Latest / Martin Animations / 4 BAD NEIGHBORHOOD HORROR STORIES ANIMATED

Transcript

4 BAD NEIGHBORHOOD HORROR STORIES ANIMATED · Martin Animations

0:00
Speaker 1: When I was 11, my single mom, 9-year-old sister, and
0:03
Speaker 1: 6-year-old brother moved into a beautiful, older, craftsman-style house. I'd
0:08
Speaker 1: heard it was about 80 years old back then in 1984.
0:12
Speaker 1: Soon after we moved in, we found out it was
0:15
Speaker 1: infested with cockroaches. I've never seen anything like it. You'd
0:19
Speaker 1: turn on the lights at night and they'd scatter from
0:22
Speaker 1: every surface. We had to store all of our food
0:25
Speaker 1: that wasn't canned in the fridge so they wouldn't get
0:27
Speaker 1: into it. We tried bug bombs and professional exterminators numerous
0:32
Speaker 1: times with no effect. Those things can really survive a
0:35
Speaker 1: nuclear war. Anyway, they weren't the reason we lived in
0:40
Speaker 1: this house less than a year before fleeing for our lives.
0:43
Speaker 1: I just thought it was an interesting side story. To
0:46
Speaker 1: this day, roaches are near the top of my detested
0:49
Speaker 1: bugs list. I remember my mom discussing our next-door neighbor's
0:53
Speaker 1: creepy son with my grandma. He was in his 20s
0:57
Speaker 1: or 30s. She had been doing dishes one day and
1:01
Speaker 1: looked up to see him standing directly on the other
1:03
Speaker 1: side of the kitchen window staring in at her. Normally,
1:06
Speaker 1: she would have kept something scary like this from us kids.
1:10
Speaker 1: But about that time, she told us to tell her
1:12
Speaker 1: if we ever saw him near the house and we
1:14
Speaker 1: weren't allowed to play outside. She also told us about
1:18
Speaker 1: a couple of times when she woke up to see
1:20
Speaker 1: him standing over her bed and one time he put
1:22
Speaker 1: a cloth with chemicals over her face to knock her out.
1:26
Speaker 1: This is the part of the story I know the
1:27
Speaker 1: least about since she didn't tell us about it until
1:30
Speaker 1: years later. I think she might have thought she was dreaming,
1:34
Speaker 1: especially if he was drugging her. I don't know if
1:37
Speaker 1: anything else happened. I've never asked her about it in
1:40
Speaker 1: case something did and it brought up bad memories. So
1:44
Speaker 1: one afternoon we were all doing some spring cleaning when
1:47
Speaker 1: my brother said he had found a cigarette butt in
1:49
Speaker 1: the upstairs toilet. Weird, since nobody in our family smokes.
1:54
Speaker 1: Being a dumb little six-year-old, he flushed it before telling
1:57
Speaker 1: our mom. I still remember her trying to get the
2:00
Speaker 1: entire story out of him, being upset that the evidence
2:03
Speaker 1: was gone and thinking he might have been mistaken or
2:05
Speaker 1: maybe he'd picked up a butt somewhere outside out of curiosity.
2:09
Speaker 1: She soon dropped it and we mostly forgot about it.
2:13
Speaker 1: I think it was a few weeks later. My brother
2:16
Speaker 1: was spending the night at our grandparents and my sister
2:18
Speaker 1: and I were the only ones upstairs. Our mom's bedroom
2:22
Speaker 1: was downstairs. My sister heard a sound like a screen
2:26
Speaker 1: door slamming. but she insisted it came from in the
2:29
Speaker 1: house and she was freaked out. I told her it
2:32
Speaker 1: was just from outside and to go to sleep. A
2:35
Speaker 1: minute later, we heard a strangled cough coming from just
2:38
Speaker 1: outside our bedroom door. A man's cough and it sounded
2:42
Speaker 1: like he was trying to keep from making noise. I
2:45
Speaker 1: whispered that we needed to get downstairs immediately. We sneaked
2:49
Speaker 1: out of the room and I had the irrational urge
2:51
Speaker 1: to turn on the light in the bathroom. which was
2:53
Speaker 1: just across the hall from our bedroom and checked to
2:56
Speaker 1: see if anyone was there. Then, just as strong of
2:58
Speaker 1: a feeling to get away from the bathroom and get
3:00
Speaker 1: downstairs now. The scariest moment of my life was when
3:04
Speaker 1: we were creeping down the stairs in the pitch black.
3:07
Speaker 1: It was a spiral enclosed stairway with walls, the perfect
3:10
Speaker 1: place for someone to hide. The stairway light was burned
3:14
Speaker 1: out and the wood steps were creaky, so it was
3:17
Speaker 1: terrifying making our way down. We got downstairs and woke
3:20
Speaker 1: up our mom, panicked that there was a guy upstairs
3:23
Speaker 1: in our bathroom. She started to tell us to just
3:26
Speaker 1: go back to bed, but could see we were seriously scared.
3:30
Speaker 1: She went over to the bottom of the stairway to
3:32
Speaker 1: go up and show us that there was nothing to
3:34
Speaker 1: be scared about. Then she had just as strong of
3:37
Speaker 1: a feeling to close the stairway door and lock it immediately.
3:41
Speaker 1: She did call the cops. They found nothing and didn't
3:44
Speaker 1: really take us seriously. The next day, she called a
3:47
Speaker 1: PD detective friend of hers from high school to come
3:50
Speaker 1: over and inspect the house. Remembering the cigarette butt in
3:53
Speaker 1: the toilet, she had him look at the upstairs bathroom window.
3:57
Speaker 1: It was a high, narrow, rectangular window, not very big,
4:01
Speaker 1: but just wide enough for a person. Who knows how
4:04
Speaker 1: many times the intruder climbed our roof to get in
4:07
Speaker 1: and was upstairs while we were sleeping across the hall.
4:10
Speaker 1: The window swung up on hinges. When my mom's friend
4:14
Speaker 1: let the window drop, It sounded like a screen door slamming.
4:18
Speaker 1: He said the locks on all the windows were so
4:20
Speaker 1: old they were practically useless, and we needed to get
4:22
Speaker 1: out of this house right away. We moved into my
4:26
Speaker 1: grandparents' house that same day. When my mom went with
4:29
Speaker 1: her brothers a few days later to pack up some things,
4:32
Speaker 1: a back door had been smashed open, but nothing in
4:34
Speaker 1: the house was disturbed. Ed had to clarify why it
4:38
Speaker 1: seemed like my mom was in denial about the guy
4:40
Speaker 1: going into her room. I'm honestly not really clear on
4:43
Speaker 1: the details since she never told us about what she saw.
4:47
Speaker 1: I think she might have been out of it because
4:48
Speaker 1: of the chloroform and probably thought she was imagining it
4:52
Speaker 1: or something. The puzzle pieces came into place after the
4:55
Speaker 1: detective checked out our house and confirmed someone was breaking in.
4:59
Speaker 1: As soon as she knew we were in real danger,
5:01
Speaker 1: she got us out immediately. A few years later, we
5:05
Speaker 1: heard the neighbor's son was actually arrested for rape and
5:08
Speaker 1: attempted murder. I still wonder what might have happened if
5:12
Speaker 1: I had turned on that bathroom light, if my mom
5:14
Speaker 1: didn't lock the stairway door, or if we didn't leave
5:17
Speaker 1: the house when we did. I also wonder if it's
5:20
Speaker 1: still infested with cockroaches. Update. My mom got back to me.
5:27
Speaker 1: She said that she only remembers seeing him in her
5:29
Speaker 1: room one time and felt like she was struggling to
5:32
Speaker 1: stay awake. Another time, she didn't clearly wake up, but
5:36
Speaker 1: felt like she was trying to get something off her mouth.
5:38
Speaker 1: That's all she can remember. So, I did get the
5:41
Speaker 1: details a little wrong in my memory. It's no wonder
5:45
Speaker 1: she didn't think anything was wrong at first if she
5:47
Speaker 1: only thought they were dreams. The cigarette butt was a clue,
5:51
Speaker 1: and what my sister and I heard was proof. I
5:54
Speaker 1: have to say, as a single mom myself, I can
5:58
Speaker 1: only imagine how freaked out my mom must have been
6:01
Speaker 1: when her friend told her we needed to get out immediately.
6:07
Speaker 1: The story I'm about to tell was probably a lot
6:09
Speaker 1: less scary than many stories on this forum, but it
6:12
Speaker 1: was actually kind of traumatizing to me. This is a
6:16
Speaker 1: few years ago, so I'm sure I've left out some
6:18
Speaker 1: details and events. Please excuse my English. This happened in
6:23
Speaker 1: the summer of 2016 when I was 24 and my
6:26
Speaker 1: husband was 29. We had two years prior moved to
6:30
Speaker 1: a European capital, and it was a real struggle to
6:33
Speaker 1: find a place to live. So we were living about
6:36
Speaker 1: an hour outside the city until the owner decided to
6:39
Speaker 1: sell his apartment and we had to find a new place.
6:42
Speaker 1: We were really lucky and we found this great apartment
6:45
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the city center. The rent
6:48
Speaker 1: was quite high and despite the fact that we were
6:50
Speaker 1: trying to save up to buy our own place, we
6:53
Speaker 1: decided it was worth it. The first two weeks were awesome.
6:57
Speaker 1: After we had been living in the suburbs for two years,
7:00
Speaker 1: we now had everything just outside of our building. My
7:03
Speaker 1: office was in walking distance and there were plenty of shops, restaurants,
7:06
Speaker 1: and nightclubs. One evening after work, we were chilling at
7:10
Speaker 1: home watching a movie when we became aware of someone
7:13
Speaker 1: screaming and singing songs with extremely violent Nazi content. We
7:18
Speaker 1: were looking out our window trying to locate the noise,
7:21
Speaker 1: but couldn't exactly figure out where it came from other
7:24
Speaker 1: than from inside the courtyard that was surrounded by several
7:26
Speaker 1: buildings and a lot of apartments. So we finally gave
7:30
Speaker 1: up and just shut the window so we could have
7:32
Speaker 1: some peace. Suddenly, we hear a loud knock on our door.
7:37
Speaker 1: Kind of startled, we both went to open, thinking this
7:39
Speaker 1: was either the police or some neighbors who were also
7:41
Speaker 1: bothered by the absurd singing and screaming. We opened the door,
7:45
Speaker 1: and a man in his late 30s was looking back
7:47
Speaker 1: at us. He was probably about my height, 5'8, a
7:52
Speaker 1: bit chubby and bald, and looked relatively normal. I later
7:57
Speaker 1: learned that this guy had been quite a famous child
7:59
Speaker 1: actor and had been in several movies up until his
8:01
Speaker 1: early 20s. Because he didn't look crazy and appeared relatively calm,
8:06
Speaker 1: we figured he was just another neighbor trying to locate
8:09
Speaker 1: the noise. This neighbor lived in the apartment next to us.
8:13
Speaker 1: The building was L-shaped, and if we wanted to, we
8:16
Speaker 1: could look directly into his apartment from our windows. He
8:19
Speaker 1: then proceeded to accuse us of filming him through our window,
8:22
Speaker 1: and we were so confused. We had been in our
8:25
Speaker 1: windows a lot this evening trying to locate the commotion,
8:29
Speaker 1: but we had never recorded anything. And why would we
8:32
Speaker 1: record his apartment? He now had this crazy look in
8:35
Speaker 1: his eyes, and he was saying all kinds of crazy
8:38
Speaker 1: stuff that I have now forgotten, but it was some
8:41
Speaker 1: kind of insane Nazi conspiracy theory stuff, and we were
8:44
Speaker 1: of course sent by someone to come and harm him.
8:47
Speaker 1: That's when we realized that this is the guy behind
8:50
Speaker 1: the obscene singing and screaming. As he was getting more
8:53
Speaker 1: and more agitated, he tried to enter our apartment, but
8:56
Speaker 1: my husband shoved him out and closed and locked the door.
9:00
Speaker 1: We heard him walk into his apartment and slam the door.
9:03
Speaker 1: For some days, maybe a week, we didn't hear or
9:06
Speaker 1: see anything of this neighbor, but we did see some
9:09
Speaker 1: strange drug addict type of people coming and going from
9:11
Speaker 1: his apartment. Then the singing and screaming started again. This
9:15
Speaker 1: happened at all times, but especially at night when we
9:18
Speaker 1: were trying to sleep. We almost went crazy, but because
9:23
Speaker 1: it's so hard to find a place to live in
9:25
Speaker 1: this city, and because we really hate moving, we just
9:28
Speaker 1: put up with it. Later one afternoon, I felt this
9:31
Speaker 1: burning smell, and I went out in the hallway to
9:34
Speaker 1: try and figure out where it came from. And together
9:37
Speaker 1: with another neighbor, we quickly found out that it came
9:39
Speaker 1: from the Nazi guy's apartment. We tried knocking, but no
9:43
Speaker 1: one answered. We tried peeking through his mail slot, but
9:47
Speaker 1: saw nothing except for smoke. We obviously called the fire department,
9:52
Speaker 1: who came and knocked down his door to find him
9:53
Speaker 1: sleeping naked with something burning on the stove. They put
9:57
Speaker 1: the small fire around. He apologized. think anything else ever
10:01
Speaker 1: came of it. Of course, though, he continued to sing
10:04
Speaker 1: and scream Nazi songs and racial stuff, but we were
10:07
Speaker 1: now also introduced to wolf howling. It sounded totally crazy.
10:12
Speaker 1: Even with our windows shut, we could still hear him.
10:16
Speaker 1: Some more time passed and one night before we were
10:18
Speaker 1: going to bed, My husband felt a burning smell. We
10:22
Speaker 1: immediately suspected the smell to come from his apartment yet again,
10:25
Speaker 1: and we were just about to dial the fire department
10:28
Speaker 1: when we heard this loud bang in the courtyard. We
10:31
Speaker 1: looked out and could see the Nazi guy throwing out
10:33
Speaker 1: his belongings and furniture from his windows into the courtyard.
10:37
Speaker 1: And not only this, but his apartment was in flames.
10:40
Speaker 1: We were panicking because the hallway was starting to fill
10:43
Speaker 1: with smoke, and we didn't want to die from inhaling
10:45
Speaker 1: the toxic smoke on our way down from the third floor.
10:49
Speaker 1: We grabbed our stuff and my husband went knocking on
10:51
Speaker 1: all of the doors to get our neighbors out. He
10:54
Speaker 1: didn't get any answer from the crazy guy's apartment and
10:57
Speaker 1: together with another neighbor came up with the brilliant idea
11:00
Speaker 1: of breaking in to rescue the Nazi guy. They finally
11:03
Speaker 1: managed to knock on the door, covered their faces with
11:06
Speaker 1: some clothing and went in. They couldn't find the guy
11:10
Speaker 1: and they had to give up and run out before
11:12
Speaker 1: there was just too much smoke. Shortly after, the fire
11:15
Speaker 1: rescuers came and put out the fire. but they also
11:18
Speaker 1: couldn't find anybody in the Nazi guy's apartment. He went
11:22
Speaker 1: missing for some time, until eventually he showed up trying
11:25
Speaker 1: to get into his apartment. The locks had been changed
11:28
Speaker 1: at this point, and the police were still investigating. He
11:31
Speaker 1: had actually started the fire and then left his apartment,
11:34
Speaker 1: apparently trying to burn down the whole building with all
11:36
Speaker 1: of the neighbors asleep. He was later on charged with arson,
11:40
Speaker 1: but managed to run away and didn't show up in court.
11:44
Speaker 1: We moved away shortly after, so I'm not sure what
11:47
Speaker 1: happened to this guy, if he ever did time in prison.
11:51
Speaker 1: But when I google his name, it looks like he's
11:53
Speaker 1: still living in the same apartment. I also found several
11:57
Speaker 1: stories about him online in police reports, so he's obviously
12:01
Speaker 1: a guy with a lot of issues. Too bad he
12:04
Speaker 1: has to involve other innocent people. Okay, so I'm a
12:10
Speaker 1: long time lurker here. And this is my first post
12:13
Speaker 1: on this sub. Throwaway because obvious reasons. After reading someone
12:19
Speaker 1: else's story, it reminded me about this one. I apologize
12:23
Speaker 1: in advance if this isn't written to perfection. I'm a
12:27
Speaker 1: very detailed oriented person, so there might be a lot
12:30
Speaker 1: of parentheses further explaining stuff. I honestly don't even remember
12:35
Speaker 1: the guy's name, so we'll just call him Creeper Joe.
12:39
Speaker 1: This happened a good seven years ago toward the end
12:42
Speaker 1: of high school for me. Anyway, this is my old
12:45
Speaker 1: neighbor's son who was in at least his mid-thirties, and
12:48
Speaker 1: he still lived at home with his completely able and
12:51
Speaker 1: mostly sane 70-something-year-old mother. He's moderately overweight, deathly pale, and
12:57
Speaker 1: a ginger. No offense to gingers, obviously, but that coupled
13:02
Speaker 1: with never-seeing daylight made him almost translucent. He also always
13:07
Speaker 1: wore stained clothes, and he didn't have very good hygiene
13:10
Speaker 1: at all. Anyway, I didn't see him very often. He
13:15
Speaker 1: would stay inside and not leave his house for weeks,
13:17
Speaker 1: if not months on end. He had no job, no friends, nothing.
13:23
Speaker 1: We'd occasionally catch each other getting the mail or something,
13:26
Speaker 1: so he'd strike up a conversation, usually about metal because
13:30
Speaker 1: he'd often hear my music coming from my room. I
13:33
Speaker 1: left my windows open a lot while I was at
13:35
Speaker 1: home because I liked the fresh air, so we'd awkwardly
13:39
Speaker 1: talk for a few minutes and then just go back
13:41
Speaker 1: to our respective houses. I figured he was just lonely,
13:45
Speaker 1: so I didn't actively try to avoid him. My dad
13:48
Speaker 1: hangs out in the garage and a lot with the
13:50
Speaker 1: door open, having some beers with friends, working on cars, etc.
13:55
Speaker 1: One day, he told me to stay clear of Creeper
13:57
Speaker 1: Joe because he saw him looking at our neighbor's kids
14:00
Speaker 1: a lot, mainly this kid Isaac across the street He
14:04
Speaker 1: was a few years younger than me, so he was
14:06
Speaker 1: probably about 13 or 14 or so at the time,
14:09
Speaker 1: I think. Anyway, I just tried to avoid him a
14:12
Speaker 1: little bit at that point because it kind of weirded
14:14
Speaker 1: me out. A few months go by without incident, and
14:18
Speaker 1: my dad comes into the house visibly uneasy. My mom
14:22
Speaker 1: and I ask him what's wrong, and he says the neighbor,
14:25
Speaker 1: Creepy Joe, just told him that he likes little boys.
14:28
Speaker 1: My mom and I are obviously distressed at that statement
14:31
Speaker 1: as well. So we talked to him and tell him
14:33
Speaker 1: that he needs to call the cops or something. Especially
14:36
Speaker 1: after we noticed him checking out our neighbor's kids. So
14:40
Speaker 1: he calls the cops anonymously a few days later. They
14:43
Speaker 1: show up at the house and sees his computer and
14:45
Speaker 1: all other electronics as well. They of course found child porn.
14:50
Speaker 1: I don't remember him being arrested but I do remember
14:53
Speaker 1: not seeing him for a while again after that. So
14:56
Speaker 1: I'm not entirely sure whatever happened with that. When I
15:00
Speaker 1: did see him again, he actually seemed to avoid me
15:02
Speaker 1: in the sense that if I was outside getting mail,
15:04
Speaker 1: he'd wait until I went inside to get his. I
15:07
Speaker 1: didn't want anything to do with him at that point,
15:10
Speaker 1: so I didn't really care and just went about my
15:12
Speaker 1: business as usual. Several months go by, and then there's
15:16
Speaker 1: an ambulance at the house. I thought maybe his mom
15:19
Speaker 1: was having issues, but nope. Turns out Creeper Joe kicked
15:23
Speaker 1: the bucket. And apparently his mother only even realized it
15:26
Speaker 1: after three fucking days, and only because she put a
15:29
Speaker 1: meal in the microwave and he never came out and
15:32
Speaker 1: got it. Which means that for him to not even
15:34
Speaker 1: leave his room for several days at a time was
15:36
Speaker 1: a common enough occurrence for her to not be alarmed.
15:39
Speaker 1: Not to shower, not to use the restroom, etc. I
15:43
Speaker 1: can't even begin to imagine how gross his room must
15:46
Speaker 1: have been. She also evidently had taken out a life
15:50
Speaker 1: insurance claim on him for a pretty good chunk of money.
15:53
Speaker 1: Enough for her to redo her entire kitchen and live
15:55
Speaker 1: comfortably from then on out. Why she had life insurance
15:59
Speaker 1: on him, I have no idea. He didn't do anything.
16:03
Speaker 1: No job, no dangerous hobbies. He wasn't even her caretaker.
16:07
Speaker 1: She still took care of him at this point. So,
16:10
Speaker 1: it was all pretty oddly suspicious. Also, supposedly, according to
16:15
Speaker 1: the autopsy, he died of a heart attack. To this day,
16:19
Speaker 1: all of the neighbors still have suspicions about the mother.
16:22
Speaker 1: Nothing would have seemed weird if it wasn't for the
16:24
Speaker 1: random life insurance on a guy whose biggest posed risk
16:27
Speaker 1: was losing the remote. While it may not have been
16:30
Speaker 1: as close a call as to other stories posted here,
16:33
Speaker 1: the whole thing creeps me the hell out. This occurred
16:37
Speaker 1: in the winter of 2013 when I was 21 and
16:40
Speaker 1: in the military. I'm a petite female for context, and
16:45
Speaker 1: I have the appearance of looking younger than I actually am.
16:49
Speaker 1: A little back story. At this point in time, I
16:52
Speaker 1: had been in the military for a little over two years,
16:56
Speaker 1: my first duty station being in Detroit. I had lived
17:00
Speaker 1: off base and at first lived in a township north
17:03
Speaker 1: of Detroit where my apartment was broken into. I woke
17:06
Speaker 1: up to my door handle being completely disassembled and my
17:09
Speaker 1: car was broken into, although that was partly my fault
17:13
Speaker 1: since my car at the time had manual locks and
17:16
Speaker 1: I might have had a bag door unlocked the night
17:18
Speaker 1: it was broken into. After those events, I decided to
17:22
Speaker 1: move since my lease was up, and I chose a
17:25
Speaker 1: gated community even further north slash northwest into a different township.
17:30
Speaker 1: I lived on my own the entire time I was
17:32
Speaker 1: stationed in Detroit, which always kept me on edge because
17:35
Speaker 1: SVU and CSI really messed with my trust of strangers. Anyway,
17:40
Speaker 1: the new place was super nice and affordable. and even
17:44
Speaker 1: though it wasn't completely secure as far as a literal
17:46
Speaker 1: gate surrounding the apartments, residents had to have a pass
17:50
Speaker 1: to even drive through the community, and visitors had to
17:53
Speaker 1: check in with security before being allowed on the premises,
17:56
Speaker 1: and I felt way safer at this new place than
17:58
Speaker 1: my prior residence. The apartments were set up to have
18:02
Speaker 1: four units per housing building, and the front doors leading
18:05
Speaker 1: into each of the apartments were on the outside. Due
18:08
Speaker 1: to this, each door had a light next to it
18:11
Speaker 1: so when you checked your people you could see who's there.
18:14
Speaker 1: That's important for later. Our duty rotation was similar to
18:19
Speaker 1: a firefighter's duty rotation where we would stay in duty
18:22
Speaker 1: for two days and have sliding weekends. Duty every other weekend.
18:26
Speaker 1: Meaning it's a pretty predictable schedule. This will come into
18:30
Speaker 1: play later. I'm super introverted and I keep to myself
18:34
Speaker 1: most of the time. But I am friendly when I
18:37
Speaker 1: meet new people, etc. But never one to make best
18:40
Speaker 1: friends with the neighbors. So when I first moved in
18:44
Speaker 1: summer of 2012, I had a neighbor next to me
18:47
Speaker 1: on the second level and one below me on the
18:49
Speaker 1: first level. But over the next two months, they moved
18:53
Speaker 1: out and I was alone in my housing building, which
18:55
Speaker 1: I would be lying if I said that didn't give
18:57
Speaker 1: me anxiety a bit. Fast forward to December 2012, and
19:01
Speaker 1: our duty rotation had a complete overhaul, making it a
19:05
Speaker 1: little less predictable. We would stay in duty for a
19:08
Speaker 1: day and overnight, and the next day work until 1400
19:11
Speaker 1: and go home for the next two days. Over the holidays,
19:15
Speaker 1: my then-boyfriend visited me from out of state. We were
19:18
Speaker 1: doing a distance relationship, so we barely saw each other.
19:22
Speaker 1: A week later, I was taking out my garbage to
19:25
Speaker 1: the dumpster and collecting my mail. Once I unlocked my
19:28
Speaker 1: mailbox by the dumpster and turned around, there was a
19:31
Speaker 1: guy standing around 30 feet behind me just staring at me.
19:35
Speaker 1: I was startled because it was broad daylight and I
19:38
Speaker 1: didn't see him when I was walking to the dumpster
19:40
Speaker 1: slash mailbox area. He's dressed in black pants and a
19:44
Speaker 1: black hoodie and larger than me, so I would have
19:46
Speaker 1: seen him or heard him at least. I just stand
19:49
Speaker 1: there nodding. making a move and he says, Hi, I'm Jim.
19:54
Speaker 1: How are you? So I introduce myself and he asked
19:58
Speaker 1: if I'm in the military because he's seen me in
20:00
Speaker 1: some type of uniform. So I say yes and that
20:03
Speaker 1: I'm in a branch here. He then makes me super
20:06
Speaker 1: weirded out by mentioning my schedule. I've noticed your work
20:10
Speaker 1: schedule is different. You used to come home every two days.
20:14
Speaker 1: Now it's like every other day. Is that going to
20:16
Speaker 1: be the new normal for you? So my spidey Chris
20:20
Speaker 1: Hansen senses kick in, and I just say, Oh no,
20:24
Speaker 1: that's just the new holiday routine schedule they have me on.
20:27
Speaker 1: We will be having a completely different one in the
20:29
Speaker 1: coming weeks. Bold face lie. That actually was the new normal,
20:35
Speaker 1: but he didn't need to know that. I then receive
20:38
Speaker 1: a trailing, oh, from him. Then he asks, was that
20:44
Speaker 1: guy who was around you over the last week a
20:46
Speaker 1: family member? To which I reply that he's my boyfriend
20:49
Speaker 1: and former military, and that's how we met, taking care
20:53
Speaker 1: to not mention he lived in a completely different state.
20:56
Speaker 1: Jim doesn't say anything, and I want to scram before
20:59
Speaker 1: anything crazy happens, so I just say it's nice to
21:02
Speaker 1: meet him, and then he says, if you want to
21:05
Speaker 1: come to my apartment sometime, feel free to. I live
21:08
Speaker 1: in the first floor unit right over there. My buddy
21:11
Speaker 1: who's in a different branch is over and we're going
21:14
Speaker 1: to watch Star Wars. The unit he lived on was
21:17
Speaker 1: the unit directly across from mine but with a parking
21:20
Speaker 1: lot in between them. So I turn it down even
21:23
Speaker 1: though I love Star Wars and I say my farewell.
21:27
Speaker 1: I felt weird about it but went about my day
21:30
Speaker 1: and over time it left my mind. Another fast forward
21:34
Speaker 1: to the end of January 2013. I was leaving work
21:37
Speaker 1: for the day after my duty day, and one of
21:40
Speaker 1: my friends asked if I wanted to join him and
21:42
Speaker 1: another mutual friend at a bar later on for a
21:44
Speaker 1: beer and karaoke. Of course, I'm down. This person is
21:48
Speaker 1: my best friend, and it's really depressing in the dirty
21:51
Speaker 1: D during the winter months, so it would lift my mood.
21:55
Speaker 1: From here on out, we'll call my friend Tom. Tom
21:58
Speaker 1: was working in the galley at this time and didn't
22:01
Speaker 1: have to stand duty, but he planned to meet me
22:03
Speaker 1: in my apartment after he got off work at 5pm,
22:06
Speaker 1: meaning he would be at my place around 6-6.30. My
22:10
Speaker 1: duty section got off at 2pm, so I went home
22:13
Speaker 1: and chilled out on my couch for a bit. Because
22:16
Speaker 1: I stood mid-watch the night before, I was insanely tired
22:20
Speaker 1: and fell asleep on the couch probably around 3pm. Obviously,
22:24
Speaker 1: since it's winter time in Detroit, the days are super short,
22:28
Speaker 1: so it gets dark around 4.30 to 5 p.m. While napping,
22:32
Speaker 1: I wake up to a knocking on my door. At first,
22:35
Speaker 1: I thought that it was a dream, so I kept snoozing.
22:38
Speaker 1: Then the knocking turned into banging, and half awake, half asleep,
22:42
Speaker 1: I look at my phone and see that it's 5 p.m.
22:45
Speaker 1: No way is it my friend, and besides, even if
22:48
Speaker 1: it was, he usually calls my phone if I didn't
22:51
Speaker 1: answer my door right away. In my utter exhaustion, I
22:54
Speaker 1: blow it off and fall back to the snooze. I
22:57
Speaker 1: then wake up to my phone going off and it's
22:59
Speaker 1: my friend Tom. I pick up and he says he's
23:02
Speaker 1: there and to answer the door. I go to my
23:05
Speaker 1: people completely paranoid and I see that the area is
23:09
Speaker 1: completely black. So I call Tom back and ask if
23:12
Speaker 1: he can start talking in my door because I can't
23:14
Speaker 1: see that it's him. He does. I open it and
23:18
Speaker 1: he asked what happened to the light and why was
23:20
Speaker 1: it off. I had no idea why my external door
23:23
Speaker 1: light was not on and we go to fix it.
23:26
Speaker 1: Lo and behold, the bulb was twisted to make it
23:29
Speaker 1: turn off. We twisted back to the on position and
23:32
Speaker 1: I explained what happened earlier, finding the events of the
23:35
Speaker 1: day pretty shady. Right away, I didn't think that it
23:39
Speaker 1: might have been Jim, but it would make sense if
23:42
Speaker 1: it was. He gave me weird vibes and after that,
23:46
Speaker 1: I didn't feel comfortable in my apartment and couldn't wait
23:49
Speaker 1: to leave. Side note, I watched that episode of Criminal
23:54
Speaker 1: Minds where the serial killers twist the light bulb to
23:56
Speaker 1: the off position of their victim's outer lights like two
23:59
Speaker 1: weeks after this happened to me. It gave me chills,
24:03
Speaker 1: and when I received orders two months later, I took
24:06
Speaker 1: them without ever looking back.