Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 4x19: Neighbor Man - Let's Not Meet

Episode Date: October 5, 2020

Stories in this episode: I thought I was talking to my brother at 3 a.m. Turns out it was a burglar. - NeverEndingFlowers. "It was probably just a friend of yours" - RedRockEatingMonster. Neighbo...r man stalked entire family for 2+ years - Prettydamnpetty. Followed at night by the black car without headlights - neuneu0666. Right now Embr Wave is offering our listeners $50 off when you go to embrwave.com/meet. If you want to hear your story on an episode of Let's Not Meet, send it in to letsnotmeetstories@gmail.com.  Email your paranormal/supernatural encounters to stories@oddtrails.com to hear them on my new and upcoming podcast Odd Trails!  Follow Let's Not Meet: - Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/433173970399259/  - Merch - https://letsnotmeetmerch.com  - Twitter - https://twitter.com/letsnotmeetcast  - Website - http://letsnotmeetpodcast.com  - Patreon - http://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast  - Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/letsnotmeetstreams

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Amplify your career through training and development solutions specifically designed for federal government professionals. From courses to help you attain or retain certification to individualized coaching services, to programs at home, your leadership skills, and business acumen. Management concepts optimizes your professional development. Online in-person, individually, or groups. It's training that's measurably better. Learn more at managementconcepts.com. That's managementconcepts.com. My name is Andrew Tate in this is season four episode 19 of Let's Not Meet a True Horror Podcast. podcast.
Starting point is 00:00:55 First of all, I want to apologize for any grammar or language mistakes English isn't my first language. To really understand the story, or maybe how it happened, you need to know a few things. I live in Belgium, and at the time of these events in 2018, I lived at home with my parents, siblings, and my sweet dog. Looking back now, maybe my dog was a bit too sweet. Also important to note that my family is all over the place. Everybody is always busy doing something. Everyone has a different rhythm. And some days we live next to each other instead of with each other. So that's why at the time I didn't really
Starting point is 00:01:38 know who was home and who wasn't. We do love each other though. So in 2018, it was a school night. I woke up to some noises in my room. I was confused and looked at my phone. It was around 3am. You know that feeling that you get when you wake up very abruptly and you don't know if you're dreaming or awake? That's the kind of feeling that I had. There's a street light right outside my window, so even though the curtains were closed, I could still make out some silhouettes and figures. As I had just woken up, I assumed that the silhouette
Starting point is 00:02:20 that I saw in my room was my older brother. I wasn't really thinking. I was sleep drunk, as you could call it, and I started asking him what he was doing, but he didn't really react. I saw him walking towards my jewelry and asked him again what he was doing. My brother didn't respond. I was still laying in bed, and I began to feel angry because I had school the next day, and I had to get up early. As you do with irritating siblings, I started cursing him out. You'll pay, get the fuck out, I have school tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:03:00 You'll pay his the name of my brother. This time, he looked at me. But again didn't say anything. He started to walk towards my handbag and started looking through it, taking things out. At this point, I was just angry at my brother and finally got out of bed. Mind you, the lights are still off. I walked towards him again. What the fuck are you doing? Get out!" And I physically started pushing him, slightly towards the door.
Starting point is 00:03:35 Then he spoke. Where is the money? Where is the money? He said it in this very strange, almost fake accent. I seriously started laughing. I still thought that it was my brother. Okay, I don't know if you're drunk or you're just being an asshole, but get out. By this time, we were almost out the door, and I was still pushing him out. He left, and I closed the door. Finally, I thought as I went back to bed, but I started feeling unsettled. I got nervous and scared and started thinking it over. Didn't I smell cigarettes? Yopey doesn't smoke.
Starting point is 00:04:22 Why would he act so strange? So just to be sure, I texted my brother. Where are you?" His answer made my heart sink. I just left the gym, home in a minute. I immediately called him and frantically explained that someone was just in my room. I started crying. I was panicking and asking him what to do.
Starting point is 00:04:49 He said to call the police and stay in my room. As the gym was very close to our home, my brother got there pretty quickly. I was still upstairs on the phone with the police when I heard him yell, a whole lot of cursing and get out. At that point, I was in the upstairs hallway because my sister woke up and was standing there as well. My father fell asleep downstairs on the couch, so when he heard
Starting point is 00:05:19 my brother scream, he immediately woke up and knew that something was wrong. He went to the downstairs hallway and saw my brother chasing the intruder. At this point, they were already at the front door. My brother managed to take a backpack from the intruder, but sadly, he got away and fled. My brother did get a good look at him, though. So the police came, and I was actually in shock. All this time, my mother was asleep because she's on strong sleep meds. She woke up during the chase. When my sister and I were standing in the hallway, I was crying and she came up to us. I frantically told her what had happened, and she said, not a little one. That was a very bad dream. That's one of the things I still laugh about today.
Starting point is 00:06:05 While we were talking to the police, we had to describe the person. I told them exactly what happened and how he looked. Due to the street light, I could see the clothes that he was wearing. He had a hood on. So I didn't see his face, and when I was close, he turned his back towards me. So I'm telling the police lady about his black pants and green hoodie, and she abruptly stopped me. Green? Your brother said light gray. That's the second time my heart dropped to mayonnaise. There were two guys, not one. Both my brother and I were 100% sure what we saw.
Starting point is 00:06:54 So there had to be two guys. It took a few iPads, phones, and wallets, but luckily my brother took the backpack where there were a lot more valuables that they didn't get away with. But the burglars were kind of stupid because we had location services on all our Apple devices and they were still running. A day later, when we saw the location, my brother jumped out of his car with my father while on the phone with the police. Really, my brother is a badass. Going to the gym at night, he's in the military and chasing the intruder through the house,
Starting point is 00:07:30 I wouldn't fuck with him. They waited for the police, and they went to the house where the location of our device was found. One guy, he was crying and covered in his own piss and puke. They arrested him, and he confessed. He said he was high on drugs, and it was the first time he ever did anything like that. He was very panicky and crying the whole time. My brother recognized him as the intruder that he chased, so that meant that the guy who was in my room was still out there.
Starting point is 00:08:02 The guy snitched on the other guy, but he was nowhere to be found. We all just went on with our lives, but I was really scarred. I slept with my lights on for more than a year, and every time I would be awake past 3am, I just wouldn't sleep. The intruder they caught went to jail for a year. He was the first time offender, and he's now in a rehab program. He sent us a letter or two with our consent, and we kind of feel bad for him. He was traumatized as well. But half a year ago, we heard that the second man was taken into custody, though I was finally over it. I mean, it wasn't as bad as the
Starting point is 00:08:45 beginning, but of course I still got scared sometimes. But now they finally caught the man that was in my room. What we found out was unsettling by the least. While the dude that pissed himself didn't have a record before this happened, the dude that was in my room was a very experienced criminal. He had multiple possession charges, theft, drunk driving, and worst of all, assault, and attempted homicide. The man I talked to, cursed out and pushed out of my room at was very dangerous, and I'm very happy to be alive. I'm around 18 years old at the time of this story, sitting in my bedroom and no bullshit, watching the purge for the first time. My bedroom window only had one latch out of the two that was locked because I would smoke out of it
Starting point is 00:09:54 at night, being too afraid to go outside alone around 1 a.m. So during the movie, I kept hearing this light scratching and I thought it was probably another cat under the house. After about five minutes, I paused the movie, and I hear it again. But this time, it's a little louder. Getting kind of creeped out, I reach under my curtain, and push the unlocked side of my window down to lock it. Looking back, the fact that one part of my window was fucking pride open should have alarmed me. I sit back down and I hear a loud slam coming from my bathroom. I run out to go check and the blinds have fallen off. I ran straight to my parents' bedroom, and my dad immediately knew something was wrong.
Starting point is 00:10:52 He gets up, and all of his manly glory with a 45-and-is tight, white undies and runs out the back door to serve to the yard. He didn't see anyone, and we decided to call the cops in the morning. My nephew was staying overnight, and we figured there was no point in freaking him out over what felt like nothing. So the next day, we take a look around.
Starting point is 00:11:19 My window had scratch marks from a fucking crowbar, and the ledge was dented, as if someone was trying to actually pry my window open. However, it was war socks on their hands to try to push up the glass because there weren't handprints. There were just long and dragged out marks the size of adult hands going upward. Mind you, my window was very dirty, so you could easily see it.
Starting point is 00:11:47 We lived in a very small town in Louisiana, so the police chief, who knew my parents, came to the house for a formal report. He kept insisting that it was either a friend or maybe a boyfriend who couldn't get in touch with me. One, everyone I know knew that my dad was well-armed and did not play that shit. Two, my cell is always on, and I always answer, especially for friends at one in the morning. Three, that's the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard.
Starting point is 00:12:18 Friends don't wear socks on their hands and try to jimmy your window open. At least not not without calling your name first. We never did find out who it was or what they wanted. What still scares me, even ten years later, is that the house was not quiet. The TV and the lamp or two were on in the living room. The bathroom light was on and my bedroom was still very well lit since I was watching a horror movie.
Starting point is 00:12:49 Yet this person still tried to get in through two different windows. The worst part is that if our bathroom window wasn't so shitty, they would have made it in. To keep it open, my mom would use an old broom handle to hold it up. And unless there's something keeping it up, it almost immediately slams back down, which is most likely why the blinds came down and I heard a loud slam. It may just be me but I'm pretty sure whoever it was wanted something from our house, so badly that they didn't care who was inside or if they were awake.
Starting point is 00:13:24 If I would have opened that curtain before locking my window, it would have either scared them off, more motivated them more to get in if their face was seen, so to the creepy fuck that didn't make it in, let's not meet. Amplify your career through training and development solutions specifically designed for federal government professionals, from courses to help you attain or retain certification to individualize coaching services, to programs that, your leadership skills and business acumen. Management concepts optimizes your professional development, online in-person, individually, or groups. It's training that's measurably better. Learn more at managementconcepts.com.
Starting point is 00:14:15 That's managementconcepts.com. AT&T Fiber presents A Straight Forward Moment. You're wine. Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a Gagillionaire? Yeah, I have AT&T Fiber.
Starting point is 00:14:33 The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this wine. I'll fetch you a better one. Straight forward is better. No equipment fees, no data caps, no price increase at 12 months. Live like a Gagillionaire with AT&T fiber. Limited availability in select areas.
Starting point is 00:14:47 Visit AT&T.com slash Hypergig for details. Let's go back to 2007 or 2008. I was 16 when this began. 18 or 19 when it finally went to court. Picture a Norman Rockwell-esque suburban family. Parents, three kids, a yard, and a dog, and blink, and you'll miss it, USA. One random day, a neighbor man has a mild dispute with his neighbor.
Starting point is 00:15:15 As a total warranted response, the neighbor man takes every hose he has and floods their yard. Solid decisions lead to solid consequences, so naturally he was fined for water waste. My parents run the water in small town USA, and because neighbor man lived the block from us, he decided to drive over to the water district shouting that he is an acquaintance of my parent. Second solid decision of many to come by neighborhood. Absolutely no one takes kindly to name-dropping folks, so tuck that gym away under life facts.
Starting point is 00:15:57 My parent comes in and tells them that even if his kids did this, they would have the same repercussions. Gracefully glossing over the fact that, other than maybe driving by, none of us have actually interacted with NeighborMan. NeighborMan repeats the name of the man working the front desk as well as my parents name and claims, it's now personal and storms out. My family members and I began to see neighbor man at random places constantly. The DMV, the grocery store, are respective jobs. Apparently, when your cuckoo for cucko puffs and your parents pay for your house, you have
Starting point is 00:16:35 all kinds of time to stalk. It went from random sightings while out and about to phone calls, the cliché 90s type of call, the breathing, the hang-ups, and I can see you variety. At this point, neighborhood was more of an annoyance than scary, but as I have stated, when you underestimate crazy you lose every time. NeighborMand began parking across from our house, staying from 6pm to 4am, literally just sitting at his car blasting music, staring at the house.
Starting point is 00:17:13 This fool must have had the determination and bladder of a racehorse because what the fuck? Who sits there for 10ish hours? His music was trashed too, maybe he was a masochist, and into self-harm seeing how he would suffer through shitty music and a full bladder. I doubt anyone with this semi-rational concept of social interaction could fathom why. This went from a three to four times a week thing to a nightly occurrence. Imagine being a 16-year year old female that doesn't
Starting point is 00:17:45 even feel comfortable enough to change in her own room because of the prospect of him seeing through the blind somehow. Trying to sleep knowing that he's out there. We were prisoners in our own home. He began to get bolder though. Neighbor Man drove his car up under the sidewalk at my sibling, and her partner while they were on the sidewalk out in front, coming on from a date. They both had to physically jump out of the way to avoid being hit as he was speeding. He made a lured gestures at me when I dropped my dog out for a walk and was waiting for my sibling to come out and join us on the walk. It was so bad
Starting point is 00:18:26 that I ended up crying and going inside. This had been going on for a year at this point. The cops always said the same thing, there's nothing we can do unless there's a threat made against you, or someone is harmed. My parents confronted the neighbour man and the street after the incident, to which neighbour man called the cops and they came asking us why we were harassing and threatening him. I will never understand why the system waits until you're a victim, rather than preventing someone from being victimized. Almost two years in and it's Christmas time. One of my parents had a brain aneurysm. Fortunately, they made it through without any lingering effects, which is extremely rare.
Starting point is 00:19:11 I convinced my other parent who had been living at the hospital with their sick partner to come home and take a shower and eat. About 9 p.m., we get a knock at the door. A random man in rady clothes holding a Christmas present says that he's there to deliver it to my family. He calls us by name. We ask who sent him and he says that he can't say. We ask who he works for and he shoves the gift at my parent and leaves.
Starting point is 00:19:42 We're obviously uncomfortable to open it. My parent decides they need to know what it is and opens the present. Inside was a 17-page document of the grounds on why the neighbor man is suing the parent that was currently in the hospital. Even I could tell it was fake with grammatical errors and typos.
Starting point is 00:20:04 The neighbor man took the time to sit and type this up himself, thinking it was Scaris. The document and fake details he put did not. The fact that this 40-something-year-old man was so fixated on our family that he sat and typed a 17-page fake document did scare us, though. Things progressed, and the neighbor man began pacing in front of his car and pretending to have phone calls, where he talked about pushing my parents down the stairs, or knowing where the kids went to school, and worked, and how easy it would be to access us at any time.
Starting point is 00:20:45 At the time, I worked a closing shift that let me off around 1 a.m. He would be parked next to my car and follow me home. One night, I even tried to take random roads and he still stayed right behind me, pulling up to the house with neighbour man parked across the street. Think neighbourhood streets with maybe five feet between the car parked on one side and one on the other. I would be getting out and running to my door. It was a nightmare.
Starting point is 00:21:16 We were all exhausted from not only the aneurysm scare but also living, looking over our shoulders. My parents friend told her friend who is the DA about the situation. She called and came over to take a look at her case on Probano. Testifying was a wild ride. We had to put it in official statements prior to being called to the stand. We were not allowed to be in the room when a family member was testifying nor were we allowed to talk in the halls as we waited our turn. Imagine reliving two years of traumatic experiences, being cross-examined where you're made out to be a liar, and then not being able to have your family comfort or support you afterwards. It was not ideal. There was enough to put him away for over a year
Starting point is 00:22:07 and a half, as well as grant a felony restraining order. He moved while he was still incarcerated. My sister passed while he was in prison, and he immediately tried to sue her estate. She was 21 at her death. He did this when he was released. He claimed that her testimony from him running his car at her and her partner was false and the only reason he was locked up. It was not the case as there were harassment and stalking charges. He also said that the money people donated to a GoFundMe for her accident was something that he was entitled to. There's so many more details, but this was already long enough, so Nate Romand, let's
Starting point is 00:22:51 never meet again. You made us prisoners in our own home for years. Clearly, you are still the same and have not learned a thing from your time locked up. This happened years ago when I was about 17. I'm 30 now and a male for context. When I was a teenager I lived in Marin County, a quiet suburb just north of San Francisco. However, most of my buddies lived in San Francisco, and most nights of the week I could be found writing my bicycle back and forth across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Starting point is 00:23:36 I enjoyed those long bicycle rides at night, I'd often be high as a kite, I pod with my favorite playlist, passing by weirdos and street urchins or admiring the desolate beauty of the bay. One of my favorite places to ride my bike was through the procedure. The procedure is the last neighborhood you pass in San Francisco before making your way onto the Golden Gate Bridge. It's famous for its old, beautiful, military housing, an old airfield, and hangers that have been converted into a seaside park and enormous ecliptistries and forests. At night, it's dead quiet, and the only people you can see
Starting point is 00:24:20 out are late-night Chinese fishermen on the pier down by the water, or people flying down the freeway into the city. Anyways, this one night I was coming back from hanging out with some friends and riding my bike through the procedure on my way home. I was leisurely gliding down the hills when I noticed a single, older black car, something like an oldsmobile, coming up a road perpendicular to the one that I was coming down. As I got closer, the black oldsmobile took a left, blinding me for a moment with its lights
Starting point is 00:24:55 as it passed. I didn't think much of it at the time. Here and there you might see a couple cruising to make out by the bridge, or a carful of kids going to smoke a joint at the old pet cemetery beneath the highway overpass. A few minutes later, I had mostly climbed the hill that took you closer to the entrance of the bridge and looked down on Chrissy Field. This road is dark, with barely any lights, and I was enjoying looking down towards the water to my right when I heard a car coming from behind me. I looked behind me and
Starting point is 00:25:33 I saw the same old black olds mobile, maybe twenty yards behind me, with its lights off, strangely driving at a slow crawl. I tried to wave them past, but the car just kept rolling slowly behind me. It was too dark to see who might be driving. The fact that the car had its headlights off almost immediately struck me as a red flag, as well as its obvious slow trailing behind me. I gave it a few more yards and tried to wave it past again, but nothing. Spooked. I made a sharp left on my bicycle and began bombing down the hill in the opposite direction of the Oldsmobile. This route would take me back deeper into a more secluded wooded area by the cemetery and air hangers. For a moment I felt relieved until I heard a screeching car and I glanced behind me to see the
Starting point is 00:26:36 black Oldsmobile. Lights still off, passing behind the trees, coming down the same hill as me. passing behind the trees, coming down the same hill as me. The Oldsmobile had to have made an extremely unusual eutern, especially considering how narrow the roads are in the procedure. Terrified now, I began peddling faster away from the Oldsmobile, but as I picked up pace, so did the Oldsmobile, and it quickly began gaining on my tail. Using all my strength I peddled as fast as I could, up a small hill, and jumped off my bike, throwing it off the edge of the road, to the left and to some bushes and quickly jumped off the road to hide.
Starting point is 00:27:22 Hanging off the road on the side of the hill, hidden in an ivy, I was just below the road. I looked up, but I couldn't see anything, but I could hear the black oldsmobile pass. I waited a few minutes later, and I heard the car slowly approaching. No indication from headlights. Then it passed by. But it did this again, and again, and again, for nearly 20 minutes. I hid in the bushes as I heard this old mobile pass back and forth overhead. Finally, I mustered the courage to get back on my bicycle and ride as fast as I possibly could ride back to the bridge. In the darkness, listening to myself pant, it felt like forever, but I finally could see
Starting point is 00:28:13 the glaring bright lights of the Golden Gate Bridge. But then again, I hear the car. I look behind me and I see the oldsmobile again trailing me. I fucking smashed and made it to the parking lot of the bridge toll. I rode up to the pedestrian sidewalk next to the toll and got off my bike under the light and chain smoked for a while. I never saw the car pass onto the bridge nor did I see it again once I made it to Marin. If you're looking for bonus episodes of Let's Not Meet with stories that you won't hear on any other podcast or anywhere else on the internet, I'm talking exclusive Let's Not
Starting point is 00:29:04 Meet Stories, and you wanna get at free versions of these free episodes, as well as other bonus material and exclusive merch, head over to patreon.com-forward-slash-let's-not-meat-podcast, and get access now and support the show. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Let's Not Meet, this week you have heard. I thought I was talking to my brother at 3am, turns out it was a burglar, by Reddit
Starting point is 00:29:27 user Never Ending Flowers. It was probably just a friend of yours by Reddit user RedRock eating monster. A neighbor man stalked my entire family for two plus years by pretty damn petty. And finally, followed at night by the black car without headlights by a new new 0666. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated with the permission of their respective authors. Let's not meet as not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. If you want to hear your story on the show, email me at Let's not meet stories at gmail.com.
Starting point is 00:30:04 Thanks everyone for your support and listening this week. I'll see you next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet. 18T Fiber presents A Straight Forward Moment You're wine? Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a Gigillionaire? Yeah, I have 18T Fiber.
Starting point is 00:30:43 The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this one. I'll fetch you a better one. Straight forward is better. No equipment fees, no data caps, no price increase at 12 months. Live like a Gillionaire with AT&T Fiber. Limited availability in select areas.
Starting point is 00:30:57 Visit AT&T.com slash Hypergate for details.

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