Hey, got a question google couldn’t answer hoping Reddit pulls through.

What are warning signs that people are actively attempting to traffic someone. All I can find are red flags or warnings for sex trafficking, as in currently a victim. I am wondering what the signs are for someone who is not yet trafficked but people are trying to traffic them?

Almost a year ago, I was at an empty outdoor train station at night, waiting for my train. Although it was an eerie ambiance, and I was a bit cold, I didn't feel unsafe, I had full view of both sides and could see from a big distance anyone approaching, and was hoping noone would. However, I spot two men coming to the train station, of course, in my mind I don't know if they are there to take the train or to do something harmful ( specially as a woman). As they get closer I get more stressed, until the younger man receives a phone call and answers it with a cheerful tone, in a language I don't understand, and walks right past me, nodding as a way to say hi and sits on the floor pretty far for me. I let out a sigh of relief , thinking the second men is going to follow him. However , he stops in front of me, eyeing me up and down. I ask if there's a problem, in my language, although not sure if he would understand me. He does however, and answers me in my language , saying that there is no problem. He says I'm beautiful and asks me why am I so sad. Although annoying, atp he just seemed like someones dad unware he's making a random girl uncomfortable. I try to nod along until my train arrives , when he asks me if he could sit next to me on the train.
I shouldve said no, but I just sort of shrugged uncomfortably, I get on the train and try to get away from both men quick but sure enough the older man sits besides me and the younger one in front of me. it's ok, I think, I just have to get to my destination. The older man starts trying to make eye contact with me and I try to look away, he keeps telling me I'm beautiful and asking me questions about my life, to which most of them I don't answer truthfully. But things started to get weird. He started telling me I could get any guy I wanted, started telling me that God wants me to be pregnant and that it's time for me to. Tells me I'm truly beautiful over and over again and that race doesn't matter ( we are different races ). He tries to put his arm around me and things like that for quite some time. He then asks me if , when we arrive, I want to go with him to * insert nearby village* I say no and he keeps insisting saying I have to be free and be happy and I keep saying no. He then changes the subject , asks me why I'm so sad, I say I'm not, he says yes you are , I say no and this goes back and forth until he says that yes I'm sad and he knows because he's a medium. He knows I just need to be free and get a man. And that if I go with him he can help. I tell him no and that my dad is waiting for me. He asks "is your dad strong? " To which I reply " very. " He then seems to calm down a bit, and I text my friend explaining the situation, were talking and the he asks me who I'm texting. I just ask why he wants to know and he says that i should give him my socials In case I need his advice. I tell him no and that I don't feel comfortable with that and he insists that i should give him is number and that he's really good at helping women. This is when my friend calls me . Salvation . We talk until I get out of the train. I walk until the parking lot , and don't seem to see the guys of the train nearby. I go to hide myself somewhere to call my dad and as I'm looking at my phone I feel someone hug me. It was the train guy, alone for some reason. I push him off and clench my fist ready to punch, and he tells me he just wants to say goodbye with this weird tone he starts getting close to me, pursing his lips. I push him off, run and call my dad. I broke Into tears as soon as I was safe. I truly think that man could have done something horrible to me that day. Please let's not meet again.

Been wanting to share this for a while but it's like embarrassing to tell friends/family. After so many serial killer and murder documentaries I've watched I'm like..... wtf was I thinking. This was about a decade ago.

So back when I was online dating at 19, I was talking to a guy and agreed to meet him at a Starbucks. I drove myself to a Starbucks and met him - chatted for a bit and he said we could go to his brothers farm/property to see some wild life. Said he could drive us - for some dumb reason I agreed.

He had flowers waiting in the truck for me. So we went off and drove like 40 minutes outside the city to some random acerage property - with a gate he had to unlock.

Anyways, get in and drive up past some weird old deserted buildings - I mentioned how the land was really out here and nothing around. He made a comment "yeah we buried a tractor out here, no one will ever know"......

Anyways, we get out of the truck and he says he wants to show me a really pretty view of the sunset, so we'll take a hike. He has a professional camera with him, and I'm like oh what's that for - he said for the sunset ofcourse. Then he pulls out a gun... and I was like uh - what's that for, he said incase of a bad wildlife encounter like bear etc. I was like oh ok cool.. like WHAT. Anyways... we went up to view the sunset and chatted, kissed a couple times, saw some deer and then he drove me back to my car after a while and that was that.

I seriously wonder to this day if I escaped a killer. Like he had me in the middle of nowhere with a gun and a camera and no one was around and my car was at a random Starbucks. Did he just decide last minute I wasn't one to kill? Like wtfffffff

Still weirdly haunted to this day.

To preface this, I am currently 19 going on 20. Due to a vindictive teacher, she manipulated the grades so I would have to repeat the third grade because I called another student a brat for crying about wanting her mom. The context behind is irrelevent but the run down is this girl thought because her mom was a teacher, she could cry her way into her mom's class. Her mom was a high school teacher and would almost always cry and cry until she was allowed to go and her poor would be distraught having to leave her class and pick her daughter up because she wanted attention. I ended up snapping and telling the girl she's in the third grade and is too old to be crying for her mom and disrupting other students leaving. Probably harsh but you could tell this girl was spoiled.

On to the actual person in question.

In August of 2023, I was in my junior year. I went to a trade school in Sumeru county for Graphic Design. A sophmore named James had taken notice that I wouldn't be dropped off at our homeschool like he was. He offered to drive me home. I didn't know this kid well. I spoke to him a few times but other than that, I wasn't buddy buddy with him. I told him my mom prefers to meet people before just letting my ride in a random person's car. Especially a guy. With me being 18 at the time, I told him that if he got into a wreck, I would be responsible as the adult in the car.

After that, he didn't really bother me with anything. We still talked and could tell he wasn't neurotypical. It wasn't until my senior year that things got creepy.

We exchanged numbers because I would sometimes help him with homework he didn't fully understand and give recommendations of horror channels on youtube such as reddit stories, creepypasta readings, or channels that cover disturbing videos like Hannahthehorrible/Nick Crowley/Nexpo.

Within a month, he found my home address. I never told him where I lived and he got dropped off way earlier than me. The way the home school worked was that all the students on the west side of Fontaine going into Sulani would go to one singular middle school and highschool while students from East Fontaine going into Liyue would go another highschool.

I never told this kid where I lived let alone a rough area. I started documenting everything at this point no matter how big or small.

The next following months, if I would fall asleep on the bus, he would tap my headphones, snap them on my ears, kick my legs, shake me, or call my phone just so I would talk to him.

In april, he asked me to go to prom with him and I tried to tell him multiple times that I wasn't interested and he tried to manipulate me to which I just lied to him and told him that I had a family event that day.

After that, I said something to the principal of him harassing and shaming people to go prom and he gave the most insincere apology ever. He worded it like he was forced to apologise.

I get a phone call the next day of him asking if my sister drove a red car and worked at Sangonomiya Coffee House. I quickly told him no and blocked his number.

I went to administration coupled with the fact this kid would call to ask if I went to the Dollar General, went to work, or if I was at home, told me thoughts he had about killing his mom's boyfriend, how he wants to smash his teeth in, smacking his phone against the window, and tried to maipulate me into calling while he was having a panic attack, and ranted about how my math teacher needed to be gutted because she was overweight and that fat women are ugly and horrible vessels for producing babies (She's not overweight from poor diet. She has a medical condition that caused a build up of estrogen).

The worst was when he lashed out in anger about him losing his air pod case and aggressively stomping on his air pods and literally foaming at the mouth.

I went to the principal and liaison after this only to be unable to talk and they yelled at me for an hour about how I was being mean to a kid on the spectrum and that my infomation, my mother's information, and my sister's information is public information.

I started having a panic attack and called my mom. At this point I was literally vomiting in the trashcan of the conference room. My mother was PISSED. My mother told me to call the sherrif's office after I get home. The Sherriff actually went to this kid's house and told him to knock this shit off or I had every right to file stalking and harassment charges. The 180 women's shelter confirmed that what the principal and liaison did was disgusting and dangerous

So far I haven't seen him and I still have his number blocked. Hopefully, I don't see this little bastard anymore.

To James, if you see this post by some chance, stay the fuck away from me and my sister. I hope your future general finds out about this shit. Yeah. That's right. This fucker wants to be in the god damn army.

Should I see him again, I won't hesitate to press charges against him. I don't care if "It ruins his life forever". He's a danger to those around him and potentially himself.

My partner and I had a really unsettling experience tonight, and I can’t shake the what-ifs. I was asleep during this incident, but I woke up to the sound of him rushing back inside our apartment and locking the door. When he told me the details, it left me with an uneasy feeling I can’t get past.

We live in a suburb that has a reputation for being a bit rough, but a lot of the crime and drug problems are contained in the centre of the suburb. Our area is quite sheltered from these problems, and during the day, it’s busy and full of people, with a university, a hospital, and locals going about their business. At night, the streets near our building are quiet, but not in an unsettling way. It’s usually peaceful as we’re tucked away from the main road and surrounded by other apartments and a park. However, the past week has made me feel like things are changing.

Last week, we heard a couple arguing loudly in the street from our balcony. It escalated quickly and turned physical, so we called the police who intervened. Then, just a few nights later, we saw a car pull up near the park. A different woman jumped out and ran into the trees, hiding while the man in the car drove away. He didn’t follow her, but we’ve seen them in the park before; they look like methed-up gym rats. He’s often yelling at her and calling her stupid, among other colourful names. We never saw her come out of the park and didn’t even know if she was still hiding. That time, we didn’t call the police. Maybe it was the feeling that it wasn’t worth reporting unless it got worse, after already reporting an incident a few days prior.

Although these were domestic incidents, I think this reluctance to report suspicious occurrences carried over when this encounter happened with my partner. He told me later he didn’t want to get a reputation for calling the police over everything, like the boy who cried wolf. But I wish we had done it sooner.

At about 1am, my partner took our dogs out for a quick toilet break before bed. When he returned to the building, he noticed a man and a woman standing outside an apartment on the ground floor, quietly talking. He hadn’t seen them before, but didn’t think much of it, as there are 8 floors in our building with about 12 apartments on each. He entered the lift, and just as the doors were closing, the man stopped them with his hand and asked if my partner could take them to Level 7, as they were locked out. They must have followed somebody through the doors to get inside initially. My partner explained that residents can only access their own floors and told him no. Thinking back, they would have had to sprint from where they were to reach the doors before they closed, which is what had me questioning my partner’s situational awareness, but I will continue the story.

The man shrugged and said, “Any level should be fine,” and both he and the woman stepped into the lift anyway. My partner told me that he just froze and was trying to analyse the situation in real time. He said they didn’t look like the typical meth users or necessarily threatening, but their energy seemed unpredictable. He didn’t know how they’d react if he pushed back. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he knew something wasn’t right. Not wanting to escalate, he let them in the lift. As the lift went up, the man was looking at my partner in silence, while the woman was crouching towards our dogs making kissy faces. Even this contrast was unsettling for my partner as there were no obvious threats here. In fact, you could argue that she was being… nice?

When the lift reached our floor, the couple told him to step out first, and then they followed him. My partner walked quickly to our apartment, noticing they weren’t too close but were definitely behind him. As soon as he got inside, he locked the door immediately and started listening.

For the next 5 or 10 minutes, we could hear them pacing up and down the hallway, talking in low voices. We couldn’t make out what they were saying, but their calm tone made it even creepier. At one point, they opened the fire escape door across from our apartment and held it open while still talking in low voices. Eventually, they let it close, and after that, everything went quiet. Since we don’t have a peephole, my partner got on the floor by the door, trying to see them through the crack underneath. I crouched with him, but he could only make out faint movements before they finally left.

An hour later, after we were certain the hallway was silent, we carefully opened the door and checked the hallway and fire escape together. They were definitely gone, but my partner was still shaken. He kept replaying the situation in his head, wondering if they could have hurt him if he’d refused to let them stay in the lift. I insisted that we report them to the police, and ended up providing their descriptions, just in case they were still loitering around.

I wish he hadn’t let them see where we live, but I understand why he froze. He keeps saying their energy was off, and he didn’t know what they might do if he told them no. I’d like to think I’d have refused to let them in the lift at all, but honestly, I don’t know how I’d react in the moment. The thought of what could’ve happened if they’d lashed out makes my stomach turn.

The whole week has made me feel like our area isn’t as safe as it once was, and this incident was the final straw. Why would they follow him to our floor, linger for so long, and hold the fire escape door open before committing to leaving? Their calmness only made it more unnerving. If they were truly dangerous, they would have forced their way inside as my partner opened the door. It leaves me with some hope that they were just opportunists, and maybe I don’t need to worry about them coming back tonight. The door is double bolted and the extra lock is on. My partner is now sleeping soundly, but I’m still wide awake and alert.

To the man and woman who thought “any level should be fine” and followed my partner to our door: Let’s not meet.

EDIT: Lol I’m actually a gay dude but thanks for the unsolicited relationship advice in the comments. I know assumptions are made about one’s gender based on who they are dating, which don’t bother me personally. However I did not realise how quickly incels would jump on the opportunity to talk about my feminine need for protection and the need to throw my relationship away for it. Even if I needed protection, even if I were a woman, and even if I agreed with you, I certainly wouldn’t want or need any form of toxic masculinity in my life. Women don’t NEED strong men, we all just need less creeps in the world!

Context: I am (was, this was several years ago) a 35 year old blonde, white, petite Italian American with barely 2 year old twins. Now, I may be biased, but my boy/girl twins are exceptionally cute but weirdly, do not even look related. My son, in particular, got a lot of attention due to his strawberry blonde hair and giant blue eyes.

So I head out to target with my twinsies, park slightly far away from the main entrance because I like to be close to where you can bring the carts back and there was not a ton of cars in this row. As I am getting out, me and another couple who parked near me, smile at each other, as their son is clearly the same age as my kids. Dad is a BEAR of a man, huge, beard for days, arms like tree trunks.

As I am walking around target, looking at all the things we don't need, I vaguely notice two couples who are in a lot of the same areas as me. They aren't speaking English, if I was going to guess, they were possibly Russian but I couldn't really tell.

Fast forward I get on line behind one of the couples, My daughter is in the seat part of the cart and my son is in the wide open part. Out of nowhere, the lady from the couple behind me is all up in my cart and my person space. The couple in front of me, after paying. Doesn't get out of the way. (weird, move over guys, wtf are you doing?) The lady behind me, leans Completely over my cart. and places herself in between me and my son. I have literally no idea what she doing. Still. It seems like her main objective was to block my eyeline to him.

I have my hands on my daughter, but I can't even see my son. She's a big lady. She is quite obviously very much too close to my children. She is leaning totally over my cart to the point that her body is like resting on both sides of it. Again> I CANT EVEN SEE my child anymore who up until two mins ago was less than 10 inches away from me.

I had asked her to back up when she started inching closer, but she just responded in her native language. I gestured to show her what I meant. I repeatedly ask her to please move, excuse me, etc. I am obviously trying to get her to move away from my children. Even if you don't speak the same language, pretty clear what the point of the message I was making is.

She blatantly ignores me. I'm trying to lean around her to grab my son and throw him onto the conveyor belt just to get him away from this couple...bc seriously, what are you trying to do here??

She refuses to move, and I can't get to my son. This continues to go on for several minutes. We aren't even checked out bc I have items in my cart I can't reach. I am also blocked in on the other side by this other couple who are standing completely on top of me.

At this point, I am full on yelling at the women to get the fuck away from my kid. I finally grab my cart and Smash it as hard as I can into her and she starts yelling at me in ? and backs up just enough for me to grab my son. Whose now hysterical.

The 16 year old cashier was useless even though the whole time I was screaming at her to call security.

THE BEAR from earlier sees this all taking place, and rushes himself and his family over to my side, He manages to push the other couple away from me and we basically ditch all my attempted purchases and he gets me and my twins back to our cars safely. Him and his wife followed me for a bit onto the highway to make sure we weren't being followed by any other cars.

So to the tourists at target who attempted to.... I don't know what you were attempting .....but you raised ALL MY MAMA RED FLAGS and you are lucky I didn't smash my keys into your face bc that was my next move. Lets not meet

and to the Papa Bear who was the only reason I felt like I got out of that target safely. THANK YOU

I'm really starting to freak out. This all started in early December, he called to my house at 5:45am accusing him of being p*phile and, saying I was shouting all over the apartment block telling everyone. Not true.

I'd never met this guy before, he lives downstairs and I never go past his house.

Fast forward: few weeks later he knocked on my next door neighbour's house and said he was waiting for me. Neighbour told him to go away and not come back, this was midnight.

Today: I went to bed it had been a long day but I'd asked my neighbour to leave it at my door. He dropped tnem off at 6pm and sent a text saying he had left the cable there for me. I woke up then, around 22:45 because someone knocked on my door.

I shouted "who is it??" 3 times. No reply. So I opened the door and there was a bag sitting there with satin nightdress, satin night gown, chocolates and a phone case.

Dude is evolving am I'm shitting myself living here now

This just happened a few hours before posting. I'm currently off of work and decided to deliver for DoorDash to get some money on the side. I was on my way to deliver someone's food when I accidently almost hit this guy while changing lanes. I don't know if I just didn't see him or if he like sped up to get in front of me or whatever, but he took it very personally. I went back into the left lane, and he sped up and break checked me, then I stopped at a red light, and he got out of his car and hit my window. The light turned green, so I just sped off, and then he pulled up next to me at the next light. He was shouting at me a bunch of nonsense so when the light turned green, I sped off again, and I thought I lost him. I delivered the food and decided to go home. On my way home, he found me and pulled up next to me, shouting again. I called my Dad while I tried to lose him again. Eventually, I pulled into a gas station, and he drove off. My Dad came and we talked. while we were talking, I saw a car that looked like him drive by, but I'm not sure if it was him or not. After that, my Dad and I drove home. So, to the psycho with anger issues that looks a lot like CaseOh, let's not meet.

So this story takes place about a year ago.Me and my bf who at the time just turned legal age was strolling down a recreational park path.Now bare in mind it wasn't late,around 7pm,but in england in winter it gets dark around 4ish.Funnyily enough we was having a debate (this will come back up later) and speaking quite loud and stupidly even in the pitch black wasn't at all paying attention to our surroundings(stupid i know) but we have done the same walk out of the recreational park 3 times a week for the last month.

Around 10 mins into the 30 minute walk back into our little towns town center and any point of civilisation we started hearing leaves crunch.Now I'm an extremely paranoid person like i'm still afraid to sleep in the dark but he isn't so i chose to ignore it and pretend i didn't hear anything it was a animal though from what i can remeber the steps was way to heavy to be done by a animal in England.So we continued to have our conversation while i pushed it to the back of my mind.The problem with the conversation was the context was relating to back when i was 14.i was vividly discussing about 14,painting a picture without specifiying i'm not a child.I stand at 5'3 whereas my bf is 6,4 But both clearly sound immature and i can and have easily be mistaken for 14-15 still.In the height of discussion we end up stopping on the path (another stupid fault of our own i know but for a miniute so i didn't hear anything and almost chalked it up to paranoia).

The leaves behind thick bushes started crunching again.My boyfriend decided to get his flashlight up on his phone and try see through the trees while i stand back facing away from them about 150cm apart from him.i was still talking assuming he didn't see anything since he was staring trying to lean over bushes for abit.He then says no come on let's just walk faster to be safe and forcefully moves me along.After only five minutes of speed walking we make it back near civilisation.catching my breath i ask if he seen anything.Now in the light i can see how pale his face is,then he proceeds to tell me.This is his words from what i can remember,"I honestly couldn't see anything but while you was chattin.The footsteps was moving away from me towards your direction.Like they was going foward just away from me,something shined off my flash light and i panicked and dragged you along."

He's since tried to peaceafy my mind saying ye it was a animal,it could have been.Though the consistency of the steps and the fact a blinding light didn't scare a animal off,such as deer, infact made it come closer makes me believe it was something or someone more sinister.So creepy individual hiding in bushes let's not meet again.

I’m so sorry this is so long, maybe I included too much detail, I don’t know, I don’t post very often. I’ll put a tldr at the end.

This took place a while ago (2015ish) but I’ll probably never forget it. I (around 21 at the time, f) was still fairly new in my city. I had just gotten out of a bad relationship, wasn’t in the best place mentally and didn’t know a lot of people in town besides my ex and his friends. I was on a dating/hookup app looking for people to hang out casually with, maybe find a fwb or something. I had matched with a 25 year old guy, ‘Simon’. We talked sporadically in the app for a few days. He explained he was in a band and living in a house with his bandmates. He sent me their music, it was just audio on YouTube with a heavily edited still image of four or five guys playing rock instruments, one of them looked like him. The music was an interesting combination of styles and not really for me, but whatever, he seemed like a nice enough guy. He stopped replying for a few days and I figured that was that, moved on. 

Then one day I was at work and got a message from him saying sorry he’d been so busy and inviting me to a barbecue with his friends and bandmates in their yard. He had explained that their ‘band manager’ was providing them the house to live in. Based on the lack of views on the YouTube video and the fact I only saw one photo of him playing in the band I figured he was probably exaggerating the ‘band manager’ thing. I thought it was more likely something along the lines of a bar manager friend giving them a discount on rent in exchange for being a house band at their bar or something and didn’t think much of it beyond that. 

Normally I would have just said no to going to a barbecue alone at the home of someone I really didn’t know. But I was really bored and figured I might be able to overcome some social anxiety and maybe even make some female friends there since he made it sound like a pretty big party. I put the neighbourhood he gave me into maps and it was a suburban are with lots of families as far as I knew. I figured being in a yard on such a nice summer day wouldn’t be overly risky because lots of neighbours would be outside. Plus it was just a few train stops away from my workplace and I was off in a few hours.

I did tell him I wasn’t overly comfortable with the idea since I didn’t know him well, but I would stop by for a bit if I didn’t need to go inside the house at all. He said that was totally fine which made me feel a lot better. I even made sure to not drink anything for the rest of my shift so I wouldn’t be risking needing to go inside to use the bathroom. I was anxious about just showing up to a BBQ with people I didn’t know at all, as he implied that the event was already underway, plus I would’ve had a hard time finding a specific address from the backyard side so I asked Simon if he could meet me at the train station since he said it was a quick walk anyway. He agreed to do that and I let him know when I was leaving work and what time maps said the train would get to his station. 

I sent Simon a message to tell him that I had arrived at the train station around 5:30 after I looked around and couldn’t find him. He told me he was running behind and to just start walking toward the neighbourhood. I was about halfway across the massive train station parking lot when I saw him slowly wandering toward me. I recognized his clothes (wearing bellbottoms when they were not common, especially for men) and long hair from far away, but up close his face looked pretty different from his photos. It might’ve been some heavy duty editing, I don’t even know, but he kinda looked like a different guy. Older looking than the ‘25 year old’ guy in the photos by 5-10 years, maybe used photos of his brother or something, I don’t even know, it was before AI. This was the first real red flag, but I brushed it off. Maybe he’s just self conscious, maybe he smokes a lot and doesn’t wear sunscreen and hasn’t taken pictures in a while (all of his pictures looked candid so I figured he wasn’t much of a selfie guy). And besides, I’m mostly here to make friends anyway so I shouldn’t judge his appearance so harshly. He was also clearly already drunk but a lot of my ex’s friends were heavy drinkers so that didn’t seem strange, he’s hosting a BBQ after all. 

The second red flag came shortly after when we arrived at the front door. I reminded him that I wasn’t comfortable going inside the house, but he assured me we would just have to walk through to get to the back yard. Ok fine. It wasn’t the kind of neighbourhood where you could just walk around the house to get to the back yard, we would’ve had to back track to the main road to go down the alley directly to the backyard. I figured he just forgot what I said about not wanting to go inside and didn’t want to cause a bunch of trouble so I went with it.

We got in the house and he immediately closed the door and locked the deadbolt and knob behind me. I didn’t think that was tooo weird since nobody was hanging out inside and a lot of people are just in the habit of locking the door when they come in, but it did still give me the heebie jeebies for some reason. Then Simon then told me he’d really like to give me a tour of the house. I politely declined and reminded him that l was just there for the BBQ. He said that he and his bandmates had worked really hard to get the house and he was really proud of it. At that point I was getting really skeptical because usually when guys would tell me things that seemed a bit far fetched they’d let the truth slip by the time they got me to their house.

But still, I convinced myself that I was being unreasonable, I was already in the stupid house anyway. He insisted it’d be quick. Not the wisest choice, I know. But I was pretty good at explaining away red flags so at this point Simon still mostly had a dopey stoner art guy kind of vibe as far as I was concerned. He really didn’t seem like a threat, just an insecure oddball who sucks at communicating and fibs a bit. Not unlike my ex who was definitely emotionally and verbally abusive but it never escalated past that. I figured at worst he’d get handsy and I’d get called a prude for not sleeping with him. I didn’t have a lot of self worth at the time obviously so I went with it.

The tour started pretty uneventfully other than that the decor in the common areas was obviously chosen by a middle aged Martha Stuart enthusiast and not a bunch of guys in a band or their fake band manager. I didn’t know if this should make me feel better or worse. On one hand he was clearly lying, but on the other it made me think it was probably just someone’s mom’s house and she was out of town and he didn’t wanna tell me he lived at (a friend’s parent’s) home and didn’t actually have a paying job. Again, total red flag, but I could rationalize it at the time. 

The bedroom doors were all closed, bathroom was unremarkable. He then showed me the kitchen and I finally saw through the window that there was nobody in the backyard. There weren’t even BBQ supplies around. No burgers thawing on the counter, no cocktail supplies lying around, nothing. I asked him where everyone was and why he lied about the BBQ, and he told me that his bandmates were on tour still, they were just running behind due to van trouble but they should be back any minute so we could start the party. I asked him why he wasn’t on tour with them if he’s in the band. I don’t even remember what his answer was to that because it didn’t make any sense. At this point I’m out of mental gymnastics to convince myself that this guy isn’t just completely full of shit, and I’m really freaked out (took me long enough. I’m smarter now don’t worry). 

I started trying to figure out a way to get out of this situation. I hoped that once he was done the tour we could go outside, even just for a minute, and I’d just leave. I’d been in some sketchy situations in the past, but luckily nothing so bad that they tried very hard to physically stop me when I walked away in a semi-public place, I just wasn’t comfortable doing it inside the house. I knew this guy was full of shit but I had no idea how much worse it would get. 

I instinctively pretended to believe his bullshit. He offered me a beer, I said no thanks because I had to work in the morning. He said ok and cracked one for himself. Then he wanted to take the tour downstairs, I could see from the top of the stairs that the basement was the dark and creepy kind with really small windows, so I refused. I asked if we could go back outside. He said after the tour. I tried to argue about going into the basement, told him I have a spider phobia, don’t like basements, etc. (all lies but anything that wouldn’t let him realize that HE was what I was afraid of). He started to get agitated about my reluctance, so I figured it would be better to just let him show me the damn basement and then hopefully we could go outside because I really didn’t know what else to do. 

The basement was fairly unremarkable. Couch, tv, elliptical. Until I noticed something that gave me chills. The house was probably built in the 1990s or late 80s at the absolute earliest, but I saw a door that looked just like the heavy, foam lined door to the cold storage room in my grandma’s house. The kind that only open from the outside. It was just a smaller version of the big metal doors on commercial walk-in fridges, it looked really out of place in this house. 

I would absolutely not go anywhere near that door. He opened it and told me it was their ‘soundproof music studio’. I looked inside from a few meters away. It did indeed look soundproof, it was about the size of a bedroom and I could see a few guitars and amps in it. Mattress toppers on the walls. No drum kit or recording equipment that I could see. He insisted I go inside to get a better look. He was standing outside the door motioning for me to go inside. Holy shit the alarm bells are really going off now. At this point I realized I could totally die here if I’m not careful and I turned around to run up the stairs. He closed the door and followed me, asking what’s wrong, acting like I’m being all unreasonable for not wanting to see his soundproof ‘music studio’. So I’m realizing that this is a way sketchier situation than any of my ex’s bullshit and I’m freeaaaked right out.

At that point my main objective was getting out of the house. The front and back doors were both closed and locked so if I tried to run he’d be able to get to me before I could get the locks open. The bathroom did not have a window. The house had a convoluted floor plan that I wasn’t familiar with and he was much bigger than I am. He was the tall lanky type, who can run fast even if they’re out of shape and smoke a pack a day. I pretended that I was ok with hanging out with him in the hopes that he’d chill out a bit. We made smalltalk for a few minutes, he cracked another beer and thankfully he calmed down. I desperately mentioned yet again that it was beautiful outside and suggested we go sit in the yard while we wait. He said no and started to get agitated that I wanted to leave already. I told him that I could stay but I’d just really like to smoke a cigarette. He told me that we could smoke cigarettes inside, and pointed to a cereal bowl full of cigarette butts. Goddamn it. We sat down at the table and lit some cigarettes. As he was smoking he started rolling a joint, which he promptly lit as soon as his cig was done. He offered me some and I said no thanks. He insisted so I took the smallest puff I could. I’m a pretty seasoned weed smoker but I pretended to cough excessively and told him I’m a novice so that’s more than enough for me. For a liar himself he thankfully wasn’t very good at picking up on the lies of others.

After we smoked he asked if I’d like to watch a movie until his bandmates get back. I told him that I was really looking forward to spending the day outside and suggested we go for a walk or visit the park. Ideas he did not like or appreciate. At this point i was trying to keep as much distance as possible between us but he stayed close enough to me that I could smell the beer on his breath. He grabbed me by the waist and and I backed away and asked about the BBQ food to try and change the subject and make him think I still believed what he was telling me. He started to get angry again, and sternly reiterated that his bandmates should be home any minute, and my anxiety was absolutely through the roof. I tried to calm him down again with generic small talk.

Now I don’t know how I got so lucky, but the next thing that happened might’ve saved me. Simon went to the fridge to get another beer and pulled out an empty box. At this point he’s getting even more pissed off than before, so I went out on a limb and suggested we go get some more beer ‘for the party’. Because I was out of ideas. I was terrified that it would enrage him even more to suggest, once again, that we leave the house, but I had to try. Thankfully though, his eyes lit up with the possibility that I could actually be down to drink with him and he agreed. 

As we were walking to the liquor store I still didn’t really have a plan because I was no longer comfortable just walking away from this fucking menace in this weirdly desolate suburb. But I was extremely relieved to be out of that house. I walked with him to the liquor store and when we got there told him I didn’t need to go inside if he was just gonna go grab some beer. He insisted that I had to go inside, at that point I was so stressed and frazzled I just went with him and hoped that a good opportunity to leave would arise. 

When we got inside the liquor store he asked what kind of beer I wanted. I reminded him that I had to work tomorrow and didn’t want to drink much. He demanded to know what kind of beer I wanted so I just named the first one that came to mind. We went to pay, the cashier was kind of an asshole so I didn’t ask for help. I probably should’ve but I panicked and didn’t. I hoped there might be somebody in the parking lot who might help me if I made a scene, but there was nobody. I really regretted not asking the liquor store guy for help, but also remembered the times my ex told people I was crazy so they wouldn’t take me seriously. Liquor store guy definitely seemed like he would’ve fell for that, so probably for the best I didn’t expect him to help me. 

I had one last idea before I took my chances just trying to run and/or scream. There was a drugstore across from the liquor store, I told Simon I had to go buy a toothbrush or some shit that vaguely implied I might stay over. He eagerly agreed to this but tried to follow me into the store. I told him that you’re not allowed to bring beer into a drugstore. I don’t know if that’s even true, I really doubt it’s any kind of law, but luckily this drunk douchebag believed it and agreed to wait outside. 

Now, my naive ass thought maybe I could just wander around in this drugstore for long enough and he would either get the hint or get sketched out or bored and leave. But no, I must’ve wandered around the store for at least half an hour and this jackass is still just standing there staring in the window. This creep didn’t even have his phone out, every time I checked if he was still there he was just staring through the window looking for me. I didn’t feel like I had anybody I could call in the city to come help me, the cops here don’t usually take things like this very seriously, and the store workers looked like they were mostly high school students and I didn’t want to drag them into this so I really didn’t feel like I had a lot of options. After being in there for so long I was surprised he didn’t come in to see what was taking me so long. I thought maybe I could lose him in the aisles and sneak out of the store if he did come in but nope. 

I ended up hovering around the tills and waited until a big group of friendly looking people were paying. I followed them out of the store and immediately told Simon to leave me alone and go home. I said it firmly and loudly enough to imply that I would make a scene if need be. Simon looked at the people getting in their car, who where now pausing and looking at us because I had nearly yelled at him, and then he just turned around and left. It was bizarrely anticlimactic, which I was very thankful for. I ran to the train station, which thankfully was in a different direction than his house from the store, and I never heard from him again. When I got home his app profile had either blocked me or been deleted. 

Years later after I stopped compartmentalizing the whole thing I wish I would have reported him or something. It bothers me to wonder if he tried it again with someone else but made sure the fridge was stocked first. But at the time I didn’t think anybody would take me seriously, I was embarrassed of my choices, and I just wanted to move on from the whole thing. Plus, all I really had was a (likely fake) first name and a general idea of where the house was, which probably wasn’t even his. 

I’ll probably never know any more than I do now, and maybe that’s for the best. Anyway, ‘Simon’, you lying pos, let’s not meet.

TLDR: In my early 20s I met a man on a hookup app and agreed to go to a barbecue he and his bandmates were hosting at their house in the suburbs. When I met up with him he was really drunk, looked different from his photos, his bandmates were nowhere to be found, and the decor in the house didn’t look like it was theirs. He locked the door and got angry every time I asked to go outside. After a tour of the house that included a ‘soundproof music studio’ and no evidence of a barbecue, I was able to escape by suggesting we visit the liquor store together after he ran out of beer; and telling him to leave me alone once we were around a group of people.

EDIT (yeah I’m gonna make it even longer, sue me): Hey everyone, thanks for reading my story, and thanks to everyone who had left comments and feedback. I really didn’t know what to expect when I posted this but your kind words truly mean a lot. I tend to process things by writing them out and re-reading them over and over so this was my way of moving past the whole thing and I’m glad I shared it, and I’m shocked by how many people have enjoyed reading it. I’m sorry to hear about how many of you have experienced similar things but your stories have helped me forgive myself. I feel like if this story has helped anyone feel less alone in having gone through something similar, or even just used it as a distraction from the stressful things in their own life, then something positive has come from it. Just please don’t be afraid to meet people or go on dates, be cautious, be curious, but you don’t need to be fearful, this situation was not normal at all.
I’m also really surprised and flattered by how many messages I’ve been getting about using this story for podcasts and videos, but I don’t really sign into Reddit often enough to reply to all of them so if you want to use it just go ahead :). I feel like I’m punishing the people who are thoughtful enough to ask first by not replying in a timely manner so honestly just go for it. I’m so past this whole thing, it’s the internet’s story now lol. I’d prefer if you don’t use it for AI narrated channels but I understand that once you share something in this way it’s not really yours anymore so whatever lol you do you

This happened in my family when I was about 5 years old, around 1997. At that time, we lived with my mom, grandmother, and grandfather in a three-room apartment on the 6th floor in Ukraine, in Kherson city , in a large neighborhood called Shumensky. Those were criminal times in all post-soviet countries(not much changed since though( , and I was raised very strictly from a young age not to trust strangers and never to open the door to anyone unfamiliar.

One day, someone knocked on our door during the day. At home, it was just my mom and me. My mom approached the door and asked, “Who’s there?” A male voice replied, “Open up, this is the police. We need to ask you some questions.” My mom first looked through the peephole and indeed saw two men in police uniforms standing at the door. Only after that did she open the door.

My mom asked them what the matter was and what had happened. In response, they started asking her who was currently at home and how many people were in the apartment. I came closer and saw them. They looked at me, and I got scared and ran into another room. At that moment, my mom sensed something was wrong and tried to close the door, but one of the men put his foot in the way and held the door with his hand, preventing her from closing it. My mom, now frightened, asked again what they wanted, but they just silently stared at her without answering. An eerie silence hung in the air.

Suddenly, our neighbor opened her door. She lived on the same floor as us and was about to leave her apartment on an errand. The two “policemen” immediately changed their expressions, looked towards the neighbor, and she noticed them too. With a questioning look, she glanced at my mom. Then, suddenly, the two men ran down the stairs and out of the building.

It was terrifying, and we had no idea what they wanted, but one thing was clear—they had likely bought the police uniforms somewhere, or stole it, and were certainly not real police officers. So, fake policemen’s, let’s never ever meet again!!!

Around 15 years ago, I lived in Chicago and worked at a restaurant in the Loop where I sometimes worked split shifts, I.e., work the lunch rush then come back a few hours later for dinner. I didn’t usually like to go back home in between as naturally once I got settled in, the last thing I wanted to do was go back to work. So if it was nice, I’d walk around downtown, sit and listen to music in the park, etc. If it wasn’t, I would literally just get on the El to ride around and read or listen to music for a while.

One day, it’s the latter scenario and I’m riding what’s a sparsely populated train as it was afternoon on a weekday. I’m on the inside seat of two facing forward, and a guy who just boarded the train plops himself down next to me even though there are plenty of empty seats.

There was nothing particularly objectionable about him, just seemed like an average guy probably in his mid to late 20s. I was annoyed he chose to sit down next to me when there were other places to sit comfortably obviously, but before i have barely registered my annoyance he lets out one of those giant dad sneezes. Everyone in the car turned to look at him, which is probably good for what followed.

He had covered his mega sneeze with his hand and, to my disgust, he extended it to shake my hand and introduce himself! I did not accept the handshake but said hi and maybe gave him an awkward elbow bump. He seemed affronted by this, but continued to try and make conversation with me, loudly.

He quickly started asking personal questions like what I did for work, where I lived, where I grew up, how long I had been in the city, etc. Clearly he was trying to gauge both my naïveté and my income, so I was vague at first and eventually just stopped answering altogether. He then gave me a sob story about how he was on hard times, and maybe I could spare him some money. I didn’t really believe this as, despite the sneeze, he had nice clothes and was well-groomed.

When I told him I had no cash on me, he said, “well I bet you got a 30 day transit pass, so you could give me that.” Maybe I should’ve just given it to him, but the 30 days had just started and I made next to nothing for living in Chicago. Like hell was I going to fork it over! So I decline, and he says “listen, I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I have a way of getting what I want.”

Obviously I’m getting scared now, but as I mentioned, he was talking loudly so the other people on the car were subtly paying attention without getting involved to this point. At the next stop, a bigger crowd was on the platform and I used the opportunity to get off and cross over to head back the other direction. The guy got up and made to follow me off, but some of the people who knew what was happening strategically got in his way and soon the crowd was boarding and he wasn’t able to get off before the doors closed. Phew, that was close!

But wait, there’s more! Fast forward several months later. I can’t recall the scenario exactly, but I was eating dinner quickly by myself at a Qdoba nearby where I worked. I was either in between shifts again or done for the day and I needed a break from our food. I was facing out the windows to the sidewalk; back a bit, not at the ones directly against the window. I see a guy outside hassling someone he doesn’t appear to know as I’m sitting there eating my burrito. There’s something familiar about him, but can’t put my finger on it. Soon, he leaves the other person alone and he turns his head to look directly at me, and then I remembered it was the bully from the El all those months ago! He creepily smiles at me and, to my horror, walks into the restaurant.

I’m like, there’s no way this guy remembers me when very clearly I’m not his only target. I think, maybe that’s not who it was or he saw someone else, but nope, he comes and stands right next to me. He says something along the lines of “well, well, well, that looks good. Remember me? I told you I have a way of getting what I want. Let me have that burrito.” If I were a brat I would’ve said, doesn’t seem you’re very good at it seeing as you didn’t get anything off me or that guy outside, but I’m more of a freeze response type. So I just ignore him, keep eating, and since there are other people in the restaurant, I gamble he won’t make a scene. I started to get worried as he seemed to be trying to wait me out, but I am extremely stubborn when I put my mind to something and I was not going to leave that restaurant before him. I ate very slowly, got refills, got more napkins. He tried to pretend like we were friendly, trying to make casual conversation but I kept ignoring him. Finally, he got distracted by another mark outside but before he left, he said to me “ill see you again sometime”. Once I was certain he was not lurking around, I waited for a crowd and fell in to make my way towards the El and home.

Thankfully, I never saw him again. I am certain his story about being homeless was not true. Even though months of cold weather had passed and we were well into winter when I saw him the second time, he was still nicely dressed and well-groomed. It kind of seemed like he had ditched that story anyway and was taking a more aggressive tact. It honestly didn’t scare me as much as it flummoxed me. He reminded me not only of the song I titled my post after, but also Deebo from the movie Friday. Just an old school bully with no real motivation other than to intimidate people. And of course, what were the odds of running into him again in a different part of the city, and that he’d remember me after all that time?

In retrospect though, I should’ve been more scared. He wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill common criminal on the streets of Chicago. Something was off. At the time though, my mental health was in a bad place and I was making minimum wage in an expensive city. It didn’t seem unreasonable to me to risk life and limb for my transit pass or dinner. I got lucky. Yes, I made some calculated risks, but still. It wasn’t worth it and I hope my kids wouldn’t make the same call, or be in a position where they would. But at any rate, let’s not meet again you cowardly, pathetic excuse for a man.

Writing this down on my phone from inside my town's mall as this happened about 10 minutes ago. I (31M) was on my way to the grocery store to buy some stuff I needed for apple cake. At one point as I'm walking I see a tractor up ahead that's removing snow. It has been warm for the past few days and most of the snow around had melted to the point where the roads and sidewalks were visible now. Oh well, maybe there's some big pile of snow elsewhere or something.

The tractor was blocking the sidewalk so I decided to wait for it to move out of the way. I stand there for about 2 or 3 minutes waiting and notice something odd: the tractor isn't picking up any snow. In fact, there is no snow for it to pick up. I get annoyed and walk around it to continue walking.

As soon as I cross the street at an intersection the tractor starts slowly following me. As in driving onto the sidewalk where, once again, there was absolutely no snow and following me. It moves slightly faster, not so fast that I have to run but enough that I need to pick up the pace a little bit. Due to the bright front lights on the tractor I can't see the driver, so I just keep walking. I assume the tractor is going to continue moving forward so, not wanting to inconvenience the driver, I crods the street again, walking past a closed café. The layout is such that it would be a bit difficult for any large vehicle to maneuver through it so I think I can continue my walk in peace.

Nope! The tractor continues to follow me, the driver giving zero Fs about the difficulty maneuvering. Getting slightly alarmed I quickly walk around the closed café and into some backstreets, thinking I've lost them now. I keep walking and hear the tractor on the other side of the building I was passing. Somehow it had gotten there before me.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

Thinking this person is stalking me, I try to run from one building behind another and just as I get to the building I pull my left calf muscle. In a bit of pain I limp through a gap between buildings too small for anything bigger than a grown person to get through, get behind the wall and take a moment to rest my leg and catch my breath. I can clearly hear the tractor and see the light of the moving from the gap I just came from. I sit there for 5 minutes listening to the tractor's engine run before it finally drives away. I wait a bit longer just in case before continuing on to the mall, still limping a bit but not as bad as before.

I've been sitting here for about 20 minutes now typing this down and from inside the mall I can still see the tractor driving around. Idk if I'm imagining things, if this person is just some idiot who was bored and thought following me around would be funny or if they were up to something bad. All I know is I have a pulled calf muscle because of it.

So to the tractor driver, let's not meet again.

I’m 19f living in the PMW. A couple of months ago, I was looking for extra work because my hours at my regular job were shit. I’m quiet, anxious, and don’t have any friends so I turned to Craigslist. I knew the site could be sketchy, but I was desperate for side gigs and I hadn’t had any luck as someone with no skills and not whilling to do sex work. One ad caught my attention. It offered $50 for someone to take photos of a property using either a camera or something above an iPhone 12 (I have an iPhone 14), promising it would only take an hour or two. I emailed the poster and soon got a text back. The man said I seemed like the perfect fit and invited me over that same day. What’s funny is I actually made a post on r/toafraidtoask about if it was a dumb idea, which everyone told me to take a person with me. I didn’t and deleted the post shorty after.

The house was about 20 minutes outside of town, surrounded by dense forest. It was small and run-down, but nothing that raised alarms. The man who greeted me looked like he was in his 50s, unremarkable. He invited me inside. The house was completely empty—no furniture, just dust and dirt.

I asked where to start taking photos, but was dodging the question, making small talk and asking personal questions about me instead. My anxiety was building so I kept the small talk going, but then he began staring at me intensely. I dropped my phone at one point when we eventually started taking photos though the house, and when he picked it up, he held onto it a little too long before giving it back.

Unprompted when taking photos of the master bedroom he brushed my face with his hand, complimented my skin. I knew it was stupid coming here but at that point my blood truly ran cold and I was done making excuses in my head. I made a quick excuse to leave, something about my mom, but when I turned toward the door, he grabbed my arm. I still have the picture I took after the ordeal of the bruises on my forearm. It felt like it was gonna get snapped in half. I had brought a small knife for self-defense, a gift from my paranoid mom who would have never let me come here if she had known. Without thinking, I pulled it out and stabbed him in the arm (it was released with the push of a small button. He let go, swinging at my arm with the knife but I was already running out of the house. I got into my car and drove until I was at a gas station and my heart was calm.

I called the police and explained everything. They took it seriously, I came in to make a report and answer questions. They searched the property and the surrounding forest but didn’t find him. The house turned out to be abandoned, and in the basement, they found a pack of zip ties. A report was made, but he’s still out there. I call sometimes for updates but it’s never anything of substance. I’ve never told anyone about this other than the police, not even my mom. I know typing this I sound pretty unbothered but that’s the first time anything like that has ever happened to me and I have trouble leaving my house most days. I decided to type this out on here as maybe a way of getting it off my chest as it plagues my thoughts constantly.

To the man who lured me to that house: let’s never meet again.

This happened approximately 10 years ago around 2015 to 2016.

I was living with someone at the time who worked an opposite schedule as me. He worked graveyard, and I worked during the day. So when I was getting up to get ready to leave for work, he was just coming home. On the nights during the week, I obviously would be at home by myself. One night during the week, I was feeling especially lonely and my favorite toy unfortunately broke and died. So I decided to drive downtown to the 24 hour adult store to buy another one. The town I live in is a mid-sized suburban town filled with mostly residential areas. The main "downtown" area was essentially one small area on the way to the freeway. My apartment was 10 minutes away.

I pulled into the parking lot behind the adult store. The parking lot was dark and had multiple entries all around that lead to the bars and restaurants as well as the store. After parking my car, I walked towards the entrance of the store which was on the street. To do so, I had to walk towards the driveway I came in to park. Upon walking to the entrance I noticed a man standing by himself smoking a cigarette. It was 1 a.m. and not normal just to see only one person standing by themselves. Though I figured he was one of the patrons from one of the bars on the block taking a cigarette break. As I walked passed him, he said "hi". To which I responded with a quiet "hi" back, but didn't make eye contact with the man. Upon passing him, I had a better look at his appearance. He had a shaved head, wore a long white T Shirt with shorts hanging past his knees. He had on a pair of sneakers accompanied with some tube socks that covered his shins. This is not unusual to see in my town, but I was more concerned that he was sitting by himself and instantly took an interest in me as I walked past him.

After passing him and continuing to walk to the store, I saw out of the corner of my eye the man proceeded to follow behind me. When I say follow, I don't mean he coincidentally was walking behind me. He immediately followed right behind me as soon as I passed him making a point to maintain the same walking speed. I did not know this mans' intentions, but a man by himself that late at night is a recipe for trouble. As I looked down the dark and empty street, I weighed out my options of where to go. Initially, I thought "keep walking so he doesn't know you're going to the adult store." But since it was 1 a.m. and there was no one on the street, I thought that to be more dangerous. Then I thought "just go in one of the bars." But then I thought that would give him an easier introduction to approach me. So then I realized my best bet was to continue into tlhe store where I know was well lit and people who could see me.

I proceeded to shop for what I came there for. The man entered the store behind me, but hung out at the front of the store so not to look like he was following me around. He wasn't even pretending to shop, he literally just sat at the front waiting. As I was shopping, I heard the man make a "sssssst!" sound to which I ignored. He wasn't getting the message. He continued making the "ssssst" sound as I continued to shop without noticing. Eventually I walked up to the cashier who was completely oblivious to what was going on. I tried to whisper to the cashier "do you know that man or does he work here?" The cashier asked me to repeat what I was saying. I asked again, but still spoke in a quiet voice. Not understanding my attempt to be discreet, the cashier responded "I can't hear you, say it again?" At this point I felt my cover was blown. So in a more normal tone I told the cashier the man in front followed me from outside and won't leave me alone. I explained my car was parked in the lot behind the store and I didn't feel comfortable going to my car. The cashier said "ok." The cash wrap area was an enclosed square-shaped counter to maintain distance between the staff and the customers. The cashier walked to the front by where the man was and from behind the counter told the man to leave. He then came up and assured me he told the man to go away. Though the man did not, in fact, go away. He continued to stay there. Given that I didn't want him to follow me to my car, I stayed in the store and pretended like I was still shopping even though I already found what I came there for. I would occasionally glance to the front to see if the man was still there...he was. I kept going up to the cashier explaining the man hasn't left. So he went back up to the front to talk to him. I heard the cashier say, "enough already, leave the store!" While he was doing this, I went to the far back end of the store to remain out of sight. By the time I circled back to the cashier, I noticed the man was no longer in the store. The cashier said that he repeatedly and more assertively told the man to leave. He said the man claimed he didn't understand English. The cashier then said he pulled a baton he kept under the counter for protection, held it over his head and asked the man "do you understand this?" To which the man finally left the store. I made my purchase, but was still worried about walking to my car even though I was parked in one of the first spaces when you come through the driveway. The cashier pointed at a small TV behind him that had 4 angles of CCTV footage. He assured me the man was gone and if I saw him to come back in the store. He also said he will see me when I walk to the car. Even though I would've felt more comfortable with him walking me to the car, I understood he was by himself and couldn't leave the store unattended with customers.

After making my purchase, I sped walked to my car. I always have my keys at the ready when walking to my car, so I promptly pressed unlock on my car remote, got in the car, placed my bag of purchases on the passenger seat and proceeded to start the car. Once my car turned on, I took off the E break, put the car in reverse and while putting on my seat belt, I looked in my side view mirror to back out. It was at this point that I saw that same man in the side view mirror full on speed walking right to my driver side door. I was driving an Accord at the time and that model automatically locks all the doors when you take the car out of park. As soon as I saw him, I hit the gas and violently pulled out of my parking space. I pulled out so fast, it startled him and stopped him dead in his tracks. He was now standing right next to my driver side door as I continued to pull out. I gave him the most serious dead stare I could because I know most predators play off the fear of their victims. The stare must've worked. As soon as he saw me pull out while staring at him, he turned his head back to the driveway entrance and proceeded to walk back to where he was standing. He had a look of defeat on his face. My face, however, was overcome with relief. I pulled out of the parking lot and took myself back home.

I felt a bit of shame being by myself going out so late. I did tell my boyfriend about the incident when he came home at 6 a.m. He also concurred me going out that late by myself wasn't the smartest thing. I'm no longer with that person, but still live in the same town. Though I never leave my home for anything past 9 o'clock anymore. While the town I live in isn't t the most dangerous, there still is enough crimes that occur here it's also not considered the safest. So to the man who decided to follow me at 1 in the morning with sinister intentions, LET US NOT MEET.

I've never told this story fully, but I remember it clearly. There were some woods next to my one friend's house that we used to walk through at the time when we were teenagers.

Back in the woods a bit there was the remains of some old structure, like a small house or something. There were concrete walls about chest high, no ceiling or roof left, and a lot of it was overgrown. We had a group of 4 friends back in the woods during the day, and we decided to try to clear out this structure a little bit. We had a hatchet, machete, some pocket knives etc. We thought we were some real boy scouts out there I guess, and we cleared out some of the overgrowth. Adjacent to the structure there was also a circular hole in the ground filled with some bricks, maybe it used to be a silo? Idk. But we dug a small hole inside the walls, put some bricks up around it and even used some mud to hold it together. We gathered some sticks and branches and by the time it turned dusk we had a fire going.

We were hanging out for a while until I had to go #2, which would mean walking back to 1 friend's house. It was maybe a 10 minute walk or less that I'd made tons of times, so even at I wasn't too worried. I brought a flashlight and walked into the woods. I started to hear what sounded like a second set of foot steps and I stopped. It didn't sound like an animal and it seemed to stop when I did. I got spooked and walked back towards the firelight where my friends were.

I didn't want them to say anything but they saw me and asked what are you doing coming back so soon? I was inside the walls again and told them I think there's someone else in the woods. They thought I was messing with them and I said no really, and then we heard a noise from close by. It was too dark to see, but sounded like it came from right outside the walls. To describe the sound, it was sorta like someone dropping an empty metal water bottle onto the concrete. We got up startled, dumped a lotta water on the fire and got out of the structure. The walls were crumbled enough to slip through the side, and we took the shorter, more difficult route through some thick brush to get to the road quicker.

We got outta the woods as quick as we could and got to the road, and looking back someone DID come out of the woods behind us, all we really saw was a man in a hoodie who followed us out of the woods and stopped by the road.

So that guy, let's not meet

My name is Lylie, I am 14 years old now, but I was only 10 at the time of the events. This story is mine, and it is entirely rational. You should know that this man lives in the building next to mine, but I have NEVER seen him outside of his home, only at his window. I was with a friend during this story, so I’ll call her Chloé. Chloé was staying at my place that day, but let’s start with the first day.

It was a Wednesday afternoon around 5 p.m., and we needed to take her dog out downstairs. We had to wait to take him out, so we decided to take a short break and sit down. Across from us was a window with a man who lives in the building next to mine. I don’t know what he was doing, but he opened his window and ordered us to go back home. We told him no. He then took a knife, held it in his hand, and told us to go home or he would call the police. So, we went back inside.

We obviously had to go back down around 10 p.m. to walk her dog again. It was dark and late. The man saw us again and once more told us to go home. This happened 4 years ago. Since that day, neither I nor the people living in my neighborhood had seen him again. But for some reason, I saw him recently at his window, and he said to me again, “Go back home.” I didn’t go back, but I know he’s not a very clear-headed person, and everyone agrees with me...

Back when I was 12, I went to a private school, so I needed to take a long walk to my apartment, since the school was a bit far from the city center. This was in Zagreb, Croatia, so I had a lot of public transport options to get home. My usual routine was to get on the bus at the station in front of my school all the way down to the main street, then take a tram to a public park and walk home the rest of the way.

Our school had a double timetable where one week we went to school in the morning and the other week we had classes in the afternoon. This happened during one of my afternoon weeks.
I was walking out with a few classmates since we all got on the same bus to the main street, the rest of my classmates were picked up by their parents. When we got in the bus, there were a few empty seats, so I took a seat in front of a balding middle-aged man who was wearing slightly dirty clothes; that was my mistake. As soon as I sat down, he started staring at me, like, staring with a cold look in his eyes. Feeling uncomfortable, I took a book out of my bag and started reading. I would have used my phone if I could, but it was dead since I forgot to charge it before I left the house that day.
The guy did not stop staring at me the whole bus ride, to the point where I couldn't even concentrate on my book, but I refused to put it down because I was scared. I would have mentioned something to my classmates, but we were all spread out on the bus, and I was too scared to move, I don't know why, but I didn't want him to see that I was scared, thinking that maybe that would deter him. Or maybe I thought he was just staring at me for some stupid reason.

When we finally got to our stop, my classmates and I all got off and some of us headed to the tram station while the others walked away to their houses. The guy who was staring at me also got off with us, and he started tailing us while keeping a fair distance. I told one of my friends about this, but urged him not to look back, thinking ignoring him would be the best option. When we got to the station, different people got on different trams, since each of them had a different route. I needed to take the tram number 2, and so did my friend. We waited for it to arrive, and the guy was somewhere to our right, but we refused to look at him. When our tram arrived, my friend and I got on but so did the creepy guy. When I arrived at my stop, I tried to quietly discuss with my friend if getting off with me just in case was a good idea, but then we saw the guy get off himself first and start heading into the park, opposite of where I needed to go. He probably overheard us talking, since there were barely any people in the tram at that time (it was around 9 pm), but I didn't think of that, so I thought it had all been a misunderstanding. When I got off, and the tram had sped away to the next station, I started walking home. It was a short distance and would have taken be about five minutes, but then I noticed someone following me. I immediately knew it was the same guy again, so I picked up my pace and walked to my apartment.

As I turned a corner into the alley that housed my apartment, the guy was getting closer. I got to the building and buzzed my mom on the intercom. I wished she would hurry up but, in the end, the guy managed to catch up with me. I could smell the stench coming off from him as he started talking.
"Heyyy, how've ya been buddy? I saw your dad yesterday and he told me all about how you were getting on in that new school of yours." he said. And then I immediately knew that he was lying, since my dad had been away on work related business for months and hadn't returned home in that time once. I didn't know what to do so I just stood there quietly staring at him. Just then, the door buzzed and unlocked so I bolted for it. I managed to rush in and start running up the stairs, but he was following behind me, running himself. Never in my life have I felt such an adrenaline rush as I ran up the stairs to the third floor, and I had a backpack with books weighing me down, so I had a disadvantage. But in the end, I managed to arrive at our door, where my mom was happily waiting for me. With no warning, I shoved her away from the door as I entered before slamming it shut. Fortunately, the guy had enough common sense not to continue chasing after me. I told my mom what happened and she called the police and they arrived some time later, questioning me on how the guy looked and what exactly happened. In the end, they looked at the camera footage but since it was so dark out and I didn't turn on the indoor building lights as I entered, they weren't able to get a clear view of his face.

For two weeks I was too scared to go home alone so my mom picked me up every time until two weeks later, when on the news it was said how a man was arrested for attempted kidnapping and raping of children, and the face they showed was the exact one I saw that night, so I finally breathed a sigh of relief, knowing I was safe for now, but that didn't excuse the fact that I was careless with not charging my phone, and there were still many bad people out there. Everyone, please stay safe out there.

To the person who I met, if you ever get released for some ungodly reason, I hope I never see your face again.

So I started texting someone i met on a dating app. they made the convo super 18+ as soon as we moved to text. I wasn't playing into it as i was currently at a family Christmas party (2pm). He would get upset and ask if his 'magic wand' wasn't good enough? He would send more and more photos trying to get me to reply, but since i was at a family event (that he also knew i was at), i didnt find it the best time or place to look at any texts from him. Before i stopped opening his messages he felt the need to ask me if his photos made me, 'wet'. When i told him that i wasn't even thinking or looking at them cause i was with family and currently HOLDING my 5 month old nephew, he replied with "so? you can still be wet".. IM SORRY WHAT??. When I got home i decided to take a bath cause the day i had was rough. Hes now blowing up my phone wondering where i went and if i was "Finally home yet". Mind you i told him i was busy and may not reply till later in the night. Ive known this man for 5 hours at this point.

He asked me what i was thinking about after i got home ( 9pm) and i told him 'sleep tbh'. He didnt like the reply i gave him and asked me why i wasnt thinking about the photos he sent me and how i couldnt go back and look at them? This dude was nothing but provocative with me and i turned it down many times. telling him i was upset due to a recent breakup and not looking for hookups. He wouldn't take no for an answer. He kept spamming my phone and calling me even when i told him i was heading to bed. I was drinking the same night to unwind from the long day i spent with family. He woke me up questioning me as to why i wasnt talking to him, cause he wanted to talk to me, so i should be there to talk to him? I told him i was sleeping and didnt wanna talk.. this 'man' asked me "well arent you drunk? shouldnt you be in the mood?" like.. really?

I ended up hanging up on him and ignoring any messages from him until the morning.

I didn't reply until later in the afternoon and by this time another gentlemen i had met a few weeks before asked me on a date. I of course said yes and had a great time. Said date and i drank at his place and played some LOL. It got late and we were pretty tipsy from the shots, so i just stayed at his place for the night as i didn't wanna drive.

This dude ended up calling me at 3am while im laying next to my date.. i pick up the phone in a half asleep daze and say hello. He called to tell me that he was at my apartment complex and wanted me to let him in so we can, 'congregate'. Being confused as to how he knew where i lived, i woke up very quickly. I asked him how he knew where my place was and he proceeded to tell me Facebook and some of my families' pages that i was tagged in (I assume he saw my moms post when i moved in 2 years ago with the apartment sign in the background of the photo). I never told this man my last name. Freaking out, i woke up my date and let him know what was going on. He takes me back to my house but we dont go to my door. we look around and i end up asking him what he was driving. We find the car hes in and drive by slow and i take down the plates.

I call the local sheriffs office and let them know what is going on so they can send an officer out here to ask this person to leave the property. Once as he is gone my date waited inside with me for an hour to be sure he wasn't coming back. We then head back to my dates house and proceed to sleep for the remainder of the night.

Sadly it didn't end there. I woke up to a few more texts from a new number i didnt have saved, as his was blocked.

it was him asking me why i didnt give him a chance. telling me that i was perfect but i let my 'emotions' get in the way of what we could have had. Telling me how i better not lose my chance at being with someone 'like him'. He thought his 9inch magic wand was gods gift to the earth and if i dont take this opportunity now, ill live the rest of my life wondering what real 'magic' feels like. I had no words for this person. I was stunned. How did someone i didnt even know 24 hours before this, turn into what it did? I was really creeped out. I told him more than once to leave me alone and that i was with someone. He asked me why i picked a stranger over him? as if he wasnt also a stranger just the day before, not even a full day. This dude would say sorry after i snapped on him (around 10:30pm) a bit before he showed up at my apartment building. He would say sorry and tell me that it was wrong of him to act that way.. but then proceeded to act the way he did?

His last text to me was "No wonder your still single"

yeah man, no wonder IM still single.

This happened last week.

I live alone in a small college town, although I'm not a student or faculty member. My apartment is in a duplex on a residential street just a few blocks from campus--which most of the students have left for their winter break. Things get very quiet when they're not around.

Late Wednesday night, I woke up to a disturbing sound outside.

It was someone crying, but not in a "normal" way. This was more like delirious wailing. The person didn't sound grief-stricken or panicked, and there were no cries for help. Otherwise I'd probably have gone outside (cautiously) to check things out.

This sounded more like someone doing an impression of a ghost, but being a little too convincing. A sort of "Woooooooh, Ooooooh, Aaah," over and over.

Not a pleasant way to wake up!

I got up and looked out the window but didn't see anyone. I couldn't tell where the sound was coming from. After a few minutes the wailing grew distant and things got quiet again. I went back to sleep, a little unsettled.

Thursday night rolled around and I went to bed as usual, wondering if I'd hear anything again. Sure enough, I was awakened a few hours later. But this time the sound was completely different.

At first I wondered if there had been a heavy snowfall, because I heard what sounded like the edge of a shovel scraping the sidewalk. It was very rhythmic. Two plodding footsteps followed by a long and drawn out scraping. "Thud. Thud. Scrape. Thud. Thud. Scrape."

I got up and looked out the window, where I saw no snow but a dense fog--and a woman across the street.

It took me a minute to tell if she was wearing some strange hat, but then I realized that the "hat" was her hair. It was long--down to her waist--and completely filthy and matted, bunched up into a single mass that looked like a gigantic glistening hairball.

The woman was standing with her shoulders hunched forward and her arms crossed behind her back, like a figure skater or dancer.

She was doing an unusual sort of dance, where she would take two heavy stomps and then glide as if she were on ice skates. But there was no ice. I couldn't tell how she was gliding so gracefully and effortlessly across the pavement.

It was almost hypnotic to watch, because she appeared to be elderly and frail. But she could spin, glide, and maintain balance on a level that would be hard for me to keep up with. Each time she would glide, I'd hear the "scrape" sound of her shoe against the pavement.

There were no additional steps to the dance. Just the rhythmic "stomp, stomp, glide" headed in one direction, before twirling around and doing the same steps in the other.

After a few minutes, she stopped and then stooped down like a runner at the starting line, dramatically leaned forward with her fingertips lightly touching the ground. She stayed that way for a good minute or two. It was a very unsettling thing to see in the shadows and fog.

Then she slowly stood up, turned facing away from me, and got up on her very tiptoes with her long, skinny arms outstretched.

Then she broke into that rapid tiptoeing motion that professional ballerinas do. In my mind, I heard that classic cartoon sound effect that plays when a character scampers away.

Without a sound, she danced into the fog.

I haven't seen or heard anything from her since.

I'm not sure if this story belongs here because I can't decide if I would have an issue meeting this person again...but I reckon any normal sane person wouldn't...

This happened to me in Tempe, AZ not far from Mill Ave where all the bars are at. I was out bar hopping with a group of friends one weekend having a good time and had gotten pretty wasted.

I have this terrible habit of wandering off and getting lost when I drink and this particular night I had managed to get myself into a very dumb situation. After wandering down streets for almost an hour I started to realize I was very lost and to make things worse my phone was out of battery.

At some point I decided I would just walk back to my friend's house which I knew was somewhere north of area we were bar hopping...I should mention I am severly incompetent when it comes to directions and navigating in a city so I didn't realize I was a solid 7 to 8 miles away from my friends place.

As I was stumbling confidently along the empty roads at 2am a sedan suddenly pulls off the road in front of me aggressively, almost blocking my path. Somewhat startled I look towards the driver's side and see a rather large and mean looking black man staring me down. In situations like this most people have one of two reactions...they either become scared and defensive or angry and aggressive...I on the other hand am an insane person and was just drunk enough to have no sense of the danger I was in. I should mention I am your typical privileged suburban white boy, not particularly threatening or big.

I proceeded to wave at the guy saying "Hey man what's good?", I not completely sure but I think I was probably smiling too. I specifically remember the face he made, it was a sort of confused and conflicted look, as if I were asking him what year it was. He paused for a second and asked me something but I couldn't understand what he said, I said something like "huh?". He then asked me "Where you going?" I told him I was trying to walk to my friend's place but I have no idea where I am. After another pause he told me to get in.

Without thinking I walked over to the passenger side and hopped in. Pretty dumb right? Well at the time it seemed like a good idea. Once I got in I was able to get a better look at the guy, he was covered in tats and was wearing your typical thug attire. I also noticed his arm was all bandaged, oh and he had a pistol tucked into his shorts. And again for some reason none of this phased me at the time. He asked me where my friends place was and I gave him directions.

I'm pretty sociable and talkative when I drink so I immediately started chatting with the guy casually...I don't remember exactly what we talked about but eventually he started telling me that he had just gotten out of the hospital after being treated for a gunshot wound on his arm and his girl just broke up with him because of it. Apparently she didn't like that he was in a gang and getting into gunfights...go figure. He then told me that he was real pissed off about her and about getting shot and he was driving around looking for someone to rob when he found me...and that he has served time for robbery in the past.

At that point my drunken brain started to connect the dots and I thought about the roughly $200 I had in my wallet at that very moment. But instead of freaking out I just said something like "damn man thats rough"... He also told me that he really wanted to be a rapper and was trying to get his music career started. I tried to be supportive telling him to go for it.

About 10-15 mins later we pulled up at my friend's place. Now this is when I should have gotten out of the car and told the armed man thanks for the ride, but again I'm an insane person and felt like I owed him one for taking me all the way there so I asked if he wanted to come in and smoke (weed). He said he was down.

At this point my friends had already been back for awhile and were all wondering what happened to me, as you might expect they were awfully surprised when I showed up with a strange black dude who I now knew was a gang member who had debated robbing me at gunpoint. What the dude did next sort of sketched everyone out though...

My buddy lives in a house with a few other people, his room is at the end of a hallway and thats where they all were listening to music, he also has a huge safe in his closet that is visible as soon as you walk in the room. I didn't realize it but my new "friend" had brought his gun inside with him, and shortly after entering the room after everyone said what's up he took his gun out of his waistband...and put it down right on top of the safe in front of everyone. It seemed like a really odd thing to do but it was a lot better than what he could have done... I feel like it was a sort of show of respect, like he wanted to show that he wasn't going to use it.

Luckily, I have super chill friends so they acted cool and were about to roll up a blunt so a few minutes later we all went out back to smoke leaving the gun in his room.

The dude chilled with us for awhile longer and actually seemed to get along with some of my friends who had a similar interest in music. He then picked up his gun off the safe and left without incident.

Looking back I realize that could have gone much much worse, especially since my buddy had a lot of cash in that safe and he could have easily robbed us at gunpoint at any time. I like to think that although he was a criminal and a gang member he was also just a guy going through a hard time and a little kindness and marijuana prevented that night from going very bad...

Am I crazy?

This happened in 2020-Jan 2022 over the course of the time I lived in this apartment. I (21 F at the time) and my husband but then boyfriend (22 M at the time) and I moved into our downstairs apartment. We loved it, it was our first place that wasn’t a dorm and we didn’t have roommates. When we first moved in we only had one cat, but over time we ended up with two cats and a dog. The way this apartment was set up was duplex style, so each building only had four apartments, two on the bottom and two on the top. We have the bottom right apartment and behind us was a cemetery. We would always joke that at least our neighbors are quiet. Well, we were wrong. The first time our upstairs neighbor had an issue he stood outside of his apartment and slammed his door open and closed for 10 minutes. We could not figure out what we did wrong. Did we close a door too loudly? He wouldn’t communicate with us over what the issue was, but any time we did something ‘wrong’ in his mind he would slam his door open and closed for ten minutes, shaking our whole apartment.

The night before I was flying out for our wedding, we spent the whole day at work and then we went to a diner for a late night meal, just trying to have a nice night as our last night together as fiancés. We come home and I’m having an anxiety attack about if I packed everything. My fiance is at the passenger side door trying to talk to me through my anxiety attack when our neighbor comes flying down the stairs yelling at us. Something about how we made noise all day and he could not believe that we are so inconsiderate of him. My fiance yells at him to ‘f’ off as he’s trying to protect me. Once we get inside, my fiance goes upstairs to talk to him. We figure out it’s the cat tree and every time our cat jumps on it, it hits the wall. Okay, easy enough we move the cat tree from the wall. Or so we think….

We return from our honeymoon and we think everything is good. My husband tries to befriend the neighbor as they both play online games. And my husband asks if instead of slamming the door could he message us on discord when he has an issue. He agrees, but that doesn’t happen. I decide to call the apartment complex to let them know what happened, and they are understanding and say okay let’s reach out to the property managers, who are the other upstairs apartment. The husband of the property manager team basically tells us we are making everything up because he would know if his neighbor was slamming the door for 10 minutes straight and to stop making waves.

It’s now the end of 2021 and I have spent my time in this apartment in fear every single day. Rent was dirt cheap like 600 dollars for a one bedroom, so we were gonna tough it out. My husband gets told that he got a promotion and we are moving to the east coast! We are so excited, so he leaves and I finish packing up the apartment. I try to be the perfect neighbor now that my husband is gone. I use my earphones for everything and anything, i close stuff very slowly. I do not want to make waves. It’s now a week before I start the drive across country. My friend and people from my husband’s work are helping load up our UHaul box for the day. After that my friend and I decided to go into town for the rest of the day since my apartment is empty besides a bed on the ground. I drop her off at her house and then get home at 6 pm. I decide to put in my earphones and vacuum. After I vacuum I take out the trash and lock the front door as I was gonna lay down and watch TikToks. My husband was always on my case because I would often forget to lock the front door. I lay down with my earphones in and watch TikToks for maybe 20 minutes when i hear someone at my front door pounding on it. I know that voice… It’s my upstairs neighbor. My dog is trying to crawl into my skin, meanwhile my male cat is at the window hissing at him. He is pounding on my windows now and yelling that he’s gonna ‘k’ me. I call my mom who is four states away. She tells me to call 911 and not her. I’m texting my husband and another friend. I’m whispering to 911 that my upstairs neighbor is at my door threatening me. I then hear him trying to open up my front door. Since it’s a small town the cops are there very quickly. They take him away and I’m left in my living room with two cops. I can’t speak, I just keep asking if he’s gone. They assure me he’s going to jail for the night.

My friend who lived an hour away had loaded up her husband in the car and drove to my apartment to get me. I spent the night at my friend’s house that night. My mom arrived the next day and I called the apartment complex again to tell them what happened. They finally believed me, well they had no choice I sent them the police report. My mom and I start the drive to the east coast early as I wanted to close that chapter and I wasn’t sleeping with the nightmares. We are in the middle of the midwest when someone from the hospital he was committed at calls me to tell me they released him, but I needed to call the cops for an order of protection because he was still threatening my life. I said I was halfway across the country, so he can’t get me now. They said that was for the best given his hatred towards me. We never found out what was the final straw if it was me vacuuming at 6 pm, but I never not lock the front door now. I couldn’t be left alone for months. I was constantly checking to see if he had found where we moved to. In 2023 we came to a plea agreement since he moved home to his parents in Alaska that if he got mental health help, that I would drop the charges. We now have a pitbull who is being trained to guard me at night, so I can sleep. And I always lock the front door when I enter my apartment.

Hello everyone, English is not my first language, so I apologize if this text is not well-written.

I was 18 years old when this happened, and I'm 32 now. I worked as an assistant at the fire department. One night, a woman called saying that she was the widow of a deceased fireman and was looking for someone to fix her grandson's computer, as he lived with her. By that time, I had already completed some IT courses and was used to receiving calls from family and friends to do tasks like that, so I took her number and told her I would call her back later. I asked a sergeant about her and mentioned the name of her deceased husband. He confirmed that she was who she said she was and that they were familiar with her calls for help like this.

I called her back and told her I could help. I quoted her a price for the job, she agreed, and we scheduled a day to get it done.

On the scheduled day, I gathered the necessary equipment and went to the address she gave me. It was in the city center, which in my city means old residential buildings, as nearly all buildings there are now commercial offices. When I arrived, it really was an old building, and the bell wasn’t working, as a man exiting the building told me. I waited around 30 to 40 minutes for her to answer the phone and let me in. She lived on the 5th floor, and there was no elevator, so I took the stairs. When I finally reached her floor, she opened the door quickly and let me inside.

As soon as I looked around, I couldn’t have been more disgusted. The apartment was filthy, and the smell was unbearable. I know this might sound like I’m judging her for her lower status, but since she is the widow of a fireman, she receives a pension that should be enough to take care of herself and her grandson. There were cockroaches everywhere, and I had to hold myself back from vomiting. She guided me to the computer, and as we passed the bathroom door, I noticed the bathtub looked like it had never been cleaned.

Once I started working on the computer, she kept talking about how lonely she was and how handsome I was. She offered me food and drinks several times, which I obviously declined. Then her grandson came into the room. He looked about 7 or 8 years old but spoke like a baby. She kept telling him how nice I was and that I was going to fix the computer. The boy asked her for a cup of milk, and she went to prepare it. During the entire time she was in the kitchen, the boy just stared at me. I tried talking to him a few times, but he didn’t respond. I felt like I was in a horror movie, and I could be the victim of a murder at any moment. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t feel safe there.

She came back with the milk for the boy, and I noticed she was holding a knife in the other hand. She said she was preparing lunch and went back to the kitchen. At that point, I was sure something was going to happen to me. I quickly finished the job and called her into the room. She came in, still holding the knife, and I told her I had finished and was leaving. She insisted that her grandson needed to test it first. Since she was still holding the knife, I agreed. The boy tested the computer and told her it was faster now.

At that moment, she turned to me and said she didn’t have the money with her. I just told her it didn’t matter and that I could come back later to collect the payment. She finally let me leave, and I almost ran to the exit.

First time posting on this sub so please forgive any mistakes I make. I'm also on mobile so that could also contribute to any mistakes. I also want to say that I know this might not sound creepy at first, or at least not as much as the other stories on this sub, but as the person who went through it the lack of knowing what she might try to do was terrifying.

This happened over the course of 11 months or so on and off and has to easily be the worst (and longest) encounter with a woman I've ever had in my life.

I was on a residential (UK) trip (essentially a field trip for Americans) back in July 2022 where we spent 1 week on the trip in the woods and the 2nd week back at a community centre where we were all from. I was a college student at the time (UK college, not university for Americans, and was 17 when this happened).

I was in a dorm with about 5 other guys and one day my friend group started talking to a girl because she revealed she went to the same college as most of us who were in the group. She liked talking to me a fair bit and this was an early sign she liked me. The next ones included how physically close she was to me during a silent disco and didn't realise I was moving away from her every time, only finding out because she exclaimed afterwards "I was trying to dance with you but you kept moving away". This was pretty much when I put 2 and 2 together, also because she goy us to dance at a campfire while waiting for other friends to arrive. She also snuck into the dorms with us once (her request) and on reflection this behaviour was actually kinda an early creepy sign, considering the dorms were split based on sex.

Anyway, the end of week 2 comes and I text her asking to go out, and she replies in literally less than a minute to say yes and sends me a video of her asking to voice call immediately. I turned her down cause I'm a bit socially anxious but that was another sign of how strongly she liked me.

Everything goes well, but on the 3rd week of us being together she started accusing me of ignoring a text she sent me while I was in class (important for later) because she said my Snapchat avatar appeared as if I read it for some reason. It was about her having some panic attack while I was in class and needing my help but again, I didn't see it because I was in class at the time.

As soon as I got out of class I responded and asked if she was okay and asked why I didn't respond, to which I said I was in class. She accused me of ignoring her, to which I said I didn't but she wouldn't believe me, and even got one of my other friends to text me and say to respond to her messages.

I tell her (other friend) I was and that was the end of it with her, but my gf at the time wasn't convinced. She wouldn't let it go to the point we met in person in the college one day as privately as we could and I tried explaining it again, this time being sure to add that I would've responded had I seen it, which as I said, I did. She was calm and laughing about it a bit, and ended it with "just respond next time".

Given that we were only 3 weeks into the relationship at this point, and that she clearly didn't trust me, I decided that night to try once more to explain what happened. If she didn't listen, I decided I was done.

To her credit she was calm and read through all my texts about it when I explained slowly and promised I hadn't seen her text but still ended with the response of "I just wish you hadn't ignored my text".

I broke up with her. I did it as calmly and gently as possible, explaining that I was still willing to be friends with her, I just didn't see us working out if she wouldn't believe me this early in the relationship because I could see the lack of trust.

Her first response was "you're breaking up with me? Are you serious", again, taking into account she was the one who made a big deal out of nothing. This was past the time I planned to go to bed and stayed up until midnight having to respond to what she said. I don't remember everything she said but I can remember some included "I guess I'll cry myself to sleep now" and "I can't believe I'm being broken up with over a text". I have a video of her texts somewhere but don't want to post it here for privacy and cause it's not something I want to relive unnecessarily

The next day at college I walked in and she was sat at the table my friends usually sat at, something she didn't normally do. As soon as I walked through the college doors and she saw me she wouldn't break eye contact. It was creepy.

I managed to sit with my friends again later that day cause frick that but whenever she was there she'd try to argue with me, saying stuff like I'd never get a better girlfriend than her, calling me a bottom and stuff like that. I could tell she made everyone in the group uncomfortable, and apparently she even did it so much that she said this when I wasn't even with the group enough to the point a girl I only spoke to a few times who was also on the residential had to stand up for me. Her and her bf at the time also warned me about her before I broke up with her, which was another reason I did it.

About a week later she started going out with a guy from the group I was friends with and tbh everyone could tell she was just doing it to try getting back at me, even though I frankly couldn't care less since I was just glad to finally have left her. I remember when he broke up with her like a fortnight later sitting down at the table with him and he just said "was name as aggressive with you when you broke up with her?" to which I said "yeah". He shook hands with me after revealing she had the exact same reaction with him when he broke up with her as she did me.

The big climax, though, was one day when we were in college and she started arguing with me when I wasn't even sat on her table, I was with my friends. I'd never insulted her once at this point even though she'd done so to me countless times before and I'll admit I commented on her weight as she was storming off. However, when I did this she swung around and punched me in the side of the head. I promptly shouted at her to fuck off.

I reported this to the college and she was given a warning. I can guarantee if I did that to her I would've been gone immediately. I did, however, get to read her report about me. It was full of lies about me supposedly being a horrible boyfriend to her (all lies) in genuinely the worst handwriting I've ever seen in my life. Thankfully the college believed me when I told them none of this had ever happened. She looked depressed around me from that point on and I admittedly couldn't keep the smile off my face, which just got her more annoyed. People in a few if my classes who heard about it made jokes but were promptly shut down when I said "I bet you wouldn't be laughing if this was the other way around".

I later found out that she was also trying to start trouble with other people from my friend group and was promptly kicked out for it.

On top of this, in June this year I found out that she slept with a guy at the college who was known for being an extremist during the first week we were together.

As for me, I'm doing much better now. I'm in university now doing Film and have a great group of friends, still keep in contact with those from my old group and have a new girlfriend as of July, and are much happier together than in my previous relationship. I will add, though, that one funny thing that happened once was she looked at my Instagram story even though she doesn't follow me with a picture of me wearing my current gf's ring saying how happy we are together. It's not the only time she's looked at my story even though she doesn't follow me on Instagram, which is a little creepy, but I've moved on and am in a much better place now.

Thanks for reading if you have, I know this was a lot, but I hope my story was inspiring and my best goes out to you all! :)

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.