Speaker 1: This happened during a road trip I was taking on
the way back from seeing my family for the holidays.
I'm not usually one to drive more than a couple
hours because I much prefer flying, but this year the
tickets to where I was going were way more expensive
for some reason. It would have cost me over a
thousand bucks for a round trip flight that only went
a few states over. I had planned everything out so
that i'd get home a few days before I had
to go to work, but a snowstorm blew in on
the day I was going to leave, so I had
to stay an extra two days before finally starting the drive.
The roads were empty since it was past the holiday rush,
and most of the drive is pretty out of the
way from the big cities. The hardest part of it
was always staying awake and fighting the boredom. The first
eight or so hours went by without any trouble, though
sure I was tired, but the snow on the road
kept me awake and attentive. It was about ten p m.
And I had a hotel booked in a small town
just two hours further ahead. But as I drove, a
small light came up in my mirror. It was the
headlights of someone behind me, which was actually the first
person I'd seen on the road with me in over
an hour. Their lights were getting bigger quickly, though, showing
that they were coming up really fast, and soon I
could see that it was actually a large van of
some kind. It was only a one lane road, so
I couldn't get out of their way, but I figured
they would still swerve around me, given they were going
so fast. Once they reached the back of my car, though,
they matched my speed and stayed behind me. After a
few seconds, I realized they weren't trying to get around me,
and we drove like that for almost ten minutes. It
was kind of unnerving, being that it was only us
on the road, and yet this huge van was trailing
right behind me. It wasn't a normal following distance either.
They were so close that I couldn't even see their
front bumper or license plate in my mirror. Maybe I
was quick to feel uneasy about it, But an exit
came up for a gas station, and I chose to
turn off, hoping they would stay on the road and
that I could put some distance between us. But as
I veered off and down the exit ramp, they stayed
right behind me. I pulled into the gas station and
parked at one of the pumps as the van pulled
into the pump behind me. At this point, I just
didn't know what was happening. Part of me thought that
this was something bad, but another part of me thought
I was just overreacting. I knew that this was the
only gas station in the past thirty ish minutes, so
it wasn't all that unlikely that they would also need gas.
Before getting out to fill up my tank, I shut
my car off and looked around the store. Part of
the gas station had its lights off and a closed
sign hanging from the door. I looked to the sides
of it, seeing nothing but empty darkness, no houses, no buildings,
just a field covered in snow with a single road
going through it. I looked in my mirror. A man
was now standing outside of the van and putting gas in,
so I got out and began doing the same. As
the numbers slowly ticked on the gas meter, the man
quickly put his pump back and sealed his gas cap.
I looked over seeing him walking to the back of
his van. Then I heard the loud ratcheting sound of
the back door being lifted open. There was something in
that moment, maybe a gut feeling or just an instinct
of some kind, that told me to get out of there.
I pulled the pump out of my car, and not
even a second later, three men were sprinting at me
from around the back of the van. I dropped the
pump on the ground and quickly got in my car,
locking the doors just as one of them grabbed the
handle and tried to rip it open. I was shaking
and moving as quick as I could to get the
car on. All three of them went around, trying each door,
but then immediately sprinted back to their van before I'd
even had the chance to pull away. When I did, though,
I saw them drive away soon after, going in the
opposite direction, down the way we had come from. I
let the police know what happened, but never even got
a call back with any updates. I think it's obvious
they were trying to abduct people under the cover of
night on the vast, unpopulated highway. What's terrifying is how confident,
and for lack of a better word, profession the whole
operation was. It seemed that as soon as they realized
I was securely in my car, and it wasn't going
to be effortless. They fled the scene without even needing
to communicate with each other. It was like they had
done it many times before. What would have happened if
they'd gotten me I don't know, but I urge everyone
to learn from my mistakes, because you may not be
as lucky as I was. In twenty nineteen, I did
deliveries for a pizza place near my school. I'd work
most days after class so I could afford to pay
for my car and rent. It wasn't a great job
in any aspect, but it was good enough to get
me through college without being completely broke. This night was
no different than most in the beginning. I clocked in
at six and delivered for three hours straight, then took
a lunch break and started again. At nine point thirty,
I picked up the next order and started heading to
the place. The address didn't look like a house, but
the route it took me on to get there was
not what I was expecting. It took me further out
from town, away from most houses and stores, and into
a business center. It was an area full of small
office buildings and nothing else. I drove down the road
and couldn't really tell what any of the addresses were,
so I just followed the directions on the GPS and
hoped it would take me into the right parking lot
when I turned in, I drove through a pretty long
parking area until I reached the front of the building
and could read the address. It matched up with the
one on the order, but something was off off. The
parking lot was completely empty, not even the street lights
were on, and the office building had no signs of
anyone being inside. I double checked the address, thinking there
must have been a mistake, but it all checked out.
I even tried searching it on Google for any places
nearby with the same address, but no, this was it.
I set my car and park and got out, glancing
around before walking up to the door. It was a
glass door with a dark tint covering it. I knocked,
then took a step back and waited. It only took
a moment before the door opened. It was a middle
aged man wearing very casual clothes and holding a small
grin on his face. He suddenly got overly excited and
said he was happy the food had finally arrived and
that everyone was hungry. I looked behind him, not seeing
anyone else and only a single light on in the
middle of the hallway, but I ignored it and just
told him his total. He must have realized what I
was looking for, though, as he quickly explained that everyone
else was in the rec room on the third floor
for a company party. I smiled to be polite, but
the man was talking with an overwhelming amount of excitement,
so much so that it almost felt like he had
to be faking it. He pulled out his wallet and
handed me cash for the pizzas, along with a ten
dollars tip. But as I took the money, he asked
me for a favor. He wanted help bringing the pizzas
up to the third floor. The man had put me
in a strange position. Having taken the generous tip already,
it felt like it would only be right to help him.
On the other hand, though carrying a few pizzas isn't
exactly difficult, and it didn't seem necessary by any means.
He started walking without me having answered, yet urging me
to follow him. As he made his way to a
door leading to some stairs. I trailed behind, keeping my
distance but following him into the stairwell. As I entered, though,
I felt a cold rush of air and noticed all
the lights were off. Only the small light from the
hallway lit the entrance to the stairs. The man started
making his way up, but stopped once he realized I
hadn't continued following him. He turned and made a humorous
remark about the lights, but his grin was quick to
leave once he saw that I wasn't going to follow
him anymore. There was no hesitation as he came rushing
down toward me with anger in his eyes. I tossed
the pieces on the ground, rushing out of the door
and into the hallway, then running for the end and
bolting to my car. I saw the man come partly
out of the front doors before going back in and
slamming them shut. I immediately called the police after driving
to a different parking lot. The man had run off
by the time they got there, and since he paid
in cash, there was no way to know who he
really was. The office building was empty, though, and there
was nobody else on the third floor, so it's clear
that it was just some sort of trap. What he
had ready for me on the third floor is unknown,
and I hope that nobody ever has to know. I
worked for my dad at his small construction business. He
runs a yard and warehouse full of materials, as well
as manages the job sites the workers are at. Since
I was only seventeen at the time, my job was
to basically be the errand boy. I'd drive materials back
and forth and pick up anything that was needed depending
on the job, though, some materials would need to be
there before workers arrived because they would need them so
they could get to work right away in the morning,
so every once in a while during busy weeks, I'd
have to start work really early, like two or three am,
to make sure I could drop everything off in time. Obviously,
this was only during the summer when I didn't have school,
so I really had no excuse for not being able
to work. I liked doing the deliveries early though, because
it was calm and I didn't have to deal with
anyone telling me what to do. On this day, I
arrived at the warehouse at three am and loaded up,
then started making my way to the job site. It
was a repair job on an old, maybe even abandoned
building at the edge of our town. When I got there,
I saw a truck parked right outside. Its lights were off,
and it didn't look like anyone was nearby. It was
way too early for anyone to be working, so I
wasn't expecting to see any cars here. I parked and
got out, walking up to it and seeing that it
wasn't a company vehicle either. The windows were tinted and
I couldn't see inside. I turned and looked at the building,
trying to see if anyone was here. I called out,
asking if anyone was inside, but got no response. Feeling
a little weird about it, I pulled out my phone
and called my dad. It rang for a minute, then
went to voicemail. Figuring it was probably just a worker's
personal truck that they'd left there. I went back to
my truck and started unloading the materials. It took probably
an hour. Then I got back in and started to
drive off. As I left the area, though, I looked
in my rear view mirror and suddenly the truck's lights
turned on. I practically slammed on my brakes, stopping on
the side of the road and watching as the truck
started to back out. Someone was in there. The whole time,
knowing that I was sure that it couldn't have been
a worker because they definitely would have responded to me.
I sat and watched as they made their way out
of the parking area and onto the road. I grabbed
my phone and quickly dialed my dad's phone number again.
While I waited for him to pick up, I looked over,
seeing the truck had stopped right next to me. I
stared at their window, knowing someone behind it was probably
staring at me. I tossed my phone on the seat
and started to drive forward, but the truck was quick
to match my speed and prevent me from getting back
onto the road. But there was nowhere else for me
to go. To my left where trees, and to my
right was this truck blocking my way. I started to panic,
putting the car in reverse and trying to back up.
The truck did the same until they tapped to the
side of my car, making me lose control and slide
completely off the shoulder and hit the side of a tree.
The truck quickly stopped right at the top of the
road as if they were going to get out, but
then their brake lights suddenly turned off again as they
put it back and drive and sped away just Twenty
seconds later, another car pulled up to the side of
the road and a man got out and ran up
to me, asking if I was okay. I didn't know
his name at the time, but it was one of
the workers that was just arriving at the job site.
He only saw the last bit of what happened, but
said he recognized the other truck as Samuels, who was
another worker my dad had hired a few months ago.
As it turned out, a bunch of tools and materials
were missing from the job site, adding up to almost
ten thousand dollars, and that's only from that one night.
He could have been slowly stealing a few things at
a time over the past few months. I think what
happened that night, though, was that Samuel thought that by
me seeing his truck, it would eventually all get traced
back to him and he'd get caught, so he tried
to stop me. I don't know what he would have
done to me, but considering I was the only witness,
it's likely that he wouldn't have gotten caught as long
as I was never seen again. Unfortunately, though, his name
and everything else didn't add up to anything, and it
was likely he was either an illegal immigrant or some
kind of felon that went through the effort of getting
fake or stolen ideas in work documents. I was never
expecting something like that to ever happen, but at least
it's really unlikely that I'll ever see that man again.