7x11: What's In The Bag? - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content. The stories in this show can be frightening and disturbing for some. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:16] My name is Andrew Tate, and this is season seven, episode 11 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. This happened in 2008 when I was a junior in college, so probably around 21 years old. See, I was living in a duplex apartment with my friend.

[00:01:08] We were two young women and we shared the apartment by ourselves. It was a three story house that had been split down the middle, so each side had three floors. My roommate's room was on the second and mine was on the third, right above hers.

[00:01:25] The neighborhood that we lived in wasn't bad per se, but it did have sketchy areas that were known for break-ins and petty theft. It also wasn't unusual for our university alert system to send notifications of shots fired or armed robberies in the neighborhood around the campus.

[00:01:45] But our apartment was near a popular park, so we liked that area well enough. Our laundry room was on the first floor at the back of the apartment and it had windows overlooking the backyard.

[00:01:59] One day I was doing laundry when I looked outside and I saw a man standing at the back of our yard, just staring at our apartment. He seemed to be fairly young, maybe in his thirties, and he wasn't doing anything, just staring intently at our building.

[00:02:20] I don't know if he saw me, but it really did freak me out, so I just left the room.

[00:02:25] Now I didn't really think too much about it, because the houses in our neighborhood were fairly close together and I've done my fair share of absentmindedly staring at people's houses while on walks, so again, I just didn't think anything of it.

[00:02:42] Fast forward a few days, maybe a week or two later, and I'm out to lunch with my friend and her then-boyfriend. We all come back to our apartment and I head up to my room, study, and rest.

[00:02:56] My roommate and her boyfriend go to her room to watch some TV. Some time passes and I'm casually napping and reading on my bed when I hear what sounds like a loud thudding. It was coming from my roommate's room below me.

[00:03:13] We like to rearrange our furniture sometimes, so I figured she and her boyfriend are just redecorating and moving her furniture around. I go back to reading.

[00:03:24] The thudding goes on for a while though, and normally I would go downstairs to see what was going on and maybe grab a snack, but I don't leave my bed for some reason.

[00:03:37] After some time passes, I decide to finally go downstairs, maybe for a drink or something to eat, I can't remember. When I get to the second floor, I see my roommate and her boyfriend. She looks sort of panicked and asks me, Where's my TV?

[00:03:55] What do you mean, I ask. My TV and my laptop, they're missing. We just got back from the bathroom and I'm still in bed. And my laptop, they're missing. We just got back from the mall and all of my stuff is gone. My stomach drops and I ask,

[00:04:13] Wait, haven't you guys been here the whole time? I thought you were moving furniture down here. No, she says. We just got home. It wasn't us. The full weight of the situation hits me and I feel sick to my stomach.

[00:04:34] Someone had been in our apartment right underneath me while I was reading and napping. They were robbing us. It was clear that they just wanted to grab some big items quickly to sell for money. But what if I had moved and my floorboards creaked?

[00:04:53] What if I had decided to go downstairs to see what was going on or use the bathroom? What if I startled them? Or if they had a gun? Why hadn't they just come up to the third floor where my bedroom was? I'm shaking as I'm writing this.

[00:05:13] And this was over a decade ago. After looking around the house, it was clear that her room had been ransacked and our back door had been pried open and broken.

[00:05:25] I'm confident now that the man that I saw staring at my house had been casing it and was the person who broke in. The police came and took a report, but I was too shaken up to remember that man at that time.

[00:05:42] And I didn't get a good look at his face anyway. We moved out the next week into a different apartment and my parents and roommates' parents made sure to buy us some extra security devices.

[00:05:55] So to the man who cased our apartment and robbed us while I was blissfully unaware one story above. Let's not meet. It was 2014 and I was 18. Most of my family had just gotten home from my uncle's funeral. I say most of us.

[00:06:31] My sister decided to hang around and drive herself home later. We had been home for about an hour and a half when I heard a large rolling garage door open. And then a few seconds later, the door from the garage to the house opened.

[00:06:50] I was sitting in the kitchen at the table doing my homework when out of the corner of my eye, I saw my sister in her black dress from the funeral walk in. Hey, I called not looking up from my computer.

[00:07:06] She stopped and turned towards me and just stared. I thought it was weird, so I said, OK, weirdo. I then looked up to see this strange woman that I had never seen before. I didn't know what to say.

[00:07:24] I froze. My mom, who was in the other room, said, how was the drive, Haley? The lady continued to just stare at me with this look of rage in her eyes. When I found my voice, I said, not Haley.

[00:07:43] To that, my mom then asked, well, who is it? The lady turned her body, still staring at me and started walking towards my mother's voice. Her head turned painfully slow towards my mom as she reached the doorway.

[00:07:59] When she did, my three dogs went wild, snarling and snapping at the woman's fingers that were just hanging limp by her sides. Can I help you? My mom asked. Still, the woman hadn't said a word. She hadn't even reacted to my dogs literally biting her fingers.

[00:08:21] She started to walk towards the back of our house. My dad was back there napping after literally burying his brother hours earlier. No, no, you don't. It's time to go, my mom said. She pushed the lady towards the door. I got up to open it for her.

[00:08:38] And as my mom pushed her past me and out the door, the lady finally spoke. In a dry, cracking voice, she looked at me and said, fuck you. I'll end you. I froze again, but quickly snapped. I'll end you.

[00:08:54] I froze again, but quickly snapped out of it and slammed the door, locking it quickly before running to do the same to the garage door.

[00:09:02] Once I made sure everything was locked tight, I peeked out the window to find her laying on the concrete right outside our front door. Just as I was about to call the cops, a car came screeching around the corner with a loud piercing scream.

[00:09:19] The strange woman got to her feet and ran towards the car. The car took off as fast as it arrived. My mom looked at me and said, what the fuck was that? I just stood there shaking and said, I didn't know.

[00:09:35] When my sister got home, I told her exactly what happened. She said, wait, did she have black hair? Yes. Weird, creepy, angry eyes. Yes. Scrawny limbs. Yes. Did she look like she wanted to kill you? I said, yes. Holy shit, she said.

[00:09:57] A few days ago, I was sitting in my truck before coming in from work. I thought you were at my window, but when I looked up, it was some lady that I had never seen. She was screaming at me.

[00:10:09] But when I turned down my music to try and hear her, I realized she wasn't actually yelling. She was just moving her mouth. Pretending that she was yelling. Right as I clicked the lock button, she grabbed the handle and gave it two hard yanks.

[00:10:29] She got frustrated and banged her fists against the window a few times before turning and running away. My blood ran cold because of how goddamn weird this was. Our experiences with this lady didn't end there. I saw her one more time.

[00:10:48] A few weeks later, I was having a sleepless night when I heard a rustling outside of my window. My room was right up front on the first level. I regretfully looked over to see that same fucking lady looking right back at me.

[00:11:05] I turned on my lights and screamed for my mom. The woman outside spit on my window and took off into the night. Luckily, we never saw her again.

[00:11:17] To this day, I don't have any clue how she opened our garage door or who the fuck she was and why she wanted to quote end me. But a few weeks later, two car break ends later. We decided it was time to move.

[00:11:35] So to the creepy lady who wanted to end me, let's not meet again. I was introduced to your podcast by a best friend, and I've listened to five seasons now and feel that it's time to finally share my story. It was 2015.

[00:11:58] My boyfriend, now husband, and I had just bought our first home with our two year old daughter. A small three bedroom, one bath located in a rural city. It was an abandoned home reclaimed by the city and sold to us.

[00:12:14] We had been living there for roughly two months when this happened. I was at my sister's house, about half a mile away from ours, hanging out and having dinner when we decided to bring our children on a walk to the park.

[00:12:29] This is when I noticed my daughter and her two year old son, who was about six years old, were in the backyard. This is when I noticed my daughter had two left shoes on.

[00:12:41] I figured I'd run home quick and grab the right one so she wouldn't hurt her feet. I plug my phone in in my car and drive home. I was notorious for having dead phones back then.

[00:12:54] Upon entering my driveway, I noticed my daughter's window on the second floor is open. And I thought that this was odd, but perhaps my boyfriend opened it. Before we left. I go up to the door and unlock it.

[00:13:11] When I opened the door, I found my dog tied up to the banister with its leash. And the house was a mess. Someone had ransacked the place. I was pissed to say the least. I start walking through my house to assess some of the damage.

[00:13:31] When I hear it. The shower is running. I think, okay, there's no way someone is still in the house. But to be safe, I grabbed the biggest knife from my trashed kitchen and I start climbing the stairs. Our stairs in that house were like an L.

[00:13:53] You reach the landing and it turns into a hallway that leads to the bedrooms and the bathroom at the end of the hallway. I slowly peek around the corner and see my bathroom door open. And a man in the shower with the curtain lying on the ground.

[00:14:12] At that moment, he noticed me. My fight or flight kicked in. I screamed, what the fuck are you doing in my house? Get the fuck out. He screamed back at me. This isn't your house. You get out. I say, yes, the fuck it is. You need to leave.

[00:14:33] And then he screams, I found evidence of drugs in this house. He starts to get out of the shower and come at me. And that's when the flight part of the fight or flight kicked in.

[00:14:46] I flew down the stairs, grabbing my dog and running to the neighbors, praying that she would answer the door. As she did, we called 911 and they sent out six men. And they sent out six or seven officers with dogs to help get the man out of my house.

[00:15:05] They surrounded the house and shouted to the man to come out with his hands up or they'll release their dogs. During this, I was attempting to call my boyfriend and sister, but of course, nobody answers unknown numbers anymore.

[00:15:18] I finally get through to my boyfriend and he laughs, thinking that I'm joking. But when I tell him that I'm not, he heads to the house with my brother-in-law to see for himself.

[00:15:30] The man ends up coming down the stairs with his hands up to the officers soaking wet and completely naked. They arrested him and threw a T-shirt on him. They put him in the back of the squad car.

[00:15:44] My neighbor tells me that she saw him sitting on my porch a few hours before all of this happened. He had been there for hours.

[00:15:53] She said she didn't think much of it since she assumed that he might be a friend of ours to be sitting on our porch so casually.

[00:16:02] He had destroyed our house, throwing garbage bags everywhere, shaving his head with my boyfriend's electric razor and throwing his hair all over my daughter's room, eating handfuls of leftover chili from the fridge. Yes, with his hand.

[00:16:19] And even grabbed my spare keys and put them on his carabiner on his pants. I later found out he crawled in through an unlocked window on the first floor. The arresting officer told me that he had an encounter with that man the day prior.

[00:16:38] He was acting quite erratic and strange, but the officers had no reason to arrest him so he was free to leave. He was charged with breaking and entering, but in 2019 the charges were dropped because he was found incompetent to stand trial.

[00:16:55] The whole situation just made me more aware of my surroundings, but we continued to live there for another five years.

[00:17:04] We've since moved out and into a new home, but I'm still vigilant to make sure that all of our windows and doors are locked when we go to sleep or leave the house.

[00:17:15] To the man in my shower who trashed our home, then got away with it, let's never meet again. I'm a 57 year old female. During the mid 1990s, I was a teacher of five year olds at my church.

[00:17:46] I had arrived one Sunday morning early so that I could get the classroom set up with a tablecloth, flowers on the table and set the little chairs in a semi circle.

[00:17:59] After I did that, it was time to walk down the long hall and get chalk and eraser and a few pictures from the little library.

[00:18:09] No sooner had I walked out of the small classroom when I saw a man at the end of the hallway in the direction I needed to go. I had never seen this man before in my life. I didn't recognize him as a member of the congregation.

[00:18:28] He wasn't very tall, probably around six feet or less, had black hair. But the minute that I saw him, I had the worst sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. My fight or flight sense was activated and I felt on guard.

[00:18:48] Really, I wanted to just turn back into the classroom and shut the door and hold it there. Unfortunately, there weren't very many people in the church because it was before starting time. However, I decided that I would be brave and not let this man intimidate me.

[00:19:09] I stood tall, put my shoulders back and put on the most confident face that I could muster. He started walking towards me, coming from the hall where the library was located.

[00:19:22] As we got closer to each other, the feeling in the pit of my stomach got sicker and felt tight like I was going to throw up. This man was giving off the creepiest vibe.

[00:19:36] He had a very creepy mustache and this smirk on his face and a look in his eyes like he was undressing me. I literally felt like I should bring my arms up to my chest and fold them in front of me to cover myself up.

[00:19:53] I walked past and headed to the library. I didn't look back, but I'm sure he looked back watching me walk away. I tried very, very hard to forget about the encounter, but the feeling just stayed with me all the rest of the day.

[00:20:11] In fact, I can still recall the horrible, uneasy feeling he gave me to this day. Later on that day, it was announced in church that this was the father of a new family that had just moved into a house that was right next to the elementary school.

[00:20:30] This kind of freaked me out. That was the school my little girls attended and the younger grades were on the side of the school near his home. I'm not sure of the timing of these incidents, but I will recount them as I remember them.

[00:20:47] Another Sunday, I was at church taking my two young daughters into their classroom when he passed by again. When I put lipstick on that day, I had chosen a red shade. The creepy man walked past me again, leaned in close to my face and with his grin on.

[00:21:07] He said very seductively, Ooh, nice lips. Again, I was so creeped out and felt violated, like when men at the construction sites will whistle at women as they walk past.

[00:21:24] Well, this family had a couple of teenage sons, one of which later committed suicide, which is a story for another day. They also had a couple of teenage daughters. One day, I get a phone call from one of his daughters saying something along the lines of,

[00:21:43] Hi, this is so and so. I want you to know that I would love to babysit for you someday. My hackles were standing on end. In my heart, I felt the creepy dad had put her up to calling me and offering her sitting services.

[00:22:00] I just knew that if she were a babysitter, that would be a way for him to get into my house while she was there, or at the very least would ask for me to bring my girls to his house. Who knows what he could have done with them?

[00:22:15] I also envisioned him coming into my house and rummaging through all of my stuff. I did say to her that I would keep it in mind so I didn't hurt her feelings,

[00:22:24] but there was no way in hell I was going to let that family get close to my girls. Another day, my girls who were four and seven were outside playing in the bed of our pickup truck. It was parked on the street under our big shade trees.

[00:22:39] I heard my youngest screaming at the top of her lungs. My other daughter came in saying, Mom, Rachel is screaming. I was making dinner so I washed off my hands and said, Yes, I hear, I'm coming.

[00:22:54] Well, to my horror, this creepy mustached man was just standing there with his arm over the tailgate like he was asking her to come to him. My youngest was backed up to the cab, screaming. I was horrified and angry.

[00:23:16] I grabbed my little one and turned to him and told him to leave and never come near my daughters again. This was just too much. I don't have any idea what he was planning. I know that I told my husband about this creepy guy.

[00:23:30] He agreed with me and felt like there was something off about him. He felt uncomfortable around him as well. During the years with him in the neighborhood, I would hear some of the other women talk about how creepy he was.

[00:23:44] One lady was asked to play tennis with him. There were many stories about him from other women.

[00:23:50] One friend of mine said that she and her husband had gone out to dinner and saw him in a dark corner booth, cuddled up and kissing a woman that was not his wife. We all did our best to avoid him. He's a real estate agent.

[00:24:05] There were many stories about him going into homes where he shouldn't have been. One night on the 6 o'clock news, we were all shocked to see his mugshot on TV. He was arrested. Apparently he was a pimp to some women from another country.

[00:24:24] His excuse to the police was that he was trying to help them earn money to stay here in the states. He still lives in the neighborhood. I haven't been to church in nearly 20 years, so I have not had to encounter him.

[00:24:39] I have been able to avoid him for the most part though. Once in a while I'll see him driving on my street. Believe me, I never wave. So creepy grinning mustache man, let's continue not to meet.

[00:24:55] This happened to myself and a group of friends in the summer of 2007 in Spokane, Washington. This particular group of friends I had liked to party. We would gather at the same location every weekend to play beer pong and we would have a really good time.

[00:25:20] We would laugh and stay up till the wee hours of the night. We had a tight knit group of about 8 of us. We all got along very well and we had little drama in our circle.

[00:25:31] Occasionally one of us would bring a friend or two by the house to participate in the drinking games, but usually it boiled down to the 8 of us hanging out together. The house was loaded with beer and we were all very drunk.

[00:25:47] The house was located in a part of town very close to the bars and nightclubs. You would get the occasional weirdo or drunk roaming around here and there, but it wasn't too bad.

[00:25:59] This happened during a typical Friday night. We were all playing beer pong and sharing a pizza when one of our friends mentioned that he was going to pick up Emily at one of the local bars.

[00:26:10] He said that he would be right back, so we continued on with our night. About 20 minutes later, our friend, who we'll call Ty, returned to the house with Emily and another man who none of us recognized.

[00:26:25] No one was really alarmed at this point because our house had an open door policy and we welcomed anyone in. So, we embraced the strange man and nonchalantly asked him to join in on some pong. The man was very sweaty and nervous looking.

[00:26:45] He was wearing a black jogger sweatsuit and he was wearing a black shirt. He was wearing a black shirt and a black jacket.

[00:26:55] He was wearing a black jogger sweatsuit that was at least two sizes too big for him and a dirty black hat that sat backwards on his clammy head.

[00:27:10] His eyes were dilated and he seemed awfully perturbed as he paced back and forth, trying to fit in with our group of friends as best as he could. This guy was very suspicious and we didn't know why, or who he was for that matter.

[00:27:29] After some close scrutiny, we pulled Ty into the next room and asked him who this weird unsettled guy was in the living room.

[00:27:39] Ty said that he went to pick Emily up and he was standing outside in the parking lot and asked him if he knew where the party was. So, Ty thought that it would be a good idea to bring him back to our place.

[00:27:52] Now remember, this wasn't too surprising to any of us because we did have an open door policy as I said, but there were boundaries. I mean, none of us would just invite some complete random stranger who's sitting outside of the bar to come back and party with us.

[00:28:09] Especially with the way that this guy carried himself. He seemed to lack any integrity and was clearly using some sort of drugs. After giving Ty some shit for letting this creep into the house, we went back out into the living room and just went on playing beer pong.

[00:28:27] After about 10 minutes, this strange man walks out the back door and disappears without saying a word to anyone. We stop and look at each other confused, all wondering, where the hell did that guy go? What's he doing?

[00:28:46] But before any of us had time to react or follow him, or even peek out the window, he walked back into the house and asked us if we wanted to see something that he had for sale.

[00:28:58] Curious and skeptical, we moved to the table where he was emptying his pockets. He threw out some crumbled up receipts, some pocket change, his wallet, and then he pulled out the bag.

[00:29:16] At first we thought it could be drugs. Of course it was drugs. His behavior, his dilated eyes, it all would make sense. The room drew silent as we all huddled over the bag that he just slung onto the table. So silent that you could hear everyone's tense breathing.

[00:29:36] All of a sudden my jaw dropped and I could feel my heartbeat in my throat. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. No one could. A bag of three to four bloody golden teeth. This guy pulled out a bag of bloody teeth.

[00:29:57] One of our friends looked up swiftly and demanded to know where the teeth came from. The strange man replied, cool as a cucumber. I just got them. They're fresh. And they're real. I need to get rid of them. Does anyone have $20?

[00:30:19] He goes on to explain how you could get rid of them. He goes on to explain how you could melt the gold down and sell it at a pawn shop.

[00:30:31] To say the least, we were repulsed, feeling angry and appalled that this guy was trying to sell us someone's teeth. Teeth that he seemingly just pulled out of someone's mouth.

[00:30:44] Furious, a few of the guys lunged at the man and threw him out of the house, shoving the bag of bloody teeth into his pocket. They told him to get lost and never come back or the cops would be here in no time to arrest him.

[00:30:58] We quickly locked the doors and windows and silently watched as he wandered down the dark street, disappearing into the night. Once he was out of sight, no one said a word for about a few minutes.

[00:31:13] We just collected ourselves. We looked around at each other and started nervously laughing. Did that really just happen? Is there a man out there laying on the side of the road missing teeth? I don't really want to know the answer.

[00:31:32] So bizarre man who may or may not have pulled gold teeth from a live human being. Let's never meet again. My name is Miriam and at the moment I'm a 38 year old woman. But when this story happened, I was 16.

[00:32:03] I have an older brother who we'll call Peter, a younger brother, James, and a sister who we'll call Sally. At the time they were 19, 15 and 10. We live in a place that was outside of our city limits and only several streets of houses were open.

[00:32:23] Several streets of houses were clustered together. At that time, Peter was still living with us and he and James shared a room. Sally slept in the room with my mom. The last room at the end of the hall and next to them was my room.

[00:32:44] My brother's room was across the hall and it was the biggest, the master bedroom with a bathroom. For reference, it's a small bathroom with a shower, toilet and small sink. There was a towel rack over the small window that doesn't seem possible for anyone to squeeze through.

[00:33:05] One night we were all sleeping, having gone to bed early because it was a school night and my mom and Peter had early morning shifts.

[00:33:15] I usually stayed up late reading with a small lamp that I had until my mom banged on the wall to signal that it was time to put the book away and get to sleep. That night, I was tired so I didn't stay up. I was asleep before 10.

[00:33:32] I was awoken in the middle of the night by what I thought were thumps and I grumbled in annoyance figuring that it was my mom thinking that I was reading so I ignored it and tried to go back to sleep.

[00:33:48] When I'm jolted awake by sudden screams and something large hitting the wall. I'm up immediately grabbing some shorts because I had a nightgown on. When I open the door, the hallway is pitch black except for the moonlight coming from the window behind me through the partially open blinds.

[00:34:09] I see a large figure suddenly stumble from my brother's room and I know it's not either of them. Peter is just 2 inches taller than me and I'm 5 feet. James is about 5'8, my mom 5'1, Sally 4'10 at the time. Whoever this is is at least 6 feet tall.

[00:34:32] He's very large. I open my mouth to scream when suddenly another figure shoves him hard and I realize that it's my mom. The stranger stumbles. She shoves again before grabbing and pulling him down the hallway towards the front door.

[00:34:48] I hear my older brother yelling and rush in, turning on the light to see what's happening. My younger brother James is laying motionless in bed. There was blood on his head and face. It was swelling quickly. What happened? I yelled.

[00:35:07] I'm already crying as I grab Sally before she can see him. As I do I notice that there's a metal bat that I don't recognize on the ground. The bat is covered in blood. My mom is back suddenly.

[00:35:23] She and Peter help James up, stumbling to the car as I hold my crying sister. We managed to pile into my mom's car. I'm now hyper aware of the stranger that had been in the house. He doesn't appear to be outside though.

[00:35:40] We sped off towards town and the hospital. As we go I see a cop and we flag him down. My mom's yelling about someone attacking her son. The cop gives us an escort to the hospital, through the emergency room since it's a small city and a hospital,

[00:35:58] so only the emergency room is open. Needless to say we don't go to school or work the following morning. We stay with him until the afternoon. Having given our statements to the police just a few hours ago,

[00:36:12] I later found out that the large man, larger than any of us and six feet tall, had somehow managed to wiggle through the bathroom's open window, breaking the towel rack and coming into my brother's room. He then proceeded to hit James with the metal bat.

[00:36:33] The first hit hit the back of his head because he was so scared. The second hit hit the back of his head because he was on his stomach. And then when he turned, dazed and concussed, the man hit him twice more in the face.

[00:36:46] Peter was awoken and he lunged at the man trying to tackle him away from James. The man tried to get Peter off. My older brother is being flung around as he's holding onto him. But he can't hold on for long. He flies into the wall.

[00:37:02] Before he can swing the bat again, my mom apparently had come into the room and slammed into him. The stranger had at least a foot on her, but she's likely running on adrenaline and righteous anger. She manages to shove him out the door.

[00:37:18] And that's when I came out of my room. They never caught the guy, nor did we know who he was or why he had come into our house to attack James. We moved from that house two years later, but that stayed with us.

[00:37:33] And it wasn't a pleasant two years. My brothers never left their window open again. James got a very bad concussion and a fractured cheekbone, but made a full recovery. Even to this day, he says he doesn't remember anything from the attack.

[00:37:54] But his memory isn't what it used to be. It was a traumatizing time for us, but somehow we got through it. Although it was easier after we moved. To the man that attacked my brother and somehow squeezed through a tiny bathroom window,

[00:38:10] you can go to hell, and I hope we never meet. It was back in 2009. I was with my ex who is now my oldest son's father. He wasn't the best guy, I'll be honest. Hence why he's my ex.

[00:38:33] He was in and out of jail a lot, hung out with all of the wrong people, and he was constantly cheating on me. He had this best friend we'll call Worm. He was a very nice guy, and he was a very nice guy.

[00:38:48] He had this best friend we'll call Worm. He was pretty cool and got along fine when we would hang out. But he was just like my ex, bad news.

[00:39:00] I didn't realize how much bad news he really was until he got mad at me and my ex over something minor. One night, my ex and a friend of ours named Cat were riding around our city, smoking pot and drinking. Something we would do regularly on weekend nights.

[00:39:20] We ran into this old friend of my ex's that he hadn't seen in a few years at the corner store. His friend asked us for a ride and ended up joining us and riding around the city. We were originally supposed to hang out with Worm,

[00:39:35] but my ex ended up not wanting to drive all the way across town since we already had a car full. He told Worm that we would pick him up another time. Little did I know, this was a mistake.

[00:39:47] We ended up agreeing to go to this cool place with a nice view on the rich part of town. Cat ended up staying. She didn't want to go because it was getting late and she was tired. So we dropped her off then headed out to our destination.

[00:40:04] Now this place is out in the hills in Texas and has a long stairway of about 100 steps until you get to the view. It's pitch black out there at night, other than lights from the surrounding lake houses.

[00:40:17] So we got up. So we go up to this spot that isn't too dark and we start smoking. We're out there for about 25 minutes. Then we hear some people walking up behind us.

[00:40:32] I turn around and it's Worm. He has another guy with him and two girls that I've met before. My ex turns around and is like, oh shit. Hey, what are you doing here? Worm tells him, hey, come here. I need to talk to you.

[00:40:49] They start to walk off together. Worm tells me and my ex's other friend to stay put. I was confused and started following them because why the hell would I just stay up there? Well, I was confused too. Why would I just stay up there?

[00:41:07] Well, the two girls that he brought with him cut me off and said to me, hey, stay put. I was thinking, what's the problem here? They told me we're waiting on Worm to give us the word and we're going to beat your ass.

[00:41:24] Why did you tell Jody, who was my ex, that you didn't want to chill with Worm? Again, I was so confused. I just said, what are you talking about? I never said that.

[00:41:38] Well, they didn't believe me and were all in my face calling me all kinds of names. I realized they weren't going to do anything to me. So I just started to walk back down the stairs to where we parked.

[00:41:51] When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I saw my purse thrown out of the car. It was on the parking lot floor. I saw my ex near the trunk, standing in just his boxers.

[00:42:07] It turns out Worm was trying to make him get into the back of the trunk. He proceeded to make me, my ex and my ex's friend get into the car. He said that we were going for a ride.

[00:42:21] I was scared but trying to stay calm and I didn't know what to do. The other people that came with Worm got in another car and they started to follow us as we drove off. We dropped off my ex's friend and Worm was telling Jody, my ex,

[00:42:38] he wanted him to hand over all of the money and the weed that he had. He knew that my ex had just bought a large amount of weed a couple of days ago and he wanted it.

[00:42:49] I was dumbfounded, just sitting in the backseat watching my ex be treated like this and held at gunpoint by whom we assumed was his best friend. My ex told him he didn't have any cash on him and had sold the majority of what he had bought already.

[00:43:10] Well, Worm didn't believe him. They ended up taking me home and told me to get out and not even think about calling the cops. I was so pissed but also scared. Worm drove off with my ex and his car and they just left me at home.

[00:43:27] I didn't know what to do. It was about 12 a.m. I couldn't even think about going to sleep, I just sat at home waiting to see if my ex would make it back. A couple of hours pass and I hear a soft knock on the door.

[00:43:43] I look out the peephole and it's my ex. He comes in and I say, Oh my god, you're okay! What the hell was that all about?

[00:43:54] He proceeds to tell me that he doesn't know but Worm was really mad and took off with his car and just dropped him off down the street after making him empty out his bank account at the ATM. I didn't know what to do.

[00:44:10] He didn't want to talk to me. I didn't know what to do. He didn't want to call the cops and bring attention to the situation because we lived in a not so good part of town and he did have a rap sheet.

[00:44:23] He didn't think that they would help or believe us. Come to find out, Cat set us up. Cat told Worm where we were. She blocked me on social media and I couldn't get a hold of her.

[00:44:37] I was mad about the entire situation and also the fact that my ex didn't do anything to stick up for himself or me.

[00:44:45] Well, about a month passes and my ex gets a message from Worm saying he was sorry about everything and that he was really messed up on drugs that night. Said he wants to return the car and give him back his money.

[00:45:01] I didn't believe it and I told my ex to just ignore him, take the loss. But he didn't listen to me. Worm ended up coming to pick him up and told me to go with him. So, me being naive, I did.

[00:45:18] We got into the car and Cat along with the other guy from that night were there. They apologized saying that they were just listening to Worm that night. I was like, okay, whatever. What are we doing now? Well, we ended up driving around and smoking and talking.

[00:45:39] We pull up to these apartments across town and Worm tells my ex to get out of the car so he can talk to him in private. They get out, leaving me in the car with Cat and the other guy. They're talking for about 10 minutes before they come back.

[00:45:55] We start heading back to my side of town. My ex keeps nudging me, trying to discreetly get my attention and tell me something. I turn towards him and I see that Worm had a gun pulled out and was aiming it directly at me.

[00:46:10] I looked at both of them and said, what do you think you're doing? And Worm tells me that if I listen to him, he won't hurt me. I ask him what he wants. At this point, I'm not even scared.

[00:46:26] I'm just mad all over again because what the fuck? How could my stupid ex let this happen again? How could I let this happen again? Worm tells me that we're going to make it back to my place and he's going to take whatever he wants.

[00:46:43] At that time, I was a pretty big sneakerhead and had a lot of expensive shoes that I had collected over the past six years or so. Worm said that he was going to steal all of the shoes and that was that.

[00:46:57] I look at my ex and he's sitting between us with his head down, not making eye contact with me. I shake my head and say, man, do whatever you want at this point. It doesn't seem like anyone is going to stop you.

[00:47:11] And I just stare at my ex. We make it to my house and Worm and the other guy grab a trash bag and start stuffing it with my shoes. Everything that they could find into the bag.

[00:47:26] They walk out the door and Worm says, do not call the cops because remember you said that I could do what I want. Then he laughs and leaves.

[00:47:37] I was so mad I started to argue with my ex about it and he just acted embarrassed and said that he didn't know what to do because Worm had threatened that if he tried to do anything, Worm would have me killed.

[00:47:52] Like, this has got to be a fucking joke. We never called the cops. We never got any of the shoes back. I was hurt and mad that he would let that happen again.

[00:48:05] We ended up staying together for a few more years before I left him after I got pregnant. Worm ended up in prison about a year later over something not related. To this day though, I still feel like my ex had something to do with all of that.

[00:48:19] I just feel like he was in on it and got some kind of money out of it because those dummies are still his friends. Which blows my mind. I've seen Worm on social media here and there.

[00:48:34] He has a family now but I've never run into him in person again. I hope I never do because I don't know how I would react. All I know is this stupid piece of shit that threatened me, kidnapped me and robbed me twice. Let's never meet again.

[00:49:24] Listener Indira B. Who and What Was That? by Frosty. The Man in My Shower by KDG. The Grinning Mustache Man by Christy. What's in the Bag? by Spokane Lady. The Large Man by Miriam. And finally, Kidnapped and Robbed by Jenny1011.

[00:49:49] All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast, is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online.

[00:50:00] As always, if you have a story to share, make sure you send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. And if you want to get access to all of the Patreon bonus content as well as ad-free episodes and exclusive merch, head over to patreon.com forward slash letsnotmeetpodcast.

[00:50:15] Thank you all for listening. I'll see you next week for a brand new frightening episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. Stay safe out there.