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6 FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE HORROR STORIES ANIMATED · Martin Animations

0:01
Speaker 1: Breakups suck. We all know it. Not long ago, I
0:05
Speaker 1: broke up with my ex of nearly 10 years. It
0:08
Speaker 1: was over long before then, but I have a hard
0:11
Speaker 1: time ending things. She's a sensitive person, and whenever the
0:14
Speaker 1: subject of ending it came up over the years, well,
0:18
Speaker 1: let's just say that she would go into shutdown mode.
0:21
Speaker 1: I realized prolonging the relationship was making it worse, but
0:24
Speaker 1: I didn't understand that at the time. I also want
0:27
Speaker 1: to mention, to protect everyone's privacy, that I won't be
0:31
Speaker 1: using names or locations in the story. I'm still close
0:34
Speaker 1: with the family, and they've already dealt with enough in
0:36
Speaker 1: their life, and I don't want to bring more stress
0:39
Speaker 1: in there. When I finally ended it for good, it
0:43
Speaker 1: went about as well as you can imagine. She took
0:45
Speaker 1: it horribly, and it was a few rough weeks of fighting, crying,
0:48
Speaker 1: and even some threats. But eventually, the split was final.
0:53
Speaker 1: She moved in with her aunt, who lived about an
0:55
Speaker 1: hour away, I think, but I'm not exactly sure. Since
0:59
Speaker 1: I stayed in the house, I ended up giving her
1:01
Speaker 1: a lot of the furniture, which was fine with me.
1:04
Speaker 1: I make decent enough money that I could afford new
1:06
Speaker 1: couches and whatnot. I planned on going to one of
1:10
Speaker 1: the big chains to get all of my new furniture,
1:12
Speaker 1: but in the short term, I needed something in my
1:15
Speaker 1: house to sit on since I was watching TV in
1:17
Speaker 1: a lawn chair. I looked on Marketplace to see if
1:21
Speaker 1: I could find anyone who was just trying to get
1:23
Speaker 1: rid of some furniture. What I found was this super
1:26
Speaker 1: ugly yellow love seat. I know that sounds disgusting, but
1:30
Speaker 1: I have this weird fascination with the color yellow, so
1:33
Speaker 1: I was all about it. But the most exciting thing
1:35
Speaker 1: to me was that the woman was selling it for $ 40,
1:39
Speaker 1: and it looked like it had never been sat on before.
1:42
Speaker 1: I messaged the woman and set up a time to
1:44
Speaker 1: come see the loveseat. She lived about 40 minutes away,
1:48
Speaker 1: but I didn't mind the drive. I drove out to
1:50
Speaker 1: the small house that sat in a sort of semi-secluded area.
1:54
Speaker 1: I knocked on the door, and an elderly woman answered.
1:58
Speaker 1: I told her that I was there for the love
1:59
Speaker 1: seat and she looked scared. She screamed that she didn't
2:03
Speaker 1: know who I was or what I was talking about
2:05
Speaker 1: and she slammed the door in my face. I went
2:08
Speaker 1: back to my car and checked the address in my messages.
2:12
Speaker 1: This was clearly the address so I messaged her and
2:14
Speaker 1: told her that I was there. But a woman closed
2:16
Speaker 1: the door on me. This woman responded several minutes later
2:21
Speaker 1: and said, Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. That's my grandmother.
2:25
Speaker 1: I live in the garage out back. Just walk out
2:27
Speaker 1: back and come on in. I was a little annoyed,
2:31
Speaker 1: but I wanted that love seat, so I made my
2:33
Speaker 1: way to the garage that was in the backyard, as
2:35
Speaker 1: she said. I knocked on the door, and the sort
2:38
Speaker 1: of muffled voice responded, saying, Come in. So I walked in,
2:42
Speaker 1: looked around, but I didn't see a love seat. And
2:45
Speaker 1: in fact, the inside was just a normal garage. I
2:49
Speaker 1: shouted hello, but I didn't hear an answer. And just
2:53
Speaker 1: as I was about to leave from an adjacent room,
2:56
Speaker 1: A small person seemed to charge me. This figure had
3:00
Speaker 1: enough of a surprise start on me that she was
3:02
Speaker 1: able to jump on me, knocking me off my feet.
3:06
Speaker 1: She was wearing something on her head, and it was
3:08
Speaker 1: dark in the garage so I wasn't able to see
3:10
Speaker 1: her face. She was yelling and screaming, and finally whatever
3:15
Speaker 1: it was came off. And I saw. It was my ex-girlfriend.
3:21
Speaker 1: I'm not even joking. I was so flabbergasted, and I
3:26
Speaker 1: was able to push her off, and instead of running,
3:28
Speaker 1: I just got up and started yelling at her. Her
3:31
Speaker 1: tone changed instantly from erratic to crying her eyes out.
3:36
Speaker 1: I went over to try and console her, even though
3:38
Speaker 1: I was furious and very, very confused. She was uncontrollably crying.
3:44
Speaker 1: I was trying to calm her down, and that's when
3:46
Speaker 1: it happened. She pulled out like some box cutter or
3:50
Speaker 1: something like that, and just cut my shoulder. In that moment,
3:55
Speaker 1: I screamed. wincing in pain and ripped the small blade
3:58
Speaker 1: out of my shoulder and just threw it to the ground.
4:01
Speaker 1: I started to howl and in the ten years of
4:03
Speaker 1: knowing this woman I'd never seen her act or sound
4:06
Speaker 1: like this. She grabbed the blade off the ground and
4:09
Speaker 1: started to slash the air in front of me. I
4:12
Speaker 1: think she was trying to make contact with me but
4:14
Speaker 1: in between all of her sobs she was just thankfully unsuccessful.
4:20
Speaker 1: I was able to get to my feet, running to
4:22
Speaker 1: my vehicle screaming and I called the police right away
4:25
Speaker 1: and informed them of what had happened. They showed up
4:28
Speaker 1: pretty quickly, and thank God she was arrested. Getting attacked
4:33
Speaker 1: was horrifying, but watching someone I care about be taken
4:37
Speaker 1: away by the police was incredibly traumatic. The woman I
4:41
Speaker 1: watched get put in the back of the police car
4:43
Speaker 1: was not the same woman I used to love. I
4:46
Speaker 1: still can't believe her plan actually worked. There was no
4:49
Speaker 1: guarantee that I would ever check Marketplace for furniture, but
4:52
Speaker 1: I did. She knew I would be attracted to this
4:55
Speaker 1: ugly yellow couch if I did, and she was right.
4:59
Speaker 1: She told me that she was moving in with her aunt,
5:01
Speaker 1: which was true. Her aunt lived several houses down from
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Speaker 1: that poor elderly woman who had to deal with the
5:07
Speaker 1: fallout of all this nonsense, and the last thing I
5:10
Speaker 1: knew was that she was being moved somewhere to get treatment.
5:14
Speaker 1: I decided not to press criminal charges, and I'm even
5:17
Speaker 1: helping with some of her medical bills. Sometimes it's the
5:21
Speaker 1: people closest to us that can cause us the most harm,
5:25
Speaker 1: I don't know what clicked off in her brain that
5:27
Speaker 1: made attacking me seem like some sort of solution. I
5:30
Speaker 1: feel terrible for her, and I truly hope that she
5:33
Speaker 1: gets all the help that she needs. For anonymity, I'm
5:41
Speaker 1: going to leave out some details from my story that
5:43
Speaker 1: I'm sharing with all of you. All my wife wanted
5:47
Speaker 1: for her 31st birthday was to go on her favorite
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Speaker 1: country artist's summer tour. The average ticket price for even
5:54
Speaker 1: mediocre seats seemed to be over $ 200 which was surprising
5:58
Speaker 1: to me. I didn't go to many concerts but I
6:01
Speaker 1: thought it would be cheaper than that. Anyway, I got
6:04
Speaker 1: lucky and the tour was coming pretty close to our
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Speaker 1: hometown and I knew that it would be the perfect gift.
6:09
Speaker 1: The tickets were going to be on sale on a
6:11
Speaker 1: Tuesday and since I was working I was going to
6:14
Speaker 1: get online and grab them after work. Well again, my
6:18
Speaker 1: ignorance of the concert scene came into play and the
6:21
Speaker 1: show sold out almost immediately and I saw that there
6:23
Speaker 1: was absolutely nothing available when I got home from work.
6:27
Speaker 1: I was texting with one of my buddies, and he
6:29
Speaker 1: told me that I could look on the secondary market
6:32
Speaker 1: for seats, but I would probably have to pay an upcharge.
6:36
Speaker 1: I was excited that there was still a chance, though.
6:38
Speaker 1: I began scrolling through the main sites, StubHub, Vivid Seats,
6:42
Speaker 1: and all those others. After limited success, I switched gears
6:46
Speaker 1: and began looking at Craigslist and Facebook groups and markets
6:49
Speaker 1: to see if I could find anything from a local seller.
6:53
Speaker 1: I sent a few messages out but hadn't really received responses,
6:56
Speaker 1: and the ones that did respond were increasing the price
6:59
Speaker 1: after every message it seemed like. As the days and
7:02
Speaker 1: weeks rolled on, though, I was getting ready to give up,
7:05
Speaker 1: until I found someone selling two tickets for what seemed
7:08
Speaker 1: to be a reasonable price. Their name was Victor, and
7:12
Speaker 1: he had the tickets listed on Facebook Marketplace. I messaged
7:16
Speaker 1: him in a hurry, praying that they were still available.
7:19
Speaker 1: I didn't receive a response in the next half hour
7:21
Speaker 1: or so and I assumed that they were most likely
7:23
Speaker 1: spoken for. I decided to get some sleep and just
7:26
Speaker 1: went to bed, pretty disappointed. However, when I got up
7:30
Speaker 1: for work the next morning, I had a message from
7:33
Speaker 1: that Victor. He sent the message at around 4am and
7:36
Speaker 1: said that the tickets were still available. I was ecstatic
7:39
Speaker 1: and asked when I could grab them or meet to
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Speaker 1: pick them up. He replied and said that he had
7:44
Speaker 1: a few other inquiries so I would need to send
7:47
Speaker 1: the payment via PayPal and then we could schedule a
7:50
Speaker 1: time to meet up. He was okay with using PayPal
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Speaker 1: goods and services, so I knew my money would be
7:55
Speaker 1: protected if he was trying to scam me. I quickly
7:58
Speaker 1: sent the payment, and he confirmed that it was received.
8:02
Speaker 1: He said that he could send the tickets virtually or
8:04
Speaker 1: provide the physical copy of the tickets if that was preferred,
8:07
Speaker 1: and since it was a gift, I asked if he
8:09
Speaker 1: could meet up for the physical copies, and he said
8:12
Speaker 1: he had no problem with that. We made a plan
8:15
Speaker 1: to meet at a local grocery store at about 8 p.m.
8:17
Speaker 1: so I could get the tickets. I showed up a
8:20
Speaker 1: little early and parked in the back left of the
8:22
Speaker 1: lot as we agreed to. About 50 minutes later, an
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Speaker 1: old Marin Oldsmobile pulled up and sat a few spaces
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Speaker 1: away from my car. I wasn't sure if it was
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Speaker 1: Victor or not, so I just waited. After about five minutes,
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Speaker 1: the door to the other car opened and I asked, Hey,
8:39
Speaker 1: are you Victor? And they responded, Yes. Hi, thank you,
8:43
Speaker 1: thank you. I appreciate you buying these for me. Here
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Speaker 1: are your tickets. Now, we small-talked for about a minute
8:49
Speaker 1: or so, and I thanked them and said that they
8:51
Speaker 1: were for my wife's birthday, and we both went our
8:53
Speaker 1: separate ways. I wrapped them up in a box for
8:56
Speaker 1: my wife and gave them to her for her birthday,
8:58
Speaker 1: and she was so excited that we would be going
9:01
Speaker 1: to the concert just a few short weeks later. We
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Speaker 1: get to the concert, and everything was amazing. The seats
9:08
Speaker 1: have a really great view, we've already grabbed some drinks,
9:11
Speaker 1: and we're having a fantastic time. About 15 minutes into
9:15
Speaker 1: one of the opening acts... someone tapped me on the
9:17
Speaker 1: shoulder and said, Hey, great to see you. And I
9:21
Speaker 1: kid you not, it was Victor. I was like, Oh, hey,
9:25
Speaker 1: what's going on? And he responds, Sorry, I'm.
9:28
Speaker 2: A little late.
9:29
Speaker 1: The traffic was crazy. Victor reached across me and put
9:32
Speaker 1: his hand out to introduce himself to my wife and said,
9:35
Speaker 1: I'm really glad you can make it. My wife, who
9:38
Speaker 1: was polite enough, didn't say anything to me immediately, but
9:41
Speaker 1: after saying hello and introducing herself, she pulled me aside
9:45
Speaker 1: and asked, who that was. I told her it was
9:48
Speaker 1: the guy that I bought the tickets from. I didn't
9:50
Speaker 1: know that he was going to be there. I thought
9:52
Speaker 1: he was just selling the tickets. Now listen, Victor seemed
9:56
Speaker 1: like a really nice guy, and I had no problem
9:58
Speaker 1: sitting next to him for the entire show while my
10:01
Speaker 1: wife took the aisle seat, but some of his comments
10:04
Speaker 1: throughout the night were pretty confusing. He was making it
10:07
Speaker 1: seem like we had all made this plan to go together,
10:09
Speaker 1: and that we were a group of friends just hanging out.
10:14
Speaker 1: I was polite and tried to answer him every time
10:16
Speaker 1: he said something, but there was definitely a few times
10:19
Speaker 1: that I just tuned it out and enjoyed the show
10:21
Speaker 1: and made sure my wife was having a good time.
10:24
Speaker 1: Anytime he would say I'm really glad we got together
10:27
Speaker 1: or something weird like that, I would just give him
10:29
Speaker 1: a half smile and sort of nod. Clearly there was
10:32
Speaker 1: something wrong with this Victor guy. My wife was having
10:36
Speaker 1: a blast though, and that's what was important to me.
10:39
Speaker 1: As the concert grew to a close, Victor leaned over
10:41
Speaker 1: to both of us and said, what's next what do
10:44
Speaker 1: we got planned for the rest of the night my
10:47
Speaker 1: wife looked at me confused and i said hey i
10:51
Speaker 1: appreciate you selling us the tickets but we're gonna head
10:53
Speaker 1: home have a great night all right i got up
10:57
Speaker 1: and grabbed my jacket as my wife did the same
11:00
Speaker 1: we started to walk up the aisle and i felt
11:03
Speaker 1: something grab my arm it was victor and before he
11:07
Speaker 1: could say anything i said hey what's wrong with you
11:10
Speaker 1: i don't even know you man why don't you just
11:12
Speaker 1: leave us alone all right At that moment I was
11:15
Speaker 1: pretty angry, and after a night of appeasing a complete
11:18
Speaker 1: stranger's notions I think my patience had grown a little thin.
11:23
Speaker 1: But as we left, I felt bad and regretted having
11:26
Speaker 1: yelled at him. It was pretty late and my wife
11:28
Speaker 1: and I decided to grab some food on the way
11:30
Speaker 1: home and eat it on the couch before bed. The
11:34
Speaker 1: next few weeks went on as normal. My wife and
11:37
Speaker 1: I were both busy with work and had a ton
11:39
Speaker 1: of things to do around the house with any free
11:41
Speaker 1: time that we had. I remember going to bed really
11:44
Speaker 1: early one night and trying to read to fall asleep
11:46
Speaker 1: when I got a Facebook alert on my phone. It
11:49
Speaker 1: was a message from Victor saying, Hey, I had a
11:53
Speaker 1: nice time at the concert with you and your wife.
11:55
Speaker 1: I'm sorry if I overstepped, but I'd like to take
11:58
Speaker 1: a chance to, you know, get to know you both better.
12:02
Speaker 1: I deleted that message and I blocked his account instantly.
12:05
Speaker 1: I was now creeped out. I didn't really use social
12:08
Speaker 1: media all that much and this was why. Weird people
12:12
Speaker 1: on the internet. I'm going to be honest. The message
12:16
Speaker 1: creeped me out, and it was on my mind a
12:18
Speaker 1: lot over the following days. But eventually, as all things do,
12:22
Speaker 1: it began fading slowly from my mind. About six or
12:26
Speaker 1: seven weeks after the concert, my wife and I were
12:28
Speaker 1: sitting on the couch, messing with our phones, and our
12:31
Speaker 1: dog started going absolutely crazy as there was a loud
12:35
Speaker 1: pounding on the door. Outside of a few immediate family members,
12:39
Speaker 1: we never have anyone over as our Akita is old
12:42
Speaker 1: and not the best at meeting new people. I told
12:45
Speaker 1: my wife to stay where she was, and I would
12:47
Speaker 1: go through the garage to see who it was. As
12:50
Speaker 1: I opened the garage and went towards the front door,
12:53
Speaker 1: my heart sank. I saw that it was the weirdo
12:57
Speaker 1: from Facebook Marketplace, Victor. And I was at a loss
13:02
Speaker 1: for words, but I think I finally muttered out something like,
13:06
Speaker 1: what the hell are you doing here? He said something
13:09
Speaker 1: along the lines of, I know, I know, I'm sorry,
13:11
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have showed up unannounced, but I have tickets
13:15
Speaker 1: for next week, the show, you know, and I thought
13:18
Speaker 1: you and your wife might want to go. He had
13:21
Speaker 1: a huge and uncomfortable looking smile on his face. I
13:25
Speaker 1: asked him how the hell he knew where I lived,
13:27
Speaker 1: and he said he got it from the PayPal transaction.
13:30
Speaker 1: I told him that if he ever came to my
13:32
Speaker 1: house or my family again, I'd call the cops and
13:35
Speaker 1: let him meet my two hundred pound dogs that he
13:38
Speaker 1: could hear going crazy inside the house. His smile turned
13:42
Speaker 1: to a frown and he said, we'll see, and walked away.
13:47
Speaker 1: I took a few moments outside to collect myself and
13:49
Speaker 1: went back inside. My wife asked me who that was
13:53
Speaker 1: and I told her it was just UPS and that
13:55
Speaker 1: I got another package. For the next few nights and
13:59
Speaker 1: even weeks I felt like something was off. I noticed
14:02
Speaker 1: the motion lights going on more frequently. I felt like
14:05
Speaker 1: I heard scratching or creaking outside of doors and windows,
14:08
Speaker 1: but I chalked it all up to the idea that
14:11
Speaker 1: I was just hypersensitive and hyper-focused on some psycho showing
14:14
Speaker 1: up in my house. Thankfully, we hadn't had any additional
14:18
Speaker 1: incidents or run-ins with Victor, but I know that I
14:21
Speaker 1: will never buy anything from Facebook ever again.
14:31
Speaker 3: Last year, I put my pool table on Facebook Marketplace.
14:35
Speaker 3: I had it in my basement and it wasn't in
14:36
Speaker 3: the greatest of shape. Plus, I never really used it.
14:40
Speaker 3: It was taking up a lot of space and I
14:41
Speaker 3: knew I needed to get rid of it. I listed
14:44
Speaker 3: it on Facebook Marketplace for a price that was pretty high.
14:47
Speaker 3: I wasn't in a huge hurry to sell it, but
14:49
Speaker 3: I wanted to get a good price for it. It
14:51
Speaker 3: wasn't a crazy high price, but you could probably find
14:53
Speaker 3: a nicer pool table for a little less if you tried.
14:57
Speaker 3: After listing it, the pool table received no interest. I
15:00
Speaker 3: wasn't surprised, and after a few weeks went by, I
15:03
Speaker 3: got the first message about it. It was a guy
15:05
Speaker 3: named Jim, and he told me right away that he
15:07
Speaker 3: wanted to buy the pool table. We messaged back and
15:10
Speaker 3: forth for a little while, and then made an appointment
15:12
Speaker 3: for Jim to come by and purchase the pool table.
15:15
Speaker 3: I really hadn't expected to sell it for this price,
15:17
Speaker 3: and figured that Jim would try to negotiate when he
15:19
Speaker 3: got to my house. I had a set price in
15:21
Speaker 3: my head that I was willing to go down to.
15:24
Speaker 3: Jim came over at about 6pm on a weeknight after work.
15:28
Speaker 3: When he got to my house, I let him in,
15:30
Speaker 3: and then showed him down to the basement where the
15:32
Speaker 3: pool table was. He looked at it for a few minutes,
15:35
Speaker 3: and then agreed to buy it. I watched him take
15:37
Speaker 3: out all the cash of the full listing price and
15:39
Speaker 3: then give it to me. I was shocked, but more
15:41
Speaker 3: than happy to accept it. I told Jim that it
15:44
Speaker 3: was his now, and I would help him load it
15:46
Speaker 3: into his truck. Luckily, he had a pretty big pickup truck,
15:49
Speaker 3: and it would just fit. It was a bit of
15:51
Speaker 3: a pain to move the coffee table into his truck,
15:53
Speaker 3: but we got it done. He then left, and I
15:55
Speaker 3: felt really good about the price that I had gotten.
15:58
Speaker 3: I truly didn't think that I would be able to
16:00
Speaker 3: sell the table for that much. After this, almost two
16:03
Speaker 3: weeks went by. Then, I got a message from Jim.
16:06
Speaker 3: He told me that he felt that he had gotten
16:08
Speaker 3: ripped off and he could have gotten a better deal. Now,
16:11
Speaker 3: this was over a week later, so I wasn't going
16:13
Speaker 3: to take the table back. I told him it's been
16:15
Speaker 3: over a week and a deal is a deal. This
16:18
Speaker 3: obviously didn't make Jim very happy. He argued with me
16:21
Speaker 3: for a while, telling me to give him some money back,
16:23
Speaker 3: but I refused. I didn't have to give him anything,
16:26
Speaker 3: and he should have tried to negotiate or looked around
16:28
Speaker 3: for a better deal if he really wanted one. I
16:30
Speaker 3: felt that this wasn't my responsibility to help him out.
16:33
Speaker 3: We ended up leaving the conversation on not a very
16:36
Speaker 3: good note, but I felt that it was over. A
16:39
Speaker 3: few days went by, and Jim didn't reply to me
16:41
Speaker 3: at all.
16:42
Speaker 2: Then, things got strange.
16:44
Speaker 3: My girlfriend was over at my house one night for dinner,
16:46
Speaker 3: and at one point, she got up from the table
16:48
Speaker 3: and told me that she saw some guy standing in
16:50
Speaker 3: the front yard. I got up, and we both walked
16:53
Speaker 3: over near the window. When we got there, I didn't
16:55
Speaker 3: see anybody but I did notice a white truck parked
16:58
Speaker 3: out on the street. I realized that it was Jim's truck.
17:01
Speaker 3: I remembered it from when I helped him load the
17:03
Speaker 3: pool table in it. I told my girlfriend the story
17:05
Speaker 3: of how he was mad about the price. We looked
17:08
Speaker 3: all around the house through the windows but we couldn't
17:10
Speaker 3: find Jim. We were going from window to window and
17:13
Speaker 3: when I finally returned to the front of the house,
17:15
Speaker 3: I opened the front door. As I did, I saw
17:17
Speaker 3: the truck starting up and drive away. I decided to
17:21
Speaker 3: message Jim and tell him that I knew he was
17:22
Speaker 3: at my house but when I went online to do so,
17:25
Speaker 3: he had blocked me. Two nights later, he was prowling
17:28
Speaker 3: around outside again. This time, I was by myself and
17:32
Speaker 3: in the living room watching TV. I noticed out of
17:35
Speaker 3: the corner of my eye a man walking past the
17:37
Speaker 3: front window. About a minute later, I heard my front
17:40
Speaker 3: doorknob turn, but thankfully it was locked. I didn't waste
17:44
Speaker 3: any time and I called the police. However, Jim left
17:47
Speaker 3: pretty soon after I did and he was long gone
17:49
Speaker 3: before the police got there. I told them the whole
17:52
Speaker 3: situation and asked what they could do After that, I
17:55
Speaker 3: felt confident that the police would be able to look
17:57
Speaker 3: into it and I wouldn't have any problems from Jim again.
18:00
Speaker 3: But the very next morning, as I left my house
18:02
Speaker 3: to go to work, I was walking to my car.
18:04
Speaker 3: Right as I was about five feet from my driver's door,
18:07
Speaker 3: I heard somebody sprinting behind me. I looked around to
18:10
Speaker 3: see Jim running at me with full force. I chose
18:13
Speaker 3: to run back into my house instead of going for
18:15
Speaker 3: my car door. This gave me a slight amount of
18:17
Speaker 3: distance on Jim, and I somehow made it inside right
18:20
Speaker 3: before he got to the door. This time, he was
18:23
Speaker 3: really mad. He tried opening my front door and then
18:26
Speaker 3: went to the window when it was locked and he
18:28
Speaker 3: started banging on my window. I called the police again,
18:31
Speaker 3: who arrived in a very fast time when Jim was
18:33
Speaker 3: still there. He was caught and luckily didn't do any
18:36
Speaker 3: damage to my house. This experience caused me to stop
18:40
Speaker 3: using Facebook Marketplace for the time being. I know there
18:43
Speaker 3: are many good people who use it, but I would
18:45
Speaker 3: recommend anybody to not give out your address and be careful.
18:52
Speaker 3: I'm somebody who enjoys going to thrift stores and occasionally
18:55
Speaker 3: pawn shops. I love saving money and finding good deals.
19:00
Speaker 3: I buy a lot of used items and I've probably
19:02
Speaker 3: saved lots of money over the years. I occasionally like
19:05
Speaker 3: to browse Facebook Marketplace for good deals on stuff.
19:08
Speaker 2: There usually is.
19:10
Speaker 3: Most of the things I don't want or need, so
19:12
Speaker 3: I don't buy. But every now and then, I find
19:14
Speaker 3: a deal that's too good to pass up. This story
19:17
Speaker 3: takes place about six months ago. Up until that point,
19:21
Speaker 3: I had probably purchased about three or four things on
19:23
Speaker 3: Facebook Marketplace. All of the experiences had been good to
19:26
Speaker 3: that point. As I was scrolling through the items for
19:29
Speaker 3: sale one day, I came across an iPhone. It was unlocked,
19:33
Speaker 3: meaning it could work with any service provider. All you
19:35
Speaker 3: needed was the SIM card. This was two generations newer
19:38
Speaker 3: than mine, and it was a very reasonable price. I
19:42
Speaker 3: kind of needed a new phone. Plus, there were no
19:44
Speaker 3: noticeable problems to it, and it said to be in
19:46
Speaker 3: like-new condition. It was a new listing as well, so
19:49
Speaker 3: I was excited. I tried to jump on it fast.
19:52
Speaker 3: I reached out to the seller, who responded back to
19:55
Speaker 3: me rather quickly. He was a man, and was not
19:57
Speaker 3: all that far away. I tried to make arrangements to
20:00
Speaker 3: buy the phone as soon as possible, and said whenever
20:02
Speaker 3: he was free would work for me as well. We
20:05
Speaker 3: agreed to meet the next day at a nearby Target store.
20:08
Speaker 3: This was the biggest and most popular store in the area,
20:11
Speaker 3: and it was also close to us both. The next day,
20:15
Speaker 3: I drove to Target with the money, and I was
20:16
Speaker 3: excited to buy my new phone.
20:19
Speaker 2: I knew that I was.
20:19
Speaker 3: Getting a really good deal. I arrived about 10 minutes
20:22
Speaker 3: before the meeting and went inside Target. After walking around
20:26
Speaker 3: for a while, the time came. I sent a message
20:29
Speaker 3: letting the seller know that I was inside the Target.
20:31
Speaker 3: I was looking around, but I couldn't find him. After
20:35
Speaker 3: about 10 more minutes went by, he finally texted me back.
20:38
Speaker 3: He apologized and said that something had come up and
20:41
Speaker 3: he couldn't make it that night. I was disappointed, but
20:44
Speaker 3: I told him okay, maybe tomorrow. I decided to leave
20:47
Speaker 3: Target then and not get anything. After going back to
20:50
Speaker 3: my car and driving away, I was followed for several
20:53
Speaker 3: miles by a blue four-door sedan. Of course, I suspected
20:57
Speaker 3: maybe it was the same guy who was selling me
20:59
Speaker 3: the phone, and this was some kind of setup. Maybe
21:02
Speaker 3: I'm paranoid, but when buying things on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist,
21:06
Speaker 3: those kind of things always pop into my head. I
21:09
Speaker 3: couldn't tell who was driving the car behind me, but
21:11
Speaker 3: it did look to be a male. I didn't want
21:13
Speaker 3: him following me all the way home, and I decided
21:16
Speaker 3: to pull over on the side of the road. It
21:18
Speaker 3: was a standard and somewhat busy road, and at first,
21:21
Speaker 3: the car behind me started to pull over as well,
21:23
Speaker 3: but when I came to a full stop, he then
21:25
Speaker 3: pulled back onto the road and sped past me. I
21:28
Speaker 3: tried to look inside the car when he passed by,
21:30
Speaker 3: but I didn't get a very good look at all.
21:32
Speaker 3: After the car passed me by, I waited and watched
21:34
Speaker 3: it go out of sight. Then I got back onto
21:37
Speaker 3: the road and drove the rest of the way back
21:39
Speaker 3: home to my house. After getting back and going inside,
21:43
Speaker 3: it wasn't long before I glanced out the window and
21:45
Speaker 3: happened to see the same car. It was going extremely
21:48
Speaker 3: slow down the road. I ducked down so he wouldn't
21:51
Speaker 3: see me. The car passed by my house and then
21:54
Speaker 3: went out of sight. About a minute later, I saw
21:56
Speaker 3: it driving back from the other direction. It didn't stop
21:59
Speaker 3: at my house or anything, but it was driving really slow.
22:02
Speaker 3: I just hoped that guy didn't know where I lived.
22:05
Speaker 3: After that, I decided to block the seller on Facebook.
22:08
Speaker 3: I had no interest in buying the phone anymore. To
22:11
Speaker 3: this day, I don't know for sure if that was
22:12
Speaker 3: the same person who was following me home or driving
22:15
Speaker 3: down my street. I do think it was the seller
22:17
Speaker 3: from Facebook, though. I also don't think he knows my
22:20
Speaker 3: exact address, but he somehow figured out the street that
22:22
Speaker 3: I live on. Either way, nothing strange happened, and I'm
22:25
Speaker 3: glad to say everything's been fine since. Last year, I
22:31
Speaker 3: was selling an old coffee table on Facebook Marketplace. I
22:35
Speaker 3: was only asking $ 40 for it, and it was in
22:37
Speaker 3: good shape, but it was nothing too special. It was
22:40
Speaker 3: kind of old, so I figured it was a reasonable price.
22:43
Speaker 3: It took a while to receive any kind of interest.
22:45
Speaker 3: After a couple of weeks, though, I did get one
22:48
Speaker 3: person who asked about it. It was a guy named Spike.
22:51
Speaker 2: He asked me if I was.
22:52
Speaker 3: Willing to do $ 30 for the table. I said sure.
22:55
Speaker 3: I was happy to get anything for it, and if
22:57
Speaker 3: it didn't sell, I would probably just give it to Goodwill.
23:00
Speaker 3: He asked when would be a good time for him
23:01
Speaker 3: to come over and pick it up. and I told
23:03
Speaker 3: him the next night between 5 and 7 p.m. would
23:06
Speaker 3: be fine if it worked for him. He agreed to
23:08
Speaker 3: the time, and I gave him my address. I was
23:11
Speaker 3: happy to finally get rid of the old table. The
23:14
Speaker 3: next day, I moved my table to right inside my
23:16
Speaker 3: front door, so it would be easy for Spike to
23:18
Speaker 3: just grab it and go after paying me. When 5
23:21
Speaker 3: o'clock came, I hadn't received any kind of messages from Spike,
23:24
Speaker 3: so I assumed that he would be there any time. However,
23:28
Speaker 3: as time went by, it was soon 7 o'clock, and
23:30
Speaker 3: Spike didn't show up. I decided to go on Facebook
23:33
Speaker 3: and message Spike to see if he was still coming.
23:36
Speaker 3: When I got onto Facebook, though, I saw that Spike
23:38
Speaker 3: had blocked me. This was really confusing. Our conversations had
23:43
Speaker 3: gone great, and I didn't understand why he would do that. Still,
23:47
Speaker 3: I guess he just wouldn't buy my coffee table, and
23:49
Speaker 3: I put it back. I kept the listing up in
23:51
Speaker 3: hopes that maybe somebody else would buy it, but things
23:54
Speaker 3: remained quiet. Fast forward to about a week later.
23:58
Speaker 2: It was a normal weeknight, and I was in my
23:59
Speaker 2: living room.
24:00
Speaker 3: I was just about to get ready for bed and
24:02
Speaker 3: it was probably like 10 or 11 at night. That's
24:05
Speaker 3: when I heard my back door rattling. I live alone
24:08
Speaker 3: and I wasn't expecting anybody. Plus, I rarely use the
24:11
Speaker 3: back door. Immediately, I had a bad feeling. I started
24:16
Speaker 3: walking over to my kitchen area, which is in the
24:18
Speaker 3: back of the house and is where the back door is.
24:21
Speaker 3: I was maybe halfway there when I heard the sound
24:23
Speaker 3: of glass breaking. It was also coming from that same area.
24:27
Speaker 3: That's when I froze right where I was and I
24:30
Speaker 3: turned around and dashed for the hallway. I ran for
24:32
Speaker 3: my bedroom, which had a locking door. I got inside
24:35
Speaker 3: and locked myself in. Meanwhile, in my house, I heard
24:39
Speaker 3: some noises in the kitchen. I knew that somebody had
24:41
Speaker 3: broken in, and my first response once inside my room
24:44
Speaker 3: was to call the police. I tried to be as
24:47
Speaker 3: quiet as I could when doing so. As I was
24:49
Speaker 3: speaking with the 911 operator, I was also hearing footsteps inside.
24:54
Speaker 3: I moved all the way into my closet. I was
24:56
Speaker 3: told that the police would be there as soon as
24:58
Speaker 3: they could. Once I was off the phone with the police,
25:01
Speaker 3: I stopped hearing noises throughout the house. I was in there,
25:04
Speaker 3: being as quiet as I could and hoping that I
25:06
Speaker 3: did not hear any more noises. Eventually, the police arrived
25:10
Speaker 3: and made their way inside. It wasn't until I was
25:12
Speaker 3: sure it was safe that I left my closet and bedroom.
25:15
Speaker 3: Whoever had been in my house, though, was gone. The
25:18
Speaker 3: police couldn't find them anywhere. I did, however, see the
25:21
Speaker 3: broken window and the damage that it caused. The area
25:24
Speaker 3: was searched, but police never found anybody. That really creeps
25:28
Speaker 3: me out to this day. I really think that it
25:31
Speaker 3: was Spike who broke in. I had just given him
25:33
Speaker 3: my address the week prior, and why would he block
25:36
Speaker 3: me so randomly? I gave the information to the police,
25:39
Speaker 3: but I never got any word if they found him
25:41
Speaker 3: or if it was in fact Spike who broke into
25:43
Speaker 3: my house.
25:50
Speaker 2: About four months ago, we moved into a new house
25:53
Speaker 2: out in the country. Since we previously lived in an apartment,
25:57
Speaker 2: that means that we needed to buy a new lawnmower.
26:00
Speaker 2: Instead of putting out $ 200 on a brand new lawnmower
26:03
Speaker 2: when we'd probably just have to move again in a
26:05
Speaker 2: couple of years, we decided instead to hire someone to
26:08
Speaker 2: cut our grass for us. We initially went with a
26:11
Speaker 2: guy that my fiancé used to work with, but $ 65
26:15
Speaker 2: every two weeks, well, starts to add up, and I
26:19
Speaker 2: was really looking for something cheaper. That brings me to Charles.
26:24
Speaker 2: Charles had posted in my Facebook Classified that he was
26:27
Speaker 2: looking for some lawns that he could cut this weekend.
26:29
Speaker 2: and he had a reputable company, or so I thought. So,
26:34
Speaker 2: I decided to send him a message on Facebook. Now, initially,
26:38
Speaker 2: Charles came off as pretty nice to me. He asked
26:41
Speaker 2: me for my address so that he could stop by
26:43
Speaker 2: and give me an estimate. After stopping by my house,
26:47
Speaker 2: he sent me a message that said, Damn, sweetheart, you
26:51
Speaker 2: got a big-ass porch. It made me kind of uncomfortable,
26:54
Speaker 2: but I figured I was just overreacting, and I started
26:57
Speaker 2: planning when he could come out. I told him the
27:00
Speaker 2: days that I was off from work, but he assured
27:03
Speaker 2: me that I didn't have to be there when he
27:04
Speaker 2: would do the work. I told him the best time
27:07
Speaker 2: would probably be on a Wednesday. Wednesday morning, he messaged me.
27:12
Speaker 2: Are you home? I said no. Three hours later. Are
27:17
Speaker 2: you home yet? I told him no yet again and
27:20
Speaker 2: that I won't be home until after 8. Charles then
27:24
Speaker 2: informed me that his tire had a flat and he
27:26
Speaker 2: would come tomorrow instead. Let's cut to Thursday and first
27:29
Speaker 2: thing in the morning he sends me a message. Will
27:32
Speaker 2: you be home today? I told him no. He messages
27:36
Speaker 2: me back a few hours later once again asking if
27:39
Speaker 2: I'm home. I told him, No, I told you I
27:43
Speaker 2: wouldn't be home all day. Are you still coming out?
27:46
Speaker 2: Then he tells me his truck broke down. He was
27:50
Speaker 2: sending me messages like, Please don't be upset with me sweetheart.
27:54
Speaker 2: At this point, I was getting really creeped out and
27:57
Speaker 2: pretty sick of his excuses, but I told him to
27:59
Speaker 2: just come tomorrow. It's now Friday and it's actually my
28:03
Speaker 2: day off, but I woke up and I left the
28:05
Speaker 2: house for the day. He messages me. Hey, I'm coming.
28:10
Speaker 2: You're off today, right? I told him yes, but that
28:13
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be home. When will you be home then?
28:17
Speaker 2: I told him I didn't know and he messages me
28:19
Speaker 2: later saying, Sorry babe, I was loading the equipment onto
28:23
Speaker 2: my truck and it then fell and broke. Maybe I
28:26
Speaker 2: can come tomorrow. At this point, I was really creeped
28:30
Speaker 2: out and I just told him never mind and that
28:32
Speaker 2: I was going to find someone else at this point.
28:35
Speaker 2: It's now Saturday and I get off work around 4
28:37
Speaker 2: or 5 and I check my phone and I find
28:40
Speaker 2: multiple messages from him saying that he cut my grass
28:42
Speaker 2: and that I need to come home and give him
28:44
Speaker 2: the money. I told him no and that I would
28:46
Speaker 2: just send it through Cash App. He started getting really
28:49
Speaker 2: irate with me and saying that I needed to give
28:51
Speaker 2: him the money right now. I told him that I
28:54
Speaker 2: would give him the money once I got home and
28:56
Speaker 2: actually saw that the grass was cut for myself. I'm
29:00
Speaker 2: not going to lie. I was honestly really worried that
29:02
Speaker 2: he was going to be waiting at my house for me.
29:05
Speaker 2: So I decided to get a friend of mine to
29:06
Speaker 2: drive home right behind me. Luckily, he wasn't there. I
29:11
Speaker 2: sent him the money and I thought that was the
29:13
Speaker 2: end of it. Fast forward two months later. I'm on
29:18
Speaker 2: the phone with my fiance as I drive to class
29:21
Speaker 2: and he tells me that he has to get off
29:22
Speaker 2: the phone because there's somebody walking down our driveway. I
29:26
Speaker 2: asked him what he meant and he said that there
29:27
Speaker 2: was some strange man walking around in our driveway as
29:30
Speaker 2: well as our front yard. After I got to class,
29:33
Speaker 2: he sent me a text telling me that it was
29:35
Speaker 2: some man who was just trying to promote his lawn business. Now,
29:39
Speaker 2: I didn't really think too much about this as it
29:42
Speaker 2: had been two months. But later that night, I then
29:45
Speaker 2: got home and I saw the business card that was
29:47
Speaker 2: laying on my counter. And it had the same exact
29:50
Speaker 2: name of the very same man who had been messaging
29:52
Speaker 2: me previously. I decided to call my fiance at work
29:56
Speaker 2: and I asked how the guy had been acting. He
29:59
Speaker 2: said that Charles seemed genuinely surprised that a man had
30:01
Speaker 2: come out, and he asked if he lived alone. I
30:05
Speaker 2: then asked Mike if Charles had stopped at any of
30:07
Speaker 2: the other houses in the neighborhood, and then he replied with,
30:10
Speaker 2: Mike said that Charles seemed really desperate to help around
30:15
Speaker 2: the house, and he actually offered to cut the line,
30:18
Speaker 2: fix our porch.
30:24
Speaker 2: As well as remove any trash or scrap metal we
30:26
Speaker 2: had around the house, and then he even asked if
30:28
Speaker 2: we had pests such as bats in our attic or anything.
30:32
Speaker 2: That especially really freaked me out, as we do have
30:35
Speaker 2: a bat problem, and I had previously posted about it
30:38
Speaker 2: on Facebook, so I'm guessing that's where he figured that out.
30:43
Speaker 2: Mike then said that what was really weird about Charles
30:45
Speaker 2: is how freaked out he was acting about the dog.
30:49
Speaker 2: He had heard our dog Max barking from inside and
30:51
Speaker 2: then started asking a lot of questions like, Is he big?
30:55
Speaker 2: Does he stay inside or outside? Does he ever go
30:58
Speaker 2: outside or does he just always stay inside? How big
31:02
Speaker 2: is he? Is he nice? Mike just chalked it up
31:05
Speaker 2: to him being scared of dogs. He gave him a
31:09
Speaker 2: brief tour of the outside of our house and then
31:11
Speaker 2: Charles got in his truck and then left. That's when
31:14
Speaker 2: I told Mike that this was the same guy who
31:16
Speaker 2: had been messaging me earlier in the year and then
31:19
Speaker 2: Mike began to really freak out. He said that Charles
31:22
Speaker 2: had asked a lot of really specific questions about who
31:25
Speaker 2: all lived here and how long they lived here, as
31:27
Speaker 2: well as where they specifically were at the time. He
31:30
Speaker 2: said that he tried to brush them off, but Charles
31:33
Speaker 2: seemed really insistent to know if Mike was the only
31:35
Speaker 2: one in the house. Before he left, though, Mike specifically
31:39
Speaker 2: asked him if he had cut the lawn here before,
31:42
Speaker 2: and that maybe he was thinking of the last owners.
31:45
Speaker 2: But Charles just told him, No, I've never cut your
31:48
Speaker 2: grass before. I just happened to be out this way
31:51
Speaker 2: and thought I'd promote my business. The worst part? On
31:55
Speaker 2: that day, I had taken my fiancé' s car to work
31:58
Speaker 2: that day, which means that mine was in the driveway
32:00
Speaker 2: when Charles stopped by, meaning that he thought I was
32:03
Speaker 2: home alone when he stopped by. I didn't contact the
32:07
Speaker 2: police because I thought that I just might be overreacting
32:09
Speaker 2: about it. This all happened about two days ago, but
32:14
Speaker 2: hopefully I don't hear from him again. If I do, however,
32:18
Speaker 2: I'll definitely give an update.