Careful what you say at breakfast in a hotel...

When I was around 22 years old, I had a scary encounter while staying at a hotel for a job. Around 2010 I was working for a traveling photography group that took church directory photos. Each photographer drove separately from all over the place. So I was in Harlan, IA at the time. I was staying at a hotel along with other photographers who joined with me, I believe there was 4 of us (2 guys, a girl, and myself).

One morning, I went down to breakfast and was watching the TV in the hotel breakfast area. Someone was also down there, nearby, a guy. When he looked at me I said "good morning" as I do wherever I go, just to be friendly. He said it back and we had just a polite exchange. Something you would do with a stranger you never thought you would see again. He mentioned he was staying there with his team for a construction job. I go to leave and I say something very casual, like "Have a good one, see you later." He said something like we could hang later. I didn't think anything of it and just brushed it off like yeah, maybe.

I don't remember if it was the same day or not, but as I didn't work until 11am (we tend to work from like 11am - 10pm give or take depending on size of the church, etc.), I decided to go take a nap since I didn't sleep well the night before. While laying in my room, I kept receiving phone calls to my room phone. I wasn't used to getting calls like that EVER so I just picked up. I would say hello but nobody would answer. After a few times, I eventually just took the receiver off and placed it beside the phone so it would stop ringing.

When it was time to get up and leave, I left my room and saw the guy was there in the hall. I waved casually, still not thinking anything of it. He asked where I was going and I said I had to go to work. My friend showed up (female photographer) and I went with her to her car as I was going to ride with her to the church. I told her about getting strange phone calls and she mentioned she did as well.

Later that night, there was a thunderstorm. My photographer group and I stood by the hotel lobby door watching the lightning. It was thundering and extremely dark. There were chances for tornadoes so we were keeping tabs with each other.

Eventually, I go to my room for the night and I hear a knock on my door. I didn't really want to answer it. However, I did, cracking the door to see who it was. It was the guy. He talked about how I said we could hang out and I told him I was too tired after working all day and I needed to sleep. I shut the door.

Now I can't remember if this was the next morning or still night but I recall him knocking again but I wouldn't answer. I pretended to either be out or sleeping. I called my mom and started talking to her. I told her what was happening and although I was scared, I almost acted like I wasn't when speaking with her. Suddenly, I had a weird feeling. I whispered to my mom, "Mom, hold on a second, I need to check something". I tip toe as quietly over to my room door as possible. I look out the peephole and I see him. I then see him turn his head to my door as if he was listening for something. My heart started to race. I then saw him move to the side. You know how the wall sometimes goes in for the doors so there is like an indentation in the hallway for each room. Well he goes to the wall away from the room that juts out. I think he thought he was hiding because he would try to lean his head around the corner of the jut out portion as if listening for something.

I walk to the furthest side of my room quietly and whisper to my mom about how I'm scared. I called the front desk to complain like my mom suggestion. I can't remember if I also texted my friend or called her but she also complained to the front desk about the various phone calls she received.

Eventually, we were given new rooms and the construction group manager was told by the hotel about one of his guys and that creepy guy was told to stay away from us. I even told some of the church people about the situation and they all said if we needed to stay with them we could. All very nice but still all strangers to me and I didn't trust anyone at that point.

I'm not sure what happened to him as I didn't see him after that. I was a little jealous of my friend because she ended up with a hot tub in her room and I didn't but it was fine....However, after that, I was more aware and careful with who I talked to and what I said.