[Music] when I moved out of my parents house and into my own apartment I had a lot of junk and stuff that I needed to get rid of I never liked Craigslist because I always found it sketchy especially after hearing so many stories about it so I listed a lot of my things on Facebook Marketplace things that wouldn't fit in my apartment and that my dad wanted out of the house my wa set some old childhood toys book sets and a whole bunch of other things the weight set was what I listed for the most
money it had a barbell a plate tree stand and a bunch of plates I was selling it for $340 which I thought wasn't a bad deal surprisingly I wasn't getting many bites I'd have some people hear in their message asking if it's still available and then never messag me again about it until a few days after posting it a guy named Joe messaged me showing interest his profile picture was pretty grainy but it was a guy with a fishing hat on holding up a fish his account info was Private I couldn't see how many friends
he had or anything only that we had three mutuals all three of them were girls from my town the guy's last name was also the last name of a Joe I knew from my town who used to date a girl I was somewhat friendly with so I right away assumed it was him especially since I knew that guy liked to fish after telling him it's still available he said great when can I pick it up I was pleasantly surprised he didn't try to haggle the price down at all I said him available any night after
700 he said he could come by tonight around 11:00 p.m. after work I said that's fine a little late in my opinion but if that's what worked for his schedule it worked for me I then decided to just be a little friendly and say Hey you used to date Gina right I saw the typing indicator in the chat for a second but then it went away and he didn't reply not for a couple minutes then he said yes I I thought it was a little strange the random pause but it could have been anything maybe
he thought it was weird I brought it up so I just said I knew I recognized your name LOL he read the message but didn't respond for half an hour then I got a message back from him saying yeah LOL can you send me your address and I'll let you know when I'm coming so I sent him my address he read it and didn't respond for many hours by the time I got home from work it was around 600 I went to the gym and got back around 7:30 the whole time waiting for some kind
of acknowledgement from Joe and then he finally messaged back asking for my number I gave it to him and seconds later I got a text from a number with our area code I have an iPhone and when I texted him back it was green I sometimes will find that to be a red flag and possibly scams because most people I know have iPhones but I wasn't thinking that way with this because I knew this guy already he said he'd be over in a few hours and so I continued about my business it was now around
11:00 and I was waiting patiently for his text or call I sent a followup saying let me know when you're coming it was around 11:30 that he texted me I'm here come out I looked out the front window of my apartment and I saw a dark colored car out front in the street I tried calling him so I could tell him that I need help bringing the weights outside he rejected my call and then he texted again yo come out I texted back I see you you can come in I just need help with the
weights there's a lot of them he texted back n got to see if you're straight first I had to process what the hell that even meant for a second all I knew was this did not seem like the way this white as hell fishing dude would be texting I tried calling one more time and he denied the call again now I was suspicious I decided to text that girl Gina along with the mutual friends I had with Joe on Facebook the first one to text back was this girl Angela who said OMG that's a catfish
soone was pretending to be him when I asked why she added it she said it must have been a different name when it added her I looked out the window again and the car was still there someone was about to do something bad to me I wasn't sure what or who or why I had no way to contact the real Joe because he didn't seem to have any actual social media profiles not public at least I kept the door shut and locked and didn't respond any further I turned off the light in the living room
and kinked the blind just a bit and I swear on my life there was a guy hiding behind one of the bushes in front of the house I watched until the car outside honked its horn and then I saw the guy in the bushes run to the car and then the car sped off witnessing that I didn't feel relief I felt gut-wrenching fear not only of what I just narrowly avoided but the fact that those people now had my address the Facebook profile was deleted the next day after a bunch of people reported it though
I think the people who made the account deleted it or deactivated it themselves Joe himself confirmed he had nothing to do with any of that and that someone must have been using his pictures and name to try and scam people in the area though I'm not so sure it was someone trying to scam random people because days later I got this threatening text hey yo [ __ ] watch your back we know where you live keep trying to talk to my girl see what happens man we'll [ __ ] you up right outside your crib
sleep with one eye open [ __ ] we watching I brought this to the police but it was such a low priority report to them that I doubt they every even looked into it I have no reason to lie when I say I haven't tried talking to anyone's girl in the slightest at the time of this incident I had been seeing a girl pretty much exclusively I think it's connected I don't know who it is I don't know what they were going to do to me if I open the door but unfortunately I've had to
live in slight fear in my new apartment ever since moving here fortunately I haven't gotten any more threatening or random texts but I still pretty much always check outside my windows first before leaving the apartment at night [Music] it had to be 2018 I was selling this old pinball machine that we had from our childhood it wasn't some crazy arcade level pinball machine that would cost thousands of dollars but it was definitely worth a few hundred bucks it had been sitting in my parents attic for the longest time so I wanted to sell it before
one of my sisters had the same idea I didn't really want anyone to know about this because then I'd have to split the money so I chose to list it when my family was away on a trip that I couldn't go on due to work I'm a bit of a sneak I know but you got to do what you got to do my parents house is on the really nice side of town but not in a gated community I put the pinball machine up on Facebook Marketplace for $200 the next day I got a message
from some account with no profile picture with the name Jasmine expressing interest in the pinball machine they offered off 175 I agreed to that number we set up a time for when she would come but when that time came she never showed up she messaged me saying I'll be there soon I'll be there soon it was getting late now and I had work the next day I asked her if she would be here by 11: the latest she said 11:30 I asked if we could do this tomorrow instead but she said she's already on her
way so I just stayed up a little later waiting 11:45 rolls around and she finally tells tells me that she's here I went to the front door and saw there was a car out front what I wasn't expecting was to see all four doors of the car opening and four people stepping out one girl and three guys I messaged her are you here with people at this point she wasn't answering her messages anymore I watched as the four people approached my door I kept the storm door locked these three guys looked kind of big and
all four of these people looked like trouble as they got close enough I said are you Jasmine she said through the door yeah I said I can't let all of you guys in my house my parents are asleep obviously lying Jasmine or so she claimed her name was tried opening the door yelling what are you talking about as she saw it was locked she started knocking on the glass I decided it was best to shut the front door at this point I heard their voices yelling outside for a while and the doorbell ringing I heard
one of the guys or maybe even multiple of them yelling obscenities and insults at me through the two doors making me only gladder I didn't let them in these were not the kinds of people I wanted in my parents house especially when I'm alone I realized this whole thing was an awful idea when I heard their voices laughing and yelling on the front stoop for like 10 minutes after I shut the door I looked out my little brother's bedroom window upstairs which is directly above the driveway and I saw one of the guys pissing in
the empty driveway no cars in the driveway was not a good look the girl yelled something directed at me as they finally started to walk away but I didn't hear what it was I just thanked the Lord when they drove away and I went upstairs to go to sleep I was having trouble sleeping that night though thinking of the interaction so fully awake a couple of hours after climbing into bed I heard a crash from downstairs it was unmistakably the sound of a window being shattered I sprang up but right before sprinting to make sure
the bedroom door was locked I stopped myself and instead quietly got out of bed and tiptoed to the door I had already locked it I tiptoed back to my bed and had my phone in hand ready to call 911 for some stupid reason I was waiting till I heard any other kind of sounds before dialing and eventually I heard the sound I needed to hear footsteps rapidly coming upstairs I dialed 911 as I felt like throwing up the footsteps outside the room didn't even sound like they were trying to be quiet I whispered the entire
time I was on the line with the dispatcher time was moving in reverse I hid literally under my bed as I listened to people ransacking the house in reality they were in and out in less than 5 minutes way before the police actually showed up the backyard window was shattered things were stolen from just about each room ironically the pinball machine wasn't taken what happened from there was I got a police report number I made an appointment to see a couple detectives at the police station and shared with them all the details I had including
the Facebook account of the Jasmine girl I fabricated the story of it saying someone in the house threatened me my reasoning for this was I felt that this case would actually be taken seriously if I claimed I was threatened to my surprise they did take this seriously the detectives apparently gathered the necessary data of the Facebook account in question to track this jazine girl who lived a few Towns over in a less than desirable area and with a search warrant they searched her house and found multiple belongings stolen from my parents house she routed out
the three men who accompanied her and they were all charged with burglary I think most of the stuff that was stolen was recovered I'm sure there were some things that I wasn't aware of that were stolen that were never returned but to this day it hasn't come up so it's fine I think by me claiming I was verbally threatened may have definitely helped make the detectives take this more seriously but I could be wrong my family was of course livid at first but came to be understanding about it in the end [Music] I was searching
Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for a new phone this was a long time ago so it had to be like an iPhone 7 or something phones still had the home buttons back then I found this listing for a phone it was some generic looking post iPhone whatever for sale New around 300 bucks it was a really really good deal for the time that I remember he told me all the small details I needed to know that it was factory unlocked never opened and stuff like like that he sent me a video of the box too still
sealed the guy whose name was Melvin seemed nice and easy to talk to over text I got his number and we discussed a pickup Point his location on the Facebook ad was much closer to me but over text he was telling me he was only there this morning and now he went about an hour north I wasn't happy about this but this was a really good deal and I didn't want to pass it up I started asking a bunch of friends if they'd want to come on an adventure with me really just way of making
the chore of accompanying me for an hour drive seemed fun my friend Martina actually agreed to come with on the promise that I buy her food for coming so this Melvin guy sent me the address of a police precinct about an hour away saying he only does deals in police precinct parking lots to avoid scams I obviously had no problem with this in fact it made me feel a little more confident in this whole thing I picked up Martina on the way around 8:30 at night and off we went she being in the car and
having someone to talk to made the trip more fun it was also a Friday night so afterwards we could go out and do whatever we wanted when I got off the highway we were about 10 minutes away and we found ourselves in a very secluded quiet area it seemed like a lot of different wooded areas occasional buildings and houses and then more Woods we got to the police precinct and there was no one visibly parked in the parking lot besides empty police cars of course we drove around the whole building a couple times and didn't
see this Melvin guy who said he was in a black Ultima so I decided to call him he picked up and said he's having issues with his car on the side of the road and asked if I could come to him he sent his location and I checked it he was on the side of some random road with nothing on either side and by nothing I mean Woods that's the kind of area we were in he asked me to come help him jump his car he had jumper cables I said uh yeah I guess I
can do that I mean we drove the hour to get there I didn't want to just drive another hour for nothing Martina was shaking her head the whole time I was on the phone the guy said see you soon and hung up Martina then basically screamed no way this is sketchy we're going home I told her we'll just drive past the location he sent and see what's up I did agree with her though this seems incredibly sketchy I just was very upset if we drove 2 hours for nothing we did drive to the location and
when we got to it we saw the reflection of a car's front lights coming up on the pitch black road we found ourselves on as we got closer I slowed down and it was in fact a black car but we couldn't see anyone inside or outside of it mind you it was very dark but I feel like we would have seen someone's head on the inside or something Martina said to just keep driving and I said I know it was about the sketchiest thing I'd ever seen a pitch black Road between two patches of woods
no street lights no other cars in sight a pretty convenient place to break down and have someone who's coming with a WT of cash to buy something from you come and meet I drove right past it immediately Melvin starts calling me over and over I ignored every single call then he texted me saying I saw you just pass me why didn't you stop turn around ignored Martina is a very positive person so she laughed about this whole situation and then said okay you owe me food so I looked up the nearest diner and we stopped
there for some food it was a quiet small Diner we were just about the only people in there even on a Friday night the waitress just took our coffee order when a lone guy with his hood up steps into the diner and sits in one of the bar stools he was wearing a navy blue dirty looking hoodie he glanced over to Martina and I then looked Straight Ahead talking to the lady working behind the counter apparently ordering a coffee the man kept glancing at our table like every minute so I whispered to Martina don't look
now but that guy at the counter might be the Melvin guy the waitress came with our coffees and asked if we were ready to order I said a few minutes please when the lady behind the counter handed that man his coffee he said loud and clear thank you darling it was that guy from the phone's voice Melvin or whatever his real name was I told Martina that's him we need to pay the check and leave I waved the server over and whispered to her if we can just get the check she asked if something's wrong
and I noticed the guy look over as I said this I said yes we just needed some coffee for the road so she got the check I paid we downed our coffees and left the building we got in my car and Martina said oh my God he's getting up I looked into the diner and saw that guy leaving towards the door as quickly as possible I drove us out of that parking lot and sped down the road and yes we noticed a black car in the parking lot that could have been the one that we
saw on the side of the road I was driving too fast for him to have caught up we got back on the highway and I was flying for a while until I got a low tide tire pressure light come on I knew instantly he slashed my tire the PSI was going down fast So to avoid damage I pulled to the side of the highway and parked it I went out to confirm that my tire was slashed I had to replace the tire with the spare which took about 15 minutes the whole thing was a disaster
and if you're wondering yes I still got Martina dinner that night now Martina and I look at it as a crazy story that we can look back on and tell people it's absolutely horri in though how close we were to walking into a [Music] trap
