Describe an event that you know of, or that happened to you or someone you know or something you heard of, which came close to becoming an Unsolved Mystery.

In my case (the events may not be EXACTLY as they happened but the meat of the story is what happened): Sometime between the late 70s and early 80s, my sisters, who were young girls at the time (younger than teens, anyway), were playing in the front yard of my grandmother's house. A suspicious looking man came by and eyed them for a few minutes and they got spooked and went into the house and got our grandmother and aunt who were just inside. Within seconds the man came and tried to force the door open and my aunt and grandmother held it pushed closed. I THINK one of them yelled something about calling the police, at which point the man fled.

Myself, around 1993 or so, I was at a shopping mall in one of the clothing stores with my parents. I was only 2 or 3 at the time. I thought it'd be funny to hide under one of the clothes racks. My parents thought they lost me and quickly had alerted the store staff, who quickly had the exits to the store closed. A while later they found me. However, if I had been unlucky that day or if by chance a creep had been in the store, it would've been the perfect opportunity to abduct a young me.

A second time in 1995 or 1996, on the first day of school, I left the schoolyard before my parents came to pick me up. I only lived just up the block from the school, not a very far walk, but I had two teenage boys (whom I didn't know) escort me home. Again, by stroke of luck, the two I asked to walk me home were luckily not creeps or else I would've easily been kidnapped as my teacher never saw me leave the yard and my parents had not left the house yet to pick me up. It would've been a classic UM story: "Child leaves schoolyard, just a block up from home, and is never seen again."

Good lord, man, I'm sorry to hear about that the first paragraph. The only thing I can even comparably relate is when I caught a guy breaking into my car; I'll admit I was scared, but it was nothing like what your aunt and grandmother must have endured.

This is a bit shameless, as it's not an unsolved mystery per se, but with my fascination with true crime and my lifetime TV viewings, I can't help but wonder what went on in Chris Benoit's house over the last 48 hours of his life. He was my idol when I was 12, so for what happened to occur....I have trouble wrapping my head around that.

I have a couple:

I've already mentioned this in another thread I think, but when I was a teen I got my own column in the local newspaper (lol). Anyway this weird guy wrote me letters and kept saying he wanted to meet me in person "to discuss the issues" in my columns. My parents were like, no way, no how (not that I wanted to, anyway). He eventually stopped writing, but fast forward a few years: we're playing cards at my aunt's house, and her house phone rings. It's THE GUY, wanting to know if he can speak to me! My aunt doesn't have my last name, so I don't know how he found her house or how he knew I was there that night. Very, very creepy. We went to the police station, right down the street, and the front door of the station was open but no one was around. A jail cell door was open, these keys to the jail cell were just lying on the counter. So weird!! (I never heard from the weird guy again, and we just walked out of the police station and went back home...)

Another one is that when I was an older teen, desperate for male attention, I went to this cheesy nightclub with my girlfriends to "pick up guys." Anyway we found these random guys and I gave them my phone number. The next day they showed up at my house. I went with them, hung out with them all day, then attended a party with them that night. To make a long story short I was out till like 5am when I finally convinced them to drive me home. I AM SO LUCKY THEY WERE NOT PSYCHOS. I would never in a million years do something so stupid again and now I've become a "personal safety nazi" of sorts...

Well this didn't turn out to be anything but looking back it was a really stupid move on my part. Had an old junker car that took me to college every day. I would drive to a friends house about 15 minutes away and we would ride to college together. One morning (I think it was my 19th birthday actually) my car broke down on the way to my friends. Some middle aged man stopped and offered me a ride. Feeling a bit desperate at the time as there were no houses very close (and I was only about 7 minutes away from my friends house) and wanting to get to my college class on time, I accepted. As soon as I got in I felt regret and I remember looking down to make sure I knew exactly where the door handle was so I could make a quick escape if I had to. Another thing that was disturbing was in this very short drive he started telling me about his divorce which wasn't a good sign. Well glad to report nothing out of the ordinary happened and he did drop me off at my friends house. It could have very well turned out the other way and no one would have had a clue where I had went seeing my car abandoned along the roadway. I can't help thinking now how stupid I was back then to get in a car with a stranger.

Back in the summer of 1988 when I was 12, there were reports of two men in a light blue car trying to get young girls to come over to them. One day, a friend and I were taking a walk around the neighborhood when we thought we spotted the car. There were two men inside and when they saw us, they started following us! We took off running and eventually they gave up. We didn't hear anything more about them again. To this day I think those guys were the alleged wannabe kidnappers and I'm sure my friend and I dodged a major bullet.

Well this didn't turn out to be anything but looking back it was a really stupid move on my part. Had an old junker car that took me to college every day. I would drive to a friends house about 15 minutes away and we would ride to college together. One morning (I think it was my 19th birthday actually) my car broke down on the way to my friends. Some middle aged man stopped and offered me a ride. Feeling a bit desperate at the time as there were no houses very close (and I was only about 7 minutes away from my friends house) and wanting to get to my college class on time, I accepted. As soon as I got in I felt regret and I remember looking down to make sure I knew exactly where the door handle was so I could make a quick escape if I had to. Another thing that was disturbing was in this very short drive he started telling me about his divorce which wasn't a good sign. Well glad to report nothing out of the ordinary happened and he did drop me off at my friends house. It could have very well turned out the other way and no one would have had a clue where I had went seeing my car abandoned along the roadway. I can't help thinking now how stupid I was back then to get in a car with a stranger.

Were you already a UM junkie at the time? ;) But seriously though, I'm glad everything was ok.

This is a story I read that someone posted in the help section of the site that will not be named, I hope and think it's not real but if it was it would make a great episode the strange thing is this is only a third of the post and the last third is a similar story but written by someone else! The link for all the posts is at the bottom of the page.

"Hi,I have several people harassing me, and stalking me everywhere I go. My concern is the way these people stalk and harass me. What I'm about to tell you, may seem impossible, but it's true. These people are Hispanic which I have no problem with, as I do not care about race. I have been dealing with this problem since December 2010. It started with former neighbors were I use to live. I believe these people are from El Salvador. I did not get along with my former neighbors because of their children constantly playing loud music. I would knock on the wall to get them to turn their music down. After a while things got out of hand, and I ended up contacting the property manager several times, and ended up having several face to face contacts with the child, and child's parents which never resulted into anything.



I ended up moving from my former apartment to other apartment about 15-20 minutes away from where I use to live. Every since I moved into my new apartment I started being harassed all over again by other Hispanic neighbors whom I don't know. Things became so bad, that I thought about buying a gun for protection, as I'm single and live alone. My apartment was broken into on the first night I moved in, and they stole my keys to my apartment, mailbox, and car. I got everything changed except my car locks. (Big Mistake) I had a new alarm system installed in my car, and somehow they managed to get a copy of my car alarm and now can turn my car alarm off and on. The real problem and what I consider dangerous as no one knows that they are hiding in stores, post offices, my job, and any district court I have to attend. What they do is hide in what's called Drop Top Ceilings. These are the type of ceilings that are basic and are everywhere of most or all businesses. I could understand how these people knew my every move, and can repeat conversations I have several people harassing me, and stalking me everywhere I go. My concern is the way these people stalk and harass me. What I'm about to tell you, may seem impossible, but it's true. These people are Hispanic which I have no problem with, as I do not care about race. I have been dealing with this problem since December 2010. It started with former neighbors were I use to live. I believe these people are from El Salvador. I did not get along with my former neighbors because of their children constantly playing loud music. I would knock on the wall to get them to turn their music down. After a while things got out of hand, and I ended up contacting the property manager several times, and ended up having several face to face contacts with the child, and child's parents.



I ended up moving from my former apartment to other apartment about 15-20 minutes away from where I use to live. Every since I moved into my new apartment I started being harassed by other Hispanic neighbors whom I don't know. Things became so bad, that I thought about buying a gun for protection, as I'm single and live alone. My apartment was broken into on the first night I moved in, and they stole my keys to my apartment, mailbox, and car. I got everything changed except my car locks. (Big Mistake) I had a new alarm system installed in my car, and somehow they managed to get a copy of my car alarm and now can turn my car alarm off and on. The real problem and what I consider dangerous as no one knows that they are hiding in stores, post offices, my job, and any district court I have to attend. What they do is hide in what's called Drop Top Ceilings. These are the type of ceilings that are basic and are everywhere of most or all businesses. I could understand how these people knew my every move, and can repeat conversations I had or have my with clients, my family, friends etc. They know my every move, and follow where I go. they follow. Drop Top Box Ceilings are the type of ceilings who can take a stick and push There are certain sounds they make while hiding in box a drop ceiling which is a loud thump sound letting me know they are watching me. What scares me is that these people or person hides in the drop box top ceiling over my work desk station. No I'm not crazy. These people could shoot me from the box drop top ceilings, because no-one would ever believe or except that this can happen. What concerns me is that I'm in court a lot, and yes, somehow they manage to slip into court and hide in the courts box top drop ceilings."

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=693c75cf7c68c988&hl=en

I have 2……..

One evening (about 6 years ago) I was very desperate to see my boyfriend. Unfortunately, neither of us had cars at the time and I couldn’t get a ride from someone else. I didn’t tell the boyfriend, but I stupidly decided to walk. To clarify, this was at night and he lived a good distance from my house. I think it was like 2 hours on foot! But before I left I thought I should bring something to protect me (just in case), so I grabbed the only thing I could: a kitchen knife. When I was about halfway there, this pickup truck pulls up behind me; I seriously thought I was going to get kidnapped. He stopped and said something; I think he said, “Do you need a ride?”… but I’m not 100% sure. I replied, “What?!”, and then he took off. I’m thinking maybe he thought I was a girl because I was bundled up with a big coat and hat (it was December), plus I have a small frame. I think he really may have been a kidnapper, but was just interested in females, and when he heard my voice and knew I was a guy, I guess he thought, “Forget it!”. Luckily, I made it safely to the boyfriend’s house.

The other story is a tad more dramatic. Firstly, I’m originally from Michigan and moved to Houston, TX a few years ago. I was pretty naïve about things and wasn’t familiar with the city. I lived with this guy in a condo; there was also a 3rd roommate living there as well. I couldn’t sleep one night and he asks me if I want to take a walk. I agreed – not knowing that the neighborhood had recently had a string of robberies and muggings. This was probably the second night I arrived. About 10 minutes into the walk these 4 thugs approach us wearing bandannas around their mouths and holding guns! I was terrified. I couldn’t believe it. I was in a daze. One of them punched me three times - twice in the eye and once in the jaw. Of course, I just took it and didn’t fight back, as I didn't want them to shoot me. There was a ditch by the road and the punches nearly caused me to fall into it. He pushed me into a fence and I took a fall (on purpose), hoping they'd stop messing with me. They asked for money, but I left my wallet at the condo. The other roommate had his wallet and threw it on the pavement. They took it and ran off. I’m so lucky that they didn’t shoot me. It must have only been about 3 minutes, but seemed like an hour. We called the cops, but they were pretty rude. They even accused us of having a physical fight ourselves and making the mugging up (none of which were true)! Calling that a 'terrible night' would be an understatement.

The other story is a tad more dramatic. Firstly, I’m originally from Michigan and moved to Houston, TX a few years ago. I was pretty naïve about things and wasn’t familiar with the city. I lived with this guy in a condo; there was also a 3rd roommate living there as well. I couldn’t sleep one night and he asks me if I want to take a walk. I agreed – not knowing that the neighborhood had recently had a string of robberies and muggings. This was probably the second night I arrived. About 10 minutes into the walk these 4 thugs approach us wearing bandannas around their mouths and holding guns! I was terrified. I couldn’t believe it. I was in a daze. One of them punched me three times - twice in the eye and once in the jaw. Of course, I just took it and didn’t fight back, as I didn't want them to shoot me. There was a ditch by the road and the punches nearly caused me to fall into it. He pushed me into a fence and I took a fall (on purpose), hoping they'd stop messing with me. They asked for money, but I left my wallet at the condo. The other roommate had his wallet and threw it on the pavement. They took it and ran off. I’m so lucky that they didn’t shoot me. It must have only been about 3 minutes, but seemed like an hour. We called the cops, but they were pretty rude. They even accused us of having a physical fight ourselves and making the mugging up (none of which were true)! Calling that a 'terrible night' would be an understatement.

What jerks! First of all, for them to blame you and say you made it up is inexcusable and unacceptable. I'm really happy you were ok. You did the right thing just taking it and it's good the friend did have his wallet or they might have gotten more violent. I mean, it sucks it got stolen but better than violence.

Thank you, WishfulDreamer.
Yeah, it's still hard to believe that it happened to me. I have never been in a situation like that in my life (and haven't since, Thank God).
I think the police assumed that me and the other roommate were lovers (which we weren't) and thought we got into a fight. :rolleyes: After telling him for about 30 minutes that we were telling the truth (about being mugged), he then asked if we thought we were targeted because we're gay. I told him I didn't think so. I mean, we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those jerks would have tried to rob anyone who came along. They never said any homophobic slurs, so I highly doubt it. They were out there looking for somebody - anybody - to rob. The other roommate's wallet had no cash in it, actually, so they got nothing! HA! His bank card was in there, however, but he canceled it. His driver's license and Social Security card were also in it, so that was obviously a major hassle for him.