Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
I have a dog and I walk him three times
a day, morning, afternoon, and night. Each time I take
the same route, starting from my driveway and heading toward
the cul de Sac parking lot for the condo complex
where I live. This is important as it ties into
what happened one night. We usually go on our final
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walk of the day pretty late. It's just a habit
I've fallen into over the years, and it's never been
a problem before. But that night it was dark with
no street lights on in the parking lot, so I
carried a flashlight with me. As usual, I was also
listening to music with only one headphone in just in
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case I needed to hear something unusual. As we approached
the lot, I thought I heard something, a voice, faint,
coming from up ahead. At first I dismissed it, but
then my mind caught up and I stopped walking, pulled
out my headphone, and stood still listening. The voice came again,
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closer this time help It was faint, muffled and eerie.
I couldn't see any one anywhere, but the voice seemed
to come from the row of parked cars just in
front of me. Against my better judgment, I kept walking
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cautiously moving toward the sound. I stopped again, right next
to where the cars were lined up, shining my flashlight
across the lot. Then I heard it again, Help. This
time it was clearer, but still muffled, like the person
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was trapped or hiding. My heart raced as I frantically
pointed my flashlight in every direction, trying to locate the source.
But it was just me, my dog, and those parked cars.
The voice came again three more times. Help, Help, Help.
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It had come from my left. Panic set in. I
couldn't tell if the voice was coming from inside one
of the cars or some one hiding near by, but
I was sure of one thing. It wasn't a normal
cry for help. It sounded like a child, but there
was a strange distortion to it, as if it didn't
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actually belong to a kid. And each time the word
help was spoken, it lacked urgency, as though the voice
was going through the motions, repeating mechanically without emotion or context.
I didn't wait to hear it again. I grabbed my
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dog's leash and ran all the way home. When I
got back, I told my mom what had happened, and
she was just as puzzled as I was, I suggested
we call the police, just in case someone really was
in trouble, but she said it wasn't necessary. To this day,
I still wonder what I heard, and I'm working to
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accept that I will probably never know. When I was
twenty two, I started renting the downstairs apartment in my
parents house, mainly to save money, but also for a
little more privacy. Even though my parents would go away
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a decent amount, it still felt like I had nowhere
to myself. I could never host my friends or girl
friends over in peace. The downstairs apartment was separated from
the upstairs by a lockable door in the stairway. It
had an open layout, with a mini kitchen being a
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part of the living room area. Down the hall were
my bedroom, bathroom, and laundry room, and there was also
a side entrance through the living room. This happened on
a weekend when my parents were away, so I could
be as loud as I wanted. I had my friends
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Anthony and Jay over just to shoot the breeze and
have a couple of drinks while watching the hockey game.
We were blasting music as we chilled. I wouldn't say
we got drunk, but I definitely had a buzz going
by the end of the game. Since my parents were
gone and I didn't have to worry about them randomly
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coming downstairs, I would keep the door between my apartment
and the upstairs unlocked. I kept the drinks in the
fridge upstairs because it was bigger and just worked better.
Since my friends had driven and both been drinking, they
decided to crash at my place for the night. The
couch downstairs was massive and could easily sleep three people
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if they laid down the right way. After a pretty
long night of drinking, I said good night and went
to my room to sleep. I woke up in the
middle of the night or early morning hours. Immediately I
heard what most likely woke me up, footsteps from upstairs.
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Someone was walking around up there. It was a pretty
natural assumption that it was Anthony or Jay going upstairs
to check my parents fridge for water or something, so
I didn't let it bother me. I closed my eyes again,
only to hear something else just a couple of minutes later,
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the sound of my bedroom doorknob being twisted. Someone had
tried to open it, but it was locked. I always
locked my bedroom door out of habit. I wondered why
either of my friends would try to come in, but
I was tired, so I figured if I didn't say
anything and pretended to be asleep, they'd go back to
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sleep themselves. Maybe it sounds weird, but I just didn't
have the energy to be bothered, and it worked. I
fell back asleep shortly after that. When I woke up
the next morning, Anthony was already gone, but Jay was
still asleep on the couch. When he heard me open
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the fridge door, he slowly started moving around, rubbing his eyes.
I asked him if he had tried to come into
my room last night, and he said no, I don't
think so, but that he didn't fully remember because he
was pretty drunk. We picked up bacon, egg and cheeses
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with coffee at a nearby deli and ate them in
my backyard. Jay left not long after that, and I
pretty much went about my day as usual. I didn't
think to ask Anthony if he had tried to come
into my room because honestly, I didn't really care much
about it. It wasn't a huge deal. I think I
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spent most of that Saturday out of the house doing
stuff with friends. I got back home pretty late, but
I wasn't intoxicated, since that day was more of a marathon,
and by then I had sobered up. I was beat, though,
so I had a snack, washed up, and went to bed.
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When I say I went to bed, I mean I
crawled into bed and watched about an hour of something on.
After I turned off the television, I immediately heard creaking
and thumps from above, almost sounding like footsteps, similar to
the night before. It was coming directly from the kitchen upstairs.
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I had to really focus and listen, but then the
sound stopped. I felt my heart start beating a little
faster and a slight nervous feeling in my gut for
a few minutes as I sat up waiting to hear
something else. Eventually I laid back down and relaxed, realizing
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it was probably just some normal house settling noises, and
my paranoid thoughts were making them out to be louder
than they were. But I couldn't have been more wrong.
I should have trusted my initial feeling. When I heard
the door knob to my bedroom door move again, I
sprang up so quickly you'd think I was about to
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be hit by a bus. The door knob only moved
for a couple of seconds, like it had the night before,
But to night there was a light knock on the door,
followed by the door knob moving again. I didn't say
a word. I reached for my phone, which was on
the bed, and started texting my family, along with Anthony
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and Jay. I knew the chances of it being one
of my friends were next to zero, but deep down
I was hoping one of them would respond, saying yes,
it's me. My parents didn't answer the phone. I'm sure
they were asleep. They weren't supposed to be back until Monday,
but there was no way I was about to say
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who's there. I quietly got out of bed and hid
behind the corner dresser, grabbing a blunt object in case
whoever was out there tried to kick the door down
and rush the bed. I'm not I think ten minutes
went by and I didn't move from my spot, but
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whoever it was didn't knock again. I finally called nine
one one and whispered as quietly as I could. I
waited on the line with the operator until the police arrived.
Since I didn't feel safe exiting the room I asked
them to have the police meet me at my bedroom window.
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Once an officer was outside the window, they gave it
a tap and I went to open it. Luckily I
was on the first floor. I handed them the key
to the side door, and moments later I heard the
entrance to my apartment open. Then I finally left my
bedroom to be greeted by two officers. I turned on
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all the lights. My apartment was small with not many
places to hide, so the search downstairs was We then
went up to the main floor of the house and
searched it nothing. When we got upstairs, I told the
officers what each room was before they entered. It was
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when they entered my parents room that I heard a commotion.
I peeked into the room from the hallway to see
the two officers yelling at someone under my parent's bed.
I felt a not in my stomach. They told me
to wait downstairs. A few minutes later, they walked down
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the stairs with a tall, dirty, scary looking man in
a sweatshirt and shorts. They asked me if I knew him,
and I said, of course not. The look of hatred
that man gave me was haunting. He looked like he
could have been homeless, grazy, or both. Once he was
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out of the house, I felt million times better. The
police told me that if I or my parents wanted
to follow up, we should call the precinct. After they left,
the first thing I did was text every family and
friends group chat I had. Being that it was so late,
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only a few people responded. I called my parents first
thing in the morning to explain what happened. They were,
of course in awe as any one would be, but
because nothing was apparently stolen, my parents didn't pursue any
legal action. I feel like it's possible I left the
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front door unlocked the night that Jaye and Anthony came over,
and the man simply walked right in or a scarier thought.
He could have been in the house for much longer
than that, and we just never knew. My name is Leo.
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To be completely honest with you, I'm a little lost
right now. I won't get into too much, but all
you need to know is that my family situation is horrible,
and for the past three years I've been trying to
stay as far away from them as possible. My close
friends from high school have been changing in ways I
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don't like and I feel like my home town doesn't
offer me anything any more. I'm about to graduate college
and I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to
do with my life. Enough of the SOB story, though.
Last year, I was in Berlin, searching for a sense
of place or trying to find some direction in life.
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I was in some bar alone, which wasn't unusual for me.
I was getting ready to leave when I patted my
pockets and realized that my keys were missing. I stumbled
out of the bar and began walking toward my apartment anyway,
even though I knew I wouldn't be able to get in.
The building was locked up tight, and it was far
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too late to get a replacement set. I'm not sure
what most people would do in a situation like that,
but my first thought was just to find somewhere to
sleep for the night. As if my luck wasn't bad
enough already, it started raining. Eventually, I passed along a
nearby bridge and decided to sleep underneath it. I didn't
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even know exactly where I was, but I was out
of the rain and safe enough, so I figured that
it would work. As I was drifting off, I began
to hear faint voices coming from across the river. I
sat up and saw what looked like five men standing
on the opposite side, next to a small boat that
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was tied off. They didn't seem to notice me, but
it took me less than a minute to realize what
I was watching. It was some drug deal or something
equally sketchy happening right in front of me. My German
isn't great, so I couldn't really make out what they
were saying. But I saw they were holding briefcases and
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duffel bags and filled in the blanks myself. I thought
about finding a new spot to sleep, but I didn't
want to draw attention to myself by moving, so I
figured I would just wait for them to leave, and
then I would sneak away quietly. Suddenly, one of the
men began to shout aggressively and pointed a gun at
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one of the others. The other man raised his hands
and started speaking really quickly, like he was trying to
explain himself. It looked like he was being set up.
The other men stripped him at gunpoint in stead started
taking all his belongings. At that point, I definitely didn't
feel safe any more, so I tried to sneak away
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without making any noise, but just as I did, I
heard one of the men shout something that roughly translated
to there's someone over there. I didn't wait to find
out what they were going to do. I started running
and didn't even bother to look back. They shouted more,
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but the only words I understood were don't shoot. I
kept running until I was so exhausted that I threw
up and nearly passed out from the combination of fear
and alcohol. I knew they could have easily killed me
if they wanted to. Sometimes I still think about how
close I came to losing my life that night, and
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it haunts me.