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- [00:00]
Jennifer Garner
I'm Jennifer Garner. You may know me from my other job, but I'm a business owner too. Here at Once Upon a Farm, we chose the Capital One Venture X Business Card because it makes everything we do even more rewarding. With no preset spending limit, our purchasing power adapts to meet our business needs, and unlimited double miles on every purchase means we earn more too. And when we travel, we get access to over 1300 airport lounges. The Capital One Venture X business Card what's in your wallet?
- [00:27]
Alex
Terms and conditions apply. Find out more@capitalone.com venturexbusiness so I'm currently a sophomore in college and the bar scene here is pretty big. Going out for the night to get special deals on alcohol so you can get plastered with your friends is the kind of go to here. Despite this, I'm not really a huge drinker and I don't enjoy it a lot because it tastes so bad and hurts my stomach. I do enjoy the company though, and I often just go out with my friends or meet new people. A lot of times I'm called the dad of the group because I end up taking care of them all the time. That's the prelude to what happened when I decided to go with them on one Friday night. So we all got dressed up pre gaming a bit at my friend Q's apartment before we took an Uber downtown to one of our pretty well known college bar clubs. After we got in, my friends immediately split off into tiny groups coming over the club for girls that they wanted to try their shot at spending the night with. This is going to make me sound weird, but one night stands aren't really my thing and I don't want to end up cog blocking my friends. So instead of looking for girls I usually find someone at the bar and just make friends with them. I was chatting with some dude that was wearing a cowboy hat when eventually a girl approached me. She was pretty cute, probably 5 foot 6 with dirty blonde hair and eyes that I think were light brown but they were so light they almost looked gold, which threw me off a bit at first. She asked me if she could buy me some drinks in exchange for being her friend for the night and I of course accepted because hey, that's what I came here for anyways, right? Anyway, she kept her word and we had started talking to each other and she introduced herself as Alexia but to call her Alex. I asked her some basic stuff about if she came with friends, if she went to college here, etc. To which all the answers were no. That Struck me as pretty odd as it's honestly pretty unsafe to be in the downtown area alone, especially for a girl like 1am in the morning. She said that she wanted to hear more about me though, and and she actually seems pretty excited to listen. It felt like a really nice change of pace because I'm usually the one learning about other people, not the other way around. It also could have just been the alcohol starting to take effect since I'm actually a pretty big lightweight, as like I said, I don't actually binge drink often. The whole time I was talking, she had stared into my eyes and had this warm smile that made me feel so acknowledged, if that even makes sense. I felt like she was really enjoying her time as much as I was, and that just made me even happier because I thought I had really made a new friend. That was when her demeanor then began to change though. She started to get kind of flirty and eventually asked if I wanted to go home with her. Like I said, I'm not really the one night stand kind of guy and I explained to her that I like to get to know people a little bit better before sleeping together. I'm pretty sure I saw what I think was anger flash across her face, but it was quickly replaced with another smile and she suggested just going home and watching a movie instead. I agreed and pulled out my phone to begin ordering an Uber, but she basically grabbed my wrist and started guiding me outside. I was confused at this, trying to ask if she was planning to drive after drinking, but she wouldn't really answer me. We eventually got outside the club and she had pointed to a black Honda Civic parked right at the front of the club. That was when all of the warning bells rang like a tornado had just passed through them. I was pretty drunk at this point in the night, maybe six or seven drinks deep, but I was still aware enough to see the red flags. She said that she had come alone, but the lane the car was parked in was only for pickups and I never saw her order an Uber. Somebody would have had to be driving the car. This was enough to make me uncomfortable and I asked again if she was planning to drive the car. She said yes as she continued walking me closer to it. I knew right then that she was lying, and as we got closer, my heart sank as I noticed the outline of three other guys in the car. Right at that point, my adrenaline kicked in and I yanked my hand away from her and said, there's no way in hell I'm getting in that car with her. She Tried begging me one more time, saying that she really wanted to have sex and would let me do whatever I wanted, but I had already turned around and started to walk back to the club. She started cussing me out, then practically screaming at the top of her lungs as I walked back up to the bouncers to go in. I texted my friends what all happened and we all met back up and went home. It was obvious she was going to college bars trying to get guys drunk before offering to sleep with them so she could get them in that car with the three other men to then rob them and do God knows what else. I called my city's anonymous tip line and I left a detailed description of the girl, car and the place where it happened. That night was a real wake up call for me and I'm so thankful that despite being drunk that night, I was able to piece together what was actually happening before it was too late. Please remember to always be safe when going out with your friends, especially when it's late at night or if alcohol is involved. I'm currently a 17 year old male, so when I was 13 I went to Comic Con with my grandparents in my country which was held in our capital city. I met up with some of my older online friends who were in the ages of 17, 19. Yeah, I was a stupid kid back then. They invited me to a bar near my hotel and asked me to bring my grandparents with me just to be safe and thank God they told me to do that. The moment we sat down at the bar, my grandparents sat a few tables away but still being able to see me. And basically I mostly just spent time talking with my friends. It was nice, but I had noticed a man sitting on the same bench as me but on the other end. Each time I looked over at him, he was closer and closer. Well, finally my grandma comes over to me and told me to get up because we're leaving and so I did. I then told my friends that I'll see them the next day. Well, when we got to the hotel, my grandmother told me that she saw the guy rubbing himself while he was looking at me and it looked like he was relieving himself while staring at me. And that when he got too close, my grandma saw him start to slowly reach for me under the table, probably trying to grab my private part. Since then, I never met up with any of my older friends in any kind of bar or anywhere. I was really young and stupid back then, but yeah, pretty crazy. The story isn't mine, but my grandmother's. My grandma we'll call Mary was a very small woman. A stiff breeze could blow her away. My dad and his three brothers would make jokes about how she could fit in their pockets for my whole childhood. She told me this story when I was a teenager as a way to remind me to always be vigilant. We're in Canada and the drinking age in my province was, I believe, 18 at the time. This would have happened in the late 60s into the 70s. My grandma had gone to the bar for some drinks. Now, it's been a long time since this story has been told to me as I'm now 30 years old myself and my grandma told me when I was under the age of 18. So some of the details are fuzzy, but my grandma had been having a few drinks and had gone to the bathroom leaving her drink unattended. She came back and drank it as if nothing had happened. She was having a good time, but it started to feel funny. She said that her body started to feel weird, so she got up and managed to get herself up to the bathroom again and locked into a stall before her body stopped working properly and she lost the ability to move. I'm not sure how long she was in the bathroom for, but she stated that she stayed in that stall until whatever had been put into her drinks started to wear off and she was able to go home. She never found out who drugged her and never left a drink unattended again. Now, the story isn't all that scary compared to many others, but that could have ended very badly for my grandma. Moral of the story Never leave your drink unattended and if you do, just buy a whole new drink. You never know if someone could have slipped something into your drink and you may not be as lucky as my grandma was. Stay safe everyone. Names have been changed for privacy reasons. This story begins at the end of 2011, when I had just turned 19 years old. I was a freshman at the university in my city that I grew up in and I was looking for a new job. I had finally found one as a server at a downtown borough that was just shy of a mile away from my dorm. I didn't have a car at the time, so I would either walk to work or ask friends for a ride. I actually liked walking though. It gave me some time to clear my head from my crazy college schedule. My co workers at the bar were really nice and welcoming, but one certain worker, a bouncer named Jason, gave off extremely creepy vibes. He was a big guy, about 6 foot tall and well over 350 pounds. Not the muscly type of 350 pounds, though more so the obese type. Not trying to be mean, just trying to paint a picture. I never really spoke to him, but often times I'd feel him staring at me or he'd just stand uncomfortably close to me. I just always had a bad feeling when he was around, which is not how you want to feel around someone whose job it is to protect you. I think the only words ever exchanged between us were a quick hi or thanks. One night I ended up closing the bar and my manager asked how I was getting back to my dorm. I told him I was going to walk, but it was 1:00am at that point and my manager insisted that I let Jason give me a ride. I tried to politely decline, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. I also figured that maybe I was just paranoid about the bad vibes. I reluctantly accepted the ride and got in his car. We didn't talk the entire ride aside from me giving him directions on how to get to my dorm. Luckily it was a short ride. He followed my directions and dropped me off. I just said thank you, got out and then went inside. I breathed a sigh of relief and told myself that I was just way too harsh on the guy. I shouldn't judge someone just because they're awkward and conventionally unattractive. I only worked at that bar for another two months and I never really spoke to Jason again other than our usual greetings. And luckily I didn't have to take any more rights from him before I quit. Now I'm going to give you some background information about my social media presence. I have a Facebook that I've always kept very private and that's where I have only very close friends and family. My Instagram, however, was public, although I only posted every few months, so it wasn't really a big deal to me anyway. A few months after I stopped working at the bar, I got a notification that I had a friend request on Facebook. The name on the account was none other than Jason the bouncer. He didn't have a profile picture though, it was just his name and a fairly blank profile. I never told him my last name nor tagged the bar on my Facebook, so I thought it was weird that he'd found me, but I just figured he'd seen my name on some paperwork at the bar or something. I had no interest in being friends with him, so I declined his request and blocked him. A few months later I checked my new followers on Instagram and I saw his name and blank profile picture. Yet again, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. But I figured he just didn't get the hint on Facebook. So I decided to block him on Instagram and just be done with it. A few years went by and I'd forgotten all about him. But then, randomly, in 2014, I had a new friend request from Jason. He had created a whole new Facebook profile. This one was also faceless. I was really annoyed because, like, why would he think that I would accept him after I had already blocked him on both of my socials? For the third time, I blocked him and just went on with my life. Fast forward a few more years when yet another faceless Jason profile popped up on my Facebook and tried to add me. At this point, I was really annoyed and creeped out because he was being way too persistent and clearly didn't know how to take no for an answer. So what did I do? You guessed it. I blocked him again. This pattern happened a few more times throughout the next few years, but never really escalated beyond new profiles and friend requests. Until this year in 2024. I'm 31 years old now, married, with two beautiful daughters. We were hanging out at home one night when I got a text from a random number that I didn't recognize. It said, you're a beautiful person, Alyssa, inside and out. It confused me because this was such a random yet personal message. It seemed friendly, though, so I wasn't initially alarmed. I responded and then said, thank you. I'm sorry, but I don't have your number saved. Who is this? The response I got was, to be honest, it's Jason from, like a decade ago. I read online about someone who was struggling. She said that if it wasn't for her babies, she wouldn't be here. I got upset. I wasn't going to text you, but I did anyway. If that was you, I want to help you. I'm sorry for everything, and if you want me to go away, just tell me and I'll never bother you again. I come in good faith. I was immediately on edge. But again, I was confused because I knew two Jasons. One was the creepy bouncer that I'd never truly spoken to, and the other was a guy that I'd dated for a few months back in 2016, which was pretty close to a decade ago. I was honestly thinking it was my ex because there's absolutely no way that bouncer Jason would have my number. So I reluctantly replied, jason who? He replied, jason that used to work at the bar with you. My heart sank I was too stunned to speak for a few minutes. My mind was racing. What was he even talking about in that message? I never posted anything of that sort on any of my social media, nor had I even had those thoughts. I had no idea what he was talking about. And more importantly, how did he get my phone number? I had never given him my phone number 13 years ago, and even if he had somehow gotten it from our old boss, my phone number has changed a few times over the years. There's no way that he should have had it. I went on a googling spree to try and figure out how easy it was to access my personal information and unfortunately it was pretty easy. I was able to find my current workplace and my current and past addresses. I could not, however, find my current phone number, but I suspect a went on one of those public info websites, paid the fee, and then got access to my information. I started internally panicking and immediately blocked his phone number. I decided to fill in my husband on what was going on. I hadn't ever told him about the persistent friend request because it happened so infrequently and it never really escalated beyond that, so it never seemed important to bring up. Anytime he popped up, I'd be annoyed for a few seconds and then just hit block and just forget all about it. My husband asked what he looked like, so I decided to google his name to see if I could find a picture of him online. This is where the true horror starts. The first thing that popped up when I googled his name was a mugshot. What was the mugshot for, you ask? Stalking. Jason had been stalking a child. It started in 2006 when she was 11 years old, while he was her school bus driver. He hacked her teacher's email and ordered her school pictures. For what reason, I don't even want to think about it. He proceeded to stalk her for eight years. I'm still not even sure of the entire extent of the stalking, as the articles didn't go into full detail, but I do know that her family had taken out protection orders against him every year starting in 2007. In 2015 or 2016, her family captured video footage of him lurking on their property at least twice, prompting the police to arrest him and then charge him with stalking. He was convicted and went to jail, but but only for a very brief period of time. Interviews with his victim's family said they were terrified of his release and that they were certain he would come back, that he doesn't think like the rest of us, and that he seriously needs psychological help. I couldn't find any further updates about that situation, so I can only assume that he left her alone, but I can't be certain. I do, however, now know exactly why I felt such creepy vibes radiating off of him back in 2011. He was actively stalking a child at the time. After learning all of this information, I was beyond terrified. Why was he still trying to contact me after 13 years of me blocking him? What was he trying to achieve? Had he driven by my work? Had he been parked outside of my apartment? What was the extent of his stalking behavior? The unknown of it all is what was scariest. I've watched enough true crime to know that I should have a paper trail of this. If the friend requests and texts had been all, I probably wouldn't have made a police report. But with a prior long term stalking conviction, I wasn't going to chance it, especially since I have daughters now. I called the police and told them what had happened. Truth be told, part of me felt like I was making a big deal out of nothing. But then I reminded myself that 13 years of him trying very hard to contact me was not normal behavior. The police officer was very sympathetic towards my situation and told me that I made the right decision by starting a paper trail just in case anything else happened. He also advised that I should go to the courthouse to take out a protection order. With his past, it would be easy to get one and that would ensure that he can't contact me in any way, shape or form. Otherwise he'd go to jail again. So I did exactly that. I got an email back a few hours after filing the protection order saying that my request was granted. I felt an immediate sense of relief. However, for the first few weeks after this all went down, I was still extremely paranoid. I thought that he'd be outside of my work or my apartment just waiting for me. I was looking over my shoulder constantly. After a few more weeks, I realized that the protection order probably did the trick and I've since relaxed a bit. Fingers crossed it can stay that way. So to everyone out there, Google yourself to see how much of your personal information can be found online. And do your best to wipe as much as you can. You never know who's watching. Hey everyone, Before I get started on this story, I wanted to say that this is a very popular story. You've probably heard this one before, either by me or another narrator. I'm pretty sure I narrated it a long time ago, but I felt like it really fit this topic. So I decided to just re narrate it and include it in this video. I'm sure that once you start listening, you'll recognize it if you've already heard it, but if you just want to go ahead and skip it. I have the timestamps in the pinned comment if you want to do so. I just wanted to mention that before we get started, without any more interruptions, let's continue. One time I went to the bar with one of my friends. I had just turned 21, so I hadn't been to much bars up to that point. My friend was drinking on the way to the bar, so he was already pretty drunk when we got there. When I sat at the bar, a really cute girl came and talked to me and my friend. She said their name was Candice and I noticed that she had really bright red hair. I assumed that she dyed it. It was pretty but unnatural. Anyways, this girl was flirting with both me and my friend. You could tell that my friend was already very drunk. To be honest, I played along like I was drunk already too, since it seemed to be working for my friend. I didn't know if she was just trying to get free drinks, so I told her that we didn't have much money. She offered to buy us drinks. She kept buying us drinks and I started to get confused as to who she liked between me and my friend. My friend then went to the bathroom before he came back. He was then kicked out by the bouncers. He was too drunk, I guess. Candice and I went outside with him. She kept telling him to go home with her. He was so out of it though that he could barely answer her. I told her that he was too drunk and that I couldn't let him go anywhere. I didn't want him to wake up hungover in some random house with no car and no idea of what happened. Candice kept pushing it, saying that she would take care of him, but I told her no because I had to stay with him and I was more sober than him. He was my responsibility. I told her the only way he was going anywhere was if I tagged along. I assumed that she thought I was jealous or cog blocking. But my friend could barely stand and had lost interest in Candice already. At that point, she immediately had started flirting with me and offered to get my friend a taxi to drive him home and said we could go to her place alone. At this point I had already had a few drinks and I was pretty buzzed, so I agreed. We took my friend to the taxi and walked to her car. I stumbled slightly on the way to her car. Wow, you're pretty drunk, huh? She said, smiling as she held onto my arm. Yeah, I said. I don't know why, but I just felt slightly shy and anxious. Everything was just happening way too easy for me, so I felt uneasy. We got in her car and we drove down the street. You want to stop at the liquor store and get some more to drink? I'll buy it, so don't worry about paying, she offered. I didn't want to drink any more than I already did. I was already buzzed and I wanted to be able to carry myself through the rest of the night. Sometimes I make myself look stupid when I'm drunk, so I didn't want to ruin anything with Candice more than I already did earlier by telling her my friend was too drunk. I told her that I was already drunk enough, but she insisted. I didn't want to seem lame, so I told her to just get me a pint of liquor with some apple juice to chase it with. She went in the store and came out with a lot more than just a pint. I assumed that she wanted to drink more also, and that's why she got a fifth instead of a pint. On the car ride. We passed the bottle back and forth, but she took tiny sips. I tried to take tiny sips too, but she just kept passing me the bottle and telling me to drink. I somehow managed to drink all of my apple juice and pretend to drink the bottle by spitting the liquor in the apple juice bottle. I tossed the apple juice bottle full of liquor out the window before she saw it. I didn't want her to know that I was acting drunker than I was. She actually believed I was sloppy drunk when I was simply just buzzed. I took a couple more sips of liquor and finished the bottle. Throughout the car ride, I'd called her the wrong name a couple of times to get a reaction out of her. She didn't react to it. She just kept letting me call her Carla without correcting me. For some reason, I thought she had lied to me about her name. Initially, we drove up to her house. I pretended to trip and then stumbled into her front door. She helped me walk inside by holding me up. She opened her front door, which was unlocked. We walked in her house and she closed her front door and then locked it. I thought that was strange but assumed that she just didn't want anyone walking in on us. I told her that I had to use the bathroom. I walked into her bathroom, locked the door, and looked in the mirror. I Just felt strange. Like I felt like something was off. I felt myself becoming more drunk from finishing the bottle earlier. I turned on the sink to make noise and I made myself puke up the liquor. I drank. I flushed and went to the sink and started to drink the tap water out of my hands to sober up. I just didn't want to be drunk anymore. But I still wanted to hook up with Candice. So I wanted to pretend to be drunk. I turned off the sink and I could hear her talking to someone. He's drunk as hell. He can barely stand up. You do it. Who was she talking to? And do what? I walked out of the bathroom and into the living room. The very moment that I stepped into the living room, I saw her walking into another room. All I could see was the back of her head, that strange, very bright red hair. Going into another room. I didn't see her face or anything. I just saw her kind of walk fast into the room. The living room was pretty dark. Hey, where are you going? I slurred like I was drunk. She walked back into the dark living room and up to me. Let's go in my room, she said. I looked at her bright red hair and then into her eyes. They were different. Her face was different. That's when I realized it was another girl with the same wig on. It was a wig the whole time. She changed it with the girl from earlier. For whatever reason, my heart felt like it stopped. But I tried to look like I had no idea that it was a different girl. I kind of smiled at her and told her that I just needed to use the bathroom one more time and told her sorry I was so drunk. It's fine. Just hurry up in there, she said. I went into the bathroom and locked the door. I then heard her whisper something to someone again. This time I think I actually heard a male voice whisper back. I honestly didn't concentrate on listening to exactly what she said. Something sketchy was happening and I had to get out of that house. I opened the bathroom window and jumped straight out of it and ran faster than I've ever ran in my life. I didn't look behind myself for anything. I just ran through the backyard, jumped the fence, ran through someone else's backyard, hit a road and ran toward the main road. I kept running down the main road until I saw a 24 hour convenience store. I ran into the store and stood straight at the front of the store and in front of the camera. I then called a taxi and went home. I tried to think about what happened that night? What was she or they planning that night? Why did she tell me a fake name? Why was she trying to get my friend and I so drunk I thought that maybe it was a robbery? But she kept spending money on us. She kept buying us drinks and even paid for my friend's taxi cab. And mostly, why did she wear a wig that she gave to another girl to wear? Who was she talking to, what did it mean and what was in that room they tried to lure me into? The next day after this incident, I went back to the house with a couple of friends just to see what was going on. Nobody was there. No cars, no people, nothing. Just an empty house. I ended up finding out that the house was a summer rental and whoever those people were, they broke into that house and used it only for that night and never came back. Hey everyone. Sorry for the brief interruption from the stories, but I want to thank today's sponsor, Acorns. Acorns makes it easy to start automatically saving and investing so your money has a chance to grow for you, your kids and your retirement. Retirement you don't need to be an expert. Acorns will recommend a diversified portfolio that fits you and your money goals. You don't need to be rich. Acorns lets you invest with the spare money you've got right now. You can start with $5 or even just your spare change. You don't need a ton of time either. You can create your Acorns account and just start investing in just five minutes. I personally like Acorns because you can literally just use your spare change that you have laying around to invest. It's pretty simple. Head to acorns.com cannibal or download the Acorns app to start saving and investing for your future today. Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures@acorns.com cannibal I'm a female. About a decade ago When I was 19, I lived in a small college town with my sister and her best friend. I worked graveyard shifts at a gas station that was almost a 10 minute walk from my house. The town was very safe and I never had any incidents walking alone at night before, so I didn't really have an issue walking to work late at night. It was a Thursday night and it was about 10:40pm When I left for work. The road was pretty dead and it felt like I was the only living soul traveling along the road until a white sedan pulls up to the left of me. The guy rolled down his passenger window and looked to be in his early 50s. He bluntly said, hey sexy, where are you going? I just glared at him and continued walking, ignoring him. He drove keeping up with my pace and asked, you want to go to the bar with me? I just told him no and continued walking. He gets annoyed and tries guilty me into going by saying that he's lonely and that he wants a girl to keep him company, but I then yell for him to go away. He gets pissed and pulls a gun out of the side door and then points it at me yelling, get the.
- [32:07]
Fat Granddaddy
Hell in the car. Now. You're gonna go to the bar with me.
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Alex
Hell no I'm not. I told him. I was internally flipping my crap and my mind was racing trying to figure out how to get the hell out of this. But thankfully an idea came to my head. I yelled a lie. My dad's a sheriff in this town. If I go missing, he'll find you. I don't know if he actually believed me or realized I was more work than I was worth to him, but he then screamed, you whore. Then he sped away. I stood there frozen for a minute, taking in what just happened. But then I came to my senses and sprinted to work where my supervisor comforted me and I filed a police report. I never walked a word by myself again after that night. So my username is gonna be Fat Granddaddy just for the sake of this story. I had just turned 22 and I was working F and B and they had just promoted me from server to behind the bar and I couldn't be more excited. Now, being a young, somewhat attractive female in fnb, you get a lot of creeps. You learn to shrug them off almost as they're not even being a creep though. With that said, it takes a lot to creep me out. So I'm being trained behind the bar one night when this random guy comes in. I say random because you see the same people every day. He's probably late 40s or early 50s. He sits down, asks me some questions about some beers and makes general small talk. His first impression was polite and kinda chatty, but nothing out of the normal. He finishes his food and orders another beer. And then his demeanor changed. He made a comment about how cute I was after I did something ditzy and clumsy. I laughed it off and just made a dumb blonde joke. Then out of nowhere he actually says.
- [34:13]
Fat Granddaddy
You know, I can totally just kidnap you.
- [34:17]
Alex
What the hell? Okay, that's awkward, but I don't want to make this an even more awkward situation. I Should joke it off. So me being dumb, I respond back, pfft, I'm working a double. I really wish I could get kidnapped. Yeah, I messed up.
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Fat Granddaddy
What are you doing after work? What time do you get off?
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Alex
He asked me. I immediately become short with him shutting him down and name dropping my boyfriend left and right. When I started name dropping my boyfriend, he made it very clear that my boyfriend ain't crap, that my boyfriend has nothing on him, etc. I was becoming rude at this point to this man, and he was still not even letting up. I tried just ignoring him and just staying away from that general area of the bar, but he would not stop calling me by my name when I'd go to check on him. If he didn't need anything, I'd walk away, but he wouldn't let me out of sight, and his stare was predatory. And I kid you not, he literally would lick his lips when I looked his way. I finally admitted defeat and told the girl training me that I didn't want to serve him anymore and that I refused to interact with him anymore. She took over, and anytime that he tried calling me over, she'd cut him off and be like, how can I help you, sir? I figured he got the hint because he stayed glued to his phone and avoided looking at me or anyone else. I got cut. Maybe an hour later, I grabbed my car key and walked out the back door and started walking to my car. I wasn't really worried about anything until I started crossing the street and the voice in my head started screaming, run. I took off running to my car, but since you could see my driver's side from the back door, my inner voice told me to climb in through the passenger side. As I'm trying to climb into my driver's seat from the passenger side without being seen, I come to the realization that I'm being ridiculous. So I pop my head up and guess what? This guy is right in front of my car. I almost ran him over hauling it out of that parking lot. So yeah, you'd think that's the end of the story, right? Wrong. The next night, I'm helping my manager with a catering order that's about to be picked up when the phone rings. I answer the phone.
- [36:43]
Fat Granddaddy
Hey, this is Fat Granddaddy. How can I help you? Oh, hey, Fat granddaddy. It's Greg. How you doing, baby? Um, I'm doing fine.
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Alex
No idea who this is at this point.
- [36:57]
Fat Granddaddy
I'm really glad you answered the phone. I wasn't sure you were working tonight. Uh, okay. You don't know who this is, do you? Uh, no, I don't. It's Greg from last night, remember?
- [37:16]
Alex
It finally clicked and I looked mortified and my manager was mean mugging me because I sounded like an idiot and we needed to knock out this order.
- [37:25]
Fat Granddaddy
So did you want to place a to go order? No, baby, I just wanted to make sure you were working. I'll see you soon.
- [37:33]
Alex
I hung up and my manager was like, what the hell was that? So I told her everything about the night before. So when he shows up, she has me point him out to her. He sits at the bar and tries to speak to me right off the bat, but the bartender intervenes immediately. Within five minutes of him showing up. The manager was not digging the vibes from him as well as the way he was watching me. She calls me over and tells me she's sending me home early. Now, our restaurant has an upstairs for storage and offices. There are two staircases, one towards the back of the restaurant and one to the front. She tells me to grab my stuff and go up the back staircase. I totally understood what her plan was. I ran up the back staircase and halfway down the front. If you stand about halfway up the front staircase, you can pretty much see the whole restaurant. So I peeked my head and my manager immediately waved me to hide back upstairs. A few minutes later, a kitchen guy comes up the stairs and grabs me and we go out the front door and he walks me around the block to the back parking lot to my car. My manager caught me in the parking lot before I left. Basically, since the back staircase is near the back door, he thought that I left and went to follow me out again. My manager confronted him and he got banned. Haven't seen him since. It was November 2017. This was a time in my life when I severely struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction. As many in the town that I live do. So please judge my decisions. Knowing that a friend and I were pretty broke most of the time. We used to frequent a pub. Now this particular pub had a bad reputation, but had recently been taken over by a new landlord who had begun to turn it around. It had an okay crowd, the usual for the type of working area. On this particular evening, I had come into about £50 in cash. So I called my mate and before long we were hitting the town. We started in this particular pub that we'll call the Imperial. I rocked up to the bar and ordered two drinks for my friend and I. As I did, I noticed a very scruffy looking woman dressed in disheveled clothing and naturally I just ignored it and sat down. About an hour went by before my pal noticed the scruffy looking middle aged woman was lurking about 3 meters behind us, just staring at us. This gave us some fear and we decided to go out and just smoke a cigarette. We headed outside, donned our hats and coats and smoked two cigarettes each before returning to to see the woman sitting at our table. This wasn't a problem for us, we could just get another table. But as we walked over, she stood up and returned to her original position. So we took back our old table. Upon sitting down, I see the woman begin to approach the table. She stands behind him and then starts touching his shoulder. He turned around and then asked, hey, what are you doing? She swiftly replies in a very high pitched voice, can I please sit here? This was when I realized that my friend had completely misheard the question. He thought that she said, hey, can I have a cigarette? So he just replied with um, yeah, sure. She then dropped herself down in the seat next to her. It was really awkward in this new formed threesome. What made it particularly worse is that she just maintained the same overbearing smile, not moving at all. It was with all this that I had presumed that she may be mentally challenged. My cousins have similar issues, so I decided to be nice and involve her for a little while. After all, she seemed harmless. This was a mistake. After trying to involve her in the conversation with no luck, I signaled to my friend to go for a cigarette and she stayed at the table. While outside, my friend and I talked about how awkward it was and how we wanted to leave and decided to leave the back way without her seeing us. It was at this moment that I realized I had left my phone on the table with her. I walked over to the table and as she saw me coming, she had snatched my phone up. Playing dumb, I then said, hey, thank you for your company tonight, but I have to go. You haven't seen my phone, have you? After saying this, her face changed and the mood took a dark turn. I could feel something brewing although her face was still ecstatically smiling. Why are you leaving? There's no reason to. She said while making the creepiest eye contact that I've ever seen in my whole life. You can have your phone back for a kiss, she said as she held up my phone. I thought fast and snatched it out of her hand before storming off fast out the door and then meeting my friend outside. I was shook and I told him to walk fast. The road outside the Imperial is long and straight. You can basically see from one end to the other. We were walking fast for a while before slowing down and then stopping to light a cigarette. While we were stopped, we noticed the silhouette of what appeared to be this woman coming towards us at some place. Frightened, we turned a corner and took the back streets and alleys turning at every opportunity we could. There was no chance that she could have followed us and we even waited to see if she was coming. After about 10 minutes we had started walking to a smaller pub called the Brunswick. We walked and talked about the strangeness of her, but really forgot about it pretty fast. Upon arriving to the Brunswick publisher, we had scanned the room for her just in case and then headed to the bar area. We got more drinks and just stayed at the bar. An hour passed and we were both quite drunk at this point, so we decided to leave. This and I can't really stress this enough, was a huge mistake. We walked outside and around the corner when perhaps by coincidence, we bumped right into her yet again. She began screaming things about how I should love her and how she had done so much for me. Completely taken by surprise and totally in shock, I watched her run towards me. My friend ran back and watched in horror as she grabbed me and began licking and spitting on my face while she bear hugged me. I managed to slip out of her grips and then sprint off into the main road. Needless to say, I got very drunk that night. So I'm currently a 23 year old student living in London. The story takes place about eight months ago when I was still in my hometown. It still freaks me out to this day. So about one year ago I had started working in a local pub right near my house. I had got the job there as my friend Louise. Louise was the manager and she desperately needed staff. My first few weeks there were uneventful. The pub was pretty dead most of the time, other than a few of the regulars, Harry and Ben, that Louise was friendly with and eventually so was I. As it was nearing Christmas, the pub had started to become busier and there were more unfamiliar faces. One face in particular was this man whose name that I never learned, but for the sake of this story we will call him Tim. Now Tim was probably in his late 40s or early 50s, was of quite stocky build, bald and often wore tattered clothes and smelt like he didn't wash himself very often other than the weird vibe that he generally kept to himself, ordered pints and set on his own. Tim's presence started off as seldom but increased he would appear mostly when the pub was empty and when I was there on my own and always silent as a mouse. I would be doing something such as wiping the back of the bar or cleaning the nozzles and I would turn around and he would just be standing there silently waiting for me to serve him. He wasn't a particular talkative kind of man, but my pub attracted quite a few quirky and colorful characters so this wasn't a strange occurrence. One Friday night when we were quite busy, he kept trying to get my attention. I apologized to him and advised I was serving someone else who had a large order, but that I would be with him as soon as I could and he became increasingly angry. When I eventually got to serve him, he just stared at me blankly and then left the pub. I thought nothing of it and just got on with my shift. Now my friend Louise, being the manager, also lived right above the pub. So once everyone was out and we had closed, she would go upstairs and I would lock the door behind me and then post the keys through the letterbox. Normally after my shift I would go to the 24 hour Tesco's to go grab a late night snack as we often didn't have time to eat during our shifts on the weekends. My home is then only a 10 minute walk away from the Tesco's. As I was crossing the road to get to the shop, I noticed Tim sitting on a wall staring at me which made me feel uneasy. I walked quickly to the Tesco's, got my meal deal as well as some sweets and then left. As I was walking out of the Tesco's, I had noticed a figure lurking in the car park which was badly lit. I walked as fast as I could to get out of the car park and I heard walking behind me. As I reached the brightly lit main road, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Tim. He asked if he could walk me home. I panicked. I advised him I would be staying at the pub tonight as I had to open in the morning. I then ran to the pub and called Louise and told her that I didn't feel safe walking home. She let me come upstairs and we ended up just laughing about it a few hours later at about 3am I felt that it was finally safe now and that he had to have left by now. So I walked home and I was fine. I woke up the next day to a banging on my door. It was probably about 11am which is normally the time the postman comes. I was a little confused cause I hadn't ordered anything and I lived on my own but since it was nearing Christmas I thought maybe my parents would send me a present. I went downstairs in my half asleep state and opened the door but there was no one there. I passed it off as just kids on the street messing around. Throughout the day though, this kept happening. I would hear a knock and then there would be no one there. Work time rolls around so I leave to go to work. Headphones in as it was still relatively light outside and work was close. Literally five minutes after I walk through the door, there's Tim. I explain to Louise that Tim really freaks me out and that we should ban him. My friend laughs and said that he's harmless, that he probably just thinks I'm good looking. I laughed it off nervously and just got on with my job as normal. Harry and Ben walk in and they order their two pints of dark fruit and Jager bombs which I had already started pouring. Now the way the bar is laid out is it had two sides. There's the sports bar side which has a pool table and TV for football games and the restaurant side which has tables and chairs for eating. Harry and Ben always stayed on the sports bar side so they could put on music on the jukebox and play pool. I went to place their drinks on the bar and collect money and ask them how their week's been. When they pointed it to him, he was at this point standing on the restaurant side of the bar staring at me. Despite Louise working and asking him if he wanted a drink. He just replied no and stood there. Well, they then told me that he had been asking them questions about me, such as where I live, if I had a boyfriend and then some more inappropriate questions such as how old I am and if I was a virgin. He had also made a passing comment on how he wanted to deflower me. For the record, in case it mattered, I'm not a virgin. However, I'm about 5 foot 2 in a slim frame and I've always been told that I have a baby face. I pulled Louise into the office and again asked that we ban him as he was making me increasingly uncomfortable. She also mentioned that he was asking about me as well as what time I finished and if I would be here alone, if I had a boyfriend, etc. So she obliged and she told him to leave. This would have been about 9pm at the end of the night. Louise wasn't feeling very well and since everyone had left the pub I told her that I would finish up closing and she could just Finish now. So I get on with it, wiping tables and restocking the bar. I came up from the cellar where we kept all the bottles and I saw a figure standing by the door to the smoking area. As soon as I looked it was gone and I had convinced myself that I was going mad. Time comes to leave and I lock the door and post the keys like normal and start making my way home. I cross the road and am about to turn when suddenly Tim grabs me and then pins me against a fence. He starts smelling my hair and stroking my neck and then whispering all the nasty things that he's going to do to me. I was just standing there, frozen, unable to move or scream, paralyzed by fear. Luckily Ben turns the corner, sees rips Tim off of me, gets into a bit of a fight with him and then Tim runs off. I just started crying my eyes out and Ben walked me home and I called the police and told them everything. I gave a description of him and they said they would get back to me. About a week later I got a call from the police saying they had apprehended him and I was to come in to verify that it was him. I obliged and yes, they had in fact caught him. Turns out he was actually wanted for assaulting two local women, which I had read about in the weeks before. I believe that he is now serving a sentence in prison. This happened three summers ago, but I remember the main events. To preface this, I've been on a shocking amount of dates and I've put myself in many foolish situations in the past. I'm a female and I was 25 at the time. If it matters, it all started on the Pollenia Fish Apple. I came across a cute guy. He was my type, physically kind of nerdy looking. On his profile he had very adventurous photos of him hiking and traveling. He seemed really excited to get to know me. Once he saw that I looked at his profile, he sent me a message. We flirted a bit back and forth and exchanged phone numbers even though we lived about an hour away. He said on the app that he's never been to my city and didn't plan on it, so we probably wouldn't meet. I respected his honesty. I don't like wasting my time. One day shortly after meeting him online, he had texted me randomly saying he's in my town for some work thing and he invited me to a bar that he was at. I decided to meet up since I was already in the area. He said he would pick me up. I was dumb and naive and agreed even Though that it was just over four blocks away. It took him way longer than it should have to get me and I honestly don't think he was ever actually at the bar. Once in plenty of fish date's car I noticed it was a rental and that it seemed like he had just gotten his license because he was a terrible driver. After driving in circles, he told me to pick a place but not in the area because parking is impossible. I picked a place 15 minutes away by car with lots of parking but also a busy place since I was with a stranger. Once there, he had started pressuring me to drink. He insisted I'm not a huge drinker, but I do enjoy pub style bars. I caved and had a drink and was again pressured to have another one. He was very pushy and seemed really irritated that I wasn't going for it. Now. Usually I'd end a date pretty quickly if I was mistreated, but he became charming enough to keep me there at least until we were done with our date. I saw an old acquaintance at the bar and I wanted my date to know that I knew him. In my head, I think I just wanted my date to know that someone could identify him. I'm not a paranoid person, but I think my subconscious was on alert. After about an hour talking in the bar, I tell him that I'm ready to head out. He then insisted that we go across the road to get coffee. At the time it seemed strange to me. Neither one of us had much to drink and we didn't need to sober up. Coffee seems like an odd choice otherwise. I entertained it though. Once there we sipped our drinks. He told me that he rented a beautiful Airbnb in a nearby neighborhood that is more out of the city and in the country. He told me how he had it all to himself and invited me going on about how nice it is. I kept politely saying no and throwing around different excuses. Would you encounter with a reason for me to come with no actual intention of going, I agreed, but only if he would drive me home to get overnight things. I felt like he wasn't going to let me say no. He seemed happy with that answer, so we headed out. While driving in the direction of my place, he said that instead he would stop at a 711 and grab me travel size toiletries so I wouldn't need anything. I felt panicked because my plan was not to go with him. Something about him was off and I really felt stupid for even getting back in his car to begin with. He turned his car and we were then headed towards the more country area. Literally There aren't any 7/11 or any open stores in the middle of nowhere. Then I mentioned that I'm actually thinking that I'd prefer not to stay with him and then ask to be brought home. He then said something that made me completely nervous to be around him for much longer. He said that he's sharing the Airbnb with the owners and he said they're really fun and sweet and they like to drink and play games together. He originally said that he had it all to himself. So which is it? I knew that I didn't want to make it obvious that I was catching on to his lies, so I went along with it and just said oh, but I have to wear my cute fluffy overnight PJs instead of my date dress because I'll be way more comfy that way. Then I spewed off a few other things. I mentioned that I needed my medication and absolutely can't miss a dose. Surprisingly, he turned around and as we drove back into the city, I felt a bit more calm, but at that point, still not safe. Finally, we got close to my place. I had absolutely no intention of letting him close enough to know where I live. He was mentioning that he was going to come into my apartment once we got there, and that is just a huge hell no. I don't know what I would do, but I looked for any opportunity to get out of the situation, knowing that he could turn around and take me somewhere private in the matter of 15 minutes if he wanted. We got to a stop sign where people were crossing. Thank God. I then quickly but calmly got out and then said, hey, you know, I think I have a headache. I'll text you. I closed the car door and then went through a public park which was right beside a building that his car wouldn't be able to drive into. I looked back just to make sure that he wasn't getting out of his car and following me and I could see him staring at me. He was so furious and I have chills right now just thinking about it. Within the hour he had blocked me on plenty of fish. Looking back, I think that he possibly wanted to get me a coffee to possibly put something in it. I think that he told me on plenty of fish that we wouldn't ever be able to meet to maybe cover his ass. And I know that he didn't have good intentions with me. Since then I've met my fiance and plenty of fish and was super careful about dating up until then, always making sure the first few dates are very public and to arrange my own transportation.