‘This would creep me out sooo bad’: Woman says letter from stranger had drawing of herself as a child

A chilling Reddit post is stirring online concern after a college student shared a disturbing package she received at her parents’ home, containing a hand-drawn portrait of her and her father, sent by a stranger.

The post, which appeared on r/RBI (Reddit Bureau of Investigation) under the username @cartercaudio, recounts the unsettling incident that has left both the poster and thousands of readers deeply unnerved.

The disturbing package

According to the user, the package was mailed from Los Angeles by someone identifying themselves only as “Julie.” Inside was a letter referring to the student’s father as “James”— her middle name, which she claims isn’t posted anywhere online—and claiming they were inspired to create a drawing after seeing an old photo of the user and her dad on his Facebook profile.

The drawing, which was attached to the letter and framed, appeared to depict a photo taken roughly a decade ago. But what truly unnerved the Redditor was the anonymous sender’s eerily personal tone and the signature, which read: “From your distant friend.”

Adding to the confusion, the phone number listed on the letter was non-functional, and the return address pointed to a luxury apartment in Los Angeles.

“This would creep me out sooo bad,” one Reddit commenter wrote, echoing the reaction of many.

“Brushing scams” explained

In a follow-up, the user said the UPS shipping label traced the package to Baldwin Park, a city in the greater LA area, which is often used as a shipping hub. That detail, combined with the AI-like quality of the drawing and the unverifiable sender information, raised questions about whether this was a known scam.

And indeed, many commenters offered a plausible explanation: a “brushing scam.” Common in e-commerce fraud, brushing scams involve companies sending unsolicited, low-value goods—sometimes using scraped personal images—to real U.S. addresses. The goal isn’t to harm the recipient directly but to exploit the valid tracking data for fraudulent gains.

“These outfits scrape public Facebook albums in bulk, run the images through a one-click ‘sketch’ filter, print them on thin stock, slap them into dollar-store frames, and ship from L.A. freight-forwarders that funnel thousands of such parcels a day,” one user explained.

“There’s no secret admirer and no human artist… just an algorithm churning content cheaply enough to sacrifice a few bucks per package for the bigger payoff of fake reviews and charge-back protection.”

No clear threat, but better safe than sorry

While the package doesn’t pose a direct threat—the sender already had the recipient’s name, face, and address—experts recommend locking down social media privacy settings, shredding the shipping label, and filing reports with both the USPS Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Trade Commission. Credit alerts or freezes are also wise precautionary steps.

As for the drawing itself? Legally, it’s considered a gift—you can keep it or trash it. But for the Redditor and others unnerved by the idea of strangers scraping childhood photos for profit, the message is clear: it’s time to tighten up digital boundaries.