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4 ROAD TRIP HORROR STORIES ANIMATED · Martin Animations

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Last year, I went on a road trip with my girlfriend.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: We were taking a vacation, but we chose to drive
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: instead of flying. We did that because we could stop
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: more places and explore, and also because it was cheaper.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: This was the second road trip that we had taken together,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and the first one was a lot of fun, so
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: we were looking forward to it. When the road trip started,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the first day of driving went by really well. We
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: stopped at a few cool places and explored around some towns.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Then we made it to our hotel for the night.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The next day, we got up bright and early in
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the morning and hit the road. We were hoping to
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: make it all the way to our destination by that night.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: It was a long day of driving, but overall it
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: was fun. However, we ended up driving sort of late
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: into the night. By about 10 p.m., we still had
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: another hour and a half left. I was driving, and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I decided to stop at the next gas station because
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: we were running a little low. Plus, I wanted to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: get a coffee and some snacks, and my girlfriend wanted
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: coffee as well. So at the next exit, I pulled
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: off of the highway that we were on. There was
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a pretty large truck stop, it appeared, with a gas
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: station and store attached. When I arrived there, I first
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: put more fuel into the car, and then I went
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and parked next to the store. There were a decent
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: number of other cars and trucks around, and this was
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: clearly a pretty popular place for people to stop. So
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: my girlfriend and I got out of the car and
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: started walking in. I do remember that as we were
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: walking in, a few other people were as well, including
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: a family with a few children a little bit ahead
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of us. We got inside of the store and first
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: used the restrooms. Then my girlfriend said that she would
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: get the coffee if I wanted to look for some snacks.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: The store was very large for a truck stop. It
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: had quite a few aisles, and there was a coffee
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: shop type of place attached to it, which is where
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: my girlfriend went. so I started to walk through the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: snack aisles and think about what I wanted to get.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: It was a few minutes into that that I noticed
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: a man and a child start to walk into the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: aisle that I was in. The man was a bit
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: larger of a guy who appeared to be in his
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: 40s or so, and the child looked to be about
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: 5 or 6. The man was holding onto the kid's hand,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: and it seemed as though after they saw me in
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the aisle, they turned around and walked out. But when
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I looked at the kid, I remembered seeing him walking
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: into the store with the family ahead of us. I
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: had seen the kid's parents, and this guy was not
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: one of them. I got a bad feeling, like maybe
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: this guy was trying to kidnap the kid or something.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I thought about it for a moment, and I was
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: 90% sure that this kid didn't belong to him, and
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the way that the man was holding onto the child's
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: hand seemed almost like he was dragging him along. I
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: decided to go and see where the guy was going,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: so I walked over to the end of the aisle.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I didn't immediately see the man, so I scanned around
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the store. Then I noticed him walking along the backside
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of the store near the cold drinks. He was still
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: with the child. After making it to the corner of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the store, he walked along the next side of it
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: going towards the exit doors. When I saw this, I
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: walked forward and I reached the doors before the man would.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Soon the man and the child reached me. I remember
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that the man said, excuse me and started to walk
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: around me, but I said, wait a minute. The man
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: stopped and looked at me. His face appeared nervous. I
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: flat out asked him if that was his kid, and
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I said that I saw the child enter with other parents.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: The man said yes, it was his son. I looked
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: to the boy, who seemed shy and a little bit confused.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I asked if that was his dad, and he shook
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: his head saying no. The man then started to open
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the door anyways and tried to leave with the kid.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: By now, we had been standing there for almost a minute.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I spoke louder, saying that I just wanted the other
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: people to come over and confirm if it was their
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: kid or not. Before I got done speaking though, The
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: man suddenly let go of the child and just ran
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: out the door. I watched him walk at an extremely
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: fast pace to this old-looking van and get inside of it.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I tried looking for the license plate number, but I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: couldn't see good enough. Then I walked with the child
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: around the store until we finally found his parents. When
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I found them, I told them what happened. They were
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: obviously upset, but also grateful. The parents had three other kids,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and one of the older children apparently was supposed to
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: be watching the younger one. I'm not sure where the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: man had come from, but I'm really glad that he
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: didn't leave with the child. The police got called, and
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: there was a big investigation. My girlfriend and I then
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: went back onto the road. A couple of years ago,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I took a road trip all by myself out to California.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: One of my good friends moved out there, and I
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: had never been there before. so I wanted to visit
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: and also see some cool places in California and experience it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I was going to drive there in about two days.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: On the first day, I drove from sunup to sundown,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and even past that. I stopped a few times for
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: food and stuff, but for the most part, I drove
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the whole time. I had booked a hotel online, and
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: I had the address of it on my phone. By
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the time that I was about 30 minutes out from
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the hotel, it was probably about 10.30 p.m., I knew
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: that I was going to be taking an exit up
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: ahead in like 20 miles or so. As some more
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: time went by, I felt like the exit should be approaching.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I looked at my phone to see how close it was,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: and just as I looked at it, I saw the
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: phone turn off like it had died. I tried turning
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: it back on, but I realized that it was in
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: fact dead. I had a car charger, but it had
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: been having some problems recently at the time. It was
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: one of those old chargers that sometimes it randomly wouldn't work.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: or you would have to mess around with it a
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: while before it worked. So I got the charger and
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: tried plugging it into the phone and turning it on,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: but nothing happened. I kept driving and saw some exits
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: coming up. I just guessed that these were the ones
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: that I was supposed to take. I didn't know for sure,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: but I was hoping that I would be correct. Maybe
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: if I drove down the exit, I would see the
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: hotel or a sign for it or something. So I
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: took the exit and went to the right. I passed
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: by an old gas station, but that was about it.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: As I continued to drive down this road, things were
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: much quieter there. The roads didn't have any other cars
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: on them at all. I drove along the road for
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: probably two or three miles. At that point, I realized
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: that I didn't really know where I was going and
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I had probably taken the wrong exit. I wanted to
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: figure it out though, so I pulled over to the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: side of the road that I was on. Then I
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: took the charger and tried to figure out what was wrong.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: I unplugged it, plugged it back in, and started moving
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: it around, trying to get it to work. I sat
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: there in my car for a few minutes trying everything
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: I could to get the charger to charge my phone,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: but nothing seemed to do it. It seemed as though
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: that charger had finally bit the dust for good. I
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: realized that I would have to buy a new one.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: But still, I had to get to the hotel, and
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know where it was. I remember I
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: looked up, though, and suddenly I saw headlights that a
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: car had pulled over to the side of the road
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: behind me. It was several car lengths back, and at
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: first I thought that maybe it was police. But looking
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: at the headlights, it didn't really seem like a police car. Plus,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: there were no flashing red and blue lights, just normal headlights.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I waited for a minute or two to see if
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: anybody would get out or something. They didn't, though. Then
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I decided to merge back onto this quiet road. There
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: were literally no other cars around. Just us two cars
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: pulled over on the side of the road right here.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: It was really strange. I didn't know why this person
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: had pulled over. And on both sides of the road,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: it was just wildland and woods. So I put my
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: car in drive and slowly went back out onto the road.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: When I did, I noticed that almost immediately after me,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the car behind me did the same. This gave me
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: a bad feeling. Why would this person want to follow me?
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I should have turned around and went back to the
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: highway right then and there, but I didn't. The fact
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: that the car behind me left right after me got
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: me distracted. I kept going down that road for a
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: little while, and at the first opportunity to turn that
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I had, I took it. I wanted to see what
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: the car would do behind me. When I turned, the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: car did as well. Now I was really worried. I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: drove down this other random road for a while and
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: then I turned again. The car behind me did that
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: as well. I really wanted to get away from it.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: This road was even more secluded though. There were no
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: street lights and the only visibility was coming from my
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: headlights and the ones of the car following me. I
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: knew that I had to turn around and go back
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: to the highway. It felt really sketchy trying to get
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: away from this guy on these roads. So I decided
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to make a U-turn I slowed down and went as
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: far as I could to the right side of the road.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: The car behind me started to slow down as well. Then,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I began turning around to make the U-turn. I slowed
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: down significantly more, but I was just able to make it. However,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: when I turned around, I realized that the car behind
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: me had actually backed up. It was now parked in
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a way where the car was blocking almost the entire
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: width of the road. I stopped. I wasn't sure what
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to do. I didn't think I would be able to
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: get around the car. Then the car turned off and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I saw the driver's door open up. A man got out.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: He did not look friendly at all. He started instantly
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: jogging towards my driver's side door. In an instant, I
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: went to the right and just hit the gas. It
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: was really just a reaction to the guy running at me.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I drove right into the grass and just barely squeaked
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: around the man's car. Luckily, my car did not get
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: stuck in the grass and I soon went back onto
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the road. I saw the guy was running back for
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: his car, so I went faster. and as soon as
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: I made it to the next turn, I took it.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Then I took this other road that was right off
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of that one. I knew the guy would be coming
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: for me, but at the moment, I could not see him.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: So I went down that road a little ways, and
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: then I pulled over and turned my lights off. I
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: just hoped that the guy wouldn't go down that road.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: I waited for probably 10 minutes, and I didn't see
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the car. So we must have not known that I
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: had went down that second road. After that, I carefully
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: drove back towards the highway again. I was able to
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: make it, and then I was able to use the
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: signs to get to the correct exit. I stopped at
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: a gas station, bought a new charger, and then was
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: able to make it to my hotel. Looking back, I
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: don't know who that guy was, why he followed me,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: or what he wanted. I don't think it was anything
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: good though, and I'm really glad that I got away
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: from him. I'm a female, and I went to a
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: college that was really far away from where I was from.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: It was several states away, and every time I went
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to and from college, it would be a bit of
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: a road trip, One time in particular, I was coming
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: home for the summer. It was a 10-hour drive, and
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: there were actually a couple of times where I did
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: the whole drive in one day, but this time I
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: was going to be making it in two. I was
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: going to stop at a hotel when it got really late.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: So that first day, I drove for a really long
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: time until it got late and I couldn't go any further.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I was really tired, and it was probably like 11 o'clock.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I was still a good four hours or so from home,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: so I decided to stop for some sleep. First, though,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I went to a gas station. It was a larger
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: one that was probably very common for people on road
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: trips to stop at. There were quite a few trucks
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: parked in the back for the night. I had to
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: use the restroom, so I parked and got out, then
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: went inside of the store. There were a few other
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: people inside, probably on road trips like me. I remember
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: that after using the bathroom, I got an energy drink,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: and I saw that there was just one person working
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: at the registers. There was a line of a few
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: people waiting to check out. So I got in line
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and then I remembered that this one guy got in
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: line behind me. When he did, he tapped me on
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: the shoulder and started talking to me. The guy had
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: sort of long hair, was wearing a hat, and kind
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: of had a gruff look to him. He was holding
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: a six-pack of natural light beer and after saying hi
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: to me, he asked if I was on a road trip.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I said yes, I was going home from college. The
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: man asked me where I was from and I told him. Then, surprisingly,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: he asked me if I needed a ride. I said no,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: and I was confused because I had literally just told
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: him that I was on a road trip. He continued
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: to talk to me though, asking me several more random
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: questions before it was my turn to check out. After
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I did, I walked back to my car. I remember
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: that when I got to my car, I noticed the
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: man leaving the store with the beer and cigarettes as well.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: He walked to this blue, really rusty old pickup truck
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: that was parked sort of far away from my car.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I then started up my car to leave, but realized
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: that I was sort of low on gas. so I
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: decided to fill up now so I wouldn't have to
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: do it in the morning. I backed up to an
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: open gas pump and then fueled my car. Afterwards, I
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: drove to a nearby motel. It was just this cheap motel,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: and it was a pretty short ways down the street.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I arrived, checked in, and then got my room key
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and went to my room and got ready for bed.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I remember that right before going to sleep, I decided
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: to check out the front window. It was one of
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: those motels that just has a sidewalk in front of
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the rooms and then the parking lot is right there.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: The window was completely covered, but when I moved the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: cover and I looked out, I saw the rusty blue truck.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: It was parked just in the parking lot in front
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: of my room. Then I noticed that the same guy
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: was in the driver's seat of it. Maybe this was
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: just a coincidence, but it seemed a little bit strange.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I went away from the window, got in bed, and
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: then tried falling asleep. I was pretty tired and was
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: able to fall asleep pretty quickly, but sometime in the night,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I woke up. I just remember that after I opened
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: my eyes, The first thing I noticed was the sound
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of somebody trying to open the door to my room.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I was suddenly wide awake. The person tried the door
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: a few times and then stopped. After not hearing anything
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: for a few moments, I got up and went over
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: to the door. I looked through the peephole but saw nothing.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: But I did hear a car door closing a distance
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: away in the parking lot, so I went over and
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: looked out of the window. When I did, I saw
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: that nobody was at the door anymore. Then I looked
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: to the blue truck. and saw that the man was
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: inside of it and in the driver's seat. That had
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: to have been him. If he had a room here,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: why wouldn't he be in it? I went over to
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the phone in the motel room, and I called the
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: front desk, but nobody answered. I was considering calling the police.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I went over to the bed and sat down, trying
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to relax. It was about one o'clock in the morning
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: by now. After laying down and going on my phone
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: a little bit, I was starting to feel better. Then, suddenly,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I heard a knock at the door. Once again, I
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: was instantly on edge. I listened, and after a few moments,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: whoever was there knocked again. I quietly got up and
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: walked over to the door. After looking through the peephole,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I saw the same man was there. Then I went
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: back over to the bed and called the police. I
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: told them what was going on. After I was told
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: they were on the way, I hadn't heard the knocking
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: or anything in a few minutes. I went back over
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: to the window and looked out. The man was still
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: there and still inside of his truck. Then I just
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: had to wait for police. I kept watching out the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: window the entire time. After about five minutes or so,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I saw a police car entering the parking lot. Right
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: when it did, the truck that the man was in
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: started up and began to drive away. The police car
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: noticed this and put on its flashing lights. They both
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: then drove out of my sight. However, about ten minutes later,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: another police officer showed up and knocked on my door.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: He told me that the police had pursued the rusty
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: truck and stopped it. The man was arrested for drunk driving,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: as well as having other drugs in the car. He
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: denied trying to enter my room, but admitted to knocking
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: on the door. I was just glad that he was
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: off the streets for the night. The next morning, I
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: was able to make it back home. That was definitely
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: my scariest road trip experience. A few years back, I
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: went on a road trip. I travel quite a bit
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: for work, and I end up driving all around the country.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: So on this particular road trip, I found myself driving
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: in sort of the middle of nowhere, really late at night.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty good at staying awake and driving at all
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: kinds of hours, but I need the help of caffeine
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to do so. So when I sensed that I was
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: starting to get a little bit sleepy, I knew that
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: I needed to stop. If I got out of the car,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: walked around a little, and had a caffeinated beverage, I
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: would be fine. So after driving down the highway for
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: a few more miles, I saw the sign for a
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: rest stop up ahead. I was happy to see this,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: and I pulled off. This rest stop was right off
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: the highway, and I mean literally right off of it.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: The exit went right into the parking lot, and then
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: you had to go back onto the highway. There were
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: no other roads. There was also a small woods in
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the area of land between the stop and the highway.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: When I pulled in, I noticed that there were zero
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: other cars around. The rest stop building was also fairly small.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I parked my car right in front of the building,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: got out, and looked around. It was really dark, but
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: there was one dim street lamp a little ways away.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Around the building was a little bit of open grass,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: and then woods on basically all sides of it. The
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: cool air outside felt refreshing, and after stretching my legs,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: I walked inside of the rest stop. It was an
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: older building, Inside, there was a small lobby with a
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: vending machine and some maps. The restrooms were straight ahead,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: and then to the right, there was what appeared to
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: be an old restaurant. It was one of those small
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: pizza places that you would sometimes see in rest stops
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: or travel centers, but it was now abandoned, and it
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: looked like it had been for several years. It was
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: sort of spooky. After briefly looking around inside, I figured
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: that I would get something from the vending machine, but first,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: I went into the restroom and used it. While I
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: was in there, I heard footsteps outside in the lobby
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: of the rest stop building. I figured somebody else had stopped.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: The person did not enter the restroom, though. When I
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: came out of the restroom like 30 seconds later, I
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: didn't see anybody. I went over to the vending machine,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: got a drink, and then casually walked around a little.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I looked out the window and then noticed that my
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: car was still the only one in the entire parking lot.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: This was strange. I was sure that I heard somebody
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: else inside the building, but where would they have come from?
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: I walked over to the abandoned restaurant and when I did,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: I thought I saw somebody moving quickly behind the old counter.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: It was really dark over there so I didn't see well.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: But if somebody was over there and seemingly hiding, I
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: didn't want to get involved. I decided at that point
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to just leave. So I turned and I started walking
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: for the doors. When I was almost there though, I
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: heard footsteps behind me like whoever was back there was
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: now leaving as well. After I got out of the
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: doors and was approaching my car, I heard the person
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: leave as well and they seemed to be moving quickly.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: I stopped and turned around to look at them. It
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: was a man. He was pretty thin, but kind of tall.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: He was really creepy looking and had long stringy hair.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: The guy was headed right towards me and approaching in
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: a really aggressive way. I wouldn't be able to get
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: inside my car on time before he reached me, so
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I decided to just run. I turned and I just
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: sprinted through the parking lot. I ran all the way
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to the other side. At first, the guy started chasing
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: after me, but he soon stopped When I got to
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the far end of the parking lot, I turned around
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: and I looked. The man was standing right next to
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: my car. I couldn't go back to it. I kept walking,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and then I went into the grass. Then I entered
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: the woods. I just wanted to get out of the
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: guy's view. After walking through the thick woods for a
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: little while, I called 911. After speaking with the operator,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: I told them my location and what was going on.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Then I waited. I could not see the guy from
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: where I was because I was that deep in the woods. Finally,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: I could sort of see flashing red and blue lights.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: I came out from the woods and I saw a
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: police car next to my car. An officer left his
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: vehicle and started walking behind the building. After a while,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: he came back over to me. He said that when
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: he got there, he thought he saw somebody running behind
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the building. He went back there, though, and couldn't find
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the person. He figured they were deep in the woods
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: by then. I talked to him about the situation. He
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: said that he would call another nearby unit and they
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: would check behind the building again, but that I could go.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: So after that, I was on my way. I'm not
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: sure if the police found the man or not. I'm
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: guessing that he was going to try to steal my car,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: but who knows? I'm really glad that I got away
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: from him.