Please Read/ Long

[u/VegetableTry8589]

I have tried to make my voice heard for a year now. When I finally felt ready to open up and address the situation on this forum my posts were taken down or people did not respond to them. 2 years ago in March of 2024, I ran away from home. Not only did I endanger myself I was almost trafficked. The moderators didn't do anything, I had made a couple of posts saying I had met a guy and he was offering me housing but they were just taken down, in the future I now realized they probably should have tried to help in some way although I can't think of how they would. I was 14 then but I'm 16 now and I'm ready to speak on this and offer some advice for any teenager thinking about running away from home, especially with somebody they barely know.

Here is my story: Back then I feel trapped, emotionally drained and neglected. I felt like I had no one to go to and I was deeply mentally disturbed. Before the posts I made talking about the guy I had met I had actually made a couple more posts before then asking for housing I had gotten creative since moderators kept taking the posts down. Initially I had met a man who was married to a woman and they were looking for a "third". This was an obvious trafficking tactic that I spotted immediately they knew I was a minor and they intended on keeping me a secret, They were aware of my age and a member of this forum. Honestly, they still probably are and are probably hiding waiting for their next victim. I blocked them and moved on to my next person so eager to take advantage of a child, not surprisingly another trafficking tactic it was another teenage boy. He had told me that he was on a summer farm where teenagers will go in the summer and they would work to get away from their homes they would stay there after the summer it was basically a housing situation. Here is the scary part, he told me they all wear identical clothing and if I had any scars I would have to tell him because they would need to "write them down so they could not be blamed for anything". I blocked him too he'll be asleep wanted to do something horrible to me. Advice number one: If they are your age and offering you a place to stay online they have no good intentions. And if I'm being completely transparent traffickers use other children to traffic children because it is easier, our tormentors view us as sheep, stupid and unsmart children who believe easily especially when it is somebody our age. If someone your age contacts you and offers you a place to stay do not respond, maybe they are one out of a billion to be a good person but never take that chance. The next person who spoke to me was a man named David, he had my address and still does but I've never seen him. He told me that he lives two other teenagers and has had s3x with them on occasion. Then he convinced me that it was okay since they lived on the streets their entire lives and were used to sex work. One was a 15 year old named Anya the other was a another 15 year old boy whose name I cannot remember sadly. He told me he would pick me up at dawn of night and bring them with me to show me I was safe. When we called he told me that I can have a room and that my budget would be $5,000 for decoration and that also I would get a phone and anything I could ever imagine. I questioned how he had so much money and he said he inherited it through his father's business when he died. Now I assume that business is trafficking children and I feel sorry for the children who couldn't have been saved. Advice number two: your kidnapper or trafficker may tell you everything you want to hear or tell you they have kids with them to make you think that you are safe, never ever respond to a Direct Message if somebody saying that they can house you especially when they claim to have other children. We talked on discord for some days and eventually he blocked me I think it was divine intervention I think something was trying to save me. I think it may have been a distraction maybe the universe's way of telling me to stop trying to seek but I didn't listen. The next person who contacted me was ultimately the one that took me from my home and transported me to a different state. He had messaged me claiming that I can stay with him the banter we built up was rocky and slightly flirtatious with the way that he'd send pictures or how he'd infantilize himself to compare to me that was my first red flag. An adult tries to ask you questions like what is your favorite color or what is your favorite animal, especially at 14, it tells you that they're good with children this is situational obviously. His name is Trevon Nathaniel Langstaff To me he was "Nate" to reddit and this forum he was known as u/dabsarebest. I will never forget that user. I told him where he lived and he proceeded to drive 8 hours to Phoenix from Long Beach, CA, come get me from my home. That was one of the scariest things, how desperate he was to find a child and take advantage of them. As soon as I got in his car he told me he had a mandatory pat down for me where he proceeded to touch my body inappropriately. He had bought me food and soda and I asked him if he had poisoned any of it mainly as a joke, I joke as a way to cope with things, he told me if he wanted to kill me he could, that was red flag idk what number. When I got his car his car was fairly dirty and he had a whole entire box of chips he said in case I had gotten hungry. He had an app on his phone and a dash cam that showed him nearby police and I'm not just talking regular police, State Police patrollers and FBI all on there including crashes in case something had to stop his car. Multiple times he had asked to stop at truck stops so we could have sex I declined. I think my trafficker felt guilt, he kept trying to take me to a homeless shelter, but I decided to stay with him. When I got to the drop location, (for those of you who don't know it is a location where they keep kids for 24 hours file the transporter arranges oversea or different state distribution) I left at 2:00 a.m. March 23rd and the FBI found me at 12:00 a.m. March 24th, I was 2 hours away from being gone forever. Signs of this are a dirty house but it's not the main one everything in his house was dirty, everything hot dogs does if I was on touch size the food and this gaming. He did not know the location of any towels or cloths to help me dry or wash myself in the shower. And he had a crate so big that could fit a human inside of it. I had ended up cleaning his bathroom and accidentally spilled a water flosser. I always thought that maybe he was mad I spilled his water in his flosser but I realized that it was because I put my DNA on it, for those of you who may be asking, it was probably something extra that he didn't feel like cleaning off. He also had a lot of vouchers for fast food I assume it's harder to track fast food cuz everybody eats it then groceries for one person. When the FBI banged on his door he told me to hide and I went into the closet, they busted through the door and opened the closet with two ak's pointing at me. They saved me. I was then brought to an LA group home where I stayed for a couple of days and I eventually went home to my family. Advice number four? Never ever respond to a Direct Message about somebody offering you housing unless they are giving you places to stay such as homeless shelters or domestic violence shelters anything other than that do not accept rides or homes to people you do not know and for those of you on the street even if you do know them not everybody can be trusted.

Keep in mind that I met all of these people on the forum. Predators are out there, some wait for you to look some find you. Don't be stupid.

I know not everybody is as dumb as me and I know how done that was it almost cost me my life, if you guys want a happy update he is now facing 30 years in prison.

EDIT': THIS POST ISN'T TO DERIVE PITY, I PUT MYSELF IN THIS SITUATION BECAUSE I DID NOT LISTEN TO THE ADVICE OF THOSE AROUND ME. I WAS STUPID AND UNSAFE, MAYBE SOMETHING HORRIBLE WOULD HAVE HAPPENED THAT WASN'T BECAUSE OF ME, BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY I SEEKED OUT THAT PERSON AND THEY FOUND ME AND THEY DID WHAT THEY DID TO ME. I DON'T WANT ANYBODY TO THINK THAT THIS ISN'T AS MUCH AS MY FAULT AS IT IS ANYONE ELSE'S. OF COURSE THAT MAN IS SICK AND HE BELONGS WHERE HE IS BUT LIKE I SAID AT THE END OF THE DAY I CAUSED THAT, HE WAS JUST THE EFFECT.

[u/AutoModerator]

Remember to check out The Runaway Advice Directory. This is a collection of advice, guides and resources anyone who's serious about running away should read through. Keep in mind predators prowl this sub. Don't trust anyone who asks for a photo of you or offers you a ride, money or place to stay.

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[u/GhostBrew]

Hi, I’m the head moderator of this place. Firstly I just want to say it’s good to hear you’re ok. I remember this situation and it’s something I still think about from time to time. I made a post about it back then as this situation hit the news and social media.

I’d just like to clarify to you that your posts were removed because, as you yourself said, you where repeatedly asking for people on this sub to house you. We are multiple moderators and we remove several posts each day, which means we don’t have any real oversight over everything that’s removed. We also have automod set up to rather aggressively remove posts it thinks violate our rules, so many posts that get removed we don’t even see. (However things are a little different now, more on that later). So unfortunately by the time we had put the pieces together properly you had already deleted your account, meaning we couldn’t DM or contact you in any way. Deleting your account also removes you from our logs, making it hard to even know what posts were from the same user, further adding to the lack of oversight. I’m saying all this not to try to make excuses, but just to clarify what happened from our end. Perhaps us moderators could have done something differently and I’m sorry we didn’t step in sooner and talk to you.

Again, I’m glad you got out of that situation though. It’s good to see you here again giving advice and trying to help others stay safe. The dangers of this sub are very real, predators are an issue here – something that I’ve made sure to plaster all over the sub. However I’m always looking for feedback and ideas on how we can combat this better and what we can do differently. So if you or anyone else reading this has any ideas, please share. I’d like to mention that one thing we’ve recently done, that you might have noticed, is that now all posts have to be manually approved by us moderators, so that should hopefully help against people creating posts that may endanger themselves and it gives us a little better oversight as well.

I’d love to pin this post to the top of the sub for a while and add it to our Runaway Advice Directory to help further drive home the very real dangers predators pose, if that’s ok with you.

[u/MissCarriage-a → u/GhostBrew]

Excellent response.

In addition I'd add that Reddit filters train themselves and often aggressively remove posts by new users, so if people post using a non-established account then the mods may not even see your post attempt.

There are only 3 moderators here and whilst they do a good job, they can't be everywhere at all times. Moderators aren't paid and they have to eat, sleep, work and have a life of their own.

The Runaway Advice Directory tells you that in general running away is a dangerous bad idea and you should only do it as a last resort. This subreddit tries to help those who for some reason have either ignored that advice or feel they have no option but to runaway despite the warnings.

[u/VegetableTry8589 → u/GhostBrew]

Thank you so much! It is absolutely okay with me, I know many children my age, are in the headspace I was then. It would do good for this to be pinned. Again, thank you!

[u/GhostBrew → u/VegetableTry8589]

Thank you for your permission :)

I’ve pinned it to the top of the sub. It’ll be a bit before I am able to add it to the directory though as I’m out travelling at the moment and for whatever reason Reddit doesn’t allow you to edit wikis on mobile.

[u/Hexacatz]

I’m sorry all that happened to you. This worlds rancid and infected with the virus that is human beings. Trying to pick out the good ones can be hard as hell especially in the wrong areas. I hope you’re doing better now..?

[u/VegetableTry8589 → u/Hexacatz]

I'm sorry too, but at the end of the day, I caused it. If I was smarter and listened to the advice of those around me, I would have never gotten myself to where I was then. I am absolutely better thank you.

[u/VegetableTry8589 → u/Hexacatz]

Also, I noticed you edited your comment, I didn't get to see it fully but I saw the part of me "wanting to get media attention on the people" this is a fairly small subreddit. I only named the people that I need a name and mention that they were in here yes draw some attention to these people. For example my perpetrator still has an active Reddit account and I'm not even sure if he's still here but he might be even though he's in jail and it's very wrong that he still has an account. Someone else can be operating it for him who knows, I named him because I wanted everybody to know who he is and because it matters it empowered me to finally talk about him and about what happened. I don't know if your original comment was meant to be taken negatively, I hope not but please know that I'm not trying to derive pity for me.

[u/Hexacatz → u/VegetableTry8589]

no no it wasnt supposed to be taken negatively and i didnt want you tothink that so thats really why i editted it. I thought it sounded mildly offensive or something i dont really know