Latest / True Horror Stories / 3 Creepy True Craigslist Horror Stories (Vol. 3) That Will Make You Question Your Purchases

Transcript

3 Creepy True Craigslist Horror Stories (Vol. 3) That Will Make You Question Your Purchases · True Horror Stories

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I was using Craigslist as a means of selling some
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: of my old, unused things I had stashed away in
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: my house. I had plans to move out in the
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: next few months, so I was just trying to organize
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: what I needed from what I didn't need. And that's
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: when I found my old motor tools. They were high
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: quality and still functional, but I had gotten battery powered
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: ones to replace them not long ago. With no use
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: for them anymore, I took a couple pictures and posted
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: them up on Craigslist. I had listed a power drill
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: driver and matching tool set for eighty dollars. Considering they
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: weren't that old and still fully functional, this was a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: really good deal. It didn't take long to give responses.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: In just an hour, I got two replies to my post.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: One of them emailed me asking if fifty dollars would
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: be okay, but I politely declined. The other reply stated
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: that they were very interested and wanted to buy them
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: that same night for the listed price. I agreed and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: said I was available at five if he wanted to
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: swing by and pick them up. I never let anyone
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: into my house when selling things. I'd always just bring
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the stuff out to my driveway and talk to them there.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: It was a well trafficked neighborhood street, so I wasn't
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: worried about anyone attempting something out in the open, as
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I usually did. I was going to stand out in
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the driveway with the items a bit before five and
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: wait for them so that I could make the transaction
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: as quick as possible. But just past four thirty there
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: was a knock at the door. I looked out, seeing
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a man standing there with his red car parked in
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the driveway. I opened the door a crack, asking who
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: he was. The man said he was here to buy
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the tools that were on Craigslist and admitted to being early.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I told him to hold on for a minute and
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: to just wait in his car, as I I wasn't
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: expecting him yet. He hesitated, making the interaction more awkward
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: than it should have been, but then he turned around.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Once he walked away, I got all the tools together
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and met him at the top of the driveway. I
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: hadn't outlet outside for him to test the tools with,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and he seemed satisfied with them. About twenty he said,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: while holding the drill. The deal was eighty I could
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: do a little lower, but twenties too low, I said nicely,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: though I was slightly annoyed because he had already agreed
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: to pay eighty dollars for them, and twenty dollars was
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: just a total ripoff. He put the drill down, and
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: without even looking at me, he walked back to his
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: car and drove away. I was confused and upset, feeling
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: like I'd been played and just had wasted my time.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I got the tools back inside and just went on
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: with my night, trying not to let myself get too
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: upset about it. Really, it was just a small inconvenience,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: at least that's what I thought. A couple hours later,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I walked by the front windows, and out of the
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: corner of my eye I saw that same red car.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: It was parked just down the road, three houses away
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: from mine. I looked closely, trying to be sure that
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: it was that same man, but nobody was inside it.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: It was an empty parked car, so I had no
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: way of knowing for sure. I convinced myself it was
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: just a coincidence, and carried on. Another hour would go by.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I was just going on with my night, making food
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and watching TV. But then someone knocked on my door.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I was a little shaken, but chose to ignore it
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and hope that whoever it was would go away. Obviously,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: the man from earlier was my first thought. Only thirty
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: seconds passed before they knocked again. Hey it's me. I
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: decided I'll take the tools I brought the money. He
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: yelled from the other side of the door. I didn't
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: believe him at all. It all came together in my
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: mind that that car that I'd seen an hour ago
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: was his, meaning that he'd been stalking my house all night.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't respond, and instead called the police, informing them
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: of the man's name in the car he had. The
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: man called out several more times, saying he wanted to
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: buy the tools, but then it went silent for a minute.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I was still standing by my couch, looking toward the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: front door. Another minute passed. I wasn't sure what to do.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: The police were already on their way and would be
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: here any minute, so I felt safe enough to be
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: able to check out the windows. I quietly walked over
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: to the window that was beside the door, but then
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: suddenly I heard something hit the s side of the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: house with great force. The sound was followed by leaves rustling,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: and footsteps running away. I looked out the window and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: saw the guy running with a limp down to his car.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: The police turned in at the perfect time, though, stopping
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: him halfway. It surprised me to hear that the man
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: admitted to a lot. He said he planned on robbing me,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: but I wouldn't let him into the house, which complicated
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: things for him. Additionally, he tried climbing the tree on
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the side of my house and jumping onto the roof,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: but he missed, hitting the side and falling on his leg.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: The thing is, though he was armed with a knife,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and the roof he tried to jump on was just
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: under my second story window, which after checking, was unlocked,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: so if he had made the jump, he actually would
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: have gotten inside. He claimed it was just an attempted robbery,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: but claims are just that. I stopped using Craigslist, and
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: even to this day, I lock every single window in
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: my house, even the ones that I think are unreachable.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I used Gregslist many years ago to find a room
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: for rent. I was looking for a house to stay
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: at and be able to split rent with a roommate
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: or roommates. It took maybe a week to find a
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: place that was suitable for me, and several phone calls
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: with the owner before I was ready to move in.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: The owner, who was to be my roommate, seemed like
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: a really normal, nice guy who was similar in age
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: as me. He told me all about the place and
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: what to expect, and I also felt like we connected well,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: with everything seeming perfect, I was getting really excited. I
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: didn't have much to move, so I packed it all
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: up and stuffed it in the trunk of my car,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and in just a few days, I drove out thirty
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: minutes to my soon to be home. It was located
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: outside of the main town and in more of a
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: woodsy terrain. It had a long driveway leading far from
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: the road pulling in. Though it was not as I'd expected.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: It was a very old wooden home. I knew it
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: was passed down from his parents, but this place looked
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: to be at least one hundred years old. The pictures
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: of the inside that I'd seen on Craigslist looked to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: be fairly modern, so I assumed they had to have
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: done some pretty big renovations. I left everything in my
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: car as I went up to the door and knocked Aaron,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the owner, came and showed me around. While the outside
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: was not so impressive, the inside was the opposite, very
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: well maintained, clean, and definitely had been renovated not long ago.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I was really happy with everything and moved my things
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: in that night. Several days went by with no issues.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: It didn't even feel like I'd found this place on Craigslist.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: It felt like I was just living with a friend.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Aaron worked in town, though, so he was gone most
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: of the time, and I worked from home, so I
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: got to have the whole house myself. Well not the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: whole house. There was one door that was always locked.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: It wasn't any of my business, and I knew that,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: so I never brought it up with Aarin, but it
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: still got me wondering. It was almost definitely the basement door.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: But this was odd because he said the house was
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: a one story home, not mentioning anything about having a basement.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Another couple of days went by before something happened. Aaron
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: brought home some fast food for dinner and then went
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: to bed early because he had worked the next day.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I stayed up a while longer and did the same
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: laying in bed, though I had trouble falling asleep. There
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: wasn't any reason for this. It was just one of
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: those nights. But after a while I heard Aaron's bedroom
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: door open. I was listening because there was nothing else
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: to do, but no sounds came. I waited a whole
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: two or three minutes before he started walking slowly down
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the hall towards my door. Just as he was passing
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: though he stopped, I heard the floorboards creak, followed by
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: the door thump softly, as if he was pressing up
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: against it. He stayed there behind the door for a while,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I don't even know how long, but then he walked away,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: not back toward his room, but the other way, toward
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the main hallway. Then a door opened and closed. I
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: didn't know what to think. It was really weird and creepy,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: but also I'd known Erin for a while now and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: didn't see him as a weird person. But what was
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: he doing and where did he go? I stayed awake
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: as long as I could, waiting to hear him come back,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: but he never did. Over the next few nights, I
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: noticed the pattern. Every time I would go to bed,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: about thirty minutes later, Erin would open his door, stand
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: still for a minute, then walk to my door, stand
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: still again, then leave and go into the locked door.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: He never slept in his room. He always slept somewhere
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: behind the weird locked door. What made it so creepy
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: was that he was trying so hard to keep a
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: secret from me. I decided one night that I was
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: going to figure this all out, because I was beginning
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: to feel unsafe. I went to bed and waited for
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Aaron to do his usual routine. He opened his bedroom
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: door and walked over to mine. Then as soon as
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I heard him unlock and open the other door, I
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: got up and quickly went into the hallway, catching him
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: standing by the open door. He looked back at me,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: clearly startled. Hey, is everything okay, Erin, I asked. He
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: just stared at me, eyes still open wide from the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: scare I gave him. Why do you keep going to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: that door every night? I broke the silence, getting impatient.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: We were standing on opposite sides of the long, dark hallway,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: but I could sense that something was wrong with him.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: We stared at each other still, and I took a
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: step closer Erin. As soon as I spoke his name,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: he ran around the corner and straight to the back door,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: opening it and continuing to run for the trees. I
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: looked out the back door, seeing him disappear into the
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: dark woods. I was shaking, horrified at what just happened.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I have no words to describe the unknown thoughts running
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: through my head. I closed the back door, then grabbed
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: a knife from the kitchen and walked over to the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: door Aaron had opened. It was in fact a basement,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: but there was no light switch, and it clearly had
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: not been renovated. Like the rest of the house. The
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: walls were old, decaying wood. I debated whether or not
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: to go down. I was so intrigued and curious, but
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: terrified as well. The longer I stood there, the more
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: afraid I became. I turned and ran back to my room,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: packed everything I could into two suitcases, stuffed them in
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: my car, and drove away, never looking back. I never
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: talked to Erin again, and he never tried to contact
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: me either. I didn't know what was going on with
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: him or what he was doing in that house, but
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to be involved. After a while, I
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: forgot about it, But almost five years later I found
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: myself wondering about it again. I looked up the house
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: online and found some strange things. It had been torn
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: down years ago. There was an article from five years ago,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: just a few months after I left, stating that the
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: house was abandoned. To me, this meant that when Aaron
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: ran away that night, he never came back. I kept
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: reading and it stated that the house was torn down
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: due to what they described as criminal findings. It didn't
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: go into any more detail about what those criminal findings were.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: This really had me shaken up for a few weeks.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Things like this probably wouldn't happen nowadays, but you can
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: never be too careful. I'm a twenty five year old
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: male and this happened to me three years ago. I
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: had just signed a lease for a small house in
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the town I lived in. Having been living in an
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: apartment for a few years, I didn't have a lot
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: of furniture or large house decorations to fill the space
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: in my rental. While I had a decent sized couch
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: and TV stand, I only had a mini TV that
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I wanted to put up in my bedroom since it
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: was so small. Not having a ton of money to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: work with though, I took to Craigslist to find a
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: larger TV for the living room. I found a few
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: nice flat screen TVs listed on the site. They were
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: all over my budget, though, and honestly a lot nicer
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: than I actually needed. I just wanted a large TV
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: to fill the space in my living room. I didn't
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: actually care about the quality of the picture on the
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: TV anyway. I finally found one that seemed to work
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: with what I needed. It was cheap, large, and was
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: said to be in working condition. It was an old
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: flat screen TV from probably ten years ago. Compared to today,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: they aren't even considered flat screens anymore, as they're usually
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: three to four inches thick and really heavy. I sent
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: the owner an email and continued with my search, finding
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: nothing else worth looking into. I just hoped for the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: best with that one TV. It wasn't until the following
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: morning that I received a response to my email. The
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: owner introduced himself as Mitch and said he'd love to
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: show me the TV whenever I was available. I don't
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: know if I just read it in a weird way
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: or what, but he seemed to be over the top
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: excited about this. It made me a little uncomfortable, but
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I just figured it was a happy, old man or
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: something I said I could do any day this week
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: after I got off work at six, and Mitch said
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: tomorrow at six thirty would be perfect for him, leaving
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: his address at the bottom of the email, along with
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: a Google Calendar invite to an event labeled as Craigslist TV.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I accepted it, though I wasn't really sure what the
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: purpose of it was, and it was definitely not a
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: normal thing people do, but it didn't affect me in
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: any way. I got my truck emptied out, and the
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: next day I went to work, then went straight to
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: his address afterwards. It was dark out by now, and
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: when I pulled it to his driveway, I saw all
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the lights were on Inside. I checked one last time
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: to make sure I had all the cash on hand,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: then got out of my truck and went to the
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: front door. Walking up, I could see that the front
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: door was partially open. There was no screen door or anything,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: just one main door. Thinking it was left open for me,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: I leaned over and peeked inside, but didn't see anyone,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: so I rang the doorbell. Right when the bell rang,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I heard something drop on the far end of the house.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Then it went quiet. There was something about that noise
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: that made me start getting nervous. After a moment, I
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: decided I had a bad feeling about this and was
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: just going to leave. But then footsteps came from behind
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the door, which then opened slightly wider, revealing a man
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: needs something. He said, half his body still behind the door.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Oh uh, yeah, I was here to look at your TV.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: We scheduled verse six thirty today. The man looked at
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: me for a second. All right, he opened the door
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: completely and let me inside. I will say at that moment,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I knew something was wrong. He wasn't acting at all
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: like he was in the emails. I expected a happy
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: old man, not a large, grumpy, middle aged dude. But
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I was already inside by the time all the alarms
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: were going off of my head head. The TV was
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: in the room right next to the door, so he
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: stood there while I looked at it. Yeah, this looks good.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I'll take it, I said, not even knowing if it
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: worked or not, but I wanted to get this over
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: with quickly. I held out the money. He looked at
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: it for a moment, then back at me. He reached
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: out and took it, then shoved it in his pocket
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: and without giving me any time to react. He grabbed
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: me by the shoulder and shoved me back towards the door,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: yelling at me to leave. I didn't argue, sprinted out
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: to my truck and drove away. Not long after, I
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: pulled to the side and called the police to let
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: them know I'd been robbed. The whole time, I was
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: just thinking about how stupid they were meeting me at
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: their own house, robbing me and letting me go, knowing
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: that I knew where they lived. But when the police
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: got to the house and called me back, I was
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: in complete shock hearing what they told me. Over that week,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: though things became more clear. The man I met at
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the house was not Mitch. Mitch, the owner of the house,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: was found unconscious in the kitchen. Thankfully he survived, though
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: he had some pretty bad injuries. The man I met
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: at the door was another customer Mitch was meeting from
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Craigslist to pick up some kitchen where he was also selling.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: He ended up beating him, robbing Mitch, likely just minutes
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: before I showed up. What's even crazier is that Mitch
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: had sent that man a Google calendar invite as well,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and the man accepted it. Probably unknowing that it showed
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: his email, which just so happened to be his first
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and last name. He was caught within a few days.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: During this whole case, I got to actually meet Mitch,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: and he was indeed a happy old man, even despite
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: what happened to him,