13x15: Highway Hunting Grounds

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01]: This podcast contains adult language and content.

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Listener discretion is advised.

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER_01]: If you have a story to share, send it to LetsNotMeetsStories at gmail.com.

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Enjoy the show!

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_01]: When I was in high school, I worked at a family-owned plant nursery and garden store.

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I was a cashier there, and when this happened, I had been working for about two and a half

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_01]: years.

[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_01]: It's important to note that while I went to high school, I also attended a vocational school.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_01]: The students enrolled in this vocational school came from high schools all over the county,

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_01]: so it wasn't uncommon to have friends or to know people from a few towns over.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_01]: The place where I worked was the perfect spot for a teenager to get a job.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a good mix of adult and teen employees, and it was a fantastic place to work.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_01]: During the summer, one year, a boy started working there.

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_01]: We'll call him Connor.

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I recognized Connor from the vocational school we both attended.

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_01]: We got a bit friendly at work, but I never really considered him a personal friend.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_01]: He was a co-worker and acquaintance.

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, I always had an off feeling about him.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_01]: His mannerisms and actions made me uncomfortable,

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_01]: but I had no reason to be mean to him or dislike him since he never really outright gave me a reason

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_01]: to. It's hard to explain. It was just a gut feeling of some kind.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Before I go any further, I should provide a bit more context about my job.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_01]: To get to and from work, I took the bus or got a ride from my dad.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_01]: The bus stop was a 15-minute walk from my job, and the ride included a transfer at some

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_01]: point. If the buses were on time, it was a 25-minute commute, but with rush hour and schedules

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_01]: varying at times it could take 45 minutes or more. I mainly used the bus during the week,

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_01]: but my dad would drive me to and from work on the weekends.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_01]: After a few weeks, and after having more interactions with Connor,

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I started to get the feeling that he liked me.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I started picking up on this when I noticed he would start making

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_01]: frequent passes by my register no matter which one I was on.

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_01]: There were multiple throughout the store. He would pass by frequently and even occasionally

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_01]: stop to chat for a minute. I always made sure to maintain a friendly co-worker vibe with him,

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and I never did or said anything that may have suggested otherwise.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_01]: One day he asked me if I wanted a ride home. I found it odd because I didn't think he had

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_01]: a car as I always saw him skateboarding to work. I just declined and we went about our day.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_01]: The next weekend he asked again, and I declined for a second time. I asked him if he got a car,

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_01]: and he said that he didn't but mentioned that he could borrow a car from his parents to drive

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_01]: me home. I told him that wasn't necessary since it was the weekend and I had already arranged

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_01]: to have my dad come and pick me up. This exchange happened five or six more times during our shift.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I politely declined his offer the first few times, but after the third time,

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_01]: it started to creep me out, especially since I thought that I was making it pretty clear

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I was not interested in spending any more time with him.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_01]: When my dad brought me to work the following weekend,

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_01]: he let me know that he wasn't going to be able to pick me up after my shift.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure why this changed, but I'm sure that he had something planned with his girlfriend

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_01]: or something like that. In any case, I was feeling pretty bummed about having to walk

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_01]: and take the bus since, if I remember correctly, it was supposed to thunderstorm all day.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Connor came up to me as I was opening my register and said,

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_01]: hey, I finally got my own car. I was happy for him as our conversations at work and recent

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: weeks were about his parents possibly taking him to go car shopping. As we talked about it,

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I congratulated him and he asked if I wanted a ride that day.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I was honestly a bit fed up that he asked after I said no to him so many times the previous weekend,

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_01]: but I thought, what the hell, maybe if I say yes and I let him drive me just this once,

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_01]: he'll stop asking. So I agreed. The day went on and eventually lunch time rolled around.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I took my break and went to eat in the break room. When my break was almost over, another employee

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_01]: came to the break room and started talking about how there were a couple of cop cars in

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_01]: the parking lot with their lights on. Two officers then went into the admin office.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: The rest of this story is what I pieced together from what others told me.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_01]: The local police made the occasional drive-bys at my place of employment.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_01]: The owners had some family friends who were officers and they looked out for them.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_01]: On this particular day, one of the cops who was a family friend did a drive-by and

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_01]: noticed a car in the parking lot that had been reported stolen that morning.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_01]: So he pulled over to investigate. He called it in and when another officer arrived at the scene,

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_01]: they spotted a backpack. The backpack was poorly hidden behind a tree. After they did

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_01]: some investigating, they went into the admin office. The police officers told the owners

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_01]: what they found and Connor was called in to speak with them. As it turns out, Connor

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_01]: had stolen his uncle's car that morning. The backpack that was found had his ID in it

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_01]: along with rope, duct tape and a switchblade. When he was called into the office,

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_01]: his uncle and parents were called as well. His uncle said that he didn't want to press charges,

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_01]: which is why Connor didn't have to leave with the police.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Our boss then asked Connor to leave for the day and he did. I never found out if he was

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_01]: questioned about the contents of the backpack. If he was, I don't know what his answers were

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_01]: or what the reasoning was for having those things. Nobody knew that he was going to give

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_01]: me a ride home that day. I hadn't told anyone. It wasn't until after all of this went down that

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I told my mom. Connor didn't continue working there much longer after that.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_01]: The whole thing creeped me out so badly that I made it a point not to run into him at

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_01]: vocational school and I remember using humor as a coping mechanism about the whole ordeal.

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Oftentimes my mom and I would joke around about the guy who was going to kidnap me.

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I only remembered this when I was scrolling through Facebook years ago.

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I happened to come across an in-memoriam post that was shared. I recognized the face of the person

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_01]: in the photo but couldn't place where I knew the person from. When I clicked on the profile,

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I suddenly realized where I knew this face from. It was Connor. I had completely forgotten about him.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_01]: His name that we worked together, what happened? And by this time it had been eight years.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a crazy flashback and easily one of my creepiest encounters.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_01]: This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. It wasn't until I hit my mid-30s that I really

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_01]: started to feel comfortable taking off my mask and being the real me. Just completely

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_01]: unapologetic and unashamed of my true self. I only wish I would have learned this sooner in life.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Therapy helped me learn to accept all of the little parts of myself that I was scared to get

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_01]: in touch with. I was finally able to take off my mask. After all, masks should be for Halloween fun,

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_01]: not for our emotions. Therapy worked for me and it can work for you. If you're thinking

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[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_01]: That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash not meet. Now back to the show.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_01]: This happened several years ago when I was working in a downtown jail

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_01]: in a large city as a counselor. I worked a weird late shift which ended at 2am. Needless to say,

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_01]: it was generally dark when I got off of work. This meant that most of the people on the roads

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_01]: were people who had just been out at the bars downtown until closing time.

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_01]: At this job, I interacted with inmates who were at various levels of stable and sober.

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes, some of the inmates in custody were released at the same time I was leaving work.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_01]: The garage where I parked was a couple of blocks away from the jail,

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_01]: but I was cautious when walking to my car and I didn't usually have issues.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, on this particular night, I got to my car safely and started home,

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_01]: which was about a 25 minute drive. Very quickly after I pulled out of the garage,

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I noticed a car right behind me with its high beams on.

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It followed me through downtown, onto the highway, and then exited at the same exit as I did.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't too freaked out yet since I lived off of a major road,

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_01]: but then it took every turn that I did and even pulled into my apartment complex right behind me.

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_01]: At this point, I was very concerned. But it was a big complex,

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_01]: so I just headed towards my building. Even so, the car was still right behind me.

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I used to reverse into my parking space, but the car behind me was so close that I literally

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_01]: could not. So I just pulled into my spot. The car then drove up behind me and stopped,

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_01]: blocking me in. I was so scared. I considered calling someone, but I knew that all of my

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_01]: friends were probably asleep. It was about 3am, and calling 911 felt like an overreaction.

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_01]: After thinking about my options, I finally dialed 911 on my phone,

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_01]: but didn't press the call button. Then I stepped out of my car.

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_01]: A man got out of the other car. He was tall and wearing a vest and a fedora.

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_01]: He stared at me for what felt like an eternity, even though it was probably just

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_01]: about 10 seconds. Then he got back into his car and drove away.

[00:11:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Even though I never got an explanation for why I was being followed or blocked in my parking space,

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm grateful that nothing happened. It was still one of the weirdest encounters of my life.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_01]: This was so bizarre. This is a memory that I basically turned into my own fun anecdote

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_01]: to make it less scary. But reflecting on it 11 years later, it's still scary,

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and I know how lucky I am for getting out of this situation.

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_01]: For context, I had just turned 21 and rediscovered a love for dancing,

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_01]: which made me start enjoying going to concerts and festivals. I attended my first festival at

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_01]: 20 as a volunteer and had the most amazing time meeting people. It was an unexpected

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_01]: last-minute decision to go to the festival that first year, but after having an amazing

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_01]: experience I was hooked. It's prudent to add that I was extremely naive at that age and

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_01]: obviously knew to that scene. The next year I had cut off the friends that I had gone to

[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_01]: festivals with before, but still had friends of friends that went. So even though I was going

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_01]: to my second year at that same festival, I was going solo and just camping with friends

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_01]: of friends, which I suppose was the beginning of the problem.

[00:13:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I got going kind of late, so when I got to the festival the lines to get in were extremely long.

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_01]: I had packed diligently, but the service wasn't great and I was having a hard time

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_01]: contacting the friends that I was camping with. By the time I found them and set up,

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_01]: it was dark. It was a newer but pretty large festival, and I have a really bad

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_01]: sense of direction. It didn't help that the festival took place in a different location than

[00:13:40] [SPEAKER_01]: the year prior. In future years, I learned to bring battery power packs and solar lights

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_01]: for obnoxious decorations because of this night. So I was unfamiliar with where I was camped,

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_01]: and I was unfamiliar with my surroundings in general. My ex-roommate Tom and his girlfriend

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Gina were the ones I was closest with in the group. Tom was bringing some special acid for me as a

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_01]: kind of apology for not sticking up for me in a roommate situation. We all went to the first show

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_01]: together, but we all got really high, really fast. I took too much and I knew it pretty quickly.

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So I was aware that the night was going to go sideways. But by the time I realized this,

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Tom and Gina had wandered off, leaving me completely alone. I tried to find my way to my tent,

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_01]: thinking that I would lie down for a bit and be okay, but I couldn't remember where it was,

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_01]: or how to get to it. It was dark, so I was starting to panic. Being that I was high as

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_01]: shit and didn't know where anyone was, and I didn't know how to find my campsite or anything,

[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_01]: being that I was high as shit and didn't know where anyone was, I didn't even know how to

[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_01]: find my campsite or anything. I was in a crop top and jeans shorts in the high desert at night

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_01]: time, and it was starting to get cold. I wandered over to the disco area because it was the first

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_01]: landmark I found. It had a legit disco ball and all. I was wandering around and I saw this woman

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_01]: in the most unusual clothing, almost pioneer-esque. I went to talk to her. I genuinely to this

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_01]: day don't know if this person was real, and that's how messed up I was. We ended up wandering

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_01]: around trying to find my campsite when we reached the RV slash car camp area.

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_01]: This man who was probably in his 30s was over there with glow sticks,

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_01]: and he asked if we wanted any and we said yeah. She approached him first,

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and as soon as she had a glow bracelet on her wrist, she went skipping away.

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I called out to her, but she didn't stop. The man looked at me and said are you okay?

[00:15:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you think you'll be able to find your friend? Naively, I responded. Oh, I don't really know her.

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I can't find my campsite and she was helping me. He responded,

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_01]: you remind me a lot of my little sister. I wouldn't want her running around lost like this.

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Look, my buddy and I are going to watch some of the shows and I wouldn't feel

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_01]: right leaving you. So, you could stay in his RV for a few hours and sleep it off.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I was too high, too young, and too naive to see where this could go,

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_01]: so I complied and followed him. It was fine at first. The back end was like a U-Haul that stayed

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER_01]: open. The guy I had been talking to put an album on that I had previously loved as a teenager,

[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_01]: tucked me in and left. I hadn't seen his buddy yet at this point though.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Now, fast forward, God knows how many hours. I was tripping out to this music and was actually

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_01]: getting to the point of being okay when they finally returned. For the record, I didn't

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_01]: request the music that he put on for me, and it was on a loop. Right away, the guy who told

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_01]: me that I looked like his sister climbed on top of me while I was half conscious, kissing my

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_01]: neck with his hands on me, and then the second guy joined in. I was still too high and out of it,

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_01]: but immediately told them to stop and said I wasn't in a good place for that.

[00:17:26] [SPEAKER_01]: They got angry and the one who offered to let me stay there was the most frightening.

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I saw his eyes change in that moment, and I knew that I was fucked if I couldn't get away.

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_01]: It didn't matter how high I was, I just knew that I had to get away from them.

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't recall formulating a plan, I just remember him saying,

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_01]: we helped you, now you owe us.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I then slammed my knee into his groin. I think I may have forgotten that he was on top of me at

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_01]: that point. The second man seemed a bit nervous about the whole thing and didn't do much,

[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_01]: while the other one held me down with the weight of his body.

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_01]: After that, all I remember is running for my life into the very prickly bushes,

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_01]: not knowing where I was going but desperately running away.

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I met a couple of kind souls who calmed me down, and I was completely freaking out, crying,

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_01]: covered in dirt and thorns. They gave me a safer place to stay. However, I didn't sleep at all

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_01]: that night. I was far too nervous to trust the kind strangers, but I also couldn't find my camp.

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_01]: It was only 10 yards away when I discovered it the next day.

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_01]: So to the two men who tricked me, trapped me, and would have done something inevitably bad to me,

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_01]: let's not meet again.

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[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Now back to the show. This encounter happened a little over 10 years ago. I'm a male and I was

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_01]: 26 or 27 at the time. I can't precisely remember what year this was now, but it was some time

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_01]: between 2011 and 2013. At the time, I was frequently going out with my friends to bars

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and parties and hanging out until pretty late most weekends. The friend's house that I usually hung out

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_01]: at was on a side street just off the main road where a lot of popular or crowded bars and restaurants

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_01]: were. You had to park on the street at his house and during the weekends when it was busy,

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_01]: it was pretty common to have to park a number of blocks away. The street closer to the bars

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_01]: was pretty nice, but if you went a few blocks in the opposite direction, it got a little sketchier,

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_01]: especially at night. After a night of hanging out, I had to walk back to my car pretty late,

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_01]: which was parked blocks away towards the slightly sketchier area. This was during the winter,

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_01]: so I was wearing some kind of heavy pullover and a knit beanie. This detail is only important

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_01]: since you couldn't really gather much of an idea about what I looked like from a distance in the dark,

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_01]: aside from my general height and build. There wasn't much traffic as you got further away

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_01]: from the bars and the roads were pretty dark as they were without any street lights.

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_01]: As I was walking down the sidewalk, a car started slowly creeping down the street,

[00:22:30] [SPEAKER_01]: matching my pace as it pulled up beside me before stopping entirely.

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_01]: The window of the car rolled down and the driver of the car was an attractive young woman

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_01]: who said that I looked cold and that I should let her give me a ride to where I was going.

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_01]: She seemed very friendly. I indicated that I wasn't parked very far from where we were

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_01]: and said that I appreciated the offer but I was just going to keep walking.

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_01]: She then persisted and tried very hard to convince me to get into the car with her,

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_01]: since it was quote-unquote so cold. There was no small talk for her to establish any information

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_01]: about me or at least make sure that I wasn't a weirdo. She just asked me to get into the car

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and pretty aggressively too. Based on what I was hearing, now dark it was, there was no way

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_01]: that she could really have had any idea about what I actually looked like to possibly find me

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_01]: attractive. Even if she did, I don't know many women who would pick up a male stranger after midnight

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_01]: when they were in a car alone. There were about 10 bars nearby so she could have gone to any one

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_01]: of those if she wanted to just pick up some guy. There was no reason that I could think of

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_01]: that she would have to drive around offering to pick up strangers unless something else was

[00:23:50] [SPEAKER_01]: up. She continued to drive alongside me and offered me a ride again, which I declined as I kept walking.

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I picked up my pace and she eventually drove off. As soon as she was a few blocks away,

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I quickly got to my car and made sure that there was nobody close by lurking around.

[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_01]: The whole scenario felt off and it didn't make any sense to me.

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I asked my friend about it later and all of the women agreed. They would never offer a ride to

[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_01]: a random guy at night, especially at that time in that kind of scenario, even if the guy looked

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_01]: like Ryan Gosling or Channing Tatum. My suspicion is that there was someone lying down in the

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_01]: backseat of the car just out of view. I feel like she had someone with a weapon hiding

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and waiting there to rob anyone who accepted the ride. I've never been able to figure out

[00:24:44] [SPEAKER_01]: any other logical reason as to why she would be offering rides to strange men in the middle of

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_01]: the night like that. It would be very unsafe for her to just pick up random strangers,

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_01]: especially as we were headed for a very sketchy area. There had to be something nefarious

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_01]: going on in that car and ever since I've wondered what might have happened

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_01]: to anyone who decided to just hop into that car with her.

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_01]: This happened when my friend, who I'll call Robert and I, spent the day in the city

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_01]: a few hours from our own. We had just spent a day at an event in which we both practically

[00:25:35] [SPEAKER_01]: participated and we had a blast. After the event, we decided to go out and get dinner with the

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_01]: group of our friends and ended up staying in the city almost until midnight before we decided

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_01]: that we should probably head back home. The drive home was uneventful for most of the way.

[00:25:51] [SPEAKER_01]: The roads in between the two cities are very rural, with only a few small towns between the two.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Since it was dark, we spent most of the drive looking for animals that might run out into the

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_01]: road while chatting with each other. As we got fairly close to Robert's house,

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_01]: we saw a car parked on the opposite side of the road facing the wrong way.

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_01]: There was a man walking next to it. The car in front of us just so happened to be an ambulance

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_01]: which stopped to try and help the man. As we drove by, I made eye contact with the man

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_01]: walking on the road but we continued on our way and I didn't think anything of it.

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_01]: We drove for another 20-30 minutes before turning onto the access road to get Robert's

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_01]: house. As we got farther up the road, we noticed another car had turned onto the road behind us.

[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Robert lives in a gated community so we had to turn onto the driveway so that we could get through

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_01]: the gate. This was when we noticed that the car that had turned before also turned again

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and was now right behind us. As we pulled up to the gate, Robert opened it and drove through.

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_01]: The car behind us had also managed to make it through before the gate closed.

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Neither of us even thought that we were being followed until this point,

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_01]: but even then we just joked about it. We then drove for a while inside of this

[00:27:16] [SPEAKER_01]: fairly huge neighborhood and we noticed that his car was still behind us.

[00:27:23] [SPEAKER_01]: The route we took was a large curve so we figured he should have turned off by now.

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_01]: As we got close to his house, we decided to keep going as the road would loop around,

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_01]: thus helping us confirm that we were being followed. At that point, we called my friend's dad who had

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_01]: just watched us drive by with the car behind us. As we came around the loop, we had come to the

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_01]: realization that we were actually being followed. Robert then started driving much quicker

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_01]: through the neighborhood and the car behind us also sped up. We were going about 55 miles per hour

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER_01]: on these small roads, but the other car kept up. We drove for a while before we decided to

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_01]: head to the front gate which had a 24-hour security guard. And we still weren't sure if

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_01]: the person following us had a key fob to open the gate or not. We left the neighborhood

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_01]: and pulled a U-turn back to the front gate. We were still driving very fast at this point and

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_01]: to anyone who might have been watching, it should have been apparent that we were being chased.

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_01]: As we came back to the front gate, Robert was able to open it in a way where we couldn't be

[00:28:36] [SPEAKER_01]: followed in. But as we turned the corner, we saw the gate opening again and the car

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_01]: that had been following us drove in as well. This is where we made a huge mistake.

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_01]: We turned down a road without realizing it was a cul-de-sac. As soon as we noticed our mistake,

[00:28:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Robert was able to flip the car around so we could get out of there.

[00:29:01] [SPEAKER_01]: As we drove by the car, I made eye contact with the driver but

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_01]: could barely see his face. When we turned out of the cul-de-sac,

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_01]: we turned off the lights and booked it. After that, we finally managed to shake him

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_01]: and get to Robert's house. We waited at Robert's house for the police to arrive and shortly after

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_01]: an officer arrived, he got a call on the radio. A few minutes later, two more police cars showed up

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and we were informed that they found the car. It turns out, the man who had followed us was

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_01]: the same guy we had passed on the side of the road an hour earlier. When police first

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_01]: made contact with him, he refused to speak and didn't look like he was in a right state of mind.

[00:29:44] [SPEAKER_01]: As the traffic stopped preceding, he began threatening officers.

[00:29:48] [SPEAKER_01]: We later found out that he was an unstable veteran from a couple of states over and had no reason

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_01]: to be anywhere close to where we were. The man had broken the back gate when he followed us in

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and worst of all, the guy at the front gate whose only job was to not let people

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_01]: in if they didn't have a fob, let this guy in after we had just sped past him.

[00:30:12] [SPEAKER_01]: He was fired by the security company shortly after this. Looking back on this,

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_01]: there is only one thing I would have changed. I would have called the police sooner but

[00:30:23] [SPEAKER_01]: the adrenaline in the moment clouded our judgment. I probably go to the grocery

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[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_01]: This happened to me in the fall of 2020. My friend who will call Jay and I were on our way

[00:32:17] [SPEAKER_01]: from New York City to Michigan since we were hired to do a couple of vinyl flooring jobs.

[00:32:23] [SPEAKER_01]: We also planned to scout some potential properties to purchase and then renovate and flip.

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_01]: We were using his work truck for the trip which was a Ford F-150. We decided to leave in the

[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_01]: evening and drive all through the night to get to our destination. We were on I-80,

[00:32:41] [SPEAKER_01]: which varies in size as it stretches across the entire U.S. We were on this part of I-80 that passes

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_01]: through the mountains of Pennsylvania which is a two-lane highway. This highway is far from safe.

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_01]: It's elevated in mountainous terrain and there are constant turns and it sneaks around a lot.

[00:33:02] [SPEAKER_01]: If you take the turns too sharply and go through the guardrail,

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_01]: you'll end up flying down into the darkness of a ditch.

[00:33:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, I was driving while Jay was trying to get some sleep. I stopped at a service plaza

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_01]: to refuel and went into the shop to get some drinks and snacks for the road.

[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a little past midnight and I noticed one other car refueling a few pumps away from us.

[00:33:28] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a red or burgundy SUV, probably a Mazda or Suzuki. In any case, I didn't pay it

[00:33:34] [SPEAKER_01]: or the driver any mind and I ran back to the truck.

[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_01]: About 30 minutes later, as I was back on I-80, I was cruising in the left lane doing 90.

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I then noticed the headlights behind us and they were from the same red SUV at the service plaza.

[00:33:53] [SPEAKER_01]: At first, I didn't think anything of it, but then it dawned on me that this guy had been

[00:33:59] [SPEAKER_01]: following me since the service plaza. I decided to do a quick test to see if I was

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_01]: genuinely being tailed or not. Since I had been doing 90 consistently,

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I slowed down to 70 and waited to see if he would pass me.

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_01]: This guy also slowed down, so that put me on alert.

[00:34:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I woke up Jay and told him about the situation.

[00:34:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Bro, I think this guy is following us. I explained.

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_01]: My friend Jay is an ex-army ranger who was a lot more vigilant than I am and he's also

[00:34:32] [SPEAKER_01]: a little bolder. He immediately replied,

[00:34:37] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the car from the gas station. I noticed the driver was looking at you extra hard when

[00:34:41] [SPEAKER_01]: you passed him. Switch lanes and we'll see what he does.

[00:34:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So I switched lanes and so did the SUV. Jay continued,

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, now slow down to a stop and pull over on the shoulder. Let's see what he does.

[00:34:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I listened to Jay and slowed down to a complete stop on the shoulder of the highway.

[00:35:00] [SPEAKER_01]: The guy as expected slowed down and parked behind us.

[00:35:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, this guy has a lot of balls. I bet he definitely has a gun on him. Jay remarked.

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Then Jay said, Okay, I have an idea. Pull back onto the road and gun it to 90.

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Before tearing back onto the highway, I took stock of what we had in the truck that could be used as a

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_01]: weapon. We had a hatchet and a machete and each of us had a folding knife on us but no firearms.

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I then pulled off of the shoulder and stayed in the right lane as I pressed down on the gas as

[00:35:37] [SPEAKER_01]: hard as I could. Jay's plan was to essentially break check the guy so that he'd crash into

[00:35:43] [SPEAKER_01]: the back of us. Then we were going to hop out and charge at his car with a machete and a hatchet

[00:35:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and hope for the best. As we continued gunning it down the highway, he continued to follow.

[00:35:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Jay looked around inside of the truck, grabbed a high powered handheld spotlight,

[00:36:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and opened the back window of the truck.

[00:36:03] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, I'm gonna light his ass up and see if we can get a good look at him. Jay said.

[00:36:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Then he turned the spotlight on and guess what? The guy's front windows were so heavily tented

[00:36:14] [SPEAKER_01]: that we couldn't even get a look at his face with the spotlight.

[00:36:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna switch lanes, I said. See if you can aim at the side windows, maybe they aren't tented.

[00:36:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I then quickly swerved into the left lane and as I did so, Jay turned the spotlight on again

[00:36:29] [SPEAKER_01]: and I made sure to turn my head toward the SUV exactly as this was happening.

[00:36:34] [SPEAKER_01]: We only had him illuminated for a few seconds, but I'll never forget what this guy looked like.

[00:36:42] [SPEAKER_01]: He was tall, maybe 6'3", since he was hunched over the steering wheel. He had the face of

[00:36:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Uncle Fester from the Adams family and the hair of Cramer from Seinfeld. He also had a 5 o'clock

[00:36:55] [SPEAKER_01]: shadow. Once he saw that I wasn't alone, he abruptly turned into a rest stop. To this

[00:37:01] [SPEAKER_01]: day, we still get into a debate about whether I should have break-checked the guy or not.

[00:37:07] [SPEAKER_01]: He was under the impression that the guy was some kind of serial killer who ended up finding another

[00:37:11] [SPEAKER_01]: victim instead of being killed by us. I've analyzed the situation and concluded that

[00:37:17] [SPEAKER_01]: this guy's intentions were evil. How evil? Robbery at the minimum, kidnapping or murder

[00:37:23] [SPEAKER_01]: at the worst. Thank God I never found out. This happened when I was in college during

[00:37:47] [SPEAKER_01]: the summer. I was back home and working. My boyfriend was also home for the summer.

[00:37:52] [SPEAKER_01]: He was working as well, and he was living with his parents about an hour and a half away.

[00:37:57] [SPEAKER_01]: We finally had a rare day where neither of us needed to work. So,

[00:38:01] [SPEAKER_01]: he drove me so that we could spend the day together.

[00:38:04] [SPEAKER_01]: We were saving money for the upcoming school year, so we tried not to spend too much money,

[00:38:10] [SPEAKER_01]: which ended up meaning we ate lunch and dinner with my family at my house.

[00:38:15] [SPEAKER_01]: After dinner, we wanted to get some time alone as a couple, so we decided to pick up some root beer

[00:38:21] [SPEAKER_01]: floats at Sonic and drive out to a local skate park where young couples like to hang out.

[00:38:28] [SPEAKER_01]: We parked and walked out to one of the little covered picnic tables that were situated in the

[00:38:33] [SPEAKER_01]: woods. While the parking lot was well lit due to how thick the woods were, it was quite dark

[00:38:40] [SPEAKER_01]: sitting at the picnic table, but we had hung out there late into the night before and always felt

[00:38:45] [SPEAKER_01]: pretty safe. However, another couple emerged from the woods and started making out as they

[00:38:51] [SPEAKER_01]: leaned against the other end of our table which made me feel a bit nervous, so my boyfriend and I

[00:38:57] [SPEAKER_01]: left the table and got into his pickup. My boyfriend turned on the radio and we sat in

[00:39:02] [SPEAKER_01]: silence attempting to eat our ice cream before too much of it melted. It was hot outside,

[00:39:08] [SPEAKER_01]: so we had the windows rolled down. After a bit, the couple that we had seen prior came out of the

[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_01]: woods and left. Then, as I looked around, I realized something odd. Although there were normally at

[00:39:20] [SPEAKER_01]: least half a dozen vehicles parked in this particular lot on any evening, we were now

[00:39:26] [SPEAKER_01]: the only vehicle in sight. Even so, I didn't think anything of it and continued drinking my

[00:39:32] [SPEAKER_01]: root beer float. Then, suddenly, I got the worst feeling. You know that feeling when the hair stands

[00:39:38] [SPEAKER_01]: up on the back of your neck and you can just feel somebody looking at you when you thought you were

[00:39:44] [SPEAKER_01]: alone? It started like that, but it got progressively worse. I had the distinct feeling that I

[00:39:52] [SPEAKER_01]: needed to run in the pit of my stomach. I started looking around and realized that my boyfriend

[00:39:57] [SPEAKER_01]: was also nervously looking around at the same time that I was. I asked him if he had a bad feeling and

[00:40:04] [SPEAKER_01]: his reply was an empathetic yes, and he immediately started the truck and began to drive out of the

[00:40:10] [SPEAKER_01]: park. Since we were facing into the park, we had to make a U turn. As we passed by the area where

[00:40:17] [SPEAKER_01]: we had been parked, a man stepped out of the edge of the woods. About a week later, there

[00:40:22] [SPEAKER_01]: were bodies found in the woods just past where we had been sitting at that exact picnic table.

[00:40:27] [SPEAKER_01]: When the crime was eventually solved, authorities revealed that a man was living in a shack on the

[00:40:33] [SPEAKER_01]: property and working as a maintenance worker for the park. He had murdered people at that park,

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and when his photo was printed in the newspaper, I realized he was the same man

[00:40:45] [SPEAKER_01]: that we had seen stepping out of the woods and watching us leave.

[00:41:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Seattle, Washington, don't miss out on tickets for this week's show. I'm coming back to

[00:41:05] [SPEAKER_01]: the triple door for a night of scary stories and a few laughs on Wednesday, October 9th.

[00:41:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Then I'll be in Salt Lake City for our rescheduled show on October 23rd at Metro Music Hall.

[00:41:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Remember if you purchased tickets for the original date last month,

[00:41:20] [SPEAKER_01]: you've been refunded and you can now get them for the new date.

[00:41:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Don't wait till the day of the show and end up paying extra. Get them now.

[00:41:27] [SPEAKER_01]: After that, I'm going to Houston, Texas on November 9th at The Secret Group

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER_01]: and then Dallas, Texas on November 10th at Deep Ellum Art Company.

[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Tickets are available at letstotmeetpodcast.com slash tour or just follow the links in the show notes.

[00:41:40] [SPEAKER_01]: These are very intimate and special occasions with stories you aren't going to hear on the

[00:41:45] [SPEAKER_01]: regular show. You're not going to want to miss it. I'll see you there.

[00:42:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Let me start by saying that the story I'm going to share happened almost exactly four years ago.

[00:42:09] [SPEAKER_01]: There are a lot of things that I do not remember so some of the information was told to me by others

[00:42:15] [SPEAKER_01]: after the fact. That being said, everything is true and this actually happened to me.

[00:42:22] [SPEAKER_01]: In 2020, during the start of the pandemic, I moved into a very cool,

[00:42:27] [SPEAKER_01]: old second floor apartment on my town square. It was the first time I had ever lived completely

[00:42:34] [SPEAKER_01]: alone in my entire life and I was truly in love with the peace.

[00:42:40] [SPEAKER_01]: One day in late July, I left to go shopping so I locked my apartment. This is something that

[00:42:47] [SPEAKER_01]: my mother ingrained into me from my childhood. I never left my doors or windows unlocked.

[00:42:55] [SPEAKER_01]: When I got home from shopping, I noticed a few things weren't where I left them.

[00:42:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I mentioned this to my cousin Michelle and told her that I thought someone may have been

[00:43:04] [SPEAKER_01]: in my apartment when I was gone. After discussing it with her, we came to the conclusion that I

[00:43:09] [SPEAKER_01]: must have simply forgotten that I had moved the items myself and I didn't think about it again.

[00:43:15] [SPEAKER_01]: A couple of nights later, I was watching some scary movies at about two in the morning

[00:43:20] [SPEAKER_01]: when I decided to get ready for bed. I remember walking into my bathroom to change

[00:43:24] [SPEAKER_01]: into pajamas and do my nightly routine. That's the last thing I remember until I woke up the next day.

[00:43:31] [SPEAKER_01]: When I got out of bed the next morning, I immediately noticed something wrong with

[00:43:36] [SPEAKER_01]: the clothes that I had on. I was wearing those PJ shorts that had drawstrings around the waist.

[00:43:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I always tied the drawstrings to make the shorts fit, but when I stood up,

[00:43:48] [SPEAKER_01]: the drawstrings looked like they had been broken. The drawstrings were still tied,

[00:43:53] [SPEAKER_01]: but my shorts were practically falling off of me. I told myself I must have moved around a lot

[00:43:59] [SPEAKER_01]: when I was sleeping, which must have made the drawstrings snap or something. I brushed it off

[00:44:05] [SPEAKER_01]: and headed to the bathroom for my morning routine. When I walked by my bathroom mirror,

[00:44:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I turned to look at myself and I didn't register that anything was wrong,

[00:44:14] [SPEAKER_01]: but I felt strange. I felt all out of sorts, I guess you could say, even more so than

[00:44:21] [SPEAKER_01]: usual after I first woke up. The longer I was awake, the stranger I started to feel.

[00:44:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I noticed that I had a headache and my vision was kind of blurry.

[00:44:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I went to grab my phone from the nightstand to check and see what time it was,

[00:44:37] [SPEAKER_01]: but I forgot to plug it in and charge it before going to bed because my phone was dead.

[00:44:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So I took my phone to the living room, found the charger and plugged it in.

[00:44:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I stood there and waited for my phone to come on. When it finally did,

[00:44:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I was completely shocked to see that it was four o'clock in the afternoon.

[00:44:58] [SPEAKER_01]: This was highly unusual for me because no matter what time I go to bed,

[00:45:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I usually wake up at around seven or eight in the morning.

[00:45:08] [SPEAKER_01]: This was when I began to feel slightly panicked. Like I said, it wasn't normal for me.

[00:45:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I began rubbing my face in my hands and that's when I felt that there was something wrong with my face.

[00:45:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I ran back to the bathroom mirror and this time when I looked,

[00:45:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I discovered my vision was so blurry that I could hardly see my face,

[00:45:30] [SPEAKER_01]: no matter how close I got to the mirror. It felt like I was looking through a dense fog

[00:45:36] [SPEAKER_01]: or like when you take a super hot shower and the mirror fogs over.

[00:45:40] [SPEAKER_01]: This was when I realized something was very wrong with me.

[00:45:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I was disoriented and confused so I walked back to my living room to check and see if my phone

[00:45:50] [SPEAKER_01]: was charged enough so that I could call a family member or have a friend come over.

[00:45:55] [SPEAKER_01]: The phone was only at five percent, so I kept it plugged in as I tried my cousin Michelle

[00:46:00] [SPEAKER_01]: or my son. When I picked the phone up, I just stared at it.

[00:46:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't remember how to use my phone to call or text anyone.

[00:46:11] [SPEAKER_01]: It's tough to explain, it's like I knew how to use my phone but for some reason I didn't have the

[00:46:17] [SPEAKER_01]: ability. I was beginning to get very upset and scared but most of all I felt frustrated because

[00:46:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I knew that I knew how to use this phone but my brain could not register what I needed to do at all.

[00:46:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Soon after this a flood of messages and missed calls came through.

[00:46:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I was finally able to text a friend and tell them that I was having some sort of emergency.

[00:46:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I let him know that I needed him to contact my sister to get someone to come to my apartment

[00:46:45] [SPEAKER_01]: as soon as possible. My sister lives in an independent living facility because she

[00:46:50] [SPEAKER_01]: was born with cerebral palsy and can't walk. She relies on a wheelchair to get around

[00:46:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and while I knew she would not be able to physically help me,

[00:46:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I knew she could get a hold of my son.

[00:47:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Meanwhile, I was becoming more confused the longer I was awake but thankfully my sister

[00:47:09] [SPEAKER_01]: had gotten a hold of my son and he was on his way. I figured I should probably go downstairs

[00:47:14] [SPEAKER_01]: to unlock the door to the stairway so I just sat on the steps and inched my way down to

[00:47:19] [SPEAKER_01]: unlock the door. It turns out it was already unlocked but in my confused state I accidentally

[00:47:26] [SPEAKER_01]: locked the door so then I went back upstairs the same way I went by sitting and inching my way back up.

[00:47:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Soon I received a call from my son telling me that the door was locked and he couldn't get inside

[00:47:41] [SPEAKER_01]: so I had to repeat that entire process all over again.

[00:47:44] [SPEAKER_01]: When I finally opened the door for my son, he was there along with his girlfriend and my

[00:47:49] [SPEAKER_01]: seven month old granddaughter. My son took one look at me and his eyes widened in shock.

[00:47:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus Christ Mother, what happened to your face? He asked. I didn't have any idea what he was talking

[00:48:01] [SPEAKER_01]: about so I went back to my bathroom mirror and discovered a horrific sight. I had a goose egg in

[00:48:07] [SPEAKER_01]: the middle of my forehead the size of a tennis ball. My right eye was completely swollen shut

[00:48:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and I had one hell of a black eye. My left eye was partially swollen as well.

[00:48:19] [SPEAKER_01]: This certainly explained all the confusion, the headache, the blurry vision I was experiencing

[00:48:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and why I slept for 14 hours straight. I informed my son of everything I had done.

[00:48:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I told him everything that I could remember from before getting ready to go to bed the

[00:48:36] [SPEAKER_01]: night before but I did leave out the detail that the drawstring on my shorts was somehow snapped.

[00:48:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Michelle also showed up and told me that I needed to go to the ER and get checked out.

[00:48:50] [SPEAKER_01]: We kept discovering other injuries besides the goose egg and black eye.

[00:48:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I had bruises in the shape of large fingerprints on my upper arms. They were certainly not my own.

[00:49:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm tiny, five foot tall, about 117 pounds. It sort of looked like someone was standing

[00:49:08] [SPEAKER_01]: in front of me, facing me and had grabbed my arms to lift me or shake me.

[00:49:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Then we noticed I had red marks around both of my wrists and my ankles.

[00:49:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I also had rug burn type injuries on my shins and knees.

[00:49:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I was still very confused as I was taken to our local hospital's ER which is truly nothing

[00:49:30] [SPEAKER_01]: more than a glorified first aid station. The on-call nurse practitioner kept asking me what

[00:49:36] [SPEAKER_01]: happened even though I kept telling her I have no idea. All I managed to suggest was maybe I fell

[00:49:43] [SPEAKER_01]: or something like that. She then asked if I was in a relationship with someone and I informed her

[00:49:49] [SPEAKER_01]: that I was single and was not seeing anyone at the time. She didn't believe me and had another

[00:49:56] [SPEAKER_01]: nurse on-site call the police. I was in a very confused state so I understood why she didn't

[00:50:02] [SPEAKER_01]: believe me. But then she said, well if you can't remember what happened there's nothing much I can

[00:50:08] [SPEAKER_01]: do but I can tell you with 100% certainty that you did not cause these injuries someone did this to you.

[00:50:16] [SPEAKER_01]: The police never came to talk to me and I was discharged into the care of Michelle.

[00:50:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't be left alone due to my condition so it was arranged that I would be staying

[00:50:27] [SPEAKER_01]: the night with Michelle and her mom, my aunt Kay. I was told if I started getting nauseated,

[00:50:34] [SPEAKER_01]: began vomiting or my confusion and headache worsened to call an ambulance immediately.

[00:50:40] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's exactly what ended up happening two hours later.

[00:50:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I was horribly dizzy and I had tried to eat something because by this time it had been

[00:50:51] [SPEAKER_01]: over 24 hours since I had eaten. But after they got me something to eat, I began hallucinating.

[00:50:59] [SPEAKER_01]: At first it was just auditory hallucinations. I was sitting with my aunt Kay in her bed watching TV.

[00:51:07] [SPEAKER_01]: When all of a sudden I noticed that the movie we were watching had completely different dialogue

[00:51:12] [SPEAKER_01]: than I remember being in this particular movie then the characters in the movie began

[00:51:18] [SPEAKER_01]: speaking to me directly. I don't remember what they were saying specifically but I kept

[00:51:23] [SPEAKER_01]: glancing between the TV and my aunt to see if she was hearing the same thing.

[00:51:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I was totally aware that I was hallucinating but I had absolutely no control over it.

[00:51:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Then the paranoia started when my daughter called to check on me. She lives in a different

[00:51:40] [SPEAKER_01]: town and even though I was on the phone with her I was convinced that she along with

[00:51:44] [SPEAKER_01]: several other family members were all outside at the house talking about me.

[00:51:49] [SPEAKER_01]: That's when I started to throw up so my cousin called 911. When the ambulance showed up the

[00:51:56] [SPEAKER_01]: police showed up as well and they were talking to my cousin. When they asked me which hospital

[00:52:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to go to, I told them the name and my cousin who knew me very well knew I would

[00:52:06] [SPEAKER_01]: never ask to go to this particular hospital which is another story for another time. However,

[00:52:13] [SPEAKER_01]: since I was so insistent and seemed with it enough to the paramedics, that's where they took me.

[00:52:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I wish they had listened to Michelle. Since this happened incredibly late at night and the hospital

[00:52:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I was taken to was 25 minutes away no one in my family met me at the hospital.

[00:52:32] [SPEAKER_01]: The hospital didn't even try to call my family for information. I don't remember what I did

[00:52:37] [SPEAKER_01]: or what I said to anyone after that. I was so confused and hallucinating so much

[00:52:42] [SPEAKER_01]: that it must have been pretty bad as I was committed to the hospital's

[00:52:45] [SPEAKER_01]: psych floor for a traumatic brain injury for 11 days. That's also another story for another time.

[00:52:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I still to this day have no recollection of what happened to me but I honestly don't want to

[00:53:00] [SPEAKER_01]: remember seeing as all of the medical professionals and my own healthcare providers who saw my

[00:53:07] [SPEAKER_01]: injuries say that I had to have been attacked by someone. It's scary to think of all the

[00:53:14] [SPEAKER_01]: possibilities was someone hiding in my house that night without me knowing could it have been one of

[00:53:20] [SPEAKER_01]: the carnival workers I saw working around the town square earlier that day or worse was it

[00:53:26] [SPEAKER_01]: someone I know and still have in my life I have no idea which is worse not knowing at all

[00:53:33] [SPEAKER_01]: or having the memories of it forever. Thanks for listening I've been very reluctant to share this

[00:53:39] [SPEAKER_01]: story but I also found that writing out all the details that I can remember was very therapeutic.

[00:53:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for listening and stick around after the music for your extended ad-free version

[00:53:57] [SPEAKER_01]: of this week's episode if you're a patron. If you'd like to sign up and get access

[00:54:00] [SPEAKER_01]: head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up and support the

[00:54:05] [SPEAKER_01]: show today where you'll get access to ad-free versions of all of our episodes at a higher

[00:54:09] [SPEAKER_01]: bit rate and hours and hours of bonus content with stories you won't hear anywhere else again

[00:54:15] [SPEAKER_01]: that's patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast this week you have heard the time I was

[00:54:20] [SPEAKER_01]: almost kidnapped by sanford 0704 followed home from jail by silent t9788 post disco psychos who

[00:54:30] [SPEAKER_01]: attacked me by brilliant bex 1992 a young woman tried to lure me into her car late at night

[00:54:37] [SPEAKER_01]: by will droid we were followed by diet mr cupcake to highway hunting grounds by vor uk r i think i was

[00:54:47] [SPEAKER_01]: almost murdered by my then boyfriend by silly old bears and finally i was attacked but i don't

[00:54:53] [SPEAKER_01]: remember anything about it by morbid effin lidia all of the stories you've heard this week

[00:54:59] [SPEAKER_01]: were narrated and produced with the permission of the respective authors let's not meet a true

[00:55:05] [SPEAKER_01]: horror podcast is not associated with reddit or any of the message boards online make sure you

[00:55:09] [SPEAKER_01]: send your stories to let's not meet stories at gmail.com to hear them on the show and finally

[00:55:15] [SPEAKER_01]: make sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like odd trails my true paranormal

[00:55:20] [SPEAKER_01]: podcast cryptic encounters and the old-time radio cast at cryptic county podcasts dot com

[00:55:26] [SPEAKER_01]: or wherever you get your podcasts also you can get tickets for all the live shows at let's

[00:55:31] [SPEAKER_01]: not meet podcast dot com slash tour i'll be in seattle washington salt lake city utah portland

[00:55:37] [SPEAKER_01]: oregon then houston and dallas texas get the tickets at the links in the show notes i'll see

[00:55:42] [SPEAKER_01]: you all next week everybody stay safe