Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 13x14: A Stranger in Canada

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Stories in this episode: I Don’t Trust Movie Theaters | Gas0line_Rainbows_ (0:41) Sketchy Man at the Lake | SnooCakes684 (8:14) I’m Being Stalked by a Customer at Work | SignificantOlive3289 (13:00) A Stranger in Canada | Anonymous (26:30) The Back Roads | lainey68 (30:23) Man Followed Me Around a Grocery Store | kahast8 (35:19) My Ex is Stalking Me | theycallmeboba (39:10) The Guy at My Hostel | lilinkwell (46:35) Extended Patreon Content: My Sam's Club Stalker | Runaway Blondie The Man Who Wanted to Eat My Tattoo | Laura The Man Who Asked For Our Website | Ellie Staring in Silence | Bri Strange Encounter Downtown | Anonymous The Time I Was Almost Kidnapped | Reanna 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].  Join the Naked Wines community and head to NakedWines.com/meet for 6 bottles of wine for JUST $39.99 with shipping included. Resist aging at the cellular level, try Qualia Senolytic. Go to Qualialife.com/MEET for up to 50% off and use code MEET at checkout for an additional 15% off. 

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Hashtag, make a play. 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 20-year-old female and this happened about six years ago to me and two other friends. I was 14 at the time of this story and my friends and I planned to go see the new Jumanji movie. This was my second time seeing it, but I was very excited because

my mom had decided that I could finally start getting dropped off when I hung out with my friends instead of having her or another parent supervising. After she dropped us off, we went inside, got our tickets and snacks at the concession, and then we went into the theater to decide where we wanted to sit. This was just before theater's assigned seating. You used to be able to just sit wherever you wanted. Of course, being teens, we wanted to be in our own little world, so we sat in the back so we wouldn't interrupt other movie watchers with our snickering and jokes.

There weren't that many people there. There were maybe three groups of kids with various other adults around them, but I didn't pay too much attention to them. Soon after we got settled in, the trailers started, and that's when a man walked in. I didn't pay any attention to the man either, but I noted that he was the last person to enter the theater. I can still remember exactly what he looked like to this day. He must have been in his late 20s or possibly early 30s.

He had dark eyes, reddish brown hair, and a short beard. He was wearing running shoes, jeans, a white baseball hat, and a jacket over a t-shirt. He did a quick scan of the theater theater and he stopped when he saw us. Once he fixated on me and my friends, he started making his way up the steps. We were one row from the very back and he sat directly in front of us. He sat in the seat right in front of my friend who was sitting between me and our other friend. This was the first red flag.

Soon after, the movie started. I immediately tried to focus on the movie, but not long after it started, the man started fidgeting with his hat. So, at times, his hat would face forward, and then sometimes backward. That would not have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that every time he adjusted his hat he would completely turn around and stare at us before smirking and turning back around. This continued for nearly the entirety of the first half of the movie. He also sporadically giggled to himself quietly, even when the movie was in no way comedic.

The vibes were just so off with this guy. His suspicious behavior caused me to completely lose interest in the movie. I couldn't help but remain focused on what he was doing. Soon enough, he changed tactics and every time a character in the movie told a joke or said anything remotely funny, he would full-on belly laugh, then turn around toward us. Then he started fully standing up from his seat and turning around to face us so that he could smile creepily before sitting back down.

I was so tensed up that I stopped eating. My friends had started exchanging uneasy glances with me, and I could tell that they were just as uncomfortable as I was. I remember clearly that my friend on my left grabbed my arm as the movie was getting closer to the end. I replied and told her, I know, I've been watching him. I knew I needed to come up with a plan. It was almost the end of the movie.

So I turned and grabbed both of my friends arms and whispered to them as quietly as I could. Right when the credits start, I want you all to run to the bathroom. I'm going to call my mom and have her come get us, okay? They nodded and looked just as terrified and uneasy as I felt. About five minutes later the credits started, and the moment that they did, we bolted out of there as quietly as we could. Of course, in my mind, every horror movie scenario was playing out, especially since

I was the last to leave the row. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I impulsively did just about the dumbest thing that I could have done, and please go easy on me about this. I was young and scared. I stopped and turned to face the seats as my friends ran out ahead of me to get to the bathroom. The theater was now empty except for him. He was now in our row, crawling around and looking under the seats.

This felt like it lasted for several minutes, but in reality it was probably just a couple of seconds. I was petrified. I couldn't move at that moment. Once his head popped out at the end of the row, his eyes focused on me. And they were so wide that I could see the whites from several rows below at the bottom of the theater. He immediately got up and started running toward me, which subsequently unfroze me and I bolted out of there.

I was running away from him so fast that I was skidding on the slick carpet. I could see my friend peeking out from the side entrance of the women's restroom as I was about four theater entrances away, but I noticed that my other friend wasn't with her. When I got to the bathroom, I needed to steady my breathing. When I was somewhat breathing normally again, my friend and I walked deeper into the bathroom and I shakily asked her where our other friend went. My friend told me that our other friend shot off to the concessions where other employees

would be. This might have been my first option, but I knew this theater well enough to know that there was only a 50-50 chance that an employee would be there at that moment. After a few minutes of calming down, we decided to take a peek out of the bathroom entrance to see if he was still around. I kid you not, this guy was pacing back and forth in front of the bathroom door. He had an angry look on his face. He stared directly at me when I poked my head out.

We finally called my mom close to tears and told her what was going on. She immediately left whichever store she was at and came to pick us up. We waited another minute before we took another look outside and thank God he was gone. That's when we finally saw our friend standing near the front of the theater next to an employee. It turns out she had just been standing by the co-worker and watching the man running after me before pacing in front of the bathroom. She never said anything to the employee since she was too scared. We hovered around the employee until my mom got there.

We finally saw her pull up so we raced out to her and told her to get us out of there quickly. After telling her what happened, she told us we must have misunderstood the situation. I'm still kind of pissed at her for that. But maybe she was just trying to comfort us. I don't know. All I do know is that that man did not have good intentions and we had every right to be just as afraid as we were.

Just thinking about the whole bizarre situation gives me the same goosebumps I had while I was in that theater. Stay safe everyone, and trust your instincts, they're usually right. About a year ago, I headed to a nearby lake, which is a place I usually go to for my therapy sessions since it's typically pretty serene and peaceful. About 90% of the area can be seen by the busy road, however there are a few blind spots. When I got to the lake, I pulled into my usual parking spot and immediately got this weird feeling when I saw another car parked kind of hidden under a tree close by. I'm a female in my twenties, so I'm always on high alert. I made sure to keep an eye on the car as I was getting my stuff together.

As I was watching it, at first there was no one in the car, but then a couple of seconds later I looked at it again and a man was suddenly sitting upright in the driver's seat staring directly at me. It was like he came out of nowhere. I was pretty wary about going out into the grass by the lake, but I continued to slowly pack up my stuff while keeping an eye on the man in the car. When I opened my car door, the man immediately got out of his car and stood in front of it, doing an awkward stretch with his eyes glued to me.

The lake is very close to a popular amusement park, so it's not uncommon for travelers to stop at the lake to rest. So I tried to reason with myself and decided to just sit in my car for my therapy appointment. I still had about 15 minutes before my appointment, so I moved into my backseat and closed and locked the doors. But I rolled one window down because it was kind of hot in the car. I opened my laptop and looked over at the man again. He was opening a nearly empty bottle of windshield wiper fluid and pouring it into his car as he continued looking at me. His whole vibe was sketchy and creepy, so I was debating on leaving. The man then pulled out his phone and did

something on it before continuing to fill his washer fluid with the now empty bottle. Then suddenly a white van pulled up into the parking lot right behind me. Before anyone had a chance to do anything or get out, I immediately climbed over the console, into the driver's seat and started to pull away. The van was close to my car, but there was still enough room for me to back up and pull out of there. A couple of seconds after I pulled away, the van followed, and the man got back into his car. I panicked, but was able to pull out onto the road between two cars, so the van wasn't able to catch up with me. I made sure that no one was following me as I drove home. The two vehicles could have

been unrelated, but seeing the van pull up so suddenly after I watched the other man using his phone was just so sketchy. Plus, they left right after I did in an attempt to head in the same direction. As someone who has been assaulted, this was a genuinely scary experience and I feel like I dodged a bullet. Or worse. I like to surprise my wife with a bottle of wine sometimes when I'm at the store grabbing something special for dinner. Oftentimes I have no idea what to get, or they're out of the kind that I know she likes. But that's not a problem anymore thanks to Naked Wines. Naked Wines is a subscription service that directly connects you to the world's finest

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My time in both places is split just about half and half. A few years ago, on a Friday in February, I was in the office at my desk. When I'm in the office, I assist customers who come into our office with questions on certain types of filings, as I'm the backup coverage for our records window. In my state, we're considered public records.

Anyone can come in and request copies of files from any case, unless it's juvenile, confidential, or otherwise sealed by the court. I was asked to cover the records window from 4 to 4.30 p.m. that Friday so that our records clerk could leave a little early. At around 4.15, we had a frequent flyer, as we called them. This man, who was frequently coming in, showed up to get copies out of his case. I should note the way that the office is set up. We are set up kind of like the DMV. You have to come into the main entrance and go down a long hallway until it opens up to a lobby. From there, straight ahead, are the elevators.

The District Attorney's office is to the left and the COC is to the right. There's a separate set of doors that need to be opened in order to enter our lobby. In our office, there's an L-shaped counter with windows. The records window is around the corner, tucked in the back. There are also three public terminals that anyone from the general public can come and use to research cases in my county. Okay, back to the man I see in the office regularly. We'll call him Joe.

Joe has an open family case. He comes in about once a week to get copies out of his family's case or whatever he's actually doing. It's really none of my business. He came up to my window sometime at around 415 saying he requested some documents. When documents are requested from public terminals they go through a queue, which I then go into and select them to print. So I went into the queue, glanced at the documents and asked, do you have 11 pages? He said yes, so I went ahead and printed them. I wrote out a little slip for him with the number of copies and his total owed.

I gave him the slip and directed him to go back to a cashier window where a cashier could process his payment. I went to grab the copies off the printer, which jammed, so I had to mess with that for a minute. Then I counted the pages and took them to the cashier window. I then went back to my computer to help the next person in line. The next customer was easy. Her records were printed and prepaid.

After the second customer, my coworker, who I often refer to as work wife, will call her Lynn, asked me if I wanted to go thrifting at Plato's closet after work and my answer was, yes, let's go. Right as we were discussing this, I was in view of the records window, but I wasn't right at the window. I saw that Joe had returned to this window, so I went up to the counter and asked how I could help him. He flatly stated, You must be new. Now, I'm not new.

I've been at the job for almost four years and in the legal field for almost 10. I replied, No, I'm not new. What can I do to help? He then made a snide comment about a paperweight that I was using. That's a fancy paperweight you have there. It was a gift from my three-year-old niece, a painted rock. Sir, what can I do for you?

I asked again. You gave me the wrong case, he insisted. No, sir, I said. I printed off what you gave me the wrong case, he insisted. No, sir, I said. I printed off what you put in the queue. You don't need these four pages. He shook his head. So I tossed the other four pages that he didn't need and adjusted his pricing slip to reflect

seven pages total, then sent him back to the cashier. At this point, it was four30, so we were closing up. So I left and headed to Plato's closet. It took me about fifteen minutes to drive over there. I beat Lynn there, so I sat in my car for a few minutes before going inside to start browsing. She came in a couple of minutes later, stating that she was caught behind a train. Once she joined me, we started shopping and chatting.

As we were moseying, the door to the shop opened and for some reason, I looked at the door. And there was Joe. I knew that it was Joe since he always wears this dumb sock monkey hat. When I caught a glimpse of that, I got Lynn's attention and asked, um, are you seeing what I'm seeing? I then pulled Lynn into an aisle and ducked down. She is short, but I am tall and I wear heels a lot, so it was easy for me to watch his dumb hat as it bobbed around the store. He looked like he was rubbernecking as he made his way to the back of the store.

From there he grabbed a pair of shoes and glanced at them before continuing to rubberneck. I kept an eye on him, and as he moved, Lynn and I moved in the opposite direction. She and I were legitimately hiding behind clothing racks trying to dodge him. He then moved around the perimeter of the store, still rubbernecking. He was clearly looking for something or someone. He never spotted us and we couldn't see him anymore. So we thought that he finally left.

We tried to check the parking lot to see if he was gone so that we could come out of hiding. We were scared, but we tried to shake it off and just chalked it up to coincidence. But then I realized we were talking about the whole situation right in front of him. And Lynn? Well, she's not quiet. She gets scolded on a weekly basis for her loud, boisterous voice. The next day I called my boss and told her what happened.

I also told her that I was going to call the police since I felt so uneasy about it. I called the non-emergency number and left a message with dispatch. I got a call from an officer a few hours later and explained what happened. He asked me for Joe's name, but I didn't know Joe's name offhand. The officer then told me that he would call me back on Wednesday when he was back on duty. I was able to get Joe's name in the interim and called the officer back on Monday to leave him a voicemail. Monday was fine, and I was out of the office on Tuesday. But on Wednesday, Joe came back to my office.

He came at about 420 to file documents into his case. He took 20 minutes to file two affidavits and a motion. This should have only taken a minute, but he needed something notarized. After he left, I had a bad feeling. So I called the officer and told him about what happened. The officer told me that if he came back the next day on Thursday to call and they would come down to talk with him. Luckily the PD is right across the street from the courthouse. Thursday rolled on by and there was no Joe until about 425. When he beelined it for the computer in the corner, I messaged my boss since we had already put a safety plan into place.

The sheriff's deputies, who work security, were notified. And as three deputies followed him into my office, I called the PD and two officers came down to question him. He admitted to being at Plato's closet and explained that he was shopping for his two young daughters. His daughters were only nine and 11, so I knew that they did not fit into the clothing sold at Plato's just yet.

However, Plato's does have a sister store called Once Upon a Child, which he did end up going to. He showed the police officers a receipt from his car from Once Upon a Child that was stamped at 5.07 p.m, the day that I saw him. He denied hearing my conversation with Lynn regarding going to Plato's after work. He stated that he left my office at 4.15 and took his children to go shopping for clothes, but he didn't have his children with him at the courthouse or at Plato's. He also asked the officer immediately and unprompted, did she call you?

He asked this in reference to me. He also stated that he believed his ex-wife was setting him up. So since my office is a public office and he has made arguably legitimate reasons to need to be there, there wasn't anything officers could do. They issued him a verbal warning and put him on standby. The kicker is that he could opt into his case electronically but made a big deal about not being able to opt in a few months ago.

We told him if he was having issues, he needed to call the court support line and they would be able to remedy the situation. Instead, he chooses to come in and pay the extra $1.25 per page instead of a one-time $20 fee. It's just so silly to me. He's filing extremely high-level types of documents to represent himself. If all this wasn't freaky enough already, last year, his roommate filed a restraining order against him, followed by his roommate's girlfriend alleging sexual harassment. I won't go into details regarding that, though.

Let's just say it's more than messy. He has returned to my office since all of this has started, and I've been nervous ever since. As I already mentioned, the police officers can't do anything. Another incident needs to happen between us outside of my office for me to be able to file a restraining order. In the meantime, I've ordered a home security system and signed up for self-defense classes. I'm also purchasing mace and looking into handguns.

I don't know what else to do. But I do want to make a couple of notes to give a little bit more background knowledge. I work with a lot of crazy customers. I've had drunk people try and accost me in court. I've had to call for deputies because people are agitated or look like they're going to fight. And a fight did happen a couple of weeks ago. I'm also a very confrontational person at work. We deal with a lot of people on their worst days.

I deal with a slew of domestic violence victims. I am a restraining order clerk for the office. I did office training in 2021 on restraining order processes. And the front counter staff knows that they can come to me if they need help dealing with someone, regardless if it's my case type or my problem or not. I've had people flat out threaten me, and all I did was call for security and laugh after they left. I'm not trying to flex, this is just important to note.

Joe gives me anxiety that I didn't know existed. And I've read enough of his divorce case to know why his wife is divorcing him. Have you heard about syinelytics yet? I've been reading about this stuff as I'm quite interested in the health and wellness scene. I've incorporated a lot of different foods and supplements in the last decade or so just to make sure that I can feel and move just like I did 10 years ago. It takes a lot of hard work.

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For your convenience, Qualia Cinelytic is also available at select GNC locations near you. That's Q-U-A-L-I-A, life.com slash meet for an extra 15% off your purchase. Thanks to Qualia for sponsoring today's episode. The story takes place when I was 18 and my boyfriend Jake was 21. I spontaneously decided to go to Canada to go bar hopping. It was a few hours away from our home.

After getting settled into a hotel, we went to the first bar that we could find. We had a drink there and then went to search for a different bar. Jake and I were chatting and walking when a man in a big puffy coat stopped us and introduced himself as Ian. He noticed that we were speaking English, so he invited us to go bar hopping with him. We agreed, and as we got to know him,

we found out that he lived just a few hours from us. After we stopped in at a few other bars, we met up with two of his friends and went to a strip club. Ian paid for our cover charge and drinks with a huge wad of cash. It was a little jarring since I had never seen that much cash before. Jake and I started talking about weed so Ian invited us back to his hotel room to smoke. I knew that I had way too much to drink at that point, since I got sick in the bathroom after just one puff.

Thankfully, Jake wasn't that drunk, so we eventually made our way back to our hotel. It was a crazy night. The next morning, after having a hangover breakfast, we were walking to our car to leave when suddenly Ian and his friend started calling our names. We all remarked how strange it was to run into each other again, and Ian invited us all for a smoke at his friend's house. We went along with them and went to a shady looking rundown apartment. As we were smoking, somehow, we got onto the topic of how Ian makes so much money. Without directly saying it, I could tell that he was involved in drug smuggling,

possibly over the border. Ian suggested that I could make some good money doing the same. My heart dropped as he pitched this to me and I immediately felt uncomfortable and unsafe. I then knew that we needed to get out of that apartment, that city, and that country. Jake looked over at me and he saw how freaked out I was. We casually played it off and said something like, haha, yeah, okay. We were acting like we thought he was joking so that we could allow him to backpedal,

but Ian's friends were nodding their heads and suggesting where I could hide the goods. Jake panicked and gave Ian his real phone number as we said our goodbyes so we could get started on the long drive home. As Jake was driving, we saw Ian's car behind us. We thought that this was strange, so we made a few turns, which resulted in us getting

a little lost. But he was still right there. Jake made a few more erratic turns just to lose him since we both did not have a good feeling about it. Finally, as we made it across the border, there was no Ian in sight. It was a weird drive home. A week or two later, Ian called Jake. Now, I have no clue what was said, but what I do know is we never picked up an incoming call from him again. After we figured out what Ian was up to, I got that deep, gut-sinking feeling that something bad was going to happen if we were in his presence any longer. Always listen to your gut feelings. I live in a county that was pretty rural until the last 10-15 years.

The biggest town in the county is pretty crowded now. In fact, it's overcrowded and I hate it. So I moved from there to the countryside. I like where I have relocated except that it can be very creepy at night since it's dark for miles and miles and there are no streetlights. One thing about this county is that the main roads always get backed up, especially when there's an accident or an emergency, so it pays to stick to the back roads. The back roads, just like any other rural place,

are less populated, and they're dark, with a lot of trees and no sidewalks. Anyway, a few years ago, something happened that almost made me stop using the back roads. I was driving home a bit late one night. I decided to take one particular back road that shaved 10 minutes off my commute. I was on my way home.

I was tired, I had to get up early. So I was trying to go fast and get home as quickly as possible. The road is a little more populated than some of the other back roads, but it's still very scary in some stretches because there are huge trees that are alongside the road. The trees are old and overgrown, so their branches stretch across the road, which has formed a tunnel of sorts. I was zipping along and rounded a curve.

Up ahead, I saw what I thought was a giant decorative flag. Like the kind of flag that people put up in their yards. It was fairly tall and large. It was in the middle of the road. As I got closer, when my headlights hit it, I realized it wasn't a flag. It was a person. A woman. She was wearing a red fez.

I live somewhere where a fez isn't something that you see every day. She was also wearing a long, flowing white dress with an orange reflective sash across her chest. It was more than a little strange, and the fact that she was in the middle of the road was even stranger. As I drove past her, it only got weirder. As dark as it was, I could see that she appeared to be about 60. She had glasses on and I could see her bright blue eyes.

She looked in my passenger window as I drove by and she started doing this weird bouncing movement. I thought that she was going to try and lunge at my car to get in. Mind you, I was going pretty fast. I don't know what it was about her, but she really freaked me out. I didn't think that she would rob me, honestly. I didn't even think she was human. I genuinely thought she was some kind of soul snatcher or a skinwalker.

I can't adequately describe how creepy she really was. So I sped past her as fast as I could. I kept glancing in the back seat to make sure that she hadn't materialized back there, I also prayed and recited scripture. It was spring, so it was slightly warm out, but I felt a bone chilling cold throughout my body. I finally made it home and ran inside to tell my mom about what I saw. I got in just as my brother was telling my mom about a weird lady that he saw when

he was driving. It was the same one, but he saw her at the intersection of the highway and the back road, whereas I saw her further down the road. We both had the same reaction. She also tried looking in his car, and she bounced around as he passed her. He said that there was a car in front of him that sped off so fast when they drove past the lady. My brother was freaked out and said that he refused to travel on that road anymore,

not even during the day, and he still doesn't go down that road. Eventually, I found out that the lady is a human. She lives in the woods. At one time, her family lived on the road where we saw her. Her father was ill and she tried to take him to the hospital, and he died on the way there. After that happened, I think she lost the house or got kicked out. I have friends who live off of that street, and when I was talking about her, they knew exactly who I was talking about.

Unlike my brother, I do still go on that road, but I haven't seen her since. I really hope she's okay, but I also really do not want to run into her again. I'm a female in my mid-twenties and this happened when I was at the local grocery store, almost a year ago. It was winter time, so at that time it got dark by 5pm where I lived. I was in an aisle taking my time, looking at the options in front of me, when this guy who appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s came up right next to me and just stood there.

He had light features, glasses, and a scruffy beard. I didn't really think about it all that much, or even look at him at first, since I figured whatever, he's probably just browsing as well. But after a few seconds, I noticed that he wasn't moving or doing anything. He was just standing there. When I finally looked at him, he was already staring at me. And for half a second, I thought that he might say something to me, so I stood there, just looking back at him. But he never spoke, so I just turned and walked away.

I remember thinking, okay, that's weird, but I figured he was probably just an awkward guy who doesn't know how to talk to people. Then, not even 30 seconds later, I was in another aisle and I saw him out of the corner of my eye again. He was now coming down the aisle I was in and staring directly at me. So I walked away as fast as I could and went straight to the self checkout with whatever I had. While I was in the self checkout, I was looking over my shoulders the whole time

making sure that he wasn't behind me, and I didn't see him anywhere. So I walked out of the store. I was feeling relieved as I assumed I was just being paranoid. I wasn't ever in any real danger. As I was walking out, I decided to look behind me once more, and there he was, right behind me. I then noticed he didn't have anything in his hands, and

he was heading towards the door right on my heels. Without even thinking, I just stopped dead in my tracks. I looked right at him again, and he was already looking at me. Then he shifted his gaze downward, looking at his phone, and walked past me out the door. I was scared at this point. My head was spinning. I didn't know what to do. I could see my car since I parked close to the exit, thank goodness, so I called my fiance and I sprinted as fast as I could to my car. I jumped in, locked the doors, and looked for the guy. When I found him, he was aim, and looked for the guy. When I found him,

he was aimlessly just walking around the parking lot, weaving in between cars. He was pretty far away from me at that point, and I had my fiancé on the phone, so I was feeling somewhat safe again. I watched him walk around for another few seconds before I got out of there. I don't have any idea what the guy was doing or what his motive would have been. Maybe he was just a weird guy who didn't know how to interact with people, but maybe he was a predator with dangerous intentions who thought that I looked like easy prey for a robbery. The thing I really can't wrap my head around is the fact that each time I noticed him he was already locked in and staring at me. He wasn't discreet whatsoever. And I would think a dangerous predator might at least be a little

more inconspicuous. He also didn't buy anything from the store, which I've never really understood. There's a lot that I didn't feel right about, and I'm having a hard time trying to rationalize this experience. It was definitely a creepy encounter. I'm a 17 year old girl. When I was 14, I liked older guys. And by that, I don't mean guys that were a year or two older than me. I mean three to four years older.

I met my ex at this time. He was 17 when we met. And he was a really sweet guy until he started opening up about his mental health and drug addiction. Don't get me wrong, I never judged him for his instability, but he never took his prescription, which resulted in him throwing tantrums all day. He was verbally abusive to me and overall didn't care about me. I was with him for two years until he blocked me about a year ago,

basically ending our relationship. I never heard from him after that until two months ago. I came home from school one day and I looked in the mailbox since an envelope caught my attention. It was unusual for my family and I to receive envelopes unless it was a bill or junk mail. But I could tell that this wasn't an envelope for bills. It was one meant for letters. I pulled it out of the mailbox, tucked it in my purse, and went inside the house.

After I said hi to my mom, I went into my room. I pulled the envelope out of my purse. There was no return address, postage, or anything on the envelope. The only thing written on the envelope was my name. I opened it and started reading the letter as best as I could, but the handwriting was awful. The person who had sent this to me was telling me that they regretted letting me go and wanted me back. After I finished the letter, I thought that one of my friends was playing a prank on me, so I brushed it off and put it in my drawer.

I laughed about the situation. Later that night, I was about to go to sleep when a call came through and an unknown number showed up on my screen. I looked at the screen confused because I hardly ever received weird calls from unknown numbers. I didn't want to pick it up, but I thought that maybe it was one of my friends. When I picked it up, I heard breathing. I said, hello?

There was no answer. Beatrice, I continued, are you so bored that you're pulling pranks on me? After a bit of heavy breathing from the other end, I heard a male's voice ask, who's Beatrice? I hung up and my eyes widened as I stared at the ceiling in disbelief. But I just put my phone on silent and went to sleep. I didn't think for a second that this phone call was about to be the beginning of my biggest nightmare. I woke up the next morning and missed several calls.

They were all from that same unknown number. This scared me. I opened up my phone and saw messages from the same person asking me to pick up and to talk to them. I tried to ignore it, but the calls and messages continued, even after I was at school. When I was outside the school gates and smoking a cigarette with my friend, I got a call again. I answered and sternly asked, Dude, who are you? Why are you calling me?

The caller sat in silence for a few seconds, and then said my friend's name. My friend heard their name and asked me who I was on the phone with. The guy on the phone said, I can see you. So I looked around but I didn't see anyone other than my schoolmates. There were only six other people around us and nobody was on a call. I was creeped out so I just hung up.

But I finally recognized the voice, and it was my ex. I told my friend that he had been calling and texting me from an unknown number since the night before and I didn't know what to do. She said that I should just ignore the calls. But as time went on, I started to get more letters. And sometimes there were even flowers left for me right next to my fence at home. For context, my ex was from another city. In fact, by the end of our relationship, he was living in a different country, and I never

even told him where I lived. He knew what school I went to, but not my class schedule. Or so I thought. Then I started to have single roses left for me on my desk when I got to school. This was happening about once a week. When I asked my classmates about this, they told me that they never saw the person

who brought the roses, since the rose would just be there before anyone else even arrived. I got very paranoid when I started to receive pictures of me with my friends outside of the school gate. Sometimes I would get photos of me when I thought that I was alone. I was terrified whenever I saw an unknown number pop up on my screen, especially when there were pictures attached to the message.

I could barely leave the house after I found out that he knew my school schedule. After that, I asked one of my classmates who lived nearby to pick me up in the morning and take me to school. I finally had enough. I called my ex on the number that was saved on my phone, but he never picked up. I started texting him on the apps that he didn't block me on and told him that he needed to stop. But then I started to see him. On the street.

On public transport. And outside my school. Then one day, my classmate who had been driving me to school got sick and couldn't go. So I had to take the bus. When I got on the bus, I saw my ex's blonde wavy hair and froze. I literally wanted to cry. In my country, we aren't supposed to talk to the bus driver while he's driving, but I had no other choice than to ask to be let off.

I also asked him not to let my ex off the bus. I explained the situation and he was thankfully understanding and didn't let him off the bus. My ex was banging on the glass doors and screaming to be let out at the stop where I was de-boarded. But the driver kept the door shut and drove off. I sighed in relief as they pulled away and started crying while I waited for another bus. I haven't seen my ex since school ended,

but I'm scared that he might come back around when school starts again. The police won't do anything about it, even though the letters that I've been receiving have become threatening. I carry a pocketknife with me when I go out, and I even changed my phone number, but I don't know what else to do. My ex has a twin brother which I knew about before all of this started happening, and fairly recently it occurred to me that maybe his brother is also involved.

I'm starting to think that they're in on this together. And that's why I see him so often. Seattle, Washington, your live Let's Not Meet show is on the way. I'll be there on October 9th at the triple door. I can't wait to see you all. Make sure you get tickets. You can also get tickets for the rescheduled show at Salt Lake City, Utah on October 23rd, then Portland, Oregon on October 30th, Houston, Texas on November 9th, and Dallas, Texas on November 10th. Get those tickets at letsnotmeetpodcast.com slash tour or follow the link in the show notes.

I can't wait to see you all there. [♪ Music playing. This happened during the summer of 2018. I was 22 years old and that summer I was lucky enough to get a summer internship in London. The company generously provided a housing stipend to all interns traveling a certain distance from home, so I found a dorm type housing situation. Keep in mind, my job was paying for this. The building that I lived in was in Green Lanes and it was meant for people who were staying in London for short term.

You could pay rent week by week. This place had suites with a private room and bathroom and a shared kitchen, which is what I had, as well as rooms without a bathroom. The details about how the building was set up are important to the story, so please bear with me. Various points of the building could be accessed and people who were staying there were given just one keycard. This keycard unlocked the entrances to the building, whichever specific hallway your

room was in, and your suite or bedroom. This keycard could not access any of the other hallways in the building, just whichever hallway you were staying in. To get into the building, you had to enter through a metal gate from the street onto the property, which also included a little backyard and some bike racks. From there, you'd use the keycard to get into the building, and then again at the elevator. You then had to use the key card to get back into the hallway, and lastly to get into your room.

Now, with all of that out of the way, let's proceed. I had been living there for about three weeks, and even made a great friend from India who was in London to complete a six-month pastry course at some hot shot baking school. She and I hit it off the second that we met. We'll call her Prya. Prya and I had another friend in the hostel who was a 30-year-old man from Spain who was in London for a marketing training course that his company was paying for.

The three of us made a ritual of gathering each night to smoke, drink wine, and watch the World Cup. We would just chill in general since we clicked into this trio so seamlessly. They're both great people. We were a great little trio. The particular night that this all went down was like any other. I returned from work, got off of the bus on my block, and was approaching the metal gate to my hostel. Standing at the corner was a man who appeared to be in his early to mid-thirties, with very

unique hair. I had never seen him before. But this didn't strike me as unusual, since people came and went constantly at this place. He was fiddling with the magnetic keycard just like mine. I knew that he was in the right place, since the keycard that he had had the building's logo on it. It seemed like his keycard's magnetic strip was malfunctioning, so I said hello, introduced myself, and helped him get inside.

I'm cursed with a very friendly and sunny disposition. I'm very easy to talk to. I can find something in common with just about anyone, which has often led to men I've rejected cursing me out for, quote, leading them on, when in reality, I'm just being nice to them. This guy started to flirt with me right away, so I casually dropped the fact that I had a boyfriend. Undeterred, he asked me for my number, and I naively gave it to him, since I figured he had probably just moved in.

He seemed nice, and since I had a pretty great group to chill with, I figured it might be nice to invite him down to smoke with us. The only thing is, as embarrassing but hilarious this is, besides my own phone number, I only know one other number by heart. My mother's. So, literally without thinking, when I was asked for my number, I recited my mom's phone number reflexively without realizing it until about ten minutes later when I got back to my room. My mom frantically called me and screamed,

Who are you giving your number to over there? I instantly understood what had just happened and replied, Oh, I'm sorry, mom. I did the phone number thing again and accidentally said your number instead of mine. She replied, Oh, I'm sorry, Mom. I did the phone number thing again and accidentally said your number instead of mine. She responded, Okay, that's fine. But you need to be careful. I don't know who the fuck he is. But you need to stay the fuck away from him.

Turns out he started texting my mom as though it were me. And she knew what was up right away. She politely replied, Oh, I'm sorry. This has happened before. My daughter accidentally gave you my number. Here's her number. And then he started sending her voice memos on WhatsApp screaming, What kind of fucking games are you playing with me?

I heard the message. They were aggressive. So I texted him and said, hey, let me explain my mistake. No one is playing games with you. You need to watch your mouth. Once he realized I wasn't playing with him, he reverted to being a gentleman. And by that, I mean, he messaged me and said, come check me. Which I assumed is British slang for come see me in my room.

So at this point I decided not to fuck with this guy since his reaction to my honest mistake of mixing up my phone number was wildly aggressive. I politely declined his invitation to go check him, and then he demanded to know which hallway I was in, as well as my room number. This freaked me out, as all women know, men can be fucking scary. I remember thinking, thank God his keycard doesn't have access to my hallway, even if he knows which one I'm in. After realizing I wasn't going to give that information up to him, and also realizing

that he's creeped me the fuck out, he began threatening me. He was sending voice memos on WhatsApp, screaming at the top of his lungs, calling me all kinds of awful names. He even said that he would literally kill me if he saw me again. Mind you, it had only been about thirty minutes since I met this man in the first place. So then I was like, well shit, I did the only thing I could do. I immediately contacted Hostile Management and reported everything. I provided them with all of the screenshots and voice memos, and there was no

arguing on their end. They kicked him out right away and told me that the police were now involved, though no one ever spoke to me about it. I assumed they didn't have to, as management had the screenshots and voice memos to show them. I was however told that the police came at around 9am the following morning. But here's the thing. Even after I reached out to hostel management, I continued to get more threatening messages from him, and he sent me those messages at 10 a.m. So, he was still sending me threats after the police had spoken to him and escorted

him away from the hostel. When I went to work, I was afraid, so I told my boss what happened. She was a great boss and mentor, a brilliant attorney, and I really bonded with her. Honestly, I was telling her about it because I was shaken, a brilliant attorney, and I really bonded with her. Honestly, I was telling her about it because I was shaken up more than anything, and I trusted her. I just wanted a trustworthy ear to listen. I wasn't expecting any help outside of that.

I'm extremely happy, however, that I did talk to her because after I finished telling her everything she replied wide-eyed, You're not staying at that place for another fucking minute.'" She was thinking what I was thinking. What's going to stop this creep from waiting for me outside of the hostel and attacking me? She came home with me straight after work and helped me pack all of my things, and she rented me a comfortable hotel room for three nights, which she generously paid for herself.

Within those three days, she helped me find a very nice apartment on Airbnb that I shared with one very nice roommate for the remainder of my time in London. I was so thankful for her amazing initiative, but was sad to leave my hostel friends and our cozy nightly routine behind, especially so suddenly. All of the shit from meeting this guy to moving out of the hostel went down within about 12 hours. In the following weeks, Prya did, in fact, see the guy lurking around outside the hostel several times.

He was easy to spot, due to his very unique hair. I think my lucky star is that I never had the chance to introduce him to Priya because who knows, maybe he would have targeted her once I moved out. I'm grateful that that will always remain a hypothetical. Thanks for listening and stick around after the music for your extended ad-free version of this week's episode of Let's Not Meet. 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 of bonus content with stories you won't hear anywhere else released every single week. Again, that's patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. This week you have heard I don't trust movie theaters by gasoline rainbows. Sketchy Man at the Lake by Snoocakes684, I'm Being Stocked by a Customer at Work by Significant Olive3289, A Stranger in Canada by Anonymous, The Backroads by Lainey68, Man Followed Me Around a Grocery Store by Khaast8, My Ex is Stalking Me by They Call Me Boba and Finally, The Guy at My Hostel by Lil Inkwell. 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 letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. And make sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Odd Trails, Cryptic Encounters and the Old Time Radio Cast all at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Seattle, I'll see you on October 9th at the triple door. It's the same place that we had our first show the last time I was in Seattle. Then I'll be in Salt Lake City for our rescheduled show on October 23rd at Metro Music Hall, then Portland, Oregon on October 30th, Houston, Texas on November 9th, and Dallas, Texas on November 10th.

You can get your tickets at letsnotmepodcast.com slash tour or follow the link in the show notes. I'll see you all next week. Everybody stay safe. I've been listening to the podcast for months.