← Monsters Among Us
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- [00:00]
Derek Hayes
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- [00:55]
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- [01:25]
Callers
Join me and follow the podcast Conspiracy Theories where we explore what's really going on behind the official narrat. Like what if the Loch Ness Monster isn't a monster at all, but an elephant? What do the richest 1% know that we don't?
- [01:41]
Derek Hayes
And why are they building all those bunkers?
- [01:43]
Callers
And really, what the heck is going.
- [01:45]
Derek Hayes
On with the Denver airport?
- [01:47]
Callers
Join me every week to see just how high up this goes on the Spotify podcast Conspiracy Theories. Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:51]
Derek Hayes
Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I am your guide, Derek Hayes. It's great to have you with us all here this evening as we wind down season 19 and gear up for not only season 20, but the spooky season as well. And depending on who you talk to, that season might already be upon us. Know, I'm tickled pink that you're here with us this evening because they have a fun little collection assembled for you here tonight. All calls from a specific place. The home of our 16th president. Home to Wayne and Garth and creatures like the Pyosaw Bird, the Infield Horror, the Murfreesboro Mud Monster, and many more creepy characters. It's home to ghosts like Resurrection Mary or the lady in White at Bachelor's Grove Cemetery or the victims of the infamous serial killer in Madman, H.H. holmes. And it's home to infamous UFO encounters like the St. Clair Triangle or the mass sightings at O' Hare National Airport. You're about to learn tonight that the land of Lincoln is a spooky place. And here to kick us off on our all Illinois episode is Mitch, out of Illinois of all places.
- [04:28]
Hey Derek. This is Mitch from Illinois. So this story, it happened, I want to say when I was in about fourth grade. We used to have this folk authority from around the area, Central Illinois, Champaign to be specific. He would come every other, I'd say month and he'd kind of like read us stories, you know, just do little games with us as kids. Well, one year in October, he had a scary story event going on with his wife who was also an author. And they were doing it out in place called Tarleton Park. It's a state park in Illinois. Anyway, my mom was a big fan of this guy so she had decided, hey, let's go. So my mom had gotten the directions off of MapQuest and that probably tells you how long ago it was. There was really no GPS at this time. If there was, it was very scary. And MapQuest as you know, is horrible with directions. The map that we printed off a MapQuest had taken us through the rural areas. So we had left, I want to say maybe around 5 or 6pm it was pretty late for a fourth grader now in hindsight, and we were taking these rural roads now some time had passed and we were driving on this rural road and it was completely barren. The harvest had already happened and it was dark out. It was a lot darker than usual and there were these deer all over the road. You could see just the reflection in their eyes. My mom had to drive like 20 miles per hour if that. There were so many deer on the road. Anyway, we get out of just this two lane country road and we end up on a slab road covered by woods. It's pitch black. My mom has the price on. We can't see basically anything. The brights aren't helping. So we're going down the slab road. Mom has no idea where she's at. She looks at the directions and it tells her to take a right. So she ends up taking a right and she goes down this road and there's an orange dot sign. You know, the little quadrangles that you know will have like orange and they'll tell you road clothes or whatever. This one had said bridge out. So my mom pulled over to the Side again, we're still covered by wood and she's looking at the directions and I see something like run past the rear lights. And I'm in the backseat and there's something or somebody who ends up at my mom's car door and is motioning to open the door or put the window down or whatever. My mom just stares at this person. My mom immediately puts it in reverse, backs up, makes a three point turn and then feeds off. I look back and I just see this figure. It looks like a humanoid run back into the forest. I have no idea what it was. It was a person. What was going on? My mom was terrified. Needless to say, we got there safely. We told our story and the guy authored said the story was a lot scarier than what he was gonna tell. So not really sure what it was. But I really hope it doesn't happen again and I hope it wasn't anything nefarious. Thanks so much Derek. Have a great day.
- [08:12]
Thank you Mitch for calling in. I don't know, it kind of sounds like some sort of cryptid to me. And there are plenty to choose from in the Prairie State. For starters we have the Rockford and Chicago Mothman. Very similar to what was witnessed in Point Pleasant, West Virginia all the way back in 1966. These mysterious winged humanoids have been witnessed flying from skyscraper to skyscraper on cold windy nights. Where you have the Wolfman of Chestnut Mountain. A dogman like creature reported near the town of Galena, Illinois. Or the Coal Hollow Monster, a nine foot tall hairy hominid that was said to terrorize a small mining community called Peak Can, Illinois. Then of course there's the better known monsters in the state. The Bigfoot like Big Muddy Monster, the three legged Enfield Horror. The ancient Thunderbird like creature known as the Pious Awebird, the Lake Michigan Sea Serpent. And of course the Murfreesboro Mud Monster or the Big Muddy Monster as it's often labeled. But you know, it's not just monsters that's inhabiting the plains and foothills of Illinois. There are ghosts on these grounds as well. Just ask Bev. She won't hesitate in sharing her story.
- [09:47]
Hey Derek, this is Deb from Southeastern Illinois. I was listening to season 17 episode 4 and Matt was talking about a gentleman who received a telephone call from his grandfather. And it reminded me of something that happened last year. My mom had died and we had come home. It been a couple months and I'm working in my workroom and my phone rings. Well, I have resin all over my hand so I can't immediately answer the phone. Once I was done with the resin, I looked down and it said Mom. I was kind of surprised. I called it back. There was nothing. No answer. Nobody talked to me or anything. I hung up, kind of spooked, went back to work and the phone rang again and it was Mom. And I immediately resin on my hands, whatever. Answered the phone again. Nobody there. Just air. So I don't know if that was my mom reaching out if somebody had found her phone, but it should have been cut off by that time. It was just weird. So I just thought I'd share that, let Matt know he's not the only one that's had that experience. All right, thanks. Bye. Bye.
- [11:13]
Thank you, Bev. Incredible stuff. A little bit spooky, but given that it seems to be your mother that was reaching out, I feel that takes a bit of the chill out of the scenario. But like I said, incredible. And I'm glad that whoever it was called back a second time. I know I would have felt incredibly guilty had I missed a call like that. A once in a lifetime opportunity to reach beyond the veil. And you missed the phone call. But thankfully you had a second chance at it, Bev. And hopefully it was your mother that was reaching out to you. That's the version of the story that I want to believe in. Thank you again, Bev, for sharing your encounter. Now folks, I have lots more where that came from, so sit tight. Will be right back with more action out of Illinois right after these messages.
- [12:17]
I thought that they, you know, especially.
- [12:19]
Callers
In the second half, it's just that they couldn't get off the field in third and one.
- [12:23]
Derek Hayes
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- [13:41]
And he's way over.
- [13:42]
And then he comes up. Now, it should come as no surprise that there are several purportedly haunted houses located within the state of Illinois. And here, with a couple of examples, are Patrick and Megan, both out of Illinois.
- [14:03]
Callers
Hey, Derek. My name's Patrick. I'm from Chicago, Illinois. Got a couple of stories about a friend whose house is haunted. Her family home from when she was growing up. Most of them I wasn't witness to, but there was one that I was witness to. I've known her since I was 14 and I'm 35 now, so we've known each other about 20 something years. All throughout knowing each other, she would always tell me stories and her sister would corroborate them. You know, and this is like my best friend, so I 100% believe her. But, you know, it was a lot of the classic kind of stuff. Her parents are Jamaican. They go out of town, go to Jamaica quite a bit. And my friend would have to drive her parents to the airport because they didn't want to pay to park their car there for however long they were staying. And the one time she took them to the airport, came back, it was probably four something in the morning. They take these crazy early flights because they're, you know, old people. So she came home and she went back to sleep because she didn't have to go to work for another two hours or so. And about an hour into her second attempt at sleep, she said she woke up because she thought she heard her back door open. She heard, you know, muffled talking and stuff. And her first thought was obviously her parents, something happened to their flight. They took a Uber home or something. And she heard a distinct voice from outside her room where her door was closed. She heard them say, I'll go get. And then they said my friend's name. After they said that, she heard someone's footsteps go from the back door all the way up to her bedroom door. And while the doorknob did not turn, she was, you know, waiting for it to, basically. And then nothing happened. She said all she could do was put her head underneath the blanket and just be scared, basically, because she was trapped in her room. But there was that. There was a rumor that, you know, somebody had had an infant pass away previous owner there, and they buried the baby in the backyard. There was a patch of grass in her backyard where nothing Would grow. So who knows, you know, we were too scared to dig and find something awful. But the one that I witnessed that I would say is the most convincing evidence was, you know, we were again, another time where her parents were out of town, we went to her house to do a house party in the basement. And it was a typical house party. Loud music. We were drinking. You know, it was about 10 of us or so in the basement. My friend actually, though, had had a little too much to drink, had went to bed before any of us, and her bedroom was upstairs. So my friend, who's her husband now, tucked her in, said goodnight to her. She passed out pretty much right away. So my friend knew she was asleep. And we were downstairs. Music was super loud. Over the music we heard just the sound. Basically, I would describe it as someone sprinting back and forth from one end of the house to the other. It was just doof, doof, doof, doof, doof, doof. You know, back and forth. It was so loud that it made us turn our music down or off completely. And all of us, all 10 people witnessed this. And we all, like, were listening. We were like, is she, like, running around upstairs or something? You know, so me and my friend, her husband, we went upstairs. My friends sound asleep. No way she could have done what she did and not be, like, sweating or, like, breathing heavily. You know, she looks like she's been asleep, not moving, period. So that was just completely unexplained. Had no idea what to make of that. And then the last one that happened at her house, it was another time where she came home from a trip with her parents, her sister, her husband, and her sister's husband. She beat her parents home, and her parents asked her to come and check on the house. And when she came in, they. The burners were on, on the stove, and there was a kettle of tea, like, pretty much boiling over to the point where it could have caused a fire or something. You know, the burners were blaringly on. So she calls her mom and says, hey, did you guys end up coming home before me? Cause why'd you leave all this stuff on? And of course, in typical scary story fashion, they had no idea they were not there, you know, and they did not leave it on beforehand, they sweared. So, yeah, creepy house. Yeah, that's it, really. I love your podcast. My wife and I went on our honeymoon about a year and a half ago, and anytime we were in the car driving, you know, going to wherever we were, we were listening to you. It was in October. So it was in honor of Halloween, but thanks again.
- [18:18]
Derek Hayes
Hi, Derek. My name is Megan. I grew up in Southern Illinois, so there's a few instances that I remember in this house. And this takes place between 2005 and 2007. And I was nine years old, and I had three brothers and a sister at the time. And we all experienced something different, but it was actually all of us and then my mom who experienced the most. But to start off, it was a beautiful home. It was two stories. It was really big. It was like a Victorian mansion kind of place, and it needed renovation. So my mom and my stepdad at the time were starting with the stairs, and they had to take the spindles off the stairs, so they had to take off that end and then take the spindles off and then sand them and paint them and then put them back in. Well, they were doing this, you know, a couple days at a time. And the experiences started when the spindles would start to fall. You know, you kind of had to push them out because the end piece wasn't on there. So you had to push out the spindles. And we would wake up in the middle of the night, and you would just hear them hit the ground. I mean, you know, they're falling from, you know, like, 10ft up. So that was, like, when we knew something was going on. And then the second notable experience was my mom, I guess we were doing renovations, and so the door handles were off of the doors because they were shining up the door handles. So you couldn't close the doors all the way because you'd be locked in. So my mom was downstairs showering, and actually a lot of activity happened in this bathroom. And she had a basket, like a decorative basket in the doorway, you know, between the door and the door jammed to keep the door from closing. And she was getting out of the shower, and as she was getting out, the basket flew to the other side of the bathroom, and the door slammed shut. And I remember hearing the door slam, and me and my sister going up to the door and saying, hey, what's wrong? Like, what happened? And, you know, he actually was with door mom. I could tell in her voice she was on the verge of panicking. And she was saying, go get Mike. Her husband at the time saying, go get him. Go get him. And he had to actually kick the door down. And whenever he got to my mom, she was just in tears, and it was pretty bad. I mean, at the time, I didn't really think too much of it. You know, you're 10 years old. You don't really think. And then the last experience was was my mom was there by herself. She fell asleep in the living room facing the back of the couch. And she woke up and the TV was off, which was weird because she left it on. She woke up facing the back of the couch. Every hair on the back of her neck stood up. And she said that she felt like she should not turn around because she felt like somebody was right behind her and she was so scared. She said she laid there still and she didn't want to move. And those are the most notable experiences. I haven't experienced anything like that again, but my mom has. She seems to experience all this stuff. So.
- [21:50]
Thank you both for calling in. Now, Houses aren't the only thing said to be haunted in Illinois. Here is a list of the top 10 most haunted places in the land of Lincoln, courtesy of windycityghosts.com Number 10 is the Englewood Post Office, which now sits where the infamous serial killer H.H. holmes had his torture castle. Number nine is the Chicago river, home to countless accidental deaths. The river is said to never give up her dad, at least spiritually. And at number eight is Couch Tomb, a haunted tomb in Lincoln park said to hold upwards of 80 bodies. And seven, the old Joliet Prison. And I don't have to tell you why that one is haunted. Number six is the notorious Resurrection Cemetery. Number five is the McPike Mansion, a lavish house said to be built on sacred ground. Number four is the Lincoln Park Zoo. Number three is the Rialto Square Theater. And this is another location that I don't feel the need to explain. Number two is the aforementioned Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, home to a world famous ghostly woman in white. And the most haunted place in Illinois is the Mantano State Mental Hospital. Again, a haunting that needs no explanation. So if you find yourself in the state and are near one of these haunted attractions, you might want to take a quick pit stop to check them out. And speaking of checking out, I have several more stories for you to check out right after these quick messages. Swing and a miss. They don't chase a slider. If you're still overpaying for wireless, it's time to say yes to saying no. At Mint Mobile, their favorite word is no. No contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees and no bs. So ditch overpriced wireless and their jaw dropping monthly bills, unexpected overages and hidden fees. Mint Mobile plans start at just 15 bucks a month. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited Talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can even use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and bring your phone number along with your existing contacts. If you need a brand new number like we did, Mint Mobile can do that too. Even up here in our mountain town, we have great coverage. And I'm shocked by the quality and price of Mint Mobile compared to our old provider. Who knew we could have been saving so much money all this time? Ready to say yes to say no? Make the switch@mintmobile.com MAU that's mintmobile.com Maui Upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 per month limited time. New customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow about 35 GB on unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. And you can see he was trying to use the fastball. Now back to the action and back to Illinois. This next one comes to us from Paula. Welcome to the show, Paula.
- [25:34]
Hi Derek. This is Paula from suburban Chicago, Illinois. I didn't have an experience, but I did have kind of a hello from beyond the veil. Unfortunately, my sister was widowed twice by the time she was about 36 years old and this has been about 15, 20 years now. The day that it happened, my husband and I were on our way to head over to my sister's house. We had just found out and we were kind of gathering the troops to be with her and my brother in law's name was Len L E N. He was called Lenny by pretty much everyone in our family and all of his friends. As we were driving toward her house in front of us, all of a sudden a vehicle kind of popped up and the license plate was numbers first and then letters L E N. And I kind of firmly believe that, you know, these are kind of pillows from, you know, the other sign. So I felt the same. Podcast. Keep it up. Bye bye.
- [26:49]
Thank you Paula. We gotta keep our eyes open for signs like this. You never know when one might show up. But I think it's important to remain skeptical of these experiences as well, just in case it's simply a coincidence. Although if it makes us feel better and helps us to deal with our grief, is there really any harm in believing? No, I'm certainly not saying that's the situation with Paula's experience here, but it is the situation with a lot of similar encounters. Thank you again, Paula for sharing that story. Now folks, if you have a story you would like to share here on the program, give my hotline a call at 888-608-NIGHT. That's 888608, Nig HT. Or record your story as a voice memo and email it to me at monsters among us podcast gmail.com. now time is up on those hometown legends, but you can still call them in. We'll just push them off to the next season finale and keep those monsters among us junior calls coming. 833 MAU kids, things are really starting to get fun over there. And if you haven't checked Junior out yet, what exactly are you waiting for? Find it wherever you get your podcast. It's free, it's short, and you just might like it even if you don't have children. All right, now, something that you might not like are disembodied voices. But sometimes that's what life hands you with. More. Please welcome Vince back to the program.
- [28:48]
Callers
Hey, Derek. This is Vince from Illinois. So about 10 years ago, handful of friends and I decided we were going to go explore some cemeteries and graveyards late at night one weekend, kind of see what we could pick up, do some audio recordings, kind of try to avoid jostling the phones around as much as we could and see if we could encounter anything. So we head out to a small cemetery in a residential area in the city, Elgin, northwest burbs of Chicago. And again, late at night, I think when we arrived at the cemetery, it was maybe like 10:30, 10:45, something like that. We split up into two groups, and each group had a phone recording. My phone was the one that was recording in my group because it was the newest of all of our devices. So one friend is kind of doing the call and response, you know, is anybody available? Is anybody there? Would you like to say anything? Can you give us a sign, stuff like that? Well, he asked the question, you know, what did you do in life? What are you most proud of? And, you know, we're waiting for some sort of response. Give it a couple seconds, and we continue on. At the end of the night, we headed back to one of our houses, and we're like, all right, let's listen to these recordings, see if we picked anything up. So we're listening to the other group's recordings first, and all we got was like rustling and shifting of whoever was holding the phone, of, you know, them adjusting the phone in their hand, picking up the whistling of wind, stuff like that. And of course, the person in that group that was doing the call and response. So, you know, 15 minutes of that recording. Nothing of interest, nothing that really caught our attention. So we Start my recording and picked up a couple different interesting sounds. I guess one wasn't super clear, but it sounded like someone responding with super raspy. So I'm gonna try and imitate it. But it was like, you could have been the wind. Absolutely not gonna deny that at all. But it was just sharp enough in its length from start to end. The explanation of wind didn't really sit well with all of us. One of us was super skeptical and they're like, no, no, that's the wind. Like it just, you know, quick wisp. But the rest of us were like, no, that did not sound like wind. That sounded like a voice saying the word you. In response to Christian asking, you know, what did you do in life? Immediately after that, like split second, there was a loud and long train horn, as if this thing was running on tracks right next to us, clear as day, no mistaking it for the wind. And you know, our friend who was super skeptical about the phrase you was like, oh, well, you know, there was a train. It's like, no, like this super late at night. It's a Saturday night. There are noise ordinances and, you know, noise regulations and such, especially in residential areas. You know, they can't be blowing train horns when people are trying to sleep. You know, people get in trouble for parties at 9:30 at night and you expect them to be able to blow a train horn that sounds that close. Not to mention the nearest train tracks were, give or take, roughly a mile away. And those train tracks were only for the businesses that ran in that area. So they were like for gravel and stone and slate and stuff like that. A lot of construction debris, you know, drop off yards. So it's not like those companies were running and needed trains to transport anything back and forth. Especially on a Saturday night. Nobody's working that Sunday. So that made absolutely no sense. Then they said, oh, well, you know, it's the metro train. Well, the closest metra was about five miles away, four or five miles away. And again, this was clear as day, as if the thing was running right next to us. So I don't know. We tried doing some research on some of the headstones that a couple of our other friends had taken photos of. And we had written down names because we, you know, out of curiosity, didn't want to be completely disrespectful, you know, wanted to look up the history of some of these people to see, you know, who they were and kind of get some background. Because unfortunately the library had records for that cemetery. But a lot of the Stuff had been lost when the old library was torn down and a new library was put up. So we wanted to do some research on our own, see if we could find stuff online. And unfortunately, nobody had any significant connections to trains. There were no train conductors. There were no train operators. Nobody worked for the Metra or, any of, you know, the train systems that were running, at least not with the given date ranges on the headstones. Yeah, I would call it a success as far as that night was concerned. Love the podcast.
- [34:41]
Derek Hayes
Right.
- [34:41]
Callers
Thanks.
- [34:45]
Derek Hayes
Thank you, Vince. Now, not to poke holes in your story here, but trains will 100% blow their horns at all hours of the night. There was a set of tracks running right through town where I went to college, and you can hear that horn at all hours of the evening, almost like clockwork. And Sarah and I do a ton of camping out here in California, and one of our favorite places is the Salton Sea out here in the SoCal desert. And there's a very busy set of tracks that runs less than 200 yards from the campground. And I can tell you there's a whistle blowing all night there as well. Now, they use this whistle as a warning system as they pass dangerous intersections and dicey parts of the track. So it doesn't matter what time of night it is. The whistle serves a purpose, safety. I cannot speak to the rest of this call, however, but I can say that I've heard wild EVPs in my day, so I think it's safe to say that just about anything is possible. Thank you again, Vince, for taking the time to call. Now let's sneak in one more entry. Please welcome Cindy to the program.
- [36:10]
Hi, my name is Cindy. I live in the Chicago suburban area. I've lived in Chicago all my life. I was listening to an episode in season 17, A Bonus Firework. Jesse was talking about finding his knife five years later. And it reminded me of the strangest thing that happened to me regarding keys, and I just wanted to share. It happened in 1984. I was working my first job after college. I'm a physical therapist. And my first job was at a very prestigious rehabilitation hospital in downtown Chicago. It was located very near the Magnificent Mile. And at the time in the 80s, there was a parking lot we could use that was about four blocks south of the hospital. So I would park, and then I would drive in from the west park and walk about four blocks north. And in doing so, I'd walk past the CBS TV studio, which was about halfway. And it was unique in that the section of sidewalk in Front of the studio was black with shiny rocks embedded in it. I was working a 7am to 5:30 shift, so I would arrive in the parking lot very early in the morning about 6:30am I was driving my first car, which was a Renault Fuego. Not a typical car at the time. In fact, I never saw another one on the street when I had it. And also at this time, cars had a key that you had to insert into the ignition to start the car and there was a separate key to unlock the doors. One morning I pulled into the parking lot and opened the door while I was simultaneously turning the ignition off and pulling the key up. At the time, I had put my keys on a keychain that had like a screw. It was oval shaped and it had a threaded screw that kept it shut. It wasn't that continuous loop where you have to pry it open. But when I pulled my keys out my keychain, all I can describe is it literally exploded. And all my keys went flying all over the car, on the floor, under the seat. Several even hit the ceiling and bounced in all directions. Since I had the door open, some keys flew out of the car and even under the car into the parking lot. I sat there stunned. I couldn't believe how, what happened? Why had my keys flown everywhere? So I had to start just picking up keys. I had to kneel in the parking lot to find some that were under the car. I'm counting up my house keys, car keys, and I ended up finding everything except the ignition key of the car. I couldn't believe it. I was looking everywhere, crawling around. I cannot find this ignition key. Well, I'm running late now. I had to start treating patients by seven. I decided I had to go and I didn't want to get all dirty laying on the ground. So I decided unlock the car and I'll try to find it after work. So I started walking north to the hospital, away from the parking lot. And after I was about three blocks away, I approached the CBS studio with a black sidewalk. Now it had rained that morning, so the black sidewalk was actually very shiny. And as I was walking, I could see ahead of me, at least 500ft ahead of me, something large laying on the sidewalk. And when I approached the object, I stopped and I looked at it. And it was a key that looked exactly like my ignition key. It had a distinct R on the front of it, which was for Renault. And I picked it up and I thought, this cannot be my car key. Like how could this be my car key? So I held onto it. I put it in my pocket. I went on to work, worked all day, returned to my car at about 6pm looked all around under my car, crawled around, looked behind the tires, can't find any other key. I took that key, fit it into the ignition and it started my car. I cannot explain this and it's something that I always found amazing as a story. So thanks. Hope you understand because I didn't. Bye bye.
- [40:29]
You know Cindy, sometimes a coincidence is the least likely explanation. And this is crazy stuff. Cindy, exactly what are the chances? Now, I have no clue how any of this occurred, but I can tell you that the experience was thoroughly entertaining. So thank you again, Cindy for calling in. With all the spooky stories and mysteries out there, sometimes real life can feel just as wild, especially when it comes to money.
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Or when you realize that maybe you.
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Callers
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Derek Hayes
Or when you are sure you wanted a home gym, but your elliptical is.
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Callers
Currently hanging your laundry.
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Derek Hayes
What about a home office?
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Regular game plan he's cutting.
- [42:21]
Oh, that's how quick that happens. Now, this next entry actually comes to us from out of state, but fret not, I can assure you that it takes place well within the confines of the Inland Empire State. Please welcome Stacy to the show.
- [42:41]
Hi Derek. This is Stacy from Wisconsin, but this story is from Huntley, Illinois, and I would say it was the early 2000s and I was living with my grandmother and we were in her condo in her family room watching TV together. I was on the left side of the room and she was on the right side of the room, and I was near the double doors to our deck. We're both focused on the TV in the middle of the room in front of us. And as we're sitting there watching tv, just having a normal night, all of a sudden this little flat, really super dark black dot appeared almost in the center of the tv, but to the left, more towards me. And this dot, you know, when it first appeared, it was big enough to see, I don't know how big it was, Maybe it was 2 inches or so, but it was super black, blackest of black. And it started to slowly grow. And as it was growing, I said to my grandmother, do you see this in front of me, you know, over here? And she said she did. And we both agreed it looked flat and it was growing and growing, like I said, slowly, until it got about, I'm going to say, 12 to 15 inches in diameter. And when it got to that point, it disappeared. And when it disappeared, it made a popping sound, like, you know, someone blowing a bubble with a bubble gum. And we were just like, what the heck? And then all of a sudden, one of the vertical blinds, just one of them to the left of me at our double doors to the deck, came out of alignment, like it was being pulled up by unseen hands. And it very slowly came out and rose, I would say, about a foot and a half up. And then instead of just falling back into place, it was like that unseen hand slowly put it back into place. We both saw it this day. I don't know what the reason was. I mean, it seems to me to get our attention. I suspect for some reason that it was my grandfather because he had been gone and I moved in with my grandma after he passed away. But we don't really know who it was or why they did that. But that was all that happened that night. But it was super strange, obviously, and I just want to share it with you. Love the podcast. Thanks so much.
- [45:45]
Thank you, Stacy. Now, this isn't related to Stacy's story, really, but it did remind me of it. When I was 10 or 11, I'd gotten the hold of a magnet out of a huge speaker that someone was throwing away. I went around sticking that magnet to just about everything, everything metal, that is. And one night after watching Unsolved Mysteries or Quantum Leap or Alph or something, I asked my dad what would happen if I put the magnet up to the TV screen. Well, he didn't have an answer, so I just tried it. And these were the old tube type TVs back in the day. And that magnet straight up ruined that TV. It put a 4 inch black dot right in the center of the screen. Now luckily for me, and I guess for my family as well, as this was our only TV at the time, this effect was only temporary. After a few hours, the TV went back to normal. Boy was, I swear, sweating bullets up until that point. So like I said, that doesn't really have anything to do with Cindy's wild story, but it did remind me of it. So thank you again Cindy for calling in the tale and thank you for the reminder. Now folks, before I move on to this next entry, a quick reminder that you can pick up one of our brand new Halloween themed shirts over in the MAU Shop. Just visit Monsters Among Us podcast.com and click the shop tab to pick up yours today. And if you pre ordered a hoodie, well my mom just shipped those things out last week. So keep your eyes on your mailbox and you'll keep your eyes on the shadows if you know it's good for you. Because according to Ray, those shadows aren't what they seem.
- [47:56]
Hey Derek, this is Ray from Chicagoland. I was helping my future brother in law and his parents at a flea market shop seven or eight years ago. We were gonna leave my house at like 3:00am and get to his house in actual Chicago around 4:00'. Clock. So we get there and we go in quietly and kind of says hey, sleep on the couch for like an hour or two before we get up. So I lay on the couch. It's super dark. But also this is my first time at his parents apartment so I kind of look around and see weird shapes on the wall. I'm like okay, whatever. Then I look like down the hall where the kitchen is and I have no clue what the layout is until about two hours later when I actually started getting up and helping do stuff. And so there I see this shadow that's darker than garter. It was pitch black basically and it was about 6, 7ft tall. I see this shadow lean from like the corner to kind of peer at me and then it basically goes back up and either disappeared or stood there, I don't know. So the first thing I thought was oh, it's just his dad or his brother or him. I just didn't see them. So I kind of just lay back down and just kind of relaxed enough to get like maybe 20 minutes of sleep. In the morning I meet his dad and his brother. All three of them are not six feet tall. So Something was there. Where I'm like, okay, I saw something, but it wasn't them. Just one of those stories and keep up your work.
- [49:54]
Thank you, Ray. You know, Shadow man stories are very similar to UFO stories or even ghost stories and that they really can occur anywhere, even in the state of Illinois. And speaking of UFOs, Kat is back and she has a story about one primed and ready.
- [50:19]
Hi, this is Kat, truck driver, driving right now. I'm in Rockford, illinois on the 90. The weather is nice. There's a few clouds on the horizon. Few clouds, you know, dotted across the sky. Early morning, I don't know what I just saw. I was cloud gazing. Like I do. I saw this light and I thought, eh, I'm close to o'. Hare. It's. It's probably a plane or something. But I paid attention to it because I was listening to one of your episodes and you were talking about Wright Patterson Air Force Base and someone else's UFO call. So I focused in on this light and I was just like, huh, is that a helicopter? It was just all white lights. The shape of it was like there were two lights on it. And the first white light was kind of like at an angle where the nose of the helicopter would be. And the other light was at an angle where possibly the rotors would be connected to the top of the helicopter. It kind of had that shape. Anyways, one light was slightly above the other light. And I'm just like, okay, it's a helicopter, cool, whatever. So I watch it disappear behind the cloud. So I sat there and I watched it and I'm just like, wait a second, where'd it go? And I watched it. I kept watching it, kept watching it, wait for it to come out from behind the cloud. It wasn't a very large cloud and it came out at a different angle from where it came in. And I was like, whatever, the cloud could have moved, what have you, whatnot. And then it went into a cloud again. And I'm sitting there like, okay, you're just freaking yourself out, whatever. And then it never came out of the cloud. There was clear blue sky on the other side of the cloud and it just didn't come out of the cloud. And I was just wondering if anyone had seen lights in the sky that disappeared suddenly. Anyways, I love your podcast. Thank you. Bye.
- [52:34]
Thank you, Cat. Now, like we did with cryptids and ghosts, let's run down the state's UFO activity. According to stacker.com, these are the top 10 cities in Illinois in regards to UFO sightings. Tied at number nine is Oak Forest and a Rain Aurora with 38 apiece. Naperville comes in at number eight with 43. Number seven is Peoria with 47. Number five is Oak Lawn with 52. And tied with number five is Orland park with 52 as well. Number four is Springfield with 57. Number three is Rockford with 138. Number two is Tinley park with 165. And the most common place to see a UFO in the state of Illinois is, of course, the city of Chicago with 469 reported UFO sightings. And you know, given that Chicago's O' Hare International Airport is the busiest airport on the planet, it would make sense that people see strange things in the sky around those parts. Now, folks, it's time for one more quick break, but when I return, I have a couple more stories left for you, so don't touch that dial.
- [54:00]
Implications that.
- [54:03]
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- [55:23]
Callers
Good job actually getting third and one.
- [55:26]
Derek Hayes
Now next up, we hear from Rachel and of course the state of Illinois.
- [55:34]
Hi, my name is Rachel. I'm from Illinois. When I was young, about 11, my grandfather died of a heart attack. This isn't unusual in any way except that two weeks prior to that, I'd had a dream that he died exactly that way. And nobody would believe me. Except that I told my father about it when it happened. So he remembered. The only other time I've ever experienced anything really weird like that. Is when I went house hunting about two years ago. Around this area. There's a small town about 30 miles to the east of us. And just north of the town. Down an old road that led to a mine. There was about a half acre with an old house on it. Most of the house had been built probably in the 1950s from the look of things. But if you went down into the basement, it was really primitive looking. Kind of really rough floors, almost dirt. And had had several additions to it at some point in the past. It was just really neat. But you could tell the people that had lived there had worked on it personally. The house was just kind of odd. But the oddest thing about it was there had been what appeared to be a mine subsidence on the property. So the entire house slanted probably about 5 degrees. Noticeable, very noticeable. When you're just walking through the house. If you'd set some marble or something on the floor. It would have literally rolled from one side of the house to the other. I don't necessarily think the house would have been feasible to live in. But it was a beautiful piece of property. So I went out there twice to look at it. And the second time, I had a guy come out and look at it. And kind of see if the house could be kind of fixed. So I could live in it. So, you know, we're talking about that. Fast forward to me going to bed that night. I have a dream that I'm in this house that I just looked at in the basement, sleeping. We just moved me into the house. My family had helped me, and it's there. It's my first night in the house. And I wake up. And premonition dreams always feel really different. It's like you can feel things. There's texture, there's sound, there's smells that don't exist in just normal dreams I've had. Anyway, so I wake up, and I know I'm in this house. Because I can see out the exact windows. That I remember seeing in the house when we were in it, looking in it. And I can see enough in the moonlight in this dream. To know I'm in the basement of the house that I just moved into and bought. And I can hear footsteps above me. And I listen for a minute, and I try to get out of bed. And I can't And I try to find my phone so I can call my mom and ask her to come get me. And I can't find my phone. And I reach up and try to turn on the light and it won't come on. And I hear footsteps coming down the stairs. And I wake up in my own bed and I'm covered in a cold sweat, absolutely terrified. And I just knew someone was in the house with me. I've had lots of scary dreams, but this wasn't like that at all. And I had been considering buying the house. But after a dream like that, I'll never ever set foot in the house again. I love your podcast and I hope to call in again. Have a good night.
- [59:02]
You should always listen to your gut. It's seldom wrong. It's usually right. And not enough people listen to their intuition these days. Too much outside noise, I suppose. Thank you again, Rachel, for calling in. And folks, that leads us to tonight's final entry. Please join me in welcoming Mary to tonight's broadcast.
- [59:34]
Hi Derek. My name is Mary. I grew up in the city of Chicago on the Northwest side. When I was 11 years old, my grandpa died. Loved my grandpa. But prior to dying, he had been put into a nursing home. He had a cardiac failure. I wanted to go see him. I wanted to see him so bad. I missed him. My father wouldn't let me go. He's like, he's not the same grandpa that you remember and I don't want you to see him like that. Well, I cried and cried and cried. Finally, after about two weeks, my dad said, okay, I'll take you tomorrow to see your grandpa, but he's not going to be able to talk to you and he's not going to look like the grandpa that you remember. I didn't even care. I just wanted to see my grandpa. And this was March. The next day I was walking to the corner store. We always cut down alleys. Living in the city, you use an alley like a street. So went to the store, walking back down through the alley. We lived in a six flat apartment building. I looked at the corner of our building and I saw my grandpa. And he was standing there with his back leaned up against the corner of the building, one knee bent with his foot leaning up against the building. Kind of like the Marlboro man you always see. And he had his dog right there on the leash and I was staring at him and it was my grandpa. But in my little 11 year old mind, I knew that my grandpa was dead. I wanted to go to him, but I was afraid. He never turned his head. He never looked at me, but he looked as real as anybody else walking down the street. However, the street was completely empty. There was nobody out but me and this vision of my grandpa. So I just grabbed a gallon of milk I was holding and tighter and ran across the street, in through the back of the building and ran to my mom and said, mom, Grandpa's outside. He's leaning on the building. He's out there. She said, okay. We went outside. He was gone. He was nowhere. My mom looked at me and said, I guess you got to see your grandpa. He knew you wanted to see him one last time, so he came to you. He said goodbye. I still believe that's the truth. My grandpa knew how much I needed to see him so that I could say goodbye to him. And he came. That's my story. That's not the only spirit I've ever seen. It's not something I enjoy, but it's something that happens. So I love your podcast. I hope you have a great day.
- [62:45]
Thank you. Mary, what would you do in this situation, listener? Would you run to an apparition of a loved one? Or would it freak you out so badly that you instantly run home? Something tells me that this might be a case by case basis and there's no blanket answer. And I'm thinking there is no wrong answer here either. After all, a ghost is a ghost. But it's touching stuff, Mary. And yet another reminder for us to keep our eyes open for signs from beyond. Because if callers like Mary have anything to say about it, these occurrences really do happen. So thank you again Mary for ringing in and a big old thanks to all of tonight's callers and an even bigger thanks to you listener, for joining us here this evening. The Monsters Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, Delaney Bowers and Connor Ryan. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Now be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook, give us a like and follow on YouTube, join our Discord server and leave us a rate and review wherever that sort of thing is possible. Don't forget that you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 10pm Eastern on the unax digital network. Just visit on xnetwork.com to tune in. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu, Apocalypse Co AG Music and Carl Casey at Whitebat Audio. Watch the movie Shadows in the Desert. Go to Borrego triangle.com to be your Amazon Prime. To learn more and join us in the beyond by visiting Patreon and searching out MAU, or by clicking the subscription tab on Apple Podcasts. You can also visit monsters among us podcast.com and click on the Patreon tab. Five bucks a month unlocks days worth of additional content. Content that you want want to miss. All right, gang, that's going to do it for this one. It was a real pleasure to have you with us here tonight. Now I'll catch you all back here on Thursday with a brand new episode, but until then, you keep it spooky. You have a good night.
- [65:30]
SA and Doug Limu and I always tell you to customize your car insurance.
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Callers
And Doug.
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Derek Hayes
Here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds of with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.
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Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.
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