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5 CREEPY NEIGHBOR AT NIGHT HORROR STORIES ANIMATED · Martin Animations

0:03
Speaker 1: I live in a quiet, nice, suburban neighborhood with mostly
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Speaker 1: old people or families with kids. When I was younger,
0:10
Speaker 1: around the age of 8 to 12, me and my
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Speaker 1: two brothers, we'll call them J and K. One's a twin,
0:16
Speaker 1: and the other's two years younger than me. As well
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Speaker 1: as my neighbor, we'll call him C. We used to
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Speaker 1: play a game on my block outside at night that
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Speaker 1: we liked to call Murder Run. Sometimes, other kids would
0:27
Speaker 1: join in if my brother or I had friends over,
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Speaker 1: so most of the time, it was six or more
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Speaker 1: people The rules of the game were that one person,
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Speaker 1: or sometimes two, would go hide somewhere on our street
0:38
Speaker 1: within the boundaries that we set. Usually, the boundaries were
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Speaker 1: about 60 feet to the right of my house and
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Speaker 1: to the end of the block to the left. There
0:47
Speaker 1: were no rules on where you could hide, so sometimes
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Speaker 1: someone would be behind a tree or other times behind
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Speaker 1: a car. The hiders would be called the murderers. Our
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Speaker 1: house was in the middle of the two boundaries, so
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Speaker 1: you could go two ways. the rest of the group
1:01
Speaker 1: who we would call runners or the victims. While the
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Speaker 1: murderers were running to hide, the rest of us would
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Speaker 1: sit on the front steps of my house, close our eyes,
1:10
Speaker 1: and we would count to one minute. After the minute
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Speaker 1: had passed, we would open our eyes and decide which
1:16
Speaker 1: way we wanted to go. Usually, the group would split up.
1:19
Speaker 1: One section goes right, and the other goes left. The
1:23
Speaker 1: groups would pretty much just walk in the direction towards
1:25
Speaker 1: the boundaries, looking for shadows or under cars to see
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Speaker 1: if we could see the murderer. Eventually, when the murderer
1:31
Speaker 1: would see us, hopefully when we couldn't see them, they
1:34
Speaker 1: would jump out from wherever they were hiding and chase
1:37
Speaker 1: us back to the house. If the murderers caught you
1:39
Speaker 1: before you touched the front steps, you had to play
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Speaker 1: the murderer in the next round. The murderer carried a
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Speaker 1: small wooden sword that they would tag you with. It
1:46
Speaker 1: didn't mean anything in the game, but it added to
1:48
Speaker 1: the fun.
1:49
Speaker 2: This comes into play later.
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Speaker 1: One time, it was me, my two brothers, his one
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Speaker 1: friend who we will call H, and our neighbor playing,
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Speaker 1: so overall it was five of us. I think it
2:00
Speaker 1: was about 8.30 or 9 p.m., and it was September,
2:03
Speaker 1: so it was starting to get cold and dark earlier
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Speaker 1: in the day. We had already been playing a few rounds,
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Speaker 1: and we were starting to get tired, so we decided
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Speaker 1: to play one more round and then call it a day.
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Speaker 1: This time, it was C who had to be the murderer,
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Speaker 1: since he hadn't had a chance yet. So we gave
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Speaker 1: him the wooden knife, and we turned around and started counting.
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Speaker 1: Once we finished counting, we decided who would go what way.
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Speaker 1: My brother Jay was the fastest and wanted to be cool,
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Speaker 1: so he said he would go alone, but his friend
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Speaker 1: H wanted to go with him. They were both fairly fast,
2:35
Speaker 1: so I knew that they would win the round if
2:36
Speaker 1: C was on that side. So off we went. Me
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Speaker 1: and K went right, and Jay and H went left.
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Speaker 1: I can't even describe how much adrenaline you felt, even
2:45
Speaker 1: when you knew you couldn't get hurt. That's why I
2:48
Speaker 1: love this game so much. As we were walking, I
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Speaker 1: saw a small shadow from behind a thick tree, with
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Speaker 1: C's hair obviously showing beneath the streetlight. Just as I
2:57
Speaker 1: was about to say that I saw him, I heard
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Speaker 1: H and J scream from the other end of the boundary.
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Speaker 1: Someone was chasing them too. They were both running and laughing,
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Speaker 1: but I was not laughing. There were two possibilities here.
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Speaker 1: Either the person behind the tree not even five feet
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Speaker 1: in front of me wasn't C, or the person currently
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Speaker 1: chasing my brother and his friend wasn't C. But I
3:17
Speaker 1: heard something behind me and turned around and C was
3:20
Speaker 1: standing there asking why they were running. but when he
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Speaker 1: saw someone chasing them, his face went white. He was
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Speaker 1: two years older than us, and I had never seen
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Speaker 1: him scared, but he looked like he was going to
3:30
Speaker 1: be sick. I whipped my head around, and K started
3:33
Speaker 1: screaming at J and H to run. As soon as
3:36
Speaker 1: J and H saw C standing behind us, they turned
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Speaker 1: around and realized that the person they were being chased
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Speaker 1: by was not C. They stopped laughing and started running
3:44
Speaker 1: faster than I had ever seen them run in their lives. Instinctively, C, K,
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Speaker 1: and I also started running back to the house. We
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Speaker 1: were much farther away from the house than J and H.
3:54
Speaker 1: An important thing to note about the game is that
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Speaker 1: even if the murderer is on one side, if the
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Speaker 1: people who came that way make it back first, the
4:01
Speaker 1: murderer can still try to tag the others, even if
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Speaker 1: he went the other way to find them. J and
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Speaker 1: H were screaming now, but they weren't looking back. I
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Speaker 1: could see that they were most likely going to get
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Speaker 1: there after them, which worried me because I didn't want
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Speaker 1: to lose the game. Yes, that was what I was
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Speaker 1: worried about, until I saw what the man was holding.
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Speaker 1: C was still holding the wooden knife, but whoever was
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Speaker 1: chasing J and H was holding something shinier. I soon
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Speaker 1: realized that he was holding an actual knife. At this point,
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Speaker 1: my adrenaline was pulsing through me, and I couldn't think
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Speaker 1: of anything besides what would happen if I got there
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Speaker 1: after them. I screamed at K and C to leave
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Speaker 1: me and run as fast as they could to the house,
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Speaker 1: and they definitely did not protest. I was always the slowest,
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Speaker 1: which meant I pretty much always lost. Luckily, it didn't
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Speaker 1: seem like this other guy was very fast either. As
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Speaker 1: I was running, I saw him a little better.
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Speaker 2: He was wearing a.
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Speaker 1: Black sweatshirt and black sweatpants, but his shoes were white,
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Speaker 1: like bright white, not dirty at all. They looked like
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Speaker 1: they were fresh out of the box, which didn't make
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Speaker 1: much sense because the rest of his outfit was pretty
5:03
Speaker 1: scuffed up. When I got closer, I realized that his
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Speaker 1: whole outfit was a little too small for him, like
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Speaker 1: he was wearing all kids' sizes. It hit me that
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Speaker 1: he must have been trying to look like a kid.
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Speaker 1: Even his sneakers were too small for him, which may
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Speaker 1: have explained the weird way he was running, like he
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Speaker 1: had rocks in his shoes or something.
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Speaker 2: I was still running, almost to the stairs.
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Speaker 1: I spit out the blood in my mouth because of
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Speaker 1: how hard I was biting inside of my cheeks. Finally,
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Speaker 1: I saw J and H reach the stairs, with whoever
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Speaker 1: this guy was maybe 10 to 15 feet behind them,
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Speaker 1: just enough for me to beat him. C and K
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Speaker 1: got to the stairs seconds after J and H, and
5:40
Speaker 1: I reached them just after. What happened next was one
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Speaker 1: of the scariest things in my life. As soon as
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Speaker 1: I reached the stairs, as the last one, whoever this
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Speaker 1: guy was, just stopped, was standing on the sidewalk in
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Speaker 1: front of our house like a horror movie.
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Speaker 2: With his head tilted to the side. I couldn't see
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Speaker 2: his face.
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Speaker 1: He was backlit by the streetlight, so all we could
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Speaker 1: see was the silhouette of his tight-fit clothes, a bit
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Speaker 1: of his mouth that was surrounded by enough stubble to
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Speaker 1: tell him he was in his mid-to-late thirties, and the
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Speaker 1: sharp object in his hand. My brother was fumbling at
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Speaker 1: the door to get it opened. and the rest of
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Speaker 1: us were just crying, me the most as I was
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Speaker 1: holding my little brother.
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Speaker 2: But then he.
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Speaker 1: Just walked away, like he literally just walked down the
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Speaker 1: street and around the corner. But right as he got
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Speaker 1: to the little drops of blood I had spit out,
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Speaker 1: he stopped and turned his head back and smiled at me,
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Speaker 1: then continued walking. I took that moment to bust the
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Speaker 1: door down and drag everyone inside, lock it behind me,
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Speaker 1: and tell my parents what happened. We didn't call the
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Speaker 1: police because my dad went outside and couldn't see anyone.
6:40
Speaker 1: and after we told him that he went around the corner,
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Speaker 1: my dad just assumed that he went into the woods.
6:45
Speaker 1: We made sure to lock all the doors that night. Now,
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Speaker 1: the story mostly ends there since we never saw the
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Speaker 1: man again. But the other night, as I was walking
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Speaker 1: home from the bus, I remembered that story, and I
6:55
Speaker 1: was still confused why the man left, until a chill
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Speaker 1: ran up my spine when I realized he was playing
7:00
Speaker 1: the game. The scariest part, though, is that that night,
7:03
Speaker 1: We didn't explain the rules to anyone because everyone that
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Speaker 1: was playing that night already knew the rules, which means
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Speaker 1: that whoever was chasing us had been there prior to
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Speaker 1: that night and had been there when we explained the
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Speaker 1: rules at a different time. I still wonder why he
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Speaker 1: didn't chase us before the last round, and I still
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Speaker 1: wonder what would have happened if the two fastest runners
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Speaker 1: didn't go that way and if it was me instead.
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Speaker 1: It's still creepy that he knows where we live, and
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Speaker 1: I still get uncomfortable when I walk past that tree
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Speaker 1: that I saw him come out of. I still wonder
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Speaker 1: where he went and how long he had been watching
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Speaker 1: us for. I'm much older now, and my younger brother
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Speaker 1: is too young to remember. I don't talk to C
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Speaker 1: or H much anymore, and I'm pretty sure J blocked
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Speaker 1: it out of his memory. I don't want to bring
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Speaker 1: it up to any of them, but part of me
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Speaker 1: is curious how they remember that night, or if they
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Speaker 1: remember it at all. Before I tell this story, I
7:58
Speaker 1: will give you some background. I live in a neighborhood
8:00
Speaker 1: that's slightly out in the country. It's not in the
8:03
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere, but probably about 40 minutes from the
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Speaker 1: closest major city. The area has some farms and lots
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Speaker 1: of woods and things like that. Because it's quieter around
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Speaker 1: here and everybody has a little bit more land, there's
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Speaker 1: more wildlife. I like to go on walks around my
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Speaker 1: neighborhood because there's a lot of interesting things to see.
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Speaker 1: I usually start at my house and walk along the
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Speaker 1: side of the street because there are no sidewalks around here.
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Speaker 1: I will go for about a half a mile to
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Speaker 1: a mile and then turn around and head back. There
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Speaker 1: are a few quiet streets that lead to other neighborhoods.
8:35
Speaker 1: I rarely see anybody driving or walking when I go
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Speaker 1: on the walks. Occasionally, somebody walking a dog or something
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Speaker 1: like that, but usually nothing. There's also a park nearby
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Speaker 1: that's usually pretty quiet, but sometimes I go there and
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Speaker 1: then head back. Now, to start this story, it was
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Speaker 1: the evening and almost sunset. I was working a little
8:55
Speaker 1: bit later hours that week than usual. With it being
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Speaker 1: the early spring, the sun also set kind of early
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Speaker 1: as well. I walked from my house to the park
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Speaker 1: that was a little less than a mile away. When
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Speaker 1: I was on my way back, I heard a noise
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Speaker 1: in somebody's yard. It was the space between one house
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Speaker 1: and another, and there was a large amount of room
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Speaker 1: between them.
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Speaker 2: There were a few trees and bushes in that space.
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Speaker 1: It was dark, but it sounded like maybe a larger
9:21
Speaker 1: animal was behind one of the trees. I stopped and looked.
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Speaker 1: At first, I didn't see anything, but then what I
9:28
Speaker 1: did see shocked me. There was a man looking at
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Speaker 1: me from behind one of the trees. It was really dark,
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Speaker 1: but it appeared as though he was looking back at me.
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Speaker 1: When he saw me, he then ducked behind a tree.
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Speaker 1: This was kind of odd. I didn't think that the
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Speaker 1: man lived there, and I didn't recognize him. Sure, I
9:45
Speaker 1: didn't know all of my neighbors, but this behavior was
9:47
Speaker 1: just strange, and it didn't seem like he lived there.
9:50
Speaker 1: But there wasn't much about it that I could do,
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Speaker 1: so I kept walking home. Eventually, I made it back,
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Speaker 1: and everything was fine. But the very next night, I
9:58
Speaker 1: took another walk at around the same time. Once again,
10:01
Speaker 1: I saw this man. But this time, he was in
10:04
Speaker 1: a completely different neighbor's yard, kind of lurking around again.
10:07
Speaker 1: He kind of ducked behind a bush when I started
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Speaker 1: to walk by. This made me a lot more nervous
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Speaker 1: than I had been the previous night. I didn't even
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Speaker 1: really bother to look over and just kept on walking home.
10:18
Speaker 1: The man stayed there as I moved past, and that
10:21
Speaker 1: night I was able to make it home safely as well.
10:24
Speaker 1: Each night after making it home, I would forget about
10:26
Speaker 1: the man. The very next night, I once again went
10:29
Speaker 1: on a walk after work. I went to the park,
10:32
Speaker 1: and this time, when I got to the park, the
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Speaker 1: man was there. There was nobody else at the park,
10:37
Speaker 1: which was typical. It was usually really quiet. The guy
10:40
Speaker 1: was lurking around on the edge of the woods that
10:42
Speaker 1: surrounded part of the park. Overall, it was very suspicious.
10:47
Speaker 1: I decided to head back home almost as soon as
10:49
Speaker 1: I saw him. I was also kicking myself for even
10:52
Speaker 1: going out on a walk that night, forgetting about the
10:54
Speaker 1: suspicious guy lurking around the neighborhood. When I left the park,
10:58
Speaker 1: it only took about a minute before I heard the
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Speaker 1: footsteps behind me. They were a ways back, but it
11:03
Speaker 1: was a quiet night, so it was very easy to hear.
11:06
Speaker 1: He was probably at least 50 feet behind me. I
11:10
Speaker 1: sort of looked back and noticed him way off in
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Speaker 1: the distance. I tried to ignore it and kept going
11:15
Speaker 1: back home, but I was worried. What if the man
11:18
Speaker 1: followed me all the way back to my house? I
11:21
Speaker 1: also had no clue what he was even doing. Minutes
11:24
Speaker 1: went by, and things remained the same. I suppose I
11:27
Speaker 1: could have called the police, but the man would have noticed.
11:30
Speaker 1: I also had no proof of him doing anything wrong.
11:33
Speaker 1: I also sort of half expected the guy to jump
11:35
Speaker 1: into somebody's yard at any time and lurk around like
11:37
Speaker 1: he had been. By the time I finally made it
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Speaker 1: to my street, the guy was still behind me at
11:42
Speaker 1: about the same distance. I walked a little bit faster
11:46
Speaker 1: and was holding back everything within myself to not start
11:49
Speaker 1: sprinting right there. At long last, I reached my driveway. Now,
11:54
Speaker 1: I should mention that I have a really long driveway,
11:56
Speaker 1: so I wasn't in the clear just yet. The guy
11:59
Speaker 1: was still probably 50 feet behind me. I walked quickly
12:02
Speaker 1: up my driveway and felt relief for a minute, expecting
12:05
Speaker 1: the man to pass by and keep going down the road.
12:08
Speaker 1: But when I was almost at my front step, I
12:10
Speaker 1: thought I heard him starting to enter my driveway area.
12:13
Speaker 1: I got out my keys to unlock the door as
12:15
Speaker 1: quickly as possible. My hands were shaking in the process,
12:18
Speaker 1: making it harder. I could hear his footsteps gradually getting
12:22
Speaker 1: closer to me as I did. It seemed as though
12:24
Speaker 1: they were speeding up as well. Finally, my door was unlocked,
12:28
Speaker 1: and I swung it open. Once I was inside, I
12:31
Speaker 1: slammed it shut and turned the lock. Then I exhaled
12:34
Speaker 1: in relief. No more than five seconds later, I heard
12:37
Speaker 1: the doorknob turn. It wouldn't open, though. The man was
12:41
Speaker 1: right outside. and I was so scared that I ran
12:43
Speaker 1: to the opposite end of my house. A few minutes
12:46
Speaker 1: went by, and I listened closely. I returned to the
12:49
Speaker 1: front of the house after not hearing anything for several minutes.
12:52
Speaker 1: When I did, I looked outside, and the man was
12:55
Speaker 1: now gone. I looked out several other windows, but did
12:58
Speaker 1: not see him. After that night, I took a break
13:01
Speaker 1: from going on walks for a while. I'm not sure
13:03
Speaker 1: who the guy was, but.
13:05
Speaker 2: I didn't see him again. This is a true story.
13:17
Speaker 1: It happened to my family, and it involved my firstborn son,
13:21
Speaker 1: who is just a couple of months away from his
13:22
Speaker 1: eighth birthday. He was in second grade at the time.
13:27
Speaker 1: We were living in Tacoma, Washington back then, and I
13:30
Speaker 1: must admit that it has forever changed my life, especially
13:33
Speaker 1: in my role as a mother. It's been 27 years
13:36
Speaker 1: since this occurred, but it still haunts me to this day.
13:39
Speaker 1: A little backstory to put these events into perspective. January
13:43
Speaker 1: of 1995 was a traumatic month for our family. My son,
13:47
Speaker 1: up to this point, had been walking to and from
13:49
Speaker 1: his bus stop. The bus stop was a block and
13:52
Speaker 1: a half away from our house. The walk was a small,
13:55
Speaker 1: hilly walk, down to it in the morning and up
13:58
Speaker 1: in the afternoons. During that month of January, an elderly
14:02
Speaker 1: man from the Korean grocery store across the street was
14:05
Speaker 1: brutally murdered. I could see the shop from our bathroom window,
14:09
Speaker 1: and we also survived our first earthquake. so you can
14:12
Speaker 1: see that this was a traumatic month from the start.
14:15
Speaker 1: My son was used to traversing the alleyway that ran
14:17
Speaker 1: between the back of the houses on our street and
14:20
Speaker 1: the back of the houses on the next street. We
14:22
Speaker 1: were so used to this that it had become commonplace
14:25
Speaker 1: and there was not a worry in the world as
14:27
Speaker 1: to our son's safety until that fateful day in January
14:30
Speaker 1: of 1995. As usual, our day had started in the
14:34
Speaker 1: typical fashion. I arose at 6 a.m. in the morning
14:37
Speaker 1: to begin preparing our children for school. Our second oldest
14:41
Speaker 1: was the first to leave, because he was in special
14:43
Speaker 1: ed and had to be bused across the city to
14:45
Speaker 1: the west side of Tacoma.
14:47
Speaker 2: Then our oldest son left the house, as usual.
14:49
Speaker 1: We kissed goodbye, and I watched as he walked through
14:52
Speaker 1: the small housing complex we lived in and out the
14:54
Speaker 1: gate and started down the alleyway. Now, my next oldest son,
14:59
Speaker 1: who was only four at the time, was ready to
15:00
Speaker 1: go off to preschool, while my youngest son, at the
15:03
Speaker 1: tender age of three, was still at home with mommy.
15:06
Speaker 1: After I got son number three off to school, Then
15:09
Speaker 1: it was a typical day for myself, my husband, and
15:11
Speaker 1: our youngest. We lived in a small complex with four
15:15
Speaker 1: small houses, each one with a fenced yard and then
15:18
Speaker 1: another gate that enclosed the small complex. At the time
15:22
Speaker 1: of this incident, my husband and I were managing the
15:24
Speaker 1: property for our landlord, and so we had recently rented
15:27
Speaker 1: out the house next door to us. The tenant was
15:30
Speaker 1: a sweet old black lady with a head full of
15:32
Speaker 1: gray hair and just as nice as can be. She
15:35
Speaker 1: would be a delight to live next to and key
15:37
Speaker 1: to what happened this particular afternoon. Now, I'm not going
15:40
Speaker 1: to go into detail of my daily routine, as that's
15:42
Speaker 1: all irrelevant. What happens next will start in the afternoon,
15:46
Speaker 1: at the usual time that I knew my oldest son
15:48
Speaker 1: would be coming home from school. I was busy in
15:50
Speaker 1: the house, tending to the household chores, when I heard
15:53
Speaker 1: a frantic knocking at my front door. I opened it,
15:57
Speaker 1: and saw through the screen door that it was.
15:58
Speaker 2: My next-door neighbor.
16:00
Speaker 1: I don't remember her name now, although I'll never forget
16:02
Speaker 1: her heroic actions that day. I asked her what was wrong,
16:06
Speaker 1: because she had a panicked look on her face, and
16:08
Speaker 1: she was yelling at me, saying that someone was trying
16:10
Speaker 1: to kidnap my son. She had stepped outside and seen
16:13
Speaker 1: what was happening, and then ran to us. I screamed
16:16
Speaker 1: for my husband, and we ran out the front door,
16:18
Speaker 1: and to my horror, a man in a white sedan
16:21
Speaker 1: was trying to grab our son and pull him into
16:23
Speaker 1: the vehicle. I was screaming and going ballistic, while my
16:26
Speaker 1: husband started running towards the car, screaming, Get your hands
16:29
Speaker 1: off my son! I'm going to kill you! And I
16:32
Speaker 1: was screaming, Kill him, hon! We were both staring in
16:35
Speaker 1: horror while our son tried to get away. and then
16:38
Speaker 1: the man kept moving the car up a bit and
16:40
Speaker 1: opening his door to try to block our son. Our
16:43
Speaker 1: son's back was now against the fence that surrounded the complex.
16:45
Speaker 2: We lived in.
16:47
Speaker 1: At one point, he actually had his hand on our
16:49
Speaker 1: son's arm and was about to pull him into the
16:51
Speaker 1: car when the neighbors heard the commotion and jumped into action.
16:55
Speaker 1: At this point, our neighbors who lived across the alley
16:58
Speaker 1: and were drinking buddies of my husband heard the commotion
17:00
Speaker 1: and both of them, two brothers, leapt over the six-foot
17:04
Speaker 1: fence sprinted around to the front of the perp's car,
17:06
Speaker 1: and then one brother, out of respect for their privacy,
17:09
Speaker 1: I'm not giving their names, swept up our son into
17:11
Speaker 1: his arms and hurriedly brought him back to me and said, Here, Mom.
17:16
Speaker 1: In the meantime, the man just sat there, stone silent
17:18
Speaker 1: in his car, not moving at all. I stared into
17:21
Speaker 1: his eyes, and I can tell you one thing. I
17:24
Speaker 1: had never seen such dark, soulless eyes as I did
17:27
Speaker 1: when I stared into that man's black eyes. I shivered
17:30
Speaker 1: because it was like I was looking into the very
17:32
Speaker 1: eyes of utter darkness, the devil himself, He actually sat
17:36
Speaker 1: there long enough that we were all able to get
17:38
Speaker 1: a complete physical description of the man, the vehicle, and
17:41
Speaker 1: the license plate. My neighbor called the police. Of course,
17:45
Speaker 1: before they arrived, the man finally sped off, throwing gravel
17:48
Speaker 1: and dirt up in the wake of his departure. I
17:51
Speaker 1: still shudder to this day when I think of what
17:53
Speaker 1: would have happened if my neighbors across the alley hadn't
17:55
Speaker 1: come to our defense. That perp would likely have gotten
17:58
Speaker 1: our son into the car, and we would have never
18:00
Speaker 1: seen him again. One other thing that upset me is
18:04
Speaker 1: right before the man left, he pulled out a Polaroid
18:06
Speaker 1: camera and rapidly took a couple of shots of our son.
18:09
Speaker 1: That really creeped me out so much. The police arrived
18:13
Speaker 1: soon thereafter, or should I say one police officer, who
18:16
Speaker 1: looked like he couldn't have been more than 25 or
18:17
Speaker 1: 26 years old. Definitely late 20s, and at the time,
18:21
Speaker 1: I was only in my early 30s, so not much
18:23
Speaker 1: younger than myself. He definitely looked as though he had
18:26
Speaker 1: just come out of the police academy. My advice to
18:29
Speaker 1: all police, don't send a rookie out to investigate child
18:32
Speaker 1: abduction cases or near abduction cases. That young officer eyed
18:36
Speaker 1: me skeptically and just said that I was a hysterical mom.
18:39
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. Of course I'm going to be hysterical.
18:42
Speaker 1: Someone just tried to abduct our son. I'm sorry, but
18:45
Speaker 1: that should have been handled by a seasoned detective. This
18:48
Speaker 1: scarred me for life. And for a long time, almost
18:51
Speaker 1: three years, I wouldn't let our son out of my
18:53
Speaker 1: sight and made him hold my hand everywhere we went.
18:56
Speaker 1: and obviously, I went to extremes to protect my other
18:59
Speaker 1: children as well. Of course, he grew up and became
19:02
Speaker 1: irritated with my overprotectiveness, as I wouldn't let him out
19:05
Speaker 1: of my sight. He was almost ten and a half
19:06
Speaker 1: years old before he finally got out of the house
19:08
Speaker 1: and away from me, and that was because.
19:10
Speaker 2: Of his dad.
19:11
Speaker 1: He'd finally been allowed to leave the house and ride
19:14
Speaker 1: his bike down to the corner store. At this time,
19:16
Speaker 1: we were no longer living in the house where the
19:18
Speaker 1: near-abduction attempt occurred. As I conclude this, our son is
19:22
Speaker 1: now 35 years old, happily married, and is a successful
19:25
Speaker 1: auto mechanic with his own shop and business. We no
19:28
Speaker 1: longer live in Washington State, but have moved to another state.
19:31
Speaker 1: God bless all of you, and take care. It's a
19:33
Speaker 1: dangerous world out there.
19:40
Speaker 3: So, for context, I'm a 20-year-old female, and at the
19:44
Speaker 3: time of these events, I was around 12 to 13. So,
19:46
Speaker 3: I grew up up in a very rural area. Like,
19:52
Speaker 3: my town was so small that it was legally considered
19:55
Speaker 3: a village. My house is one of four on a
19:58
Speaker 3: span of about 40 acres. There was my childhood home,
20:03
Speaker 3: my grandparents' house that was right up the street, and
20:06
Speaker 3: two neighbors. One of the neighbors we'll call Tee. had
20:10
Speaker 3: been living across near my family for as long as
20:12
Speaker 3: I could remember, and he rented out a trailer he
20:15
Speaker 3: owned which was inhabited by the fourth neighbor, who we'll
20:18
Speaker 3: call Jay. Jay and his girlfriend, who we'll call A,
20:22
Speaker 3: had moved in just a few months before these events,
20:25
Speaker 3: and I hadn't really met them. I knew of them,
20:28
Speaker 3: but I hadn't interacted with them directly. The day that
20:32
Speaker 3: I met Jay and A was extremely awkward, as I
20:35
Speaker 3: was a kid, and I didn't really want to talk
20:38
Speaker 3: to them. but my grandma had made me go with
20:41
Speaker 3: her to drop off some vegetables that she had grown
20:43
Speaker 3: in her garden. When they came out right after my
20:46
Speaker 3: grandma knocked on their trailer door, I was first struck
20:49
Speaker 3: by how they looked. I know that it sounds bad,
20:52
Speaker 3: but I'm not judging, but I know that both of
20:55
Speaker 3: them were addicted to meth. My grandma started the conversation,
21:00
Speaker 3: and I tried to be polite as I was raised
21:02
Speaker 3: to be, by then introducing myself when told to do so.
21:07
Speaker 3: I wasn't really able to finish my sentence as I
21:10
Speaker 3: noticed Jay was staring at me very intently. He looked
21:14
Speaker 3: like he was either mad or hungry or even both.
21:18
Speaker 3: Not the creepiest off the bat as they both seemed
21:21
Speaker 3: polite enough and I brushed off the stare as just
21:24
Speaker 3: him trying to be polite, looking at me as I
21:27
Speaker 3: spoke to him as most people do. The creepy part
21:31
Speaker 3: is that as time went on, he began to try
21:33
Speaker 3: and be near me more and more He'd ride his
21:37
Speaker 3: bike past our house over and over for what seemed
21:39
Speaker 3: like hours, all while me and my brother played catch
21:42
Speaker 3: in the yard. Then he began to go to church
21:45
Speaker 3: with me, my brother, and my grandparents. He made sure
21:49
Speaker 3: to sit next to me in the backseat of the
21:51
Speaker 3: car as he rode with us. If my brother tried
21:54
Speaker 3: to sit in the middle so I wasn't right next
21:56
Speaker 3: to Jay, he'd throw a fit about how my brother
21:59
Speaker 3: was squishing him against the door. Then he began coming
22:03
Speaker 3: to my grandma's house whenever she'd have me and my
22:05
Speaker 3: brother after school offering to tutor me with various subjects.
22:09
Speaker 3: What really scared me was that I began to see
22:12
Speaker 3: him walking near our house at night, trying to shine
22:15
Speaker 3: a flashlight into my window. He tried various things to
22:18
Speaker 3: get close to me. He tried to convince my parents
22:22
Speaker 3: to let him teach me how to golf, tried to
22:24
Speaker 3: help me practice my catching positions for softball, and he
22:28
Speaker 3: tried to get me to go with him and A
22:29
Speaker 3: to the movies. And also, none of these things ever
22:33
Speaker 3: included my brother. Only me. Things finally came to a
22:38
Speaker 3: head when I was playing with my dog outside in
22:40
Speaker 3: our front yard, and he had started repeatedly doing laps
22:43
Speaker 3: on his bike down the road again, staring at me
22:47
Speaker 3: just like he did the day we met. I was
22:50
Speaker 3: extremely uncomfortable, as you can all imagine. I've always had
22:54
Speaker 3: very good intuition about people, and something was just really
22:58
Speaker 3: off with him. But that day, I was terrified. He
23:03
Speaker 3: parked his bike right in the middle of the road
23:05
Speaker 3: and got off. He started walking towards me at almost
23:09
Speaker 3: a jog and I just kept backing away from him.
23:13
Speaker 3: What happened next is why I honestly believe that dogs
23:16
Speaker 3: are a much better judge of character than people could
23:18
Speaker 3: ever hope to be. My boxer dog ran up to
23:22
Speaker 3: him and launched herself onto him when he was about
23:25
Speaker 3: six feet away from me. She tore into his arm
23:28
Speaker 3: and I saw blood. I started to scream, and my
23:32
Speaker 3: mom ran out shortly after. She was trying to pull
23:36
Speaker 3: my dog off of him, but as soon as she
23:38
Speaker 3: was able to, holding onto the dog's collar, she started
23:42
Speaker 3: yelling at him, asking why he was in our yard
23:45
Speaker 3: in the first place with me all alone. He couldn't
23:48
Speaker 3: answer her, and he just started running back to his bike,
23:51
Speaker 3: riding back to the trailer. My grandma ended up driving
23:55
Speaker 3: him to the hospital, as JNA didn't have a car.
23:59
Speaker 3: and I learned later on that he got 16 stitches
24:01
Speaker 3: from the bite. He never gave a reason as to
24:05
Speaker 3: why he was approaching me, and they ended up moving
24:08
Speaker 3: out shortly after. I haven't seen him since, and I'm
24:12
Speaker 3: still terrified to this day to run into him again.
24:19
Speaker 4: A few years ago, I was renting a house in
24:22
Speaker 4: Northern California. The neighborhood was just outside the suburbs. it
24:27
Speaker 4: seemed like the perfect balance of having space and having
24:30
Speaker 4: nice neighbors close enough not to feel isolated. The area
24:35
Speaker 4: had no streetlights, so it was very dark at night,
24:38
Speaker 4: especially when there were clouds blocking the moonlight. I got
24:43
Speaker 4: home from work one day in midwinter. It was a
24:46
Speaker 4: cloudy night, so pulling up to my house, I saw
24:50
Speaker 4: only what my headlights and front porch light illuminated. When
24:54
Speaker 4: I exited my car... I caught the faint whiff of
24:58
Speaker 4: cigarette smoke. That was odd, but I didn't see anybody outside,
25:04
Speaker 4: so I ignored it and went in. I just got
25:08
Speaker 4: off my shift with a few hours overtime, so I
25:11
Speaker 4: felt pretty tired, even though it wasn't even 7 o'clock yet.
25:15
Speaker 4: I decided to take a shower and call it a night.
25:21
Speaker 4: I woke up sometime later. I was sure that I
25:24
Speaker 4: heard a noise inside of my house. I wasn't worried
25:28
Speaker 4: right away, because my friend would sometimes stop by to
25:32
Speaker 4: use my shower after work. I even gave him a
25:34
Speaker 4: spare key. However, he would always text me beforehand, and
25:39
Speaker 4: I hadn't heard my phone go off. I reached over
25:43
Speaker 4: to my bedside table to see if my friend had
25:46
Speaker 4: sent me a text. The bright light from my phone's
25:49
Speaker 4: screen blinded me. These were the days before phones had
25:53
Speaker 4: light sensors that would dim the screen in the dark,
25:57
Speaker 4: and this particular phone was so bright that I could
26:00
Speaker 4: use it as a flashlight. I squinted my eyes and
26:03
Speaker 4: could make out that it was nine-something in the morning,
26:07
Speaker 4: but I couldn't tell if I had an unread message
26:08
Speaker 4: in my inbox or not. I sat down my phone
26:13
Speaker 4: and called out my friend's name. There was a couple
26:16
Speaker 4: of seconds of silence, followed by loud footfall. as someone
26:21
Speaker 4: started moving through the bottom floor of my house. I
26:29
Speaker 4: leapt out of bed and ran to the closet. They
26:33
Speaker 4: were already up the stairs by the time I opened
26:35
Speaker 4: the door and stepped inside. The house had three rooms upstairs,
26:41
Speaker 4: the bedroom that I was in, and a spare, with
26:44
Speaker 4: a bathroom at the end. The bedroom doors were both closed,
26:48
Speaker 4: but the bathroom door was cracked open. I heard whoever
26:52
Speaker 4: was in my house thunder down the hallway past my
26:56
Speaker 4: door and into the bathroom. That gave me enough time
27:03
Speaker 4: to open the attic access in my ceiling and hoist
27:06
Speaker 4: myself inside. I had just started to lift myself up
27:11
Speaker 4: when the person came barging out of the bathroom. My
27:15
Speaker 4: feet were barely inside the attic when my bedroom door
27:20
Speaker 4: flew open. I heard the footsteps run into my room
27:24
Speaker 4: and then stop. When they didn't see me in that room,
27:28
Speaker 4: they ran back to the hallway and into the other room,
27:32
Speaker 4: which had boxes stacked in the corner, some weights, and
27:36
Speaker 4: a table where I painted my miniature models. I guess
27:39
Speaker 4: they decided that if someone was hiding, it would be
27:42
Speaker 4: in the first bedroom because they charged back into my
27:46
Speaker 4: room and turned on the light. A moment later, The
27:51
Speaker 4: closet door was ripped open. I was crouched in my attic,
27:56
Speaker 4: just a foot or so away from the access, so
27:59
Speaker 4: I could try to stop them if they began to
28:01
Speaker 4: climb up. From my vantage point, I could see from
28:04
Speaker 4: about their knees down. They were wearing a dirty pair
28:08
Speaker 4: of blue jeans with frayed cuffs and worn-out work boots.
28:14
Speaker 4: After a few seconds of looking around my closet, they
28:18
Speaker 4: stepped away, and I heard a loud crash come from
28:21
Speaker 4: my room, followed by a scream of frustration. The scream
28:32
Speaker 4: was the most unnerving part of the incident for me.
28:35
Speaker 4: It reminded me too much of my stepfather, who would
28:39
Speaker 4: shout in a similar way whenever he lost his temper.
28:43
Speaker 4: He would eventually be committed to a mental hospital. The
28:48
Speaker 4: man inside of my house ran back down the stairs.
28:52
Speaker 4: I heard crashes and clatters. As things were thrown around
28:57
Speaker 4: and furniture was knocked over, I stayed hidden in the attic.
29:02
Speaker 4: I left my cell phone by my bed when I
29:05
Speaker 4: ran for the closet. I wasn't certain if I could
29:08
Speaker 4: climb down without him hearing. After some time, the noises stopped.
29:15
Speaker 4: I started counting slowly. When I reached 1,000, I decided
29:21
Speaker 4: it was safe enough to climb down and call the cops.
29:26
Speaker 4: The first thing I noticed when I exited the closet
29:29
Speaker 4: was the intruder had flipped over my bed, I assume
29:33
Speaker 4: in some attempt to find me. I couldn't find my
29:36
Speaker 4: cell phone, so I used my landline to call the cops.
29:41
Speaker 4: I waited in my room until I heard them call
29:43
Speaker 4: out from downstairs. The first floor was a mess, but
29:49
Speaker 4: that was something I expected. Chairs had been knocked over,
29:53
Speaker 4: the sofa had been flipped, all the books, pictures, and
29:59
Speaker 4: were strewn across the floor. The cupboards in the kitchen
30:02
Speaker 4: had been opened, and all the boxes and cans had
30:05
Speaker 4: been thrown to the ground. As far as I could tell, though,
30:09
Speaker 4: the only thing that was missing was a single knife
30:13
Speaker 4: out of the wooden block in my kitchen. The police
30:17
Speaker 4: checked my house from top to bottom. They found out
30:20
Speaker 4: that the side door had been forced open by a crowbar.
30:24
Speaker 4: They also found a few cigarette butts along the fence line.
30:28
Speaker 4: along with some foil and an empty pen tube, which
30:31
Speaker 4: the police said people often use to smoke meth. So
30:35
Speaker 4: whoever it was had been watching my house for a while.
30:39
Speaker 4: I realized that he must have been smoking a cigarette
30:41
Speaker 4: when I got home. They collected up the evidence and
30:45
Speaker 4: told me that I should stay with friends and family
30:47
Speaker 4: for the rest of that night and get the door
30:49
Speaker 4: fixed as soon as possible. I opted to just not
30:53
Speaker 4: sleep and moved a shelf over to block the broken door.
30:57
Speaker 4: and spent the next few hours cleaning things up. I
31:02
Speaker 4: would often go to the window with a flashlight and
31:04
Speaker 4: shine it along the fence where the police had found
31:07
Speaker 4: the cigarette butts, but I never saw anything. The next
31:12
Speaker 4: day I called to have the door fixed and motion
31:15
Speaker 4: lights installed at the back and sides of my house.
31:19
Speaker 4: I ran a phone cable into the attic and added
31:22
Speaker 4: a landline. I never wanted to be stuck up there
31:25
Speaker 4: without a phone again. I lived there for another three
31:28
Speaker 4: years without incident. One more precaution I took was practicing
31:34
Speaker 4: getting out of my bed, going to my closet, and
31:38
Speaker 4: climbing into the attic as quickly and quietly as possible.
31:42
Speaker 4: I even kept at it when I moved, except now
31:45
Speaker 4: I go to a crawlspace in the back of my closet.
31:49
Speaker 4: I try not to think about what would have happened
31:51
Speaker 4: if I had been just a bit slower, or if
31:54
Speaker 4: he hadn't gone into the bathroom. before making his way
31:57
Speaker 4: to my bedroom.