16x15: The Mystery of the 90's Long-Distance Stalker

The world moves fast. You work day, even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Co-Pilot is your AI assistant for work, built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize. So you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more at microsoft.com slash m365 co-pilot. This podcast contains adult language and content. The stories shared on 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 let'snotmeetsdories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. This happened back in October 2016. At the time, I was a student and a member of the student council of my department. October was the start of the semester, and at German universities, this is also when freshman weeks took place. These weeks consisted of various events organized by upperclassmen to welcome the new freshmen. During this particular year, I was the main organizer for freshman weeks. It was a Monday. I woke up at five in the morning so that I could be there earlier than everyone else to prepare breakfast for the freshman. At that time, I lived in a residential building that was not an official student dorm, but it was mostly inhabited by students. However, there were also many non-student residents living there. Some of them rather sketchy because the rent was very cheap. Each floor was divided into apartments on the left side and apartments on the right side. To get to either side of the floor, you had to open an additional door. The door to my side of the floor always squeaked very loudly. As I was getting ready, I stepped out of the small bathroom of my single room apartment and stood in front of my mirror to put makeup on. To my left, less than a meter away, was the door to my apartment. To my right was the rest of the room. I heard the loud squeaking of the door that led from the stairwell and into the hallway. Since I didn't hear anyone leave the apartment, I knew it had to be someone coming from outside and heading back to their place. That was nothing unusual to me, even at that hour, as many students would just be coming back from partying around that time. So, I didn't think anything of it and I continued doing my makeup. However, several minutes passed and I realized that I had never heard anyone open their apartment door and go inside. As I looked at myself in the mirror, I suddenly felt extremely uneasy. A strange feeling came over me and I had a distinct feeling that someone was watching me. I slowly turned my head to the left and I looked at the large peephole in my apartment door. Because of its size, it usually lets in a lot of light from the hallway, since the light out there was never turned off. But this time the peephole was dark. And that's when it hit me. Someone was standing directly in front of my apartment door, less than a meter away from me. This unknown person and I were separated only by a fragile door. And they were out there watching me. My body started to tremble, so I moved to the right side of the room and sat down on the bed. From there, no one could see me from the peephole since there was a wall in between. I waited there for just a few minutes. I don't remember exactly how long, but I definitely waited until I heard the squeaking of the hallway door again. And when I did, I remember thinking, he's gone. Or is he? After that, I quickly finished getting ready, packed my things, and I knew I had to leave. But I was terrified to open the door. What if the person only pretended to leave? What if I had opened the door and he jumped at me? I hesitantly pressed down on the door handle, opened the door, and there wasn't anyone there. The person had gone. When I got downstairs, there was a man I had never seen before standing by the entrance. He was smoking a cigarette. I greeted him and looked him straight in the face. He looked back at me, completely emotionless. Thinking back now, I believe it's entirely possible that someone saw my light turn on from the street below. It must also have been someone who happened to know the structure of the building because the apartments aren't easy to find if you don't know your way around. At some point, I also checked to see what others could see if they looked into my apartment from the outside through the peephole. And that was the next shock. It was possible to see everything. And even more shockingly, everything appeared slightly magnified. So while the stranger was standing at my door, he was probably watching me do my makeup in detail. So he also saw the exact moment when I turned toward him and our eyes met through the peephole. This frightened me for a very long time. So to the person who watched me, from less than a meter away, let's not meet again. I'm a sophomore in college and I live in a house with three other girls. We live in the student housing sector and go all out for Halloween decorations, typically opting for the more girly ones. We live facing the main street of the neighborhood and our backyard has a bunch of trees and bushes. There's a little path to the back door, but it's in a weird place and it's tucked away from the main sidewalk. In terms of our actual house, there's a rather large window on our back door, and we didn't have any window coverings, so anyone could just look through it and see our whole bottom floor clear as day. I know we should have covered it up after we moved in, and we do cover it now, but we just didn't think it was an urgent matter. One night, my roommate and I were watching a movie. We both fell asleep on the couch. I never sleep on the couch, neither does she, since it's super uncomfortable. In fact, we both woke up at separate times this night and just decided to stay on the couch rather than walk the 10 steps to our rooms. Looking back, I feel that was our intuition and perhaps even a guardian angel urging us to stay together. We also had fallen asleep with almost every light imaginable on, so anyone peering through the window could see us on the couch with our girly decor on display. It was about five in the morning. I was woken up by my roommate, shaking me, saying, get up, somebody's trying to get in. I instantly shot up, saw her terrified face looking at the back door, and then turned my head to look at the back door as well. I saw a man standing there wearing a hoodie. He was holding a flashlight and trying to pick our lock. I still vividly remember the scratching noise that he made with whatever he was trying to use. It definitely wasn't the sound of keys jingling. It was more of a thin wire scraping against metal. As we were both staring at him, frozen in fear, he stopped. All three of us were just looking at each other for about a minute, and then he slowly backed away from the door. My first instinct after that was to run to the door and make sure that it was locked. I have never been so scared walking up to a door, and I never want to feel like that again. We then quickly called the police and some friends in the area. The police came about 45 minutes later and told us to just call them if anything else happened. They said it was probably a drunk college student, but we'll never know. I still get a sick feeling thinking about it, and I hope that it was a drunken mistake, but something tells me it wasn't. This seemed so intentional. We installed more cameras, door and window stoppers, and most importantly, we added window coverings. We have since had one break in, but that's a story for another time. I've been meaning to share this experience for a while now, since it left a major impression on me. When I was a kid, I used to ride my bike around my hilly neighborhood, sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. On this particular afternoon, I was alone. I was probably about 8 or 9 years old and coasting down one of the big long hills. I used to let my jacket fly out behind me like it was a cape. It was a good time. As I was doing this, I was suddenly aware of a car driving on my left side, slowing down. I'm not sure why, but I slowed to a stop. Perhaps the driver motioned as if to question me. Of course, I had had stranger danger training, so I was cautious and kept my distance from the car. I also had one foot on the pedal, so I was poised to go. I remember it looked as if only one person was in the car, but I worried that someone could be crouched down in the passenger side or possibly in the back seat, waiting to jump out and grab me. The passenger side window then rolled down, and the driver, a woman with big hair, leaned toward me and called out, Hey there, do you want to go to the circus with me? This scared me immediately. I quickly responded, no. Then I took off down the hill, pedaling as fast as I could. The problem was, the bottom of the hill was just a court. It was basically the end of the neighborhood. This also bordered a major highway, so I would have to turn around and come back up the hill on this road, which looped back up from the court. This was a steep hill. I feared that I'd be a sitting duck if this car came back. Anyone would be able to jump out of that car and come grab me. So I started strategizing, and I wondered, should I go off road into a yard? My friend's house is back where that car was. I didn't even look over my shoulder to see if the car was following me. I just pedaled as if my life depended on it. My heart was pounding, as it did. I decided the grass would slow me down more, and I stayed on the road until I got to my best friend's house. It was probably the longest 10 minute bike ride ever. When I got there, I ran straight into their house, like a wild child, and told them about what happened. I don't think anyone called the police, but I never saw that car or the woman who was driving it again. From that point on, I became hyper-vigilant and wary of putting myself in a bad or vulnerable situation. Even to this day, when I am on a walk or a jog, I make sure there are multiple escape routes on my path. As an adult, I've told this story to others who have been horrified. I recently looked up the statistics, and it's actually rare for children to be kidnapped off the street by a random person. But it could still happen. Tax refunds are hitting bank accounts right now, and before you spend it all, here's one smart thing that you can do with even a small part of it. Start building your credit. 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Fast. You work day even faster pitching products drafting reports analyzing data. Microsoft 365 copilot is your AI assistant for work built into word, excel, powerpoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use helping you quickly write analyze create and summarize. So you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more at Microsoft.com slash M 365 copilot. I moved into a new apartment about six months ago. It's a nice place and a nice suburb in an area that's intended to be safe. Everything's been normal and I was thriving until about two months ago. At first I thought I was being silly and going crazy since I'd noticed things like my front door being unlocked in the morning, even though I remembered locking it before I went to bed. Or I'd come home from work and the bathroom light would be on, even though I always turned everything off before leaving the house. I initially dismissed these things. I thought that I was being overstressed or being forgetful. But then I noticed things that couldn't just be in my head. I leave my keys on the side table just beside the door every night after I lock it. However, one morning when I woke up, they were on the floor by the back door. Another time I found my bedroom window cracked open. I have a very adventurous cat, so I am adamant about never opening that window or any window for that matter. As these things kept happening, I was starting to freak out. I was a young girl living alone and these creepy things just kept happening. It was sending me into a spiral. I had my blinds down all the time, but my bedroom faces a narrow alley and everything could be heard from there, people walking, talking, coughing, everything that happens in the alley. But then, the noise I was hearing started to seem more deliberate. For example, one night last week at about 2.30 a.m., I woke up to the sound of tapping on my window. I froze when I heard this. I couldn't move. I was just trying not to scream and make myself known. After a bit, it stopped and it was completely silent, but I couldn't fall back asleep. I thought it was in my head or I thought it was possibly a tree branch or something. But the next morning, I found two fingerprints smeared across my bedroom window from the outside. After that, I told my landlord about it and asked if he would put up cameras in front of the building. He brushed this off and said that it was probably just some kids from down the road. It definitely wasn't, but tell me how that even makes a difference. I installed a ring camera on my front door three days ago. Since then, I've had alerts of motion detection between 2 and 4 a.m. Every time the footage shows nothing, just an empty alley. But I have a feeling that someone is just standing right there, out of frame. Two days ago, my bedroom light was on when I came home from work. I don't feel safe anymore. I'm jumpy all the time, sleeping with the light on and checking every lock multiple times a night. Part of me is terrified that this person is waiting for me to break psychologically. I'm not sure if this is connected, but years ago, someone who I presume was living in my apartment complex was hacking my speakers and other devices and playing disturbing songs through them at random times. This person would play creepy songs at full volume at all hours of the day and night. After months of torment in that situation, it eventually stopped and I moved out of that apartment shortly after. So I never found out who that was. I don't know if what's happening now is connected to that situation, but it's strange and I'm scared. I have no clue what to do because I went to the police yesterday and they weren't helpful at all. They said that they couldn't do anything unless I had proof and honestly, I don't even know what that would look like right now. But I know something's not right. When I was 14, I was a Valorant addict. I would play for hours. I wouldn't normally use my mic because I had social anxiety and Valorant gamers can be really strange with female players. I met this pretty chill guy though. He invited me to queue up with his friends, another girl and another guy and I accepted. His friend was really sweet and funny and we got along pretty well, so I decided to add him as a friend. After that, we started playing some matches from time to time. Then we exchanged discord information and started talking more. I eventually became attached to him since I could tell that he was really into me and he praised me often and texted me a lot. A few months had passed, so we exchanged our Instagram usernames and started messaging each other on there. Throughout all of this, we hadn't established whether we were friends or more. We would flirt occasionally, but it wouldn't go any further than that. One day, he asked for my Snapchat. I agreed, even though I was sort of suspicious since I always knew where adding guys on Snapchat generally led to. But I didn't really mind since I was interested in him. Things did turn sexual after a few days. He would send me pictures and videos. I didn't send anything back, but I would entertain. After six months of this, when I turned 15, I told him I didn't want anything serious. I let him know I wasn't interested in a relationship, but I said that we could be friends with benefits. He enthusiastically agreed, so I finally ended up sending him pictures back. Honestly, at the time, I thought I was safe to do so because it was on Snapchat, and I was able to see if he took a screenshot. A few weeks passed, and I realized I had never seen his face, and I knew almost nothing about him. So, I started asking him more about himself. He told me his name was Joshua, and he said that he lived in Florida. He said he had multiple mental illnesses, and let me know that he had been in trouble with the police before. Then, he showed me his face. I realized how deep of the shit I was in, after having this conversation with him, so I started texting him less. This infuriated him. At some point, I decided to officially cut him off. I tried to do it as politely as I could, but he was getting angry, so I blocked him. And then, I thought that was it. A year later, I received a text from my sister. She asked, Hey, who is Josh? I felt my knees weaken. I asked her why she was asking. She told me that she would tell me when she got home. When she finally arrived, I was already waiting for her in the kitchen. She gave me this look. I already began crying. She hugged me. He had sent her my pictures and threatened to leak them, so I had no choice but to talk about it with my mom, and she told me that we should go to the police. I agreed, and we went to the police station, where they told me they would send officers to my house. When they came to our house, they had to take my phone, and they had conversations with my sister and me. That was when it finally dawned on me that this was really serious. I got scared when this happened, though, so I backed out. Then, maybe a month or two later, Josh's brother texted me asking me to unblock him. We texted a bit, and he told me that Josh would often sell nudes to predators on telegram. I realized I was in very deep shit, but I was still too scared to speak up. I now know that I really should have. Josh then texted my friend's boyfriend and told him how horrible I was and asked if he wanted my nudes. A few months later, he texted my then boyfriend, telling him the same thing, and he threatened to send my nudes if I wouldn't talk to him, so I finally unblocked him. I told him to back off and leave me alone, or I'd go to the cops. His response was, that would just show me how much you love me. I obviously re-blocked him. Since then, every few months, I get a Snapchat or an Instagram request from him. Sometimes I accept it and I tell him to back off, and then I tell him I don't love him. I tried to find out his last name, and I remembered his brother who texted me, so I texted him and asked him what Josh's last name was, but he denied knowing who I was, and he said that he didn't know who Josh was either. I'm wondering if there's anything I could do. I feel like I can't escape him no matter where I go. I've made most of my accounts private because of him, and I have trouble trusting people now. I feel like I'm always just waiting for him to reappear. I was 17 years old at the time this happened. I attended a youth church event, and it was supposed to be like a prom, since the country I live in doesn't have events like that. Some people showed up with dates, but my friends and I decided to show up together. There were a lot of people at the event, some of whom I didn't even recognize. Later in the night, a man asked me to dance with him to a slow song. I didn't know him, but I knew that he was new at our church, so to be polite, I said yes. Then, as he ushered me toward the dance floor, he introduced himself. We'll call him Caleb for the story. I noticed he had an accent, so I mentioned it in conversation. He said that he grew up in the UK. Throughout the dance, we talked and got to know each other. I remember thinking that he was a pretty sweet guy. He told me he was invited to the event and didn't really know anyone. He also said that he was in his 20s, and he had just moved to the area for work. I was taken aback by our age gap but decided not to dwell on it, as this was just a friendly interaction. After the song finished, he asked if we could dance again. I made an excuse and said that I needed to grab a drink and freshen up. He said that he was willing to grab a drink for me while I went to the washroom. I reluctantly agreed and made my way there. I then stayed in there for at least one song, hoping that he would get tired of waiting for me, but when I got back to the event, he was just sitting at my table. I could tell that he was looking for me in the crowd, and when his eyes landed on me, he smiled and beckoned me over. In that moment, I remember thinking to myself that maybe he needed company since he didn't know anyone at the event, so I just sat beside him and he gave me the drink that he got for me, but I didn't drink it. He asked if I wanted to dance again, but this time I said no, and I said that I was tired. He still didn't leave the table though. He stayed to talk to me. At this point, I just wanted to end our interaction and be away from him, so I told him that I was going to talk to a friend at the other table. I told my friend what was going on, and I stayed at her table until Caleb left. For the rest of the night, I didn't see him, and I thought that that was the end of it. At the time, I worked at a women's clothing store in the mall. After school, about three times a week, I would usually work a closing shift. One day, I went to clock in, and a co-worker of mine told me that a man was looking for me. I had just missed him. I didn't think anything of it and thought maybe it was just a friend of mine or a family member. Next shift, it happened again, and I asked my co-worker what he looked like. They described Caleb. I have no idea how he knew I worked there. I was shocked, and it became even creepier when it happened again on my next shift. It had been almost a week, and I was just glad that we kept missing each other, but I figured my luck had ran out when I saw him waiting by the door to the store as I was coming in for my shift. He greeted me and told me that he had been wanting to talk to me. I asked him why, and he said that he wanted to take me out on a date. I had never been out on a date before, and I honestly didn't want my first one to be with him, so I said no. He then asked if he could just buy me food at the food court during my break. I was getting the feeling that he wouldn't take no for an answer, and I figured that with it being a public place, he wouldn't try anything, so I naively agreed. So he then walked into the store with me and then walked me to the back room as he went on about how he was glad to see me, and he told me that there was more he wanted to know about me. Then, when my shift started, I noticed that he was still in the store looking around. He stayed for about an hour, I would often catch him looking at me. No matter where I was, he was always nearby. This went on for an hour. I was thoroughly creeped out. I let one of my co-workers know what was going on, and I told her if I wasn't back from my break on time she needed to let security or somebody know. I only had a 30 minute break, so I was hoping for the time to go by fast. When it was finally time for the break, I made my way out of the back room, and as I pushed the door open, he was already there waiting for me. We then walked to the food court, and we made some small talk along the way. But he creeped me out when he asked me if he could have my number. I lied and told him that I didn't have a phone yet. Then he brought me some food, but he didn't buy anything for himself. We then sat down at one of the tables as he watched me eat. Our conversation was dry, and I was quick and short with my responses. I just wanted it to end already. He kept asking about my life, what do I like to do for fun, and so on. He then asked if I had a boyfriend. I said no, and that I didn't want to be in a relationship. Then I quickly finished my food and told him that we should head back. When I was done eating, he insisted on staying as there were 10 minutes left of my break. But I lied. I said I needed that extra time to finish one of my tasks. The walk back to the store was quiet, which I found weird because he was so talkative before. But as he walked me back to work, he was dead silent. Once we were in front of the store, I said goodbye and turned to leave. But he caught my arm and pulled me close to him. He said that he had liked me ever since he saw me at the event, and that he wanted to get to know me more and was interested in me. It felt wrong. I backed away from him. I was as frank as I could be, and I told him that I wasn't interested. He asked if we could at least keep in touch through social media, and I told him I wasn't comfortable giving him that information. He then had the nerve to ask me if he could hug me. Before I could even say anything, he pulled me in and hugged me tight. It was very tight. But I was able to pull away quickly. He said he was sorry for surprising me like that. And then he said goodbye and walked off. After that incident, I never saw him at the store again. I did see him a couple of times at church, and he would smile at me and try to talk to me, but I would always try to avoid him. He also eventually stopped coming to church, and after that, I didn't see him again. So to the creepy guy I met through a church event, let's not meet again. Look, the economy is a lot right now, and if you're a small business owner, you probably feel it. You can't control interest rates or tariffs, but you can control how efficiently your business operates. And one of the things I used to dread most was the admin side of running things, payroll, onboarding, HR paperwork. It would eat up hours that I didn't have. Automating all of that with Gusto has been one of the best decisions I've made for my business. Gusto is online, payroll, and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one, remote friendly and incredibly easy to use. 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Obviously, his name has been changed for the sake of anonymity. Nathan was my best friend at the time, and we would sometimes spend months without seeing each other. But when we did hang out, we would always do the same. We'd grab some snacks and catch up over coffee before sunset. Then we would walk around town until about 9pm and call it a day. That was our usual, but this time, nothing felt usual. From the moment I saw him, something in my stomach dropped. It wasn't him per se, we were on good terms, but something about hanging out that day felt off. We went to our usual coffee spot, and once we were there, things went as expected. So I shook off my initial feeling of nervousness since I hadn't seen him in such a long time. That was until Nathan mentioned that he felt like things around us were weird. Once he said that, there was another drop in my stomach. I kept my cool though, trying not to be paranoid, I asked, oh, you feel it too. He nodded and said that he couldn't pinpoint what was wrong, but he described it as our surroundings being odd, even hostile, despite there being nothing to fear. Were we experiencing some kind of shared paranoia? Was the end of the year getting to us? We really didn't know, but we were certain that it was the first time we felt something like that. After we finished our coffee, I felt like having a walk wasn't going to be the best idea, so I decided to call it a day earlier than usual and just part ways while it was still light outside. Then at that moment, my dad called me and asked if I could find out the price of a phone that he was thinking about buying. So in my mind, I kept thinking, yeah, I'll ask about this and then we'll split. But for some reason, and even after that feeling we felt, we still decided to go on our long walk and we continued to hang out until after dark. We used to walk along the boulevard that wasn't in a dangerous area. It was typically filled with teenagers and young adults sitting on the grass division in the middle, drinking and smoking and listening to music. However, as we walked by this area, it was completely empty. Even though it was 8 30pm on a Saturday, I like to think that this was the final warning. As we passed a corner, I noticed two other guys as we crossed the street and kept walking straight. I looked over my shoulder and I noticed that they were behind us. They were around our age, maybe older. Something like that doesn't normally trigger red flags for me, but these two did it with so little. What set me off first was that they weren't talking like us. They were dead silent. Their pace was off. They weren't trying to pass us, but they didn't stay too far behind either. They were steadily keeping pace while keeping their distance. We were completely alone with them on that street. It was just the four of us. As we approached the end of the boulevard, which descends into a large park, I warned Nathan and said, Hey, these two behind us, they might be up to something. Nathan looked over his shoulder and then back at me and asked, Do you want to cross the street just to be sure? I nodded. So we did. Then we crossed the grass area in the middle and onto the other side before continuing to walk down the street. Those guys then up to their pace and one of them grabbed something from a fanny pack that he had strapped on his chest. He then went ahead of his friend and before I could react, this guy crossed the street right in front of us. He called us boys, then told us to keep quiet or he would shoot us both. Then his friend or partner or whatever closed in on us as well. I was freaked out. My vision went blurry. I couldn't really even see their faces anymore. All I could see was that they were in front of us, threatening to end our lives armed. I froze and my entire life flashed before me in a panic. I gave one of them my phone as I raised my hands, but Nathan managed to snap out of it and ran away. But I stayed frozen there while those shitheads threatened us and told him to come back. It wasn't until Nathan yelled at me and told me to run that I snapped out of it too. When I did, I ran towards him. I tripped not far from where I was running and I heard one of the guys yelling, shoot him. At that moment, I thought, this is it. This is how I die. But I gathered my strength and I got back up. I kept running, fully expecting to hear a gunshot behind me. But it never rang out. Nathan and I ran all the way back. And when I was finally able to talk again, all I was able to say was, help us, help, please, at the top of my lungs. We ran a few blocks until we stopped from exhaustion. Nathan had lost his glasses somewhere along the boulevard and wanted to go back because he could not see without them. And getting a new pair was going to be very expensive. But I refused. I told him we needed to stay where we were and wait for the police or any kind of help. But eventually he convinced me and we went back to the place where our lives had changed forever. Luckily, he found his glasses and those two assholes were long gone. I'm not claiming that anything supernatural happened here, but everything that we had felt before that horrific moment was like a warning sign trying to stop us from going there. Even after the dust settled, people started showing up on the boulevard again, just like they had before. We then came across a woman waiting for her husband to finish work. Upon hearing what happened to us, she offered to give us a ride to my house. We accepted. When we arrived, I hugged my mom, as I had never done in my life. And I was thankful for the opportunity. Needless to say, this incident and this day changed me forever. It could have happened on any date, at any hour, and anywhere. But November 5th will never be a normal day for me again. Nathan and I have drifted apart since, not because of this, but our friendship was never really the same after it. Especially since I refused to go back around that area at night. I will never, ever ignore my gut feeling if I have one again. Not that I want to experience it again. But if your gut tells you something is off, trust me, it is. I'm a 22 year old woman and this story took place last year when I was 21. I live in a small town and I work in a pub in the town center, which is comprised of two pubs, two small shops, and a bank. On my walk home, I passed by one of the shops, which has a small bus shelter next to it. Buses run approximately every hour, but service stops after 8pm. Beyond the bus shelter, it's just residential housing, and then my house is near the end of that road. All in all, from my job to my house, it's about an 8 minute walk. My town is usually quiet after 10pm, as everything is closed and it's relatively safe. I've never had a problem walking home alone. While this incident occurred, late New Year's Eve, the pubs were open later than usual. I finished my shift at about 1.30am, so my boss, my boyfriend, and I went to the pub next door for a drink before we went home, along with two of our other coworkers. Before I knew it, it was 2.30am. When I realized what time it was, I decided that I needed to get home. My boyfriend lives on the other side of town, and I wasn't staying at his place that night. Since it was so late, my boss insisted on driving me home. I kept insisting that he stay, as everyone else was enjoying themselves and talking about the Christmas period that we had to work. My boyfriend also insisted on walking me home, but I was adamant that I was fine. It was just 10 minutes away. After a lot of pushback, I told them I was walking home on my own. I really enjoy walking without headphones while having a cigarette, especially after a shift because it's nice, silent, and peaceful. I didn't pass or see anybody until I walked past the shop. As I mentioned previously, there is a small bus shelter next to it. As I got closer, I realized a man was sitting on the bench in the bus stop. Bear in mind, it was nearly 3am, and even the pub we were at wasn't technically open at that hour. They just let us in because we worked at the other pub. Even so, I didn't really think too much of the man, but as I got closer, I realized I had served him during my shift earlier in the night. He looked up at me as I was walking by. I realized he was sniffing some sort of drug, most likely cocaine, from his keys. I didn't know him personally, and I still don't, but he didn't seem threatening. He just looked like he was kind of meandering. He did meet my eyes, though. As I walked past the bus shelter, he said something along the lines of, Sorry darling, do you have a lighter that I can borrow? I was smoking as I was walking, so he knew I would have one. I stopped, and he was already walking towards me, so I started digging into my bag, looking for one of my many lighters that I had. I was fully intent on letting him keep it, since I'm not the type to stand there with some strange man that I didn't know, while he lit his cigarette. He then asked me for a cigarette, but I had just lit my last one, and I informed him of this. During this entire interaction, he was very close to me, but I was somewhat frozen in place. I then realized that I was stopped and standing with a man on this desolate street with nobody around. I was in this part of town where there wasn't any housing for another couple of minutes, and if anyone had come out of the pub, I was too far away, so they wouldn't have seen me. I just mumbled something like, keep the lighter, I have to go. But the guy whom I had spoken to for only 20 seconds told me to stop. Even though my feet had already started to turn and walk away, I stopped again. Now, I know I should have just kept walking, but I thought maybe whatever he had to say was innocent enough, and I didn't want to give a reason to quote unquote provoke him by just walking away. Then his demeanor switched. He wasn't particularly polite to start with, but it was when he told me to stop that I realized that I was a young woman walking alone at this time of night, and thinking about this still genuinely gives me chills. He looked me up and down and said, you know, I've been really angry, and I've been waiting for somebody to hurt all night. You shouldn't be walking around here alone. My legs turned to jelly in that moment. I didn't know if my phone was in my pocket or in my back. I looked around and said, oh, I'm not alone. My boyfriend's waiting for me around the corner. I'll be with him in a minute. And then I smiled. This was a lie. My boyfriend was still back at the pub and had no idea that this interaction was taking place. Then I thought maybe I should walk back to the pub. But I decided not to since by that point my house was closer than the pub. The man smirked as if he knew I was lying. And he said that he would walk me to meet with my boyfriend. However, there was obviously no boyfriend there. I kept saying there was no need. But he was literally on my tail, rambling about how I didn't understand him. He told me that I needed to walk with him. He told me that I wasn't going to be hurt. And the whole time I kept thinking that he was going to grab my hair or pull me to the ground since he was going to realize no boyfriend was waiting for me at any minute. I ended up pulling my phone out and opening a work group chat. I typed a message about a man walking with me and I realized my phone only had 2% battery left. I didn't want a chance calling my boyfriend. And as I was mulling over this, the guy started rambling about how I wasn't listening to him. By some miracle, when we turned around the corner onto my street, this guy didn't realize my boyfriend wasn't there or maybe he did. But he didn't say anything. He just started spewing the most perverted stuff to me. Calling me a pretty young girl. I bet your boyfriend doesn't know how to handle you, things like that. He said some more things, but I never responded. I just kept walking and sped up. I also kept discreetly checking my phone. He kept walking with me, which made me realize he would know which house I lived in. So I thought, I'm going to have to pretend one of these other houses is mine. Otherwise, I will be leading him right to my house, where my dad would be asleep at the back of the house, none the wiser. All of the houses on the street had a small gate and footpath leading to the door. So I chose a house with the light on and opened that gate. I then turned to the guy and said, well, this is me. So I'll see you later. Thanks for walking me. Then I walked through the gate and it closed behind me. After that, I ran up to this random door and shoved my key into it, even though it wasn't mine, praying that the guy would just leave and wouldn't wait for me to go inside the house. Thankfully, he didn't. He started stumbling in the opposite direction back down the street, away from where my actual house was. And what I thought was my only chance, I went back up to the gate at this house, walked back through it, and then sprinted to my actual house. This guy clocked what I was doing instantly. So he started walking in my direction again, but he couldn't catch up in time to see which house I had gone to. When I put my key in the door of my actual house, I realized my dad had left his key in the door on the inside, meaning I was locked out. So I got my phone out, but it had died in the time we were walking. So I began banging on the door. Thankfully, my dad let me in a couple of minutes later. That was the end of things, but it was absolutely terrifying. I haven't walked home alone since, and my boyfriend was so upset that he didn't push for me to walk home with him that night. Thankfully, I'm okay and nothing physically happened to me, though. So to the random guy who walked me home after saying he had been looking for someone to hurt all night, please let's never meet again. Back in the early 90s, when I was a wild teenager, I met John at a party through my friend Cindy. John was an old friend of Cindy's brother from high school, and he was in town for a short visit. I thought that John was cute, and he was definitely flirting with me. I was 16, and he was 21. He lived halfway across the country, so I figured I would never see him again after he left, but when he asked for my address and my phone number so that we could keep in touch, I was giddy. I couldn't believe this hot 21-year-old guy wanted to stay in touch with me, so I was quick to give him all my information. I should note that I was very mature at 16 because I had five older siblings, with a nine-year difference between me and the eldest. I never saw anything creepy about a 21-year-old showing interest in a 16-year-old. Others did, but I ignored their concern, and I wrote it off as criticism. As soon as John got home, he made a long-distance phone call to me, which was a big deal back then. Letters began to arrive. Sometimes I'd receive several per week. Soon, a letter arrived with stamps all over it, indicating it was mailed from jail. He got into some trouble, and he refused to tell me about it, but he did say that he wouldn't be in jail long since he was innocent. Months went by, and John was still writing at least once a week. I was living with my parents, but they were never home in the afternoon, but I always got the mail when I got home from school, so that they would avoid seeing the heavily stamped letters postmarked from a prison being sent to their 16-year-old daughter. As time went on, the letters started getting a lot more personal. He drew pictures for me and wrote some poems. He went on and on about what kind of life that he wanted to have. He asked me to send pictures when I sent letters back, and then he requested sexier pictures. I wrote him every two weeks or so, but I wasn't sending him nearly the same number of letters that he was sending me. Then one day, John called me and told me that he was out of jail for the time being, but he said that he still had to go to court to clear some stuff up. He let me know that he might get locked up again. I tried to find out why, but he wouldn't tell me. He said it didn't matter because he was innocent, and all he would say was that it was all fucked up. After that, he started calling again. He was calling a lot. At that point, I was rarely ever home, so he started calling later at night, which got me in trouble. He also got obsessed with constantly knowing everything that I did. The guy wasn't even my boyfriend. I never said that he was, and we even discussed guys that I liked and the dates that I went on, but he totally changed his attitude over time. I was tired of his interrogations, so one night when he called, I lied and said that I hadn't been doing anything. I told him that I had been sick. I was sleeping in my room. Honestly, I just wanted to get off the phone and go to bed. He flipped out and proceeded to tell me exactly what I had done that night, and he even named the people I was with. This broke my brain. I hung up and I took the phone off of the hook. After a sleepless night, I called everyone the next day. John was a thousand miles away, yet somehow he knew where I was the previous night, and he knew the instant I got home, because the phone started ringing before I could even close the front door. No one knew anything about it. I talked to Cindy and her brother, and they said that they hadn't talked to him. Cindy's brother said that they were only buddies in high school, so he hadn't really known the guy for years, and he had no idea what I was even talking about. As we asked more people about this, more people ended up getting freaked out, even though our circle of inquiry expanded quite a bit. We found no answers. John continued to call every night, but I didn't answer, and after 10 pm, I would take the phone off the hook in my bedroom, so the phone wouldn't ring. My older siblings had all moved out at this point, so luckily my parents never noticed. John then wrote more letters detailing the things that I was doing and who I was with. He told me how much I meant to him, and he couldn't understand why I wouldn't talk to him. The letters were still postmarked from his home state, and the calls were still coming in from his area code, so I was pretty sure he wasn't in town, but that still did not explain how he was getting this information. I continued to ignore his calls, and I never wrote back, so I was hoping that he would get bored and just maybe give up. I didn't want to get the cops involved because I didn't want my letters to him being dragged into anything, because I told him some personal stuff, and I didn't exactly want other people reading what I had written to him. It was mostly just minor drama stuff, but I really didn't like cops, and I really didn't want them involved in my life. Finally, when I was on the verge of going to the police, I actually started writing out a statement with a detailed timeline and then sorted the pile of letters from him. But then, the phone calls and the letters suddenly stopped. One month later, I got another letter covered in stamps. He was back in jail and as crazy as ever. This letter ended up being about 20 pages, and it was wall to wall, pure batshit crazy with doodles covering every square inch of the paper. I wrote back on one single page, with just enough words to explain that if he ever wrote or called me again, I would take every single page he had ever written to me and send copies to the police, the warden of the jail that he was in, and to his old high school buddy, Cindy's brother. I never heard from John again after that. I also never figured out how he had been stalking me from jail. Of all my friends back then, I can't think of anyone who would have been playing spy for this guy and lying about it. I even tried switching up the people I was hanging out with, but John still knew exactly who I was with no matter what. This was a long time ago, so I didn't have a cell phone or a home computer. I also never talked to anyone on the phone about the things that he seemed to know about. The only thing I can come up with is that John must have paid someone to watch me, because without the internet, this guy managed to stalk me from a thousand miles away. To this day, no one in my family knows anything about this, since I had no idea how to tell them what was going on. If you're a patron, stick around after the music for your ad-free extended version of this week's episode. If you want to get access, go to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet 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, plus bonus extensions at the ends of each episode with stories you won't hear anywhere else. Again, that's patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. Be sure to send your stories into let's not meet stories at gmail.com if you'd like to hear them on the show. And check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Odd Trails, my true paranormal podcast, and the old-time radio podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. And follow me on twitch at twitch.tv slash cryptic county. This week, you have heard less than a meter away by puddle puff girls. He was watching asleep by less caterpillar 945. Stranger Danger Warnings came true by additional painting. I think someone is watching me by Grinful. I've been stalked online for years by morgue rat. Was I too friendly with this guy by impressive bend 2177? I should have followed my gut by leanSkiba22. I've been looking for someone to hurt all night by anonymous. And finally, the mystery of the 90s long distance stalker by molds. 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. Again, send those stories to let's not meet stories at gmail.com. We'll see you all next week. Stay safe. Thank you. I grew up in a small apple orchard town in British Columbia, Canada.