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- [00:00]
Advertiser
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. 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 Arts. Just go to Indeed.com Arts 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.
- [01:53]
Storyteller
I have a story of something that happened to me a long while ago, but in hindsight it was really dumb of me and I feel terribly dumb now. So I've always been hesitant to tell a lot of people I know about it, except for my psychiatrist of course. And I always apologize for long posts, so it's hard not to here. There were some other conversations with this man named John, but I left some of them out for length's sake. This was a few years ago. It was pretty late, past 1:30 or 2:00am I was living with this boy who was pretty abusive and he'd gotten jealous at a party we were at earlier that night. Not even an hour after we got home. He had tossed me out onto our front porch and locked the door behind me. I was knocking and pleading for him to please let me back inside. I was still wearing what I had worn to the party and it was freezing outside. I wasn't sure what to do. He had my phone, purse and wallet in the house with them, so I just sat on the porch crying. When he turned off the lights inside and outside the house, I knew that he wasn't going to let me back in. I felt so helpless and cold. I thought about knocking on a neighbor's door, but I had anxiety about waking any of them up and causing trouble for my boyfriend. So instead I decided that I would try to walk to this gas station and motel, which was a little less than a mile away. I did this so I could use their phone to try and call a girlfriend of mine to see if I could sleep over with her. Ironically enough, the road I was walking on was Donner Pass Road, so the freezing cold was fitting. But anyway, a little bit into the walk, this tall white pickup truck was approaching on the opposite side of the road that I was on. I tried to not make eye contact for obvious reasons, but then I heard the truck stopping and beginning to make a U turn and my heart just started pounding. I just about froze up, but forced myself to speed walk at the very least. The truck pulled up to me and this guy rolled down his window and asked what I was doing out this late. I told him how I was going to meet my friend at the gas station and that she was expecting me. He sort of smiled and offered me a ride. I said, no thank you, deciding that I shouldn't hitchhike. He then told me, well, good, I don't pick up hitchhikers or anyone. You don't look like a hitchhiker though. You just look like you need some help. He kept driving next to me and told me that I shouldn't think he was a creep. He pulled out what looked like a police badge and told me that he had just gotten off duty, which is why he was in civilian clothes and out so late. He said that he wouldn't mind driving next to me just to make sure I got to where I was heading safely. I was naive and a bit too trusting of his kindness and credentials, and when he offered me a ride again, I said that it would be nice because the gas station wasn't that far anyway. He popped the door open for me and I hopped in. The radio was low, it was a little messy, the ashtray was full of cigarettes and there were a lot of newspapers on the passenger floor. As I was moving my feet, some of the paper shifted, showing a pair of handcuffs, some coffee cups, empty water bottles, rags, a highlighter colored bandana, and some other things. He apologized, saying it was the truck that he took hunting, but it was super warm, so I was Happy and I didn't mind at all. He told me that his name was John and he asked why I was scantily dressed without a jacket. I started to tell him about the party and the fight that I had been in with my boyfriend. He was super charming and attentive. He even laughed saying he could go back and arrest him. I asked about him and he told me about his family. He was a young dad. He had a wife, a daughter, a son and a dog. I told him it was like he had the perfect little family and he laughed saying that he certainly did. Then it sort of clicked for me to ask him if I could use his phone, but he said no because he had to save his battery. We were approaching the gas station and he drove right past it. I politely said, oh, I think that's the one, but he didn't answer me. I felt sick to my stomach. My heart started pounding and I started getting choked up. My eyes started tearing up as I was looking out the windows and watching the lights behind us getting further and further away. It was hard for me to even speak, but somehow I murmured, asking if he could please turn around. And he ignored me. Whenever I would look at him, he just looked empty eyed and emotionless, totally dead and glazed. I looked out of the back window and down at the road to see if maybe we were going slow enough that I could make a leap out of the car without seriously injuring myself. I remember always hearing never go to the second location. But I thought about the possibility of jumping out and breaking an ankle and how it would be a lot harder to get away with one foot as opposed to two. I debated with myself that there was snow on the ground, but then again, snow is hard to get around in, especially when you're not fully clothed. I feel so dumb now too, because I wasn't even tied up or anything. I was just so scared though. Like there was nothing but trees, an empty road, and us. I was crying pretty badly at this point and asked if I could please borrow his phone again. I don't know why I even asked and he told me to stop talking. Then he had started talking under his breath saying girls shouldn't be out so late. You shouldn't have been alone this late. Look what you're doing to me, dressed like a slut and other derogatory things as he kept saying these terrible things. I wasn't even responding. I was just crying and trying to think past the fear that I was feeling. I remembered the pair of handcuffs that I'd seen under the papers beneath my feet. So I used that little, I don't know how to describe it, like scoopy motion. I managed to use my feet to scoop the handcuffs and use my heels and toes to push them under the bottom of my seat as far as I could. I was thinking of different things I could do to try to help myself. Like if we were close enough to some upcoming lights or structures, I could just grab the wheel and cause us to crash into them. Or maybe if I got lucky enough for a cop to pass us, I could grab the wheel and swerve so he would appear to be a drunk driver and we'd get pulled over. I guiltily thought about the possibility that this man was just having a weird night and how if I did anything, it would hurt him. But I told myself that that sort of thinking is what got me into this mess. He pulled off the road where there were still woods on both sides of us. On his side the wooded trees were closer to the road. On mine there was a small gap fully covered in thick snow before trees thickly piled up maybe 10, 16 yards away. He turned off the car and coldly said that there was something wrong with the car and to get out with him. As he grabbed the keys and was stepping out of the car, I grabbed onto the center console and cried and pleaded, not wanting to get out with him because it was too cold. He turned around to face me, his door still open, and he shouted at me to get out of the car because we had to go check out the trunk bed hatch. I dug my fingernails deeper into the console, thinking that my cries and head shaking would cause him to come around to my side of the car and drag me out himself. I was crying and said, please John, I'm so cold and scared. I was thinking of everything I ever heard. Humanize yourself, use first names. He stared at me in this way I can't even describe it in this day I don't even know how to start. He got back in the car and I sling toward my window, scared that he would drag me over the console. He turned off the headlights and everything just looked dark blue. He stared at the steering wheel for what felt like years before, lighting a cigarette and looking out his window back at me and then back out his window. He heard me shuffle my feet on the newspapers. I was just adjusting my legs. But while still staring out his window he told me that if I thought about running, he had a quick way to get me where he wanted me. And oddly enough I was sort of thinking of running. Minutes before that but reasoned that if he wanted me out of the car then I should definitely stay in. Otherwise he would chase me or shoot me. I'm glad I was right. I think at that point I had sort of hit some sort of bottom of my reserve and instead of panic there was just numbness and exhaustion. There was still an occasional hot tear or two, but I just remember being numb. I talked to a psychiatrist about this sort of thing and he thinks it just came from my ex boyfriend's giving me ptsd. It was dead quiet, but I finally just barely audibly told him that my friend was still waiting for me and then asked about his wife and children. He then flatly said that he didn't have a wife or children and that his house was empty. I asked him what he was thinking about and he said I thinking of what to do with you. He didn't say it angrily, he just said it flatly and coldly which sort of scared me more. I did start getting worked back up to a cry at that point and he told me not to cry and turned the car on, offering me some heat. I just cried and said I wanted to go home. Eventually he had started driving and he kept driving until we were approaching a gas station. I was gauging the right time to reach for the wheel but before I could he started slowing down. While pulling up. He told me not to tell anyone or who would find me. Then he told me all he was doing was teaching me a lesson not to hitchhike with strangers. He was almost coming to a complete stop when he told me to get out before he changed his mind. Before he could even get another look at me to assess my understanding, I was already down out of the truck and sprinting toward the gas station. The panic was overwhelming me, but then I stopped and remembered to try and see his license plate. I turned around but only caught the blur of the last three numbers as he was driving off. I ran inside and I asked the clerk behind the counter to please call the police. I waited until the officer got there and I'll be honest, I was a little scared it would be John. My fears melted away when the new faced policeman got there. I gave him the description of John, his appearance, the vehicle, color and type, the parts of license plate that I had caught, the fact that he said that he was an off duty cop, just basically anything I could. I asked him if he could look at the camera and the officers disappeared in the back for a little bit, then came back saying that there was nothing on them. I asked if I would be able to look and the officer said no and asked me if I didn't trust him. I told him of course I did. The officer gave me a ride to my friends, lecturing me for hitchhiking, consisting of him repeatedly asking if I knew who Ted Bundy was. Of course I knew. I was just naive to think that it could never happen to me and I was desperate for some warmth. I never heard anything back about the report that was made, so I tried to follow up and each time I did, they never got back to me. Aside from this one time I was told my case number didn't even exist, but that didn't stop me from trying to follow up. Throughout the months and years. I asked my friend if she ever heard of any weirdness or anything since that incident had happened, whether to her or anyone up there. As she always says no. So I sort of let it go and just tried to tell myself that maybe he actually was just trying to teach me a lesson or something. I mean, I definitely never hitchhiked again, so it was a lesson. It certainly worked. I never heard anything back having to do with the case. I never heard of any other odd experiences up there. Maybe it was just one man trying to teach me something, but honestly, sometimes I think to tell myself that to help me sleep better at night. It all felt really real. Even if it wasn't real. I'm really glad that I didn't get out of the car in the woods that night.
- [14:14]
Advertiser
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.
- [15:09]
Storyteller
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.
- [28:34]
Advertiser
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.
- [29:29]
Storyteller
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.
- [41:52]
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- [43:18]
Storyteller
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.
- [43:48]
Advertiser
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