Storyteller (9:12)
My best friend and I are both from London, but her family on her dad's side is from Ireland, so she goes there every summer for the entire summer. Last summer I went to go stay with her for two weeks at her granddad's house. Her grandad lives in rural Ireland. Like a rural the town is at least a 40 minute drive away and his house is the only building within the area. It backs into a massive forest and faces onto a lake. It's really quite beautiful, but that's beyond the point. My best friend's granddad, brother, aunt and dad were going to the pub one evening. They invited us, which was of course a tempting offer, but we declined as we were excited at the prospect of having the house to ourselves. Something that doesn't happen a lot given we are teenagers, so so we decided to have a chill evening inside and basically play house. Of course, if you've been to Ireland you know that a quick pint is anything but quick and her family had been gone for some time by this point, about a few hours I'd say. When it was then approaching 10pm we were watching a movie in her living room when we had heard a knock on the door. We reckoned maybe it was her family who had forgotten their key, so we went to answer. Her grandad's front door led into the conservatory, which then led to the actual front door of the house. So we made it to the conservatory door expecting her family, but instead there was some man at the door, slightly confused. We kinda just looked at him, waiting for him to say something, during which I had time to take in his appearance. There was something off about him, to say the least. He looked insane, bizarrely alert and yet slightly scary. I can't quite explain it, but if you know, you know. He said that his car had broken down and he needed to use the phone to call someone to pick him up. I looked out but I couldn't see a car at all and said something to the effect of where's your car? He responded by explaining that he had broken down about 30 minutes down the road and had walked until he found a house. Given that, as I explained prior, my friend's granddad lived in a fairly remote area, this was plausible. With slight hesitation, my friend passed him her phone and said he could call who he needed to call and wait on the doorstep. He didn't accept the offer, however. Instead he just kind of ignored it and started asking if there were any adults or parents in the house. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was asking this as maybe he felt more comfortable sharing his predicament with adults rather than two teenage girls. We didn't really know if we should tell him if we were alone or not, because we would usually know better than that, but given the situation, we explained they were out but may be back soon. He started to look past us and into the house and then he began insisting we let him in the house as he wanted to use the landline. At this point we were more than suspicious because if he wanted to call someone, why not just use my friend's phone? He was erratic, continuously insisting that we let him inside. At that point, my friend said he could either use our mobile or leave, but beyond that there was nothing more we could do for him. He insisted that he come into the house, so we just shut the door on him and locked it. And then we locked the door to the actual house. Freaked out, we sat in our living room trying to peep out of the window and see if he left. He lingered for a bit, looking into the windows, maybe looking for a way in, but then we saw him leave, though we couldn't make out which direction he went in. We were scared as hell. To add fuel to the fire, my friend explained that the nearby town was pretty small and everyone in the area pretty much knew each other. She had never seen him before in her life, which really scared her as she was pretty much acquainted with most of the town by now. We contemplated calling her dad, but since it had been about 30 minutes with no disruption, we just left it and continued on with our night. Later on, her dog was getting restless and her family was still out, so we led her into the back garden. After about five minutes we had heard her barking, but it was too dark to see what she was barking at, so we put it down to it, more than likely just being a goat because that was usually the case. We then called her in and went about our night. We realized that her family probably wouldn't be back until the early hours and instead of waiting for them, we decided to head up to bed. I went into the kitchen, which is at the back of the house, to go get us some water when I'd heard someone shaking the handle of the back door trying to get in. The thing is, it's a really old house, so I didn't exactly put all my faith in the door, holding up against the weight of what I suspected to be a grown man. I screamed bloody murder and my friend ran down the stairs. At this point he was banging on the door like his life depended on it and I swear to God I felt my heart fall out of my butthole. My friend shouted back that she was going to call the police, which was a lie as she had taken our phones upstairs, but she thought it may deter him. Luckily this actually seemed to scare him off. He stopped banging. We heard his footsteps move further and further away until we couldn't hear them anymore. We were literally frozen in fear and couldn't even speak to each other. Then we heard the front door open and we pretty much thought that was it for us. On instinct, my friend grabbed a knife and we hid in the pantry. You can only imagine our relief when we heard her dad call out for us saying they were back. We were absolutely dazed and I'm sure they could tell, so we frantically asked them, did you all happen to see a car on your way here? A broken down car? They responded that they didn't and I swear to God I could have crapped myself right then and there. This encounter still bothers me to this day and it happened about 12 years ago. It was the middle of winter and me and my best friend, I'll call her Claire, wanted to walk to Dunkin Donuts for a hot chocolate. At the end of my road is a walking bridge to cross the river. Then just up the road from there was a Dunkin Donuts. When we crossed the bridge, this man, mid 40ish we figured was behind us and he commented on the weather. It was windy and cold and then he asked us how old we were. We were 15, but for some reason I automatically said 16. Not sure why, but I doubt it would have made much difference. He went on to say, oh, too young, too young. And then walked off in the opposite direction. We were a bit creeped out, but kinda didn't think anything of it since he went the other way. We made it to the Dunkin Donuts and hadn't given the incident another thought until we looked out the window and saw the guy walking up the street. He must have doubled back without us realizing because he was walking in the other direction. Mind you, at this point it's dark out and we still have to walk back that way to get home. We notice him go down a side street and we walk up the main road to the bridge. But the side street is parallel to us so he can still see us. We get to the bridge and look over our shoulder and he's running up to catch up to us. Then a man came toward us on the bridge and just looked at us and laughed, but then kept walking. We quickly weigh our options. Run to my house that's on the other end of the road with no streetlights for the first half, or run to the store not far from the bridge. Luckily, Claire was the smart one and chose the second option. All I wanted to do was get home asap, so I wanted option one. At this point we're running, but the creepy guy catches up and asks if we would like some company. Obviously we say no and then book it into the shop. The employees are a bit confused as to why we're doubled over trying to catch our breaths. We tell them we're being followed and an older lady grabs a broom and goes outside to look for him. No joke. I call my mom to pick us up and explain what happened and what does she do? She walks down with the dogs to get us. The 15 year old me was so pissed off and the 27 year old me is still miffed about it. Not a very interesting story, but the what if still bothered me every time I remember it. Especially the guy who laughed at us. If he had sinister intentions, we would have been cornered. Just yesterday I went to a friend's house for a small get together at another buddy's place. It went great. We laughed a lot, had fun, and then I left around 9pm I had ridden my bike there from home, but when it was time to leave, I realized my phone was dead. No gps, no flashlight, just me and my bike in the dark. I started zigzagging through the familiar streets trying to find my way home. At one point I'd stopped at a crosswalk to catch my breath. That's when I noticed someone behind a tree wearing a blue hoodie. He raised his arm and waved at me. It was weird. I didn't wave back. I just got on my bike and kept moving. A few streets down, I suddenly heard heavy breathing and fast footsteps behind me. I turned around and it Was the guy in the blue hoodie a white male running straight at me? I pedaled like hell. As I was speeding away, I had heard him yell, hey, fuck you. I made it to a barbecue restaurant, hoping to duck inside, but it was already closed. I looked back and he was still following me. I kept pedaling hard, pounding, until I reached the autozone near my house. When I finally glanced behind me again, he was gone. For a second I thought it was over. Until I heard a voice near the front of the autozone. A male voice, laughing maniacally. The laugh faded into the distance like he was walking away. I booked it home, locked everything, and tried to sleep. But unfortunately, my paranoia kept me awake. On a summer day in 2019, I was patrolling on a side road on the highway in Seminole County, Florida. I had pulled over a black SUV because I saw that the car's windows were extremely tinted. I got out of my cop car and walked over to the suv. It was a black man and he had rolled down his window about a quarter. I had told him to lower his window down a bit more and he listened. I introduced myself and I told him the reason why I pulled him over was because his windows were way too dark. He was still listening to me. I then asked him to roll his windows back halfway up for measurements. As I was measuring his window, I explained to him the requirements of how much you can have on your windows if it's tinted. After that, I asked him for his driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance. He rolled his window down some more and he asked me how I was doing this morning. Along with a laugh and smoking a blunt, I said that I was just living the dream. He gave me his driver's ID and it said his name was Rocky Money Rudolph Jr seeing a name like that really amazed me. I told Rocky that his name was awesome and he continued to laugh. Our conversation was going pretty friendly and I thought this would be over with after I just gave him a ticket. But time will tell, I guess. I was then telling Rocky that his registration had expired. He told me that he couldn't get that done because he was doing a project for a homeless community. I seemed to believe what he was saying and I just said okay to him. We continued to have more friendly talk until I asked him a personal question. What I asked him was if he had smoked or if he had any friends who would smoke or if there was marijuana in the car. This is when he started to get nervous. He simply told me, no sir. I then asked him if he Had a Florida health insurance card that allowed him to smoke medical marijuana. He said no again. Now, I could tell he was lying because I had smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle. He was also laughing, and he was saying stuff that made no sense. He was definitely on something. I then told him to shut off the car, and this is where he started to get panicky. He asked me why, and this is where I started to be blatantly honest with him and said that I smell marijuana and that he didn't have a card that allowed him to smoke it on him. I once again told him to shut the car off, and he started to give me the attitude. I was then trying to talk to him more about why he isn't allowed to be doing what he was doing. And while I was doing that, he turned his car back on. This is when I reached into his car to turn it back off. And I was ordering him to do a favor and to turn the car back off. But before I could finish that sentence, he became really aggressive and combative. He then put his car in drive, and this is where I hung onto his car, hoping to stop him. I then pulled out my gun and I yelled at him to stop about five times. Rocky drove about 20ft. When I did all of that, I now lost my temper, and I ordered him to put his hands up. He started to cry and whine as if he knew he was going to jail. He then tried to claim that he didn't do anything. I just kept repeating myself like a broken record, commanding him to please put his hands up. Rocky then started to drive yet again, and as he was driving, he was now trying to reach for my gun. Here's where the story gets really dark. And if the people who despise cops are watching, now might be the time to leave the video or just move on to the next story. I still had my gun in my hand, and I then fired a shot at him, and it missed. I then fired a second shot, and it also missed. I fired one last shot, and yet again, the shot missed. After the third shot, however, Rocky successfully knocked the gun right out of my hand with his own hands. I still hung onto the car for dear life, hoping not to die. Rocky still drove a few more yards until he made a turn into an interstate. And that's when I fell from the car and rolled into a median. Another car lost control and went into a ditch. Rocky then drove as fast away as possible, and I could no longer see him in his car. A red car was pulling up behind me and a man got out and asked if I was alright. I just said not really. My back is hurting like hell. The man from the car who went into a ditch also came out from his car and made sure I was okay. Luckily he wasn't hurt. I then called for assistance because I couldn't get up. Assistance came no later than 15 minutes and I was sent to the hospital. The other two people also came to the hospital to make sure I was all good. I was now at the hospital where I was treated for a minor back injury. What the doctors did was that they just gave me a steroid shot and they had me on some prescription medicine and then I went home at the end of the day the pain in my back went away a few days later. The next couple of days was a manhunt searching for Rocky and he was eventually found, captured and put into a correctional facility. On January of 2024, Rocky Rudolph was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempted manslaughter, aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, resisting an officer without violence, fleeing and attempting to elude, attempting to deprive an officer of protection, communication and possession of cannabis. During the sentencing, Rocky made a brief statement saying that he was sorry for his actions and that he didn't mean to harm me and that my actions caused him to panic and that he really did respect the law enforcement. Now me personally, I don't think he deserves 30 years. Yes, he did commit a crime, but I think that sentencing was way too harsh. If he ended up taking my life, he would be in prison for the rest of his life. The story shows you how quickly a normal routine traffic stop can go accordingly to plan with a few shits and giggles. To me almost dying because someone decided to disobey the law by driving off with me hanging onto the car, thinking this would solve everything and that he wouldn't face any legal trouble for it. But unfortunately that's just not how the law in life works. Two years ago, on a night in February in Larimer County, Colorado, I was driving to a nightclub and was going to meet up with some of my guy friends to party. Because Saturday nights are always for the boys. We would do this about every Saturday, unless one of us was busy that night. I had fun every time I went, but to be honest, I would sometimes feel pressured to go. That Saturday I stayed most of the daytime at my grandparents house, which wasn't too far away from where I lived. After I finished staying there I went home and When I got home, I showered and then got dressed in nicer clothes. After that I got dressed and then walked out the door and got in my car. What I didn't know is that it would be my last time ever driving a car. The nearest highway from my house is only five minutes away. About 15, 20 minutes on the highway. While I was driving in the 70mph section, I saw a police car facing the opposite way on the left lane from where I was driving. My initial thought was that he was looking to give people some tickets if they were going way above the speed limit. And I wish that was my thought, but it wasn't. I didn't see what was on the ground since I was driving an suv. I kept driving and then all of a sudden I felt the car hit something really heavy. I then realized that I had ran over a person. The car then started to slow down and I started to put it in brake. I then moved to the side and put on my hazards. When I got to the side, I completely stopped the car. And right there I started to have a mental breakdown. I started screaming and crying that I might have actually killed someone, but not on purpose. I actually wanted to get out of my car or even drive back to see if this person was alright. But that would be impossible to do because one, I would be driving the wrong way and two, cars would be driving at nearly 80 miles per hour. And I didn't want to end up like that person. So my next option was to call the police and report to the station. I then called 911 and connected to an operator and said what just happened? And the operator said that they already knew because an officer was radioing what just happened. I then asked if I could meet them at the police station and the operator told me sure. I got to the station like 10 minutes later and I was panicking the whole way there. I went inside and had to fill out a form describing the incident. After that I'd handed the form over to a woman at the front desk. And after I did that, she told me that the department will be in touch with me over the next week starting tomorrow. I told them okay, and left the station. I took out my phone to see a bit of unread messages and some missed phone calls from some of my friends. They were probably waiting for me at the club. I called one of my friends whose name is Bob, and I told him that I'm not coming and I told him the reason why. He sounded really shocked on the phone call and he asked If I was alright, I told him that I wasn't in my right mind and that I needed to stay home for a few days. He sounded disappointed, but he understood well enough that I needed some time for myself. I got home and immediately crashed out on my bed. Over the entire next week, I learned that the victim's name was Bren Thompson and he was 28 years old. He'd gotten pulled over because an officer ran his tags and he realized that his registration was expired. When the officer interrogated him, Brent gave a fake name and when the officer found out he was lying, he turned to confront Brent and that's when he made a big mistake that he forever came to regret. He fled and then he jumped onto the interstate that I was driving on and that's when the officer tased him and he fell to the ground. Seconds later, I hit Brent. I didn't see him on the ground, nor did I see the officer on the side lane as it was pretty dark outside and I was going really fast in my car. Sadly, he didn't survive being hit and his family filed a lawsuit against the officer and department. The district attorney determined that his actions were lawful and he wasn't charged for what he did. I wasn't charged or fined either. I have never driven a car again due to the traumatic experience on that fateful night. And now I just book an Uber or have my friends drive me. For most of my life, I've been working as a police officer in Montana. I still work as one to this day. Some people think that being a police officer is very controversial. I've been called names on the job like pig, bastard or racist. In 2020, it was very hard to be a police officer due to the Black Lives Matter movement, riots, as well as the protesters having signs up to say acab, which stands for all cops or bastards for those who didn't know. Now it's cooled down a lot. I never wanted to work as one, but it was pretty much my only option because I didn't want to go to college. It's not a matter of wanting to have this job, it's a matter of needing it. There were times where I wanted to quit, but one moment almost made me want to kill myself. One night In April of 2014, I pulled over a car because it was swerving around and it gave me the impression that the driver was drunk and it nearly hit the police car and almost took it off the roadway. I was not having it and I was very pissed. So I got out of the police car and Walked up to the driver's window While other officers stayed in the car. I saw that there were four people in the red sedan. I shouted at all of them to put their hands up. They obeyed, but the driver was shaking his hands. As he had his hands up, I asked him who he was and why he was panicking. The driver said that his name was Richard. It took me a few seconds to realize that this guy was a guy named Richard Ramirez, who was a suspect in a robbery and shooting the previous night. I then dispatched for more backup. After I did this, I saw Richard reach for something in his pocket. So I pulled out my gun and commanded him to put his hands up or I'll shoot him. He took what I assumed was a gun out of his pocket, but before he revealed what it was, I fired shots at him, and the bullets hit him. He was still conscious, but barely. I kept instructing everyone to put their hands up and to get on the ground. I then dispatched that the shots were fired. The other two people in the vehicle got out of the car, got on the ground, and then put their hands behind their back. They were then placed in handcuffs and were put in the police car. A few minutes later, backup arrived, and when they did arrive, I went to the driver's seat, only to see Richard out and not breathing. I dug into his pocket, and it didn't feel like a gun. I took out what was in his pocket, and I saw that it was only methamphetamine, which Richard was trying to conceal. This information caused me to break down in tears at another police car, Because I literally just took another person's life away from the earth. Another officer came to my side, and he had started to comfort me as I was still crying. Following this incident, Richard's family filed a civil lawsuit against me for his death, and they claimed that shooting him was an excessive use of force. But after the trial took place, the judge acquired me of all charges. I would also sometimes receive death threats from people on the Internet from what I did, But I just ignored them. Nobody who I worked with at the police department had ever held a grudge against me. I was able to live a normal life again after this, but that very night will always bite me in the ass. I was 21 back in 2019, and I worked during the day at a place called Coconut's Car wash in Flagler county, Florida. I didn't go to college because I couldn't afford it. My boss wasn't exactly the friendliest person, but he paid me a respectable amount of money. And I got along with almost everyone at work except for one guy who actually made me quit my job that year because of his creepy ass advancements towards me. This guy's name was Nicholas session. He was 25 years old. He started working at the car wash at the beginning of that year. At first, he seemed like he was a safe person to talk to. He acted polite and he made eye contact with me whenever we had conversations. We exchanged each other's social media and it was normal at first. In March, he had started acting more creepy towards me. He would keep touching me every chance that he could get. He would say he was doing it accidentally, but I wasn't dense and I knew a liar when I would see one. He would also keep messaging me on Instagram for me to go out with them. I kept telling him that I wasn't interested, but he just didn't take the hint. I was now feeling unsafe at work. I couldn't stand being in the same area as that creeper. I tried to talk with the manager about this, but he was so rude and he said to me that I have to deal with my own problems. I had no one to talk to. My parents weren't that loving to me, and I didn't have enough money to go and talk about this with a therapist. My other coworkers claimed that they were too busy to talk to. I was alone. Nick's behavior started to get even worse. He went on social media harassing me with disgusting love notes. One night, this finally reached a boiling point. I was just coming out of the shower with my bathrobe on and the shades to my window were left open. I caught a quick glance outside for a brief second, turned away for half a second, and then I turned my head in that same direction again. What I saw was pure terror. The outside street lights provided a clear view, only to see my creepy co worker Nick, outside of my house, sitting on what I assumed to be his bike. Right as he saw me, he pedaled off away from my house until I couldn't see him anymore. How did he even know where I lived? I never told him my home address and I never hung out with him outside of work. That was it. I went to my phone and I blocked him on everything. After that, I emailed my boss and I told him that I was quitting because of Nick's advancements. I complained to my boss on many occasions, but he did nothing about it. And the only way to end this was if I left. After I finished that, I went to bed and I Hoped that that would be the end of it, but the truth is, it wasn't. And it just kept getting worse from here. The next morning, I woke up and I saw a bunch of Instagram DM messages from an account that I didn't recognize. I opened the app and it was obviously Nick. He actually made another account because I blocked him. The messages really looked odd and didn't really make any sense. This made me very uncomfortable in nature. He also did the same for Snapchat. I blocked him on both apps again. Now, this was before you could block someone on Instagram and new accounts that they could create or have. The whole next two days, he would keep making more accounts, and I was still blocking them. In all honesty, I wasn't surprised in the least. Nick had become such a nuisance that I decided that I would disable all of my social media accounts because he was borderline stalking me. That night, I had heard a knock at my front door. It had to have been Nick. I walked over to the door and looked through the peephole, and this confirmed that it was, in fact, him. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to make it aware that I was home. Despite all of the lights being on and my car being parked in the driveway. He kept knocking. And then he finally said something. He said that he will not leave, and if I didn't open the door and give him an explanation, that we would have a problem. Right then and there, I gathered the courage to say to him through the closed door that my father owned a gun. I then got my phone out and called 911. I connected to an operator and I told every detail over the phone. I stayed on the line until the police got there. A police car pulled up right in front of my house, and I saw three police officers step out of the car. They came in and I told them everything that transpired. After this, they left and they were able to locate where Nick lived. They didn't arrest him, but they did warn him to leave me alone. I really thought this would do something. But of course, Nick didn't listen. In fact, the very next morning, the police caught him biking on his way to my house. This time, however, they actually arrested him and he was taken to the police station. He was put in an interrogation room where he admitted to some very disturbing things. He confessed that he had been outside of my house multiple times for the past two months and that he collected photos that I've posted online. This made me feel like my whole world was crumbling into pieces. Why would he still think that I would date him after I told him no so many times? He's very messed up in the head. Nick is currently facing a felony charge or burglary of a dwelling and misdemeanor stalking charge as well. He's looking to face up to 15 years in prison and $11,000 in fines when he gets released from prison. I highly doubt that he'll still be obsessed with me and able to put it past him. I just hope that I'm right about that.
