Speaker 1: I signed up for Uber Eats back when it was
really gaining traction in twenty twenty one. I'd just gotten
laid off from my previous job and it seemed nearly
impossible to find any other job quickly, so this was
a bit of a risk that I hoped would work out.
A couple months in, I was enjoying it enough and
it was paying me enough for me to keep with it.
This happened just around a year after I started. I'd
fallen into the habit of waking up late and staying
up late, so I hadn't started working until around dinnertime.
By eleven PM, I still hadn't made enough to be
good for the night, so I continued on taking pretty
much any order that popped up. It was at one
am when an order came through that was interesting. It
was a grocery order from a twenty four hour set
an eleven gas station. I still accepted it, but it
was just odd to me that someone would need groceries
from a gas station in the middle of the night.
I drove up and parked at the mostly empty gas
station and went into the convenience store. The only person
inside was a kind old man working at the register,
I picked up the bag from him and also got
myself a cup of coffee for the road, then headed
back to my car. I got in and situated myself
before backing out and getting on the road for the
final stretch of the drive. Only a moment after getting
onto the main street, though, I noticed a car's headlights
right behind me. Mind you, this was very late and
almost no cars were out, so I was sure I
would have seen them before they were so close. After
some thinking, I thought they must have been at the
gas station, parked on the side of the building, and
pulled out as soon as I did. I drove along
this same road for a while, reaching the edge of
town when I suddenly felt something wrong with my car.
It was way bumpier than usual and a loud kind
of scraping sound was coming from the right side. After
a minute from noticing this, it became a lot worse,
so bad that I had to pull off to the
side before the car would break down in the road.
I parked on the shoulder with woods on either side
of me, but in the mirror I saw the headlights
of that same car slowing down and pulling in right
behind me. Unsure what was going on. I decided to
get out quickly and see what the problem was. I
didn't know if the car behind me was going to
try and help me out or if they had something
else in mind, but I knew I couldn't go anywhere
until I figure this out. I ran around to the
other side of my car and quickly noticed the problem.
My right tire was completely flattened, which was crazy. I
hadn't run over anything, and usually flat tires happening gradually,
not so suddenly like this. I took a closer look,
seeing a gash right on the side of the tire
that didn't look natural at all. Then I heard a
door open from the car behind me. A man stepped
out and waved at me. I'm okay, thank you, I
called out, trying to get them to leave before even approaching,
especially after realizing this was all really sketchy, but the
man kept walking toward me. Once he got maybe ten
feet away, I could see him more clearly. He was older,
with long gray and black hair in a bushy, untamed beard.
He wore basic clothes jeans and a hoodie, but they
were covered in stains and grime. He came up next
to my car and asked if he could help me out,
showing a large smile. I said again that I was okay,
but he only laughed, looking at my tire and back
at me. A few seconds of awkward silence passed as
the man held a smile before I lied and said
I had a friend on his way to pick me up.
Now having rejected his help three times, the man's smile
gradually fell into a straight face. He turned his body
toward the car and very unnaturally looked around. This is
when I got the immediate rush through my body to
get away from this man, and I only had one
option to do so. I bolted off the road into
the tree line, hearing the man follow me into the
pitch black woods. It only lasted for a few seconds
before I lost him. After that, I didn't go very
far at all, still able to see the headlights on
the road, and I could make out the man's figure
moving around by the cars. A few minutes later, he
got in his car and left. By now, I'd had
enough time to pretty much figure out that this was
all a setup from the Uber Eats order. Having been
followed from the gas station where he likely slashed my tire, However,
I didn't think it would be so easy to catch him.
His full name and everything on the app turned out
to be real. I guess he didn't think that we
would have tied it all back to the Uber Eats order.
That being said, the punishment wasn't very harsh because he
didn't harm me. He only stole some thing my car.
Though I'm sure that if I had stayed there on
the road, I might not even be here to share
this story. I had some spare time this night, and
having chugged a few coffees earlier in the day, I
figured I'd use this energy to go out and make
some money. I was delivering for door Dash, cruising on
the highway to my next delivery. It was super late,
the roads were empty, and the night was very peaceful,
basically every delivery driver's dream. On my way there, though,
my phone started buzzing. It was the customer calling me,
but before I had a chance to answer it, they
hung up. Since it only rang for a couple seconds,
I thought it must have been an accident, but in
case not, I redialed their number. It rang for a while,
but they didn't answer. I shook my head and blew
it off, not thinking about it for the rest of
the drive. I got off the highway and drove into
the neighborhood. It was a very regular street with average houses.
When I got up to the house my delivery was for,
I parked right in the driveway and started walking up
to their porch. As I was setting down the bag,
I saw that the front door was cracked open. I
didn't know if it was meant for me or not,
so I just lightly knocked on the door and called
out that I was dropping off their food. As soon
as I did, I heard a somewhat disturbing sound come
from down the hallway. It was a muffled thump that
almost mimicked my knocking, like someone was banging on a door.
A bit shaken, I opened the front door wider and
called out again. I wasn't sure what to say, so
I just repeated myself that I was delivering their food.
A few quiet moments went by. Then I heard a
door open from the back of the house and a
guy came around the corner. He looked distressed and bothered,
but I couldn't tell if it was because of me
or something else. The guy walked down the hall and
right up to the doorway I was in not saying
a word as he started to reach for the bag.
But that's when I heard those thumps again from down
the hallway. I looked past him in confusion as he
turned and looked as well, then quickly turned back and
looked at me, recognizing that I heard it too. Is
everything okay? I asked carefully. The sound echoed through the
walls again, as the man just kind of stared at
me as if we were trying to think of what
to do. Why don't you bring the food inside for me,
he said, almost in a demanding tone. Nervously, I picked
up the bag, but quickly realized how terrible of an
idea this was. I felt threatened like I had to
follow him, but I also had a feeling that if
I did, I wouldn't be making it out of there.
In my hesitation, the guy's face showed he was even
more bothered angry even He then reached out and grabbed
the food right from my hands, then slammed the door
in my face. Stunned, I stood there and listened as
his footsteps went down the hallway and the thumping stopped.
I couldn't do anything else at this point, so I
hurried off the porch and got my car. I ended
my door dash after that one, and ended up reporting
the really disturbing scenario to the police. I think what
ended up making me report it was that the man
tried to get me to go inside his house. If
not for that, I may have not felt there was
enough evidence to get me to do anything. Unfortunately, though,
police informed me hours later that the man declined that
anyone else was there and declined their request to search
his home. At that point, there was nothing left to
do other than speculate. I believe there was something truly
horrible going on, and he was possibly ready to do
the same to me, but I don't think we'll ever
know for sure. I used to deliver Chinese food for
a local restaurant. I was just a teenager in high
school at the time, and whatever job I got wasn't
going to be for more than a year or two.
I'd say this job was fairly typical to most first
jobs or retail and food service jobs, because it had
some slow and boring days and some busy and stressful
days as the delivery driver. Though I was always thankful
to not have to be working in the store and
dealing with mobs of customers. On this night, I started
at six pm. It was a Friday, so I was
working a late six to twelve shift. As soon as
I clocked in, I was delivering orders non stop for
the next two hours, with no time to breathe in
between them. At eight, orders were slowing a bit, but
I still had a few more to deliver before I
could take my lunch, so I grabbed the three orders
and set out to get them done before nine. The
first one was close, but the next two were further out.
This isn't uncommon, as our town isn't all packed together.
I got to the second house and dropped it off,
then headed out to the final stop. It was ten
minutes from where I was, and the tag said it
wasn't paid for yet. All I was thinking about during
this drive was the break i'd get afterward. Going back
and forth for three hours straight tired me out more
than usual this night. I pulled into the neighborhood and
followed the GPS until I got to a back portion,
where the whole atmosphere quickly changed. I turned down a
thin road of cracked pavement and potholes with barely visible
small houses on the side, covered by the thick bushes
and unkempt lawns. When the GPS told me i'd arrived,
I stopped the car but didn't see a house. I
turned my brights on, and ever so faintly, I could
see the outline of a small house, pretty far from
the road I was on. I then looked at the
grass leading up to it and realized there was actually
a driveway. It was just engulfed in vines and tall grass.
I would never have seen it if I hadn't seen
the house first. Knowing I would be unable to even
drive on it, I put the car in park and
got out with the bag, then began to walk through
the overgrown driveway. I couldn't believe how awful it was
to walk through, and I couldn't imagine anyone letting their
driveway get to this point. Getting closer, though, I could
see more of the house. It was very small, kind
of like a trailer home, and looked to be in
a matching condition to the driveway, vines growing over the
windows and bushes covering every inch of the nearly decaying house.
As I made my way up to the front door,
I knew something was wrong. I knew it in my
gut and in my head. But I was just some
kid with the first job that was scared to lose it.
So I felt like I had to do my job,
which was to deliver the order to this address. I
pushed all my bad feelings aside and knocked on the door.
Right away, I heard footsteps coming up to the door.
It opened, revealing a young lady behind it. At first,
in the dim lighting, she looked very normal, and I
felt a huge relief, But it only took a few
more seconds to realize that her normal look was eerily
out of place. With the house in this condition, there
was no way she could be so well dressed and
taken care of. As these thoughts scrambled through my head,
she opened the screen door and said, in a creepily
calm tone, come in. Everything hid me in that moment,
as I stumbled back a few steps and decided that
I needed to leave right away. I turned around, and
only a second after beginning to leave, I heard a
thud from the side of the house. I looked over,
seeing two men running out from behind the house and
sprinting through the bushes toward me. I dropped everything and
started running. I did everything I could to get through
the thick grass and vines, but just as I reached
the end of the driveway, I stumbled to the ground,
tripping over something. I hurried up, hearing their footsteps closing
the distance on me. I couldn't even get myself to
look back as I ran straight into my car, turning
it on. The men immediately stopped and ran back to
where they came from. With my whole body still shaking
from the adrenaline, I turned the car around and drove away.
Of course, I let my boss know what happened, and
he urged me to call the police and report it.
I was really relieved to know he didn't care about
the order and only for my safety, which looking back
on it, it would have been horrible if there were
any other way. Police interviewed me and my boss and
did a whole investigation, ultimately unable to find any of
the people. The property I was on, though, was actually
state owned, and the trespassing sign at the beginning of
the road had been dug up and thrown into the
tall grass. Their intentions are unknown, but it seems like
the most obvious possibility is likely the answer. I just
hope nobody else has to go through what I did,
or if they do, I hope they can be as
lucky as I was to get away.