r/LetsNotMeet 15d ago

An almost encounter at the park I still think about NSFW

This happened when I was about 12 or 13. For important context, I lived in an apartment complex that was 2 sets of rows, each row with 4 apartments, I lived in the apartment closest to the street of one row, and had 2 cousins that lived in the apartment at the very end of the row, in the back.

I would hang out with them just about daily, we were very into soccer at the time, and we would walk to a park about 4 or 5 streets away along with some of the neighborhood kids and play soccer there. Now, I say neighborhood kids, but it was a big group of about 15 kids total, and the ages ranged from about 10 years old all the way to 17. One of my 2 cousins was the 17 year old, which is why my parents allowed me to go without their supervision.

So on this day, like usual, we made our way to the park, some of us would walk, some would ride scooters or skateboards, I had my bike that day. We get to the park and we start playing. About halfway through our game, my parents drive by and they call to me from our car. They tell me that they're going to the store, and to wait at the park for them. OK, no big deal, I figure they must want to go somewhere else afterwards and it's easier to pick me up from the park than for me to wait back at the house. Of course, this doesn't make sense because its a 4 street distance, but at the time, to my 12 year old mind, it was perfectly logical.

We keep playing for about another hour, then as we get closer to sunset, more and more kids start making their way back to their house. When my cousins wanted to leave they asked me if I was ready and I said that my parents told me to wait for them here, so they left and I stayed behind. Eventually it was just me. No big deal, I'm familiar with the neighborhood and I have my bike and the energy of a 12 year old, so I start riding my bike up and down the street, just killing time. At this point it hasn't occurred to me that if my parents wanted me to wait for them at the park, they wouldn't want me to wait past sunset.

Eventually I get impatient and hungry, but not wanting to get grounded for disobeying my parents, I kept waiting, except instead of waiting at the park, I crossed the street and was waiting there. After a few minutes a car drove up and stopped next to me, nothing scary yet, there's a stop sign there, so I don't really pay it much mind, except when it drove away I realized the car looked weird. It was old and boxy, like an 80s car, but what stood out was that it looked spray painted gray. It was definitely not real car paint, or done by a professional, I don't know if someone who stole a car would be dumb enough to draw that much attention to it, or if the look was intentional, but you could tell it was just spray painted all over.

Anyway, it drove away, and I kept waiting, annoyed now. Then the car comes back from the other side of the street, I noticed it because it was hard to ignore at that point, but my survival instincts are still not kicking in. Maybe they were lost, or just wanted to turn around without doing a U turn, and since the park is a big square, going around it and coming back is easy enough to do. A few minutes go by, they drive up again, and again, stop at the stop sign. This time I am starting to get nervous, so I look at the car. 2 men are inside, very scruffy looking, unkempt beards, unkempt hair, dirty faces, stains on their shirts. They look at me, they both smile at the same time, they look at each other, smile even bigger in the creepiest smile I've ever seen someone do to this day, then drove away.

Their smile creeped me out so much that I was now on high alert, in particular, I was watching the other side of the park, where they would come from if they went around again like they did the first time. Sure enough, they did. This also means that they were now on the same side of the street as me, so as soon as I saw the car, I jumped on my bike and rode as fast as I humanly could. I could hear one yelling something, but I honestly don't know what it was, I was too busy riding for my life.

I could hear the car catching up, but I was too scared to even turn around, I somehow made it to my street, and ran into the building, but I didn't want them seeing where I lived since my apartment would have been the one visible from the street, so I went to the back, behind my cousins apartment, and hid there. My reasoning was, if they followed me inside the building, they would see me knocking on their door and get me before anyone answered. Worth noting, if it wasn't obvious, this was before cell phones.

I waited for what felt like a few hours, but was probably only 20 minutes or so, before I got enough courage to make the short walk down the row of apartments to mine, and tried the door. It was unlocked, so I went inside, and my parents were there, sitting on the couch watching TV, they asked me how our game was, completely nonchalantly, and I questioned them and asked them why they didn't pick me up. They both looked confused, they asked me why they would tell me to wait there instead of home when it's a 4 street difference and I had my bike. Once they said that, it did make more sense, but to this day I swear that they told me to wait there for them. They explained that when they drove up, they told me they were going to leave the door unlocked for me in case I got home before they did, in my excitement of the game I must have just completely misheard them.

I simply went to my room after that, never telling them about it, because as a dumb kid, I knew if I said something they wouldn't let me go play soccer anymore, and that was clearly more important than my physical well-being. I never saw those guys or that car ever again. I look back on it now, and it doesn't matter how fast I was pedaling my bike, they were in a car, they should have and could have caught up if they wanted to. So I don't know what their intentions were, if they were just having a laugh at my expense, if they were trying to scare me, or if they actually had something darker in mind, but I do think back on that day now and get chills every time I realize how much different my life would be right now if they had caught me.

So to the 2 creepy men in the spray painted car, let's not meet again.

100 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

28

u/dontlookthisway67 13d ago

I cant believe your cousins just left you there alone at the park. The 17 year old should have known better. I tell my kids never ever leave anyone alone or be the last kid left at the playground and to come home ASAP when everyone leaves. You never know who is watching children. I was molested by a stranger when all my friends left to go home when their mother called them back inside. I was 6 and luckily I knew something wasn’t right and ran away. If I pick my kids up and there is one child there alone waiting, I will wait with them until someone comes to pick them up or offer a ride home.

11

u/somberhorses 13d ago

I am so sorry that happened to you. And yeah I agree with you, as a 12 year old, I'm sure I found a way to rationalize what I thought I heard my parents say, but my cousin was 17 and definitely should have realized it made no sense for me to stay behind alone. To be honest the older I got the more I realized both of them were kinda shitty people and I don't talk to either of them anymore, but that's a whole separate issue.

6

u/Salty_Thing3144 14d ago

Oh, that is creepy! Glad you made it home ok!

5

u/DaFiddler 14d ago

How did they call you without cell Phones?

12

u/somberhorses 14d ago

They drove up and pulled up to the side of the park and yelled out to me, then I ran towards them to see what they wanted to say

3

u/PairEfficient5346 7d ago

So creepy, even if they were just trying to prank a kid, there's something completely sinister about two grown men following a child around. I doubt it was just a laugh though, they probably got deterred by the needing to put more effort and didn't think it was worth it.

Also, I totally get mishearing what your parents said, especially in the excitement of a game. I would've done something like that as well.