[Music] I'll never forget the first time I used Tinder. It was 2015, during winter break when everyone was back home from college. I figured since I didn't have a girlfriend and didn't have much going on, why not try the app that everyone was talking about?
It was like 8 or 9 p. m. on a Thursday night, which was peak hours in terms of activity for the app.
I downloaded the app onto my phone, and it was time to set up my profile. I spent a good 10 minutes browsing through my photo albums and found four flattering photos of myself that I thought would catch people's attention. I wasn't really experienced with the whole witty, funny Tinder bio thing that guys are apparently supposed to do, so I just wrote a few things about myself, like that I was 6 feet tall, played hockey at Penn State, and loved to work out.
I swiped right for pretty much everyone just to see how many people would swipe me back. I got through the given hundred likes quicker than I even expected and didn't get a single match. My self-esteem was now completely in the toilet.
I always thought of myself as really good-looking, so I didn't understand how nobody could have liked me back. After waiting forever for some kind of notification to come up on my screen, I was considering just deleting the app to save my self-esteem. But finally, a single vibration from my phone along with the message, "Congratulations, you have a new match," popped up on my phone.
Overly excited, I went back into the app and saw that I had matched with the most gorgeous girl I'd seen on the app. She had four photos as well: one in a bikini with friends, one with two girls kissing her on either cheek, one with her leaning on a brick wall, and one that appeared to be taken at a college frat party. She was twenty years old, just like me, and she went to Syracuse University.
iMessage started just a plain old "Hey" with a smiley face. Ten seconds later, she responded, "Hey cutie! " I took a minute to think of something smart to say.
Eventually, I wrote something about her sorority and that I had a friend in the same sorority at my school or something lame like that. She responded really quickly again, this time saying, "OMG that's so cool! " and then a smiley face.
I was typing my response when she sent another message saying, "You're so cute and so close! What are you doing tonight? " At this point, I was excited and thought this app was easier than I thought it would be.
I responded quickly, saying, "Just watching Elf, you know, pretty exciting stuff. " She replied back saying, "OMG no way, me too! You should come over and we can watch it together," and then a winky face.
I told her I was down and asked for her number. She gave it to me quickly, and I waited a minute before texting her, just so I wouldn't seem desperate. When I texted her, the message was sent as a text message, indicating this person wasn't using the iMessage app.
I said, "Hey. " Once again, she replied, "Hey, come now," and then pasted an address. The address was five miles from my house, or 10 minutes, which wasn't bad at all.
I told her, "I'm on my way. " Before leaving, I told my mom I was going out and left. The address was on the quieter side of town—not necessarily a nice kind of quiet.
I pulled up to the house; it had a decent location privacy-wise. Across the street were one of those huge pieces of land surrounded by trees that was dug out deep to collect water during rainfall, and the neighboring houses were kind of spaced out. A red flag went off in my head when I noticed two cars in the driveway.
I texted her, saying, "I was there," and she replied, "Kay-kay, go around back. The front door is loud. " I replied, "Are your parents home or something?
" but she didn't answer this time. I got out of the car and slowly walked around the house, noticing there was no fence to separate the front yard from the back. There was a window on the side of the house, and as I passed it, I realized there was an opening in the blinds.
Someone was holding it up, but as soon as I noticed, the blinds fell back into place. I texted her again, saying, "Was that you at the window? " No response.
This was a little creepy now. I continued walking slowly to the backyard, thinking that I could hear sounds coming from back there; for example, the brief sound of a yard chair scraping against the concrete. I became so nervous to turn that corner into the backyard that I froze at the edge of the brick wall and just ever so gradually poked my head around the corner to see if anyone was in the backyard.
As far as I could tell, nobody was back there, so I walked to the back door. It was a really old sliding glass door, so I could partially see into the house. Another thing I realized just then that raised more red flags: not a single light was on in the house.
You know what? I told myself I'd text her one more time, and if she didn't respond, I was out of there. I took out my phone and texted her, saying, "I'm at the back door.
Where are you? " She responded within 10 seconds saying, "Come in. " I wasn't comfortable entering that house.
I decided to call her for the first time, but after entering the number, the screen said, "Text now—audio call. " Text Now is one of those iPhone apps that allow you to use. .
. a fake phone number for calls and texts that meant this whole time whoever this was was using a fake phone number. However, the most disturbing part of this was when I heard the sound of a ringtone coming from right behind the glass door, as if somebody were leaning against the wall, hiding.
Now, as I looked more closely into the house, I could see the glow from a phone screen right next to the door, which confirmed that somebody was hiding there. I didn't run; I tried to draw as little attention as possible by simply walking back around the house in the opposite direction I came from to avoid being seen through the door. When I was out of possible view, I ran full speed to my car and drove home.
I didn't check my texts until I got back home. I had 15 new messages waiting for me, about 12 of them asking, "Where'd you go? Why'd you leave?
Come back? " and so on. The last three were more disturbing, though.
The first of the last three messages said, "I'm not actually a 20-year-old girl, but I'm sure you figured that out by now. " The next one was, "No laws were broken, lol. Good luck!
" And the last one was, "I know exactly what you look like, and I have your number. " I blocked his fake number and went to report and unmatch him on Tinder, but he had already done that. The whole thing was something straight out of a nightmare, but luckily, I never got any calls or texts from anyone suspicious, and I was able to forget about it quickly.
I've used Tinder a few times since then, but just for fun. I've never actually made an effort to go out and meet anyone from there ever again. I was on Tinder a few months ago when I was bored.
I wasn't looking for anything in particular, definitely not a relationship, though. Just one of those times to see who swiped me for fun and have pointless chats. Plus, there was always that chance that a girl would be down to meet up for the night, and you know, maybe I'd get lucky.
That didn't happen this night, though; I was the opposite of lucky. My first 20 or so swipes were full of matches. I sent corny pick-up lines to a few of them that I found attractive.
However, there was one girl who messaged me first. Her name was Michelle; she was a 23-year-old blonde. She was a solid 9 out of 10, almost unrealistically attractive, so the fact that she said "Hey" first was pretty intoxicating.
I was a little intoxicated, quite literally, already. She was close to, and eventually things were going so smoothly that I decided to try and be ballsy and turn the conversation sexual. That went smoothly as well, so I escalated things even more by getting her number and then texting her to try and set something up that same night.
To my surprise and delight, she seemed really willing, but she wanted to meet out somewhere and hang out first before going back to her place. I was fine with that, and so she seemed to take charge and set up a time and place to meet. She said she wanted to hang in a small park by her house first at 10 o'clock.
It was a little odd, but I was down. I literally counted the minutes until around 9:45, when I decided it was time to leave. Before leaving, I sent a quick confirmation text, and she said she was still down to meet.
The drive to this small residential park was maybe ten minutes, so I got there a little early. I walked over to the swing set, the exact point where she wanted to meet. I didn't want to let her know I was early because I thought that might make me seem needy or anxious, so I waited until exactly 10:00 or two on the dot to text her saying I was there.
This was when she stopped responding. 10:05, 10:10—sitting there waiting with no response. Of course, at first, I figured she was driving and couldn't check her phone, but as the minutes passed, that idea started to become less realistic, and the idea that she flaked was becoming more realistic.
The playground area was surrounded by trees; in fact, this whole park was very woodsy, and having been a weeknight, nobody was out and about at this time. So honestly, it was kind of creepy sitting in that park alone. The only reason I could see was because of the motion-detecting light mounted onto the small bathroom shack.
In one direction, the park turned to complete woods for miles, while in the other direction, beyond a few trees, was the neighborhood road. I was sitting on the swing, pushing back and forth in boredom and disappointment when I froze. The sounds of the squeaky metal swing chain stopped, allowing me to hear something echo out from the little bathroom shack.
It sounded like, you know, a typical sound you'd expect to hear from inside one of those bathrooms, like somebody pressing down on the handle of the paper towel dispenser or something like that. What I'm trying to say is it sounded intentional, meaning someone might have been in there. Now, this wouldn't be a completely strange thing; after all, it's a public park—only I would have thought that they would lock the bathrooms up at this hour.
And who else would actually be in this tiny park at 10:15 on a weeknight? Then I suddenly felt the vibration in my pocket. So excited, I whipped out the phone and saw a new text from Michelle.
The text said exactly this: "Hey, just got here. Come into the bathroom; I have a surprise for you. " My heart dropped as.
. . I read this, and I felt butterflies in my stomach—not like an innocent nervousness, more like a disturbed and freaked-out feeling.
My thumbs were hovering over the phone as I was conjuring up something to type in response. Then she sent another text saying, "Get off the swing and come here. " As I read the text, I looked up to the tiny bathroom building and opened my mouth, almost ready to scream when I saw half of a person's face peering out from the entrance of one of the bathrooms, leering over at me on the swing.
Only for maybe half a second did I actually see a good portion of their face, though, because they slowly moved out of sight. To be honest, in the heat of the moment, I couldn't even tell if it was a male or female, but I knew something bad was going on, and I knew I was disturbed as hell by the situation. So, I got off the swing quietly and tiptoed away from the playground.
When I was far enough away, I ran for it back to my car. That run back to my car itself was one of the most horrific experiences of my life because I had the constant fear of somebody chasing me in the back of my mind. As soon as I locked my car, I was able to pause for a breather; but up until that point, nothing compared to the gut-wrenching fear that I felt when I took one last look into the park and saw a grown man emerge from the trees, running towards my car.
I turned the key in the ignition and practically threw the car in drive before it was even fully started. When I was halfway down the road and looked back, there was nobody in the streets. When I pulled into my driveway, I sat there for 10 minutes thinking and reflecting.
I felt like I had become a changed person at that moment, like I knew what it truly felt like to appreciate life after having my life threatened. I deleted my Tinder account and then deleted the app. I didn't tell any of my family members besides my older brother.
I've had a girlfriend for the past two months, so luckily I don't even have to think about using that app anymore.
