it was a rainy Thanksgiving we have a small family so our family gatherings are tiny it was my mom my two sisters our grandparents and I for dinner at my mom's house my older sister Nancy has been moved out for years my younger sister Jamie and I still live at home with our mom our grandparents live 20 minutes away our dad's side of the family all live in a different town we were all helping out with cooking and such and our grandma was bringing over some food as well we always do Thanksgiving dinner at 6:00
sharp our grandparents arrived at like 5:00 we had to go out and help them walk through the rain up the front stoop to make sure they didn't slip it was really bad out once they were here we put the football game on in the living room and I sat with my grandparents and watched football with my grandpa who was a big Cowboys fan my sisters were in the kitchen help helping my mom with the food the rainstorm created for a more comfortable and relaxing Thanksgiving evening that is at first when it was time to set
the table I went to help we were all at the table by 6:00 as per the usual we had a giant selection of food for the small amount of people we were turkey leg of lamb potatoes stuffing corn cranberry sauce cornbread and more food I'm probably forgetting we were all at the table eating drinking wine and talking before we migrated to the living room where there we all watched the football game then sometime before the game ended the doorbell rang it was still pouring outside and we weren't expecting anyone else our mom said oh no
what if that's your father long story short our parents don't speak but the idea of our father coming to surprise us wasn't impossible my mom told me to go check who it was so I went to the door and yelled through it who is it but the sound of of the pouring rain on the front awning drowned out the sound of a male's voice on the other side so I opened the door with the storm door still closed and locked there was a black man on the other side of the door he was in some
really big rain jacket with the hood up when I opened the door he walked closer and yelled something through the door I had to ask him to repeat it twice before I understood him to be asking for food saying he's hungry then he said something along the lines of the Lord will give you good karma if you spare some food I said one second I went to the living room and told my mom there's a possible homeless or just very hungry man asking for food at the front door my mom said close the door while
my grandma said give him some food I said I'll make a little paper plate of food for him from the leftovers I went to the kitchen grabbed a bunch of paper plates to account for the rain outside ruining them and then sandwiched some of the leftovers together with them then I went to the front door where the guy was still standing I held up the plate to show him and he tried opening the door I yelled wait it's locked but I already was wary now after he tried opening the door regrettably I still unlocked the
door and the second I started to push it open he pulled it open with force and tried pushing his way through me I instantly threw the food and held him back yelling for my sisters to come help me as Nancy came to help shut the door I saw two more guys rushing up the front walkway to the door I managed to push the man out enough to clear the door and I helped my sister slam it shut the second it was locked I ran to the backyard door to make sure it was locked I was
the only able-bodied man in the house and I felt like it was on me to protect the house my family was in hysterics as we were brainstorming what to do not so shockingly we settled for calling the police my mom called while I kept going from window to window looking outside it was hard to see out through the pouring rain but through the backyard window I saw a couple men running through the grass to the back door I'd imagine they tried opening the back door and failed and then I saw them running through the grass
again back to the gate then they were gone when the police got here the food that I dropped onto the front stoop was still just sitting there all scattered on the porch not that it wasn't obvious that those guys didn't come for the food but it's something worth mentioning our Thanksgiving was almost turned into a complete nightmare if it weren't for my and my sister's quick reactions I know my grandma had her heart in the right place wanting to help the seemingly needy and I was influenced by her but unfortunately we live in a world
where sometimes trying to do the right thing could bite you in the ass we installed the doorbell camera soon after [Music] this it was Thanksgiving night I was over my parents house for dinner since they were hosting this year I got to see some cousins and uncles I hadn't seen in almost a year we had a typical Thanksgiving gathering for our family my parents cooked a big meal as usual before dinner though I got a long essay of a text from some unknown number I won't share it because it contains a lot of personal revealing
details but it started with hey Melissa hope your Thanksgiving is going well then I quickly came to realize who it was that sent this text it was this crazy stalker guy named Kevin who I'd never even met before we matched on a dating app and texted and snapped for a while but we never met he gave me obsessive Vibes and when I politely rejected going on a date with him saying I don't think we have much in common he got even more obsessive and aggressive he even threatened me one time when I posted a snap
story of my friend and I getting drinks because he thought I was on a date with a guy that was when I blocked him on everything Snapchat Instagram and his number but the contact didn't stop there I get random Instagram accounts with zero followers attempting to follow me and I block them each time same thing on Snapchat I'd get random accounts adding me with different guys names every time whenever IID add them back out of curiosity their snap scores were always zero after reading the entire message I was disgusted he was gaslighting me and borderline
threatening me I replied if you keep contacting me I will go to the police I took so long to form a reply I was okay with that my grandma got annoyed and asked me to put my phone away it was only out of sight and out of mind for me half an hour before I got another text from another random number it was another essay I didn't want to completely ruin my mood and be on my phone dealing with this when I was with family I put my phone away and just tried to focus on
being a part of the conversation when family started to leave and things started to slow down I checked the text and it was disturbing it was longer than the first one and it was him berading me and insulting me the entire time acting like the entitled narcissistic sociopath that he clearly is when there was just a small amount of my family left I showed them the texts and they were appalled my mom wanted me to go to the police the next day to report him for harassment which I planned on doing I soon left my
parents house to go home to my apartment my apartment is the lower floor of a two family house my friend Chelsea is my roommate in the apartment I got home before her and I went straight to my room to look for Christmas movies to watch my phone started ringing and it said unknown caller I knew it was him I denied it and silenced my phone I put on some silly romcom Christmas movie to fall asleep to it was called Surviving Christmas all I remember about it is that it had James gandini in it it was
late at night so I didn't plan on making it through the movie I was getting sleepy halfway through the movie when I heard walking from outside my room in the house it was in the apartment not from upstairs so I assumed it was Chelsea getting home from her night with her family the footsteps came straight to my door then someone attempted to open my door I always lock my bedroom door at night even though I trust Chelsea it's just a natural habit I have I paused the movie and listened as the doorknob turned a few
more times before I yelled Chelsea then it stopped I heard quiet footsteps walking away from the door I grabbed my phone about to call Chelsea and I saw a bunch of texts on my scream from a third random number the most alarming one was a threat saying good thing you made it obvious where you live I tried calling Chelsea like five times but she never picked up I called my parents a bunch of times until my dad picked up and I whispered into the phone that I think that crazy stalker was in the house my
dad said to stay put he was coming over right away we lived 10 minutes away from each other but he made it to me in five that's how fast he drove here during that time I stayed on the phone with my dad the whole time until Chelsea called me back and that's when she told me that she wasn't coming back to the apartment tonight so it for sure was not her when my dad got here the front door was locked I had to let him in I swore to him that I wasn't imagining what happened
and so after we tore the place upside down he went to the big sliding window by the kitchen big enough that anyone could fit through and he lifted it open he turned to me and gave me a stare of disappointment he scolded me after learning that I didn't lock the window every night and said here's my answer on how someone got in here I went back home with him and slept at home that night first thing in the morning my dad took me to the county Court's office where they gave us step-by-step instructions for getting
a temporary restraining order skipping most of the legal process of the story I eventually did see Kevin in person when I had to go to court to get the restraining order extended the judge granted the extension and though I could never prove he broke into my apartment his threatening texts were plenty and if he ever contacts me again through any Outlets he'd be arrested this was a truly dangerous man and I hope he hasn't found anyone else to [Music] harass most of my family lives in a rural part of Central Florida closer to the east
coast though my Uncle Ben was hosting Thanksgiving one year his house sits on a huge lake with like five other hous that's it I don't want to give the name of the lake or the town because that would be doxing my uncle basically it's not a fancy house and setup like you're picturing trust me it's rustic but private and spacious my uncle is a bit of a redneck but he makes our holiday Gatherings more fun him hosting Thanksgiving this year meant that he'd be going all out making it like a party basically with music cornhole
coolers full of beers and all that good stuff we got to his house around 3 during the day we all drank some beers eat some snacks like chips and dip and played drinking games together card games cornhole and even basketball with my cousin though the basketball didn't last long with three beers and a bunch of chips in our stomachs this all went on for a few hours with music blasting an unusual way of celebrating Thanksgiving I know then as it started getting darker around 5:30 Aunt Mel and Uncle Ben started bringing the food out to
the table they set the table up under the big gazebo it was around Sunset when everything was set up and we were all eating the Gazebo has lights so when it got really dark the lights turned on by 6:00 it was basically pitch blackout my uncle's probably the only one alive who insists on doing Thanksgiving dinner outside but we all enjoy it it makes it more fun the fun soon ended though my cousin suddenly pointed out past me to the woods saying dad who's who's that Uncle Ben turned around and said who the hell there
was someone standing out in front of the woods like a statue watching us eat Uncle Ben stood up and started walking over to the guy standing by the woods and then he yelled can I help you with something I'd say he was about halfway to the woods when the guy turned around and ran into the woods Uncle Ben turned around and laughed he was definitely drunk by this point finding humor in this he said must be one of the local nuts as came back to the table to sit my Aunt Mel was not as amused
and I kind of agreed with her that was creepy my dad joked that between all the men here there's nothing to worry about the light-heartedness of this did not last though this time I spotted the guy he was standing by the woods again though closer to the lake this time I pointed it out to everyone my uncle got up pissed off this time he started marching over again yelling and taunting the guy his drunkenness was really starting to show now just in the way he was confronting the trespasser but then we noticed there was another
guy in the woods on the complete opposite side of the yard and when the one guy that Uncle Ben was approaching ran into the woods again the other one stayed put as Uncle Ben came back to the table we said there's another one so my cousin myself and my dad all got up now ready to help my uncle confront these people and with that the second guy ran into to the Woods by this point we decided it was time to clean up we started all cleaning the table and bringing plates and food inside to the
kitchen when everything was cleared out of the Gazebo we all sat inside the living room Uncle Ben left the lights on outside because I know he and Aunt Mel were on high alert with people running around their property being creeps they didn't look like kids that was the thing and who would do this on Thanksgiving is the question our accepted theory was at the time time that it was just some drunk older teens or young 20-year-olds with no family gatherings messing around being eventually I wanted to grab another beer which was in the cooler outside
still as I got up Uncle Ben and my dad both asked me to grab one too so I went outside and walked over to the Gazebo I made it to the cooler suddenly feeling really uneasy the Gazebo light was off now I looked around analyzing my surroundings I grabbed as many beers as I could hold just so I wouldn't have to come back out here again then I started walking back to the house when I heard one of the chairs under the Gazebo sliding on the concrete I turned around and there was someone under the
Gazebo walking around the table he looked massively tall like 6'5 I started yelling for Uncle Ben as I ran back to the house he along with my dad came out and I said there's a guy over there and then as if someone else was responding to me saying that there was a banging from the other side of the house like someone was hitting the siding with their hand seeing my uncle and my dad genuinely frightened made me frighten too we went inside and Uncle Ben locked the door we didn't know how many people were outside
of the house but we felt like the house was surrounded and Aunt Mel started shutting every last curtain and blind in the house because we felt like we were being watched from the outside Uncle Ben called the police which was a first it felt completely out of character for him to involve the police in anything he was only on the phone with them for like 5 to 10 minutes then we waited in the living room with clear tensions and unease in the room there was this quick and sudden loud bang on the glass followed by
a window in the kitchen completely shattering Aunt Mel yelled at Uncle Ben to go get the old rifle from the closet he yelled back the thing hadn't been Lo loaded in years luckily the police response time was pretty good a singular beep of the siren from the police car outside led us know he arrived one of the people outside had thrown a brick through the window with a note attached to it saying leave now you which felt like a threat his Trump flag was also missing the next day which created the possibility of those people's
motives being political that's really the most realistic Theory Because unless my aunt's unle un and cousin are secretly the worst neighbors ever I see no other reason why their house would be a target for something like this on Thanksgiving nonetheless there really are some sickos out there
