17x03: The Disappearing Cop

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[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_01] This podcast contains adult language and content. The stories shared in this podcast are told from the perspective of the authors. Their accounts and opinions are personal and do not reflect the stance of the production team. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_01] This happened when I was 23. I'm a woman and I live in Romania. One night I was coming home from class. I was completing my masters and classes started after 6pm and ended at 10pm. At around 11, I had to take the subway for about 12 stops. The destination I had to get off at was the end of the subway. At that time, there wouldn't be any people in the subway.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_01] I often travel alone after classes and I tend to find myself on my own. Which is fine. All I need is my headset and my music and I'm good to go. As such, on this evening, I plugged in my music and picked a chair far back on the subway. There were only about two other people with me at the time. Everything about this commute on the subway was seemingly going well

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_01] until I saw out of the corner of my eye a silhouette approaching me. It was a man and he suddenly appeared and took a seat right next to me. He was fairly built, dark hair, wearing glasses, a black shirt, and a black hoodie. He had a sickening smile on his face though. He didn't engage with me, no talking, but he would stare at my phone as I would rouse through my music.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_01] I heard him breathe heavily, not like he was in pain, but still, like he was feeling something very strong. I was uneasy so I decided to change my seat and I went even further back. I was trying to avoid him without looking like a freak myself. After picking a new seat, I sat down, plugged my headset in again, and proceeded with the remaining six stops on my way home.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01] The man then stood up, and I watched as his silhouette grew bigger and bigger as he walked towards me again. I felt a breeze running on my skin as he took a seat next to me once more. When I looked at him, I noticed his eyes and his smile. He was staring right into my phone. I was panicking. There were still four stops to go, and I had nowhere to hide.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_01] I looked for the other person on the subway and thought that maybe I'd try to sit next to her. I figured that if I stuck with her, there would be strength in numbers. However, she was no longer there. This made me nervous, so I started shaking, but I didn't allow this creep to notice that I was feeling vulnerable. I then stood up, went to the door, and just decided to stand there until my stop came.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_01] This way, he wouldn't be able to sit next to me. He still came after me and sat in the seat right by my door, and because he couldn't see my phone from that angle, he just fixated on me with his black, dead eyes. He also finally said, Hi, gorgeous. Why are you avoiding me? I was freaking out. I looked at my phone, trying to call my boyfriend or message him, and he stopped me by saying,

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_01] I know no one will help you. You should have sent a message by now, and I know you didn't. And that was when I realized I was cornered. He had been focusing on my phone to see who I was talking to, and trying to figure out if I was panicking or whether I was asking someone for help. I didn't do any of that, and he knew it, so he cornered me. This was bad.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01] Once the subway reached my stop, I didn't hesitate. I ignored him before he said anything else, and I took off without looking back. Once I was out on the street, I didn't see him anywhere. At that time, I put my phone in my purse and realized I had pepper spray with me. My heartbeat started to return to normal, because I realized I at least had something to defend myself with. I still had a long way to get home,

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_01] and I was worried that he wouldn't be alone if he reappeared. I walked rather fast from the metro for maybe five minutes before I felt a hand grab my wrist hard and pull me back. Another hand then covered my mouth. I couldn't even scream. It was him, the same man from the subway. He seemed furious. He said, Are you running from me? How dare you run from me? You should be happy I gave you any attention.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_01] I guess he thought that men wouldn't find me attractive, and maybe I should feel blessed that this creep stalked me and tried to hurt me. At this point, my phone was in my bag, so I couldn't call the police, and I couldn't reach for the pepper spray. I was panicking. I couldn't scratch him because I didn't have any nails, and his hand was still on my mouth. So what did I do? Well, I did the best thing that I could think of to save my life. I played along.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_01] I used my other hand to touch the inside of his thigh and mumbled, I'm sorry, while his hand was on my mouth. He then took his hand off my mouth, and I repeated to say that I was sorry and said I didn't realize he was flirting. This caused him to let his guard down. He took his hand off my wrist. He asked me for my phone number and address to drop me off, but I declined and said I'd rather add him on Facebook. He agreed.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_01] I told him I was going to grab my phone, but instead, I grabbed my pepper spray, and I sprayed it all over his face. I made sure to cover both his eyes, also his nose and his mouth, his ears, even his hands. He instantly became all red. He was swelling and coughing from the pepper. I called the police and told them what happened, and what I did. They asked if he was immobilized, and I said yes, and I let them know that the effect would wear off in about 45 minutes.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_01] The police arrived there five minutes later to see me shaking like a leaf and the man on the ground, swollen like a pumpkin, throwing up and swearing at me between gasps for breath. As he was being arrested, the police told me they had been looking for him for the past week as they discovered the body of a 24-year-old woman in his apartment. The woman was his girlfriend, and he hadn't returned to the apartment since her body was discovered.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_01] I don't know what he wanted to do with me, but I believe he fixated on me because there were similarities between his girlfriend and me. To the stranger on the subway stalking women at night, I hope to God you and I never meet again.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_01] This happened when I was in the car with my friend. I was in the passenger seat while my friend was driving around. We were going back to his house. On the way back, we took a wrong turn into some desolate area and turned around to get back out. As we were leaving, we noticed a police car driving in. We both found this strange, as there had been nobody else out there, but we assumed that maybe they might have suspected we were up to no good.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_01] On the way back out, we made sure to keep our speed down. We kept looking behind us, but there was no sign of the police. As we took a turn onto another seemingly desolate road, which led to my friend's house, the cop car came speeding around flashing its lights, so we pulled over. The officer hopped out of his car right away and knocked on our window. He was by himself, which I find a little strange.

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_01] But what was even stranger was that he knocked on my window and not the driver's side window. He then asked why we didn't stop earlier and said that he had been flashing his lights at us for ages. We obviously knew this wasn't true because we had literally been looking behind us all the way up to the turn we had just taken. Also, he was directing these questions and comments at me. I wasn't the driver. The interaction was weird.

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_01] He seemed intent on handcuffing us and bringing us back to the station just to make sure that we weren't driving under the influence. This seemed unnecessary, but then he suggested that we follow his car back to the station. I said that I could just walk home, but he said that I would be facilitating a crime, so I needed to come down to the station too. My gut instinct kicked in and I meekly muttered, Can I see your badge?

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_01] He was immediately insulted, but once I asked this, my friend was adamant about seeing his credentials as well. Since it was our right. He gave his name, which we'll say was Mike Jones, but he didn't show us anything. We asked to see something, a badge, an ID, but he went back to his car.

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_01] I can't exactly remember what he asked us to do in the interim, but while we weren't looking, he sped around the corner before we even noticed. We then went back to my friend's house and told his parents about what happened. His dad is friends with a cop, so he said that he would ask him about this Mike Jones guy. A few weeks later, word got back to me that Mike Jones was a cop that died two years ago.

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_01] So this was someone pretending to be a cop and using a deceased cop's name. At least, that's what we've concluded.

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[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_01] As such, I tried to be actively aware of which streets had which speed limits and so on. One Saturday, approximately six months after getting my license, I was driving home from work in the mid-afternoon. I took my usual route, which was a slightly remote road, and it was a nice day, so I had the windows rolled down with my music blasting.

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_01] As I was about halfway through my route, I passed a side street where a cop car was waiting, but I didn't notice until the cruiser pulled out behind me, flashing its lights. I was confused because I was sure I was going the speed limit, so I assumed my music was too loud, and I turned it down and immediately pulled over. Now, I had never been pulled over, so I was nervous in general, but mostly didn't want a ticket.

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_01] As the cop approached my window, I noticed he was skinny and seemed short, though I was in a low car. While he appeared to be a lot older than me, he didn't seem old. He was probably in his 30s. Everybody over 20 seems old to a teenager. He was either bald or had a super short haircut, and he had a cap on, which seemed random since most cops in town didn't wear caps.

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_01] He paused and seemed to observe me before speaking. He didn't have a particularly authoritative aura, and more so came off as awkward and tense. Hi, he greeted curtly. Hello, I replied, trying to stay calm. He stood with his ticket pad in hand like he was preparing to take an order, another odd behavior since most cops wait to take out the pad.

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_01] This was something that I learned later. Do you know what the speed limit is here? He asked. Staring is the best way to describe his energy. Or, what have you. It was like what you feel when someone is waiting to be invited to something, or they insert themselves into a conversation they aren't a part of. That's honestly the best way I could describe it. I thought it was 30, I said.

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_01] No, it's actually 25 here, he stated. Followed by more staring. I'm sorry, I didn't think it was 30. I didn't realize, I replied. He didn't say anything. Do you need my license or registration? I offered since those were two things I knew police asked for when they pulled somebody over. Yeah, he informally accepted. I pulled out both.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_01] He took them gently and shuffled slowly back into his cruiser. I think he was gone for less than a minute before he came back to my window. I was wrong about the speed limit, he said flatly. It's actually 30. Oh, okay. That's nice to hear, I said, trying to sound genuine. He passed my license and registration back to me and continued to stare. So I'll let you go with a warning.

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_01] I found this strange, since apparently I hadn't done anything wrong after all. There was nothing from him for a moment, and then he asked, Do you know your social security number? I'll be honest, this question embarrassed me. I didn't understand the importance or use of a social security number at the time. While I was employed, my job paid me under the table, so I didn't even have to report it to them. I was flustered when he asked me about it.

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_01] I thought I had messed up, and that this thing that he was asking for should have been given along with my registration. Oh no, I'm sorry, I don't know it. Can I call my dad? I bet he'll have it, I said as I reached for the phone. No, no, no, that's okay, he said quickly. Have a good one. Then he shuffled back to his cruiser and took off just a second later. I drove under 30 for the rest of the way home, just in case.

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_01] When I got home, both of my parents were in the living room. I got pulled over today, I said. They asked if I was speeding. Well, he, the cop, thought I was at first, but I guess I wasn't. He double-checked the speed limit and realized I was actually fine, I explained. Oh, well that's good, my mom said slightly apprehensively. Yeah, and he also asked for my social security number.

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_01] I didn't have it. Can I have it just in case for next time? I asked. They looked at me, with a little bit of bewilderment. He asked you for your social security number? Are you sure? My dad asked. Yeah, he did. I remember he specifically asked for that. It was the last thing he asked for, I said. Did he say why? He asked. No, but I said I'd call you guys and ask.

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_01] But then he said it was okay and quickly left, I explained. They exchanged looks. That's not their information to know. They can't ask you that, my dad said. They asked me what he looked like, where I had been pulled over, and what his name was. I gave them the recap, but of course, I didn't ask for his name or otherwise take note of it by trying to ask for a badge or anything. I didn't even know that you could.

[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_01] Despite their initial reaction, they never did anything about it. They never called or reported it to anyone of merit. After this happened, I took the time to Google social security numbers and their importance and understood why it was a disturbing question for a cop to ask. I never saw him again, and no one I went to school with recognized my description of him.

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_01] I used to tell this story a lot, just in case someone else had any run-ins with him, but to this day, I haven't met anyone who ever encountered him. When I was 18, I started my first job at Spirit Halloween.

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_01] And since it was my first job, I was excited and eager to work, finally making my own money for college. Because it's a seasonal location, as you can imagine, management was pretty disorganized. I didn't know half the staff, scheduling was a mess, and I pretty much just picked up shifts when I wanted to work. And they always needed the help. One day, I was in the break room, about to head back on the sales floor, when a manager I hadn't met yet came in.

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_01] He started asking questions about my name, age, and what I was studying in school. He insisted that I stay on break a little longer, and sit down to drink a Red Bull with him. We sat down, and he proceeded to brag to me about how when he was younger, he used to work on movie sets, and used to be in production. The entire conversation revolved around him trying to impress me with these stories.

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_01] I thought that it was weird, but I had never had a job before, so I thought he was just making conversation with me. After our conversation, we went back to the sales floor, and I noticed that he would guide me over to a section to work on by touching the small of my back. And he made suggestive comments that slowly started to make me feel uncomfortable.

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_01] Later that shift, I asked for his email, so that when the season ended, as I applied for other jobs, I could use his information for a reference. Instead, he gave me his cell phone number, and told me to send him a text with my full name, so he knew who it was. I texted him when we were still at the store, and I didn't think anything else about it. That night after work, I was up late doing homework when he texted me back.

[00:24:02] [SPEAKER_01] All throughout the night, he kept texting me things unrelated to work, trying to keep the conversation going. At this point, my alarms were going off, and I felt like he was being highly inappropriate. It struck me as very strange that my 45-year-old manager was trying to talk to me, an 18-year-old girl, at 1am outside of work. I stopped responding and left it at that.

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_01] Later on, I went on Facebook, and realized that when I had texted him my full name, he used it to look me up, and he tried to add me as a friend. The next time I went into work, I planned to try and avoid him as much as possible. However, as soon as I got there, he came up to me and started asking me questions about whether I drank or smoked, and he kept suggesting that we should do it together sometime.

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_01] This man literally told me I should come over to his house, and I should teach him to roll up, and he said that we should get high on our break together. By then, I knew what he was doing was inappropriate because he would only make this kind of conversation with me when we were alone. Any time other coworkers or other managers were around, he would stop, so I tried my best to keep the other coworkers around.

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_01] This shift in particular, he pulled me away from my normal section and told me that he had a special task I had to help him with. He then took me to the back of the store where we kept inventory, and he had me help him start marking down some items. I was on very high alert because we were alone in the back of the store where there weren't any cameras.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_01] Again, he kept making comments about how we should hang out and continued to tell me stories about old jobs he used to have in his youth to try and impress me. While doing so, he picked up some lingerie-type shorts that we had and remarked about how he used to wear shorts like those when he was a stripper. Eventually, he told me about all the cool Halloween decorations he set up in front of the house, and he wanted to show me a photo of them.

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_01] He then pulled out his phone and opened the camera roll. As I was looking at the phone, waiting for him to find the photo, something familiar in his camera caught my eye. His most recent photo was a photo of me. I couldn't believe it. I saw my own face staring back at me. He screenshot my Facebook profile picture and just had it sitting there in his camera roll.

[00:26:45] [SPEAKER_01] I gasped in reaction, but I tried to hold my surprise because at this point, I was absolutely creeped out. He realized I caught on immediately and made some weird comment about how I was just so beautiful that he couldn't help himself. I was disgusted. I didn't confront him about how off-putting that was because I was just in shock.

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_01] I texted all of my friends about what happened, and they all agreed that it was horribly inappropriate. The remainder of my time there that season consisted of him hitting on me and continuing to make me feel uncomfortable. Because it was a seasonal job, I didn't report him because it didn't seem like there was a formal HR department, and as it got closer to Halloween, I knew he wasn't going to be let go since the company needed employees.

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_01] I just tried to avoid him as much as possible, but he continued to text me and tried to talk to me every time I was scheduled to work. Looking back, it makes me so sad that my first ever job experience was spent trying to avoid advancements from a manager who was 30 years older than me. I'm just grateful I trusted my gut about him.

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[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_01] Price and coverage match limited by state law. This happened about five years ago. For a little background, my dad had trained me how to keep calm in stressful or life-or-death situations. I did the same with my kids. My kids were 12 and 13 years old and in the backseat. My elderly mother was right next to me. We had just finished our errands and I asked if anyone

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_01] wanted to go to the popular small lake that had a one-way road that goes about a mile around the lake before going home. Everyone immediately wanted to do so, mostly to see the new duck chicks. There's a maximum speed limit of 20 miles per hour and several places to turn around if you don't want to go completely around it. The reason for the slow speed limit is that a lot of people go there for

[00:31:38] [SPEAKER_01] fishing, walking, or jogging. We went to see the baby ducks and slowed down to stop at times. There weren't any cars behind us yet, so we took our time to admire the tiny chicks. I was halfway around when this really big man in a huge truck went racing around the lake at about 50 miles per hour. There was a lot of screaming from people racing to get out of his way.

[00:32:04] [SPEAKER_01] I immediately started to speed up to take the next exit off the road. I was almost there when I heard his truck engine. My mother screamed and the kids were frozen in fear as I looked in the rearview mirror. He was coming up to me fast. He slammed on the brakes just as he came inches from hitting the back of my car. As he continued following me, he was driving aggressively and screaming all sorts of insults at me.

[00:32:32] [SPEAKER_01] I sped up and got out of there, but he kept following me. My mom was freaking out. The kids were terrified. But they did the breathing exercises that I taught them to keep themselves calm. I told my mom that she needed to calm down. I handed my cell phone to my oldest son and I told him to call 911 to inform the dispatcher that we were headed to the police station. He did so while at times

[00:32:59] [SPEAKER_01] involuntarily screaming in fear because this man went down a side street and turned back trying to ram us off the road. He kept getting in front of me and slamming on the brakes. Then he would park blocking the road and do a pit maneuver. I later thanked God that my dad had been in the military and taught me maneuvers to avoid aggressive drivers. I was able to avoid everything that he was doing.

[00:33:25] [SPEAKER_01] The dispatcher heard the terrified screams from everyone in the car every time I had to break hard or swing the car around. I was cussing like crazy. We made it to the police station where there were several cops waiting for us. The guy was so angry that I don't think he realized where we were. He parked right behind me to block me in, got out of his truck still screaming, and walked around to

[00:33:50] [SPEAKER_01] my side of the car. I grew even angrier when the cops wouldn't let him near me. He swung out and punched one of the cops in the head so hard that he knocked him out. He got tasered and sprayed as he was tackled to the ground. It took several cops to hold him down, when suddenly he went quiet. I think that he realized where he was, because he began struggling again and said that they couldn't

[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_01] arrest him because he didn't know they were cops at the moment. I let out a breath of relief once he was in the backseat of a cop car. The paramedics came to check us all out. My mom had to be taken to the ER for extremely high blood pressure. She was also suffering from chest pains. My dad and I were taken in as well. The moment that they realized that they were safe, my kids were crying hysterically and clinging to me.

[00:34:46] [SPEAKER_01] I was shaking and felt cold despite the warm temperatures. I was told that I was in shock. Well, after that, we all went home except for my mother, who had to stay overnight. The kids were so scared from the experience that they couldn't sleep in their own beds that night. But we were all too wired to sleep anyway, so I made some tea and gave them a melatonin. I, on the other hand, didn't take anything, and the comforting noises my home usually made

[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_01] felt scary that night. A few days later, I got a call from one of the arresting officers who told me that the man had several arrest warrants on him for similar complaints. He also told me that the guy had every intention of killing me and everyone else in the car, simply because he was angry and wanted to release it. So it was a good thing that I called 911 and went to the police station. It would take me a few weeks before I could fall asleep easily again.

[00:35:47] [SPEAKER_01] I had to put my kids into counseling, and I still have nightmares about this situation. But it's rare now. This happened when I started a new job.

[00:36:16] [SPEAKER_01] I basically had to screen people for COVID before they came into the clinic. The clinic was upstairs, and I was stationed downstairs alone at a desk, so it was fairly boring. As people came in, I asked them health questions, took their temperature, and then sent them up to the clinic to get checked in. A man came in with a wrapped hand with a cane. He was maybe in his 50s, and I checked over his health like normal.

[00:36:44] [SPEAKER_01] When he was done with his appointment, he was on his way out, and he stopped and asked, What's your favorite movie? I thought it was pretty random, but I replied, The Lion King, since it was the first one that I could think of, and I just wanted him to leave. He said, Oh yeah, that's a good one. I'll see you tomorrow. I have another appointment. He also asked what time I was done. I let him know that I was leaving at 4.

[00:37:12] [SPEAKER_01] I realize now this was very naive of me, but I know better now. He came back the next day, and I took his temperature again, like I was supposed to. And then I sent him up to the clinic. This time on his way out, he stopped by me and kind of leaned in and whispered, Are you Christian? This was very strange, because he basically whispered it in my ear. I thought it was just an odd question in general, too. I replied, Yeah?

[00:37:42] [SPEAKER_01] I should have cut the conversation right there and said that I had to get back to work. He then whispered again and said, I'll be back tomorrow at 4 when you're done with work to discuss it further, because we can't talk about it here. I immediately got red in the face and felt like my throat was closing up. I was so uncomfortable. I didn't even have the chance to say anything back as he turned around and walked out. I felt so sick that he knew when I left work. I was nervous leaving that day.

[00:38:11] [SPEAKER_01] And I was nervous the entire time I walked home, since I felt like he was going to appear at any moment. The whole night, I was so upset that I told my boyfriend about it. He also thought that it was weird. So I asked him if he could pick me up at work the next day. When I went to work the following day, I took my lunch break midday and told my co-workers what had happened over the last two days. They thought that it was inappropriate, and they looked at the client list to see who it was,

[00:38:40] [SPEAKER_01] because I didn't even know his name. They found him in the system and told me that he didn't even have a second appointment. on Wednesday, like he said that he did. They reported it to my supervisor. After she found out, they had me work the rest of my shift upstairs. Once it was close to 4pm, they sent a male co-worker downstairs to check for him. The guy showed up just a bit before 4, and he was looking for me.

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_01] I felt so sick that I couldn't believe he really came by again for a third time in a row just to talk to me. My boyfriend texted me and said, I think I see the guy you were describing. He's out here, looking around for you. My supervisor took me through the back entrance so that the guy wouldn't see me, and she walked me out to my boyfriend's car. My boyfriend and I then started driving, and we saw the guy walking back home.

[00:39:36] [SPEAKER_01] I ducked down so he wouldn't see me. It's weird to think that he would walk all the way from his home to my work just to talk. I couldn't sleep well that night. After that, I was able to permanently start working upstairs near the clinic. My supervisor asked me if I wanted to relocate to one of the other buildings, but I said that I would do that later if the problem kept persisting. I'm glad that I told my co-workers.

[00:40:03] [SPEAKER_01] It is entirely possible that that is all he wanted to do, but I also didn't want to take a chance since it's tough to gauge people's intentions. You never know what's on people's minds and what they're capable of. Plus, my boyfriend continued to pick me up from work after this, and texted me to give me a heads up, to warn me about seeing the guy waiting for me downstairs after all of this, so I ended up telling my supervisor. After I described him to her,

[00:40:31] [SPEAKER_01] she knew exactly who I was talking about and said that he had been down there waiting for two hours. I ended up having to take the back entrance again, and she said that she would talk to him. Honestly, if you have a feeling something is off, it probably is. So please, stay safe everyone.

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[00:44:18] [SPEAKER_01] This happened six years ago when I was 19, and my foster sister Kira was 16. For the sake of this story, it's important to know that I was female presenting and hadn't come out as trans yet, nor was I presenting myself in an overly masculine style at the time. It was the summer before I was going to college, and I mostly lived with my mom and Kira, except for every other weekend, when I would stay with my dad.

[00:44:49] [SPEAKER_01] Summers, where I am from, can get really hot and humid, so we had a habit of waiting to walk the dogs until about 6 or 7 p.m. Because that was when it would be cooler and still light outside. On this evening, our mom wasn't going to be home until late, though I don't remember exactly why. She's a woman who likes to stay busy and often participates in choirs, Bible studies, youth group events,

[00:45:20] [SPEAKER_01] classes, and more, so it wasn't uncommon for Kira and me to be left home alone until about 8 or 9 at night. It was up to Kira and me to walk the dogs by ourselves, unless we wanted our younger dog, Samson, to throw tantrums due to having pent-up energy from being inside all day. Even though we lived in the countryside and could have walked them down our street, Kira and I decided to drive 20 minutes

[00:45:49] [SPEAKER_01] to go to a park instead. Why exactly? I don't remember. It could have been anything from being bored with walking our roads to not wanting to have to deal with blind curves and hills. Whatever the reason, at around 7.30 that night, Kira and I harnessed our two dogs, packed them up in the car, and drove out to the park. The park isn't very big, but it's popular because of its loop.

[00:46:19] [SPEAKER_01] The entire park is surrounded by this mile-long looping road at its attractions, like playgrounds, ponds, and a small country hall, all spaced throughout the inner side of the loop. The outer side is just grass, trees, and one playground at the end. Thus, it's common and expected to pass people walking the loop at least two times if you're walking in the opposite direction, but not if you're walking in the same.

[00:46:48] [SPEAKER_01] Any cars on this road can only drive in one direction because it's a one-way road. At first, everything about the walk was normal. I parked the car, we clipped our dogs to their leashes, and we started walking the loop. Every so often, we would stop to take pictures of our good boys, particularly of Kira trying to wrangle Samson, who pulls like his life depends on it and weaves around because he wants to smell everything.

[00:47:17] [SPEAKER_01] It was while I was taking one of these pictures that the first encounter happened. A man who looked to be in his 40s walked past us, walking in the same direction we were. He was walking up towards the playground on the outer side of the loop. He smiled at Kira, nodded, said hello, or cute dogs, something like that, and kept walking. Honestly, I didn't think anything of it. We were at a park at a time of day

[00:47:46] [SPEAKER_01] when it was common to walk around due to the cooler temperature, and people, where I am from, are generally friendly. Smiling and saying hi is pretty customary, no matter who says it. So we smiled back, maybe he said something like hi or thanks depending on what he said, and that was that. The man passed us again ten minutes later, directly across from where we had seen him previously. Just like he did before, he smiled and said hi.

[00:48:15] [SPEAKER_01] This time Kira and I looked at each other, once he was just ahead of us, and exchanged, well, that was weird, expressions. Ten minutes earlier, he had passed us walking up towards the playground, and subsequently broke off from the loop, and he had been seen walking in the same direction as us. This time, though, he had cut in front of us, and he did it in a way where we had to stop to avoid running into him. Hell, he nearly touched Kira

[00:48:45] [SPEAKER_01] with how close he was walking. But just like before, Kira and I brushed off the weirdness. The guy could have been enjoying a rambling stroll, or doing his own thing, for all we knew. Besides, we had two reasonably sized dogs with us. Who would want to mess with us? Not even five minutes later, the same man passed us again. Once again, he cut so close to us

[00:49:13] [SPEAKER_01] that he nearly brushed our shoulders. Again, he smiled and said hi before walking off. This was officially the moment I decided we needed to leave. As I said, it was normal to pass a person at least two times walking in this loop if you were going in opposite directions. But doing so usually takes a while. You have to at least get to the parallel spot on the loop from where your path first intersected

[00:49:43] [SPEAKER_01] to see each other again. The time between running into this guy seemed suspicious. Plus, I really wasn't a fan of how he kept cutting across us. The first time, he passed us like a normal person, walking faster than we were, albeit a little too close. The second time, he cut in front of us was from the opposite direction instead of walking around us, and we had to stop to avoid running into him. This third time, he walked up behind us, then did this weird

[00:50:12] [SPEAKER_01] slanted walk to cross the path and go in the opposite direction again, which cut us off again. It felt blatant, and I told Kira to hustle so that we could get back to our car and get out of there instead of doing a second loop, so that's what we did. When we were almost to our car, we noticed a car creeping along behind us. We pulled to the side and stopped to let it pass, but for a second, it stopped too.

[00:50:42] [SPEAKER_01] We figured he was getting ready to park, so we started walking again. The car started creeping along behind us soon after we continued walking, so we stopped again and the car stopped with us. This was when Kira got nervous. We hadn't seen the middle-aged guy since the third time he cut us off, so we figured I had overthought the whole thing. But here we were with this car with heavy window tenting

[00:51:12] [SPEAKER_01] that was acting weird as hell. Was it the same guy? Was he back in his car? Or maybe it was someone else. We couldn't tell. Before anything could happen, though, another car pulled up to the one next to us, and whoever it was sped up to the expected speed limit of 5 miles per hour. We got to our car pretty fast after that and practically picked up the dogs to get them inside. Then, we got in

[00:51:41] [SPEAKER_01] and got out of there. My mistake, however, was neglecting my rearview mirror and the well-advised rule not to drive straight home if you're worried that a stranger may be following you. I was anxious, naive, and primarily concerned with getting home where we would be safe. Because home is safe. Nothing bad is supposed to happen to you there. We got home a little after 8. The sun had finally disappeared behind the horizon, but it wasn't fully dark yet.

[00:52:11] [SPEAKER_01] The sky was a dusty purple color, the color that it turns before it finally accepts that it's nighttime. Our mom wasn't home yet, so we got the dogs some water, locked the doors, ate a late dinner, and hung out in the living room talking about things that didn't really matter. It was almost 9.30 when the scariest part of the whole ordeal happened. There, Kira and I were sitting on different couches, talking about something or the other, when we noticed the ceiling

[00:52:40] [SPEAKER_01] briefly lighting up over where Kira was sitting. An important note here is that Kira was sitting on the small couch with her back to the window that faces the front of the house while I was on the couch on the opposite wall, where I could see a sliver of the porch. Right next to Kira was our front door, which has three small rectangular windows on it. Because of our long, slightly curved driveway, it's common to see headlights stream through that window,

[00:53:10] [SPEAKER_01] lighting up the ceiling. They usually fade, then intensify, which means that someone just pulled into our driveway. So when the ceiling above Kira lit up, we didn't think anything of it. We just assumed it was our mom. We also didn't take any notice of the lights skipping the final arc of someone pulling all the way up the driveway. Neither did we pay any mind to how long it was taking our mom to come inside. She has a habit of pulling in, then checking her phone for God knows how long

[00:53:40] [SPEAKER_01] before coming inside, after a couple of minutes I noticed the small sensor light on the porch light up. Again, I could only see a sliver of space based on my position and the curtains. Basically, I could see a smidge of the table and the rails bordering our porch. But not at stairs or anything approaching the door depending on how they approached it. But I wasn't paying much attention because I assumed it was my mom.

[00:54:09] [SPEAKER_01] Right after that light went off, we both heard the storm door open. But we didn't hear anyone pressing the code keys of our lock or jiggling the door handle as our mom usually would do right away. The moment that the storm door creaked open, our two dogs jumped up and ran to the door barking like mad. Our golden greyhound mix, Calvin, has a deep, scary bark which contradicts the adorable appearance.

[00:54:39] [SPEAKER_01] While Samson, our big goofball who is incapable of hurting a fly, jumped up on his hind legs and scrambled to find purchase on one of these small windows. He did this in a desperate attempt to see who was outside. The storm door then immediately slammed shut and we heard heavy footsteps on the cement of our porch. Calvin started going nuts and jumping up on Kira's couch, standing on its back instead of the cushions to try and see out the window. Samson then

[00:55:09] [SPEAKER_01] ran out of the room and went out the doggy door that led to the back porch which has a ramp going down to the fenced off portion of our yard. I couldn't move. I never understood really what it meant when people described their limbs turning to lead until that moment. It felt like I didn't have limbs because it felt like moving wasn't an option. Kira, on the other hand, she was a fighter. She spun around and looked out the window but couldn't see

[00:55:38] [SPEAKER_01] anything because besides the motion light on the porch it was too dark. So she got up, grabbed a dog toy which happened to be a tug-of-war rope with a ball on one end and opened the door. I told her very calmly to shut the door and stay inside but she ignored me and stepped out onto the porch. She came back inside after not seeing anything but due to my utter disbelief she disappeared into the kitchen, came back with a knife

[00:56:08] [SPEAKER_01] and went outside again. This time she was gone for a handful of seconds before running back inside and slamming the door shut. Breathless, she told me that she went out into the yard a bit further and saw the outline of a man by the run-down dog kennel that we weren't using anymore. When she saw him and froze he moved. This time she listened to me when I told her to stay inside and lock the door.

[00:56:37] [SPEAKER_01] I was able to call our mom despite my head being empty and she advised me to get up, make sure all the doors were locked including the basement and make sure the dogs were inside. I ended up making Kira go into the fenced-up section to drag Samson back inside because I couldn't get my legs to move after thinking about doing it myself. When our mom got home and looked around she didn't find anything but we called the non-emergency number for the police. Two cops came by

[00:57:06] [SPEAKER_01] and walked around our yard and they also found nothing. But we got the sense that they didn't believe us but instead saw us as two overexcited girls with an overactive imagination. But they humored us. They told us after we told them about the park that if we think anyone might be following us we should not drive straight home. Then they left. To this day I'm pretty sure the only people who believe someone with malicious intent

[00:57:36] [SPEAKER_01] came to our home in hopes of finding two teenage girls are Kira and me though whether or not whoever it was was the guy from the park we're not sure. But it's too coincidental. The moral of the story is if you're out and about minding your own business and a stranger is taking a lot of notice of you following you frequently running into you or whatever trust your gut don't drive or walk straight home

[00:58:06] [SPEAKER_01] take your time to meander and get to a public space or drive to a police station but pay attention to your surroundings you never know who's watching stick around after the music if you're a patron for your extended version of this week's episode if you want to get access go to

[00:58:35] [SPEAKER_01] patreon.com forward slash let's not me podcast to sign up and support the show today you'll get access to ad free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate and bonus extensions every week with stories you won't hear anywhere else again that's patreon.com forward slash let's not me podcast be sure to send your stories in to let's not meet stories at gmail.com if you'd like to hear them on the show follow my other podcasts like let's not meet in the old time radio cast at cryptic county podcasts dot com or wherever you get your podcasts

[00:59:04] [SPEAKER_01] and follow me on twitch at twitch dot tv slash cryptic county this week you have heard midnight metro stranger by teller of tales the disappearing cop by golden xx a cop pulled me over by he had photos of me by golden prum the man in the truck who followed me by livy 5000 i'll come back when you're done with work by ghoul and finally don't drive straight home by the

[00:59:34] [SPEAKER_01] nearyids of neptune all of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors let's not meet a true horror podcast is not associated with reddit or any other message boards online we'll see you next week everybody stay safe

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