Transcript
Mr. Ballin (0:00)
You think you're safe when you're at home, but today's two stories prove you might not be. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called who's Out There? And it's about a woman's worst nightmare that unfolds at a cabin in the woods. And the second and final story you'll hear is called Denver Spider man, and it's about a very unsettling secret that was found inside of a locked house. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast, because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, the next time the follow button is Looking to adopt a pet, Tell them you just rescued a puppy and you'd love for them to take it. But don't tell them when you say puppy, you actually mean enormous saltwater crocodile. Okay, let's get into our first story called who's Out There?
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Mr. Ballin (2:23)
On the night of October 17, 2019, a 47 year old woman named Ada Quintal stepped out of her family's cabin in rural Michigan to take her dog for a walk and have a smoke. It was very late. It was about 1:30 in the morning. Now this cabin where she was staying was very isolated. It was about a half mile away from any neighbors. But Ada actually enjoyed the solitude. You know, she was surrounded on all sides by forest and swamps. And the wilderness actually made Ada feel a lot safer than when she was back home in the densely populated Detroit area where she lived full time. And this was because just a few months earlier, when she had been back home in Detroit, she had been the victim of an unprovoked attack. She had been out in the city, around all these people in broad daylight, and this guy came up to her and just jumped her, broke her nose, gave her a concussion, and then ran off. But the scariest part of this attack was not the fact that she had been brutalized. It was that this guy did not appear to have any reason to attack her. He didn't know Ada and Ada had not been robbed or anything. It was like he just randomly identified her and attacked her. And the guy had never been caught. And so this ordeal had had such a profound impact on Ada that it really began to affect her health, both mentally and physically. She started to just kind of decline. And on top of that, she had been laid off from her engineering job. And so now she was unemployed and seriously depressed. And so recently, when Ada's uncle had called her and offered to pay her to come out and live in this two story family cabin and family fix it up for the winter, Ada had jumped at the chance. I mean, not only would this solve her unemployment issue, but also she loved this cabin. It had been in her family for 75 years, and some of her fondest childhood memories were in this cabin. And so she looked at this as a chance to kind of get away from the city and just be in her happy place and kind of reset and recover from the trauma of the attack. And so for the past week, Ada and her boyfriend had been staying in this cabin and doing small repairs and cleaning it up. But two days earlier, her boyfriend had had to leave and go back to the city where they were actually fixing up another property, a condo. And so now it was just Ada and her dog. But that was totally fine with Ada. She liked being out here by herself, so this was no big deal. But tonight she was feeling frustrated because she couldn't sleep. About an hour earlier, she had taken a pill to help her sleep, but so far it hadn't worked. And so she was feeling kind of wired and anxious. And so she had decided to go on a walk with her dog in hopes that that would clear her mind and allow her to finally get some rest. Now, these roads that surrounded this cabin were kind of small and zigzaggy. And, you know, there weren't any streetlights. I mean, this is not exactly a good place to go for a nighttime walk. But Ada knew this place like the back of her hand. And she also carried a 9 millimeter pistol in her pocket, you know, just for protection. And so after walking for a few minutes down one of these dark, winding roads, Ada's dog stopped to relieve himself on a bush. So as the dog was going to the bathroom, Ada just casually smoked and waited. But at some point, the dog just stopped going to the bathroom, turned slightly and began growling, and its ears perked up and it was looking off into the darkness right ahead of them. And so Ada instinctively took her flashlight and raised it up and aimed it in the direction her dog was looking. And right away, the cone of light illuminated these two eyes looking right back at Ada. And immediately, Ada knew what she was staring at. It was a mountain lion. And so, doing her best to stay calm, Ada slowly reached into her pocket to pull out her gun. But before pulling it out, the two eyes blinked shut. And then she heard it kind of turn and run off into the forest. It was gone. Once Ada was sure the mountain lion really was gone, she breathed a sigh of relief and then very quickly tugged on her dog's leash. They turned around and she hustled back towards the cabin. When Ada reached her cabin, which was all lit up because she had left all the lights on before she had left, she jumped up the front steps, she opened up the door, she went inside with her dog. And after letting her dog off the leash, she shut and locked the door. Then she grabbed her phone and texted her boyfriend to tell him about this mountain lion. And then after hitting send, you know, Ada felt relieved to be back in her cabin. But at the same time, she still felt very on edge. I mean, she had been, you know, just a few feet away from a mountain lion in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. But as Ada was doing her best to calm herself down, she heard this noise coming from outside the living room window, almost like twig snapping, like somebody was walking past the window. And so the way this cabin was set up is when you first walked inside, you were in the kitchen. And then the back half of the cabin was a living room. Then there were also stairs leading up to a second floor. But from in the kitchen, you had a clear line of sight into the living room, and vice versa. It was kind of like one big room with two functions. And so from where Ada was standing in the kitchen, she could clearly see the Window in the living room where this noise had kind of come through. But because the inside of the cabin was all lit up and the outside was dark, you know, from her perspective, all she could see was a reflection on that window. So to look outside that window, to see what had made that noise, she would need to get right up next to the window. And so, feeling pretty nervous at this point, she walked across the cabin. She made her way towards this window. And then she pressed her face right up against the glass to look outside. But all she saw outside was just darkness. I mean, there was nothing out there. And so Ada stepped back from the window and started to wonder if maybe the sound she had just heard was maybe that mountain lion. You know, maybe it followed her back here. You know, that was terrifying. But at least she was inside. But also, she was thinking to herself, you know, mountain lions are not known for being aggressive towards humans, and they wouldn't come up to her cabin like this and prowl around outside. That's just not what mountain lions do. But Ada didn't really have any other explanation. And so she told herself, you know, it's gotta be nothing. You know, there's nothing out there. This is a safe place. And so she kind of forgot about the noise, and she took off her coat and put her stuff down. And then she sat down on the couch in the living room, turned on the TV, and tried to relax. But only about 20 minutes later, when Ada had finally relaxed and was even thinking about getting into her bed and going to sleep, she heard another noise coming from that same window in the living room. And this time, when she looked up and looked out that window, despite the reflections inside the cabin, she could clearly tell there was something moving outside of her cabin. And it was definitely not a mountain lion. It looked like a man. And so Ada had to stifle a scream. And then instinctively, she lunged for her gun on the coffee table and then darted behind the couch and crouched down to make sure whoever was out there couldn't see her. And then, you know, with gun in hand, she began calling out to the person out there that, hey, I'm armed. If you come in here, I'm gonna shoot you. But it was just silence. And then Ada strained her ears to try to hear any sound that would give away where this person went. You know, were they still outside that window? Had they moved somewhere else? But all she could hear was the sound of the wind whipping outside and an owl hooting off in the distance. But then, right as Ada was starting to wonder, you know, Did I really see somebody out there? You know, is this all in my head? That's when she heard the distinct sound of footsteps on her front porch. And so again, Ada had to stifle a scream. And she darted to the other side of the couch, you know, preventing the person from the front of the house to seeing her. Now, then she grabbed her phone and she was dialing 911, and she was about to hit call when she stopped herself. And she began to wonder, am I just totally overreacting here? You know, I don't know if there's somebody out there. I could be hearing things or maybe it's just like an animal or something. And also, deep down, Ada knew that ever since that attack in Detroit that summer, that basically everything scared her. And she was starting to wonder if maybe she was just being totally paranoid and there was nothing going on. And she didn't want to embarrass herself by calling 911 and having them come out here and finding nothing. And so Ada decided she would call her boyfriend. And so she called her boyfriend. And as the phone is ringing, she's listening intently for any other footsteps outside, but she can't hear anything. And then her boyfriend, you know, he didn't pick up. It's also like 2:30 in the morning at this point. But her boyfriend doesn't answer. And so after that, she tries calling one of her friends. And her friend does pick up. And right away, Ada just began telling this friend about all the things that had happened that night. You know, from going out and seeing the mountain lion and then coming back in, hearing the sound, and now hearing the footsteps on the front porch. And, you know, she was worried that maybe she was just making it all. She was still really scared. And even though Ada was trying to be composed, as she was telling her friend, her voice began to crack and she began to cry because she really was scared. And the friend just said, look, I'm gonna call the police on your behalf. You know, it seems like it's worth having them come out just to make sure you're really okay. Give me the address and I'll tell them where to go. And so Ada would give her friend the address. But she told the friend, you know, thank you, but do not call right now. Just please stay on the phone for a minute and let me just do a quick investigation. Let me look out the windows, you know, and just really make sure that this is nothing before you call the. And so the friend said, you know, okay, you know, look around, but then I'm calling the police. And so with her phone and her gun in hand, Ada very carefully crept out from behind the couch, keeping a low profile, you know, staying below the sight line of all the windows. And she crept from the living room into the kitchen towards the front of the house. And she walked over to the sink and she very slowly raised her head until she could just barely peek through the window right above the sink that overlooked the front porch. Because remember, that was the last place she had heard sounds from the front porch. And so she very carefully peeks and looks out the window and there's nothing there. Nobody's on the porch. It's just empty dark forest. She's safe.