Latest / Martin Animations / 6 INSTAGRAM Horror Stories Animated

Transcript

6 INSTAGRAM Horror Stories Animated · Martin Animations

0:01
Speaker 1: I'm a female and have an Instagram account like many
0:03
Speaker 1: other people. I post pictures on my page here and there,
0:06
Speaker 1: and I always enjoy seeing how many likes and comments
0:09
Speaker 1: that my pictures get. Most of the comments and likes
0:11
Speaker 1: are from my good friends, but of course, not all
0:14
Speaker 1: of them are. Like many other people, I've experienced several
0:17
Speaker 1: creeps online. Sometimes random men will like my pictures, comment
0:21
Speaker 1: on them, or even send me direct messages. They can
0:24
Speaker 1: get kind of creepy, and sometimes I even delete them.
0:27
Speaker 1: For the most part, though, I don't really care. It
0:29
Speaker 1: happens here and there and doesn't bother me. I remember though,
0:32
Speaker 1: one time, about a year ago, I posted a picture
0:35
Speaker 1: on Instagram, and some guy liked it and commented on it.
0:38
Speaker 1: I read the comment, but didn't bother to click on
0:40
Speaker 1: his profile or anything. I did not know him, but
0:43
Speaker 1: he commented something like, very nice, with a fire emoji.
0:46
Speaker 1: But not long after this, he sent me a direct
0:48
Speaker 1: message as well. He simply said hi to me, but
0:52
Speaker 1: I had no interest in responding. I did click on
0:54
Speaker 1: his page though to see who he was. He looked
0:56
Speaker 1: much older than me, and only had a few pictures.
0:59
Speaker 1: I had no idea who he was, and we didn't
1:01
Speaker 1: have any mutual followers, so I ignored him. I've gotten
1:05
Speaker 1: many direct messages from people who I don't know, and
1:07
Speaker 1: most of the time, I don't respond to them. They
1:10
Speaker 1: usually get the idea and leave me alone after I
1:12
Speaker 1: don't reply. I figured this would be no different, but
1:15
Speaker 1: the man sent me another direct message the next day.
1:18
Speaker 2: This one, I also ignored.
1:20
Speaker 1: I didn't even open it. Over the next few days,
1:23
Speaker 1: he sent several more messages to me. I didn't bother
1:26
Speaker 1: to read any of them, and I figured eventually the
1:28
Speaker 1: man would give up.
1:29
Speaker 2: But he didn't.
1:30
Speaker 1: Over the next week or so, he sent me messages
1:32
Speaker 1: basically every single day. I would get Instagram notifications several
1:35
Speaker 1: times a day, and at least one of them would
1:37
Speaker 1: be from the man sending me another message. Eventually, I
1:40
Speaker 1: got tired of it and decided to finally.
1:42
Speaker 2: Block the guy.
1:43
Speaker 1: But before I did, I wanted to read through the
1:45
Speaker 1: messages that he sent me. Right away, I saw that
1:48
Speaker 1: he had sent a photo, and it was my house.
1:51
Speaker 1: I realized that this was no ordinary creep. This man
1:54
Speaker 1: must live in the area, and he somehow knew where
1:56
Speaker 1: I lived. I looked at the other messages that he
1:58
Speaker 1: sent me. He said hi to me over and over again,
2:01
Speaker 1: and then blatantly told me that he knew where I lived.
2:04
Speaker 1: That was followed by a picture of my house, and
2:06
Speaker 1: then him saying hi to me again. I wasn't quite
2:09
Speaker 1: sure what to do. I reported his account to Instagram,
2:12
Speaker 1: and then blocked him. However, I wasn't really confident that
2:15
Speaker 1: anything would be done. I didn't think this was worth
2:17
Speaker 1: going to the police either, because I didn't think that
2:19
Speaker 1: the man had broken any laws. Still, I was now
2:22
Speaker 1: very worried. What was this man capable of? I found
2:26
Speaker 1: myself looking out my front window almost constantly for the
2:28
Speaker 1: rest of the day.
2:29
Speaker 2: I lived by myself in a two-story home near a
2:32
Speaker 2: major U.S. city.
2:34
Speaker 1: For the rest of that day, I did not have
2:35
Speaker 1: to go anywhere, and I did my best to stop worrying.
2:38
Speaker 1: I called several of my friends and spoke with them
2:40
Speaker 1: about it. Unfortunately, none of them could come over and
2:43
Speaker 1: keep me company that night because they were either working
2:45
Speaker 1: or had prior plans. I started to feel better when
2:48
Speaker 1: nothing strange happened for a few hours. But then, nighttime came.
2:53
Speaker 1: At around 10 p.m., I was in my living room
2:55
Speaker 1: watching a movie on my TV. By now, my windows
2:57
Speaker 1: were covered with the shades, and I wasn't thinking about
3:00
Speaker 1: the guy as much. My phone hadn't received any strange
3:03
Speaker 1: Instagram notifications either. Part of me had been worried that
3:06
Speaker 1: the man would make another Instagram account and message me again,
3:09
Speaker 1: but that didn't happen. At one point during the movie,
3:12
Speaker 1: I randomly remembered and had the thought to check out
3:14
Speaker 1: the window again. It had been several hours since I
3:16
Speaker 1: had last checked. I turned behind me on the couch
3:19
Speaker 1: and carefully lifted the blinds back. That's when I saw
3:22
Speaker 1: a car parked right out front on the street that
3:24
Speaker 1: I did not recognize.
3:25
Speaker 2: Could that be him?
3:26
Speaker 1: With it being dark out and stuff, obviously I couldn't
3:29
Speaker 1: tell who was driving, but I could tell that there
3:31
Speaker 1: was a person in the driver's seat. I quickly covered
3:33
Speaker 1: the window back up and wondered if the person had
3:35
Speaker 1: seen me. I sat there on the couch for a
3:38
Speaker 1: few moments, thinking of what I should do. Then I
3:40
Speaker 1: heard a car door open and shut. The person was
3:44
Speaker 1: getting out. I carefully moved the window shades again, just barely,
3:48
Speaker 1: just enough to see out. I saw a man walking
3:50
Speaker 1: towards the house through my front yard. This was definitely him.
3:54
Speaker 1: He walked up closer to the house and I heard
3:56
Speaker 1: him moving just outside of my window. I couldn't believe
3:59
Speaker 1: that this was happening. I really hoped that he would
4:02
Speaker 1: not try to break in. I heard him walking further
4:04
Speaker 1: down to behind the house. This time I was calling
4:07
Speaker 1: the police for sure. I took out my phone and dialed.
4:10
Speaker 1: I stayed where I was on the couch and spoke
4:12
Speaker 1: with the police as I waited for them to arrive.
4:14
Speaker 1: During this time I didn't hear or see anything indicating
4:17
Speaker 1: where the man was. Several minutes later, though, I heard
4:20
Speaker 1: a car door open and shut again outside. I was
4:23
Speaker 1: hoping that it was the police arriving, and I looked outside,
4:26
Speaker 1: but instead I saw it was the man driving away.
4:28
Speaker 1: I was so glad that he was gone, but I
4:31
Speaker 1: also knew that the police would not be able to
4:32
Speaker 1: catch him right away now. They arrived about five minutes later.
4:36
Speaker 1: I told them about the man leaving, and gave the
4:38
Speaker 1: best description of him and the car that I could,
4:40
Speaker 1: but I didn't get a very good look at either.
4:42
Speaker 1: I still didn't feel that confident about him being located.
4:46
Speaker 1: I gave the police the whole story, but I had
4:48
Speaker 1: blocked the account, and when I looked at accounts that
4:49
Speaker 1: I had blocked, it must have been deleted because it
4:51
Speaker 1: was gone.
4:53
Speaker 2: After the police left, I was still very worried.
4:56
Speaker 1: I decided that I would stay at one of my
4:57
Speaker 1: friend's houses for the next few days. This was a
5:00
Speaker 1: big help to me because I knew that the man
5:02
Speaker 1: still knew where I lived, and he might return. The
5:04
Speaker 1: very next night, I got a direct message request from
5:07
Speaker 1: a random Instagram account. The username was user and then
5:10
Speaker 1: a bunch of random numbers, and it had no profile picture.
5:14
Speaker 1: They sent me just a photograph, and it was of
5:16
Speaker 1: my bedroom window. It was taken from my yard. That
5:19
Speaker 1: must have been what he was doing. I showed the
5:21
Speaker 1: picture to my friend, and we went to the police
5:23
Speaker 1: with it, but I don't know that there was much.
5:25
Speaker 2: They could do.
5:26
Speaker 1: The account had no pictures or any information on it.
5:29
Speaker 1: They did say that they would investigate, though. Several days
5:32
Speaker 1: went by without anything happening. I decided that I would
5:35
Speaker 1: return to my house. I drove back there in the morning,
5:38
Speaker 1: but when I got there, I noticed that it had
5:40
Speaker 1: been broken into. The window to the back door had
5:43
Speaker 1: been smashed. I called the police immediately and ran back
5:46
Speaker 1: outside to my car in fear that the man was
5:48
Speaker 1: still inside my house. They arrived very quickly and entered
5:50
Speaker 1: my house. They were inside for a while, but soon
5:53
Speaker 1: they came out with the man. He had been hiding
5:56
Speaker 1: inside of my house. I guess he had broken in
5:58
Speaker 1: the previous night and was waiting for me to return.
6:01
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that he was caught, and I will
6:03
Speaker 1: never forget that experience. I'm a typical guy, and I
6:18
Speaker 1: have the Instagram app. I go on it basically every
6:21
Speaker 1: day to check out what my friends are doing, and
6:23
Speaker 1: follow my favorite sports teams and things like that. One
6:26
Speaker 1: thing that I do a lot is go on the
6:28
Speaker 1: Explore page. This is just a bunch of random posts
6:30
Speaker 1: from accounts you don't follow, but that might interest you.
6:33
Speaker 1: It's interesting to look at them sometimes. And every new
6:36
Speaker 1: time you log into Instagram, though, it's completely different. Now,
6:39
Speaker 1: I don't remember exactly when this started, but I know
6:41
Speaker 1: that I saw the same picture on the Explore page twice.
6:44
Speaker 1: This isn't a big deal, but then I saw it
6:46
Speaker 1: a third time, I thought this was pretty strange, but
6:49
Speaker 1: I still didn't click on it. A couple of times later, though,
6:52
Speaker 1: I saw it yet again. I truly don't know how
6:54
Speaker 1: many times I saw the picture, but it just kept
6:57
Speaker 1: showing up. Eventually, I caved and I clicked on it,
7:00
Speaker 1: wondering why I kept seeing it. This photo was a
7:03
Speaker 1: picture of a car. It was seemingly random. The car
7:06
Speaker 1: was not particularly.
7:07
Speaker 2: New or old. It just looked average. It was a
7:10
Speaker 2: gray four-door sedan.
7:12
Speaker 1: The picture did not have the number of likes listed
7:14
Speaker 1: and didn't have any comments either. I clicked on the
7:16
Speaker 1: page and it was a random word with numbers and
7:19
Speaker 1: the profile picture was one of the cars. The page
7:21
Speaker 1: only had like five followers. On the page were four
7:24
Speaker 1: photos and they were all of different cars. It was
7:27
Speaker 1: like somebody had just walked down the street and took
7:29
Speaker 1: pictures of random parked cars, but none of the cars
7:31
Speaker 1: were really that unique. Two were on the side of
7:34
Speaker 1: the street parked and one was in the driveway and
7:36
Speaker 1: another was in a parking lot. I noticed that one
7:39
Speaker 1: of the cars in the photos was the same make
7:41
Speaker 1: and model that I had. Then I examined the photo
7:43
Speaker 1: a little bit closer. I soon realized that that was
7:46
Speaker 1: my car. I could tell that it was parked in
7:48
Speaker 1: my driveway. This gave me the chills when I saw it.
7:52
Speaker 1: Who ran this account? I shared the picture with a
7:54
Speaker 1: couple of my friends. None of the pictures had any
7:57
Speaker 1: captions or comments on them. My friends agreed that it
8:00
Speaker 1: was really weird, but didn't know who would do.
8:02
Speaker 2: That or why.
8:02
Speaker 1: I was really curious and I thought about commenting or
8:06
Speaker 1: sending a message to the page, but I decided not to.
8:09
Speaker 1: The very next day, I went on Instagram again. This time,
8:13
Speaker 1: I saw the same picture of my car on the
8:15
Speaker 1: Explore page. I clicked on it wondering if it was new,
8:18
Speaker 1: but it was in fact the same one. Then I
8:20
Speaker 1: clicked on the profile again because I saw that they had.
8:22
Speaker 2: Posted a story. The story was a poll. The poll said,
8:26
Speaker 2: which one? Then there were the numbers 1, 2, 3,
8:30
Speaker 2: and 4.
8:31
Speaker 1: I did not vote because I didn't understand it at
8:33
Speaker 1: all at the time. I thought this was just really
8:36
Speaker 1: weird and decided to leave it alone. I got off
8:38
Speaker 1: of Instagram, and for the rest of the day, I
8:40
Speaker 1: didn't go anywhere. My car sat there in the driveway
8:43
Speaker 1: where it always did. I went to bed that night
8:46
Speaker 1: and got up the next morning to go to work.
8:48
Speaker 1: When I headed out for my car, it was gone.
8:51
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. I remembered the posts and everything.
8:54
Speaker 1: I called the police and then my boss. Luckily, my
8:57
Speaker 1: boss didn't mind and she said I could come in
8:59
Speaker 1: a little bit late after I took care of the
9:00
Speaker 1: police report and everything. They took down all of the
9:03
Speaker 1: information that I could give them, including about the strange
9:05
Speaker 1: Instagram page. Unfortunately, when I looked, it had been deleted.
9:09
Speaker 1: the police assured me that they would do what they
9:11
Speaker 1: could to find my vehicle. I took a lift to
9:13
Speaker 1: work and back, and was able to get a rental
9:15
Speaker 1: car later that day through insurance. For the next few days,
9:19
Speaker 1: I was thinking about it all the time, until finally,
9:21
Speaker 1: I got a call that the police had located my vehicle.
9:24
Speaker 1: It was found abandoned, parked on the side of the road,
9:26
Speaker 1: about 20 miles away.
9:28
Speaker 2: Luckily, it had no damage.
9:30
Speaker 1: I was able to get it back, but I don't
9:32
Speaker 1: think the police ever found out who did it. That
9:34
Speaker 1: Instagram page was really bizarre, though. Was the poll a
9:37
Speaker 1: way of deciding which car the person was going to steal?
9:40
Speaker 1: And why would they post these things on Instagram anyways?
9:43
Speaker 1: Either way, I hope nothing like this happens again. My
9:54
Speaker 1: name is Emily, and this happened to me in the
9:56
Speaker 1: spring of 2022.
9:56
Speaker 2: I was living by myself.
10:00
Speaker 1: At the time in an apartment, and I worked in
10:02
Speaker 1: the city. I have an Instagram page that has a
10:05
Speaker 1: few thousand followers. I'm not famous by any means, and
10:08
Speaker 1: I'm certainly not an Instagram model, but I do post
10:11
Speaker 1: there pretty frequently. One night, I got a text message
10:15
Speaker 1: from one of my friends. It was a link to
10:17
Speaker 1: an Instagram page, and my friend said, This isn't you,
10:20
Speaker 1: is it? I clicked on the profile, and it was
10:23
Speaker 1: an Instagram account claiming to be me, except it wasn't
10:26
Speaker 1: using my name, but a different name, and they had
10:28
Speaker 1: posted quite a few pictures that were all mine. I
10:32
Speaker 1: think the account had about 100 posts, and this had
10:34
Speaker 1: been going on for several months. Most of the pictures
10:38
Speaker 1: were pictures that I had already posted on Instagram. They
10:41
Speaker 1: had a decent amount of followers, too. I think the
10:43
Speaker 1: account had about 500. I couldn't believe it. Whoever was
10:47
Speaker 1: running this account was just screenshotting my pictures and posting
10:50
Speaker 1: them to their account and they were getting over 100 likes,
10:54
Speaker 1: and nobody seemed to realize that the entire page was
10:56
Speaker 1: a fraud. I looked at some of the comments, and
10:59
Speaker 1: they were just saying things like, Wow, you're beautiful. As
11:02
Speaker 1: I scrolled through and looked at more pictures, though, I
11:05
Speaker 1: noticed something strange. Some of the pictures of me that
11:08
Speaker 1: they posted were not from my Instagram page. They were
11:11
Speaker 1: pictures that I had of myself, but had never posted.
11:14
Speaker 1: These photos were on my phone, and I don't know
11:16
Speaker 1: how the person had them. The pictures weren't bad or anything,
11:19
Speaker 1: but I just had no clue how they got a
11:21
Speaker 1: hold of them. I sent a direct message to the page,
11:24
Speaker 1: asking who they were and why they were stealing my identity.
11:28
Speaker 1: Then I reported the page. Not long after I had
11:31
Speaker 1: sent the message to the page, though, they blocked me.
11:34
Speaker 1: I told a few of my friends about it, and
11:36
Speaker 1: they said that they would report the page as well.
11:38
Speaker 1: Within a couple of days, the page ended up getting
11:40
Speaker 1: shut down. I was glad that it was now gone,
11:44
Speaker 1: but I still wondered who had done it. Well, a
11:46
Speaker 1: few days after the page was taken down, I left
11:49
Speaker 1: my apartment one morning. there was a note on my
11:52
Speaker 1: front door. It was folded on a piece of paper
11:55
Speaker 1: and taped to my front door. When I looked at it,
11:57
Speaker 1: I realized that it was from whoever had been running
12:00
Speaker 1: the Instagram page. The note talked about how this person
12:03
Speaker 1: could get any information from me that they wanted. They
12:06
Speaker 1: also rambled about how I thought I must be so
12:08
Speaker 1: cool because I was popular and some other stuff. When
12:11
Speaker 1: I got this, I went straight to the police. Whoever
12:14
Speaker 1: this was knew where I lived and seemed to be
12:16
Speaker 1: able to hack into some of my accounts. After telling
12:19
Speaker 1: the police all the information that I could, I created
12:22
Speaker 1: new accounts for almost everything that I had and changed
12:25
Speaker 1: all of my passwords. Luckily for me, I moved out
12:28
Speaker 1: of that apartment just a few weeks later because my
12:31
Speaker 1: lease was up. Since that experience, nothing else strange has happened,
12:35
Speaker 1: but I still don't know who was doing that. My
12:38
Speaker 1: theory is that it could have possibly been an old
12:39
Speaker 1: high school classmate who didn't like me or something, or
12:42
Speaker 1: it could have been somebody totally random.
12:45
Speaker 2: I really don't know.
12:57
Speaker 1: This is a crazy experience that I had several years
12:59
Speaker 1: ago now. I should mention that I'm a female, and
13:02
Speaker 1: I was at a park one day. This was a
13:05
Speaker 1: city park that I was walking through on the way
13:07
Speaker 1: back from work. It's a pretty large area within a
13:10
Speaker 1: large city, so there are usually a lot of people there.
13:14
Speaker 1: As I walked, though, at some point, a guy started
13:16
Speaker 1: to follow me throughout the park. I noticed him when
13:19
Speaker 1: I stopped for a moment to look at something and
13:22
Speaker 1: saw him just kind of standing around. Then, as I
13:25
Speaker 1: was walking away, he started walking behind me. Soon, I
13:28
Speaker 1: left the park and went onto a city sidewalk. When
13:32
Speaker 1: I was waiting to cross the street and saw him
13:34
Speaker 1: standing there around me, each time that I looked near
13:36
Speaker 1: the guy, it appeared as though he was looking at
13:39
Speaker 1: me as well. To this point, though, I didn't know
13:42
Speaker 1: for a fact that he was following me, but I
13:44
Speaker 1: just suspected it. I had to walk about ten more
13:47
Speaker 1: minutes to get back to my apartment. I checked behind
13:50
Speaker 1: me every so often, and each time that I did,
13:53
Speaker 1: The man was still there following me.
13:56
Speaker 2: This was the first time that something like this had
13:58
Speaker 2: ever happened.
13:59
Speaker 1: When at last I reached my building, he was maybe
14:01
Speaker 1: 20 feet behind me. I quickly went inside and then
14:05
Speaker 1: used my key to enter the building. Then I closed
14:07
Speaker 1: the door behind me and the guy did not enter.
14:09
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if he tried to or if he
14:12
Speaker 1: just kept walking past when I went in. I remembered
14:15
Speaker 1: what he looked like, but I hoped that I would
14:17
Speaker 1: not see him again. Several hours later that night, I
14:20
Speaker 1: got a notification on my phone of a new Instagram follower.
14:24
Speaker 1: When I opened the app, I saw who the follower was.
14:27
Speaker 1: When I noticed his picture, it was the same guy
14:29
Speaker 1: who had been following me around. I had no idea
14:32
Speaker 1: how he knew my name or found my profile. After
14:36
Speaker 1: seeing this, I blocked him. I was really creeped out
14:39
Speaker 1: by how.
14:39
Speaker 2: He found me.
14:41
Speaker 1: The very next night when I was home in my apartment,
14:43
Speaker 1: I got another Instagram notification. The same guy had followed
14:47
Speaker 1: my second profile. I had a second Instagram account where
14:51
Speaker 1: I posted more random things and it was only followed
14:54
Speaker 1: by my closest friends. The account was private, but he
14:57
Speaker 1: was requesting to follow me. And this account was so
15:00
Speaker 1: private that I didn't even use my name and I
15:03
Speaker 1: didn't even follow myself with it. I was more freaked
15:06
Speaker 1: out than anything when I saw that he had found it.
15:09
Speaker 1: I blocked him on that profile as well. Only about
15:12
Speaker 1: 30 minutes after this, there was a knock at my door.
15:16
Speaker 1: I walked over and looked through the peephole. The same
15:19
Speaker 1: guy was there. Obviously, he knew where I lived. I
15:22
Speaker 1: didn't know how he knew which unit was mine, though.
15:25
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to open the door. He knocked again
15:28
Speaker 1: after about a minute or so. I kept watching him,
15:31
Speaker 1: but he didn't leave. He just kept standing there. I
15:35
Speaker 1: called the police and kept an eye out. The man
15:37
Speaker 1: was just standing there as if he was expecting me
15:39
Speaker 1: to open the door for him. Occasionally, he paced around
15:43
Speaker 1: a little, but he kept returning to right in front
15:45
Speaker 1: of my door. The police got there within about ten minutes.
15:49
Speaker 1: When they arrived, the man was still there standing outside
15:51
Speaker 1: of my door. I remember that they talked to him,
15:54
Speaker 1: and I heard him claim that he must be at
15:56
Speaker 1: the wrong address. He claimed that he had no clue
15:59
Speaker 1: why anybody would call the cops, and he was trying
16:01
Speaker 1: to see his friend Jason. I think the police knew
16:04
Speaker 1: that he was lying. They basically just told him to
16:07
Speaker 1: leave me alone though, and not to come back to
16:09
Speaker 1: the apartment building. I talked with officers as well and
16:12
Speaker 1: told them what happened. They said that if he came
16:15
Speaker 1: back to call them again, and luckily he didn't. I
16:18
Speaker 1: never saw him again after that night. I still can't
16:21
Speaker 1: believe how much of a creep that guy was. This
16:40
Speaker 1: happened to me when I was in college. It was
16:42
Speaker 1: during my second year at my university. I lived in
16:46
Speaker 1: a small house, which I shared with my roommate Thomas.
16:49
Speaker 1: The university I went to is rather large, and I
16:52
Speaker 1: think has about 20,000 total students. This took place sometime
16:57
Speaker 1: during the first semester. I remember that one day, I
17:00
Speaker 1: went on Instagram and saw that I had a new follower.
17:04
Speaker 1: I clicked on the profile, and it was a girl
17:06
Speaker 1: named Rhonda. She had my school initials in her profile,
17:10
Speaker 1: as well as what I assumed would be her graduating year.
17:13
Speaker 1: She was also followed by two people that I knew
17:15
Speaker 1: from college. None of my really close friends, but some
17:19
Speaker 1: guys that I knew who they were and followed them.
17:22
Speaker 1: I realized that Rhonda must have went to my school,
17:24
Speaker 1: and I followed her back. On her profile, she didn't
17:28
Speaker 1: have too many pictures. A few selfies and some pictures
17:31
Speaker 1: of her dog.
17:32
Speaker 2: That was about it.
17:34
Speaker 1: After following her back, I went on with things and
17:36
Speaker 1: didn't think much of it. A few days went by. Then,
17:40
Speaker 1: one day, I noticed that Rhonda liked all of my
17:43
Speaker 1: pictures on Instagram. Now, I had about 40 posts or so,
17:47
Speaker 1: dating all the way back to my early years of
17:49
Speaker 1: high school. She liked every single photo, and I found
17:53
Speaker 1: that nice, but also a little bit random and odd.
17:56
Speaker 1: I thought that maybe she liked me or something. She
17:59
Speaker 1: didn't comment on anything or send me any messages, though. Now,
18:03
Speaker 1: several more days went by after this. Then one night,
18:07
Speaker 1: Thomas was studying at a classroom, and I was at
18:09
Speaker 1: home by myself. There was then a knock on the door.
18:13
Speaker 1: It was probably about 9 o'clock at night, and I
18:16
Speaker 1: wasn't expecting anybody, and had no clue as to who
18:19
Speaker 1: it was. I had been in my room, so I
18:21
Speaker 1: didn't hear the knock very well. I got up and
18:24
Speaker 1: went out into the hallway, and then I heard another knock.
18:27
Speaker 1: But I realized then that the knocking was coming from
18:30
Speaker 1: the back door of the house, not even the front door.
18:33
Speaker 1: Now this was really strange. I walked over to the
18:36
Speaker 1: back door and looked out the window. When I did,
18:39
Speaker 1: I saw a girl standing there. It was Rhonda, but
18:42
Speaker 1: at first I didn't recognize her because I had only
18:45
Speaker 1: seen some selfies of her on Instagram. I don't think
18:48
Speaker 1: that I had ever seen her in person before. As
18:51
Speaker 1: I was standing by the door, she tried opening it up.
18:54
Speaker 1: Then I opened up the back door and said hi
18:55
Speaker 1: to her. I then asked her what she was doing here.
18:59
Speaker 1: She asked me if she could come inside. I had
19:01
Speaker 1: a bad feeling about it. Something about her was sort
19:04
Speaker 1: of creeping me out Maybe it was the fact that
19:07
Speaker 1: she showed up unannounced to my back door at 9
19:09
Speaker 1: o'clock at night. And by the way, she had no
19:12
Speaker 1: way of knowing where I lived. I asked her how
19:15
Speaker 1: she knew where my house was. She just asked to
19:17
Speaker 1: come inside again. I really didn't want her to. So instead,
19:21
Speaker 1: I told her that I was really busy with homework
19:23
Speaker 1: and I had to get back to it. She just
19:26
Speaker 1: stood there for a moment looking disappointed. Then she said
19:29
Speaker 1: that she was just going to go and walked off
19:31
Speaker 1: sort of angrily. I was glad that she was going,
19:34
Speaker 1: but more confused than anything. After she left, I went
19:37
Speaker 1: back inside and went into my room. Then I blocked
19:40
Speaker 1: Rhonda on Instagram. I felt that she had crossed the
19:44
Speaker 1: line by showing up unannounced like that. When Thomas got
19:47
Speaker 1: back home, I asked him if he knew Rhonda at all.
19:50
Speaker 1: He said no. I showed him her picture, and he
19:53
Speaker 1: still didn't recognize her. I told him what happened, and
19:56
Speaker 1: he was just as confused as I was. I was
19:59
Speaker 1: hoping that maybe he had known Rhonda, and she asked
20:01
Speaker 1: him for the address or something. But the fact that
20:04
Speaker 1: he didn't made it that much more creepy and weird.
20:08
Speaker 1: The very next night, I was pulling a late-night session
20:10
Speaker 1: of homework. I had some stuff due at 11.59 p.m.
20:14
Speaker 1: I was trying to get it done at the last moment.
20:17
Speaker 1: It was probably like 11.30, and I was almost done
20:20
Speaker 1: when I heard Thomas call me from the living room.
20:23
Speaker 1: He was in there watching TV, and I asked him
20:25
Speaker 1: what he wanted. Then he told me that there was
20:27
Speaker 1: a girl standing at the front door. I knew who
20:30
Speaker 1: it was. I got up and walked out into the
20:32
Speaker 1: living room. I looked out the front door to see
20:35
Speaker 1: Rhonda just standing there. But she didn't knock on the
20:37
Speaker 1: door or anything. She appeared to look over and notice me.
20:41
Speaker 1: Then she turned and ran off. It was the creepiest
20:44
Speaker 1: thing ever. I went back and finished my homework and
20:47
Speaker 1: then joined Thomas watching TV in the living room. We
20:50
Speaker 1: kept glancing out the windows to see if she would
20:52
Speaker 1: come back, but luckily she didn't. After that, I never
20:56
Speaker 1: saw her again. I remember I asked Thomas to look
20:59
Speaker 1: her up on Instagram months later in the school year.
21:02
Speaker 1: She had a few more pictures then and appeared to
21:04
Speaker 1: still attend our university. I still don't know what she
21:08
Speaker 1: was doing. It was really creepy behavior, though. This happened
21:24
Speaker 1: two years ago now. I'm a female and live alone
21:27
Speaker 1: in an apartment building. Like many people, I have an
21:31
Speaker 1: Instagram page that I post on pretty regularly. I would
21:35
Speaker 1: say I post on average at least once a month.
21:38
Speaker 1: I enjoy posting pictures on Instagram, but I know that
21:41
Speaker 1: occasionally you have to deal with a bot or a
21:43
Speaker 1: creepy person. For the most part, I hadn't had any
21:47
Speaker 1: bad experiences until this happened. One day I opened the
21:51
Speaker 1: Instagram app and saw that I had a direct message.
21:54
Speaker 1: It was from one of my followers, a guy named Tim.
21:58
Speaker 1: I didn't know him and I didn't follow him either.
22:01
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how long he had been following me for.
22:03
Speaker 1: but he sent me a message asking if I could
22:05
Speaker 1: come and hang out with him. I found this to
22:08
Speaker 1: be kind of weird and did not respond. I mean,
22:11
Speaker 1: he didn't even have a conversation with me, and I
22:13
Speaker 1: didn't know him. He couldn't possibly expect me to just
22:16
Speaker 1: say yes. And based on his profile picture, I wasn't
22:19
Speaker 1: interested in him. I figured that he wouldn't message me
22:22
Speaker 1: again after that. But the next day, he sent me
22:25
Speaker 1: another message. He once more asked me to hang out
22:28
Speaker 1: with him and said that he could pick me up.
22:31
Speaker 1: This time, I responded and said, No thanks, I appreciate
22:35
Speaker 1: the offer though. Now he had to understand that I
22:38
Speaker 1: wasn't interested. Tim then tried to convince me, but I
22:41
Speaker 1: ignored him. I didn't really know why he was sending
22:44
Speaker 1: me these messages seemingly out of nowhere. The next day,
22:47
Speaker 1: I didn't get any more messages from him. I figured
22:51
Speaker 1: that he would stop communicating with me at that point.
22:54
Speaker 1: The following night, I went grocery shopping after work. I
22:58
Speaker 1: would go shopping occasionally here and there whenever I needed to.
23:01
Speaker 1: I didn't have a particular routine or anything. I was
23:05
Speaker 1: inside of the store shopping for about 20 minutes. The
23:08
Speaker 1: time was probably about 8 p.m. or so. After I
23:12
Speaker 1: was done shopping, I headed out to my car in
23:14
Speaker 1: the parking lot. By now, it was mostly quiet, but
23:17
Speaker 1: there were a few people here and there. I got
23:20
Speaker 1: all the way to my vehicle, only to see that
23:22
Speaker 1: there was a car parked next to me. I started
23:25
Speaker 1: to take my groceries out of the cart and put
23:27
Speaker 1: them in my car. That's when the door opened to
23:30
Speaker 1: the car next to me and a guy got out.
23:32
Speaker 1: I did not recognize him. He just seemed like another
23:35
Speaker 1: guy going shopping. But he didn't walk to the store
23:38
Speaker 1: and instead headed straight for me. At first I was confused.
23:42
Speaker 1: But he then said my name and asked me why
23:44
Speaker 1: I thought I could ignore him. I realized that it
23:47
Speaker 1: was Tim from Instagram and I did recognize him from
23:49
Speaker 1: his picture at that point. I was too confused to
23:52
Speaker 1: say anything though. He said that he was here now
23:55
Speaker 1: and we were together so we may as well hang out.
23:58
Speaker 1: I finally spoke and asked him what he was doing
24:01
Speaker 1: and how he knew I would be here. He claimed
24:03
Speaker 1: that it was a coincidence. I finished putting my groceries
24:06
Speaker 1: in my car and said that I had to get home.
24:09
Speaker 1: I closed my trunk and then tried to walk around
24:11
Speaker 1: him to my driver's door, but he stopped me by
24:13
Speaker 1: grabbing my arm. He told me to come on and
24:16
Speaker 1: go with him. I asked him to let me go
24:18
Speaker 1: and said that he was hurting my arm, but he
24:20
Speaker 1: started to pull me away towards his car. He was
24:23
Speaker 1: a lot stronger than I was, and we started moving
24:26
Speaker 1: towards his vehicles. Then I started yelling as loud as
24:29
Speaker 1: I could. I was yelling help and telling him to
24:31
Speaker 1: let me go. There were luckily a few people that
24:34
Speaker 1: were walking to their cars in the parking lot.
24:36
Speaker 2: A ways away.
24:38
Speaker 1: They took notice of what was going on though, and
24:40
Speaker 1: when Tim saw this, he let me go and told
24:42
Speaker 1: me to shut up. I instantly ran around my car
24:45
Speaker 1: for the driver's door and got inside. Tim followed me,
24:49
Speaker 1: but I locked the door before he could get in.
24:51
Speaker 1: I didn't waste any time, and I drove out of there.
24:54
Speaker 1: Tim had to run back to his car. and I
24:56
Speaker 1: left the parking lot extremely fast. By the time he
24:59
Speaker 1: started his car, I had already left. I went around
25:03
Speaker 1: another nearby store that was out of his sight. Then
25:06
Speaker 1: I took some random residential roads until I was sure
25:08
Speaker 1: he wasn't following me. After that, I drove home. I
25:12
Speaker 1: was so focused on not letting him follow me that
25:14
Speaker 1: I forgot to call the police for a while, but
25:16
Speaker 1: eventually I did. I told him everything that happened, but
25:20
Speaker 1: when I got to my Instagram page, his account was gone.
25:23
Speaker 1: I think he deleted it. Still, after that night, I
25:26
Speaker 1: never saw Tim or heard from him again.