10x06: Apartment 13 - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. My name is Andrew Tate and this is Season 10, Episode 6 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast.

[00:00:50] About 12 years ago, when I was 9 years old, I was home alone with my 12 year old brother. We were supposed to go to my aunt's house to have lunch and wait for my mother.

[00:01:01] This was something that we always did because we were too young to stay home alone according to my mom. We got up at 10.30 in the morning and took showers. After that, we were both in the bathroom brushing our teeth and finishing getting ready.

[00:01:15] We then heard somebody knocking on our door. Because every time someone knocked at our door, they turned out to be a salesman or Jehovah's Witness, we kind of waited for them to go away.

[00:01:28] After a couple of minutes, I went to see if they were still outside through the window and I was happy to see that nobody was there. What a relief. We continued getting ready when we saw a shadow go by through the bathroom window.

[00:01:43] It was a small square window with that frosted glass that made everything behind it really blurry. We waited and kept watching just in case it was a bird flying by. Then a hand hit the window, clear as day.

[00:02:01] My brother and I were scared, we didn't know what to do. My brother had his cell phone so he immediately called the police. While he was waiting for the police to pick up, we heard a loud bang at the door.

[00:02:15] Someone was trying to open the door with brute force. I don't know if they were kicking it or ramming it, but it was one of the most frightening noises I have ever heard. My brother told me to lock the bathroom door so I did.

[00:02:31] It took five bangs for the perpetrator to finally bash the front door open. Then the police answered our call. I remember the exact thing that my brother said. He was whispering, his voice could barely be heard. Hello? There's someone in our house.

[00:02:51] I think they are stealing, my brother explained. I heard a pause since the dispatcher was replying. Our house is located and he gave our address. I'm with my little brother locked in our bathroom, please hurry. While this was happening, I sat against the wall, hugging my knees.

[00:03:12] It was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences ever. I could hear the person going through all of our stuff. They were emptying drawers, opening cabinets, going up and down the stairs. They even broke a few cups and plates in the process.

[00:03:29] Then I heard the sound that my cell phone makes when it's powering off. That's when I remembered leaving it on the kitchen table. I felt so stupid for leaving it there. Things continued for a couple of minutes,

[00:03:41] then we heard him trying to open the door to the bathroom. My brother got a hold of this big metal rod that we had in there. The intruder started kicking the door. Who's there? The man screamed. We said nothing. There was another kick and then another.

[00:04:01] I felt like I was about to have an anxiety attack. My chest started to ache. I had chills. I felt really hot. I tried to remain calm, but it was all just too much. After that he stopped and we heard the front door open, then silence.

[00:04:19] We waited for almost ten minutes before coming out of the bathroom. The living room was a total mess. Papers and books were strewn all over the floor. The cabinets were open. Cups and plates were on the floor. In our mother's bedroom, the nightstand and

[00:04:33] closet were open and everything inside of them was thrown all over the place. Upstairs in our room, it was the same thing. In only five minutes, the man was able to go through everything, leaving a total mess. After that, my brother called our mom.

[00:04:51] She ordered us to go to my aunt's house as soon as possible, so we did. When we got there, I was a little more relaxed. My aunt was waiting for us with ice cream, probably because my mom told her everything and she wanted to calm us down.

[00:05:06] We went back home at about five in the evening. My mom told her boss she had an emergency at home and she left early. She tidied up the house, cleaned everything up, and

[00:05:15] put everything back the way it was so that we could be relaxed when we came home. I really appreciate her effort and my aunt's effort to calm us down and do everything so that we didn't have to think about it.

[00:05:28] According to my mom, the police got to our house after she arrived home from work at about two in the afternoon, four hours after the incident. She explained everything. Because of a lack of evidence, nothing could be done. The man was never caught and honestly,

[00:05:46] I don't think they even tried to search for him. My mom took the next few days off and stayed home with us. Now, I tell this story as a funny anecdote, but at the time this happened, I was really scared.

[00:06:00] Luckily, nobody was hurt and the intruder mostly only took useless stuff. To a nine-year-old, an experience like that can have serious repercussions. I'm lucky it never came to that, and I got over it after a couple of weeks. So to preface this story,

[00:06:28] it happened to me a few years ago when I was 22 and in college. I'm 25 now. I'm a female, 5'3", about 150 pounds. I know I have what some people call resting bitch face, but I'm generally nice to strangers.

[00:06:44] From where I lived in my college town, I wasn't far from the campus, but also not far from a Dollar General store where I could go for my usual daily needs. I loved going in there and

[00:06:57] was in there frequently enough to be a familiar face to the staff that worked there. The shopping plaza that the Dollar General store is located in looks a bit sketchy, but it's actually a fine plaza that's well populated and

[00:07:11] even has a small movie theater and a Planet Fitness in it. I was walking into the Dollar General and there was a guy walking in front of me, holding the door open as I was right behind him.

[00:07:23] I gave him a small grin, kind of put my head down and said thanks. Now, I'm also the type of shopper who goes in just to grab a few things and never gets a cart or basket, only to end up with an armful of crap,

[00:07:38] barely able to hold on to everything. So I was walking up and down the aisles and passing people, including the guy who held the door for me. I was looking around and grabbing things that I needed. I occasionally went down the same aisle a few times.

[00:07:53] I made it back to this one aisle and the guy who held the door for me did this sidestep in front of me, which stopped me mid-stride. Now, he's around six feet tall. I'm not sure of his exact height though.

[00:08:08] He was tall, but most people are taller than me. As I mentioned before, I'm 5'3". He was skinny and appeared to be in his 30s. He started with a casual high, like we knew each other.

[00:08:20] I knew I had to have had a shocked look on my face as he practically body checked me to stop me. I don't usually have a good poker face to hide my emotions. I was sure he had intentions of just hitting on me, but

[00:08:35] I was very uncomfortable and honestly a bit nervous. He asked me my age and told me that he was in his 20s, which I didn't believe. He asked me if I went to bars and watched shows, as in local bands and such.

[00:08:50] We made more small talk as I stood there with a crap load of stuff in my arms and just wanted to check out already. Then he asked for my number, to which I told him I don't give it out to strangers while trying to walk away.

[00:09:03] Then he insisted on getting in contact somehow. I just wanted away from him, so I said that he could have my Snapchat. Eager, he leaned in to give me his name. I was just shaking with nerves and adrenaline at this point because I was alone.

[00:09:18] I was paranoid about men in general, honestly. I couldn't seem to find his name on Snapchat. We kept trying, and I was about to say, well, when he said, hold on. Let me run to my car, I'll get my phone.

[00:09:33] I thought that this was the best time to check out or hide in the store from him. But before he left to go to his car, he said, here, hold these. He proceeded to throw his crap from his shopping cart into my arms,

[00:09:47] which were already full of stuff. I stood there debating on dropping the stuff and walking away, but I was scared that he would see me in the parking lot and ask why I left, which would lead to me encountering an even bigger issue.

[00:10:02] He came back, and I got his snap. He then walked away, and I immediately darted to the back corner of the store to shop more, aka hide until he leaves. Once the coast was clear, I checked out, got to my car, and

[00:10:17] I raced home while looking in the mirrors and over my shoulders to make sure that nobody was following me. I only lived a few streets away from the Dollar General, so I was able to make it home fast.

[00:10:27] But I didn't want this guy to know where I lived. Once I got to my apartment complex, I raced to my building, and then straight into my apartment. Then I locked the door behind me, which only had a push lock like a bathroom door. Safe, right?

[00:10:42] Well, I immediately blocked him on Snapchat, and I found he already requested to follow me on Facebook, which I blocked as well. I stopped going to that place for a while, which annoyed me more than anything because I liked that store and the employees.

[00:10:57] Someone should never make another person feel that way about their favorite places, especially not a man to a woman. Maybe he just wanted to meet a girl that he thought was his type or something, but almost body checking someone and blocking them in the aisle and

[00:11:12] startling them to get them to stop and talk to you isn't the way to go. To the weird guy who needs to work on his strategies when approaching women, let's not meet again. I should start by saying that I'm a 31 year old female and I live in Brazil.

[00:11:41] At the time that this happened, I was only 13. It happened when Brazil was the Penta Champion of the World Cup for football. I'm not into football, but most Brazilians are. I'm a very privileged person and I have been aware of that since I was a small kid.

[00:12:00] My parents worked their butts off to give me and my brother the best education possible, since they couldn't have that. I used to live in a small rural town, but we moved to an island that is a popular

[00:12:11] holiday destination for most people in the southern part of the country. Along with living on this island, I also had the privilege of living in a very good part of the city, in the downtown area, but that does not mean that it wasn't dangerous.

[00:12:29] Along the island, there are a lot of mountains that have favelas around them. That happened due to a bad distribution of income and housing deficit developed because I live in an administratively poor country. So on the day of the celebration of the winning of the football Penta Championship

[00:12:48] thing, my friend that lived in the same building as me was not feeling well. We had been friends for many years and she asked me to go walk with her. I agreed and we went on a seaside walk, since we have a huge seaside trail with cops patrolling.

[00:13:06] Also, the streets were filled with people. I didn't mind it at all. It was seven in the evening and at this hour, people often walked around for exercise. My friend and I were just talking about normal things that happened during our daily lives, nothing too important.

[00:13:25] I had a new phone at the time. It was one of those Nokia brick phones, but I'm not sure how many people actually recall those cell phones. At one point, our path became very narrow and to the left,

[00:13:36] we were surrounded by rocks that led directly to the sea. To our right, there were eight lanes of traffic. In front of us, there was a group of about 30 people all dressed up in Brazil shirts. In our thoughts, we assumed that they were celebrating the World Cup victory.

[00:13:53] My friend and I, we saw a few teenagers among the adults in this group. They were men and women from the favelas. We thought that these people were awesome since the favelas were really well respected in our area. I, being a 13 year old,

[00:14:09] didn't mind them at all since they all looked very cool to me. I just wanna point out that we were all aware that people in this area were from favelas because they have very specific ways of dressing and wearing jewelry. They also have specific ways of talking.

[00:14:25] I smiled at them, then a girl passed by me and said, grab these ones. Then a small girl came close to me and pushed me. Instinctively, I pushed her back. Dear God, that was such a dumb move. Two huge girls came along.

[00:14:45] I should add that I'm 5'8", so I'm not a small person. Each one of these huge girls grabbed one of my arms and threw me to the ground. The ground was rocks mixed with cement. They dragged me across this cement.

[00:15:00] The rocks scraped against my back until I was raw. Then they held me by my hair and hit my head on the ground. I protected my face with my hands, but they were smashing me so hard. My hand bones burst to the ground. They hit me several times.

[00:15:19] My hands couldn't take any more hits. The skin covering my knuckles was now non-existent. My eyebrows even split open from their hits despite my attempts to protect them. It hurt so much. I screamed as loud as I possibly could.

[00:15:36] My eyes were swollen shut at this point from getting hit so much. I was getting dizzy, but I managed to open my eyes slightly and I saw a foot close to my face. Then I heard somebody call out. Don't do this to her, please.

[00:15:51] I got up quickly and ran to my friend who was getting punched in the face as well. I was able to grab her arm and pulled her close to me. One of the large girls pulled the back pocket of my jeans and

[00:16:04] tore my jeans from the pocket down to my knee. I have no idea where this came from, but somehow I managed to scream. You fucking asshole. Then my friend and I ran across the eight lanes of traffic until we got to Blockbuster. Yes, those existed at the time.

[00:16:25] We stayed at the Blockbuster for approximately 40 minutes. We felt so violated. They didn't rob us, they just assaulted us for absolutely no reason. The guy working at Blockbuster gave us water and closed the shop up for us so that we would feel safe.

[00:16:41] He offered to call the cops, but we were so scared that we didn't even want to. The cops actually don't do much in our country anyways. I never in my life wished for somebody to experience anything like this. Other people were walking by like nothing was happening.

[00:16:59] No one did anything besides the person that yelled out. I don't even know who did that to this day. After that, my friend and I ran home with our adrenaline rush still going. Once we got onto the elevator in our building, we cried.

[00:17:16] I obviously told my parents what had happened since I was now a huge blob of blood. They never let me go for a walk on the seaside trail alone again. Not that they needed to do that because I never went there at night ever again.

[00:17:33] I started to have panic attacks and developed social anxiety after this. And since then, I've moved far away. Now I'm in the States. To those assholes that assaulted me and my friend when we were 13 years old, please, let's not meet again.

[00:17:49] Because if we somehow do, I'm gonna kick your motherfucking ass. Quick back story, I've had a stalker for about four years. He was never aggressive or sent me any proper threats. So stubborn as I am, I did my best to just ignore him and

[00:18:17] not give him the satisfaction of showing him any fear. To be honest, after a while, I wasn't even scared anymore since he almost never came close to me. I know being stalked can affect people severely in a case like mine, and that's totally valid.

[00:18:36] But I guess I just got lucky and was never really psychologically affected by it. His stalking behavior mostly consisted of sending me letters and quote unquote gifts, such as photos of my apartment building from the outside, things he dug out of my trash can, and so on.

[00:18:55] I called the police many times, but they weren't able to catch or identify him, not that they really tried. Recently, I discovered a German ask me anything forum and thought that people might want to know what it's like to have a stalker.

[00:19:09] Since I barely use any social media aside from Reddit, I have no personally identifying information about my stalker. I didn't think he'd ever see it. One person even asked, does he know that you're putting him on blast? And I answered, maybe, I don't know, don't care.

[00:19:29] Well, I know the real answer now. He saw it and he did not like it. As I said before, he was never aggressive and never came close to me. The closest I knew of was when he sent me a picture of myself unlocking my

[00:19:44] apartment door taken from around the corner. I consider myself a pretty vigilant person. And I think that he may have hidden a camera there instead of actually being there to take the photo himself. I would have noticed him if he was there.

[00:20:01] I don't know how he got wind of the ask me anything forum that I was on, but he did. The next week was quiet, no letters, and I didn't see him anywhere. Then he left me letters with printouts of questions and my answers from the ask me anything.

[00:20:20] He also wrote a long hateful letter towards my boyfriend about an issue I had posted on the German version of Am I the Asshole? His letters were never hateful like that before, though he never seemed happy with my boyfriend.

[00:20:36] He wrote about how I should share the spotlight since I got so much attention. A few days later, I received another gift, but this time, he didn't leave it in my mailbox or at my car as he usually did.

[00:20:51] No, this time he left it inside the apartment building right in front of my door. I didn't take it inside my apartment, but I opened it outside. It was a pretty big box, which was also unusual. It was taped shut.

[00:21:08] I realize now that opening it was not a good idea at all and could have ended very badly for me, but luckily, he didn't send a bomb or anything like that. He did, however, send me several zip ties, a roll of tape,

[00:21:24] the kind that you would use to tape off walls when painting, a TV remote with most of the buttons picked off, a pack of band-aids with a few used ones, not actually used, just made to appear that way according to the police, and a framed picture of me.

[00:21:45] I could tell that the picture was taken a few days ago, and my boyfriend was right next to me, but the stalker cut him out of the photo. The frame was shattered, and the package was full of glass shards.

[00:21:59] There were clearly more glass shards than had fallen out of the frame. The shards were intentionally put inside crumbled newspaper that was stuffed in a box to keep everything in place. I called the police right away and gave them the box. They seemed more concerned this time.

[00:22:17] Finally, they told me that they would send patrol cars to my neighborhood more frequently. He didn't show up or leave me any letters or gifts for a while, but five months ago it started again.

[00:22:31] I found letters in my mailbox where he wrote about how he wasted his time on me, how I haven't been appreciating of his efforts, and how he was wrong about me being special. Then a month after that, I left my apartment in the morning and

[00:22:49] heard a crunching sound as I stepped on my doormat. He had put broken glass under it the night before. I went off to work because I was in a hurry and I was just going to make my boyfriend call the police.

[00:23:02] But then I found that my car had been vandalized. The sides were scratched, the lights were smashed, and the windshield had a phrase painted on it. It's almost time. And then they added my name. I went back inside and called the cops myself.

[00:23:22] They found the same phrase on a note under the doormat. This time they really, really took me seriously, which might have been because I was just pissed off at this point, which I made very clear. If for some reason you're like me and

[00:23:39] just too stubborn to be afraid of a stalker like mine, then all of this, the letters, the gifts, photos, even the damn glass under the doormat, are just really annoying and inconvenient. But my car was useless to me now, and the threat actually scared me.

[00:23:58] I did, however, have a dash cam in my car, and it caught everything. The police took the footage as evidence, even though the dash cam footage wasn't of high quality. I had also given them photos of him, but they said that it wasn't enough.

[00:24:15] They told me that they would look further into it and promised to send more patrol cars again. Then it was quiet for a couple of days. After those few quiet days, somebody rang the doorbell after just 4 AM. My boyfriend and I got up, but we're both hesitant.

[00:24:34] I saw blue lights outside, and just as I got up, I heard shouting. This is the police, please open the door. They told us that they were called by one of our downstairs neighbors who came home from his night shift about an hour earlier.

[00:24:50] My neighbor heard somebody else in the building after them before they shut the door. My neighbors are aware of my situation, and I've asked them to make sure that they do not let strangers in the building. This neighbor went into his own apartment and looked through the peephole.

[00:25:09] We have motion activated lights in the stairways of our building, so he waited to see if they would turn back on, and they did. Then he saw a middle-aged man walk upstairs. Above this neighbor are only me and my boyfriend and a single mom with three kids

[00:25:26] who probably won't be getting any visitors at 3 AM, so he called the police. They came and they found my stalker one half floor above me on the stairs. He should have been able to see the cop cars from there since there was a little window up there.

[00:25:44] They had their lights on on the patrol cars, but he either missed them or possibly wanted to be caught. They found a pocket knife on him and he confessed to being my stalker right away. He's finally caught, they got him.

[00:26:00] It took four years, one provocative online post, and one very vigilant and caring neighbor, but he's finally gone. For now, at least. He's facing several charges, and I've connected every single piece of evidence over the past four years.

[00:26:16] I don't know what kind of outcome I can expect, but for now, I finally got some peace. A few years back, I had this really creepy experience with an older co-worker of mine that still kind of shakes me to this day.

[00:26:43] It happened at this place that I had been working at for a couple of years. The place was a small factory of sorts, with only less than a handful of employees including myself. One day, my boss introduced my co-workers and me to this new older guy

[00:27:00] that he had brought on to start working on the other newer side of the factory. You see, the factory where we worked had two different sides, one's the old factory and the other's the new factory. One side is for beeswax, and the other side is for wood production.

[00:27:16] My boss had brought this older guy on because they went to church together, and the wood production occurring on the other side had a religious significance. Our new older co-worker worked there with us for about one month before he approached me and introduced himself.

[00:27:33] He seemed like a nice guy and even came over to give me a Hershey kiss not long after. A couple of months later, I was asked by our boss if I could go pick up my new older co-worker because his car was broken down or something like that.

[00:27:50] I agreed to it. So my boss asked if it was okay to give my co-worker my number so that we could coordinate via text. Now I said that this was fine and went on my way. I brought my co-worker to the factory and there were no problems.

[00:28:06] Soon after that, I started to get random and sporadic texts from him late at night. At first, the text just suggested that we hang out. He would simultaneously apologize to me because he knew that he was much older than I was.

[00:28:23] But then the text started to get pretty pervy, and some correspondence would be as long as a mini book. The texts were just long, misspelled, random, and pervy complications. I tried to just ignore these texts, but that only made them start coming in more frequently.

[00:28:45] In the midst of all this, one day, my roommates were scrounging for a ride to a casino that was only a few miles from our house. I gave them a few dollars for a ride and they said that they'd find their own way back.

[00:28:59] So imagine my surprise when they returned only a couple of hours later with their own ride, all right. Their ride was my creepy co-worker. Not only was I creeped the hell out that this pervy jerk now knew where I lived,

[00:29:16] but I also didn't know how he came to give my roommates that ride. Seriously, how? Was it just sheer coincidence or something more? A few days after that, I went to visit a friend at his apartment which was located

[00:29:32] on the main street running through the small historic downtown area of our town. When I came downstairs from his apartment as he was located on the second floor, I made the usual turn, walking on the sidewalk in front of all the main street shops.

[00:29:49] As I walked past one of the shops that were maybe two doors down from my friend's apartment, I thought that I saw something out of the corner of my eye. But it couldn't be who I thought it was, right? To my dismay, it was. It was him.

[00:30:08] My creepy ass older co-worker was standing in the doorway of one of the shops and smiling creepily at me under his black top hat. A couple of weeks after that incident, I noticed him again as I left the same friend's apartment.

[00:30:23] He was just standing on the sidewalk with that same creepy grin plastered on his gaunt face. Since I had already informed my friend after the last incident, I simply texted him quickly to let him know that the creep was back.

[00:30:38] I got into my car and left after sending the text, so I didn't find out until later that the creepy co-worker was gone by the time my friend got downstairs and onto the sidewalk. At that point, the texts were still coming even more frequently than before.

[00:30:55] He was even threatening to come by my house if I didn't respond. He sent long provocative texts dictating what he'd like to have happen between us. When I would see him during the day at work, he would act as if everything

[00:31:11] was normal, giving no hint of his sketchy nighttime persona. After seeing him yet again as I left my friend's apartment, I happened to overhear a couple of co-workers of mine standing around discussing how odd our new older co-worker was.

[00:31:28] Right then, I stepped in and joined the convo, finally showing one of the other co-workers the texts that this creep had been sending me. I had been working with that particular co-worker for a few years now, but I didn't know him too well.

[00:31:47] He was one of those people who came off as kind of grumpy and distant. Still, I told him and my other co-worker not to say anything. They both nodded in agreement, and we went our separate ways to finish up for the day.

[00:32:02] When I came to work the next day, my boss immediately called me into his office. My boss told me that he had been informed of the situation and the texts, and he wanted to see my phone to read the messages.

[00:32:15] I told my boss that I didn't really want to get anyone in trouble, but he said that that was beside the point and that my situation needed to be addressed. My boss also stated that my older co-worker had no right or

[00:32:29] reason to be texting me and talking to me in that way. My boss must have had a pretty good talk with him, because all of the messages and appearances stopped from that older co-worker after that.

[00:32:42] The grumpy co-worker of mine apologized to me for saying something to our boss, but I completely understood why he did and was actually pretty grateful for him. I should have been the one to take the initiative to talk to our boss about it,

[00:32:57] but I guess I was just too chicken. Fortunately though, that situation seemed to work out for all that were involved, because life went on as usual and everyone involved acted as though nothing had ever happened. Well, I can't really say that because that situation actually caused the grumpy

[00:33:17] co-worker and me to interact more and we actually started dating. We were together for about three years, and then we got married. So to the creepy old co-worker, let's not ever meet again, or I think my husband will certainly have something to say about it.

[00:33:34] I've been listening to the podcast for years now. It's been my work companion and driving companion for a while. I used to think about how much I appreciated all these stories, but I thought that I would never have anything to share or add to its content.

[00:34:01] Well, that's changed. This happened a couple of weeks back. For the record, I'm currently living in the Canary Islands. For those of you that don't know, the Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, very close to the African continent.

[00:34:17] As it is the only European destination with beaches and warm temperatures year round. My fiance and I chose to rent the apartment that we were in, specifically because it was quite central. We have the beach nearby, the surfing area, the restaurants, the clubs,

[00:34:34] the supermarkets, it was convenient, we thought. A few weeks ago on a Thursday night, we were asleep. I got this uneasy feeling that I was being stared at. This happens to me sometimes when my fiance looks at me when I'm asleep or

[00:34:52] when he gets in bed later than me. We actually joked about it previously, since it seems like I'm always supervising everything, even in my sleep. I opened my eyes expecting to see him standing, coming back from the bathroom or

[00:35:07] having insomnia, but to my surprise, I saw him sleeping next to me. But the feeling was very strong, so I stared into the dark towards the door of the bedroom. And in my disbelief, I could guess a man's silhouette, standing there in the silence.

[00:35:27] I can't even explain where I got the courage, but I shouted my fiance's name. I said, there's a man in the house. I was also giving my fiance a couple of kicks to make him realize the urgency of the situation.

[00:35:46] This was literally my nightmare, waking up in the dark and having some strange creepy intruder. I was shaking. My fiance stood up immediately, although he is the kind that usually needs about ten minutes to land back on Earth after being asleep.

[00:36:03] He stood in the doorway of the bedroom right in front of this man, blocking him from getting inside. My fiance asked the intruder what he was doing in our apartment, like there could be any rational answer in that situation.

[00:36:16] The guy who was surprised started mumbling something in broken English that he lives in apartment 13. He said that he works in construction and he can fix some things in our apartment. I was scared, shocked, and so angry all at once.

[00:36:34] Was this intruder really trying to tell us that he broke into our place in the middle of the night to fix things? Was he for real? I hadn't seen this man yet as my fiance was standing in front of him.

[00:36:48] My fiance tried to push the intruder backward toward the kitchen in the living room. Still in the dark, my fiance tried to reach for a knife in the kitchen, fearing that the intruder might get aggressive. In that moment of being unsupervised,

[00:37:03] the creep decided to sit on our couch to talk more about what he could fix for us. He really took a seat. The man seemed to be under the influence of some kind of drug and I just wanted this threat removed from our home.

[00:37:22] With a second rush of courage, I walked into the living room, switched the light on, and started shouting, get out of my apartment, you creep. Then my fiance and I pushed him out the door. And right before slamming it shut, I took some pictures of him

[00:37:37] as he was still trying to make excuses for having broken into our place. We closed the door and locked it. I was still shaking. I couldn't even collect my thoughts or wrap my head around what had just happened.

[00:37:53] We checked around for our valuables and nothing seemed to be missing or broken. I took my phone and decided to call 112, that's the emergency number. I explained to the dispatcher over the phone what had just happened and

[00:38:08] gave him the description of the man, which he transmitted to the police immediately. I was asked if the man stole anything or if he was violent or harmed us physically. I said no, adding that I didn't think he had the time to do anything.

[00:38:22] I probably woke up quite fast to this feeling of being stared at as he was still assessing the apartment. We were asked to go to the police station to make a deposition for the official report, but that was it for the night. I was in disbelief, that's it?

[00:38:41] How could they not send an officer or anyone to look around the complex to see if the man was still there, breaking into somebody else's apartment? I remembered that the man had claimed to live in the same building, so

[00:38:54] I texted the guardian asking him about the occupant living in apartment 13 and sent him a picture of the man. The guardian replied saying that the man definitely did not live in the complex and that after my message he went and checked the CCTV and

[00:39:09] saw the man climbing the fence to get into our premises. I was trying to understand how this man got into my apartment. I really can't feel safe if I don't understand this. So the two of us tried to assess this situation.

[00:39:26] The only two ways are from the front door or from the door on the balcony. We didn't see any signs of forced entry on the front door. So if he entered from the front door, he had to have had a key. Was he a previous tenant?

[00:39:41] If he entered from the balcony door, how the hell would that even be possible? We live on the second floor. Someone really can't reach from the floor beneath to climb up and it's not possible to jump from another balcony.

[00:39:55] Then I looked up, there's a concrete structure above the balcony. And I shouted, let's go check the rooftop. We opened the door leading to the rooftop and inspected the surroundings to see if the man was still around.

[00:40:12] As we went up, we thought, wow, is it just that easy to have access up here? From there, it all made sense. This man climbed the gate of the complex. Once he got in, he wasn't attracted by any of the apartments accessible from the ground floor.

[00:40:29] So he found his way to the rooftop, walked on the gravel, and jumped from the rooftop to the concrete structure above our balcony. He let himself hang between the two small beams and jumped down on a glass table we have on the balcony that somehow didn't break.

[00:40:47] Then he nonchalantly opened the door from the balcony, entering the apartment with his unknown intentions. The police came days later to collect the pictures that I had along with the CCTV footage. Of course, nothing came of it. And why would it when law enforcement acted so late?

[00:41:06] So to that crazy man who went through all of that hassle to get into our apartment as we were sleeping, and to any other creep that might want to ever do the same, let's not meet. I've been listening to Let's Not Meet a lot recently and

[00:41:36] this memory popped into my head. In 2019, a few months after what felt like a very tumultuous breakup, I went on a few Tinder dates to get back out there. I started talking to this guy who we're going to call Zach.

[00:41:52] Zach and I planned to meet up at this restaurant close to my neighborhood. Zach was tall and had brown curls, dimples, freckles, and a lot of tattoos. Specifically, he had a tattoo that looked like a tree line of a forest. Remember this for later.

[00:42:10] While Zach is not the person that I never want to meet again, I wouldn't mind if I didn't. Things just didn't work out between us. Anyways, Zach and I ate lunch and it went fine. Right across from this restaurant is an old, very outdated looking mall.

[00:42:27] Growing up nearby, I remembered going inside this mall because it had a music shop for my sister and a small post office for my mom. Also inside, there are these fish tanks and creepy statues. Not to mention absolutely huge hanging sculptures of sea creatures.

[00:42:46] It's a bit of an odd place. I think I was trying to seem cool because Zach liked odd, creepy things. I mentioned that we should swing by the mall because of this. He was down for it, so we got into my car and drove over.

[00:43:02] It was around noon on a weekday, so the mall was absolutely dead. Other than the employees and the shops, there were maybe four other people around. This didn't surprise me, knowing that mall. Even calling it a mall by today's standards is extremely generous.

[00:43:21] Zach and I wandered around laughing about how creepy the statues were. We joked that it felt like the eyes from the statues were always following you. I talked about childhood memories of the fish in the fish tanks. Just date stuff, I guess.

[00:43:38] We happened upon this small cafe and Zach said that he wanted to get a coffee. The cafe we walked into was right next to a very popular coffee chain, but whatever. I didn't want anything and for some reason, I also didn't want to go inside, so

[00:43:55] I said I was going to stand outside and wait. All of the walls were glass, so Zach and I could still see each other anyway. A few moments passed and I was still standing there. I saw this old man.

[00:44:10] He seemed creepy at first, and I thought it was maybe just because of the mall, but he really did give me a bad vibe. I was paying close attention to him while trying not to look too obvious.

[00:44:24] The man called out to me and said something to the effect of, what's a pretty lady like you doing out here all alone? I immediately pointed inside the cafe and said, I'm waiting for my boyfriend. The older man nodded, looked at me creepily and kept walking.

[00:44:40] At some point while I was distracted, this old man wandered into the cafe. He and Zach were now standing side by side, a little too close for comfort. I could even tell from Zach's body language that it was too close.

[00:44:56] Zach's name was called out, so he went to pick up his drink and said goodbye or something to the man. I don't know if either of us said anything about the man until we were far removed from the situation. I asked Zach about the man at some point.

[00:45:12] He looked at me a little distressed and said, he asked about my tattoo and then asked if I liked taking little kids out there because he did. The tattoo that he was referencing, the forest line tattoo that I mentioned earlier. We didn't know what to say after that.

[00:45:32] I don't know if what that man said was true, but I do think about it from time to time and it makes my stomach hurt. To the creepy old man at the mall who supposedly lures kids into the forest, let's not meet.

[00:45:57] Don't forget to stick around after the music for your patron for your extended ad-free version of this week's episode. And if you want to get access, head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast

[00:46:20] to support the show today and get access to hours of bonus content instantly. This week you have heard I hid in my bathroom in the midst of a home invasion by happy ghost pogs. Creepy guy at dollar general by curly Q.

[00:46:35] Assholes by the seaside by a listener that asked to remain anonymous. I posted about my stalker online and he found it by upset zucchini 6687. The work stalker by returning author Sonora. He said he lived in apartment 13 by sunseeker arc. And finally old man at the mall by Nix.

[00:46:58] All the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's not meet a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online.

[00:47:08] As always, if you have a story to share, send it to let's not meet stories at gmail.com and we'll take a look. Don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts, odd trails, as well as welcome to paradise. It sucks.

[00:47:21] And the old time radio cast over at cryptic county podcast dot com or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll see you next week. Stay safe. This took place over a few years.