this is definitely not as intense as some of the other stories i’ve read but it still freaks me out to think about. this happened when i was in elementary school. the school i went to was very strict and had a very particular set of rules. one of the rules was that no child was allowed to leave the school on their own and absolutely had to be picked up by a parent. the school provided each parent with a laminated card that had their child’s full name and grade on it. the school was heavily gated so someone would stand at the entrance and let parents in as long as they showed them one of those cards. once inside the school, the parent would find their child sitting on the grass with everyone else and be able to leave with them through a different entryway with another person making sure you have both the card and the child. on this particular day, my mom was taking a bit longer than usual to pick me up but i thought nothing of it and just sat on the grass talking to some friends until she got there. all of a sudden, i noticed a woman i had never seen before sort of waving in my direction trying to get my attention. at first i thought she was talking to someone else until i realized there was nobody else that close to me. i pointed at myself in confusion and she nodded. i didn’t get up but she instead came up to me and said something along the lines of “hi sweetie! i’m your moms friend, she asked me to come pick you up today.” being as i’d never seen this woman in my life, i was immediately skeptical. i asked her “where’s my card?” and as soon as i said this her smile dropped, she looked around, and walked away extremely fast. the gates around the school were very wide so i could see out into the street super easily. i watched as this woman sped walked to the back of the school which was not as heavily guarded, and eventually i caught sight of her getting into an old beaten up van with an older man. she did not have a child with her and i have no idea how she managed to get in without someone checking her. my mom picked me up about 3 minutes after this happened and when i told her she immediately met with the principal and the next week i noticed the back part of the school being just as guarded as the front where most parents picked up their children. i know exactly what that woman’s intentions were and think back to this every now and then. i truly hope she’s remained unsuccessful in any other attempts she may have had to lure children her way. to the woman who attempted to take me from my elementary school and that man waiting for her in that old beaten van, let’s not meet.

This story isn't as dramatic as the other ones on the sub, but it was incredibly terrifying for me to experience. It happened to me yesterday late in the afternoon. I had just finished buying some snacks from the gas station when a man approached me as I was walking home. It was dark out so the only thing I could make out was that he was about two inches taller than me, had a green jacket with a hood on, and had fair skin.

He asks me what's in my backpack. I try walking away but he grabs my bag and refuses to let me go. He demands I hand him the bag. I tried my best to plead with him, saying that he could have the food inside it of he was hungry. He didn't care. He kept fighting me for the bag. I did my best holding my ground and putting up a fight. Several drivers sped past me and none of them bothered to stop and help me. I was all alone on a dark and empty sidewalk. This gas station was in a pretty ghetto part of town. Bunch of drug addicts and violent people. I used to lived there so I knew that cops were regularly called into that neighborhood. I'm glad I managed to escape that environment 2 years ago.

Eventually, the man removes his hand from his pocket and I start fearing for the worst. I almost expected him to pull out a knife but thankfully it was only his fist. He begins banging hard against my fists to the point to they bleed. I couldn't take it anymore so I handed him the bag and watched him run off. There was only some chips and juice in there so it's not like I lost anything super valuable.

I walked through entire way home constantly looking over my shoulder in case that bastard came back for more. I didn't call the police because I knew nothing would be done about it. I barely even had a description of the guy so they wouldn't really have anything to go off of. I'm currently at work with a bandaged hand, trying my best to get through the day despite the pain. I hope the guy who did all this ends up messing with the wrong person and gets the hell beaten out of him. I wish I never went to that neighborhood. I wish I had stayed home.

I just want to start by saying, this is my story. I live with my grandparents since im not old enuf to live alone. This happened around the time of halloween of this year. I was out shopping in my local store when a man came up to me wearing a scream mask (again, halloween wasnt far away so i didn't think that much of it. I was slightly uncomfy tho). He started small talk and asked my name, where im from ect.. I eventually stopped the small talk since i was slightly uncomfortable and it was getting late anyways. When i wanted to leave, he kept pushing me about staying amd talking to him, which i obviously denied. He stopped pushing me and walked away, mumbling something under his breath (i didnt hear it). The days after that were normal but about a week later around the 29th of i started getting letters from some random person. (This should've raised some red flags for me, idk why it didnt) I ignored it and went on with my day. The letters didn't stop, instead i received stuff like chocolate, gummy bears and other kinds of sweets (which i didnt keep nor eat, just in case it had stuff in it) and once i even received a plush bear (i also didnt keep that coz i was paranoid that it had cameras in it or smth). A week and a half after Halloween, the letters still have not stopped. At night, the doorbell rang and i went up to get my grandpa since it scared me. My grandpa went to open the door but the person had hid/run away since noone was outside. I went back to bad and so did my grandpa. I couldn't sleep the rest of the night and spent it watching my window just in case (My room is on the right of the entrance door and my window faces the same way as the front door). It happened again a few nights after that but one night, we (my grandpa) opened the door and there was the same guy from the mall, wearing a scream mask. To this day, i dont know where he got my address from, i didn't tell him. He was talking to my grandpa for a while about me until we threatened to call the police. He ran away and i never saw him again after that. Not in the mall, not in front or near my house. The letters and presents also stopped after that.

Excuse my english, its not my first language.

I never wanted to become involved with this guy in the first place. It's one of my weirdest and upsetting experiences ever - and I'm a senior citizen now.

My parents, especially my mother, fought me tooth and nail and basically helped this guy stalk me! I've never quite figured out why. "You're making the biggest mistake of your life," she sobbed. (No way. Even thinking about him still makes my skin crawl.)

It might have been a control thing - "Ah, she thinks she's going to get away from us. She thinks she's gonna do whatever she wants and we can't do anything about it. Ohoho, well. We're friends with Rich, and after they're married he and we will be taking care of what goes in and out of her head for the rest of her life!"

Anyway, here's what happened. I got even by sending him to hell. Etiquette Hell. Here's my story as I posted it there years ago.

https://www.etiquettehell.com/content/eh_everyday/dating/dating.shtml

This happened in 1978, but I may never recover. If it had happened in the era of stalker awareness I would have been terrified!

First some back story...I was adopted, which isn't a bad thing, except that my parents had wanted a Perfect Dream, Barbie Doll, Daughter and I was supposed to live out their script. They were very controlling, and coupled with alcohol abuse, by the time I was a teen the breach was so bad I wasn't living in their house most of the time. I'd try to move back and fix things but it never worked. What finally broke my back was a guy I'll call "Rich."

Rich called my house one afternoon and asked for a date. I told him I didn't know him (true) and that I wasn't allowed to date (also true). He seemed annoyed because I didn't know who he was. "I'm on the student council. I am head of our Junior Achievement Club." (Big deal so what.)

I asked how he got my number because it was unlisted and he said he volunteered in the school office and pulled my number from student records. That should have been my first clue, but remember I was only 15. Any way, I told him no and hung up, thinking this was the end of it.

The next day I get home from school and find mom all excited. She's gotten a call from El Creepo AND his mother, and was sooooo impressed that she decided I could go out with him. His mom was going to pick us up and bring me home, so it was okay. I told her I didn't even know the guy, but she thought this was soooo sweet that he had his mother introduce him.

We went out for pizza and a movie, and I thought he was a nice enough guy, but I really wasn't interested in him. However, he decided this one date meant I was his girlfriend now. He was aided and abetted in this by my mother, who thought he was "perfect" and "just what we always wanted for you."

Explaining to her that I wasn't interested in him just brought up a monologue about what a great guy he was, what a good family he comes from, why would I rather be home reading a book than out having a good time. (Telling her I didn't have a good time didn't compute in her brain)

I never got to see my other friends because he was monopolizing all my time. Weekends I had to go to his house for dinner and watch TV. First we watched "The Love Boat" then we watched "Fantasy Island" and I had to endure his siblings running around the living room flapping their arms and yelling "the plane the plane" - (I wish I was making this up.) On Saturday and Sunday we played Atari at his house. At least he had good games. Sunday mornings, as soon as Rich wakes up, he calls me.

I tried telling him I wasn't interested in a relationship and I didn't want to see him anymore. He started to freaking CRY. I had to shake his hands off me. While I was walking home he called mom in tears "to tell her goodbye...." and "I guess I just didn't love her enough...." and the psycho blasted me when I walked in the door for being so mean to this sweet guy.

He quickly learned the way to force me out on dates was to ask in front of her because she would roll over any excuse I came up with. He began trying to get rid of my friends by complaining that "they don't like me" (true) and asked mom to make sure they weren't invited over when he was there. My friends either didn't like him or were a bad influence on me.

He griped about my clothes and makeup. He hated lipstick especially. I told my mom, thinking she'd agree how STUPID this was, but when I got dressed for school the next day she blew up. "What are you doing with that makeup on? Rich told you he doesn't like that! You get in there and wash your face!" I was flabbergasted, but said hell no to both of then and wore whatever I liked. He'd scowl and screw his face up into the ugliest sneers, saying I "look like a streetwalker." (Over lipstick, eye shadow and mascara!)

"A girl your age has no business wearing a bikini. That top is too low-cut. Why don't you show some self-respect?" (I was the flattest of flat-chested girls!)

I wish he'd been really abusive, because then my parents would have agreed to get rid of him. But he was an honor student, from a good family, not a troublemaker. At school the teachers liked him and although the other kids thought he was a number one nerd, didn't bully him because he stomped everybody's behind academically. I don't know why he fixated on me, maybe because I was the shyest kid in school. He never hit me or was verbally abusive, I just couldn't peel him off.

Christmas was the worst. He gave me a list: this is what he wants for Christmas, this is what his sister wants for Christmas, this is what his mother wants for Christmas! He expected me to buy gifts for his family! I wasn't even planning to get him anything, and he wanted an Atari game. We couldn't afford an Atari system for ourselves, but mom of course buys it for him. She gets everything on the list and tells me to hush because they're getting me something too. I asked Rich for a gift certificate to the bookstore but his mom says gift certs are tacky. They will get me a real gift. So I'm thinking something cool.

He gets me, I kid you not, a set of lady's handkerchiefs. I saw them 2 for 5 bucks at K-Mart! After he demanded an Atari game! His sister gets me nothing. His mom buys me a football jersey (I am not a football fan) like the one Rich wears. Mom goes ga-ga saying how cute that we'll match, and be sure to wear it next Friday so they'll see how much I like it. I quietly throw it away.

I blasted my parents for manipulating and interfering and moved out again. They gave Rich my new address and phone number. I moved and changed numbers again and didn't give them the number. He had mom go to one of my friends and wheedle it out of her. I almost got fired from a job because he wouldn't stop calling me. He waited for me outside the door of my work and followed me, begging and crying. He followed another guy I was dating and tried to convince him we were engaged. I called the cops but they said he wasn't breaking any laws and even lectured me for "not being forceful enough."

Sometimes he would disappear for a few months but always turned up again. My roommate came home from work one day to find him mowing the lawn at the duplex we were renting! At this time the word stalking didn't exist, or I would have been terrified.

The harassment ended only when I moved out of town!!! I went back for a family funeral and found he had gone to pay respects and introduced himself to everyone as my boyfriend! ICK! I told everyone if they told him where I was living I'd shoot them first and him second! I never went to my high school reunions because I was afraid of seeing him there.

I wonder sometimes if he ever got married. I feel sorry for the girl if he did. Rich - LET'S NOT MEET!!!!!

Writing this so hopefully no one else has to deal with this flea of a human, it’s gonna be a wild ride so grab your popcorn and get comfy.

So back in June 2022 I met ‘Wilton Wallace’ on Hinge. I’m from Victoria, Australia - he was from Queensland but was working in Victoria and was 28 at the time (I was 24). We hit it off and within a day of chatting he asked to meet me in the city for drinks, he seemed friendly and cute so why not get dressed up and give him a chance? Funnily enough my spidey senses were tingling already but I just thought it was usual nerves of a first date. I should have trusted my gut but he hadn’t given me any red flags yet..

He met me at Flinders Street Station, first impression was he dressed really nice, suit and long coat, clearly took pride in his looks. Instantly he was super affectionate, way more than I’m used to. He kissed my cheek, picked me up, squeezed the crap of me and we were hand in hand from the get go. Although I was taken aback, he was of Brazilian descent and I know their culture can be quite forward. I wasn’t overly alarmed but this was within 10 seconds of meeting 😅

So we decide to go for drinks and he recommends a very well known fancy bar. I’m just a nurse so way above my pay grade but he said would like to cover the whole night. It become apparent very quickly he’s super chivalrous, charming and a sweet talker. It felt like a soppy 2000’s rom com, I can’t lie.

He was super open about his life, and because he was, so was I. We had so much in common and everything just felt right. It makes me want to gag now I know the real him… If it feels too good to be true, it probably is.

Basically the ‘life story’ he threw up all over me was that he was born in Brazil, his parents had a family business and were well off but lost it somehow, think he said his dad died, RIP dad. His mum couldn’t afford to care for him and his 4 sisters alone so she gave him up for adoption and he moved to Portugal. I guess he was the runt of the litter because she kept the 4 girls.

So he grew up in Portugal from about 5 until he was 17 when he decided to move back to his biological mother. He said his Portuguese family were lovely but incredibly religious and he didn’t like the constraints, arranged marriage, no boinking before marriage type deal.

So at 17 he moves back to Brazil and builds his relationship with his biological mother and eventually he decided to move to Australia. He moved over to study some aerodynamic bullshit degree for some career I don’t give a flying fuck about. Fast forward 11 years to 2022 and now he works in Queensland as some manager for shipping companies and flies to and from Melbourne for work every few weeks.

Now you’re up to speed with that crock of shit, let’s get back to the date. I had a traumatic upbringing (neglect, poverty, raised by grandparents and so on), so hearing all that really touched me, the man had me in the palm of his slimy hands. I felt at times he was cocky and had an ego on him but he even mentioned he can come across cocky and reassured me that’s how some people perceive him but he’s not at all (so clearly someone’s pulled him up for being an arrogant twat before). The date is progressing and we’re having huge dnms, he was ticking so many boxes.

We spoke about how I love to dance and always wanted to learn salsa so he suggested a studio that does weekend night classes, but it had sold out. So he asked if I’d go back to his place, just to ‘hang out’ 🤦🏼‍♀️ idk what this man put in my drink (not literally just fyi) but my common sense was gone. I told him I needed to go home before midnight and was only coming over to talk, anyway we get to his apartment and like the scene from ‘crazy stupid love’ he lights candles, puts on salsa music, pours a heavy glass of red for us and asks if he can teach me how to salsa in his tiny living room. Like, was I Kate Hudson in how to lose a guy in 10 days?

I oblige because my fanny flutters are in full control of my functioning at this point. We end up making out and things get hot and heavy but I stuck to my guns and didn’t let him past my chastity belt. Don’t get me wrong, I have had one night stands before but I had turned a new leaf and my rule was now 3 dates minimum. Long story short but not short at all, we ended up falling asleep together and I was full clothed, how about that. We woke up the next morning and he took me out for breakfast before ordering me an uber home… Keep in mind that was the one and only time I physically met him and it was PG rated…

A few days later things were getting weird. he started making grandiose gestures and love bombing. Without asking he bought me lingerie (he didn’t know my size and had never seen me in lingerie), he bought me jewellery for my birthday just 1 week after we met and then the grand prize - an all inclusive holiday to QUEENSLAND. I said yes because ‘yolo’, right? Like literally, I might die but at least my tombstone would say I was living my best life.

He told me on the trip we’d go to private restaurant his friend owns, a helicopter ride, and a cruise on a yacht, amongst a bunch of other completely insane things. He paid for the flights and told me not to bring lingerie because he had that covered 🤮 My red flag alarms were going off at this point, like is he a sugar daddy or am I about to be trafficked in the lingerie and jewellery he just bought me? Think about it… Dude works for a shipping company, perfect way to ship me off to the market.

So at this point my stomach is turning and I’m getting sus. I realised I hadn’t really done much digging on him and if I was going interstate with this schmoozy wet sock I needed to know everything. I spent hours with my housemate investigating. His facebook was on total lockdown (this was before you could lock your profile) and his insta had no signs of family. He barely had any tagged photos with people and the photos he did have were from years ago in Brazil. All the photos he had were just him solo and travelling, so I started questioning everything - was his name even Wilton Wallace??? Doesn’t sound Brazilian or Portuguese, sounds more like Donald Duck or Chucky Cheese to me.

So we searched his number on my bank app using PayID, low and behold ‘W Veiga Dos Santos’ comes up 🤯🤯 (changed for anonymity) I’m shitting bricks now, like who the fuck is this toenail I’ve been wasting my time with?! So I go deeper, I’m going through all of his insta followers looking for any remanence of him. I find a mutual in the deep dark cave I’ve got myself into and there it is - a group photo of him from around 2016, holding a Brazilian woman that looks about 35 and the comments mention ‘love you both, can’t wait to see you two again’. Couldn’t confirm if they were married but that’s where my money was…

I dig more and more to find who she is. I can’t find anything but I had a lead on what her name might be so I head to google and search both her name and his Veiga Dos I’m a fucking liar name… After sifting through countless pages I can’t read because they’re in Spanish and poorly translated - I find a settlement document. It was a civil dispute about a debt but both their full names were there. To my delight his full name in the case was Wilton Wallace Veiga Dos Santos. I don’t blame him for going by the easiest of the 5 name, but one truth doesn’t fix a truck of lies.

So now I’m thinking I’ve gone mad and overthinking, maybe he’s just divorced and doesn’t post a lot?? NOPE. Whilst doing our investigations I asked him to send his passport so my friends had his details ‘when I went to Queensland’, to be safe. He sends me his passport after hours of waiting and he had blacked out info and covered his face. Dumb fuck didn’t cover his date of birth well enough though because would you look at that - this absolute toad was born in 1986, making him 36!

Now, I saw through his bullshit but I wanted to flip the game for a little while, I had to do it for the plot. I confronted him about it, he made up some shit about how when he was registered in Portugal they stuffed up the date.. Didn’t know a 5 year old could look 13 but there you have it. Over the next few weeks he kept cancelling and changing Queensland plans days before each rescheduled flight, there was always another issue. I went along with it, I had no intention of going but wanted to see his cunning plot come to fruition.

Maybe it wasn’t trafficking, maybe he was going to magically lose all his money and get cancer and need my help to survive? And then I get a message that broke the camel’s back - his grandma in Portugal was sick so he had to fly there ASAP. I literally laughed when I read it. I was super short and apathetic with him, next day grandma died of a stroke, boo hoo.

Some may think my digging went a bit too far at this point but I ended up messaging the woman from the insta photo and legal document because I just had a horrible gut feeling there was more to all of this and I was sick of the games. It definitely felt like I was crossing a line but I had to know. She ended up messaging me back that she unfortunately did know him and wanted to tell me everything over the phone…

What she told me blew my fucking mind. Excuse my language but this C*NT was the biggest narcissistic, pathological lying, cheating scumbag I had ever had the displeasure of knowing.

He had lied about it all. He was 36, born and raised by his mum and dad in Brazil his entire life. He had brothers, not 4 sisters. He never lived in Portugal. Grandma was still alive and kicking. He studied social work and was now studing to become a physiotherapist, nothing to do with aerowhatever the fuck. I don’t even know what the shipping container place has to do with any of it (but he’d sent me insta stories of him ‘working’ there so that’s scary). He was the same charming suave man to his ex wife, who he married in Brazil and they moved to Queensland shortly after. As soon as they arrived he became, financially and emotionally abusive to her and refused to get a job. She worked and paid for the bills, his social work degree, random ‘business’ trips and whatever else this scumbag pretended he did.

(Side note, please do not try and find her, she would like to remain anonymous as she is scared of her ex-husband and what he is capable of)

After being in Queensland for 5 years, she got a message from a 24 year old Australian girl. (Same age I was at the time) and it turned out they’d been dating for 3 years. They’d met at uni and he’d been using her to do all his university work. She was told the same life story as me but the poor thing never questioned it, she believed the crap about his age too.

She realised through a mutual uni friend that saw a photo of him and said she thought he was married, thank fuck for that friend. So Wilton and his wife get divorced and the 24 year old kicks him to the curb but only a year later, another girl reaches out to his now ex-wife - same story: 24 year old Australian girl, told the same bullshit life story and believed it, they’d been together 4 years and he was using her to pay for his lifestyle and clothes. Two years go by, his ex wife just hoped he had finally come to his senses but afraid not, I was the third girl to reach out to her.

My guess is he’s still got a few girls on the go at a time, his plans probably kept changing because of them and one of them probably pays for his plane trips every few weeks. Fuck, the holiday, jewellery and lingerie was probably some other woman’s hard earned money as well.

Needless to say I was furious! I ended up ghosting him because that’s the best way to piss of a narcissist. He messaged me for weeks on text, insta, whatsapp and fb. Eventually I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. I told him I knew some things and he needed to come clean. I never mentioned what or how I knew but he said he’d be fully transparent and fly down to Melbourne to see me. He probably thought I knew 1% of the truth. I thought about actually seeing him and seeing what bullshit he’d come up with next but I was done -

I told him I was about 5 hours from the city, in a town that’s so small there’s only 1 train to get there a day. I said I couldn’t pick him up from the airport but he could stay a few days, I’d show him the real Australian country and I’d drive him back to the airport at the end of his visit.

So after catching 2 and half hour flight and sitting on a train for 5 hours to go to the middle of nowhere I asked him to send a photo of where he was so I could find him… He’d actually done it 😂 I was at home in my pyjamas watching a movie and he was at a train station in the rain, 5 fucking hours away from the airport and stuck until the next day! Pure gold! I can only imagine how pissed he would have been. I sent him a message I had ready and waiting for that exact moment. I waited for a reply so I knew he got it, then blocked the piece of shit on everything and never looked back.

So there ya go. Stay safe out there and always trust your instincts! Years ago I posted this on a Melbourne forum and unfortunately there were a lot of girls that had met him online or for a date but thankfully they all got the same vibes as me before it went too far. However, I was the only one crazy enough to find out who the scumbag really was!

I just hope he hasn’t been able to trick any more since my run in with him, and if they have been I hope they find out the truth.

If you somehow find this asshole on the streets or online do as you please… Just please don’t contact his ex wife for her protection 😇 Thanks for coming on this journey with me x

This happened over 10 years ago but I still think about how close I came to dying.

I was already with my future husband when I met his cousin. We had a lot in common. We’d both struggled with addiction and anorexia.

We’d talk on the phone and met up to eat and see a movie but he kissed me in his car so I decided it was best if we stopped talking. I told my future husband about the kiss and he was understanding.

I didn’t tell him that his cousin got extremely upset over me turning him down.

Sometime passed and we started meeting up as friends. Since we were both starving ourselves we always went to the same place but after a couple times I felt like it wasn’t healthy for either of us to meet up.

He asked me to meet up one last time and I stupidly said yes. We went to our place and during dinner he was talking about his apartment and job. How happy he could make me. I got uncomfortable and asked him to drive me home.

It was really late and instead of driving me home he drove to the forest preserve. It was pitch black because all the lights were off. I immediately felt uneasy.

We were alone in the parking lot and I had a horrible feeling at this point that something was going to happen. He parked and turned off his car then looked at me and said we were meant for each other I didn’t want to upset him so I just said that he knew I was engaged and that we were just friends. He had a history of violence so I was terrified.

He started getting really upset and almost crying he said that he loved me. Then he put his arm around my neck and held his arm down really hard on my right side of my neck. His arm was around my neck and I’d been looking straight ahead when suddenly I woke up to a police officer at his window.

He was asking if I was okay. I was really scared and confused. I had some vomit on my shirt and I’d wet my pants. He’d pressed down on my carotid artery for long enough that it knocked me out. He was a wrestler in hs.

He was telling the officer we were fine and that I was drunk. He got a ticket but I was too afraid to say anything because if he was arrested my now husband’s family wouldn’t have blamed me but that’s what I thought.

I said I was fine but that’s I wanted to go home now. I thought if I said it in front of the officer he would drive me home because he took our names and he wouldn’t risk trying something else.

So he drove me home and didn’t say anything. I don’t know if he was trying to kill me or just got so upset he went way overboard. Regardless he almost did kill me and it really fucked me up.A person doesn’t vomit and wet themselves after a neck compression unless they almost died.

I told my now husband but not right away because I felt like it was partly my fault for meeting up with him. I only saw him a couple more times at holidays and then he stopped coming. But he didn’t dare speak to me after what he did. If that officer hadn’t shown up I don’t know if I’d be here.

No narration requests please.

When I was about 19(F), I was on all kinds of dating apps because I had low self esteem and a real desire for connection. One day, I got a message on OkCupid from this guy we’ll call Brent. Brent had a lot of shared interests with me—video games and other nerdy hobbies—and seemed like a nice enough guy, so I decided to agree to meet for a date. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him in my mind so I just assumed it was the result of us living in a decently small city at the time.

The day of our date came and I got ready, making sure I looked presentable but not overdressed since he was taking me to Red Lobster (we were in college, so it didn’t seem like that bad a choice for broke kids on a first date).

When he showed up, though, he looked visibly dirty and much less well-groomed than any of his photos. Not one to judge, I wrote it off and tried to give the date a real chance. Then came strike number two. When I went to order chicken (not being a fan of seafood) he made a big public show of frustration. He was insistent that I should’ve ordered seafood since he specifically took us to a seafood restaurant. I explained I didn’t like seafood, and tried to deescalate the conversation. Obviously from then on the date was very awkward, but I was sure he felt mutually turned off (given his outburst) and assumed when it was over we would part ways pretty quickly. How wrong I was.

Instead, he walked me back to my car, suddenly very invested again in trying to maintain subtle physical contact with me, and acted as if we had just had the most wonderful evening. He kept making moves to kiss me which I somehow avoided, and eventually I managed to end the evening with a very awkward and prolonged series of goodbyes.

As soon as I got home, I had many, many texts waiting for me. I assumed he was going to be bitter about the seafood again or something, but instead it was a very passionate profession of feelings for me. He waxed poetic about how perfect we were for one another and how he couldn’t wait for another date.

I ignored his messages and went to bed, wanting to talk to my roommate in the morning about what to do. I was obviously not interested in pursuing him, but felt cruel just blocking him outright. I probably should have. It’s what my roommate suggested.

He began texting daily over the next couple of days, expressing how we were “statistically” perfect for each other (based on some quiz on the site where we had met) and he believed wholeheartedly we were logistically ideal as a match. I tried gently letting him down but he laughed it off and said he would help me understand someday. I really should have blocked him by then, but I am very much a pushover—even more so at that age.

During one such conversation about our supposedly inevitably future, he texted me that he was outside. Then, I heard knocking on my bedroom window. I absolutely panicked. I responded to ask what he was doing and he confessed very casually that he worked at my apartment complex doing maintenance and janitorial tasks. That is where I recognized him, I realized too late. As it turns out, he had recognized me from the moment he sent his message, and told me he had always known we would be together. That’s right: the date didn’t turn into him stalking me. He already had been.

I lost my cool and sent him a very long message full of venom and threats of what I would do if he didn’t leave me alone, and it didn’t work. He told me I was being silly and would come to understand soon. He told me it was inevitable and I was just being stubborn. He acted like I was denying the existence of gravity. He was so overly affectionate and so condescending regarding my refusals.

Of course. I blocked his number, but that only resulted in him coming to my window more regularly. I should’ve done this much sooner, but I eventually contacted my landlord. I did not contact the police, as I felt at the time it wasn’t “bad enough” to do so.

Thankfully the talk with my landlord slowed his activity significantly, and I moved not long after. Nothing more came of it, and it’s been over 10 years. So to my stalker date: let’s not meet.

This is a short story but it's still the scariest thing that happened to me as a child. I guess what's most chilling is I didn't realize how big of a threat it was until I was older.

This happened to me when I was 4 years old, living in Memphis, Tennessee. It was around 1990, and my mom had gotten me one of those kid sized electric cars that children can ride in, run on batteries. At that time, this toy was top of the line, rare, and I was ecstatic to get one. Because I was only 4, I don't really remember the specifics, or how I was allowed to ride the toy car on the streets, but I'm assuming there was an adult supervising me until maybe they were distracted or had to leave me momentarily.

From my memory, it was a suburban area with small streets and very light traffic. I don't remember if I was on the road or the sidewalk, but I ended up on a street a couple blocks away from my house. But I wasn't scared, I was just having a blast riding my new toy up and down the street. And then I remember a white van that came to a stop right next to me and a man leaned out the window and smiled at me. I remember it was a big old grin that showed all his teeth.

He then proceeded to talk to me, although I don't recall what he said. I also remember not being frightened because he was being nice. I just felt a little wary because an adult was speaking to me, but unaware that this man was a danger and I shouldn't be speaking to strangers. Then I remember the man getting out of his car and motioning me to come closer to him. I hesitated, not because I was afraid, but more because I didn't know what to do. I was taught to listen to adults, so I did start to move closer to him. He motioned me to come closer and started to head towards the back of his vehicle. When I didn’t move from my spot, he came closer and held out his hand. That was when a woman opened her front door and walked out. It was a house right in front of where I was standing. I don't think the woman's intention was to save me from this stranger, I think she just happened to leave the house then. Suddenly, I noticed the stranger head straight back to the driver's door, close it, and speed off. Honestly, I didn't think much of it because at that age, I never registered it as a threat. So I just got back in my toy car and drove back to my house, and I never told anyone in my family. Now as an adult, whenever my mind wanders to that day, I get shivers down my back. I think about the random woman who probably saved my life just by walking out her front door, and how different my life would be, or if I’d still be alive. I can't imagine what that man would have done to me if he was able to kidnap me, but I have no doubt that was his intention.

As a child, you are afraid because you don't know the horrors that await you; as an adult, you're terrified because you do. To the man in the van, let’s not meet again, ever.

Hi guys, this is my mom's story. She finally felt like she wanted to share it with the world, even though she’s always tried to forget it. She narrated the story to me so I could share it here. Hope you like it.

This happened to me in the early 80's when I was about 14 or 15 years old.

I lived on a quiet street in the suburbs of my city, in a small place you wouldn't call the country side, but close, in a Spanish island of the Atlantic Ocean. It was known locally back then that little girls started disappearing more often, but it wasn’t yet a topic of conversation between the towns and neighborhoods.

Most of my friends lived in the city, so I would often take the bus to go meet them. That day at around 5 or 6 pm, I decided to start walking to the bus stop, since I was going to meet my friend that evening. The bus stop wasn’t actually that far from my house, maybe a half a mile in distance. It was located on a quiet street with few cars or people around & lined with old streetlamps that flickered even in the daylight. I had taken this route so many times that I didn’t really think anything of it. When I got there the street was dead and had no cars or nobody to be seen around, so I just stood up for a few minutes waiting for my bus.

A while later a white van slowly approached my direction and started slowing down right next to the bus stop. I didn't think much of it... like maybe they were just parking or looking for something. But then two men got out and started walking towards me. One of them looked normal enough, but the other man caught my attention because his face was kind of deformed, with one hollow eye socket where his left eye should’ve been. His other eye locked onto mine, and the intensity of his gaze made me freeze on the spot.

Before I could even process what was happening, they had a hold of me. One grabbed my arm with a grip so tight it felt like my bones were gonna snap, and the other wrapped his arm around my waist, dragging me towards the van. Neither of them said a word, although to be honest, their silence was worse than anything they could’ve said.

I started screaming and kicking as hard as I could but there was literally nobody I could see around. I remember I even started yelling "fire, fire!", since my mom had told me it was like a code for people who were getting abducted. It really was a horrible feeling seeing myself getting pulled closer to the van knowing I couldn't do anything to avoid it.

They shoved me into the van, and as I landed on the floor, I saw a third man with a bandana covering his face and a Doberman that were staring at me with a disgusting creepy face that still haunts me to this day. It was in that moment that I started to think that no one would help me or even hear me at all.

I started struggling and fighting back and I kind of managed to get them off me for a second, but they kept grabbing me and pulling me back in. I remember this distinctive metallic smell inside the van, like rust or maybe blood.

I felt like probably the luckiest person on Earth when, out of nowhere, my older brother showed up. He didn’t live with us at the time, so coincidently he was probably visiting us that day; I don't really remember why he was there.

He started yelling and throwing punches at the men. In the struggle, they let go of me and I managed to pull myself free and back away. The men seemed to be caught off guard. After a few seconds of fighting, they ran back to their van, slammed the doors, and sped off.

Right after that moment we ran home and I started crying in desperation. The walk home was hard, since my legs were shaking non-stop. I felt overwhelmed and couldn't really process what just happened to me. People who have experienced something similar to this know how shocked and paranoid you start feeling after this.

We reported it to the police later that night, but they didn’t do much. Things like this weren’t taken very seriously back then.

To those men: let’s never, ever meet again.

This felt truly like something from a horror movie. I am posting this to look for possible answers of closure. I have since told the police about this and the police asked me why I didn’t call them as it was happening.

Me and my friend were in a dark car park by a lake in my city. The lake is surrounded by various car parks and trees. The closer you get to the lake, the further you are from the main road which takes you out of the wooded area. My friend and I were parked 5m from the lake with the car facing the lake. We were sat there listening to music and chatting for 10 minutes, with me in the drivers seat but the ignition off, when all of a sudden my friend who was looking out my driver side window says to me “is that a man standing there?”. I laugh and look ahead and all I see is the dark lake in front of me and say “No!” But he points his finger at my drivers side window and I turn my head and see a man with a (cat?) mask covering the top half of his face standing 10m away staring at me not moving. I immediately am extremely freaked out. The way he was standing and staring at us through the mask was so unnerving. I immediately start my car as quick as I could to which this man starts running towards my drivers side door at full speed. Thankfully my doors were locked and he stood no chance against my car but just as we breathed a small sigh of relief that the car was now moving we see a white Ute following closely behind my car. Now as I’ve mentioned we are in this wooded area with dirt roads and several turns which I was not familiar with. Each turn we made (which were all wrong turns unfortunately) the car would follow us. We were screaming the whole way and not sure what they wanted from us. Eventually the worst thing that possibly could have happened happened. And I make the wrong turn in a dead end car park. And the white Ute parks on an angle essentially blocking me in. At this point I’m genuinely fearing for my life and the masked man appears from the forest coming at my car QUICK. I drive around nearly hitting him and manage to weasel past the Ute parked on an angle. I finally drove out of there going the right way and getting onto the main road.

The scariest part to me now is wondering what they wanted from us. It felt like more than a prank considering the whole car pursuit and attempt to block us in. I don’t know what kind of weapons they had in their car.

I thought it was possibly an attempted car jacking but if that was the case I feel like there would have been more efficient means of doing so.

Surprisingly this is one of those stories I forgot about until a few days ago, when I was talking to a school friend on call and I got reminded of this. She was pretty freaked when I told her and I got recommended to put it here, so here I am lol

This happened when I was roughly maybe seven or eight so some of the details are fuzzy, but i remember it pretty vividly. This may seem like unimportant context but my family had just moved to America and were renting the top portion of your regular suburban house in a pretty safe cul-de-sac.

I had friends (they were triplets) about three or four houses down. Not far at all. Every day i’d go hang out with them, and around nine or ten in the night, my older brother (around eleven or twelve I’d say) would make the two minute walk and come get me and walk me home since I was pretty young.

One night he came to get me as usual. The sun wasn’t fully down but it was getting pretty dark. We started down the walk as normal when he started casting glances over his shoulder.

I didn’t really notice until he shoved me hard away from the sidewalk and between two houses. Each house had a huge fence that separated their backyard (not ours, though) and he made me crouch behind the fence. I remember being really scared, but more so confused since I had no damn idea what the hell was going on. More specifically he was a pretty big prankster (once he convinced me my older sister crashed her car into the ocean) so I didn’t really believe him when he turned and said “walk behind the houses. I think someone’s following us.”

Looking back now, he was probably trying to keep me calm. However whatever ‘calm’ was left in my tiny eight year old body was gone the moment I turned around and looked.

The man had followed us behind the houses, and he was just by the edge of a few houses down near a different fence line. He had a black hoodie on (with the hood up) black sweatpants, and white sneakers. I have pretty bad eyesight now due to some health problems, but back then it was crystal clear. And I could see, with horrifying clarity, that his jaw was hung open.

Like he was just standing there. With his jaw hung open. It was horrifying. I think now that i’m older maybe he had some kind of medical condition that affected his jaw. Or maybe he did crack. I dunno. But back then I could’ve sworn on god I was seeing some kind of demon.

Anyway, my brother, when he saw me looking and getting ready to freak out, told me to “just run” as fast as i can to our house. We booked it. Neither of us looked back, but we were scared out of our minds. Like i said, we only rented the top portion of the house So the bottom (with the sliding door in the backyard) belonged to the some other tenant. I don’t remember if she was home or not, but I remember tugging that thing open and locking it as fast as I can. And when I looked up, he was there in the yard, a little way away from the door. Staring at us.

Me and my brother told my sister and my mother immediately (my father was away on a work trip) but nothing came of it. Not until the day after.

We went to go meet my dad at his warehouse, which had a small live-in portion above it where we lazed around until he was ready to head home with us. Around dusk, he came up and told us we might have to wait since the police were here. He walked us around to the back window of the small area to show us police all around the backyard area of the warehouses (there a few in a line) to a white van parked on the grass by the edge of the woods.

Like i said i was pretty young, so i don’t remember many details of what actually happened, but i do remember my dad (who hadn’t been told about the day prior) telling us that they found a man and a woman in the van. The man, he said, had his mouth hung wide open.

He seemed really disturbed telling me about the whole thing and wouldn’t answer any more questions about the woman. Maybe she was dead. I’ve got zero idea. I do know they were arrested on trespassing charges.

I don’t know anything else, and I haven’t asked about it and I doubt he’d remember (it’s been over a decade and he’s pushing 70) but it freaks me out to this day. I still can’t believe it happened and I don’t have any answers for it. I talked to my brother briefly about it in hopes he remembered more than I do, but all I got was a long tirade about whatever medical condition the guy probably had for his mouth to be like that (he’s a annoying medical student now). Sometimes I think maybe he didn’t mean any harm and was just drugged out of his mind, but this was like in the world’s safest neighborhood and doesn’t explain why or HOW he showed up at my dads workplace.

edit: if anyone is curious, i asked around a little for more information. i wasn’t able to find a lot, but i found out why my father moved away from that warehouse: the police found a dead body in a car near us. im not sure if this is the same van or not or when that happened, but take that as you will!

This is going to be short because I don't want to provide too much information.

Years ago, I met a man at work. I worked in a very large organization and had a few encounters with a man who made it clear that he had a crush, but I made it clear that nothing would ever happen. I never saw him again for years.

One day, I was parked outside of a restaurant and as I was leaving, someone began running toward my car with an angry expression. I realized that it was the weird guy that I hadn't seen in years. I quickly started my car and left.

Months later, I was leaving my house when a car suddenly turned sideways in front of me blocking me. I realized that the driver was the weird guy and he was frantically waving and screaming that I HAD to talk to him. I had to drive on thr grass to get away.

After doing some research, I realized that he had stalked me for years since the brief encounters at work and had moved next door to me, on purpose.

I was around 17 at the time, this was a few years ago and I was working in Topman. There was a sale on and as you can imagine it was chaotic. I worked in a rough area in London but I’d lived around there for years so nothing really phased me. It’s notorious for gang activity and stabbings but it was still home. I usually worked alone in my side of the shop, topshop being on the other side. I was frantic at the tills processing purchases and a man came to the desk and looked distressed, he must’ve been in his 50s, had a black puffer coat and joggers on. “I’ve lost my phone” he said, pointing to the sale rack to the right of the store. I followed him as he walked over to the rack, it was 2 racks of clothes pushed quite close to each other. I looked under the racks and there it was, his phone was placed perfectly in the middle of the racks, there was no way it could’ve fallen like that. I picked it up and passed it to him. “Thank you so so much my angel, my angel, my angel” he said, seeming very theatrical with his actions. “It’s okay no problem” I said as I turned to go back to the till. “How can I repay you?” He asked as I turned. “You really don’t have to, it only took a second” I said smiling, he then asked me what time I finish work. I lied and said 3 o clock, even though I was on close that day and at this point it was around 10am. “I’ll see you after work” he said, with a straight face as he walked out of the shop. I shrugged it off and continued my long chaotic shift.

It came to closing time, around 8pm. My colleagues and I were locking up and started to leave together. As I got out of the doors, I noticed him, the same man as earlier, sat on the bench looking at us. I started to follow my colleagues (I was pretty quiet and didn’t really socialise much with them) and I was trailing behind. The guy gets up and says to me that he wants to take me for a drink to thank me, I explained I had to get back and I was actually 17 so I couldn’t drink, I turned to walk away and he grabs my arm, ushering me down an alleyway insisting I come for a drink. I looked down the alleyway to see a blacked out SUV with a guy holding the door open. I tried to pull away from him and he grabbed my arm again. This was on a high street with loads of shops around so there were a few people around. I was still trying to be nice to him as I declined multiple times as my naive 17 year old self was, until his face dropped and he pulled me towards the alleyway. Fight or flight then finally kicked in and I threw myself on the floor. He let go and I sprinted to the bus stop.

I told my then boyfriend and he came and picked me up from the bus stop. I don’t know why but I never called the police or anything. I told my mum and couple years later and she told me how serious it was. For some reason it never really occurred to me and I brushed it off previously.

Thankfully nothing serious happened that night.

Going through this subreddit made me remember a time I was so close to being killed by an armed drunk driver back in 2020. Somehow so much has gone on in my life that I almost completely forgot it happened.

In 2020, I was still living with my parents back in Texas, and during the whole COVID era, we didn't have many things we could do for fun. However, to change things up a bit, my parents proposed that we camp out in our backyard together. I was completely up for the idea and loved camping. Up until dinner we were all really set on camping outside but then my sister spoke up and said she felt sick and didn't want to sleep outside, so we all ended up staying inside and going to sleep around 11 pm.

The place we were about to camp in was to the left of our house in this weird area of our yard that lined up with a kind of T section of the road. Occasionally we've heard kids late at night speeding through the neighborhood but never thought it would affect us other than making us lose some sleep from the sound.

At around 12:30, the sound of a car swerving and a sickening crack woke me up. I didn't really know what to think of it and in my groggy state just chalked it up to be another one of the loud kids driving their cars. A few minutes later though my parents yelled feverishly for me and my sister to come downstairs.

Knowing that they rarely used that tone I sprinted downstairs, my sister at my heels, and we came to my parents who were on the phone with the police and were on the porch looking at a surreal scene below: a car that had plowed through our fence in the same exact place we were planning on camping.

The man in the car turned on his light for some reason and I finally saw the person who absolutely demolished half of our yard and our fence with his car. He was skinny with dark hair and looked to be in his 20s. I remember my dad saying not to say anything to him as he and my mom tried to get information from him gently, calling to him from the porch above him. He finally acknowledged our existence after a bit and got out of his car, and started staggering in our direction, yelling unintelligible things drunkenly.

Luckily before anything could happen the police hopped out of their car and sat him down to just speak to him since he wasn't being openly violent yet, just completely drunk. While one police officer was talking to the man, the other searched his car and found a loaded gun in the passenger seat. I didn't know about the gun until the morning when my parents told me that the police talked to them after I went back to bed.

Me and my family could have been plowed over by that car that I later learned was going over 90 MPH, I could have been shot if he saw us as a threat.

So, X, lets please not meet (though I really want to know what happened to you because I can't find reports online from the incident)

[No narration requests please]

You read the title right. I hate to claim anyone is exaggerating a disability without hard proof, but the evidence was pretty damning, as you’ll read shortly.

When I was younger (18 or 19F) I lived in an apartment with my former best friend—another girl the same age.

One day when both of us had the day off of work, we returned to the apartment from running an errand and found our neighbor (40s M) standing in the hallway and looking troubled. We hadn’t spoken to him before, but he lived diagonally across the hall from us so we were familiar with him. We knew he lived there with his wife, and given that he occasionally used a cane on his walks to guide himself when he was alone, we knew he was visually impaired. This is important later.

He approached us and explained he had locked himself out of his apartment and that his wife wasn’t answering her phone and he didn’t know when she would be back. He then asked if he could come into our apartment to wait for her.

I know at this point you may be wondering why we let him in—which we did. The answer is simply that we were young and, despite admittedly both giving each other hesitant looks, we were too naïve to say no. We felt bad he was stuck, and we assumed with two of us and one of him we could be safe if he tried something.

He comes into our apartment at this point and immediately, despite being in a new environment, was much more capable of navigating than we assumed he would be. I chalked this up to his unit being similar and perhaps my own implicit bias, as I wasn’t particularly educated on the spectrum of visual impairment.

This wasn’t what creeped us out though. An hour came and went, and still no answer from his wife. Then two. Then he asked to use my phone when his “died.” (I’m not sure I believe it did, for reasons I will explain later—I think he wanted an excuse to use my phone to call.) He gave me her number and I dialed for him, but still no answer.

Three hours went by and at this point he had become very comfortable in the apartment. So comfortable that the conversation he had been holding nonstop with us for the entire duration of his stay turned to a topic I could not have predicted: my roommate and I’s feet.

Not only did he remark on the respective size, shape, and arch of them (all visual factors that he expressed as plainly as if he was describing the weather) but he picked up different pairs of shoes from beside our front door and guessed which was whose based on the aforementioned factors.

Worst of all, he guessed mostly correct and his descriptions were accurate—if overly…excited.

We didn’t say anything because frankly at this point we were both terrified. We had no idea if this was premeditated and although we had seen his wife and therefore knew she existed, we were fully aware that either his story was completely a lie, or that he was using his circumstances to act on creepy impulses. Either way, he was in no rush to leave. All attempts to contact his wife were initiated by us.

His behavior was very casual and “friendly” but I feel this may have been part of the game for him—to see if we would react or call him out. I’m not sure. Eventually we excused ourselves together to the farthest room away. I don’t remember what excuse we used but we weren’t going to leave one of us alone with him. We called my parents and, in a whisper, asked for advice and, after they thoroughly chastised me for my poor decisions thus far, they told me we needed to get him out at any cost. Obviously.

We pretended at that point we needed to go to work, and since we both routinely carpooled to our shared workplace we knew it wouldn’t be odd to him for us to both need to go. At this point, we felt he had been watching us and probably knew at least a little about the fact that we worked together, and hoped he would buy that we needed to go now. We locked the door, changed into our Target uniforms, and went out to tell him we were sorry but we had to go. I did also make another call to my dad, who lived an hour away, in front of him so he would know someone was aware he had been there. I made the call seem casual, hoping to pass off my conversation as me naively telling my parents I was “helping my neighbor” to avoid him thinking I’d caught on to any insidious intent. I was scared that if he thought I was suspicious, he might not react well.

Reluctantly, he left. When we walked into the hall, he resumed standing out there as he had been. We ended up going to a friend’s place to wait it out a while.

The next day, his wife called my number (which she had from when he had used my phone) to “thank me for helping”. She was so “grateful” in fact that she and her husband repeatedly invited me, alone, to their apartment for “dinner”, which I declined. She called several times over the course of about a month, sometimes calling multiple times a day. I stopped answering after the first couple of calls, but she continued leaving voicemails.

Eventually the calls stopped and not much else happened. But every time I saw them from then on, I was scared they would approach me. They never did again.

I deeply regret that we did not notify our landlord, and hope they did not go on to hurt anyone.

I’m not sure if they were hoping to have a threesome with me or had even worse intentions, but to my former neighbors: let’s not meet.

TL;DR: My neighbor who I believed to be severely visually impaired convinced me to let him come into my apartment, then made weird comments about how my feet look.

This occurred back in '99 when I was going to New Mexico State in Los Cruces. I was recently divorced, and for exercise, I would walk from my tiny duplex to the college mailboxes, where I got my mail. It was six miles round trip, and I did it almost every night, and enjoyed it immensely. I would pass by the ag part of the college, and bring baby carrots to the horses who would wait for me. Their barn was heated, and I would often warm up there, before the final push home.

The entire walk was fairly well lighted, except for the final two blocks to my front door. It had trees, and large oleander bushes that blocked the city lights, and for some reason, there were no street lights.

I had been married to a cop for 11 years (I was an older student - 27), and was well trained in how to carry and use a firearm. I always carried a small Glock . 40 for people, and bear mace for any dogs or wildlife that got ornery.

I did this walk for months, with no trouble, but then one night, while walking those final two blocks, a man dressed all in black, including a ski mask, started moving in a circle around me. I could feel he was alone, but that made it no less disturbing, and I immediately pulled out my gun. He never said a word, and continued to block my path forward. I finally pulled out my gun, and told him in no uncertain terms, I would have no problem killing him if he didn't get the hell out of my way. When I pointed the gun at his head, he receded into the huge bush, and I backed away slowly til I reached my front door.

This was a long time ago now, so I apologize if the details are slightly foggy. This memory popped in my head tonight and I just genuinely felt it needed written down somewhere.

It was a crisp autumn day of my third grade year. I was heavily bullied and didn’t have a lot of friends. I valued the few I did though! Luckily my teacher that year, Mrs. Rehbine put us in alphabetical order by our last names. This put me near my friend Tom. Tom is the kind of friend you keep to the grave. We were chatting that morning when Mrs. Rehbine introduced us to the new student, Charlie. Charlie was fairly gaunt and poorly dressed, not in the unfashionable way, but in the way that his clothes were very battered. Like they should have been replaced many months ago. That’s when Mrs. Rehbine said the unthinkable. Charlie’s last name would split up Tom and I for seating. Disappointed, I introduced myself to Charlie. Hoping to gain another friend. Charlie didn’t speak much, hind sight it was likely nerves.

Over the next coming days, Charlie started making me uncomfortable. Not in a way I could really put my finger on why. I remained kind though as I was desperate for friends.

After lunch, when all of the students would attend recess, I typically stayed back in the lunch room to help clean up the cafeteria and take out the trash. (This was a great way to earn an extra slice of pizza!) On this day though, I was sent outside. On these days I would typically sit on a swing and play my game boy. It was something I could do by myself. Charlie approached and sat on the swing next to me. I showed him my Pokémon game that I was playing and explained what I thought I knew about the game to him. That’s when Charlie asked to kiss me. Freaked out, I said no and stopped talking to him.

Over the next coming days Charlie would become more and more overbearing. Bringing me jewelry he obviously stole from his mother, begging me to be his girlfriend. I was young and didn’t know how to handle it. Tom told him to leave me alone. Which helped a little bit.

Unfortunately, we had a line dancing day in gym that week. We weren’t allowed to tell people know if they asked us to be their partner. I saw Charlie approaching and panicked and luckily Tom and I paired up right away. Saving me from the awful situation where I would be forced to dance with Charlie.

Charlie shortly there after would start threatening Tom. Kids in the 90s would threaten to kill each other all the time. This wasn’t exactly alarm for concern in the way it is now.

Charlie’s rage would get worse and worse anytime someone else would talk to me. It was becoming increasingly concerning. Then, one day he brought a knife to school. I was scared but also too scared to say anything about it. So, I kept his secret. Unfortunately, on this day I was sent outside for recess. I would have much preferred to clean the cafeteria. On this day, Charlie’s sister, whom I cannot for the life of me recall her name decided to call me ugly. Honestly, this was pretty normal for me to be bullied so I shrugged it off. That’s when Charlie punched his sister, chased her down and kicked her in the face!

After the recess advisor broke up the fight they asked those around what happened. That’s when I raised the concern that Charlie may have a knife on him as well. They searched his pockets and he had a small fold out knife in his pocket. He was expelled that day.

I occasionally search his name on Google expecting to see his mug shot pop up for some sort of crime. I never saw him after that, but Charlie, let’s not meet again.

it was around 9 or 10pm and i (m16) was skateboarding at a skatepark around 5 minutes away from my house. i don’t have a car yet so i usually skate there. usually i do have to deal with some creepy or strange people because i live in las vegas nevada in a not great part of town so that’s usually a common thing here.

this night i went alone and there was only one other person at the park who i had met there for the first time. we had a good time and skated for around and hour just me and him. eventually, a guy with a child came walking into the skatepark and and came up to us. the first weird thing i noticed is the child had no shoes and and was wearing pants and a tshirt even though it was pretty cold outside even for me with a hoodie on. another thing that was strange was he had what seemed to be a gun with him. i noticed the guy had some tattoos and was around 6ft maybe.

this guy starts first by talking to the guy i was skating with and tells him that he cuts hair and if he ever needs a barber to hit him up. my friend says thanks and he walks over to me and says the same thing. i just say oh alright thank you and thought he would leave but no. he asks if his son can try my board. i was a little hesitant at first but i said alright. the child didn’t seem to want to even try it he had to pick him up by his arms and put him on it. eventually, the child stands on it and is trying it. while he’s doing that, the guy turns to me and repeats himself saying he’s a barber and that he’s just here with his nephew. i thought it was really weird that he said he was his son first and now he’s saying nephew.

skipping like 10 minutes, my friend leaves me there and the guy is still there. he asks me to do a trick for his nephew and while i’m doing it, forces him to watch me by holding his head in place towards me. after i do it, he repeats himself again saying that he’s a barber if i ever need a cut and that he’s here with his son. i then ask “didn’t you say he was your nephew?” to which he says “oh yeah sorry i get it confused sometimes my bad” i just shrug it off and tell him i need to go. he then says yeah his dads coming to pick us up now.

so i’m leaving and i look back and he is getting into a car. i’m not actually going home yet i was just skating to mcdonald’s to have something to eat. i then see the car drive off but instead of going the opposite direction, he goes the same way i’m going to the same mcdonald’s. he comes up to me again and says “hey what a weird coincidence i was hungry too” or something like that. at that point i just leave but not before he repeats himself AGAIN and asks for my number but i say no thanks.

really weird guy just wondering if anyone has any theories or anything as to what was going on with him and this kid any questions i will reply to let me know!

So I'm working on getting my learners which I neglected for a long time due to other circumstances. So I take the bus and train or rides to get around if it isn't in walking distance that I find reasonable. I don't mind good walks but I do try to limit myself to not push things too far. That's not important though.

So to go to work I used to take the train to go to one bus station since that path was quicker and less crowded. I don't work at that place anymore and only like two weeks after I left the place got shut down which I wasn't surprised by based on what I had seen happening. At this bus station there was the one guy who took the same bus as me.

At first I paid him no mind while still keeping my wits about myself being a girl and this bus station has seen druggies and homeless. Usually they sleep in the hut thing for passengers to stay warm and access things like a bus map and such.

The guy noticed me and at first it didn't seem like a big deal. He kept looking at me though not much else. He kept being there when I would arrive however I brushed it off as he probably needed the bus to get to his own destination. He kept watching me which I didn't enjoy though I tried to ignore it. Then he started to mimic what I did while waiting for the bus to arrive. I thought it was weird as he never did those things like pace in a certain way as I have a tendency to pace, I add little things like different ways to turn to keep it a little interesting, and I see him try to even mimic the little things I add when I pace. Another time he got in my line of sight closer than before only to start doing work out stretches like he was ready for a work out. I moved away and tried to ignore him again. I really hated that the guy was there every morning and kept a closer eye on him as he wouldn't stop trying to do things to wordlessly get my attention. He then started getting on the same bus as me for work though luckily I didn't always take the same final bus due to sometimes one being late. I also felt relieved when I figured out a path to be able to walk to my work in about half an hour from where I usually catch the last bus. So if I had time I'd walk. I kept seeing him go to the bus I used most often though I tried to pick a different one or not sit near him.

My work sometimes shifted people's hours and I got my hours shifted a few times. So I would need to arrive at different times. I wouldn't see him for a day or so then suddenly he was back at it doing the same things at the same bus station.

I have trauma about speaking up verbally due to how a parent treated me growing up. Plus the guy hadn't really done anything to me other than t try to get my attention and be at the same bus stop at the same time as me. So I didn't feel like I could really speak up about it. I just remained wary and ready in case he tried anything.

After losing work I didn't really need to head that way anymore. So I didn't see him for a long time which was a relief. I had enough of people, men, following me or creeping on me on the bus or at the stops or stations. Including another time where a guy kept doing this on my way to get home until he suddenly followed me on the same bus a few times. I panicked knowing he was following me and it stopped after I got off and went to my boyfriend who came to meet me when I told him the guy was back. But that was a different guy and I never saw him again.

However this isn't where it ends. No. I love the route so whenever I go to the mall, which is on the same path I would have taken to work, I use that route more so than the one long bus ride that usually ran into traffic a lot. I stopped going to that mall as much to try to save some money. But one day I decided to go as I was bored and it's my favorite mall because it has lots of cool places, things to do, and plenty of things I like such as collectors shops. I got off the train and it's about mid day around 12-1 Pm. Note that usually for my work I used to go on busses between 7-8 Am so big time difference. However there he was on a weekday at the same bus stop at the same bus station. I tried to ignore him but he started pacing and kept throwing obvious looks in my direction. I tried to remain out of his sight using this one girl who was also waiting for the bus but keeping my distance to not make it obvious. I was really uncomfortable because this certainly was long past the usual times before.

Confirming even more that this guy was likely waiting there for me to show up or trying different times until I arrived.

The girl noticed him looking over and looked at me as I moved to not be right in his line of sight. She kept looking between us as I guess she could tell I was uncomfortable. She just didn't really seem to know what to do and seemed a bit surprised herself about this guy looking at me making me uncomfortable. She didn't say anything and just kept on doing glances to him and me as if just keeping an eye on the situation for now.

The bus arrived and we got on with the girl just seeming to go about her day. She did glance to me as I picked a seat, the guy moved back so I would get on first along with a few other people, though didn't do or say anything.

The guy sat right behind me despite having plenty of spots to pick from and he was leaning a little forward.

I got up and moved to a different seat away from him. I saw the one girl watch for a moment before just going to her phone. I was relieved that the guy didn't follow though he kept looking my way then away for a bit before sneaking another look. I got off and he went towards the bus stop where I usually caught the next bus for work. I went to the mall.

I haven't taken that route in awhile as usually either someone drives me, I am going to the mall from another location so needing a different route, or I avoid the mall to focus on things like bills and my pregnancy. I also partially don't want to go because I'll take the route that gets me there faster, and not be stuck in traffic or waiting a bus stop for a late bus, especially because I get extra motion sick due to my pregnancy. My last time doing so I was taking a child I was babysitting out for food and something fun to do with that mall being a perfect place. I didn't see the guy there that time luckily.

Whoever you are creepy dude. Let's not ever meet. Please. I want you out of my life.

It was suggested to me to post my story here from r/creepyencounters.

This happened quite a few years ago. I had an affinity for a particular white substance in the form of lines back then. One very cold, snowy night around 11 pm, I went for a walk to meet my dealer. I had never been to his place before, so he gave me the address to his small, two-story apartment building with maybe six units in it.

Upon arrival, I noticed several strangers inside. After they had hit their pipes, two clearly unwashed guys came over to sit at the dining table while I waited for my G. I’ve never smoked anything besides weed and cigarettes. I was instantly uncomfortable. They tried making small talk, but I grew increasingly uneasy, giving only short, vague answers.

I quickly paid for my stuff, grabbed the baggy, and got up from the table. That’s when one of the guys offered to walk me home. My heart started to sink. I politely declined.

“Oh... I’m okay, thanks. I don’t live far."

The other guy stood up.

“No, really. We can walk you. We don’t mind. We have to get going anyway."

That’s when my instincts finally kicked in. I became very aware and very scared. I immediately thought, I’m fully dressed and ready to go, but they still have to put on their coats and shoes. If I leave now, I’ll get a head start and quickly disappear. They said something else as I headed for the door, but I pretended to take a phone call, waved goodbye to my dealer, and closed the door behind me. I jogged down the hallway to the outside door, and once I got outside, I ran for the street.

I decided not to take the fast route home because, from the building, they’d be able to see me. I didn’t want them knowing even the slightest direction I lived in if they were really following me. The building was at the end of a street, so instead of going straight up the hill (the way I initially came from), I turned right and started jogging.

I kept glancing back, and finally, I saw them—about a block behind, following me. The street I needed, Stanley Street, was across the intersection on my left, about another block ahead at a four-way light. As I approached the intersection, I noticed the corner house on my right. There was an older man sitting on his porch, smoking. I recognized him. He was another dealer I had met only once a few weeks before when my usual guy was dry.

I choked up as I got to his porch and asked if he remembered me.

He did and asked

“What’s wrong?”

I quietly told him “I think these two guys are following me…” and asked if I could go inside for a minute until they passed. He didn’t hesitate. We went inside, past his front living room and into the kitchen, where I explained what happened.

He told me not to worry, that I was safe there, and I could stay as long as I needed to.

Then we heard a knock at the door, and I started to panic.

He went to the door, looked through the peephole, and yelled.

“Just a minute!"

He came back quickly and whispered that he knew the guys and was going to invite them in to have a hit. He told me to sneak out through his backdoor, which was beyond the kitchen, go to the right of the yard, and find the gate. This would lead to a side street.

He instructed me to creep up along the side of his house, close to the shrubs, and check the porch to make sure they went inside. I followed his plan, and when the coast was clear, I didn’t jog—I sprinted up Stanley Street and zigzagged all the way home.

When I think back now, I’m in disbelief at my actions and how foolish I was. I thought I was invincible. I was far too trusting. But I truly thank God for the man who helped me that night.

I don’t know what those two guys wanted from me, but I’m forever grateful I never had to find out.

This happened over a decade ago when I was 12 years old. I live in a small town in Oklahoma, and in my neighborhood the houses are fairly spread apart, separated by woods.

It was a school day so my grandma picked me up from school, and brought me home. This was the first year that I got dropped off at my house alone. Before this I would just go to my grandmas house after school. I would get dropped off at around 3:00pm, and my parents would be home around 4:30. Not that big of a deal.

Today for some reason, my dad wasn’t going to be home until later (around 7), and my mom, a teacher, wouldn’t be home until around 8pm because she had parent-teacher conferences at the school. This happened in early fall, so it wouldn’t even be dark until like 8:30pm.

I did what I usually did when I got home. I ran upstairs, got on my Xbox 360, and played Minecraft with my friends. Today it was just me and my friends Seth. I was playing for about 2 hours when I heard a car door shut in my driveway. No one should have been here until like 7pm. My house is set up to where my upstairs has windows that look over my driveway. So with my mic on, and controller in hand, I went to the window to see who it was. Maybe my dad got home earlier than expected.

I looked outside. It was a red truck. No one I know drives a red truck. The person pulled in to the middle of my driveway sideways. Like he owned the place. When I looked out the window, I saw a man with a hat, wearing a big camo hoodie and jeans. It was September, so no one should have been wearing a big hoodie and jeans in Oklahoma. By the time I looked he was already almost out of view, going up my walkway to my front door. I thought maybe it was one of my dad’s friends, or someone my dad hired to do something. But he would usually tell me if someone was going to be coming over.

Soon after, I hear a knock at the door. Then another. I go to my other window that has a better view of the walkway up to my front door. I see the guy walking back down the walkway. I switch and go back to looking through the windows overlooking my driveway. I’m relaying all of this to Seth still with my mic on. I tell Seth that he’s walking back to his truck now. Instead, he walks past his truck and tries to open my garage side door. At this point my heart sinks. I tell Seth that this guy just tried to get into my house. Mind you, it is literally broad day at like 5pm. Luckily it was locked because sometimes we forget to lock it.

After he tried the door, he starts walking to my back patio. I drop my headset and I quietly run down stairs to see what he is doing. I get downstairs and stand behind the wall so I’m not visible from the back door/living room windows. I just listen. I hear him try to open the door. Then I hear a thud. It sounded like he dropped a brick on the ground or something. At this point Im more scared than I’ve ever been. I wanted to call my parents or grandma but I didn’t have a cell phone yet. The only phone in the house was in my kitchen. I would have to cross my living room to get there, and he would be able to see me if I went into there. A few seconds after the thud, I peeked around the corner and he was gone.

I run back upstairs and put my headset back on telling Seth that he just tried to open the back door as well. As I’m telling him this I hear a car door shut. This time when I look out the window he finally got in his truck. I looked at the truck closer and I notice the only thing he has in his truck bed was a crowbar and shovel. He sat in his truck for what felt like a few minutes. During this time Seth told me to get my iPod and take a picture of his license plate. He was parked to where I couldn’t see it. Then he drove backwards out of my driveway, and down the road.

A few minutes after he was confirmed gone, I went downstairs to see what the thud could have been. I get to the back door and see that the door mat was moved. Both big plant pots had been moved as well. He was looking for a key. Holy fuck. We have a hidden key back there too. The key to the back door was under one of the smaller plant pots on a ledge near the door, not the bigger ones that he had checked under. I went to the front porch and all the pots looked like they had been moved too.

I don’t know what I would have done if he was able to find the key, or if he just broke in.

After he left I called my dad and told him what happened. When my dad got home he had a cop come over and I told him what happened and gave him a description. The guy never came back.

Hi, this is the first time I’m sharing something here, so I hope my story will be easy to understand (by the way, this isn’t my account).

For privacy reasons, I won’t give my name or age.

For a bit of context, this happened about two years ago, a few weeks after my little brother was born. Ever since we moved into this house, there’s been this small room in the basement that’s always locked. To show you how little anyone uses it, I don’t even know what’s in there, but I’ve always assumed it’s just utility stuff like meters or something. The room is really tiny, barely big enough to lie down in.

Now, let’s get into it. My parents went away for a weekend together, leaving me, my older sister, and my baby brother (who was just a few weeks old at the time) at home. My parents trusted us to take care of ourselves since they’d done this before. Anyway, that night my sister went out with friends and wasn’t planning to come back until 4 or 5 in the morning. I watched a good movie and, since it was already getting late, I decided to put my little brother to bed in his room upstairs. I did that and came back down to watch another movie, but I ended up falling asleep.

About two or three hours later, around midnight, I woke up to these strange noises coming from upstairs. At first, I thought it was just the neighbors since they can be pretty loud and the walls are thin. But then I looked at the time and realized it was too late for them to still be awake, let alone making that kind of noise. So, I got closer to the stairs to investigate, and just as I was about to go up the first step, I heard the sound of something metal falling on the ground. Guess what? It was the key to the small room in the basement.

I immediately grabbed my phone, and instead of calling the police, I texted my friends to tell them what was happening. One of my friends had the brilliant idea of calling the police for me. Suddenly, I heard the bathroom door slam shut. I knew it was that door because it makes a very specific creaking noise when it closes. I remembered my brother was sleeping upstairs, so I carefully went up to check if he was okay. Thankfully, he was fine.

Still not fully grasping how much danger I was in, I went to the bathroom door. Since it opens inward, I decided to violently push it open—and I heard a man scream. I immediately shut the door and held it closed to keep him from getting out. He broke the window, and outside the bathroom, there’s this sort of balcony—not a proper one, but you get the idea—that connects to the balconies of the neighboring houses, which are all really close together. He used that to escape.

I grabbed my brother in my arms, ran to the kitchen, and noticed that one of the knives was missing from the knife block. I picked up another knife and crouched in a corner of the living room, crying like never before. The police arrived, and I opened the door for them.

When they searched the house, they confirmed that the bathroom window was broken, and I had hit the guy so hard that there was blood on the floor. But the most shocking and traumatizing part was what they found in that small basement room. There were blankets and cans of food. They concluded that he had been living there for several days...

That’s it. I hesitated a lot before posting this because it really affected me, and I’m sorry if the story isn’t super clear—some of the details are still jumbled in my head. Anyway, I hope you found it interesting!

About 2 nights ago I went to see the new Wicked movie with my family who was in town for Thanksgiving. I arrived back to my house around midnight.

I live alone in a shared but divided house, with 2 other tenants living inside. One is upstairs and one splits the downstairs with me so there’s 3 apartments total. My place is in the back of the house and has a back porch you can enter through after walking up the whole driveway.

When I got home, I sat in my bedroom and did about 20-30 minutes of work on my computer. During this time, the house was very quiet and I kept hearing a man’s voice continuously talking. Now, keep in mind, the tenant above me is a man and I know his bedroom is right above mine because I previously lived up there. It sounded like he was talking on the phone, just because of how long and continuous the talking went on. I tried to listen and figure out where the voice was coming from and I couldn’t exactly pinpoint it, but it was either coming from through the ceiling or on other side of my room. Now, it must be noted that my bedroom connects to the porch with a door that I have blocked with my dresser. There’s a main door inside the porch that you use to get into the house but there’s also this strange door connecting to my room.

I couldn’t make out the words, but because of how firm and continuous the voice was going on, I figured it just had to be coming from my housemate upstairs. It’s the only thing that made logical sense. I just kept on thinking though, I had never heard a single voice come through that ceiling before. It’s not that thin. Whatever, I’m worrying about nothing.

After about 20-30 minutes of computer work, I got up to go to brush my teeth, feed my fish, get ready for bed, etc. I come back into my room , turn off the lights and get in bed. Keep in mind it’s been about 45-60 minutes since I first heard the voice and I could still hear it. Damn, I thought. My housemate is chatting up a storm on the phone up there. Oh, how wrong I was!

After about 3 minutes of laying in bed, I all of the sudden heard my porch door creaking along with the talking mans voice. It has a very distinct sound that I knew immediately was my porch door. I crept across my room and put my ear to the dresser/the door that connects to the porch. Sure enough, the talking was coming from inside my porch and I could hear the door moving and shuffling inside my porch along with it. My heart absolutely dropped.

All the lights were off in my house at this point, so I had a sort of sneaky advantage to creep around my house and get a view of what was going on. I crept down my hallway and peered into the kitchen, which the porch leads into. Across the kitchen, through the door and in a streak of moonlight, I just see a man with long , scraggly hair sitting curled up in the center of my porch turned around with his back to me, muttering out loud to himself and rocking back and forth. My fight or flight kicked in and I immediately ripped open the door and started screaming at him to get out and try intimidating him. Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have made myself so vulnerable without a weapon handy, but like I said I was just in fight or flight I can’t explain my actions in this moment other than reacting out of fear and determination to scare him out.

Anyways, this dude didn’t even react to me whipping open the door and screaming at him. Not even a flinch. He simply turned his head to the side very slowly and said “my name is Evan.” This freaked me out so much for some reason, especially because he STILL hadn’t turned around or shown his face. I said I don’t care and kept cursing at him to leave and he slowly rose up with his hands up and said “I know, I know. I’m hiding.” He wasnt saying it in a pleading way though. He said it with this almost childlike, playful tone that freaked me the absolute fuck out. I hated this.

The fact that he kept trying to reason with me and act so mysterious while still not even turning around to show his face just pissed me off honestly. Who do you think you are bro? I ran him out of the porch and was just threatening him. Now I assume it was just a homeless man who was under the influence of something, as I do live in an inner city area and it’s common to see homeless people near my street, but idk man. the sight of seeing him in my porch and knowing he was in there for at least an hour beforehand while I was sitting right there just freaked me the fuck out. I was in full blown defense mode by the time I opened that door and I wasn’t willing to waste any time to do a character dive on the guy. No imaginable situation would permit anyone to be in my porch like that at that hour.

Needless to say, I’ll be double checking my porch lock every night from now on lol. It’s funny because having my room connected to the porch, I always had this horrific intrusive thought that I’d hear someone in there one night. Looks like it came true!

So, please, Evan, let’s not ever meet again you creepy bastard!!

I am a female in my 20s. I’m an entertainer and decided to check out a few clubs a county over from me. This was A couple of month ago, around 1-2 pm when I arrived at this club. It was pretty packed for a day shift (suprisingly! which is why I wanted to check it out in the first place) so I parked kind of far from the enterance.

Anyway, i had a couple of more places I wanted to go so I was walking torwards my car and this man follows me in his pick up truck. not unusual for me so I was being polite with his small talk. Then he told me “do you want to have some fun?” I told him no that I had things to do. Then he insisted that I get in his car, I declined. Then he kept repeating and I SHIT YOU NOTTTT, the whole look on his face changed! His eyes went dark and were piercing, his voice got deeper and raspier! It was like a demon took over his body. I started speed walking to the car because i was sure this man was going to hop out and throw me in his car!

as I finally make it, he blocked my car in and would not leave. remind you , it is broad daylight and he is trying this shxt! damn near had to hit his truck with the back of my car. Once he finally left I got this sick feeling at the bottom of my stomach. I really believe he has some ropes and weapons in that trunkbed if his no doubt. Irs like I got a flash vision of the things he was probably going to do to me.

so creepy predator guy, let’s not meet again EVER

When I was a freshman in high school, Alyssa was my role model.

Alyssa was a senior. She was so gorgeous, confident, smart, effortlessly stylish, and always owning the room. Back then, I was too shy to talk to her. Seniors are already pretty intimidating to freshmen, but Alyssa was next-level intimidating because she was such a queen!

I didn’t expect anyone to see me the way I saw Alyssa, but I was pleasantly surprised in my senior year.

In my senior year, I started finding cute little notes in my locker. I wasn’t expecting that at all, but I was really flattered. The first one said:

“You were beautiful in that dress on Friday ♡”

The handwriting was neat and simple with a cute little heart at the end.

More notes kept coming, always in fourth period. I got a note every week or two. I know they came during fourth period because I checked my locker before and after every class. They were all really sweet. They said things like this:

“Your smile lights up the hallway!”

“You shine brighter than any star!"

"Your homecoming photos are straight out of a magazine cover! So stunning!"

There were more notes that I don’t remember. They weren’t romantic or flirty. They looked like things I might have said to Alyssa if we'd ever spoken. I thought maybe they were from a shy underclassman girl. I had my suspicions.

I didn’t tell anyone about the notes. I really didn’t want my friends turning this into an investigation and embarrassing whoever was leaving them. Whoever was leaving these messages, I thought they meant well.

Then in the second semester, my schedule changed. My last class of the day was upstairs near my friend’s locker. My friend’s last class was near my locker. We swapped lockers.

I forgot all about the notes until my 18th birthday. That morning, my friend handed me a note she found in her (my old) locker. It said “Happy birthday, princess.”

At first, she thought the notes were meant for her since any of those compliments could fit her too. But when she realized the birthday didn’t match up, she put two and two together.

Come to think of it, I don’t think any of the notes ever said my name.

I admitted that the notes had been happening all year and explained that I didn’t want to make a big deal about it.

Then my friends launched their investigation that I had been worried about! All the girls in our friend group became detectives trying to solve this mystery. One friend, who didn’t have a fourth-period class, stationed herself by the lockers to surveil that area. That worked.

The notes weren’t from a shy freshman or even from a boy. They were from a janitor, an older woman none of us knew. We all recognized her, but I don't think any of us had ever talked to her. She’d been leaving these notes for several months, watching me closely enough to comment on my outfits, field hockey games, and even what I posted on Facebook!

I saw her at the last field hockey game of the season. She sat quietly in the stands. That was the only time I noticed her watching me, but I have no idea how places I didn't notice her watching me.

None of us brought this up to her. She hadn’t done anything "wrong," but it felt unsettling in a way that’s hard to explain.

This happened to me about five years ago, and even now, I get chills just thinking about it.

I was renting a small house in a quiet neighbourhood at the time. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was cosy, affordable, and had a lot of character. The only thing I didn’t love was the crawlspace under the house. The access door to it was in the laundry room, a square wooden hatch flush with the floor. It was locked from the outside, and I never had any reason to open it. I figured it was just pipes, cobwebs, and the usual creepy crawlspace stuff.

One evening, I came home late from work. It had been a stressful day, and all I wanted was to shower and collapse into bed. As I stepped inside, I noticed something strange: my laundry room light was on. I was sure I had turned it off that morning. But I chalked it up to being absentminded in my rush and turned it off again.

That night, I woke up around 2 a.m. to a faint noise. At first, I thought it was just the wind, but as I lay there, I realized it was coming from the laundry room—a soft, rhythmic thumping sound. My heart started to race. I debated whether to get up and check or just stay in bed and hope it stopped. Curiosity got the better of me, so I grabbed my phone for light and tiptoed to the laundry room.

When I opened the door, everything was quiet. But then I saw it: the hatch to the crawlspace was slightly ajar. My stomach dropped. I distinctly remembered it being locked, and there was no way I could’ve accidentally opened it. Trying to stay calm, I convinced myself it might be an animal that had somehow gotten in. I shut the hatch tightly and placed a heavy box of detergent on top of it before going back to bed.

The next day, I called the landlord to ask if there were any pest issues I should know about. He seemed surprised and said no one had reported anything like that before. Still, he promised to send someone over to check it out.

That night, I double-checked the hatch and even put a chair on top of it for good measure. I didn’t hear any noises, and I started to feel a little silly for being so freaked out. But around 3 a.m., I woke up to the sound of my bedroom door creaking open.

I froze. My bedroom door doesn’t creak unless you push it slowly, and I knew I had closed it before bed. I stayed as still as I could, barely breathing, as I heard soft footsteps shuffle into the room. My phone was on the nightstand, just out of reach. The footsteps stopped right next to my bed. I could feel someone’s presence, their quiet breathing in the dark.

Summoning every ounce of courage I had, I grabbed my phone, turned on the flashlight, and swung it toward the intruder.

There was a man, crouched on the floor, his face pale and gaunt, his eyes wide and unblinking. He looked just as startled as I was. I screamed and bolted out of the room, running outside to the neighbour’s house. I banged on their door until they let me in, and they called the police.

When the officers arrived, they found the man still in my house, hiding in the crawlspace. He had a small mattress, some food wrappers, and a collection of random items he must have taken from my house. The lock on the hatch had been tampered with, and from the looks of it, he had been living under my house for at least a few days—maybe longer.

The scariest part? The police said they found a notebook with detailed notes about me. He had written down my daily routine, when I left for work, when I came home, even what I wore. There was also a list of "plans," though they wouldn’t tell me what was on it.

I moved out the next week and stayed with friends until I found a new place. To this day, I have no idea how he got in or how long he had been watching me before I noticed something was wrong.

To the man in the crawlspace: let’s not meet. Ever.

(Firtsly, sorry for my english, I'm french and not used to talk like it, hope I'll write well)

It happened in 2022, two months only after that I bought my first house, and old farm far from neighbors except an old lady (joint ownership), in the center of France. I was leavin' alone, 28 years old, and unlucky 'cause I broke myself my right hand the first day I came here, then my horse broke my nose accidently one month later.

It was during the summer, thunderstorm night, I was sleepin' in my room, almost all naked because of heat, in the converted attic of the house. At 11:30 p.m., I woke up 'cause I heard a sound comin' from the second room, stuck to mine. Something like if someone was standing behind the wall between the both rooms (floor noise, different from wind and beams which are cracking). Not persuaded at all that someone could be in this place, I was lazy but I had to ensure that anyone was on my house, in case of, then anyone else could do this for me.

I have to explain that the second room has an access to the attic, accessible by a stair with an old door leading directly to outside. And on this attic undeveloped part, there's a kind of mezzanine. When I came to the room (still naked, and with my fractures), I found anyone here, but the door between the room and the place givin' with the outside was open. I came to the top of the mezzanine when I saw a shadow take refuge under the mezzanine, out of my sight.

At the moment I realized that I wasn't alone in my house, even if I wasn't sure about what I saw, I came back quickly in my room, which had unfortunately any way to be locked, I posted myself to the only window which is not a velux, then called my ex boyfriend who was policeman, livin' at 10 minutes from home. I stayed here to be able to escape by the window if the intruder came to my room to do... I don't know what but don't wanted to stay to discover it. Then it was the better position to see if someone would get out of the house.

Need to say that I practiced self-defense martial art while few years, and if I was able to fight someone I'd better clear it mysef without involve anyone, even if I'm a girl.

Fortunately, anyone came in my room the time that my ex came here. One arrived, we get around the house together to find the intruder, but anyone. At the second when I believe that I only had hallucination, we heard the little girl of my ex screaming.

She was 6 years old, and my ex came with her because he was livin' in a too dangerous place to let her alone at his home, so he decided to take her, tellin' her that they were comin' here to fix some plumbing troubles, in order to not worry her. He let her in his car, locked.

When we heard her, we rushed out to see what's happening. She was alone in the car, crying. When we asked her why she was screaming, she told us that she saw a guy coming out the house but the old door (overlooking the attic where I was), then he approached quickly the car and the place where the little girl was, to shake the door handle, according to her own words.

Today, I still don't know who was the guy, what was his intentions, why he was standing in the place next to my room while I was sleepin, why I tried to take the daughter of my ex instead of just escape the most quickly I could.. Only questions, any answers.

Since, the old lady livin' close to me told me that someone knocked at her door during the night, it happened few times. Then I lived another experience of the same kind last year (maybe the same guy), that I watched with my own eyes. Police came home (50 minutes later...). I can tell this story later...

This happened shortly before weed was legalized in Germany. In Berlin, regulation was already quite loose; as long as you didn’t explicitly bother anyone, you usually wouldn’t get arrested for smoking in public.

I’ve been smoking daily for years (I know, it’s not great, but that’s beside the point), so I can function pretty well while stoned. However, I almost never smoke in public—partly to avoid trouble, but mostly because I enjoy the comfort of my own home.

One late night, around 3 a.m., I was chilling online with friends, ready to call it a day. I wanted to relax with a joint and one of my favorite shows, but unfortunately, I had no snacks left. Determined to end the night with a proper munchie session, I decided to hit up a nearby Späti—a small convenience store similar to a 7/11. At that hour, only the sketchiest ones are still open, often operating illegally.

I grabbed my coat and keys but stopped short before leaving. “Why not add a little joy to this cold walk?” I thought, rolling a small joint. I lit it as I stepped outside, braving the freezing breeze.

The area I live in is pretty rough—mostly foreign residents, many from Arabic countries. Poor integration has led to crime and violence being all too common. Even so, I was in good spirits as I strolled toward the flickering neon sign of the Späti. Just one more intersection to go.

A group of men stood at the corner. They looked Middle Eastern, a bit older than me, and watched me as I walked by. It felt normal—nothing to worry about, I thought, already a little high. I crossed the street without giving them much thought.

Then, I heard a voice call out, “Routine ID check—please show me your identification.”

My heart sank. “Of course, this has to happen the one time I smoke in public,” I thought, turning to face the "police."

Only, they weren’t police. It was the group from the intersection, now slowly approaching me. “Routine ID check—please show me your ID. We’re undercover cops,” one of them said with a smug grin.

I froze. The fact that they weren’t cops became clear when, despite their demand, none of them reached for any identification. “You know smoking weed is illegal, don’t you?” the man continued. His pupils were enormous, like saucers. It was obvious these guys had no authority whatsoever.

They began circling me. “Show us what’s in your pockets,” the leader demanded.

So, it’s a robbery, I thought. As long as I don’t resist, maybe I’ll only lose my phone and the few bills I brought for snacks. Then, a wave of dread hit me: my weekly tips—about €300 in cash—were also in my pocket. I had forgotten to deposit it earlier. Losing that money would crush my tight budget for the month. What now?

As I slowly reached into my pocket, the leader pressed me. “What’s taking so long?” I pulled out an old pack of gum and some broken headphones, hoping to satisfy them. “Where’s your wallet? I need your ID,” he insisted.

Still fumbling, too stubborn (and stupid) to hand over my tips, I inadvertently revealed something that shocked even me: the glint of a Glock tucked into his belt.

Knives and metal rods are typical weapons here, but a gun? That was insane, even by local standards. German gun laws are incredibly strict. My adrenaline spiked. Slowly, I pulled out the €5 bill I’d planned to use for snacks, trying to keep my expression neutral.

“You’ve got no wallet?” he growled, his face darkening. My brain screamed at me to do something—anything—before this escalated further.

Then, a desperate thought flashed through my mind. The Arabs in this area had a well-known fear of Russians, with frequent clashes between the two groups. Maybe… just maybe, I could use this.

In a heavy Russian accent, I stammered, “My friends have my wallet. They’re coming soon—we meet here.”

To my surprise, their poor English comprehension worked in my favor. They exchanged glances, muttering in German, and decided to wait. I forced myself to look confused, maintaining the bluff.

It worked. Their effort to translate or figure me out must have seemed too much trouble. The leader finally pointed at my €5 bill. “Alright then, you get us something to drink.”

Reluctantly, I followed them into the Späti. They grabbed a six-pack of Coke, and I paid, heart pounding. I was certain this wasn’t over—that they’d either search me themselves or retaliate when my nonexistent “friends” didn’t show up.

But then, just like that, they left.

No violence, no further questions—nothing. I stood there in shock, unable to process what had just happened.

Looking back, I can’t believe I bluffed in such a dangerous situation. It could have been my last day on Earth, all over €300. I’ve learned my lesson. These days, I avoid walking around late at night when the streets are empty.

And to those guys from that night—let’s not meet again. Ever.

Ive held off from telling this story besides close friends as it wasnt big in the news but it was fucked and reading other stories has given me the umpf to share.

When i was 14 (im 23 now) i was naive and dumb and my need for attention all converged. I was abused, alone and hardly had friends because i wasnt allowed to hangout with my friends except in school. I discovered Omegle as most teens did in the mid 2010s. I met a guy from MO and he claimed to be 20, his name is Noble. We talk and my birth giver found out and kept making steps to keep me from talking to him but i was stubborn and thought he loved me. So our relationship goes on as im taken from my home and put in a Safe house to protect me from being exploited. The thing is i still had access to a cell phone, wifi and anything on the internet. So Noble and i keep talking and i find out he is not in fact 20 but he is 31. I was delusional and was like “oh thats fine” because again, i believed he loved me and only he loved me. Lots of in and out of youth homeless shelters and programs and I was then placed back with my birth giver for a short amount of time but was taken again and given to my bio father. Who then also proceeds to find out about this man and try and prevent me from talking to him. It worked for a while as i was in therapy and on meds. After we moved i was taken off my meds and out of therapy and i started acting up and reaching out to him again. Well i was removed from my bio fathers home due to his and my behaviors and i was placed in a group home. Im now 15, My third week there i ranaway and told Noble to come pick me up. He drove 16 hours as i stayed hidden in some random ladies house i met at a gas station. He arrives and we start heading back to MO. While we are in PA (driving from southern tier NY) im playing on his phone and i see he got repeated messages from a few girls accounts on snapchat. I ask about it and he comes clean that he had been doing the same thing with other girls that he does with me (nudes, calls, etc). i start crying and telling him to either bring me back or drop me off on the side of the road and ill find my way back. He tells me no and proceeds to pull over and choke me until im unconscious (im 5’6 111 lbs and anorexic at the time and hes 200 something lbs and 5’10ish) idk how long i was out but it was long enough for him to find a hotel, check us in and get me in the room without someone noticing. I woke up to him on top of me raping me. The rest of the trip was kind of a blur but we end up finally reaching his apartment and i asked to see his phone so i could play a game, his dumbass gave me the phone and i texted my grandma and my birth giver on messenger saying i loved them and if they didnt hear from me i was in MO. After multiple times of being graped, forced to take pictures for other disgusting individuals and forced to act like i was happy so i could live, like the meme minus the yelling FBI, the FBI and MO state police bust down the door and handcuff him, take me to a car and take him to another one. They took all his computers, harddrives etc and i was brought to the juvie, then transferred to the mental ward for weeks then back to juvie (ward of the state and i said i wanted to die bc of all of this happening). instead of being treated like a kid who was groomed and raped and kidnapped i was treated like a criminal. I was in MO for a month before i was put on a plane and sent back to NY where i was quickly put into residential. He was sentenced to 30 years for what he did to me and other girls my age.

I tell this story now because he randomly found my instagram and started trying to reach out to me again from prison. I told him he was disgusting, i wasnt a naive kid anymore and that he needs to leave me alone. He got the memo the first time thank fuck but he shouldve NEVER been able to reach out. I keep my eye on where he goes but it seems hes either working his years off or hes been getting less time somehow because his years dropped from 30 to 26 that he needs to serve.

So Noble if youre on your little prison tablet and somehow on this subreddit, i hope we never meet again.

Edit: spelling and wording

I'm not a very good writer or anything even close but ill try, i also doubt this is a very exciting or concerning to anything else on this sub, but still.

this happened when i was 11-12 (cant remember exactly), i had a bedtime of around 8pm but it never stuck since i'd be busy before then, so i usually got to bed at around 9pm.

i went down to my room after dinner with my parents, it was univentful as always but it felt different that night, i dont know how to explain it but it just felt more important.

when i laid down in bed i felt my cat jump up onto the bed, i looked around slightly for some reason, checking the windows, door and turning on the fan.

i fall asleep a few minutes after getting into bed, i wake up suddenly, turning my head to check the clock, i will never forget this time. 4:27am.

i looked down and saw the cat, happily sleeping against my leg, fan still on so i think to get a drink and try to go back to sleep but before i do that, i check the door and then, the window.

the second i look at that window i see a man, i had no idea who it was (i live in a small town/city so its rare to find someone unkown), he had to be atleast 40, unshaved, grey facial hair, balding, porch light off, the moonlight shining off his face.

he's staring me dead in the eye, my heart was racing unlike anything i had ever felt before, this was another form of terror, given my age, i didn't move as much as a centimetre, i was too scared.

this went by for probably around 30 seconds but it felt like hours, i managed to gather courage to do something, or it could have been adrenaline, reguardless i got up from my bed quickly, falling over immedietly and standing back up, running at the same time.

i scrambled to the door, opening it and running directly to my mothers room on the end of the hall, i bash my fists against her door, yelling for her to get up, my voice waveing, a shrouded cry for help.

eventually she opens the door, half asleep, i, still scared shitless, lead her to my room, ghasping for air, she looks around and timmidly tells me theres nothing there.

i look around, now seeing nothing at the window, she calms me back down slowly and puts me back to bed, i fall sleep, waking hours lately as the warm sunlight shines through the windows.

i went to school, came home and then back to my room, the entire day was a blur, i felt like nothing else mattered that day, only that i had to see if that guy was still at the window, i checked when i looked out the window, there was nobody there, i took it as that, i was safe.

creepy guy staring at me through my window, lets not meet again.