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Payne Lindsay
You're listening to a Tenderfoot TV podcast.
Rosetta Stone Advertiser
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Payne Lindsay
They told us it was a weather balloon. Just a glitch. It was a drone. Now it's just AI. I guess the explanation keeps changing, but the stories don' Videos appearing to show
Storyteller
UFOs flying through the air are real.
Payne Lindsay
My name is Payne Lindsay and this is High Strange, an investigative podcast about
Storyteller
real encounters, images of that rotating thing
Tenderfoot TV Announcer
captured by US Navy aircraft.
Payne Lindsay
Credible people.
Progressive Insurance Advertiser
We have clear things that we do
Payne Lindsay
not understand how they work. I talked to scientists, military witnesses, pilots and people who saw something they can't unsee.
Zach (Radio Rental Storyteller)
There is no other explanation for what
30 for 30 Narrator
we saw that day. I remembered those faces and they weren't human.
Payne Lindsay
This isn't a show about belief. It's about curiosity, skepticism, an investigation into the unknown. High Strange is available now. Wherever you listen to podcasts, listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hate waiting a week for the next episode of Radio Rental? Subscribe to Tenderfoot plus to get early access to episodes, ad free listening and even some bonus scary stories. Visit tenderfootplus.com for details.
Terry Carnation
Can't get enough of me, Terry Carnation? Then you're in luck because my face is all over some brand new merch. Go to Shop Tenderfoot TV to indulge
Tenderfoot TV Announcer
the following podcast includes scary stories with content that could be triggering to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
Terry Carnation
Take a break from the same old boring blockbusters and experience a new kind of movie night with Radio Rental. At Radio Rental, our videos come to life in your living room, defy all logic and reasoning, and make you question your own reality. This is not your ordinary video rental store. At Radio Rental, we carry one of a kind videos. So frightening, so mind bending.
Radio Rental Host
You.
Terry Carnation
You won't be able to sleep at night. You've gone Radio Rental.
Radio Rental Host
Hey, man. Welcome to Radio Rental. We're a video rental store. We rent videotapes, and we also have an exclusive collection of videotapes in the back. Oh, wait, that. That might give you the wrong idea. It's a very dark, horrific collection of tapes. Oh, wait, that. That was kind of worse and might also give you the wrong idea. They're all horror stories told by real people. Oh, wait, hold. Hold it. Hold it there a second. I. I know you. I recognize you. Why am I telling you this? You've already been here. Why didn't you tell me to stop? Now I'm. Whatever. Well, since you already know what's going on around here, why don't we get right into it? First tape. Ah. Ooh. What was. What did I just step on? Ow. Is that a Lego piece? Who's doing Legos in here? Weird. Anyway, here's the tape.
Storyteller
Well, I was 19 years old and I was living in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I was working for a funeral home in town. My entire job was the title was removal technician. So I was the person that went to crime scenes, houses, hospitals, and picked up people that had passed away. So I went to all kinds of places any time of the day or night. I was the one that got sent to do it. Everywhere I went, I always had a co worker with me. I usually had one partner. So we did everything together. I went to work and we got a call about a person that had passed away a few cities over. We were the only ones available to take it. And it was just this little teeny, tiny town. We got there, and when we pulled up, there's a sheriff outside, which at most of these places where somebody's passed away, the police are there. We asked him, you know, give us the rundown, what's going on? He said, oh, you know, a deceased male, late 40s, early 50s, passed away in bed. His daughter is here to speak with you guys. Pretty clear cut, regular deal. We told him, you know, okay, sounds good. We should be able to handle it because usually Police officers don't really want anything to do with the dead bodies. They'll basically just say, you need help? You good? All right, I'm gonna head out. He went ahead and took off, and we went up to the door. A young woman answered the door. She was probably in her 20s. She seemed to be more so nervous than anything. Usually when the family answers the door, they're in tears. They're very upset. They're either extremely upset or numb. As soon as she opened the door, the smell just hit us. It hit me so hard. Usually that smell comes from a place when somebody has been deceased for a long time and they haven't been found, or the house has been closed up for a while, or it's been really hot outside and they're still in the house. I kind of just pushed it away because I've picked up people that had started to smell even an hour after passing away. So it wasn't a huge deal. So she let us into the house. There were candles burning. The windows were open. The AC was on. They were doing everything they could to try to get the smell out of the house, but it was just so strong that it was almost overbearing. The only other time I'd experienced that kind of smell was when I'd gone into, like, hoarder homes to pick up somebody that had passed away. So it was kind of unusual. And the house was very, very clean. She also had a young man with her that was her boyfriend, and then they had a young boy with them, which was their child. So we asked her, what's going on? How are you doing? What can we do to help? We're here to take care of your father. Just the basic rundown of things. I asked her, when was the last time you saw your father? Because I expected her to tell us that they'd been gone a while and had come home to find him. She said, I saw him last night at dinner. And that immediately made all my alarms go off. Because that kind of smell does not happen in less than 24 hours. My partner and I kind of looked at each other, tried to finish up our conversation with her, just to get an idea of what we're dealing with. He's down there in the hall in his bedroom. You can go ahead and get him. We gave them paperwork to sign. They didn't read it. They didn't look at it. They just signed it and gave it back. They just said, you know, he's dead. He's in there. Go get him. It didn't seem as though they wanted to say goodbye. It felt like they were worried about us being there. We headed down the hall, and as soon as we got away from the daughter and the boyfriend, my partner looked at me, and I could tell she was thinking the same thing I was. Something's not right. There's too many factors here. He couldn't have passed away 24 hours ago. As soon as we opened the bedroom door, all of our suspicions were correct. He had passed away on his bed, like she said. But he was extremely decomposed. He was purple, he had blisters, skin slip, all the regular things of decomposition. He had swollen pretty big. And there was a puddle under his body that was black and red, which is usually when bodies sit for a while, the body starts to break down. Obviously, it was pretty clear that she was not being truthful with both us and the police. I don't even know if the sheriff that had been there had gone in to see the body. I don't know if he just gave a quick look and brushed it off. As soon as. As we saw that, my partner, she and I both kind of started to panic. But we decided, let's just do our job. Let's get it done. Let's get out of here. Usually in our process, we have to use bed sheets. You have to use it as sort of a sling to carry the body onto the cot and get it out of the house. The bed he had passed away on had no bed sheets. So we had more in our van. And so my partner said, you go ahead and stay here. I'm going to go get the bed sheets. Our policy for the company was once we have come in contact with the body, we cannot leave it alone. One person always has to be there next to the body. I was begging her, please don't leave me here with this because I'm scared. You're scared? Don't leave me here. And she said, I'll be right back. Just stay here. She left to go get the bed sheets. And I'm just standing there in the room with this guy. And I can hear down the hallway, the woman and the man are whispering to each other. I don't know what they're saying, but they're talking really quietly. And I look over, and I can see them staring at me. And they stop speaking. It all of a sudden feels really, really scary. And I hear another noise to the other side of me. It's this low gurgling sound. That's actually pretty. With people that have passed away, that's usually the air escaping the lungs, soon after they pass away, not usually when they've been passed away for a while. On one side of me, I have these people whispering to each other, staring at me. And then the other side, I have this deceased man gurgling. It started to get louder and louder, making my ears ring almost. It was so loud, and I'm starting to panic because I don't know what to do. I'm freaking out, and my heart is racing in my chest. So I turn to leave the room, and as soon as I turn to leave the room, the door slammed shut. It slammed shut so loud that it made me jump. That was when I threw all my professionalism out of the window. I'm getting out of here. This is over for me. So I grabbed the door handle and I try to open the door, and it's jammed. It won't open. The noise is getting louder and louder. It just goes. The noise is sounding like it's coming up closer behind me. There's no way that this guy is getting up and coming near me, but it's getting louder to the point that I feel like it's right behind me. It felt as if whatever was in the room with me was telling me, get out right next to me. So I'm panicking. I'm freaking out. I'm trying my hardest to get the door open. As I'm trying to pull the door open, I can feel this presence just coming closer and closer and closer. And my whole body is getting hot. My heart is racing. I'm starting to sweat. It almost felt like I was ready to burst into tears because I was so afraid. I'm pulling on the door handle. I'm calling out shaking and banging on the door. And finally the door opens, and that's when my partner was standing behind it with the bed sheet. She had gone to get it. She's like, what's going on? What happened? And I said, did you shut the door? And she said, no. And I looked at the girlfriend and the boyfriend, and I said, did you guys shut the door? And they said, no. I just said, let's do it. Let's get out of here. Let's go. So we finally did what we needed to do. We got the man out of the house. We got back to the funeral home. As soon as we opened the body bag to start doing our examination, My boss walked in the room, and he looked at the guy and he was like, oh, this is a pretty bad decomp. He probably needs to go in the decomp cooler. And we said, well, it's not a decomp. According to the police as well as the family, they saw him last night at dinner. He just got the biggest shocked look on his face, and he was like, there's just no way. There's no way that this guy passed away last night. Don't touch him. Don't move him. Don't do anything with him. Leave it how it is and let me call some people. He got a hold of the county coroners. They had us zip up the body bag, put him back in the car, and take him straight to the morgue, just like we thought. He had been dead far longer than what they had said. They came to the conclusion that the girlfriend had been hiding her father's death for quite a while to try to live off of. I don't know if it was disability, Social Security, but her and her boyfriend had been living off of his paychecks and basically just couldn't live with the. The body in the house any longer. And that's when they finally called the police. I've tried to find the story. I've tried to find the town, the guy. I can't. The last I heard, they were under investigation. But, you know, at that point, we're just the people that pick up the bodies and take them where they need to go. I don't know how to explain the noise becoming so loud and overbearing with no reason for that to have happened. I felt like there might have been maybe something more. Maybe he was upset about the situation. Maybe he was angry with his daughter and her boyfriend about the situation. It just felt very different than other removals I've done. Picking up people that are gurgling or making noises. Whatever it happens, it's not necessarily unusual, but it's not very loud. It sounds almost like a gasp, like a whisper. It's not usually so loud that it's filling the room. You know, I've seen a lot of things. I've been through a lot of things with this job. I've seen things that are very scary. This was the first time doing my job that I genuinely felt afraid. It felt like being in a horror movie almost.
Radio Rental Host
Huh. Removal technician. I didn't know that was a job. They certainly didn't have that as a job option. At my high school job fair. I feel like I might like the job of a removal technician. And I don't. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to sound ungrateful, because, of course, I really value this job here at Radio Rental, but I think I'D be pretty well suited for that kind of a work environment because, like, I don't mind the smell of a dead body. I've never smelled a dead body, of course, but it wouldn't. And I would let's take a break for ads.
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Rosetta Stone Advertiser
Spring is finally here and it's that time of year when plans start becoming real. Trips are getting booked, the calendar is filling up and the energy is shifting. Make this season count. By starting right now, you'll hit summer already feeling more confident speaking and understanding a brand new language. Whether you're prepping for a dream vacation, reconnecting with your family heritage, or just finally checking learn a new language off your bucket list, Rosetta Stone is the way to go. They've been the trusted leader in language learning for over 30 years because they skip the boring stuff. There's no memorizing random vocabulary lists or leaning on chunky translations. Instead, their intuitive method helps you naturally absorb the language by connecting words and visuals to real world meaning. It's about learning in context the way language was actually meant to be learned. As a trusted expert with millions of users, Rosetta Stone offers 25 different languages, including Spanish, French, German, Japanese and more. It really the ultimate tool for genuine growth. Ready to start learning a new language this spring? Visit rosettastone.comRs10today to explore Rosetta Stone and choose the language that's right for you. Go to Rosetta Stone.com RS10Now and begin your language learning journey. Spring is finally here and it's that time of year when plans start becoming real. Trips are getting booked, the calendar is filling up and the energy is shifting. Make this season count. By starting right now, you'll hit summer already feeling more conf and understanding a brand new language. Whether you're prepping for a dream vacation, reconnecting with your family heritage or just finally checking Learn a new language off your bucket list Rosetta Stone is the way to go. They've been the trusted leader in language learning for over 30 years because they skip the boring stuff. There's no memorizing random vocabulary lists or leaning on chunky translations. Instead, their intuitive method helps you naturally absorb the language by connecting words and visuals to real world meaning. It's about learning in context the way language was actually meant to be learned. As a trusted expert with millions of users, Rosetta Stone offers 25 different languages, including Spanish, French, German, Japanese and more. It really is the ultimate tool for genuine growth. Ready to start learning a new language this spring? Visit rosettastone.comRs10today to explore Rosetta Stone and choose the language that's right for you. Go to rosettastone.com RS10 now and begin your language learning journey.
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Radio Rental Host
Okay, we're back. I'm just still wondering what a dead body might smell like because I wouldn't know. Not me. No way. That'd be weird. Let's pop on in another tape.
Zach (Radio Rental Storyteller)
This was in mid to late 90s. I was a kid at the time and this house. This wasn't the first time anything creepy had happened. This was something that happened for me countless times. This would always happen in my room at night. I would be going to sleep and I would hear voices outside my room. It would happen right before I fell asleep every night and it just became a regular fixture of living in that room in that house. I guess to really understand this you would have to understand the layout of the house a little bit better because my room was completely separated from all the other rooms. Mine was on the far end next to the dining room and there was this little alcove area where all these things would happen there. The windows would open and shut on their own or the TV would turn on and off I would be going to sleep in my room, and there would be people talking in that little alcove area. And it would happen around midnight every night. One night, for whatever reason, my brother needed to stay in my room. This is the first time that he had ever stayed in there. When we were in that house, I had already fallen asleep pretty quickly, but he had stayed up. And then I woke up to him shaking me. He was really bothered by what he was hearing. Zach, there are people outside your room. I just brushed it off because this was normal for me. And I just told him to go back to sleep. I just told him it was normal. And he kept shaking me because I was trying to go back to sleep. He was like, zach, there are people outside the room talking. That's not normal. And I just ignored him. But he couldn't ignore it. He got up and he decided that he was going to leave the room and go back to his. He gets to the door and he's scared because he realizes this is right outside the door. So he pauses and just hesitates there. But this had happened for me every night, so felt like I had something to prove. So I got up and I opened the door. All the voices that were outside just stopped. And there was no one there. Just a second ago, where there was a group of people talking where they were every night, there was no one. My brother ran back to his room upstairs. I closed the door, laid back down to go to sleep. Not long after, the voices started again, mumbling to each other. Group of four or five people. But it was just another night for me, and I fell back asleep. I had been through that so many nights that I had gotten used to it. And I would just lay in bed, and at first I would just pull the blanket over my head and ignore it. But after enough nights of nothing bad happening, you just forget that it's as abnormal as it is. The voices, it was hard to make them out. It was a group of people, maybe four or five people, just talking. And I remember laying in bed night after night, trying to make out what they were talking about, but it was indecipherable. Not like a different language, more like just gibberish. And I thought maybe it was my sisters, but they were all male voices. It didn't take long for me to realize that this wasn't and anybody that I knew. I thought maybe it was someone that was invited over, but it was really late at night. Didn't make sense. I think it started not long after we moved in the first time. It Happened. I was so scared that I did the same thing my brother did. I stood in front of the door, thinking I was gonna leave and I was gonna run over to the other side of the house, to my mom's room and tell her what was happening. But I stood at the door, and it was easier to hear. There still didn't make any sense, But I was afraid that if I opened the door, something would happen to me before I made it to my mom's room. So I didn't. I just waited in there. I don't remember falling asleep that night. I think I just stayed awake the whole time. And then that happened the next night. It was a nightly occurrence. It was just something I got used to. It made it impossible for me to think it was. That it was something that I should just ignore. And when I tried to bring it up to my mom, she just brushed it off. So every time I laid in bed, I knew that whatever I was experiencing, I was alone for. And then it turned into a knocking at my door. The first time that happened, it woke me up. And I thought it was my mom or my brother. And I waited there for them to say something, to say my name. But they didn't. They just started knocking again. And I laid there as quietly as I could, thinking that if they could hear me breathe and if they knew that I was there, that I'd be in danger. The knocking on my door eventually turned into knocking inside my closet. That one was harder to ignore. One night before I would usually go to bed, me and my brother got into a fight. He was mad. And he locked me inside that closet. I was screaming at him, telling him to let me out. And I tried to pull on the handle of the door. It wouldn't open. I told him. He let me out. That he didn't know what was inside that closet. I was terrified. And I got on the floor and I put my hands over my ears because I could hear scratching on the walls. I could feel scratching on my body. And the next thing I knew, my mom had opened the door because I was screaming. And she dragged me out. And she was mad. I was covered in blood. And she asked me why I had been scratching myself. She didn't believe me when I told her. She experienced the same kind of things in that house. She had no reason not to believe me. She just didn't want to. It was easier to ignore. And inside that closet, on the wall, was my name scratched into the wallpaper. I got in trouble for that, too. Things would go missing in that house, you would put something down, and then when you would turn around, it would just immediately be gone. You could be alone in the house, and you'd hear people walking upstairs. You'd hear doors open and shut on their own, sometimes just slam. We eventually found where everything was going. This had gone on for years, things going missing in that house. Sometimes it was small stuff like a pair of scissors. Other times it was a whole chair would be missing from the dining room. And then one day, years after we had moved in, upstairs in my sister's room, the wall collapsed because it had gotten so full of things that I couldn't hold it all anymore. And everything that had gone missing was inside that wall in this little room that had been walled off. And there was stuff that went missing while we lived there, but before us, too, those old things in there. And eventually they got rid of all the stuff. And you could see that it was this small room with this wallpaper, like. Like it was a child's room. We have no idea why it was walled off, but my sister wouldn't stay in that room anymore. We just kept that door locked until we move.
Radio Rental Host
Holy smokes. A child's room in your walls. That's gnarly. This is why I don't live in a house. Never have. Live in an rv. Grew up in a van. No basement, no attic. Way more protected. You know, I don't think it's that weird to hear whispers, though. I mean, everyone here is the wheel whispers, right? Everyone hears the whispers.
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Radio Rental Host
if
Storyteller
you're early in your career and looking
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for insight, inspiration and honest advice, listen
Storyteller
to the Capital Ideas Podcast.
Progressive Insurance Advertiser
Hear from Capital Group professionals about leaning
Storyteller
into the differences that make you unique, making decisions that last, and what it means to lead with purpose.
Progressive Insurance Advertiser
The Capital Ideas Podcast from Capital Group.
Storyteller
Available wherever you listen.
Payne Lindsay
Published by Capital Client Group, Inc.
Radio Rental Host
Well, it was nice to see you again. Oh, damn, another Lego. This one's yellow. Malika, are you. No, that doesn't make any sense. Kitty cats don't build Legos. Well, anyways, thanks. Thanks for stopping by Radio Rental. We'll see you next week. I'm sorry, did you. Did you just say something? Oh, no. Yeah. No, no. Nothing. All right, never. Never mind. I'll see it. See you around the block. Part lock Party.
Zach (Radio Rental Storyteller)
Bye.
Tenderfoot TV Announcer
Radio Rental is created by Payne Lindsay and brought to you by Tenderfoot. TV showrunner is Meredith Stedman. Lead producers are Eric Quintana and Steven Perez. Executive producers are Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright. This episode is hosted by Tony Cavallaro. Writing by Meredith Stedman. Original score by Makeup and Vanity set with additional score by Jay Ragsdale. Sound design, mix and master by Steven Perez and Cooper Skinner. Editing by Eric Quintana, Sean Nurney, Stephen Perez, Meredith Stedman and Cooper Skinner. Our production manager is Jordan Fox. Foxworthy. Cover artwork by Trevor Iler and Rob Sheridan. Radio Rental merchandise by Byron McCoy. To shop radio rental merch, visit Shop Tenderfoot TV. Special thanks to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, as well as the Nord Group and the team at Odysee. If you have a Radio Rental story that you'd like to share, please email us at yourscarystorygmail.com or contact us via the form Odyssey. Our website radiorentalusa.com follow us on Instagram at radiorental. On behalf of the RadioRental store, we'd love it if you'd subscribe. Rate and review. As always, thanks for listening.
30 for 30 Narrator
From espn's 30 for 30 podcast. This is murder at the u.
Storyteller
Did you say Someone got shot?
30 for 30 Narrator
November 2006 A college football star on his way to NFL dreams. Gunned down in broad daylight, his bone crying.
Zach (Radio Rental Storyteller)
And he said, coach, they killed him.
30 for 30 Narrator
No weapon, missing witnesses, conflicting accounts, and for years, no arrest.
Storyteller
She insinuated that the Miami PD had done nothing.
Terry Carnation
And it became a little bit more accusatory.
30 for 30 Narrator
The case goes cold, rumors spread, and the truth gets buried. Until now.
Zach (Radio Rental Storyteller)
This world could come crashing down. According to him, it was over the ending.
30 for 30 Narrator
Something no one saw coming. Because this story isn't over yet. From ESPN's 30 for 30 podcast, this is Murder at the U. Binge the fool season right now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Date: April 17, 2026
Host: Payne Lindsey, Terry Carnation
Podcast Brand: Tenderfoot TV & Audacy
Episode 102 of Radio Rental dives deep into the unnerving territory of real-life horror, featuring two chilling first-person stories: one from a funeral home “removal technician” faced with gruesome decomposition and inexplicable fear, and one recalling persistent, unexplainable voices and vandalized walls in a childhood home. Radio Rental’s cult-classic format blends deadpan humor, 80’s-tinged nostalgia, and authentic oral history, all set inside a fictional video rental store that “makes you question your own reality.”
Story Begins: [05:13]
Storyteller: Anonymous removal technician, age 19, based in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The Setup:
Initial Red Flags & Unsettling Environment:
“That kind of smell does not happen in less than 24 hours.” ([06:54])
Discovery of Advanced Decomposition:
Escalation of Fear & Supernatural Sensation:
“It started to get louder and louder, making my ears ring...it just goes. The noise is sounding like it's coming up closer behind me.” ([12:44])
Aftermath and Investigation:
“There's just no way. There's no way that this guy passed away last night.” ([16:12])
“This was the first time doing my job that I genuinely felt afraid. It felt like being in a horror movie almost.” ([17:35])
Notable Moments & Quotes:
Story Begins: [22:51]
Storyteller: Zach (frequent Radio Rental contributor), recounting childhood experiences in the 1990s.
Recurring Nighttime Voices:
Normalization of the Paranormal:
"After enough nights of nothing bad happening, you just forget that it’s as abnormal as it is.” ([26:16])
Escalation: Knocking, Scratching, and Closet Terror:
“I could hear scratching on the walls. I could feel scratching on my body. And the next thing I knew, my mom had opened the door...I was covered in blood. And she asked me why I had been scratching myself.” ([29:07])
The Hidden Child’s Room & Vanishing Objects:
“Upstairs in my sister's room, the wall collapsed because it had gotten so full of things...everything that had gone missing was inside that wall...You could see that it was this small room...like it was a child’s room.” ([32:15])
Emotional Fallout:
Notable Moments & Quotes:
Throughout, the show’s trademark humor and meta-commentary support the atmosphere:
The store’s quirky “host” and the presence of Terry Carnation inject both comic relief and a satirical lens on the rental-shop setting between stories.
Episode 102 exemplifies Radio Rental’s unique blend of suspense, authenticity, and humor—delivering true tales that blur the lines between chilling folklore and disturbing reality. The stories this week both highlight how the unknown—and the unexplainable—can lurk not just in remote cemeteries or abandoned houses, but right in the routines of daily life.
For fans: This episode underscores why Radio Rental remains a cult favorite: it’s not just the scares, but the deeply personal experiences, told in the words and voices of those who lived them, all refracted through an atmosphere that’s spooky, nostalgic, and a little bit tongue-in-cheek.