October 30, 2015 • 37 mins
Join Ben, Matt and Noel for a very special episode of Stuff They Don't Want You To Know. This year the gang cracks open the listener mail vault to bring you a very creepy (true?) story. Lauren and Casey from the HowStuffWorks collective guest.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs two, Ghosts and government cover ups. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Welcome
back to the show, Ladies and gentlemen. My name is
Matt and I am Ben and as always, we are
here with our super producer Noel all Hallows Brown. Hello everybody,
(00:26):
But you know what bad? I guess? Uh and and
no I guess Should we still call you super producer? Dude? Yeah?
I mean I've been kind of fond of the nickname,
I said, But that's what That's how I introduced myself
at parties. It's that weird. No, that's great. People do
tend to look at me kind of funny. Can do it,
but I would do it if I didn't think I
would get busted it met You could do it. We
need to get some T shirts made up that you
(00:47):
can wear around. We should and while we're doing that,
most importantly, ladies and gentlemen, you are here now. You
heard Nol at the top, and he offered you the
choice we offer at the beginning of every show to
turn back now or learn that's stuff they don't know now.
If you're hearing this on the day it comes out.
You're hearing it right before Halloween, the day before Halloween, Right,
(01:10):
this is our favorite holiday on the show, and each
year we tried to do something a little special. So
what have we talked about before? Guys? We talked about
the origin of Halloween, the origins of sawin which I
famous and mispronounces Sam haine. Well, it's spelled sam Haines.
So maybe next time they should check out I spell.
These were early days, you know, these were early days.
(01:32):
We looked into other stuff too, like spooky urban legends. Yeah,
we've gotten some some great letters in. We've read a
couple of spooky stories before, right, that is what we
referred to them as, spooky story. Yes, yeah, you know,
they could be true, they can be made up. I
don't know. Some you never really know what these things
(01:53):
or which is probably the most interesting place for them
to be for me, They can be somewhere in between.
That's a great point, no, because that's the nature of
a story, right, whether fiction or fact. Stories inevitably about
something that is true. Sure, I mean that's kind of
scary in and of itself. I mean that seed of
truth that like you know, you kind of like you
(02:15):
feel yourself reaching for in a good scary story. It's like,
you know, where does that come from? Oh yeah, somebody
had to think of this. Yeah, yeah, that's uh. And
that's the scary thing, especially today listeners. As you'll see,
so before, as Matt had mentioned, we'd ask people to
give us the spookiest of stories and we received so
(02:36):
many a ton. We we get them all the time.
So basically, what I'm saying is stop sending U spooky
stories because we can't handle it. I'm just I'm terrified.
I'm so scared. Don't listen to Matt. You're panicking. Man.
It's goods send send all the things. Okay, we might
not be able to do them all right, it might
(02:57):
take a decade or more because we typically only do
about one or two of these a year, and you know,
they're pretty intense, and we generally, I was gonna say,
we generally do that on your behalf worth it. But
but yeah, one of these that was sent in, it
was sent to us. Gosh, I don't even know when
did we get this. It was a long time ago. Yeah,
(03:18):
I don't remember the year, but it was years back. Yeah,
I feel like it was even before I was around,
you know, in any capecity that is, I think it
is before you worked here. But anyway, this, the story
that we got sent to us, was so creepy, you guys. Uh,
we were honestly a little nervous about even reading it, right. Yeah,
when we first received this, uh, we didn't really know
(03:40):
how to handle it or if we should. So here's
here's the pickle, folks, here's the dilemma. To the points
that we were making earlier. We don't know whether this story,
I mean, this email, I mean is factor of fiction.
So we've had stories before where people are clearly sending
us a short horror story and that's great, you know,
(04:03):
and there are great reads, and then we've sent we've
had people sending us true stories about something strange or
paranormal that happened to them. The listener who sent this
in asked not to be identified and was serious enough
about it. You'll see why assume that that we sat
on it for years. Today we're gonna do it. I mean,
obviously we're gonna take a little creative license with this.
(04:24):
We have a lot of fun putting these stories together
and doing sound design and kind of making it sort
of like a radio play. Yes, Um, we're gonna do it.
I think we maybe changed a few things and that
what we just like names. Yeah, I think we definitely
changed Let's say we change the names to protect the
innocent or yeah, we've changed some names. And uh, we're
(04:48):
gonna We're just gonna read it to you guys in
full with some sound design and some help from our coworkers.
Casey Pegram and Lauren Vogel Baumb will be guest starring
in this episod so to help us make it do
do a little more justice to it, kind of flesh
it out, you know. Yeah, yeah, And and and again we're
not going to make any judgment calls, at least from
(05:09):
our end on the contents of this story, because it
is your sad is a story. I mean I might
well at the end, you know, I don't know, I can't.
I haven't you know, I mean I haven't heard it yet.
Oh really, you haven't read this yet. No, No, we'll
go into the uh let's yeah, let's hang out a
little bit at the end after this strange journey we're
about to take. But uh no, you know, no judgment
(05:31):
on my part at least, well, you guys are so
non judgmental. I mean, that's the beauty of this. You
say that. So, hey, no, now that you're officially a
co host, do you want to do the honors? Which
honors would those be? Ben? Do you want to start
the letter? Really? Yeah, I'd love to. Here we go. So, hey, guys,
(05:56):
big fan of the show. I appreciate what you're doing.
And though I know you get irritated when you hear this,
I have to say you're not the typical conspiracy theorists.
It's very kind. I listened to a lot of How
Stuff Work shows, but this is the first time I've
ever written in stuff. You should know asks for Halloween stories,
but they're looking for fictional stuff. Don't get me wrong,
it's good. But you guys sounded like you wanted to
(06:17):
hear something real. Okay, So I'm just gonna write this
out settle in for a long story. You don't have
to read the whole thing. I'm sure you guys are busy,
but if you do read it on air, please don't
use my name or my email. I'll try to keep
the details vague because this may have been in the
news and I don't want to think about it anymore.
(06:37):
M Well, so maybe this will help either way. It's
just important for me to get this out to someone.
I live in a different city now, but when I
was just out of college, I moved into my first apartment.
It was off campus, probably paying too much, even with
my roommate, and we moved into one of those semi
(06:58):
big apartment complexes, you know, the rundown ones. We still
had massive student loans and we were worried we wouldn't
pass the credit check. But the deal was just too
good to pass up, and honestly, we were both kind
of desperate. The property manager let us move in early.
Looking back, I guess they were pretty desperate to rent
it out. The whole complex was old and kind of
(07:21):
going downhill, you know. So we moved in about a
week and a half before the first month of our lease.
There was still some old furniture around from what I
assumed was the previous tenants. One of those old lazy
boy recliners, a microwave that didn't work, one of those
little wire shower hangers for shampoo or whatever still hanging
from the showerhead, an old table by the door, you know,
(07:44):
stuff like that. It wasn't filthy, but it didn't look
completely clean either. There's this faint odor of mildew spider
webs in the corners. My room was the smallest one
h It only had one outlet. It was behind this
little bedside stand, and the stand had a drawer. So
(08:04):
on the first night we got all of our stuff
moved in, and we had pizza and some beers, and
we went to our rooms to organize all our stuff. Well,
I jerked the night stand away from the wall because
I wanted to set up my computer. I was kind
of drunk, I guess, because it was lighter than I expected,
and it fell on top of me. Before looking at
all the stuff that's spilled out of the drawer, mostly junk,
(08:27):
little scraps of paper with notes on them, a girl's handwriting,
I thought, key rings, some necklaces, all those little things
that people put in drawers because they want to forget
about them instead of throwing them away, and a thumb drive.
I picked it up and looked at it, thinking maybe
whoever owned it would have, you know, put their name
on it or something. I don't know, but no dice.
(08:48):
It was super old. Though eight meg's I might have
even been less It's one of the old ones, a
little slide that retracts to expose the USB plug, and
the thing was, it was all matched up. I fired
it up on my PC, popped to the drive in
and there are a bunch of audio files. I clicked
(09:10):
on one at random, and I could hear this girl's voice.
I wish I hadn't clicked on it, but let's start there.
Oh my god, Mom's the weirdest thing happened today. So
remember how our cable has been so stupid the past month.
The building finally sent someone over to fix it, because
apparently it's the building's fault and not the cable company
(09:32):
faulty wiring or something. I get out of class and
rush home in a hurry to get dressed for work.
But right as I'm opening the door, I hear someone
in the house. Of course, I think it's Hannah, so
I'm all like, hey, sorry, Mom, that's just how we
talk to each other. It's not a mean thing. When
all of a sudden, there's this guy leading around the
corner down the hallway. He's in our bathroom. Who the
hell are you? I say, sorry, and he says in
(09:54):
this weird voice. Maintenance building sent me over to check wires,
the cable wires. I say, yes for internet. He walks out,
and I'm still by the front door, you know, keeping
it open just in case the guy's a creeper, like
I know he's not, but he's a strange man in
my house. And I've seen SPU before. And he goes
over to the cable motive by the TV and I
(10:15):
see he's got some tools out and he's scooted the
TV stand to get at the outlet. So I'm thinking, okay,
calm down, He's just doing his job. People have to
use the bathroom, right, And I heard horror stories before
about how the Yiddish sorry mom, that's just the word.
How he's apartment's gonna be with fixing stuff. So it's good, right,
are you Okay? I asked it need me to do anything.
(10:36):
He just sort of grunts, and I sees leaned over
on his side. He must have unscrewed the outlet or
something because he's fiddling with the wall and something in there. Okay,
I say, just let me know if you need anything,
and I go to my room and get changed. You know,
I wanted to shower, but I didn't really feel cool
doing that with a stranger there, and I get my
stuff and while I'm in my room, I hear him
shout something and I freak out just a little, so
(11:00):
I come back out. I'll like you okay, and he says,
old building, bad wires. Uh to come back with new parts?
Are you coming back tomorrow? I asked. I mean it's
getting late and he's packing up his stuff and screwing
back on the outlet when parts come. Do you know
when that will be? I ask? You know, meaning when
I should expect to see this guy in my house again.
(11:23):
Tuesday Thursday. Well, the sooner the better, I guess. And
I'm in a hurry. I'm already late for work, so
I just think I'm gonna leave. She talks about her
folks and her boyfriend, her job. Anyway, I'll skip to
the next one. It was a few days later. Hey, mom,
(11:44):
I tried to call earlier, but it couldn't get through.
The maintenance guy finally came back while I was in
the shower. When I got out, I heard a noise
thumping around. You know it wasn't Hannah because her classes
going to almost seven pm most days. Hello, I said,
I hear the same guy made today. I went straight
to my room and got dressed and stayed there for
a long time, hering him outside in the living room.
(12:05):
I didn't want to just walk out there, you know.
I was mad at him for being there. I'm sure
he heard the shower, but I feel stupid for thinking
that too, you know, like, like, what's he supposed to do?
Knock on the bathroom door. That's more creepy. He's just
some old foreign guy trying to do whatever. And of
course I'd love to watch Lost at our house instead
of going over to Chris's. Remind me to tell you
about that too. Anyway, I'm in the room long enough
(12:26):
for my hair to be mostly dry, and it sounds
like the guy is still out there. So I calmed
down and think I'm not going to hide in my
own house. So I got into the living room and
he's still there, but he's not working on anything. He's
just sort of lying on the ground, looking up like
he was waiting for me. Watch out for the spiders. What? Oh?
You know the spiders everywhere. You were scared of them
(12:51):
since that August in summer Cants when an egg hatched
in your bed and they swore you were right to
be scared. I can't remember, you know, mom. I don't
know how he would know any of that, why I
would say it. Maybe my roommate told him. Excuse me,
(13:13):
I say, but what is your name? Alex alexey Ashenko. Well,
get out, cable isn't fixed. I don't care. Come back
when we're not here. And he grins and stands up,
taking his tool bag and it's all Grabbian stained, but
it didn't leave any marks on the curvet. He fishes
out a business card and leaves it on a table
beside the door. Here is my number. Leave a message.
(13:36):
I will come to fix when you're out at school
or work early. Is okay? I just stand there, fuming,
and finally he leaves. I try to call Hannah, but
she's not answering. It's weird having a roommate. I feel
like I haven't seen her in days. I try to
call her again. We're hearing the phone ring and ring
without an answer, and then I hear something else, like
a like a faint buzz, like a phone vibrating. She's
(13:59):
always losing things, so I'm relieved. I call again, and
I hold the phone down by my side as I
walk around the living room searching for the vibration. It's
behind the TV, near the motive in the cable. Jam
im with the TV standing Well, there's her phone right
where this Alex guy was. Calm down, I'm thinking, even
though I totally feel a panic attack coming on, just calm.
(14:22):
She could have dropped it maybe, So I bent over
to pick it up, and I see a little piece
of red lace sticking out from under the stand, like
like stuffed under. So I pull it out. Mom, it
was a pair of Hannah's panties. Should maybe they just
got tossed back there? Should I call the police? Here's
(14:51):
the last part the next evening, Mom, I wish you
would answer the phone. I called the police, but they
said there wasn't really a crime. So so I'm just
putting this recorder on. I don't want to sound crazy,
I don't, but just in case, you know, just in case. Okay,
So I'm calling the property manager Overlook Apartments. Hey, this
(15:15):
is Stacy in room two thirty seven. I'm I'm calling
about the maintenance man. Do you have an appointment? He's
been trying to fix my cable for like a week.
All right, let me check it out on this end, right. Ah, yeah, no,
I don't see it in our records anywhere. You're kidding. No, oh,
(15:37):
we usually have a file for each one. So do
you remember he spoke to Was it Jose or Poulo
or something? Um, it was like alex alex as shank
something of foreign guy. I'm sorry, who did you say?
Alex a something Alexie at Shanko. Yeah, yeah, that's it,
(15:58):
that's not possible. Does he not work here? Yeah? He did.
My first year started here and then he died. So
do you mind play much of talking about maintenance? That's
(16:31):
the last file. That's how it ends her story at least.
I called the police to see if there were any
reports for this unit, but they came up with nothing.
And tried to google it, but I couldn't find much.
But what I did find disturbed me. Our town really
did have a maintenance man named Ashenko. He'd been linked
(16:53):
to several disappearances of college aged girls in the area
and even in another state. When in instigators found the body,
they ruled his death a suicide. But it makes me
wonder what if someone else got to him before the police,
A parent. Maybe I left a message with a property
(17:15):
manager before I went to work that night, and when
I came back the next morning, nothing was moved in
my apartment. My roommate was out of town, but the
thumb drive was gone. And that's the end. And that
(17:41):
is how the email ends. Yeah, just like that, just
say yeah, I have a nice day, Noel and Matt.
I want to thank you guys for taking the time
to make such a such a fantastic adaptation of this story. Now,
the show is not over, even though that story is.
What we're going to do now is maybe real little
(18:02):
listener mail, but we're gonna I think the three of
us should talk about this story a little bit, and
I just want to hear your opinions because we haven't
really talked off air. Sure, but well yeah, we've talked
off air about this a lot, but not with our superproducer.
Awesome Town Noel Brown. Right, Oh, did you like that
Awesome Town, Noel Brown. I feel like we're gonna start
(18:22):
introducing my stuff like that parties Now it's the intros
are gonna you guys. I go, I go, I get
invited to parties. Yeah, but it sounds like pretty soon
you're going to spend three minutes of introduction for every
you know how when royalty is introduced, Yeah, get a
friend to another of the handles and all that first
of his name presenting awesome time, No Brown, I'll be good.
(18:47):
That does sound good? You have I need? I need
a minstrel to follow me around and unroll a red
carpet everywhere I go while singing my praises on the lute.
They need to walk in front of you backwards. That
would be we need people start out the logistics. We'll
start out the logistics, but first a word from our sponsor.
(19:21):
What do you think about this email? You, guys? I
don't know, Like I thought it was very entertaining. It
was definitely creepy. Kind of made me think of one
of those creepy pasta's. Yeah that's you know, that's exactly
I felt. I don't know, you know how I am, guys.
I I read into it like, oh man, I can
see this, I can see this happening. But I don't know.
(19:44):
Maybe it's just the way that we present it. Because
we did it with characters, it feels like a story.
But when it's written down on paper and you're just
reading this, like I said at the top, any we
took some we took some some liberties. Yeah, but okay,
getting the I just want to say, getting the getting
the story and just reading it cold was a completely
(20:06):
different different experience. Yeah. Well, there's some questions for me,
why would someone because it's not clear about what year
this happens, and so why would someone save audio files
on the thumb drive? That was my first thought, like
when I was reading through it um for this, you know,
(20:28):
to do the story like that if I felt like
there was some cool conspiracy element that was missing, like
why are they on the thumb drive? Like who who
put them on the thumb drive? Why is the thumb
drive important? Well, she was going to send him to
her mom because you know, maybe the files were too
large for AOL. And we did we we's, Yeah, we
should be clear some of this stuff. We changed. We
(20:52):
we censored some people's names. But also for the maintenance
man that is mentioned in the in the audio file, uh,
we just used an entirely different name because you know,
we looked into between the time when we first got
(21:13):
this email and the time that we decided to adapt
it for today's show. Uh, we looked around and not
only are there cases of this kind of violence or
you know, a criminal maintenance worker. But there there, there's
much more than one. I mean, I guess it makes
(21:36):
sense the terms of someone having access, you know, to
college age girls and being what would one would consider
a safe person to have around and wouldn't think twice about,
you know, letting them into their apartment. It certainly seems
like it could be a pretty good, you know, killing
ground for someone that was allowed to do harm in
(21:56):
that way. I'm not surprised that you found town Town
What did you What did you find? I didn't look
into this as much as you did. So the most
recent example would be in April, and we know that
had to be completely unrelated to this if it, if
it is real or based in some kind of truth,
because in April often a fifty six year old former
(22:22):
maintenance worker was fired from a complex, but he retained keys,
and he kept showing up as though he did work there,
and he had been sort of let's got a little
h's got a little shiver there. Yeah, seriously, he had
been lecherously sort of stalking, uh, this twenty seven year
(22:44):
old student who lived there, and they have been trying
to talk to her on the Internet and stuff. This
was over near Drexel University and he she came into
the apartment on her phone with her mother and he
was laying in wait. So he attacked her and you know,
(23:07):
assaulted and killed her. And his name is James Harris.
Uh he's definitely not a ghost. Definitely not a ghost. Yeah.
Uh he was um waiting for about thirty minutes. Um.
He also he had a long list of priors, including
(23:28):
voluntary manslaughter of his father. So the problem with this is,
um right, I believe he may have been a handyman.
But the the problem with the kind of thing is
just like what you're talking about, the is that people
have access two people have access to someone's private private
(23:51):
delmicile I guess to be fancy about it. And part
of it comes from this massive psychological conditioning that we
all experience, which is, uh, you know, if you see
someone dressed as a doctor matt unite, like we did
this video where you just wear a white coat and
walk around and right you see someone with the tie
(24:15):
or a blazer, which is you know, advantageous because you think, oh,
there doing something important, right, you know, and I mean
you know, it's one of these things too, where you
assume that these folks have been vetted, you know, like
someone that's coming into your home to fix your cable
that works for an apartment complex. Is it's going to
come and you know, fix your toiler or something. You
(24:36):
don't think twice about it. You don't think to ask
the person their name and do a personal background check
on these people. You you trust that the people in
charge have already done that. And clearly that's not always
the case for many reasons. Whether you know, people are
trying to get cheap labor, you know, and give a
pass to some things in the past, perhaps you know,
and hire someone on despite them having some theinial past
(25:00):
and pay them less. You never know, I mean kind
of things like that that could happen. But what what
the reason I said it gave me shivers? And you
told me that story was because you know, we were
talking at the top of the podcast about the seed
of truth, like and at the heart of like a
fictional story. And I'm gonna go out on a limb here,
guys and say that our anonymous email friend is likely,
you know, spinning a little yarn for us here. And
(25:22):
it was very well done, and I really enjoyed it.
I mean, I can't say that for sure, because you know,
we don't know, but um, I feel like at the
heart of that story is this vulnerability that we're talking
about here, and this idea that you're not always safe
and that the people who present themselves as safe are
not always what they appear to be. I'm not saying
(25:42):
that they're necessarily murderous ghosts, but you know, there is
That's that's what good stories are rooted in, is like
his reality is, you know, this fear of being vulnerable
in that way. And so that's what gave me child
when you described that case, because it was obviously very
similar too. But you know, we all have that. We
all are probably too trusting, and there's a very fine
(26:04):
line between being too trusting and being a sucker and
putting yourself out there in a play and to a
point where you're you're not safe, you know. So yeah,
I definitely get that feeling now when my wife and
son heer at home and there's a maintenance person coming
over or somebody who's gonna work on plumbing and I
just don't know, and I you know, I hate to
live that way, to think, well, what if this happens,
(26:27):
but if I don't, something does happen. And not to
mention if you'd actually been victimized in that way before,
you know. I M the closest I've come to anything
like that was I got rushed by a dude in
a in a subway station in New York when I
was about to catch a train. It was relate at night,
and I was loaded down with a bunch of camera
gear and like a big jacket, and it was really cold,
and I was with a friend who was, you know,
(26:48):
quite a few paces back, and this guy you know,
rushed me, looked like he was gonna try to take
me down and robbed me. Didn't end up happening, never
laid a hand on me. My friend walked up and
it kind of spooked him and he ran away. But
just that amount of almost being victimized freaked me out
to no end. So I cannot imagine what it would
do from my worldview if something horrible happened where I
(27:09):
was taking advantage of in such a way I do.
I don't think I would be able to look at
things the same way ever again. And then that subversion
of authority figures is such a it's such a powerful thing,
because authority figures are such a powerful thing, right. Uh,
The difference between a person and position in society is
(27:30):
often just the clothing they appear to wear. There's a
little bit of a deep cut. When I was a kid.
One of the first books that really scared me as
a child and sounds so stupid now. It's a children's
book called Miss Nelson is Missing. And in Miss Nelson's Missing,
these kids had this really nice mouseie teacher. No one
(27:52):
respected her, and so one day she's gone, and she's
replaced by this substitute who's saying like what looks like
court face paint and is absolutely utter evil. It's a
children's books, so she's not like eating the kids or
you know, wearing their skin or anything. But that's how
I felt the same way. And and the most terrifying
(28:12):
thing about that kind of stuff is that big I
guess I wasn't. I wish I was smart enough as
a kid to think of this. The most terrifying thing
was that for the rest of the school it was normal,
even though which was replaced by this monster. Spoiler alert
for everyone who might be about to spend the twelve
bucks or whatever to check out this book. It turns
(28:34):
out that miss Nelson was teaching them a lesson and
she's just pretending to be a monster, so it's all
okay at the end, right, yeah, which is totally you know,
It's very similar, if you think about it, to someone
feeling unappreciated when they're dating and then disappearing and coming
back into disguise and dating someone, which I've never tried,
(28:56):
but it sounds like an interesting plot for something. They
made this movie about it. It's called Gone Girl, was it? No? No,
you're thinking of Mrs doubt Fire. Doubt right. This is Doubtfire,
sort of the Gone Girl of cross dressing comedies. I
just had to do. You know what book scared the
crap out of me when I was a kid. It
was called To Loose the Chocolate Moose. It was about
(29:19):
a mouse who was made of chocolate and he goes
out into the sun and he melts and it's horrifying looking.
I'm just gonna leave it at that that. I'm sorry
I should have spoiler alerted that one, but say the
title again, to Loose like to Lose the Chocolate Mouse alight.
(29:39):
It haunts my dark chocols my days and my nights.
I mean it's it's yeah, it looks like um oh,
like some sort of like a wax wax figure in
a wax museum that's melting. Was just like gobs of
like goo coming off of his moose face. It's awful.
It really really traumatized. You're triggering childhood memories in me.
(30:00):
Even remember what the takeaway from the story was. It
was probably like be good to each other. It was
where sunscreen obviously, don't be don't be a chocolate movese. Yeah,
oh no I do. I do not have one. But
I do have a question. All right, When you guys
move into an apartment complex or house or something, when
you have moved in the past, do you proactively get
(30:21):
the locks changed or do it on your own, even
if the apartment complex does it for you. I am
not proactive in that way. No, no, I actually I've
never really lived in an apartment complex. I owned a
house and now I rent a little house, and um,
I don't know. I trust my landlord. He's a nice fellow. Yeah,
But see the thing is, it doesn't matter if you
(30:42):
trust the landlord or not. People working for him. He does,
he does, he does all his own work. You know
he's good old who he going to give you a
shout out. Look, I'm not I'm not saying who he's
a bad guy. That's his name. Yeah, that's that's his name.
I'm just saying, h U. I just saying man who
(31:02):
we don't maybe doesn't know everything that's going on around
his world, that's true. I don't know. It freaks me out.
So I learned about this new kind of not new,
but it's an extra locking system that you can get
that actually goes into the steel. You can get steel
around your door and then actually have steel in your
door and have a large bar that goes into the steel.
(31:23):
So even if someone tries to break your door down,
just kick it in style. I mean, you know them,
what can happen? And you can always just get bear traps. Oh,
get bear traps, have them on the ground, have them
hanging from the ceiling with a trip wire so they
drop on the person's head. And that's and that's important.
(31:43):
Maybe not even a person because according to this statistic
I made up earlier, about thirty eight percent and break
ends are due to bears, so not all of them.
I don't want to make a stereotype and say that
all bears are thieves. Some of them, I understand, are
you know, decent, but uh but yeah, it might be
(32:05):
worth bear traps. I read a stat that bears largely
are responsible for the majority of picnic basket thefts in
the country. Yeah, oh man, that's what I've got, this
new kind of picnic basket. It's got a steel frame
around it, and there's this bar that goes through the basket. Uh,
(32:27):
it doesn't. It doesn't make the best sandwiches. I'm being
completely honest, And you know, I don't appreciate I don't
appreciate all. Sorry, no, but seriously though, I mean, like,
you know, to take it back a notch. I mean,
there there is something to be said about like that
line between paranoia and safety, you know, like and I
(32:49):
think that's what this story today was largely about. I mean,
it was sort of like a supernatural version of that.
But I think, you know, stay safe out there, guys,
you know, but don't even fear. That's that's that's my advice,
been cautious optimism. Yeah that's me. That's actually on my
real nickname. How I introduced myself at parties is uh,
(33:12):
I'm Noel cautiously optimistic brown. Nice. Yeah, the cautious optimist
sounds it has some nice essence to it. YEA. So
let's close on this. Are you guys doing anything special
for Halloween? Dark rites? No, I have my my My
daughter is gonna be hanging out. I'm gonna go to
(33:32):
Athens with her where she lives, and we're gonna trick
or treat with her friends. I think I'm gonna be
the Ice King from from Adventure Time. I can pull
it together. Already got the beard. I just got to
get some of that white spray stuff and I'm gonna
paint my face blue and get a Burger king crown
and put on a sheet. I think that should do
(33:52):
the trick where some sandals, right, good, Ice King, I haven't.
I haven't seen Frozen. It's not man, it's Adventure Time.
I haven't seen Adventure Time. He monster. I'm sorry. I know.
It's it's driving a wedge between our friendship. Pretty bad man.
I'm usually able to b s my way through context
clues and conversations, but I don't want to lie to
you guys. Well, Ice King is a megalomaniacal king of
(34:16):
the ice realm, and he's always getting ragged on by
Finn and Jake because he's a little bit you know,
crazy and kind of full of himself. And he's got
some pretty incredible powers, but he's also just kind of bananas,
so he doesn't really use them for really good or evil.
He's just kind of useless, honestly. I mean, I guess
he does some evil, but he does. He did his
kidnap princesses on the rag. He does question without youre
(34:39):
getting mad at me. I don't know, man, I can't.
I can't speak to you know what. That's fair. That's tough,
but fair. Um, who's Finn Jake not? This is not
an Adventure Time podcast? Okay, all right, you know what.
That's a good point, man. So you're doing anything special,
h know. We're going to see family and just show
(35:01):
the baby around. Basically you can. You just can pass
it around the room, hold this and then run for
a little while, but we'll be back. It'll be like
the collection plate, just like put money in the one esie.
Oh man. Okay, Well, on that note, maybe enjoy is
not the right word for this kind of episode, but
(35:21):
we hope you did find it interesting. And as always,
we want to thank you for listening, wish you a
happy Halloween, and uh ask a favor. Are you on
the internet? Do you want to find out what stories
we have that don't make it to the air. If so,
you're in luck because you can find us on Facebook
and Twitter for free. We are conspiracy stuff on those
(35:41):
and we do a number of other things too. That's right.
You can find our website if you go there, you
can find our audio, podcasts or videos. Everything you'll find
all throughout the internet. That is stuff they don't want
you to know it exists. They are even pictures of
Ben and I stylin and photographs and we're gonna have
to update that yep with Mr Neel Brown. Oh yeah,
(36:02):
are you gonna go as the Ice King or you know?
Answer that later? Oh well, I just did. I did
want to say one last thing, um, if anyone is
interested in hearing more stories like this. The crew here,
in addition to some of our other friends from House
to Forks, did a nice little creepy pasta kind of
love crafty and horror story for a local arts festival,
and I did recently post it on a SoundCloud. It
(36:23):
is It's kind of. It's a little NSFW. It's got
some got some swears, you know, it's got some kind
of strong adult themes. But if anyone's interested in that,
let us know and we'll we'll point you in the
right through. Yeah. Yeah, well we'll have to post it, yes,
And if you'd like to read that, we'd love to
send it to you. If you have ideas for topics
we should cover in the future, we'd love to hear
(36:44):
those as well. All of our best ideas come from you.
And if you want to contact us, but you think
that social media is maloney for the voids, uh, then
of course we have all shows. Get it. You can
email us directly at conspiracy at how stuff works dot com.
(37:08):
From more on this topic, another unexplained phenomena, visit YouTube
dot com slash conspiracy stuff. You can also get in
touch on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy Stuff.
From UFOs two, Ghosts and government cover ups. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Welcome
back to the show, Ladies and gentlemen. My name is
Matt and I am Ben and as always, we are
here with our super producer Noel all Hallows Brown. Hello everybody,
(00:26):
But you know what bad? I guess? Uh and and
no I guess Should we still call you super producer? Dude? Yeah?
I mean I've been kind of fond of the nickname,
I said, But that's what That's how I introduced myself
at parties. It's that weird. No, that's great. People do
tend to look at me kind of funny. Can do it,
but I would do it if I didn't think I
would get busted it met You could do it. We
need to get some T shirts made up that you
(00:47):
can wear around. We should and while we're doing that,
most importantly, ladies and gentlemen, you are here now. You
heard Nol at the top, and he offered you the
choice we offer at the beginning of every show to
turn back now or learn that's stuff they don't know now.
If you're hearing this on the day it comes out.
You're hearing it right before Halloween, the day before Halloween, Right,
(01:10):
this is our favorite holiday on the show, and each
year we tried to do something a little special. So
what have we talked about before? Guys? We talked about
the origin of Halloween, the origins of sawin which I
famous and mispronounces Sam haine. Well, it's spelled sam Haines.
So maybe next time they should check out I spell.
These were early days, you know, these were early days.
(01:32):
We looked into other stuff too, like spooky urban legends. Yeah,
we've gotten some some great letters in. We've read a
couple of spooky stories before, right, that is what we
referred to them as, spooky story. Yes, yeah, you know,
they could be true, they can be made up. I
don't know. Some you never really know what these things
(01:53):
or which is probably the most interesting place for them
to be for me, They can be somewhere in between.
That's a great point, no, because that's the nature of
a story, right, whether fiction or fact. Stories inevitably about
something that is true. Sure, I mean that's kind of
scary in and of itself. I mean that seed of
truth that like you know, you kind of like you
(02:15):
feel yourself reaching for in a good scary story. It's like,
you know, where does that come from? Oh yeah, somebody
had to think of this. Yeah, yeah, that's uh. And
that's the scary thing, especially today listeners. As you'll see,
so before, as Matt had mentioned, we'd ask people to
give us the spookiest of stories and we received so
(02:36):
many a ton. We we get them all the time.
So basically, what I'm saying is stop sending U spooky
stories because we can't handle it. I'm just I'm terrified.
I'm so scared. Don't listen to Matt. You're panicking. Man.
It's goods send send all the things. Okay, we might
not be able to do them all right, it might
(02:57):
take a decade or more because we typically only do
about one or two of these a year, and you know,
they're pretty intense, and we generally, I was gonna say,
we generally do that on your behalf worth it. But
but yeah, one of these that was sent in, it
was sent to us. Gosh, I don't even know when
did we get this. It was a long time ago. Yeah,
(03:18):
I don't remember the year, but it was years back. Yeah,
I feel like it was even before I was around,
you know, in any capecity that is, I think it
is before you worked here. But anyway, this, the story
that we got sent to us, was so creepy, you guys. Uh,
we were honestly a little nervous about even reading it, right. Yeah,
when we first received this, uh, we didn't really know
(03:40):
how to handle it or if we should. So here's
here's the pickle, folks, here's the dilemma. To the points
that we were making earlier. We don't know whether this story,
I mean, this email, I mean is factor of fiction.
So we've had stories before where people are clearly sending
us a short horror story and that's great, you know,
(04:03):
and there are great reads, and then we've sent we've
had people sending us true stories about something strange or
paranormal that happened to them. The listener who sent this
in asked not to be identified and was serious enough
about it. You'll see why assume that that we sat
on it for years. Today we're gonna do it. I mean,
obviously we're gonna take a little creative license with this.
(04:24):
We have a lot of fun putting these stories together
and doing sound design and kind of making it sort
of like a radio play. Yes, Um, we're gonna do it.
I think we maybe changed a few things and that
what we just like names. Yeah, I think we definitely
changed Let's say we change the names to protect the
innocent or yeah, we've changed some names. And uh, we're
(04:48):
gonna We're just gonna read it to you guys in
full with some sound design and some help from our coworkers.
Casey Pegram and Lauren Vogel Baumb will be guest starring
in this episod so to help us make it do
do a little more justice to it, kind of flesh
it out, you know. Yeah, yeah, And and and again we're
not going to make any judgment calls, at least from
(05:09):
our end on the contents of this story, because it
is your sad is a story. I mean I might
well at the end, you know, I don't know, I can't.
I haven't you know, I mean I haven't heard it yet.
Oh really, you haven't read this yet. No, No, we'll
go into the uh let's yeah, let's hang out a
little bit at the end after this strange journey we're
about to take. But uh no, you know, no judgment
(05:31):
on my part at least, well, you guys are so
non judgmental. I mean, that's the beauty of this. You
say that. So, hey, no, now that you're officially a
co host, do you want to do the honors? Which
honors would those be? Ben? Do you want to start
the letter? Really? Yeah, I'd love to. Here we go. So, hey, guys,
(05:56):
big fan of the show. I appreciate what you're doing.
And though I know you get irritated when you hear this,
I have to say you're not the typical conspiracy theorists.
It's very kind. I listened to a lot of How
Stuff Work shows, but this is the first time I've
ever written in stuff. You should know asks for Halloween stories,
but they're looking for fictional stuff. Don't get me wrong,
it's good. But you guys sounded like you wanted to
(06:17):
hear something real. Okay, So I'm just gonna write this
out settle in for a long story. You don't have
to read the whole thing. I'm sure you guys are busy,
but if you do read it on air, please don't
use my name or my email. I'll try to keep
the details vague because this may have been in the
news and I don't want to think about it anymore.
(06:37):
M Well, so maybe this will help either way. It's
just important for me to get this out to someone.
I live in a different city now, but when I
was just out of college, I moved into my first apartment.
It was off campus, probably paying too much, even with
my roommate, and we moved into one of those semi
(06:58):
big apartment complexes, you know, the rundown ones. We still
had massive student loans and we were worried we wouldn't
pass the credit check. But the deal was just too
good to pass up, and honestly, we were both kind
of desperate. The property manager let us move in early.
Looking back, I guess they were pretty desperate to rent
it out. The whole complex was old and kind of
(07:21):
going downhill, you know. So we moved in about a
week and a half before the first month of our lease.
There was still some old furniture around from what I
assumed was the previous tenants. One of those old lazy
boy recliners, a microwave that didn't work, one of those
little wire shower hangers for shampoo or whatever still hanging
from the showerhead, an old table by the door, you know,
(07:44):
stuff like that. It wasn't filthy, but it didn't look
completely clean either. There's this faint odor of mildew spider
webs in the corners. My room was the smallest one
h It only had one outlet. It was behind this
little bedside stand, and the stand had a drawer. So
(08:04):
on the first night we got all of our stuff
moved in, and we had pizza and some beers, and
we went to our rooms to organize all our stuff. Well,
I jerked the night stand away from the wall because
I wanted to set up my computer. I was kind
of drunk, I guess, because it was lighter than I expected,
and it fell on top of me. Before looking at
all the stuff that's spilled out of the drawer, mostly junk,
(08:27):
little scraps of paper with notes on them, a girl's handwriting,
I thought, key rings, some necklaces, all those little things
that people put in drawers because they want to forget
about them instead of throwing them away, and a thumb drive.
I picked it up and looked at it, thinking maybe
whoever owned it would have, you know, put their name
on it or something. I don't know, but no dice.
(08:48):
It was super old. Though eight meg's I might have
even been less It's one of the old ones, a
little slide that retracts to expose the USB plug, and
the thing was, it was all matched up. I fired
it up on my PC, popped to the drive in
and there are a bunch of audio files. I clicked
(09:10):
on one at random, and I could hear this girl's voice.
I wish I hadn't clicked on it, but let's start there.
Oh my god, Mom's the weirdest thing happened today. So
remember how our cable has been so stupid the past month.
The building finally sent someone over to fix it, because
apparently it's the building's fault and not the cable company
(09:32):
faulty wiring or something. I get out of class and
rush home in a hurry to get dressed for work.
But right as I'm opening the door, I hear someone
in the house. Of course, I think it's Hannah, so
I'm all like, hey, sorry, Mom, that's just how we
talk to each other. It's not a mean thing. When
all of a sudden, there's this guy leading around the
corner down the hallway. He's in our bathroom. Who the
hell are you? I say, sorry, and he says in
(09:54):
this weird voice. Maintenance building sent me over to check wires,
the cable wires. I say, yes for internet. He walks out,
and I'm still by the front door, you know, keeping
it open just in case the guy's a creeper, like
I know he's not, but he's a strange man in
my house. And I've seen SPU before. And he goes
over to the cable motive by the TV and I
(10:15):
see he's got some tools out and he's scooted the
TV stand to get at the outlet. So I'm thinking, okay,
calm down, He's just doing his job. People have to
use the bathroom, right, And I heard horror stories before
about how the Yiddish sorry mom, that's just the word.
How he's apartment's gonna be with fixing stuff. So it's good, right,
are you Okay? I asked it need me to do anything.
(10:36):
He just sort of grunts, and I sees leaned over
on his side. He must have unscrewed the outlet or
something because he's fiddling with the wall and something in there. Okay,
I say, just let me know if you need anything,
and I go to my room and get changed. You know,
I wanted to shower, but I didn't really feel cool
doing that with a stranger there, and I get my
stuff and while I'm in my room, I hear him
shout something and I freak out just a little, so
(11:00):
I come back out. I'll like you okay, and he says,
old building, bad wires. Uh to come back with new parts?
Are you coming back tomorrow? I asked. I mean it's
getting late and he's packing up his stuff and screwing
back on the outlet when parts come. Do you know
when that will be? I ask? You know, meaning when
I should expect to see this guy in my house again.
(11:23):
Tuesday Thursday. Well, the sooner the better, I guess. And
I'm in a hurry. I'm already late for work, so
I just think I'm gonna leave. She talks about her
folks and her boyfriend, her job. Anyway, I'll skip to
the next one. It was a few days later. Hey, mom,
(11:44):
I tried to call earlier, but it couldn't get through.
The maintenance guy finally came back while I was in
the shower. When I got out, I heard a noise
thumping around. You know it wasn't Hannah because her classes
going to almost seven pm most days. Hello, I said,
I hear the same guy made today. I went straight
to my room and got dressed and stayed there for
a long time, hering him outside in the living room.
(12:05):
I didn't want to just walk out there, you know.
I was mad at him for being there. I'm sure
he heard the shower, but I feel stupid for thinking
that too, you know, like, like, what's he supposed to do?
Knock on the bathroom door. That's more creepy. He's just
some old foreign guy trying to do whatever. And of
course I'd love to watch Lost at our house instead
of going over to Chris's. Remind me to tell you
about that too. Anyway, I'm in the room long enough
(12:26):
for my hair to be mostly dry, and it sounds
like the guy is still out there. So I calmed
down and think I'm not going to hide in my
own house. So I got into the living room and
he's still there, but he's not working on anything. He's
just sort of lying on the ground, looking up like
he was waiting for me. Watch out for the spiders. What? Oh?
You know the spiders everywhere. You were scared of them
(12:51):
since that August in summer Cants when an egg hatched
in your bed and they swore you were right to
be scared. I can't remember, you know, mom. I don't
know how he would know any of that, why I
would say it. Maybe my roommate told him. Excuse me,
(13:13):
I say, but what is your name? Alex alexey Ashenko. Well,
get out, cable isn't fixed. I don't care. Come back
when we're not here. And he grins and stands up,
taking his tool bag and it's all Grabbian stained, but
it didn't leave any marks on the curvet. He fishes
out a business card and leaves it on a table
beside the door. Here is my number. Leave a message.
(13:36):
I will come to fix when you're out at school
or work early. Is okay? I just stand there, fuming,
and finally he leaves. I try to call Hannah, but
she's not answering. It's weird having a roommate. I feel
like I haven't seen her in days. I try to
call her again. We're hearing the phone ring and ring
without an answer, and then I hear something else, like
a like a faint buzz, like a phone vibrating. She's
(13:59):
always losing things, so I'm relieved. I call again, and
I hold the phone down by my side as I
walk around the living room searching for the vibration. It's
behind the TV, near the motive in the cable. Jam
im with the TV standing Well, there's her phone right
where this Alex guy was. Calm down, I'm thinking, even
though I totally feel a panic attack coming on, just calm.
(14:22):
She could have dropped it maybe, So I bent over
to pick it up, and I see a little piece
of red lace sticking out from under the stand, like
like stuffed under. So I pull it out. Mom, it
was a pair of Hannah's panties. Should maybe they just
got tossed back there? Should I call the police? Here's
(14:51):
the last part the next evening, Mom, I wish you
would answer the phone. I called the police, but they
said there wasn't really a crime. So so I'm just
putting this recorder on. I don't want to sound crazy,
I don't, but just in case, you know, just in case. Okay,
So I'm calling the property manager Overlook Apartments. Hey, this
(15:15):
is Stacy in room two thirty seven. I'm I'm calling
about the maintenance man. Do you have an appointment? He's
been trying to fix my cable for like a week.
All right, let me check it out on this end, right. Ah, yeah, no,
I don't see it in our records anywhere. You're kidding. No, oh,
(15:37):
we usually have a file for each one. So do
you remember he spoke to Was it Jose or Poulo
or something? Um, it was like alex alex as shank
something of foreign guy. I'm sorry, who did you say?
Alex a something Alexie at Shanko. Yeah, yeah, that's it,
(15:58):
that's not possible. Does he not work here? Yeah? He did.
My first year started here and then he died. So
do you mind play much of talking about maintenance? That's
(16:31):
the last file. That's how it ends her story at least.
I called the police to see if there were any
reports for this unit, but they came up with nothing.
And tried to google it, but I couldn't find much.
But what I did find disturbed me. Our town really
did have a maintenance man named Ashenko. He'd been linked
(16:53):
to several disappearances of college aged girls in the area
and even in another state. When in instigators found the body,
they ruled his death a suicide. But it makes me
wonder what if someone else got to him before the police,
A parent. Maybe I left a message with a property
(17:15):
manager before I went to work that night, and when
I came back the next morning, nothing was moved in
my apartment. My roommate was out of town, but the
thumb drive was gone. And that's the end. And that
(17:41):
is how the email ends. Yeah, just like that, just
say yeah, I have a nice day, Noel and Matt.
I want to thank you guys for taking the time
to make such a such a fantastic adaptation of this story. Now,
the show is not over, even though that story is.
What we're going to do now is maybe real little
(18:02):
listener mail, but we're gonna I think the three of
us should talk about this story a little bit, and
I just want to hear your opinions because we haven't
really talked off air. Sure, but well yeah, we've talked
off air about this a lot, but not with our superproducer.
Awesome Town Noel Brown. Right, Oh, did you like that
Awesome Town, Noel Brown. I feel like we're gonna start
(18:22):
introducing my stuff like that parties Now it's the intros
are gonna you guys. I go, I go, I get
invited to parties. Yeah, but it sounds like pretty soon
you're going to spend three minutes of introduction for every
you know how when royalty is introduced, Yeah, get a
friend to another of the handles and all that first
of his name presenting awesome time, No Brown, I'll be good.
(18:47):
That does sound good? You have I need? I need
a minstrel to follow me around and unroll a red
carpet everywhere I go while singing my praises on the lute.
They need to walk in front of you backwards. That
would be we need people start out the logistics. We'll
start out the logistics, but first a word from our sponsor.
(19:21):
What do you think about this email? You, guys? I
don't know, Like I thought it was very entertaining. It
was definitely creepy. Kind of made me think of one
of those creepy pasta's. Yeah that's you know, that's exactly
I felt. I don't know, you know how I am, guys.
I I read into it like, oh man, I can
see this, I can see this happening. But I don't know.
(19:44):
Maybe it's just the way that we present it. Because
we did it with characters, it feels like a story.
But when it's written down on paper and you're just
reading this, like I said at the top, any we
took some we took some some liberties. Yeah, but okay,
getting the I just want to say, getting the getting
the story and just reading it cold was a completely
(20:06):
different different experience. Yeah. Well, there's some questions for me,
why would someone because it's not clear about what year
this happens, and so why would someone save audio files
on the thumb drive? That was my first thought, like
when I was reading through it um for this, you know,
(20:28):
to do the story like that if I felt like
there was some cool conspiracy element that was missing, like
why are they on the thumb drive? Like who who
put them on the thumb drive? Why is the thumb
drive important? Well, she was going to send him to
her mom because you know, maybe the files were too
large for AOL. And we did we we's, Yeah, we
should be clear some of this stuff. We changed. We
(20:52):
we censored some people's names. But also for the maintenance
man that is mentioned in the in the audio file, uh,
we just used an entirely different name because you know,
we looked into between the time when we first got
(21:13):
this email and the time that we decided to adapt
it for today's show. Uh, we looked around and not
only are there cases of this kind of violence or
you know, a criminal maintenance worker. But there there, there's
much more than one. I mean, I guess it makes
(21:36):
sense the terms of someone having access, you know, to
college age girls and being what would one would consider
a safe person to have around and wouldn't think twice about,
you know, letting them into their apartment. It certainly seems
like it could be a pretty good, you know, killing
ground for someone that was allowed to do harm in
(21:56):
that way. I'm not surprised that you found town Town
What did you What did you find? I didn't look
into this as much as you did. So the most
recent example would be in April, and we know that
had to be completely unrelated to this if it, if
it is real or based in some kind of truth,
because in April often a fifty six year old former
(22:22):
maintenance worker was fired from a complex, but he retained keys,
and he kept showing up as though he did work there,
and he had been sort of let's got a little
h's got a little shiver there. Yeah, seriously, he had
been lecherously sort of stalking, uh, this twenty seven year
(22:44):
old student who lived there, and they have been trying
to talk to her on the Internet and stuff. This
was over near Drexel University and he she came into
the apartment on her phone with her mother and he
was laying in wait. So he attacked her and you know,
(23:07):
assaulted and killed her. And his name is James Harris.
Uh he's definitely not a ghost. Definitely not a ghost. Yeah.
Uh he was um waiting for about thirty minutes. Um.
He also he had a long list of priors, including
(23:28):
voluntary manslaughter of his father. So the problem with this is,
um right, I believe he may have been a handyman.
But the the problem with the kind of thing is
just like what you're talking about, the is that people
have access two people have access to someone's private private
(23:51):
delmicile I guess to be fancy about it. And part
of it comes from this massive psychological conditioning that we
all experience, which is, uh, you know, if you see
someone dressed as a doctor matt unite, like we did
this video where you just wear a white coat and
walk around and right you see someone with the tie
(24:15):
or a blazer, which is you know, advantageous because you think, oh,
there doing something important, right, you know, and I mean
you know, it's one of these things too, where you
assume that these folks have been vetted, you know, like
someone that's coming into your home to fix your cable
that works for an apartment complex. Is it's going to
come and you know, fix your toiler or something. You
(24:36):
don't think twice about it. You don't think to ask
the person their name and do a personal background check
on these people. You you trust that the people in
charge have already done that. And clearly that's not always
the case for many reasons. Whether you know, people are
trying to get cheap labor, you know, and give a
pass to some things in the past, perhaps you know,
and hire someone on despite them having some theinial past
(25:00):
and pay them less. You never know, I mean kind
of things like that that could happen. But what what
the reason I said it gave me shivers? And you
told me that story was because you know, we were
talking at the top of the podcast about the seed
of truth, like and at the heart of like a
fictional story. And I'm gonna go out on a limb here,
guys and say that our anonymous email friend is likely,
you know, spinning a little yarn for us here. And
(25:22):
it was very well done, and I really enjoyed it.
I mean, I can't say that for sure, because you know,
we don't know, but um, I feel like at the
heart of that story is this vulnerability that we're talking
about here, and this idea that you're not always safe
and that the people who present themselves as safe are
not always what they appear to be. I'm not saying
(25:42):
that they're necessarily murderous ghosts, but you know, there is
That's that's what good stories are rooted in, is like
his reality is, you know, this fear of being vulnerable
in that way. And so that's what gave me child
when you described that case, because it was obviously very
similar too. But you know, we all have that. We
all are probably too trusting, and there's a very fine
(26:04):
line between being too trusting and being a sucker and
putting yourself out there in a play and to a
point where you're you're not safe, you know. So yeah,
I definitely get that feeling now when my wife and
son heer at home and there's a maintenance person coming
over or somebody who's gonna work on plumbing and I
just don't know, and I you know, I hate to
live that way, to think, well, what if this happens,
(26:27):
but if I don't, something does happen. And not to
mention if you'd actually been victimized in that way before,
you know. I M the closest I've come to anything
like that was I got rushed by a dude in
a in a subway station in New York when I
was about to catch a train. It was relate at night,
and I was loaded down with a bunch of camera
gear and like a big jacket, and it was really cold,
and I was with a friend who was, you know,
(26:48):
quite a few paces back, and this guy you know,
rushed me, looked like he was gonna try to take
me down and robbed me. Didn't end up happening, never
laid a hand on me. My friend walked up and
it kind of spooked him and he ran away. But
just that amount of almost being victimized freaked me out
to no end. So I cannot imagine what it would
do from my worldview if something horrible happened where I
(27:09):
was taking advantage of in such a way I do.
I don't think I would be able to look at
things the same way ever again. And then that subversion
of authority figures is such a it's such a powerful thing,
because authority figures are such a powerful thing, right. Uh,
The difference between a person and position in society is
(27:30):
often just the clothing they appear to wear. There's a
little bit of a deep cut. When I was a kid.
One of the first books that really scared me as
a child and sounds so stupid now. It's a children's
book called Miss Nelson is Missing. And in Miss Nelson's Missing,
these kids had this really nice mouseie teacher. No one
(27:52):
respected her, and so one day she's gone, and she's
replaced by this substitute who's saying like what looks like
court face paint and is absolutely utter evil. It's a
children's books, so she's not like eating the kids or
you know, wearing their skin or anything. But that's how
I felt the same way. And and the most terrifying
(28:12):
thing about that kind of stuff is that big I
guess I wasn't. I wish I was smart enough as
a kid to think of this. The most terrifying thing
was that for the rest of the school it was normal,
even though which was replaced by this monster. Spoiler alert
for everyone who might be about to spend the twelve
bucks or whatever to check out this book. It turns
(28:34):
out that miss Nelson was teaching them a lesson and
she's just pretending to be a monster, so it's all
okay at the end, right, yeah, which is totally you know,
It's very similar, if you think about it, to someone
feeling unappreciated when they're dating and then disappearing and coming
back into disguise and dating someone, which I've never tried,
(28:56):
but it sounds like an interesting plot for something. They
made this movie about it. It's called Gone Girl, was it? No? No,
you're thinking of Mrs doubt Fire. Doubt right. This is Doubtfire,
sort of the Gone Girl of cross dressing comedies. I
just had to do. You know what book scared the
crap out of me when I was a kid. It
was called To Loose the Chocolate Moose. It was about
(29:19):
a mouse who was made of chocolate and he goes
out into the sun and he melts and it's horrifying looking.
I'm just gonna leave it at that that. I'm sorry
I should have spoiler alerted that one, but say the
title again, to Loose like to Lose the Chocolate Mouse alight.
(29:39):
It haunts my dark chocols my days and my nights.
I mean it's it's yeah, it looks like um oh,
like some sort of like a wax wax figure in
a wax museum that's melting. Was just like gobs of
like goo coming off of his moose face. It's awful.
It really really traumatized. You're triggering childhood memories in me.
(30:00):
Even remember what the takeaway from the story was. It
was probably like be good to each other. It was
where sunscreen obviously, don't be don't be a chocolate movese. Yeah,
oh no I do. I do not have one. But
I do have a question. All right, When you guys
move into an apartment complex or house or something, when
you have moved in the past, do you proactively get
(30:21):
the locks changed or do it on your own, even
if the apartment complex does it for you. I am
not proactive in that way. No, no, I actually I've
never really lived in an apartment complex. I owned a
house and now I rent a little house, and um,
I don't know. I trust my landlord. He's a nice fellow. Yeah,
But see the thing is, it doesn't matter if you
(30:42):
trust the landlord or not. People working for him. He does,
he does, he does all his own work. You know
he's good old who he going to give you a
shout out. Look, I'm not I'm not saying who he's
a bad guy. That's his name. Yeah, that's that's his name.
I'm just saying, h U. I just saying man who
(31:02):
we don't maybe doesn't know everything that's going on around
his world, that's true. I don't know. It freaks me out.
So I learned about this new kind of not new,
but it's an extra locking system that you can get
that actually goes into the steel. You can get steel
around your door and then actually have steel in your
door and have a large bar that goes into the steel.
(31:23):
So even if someone tries to break your door down,
just kick it in style. I mean, you know them,
what can happen? And you can always just get bear traps. Oh,
get bear traps, have them on the ground, have them
hanging from the ceiling with a trip wire so they
drop on the person's head. And that's and that's important.
(31:43):
Maybe not even a person because according to this statistic
I made up earlier, about thirty eight percent and break
ends are due to bears, so not all of them.
I don't want to make a stereotype and say that
all bears are thieves. Some of them, I understand, are
you know, decent, but uh but yeah, it might be
(32:05):
worth bear traps. I read a stat that bears largely
are responsible for the majority of picnic basket thefts in
the country. Yeah, oh man, that's what I've got, this
new kind of picnic basket. It's got a steel frame
around it, and there's this bar that goes through the basket. Uh,
(32:27):
it doesn't. It doesn't make the best sandwiches. I'm being
completely honest, And you know, I don't appreciate I don't
appreciate all. Sorry, no, but seriously though, I mean, like,
you know, to take it back a notch. I mean,
there there is something to be said about like that
line between paranoia and safety, you know, like and I
(32:49):
think that's what this story today was largely about. I mean,
it was sort of like a supernatural version of that.
But I think, you know, stay safe out there, guys,
you know, but don't even fear. That's that's that's my advice,
been cautious optimism. Yeah that's me. That's actually on my
real nickname. How I introduced myself at parties is uh,
(33:12):
I'm Noel cautiously optimistic brown. Nice. Yeah, the cautious optimist
sounds it has some nice essence to it. YEA. So
let's close on this. Are you guys doing anything special
for Halloween? Dark rites? No, I have my my My
daughter is gonna be hanging out. I'm gonna go to
(33:32):
Athens with her where she lives, and we're gonna trick
or treat with her friends. I think I'm gonna be
the Ice King from from Adventure Time. I can pull
it together. Already got the beard. I just got to
get some of that white spray stuff and I'm gonna
paint my face blue and get a Burger king crown
and put on a sheet. I think that should do
(33:52):
the trick where some sandals, right, good, Ice King, I haven't.
I haven't seen Frozen. It's not man, it's Adventure Time.
I haven't seen Adventure Time. He monster. I'm sorry. I know.
It's it's driving a wedge between our friendship. Pretty bad man.
I'm usually able to b s my way through context
clues and conversations, but I don't want to lie to
you guys. Well, Ice King is a megalomaniacal king of
(34:16):
the ice realm, and he's always getting ragged on by
Finn and Jake because he's a little bit you know,
crazy and kind of full of himself. And he's got
some pretty incredible powers, but he's also just kind of bananas,
so he doesn't really use them for really good or evil.
He's just kind of useless, honestly. I mean, I guess
he does some evil, but he does. He did his
kidnap princesses on the rag. He does question without youre
(34:39):
getting mad at me. I don't know, man, I can't.
I can't speak to you know what. That's fair. That's tough,
but fair. Um, who's Finn Jake not? This is not
an Adventure Time podcast? Okay, all right, you know what.
That's a good point, man. So you're doing anything special,
h know. We're going to see family and just show
(35:01):
the baby around. Basically you can. You just can pass
it around the room, hold this and then run for
a little while, but we'll be back. It'll be like
the collection plate, just like put money in the one esie.
Oh man. Okay, Well, on that note, maybe enjoy is
not the right word for this kind of episode, but
(35:21):
we hope you did find it interesting. And as always,
we want to thank you for listening, wish you a
happy Halloween, and uh ask a favor. Are you on
the internet? Do you want to find out what stories
we have that don't make it to the air. If so,
you're in luck because you can find us on Facebook
and Twitter for free. We are conspiracy stuff on those
(35:41):
and we do a number of other things too. That's right.
You can find our website if you go there, you
can find our audio, podcasts or videos. Everything you'll find
all throughout the internet. That is stuff they don't want
you to know it exists. They are even pictures of
Ben and I stylin and photographs and we're gonna have
to update that yep with Mr Neel Brown. Oh yeah,
(36:02):
are you gonna go as the Ice King or you know?
Answer that later? Oh well, I just did. I did
want to say one last thing, um, if anyone is
interested in hearing more stories like this. The crew here,
in addition to some of our other friends from House
to Forks, did a nice little creepy pasta kind of
love crafty and horror story for a local arts festival,
and I did recently post it on a SoundCloud. It
(36:23):
is It's kind of. It's a little NSFW. It's got
some got some swears, you know, it's got some kind
of strong adult themes. But if anyone's interested in that,
let us know and we'll we'll point you in the
right through. Yeah. Yeah, well we'll have to post it, yes,
And if you'd like to read that, we'd love to
send it to you. If you have ideas for topics
we should cover in the future, we'd love to hear
(36:44):
those as well. All of our best ideas come from you.
And if you want to contact us, but you think
that social media is maloney for the voids, uh, then
of course we have all shows. Get it. You can
email us directly at conspiracy at how stuff works dot com.
(37:08):
From more on this topic, another unexplained phenomena, visit YouTube
dot com slash conspiracy stuff. You can also get in
touch on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy Stuff.
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Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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