Latest / Martin Animations / 6 BLIZZARD_SNOWSTORM Horror Stories Animated

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6 BLIZZARD_SNOWSTORM Horror Stories Animated · Martin Animations

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Speaker 1: Years ago, I was living in a relatively nice and
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Speaker 1: quiet duplex and worked as a contractor for a small company.
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Speaker 1: It was the winter of 2016, and while the area
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Speaker 1: I lived in was lonely, I always enjoyed what I
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Speaker 1: was grateful for in life. I won't name the town
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Speaker 1: I was in, but figure the Ocala-type area. Those who
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Speaker 1: have been around there will probably know what I'm talking
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Speaker 1: about when I say rural. grasslands, rolling hills, and scattered
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Speaker 1: forms of civilization amongst roads. While it got lonely at times,
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Speaker 1: it wasn't always like that. I lived with my miniature
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Speaker 1: dachshund Sadie, big bark, small bite, and was the most
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Speaker 1: precious thing in the world. She was my comfort dog
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Speaker 1: and would always be there for me when I was
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Speaker 1: feeling down. One day, I had just got back from
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Speaker 1: work and started up the stove to heat up some food.
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Speaker 1: Midway through my cooking, I hear Sadie begin to bark
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Speaker 1: at my bedroom door for some reason. Completely oblivious, I
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Speaker 1: just assume it was her being bored and focused on dinner. However,
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Speaker 1: she still continued to bark, even after I told her
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Speaker 1: to stop. Assuming she just wanted to go into my
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Speaker 1: room to play with her toy, I open my bedroom door,
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Speaker 1: and she basically flies in and begins to bark under
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Speaker 1: my bed. My heart sank into the pit of my
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Speaker 1: stomach as it was clear she was chasing something. At
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Speaker 1: this point, she's going absolutely nuts, barking at something under
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Speaker 1: my bed while trying to get under. Assuming it was
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Speaker 1: probably a lizard or a roach, I grab her and
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Speaker 1: put her out in the kitchen where she thankfully quieted down.
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Speaker 1: My duplex is located right next to a wooded area,
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Speaker 1: so it wasn't uncommon for small, unwanted critters to scurry around.
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Speaker 1: No matter how many times the landlord called in the exterminator,
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Speaker 1: the problem always persisted. After I ate, I put my
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Speaker 1: plate in the dishwasher, got ready for bed, and went
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Speaker 1: to sleep for about an hour before waking up to
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Speaker 1: Sadie barking. This somewhat bothered me, as I had to
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Speaker 1: work early and I couldn't sleep with her barking. As
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Speaker 1: I sat bolt upright, trying to grab her, she then
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Speaker 1: jumps off my bed and begins to bark under the
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Speaker 1: bed again. Now I felt that she was trying to
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Speaker 1: tell me something, and so I get up and look
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Speaker 1: under my bed with my flashlight. Laying under my bed
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Speaker 1: was the face of a man smiling at me with
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Speaker 1: these abnormally large eyes. He was clearly older than me,
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Speaker 1: I would estimate 50s, but I didn't see all of
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Speaker 1: his facial features. He puts his finger to his lips
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Speaker 1: and makes a shushing sound. That's when I scream my
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Speaker 1: head off and yell at the person hiding under my
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Speaker 1: bed to get out of the house. When I didn't
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Speaker 1: hear a response or see him come out, I ran
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Speaker 1: to the bathroom and locked the door behind me. For
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Speaker 1: those wondering, yes, I took Sadie with me. The reason
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Speaker 1: why I didn't go out the front door was because
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Speaker 1: I had already locked it and my key was on
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Speaker 1: the other side of the bed along with my phone.
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Speaker 1: Within a minute, I could hear his heavy footsteps approach
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Speaker 1: the bathroom door, followed by a light tap. He then
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Speaker 1: proceeds to mess with the lock on the bathroom door,
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Speaker 1: trying to open it with God knows what. Keep in
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Speaker 1: mind that I haven't fully seen this guy, so I
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Speaker 1: didn't know what he had on him. After some time
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Speaker 1: of him trying to pick the lock, he says in
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Speaker 1: a slow, creepy voice, I know you're in there. You
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Speaker 1: know I could break this door down in two seconds,
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Speaker 1: right ma'am? That was when I realized that this person
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Speaker 1: was dangerous and that he wasn't going to give up
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Speaker 1: that easy. The only thing I could do was to
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Speaker 1: jump out the small glass window and out onto the street. Then,
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Speaker 1: as if things couldn't get any worse, the window wouldn't
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Speaker 1: move up due to the ice surrounding it. It was
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Speaker 1: frozen shut, not knowing what else to do. I go
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Speaker 1: into the shower and unscrew the shower head and use
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Speaker 1: it to smash open the window. I go through first
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Speaker 1: and trample onto the snow with my shoulders bleeding from
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Speaker 1: the broken glass. I carefully grab Sadie, making sure she
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Speaker 1: didn't get hurt, and from there we go over to
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Speaker 1: the neighbor's house and call the police. The neighbors were
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Speaker 1: hesitant before saying yes, but wanted to stay out of
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Speaker 1: it as they didn't want to get involved. The police
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Speaker 1: had come sooner than expected and went into the house
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Speaker 1: and came out with the guy. However, he didn't try
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Speaker 1: to get away. He kind of just went with it,
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Speaker 1: accepting his defeat. After he was detained, one of the
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Speaker 1: officers had come to me and told me something disturbing.
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Speaker 1: The minute they went into my room, everything was wiped out.
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Speaker 1: My bed, furniture, TV, and computer were all destroyed and ruined.
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Speaker 1: Turns out, he had also managed to get in the
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Speaker 1: bathroom by breaking down the door. The bathroom has one
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Speaker 1: of those strong metal doors, so for him to break
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Speaker 1: it down just shows how strong he was. The cops
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Speaker 1: had given me some criticism about how I went about
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Speaker 1: reporting this wrong and that I shouldn't have locked myself
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Speaker 1: in the bathroom. At the time, I felt that he
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Speaker 1: was being insensitive or blaming me for my wrongdoing. However,
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Speaker 1: then I remembered that these were police and probably deal
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Speaker 1: with situations like these every day. If I hadn't thought
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Speaker 1: of the idea to break the window, God only knows
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Speaker 1: what would have happened to me. Hurt, kidnapped, or worse.
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Speaker 1: I haven't heard of the man since, and I had
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Speaker 1: since moved out of that area. Sadie had unfortunately passed
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Speaker 1: away in late 2018 due to a cancer tumor that
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Speaker 1: I had caught during its late stage. While she may
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Speaker 1: not be with me now, her soul still remains, and
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Speaker 1: I thank her for alerting me about the man. I
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Speaker 1: love you, Sadie.
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Speaker 2: I live alone in a somewhat busy neighborhood. This happened
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Speaker 2: about a year ago. It was the wintertime, and I
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Speaker 2: live in a climate that typically gets a lot of snow.
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Speaker 2: Not only was there already some snow on the ground,
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Speaker 2: but it was also very cold. One night, I was
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Speaker 2: at home by myself when it started to snow a lot.
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Speaker 2: I had heard about a large snowstorm that was supposed
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Speaker 2: to hit the area, so I had no intentions of
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Speaker 2: going anywhere. Luckily for me, I was working at home
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Speaker 2: for the next several days. Pretty soon, the snow really
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Speaker 2: started to come down. I looked out my window occasionally
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Speaker 2: to see more snow each time. It was very heavy
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Speaker 2: snowfall as well. Soon it was nighttime, and I was
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Speaker 2: really glad that I didn't have to be anywhere. occasionally
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Speaker 2: a snowplow would drive down my street but other than
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Speaker 2: that it was very quiet at probably like 7 p.m.
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Speaker 2: suddenly there was a knock at my front door I
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Speaker 2: found this to be pretty odd I walked over and
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Speaker 2: looked out of the window a young woman was standing
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Speaker 2: there I didn't see a car or anything so I
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Speaker 2: didn't know where she had come from but at my
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Speaker 2: house from my front windows I don't have a very
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Speaker 2: good view of the street or even my driveway I
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Speaker 2: didn't know who she was and she wasn't really dressed
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Speaker 2: for the weather She just had pants and a sweatshirt
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Speaker 2: on and appeared to be in her early 20s. I
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Speaker 2: opened the door and asked her what she was doing
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Speaker 2: out in this snowstorm. The woman asked me if she
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Speaker 2: could come inside my house to warm up. Her story
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Speaker 2: was that her ex-boyfriend kicked her out of his car
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Speaker 2: and then drove off or something like that. I asked
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Speaker 2: her if there was anybody that could come and pick
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Speaker 2: her up or something. She said that she had just
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Speaker 2: called her mom and she was going to come. I
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Speaker 2: didn't really like the idea of somebody who I didn't
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Speaker 2: know coming inside of my house. For some reason, I
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Speaker 2: felt like it was a bad idea. But I did
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Speaker 2: feel bad for her with it being a snowstorm and everything,
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Speaker 2: so I allowed her to come inside. I told her
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Speaker 2: she could wait right inside the door. When you enter
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Speaker 2: the front door of my house, it's kind of between
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Speaker 2: the living room and dining room. The front door is
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Speaker 2: on the left side of the house. The living room
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Speaker 2: is to the right, and the dining room is straight ahead.
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Speaker 2: After the woman entered, she made a beeline walking straight
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Speaker 2: into the dining room. I was really confused, but I
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Speaker 2: didn't say anything. I just watched her. She kind of
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Speaker 2: said something quietly like, Sorry, one second. Then she walked
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Speaker 2: all the way to the back of the house and
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Speaker 2: was going out of my sight. I started to walk
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Speaker 2: closer to her to see what she was doing. As
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Speaker 2: soon as I looked around the corner and saw her again,
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Speaker 2: she was at the back door of my house and
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Speaker 2: opening it up. My first thought was wondering why she
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Speaker 2: was going back outside if she wanted to come inside
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Speaker 2: so badly. But that thought was interrupted when I saw
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Speaker 2: the door open and two men suddenly walked right inside
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Speaker 2: of it. I couldn't believe it. At that point, for me,
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Speaker 2: my instincts just kicked in. I instantly turned and ran
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Speaker 2: the opposite direction. I ran towards my hallway where my
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Speaker 2: bedroom and bathroom was. I heard multiple footsteps coming after me,
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Speaker 2: but they were still a ways back. After I got
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Speaker 2: inside my bathroom, I closed the door and locked it.
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Speaker 2: But just seconds later, somebody tried opening the door. There
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Speaker 2: were multiple people outside of my bathroom now. Nobody said
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Speaker 2: anything though, including me. After the door wouldn't open, there
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Speaker 2: were a few loud bangs on it. I got out
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Speaker 2: my phone to call the police, but did not feel
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Speaker 2: safe staying in the bathroom. So right after dialing 911,
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Speaker 2: before I spoke to the operator or anything, I tried
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Speaker 2: opening my window as quickly as I could. I probably
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Speaker 2: did it in record time, and then I jumped out
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Speaker 2: of my bathroom window and landed on a bush that
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Speaker 2: was covered in snow. Then I ran through the deep
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Speaker 2: snow in my yard and... fell several times trying to
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Speaker 2: run fast. I made it back to my feet quickly
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Speaker 2: though and eventually I got around my house and to
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Speaker 2: the street. I just kept running until I made it
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Speaker 2: as far away from my house as I could. Then
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Speaker 2: I was finally able to talk with the 911 operator.
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Speaker 2: I said everything that happened. and after that I walked
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Speaker 2: down my street far away and waited until the police arrived.
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Speaker 2: I didn't have a coat on or anything, but the
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Speaker 2: crazy part is that I wasn't even cold at all.
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Speaker 2: My adrenaline was going too much. When the police got there,
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Speaker 2: the woman and the two men had taken off. I
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Speaker 2: got back to my house to find it a mess.
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Speaker 2: There was stuff all over the floor, and a few
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Speaker 2: things were stolen. It could have been much worse, though,
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Speaker 2: as I saw they didn't go in every room. They
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Speaker 2: probably realized after I got away that they would have
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Speaker 2: limited time before the police got there. I feel very
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Speaker 2: lucky that I made it out safely. I'm not sure
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Speaker 2: what those people would have done if I had stayed.
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Speaker 2: Would they have tried to hurt me? I hope not,
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Speaker 2: but I will never know. Since that happened, I don't
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Speaker 2: answer my door to anybody that I don't already know.
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Speaker 2: I also have installed a ring doorbell, which would have
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Speaker 2: been nice to have at the time of the incident.
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Speaker 2: I'm hoping nothing like that ever happens again. This story
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Speaker 2: happened years ago when I was still in high school.
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Speaker 2: During that time, I was pretty busy. I went to
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Speaker 2: school five days a week and then worked a part-time
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Speaker 2: job at a nearby restaurant. One time in the winter,
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Speaker 2: I had heard all week that a big snowstorm was coming.
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Speaker 2: It was supposed to hit in the afternoon, and this
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Speaker 2: was not good because I had to work after school
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Speaker 2: until 8 p.m. Luckily, though, the snow held up a bit.
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Speaker 2: It started just towards the end of my shift, and
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Speaker 2: as I was driving home, it started to intensify. I
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Speaker 2: was able to make it home safely though, and then
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Speaker 2: it really started coming down. After I made it home,
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Speaker 2: I did some homework and then went into my bedroom
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Speaker 2: to play video games. It was a Friday night, so
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Speaker 2: I had no school the next day. I also didn't
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Speaker 2: have to work. My parents went to bed at probably
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Speaker 2: like 10 or 11, but I wasn't planning on going
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Speaker 2: to bed for a while. My bedroom was on the
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Speaker 2: front side of the house and across and down the
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Speaker 2: hallway a little bit from my parents'. Usually I had
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Speaker 2: my windows covered, but on this night I left the
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Speaker 2: cover half open. I enjoyed seeing the snowfall and found
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Speaker 2: it to be relaxing. So I was there having a
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Speaker 2: great time, just gaming in my room during a snowstorm
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Speaker 2: when something really strange happened. Something out of the window
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Speaker 2: caught my eye, so I glanced out to see. What
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Speaker 2: I saw was a man walking down the sidewalk in
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Speaker 2: front of our house. He was pretty far away, but
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Speaker 2: I didn't recognize him. I knew most of our neighbors,
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Speaker 2: and I wondered what this guy was doing out walking
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Speaker 2: at almost midnight in the middle of a blizzard. I
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Speaker 2: kept my eye on him as he continued to walk
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Speaker 2: down the sidewalk. But then he turned and began walking
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Speaker 2: into our front yard. I thought this was really strange,
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Speaker 2: and I paused my game to see what the man
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Speaker 2: would do. He then walked right into our front yard,
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Speaker 2: and then cut through the grass and went towards our
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Speaker 2: front step. My heart started racing when I saw this.
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Speaker 2: I was still trying to figure out what exactly was
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Speaker 2: going on. He was now out of my sight though,
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Speaker 2: so I carefully and quietly left my bedroom. I went
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Speaker 2: down the hallway and then stopped at the end of it.
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Speaker 2: I looked around the corner carefully. We had a large
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Speaker 2: front window that had a shade over it, but you
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Speaker 2: could still basically see people on the other side, or
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Speaker 2: at least you could see their shadows. I didn't want
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Speaker 2: him to see mine. He was standing at the front step,
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Speaker 2: I could tell. I was expecting him to knock on
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Speaker 2: the door or ring the doorbell any second, but he didn't.
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Speaker 2: He was just standing there in silence. This went on
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Speaker 2: for probably a minute or two. Then the man started
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Speaker 2: walking away. He was going back through the yard and
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Speaker 2: then he stopped at the window. I jumped back when
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Speaker 2: I saw this. The man was standing right next to
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Speaker 2: the living room window and possibly trying to look in.
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Speaker 2: I really couldn't tell though. I quietly went back into
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Speaker 2: my bedroom down the hallway. When I got in, I
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Speaker 2: was listening closely if I could hear anything. After a
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Speaker 2: few moments, I looked out of my window towards where
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Speaker 2: the man had been before. He was gone now. I
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Speaker 2: left my bedroom and went to the end of the
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Speaker 2: hallway and looked out. I didn't see the man out
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Speaker 2: the front window. He wasn't at the front step either.
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Speaker 2: I was wondering where he had gone and hoping that
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Speaker 2: he had left. I then went to each and every
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Speaker 2: window and looked out all of them. Most of them
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Speaker 2: were fine until I got to the back of the house.
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Speaker 2: Before I looked outside the kitchen window, which looked out
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Speaker 2: to the backyard, I saw the guy. I jumped back,
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Speaker 2: and I didn't think that he saw me. He was
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Speaker 2: now standing on the back patio, a few feet away
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Speaker 2: from the back door. I ran back to my bedroom, terrified.
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Speaker 2: When I got there, I was debating what to do.
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Speaker 2: Should I call the police, wake up my parents, or
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Speaker 2: just hide in my room and hope that the man
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Speaker 2: will leave? Then, about a minute later, as my mind
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Speaker 2: was still racing and thinking of what to do, I
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Speaker 2: heard a knock at the front door. I went back
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Speaker 2: out into the hallway and looked. The guy was now
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Speaker 2: back on the front step. I was definitely not going
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Speaker 2: to answer the door. The man did not knock again though.
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Speaker 2: He stood there for several more minutes and then just
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Speaker 2: turned and walked away. He left the front step, this
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Speaker 2: time walking straight back. I went back to my bedroom
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Speaker 2: and watched the guy walk back to the sidewalk and
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Speaker 2: then out of sight. I still had no clue as
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Speaker 2: to what he had been doing. I stayed up that
15:34
Speaker 2: night until after 2 o'clock in the morning. The man
15:37
Speaker 2: didn't return. Eventually, I fell asleep, and the next morning
15:41
Speaker 2: everything was fine. I told my parents about it, but
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Speaker 2: they figured it was just a drunk neighbor or something.
15:47
Speaker 2: Maybe it was, but I know that was the most
15:49
Speaker 2: creeped out I've ever been. I still remember how scary
15:52
Speaker 2: it was to see him outside of our house. Luckily,
15:55
Speaker 2: he never came back. This story occurred when I was
16:04
Speaker 2: driving back home from work one night. It was snowing
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Speaker 2: like crazy. and had been for quite some time. I
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Speaker 2: got off of work late, which was not good news
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Speaker 2: for me, because when I got back to my car,
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Speaker 2: I had to clear off all of the snow with
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Speaker 2: a snow scraper, and there was probably like three or
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Speaker 2: four inches on top of it already. Then I got
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Speaker 2: inside my car and left, and quickly realized that the
16:27
Speaker 2: driving conditions were not safe at all. It was probably
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Speaker 2: 10 p.m. at this point. I drove very slowly on
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Speaker 2: the roads, and there seemed to be hardly anybody else
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Speaker 2: out driving, It would normally take me about 15 minutes
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Speaker 2: to get home. This time, though, I think it took
16:43
Speaker 2: almost 30. Basically, the entire way back, I really only
16:47
Speaker 2: noticed one car, and it was driving behind me. I
16:51
Speaker 2: don't even remember at what point it started to drive
16:53
Speaker 2: behind me, but I think it was pretty early on.
16:56
Speaker 2: Each time that I turned, I didn't expect the car
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Speaker 2: to turn with me, but it did. By the time
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Speaker 2: I was almost home, I assumed that it was one
17:03
Speaker 2: of my neighbors. The roads were so slippery, that you
17:07
Speaker 2: had to take every turn very slow. When I turned
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Speaker 2: onto my street, the car behind me did as well
17:12
Speaker 2: at a very slow speed. I was pretty sure that
17:15
Speaker 2: it was a neighbor. There are a lot of other
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Speaker 2: houses on my street, and I don't know everyone. So
17:20
Speaker 2: when I got to my driveway, I turned and pulled in.
17:23
Speaker 2: The car following me kept going down the street. I
17:27
Speaker 2: have a garage at my house, but it's detached. I
17:29
Speaker 2: drove up to it and then opened the garage, drove inside,
17:32
Speaker 2: and then closed the garage door. Then I turned my
17:35
Speaker 2: car off and got out. After that, I got my
17:38
Speaker 2: bags from the back seat. Then I left the garage
17:41
Speaker 2: to walk to the house, but as soon as I
17:43
Speaker 2: opened the garage door, I saw a car parked in
17:45
Speaker 2: my driveway. It must have been the same one that
17:48
Speaker 2: had seemingly been following me. I was really confused and
17:51
Speaker 2: didn't know what was going on. I made it between
17:54
Speaker 2: my garage and house and had to walk around to
17:57
Speaker 2: the front door. When I saw the car, I stopped
17:59
Speaker 2: for a second and thought about what to do. I
18:02
Speaker 2: couldn't tell who was driving the car because of it
18:04
Speaker 2: being dark out and the headlights and plus all the snow.
18:07
Speaker 2: I didn't know who it was or what they were
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Speaker 2: doing here. Instead of confronting them or something, I decided
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Speaker 2: not to. I chose to ignore them and walk right past.
18:16
Speaker 2: Looking back, it was kind of weird, but I just
18:19
Speaker 2: wanted to get inside. I figured they would probably drive away,
18:23
Speaker 2: plus it was snowing and it was safer inside. I
18:26
Speaker 2: turned and began walking along the front of my house
18:28
Speaker 2: to the door. When I was about halfway there, I
18:31
Speaker 2: heard the door to the car open. Whoever had been
18:34
Speaker 2: inside must have gotten out. I kept walking and didn't
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Speaker 2: bother to turn around, and when I just about made
18:39
Speaker 2: it to my front door, finally decided to look over.
18:42
Speaker 2: When I did, I saw a man standing there next
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Speaker 2: to the car, wearing a really creepy-looking clown mask. It
18:49
Speaker 2: sent a shiver down my spine. I hurried and unlocked
18:52
Speaker 2: the door and then got inside. He didn't move, though.
18:55
Speaker 2: He just stood there. It was really creeping me out,
18:58
Speaker 2: and after getting inside, I went to the other end
19:01
Speaker 2: of the house. I wanted to just ignore it. When
19:04
Speaker 2: I went back a few minutes later... He was gone.
19:07
Speaker 2: The car and the guy in the clown mask. I
19:10
Speaker 2: was happy to see that, but the whole situation still
19:13
Speaker 2: seemed really odd to me. Why would somebody follow me
19:16
Speaker 2: in that bad of a snowstorm? The driving conditions were terrible.
19:20
Speaker 2: Then he just stood there, staring at me like a
19:22
Speaker 2: complete weirdo. It's something that still leaves me wondering today.
19:30
Speaker 2: This happened back when I was a teenager. I think
19:33
Speaker 2: I was 14 years old. and probably a freshman in
19:35
Speaker 2: high school. It was the wintertime, and sometime in the
19:39
Speaker 2: early evening. The sun had set, and it was dark out.
19:43
Speaker 2: We were getting a large snowstorm, and I was sent
19:45
Speaker 2: outside by my mom to shovel the driveway. She was cooking,
19:49
Speaker 2: and said that food would be ready when I got inside.
19:52
Speaker 2: It was kind of my job to shovel the driveway
19:54
Speaker 2: and I didn't really mind it. When it was snowing
19:57
Speaker 2: this badly though, it could be tough. We had a
20:00
Speaker 2: pretty long and straight driveway and I needed to shovel
20:03
Speaker 2: it now even though it was still snowing. That way,
20:06
Speaker 2: the next morning, instead of having like a foot of
20:08
Speaker 2: snow to shovel, there would be less, and it would
20:10
Speaker 2: be faster and easier. I went as quickly as I could,
20:14
Speaker 2: and things were going pretty well. Our neighborhood was generally
20:17
Speaker 2: pretty quiet, and not that many neighbors were outside or anything.
20:21
Speaker 2: We also lived on a cul-de-sac with only about ten
20:24
Speaker 2: houses on it total, so I pretty much knew all
20:26
Speaker 2: the neighbors and their cars and stuff. When I had
20:29
Speaker 2: reached near the end of the driveway and was shoveling
20:31
Speaker 2: the last section, I heard a car coming onto the street.
20:35
Speaker 2: It entered our street and then came around the corner,
20:37
Speaker 2: going very slowly. It was a larger and older-looking black SUV.
20:43
Speaker 2: It looked to be a Chevy Suburban. I had never
20:45
Speaker 2: seen it before and wondered whose it was. It slowly
20:49
Speaker 2: drove past me as I shoveled and then went to
20:51
Speaker 2: the loop of the cul-de-sac. It went around there and
20:54
Speaker 2: then started to come back down the street. At that point,
20:57
Speaker 2: I guessed that it was somebody who was on the
20:59
Speaker 2: wrong street. They were probably just going to go back around,
21:02
Speaker 2: but they were going extremely slow. Then they started to
21:05
Speaker 2: slow down in front of our driveway and it kind
21:08
Speaker 2: of creeped me out a little bit. They moved past though,
21:11
Speaker 2: but then pulled over on the side of the street
21:13
Speaker 2: right in front of our house. It was only about
21:15
Speaker 2: 50 feet away from me. I wondered who on earth
21:18
Speaker 2: it could be. In fact, I wanted to just run
21:21
Speaker 2: back inside of my house right then and there, but
21:24
Speaker 2: I figured that would be weird and decided to just
21:26
Speaker 2: keep shoveling. The car sat there with the engine running
21:30
Speaker 2: and nobody got out of it. I glanced, but I
21:32
Speaker 2: couldn't see who was inside at all. It was not
21:35
Speaker 2: a good angle to see the driver, plus it was
21:37
Speaker 2: dark out and the windows were tinted. I shoveled, trying
21:40
Speaker 2: to hurry up and finish so I wouldn't have to
21:42
Speaker 2: be creeped out by this strange vehicle. The SUV then
21:45
Speaker 2: shut off, but nobody got out. After probably two or
21:49
Speaker 2: three minutes of the SUV just sitting there, the door
21:52
Speaker 2: finally opened. I was now almost at the complete end
21:55
Speaker 2: of the driveway. I saw a man get out of
21:58
Speaker 2: the car, and then he began walking over to me.
22:01
Speaker 2: He was kind of tall and thin and wore a
22:03
Speaker 2: black jacket and jeans. He also wore a winter hat
22:06
Speaker 2: and had sort of long hair. When I saw that
22:09
Speaker 2: he was walking straight for me, I really wanted to
22:11
Speaker 2: just get out of there. I told myself not to
22:14
Speaker 2: though and I shouldn't be afraid of people. The guy
22:16
Speaker 2: walked right up to me and said hi. I said
22:19
Speaker 2: hi to him and was really nervous. The guy asked
22:22
Speaker 2: me if I wanted some help shoveling and said that
22:24
Speaker 2: he could help me. I told him no thanks and
22:26
Speaker 2: that I was just about done. He then asked me
22:29
Speaker 2: if I lived there and I said yes. He just
22:31
Speaker 2: stood there for a few moments as I finished up
22:33
Speaker 2: the shoveling. Then he said something that really creeped me out.
22:37
Speaker 2: The guy asked me if I wanted a ride anywhere.
22:40
Speaker 2: I asked him why. He said, I could take you
22:42
Speaker 2: anywhere you want to go right now if you want.
22:45
Speaker 2: I was really confused by this. I said no to
22:48
Speaker 2: the man and that I was supposed to go inside now.
22:50
Speaker 2: I started to walk away. The guy stood there and
22:53
Speaker 2: watched me as I started heading back. When I made
22:56
Speaker 2: it about halfway up the driveway, I heard him walking
22:59
Speaker 2: back to his car.
23:00
Speaker 1: It was a relief.
23:02
Speaker 2: When I made it back inside, I told my parents
23:04
Speaker 2: about the guy. We looked out the window, but he
23:07
Speaker 2: was gone now. This was one of the stranger things
23:09
Speaker 2: that had ever happened to me. But that night, I
23:12
Speaker 2: stayed up kind of late. It was probably like 10pm,
23:16
Speaker 2: and I looked out of my window and noticed that
23:17
Speaker 2: the SUV was back. I really couldn't believe it. I
23:21
Speaker 2: kept my eyes on it and could see that the
23:23
Speaker 2: engine was running. The same man was probably inside, and
23:26
Speaker 2: I was hoping that he wouldn't get out. I really
23:29
Speaker 2: just couldn't believe that he had come back. He was
23:31
Speaker 2: parked in the exact same place as before. Then, after
23:35
Speaker 2: about a minute, the truck drove away. I went and
23:38
Speaker 2: told my parents. My dad went outside, but the man
23:41
Speaker 2: was long gone by then. After that night, I never
23:44
Speaker 2: saw the truck or the man after that. The story
23:47
Speaker 2: still gives me the creeps when I think back to it, though.
23:50
Speaker 2: I don't know why the guy came down our street
23:52
Speaker 2: or what he was doing. I'm really glad that he
23:54
Speaker 2: didn't try to make me go with him or something.
23:57
Speaker 2: Looking back, I probably should have gone inside as soon
23:59
Speaker 2: as I saw the car parking in front of our yard.
24:06
Speaker 3: We moved to Connecticut the summer before I entered 6th
24:09
Speaker 3: grade in 2001. We moved into a beautiful new house
24:13
Speaker 3: in one of the most beautiful towns I'd ever seen.
24:16
Speaker 3: It was a bit more rural than we were used
24:18
Speaker 3: to in New Jersey, but it was an adjustment. My
24:22
Speaker 3: sister is two years younger than me and she was
24:24
Speaker 3: going into 4th grade at the time. We came from
24:27
Speaker 3: a neighborhood where we were all super close and everyone
24:30
Speaker 3: knew one another. Blog parties every summer and kids running
24:33
Speaker 3: back and forth to one another's houses, and we were
24:36
Speaker 3: sad to leave it. Within the first few weeks, we
24:39
Speaker 3: met some of our neighbors. Everyone was what we soon
24:42
Speaker 3: defined as very Connecticut. It was all a bit surface
24:46
Speaker 3: and nobody had that New Jersey warmth that we had
24:49
Speaker 3: been used to. In particular, our neighbors directly across the
24:53
Speaker 3: street seemed a bit odd. The mom would come over
24:56
Speaker 3: to vent to my mom about her sons and husband,
24:59
Speaker 3: and my mom was a sweetheart and was very welcoming
25:01
Speaker 3: and warm. The holidays came around and the neighbor boy
25:05
Speaker 3: across the street was in my sister's fourth grade class.
25:09
Speaker 3: My sister came back slightly alarmed with what had happened
25:12
Speaker 3: in class that day. The students were asked to make
25:15
Speaker 3: a Thanksgiving turkey out of a traced drawing of their hands.
25:18
Speaker 3: On each finger, they were supposed to write things that
25:20
Speaker 3: they were thankful for. The neighbor boy wrote things like,
25:24
Speaker 3: being a loser, hating myself, etc. Very, very dark things
25:29
Speaker 3: for a fourth grader. Fast forward to Christmas and my
25:33
Speaker 3: mom hears that they have nowhere to go for the holidays,
25:36
Speaker 3: so she politely invites the mother and two of her
25:38
Speaker 3: sons to our annual Christmas Eve party. The boys were
25:41
Speaker 3: so strange. They listened to Japanese techno with headphones on
25:46
Speaker 3: and didn't speak to anyone. They headed straight to our
25:49
Speaker 3: basement to play video games. It was weird. The younger one, though,
25:54
Speaker 3: was always much stranger than the older one, and the
25:56
Speaker 3: neighbor mom would always open up to my mom and
25:59
Speaker 3: aunt about how he would hurt himself and how he
26:01
Speaker 3: needed to be put in special needs programs but that
26:04
Speaker 3: he could never quite be diagnosed. They thought that he
26:07
Speaker 3: was on the spectrum at first, but that quickly proved
26:10
Speaker 3: to not be the case. We always assumed that she'd
26:14
Speaker 3: been confiding in them because my aunt was experienced with
26:16
Speaker 3: special needs kids and that she was looking for advice
26:19
Speaker 3: from her. The Christmas Eve stands out to me because
26:22
Speaker 3: they were at our home in a very intimate setting
26:25
Speaker 3: but we saw them on a daily basis. My sister
26:28
Speaker 3: and I would come home from school telling my mom
26:30
Speaker 3: about how weird the younger neighbor boy was and that
26:33
Speaker 3: something was just really off about him. I will never
26:36
Speaker 3: forget her telling us just to be nice to him
26:38
Speaker 3: and that we don't know what he's capable of. That
26:41
Speaker 3: struck me as so odd at the time but we listened.
26:44
Speaker 3: I don't know if his mother told my mom something
26:46
Speaker 3: that scared her and made her say that or if
26:48
Speaker 3: she just had a gut instinct. Recently after that, and
26:52
Speaker 3: I can't quite remember if this was in middle school
26:54
Speaker 3: or high school, I think I was in ninth grade,
26:57
Speaker 3: and my sister and young neighbor boy were in seventh,
27:00
Speaker 3: so we all rode the bus together. What my mom
27:02
Speaker 3: then said stuck out in my mind, so today I
27:05
Speaker 3: decided to be friendlier than usual. There was snow on
27:08
Speaker 3: the ground and the younger neighbor boy was drawing something
27:11
Speaker 3: in the snow and muttering to himself. I decided to
27:14
Speaker 3: greet him. Hey Adam, what's going on? Nice morning today, huh?
27:19
Speaker 3: He made no eye contact. I'll bomb you, he said,
27:23
Speaker 3: still making no eye contact. We let it slide. We
27:27
Speaker 3: came home and told my mom. She reiterated, just be nice.
27:31
Speaker 3: We have no idea what this kid's capable of. Keep
27:35
Speaker 3: in mind, we were kids. We didn't know what to
27:37
Speaker 3: take seriously and what not to. I wished we had
27:40
Speaker 3: done more. Keep in mind, he wasn't someone who was
27:43
Speaker 3: bullied or made fun of. He was always off in
27:47
Speaker 3: the sense that he could not hold eye contact or
27:49
Speaker 3: hold a conversation or even a hello Kids didn't make
27:52
Speaker 3: fun of him. He was a loner, but it seemed
27:55
Speaker 3: to be by choice. I never knew why we were
27:58
Speaker 3: cautious or afraid around him other than the fact that
28:01
Speaker 3: he showed zero warmth and zero humanity. We knew he
28:04
Speaker 3: had special needs, so we never really second-guessed anything and
28:07
Speaker 3: just tried to be polite as possible. When the bus
28:10
Speaker 3: would drop us off at all of our respective houses,
28:13
Speaker 3: he would run all the way up his driveway on
28:15
Speaker 3: the hill with his hands by his sides and then
28:18
Speaker 3: would turn around and make this weird hiss noise at everyone.
28:21
Speaker 3: making claws with his hands. It was always so odd,
28:24
Speaker 3: but again, we were kids and there's always a couple
28:27
Speaker 3: of kids in school who are a little strange. We
28:30
Speaker 3: took it as just that. They were invited to several
28:33
Speaker 3: Christmas Eve parties, so memories kind of blend here. One year,
28:38
Speaker 3: the neighbor mom started screaming at my innocent grandmother for
28:41
Speaker 3: being a Yankees fan as she was a Red Sox fan.
28:45
Speaker 3: It was beyond strange, because my grandma is the cutest
28:47
Speaker 3: little lady of all time and was in no way
28:50
Speaker 3: trying to argue over sports. It was as though the
28:53
Speaker 3: woman clearly had a weird switch go off. She was
28:57
Speaker 3: always nice to me, but I'll be honest, we always
28:59
Speaker 3: rolled our eyes every single time my mom invited them over.
29:03
Speaker 3: It was always such forced conversations with her, and as
29:06
Speaker 3: a teenager I wanted nothing to do with being cornered
29:08
Speaker 3: into another chat. I think she must have just been lonely.
29:13
Speaker 3: The following and final year they were invited to Christmas
29:16
Speaker 3: Eve was when she got into it with my mom
29:18
Speaker 3: about having guns in the house. The boys only attended
29:21
Speaker 3: the first couple of Christmas Eve so it was just
29:24
Speaker 3: the mom this time around. The topic of guns came up.
29:28
Speaker 3: The neighbor mom started telling my mom about how she
29:30
Speaker 3: has guns in the house and how she takes her
29:32
Speaker 3: younger son to the shooting range all the time. My
29:35
Speaker 3: mom said that she didn't agree with having guns in
29:37
Speaker 3: the house. She wasn't trying to argue but the neighbor
29:40
Speaker 3: mom got out of hand about it. Very defensive and
29:43
Speaker 3: ultimately getting aggressive about how she grew up in New
29:46
Speaker 3: Hampshire and that's just the way of life out there.
29:49
Speaker 3: The neighbor mom told us about how brilliant that her
29:51
Speaker 3: younger son was and that he hacked into some of
29:54
Speaker 3: the government's highest levels of security and that the CIA
29:57
Speaker 3: showed up on his doorstep. We have absolutely no idea
30:01
Speaker 3: if this story is true or not, but this is
30:03
Speaker 3: what she told us. So it became our ongoing joke
30:06
Speaker 3: when anything strange happened at our house. There were a
30:10
Speaker 3: few odd things that happened throughout the years. Our internet
30:14
Speaker 3: had clearly been messed with, lights would flicker in the house,
30:17
Speaker 3: and we would joke that it was the younger boy
30:19
Speaker 3: each time. It wasn't until December 14th, 2012 that we
30:24
Speaker 3: knew just what he was capable of. I was out
30:27
Speaker 3: of college working outside of Philadelphia My sister still a
30:30
Speaker 3: student in college and my youngest brother a student at
30:33
Speaker 3: the high school. It was the worst day of all
30:35
Speaker 3: of our lives. My dad heard the gunshots in the
30:38
Speaker 3: morning that killed the neighbor mom, Nancy Lanza. He assumed
30:43
Speaker 3: it had been a hunter in the area, maybe a
30:45
Speaker 3: little closer than usual. That is until the FBI showed
30:48
Speaker 3: up and had to evacuate the house as snipers had
30:51
Speaker 3: lined our driveway. My mom was at the mall and
30:54
Speaker 3: we were all frantically calling one another as the news
30:56
Speaker 3: slowly broke throughout the day. At first they had his
30:59
Speaker 3: identity all wrong and said it was his brother, but
31:02
Speaker 3: we knew it had to have been him. Thank God
31:05
Speaker 3: for my mom making sure we were as nice as possible,
31:08
Speaker 3: although I don't know that it would have stopped him.
31:11
Speaker 3: I wish we had done more at the time. I
31:13
Speaker 3: wish we knew to do more at the time. We didn't.
31:17
Speaker 3: We didn't want to assume the worst out of someone,
31:19
Speaker 3: but I wish we had. Approximately 20 students and 6
31:23
Speaker 3: teachers were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School that day.
31:27
Speaker 3: The worst act of evil I have ever experienced so
31:30
Speaker 3: directly in my life and I hope I will never
31:32
Speaker 3: experience again. I'm very thankful that we survived growing up
31:36
Speaker 3: across the street from him, but I'm so gutted for
31:39
Speaker 3: those who didn't get so lucky. I hate it so much.
31:43
Speaker 3: I know I will never see him again, but regardless,
31:47
Speaker 3: Adam Lanza, you sick and twisted individual. I pray and
31:51
Speaker 3: hope to God that we never see you again.