December 9, 2025 • 24 mins
On this episode of Two for Tuesday, enjoy two real-life frights: a chilling tale of a stalker who wouldn’t disappear, and a late-night convenience store shift turned terrifying hold-up. Two true stories, twice the fear.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, campfire crew, let's get it on.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Clearly, this is a place where the rules of your
world do not apply, and obviously I'm a man for home.
Pain is nothing more than a common currency.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Scary convenience store visit submitted by de quon R. I
still can't walk past a convenience store at night without
feeling that tight electric buzz in my spine, you know,
the one that warns you something terrible might be waiting
behind a glass door and humming fluorescent lights. This happened
(00:48):
three years ago on a night when nothing felt dangerous
at all. I just finished a late shift at my
job and stopped at a local market, a tiny, little
corner store that stayed open until midnight. It was the
kind of place where the clerk, Darius, knew everyone by name,
and the biggest excitement was when someone knocked over the
chip display. It was eleven forty two. I remember the
(01:13):
time exactly because I was checking my phone as I
walked in, just thinking about grabbing a soda and heading home.
What I walked to instead still follows me. The bell
above the door barely had time to jingle before somebody
slammed into the back of my shoulder. Really hard. I
(01:35):
stumbled and spun around and saw two guys shove through
the entrance behind me. Both were wearing black hoodies and
these cheap plastic Halloween masks. One guy was holding a
Duffel bag, but the other guy had a gun. And
it wasn't a small gun either. It was a long
barreled thirty eight and looked heavier than his hand. Knew
how to hold it. He pointed it straight at Darius,
(01:59):
shut it down. Register now. Darius froze. His face trained
so fast it looked like someone unplugged him. Honestly, I
wanted to run, I mean, any sane person would, but
the guys had stepped between me and the exit, and
the gunman tilted the muzzle toward me for a second.
(02:21):
You don't move, I didn't. Darius fumbled with the drawer.
I could tell his hands were trembling so badly because
I could hear the coins inside rattling. The second guy
hopped behind the counter and started shoving things into the
Duffel bag, smokes, scratch off tickets, anything, But then something shifted.
(02:45):
The gunman I could tell was getting jumpy. He kept
breathing through the mask like he was running out of air,
and he was waving the barrel of the gun around,
yelling at Darius for being too slow, and then yelling
at his buddy for not grabbing the good stuff. That's
when I started to think something terrifying. That this was
their first time to this rodeo. They seemed really reckless.
(03:10):
They seemed desperate, and I felt that they were about
to lose control, and if they panicked, somebody might die.
I felt my whole body go hot and cold all
at once. I'm not a fighter, I wasn't a soldier.
I wasn't a hero of any kind. But standing there
watching that gun drift closer to Darius's head, something in
(03:32):
me just clicked and I was resolved. I was not
going to let these guys shoot him. My phone was
still in my hand and my thumb was hovering over it.
I didn't need to dial, I just needed to record sound.
My smart watch had already triggered SOS mode the moment
I raised my wrist and squeezed it out of fear,
(03:53):
and the timer told me the call had gone through.
Police were listening. I just needed to say all somehow,
so I spoke and said the dumbest, most instinctive thing
I've ever said. Hey, man, you don't want to do this.
Both of the guys snapped towards me. The guy behind
(04:14):
the counter said something under his breath, and the guy
holding the gun took two sharp steps right at me
and raised the weapon to my head. What the fuck
did you just say? My heart wanted to crawl out
of my throat, but I kept talking. Darius later said
that my voice didn't sound like me. He said it
was steadier, lower. I don't know about that. I was
(04:37):
just saying what I said. I said, you don't need
to do this. You guys are nervous as hell, and
the longer you stay, the worse this is going to get.
Just grab what you have and go. The guy hesitated,
just for a minute, but it was enough to show
he didn't have any plan. He didn't know what to
do with someone who wasn't screaming or afraid. He took
(05:00):
another step closer, saying, shut up, Shut the fuck up, man,
and then I saw that his wrist was shaking again.
I was terrified that this gun could go off by
accident rather than him meaning to do it intentionally, and
I didn't plan to act again, I'm not a fighter.
My body just did its own thing. While the guy
(05:23):
with the gun stepped close enough that the barrel grazed
my jacket. I threw all my weight sideways and slammed
my shoulder into his chest. The gun did go off,
and holy fuck, was that loud. It tore a hole
in the ceiling tiles, and things kind of cascaded down
like snow. My ears were ringing so loud. I couldn't
(05:45):
hear his partner yelling, but he was. All I knew
was if the gun stayed in that guy's hand, Darius
and I were dead. We started kind of wrestling, both
grabbing at the weapon and my fingers wrapped around the barrel.
It was warm. The guy's mask slipped sideways, revealing very
(06:05):
terrified eyes. And this guy wasn't thinking, and he wasn't aiming.
He was just squeezing the trigger over and over. And
I don't know if this is divine intervention or what,
but each click was a misfire. I shouted at Darius,
and I don't remember what I said, but he said
I kept yelling run run. He dove behind the stock
room door and slammed it shut, and the partner who
(06:27):
had been behind the counter, ran towards us. I thought,
for a second, fuck two on one, I'm dead, but
instead the guy panicked and just ran for the exit.
The guy holding the gun finally lost his grip. I
knocked the gun out of his hand and it clattered
behind a snack display. He looked down at it like
(06:49):
he was going to go after it, but suddenly he
decided to run for the exits too, and that's when
red and blue lights lit up the windows like fireworks.
He froze and for a heartbeat, everything went silent. His
mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear anything, and then
(07:09):
just the distant thunder of approaching sirens, he turned around
and ran for the back exit. I didn't chase him.
I could barely stand upright. The police were inside within seconds,
and they found the second robber trying to scale a
chain link fence between the two buildings. The guy with
(07:29):
the gun. He made it three blocks before officers tackled
and behind a laundry mat. When they handcuffed him, he
kept shouting that that asshole ruined everything, and yeah, I
guess I did. I gave my statement, still shaking. My
shirt was ripped, my hands were scraped raw, and one
(07:51):
of the officers kept a hand on my shoulder the
whole time, because apparently I looked like I was going
to fall over. Darius came out once the store was cleared,
and he got me in a bear hug, full arms,
full weight, like someone who had just gotten their life back. Dude,
he whispered, voice cracking, you saved my ass. I didn't
(08:13):
feel like a hero. I felt like a guy who
made a split second decision because I couldn't watch someone
else get killed. And again, I had that feeling that
it wasn't me, something else other than my brain was
making those decisions. Every time I replay the moment that
gun went off, I get that same chill, the one
(08:33):
that reminds me how close everything came to ending right
there on that sticky convenience store floor, and how sometimes,
for reasons we don't understand until later, sometimes we end
up being the person who stands between chaos and the
people who just didn't deserve to die. On any given night,
(08:58):
my stalker was convinced he was Gatsby and I was
his Daisy By just a scrolling I, a thirty year
old female, had one of the most terrifying stalking experiences.
Twelve years ago, I was eighteen and the Great Gatsby
movie with Leonardo DiCaprio had been released. Being really young, inexperienced,
(09:21):
and very naive about how to remain safe with unwanted attention,
I made every mistake in the book with a guy,
a twenty three year old at the time that started
stalking me. I had just graduated high school and took
a job at a health food store in my downtown area.
It was my first customer service job. The owner was
(09:43):
a big hippie, easy to work with and flexible with
the hours. At first, I worked at different shifts, eventually
taking the afternoon to close hours. Due to how small
the store was, I was alone without other coworkers. Only
our owners sporadically dropped by a grab items off the
shelf for her personal use, and then left after thirty
(10:04):
minutes or so. As a side note, our store was
situated next to the building that had subsidized housing for
those recently released from incarceration or low income. The evening
and nighttime hours were risky for young women to be
without a male escort. Every restaurant in the downtown had
staff that escorted girls to their cars, as it was
(10:25):
common to be followed with assaults happening after dark. I
was on edge during close, but felt some reassurance as
I had parking immediately outside our back exit, just a
few feet from the door. But I was in the store,
closing out the register, cleaning and locking up every night alone.
The front of the store was where the cash register
(10:47):
was set up, but my back was to the large
window that was right next to the sidewalk. The register
faced the inside of the store, and it wasn't uncommon
for me to feel people watching me and catch creepy
guys looking at me through the window right behind where
I was standing. Again, young and inexperienced, I didn't voice
my fears or report the randos that would be a
(11:10):
foot away watching me, only separated by that glass window.
I picked up a shift during the summer farmer's market
in the morning. It was a great day. I was
so happy to work in the morning and have a
higher flow of customers. One guy I'll call Cam came
into the store with a brochure for a local event
(11:31):
at a spiritual center in the downtown area. I was cordial,
smiling and got permission for us to post it at
our register. He was obviously high, nothing crazy, and looked chill.
You could tell he was in his own reality. I
only talked to him for five minutes, and I didn't
think much of the encounter and moved on with my day.
(11:54):
The next shift, Cam came into the store. He struck
up conversation with trying to keep my attention again, working
in the afternoon, when we maybe had two or three
people come in before close, he just hung out right
at the register. I was trying to give hints that
I needed to focus on work, but he would just
follow me around the store while commenting on how gorgeous
(12:17):
my legs were, and he thought that I had been
an angel. The last time he saw me, he kept
telling me that he had had a spiritual awakening because
I had shown him interest in how nice I was,
insisting I was flirting and that the sun behind my
head made my hair glow like a halo. Again, young
and not experienced with guys, I was equally creeped out,
(12:40):
but also a little flattered because I'd never had that
kind of attention before. I thanked him for the compliments
and didn't call out that they were inappropriate, just made
the same excuse that I needed to focus, and I
walked away. Per usual, he just shadowed me everywhere I went,
watching me, but now not really talking anymore. I was
(13:03):
getting really freaked out. I let him know that he
was loitering and needed to leave unless he was there
to shop. Given how pricey the items were, I figured
it would deter him. He ended up using his food
stamps to buy one soda or a piece of candy
every hour, maybe three dours spent every hour. He just
made the excuse then that he was a customer. I
(13:27):
went to the bathroom to at least get some privacy.
My boss had seen him hanging out in the store
before but never commented. I called her and told her
that I was getting scared by this guy and let
her know he was making an excuse to stay by
buying one cheap item and insisting he was a customer
through the whole of my shift. I really thought she'd
(13:48):
give me support come to the store. She was a
self proclaimed feminist that espoused consent and boundaries, so I
got major whiplash when she defended his presence. She told
me the store or was in the red and on
the brink of needing to close because he was spending
any money, I shouldn't try to push him out of
the store, she said. I tried, arguing that he wasn't
(14:11):
generating significant income, but she just doubled down that money
was money, and then insisted I was overthinking it and
Cam was just a kind soul that had found a
similar soul bond with me that created positive energy in
the store. Just what the fuck? So there was a
roadblock there. All I could do was carry on. The
(14:36):
idea of quitting didn't even cross my mind. Being my
first job, I was worried it would look bad if
I left after only a couple of months. It was
really hard to find local positions that were flexible with
school hours, and I would be starting my first semester
at the local college. Soon things slowly escalated. Cam started
(14:56):
bringing me flowers every day. He'd leave long notes infessing
his love and insisting we were soulmates. Then he'd randomly
play the Great Gatsby soundtrack. He would go on and
on telling me that he was Gatsby and I was
his Daisy. We were destined to be together, and that
my denial of our bond was just like Gatsby's attempts
(15:17):
to get Daisy. We were quote living out the movie unquote,
but our ending would be the coming together of souls
wrapped in passion. He had this crazy look in his
eyes every time he brought it up. Then he started
just calling me Daisy. Anytime another customer would come in,
(15:40):
he would get angry and jealous that I quickly ignored
him and walked away. He started calling himself my bodyguard
and told me it was his duty to beat up
anyone that looked at me wrong or made a pass
at me that would be a threat to our love. Again,
I want to emphasize I was so stupid for not
quitting this joke or telling anyone about this. It's an
(16:03):
understatement that I was a complete dumbfuck for not making
police reports and documenting things, creating boundaries and leaving my job,
or telling my friends parents are co workers. For a
few weeks he didn't show up. I thought there would
finally be a break ord that he'd lost interest. Then
he showed back up, told me he'd been hospitalized. Great,
(16:27):
the same routine started all over again. Then one day
I got a text from an unknown number. It was Cam.
Not only did he get my number from a coworker
who he lied to saying he had a new phone
and lost my number, but he did a reverse search
and found my address. He didn't have transportation, and I
(16:50):
was on the other side of town. We didn't have
a bus system, and it was too far to walk.
And as far as I know, he never came to
my house. But I'm sure he did, and I just
wasn't aware. But now I'm sure he did. And at
the time I just wasn't aware. I didn't block his number. Again.
I was so dumb, but honestly, I was scared too,
(17:14):
because he knew where I lived and was so entrenched
in this idea we were bound to each other. I
thought things would escalate more I either ignored his texts
or made dumb excuses for not responding. I would be kurt,
but he wouldn't take the hint. When I started my
semester at school, it got worse again. He formed a
(17:35):
group of friends and told me he'd introduce them. First,
wanted me to go to his apartment, and when I
insisted I wouldn't, he brought them to the store. I
stupidly thought they were nice people, but they sided with him,
saying that he was a really nice guy and I
should give him a chance. They told me he was
just melodramatic and liked playing out fantasies, but he wasn't
(17:59):
a bad guy. A few days later, Cam told me
he was worried about my safety with the darker evenings.
He said he'd have his friends posted outside the front
and back of the store to make sure I was safe,
and they did, and it was freaky as fuck. Growing
up in a household of abuse, I again didn't register
(18:21):
the danger of the situation. I was accustomed to bad
things happening to me, and I was still stuck in
a compliance submissive response mode. This behavioral pattern didn't make
me fight the setup. They started bringing more deliveries of
gifts to me from Cam, and the five of them
now loitered in the store with Cam during my shifts,
(18:43):
each of them buying one thing each hour to remain customers.
It was getting too scary. Six guys in the store,
me alone, A young female exits being blocked by them
as they insisted they were my bodyguards who would watch
the doors my nightly Habit became kicking them out, locking
(19:06):
the store, and finishing my work in the dark so
they couldn't see me inside, and then stay in the
building for two hours so they'd go away. It worked
for a week. Then one night I stepped out the
door and all of them were either leaning against the
wall by the exit door or leaning on my car,
smoking and drinking. CAM came and tried to hug me,
(19:30):
with his buddies whooping in the background, and the stank
of alcohol and weed. I honestly thought they were going
to grab me and force me to the apartment. I
made my car alarm go off, and it scared them
enough that I was able to jump in, locked the doors,
and floor it out of the parking lot. I didn't
(19:50):
give any notice. I just told the owner that I
was done, and I still didn't tell anyone about what
had happened. Cam kept trying to text me and told
me that I was denying our destiny and wasn't going
to give up on us. I stopped responding. Then I
blocked his number. Then he'd get new numbers and text again.
(20:14):
His texts got more threatening as I ignored him. I
started hearing cars drive by at odd hours of the night,
and he would text to let me know he was
still my dedicated protector and was making sure I was safe.
It was obvious one of his buddies was giving him
rides to snoop at my house. And then all of
(20:35):
a sudden, it all stopped radio silence. I was so
so relieved. Six months went by with nothing. Then a
random phone call from another unknown number. I was in
group chats with other students for projects and thought it
(20:55):
was one of them calling me, but it was Cam.
He told me he had violated his parole and was
in jail the last six months. He said he thought
of me every day. I was his daisy and he
was going to come for me. We would finally be together,
and he'd proved to me that we had an undeniable love.
(21:16):
He said I'd love his dick, and that he could
already feel me riding him and loving it, and he
thought about it every day. In jail. I went pale
as a ghost and was speechless. All I could think
was to fake a story about going abroad for studies.
In two weeks, he started screaming at me for running
(21:39):
away from our connection. He said he'd find me and
come after me no matter where I went. I just
hung up the phone trashed it and got a new
phone with a new number, deleted my Facebook, and finally
moved to a larger city about an hour away. I
had to upend my entire life because of this piece
(22:00):
of trash, and I was so inexperienced, in naive, and
made so many mistakes. I was just glad the worst
case scenario never played out, and it was a steep
learning curve that taught me how to protect myself in
the future. This wasn't the last of my weird encounters, though.
One guy at college who transferred to the larger university
(22:22):
from our local college, got a similar fixation on following
me on the bigger campus. He had a fetish for
being stalked, and you would find me at the school
union and talk about how hot it would be if
he found me going through his trash in the middle
of the night. Thankfully, it was a huge campus and
I got friends enlisted to watch out for him and
(22:44):
let me know where to avoid. But Fox's sake, there
are so many creeps out there, and sometimes it really
sucks being a woman. Hey, Gang, thanks for listening to
(23:12):
this episode. If you have a true scary story of
any nature that you'd like me to narrate. Send it
to Uncle Josh True Scary Stories at gmail dot com.
I read them all. And if you have any winter
holiday stories, Christmas, New Year's, that sort of thing, send
it my way as soon as you can. I will
be working on a special episode for that coming up.
(23:35):
If you're checking this out on YouTube and you like
what you heard and saw, why not give the video
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else about the channel. I'd appreciate it. It all helps
out with the algorithms. Follow me on social media, and
if you'd like to take your support of what I'm
doing a step further, find a link in the description
to my Patreon page, or purchase some Uncle Josh and
(23:56):
Campfire Crew merchandise. A link to my tea public storefront
is in that description as well. Everybody happy Thanksgiving, Be
excellent to each other, and until next time, be wary
of things that go bump in the night. It could
be anything a ghost, a monster, or the guy next door.
Hey, campfire crew, let's get it on.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Clearly, this is a place where the rules of your
world do not apply, and obviously I'm a man for home.
Pain is nothing more than a common currency.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Scary convenience store visit submitted by de quon R. I
still can't walk past a convenience store at night without
feeling that tight electric buzz in my spine, you know,
the one that warns you something terrible might be waiting
behind a glass door and humming fluorescent lights. This happened
(00:48):
three years ago on a night when nothing felt dangerous
at all. I just finished a late shift at my
job and stopped at a local market, a tiny, little
corner store that stayed open until midnight. It was the
kind of place where the clerk, Darius, knew everyone by name,
and the biggest excitement was when someone knocked over the
chip display. It was eleven forty two. I remember the
(01:13):
time exactly because I was checking my phone as I
walked in, just thinking about grabbing a soda and heading home.
What I walked to instead still follows me. The bell
above the door barely had time to jingle before somebody
slammed into the back of my shoulder. Really hard. I
(01:35):
stumbled and spun around and saw two guys shove through
the entrance behind me. Both were wearing black hoodies and
these cheap plastic Halloween masks. One guy was holding a
Duffel bag, but the other guy had a gun. And
it wasn't a small gun either. It was a long
barreled thirty eight and looked heavier than his hand. Knew
how to hold it. He pointed it straight at Darius,
(01:59):
shut it down. Register now. Darius froze. His face trained
so fast it looked like someone unplugged him. Honestly, I
wanted to run, I mean, any sane person would, but
the guys had stepped between me and the exit, and
the gunman tilted the muzzle toward me for a second.
(02:21):
You don't move, I didn't. Darius fumbled with the drawer.
I could tell his hands were trembling so badly because
I could hear the coins inside rattling. The second guy
hopped behind the counter and started shoving things into the
Duffel bag, smokes, scratch off tickets, anything, But then something shifted.
(02:45):
The gunman I could tell was getting jumpy. He kept
breathing through the mask like he was running out of air,
and he was waving the barrel of the gun around,
yelling at Darius for being too slow, and then yelling
at his buddy for not grabbing the good stuff. That's
when I started to think something terrifying. That this was
their first time to this rodeo. They seemed really reckless.
(03:10):
They seemed desperate, and I felt that they were about
to lose control, and if they panicked, somebody might die.
I felt my whole body go hot and cold all
at once. I'm not a fighter, I wasn't a soldier.
I wasn't a hero of any kind. But standing there
watching that gun drift closer to Darius's head, something in
(03:32):
me just clicked and I was resolved. I was not
going to let these guys shoot him. My phone was
still in my hand and my thumb was hovering over it.
I didn't need to dial, I just needed to record sound.
My smart watch had already triggered SOS mode the moment
I raised my wrist and squeezed it out of fear,
(03:53):
and the timer told me the call had gone through.
Police were listening. I just needed to say all somehow,
so I spoke and said the dumbest, most instinctive thing
I've ever said. Hey, man, you don't want to do this.
Both of the guys snapped towards me. The guy behind
(04:14):
the counter said something under his breath, and the guy
holding the gun took two sharp steps right at me
and raised the weapon to my head. What the fuck
did you just say? My heart wanted to crawl out
of my throat, but I kept talking. Darius later said
that my voice didn't sound like me. He said it
was steadier, lower. I don't know about that. I was
(04:37):
just saying what I said. I said, you don't need
to do this. You guys are nervous as hell, and
the longer you stay, the worse this is going to get.
Just grab what you have and go. The guy hesitated,
just for a minute, but it was enough to show
he didn't have any plan. He didn't know what to
do with someone who wasn't screaming or afraid. He took
(05:00):
another step closer, saying, shut up, Shut the fuck up, man,
and then I saw that his wrist was shaking again.
I was terrified that this gun could go off by
accident rather than him meaning to do it intentionally, and
I didn't plan to act again, I'm not a fighter.
My body just did its own thing. While the guy
(05:23):
with the gun stepped close enough that the barrel grazed
my jacket. I threw all my weight sideways and slammed
my shoulder into his chest. The gun did go off,
and holy fuck, was that loud. It tore a hole
in the ceiling tiles, and things kind of cascaded down
like snow. My ears were ringing so loud. I couldn't
(05:45):
hear his partner yelling, but he was. All I knew
was if the gun stayed in that guy's hand, Darius
and I were dead. We started kind of wrestling, both
grabbing at the weapon and my fingers wrapped around the barrel.
It was warm. The guy's mask slipped sideways, revealing very
(06:05):
terrified eyes. And this guy wasn't thinking, and he wasn't aiming.
He was just squeezing the trigger over and over. And
I don't know if this is divine intervention or what,
but each click was a misfire. I shouted at Darius,
and I don't remember what I said, but he said
I kept yelling run run. He dove behind the stock
room door and slammed it shut, and the partner who
(06:27):
had been behind the counter, ran towards us. I thought,
for a second, fuck two on one, I'm dead, but
instead the guy panicked and just ran for the exit.
The guy holding the gun finally lost his grip. I
knocked the gun out of his hand and it clattered
behind a snack display. He looked down at it like
(06:49):
he was going to go after it, but suddenly he
decided to run for the exits too, and that's when
red and blue lights lit up the windows like fireworks.
He froze and for a heartbeat, everything went silent. His
mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear anything, and then
(07:09):
just the distant thunder of approaching sirens, he turned around
and ran for the back exit. I didn't chase him.
I could barely stand upright. The police were inside within seconds,
and they found the second robber trying to scale a
chain link fence between the two buildings. The guy with
(07:29):
the gun. He made it three blocks before officers tackled
and behind a laundry mat. When they handcuffed him, he
kept shouting that that asshole ruined everything, and yeah, I
guess I did. I gave my statement, still shaking. My
shirt was ripped, my hands were scraped raw, and one
(07:51):
of the officers kept a hand on my shoulder the
whole time, because apparently I looked like I was going
to fall over. Darius came out once the store was cleared,
and he got me in a bear hug, full arms,
full weight, like someone who had just gotten their life back. Dude,
he whispered, voice cracking, you saved my ass. I didn't
(08:13):
feel like a hero. I felt like a guy who
made a split second decision because I couldn't watch someone
else get killed. And again, I had that feeling that
it wasn't me, something else other than my brain was
making those decisions. Every time I replay the moment that
gun went off, I get that same chill, the one
(08:33):
that reminds me how close everything came to ending right
there on that sticky convenience store floor, and how sometimes,
for reasons we don't understand until later, sometimes we end
up being the person who stands between chaos and the
people who just didn't deserve to die. On any given night,
(08:58):
my stalker was convinced he was Gatsby and I was
his Daisy By just a scrolling I, a thirty year
old female, had one of the most terrifying stalking experiences.
Twelve years ago, I was eighteen and the Great Gatsby
movie with Leonardo DiCaprio had been released. Being really young, inexperienced,
(09:21):
and very naive about how to remain safe with unwanted attention,
I made every mistake in the book with a guy,
a twenty three year old at the time that started
stalking me. I had just graduated high school and took
a job at a health food store in my downtown area.
It was my first customer service job. The owner was
(09:43):
a big hippie, easy to work with and flexible with
the hours. At first, I worked at different shifts, eventually
taking the afternoon to close hours. Due to how small
the store was, I was alone without other coworkers. Only
our owners sporadically dropped by a grab items off the
shelf for her personal use, and then left after thirty
(10:04):
minutes or so. As a side note, our store was
situated next to the building that had subsidized housing for
those recently released from incarceration or low income. The evening
and nighttime hours were risky for young women to be
without a male escort. Every restaurant in the downtown had
staff that escorted girls to their cars, as it was
(10:25):
common to be followed with assaults happening after dark. I
was on edge during close, but felt some reassurance as
I had parking immediately outside our back exit, just a
few feet from the door. But I was in the store,
closing out the register, cleaning and locking up every night alone.
The front of the store was where the cash register
(10:47):
was set up, but my back was to the large
window that was right next to the sidewalk. The register
faced the inside of the store, and it wasn't uncommon
for me to feel people watching me and catch creepy
guys looking at me through the window right behind where
I was standing. Again, young and inexperienced, I didn't voice
my fears or report the randos that would be a
(11:10):
foot away watching me, only separated by that glass window.
I picked up a shift during the summer farmer's market
in the morning. It was a great day. I was
so happy to work in the morning and have a
higher flow of customers. One guy I'll call Cam came
into the store with a brochure for a local event
(11:31):
at a spiritual center in the downtown area. I was cordial,
smiling and got permission for us to post it at
our register. He was obviously high, nothing crazy, and looked chill.
You could tell he was in his own reality. I
only talked to him for five minutes, and I didn't
think much of the encounter and moved on with my day.
(11:54):
The next shift, Cam came into the store. He struck
up conversation with trying to keep my attention again, working
in the afternoon, when we maybe had two or three
people come in before close, he just hung out right
at the register. I was trying to give hints that
I needed to focus on work, but he would just
follow me around the store while commenting on how gorgeous
(12:17):
my legs were, and he thought that I had been
an angel. The last time he saw me, he kept
telling me that he had had a spiritual awakening because
I had shown him interest in how nice I was,
insisting I was flirting and that the sun behind my
head made my hair glow like a halo. Again, young
and not experienced with guys, I was equally creeped out,
(12:40):
but also a little flattered because I'd never had that
kind of attention before. I thanked him for the compliments
and didn't call out that they were inappropriate, just made
the same excuse that I needed to focus, and I
walked away. Per usual, he just shadowed me everywhere I went,
watching me, but now not really talking anymore. I was
(13:03):
getting really freaked out. I let him know that he
was loitering and needed to leave unless he was there
to shop. Given how pricey the items were, I figured
it would deter him. He ended up using his food
stamps to buy one soda or a piece of candy
every hour, maybe three dours spent every hour. He just
made the excuse then that he was a customer. I
(13:27):
went to the bathroom to at least get some privacy.
My boss had seen him hanging out in the store
before but never commented. I called her and told her
that I was getting scared by this guy and let
her know he was making an excuse to stay by
buying one cheap item and insisting he was a customer
through the whole of my shift. I really thought she'd
(13:48):
give me support come to the store. She was a
self proclaimed feminist that espoused consent and boundaries, so I
got major whiplash when she defended his presence. She told
me the store or was in the red and on
the brink of needing to close because he was spending
any money, I shouldn't try to push him out of
the store, she said. I tried, arguing that he wasn't
(14:11):
generating significant income, but she just doubled down that money
was money, and then insisted I was overthinking it and
Cam was just a kind soul that had found a
similar soul bond with me that created positive energy in
the store. Just what the fuck? So there was a
roadblock there. All I could do was carry on. The
(14:36):
idea of quitting didn't even cross my mind. Being my
first job, I was worried it would look bad if
I left after only a couple of months. It was
really hard to find local positions that were flexible with
school hours, and I would be starting my first semester
at the local college. Soon things slowly escalated. Cam started
(14:56):
bringing me flowers every day. He'd leave long notes infessing
his love and insisting we were soulmates. Then he'd randomly
play the Great Gatsby soundtrack. He would go on and
on telling me that he was Gatsby and I was
his Daisy. We were destined to be together, and that
my denial of our bond was just like Gatsby's attempts
(15:17):
to get Daisy. We were quote living out the movie unquote,
but our ending would be the coming together of souls
wrapped in passion. He had this crazy look in his
eyes every time he brought it up. Then he started
just calling me Daisy. Anytime another customer would come in,
(15:40):
he would get angry and jealous that I quickly ignored
him and walked away. He started calling himself my bodyguard
and told me it was his duty to beat up
anyone that looked at me wrong or made a pass
at me that would be a threat to our love. Again,
I want to emphasize I was so stupid for not
quitting this joke or telling anyone about this. It's an
(16:03):
understatement that I was a complete dumbfuck for not making
police reports and documenting things, creating boundaries and leaving my job,
or telling my friends parents are co workers. For a
few weeks he didn't show up. I thought there would
finally be a break ord that he'd lost interest. Then
he showed back up, told me he'd been hospitalized. Great,
(16:27):
the same routine started all over again. Then one day
I got a text from an unknown number. It was Cam.
Not only did he get my number from a coworker
who he lied to saying he had a new phone
and lost my number, but he did a reverse search
and found my address. He didn't have transportation, and I
(16:50):
was on the other side of town. We didn't have
a bus system, and it was too far to walk.
And as far as I know, he never came to
my house. But I'm sure he did, and I just
wasn't aware. But now I'm sure he did. And at
the time I just wasn't aware. I didn't block his number. Again.
I was so dumb, but honestly, I was scared too,
(17:14):
because he knew where I lived and was so entrenched
in this idea we were bound to each other. I
thought things would escalate more I either ignored his texts
or made dumb excuses for not responding. I would be kurt,
but he wouldn't take the hint. When I started my
semester at school, it got worse again. He formed a
(17:35):
group of friends and told me he'd introduce them. First,
wanted me to go to his apartment, and when I
insisted I wouldn't, he brought them to the store. I
stupidly thought they were nice people, but they sided with him,
saying that he was a really nice guy and I
should give him a chance. They told me he was
just melodramatic and liked playing out fantasies, but he wasn't
(17:59):
a bad guy. A few days later, Cam told me
he was worried about my safety with the darker evenings.
He said he'd have his friends posted outside the front
and back of the store to make sure I was safe,
and they did, and it was freaky as fuck. Growing
up in a household of abuse, I again didn't register
(18:21):
the danger of the situation. I was accustomed to bad
things happening to me, and I was still stuck in
a compliance submissive response mode. This behavioral pattern didn't make
me fight the setup. They started bringing more deliveries of
gifts to me from Cam, and the five of them
now loitered in the store with Cam during my shifts,
(18:43):
each of them buying one thing each hour to remain customers.
It was getting too scary. Six guys in the store,
me alone, A young female exits being blocked by them
as they insisted they were my bodyguards who would watch
the doors my nightly Habit became kicking them out, locking
(19:06):
the store, and finishing my work in the dark so
they couldn't see me inside, and then stay in the
building for two hours so they'd go away. It worked
for a week. Then one night I stepped out the
door and all of them were either leaning against the
wall by the exit door or leaning on my car,
smoking and drinking. CAM came and tried to hug me,
(19:30):
with his buddies whooping in the background, and the stank
of alcohol and weed. I honestly thought they were going
to grab me and force me to the apartment. I
made my car alarm go off, and it scared them
enough that I was able to jump in, locked the doors,
and floor it out of the parking lot. I didn't
(19:50):
give any notice. I just told the owner that I
was done, and I still didn't tell anyone about what
had happened. Cam kept trying to text me and told
me that I was denying our destiny and wasn't going
to give up on us. I stopped responding. Then I
blocked his number. Then he'd get new numbers and text again.
(20:14):
His texts got more threatening as I ignored him. I
started hearing cars drive by at odd hours of the night,
and he would text to let me know he was
still my dedicated protector and was making sure I was safe.
It was obvious one of his buddies was giving him
rides to snoop at my house. And then all of
(20:35):
a sudden, it all stopped radio silence. I was so
so relieved. Six months went by with nothing. Then a
random phone call from another unknown number. I was in
group chats with other students for projects and thought it
(20:55):
was one of them calling me, but it was Cam.
He told me he had violated his parole and was
in jail the last six months. He said he thought
of me every day. I was his daisy and he
was going to come for me. We would finally be together,
and he'd proved to me that we had an undeniable love.
(21:16):
He said I'd love his dick, and that he could
already feel me riding him and loving it, and he
thought about it every day. In jail. I went pale
as a ghost and was speechless. All I could think
was to fake a story about going abroad for studies.
In two weeks, he started screaming at me for running
(21:39):
away from our connection. He said he'd find me and
come after me no matter where I went. I just
hung up the phone trashed it and got a new
phone with a new number, deleted my Facebook, and finally
moved to a larger city about an hour away. I
had to upend my entire life because of this piece
(22:00):
of trash, and I was so inexperienced, in naive, and
made so many mistakes. I was just glad the worst
case scenario never played out, and it was a steep
learning curve that taught me how to protect myself in
the future. This wasn't the last of my weird encounters, though.
One guy at college who transferred to the larger university
(22:22):
from our local college, got a similar fixation on following
me on the bigger campus. He had a fetish for
being stalked, and you would find me at the school
union and talk about how hot it would be if
he found me going through his trash in the middle
of the night. Thankfully, it was a huge campus and
I got friends enlisted to watch out for him and
(22:44):
let me know where to avoid. But Fox's sake, there
are so many creeps out there, and sometimes it really
sucks being a woman. Hey, Gang, thanks for listening to
(23:12):
this episode. If you have a true scary story of
any nature that you'd like me to narrate. Send it
to Uncle Josh True Scary Stories at gmail dot com.
I read them all. And if you have any winter
holiday stories, Christmas, New Year's, that sort of thing, send
it my way as soon as you can. I will
be working on a special episode for that coming up.
(23:35):
If you're checking this out on YouTube and you like
what you heard and saw, why not give the video
a thumbs up, maybe become a subscriber, maybe tell somebody
else about the channel. I'd appreciate it. It all helps
out with the algorithms. Follow me on social media, and
if you'd like to take your support of what I'm
doing a step further, find a link in the description
to my Patreon page, or purchase some Uncle Josh and
(23:56):
Campfire Crew merchandise. A link to my tea public storefront
is in that description as well. Everybody happy Thanksgiving, Be
excellent to each other, and until next time, be wary
of things that go bump in the night. It could
be anything a ghost, a monster, or the guy next door.
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