Let's Not Meet~ Reddit Horror Stories

My Encounter With A Suspected Terrorist

I grew up in a rural area and there wasn't much to do unless you wanted to drive at least 35 minutes to the closest city. If you weren't up for the drive, one of the popular things to do was watch sunsets by the large river that ran along the county line. One day my best friend and I decided to go down to the river and take some pictures of the sunset. We drove through one of the towns and down a short yet steep road that opened up into a gravel parking lot.

There was one other car there and no one to be seen so we figured we had lucked out. As a side note, people normally park and either walk along the river or take their boats out so we didn't think anything of it. We started taking pictures of the river as the sun is setting and I hop on the railroad tracks running parallel to the water to get a picture of an old railroad crossing sign. All the sudden this guy jumps out of a bush near the railroad tracks to let me know that a train is coming. I look over and see a train light in the distance so I hop off the tracks and thank him for the warning.

This guy looked like he was in his early 20s and he was very handsome. He had olive skin and if I had to guess I would say he had some middle eastern heritage like me. His accent was thick and sounded like he was from some European country that I couldn't identify. I'd like to say that was the first thing I noticed but no. It was the fucking sniper rifle he was holding in his hand, scope and everything.

Now, I might not know much about guns but I've played enough Call Of Duty to know a sniper rifle when I see it. I look over at my friend and I can tell she's getting nervous. The guy starts making small talk, asking us where we're from. I didn't want to tell him that I was from a few towns over so I told him we were from the town we were in. I asked him where he was from, assuming he was going to tell me he was a student at the well-known liberal arts college down the road that attracts international students.

Nope. He said he was visiting the area. As he's talking he's just casually spinning around the rifle in his hands. I start feeling like this guy could actually kill us.

There was no one else around and the sun was setting. While I'm having a silent freak out, and I sense my friend is having the same, I start thinking up excuses to get the fuck out of there. My brain decided that the best solution was to tell him that I needed to meet my dad at the station because we were going out for dinner. He asked what my dad did and I said he was a cop. I figured that if he knew someone was expecting us, especially someone in law enforcement, he wouldn't try anything. He believed us and we ran to the car and drove away as fast as possible.

I don't know why but I didn't even think to call the police. Instead, I just brushed it off as a creepy encounter. I didn't question why the guy was hiding in the bushes with a sniper rifle when it wasn't large game hunting season (plus the area wasn't wooded enough for anyone to hunt there).

A week or so goes by and by then I forgot about it. Until I saw the headline in the local paper. Police caught a handful of suspected armed terrorists in their 20s. They were all from places in Europe and were caught by the river in the same small town I had met that guy. I felt my stomach sink and couldn't finish the article. I didn't want to know if these guys were planning an attack because I could have done something sooner.