The Killer in the Backseat

This urban legend has two different versions, but the following is the most popular.

A woman had gone out for drinks one night with friends. Upon leaving the bar, she noticed that a man quickly jumped into his pickup truck, started the engine but did not leave. She then got into her car and started her descent home, only to notice that the man in the pickup truck had began following her.    

It was late at night so no one else was on the road. After a few minutes, the man in the pickup truck got close to her bumper and started to flash his high beams on and off. Frightened, she didn’t want to look behind her and decided to keep her eyes on the road.

But every few minutes he turned his high beams on, and then off.

She thought maybe she would lose him if she sped up and took a back road to her home. As she started to accelerate faster and faster, the pickup truck did the same, flashing his high beams on and off in the process.

She finally reached her house, jumped out of the car and ran straight for her front door. Just then the man in the pickup truck parked behind her, jumped out and began screaming, “Call the police! Call 911 – hurry!”

When the police arrived, she realized the terrifying truth about the man in the pickup truck: he wasn’t trying to harm her – he was trying to save her life.

Earlier that night while leaving the bar, the man in the pickup truck saw that another man with a butcher knife had gotten into the woman’s backseat. He didn’t have any time to warn her, so he followed her home, flashing his high beams on and off whenever he saw the man with the knife pop his head up from the backseat.

In another version of this urban legend, the woman pulls into a gas station and upon filling up her car, the gas station attendant sees a man with a knife lying in the backseat of her car and attempts to warn her. In some versions the woman heeds the gas station attendant’s warning, in others she’s killed because she doesn’t listen.

In all versions of this story, it’s always a woman who is being chased.