4x20: Kitten Man

[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. Two years ago when my autistic daughter had trouble sleeping at night, I would toss her

[00:00:29] in her car seat and drive her around. It was one of the only ways that she fell asleep soundly. At the time, I lived with my parents in a nice neighborhood. So one night I'm driving, and my girl had finally fallen asleep. It's about 9pm at this point.

[00:00:48] I'm so hungry, and I want to let her fall asleep into a deeper sleep so I can move her. I get some food from a drive-thru and pull over to the side of the street right next to the

[00:01:00] restaurant so I can eat. I'm finishing eating and I look back to check on the kid. And suddenly, these very bright headlights pull up behind me, a little too close. I wave apologetically.

[00:01:17] None of my windows are tinted, and I used to drive a Jeep Compass so the back window was big enough for them to see me. I assumed that whoever it was was just trying to park at the house

[00:01:29] that I'm currently in front of. So I pull away and start down the street. And once I'm at the end of the block and around the corner, I see the headlights again. No biggie,

[00:01:41] this is a semi-busy side of the street so people cut down this way all the time. Only this person is riding my ass like I'm not moving fast enough and I get annoyed and change lanes to get out of

[00:01:54] their way. Almost as soon as I do, they follow. At this point I realize that the car is the same sedan that pulled up behind me on the last street. But now they're too close for me to even

[00:02:09] see the make of the car and the high beams are on so that I can't see anything behind me. I curse myself for not paying better attention to the car before. I didn't want to be crazy

[00:02:22] paranoid so I took a few unnecessary side streets and passed my neighborhood only for this person to be behind me turn for turn and lane change for lane change. So I panicked. I called my dad.

[00:02:39] I know I should have called the police but I was 21 and I just did the first thing I could think of. He was at work, 30 minutes away. He has terrible reception and decides to call me back on the

[00:02:50] landline at his work. And he's on his cell phone with the sheriff's department for our neighborhood and they tell me to drive to the station. It's been close to 40 minutes since the person had

[00:03:03] started following me and kept writing closer and closer. I'm running lights and swerving around at this point just trying to catch someone's attention. So I drive to the station and no one is

[00:03:19] there. Not one car, no cruiser, no one in the department office, not even any cars in the small parking lot. And they want me to pull into the lot and wait for an officer. I'm alone. My one-year-old

[00:03:36] is now fussing in the back seat and there is only one way in or out of the parking lot. So I decide to pass the station and tell my dad to tell the officer on the phone to fuck off because no one

[00:03:48] was there. I see a sheriff's car at the light ahead and decide to start honking and flashing my lights as he drives across the intersection that I'm driving to. And he either misses what I'm

[00:04:01] doing or ignores it. It's now been a little over an hour and the person has now tapped my bumper four times. Eventually, I saw another sheriff's car and I just laid on my horn and I think

[00:04:17] he caught on because he busted a U and came back towards us. As he did, the car behind me disappeared into the mall across the street and the officer followed. I was instructed to go back to the

[00:04:33] station and wait. So I did. And eventually, I was waiting so long that I went inside, triple locking the doors of my car because I was terrified. There was no one at the office, just a no emergency phone

[00:04:47] on the desk and that only connected me to another extension. To wrap the story up, they made me feel crazy and said that they never found the car. That all they could do was take a statement since

[00:05:01] technically nothing happened, then offered to follow me and my daughter home. Only to drive away as soon as I parked while I left to take my sleeping kid inside shaking so hard that I couldn't

[00:05:14] even unlock the door. I run upstairs to my mom's room. She was on pain medication after a surgical procedure so she was asleep. I shake her awake sobbing and tell her what happened. It took me two

[00:05:30] days to sleep again at night and to this day, I still refuse to do night drives with my daughter. It's a weird stalker follower person let's not meet. When I was about 16, nine years ago now,

[00:06:02] my family was living in a suburban area outside of LA. It was a nice neighborhood. Kids rode their bikes in a group. Parents waved to each other and helped keep an eye on people's houses. You could

[00:06:16] join a barbecue if you walked by at the right time. Well, my dad was working nights at the hospital in the city and that left myself, a female at 16 years old, my mom 36, my sister 12, and my brother

[00:06:32] 8 home at night from 6 30 p.m to 7 30 a.m the next day. One night we're cooking, listening to music, and just all around having a good night and everyone's in bed by 9. I woke up to the sound

[00:06:48] of the front door being rattled and my mom calling for my dad like he's home. Our house is laid out like this. There's a front door in a small entryway area and the right side wall facing

[00:07:02] the door from the outside was my brother's room. Myself and my sister were on the other side of him and the doorway led into our dining room. My mom's room was off from the living room towards

[00:07:14] the back of the house so they typically turn the lights on to come by our rooms. It wasn't that uncommon for my dad to get let off a shift a few hours early and end up home before 7. My front door

[00:07:27] was frosted glass. The middle of it was clear enough to see whoever was at the door. The door was old and just a little off so typically you had to put a little force into opening the door

[00:07:39] even if it's unlocked. This part of the story my mom filled in. She had gotten up also hearing the door and thought that my dad was home as I did. However, upon calling out for my dad to confirm

[00:07:53] and turning on the light switch whoever it was at the door froze and noticeably jumped. She had still been walking closer to the door to open it up to help him still half asleep when

[00:08:08] she realized the man in the doorway was as tall as my dad but had a full head of hair. Also his outline didn't match the familiar outline of my dad coming home in scrubs. This man was whiter than

[00:08:23] my dad and once he could see my mom in the doorway he started not only turning the knob but throwing himself against the frosted glass. I don't know what kept me from rolling over and

[00:08:39] going back to bed but in the next few seconds I heard my mom scream. I sat up in time to hear her footsteps and see her as she disappeared into her bedroom to come back out with the revolver that my

[00:08:52] dad had bought her for her birthday. At this point I had rolled over and checked my cell phone quickly to see that it was 1 30 in the morning. I dialed 911 while my mom was pointing a gun at whoever was

[00:09:08] at the door trying to force their way inside. Stop or I'll shoot. I'm on the phone with the police and they're on their way. I will use force if you enter my home. My mom was screaming it at the huge

[00:09:22] man at the door who after hearing her for the second or third time finally stepped back from the door and was just staring at our shapes from the other side of the frosted glass. After a few

[00:09:36] moments though he seemed to like his chances because he stepped forward again and only ran once my mom pulled the pin back and repeated what she had been saying adding that she might decide

[00:09:52] not to even wait for him to be inside. He ran off as I mentioned and I stayed on the phone with 911 as my mom stood at the doorway her gun still and both her hands aimed at the door the way my dad

[00:10:08] had taught her to hold it just the weekend before when we'd all gone to the range. It was only a moment after the man had fled that two uniformed officers filled the doorway that the man had just

[00:10:22] been in and when they knocked I realized after she didn't respond to them identifying themselves how terrified my mom was. Her voice shook as she told the officers that she had a weapon

[00:10:36] but that she wanted to hear their badge numbers before she would open the door so that she could confirm with the dispatch. Once they did she opened the revolver and unloaded it putting

[00:10:47] it on the table and crying as I opened the door for the police. They took our statements, had several patrol cars out looking and found him a few hours later six blocks from our home.

[00:10:58] However he had made it into the residence that he was trying to break into and they caught him in the middle of robbing the retired couple that he had knocked unconscious. So Home Invader,

[00:11:12] let's not meet. I grew up in Texas. I still live here along with my family that will be mentioned in the story. When the 2007 recession hit my father lost his job. It was a management job

[00:11:35] that paid well. We lived in a comfortable but slightly country area outside of Lockhart, Texas. With our income at a halt we lost our home and had to move. My parents found a trailer park

[00:11:48] with a two-bedroom for rent. A little cramped for our family of five but we had no other choice. The man we rented from was crooked for other reasons but he's not the disturbed landlord that

[00:12:01] this story revolves around. We lived in that trailer for a few years before needing to move out for reasons I was too young to remember. I was 11 years old when my parents began house hunting

[00:12:14] again. Down the road from the trailer park was a cul-de-sac of land. There was a business in the center of this land called the Why Not Party House. That was a bar or wannabe club I suppose.

[00:12:31] Considering that I was a child I never entered the building. There were a few houses and trailers scattered around different parts of this secluded circle. A worn looking trailer was for rent.

[00:12:45] The man renting it, Mr. Doll, was an elderly man who couldn't have been younger than 65 or so. A few things to note about this trailer. It had old stone steps leading up to the front door.

[00:13:01] There was a bunk bed in one of the bedrooms and a somewhat functioning air hockey table. The master bedroom had a queen-sized bed and there was carpet in the kitchen which I always found strange. The back door was nailed shut and completely unusable. If that wasn't enough

[00:13:20] to make you say nope then let me also say it had a mice problem. My family is working class, my mother is disabled, and with my father out of work we only relied on her disability checks.

[00:13:35] We had no choice but to rent out this trailer or be homeless. The entire deal was strange and I was honestly sad that this was the position we were in but my parents rented out this trailer on the

[00:13:48] agreement of words only. There was no official lease that was signed or any sort of legal document that proved that we were renting from this man. Before we moved into the trailer, Mr. Doll took it upon himself to build a deck for us to replace the old steps.

[00:14:08] He even built a little picnic table for us to sit outside. As a child it completely blew my mind that this stranger could be so kind to craft these things without being asked or wanting money.

[00:14:22] It seemed like an act of pure kindness. A bad person wouldn't do that sort of thing, right? The first few weeks of renting from him went by without a hitch. The master bedroom had no light

[00:14:35] bulbs and we weren't even there long enough to change them so my family and I all slept in the living room. Something about the bedroom with the bunk bed seemed scary to me. I'm not sure how my

[00:14:49] brothers felt about it but they never slept in there either. My mother's check hit the first of every month which is also the day for bills. Her, my father, and my older brother got into the car

[00:15:02] and drove to the city to take care of the bills and get a money order for rent. I was left with my oldest brother. It was a time when we had no internet or cable, just VHS movies. I was in the hallway

[00:15:16] come to find out the trailer was flipped and the front door was the one nailed shut. I was playing my Wii, Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess to be exact. Something I need you all to note,

[00:15:28] we had no keys to this trailer. The only person with the set of keys was Mr. Dahl so we were unable to ever lock the trailer when we left. As I was playing my game right in front of the door

[00:15:43] that was locked, I saw the knob turn. No knocking. The knob jiggled and our landlord tried to pry the door open twice but was unable to do so successfully. I just froze and realized that it

[00:16:00] was him and he must have assumed no one was home because the car was gone but the door was locked and I thought that it was fine to continue playing my game. My 11 year old brain, I guess.

[00:16:14] My brother was in the living room. We both heard the noise though. At first I thought that it was a dog barking and my brother heard it too but the longer we listened we realized that

[00:16:25] this wasn't an animal we were hearing but the sound of people yelling. My brother went to the front door to investigate the noises and me being a scared child I followed right behind him.

[00:16:37] Both of my parents were standing out in the yard. My mother was shouting at our landlord who was sitting on a farming vehicle. Not sure what the name of it was, I remember it had a very

[00:16:48] long piece attached to it. She was visibly angry and her voice was laced with rage. My father was yelling at him too but I don't remember anything that was said exactly. My oldest brother asked

[00:17:01] what happened and here's how it goes. My parents pulled up to our trailer with the money in order for rent. When they did, they caught Mr. Dahl backing up the farming vehicle against the door,

[00:17:15] the only exit in the trailer. My mother went into full protection mode knowing her two children were stuck inside. She confronted him immediately. Luckily he backed away from the door but he was still operating the farm vehicle. I believe she threatened him and they exchanged words and then

[00:17:36] he whipped the vehicle around fast and aggressively close to my mother and almost hit her with it. My parents were bewildered about what they just witnessed. They didn't know what to do so they

[00:17:46] called the police. When the police showed up and my parents explained the situation, it was no use because we had no legal agreement of renting out the trailer. The officers shrugged it off

[00:17:59] and said that there was nothing that they could do about anything because no one was injured. Apparently trapping two children inside a trailer that's a fire hazard isn't illegal. We spent only one night in that trailer. We no longer felt safe there. We packed up as many

[00:18:17] things in our car as we could but unfortunately we didn't have the money to rent a moving truck for the rest of the furniture. We stored the belongings that we took with us at my grandparents

[00:18:26] house and we rented a motel room. It was about a week after this happened when we tried going back for the rest of our belongings. We wanted no confrontation with Mr. Doll so we showed up at

[00:18:39] the trailer at night. It was dark inside. The porch light was off. My father and oldest brother went inside the trailer casually. Me, my mother, and my older brother were waiting outside in the

[00:18:54] car. It was no less than five minutes when my father and oldest brother ran out of the trailer with speed I had never seen before. They hopped into the car and we pulled out of there like some

[00:19:08] scene in an action movie while my mom was terrified and demanding answers. Apparently they went into the master bedroom first which was an immediate right when you walked inside. They were going to grab a box of paperwork that we had left behind when we originally left.

[00:19:27] They noticed something lying in the bed. Not just lying there asleep but completely naked. It was Mr. Doll and right beside him was a gun. We never went back to that trailer. We never recovered the rest of our furniture that had sentimental value.

[00:19:50] It's been almost a decade since this happened. My mother and I discuss it every now and then but we're thankful that time is behind us. I can't help but wonder if all that abandoned furniture was the result of some other unfortunate family who had to leave everything behind

[00:20:12] or it had been taken from them forcefully. So some background for context. This was back in the 90s when our only option was a landline phone and dial up internet. I was around 8 or 9 years old when my mom started leaving me at home with

[00:20:36] my oldest brother while she went to work. My brother was much older, around 17 at the time. As most teenage boys his favorite thing to do was sleep really late and he would wake up

[00:20:49] his favorite thing to do was sleep really late during the day and stay up all night playing games. I remember being bored playing with my Barbies in the living room of the house

[00:21:01] with the blinds wide open to let some light in and save on electricity. I would sit there for hours and play. When my mom was gone she always told us to answer the phone when it rang in case

[00:21:15] she was calling to check on us and make sure that we were okay. I remember one day specifically I answered the phone and I just kept hearing loud breathing on the other end. I kept saying hello

[00:21:30] but no one would reply so eventually I would just hang up. This went on daily for about two months and it was always in the morning time when my brother was asleep. Being a naive 8 or 9 year old I didn't really think anything of it and eventually the calls

[00:21:49] just stopped. A few months go by and I'm sitting in the living room on the floor again when the phone rings. I hear the same breathing again and say hello who is this? To my surprise a man replies and says hello kitten do you remember me?

[00:22:12] I remember being surprised that he called me kitten but replying that he had the wrong number. He then replies no kitten I have the right number you're wearing a kitty shirt right now. I remember looking down and immediately panicking and hanging up the phone when I see

[00:22:32] the tabby kitten on my shirt. The phone then rings again and I refuse to answer it. I run to wake up my brother and he sleepily follows me to the living room.

[00:22:42] The phone rings again and he answers it but this time no one's there. He then unplugs the phone and tells me that it's just my imagination and to leave him alone so that he can sleep

[00:22:55] and to leave him alone so that he can sleep. Being scared I decided to close the window and sit on the couch until my mom got home that afternoon. That night I told my mom what happened

[00:23:05] but my brother told her I was making it up and that he didn't see or hear anything. I think my mom believed me but she just told me to hang up the phone if it wasn't her

[00:23:16] and to never open the door for a stranger. I agreed and told her that I wouldn't. The next day my mom was off work and she took me to the store with her. We were walking around when

[00:23:29] I noticed a man in a long trench coat. I thought that the coat was weird but didn't really think anything else of it. We then ran into one of my mom's friends who had a daughter my age. My mom

[00:23:43] and her friend were chatting away and my friend and I were standing a few feet from them messing with some birthday cards. We went around to the other side of the cards to look out of sight of

[00:23:57] our moms. Suddenly the man with the trench coat is right near us looking at the cards too. He then picks up a card and turns to me and my friend and says hello. Being polite we respond hello then

[00:24:15] he starts picking up cards and he's saying that he's getting his daughter something and asks what we like. My friend points to a random card and he smiles and says that's nice. He then picks up

[00:24:30] another card and shows it to us. The card has kittens all over it. He looks directly at me and says I'm sure you like kittens don't you? I didn't really know how to respond. I remember

[00:24:48] feeling extremely nervous. He then smiled and saw me getting nervous. He then said kittens and barbies. This kicked my fight or flight into action at the young age of eight or nine.

[00:25:06] I nervously laughed and said that we had to go back to our moms now. The man then reaches out and grabs my arm. My friend takes off running around the corner to get my mom. The man tries

[00:25:21] to pull me to the front of the store but I kick him as hard as I can and I go flying out of his grip. He then gets up and runs to the door about the time that my mom makes it over to me. The

[00:25:35] police are called and a report is filed. To my knowledge they never found the man but my mom was extremely paranoid after hearing the link between the phone calls and the incident and she found a

[00:25:48] new house in the city not even a month later. Thankfully that was the last time I heard from him so all I can really say is kitten man let's not meet again. Thank you for listening to this

[00:26:09] week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. If you'd like to get access to ad-free versions of all of our episodes and over 100 bonus episodes with stories you won't hear anywhere else

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