[Music] it was about four in the morning one saturday and i was driving to work down the interstate i was in the middle lane moving pretty quickly because i was already running a bit late to work that morning so when i noticed a car in my left mirror catching me pretty quickly i was almost alarmed i had to already be going like 75 to 80 so he had to be going anywhere from 90 to 100 the car quickly caught up to me it was a grey honda accord coupe i took a look into the car
curious to see who was behind the wheel even though it was still dark out i could see the driver looking back at me as he passed then i noticed someone in the back seat too it was a young woman who appeared to be banging on the back window initially i didn't understand i assumed it was a girl messing with me or whatever it's usually not a person's first instinct to assume something sinister is going on but when i saw the driver apparently push her down under the window and the car swerve at the same time
then i knew something was wrong that woman was trying to get someone's attention and call for help i started to speed up a little bit and got behind them so i could keep up i could see the driver continuously reach into the back of the car with a swinging motion he looked to be hitting her i could see her arms flailing in the back of the car i was in complete shock i was actually witnessing a kidnapping right in front of me as i was behind them matching their speed of about 95 miles per hour
i took out my phone and called 9-1-1 as i was on the phone the car in front of me brake lights lit up and he started to slow down to a gradual stop he definitely noticed that i saw what was going on and thought that i was following him as much as i wanted to save that woman's life i didn't know if the driver was armed with a gun or not so i pulled around him and floored it i wanted to keep behind them though so i pulled off the next exit but didn't go entirely
up the exit ramp i waited for the car to pass by down the highway then i drove over the grass and back onto the highway and began to floor it to catch up to the car all while still talking to 9-1-1 telling them where we were what kind of car they were in and how fast we were going i was easily going 90 again to catch up to them as i caught up to the car again going an insane speed he noticed me again even before i got too close he started to break in front
of me again i tried to go around him but he cut me off i had to stop he got out from his car and started running towards my car with something in his hand and in a panic i threw the car in reverse until he stopped chasing me then i put it back in drive before he could get back in his car and i drove quickly past him the 911 operator told me there was a state trooper not far ahead from our location and to just keep driving until i passed him the man in the
car behind me continued to follow me both of us still going at an insane 90 miles per hour plus i felt the weight of a million pounds released off my shoulders when the flashing blue and red lights appeared in my rear view mirror behind the car chasing me with me in front of him and the cop behind him he didn't have much maneuverability and he quickly pulled over onto the grass i pulled over in front of him but with at least two cars worth of space between us because i still didn't know how this was
about to go down luckily the cop with his gun drawn got the guy out of the car with his hands up by then i got out and watched the whole thing he was on the ground in cuffs now laying on his stomach another police car showed up and another cop entered the scene the woman in the back of the car was let out she was badly beaten in tears and extremely ecstatic to be saved as she kept praising me for saving her life the driver of the car was her ex-boyfriend who had come to her
house and when she refused to talk to him he attacked her grabbed her and threw her in the back of his car which had the child locks on it's scary to think where he might have been taking her or what he was planning to do to her if i or anybody else didn't witness her screaming for help in the back of the car [Music] i made a trip to visit boston to support a family member who was running the boston marathon i was driving from chicago to massachusetts and had to take route 20 possibly the
longest highway in the united states i don't much like flying so i decided to start driving around 3 pm after work my gps was telling me it would be a 15 hour drive so knowing how i drove it would probably be 14 hours my eta was telling me 6am i was expecting 5am if i didn't stop i'm the type who doesn't like to make many stops on long car rides i like to just bang out the whole ride in one go most of route 20 is open land and there isn't a whole lot of traffic
in a lot of it i'd say 10 hours in around 1am i was basically one of the only cars on the highway i had music blasting to keep me awake i was comparatively almost done not really but i was optimistic i was starting to get slightly tired though even after the two cups of coffee i drank i didn't want to pull off for more coffee though so i tanked through it it would make finally collapsing into a bed when i'd get there all the more rewarding one moment i was the only car in sight then
next thing i knew there were headlights in my rearview mirror i was in the left lane and he was kind of on my ass so i switched to the right lane he sped up a bit pass by me then for some reason slow to match my speed just as my front bumper aligned with his rear bumper then he just matched my speed for the longest time i started to speed up to pass him as soon as i got in front of him he turned into my lane behind me so close it almost looked like he
was gonna clip my car i had no choice but to speed up even more to get him off my ass i wasn't looking to be the victim of a road rage incident not at this hour especially as i sped up so did he i switched into the left lane and so did he now i knew something was wrong couldn't be an unmarked cop it was some old ratty pickup truck the truck started to flash its lights behind me i didn't slow down i was honestly afraid because i had never experienced anything on the road like
this i kept driving stepping on the gas just a bit to increase my speed 5 to 10 miles per hour hoping to pass a cop or any other cars for that matter but i couldn't see another set of tail lights as far as the eye could see just the very seldom car zooming past on the other side of the highway the pickup truck behind me then switched lanes and floored it i heard the aggressive roar of his truck's engine passing me he cut in front of me then he started to break i tried to swerve
around him but he kept blocking me i was forced to stomp on the brakes too i started to honk because it's all i could do as we slowed the man in front of me put on his hazards and started waving his arm out the window signaling for me to pull to the side of the road i obviously didn't listen i took the chance to quickly pull around him as he started pulling onto the grass and then i floored it my sedan could easily escape his pickup truck but i hit a hundred and he was still
not far behind me i got off the highway at the first exit i stopped at the red light at the end of the exit ramp not expecting him to still be behind me but they were the pickup trucks headlights pulled up behind me then the truck pulled up to the red light next to me i looked my left at the truck and the window rolled down inside were three people i'd assume men wearing vendetta masks they all looked at me trying to scare me i'm sure but it worked i blew the red light onto the
main road and finally there were at least other cars around the pickup truck finally stopped following me at a certain point i was scared i was going to be killed it was more than just a road rage incident i didn't get the plate number in fact i don't even remember seeing a plate on that truck all i know is it was some 90s black pickup truck after that i parked in a walmart parking lot and fell asleep i woke up around 8 and finished the drive i told my family about the incident and i warn
everybody to be careful when driving late at night it was a tuesday night in march i was driving back from a friend's house in the city a truck that would take me about an hour in decent weather but a deep fog had set in on the long lonely highway after midnight this particular stretch of road was often abandoned see for the odd semi their plates showing unfamiliar lettering and colors from places i'd never been to it was 1am it had been a long day wandering around for hours with my friends shopping checking out new cafes
it had left me tired my eyelids were heavy and the impenetrable fog made the highway an unending drifting mess of hypnotizing gray i drove cautiously at times slowing my speed to a steady crawl and flashing my hazard lights to let anyone behind me know i was there suddenly a vehicle appeared its wheels half on the highway and half on the shoulder i slammed on my brakes and pulled over behind it narrowly passing by the bumper my heart was beating heavily after the near miss so i put my car into park to catch my breath behind
the black sedan i watched as the car began slowly rolling forward off the road so it was fully parked on the shoulder the car sat for a moment then the driver's side window rolled down an arm appeared and did a waving motion to pull over at this point the adrenaline from the sudden stop was still pumping through my body and it made sense to move further off the road i followed the cars it took a slight turn onto a side road it came to a stop and the driver's side door opened the driver walked towards
me through the fog a tall lean guy wearing a black winter jacket and jeans he looked younger 30ish and he was smiling as he approached my car illuminated by my headlights i rolled down my window a crack thinking maybe he was coming up to apologize for his unsafe parking he got to my window and then motioned for me to roll it down further i shook my head no feeling uneasy and told him i would be able to hear him he asked where i was heading and i said home he said the fog wasn't supposed to
let up anytime soon and that it wasn't safe to drive in i let him know i was okay with it he raised his eyebrows and asked why i pulled over then i didn't want to start anything with this man so i lied and said i had gotten a phone call and needed to pull over to answer it he smirked and it felt like he could tell i was lying he said he lived with his wife and son just down the road about five minutes if i wanted to wait it out i shook my head again
but he wasn't taking no for an answer he tried to scare me saying how it's 10 times more likely for me to die in a car crash when it's foggy and that i looked tired and i should really think of my family before getting back on the road i held my ground he was getting angry he began looking back at his car and i saw someone move in the passenger seat i hadn't seen before suddenly the man was grabbing at my door handle trying to open it thankfully it was locked the passenger door to the
car opened and another man came running towards me with a baseball bat i put my car in reverse and the driver yelled something at him as i hit the gas he took a swing at my car but missed luckily i hadn't pulled too far off the highway but it was hard to tell where this road ended and the highway began as i backed up in the heavy fog i turned my wheels and put my car into drive praying there was no traffic coming up behind me i floored it as i haphazardly merged onto the highway
not looking back i often wonder when i'm driving that stretch of road if they tried to stop anyone else that night and what would have happened to me had i rolled my window down further [Music] scary things can happen on the road at night night time is when the creeps and weirdos come out so you have to be extra careful this was in 2020 right around when kovitz started i would often work overnight shifts at a hospital my hours would be all over the place i would always take the same route home a parkway that
i take 10 miles north to my town it's never a busy parkway even during the daytime so at night i'm almost always completely alone on the road and kovid just made it even more of a ghost town i never even see any state police at night either usually this is convenient for me as i get home quicker without any slow drivers around me it was one night i was driving home in the middle of the night or rather early hours of the morning i see a red flashing sos light stand perched up on the side
of the road as it's shown you would light up the taillights of the car parked on the side of the road clearly someone was in need of assistance and i was i guess in a good mood that night so i pulled over in front of the car as i passed the car i saw a man waving his arms in the air i put my hazards on and stepped out of my car to approach the man based on his skin tone and slight accent he was a hispanic man due to the coven mask he was wearing
though i couldn't gauge how old he was but if i had to guess i'd say late twenties early thirties i asked him what the problem was he said his battery died after he stayed pulled over for too long i asked him if he had jumper cables because i did not he said no i didn't really know how else i could be of assistance other than offering him a ride but then he asked if he could borrow my cell phone he said his phone died too i wasn't eager to hand this stranger on the side of
the road my phone but i did i unlocked it for him and opened the phone app he proceeded to call someone then slowly walked away as he started to talk into the phone his car door was open though so i kind of decided to just take it upon myself to sit in the front seat and try turning the car on myself and sure enough the keys were in the ignition still i turned the key one click to the right and to my surprise the battery turned on i tried turning the hazards on they worked i
turned the radio on and it worked so i then turned the key once more to the right to start the car now and it started on the first try i didn't have enough time to think about how i might have just walked into a trap because as soon as the car turned on i felt two arms wrap around my throat trying to choke me i heard a voice yelling from outside hey hey over and over it was the guy with my phone i broke out of the person in the backseat's grip pretty easily i looked
at him and it was a young teenaged kid in the back seat the man with my phone was running back towards his car screaming at me i picked flight over fight and ran back to my car and got out of there as soon as the car was on and i swear to god i heard a loud pop from outside that i found out moments later was a gunshot my rear windshield had a hole in it along with multiple cracks surrounding the hole i couldn't call police until i got home since that guy still had my
phone i got home and told my parents then went ahead and called 911 using the house phone i explained to the police that i was led into a trap that someone was hiding the back seat and that the man who shot at my car still had my phone which was still unlocked with all my personal information on it the police recommended i call at t immediately and asked them to track the last call that was made within the hour but at t customer service didn't open until 7am so i had to wait with the cops
still there though i used find my iphone on my dad's phone to lock my phone which i hoped was before they could have found our home address on there come 7am i called atnt to ask if they could track the last call made but there were no calls logged since my phone call with my mom earlier the previous day at work that meant the man never actually made a phone call to anyone and i found out some more horrible news all the bitcoin i was holding in my coinbase account was gone many thousands of dollars
worth of it sent to some random bitcoin wallet address completely untrackable the phone's location stopped updating once the thief either disposed of or turned off the phone i never got it back a week after this incident i woke up to my mom's concerned voice my dad knocked on my door and told me to come downstairs and outside i was scared but i followed him he said he and my mom heard someone in our backyard but when we checked we didn't see anyone there my mom wanted to call the cops but my dad said we'd hold
off until we heard another noise which we never did i don't know if what they heard was a person but if it was i really hope it wasn't that man who had my phone my address was saved everywhere on that phone regardless it's been two years now so it's obviously over still i will never stop to help somebody on a highway at night ever again
