Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 13x13: Three Masked Men

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

Stories in this episode: Always Trust a Mother's Intuition | iniquitous_pearl (0:40) Joe the Contractor | Count_Curlyfluffs (9:05) Always Lock Your Patio Door | lilpickle06 (14:44) Someone Broke In When I Was Home Alone | _are_we_human_enough (21:05) Weird Guy Showed Up at My Parents' House at 1 am Looking for Me | Lamprocapnos1324 (25:08) The Couple | Disciple4ever (30:21) I Had a Night Stalker When I Was a Night Stocker | ladytryant (34:31) Three Masked Men | ADroopyMango (40:19) Extended Patreon Content: The Best Date I Never Had | TomatoeBread Eric | Fran I Woke Up in the Next Town Over | Anonymous The Compliment That's Always Haunted Me | Rozedges A Photo Has Never Made Me This Uneasy | Sofia Due to periodic changes in ad placement, time stamps are estimates and are not always accurate. Upcoming LNM Live Tour Dates: 10/09/24 - Seattle, WA @ The Triple Door: GET YOUR TICKETS 10/23/24 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall: GET YOUR TICKETS (NEW DATE) 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].  Go to zbiotics.com/MEET to learn more about Pre-Alcohol Probiotic and get 15% off your first order when you use MEET at checkout. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to nutrifol.com and enter the promo code MEET. Let's Not Meet is Sponsored by Better Help. Visit BetterHelp.com/notmeet today to get 10% off your first month.

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact 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'll start by saying that nothing could have prepared me for what I was going to discover the morning following a night out. It started as any other night would. My family and I got ready and headed out to our local bar for a fundraising event. I had just turned 18 and I was looking forward to having a chill night out with my friends

and family. I knew most of the people there, so I was feeling pretty relaxed. While at the bar, I went to pay for my drink, but the bartender told me that it had already been paid for. When I went to see who had paid for it, I saw it was my cousin's partner who was about twelve years older than me. I gave him a quick wave, and we exchanged normal niceties, which was interesting since I hardly ever spoke to the guy.

Prior to this, I had barely spoken more than two words to him, as he was quiet during gatherings. More often than not, he would just retreat to his room whenever my family and I came by to visit my cousin. After saying thank you, I didn't think anything of it since nothing seemed off about our little interaction. As the night was winding down, I gathered my family and I told them that I was ready to head home. I was still living at home with my mother at the time, and she had made plans to stay

at my grandmother's that night, which meant that I was going home by myself. It was around 1130 PM, and I was outside having a smoke, about to head to my car. Just as I was heading to my car, I heard someone call my name. I turned to find my cousin's partner walking towards me. He asked if I was heading home for the night, which I thought was weird. I let him know I was calling it a night and, without skipping a beat, he mentioned the make and model of my car. I didn't know he knew what I drove, but

he explained that he had seen me driving around a few times. I was a bit creeped out, so I politely said good night before continuing to my car. There were plenty of people outside, so I wasn't really concerned. Once I got to my car, my phone went off. It was my mother. She was begging and pleading with me to go and stay at my grandmother's house with her that night.

She said that she just had a really bad feeling. Initially, I was annoyed since I just wanted to go home and sleep in my own bed, but she was insistent. I couldn't understand her persistence with this since I was used to being home alone at night, but she wouldn't let it go. Our house was right down the road, so I just hung up and started driving home. Not even halfway home, my phone went off again,

so I pulled over to check it. It was my sister asking me to stay at my grandma's house. I was so pissed off at this point and decided that it would be easier to go to my grandma's house so that I wouldn't have to keep arguing with my family. By the time I made it over to my grandma's house, everyone was already asleep and this irritated me,

but I followed suit and I went to sleep as well. The rest of the night was uneventful, but I woke up in the morning to my family talking about how they had a feeling of dread, which is why they didn't want me to go home alone that night. My mother and I left to go back to our house around lunchtime and I felt off as soon as we pulled into the driveway. Once I got to the door, I found a business card from a police officer wed pulled into the driveway. Once I got to the door, I found a business card from a police officer

wedged into the door. On the card, an officer had written to call them as soon as possible. I went inside and I found my mother's camera on the kitchen table. This was a huge red flag, as I distinctly remember leaving it in my bedroom before we left for the fundraiser.

I went to my room and I found that the entire room had been ransacked. My blankets were pulled back. It looked like someone had been lying in my bed. My underwear drawer was wide open, and there were some sprawled on the floor. Another camera of my mother's was also on the table where my TV was, directly opposite my bed. This only happened to my room, and I was losing it. If I had gone home, as I had planned all along, I would have made my way through the house

and crawled into bed without switching my lamp on. I had done that so many times previously, so I wouldn't even have seen the state of my room at all. My mother dialed the number on the card and talked to an officer about what happened and what she told me made the blood drain from my face. The police were alerted about a break in at our next door neighbor's house when our neighbors found a man wandering inside their house. The man claimed that he was my friend and went into the wrong house and they chased

him out. Our house has a big deck which overlooked my neighbor's house. They called the police again when they spotted the same man smoking on our deck. The police arrived at our house at 2 a.m., but since I didn't go home and no one else was home, no one answered the door. They noticed that some lights were on inside, so they went inside to investigate. They made their way through the house and found a man hiding in my room in the dark. He couldn't give a reason for why he was there or why he was hiding in my room in the dark. He couldn't give a reason for why he was there or why he was hiding in my room.

They arrested him and he was taken to the station where he was held until someone could identify him. Turns out it was my cousin's partner. He had been hiding in my bedroom for over an hour waiting for me to get home because he knew I was going to be home alone that night. My mother's gut feelings saved me from going home alone, and my neighbor's vigilance helped me catch a creep.

Now, I always listen without question whenever my mom says that she has a bad feeling. Who knows what would have happened if I blew her off and just went home? All I know is it wouldn't have been pretty. My cousin's partner was charged with breaking and entering. He spent some time in jail before being released and moving out of the country. So always trust your mother's gut.

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And now that we've tried it, I definitely believe the hype. And with their GMO technology, they will release different products that help address toxic byproducts of modern living in the gut. Go to zbiotics.com slash meet to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use MEET at checkout. M-E-E-T. Zbiotics is backed with a 100% money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash meet and use the code meet at checkout for 15% off. Now back to the show. I'm going to preface this by saying that my husband and I are entering into the building phase on our house right now.

This means I'm meeting with a lot of contractors and new people. I've been having trouble finding someone to do our foundation. Over the last month, I've called tons of people who have said that they can't do the job, but know someone who can. I always get the name and number of the reference, but even after reaching out to the references, I'll get the same kind of answer. After a lot of this, I finally got the number of a contractor named Joe. Joe sounded excited to do the job and was the most responsive about the project.

He was also the nicest person I had run into as far as contractors go. We set up a time to meet, and he came out to my place to see the site. He seemed confident that he could do the job and asked to take the plans home with him so that he could go over them. He said that he would get back to me with a quote after reviewing everything. I agreed and I gave him the plans but told him I would need them back soon. And that was that. Not too long after, my husband and I met with a second contractor who we ultimately ended

up hiring for the job. After hiring the other contractor, I realized Joe still had the plans. The other contractor was going to get things started quickly, so we needed the plans back. So I texted him. Hey Joe, would you be able to get those architectural plans back to me? Joe replied, I can stop by now. I responded, I can meet you in town if that's easier. I need to run some errands anyway.

Okay, what time? Joe asked. We agreed to meet at noon at the grocery store. When I arrived at the grocery store parking lot, I texted Joe right away to let him know that I was there. He showed up soon after, pulled up next to my car and got out. I got out of the car as well and I noticed that he was empty-handed. Confused, I asked him if he had the plans with him and he said,

Oh, no, they're back at my house. Did you need them? I let him know that the guy who was prepping the site needed them. And Joe continued, Well, you can follow me back to my house, then I'll give them to you. I was now on alert. Nobody except for my husband knew that I was meeting this guy and I didn't really know him very well.

I asked Joe how far his house was and he said that he was in a neighboring town, about five minutes or four miles away. The more that I thought about it, the weirder it seemed. I said, let me call my husband. I might not have time to go to your place since we need to be somewhere. I walked away from Joe, out of earshot, and called my husband. Thankfully he answered, and I told him everything. He agreed that it sounded shady, and told me to be straight up with Joe and tell him

that I wasn't comfortable going to his house. I hung up and walked back to Joe and said, So, I do have time, but I'm not going to your house because I don't know you well enough. I'll wait in the community development building parking lot. It's that very loud, smelly place directly across from the fish factory." Joe seemed confused and didn't know about the place that I was talking about. So after a bit of back and forth and trying to explain where I was going to wait, I offered to drive first and have him follow me explain where I was going to wait, I offered to drive first

and have him follow me to where I would be waiting. That way he could continue to his house to grab the plans and meet me back where I had parked. I then got into my car and drove first. Joe followed me and I pulled into the parking lot for the community development building. I looked to make sure that Joe saw me and I noticed that he had stopped in the middle of an empty street. He was signaling for me to turn my car around.

Since I was a good distance away I got out of my car to hear what he was saying. He was yelling for me to turn around and follow him since his house happened to be right where he stopped. I, again again said no. I told him I wasn't going to his house and I said that I would wait for him to come back. Less than a minute later, he returned with the plans and handed them off to me. I took them, said a quick goodbye, and booked it out of there.

Now after I got out of the situation, I was able to think and reflect. It took him less than one minute to go to his house and get the plans, which always made me think of two things. One, if he lived so close to where I said I'd wait for him, why didn't he know where the community development building and the fish factory both were. These places could have easily been seen from his house since he lived so close and two, did he have the plans with him the whole time? I don't remember who gave me his number in the first place since I spoke with so many different people but it's worth mentioning that my

husband and I tried looking him up after this, and there was no information to be found about Joe on the internet at all. No email address, no business name, no registered phone number. Nothing. I'm a 27 year old female, and I recently moved into a nice apartment in a safe neighborhood with my two dogs, Charles and Wigwam. Charles is a corgi-slash-German-shepherd mix and is the most loving, but overly obnoxious dog.

While Wigwam is a Lhasa Apso, who is quiet, sweet, and often scared shitless by his own shadow. I've only been in my new place for about a month and, after this experience, I highly doubt I'm going to make it through the duration of my year-long lease. The way that these apartments are set up is that each floor has its own set of doors that lead to four apartments and a fire escape door that only opens from the inside. I'm on the backside of the building, which places my patio about ten feet from the stairs of the fire escape.

I take my dogs out three times a day, with the last takeout being at midnight at the latest. Every time I leave my apartment, I put the bar lock on my patio door, and I lock my front door without fail. But when there was a snowstorm, I cracked the patio door open because I loved the cold weather and I wanted to watch the snowfall. It was around 11 p.m. when I decided that since it was getting late, I should take the dogs out for the last time that night.

They both hate the snow. I figured that this would be a quick trip. I went to lock the patio door but decided against it since I was on the fifth floor. I knew I was only going to be outside for a few minutes. So I got the dogs ready, grabbed my keys, and locked my door as I left the apartment with both of them. I made it down to the designated pet area with my beloved snow-hating dogs and I let them do their thing.

It was a quick outing, just as I thought. So we went back to the apartment and got in safely. Or so I thought. This was where I thought I was losing my mind, but in actuality, shit was about to get real. As soon as we walked into the apartment, my dogs ran over to the patio door, and I noticed that the door was shut and the bar was engaged. I immediately thought that it was strange, but I didn't connect the dots. Then I went into the kitchen to get treats for the dogs, and both of them started going

batshit crazy, growling at a large cedar chest in my living room. As I was walking into the living room to see what all the commotion was about, I saw a pair of eyes creeping from under the lid of the chest. I stood there for about five seconds before I realized what I was seeing. Once everything clicked, I calmly walked to my front door, opened it, and told my dogs, let's go outside. They ran outside without leashes and I immediately got them and myself in my car, locked the

doors, then called the police. The police showed up in less than five minutes. They went up to my apartment, and twenty minutes later, two officers emerged from the building, dragging a man who appeared to be about forty years old with them. I had no idea who the man was, but it turns out he had been watching me since I moved in and he had been staking out my place, waiting for an opportunity to get inside since he knew I lived alone. If that's not creepy enough already, he had a fanny pack that contained a pocket knife, needles, ketamine, and

a picture of me from the day that I moved in. His plan was to sneak through my patio door, wait for me to fall asleep, and do God knows what else. Needless to say, I didn't sleep for days because I thought that he would come back. But luckily, that bastard is still in jail. I'll never forget those eyes peering at me from under the cedar chest. To the guy who was obviously planning on drugging me in my sleep, let's not meet. Do you want to have hair that grows faster, stronger, and longer? Do you want to have visibly thicker volume?

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My parents weren't home since they left earlier that morning to go on their vacation. So I was going to be all alone at home. When I got home, I went to my bedroom right away, but before I went up the stairs, I noticed that the kitchen door and the window were both wide open. I was surprised and didn't think too much of it, and I certainly didn't think that I was in any danger since I was inside my own house. I should mention that my father is very paranoid, so there's no way that he would have forgotten to close the windows, especially not before leaving the house, for two weeks.

In any case, it was pretty early for me, so I was barely awake. I just closed the door and I checked the kitchen and the living room just to be sure everything was okay before going upstairs to my room. I went to my room and I grabbed some clothes to change into. Then I went to the bathroom, got into my new clothes, and went back to my room. I closed the door to my room, which was strange since I never really closed my door. I was then scrolling on my phone, and about five minutes later,

I heard footsteps on the other side of my door. Someone was there, and they had been there the whole time, while I was vulnerably going about my business. I was terrified. My heart was pounding and I couldn't move. I just took the first thing that I saw in front of me to defend myself. It was my flat iron. I stared at my door, waiting for the person to open it and kill me, or worse.

I was ready to jump out of the window if I saw that door open. Minutes passed, and then I heard the person go down the stairs and then leave. I don't know how long I stayed there, immobile in my room, but eventually I called my boyfriend and he came to rescue me. At first, I thought that I was crazy because I never saw anyone. I honestly couldn't believe that this kind of thing could happen. But my boyfriend checked things out and confirmed that the intruder forced the door and windows to the kitchen open. So it did really happen.

Someone was really in my house. For me the strangest part of this whole thing was that the intruder didn't take anything. My mom's MacBook and jewelry, my PS4, my dad's gaming setup, they were all so easily available to take, but none of it was taken. Whenever I think about that, I can't help but wonder if the intruder broke in for a different reason. At that time, I was very active on Snapchat. I used to post every day, and I used to disclose my location even when I was at my house, as

I added to my story throughout the day. So, the 5,000 unknown followers that I had on Snapchat knew everything about me. I'm only mentioning this since there's a fair chance that it may have been related. I was feeling safe after my boyfriend came over, but it was pretty traumatic. I can barely stay anywhere alone without freaking out to this day. I currently live by myself and I've since stopped being so active on Snapchat. But I am constantly afraid that someone will try and break into my place. This happened a few years ago after I moved into a new apartment. While I was still unpacking and settling in, I was using my parents' address as my mailing

address. They lived a few towns over, about 20 minutes away. A month after I moved into my apartment, my parents called me late one night at 2 a.m. They were freaked out and proceeded to tell me this story. That night at 1 a.m., someone started banging on their front door and repeatedly ringing their doorbell. My dad walked downstairs and opened the door,

leaving the glass security door closed and locked. There was a man standing outside who appeared to be in his 30s. He was wearing a black hoodie, with the hood pulled up around his face. He didn't have any distinguishing features like facial hair or tattoos or anything. Neither my stepdad nor my mother, who was watching the whole situation from a nearby window, recognized the man. The man then said, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for,

and then he said my full name. My stepdad played dumb and asked, who? The man then stated my full name once again and said that my boyfriend was worried since I didn't come home that night. He claimed to be a friend of my boyfriend and told my stepdad that they were both out looking for me and they were worried because they didn't know where I was. I didn't have a boyfriend at that time

and hadn't been in a relationship for about five to six months. I was living by myself with my three dogs, but here's the weird part. My stepdad asked the guy what my boyfriend's name was and the man said the name of the boyfriend I had when I was in 10th grade nearly 20 years ago. My boyfriend from 10th grade had a unique Italian name, and I've never met anyone with a full name even close to this. The man said my high school boyfriend's name a few more times to ensure that my

stepdad heard him and repeated that they were both very worried about me. He asked my stepdad if I was sure I wasn't inside. My stepdad was weirded out by this, so he closed and locked the door in the guy's face. However, the guy didn't leave. He lingered in front of my parents' house for the next ten minutes, smoking cigarettes and talking on the phone. Finally, my parents called the police.

About five minutes before the cops arrived, the man walked down to the dead end of their block, got into his silver car, and drove away. My stepdad was unable to get the license plate, but my parents still filed a police report, and nothing else happened. After my parents told me this story, I went nuts over the weird details. How would somebody know who I dated nearly 20 years ago? What would the motive be for making up a story that included that oddly specific detail about my past?

At that point, I hadn't had any contact with my 10th grade boyfriend in over a decade. A few days later, I decided to message said ex on Facebook to see if he had any insight. I told him the whole story and he was just as confused as I was. And he let me know that he had no part in it. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Children are always learning and growing, but sometimes we lose our curiosity as adults. I definitely did for a long while, and it took some rough times to open my mind back up to the wonders that life has to offer.

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Rediscover your curiosity with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash not meet today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash not meet. Now back to the show. I'm a 36 year old woman. This happened in my hometown back when I was 7. For context, I lived on an island off the coast of Washington state in a military town that is among one of the safest places to live in all of the U.S. But there are still weirdos everywhere.

The timing is vague for me since it was so long ago, and I was so young, but I remember being outside and playing with my friends so it was likely a summer evening just before dinner time. We were messing around, riding our bikes in the street and running around, you know, the usual kid stuff, when a car pulled up and stopped in the middle of the street. I don't remember exactly what the man driving the car initially said, but he must have beckoned me to come closer, since I remember walking up to him, close enough to hear what he said next.

"'Have you seen any other kids around?' he asked. "'My kids are out here, too, but they seem to be missing.'" I then noticed that there was also a woman in the car with him. I assumed that she was the mother of the kids he was looking for as he had stated that he was their dad. I said no and let him know that I hadn't seen any other kids wandering around. I also told him that there was a park nearby, around the corner, where he might be able to find them.

I was proud of myself for thinking about this at seven years old. The man then asked if I would be willing to get into his car and show them where the park was. Although I didn't understand how dangerous this was, I was well aware of the whole stranger danger thing so I said no. He asked again if I would please get into the car and help him find the children at the park. But I said no.

I apologized and told him I couldn't do that. Then I gave him directions to the park and skipped away to continue playing with my friends who were standing nearby and watching the whole time. The couple drove away and a few minutes later, my mom came outside to call me in for dinner. As I bounced happily up the driveway, I told her about how I just helped someone. And I was so giddy to have done this for an adult as I explained the whole thing to her.

Her face changed a bit, but she nervously said, that's very nice of you, honey. And I felt a surge of pride. My dad then came home. He's a solid Navy dude with a black belt. He also used to be a para-rescuer. My dad is such a badass that Chuck Norris checks under his bed for him every night. My mom obviously told him what happened. His reaction was different.

He told me that, although he was proud of me that I liked to help people, I was never, ever to approach anyone that I didn't know like that again. I'll never forget what he said next, as I have passed this wisdom on to my own daughter. My dad told me, adults should never be asking children for help. Always remember that. He told me I was lucky I hadn't gotten snatched, because if a couple snatched me, my parents likely would have lost me forever, especially if things had gone badly. He was very stern, which hurt my little ego, and I lost a tiny bit of innocence that day. Now that I have had 30 years of knowing my dad, I know that he was only stern because

that was his personal response when he gets scared. To wrap it up, I don't remember if my parents called the police with the information that I told them, but it's likely that they did because they are solid, loving folks. To my knowledge, nothing ever came of my life, I worked over nights at a local Walmart. Six days a week, I would work from 9pm to 7am, stalking everything from fishing lures to makeup. I've never been in a more depressing environment.

Everyone was apathetic and too caught up in their own depressing lives to care about anything or anyone else. This included the managers. Walmart has a general vibe to them anyway, but this was a 24-hour supercenter in rural West Virginia. So you can imagine the characters, mostly meth and opioid addicts, that would show up throughout the night.

We didn't have any security guards and, from what I've come to understand, a lot of the cameras, including the ones in the parking lot, haven't worked properly in a while. Being one of the few female overnight stalkers, I encountered my fair share of unwanted advances. But the one who took the cake was this guy who would show up every single time I went outside for a smoke break, regardless of the time. It didn't matter if I was on a smoke break at 2 a.m., 4 a.m., or 6 a.m. The guy would always appear from around the corner of the building to try and strike up a conversation with me within seconds of me stepping outside of the building.

Additionally, it never mattered which of the three entrances I used. Somehow he would always be there. At first I assumed he worked there. Why else would anyone voluntarily lurk around a shitty Walmart at all hours of the night? Pretty much everyone on the overnight shift smoked during their 15 minute breaks. We got two of them. It wasn't out of question to think that he was doing the same. This was especially plausible since he often wore a dark blue t-shirt and had the same vibe as any of the overnight employees. But I eventually came to find that he didn't work there, so I

stopped going outside alone. I started only venturing outside with one of my guy friends in tow. One of my co-workers was someone I've been friends with since middle school. But even my friend's presence didn't deter the man outside, and it kind of became a store-wide joke. I was weirded out but didn't become alarmed until he started getting a little more aggressive. He would ask me if I was seeing anyone, and then would ask me out pretty much every chance that he got. I was playing a lot of GTA V at the time,

so I came up with a story about having a scary, long-distance boyfriend named Trevor from Northern California. Even so, he wasn't fazed. As my efforts to deter him kept getting thwarted, I decided I was done feigning politeness and began ignoring him. One night, my main guy friend had called in sick, and the others were working on something on the opposite side of the store. So I went outside with two older women who were working in my area.

After a few minutes, they went inside and just as I was about to follow them, the creeper outside suddenly appeared. I'm pretty sure he had been waiting around the corner. He quickly approached me, took my hand in his, and insisted that I go to his car with him to see something. He didn't grab my hand hard, but I was pissed that he even touched me. I can be an angry person in general as it is, so I lost it.

I ripped my hand away from his and sprinted inside. I reported him to my head manager that night and found out that he had a cousin who worked in the back unloading trucks. This guy liked to hang out with that cousin at work. The cousin who this guy was related to apologized profusely and said that he would talk to him. Management didn't even say a thing or even ban the creeper from the premises. I ended up eventually quitting due to the horrible mismanagement. After I quit, I found out through a friend that the guy who was still hanging out at

the store every night tried like hell to find out my name and where I lived. He even continually asked around about me for weeks after I left before disappearing himself. I can't help but think about how those parking lot cameras haven't worked in such a long time. If I just disappeared on one of those long, tiring work nights, how long would it have taken the workplace to notice? Salt Lake City, Utah, your live Let's Not Meet show has been rescheduled for October 23rd.

Unfortunately, my flight was canceled at the last minute and I didn't get to make it out last week. But don't worry, your tickets were refunded and the link for the new date is available today. And tickets are also still available for Seattle, Washington on October 9th, Portland, Oregon on October 30th, Houston, Oregon on October 30th, Houston, Texas on November 9th, and Dallas, Texas on November 10th.

Tickets for all of these shows, as well as the new October 23rd date for SLC, are available at letsnotmeetpodcast.com slash tour, or you can just follow the new links in the show notes. I'll see you there. This took place in the summer of 2016. My friend and I had just moved into our new house in a rural college town during the summer of that year. I had arrived a week before the first day of school, joining

my roommate who had already moved in. We were settling in and beginning our semester. The house was nothing special, even though it was old and cheap, we liked it because it was close to campus. The university buildings could be seen from outside the house just down the road. The basement was unfinished and aside from the basement level going up to the main level of the house, there were no other upstairs levels. There was also a communal tennis court directly across the street from our house. Due to being located in a rural area, or for whatever reason, the road that our house was

on was not well lit. Combine that with a large forested area that stretched behind the houses and you'll quickly understand why our house might stick out as a target. My friend and I were in various later stages of college life and liked the party. We had a very open friend group and there were always new faces seen coming and going at the various places that we lived.

The friendly nature and I suppose, naivety of our friend group led to us letting our guard down and relaxing some of our standard home security practices. It was the night before the first day of school. The week that had passed was filled with drinking, smoking weed, and listening to loud music. On this night, it was finally time to get to bed early and get a good night's rest to wake up early for class the next morning.

It was 11pm and our friend John had acquired some weed earlier in the day that had a very suspicious backstory to it. He got it for free and he had a lot of it. John is a what's-mine-is-yours type so he and I decided to smoke some of it with our friend Mike. a what's-mine-is-yours type, so he and I decided to smoke some of it with our friend Mike. The story about the weed was suspicious as it was, but later we learned that John was having a schizophrenic episode.

This explained his erratic reasoning and shifting of the story on how the weed was acquired. Due to John's inherent gift of gab nature, and the fact that his schizophrenic episodes are not always obvious at first, our friends had no idea that he was having a mental breakdown. This made things very confusing later on. John suggested that we roll up some blunts in my room. So John and I, along with our friend Mike, headed into my room to wind down. As I closed the door to my room, I saw our other friend Chris asleep on the couch. Across the hall, my roommate Kevin's door was also shut, with the lights off.

So John, Mike, and I were the only ones awake in the house. My room is small small with two windows. One window had an AC unit and the other faced the back porch and had my TV in front of it. I was sitting at my computer playing seven days to die while my friends were rolling up a blunt on my bed. The irony of what happened next is not lost on me. I heard a startling slam come from the other side of the closed bedroom door.

It was as if somebody had knocked way too loud. I yelled out in annoyance, assuming this was the case. But it wasn't. The knocking turned into slamming, which turned into breaking, which led to splintering wood. In my head, I couldn't make sense of any of this. I kept picturing one of my good college friends, James, returning from a long late-night road trip. I assumed he was on the other side of the door with a liquor bottle and some cocaine. I was imagining that James would pop his head through the hole that was currently splintering through my door, and he would tell me that he'd fix it later and have us

come out and party with him. This was my only logical explanation that I had in my head for what I was seeing. Finally, the fact that something was off clicked, and I reached for my phone to dial 911. Time seemingly dilated as all of this was happening. I recall picking up a large pointy shard of splintered wood that ricocheted from the door and holding it like a spear. I thought, if they break through that door, I'm rushing them. I'm not giving them a chance. I remember seeing a look of sheer terror mixed with hopelessness as I watched Mike try to

shimmy the AC unit out of the window to no avail. We were all shouting and screaming as the wood continued splintering from the door like confetti. After I saw Mike take his butterfly knife out, it stopped. Whoever was on the other side of the door stopped trying to force their way into my room. There was suddenly no more movement. No more sound.

The damage was done. The door was broken, and it became stuck. My friends and I essentially had to finish breaking through the door to climb through the other side. After we climbed through the door, Chris and Kevin emerged from Kevin's room. Chris had snuck into Kevin's room to hide during the commotion. John quickly handed the weed off to Chris, who was going to hide it away somewhere before the cops came.

I had nothing to do with this plan, and they were very quick to act before there could be any real thought put into this decision. Kevin, who was just as startled as we were, came out of his room and helped us get out of the room through the broken door. Everyone was confused. We examined the house to see if anything was stolen. We found that all of our laptops and other valuable items were exactly where we left them.

Nothing was touched. We noticed a cooking pot left outside of the broken door, so we figured that the intruder had come into the house through the back kitchen door, which was unlocked. From there, we assumed the intruder swiped something off of our stove to use to break down my door on the way to my room. At this point, all we could do was wait for the cops. So we did. After thirty minutes, the cops still hadn't shown up.

So I called them back. I asked them what was taking so long, considering that there was a campus police substation literally a block down from where we were living. Apparently they dispatched some city cops from the opposite side of town. Forty minutes later the cops and Chris, who was returning from stashing the weed, arrived at the house at the same time. That's when I realized I had never gotten Chris's side of what happened. He had left in such a hurry and

he had been the only one that had seen the intruder. The first time I got to hear his side of the story was when the cops sat us down and asked us what happened. What he said made the hair on the back of my neck stand up as the whole room went quiet. He said, it wasn't just one person but three men in masks. I don't know why I had assumed it was some sort of lone crazed lunatic, especially since I never actually saw anybody myself.

It was at this point that John's schizophrenic breakdown was in full swing. During this conversation, he was saying things that you would never say to the cops if you wanted them to be productive and actually help you. It was making me extremely frustrated. His mental breakdown fueled a convoluted story involving impromptu vigilante justice, stolen cash, stolen jewelry, and a wild goose chase around town. As I mentioned before, it's hard to clock it when John's schizophrenic episodes are starting.

So, I thought that he was just fired up from a break-in. I chalked his erratic behavior and storytelling up to being scared. But boy was I wrong. As the cops took our story, one of our friends decided to fess up and tell them that there was weed hidden somewhere. While their intentions were good, I always thought that this was a bad idea since the cops became more interested in the weed than the break-in from that moment on. When they were sitting around discussing everything we heard a knock on the door, tensions were

high and you could feel how on edge everyone was. The cops looked around for a second and then one of them slowly walked to the door and quietly leaned up against the people. The cop turned around and made a face before opening the door and revealing, a third cop. The third cop that showed up started to ask us individually about the weed. Meanwhile, the first two cops who arrived were asking John to identify himself. He provided them with a few versions of his IDs. Each had a different name and each was from a different state.

He was talking a mile a minute and managed to insult the cops with every third word. They were getting very frustrated with him, and so was I. I could not for the life of me understand why he would choose this moment to pick a fight with the cops. After the cops left, John kept insisting that he knew who was responsible for the break-in, and he went off to tell two or three different stories about how he got this weed. He just kept rattling off different explanations as he continued to weave these inconsistent stories, and the idea of John knowing who did this was disturbing to me.

John then decided to take matters into his own hands. He left the house, claiming that he was going to find who did this and make them pay. At the time, I wasn't thinking straight. I genuinely believed him, and I let him leave to go find these people, not knowing that he was having a psychotic episode. When John returned, he told us what he had done. He said that he had cornered the perpetrator in a parking lot and confronted him with a knife. When he told me this story, I was in disbelief.

John may have been psychotic, but he wasn't a liar. So I feared the worst. I left and went to a lady friend's house that night. When I was there, I gave some more thought to John's story and finally put two and two together. I realized there was something wrong with our friend. So, the next morning, I headed back to the house. John was still there with Kevin, as if nothing had happened the night before.

When I walked inside, he came up to me with two very large men in tow behind him. He told me that these were his quote-unquote goons, and they were going to fix the place up. I felt like I was about to lose it. It was the morning of the first day of school and I had no idea who these large burly men were. Yet, they were in my house fixing my doors.

I walked out to the living room, and sitting there on the table was a gold watch I had never seen, along with a pile of cash and a pile of weed. I was livid. I still had no idea why our house had been broken into, but I finally figured it had something to do with the weed. At that moment, I didn't want any weed in the house, especially on display. I pulled John aside and asked him why the fuck that stuff was on the table. He gave me some insane story about how the guy who robbed our house came to him, apologized, and offered these items as

pennants. Like I said, normally John isn't a liar, so I knew something was deeply wrong, but I was still shaken by the fact that he kept telling me he knew what happened. I went to class on that first day of school, but I could barely focus on a thing. And after another terrible night of sleep at my lady friends, I went back to the house to get ready for the second day of school. When I arrived at the property, it was a mess. I really didn't think much of it until I got a phone call while on campus. It was Mike.

He told me that John had been drunk driving around all day. Apparently he had sold his car but hadn't actually given the car to the guy that he sold it to. I came back to the house again to find all of my friends on the lawn. I joined them as they were watching John from across the street. He walked over to a neighboring complex where he took a full paint can from somebody's porch. This was in the middle of the summer, so a ton of people were outside. John was swinging the paint can around on the sidewalk in a high-traffic area, while interacting with everyone and anyone who would listen.

At one point, he even tried to break the paint can open. A squad car pulled up as we were watching all of this, and we asked him if there was anything that could be done. At this point, it was clear that John was becoming a danger to others, but mostly himself. The cop let us know that if he hadn't committed a crime, there was nothing that he could do, and he left. The next day, John's mother and aunt came to our house to attempt to take him home.

The conversation that they had with him really broke my heart. I had to listen as they tried to have a rational conversation. During this conversation, they figured out something was deeply wrong. I couldn't bear to be in the room with him while they were speaking, so I listened from my room. John's mom and aunt were unable to get him to agree to leave, so eventually he was picked up by the cops. The cops found him downtown the next day, bashing his head into the glass storefront of a local Chipotle. He was then taken into custody at a psych ward, and I was honestly relieved. My friend Mike and I decided to go down to the psych ward at the hospital to visit John when we walked in. It was like he ran the

place. I really have to reiterate that this man truly has the gift of Gap. This is what made it so hard to tell that there was something wrong with him. As Mike and I walked in, John immediately started flirting with this young pregnant nurse who was checking us in for our visit with him. She was giving him this, oh you, kind of reaction. We sat down with all of the patients and John started introducing us to them, like he's known them for years. They all loved him.

Even the security guards had friendly banter with him when they talked about the TV show that they were watching. Things started to settle down when John was in the psych ward. I was called into the precinct to give more information, but nobody was ever caught for the break-in. I moved out of that house a few days later. I moved into an apartment with a guy down the block. The first weekend of living in that apartment, I had it all to myself since my roommate was

out of town. Everything was comfortable and I was finally able to sleep easy knowing that I was safe. But as I was resting, I suddenly heard a pounding on my front door. Somebody was knocking with all of their force and not letting up. They were also mashing the doorbell as fast as they possibly could. I caught a little wind of bravery and decided to check the peephole which was actively being covered by whoever was on the other side of the door. I was shitting my pants.

I figured that the intruder had found me and they were coming for me. This was it. I figured they knew that I talked to the police and I was dead. I locked myself in my room and I called Mike. He was living in the same complex so I knew that he'd be the quickest to respond. Thankfully, he answered. I told him the situation and he came running over to help me right away. After what felt like an eternity of wordless pounding and

doorbell ringing, it finally stopped. I waited for a second, and then I called out to see if Mike was there. He was, and I let him in and I asked him what was happening. Apparently some drunk college girl was out there, and she had the wrong apartment. So to the three masked intruders and the drunk college girl who had the wrong apartment, let's not meet. Oh, and P.S. John is doing fine now.

I talk to him every so often, and there are no indications that he's living with paranoid delusions anymore He himself admits that he was lost during this time and had no clue what was going on Thanks for listening stick around after the music for your extended version of this week's episode if you're a patron. If you want 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 ad free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate and hours and hours of bonus content with stories you won't hear anywhere else.

This week you have heard Always Trust a Mother's Intuition by Iniquitous Pearl. Joe the Contractor by Count Curlyfluffs. Always Lock Your Patio Door by LittlePickle06. Someone broke into my home when I was alone by Are We Human Enough? Weird Guy Showed Up at My Parent's House at 1am looking for me by Lamprocapnos1324 Almost Lured into a Car by A Couple Looking for Their Kids by Disciple Forever. I Had a Night Stalker When I Was a Night Stalker by Lady Tyrant. And finally, Three Masked Men by Atroopy Mango.

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. Send your stories in to Let's Not Meet Stories if you want to hear them on the show. 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 Radiocast, all at CrypticCountyPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. And make sure to get your tickets for the new October 23rd date for Salt Lake City, Utah. You can grab those as

well as tickets for all the other shows like Seattle, Portland, Houston, and Dallas at let'snotmeet meet podcast.com slash tour, or follow the link in the show notes. I'll see you all next week. Everybody stay safe. I'm a 23 year old female with a larger, curvier build and tall frame.