Advertiser (14:14)

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Storyteller (15:08)

All you homeowners have unique needs. Some feel the need to paint their door a vibrant shade of bl. Others have the need to decorate their bathroom with fish anchors and other nautical items. And because each homeowner has unique needs, GEICO helps you get the right coverage for your home and what's in it. That way you get exactly what's right for you, even if your needs are unique. Get more with Geico the story begins with my mom, dad, and myself traveling to America for the first time. I'm Mexican, so I didn't know much of the language at the time. I was also only four years old. We had went to Walmart to buy some things and my mom told me to go with my dad. While I was walking to where my dad was, a woman approached me. She was about 30 years old. By that point I was already lost. She said something to me about helping find my parents. The thing is, I didn't understand much English at the time, so I didn't really understand what was happening. She took me to her car and we just drove away. Meanwhile, my dad had started searching for me in the Hot Wheel section, but I wasn't there. They panicked. The woman kept me at her house and about two days passed. Surprisingly, she was really kind to me during that time. After 48 hours, an Amber Alert was issued and she was being searched for all across South Texas. About a week later, they had already traced her car's license plates, pulled her over and arrested her. It turned out that she had mental health issues and she was released. This happened around 2014, so I don't know all of the details of the case, but one thing that I do know is that she had tragically committed suicide later that year. I still remember her face to this day. People tend to have the stereotype that kidnappers are always wearing ski masks and lock you in a basement or something, but in my case it wasn't like that at all. It was New Year's Eve 2020 and I had just finished my shift as a server at a sports bar and restaurant in downtown. I, a female, was 26 years old and I'd been working there for about two and a half years. I headed over to a nearby bar that lots of fellow servers in the area frequented. While I was there drinking, I noticed a man there who was a regular at the place I worked at. I saw him all the time, multiple times a week, but since he always sat at the bar rather than at the tables, I'd never actually spoken to him. This man was middle aged, quiet, and he always dressed nicely in business attire. As I passed by him, I greeted him in a friendly way, just oh hey, I see you at my workplace all the time. Just meaning it as a casual hello, not intending for it to be anything more than that. This man, who was double my age proceeded to tell me, I've been watching you for the past three years. He started telling me about how he would always watch me working while he sat at the bar. He also worked across the street, so he would watch me walk the lunch shifts from his office window. I don't remember everything that he said to me, but he really emphasized how long he had been watching me and he'd been waiting to talk to me for three years. It had actually been less time than that as I had only worked there for two and a half years. Then he said that he was planning to ask me to marry him for his 53rd birthday. The hell. You've never even spoken to me before and yet you are planning to propose to me. I remember him asking where I lived, to which I just gave a vague answer. At some point I said that I was thinking about not working there for too much longer and his response was chilling. Well, don't go anywhere. I won't be able to find you at my next shift. I had told all of this to the manager on duty who went to go ask the bar manager about this regular. The bar manager's response? He's harmless. Frankly, that dismissal kinda pissed me off. I feel like regulars can say anything they want to. Staff and management will just let them get away with being 2020. All the restaurants in my city shut down in March, so I didn't have to work there much longer anyway. I'll probably never run into that guy again. I know this story is less creepy than many of the other stories you probably hear, and trust me, I've had tons of other creepy things said to me while working in the service industry. But still, it was really eye opening to me to realize somebody that I had never spoken to had been watching me and fantasizing about me for years. He just looked like a polite man minding his own business. On Super Bowl Sunday 2004, my mom and dad went to a bar to go watch the game and they got a family friend to babysit me. She was 16 at the time. She was told under no circumstances that she was to leave the house, what time they'd be home, and all that good stuff. Of course, being 16, she didn't listen and she took me to her friend's house to go watch the game. I'm not sure how far away he lived from us, but it couldn't have been that far. As we walked, I was in my stroller. We left pretty soon after the game because my parents wouldn't be too far behind us. But my babysitter forgot to buckle me in as she was in such a hurry. However, on our way home, we were walking and strolling down the street when a car had started getting slower and pulling up towards us. The passenger door flew open and a man grabbed me. My babysitter, obviously freaking the hell out, thought so quickly and remembered she was an incredibly skilled boxer and beat the crap out of him. I guess he then realized that I wasn't worth getting beaten up by a 16 year old girl. So they took their losses and the car sped away. When I tell you that we sprinted home, we did. My parents obviously were incredibly angry at her for taking me out and she never got to babysit me again. We did call the police, but they never found out who did it. So yeah, there's a grown man roaming the streets of Chicago who got beat up by a 16 year old girl when I was about 4. This was in 1997 by the way. My mom, brothers and I went to a water park on a weekend during the summer. The park was set up so that you walk through the entrance and run directly into a food court with a little information and map station. To the left was an inside arcade area with a little roller coaster directly outside of it. And behind the arcade building was an enormous wave pool. To the right of the entrance was the kiddie park and then behind the kiddie park was a lazy river and all the water slides. Since my brothers were older and wanted to ride the big slides, my mom and I split from them to head to the kiddie park. I remember playing for a little while, making friends with the other kids when this one little boy asked me if I wanted to go to the wave pool. Since I was little, my mom told me I was not allowed to go to the wave pool without an adult. So I told him I couldn't. He then said it's not a problem. My dad's already waiting for us and he's already told my mom he's going to watch us. Well, being a dumb kid and marveling at the wave pool since we got there, I was pretty much sold and I followed him over there. My mom probably didn't notice at the time because the lawn chair she was sitting in around the kiddie pool was being blocked by little kid slides and a billion other little children that were there. We headed to the wave pool and met the kid's dad. He immediately took my hand and guided me into the wave pool. I remember only being in there for like two minutes tops until he picked me up and carried me Back out of the wave pool. I don't think I even asked where we were going, but I assumed the food court because that's where we were headed. I then remember reaching the entrance gates and a lifeguard approached us and asked me about my name. I said yes and had started crying because I thought I was in trouble. The lifeguard then grabs me from the dude and I see my mom running up sobbing. Years later, we're revisiting the story and she tells me that she noticed I was missing pretty quickly and then she told a lifeguard to close off the entrance to the park. I was wearing a yellow bathing suit with pink flowers on it and two yellow ribbons in my hair, so the description gave me away instantly. When the man was carrying me out, I asked my mom about the kid and she had no idea who I was talking about. She said it was just the singular man and he had ran to his car in the parking lot as soon as the lifeguard took me out of his arms. There was no kid that was with him. So this happened a few years back in the Netherlands. I was there on a training exercise with the German army and our commander had decided to extend the trip to include another weekend for us to celebrate and do some sightseeing in the Netherlands. On Friday evening, myself and a group of about five others decided to hit the town. From what I could tell, the town had a lot of younger people but not so many tourists. All of the bars were relatively packed and our group kind of split up between two places, a club and a bar. A friend and I were standing at the bar when they had had a game, which I'll call Alligator Tooth on the counter. Basically it's a plastic alligator head and you just take turns pressing the teeth in its open mouth. At some point the mouth snaps shut and then the person loses in the bar. That meant the loser had to buy a round for the winner. Anyway, we probably played four rounds and drank our shots. When my friend wanted to go for a smoke, I needed to go use the bathroom, so we decided to meet back at the Alligator game. When I came back from the toilet, my friend was still gone and I also noticed the rest of the group had apparently all gone to the club. Nevertheless, I waited for my friend to finish a smoke as promised and just looked at my phone for a bit. Seconds later I hear an excuse me and a younger guy is trying to get my attention. He looked like an average student, early 20s, white, well dressed, and relatively short. He asked me where I'm from. He tells me He's a student here and that it's always really interesting for him to meet new people. After some friendly small talk, he invited me to play a round of Alligator's tooth with him. Being in a bar and still waiting for a friend, I agree. We play and he instantly loses. First round, second round, and third round. The fourth I lose, and then he loses the fifth and sixth. At this point, I'm getting a little annoyed that my friend has obviously stood me up and left the bar in order to go to the club. I tell my new friend that I'm leaving and he suddenly gets a bit anxious. He tells me that he wants to show me something and he takes out his phone. He's on Google Maps and enters a location, some random street nearby. He explains to me that he's in trouble. Some guys are having beef with his brother and are making all kinds of threats toward him and his brother. He's really scared that they'll do something to his brother, so now he has to pay them a lot of money to leave them alone. At this point, I'm almost certain that I've understood his schtick and he's gonna ask me for some money or a loan or something. However, when I start to tell him that I have no money, he stops me and he tells me that he already has the money he needs with him. He then asks me to come with him when he gives them the money in order to protect him. He said that he would also give me any of the money they won't take. At this point, I'm obviously thinking that this is rather sketchy. I tell him that I won't join him, but if he really feels so threatened that he should go to the police. As soon as I tell him this, he almost instantly turns around and leaves. Before I left the bar to go join the rest of the group, I had told the bartender what had just happened. She simply just brushed it off and didn't even really give me an answer when I asked what she thought about it. Anyway, I was really only weirded out at this point and I was getting pretty drunk. I then left the bar and went to the club across the road. We spent another couple of hours in the club and in the early morning hours our group had left to get a taxi. Just as we left the club, I could see the guy from the bar standing just across the road together with two other guys, which I really couldn't make out that well. I stopped and stared over towards the trio. He spotted us and then he quickly turned and walked away with the other two guys. Until today, I'm not really sure what his deal was. Maybe he was legit. Maybe the other two guys would have jumped and robbed me. And maybe something else entirely. But I'm quite happy that I never found out.

Advertiser (28:34)

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Storyteller (29:28)

All you homeowners have unique needs. Some feel the need to paint their door a vibrant shade of blue. Others have the need to decorate their bathroom with fish anchors and other nautical items. And because each homeowner has unique needs, GEICO helps you get the right coverage for your home and what's in it. That way you get exactly what's right for you, even if your needs are unique. Get more with Geico. My name is Kylie and I'm a 22 year old female in Northern California. I research and create true crime videos and while researching one day I had stumbled upon a very scary human trafficking and or robbery scheme where people would scout you with out in a store like Walmart and be in communication with someone on the outside who has a car waiting. I've been trying to find the videos about that since then but I can't anyways to set the scene. This took place around a month ago February of 2025. I don't like to go to Walmart but my grandma does. I've been taking her for the past three years since she can no longer drive due to her vision. But now she has cancer and because of that she appears weaker than she did even a few months ago. I've offered to go to Walmart for her to get her groceries myself but she genuinely loves outing and is very specific about her produce. I picked her up with my 3 year old daughter in the backseat and I drove us to Walmart at around 3 in the afternoon. Everything seemed normal at first and she was looking at the bananas for a while. She told me that I could go and get milk and a book that I've been dying to read before coming back to meet her at the bananas or in the bread section. I took my daughter and got those items within four, five minutes. My grandma doesn't have a cell phone, so it always has made me anxious to leave her alone in a store even for a moment. When I got to the banana display and didn't see her, I panicked momentarily before then remembering that she said she was heading to get bread next. However, when I got to the aisle, my heart dropped. No grandma. There are about 14 aisles between the produce where the bananas were and the milk where I had just been. I walked quickly around those 14 aisles three times and looked down every single aisle. No grandma. I finally found an employee and showed them a picture of her. He said that he hadn't seen her but would walk the 14 aisles. He started on the perimeter that had the meat and dairy, while I had started along the perimeter that bordered the baby section and toilet paper. Both of us looked down every aisle and there was no sight of my grandma. That was it. I started going to the front of the store to ask a clerk to please say my grandma's name over the loudspeaker yet. And as I approached the front, I saw my grandma sitting on a bench in front of the checker and she had already paid for her groceries. I asked her where she had gone and she told me that she had gone to look for bread, but that two women had started following her in the store. She initially thought that she was just being slow and that she was in their way, so she then confronted them and asked if they needed something, to which they shook their heads. They didn't take anything from the bread aisle. My grandma still wasn't immediately concerned, but decided to go to an entirely different section of the store which had the soaps. They were right behind her and she had heard them whispering into a walkie talkie. After that, my grandma decided it was best to check out and just wait for me at the front. I was of course alarmed by this, so I got my milk and book and took it to the cashier that was right in front of the bench where my grandma was sitting. And as I was checking out, I had noticed an odd man who was standing between my grandma and I. I didn't think he was odd at first, but then I noticed that he didn't have any groceries or items. He also wasn't clearly waiting for someone and I'm assuming that he wasn't waiting for the clear store that was next to the benches. That really wouldn't make any sense. He was wearing a darn blue baseball cap and he kept darting his eyes between me and my grandma. If you think I'm just being judgmental, I promise I'm not. The thing that set my alarm bells off was the fact that he was holding his phone upside down and he was talking into it like a walkie talkie in a very hushed tone. He was looking at us. He wasn't doing the normal thing that people do whenever they're on the phone and accidentally space off while staring at you. No, this was deliberate. I grabbed my bag and gripped the card tighter. My 3 year old was understandably oblivious to my panic and so was my grandma. I told my grandma that it was time to go and she got up off the bench to follow me. However, as she got up and started following me, the man had started following us too. My grandma didn't notice him, but she's hard of hearing and I couldn't tell her privately that I thought he was following us. She is also the type to go into a state of panic and anxiety and in her current physical state, I didn't want that for her. Thankfully, and I mean thankfully, there was a guy who was standing by the double doors checking the receipts. I whispered to him in a hushed tone about the man in the blue cap who was following us and what my grandma had experienced with the two women. He looked at the guy and then looked at me and then called the security guard over. She was a very intimidating woman. I say this in the best way possible and she escorted us out the door. The man in the blue cap had stopped following us, but he raised his phone again to say something else. When I finally got my grandma and daughter in the car and locked the doors. I then told my grandma what had happened with the man in the blue cap. Please be aware of your surroundings and if you're a woman especially bring pepper spray and do not be afraid to ask for help. If I just had my grandma with me, I would have been a lot calmer since I can handle my own, but I'm not capable of protecting my grandma and daughter at the same time. I'm still not sure what the exact intention of those people was, but I surely do not want to know. I'm a 26 year old female. If I remember correctly, this happened to me somewhere between the age of 20 and 21. To give a little background context I'm from Chicago, Illinois and always have been. When you live in Chicago or in the surrounding suburbs and need to get downtown, taking the CTA train is often a very convenient option for anyone who isn't familiar. Chicago isn't just the big beautiful skyline that you see on tv. There's tons of different neighborhoods within it that are mostly just residential. These neighborhoods are still geographically inside of Chicago, so the different CTA buses and trains will take you all over to different parts of Chicago, not just downtown. Driving is of course an option, but parking your car often costs money and you're not even guaranteed to find a spot within walking distance of your destination anyway. Besides, driving downtown can be a nightmare, so naturally a lot of people use public transportation, including myself. At least I used to. This story is actually why I never use public transportation again and am still afraid to even consider doing it in the future. So here's the story. My two co workers, who were sisters we'll call them Hayley and Helena, had asked me if I wanted to come with them to one of the beaches in downtown Chicago. I had been to these beaches many times before with no problems. I typically always enjoyed myself until mid afternoon when troublemakers would always seem to show up. Yeah, if you stay at a Chicago beach long enough on a hot day, you can usually anticipate a fight happening, so I was more than glad to come with as long as we didn't stay too long. I asked my boyfriend at the time to come with us. We'll call him Nathan. Nathan said yes and seemed too excited to come with for a fun day outdoors. The day came and we hopped on the train and got up from the stop that was closest to the beach. We headed down there and at some point my coworker showed up. All was well and we were having a nice time. I was glad I was finally able to introduce Nathan to Hayley and Helena as they were two of my favorite coworkers to spend time with. Despite having introduced Nathan to the girls, not much conversation was exchanged. This isn't an unexpected response when people meet each other for the first time. Not everyone will hit it off with stuff to talk about right away upon meeting one another, and that's okay, but Nathan had a tendency to get very angry when friends of mine didn't immediately have things to talk about with them. I'm sure it was just some social anxiety mixed with the awkward environment of being around someone you aren't comfortable with yet. Nathan and I headed over to a different section of the beach because he wanted to be away from the girls. Things were okay for a short while until he wanted to get angry with me about Hayley and Helena's alleged lack of effort to engage socially with them. This was nothing new. As I said earlier, he got very frustrated when this happened. This was unfortunate timing for an argument because I had been having a really nice time at the beach. He demanded that we leave as his reaction to the situation made me feel partially guilty. So I put my shorts and shirts over my swimsuit and we had started heading back to the train station. I don't remember if I said goodbye to Hailey or Helena or not, but I do remember being upset and frustrated at the situation because I wanted to stay long longer with the intention of leaving to the train station with everyone. After a heated argument followed by awkward silence, we made it back to the train station that we had originally gotten off at. This was at the Red Line. For those who don't know, Chicago CTA train routes are organized by different colors and each have their own designated stops. This one was called the Red Line, and it was a subway station. We headed up the escalator to go wait for our train, too irritated at each other to be next to one another. I was a few steps ahead of Nathan on the left side of the escalator, and he was a few steps behind me on the right. As we were waiting to finish going up the escalator, out of my peripheral vision, I had noticed a man with a backpack standing behind me, bent over. I turned my head over my shoulder to see what was happening, and I saw that he was tying his shoe. He then looked up at me for a moment and smiled. He apologized, presumably for being a little too close. I turned my head back to face forward. The escalator was almost all the way up now. As I approached the top, I had started to walk, and then out of nowhere, Nathan started sprinting up the escalator and ran up to that same man who was tying his shoe. Nathan grabbed him from behind by the part of his backpack that was against his neck. Nathan then shouted at him, if you ever do that again, I'll throw you on the damn tracks. Nathan then shoved the guy away. The guy just casually walked away with a smile and he flipped Nathan off as he was walking. I was baffled. I was speechless. I had literally no clue what was going on. Nathan then ran up to me and said, that guy had his face just an inch away from your butt and he was blatantly sniffing it while trying to pretend that he was tying his shoes. I was in shock. I almost didn't believe Nathan at first. All I could think was are you sure? That's until some other guys ran up to me and then frantically asked me if I was okay and that they saw what the guy did to me. At this moment, I was disgusted. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed. I couldn't believe someone was walking around doing this to women in the open public. I could only imagine what sort of things he might do if he was alone with the woman. Our train showed up, we got on and I just couldn't do anything but cry. I was so beyond freaked out and I never went on a train again.

Advertiser (41:51)

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Storyteller (43:17)

Hey everyone. That's about it for today's stories. If you have your own story that you would like to send, you can send it in@southerncannibal.com or you can email it at southerncannibalstoriesmail.com I look forward to telling your story. Have a good night or good day everyone. And remember to always stay hungry.

Advertiser (43:47)

You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites with Indeed sponsored Jobs. Your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people you want faster. According to Indeed data, Sponsored Jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. Don't wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com kidsandfamily just go to Indeed.com kidsandfamily right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. All you homeowners have unique needs. Some feel the need to leave up holiday decorations year round. Others have the need to use their garage as practice space for their new metal band. And because each homeowner has unique needs, GEICO helps you get the right coverage for your home and and what's in it. That way you get exactly what's right for you even if your needs are unique. Get more with geico, you just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites with Indeed sponsored jobs. Your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people you want faster. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. Don't wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com kidsandfamily just go to Indeed.com kidsandfamily right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need.