Speaker 1: I own a janitorial business that specializes in cleaning office
buildings for mid to large sized companies. Due to the
nature of the job, we start our shifts at six
pm on weekdays because most offices didn't want us inside
during business hours while their employees were working. So on
this day, I got to the scheduled office building at
six point thirty, putting in the keypad passcode and getting
all my equipment in, then locking the doors behind me.
The building was only two stories, which was smaller than most,
but both floors were really long and there was a
smaller basement level. I started on the second story to
work my way down. I went around, grabbing all the
trash and getting anything off the floors that would get
in my way. Then I tied up the bags and
brought them out to the dumpsters at the back of
the building to toss them. While I was out there, oh,
I saw two parked cars. Neither of them were on
But what was really odd about it was that this
was the only nearby building, and supposedly nobody was supposed
to be here right now. I just didn't know why
they would be parked out in the back of the
building or where they could even be if not in
their cars. I went back inside and just double checked
that all the doors were locked up, then continued with
my work. Occasionally I checked out the windows to see
if there were any changes with the cars out there,
but it was the same. I finished up with the
top floor and moved my way down to the first floor,
doing the same process, but this time, when I went
out to toss the trash in the dumpster, I noticed
a single light was on in one of the cars.
Almost as soon as I stepped out, though it turned off.
This made me uneasy, so I quickly everything and went
back in. Seeing that someone was actually in there made
it a lot more odd. I tried to work faster,
finishing the floor by eleven PM, which was much quicker
than the previous. Then it was just the small basement
level and I'd be done. I moved everything down and
got to work. This level was mostly full of boxes.
It was more of a storage warehouse area. While I
was down there, I heard a thud at go through
the building. It came from one of the floors above me,
so I couldn't tell much of what the sound was
or where on those floors it sounded from. I put
down my things and started walking up the steps, but
stopped halfway through when I heard voices coming down the
upper hallway, two men talking back and forth at a
regular volume, like they weren't even afraid of me being
in here. I started to back down the stairs and
moved behind some of the boxes, then dialed nine one one.
Before I had a chance to say anything, though, footsteps
began making their way down to the basement. I only
saw the man's shadow on the wall before I completely
hid myself behind the shelf of boxes. I heard him
walk around a little bit, then yell upstairs to the
other man, No, I don't see anyone. I think we're good.
He walked up the steps and I peered out one
more time, seeing his shadow again, but I could tell
he was holding something small in his hand, which just
made me even more scared than I already was. I
reconnected with nine one one and explained what I could,
then waited there for several minutes. During this time, I
think the men were mostly on the top floor, but
then they moved back to the first and suddenly one
of them yelled, their van is still here. Both of
their footsteps started rushing around, but not leaving they were
looking for me. It was hard to control and quiet
my breathing hearing them running throughout the building and moving
things around right above me. Then heavy footsteps rushed down
the basement stairs as one of them started tossing boxes
around and looking everywhere. But the faintest sound of sirens
approaching caught the other man's attention, who alerted the one
in the basement, and both of them ran away. I
stayed hidden until an officer came down to get me.
It only took two hours for the two suspects to
get caught. They declined to share why they'd broken in,
but a few stolen items were found in their cars.
It's safe to say they weren't the smartest, as they
seemed to just guess whether I'd left, rather than just
starting by looking for my van to see if I
was there. Regardless, them not leaving after finding out I
was inside was probably the scariest thing I'll ever experience,
but thankfully I don't have to know what would have
happened if they found me. I've been a police officer
for my county for almost a decade. I've seen some
crazy and disturbing things, sometimes making me question why I
even chose this career path. But what happened on this
night still sticks with me and is often the event
that I think about the most. It was nearing the
end of winter, but where I'm located it stays cold
until about mid spring. This night, I was set to
be on patrol of the major highway for most of
my shift. On a typical night, I would probably stop
two or three cars for speeding and otherwise wouldn't do
much else. Sometimes a call for backup would come in,
but usually patrol shifts were the most boring and uneventful.
I was driving along the highway doing the usual circle
until about two am, when I passed a car on
the side of the road that wasn't there before. Its
lights were off and it was far on the shoulder
of the highway, so I didn't see it until I
was already passing it. I turned off the next exit
and made an entire circle, taking fifteen minutes before I
got back to where I'd seen it. I was under
the assumption it was just an abandoned, broken down vehicle
that maybe I didn't notice before, so I wasn't in
a rush. I pulled in behind it, parking about fifteen
feet away and leaving my headlights on. I called into
report that I was investigating a presumably empty vehicle on
the southbound highway. Then I got out with my flashlight
and walked up to the car. My first impression was
of how old it was. It looked like something from
the nineties and was rusted all over, along with deents
and scratches. I walked up to the driver's side window
and held my flashlight up. Nobody was inside, but as
I shined it around, I happened to notice some really
worrying signs. There was a pile of clothes in the
back seat, looking like they belonged to a young woman,
but the way they were scattered around just didn't look right.
I moved around to the other side of the vehicle,
but a faint sound from behind me caught my attention.
I quickly turned and pointed my flashlight out into the
woods surrounding the highway, and immediately the sound stopped, but
I had heard enough to know that it was footsteps.
Someone was walking out there, maybe even watching me. I
yelled out, directing them to move into the light with
their hands raised. A moment passed, then I yelled again,
but it was silent. I felt my heart beating in
my chest as I called in to update on the
situation and get back up to come. I stood there,
staring into the woods and honestly fearing for my life.
If something had happened here, there would be reason for
whoever was out there to try and stop me from
finding out. I held up my firearm and moved further
behind the car, still keeping an eye on the tree line,
but not exposing my whole body. The next five minutes
were brutally nerve wracking, but finally another officer pulled onto
the scene, and right away I heard footsteps renting further
into the woods. We immediately got to searching the vehicle,
and it was clear that something was going on, but
searching the woods in the middle of the night, while
someone likely dangerous was out there was not a safe option.
Along with indicators of violence, we found an empty AMMO package,
so it's also likely that they had a firearm on them.
Knowing someone was out there watching me the whole time,
maybe even having me in the sights of their weapon,
is one of the most unnerving feelings even to just
think about. The following day, we were able to get
more information and run a more thorough investigation, but the
car was untraceable, and although some shoe prints were found
in the woods, they faded out pretty quick without any direction.
What really happened that night still remains an open case
with no leads on suspects or victims, which now has
just left me unable to stop thinking about it. I'm
a twenty four year old male, and a few years
ago I picked up a job at a local grocery store.
I was doing community college and just wanted some money
to help pay for food and going out with friends.
After a couple months of working there, I started to
get used to the regular customers that came in a lot.
Most of them were nice or otherwise just average people,
but this one guy always had something weird about him.
He came in most nights around nine, which was an
hour before closing, and would walk around the store for
a long time before eventually getting one or two items
and checking out. For how long he would spend walking
around almost every night, it was really weird that he'd
only end up with a couple things. He didn't never
talk much, but I had assumed he was living on
the streets or out of his car, and that would
explain why he only got a few things. His clothes
were never clean, and he just looked unkempt all around. Anyway,
this went on for several weeks, if not months. I
never thought too much on it after a while because
it was such a normal part of work now. But
then one night he came in as usual, but instead
of walking around the store, he came right up to
the register I was at. I asked if he needed
help with anything, and the man just looked at me
for a second before asking if I drove the old
Toyota that was out in the parking lot. Immediately, I
found it a bit weird that he would know that,
but I said yes because I didn't see where this
was going. I thought maybe there was something wrong with
my car, but the man kept his straight face and
walked away from the register. Obviously, this was really weird,
so I asked my coworker to watch over the registers
for a moment. Then I went to the front of
the store and looked out into the parking lot. My
car was right where I'd parked it and didn't seem
to have anything wrong with it. I went back inside
and to the register, thinking I would just ask the
man when he came to check out, but he never did.
I don't know when he left, but the store closed
without him ever coming to the register like he usually would.
That night, when I left, I checked all around my
car and nothing seemed off. It left me just confused.
The next day, I planned again to ask the man,
but he didn't come in. For the next whole month,
the man never showed up again. I was just left
to wonder about why he asked about my car, seemingly
out of nowhere and for no reason. Then on a
Saturday night, I clocked out of work. As usual, this
was the one night of the week where I'd be
the only cashier, so at the end of the night
I always left by myself. But when I began walking
through the parking lot toward my car, I got this
really strange feeling in my gut. Maybe I just remember
it wrong, or maybe there really was some intuition about something,
but I just felt that something was off. I walked
quickly and got my car, glancing around the parking lot,
it was pretty much empty and had nothing to give
me reason to believe something was wrong. I turned my
car on and just before I put it in drive,
I heard the slightest sound from right behind me. Then
out of the corner of my eye, I saw something
move in the mirror that was facing my back seat.
I left the car running as I said, sprinted out
and stood a few spaces away from my car, looking
back at the window of the back seat and seeing
a figure moving around. I turned and ran for the store,
going back in and calling the police. By the time
they arrived, my car was empty. There were no signs
of forced entry either, so they had to have some
illegal key copy or I'd have to have left the
doors unlocked by accident. I'm fairly certain it was the
strange man from weeks ago, but I didn't know why
if it was him, though, maybe he had been trying
to get in for the entire month that I hadn't
seen him and was waiting for me to forget to
lock the doors. I do think that I locked them
that night, but every once in a while I probably
forget without even knowing, so I can't write it off completely. However,
the man that was back there clearly wasn't trying to
just rob the car, and even tried to stay hidden
after I'd gotten in and turned it on. It's horrifying
knowing that I was so close to having left that
parking lot and driving away unknowingly with him in the
back seat. And once we were gone, who knows what
would have happened. They might have waited until I pulled
into my house, or I might have never even gotten
home that night.