Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 13x10: Where Is Henrietta?

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Stories in this episode:  3 Hour Stare | SmokingInTheAlley (0:40) Never Going to That Lake Alone Again | throwawaythekey19 (11:39)  Awoke to My Mother Screaming. | pokemomof03 (18:43)  I’ll Never Leave the Apartment Door Unlocked Again | Oddly_Moist (23:47)  My campfire story. | mndcndy172 (29:56)  Mom's Crazy Stalker | nomad65555 (35:43)  He Thought I Was Alone | toothpastenachos (41:01)  My Dog Sensed Something About My Daughter's Friend | tharealmouse (44:16)  He Tried to Get in My Car | stupidshitposter4 (49:17)  Where Is Henrietta? | Proverbs2beauty (53:12)  Extended Patreon Content:  Mo-Hell 6 | Ivonne Broken Phone Nightmare | PJ Mystery Man | ASilentAngel Hollywood Blvd | Lusi A Very Bizarre Easter | Sylvia Due to periodic changes in ad placement, time stamps are estimates and are not always accurate. Upcoming LNM Live Tour Dates: 9/19/24 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall: GET YOUR TICKETS 10/09/24 - Seattle, WA @ The Triple Door: GET YOUR TICKETS 10/30/24 - Portland, OR @ Show Bar: GET YOUR TICKETS 11/09/24 - Houston, TX @ The Secret Group: GET YOUR TICKETS 11/10/24 - Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Co: GET YOUR TICKETS Follow: - Twitch - https://twitch.tv/crypticcounty - Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/ - Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/ - TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@crypticcounty Check out the other Cryptic County podcasts like Odd Trails, Cryptic Encounters, 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].     Your listens Get results you can run your fingers through! For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code MEET Get more done with Grammarly. Download Grammarly 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. I'm a 29 year old female. I used to do street performing when I was low on money, and when this occurred I was 25. I had lost a lot of weight around that time and needed to save money for skin removal surgery, in addition to buying all new clothing. I was also seeing a chiropractor since the changes in my gait were affecting my spine. Side note, losing a significant amount of weight is very expensive.

I don't know why there aren't more warnings out there about that. Anyway, it was a Friday night, and I was in a college town near the state university. I was in an area of town that had a lot of bars and restaurants. Since all of my clothes hung off of my body like a tablecloth, I was wearing a decorative scarf that I methodically tied into a dress. It was a little on the revealing side, but it looked less sloppy than the rest of my oversized clothing. It was important to look decent while street performing, since passerbys can sometimes

assume that you're unhoused, which can, sadly, potentially result in them being really awful towards you. I'm only mentioning this since it's relevant to the story. So I was tuning up my guitar, sitting in a camping chair outside of a couple of bars. At around 8.30pm, this beige SUV pulled up, and it parked right in front of me. The guy who was driving it hopped out and approached me. Hey, do you want something to eat? He asked.

Uh, no, I'm okay. Thanks, though. I replied. He then got back into his car, but instead of driving away, he just sat there, staring at me. I thought it was a little bit strange then, but I was focused on getting warmed up. So I didn't really worry too much about it. It was also around the beginning of bar rush time, so it took me a while to realize that

the beige SUV was still there. About an hour later, at 9.30, he hopped out of his SUV again. Are you hungry yet? He asked. No, I'm okay. I ate before I came here, I said. Come on, I want to give you something, but I don't have any cash. Let me buy you dinner, he offered.

Sometimes this does happen. Occasionally, when someone who doesn't carry cash sees a street musician like that, they will often offer you a snack and bring it to you or something like that, so I didn't find it strange. Okay, sure," I accepted. If you want to bring me a snack, that's cool. Okay, come with me, he insisted. Oh, no, I'm not leaving my spot here, I said.

There's a really good restaurant I want to take you to, but it's too far to walk. We need to drive there, he explained. Sorry, I firmly responded. I'm not interested in going anywhere. I need to stay here and make some money tonight." I thought you were hungry, he pressed. Come on, let me buy you dinner. I felt my frustration spike as I replied, no, I actually told you I'm not hungry. If you would like to tip me with something other than cash, a slice of pizza from the place across the street, a soda, a cigarette, yeah, that would be fine.

But I'm not leaving my spot." He then said, "'No, I'm not going to buy you a slice of pizza. If you want dinner, you need to come with me.'" At this point, tons of people were now walking past us and I was getting annoyed with him since he was stalling me from playing music. I dismissively responded, I'm not going anywhere and I need to make some money tonight, so I'm done talking about this.

At that point, I started playing my guitar to show him that I was moving on from this conversation. I probably should have been concerned, but I was honestly pissed off more than anything. It wasn't uncommon for men who saw me street performing to attempt to offer me food and shelter in exchange for sex, so I assumed that's what he was after. For the next hour, I focused on playing music and chatting with people. It was such a productive night, I had almost forgotten about the creepy guy. That is until he got out of his car and leaned against the door, still staring at me.

At this point, it was almost 11 PM, and it dawned on me that he had been there for over two hours. That's when the alarm bells finally started to go off in my head. I had a hard time focusing on music after that, since he was just standing there and staring at me. The longer he stood there, the more I felt he planned something more nefarious than trying to bribe a young woman on the street to sleep with him.

At about 11.30, I realized I needed to do something sooner rather than later. It was pretty much peak bar hour, so I knew that the streets were going to become less crowded eventually, and I was going to be walking home after this. I didn't want to risk having him follow me, since he was still lingering. Now when I'm performing, I'm in friendly mode, and in general, I'm not the most intimidating looking girl, but if I'm feeling threatened I tend to get pretty mad pretty fast. That being said, I didn't think he was expecting me to confront him as directly as I did. I figured I had plenty of witnesses, and I walked right up to him, angry as hell, and

questioned, Why are you staring at me? He was taken aback, but I continued, You've been staring at me for three hours now. Do you like making women feel uncomfortable?" I was mad, talking progressively faster and louder. It was very clear that this wasn't going the way that he expected. He began to stammer.

No, no, I want to buy you dinner. I replied. So you're hanging around waiting for me to get hungry enough to go to dinner with you, when I've already said no several times. That is creepy. I know there aren't any restaurants that are still open at 1130 around here. He said, the one I want to take you is, it's still open. I don't care if it's still open, I said. I don't want to go anywhere with you, and I told you that. Why are you still here? You don't understand, he trailed off as he appeared to be racking his brain for a valid excuse.

I then asked, well, what is it then? What am I not understanding about you lingering and staring at me for the last three hours? I'm an Uber driver, he finally exclaimed. three hours. I'm an Uber driver," he finally exclaimed. Of all the stupid excuses he could have picked, this was probably the stupidest. I sarcastically replied, Oh, so you're here to pick someone up.

Okay, I get it now. He smiled and nodded as I asked, So were you just going to leave your passenger waiting while you took me out to dinner then? What happened next freaked me out more than anything else that night. As soon as I blew a hole through his piss-poor cover story. It was like he took a mask off. His smile disappeared and his expression became deadly serious. He then climbed back into his car and drove off fast.

I stood there completely shaken. I had had plenty of creepy encounters while street performing, but nothing like this. It was impossible to convince myself that he was going to do anything besides abduct me. I was done after that. I decided to order a rideshare to get home instead of walking, which cost about half of what I made in tips that night. As I was on my way home, I was counting my cash and realized that, while I made a decent

amount of money, doing this at night just wasn't worth the risk. I have since moved to a new side hustle and was diagnosed with agoraphobia. It was due to this incident, and others just like it. I hate leaving the house alone, so I order most of my groceries, necessities, and supplies through DoorDash. I work only three blocks away from my apartment. Even on my short walks to and from work, I find myself constantly scanning my surroundings and using the reflection in storefront windows to make sure that I'm not being watched or

followed. So to the creepy guy in the beige SUV, I hope I never see your face again. Are you interested in having hair that grows faster, stronger, and longer? Having visibly thicker volume? Experiencing noticeably less shedding? Thicker lashes and brows? All of this is possible with Nutrifol. Nutrifol is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand trusted by over one million people.

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for healthier hair. Nutrifol.com spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L dot com promo code MEET. That's Nutrifol.com promo code MEAT. Now back to the show. About one year ago, I took my son fishing. He wanted to go to a nearby lake that we hadn't been to in quite some time. The lake was in an area that wasn't known to be great. For some background, the last time we went, a car drove by and the driver screamed, Nice ass at me, as I stood there with my young son. This kind of garbage behavior is unfortunately something to expect in the area.

This lake is also known to be a late-night hookup spot as well as a late-night drug deal location. Due to the lake's reputation, I had promised my dad that I wouldn't stay there past 4 p.m. if I was there without him. So now onto the story. My 12-year-old son and I pulled up to the lake right where our favorite fishing spot was. It's a small pond on the opposite side of the road as the lake. My son looks much younger than he actually is.

An older gentleman approached us almost immediately and asked if we were there to fish in the pond. I replied that we had just gotten started, so we hadn't caught anything yet. I also explained that we had caught fish in the pond on plenty of other occasions. He thanked us for the information and returned to his spot on the other side of the road. About fifteen minutes later, a younger man approached the older man with a dog. I could see and hear them chatting. They were just talking amongst themselves, which I was grateful for, since I just wanted to enjoy the day with my son.

Unfortunately, the water in the pond was incredibly low and murky, and I could tell that we weren't going to have any luck with fishing in there, so I told my son to pack it up so that we could try another spot on the other side of the lake. As we began packing our gear into the trunk, the younger man yelled, Sorry if my dog and I ran you off. I told him it was no problem and we were simply moving to a better fishing spot. He then started telling me how nice it was to see a mom taking her kid fishing, and he

remarked on how you don't see that very often. I get this comment a lot, so I'm used to it. He and I had a short conversation about it as I finished packing up, and then I moved towards the driver's side door to depart. Before I could get into the car and leave, the younger man started with another conversation. This time, he asked me how old I thought he was. This was strange to me, but I can be friendly to a fault sometimes, so I answered his question.

I warned him that I was terrible at gauging somebody's age and said that I thought he was maybe 25. He told me that I was too kind, as he revealed he was 38. I laughed it off and explained, I work with teenagers and they always guess that I'm well above my age, just to be mean. He asked where I worked, and I told him which city without specifying my actual workplace. It turned out that he lived there, too, so he started going on about how he was living in a free apartment on such-and-such street since his baby mama kicked him out of their

house. I'm pretty sure he was talking about having assistance of some kind from a government program, which was this weird flex, but okay. As he was talking about this, I was standing by my car with my hand on the handle of the driver's side door and my son was already in the back seat. This guy wasn't taking the hint, and he continued talking about how awful his baby mama was. He said that women are supposed to be submissive, quiet, and do what they're told. He specified, I mean, I think it's cool that you can bait a hook or whatever, but you're still a woman.

Alarm bells were now going off. This guy struck up a conversation by commending me for doing something that typically a dad might do with their kid, and essentially in the same breath he was putting me down for it. He went from being over-the-top friendly and complimentary to agitated and misogynistic. I should have been rude and just got into the car and left, but unfortunately, I've been conditioned like many other women. I figured I was better off being polite, even though I was uncomfortable.

But I did start making comments in hopes that he would see that I wasn't some meek, submissive woman. I don't exactly look like a submissive housewife type anyway. I have a lot of tattoos, two lip piercings. I guess I was just trying to make him as uncomfortable as he made me, in the hopes that he would leave me alone. After he said women shouldn't be too loud or opinionated, I said, oh, well, you wouldn't like me at all then.

He tried to backpedal and replied, I mean, it's okay to be loud, but don't try that with your man, you know? I replied, my man never tells me to do shit. I do what I want. This back and forth went on for a while before he finally shook his head and said, I just don't understand what kind of woman chooses to act like that.'" I curtly responded, "'A strong one.'"

As soon as the words left my mouth, the older gentleman yelled, "'Yeah, you can say that again, honey.'" This distracted the creep long enough for me to hop into my car and lock the doors. I still didn't feel safe, though, since unbeknownst to the Creepazoid, only two of my car doors actually locked. At least it was the two doors facing his direction. I put the key into the ignition and turned, but nothing happened. Of all the times for my car to act up, it chose this moment.

Panic set in as I repeatedly tried to start the car. I could see him out of the corner of my eye. He took notice of my car troubles and was trying to get my attention. When he took a few steps towards my car, the engine finally roared to life, and I peeled out of there. Only then did I let my composure crumble, and I had a long talk with my son about what had just happened. To the older gentleman who agreed, with the point I was making to the younger gentleman,

thanks, and to the younger misogynistic creep, let's never meet again. Oh, and to my dad, I'd like to make you a new deal. I'll never go to that lake alone, regardless of the time of day. This happened in the early 90s. I was six years old at the time. I lived with my parents and brothers in a duplex. Although this was so long ago, the events of this night are still burned into my memory. Just so you have an idea of the layout of the house, we were in a unit at the end of

a row of duplexes. We had a sliding glass door in our living room that faced the woods. We had a couch that was against the wall in the living room. It was halfway in front of the sliding glass door but angled in a way to make it possible to see the TV that was against the wall next to the sliding glass door. That night, my father hadn't come home from drinking, so my mom and I camped out on the couch watching a horror movie marathon. I should add that my father would get pretty drunk,

which led to him being very abusive. So my mom slept with a knife next to her on the nights that he would stay out late. It was a rough time for our family, but we got through it the best that we could. The knife that she kept next to her was a common kitchen knife. We fell asleep on the couch at around 10 when we were watching Halloween. My mom was sleeping on her side with her back to the couch as she was cuddling me. The next thing I knew, I awoke to my mom screaming. This wasn't unusual in my house due to my dad, so

I didn't think much of it at first. But when I opened my eyes, a tall, thin man with a black hoodie was standing over us. He was not my dad. My eyes met his and I was frozen. Luckily, my mom was thinking quickly since she grabbed the knife from the coffee table. She quickly lunged at him, which caught him off guard, so he stumbled backward. The man in the hoodie quickly regained his footing and ran out the open sliding glass

door. My mom jumped up, slammed the door shut, and locked it before calling the police. When the police got there, they said that the man in the hoodie probably used a knife to pop the lock. As they looked around, they noticed a ton of cigarette butts that didn't match the kind that my parents smoked outside of the sliding glass door. The police said the man was probably sitting out there, watching us all night until he worked up the courage to come inside. The police said that they had been receiving several calls regarding a peeping tom over the last couple of months.

The man who broke in matched his description. My parents got divorced shortly after this incident so my mom, my brothers, and I moved in with my grandma. Thankfully, there were no more encounters after that. But to this day, I check every single lock on every single door and window before I go to bed. Twice. I also have a pole in the track of our sliding glass door.

Even while I take these precautions, though, looking out a window at night still makes me very uneasy. I'll always worry that someone's on the other side, watching and waiting. It's easy to lose a ton of time switching between tasks and different windows or tabs while trying to maintain a consistent workflow. Your time and expertise are valuable. And with professionals spending nearly half of the work week on written communication, focus is one of the most important things to have while at work. With Grammarly, your AI writing partner, you can stay focused and get through work faster with relevant real-time suggestions wherever you write.

Download Grammarly for free at grammarly.com forward slash podcast. What's great about Grammarly is that it works seamlessly with all of the apps that I use every day. Now I'm never without Grammarly. With Grammarly, you can experience the gold standard of responsible AI. Grammarly has helped professionals do more with their writing for 15 years, plus they never sell your data. It's always secure. I trust Grammarly, and I use their writing tools every day.

It's made me better at writing because I've learned so much by using Grammarly's context-aware suggestions. Get more done using Grammarly's context-aware suggestions. Get more done with Grammarly. Download Grammarly for free at Grammarly.com podcast. That's Grammarly.com podcast. Now back to the show. I have two stories to share. I'm a 23-year-old female and I grew up in a rural area of Ontario. I grew up in the kind of place where it was never necessary to lock your doors since you knew everyone in town. This all-too-trusting, small-town mentality was so standard for me that it stayed with

me once I moved to a big city for university. When I moved to said city, I got an apartment in an area where a lot of students lived. It was close to the college that I was attending with plenty of bars within walking distance. I was living with a guy friend of mine, Roddy, who was just a few years older than me, and from the same town. I often went to the bars with friends on the weekends which sometimes led to me stumbling home by myself at around 2 a.m. One night on my way home, my neighbor Kyle and I, we bumped into each other in the hallway

as we were both heading home to our respective places. He was also drunk when I saw him, and he was so good looking. He said hello and invited me inside. I said yes and ended up staying the night with him. He was really nice and it was a fun night, if not a little awkward. We didn't exchange numbers, and it didn't seem like we cared for anything to come of it, so I just went home in the morning and that was that.

Fast forward to two days later. I was asleep in my bed and my roommate was half asleep on the couch with the TV on. He heard something that sounded like the door creaking open, but in his tired state he ignored it. A few minutes later, he opened his eyes to see a naked man standing right in front of him. The man standing there had this blank expression. He was staring into his eyes. It was Kyle. Roddy tried to talk to him and ask him what he was doing there, but he didn't respond.

Roddy then ran into my room and said, Um, I think Kyle is here to see you. So I followed him out into the living room and I saw a completely naked Kyle staring at us with the most serious and concentrated eyes I had ever seen. I tried to talk to him and ask him to leave, but once again, he didn't respond. Instead, he went into our kitchen and opened the fridge. He proceeded to take our butter out and started smearing it all over his face and chest. He didn't say a word.

Still, he had this completely serious expression on his face. Roddy and I ran to my bedroom to talk about what to do. While we were in there, Kyle walked down the dark hallway that led to us and stood in the dark just outside the light of my bedroom. All I could see was his silhouette. He kept whispering, hi, and then my name, over and over again. Roddy and I ended up staying in my room and calling the police. We stayed put until they came.

They took him back to his apartment. They said he seemed to be on drugs, but wasn't a threat. I agreed that I didn't think he was a threat, but I didn't sleep well knowing he was just a thin wall away from us in his apartment. We were better about making sure that our door was locked after this. However, my second story is about another time when Roddy and I forgot to lock the door. I was at work when I got a text from Roddy.

He was at home. The text said, Please get home as soon as you can. Someone is here. And I think you must know them since I don't. So I took an early lunch and I went home to see what was going on. There was a man with greasy black hair that was so long it nearly reached his elbows. He was pacing back and forth in our living room.

Before I even got a chance to speak to this random man, I realized he was not mentally present. He would alternate between screaming at the top of his lungs like he was being murdered, and then he would cry and say things like, I can feel the pain and suffering of everyone in the world. I can hear the voices of the poor and tormented in my brain begging me to help them. I can't stand this suffering. Nobody understands my powers and ability to know what everyone is thinking.

I tried to chime in and politely ask a few questions. I asked, Do you know where you are? What's your address so I can help get you home? This only made him scream at me and Roddy because, according to him, we were in his house and he wasn't leaving. He repeatedly asked us to stop judging him. After about ten minutes of rambling and pacing, he told us what his address was, which was

the neighboring apartment where Kyle was living. I knew Kyle had roommates. I only met one of them so I figured this was the third. I went to his door and knocked on it. Thankfully Kyle's other roommate opened the door and came over to our apartment to retrieve the rambling man. Later that night, Kyle's roommate knocked on our door. I opened it to see him standing there holding a bottle of wine.

He wanted to thank us for handling the situation well by making sure that this rambling man got home. He had recently been in a mental hospital and impreemptively left on his own accord and wound up walking into the wrong apartment. Luckily, the parents of the rambling man came and got him and he was taken back to the hospital. Earlier this year I went camping, as I am known to do. I chose to head to a campground that I often use because it's not far from where I live. Ever since I've had kids, I've liked to stay reasonably close just in case anything happens.

The bonus about this campground in particular is that it's almost always empty. I invited a few friends to come along, and I told them to meet up with me the next day if they were available. I arrived at the campground, put some money in the honor system box, and drove to my usual campsite. I was pleased that I had a place to myself. I first walked over to the pit toilets to make sure that they had toilet paper, which they did. I then spent about five minutes looking at some of the rock formations near the entrance to the site.

When I came back, the parking permit that I had under my windshield wiper showing that I paid for my campsite was removed and it was put on the grill. I thought it was strange but figured it was the wind that had caught it and moved it. After all, I hadn't seen a sign of anyone else. I left the campsite and hiked about a mile to the small lake where swimming and fishing are permitted. I put a line in the water and I walked over to the beach. I started to get the feeling that somebody was watching me, but I wrote it off as paranoia

until somebody started throwing rocks into the lake. I couldn't see who was throwing the rocks and they didn't seem to be aiming at me. But every minute or so, somebody would throw a rock, which would make a splash, and then there would be nothing. No laughing, no screams, or any other suspicious noises that I would expect to hear from a stranger playing a prank. I figured it was most likely one of my friends who knew that I was up there and wanted to have a little fun with me before revealing themselves. Especially since that's something that we do quite often. I immediately hiked back to the van. It was unlocked, and when I got there, the side door was wide open.

I expected everything to be gone or at least tampered with, but everything seemed to be in order. I assumed I had startled whoever had opened it before they could do anything to my gear. I realized I left my fishing pole behind, so I locked my van and went back to the lake to grab it. The entire time, I was aware that someone was following me. But they never did anything. This let me narrow down my list of suspects to three or four friends who have the necessary

skills to sneak up on me in the woods. I grabbed my pole and I headed back, seemingly no longer being followed. I assumed my friend got tired of playing with me and would have a surprise for me at the campsite. I was right, somebody had drawn a smiley face on the ground where I was going to put up my tent. Somehow I found this both lame and chilling at the same time as I proceeded to set up my tent and get everything ready for the night.

At around 11 PM, I announced, right, I'm off to bed now, see you tomorrow, to whoever was in earshot. Then I bunkered down, but didn't go to sleep. Some time later, I heard somebody approaching my campsite. I remember thinking to myself that whoever this was needed to work on their stealthy approaches. I heard them shuffling the items that I had on the picnic table. But I couldn't see anyone because I had put the rain fly up on my tent to discourage potential pranksters from blasting me with a super soaker or water balloons.

Then I heard liquid being poured, and I thought, those bastards are ruining my coffee. I then saw a flash and realized that my visitor had used some stove fuel to light the campfire. Since we were under a burn ban at the time, I knew it had to be one of my friends who worked for the National Forest. Nobody that I knew would have done it. We might be assholes to each other, but we're always respectful and law-abiding. I sat up in my tent and said, in the most threatening voice that I could muster,

Hey, I love you like a brother, but if I come out of this tent and you don't have a cooler full of beer with you, I'm going to bury this hatchet in your face." There was no answer, just silence. I continued, "'There might be some remorse, but it'll be over before your body hits the ground.'" And with that, I opened the tent and glared at the figure sitting in the camp chair across the fire. I was expecting to see my friend, who is a tall Native American man.

Instead, I was met with a thin, pale blonde woman. I barely choked out, what? Just as she shot up and ran into the woods. I got out of there. I broke down my camp and drove 20 miles away to a different campground. It's weird, but the fact that it was a young woman somehow scared me more than if it had been another guy sitting out there. She could have easily shot me if armed, or even set me on fire if she chose to.

The next day when I told my friend about it, I was still so shaken and confused that I blurted out the amazingly creepy albeit awkward line, I thought I was going to kill you last night, but you are a woman. When I was 15, my mom was friends with a man named Jake. He wanted to date her. Now, my mom wasn't interested in a relationship with this man at all. In fact, she was dating another guy named Colt. One day, my mom invited Colt and his roommate Frank over to shoot some guns at our home

range. We practiced shooting for a while and eventually went inside the house as it was getting dark. My mom and Colt ended up getting drunk after we went inside. Frank was unable to drive since he had cognitive issues, so both Colt and Frank ended up staying the night at our house. At around 2 a.m., I was still up, playing video games. My mom and Colt were in her room asleep when Frank came running down the hallway saying a truck just pulled into the driveway.

I looked out the window and I saw that it was Jake. Turns out my mom had not texted him in a few hours, and he was extremely possessive, so he stopped by to check and see if she was home. Keep in mind, Colt's ranger was parked in the driveway. Picture spiked lug nuts, a spur hanging from the rear view mirror, and a hydro dipped skull on the dash. Jake absolutely flipped. He started ringing the doorbell and pounding on the door non-stop.

When that went unanswered, he walked around the house and began beating on all of the windows, screaming my mom's name and circling Colt's truck. At this point my mom and Colt were awake. Since we have blackout curtains, my mom told us to keep the lights off and hide in the hallway. She said if we were quiet and didn't do anything in response, he'd think nobody was home and just leave. Colt completely sobered up by now was understandably pissed.

He threatened to go outside and quote, deal with it. Now would be a good time to mention the size difference between Colt and Jake. Colt is 5'5", 125 pounds, Jake is 6'3", and 240 pounds. Jake could punt Colt 50 feet off the ground if he wanted to. Because of this my mom forced Colt to stay inside. Jake, who was still outside, continued circling the house, pounding on the walls and the windows for 45 minutes. As we were watching him on the camera monitor in my mom's room, we saw that Jake punched the side of Colt's truck. We then heard the screen to

one of our windows start to slide up. This window that it was happening at was locked, and Jake couldn't fit through the window anyway. It was then that I thought of the only thing that would make Jake leave. I grabbed a gun, walked to the living room and asked, Who the hell is it out the window? Jake realized it was me and asked where my mom was. I told him she was out with her friends and that I hadn't heard from her. I told him that I would call him when she got home if I was awake. After that, he just thanked me and left.

After all the shit that he did, that's all it took for him to leave. Honestly, I was amazed. He had been acting so aggressive outside that I genuinely thought I was going to have to shoot him. A little over an hour later, at around 4 a.m., we heard his truck outside again. He squealed his tires down the road, trying to convey that he was pissed off

that my mom had not called him yet. The next morning, he returned at 10 a.m. He went right back to beating on all of the doors and the windows, screaming and trying to get a reaction. Colt tried to say that he would go out and handle it, just like he did before, but my mom still wouldn't let him. Jake finally left again, and that's when Colt went out to look at his truck. There was a dent that was three inches deep on the side of his truck bed.

Colt was pissed and told my mom to let him know if that fucking creep came back. When we went outside to take a look at things, we saw a bunch of blood. Jake had beat our doors until his hand bled. This also could have been from denting the truck with his bare hands. There was blood all over the doors and windows outside. My mom wouldn't let me call the police since she felt that it would only cause unnecessary strain, so the cops were unfortunately never involved. I think that deep down she was also worried that he would do worse if she called the police. My mom stopped talking to Jake after that, and

I've never felt comfortable in that house at night again. Once I started driving, I didn't stay the night there very much. I started to visit my mom during the day and go back to my dads at night. So Jake, let's not meet again. My friend Kay sent me some pictures of us hanging out with a group of our friends from about five years ago, and it reminded me of this encounter. All of the names I'm using have been changed for anonymity. At that time, Kay and I had just graduated high school and we were hanging out with our

younger friends before we had to go back to school for another week. James was a year behind us and Evelyn and Mike were a year behind him. It was just the five of us hanging out, and we had gone out for dinner and went to hang at a local park with a playground afterward. It was almost dark, but still just enough light to be able to see all the way down the road. It was muddy, so instead of sitting on the ground, my friends each sat on one of the four rocking horses that was tethered to the wood chips.

I was the outlier and sat across from them on the playground equipment about 15 feet away. We fell into a moment of silence as Mike and Evelyn pulled out their phones. I remember looking around and I thought that I heard a man's voice somewhere behind me. We fell into a moment of silence as Mike and Evelyn pulled out their phones. I remember looking around and I thought that I heard a man's voice somewhere behind me. Did you hear that? I asked.

My friends were facing me but the playground equipment was blocking their view, so they just looked up and shrugged. A few seconds later I heard it again. There weren't any houses for about a quarter of a mile and I couldn't see anybody, so I felt a little unnerved. But James told me I was being paranoid and it was probably nothing. We sat there in silence for about 30 more seconds, and then I heard a stick break right behind me.

I spun around and a man wearing all black was walking behind me. I laughed and told him, geez, you startled me. He didn't answer. I then realized that he wasn't walking past me, he was walking toward me, and he picked up his speed. Who are you talking to? Mike asked. From their angle, my friends couldn't see the man.

I looked back to point at the guy, but he had turned and was now sprinting across the lawn towards the street. Kay and Evelyn caught just a glimpse of him before he disappeared into the darkness. That guy was just right behind me, I said. I got up and I moved it toward my friends. I wasn't quite sure of what happened, but I had never felt so uneasy. Suddenly a vehicle we hadn't noticed flipped its headlights on, blinding us before slowly rolling down the street.

It stopped right in front of the playground like it was watching us. Then another person wearing all black ran to the vehicle from the opposite direction and hopped in. The vehicle then sped away. We sat there for a couple of minutes asking ourselves what the fuck just happened. And then we decided it was best to leave and go home. I have no idea what the hell that guy wanted, but I'm glad I never found out. I'm honestly creeped out.

My husband and I have a family dog. His name is Houndoom. And he's just over a year and a half old. Houndoom is a doberman. He's the sweetest, most playful guy you'll ever know. He loves people, young and old. He's also a great guard dog. His bed is in the kitchen next to the window, and we have a baby gate set up to make sure

that he stays back as guests come in. He always barks when he sees strangers, but once he catches on to the guests being family or friends, he turns into a big baby. Now that I have informed you about my dog, I'll also mention that my husband and I have an 8-year-old daughter we'll call her Maddie. Maddie is your typical 8-year-old kid. She's really sweet, loves stuffed animals, never seen a scary movie before, innocent, et cetera, et cetera.

She has a best friend who will name Sarah for the story. Maddie and Sarah are the same age and they go to the same school. Sarah's parents had reached out to us to set up play dates for them to hang out outside of learning environments, and my husband and I were cool with it.

Sarah had been to our house a couple of times. The first time she came over, Houndoom went ballistic. Like how I said earlier, when it comes to strangers he barks like crazy, but when he realizes it's a friend he loosens up. Well, when she came inside, he almost broke the gate down. I had never seen him out of control like that before. My husband and I were trying to calm him down and Sarah just stood there staring at him with a little smirk on her face.

After trying to get Houndoom to relax to no avail, I had to tell the girls to go upstairs. It was strange, but I initially brushed it off, thinking, he probably smells another dog on her. Whatever. The next few times that Sarah came over to play with Maddie, Houndoom continued to stand his ground. He even seemed like he genuinely wanted to attack her. I continued to shrug it off, and I did my best to keep him separated from the girls to calm him down. The thing that freaked me out was when Sarah and her mom walked up to my house. My dog immediately went crazy.

He was growling and snarling and everything. He typically doesn't lash out like that unless he encounters other animals like squirrels or possums. Her mom doesn't talk much, which didn't help with defusing Houndoom. So, this time I thought that maybe he would calm down if Sarah pet him. I figured she just needed to get close enough for him to smell her. I generally hoped that he would calm down after that. So, I asked Sarah to come closer.

But she stopped and looked at him in a very weird way. It was almost like she was taunting him. He continued to thrash around and growl, but she wasn't even afraid. It was almost like she knew why he was so livid. She brought her hand closer to him, and as we were petting him, he seemed to calm down a bit. But then he suddenly snarled and tried to bite the shit out of her. Thankfully, he didn't, since I quickly moved her hand away from him.

After that, he went right back to barking like he wanted to kill her. I told the girls to go upstairs and turned to my husband. I glanced at him as I non-verbally asked, does this not strike you as odd? The way that my dog looked at Sarah and started barking at her made me feel so unnerved. It was like he sensed something was off about her. Shortly after this, Sarah stopped coming over

and my dog has been completely normal. He hasn't acted that way ever since she stopped coming over. He's been perfectly fine with every other stranger that we've introduced him to. I had trouble sleeping after this ordeal, since I kept thinking about how creeped out this made me feel about Sarah. Although we haven't seen her in a while, I highly doubt I'll ever let her come over again. Salt Lake City, Utah, Let's Not Meet will be there live at the Metro City Music Hall

on September 19th. Brandon Lanier of Odd Trails will be joining me to tell a story and do a Q&A after the show along with the meet and greets for the VIP tickets. You can get your tickets at letsnotmeetpodcast.com slash tour, or follow the link in the show notes again. That's September 19th in Salt Lake City, Utah at Metro Music Hall. I'll see you all there. I'm a 23 year old female and this happened when I was at the gym doing cardio on a treadmill. It was a Thursday at noon and not very many people were at the gym, so it was pretty empty. I always make sure to use the treadmills in front of the mirrors so that I can pay attention to my surroundings and stay safe. I was walking two treadmills away on one of the ends of the row.

All of the other treadmills were empty with the exception of the one which was on the opposite end of this row. This man suddenly got on the treadmill right next to me. I thought this was weird since there were so many vacant treadmills, but ultimately I dismissed it and continued watching criminal minds. Every so often I looked up at the mirrors just to check my surroundings, and every time I looked up, the man was staring at me. About 37 minutes into my 45-minute workout, he dropped his phone down the side of his treadmill that was closest to me. I was looking in the mirror and I watched as he intentionally dropped it, basically throwing it down next to me.

He then got off of the treadmill, picked up his phone from the ground, and tapped me on the shoulder. I never took my headphones off, so I couldn't hear what he was saying, but he introduced himself and then asked for my name. I never caught his name, and I gave him a fake one in response. He continued to talk after that, but I couldn't hear him because I was still watching my show, and one of the characters got in a shootout.

I just nodded and I kept my attention on my show to convey that I was clearly disinterested in whatever he had to say. When I refocused on my workout, I only had about five minutes left, and I glanced in the mirror, and he was still staring at me. After my workout, I went to step off my treadmill. As I did, I noticed he had been on his treadmill for about eight minutes, definitely not long enough for a full workout, and maybe just barely long enough for a warm-up.

I went to the stretching area that is pretty close to the treadmills, still in front of the mirrors. When I moved to the stretching area, he moved to the weight machine closest to me. And kept staring. I started counting his sets and reps in the mirror, so when I noticed that he was in the middle of his next set, I got up and left. I figured he wouldn't want to interrupt his set, and thought that this would give me enough time to get to my car and leave before he even noticed I was gone.

I walked out to my car, got inside, and started it. I went to grab my seatbelt, and just as I was about to click it my passenger door opened. I yelled, don't fucking touch my car! As I pulled out of the parking spot with both doors wide open. I always reverse into parking spots since I saw something online from the police that said parking like this is the safest thing to do. That always stuck with me as I'm constantly worried about my safety. I tore out of that parking lot and drove about a mile

down the road with my passenger door open. The next day, I went into the gym to report him, but I never got his name, and the gym wasn't willing to review the camera footage with me. They said that they would take a look at the footage and talk to him once they figured out who it was. I went in a couple of times after that and attempted to follow up, but they never had any update from me which made me feel like they weren't doing

anything about the situation. The week after this happened, I cancelled my gym membership and never went back. Music When I was eight years old, my family moved into a lower income part of town. The good thing about this was my aunt on my mom's side and older brother lived in the same neighborhood as us. There was a small old building in this neighborhood and from what I was told it was a church. I used to go there to play often as I didn't have too many friends. My father kept my family pretty sheltered for the majority of my life. I always went to the park by myself but there was one girl who used to go there too, and she would play with me.

Her name was Henrietta. I always liked Henrietta, and I loved it when we played together. She was the first best friend that I had ever had. Honestly, she was the first friend in general, considering I hadn't had any friends prior to meeting her. Henrietta's family lived about two houses down from an older man named Herbert. I'd say that he was in his early 40s. He was pretty creepy looking.

He always stared at me and Henrietta through his bushes, or he'd be peeking out of his windows at us. Herbert gave me the worst feeling ever. I used to tell Henrietta not to talk to him because he looked like he was a little strange. But she was someone who tried to see the good in people. I always felt hesitant about him, though. I just couldn't shake the feeling of there being something sinister about him. I remember this feeling was solidified for me when one night I looked out my bedroom window and I saw him across the street in the bushes, just staring at my house.

I closed the curtains since it made me feel so unsettled, but I peeked out of the curtains about ten minutes later, out of curiosity, and I saw him walking around the field behind his house. The morning after I saw him creeping around the outside, I woke to a bunch of police in the neighborhood. I quickly found out Henrietta had gone missing and nobody could find her. Her parents were understandably hysterical. It was a particularly hard time for them since Henrietta was their only child.

Since I was her main friend at the time, the police, along with my parents, took me to the station where I told them the last I had seen of Henrietta. I let them know that I last saw her at the old church where we used to play regularly. I headed home before she did, and she hung back, saying she was waiting for a friend to come by with candy. I remember feeling confused about her waiting for a friend since I had no clue who she was talking about. I then mentioned Mr. Herbert and how he was always following us and staring at us.

My parents told me to stop telling stories, and this quickly ruled Mr. Herbert out as a suspect in her disappearance. Sadly, Henrietta never came home. Mr. Herbert skipped town about six months later, and updates on her case went radio silent until 24 years after her disappearance. One day, I put the news on and there was a breaking story. I saw Mr. Herbert on the screen. He was much older than the last time I had seen him.

Apparently, Henry and his body was found. She was buried in a shallow grave. Since technology and forensic research advanced over the years, the police had new testing available that enabled them to identify her and link her disappearance to Mr. Herbert. They were able to determine that Mr. Herbert had violated her and then murdered her. He buried her beneath the floor of the old church. It was also revealed that Mr. Herbert was wanted in other places as well. The police said, in his possessions they found that he had a list of young girls he had killed

and was planning to kill. He scratched their names out after each death. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, and he's currently still incarcerated. Every time I think of what happened, I got chills, since I could have been next. Thanks for listening and make sure to stick around after the music if you're a patron for your extended 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 all of our bonus content.

That's hours and hours of stories you won't hear anywhere else, released weekly, as well as ad-free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bitrate for the best listening experience. Again, that's patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. It's the best way to listen to the show. This week you have heard three hours stare by smoking in the alley. Never going to that lake alone again by throwawaythekey19, woke to my mother screaming by pokeymomof3, I'll never leave the apartment door unlocked again by oddlymoist, my campfire

story by mendcindy172, my mom's crazystalker by Nomad65555. He thought I was alone by Toothpaste Nachos. My dog sensed something about my daughter's friend by The Real Mouse. He tried to get in my car by Stupid Shitposter4 and finally, Where is Henrietta? by Proverbs to Beauty. 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 If you have a story to share send it to let's not meet stories at gmail.com to hear it on the show

Don't forget to check out the upcoming live dates We still have tickets available in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Metro Music Hall on September 19th, as well as Seattle, Washington on October 9th, Portland, Oregon on October 30th, Houston, Texas on November 9th, and Dallas, Texas on November 10th. You can get those tickets at let'snotmeetpodcast.com slash tour or follow the links in the show notes. Finally, make sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Odd Trails,

my true paranormal podcast, Cryptic Encounters, and the old time radio cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll see you all next week. Everybody stay safe. I'm sorry. I think my brain tried to delete this whole experience from my memory.