Internet Booby Traps

[0] Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad -free on Amazon Music.

[1] Download the Amazon Music app today.

[2] Today's podcast features three unique stories about the dangers of the internet.

[3] The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.

[4] The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

[5] The first story you'll hear is called First Date, and it's about a man who has a terrifying, experience on Tinder.

[6] The second story you'll hear is called, he asked for me by name, and it's about a family who hears something strange coming from outside their window.

[7] And the third and final story you'll hear is called influencer, and it's about a travel influencer who unknowingly falls into a trap.

[8] But before we get into those stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[9] So if that's of interest to you, please invite the Amazon Music Follow button to come over to your house for a sleepover, but give them a bed with no blankets or pillows.

[10] Okay, let's get into our first story called First Date.

[11] I'm Dan Tiberski.

[12] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York, a mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[13] What's the answer?

[14] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[15] Hysterical.

[16] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[17] Binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free on Wondry Plus.

[18] In 2018, a 21 -year -old brand -new police officer named Derek was dumped by his longtime girlfriend.

[19] This breakup caught him by surprise because he had actually just recently moved to Colorado in order to be closer to his girlfriend.

[20] So naturally, he was devastated.

[21] After a few weeks of being so depressed and kind of just moping around and going through the motions in his life at this point, one of his very close friends suggested to him like, hey man, look, why don't you just make a profile on Tinder, the online dating service, and just put yourself out there again.

[22] You have no idea who's out there.

[23] Clearly, your ex -girlfriend was not the one.

[24] Derek had met his ex -girlfriend in a bar, and every other girlfriend he had ever had, he had met in person.

[25] So online dating was definitely not on his radar.

[26] But he was so lonely and sad.

[27] He figured, you know what, I got nothing to lose.

[28] And so he made himself a Tinder profile.

[29] Derek quickly matched with a woman on Tinder named Leah that he said was way out of his league.

[30] But he wasn't complaining.

[31] They chatted for a couple of weeks and they got on great.

[32] And so they wanted to get together and actually meet each other in person.

[33] But Leah lived well over an hour away from Derek's.

[34] There wasn't a natural meeting place.

[35] And they're going back and forth about where they want to go.

[36] And finally, Leah just says, hey, why don't you just come to my town?

[37] There's this great park that I go running in all the time.

[38] And they have this awesome field that's on a slope and you can lay on it and look up through the trees and you can see the stars.

[39] And so that would be a cool thing to do.

[40] on our first date, go stargazing together.

[41] So the date night finally came and Derek was really excited.

[42] He was nervous too because even though they talked on the phone, this is the first time they're going to see each other.

[43] And so the plan was he was going to drive out to her town and actually pick her up from her work.

[44] She worked at a hair salon.

[45] And from there, they would make the way over to this park.

[46] And so Derek pulls up to the hair salon right as Leah is coming outside and she's all excited.

[47] She's waving to him.

[48] She runs over and she gets in the car and they hug and kiss on the cheek.

[49] And it's like they knew each other, but they didn't know each other because their entire relationship was online or, you know, via texting or a phone call.

[50] And so it's like they had history, but they didn't.

[51] But either way, Derek was really happy and it seemed like Leah was too.

[52] From the hair salon, it was a pretty short drive to this access road that was going to bring them into this park.

[53] And when Leah told him to make this turn, it didn't look like a very well marked trail or even a marked park.

[54] It looked like this kind of random access road that Derek would not have associated with a big public park, but he doesn't know the area.

[55] And so he turns and he starts heading down this road.

[56] And the road went from cement to dirt pretty quickly.

[57] And this whole time, he's thinking to himself, like, did I think a wrong turn?

[58] Does she know, like, where she's going?

[59] This does not feel like the way you drive into a big park, the way she was describing.

[60] Finally, they land back on cement, and they're actually on this road that's right up against this huge field.

[61] And so right away, Derek's stress has gone, because now it's confirmed in his mind that, okay, that's a weird way to get into this park.

[62] But here's this huge, amazing field, and we're back on a real road, and everything's good again.

[63] Derek asked Leah, you know, where should I park?

[64] Because they're on this really narrow road, and there didn't appear to.

[65] be a parking lot.

[66] There also didn't appear to be anybody else on this field or on this road.

[67] It's this huge open, beautiful space, but it did not look well populated or like it was well traveled.

[68] But she said, just go right up there.

[69] There's a small lot you can pull into.

[70] And so Derek starts going up this road and he sees maybe 300 feet ahead of him are dim headlights of another car making their way down the road towards him.

[71] And now it was dark enough that he couldn't really make out what kind of vehicle it was.

[72] And so he didn't know if it was going to be some big truck or or something like that.

[73] And so what he did is he just pulled over as far to the side of the road as he could to allow this vehicle to pass, even though there was a fair amount of distance they would need to cover before they were passing him.

[74] He figured, just give them the right of the road.

[75] And so as they start moving forward, you can see that it's actually this big van, and they're moving pretty slowly, and he's just kind of waiting for them to pass, and he's not thinking anything of this.

[76] He's thinking that this is just another person at the park.

[77] And this van, instead of passing him, actually turns at the last second, and almost goes bumper to bumper with Derek's car.

[78] He doesn't crash into it, but he stops just in front of Derek's car.

[79] And so Derek is a cop.

[80] He's a brand new cop.

[81] And he's super aggressive.

[82] You know, he really believes in his training.

[83] And so as soon as this guy stopped in front of him and blocked the path for him, red flags are going up for Derek and he knows something's wrong with this van.

[84] And instinctively, he says, Leah stay here.

[85] He grabs this flashlight that he kept right in the center console.

[86] And he jumped out of the car and went right to the driver's side door of this van to confront this guy.

[87] And when he got up to the driver's side door, it was this really.

[88] really big guy who looked pretty startled to see Derek come charging up to him with his flashlight.

[89] And Derek's like, what are you doing, man?

[90] What are you blocking me in for?

[91] And the guy's like, oh, hey, sorry, I'm the caretaker here of this whole property.

[92] And we've had an issue with poachers in the area.

[93] And I was concerned you guys were poachers.

[94] It doesn't look like your poachers, though.

[95] And Derek's like, no, we're not poachers.

[96] We're going stargazing.

[97] I'm on my first date here.

[98] And the caretaker's like, I am so sorry.

[99] Please get back in your car, go and enjoy your night.

[100] And at that, he backed up to a three -point turn and drove right back up that road where he came from and disappeared down on the other side of the hill.

[101] Derek stood in front of his car for a couple of minutes, making sure this guy was gone.

[102] And then he turned around and he got back in the car and he kind of joked with Leah.

[103] And he's like, yeah, he thought we were poachers.

[104] I guess you look like a poacher to him.

[105] And that's why he stopped us.

[106] But when he looked over at Leah to react to his hilarious joke, she wasn't paying attention to him.

[107] She was just furiously typing away on her phone, which Derek did think was a little bit odd.

[108] You'd think that she'd be more interested in this strength.

[109] thing that just happened.

[110] Some weird guy just blocked us in and I'm confronting him.

[111] You'd think she'd be interested in that on some level.

[112] She might want to know what I said to the guy and what he said to me, but she didn't seem to care.

[113] She was just really invested in whoever she was typing on her phone.

[114] And so Derek thinks, whatever, and just throws the car back and drive and continues up the trail the way they were going before they were stopped.

[115] So Derek continues down the road just a little ways until he sees a little dirt lot that's butted up against this huge field they're going to be hanging out on for the night.

[116] And so he pulls into the lot, backs into his space, and he and Leah get out and they put a blanket out right next to the car but on the grass on the hill.

[117] And they get their food out and their wine out and they sit down and very quickly they start swapping stories and they're laughing and they're stargazing and they're having some wine and everything's really great.

[118] After about an hour, it's totally dark outside and Derek is laying on the hill facing back towards his car and towards the road they were on and he notices to his left up at the top of the hill.

[119] So the same area where the van had come from originally and where it went back to after they spoke that one time, Derek is looking out there and he sees headlights and it's the van.

[120] And now the van is driving down the road, not leisurely like it was before, but they are flying down the hill.

[121] And before Derek or Leah have a chance to react to this van barreling down on them, it comes flying into the parking lot and practically hits his car and comes to a stop where it's boxed his car in.

[122] So even if he got in his car, he couldn't drive away.

[123] And so Derek jumps up, Leah jumps up, and the guy, the caretaker, the nice caretaker he talked to before, he hops out of the driver's seat and he walks around the front of the van.

[124] He's got this pipe in his hand and he looks at Derek and he's like, give me your keys in your wallet.

[125] And again, Derek is this brand new cop.

[126] He's 21 years old.

[127] He's not about to let this guy push him around.

[128] And so he doesn't do anything at first.

[129] He doesn't know what he's going to do, but he doesn't do anything at first.

[130] He just looks at this guy and he shows him that I'm not just going to fall over because he told me to.

[131] But then Derek has given a huge curveball when Leah, his date, stands up and runs over to the sky and stands next to him.

[132] him and turns around and looks at Derek and goes, come on, give us your keys and wallet.

[133] And Derek's like, great, I'm getting set up by my date who I've spent the past two hours with who I was at a connection with this girl.

[134] And so now Derek is just standing there doing nothing, not to be tough, but because he's in shock.

[135] He feels so betrayed by Leah.

[136] And he just feels like how could this have happened?

[137] And in that moment, Leo walks to the back of the van and she gets a metal pipe.

[138] She comes back around and she goes, Derek, give us your keys and your wallet.

[139] We don't want to have to hurt you.

[140] And this is when Derek looks at them both and he goes, no. And as soon as he said that, the big guy tackles him, he gets thrown to the ground, but Derek could handle himself and very quickly he was able to get up and he drew his concealed carry pistol.

[141] And he's aiming it at the big guy and then back at Leah and he's like, yeah, I'm a cop.

[142] Go ahead and put your hands up now.

[143] As soon as they saw the gun, they both dropped their pipes and put their hands up.

[144] And so as he's holding them both at gunpoint and he's looking over at Leah like, really?

[145] You did this to me?

[146] Are you kidding me right now?

[147] As he's doing that, he has to get his cell phone out of his pocket type in 911 and then called dispatch and had to say who he was what his badge number was what happened and where he is and where he is was difficult to describe and so as he's trying to explain these directions and he's saying oh yep go left at the light and then there's a gas station there you're going to go up this field you're going to see me i got these two people at gunpoint as he's doing that lea and the caretaker look at each other and they just turn around and bolt they figure he's distracted we can at least get behind the van and run into the forest before he's going to catch us and so instinctively he takes off running after them and he chases them for about 30 seconds into the tree line before he starts hearing gunshots and they weren't his, someone's shooting at him and he sees the muzzle flash out in the middle of the forest and he's like, yeah, I'm not doing this.

[148] He turns around and runs back to his vehicle.

[149] He starts it up and he has to basically smash into the van back into the fence over and over again like Austin Powers like a 25 point turn before he was barely able to grind his way out and peel out out of this park.

[150] And so Derek pulls into the nearest gas station.

[151] He calls up dispatch and he says, hey, I just called 911 like five, 10 minutes ago, and I dropped the call because I was chasing somebody, here's my name, here's my badge number.

[152] I'm now at this gas station.

[153] Can you send a couple of police officers over to my location now?

[154] And they said, yep, we'll send some to you.

[155] And so a police cruiser shows up with two officers inside that Derek recognized they were senior to him, and they got out, and he explained again what happened.

[156] And they kind of gave him a hard time for getting catfish during its very per state.

[157] But at the same time, they knew it could have gone really badly.

[158] And so they decide they're going to load up in the police cruiser together, all three of them, and drive back up to the park.

[159] And so they get up to the park and Derek points ahead and he goes, that's the van.

[160] It's still here.

[161] And so they drive up and they stop short of the van.

[162] And the two uniformed officers, they turn to Derek and they're like, just staying here, we're going to go check this van out.

[163] And so Derek's sitting in the car watching these guys go up to the vehicle, you know, guns drawn.

[164] They're looking all around.

[165] They're clearing behind the vehicle.

[166] They're looking in the woodline.

[167] There's nobody there.

[168] And at some point, he sees them put their pistols away.

[169] And they go in the van.

[170] They're kind of shining with their flashlights all around.

[171] They're looking in the back, looking in the front.

[172] And then after a few minutes, they walk back to the cruise.

[173] And as soon as they got in, Derek could tell there was just something off about how they were acting.

[174] When they were down at the gas station, they were kind of joking around with him.

[175] Now, whatever they had seen in the van was definitely not something they were going to joke about.

[176] And they turned to him and they're like, the back of the van.

[177] It was just knives and saws and pistols and rifles and lighter fluid and chains and handcuffs and duct tape.

[178] It was just awful.

[179] And it looks like there might even be blood on the ground.

[180] The two officers immediately called in additional backup.

[181] and before long, it was a full -fledged circus around this van of a crime scene investigation unit and other police officers.

[182] Spotlights set up and they went out looking in the woods for these people, but they never found the guy, they never found the girl.

[183] And Derek would tell the other investigators, hey, she works at this hair salon, like right down the road.

[184] I picked her up there.

[185] And so they went over to the hair salon and they wound up talking to the people there and they said, we've never heard of Leah.

[186] And when they showed them a picture of Leah, they were like, we've never seen her before.

[187] And so they came back and they told Derek, look, she's a con artist.

[188] And this whole thing, your whole relationship with her has been her setting you up in some way, shape, or form, the entire thing.

[189] That's all it ever was.

[190] And so for Derek, that was crushing, and he swore off Tinder immediately.

[191] He did not want to do any more online dating.

[192] But what really haunts him more than just being taken advantage of is what would have happened if I wasn't concealed carrying?

[193] Would I have wound up in the back of that van?

[194] Hey, all you fans of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

[195] It's me, Mr. Ballin.

[196] And today, I have some big news.

[197] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it, but this is something you're really going to want to see.

[198] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.

[199] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, The Graphic Stories.

[200] It's an anthology of both classic and brand new, terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms, because we created them specifically for this first book.

[201] Each of these stories in the book are feature -length Mr. Ballin's story, stories that really needed to be told visually.

[202] And the artwork in this book is, I mean, I'm looking at it, and it's just absolutely stunning.

[203] So the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year, October 1st, but you can pre -order it right now at book .bollen studios .com.

[204] Again, that's book .bollendtstudios .com.

[205] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good.

[206] You are a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

[207] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[208] We just launched a brand new, strange, dark, and mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[209] And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome.

[210] In this free, weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

[211] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[212] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon music.

[213] Our next story is called, He Asked for Me by Name?

[214] In the summer of 2019, a grandmother named Barbara was looking after her grandkids for the weekend while her daughter and her husband were out of town.

[215] Her daughter had three kids, two that were under the age of six, and one who was 15 years old, and her name was Alyssa.

[216] And so anytime Barbara was looking after her grandkids for longer than just a single day, Like if she was taking care of them overnight, she would just stay at their house so as not to disrupt their lives more than she needed to.

[217] And so their house was a modest single -story home in a nice suburb of Dallas, Texas, where the crime rate is basically zero, and everybody in the neighborhood knows each other.

[218] And so this particular night that she's over there looking after them was like any other.

[219] She put the two young ones to bed first, and then she and Alyssa stayed up a little bit later in the kitchen chatting, talking about school, before ultimately both of them went to bed.

[220] So because their house is a single -story home, all the bedrooms are on the only floor of the house.

[221] And so Barbara and Alyssa's room were right next to each other looking out to the side of the property.

[222] And so as soon as Barbara got in her room, she opened up the window that was right next to her bed because as a kid, she always slept with the window open.

[223] And even though her daughter's house had air conditioning, she preferred to keep the window open.

[224] So windows open.

[225] She has a screen that's in her window.

[226] And Barbara crawls into bed and she falls asleep.

[227] At about 3 a .m., Barbara wakes up to the sound of rustling coming from outside of.

[228] of her window.

[229] And so she hears it, but it sounds an awful lot like it's probably just a dog or a cat or some other animal that's in the area.

[230] It did not seem like a big deal to her.

[231] And she was just going to forget about it.

[232] But then she heard it again and it sounded much more like footsteps.

[233] And they sounded heavy enough that it probably couldn't be a dog or a cat.

[234] And so she rolled over onto her elbows and she pulled the curtain aside just enough to look out the screen door.

[235] And so the moon was out, so there was pretty good illumination.

[236] And so she could clearly see the side of the house.

[237] She can see the side of the house.

[238] She could see the fence that separated their property and their neighbors, and then she could see the neighbor's house and all their lights are off.

[239] And she noticed, propped up against the fence on their side of the fence.

[240] So on their property was this bike that she didn't recognize.

[241] And she's looking at it thinking, is that Alyssa's bike?

[242] It's too big to be either of the six -year -old's bikes.

[243] Whose bike is that?

[244] And as she's looking at the bike, she hears more rustling coming from the left, which is closer to Alyssa's room.

[245] Barbara presses her face up against the screen to try to look out the window towards the left.

[246] And then she's because whatever's making the sound is now out of her view.

[247] And as she's got her face pressed up against the screen trying to look, she sees a boy emerge from the bushes from right underneath Alyssa's room.

[248] He's got that high school letterman jacket, like the classic football jacket that high school kids wear.

[249] He comes out of the bushes wearing that, and he's got his hood pulled up.

[250] And he doesn't look over at her.

[251] He's just backing up away from Alyssa's room and he's looking up into Alyssa's room.

[252] And so Barbara immediately thinks, okay, this guy is probably one of Alyssa's friends, maybe a boyfriend, I don't know.

[253] And Alyssa must have invited him over.

[254] Maybe she invited him when she knew her parents were going to be out of town.

[255] But before I said, I was going to be here to look after them and that message didn't get past to him.

[256] And so he's here.

[257] All these scenarios are going through Barbara's head.

[258] But all she knew was is she's not going to call the cops on some teenage kid that's coming to say hi to Alyssa.

[259] Instead, she's going to confront him.

[260] Because Barbara was actually a high school teacher and had been for decades.

[261] And so she'd had lots of run -ins with badly behaved teenagers.

[262] And she was pretty good at standing her ground and being firm and kind of getting teenagers to listen to her.

[263] So she figured she would just go out there and be stern with him and he'd get the message.

[264] And so she quietly gets off of her bed.

[265] She walks out of her room to the front of the house.

[266] So he's over here, side of the house.

[267] She's going to the front of the house.

[268] She flips on the lights as soon as she's outside and she quickly walks around to the edge of the porch where she can poke her head over and see right down the side of the house where this kid's going to be.

[269] So she pokes her head over and she goes, can I help you?

[270] and this kid turns and looks at her for the first time and immediately Barbara's like, oh, whoa, he is not a teenager.

[271] He looks like he's in his 20s, if not 30s.

[272] No matter what, he is a lot older than Alyssa.

[273] And it caught her so off guard, she didn't really know how to react to it.

[274] She was just looking at this guy who looks so much older, but he's got a bike and he's wearing a letterman jacket.

[275] And so Barbara's a little bit confused.

[276] And so she's thinking to herself, okay, you know, it's possible that he could just be one of those kids that looks a lot older than he really is.

[277] But somewhere in the back of her mind, she's thinking, this doesn't feel right.

[278] This feels like a grown man is trying to get into the house.

[279] And so as she's thinking about this, she's also registering that this guy, he seems completely unfazed.

[280] He's just looking up at her and he actually starts taking steps towards her to the point where Barbara says, stop, stop where you are.

[281] And he does.

[282] And he looks up at her and he says, I'm looking for Alyssa.

[283] Is she home?

[284] And so as Barbara is just glaring at this guy, hoping that will be enough to get him to leave, but he's not leaving.

[285] It occurs to her that this could be a misunderstanding.

[286] And so thinking on her feet, she says to him, who did you say you're looking for?

[287] Lisa?

[288] Without any hesitation, he goes, no, I'm looking for Alyssa McCarran.

[289] She lives here.

[290] Barbara went silent for a second because he was right.

[291] That was her name and she certainly was here.

[292] But she did not want him coming anywhere near the house until she had a chance to talk to Alyssa and confirm that she had invited him here or at the very minimum that she knew who he was.

[293] And so Barbara says to the guy, I need to stay right there.

[294] It's three in the morning.

[295] I don't know you.

[296] Give me a minute.

[297] I'll be right back.

[298] And he appears to get the message.

[299] And so Barbara went back inside the house.

[300] She shut and locked the door behind her.

[301] And then she went into Alyssa's room and she shook her foot to wake her up.

[302] And so Alyssa kind of sits up and she's looking around and she's like, what's going on?

[303] And Barbara looks at her and she's kind of annoyed with how the night's gone.

[304] And at this point, she's kind of blaming Alyssa for probably having invited this strange creep over to their house in the middle of the night.

[305] And she says to Alyssa, did you invite a boy here tonight?

[306] And Alyssa's like, no, what are you talking about?

[307] Barbara narrowed her eyes and she said, well, there's a boy outside that clearly knows you.

[308] He asked for you by name and he knows you live here and he's outside right now.

[309] Can you please go out there and tell him that coming over unannounced at three in the morning is not very polite and he shouldn't do it again.

[310] Alyssa's confused and she's looking at her grandmother like, what are you talking about?

[311] And so she leans back and she opens the curtain of her window and she looks outside and immediately she pulls her head back in and she says, Grandma, he asked for me by name?

[312] And Barbara's like, yeah, he said Alyssa McCarran lives here.

[313] And Alyssa's like, we have to call 911.

[314] I've never seen him before in my life.

[315] Suddenly, everything made sense for Barbara.

[316] This was a stranger.

[317] This is not a friend.

[318] This is probably a grown man. And he was probably trying to break into Alyssa's room.

[319] And so as she's having this realization, they both hear footsteps out on the front porch.

[320] And at this, Barbara goes into full protective grandmother mode.

[321] And she tells Alyssa, stay in your bed, do not move.

[322] And Barbara runs out of her room.

[323] She goes into her bedroom.

[324] and she shuts that window and locks it and then runs to the front of the house to make sure that door was locked because she thought she locked it when she came in but she wasn't 100 % sure she gets right in front of it and she can see that it's locked and now she's standing right on the other side of the door kind of waiting to see what's going to happen and this guy is standing on the porch but obscured she can't see him because he's on the other side of the door and it's silent for a second and as she's standing there just waiting for something to happen she hears knocking on the door and it startled her when she heard it and she yelled out there's no Alyssa McCarran here you have the wrong house you need to leave or i'm calling the police and the knocking stops for a second and he says i know alissa lives here tell her to come outside he goes back to knocking and barbara picks up her phone and she calls 911 and she intentionally talks really loudly into the phone making it very obvious she is calling the police and very clearly this guy picked up on what barbara was doing because the knocking stopped and she saw him through the little slit of glass next to the door run to the left of the house back towards the side where his bike was.

[325] And so Barbara, while on the phone, runs into the bedroom where she was sleeping and she looks up the side window and the last she sees of this guy is riding his bike across the street.

[326] And then he stops next to an SUV and he opens a trunk and he throws the bike in the trunk and he gets in the passenger side of the car and they drive off, which means whatever he had planned to do with Alyssa or whatever he was doing this night, he had an accomplice.

[327] The police show up a couple minutes later, and at this point, this creep and whoever he was with are long gone, but Barbara still gives her description of the vehicle and description of the night and what happened, and the police told her that over the past couple of weeks, they've gotten very similar reports from other households where there are young girls inside of the house.

[328] Apparently, this boy was actually a grown man that would use social media to figure out where kids lived, and then he would dress up like a teenager, and then he would go stalk them.

[329] And so whatever Alyssa had listed online, he had been able to deduce that she lived there, and who knows how long he had been looking in the window at her at night.

[330] The next and final story of today's episode is called Influencer.

[331] In 2018, an up -and -coming Instagram influencer named Wendy was contacted by a hotel in Miami, Florida, that wanted to see if she'd be willing to stay at their property over Memorial Day weekend.

[332] They said they were willing to cover all of her expenses as long as she was willing to post a couple of times while she was at the hotel showing off how great the hotel was.

[333] They also told her to bring along a female friend and that that friend they would cover all of her expenses as well.

[334] Even though Wendy didn't know if she had any girl friends that would want to do this with her, she was so eager to take them up on this opportunity because she was trying to make being an influencer be her full -time job and so opportunities like this were huge for her.

[335] And so she said yes, even before she knew if she could bring along a friend like they asked her to.

[336] And so sure enough, over the next couple of days, as she reached out to her network to see if there's any females that wanted to come with her.

[337] Everybody was either busy or wasn't that interested or they had plans.

[338] And so since she did not want to cancel, she thought, well, it can't be that big of a deal if I bring along a male friend.

[339] And so she reached out to her good friend Mitch, who's this six foot four athletic guy who was just one of her close friends.

[340] And she said, hey, would you mind coming along with me to this thing in Miami over Memorial Day weekend?

[341] I just, I need someone to go with me. They asked for a female, but, you know, you're going to have to do.

[342] And so Mitch agreed to do it.

[343] And Wendy thought to herself, well, worst case scenario is they're not willing to pay for Mitch's, you know, expenses and that she would pay for them.

[344] And she told Mitch as much.

[345] And so they thought that was just fine.

[346] They figured that was a good solution.

[347] And so the day arrives and Wendy and Mitch are really excited about this trip.

[348] You know, they don't often get to go travel around as influencers.

[349] And so they hop on a plane.

[350] They fly first class to Miami when they get there.

[351] They go down, they get their bags at a baggage claim.

[352] And then they go out to the curb.

[353] And right away, Wendy sees there's this real.

[354] really well -dressed guy with dark sunglasses on and he's holding up a sign that has her last name on it and the logo of the hotel on it.

[355] And so she waves to him and walks over and Mitch is following right behind and this guy looks there and he says, okay, well, where's your friend?

[356] And that's when she says, oh, well, actually, you know, I brought Mitch because none of my girlfriends wanted to go.

[357] So I brought Mitch along.

[358] And so this guy lowers his sunglasses and he looks at Mitch and he kind of looks up and down.

[359] Then he puts his sunglasses back and he turns and he walks towards this beautiful black SUV that's parked right up against the curb.

[360] And so Wendy and Mitch follow him and this guy opens up the back door and Wendy and Mitch get in.

[361] The guy takes their luggage and puts it in the back of the vehicle and shuts it.

[362] And as soon as Wendy and Mitch sit inside of this car, the driver is visibly upset.

[363] He's kind of ranting and raving and the front passenger window was down.

[364] and so Wendy and Mitch assumed he must be yelling at someone outside at the vehicle like this guy that had just picked them up.

[365] He must be communicating with him somehow.

[366] He can't possibly be yelling at us.

[367] We just got here.

[368] We don't know him.

[369] But sure enough, as they kind of are tuning in to what he's saying, he's a very thick accent and he's saying, where is the other girl?

[370] You're not supposed to have a guy.

[371] It's two girls.

[372] Not one girl, one guy.

[373] It's two girls.

[374] Where is the other girl.

[375] As Wendy is hearing this, she feels so uncomfortable, not just for herself, but for Mitch, too, because she asked him to come along and had said, oh, it won't be a big deal.

[376] They won't mind, but I mean, clearly they do mind.

[377] And so Wendy's trying to explain to the driver that I know you asked for a female friend, but I didn't have a female friend.

[378] And so I brought him along, I will pay for him.

[379] I'm not asking you guys to pay for him.

[380] I'll pay for everything that he touches.

[381] I'll pay for his hotel, his flight, everything.

[382] But the driver didn't seem that upset about who was paying for Mitch.

[383] His frustration came from a place of being frustrated like they weren't going to be able to do whatever they had planned to do because now Mitch is in the mix.

[384] And so as Wendy and the driver are kind of going back and forth and the driver's getting more and more frustrated, the guy that had originally greeted Wendy and Mitch hopped in the front seat and he and the driver started arguing with each other in Portuguese.

[385] And so for about a minute, Wendy and Mitch are looking at each other like, what is going on here?

[386] And these guys are yelling at each other and then they stop, and the driver turns around again, and one more time, he says to Wendy, where is the other girl?

[387] And Wendy says, there is no other girl.

[388] It is Mitch and I. That is it.

[389] At this point, the driver makes a sound like he was disgusted with both of them, and he raises his hand up like this, and he turns to face the road in front of him.

[390] And the guy that had originally greeted Wendy and Mitch, he gets out of the passenger seat, goes around to the back, opens the back of the truck, takes their luggage out, throws it onto the curb, goes to the door, that is closest to Mitch opens it up and he tells them to get out.

[391] And so Wendy and Mitch climbed back out onto the curb.

[392] The guy shuts the door behind them.

[393] He hops back in the front seat and that car peels away.

[394] That was it.

[395] At this point, Wendy's thinking to herself, I bet those two guys have nothing to do with the hotel and the people that I have been communicating with to set this whole thing up.

[396] I bet they are just the drivers and they were told to pick up two girls and we showed up with a girl and a guy and it screwed them up and they got mad and they got really mad, I guess, and then they left.

[397] And so I bet if I can just get in touch, with the people at the hotel, the people I had spoken to, that they can clear this whole thing up.

[398] And so she opens up her email and she sends a message to Marissa, who was one of the people at the hotel that she had been going back and forth with when she was buying her plane ticket.

[399] And then she sent another message to the Instagram account that had over 10 ,000 followers that she had been going back and forth with quite a bit that had actually originally reached out to her.

[400] And so for a couple of minutes, Wendy is watching her phone waiting for a response.

[401] And at some point, Mitch says to her, you know, by the time we get a response to either your, you know, Instagram, DM or your email, we probably could have just taken an Uber over to the hotel and spoken to them directly.

[402] So why don't we just go do that?

[403] And so they agree, they hop in an Uber and they drive these short distance to this hotel.

[404] And as soon as they get out, Wendy notices something that at the time did not seem like a big deal, which was the logo of the hotel, the one in real life right in front of her.

[405] It was a little bit different than the one that is on the Instagram page, the one she had been talking back and forth with.

[406] That was their profile picture.

[407] It's different than the one in real life.

[408] And so that stood.

[409] out to her just because she had looked at that page a number of times.

[410] But it was definitely the same hotel and so she didn't think much of it.

[411] And she and Mitch walked inside right up to the front desk and Wendy asked to speak with a manager.

[412] And shortly thereafter, a manager comes out and she asks Wendy and Mitch to come into her office.

[413] They go inside and she says, okay, guys, what's going on?

[414] What do you need?

[415] And so Wendy explains the framework of the deal she had negotiated with Marissa and she said, look, you know, when I got to the airport, the guys that picked us up were incredibly rude and they wouldn't give us a ride here.

[416] And I just want to let you know what happened.

[417] You know, we don't care.

[418] We got a ride here, but we just figured you should know.

[419] And the woman looks at her kind of puzzled and she says, who was the person you talked to?

[420] You said Marissa?

[421] And Wendy's like, yeah, Marissa, she's the marketing person here.

[422] And the manager looks at her and she says, no, I'm the marketing person.

[423] And my name's Kelly.

[424] I think you're at the wrong hotel because we don't have any influencers that are here right now and I would have known about this.

[425] Wendy can't believe it and she pulls up the Instagram page she's been talking to and she shows it to the manager.

[426] And the manager takes it and she's pretty surprised by what she's looking at and she's like, this is our old account.

[427] We deleted this or I thought we deleted this.

[428] We have a new one because we rebranded.

[429] We have a brand new logo.

[430] Everything's new and we just felt like we'd start fresh.

[431] So I don't know.

[432] I don't know who owns this account now, but that is our account.

[433] It's just we don't use it anymore.

[434] I don't know how anyone got a hold of it.

[435] At this point, it clicked for Wendy that this whole thing was a facade, that this whole time she was being conned and what really scared her is to what end?

[436] What were they trying to do with her?

[437] Had she shown up with the other female friend, what would they have done with her?

[438] But at this moment, Wendy just feels totally overwhelmed by the entire moment.

[439] She's so embarrassed that she thought this was real, and she dragged Mitch along, and this whole thing was just fake.

[440] She's so embarrassed that she just approached this manager who basically said, that's all fake.

[441] And so she just wanted to leave.

[442] And so she stands up, and she says, you know, I'm really sorry for wasting your time to the manager, and she and she and Mitch leave.

[443] She goes outside, and she just sits down, and she's crying.

[444] and Mitch says, hey, you know, you really ought to call the police and let them know this happened because, you know, clearly there were plans for you and, you know, had you brought a female friend and they can't have been good plans.

[445] I think you need to let the police know that this scam exists.

[446] And so Wendy does call the police and she explains what happened.

[447] And she's surprised when they say, hey, where are you right now?

[448] We'd love to send a detective over to you to talk to you a little bit more about what happened.

[449] And so Wendy tells them where they are and, you know, she's a little bit surprised that they want to send a detective over to talk about this because in her mind, this isn't that big of a deal.

[450] I mean, it's a big deal to her and to Mitch, but nothing really happened.

[451] But either way, they go sit on the bench right outside the hotel and they wait for the detective to show up.

[452] And just a couple of minutes later, he does.

[453] He walks up, he introduces himself and he says, hey, let's go inside and grab a table and we can chat.

[454] And so they go inside and they sit down and Wendy and Mitch go over their story one more time.

[455] And after they're done, the detective says, look, I don't mean to scare you, but I do want you to understand just how serious of a situation you guys were just in.

[456] So in Miami, human traffickers use these phony hotel Instagram accounts to attract young women like yourself to Miami in order to be trafficked.

[457] And so they will buy these old business Instagram accounts from companies that have either rebranded or who are going out of business.

[458] They'll pay top dollar to acquire those Instagram accounts.

[459] And then they will use them in order to get people like you to come to Miami.

[460] And so probably the only reason they didn't follow through on their operation is because you brought Mitch along who posed a threat to them.

[461] And so that's why they're going to be.

[462] And so that's why they were upset with you and that's why they decided it wasn't worth it.

[463] So even though this must have been incredibly traumatic for you, I'm sure you were spared a much worse fate.

[464] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

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[481] And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry .com slash survey.

[482] I'm Dan Taberski.

[483] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[484] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[485] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[486] She's like, I can't.

[487] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[488] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.

[489] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[490] thought I was holding something back.

[491] Well, you were holding something back.

[492] Intentionally.

[493] Yeah, yeah.

[494] Well, yeah.

[495] No, it's hysteria.

[496] It's all in your head.

[497] It's not physical.

[498] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[499] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[500] Or is it something else entirely?

[501] Something's wrong here.

[502] Something's not right.

[503] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[504] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[505] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get you.

[506] your podcasts.

[507] You can binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondry Plus.