August 12, 2025 • 65 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain.
I just want to remind you that there's only about 3 weeks left
of this Nintendo Switch 2 giveaway.
And to be honest, I'm not reallysure when I'm going to be able
to get another one. I stood in line for about 7
hours waiting to get this one, and it's going to go to one of
my very lucky podcast subscribers.
And so I just wanted to remind you that if you want to be
(00:20):
automatically entered to win, you can become a subscriber
today for only 299. It'll get rid of all of the ads
across my entire library of episodes and I might emailing
you about where to send your Nintendo Switch 2 bundle.
Please don't miss out. I will try to get another one,
but I don't know when that'll be.
As always, thank you so much forlistening and I really
(00:40):
appreciate you being here. I hope you enjoy.
A few summers ago I worked at a mall in Toledo, OH, a pretty big
city nestled right up against the West End of Lake Erie.
I was very concerned about moneyat the time, and I wanted to
(01:03):
work as much as possible in order to save up for an
apartment, my first major purchase.
To do that, I took a job at the Great American Cookie Shop in
the malls food courts which had been around since before I was
born. And to get some more bang for my
buck, I worked there at night. For those who don't know, a lot
(01:24):
of bakeries and coffee shops will often hire a Baker to come
in at dead of night in order to make all the pastries and treats
for the morning. They'll come in around 3:00 AM
and just bake for hours on end. That was exactly what I did.
I pounded out cookie cakes and put cookies in the oven until
the sun came up, and then I stayed even longer to make some
(01:47):
more money. It was actually really cozy and
relaxing, between the heat from the oven, the silence of them
all, and the freedom to blast mymusic or my podcasts.
But it also put me on edge sometimes.
It was haunted as heck, and nobody really knows why.
(02:08):
One morning I was in the middle of eating breakfast at my
counter when I heard the carousel's sharp music echoing
through the massive food courts.To set the scene, our food court
has this little play area on theopposite side from where I work.
It's got all these kiddie rides that light up and play music,
and they're all motion activatedso they light up when people
(02:31):
walk by. Normally I wouldn't give the
sound a second thought, but I knew for a fact that there
wasn't supposed to be anybody else in the mall at this hour,
and there's no way that I could have activated the ride sensor
myself. As a person who regularly
listened to Scary Stories while at work, I was immediately
(02:52):
excited and anxious to see what might have happened.
I turned on the oven and shut off the lights to every area but
my workstation in order to tune into the other end of the dark
food court. It was nearly pitch black beyond
the dim lights above my workstation, but I could see
that the only thing out of placewas that carousel, which was now
(03:13):
spinning just enough for its creaking and scraping to find a
rhythm. It wasn't until a second ride
activated that I saw what reallyset it off.
Illuminated by the headlights ofone of the race car themed
rides, it was clear to me that there was something standing
behind the carousel, something that was now facing my
(03:35):
direction. The very defined silhouette of a
security guard leaning around the central pillar of the ride.
I had been standing and leaning around the corner of a doorway,
essentially mirroring it, tryingto keep hidden enough to watch
uninterrupted. I did that until I started to
feel uncomfortable with what I was looking at.
(03:58):
If they are standing on a carousel, why aren't they
spinning? If they are a security guard,
why aren't they doing their rounds like they do during the
day? Why were they trying to sneak
around in the 1st place? I kept my eyes glued on the
opposite end of the food court as I texted one of the security
guards I knew. They confirmed my suspicions.
(04:23):
I was the only person scheduled to be in the mall.
I glanced down at my phone to reread the text.
It maybe took a second. The moment I felt my gaze
dropped, I stopped myself, but it was already too late.
There was now something standingabout 5 feet away from our
(04:44):
counter, right along the edge ofmy field of view.
Fun fact about the counter of our shop, it's not tall.
I, standing at six four, could essentially step over it, and my
comically short sister who worked the day shift told me
that she sometimes just leftoverthe counter after closing up
(05:04):
shop. I was now essentially standing
in an island with only one routeof escape if this creep decided
to jump the counter. I took the opportunity while I
had it and left the shop. It didn't end there though.
My car was parked pretty far away, so I instead decided to
run along the long service hall towards our stockroom.
(05:28):
It was the only other door in the mall that I could lock and
unlock, so I pushed my back against the door and locked the
deadbolt behind me. Feeling better behind a locked
door, I sat there watching YouTube under the blindingly
bright ceiling lights. I felt secure and safe in that
room, right up until I heard footsteps coming slowly down the
(05:51):
hallway. They were slow and light, like a
kid tiptoeing down their stairs on Christmas.
It was almost playful. I held my breath and waited for
the footsteps to pass by my door.
It was like they stopped just before it and started to walk in
place as if it knew where I was but couldn't get to me.
(06:14):
It was then that I heard these clicking and flickering sounds,
some mix between the sound of keys jingling and lights popping
on and off. Whatever was outside that door.
It was just having its fun scaring me.
I'm sure a lot of people have had a nightmare where they were
running away from a threat that always knew exactly where their
(06:36):
prey was. It felt like that, but I knew
this was real. Luckily I also knew I was safe
and at one point or another I realized that the footsteps were
gone. It wasn't until after I told the
story to my Co workers later that I realized I never had to
(06:57):
reopen the deadbolt to exit thatstockroom.
It was already unlocked. When I was about 10 or 11 I
(07:18):
lived in a duplex house with my parents in Tennessee.
It was a pretty good size, 3 bedrooms, huge backyard and a
good sized porch in front of my house.
I was in a decent school and hadmany friends on that block.
Plenty of good times were had and pleasant memories made.
(07:39):
However, there is one memory that isn't pleasant at all and
it happened in that house. I always had a strange feeling
in that house. That feeling you get when you
think someone is watching you but you are by yourself.
That sort of feeling, I always felt like someone or something
(07:59):
was watching me from inside my closet in particular.
But being a very self aware person my whole life, I figured
that was just normal kid fears, something in the closet,
something under the bed, et cetera.
But what I couldn't explain was our lights would turn on and off
by themselves a lot and the TV would turn on and off a lot.
(08:23):
My father tried explaining it that it was the electricity or
the house wiring and it didn't seem to bother my parents.
One day after school I got home and started the regular routine.
I got a snack, turned on Nickelodeon and started doing
homework in front of the TV on the floor.
About 10 or so minutes into it, I heard something coming from my
(08:47):
parents bedroom, like a rustling.
I knew my parents weren't home from work yet.
It was still pretty early in theafternoon and their cars weren't
in the driveway. For all I knew it could have
been an intruder and I was a skinny little boy at the time.
Instead of getting a neighbor, Istarted walking toward the
bedroom. I then noticed the rustling
(09:10):
noise was coming from their bedroom.
They had the master bedroom of course, and I found that odd.
What was happening in the bathroom?
Like if it was a robber, why would they be in the bathroom?
I get to the bedroom door, whichwas open, but before I step in,
I said, Mom, Dad, is that you? I knew it couldn't be them, but
(09:36):
that's just what came out. Then it happened.
I heard what sounded like a cackle, like a rotten snicker,
and then what I can only describe as an old hag's voice.
It repeated back my words only in a mocking fashion.
Mom, dad, is that you? Then it cackled again.
(10:02):
At this point I think I'm dreaming and tears start to well
up in my eyes. I figured I was about to get
jump scared or shocked, so I walked toward the bathroom
thinking I would wake up at the jolt.
I got to the bathroom and I saw nothing, nothing but a bunch of
bathroom items knocked on the floor and into the sink.
(10:24):
I turned and started to run out and I tripped on the doorway and
fell on my chest. Now I really think I'm dreaming
and I start crying, calling for my mom, that kind of thing.
It felt like I was on the floor for an hour, but it was probably
not even one minute. I got up, looked behind me once
more, still see nothing, and ranto the living room to get my
(10:49):
homework and went outside on theporch, not going back inside
until whatever parent got home first.
When I told them, they chalked it up to being a dream, that I
probably dozed off watching TV and just had a vivid dream all
right. But The thing is, I don't
(11:09):
remember waking up that day. The day just went on into the
evening and then into the night where I probably didn't get much
sleep then. Nothing to that magnitude
happened to me in that house after and we ended up moving a
year or so later. I'm older now but still to this
day I am uneasy being in bathrooms because if I ever
(11:33):
heard that voice again I don't know what I would do.
I would probably have a heart attack, the voice was that
nasty. I hated that house.
(11:59):
This is a night I'll always lookback on and ask myself, what if
I hadn't decided to do what I actually did?
It was a night during the autumnseason.
I bring this up because it's important to know that it was
dark out in the early parts of the evening.
It's also important to note thatthe weather was cold enough to
(12:19):
the point where we didn't have any windows or doors open in the
house. So this night started off with
my parents leaving to go to somedinner party, a regular thing
with them. They have a lot of friends and
get invited to a lot of events. I was often left home alone and
I loved it. I loved the peace, the freedom
(12:41):
to do as I pleased and the freedom to eat what I pleased
when I pleased. The night started like any other
night like this. I was enjoying the peace
watching TV and at around 6:00 or so I decided to make
something to eat. I don't remember what I had, all
(13:02):
I know is I didn't order anything because I know I didn't
deal with any delivery people that night and certainly wasn't
expecting anyone to come to my house.
So I'm just finishing up my food, throwing away my trash,
and putting whatever silverware in the sink.
Afterwards I just randomly decided to look outside the
(13:22):
window of my front door, which was closed and locked.
I do that sort of thing often. Not for any particular reason, I
just get curious. We live in a pretty safe
neighborhood, nothing ever really happens, and it's to the
point where you hardly ever hearany sirens going off anyway.
(13:44):
I just look outside from my front door that has a window on
it so that you can see the outside before you open it.
I wasn't expecting to see anything, and I wasn't doing
this to investigate any kind of noise or anything.
But when I look outside, I see aman walking up to my porch
carrying something in each hand in plastic grocery bags at his
(14:06):
sides, and a running car in my street.
I didn't really hear the car approach, and even if I did I
would just assume it was a neighbor's car running.
But I'm seeing what looks like aguy who's here to make some kind
of delivery and I didn't order anything, especially not
anything you would carry in plastic shopping bags.
(14:28):
I also noticed that the running car in the street had a driver
in it while this guy was walkingup my path to my porch.
What kind of delivery requires 2delivery guys?
It only took a split second for me to see that this isn't a
delivery where they have got thewrong address.
My doors and windows were all locked so I wasn't really
(14:51):
worried just yet, just cautiously curious as to what
I'm currently seeing. So the guy walking up my path
stops about 3 steps away from myporch and just stands there for
a few seconds. It's dark out and I can't really
see his face. I know that it's a man from his
height and build but I can't identify anything distinctive
(15:13):
about him. After standing still for a few
seconds he turns around and almost runs to the running car
with a driver inside it and getsin the passenger side.
I'm guessing he saw me look out my door and realized his cover
and plan was blown before he could do anything.
After watching him talk to the guy driving for maybe a minute,
(15:35):
they take off down the street. It's now that the realization of
this whole thing hits me hard. Clearly they were robbers
looking to break in, steal whatever valuables they could
find, and get away as fast as possible.
Why my house when it's smack dabin the middle of the streets
(15:56):
with plenty of neighbors as potential witnesses?
Why my house when it's nothing fancy and looks no different
from any other house around here?
And what made them think no one would hear them attempting to
break in with what I assume weretools in the bags that the man
was carrying? I was honestly unsure what to do
(16:17):
at this point. I knew calling my overprotective
parents wouldn't help, not to mention I wouldn't feel safer if
they came home or anything. I'm a fairly muscular guy, so
I'm pretty confident I could defend myself if the need ever
presented itself. I knew calling 911 would be a
mistake, after all, they're gone.
(16:40):
I don't feel in danger, I can't identify them and even if I
could they technically didn't doanything illegal even though I'm
fairly certain they weren't delivery guys from the facts I
mentioned earlier, I doubt a 911operator would think otherwise.
I decided to call my best friendand get his opinion.
(17:03):
He believed my story and was rightfully concerned for me and
skeptical of what I should do aswell.
It wasn't until after I told himthe story that it occurred to me
that we keep a non-emergency police line written on the side
of our fridge and I decided to call that.
I thanked my friend and told himthat I would update him later.
(17:25):
We had this non-emergency policephone number written down after
looking it up because there was a time where we needed the
police but not for an emergency.Even though this was a safe
neighborhood and nothing ever really happened, there was a day
where these two crazy guys were going door to door asking for
money. One of them wasn't wearing shoes
(17:48):
and the other guy said he neededmoney to buy his friend's shoes.
My dad, who answered the door during this moment, slammed the
door in their faces and watched them go to the other houses on
our street. He looked up a non-emergency
local police number and called it to report them.
They arrived on our street without sirens and found the two
(18:10):
men going to houses asking for money and arrested them.
So we kept this number on our fridge just in case we ever
needed it again, and I needed itnow.
I spoke with a nice woman and told her what had just happened.
She asked me a few questions, like what were they wearing,
(18:30):
what kind of car were they driving, et cetera.
I explained that this all happened pretty quick and I
wasn't paying much attention to those sort of things.
Stupid, I know, but I was a little stunned in the moment
from just happening to see a stranger come up to my door
carrying bags. I told her that I didn't think
(18:51):
I'm in any danger yet and if anything else happened I would
call 911. But because I was worried that
they may be trying to break intoanother nearby house, I asked
her if there were any police patrolling the area if they
could just inspect my nearby streets just in case.
She gladly agreed and thanked mefor calling this number and not
(19:13):
911 as she agreed that this wasn't an emergency.
I just went back to sitting in front of the TV for the rest of
the night. I couldn't focus on any show or
movie after that. Too many racing thoughts and too
many questions, as well as the fear of whether or not they will
come back. My parents eventually came home
(19:36):
and I told them the whole story.They were shocked and worried
now too, but commended me for how I handled this.
My dad agreed with my theory that the two men were watching
houses looking for ones they presumed were empty, and decided
on hours since there was no car in the driveway and no one had
(19:58):
exited it in several hours. But when the man walking up to
our door saw my face looking outthe door window, he panicked and
decided to bail. I'd be lying if I told you there
was tapping on our windows that night after we went to sleep.
Nope. That was it.
(20:19):
No further suspicious activities, no follow up call
from the police, nothing. Nothing like this ever happened
again, and it never made me feeluncomfortable to be alone ever
again. But I often wonder what would
have happened if I didn't decideto look out my door when I did.
(20:41):
Would I have had to fight off robbers?
Did they have weapons just in case?
I guess I'll never know. Before my brother had moved out
(21:03):
of state, we would frequently gohiking together.
One of our favorite spots was out by a river that was about 15
minutes from our house. By the time this took place, he
had already moved and I had not gone hiking.
I don't normally hike by myself,but it had been a nice day and I
wanted to get some fresh air. For reference, I am a female and
(21:27):
I was around 19 at the time. The drive to the river was
beautiful. I lived in the suburbs of my
city so it was not long before Ipassed the last of the houses
and some businesses that were completely surrounded by
vegetation. They got thicker the closer that
you got to the river. Once I got to the parking lot, I
(21:47):
parked my car, got my backpack, locked my car doors, and started
walking towards the river, whichwas just a short walk from the
parking lot. The parking lot was fairly large
for being a recreational area and could fit at least 50
vehicles, but there were only a few cars there that day.
I passed the restroom building and some trash cans on my right
(22:11):
and could see some campers by the river a bit out towards my
left. They had been at least 30 yards
away from me. There is a walking trail that
runs alongside the river that wewould normally use that I was
heading towards. Once I got closer to the river I
decided to turn right to start my hike instead of going left
(22:31):
because I did not want to disrupt the campers.
Soon after I started walking alongside the river, I heard a
voice call out to me behind me and I turned around to see who
it was. It looked to be an older man,
about late 40s to early 50s. He was walking up to me from the
campsite and asked if I had a smoke.
(22:53):
I had never really been a smoker, so I told him that I was
sorry and I did not. I glanced behind him and noticed
that it looked like they had been more than just some
campers. It looked like they had been
living there. He said no worries.
I gave a polite smile, turned back around and continued on my
hike. After going about 30 to 45
(23:15):
minutes it had set in that I washiking alone and I suddenly no
longer felt safe. I stopped to drink some water
and also got my pocket knife outto hold in my hand in case I
came across an animal or something.
It had been getting a little warm so I had taken my jacket
off as well and held that over my arm which had concealed the
(23:39):
pocket knife. I backtracked almost to where I
had started and noticed that theolder man had started to walk
towards me again and called out to me.
I stopped to talk to him to see what he needed.
To my surprise, he had asked me if I wanted to go hang out with
them. I told him I couldn't and I had
(24:01):
to get back home. I started to walk away and he
had asked for my number and grabbed my tank top.
I told him that I was sorry and I was not interested and pulled
away. He kept holding on to me, my
tank top bunched up in his hand for a few more seconds.
It felt like minutes, and it seemed like he had been
(24:22):
considering something before letting me go.
I was terrified, but had been glad that I had my pocket knife
in my hand in case he tried anything drastic.
I speed walked back to my car, running once I was close enough.
I had gotten in my car immediately, locked my doors,
(24:43):
and got out of there as fast as I could.
I don't know what would have happened if I stayed with them
or what that man's intentions were, but I have never hiked
alone since. I have started taking a
(25:09):
supplement known as Lion's Mane over the past few months.
It's supposed to help with brainfunction and improve memory.
I'm pleasantly surprised by how well it's been working for me
because lately I've been remembering a lot of events from
my early childhood when I was around 4:00 to six years old
with a surprising amount of detail.
(25:31):
A lot of them are good memories,but one in particular stands out
to me. When I was younger, my parents
would always take the whole family out to a small town in
Colorado to go on vacation. We loved the atmosphere of small
towns and wide open mountain ranges, and this place was our
regular travel spot. Now, when I say small, I mean
(25:56):
that this town is home to about 300 people.
It got its start as a mining town in the late 1800s, and the
families of those miners generally stuck around, and
their descendants still inhabit the town to this day.
Everybody knows everybody in this town, and people knew my
family because we were regular visitors and we owned a few
(26:19):
acres of land on the edge of thetown.
I can recall one vacation in particular.
It was around the start of winter, so my parents had taken
my brother and I there on one ofour school breaks.
My grandparents came to join us,and I remember having a great
time going on walks with the whole family and playing with
the new toys my grandparents hadgotten me.
(26:42):
One of the toys they got me was a little remote control ATV with
a toy man sitting on top of it wearing a helmet and a biker
jacket. I think that toy is the reason
this memory stands out to me, for reasons that you will soon
understand. On that vacation we took a walk
around the less populated parts of town because this was a town
(27:04):
that seemed to come up out of nowhere in the middle of the
mountains. There were plenty of walking
trails and scenic routes to explore and I would always take
walks with my family when we visited.
One of our favorite routes included a bridge that
overlooked a steep valley and the scenery looking off that
bridge was absolutely beautiful.When we got to that point in the
(27:27):
walk where we approached the bridge, there was a man sitting
there with his back rested against the guard rails of the
bridge. Now remember that toy I
mentioned earlier? This man was also wearing a
helmet and a biker jacket just like my toy.
I remember thinking this was really cool and I said something
(27:48):
to him like you look just like my toy.
Immediately my mom said something to the effect of oh
honey don't bother that man he'stired and needs to rest.
I didn't think much of that because I was a very over
talkative kid and I was used to my parents telling me not to
bother strangers. My dad chimed in saying
(28:10):
something about how he knows this guy and how he was going to
stop and talk to him for a bit. He told us that we should all go
on ahead with the walk and that he would catch up to us later
after he was done talking to theguy.
I didn't think much of this either because like I said,
everybody knows everybody in this small town.
(28:31):
My mom grabbed both me and my brother by the hand and
practically dragged us past the man and onto the rest of the
walk. This is the point where I
thought something felt weird because it seemed like my mom
was in a hurry for no reason. I asked her who that man was and
my mom just told me that it was a friend of my dad's and that
(28:53):
he'll be back later. I put the whole thing out of my
mind quickly and enjoyed the rest of our walk.
Only when my dad met back up with us at the cabin we were
staying in did I think about it again, and I asked my dad who
the man was. He told me something about how
it was just an old friend who lived here, and we never talked
(29:14):
about it again after that. Here we are now, nearly two
decades later, and this memory pops into my mind today when I
see a kid in my apartment complex playing with a similar
toy to the one that my grandparents had gotten me.
I remembered those nice vacations and how much I enjoyed
looking off into the vast space of the mountains and valleys.
(29:37):
I remembered playing with that toy ATV in the backyard of that
vacation cabin, showing my grandparents all of the cool
tricks I could do with it. And I remembered that man
sitting on the bridge, and how my mom was in such a hurry to
get on with the walk while my dad stayed behind to talk to the
guy. Suddenly, that memory didn't
(29:59):
quite feel right. Something was off.
I kept thinking about it throughthe rest of this morning,
wondering why my mom was so insistent that we move on,
wondering how my dad could have possibly recognized the man when
his head and face were completely covered by a helmet.
I texted my dad, asking him, Do you remember that time we were
(30:22):
on vacation in Colorado and you ran into one of your friends
sitting on a bridge that we werewalking on?
It suddenly popped into my head and I remember it being kind of
a weird situation. What happened there?
At this point, I was pretty sureI already knew the answer to
that question. I just got off the phone with my
(30:43):
dad about an hour ago. He called me after seeing my
text. He said he didn't think that I
would even remember that happening, but that he thinks
about it all the time and that he often worried about whether
my brother and I understood whatwas going on in that moment.
He explained the entire thing tome and my suspicions were
(31:04):
confirmed. While we were taking one of our
usual walks, we came up to a bridge and my parents saw that
man sitting there leaning against the bridge, or to put it
more accurately, that man's body.
My parents were alarmed when I immediately tried to talk to the
body about my new toy, so my dadquickly came up with the idea to
(31:26):
say that he knows the guy and that he would meet us later
because he wanted to talk to theman.
In reality, he had never met theman before in his life, he just
wanted to check to see if the man still had a pulse and call
911 about the situation. This next part is what made my
dad feel extremely uncomfortableand still makes him feel queasy
(31:49):
thinking about it today. He didn't want my brother and I
to understand what was actually going on, so in order to conceal
the fact that this man was probably no longer alive, he sat
down next to the body and started talking to it.
He had to sit right next to thisman's body and carry on A1 sided
conversation with it until we were out of air shot.
(32:13):
At that point he checked the man's pulse and confirmed what
he already knew, that resting biker would be resting forever.
This was before cell phones werevery common and even then there
would have been no way to get a signal in an isolated town like
this. He ran back to town, called the
(32:34):
County Sheriff from the landline, and ran back to the
bridge to wait for them to arrive.
While my dad was waiting there, he looked around to try to
figure out what happened and it wasn't hard to tell.
The bridge had started to get icy because it was the start of
winter and this man must have been taking the curb onto the
bridge a little too quickly. My dad looked over the edge of
(32:59):
the bridge and sure enough, there was a motorcycle at the
bottom of the valley. The man had crashed, probably
been injured very badly, and hadpropped himself up hoping that
help would arrive. My family did come across him,
but not soon enough. Looking back on it, we never
(33:20):
took that walking path again andall the times we vacationed
there in the future, I think my dad wanted to avoid it, both
because the memory of having to talk to a body and pretend it
was alive made him feel sick andbecause he didn't want my
brother and I remembering the situation and figuring out what
(33:41):
actually happened. 1/4 of July weekend in 2011, a
buddy of mine that I'll refer toas Todd ended up in a pretty
(34:01):
precarious situation. What follows is the story that
he told me. It was supposed to be a fun
weekend up the hill and in the woods at Todd's friend Troy's
cabin. Troy was to introduce Todd to a
girl he also invited over. So naturally, Todd was looking
forward to some devious fun for the holiday weekend.
(34:25):
As luck had it, Todd and his newdate clicked and soon found
themselves downstairs for some alone time.
Shortly after Todd and his date disappeared downstairs, Troy
decided to go out for a little while.
A little while later, as Todd and his date were getting into
it, Troy returned to his cabin with some company.
(34:47):
Upon hearing foreign voices upstairs, Todd went upstairs to
see who was there. To Todd's dismay, he found that
Troy had brought home someone that he disliked, a guy named
Ace, for the sake of this story.Seeing Ace, Todd got angry and
an argument ensued between Todd and Troy while poor Ace stood
(35:09):
awkwardly near the doorway, Hugh, Troy's girlfriend
entering, only to stand next to Ace with a bewildered expression
on her face. Todd had rushed upstairs in his
boxers at first, thinking that it was just guys that had
arrived initially, so he and Troy quickly went downstairs to
argue further. As Todd and Troy's arguments
(35:30):
diminished, Troy decided that he, his girlfriend, and Ace
would go night swimming at a nearby Creek for a while to cool
off. For whatever reason, Troy threw
on Todd's shorts to swim in in which had Todd's keys, wallet,
and smokes in the pockets. Troy and his company had already
(35:51):
been gone for a few minutes before Todd realized what had
happened, so Todd and his date continued on downstairs until
Troy, Ace, and Troy's girlfriendreturned to the cabin.
Right as Todd heard them returning, though, he went
upstairs to confront Troy. Fuming, Todd demanded his shorts
(36:13):
back while yelling about his stuff in the pockets during
Troy's swim. As the two argued back and forth
for a while, Troy's girlfriend, Todd's date, and Ace tried to
pretty much blend with the wallpaper.
As Todd demanded that Troy take his shorts off then and there,
Troy informed him that he would not be stripping down in front
(36:34):
of everyone. That was when Ace cut in to have
Troy's back, making the argumenteven worse.
But Ace knew that Todd had quitea reputation for fighting and
not losing, so in order to sort of prove himself to Troy, he
jumped right into that argument.After a little more arguing,
(36:54):
Troy and his girlfriend left again in Todd's shorts.
Ace stayed behind though, for some reason, maybe because Troy
had left without his backpack full of his personal and
important items. Eventually, Todd and his date
went back downstairs to go back at it.
Ace, of course, stayed upstairs and kept company with Todd's
(37:14):
Pitbull. They all expected Troy and his
girlfriend to return that night,at least for his backpack, but
when everyone woke up the next morning, they realized that Troy
and his girlfriend had not returned to the cabin.
Everyone was puzzled as to what Troy was up to, but since Troy
had left his cell phone in his backpack, they all just hung
(37:37):
around the cabin and waited for Troy.
The second night came and went with no word from Troy or his
girlfriend. It wasn't until they got up on
the third day with still no Troythat they finally really started
to worry. Alarm bells were definitely
going off for the trio. Todd decided to try and call
(37:59):
Troy's girlfriend again like he had the previous day.
When her phone seemed to be switched off that day, it
finally rang and she picked up. Fear crept into her voice when
she realized that Troy wasn't back at the cabin like she
assumed he would have been. So her and Todd agreed to start
calling around to see if they could track down Troy, but no
(38:22):
one had heard from Troy at all. Next, a panicking Todd called a
few friends up to the isolated cabin to help search the nearby
woods for Troy. Not a single trace of Troy was
found. It was Todd who made the
decision to call Troy's girlfriend and have her report
Troy missing. She did just that, but when
(38:45):
asked of Troy's last known whereabouts, she gave them the
honest answer. She told them that Troy was last
seen at his cabin having a heated argument with Todd.
The problem with that was that Todd had a pretty well known
reputation for fighting. At this point in which the
following events took place, Troy had been missing for three
(39:07):
days, so he was declared lost atthat point.
Apparently the cops decided theyshould take it seriously.
The following morning, Todd, hisdate and Ace were fast asleep,
only to be startled awake to thesounds of both the front door
being kicked in and people running around seemingly on the
roof. The SWAT team flooded in,
(39:30):
subduing the trio inside. At 1.1 of the SWAT officers said
I will kill you and I will kill the dog.
Upon hearing that, Ace suddenly popped his face up from the
floor and exclaimed. Why would you do that?
Of course the dog did not get hurt at all.
What came next was the trio getting questioned by a couple
(39:53):
of detectives portraying in the usual good cop, bad cop
scenario. Unfortunately for Todd though,
he was the last person seen withTroy and they were arguing.
Couple that with Todd's reputation for fighting and,
well. That made Todd the number one
and only suspect in Troy's disappearance.
(40:15):
It also didn't help that the detectives had found some
clothing left by the hot tub, and some of the clothing had
drops of blood on it, though Todd insisted that he didn't
even know whose clothes they were.
Search and Rescue came in next to comb the surrounding woods
for clues to Troy's whereabouts.They searched for hours while
(40:36):
Todd, Ace, and Todd's date were still being questioned, but they
focused mainly on Todd. After a couple of hours of
interrogation, Todd finally got irritated and insisted that
since Troy had been missing for three days at that point, he
could either be dead or alive, but they should be focusing
(40:57):
their efforts on finding Troy. Oblivious to Todd and company
was the fact that Search and Rescue had located Troy deep in
the woods and hours away from his cabin.
Troy was found passed out on a large rock, naked and just hours
away from his demise. The next thing that Todd, his
(41:19):
date, Ace and the detectives heard was the sound of the
Search and rescue helicopters chopper blades cutting through
the air and getting closer to the cabin.
As they peered out the door theysaw the approaching chopper with
Troy suspended in a blue diaper like thing from it.
The chopper was looking for a safe place to lower Troy enough
(41:40):
for emergency ground personnel to be able to reach him, as the
smoke was still clearing on the whole situation.
A couple of days later, Todd wasinformed about the facts that
led up to Troy's disappearance. Apparently, Troy and his
girlfriend left the cabin on thenight he vanished to simply cool
off after the argument with a nice walk in the woods that
(42:02):
surrounded the cabin. But right after they had left
for the walk, Troy's girlfriend had stolen his debit card.
Shortly after setting out on their walk, Troy and his
girlfriend got into an argument themselves.
They got separated after that, and Troy's girlfriend ended up
walking herself back to the mainroad where she had called a
(42:24):
ride, leaving Troy in the woods and assuming that he would find
his way back to the cabin. So basically, Troy's girlfriend
turned her phone off for the next couple of days in order to
avoid Troy's angry phone calls about his debit card.
While she partied the whole time.
When she did finally turn her phone back on, she received
(42:45):
Todd's concerned call about Troy.
She was shocked to learn that Troy had been missing for the
last couple of days. Troy ended up being relatively
OK considering the circumstances.
Todd ended up moving out of state shortly after, which
pretty much dissolved the friendship.
As far as Ace, Todd's date, and Troy's girlfriend, well, they're
(43:09):
in the wind, I guess you could say.
I'm almost positive though, thatnone of the people involved in
this story will ever be able to forget about the events that
took place over those fateful 3 days at the cabin.
(44:12):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:01:23):
Yeah.
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain.
I just want to remind you that there's only about 3 weeks left
of this Nintendo Switch 2 giveaway.
And to be honest, I'm not reallysure when I'm going to be able
to get another one. I stood in line for about 7
hours waiting to get this one, and it's going to go to one of
my very lucky podcast subscribers.
And so I just wanted to remind you that if you want to be
(00:20):
automatically entered to win, you can become a subscriber
today for only 299. It'll get rid of all of the ads
across my entire library of episodes and I might emailing
you about where to send your Nintendo Switch 2 bundle.
Please don't miss out. I will try to get another one,
but I don't know when that'll be.
As always, thank you so much forlistening and I really
(00:40):
appreciate you being here. I hope you enjoy.
A few summers ago I worked at a mall in Toledo, OH, a pretty big
city nestled right up against the West End of Lake Erie.
I was very concerned about moneyat the time, and I wanted to
(01:03):
work as much as possible in order to save up for an
apartment, my first major purchase.
To do that, I took a job at the Great American Cookie Shop in
the malls food courts which had been around since before I was
born. And to get some more bang for my
buck, I worked there at night. For those who don't know, a lot
(01:24):
of bakeries and coffee shops will often hire a Baker to come
in at dead of night in order to make all the pastries and treats
for the morning. They'll come in around 3:00 AM
and just bake for hours on end. That was exactly what I did.
I pounded out cookie cakes and put cookies in the oven until
the sun came up, and then I stayed even longer to make some
(01:47):
more money. It was actually really cozy and
relaxing, between the heat from the oven, the silence of them
all, and the freedom to blast mymusic or my podcasts.
But it also put me on edge sometimes.
It was haunted as heck, and nobody really knows why.
(02:08):
One morning I was in the middle of eating breakfast at my
counter when I heard the carousel's sharp music echoing
through the massive food courts.To set the scene, our food court
has this little play area on theopposite side from where I work.
It's got all these kiddie rides that light up and play music,
and they're all motion activatedso they light up when people
(02:31):
walk by. Normally I wouldn't give the
sound a second thought, but I knew for a fact that there
wasn't supposed to be anybody else in the mall at this hour,
and there's no way that I could have activated the ride sensor
myself. As a person who regularly
listened to Scary Stories while at work, I was immediately
(02:52):
excited and anxious to see what might have happened.
I turned on the oven and shut off the lights to every area but
my workstation in order to tune into the other end of the dark
food court. It was nearly pitch black beyond
the dim lights above my workstation, but I could see
that the only thing out of placewas that carousel, which was now
(03:13):
spinning just enough for its creaking and scraping to find a
rhythm. It wasn't until a second ride
activated that I saw what reallyset it off.
Illuminated by the headlights ofone of the race car themed
rides, it was clear to me that there was something standing
behind the carousel, something that was now facing my
(03:35):
direction. The very defined silhouette of a
security guard leaning around the central pillar of the ride.
I had been standing and leaning around the corner of a doorway,
essentially mirroring it, tryingto keep hidden enough to watch
uninterrupted. I did that until I started to
feel uncomfortable with what I was looking at.
(03:58):
If they are standing on a carousel, why aren't they
spinning? If they are a security guard,
why aren't they doing their rounds like they do during the
day? Why were they trying to sneak
around in the 1st place? I kept my eyes glued on the
opposite end of the food court as I texted one of the security
guards I knew. They confirmed my suspicions.
(04:23):
I was the only person scheduled to be in the mall.
I glanced down at my phone to reread the text.
It maybe took a second. The moment I felt my gaze
dropped, I stopped myself, but it was already too late.
There was now something standingabout 5 feet away from our
(04:44):
counter, right along the edge ofmy field of view.
Fun fact about the counter of our shop, it's not tall.
I, standing at six four, could essentially step over it, and my
comically short sister who worked the day shift told me
that she sometimes just leftoverthe counter after closing up
(05:04):
shop. I was now essentially standing
in an island with only one routeof escape if this creep decided
to jump the counter. I took the opportunity while I
had it and left the shop. It didn't end there though.
My car was parked pretty far away, so I instead decided to
run along the long service hall towards our stockroom.
(05:28):
It was the only other door in the mall that I could lock and
unlock, so I pushed my back against the door and locked the
deadbolt behind me. Feeling better behind a locked
door, I sat there watching YouTube under the blindingly
bright ceiling lights. I felt secure and safe in that
room, right up until I heard footsteps coming slowly down the
(05:51):
hallway. They were slow and light, like a
kid tiptoeing down their stairs on Christmas.
It was almost playful. I held my breath and waited for
the footsteps to pass by my door.
It was like they stopped just before it and started to walk in
place as if it knew where I was but couldn't get to me.
(06:14):
It was then that I heard these clicking and flickering sounds,
some mix between the sound of keys jingling and lights popping
on and off. Whatever was outside that door.
It was just having its fun scaring me.
I'm sure a lot of people have had a nightmare where they were
running away from a threat that always knew exactly where their
(06:36):
prey was. It felt like that, but I knew
this was real. Luckily I also knew I was safe
and at one point or another I realized that the footsteps were
gone. It wasn't until after I told the
story to my Co workers later that I realized I never had to
(06:57):
reopen the deadbolt to exit thatstockroom.
It was already unlocked. When I was about 10 or 11 I
(07:18):
lived in a duplex house with my parents in Tennessee.
It was a pretty good size, 3 bedrooms, huge backyard and a
good sized porch in front of my house.
I was in a decent school and hadmany friends on that block.
Plenty of good times were had and pleasant memories made.
(07:39):
However, there is one memory that isn't pleasant at all and
it happened in that house. I always had a strange feeling
in that house. That feeling you get when you
think someone is watching you but you are by yourself.
That sort of feeling, I always felt like someone or something
(07:59):
was watching me from inside my closet in particular.
But being a very self aware person my whole life, I figured
that was just normal kid fears, something in the closet,
something under the bed, et cetera.
But what I couldn't explain was our lights would turn on and off
by themselves a lot and the TV would turn on and off a lot.
(08:23):
My father tried explaining it that it was the electricity or
the house wiring and it didn't seem to bother my parents.
One day after school I got home and started the regular routine.
I got a snack, turned on Nickelodeon and started doing
homework in front of the TV on the floor.
About 10 or so minutes into it, I heard something coming from my
(08:47):
parents bedroom, like a rustling.
I knew my parents weren't home from work yet.
It was still pretty early in theafternoon and their cars weren't
in the driveway. For all I knew it could have
been an intruder and I was a skinny little boy at the time.
Instead of getting a neighbor, Istarted walking toward the
bedroom. I then noticed the rustling
(09:10):
noise was coming from their bedroom.
They had the master bedroom of course, and I found that odd.
What was happening in the bathroom?
Like if it was a robber, why would they be in the bathroom?
I get to the bedroom door, whichwas open, but before I step in,
I said, Mom, Dad, is that you? I knew it couldn't be them, but
(09:36):
that's just what came out. Then it happened.
I heard what sounded like a cackle, like a rotten snicker,
and then what I can only describe as an old hag's voice.
It repeated back my words only in a mocking fashion.
Mom, dad, is that you? Then it cackled again.
(10:02):
At this point I think I'm dreaming and tears start to well
up in my eyes. I figured I was about to get
jump scared or shocked, so I walked toward the bathroom
thinking I would wake up at the jolt.
I got to the bathroom and I saw nothing, nothing but a bunch of
bathroom items knocked on the floor and into the sink.
(10:24):
I turned and started to run out and I tripped on the doorway and
fell on my chest. Now I really think I'm dreaming
and I start crying, calling for my mom, that kind of thing.
It felt like I was on the floor for an hour, but it was probably
not even one minute. I got up, looked behind me once
more, still see nothing, and ranto the living room to get my
(10:49):
homework and went outside on theporch, not going back inside
until whatever parent got home first.
When I told them, they chalked it up to being a dream, that I
probably dozed off watching TV and just had a vivid dream all
right. But The thing is, I don't
(11:09):
remember waking up that day. The day just went on into the
evening and then into the night where I probably didn't get much
sleep then. Nothing to that magnitude
happened to me in that house after and we ended up moving a
year or so later. I'm older now but still to this
day I am uneasy being in bathrooms because if I ever
(11:33):
heard that voice again I don't know what I would do.
I would probably have a heart attack, the voice was that
nasty. I hated that house.
(11:59):
This is a night I'll always lookback on and ask myself, what if
I hadn't decided to do what I actually did?
It was a night during the autumnseason.
I bring this up because it's important to know that it was
dark out in the early parts of the evening.
It's also important to note thatthe weather was cold enough to
(12:19):
the point where we didn't have any windows or doors open in the
house. So this night started off with
my parents leaving to go to somedinner party, a regular thing
with them. They have a lot of friends and
get invited to a lot of events. I was often left home alone and
I loved it. I loved the peace, the freedom
(12:41):
to do as I pleased and the freedom to eat what I pleased
when I pleased. The night started like any other
night like this. I was enjoying the peace
watching TV and at around 6:00 or so I decided to make
something to eat. I don't remember what I had, all
(13:02):
I know is I didn't order anything because I know I didn't
deal with any delivery people that night and certainly wasn't
expecting anyone to come to my house.
So I'm just finishing up my food, throwing away my trash,
and putting whatever silverware in the sink.
Afterwards I just randomly decided to look outside the
(13:22):
window of my front door, which was closed and locked.
I do that sort of thing often. Not for any particular reason, I
just get curious. We live in a pretty safe
neighborhood, nothing ever really happens, and it's to the
point where you hardly ever hearany sirens going off anyway.
(13:44):
I just look outside from my front door that has a window on
it so that you can see the outside before you open it.
I wasn't expecting to see anything, and I wasn't doing
this to investigate any kind of noise or anything.
But when I look outside, I see aman walking up to my porch
carrying something in each hand in plastic grocery bags at his
(14:06):
sides, and a running car in my street.
I didn't really hear the car approach, and even if I did I
would just assume it was a neighbor's car running.
But I'm seeing what looks like aguy who's here to make some kind
of delivery and I didn't order anything, especially not
anything you would carry in plastic shopping bags.
(14:28):
I also noticed that the running car in the street had a driver
in it while this guy was walkingup my path to my porch.
What kind of delivery requires 2delivery guys?
It only took a split second for me to see that this isn't a
delivery where they have got thewrong address.
My doors and windows were all locked so I wasn't really
(14:51):
worried just yet, just cautiously curious as to what
I'm currently seeing. So the guy walking up my path
stops about 3 steps away from myporch and just stands there for
a few seconds. It's dark out and I can't really
see his face. I know that it's a man from his
height and build but I can't identify anything distinctive
(15:13):
about him. After standing still for a few
seconds he turns around and almost runs to the running car
with a driver inside it and getsin the passenger side.
I'm guessing he saw me look out my door and realized his cover
and plan was blown before he could do anything.
After watching him talk to the guy driving for maybe a minute,
(15:35):
they take off down the street. It's now that the realization of
this whole thing hits me hard. Clearly they were robbers
looking to break in, steal whatever valuables they could
find, and get away as fast as possible.
Why my house when it's smack dabin the middle of the streets
(15:56):
with plenty of neighbors as potential witnesses?
Why my house when it's nothing fancy and looks no different
from any other house around here?
And what made them think no one would hear them attempting to
break in with what I assume weretools in the bags that the man
was carrying? I was honestly unsure what to do
(16:17):
at this point. I knew calling my overprotective
parents wouldn't help, not to mention I wouldn't feel safer if
they came home or anything. I'm a fairly muscular guy, so
I'm pretty confident I could defend myself if the need ever
presented itself. I knew calling 911 would be a
mistake, after all, they're gone.
(16:40):
I don't feel in danger, I can't identify them and even if I
could they technically didn't doanything illegal even though I'm
fairly certain they weren't delivery guys from the facts I
mentioned earlier, I doubt a 911operator would think otherwise.
I decided to call my best friendand get his opinion.
(17:03):
He believed my story and was rightfully concerned for me and
skeptical of what I should do aswell.
It wasn't until after I told himthe story that it occurred to me
that we keep a non-emergency police line written on the side
of our fridge and I decided to call that.
I thanked my friend and told himthat I would update him later.
(17:25):
We had this non-emergency policephone number written down after
looking it up because there was a time where we needed the
police but not for an emergency.Even though this was a safe
neighborhood and nothing ever really happened, there was a day
where these two crazy guys were going door to door asking for
money. One of them wasn't wearing shoes
(17:48):
and the other guy said he neededmoney to buy his friend's shoes.
My dad, who answered the door during this moment, slammed the
door in their faces and watched them go to the other houses on
our street. He looked up a non-emergency
local police number and called it to report them.
They arrived on our street without sirens and found the two
(18:10):
men going to houses asking for money and arrested them.
So we kept this number on our fridge just in case we ever
needed it again, and I needed itnow.
I spoke with a nice woman and told her what had just happened.
She asked me a few questions, like what were they wearing,
(18:30):
what kind of car were they driving, et cetera.
I explained that this all happened pretty quick and I
wasn't paying much attention to those sort of things.
Stupid, I know, but I was a little stunned in the moment
from just happening to see a stranger come up to my door
carrying bags. I told her that I didn't think
(18:51):
I'm in any danger yet and if anything else happened I would
call 911. But because I was worried that
they may be trying to break intoanother nearby house, I asked
her if there were any police patrolling the area if they
could just inspect my nearby streets just in case.
She gladly agreed and thanked mefor calling this number and not
(19:13):
911 as she agreed that this wasn't an emergency.
I just went back to sitting in front of the TV for the rest of
the night. I couldn't focus on any show or
movie after that. Too many racing thoughts and too
many questions, as well as the fear of whether or not they will
come back. My parents eventually came home
(19:36):
and I told them the whole story.They were shocked and worried
now too, but commended me for how I handled this.
My dad agreed with my theory that the two men were watching
houses looking for ones they presumed were empty, and decided
on hours since there was no car in the driveway and no one had
(19:58):
exited it in several hours. But when the man walking up to
our door saw my face looking outthe door window, he panicked and
decided to bail. I'd be lying if I told you there
was tapping on our windows that night after we went to sleep.
Nope. That was it.
(20:19):
No further suspicious activities, no follow up call
from the police, nothing. Nothing like this ever happened
again, and it never made me feeluncomfortable to be alone ever
again. But I often wonder what would
have happened if I didn't decideto look out my door when I did.
(20:41):
Would I have had to fight off robbers?
Did they have weapons just in case?
I guess I'll never know. Before my brother had moved out
(21:03):
of state, we would frequently gohiking together.
One of our favorite spots was out by a river that was about 15
minutes from our house. By the time this took place, he
had already moved and I had not gone hiking.
I don't normally hike by myself,but it had been a nice day and I
wanted to get some fresh air. For reference, I am a female and
(21:27):
I was around 19 at the time. The drive to the river was
beautiful. I lived in the suburbs of my
city so it was not long before Ipassed the last of the houses
and some businesses that were completely surrounded by
vegetation. They got thicker the closer that
you got to the river. Once I got to the parking lot, I
(21:47):
parked my car, got my backpack, locked my car doors, and started
walking towards the river, whichwas just a short walk from the
parking lot. The parking lot was fairly large
for being a recreational area and could fit at least 50
vehicles, but there were only a few cars there that day.
I passed the restroom building and some trash cans on my right
(22:11):
and could see some campers by the river a bit out towards my
left. They had been at least 30 yards
away from me. There is a walking trail that
runs alongside the river that wewould normally use that I was
heading towards. Once I got closer to the river I
decided to turn right to start my hike instead of going left
(22:31):
because I did not want to disrupt the campers.
Soon after I started walking alongside the river, I heard a
voice call out to me behind me and I turned around to see who
it was. It looked to be an older man,
about late 40s to early 50s. He was walking up to me from the
campsite and asked if I had a smoke.
(22:53):
I had never really been a smoker, so I told him that I was
sorry and I did not. I glanced behind him and noticed
that it looked like they had been more than just some
campers. It looked like they had been
living there. He said no worries.
I gave a polite smile, turned back around and continued on my
hike. After going about 30 to 45
(23:15):
minutes it had set in that I washiking alone and I suddenly no
longer felt safe. I stopped to drink some water
and also got my pocket knife outto hold in my hand in case I
came across an animal or something.
It had been getting a little warm so I had taken my jacket
off as well and held that over my arm which had concealed the
(23:39):
pocket knife. I backtracked almost to where I
had started and noticed that theolder man had started to walk
towards me again and called out to me.
I stopped to talk to him to see what he needed.
To my surprise, he had asked me if I wanted to go hang out with
them. I told him I couldn't and I had
(24:01):
to get back home. I started to walk away and he
had asked for my number and grabbed my tank top.
I told him that I was sorry and I was not interested and pulled
away. He kept holding on to me, my
tank top bunched up in his hand for a few more seconds.
It felt like minutes, and it seemed like he had been
(24:22):
considering something before letting me go.
I was terrified, but had been glad that I had my pocket knife
in my hand in case he tried anything drastic.
I speed walked back to my car, running once I was close enough.
I had gotten in my car immediately, locked my doors,
(24:43):
and got out of there as fast as I could.
I don't know what would have happened if I stayed with them
or what that man's intentions were, but I have never hiked
alone since. I have started taking a
(25:09):
supplement known as Lion's Mane over the past few months.
It's supposed to help with brainfunction and improve memory.
I'm pleasantly surprised by how well it's been working for me
because lately I've been remembering a lot of events from
my early childhood when I was around 4:00 to six years old
with a surprising amount of detail.
(25:31):
A lot of them are good memories,but one in particular stands out
to me. When I was younger, my parents
would always take the whole family out to a small town in
Colorado to go on vacation. We loved the atmosphere of small
towns and wide open mountain ranges, and this place was our
regular travel spot. Now, when I say small, I mean
(25:56):
that this town is home to about 300 people.
It got its start as a mining town in the late 1800s, and the
families of those miners generally stuck around, and
their descendants still inhabit the town to this day.
Everybody knows everybody in this town, and people knew my
family because we were regular visitors and we owned a few
(26:19):
acres of land on the edge of thetown.
I can recall one vacation in particular.
It was around the start of winter, so my parents had taken
my brother and I there on one ofour school breaks.
My grandparents came to join us,and I remember having a great
time going on walks with the whole family and playing with
the new toys my grandparents hadgotten me.
(26:42):
One of the toys they got me was a little remote control ATV with
a toy man sitting on top of it wearing a helmet and a biker
jacket. I think that toy is the reason
this memory stands out to me, for reasons that you will soon
understand. On that vacation we took a walk
around the less populated parts of town because this was a town
(27:04):
that seemed to come up out of nowhere in the middle of the
mountains. There were plenty of walking
trails and scenic routes to explore and I would always take
walks with my family when we visited.
One of our favorite routes included a bridge that
overlooked a steep valley and the scenery looking off that
bridge was absolutely beautiful.When we got to that point in the
(27:27):
walk where we approached the bridge, there was a man sitting
there with his back rested against the guard rails of the
bridge. Now remember that toy I
mentioned earlier? This man was also wearing a
helmet and a biker jacket just like my toy.
I remember thinking this was really cool and I said something
(27:48):
to him like you look just like my toy.
Immediately my mom said something to the effect of oh
honey don't bother that man he'stired and needs to rest.
I didn't think much of that because I was a very over
talkative kid and I was used to my parents telling me not to
bother strangers. My dad chimed in saying
(28:10):
something about how he knows this guy and how he was going to
stop and talk to him for a bit. He told us that we should all go
on ahead with the walk and that he would catch up to us later
after he was done talking to theguy.
I didn't think much of this either because like I said,
everybody knows everybody in this small town.
(28:31):
My mom grabbed both me and my brother by the hand and
practically dragged us past the man and onto the rest of the
walk. This is the point where I
thought something felt weird because it seemed like my mom
was in a hurry for no reason. I asked her who that man was and
my mom just told me that it was a friend of my dad's and that
(28:53):
he'll be back later. I put the whole thing out of my
mind quickly and enjoyed the rest of our walk.
Only when my dad met back up with us at the cabin we were
staying in did I think about it again, and I asked my dad who
the man was. He told me something about how
it was just an old friend who lived here, and we never talked
(29:14):
about it again after that. Here we are now, nearly two
decades later, and this memory pops into my mind today when I
see a kid in my apartment complex playing with a similar
toy to the one that my grandparents had gotten me.
I remembered those nice vacations and how much I enjoyed
looking off into the vast space of the mountains and valleys.
(29:37):
I remembered playing with that toy ATV in the backyard of that
vacation cabin, showing my grandparents all of the cool
tricks I could do with it. And I remembered that man
sitting on the bridge, and how my mom was in such a hurry to
get on with the walk while my dad stayed behind to talk to the
guy. Suddenly, that memory didn't
(29:59):
quite feel right. Something was off.
I kept thinking about it throughthe rest of this morning,
wondering why my mom was so insistent that we move on,
wondering how my dad could have possibly recognized the man when
his head and face were completely covered by a helmet.
I texted my dad, asking him, Do you remember that time we were
(30:22):
on vacation in Colorado and you ran into one of your friends
sitting on a bridge that we werewalking on?
It suddenly popped into my head and I remember it being kind of
a weird situation. What happened there?
At this point, I was pretty sureI already knew the answer to
that question. I just got off the phone with my
(30:43):
dad about an hour ago. He called me after seeing my
text. He said he didn't think that I
would even remember that happening, but that he thinks
about it all the time and that he often worried about whether
my brother and I understood whatwas going on in that moment.
He explained the entire thing tome and my suspicions were
(31:04):
confirmed. While we were taking one of our
usual walks, we came up to a bridge and my parents saw that
man sitting there leaning against the bridge, or to put it
more accurately, that man's body.
My parents were alarmed when I immediately tried to talk to the
body about my new toy, so my dadquickly came up with the idea to
(31:26):
say that he knows the guy and that he would meet us later
because he wanted to talk to theman.
In reality, he had never met theman before in his life, he just
wanted to check to see if the man still had a pulse and call
911 about the situation. This next part is what made my
dad feel extremely uncomfortableand still makes him feel queasy
(31:49):
thinking about it today. He didn't want my brother and I
to understand what was actually going on, so in order to conceal
the fact that this man was probably no longer alive, he sat
down next to the body and started talking to it.
He had to sit right next to thisman's body and carry on A1 sided
conversation with it until we were out of air shot.
(32:13):
At that point he checked the man's pulse and confirmed what
he already knew, that resting biker would be resting forever.
This was before cell phones werevery common and even then there
would have been no way to get a signal in an isolated town like
this. He ran back to town, called the
(32:34):
County Sheriff from the landline, and ran back to the
bridge to wait for them to arrive.
While my dad was waiting there, he looked around to try to
figure out what happened and it wasn't hard to tell.
The bridge had started to get icy because it was the start of
winter and this man must have been taking the curb onto the
bridge a little too quickly. My dad looked over the edge of
(32:59):
the bridge and sure enough, there was a motorcycle at the
bottom of the valley. The man had crashed, probably
been injured very badly, and hadpropped himself up hoping that
help would arrive. My family did come across him,
but not soon enough. Looking back on it, we never
(33:20):
took that walking path again andall the times we vacationed
there in the future, I think my dad wanted to avoid it, both
because the memory of having to talk to a body and pretend it
was alive made him feel sick andbecause he didn't want my
brother and I remembering the situation and figuring out what
(33:41):
actually happened. 1/4 of July weekend in 2011, a
buddy of mine that I'll refer toas Todd ended up in a pretty
(34:01):
precarious situation. What follows is the story that
he told me. It was supposed to be a fun
weekend up the hill and in the woods at Todd's friend Troy's
cabin. Troy was to introduce Todd to a
girl he also invited over. So naturally, Todd was looking
forward to some devious fun for the holiday weekend.
(34:25):
As luck had it, Todd and his newdate clicked and soon found
themselves downstairs for some alone time.
Shortly after Todd and his date disappeared downstairs, Troy
decided to go out for a little while.
A little while later, as Todd and his date were getting into
it, Troy returned to his cabin with some company.
(34:47):
Upon hearing foreign voices upstairs, Todd went upstairs to
see who was there. To Todd's dismay, he found that
Troy had brought home someone that he disliked, a guy named
Ace, for the sake of this story.Seeing Ace, Todd got angry and
an argument ensued between Todd and Troy while poor Ace stood
(35:09):
awkwardly near the doorway, Hugh, Troy's girlfriend
entering, only to stand next to Ace with a bewildered expression
on her face. Todd had rushed upstairs in his
boxers at first, thinking that it was just guys that had
arrived initially, so he and Troy quickly went downstairs to
argue further. As Todd and Troy's arguments
(35:30):
diminished, Troy decided that he, his girlfriend, and Ace
would go night swimming at a nearby Creek for a while to cool
off. For whatever reason, Troy threw
on Todd's shorts to swim in in which had Todd's keys, wallet,
and smokes in the pockets. Troy and his company had already
(35:51):
been gone for a few minutes before Todd realized what had
happened, so Todd and his date continued on downstairs until
Troy, Ace, and Troy's girlfriendreturned to the cabin.
Right as Todd heard them returning, though, he went
upstairs to confront Troy. Fuming, Todd demanded his shorts
(36:13):
back while yelling about his stuff in the pockets during
Troy's swim. As the two argued back and forth
for a while, Troy's girlfriend, Todd's date, and Ace tried to
pretty much blend with the wallpaper.
As Todd demanded that Troy take his shorts off then and there,
Troy informed him that he would not be stripping down in front
(36:34):
of everyone. That was when Ace cut in to have
Troy's back, making the argumenteven worse.
But Ace knew that Todd had quitea reputation for fighting and
not losing, so in order to sort of prove himself to Troy, he
jumped right into that argument.After a little more arguing,
(36:54):
Troy and his girlfriend left again in Todd's shorts.
Ace stayed behind though, for some reason, maybe because Troy
had left without his backpack full of his personal and
important items. Eventually, Todd and his date
went back downstairs to go back at it.
Ace, of course, stayed upstairs and kept company with Todd's
(37:14):
Pitbull. They all expected Troy and his
girlfriend to return that night,at least for his backpack, but
when everyone woke up the next morning, they realized that Troy
and his girlfriend had not returned to the cabin.
Everyone was puzzled as to what Troy was up to, but since Troy
had left his cell phone in his backpack, they all just hung
(37:37):
around the cabin and waited for Troy.
The second night came and went with no word from Troy or his
girlfriend. It wasn't until they got up on
the third day with still no Troythat they finally really started
to worry. Alarm bells were definitely
going off for the trio. Todd decided to try and call
(37:59):
Troy's girlfriend again like he had the previous day.
When her phone seemed to be switched off that day, it
finally rang and she picked up. Fear crept into her voice when
she realized that Troy wasn't back at the cabin like she
assumed he would have been. So her and Todd agreed to start
calling around to see if they could track down Troy, but no
(38:22):
one had heard from Troy at all. Next, a panicking Todd called a
few friends up to the isolated cabin to help search the nearby
woods for Troy. Not a single trace of Troy was
found. It was Todd who made the
decision to call Troy's girlfriend and have her report
Troy missing. She did just that, but when
(38:45):
asked of Troy's last known whereabouts, she gave them the
honest answer. She told them that Troy was last
seen at his cabin having a heated argument with Todd.
The problem with that was that Todd had a pretty well known
reputation for fighting. At this point in which the
following events took place, Troy had been missing for three
(39:07):
days, so he was declared lost atthat point.
Apparently the cops decided theyshould take it seriously.
The following morning, Todd, hisdate and Ace were fast asleep,
only to be startled awake to thesounds of both the front door
being kicked in and people running around seemingly on the
roof. The SWAT team flooded in,
(39:30):
subduing the trio inside. At 1.1 of the SWAT officers said
I will kill you and I will kill the dog.
Upon hearing that, Ace suddenly popped his face up from the
floor and exclaimed. Why would you do that?
Of course the dog did not get hurt at all.
What came next was the trio getting questioned by a couple
(39:53):
of detectives portraying in the usual good cop, bad cop
scenario. Unfortunately for Todd though,
he was the last person seen withTroy and they were arguing.
Couple that with Todd's reputation for fighting and,
well. That made Todd the number one
and only suspect in Troy's disappearance.
(40:15):
It also didn't help that the detectives had found some
clothing left by the hot tub, and some of the clothing had
drops of blood on it, though Todd insisted that he didn't
even know whose clothes they were.
Search and Rescue came in next to comb the surrounding woods
for clues to Troy's whereabouts.They searched for hours while
(40:36):
Todd, Ace, and Todd's date were still being questioned, but they
focused mainly on Todd. After a couple of hours of
interrogation, Todd finally got irritated and insisted that
since Troy had been missing for three days at that point, he
could either be dead or alive, but they should be focusing
(40:57):
their efforts on finding Troy. Oblivious to Todd and company
was the fact that Search and Rescue had located Troy deep in
the woods and hours away from his cabin.
Troy was found passed out on a large rock, naked and just hours
away from his demise. The next thing that Todd, his
(41:19):
date, Ace and the detectives heard was the sound of the
Search and rescue helicopters chopper blades cutting through
the air and getting closer to the cabin.
As they peered out the door theysaw the approaching chopper with
Troy suspended in a blue diaper like thing from it.
The chopper was looking for a safe place to lower Troy enough
(41:40):
for emergency ground personnel to be able to reach him, as the
smoke was still clearing on the whole situation.
A couple of days later, Todd wasinformed about the facts that
led up to Troy's disappearance. Apparently, Troy and his
girlfriend left the cabin on thenight he vanished to simply cool
off after the argument with a nice walk in the woods that
(42:02):
surrounded the cabin. But right after they had left
for the walk, Troy's girlfriend had stolen his debit card.
Shortly after setting out on their walk, Troy and his
girlfriend got into an argument themselves.
They got separated after that, and Troy's girlfriend ended up
walking herself back to the mainroad where she had called a
(42:24):
ride, leaving Troy in the woods and assuming that he would find
his way back to the cabin. So basically, Troy's girlfriend
turned her phone off for the next couple of days in order to
avoid Troy's angry phone calls about his debit card.
While she partied the whole time.
When she did finally turn her phone back on, she received
(42:45):
Todd's concerned call about Troy.
She was shocked to learn that Troy had been missing for the
last couple of days. Troy ended up being relatively
OK considering the circumstances.
Todd ended up moving out of state shortly after, which
pretty much dissolved the friendship.
As far as Ace, Todd's date, and Troy's girlfriend, well, they're
(43:09):
in the wind, I guess you could say.
I'm almost positive though, thatnone of the people involved in
this story will ever be able to forget about the events that
took place over those fateful 3 days at the cabin.
(44:12):
Yeah. Yeah.
(01:01:23):
Yeah.
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