00:00This happened in June of 2020, back when the pandemic was in full swing. Like everyone else,
00:17I was spending a lot of time inside. I wanted to get out and had the idea of going camping.
00:23Six of us planned to go. We found a really nice looking spot on Google Maps that was alongside
00:30a lake. It was five hours away. We decided to take two cars since we couldn't comfortably
00:36fit all of us with all of our stuff in just one. In the first car was me, my sister, my
00:42sister's friend Hannah and a guy Hannah brought named Jack, who I didn't really know if it
00:47was her boyfriend, just a friend, I didn't know and I didn't ask. The second car had
00:53my cousin and her husband Josh. We packed up the cars and started making the long journey
00:59through the mountains around 3am so we could get to the spot early that morning.
01:04The drive started out normal, but about two hours into it, Jack started complaining about
01:08how sick he was starting to feel. Which was fair, the roads were windy. I asked him if
01:14he wanted me to pull over and he said not yet. Jack was sitting in the back seat with Hannah.
01:21I kept glancing up at him through the rear view mirror to see how he was doing. The last
01:25thing I wanted was a pool of vomit all over my back seat. As I looked, I started to notice
01:31him acting really suspicious all of the sudden. He had his hand in his backpack and a grin on
01:36his face. He started asking really weird questions. He asked me if my car doors were locked.
01:43I replied saying they were, that they automatically lock when the car goes into drive, like pretty
01:48much every car does these days. My sister and I exchanged weird looks with each other.
01:55Eventually he told me he was going to throw up. I offered to pull to the side of the highway,
02:00but he insisted I take this dirt road that he somehow knew was coming up. I called my cousin
02:05in the other car behind us to tell her what we were doing. Jack proceeded to lead us down
02:11a dirt road that barely had enough room for our cars to fit through the trees. Multiple
02:16times I asked him if this was good, but each time he told me to keep going. I shot multiple
02:22concerned looks towards my sister. Finally Jack told us to stop. He got out of the car
02:28and ran into the woods, disappearing almost immediately. We couldn't see anything, only what was in front
02:35of us lit by our headlights. Two minutes went by. Three minutes. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Nothing.
02:43Suddenly, three men came out from the trees on our left. They were wearing those masks from
02:50the Purge movies. It was dark, so I couldn't tell, but it looked like they were holding weapons.
02:55I laid on the horn and started driving forward where I would have enough room to turn around.
03:00My cousin in the car behind us did the same. As we were driving off, I caught another look at the
03:06men. They were just standing there, watching us. We made it about a hundred feet when I noticed
03:13something on the road in front of us. It was a spike strip. I quickly got out of the car and threw it
03:19off the road into the forest. I got back in, looked in my rearview mirror and now saw the men full-on
03:25sprinting towards us. I put the pedal on the floor and we made it back to the highway minutes later.
03:32I got a call from my cousin who sounded frantic, asking who those men were. I told her we had no
03:38idea, but that Jack never came back from out of the woods. Hannah later found out she got a text from
03:44him. It was two words. F you. We started questioning Hannah how she knew Jack, because like I said,
03:52I didn't know if it was her boyfriend, friend, or what. She said she had met him on Tinder a couple
03:58weeks back. We went through his profile and saw immediate red flags. This guy was trying to lead
04:06us into the woods to possibly kill us. My sister cut ties with Hannah not long after this. We don't
04:13know if she ever talked to Jack again, but for her sake I hope she didn't. We ended up canceling that whole trip.
04:20Let me start by saying I've always really enjoyed road trips. I'll sometimes take them just for fun,
04:33listening to music and getting lost. It's usually just over the weekend or so. I go with my dog Zeke
04:40and usually spend the night in a cheap motel if it ends up being a multiple day thing. A few nights ago,
04:46I was taking another one. On my way back, I'd left later than I usually would. I started nodding off
04:53and realized I wouldn't make it to the next town, much less my house. The road I was on was surrounded
04:59by a dense forest, so when I found a clearing in the trees, I pulled off the highway onto the dirt.
05:05I was planning on sleeping in my car, but I honestly didn't know if it was legal or not,
05:10so I continued driving through the trees until I couldn't see the road anymore. I let Zeke out to
05:15do his business and recline my seat all the way back. When he got back inside, I closed and locked
05:21the doors. To describe where I had parked, it was opposite a small cabin, but not directly in front
05:28of it. And again, there were plenty of trees, so I didn't feel like I was intruding on the owners in
05:33anyway. Plus, at least from what I could see, it looked abandoned anyway, so I'm not sure anyone even
05:39owned it. After a few minutes, I started drifting off. I must have been sleeping for at least a few
05:47hours when I woke up to Zeke softly growling under his breath. I sat there listening, trying to
05:54understand what he was hearing. Just then, I began hearing footsteps coming from outside the car.
06:03This was followed by a long, high-pitched scratching sound.
06:08Zeke started going crazy, barking non-stop. I turned on my headlights and saw a very tall,
06:14middle-aged man dragging what I thought was a key around the perimeter of my car.
06:19He walked very slowly. I didn't know if he could see me, but it felt like he didn't take his eyes
06:25off of me the entire time. He had this malicious grin on his face. Horrified, I adjusted my seat back
06:32upright and started the car ready to gun it, but he had made his way to my front bumper.
06:38All other sides of my car were surrounded by trees. The only way out of there was through him.
06:44I yelled out and laid on the horn, Zeke still aggressively barking.
06:48That's when I saw that he was holding a butcher's knife.
06:51He started walking to my driver's side door, giving me an opening. I took it and started driving
06:57back towards the highway. I drove home without stopping. I got out to check the damage, and my
07:04paintwork was completely ruined. I don't know if that guy was trying to teach me a lesson for parking
07:10on his property, or if he even owned the property. I don't know. I don't plan on ever sleeping in my
07:16car again. At least not in a remote area. When I was a senior in high school, me and a couple
07:28buddies used to drive out to a cemetery to do some late night ghost hunting and mess around.
07:33We lived near a small town in Vermont, so there wasn't much else to do. We'd walk around and take
07:39photos and videos, but never captured anything unordinary. If you haven't been to Vermont before,
07:45most of the roads are very long and windy. We live deep in the middle of the woods,
07:50where there are no street lights, and houses are like a mile or two apart from each other.
07:54The road to the cemetery itself is probably about a 20 to 25 mile two-lane road,
08:00with just a few old-looking run-down houses. The atmosphere alone is already creepy enough,
08:05even without the cemetery. Anyway, my two friends and I were on this one trip up there around 2 in
08:11the morning. It took a good 30 minutes to get there. We were about halfway, when this car comes
08:18up behind us out of nowhere and starts riding dangerously close to us, like to the extent
08:23that I couldn't even see its headlights. We couldn't make out the car or anyone inside of it, but we
08:28slowed down assuming it's a state trooper or something. They slowed down too, keeping almost the exact same
08:34distance. I sped up again. Still, they kept the same distance. That's when they turned off their
08:41headlights. Now, remind you, there are no street lights on this road. It's pitch black. I get up to
08:49about 20 or 25 over the speed limit, and finally we start to gain some distance. At this point,
08:55we think we lost him, when about a minute later, his headlights come back on, and he's right behind us
08:59again. Then, his headlights go out. About 20 seconds, they come back on, and he's directly behind us again.
09:07He does this about 3 or 4 times. I tried to ignore it, thinking it was just some idiot driver in a hurry.
09:15Finally, as we near the exit for the cemetery, the car starts to let off. We turned into the cemetery,
09:21parked, and got out to start walking around. We were walking for maybe a minute, when a set of
09:28headlights pulled up right behind our car and stopped. Now, mind you, it's 2 AM. No one else
09:34should have been out here. The three of us each ducked down behind a headstone and watched.
09:40Two masked men got out of their vehicle, both with some type of blunt object in their hands.
09:46My heart sank. If we had to run, I don't know how we would have in the dark forest with the little
09:51light we had. I could feel my heart racing inside my chest, as we all looked at each other with
09:56terrifying expressions. The two men walked up to our parked car and started looking inside the
10:02windows with flashlights. They then began trying to break into the car by tampering with the driver's
10:07side door's lock. They routinely looked up and checked their surroundings. After a few minutes,
10:14they seemed to have given up and started smashing at the door's window. It shattered after 2 or 3 good
10:20hits. One of the men got inside and started trying to hotwire the car. The car wasn't the newest by any
10:27means. It definitely was possible to hotwire the thing. I sat there, praying they wouldn't be able to.
10:35It must have been 20 minutes, when they gave up. They took everything out of the car,
10:41put it in their car and drove off. Before getting out of our hiding spots, we called the police.
10:46When they arrived is when we finally revealed ourselves. We lost hundreds of dollars worth
10:53of camera gear that night. One of my buddies lost his whole camera, while the rest of us all lost
10:59things like tripods, camera lenses, and other gear. The cops took all of our statements and got photos
11:05of the car's broken window. One of the officers told us how common it actually is for people to get
11:12victimized and have their cars stolen by force on these empty highways during these hours.
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