Vol. 2: 3 Truly Horrifying Craigslist Stories
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I'm a 33-year-old guy. This happened when I was freshly 21, and it's still unresolved, if you'd like to call it that. This was a Friday night.

and I had gotten off of work at around 5:30 and was ready to make plans for the night. I was recently single at that point, and with asking readers not to judge, I had to make up for lost time. I had met a few new girls, but most other single girls that I knew didn't think that my breakup was for real because my girlfriend and I had been together for such a long time. As a type to kind of stay away from clubs, I began to explore online dating. While at home, I start looking at girls near me on plenty of fish,

For some reason that night, I really wanted to be in the company of a woman, and the hour I had spent with no suitable responses began to wear on my patience. I eventually looked at Craigslist and posted a personals ad. Now, I know Craigslist isn't the best place to meet people, but at this point, I was thinking with my other head, if you know what I mean. I went out for an hour or two, and when I returned home, I noticed I had some responses to my ad. Mostly spam, obvious escorts, and potential catfishes.

I may have been desperate, but I wanted someone that I felt comfortable with on a friend and personal level. After weeding out all the mess, I saw one response that looked legit. I could tell she had read the ad, as it was an actual written response. She even included a few pics, all of which looked normal. She was cute, but didn't look like a model or from a magazine or anything like that. They just looked like run-of-the-mill, personal selfies.

In hindsight, there was something about that that I didn't catch at first, which is important to the rest of the story. I use a dummy email for Craigslist, and I have it set up so that pictures don't download automatically. I learned my lesson after posting an ad for a table and getting a dick pic. However, these pics showed up right away as soon as I opened the email. All of this will tie in later. After some back and forth, I decide that I'll head over to her place.

She gives me the address, and I see that it's an apartment building. Even better, as I'm always thinking of safety. I didn't want to go inside an actual home. I get there and email her that I'm outside, just to give me the exact building and apartment number. She gives me the instruction to walk to the courtyard of the apartment, so she can make sure I am who I'm saying I am. Understandable. I said that I was 5'11", and I'm sure it would be sort of scary on her end if someone 6'5" was out there.

After seeing that it was truly me, she says she has something to tell me. I'm thinking the worst. Start to think of what it could be. She then tells me, I'm really a man. I'm sorry. But now, I'm pissed. And that washes over me immediately as I feel played. I'm prepared to just take my loss and quickly head back to my car when I get more rapid fire emails. He tells me that if I still want to come in, that he can give me money, cook me food, have drinks ready for me.

or whatever. He sounded like he just really wanted the company, but I'm sorry, I'm not just going to chill with some random guy. He sends the last email that simply says: "$200. 2 hours. No touching. No sex." I'd be lying if I said it didn't catch my eye, and I find myself walking up to his door. Stupid, I know, but at this point, I'm thinking I'll just take his $200, maybe knock over some of his things for tricking me, before leaving.

My better judgement gets the best of me thankfully, and about 5 feet from the door, I turn around and leave. I decided that this was a sign that I needed to stay home for the night. I stopped at a 7-11 to grab a beer. I get back in my car and start reading through Facebook, when all of a sudden, I get a Facebook message from someone I don't know, who I can tell is using a fake profile. The message says "I'm sorry, can you just please come back?" I get upset at the nerve of this guy, and then the air escapes from my throat.

"How did he get my personal Facebook?" I used a fake email that has no ties whatsoever to my real name. I messaged him back, "Leave me alone. I'm not interested." The man then threatened me by saying something along the lines of "You should really take a second to listen" before inserting my real name and my job. While my name was listed on my Facebook, my job wasn't. And while it wasn't completely accurate, this particular job is one that I held before I went off to college.

It still freaked me out that he got that information. I told the man, "Either stop, or I'm coming back with some help to make you stop." I didn't get any more messages after that. I deleted the Facebook ones, deleted my email account, and went home. Two nights later, I'm on my computer when again I get a Facebook message from the same guy that says "Black Shirt." I don't even begin to give the time of day to decipher that before deleting the message. I block him. Ten seconds later, I come to the realization that

I'm wearing a black V-neck shirt. I look at the window, as if I'm suspecting someone to be peering inside, when I remember that I'm on the 11th floor of a high-rise building. There's only one way in, and the door has a strong deadbolt lock. Whenever I come in, I quickly close and lock the door due to my pets, so I knew there was no one physically inside with me. I'm a bit startled, but I brush it off as a scare tactic. I bet like 6 in 10 guys right now are wearing a black shirt,

The man just seemed like a lonely troll, and I'm sure he was doing this to everyone who fell trapped to his Craigslist scheme. I closed my computer and went on with my evening. Flash forward another two days, I'm back sitting at my computer as usual, when once again, the same guy messages me. I already know it's going to be nonsense, so I'm going to do a mark as read slash delete so he cannot see that I read it. I see the partial message that says "black and red globe." I literally scoot my chair back

and stare at my computer. Right behind me, I'm sure reflecting in my screen if the light would have hit it correctly, sat a globe with black water and red land. A friend got it for me because it was different. I understood the reference right away. This man obviously had access to my webcam. I then thought back to my original email. He penetrated my picture firewall, and he somehow tied my fake email to my real name.

I'm pretty good with computers, but I'm the first to take note when I'm dealing with someone who is a genius with computers. This man gave off every vibe that he knew what he was doing in the computing world, and maybe even the hacking world. I slam my laptop shut, pace around the room, mumbling critical comments to myself about how I had been so careless to get in a position like this. I run to a drawer and scramble for the black electrical tape. I find some and place it over my cam. I'm officially freaked out at this point.

I'm not a tough guy by any means, although I hold my own in most situations, but this felt out of control. I delete my Facebook account and every other social media account as well. I spend the next 10 minutes privatizing my online presence and cleaning out my computer. I keep the tape on and try to get on with my week when the next day I get home at around 6pm. I enter my apartment, close the door and greet my pets. That's when I see a white piece of paper

that had been slid underneath my door while I was away. This usually either meant maintenance had a project going on, we were late on rent, or the elevators were broken. I pick the note up and see that it says "blue doormat" to give you some background. During a drunken escapade, my ex and I bought a bright blue doormat that we were both 100% certain was green and would match the green carpet outside our door. When we both sobered up the next morning, we realized just how off we were

and decided to keep it as a joke. This man had been inside my building, at my door. Now, the thing is, is that this is a big building. Dozens of apartments. You would need to know the building number, address, floor number, and my apartment number to find it. My dog wasn't going crazy, but I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. I swung the main closet doors open, finding nothing. I run to my bedroom, swing those closet doors open. Once again, nothing there.

I race to the bathroom, pull back the shower curtain. Again, nothing. The man hadn't been inside, but he'd been just on the other side of my door. I'm not the type to call the police, but I felt like I didn't know what to do. After sleeping on it, I call 911 the next day, ask for non-emergency. After a hold, I'm connected to a lady and tell her what's going on. She says she can't do anything, but gives me the number to the police of the city where the man lived. I call and speak to an officer,

and basically tell him, "I'm not trying to press charges or anything, but can someone please go over there and scare him or something?" I could tell the cop wanted nothing to do with me, but I kept his ear. Probably because he could hear a rational young man basically pleading with him to help. He ultimately said that he would send someone out there. I get a call a few hours later from the station. The cop I spoke to before says there was no answer at the door. He told me he went to speak to the leasing office, and the property manager said,

that the only person who lived there was an older woman who had been there forever. I froze for a moment. The guy wasn't even at the apartment when I came there. I started to think, could he have been in a different apartment? Was he waiting outside in a car behind a tree somewhere in the courtyard? I personally think that he was somewhere inside a neighboring apartment, just watching the whole scene play out. The cop told me to reactivate my account and wait for another message. I did that for a month or so before shutting it down for good

and making another one. I just felt more comfortable that way. I've never had another encounter, and have since moved, and gotten a new computer. I got the courage to go up to that apartment twice. The first time, I didn't get a response when I knocked. The second time, I was greeted by an older woman, similar to what the cop had told me. I told her what happened, and she assured me she had no sons or nephews or anything like that that would be behind it. She left me with a lecture telling me to be safe.

Like I said at the beginning, this unfolded more than 12 years ago now. I look back at my 21 year old self and wonder what the hell I was doing. I would never, ever consider meeting someone online like that now. And while I know now that it's even more popular of a way to find partnership, I encourage everyone to realize that if it seems sketchy, it is sketchy. Don't put yourself in the same position, or worse, that I did to myself.

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So back in 2012, my then girlfriend and I went on a big year-long road trip through the states, working on farms along the way for room and board, before ending our trip by driving across Canada, west to east, before ultimately arriving back in Nova Scotia, where we lived. At some point during this journey, we got a puppy, and around the time we got to Alberta, with an extra mouth to feed, we decided that money was running low, since I'm a carpenter

We decided to find a place to rent, and I would get a job for a few months before we kept going on our trip. We scrolled through Kijiji, which is the Canadian alternative to Craigslist, if you didn't know. We eventually found an ad for a place to rent. This guy lived in a cool looking house all by himself, just a short drive from the place where I'd found a job. He wanted someone to move in with him, to help with the bills. We started corresponding with him a bit by email.

told him I was going to work in the area, and my girlfriend would be staying home with the puppy. Being desperate, and having become accustomed to trusting strangers throughout this long trip, we agreed to send him a deposit and take him up on his offer. We got to his place a few days later. It was in the middle of nowhere, and there were no neighbors, but we'd known that going into the situation. He was about 30, maybe 35 years old, small-framed, and he looked like a regular working country dude.

Except, I found his facial expressions and mannerisms rather weird. He had this almost perpetual look of fright on his face, almost like he looked ashamed of himself, though he had a dog of his own that he would never allow inside. Keep in mind, this is the cold Canadian north. Right away, when he met us at the door, I felt that there was something off about him. It made me uneasy, especially since I'd be heading off to go to work every day,

leaving my girlfriend alone with this creepy guy. But she didn't seem worried, and I didn't want to be controlling, so I did my best to let it go. The first night we were there, he wanted to have a few drinks with us, get to know us. We obliged politely, and he brought a few cans of sh*tty watery beer out, and meekly drank his while sitting across the kitchen table from us. We tried to relax the situation, asked him some friendly questions about himself, but his answers were brief and quiet.

He seemed to want friendship, but also seemed completely unsure of how to get it. He went over a few rules that he had. Number one was that we stayed out of his room, which was obviously fine. Number two was that we not go into the basement. I'll admit, with no further explanation, that rule in and of itself is rather weird. Finally, number three was that we stay away from the barn. By this point, I could imagine the news headlines already.

Nova Scotian couple found murdered, bound in barn. After this interaction, I didn't sleep very much that night. I wasn't supposed to start work for a couple of days, so I just stayed up reading and playing with our pup. I heard his truck pull out of the driveway pretty early in the morning, and that's when I beelined it for the basement. It was a pretty bare setup, just a washing machine and dryer, along with some folded up lawn chairs. There was a closet near the edge of the room. I'm not familiar with basements having closets.

While I didn't know what I was going to find inside of it, my curiosity wasn't going to let me walk away from it. I opened that door up, found a weird nurse's costume that looked as if it was marketed for sexual purposes, along with a roll of duct tape, a set of handcuffs, a shotgun, and a box of shells, all sitting neatly together on the same shelf. Without any pause, I walked myself back upstairs, woke my girlfriend up from her slumber, and

explained that she no longer had a say in the matter and that we were leaving before he got home. Once in our car and many miles away from the property, we sent him a message saying that a family member had taken ill and we were moving back home. He never offered to return our deposit money. In fact, he never even responded to the message. And since that point, we had no more contact with him. A dozen years later, and I'm still waiting to see him in the news, my ex thinks that I'm a worrier. Although her parents

thanked me profusely. While I'm not particularly proud of this story, enough time has passed that I'm not as self-conscious about sharing it. So here goes. In early 2014, I was 18 years old and started browsing the world of Craigslist. Being bored this one day, I responded to an ad in the personal section and started texting this woman. Being 18 and unfamiliar with how Craigslist works, I didn't see an issue with meeting up with her at a Red Roof Inn.

I also didn't see anything wrong with her asking for donations. I figured donation meant optional. Stupid, I know, but just to be clear, she never mentioned a price, nor did I tell her that I had money for her. So I set up a time to meet her. I left my house to head to my GED class as usual, but instead of heading directly to the school, I walked to the Red Roof Inn instead. It was pouring rain out, but it was warm, so by the time I arrived,

I was both drenched and sweaty. I knocked on the room door that she was in, and she answered. Her attire at the door should have alerted me, but I'm going to say it again: 18 and stupid. She invited me in, and I asked if it'd be okay if I used her shower real quick. She said no problem, so I begin to get undressed in the bathroom, start to hop in the shower. When I see her at the doorway, beginning to take her top off, I told her, "That's okay, that won't be long." So she goes and waits on the bed.

watching the Steve Wilkos show, which, thinking back, could have been yet another red flag added to the mound that I didn't already see. I get out of the shower, wrap a towel around my waist, come out of the bathroom, Randy as a dog, looked at her, and asked if she was ready. She sprawled herself out on the bed and says, donations are due up front. At this point, all of those red flags that should have gone off did, as I realized more about the situation that I was in. My face dropped,

As I faced the TV, that's when I nervously told her that I didn't have any money. She instantly got up, started screaming at me, threw both my clothes and my bag in my face. I hurriedly got dressed and actually apologized for wasting her time before slinking out of the room. As I'm leaving this rundown motel, I begin to walk my route towards my GED class. But before I made my way out of the parking lot, a guy in a green Volkswagen Bug calls me over to him. I tried my best to ignore him,

Given the fact that not only was I embarrassed about the situation, but I was in a rough part of town and I didn't really feel the need to converse with anyone. This went well until he shouted to get my attention. This broke my nerve, so I walk up to the driver's side of this guy's car and he begins talking to me. Now, I'm going to say up front, this guy looks sketchy and connecting dots. I figure that he's this woman's pimp. He's talking to me with his left arm up on his door and his right arm down at his side, clearly holding a pistol.

At this point, I'm almost certain that I'm going to be shot. He says to me, so why would you come here knowing you don't have any money? I explained as calmly and as politely as I could that I wasn't aware of the situation. That's when this guy pulls his arm up a little to show me the gun clearer before saying, I have messages between you and her saying you had money for her. Now, like I said earlier, I never told this woman that I had any money. That's when this guy decides to lower his gun and all but whispers to me,

You're lucky you came to see one of my girls. Other girls would have stabbed you with a broken crack pipe. Now, I see you're pretty young, so I'll let you off with a warning this time, but it won't be the same if I catch you doing this again. He then motioned me to be on my way, but you bet your ass, I kept looking back to make sure I wasn't about to be shot from behind. This is the story of my first and last ever time attempting to hook up with somebody on Craigslist. I may have been stupid,

But I didn't need to learn this lesson more than once. With everything that has changed between then and now, I don't even know if Craigslist can be used in this sort of manner. But regardless of that, I wouldn't recommend it anyway. Don't be like me. Is your vehicle stopping like it should? Does it squeal or grind when you brake? Don't miss out on summer brake deals at O'Reilly Auto Parts. O-O-O-O'Reilly!

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