← Southern Cannibal's Scary Stories
Loading summary
Transcript9 lines
- [00:02]
A
Ready to soundtrack your summer with Red Bull Summer All Day Play. You choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best. Are you a festival fanatic, a deep end dj, a road dog, or a trail mixer? Just add a song to your chosen playlist and put your summer on track. Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit Red Bull.com BrightSummerAhead to learn more. See you this summer
- [00:29]
B
mornings have a rhythm. You can hear it, feel it. And at Quaker we fuel it with 100% whole grain oats and a good source of fiber in every bowl, helping you turn that rhythm into your soundtrack for a great day. Fuel to start whatever's next Quaker Official sponsor of FIFA World Cup 26 I oh let's go. I oh let's go. I'm a female in my early 20s and I'm working part time in a clothing shop while studying at university. I love my job, but there's one coworker that I just cannot stand and things have been slowly getting worse. I'll call this co worker Alice and her fiance J all describe them briefly. Alice is 50 and very masculine. She has very short hair and wears men's clothing, which I have no issue with. J is 68 and he has a walking stick and is extremely tall. Alice has missing teeth and smells horrible. J smells bad too, but at least he has all his teeth. They both have rough accents and I can tell they're originally from a rough area of the city that we reside in. Now on with the story. When I first met Alice, she completely ignored my attempts to introduce myself, which I found incredibly rude. I met her four more times and every time she completely ignored me, just stared at me. One day she came in to speak to my manager about something and my other co worker, who I'll call Beth, Beth asked me in front of Alice if I'd ever met Alice and I said yes, that I'd said hello to her a few times. Hetty, I know, but it wasn't me that was the problem and Alice was pissing me off. Well, Beth introduced us and Alice stared at us both not really saying anything. Beth said how long I'd been working there and Alice again said nothing. At this point Beth had stared at us both and tried a few more times. On the sixth attempt Alice finally acknowledged me. The whole time she was in the stockroom area which is behind the tills, and she stared at me. I could feel her eyes on me and every time I turned around she was staring. I found it creepy and Beth told Me. It was weird that Alice was so rude and standoffish with me. She told me that Alice's personality is very loud and bold and she's not shy at all. I'm always weary of gossiping, so I didn't say too much, just agreed that it was weird. I had already decided that I didn't like Alice, but that I'd have to be civil. I'd see her in the street sometimes when I was waiting on the bus home from uni. I commute and don't live on campus. Every time I saw her and she saw me and would just gawp at me. I told my friends and they told me that she seemed fascinated by me. I didn't really see how that could be the case, but she clearly had some problems with me. I saw her twice with a tall man who I later learned was her partner, J. She only worked one day a week, so I didn't work with her. But then she changed her shifts and she started working two days with me. I really tried to be nice, but it was hard. The first time we were working together, she sort of acknowledged that she ignored me before she told me that she remembered seeing me around and then stared at me. She started talking very fast, and I was honestly surprised she wasn't ignoring me. She told me a bunch of stuff about her personal life. How she has a fiance named J and he's 68 and she's 50. I told her it was nice that she had someone who made her happy because she told me he was her whole world. She suddenly got aggressive out of nowhere, saying, yeah, I don't give a fuck what anyone thinks. We don't give a fuck. I was very taken aback by this. I hadn't said anything at all judgmental or negative. I said she shouldn't care, that as long as they're happy, it's no one's business. She stared at me again and I felt uneasy. She then began telling me about her sex life with him and I felt awkward as hell. I don't want to say my age, but I'm only in my early 20s. I've had my experiences, but I just feel awkward talking about sex with older people. It's different if we're close friends. But I didn't know Alice, and here she was going into extreme detail about her sex life. She told me that even though she's masculine, she really loves being submissive and she loves when Jay takes her home and does it rough. I tried to just nod and be polite, but I was uncomfortable When I went home later that night, I had started to wonder if I was being silly. I mean, we all are adults here. Maybe this was normal and I was just being too reserved, but I couldn't ignore that. It just felt really weird. On our next shift together, we had some slinky dresses to sort through this excited Alice and she kept saying how she wanted to buy it all for J. She told our other co worker that she should buy some for her boyfriend and that it was a woman's job to be sexy for her man. This honestly made me roll my eyes. It irritated me because I don't think it's a woman's job to be sexy for a guy, boyfriend or not. She asked me if I had a partner and I stupidly told her no, which was true. She quizzed me further and I ended up telling her that I've been single for about a year now. She just stared at me that whole day. She made sexual jokes and most of them weren't even funny and again started talking to me all about her sex life. She tended to say all this to me and not my other co worker, which I picked up on every time I was working with her. She just annoyed me. She would constantly fart right next to me and tell me she had to take a dump. She smelled really disgusting too, like damp mold. I noticed that she had some missing teeth as well. She kept telling me that she was so masculine, yet she has a man and loves being submissive. And I didn't understand why she kept going on about it. I mean, I could see that she's masculine and it should be obvious I don't care because I'm nothing but polite to her and her having a man is fine. She started being aggressive with some of our other coworkers, screaming at someone that she wanted her shift change once even after he told her he'd change it. One time she was talking about Jay and she told me his children aren't in his life. She told me that his daughters were selfish bitches and she actually called his ex wife. The cease slur for a woman. This all sounded like red flags to me, but it's her life I guess. She told me that his daughters wanted money off of him and his ex wanted him back. But apparently Jay told them, nah, Alice is way better than you guys and she's sexier. I actually had to suck up my cheeks to stop laughing at that. It reads like something a 10 year old would write. She was so embarrassing and sometimes her relationship sounded like a wattpad fan. Fiction. She then began ranting about his ex and children and how much she hated them all. Then she went on a homophobic rant, seemingly out of nowhere, insulting gay men and calling them slurs. This made me angry and I flat out ignored her at this point because I didn't want to get into a fight. Now, I really disliked Alice from the beginning pretty much. But this homophobic rant was the final nail in the coffin. It was then that I knew that she was definitely a truly disgusting person that I never wanted to be around. Also, she's shouting all of this in a store where anyone could hear. It was so uncomfortable. She was acting like a menace. I said that I had to go to the bathroom and I head out there for a few minutes. When I got out, she had to go and take a dump and she literally stunk up the shop. When she came out, she told me that I'd made it smell good in the bathroom. This had creeped me out because it sounded kind of pervy, but I tried to rationalize it by telling myself she meant my perfume lingered in the stall, but I doubt it. When I left work that day, an hour before her, she told me, you're alright, sweetheart. Which also skeeved me out. The weeks that passed and she was the same, constantly talking about her sex life in too much detail. She then actually started quizzing me about my own and I told her I didn't feel comfortable discussing that with her. She got aggressive and she told me I was being prissy, which pissed me off. I don't see how it's bad to not want to tell some random woman about your sex life. Then she asked me if I wanted to hang out outside of work with her and Jay. Before I could even answer, she asked if I'd met J. I stuttered that I wasn't sure. I mean, I'd seen him, but we hadn't met. She then told me aggressively, you have met him. We've seen you. Tall guy with a walking stick. Yeah, you've seen us out before. I again felt awkward. Why was she so aggressive and out of the blue at times? And why was she acting like a cop interrogating me? I just said back, yeah, I've seen him around, I guess. She stared at me. She asked me again if I wanted to go to the pub with them. I told her no and she asked me why. Who asks that? It also seemed kinda weird that a 50 year old woman would want a girl of my age hanging out with her and her fiance. I said I was too busy. Then she scoffed and said, I have a hard time believing a young girl like you is too busy on a weekend to go out. Her rudeness made me angry and I told her I was busy that night and that was it. I actually said it with an edge to my voice and it seemed to shut her up. From that day on though, she kept asking me to hang out. I had told my friends about it and one of them told me it sounded like they were trying to set up a threesome between us. I thought that she was joking, but she was dead serious. She told me that Alice seemed very weird and creepy and to stay away from her. The more I thought about it, the more I actually wondered if she's onto something. I mean, Alice does tell me specifically about her and J's sex life and it's constant and detailed. There was also an incident where she told me her breast size and asked for mine. I refused to tell her and she got mad. She stares at me all the time as well, but I've never met J face to face. It makes me feel sick to think about. My boss is very accommodating to my uni schedule, so I asked to swap my shifts around so I wouldn't be on with Alice anymore. I told her I needed to switch due to Unique and she shifted things around for me. I've not worked with Alice since and I'm really doing my best to avoid her, especially being alone with her. If she ever tries anything, I'm ready to defend myself. I've also decided that I need to be more firm and maybe even rude towards her whenever she starts her nonsense. I never want her to have an opportunity to do anything creepy if that really is her intention. It's scary to think that she might be up to something considering that she's so much older than me and she's so aggressive and her fiance seems just as much of a weirdo as she is. I just hope she never tries anything and I'm sharing this story to remind people to never be polite to anyone who's acting weird towards you as it really can encourage them and needs to be nipped in the bud right away. I just hope Alice leaves me alone from now on, but if she doesn't, I'll tell our manager because I won't let her do anything messed up to me. This whole situation has just been really stressful, but I'm glad that for now she's not been able to get at me. I just hope it stays that way. So to start this off this took place in 2020, and I didn't know anything about what I'm about to tell you until my mom had told me from running into an old friend who was involved into this whole thing. My mom had gone to heb, which is a grocery store for those who don't know, and had ran into an old friend who we'll call Matt. As they were talking, they landed on the topic of where they are Now. Matt still lives in the same house as he did with his family, and my mom was going to tell him where we lived until he then said, I know where you live. A house with a red door on 123 street, right. My mom looked confused and asked how he knew that, and that's when he told her that he had gone out one night to get something and that he had saw me. Now, let me give some details here. I'm a male who stands at about 6 foot 6 and I was 21 at the time. I worked at a gas station that was surrounded by neighborhoods and was a five minute walk from my house. It didn't close until like midnight. And sometimes I would walk home, but most times a co worker would set the alarm and drive me home. But this one night, my coworker's car was filled with a bunch of stuff and so I just had to walk. It didn't bother me because these neighborhoods are very safe, as I would often see cops drive up and down the street all the time. Anyway, Matt saw me halfway down the hill and a car was driving slowly behind me, so he chose to follow. And as I turned down my street, the car had parked to see where I lived. Matt had turned down the street and had then done a U turn in someone's driveway. And now Matt was facing towards the exit of my street and the car that followed me was pointing down my street. Matt then rolled down his window, as did the other car that had the two guys in it. And Matt then said, hey, you don't need to be following that kid. Leave him alone. Well, the driver then says back, shut the hell up. I'll do whatever the fuck I want. Well, Matt didn't like that and he always had a handgun on him and he literally pulled it out and aimed it right at the men, then replied, you want to say that again? The men, now scared shitless, took off out of my street. Matt then turned to see if I was safe, and he just barely saw me close the red door to the house not too far from the street's entrance. I soon left that job and I found out afterwards that it had actually been bought by a different company and I learned my boss was a crack addict. My family thinks that she owed people money and had told these guys that I had their money. I really hope I see Matt again to thank him for saving me from a mugging or possibly even worse. It was October of 2022 and I was working on a marketing team for a very successful law firm in New Orleans. All went down south when a bad employee was fired and refused to accept that our firm was moving on without her. I'm going to use different names for everyone involved in this story, so I'll just call her Tess. Tess was a very nice and kind person at our firm. She would always smile and brighten up any room that she walked into. We all thought that she was a gray paralegal, but her work ethic was just not up to par with how much work was coming in. She worked here longer than most of the paralegals but always had to ask a million questions just to complete simple tasks. She had also been caught lying about having Covid just to work from home and would post Facebook photos of herself at the hair salon on Facebook. Her poor work ethic had finally caught up to her one day and one of our attorneys let her go. I could hear Tess crying as she walked out of the office, but please miss June, I'll do better. Don't make me feel played. Don't make me feel like a clown here. I could hear June trying to shush her and calm her down, but Tess would just not stop yelling. How could you do this to me? She said as she approached the main attorney's office door. June started to tell her that she had to leave now and did not disturb the attorney as he was in a very important meeting. You cannot do this to me. She cried as she walked out of our office building. I also recall her continuously stating that she was not the office clown and she didn't deserve to be fired like this. Of course. The next day there were whispers and gossip around the office about how odd Tess had been acting. There were jokes made and small rumors, but we all tried to keep it hush hush and professional. My desk was right near a window and I could hear one of the main attorneys talking with the attorney who fired her. He was telling her about how Tess had called his personal cell 10 times back to back. He said that he had blocked her number but was telling June that he hoped she would stop. The same day, our firm received an email that came in through our main contact Form. The main contact form is usually used for potential clients to inquire about their legal issues. But this time, it was Tess. The email was long and a huge word salad. The name in the email was listed as Clown. With her former work email as her contact email, it read something along the lines of, I cannot believe you would do this to me. Y' all must really think I'm someone you can hire and play. I ain't no clown, and I don't accept no tomfoolery. At the bottom of the message, in all caps, it read, I am not your clown. Not much was said about this odd email. Our firm kind of just avoided the issue and just tried to move on from it. I wish that things would have been addressed sooner because Tessa's bullshit was far from over. One young paralegal said she had received an email from Tessa's personal Gmail account. It was images of the two of them at our 2021 Christmas party. The message included red. Hello. I woke up this morning very sad. I had a dream last night that the two of us were still at the firm's Christmas party. We were enjoying ourselves, and I was still employed and working amongst all of you. I remember you kept trying to give me a drink, but I told you that I don't drink alcohol. Well, safe to say some things have changed since I was fired. The paralegal forwarded this to human resources and expressed concern for her own safety. This was finally when the firm decided to take matters into their own hands. They had sent us a mass email saying they were aware of the harassment caused by Tess and that if anyone felt unsafe at the office, they could work from home. They mentioned that they would update all of our security and they would like the employees to let them know of any strange calls or emails that they got. This was just all too much for us. Some of us were genuinely terrified and didn't know what the hell would happen next. While employed here, Tessa really seemed like an extremely nice lady. She was always so warming and kind. She didn't seem like the brightest tool in the shed, but she would always brighten up our day with her positive attitude. We were just all so confused. What happened? Did she snap? Was she going through something that none of us knew about? We all felt extremely sad for her, considering that she always seemed a little off and odd. But this time, her behavior was just really bizarre. Fast forward to October 31st. Yeah, Halloween. It's Halloween. And the firm wanted to lighten things up by providing drinks, snacks, and even let us wear a costume if we wanted to. It was a very fun day and it seemed like we all began to forget all about Tess until the next morning when we all got to work November 1st. I had checked my email to find myself in a huge group email with almost every CO worker of mine. The email was sent to everyone at about 4 in the morning. It included a disturbing image of Tessa's old professional firm photo that was on our website. It looked like she had edited the photo with Microsoft paint to make herself look like a frowning clown. She was an overweight black woman with short hair, but in the edited photo her face looked painted white and her lips were red and frowning. Her hair looked like a big red afro and she had even drawn a big red round nose on her. The email subject was captioned as a sad clown and the body of the email said, I really miss you all. After this, our firm had gotten the police involved to do a wellness check on her. Apparently everything was fine with Tess when they checked. This seemed to finally be the end of her harassment. A year has passed and we haven't received any more odd messages from Tess, but there was a rumor when our IT person accessed her computer that there were hundreds of photos of clowns. I'm not exactly sure if I believed that one, but I sure hope things have gotten better for Tess. Tess, if you happen to be listening to this, we all wish you well. You deserve a great job and I really hope you've learned from all your mistakes and have gotten the help that you need. Take care. I feel like enough time has gone by so I can finally talk about this. Not only to just give me some peace of mind, but to also tell others that they should be able to defend themselves in the workplace when all other options are exhausted. I'll be changing the names of this story for anonymity. This was back in 2024, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I was on the sales floor of a convenience store and pharmacy and this was crunch time. All of us were really under the stress of getting all the holiday merchandise unpacked. It was me and two other CSAs named Fazer and Spike and my supervisor, who I'll call Big C. This was my second year at my job and Big C had already been here for a year and a half. Him and I would mostly butt heads, but in other days he was actually great to work with. I'll spare the details on that, but that day was one of the worst days to deal with him. He showed up and he seemed a little out of it and agitated. More than usual. While I was assembling an in store pickup order, Big C started shouting at me and Spike, hey, I need both of you over here. Help me empty the baler right now. I turned to him and politely replied, yeah, man, you'll have to wait a couple minutes. I'm finishing up this pickup order. Hey man, no. I don't have no time or energy to wait on you, so either come over here and help me or I'll call Fazer back here and you can go work the register all night long. Big C knew that I least favored working the register, but I don't think he knew, due to a previous work injury, that I can't stand in place for too long or he just didn't believe me. This is where I got a little agitated with him and retorted, look, just because you can't wait two minutes doesn't mean you have to act like a big baby. The boss said, pickup orders can't be interrupted or go late. And you know this now. Quit trying to derail me. Him and I argued some more to where he actually dialed up the assistant manager right in front of me and tried to make me out to be the bad guy. At that point, I just had enough and I told him I was clocking out. But as I was gathering my things, the assistant manager called me up and asked me what was going on. I told him my exact side of what was going on and how Big C was acting and that it was really making me uncomfortable and that I didn't feel safe working there or around him, and that I was just about to leave. I think he caught onto the fact that I seemed more bothered with it than Big C. Hey, player, don't let anyone mess with your money. You two should just talk things out. I'm gonna call him up real quick. Don't clock out, man. Everything will be okay. The assistant manager said, I was in the break room, still thinking about whether I should leave or listen to his words, when right then, Big C walk locked in. I guess the assistant manager must have spoken some sense into him because he appeared much calmer now. Big C walked in and reached his hand out for a handshake. Hey, Zarek, I'm sorry. I've just had a really rough week, man. I didn't mean to be aggressive like that. He told me. I then replied back with, me too, man, I was gonna help you. I just needed to finish up doing what I was doing first. Let's just get back to what we were doing. Dude, it's cool. We shook hands and went back to what we were doing and I completed my task. No further incidents happened between him and I for the rest of the night. It was around 5:30 and Fazer needed to go on his lunch break so I needed to watch the register. At the time, Big C began to start counting the drawers. There are three registers at the front of the store and Big c counted the first first one and brought it back the minute he places the first drawer back. A tall, lanky, sweaty man in his 20s dressed like a 1950s nerd runs into the store doing this weird galloping run around the perimeter of the store and grunting heavily. Me, Spike and Big C just stare at him with confusion as we watch him run to the back of the store, past the pharmacy, then by the beauty counter and towards the door. What's this man doing? Big C asked with pure perplexion. I finally broke the awkward silence and asked, hey buddy, everything okay? Stanley SquarePants finally reached the automatic doors and replied out of breath, yeah, I didn't find what I wanted. Then he left the building. Spike had started chuckling and Big C just started shaking his head saying he was in here doing this the other night, telling me we needed to stick together. Right as he was finishing that sentiment, I left to go face the aisles and I heard the automatic doors open and then fast approaching footsteps. Yo, you're gonna respect me. A cacophony of feet rapidly hitting the floor and things getting knocked over was heard all over the store. I froze for like three seconds as I turned around and peeked and saw what was going outside the aisle. Big C was dodging the whole psycho, jumping behind the register and over furniture and displays to avoid being punched and smacked at. Big c is about 5, 9 and 150 pounds at most and this guy was about 6 foot 5. Big C grabbed some holiday cookie tins and started throwing them at the guy like they were shuriken. That's when I realized that I had to do something and I made my move. I unfolded my pocket knife and held it forward and charged at the monolithing moron where there was enough of a clear path for me to do so. I ran at him with the knife as he doubled back through the doors, but this guy was much faster than I thought because when I made it to the doors he was nowhere to be seen. You little bastard, if you come back here again I'll kill you. I yelled into the dark parking lot. I stood there trying to look on to see any sign of movement because I was beyond enraged. How dare some random nobody violate the safety of our workplace place. What brought me out of my anger though was one of the ladies from the pharmacy who ran to the front because everyone in the pharmacy heard everything. She started demanding to know what happened and why I had a knife in my hand. Big C and I told her everything and she was just as shocked and bewildered because she had seen the same man run past the pharmacy. Spike was already on the phone with the police and they took their sweet time to get there. The police who spoke with us kept trying to ask if it was a robbery attempt since it happened during the Dror account, but we insisted that it was just a random act of violence as we did absolutely nothing to provoke this npc. I suggested that it was a racially motivated attack since Big C was the only person of color on shift at the time and that the assailant singled him out when he could have chosen to attack me or Spike. But the officer just told us to call back if the person returned, but that they will look for him with the description given. Shortly after the police left, Faser returned and I returned to the floor to work on boxes and all of us were on high alert. I couldn't even work at my normal pace because I was livid. I just kept thinking, what if he came back? I actually remembered then that I had my pepper spray in my pants pocket and then moved it into my jacket. Almost an hour to the the initial conflict. I was in the back of the store unpacking boxes and I heard a commotion by the manager's office. Dude, why did you snitch on me? He was back. I guess Fazer didn't have time to stop him or warn us that he had made his way back to the manager's office. Big C and the nerdy Sasquatch were arguing by the office and I headed over there with pepper spray in my hand. Bro, you need to go. Big C demanded to no avail. I'm just here for my medicine to heal my ulcer and you called the cops on me. I rounded the corner with my angriest face and voice ready, mace in hand. Hey man, you need to get the hell out of the store right now. What's up man? You want to go? You need to get your tall ass out of here or I'm going to pepper spray you. He kept saying incoherent threats to Big C and I while walking way towards the center aisles near the holiday displays. There was one centerpiece that had small fake pine trees with tin pots and that's when I began to worry he was going to pick up one to use as a weapon. So I raised my arm with the spray. Get moving to the door now. I won't tell you again bro. I'll mess you up right now. I use the pepper spray. I'll never forget the sound the pepper spray made as it hit right above his glasses on the onto his forehead, nose and the back of his neck as he whipped around trying to shield himself from it. Why are you pepper spraying me? Because you're a loser. I shouted back with conviction. I stepped back and dialed 911 while I watched him stumble to the front of the store coughing and screaming. And just like magic, I watched as the police tackled him to the floor and cuffed him. At this point everyone was just watching at the scene as I walked up and pointed and laughed at the guy and then flipped him off while the police were holding him down. That's what happens when you screw around and find out. He tried to yell back but his face was full of floor. I forgot that my phone was still with 911 so I answered and said hey, everything's fine here but I just wanted to thank you for the lightning fast response time. Bye. I wrote my statement and the police arrested him on the multiple charges and took him to jail. And that's when we learned what was going on. The guy was really struggling with mental health issues and he got into an altercation with his mother so she kicked him out. He went running around town causing some disturbances nearby, other properties a town over. And by a town over I mean across a few streets. And as a result the police were looking for him our stores at that town's border. Hence why another police department deals with her calls. After the police left, Big C approached me and thanked me for stepping in and saving him. And should the higher ups have a problem with how I handled the situation, he would stand up for me. I thanked him and I said at the end of the workday that all of us deserve to go home safely. For the rest of the time me and Big C work together without any problems and will work together better than ever. Unfortunately he quit two weeks later for unrelated reasons, but he still comes by to check on us. I got a warning from my boss to never use mace again on the job, but she was really glad that I saved Big C. I tell this because I feel employees should have the right to defend themselves from crazy people should there be no chances of reasoning with the aggressor. And sometimes I think about this incident from time to time and I get shaky when I stay at the register for way too long. Not even because of my knee. But but I'm ready to send back anyone who drives me right back out that door the same way they came to Big C. I'm glad we finally got to stop feuding on our own job and team up against a common threat. And to the random NPC who had started a fight in the store, I really, really hope you get the help you need and that I never see you run through that door in some crazy stuff again. I want to thank you for uniting me and my supervisor against you. What you did was crazy. So good, so good, so good.
- [34:31]
A
Everything you want for summer is at Nordstrom Rack stores now and up to 60% off. Stock up and save on the brands you love like Vince, Sam, Edelman, Frame and Free People. Join the NordicLub to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free.
- [34:49]
B
Great brands.
- [34:50]
A
Great, great prices. That's why you Wreck Expedia and visit Scotland Invite you to come experience the beauty that awaits in Scotland. The sweep of wild coastlines, quiet locks and untamed landscapes. Fresh cuisine that feels rooted in the land. Come experience the kind of stillness that stays with you long after you leave. Plan your Scottish escape today@expedia.com VisitScotland.
- [35:29]
B
The story isn't my own, but my father's who used to be a bus driver a long time ago. It happened in the mid-80s and cell phones didn't really exist back then. It was one of his runs as a bus driver. He had a woman that was trying to get away from her abusive husband. It was late in the fall and he had a woman that got on the bus and she was wearing a really big heavy coat and a long scarf. My father thought she was overdressed for the weather, but didn't really pay much attention when she handed a ticket showing that she was going to North Bay, then had a transfer ticket to Ottawa, then to Montreal. My my father noticed that she was full of bruises and he could tell that she looked extremely nervous. As he was loading up baggage and parcels under the bus, he heard some commotion and screaming. A woman then told my dad that there was fighting inside the bus, so he ran up to see what was going on. There was a large man who had that woman by the arm and was now dragging her with him. My father immediately blocked the exit and told the man to let her go when to get off. The man only complied when Two other male passengers got up to intervene. My dad then closed the door and locked it and instructed one of the men who helped him to keep the door closed. No one was to come on or off until he finished loading the undercarriage. As the bus rolled out of the station, he noticed that a car was following and had tailed him all the way to the next town. He let on a few more passengers and he asked the passengers to stay inside and did not let anyone in or out while he ran inside the gas station. He had made a phone call, then came out with a large garbage bag with him. The staff inside the gas station had handed him another large coat, hat and scarf from the lost and found. My father was informed that the man was walking around the bus staring at every window and hung around the door until he came out. One of the passengers told my dad as soon as he saw you walking out, he bolted back to his car. It was roughly another two or three hours to the next pit stop and that car had tailgated my father the entire way. The woman was just crouched in the back and pretty much cried the entire way when they pulled him to the next town. To my father's relief, there were a couple of police officers in the station and they knew him well. He asked everyone to stay on the bus for a little bit longer while he went to talk to the officers. A short while later, he let everyone off the bus and invited the woman to have a meal with him and his police friends as well. Her husband came into the restaurant and sat nearby and left shortly after when he realized she was sitting at a table with a bus driver and two police officers. They wanted her to press charges against him, but she refused. She just wanted to get away from him. As the passengers got back on the bus, they one officer stayed by the door and the other walked up to the man's car and talked to him. So the man apparently denied that he was following his ex and just happened to be traveling at the same speed and stopping at the same places as the bus. Just a coincidence and that if the bus was not there, he would have stopped at the same place. Regardless, the man kept following them all the way to North Bay. When he got there, he waited in of front, watched all of the passengers get off the bus, but didn't see his wife. He then approached my father and asked where she was. My dad just laughed and informed him that she never even got on the bus. After they left the Cochrane station, the man screamed and didn't believe it and just ran on the bus. So where she was sitting at on the bus originally, she had left her coat and scarf as well as a simple note. What did the note say? You may wonder. Screw you and rot in hell. My father just laughed and informed him that she had got on another bus and is currently on her way westbound to Winnipeg. That all of this happened when the officer was distracting him. The husband started to cuss out loud, stating that she was his wife and that my dad had no right to interfere and that he was going to make her come back home whether she wanted to or not. He just ran for his vehicle and screeched his tires as he left left the parking lot. What the men didn't know, that bag that I mentioned earlier with the coat and hat was for that woman. She swapped it out and stayed at the last station, hiding in the staff room. Someone then gave her a ride to North Bay with his personal car. From there she got on the bus to go eastbound to Montreal. Meanwhile, we're not even sure if it's the same guy, but according to the officer that held my father, father and the woman, there was a man in the Greyhound bus station in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is 14 hours away west of North Bay, that had caused a scene looking for his wife. The other story is when my father had a bus run from Sudbury to Timmins, Ontario, there was a passenger sitting in the front that came from southern Ontario. They were just talking and the man just mentioned that he had never seen a moose in his life and he was hoping he would see one. Not even five minutes later, a massive bull moose came up on the highway. My dad wanted to impress the man and slowly creeped with the bus to get a closer look. Well, he got a little too close. The bull moose turned his back to him and it started to kick. Each time his hooves would come a few inches from the windshield directly in front of his face. Every time he would try to shift the vehicle in reverse, the hooves would come up again and my dad would cover his face as he thought the shards of glass would fly in his face. Well, after four or five kicks, the moose just bolted and ran off in the forest. Yeah, my dad has definitely had some really interesting experiences as a bus driver. I am and have been a paramedic for about 10 years. My entire career has been spent in emergency medicine responding to 911 calls and providing advanced life support for life threatening illnesses and injuries. The calls we respond to range from inappropriate abuse of an ambulance to minutes away from death. And oftentimes it's already too late. This particular story is going to be dark. I apologize if advance if there are people that hear this story and are affected by the nature of it, it is going to be graphic. I'm not going to gloss over any details because the imagery is important. As awful as the story is, I want to make something good come from it. I want to use this story to preach a little bit and I hope it finds someone somewhere and helps them. As stated above, this content may not be suitable for everyone one but again, I believe it to be important. It's going to be a long one, so sit in, get comfortable, get a blanket or something warm to wrap yourself in. This is the only and one story that I really have a hard time sharing and you'll find out why. I'd been working for a couple of years as a paramedic. After I graduated from school, the place I worked primarily was in the city, but our service area was the entire county, which is very rural. When you're in school, you go on ride alongs. You practice your skills with preceptors on patients very similar to residency or internship. Your exposure to the job is what you get while on those ride alongs. Sometimes you get seriously injured patients and it's terrifying because you sometimes don't always know what to do. You're still learning, but you have your preceptor at your back to protect you from any mess ups and guide you. Sometimes though, you just don't get lucky enough to experience some of those horrible things. To some, that may seem like a good thing, but it's important to experience these as it really prepares you for a time when you're all alone. There's a couple of terms we use called white cloud and black cloud. White cloud refers to a person, either student or professional, who never gets the exciting, serious calls. The calls always seem to come when you're getting off shift or you left the area of where the call came in and now another ambulance takes it and this white cloud can follow this person for any length of time. Black cloud is the opposite. When I was in school, I was a white cloud. I got a few cardiac arrests, bad accidents, things like that, but nothing that ever really stood out as unique. So a couple of years into my career, this white cloud is still kind of hanging over over me. That's not to say that I hadn't had bad calls before that. I mean, I have, but it's not the same. The day this story takes place is Christmas Eve. I worked from 7am Christmas Eve to 7am Christmas Day from what I remember, the day was pretty slow. Most people were with their families, not going outside, getting into accidents or causing mischief. I was working with the charge medic at the time time and a brand new EMT who was going through his FTO with us, which is field orientation process for those curious. A few of my co workers had made a Christmas dinner that day, so we all had hot food to enjoy while we had to work and be away from our families. At our station we had two ambulances there with two crews, myself, my partner and our FTO and the other crew. When night comes, if a call comes comes into our station, the two crews just rotate calls so that we get to sleep a little bit more. It was around 11pm and I was sitting in the recliner just watching TV. A call came into our station that required us to respond out to the county. One of the guys on the crew, who was a good friend of mine, was asleep in the recliner next to me, so I took the call. The call was initially for a woman who had fallen and hit her head, but was conscious and breathing due to the nature of the injury. We responded emergent. It was probably about a 15 minute drive to get to the person's house. As we're getting close, dispatch informs us now the PT is not conscious but breathing. As we approach the residents driving down the street where the little development is, there's flashing lights everywhere. Sheriff's deputies, police, fire department, they were all there with some even blocking the entrance to the street for just a simple head injury. We thought that was pretty weird and it set a weird vibe for the call. One of the deputies saw us coming and he moved his car allowing us through. Once we got through though, this part of the street ended in a cul de sac with houses all around it. People were standing on their front porches around looking at what was going on. We arrived at the address. There's a vehicle parked in the driveway, still running with the officers all around it. The driver's side door was open and there was an officer standing there looking like he was talking to someone sitting in the driver's seat. I walked up first with my partner and our EMT FTO behind me. As I approach the rear of the vehicle, I see that there's definitely someone sitting inside of it. There's also a man, middle aged in plain clothes standing in front of the vehicles, his lower half lit up by the headlights. He has his hands in his pockets and he's looking rather intently at the person in the vehicle. I walk up to the officer and get a report from him. While the officer is telling me what's going on, I look at the person in the driver's seat. The person sitting in the driver's seat was a middle aged woman, maybe 40s to 50s, sitting back with her head against the headrest, her arms hanging down by her side. I can visibly see her breathing and hear her moaning, but she's not talking. Her eyes are closed. There's a bit of blood running down from her head, past her cheeks and then down to her chin. There's also a small stream of blood coming from her nose. The officer tells me that she was inside with the family when she came outside to get something from the car. The officer said that the woman's husband and gesture to the man standing in front of the car came out to check on her because she was out here for a while. When the husband said saw his wife bleeding, he figured that she must have fallen or hit her head on something, so he called 911. The officer tells me the woman has not been responding to him. I attempt to speak to the woman myself. She doesn't answer me but continues to moan. I perform a sternum rub to cause painful stimuli and just hope to get some sort of reaction. No reaction. I then ask the husband if she's been drinking tonight or if she abuses any drugs that he knows of. He says that she's had a few glasses of wine but no drug use. Now at this point I'm thinking she has a head injury and potentially a brain bleed because she's not responding appropriately. I stand where the officer was standing in the driver side door. As I'm performing my assessment, I can't see where the blood is coming from, so I figure she has a laceration or something in her hair that isn't visible. It's at this time that the the officer comes up to me. He says, we also found this in the driver's side door compartment. He produces a revolver. I look at the officer and look at the revolver. He looks at me and holds it out. I grab the revolver and flip out the cylinder and at the same time I'm just thinking to myself, oh shit. In the cylinder is one brass casing with the primer indented, meaning that a round has been fired. With this new information and based on the bleeding, I assumed the PT had put the gun to her temple or something. The fact that she's still breathing and making noises leads me to assume that she missed or the bullet just miraculously bounced off. If she held it at a weird angle due to the potential for significant head trauma. I decide that we need to place a cervical collar on the woman in case of a spinal injury as well. I ask one of the firefighters to grab a collar out of our ambulance. I open the back door of the vehicle and get in behind the woman so I can hold her head stable while the fireman places the collar on. It's only when I do this that I see what's really going on. As I slide in behind the pt, I can see the back of her head. Something that I'll never be able to unsee. Looking at the back of her head, I see a grapefruit sized hole. With my flashlight I look at the hole and it's almost empty except for a piece of the large skull that's just floating on top of a blood and brain soup. I look up and on the headliner in the vehicle is a 2 foot in diameter halo of blood and brain painted above her with tiny pieces of skull stuck into the fabric. I look back at the hole. It's a chilly night so I can see heat vapors coming out of the hole, similar to how you would be able to see your breath on a cold day. I look out the vehicle at my partner and I say we need to go now. Either the look on my face or a sense caused him to peek inside the vehicle and see what I was seeing. His eyes grew wide and all he said was holy crap. Our emt FDO quickly went to the ambulance and grabbed the stretcher and backboard. Up until this point we were really taking our time carefully getting her out of the vehicle. But now carefully and slowly turned into just get her out of the vehicle. Our EMT also grabbed me a few large trauma dressings and gauze wrap. I placed the trauma dressing over the hole and I wrapped the ever living crap out of it around her head so that when we moved her onto the stretcher, nothing would spill out. With the help of the fire department and the police, we moved the woman woman under the backboard and put her under the stretcher. The whole time the husband has been standing at the front of the vehicle watching, not understanding what's happened. As we get the woman on the stretcher, he comes over and I can see that he now has tears on his face. He bends down, kisses her on the cheek and then says, I love you sweetheart. We quickly got the woman in the ambulance. Due to the woman's injury, her cerebrum largest part of the brain is almost completely gone, meaning she has no motor function, no muscle tone and no cognitive abilities. Her brainstem, however, is still intact. The bullet missed it. The brainstem controls the body's autonomic functions like respiratory rate, heart rate and blood pressure. Due to this, when we moved the woman to the stretcher, her tongue fell against the back of her oral airway, causing a blockage. I knew immediately this was going to happen. So I had my partner set up the intubation supplies for me in the ambulance. I played the laryngoscope into the patient's mouth to move her jaw and tongue forward, opening her airway. It's a bladed device used in intubation. I see the hole on the roof of the woman's mouth. I slide the endotracheal tube through the woman's vocal cords into her trachea. This gives us a secured airway so we can ventilate the patient. My partner uses an intraosseous needle to obtain vascular excess. It basically does the same thing as an iv, but it goes into the bone and the medication and fluids are absorbed by the bone marrow. I place the PT on the cardiac monitor, check her blood pressure and oxygen. At the time, I thought it was the strangest thing. Her blood pressure was actually good, her heart rate was normal, her oxygen was good and her cardiac rhythm was totally normal. We start transporting immersion to the hospital and I gave them a heads up, activating the trauma team. After the call, we went back to the station to restock the ambulance and clean up. That's when I saw all the bits of bone and blood on my pants and shirt. Luckily, the charge medic let me go home and take a shower and put on a new pair of clothes. After I changed, I went back to work and the rest of the shift was uneventful. I learned that the next morning around 9am the family had decided to remove life support and that the woman passed away. For many years after that call, I didn't notice a change. I kept doing what I do best and I never really thought I had been affected by it until I realized I was a couple of years ago. I had a bad relationship. That made me start thinking about myself and also how I am. It was something that was always there, but I never really thought anything about it. I just thought it was my personality and who I developed into as an adult. I realized how angry I always was. I was not a mean person, but very simple, stupid things would just set me off. And I had a bad temper. I was very cynical of the world. Still am. And what I thought was a Stunning problem. I had started thinking, thinking maybe it's anxiety. I decided that I want to figure out what caused me to be this way. I wanted to figure out why I think the way I do, why I act the way I do. So I decided to see a psychologist. After many months of visits, my psychologist came up with a PTSD diagnosis. I really hated it at the time. I hated being categorized as someone with ptsd. It didn't make any sense. I can handle anything. Nothing bothers me. But during those visits, as we conversed, the one thing that kept coming up was that call. I didn't realize how much it actually affected me. How much of a wall I built to shut everyone out and not see who I really am and to protect myself. The more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that it probably makes sense. The reason I tell the story the way I do with the corporate graphic detail is because I think everyone needs to understand it in its entirety. How mental health not only affects a single person, but everyone around them. Like I said, I'm gonna get a little preachy here. So if you don't want to hear this, I understand. But I do urge you to. This is something that we talk about at work quite a lot and there are several co workers on the ambulance even now that I talk with about this stuff. One of the if not number one cause of death in first responders is suicide. If you're someone who's ever thought about or attempted suicide in the past, you need to know that taking your life doesn't only affect you. You may think it'll be better this way, but I assure you it will not. People often say how selfish suicide is and it's true. Because once you're gone, you have no idea the amount of lives have been impacted by you. If you don't think this is true or that no one will care, maybe you need to go back and re listen to the story. Because I can guarantee you that people care. I care. So find someone, anyone to just talk to. Be honest, Let them know how you're feeling. I know it's hard. It was for me. But it does get better. You just have to try. So if anyone you know or does struggle with with mental health issues, please reach out. Just be in ear. You don't have to try and solve the problem, but just listen. If you listen, you just may hear something that can help save someone's life. And if you struggle with mental health issues and think that there's no one for you to talk to, you're wrong. It can be a professional. It can be the person you consider a close friend or relative. If you feel like none of these options work for you, or that you're considering doing something dangerous, go to your local ER. Call 911, because that's what we're all here for. Police, fire department, EMS and ER staff. People may not think of these people to call when you're having a mental emergency, but I can tell you firsthand that we deal with this a lot more than you think. And we're also trained in how to deal with these people and situations. All of us. Even if you don't know what to say, if you even just make the call, it'll get things started. The number for the national suicide hotline is 1-800-273-8255. You can call from anywhere, anytime they're available. For anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, there is always someone to talk to. Please, if you feel like you want to end your life, I beg you, talk. This happened to me last year. I'm not proud of what I did and for the sake of my safety and protecting my identity, I'll be referring to myself as Jane in the middle in this story. John now, for context, I'm a single and bigger girl and at this point in my life I was in a dark place. I was alone, depressed and being alone, unattractive and desirable in my eyes. I wanted something meaningless to make me feel better. One day John had started complimenting me at work and I took it. He was 15 years older than me and I really fell for the comments and flattery. It then turned into messaging and pictures on a dirty level and it escalated into physical intimacy and touching. Now we were both single, so in my mind we weren't really doing anything wrong and we didn't have feelings for each other. It was just for simple pleasure. That's it. I didn't want anything more and neither did he, so I'll skip the details, but things were done in the office and in the car park and then two occasions out of sight in his car. It took one thing I did to make me feel disgusted and then I realized that I had enough and wanted out, which he was happy to agree with. We then eventually went back to normal at work and everything was fine. However, I was due to go away on a holiday for about a week, which was booked prior to all of this, so I was really ready for my break. But during this time John kept messaging me and saying how he missed what we had and he asked if he did anything for me anymore. To which I replied no. I was starting to get pissed off as we agreed when it began that if we wanted to walk away, we could without getting hurt. We never slept together, we just did other things. But his messages were getting more constant and I told him point blank that he needed to stop because I'll never give him what he wants again. It was wrong and I didn't like who I was becoming by being a part of this. John quieted down after this message and he went radio silent. Flash forward to when I returned to work and John was acting normal and I thought it was the end of it, but I was wrong. Due to us working in the same team, we were asked to work together to build this rapport regarding some figures or whatever. I can't really remember the details honestly, but it required us to work together. Now I had no problem with this. And the first two meetings. Meetings went fine. All work and no play and all that. It was then when I went to my manager about the report and she told me that John had specifically asked for me to be partnered up with him rather than my other colleague. I thought this was strange, but I put it down to the fact that I was more experienced than my colleague was. So one night, due to other meetings, John had put our last sit down in for 4pm for two hours. I finished at 5pm, but I was actually off the next day, so I accepted. The meeting went well and we finally did the report to the point of satisfaction to hand it to the directors, which John was going to do the very next day. We tidied up and then headed out of the building to the car park. It was pitch black and very cold, so we had walked fast to the car park which at the time was empty. We then said our goodbyes, but as I had turned to get into my car, I then felt arms grab me and I was pushed into the back of John's car and before I could do anything back, John was now on top of me holding a knife up to my throat. He had slammed the door behind us and got in my face while straddling me. He told me that he planned this so that he could have me once and for all and if I struggled, he would kill me. I was frozen. I was shocked at the turn of events and I asked him why he would do this. He then told me that he was obsessed with me and he was pissed off when I ended it. So he had forced us to work together so I would let my guard down and he would do this. I begged him to stop but he just pressed the knife closer to my throat telling me to shut my mouth. He had then proceeded to take off my clothes but just as he was about to do that the door then swung open and to his shock he was pulled off of me dropping the knife. I had breathed a sigh of relief. That's when I then got out of the car from the other side and then ran around to see John now being pinned to the ground by my other co worker Will refer to him as Jake. Jake had seen the whole thing go down from his van and he had called the police, then intervened himself and in doing so saved my life. The police came and took John away while I explained the whole situation to them. I later came to find out that Jake was asked to head back to the office to check out a vehicle that was in an accident earlier that day and that's why he was in the area. John was arrested and charged. It eventually got out what had happened throughout the whole workforce the details were made about what we did. I don't know how but I just couldn't tell take the looks of shame in my work. So I ended up quitting and left. Jake was actually in a similar situation to me years prior himself and he understood what I was going through. Me and Jake actually ended up dating shortly after. John is currently in jail for assault and I thank every day for Jake being there because if he wasn't I really fear where I would be now. But I was in a really bad place back then and John took advantage of that. I do take responsibility for my part in all this but I did not deserve to be assaulted. I really thought we were on the same page but clearly we weren't. But I'm now happy and I'm moving on with Jake. I have no plans to ever see John again and I really hope I never do. All names will be changed to remain Anonymous. Back in 2015 I was working in food service, specifically as a supervisor for a coffee shop. Pretty soon in my actual training, the manager at the time decided she was going to leave and then open up her own coffee shop. She had hired maybe 3, 4 people before leaving so that we wouldn't, in her words, be short staffed. In doing this, she really wasn't as careful as she was before about who she was hiring. Which brings me to my work nightmare. Tony will be his name in this story. Tony seemed nice at first. He was probably in his early 20s, average height and thin build. I was a short 23 year old who was living as a stealth male, and I was also transitioning from from female to male. At this point, I almost have all of my surgeries and I've been on hormones for three years, so there was truly no questioning. But people didn't know unless they were told. My co workers were all well aware of this because they had all been there for most of my surgeries. Tony was not very good at his job. He was struggling to pick it up, and he was really stressing everybody out. I always try to be nice to him, though, because I know how hard learning all that could be, and that's just my general personality. One night, while I was sitting at the bar with my dad and my best friend enjoying a drink before a lacrosse game, I had got a Facebook message request. I skimmed through the profile of someone named Riley for a brief minute and then opened the message. It seemed normal. It consisted of a standard greeting, a simple hi, how are you? And then it turned very dark very quickly. When I asked who they were, it was obvious it was a fake account, so I didn't really expect anything other than to be trolled. That was until they said they knew who I was and where I worked, which was not out of the ordinary as a lot of our regulars were super friendly with me, so much so that they would give me gifts before my surgery. So. But this was certainly not irregular. As I opened up the new message. After hearing the familiar ding and feeling the phone vibration, I was horrified. It was a slew of messages threatening to throw hot coffee on my face, beat me up at work, and many more awful things. The messages taunted me, saying that I couldn't prepare for it because I had no idea who they were, so I wouldn't know who to look out for. Now, I know that doesn't sound too scary, but let me set the scene here. I worked at a kiosk in the mall. Everything around me was open, as well as the back of the kiosk being wide open to a seating area for us and a staircase leading to and from upstairs. There was very little protection when the mall and the police came together and did drills for active shooters. We would have to go hide in the other stores or hope that we could make it to the back room, which was down a dark, barely lit hallway that was not as populated as you would think. A few days passed from getting the first message request, and I'm still getting these messages, but not answering as much, if at all, sometimes hoping that if they didn't get the responses they wanted, they would Just leave me alone. But then they said something one day after a week. It was something that keyed me in on the fact that it was Tony. Tony had made a comment about how I was not a real man and that while I was going down the hall to the back room at night, they were going to teach me a lesson. And that threat, that threat involved sexually assaulting me and that no one could help me. I was horrified. At this point, most of my co workers knew a little bit about what was going on, enough that they were all worried and protective over me, which made the kiosk very tense, especially because everyone agreed it was Tony. Our manager refused to listen to us, but said that he would put us on separate shifts. My brother went and bought me a keychain with mace, which you have to travel outside of where we live to a state of three hours over to even purchase. I had added it to my keys for work and my ex boyfriend at the time also made sure that I had a small wooden baseball bat in my car. At U all times whenever I would go on break, whether Tony was working or not, especially when he wasn't, all of my co workers would keep looking out for all the open spots of the kiosk just to make sure I was okay. I remember vividly one time, one of my shyest co workers had peered over the kiosk and couldn't see where I was sitting and then quickly ran out and panicked. The messages continued with threats and eventually we had hit a breaking point. Wait. One day we were slammed with customers and Tony was working. Most of the customers were being really polite about the wake and with Tony not being great at his job, I had tossed him on the register. We had two of them, so he wasn't working alone. I was supporting my staff by filling up the ice bins and getting things that they were low and out of, when suddenly a co worker then walked up. They were pale and looked flustered. I was told that a customer wanted to speak to the person in charge. So I had stepped out of the kiosk, took off my apron and then approached the woman away from everyone else. The woman told me that she didn't want to get anyone in trouble, and by that sentence alone I knew it would be bad. But I could have never imagined what she would tell me next. She proceeds to tell me that not only was Tony rob rude when she told him that he gave her the wrong food item and complained that her drink order was too crazy, but then he told her it was her fault because she Sounded like she had a dick in her mouth. At this point, this poor lady was actually holding back tears. She told me that she was already self conscious about her voice because she had beat cancer and she was left with her voice changed forever from it. I wish I could have seen my own face because I was mortified. I quickly began apologizing and I had asked her to wait around for a moment while I called our manager in hr. I had asked a coworker to run the floor for a moment and Tony had to go do some back of the house work like cleaning the milk fridge. Once Tony walked away, I filled four recovery cards and also refunded the woman's order while calling the manager. The customer left, telling me that I didn't have to do all that and that I made the situation right by just being kind. A day passed and Tony was given a final warning. And I would absolutely dread having to work with him, knowing during launch week I had no choice. One night, after a few really disgusting messages from Riley, I purposely said something that I figured would make Tony finally admit it was him. And sure enough, it did. But not how I was planning. I had came in for my shift the next day and and the manager had asked to have a meeting with me. I walked into the back room with another supervisor who was also asked to be there. And who was there? Tony. Turns out Tony claimed that I was saying racist things to him and without me having proof, I was given a warning. That's when Tony turned around and specifically mentioned how over Facebook I had called him a sexual predator, which I only said to Riley. I looked at Tony and then yelled, see, I knew it was you. He then tried to turn it around and said that it was his friend's. And that was the icing on the cake. My manager finally had something to prove that he was the one messaging me. He was fired that day on the spot. Work felt a lot less stressful now, but we were all still pretty worried because now he was really angry at me. My manager reached out to the mall security and that's when we found out the most amusing news. Something that the original manager should have found out earlier on when she hired Tony. Tony was apparently banned from the mall a whole year prior. He wasn't even supposed to be in the mall at all. After a little bit of time passed, he was no longer able to come to the mall and work finally became enjoyable again. Wherever Tony is, I really hope he got some help. Hey everyone, I'm going to go by J for privacy reasons. A Little background on me is that I'm a CNA and I worked in an assisted living facility in the PNW. I had started working there in the spring of 2023 and I absolutely love my job. The job can be taxing both physically and mentally, but the residents really make it all worth it for me. Anyone who has a similar job to me knows that the job can also be emotionally taxing too. Recently I had a resident pass away completely out of the blue. I had to take a day off and when I came back I was notified of her passing. I was so stunned and I actually didn't even believe my co worker at first. My coworker told me, yeah, K passed away yesterday. All I could do was look for her and then say wait, what? My coworker took me to K's room to then show me that she was no longer in there and that's when it finally hit me. Her bed was empty, but all of her things were still in her room. My co worker told me that Kay had been doing fine and that she had even gotten out of her bed the day before she passed. Kay was bed bound and unfortunately other staff hardly even bothered to try and get Kay in her wheelchair. My co worker had told me that on my day off Kay had a spiked fever and that she went downhill extremely quickly. I was devastated by the loss loss of K, but sadly life has to continue on. I was working at the same building a few days later when something very odd happened. All of our residents have call pendants, but the system is usually malfunctioning or just down altogether to help out when the call system was down. The higher ups had this genius idea to put bills in the resident's rooms like the ones the you see on customer service desk that ding when you need assistance. Well, I work NOC shifts and I was in the kitchen area filling up paperwork. I was closest to the hallway where K's old room was when I had then heard something that made my heart jump to my throat. I heard what sounded like a death rattle, but it was so loud that it felt like it was coming from inside my own head. Then after the noise subsided, I had heard a single ding of a bell. I knew that it was coming from the hallway where K's old room was, but I also knew the two other residents in that hall were not physically able to ring their own bells. So I ran all the way around my building just to make sure that it wasn't another resident. But of course everyone was asleep. I finally decided to peek into K's old room because I wasn't even unsure if she even had a bell in there. Sure enough, when I opened the door and looked in, I saw a Belle sitting alone on the bedside table. After I saw that, I just closed the door and tried getting my breathing back to normal. Surprisingly enough, I wasn't too scared by this whole experience and I like to think that it was K saying goodbye to me since I wasn't working the day that she passed. The this is just one of the stories that I have about this facility. There have been a lot of deaths within those walls and sometimes people hang around. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to my story and please stay safe out there. To preface this story, this is 100% real and it's something that happened before. Back when I worked in healthcare in a long term care home, the building I worked at housed both palliative and dementia residents. We had three units referred to as North Wing, South Wing, and Dementia. North and south made up an L shape with the dining room right in the middle. Connecting them palliative was through doors usually kept locked at the end of north, attaching it to like the top of a T. I worked the night shift. We were a skeleton crew, a single nurse and two healthcare aides, yours truly included in the latter, if someone needed us at night, we were there. Usually because nights went by quite slowly. We did the day shift and evening shift's extra charting in the dining room. From there we could hear anyone that called out and respond to any alarms that went off. The nurse, Barb and I were sitting at a table, tapping away on our iPads and chatting. My fellow healthcare aide had gone into south to put a man who usually forgot the time back to bed. Suddenly I had heard a faint call from somewhere in North. Maybe palliative Barb heard it too. We had always carried our phones on us during the night shift so we didn't have to ring alarms and wake up residents. I told Barbara Barb that I check it out and text her if I needed her, but just to continue doing the charting. Besides, it was something that happened every single night. I walked down north, poking my head into each room as I went to see if anyone was awake and to try and find the source of the call. All along the way I was met with sleeping bodies as I hid palliative, I felt like a stone had settled in the back of my throat. I had debated texting Barb, but I knew that she'd end up teasing me about being scared of the dark. So I marched on, typing in the passcode and going through the heavy doors. As soon as they clicked shut behind me, I had heard another cry to my left, a woman's voice saying help me. I quickly went through each of the rooms until I was standing at the end of the hallway in the dementia dining room, totally confused. Confused. No one was awake. All of the grandmas were asleep on that end. Again now louder. I heard the cry and almost sounded like a very angry person screaming for help. And it was from the opposite end of the unit I ran across, checking in all rooms again. As I entered the final room, not a single resident was awake. Not even the men who I had doubts would be able to sound like the voice that I had heard. I left the final room, about to check them all again. Now closer. Perhaps one was having a nightmare. As I stepped foot out of the room, I froze, a chill running up my spine. Outside of the last room there was a small living area with a couch, table and some chairs. Due to the unit being for dimensions dementia residents, all the furniture was weighed down underneath with massive concrete blocks to prevent the residents from moving them and hurting themselves. It took over four men to move the couch on cleaning days. Every chair over 50 pounds each and said 200 pound couch had turned and it was facing the room that I came from. All turned and facing me. There is no possible way four people, let alone BAR and my fellow hca, could have moved that couch. Not only in the short amount of time I was in that room, but also without making a single noise. The floors bared scratch marks from the numerous times that we had been forced to move it around from before. I ran. I ran to the doors, ignoring the multiple cries of help me, please help me. That followed, biting at my heels. It took me three attempts to get the password in right. I then ran down north to where Barb had started to come look for me. Her and my fellow coworker went to go check on the unit. After I told them what happened and then returned with pale faces, they knew that I couldn't have moved that couch. From that night on, we had never checked on a call alone. I still have no idea what happened. Many people have died in that home. I really hope that they've all eventually found peace. I want to mention again that this story is not fiction. This happened to me and it wasn't the only scary thing to happen on a night shift. Working in a place where people go to die. I now have a healthy respect for those who may have not moved on peacefully. I want to keep myself and my co workers anonymous for this story just for safety reasons. I currently work as a barista at a very popular coffee shop in my town. I had gone in for the night shift from 5pm to 10pm that night I was working with a couple of my favorite co workers who'll go by ans as well as my favorite shift supervisor who for this story will be addressed as M. The lobby was closed since it was about an hour before closing time and we closed the lobby early due to security reasons. There were several incidents with homeless people either purposely blocking the entrance when baristas had to leave or suspicious people who were locking themselves in the bathroom after hours refusing to leave and we had to get the police involved. This night though was definitely different from those nights. S was running drive thru orders while I was working on mobile drinks and also preparing the upcoming drive thru order when we both overhear a commotion on our headsets from the drive thru speaker. There was yelling between two men. We had seen on our drive thru camera that the driver of a minivan whom was ordering drinks for his wife and kids whom were also in the car was yelling at a man outside of the vehicle. Then we saw the man try to open the back doors where the kids were at and the kids were crying and screaming and very scared but the man kept yelling at him to back up or he'd have some problems. The guy then punches the driver in the face and tries to open the door. Then he attempts to try and pull the driver out of the vehicle and we could hear and see the wife yelling and pretty much holding onto her husband who is the driver so the man couldn't get access to the car. Meanwhile, without me and S knowing, Supervisor M and barista A had gotten a hold of the police since A had overheard the commotion on the headset as well and was near the phone before the police arrived. The guy had actually bolted over to the next door fast food joint out of our sight. The police showed up and luckily the man was caught. He had assaulted an elderly woman just getting out of her vehicle in the next door fast food joints parking lot. They sicced the K9 on him and the dog caught him after doing some decent damage to his leg. They cuffed the man and put him in the car while the other cops asked EST and me and the family what all happened and our supervisor texted our boss as well as put in the report for the incident. The elderly woman was okay, just slightly bruised on her face and the family was safe. The Driver did have a bloody nose and slight bruising as well, which was from the other man punching him in the face. We covered all their drinks and had offered the kids some sweet bakery items in the end. Luckily no one was seriously injured, but it definitely was a night to remember. It's a reminder to be careful and wary of your surroundings, especially when it comes to working late at night. I'm a 32 year old man and I've been driving Metro for eight years now. I really enjoyed it and I was always keen to start my shifts. Since a couple of months back, one of my colleagues had asked me to swap our shifts so he could work mornings and I'll take his late shifts which usually ends around midnight. I have encountered a couple of drunk and rude passengers who were too wasted to get off at the last stop, but these count as normal. Unfortunately, a week ago I was driving. The time was around 10:30pm p.m. when I heard strange noises. When I arrived at the next station, I noticed that these noises were coming from my cab door that divide the passenger's cabin in the driver cab. The Metro car had cctv. However, it wasn't working that night. Since I couldn't see anything on the camera, I decided it was best to ignore the noises and just keep going. As I started to drive again, I heard a loud knock on the driver cab door. Now, as I said, it's a new train equipped with SOS buttons and speakers. It was extremely strange that someone would come to the front and knock on the door, especially while the train is between two stations. When I arrived at my next stop, I had hesitated a bit, but I decided to open the door and see what the hell is going on. And as you might have guessed, guessed it was a bad idea. Immediately a man charged to me and asked for my money, cell phone and any valuables I had. Luckily, I had enough time to hit the panic alarm which is a red button inside the driver's cabin and connects the drivers to the control center room. The man froze as the red button made a loud beeping sound for 15 seconds. Luckily, the police officers appeared and realized the situation. The man had been arrested and later the police told me that my colleague had been arrested too as he was actually part of the robbery. Apparently, he had a rage against the company and decided to cause them harm. As it turns out, he had only swabbed shifts with me that night to get me to do the night shift so that his associate could proceed with the rest. The company thanked me for my cooperation during this incident and I kept working working for them. The point of this story is to always keep an eye on your surroundings because even your own colleague can be a criminal and cause you harm. I'm a 31 year old woman working at a law firm as a paralegal in Savannah, Georgia. I've been a paralegal here for the last three years. We just recently began hiring some new team members to help with some new cases that we've been taking on. One of the new hires was named Anthony, a big and tall black man who was probably in his late 20s. Anthony was new to paralegal work as he had just gotten his degree a month before he was hired. I kept this in mind when he would constantly ask me to assist him with a certain project. Anthony never seemed odd, but once I heard some rumors I began to noticed some strange things about him. A coworker of mine had apparently complained about him coming on to her to the attorneys. She claimed that he would constantly comment on her appearance and stand there and stare at her when he thought she was not looking. This rumor struck me as a surprise. I always just thought that he was just socially awkward, but never really got creepier vibes from him. I just tried to ignore it, but it did sit in the back of my mind when I was around him. A few weeks after the rumor had died off, things got a little weird. Anthony had a long commute to work every day, so he would show up and leave work an hour early. One morning I had gotten to work almost 30 minutes earlier than usual and it looked like I was the first person at the office. The lights were out and the front door was locked so I unlocked, blocked it and walked in. When I stepped in, I had planned to leave most of the lights off other than the one by the desk to enjoy the dim lighting until everyone else showed up. As I passed through the almost pitch dark building, I got an eerie feeling so I hurried over to my desk. I turned my desk light on and threw on my headphones to start my day. I was about 10 minutes into my work when I had noticed a tall figure in the darkness. Hello? It was Anthony. I damn near jumped out of my skin. Oh hi Anthony. I didn't realize you were here. I said. Yup, he replied as his shadowy silhouette stood there in the darkness just staring at me. I tried to work and act like I couldn't see him. It felt like a lifetime passed until I finally went looked up and I noticed he was gone. This was very unsettling to me. My firm works with survivors of Sexual abuse. And that interaction seems like a story with a very bad ending. Fortunately for me, nothing happened. One day I came to work and I had noticed a note on my desk. The note read lunch with a bunch of question marks with Anthony's name signed next to it. This was weird as fuck considering that he was accused of hitting on a co worker. I threw it away and just ignored it. When I got up to go grab my lunch out of the fridge, he was standing there in my way. Hey Michelle, he told me. So how about that lunch date? I just laughed and said that I didn't think it would be appropriate since I'm getting married. I tried to wander passed him but he kept standing in the way and blocking my direction. Come on Michelle, how about a lunch date? As friends? I politely laughed and jokingly told him to get out of my way. He then let me pass, but he acted like he smelled the air as I walked by. He then began to try and guess my perfume which was totally inappropriate and weird. The next day I showed up to work with a bottle of some cheap ass perfume on my desk. There was a note written by it that said, wear this, it's my favorite. With his name signed on the note. I threw the bottle of perfume right in the trash and then stormed into my boss's office to tell her. She was completely shocked when I told her the news. She then told me that Anthony had done something similar with my other co worker but that when he was confronted, he claimed to be gay. She told me that maybe he's just being friendly and to try and brush it off and that she'll have a talk with him. On that drive home, I had walked in my car and I had saw Anthony standing in the distance staring at me. He gave me the creepiest smile and waved at me. I knew that liar was definitely not gay. On that Friday, the staff had all pretty much left early, but I didn't realize it until 20 minutes in, until 5. I grabbed my things and I was planning on heading out until Anthony came over to my desk. Hey there beautiful. You look very nice today. I was already in a bad mood so I just hit him back with are you really gay or just a fucking creep? He laughed and he pointed to the picture on my desk of me and my husband. Does that look gay to you? He asked. I looked at the image and I noticed he had cut an image of his face out and had put it over my husband. What the fuck is wrong with you? I yelled hoping someone would hear me. You know it's just us here, right? Hae said as he cornered me to a wall. I then yelled for help. Stop that, there's no one here. He yelled. I started to unzip his pants and he told me he was going to show me his penis. I started to scream and shut my eyes. He grabbed my shirt and he told me to take it off. Come on, just show me something girl, he said. I finally kicked him in the balls as hard as I could then ran out of the office. Later that Monday, I had showed up to work ready to tell my boss everything that had happened. She then told me that Anthony called Friday night and he told her he had to quit. He said that he was tired of being accused of things he didn't do. My boss and I both knew that he was full of shit, but he was really lucky he quit. The story goes out to anyone who gets bad vibes from creeps at work. Stay safe. The story is short, but it was definitely one of the scariest and traumatic moments of my life. It caused my mental health to be absolutely destroyed as well. Let me just say I'm a 19 year old female from the west coast. At the time I was a 17 year old senior in high school. I live in a small but big town and there's some really good parts of town and some really bad parts but overall you can find really sketchy people everywhere. This is important to the story. I grew up on the better known side of town and I also worked there as well. At the time I was working at the local chicken fast food place. I'm not going to say the name because I don't know if I can. I had been working there for a month already and I had finally gotten moved to work the drive thru and take orders in the front. You meet all kinds of people while working that kind of job. Some are super interesting and funny and some are definitely odd. However, due to Covid, we had our front lobby closed for a long time that night though it was one of the first nights we opened up the lobby. However, we really didn't get many customers in the front front so it was pretty boring. We had daily closing tasks where we would basically have to clean parts of the store and we did a really good job of splitting it evenly amongst the coworkers. I want to note that I absolutely loved my co workers at that job. They were all really fun and we never really had any drama either. Most of us knew each other from school so we got along pretty good which honestly made this night even harder for me to process. I was cleaning the chicken warmers and basically there's a part where you have to drain it and clean the water heater part, but the machine wasn't draining. My manager and I tried everything. He joked around and said that we'd have to get straws and suck it out, but make sure to not drink it. It was pretty funny. We walked over to the office trying to find something to unclog the drain. But then I noticed a customer walk in the front and I got excited. I walked over there and I told my manager that I was taking an order. But right after I turned my head back to the guy, I just had the worst gut feeling ever. It felt like my entire stomach just dropped. I grew up with the first recon marine father and he did a lot of training in many different areas of the marine Corps. Basically, he's taught me my whole life to examine people's behaviors, body language, and other important things. This man immediately turned around when I got him to the front, and I knew that he was definitely tweaked out on something and that this encounter wasn't going to end well. He turned back around, standing at probably about 5 foot 11 to maybe 6 foot. And his pupils were the smallest I've ever seen in my life. And he just had this look of rage on his face. He was wearing a beanie and a Covid mask, But I could tell that he definitely had rage building up, probably from the frustration of needing money for drugs. He pulled out a gun from his hoodie and pointed it at my head, then said, give me the fucking money. I froze. I literally froze in place and began to stutter. I don't know how. I don't know how. That's the thing. I literally didn't know how to open the register without taking an order. And I was scared if I took too long he would think I was trying to press an emergency button. We had burglar alarms at the time, but they were in the most inconvenient spots ever above the drive thru window and in the freezer. Like, what the fuck? This guy's gun is in my face, maybe inches away. And I just think I can either get shot right in my fucking head or. Or run to the office and get possibly shot in my back and have somewhat of a chance of surviving. So I ran. I don't care what anyone says, you don't know what the hell you do until you're actually in that situation. I told my manager that we were getting robbed and he didn't believe it. At first, until he peeked out and saw the guy jump over the counter. My manager then asked what he wants and then the guy says, give me all the fucking money now. I was hiding in the office when I saw two of my co workers who we'll call Misty and Ally, walk from the back. And I then screamed to get down. They were sisters too. So Misty yanked Allie down and Allie started hysterically crying. I told her to be quiet and I motioned to shush so she wouldn't make the dude freak out and shoot someone or something. As our manager was giving this guy literally the whole cash register slot because the this dude had no bags or anything to carry the money. He just kept screaming for more. That's the thing. We didn't have any more money. There was a moment where I genuinely thought that was the end and I was going to die. All I could think about was my little brother and sister and what was going to happen to them. Even though I have a massive age gap with them, I helped raise both of those kids. I loved them so much. I couldn't die right there. Eventually, my manager gave this dude around $600. That was his rent money that he just took out of the bank that night. I immediately called 911 and I was trying my best to whisper and hide it. Let's just say the 911 operator was amazing. He immediately calmed me down and got all the information. He stayed on the phone with me the whole time until the cops arrived and just kept saying, rachel, you're gonna be okay. This dumbass tweaker fell over the counter and dropped most of the money and the gun. Then he just bolted out of there. My manager picked up the gun and pointed it at him, then threw it on a tray. When the cops arrived, they immediately cleared the place. Even though we told him he dipped, I still gave my statement to the officer while bawling my eyes out. He asked me if I felt like my life was at risk. And I was just like, yeah, I had a fucking gun pointed at my head. I then asked the officer if the gun was real. I just wanted to double check, you know. He said it was. And then I asked the question that was stuck in my head the whole time. Was the safety on? He said no. Then for some reason, I felt fine. I was definitely shaken up, but I had called my mom and reassured her I was okay. Then I went home. She immediately called my dad. My parents are divorced and I love my dad, but we didn't really have the best relationship ever growing up. Nothing to how it is now. I had a habit of not telling him when bad things happened to me. He had asked me all the routine questions. What did he look like, how tall, what race? What did the gun look like, you know? I had asked my parents not to tell anyone about it because I didn't want to talk about it, but of course they couldn't. My dad basically wanted to track this dude down, which he's fully capable of doing. The next day I had tried to go to school. By my second period I had a huge anxiety attack. I was sent home and my school was extremely understanding of it and it even offered me counseling. But the lady who's in charge of that really sucks, so I didn't go. I ended up low key, having a mental breakdown before school a few days later and my mom kept me home for a good week or so. The police department front desk lady gave my mom some good counseling resources and I ended up finding a really great therapist who really helped me deal through this trauma. I was actually diagnosed with PTSD and an anxiety disorder after this whole ordeal. I've definitely found better ways now to deal with my fears of guns and loud noises. But there's a few times during the day I think about how I was so close to death. I really am lucky to have survived that. I've worked a few odd jobs in my life. My first job was a summer job at school 16 during summer break at a dairy farm. I absolutely hated it there and it made it harder for me to find the motivation to even try finding work again when the time came. I don't really remember how I was first offered the job, but the following summer I ended up working as an office assistant for a self employed photographer. My parents knew her because she used to be a member of their church and my sister attended her 44 hour program when she had it. By that time her health had really began to take a hit as she claimed it was a mixture of things from chronic Lyme to fibromyalgia. I had also been warned by my parents that she was a little off. She was very religious and claimed to have had real encounters with demons, even participating in a few exorcisms. I am an atheist and a skeptic myself, so I never really took her stories that seriously. Aside from the weird things she would tell me, she was mostly harmless and working for her was not hard. The job was basically required for me to do a lot of data entry as well as help prep her photos with some minor touching up and the addition of her company Watermark before uploading them to a site where her customers could browse them and then pick which ones they wanted to order. She primarily photographed horse events, dressage stadium and cross country jumping, etc. And for the first several months of my job, staying in her living room, which was basically my office space at the time. Eventually I was talked into tagging along at shows where she trained me as a photographer, and soon I was shooting at the events along with her. It was boring work, I won't lie. I'm not a horse person. But things didn't get weird until a year later when I learned the hard way it was not her that I needed to worry about. She had two sons, one who was out of state, the other who was in the navy. The latter of the two, a guy named Nate, I had only heard small things about. He was somewhere on the autism spectrum, but she was never clear on what exactly his diagnosis was. She firmly believed believed he was vaccine injured and that all of his oddities could be traced back to vaccines. When he finally returned home and I met him for the first time while working in our living room, he seemed like a nice guy, a little odd, but not concerning. He was obsessed with movies and being a bit of a movie buff myself, whenever he would venture to the living room to strike up a conversation, it would almost always be about whatever movies were into or we were excited to see. I should point out here that I was 18 by this point and he was in his mid-30s. At some point he got it in his head that I was interested in him. Though he never said anything directly to me. I had to find out about it from my parents. My mom worked as the secretary at her church and Nate knew that. I can only guess my boss had told him. One afternoon soon, Nate showed up to my mom's desk and started gushing about me. He talked about how much fun I was, how he loved talking to me, how he was planning to take me to the movies and take me to his church and all these other plans that he had for me. My mom, as you can imagine, was beyond uncomfortable, as was the pastor who happened to overhear it. And when I got home that night, she told me what happened and suggested that I make sure not to lead up him on. I was completely baffled by this because I hadn't done anything. We'd never even discussed the possibility of doing anything together. I got even more uncomfortable around him when I overheard a conversation between himself and my boss in the next room. He was talking about his experience in the Navy while she was talking about the dangers of Islam. At one point he said in a completely serious tone, if I had it my way, I'd shoot and kill any Muslim I met. Problem solved. My boss just simply laughed at the comment like it was nothing, but something in his tone creeped me out. I made an effort to acknowledge him less whenever he was around and keep the conversation short while stressing that I had work to do. Eventually he got his own place and moved out of his parents house, so I figured the problem had solved itself. A couple of years later I had moved out, my boss's company had closed and I was working somewhere new. Now I was friends with my boss and Nate on Facebook, and around that time I was finally coming out as an atheist, something that I couldn't do when I was still living at home. One night my old boss had messaged me asking about a ring that I had on my finger. It was a black ring with a white solid star in the middle, a black circle. Already knowing where she was going with this, I told her it was just a ring. She started accusing me of wearing a pentagram because she didn't know what a pinnacle was and that I was promoting Satan. I tried several times to explain to her that not only was it not that symbol, but that also paganism has nothing to do with Satan anyways. But she refused to listen, so I just ignored her. It was typical behavior of her and not worth the argument. The next morning I had a message from Nate telling me that I needed to come to his church with him. I told him no, and the messages I received back gradually grew angrier and angrier. He went from asking me to now demanding that I go with him. He told me that I was lost and that I would not find the answers I needed by living the life I was. Eventually, he outright said that he thought the fact that I was wearing a pentagram was disgusting and that I was opening myself for possession. Knowing there would be even less of a point arguing with him than there was with his mother. I went ahead and blocked both him and her, deciding I was done with the both of them. Then he started showing up in my workplace. He would always search through the store until he found me and then once he did, he would corner me and not stop talking to me no matter how many times I tried to dodge him or tell him that I needed to get get back to work. Eventually the managers caught on and had started intercepting him whenever he showed up. I wasn't making enough to pay the rent with that job, so I had to take up a second one within about a week of working my second job, which was in a different town, he showed up there too. This time I told the managers outright who he was and after that, every time he showed up, I was allowed to hide in the back room by behind a long door while they sped his order along and got him out of the store. One of those many encounters While I was hiding in the back, one of the managers was back there with me and putting employee time punches into the computer when the both of us heard nay shout in our direction. I know you remember me. That was the last straw for them and they told him that his business was no longer welcome there. He stopped showing up at my other job as well for a good while, which was a relief. Fast forward to a few years later. I was getting used to not having to look over my shoulder every shift or check the parking lot for his truck. But then one day he reappeared. He was browsing a section that I was walking past when he spotted me and got this deer in the headlights look. I made a beeline to the break room because just seeing him made me scared. After that he had started showing up up regularly. I would always find ways to dodge him and avoid him, but he would still eventually spot me and he knew I was still there. I was really debating whether or not to tell the managers because at this point it had really been a while since he had done anything and saying something just because I was nervous didn't feel right. Call me a coward or an idiot, but that was my thought process at the time. What happened next made me feel really regret not speaking up. It was bound to happen eventually. But one night he managed to catch me while I was at the customer service desk. He approached me and said hi and I immediately started to look for someone to signal over so I could make a break for it. But before I could say a word, he then said something that made me feel sick. How's your little girl doing? She's three years old now, right? I looked at him horrified. I had him completely blocked from all of my social media. I had his number blocked. I was living at a new address and I hadn't seen or spoken to his mother since she confronted me about my ring. I had not told either of them that I was a parent now or that I was married and I wasn't friends with anyone who knew them. But he knew. How's your husband doing too? He asked when I did anything. An answer he's good. He's a Good man, I said, trying to reinforce the idea that I was not available to him and that I have no desire to have anything to do with them. Really? Where does he work? At this point I felt like I was going to pass out. Thankfully, another employee approached just to gather some reshelves and I got the hell out of there. As I was leaving, he had called out behind me, I'll see you again. We'll talk. We'll go out and do something together. We will. I reported him to the managers, telling them everything about the encounter, including all of the information that he had on me and my family that he shouldn't have had. They were able to pull up his face on CCTV and while I haven't heard anything, I'm guessing one of them finally managed to approach him because I haven't seen him since. Since this has been going on for 10 years and I want it to finally be over. If he shows up again, I'm going to the police, but I'm seriously hoping that it never comes to that. I just want him to stop. I haven't seen him since the incident with my managers. I think he may have gotten scared off. Turned out one of my coworkers used to work with him too, at a different job, and she also made a complaint about him to the managers. I don't know what they did with that information afterwards, but I know that he hasn't shown up since. It sounds like they plan to call the cops if he sets foot in the store again. With two employee complaints of stalker like behavior, they refuse to ignore that. Study and play come together on a Windows 11 PC and for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the Unreal College deal, Everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more@windows.com studentoffer while supplies last ends June 30th terms at aka mscollegepc Marvel Television's Wonder man an eight episode series now streaming on Disney. A superhero remake? Not exactly what we'd expect from an Oscar winning director. Excellent Simon Williams audition for Wonder Man I'm gonna need you to sign this. Assuming you don't have superpowers, I'll never work again. If anyone found out, my lips are sealed. Marvel Television's Wonder man all eight episodes now streaming only on Disney plus. I'm a 16 year old girl. I've just started a Saturday job at a Shop in a large chain of stores. I work Saturday, 9, 5:30. Literally the second week I worked there, this guy came in. He was trying to talk to me, being kinda flirtatious, but nothing major. If I had to guess, he's probably mid 20s, which is a big difference considering I'm 16. But I do look slightly older, so he may have thought that I was 18. I was honestly bored as crap, so I didn't think anything of it. I was just bored. And he was someone to chat to. As I was ringing up his shopping later that day, he came back into the store when he was on his lunch break. He said something like, thought I'd come back and see you again. Which I thought was weird and borderline creepy. He then tried to give me his number and I was just like, don't worry about it, because he was trying to find a pin. But then he went outside of the shop to ask every passerby for a pin, got one, came inside again and gave me his number. I had a long line of customers at that point and I was alone on the tills, so I took it in the hopes it'd go away. He asked me for my name. I didn't want to tell him because at this point I was so creeped out. So I just said that it doesn't matter. So then he went back into line for my till, bought something and asked for the receipt. The receipts all have my freaking name on the bottom, don't they? He finally leaves, saying something about how I'm beautiful and we need to meet up sometime. No, we don't. I was working again the next week and he came back in wanting to know why I hadn't texted. Hovering around the tills basically just wouldn't go away. I had already told my colleagues and manager about him, so I gave my colleague, who was on the till with me, a look, but he hadn't done anything, so there was really nothing we could do. At this point, I'm not making small talk with him. He's really creeping me out. I was acting like he wasn't there and just chatting with my colleague. I made sure to specifically bring up school to my colleague while he was there, just in case he didn't realize that I'm 16. He was probably hovering around for a around five minutes or so, just not going away. This was probably about 10 minutes after the shop had opened, so we didn't have hardly any customers at this point. He kept saying that I should have texted, so I bit the bullet and said I should have Told you last week, but I didn't want to embarrass you in front of a line of customers. I'm not really interested. Sorry. So then he was like, oh, ok, well, we can still be friends, right? Obviously I have to be professional because I'm at work. So I didn't answer that one. Then he was trying to tell me that I have a gorgeous smile. I wasn't smiling and he was just being really creepy at this point. In the end, I found an excuse to go out into the warehouse when in reality I was going to get my manager to tell him to leave. Apparently as soon as I left, he had bought a packet of sweets and then left rather quickly. I guess he knew what I was doing. Later that day, I went to go on my lunch break. I have the same lunch break every week. He knew what lunch break I had from the first time he ever came into the shop. He said something like, not long till lunch now, is it? And I was like, oh, not really. I always take lunch at 12:30 because at that point I hadn't realized that he was a massive creep. So obviously my colleagues and manager know what he looks like now. My colleague was there when he was hovering around and gave a description to the manager. They also went through the cameras to see what he looked like. It was 12:30 and I went to go on lunch and my manager came up to me and was like, don't be alarmed, but I'm pretty sure he's hanging around the entrance to the shop waiting for you to come out because he knows that I usually go out for lunch again. Another thing I told him the first time, he was asking a crap ton of questions and I didn't really think anything of it. We were just making small talk in my mind. So, yeah, I snuck out the back entrance at my manager's request. Didn't go to the place that I usually go in case that he knew where I usually went and that I went somewhere else instead. Honestly, I was so creeped out, I didn't want to go out for lunch at all, but I had to because I didn't bring any food and I'm not doing another nearly five hours of work on an empty stomach. I got a phone call from my manager saying, don't come in the front entrance, he's still there. Apparently while I was on break, he came into the store and was asking where the young lady who served him earlier was, which is me. Apparently he was trying to say that I'd made a mistake on the register and he Needed to know when I'd be back so he could ask me if about it. Obviously at this point the manager says, look, you're harassing one of my staff. Leave her alone and don't come back. Then apparently he was still waiting outside the store while I was due to get off break. I had to go around the back again. Since then he'd appeared another Saturday. I only work Saturdays and he knows that. Apparently no one sees a peep of him throughout the week, so he literally only comes in to creep on me. Yesterday he was waiting around the road that we go up to use the back entrance, so he's obviously figured out where that is. It was around 8:50 at this point and I started at 9. One of my colleagues saw him and phoned me to let me know while he was hovering there. I then snuck in the front entrance. He seems to come in, hover around the tills, try and talk to me, and then basically run when someone goes to get management. Some weirdo has also been following me on Instagram. New accounts with 0 followers and no profile picture. Every time I block them, a new one starts following me. I reckon it's him. He knew my name from the receipt. It wouldn't have been too hard for him to find me. My Instagram is also my first name and surname, so pretty straightforward. Before I made my account private and blocked all of those accounts, I got a message from one saying, I just wanted to let you know that you're beautiful. Along with a heart and a cum emoji. My manager has contacted the police, but as you can imagine, it's not high on their priority list. He still hasn't threatened me or done anything to me. He's just a creep. I now have to go get my mom to pick me up and take me to work. Plus I take packed lunches and I don't go out on my break anymore. Hopefully he'll get the hint soon or the police will sort it all out, but they might take a while. I'm actually pretty scared to go to work anymore. My manager did inform the police and they basically said that they can't really do anything at the moment because there's not enough evidence and he hasn't threatened me. However, he has been banned from the store and if he goes in the mall security can get rid of him. I'm keeping screenshots of the Instagram requests, evidence of everything. I also realized that one of my Instagram posts said where I go to school, so my mom is contacting the school just in case he saw it before I went private. I really hope that I don't hear any more of this, but I'll update if I do. Update 2 For anyone who cares, I do actually have an update for you guys. Basically I didn't see the creepy guy for a couple of weeks, but I did get a load of Instagram requests from zero follower accounts. Not in his name, just random ones, which is unusual since my Instagram is pretty small and irrelevant. It's not like a lot of people would find it, so I'm presuming it was him. I also got a weird ad from scratch. Snapchat. Yes, my username is my full name. I can't change that, but I didn't add them back. A couple of weeks after not seeing him at all and he started coming back through the store again not long after I started my shift. Literally like three minutes in, he was just walking through and not buying anything. He did that three weeks in a row. He's supposed to be banned, but the mall security company is shipping changed and I don't think they really care. Every time I see him I'm telling my manager who obviously does call the mall security, but he's just walking through so he's gone by the time anyone does anything about it. Then just a couple of weeks ago, the shift before Christmas, one of my colleagues goes through the front entrance and apparently he's loitering around there. I've done a police interview, they took photos of him from the scene, cctv. I'm not really sure what they're going to do, but I guess we'll see. Anyway, my mom is taking me to and from work and I'm allowed to get there at a slightly different time if I'm worried. Normally I'll get there at 8:30 and just chill in the break room. I just really hope that I don't have to deal with them much longer. I am so sick of dealing with this creep and constantly looking over my shoulder. I currently work at a restaurant somewhere in the Midwest. Now obviously I can't say what restaurant, but it's on a busy road with lots of cars and lots of people walking on the road to get to the bus stop or whatever their destination may be. It's got its own parking lot where I usually will park closer to the doors. But the story I'm about to tell you is the one time the that I didn't that night. I sincerely regret my actions. To give some backstory, a couple of years ago I just so happened to work at the sports bar and grill directly across the parking lot from my current job. I worked there for just four months and I have plenty of interesting stories about that place, but that's for another time anyways. While I worked at my previous job, I didn't have a car, so I either walked to and from work or I got a ride. Now mind you, I would walk home at around 10 some nights on a barely lit road when cars weren't always around. This naturally made me weary, and this was on top of the fact that older men would constantly hit on me as a minor and make me feel watched. This backstory of my old job might not seem important at the moment and I didn't think think it would ever become relevant again, but it matters in the end, I promise. While working at my old job, I was a minor as previously stated, but that never stopped drunken men from approaching me and being inappropriate. There was one man in particular who I never forgot about and who came back to haunt me in the worst way possible. The man was taller, quite good looking, and he always wore expensive looking working clothing and accessories. He had a very elegant vibe to him, which is why I didn't think much of him. When he would talk to me while I was working, he started out very polite. He'd ask about how work was going, how my day was, stuff like that. But as the weeks went on, he would ask more and more personal questions which had started making me suspicious of him. The event that occurred right before I quit was a night that I wished I could forget. When thinking back on my days at that sports bar, I remember it being a long night, probably because it was a sports season and our restaurant would get very busy and as a hostess it was stressful trying to take the calls when there was shouting because the hockey team won a golden cup or whatnot. That night, after I'd finished cleaning the bathrooms, I remember him being at the hostess stand waiting for me. I approached him and I tried to make polite conversation, but I could tell immediately that he was acting strange. His gaze was shifty and he didn't look as put together as he normally did. The first thing he said to me was something along the lines of, you're only 16, right? To which I confirmed and he continued with something like, well, when you're 18, I'll have something for you. It'll be a surprise, just wait until you're 18. And he promptly left through the bar section of the grill. I stood there shocked for a moment before composing myself and finishing my cleaning so I could get the hell out of there. After I finished counting my drawer down, I went out back and unlocked the bike that I had gotten a month or so after I'd started working there and began to ride home. I want to note that I was paranoid as hell as I was doing this because seriously, who the hell says that to an underage girl? I watched my back all night as I rode home and I felt watched the entire time. It was kind of my own fault that he knew my age. I had told him a long time ago as I had mentioned something about birthday plans, but his comment on my age made me feel sick to my stomach. Regardless, now let's jump to more recently when I had started my new job just across the park parking lot. It's been years since I worked there and I had just about let go of my memories of working at that godforsaken sports bar. But something happened recently that made the memories feel like just yesterday. The stimulus checks and nice weather have brought a surge of customers to my current restaurant. I've worked here for almost a year now and we've been busier in the past month than we've been since I first started. This means that occasionally I don't get to park right by the doors and I must park a bit further away on this particular day. That still makes me feel nervous just thinking about it. I had to park basically at the farthest corner out of our lot due to a large amount of staff and customers taking the closer spots that day. I thought nothing of it as I went in for my closing shift and worked a long and stressful shift until about 10pm I work at the front of the restaurant and our closing duties can be pretty grueling. That night was especially bad because I was the only one up front besides the manager who has to go back and forth between the kitchen and front to help. I finished all of my cleaning, albeit a bit later than usual, and felt bad for taking so long, but they weren't too afraid because a co worker of mine was waiting on a ride so they had to wait it anyway. So with that I say my goodbyes to the two of them and then head out the back doors to my car. I immediately was irritated that I had to walk so far to get to my car and it started digging for my keys. I didn't realize that there was a third car in our parking lot until it was almost too late. I finally grabbed my keys after a moment of struggling to find them and realized that the third car is in fact fact not my manager and it was parked right next to mine. Although it did look similar, which is why I didn't think much of it at first from being so exhausted from work. Upon getting closer, I realized there was a person inside, so I remember thinking is my co workers right here? But no one came out to go home, so I assumed not. I looked back closer to the restaurant and realized that the front of the building, my manager's car, was sitting empty right up front. All of these thoughts were pacing together as I slowly trailed to my car and after connecting the dots, I tried to see who was in the car waiting for me. I remember squinting them. I didn't have my glasses on and that's probably what made them realize that I noticed them. And with that they turned on their car immediately. I looked away because the car lights were way too bright and when I tried to look back again, the cabin light was turned on. I stopped dead in my tracks as if paralyzed. Just writing this is starting to make my eyes tear up for some reason, but the expression that this man was wearing invoked so much fear that I think my heart quite literally skipped a beat. The man's features were a bit blurry with the distance and darkness, but I could tell that he knew me from somewhere with that little overhead look light illuminating his face. The lack of his facial expression is what really scared me because I figured he would have smiled, frowned, waved, anything. Instead, he just sat there, arms in his sides as he waited for me to come closer. Now, as a young woman, I should know better than to ignore my instincts telling me to get the hell out of a situation, but for a split second I almost felt compelled, compelled to continue towards my car. I can't explain why, but I distinctly recall taking one step forwards before pausing and asking myself, what the hell am I doing? And then hightailing it back to the back door. I felt like I was prey about to be eaten. The way that I had sensed his overwhelming presence behind me the whole time that I debated going back and running to safety, he just sat right in his seat and did him move an inch or so I assume, as I didn't look back until I reached the door. I glanced back at his car for a split second before dashing inside and all I remember seeing was his cabin light had turned off and I could only see a dark figure. The menacing light no longer illuminated his face. I didn't need to see his face to know he was still staring. I could feel his beady eyes staring right at me. After scaring the hell out of my coworkers. By yanking open the back door as I did, I explained what happened. They both immediately got serious and they told me to wait with them while they waited for my other workers ride, we sat for a few more minutes. They talked about how freaky the whole situation was and how they called the cops if he was still there when we went outside together and I sat in silence, I was silent because in the few minutes after the encounter encounter with the strange man, I knew that I had recognized him from somewhere. He was that same guy who had told me to wait for him when I turned 18. It took me a while because he didn't look like he used to, a bit older and much much scarier. I don't know if he saw me that day as I brought out the trash or maybe when I walked into work, but he knew that I was there somehow and that scared the crap out of me. When their ride finally arrived with we walked out together and my eyes instantly shot to the area where I knew his car was parked at. It was just my own car though, waiting for me to climb inside and get home asap. The manager saw my coworker off into their parent's car and then walked me to mine. She helped me check under my car and inside as apparently she had dealt with a stalker before herself and knew all of the tricks to stay safe. I thanked her profusely and got in locking my doors right away. I watched her as she walked to her car and started to leave the lot. I looked frantically to see if I could spot his car anywhere in the shopping area that connected with our car parking lots, but found nothing. I live close by to my work so I took a long way home that night fearing that he was waiting for me to go home to do something more sinister. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well. Well that night as I kept thinking that he was in the darkest corner of my room with that hollow expression on his face. I considered making a police report, but seeing as the police tend to be useless in scenarios like this, and the fact that I literally only had a first name, I decided against it. In the weeks since I haven't seen him or heard from him, I still think about him every time I leave the building, half expecting him to be either standing outside outside ready to snatch me are parked right next to my car. I always leave with my coworkers now as my parents insisted that I begin doing after I told them about what happened. To this day, I still wonder why he remembered that I was 18 because I had almost completely forgotten about him. I hope I never have to find out what surprise he had waiting for me. I had a job vacancy at our company. I'm head of HR and I conduct all of the interviews. I had an interview planned about a week ago today for a certain guy to attend. When he arrived, I invited him up to my office and then waited for him at the top of the stairs. He was young and he was dressed in a track suit. The problem was that he had emailed me the day before asking what the dress code was here and could he have some advice about the interview attire, and I had informed him to come dress smartly. I said hello to him and he just stopped and stared at me before asking if there were any men to interview him. I just said no, that I'm the interviewer. To which he simply replied, oh, I would have just rather spoken to a man, you know. I point blank ignored this on purpose and then invited him into the office to start the interview. He then proceeds to tell me that he's been fired from every job he's ever had and it was never his fault, stopping only to tell me that my hair was beautiful. He stared in silence at me for a good 10 seconds and then he just carried on about all his other jobs and how all of his bosses have caused issues with him, but it was 100% not his punctuality. As he left, he literally lit up a cigarette inside of the building. I rushed him out, which he then told me that I was being so dramatic that it's not like he's going to burn the whole place down with one cigarette. One of the guys that works on the level below me was outside smoking as he left and he said hi to him. I went back upstairs. My coworker then comes up and asks me why I was so rude to this guy. I asked of course what he meant. Apparently the guy had gone outside and told my coworker that I'd threatened him in order to get him out of the interview, and then told him that I don't employ people who are male. I obviously messaged him the day after informing him that he had been unsuccessful on this occasion, but thanks for coming in, blah, blah, blah. That's when the phone call started. He would ring the office 20 times a day at least, asking if he had been given the position. Every time he was told no. I stopped answering the phone to him after a couple of days, so he started leaving voicemails instead, not asking about the job, but just laughing down the phone Then he would hang up and do the exact same thing all over again. I haven't heard anything from him since about two days ago, so hopefully he got bored and moved on to the next employer. I applied on a job website recently for a serving position at a restaurant. I was contacted by someone through the messaging option through the site. The place was a Burmese restaurant. I ended up googling the address and found out where I was the next day. The person messaging me told me an address that didn't show up on Google. Thought it was odd but oh well. Well today the interview was at 9am the restaurant being open this early was very surprising to me. I used Google maps and find the location. I am always early and glad I was. The location was not even open for business. The paper on the door said the restaurant is opening in April and it had a completely different name than the ad it stated. I looked inside, the building looked abandoned and it was very dilapidated. Okay, pretty weird. I stand off to the side to scope because I'm having a very very bad feeling that this may be some setup trap to lure a person or girl like me into a place for an attack. Then I notice a man who looks to be high on a stimulant wearing nice clothing watching me. He smiles and laughs and then he does this bird whistle and then he goes to the side of the restaurant. A few minutes later a man in an Audi SUV shows up, looks at me and he starts laughing and then meets up with the first guy. They're both around to the side and I start wondering if there's a door to get in that way that I didn't know about. I started hearing both of the men bird whistling and in my terror I hear multiple other bird whistles coming from all around the block. However, I see no one. How many birds? People are out there. Why are they hiding in the bushes? I get freaked out. I was going to tell the interviewer to do the interview outside because if I get locked in there I know that I'm stuck. I ended up trusting my intuition and got the hell out of there immediately. Nothing bad happened to me luckily because I decided to trust my gut. I really feel like society tries to get women to think that they're being paranoid in these kinds of situations. Then if something horrible happens people say gee, well she should have been more careful. What was she thinking? So yeah, I just wanted to share. I'm really unsure of what to do because nothing actually happened. I don't really know how to approach this without technical evidence. I want to contact the job website or have the police look into it, but I feel they will not care. I'm going to have to be more careful and do my due diligence when looking for a job. Let's start with the basics. I'm a 26 year old male and I work at a blind store where I'm all alone during all of my shifts. I work from 9am to 7pm from Monday to Friday. It's a very simple job and most of the time I just look at my computer computer, do some customer service, offer quotations to the very few people that enter the store, and so on. So like I said, it's very boring and not much happens. But lately something started to catch my attention. I've noticed that across the street someone is looking directly at the store, more precisely looking at me. I don't handle cash at the store. We mostly work with cross credit or debit cards, so I don't think they're planning on robbing the store or anything like that. I've noticed that there is a telescope on the window and it's pointed directly at my desk. So I think it's very obvious that this person is looking at me. I've left my phone recording at me while I do some work for like an hour, hour and a half and then I can see in the recording that this person moves the telescope every once in a while and that when I get into the restroom the telescope moves while trying to find me. So yeah, I haven't seen the face of the person or anything, but this is still pretty creepy. I want to mention a few more things. This person is looking at my desk through a door so my blinds can protect me here. In addition to this I move the desk closer to a wall so this person can see me anymore. I just did this because I was getting video proof of this person's behavior. 2. I just found out about the stalker this Tuesday. I don't know if he or she has been doing this for weeks. I've just noticed now, so I'm already being really careful when I get off work. 3. I've decided to go and have a little chat with the building administrator and show her all the evidence that I've collected. I will do this today and I may even update this weekend if something worth mentioning happens. If not, then on Monday I will Update this post. UPDATE 2 so I already showed all of the evidence to the building administrator, let's call her Rana and she was shocked. More so even when she actually saw the telescope showing through the Window of the apartment. She told me that the apartment that has the telescope is being used by two girls, maybe in their early 20s, and that apparently these two girls are really weird. The apartments are small, but they are not cheap. And these two girls started living in them almost two months ago. She told me that she doesn't see these girls leave the apartment very often. And most of the food and groceries are delivered to these two girls via delivery guys. But something that does occur is that a man comes to the end apartment every two or three days and then leaves in the early morning. This man is the one who probably actually made the rental agreement and pays for the apartment. So he's probably paying the food and rent of these two girls, too. Now, Ana says that when the rental agreement took place, the man said that these two girls would be living here because of college. But she hasn't seen either of these girls go to college or anything like that. So, yeah, this is weird. Apparently, Ana is going to speak about this issue with the owner of the building and the man who signed the rental agreement. So this activity of stalking just stops. I will update if I learn something else. Okay, so here's the final update. At least I think so. This weekend, I didn't really think too much about the situation anymore. I just tried to enjoy my days off without worrying about my job. So just today, I came to work, opened the store, and began to work. Then I noticed that the window on the apartment was closed. And the window is always open. And I noticed that the telescope was no longer there. I sent a message to Ana asking if she could tell me anything about the girls and if something was done about the stalking. Apparently, Ana, the building owner, and this mysterious man had a short conversation. Just this Saturday, they called the man on his phone and asked him if they could talk about some of the complaints about that apartment. Then she told the man that the girls were harassing the stores in the front of the building. Lucky for me that they didn't say I was the one who complained. They told the man that this behavior should really stop because that's not something the tenant should be doing. So far, the man has been listening and paying attention to these requests. Everything was normal up to that point. Point. But then the building owner asked a question. It was a quick question. What career are they studying? Ana says that the man changed his attitude completely and said that he should mind his own business and then just left. Sunday comes and the man calls Ana to give her the keys to the apartment. He didn't explain why or say anything else. He just gave her the keys and left. Ana is very confused. Confused and also worried about these two girls, mainly because she didn't see them when they left. I told her that maybe they left early in the morning like the man used to do. I asked if there was something wrong with the apartment, like missing stuff or damaged items, but Ana said that everything was fine, nothing was stolen or broken. I also asked if she heard any noise, yelling or anything that Saturday night. Nothing. She says she's thinking about filing a complaint with the police because it really feels wrong that they would just leave like that. If you ask me, I think that the reason they left was because the building owner had asked about the girls. I don't know what to think about this. If Ana does end up going to the police, I will probably provide my testimony or something. If it's helpful, that is. I really hope that I don't have to update this post again because I wouldn't want to know more about this than I should. My family at one time volunteered at a veterans homeless shelter quarterly. It was with a group of people from our church. We had actually gone several times. I had a small baby that I was wearing on my body with a wrap while serving the food and I would occasionally mingle and talk with the veterans while they ate. One evening I was speaking to two men at a table and one asked where I lived. I didn't take it to mean anything other than the general town I was from, which I told him it was nowhere near where the shelter was. But then the other man at the table, who I'd never seen before, looked at the other guy and then told him exactly how to get to my house. He told him where I lived exactly. Then he looked at me and said, I used to live on the hill across the road from you. I used to watch you all the time, you and your children. So that was the last time I volunteered anywhere like that. I also reported him to the shelter director. Come to find out he was a registered sex offender. I found that out later and he actually did live across the road from us at one point. I've never been so creeped out in my life. The story takes place around 2011 when I was 17 years old. I was about to turn 18 and I had just graduated high school. I was about to be home all summer and I wanted a part time job. I had worked a couple of part time jobs during high school but nothing permanent. So in order to pay my bills and have some spending money, I applied for a job As a cashier at our local dollar store. It was about a three minute drive from my house at the time I got the job and thought cool, I can come home during lunch break. When I started the new job, I realized it was a small store with a lot of regular customers. It would usually just be only one cashier and an assistant manager who could jump on register if it got busy during any one shift. Sometimes I would meet the other cashiers like say during shift change and everyone was nice. The assistant manager named Nelson was especially nice, or so I thought. We would work alone together a lot. He was a lot older than me, in his mid-30s. I don't remember his exact age now. He was also married and he had two little kids. I even met his family a couple of times when his wife would stop by the store to visit him. Me and Nelson got along great. He had a lot of similar tastes in music and would bond over that while we worked. There were some clues along the way though that Nelson had found me attractive. I was young and naive and would ignore them thinking we were just friends. Like when I first started working there and he met me. His reaction was to comment on how I looked. He would also tell me how pretty I was and how I could get any guy I wanted. I thought this was because he knew I was single and I would go on dates and sometimes I would talk about the guy I was dating With Nelson. We would even sometimes text outside of work because of course my boss had my number and case of work schedule changes and such. It eventually turned into very innocent flirting via text and in person. And I admit I should have told him to stop, but I never did. I did think Nelson was cute though in a way that I would never act upon. Like I said, he was much older but he would ultimately act upon it. One night Nelson and I were working closing shift, just the two of us. After he closed the store and locked the door. I had counted the money in my register and usually the assistant manager goes into the back office in the store to finish the closing and then put the money in the safe. However, Nelson had asked me on this night if I wanted to learn how to close the store. As if I ever wanted to be an assistant manager. This is never something we even talked about. I just said sure. Then it beats standing here alone. I then followed him to the back. The back office was a very small cramped up room with a desk, computer and a chair. He started making jokes and being the funny guy I was comfortable with. So I didn't really See a problem with following him in there. He didn't actually get very far into showing me his actual duties in the office before he turned to look at me and he put his arm up on the wall, therefore blocking me in. He leaned in and he actually tried kissing me. I ducked and I immediately began telling him to stop over and over again and to let me out of the office. He didn't want to at first and that's when I began raising my voice. My voice was shaky and I was visibly very scared. He didn't even seem to care until I then screamed out loud, let me out of here again. We're at work and this is a building surrounded by other buildings. There's a restaurant next door and someone would be bound to hear me screaming. I think that's the only reason he actually gave up. I went home after it let me out of the closet out of a back office. And I never told anyone until years later. I honestly don't know why I was so scared. I really wish I spoke up and got him fired so that maybe his wife could have known the type of guy she was married to. I stopped talking to him after this night. It was just way too awkward. But I ignored him. He would come in on his days off and find me working and he would beg me to talk to him. I always just got mad and said no. He was eventually let go from that job though not too long after this situation for unrelated reasons. And I'm really glad that happened. This happened in September of 2013. At the time I worked in a powdered metal plant in Pennsylvania. We made parts for vehicles, blenders, lawnmowers, etc. I worked third shift from 12pm to 8am the night had started slow and boring because no one wanted to be back after a three day weekend. It was around 3am when I heard a loud bang. It sounded like someone had thrown a wooden pallet on the cement floor. I remember looking up and when I looked in the direction that the sound came from, I saw something outside the front door. But on the ground, the light above the door wasn't working. So it was dark and it was kinda hard to see. But the way it fell in my mind, I knew it was a person. I stood there for a minute just staring, trying to figure out what the hell it was and if I was seeing things. That was when I saw someone enter the building. He was carrying a hunting rifle and he looked right at me. He cocked a rifle, but for some reason he. He never shot at me. Instead he rounded the corner and out of my line of view, right from behind me. My CO worker then asked, what was that? I then turned to him and said, sammy, I think someone just got shot. He kinda just chuckled back then saying, man, yeah, right. And then I said back in return, no, seriously. I then pointed to the door and said, I'm pretty sure that was a person and that someone just walked in here cocking a rifle. In that moment, another coworker came running from another department that was on the other side of the door, then saying, get the fuck outta here. And we all just turned and ran. As we ran out the door to the back of our department, another gunshot then rang out. We later found out when we rounded the corner that he met our shift supervisor, who had been at the sink washing his hands. He stuck the rifle up against his chest, but before he could pull the trigger, the supervisor grabbed the gun and they fought for it. Somehow with wet, soapy hands, he had actually managed to overpower the gunman and then ran off, locking the rifle in one of the offices. The gunman had apparently shown up to talk to his girlfriend, whom he had been fighting with with all day. They'd had the cops called on them four times that day before she just left and walked to work. He had shown up once before we got there and was told she wasn't there. He'd wrecked his van into the company truck. Then he walked home, got his rifle in his Harley, and then came back, but not before killing her pet turtles and bird. He told his supervisor that he just wanted to talk to her, and then when she went outside, he had pulled out the gun. She turned to run back into the building and that's when he shot her. After the supervisor took the gun, he then ran back to where he'd left the gunman, and he'd then been tackled by two other male employees. Apparently the supervisor missed the part where the man stood over her, stuck his finger in the bullet hole and then swirled his finger around. He then grabbed her by the hair and started beating her head under the ground. That's when he was tackled, as you can imagine. Yeah, she died. She was a mom and grandmother. I had actually gone to school with her daughters and I graduated with her oldest daughter. So I'd known her since I was 15. I left work and went home and I just remember falling to the floor. I didn't even know I was crying until my Rottweiler started lifting, wicking the tears from my face. There was a big case about it, but luckily I was never asked to testify. I never want to see that man's face again. To start off, this happened back in 2017 when I was 18 years old. To give you guys an insight on how I am, I'm a super bubbly person and I really love making new friends. In 2017, I got a job at this home improvement store and there were so many workers from all different ages. Every single morning, I would greet everyone there and everyone loved me. I had so much fun at this workplace and it was by far one of my favorite jobs. We would constantly hire new people and we hired this one guy who was like two, three years older than me, who we'll call Joseph. And he was very to himself. No one would really talk to Joseph. So being the kind person that I am, I decided to talk to him in the break room since he would always eat lunch by himself. Ever since then, Joseph would always smile at me and I would smile back. I didn't really think anything of it. And even though he seemed a little weird, I didn't mind. One day I got called into the manager's office and I was asked if I had talked to Joseph and I said no. The manager then told me to be cautious around him and I asked why because I didn't understand. The manager told me that Joseph said I ordered a bunch of men from our work to stab him while he was at work, which didn't even happen. He then told everyone at the store that the the manager had jumped him in the parking lot in the middle of the night, which also didn't happen. I was just so shocked and so was everyone else. They tried to figure out how to let him go without setting him off. He would still come to work and I just tried to avoid him as much as possible as they tried to fire him. Then one day, my co worker saw Joseph walk in and he noticed that he looked a little weird. That's when he noticed that he was wearing a bulletproof vest. My co worker reported it and Joseph was sent home. They ended up searching his work locker and they noticed that he had an empty gun case. They then fired him and they then reported him to everyone, including the cops. I got two weeks off and when it was time to go back, I ended up just quitting. I honestly don't know what else happened besides the cops being involved. I also haven't heard from Joseph since 2021. I got a message request from his page, but all it said was, I thought you were dead. I told my parents and everyone else who I worked with, but none of us have heard from him since. I also have him blocked on everything. Joseph, if you ever happen to be listening to this, I hope you get the mental help that you so desperately really need. Get business done with the new American Express Graphite Business Cash Unlimited card with unlimited 2% cash back on all eligible purchases, unlimited 5% cash back on flights and prepaid hotels booked through American Express Travel Online and a flexible spending capacity that can grow with your business, you'll have the confidence to keep building. Apply today and earn a welcome offer of $1,500 cash back after you spend $50,000 in quarter qualifying purchases on your new card within the first six months of card membership terms apply. Learn more at Go Amex Graphite this
- [156:38]
A
episode is brought to you by State Farm. You know those friends who support your preference for podcasts over music on road trips? That's the energy State Farm brings to insurance. With over 19,000 local agents, they help you find the coverage that fits your needs so you can spend less time worrying about insurance and more time enjoying the ride. Download the State Farm app or go online@state farm.com like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
- [157:07]
B
I think this is one of the scariest things we could all imagine. As a start, I'm a 20 year old female who has multiple different health conditions that have me disabled. They're known as silent conditions because I look like a normal, healthy 20 old year year old woman from the outside, but I'm not. I have rheumatoid arthritis and loose ligaments which can make me limp and also have difficulty walking because my joints get stuck out of place. I also have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, so if I stand up too fast, move too fast, etc. My heart rate can jump above 175 beats per minute, which can cause me to blackout and get winded very easily. A normal person's active heart rate is 100 bpm. Just so you know. That's important to keep in mind for this story. I know Southern Cannibal's channel because I love scary stories, but I never would have expected something would happen to me while I was listening to them. I work in a small town at a sandwich shop as a line cook and I always do closing shifts. It was me and three other girls closing for the night. It was around 8:30pm and we close at 9pm well, my co worker who I'll call J, came into the back kitchen area and told us there was a guy pacing around in the men's bathroom. I Asked how she knew and she said she was trying to clean the bathrooms for the night. She said that he was pacing around in front of the ordering desk as well. We were all creeped out and my fight or flight began. We were all getting pretty worried until she told us that the guy left and then we all calmed down. But we were very wrong. We began hearing a weird sound coming from the outside drive thru window and me and J stared at each other until she asked me um, what was that? And she ran into the window only to see nothing but it sounded like a scream. Our manager, who I'll call K, told us we have to begin closing but then nobody should take the trash outside. We again heard another scream and then we immediately told K. She then did something that made me terrified. She opened the drive thru window and she stuck her head out. I would have never done that a day in my life because we did didn't know what was going on. She then yelled hey, we know it's you. Stop messing with us. She assumed it was the same guy as before and to our horror it was indeed him. Our other co worker who I'll refer to as E, said she saw him hiding behind the giant trash can behind our store when she had to get something from her car. I started getting angry and I'd felt a need to threaten his him. Now, I grew up in a very ghetto part of one of the biggest metros in the United States, so I have street smarts. My dad always taught me to keep a knife on me and to be ready to fight even though everyone would assume a disabled girl like me couldn't defend herself. But that's also very wrong. I've taken down five men before with the adrenaline from the fight or flight response and because of a hormone disorder that causes muscle growth. I've also broken a guy's nose with one slap before because he was sexually harassing me and his nose was stuck to the side and will be for the rest of his life. My dad taught me how to punch, kick, etc. I then told my manager I'll threaten the man with my knife as my anger then began to grow. It's a big double H switchblade which works well in quick self defense. My manager told me not to though, so I didn't. But I told her she was being too nice. She said she didn't want me to entice the guy, which I did understand, but she doesn't know my past. She walked away and I couldn't hold it in. I opened the Window. And I then screamed that I'd cut his face off if he tries anything. There's a reason why my little brother calls me she Hulk. The guy kept messing around with us by screaming. And he tried coming into the store again, but we were closed by then. He was very short and he was mumbling to himself, which gave us red flags, thinking that he probably has a mental health disorder or something. Now, our town is one of the safest in the country, but we still worked on the bad side of it, so very weird things happen often. We thought the guy could be homeless and crazy, and we all just agreed we'd leave together in a group. My coworker J is very calming, and we both agreed to watch each other as we walked to our cars, then go to the store across the street because I needed to pick up groceries after work. I've been followed around before where I used to live, so I knew how to be cautious. You know, check everything around you. Look under the car before getting too close to it, and then once in the car, lock it. Don't use your usual way home, things like that. We all left when we didn't see the guy. I got my knife ready, held it tight in my hand, and I held my keys in my left hand. Then we all left. Because of having muscle weakness, extreme asthma, and joints that will lock or give out very easily. I can't run. I would pass out or fall, so I always would and have had to just fight. I checked everywhere from the door of the store and then slowly made my way to my car as J went to hers. I checked under my car and I didn't see anything. No one under or behind it. I looked, but I didn't see him anywhere. So I got in my car and immediately locked it it as I then saw Jay do the same thing. We both drove to the store, and as we got out, we thought it was over, but it wasn't. We went in the store, grabbed some things, and as we walked out, I looked over at the trash can where we first saw him, and we saw a figure behind the bushes right next to it. My heart rate went back up and the adrenaline came back. I began having difficulty breathing because of the symptoms, but I know how to manage it. I then asked J, um, am I tripping out or is that the guy? And I then gestured to the trash can. She looked and she then said, no, you're right, that's him. Okay, we gotta go, like right now. I said. We both knew that he couldn't follow Jay since The way to her house is out in the countryside and it's very difficult to get to, but mine on the other hand is just five minutes down the road. I told her before we jumped into our cars that I'll be going a very weird route home and that I text her when I get there and she said ok. We then both left and I went down very weird roads, constantly checking my mirrors. He didn't look like he had a car, so I began calming down. Now it's very dark around my house, which is a risk all on its own, but I did actually manage to get home safely. Before I left my car, I looked all around, everything looked fine and it actually was this time. Everyone always makes the same mistakes though. Not locking the doors, leaving an establishment alone when it really risk not bringing pepper spray or something everywhere you go. No matter how safe it is, going to a friend's or your house when followed, not knowing the signs that someone will do something to you. You get the point. Usually as I listen to them, I always get paranoid over what I thought was nothing. But the biggest mistake is thinking that these stories can happen to you one day. But to all the other ladies out there and to anyone else who's also disabled, please understand you're not weak. You can defend yourself. I was never taught to be a soft, submissive woman who always needs to be polite no matter how badly you're treated. I was taught to be blunt and fight and my dad would always reward me whenever I told him that's what I've done. It may be very odd, but I actually get excited if a person tries something with me because I'm always, always ready. There's a reason why my dad told me that being disabled doesn't have to be a disability, just always be ready. These videos are a lesson, so please learn from them because none of us want to be just another statistic or another person on the news. Always remember there's no such thing as being too safe.
- [166:01]
A
Your next chapter in healthcare starts at Carrington College's School of Nursing in Portland. Join us for our open house on Tuesday, January 13th from 4 to 7pm you'll tour our campus, see live demos, meet instructors, and learn about our Associate Degree in Nursing program that prepares you to become a registered nurse. Take the first step toward your nursing career. Save your spot now at Carrington. Edu Events. For information on program outcomes, visit carrington. Edu Science Capture your favorite summer feeling with Pandora Jewelry. Discover a collection inspired by the sunshine, freedom, and moments that make the season unforgettable from sun kissed metals to personalized pieces ready to be engraved with your summer mantra. Each design moves with you from beach days to golden nights and every memory in between. Shop Pandora Jewelry's new summer collection in store or online@pandora.net and let your summer unfold.