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Monsters Among Us
S20 Ep41: 10-Year Anniversary Creature Feature: Stories of monsters, beasts and beings (Sn. 20 Ep. 41)
01:06:52
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Because a great trip starts with the right support.
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And hey, a good playlist doesn't hurt either.
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Bring incredible sound into every corner of your home with the new Wimsound smart speaker. Get high resolution audio with a 1.8-inch touchscreen, smart control and modern design in one powerful speaker for just $299. From Quiet Mornings to lively family gatherings, Whimsound makes every moment sound better and feel better too. Create a home filled with sound you love. Ready to upgrade your sound? Shop now at Amazon and search Whimsound. That's W I M S O U N D. Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I'm your guide, Derek Hayes. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the show. Ten years ago tonight, I nervously fired up the studio. I hung up a few packing blankets, I asked the neighbors to keep it down. I downloaded a few free programs, and I turned on the mic for the very first time. And it was 10 years ago tonight that I released the very first episode of this program. Now, back then, I didn't have the correct equipment. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I didn't have a bank of calls to pull from. And I also didn't really have a plan. I just knew I wanted to make it easier for folks to share their spooky stories. And I wanted to have a good time doing it. While despite all those roadblocks, that very first episode was released. And a month later, I had four in the bank. And by the third month of the program, our listenership had exploded and the rest is history. So to celebrate this milestone, I decided to throw my kind of party. A monster party. So to commemorate the first decade of Monsters Among Us, I present to you my favorite topic in regards to the paranormal Cryptids. And tonight, I've assembled an entire list full of monsters, beasts, creepies, crawlies, and things that go bump in the night. But before we do all that, it just so happens that the show's very first episode dropped on St. Patrick's Day. That wasn't a conscious decision on my part. Just sort of worked out that way. So let's kick everything off here tonight. The St. Patrick's Day story. Please welcome Bridget to the program.
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Hi, Derek. My name is Bridget and I'm calling to share with you a story of something that I remember from when I was a little girl. I was very young at this time. I was maybe four or five at the most. And this is when my family and I lived in Detroit. So what I remember of this day, it had been raining out, so my brother and I, we were playing inside. And when we noticed that it had stopped raining, we went outside, because that's what we love to do in the nice weather, is we stayed outside all day. And so we were so excited it had stopped raining. And I remember this sky was still kind of gray, but the sun was also out. And I remember the concrete being still wet from, you know, the rain had just stopped. And I remember coming out of the house and looking at our front yard. Right where the front grass and the sidewalk met, there was the end of a rainbow. And I remember being so excited to see a rainbow. It ended right in our front lawn. But the most peculiar thing about this is that I remember going right to where the rainbow ended, and I saw a little brown pot. It looked like it was made of clay. It looked kind of crudely made, and it was dark brown. It wasn't a terracotta pot or, you know, one of your typical flower pots. It looked like what you would think of as a stereotypical leprechaun pot. And I just remember thinking to myself when looking at it that I recognized that as a leprechaun pot. I don't remember there being anything in it. You know, there was no gold or anything. I didn't see a leprechaun or anything like that. I just remember seeing the pot sitting right where the rainbow ended. I had told my husband this story a couple months ago, and a few weeks after I told him, I decided to reach out to my brother to see if he remembered anything from that incident. So I just, you know, text him. Do you remember that time when we lived in Detroit and we saw a rainbow? And he texted me back. He was like, yeah, I remember that. Our neighbor Lisa was there with us. And then he immediately called me, and he said we all had been inside playing, the three of us. And Lisa was a girl that lived across the street. She was maybe two or three years older than my brother, so she was maybe 10 or 11. But what he remembers is that when we all went outside and saw the rainbow, Lisa and I ran ahead of him and we stopped where the rainbow was. And my brother said by the time he got to where the rainbow was, he didn't see a pot. But what he saw on the ground was this deep round impression like something had been sitting there. And he said that Lisa said to him, yeah, that circle, that's where the leprechaun pot goes. So I don't know if she saw it too. I don't know if maybe because I was the youngest kid there, maybe only I could see it, or if she saw it. And then by the time my brother got there, it had disappeared. But I just thought that it was really kind of validating for my brother to recount a similar story to mine. And it just kind of validated to me that I did see what I saw when I was a kid. So this is not something that we ever talked about growing up. I think this is the first time in our lives we ever talked about this incident that happened over 30 years ago. But he still remembers that time plainly too. I hope you can use it on your podcast. Thank you and have a great day.
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B
Thank you, Bridget. Super wild and too bad there weren't any gold coins in that pot. That story could have had a much happier ending. Now, anytime I hear a story that even remotely involves a leprechaun, I always think of the same thing. The Alabama leprechaun story from 2006. Now I'm real tempted to play a snippet for you here because I enjoy the clip so much, but I've already done that several times over the years, so instead I'll just put the link up in the show notes. But for obvious reasons, we have a soft spot in our heart for leprechauns over here at MAU, so I really enjoy when we get to share one of these stories. So a big thanks to you Bridget for setting us up tonight,
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the most
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Hi, Derek. My name is Mike H from Minnesota. This could be a fairly quick one, but I'm currently 57, and I was 27 at the time. I'm an avid outdoorsman. Been to Montana, Wisconsin, Wyoming, all of that. And I've seen a lot outdoors. I know what's out there. I thought, so this is the only kind of weird experience I've had with any kind of creature in my life that I cannot identify. There's 95, 96. My buddy and I drove to Canada, Lake Wabiskang, which is up near Peralt Falls in Ontario. And it was during a major heat wave on, like, 90 degrees Fahrenheit in Canada. You could not have campfires. There was forest fires burning all over. It was hot, hot, hot for the seven days we were up there. We were camping on an island, and it was dead calm all week. Fishing was very, very slow. One day we were out. We were not drinking beer or doing anything else. We're just out fishing, trying to do what we do. And the lake was glass and calm. We're just throwing some lures for northerns and muskies. And I looked over in a bay and my buddy did the same thing. We were on opposite sides of the boats, and this creature thing came out of the water. When I say creature thing, it looked like a sea lamprey or a tentacle of an octopus, like with a sucker on the end. About 3 to 4 to 5 inches round. It was grayish in color. Came up out of the water like a periscope of a submarine. But it was 10ft offshore in the middle of Canada. It kind of moved around a little bit and went down. There was ripples on the water. I remember looking at my buddy and I go, did you see that? And he said, yep. We went over there with the boat. Obviously, we did not find anything. Nothing there. And we've talked about it. I've hunted and fished with my buddy since I was 13 years old. We still talk about it, and we have no clue what it was. I know there are sea lampreys in Lake Superior. I don't know if I've ever seen one come out of the water and kind of look around like a submarine. Periscope but it is something that I have not been able to identify. My buddy and I still laugh about it. So that's my story. Love your podcast. Just found it about a year ago. Thanks much. Take care.
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B
Thank you, Mike. I also love a good water monster story. And I also love that this story comes out of the lakes of Canada. There are tons of them up there, and many of them haven't been thoroughly explored. So I like to think that anything could be down there in those waters. And given that this sighting occurred in the midst of a heat wave, I can't help but wonder if maybe the heat didn't coax something out of its dormant state. Now, the behavior of whatever this thing is reminds me of a turtle sticking only its head up out of the water. There is a large turtle species that calls those lakes home, and it sort of does fit the description. They call it the spiny softshell turtle, and it could explain what Mike encountered that day. But how do you account for the suction cup that Mike mentioned seeing? I'm afraid I'm stumped here, Mike, but I can tell you that I love the entry and I really appreciate you sharing it here with us. It's not every day we get to talk about a tale like this one. Now, this program also began with an episode about another of my favorite subjects, alien big cats, or in the case of my sighting, an alien black cat. That first episode was all about these creatures in and around my hometown back in Ohio. So it's only fitting that we share an ABC story here tonight. So please welcome the following anonymous scholar to the program.
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Hey Derek, I want to remain anonymous. I heard your ABC episode and just reminded me of all the experiences that I've had with panthers. And I don't know if this even counts because in East Texas, where I grew up, and in South Louisiana, it's not a question if we have panthers. There are panthers. When I was a little girl and we were driving in Chopin in the middle of the night, all the banks on the side of the road were built up. This big cat just comes right in front of our car, jumps one leap from this huge embankment and is gone. Another story in Nacogdoches, Texas, I was hunting, and in between my lanes, when I was walking to the stand, I saw a big cat that had to have been a big cat, probably at least an adolescent. His big fat black tail, he walked across the lane. Another time I saw him in the corner of my pasture eyeballing some goats of mine and the most intimate set of Encounters, I guess I'll say. My uncle, who had a non typical deer farm, well, he used to throw his carcasses in our woods. We had 80 acres and I would sit and watch them to, you know, maybe shoot, you know, a critter or whatever. So one day I go down to check the carcass. It was a doe that he had thrown out and it was gone. And I had this creepy feeling the whole time I was walking down there and I feel like I'm being watched. I can hear it stalking me. I turn around and I look and up in a tree is a deer. And it's just hanging there, 100 pound doe. And so I talked to the man who dumped the deer, Uncle Joe, and he said, I believe you, babe, I saw it too. He said, there's a hundred pound doe up in that tree and there's no bobcat could do that. And we saw it, we saw the panther walk in my pasture line and it was pretty close to the area that our goats are. So we were watching. And about every month it would come back around. The way that they have territory, they make like a 20 mile radius. So it takes like a month for them to come back around even their own territories. So anyway, I hunted that thing for a while and my game warden told me that I could because it was eating my livestock, it ate my goats. They just disappeared. And it was sure that it was a panther. They never made a peep, they never cried, they just disappeared in like five minutes from where we saw that panther stalking them. About a month later, that same tree that that panther was in front of, we saw the bones of those goats and they just fell out of the tree. Right? So it was kind of confirmed. It was probably that panther. And then another time, my husband said he was out there one night with his lights off and he'd been sitting there way down in our 80 acres in the car. And he said when he went to turn the lights on, on the deer, there were two panthers, two black panthers that were sitting there in the wood line. And he could see the glow of their eyes, like they had been waiting for him to leave so they could, you know, get to that carcass. So if that's not enough for you, we had kennels out there. And one night I heard my dogs barking up a storm and everything. So we go and look out the back and you can see this big panther in the moonlight rubbing its body like a cat, right up against the chain link of those dogs, ready to tear it to pieces. And that cat did not care whatsoever. Just rubbed her body all up against it and kept on, you know, sauntering past. And I can tell you, she was so big, when she walked past this dachshund, I could still see her back. So she was, she was big. And anyway, over the years that we lived there, I would see tracks from her and tracks from her babies. So they're not just there, they're thriving. And I mean, I could tell you stories after stories, but I'll tell you, it's so bad that when I go hunting from now on, I'm talking for the rest of my life. I'm not just going to be hunting deer because there's a bigger predator out there than humans and it's a big cat. Anyway, that's just my little take on it. Thank you.
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We appreciate the call. A 100 pound deer up in a tree, that's a tough one to explain in that part of the country. If this story came to us from Africa or South America, I would make the assumption that it was a leopard or a jaguar because that's known behavior for both of those species. But science tells us there are no animals in that part of Texas that would be capable of dragging a deer that size up a tree. But that information seems to contradict what our caller just told us. And I don't think that deer climbed up in that tree by itself. Now, you know where I stand with these creatures. They exist. I've seen one. I just don't know what they are. But thanks to calls like this one, we're one step closer to figuring it all out. So thank you again, caller, for making the phone call. Now, folks, if you have a story you would like to share here on the show, call my hotline at 888 6o8 knight. That's 888608, Nig HT. Or just record a voice memo and email it to me at monsters among us podcastmail.com now, next up is an infamous European cryptid we very seldom hear about. Please welcome Chance from parts unknown.
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Hi, Derek. My name is Chance. I'd like to call about a divination story. I practice it and I don't practice it the same way as other people, but I do use tarot cards to do it. And I had a very strange session on the 18th of March. I'm reading from my journal. In it, it suddenly starts describing what it called a creature. Basically got a description for a being that I was supposed to turn away from and ignore. And it described the creature as Having a body like a snake, with a snake tail, two lizard like arms, and a raccoon head, Very specifically a raccoon head. I checked with many, many animals and I was just supposed to repeat some mantra while imagining it to stay away from it. Yeah, this all sounds kind of woo woo, but imagine I'm listening to your podcast in reverse order and I come across season 12, episode 8 and it talks about something called a Tatzel worm. And hearing the description of it, I almost my pants because that seemed to be the exact same description as the thing it gave me. Now another note, it told me it was writing on top of a cow that had wings. And I actually got descriptions for what all the symbology meant. But the short of it is I went to that Wikipedia page that you provided for the tattoo worm and I read a couple of interesting things about it. Like some of them were described as only having front legs and a snake body with a cat like head. And I wondered if, you know, the raccoon head kind of like a cat like head. But are raccoons in that area, like where the Tatsu worm was seen, where maybe they thought with a raccoon head and they'd never seen a raccoon before, so they said it was a cat like head, which I could also see. I don't know. And there's multiple descriptions of it as you mentioned. But yeah, it just creeped me out. It really creeped me out. I've had creepy divination sessions, but I thought like, there's no way anything is going to match up with what the heck. I'm seeing that this is some kind of obscure reference to something nobody's seen. And then there's a whole Wikipedia article on this thing. So yeah, that was just one of my more recent spooky experiences. I'm literally calling 30 seconds after having listened to that section of that episode. Thanks, bye.
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Thank you, Chance. Now, as I'd mentioned, this isn't a very popular cryptid here in the States, so let's get caught up on exactly what a tatzel worm is. And to help us do that, we pull from a clip from the television series Boogeyman. Finding tatzel worms is a daunting challenge. During the Middle Ages, people claimed the creatures lived in marshes. Today, some people believe they inhabit the shores of local lakes. Others think it's the alpine forests that offer the best chance for a close encounter wherever it lives. Most witnesses agree the Tatzelwurm is a huge reptile, either a large lizard or a Giant snake. Because such a creature is within the realm of possibility, some people still believe it exists.
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Tatzelwurm is a German word which translates
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into English as a snake with legs,
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which generally gives you a good idea about how a tatzel worm is supposed to look like. People who see them have told of many different kinds, but generally it's either a large lizard like an iguana, or a snake. Generally, in modern reports, which are more credible in zoological terms, the head is said to resemble that of a new or a snake or a lizard. But about 200 years ago, when people reported tatzelworms, they said it had the head of a mammal. So, like mainly a cat's head or a goat's head or a dog's head or even a child's head.
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Now you can watch that entire episode for free over on YouTube. There's a link in tonight's show Notes, and it's worth noting that the man that you heard there in the clip, that's Ulrich Megan, a paranormal researcher based in Europe. Now, I'd always known the Tatzel worm to be reptilian in nature, so it's interesting to hear from a local expert, no less, that 200 or so years ago, the creature was described as having a cat, goat, or even human head. So maybe it resembled a raccoon as well. Now, Chance did send in the journal entry he talked about. It's in the Show Notes. If you'd like a little more context monsters among us podcast.com and click the Show Notes tab. You know, I'm always excited to showcase Obscure Cryptid's Chance, so thank you for giving me that opportunity. And thanks again for calling in. All right, gang, it's time for a quick break, but I'll be right back with even more monsters right after this
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championship team. Mid season, a slowdown for Westminster. On the 405 southbound path, the sun shining, birds are singing, and all feels
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right in the world.
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Until the season changes and suddenly you lose your motivation to get out of bed.
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In fact, one in five people experience
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some form of depression, no matter the season or time of year.
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At the American Psychiatric association foundation, our
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vision is to build a mentally healthy
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nation for all, because we want you
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to live your best life and be
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your best you all year round.
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Please visit mentallyhealthynation.org to learn more. It seemed like that experience meant the world to her. Now, I'm not sure if this next one falls under the cryptid umbrella or not, but it was too good for me not to share Please welcome Pistol out of Texas.
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Hey, Derek. This is Pistol from East Texas. I was just listening to episode 46 of season 19 where Squirrel was talking about the little people and. And you were putting some fillers out for some more stories. I think I have one. So this happened about two weeks ago. My husband had to make an unexpected trip and it was just me and my toddler. And we have a doggy door, or in our case a kitty door since we don't have any small inside dogs. And I'm sitting in bed and I keep hearing that telltale sign of the cat door flapping. So I'm thinking, okay, my cat's just coming in and out, no big deal. Well, it keeps happening. He's happening probably about 10 times. So I finally get up and I go out into the living room and I see my cat with the zoomies. No big deal. Cats get zoomies all the time. I turn around because she runs behind me. So I turn around to look at her, and when I do, there are like eight little people just standing in my kitchen. And my cat is just zooming around. She keeps looking at them and then zooming off. And she'll come back and she'll zoom off again. And quite honestly, it looked like they were trying to have a little rodeo. They were all just yipping and dancing around and just being crazy. So my cat comes back through from behind me and runs through the kitchen and one of them are on her back. And I don't know what they were, what they were doing, why they were even there, but whatever they were and whatever their purpose was, they were having a heck of a good time. And I'm just standing there like completely dumbfounded. And finally I'm just like, what are
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y' all doing in my house?
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And it was like they just noticed me. And when they saw me, they all ran back towards my door, ran out of the kitty door, and that was it. And I was just so confused. So hearing that story made me think maybe it's the same thing.
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Anyways, thanks.
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Love the show. Bye.
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Thank you, Pistol. At long last, we might have a bit of an explanation as to how these little people experiences actually take place. And it all comes down to fungus.
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These mushrooms make people see tiny humans.
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What's called Lilliputian hallucinations.
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These are perceptions of tiny, often a few centimeter tall, human or fantasy like figures.
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They're very much realistic three dimensional visions
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of these tiny beings.
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There are reports in China, the Philippines and Papua New guinea where the mushroom is eaten for food and not used
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recreationally in every culture that we know about so far. The psychoactive effect is merely an occasional accidental side effect of undercooking the mushroom.
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That clip from BBC World Service. And this was pretty big in the news a few months back when this info first broke. And like I said, it could explain how some of these experiences occur. But given that these mushrooms are grown and eaten halfway around the world, it probably does very little to explain away encounters like pistols here. But, boy, is it interesting. So I'm not real sure how to explain away your cat rodeo pistol. But I hope if it happens again this time, you'll take a video. Thank you again for that amazing story. Now, this next monster tale is a bit unconventional, but still plenty terrifying. Please welcome Bailey back to the program.
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Hi, Derek. This is Bailey. I am from Spokane. This isn't my story, though. It's my husband's story. And it happened in Missouri. So he grew up in Missouri. His grandparents owned, like, a couple hundred acres. They had a goat ranch. And he grew up hunting. So, like, he would, you know, go out very early in the morning or, like, almost night, and he'd sit all night and wait. Just. He's very savvy outdoorsman his entire life. You know, like, that's basically what they've always done. His great grandfather was game warden. Like, they're just very outdoorsy people. But my husband isn't really, like a paranormal believer. He's super skeptic, and he is always the one trying to debunk everything that I say or think I saw. But this is his only story that he still gets weirded out when he talks about it. And he said that one night he was going out hunting. It was probably like, super, super early, like 3am he's going out before the sun's up, and he's walking through the woods and he's by himself. He said it was really, really quiet. And all of a sudden there were just tons of eyes surrounding him. And, you know, there's a lot of coyotes out there, and he's used to that kind of stuff. But these eyes were white. They didn't have any color in their eye shine. And he said there was just tons of them all around him, like, circling him. And he got really weirded out. And like I said, it's like, super quiet. So the closest one to him, he picked up his rifle and he shot. And none of them flinched. None of them blinked. None of them moved. And he said that he was pretty sure that he hid it straight between the eyes and it didn't move. So he just started yelling and ran out the closest one, and all of the eyes just disappeared. And he ran to his tree stand and he did not move until it was daylight out. And he said that's the creepiest thing that's ever happened to him that he can't really explain because, you know, if it was a coyote or something and he shot at it, they would have scattered or, you know, at least moved. But they didn't move until he screamed and ran at them. And then they all disappeared. Like he. There was no rustling as they ran or anything, Just gone. So, yeah, I think it's kind of a neat story, and it's one that he hasn't been able to. To debunk. So I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you. Keep it spooky.
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B
Ooh, that is a creepy one. Thank you, Bailey, for calling in. You know, I have an idea here, but it's a bit of an unsuspecting suspect. The spider. Well, dozens of spiders, actually. You see, most spiders have a white tinted eye shine, and if it's breeding season or something, there could be a large number of them gathered in the area. And spiders probably wouldn't flinch at a gunshot either, but they would probably flinch at the vibrations that approaching boots would make. Though I'm not sure if the spider's eye shine would fit the size and shape of what Bailey's husband saw, because it almost seems like what he had encountered was bigger. But whatever it was, I'm not sure shooting at it was the best choice, but sharing the story was Bailey. And we thank you again for doing so. Now, folks, before we continue, I have a small but exciting announcement to make. There's new merch available in the shop. Sort of. I've had this idea in my head for a while now of a dogman terrorizing couples on Lovers Lane, overlooking the city of Los Angeles, the birthplace of this program. I hemmed and hawed over the design for quite a while before it finally became a reality. I recently reached out to one of our favorite paranormal artists, Jonathan Dodd, to commission this amazing piece of art. And I love all of our merchandise, but this one is easily my new favorite. Now, there is a minor catch to this, however. I wanted to announce this new shirt on the 10th anniversary episode. This episode. Because the entire design is a big nod to the show's history. You'll have to check out the image to appreciate all that. But making that announcement now is a a bit premature because we haven't got around to printing them just yet. So for right now, we're going to do a pre order on this amazing design. These babies should print in the next week or two. Then we'll get them out to you asap. So hit up our social media, visit the shop at monsters among us podcast.com and pre order one today. And a huge thanks to Jonathan Dodd for hooking us up. You guys have got to check this one out. Now. Speaking of eyeshine, this next one takes that phenomenon to a whole new level. Please welcome Tanya from Minnesota.
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Hi, this is Tanya. I'm from North Central Minnesota.
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Minnesota.
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I have a story that I have kind of kept to myself for years
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because those that I have told have
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kind of dismissed it. So typically what I would do is travel up to Itasca State park, which is the headwaters of the Mississippi River. I go there alone a lot and go for hikes.
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This was no different.
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I'd gone up there on a winter's day. I remember being particularly cold, probably roughly
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minus 15, 20 degrees because I was really bundled up that day. I spent the day there. But given it's Minnesota and given it
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was winter, the sun had gone down early.
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So I'd say this all took place
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maybe around 6 o' clock at night. On winter's night, I was driving home, still about 45 minutes from my home, since Itasca is about an hour and a half drive. I was on a small county road. I noticed up ahead of me was a big old pickup truck. And when I say old, I mean
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late 90s F150, I think. Single cab.
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And there was two men in the truck. I saw that they were both wearing baseball caps. They were driving suspiciously uncomfortably slow for the road conditions.
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The roads, you know, were spotty with
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ice, but nothing where you needed to drive 35 miles per hour like these men were doing. There was one point where I'd gotten
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kind of close to the back of the truck, given I was going a
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little faster, considering passing. And I got a strong intuitional feeling,
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but pretty grounded and logical.
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The thought that crossed my mind was,
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you shouldn't tailgate these guys.
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They're acting and driving suspiciously. They might have a gun or something
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C
because the vibe of how they were driving it stood out as different.
- [39:51]
A
So I remember pressing on my brakes and pulling back, definitely making sure I
- [39:56]
C
was not tailgating the vehicle.
- [39:58]
A
They continued to drive really so suspiciously slow for, I would say, a few miles. They finally put on their right blinker
- [40:08]
C
and that gave me my opportunity to be able to pass the truck.
- [40:13]
A
And they began to turn right.
- [40:16]
C
I began to speed up.
- [40:17]
A
And I turned my bright lights on.
- [40:20]
C
And when that happened, the passenger, ma',
- [40:23]
A
am, turned back, looking at me through the window of that single cab truck. And his eyes illuminated.
- [40:32]
C
I'm talking dead on. Exactly like if you saw a deer
- [40:37]
A
look at you or a cat in your headlight. This man, his eyes locked with mine
- [40:43]
C
as I passed their truck, and he glowed.
- [40:48]
A
The feeling that went through my body was absolute terror for a moment. And then it rushed into, like, curiosity. And then right away, logic, mind jumps
- [40:57]
C
in, is like, what was that? How is that biologically possible? I know I just saw that. And I do recall immediately calling my mom, just getting. It was so cold out, it was dark, and it was far from home. I called my mom, told her what I saw. Of course, she just dismissed it.
- [41:17]
A
Okay, you need to be driving safe on lunch.
- [41:19]
C
You blew off what I was saying.
- [41:22]
A
But it was so distinct and deliberate, this whole experience and their behavior and the correlation in my intuition. So I'm wondering if anyone else has had this experience, if this is something that's unique. Thank you so much, and I hope it makes it on the air so
- [41:38]
C
I can learn more.
- [41:42]
B
Thank you, Tanya. It sounds like. Like it was a good thing you decided not to pass that truck. Super creepy. Now, to play devil's advocate here. The human eye can glow under the right conditions. Now, it's not true. Eyeshine as most of us know it, which is caused by the tabitum lucidum, a thin reflective membrane found in some animals eyeballs. No, the glowing that you see in a human's eye, which is almost always red, is caused when light reflects off the blood vessels in the back of the eye. The eye shine is red because of the light bouncing off the blood. Now, this phenomenon is most commonly displayed as red eye in photographs, though I think most of that is eliminated these days. But it can also happen with other sources of light. Allow me to give you an example. Growing up, my neighbor tried to prank me all the time. And he did so one night after high school. You see, part of my chores involved bringing in firewood to heat the house overnight. And naturally, given that it was winter, it was dark outside when I went to do so. Well, Frank saw me headed for the woodshed and decided to try to scare me. But luckily, I heard him rustling in the leaves and lit him up with my bright flashlight. And though his surprise was ruined, he still got the scare that he was after because his eyes were glowing bright red like a werewolf's or a vampire's in the flashlight's light. But when I turned the flashlight off, it was all back to normal. So that's one possibility here, Tanya. Of course, something supernatural could be another. Thank you again for sending in this unsettling encounter. Now, folks, if you don't mind, I need to take another quick break, but I'll be right back with our friend the Mothman right after. Relate to any of those nerds on that show.
- [44:00]
C
I know it's a legendary show, but.
- [44:06]
B
Now, as promised, I have a Mothman tale to share with you. Please welcome Ellen from Canada.
- [44:16]
A
Hi, Derek. My name is Ellen. I'm calling from Vancouver. I just wanted to share a page from a notebook from when I was 7 years old that I discovered the other day cleaning out some old bins. And I was going through it, and on one page of this journal, I wrote about the Mothman, apparently. So this was in 2003, May 18th, when I wrote this, I was seven years old. Obviously, there's some spelling errors, so this is just what I think I'm trying to say. So it goes, this is the Mothman story. And when he calls, he says, 2, 4, 8, 5, and your eyes will bleed. And I saw a red light in the bush because he has red eyes. What is that? Behind. He's behind me. Help. So I was obviously really creeped out by this because I obviously listen to podcasts like yours, which I love, and Mothman is a cryptid that I didn't know existed until, you know, maybe last year. And I grew up in a family not interested in horror, you know, movies, not interested in super scary stories, really. So I don't know how I would have come across this story. I wasn't really around any older people that could have told this to me at the time. So, yeah, it creeps me out. And I'll send in a picture as well of the page that I've drawn, the Mothman and me, and it looks like he's pulling my hair from behind me. And it just is creepy that, you know, it's not like I just made up a story about a Mothman who had pretty moth wings or something. Like, it's the Mothman with the red eyes. So I'm really curious if anyone out there knows what the 248-35-55, if that has any, like, relevance to the story of Mothman. Yeah, this is a mystery to me, and I thought you might get a kick out of it. Thanks for everything. Take care.
- [46:47]
B
Thanks, Ellen. You know, the Mothman prophecies movie came out a little over a year before Ellen wrote her Unnerving observations. So perhaps she simply saw the trailer somewhere and somehow that inspired her to create these writings. But where did the 2485 come from? And what does it mean? You see, that movie Mothman Prophecies has a few key scenes that also involve random numbers. Now, this isn't a spoiler because it's in the title, but we learned that these numbers aren't random. They're actually premonitions. So maybe it's that. Does 2485 mean anything to you? Well, we weren't able to find anything of note in our search other than this. United Britannia Airlines Flight 2485 crashed, killing almost everyone on board. But there are two interesting tidbits to this coincidence. First, Ellen claimed that she wrote the number in 2003, and the crash occurred roughly in 2005. Or at least that's when details about it were first aired. But the most important detail here is where it aired. On a television program called Supernatural. The plane crash was a plot detail in season one, episode four. Apparently, a demon was the cause of the carnage. I've actually never seen it, but outside of that, your guess is as good as mine. Alan, we didn't find anything else connecting us with this number, but I can say this is all very interesting and we thank you again for the call. Now, up next, another anonymous entry, so please welcome them to the program.
- [48:45]
C
Hey, Derek, I'm coming on here as anonymous. My story takes place in San Bernardino, California. It's not about me, it's about my mom. So my stepdad, when he was a young boy living in Corcoran, California, he played some board game, and it wasn't the Ouija board, but, you know, he played with some of his friends and weird stuff was happening. He didn't think it was real, but, you know, a couple months passed by and he gets, like, sleep paralysis. And he's around 16 at this time, and the more he's experiencing it, he's starting to see something crawl onto him at night. Like a dark figure, like a human figure, but crawling onto his bed. And basically where he can't talk, he can't move, but he can open his eyes and look left to right. And then out of nowhere, it'll just stop. He grows up more. He meets my mom. He's my stepdad. And this is almost near Christmas time in 2016. And my mom's sleeping, and she gets woken up just out of nowhere. But when she wakes up, she sees this humanoid figure crawl onto her bed towards her. And it starts, like, suffocating her. But she can't move her wrists, she can't move her arms, her legs, nothing. She can only look left and right. And, you know, it was going on for so long. When she woke up, she had a big gas of air. Like she just went swimming and held her breath for so long. My stepdad woke up and she told him what happened and that's when he told her everything. Like, I experienced this too. But she calls this, you know, figure his little friend because it's been around for so long and it doesn't affect him anymore. My mom ended up getting someone to come over and, you know, put candles around the house, bless the house, but, you know, it's only happened once to her. She says it happens to him every, you know, a few months maybe. But I just think it's kind of crazy living in a house where that's happened to two people. And I haven't experienced it yet. Knock on wood. But love listening to your podcast. Keep doing what you do. Thank you.
- [51:01]
B
Thank you, caller. Well, what do you think here, folks? Incubus? Succubus? Old hag? More little people? The twinde? Or simply sleep paralysis? Whatever it was, caller, I agree it is weird that two separate people had the exact same encounter. Weird indeed. Now, thank you again for telling us all about it.
- [51:32]
C
Just like that, we're gonna tell you
- [51:33]
B
who he is coming up,
- [51:37]
C
waiting for the tow truck there and stop and go from Wilmington Avenue.
- [51:44]
B
All right, gang, I have a couple left to share with you here this evening, but before we dive back in, we've accomplished a lot here on the program. And given that this is the 10 year anniversary special, I figured now would be a good time to share some of those milestones. For instance, there have been 562 episodes. This episode marks the 563rd. That's main feed episodes only, not counting the 50 or so stand Alone beyond episodes. Now, if you were to listen from start to finish, season one, episode one to this episode, it would take you roughly 23 days to get through them all. Now, our show has been downloaded over 150 million times since it first aired in 2016. And our most popular episode of all time on Apple podcast is season 12, episode 5, Texas Sasquatch. More alien abduction and a devilish hitchhiker. You know, I'm not sure why that one's so popular. And the most popular episode of all time on Spotify is the original season one, episode one, the very first episode. Now, the MAU campout season 19, episode 24 was a close second we will bring back that special episode in July, so be sure to send me your camping stories. And of course, we've had thousands of people call in their stories over the years. Now, I don't have a good way to actually configure exactly how many, but trust me when I say a lot of you have contributed, and we truly appreciate that. Now, that's enough stats for now. So let's get back into the action, beginning with Dee's entry out of Idaho.
- [53:52]
C
Hey, Derek, this is D. Out of Idaho. This story actually takes place down in Arizona. This happened four days ago. I was up in the White Mountains of Arizona, elk hunting with my uncle up by a little town called Alpine, just south of Springerville. And this happened just about a mile north of a place called Halsey Lake, just by Esquadilla Mountain. And the best way I can use to describe it is a bipedal wolf. There are Mexican wolves in the area, but this was a bipedal wolf, not a wolfman. Not like a Beast of Bray Road thing, but like a bipedal wolf. It's like that one image of the supposed beast of Bray Road, where it's literally just a wolf walking on two legs and it has, like, that skeleton arm. But this was just a wolf walking on two legs, and it was terrifying. I mean, obviously that's not something that should happen in nature, but it wasn't like, you know, this is paranormal. I mean, unless this is some kind of wolf creature from Arizona that I'd never heard of. I couldn't think of this being a, like, wolfman thing. Like, this is not the movie on monster, which is a Sasquatch type thing. This was just a bipedal wolf. My initial thought was that it was a wolf with, like, an injured paw or something. That was after I gotten over the shock of seeing this thing. But, like, this was the first time that I had seen or heard of something like that in the White Mountains. Like, the Mogollon Monster is not said to be down there. There's no known records that I could find of a bipedal wolf. I mean, unless it's like a skinwalker of some kind, which it could be. The Navajo reservation is a few hundred miles away, but I've never heard of a skinwalker that has transformed into a wolf or a coyote or whatever.
- [56:04]
B
Thank you, D. I know exactly which photo you're talking about, and here is the backstory on it. On January 29, 2020, Danny Morgan was driving down Weeks Road, which is a mile away from Bray Road. And he claims he encountered and took a photograph of a wolf walking on its hind legs. Now the photograph has been shared thousands of times, but it's widely believed to be fake. And you know, it's not hard to see why. As D mentioned, one of the front legs is literally skeletal, nothing but bone and the figure is rigid. It doesn't look like an animal that's alive and flexible. My guess is that it's a frozen road killed coyote that was stood up and photographed. It certainly gets cold enough for that kind of thing up there. Anyhow, the photo is in the show notes if you want to take a look. And if what you saw d looked anything like what's in this photograph, I'm sorry you had to experience that. But we thank you again for thinking of us and for calling it. And folks, that takes us to tonight's final entry, another Midwest monster now staying in the state of Wisconsin. Please welcome the following anonymous scholar
- [57:35]
C
hello. It took me a while to actually want to call and share my story just because it sounds so incredibly odd. And I have a hard time telling people because I don't know if they actually believe me or not. But I myself, I'm originally from Yellowstone National Park. I moved out to good old Wisconsin near Elmwood. Anyhow, we were on our way home from a football game and it was probably about maybe 12:30, quarter to 1 in the morning. It was very late and I always want to make sure that my eyes are out for any type of deer that come running out of, in this case any type of the corn. And as I'm driving it just so happened that something in the middle of the cornfield when my headlights hit it, at first it looked like a pole. I've never seen it in the field before. And as I'm staring at this thing, the head of whatever this was turned around and it looked in my direction but it was so far off I couldn't see like facial features or anything like that. And I thought maybe I was going crazy because keep in mind that the corn is at least six and a half, seven feet tall. You could see the shoulders and the overall the head of whatever this was and the body itself kind of had a sheen of some sort almost best way to describe it is like what frog skin looks like. And I know it wasn't a frog and I know it wasn't a fool. And again, growing up in Yellowstone National Park, I know what a bear looks like. I know what a deer looked like, an elk, etc. I have never seen anything like this before. I Have no clue what the heck that thing was. And as I'm looking at this thing and I'm going by it, I have to be going at least 45, 50 miles an hour. I was like, no, there's no way that I'm seeing this. And I have three girls. My daughter's about 10, 11 year old. And all of a sudden, they start screaming at the top of their lungs. They're like, oh, my God, Dad. Oh, my God, what is that? I'm getting goosebumps as I'm telling the story. So I did what anybody else would do. I slammed on my brakes. And the curious person that I am, I put it in reverse. You know, I probably went back a good maybe 20ft to see what it was. And as I'm trying to get it back into my headlights, it seemed to have maybe bend over or. I don't know. The curious person that I am. Again, I had a bottle of a Gatorade that I had bought at the football game, and I got out of the vehicle. Yeah, I know, Kind of a moron. I threw it in the direction of whatever this was, thinking maybe I might be able to get flushed out or get a better look at what it was. But as I'm doing that and I threw it, the girls are still screaming at me, dad, get in the car. Dad, get in the car. So I get back into my vehicle, I drive home, and we're maybe four or five minutes away from home. And being so late, my dogs are a little skittish, and if they hear a car pull up, you know, they bark just to let us know that somebody's on the property. So we get inside the house, everything's good. I go upstairs, I'm getting my situated, and the girls are doing their things. We're probably home for maybe a good 10, 15 minutes, and all of a sudden, the dogs are barking again downstairs. I'm like, what the heck's going on? I was like, oh, I bet you they left their coats or something in the car and they went back to go get it. You know, I didn't even really think about it. I get up early in the morning. That was a Friday night. So I'm getting ready for work. And as I'm leaving my house out in the middle of nowhere, that bottle of Gatorade was sitting on my deck. And if I tell you I'm even telling you this story right now, my. I'm, like, literally sick to my stomach even thinking about it. Anyhow, I just wanted to share my story and thank you again.
- [61:46]
B
Thank you, caller. What a way to cap off the 10 year anniversary special. It brought the bottle back, which means it can remember, which means it can carry things, which means it knows where our collar lives. I want to think this is some sort of prank. I hope that it was some sort of prank. Maybe some high school kids in some sort of makeshift costume out in the corn fields messing around. Maybe they recognized our collar. And when he tossed the bottle, they saw the perfect opportunity to take the prank one step further. And I'll admit it's a good one if that's how it all went down. A prank of epic proportions. But there are a lot of ifs there. And we already know the state of Wisconsin to be a hotbed for unidentifiable creatures. So could this have been another of those? The Dogman or the Beast of Prey Road? As we just discussed, there have been several accounts of that creature holding, carrying roadkill. So I suppose it would be possible the creature could carry the bottle back to our caller's house. But given the exact location of this rather unusual encounter. Elmwood, Wisconsin. I think I have another suspect to add to the lineup. Aliens. And that's not just a guess in the dark. There's long been an alien presence in and around this tiny badger state town. Or at least that's how the story goes.
- [63:34]
C
Elmwood, Wisconsin. Population 820.
- [63:38]
B
It's a village in Pierce county and one of three towns that claim to be the UFO capital of Wisconsin. That's because since the 1970s, there have
- [63:47]
A
been many reported sightings of unidentified flying
- [63:50]
B
objects in the sky.
- [63:52]
C
The most famous sightings happened in 1975
- [63:54]
B
and 76 when police officer George Wheeler reported seeing multiple UFOs near the rock quarry just outside of town. That caused more people to take notice.
- [64:05]
C
People started talking about it because why?
- [64:07]
A
Why would an officer have any. He doesn't have anything to get. His whole reputation is at stake now.
- [64:13]
C
Elmwood celebrates its unique encounters with the
- [64:16]
B
unknown with the UFO Days festival every year in late July.
- [64:20]
C
In addition to community shows and festival
- [64:23]
B
events, UFO Days also includes tours of different sighting locations in the area.
- [64:28]
C
We're not state football players every year.
- [64:30]
B
We're not state basketball players every year. So that's.
- [64:35]
C
That would be our clinical claim to
- [64:36]
A
fame, would be that the UFO sightings in our. In our town celebration.
- [64:44]
B
Now that clip courtesy of WQOW, ABC News, 18 out of Eau Claire, home to the Moose Lady. So there you have it. Could it have been one of the pilots of these many UFOs that are seen in that area. Whatever it was caller, I'm so glad you decided to share it here with us. An instant classic, no doubt. Alright folks, this is where I leave you for now. I'll be back here on Thursday with a brand new installment, so be sure to tune in then. But before I go, this has been a wild ride. Putting this show together the past 10 years has been been a pleasure, a challenge and a life changing experience. So on behalf of my team and myself, thank you so much for helping to make that happen. Now if you've enjoyed any part of this ten year run, please pay it forward and join us on the Beyond. It's a small price to pay for a ton of extra content. Trust me, there's a lot. Or you can pick something up from the shop. The new T shirt design would look pretty rad on you, I must say. Or you can share the program with someone that you know, get them hooked. The way I've structured this thing means we have to continuously bring in new listeners to ensure that new stories come in, so sharing the program is the best way to make sure that happens. However you support us, we thank you. Now, 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. Follow our social media accounts, join us on YouTube, join our Discord server and leave us a rate and review wherever that sort of thing is possible. Don't forget that every Saturday evening at 10 o' clock you can catch us on the ONX digital network. Just visit onxnetwork.com to check it out. Now tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu, Apocalypse co agmusic and Carl Casey and White Bat Audience now watch the movie borregotriangle.com join us in the Beyond Monsters Among Us podcast.com and click the beyond tab and check out monsters among us Junior every other Wednesday. All right gang, it's 10 years in the bag and here's to at least 10 more. Cheers. Thank you. Keep it spooky and have a great night.
- [68:02]
C
Sam.