Scary Bad Date

This horrific date story was e-mailed to me, and I've been meaning to post it for quite some time. Some bad date stories are so bad that they're funny. This one, however, is not one of those: this bad date story is downright frightening. Let this be a cautionary tale to all you fabulous and sexy women out there who are trying to find love online. Just because you talk to a guy online, doesn't mean you really know him. Cyberstalk the shit out of him if you have to.

And always meet in a public place. Never go to his place, or have him come to yours. Follow your instincts and be cautious at all times. The most important thing is to make sure you keep yourself safe and sound :-)And I would like to thank this reader for sharing such an incredibly personal experience.

I was about 19 so this was about 10 years ago when IM'ing was still a novelty. (See how the internet keeps getting me in trouble?) I had a friend who moved from Florida (where I live) to Michigan and we would chat every once in a while. One night I was chatting with him in a chat room (can't remember why we were in a "chat room" but whatever). Some other guy, Jason, starts talking to us and my friend said he knew him from school and whatever.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I start talking to this guy who is a friend of a friend who lives in Michigan. I had a boyfriend but I was severely flirtting with this kid because I figured, "what's the harm? He lives in Michigan!" We exchanged numbers and information via email but neither of us ever called the other and we had been emailing for several weeks, maybe even a few months.

Well, one morning at 5 am (I'll never forget!) I get a phone call from Jason, and he tells me he is in Fort Lauderdale at a Greyhound bus station. I didn't know what to do but from what little I knew of this kid, he seemed really nice, so I go to the bus station to pick him up. He stunk like he hadn't showered...ever and he had this dirty duffle bag with him and he looked like his parents were blood related. I thought he looked similar to the pictures I had seen, but not close enough. Something was up.

So, I take him to a hotel and tell him he NEEDS to shower immediatly because I'm going to puke. He gets out of the shower and I notice something around his ankle. I asked him about it and he tells me he used to be on house arrest but he's done with his sentance. His parole officer, "forgot to cut off the ankle monitor." (DUDE! WTF?!?!) So, you can imagine at this point I'm totaly freaking out!

Okay, this is getting really long. I didn't realize how long this story was! Basicaly, here is what happened. I got back to my house, leaving "Jason" in the hotel room, went to my email and got "Jason's" home phone number. I call it and the REAL JASON ANSWERS! He tells me that this guy is his brother!!! He got my info from the emails and decided to come down here to meet me! HE IS STILL ON HOUSE ARREST AND NOW VERY MUCH WANTED BY THE POLICE!!! The Real Jason, as he's come to be known, tells me to buy his brother a ticket to Orlando (they had an uncle who lived there) and the police would be there to meet him.

I bought the ticket, dropped him off at the bus station and drove off thankful to be alive! Apparenly this guy was on house arrest for crimes which included things like breaking and entering, attempted rape and cocaine possesion. Some when he was under 18. (Hence the house arrest, I guess).

This guy actually called me (I guess he still had my number which I promptly CHANGED) from jail and asked if we could work this out! Amazingly he never contacted me again or tried to get in touch with me after getting out of jail. It was a mess and a pretty "bad date." HA!