8x26: Lost Stories 12 - 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 26 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast.

[00:01:02] Welcome to another edition of the Lost Stories here on Let's Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. We're going to dust off some of these old recordings from the early days of the show

[00:01:34] and finally let them see the light of day. I believe the majority of these were from sometime in 2018 judging by the music and audio quality. They've been remastered and improved for your

[00:01:47] listening pleasure. So, whether you're a long time fan of the show that remembers some of these tales or you just started listening with us in Season 1's relaunch of the show, I know you'll enjoy these as much as I did.

[00:02:13] This was back around 2004 when online dating wasn't as prevalent as it is now. I had met and gone on a few dates with local guys but nothing had come of it. One evening

[00:02:28] I happened to come upon someone who was my age and had almost identical taste in music and hobbies as well as interests as I did. I messaged him and we started chatting. He seemed interesting enough

[00:02:45] and so we agreed to meet up for coffee downtown. I didn't notice anything off-putting as we ordered our coffee and hung out for a little while. We talked about mundane things and I found out he

[00:02:58] was a medical student at a local university. He seemed like a normal guy until after we finished our coffee and he wanted to go for a walk around the city. It was around this time that I noticed

[00:03:12] his demeanor started to change. He seemed to grow tense and he got this gleam in his eye. He kept rubbing his hands over his thighs as if trying to dry off sweaty palms. He got very quiet.

[00:03:31] I started to get nervous. I noticed that in our strolling he was leading me further and further away from the populated downtown area. My attempts to continue conversation were met with half-responses and mumbles from this low, heavy breathing, increasingly weird acting guy.

[00:03:54] I suggested that we needed to go back towards downtown and I turned and started to go back the other direction. He reached out and grabbed my arm. No, wait, he half-breathes, half-mumbled. We need to sit down. There's something important I need to tell you.

[00:04:16] Alarm bells were going off in my head like crazy. I knew I had to get away from this guy, but by this point we were far enough away from the downtown crowd that there would be no one

[00:04:27] to come to my immediate aid. I numbly allowed him to guide us over to the bench and sit down. He held fast to my arm. He turned and stared at me in a way I can only describe as a predator,

[00:04:45] eyeing prey, and he menacingly and proudly disclosed that he had been watching me for a very, very long time. He began to rattle off all this information he had been gathering about me.

[00:05:03] He knew about which bars my friend and I hung out at and liked to listen to me laugh and talk with others. That he would just hang in the back of the crowd and watch me. He knew where I lived,

[00:05:17] he knew where I worked, and when I worked. He knew where I went to school, when I had classes. He said he had been following me for quite some time. And then he said he found me on the dating

[00:05:31] site. He specifically tailored his profile to mirror mine so that he could finally get me. Still clutching my arm, he slid his other hand over to squeeze my thigh,

[00:05:44] and now that he had me, he was never going to let me go. The whole time the guy was rambling, I was acting nonchalant and nodding like none of this was a big deal while inside,

[00:06:00] I was freaking out. I subtly pulled out my phone and was texting guy friends that I was in danger and I needed immediate help. One of them responded that he was in the area and raced over to where I

[00:06:16] was. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I saw my guy friend's truck come down the street. I waited until he was close enough for me to reach and I ripped myself away from the grip

[00:06:34] of this creepy guy beside me and started to run. The creepy guy began to chase me, screaming obscenities. I could feel him gaining on me as I threw myself into the bed of my friend's

[00:06:47] truck and he sped away. The creepy guy still on the sidewalk, shouting and swearing. This was the last time I fooled with online dating. I have no idea what this creepy guy was intending, but I've

[00:07:06] never been more terrified in my life. This story is so weird that I almost pushed it out of my mind, but my friend reminded me of it last night and now I'm creeped out all over again.

[00:07:36] I was around 15 or 16 when I was on vacation at Walt Disney World sometime during the summer. My family has the Vacation Club membership, so we go a few times a year and live close by. We were

[00:07:50] staying in the Vacation Club Villas, which is a separate building from the main hotel. I brought two of my friends, Savannah and Victoria, and we got bored around 2am so we went down to the

[00:08:02] gym. It's open 24 hours. We weren't even going to work out, just take mirror selfies and mess around with the exercise balls. There's a desk for the spa portion of the gym, or maybe it's a sauna,

[00:08:17] I don't remember. But since it was so late and there were no employees, we were messing around behind the desk and found a notebook. I'm not sure why, I was super annoying at the time,

[00:08:33] but I decided to write my Twitter and Instagram handles and so did Savannah. Looking back, I'm pretty sure we could get in trouble since guests aren't supposed to screw around with the desk, but I didn't think too much of it and we left the gym. The next morning,

[00:08:49] we checked out of the hotel. On the drive back home, I get a Twitter notification and it's from a diaper fetish account. The creepy thing is this account was active for a while and had disgusting pictures of grown men in diapers and other disturbing pictures

[00:09:09] of children. Savannah sees this and we both sit there looking at each other like, what the fuck? The account tweeted at us saying something like, I know who you are and what you've done

[00:09:24] and your vacation will end abruptly. They tweeted some more creepy stuff, like telling us to watch our backs, but I knew it was clearly because we left our names on that notepad. I didn't reply

[00:09:38] back. Then I notice a new follower and it was my name, but the username was similar to the diaper account. The account started tweeting my address, phone number, and random pictures of me from deep

[00:09:55] in my social media. They do the same thing with Savannah's name and at this point, we're both shitting bricks. I get a text from a random number. I'm assuming they used a texting

[00:10:10] app saying that they were watching us and knew more than we thought. They even started texting me about my boyfriend at the time and asked me really fucked up questions about him.

[00:10:23] I told them to fuck off and blocked it. I didn't get any more texts, but the Twitter account continued to tweet about me and random details that I know they had to dig deep to find.

[00:10:37] I blocked them on that too and put all my accounts on private. I never got any more messages, but the Twitter accounts are still up to this day. So to the Disney employee with the diaper fetish, please stay far away from me.

[00:11:04] This experience was legitimately one of the most frightening things that ever happened to me while walking my dog and he's done some weird stuff. Let's say things like pulling used condoms out of a bush and whipping them around like

[00:11:27] helicopter blades, that sort of weird stuff. So back in 2015, I had the choice of getting a dog or getting a smartphone. I had never had a dog in my life, nor did I ever have a decent phone,

[00:11:42] come to think of it. And I'd been saving up for a phone anyhow. So naturally I picked the dog. My dad knew someone who had a couple of border collies that had recently had a litter. So we

[00:11:56] drove out and the dude gave me the last pup, Enter Bailey. A couple weeks after he got his shots, I started walking him. My parents figured I was going to be hanging out at the local park with my

[00:12:09] new pup so I could get him socialized. But no, I chose to take him around the perimeter of a nearby farm to keep the farm dog in him. I'd been sneaking out to this farm for years. The farmer was an old

[00:12:25] family friend. My uncles had grown up working for him, so I knew if I was ever caught, I could just drop their name. On either side of the farm, there were thick woodlands, which no one had

[00:12:40] ever given me any reason to be wary of. They probably should have. It's a sunny afternoon. It had been pouring down all week and Bailey was itching for a good walk. I take him to the farm

[00:12:54] at our usual time and we start making our way around to the woods on the east side of the farm. Everything is quiet, but Bailey keeps darting away from me to explore. He's a puppy. It's what they

[00:13:07] do. But of course I'd be calling his name all the way around the field. We're about halfway past the woods. I could see the roof of the farmhouse over the next hill. Bailey had been pulling crap out

[00:13:22] of the bushes all the way along and I'd gave him some trouble for rolling in a pile of fox crap. That's when I hear a man's voice calling my dog by his name. Someone I didn't even know was calling

[00:13:38] my dog by name. I knew it wasn't the farmer because I'd met him at family events like barbecues and weddings, so I knew what his voice sounded like. I go completely silent, but the guy keeps

[00:13:54] calling for my dog. It sounds like he's deep into the woods and maybe moving. He's calling my dog with an excited tone in his voice, which is what creeps me out the most. Bailey, meanwhile,

[00:14:11] is completely ignoring this guy and sniffing the now flat pile of poop. I'm a small 18-year-old girl. The most combat experience I have is a month of learning taekwondo when I was 11.

[00:14:28] And I don't even have a mobile phone. If that guy works out where I am, I'm fucked. And if Bailey decides to go after him, I'm double fucked because I am not letting a possible psycho get his

[00:14:40] hands on my puppy. I can either run to the farm, which isn't too far away, or run back through the field towards home. I pick up my dog and sprint across the field. Behind me, I hear someone emerge

[00:14:57] from the woods, but I'm already over the fence and sprinting back home with my puppy tucked under my arm. I get home and tell my mom. She brushes it off as some weird drunk guy. A few weeks later,

[00:15:12] I'm at my uncle's house and the farmer walks in. I told my uncle what had happened, so he brings it up. The farmer asks exactly which woods I'd been closest to,

[00:15:25] and that some of his clothes had gone missing from his washing line. He'd put it down to strong winds, but now he's not so sure. I take him and my uncle to the exact spot the next day,

[00:15:39] and all three of us go in and find a completely wrecked campsite. There's no clothes or anything but the tent that had collapsed in on itself. There was no fire, but there were some empty gas

[00:15:55] canisters like you'd use for a portable stove and empty packets of food scattered everywhere. We reported it to the police, but nothing really came of it. Except I got a phone not long after that, and I keep it on me whenever I go out.

[00:16:21] I like playing a game called CSGO, which is short for Counter-Strike Global Offensive. Usually, my profile picture is a character from a movie or TV show, and my name is very generic. You would never think that I was a girl based off of my picture and name, because

[00:16:47] I just don't ask for that attention. I was playing Deathmatch with my internet best friend Derek at an ungodly time of night, just talking about our thoughts and morals over voice chat in the lobby.

[00:17:03] The server had about seven people in it, and everyone would throw in their two cents with our conversation. It was pleasant and much needed. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Everyone was kind and respectful, something you hardly see on this type of game.

[00:17:22] One person had no microphone and only talked to us via chat. He told Derek and I, I've never wanted to be friends with someone over this game before so badly. Will you guys add me? I promise, I'll have a mic tomorrow.

[00:17:41] I was a lonely person back then, so I accepted his friend request. His name was Corey. Derek and I played CSGO Deathmatch nightly, just talking about all sorts of things. For four days straight, Corey would join us without invite. We found it odd he would just

[00:18:00] join us because he mentioned how strict he is with himself about being on a tight schedule and how dedicated he is for school. Because of this, we never invited him to our games. Which funnily enough, Corey got upset that we didn't invite him to the Deathmatches.

[00:18:19] Even though he told us he was focused on school and we only played at night. One way or another, Corey got the impression Derek and I were dating, despite Derek talking about his girlfriend at least once a day. I told Corey yes,

[00:18:35] we're obviously dating because a male and female can never just be friends. My voice was flat. As flat as I could make it sound and bland as I could try. Corey did not understand my sarcasm and ran with the thought of Derek and I dating.

[00:18:55] Immediately, Corey tried his best to win over Derek by buying him in-game valuables, case keys, a few skins worth real money. Every time Corey would give Derek these things, Corey would tell him, you better be treating her right otherwise you will pay for it.

[00:19:16] Derek is a nice guy and has a hard time with confrontations so he never replied to those messages. He would only relay them back to me. After two days of getting these gifts,

[00:19:29] I told Corey while in Deathmatch, you do realize I was sarcastic with you when you asked if Derek and I were dating right? Derek has a girlfriend and she doesn't play video games. Corey's voice

[00:19:44] immediately goes into a much calmer voice during this game and he does not stop saying, oh thank god, thank you lord almighty, you have blessed my life, thank you. Random people would

[00:20:01] tell him to stop talking and that he's being creepy. I didn't say anything to Corey for a while after that because despite being over the internet, I felt an awkward connection with him.

[00:20:16] The following day, day 7 of knowing Corey, he asks me to join him in a private game. I have immense anxiety with being alone with someone no matter the circumstances. I tell Corey, no thank you, but thanks for the offer. Corey tries to call me over voice

[00:20:37] and I get a weird nervous feeling. I knew something was odd about this random voice call request. I check on his profile and he edited the entire profile to fit a 2008

[00:20:51] emo myspace account. He changed his picture of Harambe to rain on a window and his bio went from I inject memes for Harambe to my life is meaningless without her. That was one of

[00:21:09] the most bizarre things I ever saw unfold in front of me over a video game. He explains to me that he wanted to play a private game with me, with just me, so he could plan to meet up with me and

[00:21:24] go get some coffee. He could tell where I lived because I told Derek and Corey about the Seattle superhero I ran into a while back. But that was only the beginning of the

[00:21:37] creepy things he would say to me. At one point he said, your voice makes me trust you. That made my skin crawl. Another time in the middle of the match he said, in front of everyone, is your body

[00:21:52] as smooth as your voice? You sound like a goddess on cake. That made me almost vomit. A few more examples include things like, you make me just want to snuggle up in my bed and go to sleep.

[00:22:09] An acute-y tone, or saying teehee out loud instead of just laughing. But whenever he said something creepy I would just ignore it or awkwardly say, thanks dude. It felt as if he practiced for hours just to say these lines to me. Just unnatural.

[00:22:33] I knew this guy did not talk to any other females because he told me so. He said, girls in real life just find me creepy and whenever I approach them they ignore me.

[00:22:44] Something I should have spotted as a red flag. One day he tries to send out a call request that I ended up hitting ignore on. I message him saying, what's up? Everything okay?

[00:22:56] Everything okay? He only replies with, not even close. I had no clue what to respond with so I just waited for a follow up message. 10 minutes pass by and he spams me with personal questions.

[00:23:12] What kind of males are you into? Do you only date tall skinny men? Do you care what other people think? I oddly felt guilty and obligated to reply with honest answers. I tell him,

[00:23:28] I care to an extent of what people look like as long as they take care of themselves. I couldn't care less what my friends look like. I don't really have a unique type.

[00:23:39] I just want a healthy looking guy regardless of height. Why do you ask? He describes to me what he looks like followed by a total of 10 photos. I never asked for a picture of him. It never crossed

[00:23:54] my mind to ask him what he looks like. He asks me all sorts of questions related to, am I attractive enough? Am I too skinny? Too short? Do I have good hair? I tell him, you look

[00:24:08] nice. He was very skinny, average height and looked like he took care of himself. A very normal looking human being. He replies with, thanks you're so sweet. Such a lovely girl. I don't

[00:24:22] message him back. I just launched CSGO because Derek was playing. We play our game of death match and talk about normal stuff. We make friendly talk with a complete stranger and at the peak of it,

[00:24:37] Corey joins. Corey says nothing while we are all playing. I do not have notifications on when I play so I have to check manually to see if there are any messages while I'm in the game. During map change, I realized I got flooded by Corey asking,

[00:24:55] do you find this guy attractive? Does he sound hot to you? Is he funnier than me? I ignore his messages and keep playing. I did not want to deal with that from him.

[00:25:07] I knew him for just about two weeks at this point. Corey notices I am ignoring his messages and he confronts me in front of this server of 20 people. Why aren't you replying back to me in Steam?

[00:25:21] I tell him, I don't have notifications on. I'm too busy playing the game to want to hold a conversation while playing the game. Corey goes on to rant about, I thought we were friends. Why would you ignore me? Friends don't ignore each other. I don't respond to him.

[00:25:40] This is all over voice so everyone can hear him. I'm clearly uncomfortable and a random player tells Corey, you're being kinda creepy dude. She clearly doesn't want to respond to your weird

[00:25:49] messages. Corey screams at the top of his lungs at the end of the game. I'm not sure if he's screaming at the top of his lungs at this guy. Go kill yourself, you useless human being.

[00:26:03] You don't know her like I do. And he promptly leaves. Derek and I keep playing our game, ignoring our messages. After an hour we get off the game and I open my messages. From Corey I get

[00:26:18] another rollercoaster of messages and feelings ranging from, I'm so sorry I screamed. You didn't need to hear that side of me. To, how dare you fucking ignore me. I reply with, you're taking

[00:26:32] this friendship pretty fast. I think you should just calm down and take a break. The deepest thing I know about you is your name and your favorite meme. He replies with, you're right, goodnight.

[00:26:48] I was hoping that maybe for once that would be the end of it and he would actually listen. I couldn't be more wrong. The following day I wake up to my Steam app being spammed from Corey.

[00:27:02] I need you, I'm at the hospital. A few things I noticed. He was on Steam via web browser. Your name will have a web browser icon if you're logged in through your web browser and not Steam phone.

[00:27:17] Another thing I noticed. He said he was on his phone. If this were actually true, it would have a mobile icon next to his name instead of the web browser. I knew he did not have a phone because he

[00:27:30] told me, I broke mine last month when I threw it against the wall. I remember that because I think it's odd how people will destroy things in moments of anger. I don't mention either of these things

[00:27:44] to Corey. I figured he was lying because he was in the heat of the moment and was too scared to tell me the truth. I ask him why he's there and his response was, I don't know, I was puking blood

[00:27:58] all night for 8 hours and my mom and dad took me here. I'm so scared. Again, I was naive and let that slip. I found it odd that his parents would wait so many hours to take him to the hospital

[00:28:12] while he's puking blood. I didn't tell Corey of my suspicion though. I wanted to see where this was going. I assured him, you'll be fine. I'm sure of it. He said without a minute passing, my parents

[00:28:27] are talking to the doctor right now and they're crying. I don't know what's going on. I asked, why aren't you in there with them? He tells me he's going into the room but he was stopped by

[00:28:38] a security officer who told him, I'm sorry, I don't think you're ready for the news just yet. Have a seat. I play dumb and don't question his bullshit story. I reply saying, it won't do you

[00:28:52] any good to be worried about something you can't control. He spams me with broken sentences such as, I'm so scared right now. Please help me. I understand when people are crying it can be

[00:29:05] hard to see what you're typing but he told me so many times before, I've been hurt so bad before I can't even cry. I didn't even cry when my brother died. Also, he was typing perfectly

[00:29:20] clear and readable before and after this message. Again, I didn't question his story. He quickly tells me, oh my god they just told me I have cancer. I respond with, didn't you just get to

[00:29:36] the hospital a few hours ago? He replies, yes, it's stage 4 skin cancer. I didn't let him know that I thought he was lying and I was currently laughing. I message Derek about the situation

[00:29:52] and don't reply to Corey for roughly 10 minutes. I open Corey's messages back up to find him explaining to me how he got his skin cancer. Apparently, he got it from a mole on his chest

[00:30:04] that he had cut off because it was in the way and it got infected with cancer. I didn't think this lie could get any worse so I confessed to him that I knew he was lying. I expressed how disgusting it

[00:30:18] is to lie about having cancer and that my adopted mother died of cancer herself. He rushes to respond and says, oh my god I had no idea. I'm so sorry. The reason I lied to you was because I'm

[00:30:31] actually sick with something else. I actually have type 1 diabetes. I lied because I didn't want you to think that I was fat. I ask him if he remembers sending me pictures of himself and he said he

[00:30:43] remembers but he was worried. I still thought he was fat. He probably weighed at most 120 pounds. So, I cut off contact with this guy on everything the same day. Roughly 6 months after deleting Corey, I run into him in real life. I knew it was him because

[00:31:07] his voice was unique and distinct. Corey never saw what I looked like. I never sent him pictures or posted on my Instagram any selfies. I knew it was Corey and he looked the same as he did in those photos. This was during Seattle's street fair but I never

[00:31:27] thought I would run into this guy. I'm glad he didn't recognize me. I have no idea what I would have done if he did. Back in 2011, I was within a circle of friends that made it a tradition to go camping at a

[00:31:58] certain spot every Maylong weekend. The spot we chose was in a beautiful area right on the edge of a large lake and was located on government land. The lake itself had a dam on it so during

[00:32:13] Maylong the water levels were always low if not completely empty making it possible to walk across it. People were allowed to camp there as long as they weren't causing trouble or making a

[00:32:25] mess and it was generally a good time for everyone. The spots themselves were spaced out far enough that you had your own privacy but not far enough that you couldn't meet other people.

[00:32:40] In this particular year, our spot was in the middle of a small hill with one campsite below us and one above us. The first night of our trip happened without incident. During the second day

[00:32:56] the people staying at the site below us had moved in. We didn't think much of it and continued drinking throughout the day and into the night. At about around midnight, the people at the

[00:33:09] campsite below us were really out of control. They were yelling and screaming and their music had gotten even louder so our friend Ben went down to ask them to turn it down. He was promptly

[00:33:24] punched in the face and came back to inform us that he was 90% sure they were on drugs. After that, the vibe wasn't as relaxed and we were all somewhat on edge. I was feeling really

[00:33:38] tired so I just decided to go to bed. Some of my friends were still awake including Ben and one couple, Lily and Derek, that were visiting another campsite we had made friends with that

[00:33:50] day. I could hear that the campsite below was still blasting their music and partying pretty hard but I tried to ignore it and go to sleep. I don't know what time it was when I was jolted awake.

[00:34:07] Parts of this are somewhat of a blur. All I know is that I sat straight up as soon as I heard the screaming and yelling coming from outside my tent. I quickly ran outside to find our campsite in

[00:34:21] chaos. One of my friends was clutching her chest. People were running around and screaming to call 911. I was quickly informed of what happened. Apparently not long after I had gone to bed,

[00:34:36] the people camping at the site below us decided they weren't finished talking to Ben and on their way up they had encountered Lily and Derek walking back. Now Derek and Ben are both about the same

[00:34:49] height and have the same color hair so they thought and assumed that Derek was Ben and bottled both him and Lily over the head with a full glass bottle. I don't know if it was the same guys that

[00:35:04] showed up at our campsite but I was told that everybody else was sitting around the fire when two or three huge guys appeared from the darkness and walked over to them. One had a paring knife and the other had a butcher's knife in their hands.

[00:35:20] Ben saw the knives and had gotten up to talk to them. Apparently he had barely spoken a word when the guy with the paring knife stabbed him once in the chest. At the same time, some people

[00:35:34] from the campsite above had seen the guys coming and came down to help. One of the guys, Tim, was coming down the hill when the guy with the butcher's knife ran up and stabbed him in the

[00:35:47] stomach. From there, sheer panic ensued. People called 911 but the ambulance was over half an hour away. This is where I came out of the tent. Tim's wound was bleeding profusely and he was

[00:36:02] losing blood way too quickly. His friends ended up putting him back into his car and speeding off to meet the ambulance halfway. Ben was also bleeding but his wound wasn't as deep as Tim's and we were

[00:36:18] able to keep him calm until an ambulance arrived. The guys with the knives ran off into the darkness back down to their campsite and took off in their Land Rover. My boyfriend at the time and I had

[00:36:30] gotten into his car and drove to the entrance to try and flag down the policemen on their way to the scene. Once they arrived, we were informed to stay in the car as they had released a canine

[00:36:43] search unit to hunt down the people who stabbed our friends. By the end of the night, they had arrested the men. They had tried to flee by driving their vehicle across the lakebed where

[00:36:55] it got stuck in a muddy section of the lake. They were on a concoction of several drugs as suspected. Luckily, both Tim and Ben survived although Tim had lost a lot of blood and took a few weeks to

[00:37:09] recover from his wounds. Derek and Lily had huge goose eggs and possibly one person had a concussion but I can't recall. It was definitely the scariest thing I have ever experienced and a few of us

[00:37:24] had to testify against them in court. I've attached an online article about it if you're interested in reading. About two years ago, I worked at a movie store inside of a mall. I've had tons of strange experiences with customers but this one definitely tops them off.

[00:37:55] I was 20 at the time. This guy was over six foot, late 40s, very hefty and always had this weird zombified expression on his face. He came in about once a week. One of my co-workers had even

[00:38:12] warned me about him, how he was a little off but I still treated him with as much respect as I did everyone else. One day he came in and we talked for a bit but it got a little awkward and I kept

[00:38:25] trying to end the conversation and look busy by tagging items behind the counter. He stood there in silence watching me for about 20 minutes and finally left. A few days later, he comes back in and walks up to me holding a large container. He says,

[00:38:46] I made four pounds of enchiladas at home today just for you. I remember you like Mexican food. I don't remember at all telling him that I liked it but I do know that I went to the Mexican

[00:38:59] restaurant across the way every lunch break. I just politely accepted it and put it in the back office. I was convinced that he used jizz for it. Another few days later, he came back in and had a

[00:39:15] drawing for me of a dragon. Now I love dragons but I never told him that. This drawing looked like it took hours to make and at this point I was a little freaked out. I had him leave it on the

[00:39:31] counter so I could throw it away later. Later on, I was given about a week vacation. During that week, I had cut my hair about 12 inches. The day I came back, I got a shift with my manager. I told her

[00:39:45] all about the guy and immediately she was weirded out for me. No shit. A few minutes later, I see the dude walking around in the mall. He was going towards the exit and didn't look at me once.

[00:39:58] My manager tells me to go into the back office. I go and wait until she comes back to get me and when she does, she tells me I need to make a report to the mall security immediately.

[00:40:11] Apparently, when I ran back there, he turned around to come in and walked all throughout the store. When she asked him if he needed help with something, he said, I can't believe she cut her

[00:40:23] hair and briskly walked out. I go to the mall security office to make a report and we went through all of these videos from the cameras of when the guy came to visit me but there was one

[00:40:35] video that really stood out. It still sends chills throughout my body when I think about it. The video shows him pull into the parking lot of the mall and about three minutes later I arrive.

[00:40:48] This was early in the morning and no customers were here yet but there were cars in the lot. I didn't notice him at all. It shows me walking towards the entrance and him following me.

[00:41:03] Right as I open the entrance door, the man starts sprinting towards me. I walked inside just in time. It shows him stop and stand in front of the door, watching me through the glass walk a little further away. He begins walking normally inside the mall.

[00:41:25] I never noticed him behind me. The part that really fucked me up. It was like watching the last footage before a kidnapping or murder on Dateline or something. The video gave the security every reason to ban him from the mall and they did. They later told me

[00:41:46] when they gave him a background check he had four counts of having child pornography on his person and was on probation. I've been listening to Let's Not Meet for a week or so now. I enjoy these creepy stories and the

[00:42:00] more I listened, I realized I had a story to share as well. Hopefully this makes its way successfully as I only created this profile on Reddit for this purpose. This was back in early 2000s.

[00:42:19] I was 17 and stupid as you'll soon find out. I had worked at Irida's Water Ice in the suburbs every summer for the last four years or so before moving to South Philly. I was able to pick up a

[00:42:34] job at the New York Times in the early 2000s. I was a writer and a journalist. I was a writer before moving to South Philly. I was able to pick up a job at the New Rita's there and quickly made

[00:42:50] some friends. One friend in particular, Heather, was my dancing and singing partner on those rainy days when all we had was the radio and each other. We were listening to Q-102 loudly and having a

[00:43:04] great time when we got a call. I turned down the music and answered. It was a guy named Joe saying he was from Q-102 and wanted to hear about the cute girls at Rita's. I put it on speaker

[00:43:20] and my friend and I engaged in the playful flirting with this random guy. He promised to give us a shout out on the radio. Within a few minutes of hanging up, we hear a strange interruption

[00:43:33] and that same voice say, girls at Rita's, and it jumps back to whatever it was playing previously. That should have been enough to know that this was weird. Before we could even talk about it,

[00:43:48] the phone rang and Joe asked if we heard it. We said yes and said that it was fast. He said that they were having connectivity problems. We believed him and he said he would love to meet us.

[00:44:02] Heather jumped on that opportunity and said we could meet him together on Sunday. As weird as it seemed at the time, I figured it would be okay since we would be together. Sunday comes and I'm waiting at the spot we said we would meet him.

[00:44:20] Minutes before our meetup time, Heather calls me and says that she's not coming. I yelled at her that I was standing out here like an idiot and why wouldn't she tell me earlier.

[00:44:32] She said sorry and to let her know how it goes. Needless to say, I was pissed and now very nervous. I was about to just turn and walk home when an old ass car drives up. Windows roll down and

[00:44:49] this guy says, where's the other one? Joe was pale with small but thick glasses and red hair. Not at all what I expected and I just figured maybe that's the whole radio voice thing people

[00:45:06] talk about having but I knew something was off. I tell him Heather's not coming and I should probably go. He said he would love to just chat and tells me to get in the car. Now I know what

[00:45:20] you're thinking, why the fuck would you get into the car? But at that age, I was too scared to stand up for myself and what I knew was best for me. So I get in and I ask where we're going. He tells

[00:45:35] me he needs to run home quick then we can grab lunch and talk. I try to ask him about working for the radio but after all this time I can't recall how he dodged my questions so easily but

[00:45:48] he did. I never got my answer until we got to his house. Now at this time, I didn't know Philly very well. I knew South Philly decently but outside of that, I was very unfamiliar. We drove for about

[00:46:04] 20 minutes until we reached a dodgy looking neighborhood of tiny squished together row homes. That is most of Philly but in my memory, these were exceptionally small and creepy looking. As my brain is telling me to do something, I follow him in his house anyway. Me now

[00:46:27] is getting sick to my stomach just thinking about how stupid me then was. He opens the door and that's when it hits me. To this day, I know nothing about radio and how he did what he did

[00:46:43] but his entire living room was covered with wires. His walls were lined with at least a dozen tangled up wires with several phones on the coffee table and sofa. I looked around in horror

[00:46:58] realizing just how stupid I was. What the hell was going to happen to me? Why did he bring me here? I knew I had to get out of there. He asked me to sit down and in my fear, I did.

[00:47:15] Then his mother comes out from what I guess was the kitchen. Who the hell knows what their room's functions are for with all these wires around. She seemed so excited to see me as if she's been

[00:47:31] waiting for me to get there. She started asking me all sorts of questions like how Joe and I met and what I do for a living. I'm realizing that Joe is probably much older than I am because

[00:47:45] her questions were not geared towards someone who's still in high school working at the water ice stand. Does she even know why all these wires are here? Does she know what the hell he's up to?

[00:47:58] My brain is frantically running with all these questions. How many teenagers has he lured here before? What the fuck is going on and why did he bring me here? After about 20 minutes of his mom

[00:48:10] trying to get me to eat something and tell her about my life while Joe stared at me from the sofa, my brain jumps into the only action it's been able to conjure thus far. I have to take this

[00:48:24] call. I'm so sorry to interrupt you and I run outside. I start yelling to the non-existent person on the phone asking what's going on? Where are you? I'll be right there. I walk back

[00:48:37] in and tell Joe he has to take me home immediately because my dad is in the hospital. He squinted at me, not sure if I was lying or not and in the only other burst of bravery I had that day I yelled

[00:48:55] now. He jumped up grabbed his keys and headed out the door. I followed without even a nod to his mother who stared at me as I left. Not a word was spoken on the drive. He asked me where I lived and

[00:49:11] I instructed him to drop me exactly where he picked me up. As I got out of the car he asked for my number. I slammed the door and I ran. I told Heather all about what had happened and how

[00:49:26] angry I was with her for ditching me. She said she was sorry but clearly it was all innocent and I was fine. A few weeks went by and I had mostly put it out of my mind. I go up to Rita's one day

[00:49:42] and the paper was tossed at the pull-down gate. I picked it up and guess who I saw gracing the cover? Good old innocent Joe was arrested for luring teenagers to his house by intercepting

[00:49:58] radio stations and sexually assaulting them. To this day I don't know how I mustered up enough bravery to act the way I did to get myself out of there. Even now I can't believe, even with his

[00:50:13] intentions set that he drove me home with almost no question. I'm not sure but I seriously regret not calling someone about it. I guess I didn't really know what to say since nothing actually

[00:50:25] happened to me. I was 17 and stupid. I'm glad he got caught but I hate to think what those other girls went through after me. So weirdo Joe who fucked with radio station frequencies to lure

[00:50:38] teenagers, let's never meet again. Thanks everyone for listening to this week's Lost Stories episode of Let's Not Meet a True Horror Podcast. Don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other

[00:51:09] shows Odd Trails and the Old Time Radiocast at Cryptic County Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're a patron don't forget to stick around after the music for your ad-free

[00:51:20] extended version of this week's episode. If you want to get access head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to support the show today. This week you have heard I fell into a stalker's trap by Biblical Unicorn. Disney employee with a diaper fetish by shabine777.

[00:51:43] Someone tried to lure me into the woods by Midnight Mode. I never met a female in CSGO by 90dolphins. Camping hell by wild paw. My first and hopefully last stalker by Sadie Marie.

[00:52:00] And finally fooled by fake radio guy by here for let's not meet. 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

[00:52:17] boards online. As always if you have a story to share send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com and if you want to donate to help get our tv pilot filmed head over to letsnotmeettv.com

[00:52:29] to support that project today and get access to a bunch of awesome perks just for donating today. Thanks everyone for listening we'll see you next week stay safe. I will preface this story by saying that I live in a country that is filled with parrots.