Loading summary
Transcript57 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hey, this is Dane and this is Scary Stories and Rain. Please join my family and follow this podcast on Spotify or Apple. And if you want the ultimate experience.
- [00:10]
B
You can get rid of all of.
- [00:11]
A
The ads and be entered to win all of my giveaways every month by subscribing for just $2.99 a month. All of the ads gone, every single giveaway automatically entered. And starting now, today, every Sunday, I'm going to Release the Ultimate Episode 76 to 12 hours long Ultimate Scary Stories.
- [00:31]
B
For a Rainy Night.
- [00:33]
A
Subscriber Exclusive and as a reminder, we are now four months away from my first movie release in theaters. Gale Yellow Brick Road A dark and terrifying reimagining of the wizard of Oz. If you want to check out the first trailer, click the link in the description to this episode and if you're not following my other two podcasts, please go check them out. Scary Stories and Fire and Scary Stories After Dark. The links are in the description thank you so much for being here and I really hope you enjoy this episode.
- [01:10]
B
I have taken my yearly journey to the woods to hunt since I was 14. Last year started just as every other one before had, but it would end much earlier and in a very different way than usual. Despite the weather being too warm for hunting, I was out at dawn on opening day. Like always, as the season drags on, the deer get more skittish, so starting as early as you can increases your chances. On the lease I had been hunting on for the past seven years, I had a small handful of preferred spots and this is where I was heading. This spot was a tree stand setting roughly 30ft high in an old oak that looked out across one of our three feed plots. I had had good luck there more than once and hoped to have it again. The drive out to the stand took about 15 minutes from my cabin, so I left an hour before dawn. I wanted to be on the stand just as the first bit of light broke. As usual, I parked my four wheeler about 50 yards away and walked the rest of the way in. I'm not sure if it makes any real difference, but not making a bunch of noise right next to where I'd be hunting seems like a wise idea, so it's a practice I try to remember to do each time I hunt. Although I had been up over an hour and had a couple of cups of coffee, I was probably a little groggy. I have never been a mornings type of guy and once I retired I have gotten up when I woke up no certain time, so I slung my rifle onto my back and began to climb. About three steps from the top with the seat in sight, one of my feet slipped from the ladder and I fell about 25ft onto my back. Somehow, my rifle ended up next to me rather than under. There was no pain at first, so I figured I would just get up and dust myself off.
- [03:15]
A
However, I discovered very quickly that at.
- [03:18]
B
Least one, if not both, legs were broken. As I sat up to examine my legs, pain began shooting throughout my back and body. It appeared then that in addition to broken legs, I had a major back injury. My usual high pain tolerance was letting me down and the adrenaline was beginning to wear off. I knew in a matter of minutes I was going to be screaming in pain. I began feeling for my phone and soon found it in my chest pocket. Luckily, I didn't land on my chest right. Being out in the middle of nowhere, it didn't necessarily mean there wouldn't be any cell service. In my neck of the woods, cell towers are more common than trees. I dialed 911 and waited, but the call dropped. The pain was making me very nauseous and I was having a hard time concentrating. It took me a moment to realize I was going to need to move if I had any chance of getting help. I couldn't think of any other way, so I gritted my teeth and rolled over onto my stomach. The pain very nearly caused me to pass out, but the stars soon passed and I began pulling myself forward with my arms. I had made it around 15 yards before I was forced to take a break. Once I had pulled myself together, I tried to call 911 again, but it.
- [04:50]
A
Was a no go.
- [04:52]
B
I looked around and noticed I was still under the trees, but there was a clearing not far away. I gritted my teeth again and pulled myself toward it.
- [05:04]
A
I had to take a couple of.
- [05:05]
B
Breaks, but eventually I was in the open. I crossed my fingers and pressed send. The wait was agonizing, but it finally began ringing and I was connected to a dispatcher. The pain made the wait for help to arrive seem even longer, but because of my location and clear directions, they made it to me within 30 minutes. As I laid there, I watched the sunrise, thinking how beautiful a scene it was to see. I only wished it was under better circumstances. By the time I was released from the hospital a few days later, I would have two broken legs, a broken back, which really amounted to three smashed vertebrae, and a mild concussion. The legs would just have to heal with time, but with my back, I've had to have a couple of those vertebrae fused. That surgery was done just a few months before this year's hunting season started, and you can be sure I was there waiting for the sun to rise on the first morning. One thing has changed, however. For the time being, I'll be hunting from a blind on the ground. There's no way I'm going to go another year with an empty freezer. Back when it was originally released, I really, really wanted to get my hands on the new Xbox One X. You know the one?
- [06:49]
A
It was 4k ready with a considerably.
- [06:52]
B
Faster processor, so naturally I tried absolutely everything in my power to get one as immediately as I could. My local Walmart was having one of those Black Friday sales, and like so many others, I stood patiently in line waiting to try and beat the rush to grab one. But I was nowhere near sprightly or fortunate enough to actually get one that way. So after failing to get one in person, I then tried getting one online. But as rapidly as I wanted to own one, the the users who were reselling them were asking way, way too much money, and I simply couldn't afford to shell out double or sometimes triple the price. After weeks of trying to find a way to get a hold of one, I had to come to the conclusion that it just was not meant to be. It was then that I had something.
- [07:48]
A
Of a stroke of luck.
- [07:50]
B
Although I had resorted to Craigslist in my desperation, I did actually find someone that was selling their Xbox One X at no more than the original buying price of the console. Naturally, I was skeptical. For the life of me, I simply could not fathom why they would do something like that. But one thought overrode all others. If I didn't put in a bid now, someone else would and I could kiss my chance of owning a 1x goodbye. I immediately emailed the seller and let them know that I was very interested. Not only that, but I had the cash on hand and ready to go. I also offered to pay for gas or whatever it would take to get the console delivered to my door. I figured that would be a pretty appealing offer to someone who I guessed was just strapped for cash around the holidays. I was stunned to get an almost instant instantaneous response stating that they did still have the Xbox and were in fact still waiting for a proper bid from a serious buyer. They politely asked for a delivery address so they could bring it over as soon as possible. I was sort of hesitant to divulge such personal information and asked if it would be a better idea to first meet in public since it was much Safer that way. I'll be honest, I wasn't too pleased with the idea of a total stranger coming to my house. But he informed me that he was going to be very busy running holiday errands all day and that there would only be some pretty specific windows of opportunity to drop it off. It would be much more convenient for him if he was able to come over to my house. I was still not particularly ecstatic about the idea, but oh man, I really, really wanted that new 4K Xbox. So in the end I agreed and texted the dude my home address. I figured it was safer than me going over to his place. At least this way I would be on home turf. I was so happy and eager to get my hands on that new console. And that excitement only only grew as I began waiting for the guy to turn up. But he took his sweet time. I mean, hours and hours passed by before I began to suspect that he wasn't going to actually show around. One in the afternoon, four hours after he was due, I was seriously losing my cool. Thinking it was a prank or something, I tried texting the guy back, asking him where he was. Previously I had gotten pretty timely responses from the guy, but this time I didn't hear a single thing from him. By six o' clock that evening, I lost all hope. I assumed that he had gotten a better offer from someone else and didn't have the heart to tell me that he had picked a new buyer. I was disappointed. More than words can put possibly describe.
- [10:55]
A
I had gotten myself so psyched I.
- [10:58]
B
Can'T even tell you how deflated I was. It's one thing to not have gotten the item from the store. I could come to terms with that. But I was so close to having one in my hands. It sucked having my hopes dashed so cruelly like that. But that didn't mean I had given up entirely. So for the rest of the night I kept looking around on Craigslist and other sites to find a new Xbox One X that was within my price range. But as I was getting ready to wind down for bed, I heard something. At first I dismissed it as the wind or something, that it was maybe just my imagination. But then I heard it again. Someone was knocking. Not at my front door, but lightly on the TV room window. I walked up to the bedroom window and peered out into the driveway, seeing this strange looking guy at my front door, looking around as if checking the coast is clear. I'm suspicious, but I do go downstairs to see what he wants. He identified himself as the guy who had The Xbox apologized for being so late and explained that he had gotten backtracked with errands during his day. Then he casually asked if I still had the money.
- [12:25]
A
I opened the door all the way.
- [12:27]
B
But still kept the screen door closed as a precaution. Something just didn't feel right, like at all. I told him that yeah, I still had the cash on me, but I didn't see that he had anything with him. So I calmly asked if he brought the Xbox with him, like if it's still in his car or something. As I expected, he told me that it was out in his van.
- [12:54]
A
He told me to get the money.
- [12:55]
B
And come out to the van with him and he would get it for me. I let him know I wasn't really comfortable walking out to his van, but he seems to understand and tells me it's all good. I briefly look over the guy's shoulder and see that there is in fact someone else sitting there in the van. Not only that, but the guy at my door has been keeping his hands concealed in a little front pouch in his hoodie the entire time that he was talking to me. And there was definitely something more than just his hands in there. Don't ask me how I could tell. I just could. You know when you just get a gut feeling about something? Yeah, that I try to stay as chill as possible as I lie to him that I would just go to fetch my wallet and I would return in a minute. His mood immediately changed as I closed the door in his face before locking it. I then make the split second decision, better to be safe than sorry. So I pull my phone out of my shorts and dial 911.
- [14:04]
A
But as I do, I heard a.
- [14:07]
B
Loud thud on my front door, then the sound of the van's engine revving before it zooms off into the night. When I went to check to see if he damaged my door, I nearly pissed kissed my pants when I saw a rusty old hatchet buried in the wood. I was right that he had something in his sweatshirt and that I should not go out to the van with him. Be careful who you're buying from, folks. You never know who's behind the username. JonBenet Ramsey was born in 1990 in Atlanta, Georgia, the younger of two children of Patsy and John Ramsey. John Ramsey was a successful businessman who was the president of Access Graphics, a computer system company that would later be bought up and absorbed by the Titanic launch Lockheed Martin. So in 1991, John and Patsy moved their family to Boulder, Colorado, where Access Graphics new headquarters was to be located. Patsy Ramsey was a regular on the junior pageant scene and entered their daughter in various child beauty pageants that were held in Boulder. JonBenet would prove popular on the pageant scene, winning the titles of American America's Royal Miss Little Miss Charlevoix, Little Miss Colorado, Colorado State All Star Kids Cover Girl and National tiny Miss Beauty. JonBenet's active role in child beauty pageants and Patsy's reported pageant mother behavior were common knowledge among their friends, family and fellow contestants. According to the statements that Patsy gave to the authorities on on December 26, 1996, she realized that her daughter was missing after she found a two page handwritten ransom note on the kitchen staircase. The hastily scrawled note, written in black marker pen, demanded $118,000 for their child's safe return. John pointed out to police that the amount was nearly identical to his Christmas bonus of the prior year, which suggested that someone who would have had access to that information would be involved in the crime. Investigators looked at several theories behind the dollar amount demanded and seriously considered employees at Access Graphics who may have known of the amount of John Pryor's bonus as suspects. By most standards, the ransom note was unusually long. The FBI told the police that it was very unusual for such a note to be actually written at the crime scene during the crime itself.
- [17:09]
A
This led police to believe that the.
- [17:12]
B
Note was staged due to it not having any fingerprints except for patsies and authorities who had handled it, and because it included an unusual amount of exclamation marks and initialisms. The note and a practice draft were written with a pen and pad of paper from the Ramsey home. According to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation report, there were indications that the author of the ransom note was Patricia Ramsey herself. However, a federal court ruled it highly unlikely that Patsy wrote the note, citing six certified handwriting experts. Meanwhile, John Ramsey made arrangements to pay the ransom as a forensics team was dispatched to the house. The team initially believed that the child had been kidnapped and JonBenet's bedroom was the only room in the house that was cordoned off to prevent contamination of evidence. Boulder police detective Linda Arndt arrived early the next morning with the goal of awaiting the kidnappers instructions. Instructions but there was never an attempt by anyone to claim the money. It was then that detectives made a horrifying discovery. One of the plain clothes detectives asked John Ramsey and Fleet White, a family friend, to search the house to see if anything seemed suspicious. They started their search in the basement. John opened the latched door and was horrified to find his daughter's body in one of the rooms. JonBenet's mouth was gagged with duct tape. A nylon cord had bound her wrists and neck while her torso was covered by a white blanket in an attempt to conceal the corpse, but it could.
- [19:00]
A
Not mask the smell.
- [19:03]
B
John Ramsey picked up the child's body and took it upstairs. The the autopsy revealed that JonBenet had been killed on Christmas Day by strangulation and skull fracture. There was no evidence of conventional abuse of any kind, although police refused to rule out a sexual motive for the murder. Although no bodily fluid was found, there was evidence that there had been an injury to the girl's private parts. @ the time of the autopsy, a pathologist recorded that it appeared her private area had been wiped with a cloth. A garrote that was made from nylon cord had been tied around JonBenet's neck and was apparently used to strangle her. The autopsy revealed a vegetable or fruit material which may represent pineapple, which JonBenet had eaten a few hours before her death. Photographs of the home taken on the day when JonBenet's body body was found show a bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table with a spoon in it. However, neither John or Patsy said they remembered putting the bowl on the table or feeding pineapple to JonBenet. If this was true, then JonBenet had been fed by whatever stranger had murdered her, a highly disturbing detail. Indeed, both Boulder police initially focused almost exclusively upon John and Patsy as suspects in their daughter's killing. But By October of 1997, police had over 1,000 people in their index of Persons of interest for the case. However, a grand jury was convened on September 15, 1998, the main being to consider indicting the Ramses for charges relating to the case. In 1999, the grand jury returned a true bill to charge the Ramses with placing the child at risk in a way that led to her death and with obstructing an investigation of murder based on the probable cause standard applied in such grand jury proceedings. But Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter did not prosecute them because he did not believe that he could meet the higher standard of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt that is required for a criminal conviction in the state of Colorado. However, many Years later, in 2015, Boulder Police Chief Mark Bechner disagreed with completely exonerating the Ramses, stating exonerating anyone based on a small piece of evidence that has not yet been proved to even be connected to the crime is absurd. He also stated that the unknown DNA from JonBenet's clothing has got to be the focus of the investigation at this point in time. Until one can prove otherwise, the suspect is the donator of that unknown DNA. In 2016, Gordon Coombs, a former investigator for the Boulder County District Attorney's Office, also questioned total absolution of the Ramses, stating, we all shed DNA all the time within our skin cells. It can be deposited anywhere at any time for various reasons. Reasons that are benign. To clear somebody just on the premise of touch DNA, especially when you have a situation where the crime scene wasn't secure at the beginning, really is a stretch. Stephen E. Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist hired by Boulder authorities, said the public exoneration of the Ramses was a big slap in the face to Chief Beckner and the core group of detectives who had been working on the case for years. However, it seems the twists and turns in the case never stopped John Mark Carr, a 41 year old elementary school teacher, was arrested in in Bangkok, Thailand on August 15, 2006 when he falsely confessed to murdering JonBenet. He claimed that he had drugged, assaulted and accidentally killed her. Yet authorities also said they did not find any evidence linking Carr to the crime scene. In his confession, Carr had provided only basic facts that were publicly known and failed to provide any convincing details. His claim that he had drugged JonBenet was doubted because the autopsy indicated that no drugs were found in her body. What's more, DNA samples that were taken from Carr did not match DNA found on JonBenet's body. We may never know who actually murdered JonBenet Ramsay, but one thing is certain. What should have been a jolly family holiday was turned into a living nightmare by a killer who may never face justice for their crimes.
- [24:09]
A
There was a period of my life where I chose to be homeless. It may seem strange to you, but the town I lived in had extremely unaffordable renting prices and I preferred to lay out under the stars and fall asleep to the sound of the water running in the nearby creek and waking up to the chirping of birds.
- [24:29]
B
I had a decent job strictly for.
- [24:32]
A
Saving up money that would enable me to travel, so my paychecks were never cashed but rather stayed at my good buddy's house just piling and piling up into a thick stack of paper for future deposits. I figured I would cash them all shortly prior to taxes being due. Not having a bank because I don't like or trust them. I usually dealt with straight cash and if I had to use a card I would transfer it into my PayPal account that's about as close to a bank as I wanted to get. Food was never an issue. Either my boss would provide meals at my work site or I would visit a few of the many food banks in the city. If I really needed, I could go on food stamps, but that is a government program that is better suited for individuals who truly need it and I did not want to take advantage since I could viably attain my own food. My free time was spent reading at the library while I charged my cell phone or I would use the computers.
- [25:32]
B
If I needed to use a keyboard.
- [25:34]
A
For an extended amount of time. There were showers every other day right next door at no expense, so I took advantage of that. Many times I would take a shower at my buddy's house where I spent many evenings playing dice games or cribbage, watching movies, etc. My homelessness was optional and I wanted for nothing. It was not without hardships or inconveniences though. There were nights spent just wandering around, stumbling onto somebody else's sight and being run off. There were mornings where I woke up to find out that I had been robbed while I slept. Once I jerked awake by some druggie who thought he was picking up his own sleeping bag and didn't notice me inside it. He yelled at me a bit and then took a piss next to my head and stumbled off. After a while I found a camping spot that was ideal for camping. It was on the outskirts of town, off into the rolling green hills that were covered with dense patches of trees and labyrinth creeks. My camping spot was on the top of a terrace with running water nearby, encircled by thick trees and completely flat and soft. It was difficult to to find, which meant feeling anxious of others. Encroaching on my area was unnecessary. Among the hills where this location is, however, is imbued with rumors and legends. The story goes that on the cusp of the 19th and 20th century, it was a mine of sorts. Whether it was silver or gold or something else I have never been able to unravel through any research. Onward, the legend persists that the mine collapsed and was abandoned and basically forgotten. Townspeople and generations that came before them never could quite pinpoint the location of this supposed mine. There were many such landmarks supposedly in the hills that nobody could quite locate but insisted were up there. According to some, there was a cannon just abandoned and forsaken up on one of the numerous unnamed hills. And on another hill, rumor has it, there was a desolate bell tower with the bell still intact. Many have claimed to see parts of an Airplane that crashed decades ago and simply were never removed due to the logistics of moving heavy parts into an inaccessible terrain. Many years after the mine supposedly collapsed and onward into the 1920s, some of the tunnels into the mine were cleared out and used as some sort of federally funded bunker that served as a laboratory, carrying on the legacy of secrecy and myth. This myth was most likely created due to the amount of biology and agricultural students that attended the town university. Locals as old as the hills of the town would tell stories about animals being genetically engineered. One old timer told me and my friends that there were scientists of some sort hidden in the hills, experimenting and creating cougars that walked on all four legs, but had the feathery face of a raptor, a bird of prey, hawk like and demonish. Some other locals spoke of giant rats with the head of a wolfhound. This, of course, is all bogus, and I don't believe any of it. It's ridiculous to think of such things. These are fairy tales, boogeyman accounts, fireside horror. I never gave any of these stories any credence, and I still am not quite sure that I do to this day. But there is a spookiness on top of those rolling hills. Some nights sleeping up there, it got strange once I had been woken up by the sound of a vehicle. It sparked my curiosity because there weren't even any functioning fire roads anymore. Unmistakably, it was the sound of a truck when I roused myself out of my sleeping bag and followed the noises and peered out through the dense trees and downward towards the town. Sure enough, there was a pickup truck driving below me towards some spot in the hills that I was unfamiliar with. To me, it seemed as if it were a government truck. It was all white with the city emblem on the door. The lights were bright, the speed was consistent. The pathway it drove on seemed rugged and difficult. But the vehicle was deliberate. It knew exactly where it was going. The evening after that, before sundown, I chose to explore the path that I had seen the truck driving, following the crushed down grass and weeds. But after a while, it just got too rocky and difficult to determine where the tracks were. And though I had combed the area as well as I could, I never found anything other than more hills, tiny creeks and patches of trees. A month or so after that, in the middle of the night, I was roused by something walking in the brush that enveloped me. Whatever it was, it was massive. We don't have any big animals in my area. Raccoons, possums, things like that are about all anybody would ever see. We did have a cougar every now and then, and packs of coyotes. I have lived in various wildernesses all my life. I know the sound of every footfall of just about every mammal in North America. Almost the the sound of the steps were heavy, big and rough. Slow, purposeful. It was no cougar. Most of the time you aren't lucky enough to hear them until it's too late. It wasn't a coyote either, unless it was the size of a Volkswagen Bug. The steps went in circles around me, round and around. It's as if it didn't want to get too close or perhaps was considering closing in, just biding time or something. I lifted my head out to get a better look, but the darkness would not allow it. That's when the growling began. Low, deep, threatening growls. Not the growls of a raccoon, not the growls of a perfect person or a dog. It was way too low of pitch for that, and the volume was unthinkable. The duration was impressive. The sound was seemingly long, almost a minute without stopping between. I could not move. I lay there, too scared to even shake, to breathe, to scream. I became a statue laying in a sleeping bag. My mind raced, going over every animal I could think of, could possibly imagine, all while whispering to myself, what is that? After I don't know how long, the footsteps faded away, returning back to wherever they came from, back off down into the hills below. I turned on my flashlight and scrambled out of my sleeping bag and walked toward the tree line without bothering to put on my boots. All around I searched and found no tracks or marks or any indication anything had ever been there. I went into the thick patch of trees and shined the light down into the hill and saw no movement, no life. All was still. I was barking up the wrong tree. Returning to my campsite, I sat down on one of the logs I used as my sitting spot and shivered nervously until the day broke. Foolishly. I remained at that spot for a few more months until three things happened in a short amount of time that made me decide I had had enough. One night, R.A. randomly, I woke up to the sound of walking and lifted my head from my sleeping bag and saw a woman just walking past my sight. She did not acknowledge me. She did not say a word. Clad in normal wear, she walked onward, out of my sight and away from me.
- [34:32]
B
She had no hiking boots or backpack.
- [34:35]
A
She appeared to be just a normal person. Person. However, it was three in the morning and there would be no reason for some lady to be walking out in this part of the hills, this early in the morning, I had a cell phone that had an alarm on it and it would wake me up every weekday at 5:30am it was very distinct and it had been the same tone.
- [34:58]
B
For two of three years.
- [35:00]
A
One of the nights I woke up with an unyield, unyielding necessity to relinquish my bodily fluids. Scrambling out of my sleeping bag and placing my boots on my feet, I looked up at the clear sky, enjoying the chirrups of the crickets As I walked 50ft into the bushes to take a number one. As I stood there doing my business, I heard my cell phone alarm going off. 5:30, I asked myself. Suddenly it hit me. It was not my alarm. It was whistling. Somebody or something nearby was whistling the exact same melody as my phone alarm. Same duration, volume, pitch, all of it a perfect replica. Upon this realization, I whirled around without even zipping up. Hello? I shouted out into the void. Who's there? The whistling stopped and all was silent. All was still. A moment or two went by and the crickets picked back up again. I rushed to my sleeping bag and hid myself inside of it as much.
- [36:17]
B
As I possibly could.
- [36:19]
A
I was in a cocoon of fear, sobbing to myself in the darkness, mumbling. That was weird. That was so weird. Mentioning this to anybody else did not seem like the best concept to me at the time. Very few people knew how I lived, and I didn't want to invite any sort of harassment into it. I didn't wager that people would understand my my decision to be homeless. Also, the collection of stories just seemed crazy and unbelievable. Of course, there are many homeless people who are not on drugs and are not crazy, but there are definitely those that are. And I felt if I were to tell my accounts to anybody, I would certainly be taken for a madman or on drugs or both. When I got out of work that day, I had enough light to go exploring. I went off into the same hills I always had, but this time I took a different route. It had an obscure entrance, and unless you really knew the area, it was invisible to the untrained eye. The pathway was steep, arduous, daunting. Every now and again I would place my eyes on the hill where I knew my campsite lay, allowing me to get more and more lost in the unexplored jungle that so many locals never bothered to set foot in an hour, followed by me randomly walking until I came up a hill with a sudden.
- [37:55]
B
Drop to the sides.
- [37:57]
A
There was a decline, a small grade, taking one of the grades on the side let me down to a flat, flat bottom and I realized why it looked like the hill suddenly dropped off. It was a tunnel. A tunnel that was packed to the brim with colossal stones. On either side of the tunnel were large wooden beams with a gigantic one resting on top of the other two. The mine. I whispered to myself. I was in disbelief I had actually found it. I don't remember what path I took to stumble onto it, and I wasn't.
- [38:38]
B
Sure if I would be able to.
- [38:39]
A
Stumble onto it ever again. But there it was. It was the abandoned mine, long lost to many memories. I chuckled proudly to myself, mostly out of discomfort, then noticed that it would be getting deep dim soon and thus decided to return to my camp. Two steps were taken and then I noticed it. A large metal box. I'd Wager it was 10ft long by 8ft wide, made out of steel and beginning to rust red with holes lined up around. Looked like a storage container, but smaller. Like a cage. A cage where the door was unlatched and wide open. It made me feel overwhelmed with dread. It seemed like something was in that cage. Something alive. Whatever that something was, it was out now. I rushed back to my camp and as I did, I did my best to ignore the eerie form feeling of this sight. As I sat down on my log by my sleeping bag, something inside me told me things were not quite right. That night I had trouble falling asleep. I lay there trying to decide if I needed to find another spot or cash one of my paychecks and get a hotel or crash on one of my friends couches. I just wasn't sure. I wasn't even sure if I knew if I was insane or not. I questioned myself many times. Thoughts invaded my brain, wondering if that government truck had a purpose for being up on the unnamed hills. Perhaps the truck arrived there to unleash a demon from a cage. Perhaps there was a lady up in the hills that served as a key caged creature keeper. That's when I heard my own voice coming out of the bushes crying out.
- [40:47]
B
That was weird.
- [40:49]
A
That was so weird. I jumped out of my sleeping bag like a bullet leaves a barrel. I snatched my backpack and I ran like an Olympian down the hill as quickly as my legs had ever carried me. I left my sleeping bag and my blanket up on the top and never retrieved them. The next day I cashed my paychecks and made a deposit for a room to rent in a nice house downtown in the middle of civilization, away from the creeks and the hills and the trees. I often reflect on this duration of my life. I constantly question what happened. Some will say that there is no pre predator in nature that is more dangerous than mankind. I am not so sure about that. I am of the mind that the most terrifying thing to cross paths with are the things that make no sense, the things that are unbelievable, the things that are unknown. Before I start the story, I should probably give context so you can fully understand the layout of my friend's house and why I was staying there. At this time I was in the Navy and was about to leave for deployment. I had just moved out of my apartment and moved my things into my storage. My friends were kind enough to make arrangements for me to stay with them.
- [42:28]
B
Before we headed out to sea.
- [42:31]
A
Their house was on a corner at the entrance of the neighborhood. It was in a busy street with a gas station directly across the house.
- [42:39]
B
The driveway was right off the busy.
- [42:41]
A
Street, but the front door faced away from the road. You actually couldn't see it unless you took a path that would wind around a large tree and and a few bushes. Basically, it was tucked away and sometimes delivery drivers would need help finding it if we ordered pizza or something. This is important because at night it's especially hard to find. There was a camera on the garage and another at the front door. My friend J and I had started a routine where we would sit on the couch, drink water, wine, and watch True Crime. It was our way of winding down from the day. This particular night was one of those nights. Jay and I were sitting on the couch when we heard the ring doorbell go off. Jay and I looked at each other a little puzzled because it was very late.
- [43:38]
B
That's weird.
- [43:39]
A
Did you order food or something?
- [43:42]
B
I asked J.
- [43:43]
A
No, did you? She asked me as she opened up her phone to look at the app to see who was out front. I began to walk over to the.
- [43:52]
B
Door to see if it was our.
- [43:53]
A
Neighbors or someone who might need help. Don't open the door. J said. I could hear fear in her voice. I turned, looking at her, concerned and a bit confused. I walked over to Jay and looked over her shoulder at her phone to see what was scaring her. My stomach dropped. A large man was standing at our front door, completely still. He was wearing a mask and holding what looked like a child's backpack that appeared to be dirty and stained. What are you doing? Jay asked through the screen. The man held up the backpack and opened it slightly. He tilted it trying to show us what was in the bag, but we couldn't see if you have a ring camera, then you probably know that sometimes the quality can be crap. But a glare made it seem like something shiny was in the bag. Yet the man never pulled it out. He then got close to the the camera and just stared right into was creepy. He stayed there just staring. His eyes were dead and looked sinister. Did I say creepy? No. It was terrifying. I'm calling the cops. I yelled. I grabbed my keys and also made my car alarm go off to scare the man away and bring attention to anyone nearby. It seemed to work because the man slowly walked away. I called 911 as Jay monitored the cameras for any sign of the man. Once I got off the phone with dispatch, J showed me something even more terrifying. The cameras caught footage of the man sneaking around the house prior to him ringing the doorbell. He was trying to understand the layout of our house. The footage also showed him pressing his back against the side of the house and looking around the corner a few times, as if he was making sure no one was around to see what he was doing. It was then that I made the connection that he was probably planning to hurt us with whatever was in that bag. The cops came and we gave our statements and the footage from the doorbell camera. They let us know that they would keep an eye out for the man matching the description and let us know of any updates. But the story does not end here. A few weeks passed since the incident with the man. I had pretty much forgotten about the whole thing until I got a call. A police officer reached out to me and asked me to sit down because she had an update about the man. We saw approximately 12 minutes before the man came to our house. He had broken into an elderly woman's home. He stood in her bedroom and was watching her sleep until the woman woke up and saw him. She screamed and he stabbed her, saying seven times before fleeing. The man had thought that he killed the woman, but she somehow survived. The only reason we know it was the same man was because the elderly woman also had a doorbell camera showing the same man with the same mask and the child's backpack. Remember the stains I said were on the bag?
- [47:33]
B
It was.
- [47:33]
A
It was the woman's blood. The footage we gave the cops was used in a trial and the man was put in prison. From what I heard. I am really thankful Jay stopped me from opening that door. Who knows what would have happened if I had? And thank God for doorbell camera.