7x13: The Encounters - 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.

[00:00:19] My name is Andrew Tate and this is Season 7, Episode 13 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. 🎵 I live in a smaller city and own a retail store located in the heart of downtown.

[00:01:04] Like many downtowns, ours is filled with its fair share of sketchy characters down on their luck from drug use and sometimes mental illness. I have worked in the area for many years,

[00:01:15] often alone in my store, so I came to recognize many people from this community and never really felt overly threatened by anyone. Of course, I was cautious and aware of my surroundings, but

[00:01:30] I didn't spook too easily. In May of 2020, our city was put on lockdown due to COVID-19 and all non-essential businesses were forced to close. In order to continue making a living, I created

[00:01:45] a website and offered curbside pickup. I still had to spend time at the store, but we weren't open to the public, and since we were in lockdown, the downtown area was very quiet and deserted.

[00:01:58] My kids were also in lockdown, so we were doing online school which meant sometimes they would have to come to work with me and do schoolwork from there. One day, I had my younger

[00:02:10] daughter with me, and she loves to help in the store and change my display window and dress up the mannequins. We were near the front of the store when I noticed this man standing on the sidewalk.

[00:02:23] I had never seen him before, but something about him felt off. I should mention my store has a big full-length window that goes all the way across the front door and a glass door. He seemed to be

[00:02:39] in his early to mid-twenties and had a very baby face. He just stood there staring through the window and weirdly laughing or giggling. I could tell he was getting closer to the front door,

[00:02:52] and I had a feeling he would try to come in, and I honestly just didn't want to deal with it. So I stepped outside with my key in the lock on the front door. It only locked from the outside.

[00:03:05] As soon as I opened the door, the man said hello. I politely said hi and started to turn the key and lock it. Then he asked why I was locking the door. I told him we were closed,

[00:03:20] so I was locking up to go home. When he spoke, he almost sounded childlike, and I thought perhaps he had special needs, so I proceeded to lock and shut the door. I gave him a smile. He seemed

[00:03:35] unsettling but innocent enough at the time. I wasn't actually going home. I still had customers coming to pick up, so I took my daughter into the back room. I kept glancing out just to make sure

[00:03:49] I didn't miss anyone coming for a pickup, and the guy was still there pacing and giggling and cupping his hands around the window to peer in. A little later, a customer showed up for a pickup,

[00:04:02] so I met her at the door to hand her her purchases. As I opened the door, the guy showed up again and said, I thought you were closed and going home. My customer and I both looked at each other confused, and I kind of ignored him and kept

[00:04:20] chatting with the customer for just a moment. He then interjected again and said, you and your daughter, you're really pretty. My daughter was six by the way. But then he got very excited

[00:04:35] and giggled. I was creeped out at this point by him, so I told him that he needed to leave. He looked at me with big eyes and then scampered off. Luckily, since downtown was deserted,

[00:04:49] I had my car parked right in front, and as my last customer left, the kids and I quickly got in the car and left ourselves. As I drove away, I passed the same guy sitting on a bench all alone.

[00:05:02] He looked totally zoned out. It was about a block from the store. I felt bad for him. He was quite childlike and seemed like he should probably be supervised or something. I went home and decided

[00:05:17] to come back later that evening to finish up work so that my kids wouldn't have to come back the next day. Later that evening around 9pm, I went back to the store. I let myself in,

[00:05:29] and I locked the door behind me. I was working away for a couple of hours when from the corner of my eye I saw a figure poking their head around by my window. Since it was dark outside and my

[00:05:43] lights were on, I couldn't really tell what I was looking at. I took a step closer, and I saw that it was the same guy from earlier. He stepped right out in front with his huge smile

[00:05:56] on his face and started waving at me. He did this as though we were best friends. Why is this guy still downtown? It was like 11pm and absolutely nothing was open. Again,

[00:06:08] I ignored him and hoped that he would just go away. He didn't feel threatening, but he was still creeping me out. After about 10 minutes, he knocked on the door. I turned off my music and went to the door, but I didn't open it. He yelled into the glass,

[00:06:26] Why did you lock your door earlier? I just shook my head and walked away. I could hear him through the glass say, Is the little girl still here? Again, I just ignored him and walked towards the back room. At this point,

[00:06:43] I was pissed off that this creep even asked about my daughter. I was feeling pretty shaken up. I decided to play it safe and texted one of our downtown patrol. They are cops who work closely with downtown business owners,

[00:06:56] and you can text or call them for anything non-emergent. They were in the area, so I asked if they could walk with me to my car because someone was hanging around outside. The cop came

[00:07:10] right away, and I told him what happened and gave him the description. He said that this person didn't sound familiar to him, but that I did the right thing by getting walked out. We didn't see

[00:07:22] the guy as I walked to my car, but the cop told me that he would keep an eye out and let me know if he came across him and that they would give me an update. I never saw the guy again after that,

[00:07:33] and the cops never came by with an update, so I kind of forgot about the whole thing. But fast forward a few months later, the lockdown in our city had lifted slightly, and people were out and about trying to return to their normal lives and routine.

[00:07:50] I was at my kids' hockey practice that takes place at our city's big rec center. There are a lot of sports and activities at this center, so it is always full of families and kids taking part

[00:08:05] in their various activities. As I was watching practice, I was visiting with a friend that I hadn't seen in a while, and our daughters were running around playing together. My friend's daughter had to go to the bathroom, and since we could see the opening to the locker room

[00:08:22] slash bathroom, we told the girls to stay together and come back when they had finished up. My friend and I continued chatting, but the girls came back. They mentioned that there was a weird

[00:08:34] man in the locker room. Both my friend and I quickly headed to the locker room, completely alarmed that there was a man in there. My stomach flipped when I saw this man in the locker room.

[00:08:47] It was the same man that was at my store just a few months ago. Again, he was pacing around with this big grin on his face, giggling excitedly. My friend immediately left to go get someone who

[00:09:00] worked there. An employee came in and got him without much explanation. We were both horrified that our daughters had been alone with him in there, and grateful that they had the common sense to leave as soon as they saw him. As we were processing what had just happened,

[00:09:16] we waited for practice to end. We saw a couple of cops come in, and then just minutes later, one of the employees from the rec center told us that the police wanted our statement of what

[00:09:27] happened. To my surprise, we weren't the only parents giving statements. We told the police what had happened, and I also mentioned that I recognized him from downtown a few months prior. After we gave statements, we all watched in complete confusion as an ambulance came and

[00:09:44] removed this guy from the building on a stretcher. More cops showed up, and eventually the ambulance was escorted away by police cars, and the first two cops came by to let us know what just went down.

[00:09:58] Apparently, this guy was actually 35 years old, and as I suspected, he did suffer from some mental disabilities. They didn't give too many details, but the cop did mention that the man was a sexual deviant and a known pedophile. He had been institutionalized as a teenager for assaulting

[00:10:16] and abusing girls that he went to school with, as well as family members. He was never placed in jail because of his mental disability and low IQ. He lived in our hospital's psychiatric floor,

[00:10:30] which is why the ambulance picked him up, and was supposed to be under 24-7 watch. He was allowed day passes where a guardian would take him on outings as long as he was supervised

[00:10:44] and returned back to the psych ward before curfew. It turns out, he wasn't getting supervised by his guardian, and he had been free to use the public transit to go wherever he pleased.

[00:10:56] He had met with a college-aged girl on a bus and ended up following her to the rec center. She felt very uncomfortable and had notified an employee that she was being followed there and

[00:11:09] didn't feel safe. Initially, they made him leave the building. According to one of the employees, later that day, they were getting reports of a weird guy lurking all around the women's changing

[00:11:20] rooms and the bathrooms. They tried to find him, but he kept hiding. The building was large and had lots of places to hide and blend in. It had been an ordeal to all that were involved.

[00:11:36] It still makes me sick to think about my run-ins with this man and the threat that he was to my daughter and all the other kids and women that he had encountered and spied on that day.

[00:11:46] I don't allow myself to think about what could have happened to us that deserted day at the store downtown. I'm glad that I trusted my gut to protect us, though. Even if it seemed rude or like an

[00:11:59] overreaction. I know that if I saw him twice, he must have had other encounters with other people and I really hope that he wasn't able to harm anyone during those times he was left unsupervised.

[00:12:12] So to the guardians of a mentally ill pedophile, please don't let him roam our city alone. And to the mentally ill pedophile, I sincerely hope you do get the help you need, but let's not ever meet again.

[00:12:40] I've been listening to the show for about two years and I thought that this story was just too creepy not to share. This is mostly my roommate's story, but we all experienced parts of it.

[00:12:55] I'm a 25 year old female master's student living in a house with two other women that are college age students. We live in a cute suburban area close to the university with a mix of college students, single families and rental properties being flipped. The following incidents took place over

[00:13:16] the last two months, August to October. To give you some perspective, our home is three stories with two bedrooms on the third floor and one bedroom on the basement level. Basically the

[00:13:31] ground floor. The backyards are not separated by a fence, but do have a wide area of space between the houses and a concrete patio area outside the basement level and the back door. The neighborhood

[00:13:47] is pretty quiet and people mostly stay to themselves. You might get an occasional hi from a neighbor, but people don't usually strike up conversations when they don't know you. The only interaction I can recall between a random neighbor and I was about a week after I moved in

[00:14:06] when a middle-aged man tried to strike up a conversation with me, you know, asking me if I was a student, what I was studying and where I was from, etc. I was in the cul-de-sac on my run.

[00:14:20] I chalked it up to him being a nosy but well-meaning dad and told him that I was sorry but I needed to finish my run and I never saw him again. Two weeks later,

[00:14:31] my downstairs roommate stopped me before I left and told me something that made my blood run cold. When I was home alone on multiple occasions, she heard low talking outside of her bedroom

[00:14:45] and bathroom windows. A few days later, she noticed footprints in the mud near our back door and even found greasy face prints on the back sliding door, her bedroom, and bathroom windows.

[00:15:01] Now when she told me that this had been going on for over two weeks, I was stunned. She was scared to be in the house alone at night as this was the only times the incidents happened. I begged

[00:15:14] her to file a police report and to tell the other upstairs roommate as she was the owner of the house and monitored our indoor security system. For the next month and a half, everything was

[00:15:30] normal. We didn't hear or see anything weird at night. But yesterday, we came home from night classes and work to see over 15 cop cars parked around our neighborhood. They were spread out

[00:15:48] at every exit and about six more cop cars parked outside of the neighbor's house just a few doors just a few doors down. I'd like to note that none of the cops had their sirens on,

[00:16:03] just their lights. Some cops even had dogs and flashlights out patrolling the streets. We were obviously concerned, but an older next door neighbor told us that it was just loitering, so we rushed it off. Today, we found out the stomach churning truth.

[00:16:24] That nosy neighbor that stopped me on my run to chat was a sex offender, and the police picked them up for multiple complaints and violations. In one of the other college houses closer to the

[00:16:39] house the women made multiple complaints about, a peeping Tom who had been creeping around their home and had later been seen peeping outside of their windows. From his house, he could easily

[00:16:55] see when any members left my house and the other women's house. He had been tracking who was home and planning his best time to watch the women in the neighborhood. The cops moved the women

[00:17:11] closest to his house into a safe house last night and finally had enough evidence on the guy to raid his house and pick him up. The cops on patrol were looking for him in the bushes of our

[00:17:24] backyards because he tried to flee on foot. Thankfully, they did eventually catch him. They arrested him. I'm glad he was caught, but I can't help but wonder if that was the person

[00:17:40] lurking around our house or if we have another person to be worried about. I guess you never really know your neighbors. We definitely keep our guard up now and tell each other as soon as we notice something weird. We're getting outside cameras added to the security system tomorrow.

[00:18:01] So creepy peeping Tom that kept us up at night. My roommates and I are glad that you're in jail, and I hope we never meet again. My family usually takes yearly vacations. This particular trip was in a tropical location at

[00:18:33] a beautiful resort up on a mountainside. My best friend at the time, who I'll call Laura, came with my family on this trip, and both being fresh out of high school, we were excited to travel somewhere together where the drinking age was actually 18. Throughout the week, we would

[00:18:55] drink by the pool and just have fun while at the resort. But one day, the rest of my family left us to go on an excursion, so Laura and I had planned to spend a day reading and drinking by

[00:19:08] the pool together. Right after lunch, we were currently feeling the effects of our drinks and the sun, and were enjoying a surprisingly empty pool when we were greeted by one of the workers

[00:19:20] whose name is way too unique for me to include, so we'll just refer to him as Jay. Jay came up to us and began asking us how we were enjoying the day, if he could refill our drinks, the normal poolside

[00:19:35] conversations. By this point in our trip, we were used to being approached due to being two conventionally attractive young females having auburn hair with blue eyes and Laura having blonde

[00:19:47] hair with blue eyes, both of which were not common in the area. About an hour goes by, and we had moved our spot due to the growing crowds by the poolside bar, when from behind my chair, I heard

[00:20:03] someone jump out and yell, hey! And then they called me by my name. Nearly throwing my book out of fear, I whip around to look behind me, expecting to see one of my family members,

[00:20:17] only it was Jay. Coming off the low rush of confusion and adrenaline, I realized I never even gave him my name. As I looked at my friend, I could tell that she came to the same realization. Beginning to slowly backer things without attracting too much attention from Jay.

[00:20:38] I looked up at him, said hello and quickly asked how he knew my name. Jay seemed pleased that I asked, and his answer almost seemed rehearsed. Oh, well, I had seen

[00:20:51] your cup the other day that had your name on the front of it. He was right, I had used a cup with my first name plastered across the front that I hadn't used the first night I was there.

[00:21:05] Laura, bless her, used her diabetes as an excuse to get us the hell out of there, stating that she needed to go back up to the room. We spent the rest of the day in our room,

[00:21:18] decompressing and taking occasional naps until my family finally returned and it was time for dinner. At this resort, if you eat at their restaurant, you're invited to their interactive show afterwards, which we both attended. Dinner was normal, and we had almost gotten that strange image of the man

[00:21:40] out of our heads when it was time for the show. But you guessed it, Jay was the host. Weirded out but not worried at this point, my father, being the extrovert he is, volunteers for the show, which ended up being one of my favorite memories of him considering

[00:21:58] I got to watch Bo, his alter ego, dance to Beyonce's Single Ladies. The last segment of the show, Jay was having a harder time getting volunteers, to which he picked me from the crowd

[00:22:11] to join the others on stage. We went by one by one stating our names and the general area that we were from when getting to me. I don't know if it was the lights, the alcohol, or the smell

[00:22:25] of his sweat so close to my face, but I panicked. I stated my name since he already knew that, and said that I was from Denver, Colorado, which I am nowhere near. I watched my parents' confused

[00:22:39] faces wondering why I lied, and began playing along with his game, keeping an eye on him as best as I could. His sweat-drenched hand touched the lower back of my dress, just high enough to

[00:22:53] deem the location as an accident, as he thanked me for playing. Sitting back down, Laura knew that I was uncomfortable, so we told my family that we were going to the resort's young adults club.

[00:23:06] Surely this older man would not follow us there, we thought. He had been working all day. We were wrong. Laura and I had about 40 blissful moments of singing and dancing until he walked in.

[00:23:21] What a better way to unwind after a long day's work than to go to a young adults club filled with traveling girls just trying to enjoy themselves, right? Walking straight up to me, asking my name,

[00:23:34] and if I wanted to dance, to which I acted like it was too loud to understand what he was saying, and threw both myself and Laura into the middle of the dance floor. Until we couldn't sneak away,

[00:23:47] out of sight, to escape. We decided that it was best to call it a night and headed back to our room for some restless sleep. When I woke up, I had a notification from Instagram stating that I had

[00:23:59] a new follower, and yes, it was Jay. How did he find me? My first name is very common, and I am completely out of the country. Without my last name, there would be no way for this man to have

[00:24:11] found my social media. That's when it hit me. He works there. I'm a guest, renting a room. He found my name in their system, which meant that he knew exactly which room we were in. I ignored the

[00:24:26] notification, and we decided to stupidly keep to ourselves and go join our family at the pool, acting as if nothing was wrong. A few hours had gone by, and I had completely forgotten

[00:24:39] about what had happened this morning when Jay showed up yet again somehow to the exact pool that we were at, which was different from the days prior. He watched from afar as we continued

[00:24:51] to act as if he wasn't there, while slowly closing the distance between my family and I. That's when Jay came up to my mother and asked if she would care to join one of his yoga classes. I quickly

[00:25:06] responded no for her, and turned her away from him, engaging both of us into different conversations. I thought Jay would catch the hint and move on, but he never did. After dinner that night, Lara and

[00:25:19] I decided to skip the show for obvious reasons and head to the karaoke bar instead. We were one of the few English speakers, so we were just enjoying listening to the various versions of songs that

[00:25:31] we knew but in other languages. The announcer came back on after the song was finished and proclaimed, next up one of our own, Jay. My heart dropped. This resort was the size of my hometown.

[00:25:46] How could he just continue to pop up everywhere that we went? His voice echoed through the bar when he dedicated his song to me. Everyone turned to look at me with various awes and how sweet eyes.

[00:26:00] Little did they know, with this added attention, it made it extremely hard to leave, and he knew that. When his song was over, the crowd watched and waited as he ran up to me, asking what I thought.

[00:26:14] Sharply and quietly, I asked why he was following me, only to have him respond with, I couldn't let a pretty girl like you slip through my fingers. As he quickly wrapped his arms around me to give me a hug, and as the crowd cheered,

[00:26:30] I desperately tried to get out of his grasp. Finally free, Lara and I rushed back to the room, freaking out because what the fuck just happened? Needless to say, we finished the night in our room

[00:26:42] once more. The days on our vacation were dwindling down and I was successfully avoiding Jay to the best of my abilities, since we spent our time out and about rather than poolside. When two nights before we left, I received a message from Jay. Forgive me, the contents of

[00:26:59] this message are a bit fuzzy since this has been about eight years. But the conversation went along the lines of him using my profile to ask me personal questions about myself, using details

[00:27:11] of things I had only mentioned on this trip. And finally, after ten messages with no reply, I received a picture. It takes no detective to know what the contents of the photos Jay sent

[00:27:24] contained. Blocked and reported on Instagram. Thinking I was safe to try and enjoy my last day of vacation the next day. In the morning, I found Jay talking to my parents, who knew nothing

[00:27:39] other than he hung around a lot. They were talking about how beautiful and kind I was. This fucking creep. He asked when we were leaving, where we were headed home to, and if or when we

[00:27:55] planned to come back. After breakfast, we headed down to the pool and I told my family everything, seeing as I was nearing a panic attack at this point. Upset and confused as to why

[00:28:07] I hadn't told them sooner, we cut our pool day short and prepared for our early flight in the morning. We woke up and located the shuttle with our luggage, with the help of, once again,

[00:28:20] to no surprise, Jay. When the rest of us were in the van, my dad walked up to Jay, hand extended for a handshake, pulling Jay just close enough to tell him to leave his

[00:28:30] daughter the fuck alone and walk off. I thought this would be the last time I would ever hear Jay, but that's not usually how these stories go, right? Over the course of the last few years,

[00:28:45] and as recently as a few months ago, Jay will create different accounts and attempt to talk to me in efforts to get me to come back to his country. At this, I'm smart enough to know now

[00:28:56] that there isn't much I can do besides block the account. So Jay, the fucking creep abusing his job to prey on young intoxicated girls on vacation, I hope you got fired and let's not meet

[00:29:08] again. I grew up in a very small town in an equally small school district. This meant that school buses picked up and transported kids of all grades together. That's how I came into contact

[00:29:32] with the guy I'll call Spike, so named for the way he styled his hair. Spike was 16, I was 9. I don't recall exactly how it all started, but at some point he and I connected over cartoons

[00:29:48] and video games that we both liked, and we became frequent bus buddies, sitting together every day and talking. I felt cool hanging out with a teenager, and it didn't hurt that he looked a

[00:30:00] lot like a character that I really liked from one of my favorite shows at the time. On top of that, both of our moms were teachers for the district, so they knew each other, and that somehow just

[00:30:12] made it feel safe. One day, he got on the bus looking rather sullen. He told me that his parents had gotten him a car, and that that would be his last day riding the bus with me.

[00:30:26] He told me how much he was going to miss our rides together, and I was equally upset. This was before the era of common cell phone use. I didn't have a number to give him so he could call

[00:30:39] or text me directly. He would've had to call my home phone, which he didn't seem eager to do for some reason. I sat quietly through the whole ride, sad that I would no longer have my cool older bus

[00:30:52] buddy. A month or so passed without seeing him or hearing from him at all, and since I was just a kid, that was just enough time for me to move on and nearly forget him. I wish it had stayed that

[00:31:06] way, though, lost among hundreds of other fuzzy childhood interactions and momentary friendships, but unfortunately he hadn't forgotten me. At the time I was taking fiddle lessons, my instructor was just down the road, and like I said, it was a small town and very safe,

[00:31:26] so my mom would just let me walk to his house alone. Never had any problems. All the people along the street knew me. They were all trusted adults. This was until one day as I was walking

[00:31:39] down the sidewalk, I heard a car come up behind me and slow down, and then someone shouting my name. It was Spike. He pulled up his new car, stopping on the shoulder with the drain ditch between us.

[00:31:54] I was happy to see him, so excited to see his cool car. He seemed just as excited to see me. We chatted for a bit, catching up, before he asked, So where are you going? I told him I was headed to my fiddle lesson, to which he responded,

[00:32:10] Why don't you hop in? I'll give you a drive there. I smiled and thanked him, but told him that it was just a couple of blocks more. I even pointed at it. It was right in sight.

[00:32:22] That's fine. I don't mind taking you that far. Come on, it'll be fun. He said. The atmosphere of the conversations shifted. Even as a kid, I felt like it didn't add up.

[00:32:35] Why would he go to the trouble of driving me across a parking lot? It wasn't exactly enough time for a fun ride, either. At that moment, I realized that this was the first time that

[00:32:48] he and I had ever been alone, and this sinking feeling started in my gut. I shook my head and told him that I had to get to my lesson. My teacher was waiting for me. Come on, it'll be faster.

[00:33:01] Get in. He was sounding more insistent. I was getting more scared. My grandmother had told me cautionary tales of when she was a kid about ice cream truck men that offered rides to kids and

[00:33:15] then hurt them, and suddenly, that slammed to the forefront of my thoughts. I repeated myself, saying that I had to go. And though my feet felt planted to the spot, my hands were shaking.

[00:33:29] He began to scowl. Why are you being weird? I'm being nice. Just get in the car. I looked down the road and then back at him, realizing that currently, I had the advantage of the ditch separating us. But as soon as I got to the parking lot,

[00:33:47] he would be able to pull in and get close to me. I could just imagine him driving up, opening the door and snatching me, like all your worst stranger danger nightmares.

[00:33:55] I bolted. I took off down the sidewalk like I had the devil at my heels. I heard him yelling behind me, what are you doing? Come back. And then the sound of his engine revving. I remember hearing

[00:34:06] the car getting close, convincing me he was going to grab me at any moment and then hearing it pass me. Though I didn't bother to look. My tunnel vision was completely focused on my teacher's

[00:34:18] house. When I made it to the door, I opened it without even knocking, breathless. And the moment my teacher asked me what had happened, I broke down crying, unable to articulate what had just

[00:34:30] happened. I don't remember the rest of the day, but a few months later, I remember my mom telling me that Spike's mom had quit her job. That they had to move somewhere else because of something

[00:34:44] Spike had done. She wouldn't go into details, but I'm almost certain he must have done something to some other little girl and they left to avoid consequences. To this day, I wonder what his intentions were, what he would have done if I had actually gotten

[00:34:59] into his car, whether I would have ever made it to my teacher's house. But I get the sickening feeling I wouldn't have. So guy that befriended me when I was nine and then tried to convince me to get into his car alone. Let's not meet.

[00:35:30] In the early 80s, in a city in the southwest, there lied the one place Bugs Bunny always forgot to turn right at. Albuquerque. I was around six years old. I remember just loving life.

[00:35:46] I was a kid that loved to explore with her best friend. I'm going to call her Brit. My mom and dad had split up when I was two years old, and my mom decided to move us from a smaller town in New

[00:35:58] Mexico to Albuquerque. Far enough for my mom to have some space from that small town, but close enough for my dad to be by our side less than two hours away. My father was one of those men who you

[00:36:14] just loved. Six foot three, tall Italian man who always had a joke and a smile and was so smart he could relate to any subject. He was born and raised in this small town, so he knew everyone

[00:36:29] and everybody knew him and us and my mom, etc. My mom was a strong Native American woman and one of the toughest women you would ever know. She wasn't afraid of much. She would go toe to toe with anyone

[00:36:44] who touched my sister or I, even my father. Their marriage may not have worked out, but she would always protect us because we were her entire world. My parents got along in front of us at least.

[00:36:59] She would never deny our father any access to us. My dad was always welcomed. He would surprise us by coming into town and taking us all to dinner and made sure that we had everything we needed.

[00:37:13] Around this time, we were at a party with my mom's friends and my sister and I were in love with this beautiful German shepherd next door to the party. She was so sweet. We jumped the fence

[00:37:28] and we were playing with her. The lady who owned the dog came out and was smiling, watching us play with her. My mom checked in to make sure that we weren't being a pain and the nice lady said that we

[00:37:41] were no problem. She loves the attention. The dog's name was Charity. Now, you could see and hear the party with only a four-foot concrete brick fence with those decorative holes between the two yards.

[00:37:57] So we were never out of my mom's sight. After five minutes of just loving on this furry love, my mom called us over to get some food and offered a plate to the lady. She accepted

[00:38:11] and my mom and her were talking using the fence as this makeshift table. My sister and I were downing Kool-Aid and soft drinks as well as Lay's potato chips like we never got them at home.

[00:38:26] I walked over to the fence and asked my mom to get us a glass of milk. My mom and I went into the kitchen where the party was and sure enough my mom brought a gallon of milk for us just in

[00:38:36] case. I was elated and drinking my milk when we noticed the party stopped and we heard screaming, yelping from the dog. My mom ran out the front door instinctively and grabbed the lead pipe out

[00:38:50] of the trunk of the car for protection. Without missing a beat, I ran outside to see the problem running to the fence where I heard the screaming. My sister had jumped over and was trying to

[00:39:03] protect the dog from this man. I guess he was from the house next door. He was attacking Charity. I'm screaming for my sister and she wouldn't budge away from the dog. Charity is hunched over

[00:39:18] in the corner and my sister is above her standing in the way of the man when the man grabs my sister and throws her. Out of nowhere my mom is right there and took that pipe to the man's knee. I

[00:39:33] jumped the fence and helped my sister up and Charity is right next to my mom growling at the man. My mom was standing over him with the pipe in the air and both hands ready to kill him.

[00:39:48] Charity comes by us instinctively and licks us. She found her new home. I remember my mom saying calmly to get into the car, threw the keys at us and said, the dog is coming with us

[00:40:03] and you will not come for her. You're lucky I didn't smash your skull in. If you touch my daughter or that dog again or come for it, my husband will make sure that you are never heard from again.

[00:40:16] Do you understand? We all went home that night scared but excited to have a new member of the family. When we got home my mom told us to get her settled in by taking her around the house

[00:40:31] to know that she was safe. I promise you she knew immediately. She went into my room and hit the corner where the air vent hit her perfectly and she fell asleep.

[00:40:42] Fast forward three years. Charity is now eight and a full member of my squad. She would show up at my school which was four blocks away and wait for me to get out of class. No one would mess with me

[00:40:55] or her there. She would never leave my side and made sure I was always home safe. There was a stream of burglaries in the northeast heights of Albuquerque. It was all over the news, reports of

[00:41:09] rape as well. Very scary to be a girl around in the mid 80s in Albuquerque. I am now nine and excited for Halloween. I wore my costume to school and I was excited to go trick-or-treating. My mom

[00:41:24] would always stay home and give out candy and she always had the gun on the counter just in case. I went on my merry way with Britt and a friend and we hit the houses to get our haul for the night.

[00:41:41] I'm out in the front of a packed street and I notice a white beat-up van. Like a work van, but crustier looking. It was the 80s and people were always trying to get their parents' work vans

[00:41:54] to take a large haul of kids to parties in the fields or to house parties for high school kids. I lived in an area that was full of both high schoolers and elderly. No kidding, at least five

[00:42:09] blocks of this. My mom never really worried about where I was because I was always with a friend and within whistling distance. And I knew to check in every hour by phone or in person

[00:42:23] to get a snack or a drink. Going from house to house, I noticed this van slowly creeping down the street. I thought maybe they're just trying to scare us or they're trying to get our candy,

[00:42:36] but I never thought anything above that. I went on my way going from house to house when I felt this chill go down my back as I was walking with my friends. The van was slowly

[00:42:50] creeping up to us and I saw the driver had a mask on. Not like ours, but a ski mask. He was staring right at me. I made eye contact with him and just had this feeling that I needed

[00:43:05] to run, run as fast as you can. Run home. I was a block away from our house and I just said, I have to go to the bathroom. I'm going home. And I bolted down the street. The van was slowly

[00:43:20] picking up pace. I noticed the closer I got to my house, the thinner the trick-or-treaters were. We all started early to be home before pitch black. I started to panic and just dropped my

[00:43:33] candy and went as fast as I could. I was a very fast kid, hence why I ran track in high school and played soccer. I really was fast. Now I see my house and I flew up the porch and opened the

[00:43:48] screen door and the front door was locked. Screaming bloody murder. My mom finally opened it. It felt like forever. As I got into the house, I looked back to see the van stop and look at the house

[00:44:01] number and me. I screamed at my mom and dropped crying. My sister was at a friend's Halloween party and was already gone. So it was me and my mom and charity. Charity was right next to me.

[00:44:17] I was so freaked out and my mom calmed me down. As I finally caught my breath, I told her the feeling and what happened. My mom never doubted me. She said that it's okay. You're home. I'll protect

[00:44:29] you. I screamed call the cops. She did, but they said since nothing actually happened, there was no way of really making a cop visit worthy. My mom said, are you kidding me? There's a white van following

[00:44:45] my daughter and her friends. Just like the news told us to look for. Dispatch said that they would send a car and for us to stay in the house. Two hours later, I'm calm. I'm pissed about the candy

[00:44:59] that I dropped on the way home though. My mom said, don't worry about it. We have plenty of candy for you in a giggling voice. Now we're in the kitchen where my mom brought us this small TV to watch on

[00:45:14] the counter to be close to the door for trick or treaters. So we're hanging out in the kitchen, helping my mom with the late arrivals, watching TV. And my mom had a cigarette in her hand. She was looking at the clock thinking it's 8 PM. Where are those cops?

[00:45:32] We forgot about it because we were watching Dallas and laughing. She thought she was going to call again after she went to the bathroom. She closed the kitchen window and placed the stick on the slider so that you couldn't open it then dropped the shade.

[00:45:50] She opened the door and made sure that the screen door was locked and closed the big door and locked it very tight. She went ahead to the restroom. As I was sitting there eating my Oreos, I felt

[00:46:01] this chill again, just like the one when I was trick or treating with my friends. I knew something or someone was outside. I froze and I heard the doorbell. I didn't say anything. I just stayed there, frozen in my chair. Charity was at the door growling,

[00:46:21] hair standing straight up. I knew it wasn't the police. I just knew it was the people in the van. Charity was growling louder. The doorbell continued and then banging on the door began.

[00:46:37] My mom suddenly came walking slowly up the hall. She snuck around Charity and grabbed the gun. Taking the safety off, she screamed, trick or treat is over out of candy. See you next year.

[00:46:51] But then silence. My mom stood straight up, dropped the gun to her side. Charity didn't move, but she was still growling. She finally instinctively came to me and pulled me under the kitchen table. I knew to hide. Mom looked at Charity and then cocked the gun.

[00:47:17] The doorbell rang again and the banging started again. My mom looked through the people and I could tell that she was very upset. She opened the door slightly to three people with

[00:47:32] masks on. I heard her say, aren't you a little old for trick or treating? All I know is my dog jumped through the screen fence and latched onto one of the men. My mom started firing the gun.

[00:47:47] At this moment, cops were just pulling up to what they thought was a bullshit call. I closed my eyes and screamed hiding under the table. It felt like forever. I felt my mom pull me out. She grabbed

[00:48:01] me and Charity, who was covered in blood. I'm scared out of my mind and my mom is on the phone calling my dad to come home now. She called her friend's house where my sister was and asked if

[00:48:13] she could stay the night there. As far as I know, I'm in the corner with my dog and shaking. Charity wouldn't leave my side. Cops were in and out of the kitchen and then I was asked if I could come

[00:48:26] outside. I was asked if I could identify the men that were following me earlier. I told them that they had ski masks on but described the van to a T. I mentioned the guy had a watch that was big

[00:48:39] and silver. I remember he had blue eyes and I could tell he had a mustache. Suddenly, my dad flies up the driveway and ran to me and my mom and Charity. I grabbed my dad and I wouldn't let him go.

[00:48:53] What a scary night. I found out that my dog Charity flew out the screen and bit the face and neck of the blue-eyed mustached man that was driving the white van. As far as his friends that

[00:49:08] were with him, one was shot in the shoulder and the other in the leg. The cop found a bag with duct tape, a rope, a gun, a knife, condoms, and plastic gloves. I was so young that my mom had to

[00:49:26] deal with the cops and the attorney after that. They were charged for breaking and entering and they were later charged for multiple rapes and break-ins due to the evidence later found. The case took over a year to prosecute. My beautiful Charity, my best friend, and my mom

[00:49:44] and dad and sister are all in heaven now but I know I will never take that feeling for granted and I always pay attention to that inner voice. To the assholes that tried to break into my home to do god knows what, let's never meet again.

[00:50:39] The teen boy that tried to get me into his car by a listener that asked to remain anonymous. And finally, the white van by Ferrari 74. 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

[00:50:54] horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. As always, if you have a story to share send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com and if you want to get access to those ad-free extended episodes and a bunch of other bonus content,

[00:51:08] head over to patreon.com forward slash letsnotmeetpodcast or follow the link in the show notes. I will be doing an episode next weekend. I'm not taking a break for the holidays.

[00:51:18] I'll be working right through them so you don't have to worry about that. So I will see you all next week for a brand new episode. Stay safe and enjoy your holidays.