4x17: Berlin Bicycle Man - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:00] This was my very first apartment, so I was excited to be in it. I'm a 22 year old female. My freshman year, I had lived in the dorms on campus and before that, I lived with my mom. So I had never really lived on my own before.

[00:00:40] The apartment was a two bath, two bedroom and I shared it with a friend who I had known since we were 13. I had just turned 20 when this all happened though. Josh, he was my absolute best friend and it was his first year at university so naturally

[00:00:57] I was like, oh my god, I'll show you around and we did everything together. Fast forward to the homecoming football game. We attend a university that's crazy into football and we're actually a pretty good team. So the homecoming game is a big deal to everyone.

[00:01:18] Josh was so excited to go out because it was his first homecoming game. He planned to go with this boy that he had started flirting with and he wanted me to come along. I don't really remember why I didn't want to go, I just didn't.

[00:01:33] Josh was mad at me. We said some dumb stuff to each other and he left. So I was alone for the rest of the night. I had and still do have a small dog named Poppy. She was around a year old at the time.

[00:01:51] We actually had a pretty relaxing night in the beginning. I took a shower, put on a face mask and Poppy and I just watched TV in bed. I remember listening to a song on repeat the entire day because that's what I do when I

[00:02:05] find a song that I like. To this day, I still can't listen to it without being reminded of this story. We went to sleep around 10pm. I wasn't keeping up with what was going on on the football game.

[00:02:21] So I really have no idea if it just ended or whatever but I knew not to expect Josh home early because he was going out with a guy that he was seeing, Dylan afterwards.

[00:02:34] There is a strip of bars along the main roads running towards the campus and that's probably where they would be. That's where everyone would be after the game ended. I don't know what time it was but I woke up to my cabinets being slammed and some very

[00:02:54] loud noises. It was really dark in my room and the only thing that I could see was the kitchen lights. They were on. I saw the light coming through the bottom of my door. It sounded like people were going through our kitchen cabinets one by one.

[00:03:14] Poppy was at the edge of the bed and began barking like a crazy dog. I had never seen her act like this. I was struggling to keep myself awake because I'm a really heavy sleeper but not anymore.

[00:03:29] I knew it wasn't Josh and Dylan but some stupid part of me decided to call out, hello? But it was a weak sounding hello and I really don't know if they heard me or not. Suddenly my bedroom door opened. I shot up.

[00:03:52] Poppy was snarling and trying to lunge at this stranger in my fucking bedroom. I couldn't see anything because the light from the door was blinding. I just saw this figure. He was wearing a hoodie and he stood there for maybe 15 seconds and I was just staring at him.

[00:04:15] The whole time Poppy was trying to fuck him up, he quickly closed my door and I don't know why but I just didn't move. I wanted to move but I couldn't. Then my door flings open a second time and we're staring face to face again for the

[00:04:37] same painfully long amount of time. My heart was racing and I remember thinking, he's going to hurt me. Now that I look back, I should have screamed or something. Poppy was at the very edge of the bed now, vicious and snarling. She sounded like a big dog honestly.

[00:05:01] Then he slammed the door shut. As soon as he did, I jumped out of bed and locked the door. I heard them take my car keys. I was terrified that they would find my car and steal it since it had been parked directly outside.

[00:05:17] I frantically called 911 and was sobbing the whole time. I said, someone is in my house. They came into my room. Please help. It took them 30 minutes to get there. When I finally came out, the living room, my roommate's bedroom, they were both completely ransacked.

[00:05:38] My roommate's TV was on the floor because they tried to carry it out, but I guess just decided to leave it. They stole my Xboxes and all my games. They stole my book bag with my textbooks and my homework. There were two policemen.

[00:05:55] I told them everything and asked if I could call my roommate. Josh picked up the phone but was heavily slurring and I could tell that he was inside of a bar and could barely hear me.

[00:06:07] I just screamed, please give Dylan the phone, hoping that Dylan was at least more sober than Josh was. So Josh put Dylan on the phone and I don't know how but through my tears and sobs and

[00:06:20] through the screaming people and the house music, he heard me say that our apartment was robbed and he frantically said, we're coming and hung up. While I was waiting for them, one of the policemen asked if he could try to take prints

[00:06:38] from my roommate's TV and I agreed. He proceeded to then drop his flashlight directly on the screen. As it shattered, he looked at me. Really? So then Josh and Dylan get back and the policemen totally change their tone.

[00:06:55] They get aggressive and say that we were targeted for some reason. I'm pretty sure that since it was homecoming, the robbers were just not expecting me to be there and were trying to just rob apartments blindly.

[00:07:09] We also lived on the ground floor so it's easier to get in those than in the two-story or three-story apartments. Josh is in the military but Josh looked like any other regular college freshman boy and his only friends at the time were literally me and Dylan.

[00:07:27] So we were the only ones that knew he was in the military. They tried to accuse Josh of stashing guns and drugs everywhere and that's why he got robbed. I literally said, are you fucking kidding me?

[00:07:41] They then tried to pull me aside and say that Josh hired people to come rob his own apartment while I was inside. They asked me, how do you know these guys? I said, sir, I've known Josh since we were 13. We moved here together to attend university.

[00:07:57] They just gave me a look. When they left, we got our locks immediately changed. And then I had to take the next day off of school to drive to the nearest Nissan dealership 30 minutes away and wait for seven hours for them to rewire a key fob for me.

[00:08:14] To the men who robbed me, let's not meet again for your sake because I'm older and angry and I have defense weapons now and won't be afraid to kick your ass. And to the cops who accused my roommate of robbing his own apartment, let's not meet

[00:08:29] again and I hope you got fired because yes, I did report both of you. I wonder if this happened because of karma. I had gone to a popular cafe and I left in a hurry after being ignored and dismissed

[00:08:56] for an hour with a hungry almost two year old while a couple who arrived after me were served wine, lunch and dinner. I just up and left without canceling my order. Well, a few minutes later, I'm pushing the pram through the busy gardens.

[00:09:12] Everyone else with kids in their bike baby seats. Obviously this flagged me as a tourist, but I didn't know that. A man rides up alongside me. Conversation goes like this. Hi, what a cute baby. Uh, thanks. Rose glasses on. I mean, he is damn cute.

[00:09:34] He says, where are you from? Sydney. How about you? I asked because he has an obvious non-German accent, possibly Middle Eastern. He pulls the bike up in front of me, stops and gets off. He says, excuse me, I have a question. Yes. I said smiling.

[00:09:57] He produces a knife and says money. When I say produces, I mean he stands in front of my son and gestures at him about 50 centimeters away from him. Me. No. The man steps forward now 30 centimeters from my son and moves the knife towards my son's

[00:10:23] stomach for some bizarre reason. I feel kind of safe because I have the pram as a barrier between him and me, but my son is definitely not safe. There's no one within 500 meters despite being 4pm on a Friday.

[00:10:43] For context, I worked in a trauma hospital and treated stab victims. I instantly flashed back to the 21 paraplegic who was intervening to stop a woman from being harassed and was stabbed in the back.

[00:10:58] A 30 year old with a permanent stomach bag to poo out of after a similar incident. My mind says, give him the money. Oh shit. How much have I got? Probably not enough. If I turn to get my backpack, he might stab my son.

[00:11:19] As I'm thinking this, my mouth takes over and completely out of my control, I start screaming the most vile abuse to ever come out of my mouth. Cursing at him. Asking how dare you? Who does this to a mother with a child?

[00:11:37] He gets on his bike and rides away. I still screaming, grab the pram and I run after him. Full of adrenaline. Talking to the police later, they say they have 6 bikes in the park at all times trying to catch the gang who normally attacks groups of 2.

[00:12:00] Obviously I was such a vulnerable target, they thought that 1 would be fine. Police said that this was the first time they had threatened a kid. I call my dickhead ex overseas who is a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and 6 foot 1 and

[00:12:18] totally would have protected us if he hadn't run off with his mistress when my son was only 3 weeks old. He says, why are you wasting your time talking to the police? Our son needs to have dinner and go to bed, not thanks for protecting our son or that

[00:12:32] sounds horrible. Are you ok? One of the worst things about it is that the guy looked like a member of one of the very unpopular refugee groups in Germany at the time and I'm pro letting in refugees.

[00:12:48] I just kept thinking, you're totally spoiling it for everyone who legitimately needs to have a better, safer life here and elsewhere in Europe. Fast forward a few months and I'm camping with my son on a Sunday night back home.

[00:13:04] The campground has emptied out and we're in the middle of a previously busy paddock far away from two other groups. It's night time and the entrance gates have been locked for several hours so day visitors should have left by now. There are heaps of signs saying so.

[00:13:26] A car drives up the hill heading straight towards us. It stops. Two men are inside. One starts to get out of his car to come towards me and as he does, he says in an eerily, creepy, similar manner and tone, excuse me, I have a question.

[00:13:50] Alarm bells go off like crazy and I start screaming at them to fuck off and he starts to protest but I threaten to call the police and they drive off.

[00:14:03] I call my dad crying and he says, I hope your son doesn't learn that this is how you treat people when they want to speak to you. Try being a short petite woman, a lone protector of a toddler, previously never scared of anything

[00:14:18] and now panics when people approach me camping alone in a paddock. I still don't know if I overreacted or if my senses protected me. So bike men in Berlin who threatened to stab my almost two year old and caused me to be

[00:14:36] very fearful of strangers when before I was always up for a chat, let's not meet. I moved to Sandbach in Cheshire, England around three or four years ago with an ex.

[00:14:57] He and I had broken up at this point and we were just friends living in a house together that we rented. Everything was great, we weren't hostile towards each other and we found out we were better friends than in a relationship.

[00:15:11] I started going out to bars and local shops to make friends and see if anyone was as lonely as I was by this point. I had moved from Chelsea, London to be with my ex and I didn't know anyone there. This was when I met Craig.

[00:15:28] He and I became best friends quickly. He was a little odd, had family in the area and his own flat. So my ex moved away back in with his family and I couldn't afford the rent on my own

[00:15:42] so Craig and I rented our own house where his dad lived. His dad would be a five minute drive away from the house where we were settled at. He and I were just best friends, we didn't do anything romantically, sexually and he

[00:15:58] always had a few poor girls in tow. He would tell each of them that they were the one for him, he loved them, etc. He had seven girls on the go at one point. I started seeing this guy Jay.

[00:16:14] He would stay over a few times and eventually would become my boyfriend. Craig hated it. We would often argue about him. Why would he care anyway? He and I were only best friends and he needed to stay out of my dating life.

[00:16:32] It was then that things got physical. One night Craig literally got on top of me in my room, put his knees on my arms and started to strangle me. He was saying things like, where is he now? I honestly thought I was going to die.

[00:16:50] My brain switched to my mom who was about four or five hours away. She would never know or would have come to identify my body. I'm her only child. I don't know what it was but I managed to kick Craig and I ran.

[00:17:08] He had double locked the front door. He had hidden my bag and smashed my new iPhone that I had gotten from my parents for my birthday. I was literally running down the stairs with him in tow yelling, he's going to kill me.

[00:17:24] I knew the back door was open from having a smoke earlier and there was a guarding gate. All I needed to do was open that. I ran for it, opened it and I made it.

[00:17:36] The next thing, I'm out in the street in my short shorts and pajama top barefoot. I just ran. I ran for a good half an hour towards town and used a payphone to call 999. The police picked me up.

[00:17:53] I couldn't get back into the house as Craig had my door key. I told them the story. They took me to the station, had to unlock it as it was past one in the morning by now.

[00:18:05] They took photos of my neck that had bruising and my head that was bleeding where he had smashed me into the kitchen wall earlier. I had to sit in a patrol car to go to my house and they picked up Craig.

[00:18:19] He was on the streets looking for me. I had to point him out and say, that's him to them. He said that he was out looking for me as he was worried for me. I obviously don't think that's true.

[00:18:35] I think he was out looking for me to silence me so I didn't tell anyone. They arrested him and I got told that he would stay in a cell overnight and a policeman let me into my house as they used a key that Craig had.

[00:18:54] While I was in the house alone, I gathered my things. I had left my laptop, some clothes, shoes and makeup in the rush. I thought I could easily replace them and I just wanted to get away and I was so worried

[00:19:08] that he would come back any second through the front door. I had no purse, no money, no cell phone. My parents lived five hours away. Thankfully, I don't know why, but I had the sense to hide my car key in my bra earlier that evening.

[00:19:25] I got into my car and I drove to Morrison's petrol station. I was bleeding from my head. No shoes. Bruised. I broke down there and used their phone to call my mom. At first, she was annoyed that I had woken her up, but then I explained everything to

[00:19:45] her. She ended up putting money into my petrol cashier's account for me to fill up my car, get some food and a hot drink to calm down. I then drove to my parents.

[00:19:56] I later got told through friends of a friend that Craig got released that morning as it was his word against mine and he smashed my laptop when he found that I wasn't home anymore. Whatever.

[00:20:11] My stuff got replaced and I'm now with an amazing guy who treats me like a queen. Sometimes I get flashbacks of the night where I truly believe I could have died. As for Craig, I blocked him, deleted everything to do with his family and him.

[00:20:28] I changed my number and even broke off friendships with friends that knew both of us. Please let's never meet again, because this time I'll be ready for you. This happened a few weeks ago and I'm still rather shaken up.

[00:20:52] I'm a 19-year-old low-level retail associate at a nationwide chain store. I've worked here a little over a year and so far I can honestly say I enjoy my job. On a normal day, there were three or four of us plus one manager. Sometimes both.

[00:21:09] And we split up the tasks. Work the registers, tidy up the store, help the customers with stuff, unload freight, stock shelves, your typical retail stuff. It can be backbreaking work and people can be downright horrible, but at this point I've basically developed an apathy for it.

[00:21:28] Since the quarantine, though, it's down to one manager and two workers. Anyway, it was a pretty quiet morning. It was pouring outside and we had just opened so people weren't really coming in in droves.

[00:21:42] I was at the front of the store and feeling rather drowsy from the rain, kind of mindlessly dusting off a shelf of clearance soaps when an older man comes in. He was maybe in his late 60s or 70s wearing kind of shabby clothing and he had headphones

[00:21:59] on connected to an outdated MP3 player. I was kneeling so he couldn't see me and instead went over to my coworker to pester her about why we didn't have a mirror in front of the store for people buying accessories.

[00:22:14] We sell a few scarves, hats, sweaters, maybe the odd purse, but we aren't a clothing store so I just mentally wrote him off as a mere nuisance and went back to work. My manager came out to do something and he greeted her by name, which isn't too unusual

[00:22:31] as we both have a lot of regulars. As he started telling her about some new job that he got while she engaged with him in small talk at the other end of the store, a mom and her children walked up in the store and asked about lampshades.

[00:22:47] I just thought, well he's the manager's problem now and didn't think anything more about it. More time passed. The lampshade family left and eventually I was left by myself at the front.

[00:23:00] The rain was still coming down pretty heavily so I left my post briefly to get one of those caution wet floor signs. But other than that, I found myself standing at the register with not much to do. It had been an hour or so.

[00:23:14] I honestly thought that the man had left, but he came shuffling up to the register with a hat, some headphones, and a little spice bottle of rib seasoning that cost less than a dollar. That detail is important, I swear.

[00:23:30] As I was ringing him up, he made conversation with me. He asked how old I was, which I thought was a little weird but I didn't think too much of it. And the whole time, he seemed off.

[00:23:43] I couldn't explain why at the time, but something just made my skin crawl. I was glad to see him leave. To my surprise though, he was back within half an hour. I was still alone at the front and he came straight up to me to return the seasoning

[00:23:59] that he had bought. Since it was only 75 cents, I asked if anything was wrong with it. He said no, he had just found a better deal. On top of the earlier feeling that I had, I knew that this was kind of bizarre.

[00:24:15] Why go looking for a better deal and why return it if it cost so little? Even if I was a little weirded out, I got started on the return. He again asked my age and started complimenting the way that I looked, saying how pretty I was.

[00:24:32] I don't think any teenager likes having a creepy older man ogle them, and I was definitely uncomfortable. He repeatedly made sure that I was over 18. I finished the transaction in a hurry and watched him leave. Ten minutes later, he walks through the front door again.

[00:24:52] I was starting to get a little nervous, so I started looking around for my coworker, but she had taken a break. This time he purchased a jacket for a small dog. But it was very weird, he was saying his sister had just had a baby or something.

[00:25:08] I was wondering if he knew that it was clothing for a dog. I took a deep breath and started totaling up the purchase as fast as I could. Once again, he asked if I was over 18 and kept calling me his new boo.

[00:25:24] I could see him practically undressing me with his eyes and I felt completely grossed out. I stopped engaging in conversation and plastered a smile on my face as I handed him his receipt.

[00:25:37] This time I made sure I saw him walk out the front door and into the parking lot. Ten minutes pass, and he doesn't come back. Fifteen minutes. Twenty. I'm starting to feel relieved. Then he's back. Again. I'm starting to panic. Where's my manager? Where's my coworker?

[00:25:59] He buys another dog jacket and strikes up a conversation again. At this point I'm just giving one word answers, trying not to be rude. And trying not to puke. He's still calling me his boo. He asks my age again. He asks where I live. When I work.

[00:26:18] Where I go to college. What days do I attend class? It's getting really invasive and very creepy. Since we're often unloading boxes and such, I wear a lanyard with my ID. A box cutter. And my house key around my neck.

[00:26:36] The ID is a habit from school, since you need your ID to get anywhere on campus. He notices this, and I can see him trying to read my full name and address.

[00:26:48] I try to move away, and he grabs it, still around my neck, and pulls me closer to him, almost over the counter. I go into panic mode and look around for something sharp.

[00:26:59] I grab the scissors from a cup next to me and say, don't touch me as loud as I can. He lets go and reads my full name out loud, commenting on how pretty it is.

[00:27:11] Hearing my shout, my coworker comes to the front to see what's going on, and the man finally leaves. Once he's gone, I hurriedly made up an excuse to go to the bathroom and called my mom, panicking. I was afraid that he would come back again.

[00:27:25] But the rest of my shift, it did pass without too many more incidents. When I walk out to my car after my shift, I saw him in a beat-up truck loitering around the parking lot.

[00:27:37] I took a roundabout way to get home and get out of there as fast as I could, but I couldn't stop thinking about how he'd seen my full name, my home address, all on my ID.

[00:27:48] I still can't believe I was dumb enough to wear that thing where people could see it. I've always enjoyed my work because of my coworkers and managers, but since then, I've been a nervous wreck going in.

[00:27:59] The first week, I was able to find excuses to avoid the register, but I sprained my ankle and it seemed logical for the one-legged girl to stay up front and not hobble around moving heavy stuff and whatnot.

[00:28:12] I finally broke and told my managers what happened, and they'd been really great about finding out who the guy was from the tapes and making sure that I haven't been left alone since, just in case he comes back.

[00:28:24] I feel like I've seen his car driving around my neighborhood a few times since then, but part of me also believes that it could just be paranoia. I know that as a woman in America working in customer service, stuff like this is going

[00:28:37] to happen to me, but there's nothing I can do about it. Especially since I have to smile and act nice because I can't be rude to customers. Still, I've been pretty freaked out these past few weeks. So old guy who thinks I'm his boo, let's not meet again.

[00:28:53] Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. This week you have heard, Two men broke into my apartment while I was sleeping by Reddit user Parthizo. Berlin Bicycle Man and Camper Clone by Killswithaglance.

[00:29:19] Best Friends Can Be Abusive Too by Moomingoober. And finally, Creepy Older Man Harassed Me at Work by The Confused Conductor. Don't forget to send your stories in to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com if you want to hear them on the show.

[00:29:33] All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors, and Let's Not Meet is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online.

[00:29:42] If you want to get access to all of the bonus episodes as well as ad-free versions of the regular show, head over to patreon.com forward slash letsnotmeetpodcast. I'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet.