A woman said she nearly avoided being taken by what she called an “extremely dangerous and demented individual” during a Facebook Marketplace meetup, according to a TikTok video posted by creator Leara Aliza, with the handle @leara.alizaa.
She said the incident happened shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began, when she started buying wholesale boxes of items to resell for money.
One of the boxes she purchased reportedly contained mostly young girls’ and women’s swimwear, undergarments, and socks. She said she posted the items for sale on Facebook Marketplace, offering both the full box and individual pieces.
Within five minutes, she said she received a message from someone who appeared to be a woman in her 50s or 60s, who allegedly told her the box “would be perfect for myself and my granddaughter” and asked to buy the whole lot. The two arranged a meeting for the following day, she said.
A different account contacted her before the planned meetup
On the day of the planned meeting, Aliza said she received a message from a Facebook account belonging to a man, not the woman she had been corresponding with. The man reportedly asked to push the meeting back by 30 minutes.
She said she initially responded, “Who the hell are you?” since she had only been in contact with the older woman. Similarly, another woman found a Facebook Marketplace makeup artist for a full treatment.
@leara.alizaa saturday story time #fyp #storytime #scarystories #fypシ
♬ original sound – leara aliza 💋
The man reportedly explained that he had “a couple different accounts” because one of his other accounts had been banned. She said the profile pictures and names differed between the two accounts, and the man in the photo did not match the person who eventually appeared in person.
Despite her suspicion, she said she continued communicating with the account. She said the man offered her an extra $100 if she delivered the box directly to his house instead of meeting at a public location. She said she agreed to the 5:30 p.m meeting, telling viewers, “Stupid on my part, it’s wintertime, so it’s getting dark earlier.”
She said the address he gave her led to a home located in a wooded area. Upon arriving, she said she had little to no cell phone service and that the property “looked like nobody lived in it,” though she noted a couple of trailers nearby suggested people were living in the area.
She said she messaged the man to let him know she had arrived, and he asked her to come inside. She said she declined, recalling, “something in my gut was like, if you go in the house, you’re not making it out of here alive.” She also said she had not told anyone where she was going that day.
According to her account, the man who then walked out of the house was unusually tall, which she estimated at around seven feet. She described him as “skinny, gaunt face,” with hair that was long in some places and nearly shaved in others. She said the sight sent her into a state of shock, recalling, “My life is flashing before my eyes.”
She said she began to consider why a man would have any need for a box of young girls’ and women’s undergarments and swimwear, stating in the video, “This man had no reason to need these things.” She said she initially assumed the situation involved a personal fetish before considering other possibilities.
According to her account, the man asked her a second time to come inside and help him carry the items, which she again declined, citing a fabricated excuse that she needed to get to work and that people were expecting her. She admitted in the video that she did not actually have a job at the time. The man reportedly said “okay,” took the box from her car, and walked away. She said she was paid for the items but described the overall experience as “scary.” Similar marketplace transactions can lead to tense standoffs, like a North Carolina woman threatening to call police over a car sale.
She also said that after the encounter, she contacted an acquaintance who lived in the area to ask about the man, and was told he was known to be “weird” but that the acquaintance had never heard of him being involved in any confirmed wrongdoing.
The video drew significant engagement in the comments section. One commenter wrote, “Girl that’s so scary. Please do not do that again,” to which Leara Aliza reportedly replied, “I promise neverrrrr again.” Another commenter reacted to a portion of the video with, “‘so i show up’ WHAT,” and the creator responded, “me rolling up seconds before disaster.” A separate commenter wrote, “lmaoo u have no survival instincts whatsoever,” to which Leara Aliza replied, “they’ve gotten way better since then I swear lmao.”
The man has not been identified, and it is not clear whether he has responded to or is aware of the video.
