4 Scary Road Rage Horror Stories

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1:03With Instacart's shopper notes, you can get particular about what you want right in the app, like rotisserie chicken that's extra crispy, steak with marbling the Romans would have loved, and lettuce you'd actually pick yourself. Just leave a note for your shopper so that they can get it right for you without having to ask. That way, you can get groceries just how you like. Download the Instacart app and shop today. It all started on a Tuesday. I was driving home from my job as a software developer, just trying to unwind after a long day of debugging code. The 405 freeway was its usual mess of stop and go traffic. I was in the right lane, minding my own business, when the souped up pickup truck started tailgating me. I tapped my brakes lightly which I guess was the wrong move.

2:04The guy in the truck lay on the horn and swerved around me, cutting me off so close I almost rear ended him. I honked back, maybe a little aggressively, and that's when the road rage incident really started. He started yelling out the window, something about me being a clueless idiot. I ignored him trying to deescalate, but he wasn't having it. He kept speeding up, slowing down, weaving in and out of lanes, clearly trying to intimidate me. I just wanted to get home. I exited the freeway, hoping to lose him on the surface streets. He followed. I took a few turns trying to shake him, but he was relentless. I pulled into my driveway, figuring he wouldn't actually follow me home. I was wrong. He parked across the street, engine running, just staring at me. I grabbed my gym bag and hurried inside. Locking the door behind me, I peeked through the blinds, and he was still there. After about 20 minutes, he finally drove off, but I was shaken.

3:04I called the police and reported the incident, giving them his license plate number. They said they'd look into it, but honestly, I didn't expect much to come of it. I have this German shepherd, Max. He's basically my best friend. I let him out in the backyard before I started making dinner. Usually, he barks at squirrels or the neighbor's cat, but nothing too crazy. About an hour later, when it was starting to get dark, I went to let him back in. He wasn't there. I called his name, whistled, checked all the corners of the yard, but he was gone. The gate was securely closed, and there were no holes in the fence. Max never jumped to the fence. He was just gone. I felt a wave of panic wash over me, instantly thinking back to the guy in the truck. I spent the next few hours searching the neighborhood, calling Max's name, putting up flyers with his picture on every lamppost. No luck. I barely slept that night, tossing and turning,

4:05imagining the worst. The next day, I got a call from the police. They had located the truck and questioned the driver. He admitted to the road rage incident, but denied knowing anything about my dog. They couldn't prove anything, so they let him go, but I knew I just knew he was involved. I was devastated about Max, but I also started feeling increasingly uneasy in my own home. I installed security cameras and upgraded the locks. I was constantly looking over my shoulder. A few days later, I decided to check the security camera footage from the night Max disappeared. That's when I saw it. Around 10 p.m., a figure walked into my backyard. It was too dark to make out their face clearly, but they were tall and skinny. They weren't wearing anything around their face to hide them. They walked directly to where Max usually slept, coaxed him towards the far end of the yard by the fence, and then nothing. The camera angle didn't quite capture what happened next.

5:07But then, the gate unlatched from the outside, like someone had leaned over the fence and released it. The figure then walked out of the yard, leading Max away. The figure had long, oily black hair. I showed the police the footage. They said they would re-interview the truck driver, but again, they told me there was not much they could do. I felt helpless. A week went by, I was starting to lose hope of ever seeing Max again. I still had the flyers up, but I had a feeling he was long gone, maybe outside of California. Then I got a call. It was from a vet clinic about 20 miles away. They said they had a dog matching Max's description. Someone had brought him in that morning, saying they found him wandering near the freeway. They left before the vet could ask details or get their data. I rushed to the clinic and there he was Max. He was thinner and his fur was matted, but it was him. He was so happy to see me, jumping on me and licking my face like crazy.

6:10He appeared to have been wandering for a while, perhaps since he was taken. I took him home. I checked the security footage again because I had made changes to the cameras after the incident to better capture every angle of my yard. This time, I found the footage of a man walking back to my property. I noticed that he had a tattoo of a specific type of moth on his arms. I looked up what kind of moth it was and found it was a deathless headhawk moth and also that it was a symbol of obsession and a harbinger of ill oneness. I spent the money on a security team and moved not long after that. I still have Max. I still think about that guy and what his intentions were. I'm more careful now. Mom, Dad, I'm not throwing shade, but the whole New Year's resolution thing kind of slipped in. No events. Anyway, my best friend, Jenny's Dad, crushing it.

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8:11And it still kind of messes with me when I think about it, dot it all started with the worst case of road rage I've ever experienced. Picture this. I'm trying to get gas at this rundown station on the edge of town. I was in a rush to get to my little sister's basketball game. And this old pickup truck just cut me off to get to the pump. No signal. Nothing. I honk. Maybe a little aggressively. And this absolute maniac jumps out, red faced and screaming. I thought he was going to start punching my car. I just stayed inside with the doors locked. He's yelling and cussing, calling me every name under the sun. He must have seen I was getting scared because he started pounding on the hood. I was really shaken up when he finally went inside to pay and when he came back out to finish pumping gas. I floored it when he was occupied and drove straight home. I completely missed my sister's basketball game that day. I was still shaking hours later. Anyway, after that incident, I started taking different routes, avoiding certain gas stations

9:13and just being generally more aware of my surroundings when in the car dot and somehow I started getting really interested in old maps. I don't know why. Maybe it was to find safer routes or alternate routes to avoid bad traffic. But I started scouring antique stores, flea markets, basically anywhere I could find them. It became kind of an obsession. I think it was a way for me to feel more in control or something. I've always been into the idea of traveling back to explore different historical periods. That's where Mr. Peterson comes in. He owned this dusty little antique shop downtown. The kind of place filled with random junk and the smell of old paper. He was a skinny guy, always wore the same worn out tweed jacket and had this unsettling way of staring at you without blinking. I started buying maps from him, mostly old city plans and regional maps. Nothing too special but always interesting. He seemed to be unusually interested in what I was using them for. I told him I needed to find new routes to drive as I had had a car accident once

10:15and he seemed to find it really amusing. He always had a weird smirk when I was buying from him. One day I went in and he had this map tucked away in the back. It was unlike anything I'd seen before. Really detailed hand drawn supposedly from the late 1800s. It showed the county but with all these old logging trails and forgotten roads that didn't exist anymore. It was lovely but it was also kind of creepy. He wanted a lot of money for it way more than I'd ever spent on a map. But I was kind of obsessed with the idea of seeing these forgotten roads again. Especially because they weren't known to the navigation software that I use. So I bought it. Here's where it gets really weird. I took the map home, spread it out on my table and started tracing one of these old logging trails that intersected with a modern highway. I thought it would be interesting to see if any of the trail was left, maybe an old sign or something. The next day I decided to go for a drive. I found the spot where the old trail was supposed to meet the highway,

11:17parked my car, and started walking into the woods. I hiked for a while but it was getting late so I turned around and headed back. I was getting nervous about walking in the woods at night. As I was making my way through the woods, I heard this noise that was getting closer and closer. It ended up being an old pickup truck coming down this overgrown path that this path was completely overgrown. And it shouldn't have been drivable but here was this truck bouncing along its speed. The truck came to a stop. It was the same old pickup from the gas station. The guy was still yelling at me, asking and demanding what I was doing there. I just wanted to leave, but he started yelling and screaming more and more. He came walking towards me at a very aggressive pace. I started running immediately. I ran as fast as I could through the woods, dodging trees and branches. I could hear the truck revving and following me. The guy was insane. I burst out of the woods and onto the highway and the truck was gone.

12:18I didn't go back to Mr. Peterson's shop. I burned the map. I still look over my shoulder more often than I probably should. I sometimes see an old pickup truck that looks like his and I get extremely nervous. I don't know how he found me out there or why he was so angry, but sometimes I think about that old map and I wonder if he sold it to me on purpose as I had that case of road rage at the gas station. InstaCart understands that not all bananas are created equal. Some people want them green, some people want them ripe, some people want them ready right now. With InstaCart's preference picker now available at most retailers, you can choose how you like certain items, like banana ripeness, deli thickness, even avocados before your shopper even starts. So instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, you get groceries picked the way you would pick them.

13:19It's a small thing, but it makes a big difference. Download the app and get bananas just how you like with InstaCart. So this happened a few years back. I was working as a delivery driver for a pizza place to pay for my community college tuition. It wasn't a glamorous job, but it paid the bills. One particularly busy Friday night, I had a delivery to a house way out in the suburbs. I'm talking the kind of suburb where all the houses look the same and the streets curve around on themselves, making it easy to get lost. I found the house eventually, delivered the pizza, got my tip, and started heading back. That's when I noticed this beat-up, dark gray sedan tailgating me. I didn't think much of it at first. I figured they weren't a hurry or something,

14:20but then they started flashing their high beams. That's when it escalated into a full-blown episode of Road Rage. I tried to ignore them, but they kept swirving closer, honking, and flashing their lights. I sped up hoping to lose them, but they matched my speed. It was clear they were trying to intimidate me. I remember seeing the driver. He had long, dark, oily hair. He was yelling something. His face was red. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but it wasn't kind. I don't know exactly what made that driver so unreasonably angry and aggressive, but he sure was mad at me. I was driving so focused on dodging his vehicle that I nearly got into a car accident in the other lane. I just wanted to get home safely. I managed to shake them off by making a sudden turn onto a quieter residential street. I drove straight home, parked in my usual spot in the apartment complex parking lot, and ran inside, rattled but relieved to be safe.

15:23I lived in a small one-bedroom apartment on the second floor. It wasn't much, but it was mine. I tossed the pizza delivery bag on the counter, kicked off my shoes, and reached into my pocket for my keys. That sinking feeling hit me instantly. My keys weren't there. I checked all my pockets again, even patting myself down like a maniac. Nothing. Panic started to set in. I always kept my keys in the same pocket. It was a habit. The only explanation was that they had fallen out during the road rage incident. Maybe when I was reaching for my phone to call the police, but I didn't even have time to do so. Or maybe someone had taken them. I started retracing my steps in my mind. I remembered pulling my keys out at the pizza place, and again at the delivery address. Everything was okay until I was driving back. Then I remembered the road rage guy. I walked to the window and cautiously peeked outside. The dark grey sedan was parked across the street.

16:25Its headlights off, but the engine was clearly running. I ducked back, my heart pounding. He had followed me home. I was terrified. I didn't know what to do. I didn't have a spare key hidden anywhere. I called the police, explained the situation, and they said they'd send someone over. But it would take a while, since it wasn't an emergency yet. I felt trapped. I couldn't stay in the apartment, but I couldn't leave without my keys. And I sure as heck wasn't going anywhere near that guy. I decided to try calling my landlord. It was late, but I was desperate. Luckily, he answered. I explained what was happening. Omitting the road rage part, and just saying I had lost my keys and felt unsafe. He lived about 20 minutes away. He said he would come by with a spare set as quickly as possible. I thanked him repeatedly, practically crying with relief. I waited inside in complete darkness, peeking through the blinds every few minutes.

17:25The car was still there. Each minute felt like an hour. My landlord eventually came banging on the door, saying he had the spare set of keys. As soon as he unlocked the door, I bolted out of the apartment, not even bothering to grab anything. I told my landlord about the car across the street. He looked concerned and suggested I stay with him and his family for the night. I agreed instantly, and he called the police again to report the suspicious vehicle. The police finally arrived, maybe 45 minutes after my landlord's second phone call. But the dark gray sedan was gone. They searched the area but found nothing. They took a report and advised me to be careful. I spent the night at my landlord's house, barely sleeping a wink and unable to stop thinking about how close I had been to. Something. I don't know what that guys' intentions were, but they definitely weren't good. The next day, after changing the locks on my apartment, I went back to the pizza place and quit.

18:27I couldn't bring myself to get back in the car and drive around delivering pizzas. Not after that. I got a job working in the college library instead, which was much less stressful and a lot safer. I never saw the road rage guy again. I also never got the key from that pizza delivery bag back from my car. But I often wonder what would have happened if my landlord hadn't answered his phone that night. Still freaks me out thinking about it. To this day, I always double-check that I have my keys before I leave the house, and I avoid I contact with angry drivers at all costs. Also, I got a dash cam, and I promptly registered the car plate of any vehicle that tailgates me or tries something. What does it mean to live a rich life? It means brave first leaps, tearful goodbyes, and everything in between. With over 100 years' experience navigating the ups and downs of the market and of life,

19:32your Edward Jones financial advisor will be there to help you move ahead with confidence. Because with all you've done to find your rich, we'll do all we can to help you keep enjoying it. Edward Jones, member SIPC. Watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match against NIO. Right now at GlobalGamingLeague.com, that's GlobalGamingLeague.com. Everybody Games. It was the Tuesday night, and I was heading home from my job doing inventory at a warehouse.

20:36I was tired. It had been a long day of counting boxes, and I was just looking forward to crashing on my couch and watching some TV. I stopped at the gas station near my house to fill up my tank. As I was pumping gas, a black pickup truck pulled up to the pump next to me. The guy driving it looked angry, like he had a bad day. He started honking his horn for no reason at all. I ignored him, but then he started yelling. He was saying I was taking too long and that he was in a hurry. I tried to ignore him, but he kept going, and I told him to chill out. That's when the road rage really kicked in. He started screaming of senators and making threats, saying he would beat me up. I told him I didn't want any trouble and hurry to finish pumping my gas. I paid inside and got back in my car as quickly as I could. I pulled out of the gas station and headed towards my house, which was only a few minutes away. I noticed the black pickup truck was right behind me. I didn't think much of it at first,

21:37but then he started tailgating me closely. I sped up a little, but he stayed right on my bumper. As I made the turn onto my street, I saw he was still behind me. That's when I started to get really nervous. I pulled into my driveway and quickly got out of my car. The black pickup truck stopped in the street right in front of my house. The guy got out and started walking towards me. He was yelling and cursing, saying he was going to teach me a lesson. I was terrified. I ran towards my front door, fumbling with my keys. I finally got the door open and ran inside. I slammed the door shut and locked it just as he reached my porch. I peeked through the peephole and saw him standing there, staring at my house. He stood there for what felt like forever. I didn't move, I didn't breathe. Eventually, he turned around and walked back to his truck. He sat in his park truck for a good 20 minutes, just observing my house. Then he drove off.

22:38I was so relieved. I thought it was over. I didn't sleep well that night. I kept waking up, thinking I heard his truck outside. The next day, I went to work as usual, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. I decided to invest in a home security system with cameras. I didn't tell anyone about what happened. I was too embarrassed. A few weeks later, I was checking the footage from my security cameras. Everything seemed normal until I got to the footage from two days prior. I saw the black pickup truck pull up to my house around 3am. The guy got out and walked up to my front door. He was carrying something in his hand. I zoomed in and saw it was a crowbar. He started trying to pry open my front door. Luckily, my security system had motion sensors and the alarm went off. The guy panicked and ran back to his truck and drove away. I promptly called the police and showed them the footage. They took it seriously and started investigating.

23:39They were able to identify the guy from the truck's license plate. Turns out he had a history of road rage incidents and had even been arrested for assault before. The police were able to track him down and arrest him. I later found out he lived only a few blocks away from me. He apparently had been stalking me for weeks after our initial encounter at the gas station. I'm just grateful that I installed that security system, as I don't know what would have happened if he had gotten into my house. I moved out of that house a few months later. I just couldn't shake the feeling that he would come back, even after he was released from jail.