8x25: Kidnapped at Gunpoint - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, tickets are still available for the live Lets Not Meet shows if you go to letsnotmeetpodcast.com forward slash tour or just follow the links in the show notes. You can get your hands on some

[00:00:11] tickets for both shows, the first of which will be at the Neptune Theater in Seattle, Washington on August 25th followed by a second show at the Polaris Hall in Portland, Oregon on August 26th.

[00:00:22] Additionally, if you're from the area, you plan to attend one of these shows and you have a story that you'd like to share, by all means send it to the story submission inbox at letsnotmeetstories

[00:00:33] at gmail.com and we'll see about getting it on the lineup for the live show. And remember, this podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. Enjoy the show. My name is Andrew Tate and this is Season 8, Episode 25 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast.

[00:01:02] So I moved into this small apartment when I was 23. So this happened three years ago. I had moved into a very small complex. It only had 10 other apartments. It was my first ever apartment and in

[00:01:39] the beginning I did live with my mom, but she and her sister moved out and I took over the apartment which was as planned. The next door neighbor, Anthony, was a man who was 44 years old that lived

[00:01:51] with his mother, Rose, who was 70. When we first moved in, he and his mom immediately came out to introduce themselves. Anthony stood a little behind Rose, kind of like a child, and they told us that

[00:02:06] they had lived there for 11 years. Honestly it felt like they were trying to establish some kind of territory or seniority over us. They told us that the apartment we would be moving into was infested

[00:02:18] with cockroaches and mold. We told them that we didn't mind because we knew of a really good cockroach repellent. Anthony spoke up angrily saying something along the lines of, don't do that, then they're going to come to my apartment. My mom and I looked at each other and

[00:02:36] she just said, I don't care, I don't want cockroaches in my home. The apartment had zero mold and as soon as we moved in, we made the repellent and placed it around the apartment so

[00:02:50] really in the two years that we lived there, I only saw one cockroach. I'm not sure if they lied to get us to go away but I have to think so since we didn't really find any mold either.

[00:03:05] After my mom moved out, things got very weird with him. One night my sister had come over to spend the night. She's 13 years younger than I am so she was still just a kid when this happened.

[00:03:20] It was a hot summer night and we were eating ice cream with the wood door open. The security door was closed and locked. This is something that I did all the time. My wood door was usually never

[00:03:33] closed just because I always run very hot and the breeze that I got through the trees outside was always so pretty and cooling. Anyway, Anthony has to pass my apartment to get to his apartment. There's no avoiding it. He and I were the only two upstairs

[00:03:50] and on that side of the complex but luckily I never had to pass his apartment. This night while my sister and I were watching TV, eating ice cream with the door open, he's walking past to

[00:04:02] go to his apartment but he stops at my door and says, hey do you want to come down to my car? We can drink some coolers. My sister was sitting on the back side of the wood door

[00:04:14] so he couldn't see her. I simply said no thanks. He stayed at my door, do you want to smoke weed? I told him no, this time I was stern. He smirked, do you smoke weed? My little sister is a sassy

[00:04:33] thing. She knew that he was a creep and immediately slammed the door in his face before I could even respond. Anthony would often be outside on the side of the complex or in the parking garage.

[00:04:47] I used to walk home late at night which I stopped doing after a while and sometimes he would be outside and wait until I passed him only to follow me into the complex. I would speed up

[00:04:59] and make sure to close the door behind me so he wouldn't have a chance to catch the door. One night I slammed the door right on his toes and ran up the stairs to walk to my apartment

[00:05:10] and as I was rounding the stairs onto the balcony I caught him staring at me angrily. When I would leave for work he would immediately come outside and watch me.

[00:05:21] He watched as I would lock my door, walk down the stairs and exit the complex. He was a creep. He was a creep. I complained to my apartment manager about him, I told him all about the

[00:05:34] creepy things he does and says and they just told me that they would talk with him. A couple of nights later I was walking to my apartment from a night out and he came up behind

[00:05:45] me and apologized for quote being creepy. I told him I'd rather not talk to him and he not talked to me at all and I hurried inside my apartment and quickly locked the door. He didn't pass by

[00:05:59] my door for another few minutes. I'm not sure what he was doing outside my door but it gave me such horrible feelings. Then one day in April I was watching a show in my room when I heard someone

[00:06:13] on a megaphone. When I looked out my window I could see police cars and SWAT trucks surrounding our complex. When I walked to the living room so I could look out that window I could see some

[00:06:27] police officers had their guns drawn and they were on the megaphone saying, Anthony we have your building surrounded come outside with your hands up. I called my mom and I told her what

[00:06:40] was happening. I tried the non-emergency line but I couldn't get a hold of anyone. Then when the police would try to call me I wouldn't answer because I had my phone on silent to avoid any

[00:06:52] noise that might set Anthony off considering that we shared a wall. My mom called me and the police called her. They told her that they were trying to evacuate me but they couldn't catch me on the

[00:07:04] phone. So finally I watched my phone closer and I got a hold of them and they told me that they were going to be sending officers to come and get me which they did. I grabbed some stuff and waited

[00:07:16] for the officers to show up. My mom was already on her way to come pick me up. The SWAT came up and surrounded me with those shields and they walked me downstairs. They told me that his mom

[00:07:29] had called them and said that he was having a breakdown and he pulled out a gun on her and was holding her hostage. I left to go to my mom's house that day but I went back home that

[00:07:41] night because the officers told me to leave my door unlocked in case they needed it. I had this gut feeling that they didn't lock the door back and they didn't. Anthony got released after eight days

[00:07:54] and he moved right back in with his mom. Now Rose was a creep too. I used to catch both of them looking into my apartment all of the time. I had to smack the security door a couple of times when

[00:08:06] I would catch them peeking inside. After Anthony and Rose began giving me dirty looks, she would actually pout at me. When Anthony got back from jail he was different though. He was always creepy

[00:08:20] and weird but now he seemed cold and hard. He had really gone downhill. He used to look kind of normal. Well as normal as a 44 year old living with his mom could look. He had dressed like a

[00:08:34] little boy actually with this polo shirt tucked in his khaki shorts, a black belt and crocs. And now he was clearly off the rails. He was very obviously using drugs. His hair was gray

[00:08:49] and a ray. His clothes they looked worn out. They had holes and they smelled bad. He had this crazy accent now. It was weird. He was shrieking and mumbling words. He sounded like

[00:09:03] Boomhauer from King of the Hill. As the year went on he was still creepy but I didn't have to put up with him for too much because from August to November I actually didn't live there too much.

[00:09:17] My grandpa had passed away. My nephew was born. I went through some very hard mental health problems too. All in one week. My family has gone through a lot and I went down this very dark road.

[00:09:32] My mom had convinced me to move in with her so I let the apartment manager know and gave them my 30 days. When we went back to the apartment I had completely forgotten that I had left raw chicken

[00:09:44] on the counter and there were hundreds of both dead and alive flies. The chicken was black. I felt horrible. I opened every window and bleached the entire place. I didn't see Anthony much that

[00:09:59] day since I was running around cleaning but I'm sure he was walking back and forth doing the usual routine. The next day was Friday and my mom and I were cleaning out my apartment while her

[00:10:11] boyfriend was at work and her sister was at school. This was a horrible mistake. We weren't in there long before he completely lost it. I went outside to toss some trash away and since my mom and I

[00:10:25] didn't trust Anthony I would lock the door behind me. As I was walking down I heard something along the lines of, dumb bitch. I didn't know if it was my neighbors fighting because I would sometimes

[00:10:40] hear them. I was still headed towards the trash when I heard it again, dumb bitch. When I looked over there I saw Anthony. He was yelling at me from upstairs.

[00:10:53] I tossed the trash and stormed back up the stairs and told him, don't you ever speak to me like that again. He yelled at me again, fuck you, you're making too much noise, you're always slamming the

[00:11:03] door. I rolled my eyes at him and flipped him off. He yelled again, I thought we were fucking cool but you didn't want to be my friend. When he screamed this I knew that he had to be somehow

[00:11:18] deranged. We were never friends and his attempts at trying to be cool with me were creepy, not friendly. I went to knock on the door but my mom had swung it open and then told him to shut the

[00:11:31] fuck up and leave us alone. We went back inside and he just lost it. He started screaming at us now, fuck you, get the fuck out of here, you dirty fucking bitch, fuck you, go back to your hometown,

[00:11:47] I was just trying to be your friend, you're a stuck up slut, fuck you. He started banging on the walls and we could hear that he was throwing stuff as well. My mom and I had to call the cops

[00:12:00] and have them escort us out of the complex. When they arrived he was still yelling so they heard some of the stuff that he was screaming but once he saw them he barricaded himself inside.

[00:12:14] The second day of moving I didn't go because I had to work but my mom went and she took her large boyfriend and his friends. Anthony didn't say anything however they did catch

[00:12:24] him doing meth and drinking whiskey in the car. I complained one last time to the apartment management about Anthony and they told me, yeah we always get calls about him and his mom. It makes sense why my apartment was and is usually vacant, they scare people off.

[00:12:44] I drive by every now and then and his car is still in the parking garage. So Anthony, let's not meet ever again. A couple of years ago my friend and I came home from a trip with her family from a mountain resort.

[00:13:13] The road back is a two-lane highway through moderate wooded and mountainous terrain. Her parents wanted to go hike up to a lake near the highway for a swim so we pull off the road and

[00:13:26] park in a small parking lot. This was not an official swimming lake and a logging company used the parking lot so although we were allowed to be there, there was no one else in the lot

[00:13:39] and it wasn't well known. So we all pile out of the car and start figuring out what we needed to throw in our backpacks for the hike and swim as we had not planned it when we had left the rental.

[00:13:53] Out of the corner of our eyes we notice a man walking out of the woods on a small dirt road that's snaking away from the logging camp and intended hiking area. He comes up to the car

[00:14:07] and asks for help jumping his vehicle as the battery had died. He doesn't want to call for a tow as we were in a pretty deserted area of the highway. There was something extremely odd about

[00:14:20] him and his mannerisms however I can't exactly explain why. I remember he was oddly specific about the make and model of his car that had broken down and kept repeating that it was only

[00:14:34] a minute or two of a drive down the dirt road. My friend's parents are amicable and helpful so they immediately agreed to give him a jump no problem. However being raised on crime television

[00:14:49] and law and order SVU marathons I did not want to get into a car and go into the woods. Not wanting to make a scene I suggested that my friend and I walk over to the small bridge

[00:15:01] that we had crossed to enter the parking lot so that we could take some photos. So she and I walk over there and I start freaking out and telling her that something just felt off

[00:15:12] and I don't like what was going on. I began texting another friend telling him where we are and that if I stopped texting him to call the police and tell them what was happening.

[00:15:25] Meanwhile her parents had gotten back into their vehicle and had driven down the dirt road to follow the man who had walked back to his car. All of a sudden we hear the car horn honking.

[00:15:39] We see that her parents had backed out of the dirt road and then they drove down another road honking again. Her parents went up and down a few different small dirt roads for maybe five

[00:15:51] minutes trying to find the man and his dead car. They couldn't find him and he never responded to their honks. At this point my friend and I are getting very agitated by the strange circumstances

[00:16:06] and we just want her parents to come back. When they do we flat out state that we're highly uncomfortable with what had just happened and didn't want to continue our planned hike into

[00:16:16] the woods. The parents were scared as well and agreed we needed to get out of the area. We ended up stopping a while further down the road on the highway at some more populated lake.

[00:16:33] To this day I have no idea what would have happened if my friend and I had gotten into her parents car and gone into the woods to help that man. I'm sure glad I'm never going to find out.

[00:17:00] This happened to me a few years ago while traveling. For a little bit of backstory, I'm a female. I was around 25 at the time and was privately tutoring kids after school. I was helping them with their homework and other things. This all took place in Vietnam.

[00:17:19] My boss had sent me to his office to pick up my paycheck at the end of the first month. He gave me the address so me and my partner at the time drove there on his scooter and he waited outside

[00:17:31] for me. It was a tall building and I approached what looked like a security guard. I showed him the address that I had written down to make sure I was at the right place. He studied it,

[00:17:44] nodded and told me in English that it was on the fifth floor. Then he pointed me to the direction of the elevator and gestured for me to follow him. As I got into the elevator, he stepped in with me.

[00:17:59] He pressed number 5. Now I just assumed that this was his job to escort people to the right floors. Sometimes this happens in hotels. From the moment that I stepped in though,

[00:18:13] I could feel his eyes staring at me up and down. I glanced down at the address that my boss had written down and realized that it said second floor not fifth. I turned to the security guard and started to say,

[00:18:29] I think we're a little confused. This note says second floor. He made it known that he didn't understand me. Okay, there's a language barrier. I get it. So I started to repeat the number 2 in Vietnamese instead. I had learned basic phrases, numbers and

[00:18:46] greetings while I had been there at this point. He completely ignored me though and instead turned and gave me this creepy smile. It still sends shivers down my spine when I think about it.

[00:19:01] He reached out and he started to stroke my hair. He told me that I was so beautiful. I just froze in that spot. It felt as if my heart had sunk to the bottom of my stomach.

[00:19:16] I had never really been in a situation like this, but listening to a lot of true crime, I always wondered what my initial reaction would be. I always thought that I would go straight into flight mode.

[00:19:29] I started to shout as loud as I could, saying no over and over, hoping that he would get the message. I quickly realized that the doors to the elevator had finally opened. I stepped out and looked around and there was absolutely nothing there. It was basically under construction.

[00:19:50] There was paint and dirty old sheets all over the floor, with half full paint cans and what looked like dirty rags. I ran towards the window and looked outside to see if I could get my boyfriend's

[00:20:02] attention. I could actually see him sat outside on his scooter but I was too high up. He wouldn't even be able to hear me if I shouted and I couldn't figure out how to open the window quickly.

[00:20:15] My phone wasn't an option as I stupidly hadn't gotten it unlocked yet. It was still under my provider from home and it wouldn't work in a different country. I was only really communicating

[00:20:27] via wifi and social media. The creepy security guard had gotten out now and was pointing me down this corridor. He looked frustrated. He was blocking the elevator now.

[00:20:43] He had his back to it. I couldn't get back in. I didn't know what to do so I had the idea to go along with it. I internally calmed myself down and pretended to walk towards the corridor

[00:20:58] and he followed me from behind. He then moved in front of me and was leading me down the hallway. When I got halfway down, I bolted back to the elevator as fast as I could and I started to

[00:21:11] press the button for the ground floor. Of course, he followed after me. Whenever the doors closed, he would just press the button on the other side and they would open again. This actually happened a few times. He was shouting at me but I couldn't understand

[00:21:28] what he was saying. They were words that I couldn't make out. He looked so angry with me. My fight mode had kicked in by now and I was looking around the room thinking, is there anything I could use as a weapon to get away from him?

[00:21:44] Maybe any way in which I could defend myself if he tried anything else with me. I started screaming as loud as I possibly could to make him back off. As I pressed the ground floor button

[00:21:56] and the doors began to close, he smiled at me once more. This awful, creepy smile. I think about it all the time. My heart was in my mouth as I imagined what would be waiting for

[00:22:09] me when the doors inevitably opened again. To my complete surprise, the elevator started moving towards the ground floor this time and I managed to get out. I ran out as fast as I

[00:22:22] possibly could and was crying by the time I got to my boyfriend. He wanted to go back inside but I stopped him and made him drive us home, fast. That same day I called my boss and explained

[00:22:36] what had happened. It turns out, I wasn't even in the right building, never mind the right floor. I blame myself for getting the wrong address but it's a different country etc.

[00:22:50] I don't know why the guy in there pretended that I was at the right place, or what his intentions were with me, or even why he decided to just let me go. Maybe he was just trying to scare me,

[00:23:04] or maybe he was trying his best luck with me, in his own weird horrible way. I have no idea but I think about it from time to time or tell the story again to someone and it really creeps me out to think of what could have been.

[00:23:21] I've never gotten in an elevator with a man since. When I was about 12 years old, maybe 13, I thought I was invincible. I know it's cliche and stupid. Well, because of my stupidity, I found myself walking alone one night around probably 8 or so.

[00:23:52] This was after getting into an argument with my cousin. At the time, my cousins lived in an apartment complex that sat on top of a hill. The street and parking lot were at the bottom

[00:24:05] of said hill. That night, my cousin and I along with my mom and aunt had been standing outside the building just talking. The argument ensued, leading me to storm off down the hill and down

[00:24:20] this long road that lines the buildings. For some context, their complex was up on a hill on the side of the road. On the other side was just a grassy area that led to new townhomes. The townhomes

[00:24:35] were lined with tall chain link fence with a gate at one spot. So anyway, I started walking down this very long road. I just needed to blow off some steam and then I guess I planned to walk back.

[00:24:50] I was probably half of a mile down the road. It was empty when I looked over and noticed a man staring at me. He was probably in his late 40s, early 50s, which is unimportant except for the

[00:25:06] fact that he was staring at myself, a 12 or 13 year old girl. For more context, I was walking on the side of the road closest to the townhomes and he was standing over at a van on the other

[00:25:20] side of the street, probably 10 feet from me. I couldn't really tell you how much time had passed because it all seemed so quick, yet it also seemed like forever. I watched as he slowly

[00:25:33] inched closer to me with this weird smile on his face. I looked around us and to my dismay, there wasn't anyone else there. Within a few seconds, I started making a plan. I knew that

[00:25:50] the gate was just a sprint away and I knew someone that lived in one of the townhomes on the other side of the fence. However, it was so dark that I wasn't sure I would remember which one it was,

[00:26:04] even if I made it there. I want to remind you that I was on the street in the apartment buildings were up on a hill above us. I was also at least half of a mile away from where my family was at.

[00:26:20] The other thing that I'd like to point out is that I had already slightly passed the man, meaning that I would have to pass by him again in order to run back to my family.

[00:26:30] He could have easily reached me if he wanted to. To be honest, I'm not even sure if I had continued walking or if I was just frozen still. I was internally panicking though, knowing that I would have to make the choice within 30 seconds. He was still watching me.

[00:26:48] He wasn't getting into the vehicle or heading up to the apartments. He just stood there watching me and he began to inch closer. Just before I started screaming and running, I saw headlights

[00:27:01] in the distance. He saw them too. I stood there praying that they would stop and they did. As they were driving past, I noticed that it was two women. I quickly ran up to the car and also noticed

[00:27:16] a baby in the back seat. This was my chance. Of course, I didn't know these women. They could have been dangerous themselves but I instinctively knew that they were my best option at the moment.

[00:27:27] I told them what was happening and asked them to drive me up the road to my family. After a few moments, they hesitantly agreed to take me. As we were driving away, I noticed the

[00:27:40] man had turned around and was headed up the hill towards the apartments. This man who had been standing there facing me and slowly walking towards me this entire time that we were alone was now

[00:27:52] heading up the hill. I knew in that moment that he had planned to attack me and by the grace of God, I was saved by these strangers. I later found out that there were known sex offenders that lived

[00:28:04] in the area of the apartment complex. I had likely come in contact with one of them that night. It chills me to imagine what would have happened to me if that car hadn't pulled up when it did

[00:28:18] but thankfully I'll never have to know. So, to the weirdos who like staring at 13 year old girls, let's not meet. This story took place almost 20 years ago in the summer of 2003 when I was 11 years old.

[00:28:47] My mother and I were at home watching TV while my father was at work over an hour away. I was just relaxing, watching TV and enjoying the summer break

[00:28:58] when all of a sudden my mother and I both heard this loud bang come from the back of the house. We both got up and walked to our family room that had a kitchen adjacent to it when we saw this tall,

[00:29:12] very skinny, dirty looking man standing in our kitchen. He had kicked in our back door and entered our house. My mother and I backed into the living room where we were watching TV

[00:29:27] and my mom said, get the phone and call 911. This man slowly followed us then reached into his waistband and drew out a handgun. He pointed it at my mom then at me and told us to sit down on

[00:29:44] the couch. He looked unstable. He had sweat pouring from his face. His arms were all cut up and he was really dirty. The man told us that he was in trouble with the cops and to do exactly as

[00:29:58] he said and we wouldn't get hurt. He started to close the blinds on our French door when my mom told him that if the police were looking for him, the neighbors would be suspicious of all the

[00:30:10] blinds being closed in front of our door. So he stopped and instead opted to hide behind this big lazy boy chair while still pointing the gun at us. At that point he said that he was thirsty

[00:30:27] and demanded that I go get him something to drink but told me that if I did absolutely anything, he would shoot my mom. I got up from the couch and went to the kitchen then got him a 7-up from

[00:30:41] the refrigerator. While in the kitchen, I looked for our cordless phone but it was nowhere in sight. When I returned, I went to the side of the chair to hand him the drink and he snatched it out of my

[00:30:54] hand and guzzled it down in less than 30 seconds. He told me to go get two more. I walked back to the kitchen and grabbed two more drinks. I then eyed the knife rack and seriously considered

[00:31:08] grabbing the biggest knife that I could so that when I went back, I could stab him in the neck but I didn't because I didn't want to risk my mom or I getting shot. It still makes me mad to this

[00:31:23] day that this man put us in this situation to a point where I, an 11-year-old, was thinking about murdering him just to end it. I handed him the two drinks and I sat back down on the couch with my

[00:31:38] mom. She was having a very hard time dealing with everything and was crying so I tried to calm her down and told her we just needed to do what he said and he wouldn't hurt us. This situation was

[00:31:52] the first time I realized that I'm calm in stressful situations and I don't lock up. She calmed down a bit over time but we just sat there. I don't know for how long. It was at least

[00:32:06] two hours but it could have been four. It felt like forever. The whole time he was just muttering to himself. We couldn't make heads or tails of what he was even saying. Eventually, he said that

[00:32:17] he needed to get out of there. He told us to walk towards the kitchen. When we got to the door, he ran out behind the couch and told us to hurry. He was worried that someone would see him through

[00:32:30] the French door. Once in the kitchen, he told my mom to give him all of her money and car keys. She gladly did thinking he was just going to take off in our car and would leave us there.

[00:32:43] She begged and pleaded saying she swore on everything she wouldn't call the cops. He told her no, you're going to drive and I'm going to hide in the trunk and then I will drop you off

[00:32:56] in the middle of nowhere. My mom said that that wouldn't be possible because the car's trunk is full of stuff and he wouldn't fit. The man then said, your son will clean out the trunk and won't

[00:33:08] try running because he knows that I'll shoot his mom if he does. He then looked at me and said, right? I nodded and then went through the kicked in back door towards the separated garage.

[00:33:23] I went through the glove box and pressed the button to pop the trunk open and began emptying out the trunk. I got curious and went outside the garage for about 10 feet

[00:33:34] and looked around and I saw at least half a dozen cop cars around 200 yards down the street and for a moment I considered trying to run to them and telling them that he was at our house then run

[00:33:47] back but I knew that my mom would be in serious danger if the cops surrounded the house and thought he doesn't know there's a roadblock at the exit of our dead end street then my mom can

[00:34:00] just signal the police when she gets stopped and tell them that he's in the trunk so I went back into the garage and continued cleaning out the trunk once I was done I closed the garage door

[00:34:11] so that he could get in without being seen. I then proceeded back into our house when I came in he was in the laundry room rifling through dirty clothes and proceeded to change his shirt. I went

[00:34:25] and stood next to my mom he then proceeded to pull out a baggie and started snorting something later on we figured out it must have been cocaine he pointed the gun at us and said to go to the

[00:34:37] garage and rushed us out the door once in the garage he told my mom she was going to drive and that I was going to be in the trunk with him so she couldn't do anything stupid. My heart sank

[00:34:51] because now I knew she was going to have to somehow talk her way through a roadblock without alerting the cops. He had me climb into the trunk then he proceeded to climb in too and told my mom

[00:35:05] to remember not to do anything stupid. She closed the trunk and then started backing up out of the garage and driveway once she was on the road she noticed the cops and just sat there for a couple

[00:35:19] of seconds. She talked to the man in the trunk with me and said that there were a whole bunch of cops towards the exit of our subdivision and he started freaking out and said you better find

[00:35:31] a way to get through it. She took a few more seconds then started driving towards it the man whispered to me if you make a sound I'll fucking kill you. He pressed the gun into my back. My mom

[00:35:46] slowed down and I heard her start to talk to the cops. To this day I have no idea how she managed to stay calm and act normal but she somehow did. My mom asked the cop what's going on? The cop said

[00:36:02] that a male suspect had robbed a store fled in a car and crashed it in the woods then took off on foot. He then asked her if she had seen the man or anything suspicious and she said no I haven't

[00:36:13] seen anything but I'll keep an eye out. The cop believed her and told her to stay safe then let her go through. I don't know who had the bigger sigh of relief the man with the gun pressed to my

[00:36:25] back or me. My mom proceeded to drive for a few minutes out into the country then popped the trunk and we both got out. She then handed the keys and said you can take the car I promise we won't say

[00:36:41] anything just let us go. He raised the gun again and said not yet. He told us to get into the back seat. We both did as he asked and he got into the driver's seat and began driving. He drove like an

[00:36:57] absolute maniac he was going over 80 miles per hour. He had this creepy smile on his face. He just kept applauding my mom on lying so well to the police and getting us through the roadblock.

[00:37:11] He drove for about 15 minutes further and further into the country then stopped the car and told us to get out. When we got out he did too and that scared the shit out of my mom because

[00:37:24] why would he need to get out? She just told him to go I swear we won't say anything I swear. He still had the gun in his hand and we were afraid now that he was just going to shoot us

[00:37:39] and leave us in the middle of nowhere but he took the gun and tucked it into his waistband and said you better not say anything to the cops I know people I have your license they'll take

[00:37:52] care of you. Then he got back into the car and just took off. My mom and I walked for probably half an hour in the middle of nowhere at one point we saw a farmhouse and ran up and pounded on the

[00:38:06] door but nobody was home. We continued walking until a woman saw us and we flagged her down. She drove us to the local police department and finally it was all over. The next six hours consisted of us talking to multiple police officers giving our statements until finally

[00:38:24] my dad picked us up and we drove to our grandma's. He told us that when he got home he saw 10 police cars and there were cops all over our house. Later that evening we got word from the police

[00:38:39] that he was caught a few towns over trying to break into another person's house and the canine officer sent his dog on him. I hope that they gave the dog a steak dinner because he absolutely tore

[00:38:52] him up but he was finally behind bars. The next few months were crazy we did interviews for the news and the cops. They gave me some kind of certificate for how I handled the situation

[00:39:06] and had me talk at some event but then a bit over three months after the kidnapping my mom died due to surgery complications. It was a really rough time and I shut down for a while. The only person

[00:39:20] I could really open up to was gone but in the end I ended up being an even more self-reliant person and I got through it. Two years later they needed me as a witness for a kidnapping in court

[00:39:35] so it fell on me. The trial went on for a few days and on the second day the prosecutor was talking to some guy in a suit so my dad and I went over and he introduced himself. He was an agent for

[00:39:49] the FBI. Apparently the man who kidnapped us was trying to make a deal because he claimed he knew where two bodies were buried and the FBI agent was there to determine the validity of his claims.

[00:40:03] I don't know exactly what happened just assumed that either the FBI thought he was full of shit or just didn't want to make the deal with the scumbag.

[00:40:15] The final day of the trial I had to take the stand as a witness. I was in eighth grade and I still had to look the man in the eye and go over every single detail everything that happened to me that

[00:40:29] day but I made sure to just let him and most of the jury know how terrified and paranoid my mom was for the last few months of her life. He was found guilty. Later at the sentencing hearing he

[00:40:45] tried to apologize and made excuses for himself blaming it on drugs but the judge wasn't having any of it. He sentenced him to a maximum of 76 and a half years for armed robbery fleeing resisting

[00:40:58] and two counts of kidnapping and endangering a minor. He didn't end up doing his entire sentence he had a priest vouching for him that he changed his ways and his lawyer reached out to me shortly

[00:41:13] before he attempted getting the early release saying that he had wrote to me an apology letter. I told the lawyer to tear it up because I didn't care what he had to say but I wouldn't get in the

[00:41:26] way of him attempting to get an early release and that I've moved on from it but to the man that kidnapped me and my mom at gunpoint I hope you truly turned your life around and stayed clean

[00:41:40] and out of trouble but mostly that we never meet again because I'm not that scrawny little boy anymore. This happened in 2015. I was 15 years old and had just moved to a new city and had started a brand

[00:42:06] new high school only weeks before. As a moody teenage girl combined with the pent-up resentment about being forced to move to a new city I would often ditch class as a form of rebellion I guess.

[00:42:20] My ditch days would often include walking about a block to the nearest bus stop. My old hometown was too small to have public transportation so I was very interested in where these buses could take me. Luckily the nearest one from my high school was a straight

[00:42:37] shot to downtown and me being a whimsical against the grain whatever teenager started taking day trips to coffee shops and sightseeing. After one of these trips downtown I got back on

[00:42:51] the bus as usual and sat down in the back pulling my phone out and putting my headphones on as the ride back to downtown is about 30 minutes. It had only been about five minutes before this

[00:43:05] tall skinny man who was balding and covered in dirt wearing a food stained t-shirt cargo shorts and sandals came and stood right over me. He had to be in his 30s. He was holding onto the standing

[00:43:19] support bars right above my head. I found this incredibly uncomfortable that he had taken this position over me. There was almost nobody else on the bus and he could have positioned himself literally anywhere else but I moved one seat over and watched out the window. I felt him

[00:43:40] poking my shoulder and I took one headphone out. Where are you headed? He asked smiling eerily while obviously staring me up and down. Just headed back I replied not wanting to give him any more information. Let me mention that I've always always been extremely paranoid about

[00:44:03] strangers especially men as a young girl so immediately I'm looking for escape routes and how I could move seats to get away from him. I'm also not about politeness especially in life-threatening

[00:44:17] situations. I put my headphones back in and ignored him until he took the aisle seat right next to me. This meant that I would have to maneuver around him in order to get away. He kept trying to talk

[00:44:31] to me about this video store that he was going to and how he was going to rent some R-rated movies and watch them at home. It was incredibly weird. Panicking and wanting him to leave me alone I

[00:44:42] didn't say anything in return which upset him. He asked me why I can't have a friendly conversation with him and said that I was being impolite. At this point I was freaking out being assaulted,

[00:44:56] harassed or anything of the sort was and still is one of my greatest fears. I immediately get up and move to the front of the bus right behind the driver. He doesn't follow suit so I'm relieved.

[00:45:11] My relief however returned to horror when I got to my stop. I stepped off the bus only to see that he had stepped off the second door to the back. I immediately started in the opposite direction of

[00:45:24] my house. I know this might have been a mistake but I knew I didn't want him knowing where I lived. He was following me. After about two blocks of fast-paced walking he was still following me

[00:45:40] around 10 feet behind. His head was down and his hands were in his pockets. I knew there was no video store in the suburbs and this man definitely had other intentions. In a panic I called my mom.

[00:45:55] She didn't pick up. I decided to leave her a message. Speaking loud enough for this man to hear I said, hey mom yeah are you on your way here? I was pretending to be talking to her instead of

[00:46:06] leaving a message. Yes this is my exact location. I described it to her. Yeah there's a man following behind me. Yes he's behind me. He followed me off the bus. Great I'll see you in one second.

[00:46:22] Now my heart was racing. I knew I had held a fake conversation quite loudly loud enough for this man still following me to hear but I was panicking waiting for him to call me out or yell some

[00:46:33] bullshit excuse at me about how he wasn't following me or whatever else. But he didn't make a sound. We just kept walking. After a couple of seconds I looked behind me and he had stopped. He was just

[00:46:49] staring standing with his hands in his pockets this blank face. Whatever this guy's deal was he was not okay obviously on something. He began walking down the hill in the opposite direction

[00:47:02] and when I looked back he was just gone. Eventually my mom did pick me up. I was hysterical crying and shaking. I didn't really understand what had just happened but the man's face was burned into my

[00:47:16] memory. I only saw him once more after that. Months had gone by without me taking public transportation but the very first time I got on a bus again he was there. Now this bus had more

[00:47:31] people on it. He was wearing the same exact clothes. My heart was racing. I sat down and pretended that I didn't see him. Obviously he approached me but this time he was either drunk or very high or something. He started mumbling incoherent sentences and reached for my shoulder.

[00:47:52] After the first incident I was fucking furious. I hated this man. He had terrified me to my core. When he attempted to touch me I stood up and yelled don't fucking touch me.

[00:48:04] Don't ever talk to me again. Getting his attention and the others of the bus who watched doing nothing. He slurred something and shuffled to the front of the bus. He didn't even bother me after that

[00:48:19] and I never saw him again probably because I never dared take that bus again and eventually I got a license and a car. I sometimes wonder if he waited on that one bus line for me to

[00:48:31] eventually get on again. I'm just glad I haven't seen him since. I still know his face and recalling it fills me with panic. I wonder what would have happened had I not faked that call. Had I not

[00:48:45] alerted someone about my situation and location and just kept walking. So to the scary man who followed me off the bus for blocks who gave me intense internal fear of being alone in public I never ever want to see you again.

[00:49:18] Don't forget I'm going to be at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach California for the Midsummer Scream Horror Convention on July 30th. That's next Saturday. I'll be going on at

[00:49:30] noon along with some friends of the show Sapphire Zandala, Shelby Scott as well as my co-host of Odd Trails Brandon Lanier. We'll be giving you some Let's Not Meet as well as some Odd Trails

[00:49:41] all live plus we'll be there with some stickers and a booth so we can meet all of you and hang out. It's going to be a really good time. Tickets are going to be in the show notes again that's next

[00:49:50] Saturday July 30th at the Long Beach Convention Center. Don't forget to check out the new episodes of all my other podcasts Odd Trails as well as the old-time radio cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com

[00:50:02] or wherever you get your podcasts. This week you have heard Anthony by Stoned Garbage Pale Kid, The Man in the Woods by Maddie, Elevator Creep by Emily, Saved by Headlights by a listener that

[00:50:17] asked to remain anonymous, My Mother and I Were Kidnapped at Gunpoint When I Was 11 by Stephen D and finally Man Follows Me Off the Bus by Lexi. All of the stories you've heard this week were

[00:50:31] 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. As always if you have a story to share send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. If you're a patron stick around

[00:50:46] after the music for your extended ad-free version of this week's episode and if you'd like to become a patron support the show and get access to all of the bonus content head over to patreon.com

[00:50:56] and don't forget last thing if you want to help support the fundraiser to get the tv pilot filmed for Let's Not Meet we're calling it Let's Never Meet. It's really exciting make sure you go to

[00:51:09] letsnotmeettv.com or follow the link in the show notes and you can get a bunch of different rewards for different tiers for donations that you might want to make to help us make that dream come true

[00:51:19] and last but not least next week will be the season 8 finale of Let's Not Meet. It's going to be episode 26 and it will be a Lost Stories episode. We're not going to be doing the live

[00:51:30] stream episode as we have in the past seasons we just didn't really have time getting ready for this live show next week and then I also have live shows the following month but we will go ahead and

[00:51:42] try to get you one of those maybe as a bonus episode sometime mid season 9 because I know you guys enjoy those as do we. In any case I'll see you all next week for your season finale of Let's Not Meet a true horror podcast. Stay safe.

[00:52:28] I'll just jump right in. My boyfriend and I were laid off of work due to COVID last year.