Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, I went through a divorce that left
me basically without anything. I managed to move into a
small home, but had nothing to fill it with. I
needed furniture, appliances, literally everything. Obviously, this is a big
task to take on, especially financially, so I thought this
was the perfect opportunity to get some discounted stuff on Craigslist.
My priority was on the big things like a couch,
TV and so on, and it really didn't take long
to find some deals. I messaged a few people and
picked up a few things, and during this process I
found and contacted a cellar about buying their TV stand.
It was posted for forty bucks and looked like a
super average wooden TV stand. The seller, Matt, was very
strict on when I could pick it up, though it
had to be after nine because of his work schedule,
and it couldn't be on the weekend. This time frame
still worked for me, but I just found it kind
of odd how specific he was, and I figured that
was probably why no one had bought it yet. I
agreed to pick it up on a Wednesday at nine thirty,
and on that day I followed through. He sent me
his address and I headed out thirty minutes to his place.
The town he lived in i'd only heard in conversation
before and had never actually been to it, and I
soon found out why. Most of the homes were run
down and very old. Even the roads were in bad shape,
with a lot of the street lights not even working.
Pulling up to Matt's house didn't make me feel any better.
It was just as run down looking as the others,
with only what looked like a hallway light on inside.
I sorted out forty bucks and shoved the bills in
my pocket, then stead and walked onto their porch, ringing
the doorbell. As I waited, I looked around at his lawn.
He had stuff everywhere, like garden statues and just interesting
decorations all throughout his yard and even on the porch.
Then he opened the door. Matt was a tall and
skinnier looking man, probably in his forties. He had a
tired look, as if he hadn't slept in days, and
I could smell booze from his breath as he welcomed
me inside. If I'd known beforehand that this was who
I'd be buying from, I never even would have come here.
But it was too late. For that now. As we
walked down the hall, there was stuff scattered all around
the house, not to the point like a hoarder's home
you'd see on TV, but more like an abandoned house
that had been trashed by random teenagers. When we got
to the living room in the back of the house,
he pointed at the TV stand. The room was barely lit,
making it hard to see what condition it was in.
Any chance you could turn on the light for me,
I asked politely. Matt didn't respond, but walked over to
the wall and flicked on a small lamp in the corner.
It was around this time that I got a really
weird feeling that something was wrong, and before I even
got to look at the TV stand, I heard someone
else behind me. Another man had come around the corner,
standing next to Matt. He didn't say hello or anything,
he just watched me. I was really unsure what to
make of this and didn't want to overreact right away,
but was also getting really uncomfortable as that eerie feeling
only grew larger. I was standing there trying to think
of what to say or do, but then Matt walked
past me and stood in front of the TV. Stand.
They were now on either side of me, facing me
and not speaking. Several long seconds passed as nobody spoke
or moved before I quickly walked past the other guy
and down the hallway toward the front door. As I left,
I heard them laughing in the room behind me, like
this was funny, and as I got halfway to my car,
the front door slammed shut. I can't even find any
reasons for what occurred that night or what those two
guys were trying to do. Maybe it was just some
sick joke they were pulling, trying to get me to
freak out, or maybe it was something more sinister. I
don't plan on finding out though. I was twenty three
and looking for a studio apartment to rent. I was
fresh out of college and had almost no money to
work with, only making a bit more than minimum wage,
so I really needed the absolute cheapest place I could find.
At first, I was looking for one bedroom and studios,
but over the following weeks it became apparent that that
was just not in the budget. Reluctantly, I went on
to Craigslist and looked at their section for housing. I
knew this site had some bad reputation, but one of
my friends had a good experience and vouched for it,
so I gave it a go. The first day of
looking on Craigslist, I didn't find anything, though I got
a bit of hope seeing there were a lot of listings,
they just weren't in my area or price range. I
think it was on the third or fourth day that
I reloaded the website and found a new listing that
piqued my interest. It was for a place a few
miles away. I clicked on it and looked at all
the details, seeing it was a studio and a small
apartment building. The pictures were really low quality, like so
pixelated that I couldn't see anything, but with everything else
seeming good, I sent the owner a message. He replied
quickly and we scheduled a tour later that day around seven.
From our quick back and forth, I saw nothing unusual
about this guy. His messages were very professional, and he
seemed happy to show me the place. A couple hours later,
I got in my car and started driving over to
the address he sent me. I should mention that I
knew before beforehand that this wasn't a very nice area
of our city, but it's the cheapest area, and honestly,
I didn't think it was that bad, though in hindsight,
maybe I was just being naive because it was my
only option. Anyway, I pulled up to this rather old
looking apartment building. I parked on the side of the
street and got out, texting the man that i'd arrived,
and walking up to the front door. I didn't see
the man anywhere, so I buzzed the room and waited
for a few seconds. Then the door unlocked. I stepped in,
greeted by a staircase in the middle in two rooms
on either side. Before I even got to looking at
the room numbers, a voice yelled from somewhere above the staircase,
saying they were on the third floor. Assuming the man
was talking to me, I started walking up At this point, though,
I was beginning to wonder why he didn't meet me
at the door, especially since he was so professional when texting.
As I reached the top of the steps, there was
a small hallway with two doors, one of which was open.
I walked over and looked inside, seeing a man standing
a few feet away and looking over at me. He
greeted me and shook my hand, then showed me inside,
but immediately I was confused. The place had a couch, TV, chairs,
and even food on the counters. It was clearly lived in.
Does someone else live here? I asked kindly. The man
quickly replied with a short laugh and said no one
lived here and everything would be gone by tomorrow. I
smiled and said okay, but that response didn't come off
the right way to me. He started leading me further
in hinting out features of the place, but it suddenly
came across me that this wasn't even a studio. There
were multiple doors which had to lead to other rooms.
This was at least a one or two bedroom apartment,
and there was no way the price could be what
he said it was. It seemed like he noticed my
suspicions as he stopped what he was saying and moved
toward the hallway. He opened one of the doors that
was clearly to a bedroom and started telling me to
take a look inside. But before I could answer, we
were interrupted when my phone chimed. I pulled it out
of my pocket and checked who it was. My face
went pale seeing it was from the man from Craigslist,
asking where I was. I looked up in horror realizing
what had happened, and I could tell that whoever this
guy was in front of me knew that I I
figured it out. This terrifying moment passed and the guy
didn't move or say anything. He just stood and looked
at me with a blank stare. After a moment, I
hurried out of there and down the stairs, not hearing
the guy follow I got in my car and left,
being so horrified. I never even texted the actual man back,
as I was no longer interested in staying anywhere near
that place, and I didn't know if maybe he was
in on it too somehow. But whoever that guy was
that lured me into his home was so close to
being able to probably abduct me. I don't know, and
I don't even want to know. But I never opened
Craigslist again. After that night. I was on Craigslist for
the first time in probably five years. I'd forgotten about
the site, never having any need or use for it,
and never really hearing about it anymore. But due to
my moving situation, I needed to get rid of a
bunch of random things. I initially called a junk removal company,
hoping they would just take everything, but their estimate was
over four hundred dollars for getting rid of just a
couple things. So that's when I went to Craigslist. I'd
put up a listing for free stuff and had pictures
of all the things I was giving away. Maybe I
just didn't know how it worked nowadays, but I thought
i'd get a lot of responses from people wanting to
pick up free stuff. However, I barely got any, and
the ones that did respond to the listing ended up
ghosting me after couple texts. Then, about a week after
making the listing, a man who introduced himself as kJ
reached out. He said he wanted to pick up my
couch and was good to do so on any day.
I really thought this was just going to be the
same as all the other people that reached out, so
I didn't put much effort into getting this man to
actually come pick up the couch. I let him know
that I worked between nine and five, so if he
wanted to pick it up, he could just let me know. Again,
I didn't think he'd actually come, but sure enough, in
the morning before work, he sent me a text saying
he'd like to swing by tonight. I told him that
was great, and as I left work that night, I
sent him my address. The drive home was only twenty
ish minutes, but I'd hope he comes sooner rather than later,
because I didn't want to waste my night waiting on them,
even more so if they didn't end up showing. When
I pulled in to my driveway, though a car was
parked on the curb right next to my house, nobody
was in it, and it was the only car parked
on the whole street, so it seemed clear that they
were at my house. Thinking it was CAJ I quickly
got out and ran out to my front door, but
he wasn't there. It was in the back of my
mind that this could be just some crazy coincidence and
the car was for someone else's house, but I wasn't convinced.
I got inside and sent a text to kJ asking
what his eta was. Then I stood by the window
and looked outside. After ten or so minutes, I still
hadn't gotten a response. I didn't see anyone outside either,
so I calmed myself down and turned away from the window.
I went to the kitchen, pouring myself a drink and
just standing there when a small thud sounded from upstairs.
Unaware of what it was, I put my drink down
and listened. There were a few seconds of silence, then
suddenly heavy footsteps were running down the stairs. I was
so caught off guard. I just stood where I was
and stared down the hallway as a man appeared at
the other end, running right to the front door. He
swung it open and ran out, and when I made
it to the front he was already driving away in
that car that was parked on the curb. I was
still stunned, trying to process what happened because it was
all so sudden and quick. Eventually I got my phone
out and called the police, then tried calling kJ, but
he didn't pick off, which meant to me that it
was definitely him who had broken in. When the police investigated,
they found that Kj's phone wasn't registered to a name
or address, so we were back to square one. Nothing ever,
did come of it, despite me trying multiple times to
get the police back on the case. As far as
I know, nothing was stolen, So maybe he didn't have
enough time, or he was waiting for me. Maybe that
thought I heard was him accidentally giving himself away, so
he took his chance to run now that he didn't
have the surprise on me. But whatever really happened, all
I can do is hope that he never comes back.