gerald was outside.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
He chatted me up.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Nothing unusual because it was so early and because I'd
usually go right to bed after I was done. I
was wearing a Britney Spears shirt and a pair of
Polar Bear pajama pants. He complimented and said I dressed cutely.
I was confused because it was just pajamas that I.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Threw on randomly.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
I was confused by the compliment, but I just went
on about my day and didn't think much of it.
Was something else to note. His wife, Lois, was always smiling.
I couldn't pinpoint why, but it always unnerved me. Anyways,
I noticed that in their garden. There were three different
dog headstones that all said Fido on it. I was

(59:23):
kind of confused as why they all had the same name.
One day, Lois was out and she had her dog
with her. She introduced the dog to me as they
had just adopted her, and guess what, they named her Fido.
All the dogs they had were named Fido, and they
were all shelling sheep dogs, just like that one. I

(59:44):
thought this was weird and I told my mom about it.
She told me not to be judgmental, as it was
probably one way they dealt with grief.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
Here's the thing.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
They kept trying to get me to come inside. They'd
invite me in for tea, which is not something normal
people would do from where I'm from. Coffee and donuts
are a little bit more commonplace, but even that isn't
something people do on a regular basis. Or they invite
me in to talk to them. I would always decline
because I had more papers to deliver.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
I wanted to get home.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Jerald kept complimenting my outfits, even though they were just pajamas.
One morning, he did this while getting closer to me
and eventually touching my shoulder. I eventually was like, I
gotta go and left. I didn't tell my mom at
the time, as our relationship was good at that point
and I feared that telling her any concerns I had

(01:00:40):
would make her not trust me or make her mad.
This is also the tail end of my child's sexual assault,
which she doesn't know about to this day, so I
thought maybe I was just being paranoid. Then, right before
I moved and gave up my paper route, a really
bizarre incident happened. It was a Sunday, the last Sunday

(01:01:00):
I had on the paper.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Row, to be exact, so I was out early.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Delivering papers like it was still kind of dark out.
Gerald was outside. He complimented my outfit again, getting all
creepily close. He invited me inside, and I said, I
really don't think my mom would appreciate me being gone
for longer than she expected me to be. She strict,

(01:01:24):
which wasn't the whole truth, but you gotta do what
you gotta do. He seemed to get kind of annoyed
and just asked, once, your mom just preferred you to
respect your elders and not turned down an invitation. I
felt the color drained from my face and noped out
of there so quick. I muttered something about how I
really needed to hurry along because my dog was sick.

(01:01:45):
I heard him say some compliments about how my hair
looked really pretty. I booked it as quickly as I
could to the next house without running. I didn't see
Gerald after that, but I did see Lois, and she
never stopped inviting me inside to play with Fido or
have tea. I always declined. She seemed disappointed every time.

(01:02:08):
So that's my weird paper rout story. Maybe I'm paranoid,
but Gerald and Lois have some funky vibes. So Gerald
and Lois, that's not me.

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