[Music] my family lives across the states in a small house I try to visit often given I usually get a lot of vacation time from my work the drive is something I find relaxing so I don't mind the extra couple days it takes to get there most of the time I try to stay at one hotel or motel along the way and when I do I just check in sleep and get back on the road as soon as I'm able it's mainly because the areas along the drive are bare and run down usually in the
middle of nowhere I find it hard to feel safe since I'm not used to being in those kinds of areas last year I took the same road trip I always did to my parents house during the holiday season I started my drive early I want to say around 1 or 2 A.M and drove for almost 20 hours straight aside from stopping for food and coffee a few times by then it was 11 pm and I was exhausted and struggling to stay awake behind the wheel I was just under eight hours away but I couldn't go
much further I was in the middle of nowhere so whatever the next possible place to stay at was I planned on taking it about 20 minutes further I turned off into a small town it pretty much just had a motel and gas station but that was all I needed I pulled into the mostly empty parking lot and walked over to the front desk an older lady greeted me and made small talk then I got a room and headed back to my car so I could park closer to the door I was extremely exhausted and left
all of my stuff in the car and just went inside I didn't care about the room at all I just went inside and immediately got in the shower so I could get ready for bed as soon as possible during my quick five-minute shower I heard a few tapping sounds they sounded like they were from outside though maybe a tree branch knocking against the building I thought nothing of it and got out putting on the same comfortable clothes I was wearing then got in bed I set an alarm on my phone so I wouldn't oversleep and
finally reach for the lamp and turned off the light being an old rundown motel in the middle of nowhere seemed irrelevant compared to how tired I was so I fell asleep without trouble though I didn't stay asleep for long I jumped awake hearing something move in the darkness surrounding the bed I sat up staring toward the front door but I could barely see anything I was too scared to move and reach for the light afraid of what I might see it wasn't long before I heard something from the other side of the bed outside the
window my heart was racing and I could feel myself starting to sweat as I was wide awake at this point I quickly turned back around and switched on the light the room was empty nothing seemed out of place until I noticed the closet door was cracked open everything was going through my mind trying to understand every possibility hello I decided to call out but there was no response feeling like I may have just scared myself for no reason I got up and slowly walked towards the closet when I pulled the closet door Moore open I
was confused a large bag was wedged between the back of the closet and the door falling to the ground as I opened it further looking around there was actually a whole stash of luggage clothes bags appliances all clearly belonging to someone not the typical stuff you would see at a motel while I was looking at all this stuff I suddenly heard the window slam Shut by my bed followed by footsteps running away I shivered and froze then took this chance to grab my phone from the nightstand and run out to my car almost just as
I got inside and turned the car on I looked up and made eye contact with a man standing right by the door to the room he looked at me for a second then rushed inside and grabbed one of the large bags from the closet and sprinted off behind the building I was terrified and quickly drove closer to the front office then ran inside to tell the woman what had happened she contacted the police immediately and locked us both inside the office until they arrived what we found out next was confusing and the information came out
over multiple weeks but I'll try to explain it the best I can the remaining bags in the closet were identified as they were found to belong to several individuals who were robbed within the past month at several different Motel locations in the surrounding area it's likely that the man was using the room I was in as a place to temporarily stash the belongings using the unlocked window to access the room one of those bags however belonged to a young woman who was reported missing just a few weeks prior and the officers believe the crimes are
connected but all the reported bags that were stolen were found inside that closet so the bag that the man ran inside to grab was not accounted for they questioned me on it multiple times making sure I was confident that I saw him run out with another bag and asking me the approximate size of it and everything my curiosity has really kept my mind from being able to forget that night as I wonder what he planned on doing when he was outside the window while I was sleeping I knew it was closed when I went to
bed so he had to have opened it while I was asleep which is even creepier I also wonder what was in that one bag that was so important that he needed to grab it before running off I don't go on many vacations nor do I stay at hotels often but last year I had a problem occur in my small house that required me to be away for several days for it to be fixed given the circumstances I had to book a hotel nearby and stay there until further notice I wasn't happy about it but there
wasn't anything I could do and nowhere else I could stay I looked for the absolute cheapest hotel in the area trying to save as much money as possible the one I went with was 25 minutes away but was half the price of the ones closer although I knew it was because the hotel was located in the Lesser part of the town the extra money saved more than made up for it in my mind that was until I got there the place was disgusting at least on the outside trash was everywhere and the building was very
clearly not taken care of the pictures online only showed the rooms in the lobby but they looked clean and somewhat nice so I was a little bit confused I grabbed my small suitcase from my back seat and walked inside immediately when entering I was relieved the lobby was very small but it was nice and clean I headed for the counter to check in but nobody was standing there I stood patiently for a minute looking around the main room it was very quiet and not a single person was anywhere it was only 4 pm so I
assume people would be walking around or hanging out in the lobby I took a few steps further into the hotel looking down the main hallway leading to the rooms at the very end was a man standing right outside a room door after watching him for a few seconds it was apparent that he was just facing the door not moving or anything feeling uncomfortable I backed up to the front counter again finally a man came from outside and walked behind the counter honestly he looked dead inside he asked for my name and gave me the key
card then walked away I glanced at the card seeing the room number written with a marker in the corner given the low number I knew it was on the first floor I walked over to the hallway I was just at and looked at the directions for where the rooms were and my stomach ached a bit when I realized it was down the hallway where I'd seen that man even worse as I started making my way down I realized it was at the end of the hallway right where the man was standing I couldn't tell if
he was standing outside my exact room or not because of how far he was when I saw him but it was creepy either way although I hadn't been to many hotels previously I do remember the annoyance of the thin walls allowing you to hear every noise from every room what was strange as I walked down the hall was that there was no noise coming from any room no TVs were on nobody was talking no movement nothing it gave me chills but when I reached my door I quickly scanned the card and headed inside given everything
it was actually in good condition it was very small and was clearly old but it was exactly what I expected of the cheap room I laid my suitcase down on the floor then took a look into the bathroom to make sure it was good and finally locked the door and sat on the couch not at all surprised the TV didn't work though so I was left with just my phone after an hour of trying to keep myself occupied a knock came from the door it startled me given it was just a single knock which sounded
more like a hit the door had no peephole so when I got there I flicked the safety latch over just in case and opened the door a crack that same man from earlier was standing in the hallway only a foot or so from the door we made eye contact through the crack on the door hi did you need something yeah I paused waiting for him to tell me what but he just stood there like he was waiting for me to say something um okay man what do you need then I said in a way to
show that I was clearly bothered by him the strange man responded claiming he was the previous person staying in my room and that he had accidentally left something important inside one of the drawers I said okay and told him I would grab it real quick and began closing the door and turning round but the man pushed the door back slamming it against the safety latch I looked back at him my heart starting to race as I was getting a really bad feeling about this it's in the top dresser drawer the man muttered to me then
backed up letting the door close I turned back around heading to the dresser and opening the top drawer inside there was actually a small sized box taped shut on the top picking it up it was fairly light though I mean like it felt empty I walked back over to the door and opened it seeing the man still standing there is this what you were looking for I asked the man nodded and held his hand out I went to slip the Box through the crack in the door but it was barely too big I tried every
possible angle probably looking like an idiot but it was just slightly too wide on every side the man looked impatient and while I really didn't trust this place at the moment I thought the guy had told the truth about leaving something behind and I did see him standing by the door before so I figured it'd be fine to open the door for a second just to hand him the Box as soon as I move the latch over the man rammed his body into the door knocking me down and pulling a gun on me he yelled
at me to back up into the living room and stand against the wall I was actually stunned at how loud he was screaming thinking surely he would alarm everyone in the building he grabbed my whole suitcase and continued looking around while holding the gun at me then just when he was about to leave he walked up to me put the pistol just inches from my face and stared me in the eyes I was shaking in fear staring into this man's rage-filled eyes but after a few seconds he backed up and ran away with my stuff
I stood in that same spot for probably a whole minute staring at the ground it happened so fast it almost didn't even seem real when I finally got myself together I went outside my room and went straight to the front desk the guy there was just casually standing there like he didn't hear anything and nobody else was in sight to sum everything up nothing was done he got away with all my stuff and honestly every authority figure I talked to didn't seem scared or surprised in any way they kind of just looked at me like
I didn't even belong here anyways I guess it was just normal and they expect you to look out for yourself the box was in fact empty though and the whole thing was obviously just an interesting plot to Rob those who stayed at the hotel those last moments before the man ran away though are what I keep thinking back to the rage in his eyes holding the gun up like he was ready to pull the trigger without thinking twice why didn't he my only thought was that maybe he knew that if it was just a robbery
then nobody would come looking I don't know but I definitely won't be staying at a cheap hotel in a bad neighborhood ever again this happened while I was on a work trip I work for an insurance company and we can win trips to our other two big locations one of which happens to be in Miami I won the trip and went with my boss and a few other people in the company most of the trip was spent doing work stuff during the day and then at night we were left to do what we wanted like
go to the hotel pool bars in town and all that other stuff it was the second to last night I was there and I didn't have much to do the next day so me and a co-worker went out to a cool looking bar on First Street we took an Uber and got there around 11 pm Miami is a Party City and The Nightlife there is amazing the bar was packed and it made me feel like I was in college again I wasn't that old but I'd been out of college for a few years now my
co-worker gets us shots and throughout the night we have some more and he ends up inviting two girls to the table and buys them shots as well he hits it off with one of them and the other one seems to take a liking to me I'd been single for quite some time and work had taken over my life so I was honestly just excited someone was showing interest in me plus I was on vacation and she said she was too so neither of us were expecting anything serious out of this I thought she was really
cool and extremely attractive and throughout the night I offered to buy her drinks but she bought her own which I thought was really cool too it was around 2 am now and she asked if I wanted to go back to her hotel which I found out was only a 15 minute walk from mine I agreed but honestly was pretty nervous I knew this girl was way out of my league but I decided to have fun and take a chance we ubered back to her hotel which was insanely nice by the way and got to the
room I'll spare you the details but events occurred and afterwards we ended up talking for a bit after a while I noticed she was starting to get glued to her phone so I went to the bathroom to clean up and get dressed but while I was in there I heard a key card open the door to the room and was confused she never mentioned that she was here with anyone and I didn't see anyone else's stuff in the room either that's when I heard a man's voice my heart dropped to my stomach I quickly got
dressed and checked if I had everything I had my phone and wallet which were in my pants pocket but my shoes were still out there I decided I'd have to leave them as I could not deal with whatever this is right now while I was waiting for my time to slip out I heard him ask why there's men's shoes by the bed that's when I knew I was screwed by the time I made the decision to make a run for it there was a pounding on the bathroom door it was one of those doors that
slide open and doesn't really lock so of course the cheap thing revealed me behind it this guy was huge I could not have been more unlucky if I tried the cherry on top was he also had a gun and was pointing it right at me he told me to get my [ __ ] and get out in the most calm voice that made everything 10 times scarier I grabbed my shoes and left my heart beating out of my chest he closed the door behind me and then silence I didn't hear any fighting or yelling or
anything which I thought was weird but I wasn't going to stay to find out I got in the elevator and took my wallet out to get my key card and what do you know all my cash was gone my credit card my debit card even my gift cards were taken I don't even know when she had the time to take all this stuff and how I didn't notice I tried thinking back to the bar and going into the room but the night had turned into a blur I spent the next hour canceling my cards pissed
that for the rest of the trip I would have absolutely no money the next day I told my boss and co-workers who sympathized but also found it funny and now that it's been a few years since that incident I can look back and find the humor in it but what stuck with me was one of my friends theorized it might have been a setup that might not have been her boyfriend at all she could have taken me back to the hotel stole my stuff and waited till I went to the bathroom for the guy to
come in and scare me off before I noticed the money was gone if that's the case it would explain why I didn't hear any fighting after I left and why the guy wasn't more angry I try not to think about it too hard and anytime I go out which isn't much anymore I try to keep myself safer and make better decisions [Music] foreign [Music]
