15x25: The Best Terrifying Tales From The Road

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Speaker 2 This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised.
If you have a story to share, send it to Let's Not MeetStories at gmail.com.

Speaker 2 Happy holidays and welcome to our second and final best of compilation episode of the holiday season.

Speaker 2 This week I put together a collection of the most terrifying tales from the road, reaching as far back as season four, and there are a ton of stories to get into, so let's just jump right in.

Speaker 2 This happened to me in the fall of 2020. My friend, who will call Jay and I, were on our way from New York City to Michigan since we were hired to do a couple of vinyl flooring jobs.

Speaker 2 We also planned to scout some potential properties to purchase and then renovate and flip. We were using his work truck for the trip, which was a Ford F-150.

Speaker 2 We decided to leave in the evening and drive all through the night to get to our destination.

Speaker 2 We were on I-80, which varies in size as it stretches across the entire US.

Speaker 2 We were on this part of I-80 that passes through the mountains of Pennsylvania, which is a two-lane highway. This highway is far from safe.

Speaker 2 It's elevated and mountainous terrain, and there are constant turns, and it sneaks around a lot.

Speaker 2 If you take the turns too sharply and go through the guardrail, you'll end up flying down into the darkness of a ditch. Anyway, I was driving while Jay was trying to get some sleep.

Speaker 2 I stopped at a service plaza to refuel and went into the shop to get some drinks and snacks for the road. It was a little past midnight and I noticed one other car refueling a few pumps away from us.

Speaker 2 It was a red or burgundy SUV, probably a Mazda or Suzuki. In any case, I didn't pay it or the driver any mind, and I ran back to the truck.

Speaker 2 About 30 minutes later, as I was back on I-80, I was cruising in the left lane doing 90.

Speaker 2 I then noticed the headlights behind us, and they were from the same red SUV at the service plaza.

Speaker 2 At first, I didn't think anything of it, but then it dawned on me that this guy had been following me since the service plaza.

Speaker 2 I decided to do a quick test to see if I was genuinely being tailed or not. Since I had been doing 90 consistently, I slowed down to 70 and waited to see if he would pass me.

Speaker 2 This guy also slowed down, so that put me on alert.

Speaker 2 I woke up Jay and told him about the situation. Bro, I think this guy is following us, I explained.

Speaker 2 My friend Jay is an ex-Army Ranger who is a lot more vigilant than I am, and he's also a little bolder.

Speaker 2 He immediately replied, That's the car from the gas station. I noticed the driver was looking at you extra hard when you passed him.
Switch lanes and we'll see what he does.

Speaker 2 So I switched lanes, and so did the SUV,

Speaker 2 Jay continued. Okay, now slow down to a stop and pull over on the shoulder.
Let's see what he does.

Speaker 2 I listened to Jay and slowed down to a complete stop on the shoulder of the highway. The guy, as expected, slowed down and parked behind us.

Speaker 2 Wow, this guy has a lot of balls. I bet he definitely has a gun on him, Jay remarked.
Then Jay said, Okay, I have an idea. Pull back onto the road and gun it to 90.

Speaker 2 Before tearing back onto the highway, I took stock of what we had in the truck that could be used as a weapon.

Speaker 2 We had a hatchet and a machete, and each of us had a folding knife on us, but no firearms.

Speaker 2 I then pulled off of the shoulder and stayed in the right lane as I pressed down on the gas as hard as I could.

Speaker 2 Jay's plan was to essentially brake check the the guy so that he'd crash into the back of us.

Speaker 2 Then, we were going to hop out and charge at his car with a machete and a hatchet and hope for the best. As we continued gunning it down the highway, he continued to follow.

Speaker 2 Jay looked around inside of the truck, grabbed a high-powered handheld spotlight, and opened the back window of the truck.

Speaker 2 All right, I'm going to light his ass up and see if we can get a good look at him, Jay said.

Speaker 2 Then he turned the spotlight on, and guess what? The guy's front windows were so heavily tinted that we couldn't even get a look at his face with the spotlight. I'm going to switch lanes, I said.

Speaker 2 See if you can aim at the side windows. Maybe they aren't tinted.

Speaker 2 I then quickly swerved into the left lane, and as I did so, Jay turned the spotlight on again, and I made sure to turn my head toward the SUV exactly as this was happening.

Speaker 2 We only had him illuminated for a few seconds, but I'll never forget what this guy looked like. He was tall, maybe 6'3, since he was hunched over the steering wheel.

Speaker 2 He had the face of Uncle Fester from the Adams family, and the hair of Kramer from Seinfeld. He also had a 5 o'clock shadow.

Speaker 2 Once he saw that I wasn't alone, he abruptly turned into a rest stop. To this day, we still get into a debate about whether I should have brake-checked the guy or not.

Speaker 2 He was under the impression that the guy was some kind of serial killer who ended up finding another victim instead of being killed by us.

Speaker 2 I've analyzed the situation and concluded that this guy's intentions were evil. How evil? Robbery at the minimum, kidnapping or murder at the worst.
Thank God, I never found out.

Speaker 2 I'm a long time listener. I've been listening since the original first run of Let's Not Meet.
Here's my story. This took place a few years ago during the summer of 2018.

Speaker 2 I'm a female, and at the time I was twenty.

Speaker 2 I had attended a free kickboxing class at a local gym with a co-worker. The class served as a free trial, in which the gym staff would try to get the attendees to buy a membership.

Speaker 2 It was a fun class, but I never ended up enrolling in the gym or going back. I made this decision due to what happened to me after.

Speaker 2 The kickboxing place was in a large and relatively new plaza. It was situated between a hair salon, some restaurants, and a bowling alley complex, so there were plenty of cars in the parking lot.

Speaker 2 After class, my co-worker and I walked out to the parking lot. It was late afternoon, but it wasn't dark.

Speaker 2 She had parked much closer to the kickboxing gem's entrance than I had, so we parted ways when we reached her car and the lot. I continued walking ahead to get to my car.

Speaker 2 Then I got in and immediately locked the doors, as all of us women are advised to do. Really, anyone should.

Speaker 2 After settling in, I pulled out of my spot and proceeded to the parking lot exit to begin my fifteen minute drive home. I had made this drive there and back again a hundred times over.

Speaker 2 I always opted to take back road shortcuts when going back and forth from town to my house, and I lived with my parents for 20 years.

Speaker 2 I guess what I'm getting at here is I was very used to this drive, so I was on autopilot and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary going on around me.

Speaker 2 About ten minutes into the drive, my boyfriend, who was now my fiancé, called me to see what I was up to that evening.

Speaker 2 After a quick chat, we decided that I would swing over to his parents' house, where he lived at the time.

Speaker 2 His parents' house was about ten minutes across town. I had just pulled into my street, so rather than parking at my house, I just kept going past it and rerouted myself to my boyfriend's place.

Speaker 2 It was around this time that I took a good look at a truck that had been behind me. It was a grey pickup truck, and the driver was a man wearing dark sunglasses.

Speaker 2 Whatever, I told myself, people drive around town all the time. It's not a big deal.

Speaker 2 It was a bit odd that he was pulling onto my street, though.

Speaker 2 I knew every car that lived there, and this gray pickup was not one of them. But still, I told myself that I was being ridiculous.

Speaker 2 Since a new residential development was being built nearby, I reassured myself that this man was probably just using our street as a shortcut, as many people were at the time.

Speaker 2 I drove down the street, taking the left turn that would send me back towards town and to my boyfriend's house. The grey truck remained behind me, making a left turn as well.

Speaker 2 They didn't continue straight towards the new development, so this crushed my shortcut theory as we exited my neighborhood together.

Speaker 2 It was at this point that I began to get that gut feeling. Something was off.
I kept an eye on my rear view as I headed into town, and he continued following.

Speaker 2 I drove through our main street rotary, which is essentially a roundabout, and I decided to see if I could lose him.

Speaker 2 Instead of taking the exit that I needed, I continued around the rotary, making a full circle before continuing to my destination. And the truck did the same.

Speaker 2 I knew that I was in trouble then. The weird thing was, it was still late in the afternoon, so it was still light out.

Speaker 2 Cars were out. People were out walking their dogs.
I told myself, it's not like anything strange could happen in broad daylight.

Speaker 2 Next, I deliberately took a bunch of unnecessary turns and went in circles. I did the whole nine, but no matter what, sure enough, the truck stayed behind me.

Speaker 2 I headed towards my boyfriend's and continued to take the most obnoxiously long route that I could.

Speaker 2 When I was just a few minutes away from my boyfriend's place, I called him and explained what was happening.

Speaker 2 He and his mom were both home, and they said that they would stand outside of the house to greet me and bring me inside.

Speaker 2 The neighborhood is a maze, and all of the streets are named after lakes.

Speaker 2 The streets wind around in weird turns, and there are cut throughs to navigate around.

Speaker 2 I took as many of these cut throughs as I could, driving much faster than reasonable in a residential area. I saw the truck falling behind, and after a couple more turns I didn't see it any more.

Speaker 2 I pulled up to my boyfriend's house and then put my car into the driveway. He and his mom brought me inside and I sat at their bay window, where I watched out for the truck.

Speaker 2 Not even two minutes later I saw it. It was driving by, dramatically slow, peering into each and every driveway.

Speaker 2 I was shaking. I yelled for my boyfriend to come look out the window.
We both watched as the guy idled in front of the house, looking at my car in the driveway.

Speaker 2 Then he looked up at the bay window where we were standing before speeding off.

Speaker 2 I'd like to say that we wrote down a license plate, or that we called the cops, or that we found a perfectly reasonable explanation for this guy intently following me all over town.

Speaker 2 Of course, none of that was the case. I'll never know why he followed me across town, and then back in the opposite direction, when I had changed course.

Speaker 2 There's no way to justify this in my brain. It doesn't make sense.
All I know is he wouldn't have sped off like that if he had good intentions.

Speaker 2 I even thought that perhaps I had a taillight out and he was being being a good Samaritan, but we checked. My car didn't have any lights out.

Speaker 2 This is just one of those things that will sit, albeit uncomfortably, with me for a long time.

Speaker 2 Ever since this happened, I don't let myself go on autopilot, and I pay much more attention to the cars behind me. To the man in the sunglasses and the gray pickup, let's not meet.

Speaker 2 Back in the 80s, my Aunt Kay was in her early twenties.

Speaker 2 Before she married my uncle, she would drive long distances back and forth between her parents and my uncle to visit, since it was a transitional period for them.

Speaker 2 He had just graduated and she hadn't moved out of her parents yet. The drive that she would take was a long drive across several states through the desert, which took hours.

Speaker 2 This desolate highway that she was on had stretches of road that lasted hundreds of miles where you often wouldn't see other drivers, let alone a gas station.

Speaker 2 So, when Aunt Kay was planning her visit, she began one of these journeys. A couple of hours into the drive, she noticed a dark vehicle in her mirror that was slowly catching up to her.

Speaker 2 She hardly noticed them as she continued to sing along to her music, but the vehicle got aggressively close and she started paying attention.

Speaker 2 She turned off the music and looked into her rearview mirror. The vehicle was flashing its brights and the driver was pointing at her car and motioning for her to pull over.

Speaker 2 Alarmed, she quickly slowed and began to look for a good place to pull off of the road to see what must be wrong with her car.

Speaker 2 The second she began to pull off of the road, she said that she felt and heard as clear as day, don't pull over.

Speaker 2 Call it God, intuition, or just a gut feeling, but a jolt of adrenaline and fear shot through Aunt Kay's body, so she hit the gas and peeled back onto the highway.

Speaker 2 Then, with her heart pumping, Aunt Kay silently asked herself what the hell was going on, as she saw the vehicle peel out behind her.

Speaker 2 The dark vehicle continued to closely follow, and the driver was still flashing their brights and motioning for her to pull over.

Speaker 2 Fear and confusion set in as Aunt Kay continued to question what was happening. Why was the driver so adamant about having her pull over? Was there something wrong with her car?

Speaker 2 And what the hell was that overwhelming warning that she felt? It would have been a severe situation if her car broke down out there, especially since this was well before cell phones.

Speaker 2 But she pressed on.

Speaker 2 Just as her resolve wavered, she started questioning the warning that she felt, so she began to slow down, but the dark vehicle picked up speed.

Speaker 2 Then the car entered the oncoming traffic lane to come level with my aunt's car. The driver smiled, pointed, motioning his hands, and mouthed the words, pull over to my aunt.

Speaker 2 She said that the second she looked into his eyes, she felt pure evil. She felt a horribly sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, and again heard the words in her head warning her, Don't pull over.

Speaker 2 She described him as looking scary and greasy, and she said that she noticed that he was missing a couple of teeth, so his smile was a smile that she wouldn't forget, and it sent chills down her spine.

Speaker 2 This quickly dispelled any thoughts that she had of pulling over, so she put the pedal to the metal to try and lose him. Then he chased after her and started mimicking her driving style.

Speaker 2 When she slowed down, he slowed down. When she sped up, so did he.
It got to the point that he began to try and push her car off of the road.

Speaker 2 Aunt Kay was to the point of tears as this creep continued to terrorize her, alone, out in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 2 Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Aunt Kay saw a couple of semis off in the distance.

Speaker 2 She felt if she could only get close or even in between those trucks, she would be safe, so she went for it.

Speaker 2 The driver continued to flash his lights and honk his horn while trying to hit her car until she got close enough to the trucks.

Speaker 2 As she got in between them, she saw the dark vehicle slow down significantly, and eventually it disappeared from view entirely.

Speaker 2 She stuck with the trucks for a couple of hours until she felt safe enough to pull over at a gas station where she began to cry. Fast forward several years later, my aunt and uncle were married.

Speaker 2 He was working at a law firm as a high-profile criminal prosecutor in Las Vegas. She was now a full-time mom of several young children.

Speaker 2 Ever since I've known my aunt, she's been obsessed with true crime. Dateline, 2020, and unsolved mysteries were always playing on the TV at her house.
This day was no different.

Speaker 2 She was folding laundry in the kitchen while listening to the TV in the other room. The panelist of whichever show that she was watching was talking about a man who was being interviewed on death row.

Speaker 2 As she paired another match of socks, she heard the man describe one of his tactics for procuring victims. According to him, he would wait on the side of the highway.

Speaker 2 If a car went by with a family, he'd wait. If a car went by with a male driver, he'd still wait.
But every so often a car would go by with a pretty young woman driving alone.

Speaker 2 So he'd pull out when he saw them and follow them. I'd flash my brights, honk, and motion for them to pull over, he explained.
Aunt Kay, paralyzed in the other room, just couldn't listen.

Speaker 2 When they would eventually pull over, he continued, I'd tell them to pop the hood so that I could tell them what was wrong with their car.

Speaker 2 They would, and I would yank a couple of wires. When the car wouldn't start for them, I'd tell them no problem.
My buddy has a shop in the next town.

Speaker 2 I can give you a ride, and he'll give you a fair deal.

Speaker 2 As my aunt continued to listen, she slowly moved to the living room.

Speaker 2 They'd get in, and I'd kill him.

Speaker 2 Then I'd just bury him wherever in the desert, he said.

Speaker 2 When asked how many times he did this, he responded, I have no idea. I lost count.
I don't think they'll ever find all of the bodies.

Speaker 2 And how many got away? asked the interviewer. Two or three, he answered.

Speaker 2 As my aunt stood staring at the TV, she realized she was staring at the same toothless grin that she saw on the highway that day.

Speaker 2 It was Henry Lee Lucas.

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She takes four pills daily with a meal and that's it.

Speaker 2 And because Nutrofol is proactive in its approach with supporting hair health and targets root causes, it felt like something that she could actually stick with long-term instead of another short-term fix.

Speaker 2 It also made me rethink gifting in general. Nutrofol isn't flashy, but it's thoughtful.
It's the kind of gift that says, I see you and I want to support you.

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Speaker 2 When I was 24, I had just moved back into my parents out in rural northern Minnesota. I had always been an avid runner and was preparing to run my first full marathon.

Speaker 2 I should note that this event happened a mere two weeks after the murder of Molly Tibbetts made national news. She was killed after turning down a man while she was on a run.

Speaker 2 He abducted and killed her because of of this.

Speaker 2 I left my parents' house, which was about eight miles north of town. I was about five miles into my twelve mile route on a small state highway.
Not many cars traveled there during the day.

Speaker 2 This made it a great time to run with little traffic to dodge. I noticed a large white suburban with very dark tinted windows drive by from behind me.

Speaker 2 The car slowed a bit when it passed, and I assumed it was because of the sharp corner, so I just continued running.

Speaker 2 About five minutes later, I heard and saw that same car coming around again. This time the suburban was driving toward me.
They were going slower this time, and it freaked me out.

Speaker 2 I had my fair share of cat collars, as well as creepers, while I've gone out running in the past, but I hoped that it was just some bored teenagers as it was summertime.

Speaker 2 The car sped off once they passed me and kept running. A few minutes later, I heard a car coming from behind me again, going very slowly.

Speaker 2 Already knowing who it was, I turned to look, and it was the same suburban driving less than 10 miles per hour past me. This made me panic, as I left my pepper spray at home.

Speaker 2 I just kept running as the car went by, trying to decide if I should turn around or keep running to my brother's house. Either choice was a solid six miles away at this point.

Speaker 2 As I was was thinking about this, the suburban was driving back towards me, going even slower, basically idling. I instantly froze and stopped running.

Speaker 2 I made a mental note of the license plate, pulled out my phone, with 911 dialed, and was ready to press call.

Speaker 2 My fighter flight kicked in, and I decided that I was going to put up a fight. Keep in mind, I couldn't see anybody in this car.
Still, I decided I was going to stare down where the driver would be.

Speaker 2 I gave the longest death glare that I could.

Speaker 2 It took about a minute for the car to slowly pass me. I stared at the dark tinted windows where the driver would be the whole time.
They kept driving, and took off as they passed me.

Speaker 2 I instantly started crying and shaking when they rounded the corner. I was in the middle of a long run, with no houses nearby.

Speaker 2 So I called my brother repeatedly until he answered, and I asked him to come get me. He ran to his truck, and drove to me right away.

Speaker 2 Now I didn't want to be a sitting duck so I kept jogging towards town which was in the same direction as my brother's house.

Speaker 2 I kept him on the phone with me and prayed that the suburban wouldn't come by again.

Speaker 2 I knew there was a busier highway only about a mile up the road. I made it there by the time my brother showed up and brought me home.

Speaker 2 I told my parents about it later, and we decided to call the highway patrol to report the vehicle.

Speaker 2 They said that they would look into it since I provided them with the license plate, but I never heard anything back.

Speaker 2 I never run on rural roads anymore, and I always make sure that I have something to defend myself with when I go out for a run now.

Speaker 2 So, to whoever decided to continually creep by me while I was on a run, let's never meet again.

Speaker 2 I want to preface this story by sharing that I'm pretty used to casual harassment and creepy incidents. I'm a young blonde female.
I'm 5'2 and I'm from a Chicago suburb.

Speaker 2 I've had my fair share of weird guys saying things that make me feel like I'm in danger, but this situation in particular has been haunting me for a while.

Speaker 2 I go to college at the University of Illinois. I walk to all of my classes since it's good exercise, and the farthest one from my dorm is only 20 minutes away on foot.
I take the same route at 11 a.m.

Speaker 2 every Friday. About two weeks ago I was walking to my class and I had only one earbud in.

Speaker 2 I was minding my own business, jamming out, when I noticed a slightly beat up white pickup truck driving alongside me.

Speaker 2 This in and of itself wasn't scary, as there was a lot of construction happening on the campus at that time.

Speaker 2 The truck itself had a generic symbol for a masonry company on the side. I even remember noting the symbol since it was so generic and a little cheesy.

Speaker 2 It was a bunch of bricks that just spelled out masonry, complete with an exclamation mark.

Speaker 2 Now here's where things get weird.

Speaker 2 The truck slowed down to match the speed at which I was walking. I attributed this to him wanting to pull into the parking lot entrance that was just a few feet ahead of me.

Speaker 2 So I stopped to let him pull in, but he stopped as well. I looked at the driver, who made it obvious that he was trying not to make it look like he was staring at me.

Speaker 2 He had a paper map unfurled in front of him and his eyes kept darting over to me. He was an older guy who appeared to be about sixty.

Speaker 2 So I started walking again, this time passing the parking lot, and he began driving and matching my pace just like he had been doing.

Speaker 2 Whenever I would speed up, he would speed up as well. I could feel his eyes on me the entire time.

Speaker 2 This was when I started to freak out. It was broad daylight with people all around, yet this creepy man was following me in his pickup truck.

Speaker 2 I then began weighing my options. I figured if he tried something, I could probably take him out since I've taken self-defense classes before.

Speaker 2 I also considered going inside a random building to wait for him to go away, but that would mean risking missing my lecture.

Speaker 2 Thankfully, a bus pulled up behind him and honked repeatedly since the driver was annoyed that this truck was only going about 5 miles per hour on a 30 mile per hour road.

Speaker 2 So the pickup truck drove away.

Speaker 2 After class, I returned to my dorm room and started researching. I looked up every single masonry company in the area.

Speaker 2 I scrolled through websites and Yelp reviews for a couple of hours, and none of these companies had a logo like the one I saw on the side of that truck.

Speaker 2 I told my roommate about what happened when she got back, and she thought that I should report it to the campus police. I agreed and decided to phone it in.

Speaker 2 After being put on hold several times, they listened to my story and immediately rerouted me to the actual police department. They sent an officer and his deputy to my dorm.

Speaker 2 I recounted the story to them. The officer looked very concerned and agreed that I was being followed.

Speaker 2 He He asked if I happened to catch the license plate, and I mentally kicked myself because I was too freaked out to even think of taking a picture.

Speaker 2 I did give them a description of the truck and driver and offered to draw the logo from memory since I was an art student.

Speaker 2 After taking the information that I had, the officer said that they would increase patrols in the area and pull over any vehicle matching that description.

Speaker 2 To the man in the white pickup truck, let's not meet again.

Speaker 2 This encounter happened in the summer of 2006 when I was 20 years old. I looked young for my age and was often mistaken for a high school student all throughout my 20s.

Speaker 2 I didn't get my driver's license until around January of that year, and driving opened so many doors for me.

Speaker 2 I took a lot of solo road trips to go see my friends in nearby New England and mid-Atlantic states.

Speaker 2 I was driving alone on I-78 on a random July day on my way to visit my friend in southern Pennsylvania for a long weekend. I had a great drive, listened to some good music, and it was a beautiful day.

Speaker 2 I was so excited for this weekend trip. Her parents were away and we had the house to ourselves.

Speaker 2 We were planning on drinking, getting in the hot tub, and watching Planet Earth since that had just come out.

Speaker 2 We also planned on possibly running around some cornfields at night.

Speaker 2 Right after I crossed the border from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, I stopped at one of the first rest stops to get gas and snacks for the last part of my drive.

Speaker 2 Opposite the gas station was the on-ramp to get back onto I-78 West, and parallel to the on-ramp was a dirt road, which will come into play later.

Speaker 2 I was heading into the store, when a man in his late thirties or possibly early forties, approached me. He was a stocky guy, who was decently tall.
To me, anyway, I'm 5'1.

Speaker 2 He had dark brown hair and a mustache and goatee.

Speaker 2 He was wearing a plain black t-shirt and jeans. He had just gotten out of a black pickup truck parked a few spaces away from my car.
He had this very intense gaze which immediately creeped me out.

Speaker 2 He had a different energy about him, which was strange for me to pick up on as I don't really get vibes from people like that all too often.

Speaker 2 He was standing too close, his gaze was fixated on me, and his choice of words was odd. He instantly set off alarm bells.

Speaker 2 Despite my Connecticut license plate, he asked if I was from the area. He also asked where I was headed and if I knew of anything fun to do since he had plans later and wanted to kill time beforehand.

Speaker 2 He invited me to go play mini golf or watch a movie with him.

Speaker 2 I didn't answer any of his questions, declined his invitation to hang out, and I told him that I didn't know the area well before walking away toward the store.

Speaker 2 I was blown away that he asked me to go somewhere with him. It was so random and uncomfortable.
As I was walking away, he yelled, You're gorgeous, at a volume and tone that made my hair stand on end.

Speaker 2 It was very inappropriate and aggressive enough to startle a family walking out of the store. I didn't turn around and proceeded to go inside.

Speaker 2 He came into the store shortly after I went in. He was staring at me so much, I went to use the bathroom and I stayed there for at least 10 minutes before I came back out.

Speaker 2 When I walked out of the bathroom, he wasn't in the store anymore. So I took my time buying drinks and snacks, sour bite crawlers and trail nicks to be specific.

Speaker 2 I then went out to gas up my car. I was relieved to see that his car was gone and started thinking about the rest of my drive.
I was getting excited to see my friend.

Speaker 2 When I pulled up to the road to get back onto the highway, I heard someone persistently honking a horn.

Speaker 2 I looked around and saw that this creep show was now on the dirt road that I had mentioned before. He was parallel to the on-ramp, honking and shouting and waving at me to drive over to him.

Speaker 2 He was directly facing the gas station and had been waiting for me to pull up.

Speaker 2 I immediately freaked out and jumped on the on-ramp to get back onto I-78.

Speaker 2 He pulled onto the highway after me, and I was scared so I called my friend.

Speaker 2 I was driving so fast, probably at dangerous speeds, and looking back, I realized I'm lucky that I didn't get into an accident, but I didn't know what to do.

Speaker 2 Thankfully, he didn't follow me for long, and after a few exits, he pulled off.

Speaker 2 My friend and I formed a backup plan in case I saw his car again. She was planning to direct me to a police station, but that ended up not happening, and I got to my friend's house safe and sound.

Speaker 2 The last few hours of my drive were extremely tense and anxiety-filled. I remember checking my mirrors regularly for him and his black pickup truck.

Speaker 2 I'm grateful that it ended well, and I had a nice weekend with my friend.

Speaker 2 The encounter was definitely creepy, but over the years I never put too much thought into it.

Speaker 2 That is until a few years ago, when I was talking with another friend who is big into true crime, I mentioned my encounter and told her my experience.

Speaker 2 She was fascinated and wanted to Google active serial killers in Pennsylvania during that time.

Speaker 2 The first hit she got was for Adam Leroy Lane.

Speaker 2 He looked exactly like the man I met back in 2006.

Speaker 2 It was a chilling and odd coincidence that I've never forgotten.

Speaker 2 This story occurred in October 2017. I was living in a beach town in Northern California and commuting to Silicon Valley for school and work.
I worked at my college bookstore. and the local boardwalk.

Speaker 2 There's a commuter bus program that has a bus going between both cities to minimize the number of drivers on the road.

Speaker 2 This came in handy since my commute was on a dangerous two-lane mountain highway with high cliffsides and deep forests all around.

Speaker 2 People drive like maniacs, and it's raining all the time. Sadly, there are tons of accidents on that road.

Speaker 2 When that happens, traffic usually stops for at least an hour so that the roads can be cleared. I was in a fraternity at the time, and we had to wear suits for meetings and events.

Speaker 2 On this night, in particular, I boarded the bus wearing my suit. Seeing somebody wearing a suit on the bus wasn't an uncommon thing to see because so many different people used the bus to commute.

Speaker 2 I usually ride this bus with a friend, co-worker, or even my boss from the bookstore, but this was the last bus of the night. None of my usual friends were on it.

Speaker 2 In the Bay Area, most are nice people and just smile or chat.

Speaker 2 But this was not one of those times. The bus was fairly full that night, and I was figuring out how I would get home.
I usually took another bus that drove to my street, but that route ended at 9.

Speaker 2 My only option was to walk a mile from the bus stop to my apartment. I didn't even think about asking my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, to pick me up.
Hindsight 2020.

Speaker 2 This situation could have been avoided if I would have asked her.

Speaker 2 There was a massive traffic build-up due to a multi-car accident. I peered out of the window to take a look at traffic.
I looked next to the seat next to me, and then I saw him.

Speaker 2 There was a man with deep-set eyes and rotting teeth. He wore a tattered black hoodie and dickies.
He clinched a ratty Jansport backpack in his laptop.

Speaker 2 His face and hands were caked with dirt and scabs. His head was shaved, and he had a tattoo of a crucifix.

Speaker 2 He just stared at me as if he were looking into my soul and started mumbling under his breath. I ignored him, but he moved closer to the edge of his seat.

Speaker 2 Then he turned and loudly whispered to a friend sitting in front of him.

Speaker 2 Hey, want a drink?

Speaker 2 Fuck it, why not? his friend sitting across the aisle answered, pulling out two small bottles of Jack Daniels.

Speaker 2 They finished the bottles in about five minutes, then they snorted something. They continued talking in the same loud whispering tone, but started gesturing towards me now.

Speaker 2 I pulled out an earbud so that I could listen. I did so covertly, so they couldn't notice.

Speaker 2 Hey, you see the big guy in the suit? I know who he is. He can't hide from me.

Speaker 2 The guy next to me said.

Speaker 2 Man, what are you talking about? his friend asked. This guy in the suit.
I know who he is. He's the devil.

Speaker 2 My ears perked. I turned slightly to watch them.

Speaker 2 If that's the devil, he's on this bus every day. Leave the kid alone, his friend said, turning away.
Now I'm six foot three and three hundred pounds. I'm burly.

Speaker 2 I wore my hair in a pompadour at the time, and had a short, well-trimmed beard. I can see how that could be perceived as intimidating, but I'm just a big teddy bear.
Definitely not the devil.

Speaker 2 The man continued. That's him, I'm sure of it.
He's finally come for me. I won't go down without a fight.

Speaker 2 Then, Crucifix head dug through his backpack, pulled out a knife, and stared me down.

Speaker 2 At this point, the traffic had cleared, and we were driving down the highway again. We were still 25 minutes from from any bus station.
He continued to stare.

Speaker 2 Fifteen minutes later, he turned away from me, kneeled on his seat, and started reciting the Lord's Prayer and Psalm 23.4.

Speaker 2 As he was reciting this, he was getting louder and louder. I was now freaked out, but then I heard text-to-speech in my earbud.
My boss had texted me. I didn't see where you sat down.

Speaker 2 Please tell me you're not sitting next to the guy who's praying. He's even freaking out the driver.

Speaker 2 I hadn't even realized my boss was on the bus with me. I responded, yeah, I am.
He's got a knife. He called me the devil and he keeps staring at me.

Speaker 2 My boss asked me how I was getting home. I let him know that my initial plan was to walk, but now I wasn't so sure.

Speaker 2 After that, my plan was to gather my things and get ready for whatever was going to happen next. My boss texted me again and advised, get off the bus as soon as it stops and move fast.

Speaker 2 Don't look at him, just move. My wife is around the corner from the bus stop in a van.
Get in the back and lock the door.

Speaker 2 We pulled into the bus station after a nearly two-hour ride. I put my phone away and pulled out my hydro flask.
I gripped the bottle by the handle, ready to swing just in case.

Speaker 2 Crucifix Head whispered to himself, I will be redeemed. I'm going to dance with the devil in the moonlight.
I'm going to step on his toes.

Speaker 2 The air released from the bus as the door opened.

Speaker 2 I don't know how I looked moving that quickly off of a bus, but it must have been strange to see a guy as big as me in a suit rushing off the bus that way.

Speaker 2 As soon as I passed my boss's seat in the aisle, he stood up and followed me off the bus while watching the man.

Speaker 2 I rushed to his wife's van and slammed the door shut. My boss wasn't too far behind me, so I was finally able to breathe easy.

Speaker 2 My boss offered to drive me to work the next day, but I just decided that I would drive myself for the next couple of days.

Speaker 2 The man was so intoxicated, he couldn't process how to come after me since I moved so quickly. He rushed to get off the bus as the doors were closing, and my boss snapped a picture of him.

Speaker 2 I went to the police to report it. They said that they would patrol the downtown area and look for him, but they never found him.

Speaker 2 If my boss wasn't there for me that day, I don't know what would have happened. To my boss, you're the real MVP.
I'll never be able to express my gratitude.

Speaker 2 To Crucifix Head, who decided to recite psalms against a college student who was just trying to get home, fuck you. You better pray that you never meet this devil again.

Speaker 20 My girlfriend and I planned a weekend trip to Monterey and Carmel, California. It was quite a drive for us, as we live in the Central Valley.

Speaker 20 We took smaller highways rather than the normal, busy, traffic-riddled freeways. Everything went great.
We had a fun time on the coast and felt that we had made the most of the trip.

Speaker 20 Once we finished eating dinner, we decided that it was time to head back home. It would be about a three and a half to four hour drive back home.

Speaker 20 Most of the drive was quiet and smooth, no traffic or lousy drivers. My girlfriend had fallen asleep since it was pretty late, probably around midnight at this time.

Speaker 20 We were driving on an isolated single lane highway surrounded by grassy hills and mountains just out of San Luis Obispo.

Speaker 20 It was was pretty much pitch black, besides our headlights, and the occasional car driving in the opposite lane. I had music playing low in the background, as I didn't want to wake up my girlfriend.

Speaker 20 As I looked into the darkness surrounding us, I began to imagine all of the creepy things that might be lurking out there, that I couldn't see.

Speaker 20 I suddenly saw a pair of headlights zooming behind us in the rearview mirror. I found this to be odd, as I hadn't seen that many vehicles on the highway just yet.

Speaker 20 The lights continued to grow closer and closer and seemed to maintain their high speed.

Speaker 20 As the headlights crept closer, I decided to pick up speed because I wasn't going to take any chances of getting hit by some reckless driver.

Speaker 20 It's important to mention that I drive a newer model turbocharged Ford Mustang.

Speaker 20 This being said, it didn't take take long for me to pick up speed and create a safe distance between us and the vehicle that was lurking behind.

Speaker 20 This worked for about a minute or two, but again I saw the headlights creeping closer. I went back and forth playing this catch-up game with whoever was driving that vehicle.

Speaker 20 It got to the point where I was reaching 100 miles per hour and the vehicle continued to keep up.

Speaker 20 We finally got to a point on the highway where there were passing lanes that would allow a vehicle to turn off off the highway.

Speaker 20 I decided that I was going to pull over into one of these passing lanes and allow the vehicle to pass. I signaled into the other lane, and just as I thought, the vehicle sped up to pass me.

Speaker 20 Except they didn't. The vehicle was riding side by side next to mine.
I looked over to see that it was your typical white van that you always hear about in scary stories.

Speaker 20 I always knew to never let anyone pull up to you on the road, especially if you were alone.

Speaker 20 Being the only two vehicles on this isolated highway, with only our headlights illuminating the vast darkness, I wasn't going to wait and see if this person would pass.

Speaker 20 I began to brake to let the van fully pass so that I could get behind it. But this didn't work.
As I braked, the van braked as well to stay level with my car.

Speaker 20 I was not going to let this happen, and I hit the the gas, reaching speeds of over 100 miles per hour.

Speaker 20 I moved back into the lane in front of the van, and quickly saw that it moved into the passing lane that I was in and began to match my speed.

Speaker 20 I slammed on the brakes again in an attempt to let this van pass me once and for all, only to notice that they were also braking to stay parallel with my car.

Speaker 20 I glanced over and was not able to see the driver since all of the windows had pitch-black tent.

Speaker 20 I decided that this was going to be the last person that played this game with me and accelerated past him again. Only this time I paid no mind to how fast I was going.

Speaker 20 My only concern was getting rid of whoever was tailing us. I drove for about 10 to 15 minutes, consistently going over 100 miles per hour until I could no longer see the headlights behind me.

Speaker 20 Eventually the highway converged with a major freeway that had multiple lanes and plenty of other vehicles. I had never been so relieved to be in traffic than at that very moment.

Speaker 20 My girlfriend and I made it home safe, and I never saw that white van again. I still don't know who was driving that van or what they were aiming to do, but I sure as hell was not going to find out.

Speaker 20 So, to whoever the hell was driving that creepy white van, let's not meet.

Speaker 2 This happened to me about two years ago now, but I think about it a lot. Even to this day, I get so scared when I think about it and what might have happened if my dad wasn't there.

Speaker 2 During this time I was going to grad school in Texas and visiting my family in Kansas City.

Speaker 2 I had just finished my visit and was driving back to Texas. I started my drive and about an hour in I got a flat tire.

Speaker 2 I called my dad and he told me to call Roadside Assistance, and that he'd be there with a AAA card as soon as he could.

Speaker 2 He got there, Roadside Assistance put on my spare, and we went off to the nearest Walmart to get all the tires replaced.

Speaker 2 The nearest Walmart was about twenty miles away, as we were in a pretty rural part of Kansas.

Speaker 2 I was following my dad, driving about fifty five miles per hour, since I was on a spare.

Speaker 2 There weren't a lot of cars on the highway, basically just me and my dad. dad.
My dad was a little bit ahead of me, so I don't think it was apparent that I was following him.

Speaker 2 Somewhere along the drive, I noticed a dark-colored SUV behind me.

Speaker 2 He was flashing his lights at me, swerving under the shoulder, and then back into his lane, accelerating so that he was really close to my car, then he would fall back just a bit.

Speaker 2 From the time that I noticed him, he did this for about four to five miles, which is a really long time when you're in the moment.

Speaker 2 I was about to call my dad because I felt like this was incredibly strange. Like I said, it was pretty rural, and there were no cars around.

Speaker 2 If this guy was upset that I was driving slowly, he could have just gotten onto the left lane and passed me, but he continued to flash his lights, tailgate me, and swerve onto the shoulder.

Speaker 2 At this point, my dad saw what was happening. He took an exit and then parked on the shoulder.
I followed. This exit was not one that we needed to take.

Speaker 2 It was a rural exit onto a gravel road, and I don't think it's used very frequently.

Speaker 2 Lo and behold, the guy followed me as well.

Speaker 2 I pulled behind my dad, who was already out of his car with his arms in the air, saying, What the hell?

Speaker 2 At this point, I think the guy finally realized that I truly wasn't alone. He slowed down, looked at both of us, and hesitated for a second.
Then he took a hard left onto the gravel road and took off.

Speaker 2 At this point, I thought about trying to get his license plate, but it was too late. The dust from the gravel road made it impossible to see the license plate.

Speaker 2 I still kick myself for not looking at the plate sooner.

Speaker 2 I know this post may not be as scary as some others, but this situation really scared me. We called the police to report it.

Speaker 2 There isn't much that they could do since we didn't even have the license plate number.

Speaker 2 However, I did learn that if you're ever in a situation like this, to call Highway Patrol, not 911.

Speaker 2 When you're on the highway, you travel through so many jurisdictions that it's better to just call Highway Patrol directly. Maybe common sense, but it wasn't something that I had thought about before.

Speaker 2 Since that day, I have the number for Highway Patrol in my phone in case I ever need to use it.

Speaker 2 So, stranger, who was trying to get me to pull over, let's not meet.

Speaker 2 After my first delivery from Wild Alaskan Company, I knew that I would keep it going. But it was actually my second box that really locked me in.
By then, I wasn't just trying it out anymore.

Speaker 2 I already knew how I liked to cook it, and it had become a part of my normal routine.

Speaker 2 That second shipment from Wild Alaskan Company had a great variety, and I found myself planning my meals around it instead of figuring things out last minute.

Speaker 2 I've been cooking a lot of the Coho salmon again because it's really versatile. And I also tried branching out a bit more.

Speaker 2 Everything cooks evenly, portions make sense, and it's the kind of seafood that doesn't need a ton of extra effort to taste great. What I appreciate more as time goes on is the consistency.

Speaker 2 Every box is 100% wild-caught and never farmed with no antibiotics, GMOs, or additives.

Speaker 2 It's frozen off the boat to lock in the flavor and nutrients, and knowing that it all comes from Alaska makes me feel good about what I'm bringing into my kitchen.

Speaker 2 I also like how flexible the membership is.

Speaker 2 You can adjust deliveries, skip weeks, and get helpful cooking tips, which makes it easy to stick with it long term instead of feeling locked into something.

Speaker 2 And if you're on the fence, they back it up. If you're not completely satisfied with your first box, Wild Alaskan Company will give you a full refund.

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Get seafood that you can trust.

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Speaker 2 Thanks to Wild Alaskan Company for sponsoring this

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Speaker 18 Visit your local Toyota dealer and test drive one today.

Speaker 5 Toyota, let's go places.

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Speaker 2 This takes place my senior year of college. I went to a medium-sized state university in a mostly college town.

Speaker 2 I was in my small two-door car, driving to one of the campus buildings for class. The drive from my apartment was mostly normal until I reached one of the busier roads.

Speaker 2 I was at a red light, waiting for the green arrow to turn left. When I finally got the green arrow I proceeded forward and turned onto the main road.

Speaker 2 As I'm turning, a big black truck coming from the opposite direction blows the red light and turns right.

Speaker 2 It wasn't just that they blew the light. They also swerved into my lane, and I needed to swerve into oncoming traffic.
My next coming turn was a right, so I picked up the pace and passed them.

Speaker 2 I got into the right lane in front of them. I gave them plenty of space, but I was fuming.

Speaker 2 As I approached my right turn, I stuck my arm out the window and gave them the bird. I did this right before my turn because I figured they would see it and just keep moving forward.

Speaker 2 I'm on campus at this point, headed towards class. I make two turns and come to a stop sign.
There were other cars before me, so I waited my turn.

Speaker 2 I look in my rear-view mirror, and I see the black truck right behind me. I'm not sure if it's the same truck that I flipped off, though.

Speaker 2 I take a right turn, and the truck follows. Now, out of precaution, I drive past the parking lot that I usually park in.
If it is just some random truck, it should travel another direction eventually.

Speaker 2 I reached another four-way stop and took a right. So did the truck.
At the next opportunity, I took a left. So did the truck.
At this point, adrenaline kicks in because I'm sure I'm being followed.

Speaker 2 I keep weaving through campus with the truck following close behind. And that's when I think, let's see how willing they are to continue following me.

Speaker 2 Maybe, if it looks like I'm leaving town, they'll give up and go on with their day.

Speaker 2 I get to the intersection on the edge of campus that leads to the road out of town. I roll through the stop sign and and floor it.

Speaker 2 My little 2008 Chevy Cobalt sped forward and I reached sixty as soon as I could.

Speaker 2 At this point I have thought to call the police, so I pull my phone out of my hoodie pocket, and being the klutz that I am, and scared, I drop the phone and it falls under the seat.

Speaker 2 At this point, I could either try and reach for the phone and possibly crash, or just keep my eyes on the road and mirror.

Speaker 2 So I do the latter.

Speaker 2 I look behind me, and lo and behold, the truck is speeding up.

Speaker 2 The truck closes the distance between us much faster than I expected. Clearly, their vehicle had much more horsepower than my car.
I should have known that.

Speaker 2 Now, before the road narrows from four lanes to two, the truck pulls up next to me. I look over and I see two men in camo with unkempt beards.

Speaker 2 They're staring daggers at me when they reach down and pull something out.

Speaker 2 It was a revolver. My blood went cold.
I have been in road rage incidents before, but it's always been someone who was all bark and no bite. But these people were armed.

Speaker 2 They were mad that I had flipped them off. I tap the brakes, and they're now in front and to the right of my car.

Speaker 2 They start driving into my lane again. These fuckers are trying to pull me over.
I'm alone and on the edge of town.

Speaker 2 My phone is out of reach, and there are two armed men trying to get me off of the road. I can't call for help.
I can't fight them.

Speaker 2 Even if I had tried playing bumper cars, they were in a truck and I was in this little two-door. I have nothing to defend myself with.

Speaker 2 My only option was to flee, but my car could never outrun their truck. I slow down and start pulling over.
They do as well.

Speaker 2 Once I saw that they were slowing down, I hit the brakes a little quickly so they rolled a little bit further ahead of me. I sit for a moment.
My car is stopped and now they've stopped their truck.

Speaker 2 Their brake lights go off and I see that they have put the car into park. Now my heart is racing.
Both doors open and I see their legs kick out.

Speaker 2 The second both of their legs hit the ground, I take my foot off the brake and slam on the gas. I make the fastest U-turn I had ever made.
I cross three lanes of traffic and speed into town.

Speaker 2 My first thought was to go to the police, but it was deep in town and had multiple stoplights between me and the station.

Speaker 2 I can't call to let the cops know that I'm on the way because I can't guarantee that I'll be able to make it into the police station before they catch up and do God knows what.

Speaker 2 So I look back and see that the truck was trying to flip a U-turn as well. Thankfully, there was oncoming traffic and they had to wait.
This bought me a few precious seconds.

Speaker 2 I still can't call for help. I can't reach the phone.
I can't run forever, though. So I picked the next best thing.
Hide.

Speaker 2 I swing a quick left onto the same road that I came from. At this point, I was back on campus.

Speaker 2 This area of campus was at the edge, so there weren't any dorms or classrooms nearby, but there were other administration buildings and parking lots full of cars.

Speaker 2 I swing into one of the parking lots and drive to where there are multiple cars and trees to block seeing me.

Speaker 2 I pull between two bigger cars, throw my car into park, then cut the engine and duck down. I want to make sure that I'm not seen and I want to grab my cell phone.

Speaker 2 I dial 911 and get the operator on the line.

Speaker 2 Hello, my name is, insert name, and I'm being chased by a truck. I'm hiding in my vehicle in the campus parking lot.
I don't know if they'll find me.

Speaker 2 Can you please stay on the line with me just in case?

Speaker 2 Unfortunately, I don't remember much about the conversation with the operator. I do remember that they were nice.
She asked me if I got the license plate and I said that I didn't.

Speaker 2 We chatted for a few minutes, and I didn't see anyone pull into the parking lot. The operator advised that I should call 911 if it ever happens again.

Speaker 2 I thanked her for talking to me, started my car, and then began to head back to class. My phone gripped in my hand.
I make it to the proper lot, then park my car. I grab my stuff and head into class.

Speaker 2 My adrenaline was pumping and my hands were shaking a bit. The whole walk, I was looking around to make sure that I didn't see any black trucks.

Speaker 2 I make it to class, still early, and run into one of my classmates. He gives me a look and asks what's wrong.
I kind of trauma-bombed him and told him everything.

Speaker 2 His eyes grew wide and he just said, holy shit, you're still going to class?

Speaker 2 I took a minute to think about it, and I realized that I had calmed down a lot.

Speaker 2 Something about being in a familiar building and telling it to another person really helped bring me back to a regular place.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 I think I'm okay-ish

Speaker 2 now.

Speaker 2 I headed into class, and it was actually a fun day.

Speaker 2 By the end of class, I was back to normal and feeling like myself again. I head back to my car and never encounter the black truck again.

Speaker 2 Since this incident, I've been a little bit more mindful of who I flipped the bird when I'm driving. I moved to a big city shortly after and sold my car.
That definitely helped.

Speaker 2 Looking back, I'm proud of myself for thinking quickly in that situation. I'm also pissed because who pulls out a gun and chases down a college student over flipping the bird?

Speaker 2 My guess is the truck and the aggression was compensation for other shortcomings that they have, if you know what I mean. Whatever the reason, I'm glad that I got away.
And let's not meet.

Speaker 2 When I was 25 five years old, about six years ago, I was living in an old apartment in my small college town. I had just moved home from New York City, where I had been for grad school.

Speaker 2 It felt nice to be back in my small little town with little worries. One night, I was grocery shopping at a nearby grocery store.

Speaker 2 The store was less than a mile from my apartment complex, in a very nice part of town. It was very deserted at this time of night, though.

Speaker 2 When I was done shopping, I stopped by the red box outside of the store and I was browsing the movies. I noticed someone come up behind me, but didn't pay much attention.

Speaker 2 I figured they were just waiting their turn to browse the selection themselves. I tried to hurry along, as I didn't want to keep them waiting.
I had not laid eyes on this person yet.

Speaker 2 I could just feel their presence and hear them.

Speaker 2 Then the person walked up to the display of the movies movies they have located directly beside the kiosk.

Speaker 2 I can now see this man. When I noticed how he was standing, I began to feel uneasy.
He was standing about two inches from the display.

Speaker 2 He was standing so close to the movie poster that his nose could have been touching it. Alarm bells immediately went off.

Speaker 2 I knew he was standing way too close to see or read anything.

Speaker 2 A normal person would stand about six feet away to see the movie titles. Still, I put it out of my mind and hurried along.
He wasn't bothering me anyway.

Speaker 2 I made my selection, got my buggy, and started towards my car.

Speaker 2 When I was walking to my car, maybe 25 feet away, I felt the presence again, as if he were behind me. I had to be wrong because I left him to make his own movie selection, right?

Speaker 2 I glanced quickly over my shoulder to see the man had walked towards me and was now stopped at a newspaper stand about six feet away from the red box and about 15 feet away from me.

Speaker 2 I was very confused as to what he was doing at this point. Maybe he was just acting weird.
I hastily put my groceries in the car and jumped in.

Speaker 2 As soon as I was in the car, I saw the man hurry to the passenger side of a small gray pickup that was parked behind me in the next aisle.

Speaker 2 There weren't many cars in the parking lot, and I had not noticed the gray truck had been running this entire time.

Speaker 2 However, the truck was drawing attention to itself because it had the loudest muffler I had ever heard. Now it was hard not to notice it.

Speaker 2 Again, thinking I was completely overthinking this entire situation, I put the car in drive. to make my very short trip home.
I pulled out of the space and started across the parking lot.

Speaker 2 Looking in the rearview mirror, though, I saw the gray truck pull out from their respective parking space, going in the same direction as me. I felt my heart race just a little at this point.

Speaker 2 But still, I was thinking maybe it was my imagination. It was just getting the better of me.
Besides, I lived in the biggest city in the US and never felt like I was in danger.

Speaker 2 There is no way that I would be in danger in a town where you know everyone.

Speaker 2 I had lost sight of him after I had passed through a stop sign and figured the truck had pulled off in another direction.

Speaker 2 Just like I thought, nothing to worry about. I pulled into my apartment complex, which was in the same area as the new shopping complex.

Speaker 2 The parking lots were big with lots of light and plenty of businesses around. It was a popular spot and usually quite crowded.
However, it was late and there weren't many places open.

Speaker 2 Nonetheless, I felt safe there. I parked and was just a few short steps away from entering my complex with nothing to fear.

Speaker 2 I stepped out of the car and started collecting my groceries when I heard it.

Speaker 2 That sound. The loudest muffler I've ever heard.

Speaker 2 I turned to look at the entrance of the parking lot to see the most unnerving sight that gray truck. I audibly gasped and watched them drive closer.

Speaker 2 I was completely frozen, with a stationary gaze fixated on the truck as the muffler grew louder. I watched as they came to a stop about 20 feet away from me.

Speaker 2 They made a hard right and exited the parking lot as quickly as they came. I hurried to my apartment and tried to calm down.
Did they see me?

Speaker 2 Did they just want to know where I I was going or where I lived so they could come back later? There were many apartments in the building. How could they find me?

Speaker 2 I called my brother, who was a police officer. He told me if I heard the muffler from my parents to immediately call the police, but I never heard the muffler or saw the truck again.

Speaker 2 These questions have plagued me though. What was their plan? Was it completely coincidental? Or did they have malicious motives? How many people were in the truck?

Speaker 2 Either way, I'm glad they decided to make that last turn out of there for whatever reason they did. My brother inevitably told my father what had happened.

Speaker 2 My dad talked to the manager of the grocery store. They both knew each other and informed him of what had happened.
The manager let my dad come in to review the CCTV footage from that night.

Speaker 2 The manager and my father both agreed from watching the footage. It was clear that the man was following me.
However, it was not clear enough or close enough to retrieve any identifiable markers.

Speaker 2 So, guy or guys in the loud gray truck, let's not meet.

Speaker 2 This happened to me during the summer of 2015. I had recently graduated from

Speaker 2 A friend of mine from college had also relocated to the south but was several hours away. Needing some familiarity, but not wanting to run back home just yet, I planned a trip to go see her.

Speaker 2 Being a post-grad student, I didn't have a ton of money saved up. I found the cheapest flight, but it was out of Atlanta, which was a few hours away.
I thought that this was fine.

Speaker 2 I figured I'd just add the jaunt to Atlanta to the adventure. I hopped on the highway, ready and excited for my mini getaway.

Speaker 2 As I was driving, a semi-truck pulled up on my right side, blaring its horn at me. It reminded me of this time when I was a kid and my dad had a flat tire.

Speaker 2 A trucker had been the one to alert him by blaring his horn.

Speaker 2 I assumed that I was getting the same warning. Great, I thought to myself, a flat in the middle of the highway, as I'm on my way to the airport.

Speaker 2 I pulled off the nearest exit, which was when it got creepy.

Speaker 2 The truck had pulled off as well and was now following me. Immediately off of the exit, there were two gas stations.
One was full of different cars, and the other looked slightly abandoned.

Speaker 2 I chose the busy one, pulling into a spot right in front of the door, in between two cars. I looked over my shoulder, and the truck had chosen to pull into the empty gas station.

Speaker 2 He seemed to just be waiting there, as he never got out of his truck. He was just sitting and watching.

Speaker 2 I did a lap around the car, and granted, I knew nothing about cars whatsoever, but for someone on the highway to be flagging me down, there would have to be something visibly wrong with my car, right?

Speaker 2 Nothing about to fall off? Nothing was wrong at all. The truck had very clearly blared its horn at me and had motioned for me to get off of the highway.

Speaker 2 There was no way I had cut him off as I hadn't changed lanes in who knew how long. This

Speaker 2 I told him. The truck had immediately pulled out as well, following me back onto the highway.
Every lane change, every move, every time I attempted to speed up, the truck was right there.

Speaker 2 I had no idea what to do. Do I call the cops? Why do I even tell them? Eventually, we got closer to Atlanta.
I managed to lose him in the mini-lanes of backed up traffic.

Speaker 2 My small car was able to weave in and out in a way that his truck was not able to.

Speaker 2 I have no idea what the man's intentions were, and the more I think about it, the more I'm glad I trusted my instincts to pull into a busier gas station among many cars and people.

Speaker 2 So, to that trucker that stalked me during my solo trip, let's never meet.

Speaker 2 My husband was driving toward a local hospital to have a test done, and I was tagging along for moral support.

Speaker 2 We lived in Arizona at the time, in an area that was known for fast, aggressive drivers, often in large vehicles.

Speaker 2 Road rage is a major problem where we're from, though not something my husband and I had personally experienced notable interactions with, until this happened.

Speaker 2 While merging onto the freeway, a red SUV rapidly approached us from behind. I expected to incessantly be tailgated, but instead, instead Mr.

Speaker 2 Red SUV pulled around onto the shoulder of the single merge lane, nearly clipping the side mirror of our car.

Speaker 2 Then he sped aggressively around us and cut us off, then merged onto the freeway ahead of us. I was convinced he was going to hit our car.

Speaker 2 He swerved around us so close, I thought for a moment he was going for the pit maneuver that you see in action movies. I yelped and told my husband that he should have honked at him or something.

Speaker 2 But the moment passed, and Mr. Red SUV was already speeding ahead of us.
We saw him tailgating other vehicles that were really going well above the speed limit already.

Speaker 2 He was following everyone so closely that his car seemed to almost fuse with each car that he pulled behind.

Speaker 2 He proceeded to execute several sharp and quick lane changes, cutting off each car that he passed and causing several people to hit their brakes or swerve into different lanes to avoid being hit.

Speaker 2 My husband and I commented on Mr. Red SUV's obvious road rage and reckless driving behavior, wondering what the deal was.
After a bit of time, we forgot about it and continued on our route.

Speaker 2 Combative driving like that was fairly common in that area. Fifteen minutes or so later, we came up to our exit.
As we approached, we saw the Red SUV ahead of us again.

Speaker 2 He was stuck behind a wall of traffic that allowed us to catch up with him. As we pulled onto the off ramp of our exit, he merged and proceeded to sharply cut us off without so much as a turn signal.

Speaker 2 My husband had hit the brakes to avoid rear ending him. Turned out, this was his exit as well.
This time my husband honked, as this was now the second time that mister Red SUV had nearly hit us.

Speaker 2 We stopped at the light at the end of the the off-ramp, directly behind him now. He appeared to be an older male, alone in his red SUV.

Speaker 2 We couldn't see his face well or what he was doing since we were sitting behind him, but he appeared to be flailing his arms around wildly to indicate that he was furious about something.

Speaker 2 When the light turned green, he floored it. And then, once we got closer to him on the road, he brake checked us, and my husband had to quickly hit the brakes.
Fed up with Mr.

Speaker 2 Red SUV at this point, my husband gave him a shrugging what the fuck man, gesture. Our destination, the hospital, was coming up on our right, so we pulled into the right turn lane.
Mr.

Speaker 2 Red SUV stayed in the lane to continue straight, meaning we pulled up right next to him. So we got to see his face for the first time.

Speaker 2 He was approximately in his mid to late 60s, balding with grey hair, and he was wearing large dark sunglasses. He was staring right at us.

Speaker 2 He was pointing his finger at us threateningly, and he was shouting things that we couldn't hear between the cars.

Speaker 2 We took a right on a red to finally get away from him.

Speaker 2 I felt my stomach tighten into a knot as I saw that mister Red SUV deliberately turned right from the straight only lane at the red stoplight, cutting off somebody else in the right turn lane in the process.

Speaker 2 He sped up to catch up with us. He was now tailgating us so closely that we couldn't even see his headlights in the rearview mirror.

Speaker 2 At this point, my husband and I both started to panic, but decided that Mr.

Speaker 2 Red SUV would probably back off once he realized that we were pulling into the hospital parking lot, which was a heavily populated area. It was also secure.
He did not.

Speaker 2 The first section of the hospital, accessible from the road entrance, was the ER. I frantically shouted for my husband to pull in front of the ER loading zone to either get help or scare this guy off.

Speaker 2 There was no one at the loading zone though, and Mr. Red SUV was still right on our tail, still screaming who knows what into the void where nobody could even hear him.

Speaker 2 When my husband stopped the car, the SUV stopped his car as well, always pulling up directly behind us, bumper to bumper.

Speaker 2 I felt my entire body stiffen up with fear as I realized this guy was quickly getting out of his vehicle, clearly aiming to confront us with his face contorted in rage.

Speaker 2 With the amount of pro-gun and NRA stickers on his car, and this being Arizona, where nearly everybody owns a gun, we were both terrified.

Speaker 2 People, being shot over simple road rage incidents, was not unheard of in that area.

Speaker 2 We quickly started driving again, and my husband began driving in circles around the loading zone of the ER, stopping occasionally to see see if our tailgator would back off. Each time we stopped, Mr.

Speaker 2 Red SUV stopped as well and attempted to get out of his car to charge toward us. At one point, he threw his car into reverse around the circle to try and cut us off and block us into the loading zone.

Speaker 2 He again jumped out of his car, and my husband started to drive around the circle in reverse to avoid this lunatic. Realizing Mr.

Speaker 2 Red SUV wasn't going to give up until he got face to face, I grabbed my phone and I dialed 911.

Speaker 2 The next time he got out of his car, I showed him that I was on the phone. I rolled down my window slightly and shouted, I'm calling the police.
This seemed to finally have an effect on him.

Speaker 2 He paused with one hand on the roof of his car, then swung himself back inside and peeled out with his tires squealing.

Speaker 2 My husband was late for his appointment at this point, so he ran into the hospital ahead of me while I stayed on the line with the dispatcher and waited for an officer to arrive.

Speaker 2 At this point, some of the staff inside noticed the weird encounter happening in the loading zone and came out to see what was going on.

Speaker 2 I briefly filled them in, and they let me wait inside the ER lobby while I waited for the officer and attempted to lower my heart rate again.

Speaker 2 I tried to recall the information, at least everything that I could about mister SUV, but I couldn't remember the last two digits of his license plate number.

Speaker 2 I told the officer that we were both circling the ER entrance area several times, so there must be security footage somewhere that captured his plate number.

Speaker 2 After taking my statement, the officer let me go and I joined my husband at his appointment.

Speaker 2 I got a call back about an hour later informing me that they had searched the entire area and couldn't find the car or the person matching the given description, so at least we would know he wasn't camped out waiting for us when we left.

Speaker 2 Nothing ever came of that report to my knowledge, and I don't think they ever found him. Still, to this day, I don't know what had enraged him in the first place.

Speaker 2 All I can think of is he was having a terrible day and just looking for somebody to take it out on.

Speaker 2 I never saw his hands each time he was getting in and out of the vehicle, so I don't know if he was armed or not. But I'm glad that I never got close enough to find out.

Speaker 2 All I know is, whatever his intentions were, if he reached in our vehicle, he did not simply want to lecture us about our driving.

Speaker 2 The persistence with which he pursued us, the look of rage on his face, and the numerous attempts that he made to get out of his vehicle and reach the driver's side door of our car indicated to me that he did have malicious intentions.

Speaker 2 He was hunting us, and we were his prey. So, to Mr.
Red SUV, I don't know what happened to you to make you so angry, but let's never meet again.

Speaker 2 For reference, I'm a female and this happened to me back in June of 2010 when I was 17.

Speaker 2 I was driving home from a graduation party at about 1 a.m.

Speaker 2 I lived in Virginia at the time and the summers are extremely hot and humid.

Speaker 2 The air conditioning wasn't working in my car, so all of the windows and the sunroof were open, and I was blasting my music and singing along.

Speaker 2 I was at a red light, and I had this overwhelming sensation that I was being watched. It was so overwhelming that it made me shiver, which was odd considering that it was ninety degrees outside.

Speaker 2 I fought the urge to look, but I did cave.

Speaker 2 Staring right at me, with this shit-eating grin, was a man who I'd guess was in his mid-thirties in a red pickup truck in the left turn lane.

Speaker 2 He was trying to yell something at me, but I couldn't hear over my music, so I turned it down and looked back over.

Speaker 2 He called me sexy and asked where I was headed. I cringed, rolled my eyes, and turned away from him to ignore him.
Right before I turned the music back up, I heard him call me a bitch.

Speaker 2 Nice, I thought. I laughed to myself and blasted my music and went on ahead when the light turned green.

Speaker 2 I check the rearview mirror, and to my surprise, I see a red pickup truck pull out of the left turn lane and speed up behind me.

Speaker 2 Now, initially, I give him the benefit of the doubt and try not to be too paranoid, and just keep driving. I turn right into my neighborhood, and just as I feared would happen, he turns right as well.

Speaker 2 I live in a pretty big neighborhood, but it's one of those suburban neighborhoods with a lot of twists and turns and dead ends, and it's easy to get lost if you're not familiar with the area.

Speaker 2 I now know it's not a coincidence. I remember what my driver's ed teacher had taught us.
If you think someone's following you, you never pull into your driveway alone.

Speaker 2 He told us to call for help and drive to a well-lit area, especially a police or fire station, if he can.

Speaker 2 So instead of taking the right turn onto my street, I turn left.

Speaker 2 So does he.

Speaker 2 I take another left, and so does he.

Speaker 2 I've seen too many horror movies, and at this point, I'm thinking of every worst-case scenario, when suddenly he starts blaring his horn over and over.

Speaker 2 It gets to the point where he's just laying on the horn for what feels like minutes. I need to focus, so I turn the music off.
And that's when I can hear it.

Speaker 2 He's screaming, blood-curdling screams, and I can make out a few curse words, but then I hear him scream clear as day.

Speaker 2 You'll regret this, you fucking bitch.

Speaker 2 I immediately panic. My blood runs ice cold and my entire body starts to shake.

Speaker 2 I reach over for my cell phone, which is sitting in the passenger seat, and right as I have it in my hands, he starts flashing his bright lights over and over.

Speaker 2 Between my shaking hands and the headlights flashing, it caught me off guard. Enough to wear, of fucking course, I drop the phone on the passenger side floor.

Speaker 2 I'm absolutely terrified, and even worse, this sinking feeling comes over me.

Speaker 2 This is happening when I'm not even a mile away from the safety of my house. I think about my mom and my stepdad, none the wiser, thinking I'll be home any minute.
I start to cry.

Speaker 2 Thinking about them is what gave me a little push. I have to get out of here and away from him.
I refuse to let him get what he wants.

Speaker 2 I speed up and sharply, and quickly take turns at last seconds, hoping to lose him, but he keeps up. He's still screaming, still flashing his rights and honking, so I roll up all of my windows.

Speaker 2 As I'm taking a right turn, I think of a shortcut.

Speaker 2 It's an unpaved road that looks like it would be the entrance to someone's driveway, if you weren't familiar with the neighborhood, but it leads back to the main road.

Speaker 2 I floor it down that street, watching the gravel dust leave behind as I take a quick left.

Speaker 2 Then a quick right, and I'm back on the main road.

Speaker 2 I ran the the first red light and stopped at the next one when I felt this huge wave of relief wash over me when I saw that no one was in my rearview mirror. Not a single car was even on the street.

Speaker 2 But I'm still shaking and feeling sick to my stomach, so with my foot on the brake, I try to reach down and find my phone. I finally have it in my hand when I hear the loudest thud.

Speaker 2 Quickly, another thud follows. Then a crack after that.

Speaker 2 I look up and to my absolute horror, the man in the red pickup is banging on my windows, screaming at me to let him in, calling me the most disgusting derogatory names.

Speaker 2 I look in my rearview mirror and his truck was parked several feet behind mine, on the side of the road with its lights off.

Speaker 2 I hate myself in this moment because I'm so terrified and frozen to the point where I feel legitimately paralyzed. But that's when I look up to the open sunroof.
How did I forget to close that too?

Speaker 2 He looks to see what I'm staring at, and he immediately tries to climb inside of the car. Within seconds, I think to myself, you either fight this or you don't.

Speaker 2 I push his arm off of me, and then I slam my foot so hard on the gas and scream as I watch him fly off of my car and smack onto the pavement behind me.

Speaker 2 I keep driving. I don't stop driving even when I'm finally calling for help.
Unfortunately, like so many others, they never found him.

Speaker 2 I couldn't make out a single letter of his license plate since he was trailing so close and flashing his high beams. I'm grateful that I got away, and for the most part I am okay.

Speaker 2 I'm shaken, but I'm alive. To this day, I still can't help but feel this sense of dread when I think about what happened so many years ago.
Am I the only one he's done this to?

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Speaker 2 This happened years ago when I was about 17. I'm 30 now and a male for context.
When I was a teenager, I lived in Marin County, a quiet suburb just north of San San Francisco.

Speaker 2 However, most of my buddies lived in San Francisco, and most nights of the week, I could be found riding my bicycle back and forth across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Speaker 2 I enjoyed those long bicycle rides at night. I'd often be high as a kite, iPod with my favorite playlist, passing by weirdos and street urchins, or admiring the desolate beauty of the bay.

Speaker 2 One of my favorite places to ride my bike was through the Presidio. The Presidio is the last neighborhood you pass in San Francisco before making your way onto the Golden Gate Bridge.

Speaker 2 It's famous for its old beautiful military housing, an old airfield, and hangars that have been converted into a seaside park, and enormous eucalyptus trees and forests.

Speaker 2 At night it's dead quiet, and the only people you can see out are late night Chinese fishermen on the pier down by the water, or people flying down the freeway into the city.

Speaker 2 Anyways, this one night I was coming back from hanging out with some friends and riding my bike through the Presidio on my way home.

Speaker 2 I was leisurely gliding down the hills when I noticed a single older black car, something like an Oldsmobile, coming up a road perpendicular to the one that I was coming down.

Speaker 2 As I got closer, the black Oldsmobile took a left, blinding me for a a moment with its lights, as it passed. I didn't think much of it at the time.

Speaker 2 Here and there you might see a couple cruising to make out by the bridge, or a carful of kids going to smoke a joint at the old pet cemetery beneath the highway overpass.

Speaker 2 A few minutes later I had mostly climbed the hill that took you closer to the entrance of the bridge and looked down on Chrissyfield.

Speaker 2 This road is dark, with barely any lights, and I was enjoying looking down towards the water to my right when I heard a car coming from behind me.

Speaker 2 I looked behind me and I saw the same old black Oldsmobile, maybe 20 yards behind me with its lights off,

Speaker 2 strangely driving at a slow crawl. I tried to wave them past,

Speaker 2 but the car just kept rolling slowly behind me. It was too dark to see who might be driving.

Speaker 2 The fact that the car had its headlights off almost immediately struck me as a red flag, as well as its obvious slow trailing behind me.

Speaker 2 I gave it a few more yards and tried to wave it past again, but nothing.

Speaker 2 Spooked, I made a sharp left on my bicycle and began bombing down the hill in the opposite direction of the Oldsmobile.

Speaker 2 This route would take me back deeper into a more secluded wooded area by the cemetery and air hangars. For a moment I felt relieved until I heard a screeching car

Speaker 2 and I glanced behind me to see the black Oldsmobile, lights still off, passing behind the trees, coming down the same hill as me.

Speaker 2 The Oldsmobile had to have made an extremely unusual U-turn, especially considering how narrow the roads are in the Presidio.

Speaker 2 Terrified now, I began pedaling faster away from the Oldsmobile, but as I picked up pace, so did the Oldsmobile, and it quickly began gaining on my tail.

Speaker 2 Using all my strength, I pedaled as fast as I could up a small hill and jumped off my bike, throwing it off the edge of the road, to the left into some bushes, and quickly jumped off the road to hide.

Speaker 2 Hanging off the road, on the side of the hill, hidden in ivy, I was just below the road. I looked up, but I couldn't see anything.
But I could hear the black Oldsmobile pass.

Speaker 2 I waited a few minutes later, and I heard the car slowly approaching. No indication from headlights.
Then it passed by, but

Speaker 2 it did this again. And again, and again, for nearly 20 minutes.
I hid in the bushes as I heard this Oldsmobile pass back and forth overhead.

Speaker 2 Finally, I mustered the courage to get back on my bicycle and ride as fast as I possibly could ride back to the bridge.

Speaker 2 In the darkness, listening to myself pant, it felt like forever, but I finally could see the glaring bright lights of the Golden Gate Bridge. But then,

Speaker 2 again I hear the car. I look behind me and I see the Oldsmobile again trailing me.

Speaker 2 I fucking smashed and made it to the parking lot of the bridge toll. I rode up to the pedestrian sidewalk next to the toll and got off my bike under the light and chain smoked for a while.

Speaker 2 I never saw the car pass onto the bridge, nor did I see it again once I made it to Marin.

Speaker 2 When I was maybe 19 or 20 years old, I was dating my first boyfriend, Alex. We had been together for about three months, and a few of his friends were having a little get-together at their house.

Speaker 2 We were waiting for his buddies to come pick us up. They pulled up, and we got in.

Speaker 2 The guy driving told us about his super weird truck that he saw just seconds before slowly creeping through the neighborhood. He said that it was tall, boarded up with wood, and moving very slowly.

Speaker 2 As we were exiting the neighborhood, we pulled up to a light to make a right.

Speaker 2 And there the truck was. It was dark, maybe around 8 p.m.
We were in the lane beside the truck, so I was able to get a fair view of what the guy had been talking about.

Speaker 2 It was an old black truck. The bed was boarded up with four panels of plywood that had been spray

Speaker 2 black. The panels went way above the height of the truck, about two feet higher.
There were chains hanging from the back and the sides.

Speaker 2 I tried to catch a glimpse of who was driving as the light turned red, but no luck. We got to the party, and it was terrible.
It was the first time I had ever been to a proper party.

Speaker 2 It was also the first time I had an edible, so I completely sank inside myself for the whole night. I just wanted to leave, but we were there for about five hours.

Speaker 2 We eventually left, and I was so excited to get into bed. When we pulled back up to the house, I got out, and Alex sat inside of the car for a couple of seconds saying his goodbyes.

Speaker 2 I looked up and saw the vehicle slowly creeping down the neighborhood street. It was the same big black boarded-up truck.

Speaker 2 I swear to you, there was a green light emitting from the inside of that thing. I saw a slight green glow from the windows and through the wood panels.
I hit my boyfriend's arm and told him to hurry.

Speaker 2 I was scared. It had been five hours since we first saw this vehicle, and here it was, just creeping down the street.
It was making this puttering, clanking sound.

Speaker 2 It reminded me of that truck that the creature from Jeepers Creepers drove. I grabbed Alex's arm and said, Let's go.

Speaker 2 He finally got out of the car and saw this truck getting closer. It was about to pass us.
I caught one look into the window, and I still couldn't see anything other than this bright green light.

Speaker 2 We ran through the door of Alex's house and quickly shut it behind us.

Speaker 2 He had the house to himself for the weekend, as his family went camping, so he went to every single entry of the house and double checked that everything was locked. I didn't sleep much that night.

Speaker 2 We hypothesized maybe it was someone casing the neighborhood to steal furniture or appliances since it had such a large concealed bed.

Speaker 2 It was freaky and I didn't spend a night at Alex's house again for about a month.

Speaker 2 Whether it was just a confused driver or some demon looking to harvest my eyeballs, I hope I never meet that creepy ass Jeepers Creepers truck again.

Speaker 2 I was 18 years old when this happened. Last year, I was living in a very rural town in the middle of the mountains.
Most small western towns only have one road that goes into a bigger city.

Speaker 2 Our road, in particular, was about 50 miles of desolate highway, surrounded by cliffs, fields, and the occasional farm.

Speaker 2 When this road reaches the city, there's a huge truck stop and gas station that's always packed.

Speaker 2 My mom and and I were on our way back home after going to the city for a midnight showing of a movie that we wanted to see.

Speaker 2 Per usual, we stopped to fill up on gas and get a drink before settling in for the long drive back to our town.

Speaker 2 As we were leaving, I vaguely noticed a dingy old jeep pull out of the station at the same time.

Speaker 2 I didn't think too much of it, as it wasn't strange that someone else would be leaving at the same time as us. As we started down the pitch black road, the Jeep maintained a steady pace behind us.

Speaker 2 Again, not too strange. But then it came flying up past us, then disappeared behind a hill.
She was driving probably 60.

Speaker 2 However, there are drivers that are familiar with the area and the roads that will drive closer to a hundred, even at night.

Speaker 2 Assuming the Jeep was a savvy driver in a hurry to get around us, my mom and I just kind of scoffed. We continued driving down the road and eventually saw the Jeep again.

Speaker 2 It was partially pulled over since the back half of the vehicle was still on the road. My mom and I saw what was clearly a man's arm waving from the driver's side window.

Speaker 2 He was gesturing for us to pull over. Of course we didn't, and we just passed the jeep by.

Speaker 2 The man then pulled back onto the road, flew past us once more, and then pulled over again.

Speaker 2 We passed him, and he did that same thing.

Speaker 2 This is when my mom and I became very nervous. After passing him for a third time, instead of him flying past us to pull over, he flew right up to us and then started tailgating us.

Speaker 2 He was driving so close that we couldn't even see his headlights in our rear view mirror. He was honking his horn while waving his arms, still gesturing for us to pull over.

Speaker 2 He carried on like this for half an hour.

Speaker 2 I was terrified. My mom was terrified.
She was white knuckling the wheel. I was holding my pocket knife in an attempt to make myself feel better.

Speaker 2 The stress of the situation caused me to swear at my mom for the very first time that night. I cautioned her not to pull over.

Speaker 2 The road that we were on was a dead zone for service, so calling the police or anyone else wasn't an option.

Speaker 2 I kept picturing what would happen on the side of this empty road if the man had succeeded in getting us to stop somehow. But then it abruptly ended.

Speaker 2 The man slammed on his brakes, turned around, and went back to where he came from.

Speaker 2 The remainder of our ride home was silent, and I slept in my mom's room that night, since I was so scared. The next morning we discussed what happened.

Speaker 2 We came to the conclusion that when he saw two women traveling alone at night, he decided that we would be easy pickings.

Speaker 2 We've shared this story with others who suggested that maybe he had seen us drop money, or a receipt, or something at the gas station, and he wanted to be a good Samaritan.

Speaker 2 I highly doubt anybody, not even good Samaritans, would follow two women home so aggressively on a pitch-black road. There was no way that person had good intentions.

Speaker 2 We moved out of that town a few months later for unrelated reasons, but before we did, the same car was reported following a group of four men on their way to work.

Speaker 2 Maybe the person who drives this dingy old Jeep enjoys following people aggressively to scare them for fun.

Speaker 2 But either way, that was easily one of the scariest nights of my life.

Speaker 2 Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed this week's massive compilation of our best and creepiest stories from the road.

Speaker 2 If you have a story to share, make sure you send it to let's not meetstories at gmail.com. Sign up for our Patreon.

Speaker 2 You can add free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bitrate, plus bonus content with stories you won't hear anywhere else. You can join at patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast.

Speaker 2 Be sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Odd Trails and the Old Time Radio Cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 2 And follow me on Twitch at twitch.tv/slash cryptic county. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors.

Speaker 2 Let's Not Meet a True Horror Podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. We'll see you next week for an all-new episode of Let's Not Meet.
Everybody, stay safe.

Speaker 2 She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time.

Speaker 22 Fortunately, her doctor prescribes Olair, omalizumab it's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens zolair 150 milligrams is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods while taking Zolair you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic don't use if you are allergic to Zolair Zolair may cause a severe life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis.

Speaker 22 Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions including anaphylaxis.

Speaker 22 Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions including anaphylaxis while avoiding food allergens.

Speaker 22 Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection or heart and circulation problems have been reported.

Speaker 19 Please see Zolair.com for full prescribing information.

Speaker 22 Ask an allergist about Zolair. This is an advertisement for Zolair paid for by Genentech and Novartis.

Speaker 6 Winter is the perfect time to explore California, and there's no better way to do it than in a brand new Toyota hybrid.

Speaker 9 With 19 fuel-efficient options like the All-Hybrid Camry, the RAV4 hybrid, or the Tacoma hybrid.

Speaker 16 Every new Toyota comes with Toyota Care, a two-year complementary scheduled maintenance plan, an exclusive hybrid battery warranty, and of course, Toyota's legendary quality and reliability.

Speaker 18 Visit your local Toyota dealer and test drive one today.

Speaker 5 Toyota, let's go places.

Speaker 19 See your local Toyota dealer for hybrid battery warranty details.

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