[Music] [Music] it all started on February 7th at the small coffee shop where I worked we wanted to make things special for Valentine's Day so me and some Co workers spent our whole shift hanging up pink and red decorations writing love quotes on the menu board and doing other romantic things but as I clocked out and started the short walk back to my apartment I couldn't shake off a hint of loneliness I thought about trying Tinder or Bumble to find a date for the occasion however deep down I knew that finding someone I genuinely like
within just 7 days was almost impossible so I accepted that I'd be spending Valentine's Day alone again but when I got home and found a pink envelope in my mailbox it made me smile a little it was from a secret admirer just like in those romance books but when I opened it all it said was 7 days to go no sweet message no kisses or Hearts just those three words written on the paper as I looked closer I I realized there was nothing on the envelope or the note to confirm it was meant for me
like my name or my apartment number so what if it wasn't meant for me and what if someone sent their Valentine's card to the wrong person I think I had totally forgotten about it by the next morning when I woke up and went to work again but when I got home I was reminded that it wasn't a mistake as I checked my mailbox and found another pink an envelope inside once more I have to say I felt pretty excited about it all there was no mistake with the address or anything like that someone must have
put all those things in there on purpose maybe I truly did have a secret admirer and Valentine's day was going to be like a fairy tale but when I opened the package I sensed something wasn't quite right inside was a small brown teddy bear but it didn't look new to be honest it was filthy it seemed like it hadn't been washed in years maybe even decades the fur was all dirty and Tangled and one of the glass eyes was gone the note inside the envelope was similar to the last one but this time it said
6 days to go that's when I realized that whoever was sending these wasn't quite right in the head and what had been a sort of excitement turned into into nervousness the more I thought about it the more scared I got so I told my friend at work about the whole thing and they seemed to take it much more seriously than I did they told me I obviously had a stalker and that even if this person was doing this out of affection it crossed a lot of personal boundaries they suggested I should think about telling the
police but what would I even say to them that I got a note with no name no details and found it in my mailbox it wasn't the Romantic gesture I hoped for but I wasn't sure what to do I didn't want to upset someone by calling the police on them however when I came home that evening and found something else in my apartment I felt less hesitant about contacting them I found what I expected in my mailbox another note this time it said yep yep you guessed it 5 days to go I went straight to
my apartment grabbed a piece of notebook paper and a marker and wrote something like whoever keeps leaving things in my mailbox please stop it was nice at first but now it's getting creepy if it keeps happening I'll have to call the police I taped the note to the front of my apartment building before going to bed hoping they'd see it and leave me Al alone a quick side note I always take a shower before bed every night no exceptions and I'm a bit of a clean freak my bathroom is always spotless so as I finished
my shower and was getting ready for bed something caught my eye it was something tiny something that might not grab most people's attention but to me it stuck out like a sore thumb in my clean white bathroom something caught my eye on the window ledge it was a small shiny Dome shape sitting all by itself I went closer to check it out but then I freaked out and ran out of the bathroom I called the police it turned out to be a tiny glass eye with a bit of fabric attached to the back I knew
right away it was the missing eye from the teddy bear I found in my mailbox while I was talking to the police on the phone I figured some things out about the so-called Valentine like I said I take a shower every night before bed I love hot showers so I keep the bathroom window open to let out the steam so the person who put that glass eye on my bathroom window knew my routine and they must have watched me for a while to figure out when to put it there so I'd see it but what
really scared me was how they used the teddy bear's eye to send a message tell telling me they were watching me the next day I replaced the note with one that said the police have been called leave me alone and they did leave me alone after that however the whole thing messed with my head for a long [Music] time it was Valentine's Day in 2012 my boyfriend and I live in the south of the UK we decided to spend the evening at a romantic place at the top of a hill by the coast the place
is called husb Head it's really nice there and sometimes we even stay for weekends with my family there's a little train ride and if you go far enough you can reach the beach the husb head part is on the right side of the beach it's basically the coastline with a big 200 100 m drop off a cliff the best part wasn't the place itself it was the view it was just amazing we decided to bring some picnic stuff with us as we wanted to have our own little date up there on top of the hill
even in the evening when it was dark I was really excited about it because he had never suggested anything like this before so I thought it was a great idea we climbed up to hangers bery head which was really tough the steps were huge making it hard to reach the top it seemed like either they built the stairs to help more people and families get up there to enjoy the view or the stairs were naturally there it was around 7:00 p.m. and I thought nobody would be around when we reached the top I was correct
there was absolutely no one there we made it to the top both of us out of breath carrying bags full of food and gear we wore our hiking boots and had our rain jackets just in case it started raining heavily it was mostly grassy and the path was like a dirt track you could tell many people had walked there because it's a popular tourist spot finally we found the spots we both liked we put our bags down on the ground and took out our mats and cushions to sit on it took a bit of time
to lay out the picnic mat but we managed to set everything up we had all sorts of food but I won't go into details just think of the kind of food you'd have on a warm summer day at the beach with your family the only difference was it wasn't warm and it wasn't daytime but it was summer I remember the wind started to pick up while we were sitting up there trying to set up the mat it made things a lot harder because the mat kept blowing all over the place eventually once we started taking
out some food and putting it on the mat it stopped blowing around finally I could enjoy the incredible view even though it wasn't completely clear with stars shining the moon was out and I'd say it was about 80% full the moon was bright lighting up all the Rocks along the coastline and the Sea it was amazing about 10 minutes passed then another 10 eventually it felt like we had been there for about half an hour or so long story short the evening was going well until then we hadn't seen anyone not a single person at
the top of this part of hangers Berry head I sometimes struggle with anxiety and find it hard to relax so after about half an hour my boyfriend put out the candles and we packed them back into the plastic bag in the backpack then out of the corner of my eye I noticed a guy in the distance I couldn't quite figure out what he was doing but it looked like he was hiking he was wearing a black waterproof jacket similar to the ones we had on they were wearing boots and some jeans or sweatpants like you'd
call them in America he walked over and came up to the edge of the cliff right away something felt off and my boyfriend looked at me with wide eyes as if he knew what was going to happen next this guy was actually going to do what I feared he had his hands on his hips just gazing out to see eventually my boyfriend managed to crawl behind him without the guy noticing my boyfriend was only about 3 or 4 ft away and this guy was still standing there with his feet right on the edge below him
was a drop of about 50 to 70 m all rocks and stones at the bottom you see at the very bottom of this Cliff there were just rocks everywhere the sea didn't start until another 50 m from where the cliff ended so if he fell he would land on all the Rocks I couldn't bear to watch this so I looked away at the same time I was worried my boyfriend was getting mixed up in this I knew he was just trying to help but I was scared he might get hurt too he was trying to
get the guy away from the edge crawling on top of him somehow he managed to grab the guy by both of his ankles and pull him down to the ground face down my boyfriend's chest landed almost over the edge of the cliff and I thought he might break a rib I heard the guy thud to the ground he immediately let out a loud yell of pain and started screaming the guy turned towards us and started swearing angry angrily he was using really bad language asking us what we were doing even now the guy says he
never intended to do anything he claims he was just enjoying the view it was around 7:30 to 8:00 p.m. and it was completely dark he was alone most people who come to see the views stay on the path we were off the path but even then we were about 50 or maybe 20 M from the edge of the cliff this guy went right up to the edge and put his toes over it and it seemed like half of his foot was hanging off the edge of the cliff and he stood there as if he was
about to jump even though he didn't press charges against us for assault he kept insisting that he wasn't planning to jump that evening neither me nor my boyfriend believed him and we never found out what happened to him after that me and my friend share an apartment we both have girlfriends so when Valentine's Day came we decided to celebrate together with our girlf friends but it wasn't what you might expect we just planned to have a movie night or go out for dinner together me and my housemate were super close he was basically my best
buddy we've been pals since high school and even before that back in kindergarten so after all those years of hanging out together we didn't think it was a big deal to spend Valentine's Day together with our dates we didn't really mind what our girlfriends thought about it and since they were friends too they were probably cool with it anyway at night our girlfriends came over to our place we sat and watched TV TV for a while then suddenly decided to go for a walk we don't know why but we chose to walk to the nearby
Forest we thought it would be exciting and make us hungry so we planned to order food delivery from Uber Eats when we got back home the forest wasn't too far from our Apartments just a couple of miles away it wasn't a big forest and I'm not sure if it was part of a national park it was really dark when when we arrived and we all drove there together in the same car but when we got out we didn't see anything it was one of those nights when you couldn't see far because it was so Misty
foggy or maybe just really polluted but we were already there so we decided to go ahead anyway when we walked onto the main path it was super quiet there were roads on both sides of the forest but they were like rural highways not busy at all since it was late on Valentine's Day around 10:00 all we could hear was the Silence of the forest around us there wasn't any wind and the temperature was pretty mild we had our flashlights on but they weren't helping much I suggested that we follow the loop I of and ran
I told them I ran this Loop once a week sometimes only twice a month but I knew it really well it was like knowing the back of my hand there were lots of hills but the path was wide and easy to find especially with the lights even though I'd never done this in the dark before I felt like I had to be brave now that I was with my girlfriend I didn't want to show any fear of the dark it's like this secret belief I have that all guys are scared of the dark and certain
situations if you ask anyone if they're scared of the unknown and they say no they're probably lying so as we walked down the path I told them that I run this route every single week I got a silly idea to leave the main path and try one I'd never been on before it was really dark and this path was really narrow it led into one of the pine plantations the flashlights were no good here on the main path we had some light coming through but on this one we couldn't see a thing also the path
twisted and turned a lot sometimes it even split into different directions while we walked my housemate kept talking and the girls didn't notice anything they were just relying on me to lead the way then I suddenly realized we were totally lost and needed to go back we made a mistake L and went the wrong way on our way back we ended up on an even narrower path further into the forest we weren't anywhere close to the main path we were supposed to be on and now we were totally lost finally I turned to my roommate
and quietly admitted the truth making sure the girls couldn't hear I was starting to get really scared because we didn't have bikes or cars and I figured we didn't have any cell phone signal either we weren't going to call the police just because we were lost in the forest so we spent the next hour looking around walking down every path to try and find our way back and eventually after three long hours we finally managed to find our way back the girls never wanted to go on a walk with us again and I knew it
was my fault even though my housemate pretended he knew the way too trying to share the blame I understood it was mostly on me eventually we made it back when we got back and started eating we talked about what we would do if we were stuck like that again his girlfriend suggested the best thing would be to stay where we were until it got light just huddle together under a tree and [Music] wait it was the early '90s and I was around 16 or 17 years old I worked as a babysitter in my neighborhood my
parents said I could only get a car if I saved up for the down payment myself so every day after school I would help kids with their homework or babysit to make some extra money there was a couple named the Moors who always paid me really well for babysitting and on Valentine's Day they asked me to babysit both their six-year-old and 10-year-old so they could have a romantic evening together they said they'd be back by 8 and gave me around 50 bucks just for ordering pizza renting movies and doing whatever the kids wanted so I
asked the kids what they wanted to do and they both said they wanted to go to the video rental store I knew Blockbuster wasn't too far but I told them I couldn't do that until I got permission from their mom at the time not everyone had cell phones so I had to find the restaurant's phone number in a big phone book and call them it took me about 15 minutes to finally reach her she seemed a bit annoyed that I was calling just to ask about going to Blockbuster yeah that's fine but don't spend too
much of their money when I told the boys they got really excited and rushed to grab their jackets we left before it got dark and got to the rental store in less than 10 minutes it wasn't busy just the cashier and maybe one or two other people I told them go and pick out whatever you want as I grabbed some candy bars and popcorn the older boy came back first with a Disney sequel VHS and asked if it was okay or not I said yes but where is your brother I thought he might be playing
a prank and ran away but then I spotted him near the edge of an aisle chatting with a tall skinny man in a long coat something about the man made me feel nervous so I took the younger boy's hand sorry I hope he wasn't bothering you he smelled strange like he hadn't taken a bath in a long time his eyes looked wild and strange like he might cause trouble I just had a bad feeling about him I really hoped I was wrong so I pulled the kid away and scolded him as we walked to the
cashier what were you talking about with that man just that we were getting some movies and we were alone at home I didn't feel alarmed right away as I was probably too focused on paying for the movies and getting out of the store it wasn't until we were walking back home that it hit me what he had said did that man ask if you were alone I asked then I thought I saw someone following us yeah he was nice asked me lots of questions now I was almost sure we were being followed so I kept
glancing back to see if the man was there but he always seemed just out of sight he was really good at hiding when we got inside their house I slammed the door shut and locked it never talk to people you don't know that man could have hurt you really badly I thought about making them go to bed early as punishment but I didn't know just how right I would be about that I looked out the windows to see if I could see him less than 10 minutes later we were watching the Angels in the Outfield
movie then I heard a knock at the door it made me think maybe I hadn't been careful enough I went to the front and looked through the blinds to see that nobody was there now my heart was beating fast I thought I saw the man in the long coat standing by the bushes I told the boys to close the blinds and turn off the lights then I heard the stranger banging on the windows with something that sounded like a stick was he just trying to scare us if so he was doing a really good job
because I was really scared then I remembered that the Moors had a phone in their main bedroom as we hurried to the bedroom I told them to be as quiet as possible while while I grabbed the phone but when I picked it up I found that the line was dead so I had to move furniture to block the front door and it turned out to be a good idea because 20 minutes later I heard glass breaking that's when I realized he was trying to get inside but the strangest thing was that he started whistling then
I heard footsteps coming up the stairs I was sure something terrible was about to happen and I could see his shadow under the master bedroom door then he started messing with the furniture blockade trying to move it he shook it hard for a while but it didn't budge then there was a long really quiet moment I thought maybe he had stopped trying but then he pushed his body against the door and it opened a bit I remember jumping and holding the Boys Closer as he did it again and then again until finally he managed to
squeeze in past the furniture all I could see were his shoes muddy leather boots he walked slowly over to the bed and sat down maybe trying to figure out where we were he started whistling again and I had to cover the younger boy's mouth as he dropped a leash over the edge of the bed did he know where we were right at that moment we heard the garage door downstairs and I heard shouts of alarm probably from Mr Moore seeing him escape a few seconds later Mrs Moore came in I crawled out first and helped
the youngest one out she hugged him tightly meanwhile downstairs Mr Moore was trying to get the landline to work to call the police but it wasn't working but honestly I was scared that the strange guy might come back to hurt us Mr Moore said I was really Brave and gave me extra money for keeping his kids safe my parents also said I made good decisions and things could have been much worse but I didn't feel super proud I had trouble sleeping for about a week afterwards therapy has helped me think about what might have happened
if those parents hadn't come home home early he might have Hur us the police never caught the person who did it so we'll never know who it was
