Latest / Crime and Horror / Top-3-SCARIEST-internet-booby-traps
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Today's video is a reminder that there are horrible people
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- 1:22Speaker 1: In 2018, a 21-year-old brand new police officer named Derek
- 1:38Speaker 1: was dumped by his longtime girlfriend. This breakup caught him
- 1:41Speaker 1: by surprise because he had actually just recently moved to
- 1:45Speaker 1: Colorado in order to be closer to his girlfriend, so
- 1:48Speaker 1: naturally he was devastated. After a few weeks of being
- 1:51Speaker 1: so depressed and kind of just moping around and going
- 1:53Speaker 1: through the motions in his life at this point, one
- 1:56Speaker 1: of his very close friends suggested to him, like, hey man, look,
- 1:58Speaker 1: why don't you just make a profile on Tinder, the
- 2:01Speaker 1: online dating service, And just put yourself out there again.
- 2:04Speaker 1: You have no idea who's out there. Clearly, your ex-girlfriend
- 2:07Speaker 1: was not the one. Derek had met his ex-girlfriend in
- 2:10Speaker 1: a bar and every other girlfriend he had ever had,
- 2:13Speaker 1: he had met in person. So online dating was definitely
- 2:15Speaker 1: not on his radar. But he was so lonely and sad,
- 2:18Speaker 1: he figured, you know what? I got nothing to lose.
- 2:20Speaker 1: And so he made himself a Tinder profile. Derek quickly
- 2:23Speaker 1: matched with a woman on Tinder named Leah that he
- 2:27Speaker 1: said was way out of his league, but he wasn't complaining.
- 2:30Speaker 1: They chatted for a couple of weeks and they got
- 2:31Speaker 1: on great. And so they wanted to get together and
- 2:34Speaker 1: actually meet each other in person. But Leah lived well
- 2:36Speaker 1: over an hour away from Derek's. There wasn't a natural
- 2:39Speaker 1: meeting place. And they're going back and forth about where
- 2:41Speaker 1: they want to go. And finally, Leah just says, hey,
- 2:44Speaker 1: why don't you just come to my town? There's this
- 2:46Speaker 1: great park that I go running in all the time.
- 2:48Speaker 1: And they have this awesome field that's on a slope
- 2:51Speaker 1: and you can lay on it and look up through
- 2:52Speaker 1: the trees and you can see the stars. And so
- 2:54Speaker 1: That would be a cool thing to do on our
- 2:55Speaker 1: first date. Go stargazing together. So the date night finally
- 2:58Speaker 1: came and Derek was really excited. He was nervous too
- 3:01Speaker 1: because even though they talked on the phone, this is
- 3:03Speaker 1: the first time they're going to see each other. And
- 3:05Speaker 1: so the plan was he was going to drive out
- 3:06Speaker 1: to her town and actually pick her up from her work.
- 3:08Speaker 1: She worked at a hair salon and from there they
- 3:11Speaker 1: would make their way over to this park. And so
- 3:13Speaker 1: Derek pulls up to the hair salon right as Leah
- 3:15Speaker 1: is coming outside and she's all excited and she's waving
- 3:17Speaker 1: to him. She runs over and she gets in the
- 3:19Speaker 1: car and they hug and kiss on the cheek. And
- 3:22Speaker 1: it's like they knew each other, but they didn't know
- 3:24Speaker 1: each other because their entire relationship was online or via
- 3:27Speaker 1: texting or a phone call. And so it's like they
- 3:30Speaker 1: had history, but they didn't. But either way, Derek was
- 3:32Speaker 1: really happy and it seemed like Leah was too. From
- 3:34Speaker 1: the hair salon, it was a pretty short drive to
- 3:36Speaker 1: this access road that was going to bring them into
- 3:38Speaker 1: this park. And when Leah told him to make this turn,
- 3:41Speaker 1: it didn't look like a very well marked trail or
- 3:44Speaker 1: even a marked park. It looked like this kind of
- 3:46Speaker 1: random access road that Derek would not have associated with
- 3:49Speaker 1: a big public park, but he doesn't know the area,
- 3:51Speaker 1: and so he turns and he starts heading down this road,
- 3:54Speaker 1: and the road went from cement to dirt pretty quickly,
- 3:57Speaker 1: and this whole time he's thinking to himself, like, did
- 3:59Speaker 1: I take a wrong turn? Does she know where she's going?
- 4:02Speaker 1: This does not feel like the way you drive into
- 4:05Speaker 1: a big park, the way she was describing. Finally, they
- 4:08Speaker 1: land back on cement, and they're actually on this road
- 4:10Speaker 1: that's right up against this huge field. And so right away,
- 4:13Speaker 1: Derek's stress is gone because now it's confirmed in his
- 4:16Speaker 1: mind that, okay, that's a weird way to get into
- 4:18Speaker 1: this park, but here's this huge, amazing field and we're
- 4:20Speaker 1: back on a real road and everything's good again. Derek
- 4:23Speaker 1: asks Leia, you know, where should I park? Because they're
- 4:25Speaker 1: on this really narrow road and there didn't appear to
- 4:27Speaker 1: be a parking lot. There also didn't appear to be
- 4:30Speaker 1: anybody else on this field or on this road. It's
- 4:33Speaker 1: this huge, open, beautiful space, but it did not look
- 4:35Speaker 1: well populated or like it was well traveled. But She said,
- 4:39Speaker 1: just go right up there. There's a small lot you
- 4:40Speaker 1: can pull into. And so Derek starts going up this
- 4:43Speaker 1: road and he sees maybe 300 feet ahead of him
- 4:46Speaker 1: are dim headlights of another car making their way down
- 4:48Speaker 1: the road towards him. And now it was dark enough
- 4:51Speaker 1: that he couldn't really make out what kind of vehicle
- 4:53Speaker 1: it was. And so he didn't know if it was
- 4:55Speaker 1: going to be some big truck or something like that.
- 4:57Speaker 1: And so what he did is he just pulled over
- 4:59Speaker 1: as far to the side of the road as he
- 5:00Speaker 1: could to allow this vehicle to pass, even though there
- 5:03Speaker 1: was a fair amount of distance they would need to cover.
- 5:05Speaker 1: before they were passing him. He figured, just give them
- 5:08Speaker 1: the right of the road. And so as they start
- 5:10Speaker 1: moving forward, he can see that it's actually this big van,
- 5:12Speaker 1: and they're moving pretty slowly, and he's just kind of
- 5:15Speaker 1: waiting for them to pass, and he's not thinking anything
- 5:17Speaker 1: of this. He's thinking that this is just another person
- 5:19Speaker 1: at the park, and this van, instead of passing him,
- 5:22Speaker 1: actually turns at the last second and almost goes bumper
- 5:25Speaker 1: to bumper with Derek's car. He doesn't crash into it,
- 5:28Speaker 1: but he stops just in front of Derek's car. And
- 5:31Speaker 1: so Derek is a cop. He's a brand new cop,
- 5:33Speaker 1: and he's super aggressive, You know, he really believes in
- 5:36Speaker 1: his training. And so as soon as this guy stopped
- 5:39Speaker 1: in front of him and blocked the path for him,
- 5:42Speaker 1: red flags are going up for Derek and he knows
- 5:44Speaker 1: something's wrong with this van. And instinctively, he says, Leah,
- 5:47Speaker 1: stay here. He grabs his flashlight that he kept right
- 5:49Speaker 1: in the center console and he jumped out of the
- 5:51Speaker 1: car and went right to the driver's side door of
- 5:53Speaker 1: this van to confront this guy. And when he got
- 5:55Speaker 1: up to the driver's side door, it was this really
- 5:57Speaker 1: big guy who looked pretty startled to see Derek come
- 6:00Speaker 1: charging up to him with his flashlight. And Derek's like,
- 6:03Speaker 1: What are you doing, man? What are you blocking me
- 6:05Speaker 1: in for? And the guy's like, oh, hey, sorry, I'm
- 6:07Speaker 1: the caretaker here of this whole property. And we've had
- 6:10Speaker 1: an issue with poachers in the area. And I was
- 6:12Speaker 1: concerned you guys were poachers. It doesn't look like you're poachers, though.
- 6:15Speaker 1: And Derek's like, no, we're not poachers. We're going stargazing.
- 6:18Speaker 1: I'm on my first date here. And the caretaker's like,
- 6:20Speaker 1: I am so sorry. Please get back in your car,
- 6:22Speaker 1: go and enjoy your night. And at that, he backed
- 6:25Speaker 1: up to the three point turn and drove right back
- 6:27Speaker 1: up that road where he came from. and disappeared down
- 6:29Speaker 1: on the other side of the hill. Derek stood in
- 6:31Speaker 1: front of his car for a couple of minutes, making
- 6:33Speaker 1: sure this guy was gone, and then he turned around,
- 6:35Speaker 1: and he got back in the car, and he kind
- 6:37Speaker 1: of joked with Leah, and he's like, yeah, he thought
- 6:39Speaker 1: we were poachers. I guess you look like a poacher
- 6:40Speaker 1: to him, and that's why he stopped us. But when
- 6:42Speaker 1: he looked over at Leah to react to his hilarious joke,
- 6:46Speaker 1: she wasn't paying attention to him. She was just furiously
- 6:48Speaker 1: typing away on her phone, which Derek did think was
- 6:51Speaker 1: a little bit odd. You'd think that she'd be more
- 6:53Speaker 1: interested in this strange thing that just happened. Some weird
- 6:56Speaker 1: guy just blocked us in, and I'm confronting him. You'd
- 6:58Speaker 1: think she'd be interested in that on some level. She
- 7:01Speaker 1: might want to know what I said to the guy
- 7:03Speaker 1: and what he said to me, but she didn't seem
- 7:05Speaker 1: to care. She was just really invested in whoever she
- 7:07Speaker 1: was typing on her phone. And so Derek thinks, whatever,
- 7:09Speaker 1: and just throws the car back in drive and continues
- 7:12Speaker 1: up the trail the way they were going before they
- 7:13Speaker 1: were stopped. So Derek continues down the road just a
- 7:15Speaker 1: little ways until he sees a little dirt lot that's
- 7:18Speaker 1: butted up against this huge field they're going to be
- 7:20Speaker 1: hanging out on for the night. And so he pulls
- 7:22Speaker 1: into the lot, backs into his space, and he and
- 7:25Speaker 1: Leah get out and they put a blanket out right
- 7:27Speaker 1: next to the car but on the grass on the
- 7:29Speaker 1: hill and they get their food out and their wine
- 7:31Speaker 1: out and they sit down and very quickly they start
- 7:34Speaker 1: swapping stories and they're laughing and they're stargazing and they're
- 7:38Speaker 1: having some wine and everything's really great. After about an
- 7:41Speaker 1: hour it's totally dark outside and Derek is laying on
- 7:44Speaker 1: the hill facing back towards his car and towards the
- 7:47Speaker 1: road they were on and he notices to his left
- 7:50Speaker 1: up at the top of the hill so the same
- 7:52Speaker 1: area where the van had come from originally and where
- 7:55Speaker 1: it went back to after they spoke that one time
- 7:57Speaker 1: Derek is looking out there and he sees headlights and
- 7:59Speaker 1: it's the van. And now the van is driving down
- 8:02Speaker 1: the road, not leisurely like it was before, but they
- 8:05Speaker 1: are flying down the hill. And before Derek or Leah
- 8:08Speaker 1: have a chance to react to this van barreling down
- 8:11Speaker 1: on them, it comes flying into the parking lot and
- 8:13Speaker 1: practically hits his car and comes to a stop where
- 8:16Speaker 1: it's boxed his car in. So even if he got
- 8:18Speaker 1: in his car, he couldn't drive away. And so Derek
- 8:21Speaker 1: jumps up, Leah jumps up, and the guy, the caretaker,
- 8:24Speaker 1: the nice caretaker he talked to before, He hops out
- 8:27Speaker 1: of the driver's seat and he walks around the front
- 8:29Speaker 1: of the van. He's got this pipe in his hand
- 8:30Speaker 1: and he looks at Derek and he's like, give me
- 8:31Speaker 1: your keys and your wallet. And again, Derek is this
- 8:34Speaker 1: brand new cop. You know, he's 21 years old. He's
- 8:37Speaker 1: not about to let this guy push him around. And
- 8:39Speaker 1: so he doesn't do anything at first. He doesn't know
- 8:41Speaker 1: what he's going to do, but he doesn't do anything
- 8:43Speaker 1: at first. He just looks at this guy and he
- 8:45Speaker 1: shows him that I'm not just going to fall over
- 8:46Speaker 1: because he told me to. But then Derek is given
- 8:49Speaker 1: a huge curveball when Leah, his date, stands up and
- 8:52Speaker 1: runs over to this guy and stands next to him.
- 8:55Speaker 1: and turns around and looks at Derek and goes, come on,
- 8:58Speaker 1: give us your keys and wallet. And Derek's like, great,
- 9:01Speaker 1: I'm getting set up by my date, who I've spent
- 9:02Speaker 1: the past two hours with, who I had a connection
- 9:05Speaker 1: with this girl. And so now Derek is just standing
- 9:07Speaker 1: there doing nothing, not to be tough, but because he's
- 9:09Speaker 1: in shock. He feels so betrayed by Leah, and he
- 9:13Speaker 1: just feels like, how could this have happened? And in
- 9:15Speaker 1: that moment, Leah walks to the back of the van,
- 9:18Speaker 1: and she gets a metal pipe. She comes back around,
- 9:21Speaker 1: and she goes, Derek, Give us your keys and your wallet.
- 9:24Speaker 1: We don't want to have to hurt you. And this
- 9:26Speaker 1: is when Derek looks at them both and he goes, no.
- 9:29Speaker 1: And as soon as he said that, the big guy
- 9:31Speaker 1: tackles him. He gets thrown to the ground, but Derek
- 9:33Speaker 1: could handle himself. And very quickly, he was able to
- 9:35Speaker 1: get up and he drew his concealed carry pistol. And
- 9:38Speaker 1: he's aiming it at the big guy and then back
- 9:40Speaker 1: at Leah. And he's like, yeah, I'm a cop. Go
- 9:41Speaker 1: ahead and put your hands up now. As soon as
- 9:43Speaker 1: they saw the gun, they both dropped their pipes and
- 9:45Speaker 1: put their hands up. And so as he's holding them
- 9:47Speaker 1: both at gunpoint, he's looking over at Leah like, really?
- 9:50Speaker 1: You did this to me? Are you kidding me right now?
- 9:52Speaker 1: As he's doing that, he has to get his cell
- 9:54Speaker 1: phone out of his pocket, type in 911, and then
- 9:58Speaker 1: call dispatch and have to say who he was, what
- 10:00Speaker 1: his badge number was, what happened, and where he is.
- 10:03Speaker 1: And where he is was difficult to describe. And so
- 10:06Speaker 1: as he's trying to explain these directions, and he's saying, oh, yep,
- 10:08Speaker 1: go left at the light, and then there's a gas
- 10:10Speaker 1: station there, and you're going to go up this field,
- 10:12Speaker 1: you're going to see me, I got these two people
- 10:14Speaker 1: at gunpoint. As he's doing that, Leah and the caretaker
- 10:17Speaker 1: look at each other, and they just turn around and bolt.
- 10:19Speaker 1: They figure he's distracted. We can at least get behind
- 10:22Speaker 1: the van and run into the forest before he's going
- 10:24Speaker 1: to catch us. And so instinctively he takes off running
- 10:27Speaker 1: after them and he chases them for about 30 seconds
- 10:29Speaker 1: into the tree line before he starts hearing gunshots. And
- 10:32Speaker 1: they weren't his, someone's shooting at him. And he sees
- 10:34Speaker 1: the muzzle flash out in the middle of the forest.
- 10:36Speaker 1: And he's like, yeah, I'm not doing this. He turns around,
- 10:38Speaker 1: runs back to his vehicle. He starts it up and
- 10:40Speaker 1: he has to basically smash into the van back into
- 10:43Speaker 1: the fence over and over again. Like Austin powers, like
- 10:45Speaker 1: a 25 point turn. before he was barely able to
- 10:48Speaker 1: grind his way out and peel out out of this park.
- 10:51Speaker 1: And so Derek pulls into the nearest gas station, he
- 10:53Speaker 1: calls up dispatch and he says, hey, I just called
- 10:56Speaker 1: 911 like five, ten minutes ago and I dropped the
- 10:58Speaker 1: call because I was chasing somebody. Here's my name, here's
- 11:01Speaker 1: my badge number. I'm now at this gas station. Can
- 11:03Speaker 1: you send a couple of police officers over to my
- 11:05Speaker 1: location now? And they said, yep, we'll send some to you.
- 11:08Speaker 1: And so a police cruiser shows up with two officers
- 11:10Speaker 1: inside that Derek recognized. They were senior to him. And
- 11:13Speaker 1: they got out and he explained again what happened. And
- 11:15Speaker 1: they kind of gave him a hard time for getting
- 11:16Speaker 1: catfished on his very first date. But at the same time,
- 11:19Speaker 1: they knew it could have gone really badly. And so
- 11:21Speaker 1: they decide they're going to load up in the police
- 11:23Speaker 1: cruiser together, all three of them, and drive back up
- 11:25Speaker 1: to the park. And so they get up to the
- 11:26Speaker 1: park and Derek points ahead and he goes, that's the van.
- 11:29Speaker 1: It's still here. And so they drive up and they
- 11:31Speaker 1: stop short of the van. And the two uniformed officers,
- 11:33Speaker 1: they turn to Derek and they're like, just staying here.
- 11:35Speaker 1: We're going to go check this van out. And so
- 11:37Speaker 1: Derek's sitting in the car watching these guys go up
- 11:39Speaker 1: to the vehicle, you know, guns drawn. They're looking all around.
- 11:41Speaker 1: They're clearing behind the vehicle. They're looking in the wood line.
- 11:44Speaker 1: There's nobody there. And at some point he sees them
- 11:46Speaker 1: put their pistols away and they go in the van.
- 11:48Speaker 1: They're kind of shining with their flashlights all around. They're
- 11:51Speaker 1: looking in the back, looking in the front. And then
- 11:53Speaker 1: after a few minutes, they walk back to the cruiser.
- 11:56Speaker 1: And as soon as they got in, Derek could tell
- 11:58Speaker 1: there was just something off about how they were acting.
- 12:00Speaker 1: When they were down at the gas station, they were
- 12:02Speaker 1: kind of joking around with him. Now, whatever they had
- 12:04Speaker 1: seen in the van was definitely not something they were
- 12:06Speaker 1: going to joke about. And they turned to him and
- 12:08Speaker 1: they're like, the back of the van, it was just
- 12:11Speaker 1: knives and saws and pistols and rifles and lighter fluid
- 12:15Speaker 1: and chains and handcuffs and duct tape. It was just awful.
- 12:20Speaker 1: And it looks like there might even be blood on
- 12:22Speaker 1: the ground. The two officers immediately called in additional backup.
- 12:25Speaker 1: And before long, it was a full-fledged circus around this
- 12:28Speaker 1: van of a crime scene investigation unit and other police officers.
- 12:32Speaker 1: spotlights set up and they went out looking in the
- 12:34Speaker 1: woods for these people but they never found the guy
- 12:37Speaker 1: they never found the girl and Derek would tell the
- 12:39Speaker 1: other investigators hey she works at this hair salon like
- 12:42Speaker 1: right down the road I picked her up there and
- 12:44Speaker 1: so they went over to the hair salon and they
- 12:45Speaker 1: wound up talking to the people there and they said
- 12:47Speaker 1: we've never heard of Leah and when they showed them
- 12:50Speaker 1: a picture of Leah they were like we've never seen
- 12:52Speaker 1: her before and so they came back and they told
- 12:54Speaker 1: Derek look she's a con artist and this whole thing
- 12:57Speaker 1: your whole relationship with her been her setting you up
- 13:00Speaker 1: in some way shape or form the entire thing that's
- 13:02Speaker 1: all it ever was and so for derek that was
- 13:04Speaker 1: crushing and he swore off tinder immediately he did not
- 13:07Speaker 1: want to do any more online dating but what really
- 13:09Speaker 1: haunts him more than just being taken advantage of is
- 13:13Speaker 1: what would have happened if i wasn't concealed carrying would
- 13:16Speaker 1: i have wound up in the back of that van
- 13:22Speaker 1: in the summer of 2019 a grandmother named barbara was
- 13:25Speaker 1: looking after her grandkids for the weekend while her daughter
- 13:27Speaker 1: and her husband were out of town. Her daughter had
- 13:30Speaker 1: three kids, two that were under the age of six
- 13:32Speaker 1: and one who was 15 years old and her name
- 13:34Speaker 1: was Alyssa. And so anytime Barbara was looking after her
- 13:36Speaker 1: grandkids for longer than just a single day, like if
- 13:39Speaker 1: she was taking care of them overnight, she would just
- 13:41Speaker 1: stay at their house so as not to disrupt their
- 13:44Speaker 1: lives more than she needed to. And so their house
- 13:46Speaker 1: was a modest single story home in a nice suburb
- 13:49Speaker 1: of Dallas, Texas, where the crime rate is basically zero
- 13:52Speaker 1: and everybody in the neighborhood knows each other. And so
- 13:54Speaker 1: this particular night that she's over there looking after them
- 13:56Speaker 1: was Like any other, she put the two young ones
- 13:59Speaker 1: to bed first and then she and Alyssa stayed up
- 14:01Speaker 1: a little bit later in the kitchen chatting, talking about
- 14:04Speaker 1: school before ultimately both of them went to bed. So
- 14:06Speaker 1: because their house is a single story home, all the
- 14:09Speaker 1: bedrooms are on the only floor of the house. And
- 14:12Speaker 1: so Barbara and Alyssa's room were right next to each
- 14:14Speaker 1: other looking out to the side of the property. And
- 14:17Speaker 1: so as soon as Barbara got in her room, she
- 14:19Speaker 1: opened up the window that was right next to her
- 14:21Speaker 1: bed because as a kid, she always slept with the
- 14:22Speaker 1: window open. And even though her daughter's house had air conditioning,
- 14:26Speaker 1: she preferred to keep the window open. So window's open,
- 14:28Speaker 1: she has a screen that's in her window, and Barbara
- 14:31Speaker 1: crawls into bed, and she falls asleep. At about 3 a.m.,
- 14:33Speaker 1: Barbara wakes up to the sound of rustling coming from
- 14:36Speaker 1: outside of her window. And so she hears it, but
- 14:38Speaker 1: it sounds an awful lot like it's probably just a
- 14:40Speaker 1: dog or a cat or some other animal that's in
- 14:43Speaker 1: the area. It did not seem like a big deal
- 14:45Speaker 1: to her, and she was just going to forget about it.
- 14:48Speaker 1: But then she heard it again, and it sounded much
- 14:50Speaker 1: more like footsteps. And they sounded heavy enough that it
- 14:52Speaker 1: probably couldn't be a dog or a cat. And so
- 14:55Speaker 1: she rolled over onto her elbows and she pulled the
- 14:57Speaker 1: curtain aside just enough to look out the screen door.
- 14:59Speaker 1: And so the moon was out, so there was pretty
- 15:01Speaker 1: good illumination, and so she could clearly see the side
- 15:04Speaker 1: of the house. She could see the side of the house,
- 15:06Speaker 1: she could see the fence that separated their property and
- 15:08Speaker 1: their neighbors, and then she could see the neighbor's house
- 15:10Speaker 1: and all their lights are off. And she noticed propped
- 15:13Speaker 1: up against the fence on their side of the fence,
- 15:16Speaker 1: so on their property, was this bike that she didn't recognize.
- 15:19Speaker 1: And she's looking at it thinking, Is that Alyssa's bike?
- 15:22Speaker 1: It's too big to be either of the six-year-old's bikes.
- 15:24Speaker 1: Whose bike is that? And as she's looking at the bike,
- 15:27Speaker 1: she hears more rustling coming from the left, which is
- 15:29Speaker 1: closer to Alyssa's room. Barbara presses her face up against
- 15:33Speaker 1: the screen to try to look out the window towards
- 15:35Speaker 1: the left, because whatever's making the sound is now out
- 15:38Speaker 1: of her view. And as she's got her face pressed
- 15:40Speaker 1: up against the screen trying to look, she sees a
- 15:43Speaker 1: boy emerge from the bushes from right underneath Alyssa's room.
- 15:46Speaker 1: He's got that high school letterman jacket, like the classic
- 15:49Speaker 1: you know, football jacket that high school kids wear. He
- 15:51Speaker 1: comes out of the bushes wearing that and he's got
- 15:53Speaker 1: his hood pulled up and he doesn't look over at her.
- 15:55Speaker 1: He's just backing up away from Alyssa's room and he's
- 15:58Speaker 1: looking up into Alyssa's room. And so Barbara immediately thinks, okay,
- 16:01Speaker 1: this guy is probably one of Alyssa's friends, maybe a boyfriend.
- 16:04Speaker 1: I don't know. And Alyssa must have invited him over.
- 16:07Speaker 1: Maybe she invited him when she knew her parents were
- 16:09Speaker 1: going to be out of town. But before I said
- 16:11Speaker 1: I was going to be here to look after them
- 16:13Speaker 1: and that message didn't get passed to him. And so
- 16:15Speaker 1: he's here. All these scenarios are going through Barbara's head.
- 16:18Speaker 1: But all she knew was is she's not going to
- 16:19Speaker 1: call the cops on some teenage kid that's coming to
- 16:22Speaker 1: say hi to Alyssa. Instead, she's going to confront him.
- 16:24Speaker 1: Because Barbara was actually a high school teacher and had
- 16:27Speaker 1: been for decades. And so she'd had lots of run-ins
- 16:30Speaker 1: with badly behaved teenagers. And she was pretty good at
- 16:33Speaker 1: standing her ground and being firm and kind of getting
- 16:36Speaker 1: teenagers to listen to her. So she figured she would
- 16:38Speaker 1: just go out there and be stern with him and
- 16:40Speaker 1: he'd get the message. And so she quietly gets off
- 16:42Speaker 1: of her bed. She walks out of her room to
- 16:44Speaker 1: the front of the house. So he's over here, side
- 16:46Speaker 1: of the house. She's going to the front of the house.
- 16:48Speaker 1: She flips on the lights as soon as she's outside
- 16:50Speaker 1: and she quickly walks around to the edge of the
- 16:52Speaker 1: porch where she can poke her head over and see
- 16:55Speaker 1: right down the side of the house where this kid's
- 16:57Speaker 1: going to be. So she pokes her head over and
- 16:59Speaker 1: she goes, can I help you? And this kid turns
- 17:01Speaker 1: and looks at her for the first time and immediately
- 17:04Speaker 1: Barbara's like, oh, whoa. He is not a teenager. He
- 17:08Speaker 1: looks like he's in his 20s, if not 30s. No
- 17:11Speaker 1: matter what, he is a lot older than Alyssa. And
- 17:13Speaker 1: it caught her so off guard, she didn't really know
- 17:15Speaker 1: how to react to it. She was just looking at
- 17:16Speaker 1: this guy who looks so much older, but he's got
- 17:19Speaker 1: a bike and he's wearing a letterman jacket. And so
- 17:22Speaker 1: Barbara's a little bit confused. And so she's thinking to herself, okay,
- 17:25Speaker 1: you know, it's possible that he could just be one
- 17:27Speaker 1: of those kids that looks a lot older than he
- 17:28Speaker 1: really is. But somewhere in the back of her mind,
- 17:31Speaker 1: she's thinking, this doesn't feel right. This feels like a
- 17:34Speaker 1: grown man is trying to get into the house. And
- 17:36Speaker 1: so as she's thinking about this, she's also registering that
- 17:39Speaker 1: this guy, he seems completely unfazed. He's just looking up
- 17:43Speaker 1: at her and he actually starts taking steps towards her
- 17:45Speaker 1: to the point where Barbara says, stop, stop where you are.
- 17:48Speaker 1: And he does. And he looks up at her and
- 17:49Speaker 1: he says, I'm looking for Alyssa. Is she home? And
- 17:52Speaker 1: so as Barbara is just glaring at this guy, hoping
- 17:54Speaker 1: that will be enough to get him to leave, but
- 17:57Speaker 1: he's not leaving. It occurs to her that this could
- 17:59Speaker 1: be a misunderstanding. And so thinking on her feet, she
- 18:02Speaker 1: says to him, who did you say you're looking for? Lisa?
- 18:05Speaker 1: Without any hesitation, he goes, no, I'm looking for Alyssa McCarron.
- 18:09Speaker 1: She lives here. Barbara went silent for a second because
- 18:12Speaker 1: he was right. That was her name and she certainly
- 18:14Speaker 1: was here, but she did not want him coming anywhere
- 18:17Speaker 1: near the house until she had a chance to talk
- 18:19Speaker 1: to Alyssa and confirm that she had invited him here
- 18:22Speaker 1: or at the very minimum that she knew who he was.
- 18:25Speaker 1: And so Barbara says to the guy, I need you
- 18:27Speaker 1: to stay right there. It's three in the morning. I
- 18:29Speaker 1: don't know you. Give me a minute. I'll be right back.
- 18:32Speaker 1: And he appears to get the message. And so Barbara
- 18:34Speaker 1: went back inside the house. She shut and locked the
- 18:36Speaker 1: door behind her. And then she went into Alyssa's room
- 18:39Speaker 1: and she shook her foot to wake her up. And
- 18:41Speaker 1: so Alyssa kind of sits up and she's looking around
- 18:43Speaker 1: and she's like, what's going on? And Barbara looks at
- 18:45Speaker 1: her and she's kind of annoyed with how the night's gone.
- 18:47Speaker 1: And at this point, she's kind of blaming Alyssa for
- 18:49Speaker 1: probably having invited this strange creep over to their house
- 18:53Speaker 1: in the middle of the night. And she says to Alyssa,
- 18:55Speaker 1: did you invite a boy here tonight? And Alyssa's like, no,
- 18:58Speaker 1: what are you talking about? Barbara narrowed her eyes and
- 19:01Speaker 1: she said, well, there's a boy outside that clearly knows you.
- 19:04Speaker 1: He asked for you by name and he knows you
- 19:06Speaker 1: live here and he's outside right now. Can you please
- 19:09Speaker 1: go out there and tell him that coming over unannounced
- 19:11Speaker 1: at three in the morning is not very polite and
- 19:14Speaker 1: he shouldn't do it again? Alyssa's confused and she's looking
- 19:16Speaker 1: at her grandmother like, what are you talking about? And
- 19:18Speaker 1: so she leans back and she opens the curtain of
- 19:20Speaker 1: her window and she looks outside and immediately she pulls
- 19:23Speaker 1: her head back in and she says, grandma, he asked
- 19:26Speaker 1: for me by name? And Barbara's like, yeah. He said,
- 19:29Speaker 1: Alyssa McCarron lives here. And Alyssa's like, we have to
- 19:31Speaker 1: call 911. I've never seen him before in my life. Suddenly,
- 19:36Speaker 1: everything made sense for Barbara. This was a stranger. This
- 19:39Speaker 1: is not a friend. This is probably a grown man.
- 19:42Speaker 1: And he was probably trying to break into Alyssa's room.
- 19:44Speaker 1: And so as she's having this realization, they both hear
- 19:47Speaker 1: footsteps out on the front porch. And at this, Barbara
- 19:50Speaker 1: goes into full protective grandmother mode and she tells Alyssa,
- 19:53Speaker 1: stay in your bed, do not move. And Barbara runs
- 19:56Speaker 1: out of her room. She goes into her bedroom and
- 19:58Speaker 1: she shuts that window and locks it and then runs
- 20:01Speaker 1: to the front of the house to make sure that
- 20:03Speaker 1: door was locked because she thought she locked it when
- 20:06Speaker 1: she came in, but she wasn't a hundred percent sure.
- 20:08Speaker 1: She gets right in front of it and she can
- 20:09Speaker 1: see that it's locked. And now she's standing right on
- 20:12Speaker 1: the other side of the door kind of waiting to
- 20:13Speaker 1: see what's going to happen. And this guy is standing
- 20:16Speaker 1: on the porch but obscured. She can't see him because
- 20:18Speaker 1: he's on the other side of the door. And it's
- 20:20Speaker 1: silent for a second. And as she's standing there just
- 20:23Speaker 1: waiting for something to happen, she hears knocking on the door.
- 20:26Speaker 1: And it startled her when she heard it and she
- 20:27Speaker 1: yelled out, There's no Alyssa McCarron here. You have the
- 20:30Speaker 1: wrong house. You need to leave or I'm calling the police.
- 20:32Speaker 1: And the knocking stops for a second and he says,
- 20:35Speaker 1: I know Alyssa lives here. Tell her to come outside.
- 20:37Speaker 1: He goes back to knocking and Barbara picks up her
- 20:39Speaker 1: phone and she calls 911 and she intentionally talks really
- 20:44Speaker 1: loudly into the phone making it very obvious she is
- 20:46Speaker 1: calling the police. And very clearly this guy picked up
- 20:49Speaker 1: on what Barbara was doing because the knocking stopped and
- 20:52Speaker 1: she saw him through the little slit of glass next
- 20:54Speaker 1: to the door run to the left of the house
- 20:56Speaker 1: back towards the side where his bike was. And so Barbara,
- 20:59Speaker 1: while on the phone, runs into the bedroom where she
- 21:02Speaker 1: was sleeping and she looks out the side window And
- 21:04Speaker 1: the last she sees of this guy is riding his
- 21:06Speaker 1: bike across the street. And then he stops next to
- 21:09Speaker 1: an SUV and he opens a trunk and he throws
- 21:11Speaker 1: the bike in the trunk. And he gets in the
- 21:13Speaker 1: passenger side of the car and they drive off. Which
- 21:16Speaker 1: means whatever he had planned to do with Alyssa or
- 21:19Speaker 1: whatever he was doing this night, he had an accomplice.
- 21:22Speaker 1: The police show up a couple minutes later and at
- 21:24Speaker 1: this point this creep and whoever he was with are
- 21:26Speaker 1: long gone. But Barbara still gives her description of the
- 21:29Speaker 1: vehicle and description of the night and what happened. And
- 21:31Speaker 1: the police told her that over the past couple of weeks,
- 21:34Speaker 1: they've gotten very similar reports from other households where there
- 21:37Speaker 1: are young girls inside of the house. Apparently, this boy
- 21:40Speaker 1: was actually a grown man that would use social media
- 21:43Speaker 1: to figure out where kids lived. And then he would
- 21:45Speaker 1: dress up like a teenager and then he would go
- 21:47Speaker 1: stalk them. And so whatever Alyssa had listed online, he
- 21:50Speaker 1: had been able to deduce that she lived there. And
- 21:53Speaker 1: who knows how long he had been looking in the
- 21:55Speaker 1: window at her at night. In 2018, an up-and-coming Instagram
- 22:02Speaker 1: influencer named Wendy was contacted by a hotel in Miami,
- 22:05Speaker 1: Florida that wanted to see if she'd be willing to
- 22:08Speaker 1: stay at their property over Memorial Day weekend. They said
- 22:10Speaker 1: they were willing to cover all of her expenses as
- 22:12Speaker 1: long as she was willing to post a couple of
- 22:14Speaker 1: times while she was at the hotel showing off how
- 22:16Speaker 1: great the hotel was. They also told her to bring
- 22:19Speaker 1: along a female friend and that that friend, they would
- 22:21Speaker 1: cover all of her expenses as well. Even though Wendy
- 22:24Speaker 1: didn't know if she had any girl friends that would
- 22:26Speaker 1: want to do this with her, She was so eager
- 22:29Speaker 1: to take them up on this opportunity because she was
- 22:31Speaker 1: trying to make being an influencer be her full-time job.
- 22:35Speaker 1: And so opportunities like this were huge for her. And
- 22:38Speaker 1: so she said yes, even before she knew if she
- 22:40Speaker 1: could bring along a friend like they asked her to.
- 22:42Speaker 1: And so sure enough, over the next couple of days,
- 22:44Speaker 1: as she reached out to her network to see if
- 22:46Speaker 1: there's any females that wanted to come with her, Everybody
- 22:49Speaker 1: was either busy or wasn't that interested or they had plans.
- 22:52Speaker 1: And so since she did not want to cancel, she thought, well,
- 22:55Speaker 1: it can't be that big of a deal if I
- 22:57Speaker 1: bring along a male friend. And so she reached out
- 23:00Speaker 1: to her good friend, Mitch, who's this six foot four
- 23:03Speaker 1: athletic guy who was just one of her close friends.
- 23:05Speaker 1: And she said, hey, would you mind coming along with
- 23:07Speaker 1: me to this thing in Miami over Memorial Day weekend?
- 23:10Speaker 1: I just, I need someone to go with me. They
- 23:12Speaker 1: asked for a female, but you know, you're going to
- 23:14Speaker 1: have to do. And so Mitch agreed to do it.
- 23:16Speaker 1: And Wendy thought to herself, well, worst case scenario, is
- 23:19Speaker 1: they're not willing to pay for Mitch's, you know, expenses
- 23:22Speaker 1: and that she would pay for them. And she told
- 23:24Speaker 1: Mitch as much. And so they thought that was just fine.
- 23:26Speaker 1: They figured that was a good solution. And so the
- 23:28Speaker 1: day arrives and Wendy and Mitch are really excited about
- 23:31Speaker 1: this trip. You know, they don't often get to go
- 23:33Speaker 1: travel around as influencers. And so they hop on a plane,
- 23:36Speaker 1: they fly first class to Miami. When they get there,
- 23:39Speaker 1: they go down, they get their bags at a baggage claim,
- 23:41Speaker 1: and then they go out to the curb. And right away,
- 23:44Speaker 1: Wendy sees there's this really well-dressed guy with dark sunglasses
- 23:48Speaker 1: on and he's holding up a sign that has her
- 23:50Speaker 1: last name on it and the logo of the hotel
- 23:53Speaker 1: on it and so she waves to him and walks
- 23:54Speaker 1: over and Mitch is following right behind and this guy
- 23:57Speaker 1: looks there and he says okay well where's your friend
- 23:59Speaker 1: and that's when she says oh well actually you know
- 24:01Speaker 1: I brought Mitch because none of my girlfriends wanted to
- 24:03Speaker 1: go so I brought Mitch along and so this guy
- 24:06Speaker 1: lowers his sunglasses and he looks at Mitch and he
- 24:08Speaker 1: kind of looks up and down Then he puts his
- 24:10Speaker 1: sunglasses back and he turns and he walks towards this
- 24:13Speaker 1: beautiful black SUV that's parked right up against the curb.
- 24:16Speaker 1: And so Wendy and Mitch follow him and this guy
- 24:19Speaker 1: opens up the back door and Wendy and Mitch get in.
- 24:21Speaker 1: The guy takes their luggage and puts it in the
- 24:23Speaker 1: back of the vehicle and shuts it. And as soon
- 24:25Speaker 1: as Wendy and Mitch sit inside of this car, the
- 24:29Speaker 1: driver is visibly upset. He's kind of ranting and raving
- 24:32Speaker 1: and the front passenger window was down. And so Wendy
- 24:36Speaker 1: and Mitch assumed he must be yelling at someone outside
- 24:39Speaker 1: of the vehicle, like this guy that had just picked
- 24:41Speaker 1: them up. He must be communicating with him somehow. He
- 24:44Speaker 1: can't possibly be yelling at us. We just got here.
- 24:46Speaker 1: We don't know him. But sure enough, as they kind
- 24:48Speaker 1: of are tuning in to what he's saying, he has
- 24:51Speaker 1: a very thick accent and he's saying, where is the
- 24:54Speaker 1: other girl? You're not supposed to have a guy. It's
- 24:57Speaker 1: two girls, not one girl, one guy. It's two girls.
- 25:02Speaker 1: Where is the other girl? As Wendy is hearing this,
- 25:04Speaker 1: she feels so uncomfortable, not just for herself, but for
- 25:07Speaker 1: Mitch too, because she asked him to come along and
- 25:09Speaker 1: had said, oh, it won't be a big deal. They
- 25:11Speaker 1: won't mind. But I mean, clearly they do mind. And
- 25:14Speaker 1: so Wendy's trying to explain to the driver that I
- 25:16Speaker 1: know you asked for a female friend, but I didn't
- 25:19Speaker 1: have a female friend. And so I brought him along.
- 25:21Speaker 1: I will pay for him. I'm not asking you guys
- 25:23Speaker 1: to pay for him. I'll pay for everything that he touches.
- 25:25Speaker 1: I'll pay for his hotel, his flight, everything. But the
- 25:27Speaker 1: driver didn't seem that upset about who was paying for Mitch.
- 25:31Speaker 1: His frustration came from a place of being frustrated like
- 25:35Speaker 1: they weren't going to be able to do whatever they
- 25:38Speaker 1: had planned to do because now Mitch is in the mix.
- 25:41Speaker 1: And so as Wendy and the driver are kind of
- 25:43Speaker 1: going back and forth and the driver's getting more and
- 25:45Speaker 1: more frustrated, the guy that had originally greeted Wendy and
- 25:48Speaker 1: Mitch hopped in the front seat and he and the
- 25:51Speaker 1: driver started arguing with each other in Portuguese. And so
- 25:54Speaker 1: for about a minute, Wendy and Mitch are looking at
- 25:56Speaker 1: each other like, what is going on here? And these
- 25:58Speaker 1: guys are yelling at each other and then they stop.
- 26:00Speaker 1: And the driver turns around again. And one more time,
- 26:02Speaker 1: he says to Wendy, where is the other girl? And
- 26:06Speaker 1: Wendy says, there is no other girl. It is Mitch
- 26:11Speaker 1: and I. That is it. At this point, the driver
- 26:13Speaker 1: makes a sound like he was disgusted with both of them.
- 26:16Speaker 1: And he raises his hand up like this. And he
- 26:18Speaker 1: turns to face the road in front of him. And
- 26:20Speaker 1: the guy that had originally greeted Wendy and Mitch, he
- 26:23Speaker 1: gets out of the passenger seat, goes around to the back,
- 26:25Speaker 1: opens the back of the truck, takes their luggage out,
- 26:28Speaker 1: throws it onto the curb. goes to the door that
- 26:30Speaker 1: is closest to Mitch, opens it up, and he tells
- 26:32Speaker 1: them to get out. And so Wendy and Mitch climb
- 26:34Speaker 1: back out onto the curb. The guy shuts the door
- 26:37Speaker 1: behind them. He hops back in the front seat and
- 26:39Speaker 1: that car peels away. That was it. At this point,
- 26:41Speaker 1: Wendy's thinking to herself, I bet those two guys have
- 26:44Speaker 1: nothing to do with the hotel and the people that
- 26:47Speaker 1: I have been communicating with to set this whole thing up.
- 26:49Speaker 1: I bet they are just the drivers and they were
- 26:51Speaker 1: told to pick up two girls and we showed up
- 26:54Speaker 1: with a girl and a guy and it screwed them
- 26:55Speaker 1: up and they got mad and They got really mad,
- 26:57Speaker 1: I guess, and then they left. And so I bet
- 26:59Speaker 1: if I can just get in touch with the people
- 27:01Speaker 1: at the hotel, the people I had spoken to, that
- 27:03Speaker 1: they can clear this whole thing up. And so she
- 27:05Speaker 1: opens up her email and she sends a message to Marissa,
- 27:08Speaker 1: who was one of the people at the hotel that
- 27:10Speaker 1: she had been going back and forth with when she
- 27:12Speaker 1: was buying her plane ticket. And then she sent another
- 27:14Speaker 1: message to the Instagram account that had over 10,000 followers.
- 27:17Speaker 1: she'd been going back and forth with quite a bit
- 27:19Speaker 1: that had actually originally reached out to her and so
- 27:21Speaker 1: for a couple of minutes wendy is watching her phone
- 27:23Speaker 1: waiting for a response and at some point mitch says
- 27:26Speaker 1: to her you know by the time we get a
- 27:27Speaker 1: response to either your you know instagram dm or your
- 27:30Speaker 1: email we probably could have just taken an uber over
- 27:33Speaker 1: to the hotel and spoken to them directly so why
- 27:35Speaker 1: don't we just go do that and so they agree
- 27:37Speaker 1: they hop in an uber and they drive the short
- 27:39Speaker 1: distance to this hotel and as soon as they get
- 27:42Speaker 1: out wendy notices something that at the time did not
- 27:45Speaker 1: seem like a big deal, which was the logo of
- 27:48Speaker 1: the hotel, the one in real life right in front
- 27:50Speaker 1: of her, it was a little bit different than the
- 27:52Speaker 1: one that is on the Instagram page, the one she'd
- 27:54Speaker 1: been talking back and forth with. That was their profile picture.
- 27:57Speaker 1: It's different than the one in real life. And so
- 27:59Speaker 1: that stood out to her just because she had looked
- 28:01Speaker 1: at that page a number of times. But it was
- 28:03Speaker 1: definitely the same hotel, and so she didn't think much
- 28:05Speaker 1: of it. And she and Mitch walked inside right up
- 28:08Speaker 1: to the front desk, and Wendy asked to speak with
- 28:10Speaker 1: a manager. And shortly thereafter, a manager comes out, And
- 28:13Speaker 1: she asks Wendy and Mitch to come into her office.
- 28:15Speaker 1: They go inside and she says, okay guys, what's going on?
- 28:18Speaker 1: What do you need? And so Wendy explains the framework
- 28:20Speaker 1: of the deal she had negotiated with Marissa. And she said, look,
- 28:23Speaker 1: you know, when I got to the airport, the guys
- 28:25Speaker 1: that picked us up were incredibly rude and They wouldn't
- 28:27Speaker 1: give us a ride here. And I just want to
- 28:29Speaker 1: let you know what happened. You know, we don't care.
- 28:31Speaker 1: We got a ride here, but we just figured you
- 28:32Speaker 1: should know. And the woman looks at her kind of
- 28:34Speaker 1: puzzled and she says, who was the person you talked to?
- 28:36Speaker 1: You said Marissa. And Wendy's like, yeah, Marissa. She's the
- 28:39Speaker 1: marketing person here. And the manager looks at her and
- 28:41Speaker 1: she says, no, I'm the marketing person. And my name's Kelly.
- 28:44Speaker 1: I think you're at the wrong hotel because we don't
- 28:46Speaker 1: have any influencers that are here right now. And I
- 28:48Speaker 1: would have known about this. Wendy can't believe it. And
- 28:51Speaker 1: she pulls up the Instagram page she's been talking to
- 28:53Speaker 1: and she shows it to the manager. And the manager
- 28:55Speaker 1: takes it, and she's pretty surprised by what she's looking at.
- 28:58Speaker 1: And she's like, this is our old account. We deleted this,
- 29:01Speaker 1: or I thought we deleted this. We have a new
- 29:03Speaker 1: one because we rebranded. We have a brand new logo.
- 29:06Speaker 1: Everything's new, and we just felt like we'd start fresh.
- 29:08Speaker 1: So I don't know who owns this account now, but
- 29:12Speaker 1: that is our account. It's just we don't use it anymore.
- 29:15Speaker 1: I don't know how anyone got a hold of it.
- 29:17Speaker 1: At this point, it clicked for Wendy that this whole
- 29:19Speaker 1: thing was a facade, that this whole time she was
- 29:21Speaker 1: being conned, And what really scared her is to what end?
- 29:25Speaker 1: What were they trying to do with her? Had she
- 29:28Speaker 1: shown up with the other female friend, what would they
- 29:31Speaker 1: have done with her? But at this moment, Wendy just
- 29:33Speaker 1: feels totally overwhelmed by the entire moment. She's so embarrassed
- 29:37Speaker 1: that she thought this was real and she dragged Mitchell
- 29:40Speaker 1: and this whole thing was just fake. She's so embarrassed
- 29:43Speaker 1: that she just approached this manager who basically said, that's
- 29:45Speaker 1: all fake. And so she just wanted to leave. And
- 29:48Speaker 1: so she stands up and she says, you know, I'm
- 29:50Speaker 1: really sorry for wasting your time to the manager. And
- 29:52Speaker 1: she and Mitch leave. She goes outside and she just
- 29:55Speaker 1: sits down and she's crying and And Mitch says, hey,
- 29:58Speaker 1: you know, you really ought to call the police and
- 30:00Speaker 1: let them know this happened because, you know, clearly there
- 30:03Speaker 1: were plans for you. And, you know, had you brought
- 30:06Speaker 1: a female friend and they can't have been good plans.
- 30:09Speaker 1: I think you need to let the police know that
- 30:10Speaker 1: this scam exists. And so Wendy does call the police
- 30:13Speaker 1: and she explains what happened. And she's surprised when they say, hey,
- 30:16Speaker 1: where are you right now? We'd love to send a
- 30:18Speaker 1: detective over to you to talk to you a little
- 30:20Speaker 1: bit more about what happened. And so Wendy tells them
- 30:23Speaker 1: where they are and, you know, she's a little bit
- 30:24Speaker 1: surprised that they want to send a detective over to
- 30:26Speaker 1: talk about this because in her mind, this isn't that
- 30:29Speaker 1: big of a deal. I mean, it's a big deal
- 30:30Speaker 1: to her and to Mitch, but nothing really happened. But
- 30:32Speaker 1: either way, they go sit on the bench right outside
- 30:34Speaker 1: the hotel and they wait for the detective to show up.
- 30:37Speaker 1: And just a couple of minutes later, he does. He
- 30:39Speaker 1: walks up, he introduces himself and he says, hey, let's
- 30:41Speaker 1: go inside and grab a table and we can chat.
- 30:43Speaker 1: And so they go inside and they sit down and
- 30:45Speaker 1: Wendy and Mitch go over their story one more time.
- 30:48Speaker 1: And after they're done, the detective says, look, I don't
- 30:50Speaker 1: mean to scare you, but I do want you to
- 30:52Speaker 1: understand just how serious of a situation you guys were
- 30:55Speaker 1: just in. So in Miami, human traffickers use these phony
- 31:00Speaker 1: hotel Instagram accounts to attract young women like yourself to
- 31:05Speaker 1: Miami in order to be trafficked. And so they will
- 31:07Speaker 1: buy these old business Instagram accounts from companies that have
- 31:11Speaker 1: either rebranded or who are going out of business. They'll
- 31:14Speaker 1: pay top dollar to acquire those Instagram accounts. And then
- 31:17Speaker 1: they will use them in order to get people like
- 31:20Speaker 1: you to come to Miami. And so probably the only
- 31:22Speaker 1: reason they didn't follow through on their operation is because
- 31:25Speaker 1: you brought Mitch along who posed a threat to them.
- 31:28Speaker 1: And so that's why they were upset with you. And
- 31:30Speaker 1: that's why they decided it wasn't worth it. So even
- 31:32Speaker 1: though this must have been incredibly traumatic for you, I'm
- 31:35Speaker 1: sure you were spared a much worse fate. So that's
- 31:37Speaker 1: going to do it, guys. I hope you enjoyed today's stories.
- 31:40Speaker 1: If you found the secret somewhere in the video, Tell
- 31:43Speaker 1: us in the comments what it is and where you
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- 31:48Speaker 1: first to do that, we will pin you at the
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