Creepy Neighbor Dude (Reddit Horror Story)

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Just some background, I grew up in- while not a big city compared to many others- the biggest city in my state and it has a rather well earned reputation for and crime. I happened to live just on the border of one of the toughest areas in this city. I lived in a trailer park, in the trailer closest to the bar that was right next door. This bar had a bad reputation and was repeatedly shut down after noise and disruptions but always allowed to reopen as long as they changed the venue's name. (Still very unclear on the logic of that rule.) So, I was no stranger to run ins with and due to unsavory types appearing seemingly out of nowhere and many neighbors I'd been warned to avoid. It was just the way it was and, from a young age, I just assumed that was how life worked- people are dangerous, stay away. However, the position of our trailer had a fence on one side that separated us and the bar (and therefore was always held in suspicion due to many other stories) and one other trailer which for a long time was owned by people who were never home, abandoned, or, for a brief time, a single mom and her two daughters who were both younger than me. During those years it felt like a cushion against anything threatening. After the single mom and her kids were evicted, though, that's when Creepy Neighbor Dude moved in and life changed.

It was my freshman year of high school so I was 13-14 years old. My home life was not exactly "Leave it to" material to say the least, but, due to a mix of never knowing anything different and good ol' fashioned naivete on my part, I was only just beginning to realize it wasn't the norm for other people. I was sad to lose the girls as neighbors because even though they were younger they were my only friends in the park after some, probably highly, evictions my crazy old landlady had done a few years previous. Then this man moved in. He was the only one who technically "lived there" but was often in a group of men in his yard for the first year or so. They were old enough for my adolescent brain to deem "old" but younger than my parents- so probably a mix of late twenties to mid-thirties. And their drunken revelry was almost comparable to the bar patrons on the other side, at times.

Things were awkward from the day he moved in. Unfortunately, the first awkwardness was due to my stepfather being a terrible human being. He was racist and proud and amused by his racist views. Our new neighbor was black. So within two weeks a six foot fence was built between the length of our trailers, because he didn't want the new neighbor on the one foot wide strip of our property that had never mattered before. And, of course, he took great joy in saying insulting, horrible things as he and I (you didn't argue with my stepdad) built it. However, our new neighbor made no complaint about his words or the absurd fence. He was polite and waved whenever any of us would get home. This made me feel incredibly guilty, embarrassed, and indebted to this stranger for not only not responding to my stepfather's hate in kind but repaying us with kindness. Unfortunately, that reaction helped set up a dangerous situation.

One thing that started even before the fence was finished was that he and his group of friends would always move closer to the front of his trailer if they saw me leave to check the mail alone. Our mailbox was a community box in the middle of the park, and checking it was one of my chores. I would leave to the mailbox and they'd either be inside, on the porch, or in the yard. Inevitably, I'd come back to them congregating in the front/driveway area. He would say hello and his friends would just stare and laugh. I've always been afraid of strangers and, well, just people in general. It was a long running joke in my family how frightened and uncomfortable I would get. They all knew I would grow out of it and think it was funny too. I haven't and I don't. And my gut has saved me and protected me more times than I can count so I am no longer ashamed of my wariness. I would mumble hello, try to smile, and wave but I am sure I looked spooked because that was my natural state. I was sure they were laughing because I looked scared but as time passed and I felt more comfortable saying hello and waving- they'd all still laugh which made me uncomfortable all over again. Were they laughing at me- my voice, my smile, my wave? Did I walk funny? More than anything, I just wished they'd ignore me.

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