15 Chilling TRUE Scary Stories That Will Give You Nightmares

WEBVTT
1
00:00:04.459 --> 00:00:07.990
I finally feel ready to share my very creepy and
2
00:00:08.169 --> 00:00:12.849
uncomfortable encounter. This has been a few years since this happened,
3
00:00:13.189 --> 00:00:16.550
but to this day, I feel sick just thinking about
4
00:00:16.609 --> 00:00:20.129
that night. When I was in my very early twenties
5
00:00:20.190 --> 00:00:24.030
or so, I lived in some pretty shitty apartments, pretty
6
00:00:24.129 --> 00:00:27.210
cheap too because of this. They were known for being
7
00:00:27.250 --> 00:00:30.210
a little bit sketchy for the area even. There was
8
00:00:30.250 --> 00:00:33.329
this one neighbor that seemed to be listening to James
9
00:00:33.409 --> 00:00:37.049
Brown and Motown, so even though he seemed a bit off,
10
00:00:37.270 --> 00:00:40.259
I thought to myself, how weird could he be? He's
11
00:00:40.310 --> 00:00:43.479
chilling to some really classic old music, surely he can't
12
00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:44.759
be that bad a guy.
13
00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:47.159
I'd hear him blasting his.
14
00:00:47.100 --> 00:00:51.939
Music and having loud conversations through the walls, but then again,
15
00:00:52.219 --> 00:00:55.359
we both had studio apartments that were touching. I would
16
00:00:55.380 --> 00:00:58.100
just play my own music to not hear his stuff
17
00:00:58.219 --> 00:01:02.049
so loudly. One night he was drinking quite a lot.
18
00:01:02.469 --> 00:01:05.609
He seemed to have his girlfriend around or something. You
19
00:01:05.659 --> 00:01:08.780
could hear them being belligerent, but nothing that seemed out
20
00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:11.959
of the ordinary. At least for him, I suppose. It
21
00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:14.500
wasn't too late yet, so I headed out for the
22
00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:17.439
night with some friends, while my boyfriend at the time
23
00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:21.260
stayed in. I got dropped off around 1am or so.
24
00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:24.980
As we were driving into the lot, from afar I
25
00:01:25.019 --> 00:01:28.659
could see my neighbor outside, looking like he was hiding
26
00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:32.620
in between some cars in the apartment or something. Okay,
27
00:01:32.780 --> 00:01:36.120
that was pretty weird. Whatever though, this guy was just
28
00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:40.409
kinda creepy anyways. At that point my friends were more
29
00:01:40.510 --> 00:01:43.510
weirded out than I was actually. I didn't think that
30
00:01:43.590 --> 00:01:47.000
much of it. This guy was always doing some weird shit.
31
00:01:47.379 --> 00:01:49.060
I had one of them drop me off near the
32
00:01:49.140 --> 00:01:51.819
entrance because it was easier for them to leave that way.
33
00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:56.060
That was until they started to drive away. I walked
34
00:01:56.180 --> 00:01:58.739
up to go into my apartment, which I had to
35
00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:03.060
pass by his first. I swear my heart dropped out
36
00:02:03.079 --> 00:02:06.859
of my chest. I noticed he was still standing by them,
37
00:02:07.239 --> 00:02:10.159
but now his body was hidden behind the bush that
38
00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:14.530
was in between our apartments. As I approached, it seemed
39
00:02:14.569 --> 00:02:17.449
like he thought maybe I hadn't seen him yet because
40
00:02:17.469 --> 00:02:20.449
it was so dark out. He was standing as still
41
00:02:20.509 --> 00:02:23.389
as a statue, like he was trying not to be seen.
42
00:02:24.289 --> 00:02:26.719
I waved and mumbled hi to let him know he
43
00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:29.979
wasn't fooling anyone. I was not going to pretend at
44
00:02:30.020 --> 00:02:32.719
this point I couldn't see him. I didn't want him
45
00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:35.500
to try anything, since no one was out on a
46
00:02:35.539 --> 00:02:39.139
weekday at this hour. At that point, after acknowledging he
47
00:02:39.180 --> 00:02:42.560
was there, he stepped out from behind the bush, and
48
00:02:42.620 --> 00:02:46.000
came into the dim porch light. Never in my life
49
00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:49.150
have I locked onto someone's eyes like that. My heart's
50
00:02:49.270 --> 00:02:53.789
racing even as I type this. His eyes were widened, dark,
51
00:02:54.129 --> 00:02:57.430
and fully dilated like he was just a wild animal.
52
00:02:57.830 --> 00:03:00.810
He looked like an absolute lunatic if I were to
53
00:03:00.889 --> 00:03:04.879
express his energy well. He didn't say anything, but he
54
00:03:04.919 --> 00:03:08.159
gave me the most bone-chilling look. I ran into my
55
00:03:08.219 --> 00:03:12.550
apartment as fast as possible. My boyfriend was drowsy since
56
00:03:12.569 --> 00:03:15.210
it was late, but he did say the neighbor's music
57
00:03:15.250 --> 00:03:18.319
was loud and continued for some time. He heard a
58
00:03:18.349 --> 00:03:21.599
lot of noise and arguing earlier, but he hadn't really
59
00:03:21.699 --> 00:03:25.120
thought that much of it. That night, all night, we
60
00:03:25.159 --> 00:03:28.400
heard thumps coming from his apartment, and it also sounded
61
00:03:28.460 --> 00:03:32.840
like furniture was being moved. It weirded me out, knowing
62
00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:35.680
he was still awake and in that crazed state I'd
63
00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:39.240
viewed him in, almost primal. The next morning I heard
64
00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:42.719
cops banging on his door and was partially relieved to
65
00:03:42.780 --> 00:03:46.180
see them. I was also super scared to see why
66
00:03:46.219 --> 00:03:49.039
they were there in the first place. They took him
67
00:03:49.099 --> 00:03:52.050
away in handcuffs shortly after, demanding to.
68
00:03:52.009 --> 00:03:52.550
Be let in.
69
00:03:53.069 --> 00:03:55.349
They asked me when the last time I had talked
70
00:03:55.370 --> 00:03:57.750
to him or seen him was. I told them about
71
00:03:57.810 --> 00:04:01.849
that night, the arguing, the noises, the frightening encounter, the
72
00:04:01.949 --> 00:04:05.419
thumping all night. What I found out during the next
73
00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:09.229
day will make my stomach turn forever. I was told
74
00:04:09.289 --> 00:04:13.250
this from the groundskeeper. Details I'll keep more simple since
75
00:04:13.310 --> 00:04:18.009
the act was so horrendous. The Motown James Brown listening
76
00:04:18.050 --> 00:04:23.100
neighbor brutally murdered his girlfriend that night, dismembered parts of her,
77
00:04:23.420 --> 00:04:25.980
and dragged the rest of her body near the train tracks,
78
00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:30.160
which so happened to be directly behind our apartment. It
79
00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:33.180
hit me that the cold, primal, and wide-eyed look I'd
80
00:04:33.259 --> 00:04:35.810
seen in that man was the look of a person
81
00:04:35.850 --> 00:04:39.610
who'd just taken another human being's life and was worried
82
00:04:39.709 --> 00:04:42.509
I'd noticed he'd done it in such a vicious and
83
00:04:42.569 --> 00:04:46.410
disgusting way, too. I felt so sad for that woman,
84
00:04:46.709 --> 00:04:50.199
who definitely did not deserve to go like that. She
85
00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:53.139
was always quiet and so sweet and seemed a bit
86
00:04:53.240 --> 00:04:56.319
down on her luck. She was always asking for cigarettes
87
00:04:56.360 --> 00:04:59.959
whenever I encountered her, To this day, my stomach turns,
88
00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:02.120
thinking about how close I was.
89
00:05:01.980 --> 00:05:03.639
To death, quite literally.
90
00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:06.759
He could have ambushed me out of insanity, since he
91
00:05:06.810 --> 00:05:10.649
was just waiting in the darkness when I walked up. Basically,
92
00:05:10.750 --> 00:05:14.050
to all of you who follow their intuition and gut feeling,
93
00:05:14.589 --> 00:05:17.829
listen to it. If you have a bad feeling about someone,
94
00:05:17.949 --> 00:05:21.709
even if they seem completely harmless, just stay a safe
95
00:05:21.810 --> 00:05:24.430
distance and be wary of them. I moved into a
96
00:05:24.509 --> 00:05:27.920
different apartment right after. It was just too much thinking
97
00:05:27.980 --> 00:05:31.259
about what happened that night. That neighbor went to jail,
98
00:05:31.300 --> 00:05:34.259
of course. I saw his booking photo, where he looked
99
00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:37.569
even more scary. I just hope he stays in jail
100
00:05:37.610 --> 00:05:49.779
for a long time, where he truly belongs. A little
101
00:05:49.819 --> 00:05:53.279
bit of background about me, so you can understand where
102
00:05:53.319 --> 00:05:55.819
I'm coming from. When I tell you I resorted to
103
00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:59.819
bar hopping to find love, I was born and raised
104
00:05:59.879 --> 00:06:02.980
in a small town in Kansas that I was dying
105
00:06:03.019 --> 00:06:05.860
to get away from. Pretty much since the moment I
106
00:06:05.899 --> 00:06:09.019
was able to speak, there was never anything to do,
107
00:06:09.420 --> 00:06:13.240
and the boys there never really liked me either. I've
108
00:06:13.300 --> 00:06:17.199
never been conventionally pretty or attractive in any way that
109
00:06:17.250 --> 00:06:20.889
would catch attention. I moved out of Kansas to New
110
00:06:20.930 --> 00:06:24.889
York City in 2008. When I was around 18, I
111
00:06:24.930 --> 00:06:28.670
wanted to pursue fashion. At that time, I thought I
112
00:06:28.709 --> 00:06:31.389
would have no problem meeting someone in a city as
113
00:06:31.490 --> 00:06:34.069
big as that one. But let me tell you, it
114
00:06:34.110 --> 00:06:38.790
was still very hard. It almost seemed like I was invisible.
115
00:06:39.209 --> 00:06:41.610
Like even if I was in a crowded room, I
116
00:06:41.649 --> 00:06:46.199
was still somehow invisible to everyone there. After months of
117
00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:49.920
feeling sad and alone, I decided a decent place to
118
00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:53.569
meet people was at the bar. The first few weeks,
119
00:06:53.730 --> 00:06:56.910
I was too nervous to talk to anyone, but eventually
120
00:06:56.930 --> 00:06:59.470
I was able to take a deep breath and start
121
00:06:59.509 --> 00:07:04.009
some conversations. The only problem was, it seemed like all
122
00:07:04.149 --> 00:07:07.600
any guy wanted there was a quick hookup. I guess
123
00:07:07.660 --> 00:07:11.220
I can't act all that surprised, though. Until one guy.
124
00:07:11.579 --> 00:07:14.379
He was in his early 30s or so, with me
125
00:07:14.500 --> 00:07:18.720
only having recently turned 21. I figured this gave me
126
00:07:18.779 --> 00:07:22.600
an end to a more adult-like relationship. He was tall
127
00:07:22.660 --> 00:07:26.980
and muscular, probably around 6'1 or so. He was so
128
00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:29.680
far out of my league that I was confused why
129
00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:32.699
he even began talking to me to begin with. For
130
00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:36.000
the sake of this story, we'll call him Jake. Jake
131
00:07:36.100 --> 00:07:39.180
texted me the same night we had met and immediately
132
00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:41.839
started showering me with all these compliments.
133
00:07:42.829 --> 00:07:44.250
He told me I was gorgeous.
134
00:07:44.540 --> 00:07:47.819
He didn't understand why I didn't have people lined up
135
00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:50.720
to be with me. I should have seen right through
136
00:07:50.779 --> 00:07:55.220
the flattery. But I'd never received that kind of attention before.
137
00:07:55.660 --> 00:07:57.860
It made me feel good in a time in my
138
00:07:57.939 --> 00:08:01.259
life where all I felt was sadness. He would text
139
00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:04.399
and call me every day for weeks on end just
140
00:08:04.439 --> 00:08:06.879
to tell me how amazing I was and how much
141
00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:09.769
he wanted to see me again. He said he was
142
00:08:09.870 --> 00:08:12.490
out of town for the next month, though. Had some
143
00:08:12.670 --> 00:08:16.649
business to attend to upstate. By the time the month
144
00:08:16.689 --> 00:08:19.949
had gone by, though, Jake was still there, texting and
145
00:08:20.029 --> 00:08:22.750
calling me just as much. So we made a plan
146
00:08:22.790 --> 00:08:25.290
to hang out at the same place where we first met.
147
00:08:25.829 --> 00:08:29.029
He told me he would take care of everything. When
148
00:08:29.069 --> 00:08:30.889
he picked me up, he hugged me and opened the
149
00:08:30.910 --> 00:08:34.169
door for me, while again showering me with compliments and
150
00:08:34.269 --> 00:08:36.529
telling me we were going to have so much fun.
151
00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.419
He shut the door behind me and climbed into the
152
00:08:39.500 --> 00:08:42.940
driver's seat, pulling into what seemed like it would be
153
00:08:43.179 --> 00:08:47.590
endless traffic. After around ten minutes in the car with him,
154
00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:52.090
his demeanor started to change. He started to act real nervous.
155
00:08:52.549 --> 00:08:54.789
He pulled up to the same bar and he paid
156
00:08:54.830 --> 00:08:58.690
for the valet. We walked inside and he led us to.
157
00:08:58.610 --> 00:09:01.509
A table pretty far toward the back of the bar, where.
158
00:09:01.350 --> 00:09:04.350
A woman was there waiting for us already. I was
159
00:09:04.389 --> 00:09:08.259
so confused. I turned over to Jake. That can't be
160
00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:11.559
our table, right? He assured me it was. I was
161
00:09:11.620 --> 00:09:14.360
even more confused when he went and sat down next
162
00:09:14.379 --> 00:09:16.960
to the woman, asking me to sit across from them.
163
00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:19.419
I sat down, not really sure what to.
164
00:09:19.419 --> 00:09:19.980
Make of this.
165
00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:24.000
Then the woman started talking to me. She told me
166
00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:27.100
how excited she was to finally meet me, and that
167
00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:30.139
Jake had told me so much about me. I just
168
00:09:30.259 --> 00:09:34.279
ended up blurting out in confusion, Who are you? I
169
00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:37.769
remember her laughing a little and whispering to Jake, Oh,
170
00:09:38.029 --> 00:09:40.730
I like this one. She told me she was in
171
00:09:40.830 --> 00:09:44.360
charge of an outreach program for what she said was
172
00:09:44.419 --> 00:09:47.799
a sanctuary for people not sure about where their life
173
00:09:47.860 --> 00:09:52.259
was going. Jake had told her how insecure and unsure
174
00:09:52.340 --> 00:09:55.769
I was about myself, and she could help me. All
175
00:09:55.889 --> 00:09:58.570
I needed to do was trust her. She would take
176
00:09:58.610 --> 00:10:01.340
me to their little farm upstairs. and I would have
177
00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:06.019
no contact with what she said was the toxic world outside.
178
00:10:06.039 --> 00:10:09.259
I remember getting annoyed at how much she used the
179
00:10:09.299 --> 00:10:13.580
word sanctuary over and over. I asked her how specifically
180
00:10:13.700 --> 00:10:15.779
she could help me and she told me the only
181
00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:18.789
way to really live a happy life was to cut
182
00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:22.960
out all contact from the outside world. That way there
183
00:10:22.980 --> 00:10:26.240
would be nothing to drag me down or make me
184
00:10:26.419 --> 00:10:31.019
sad anymore. The entire conversation, she was eyeing me all
185
00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:33.759
over like she was judging me. She said if I
186
00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:36.919
joined them I would never have to feel alone again.
187
00:10:37.879 --> 00:10:40.690
The world was such a cruel place after all, but.
188
00:10:40.629 --> 00:10:42.129
With them it didn't have to be.
189
00:10:43.029 --> 00:10:45.710
Now, I might have been somewhat young, but I could
190
00:10:45.769 --> 00:10:48.970
spot a cult from a mile away. I told her
191
00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:51.169
I would think about it, but I wanted to go
192
00:10:51.269 --> 00:10:55.009
home first. They offered to drive me home, but I
193
00:10:55.049 --> 00:10:58.049
assured them a taxi would be fine. I just wanted
194
00:10:58.090 --> 00:11:01.230
to get as far away from them as possible. The
195
00:11:01.269 --> 00:11:04.210
next few weeks were quite strange. I would get all
196
00:11:04.250 --> 00:11:07.149
these letters left on my doorstep at all times of
197
00:11:07.169 --> 00:11:09.590
the day, telling me to meet them back at the
198
00:11:09.629 --> 00:11:12.970
bar and join them. They also said that they were
199
00:11:13.090 --> 00:11:16.950
always watching me, that they cared so much about me.
200
00:11:17.549 --> 00:11:20.940
I had no idea why they were so persistent. I
201
00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:25.159
tried to continue ignoring their letters and messages, and eventually,
202
00:11:25.299 --> 00:11:30.639
after a few years, they stopped. The feeling of being watched, though, never.
203
00:11:30.470 --> 00:11:31.529
Really went away.
204
00:11:31.549 --> 00:11:35.230
I've passed by that same bar many times in the
205
00:11:35.289 --> 00:11:38.330
past decade since, and once in a while I'll see
206
00:11:38.350 --> 00:11:41.980
that exact same woman sitting at the very same table
207
00:11:42.029 --> 00:11:45.039
with an older man and a younger girl just like
208
00:11:45.179 --> 00:11:47.950
I was, All I can hope is that they don't
209
00:11:48.090 --> 00:11:50.649
fall for the trap they're setting up for them. The
210
00:11:50.710 --> 00:12:01.639
trap they once tried to set up for me. I
211
00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:04.679
live by myself, in an apartment. I live on the
212
00:12:04.779 --> 00:12:07.320
second floor of what I would say is a fairly
213
00:12:07.460 --> 00:12:12.100
standard apartment building. There's four floors total, and the building
214
00:12:12.220 --> 00:12:16.669
is very long, with straight hallways on each floor. It's
215
00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:20.320
fairly close to the city, maybe 10 minutes away, and
216
00:12:20.379 --> 00:12:24.240
in a decently populated area. I've lived here for about
217
00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:27.700
two years now, and I really like it a lot, actually.
218
00:12:28.179 --> 00:12:31.440
There's one thing that happened several months ago, though, that
219
00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:35.600
made me question moving. It was a fairly ordinary night,
220
00:12:35.899 --> 00:12:39.600
and I was home all alone. My apartment has one bedroom,
221
00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:43.259
then a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. I was in
222
00:12:43.299 --> 00:12:46.019
the living room, sitting on my couch and watching TV.
223
00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:49.460
I don't remember what exact time it was, but it
224
00:12:49.500 --> 00:12:52.980
was a little bit later at night, probably sometime after
225
00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:56.039
10 or 11 or so. I had only gotten home
226
00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:59.759
from work about an hour prior. As I was sitting there,
227
00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:03.399
watching the TV, I heard some noises. I thought it
228
00:13:03.419 --> 00:13:07.450
was coming from my next-door neighbor's apartment. That's what I assumed,
229
00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:10.649
at least. So I didn't pay it much thought, really.
230
00:13:11.309 --> 00:13:15.059
Some time went by, maybe 30 minutes or so. Out
231
00:13:15.080 --> 00:13:19.480
of nowhere, I got this weird feeling. It's hard to describe,
232
00:13:19.779 --> 00:13:24.250
but I suddenly became uncomfortable and started to look all around.
233
00:13:24.690 --> 00:13:28.429
When I looked over my shoulder, I saw my bedroom doorway.
234
00:13:28.450 --> 00:13:32.309
It was only about five feet away, and to my surprise,
235
00:13:32.750 --> 00:13:35.870
a random man was sticking his head out from around
236
00:13:35.909 --> 00:13:39.899
the corner of the doorway, staring right at me. We
237
00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:42.919
made eye contact for just a moment before he quickly
238
00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:45.580
ducked back around the corner. I got up from the
239
00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:49.500
couch and in a panic, ran directly out of my apartment.
240
00:13:49.860 --> 00:13:52.620
I couldn't believe what was going on. How did some
241
00:13:52.820 --> 00:13:55.820
random guy get in there? I really didn't know what
242
00:13:55.860 --> 00:13:58.779
to do. I wanted to call the police, but I
243
00:13:58.850 --> 00:14:02.750
realized I'd left my phone inside on the couch. I
244
00:14:02.809 --> 00:14:05.929
thought about just driving away, but I'd also left my
245
00:14:06.009 --> 00:14:09.480
keys on the counter. not knowing what else I could do.
246
00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:12.340
There was one person who lived in my building that
247
00:14:12.379 --> 00:14:15.620
I was friendly with, a woman named Courtney, who lived
248
00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:20.309
just down the hallway. I went to her door and knocked. Unfortunately,
249
00:14:20.389 --> 00:14:23.669
she did not answer. She was probably sleeping because it
250
00:14:23.710 --> 00:14:26.750
was pretty late at the time. That's when I decided
251
00:14:26.789 --> 00:14:29.509
to try and go back into my apartment, just to
252
00:14:29.580 --> 00:14:33.059
grab my phone and keys. Maybe the guy had left
253
00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:36.340
or was hiding. Maybe I'd just imagined the whole thing.
254
00:14:37.049 --> 00:14:40.110
It all happened so fast that I was even questioning
255
00:14:40.190 --> 00:14:43.000
myself if I'd really seen it. I felt like I
256
00:14:43.029 --> 00:14:46.080
was going crazy. I mean, I didn't even know how
257
00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:49.379
on earth this guy would even get through my apartment door.
258
00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:52.679
I always locked everything up, and I didn't think I'd
259
00:14:52.740 --> 00:14:55.679
forgotten to lock anything that day. When I went back
260
00:14:55.730 --> 00:14:58.269
to my door, I finally got up the nerve and
261
00:14:58.429 --> 00:15:01.350
opened it. My plan was to quickly run to the couch,
262
00:15:01.549 --> 00:15:04.490
grab my phone, and then run back to the door.
263
00:15:05.009 --> 00:15:07.970
On the way there, grab my keys right off the counter.
264
00:15:08.610 --> 00:15:12.320
It would probably take me less than 10 seconds total. However,
265
00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:14.740
as soon as I opened up the door, the very
266
00:15:14.860 --> 00:15:17.919
first thing I saw was the man standing in my
267
00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:21.679
living room already facing me. I shut the door just
268
00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:24.779
about as fast as I had opened it and sprinted away.
269
00:15:25.470 --> 00:15:28.450
I ran down the hallway into the stairs and ran
270
00:15:28.509 --> 00:15:31.149
downstairs till I made it to the first floor. I
271
00:15:31.690 --> 00:15:34.690
left the building. I couldn't get to my car because
272
00:15:34.750 --> 00:15:37.230
I didn't have my keys, so I walked out to
273
00:15:37.269 --> 00:15:40.389
the sidewalk that went along the road. I walked along
274
00:15:40.429 --> 00:15:43.230
the road until I saw a gas station that was open.
275
00:15:43.830 --> 00:15:46.360
When I got there, I went inside and asked the
276
00:15:46.409 --> 00:15:50.080
clerk to call the police. Then I waited until they arrived.
277
00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:52.759
When they got there, we went back to my apartment,
278
00:15:53.100 --> 00:15:56.519
but obviously the man was gone. They searched all around
279
00:15:56.559 --> 00:16:00.120
the building and in my place. He had stolen my laptop,
280
00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:03.379
my wallet, and a couple of other things. My phone
281
00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:06.889
was still there, but probably only because it had fallen
282
00:16:06.950 --> 00:16:09.730
in between the couch cushions, and he didn't see it.
283
00:16:10.250 --> 00:16:12.830
I'm not sure if the man was ever found. My
284
00:16:12.889 --> 00:16:15.309
best guess as to how he got in was by
285
00:16:15.409 --> 00:16:18.669
somehow getting out onto my balcony. I did have a
286
00:16:18.789 --> 00:16:22.320
small balcony, and it would be difficult but not impossible
287
00:16:22.379 --> 00:16:24.919
to get to it from the ground level. The door
288
00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:28.279
to the balcony was closed, but it was fairly flimsy.
289
00:16:28.299 --> 00:16:31.179
He must have entered from there when I was at work.
290
00:16:31.539 --> 00:16:33.659
I really didn't think that anybody would be able to
291
00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:37.240
get to it from the outside. Since that experience, everything's
292
00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:40.200
been pretty good, and I haven't had any break-ins or
293
00:16:40.259 --> 00:16:41.399
attempted break-ins.
294
00:16:41.820 --> 00:16:42.419
I got a new.
295
00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:45.460
Laptop and credit cards, but I still wonder how that
296
00:16:45.539 --> 00:16:48.730
man chose to go into my place. Did he watch
297
00:16:48.789 --> 00:16:51.750
me before or something? I don't know, but I'll never
298
00:16:51.830 --> 00:17:03.799
forget seeing him that night. The night that this happened
299
00:17:03.820 --> 00:17:08.200
to me was many years ago. Probably about 20 years
300
00:17:08.279 --> 00:17:12.440
ago now, actually. My single father moved myself and my
301
00:17:12.500 --> 00:17:16.240
two little sisters to a not terrible but also not
302
00:17:16.380 --> 00:17:21.730
great suburb of Denver, Colorado. The divorce had really shattered
303
00:17:21.809 --> 00:17:25.589
him and our home. My mother left him for another man,
304
00:17:25.930 --> 00:17:29.329
and the burden of raising three girls befell on him.
305
00:17:30.130 --> 00:17:33.440
Skip forward a couple of months. My sisters were eight
306
00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:37.009
and six now. We had grown fairly accustomed to the
307
00:17:37.049 --> 00:17:41.390
neighborhood by then, and the surrounding areas as well. My
308
00:17:41.430 --> 00:17:45.269
dad had a schedule of working 10am to 6pm out
309
00:17:45.349 --> 00:17:49.380
in Denver, where all the best pay was. Because of this,
310
00:17:49.579 --> 00:17:53.759
the responsibility for my two little sisters became mine. I
311
00:17:53.799 --> 00:17:57.500
was the eldest, after all. We hadn't quite melded with
312
00:17:57.539 --> 00:18:00.069
the other kids in the area yet, But being the
313
00:18:00.150 --> 00:18:04.099
three of us, we didn't really mind. We were capable
314
00:18:04.180 --> 00:18:08.519
of entertaining ourselves. We used to ride our bicycles everywhere,
315
00:18:08.779 --> 00:18:12.799
to all the surrounding neighborhoods, the hiking trails along the river,
316
00:18:13.119 --> 00:18:16.309
and pretty much everywhere else, even along the train tracks.
317
00:18:17.109 --> 00:18:21.369
We could find various amounts of them throughout town. One
318
00:18:21.410 --> 00:18:24.970
set of train tracks in particular, in fact the closest
319
00:18:25.009 --> 00:18:28.390
to our home, had a long ditch almost like a valley.
320
00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:32.119
along both sides of it. I think in retrospect it
321
00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:34.519
must have been some sort of barrier to prevent the
322
00:18:34.619 --> 00:18:38.660
river from flooding out the neighborhood across the street. Anyway,
323
00:18:38.970 --> 00:18:42.009
on one side of the tracks, it was a sheer drop-off,
324
00:18:42.269 --> 00:18:45.549
with heavy bushes and undergrowth preventing the ground from being
325
00:18:45.670 --> 00:18:48.869
easily accessible. On the other side, there had been a
326
00:18:48.950 --> 00:18:52.599
path carved out. It appeared to be carved out by vehicles,
327
00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:56.900
maybe servicing the train tracks perhaps in prior years. It
328
00:18:56.940 --> 00:19:00.900
was extremely deep though, and they called it Dead Man's Ditch.
329
00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.299
As I said, we used to ride our bikes around
330
00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:07.900
town a lot, especially in the summertime during the day,
331
00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:11.829
while our dad was at work. We would sometimes travel
332
00:19:11.970 --> 00:19:15.990
further away than he really allowed us to. We also
333
00:19:16.069 --> 00:19:19.710
had a game we played similar to Punch Buggy, combined
334
00:19:19.750 --> 00:19:22.890
with a license plate game. If any of us saw
335
00:19:22.930 --> 00:19:27.509
a license plate with double or triple characters consecutively, for example,
336
00:19:27.670 --> 00:19:31.180
double Bs or triple zeros, we would announce it and
337
00:19:31.220 --> 00:19:35.039
then attempt to hit one another. It was a barbaric game,
338
00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:39.259
but we were siblings having fun, so it wasn't too outlandish.
339
00:19:40.180 --> 00:19:43.269
I'm not going to share mine nor my sister's names here,
340
00:19:43.609 --> 00:19:46.410
but on this particular day, we had been riding around
341
00:19:46.470 --> 00:19:49.769
for hours already and were well past the hottest part
342
00:19:49.789 --> 00:19:52.740
of the day. It was cooling down and gearing up
343
00:19:52.779 --> 00:19:55.779
for sunset. We had made our way back toward home
344
00:19:56.059 --> 00:19:59.049
and were less than a two-minute bike ride from our house.
345
00:19:59.769 --> 00:20:02.269
I had been hanging a ways back so both of
346
00:20:02.329 --> 00:20:05.470
my little sisters were in front of me. The youngest
347
00:20:05.529 --> 00:20:08.009
was out front. the middle coming up on her left,
348
00:20:08.230 --> 00:20:11.750
and myself six feet behind both of them. Just a
349
00:20:11.809 --> 00:20:15.150
few minutes prior to this, a silver sedan had driven
350
00:20:15.230 --> 00:20:18.789
past us going the opposite way. The car's plate number
351
00:20:18.849 --> 00:20:21.799
had double sixes on it, which I had called first
352
00:20:21.880 --> 00:20:24.059
as we were heading up the street. I heard a
353
00:20:24.119 --> 00:20:28.720
vehicle accelerating patiently behind me. This set off red flags,
354
00:20:29.019 --> 00:20:33.279
because where we were riding, we actually affected the oncoming lane.
355
00:20:33.700 --> 00:20:36.460
This vehicle was heading the same way we were, I
356
00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:40.109
turned to look and see, and automatically glanced first at
357
00:20:40.140 --> 00:20:42.750
the license plate. A silver sedan.
358
00:20:43.150 --> 00:20:43.529
Mr.
359
00:20:43.650 --> 00:20:47.589
Double Six. It seemed he was back now. I could
360
00:20:47.670 --> 00:20:50.349
see the driver, and he appeared to be a Hispanic
361
00:20:50.410 --> 00:20:54.769
man in his mid-forties, wearing a blue and red flannel shirt.
362
00:20:55.230 --> 00:20:58.210
He didn't say a single word, though. He just looked
363
00:20:58.269 --> 00:21:01.549
at me for a second. then sped up veering around us.
364
00:21:02.009 --> 00:21:05.319
I watched in horror as his open driver's side window
365
00:21:05.630 --> 00:21:08.960
lined up with my baby sister. He reached out and
366
00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:12.319
grabbed her hand and a handle for her bicycle. He
367
00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:15.160
slowed down a bit, trying to pull my sister off
368
00:21:15.220 --> 00:21:19.259
her bike and into his open window. Something must have
369
00:21:19.299 --> 00:21:21.799
happened to his car though, because as sudden as he
370
00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:25.170
had grabbed her, he released her again and slammed both
371
00:21:25.210 --> 00:21:28.279
hands back on the steering wheel. She took the chance
372
00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:31.680
and pushed like whack on her bike, racing towards Dead
373
00:21:31.740 --> 00:21:36.220
Man's Ditch. My other sister and I followed suit. After
374
00:21:36.279 --> 00:21:39.380
a moment of what I now recognize as tunnel vision,
375
00:21:39.700 --> 00:21:43.109
I heard the acceleration of the sedan behind me. By
376
00:21:43.170 --> 00:21:46.190
this time we were all hysterical. I was trying to
377
00:21:46.309 --> 00:21:50.170
desperately see through my tears. This guy was clearly not
378
00:21:50.210 --> 00:21:53.740
going to give up. Whatever his deal was, he didn't
379
00:21:53.799 --> 00:21:57.160
want to let go of my sister's. Dead Man's Ditch
380
00:21:57.259 --> 00:22:01.109
was approaching quickly, thinking on my feet. I directed both
381
00:22:01.230 --> 00:22:05.250
sisters down into the ditch, assuming Double Six wouldn't destroy
382
00:22:05.289 --> 00:22:09.509
his own vehicle, attempting to follow us. My youngest sister
383
00:22:09.630 --> 00:22:12.170
cowered in fear at the top of the ditch, being
384
00:22:12.269 --> 00:22:16.289
afraid of falling down so far. My middle sister didn't
385
00:22:16.369 --> 00:22:19.380
need to be told twice, though. She slid down the
386
00:22:19.410 --> 00:22:22.140
hill like it was nothing. As I caught up to them,
387
00:22:22.460 --> 00:22:25.769
the car was right against my back tire. I told
388
00:22:25.809 --> 00:22:28.630
them to just go. I was pretty sure this guy
389
00:22:28.670 --> 00:22:31.789
was going to kill us. I remember my other sister
390
00:22:31.829 --> 00:22:35.259
taking a huge breath and finally going down the hill.
391
00:22:35.819 --> 00:22:38.220
I held my breath until I was right behind her.
392
00:22:38.700 --> 00:22:40.640
All three of us made it down to the bottom.
393
00:22:41.140 --> 00:22:43.509
The man pulled his car right up to the opening
394
00:22:43.549 --> 00:22:44.130
of the path.
395
00:22:44.750 --> 00:22:45.369
He got out.
396
00:22:45.809 --> 00:22:49.329
I could see he was naked, wearing only the aforementioned
397
00:22:49.410 --> 00:22:53.250
flannel shirt. and boasting a giant rod on, which he
398
00:22:53.289 --> 00:22:56.849
proceeded to tug and wave in our general direction. I
399
00:22:56.910 --> 00:23:00.190
stood between my sisters and this creep. After a few
400
00:23:00.269 --> 00:23:03.599
minutes of exposure, I guess he decided we weren't worth
401
00:23:03.660 --> 00:23:06.740
the destruction of his car. He jumped back in the
402
00:23:06.779 --> 00:23:10.940
driver's seat and drove away. My sisters and I were hysterical,
403
00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:15.609
although my ten-year-old mind had switched to business mode. My
404
00:23:15.700 --> 00:23:20.579
tears ceased, only followed by my concern. I now somehow
405
00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:24.039
needed to get my sisters home safely. We waited for
406
00:23:24.119 --> 00:23:26.799
about a half an hour, but the car never came
407
00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:31.200
back around. We braved emerging from the trail and hightailed
408
00:23:31.240 --> 00:23:34.859
at home. When we got home, we told Dad everything,
409
00:23:35.180 --> 00:23:39.440
and he was understandably outraged. He actually took us around
410
00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:42.190
in his car to drive around the neighborhood and try
411
00:23:42.210 --> 00:23:45.569
to find the man's car. We couldn't find it. My
412
00:23:45.609 --> 00:23:48.089
dad called the police once we got back home, and
413
00:23:48.109 --> 00:23:52.079
we filed a report Unfortunately, with only a description of
414
00:23:52.140 --> 00:23:55.740
a silver four-door car with a license plate beginning with 6-6,
415
00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.809
and a Hispanic older man, that wasn't enough to track
416
00:23:59.849 --> 00:24:03.250
him down. They filled in Dead Man's Ditch a couple
417
00:24:03.269 --> 00:24:06.299
of months later, but not before it had managed to
418
00:24:06.440 --> 00:24:19.630
save our lives. I'm a 26-year-old guy, and I'm relatively
419
00:24:19.769 --> 00:24:23.190
laid back. I mind my own business, and I've never
420
00:24:23.329 --> 00:24:28.569
really been interested in socializing too much. I like my privacy,
421
00:24:28.910 --> 00:24:32.029
and keeping to myself has always seemed to work out just.
422
00:24:31.930 --> 00:24:33.029
Fine in my life.
423
00:24:33.630 --> 00:24:36.630
I really, and I mean really, wanted to see the
424
00:24:36.670 --> 00:24:39.829
Grand Canyon, though, ever since I was a little kid.
425
00:24:39.849 --> 00:24:43.250
I wanted to go so bad. but keeping to myself
426
00:24:43.289 --> 00:24:46.680
for so long also meant I didn't have many friends.
427
00:24:47.500 --> 00:24:50.940
The friends I did have weren't all that interested in
428
00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:55.059
a road trip to the Grand Canyon, so I decided
429
00:24:55.119 --> 00:24:59.289
to go all by myself, only I took a plane instead.
430
00:24:59.849 --> 00:25:03.109
Road trips are only really fun when you're with another person.
431
00:25:04.029 --> 00:25:06.930
This was just over a year ago, and at that time,
432
00:25:07.210 --> 00:25:10.029
I honestly never even thought of telling anyone that I
433
00:25:10.069 --> 00:25:13.440
was even leaving. I touched down in Flagstaff and I
434
00:25:13.500 --> 00:25:16.740
was so excited. I picked up my rental car and
435
00:25:16.839 --> 00:25:20.420
made my way to my hotel. The plan was to
436
00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:22.900
spend a day or two hanging out in the city,
437
00:25:23.299 --> 00:25:27.240
then a few days during the weekend exploring the Grand Canyon.
438
00:25:27.849 --> 00:25:30.250
By the time I checked into the hotel and got
439
00:25:30.289 --> 00:25:33.410
to my room, it was only around 3pm or so.
440
00:25:33.950 --> 00:25:36.990
I watched the TV for a few hours, but decided
441
00:25:37.049 --> 00:25:39.130
I wanted to go out and see what the city
442
00:25:39.190 --> 00:25:42.839
had to offer. I was still alone though, so the
443
00:25:42.900 --> 00:25:47.069
initial awkwardness I felt was really intense. I just kept
444
00:25:47.130 --> 00:25:49.529
trying to tell myself to get out of my comfort
445
00:25:49.569 --> 00:25:52.069
zone and try to have a good time at least.
446
00:25:52.750 --> 00:25:55.230
When I stepped into the lobby, I noticed the woman
447
00:25:55.269 --> 00:25:58.960
who checked me in hours before was just leaving. She
448
00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:01.839
was around my age, so I figured she might know
449
00:26:01.920 --> 00:26:04.079
some places to go that might be fun.
450
00:26:04.619 --> 00:26:05.480
I walked up to.
451
00:26:05.380 --> 00:26:07.579
Her and tried to ask her for some tips for
452
00:26:07.619 --> 00:26:11.109
the area. She was really nice actually, and offered to
453
00:26:11.190 --> 00:26:13.849
show me around the city, maybe even take me to
454
00:26:13.910 --> 00:26:16.329
a few of the local bars she thought were worth
455
00:26:16.390 --> 00:26:19.859
going to. It seemed like a good plan, and she
456
00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:23.039
seemed nice enough. The first bar we went to was
457
00:26:23.140 --> 00:26:27.099
quite fun actually. It had more of a nightclub vibe,
458
00:26:27.240 --> 00:26:30.119
but I was feeling it. After a few drinks, I
459
00:26:30.200 --> 00:26:33.390
started to loosen up and actually enjoy the time I
460
00:26:33.430 --> 00:26:36.349
was having. The lady seemed like she was having a
461
00:26:36.390 --> 00:26:39.509
lot of fun too. We went to another bar around
462
00:26:39.549 --> 00:26:41.890
a couple of hours after that, and that's when the
463
00:26:41.950 --> 00:26:45.789
night started to really go downhill. As we walked inside,
464
00:26:45.890 --> 00:26:50.289
immediately the girl started acting very differently. She grabbed under
465
00:26:50.349 --> 00:26:53.420
my arm and kept rubbing herself up against me. I
466
00:26:53.460 --> 00:26:56.140
was pretty drunk at that point, and I thought she
467
00:26:56.220 --> 00:26:59.319
was too. Maybe she was even a little into me.
468
00:26:59.819 --> 00:27:02.259
She pulled me towards a table and we ordered some
469
00:27:02.299 --> 00:27:06.480
more drinks. She was laughing at everything I said. And
470
00:27:06.500 --> 00:27:08.960
let me tell you, that was a big ego boost.
471
00:27:09.299 --> 00:27:10.779
I started to really.
472
00:27:10.539 --> 00:27:11.480
Like this girl.
473
00:27:11.500 --> 00:27:14.460
And that's when I saw this big guy and his
474
00:27:14.569 --> 00:27:18.170
friends all walking straight towards us. He immediately grabbed me
475
00:27:18.210 --> 00:27:21.049
by the collar of my shirt and loudly asked me
476
00:27:21.130 --> 00:27:23.490
where I got off on touching his girl like that.
477
00:27:23.950 --> 00:27:26.890
I was pretty drunk at this point and very confused.
478
00:27:27.750 --> 00:27:30.329
I must have sounded like a complete idiot trying to
479
00:27:30.410 --> 00:27:33.720
explain the situation to him. He kept asking the same
480
00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:37.480
question over and over again until I finally felt myself
481
00:27:37.589 --> 00:27:41.549
being dragged across the bar and then outside. There was
482
00:27:41.589 --> 00:27:44.309
an alley beside it where I was shoved to the ground.
483
00:27:44.710 --> 00:27:46.910
The guy and his friends proceeded to kick me in
484
00:27:46.930 --> 00:27:50.309
the ribs more times than I can count, especially in
485
00:27:50.329 --> 00:27:53.630
the state I was already in. After a few kicks
486
00:27:53.670 --> 00:27:56.109
to the face and a few broken teeth later, he
487
00:27:56.509 --> 00:27:59.259
told me to never talk to his girlfriend again and
488
00:27:59.299 --> 00:28:03.009
if I did there would be further consequences. He spit
489
00:28:03.049 --> 00:28:06.170
in my face, and I laid there until I blacked out.
490
00:28:06.730 --> 00:28:09.069
Soon after, I woke up the next morning in that
491
00:28:09.190 --> 00:28:13.660
same alley, in agonizing pain. I could only remember bits
492
00:28:13.740 --> 00:28:17.099
and pieces of the night before, but I distinctly remember
493
00:28:17.140 --> 00:28:20.279
what the hotel girl had put me through. She'd used
494
00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:23.599
me to make her boyfriend jealous, and clearly didn't care
495
00:28:23.660 --> 00:28:26.009
at all about what would happen to me in the process.
496
00:28:26.970 --> 00:28:29.369
I picked myself up off the ground and ordered an
497
00:28:29.529 --> 00:28:32.970
Uber back to my hotel. After what happened the night before,
498
00:28:33.089 --> 00:28:36.099
I figured it might be best to switch hotels altogether.
499
00:28:36.519 --> 00:28:39.000
I didn't want another run-in with this guy who just
500
00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:42.960
beat me senseless. I took a shower, packed my bags,
501
00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:45.440
and hobbled out to my car while wincing in the
502
00:28:45.500 --> 00:28:48.200
pain of my injuries. I got out of there as
503
00:28:48.299 --> 00:28:51.470
quickly as possible and made it to my new hotel.
504
00:28:51.970 --> 00:28:54.849
I remember sighing in relief that I'd never have to
505
00:28:54.930 --> 00:28:58.759
see those guys ever again. I checked in, and when
506
00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:02.400
I got to my room, basically passed out from pure exhaustion.
507
00:29:03.180 --> 00:29:05.720
Throughout the night, though, I could have sworn I heard
508
00:29:05.839 --> 00:29:09.200
light knocking on the hotel room door. I chalked it
509
00:29:09.269 --> 00:29:12.450
up to possibly hearing something from down the hall, but
510
00:29:12.490 --> 00:29:15.529
the door handle would also jiggle here and there. I
511
00:29:15.569 --> 00:29:18.589
made excuses for it in my mind. Maybe it was
512
00:29:18.650 --> 00:29:22.789
just housekeeping, right? This continued for the next couple of
513
00:29:22.890 --> 00:29:25.529
days and nights that I spent resting in that room.
514
00:29:26.140 --> 00:29:28.700
There was one morning even when I woke up and
515
00:29:28.720 --> 00:29:33.079
the door was slightly ajar, only caught by the security chain.
516
00:29:33.640 --> 00:29:34.380
That freaked me.
517
00:29:34.359 --> 00:29:36.640
Out quite a bit, but again I thought it must
518
00:29:36.660 --> 00:29:39.140
have been housekeeping trying to get in during the night
519
00:29:39.180 --> 00:29:43.230
to clean. I woke up at 8am Saturday morning and
520
00:29:43.250 --> 00:29:46.329
was super excited to finally see the Grand Canyon in
521
00:29:46.410 --> 00:29:50.619
person after wanting to for so long. There was still
522
00:29:50.690 --> 00:29:53.339
a faint taste of blood in my mouth, but I
523
00:29:53.440 --> 00:29:56.440
finally started to feel better and the pain had begun
524
00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:00.099
to subside. I figured it was now or never. I
525
00:30:00.140 --> 00:30:04.240
got dressed and put sunscreen over my massive throbbing bruises
526
00:30:04.579 --> 00:30:06.339
and made my way out of the hotel in the
527
00:30:06.380 --> 00:30:10.460
parking lot toward the car. Except in the parking lot
528
00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:13.599
where my car should have been was instead a mangled
529
00:30:13.740 --> 00:30:16.640
mess of metal that had once been the rental car
530
00:30:16.680 --> 00:30:19.609
I'd parked there a couple of days before. All the
531
00:30:19.650 --> 00:30:23.029
windows were smashed, the headlights were broken, and the doors
532
00:30:23.089 --> 00:30:25.750
and windshield looked like they had been beaten in with
533
00:30:25.849 --> 00:30:30.279
crowbars or sledgehammers or something. I was shocked and scared.
534
00:30:30.630 --> 00:30:33.059
I didn't know what to do. I ended up calling
535
00:30:33.099 --> 00:30:36.069
the police and filing reports, but nothing came of it.
536
00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:39.599
The girl at the hotel denied everything and even claimed
537
00:30:39.619 --> 00:30:43.480
to not be in a relationship with anyone at all. Thankfully,
538
00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:46.299
I had an insurance plan for the rental car, so
539
00:30:46.319 --> 00:30:48.980
the damage was covered, but I did have to fork
540
00:30:49.079 --> 00:30:52.220
over six grand to fix my teeth. I spent that
541
00:30:52.420 --> 00:30:55.509
one day at the Grand Canyon Tourist Center because I
542
00:30:55.569 --> 00:30:59.099
knew I couldn't afford to come back anytime soon. To
543
00:30:59.140 --> 00:31:02.160
be completely honest, I didn't really want to come back.
544
00:31:02.579 --> 00:31:05.920
I was terrified of that place now. It really sucked
545
00:31:05.960 --> 00:31:07.730
how the one time I tried to come out of
546
00:31:07.769 --> 00:31:12.130
my shell, it ended in disaster and disappointment. My only
547
00:31:12.210 --> 00:31:25.799
advice for people who romanticize traveling alone is don't. After
548
00:31:25.859 --> 00:31:30.089
listening to some human trafficking stories elsewhere, I can't help
549
00:31:30.140 --> 00:31:34.210
but feel incredibly uneasy. My heart is racing at the
550
00:31:34.289 --> 00:31:37.890
thought of what we might have avoided. Stay vigilant, both
551
00:31:38.029 --> 00:31:42.609
men and women. For reference, my boyfriend is about 6'3
552
00:31:42.970 --> 00:31:49.650
and 275-300 pounds. He's very stocky and has a military style.
553
00:31:50.029 --> 00:31:52.829
He used to be in the military. Usually, he just
554
00:31:52.869 --> 00:31:55.279
wears a shirt with some guns on it in some way.
555
00:31:55.660 --> 00:31:59.250
and has a very thick beard. This is somewhat important
556
00:31:59.269 --> 00:32:03.390
for the story, actually. About three years ago, my boyfriend
557
00:32:03.410 --> 00:32:05.930
and I moved into a house with a couple of roommates,
558
00:32:06.369 --> 00:32:09.789
near downtown in a big city of Michigan. I had
559
00:32:09.869 --> 00:32:12.740
sent him to the store for some staples while I
560
00:32:12.839 --> 00:32:17.279
started unpacking. He texted me just after arriving, saying he
561
00:32:17.319 --> 00:32:20.299
had the weirdest thing happen in the parking lot, but
562
00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:23.210
he would tell me when he got home. Ten minutes
563
00:32:23.289 --> 00:32:26.789
later he texted again, saying he was super creeped out,
564
00:32:27.130 --> 00:32:29.839
and jokingly told me, If I'm not on my way
565
00:32:29.890 --> 00:32:33.420
in five minutes, please send help. This was normal for
566
00:32:33.480 --> 00:32:36.200
his kind of humor. When he got home, he told
567
00:32:36.240 --> 00:32:38.240
me that on his way in from the parking lot,
568
00:32:38.660 --> 00:32:42.309
a man had stopped him offering several compliments on his beard.
569
00:32:42.849 --> 00:32:45.490
It happened quite a bit from guys, so he didn't
570
00:32:45.529 --> 00:32:48.400
really think that much of it at first. The man
571
00:32:48.460 --> 00:32:50.579
seemed to be dressed as if he were a lawyer
572
00:32:50.680 --> 00:32:54.599
or a real estate agent or something. Nice shoes, nice watch,
573
00:32:54.720 --> 00:32:59.069
very clean cut. He didn't seem suspicious at all. My
574
00:32:59.109 --> 00:33:03.170
boyfriend said thanks and began to walk inside. The guy
575
00:33:03.210 --> 00:33:06.849
continued walking with him, you know, asking all those questions,
576
00:33:06.930 --> 00:33:08.890
where he was from, what he did for a living,
577
00:33:08.990 --> 00:33:11.599
if he had kids or a wife. His gut lit
578
00:33:11.650 --> 00:33:14.859
up like fireworks, and after working in mental health for
579
00:33:14.900 --> 00:33:17.309
a bit, he knew to trust it. He made up
580
00:33:17.329 --> 00:33:19.690
some answers and told them to have a nice day.
581
00:33:20.309 --> 00:33:22.869
The man told him, if you're ever interested in a
582
00:33:22.930 --> 00:33:25.359
new line of work, you're just the kind of guy
583
00:33:25.390 --> 00:33:30.019
we're looking for. My boyfriend continued walking without responding and.
584
00:33:29.980 --> 00:33:30.799
Didn't look back.
585
00:33:31.779 --> 00:33:34.640
Only a few minutes later, he noticed the same man
586
00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:37.259
was now in the store and was appearing in all
587
00:33:37.319 --> 00:33:40.880
the same aisles as him. Whenever my boyfriend would notice him,
588
00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:43.640
he would immediately turn around and go the other way.
589
00:33:44.329 --> 00:33:47.089
At one point, the point he texted me, he was
590
00:33:47.210 --> 00:33:50.470
sure the man was secretly snapping photos of him from
591
00:33:50.509 --> 00:33:50.990
the other.
592
00:33:50.910 --> 00:33:51.619
End of an aisle.
593
00:33:52.339 --> 00:33:56.039
We both commented on this craziness and said, that's some
594
00:33:56.140 --> 00:33:59.980
trafficking shit right there. We let it go though, as
595
00:34:00.019 --> 00:34:02.559
it was now over and no one really wanted to
596
00:34:02.599 --> 00:34:05.880
believe it. Days later, we ran to the store again
597
00:34:05.960 --> 00:34:08.670
to pick up some late night snacks. We parked the
598
00:34:08.710 --> 00:34:11.489
car what felt like miles from the store and began
599
00:34:11.570 --> 00:34:15.909
walking in. Thankfully, I don't really startle easily when we're
600
00:34:15.949 --> 00:34:19.539
out together, because we both conceal carry, and if someone
601
00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:23.360
tried to attack us, we're decently prepared. Still though, I
602
00:34:23.460 --> 00:34:26.780
jumped when a man's voice suddenly yelled out my boyfriend's name,
603
00:34:27.099 --> 00:34:30.889
and added, and his pretty wife too. My boyfriend told
604
00:34:30.929 --> 00:34:34.110
me to keep walking and not hesitate. Thankfully, I knew
605
00:34:34.130 --> 00:34:37.289
what he meant. I hauled my ass into the entryway.
606
00:34:36.769 --> 00:34:37.349
Of the store.
607
00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:40.449
I watched the man walk up to my boyfriend and
608
00:34:40.530 --> 00:34:43.789
start talking with him while watching for any suspicious people
609
00:34:43.869 --> 00:34:47.449
or cars around them. When they were almost inside, I
610
00:34:47.489 --> 00:34:50.429
walked in too next to him and started chatting with
611
00:34:50.449 --> 00:34:52.809
the greeter so the man didn't get a chance to
612
00:34:52.869 --> 00:34:55.699
talk to me. The man showed up in all the
613
00:34:55.719 --> 00:34:58.559
aisles we were in and at one point pretended to
614
00:34:58.599 --> 00:35:01.860
be texting on his phone but was clearly taking photos
615
00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:05.719
of us. We didn't get to finish getting snacks, instead
616
00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:08.920
we left right away. I waited with the greeter, as
617
00:35:08.980 --> 00:35:11.260
my boyfriend grabbed the car so I didn't have to
618
00:35:11.320 --> 00:35:14.920
walk through the dark lot. After that, I was in
619
00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:17.300
the gym every day at the same time due to
620
00:35:17.340 --> 00:35:21.920
my work schedule, and usually had my girl roommate with me. Today, though,
621
00:35:21.940 --> 00:35:24.829
I was alone for a quick and light lifting session.
622
00:35:25.289 --> 00:35:28.010
I wasn't even a minute in, though, when that exact
623
00:35:28.090 --> 00:35:33.090
same guy walked in. I had never seen him there before. Instantly,
624
00:35:33.150 --> 00:35:36.690
I felt like vomiting. I texted my boyfriend to let
625
00:35:36.750 --> 00:35:39.809
him know, but he was now away on military, so
626
00:35:39.849 --> 00:35:43.130
he was now panicking from a distance unable to do anything.
627
00:35:43.969 --> 00:35:46.869
The man wasn't in gym attire, and he didn't have
628
00:35:46.909 --> 00:35:49.829
any equipment with him either. We were also at the
629
00:35:49.869 --> 00:35:53.079
gym furthest from that area from before, so I have
630
00:35:53.179 --> 00:35:55.460
no idea why he would have chosen to go to
631
00:35:55.500 --> 00:35:59.239
this particular one unless he was a really big fan
632
00:35:59.300 --> 00:36:00.280
of this gym.
633
00:36:00.099 --> 00:36:01.019
For whatever reason.
634
00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:03.789
The man came over and tried to talk to me.
635
00:36:04.329 --> 00:36:07.230
I politely said hello back but tried to ignore him.
636
00:36:07.789 --> 00:36:09.889
He said a few more things and a guy a
637
00:36:09.929 --> 00:36:12.670
few machines over I think could tell I was in
638
00:36:12.710 --> 00:36:15.389
a bit of trouble. He came over and pretended to
639
00:36:15.429 --> 00:36:18.010
be my friend, asking if I was ready to go.
640
00:36:18.610 --> 00:36:20.949
I said yes and tried to grab up my things.
641
00:36:21.449 --> 00:36:24.070
The creepy man then asked me where my husband was
642
00:36:24.170 --> 00:36:26.929
off to. I pretended not to hear him as I
643
00:36:26.989 --> 00:36:30.559
kept on walking. When I came out after finishing my
644
00:36:30.639 --> 00:36:33.909
session the man seemed to be gone. My new fake
645
00:36:34.030 --> 00:36:36.949
best friend was waiting on the bench outside the locker room.
646
00:36:37.409 --> 00:36:39.550
He said the man had waited around for a while
647
00:36:39.610 --> 00:36:42.789
but finally left. He had let the staff know what happened.
648
00:36:43.210 --> 00:36:45.610
They said the man wasn't even a member. He had
649
00:36:45.690 --> 00:36:48.190
told them he came there to pick up his girlfriend.
650
00:36:48.909 --> 00:36:51.349
My new friend walked me to my car, and I
651
00:36:51.409 --> 00:36:55.429
switched gyms after. Thankfully, we now live far, far away
652
00:36:55.469 --> 00:36:58.489
from the city, and I've never encountered that guy again.
653
00:36:59.010 --> 00:37:02.809
Neither has my boyfriend. Honestly, I believe they might have
654
00:37:02.829 --> 00:37:05.590
been trying to recruit him to make big money selling
655
00:37:05.710 --> 00:37:08.210
women or something, and that I was just a bonus
656
00:37:08.289 --> 00:37:12.280
woman to sell. Thank God for kind strangers who stood
657
00:37:12.360 --> 00:37:15.340
up to that guy and saved me. Those kinds of
658
00:37:15.380 --> 00:37:19.000
people will never realize how important they are in the world.
659
00:37:28.360 --> 00:37:31.090
This happened back when I was younger. I believe I
660
00:37:31.130 --> 00:37:34.769
was about 14 at the time. I remember it pretty well.
661
00:37:35.190 --> 00:37:38.329
It all started on a Friday night. My parents were
662
00:37:38.389 --> 00:37:41.070
going out of town to go to some wedding I
663
00:37:41.250 --> 00:37:42.789
had not been invited to.
664
00:37:43.289 --> 00:37:44.289
I didn't care though.
665
00:37:44.670 --> 00:37:47.590
I found weddings boring and would rather stay at home
666
00:37:47.670 --> 00:37:52.380
and play video games anyway. My parents left on Friday afternoon.
667
00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:55.159
After I got back from school, I was sort of
668
00:37:55.219 --> 00:37:57.739
excited to have the place all to myself for a
669
00:37:57.780 --> 00:38:00.760
little while. My mom let me order a pizza to
670
00:38:00.800 --> 00:38:04.079
be delivered that night. I got it and watched TV
671
00:38:04.119 --> 00:38:07.139
in the living room. Maybe an hour into that, at
672
00:38:07.159 --> 00:38:09.840
around 8pm or so, there was a knock at the
673
00:38:09.900 --> 00:38:12.800
front door. I didn't know who it could possibly be.
674
00:38:12.820 --> 00:38:15.969
I felt a little bit nervous actually. as I got
675
00:38:16.010 --> 00:38:18.369
up from the couch to go and check. I looked
676
00:38:18.449 --> 00:38:21.949
out of a window and saw this man standing there.
677
00:38:22.610 --> 00:38:25.170
He was clearly not one of my neighbors and I
678
00:38:25.250 --> 00:38:28.239
didn't recognize the man at all. He was wearing a
679
00:38:28.360 --> 00:38:32.599
black jacket and this winter hat looking thing. He also
680
00:38:32.699 --> 00:38:35.260
had a big beard. There was no way I was
681
00:38:35.400 --> 00:38:38.619
answering the door though. He knocked again and I just
682
00:38:38.679 --> 00:38:41.139
stood there waiting for this man to go away. I
683
00:38:41.590 --> 00:38:43.849
was pretty confident that he could not see me from
684
00:38:43.889 --> 00:38:47.090
where I was. Eventually, I did see the man turn
685
00:38:47.150 --> 00:38:50.190
and walk away. I was a little creeped out now,
686
00:38:50.750 --> 00:38:53.010
and didn't know why the man could have possibly come
687
00:38:53.070 --> 00:38:55.719
to our house. I figured that would be that, though,
688
00:38:56.039 --> 00:38:58.739
and went back to what I was doing. Maybe 30
689
00:38:58.739 --> 00:39:01.599
minutes to an hour later, I decided to go up
690
00:39:01.639 --> 00:39:05.679
to my room and play some video games. I went upstairs,
691
00:39:05.860 --> 00:39:08.409
got in my room, shut off the lights, and closed
692
00:39:08.449 --> 00:39:11.489
the door, then got into my gaming chair and put
693
00:39:11.550 --> 00:39:14.300
my headset on. I had a pretty good setup in
694
00:39:14.340 --> 00:39:19.199
there and really enjoyed it. Thirty minutes into that gaming session, though,
695
00:39:19.599 --> 00:39:22.719
I was interrupted. I heard a knock on the door,
696
00:39:23.190 --> 00:39:25.670
but it wasn't the front door. It was coming from
697
00:39:25.710 --> 00:39:29.909
my bedroom door. My heart started racing like crazy instantly.
698
00:39:30.559 --> 00:39:33.460
i became as scared as a human being could possibly
699
00:39:33.579 --> 00:39:37.360
be i didn't know what to do very quietly i
700
00:39:37.400 --> 00:39:39.780
got up from my chair and turned the tv off
701
00:39:40.219 --> 00:39:43.090
now it was completely dark in there i could see
702
00:39:43.210 --> 00:39:45.909
very little i was kind of expecting the door to
703
00:39:45.969 --> 00:39:49.010
just open but it didn't i got down to the
704
00:39:49.050 --> 00:39:53.579
ground careful not to make any noise. My gaming chair
705
00:39:53.639 --> 00:39:56.070
was sort of in the corner of the room, away
706
00:39:56.119 --> 00:39:59.289
from the door. My closet was half open, just a
707
00:39:59.389 --> 00:40:02.789
few feet away from me. I crawled over there quietly,
708
00:40:03.110 --> 00:40:06.550
careful not to make a single sound. Whoever it was
709
00:40:06.690 --> 00:40:11.380
knocked again. Somebody was right outside my door. I figured
710
00:40:11.420 --> 00:40:13.320
it was probably the man who had knocked on the
711
00:40:13.380 --> 00:40:15.920
front door earlier in the night. I was able to
712
00:40:16.019 --> 00:40:19.260
crawl my way into my bedroom closet. It was not
713
00:40:19.300 --> 00:40:21.519
that big, but there was enough space for me to
714
00:40:21.599 --> 00:40:24.679
fit inside of it. Plus, my room was pretty messy.
715
00:40:25.510 --> 00:40:29.130
As a teenager, I had clothes and random things strewn
716
00:40:29.230 --> 00:40:32.190
all about. There was a huge pile of clothes in
717
00:40:32.230 --> 00:40:35.949
my closet, so I went inside of it. I covered
718
00:40:36.010 --> 00:40:39.309
myself completely. In the middle of doing this, I heard
719
00:40:39.349 --> 00:40:42.789
the door start to creak open. I froze and hoped
720
00:40:42.889 --> 00:40:45.769
I would not be visible. I didn't hear the man
721
00:40:45.829 --> 00:40:48.489
walk inside. but I could tell he was in there,
722
00:40:48.809 --> 00:40:53.389
moving about very quietly. He took steps inside my bedroom.
723
00:40:53.409 --> 00:40:56.110
I was terrified. I held my breath.
724
00:40:56.639 --> 00:40:59.380
He was in there for only 30 seconds when he
725
00:40:59.420 --> 00:41:01.559
suddenly turned around and left the room.
726
00:41:02.039 --> 00:41:03.059
I heard him walk out.
727
00:41:03.500 --> 00:41:05.719
I had just gotten a cell phone at that point
728
00:41:05.780 --> 00:41:08.610
just a few months prior, so I quickly grabbed it
729
00:41:08.710 --> 00:41:11.579
and dialed for the police. I tried to make sure
730
00:41:11.639 --> 00:41:14.760
the guy couldn't hear me, wherever he was. I whispered
731
00:41:14.800 --> 00:41:17.980
to the 911 operator what was going on, and then
732
00:41:18.059 --> 00:41:20.670
hung up because I was worried the man would find me.
733
00:41:21.070 --> 00:41:23.909
He was still somewhere upstairs, but I couldn't.
734
00:41:23.690 --> 00:41:24.969
Tell where he was.
735
00:41:24.989 --> 00:41:28.570
I went deeper into my closet, just in case the
736
00:41:28.610 --> 00:41:31.949
man came back. He did not come back to my room, though.
737
00:41:32.409 --> 00:41:35.409
After waiting for what felt like a really long time,
738
00:41:35.780 --> 00:41:40.050
and not hearing anything else, the police finally arrived. I
739
00:41:40.070 --> 00:41:43.599
left my closet and my bedroom. I saw the police
740
00:41:43.639 --> 00:41:45.199
had actually caught the man.
741
00:41:45.219 --> 00:41:47.219
He was back downstairs.
742
00:41:47.639 --> 00:41:50.079
I was told he had been hiding in the basement.
743
00:41:50.619 --> 00:41:53.610
I hadn't heard him go downstairs at all. But then again,
744
00:41:53.630 --> 00:41:56.329
I was under a pile of clothes shut away in
745
00:41:56.369 --> 00:41:59.809
my closet. It was a huge relief. My parents were
746
00:41:59.889 --> 00:42:02.380
called and told about it, and they ended up coming
747
00:42:02.460 --> 00:42:05.860
back home that very same night. They grabbed me and
748
00:42:05.949 --> 00:42:08.690
made me go to the wedding with them anyways, because
749
00:42:08.710 --> 00:42:09.670
they didn't want to.
750
00:42:09.610 --> 00:42:12.920
Leave me alone. I didn't really want to be alone either.
751
00:42:12.940 --> 00:42:16.420
That was probably the craziest night of my life, and
752
00:42:16.500 --> 00:42:27.650
I will never forget it. My girlfriend and I had
753
00:42:27.710 --> 00:42:30.530
just gotten engaged, and we wanted to take a short
754
00:42:30.670 --> 00:42:34.050
road trip to celebrate. It was something we'd been thinking
755
00:42:34.110 --> 00:42:36.949
about doing for quite a while, but with work and
756
00:42:37.110 --> 00:42:39.650
trying to find somewhere to house our pets during the
757
00:42:39.710 --> 00:42:43.380
short trip, we just never actually got around to doing it.
758
00:42:44.150 --> 00:42:49.530
Finally though, during spring of 2019, we made some concrete plans.
759
00:42:49.969 --> 00:42:52.869
We figured we would drive from Southern California where we
760
00:42:52.949 --> 00:42:56.659
lived to Western Montana, My mom and dad had moved
761
00:42:56.679 --> 00:42:59.679
to Montana after retiring, so we figured it would be
762
00:42:59.699 --> 00:43:00.940
the perfect place.
763
00:43:00.670 --> 00:43:01.449
To drive to.
764
00:43:01.469 --> 00:43:04.969
They'd been begging us to visit for a while anyway.
765
00:43:05.429 --> 00:43:08.010
We mapped out the whole drive and decided on a
766
00:43:08.070 --> 00:43:12.030
more scenic route up the 101 north, then eventually passing
767
00:43:12.070 --> 00:43:16.960
through Oregon, Washington, and Idaho to get to Montana. What
768
00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:19.659
we hadn't been expecting, though, was to not even make
769
00:43:19.699 --> 00:43:22.599
it halfway until we got the fright of our lives.
770
00:43:23.510 --> 00:43:26.719
The night before we left, we spent packing and talking
771
00:43:26.780 --> 00:43:30.480
about how excited we were to actually be getting on vacation.
772
00:43:31.039 --> 00:43:34.039
We decided to leave pretty early the next morning to
773
00:43:34.099 --> 00:43:37.559
try and get as far as possible. Driving during the
774
00:43:37.619 --> 00:43:40.579
night wasn't something either of us wanted to be doing.
775
00:43:41.579 --> 00:43:44.050
We packed our car with our bags, then dropped off
776
00:43:44.119 --> 00:43:47.030
our dogs at our friend's house. We made sure to
777
00:43:47.070 --> 00:43:50.289
tell multiple close friends and family members where we were
778
00:43:50.349 --> 00:43:53.869
going to. how exactly we were getting there, how long
779
00:43:53.929 --> 00:43:56.880
we'd be there, just in case something were to happen.
780
00:43:57.719 --> 00:44:00.360
We weren't planning for such an event to happen, but
781
00:44:00.519 --> 00:44:03.039
you hear stories all the time about people who could
782
00:44:03.079 --> 00:44:05.340
have been saved if people knew where they were going
783
00:44:05.380 --> 00:44:08.019
to be, or how long they were going to be gone.
784
00:44:08.440 --> 00:44:11.469
We didn't want to be one of those people. At
785
00:44:11.510 --> 00:44:15.250
the time, I was about 29 or so. I'm 6'4,
786
00:44:15.329 --> 00:44:18.329
and I pretty regularly attend the gym. I'm not a
787
00:44:18.429 --> 00:44:22.239
small guy by any means. My fiancé, on the other hand,
788
00:44:22.280 --> 00:44:26.519
was 23, and really tiny, just under 5 feet or so.
789
00:44:27.440 --> 00:44:30.119
She always said that having me around made her feel
790
00:44:30.179 --> 00:44:33.380
much safer in a world where vulnerable people are often
791
00:44:33.480 --> 00:44:37.099
preyed upon. After dropping our dogs off at our friend's house,
792
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:41.599
we started the long drive. We made some casual stops
793
00:44:41.699 --> 00:44:44.800
along the way, too, first in a small city about
794
00:44:44.860 --> 00:44:48.070
an hour into the trip called Camarillo. We got some
795
00:44:48.139 --> 00:44:50.980
snacks and drinks, then hopped back into the car and
796
00:44:51.019 --> 00:44:55.260
went on our way. The drive along the California coastline
797
00:44:55.340 --> 00:44:59.500
is one I'd recommend to everyone. It's an absolutely gorgeous sight.
798
00:44:59.940 --> 00:45:02.380
In fact, my fiancé kept begging me to pull over
799
00:45:02.420 --> 00:45:04.880
to get some pictures, so we weren't making it as
800
00:45:04.960 --> 00:45:08.269
far as we'd originally planned for our first day of driving.
801
00:45:09.110 --> 00:45:11.690
What should have taken us about six hours to get
802
00:45:11.750 --> 00:45:15.400
to San Jose eventually took ten. We got off the
803
00:45:15.440 --> 00:45:19.119
freeway and the sun was already starting to set. I
804
00:45:19.159 --> 00:45:21.530
was tired and I knew we didn't want to drive
805
00:45:21.570 --> 00:45:23.929
at night, so we settled on finding a place to
806
00:45:24.090 --> 00:45:26.949
eat and looking for a hotel. We drove by a
807
00:45:27.090 --> 00:45:29.969
sports bar and agreed this would be a fine enough
808
00:45:30.070 --> 00:45:33.570
place to stop by. We were both really tired at
809
00:45:33.610 --> 00:45:35.800
this point and eager to get out of the car
810
00:45:35.840 --> 00:45:39.179
and eat some real food, not just chips and soda.
811
00:45:39.639 --> 00:45:42.019
We pulled into the parking lot when the first thing
812
00:45:42.099 --> 00:45:45.349
I noticed... was a large pickup truck parked right out front.
813
00:45:46.510 --> 00:45:48.590
There were only a few other cars in the lot.
814
00:45:48.949 --> 00:45:51.510
We took that as a good sign, though, thinking the
815
00:45:51.550 --> 00:45:53.670
place wouldn't be too packed and we'd be able to
816
00:45:53.710 --> 00:45:56.489
get our food faster. We hopped out of the car
817
00:45:56.530 --> 00:45:59.869
and quickly locked it behind us before we walked inside.
818
00:46:00.670 --> 00:46:04.679
I quickly realized, though, this wasn't your typical fun-loving football
819
00:46:04.739 --> 00:46:08.260
night sort of sports bar. It was a locals-only spot.
820
00:46:08.659 --> 00:46:11.329
From the second we walked in, It felt like every
821
00:46:11.369 --> 00:46:14.309
pair of eyes in the building snapped right onto us.
822
00:46:15.090 --> 00:46:18.210
Not just because new people had walked in, but because
823
00:46:18.429 --> 00:46:21.880
outsiders had walked in. It had the same vibe as
824
00:46:22.039 --> 00:46:26.260
accidentally stumbling upon a major drug deal. The bar itself
825
00:46:26.340 --> 00:46:29.599
wasn't too nice either. You know the saying, never judge
826
00:46:29.639 --> 00:46:30.719
a book by its cover?
827
00:46:31.239 --> 00:46:33.320
Well, think that but backwards.
828
00:46:34.320 --> 00:46:38.349
The outsides had fun and inviting atmosphere within. but the
829
00:46:38.409 --> 00:46:41.230
inside said grab your stuff and don't look anyone in
830
00:46:41.269 --> 00:46:44.090
the eyes or else you'll get stabbed. We sat down
831
00:46:44.130 --> 00:46:47.400
in the far corner and checked out the very short menu.
832
00:46:48.079 --> 00:46:51.599
It consisted of nachos and hot dogs, and to be honest,
833
00:46:51.679 --> 00:46:54.880
we both had started to feel our appetites disappearing by
834
00:46:54.900 --> 00:46:58.489
the second. We were sitting directly next to a window
835
00:46:58.550 --> 00:47:01.250
where we could see our car. Two men that were
836
00:47:01.309 --> 00:47:04.289
hanging out at the bar began whispering while glancing in
837
00:47:04.349 --> 00:47:07.670
our direction. I couldn't push away the uneasy feeling in
838
00:47:07.710 --> 00:47:10.510
my stomach, telling me we needed to get out of
839
00:47:10.570 --> 00:47:13.190
there as soon as possible. Just when I was about
840
00:47:13.230 --> 00:47:15.710
to say we needed to leave though, the two men
841
00:47:15.789 --> 00:47:18.960
I mentioned walked out of the bar. I started to
842
00:47:19.019 --> 00:47:21.059
feel a little better, but I still.
843
00:47:20.940 --> 00:47:22.119
Really wanted to leave.
844
00:47:22.579 --> 00:47:25.019
I could tell by the look on my fiancé' s face
845
00:47:25.159 --> 00:47:28.420
they did too. I shook my head to say let's go.
846
00:47:28.820 --> 00:47:31.449
When she looked at me with this look I'll never forget.
847
00:47:32.289 --> 00:47:35.929
She motioned to look out the window. When I looked outside,
848
00:47:36.250 --> 00:47:38.530
I saw the same two men grab a bat and
849
00:47:38.570 --> 00:47:41.170
a crowbar from the trunk of their large pickup truck,
850
00:47:41.530 --> 00:47:45.289
then head towards our car and begin looking inside. I
851
00:47:45.349 --> 00:47:47.849
quickly whispered to my fiancée to come with me to
852
00:47:47.869 --> 00:47:51.969
the bathroom immediately. She didn't question me, and did exactly
853
00:47:52.010 --> 00:47:54.340
what I told her. It was a huge relief in
854
00:47:54.400 --> 00:47:57.880
such a situation. We got in the bathroom and locked
855
00:47:57.900 --> 00:48:00.480
the door behind us, looking for any window we could
856
00:48:00.519 --> 00:48:03.719
make our escape through. We opened stall after stall, but
857
00:48:03.739 --> 00:48:06.780
there was nothing we could find. The last stall, though,
858
00:48:06.980 --> 00:48:10.630
actually had a tiny window placed just above the toilet.
859
00:48:11.409 --> 00:48:13.750
The only problem was there was no way I was
860
00:48:13.789 --> 00:48:16.590
going to fit. I made the quickest plan in my head.
861
00:48:16.989 --> 00:48:19.889
It was really the only option we had. I gave
862
00:48:19.929 --> 00:48:22.530
my fiancé the keys to the car and told her
863
00:48:22.550 --> 00:48:25.429
to climb outside and approach the car once the guys
864
00:48:25.469 --> 00:48:28.320
had gone. I told her the second she got inside
865
00:48:28.360 --> 00:48:30.699
to start it and meet me at the back entrance.
866
00:48:31.159 --> 00:48:33.360
which was only a few feet from the bathroom door
867
00:48:33.420 --> 00:48:36.599
we'd just entered. In retrospect, maybe we should have just
868
00:48:36.639 --> 00:48:39.000
gone out the back entrance to begin with, but I
869
00:48:39.039 --> 00:48:42.599
was a little distracted at the time. She slipped through
870
00:48:42.639 --> 00:48:45.119
the window, and just as she was turning the corner,
871
00:48:45.300 --> 00:48:48.420
she saw the guys go back inside. I slightly opened
872
00:48:48.440 --> 00:48:51.320
the bathroom door, and saw the guys were now questioning
873
00:48:51.360 --> 00:48:54.260
the other people at the bar. The weird part was
874
00:48:54.280 --> 00:48:56.739
that nobody was even fazed by these two men with
875
00:48:56.780 --> 00:48:59.460
a bat and crowbar standing directly.
876
00:48:59.059 --> 00:48:59.500
Next to them.
877
00:48:59.860 --> 00:49:02.420
Like this was some sort of regular occurrence or something.
878
00:49:03.019 --> 00:49:06.670
Suddenly a person they were talking to pointed directly.
879
00:49:06.139 --> 00:49:07.199
At the bathroom door.
880
00:49:07.730 --> 00:49:10.650
I knew they saw me when they started running towards me,
881
00:49:11.030 --> 00:49:13.610
weapons raised and shouting at me to stay right where
882
00:49:13.690 --> 00:49:16.610
I was. I opened the door as fast as I
883
00:49:16.690 --> 00:49:19.429
could though and was on the back exit within seconds.
884
00:49:19.920 --> 00:49:22.780
Thankfully my fiancé was there in the car waiting for me.
885
00:49:23.219 --> 00:49:25.599
Let me tell you, I've never jumped in a vehicle
886
00:49:25.659 --> 00:49:28.980
that fast in my life. She started speeding away before
887
00:49:29.019 --> 00:49:31.920
the door was even shut. The men had just gotten
888
00:49:31.980 --> 00:49:34.630
outside when we were pulling out of the parking lot.
889
00:49:35.030 --> 00:49:37.989
Their shouts were drowned out by the distance growing between us.
890
00:49:38.780 --> 00:49:43.460
The whole situation was just so incredibly fast, bizarre, and traumatizing.
891
00:49:43.480 --> 00:49:46.679
My fiancé and I actually turned around and drove all
892
00:49:46.699 --> 00:49:49.199
the way back home. We felt we were safer in
893
00:49:49.260 --> 00:49:52.719
our own hometown than on the road for another two days.
894
00:49:53.079 --> 00:49:56.650
Paranoid something like this would happen again. All I can
895
00:49:56.730 --> 00:49:58.829
say is that if you're ever in an area that
896
00:49:58.869 --> 00:50:01.969
you don't know, maybe be a little bit more cautious
897
00:50:02.050 --> 00:50:13.329
than we were that night. I used to fight with
898
00:50:13.409 --> 00:50:16.760
my parents a lot as a teenager. That led to
899
00:50:16.800 --> 00:50:20.400
them kicking me out once I graduated high school. I
900
00:50:20.440 --> 00:50:24.320
was almost 19 at that point. For me, that wasn't
901
00:50:24.360 --> 00:50:27.000
much of a problem. I had my own job, my
902
00:50:27.070 --> 00:50:30.289
own cheap car, and my friend's parents had a spare bedroom.
903
00:50:30.309 --> 00:50:32.730
They were willing to let me rent out for a while.
904
00:50:32.750 --> 00:50:36.809
It worked out just fine for me. This being said,
905
00:50:36.829 --> 00:50:39.949
I will change all the names. Let's call my friend
906
00:50:40.070 --> 00:50:44.199
Kelly and her mom Lena. Her dad is Kenneth. Kenneth
907
00:50:44.280 --> 00:50:47.230
and Lena had a lot of weird friends, due to
908
00:50:47.269 --> 00:50:50.369
the fact they were quite fierce partiers. A lot of
909
00:50:50.409 --> 00:50:54.309
these friends were genuinely nice people, just a little bit weird.
910
00:50:54.750 --> 00:50:57.190
You could tell they had issues such as drugs or
911
00:50:57.269 --> 00:51:01.039
criminal pasts. but none of them were bad or mean
912
00:51:01.159 --> 00:51:05.199
or creepy or anything like that. There was one particular
913
00:51:05.260 --> 00:51:08.960
guy though that was just beyond weird. Just someone who,
914
00:51:09.199 --> 00:51:11.550
even though I didn't know him at all, he made
915
00:51:11.590 --> 00:51:14.429
my skin crawl the moment I looked at him. We'll
916
00:51:14.449 --> 00:51:18.250
call him Joey. I came home from work one day,
917
00:51:18.590 --> 00:51:21.190
and the only person there at our house was Joey.
918
00:51:21.670 --> 00:51:24.150
As soon as I walked in, he said hello, then
919
00:51:24.190 --> 00:51:27.960
made some comment about how beautiful I was. I don't
920
00:51:28.019 --> 00:51:31.519
consider myself good-looking in the slightest, so I just kinda
921
00:51:31.559 --> 00:51:35.119
said thanks and walked off to start doing my normal routine.
922
00:51:35.679 --> 00:51:38.260
As I was making my lunch and cleaning up my mess,
923
00:51:38.619 --> 00:51:41.090
I could feel someone staring at me from behind.
924
00:51:41.590 --> 00:51:42.250
It was Joey.
925
00:51:42.730 --> 00:51:45.750
He'd followed me into the kitchen and was now blocking
926
00:51:45.789 --> 00:51:50.090
the only doorway, just standing there watching me. I asked
927
00:51:50.130 --> 00:51:52.219
him if I could get him anything. but he shook
928
00:51:52.239 --> 00:51:54.139
his head and continued to watch me.
929
00:51:54.599 --> 00:51:56.800
This made me very uncomfortable, of course.
930
00:51:57.320 --> 00:51:59.449
I kind of shoved him out of the way and
931
00:51:59.550 --> 00:52:02.289
fled from my room. I locked the door until I
932
00:52:02.329 --> 00:52:07.349
heard everyone else get home. Joey finally left around dinner time.
933
00:52:07.909 --> 00:52:10.190
I thought it was fine and went about my nightly
934
00:52:10.250 --> 00:52:13.449
routine and went to bed as usual. He must have
935
00:52:13.510 --> 00:52:16.110
come back at some point though, because he was sitting
936
00:52:16.159 --> 00:52:18.260
at the breakfast table when I went down to get
937
00:52:18.300 --> 00:52:21.619
my cereal. Again, the whole time he just stared daggers
938
00:52:21.699 --> 00:52:24.539
at me, so I took my food to my room instead.
939
00:52:25.360 --> 00:52:29.219
Friday night rolled around. Lena, Kenneth, and Kelly told me
940
00:52:29.239 --> 00:52:31.690
they were going to throw this huge party, and I
941
00:52:31.710 --> 00:52:35.590
should invite whoever I wanted. I just had a gut feeling, though,
942
00:52:35.670 --> 00:52:38.690
that Joey was going to be there. I invited the
943
00:52:38.730 --> 00:52:43.150
most intimidating male person I could think of, my neighbor Charles.
944
00:52:44.170 --> 00:52:46.400
He was a pretty huge guy, around 6'5 or so.
945
00:52:48.199 --> 00:52:51.340
He was also covered nearly head to toe in tattoos
946
00:52:51.420 --> 00:52:54.400
and happened to be an ex-hells angel. He was the
947
00:52:54.440 --> 00:52:58.199
type that, unless provoked, wouldn't hurt anybody. I explained by
948
00:52:58.239 --> 00:53:01.599
inviting him the day before about how Joey was behaving.
949
00:53:02.079 --> 00:53:03.880
What he told me scared the shit out of me.
950
00:53:04.480 --> 00:53:08.960
Turns out he actually knew Joey. Apparently, he was on
951
00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:12.260
the run from the police for raping some teenage girls
952
00:53:12.320 --> 00:53:15.019
the year before and said I needed to stay as
953
00:53:15.139 --> 00:53:18.579
far away from him as possible no matter what You'd
954
00:53:18.659 --> 00:53:21.639
think that would be where the scary part ended, but no,
955
00:53:22.179 --> 00:53:26.380
it gets worse. I'm usually not a cop caller myself
956
00:53:26.500 --> 00:53:30.159
since I can hang with an unsavory crowd sometimes, but
957
00:53:30.219 --> 00:53:33.320
I went straight home, packed all my things, left to
958
00:53:33.389 --> 00:53:34.510
a safe place, and.
959
00:53:34.469 --> 00:53:35.190
Called the police.
960
00:53:35.210 --> 00:53:39.389
Here's the worst part. When they finally arrested him, they
961
00:53:39.429 --> 00:53:42.829
took a look through his phone. I don't know how
962
00:53:42.869 --> 00:53:46.210
the hell he managed this, but he had multiple pictures
963
00:53:46.329 --> 00:53:48.820
of me on it. most of them were of me
964
00:53:48.940 --> 00:53:52.300
sleeping or me in the shower or using the bathroom.
965
00:53:52.820 --> 00:53:55.780
He had texts to another person about me and about
966
00:53:55.860 --> 00:53:57.789
what they were planning to do with me when he
967
00:53:57.829 --> 00:54:01.510
got the opportunity. I no longer talk to Kelly or
968
00:54:01.570 --> 00:54:04.409
her parents and when someone gives me a bad vibe
969
00:54:04.789 --> 00:54:08.389
I instantly get away from them. I'll forever be grateful
970
00:54:08.449 --> 00:54:11.250
to Charles as well because he might have just saved
971
00:54:11.289 --> 00:54:22.789
my life by letting me know all that. I used
972
00:54:22.829 --> 00:54:26.610
to live in a townhouse duplex by myself, with my
973
00:54:26.670 --> 00:54:30.590
dog and two cats near a train station. There were
974
00:54:30.690 --> 00:54:35.070
often commuters who parked outside my place, and passed by
975
00:54:35.179 --> 00:54:39.179
throughout the day and night. Occasionally, I had cigarettes or
976
00:54:39.300 --> 00:54:42.980
stuff stolen from my front veranda. I even had my
977
00:54:43.039 --> 00:54:47.460
next-door neighbor's ex-boyfriend, come to my door telling me he
978
00:54:47.539 --> 00:54:50.019
had a big man after him and he had a knife.
979
00:54:50.440 --> 00:54:53.550
None of this scared me like the night I was watched, though.
980
00:54:54.489 --> 00:54:57.909
My dog lives mostly indoors. I would take him out
981
00:54:57.949 --> 00:55:01.869
for the last wee before bed. My backyard light was
982
00:55:01.969 --> 00:55:04.610
broken and was up too high for me to change
983
00:55:04.670 --> 00:55:07.360
the bulb myself, so I always took him out to
984
00:55:07.389 --> 00:55:11.780
the front instead. That night, it was around 11pm, and
985
00:55:11.840 --> 00:55:13.679
I took him out to the front as usual.
986
00:55:14.179 --> 00:55:14.900
It was a hot.
987
00:55:14.840 --> 00:55:18.400
Summer night, and I was mindlessly standing on the footpath
988
00:55:18.780 --> 00:55:22.480
when I saw movement across the road from me. Out
989
00:55:22.519 --> 00:55:26.840
of nowhere, a man had appeared, walking diagonally across the
990
00:55:26.920 --> 00:55:29.880
street away from me. I thought this was odd because
991
00:55:29.900 --> 00:55:32.719
I hadn't seen him come from the other direction.
992
00:55:33.590 --> 00:55:35.099
I continued to think about it.
993
00:55:35.489 --> 00:55:38.230
Where he had come from was outside a house that
994
00:55:38.269 --> 00:55:41.750
was being renovated. I knew the owners weren't living there
995
00:55:41.849 --> 00:55:44.230
at the moment and thought maybe he was going to
996
00:55:44.309 --> 00:55:47.829
try and steal some stuff. I kept looking down the
997
00:55:47.889 --> 00:55:50.309
road to where he had gone. He had turned the
998
00:55:50.349 --> 00:55:54.210
corner down the next street. I kept watching, when suddenly
999
00:55:54.550 --> 00:55:57.250
I saw his head pop around the corner to check
1000
00:55:57.309 --> 00:56:01.170
if I was still outside. Needless to say, this gave
1001
00:56:01.190 --> 00:56:04.269
me the absolute creeps, so I grabbed my dog and
1002
00:56:04.329 --> 00:56:07.469
ran inside. I turned off all my lights and went
1003
00:56:07.530 --> 00:56:10.380
upstairs to my bedroom. which is at the front of
1004
00:56:10.420 --> 00:56:14.159
the townhouse and faces the street. I thought I would
1005
00:56:14.219 --> 00:56:16.949
keep watch of my neighbor's house for them, and call
1006
00:56:16.969 --> 00:56:21.030
the police if the suspicious man came back. I peered
1007
00:56:21.070 --> 00:56:24.329
through my blinds, which covered sliding doors coming off a
1008
00:56:24.429 --> 00:56:28.739
small balcony. Like clockwork, I see a dark figure walk
1009
00:56:28.820 --> 00:56:32.139
down from the corner and down my street. He was
1010
00:56:32.199 --> 00:56:35.460
moving toward the house across the road, and then suddenly
1011
00:56:35.659 --> 00:56:38.340
I lost sight of him. A tree in front of
1012
00:56:38.380 --> 00:56:42.500
my townhouse obscured my view for a moment. Then I
1013
00:56:42.579 --> 00:56:46.019
saw him again. He was not just there, though. He
1014
00:56:46.039 --> 00:56:49.480
was stopped at the top of my driveway, standing there
1015
00:56:49.619 --> 00:56:53.809
like Jason Voorhees. I kid you not, his arms were
1016
00:56:53.869 --> 00:56:56.570
out by his sides, and his legs were apart in
1017
00:56:56.610 --> 00:57:00.789
an unnatural stance. It was like he was preparing for something,
1018
00:57:01.210 --> 00:57:04.710
like he wanted to kill me. My heart was racing
1019
00:57:04.809 --> 00:57:08.960
so hard I could barely hear. I'm standing there slack-jawed,
1020
00:57:09.219 --> 00:57:12.329
looking at this would-be assailant when one of my cats
1021
00:57:12.389 --> 00:57:15.590
comes over to see what's happening. My cat slid his
1022
00:57:15.670 --> 00:57:19.190
body between the blinds and the window, further opening it.
1023
00:57:20.010 --> 00:57:22.639
I could see more clearly that this man was looking
1024
00:57:22.780 --> 00:57:26.840
upward toward me. Surely he could see me. If he did,
1025
00:57:26.860 --> 00:57:30.219
this didn't stop him at all. He started walking down
1026
00:57:30.320 --> 00:57:35.489
my driveway, undeterred with a fixated gaze. I lost sight
1027
00:57:35.510 --> 00:57:38.590
of him again under the balcony and awning. By this
1028
00:57:38.650 --> 00:57:41.909
time my eyes were watering in fear and tears were
1029
00:57:42.010 --> 00:57:45.050
streaming down my face. I didn't know what to do.
1030
00:57:45.070 --> 00:57:48.050
I went to sit on my bed. I picked up
1031
00:57:48.130 --> 00:57:51.170
my mobile and dialed my dad who lived only a
1032
00:57:51.389 --> 00:57:52.329
suburb away.
1033
00:57:53.190 --> 00:57:53.789
He answered.
1034
00:57:54.269 --> 00:57:56.550
I whispered to him what was happening and he said
1035
00:57:56.590 --> 00:57:58.079
he would be there as soon.
1036
00:57:57.900 --> 00:57:58.420
As he could.
1037
00:57:58.440 --> 00:58:01.440
I lied down in my bed and stayed as still
1038
00:58:01.519 --> 00:58:05.170
as I could. Tears were rolling down my cheeks, and
1039
00:58:05.210 --> 00:58:08.360
I was full of fear, not knowing what this man
1040
00:58:08.389 --> 00:58:12.179
was doing downstairs. What if he could get in? What
1041
00:58:12.219 --> 00:58:15.519
if I hadn't remembered to lock the doors? Then it
1042
00:58:15.599 --> 00:58:18.219
dawned on me. Why am I lying here in the
1043
00:58:18.300 --> 00:58:19.179
dark crying?
1044
00:58:19.679 --> 00:58:20.719
I turned a light on.
1045
00:58:21.420 --> 00:58:24.239
After what seemed like a lifetime but was probably only
1046
00:58:24.280 --> 00:58:27.360
a couple of minutes, my dad arrived. He had an
1047
00:58:27.460 --> 00:58:30.739
umbrella with him. I live in Australia, so no knives,
1048
00:58:31.019 --> 00:58:33.480
but he could have at least brought a knife instead.
1049
00:58:34.380 --> 00:58:36.619
I stayed on the phone with Dad while he searched
1050
00:58:36.699 --> 00:58:37.900
outside for the man.
1051
00:58:38.380 --> 00:58:39.500
The man was gone.
1052
00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:42.360
Maybe me turning the light on had scared him off
1053
00:58:42.420 --> 00:58:45.639
or something. I called the police, who said I should
1054
00:58:45.659 --> 00:58:48.880
have called them sooner. Of course I should have. I
1055
00:58:48.900 --> 00:58:51.480
don't know why I didn't, really. They came out with
1056
00:58:51.539 --> 00:58:54.119
a sniffer dog, but they couldn't find him either. I
1057
00:58:55.380 --> 00:58:58.380
don't know what he wanted. but for a good year after,
1058
00:58:58.519 --> 00:59:02.079
I was extremely scared of living there. I'm still a
1059
00:59:02.119 --> 00:59:05.530
bit of a scaredy cat, but reading other stories makes
1060
00:59:05.610 --> 00:59:07.449
me realize I'm not alone.
1061
00:59:08.289 --> 00:59:09.969
We can all learn from these experiences.
1062
00:59:10.780 --> 00:59:13.000
So we know what to do next time if something
1063
00:59:13.119 --> 00:59:25.070
scary happens. I was a bouncer at a bar years ago.
1064
00:59:26.269 --> 00:59:29.369
It was a normal Friday night, completely packed with the
1065
00:59:29.530 --> 00:59:33.750
usual customers. They knew not to get too crazy, though.
1066
00:59:34.590 --> 00:59:37.710
At around 11 o'clock, people usually started to get a
1067
00:59:37.750 --> 00:59:40.429
bit out of hand, and sometimes I would have to
1068
00:59:40.510 --> 00:59:43.809
break up a fight or two. Tonight was no different.
1069
00:59:44.590 --> 00:59:48.090
Around midnight, this guy was getting a bit too touchy-feely
1070
00:59:48.130 --> 00:59:50.570
with a girl in the crowd, and she really didn't
1071
00:59:50.670 --> 00:59:54.199
like that. I had to escort the man out. Really,
1072
00:59:54.360 --> 00:59:57.840
I kicked him out. You know, surprisingly, these guys I
1073
00:59:57.889 --> 01:00:00.780
kicked out were always good guys who had just a
1074
01:00:00.820 --> 01:00:04.300
bit too much to drink. Usually, I'd see them again
1075
01:00:04.380 --> 01:00:09.079
and they would apologize profusely for their behavior. This Friday night,
1076
01:00:09.300 --> 01:00:13.070
shortly before closing time, a man threw his drink at
1077
01:00:13.110 --> 01:00:16.489
the bartender and cut his head open as well. I
1078
01:00:16.550 --> 01:00:19.769
grabbed the guy and threw him outside. They would normally
1079
01:00:19.869 --> 01:00:22.820
struggle for a second or two, then realize they had
1080
01:00:22.909 --> 01:00:27.309
no chance of overpowering me. This guy was quite different though.
1081
01:00:27.710 --> 01:00:30.570
He struggled the whole time and he was almost able
1082
01:00:30.610 --> 01:00:32.929
to stack up to me. I could tell he had
1083
01:00:32.949 --> 01:00:37.190
a violent temperament and was very used to fighting. After
1084
01:00:37.250 --> 01:00:40.389
his ass hit the sidewalk out front, he sat up
1085
01:00:40.719 --> 01:00:43.739
and said something like he'd be back or whatever and
1086
01:00:43.780 --> 01:00:47.659
I would see him later. I can't remember the exact wording.
1087
01:00:48.159 --> 01:00:51.300
Thankfully the bartender was alright but he needed to go
1088
01:00:51.360 --> 01:00:54.639
get a fair few stitches. It was closing time anyway.
1089
01:00:55.050 --> 01:00:57.889
so we just told everyone that we were now wrapping up.
1090
01:00:58.730 --> 01:01:01.269
We would appreciate all of them making their way out.
1091
01:01:02.010 --> 01:01:04.610
I helped to clean up, as I always did, and
1092
01:01:04.630 --> 01:01:06.849
when I was finished up, my buddy who worked at
1093
01:01:06.889 --> 01:01:09.719
the kitchen always left with me, out the back door.
1094
01:01:10.280 --> 01:01:13.519
We were walking down the alleyway behind the place, when
1095
01:01:13.539 --> 01:01:16.059
the two of us noticed there was somebody behind us.
1096
01:01:16.880 --> 01:01:20.139
We kept on walking. I turned left onto the street
1097
01:01:20.159 --> 01:01:23.199
where my car was parked. My buddy crossed the street.
1098
01:01:23.510 --> 01:01:27.010
and continued down the alley. I turned around to see
1099
01:01:27.070 --> 01:01:29.750
if this guy would try to follow me or my friend,
1100
01:01:30.150 --> 01:01:32.789
but I didn't see them cross the street or turn
1101
01:01:32.809 --> 01:01:35.909
the corner. I got into my car and drove the
1102
01:01:35.969 --> 01:01:39.309
miles away to my house. I had the following day off,
1103
01:01:39.550 --> 01:01:42.300
but the day after that I was scheduled to work again.
1104
01:01:43.179 --> 01:01:46.179
Before I left for work that night, my good friend
1105
01:01:46.360 --> 01:01:48.760
and the owner of the bar called me and gave
1106
01:01:48.800 --> 01:01:52.460
me some terrible news. My buddy who was walking with
1107
01:01:52.519 --> 01:01:55.239
me the other night had been attacked and stabbed to
1108
01:01:55.320 --> 01:01:58.940
death further down the alley. I couldn't believe it. I
1109
01:01:59.000 --> 01:02:01.619
told the cops about that jerk in the bar that night,
1110
01:02:01.969 --> 01:02:05.050
but they never found out who really killed them. I
1111
01:02:05.090 --> 01:02:07.869
don't work in that bar anymore, but I did for
1112
01:02:07.929 --> 01:02:11.210
another two years after the incident. That guy from that
1113
01:02:11.309 --> 01:02:15.369
night never showed up there again. I very strongly feel
1114
01:02:15.389 --> 01:02:17.860
that it was him who had passed and killed my buddy.
1115
01:02:26.510 --> 01:02:28.869
It all started when I woke up to the sound
1116
01:02:28.909 --> 01:02:32.590
of someone hammering on my apartment door. That was only
1117
01:02:32.630 --> 01:02:34.489
the first fright I got that.
1118
01:02:34.389 --> 01:02:34.929
Night, though.
1119
01:02:34.949 --> 01:02:39.000
Heart pounding in my chest, I grabbed the bat I
1120
01:02:39.079 --> 01:02:43.079
kept underneath my bed and headed towards my door. The
1121
01:02:43.139 --> 01:02:45.820
first thing I did was look through the peephole to
1122
01:02:45.880 --> 01:02:49.699
make sure it was not anyone sketchy. I was surprised
1123
01:02:49.739 --> 01:02:51.690
when I was greeted by the sight of one of
1124
01:02:51.730 --> 01:02:55.880
my neighbors. She looked completely terrified, and she was covered
1125
01:02:55.980 --> 01:02:59.079
in blood too. I could already see through the peephole
1126
01:02:59.139 --> 01:03:02.300
that her face was a mess. As I opened the door,
1127
01:03:02.619 --> 01:03:06.179
she ran inside and started begging with me. You gotta
1128
01:03:06.219 --> 01:03:08.820
get me out of here. My boyfriend is trying to
1129
01:03:08.900 --> 01:03:11.800
kill me. I asked her what happened, and she just
1130
01:03:11.920 --> 01:03:15.989
interrupted me and said something like, There's no time. Please
1131
01:03:16.090 --> 01:03:18.730
just get me out of here. I swear to God
1132
01:03:18.789 --> 01:03:21.769
he'll kill you too just for helping me. That was
1133
01:03:21.809 --> 01:03:24.650
what sent me into a straight-up panic, because if this
1134
01:03:24.750 --> 01:03:27.769
guy was willing to beat up his girlfriend that badly,
1135
01:03:28.170 --> 01:03:30.710
Lord knows what he'd be willing to do to me.
1136
01:03:30.730 --> 01:03:34.769
I grabbed my car keys, ran downstairs with the girl
1137
01:03:34.869 --> 01:03:38.500
following close behind, jumped into my car, and took off
1138
01:03:38.619 --> 01:03:41.639
into the night. I remember asking her if she had
1139
01:03:41.780 --> 01:03:44.420
anywhere I could take her, like a friend's or a
1140
01:03:44.519 --> 01:03:48.260
relative's or something. She said no, and the best thing
1141
01:03:48.320 --> 01:03:50.960
for us to do would be to drive to a motel,
1142
01:03:51.369 --> 01:03:54.969
so she could call the cops from there. That's exactly
1143
01:03:55.030 --> 01:03:57.690
what I did. I drove us to a motel and
1144
01:03:57.769 --> 01:04:01.429
booked a room as well. The clerk was obviously just
1145
01:04:01.489 --> 01:04:04.670
as concerned as I was. All it took was to
1146
01:04:04.730 --> 01:04:07.750
explain that her boyfriend had tried to offer, and they
1147
01:04:07.849 --> 01:04:12.090
immediately suggested we call the cops right away. The girl,
1148
01:04:12.239 --> 01:04:15.010
whose name I didn't know at this point, I just
1149
01:04:15.090 --> 01:04:17.820
knew her as the neighbor, said she'd go up to
1150
01:04:17.840 --> 01:04:20.840
the room and call them. then asked me to get
1151
01:04:20.880 --> 01:04:23.400
her some ice from the ice machine so she could
1152
01:04:23.480 --> 01:04:26.260
deal with the swelling on her face. When I got
1153
01:04:26.300 --> 01:04:29.480
to the room, she said the cops would be there ASAP.
1154
01:04:30.199 --> 01:04:32.469
She took the ice, put it on her face, and
1155
01:04:32.639 --> 01:04:36.269
burst into tears. I tried my best to reassure her,
1156
01:04:36.590 --> 01:04:39.570
telling her she was safe and all that sort of stuff.
1157
01:04:40.329 --> 01:04:43.889
When she finally calmed down, I asked her what had happened.
1158
01:04:43.550 --> 01:04:44.639
Back at her apartment.
1159
01:04:45.070 --> 01:04:47.960
She told me her boyfriend was abusive. and she'd been
1160
01:04:48.000 --> 01:04:52.079
planning on leaving for a while. That night, she'd finally
1161
01:04:52.159 --> 01:04:55.039
got the courage to announce it to him. She said
1162
01:04:55.079 --> 01:04:58.230
he walked into their bedroom to find her packing a bag,
1163
01:04:58.510 --> 01:05:02.050
and not long after that, everything went to chaos. She
1164
01:05:02.110 --> 01:05:05.050
started helping herself to the little bottle of liqueur from
1165
01:05:05.070 --> 01:05:08.389
the minibar, but not after promising she'd pay me back
1166
01:05:08.429 --> 01:05:11.579
for everything once this had all blown over. I had
1167
01:05:11.639 --> 01:05:14.800
no reason to disbelieve her at the time. I mean,
1168
01:05:15.059 --> 01:05:17.730
I felt we had kind of established a bond of
1169
01:05:17.809 --> 01:05:22.389
some sorts. I abstained from drinking myself, though, because I
1170
01:05:22.449 --> 01:05:25.429
thought I'd be driving back to the apartment pretty soon.
1171
01:05:26.010 --> 01:05:27.730
I asked her if she was good to wait on
1172
01:05:27.750 --> 01:05:30.480
her own while the cops drove out to her, but
1173
01:05:30.519 --> 01:05:33.880
she asked if I'd stay and keep her safe. She
1174
01:05:33.960 --> 01:05:36.559
also made the point that if her boyfriend found that
1175
01:05:36.679 --> 01:05:40.139
blood on my apartment door, he'd know she'd been there
1176
01:05:40.260 --> 01:05:43.360
and try to attack me or worse. To be honest,
1177
01:05:43.500 --> 01:05:45.739
I thought it was a pretty good point at the time.
1178
01:05:46.250 --> 01:05:49.170
I hadn't seen the blood myself, but she was so
1179
01:05:49.309 --> 01:05:52.489
covered in it I just believed her when she said some.
1180
01:05:52.329 --> 01:05:53.849
Had to be on my door.
1181
01:05:54.610 --> 01:05:57.570
About an hour goes by and the cops still haven't
1182
01:05:57.630 --> 01:06:00.989
shown up yet, though. The motel rooms were arranged in
1183
01:06:01.050 --> 01:06:04.309
a horseshoe shape, so we'd have seen them rolling into
1184
01:06:04.349 --> 01:06:06.969
the parking lot if they had. I asked her to
1185
01:06:07.050 --> 01:06:10.099
call them back to see what was going on. Obviously,
1186
01:06:10.179 --> 01:06:14.300
this was a really urgent situation. I know there's basically
1187
01:06:14.440 --> 01:06:16.960
no way for the boyfriend to find us, but I
1188
01:06:16.980 --> 01:06:19.840
was really paranoid that he would figure it out somehow.
1189
01:06:20.780 --> 01:06:24.800
That's when the inconsistency started though. She gave me some
1190
01:06:24.909 --> 01:06:27.590
lame duck of a reply like, I'm sure they'll be
1191
01:06:27.650 --> 01:06:30.789
here soon. If that was me, I'd have called 911
1192
01:06:30.789 --> 01:06:33.349
again if they hadn't shown up in 10 minutes. So
1193
01:06:33.389 --> 01:06:36.570
why was she so calm about this now? She was
1194
01:06:36.630 --> 01:06:39.460
just completely cool with waiting for them for like an
1195
01:06:39.559 --> 01:06:43.039
hour at this point. I put down the booze. It
1196
01:06:43.079 --> 01:06:45.820
wasn't like I had anywhere to be. I sure couldn't
1197
01:06:45.860 --> 01:06:49.130
just go back to my apartment with a psycho supposedly
1198
01:06:49.190 --> 01:06:53.349
a few doors down. That's also about the same time, though,
1199
01:06:53.630 --> 01:06:56.349
that I started checking out the amount of blood on
1200
01:06:56.389 --> 01:07:01.480
her nightshirt. She had an oversized t-shirt and girls' boxers on.
1201
01:07:01.880 --> 01:07:05.079
Like I said earlier, they were drenched with blood, but
1202
01:07:05.099 --> 01:07:09.440
I also noticed some blood splattered, too. Little spots here
1203
01:07:09.480 --> 01:07:12.599
and there. She had this cut over her eye and
1204
01:07:12.639 --> 01:07:15.579
a nasty busted lip, but this was way too much
1205
01:07:15.679 --> 01:07:18.929
blood for small wounds like those. I asked her if
1206
01:07:18.969 --> 01:07:22.789
she had any other kind of injuries. Maybe an abdominal
1207
01:07:22.869 --> 01:07:25.289
wound of some kind out of sight that might account
1208
01:07:25.329 --> 01:07:28.230
for all this blood. She said no, and that it
1209
01:07:28.250 --> 01:07:30.590
was all from that busted lip in her eye. I
1210
01:07:31.250 --> 01:07:35.210
started to smell the nonsense. I asked her again what
1211
01:07:35.369 --> 01:07:38.989
exactly had happened back in that apartment. She started getting
1212
01:07:39.190 --> 01:07:43.070
weirdly defensive at this point. I was starting to think
1213
01:07:43.130 --> 01:07:46.469
the abusive spouse story she'd told me the first time
1214
01:07:46.530 --> 01:07:50.889
around was a little bit strange. I had no inkling
1215
01:07:50.929 --> 01:07:54.369
of what was really going on, though. That being said,
1216
01:07:54.469 --> 01:07:57.039
I was tired of waiting for the cops to show,
1217
01:07:57.340 --> 01:08:00.679
so I decided to call them back myself. All I
1218
01:08:00.739 --> 01:08:03.300
had on me was my wallet, my phone, and my
1219
01:08:03.360 --> 01:08:06.099
car keys, the only three things I'd had time to
1220
01:08:06.199 --> 01:08:09.619
stuff into my pockets before fleeing. When I took out
1221
01:08:09.659 --> 01:08:12.969
my phone to call the cops, she immediately interrupted me.
1222
01:08:13.449 --> 01:08:15.730
What are you doing? I stated the obvious.
1223
01:08:16.029 --> 01:08:18.489
I was about to call the cops back. She became
1224
01:08:18.630 --> 01:08:21.010
very frantic. I don't know if it was the way
1225
01:08:21.090 --> 01:08:23.609
she was looking at me, the way she spoke, or
1226
01:08:23.640 --> 01:08:26.060
the way she immediately tensed up when I told her
1227
01:08:26.119 --> 01:08:28.119
I was about to do that, but the mood in
1228
01:08:28.159 --> 01:08:31.960
the room shifted completely. I asked her why not and
1229
01:08:32.000 --> 01:08:35.569
went back to dialing 911. At the same time the
1230
01:08:35.670 --> 01:08:38.670
operator spoke down the line, I looked up and saw
1231
01:08:38.750 --> 01:08:40.329
she had a knife in her hand.
1232
01:08:41.210 --> 01:08:43.680
Hang up now! I did so.
1233
01:08:44.159 --> 01:08:47.039
I'd never had a knife pulled on me at that point,
1234
01:08:47.340 --> 01:08:51.119
and I can't overstate how terrifying it was. It wasn't
1235
01:08:51.180 --> 01:08:54.729
even just the knife, either. It was the overwhelming, creepy
1236
01:08:54.789 --> 01:08:58.590
sensation of knowing that all wasn't what it seemed. I
1237
01:08:58.630 --> 01:09:01.890
wasn't hiding from the threat. I was with the threat.
1238
01:09:02.489 --> 01:09:05.170
I'll be honest here, I basically begged her not to
1239
01:09:05.210 --> 01:09:08.590
hurt me. To my relief, she promised she wouldn't as
1240
01:09:08.649 --> 01:09:11.329
long as I drove her down to the Canadian border,
1241
01:09:11.829 --> 01:09:14.770
given this was in Detroit. The border wasn't all that
1242
01:09:14.850 --> 01:09:18.399
far away. I didn't want to catch charges for aiding
1243
01:09:18.439 --> 01:09:20.960
and abetting or whatever though, so I knew I had
1244
01:09:20.979 --> 01:09:24.140
to think of something to stop this from happening. It's
1245
01:09:24.199 --> 01:09:26.899
not like I couldn't tell the cops I'd been threatened
1246
01:09:26.939 --> 01:09:29.600
or whatever, but I also knew the longer I spent
1247
01:09:29.659 --> 01:09:32.760
in this person's company, the more chances I'd have of
1248
01:09:32.819 --> 01:09:36.000
being stabbed. I told the girl I'd drive her down,
1249
01:09:36.279 --> 01:09:39.229
but I needed to get something to eat first. I
1250
01:09:39.289 --> 01:09:42.250
played it like I wanted to stop somewhere along the way,
1251
01:09:42.630 --> 01:09:45.850
knowing she'd reason me down to getting something delivered from
1252
01:09:45.909 --> 01:09:49.510
a 24-hour joint. She also stated she'd be the one
1253
01:09:49.590 --> 01:09:51.930
going down to pick up the food, as she didn't
1254
01:09:51.970 --> 01:09:55.520
want me having the chance to sound the alarm. That's
1255
01:09:55.560 --> 01:09:58.720
where she messed up, though. She didn't seem to realize
1256
01:09:58.819 --> 01:10:01.899
to my infinite belief that I could order from DoorDash
1257
01:10:01.979 --> 01:10:04.829
and put something in the notes as well. I put
1258
01:10:04.890 --> 01:10:07.279
a note in the order about needing the driver to
1259
01:10:07.340 --> 01:10:11.279
call the cops for an emergency. My whole plan hinged
1260
01:10:11.359 --> 01:10:14.159
on the driver reading this, but thank god they did.
1261
01:10:14.619 --> 01:10:17.000
I was even able to show her the order without
1262
01:10:17.079 --> 01:10:20.930
bringing up the notes section that mentioned needing 911 immediately.
1263
01:10:21.430 --> 01:10:25.090
The cops played it perfectly too. They showed up without
1264
01:10:25.170 --> 01:10:28.029
any lights or sirens on, didn't park in the lot
1265
01:10:28.069 --> 01:10:30.939
and walked up to the motel room without being spotted
1266
01:10:30.989 --> 01:10:34.090
from the window. Then they knocked on the door. just
1267
01:10:34.149 --> 01:10:37.310
like they were a delivery driver. When she walked over
1268
01:10:37.329 --> 01:10:40.130
to open it up, boom, they had a gun and
1269
01:10:40.189 --> 01:10:43.329
taser drawn on her before she even knew what was happening.
1270
01:10:43.789 --> 01:10:46.010
She had the knife tucked in the back of her boxers,
1271
01:10:46.329 --> 01:10:48.640
but the cops were wise to her drawing on them.
1272
01:10:49.279 --> 01:10:51.560
She hit the floor hard after they slammed her with
1273
01:10:51.579 --> 01:10:55.279
the taser. Turns out they'd been looking for her because
1274
01:10:55.420 --> 01:10:59.340
she was the abusive partner who'd stabbed her boyfriend almost
1275
01:10:59.399 --> 01:11:03.819
to death before finding some poor schmuck, i.e. me, to
1276
01:11:03.859 --> 01:11:07.060
drive her down to the border. The dude had almost
1277
01:11:07.159 --> 01:11:10.340
bled to death in their shared apartment, but managed to
1278
01:11:10.399 --> 01:11:13.380
crawl to another neighbor's place to get help. You should
1279
01:11:13.420 --> 01:11:16.260
have seen the sheer amount of blood in the hallway
1280
01:11:16.520 --> 01:11:19.699
when I got back to my building. The whole place
1281
01:11:19.779 --> 01:11:23.600
was crawling with cops in forensic gear. I thought I
1282
01:11:23.659 --> 01:11:25.819
might have to drive over to a friend's place to
1283
01:11:25.880 --> 01:11:28.479
stay the night, but they had that section of the
1284
01:11:28.560 --> 01:11:31.550
corridor closed off, so I could still get to where
1285
01:11:31.619 --> 01:11:34.100
I lived. The cops came to my apartment in the
1286
01:11:34.140 --> 01:11:37.039
morning to take my statement down and fill me in
1287
01:11:37.100 --> 01:11:40.340
with what had happened. That's how I found out exactly
1288
01:11:40.420 --> 01:11:44.310
what the deal was. This was 100% the craziest and
1289
01:11:44.430 --> 01:11:47.930
most frightening thing that's ever happened to me in my life.
1290
01:11:49.069 --> 01:11:51.289
Just the fact I was part of something like this
1291
01:11:51.329 --> 01:11:54.789
seems completely surreal to me. The thing that sticks out
1292
01:11:54.810 --> 01:11:57.569
to me the most is how easily I swallowed her
1293
01:11:57.689 --> 01:12:01.600
nonsense story at first. how I thought I was helping
1294
01:12:01.720 --> 01:12:05.680
someone I knew, someone I could trust, when in reality,
1295
01:12:06.159 --> 01:12:08.819
one wrong move and I might not be around to
1296
01:12:08.920 --> 01:12:21.199
tell you all of this. So I am super creeped
1297
01:12:21.300 --> 01:12:25.600
out right now. I, 27 and female, was home alone
1298
01:12:25.699 --> 01:12:28.899
last night, sleeping soundly in my bed in the middle
1299
01:12:28.920 --> 01:12:32.119
of the night, like would be usual. I was suddenly
1300
01:12:32.220 --> 01:12:35.159
woken up though by the sound of someone seemingly trying
1301
01:12:35.199 --> 01:12:38.500
to push up on my locked bedroom window. I couldn't
1302
01:12:38.640 --> 01:12:41.420
see the window from where I was, it was just
1303
01:12:41.500 --> 01:12:44.119
past my footboard on the other side of the bedroom,
1304
01:12:44.659 --> 01:12:48.930
and I was laying down. I could recognize that unmistakable
1305
01:12:49.010 --> 01:12:52.750
sound though. The window was locked, someone was jiggling it
1306
01:12:52.810 --> 01:12:56.260
around trying to force it open. I know that sound
1307
01:12:56.300 --> 01:12:59.460
because I've locked myself out on accident plenty of times
1308
01:12:59.520 --> 01:13:02.199
before and have tried to get in through that very
1309
01:13:02.319 --> 01:13:05.880
same window. I set up an alarm, only to get
1310
01:13:05.899 --> 01:13:09.220
a good look. I saw a dark silhouette of a
1311
01:13:09.260 --> 01:13:12.600
person looking in through the window. I laid back down
1312
01:13:12.659 --> 01:13:17.020
for a moment, confused, tired, and groggy. I didn't believe
1313
01:13:17.100 --> 01:13:19.729
I was actually seeing what I was seeing. When it
1314
01:13:19.850 --> 01:13:23.060
finally clicked that I was, I shot right back up.
1315
01:13:23.890 --> 01:13:26.649
Now though, as I looked back to the window, they
1316
01:13:26.670 --> 01:13:29.979
were gone. I tried my best to get back to sleep,
1317
01:13:30.319 --> 01:13:32.579
but of course I was too spooked to do so
1318
01:13:32.640 --> 01:13:34.819
for the rest of the night. In the morning, I
1319
01:13:35.060 --> 01:13:38.159
thought I might have just dreamed it. I called everyone
1320
01:13:38.220 --> 01:13:41.090
I knew that it possibly could have been, and nobody
1321
01:13:41.149 --> 01:13:44.550
knew anything about it. Nobody was at my house either.
1322
01:13:45.140 --> 01:13:47.239
Nobody I knew would just try to get into my
1323
01:13:47.319 --> 01:13:50.420
bedroom window in the middle of the night anyway, especially
1324
01:13:50.479 --> 01:13:52.770
when I don't think this person even knocked on the
1325
01:13:52.829 --> 01:13:56.949
front door before trying to jimmy open my window. I
1326
01:13:56.989 --> 01:14:00.489
went outside to investigate, just to make sure I wasn't
1327
01:14:00.550 --> 01:14:05.159
being completely crazy. I looked at the window. Lo and behold,
1328
01:14:05.579 --> 01:14:08.619
handprints of whoever was trying to slide up the glass,
1329
01:14:09.039 --> 01:14:12.500
all over it. It had rained that night too, so
1330
01:14:12.539 --> 01:14:15.119
I could make out their muddy shoe prints going to
1331
01:14:15.239 --> 01:14:18.739
and from my window, and all throughout my backyard as well.
1332
01:14:19.260 --> 01:14:22.239
I have no idea who they were or what they wanted,
1333
01:14:22.619 --> 01:14:25.300
but I'm really glad I remembered to lock my window
1334
01:14:25.359 --> 01:14:25.920
that night.
1335
01:14:34.310 --> 01:14:34.890
I guess I.
1336
01:14:34.909 --> 01:14:38.770
Must look like someone who's a good opportunity to dishnap
1337
01:14:38.850 --> 01:14:43.189
or something. because this is the second attempted kidnapping story
1338
01:14:43.229 --> 01:14:47.590
that happened to me. For reference, I'm a 22-year-old female.
1339
01:14:48.130 --> 01:14:51.510
I'm also very small, and have always been petite for
1340
01:14:51.550 --> 01:14:54.810
my entire life. When I was around 7 or 8
1341
01:14:54.810 --> 01:14:58.069
years old, my brother, who was a year younger than me,
1342
01:14:58.439 --> 01:15:01.880
was between 6 or 7. My sister came to visit
1343
01:15:01.960 --> 01:15:05.920
us all. My sister is actually 15 years older than me,
1344
01:15:06.239 --> 01:15:08.600
and she wanted to spend the day with my brother
1345
01:15:08.640 --> 01:15:11.920
and I. She took us to a bigger city about
1346
01:15:11.920 --> 01:15:15.649
45 minutes away that had much more to do. We
1347
01:15:15.729 --> 01:15:18.069
ended up going down to the river, and the place
1348
01:15:18.109 --> 01:15:21.630
we went was very interesting. It was a popular spot
1349
01:15:21.750 --> 01:15:24.510
and in the middle of town as well, so it
1350
01:15:24.550 --> 01:15:28.260
was relatively safe. It was a big U shape, so
1351
01:15:28.569 --> 01:15:31.720
usually when people brought their kids, they'd hang out at
1352
01:15:31.760 --> 01:15:34.039
the tip of the U because that's where the water
1353
01:15:34.119 --> 01:15:38.180
was the safest. My sister didn't really want to swim.
1354
01:15:38.539 --> 01:15:41.590
But my brother and I really did. We put on
1355
01:15:41.710 --> 01:15:45.810
our little swimsuits and ran in. Not long after we
1356
01:15:45.869 --> 01:15:48.670
started playing around, a man walked.
1357
01:15:48.449 --> 01:15:49.170
Over to me.
1358
01:15:49.670 --> 01:15:52.949
I've never been one to judge, but little me thought
1359
01:15:52.970 --> 01:15:56.770
this guy looked dirty and smelled gross. He was basically
1360
01:15:56.850 --> 01:16:01.300
totally naked, except for some ratty underwear. I didn't really
1361
01:16:01.380 --> 01:16:03.100
think that was a big deal.
1362
01:16:02.819 --> 01:16:03.699
At the time, though.
1363
01:16:04.479 --> 01:16:07.699
The man came right over to me. Hi there, pretty girl.
1364
01:16:08.109 --> 01:16:08.710
How are you?
1365
01:16:08.729 --> 01:16:13.149
I had never been taught stranger danger. I lived quite
1366
01:16:13.189 --> 01:16:18.220
a sheltered life. Private school my entire life. Overprotective parents
1367
01:16:18.279 --> 01:16:20.939
that rarely allowed me to leave the house without them.
1368
01:16:21.680 --> 01:16:24.579
That sort of thing. So I thought this man really
1369
01:16:24.659 --> 01:16:28.090
just wanted to be friends. He asked me for a hug.
1370
01:16:28.470 --> 01:16:31.010
At the time, whenever anyone asked me for a hug,
1371
01:16:31.069 --> 01:16:33.609
I would give them one. So after hugging me, he
1372
01:16:33.710 --> 01:16:38.369
grabbed my hand and refused to let go. He then said,
1373
01:16:38.810 --> 01:16:41.630
Is this your brother? I said yes, and he said
1374
01:16:41.729 --> 01:16:45.029
something along the lines of, You're both so pretty. He
1375
01:16:45.630 --> 01:16:48.630
was still holding my hand tight. How would you guys
1376
01:16:48.670 --> 01:16:52.409
like to go on a little adventure? My brother and
1377
01:16:52.510 --> 01:16:55.770
I were excited because we didn't understand that we would
1378
01:16:55.850 --> 01:16:58.199
not like where this adventure was going.
1379
01:16:59.220 --> 01:17:00.100
Okay, great.
1380
01:17:00.420 --> 01:17:02.779
You just have to come with me. Let's make it
1381
01:17:02.840 --> 01:17:06.039
a surprise for your mom. I told him she was
1382
01:17:06.100 --> 01:17:10.100
my sister, and he said, Even better, which I still
1383
01:17:10.239 --> 01:17:14.640
didn't understand. He started to pull me away from my sister,
1384
01:17:14.920 --> 01:17:17.500
who had looked away because someone she knew had stopped
1385
01:17:17.520 --> 01:17:20.000
to say hello to her. He told my brother to
1386
01:17:20.060 --> 01:17:23.020
come along as well. All of a sudden, I heard
1387
01:17:23.079 --> 01:17:27.260
my sister scream my name so loud, everyone within earshot
1388
01:17:27.319 --> 01:17:30.810
looked over. She started yelling things like, Let go of
1389
01:17:30.850 --> 01:17:34.069
my sister, you son of a bitch! And, I'm calling
1390
01:17:34.109 --> 01:17:35.289
the cops, you perv!
1391
01:17:35.390 --> 01:17:36.010
Give her back!
1392
01:17:36.500 --> 01:17:40.260
Things along that nature. Actually, other parents who were around
1393
01:17:40.279 --> 01:17:43.260
were grabbing their kids as a precaution, and many seemed
1394
01:17:43.300 --> 01:17:45.680
like they were jumping in ready to help, yet the
1395
01:17:45.720 --> 01:17:49.220
guy attempted to put up a fight. My sister ran
1396
01:17:49.260 --> 01:17:51.060
into the river to pull me out of his grip.
1397
01:17:51.380 --> 01:17:54.590
She grabbed my brother's hand too while carrying me away.
1398
01:17:55.050 --> 01:17:57.770
She decided she didn't want to let the creepy dude
1399
01:17:57.890 --> 01:18:01.250
ruin mine and my brother's fun though. She took us
1400
01:18:01.310 --> 01:18:03.369
to a different part of the river in the same
1401
01:18:03.529 --> 01:18:06.359
area that was still very popular and had lots of
1402
01:18:06.500 --> 01:18:10.720
kids and families around. My sister was sitting and watching us.
1403
01:18:11.119 --> 01:18:13.199
We were not too far away from her when I
1404
01:18:13.260 --> 01:18:17.079
pointed out, Hey, look, it's my friend from before. My
1405
01:18:17.159 --> 01:18:20.659
sister lost it on the dude. He literally tried to
1406
01:18:20.739 --> 01:18:23.579
say to her, Come on, I'll watch the kids. Why
1407
01:18:23.600 --> 01:18:25.859
don't you go shop for a few hours? You can
1408
01:18:25.899 --> 01:18:28.810
have them back when you're done. I'll have fun taking
1409
01:18:28.890 --> 01:18:32.189
care of them. She told him he was a sick bastard,
1410
01:18:32.409 --> 01:18:34.750
and he was going to regret hanging around if he
1411
01:18:34.829 --> 01:18:37.880
tried it again. He tried once again to convince her
1412
01:18:37.920 --> 01:18:40.000
to let him take me, and he was edging his
1413
01:18:40.100 --> 01:18:43.479
way over to me and my brother again. My sister
1414
01:18:43.619 --> 01:18:46.029
punched him in the face, then kicked his legs out
1415
01:18:46.050 --> 01:18:48.630
from under him and stepped on his chest. She told
1416
01:18:48.689 --> 01:18:50.430
him that he would get a lot worse. worse if
1417
01:18:50.470 --> 01:18:53.670
he dared to do anything else. We did tell a
1418
01:18:53.710 --> 01:18:56.569
police officer, but they said it was probably just a
1419
01:18:56.640 --> 01:18:59.489
homeless man and there was nothing they could do about it.
1420
01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:02.739
My sister got my brother and I ice cream, so
1421
01:19:02.760 --> 01:19:05.479
we felt a bit better about having to leave early.
1422
01:19:06.380 --> 01:19:08.800
My dad was not happy when the first thing we
1423
01:19:08.840 --> 01:19:11.199
told him was my sister had beat up a guy,
1424
01:19:11.500 --> 01:19:13.760
but he was even more furious when he learned what
1425
01:19:13.960 --> 01:19:25.390
actually happened. I grew up in a small town, and
1426
01:19:25.409 --> 01:19:29.289
when I say small, I mean small, small. As in,
1427
01:19:29.470 --> 01:19:32.399
we didn't even have a store in that small town.
1428
01:19:32.979 --> 01:19:36.960
What we did have, though, was a jail. Charleston Correctional,
1429
01:19:37.300 --> 01:19:40.439
perched right on top of this great big hill. It
1430
01:19:40.500 --> 01:19:41.880
basically held people.
1431
01:19:41.659 --> 01:19:43.340
Who were really low risk.
1432
01:19:43.779 --> 01:19:46.600
There were still some sketchy people there though, who had
1433
01:19:46.619 --> 01:19:50.130
been there for so long they'd earned good behavior treatment.
1434
01:19:50.989 --> 01:19:53.810
My parents were getting divorced at the time. Both of
1435
01:19:53.869 --> 01:19:56.890
them were smack dab in the middle of a midlife crisis,
1436
01:19:57.229 --> 01:19:59.810
which left me to care for my three younger sisters
1437
01:19:59.970 --> 01:20:03.350
all alone pretty much. My best friend lived just up
1438
01:20:03.390 --> 01:20:06.479
the street from us, Remember, it was a small town,
1439
01:20:06.819 --> 01:20:10.170
so up the street could still be a good 20-30
1440
01:20:10.250 --> 01:20:14.369
minute walk. There was a decent snowstorm one night. I
1441
01:20:14.409 --> 01:20:17.270
got all my siblings tucked in for the evening, before
1442
01:20:17.350 --> 01:20:20.250
I decided to walk up and get my friend. She
1443
01:20:20.289 --> 01:20:23.029
didn't like walking to my house alone, so I would
1444
01:20:23.060 --> 01:20:26.680
always walk over and then walk back with her. As
1445
01:20:26.779 --> 01:20:29.560
I walked to her house, I remember thinking just how
1446
01:20:29.720 --> 01:20:33.329
quiet and eerie it was that night. When I arrived,
1447
01:20:33.369 --> 01:20:37.289
her mom started yelling at me. Apparently, I didn't know this,
1448
01:20:37.729 --> 01:20:41.270
a man had escaped from jail earlier that day. We
1449
01:20:41.310 --> 01:20:43.210
decided it would be better for all of us to
1450
01:20:43.270 --> 01:20:46.270
camp out at her house instead of walking back in
1451
01:20:46.310 --> 01:20:49.329
the dark and snow. We were about to go get
1452
01:20:49.390 --> 01:20:52.470
my sister's and her parents' car when her brother came
1453
01:20:52.590 --> 01:20:55.729
crashing through the door in a panic. That guy was
1454
01:20:55.850 --> 01:20:58.520
out on our street. Granted, he was like a mile
1455
01:20:58.560 --> 01:21:01.060
and a half away. but I had been walking right
1456
01:21:01.140 --> 01:21:04.420
towards him and not even known it. We grabbed my
1457
01:21:04.500 --> 01:21:07.739
sister's and stayed at her house that night, listening to
1458
01:21:07.760 --> 01:21:10.779
the snowmobiles on the trails out back looking for him.
1459
01:21:12.359 --> 01:21:14.970
It turned out he had called a cab, murdered the
1460
01:21:15.010 --> 01:21:17.630
driver with a hammer, ditched the cab in a field
1461
01:21:17.689 --> 01:21:21.710
by Tate's farm, and eventually gotten caught. That field was
1462
01:21:21.770 --> 01:21:25.000
only a mile away from my house. We talked about
1463
01:21:25.039 --> 01:21:27.819
that for a long time afterwards, because none of us
1464
01:21:27.840 --> 01:21:31.409
had ever worried about having a jail so nearby before that.
1465
01:21:31.930 --> 01:21:36.689
It's a true story. Happened about 17 years ago in Charleston, Maine,
1466
01:21:36.750 --> 01:21:39.409
if you want to check. That was the scariest and
1467
01:21:39.470 --> 01:21:43.369
most unusual thing that ever happened in our small town.
1468
01:21:52.359 --> 01:21:55.550
What is up guys, Blue Spooky here. Thank you guys
1469
01:21:55.750 --> 01:21:58.649
so much for watching, especially if you made it this
1470
01:21:58.750 --> 01:22:01.449
far to the end of the video. Before we do
1471
01:22:01.529 --> 01:22:05.180
anything else, we have to thank our Patreons who support
1472
01:22:05.220 --> 01:22:10.100
at the credits tier. So thank you to Grace Demarest, Caitlin,
1473
01:22:10.680 --> 01:22:16.619
Amy Jensen, Debra Alexander, Thank you guys so much for
1474
01:22:16.699 --> 01:22:20.619
choosing to support the channel, and thank you for every
1475
01:22:20.640 --> 01:22:25.020
other patron that supports the channel as well. I couldn't
1476
01:22:25.140 --> 01:22:38.739
continue to do this without your guys' help. If you
1477
01:22:38.779 --> 01:22:41.859
guys enjoyed the stories in this video, please be sure
1478
01:22:41.899 --> 01:22:45.840
to like, share, comment, and subscribe if you feel so inclined.
1479
01:22:46.439 --> 01:22:48.399
And if you have any stories of your own that
1480
01:22:48.439 --> 01:22:50.920
you'd like to share for me to read, please be
1481
01:22:51.000 --> 01:22:53.560
sure to check in the description of the video, where
1482
01:22:53.579 --> 01:22:57.859
you'll find a link to my social media, mainly my Gmail.
1483
01:22:58.180 --> 01:23:00.859
Go ahead and send me a message there, and I'll
1484
01:23:00.899 --> 01:23:04.159
try to read your story as soon as possible. Thank
1485
01:23:04.199 --> 01:23:07.079
you guys so much for watching. And I hope you
1486
01:23:07.100 --> 01:23:08.989
guys have a great day.