This happened when I was 18, making the road trip from my hometown to my new college. I had all my stuff shoved into the trunk and backseat of my cheap SUV. This was not only my first long road trip alone, but it was also going to be my first time being away from my family for an extended amount of time, so my nerves were reasonably high. Anyway, the directions I was taking said it was 600 miles total, which I split into two days of driving. I was taking whatever route the maps had me take,
and it estimated I'd make it to the hotel at 11:00 p.m. But with possible traffic, gas stops, and getting food, I knew I'd likely get there much later. By 7:00, the sun was fully gone, and most of the cars were gone too. Every once in a while, a car would pass by, and I'd see their headlights slowly fade out in front of me. But for most of the drive, it was just me. This actually made me really tired and bored. Around 10:00, I decided I'd stop at the next gas station before making the final stretch
of the drive. About 10 minutes later, I exited the road and entered a gas station. Being so far out, this wasn't a town or anything; it was literally just a gas station with a few pumps and a tiny convenience store. I didn't see any other cars on the road or in the lot, and not even any lights from any nearby houses or buildings in the distance. I pulled right up to a pump and got out to start topping off my tank. As I looked around, I almost got jump-scared by a guy walking up to me.
In comparison to myself, he was much older—probably in his 50s, if I had to guess—and he honestly looked homeless. But regardless, being approached out here wasn't something I was expecting, and his short smile didn't make me feel any more comfortable. "I do you need something?" I said, hoping he wouldn't walk any closer. The man stopped a few feet from my car and looked around almost cautiously before responding, "Take the exit back onto the highway." I looked at him, confused, not sure if I was understanding him right. He pointed behind me at the exit I came
from and repeated himself, "Take the exit back onto the highway." After a second, I said, "Okay," and the man walked off, but I was still really confused. The exit I came from that he wanted me to take again was a one-way road, so by his logic, he wanted me to drive on the wrong side of the road and do a U-turn back onto the highway. It just didn't make any sense. I looked out at the entrance road—the obvious one that I was supposed to take—and there were no signs of any construction or anything blocking it.
It just looked like an empty ramp back onto the highway. As I put the pump back and got in my car, I glanced over at the man, who was now just sitting against the side of the convenience store. The more I thought about it, though, the crazier that man seemed, just sitting out here saying nonsense. I thought maybe this was some kind of trap or something, so I went with my instinct and drove out of the lot and toward the entrance to the highway. As I merged onto it, though, I realized pretty much all the
streetlights were out. I slowed down, thinking maybe this was a construction zone or something. I kept my eyes focused on the road directly ahead, making sure to be cautious of anything. But while I made my way through the unlit road, I saw only a brief outline of a figure to my left before a pickup truck came out of nowhere and stopped right in front of my car. Every door opened as four men jumped out of the truck and started running up to my car, holding weapons of all kinds: metal bats, machetes, knives, and not even
anything covering their faces. They just had this emotionless gaze, like they felt nothing of what they were doing. I quickly started backing up as they got just a few feet away from my windows, and once I got far enough back, I suddenly saw the outline of dozens of people coming out of the shadows off the side of the road. A few even tried chasing my car as I frantically reversed out of there as soon as I could. I turned around and sped off. I called 911 once I felt I was safe, but for some reason,
I never got a call back—no update on it at all. Almost like they didn't even check on it. Ironically, though, it was the creepy old guy at the gas station who tried to prevent me from even getting caught up in that mess, or at least that was what I assumed he was doing. Either way, I was incredibly lucky to get out of that with my life, as I had no idea what that was or what they were all planning to do. It was a typical Friday after my college classes were out, and I was spending
the night doing DoorDash. This was my regular routine, dashing on the weekends to help me pay for all my living expenses while on campus. The night started well, getting a lot of orders done and making a good amount, and then it hit a stalemate after the big dinner rush. Very few orders were showing up, and the ones that did were very low paying—basically waste-of-time orders. But then, after an hour of aimlessly driving around, an order came through that wasn't too bad. It was... 8 m away, but the payment was well worth it. It was nothing
absurd, but enough to make it not a ripoff like a lot of the other ones were. I accepted the order and ran into the restaurant to grab the bag, then hopped to my car and started driving. The map said it would take 30 minutes, which I think was the longest of any orders I'd done up until this point. Most of the houses were right around campus because any further than 15 to 20 minutes out, it becomes pretty much just bare fields of grass. As I got to that 20-minute mark, it became just that: very few
houses, mostly sitting far out in fields of crops, and nothing, nothing else. The rest of the 10-minute drive was on this empty road going along these farms. Then I made it to the house. There was a dirt driveway connecting to the road leading through a large field, and in the far back was a small house. Driving through the field felt very eerie, even though I'm not one to get nervous without reason; this felt different. As I got further out from the road, the only sound was the low rumbling of my car on the dirt. I
parked out front and got the bag ready, then left the car on. As I stepped out, the night was quiet and the house was dark, having only the porch light on to illuminate the outside. I walked through the unkempt grass and up to the porch, knocking on the door. As I waited, I looked back at my car sitting in the dark with the field of pitch black behind it. A moment went by, then I knocked again, but there was no response, not even the sound of anyone inside. It didn't take long for me to realize
the strangeness of the situation, seeing no lights on in the windows and noticing how decayed the house looked up close. The only thing that made me think it couldn't be abandoned was that I had an order for this address and the porch light was on. I looked at the light, thinking why would that be the only light? But by some odd chance, I happened to recognize the top portion of the casing having a cheap solar battery. It was just an automatic light that charges during the day and turns on in the evening, meaning nobody had
to be here to turn it on. Just as I was piecing this all together, though, I heard a rumbling sound behind me. I turned, seeing a car driving down the dirt path and coming up right behind my car. I stood there and stared at their headlights until a man stepped out. I yelled from the porch, asking if this was his order, but he didn't reply. He just stood right next to his car and didn't move or speak. I felt my adrenaline spike as I began realizing how horrible the situation likely was. The silence of the
night only reminded me that there was nobody here to help. I was stuck in the middle of a field between an empty house and a stranger. In a split second, instinctual reaction, I dropped the bag and sprinted off the porch, running behind the house and straight into the field of grass. I looked back, seeing the man coming up behind me. Frantically, I continued running, and the further out I got, the thicker and taller the grass became until it was covering all views of direction. By then, I knew the guy had no chance in following me.
I slowed down, catching my breath as I carefully moved through the crops and tried to be quiet in case the man was still trying to find me. Eventually, I made it to someone else's yard, and from there I got to a road where I had enough signal to call for help. Police picked me up and went to check on my car, but of course, the man was gone by then. I was surprised, though, because my car hadn't been looted, and the bag of food was still on the porch of the abandoned house. But that could
only mean that the man had other intentions, likely far worse than just robbing me. 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 of 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 1,000 bucks for a roundtrip flight that only went to 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 2 days before finally starting the drive. The roads were empty since it was past the holiday rush, and most of the drive was 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 10 p.m., and I had a hotel booked in a small town just 2 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. 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 10 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 30ish 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 at 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, and 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, professional 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 had 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. I was delivering a truckload to a company on the far west coast, coming from the East Coast. The route across the country is one I've taken many times before, being a truck driver for almost 20 years. It's always the same every time I make one of these drives—same roads, same truck
stops, and same everything. Over these 20 years, though, I've never really had anything crazy happen. I've had a few odd scenarios, but they never amounted to anything. So when I was driving this route again, I had no worries in my mind; it was just another day on the job. About 20 hours into the route, a storm started coming over and slowing down my driving. It was late, too, so by then, I was already looking for the next truck stop to sleep at. As I drove, though, a very sudden light appeared behind me. The road I
was on was flat and straight, so I would have seen them coming in my mirror, but it was all of a sudden that they were right behind me. Maybe they had just turned on their lights or something—I didn't know—but they very quickly came right up to the back. I kept my eyes on them until they got so close that they were completely covered by the trailer. All I could see were their headlights reflecting off the back, but then their lights shut off. I maintained my speed and kept looking back at my mirrors, trying to see
if they were still behind me, but I had no way to know. For someone to turn off their lights in the middle of a heavy storm was insane, though, and to be tailing behind me so close was just as insane. Thankfully, a sign showed a truck stop was only 5 miles ahead, so at least I knew I was close to getting away from whatever this was. I didn't want to jump to conclusions based on just some... Weird behavior, but as a trucker, it's hard not to think about the possibility of it being an attempted robbery,
especially when alone on the road at night. For the rest of the 5 miles, I saw no signs of them behind me. I was still on edge because I couldn't really see anything anyway, but I started feeling less worried as I was coming in on the truck stop. I pulled in, trying to check my mirrors to see if they followed, but with the rain and lack of lighting, it was really too hard to tell. The truck stop was mostly empty, though, aside from a few trucks at the gas pumps. I pulled off to the side
and parked in the middle of the lot. After waiting a minute and getting some of my stuff organized, I opened the truck door and leaned my head out, looking along the side of the trailer. I was drenched from the rain in just a matter of seconds, but from what I could tell, there was no car behind me. I closed the door and finally felt a bit of relief. Grabbing my pillow and blanket from the passenger side, I locked the doors, turned off the truck, and tried to get some shut-eye. The rain pounding on the metal
roof made it easy to fall asleep, blocking out any possible sounds coming from other trucks pulling in and out. When I woke up, though, I felt I had only been asleep for a few minutes. I looked around, seeing it was still dark out and the storm was the same, if not worse. But before I could check my mirrors, a loud thump shook the truck. My eyes opened wider. I reached for the door handle and opened it, looking out at the back of the trailer through the rain. I could barely see the outline of a car
with its headlights off and two men moving around in front of it. Terrified, I hesitated to step out and confront them, and as I sat there in that moment of hesitation, the door suddenly slammed against my body, shoving me back further into the driver's seat. Another man stood outside, yelling at me to stay where I was, then slamming the door again. His right hand was shoved in his hoodie, and with two other men behind the truck, I was in no position to try anything. I could feel the truck shake as I just sat in place,
with the guy outside my door watching my every move. He didn't even look away for a second. This went on for a few minutes, then they ran back to their car and drove off. I was still in shock, watching their car disappear onto the road. I called the police and put in a report, but no information ever came up on who the men were. All I know is that if I had been any less aware and had just tried to drive off at first sight of the men, I probably wouldn't have been able to make
it out as safely as I did. In 2019, 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 6:00 and delivered for 3 hours straight, then took a lunch break and started again at 9:30. 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. The parking lot was completely empty; not even the streetlights 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 in 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 break 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 $10 tip. 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, 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 pizzas on the ground, rushing out of the door and into the hallway, then running for the exit 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 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 of 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 6:00 p.m. It was a Friday, so I was working a late 6:00 to 12:00 shift. As soon as I clocked in, I was delivering orders nonstop for the next two hours, with no time to breathe in between them. At 8:00, 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 9:00. 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 10 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 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, with 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 a 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 hit 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 about my safety, which, looking back on it, would have been horrible if it were any other way. The police interviewed me and my boss and conducted 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. I had some spare time that 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 DoorDash, 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, they hung up. Since it only rang for a couple of seconds, I thought it must have been an accident, but in case it wasn't, 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 he 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 and 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 to my car. I ended my DoorDash 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 not have felt there was enough evidence to get me to do anything. Unfortunately, though, the police informed me hours later that the man claimed that nobody 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 was driving back from a friend's house who lives an hour away. We lost track of time, so... I didn't leave until around 2:00 a.m. I was really tired, and the drive was really boring. Most of the way home was a long, long straight road that didn't seem to
have a single other car on it. For the first 20 minutes, it was just me staring at the endless pavement ahead and trying to not let my eyes shut. But then my headlights suddenly lit something up on the road way ahead of me. I couldn't tell what it was at first, but as I got closer, I had to slow down and eventually stop. There was a semi-truck parked in the middle of the road, blocking both lanes. I sat there for a few seconds, having no clue what I was seeing. At this point on the road,
we were at least 30 minutes from town, and there was nothing out here. The only reason anyone would stop out here is if there was an emergency. I looked to the right of the truck, and there might have been enough room for me to get around the trailer, but there was a steep hill on the shoulder that would have been really risky to drive on. The edge of the other side of the truck had trees too close together for me to drive between. After being there for a whole minute, I figured this had to be
an emergency and that my best, and maybe only, option was to check up on them. I got out of my car and began walking up to the front of the trailer. I remember how quiet it was outside, like the night was completely still and empty. As I got up to the front, though, I realized the light was on in the driver's cabin. I went up to the door and lightly knocked on it, then called out, asking if they were okay. The window was way too high up to see through, so I couldn't really see anything
from the ground. After a few seconds, there was still no response. I called out again, but there wasn't even the sound of any movement inside. My gut was telling me that something was seriously off about this. I looked down the road ahead, then back at the road I came from, seeing nothing but fog in the distance, which only reminded me how far away I was from anyone else. I grabbed the side of the door and lifted myself up onto the steps, then looked inside the window. There was stuff scattered everywhere, almost looking like they'd crashed
or something, making the whole cabin a total mess, but nobody was inside. Then I noticed the door on the other side was wide open. I stepped back onto the road and began walking around the truck to investigate the open door, but was stopped in my tracks when I saw a man in the forest walking up the side of the hill. He was tall, with shoulder-length hair, and had a very disheveled appearance. "Hey, man, are you okay?" The man didn't look at me but continued coming up from the forest and onto the road. In the faint
light coming from my headlights, I saw dark red stains all around his clothes, and his face was covered in dirt and grime. Thinking he was clearly not okay, I offered to help, but he continued to not even acknowledge me. That was until I said I could call 911 for him. He immediately stopped walking and shot a look at me, holding eye contact for a few long seconds. "I'm fine," he said in a deep, threatening tone. I stopped talking and watched him get into the truck. Then I rushed back to my car as the truck started
driving away. I turned around and drove right back to my friend's house, where I called 911 and gave every detail I could remember. Unsurprisingly, the case never went further than that. What happened on that road is still a mystery—one that still terrifies me. The way the truck was stopped, being sideways with the cabin looking as chaotic as it did, I think something or someone forced them to stop. What happened afterwards is debatable, but the man I saw probably wasn't the original truck driver, and I think we can all assume what likely happened in the forest
below the road. I work 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 17 at the time, my job was to basically be the "and boy." I'd drive materials back and forth and pick up anything that was needed, depending on the job. 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 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., 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 3:00 a.m., loaded up, and 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 rearview 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 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 were 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 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 light suddenly turned off again as they put it back in drive and sped away. Just 20 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 Samuel's, 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 $10,000, 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 who went through the effort of getting fake or stolen IDs and 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. I'm a
local truck driver for a common grocery store in our city. This means I stay in the same 50-ish mile radius and drive between the warehouse and several stores every day to deliver pallets of groceries. I don't have to make any drives more than 2 hours long, so every night I get to go home at a reasonable time and sleep in my own bed rather than at a truck stop like most cross-country or regional truckers have to. This day was pretty average going between a few stores and delivering the pallets, and I got to my last
delivery location around 9. It took a half-hour for them to empty the trailer, but then I was good to head back to the warehouse and turn in for the night. This was always the farthest drive, though, being that the warehouse was on the edge of the city, away from everything. An hour into the drive and about when I reached 15 minutes away, I pulled into a gas station to fill up, as I'd been riding on empty for probably too long. I went into the diesel section and started the gas pump while I leaned against the
truck and waited. I saw a group standing outside of a parked pickup truck on the other side of the gas station. They were the only ones there, but they kept eyeing me, looking over at both me and my truck. It was odd, but I thought they were just waiting for me to leave, probably so they could do something stupid without any bystanders. Once my truck was full, I put the pump back and got in, driving out of the gas station. As I did, the group got into their pickup and left as well, pulling up right
behind me. Now it was definitely more than just odd. I still didn't know exactly what they were planning to do, but they weren't even trying to hide it. Over the next mile, as we got further out toward the edge of the city, they kept swerving around behind me, going in and out of. The lane, and unable to keep a consistent speed, I got my phone from the mount and called the police to report the group for reckless and possibly drunk driving. Being in a huge semi, I didn't feel unsafe, but I was more worried for
anyone else that may be on the road. After a couple more minutes, though, they swerved into the lane next to me and sped up until they were right across from my window. I looked down at them, seeing a few guys looking at me and saying something to the others. Then they sped up again and slammed on the brakes right in front of me. I had no choice but to brake as well, stopping just before ramming into them. As soon as I did, all the doors swung open, and four of them came running to either side
of my truck, trying to open the doors and get in. I immediately went in reverse, trying to put some distance between us before I put it back in drive. My only choices were to take a chance at driving off the road, which might make my trailer topple over, or I could ram through their pickup. Obviously, I went straight through their truck. All four of them ran off the road just before I hit it, and after 30 seconds, I was long gone. By the time I got to the warehouse, police had shown up to the scene,
finding their pickup on the side of the road and all four of them standing by it. As the officer put it, they were all intoxicated but not willing to cooperate in explaining what they were doing. Whatever they were trying to do, it was pretty scary having four drunk and aggressive guys trying to break into my truck. Although it all happened so fast and maybe doesn't seem that bad, I think if I'd not acted so quickly, it easily could have escalated to something truly awful. But there's really no way to know what could have happened. I
worked at Papa John's for a couple of years at the end of high school and beginning of college. I delivered pizzas and sometimes helped with cleaning and stuff because I worked nights. This was my normal 4 to 1 shift on a slow weekday. By 10:00, we weren't getting any orders, so we started cleaning and preparing for closing so we could leave right at 11:00. But at 10:45, the store phone started ringing. I let my manager pick it up, and from hearing what he was saying, I knew someone was placing an order. Despite my shift ending
in 15 minutes, I still had to deliver the order, so I was visibly annoyed. I waited for the pizza to be ready, then left just before 11:00. The address wasn't too far; I think just under 10 minutes away. But when I got there, I was a little bit confused. There was a long driveway going into the trees, but I couldn't see any houses or lights at the end. I looked back at the map, zooming in and seeing that there was a house; it was just really far down. I turned onto the driveway and put my
brights on. After the first part that connected to the main road, it became a gravel path and was honestly hard to follow because it was thin and the trees were really close to the sides. Eventually, it opened up a bit, and across a small field was an old wooden house. It was too big to be a cabin, but it definitely was giving off that middle-of-the-woods cabin type feeling. There wasn't exactly a place to park, so I just stopped in the gravel and got out. A few of the outdoor lights were on, but they were not
bright at all, and most of the woods surrounding the area were completely dark. I started walking up to the door, hoping to do this quickly because something was starting to make me feel off about this place. I got up to the porch, and just before I knocked, I heard something behind me; it was leaves crunching in the woods near the gravel driveway that I had just come from. I looked out there for a second, but it was too dark to see anything, so I turned back and knocked on the door. While I waited, I looked
back at my car, wishing I'd left the keys inside so the headlights would stay on. Even from the porch, it was hard to see any more than just a small glare coming from the plastic reflectors; the rest of the car was not visible, falling past the dim light coming from the house. I heard footsteps inside, then the door opened. It was an old man with short black hair and glazed-over eyes. "I have a Papa John's pizza order for you," I said, holding out the box. There was a slight pause before the man slowly reached out
and took it, looking me in the eyes the whole time. He set it down on a table next to him and got his wallet out, slowly counting through some cash. When I heard it again—leaves crunching behind me—I looked over my shoulder toward my car, where I heard it coming from. But just when I thought I might have seen something, the man grabbed my shoulder. "Here for you," he said, holding out some cash. I took it, then quickly looked back at my car but didn't see anything. A few seconds later, I was shaken by the man
slamming the door behind me before leaving the porch. I got my phone out and turned the flashlight on, then hurried back to my car, shining the light in all directions but not seeing anything. I got in and made a small U-turn, then drove out. Of course, here is the text with proper punctuation: Of course, my unsettling feelings stayed with me the whole drive back, and after clocking out, I did a quick walk around my car. For the most part, everything looked okay, but once I got a closer look, I noticed some scratches near the passenger
door handle that I didn't remember being there before. I couldn't verify anything, though, and even if I could, I don't think there's really anything I could do. But I think someone was out there in the woods trying to get into my car without me knowing. Maybe it was all just a setup; I can't really say for sure. But if they had gotten in, there's a chance they would have hid in the back seat and waited for me. What would happen after that is best left unknown.
