← Southern Cannibal's Scary Stories
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- [00:02]
Athletic Brewing Company Announcer
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- [00:30]
Christy from Lululemon
hey, it's Christy from Lululemon and I'm here at the office checking out the Shake it out shorts. These have been my go to's and I kind of think of them as a middle ground between a true run short and a more playful, athletic, sporty short. They have all the performance you want for running, so a comfy liner, our lightweight swift fabric, even a pocket for your keys. But what I really like is the flowy fit and layered hem. It gives it a little bit of volume, a little bit of fun so they feel as good on a run as they do just at coffee afterwards. You can find the Shake it out shorts in store now or online at Lululemon. Do
- [01:02]
Narrator / Storyteller
hey everyone, welcome back. Per usual, some of these stories are pretty dark, so be sure to check the timestamps for any stories that you may want to skip without any more further interruptions. Let's get started. I'm still shaking while writing this, but I'm posting it as a warning to anyone walking alone at night and honestly, as a reminder to just trust your gut no matter what. Two nights ago I was walking by myself in downtown Long Beach. If you know the area, I was walking from the pike to the Westin Hotel parking structure to get to my car. The walk itself is 10 minutes. To give you some context, usually I'm completely oblivious when I walk. I love walking and I love being by the beach. I always wear headphones with my music blasting and I'm totally in my own world. I also usually wear heels when I dress up. I was wearing a beige leather dress last night, but because of how far the parking lot was, I decided at the last second to wear flat shoes. That single decision and the fact that I left my headphones off probably saved my life. I was walking about a block away from my car crossing the street when I noticed a man watching me. He crossed halfway into the street, but then abruptly doubled back to the exact same block I was on. I made a left turn at the corner, he went straight. I continued walking for a while. I was close to nearing the edge of the block when I Turned around and I realized that the same man that doubled back was walking in the same direction as me. All the way down at the end of the block. I started to panic. I tried to duck into an entrance to get off the street, but I couldn't find my ticket in my purse. And even if I had, there was no way to get in. I was trapped outside. I kept walking and looked back. He had made a left and was closing the distance. Up ahead, I saw three girls who looked like they were heading to a club. I didn't think twice. I just forced myself into their group and started walking with them. Four of us, one of him. I pulled out my phone and called the police because at this point he had crossed the street and was right behind us. He still kept following us. We made a left turn and the second we had a chance, the girls and I literally sprinted sideways across a crosswalk so we couldn't catch up before the light changed. There was a bar right ahead and we ran inside screaming for help. When the man walked past the bar, he didn't even look at me. He just kept walking straight, like he hadn't just spent the last few blocks hunting me down. The absolute second his isolation and privacy were stripped away, he acted like nothing happened. I made it home safe and unharmed because of those three amazing girls and because I happened to have flat shoes on and no headphones. If I had been at my usual baseline, buzzed, deaf to my surroundings and unable to run in heels, I don't even want to think about what he would have done to me when I got stuck at that locked entrance. Please, please trust your instincts. If someone feels like they are tracking you, they are. Don't worry about being polite. Make a scene, find a crowd, and don't stop running until you're safe. I'm a 23 year old female and I live alone. One of my outlets exploded, so I've been having issues with the power turning off and the smell of smoke at random times. I've been living in fear of a fire starting for a while. I sent pictures of the burnt pieces to my dad because he's the one talking to the landlord for any issue and handling the payments. I don't ever talk directly to my landlord, so I was shocked to see him call me and I already didn't like that. He said he can send someone right now, but the electrician coming is scared of walking up the stairs because he's quite old. Can you go out and help him? He lives in the building next to you. He said I Think that he was just being cheap and didn't want to pay a professional, so he called a buddy. At that point I'm like, okay, I just need this fixed. It's fine. I was genuinely scared a fire would start while I'm sleeping. It was an emergency in my eyes and he already delayed this before he gave me the guy's phone number and told me to call to schedule the meeting. We talked. In one hour I'm downstairs meeting this 70 year old retired electrician who's quite shaky on his legs but stands fine otherwise. I carried his bag while he walked up the stairs holding the handrail with both hands. We get into my apartment and he sits down saying he needs a moment. He starts talking about his health issues and then he tells me how he's all alone and he needs, and I
- [05:50]
Supporting Narrator / Additional Storyteller
quote, someone to come in once a week to cook and clean. I don't even need sex, I don't need anything. I will pay.
- [05:59]
Narrator / Storyteller
And he said I should find him someone like that. I say that I don't know anyone, but he just kept pushing and repeating the same thing three, four times. He starts walking around and at some point he grabs my hand to kiss it while saying don't be scared of me. I said that I wasn't. I just like my personal space. I've met older people before and they all try to be gentlemen and kiss my hand. So I pass this off as him just being old fashioned. After this, he tells me again about his no sex, just cooking clean deal. And this is when I got concerned. I wanted to kick him out, but I realized I still have to walk with him downstairs. If I do so in my mind, it defeats the purpose of getting away from him fast. I should have trusted my gut. While checking things, he starts talking about how he's been in this apartment before, years ago, changing the cables. In fact, he knows the entire building's layout. He casually drops I even have keys
- [06:57]
Supporting Narrator / Additional Storyteller
to this apartment, but don't worry, I don't even know where to put it
- [07:02]
Narrator / Storyteller
and starts checking his pockets.
- [07:03]
Supporting Narrator / Additional Storyteller
Then says ah, probably home in some box.
- [07:08]
Narrator / Storyteller
I pretended to be cool about it. I didn't say anything. I just let him ramble and nodded. Finally, it's time for him to leave. He's in front of the door and I'm right behind him. He grabs the little bag he came with. I don't even know what was inside. He didn't use anything, but it was light. Then I take it from him. He kisses my hand again, then looks at the door, turns around and leans in to kiss my cheeks goodbye and I'm just like, okay. He will move after this for sure. Because he was quite literally blocking the door. I let him have it. He grabs the wall for support to move towards the door again. That was literally 30 centimeters away, then stops, turns to me, grabs my face with both of his hands and leans in. I'm thinking, there's no way he's this bold, this stupid. With my free hand, I push his face away, stopping him. He mumbles, you're a nice girl. Anyway, when we get outside, he tells me again, remember what I told you.
- [08:07]
Supporting Narrator / Additional Storyteller
Find me a woman that cooks and cleans. No sex, no nothing.
- [08:11]
Narrator / Storyteller
I didn't reply before. You yell at me that I was stupid to let this stranger in. I know, and I agree. I'm one of the most paranoid people ever and I'm often told that I protect myself too much. I have never let a stranger inside my home before this, not even my parents, longtime friends. If I didn't know them well. I always told my mom, you know them. I don't. A stranger is a stranger. I felt pressured by their calls to accept in the moment, and I was more scared of a possible fire than a stranger. I wanted to yell at him, but seeing him move so slow was such a weird feeling because I was afraid he would fall or have a heart attack if I scared him. I have rejected pushy men before and I have no issues saying no to advances, but I've never had to worry that I might get in trouble if the person harassing me gets hurt. This was a learning moment and I regret letting things slide. My landlord said the old man doesn't have the keys because he took them back a while ago. This might be true, but I'm not believing a word they say. It's just not safe to believe it. There's a few details that I forgot to mention before meeting him. I realized how weird this was and I called my mom. I explained what the landlord said and who I was waiting on. She was still on call when I first met the electrician and I said that I would call back after. He didn't know who I was talking to, though. I had my phone in hand the entire time. I almost called someone in the first three minutes of hearing him talk, but he didn't say anything. Too bad at that point, so I thought I was overreacting. I knew he had to check an outlet in the kitchen, so before he came over I quickly hid everything sharp just in case. It sounds silly considering I let him in. But it made me feel better in the moment. Better rude and safe than polite and dead. Stay safe and trust no one. I'll never forget the time where I almost lost my life in 2022. It was in the month of September and I lived in Onalaska, Wisconsin. I was a sophomore in high school. I met this 17 year old man named Austin at my summer job. He used to go to the same high school as me, but he got expelled for plagiarism. He would pick me up and drop me off at home every day of the summer when we had work because I didn't have a driver's license at the time. I also want to point out that it was pretty obvious that he had a crush on me because he would hug me every day. But I made it look like he didn't know that I knew that he liked me. And it worked. I didn't feel the same way as he did. We were now into like the second or third week of school and I was still settling in because I still had the summer blue. It was the end of the night and Austin and I were driving home from a party that a kid from school threw. Austin now just pulled up at my house to drop me off. Before I could step out of the vehicle, Austin hesitantly asked me if I wanted to go out with him. I laughed and I told him that I was okay and that I just wanted to be friends. He then said alright with a frown on his face. We then waved and we said bye to each other. I then went inside my house, took off my shoes, changed into my pajamas, brushed my teeth, and I was ready to go to bed. Before I could even go to bed, I got a text from a friend. I unlocked my phone and what I read on my screen will forever haunt me in my dreams. It was a long paragraph about how Austin had been secretly taking photos of me while I was sleeping in my bed through my window. I would sometimes leave the shades to my window open because no moonlights or street lights ever came through the window. I saw the photos of me sleeping. The reason how my friend found out is because Austin apparently bragged to her about this through text. He also had a photo album of it that was labeled the love of my life right there and then I felt like a needle was going through my heart. Realizing his obsession with me, I sent him a text in all caps telling him to never contact me again. He then said he was sorry. Playing the victim card. I felt like screaming. After reading his text, I sent him another text saying to him that he needed to lose my number. And then I blocked him. I wasn't feeling so tired anymore, so I went to go take some melatonin and Benadryl so I could fall asleep quicker. And it worked, but not for long. I don't know what time it was, but I woke up to the sound of my window shattering. I couldn't react quickly, and right in front of me, there he was. It was Austin. Before I could see what was in his hand, I felt my face being stabbed with a knife. I started to cry and scream, and about five seconds later, I heard my dad scream out in the hallway, what the hell is going on? That's when Austin managed to escape through the broken window. Next, my father came in storming in my room, and he had a look of terror on his face. He was feeling a mixture of sadness and anger. And he started hugging me, asking if I was alright. And what just happened? I was honest with him and I told him that I wasn't fine nor safe, and that that boy Austin broke through my window and started attacking me with a knife. Now my father's emotion turned to 100% anger and he ran out of the house chasing down Austin, but he was unable to find him. I called the police and told them my story and they said they'll be there ASAP. They arrived 10 minutes later along with medics. I was now feeling very dizzy with blood all over my face. My father gave me some water and a towel to wrap around my body, and I was then taken to the hospital and the ambulance. While the police would try to locate where Austin was, I was treated for my stab wounds and I stayed overnight at the hospital and was able to go home the next day. It took the cops a little while to find him, but they did eventually find him. I was given some information about Austin when I was at the hospital. He was going to be going to jail for a long time. He admitted that he didn't know why he did it and expressed that he loved me. As a result, Austin was charged with felony counts with attempted first degree, intentional homicide or armed burglary, and was subsequently given a cash bond of $50,000. A year later, he was found guilty from the first charge, but the second charge was dismissed. Ultimately, Austin was sentenced to 16 years in Wisconsin State Prison and four years of extended supervision. Although justice has been served, I still get very skittish whenever I meet another man because I'm afraid of what his real intentions are. I know I sound crazy, but I still have a lot of PTSD from it. I wish nothing but pity on Austin and I hope he goes to hell when he dies. The story takes place dating back to 2013. This all happened in Mastic beach, which is in Long Island, New York. Mastic was extremely far from safe. One day in August I went to Mastic Beach. Now this beach is extremely filthy and has rarely ever been cleaned. It was the closest beach from where I lived. I couldn't go to a further beach because the other closest beach was like a 35 minute drive away and I only had a learner's permit at that time. I really wasn't supposed to be driving alone, but the beach was only five minutes away and there were no police in that area. I arrived at the beach, I saw that there was no car in sight. I took a chair, towel and handbag out of my car and placed it on the sand. After placing these items down, I walked my way over to the water and put my feet in the water. I walked further into the water and now my knees were in there too. I thought about swimming for a second, but I saw that the water was all murky and had algae in it. So what I did was walked out of the water and walked back to the shore. I got to my chair and dried myself off with a towel. I wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon because it was so hot out and it was very sunny. Instead of going back in the water, I decided that I wanted to walk along the Long beach area. So I proceeded. About 10 minutes into my walk, it started to smell. At first I figured that it was just some trash lying around near me or some dead fish. As I continued to walk around, the smell kept getting stronger and stronger. The whole time walking I didn't look in any other direction but in front of me as I was still walking, looking only at 12 o', clock, I felt my foot hit something hard and hairy. I looked down and what I saw was something you would hear in a horror story, which I guess this is one. Right below me was a lifeless head of an old woman and her eyes and mouth were open wider than humanly possible. As I saw this, I screamed like a little girl and ran so fast like I was on steroids. When I got back to my chair I threw up immediately from running so fast and from the gut wrenching sight that I saw. I got my phone out of my bag and called the police. I then connected to a 911 dispatcher and told her everything that she had to know. She then told me to stay put. Where I was at as the police would be on their way. When the police arrived, I told them where the dead body was. They thanked me and they told me to go home because they were going to shut down this beach area as it would now be under investigation. I would say an estimate of three weeks had passed by when one morning I turned on the news like I always did, and I saw that the dead woman had finally been identified. Her name was Diane Ross and she was 63 years old. It was also revealed that the cause of her death was murder and she was stabbed in the back of her neck. I was in such disbelief. They were never able to trace the DNA prints on who killed her, and the killer had never been caught, which is the scariest part about this. As of today, I never went back to that beach and I never will. I also have moved to a different and more wealthier town in Long island where it's more safe and the crime rate is very low. Although this was 11 years ago, it still feels like it was yesterday as time just flies by so fast. During the 2020 pandemic, I met a guy online through an open mic online group. He's from Philadelphia and a mummer. I live in Wilmington, Delaware. We ended up dating for less than three months. He wanted to move in with me because he said his mom was selling the house, which wasn't true, and he did this to manipulate me. I said no. The dude went off the deep end. He came to my apartment uninvited and started playing saxophone in the courtyard of the complex. He blew up his Facebook, stating he was going to kill himself for attention. I called the police and ended up blocking him. I had to change my number, change jobs, and move back home because of him. He used revenge porn against me and he sent men to my home to have sex with me by putting my address on pornhub. He sent Domino's Pizzas to me for a week that were unpaid. And the police said he's doing it through an app where he could change his number. He made up different emails and pretended to be other people. I had to get the courts involved. I got a restraining order against him, but he retaliated. He lied to the Philadelphia police and said that I went after him. So he got a restraining order against me when I had one against him first and I had to appeal. I found a lawyer for $6,000 for five minutes in the Philadelphia courtroom for him to withdraw the case against me. The judge said he would never be able to go after me again, and it was the same judge. It didn't matter because he kept stalking and harassing me through all platforms. While this was going on, my now husband's child was diagnosed with cancer and very sadly passed away in 2022. I was able to get the Attorney General's office involved and had a court date in October 2023. What I'm going to be saying next is actually my victim statement. I just want you to know how much you affected my life for two years in 2020-2022 in a negative way. I dated you for less than three months and gave you everything and more. You went off the deep end because you told me that your mom was selling the house and she said it would be a good idea for you to move in with me. And I said, no, you'll never move in with me. This was your way of trying to manipulate me, which you and your mother did many times. I never deserved what you did to me. And the fact that you knew about my traumatic past is incredibly selfish. Through the time that you were harassing me, I started dating a man that had a child with cancer, where the child later passed away in June 2022, which I'm sure you knew about because you wouldn't leave me alone during that time frame. Early October of 2020, I was able to get a restraining order against you through the Wilmington Courts. You continued to harass me on social media, my email, through my job mail, even put my naked pictures on pornhub for revenge porn. It states in an email that you sent me that you would post my naked pictures on the Internet if you didn't get the clothes that you left at my apartment at a certain time. And you even stated in the email to check the IP address. And yet the Wilmington Police Department didn't have a solid case, so they dropped that case because they didn't have an IP address. I never put two and two together until now. After you showed me that you still had naked pictures of your ex on your phone and stated that she lost her job due to her being on pornhub. Now it makes more sense on what you did. In early December 2020, I received a serve notice from an officer at my apartment door about getting served, stating that I was harassing you in Philadelphia, which wasn't true. The court date was two days after I was served. Therefore, I didn't have enough time to get a lawyer for this. The Philadelphia court granted the restraining order against me even though I had evidence that I was not in Philadelphia the time you said I was. And they Also relinquished my weapon that I purchased between the time frame that you put my mailing address on pornhub and sent strange men at odd hours to my apartment to have sex with me. I purchased that gun because I was scared. Luckily, I was able to appeal and get a court date for May 2021. I had to put $6,000 on a credit card to get a lawyer for five minutes in the courtroom for you to withdraw the case because you knew you were wrong with the evidence that I had from my lawyer showed that you were lying. The judge stated that you will never be able to go after me again for a restraining order after this, you continued to harass me through cyberstalking and sent unpaid Domino's pizza three times a day to my apartment and my parents home for a week and later found out from the police officer that you were using an app to change your number. When I was living at my apartment, I was living in non stop fear because of the continued harassment and revenge porn. I was getting phone calls from strange men and all kinds of men dropping in to see me. I also changed my phone number three times and you still found my new number. I still have voicemails from strange men for evidence. My music career dwindled because of you lying to people about me and how I was a fake writer and I stole music while you stole my music twice. And you still have it on your YouTube page, among other fake accounts that you created in my name, like Facebook and the constant emails that you created in other people's names pretending to be someone. You even made a fake YouTube account in my name just days before the court date in Philadelphia to show that I was harassing you. It doesn't make sense that I would be harassing you after I put a restraining order against you first. The kicker for me was the gifts, your friends calling me at work, and the mail I received a letter from you stating how sorry you were while the restraining order was still in effect. And the picture that you printed out of a girl that I actually knew from this area, you printed out a picture of her and stated in the letter that she wanted to collab with me and you were the one that got it together and you even forged her signature on the picture. I reached out to her and she stated that she never even sent that and she was wondering if she should get her own lawyer involved. But I said no. You put me through stress, depression and contemplated suicide for two years. I had to go to therapy twice a week and I would have constant panic attacks and still do. While having ptsd, trauma, and dreams of you still stalking me. I was prescribed Xanax to get the edge off, but since that's an addictive drug, I wanted to use something more natural. So I do take CBD now, which does help. I had to change jobs because of you. You wouldn't stop calling. Getting your friends to call me and send gifts. It was my first time moving out on my own, and I couldn't even enjoy the whole year and a half I was there because of you. You're selfish and you need help. This isn't even the tip of the iceberg of the things that you've done to me. I've kept everything. You've made my life a living hell for two years because I said no to living with me. Please seek help because clearly you have a mental illness that needs to be addressed. I don't ever want to see you again or go through another court session to relive my story and have to deal with the aftermath of pain, panic attacks. You've beaten me down enough to the judge. I would really appreciate it if you did get two police officers to escort me, my boyfriend and my family back to our cars. I feel unsafe with him and his entire family being in my vicinity or anywhere near my loved ones. Thank you. Like I said in the above, this isn't even the tip of the iceberg. This dude made my life a living hell for two and a half years just because I said no to moving in with me. This happened about a long time ago now, but I still think about it and how grateful I am that it went the way it did. So I wanted to share. During my senior year of high school, I hung out with my friend Ellie and her boyfriend. Gay, fake names, by the way. We hung out a lot through the semester. Elliot and I co directed a school play, and all three of us performed a song for our choir concert. One night after rehearsal, I got a rather cryptic message from Gabe that just said, hey, do you think you, your mom and I could get lunch together soon? It's important. Now I have anxiety, so this really freaked me out. I called Ellie to see if she knew anything about it that she could share with me. And all she could share was, it's not really something I can talk about. You really, really should meet up with him, though. So I messaged him back, agreeing to meet a few days later. It's important to note that this meeting happened maybe two weeks after my 18th birthday. So my mom and I meet with him. And after a decent amount of small talk, my mom finally asks, okay, Gabe, what's this all about? Gabe then goes on to tell us about how his adoptive dad, a man in at least his 70s at the time, was getting involved in some form of Native American voodoo that used potions and spells. The shoe dropped, however, when Gabe said, I had a really bad feeling after seeing how my dad was staring at you the other day at rehearsal. So I snuck into his room and I found a picture under his pillow next to a love potion spell. It was two sided. One picture was of you and had the words I love you. The other side was a picture of him with the words, you'll love me, y'.
- [27:26]
Christy from Lululemon
All.
- [27:27]
Narrator / Storyteller
I can still remember the feeling in my stomach when I heard that. Both my mom and I just sat there shell shocked. Poor Gabe didn't know how to proceed other than to say I needed to tell you because I don't trust him. I'll make sure you're never alone with him. And Gabe stuck to that promise. He and Elly both, and my mom, they all made sure I was never alone in the same space as that man. And I'm so grateful for that. From that point on, whenever I saw Gabe's dad, I had a panic attack until I graduated and thankfully never saw him again after that. Gabe and Ellie are now happily married with children that I'm hoping don't see that grandparent and I'm safe, alive and well. All thanks to Gabe's goodwill. I'm a 26 year old female and I feel this would be a good place to tell my incident. This set of events began when I just turned 24 and was beginning to use Internet dating. I finally matched with someone local for this story. We'll call him Jim. He messages first and he cuts straight to the point and he says something along the lines of hey, you're gorgeous. Listen, I don't want to seem too desperate, but I don't like doing long drawn out conversation only for it to go nowhere. Do you maybe want to grab a drink or dinner and we'll see how it goes? I was taken aback, but also impressed at his confidence and how he was so sure of himself, so I agreed. Before the date, however, I realized even if we were public, I should have probably gotten to know him better. I saw from his profile bio that he lived in the same part of Glasgow as my friend, so I asked her if she knew him. Apparently she did, but not well. But from what she did know, he was apparently confident, outgoing and loud, which also made his reply seem even more in character. My friend says although she didn't know him well, she found him obnoxious. I wouldn't say I lacked confidence, but I was more of a calm, laid back type of girl who preferred to socialize when they came my way. But since Jim was good looking, I told myself, hey, opposites attract. Sometimes maybe this will be a good relationship. On the first date, I saw that he did in fact look like he did in his photos. He had blue eyes and hair that hung to his shoulders. And he was slender but not real thin. And with regards to opposites attract, that was exactly what happened. I found his confidence very impressive. Also, he did have a sort of what I'd call bad boy demeanor. I know at 24 I should have been above this, but what can I say, I still found it charming. After a few weeks, he'd also began telling me more about himself. He told me he had an identical twin who he disowned because apparently his twin was always jealous of Jim's way with people and because he was better at talking to women. Again, I believed him and found this quite ridiculous about his brother. Coincidentally, it was this night that he asked me to be his official girlfriend. It was about a month after this that things began to change. Although I worked, I still liked to drink with my friends and it was usually every Friday. Jim seemed okay with this at first, but then he turned to me and said he was worried about me because he thought I was becoming an alcoholic because of one day a week. In my heart I just knew this was an exaggeration, but I was so smitten I didn't want to worry him. So less and less I went out and eventually I only saw my friends for while a our weekly lunches. This too didn't sit right with him. It changed from worrying about my alcoholism, if you can even call it that. Now he was worried my friends weren't good for me because Jim had all his life experience and he could tell they wanted to drag me down again. I listened, just out of some pathetic desperation. And now I didn't see my friends at all. Three months in, things got worse. It started with policing my clothes. One night on a date, I wore a dress. It wasn't even too revealing, but because it showed the slightest bit of my chest. When we got back to his place, he angrily pushed me on the couch saying, do you like it? All those horrible men looking at you? Do you like displaying yourself like a filthy slag? For anyone not from the uk, slag is a slang term. With the same meaning as whore or slut. After this, it was always hoodies with jeans and or leggings. However, the leggings weren't good either. He accused me of wearing them so men would look at my backside. About four months in, I was still convinced he was a really good guy. He convinced me to move into his flat and things just got worse. He became more physically abusive and mentally. One particular night he had friends around. This didn't bother me. I got along okay with his friends. But when I recommended we order Chinese that night, his mood totally darkened. After his friends left, he threw me on the couch, telling me how I should have cooked a real meal and I was ignorant. He then dragged me into the room. And I won't go into detail, but you can probably guess what he did to me. I knew this was too far, but I didn't know what to do. My mother and I already had a complicated relationship at the time, and looking back, I think Jim weaponized this. And as for friends, well, at that point, I was so stupid that I thought they'd rather just ignore me since I abandoned them and I felt lost. My salvation actually came from an unexpected source. You'll remember I spoke about him having an identical twin one night. Things were really bad. Again, I won't go into many details, but he basically threatened me to let him take intimate photos of me while this was happening. The door crashed open and it was like a blur. But the last thing I remember was someone who looked almost identical to him, except much more heavily muscled and with a shorter haircut. He slammed him into the ground before he hurried me out of the house. This is when I met Jim's brother. We'll call him John. John made a few things clear to me. Apparently, their falling out was not because of John's jealousy. In fact, I later learned from others, apparently growing up, John had actually been the more liked and confident one, and this made him seethe. But again, this wasn't what caused the fallout. Apparently, John had begun dating a girl and Jim had a crush on her. Jim accused John of stealing her, when in reality, the girl always thought he was creepy. It came to a head one night when this girl called John crying from her house. Apparently, Jim had broken in, accusing her of ruining his life. He had attacked her and attempted to sexually assault her. But she managed to lock herself in the bathroom and call John. Well, in the aftermath, Jot had beaten him so badly, he ended up with a terrible scar. Another thing I forgot to mention was the small but noticeable scar on Jim's eyebrow. And when I met him, I thought this added to his charm. But now I know why, and it made me feel sick. Apparently the parents took Jim's side, refusing to believe John or his girlfriend. And they hadn't spoken for years. Apparently John only reached out to their parents earlier that year for the first time and began visiting when Jim wouldn't be around. That night it happened. John was talking with his parents and they explained Jim had his own flat with me. And the way John explained it, apparently his blood ran cold. Apparently he was going to loudly confront him the next day in front of me so I could see his true colors. But he decided to drive over that night because he had a gut feeling something bad was happening. After that night, John drove me to my mother's house after calling the police. Jim ended up going to jail and my mother and I actually grew closer. Like I said, when I was growing up, our relationship was really complicated. But I think knowing something so serious happened to her own daughter really forced a wake up call on her. I haven't dated since and I've decided meeting people would now be in person as this was the darkest chapter in my life. So this happened a few years ago when I was 13. My older sister Mary, who was 15, and I were staying over at our cousin Reese's house for a sleepover. Reese was also 13 at the time. It was late and we had already gone to bed and a movie was playing quietly in the background for white noise. Reese and I were sharing her double bed while Mary was on the floor in a sleeping bag scrolling through her phone. Also important for later, our Uncle C was staying over that night while our aunt Amber watched his kids Trace and Vinny at home. Trace was 11 and Vinnie was 7. She lived with them and usually watched the boys whenever he stayed somewhere else overnight. It was around 2:40 in the morning when I was half asleep and suddenly heard scratching coming from the window. Now, Reese's room had two windows. One facing the neighbor's house and one facing the backyard. The scratching was coming from the backyard window. And before anyone says, it was probably just a branch. There weren't any trees or bushes close enough to even touch that window. At first I tried convincing myself it was nothing, but the scratching kept happening. So I got up and walked around the bed to look outside. Mary noticed and she asked what I was doing. But before I could answer, we both heard the noise again. That immediately woke Reese up too. The three of us just sat there for a second debating whether we actually wanted to Go look outside. Unfortunately, I did. There was a man standing in the backyard staring directly at me through the window. I nearly jumped out of my skin. What makes this even creepier is that Reese had two dogs that barked at literally everything. So none of us understood how this guy got into the backyard without alerting them. The second I backed away from the window and told Mary and Reece what I saw, we all bolted into the living room where my grandmother and uncles were. Right after we got there, we heard loud banging coming from Reese's room. Reese screamed and started crying. Meanwhile, I completely froze like full deer in headlights mode. Mary was trying to calm Reese down while also explaining to the the adults what happened. My Uncle D, which was Reese's dad, who used to be a police officer, immediately ran to his room and grabbed his handcuffs, a dazer, a BB gun, and a real gun. My other Uncle C grabbed a knife. My Nonna called 911 while my uncles went outside to the backyard. Apparently the guy had cut open the window screen and had already cracked the actual window trying to get in. Thank God it hadn't shattered completely. My uncles ended up chasing him through the yard. Uncle D shot him with the BB gun, and together they tackled him and got him restrained in the handcuffs until the cops arrived. The guy fought back hard enough that my uncle C ended up with cuts all over one of his arms, which was from a knife the man had been using to cut the screen. The man himself got seriously injured during the altercation too. The BB hit directly into his right eye and at some point while they were struggling on the ground, he ended up with a broken leg as well. I still remember hearing the guy screaming and cussing my uncles out while we waited for the police. At one point, my uncle told him, you're gonna sit your ass down because the cops are on their way. And the guy yelled back, man, fuck the cops. But the worst part was the stuff he was screaming about me and my sister. The guy kept calling us slurs and at one point he kept yelling that he was going to send us to our Maker. That was the moment that it really hit everyone that this guy fully intended to hurt us if he got inside. When the police got there, one officer stayed inside talking to my nonna while the others questioned the man and my uncles outside. The cops ended up calling paramedics after they saw my Uncle C's arm and the condition the guy was in. So while the police were taking statements, EMT were outside treating both of them in the backyard. According to the police report, the man had specifically targeted me and my sister because we were ethnic and he had extremely hateful supremacist type view. Apparently he had been watching the house for over five weeks before that night. The cops also noted that he had multiple hate symbols tattooed on his arms. He was charged with attempted hate crime, attempted murder, attempted burglary, criminal trespass, vandalism, aggravated assault and resisting arrest, along with additional related weapons and property damage charges depending on jurisdiction. At some point while all of this was happening, Nona called my parents. They adopted me and married from Poland when we were 6 and 8 and brought us to America and they immediately drove over to pick us up. Honestly, I barely remember leaving because I was still in shock. Reese ended up staying at our house for the next few nights while our bedroom window got replaced since it had been cracked so badly during the attempted break in. A few weeks later we found out that the guy had somehow got fentanyl in jail and and he overdosed in a cell. To this day, I still get weird about scratching noises near windows at night. Some time ago, the woman who lived a few houses down fell down the stairs and died. After that, her family inherited the house. The woman's daughter is a cat hoarder and her granddaughter is autistic. We're not sure how old the autistic girl is. She may be anywhere between 15 and even 25. So the cats are an issue because the mom just lets them run free and shit everywhere. But that is honestly the least of my concerns at the moment. When they first moved in, my husband had his first encounter with an autistic neighbor. She ran up to him and hugged him while crying and saying she was sad. He asked her if she needed needed help and she started talking about something totally unrelated. He understood that she had some kind of learning disability and continued on his walk with the dog. This is the only encounter he had had until today, which we will get to in a moment after some more background information. He ran into her necks. When she came and slapped me in the head, I told her do not touch me in a very serious tone. She backed off and I was defensive in a standing my ground kind of way, not aggressive on my side. I'm sorry, autistic or not, no one is going to slap me. So I wasn't going to back off and have her do it again. I contacted her mother about this and she said she was sorry and explained her daughter was autistic. Look, I've had contact with other neurodivergent people and have never gotten a weird vibe from them. This girl gave me weird vibes since the slapping. The next time I ran into her when I was walking with my friend down to her car at around 3am we have two doors where we live, a door inside and a security gate outside. The space between the doors is enough for you to stand between them in an uncomfortable manner. As I was walking my friend down, she noticed her standing there between the doors in the dark with her hair kind of covering her face and just staring at a wall. She mentions that that was creepy as fuck, which I agreed to and we both hurried to get away from whatever was happening. I work nights, so I started to see her out at like 1 3am pretty frequently because I take my dog down to pee when I'm done working. Once I saw her trying to open a car and she started hiding behind the car and watching me. I think she thought I couldn't see her, but I was watching her out of the corner of my eye. Then another time I walked the dog down and I saw her doing the creepy door stair thing. I wasn't really watching her this time because I thought she was locked in. So when I walked back up to my house, I didn't know she'd gotten out and was hiding behind a car again. She started running after me saying, hey, hey, come here. I ran. I in fact did not want to find out what she wanted. I was able to get in my house in time and basically shut the door right in her face. This last thing happened maybe like a week ago. That's when I told my husband that she was really creeping me out. I said she appeared to be harmful. I actually feel threatened by her. Keep in mind, my husband has not had any contact with her since the first time with the crying. He told me that maybe I was being paranoid and she's just a little girl with a problem. Then I felt bad about it. She keeps on coming around the house. I got really sick about six months ago and had to go to the hospital asap. My husband wasn't home and I couldn't take my kid to the ER and keep an eye on him while I was having an Asthma attack. He's 10 years old. It's legal to leave kids that age alone at home here. It was an emergency. I gave him a phone to call me if anything transpired. He called me. He said the girl was outside banging on the door and ringing the doorbell while she's taking my shoes and wearing them around the front yard grabbing everything. So I'm like actively low on oxygen while My kid is being harassed at the house. I told him to make sure the door has the deadbolt on it and not to open it. After I made sure it was safe, I wrote in the neighborhood chat and basically said, get your kid off my property. I'm in the hospital and she's trying to get in my house with my child inside. She left. I mean, I'm sorry. I can't even die in peace. I got nebulized with antibiotics and went home. After this, she started coming over to wear my shoes while she went around the neighborhood. Yesterday she came to my house again. I noticed because the shoes were moved. I've since installed a camera. I went and looked at the video. She started to play with some tile that I had outside and took off with my shoes again. I told her mom, again. This time I said, I don't know if you know, but your child is out between 1 and 3am roaming the street. And she's also coming and using my shoes, which are a personal item. Please keep an eye on her. She could get hurt playing with tile. It's dangerous. Today is when the really creepy stuff happened. So we had a food delivery man arrive. My husband opened the door and greeted him. She just walks up from around the corner of the car. While holding up some food with two fingers. She walks right past the delivery man and starts to come inside the house. My husband blocks the door with his body as she's trying to get by, aggressively going left to right, trying to get around him. The delivery man is just looking at us, shocked. My husband is saying bye to her various times. She's not leaving. She starts sniffing him, like close to him. She hands him the food various times until he takes it. Then starts asking, what are you gonna name it? He says, I don't know. And then she starts backing off, but not before growling in the delivery man's face, right in his grill while making a twisted face. So before this, my husband had not met this side of the girl. I'm wondering if it's some kind of other mental disorder or hell, even possession at this point. I know it's mean, but honestly, this was scary. It was like something that would happen in the conjuring. I haven't said anything else to the mom. I don't even know if we should report this. I don't even know if it would matter if she's a minor. I think she's playing people by acting like a child, but really is a bad person. She's obviously stalking the house because she tried to get in to get to my kid. I'm so glad he called me and didn't open the door. I really feel bad for leaving him. My husband agreed with me today that there's seriously something wrong with her. The mom doesn't even seem to care. What would you do? This happened 10 years ago when I was 18, but I think about this all the time and I feel like I finally have a place to share my creepy encounter. I was a cashier at our local grocery store in southern Illinois, a small town, less than 2,000 people. Our semi driver arrived with our truck about 30 minutes to close. I don't know his name, but can describe him as a 55, 60 year old white man with a pot belly. I'm bringing in some outside store merch and the driver approached me and asked me to look at his leg. He said it was injured and he was making hurt noises. I don't know how to describe it other than clench your teeth together and breathe in fast. Is pulling up his pant leg and says, see that?
- [48:00]
Supporting Narrator / Additional Storyteller
Can you see that? Get closer. Come take a look at it.
- [48:05]
Narrator / Storyteller
And I'm like, huh, yeah, that sucks. I see nothing and it's nighttime. I try to go back to my task and he seems more annoyed and urgent.
- [48:16]
Supporting Narrator / Additional Storyteller
He's saying, come look at my leg
- [48:19]
Narrator / Storyteller
in a very demanding way. At this point, I notice I'm actually standing close enough to the store's awning. It has lights, and I notice that I'm in a pretty well lit spot. He, however, is conveniently right at the cutoff where the light stops so it's dark where he's standing. I say to him, I'm going to school for art. I don't know anything about medical stuff. I then again try going back to my task. He stops me again and says, just
- [48:48]
Supporting Narrator / Additional Storyteller
come over here and look at it.
- [48:50]
Narrator / Storyteller
At this point, he's pretty fed up with me. His persistence really irked me and I said, how about I call you an ambulance immediately? His tone changes to, no, no, no,
- [49:02]
Supporting Narrator / Additional Storyteller
no, I don't need that.
- [49:04]
Narrator / Storyteller
Ugh, it just hurts.
- [49:06]
Supporting Narrator / Additional Storyteller
I just need you to look at it.
- [49:09]
Narrator / Storyteller
I just ignore him and do my task at this point because I'm starting to fall behind on closing duties due to this conversation. A woman walks up to me once I'm inside and says, yeah, that man is faking an injury. I laughed and said, you know, I thought he was, but I didn't want to be rude. And she looked me in the eyes and said, again, he's faking an injury. Her seriousness made Me more uncomfortable, like I might actually be in danger. But am I really? I mean, I'm at work. I still have more things to bring inside, so I'm forced to go back out. And he's still there. He starts up again when he sees me, and this time I say, look, I'm not allowed to be off camera. Not true. Also, I was in fact currently off camera, but he didn't know that. I see his eyes widen and he starts looking up left and right, clearly scanning for a camera. He says, oh, there's cameras out here. And then takes two unnaturally huge steps backwards. Those huge steps made my stomach turn. After taking his steps back, he's still talking to me, wanting me to see his leg. I tell him he's in the dark. I can't see even if I go over there. I tell him to come inside where there's light. I said this because we have one of those TV cameras that you can see yourself walking into the store, positioned at the entrance. If he came inside, I would have him on camera, which I really felt like I needed at the time. I also was still testing him to see if he would go on camera. After that first camera reaction, he hesitated. And then I watched his eyes look at the entrance TV camera before he asked if it records. It does. I say, yeah, and that we have a lot of theft. He then said something like, that's a
- [50:57]
Supporting Narrator / Additional Storyteller
smart idea to have. Then.
- [50:59]
Narrator / Storyteller
Then I try to remind him we sell Tylenol inside. He doesn't want to go inside. I do. I lock the door behind me and I never see him again. I had just gotten out of the long term relationship when all of this happened. A guy I'll call Ryan messaged me on a dating app. We had briefly talked online years before because we had mutual friends, but we'd never actually met. While I was dating my ex, Ryan would constantly like every single Instagram story I posted. And whenever I picked my boyfriend up from college, I noticed Ryan staring at me from across campus. After my breakup, I figured one day wouldn't hurt. I wasn't genuinely interested in him, but I wanted a good reason to get out of the house and, you know, move on. We agreed to go see a movie. Ryan offered to pick me up and take me to dinner. First. The theater was less than two minutes away from my apartment and we had mutual friends, so I didn't think getting into his car was a big deal. Five minutes before the movie was supposed to start, I still hadn't heard from him all day. Then he texted Me saying he'd accidentally fallen asleep and was on his way. One important detail, I had never given him my address. I waited for him at a public spot near my apartment, and there was no way he could have seen which building I came out of. The second I got into his car, I felt a strange sensation of dread. He could barely put a sentence together during the less than two minute drive to the theater. He almost crashed the car several times. I brushed it off, assuming he was just anxious. Things only got stranger until the movie actually started. I was the only one talking. Ryan barely said anything. He didn't ask me a single question about myself. He mostly just stared at me. I kept trying to convince myself he was simply just socially awkward. Still, I had this overwhelming feeling that something wasn't right. It wasn't anything specific. I just felt incredibly uncomfortable. I told myself I was probably just nervous because I don't usually go on dates. By then, I'd already decided there definitely wasn't going to be a second date. At least I could enjoy the movie I'd been looking forward to seeing. About 20 minutes into the movie, Ryan started putting his hand on my thigh. I quietly moved it away. A minute later, he did it again. I moved farther away in my seat. At that point, I started panicking because I knew even if I looked at him, he'd try to kiss me. So I stood up and said I needed to use the restroom. I never went to the restroom. I literally ran out of the theater in Hills in the middle of the night and went straight home. Once I got home, I realized disappearing without saying anything probably wasn't the best idea. I texted Ryan saying I had suddenly gotten sick, felt embarrassed, and went home. I planned to come up with a better explanation the next day, so I went to sleep. The next morning, I woke up to around 50 messages sent overnight. He'd sent me selfies of himself sitting alone in the theater, selfies of himself driving home, selfies of himself lying in bed. Nothing explicit, just photo after photo of his completely serious face. At that point, I decided I didn't owe him anything. I apologized for leaving so abruptly and told him I didn't think we were a good match. So I wasn't interested in seeing each other again and I blocked him. A few weeks later, I went to visit my mom, who lives in another city. While I was there, the concierge at my apartment building messaged me saying someone had left a package for me. The problem was I hadn't ordered anything. They sent me a picture inside a paper bag. Was one tiny cookie and a handwritten note saying it had originally been meant to be delivered to me at my university. But that didn't work out. Sad face. The concierge also told me the person who dropped it off was wearing a hoodie, refused to give their name, and ran away immediately afterward. I didn't connect it to Ryan because, again, I had never told him where I lived. About a month later, I got a message from a girl I'd never met. I'll call her Emily. She introduced herself as Ryan's cousin and said they attended the same university campus as I did. Emily explained that Ryan had been devastated ever since I disappeared from the date. She said he'd begged her to deliver the cookie to me at school, but because I hadn't been there that day, she ended up taking it to my apartment building instead. Then she sent me a picture of a letter she'd accidentally forgotten to include with the cookie. The letter started by saying he'd had a premonition that I would love the gift. The movie we'd gone to see was Final Destination 6. Then it got much worse. He wrote that he'd been in love with me ever since the very first time we'd exchanged messages years earlier. He said he'd ruined the opportunity I'd given him, that he was heartbroken and begged for a second chance so he could understand what he'd done wrong. I didn't respond. I blocked Emily, too. That should have been the end of wasn't. For the rest of that year, different friends of Ryan kept messaging me. Every single one of them told me how depressed he was and begged me to just talk to him one last time. I replied to a few of them, asking them to stop contacting me because it was becoming genuinely frightening. Then one day, as I was leaving my apartment building, I saw Ryan's car parked right outside. He was sitting inside, looking at his phone. Thankfully, I was already in my own car and he never saw me. The next time one of his friends contacted me, I sent a long message saying that if Ryan or any of his friends contacted me again, left anything at my address again, or showed up outside my apartment again, I would report them to the police for stalking. I even cited the relevant laws and explained that anyone helping him continue contacting me could also be held legally responsible. The friend immediately apologized. Not long afterward, I moved. I never heard from Ryan again. Even now, I still have no idea how he figured out where I lived. I never gave him my address, never told him which building was mine, and as far as I know there was no legitimate way for him to find it. I even stopped going to the spot where he picked me up from. That's probably the part that still unsettles me the most. Sometimes I also wonder whether the day I happened to see his car outside my apartment was actually the first time he had been there or just the first time I noticed him. I honestly hope I'll never know.
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