Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 12x24: Popcorn

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

Upcoming LNM Live Tour Dates: 8/10/24 : San Diego, CA @ House of Blues: GET YOUR TICKETS 8/11/24 : Los Angeles, CA @ The Moroccan Lounge: GET YOUR TICKETS 8/18/24: Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s: GET YOUR TICKETS 9/19/24: Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall: GET YOUR TICKETS More Dates to be announced soon! Stories in this episode: The Bad Feeling That Saved My Life | Responsible_Carpet43 (0:39) My Trip to Colorado | LimpyLaundry (14:30) Stalked in an Ohio State Park | Queasy-Comfort-8559 (24:39) Working at My Aunt's Diner | dancing_unicorn08 (31:12) Weird Man in Nevada | SlothTeeth (33:56) Creepy Occurrence on Holiday in Greece | MediumActuator1280 (37:23) The Elderly Couple in the Car | Wickdead (42:05) Popcorn | enormous-radio (47:27) Extended Patreon Content: My Trip to Georgia | Kathi Sunset Stalkers | Kelsey A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing | Olivia Due to periodic changes in ad placement, time stamps are estimates and are not always accurate. Follow: - Twitch - https://twitch.tv/crypticcounty - Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/ - Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/ Check out the other Cryptic County podcasts like Odd Trails and the Old Time Radiocast at CrypticCountyPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts!    Get access to extended, ad-free episodes of Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast with bonus stories every week at a higher bitrate along with a bunch of other great exclusive material and merch at patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast. This podcast would not be possible to continue at this rate without the help of the support of the legendary LNM Patrons. Come join the family! 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. To submit your story to the show, send it to [e-mail].    Get AI writing support that works where you work. Sign up and download for FREE at grammarly.com/podcast.

This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. During my freshman year of college in New Hampshire, a girl in my dorm hall accidentally caused a small dorm room fire by leaving popcorn in the microwave too long at 3 a.m. Everyone who lived there had to evacuate, and a bunch of fire trucks came. The resident advisors made a pretty big stink about it. The girl who caused the fire was the subject of many jokes, and I felt bad for her,

because she was already a bit of an outcast. She always looked particularly lonely, and I thought causing an accidental microwave fire seemed like a pretty innocent mistake, especially considering all of the harsh comments and jokes. A couple of days after the incident, I saw her in the resident hall. I made casual small talk with her by lightly asking how things had been popping for her. I just wanted to check up on her, since I felt bad. She laughed at my question, and that was it. We just had a short conversation and then moved on. About one week later, I heard a knock at my dorm door, and it was the girl who started

the microwave fire. We'll refer to her as Popcorn from here on out. When I opened the door, Popcorn ran into my room with no hesitation. I wasn't even sure how she knew where my room was, since I never told her my room number. She didn't even know what my name was yet, so I figured she must have seen me walk in there once, and it took me a second to realize that she was in full-blown tears. And just like that, in the blink of an eye, there was a stranger sitting on my bed crying hysterically. I have a bleeding heart, so I launched into consoling her right away and

asked her what was wrong. She told me that a cook in the dining hall assaulted her. She said that she talked to the administrative staff, but the college wouldn't fire him. She said that she was suffering emotionally because of it. Being a victim of assault myself, I empathized with her situation. Before she left my room, I gave her my phone number in case she ever wanted to walk to the dining hall with a safety net.

The night after that conversation that we had in my room, she called me and asked if I could walk her down to the dining hall since the cook who assaulted her was working. When we met up to walk to get her food, she lit up like a glow stick. It was like a whole new person emerged. By the time we were walking to the dining hall, it seemed like it didn't matter that the person who assaulted her was in the room. She was talking my ear off about her interests.

Pretty little liars, one direction, etc. She was talking about a lot of things that I just didn't care about, but I took it in stride since she had no one to talk to and the situation was complicated. I just listened to her gushing and nodded my head. Over the next two weeks, I walked Popcorn down to the dining hall about five times. I wanted to be there for her, but at the same time, I was realizing that she was a pretty unappealing person because she talked about herself and the third person. I also started to notice that her story about the assault became inconsistent.

She always had a new major development about what was happening. And the story was changed to something more drastic and severe than what she first told me. It went from a one-on-one occurrence to having a full group of people involved. Then she commented one day, singling out a specific group of people involved, then she commented one day, singling out a specific group of people. She said that she wished that someone would drop a bomb on them, and implied that they were the only group of people capable of committing assault.

This made me immediately unsettled and uncomfortable. After that, I knew that I didn't want to walk with her to the dining hall or interact with her anymore. Luckily Thanksgiving was soon after that. The week of Thanksgiving was a reprieve for me as I went back home to visit my family while popcorn stayed on campus. During that week, while I was away, I had 60 missed phone calls from popcorn. One third of these calls happened in one day over the span of a couple of hours. This just confirmed what I already knew. Something was off. No normal person does that.

I felt like the red flags were definitely raised by that point, if they weren't raised already. Shortly after I returned to campus after the break, I felt like the red flags were definitely raised by that point, if they weren't raised already. Shortly after I returned to campus after the break, there was a knock at my door. Sure enough, it was popcorn. She was crying again. She told me that since I wasn't on campus to protect her, she was assaulted by the guy while she was walking to Panera. She also said an RA groped her.

Now this was beyond a red flag moment. I was hearing full on sirens, and I do not take accusations like this lightly. But the rate at which these assaults were happening to her was exponentially high, especially since three assaults happened to her within one month timeframe. I was suspicious that she was making these stories up to elicit some kind of sympathy. This did offend me deeply as an actual victim of assault. After she told me what happened to her while I was gone for break, I told her I had to

leave for class and ran off to a friend to ask for advice. I also decided to warn the RA officers about her, and they told me that they would talk to her. After talking to some people about the situation, I went to class. During class, I had over 100 missed phone calls and a series of individual messages that just said, Hi. And they were all from Popcorn. I was done with this shit. I wanted nothing to do with her.

After class I blocked her number and then I went back to my dorm. The following week, I went straight to my dorm after class. I didn't want to see her around at all. One day I had to go to the bathroom, so I walked to the bathroom and got in one of the stalls. As I was in there, popcorn entered and then crawled on the bathroom floor and dipped her head up underneath the stall. She looked up at me and said,

Ha! There you are. I knew you would eventually come out of your room. This freaked me the fuck out. I was nearly in tears. I told her that I had been busy, and I said that I didn't have time for her. I also told her that I was upset with her for invading my privacy. It took a lot of courage for me to do that since I struggle with confrontation.

She steamrolled over what I had just said and told me that she thought I was destined to die at a young age since her mom died at a young age as well. It was manipulative, and I was just not in the mood for it. I left her in the bathroom as quickly as I could and went back to my room and locked the door. Then I tried to calm myself down by watching some YouTube. I wound up taking a nap, which was interrupted by someone pounding on my door. I didn't answer, but the pounding continued and got louder.

Open this door or I'm going to kill you, Popcorn shrieked. She repeated this over and over as she loitered outside of my dorm. She was singing songs into the doorframe for an hour. I was so scared I just sat there and cried. I called my dad and asked him to pick me up from school. I didn't have any friends who lived on campus since it was a small college. A majority of the students who attended would commute. This paired with the whole situation made me feel so isolated, which led to my mental health deteriorating rapidly.

The RAs were informed of the threats that were being made at my door by other students who observed it as it happened. But popcorn was only given a warning. I had a boyfriend who lived three hours away from me at the time. One night, as all of this was happening, he came to spend the night with me at the college. We were watching a movie until we fell asleep. As we were napping, we heard the door open.

I didn't realize that I had completely spaced out, and I forgot to lock the door. Popcorn came running in. I didn't realize that I had completely spaced out, and I forgot to lock the door. Popcorn came running in. She jumped on top of us and said, Popcorn wants cuddles. This was beyond creepy. I couldn't help but scream, what the fuck? My boyfriend had no problem telling her to get the absolute fuck out of my room. He then pushed her out of the room and slammed the door, giving zero fucks. I swear, he almost slammed the door shut on her fingers. We reported her to the campus police in the morning, but still nothing major came of it. After that, not much happened.

Until there was another popcorn fire in her dorm room, which resulted in her finally getting kicked out. After she left the dorms, my resident life became a lot easier. I made a lot of new friends, and I was feeling less anxious. One day, a girl in one of my classes invited me to go to the mall with her to get our nails done. This nail salon had a clear glass storefront, so the rest of the mall was visible from inside. I was relaxing when all of a sudden, I saw Popcorn's face pressed up against the glass in front of this nail salon.

She was staring at me through the window for a good ten minutes. I told my friend what was going on and we booked it out of there. In retrospect, that is when I should have called the police, since now things were happening off campus. After I got back to my dorm, I saw that I had a bunch of random friend requests from Facebook. All of the profiles had a small Yorkie dog as the profile picture and I had several message requests. I opened them, and they were from popcorn.

She told me that she was getting married, and she was asking me to be the bridesmaid at the wedding that she and her fiancé were having at Pizza Hut in two years. She also said that she was upset that I didn't acknowledge her at the mall since she wanted to introduce me to her fiancé. But she said that she was so upset that she wanted to wring my neck.

Of course, I blocked all of the profiles that she was sending me messages from, and things went pretty silent. After that, I moved to live with my boyfriend while going to school in Rhode Island. I loved going to this other school, and I made an excellent group of friends. About a few months into the move, after I had gotten home from work, I had three missed calls from a random number with a New Hampshire area code. Assuming it was one of my family members, I called back. Popcorn was on the other end.

I hung up right away. I called the police immediately and urgently told them about the situation and gave them her cell phone number. I don't know what happened or if anything came of it. All I know is I haven't been bothered since. I'm a very kind person and people often prey on my kindness. I'm working really hard to putting it into that, though. Unfortunately, there are so many unhinged and lonely people out there, so kind people

need to be careful. We really shouldn't make it our burden to help these people out. Sometimes being nice can cause harm, and a lot of mental strain. Popcorn, let's not meet again. I'm writing across multiple platforms and places all day during work, so delivering consistent high-quality communication everywhere is key. Grammarly is an AI writing partner that helps you to get your work done faster, with high-quality writing for better projects, proposals, presentations, and more. Best of all, Grammarly works where you work, so you can get more done no matter what tools you use. I use it on my phone as well as my computer.

I work in Google Docs a lot of the time, and it's been really helpful to be able to utilize Grammarly's AI features to ensure that my writing is efficient and that I can confidently send the work out. Plus, I get to save time with one click and go from editing drafts in hours to seconds. 93% of professionals using Grammarly Premium report that it helps them get more work done. Get AI writing support that works where you work. Sign up and download for free at writing support that works where you work. Sign up and download for free at grammarly.com slash podcast. That's g r a m m a r l y.com slash podcast. Easier said, done. Now back to the show. My aunt owns a local diner in the middle of a small town where everyone knows everyone.

Recently, she had almost half of her waiters quit within a month. After this happened, I overheard her telling my mom about this while I was doing some homework in the dining room at the table. I listened as my aunt asked my mom if my two older sisters could help out. My mom said that the oldest was about to move out of town with her fiance, but agreed to let my second older sister work there. My aunt then asked about me. Mind you, I'm a 15-year-old girl and the last thing on my mind to do as an after-school

activity is go to work. Even if it's just a few hours, even if this job did allow me to get home early enough in the evening to finish my homework, I still didn't like the idea at all. My mom was quiet for a bit before agreeing. I didn't react as I know that money is a touchy subject in my family. Ever since my dad divorced my mom, I chose to stay with my mom 100% of the time since my dad is an alcoholic. He often hurt my mom and he has done some nasty things to me and my sisters.

I have no idea where he is now, but he's likely in jail or married to another poor woman who will be his next victim. Their divorce is partially the reason why we're struggling when it comes to money. About a week after my aunt asked my mom if I could work at the diner, I went to school on a Wednesday morning just like normal. Except I had to pack a set of extra clothes in my already stuffed backpack. My aunt told me that I had to wear a uniform and she didn't want my mom to know what I had to wear, so she asked me to keep it in my backpack. She even said she would wash it for me every week, since it will probably start smelling like eggs and other diner foods.

I usually take the bus to school, and on days that I work, I take another bus that drops me off about a two-minute walk from the diner. And at the end of my shift, my aunt dropped me off at home, after I changed back into my clothes that I wore to school, of course. Once at the diner, I would go to the back and walk through the kitchen, which had two chefs who worked harder than any other cooks I had ever seen. My aunt's office is back there as well. In her office, I could see her computer on a desk, a whole lot of paperwork, and clothes all over the place. It was a total mess. The uniform

that I have to wear is a white button-down shirt, a white mini skirt, and one of those tiny aprons that only cover from the waist to the bottom of the mini skirt. I kind of liked the way that it fit on me, but the fact that I was wearing all white meant that I was going to get dirty pretty much every night. My sister has a similar outfit, but her skirt is longer so our uniforms are slightly different. The first night went pretty well. I had a lot of customers looking at me funny, asking if I was a kid. When I told them my age, some of them were upset that a kid was working, while others

were happy thinking I was ambitious and trying to help the family business. The remainder were giddy, just happy to see me. In any case, whatever the reason was, I was fine with interacting with everyone since I liked talking to people, so for the most part the job was, I was fine with interacting with everyone since I liked talking to people, so for the most part the job was easy. Especially since most of the customers didn't mind if I would bring out one plate at a time instead of trying to balance five or six plates at once like some professional waitress. When Friday night of my first week on the job rolled around, I finally met the guy,

who was one of the main reasons why I eventually found out why all those other waitresses quit. My aunt wanted me to meet him since he's a regular. He comes in about three to four times a week and orders pretty big portions. His name was Larry, and he seemed nice and friendly. He treated me more like a friend than a waitress and asked me to sit down with him while he told me stories about how he fixed cars and traveled for work. He also told me about how he's eaten at every restaurant ever and stayed at every hotel in the world. I never told my age, but I'm pretty sure it had to have been evident that I was a minor.

Larry often sits at a booth in the corner of the restaurant. When he would ask me to sit down with him, he wanted me to be beside him, so he could kick his feet up on the bench on the other side. I don't mind, but it did start to get weird when he poked one of the buttons on my shirt that was hidden under my apron. He thought that it was my belly button, and when he poked one of the buttons on my shirt that was hidden under my apron. He thought that it was my belly button, and when he poked it, he asked if I had an Audi belly button and if I was ticklish. I do in fact have an Audi, but I didn't tell him that. I just faked a giggle when he asked me that. Sometimes he would grab my arm or even my thigh and tried to give me massages. It never felt good.

But when I would tell him I didn't like it, he'd tell me that it was fine and I would start to like it. The more Larry would visit, the more I would make up excuses about needing to end our interactions. It was always tough to do since it took him a while to accept it and finally let me go. That being said, I still didn't mind these weird things about Larry. He seemed innocent enough. I considered him a grandpa type who just wanted to spend time with somebody who reminded him of his grandkids. But I wish I wasn't the one designated to babysit him every time he came into the diner.

But since he spent at least $100 a week, my aunt told me to ignore how I was feeling and let him ramble on since he's a big reason why the business stays afloat. Those were my aunt's words, and I'm pretty sure 100 bucks a week is hardly enough to cover rent. After a week of seeing Larry on most of my shifts, he came in with his laptop and showed me that he had a Facebook. He told me to look myself up so that he could send me a friend request. I didn't want Larry in my life 24-7, so I lied and told him I don't have an account.

He simply thought for a second, then laughed as he typed my whole name in the search bar. For a second I was shocked. I turned pale. I have a fail complexion already, but the color truly drained from my face in that moment. I had a name tag, but only my first name was on it. I assume my sister must have told him our last name when he asked. She may be older, but she certainly doesn't act like it at times. He found my picture in the search results right away and he sent me a friend request

on the spot. My phone went off in my apron pocket when I got the request, which made Larry laugh and my heart drop into my stomach. He sent me a few messages just to hear my phone go off a few times, and I pulled it out and fake laughed as I swallowed the lump in my throat. I hadn't accepted his friend request yet, but I watched as he proceeded to go through my photos on his laptop. My Facebook profile was public at that time since I was naive and I thought that it was a good way to make friends. I treated Facebook much like Instagram and wanted to try and gain as many followers as

I could. As he browsed my photo album, he found a bunch of pictures of me I was hoping he wouldn't find. He commented on how he thought my clothes were too revealing, and he said that I should take those pictures down. Then he started sharing his opinion about my friends, and said that he could find me a better set of friends to be with. I had no idea who he could have been referring to, since he told me he didn't have kids,

and he lives alone. Then, after seeing pictures of me with my belly button revealed, he commented about it, and then he poked my belly again. I felt his finger searching for my belly button, which was so disgusting. I just got up without giving him a reason for excusing myself. Then I immediately stormed into my aunt's office. I told her about how Larry had been acting. I let her know how disgusted I was.

At first, it seemed like she was on my side. But when I further explained his behavior, she quickly swapped sides and told me I was just exaggerating and misunderstanding him. She said that he was just treating me like a kid. I wanted to burst out crying, so I asked my sister for help. I even wanted to talk to my mom about it and tell her everything, but my sister calmed me down. My sister said that if I went to my mom, she would probably have her aunt let us both go,

which meant that we wouldn't have enough money to keep our apartment, which would possibly result in us having to live with our dad. I had no idea if this was true, but living with my dad was the last thing that I wanted to do since he was worse than Larry. Fast forward to the present day. I still work at the diner. I still see Larry almost daily. He still acts the same. I know that, at least for the summer, my mom will continue to make me work. Due to my age, I legally can't find a job elsewhere until I'm 16.

In the meantime, I told Larry that I'm deleting my Facebook. I made it private, and I deleted him from my friends list. I'm a high school student in my first year. I'm 16. This story took place during the second week of Easter vacation in 2023 when I was 15. I want to mention that this happened at my mother's house. At that time my mother had decided to renovate her kitchen since it was outdated. There was this blonde haired guy with blue eyes who came to start the work which involved putting up plastic sheets on the walls and a divider in the living room, which is next to the kitchen. At the end of the day, as he was still working, I had to go to the dentist to pick up my dental

impression so my mother informed the worker that I would be back in an hour and a half. However, since the appointment was just to pick up an item, we returned sooner than we thought we would. We were back after only 45 minutes. On the way back, my mother suggested getting kebabs and doing a good deed by dropping off the worker at the train station. When I offered him a ride to the station, I noticed he was very uneasy with a nervous smile, as if to say, everything was fine.

I insisted that he get a ride with us, and he agreed. Along the way, he explained that his name was Brian. Obviously, I've changed this for anonymity. He said that he was originally from Moldova. He also mentioned that he lived alone in Paris, but had two children living in his home country. We chatted until we arrived at the station. Then we dropped him off, grabbed our kebabs, and went home. After I finished eating, I decided to take a bath, as I love taking baths whenever I

can. However, this time, to my dismay, the hot water started running cold. I still spent two hours in lukewarm water before getting out and returning to my upstairs room. Immediately upon opening the door to my room, I noticed that my PC was open and turned on. This struck me as odd since I distinctly remember closing it before going downstairs for my bath. I asked my mother if she had been in my room and touched my PC.

She said that she had not. She had been in her room watching the news. After I did a thorough search of my room to see if anything else was out of place, I decided to finally go to sleep. But then at 5 a.m., I woke up sweating and shivering intensely. This had never happened to me before. I immediately had this feeling of being in danger and that something or someone was nearby.

So I grabbed a knife. This probably sounds scary, but I have a passion for edged weapons. It's likely due to my interest in manga. I have a collection of knives, katanas, and shurikens on my bedroom wall. With the knife in hand, I searched my room again but found nothing. The feeling wasn't going away so I locked my door and texted my mother to see if she was awake and had the same feeling. But she didn't respond.

I waited for three hours until I heard that she was up and walking around her room. She came to see me and I explained my feelings of uneasiness and how I jerked awake very early in the morning. She told me that everything was fine and I was probably just being paranoid. She also gave me a heads up that Brian was going to arrive at around 10am to continue the work. She was getting ready to leave for work so she let me know that I would be alone with him.

She assured me that I wouldn't need to go downstairs to let him in since she told him about the spare keys that she kept in the woodshed out front next to the door. She then went to work, and I went back to sleep, locking my door. I woke up at 11 a.m., and I went downstairs to make food in the basement because the kitchen was under construction. When I went downstairs, I didn't find Brian there. I didn't think anything of it, but as I went back upstairs, I ran into him. As soon as I saw him, that bad feeling returned. He started talking to me. I tried to end the conversation as quickly as I could and I went back to my room and locked the door.

Ten minutes later, Brian came upstairs and knocked on my door asking for help carrying something. I didn't respond because I really didn't want to interact with him. Then he started jiggling the doorknob, trying to open the door. When he realized my door was locked, he began kicking it hard. So I grabbed a knife and I locked myself in the bathroom, which was connected to my room. Then I called the police and explained what was happening in a panic.

The woman on the line said that she was sending two cars, but they would take ten minutes to arrive. While waiting, Brian managed to get into my room and began breaking down the bathroom door. I told him I had called the police and they would be arriving any minute. I also told him that I was armed with a knife and I wouldn't hesitate to use it. Upon hearing this, he stopped trying to break the door down and left.

The police arrived and caught Brian outside as he was trying to flee. My mother was called and she immediately came home. When she saw me, she burst into tears and told me that she should have taken my feelings of uneasiness more seriously. She felt bad for not listening to me. A few days later, the police called to explain that Brian was still in their custody as he was wanted for kidnapping, identity theft, torture, and murder. I believe that the bad feeling I had during the night was because he returned to our house

and was hiding inside the house, somewhere outside my room. This seems likely since he would have been able to return to our house at any time as he knew where the spare keys were. It's amazing how useful our instincts can be. I'm glad I was able to lock my door when I went upstairs. And I also need to thank my passion and interest in knives, especially since I don't know if Brian would have left if I hadn't mentioned being armed.

And lastly, thanks to the police who arrived so quickly and caught him. I'm grateful he's now in prison and I hope to never see him again. When I was a kid, no older than ten, I was walking to the mailbox to get the mail for my parents. I was wearing my baseball uniform since we were about to leave for my baseball game. As I was walking to the mailbox, a car pulled over next to me.

An elderly woman was driving, and there was an elderly man in the passenger seat. The woman urged me to get into the car. Luckily, even at that age, I immediately knew that something was off. Come on, we're going to be late, she coaxed. She carried on and said that she had my bat and glove in the trunk. She told me that my dad had given my stuff to them. She said that they lived nearby and my dad wasn't going to be able to take me to the game, so he asked them to take me.

Honestly, I don't remember what I did. I just remember the anxiety that I felt when I pieced together what was happening. I want to say that I booked it back to my house, but as I've gotten older, I don't even remember anymore. All I remember is being back at the house and the creepy old lady followed me there and ended up ringing the doorbell. When my dad answered the door, he was obviously confused and she told him that they were testing

me to see if I would jump in the car with them. The most unsettling thing to me is that I don't remember if I got into their car or if I ran home. I can't remember clearly because I was just pumped with so much adrenaline during that experience. I truly can't remember what happened. When I try to recall it, I've tried picturing both outcomes. Me running home and me getting into the car. I don't remember being scolded after this happened, so I tend to assume the former occurred,

but I'm still unclear. Whether this couple was going around testing children or not, that's a pretty messed up thing for them to do in their free time. It makes me wonder if this couple actually had the intentions that they spoke of. Was ringing the doorbell afterwards some kind of cover-up for a failed attempt to avoid being reported to the police? I've always found this whole situation extremely off-putting. You don't really find too many kids walking around alone in baseball uniforms, and the way that she came up with that stuff off of the top of her head has always given me the impression that it was not that lady's first time trying to convince a kid to get into

her car. This happened in 2000. I'm a male, and I was 12 years old at the time. My older brother was 14 and my younger, 6. I remember the exact name of the hotel and I was just looking at some pictures of it on a website of this travel agency that my parents used to book the trip. I felt very nostalgic looking at the pictures, but I'd like to refrain from sharing the name of the hotel. My family and I arrived at the hotel complex in Zakynthos, and we were given the keys to our accommodations where we would be staying for the next two weeks.

We had two separate apartments, one for me and one for my older brother, and a different apartment for my parents and youngest siblings. The apartments were built in many blocks of four. There were two units upstairs and two downstairs. My parents and youngest sibling were in an apartment in the same block on the first floor across from the apartment my older brother and I were in. It's important to note that the block that we were in was at the very end of the complex. There was a four-foot perimeter wall that separated the apartment block that we were in

from the outside of the complex. This is where I remember there being a load of plants and bushes. At the beginning of our holiday, for whatever reason, there was a conversation amongst us about how locals in certain countries would sometimes rob or mug unsuspecting tourists, but we hadn't had any problems. We weren't expecting to have any issues since Sakynthos is not part of the mainland of Greece. About a week into the holiday, my older brother and I thought that it would be fun to have

our youngest brother stay in our apartment with us for the night. In the middle of the night, we were awoken by some loud banging on our door. It was our dad checking on us. Two burglars had made their way over the perimeter wall and were attempting to break into the apartments. They had successfully broken into an apartment where a couple was sleeping and began looting the place. The woman woke up after realizing that the man prowling around the apartment

wasn't her partner. Then she let out a scream which caused them to flee. One of them successfully jumped off of the balcony, landing on the first floor, and then got away while the other face planted upon impact and was lying in a pool of his own blood. The police arrived and were apparently giving the guy a good kicking. It was all very dramatic, but after checking the apartment and ensuring all of our doors were locked, our dad returned to his apartment and

we went back to sleep. The creepy part is, the next morning we stepped outside to shoot at some targets with the arsenal of BBs that we purchased, and we noticed some very distinct handprints on the sliding doors of our apartment. It looked like the burglars tried to break into our apartment, which made sense as we were the first apartment on the other side of the perimeter wall that they jumped over. I never found out what happened to the burglars after that, but it's safe to say that the guy who face planted from the jump he took off of the balcony probably smashed a few

teeth. This happened when I went on a road trip to take a friend of mine home to Colorado. He wanted to fly back, but I wanted to go on a road trip so I offered to drive him. I live in Ohio, so we had to go through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas. It was a 22-hour trip to get there, not including the rest stops. I had never traveled this far by car before. I've flown to Florida once or twice, which was further away from home, but I really wanted to take a long road trip. I didn't see myself getting another opportunity like this to do one in the future,

so I wanted to make it happen. I drove most of the way because I love to drive, and no one seemed too concerned with it. The friend that I was taking home, Travis, said if I needed to switch and have him drive for a bit, it wouldn't be a big deal. The trip started out fine, but after I had been behind the wheel for nearly 12 hours,

the creepiest thing happened. I needed to get gas, so I found a station, but the convenience store was closed. It was pretty dark by the time I decided to stop. Aside from the lights at the pump, and the street light by the gas station, there was very little light. Even though it was pretty creepy, I wasn't too concerned because I hadn't had any problems going to a gas station like this beforehand. So I assumed I'd be able to fill my car up with no issues. Now this gas station was different from what I was used to.

To get gas you need to select the type of gas that you want, pull the nozzle from the pump and put it into your car. I was used to gas automatically dispensing, so I didn't realize that you had to pull a lever so that the gas would start to dispense. It took me a bit of fidgeting in order to realize this and right as I did, I heard a voice call out from the side of the closed convenience store at the gas station. It was a man's voice.

It said something like, hey, over here. I looked up, but I didn't see anyone. I tried not to think much of it as I was tired. So I didn't pay any attention to it. I was hoping that I was imagining things since the gas station was deserted. I went on a witch hunt to figure out which gas station this was after looking at my maps. I figured out that it was a Sinclair gas station, the one with the dinosaur logo.

About halfway through my fill up, I heard it again. The male voice was calling out to me. Maybe whoever was in the shadows thought that I was alone since my roommate, who was also on the road trip, was sleeping in the back seat, and my friend Travis was lying down in the front with the seat completely down. I know I probably should have left instead of completing my fill up, but I didn't want to stop again, so I ignored it and kept pumping while looking at my phone.

Then the man whistled to me like I was a dog. I have never felt dread like that before. I literally felt my stomach drop. I looked up and sure enough, there was a man. He was wearing a brown coat with the hood pulled up and red shorts. When I looked at him, he yelled, hey, look at me when I'm talking to you. His voice bellowed. It was so loud that my roommate, who was lying in the back seat, shot up.

You good? my roommate asked. At this point the man was now speed walking towards me, but it was like as soon as my roommate made herself known. He turned himself around and booked it back to the shadows behind the building. I then heard a car start and gravel fly as he drove out of there. I didn't look at his car, van, or whatever he was driving because I admittedly was frozen in place. I know that sketchy people try to plan this type of stuff out, especially when there are women who appear to be alone, like myself. This man obviously had a plan.

It was clear that he had fully formed an idea, including who he was looking out for, what he was going to say, and how he was going to make a getaway. I'm glad my roommate made her presence known like she did, and I'm grateful that I wasn't alone. After I filled up the car, my roommate took over driving for a while so that I could calm down. I don't know what that man wanted, or what he planned, but I don't ever want to experience something like that ever again.

In 2016, when I was 26, I worked a seasonal job in a warehouse that was a 30-minute drive from my flat. One day after work, I ordered Thai takeout from a place that was about 10 blocks from home. There was a gas station next door, so I paid to fill up my car and left it at the pump to say hi to some friends who lived across the street while I waited for the food to be ready. After 15 minutes of chatting, I walked back across the street, grabbed my food, and crossed the lot to get back to the gas station. Then I got into my car and made the two minute drive back to my flat.

At the time I lived in a duplex. My flat had a flat adjacent to it that was completely gutted. Behind my building was an old vacant motel that was currently being gutted and repurposed into studio apartments. The nearest building to the left was an old clamper bar leading to the main street and the highway. To the right was an empty lot where a building that was demolished nearly a decade earlier once stood.

The rest of the neighborhood was lower income. I pulled into my driveway and noticed a car driving past relatively slowly. I went inside and got my dog so that I could take her out. As I was standing in the yard waiting for my dog to do her business, a maroon Subaru Forester drove by multiple times before pulling into my driveway. I assumed he was lost or looking for something so I walked up to him as he got out of the car. He looked like any older man in his 50s.

I remember thinking that he kind of reminded me of my dad. I asked him if he needed anything, and he replied, no, I was just checking on you. I asked him if I knew him, figuring maybe I did, but just didn't recognize him. He replied, I saw you up by the gas station. He seemed like you needed help. I'm just seeing if you need anything." I'm pretty slow to the cut, but at this point I piece together that this guy had followed

me from the gas station to a friend's house, to a restaurant, then back to the gas station, and then home. This immediately did not sit right with me. He was just standing there, in no hurry to leave. So I had time to process the situation. I said, I'm sorry, I'm not picking up on what you're putting down. Why are you here? No reason, he replied.

I'm just a nice guy, checking to see if you're all right. I was really weirded out that he specifically called himself a nice guy. During the course of this conversation, I had made it to my stoop and he had closed the gap. I was only growing more uncomfortable and worried, so I said, "'You should leave.'" Then he asked, "'Don't you wish you had a nicer place?

He asked if my dog, a medium-sized German Shepherd, was friendly as he reached out for a pet. I yanked her behind me sternly and told him, No, leave. He finally started backing away, and I stood in the driveway until he got into his car and drove away. I took down his license plate and car description then I went inside. Less than 15 minutes later he pulled back into my driveway, sat there for a second, and then left again.

That's when I decided to call the police to file a report. I knew it was the right thing to do since this situation didn't sit right with me. I just figured even if it was nothing, it would be good to at least have a record of it. It was about 7pm at this point, so the non-emergency line was closed. I decided to fill out a report online, but never heard back from the police. I never saw that man or his maroon Subaru Forester again either. I never saw any reports of anyone experiencing anything similar, but I've been keeping an eye out. Although this happened years ago, I found myself thinking about it again during the last few months.

Scary and strange situations just have a way of sticking with me. Hey everyone, I'm taking Let's Not Meet on the road this year. Tickets for my next Let's Not Meet Live tour dates are available now. On August 10th, I'll be at the House of Blues in San Diego, California. August 11th at the Moroccan Lounge in Los Angeles, California. August 18th here in Sacramento, California, August 18 here in Sacramento, California at Harlow's and on September 19 in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Metro Music Hall. Links to tickets will be in the show notes as well as at let's not meet podcast.com.

This is a great opportunity to hear your story in person. So if you're a local who's able to make it out to the show, make sure you let us know in your story submission so that we can add it to the setlist. write to us at let's not meet stories at gmail.com. I'll see you there I work as a childcare professional. About a year ago, one of the kids that I look after had gotten into hiking, so I decided to take him to a really cool trail in Salt Fork State Park. We were all set to hike to Hosek's Cave after parking near the beginning of the trailhead. The distance of the entire trail is about one half of a mile, which is why I chose this trail for our hike that day.

I also chose this trail as every time that I had hiked on it previously, it was very busy and full of people. Since it's a popular spot, this made me feel secure. However, during that summer, we had a cluster of severe summer storms that caused massive damage to the trail. So to my surprise, it was much more difficult to traverse, and it was completely empty. I wasn't bothered by the fact that the trail was deserted because there was a small construction crew working on a bridge that was slightly visible from the trailhead. The kid was still up for the hike despite the entire width of the trail being washed

out until it was no more than a foot wide with a 10 foot drop off into a creek bed that was made of solid rock. He's very athletic and I was as confident in his abilities as he was. Plus, he was so excited to tackle our adventure with the additional challenges. We made it all the way to a platform that had a full view of the entire cave.

There were many downed trees surrounding the platform, and it was actually closed beyond this point. But we figured we had made it this far, so we decided to maneuver around the platform and proceed the few hundred feet into the cave. Most of our time was spent in this area due to the difficulty, so I remember exactly what it looked like. There were tree roots directly under the platform, and because of this, it was possible to climb down from either side.

It's also worth noting that Hosek's cave is more like a cliff with an overhanging rock formation and there's a trickle of a waterfall directly in the middle. So it's not creepy or enclosed. It's very open and beautiful. We got to the cave and I noticed a candle that had been burning at some point, but you could tell that it had not burned recently. It had been sitting on a large rock that had a heart carved into it. I disregarded it.

The kid then wanted to climb to the top, which was where I noticed two more candles, as well as three neatly formed piles of small rocks that were intentionally stacked up by someone. I definitely started to feel weird at this point, but we were quickly distracted by a small puddle full of baby salamanders. The kid wanted to stop and try to catch one. It was the happiest I had seen him in a very long time, and I didn't have the heart to tell him that we should get going, so we spent about an hour catching baby salamanders. I cautiously watched all our surroundings as he was having the time of his life. We finally decided to leave and we got back to the platform.

When we were there, we saw that dead center in the middle of the tree roots was a wet washcloth hanging that wasn't there before. He noticed it as well, but I could tell that he didn't think much of it. Meanwhile, at that moment, I knew two things. One, someone was nearby watching us and we didn't see them. And two, whoever was out there with us seemed to be hiding in the woods and made it a point not to be seen, but to leave an object to be noticed. There was no running back due to the narrowness of the trail, and I didn't want to tell the

kid that we were in any potential danger. I told him to go in front of me, and I kept encouraging him that he was doing a great job, which seemed to motivate him to speed up naturally. I kept looking around, but I didn't see anybody while we were walking on the trail. When we got to the car, and when I got in, I locked the doors immediately. As we drove away, on our way out of the park, I saw a man who appeared to be in his 30s coming out of the woods.

He made it a point to stare at me with the most vacant expression I had ever seen. The man followed me with his emotionless eyes as I drove by him. He continued to stare at me until I couldn't see him anymore. His stare stuck with me for days. It bothered me for several weeks, which caused severe anxiety. I've never been able to rationalize why he stared so intensely into my eyes. Deep down I feel that this was deliberate, intended to intimidate me or scare me. I'm grateful that I remained calm though. The kid never had any idea how panicked I was and to this day it was

the most fun I had ever seen him have. He still brings it up regularly, and it was a very positive experience for him, even though it was nerve-wracking for me. Thanks for listening, and make sure to stick around after the music if you're a patron for your extended ad-free version of this week's episode. If you'd like to get access, head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up and support the show today. You'll get access to hours of bonus content all ad-free at a higher bitrate with stories

you won't hear anywhere else. This week you have heard The Bad Feeling That Saved My Life by ResponsibleCarpet43, My Trip to Colorado by Limpi Laundrie, Stocked in an Ohio State Park by QueasyComfort8559, Working at My Aunt's Diner by DancingUnicorn 08 Weird Man in Nevada by Sloth Teeth Creepy occurrence on holiday in Greece An elderly couple tried to lure me into their car by Wicked Dead and finally, Popcorn by Enormous Radio All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission

of their respective authors. Make sure you send your stories in to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. Don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts, like Odd Trails, my true paranormal podcast, and the old time radio cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com. I'll see you all next week. Stay safe. I'm a 26 year old female from Germany.