10x15: Jeepers Creepers - 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 15 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. Let's not meet. This happened several years ago.

[00:00:55] I was home alone one evening and I heard a knock at the back door. I was confused as no one ever used that door. My husband and I lived in a fourplex at the time. Each unit had a back door at the top of a narrow staircase.

[00:01:10] These doors were inconvenient as you would have to go around the building and up the narrow stairs instead of the wide main entrance at the front. It didn't make sense to use the back entrance and I couldn't think of anyone who would

[00:01:24] opt for using that door if they were coming for a visit. As I approached the back door, I saw two tall men in the window standing there. A chill went down my spine. I felt unsafe opening the door so I called out, Hello?

[00:01:41] One of the men tapped on the window. Yes, hello, may we come in? We're with Bresnan. At the time, my husband and I had Bresnan for a cable but had no issues with it. I replied, We're not having any issues with Bresnan, is there a problem?

[00:02:01] Ma'am, the man said. Can we come in? We're servicing the area and it's important that we look at your cable. I shook my head. We're not having any issues, I repeated, so there's no reason for you to stop by.

[00:02:17] Ma'am, we're visiting every resident, let us in so that we can do our job. I noticed the man grabbed the doorknob and tried to unlock it himself. Luckily the door was locked.

[00:02:30] I slowly grabbed a knife from our knife block and held it at chest level, within their view. We're not having any issues, I repeated, trying not to convey the shakiness in my voice, so you don't need to be here. The two figures appeared to shuffle and then straighten.

[00:02:50] Ma'am, let us in, we're on a deadline and we need to do our job. I glanced at the clock, gauging when my husband would arrive home from work. Ma'am? I gripped the knife tighter. They repeated, Ma'am! I saw him try the doorknob again.

[00:03:09] I closed my eyes and felt overwhelming gratitude for always locking my doors. Just then a thought came to mind. I'm sorry, I can't help you. Could I please get your names and badge numbers?

[00:03:22] I'll call your supervisor and let them know that you came by, but our cable is fine. I heard another shuffle. One of the men replied, No need to, Ma'am, we're sorry to have wasted your time. With that, both men exited the staircase and disappeared into the night.

[00:03:42] Shaken up, I held the knife tight to get my bearings. I remember making a mental note to call the cable company or the police, but my hands were shaking so badly I couldn't even hold my phone.

[00:03:56] With the knife still grasped to my chest, the phone falling out of the other hand, I sank to the floor. When my husband returned home, I told him what happened. I was still very shaken up and started crying after he came home.

[00:04:12] He immediately called the Bresnan Cable Company and spoke to a representative who informed us that no one from their company was out on assignment in our area. The next day, we asked all of our neighbors if they had a visit. None of them had.

[00:04:30] So to the two creepy men who tried to enter my home under the guise of cable repair, let's not meet. I live in South Africa and my parents worked hard to relocate my younger sister and me to a nice suburb back in 2008.

[00:04:58] Unfortunately, since then the area has deprecated quite a bit with many new sketchy characters and increased criminal activity. Almost everyone I know from the area has been robbed at least once, myself included.

[00:05:13] I had been held at knife point and had my phone stolen about a year prior to this story. It was my day off and I was the only one home. It was my responsibility to fetch my sister from school.

[00:05:26] She attended the same high school that I went to, which is within walking distance from our home. I always walked to pick her up. I put my earphones in and the walk there was uneventful as usual. After locating my sister, I began to walk back home.

[00:05:42] Usually we walk along the main road but since construction was going on at the time, we decided to take a slightly longer route through the neighborhood instead. We had to walk past the primary school adjacent to the high school.

[00:05:56] Due to both schools letting out for the day, there were hordes of kids from both schools standing around waiting for their rides. It was a pretty typical scene. There was a woman loitering in the area and she approached me and my sister asking if

[00:06:10] we had any money or food. My sister let her know that she didn't have anything. I remained silent and pretended that I couldn't hear her since I was wearing my earphones but she persisted. My sister let her know that I didn't have anything either.

[00:06:26] Since I wasn't engaging, the woman asked my sister if I could understand her. She was speaking Afrikaans, one of the languages native to South Africa that not everyone speaks. I can speak it and I understood her just fine but my sister said that I didn't in an attempt

[00:06:42] to get her to piss off. Then the woman switched to speaking English and she asked me for food or money again. I reaffirmed what my sister had already said and I let her know that we had nothing with us.

[00:06:56] During this time, I heard a commotion across the street. I looked over and saw a seemingly drunk man. He was smashing bottles on the ground. It was weird but nothing was raising any alarm bells. So I just kept walking with my sister.

[00:07:12] The lady continued to walk alongside us. She asked us where we lived which completely shifted the tone of the conversation. I stayed silent but my sister was visibly uncomfortable with the woman's expectant eyes on her. She awkwardly replied, Oh, just down there.

[00:07:32] As she vaguely pointed towards the end of the road. Where my sister pointed was nowhere near where we actually lived. My sister was hoping that that answer was satisfactory enough for the woman and it appeared to be since she walked away after that.

[00:07:47] Feeling a bit tense, I stopped to light a cigarette. While doing so, there was more alarming commotion happening across the street. The same man that was smashing bottles had continued up the road and was walking across from us.

[00:08:03] He was fighting with one of the dads who was picking up one of the kids from school. I had no idea what instigated the confrontation but the man was yelling and swearing while making crude gestures at the dad who was still seated in his car.

[00:08:18] The man then proceeded to bang on the roof of the dad's car which resulted in the dad honking his horn at him. Everyone, kids and parents alike were staring at the scene. Keep in mind all of this was happening in a school zone.

[00:08:32] Now I'm generally an anxious person with little to no trust in humanity. My fight or flight kicks in at the slightest change in vibe so I grabbed my sister's arm and told her we needed to get away from whatever was going on with that man and the dad.

[00:08:48] While walking away from the crowds, I noticed the woman from earlier was walking in the same direction as us but further ahead. She crossed to the other side of the road and she saw us as we passed. She shouted at me, asking for a cigarette.

[00:09:04] I ignored her, just wanting to get home. We continued walking and things calmed down a bit. My sister who generally isn't anxious had already forgotten everything. She was droning on about some trivial high school drama that I was hardly paying attention to.

[00:09:22] I snapped back into being on high alert when I caught some movement in my periphery. I was horrified to discover the woman and the man from earlier were now together. They were crossing the road to where my sister and I were walking.

[00:09:38] We were long past the school and started walking into the neighborhood. No other people were lingering around but at least there were cars frequently passing by. My sister, completely oblivious, kept chattering away.

[00:09:52] I pretended to listen and act normal while watching the woman and the man walking right behind us. I took my earphones out and shoved them into my pocket to increase my vigilance.

[00:10:03] I was attempting to set a pace to ensure that we maintained a good distance between us and them. Then we took a turn on a different road and so did they. My stomach sank.

[00:10:16] Don't look back but they're following us, I warned my sister after determining that I wasn't being paranoid. Walk faster. My sister promptly shut up and picked up the pace, which immediately proved pointless as the woman broke into a jog to catch up to us.

[00:10:34] Excuse me girls, excuse me, she called out, beckoning us to slow down. She caught up and was alongside us again. I positioned myself in the middle with her on my left and my sister on my right. The man had somehow disappeared. He was nowhere to be seen.

[00:10:52] I couldn't tell if I should be relieved or find it disconcerting. The woman didn't beat around the bush this time. She accused my sister and I of lying to her about where we lived.

[00:11:04] She reminded us that we told her where we lived at the end of the road, which we had passed. She demanded to know exactly where we were going. My tactic of staying silent hadn't failed me yet, so again I opted for that.

[00:11:18] My sister attempted to answer in the most non-answer way that she could, telling the woman that we live somewhere around here. I believe not answering her at all would have been a better approach, but we weren't sure if this woman was under the influence of something.

[00:11:34] So I understand why my sister was trying not to provoke her any further. I may be anxious and paranoid, but I have no issues picking a fight. Honestly, I chose to be silent because I knew that if I spoke, I wouldn't have been able to hold my tongue,

[00:11:50] which would have unintentionally triggered a confrontation. I was genuinely hoping my sister's polite, vague responses were going to be enough for the woman. It quickly became apparent that the woman was targeting my sister since she could tell that she was younger and more vulnerable.

[00:12:07] I knew this would probably blow up in my face, but I had to step in. The woman asked my sister whose house we were going to. I interjected firmly and directly, why do you need to know?

[00:12:18] The woman was taken aback as I had been passive up to this point. She replied, saying that she was trying to make conversation as if I was being the rude one. It's none of your business, I replied, indicating that I was done indulging her.

[00:12:34] As soon as she was challenged by somebody her own size, she became aggressive. She reverted back to speaking Afrikaans. She said something that basically translated to, why are you acting all strong all of a sudden? You think you can take me?

[00:12:53] This conversation was quickly escalating in a way that I had been dreading, so I attempted to de-escalate. I'm a 22 year old woman who's pretty short, has a baby face and still dresses like a 16 year old skater boy. I'm often mistaken for a kid. So I leaned into that,

[00:13:11] and I told her that we were just two kids and didn't want any trouble. She subsequently ignored me and tried to intimidate me, again in Afrikaans. You think you're so strong. Do you wanna see what I do to little bitches like you? I stab little bitches like you.

[00:13:29] My heartbeat was in my ears at this point, but it wasn't because I was scared, it was pure adrenaline. She continued to goad me, but my brain was too busy racing to come up with a solution to the predicament we had found ourselves in.

[00:13:43] She put her hand under her skirt in an attempt to scare me into thinking that she was holding a knife under there. I didn't think she was holding anything under her clothes though. She was wearing small clothing, making it highly unlikely

[00:13:57] that she was concealing any kind of weapon. As doubtful as I was about the woman having a knife, I very much did have a knife myself. Ever since I had been robbed, my girlfriend made me promise never to leave the house without it.

[00:14:13] I clutched the cold, smooth metal in my pocket, weighing my odds. I knew I could probably take her, but I still didn't know what was in her system that might enhance her abilities, you know? Before I had the chance to finish contemplating

[00:14:31] the possibility of a knife fight on a Wednesday afternoon in the middle of the suburbs, she broke my train of thought. Hey, how about your phone? Where's your phone? It wasn't a real question, more of a proclamation that she had suddenly come to that decision

[00:14:48] that she intended to steal my phone. This was further confirmed when she abruptly reached for my pocket where my other hand had been tightly clutching my phone ever since she started talking to me and my sister. I quickly stepped aside. Immediately, I started crossing the street

[00:15:06] in the same step. My sister, scared and confused, followed along. The lady was quick to reassure my sister, you don't need to worry, sweetie. We won't hurt you. The man reappeared in the same way he had seemingly disappeared. I was now thankful that I hadn't brandished my knife.

[00:15:26] I could have maybe had a fighting chance if the woman was on her own, but paired with the unhinged man, my weapon of protection would have easily ended up being used against me. The woman quickly filled the man in on the situation at hand

[00:15:41] and told him about her plan to steal my phone, to which he enthusiastically agreed. I initially planned to continue walking home, but once I saw them crossing the street toward me, I turned around and walked in the opposite direction, back from where we came.

[00:15:58] I kept my eyes on them as I focused on putting as much distance between us as possible. Instead of walking on the sidewalk, I walked in the middle of the street, hoping to call attention to our situation. I was hoping for some aid from a concerned driver

[00:16:14] as instances like this have become increasingly common in my area. Most people are quick to react when they perceive trouble. And luckily, the very first car that came by pulled up next to me. The guy driving rolled down his window

[00:16:27] and asked my sister and I if we needed a ride. He was driving a nice clean car with a toddler in the passenger seat. He looked like a typical father with no red flags. I asked him if he could take us home as we were nearly there anyway.

[00:16:42] He agreed and let us into the back seat. For some reason, the lady called out to my sister again and told her she had nothing to worry about since I was their target. I suppose I'm fine with being their target

[00:16:56] if it got them to leave my sister alone. As we drove away, they continued yelling after us. Their fading shouts were like music to my ears. We were safe. The two people who stalked, threatened, and attempted to rob me and my sister,

[00:17:13] you better hope we never meet again. I am the mother of boy and girl twins. And at the time of this event, they were about four years old. My husband, kids, and I live in a ranch-style house. There's a first floor and a weird loft-type space

[00:17:46] as the second floor. There is also an unfinished basement. My husband and I slept in the biggest room on the first floor. The kids share a room in the second floor loft. We keep the hall light on and the light on the loft stairs on at night

[00:18:04] in case they need to go to the bathroom or something. All of this information is relevant to paint the picture of how the events unfolded. One night, my husband and I were awakened by a noise that sounded like someone walking around.

[00:18:18] We thought that it might be one of the kids. I would also like to state, my husband is very blind without his glasses. We both rolled over to help whatever small human needed help when my husband yelled, what the hell? Honey, there's a guy in our house.

[00:18:38] I immediately jumped up and I ran to the hallway where this huge man was about to go upstairs where my sleeping babies were. It has been about five years since this happened and I am just now able to tell this story without breaking down.

[00:18:53] Needless to say, my blind husband ran him out of the house but not before he tried to hide in the basement. This guy finally got out of the house but then just sat in our driveway. We called the cops.

[00:19:08] They came to arrest him and no scene was made. The cops came into our house to question us further. This part is the only funny part about the entire situation. Remember, I have twin four-year-olds. You can imagine what a mess and how tired we were and still are.

[00:19:28] My husband usually cleans up the living room before heading to bed but we just had it that night. So the cops come into our house to ask us some routine questions. Did we know him? Did he take anything? Luckily, that was no and no.

[00:19:44] Then one of the cops looked around and remarked, "'Wow, did he ransack the place?' As he gestured to the living room that was in shambles due to twin monsters living their best lives. With eyes cast down, I shook my head and said, "'No, he did not.

[00:20:03] "'We have twins.' The cop said with an eye roll, "'Say no more. "'I get it, kids.'" Now you're probably wondering what happened to the guy. He was charged with many drug possessions such as meth, cocaine and other random pills. For his trial, we submitted

[00:20:21] a written victim's impact statement and asked the judge to make him go to a drug treatment center. He was a young man from Maine and we just wanted him to get the help that he needed so that he didn't do this again.

[00:20:35] It turns out he robbed the people across the street before coming over to our house. He didn't take anything too big or valuable. He left everything in the bed of their old broken down truck and he left his stuff all over the place

[00:20:50] like a checkbook and a bag of clothes. The guy was high out of his mind. So to the man who broke into my house at 3 a.m. and almost got my babies, let's not meet. When I was maybe 19 or 20 years old, I was dating my first boyfriend, Alex.

[00:21:21] We had been together for about three months and a few of his friends were having a little get together at their house. We were waiting for his buddies to come pick us up. They pulled up and we got in.

[00:21:34] The guy driving told us about his super weird truck that he saw just seconds before slowly creeping through the neighborhood. He said that it was tall, boarded up with wood and moving very slowly. As we were exiting the neighborhood,

[00:21:50] we pulled up to a light to make a right and there the truck was. It was dark, maybe around 8 p.m. We were in the lane beside the truck so I was able to get a fair view of what the guy had been talking about.

[00:22:05] It was an old black truck. The bed was boarded up with four panels of plywood that had been spray painted black. The panels went way above the height of the truck, about two feet higher. There were chains hanging from the back and the sides.

[00:22:21] I tried to catch a glimpse of who was driving as the light turned red but no luck. We got to the party and it was terrible. It was the first time I had ever been to a proper party. It was also the first time I had an edible

[00:22:35] so I completely sank inside myself for the whole night. I just wanted to leave but we were there for about five hours. We eventually left and I was so excited to get into bed. When we pulled back up to the house,

[00:22:51] I got out and Alex sat inside of the car for a couple of seconds saying his goodbyes. I looked up and saw the vehicle slowly creeping down the neighborhood street. It was the same big black boarded up truck. I swear to you, there was a green light

[00:23:07] emitting from the inside of that thing. I saw a slight green glow from the windows and through the wood panels. I hit my boyfriend's arm and told him to hurry. I was scared. It had been five hours since we first saw this vehicle

[00:23:25] and here it was just creeping down the street. It was making this puttering clanking sound. It reminded me of that truck that the creature from Jeepers Creepers drove. I grabbed Alex's arm and said, let's go. He finally got out of the car and saw this truck getting closer.

[00:23:45] It was about to pass us. I caught one look into the window and I still couldn't see anything other than this bright green light. We ran through the door of Alex's house and quickly shut it behind us. He had the house to himself for the weekend

[00:23:59] as his family went camping. So he went to every single entry of the house and double checked that everything was locked. I didn't sleep much that night. We hypothesized maybe it was someone casing the neighborhood to steal furniture or appliances since it had such a large concealed bed.

[00:24:16] It was freaky and I didn't spend a night at Alex's house again for about a month. Whether it was just a confused driver or some demon looking to harvest my eyeballs, I hope I never meet that creepy ass Jeepers Creepers truck again.

[00:24:36] I was 11 years old and having some teeth pulled at the dentist for the first time. On top of my appointment, my dad also had a regular checkup. I waited in the waiting room while my dad was at his appointment. The waiting room wasn't that big

[00:25:03] due to this being a small family run dental office in Ohio. The building itself is an old house that the family turned into a business. So the waiting room was about the size of an average living room. As I was waiting, a middle-aged man walked in.

[00:25:22] He checked in at the front desk and took a seat right across from me. I was a pretty smart kid since my dad always taught me to be observant. So I immediately took notice of the guy and had a bad feeling about him.

[00:25:36] He had black hair and I remember noticing that he was a little too dressed up to be a dentist. We sat in silence for a while. Being the socially awkward middle schooler that I was, I did everything that I could to avoid eye contact with the man.

[00:25:53] I should note that he was blatantly staring right at me. He eventually broke the silence. "'Does anyone ever tell you you're very pretty? "'Because you are.' "'Since I was also taught as a kid "'that you should never ignore an adult

[00:26:08] "'when they look at you,' I answered no. "'Obviously the first thing that popped into my head "'as a kid whose great-grandma let her watch too much snapped "'was that this guy was going to murder me.' He laughed and attempted to make more conversation with me.

[00:26:24] He asked what my name was and I answered, Lisa. I lied to him, knowing that it was creepy that he was talking to a terrified kid alone in a waiting room. He asked where I went to school and I didn't give him the exact name.

[00:26:41] Then he asked what grade I was in. I told him sixth grade, this was the truth. He said that he had a daughter in sixth grade and suggested that I go with him to meet her. I could make a new friend.

[00:26:55] My stomach turned into a knot and I froze. I was willing so hard for one of the ladies at the desk to call me back for my appointment. He tried to make more conversation with me but I shot down his attempts every single time.

[00:27:11] You would think that this creep would notice that he was freaking me out, but he didn't and kept persisting. Eventually a nice lady called me back to my appointment. I practically jumped out of my seat. The creepiest part about this interaction

[00:27:25] is what the dentist waiting room creep said to me as I walked away. "'Good luck gorgeous, hopefully I'll see you here next time.' I remember my heart pounding with adrenaline as I walked back to one of the few rooms.

[00:27:39] I got my teeth pulled and got it over with. The man was not in the waiting room when my appointment was through. I honestly wasn't even thinking about it because I had four teeth ripped out of my face. I never told anyone about this weird interaction.

[00:27:54] Looking back, I regret it. I wish I had said something so he couldn't lure some other innocent girl into meeting up with him and his likely fictional daughter. To the creepy guy in the waiting room at the dentist who tried to lure me into leaving with him

[00:28:08] to meet his daughter, let's not meet again. My husband of 38 years, we'll call him Joe, recently had his cataracts removed and multifocal lenses inserted into his eyes. I'm a little salty about this because I have an eye condition that excludes me from multifocal lenses.

[00:28:45] I'll wear glasses for the rest of my life, but I can be happy for my husband while rocking cute glasses, I guess. We live in a suburb of Memphis and the surgery center was in a neighboring suburb. My husband had been apprehensive about the first surgery,

[00:29:02] but he was ecstatic when he realized he could see better the very next day. A few weeks rolled past and it was time for Joe's second surgery. He was pumped to have both of his eyes seeing 20-20 and I had to have him at the surgery center

[00:29:18] by 7.30 that morning. We both took quick showers and threw on clean clothes to get to his appointment on time. I usually don't leave the house without makeup on, but I thought, who cares? I figured I probably wouldn't see anybody that I knew.

[00:29:35] The surgery center was set up with two waiting rooms. The first room is where patients would check in. I bored myself a cup of terrible waiting room coffee and added a heaping spoonful of powdered creamer that didn't cut the bitterness whatsoever,

[00:29:51] but this was all I had to wake me up. Then the nurse came in to the check-in room and told everybody who was signed in for surgery to go across the lobby to a smaller waiting room until they were called back for surgery.

[00:30:05] When my husband and I went into the next room, there weren't two empty chairs available side by side, so my husband sat in the chair directly across from me. I'm a people person. My husband, of course, is an introvert, but has become accustomed to me

[00:30:22] striking up conversations with strangers. On this particular morning, I wasn't fully awake yet, so I hadn't really paid attention to this man who sat on my left. Then I sat my cup of coffee on the end of the table to my right.

[00:30:37] After a few moments, I looked to my left and observed an elderly man with gray hair and a gray beard sitting beside me. He was dressed in a red sweatsuit, the old school kind with elastic around the wrists and ankles. He wore an airman's style leather jacket

[00:30:55] and Ray-Ban aviators. Honestly, the first thought that went through my mind was that he looked like a sweatsuit Santa, so that is his name for this story. Sweatsuit Santa started a conversation soon after we were seated by saying that his wife was nervous about the surgery.

[00:31:15] She sat on the other side of Santa. She was a petite lady with a dark complexion and dark hair streaked with beautiful shades of gray. Santa leaned toward me and said, she's from the Philippines. She wants me to take her to visit her family,

[00:31:31] but I'm not going somewhere where they don't speak English. They would all probably be talking about me and I wouldn't know what they were saying. Now I try not to judge, but this guy was definitely unique to say the least. I was wondering if he loved her,

[00:31:48] why didn't he make an attempt to learn a little bit about their native language? My husband told sweatsuit Santa's wife how happy he was with the results of his first surgery. He assured her that he was excited and ready for the second eye to be done,

[00:32:04] but she still seemed apprehensive. At about that time, the nurse called a group of about five patients back for their surgeries. My husband and sweatsuit Santa's wife were among those that were called. I continued to sip on my terrible coffee while checking Facebook and Instagram on my phone

[00:32:23] in an attempt to avoid speaking to sweatsuit Santa any further. But then Santa said, I hope you don't mind me saying so, but I love a woman without makeup. I love natural beauty. You have natural beauty and you don't need makeup.

[00:32:41] I almost spit my coffee out of my nostrils because I knew that I looked like shit. I replied, well, you have the wrong girl because I usually have a face full of makeup on. Even my daughter is a makeup artist.

[00:32:55] I was hoping that that might shut him down as I was starting to feel uncomfortable, but not afraid. After all, I was in the waiting room with plenty of people around. Frankly, I find people interesting and I like to see what they will say or do,

[00:33:11] but I was getting a weird vibe from sweatsuit Santa. I turned back to my phone and tried to ignore him since I was a little more creeped out than curious. Undeterred, Santa said, you have such beautiful eyes.

[00:33:27] Will you pull your glasses down so that I can see them? I was wearing glasses with clear lenses. I don't usually do what strange men ask me to do, but my morbid curiosity got the best of me. I lowered my glasses and stared into his Ray-Bans

[00:33:44] with my dark blue eyes. I immediately wished that I had not given him that satisfaction of thinking that he was going to manipulate me into doing anything. Of course, he said my eyes were beautiful. He said that he could see the real me, which was weird.

[00:34:03] Then he asked me for my name. I told him it was Lisa and purposely didn't tell him my last name. He started quietly singing that old song about Mona Lisa and told me that he used to be an Elvis impersonator. We live near Memphis,

[00:34:18] so I'm not impressed by Elvis impersonators. Santa continued to sing and I pretended to look at my phone. My curiosity was settled. This was one strange old dude. Santa still couldn't take the hint though. I can't get into my Facebook account, he explained looking over at my phone.

[00:34:39] I got locked out and I don't know my password. I suggested that he contact Facebook for help, but then he pulls his phone out of his pocket and says, I use this app. It's called WhatsApp. I played dumb. I don't have that app, I replied,

[00:34:57] assuming he would just quit. But he started explaining how to get WhatsApp and told me I could find him on there. He told me that he was 64 years old. I would have pegged him for his 70s. He asked me how old I was.

[00:35:13] Even though that was rude, I gave him an honest answer since I own my age. When I told him I was 60, he acted like he couldn't believe it. Every year shows on me. So I knew that I looked 60. This was not the first time sweatsuit Santa

[00:35:28] had played this game with a woman. I showed no interest in downloading WhatsApp as he attempted to show me how to do it on his phone. I just downloaded it. So look for me, you know, if you ever need to talk, he said. I'm good, I replied.

[00:35:44] I've been with my husband for 38 years. I'll just talk to him. I thought of Santa's poor wife getting operated on while her husband tried to pick up the wife of someone else being operated on. What a douchebag. He was in the middle of explaining again

[00:36:01] how to look him up on WhatsApp when a nurse entered the room to make an announcement. I knew the drill since this was my husband's second eye surgery. We were told to go to the first waiting room or wait in our cars until we were called.

[00:36:16] When called, we were to drive to the back of the building where they rolled out the loved one on a wheelchair and help them into the passenger seat of the vehicle. As we stood to follow the nurse's directions,

[00:36:28] Santa suggested, why don't you wait in the car with me? We can talk. Seriously feeling the instinct to shut him down, I said that I would just sit in my own truck. I went to the other waiting room and took my time throwing away my coffee

[00:36:44] to get away from him as he fled out the double glass doors with the other drivers. Thinking I had gotten away from him, I felt relief until I walked out the double glass doors myself. There Santa stood by his blue Chevrolet

[00:36:59] parked directly in front of the clinic's doors. He was holding his car door open for me and inviting me to sit inside. Right then, I said the last words I would ever say to sweat suit Santa, I'm waiting in my truck.

[00:37:15] I proceeded to my truck, put my key in the ignition and locked all of the doors. I kept a watch on that blue Chevrolet. He was called first to retrieve his wife. I breathed a sigh of relief as they drove away.

[00:37:29] So to sweat suit Santa who tried to pick up another woman while our spouses were having eye surgery, let's not meet again. When I was 17, I decided to take my best friend's sister who was 13 to the beach in our small Midwestern town.

[00:38:01] It was the middle of summer in 2020 and we lived in a town of 700 people with not much else to do. I need to add a little backstory about what we were doing so that what happened will make sense.

[00:38:15] I parked my car in the parking lot at the beach. We got out and grabbed our bags and towels, our different suits and my camera. We planned on taking Instagram pictures and swimming until the sun went down.

[00:38:29] Walking to the beach, we had to take a small pedestrian path through a wooded area for about 70 yards. Once we walked onto the beach, we saw a couple sitting on a towel looking at the lake. There was a jet ski pulled onto the shore

[00:38:45] just far enough so that it wouldn't float away sitting on the sand. We didn't want to disturb the couple with our planned photo shoot so we walked further down the beach to have our own space. After we found the perfect spot,

[00:38:59] we laid down our towels and we discussed what kind of pictures we wanted to take. After about five minutes of testing out pictures, we saw the couple get up, grab their towel and head to the pedestrian trail. We thought that this was odd

[00:39:13] since we assumed that the jet ski had belonged to them. It was unusual to bring a jet ski to this lake anyways so we brushed it off. I looked at my best friend's sister who I'll refer to as Heidi and said, maybe somebody got a little too drunk

[00:39:30] to bring their jet ski home. We both laughed since this lake was notorious for parties during the summer. Thinking we were now completely alone, we decided to officially start our photo shoot. We decided that I would be the model first

[00:39:44] so Heidi could see the different poses that I did. I took my covering off and I sat on the towel while Heidi got the camera ready. After a bit of snapping pictures, laughing and being silly, I heard something behind us in the woods.

[00:39:59] It sounded like a twig snapping. Assuming that it was the couple coming to retrieve something that they forgot, perhaps their jet ski, I didn't think much of it. Not even a minute later, I heard another sound. I heard a deep, crackly, gross voice from behind me say,

[00:40:17] ooh, pictures. I whipped my head around and I saw a man who appeared to be in his late 40s. He had an army style buzz cut with a buzzed beard, both speckled with gray. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt, red basketball shorts that went to his knees

[00:40:35] and socks that almost met his shorts at his knees. However, he wasn't wearing any shoes. Being from a small town, I generally knew most of the people who talked to me but I didn't know this guy. This was during the first summer of the pandemic

[00:40:51] so our town wasn't littered with people from out of town like it ordinarily was. I thought that this guy was probably here on vacation or maybe he had a cabin somewhere around this very large lake. I was still very confused.

[00:41:06] Why was he in the woods right behind us? Where did he come from? Had he been in the woods since we arrived? I gave him my typical polite Midwestern, no teeth smile and nodded my head. I was getting weird feelings from this guy

[00:41:21] and I didn't want to engage in conversation with him. Being a huge horror fan, I was already planning how I would get away from him. My gut told me this interaction was not going to be a good one. I looked at Heidi, attempting to tell her telepathically,

[00:41:38] don't talk to him. He emerged from the tree line and started to walk toward us. The closer he got, the bigger his smile got. As he cleared his throat, I turned to look at him again. Are you taking pictures for a magazine or what? He asked.

[00:41:55] He was only three feet away from us, blatantly disregarding social distancing at the time. I replied, trying to make sure my voice sounded assertive and strong. No, I wish, followed by a small forced giggle. Not wanting him to get between me and Heidi for obvious reasons,

[00:42:15] I extended my hand out to her to help me up since I was still sitting on my towel. I stood up right next to her, thinking to myself that I would do anything in my power to protect her. She was barely five feet tall

[00:42:28] and weighed about a hundred pounds soaking wet. Me being 5'6", 130 and having taken wrestling and self-defense classes, I knew that it was up to me to ensure that we got away safely. He continued talking to us, mostly rambling and mumbling about models and magazines.

[00:42:46] He said that I could definitely be a model in a magazine too. After we stood there for about a minute listening to him, he quickly looked up with excitement on his face. It was as if he had just had the most amazing thought of the century. He asked,

[00:43:03] would you guys like some candy? My face fell. This was the most stereotypical creeper line ever. I just paused for a minute, not wanting to decline and make this guy mad. I bit the bullet and said with the fakest smile I could muster, sure.

[00:43:24] Then he made his way, not toward the woods where he came from, but to the jet ski that was on the shore. Heidi and I watched in silence as he started walking into the water. He still had his socks on, no shoes.

[00:43:41] When he got to the jet ski, he started digging through the storage container on it. As he was rummaging through whatever was in there, he had his back to us. I looked at Heidi and quietly said, let's start packing our things up. We'll go to a different beach.

[00:43:56] We picked up our towels and shook off the sand, put the camera back in its case and shoved everything back in my bag. I turned to see the guy walking back toward us. Another forced fake smile. His hands were cupped together, filled with wrapped candy.

[00:44:13] Pick whatever you want, he said. I reached out and grabbed a random one knowing that I wouldn't eat it anyway. Heidi followed suit. He looked at us confused and insisted. Well, you can have more than one, I replied.

[00:44:29] Oh no, we just ate dinner, but thank you so much. We were getting ready to walk away when he started blurting out questions. So are you two sisters? Yes, I replied, wrapping my arm around Heidi's shoulders in a weird sister side hug. Oh, you're both really beautiful.

[00:44:50] Are you guys gonna go swimming now? Maybe I could give you a ride on my jet ski. I finally got it running again. It's super fun, he offered. This is when fight or flight kicked into overdrive. All I could think about was making sure

[00:45:03] that I got Heidi back home safe and sound. Now we have an ice cream date with our parents. We don't wanna be late, I politely declined. This was mostly true besides the parents part. I just wanted him to think that our parents

[00:45:17] were waiting for us and counting on seeing us soon. His face fell immediately. No, don't go yet, he pouted, almost like a toddler begging for something. As he said that, he stepped closer, which was when I knew that it was time to get out of there.

[00:45:36] Thanks for the candy. Enjoy the rest of your day, dude, I said as I stepped around him and pushed Heidi ahead of me. We got to the edge of the woods where the trail leading to the parking lot started when I looked over my shoulder.

[00:45:49] He was there standing in the same spot watching us, now with an angry look on his face. As soon as we were further into the woods, I figured he couldn't see us or hear us. So I squeezed Heidi's hand and I sighed. That was so creepy, Heidi replied.

[00:46:07] Yeah, I don't know what to do. Now this would be a great ending, but that's not where it ends. As we walked through the woods still holding hands, Heidi was ahead of me as I had heard the ground crunching behind us.

[00:46:21] I looked back to see the man following us through the dense woods. Fuck, I said to Heidi under my breath. I've dealt with creeps before due to being a decent looking girl, but it has never escalated into being followed. I squeezed Heidi's hand again.

[00:46:37] She turned to look at me. I got super close behind her and whispered, he's following us, but don't run. She glanced over my shoulder behind me and her eyes widened. We were close to the end of the trail. So I picked up my pace,

[00:46:52] pushing Heidi along without running. The man picked up the pace as well. I could hear the impact of his footfall getting harder as the steps grew louder. Once we were at the end of the trail, the woods opened up to a blacktop circle

[00:47:08] where people with boats or jet skis were able to pull around. The middle of the blacktop circle is filled with trees and on the other side is the rest of the parking lot. Heidi and I started walking side by side and I guided Heidi around the circle

[00:47:24] toward the parking lot. I had my arm around Heidi and started digging in my bag from my keys with my free hand. We were almost around the circle and still walking fast. I looked behind us and the guy appeared from the trail, picking up his pace even more.

[00:47:42] My heart was beating out of my chest. I knew and he knew he would have to act before reaching the parking lot since there was a chance there would be other people parked there. Sadly, as we made our way around,

[00:47:56] I looked forward and my car was the only one in the parking lot. Picking up our pace to a half jog, I looked at Heidi and whispered, he's still coming. I could feel her tense up but I wasn't going to let her freeze,

[00:48:08] giving him a chance to catch up. I kept my arm around her and continued to guide her. I looked back once more to see him running nearly at a full sprint. I felt my arm drop from Heidi. I yelled, run.

[00:48:23] I allowed her to run in front of me and after hearing him gaining on us, I said, run faster. Without looking back, I started to hear his heavy breathing behind me about 20 feet from my car and I felt his hand brush along my hair

[00:48:38] as he attempted to grab me. I was thinking to myself, this is it. He's gonna get me. I unlocked the car. Heidi was at the passenger door and I was 10 feet away from the driver's side door. She jumped in and seconds later, I yanked my door open

[00:48:53] and slammed it as hard as possible behind me. I pressed the lock button with my keys still in hand. I looked up and he was standing in front of the car, now staring right at us. I started my car and shifted into drive.

[00:49:08] I was ready to run him over. Just as I was about to hit the gas pedal, I saw him backing away. Then he walked back into the woods. Screw him, I said, as I drove out of there going Mach 10. After leaving, the adrenaline started to wear off.

[00:49:27] I pulled over at a gas station about 10 miles away. Heidi and I hugged each other and then cried. After calming down, I bought her some ice cream and we threw away the candy that the man gave us. Neither one of us told anyone besides her sister

[00:49:42] who was my best friend. Stupid, I know, but I didn't think people would even believe me. Heidi didn't think anyone would believe it either. After the fact, I realized the mistake I had made. Now that I am older, I'm just glad that we got away safely.

[00:49:59] My advice, just like so many other people who submit stories, is to trust your gut. Please stick around after the music if you're a patron for your extended ad-free version of this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. If you'd like to get access,

[00:50:33] head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up and support the show today. You'll get access to hours upon hours of bonus content immediately. This week you have heard, two men posed as cable providers by Lyrical Lotus, stalked and almost robbed by Neo,

[00:50:51] he broke into my house by Laura F, Jeepers Creepers truck by Savannah, creep at the dentist by Anonymous, sweatsuit Santa by D.D. Lamore, and finally almost grabbed at the beach by Emma. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated

[00:51:06] and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any of the message boards online. As always, if you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com.

[00:51:19] And don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Odd Trails, my true paranormal podcast. Welcome to Paradise It Sucks and the Old Time Radio Cast all at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you next week. Everyone stay safe.

[00:52:04] This happened about 16 years ago.