Latest / Crime and Horror / This MISSING Hiker Case Takes The Most Unimaginable Hollywood Turn I've Ever Seen

Transcript

This MISSING Hiker Case Takes The Most Unimaginable Hollywood Turn I've Ever Seen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you three stories about real
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: people who had something totally unexpected and insane happened to them.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Think like stranger than fiction, that kind of thing that
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: not only change their lives, but also, in some of
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: these cases, change the lives of millions of other people too. Now,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: these stories are kind of a slight departure from what
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: is considered normal on this channel. They're not that far off,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: but they're a little different. So if you like them,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: let us know in the comments and we will do
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: more of them. But before we get into those stories,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload once a week.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, please put glitter
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: in the like buttons car vents so when they turn
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: on their ac it gets blown all over the inside
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of their car. Also, please subscribe to our channel and
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories. On
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the afternoon of July ninth, two thousand and one, a
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: thirteen year old boy named Cody Clausen carried a bag
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: of camping supplies through the woods near Yellowstone National Park
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: in Wyoming. Cody had come to the woods for a
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: camping trip with his dad and his boy Scout troop bought.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: About thirty minutes earlier, he had broken off from the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: main group they were over at camp, and he had
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: hiked a couple of miles to his dad's truck to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: pick up some extra camping supplies. And now that he
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: had those supplies, he had turned around and begun hiking
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: back towards the rest of the group. As Cody hiked along,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: he kind of let his mind wander. He was thinking
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: about what story he was going to tell that night
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: around the campfire to impress the other boy scouts. But
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: as he was thinking about it and kind of walking along,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: he started to realize that things didn't look familiar, and
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: at some point he started to wonder, like, why haven't
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I actually reached the campsite yet, And at that point
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: he stopped. He didn't panic, and he just kind of
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: looked around and realized that he actually had left the path.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: He was not even in an area that he had
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: seen before, and so being a boy scout, he kind
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of stayed calm, and he just turned around and decided
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: he would retrace his steps back to his stat's truck
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and start again. He would obviously be very late back
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: to camp, but at least he'd come back in one piece.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: But as he retraced his steps, he really didn't know
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: where he had come from, because again he had sort
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: of left the trail because his mind was wandering, and
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: so before long, Cody realized he was totally lost, and
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: he started to panic. Hours passed by as Cody frantically
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: walked around the woods, calling out for help but not
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: hearing anybody calling back to him, and then as the
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: sun began to set, he also noticed that storm clouds
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: were rolling in and so this situation was becoming dire
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: very quickly. But he told himself, you know, don't worry.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: My father and the boy Scout troop. They clearly know
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: by this point that I'm missing and they must be
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: out looking for me. But Cody knew there was no
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: telling how long it would take for them to find him.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, it could be hours, or it could be days,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: or the thought was totally terrifle, but they might not
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: find him at all. But at this point Cody was
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: able to calm himself down and tell himself like, hey,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: you're a boy scout. You can do this. You can
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: at least stay out here, you know, make a shelter,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: build a fire, and kind of just wait while someone
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: comes to find you. That's all you can do at
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: this point. And so he had his bag of supplies
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: with him, and so he took it off and he
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: dumped the contents out, and quickly he realized the contents
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: of this bag were not going to help him, certainly
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: not going to help him build a fire or shelter.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: But worse than that was there also wasn't any food,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and he barely had any water, so effectively he had nothing.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: And then, of course, to make matters even worse, the
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: sky suddenly let loose and Cody was caught in a
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: major thunderstorm. And so Cody rounded up whatever he could,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: threw it in his bag, and just started running in
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: the dark through the trees as hail is pelting him,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and it's thunder and lightning, and he's got no idea
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: what he's going to do. And then suddenly lightning flashes
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: across the sky and for a second the forest is illuminated,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: and right up ahead of him is this cave. And
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: so Cody runs into the cave and he takes shelter
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: inside of it. It's pouring rain outside. It's so loud,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: it's so chaotic, and he's terrified. But now it's like
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: his body just shuts down. He's so overwhelmed, he's so
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: scared as he's laying there like wondering, am I going
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: to die out here, that he just closes his eyes
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and passes out just from sheer exhaustion. The next morning,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Cody woke up still sheltering inside of this cave, and
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: the first thing he noticed is when he looked out
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: into the woods was the storm had stopped, the rain
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: had lit up. And then the second thing he noticed
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: was he heard the distinct sound of a helicopter flying
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: somewhere nearby. Cody instantly ran out of the cave and
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: looked up into the sky, and sure enough, there was
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the small helicopter flying around roughly in his area. And so,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: using some of his boy scout training, he pulled off
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: his belt and he used the metal buckle of his
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: belt to reflect the sunlight back up at the pilot
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: to get the pilot's attention, and it worked. He got
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the pilot clearly to notice him, and before long he
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: noticed it's the pilot hovering down lower and lower right
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: over the tree line, looking for a place to land.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: And so Cody is so overjoyed he's about to be saved.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: He grabs his stuff and just charges over roughly to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the area where the pilot's trying to land, and by
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the time he gets in that vicinity, he sees the
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: pilot actually touching down in a clearing. Cody can't believe it.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: It's only been one day and he's been found. And
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: so Cody runs over to the helicopter, throws the door open,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: gets inside, and the pilot just turns around and says
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: good morning. And Cody at first doesn't really register what's
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: happening here. He's only just completely relieved that he is
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: going to survive. But then he kind of stops and
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: looks at the pilot and he can't believe who it
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: is that's just rescued him. It would turn out the
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: night before, when Cody did not return to the camp,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: his father and the Boy Scout troop did contact authorities,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and before long a local search party was organized, and
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: one of those people who volunteered to be a part
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: of the search was an amateur pilot who lived in
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the area. The helicopter pilot was the one who found
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Cody ten miles away from his Boy Scout Troops camp.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: When that pilot reunited Cody with his father, Cody's father
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: naturally assumed that, you know, given the trauma of the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: last twenty four hours, that Cody would not want to
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: rejoin the Boy Scout troop and continue this camping trip,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: that he would want to go home. But instead Cody said, no,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I want to go back to the Boy Scout Troop.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I want to sit there and tell them what happened
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: to me, because now I have a campfire story that
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: they are not gonna believe. Cody had tracked ten miles
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: through the wilderness all alone, spent the night with bears
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: out in a cave somewhere in the middle of a storm,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and then ultimately got rescued by this amateur helicopter pilot
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: who happened to be at the time one of the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: most famous people in the world. The amateur pilot was
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: the actor who had played Han Solo in Star Wars.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: He was Indiana Jones and had starred in several other
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: major blockbuster movies. It was none other than Harrison Ford.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: You know that feeling when you just get totally immersed
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: and lost inside of a story from start to finish, Well,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what Audible brings right to you. Whether you're
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: stuck in traffic, or hitting the gym or winding down
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: after a long day, Audible always has a story that
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: will bring you right in. Thrillers, fantasies, true crime, you
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: name it, it's all there on Audible, all just the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: click of a play button away. So go unleash your
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: adventure side with Audible's vast library of entertainment sync into
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: gripping titles that'll keep you guessing all the way to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the very end. Also, you can discover exclusive Audible originals
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: that you can't find anywhere else and be the first
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to experience exciting new releases from your favorite authors. And
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: if you're looking for a recommendation, you know, maybe check
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: out Mister Ballin Presents The Graphic Stories So Here. That's
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: a pretty good graphic novel and they do have a
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: really amazing audiobook. Check that one out. Discover stories that
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: will keep you on the edge of your seat. Your
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: next created venture awaits with Audible. Start listening today when
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: you sign up for a free thirty day trial at
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: audible dot com. Slash mister ballin. Okay, back to the story.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: In September of nineteen fifty four, a fourteen year old
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: boy named Rich shuffled his way down the hallway of
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: a children's hospital in England. He coughed and wheezed as
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: he slowly walked down the hall next to other sick
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: kids as they made their way towards the hospital's classroom. Now,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Rich didn't know what kind of lesson he and the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: other kids were going to get today, but frankly, he
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: didn't care. Anything was better than just sitting in his
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: hospital room bored out of his mind. So Rich was
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: in the hospital because he was suffering from tuberculosis, which
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: is an infectious lung disease, and over the past ten
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: weeks he'd been bouncing around to different hospitals, and in
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: fact his condition was still so bad that this hospital
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: had informed his parents that Rich might need to stay
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: in the hospital for another two years. And as awful
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: as this sounded to Rich, this actually was not the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: first time something like this had happened to him. When
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: he was six years old, his appendix burst, and then
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: he contracted an infection that left him in a coma
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: for several weeks, and then when he came out of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the coma, he had to recover in a hospital for
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: nearly a year. And all this time in hospitals had
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: really impacted Rich's life, in particular in terms of how
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: far behind he had fallen in school. And because his
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: family was not a well off family, they couldn't afford
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: to hire a tutor to kind of keep Rich up
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: to speed, and so basically at this point, Rich's education
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: consisted of, you know whatever random classes these hospitals he
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: was staying in sporadically had, you know, whenever they hired
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: a teacher to come in and teach basket weaving or
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: you know, shop class. You know, whatever was available, that
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: was his education. So that day, when Rich walked into
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the hospital classroom, he did not have high expectations about
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: what he would be taught that day. He figured it
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: was just going to be some random class that he
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: would sit through that at least was keeping him out
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of his wa hospital bedroom. But the instant he saw
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the teacher for the day and saw what was surrounding
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the teacher He was really excited because all around the
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: teacher were musical instruments and Rich as a kid, had
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: always dreamed of playing the drum. He had seen one
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: day in a windows shop a drum set and he'd
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: wanted it so badly, but his family didn't have the
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: money to pay for it, so he had never had
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: a chance to do it. But now it seemed like
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Rich was finally going to get his chance. And so
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: when the teacher began handing out the instruments to the kids,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Rich demanded that he get the drum set. He would
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: not play anything else, and the teacher was like, okay,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: and so he was given the drum. And then that
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: day the teacher led the class, you know, through a
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: couple of basic songs, and Rich played the drum, and
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: he and everybody else were objectively terrible, like the music
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: was awful. But by the end of the class, Rich
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: was totally revitalized. Here, I mean, he hadn't discovered some
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: special new talent for playing the drums, but he had
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: discovered that he had this amazing passion for playing the drum.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: It was like all he wanted to do now. And
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: he figured that because he was going to be stuck
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: in the hospital for the foreseeable future, he would just
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: spend all of his time on practicing playing the drum.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: So the following day, Rich went into a closet in
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the hospital and he found these long sticks that were
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: normally used for knitting, and they became his drumsticks. And
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: for the next year and a half, Rich basically banged
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: these makeshift drumsticks on anything he could to practice. And
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: then also every few weeks when the music teacher came
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: back to the hospital, Rich would go to those classes
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: and he would try to learn as much as he
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: possibly could from the teacher. And that was basically his
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: whole life was those classes and banging on everything he could. Finally,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty five, when Rich was sixteen years old,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: he was released from the hospital. He was finally cured
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: from tuberculosis. However, despite having his health back, it isn't
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: like his life suddenly got a whole lot easier. It
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: isn't like, you know, he left the hospital and you know,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: magically became this amazing drummer and that was his life. Instead,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: his family was really struggling financially, and so Rich couldn't
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: go back to school. He basically had to get a
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: job in a factory and work full time just to
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: help support his family. And for Rich, you know, he
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: felt like that was the right thing to do. He
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: didn't resent his family, you know, this is what his
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: life was. And what he did is he found joy,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: you know, while he was working in grabbing makeshift drumsticks
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and just banging on stuff any chance he could, and
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: he figured that would be his life. He would just
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: work and you know, find joy in drumming whenever he could.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: But Rich's outlook on life changed dramatically on Christmas of
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty six, so a year after he had left
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the hospital, because on that Christmas, Rich's stepfather had secretly
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: saved up all this extra money by working all these
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: extra shifts and doing whatever he could to finally buy
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Rich his own drum set. To this point, Rich had
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: not been able to have his own drum set. Everything
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: was makeshift. And so that Christmas he gets this drum
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: kit and Rich is like, this is the best gift
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I've ever been given. And he began practicing even more,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: and pretty quickly he began playing with local bands every
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: time he had time off, and before long he became
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: known as a guy in town who was like one
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of the best drummers. And then shortly after that, right
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: as Rich is kind of hitting his stride being this
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: kind of local celebrity, this local, very popular band fired
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: their drummer, and so it made perfect sense that they
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: approached Rich and said, hey, will you join our band?
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: And Rich said, let's do it. By this point, Rich
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: had become known by his stage name Ringo Starr, and
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: that band that recruited him was The Beatles. Around eleven
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: am on Sunday, October twentieth, nineteen ninety one, a thirty
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: one year old man named Will woke up next to
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: his wife in their home in Oakland, California, and the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: first thing Will noticed as soon as he was awake
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: was the smell of smoke. Will got out of his
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: bed and went to the window, and when he looked out,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: he could see there was this big playom of smoke
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: coming from what looked like right outside of his neighborhood.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: And since he lived in California, where wildfires were unfortunately
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: a common reality, he thought, that's going to be a wildfire.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: So Will called nine to one one to report it,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: but the dispatcher told him that yes, that is a wildfire.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: It's on a mountain side, you know, about six hundred
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: feet away from Will's house in his neighborhood. But they
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: said the fire department was already all over it and
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the smoke he was seeing was simply the leftover, you know,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: after the fire had been put out, so no real
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: threat here. And so after hearing this, Will's mind was
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: put at ease. He thanked the dispatcher and hung up,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: and then he went about his normal morning routine, and
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: as he brushed his teeth and took a shower, his
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: mind began to wander towards work. So Will was a
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: software developer and he was in the middle of working
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: on this video game about ants like the insects and
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: how they go about building their homes. And Will was
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: really excited about this game. But as Will left the
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: bathroom and happened to look out the window that he
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: looked out before and saw that plume of smoke out
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: on the mountain side, any thoughts of his video game
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: immediately vanished because now he was looking out and he
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: saw this huge cloud of smoke that, in addition to
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: being much bigger, there was also obvious flames licking up, like,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: clearly the fire is not extinguished. And worse, it appeared
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the fire was moving in the direction of his neighborhood
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and pretty quickly, and so Will immediately grabs the phone
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and he calls nine to one one again and he
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: reports that, hey, I'm seeing a fire here, and he
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: could tell just from the dispatcher's voice that they were
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: kind of surprised. They felt like the fire was under control,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: like what are you talking about? And so Will realized, like,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: based on this response, I can't afford to wait for help.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's unclear if they even know what's going
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: on here. Then this fire appears to be moving right
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: towards me. And so after hanging up with a dispatcher,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Will knew he had to act, and so Will runs
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: to his wife, who by this point she's looking out
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the window too. She's terrified, and they're like, what are
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: we going to do here? And they decide we just
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: got to evacuate, Like by this point, the fire is
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: literally coming right towards them. The smoke is beginning to
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: overwhelm them, and so they just grabbed a couple of
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: bare necessities they charged out of their house and they're
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: looking down the street, and again the smoke by this
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: point is kind of, you know, making it hard to see,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: but they can see. Other neighbors are frantically getting in
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: their cars to evacuate as well, and Will and his
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: wife they're about to speed off when they remember their
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: neighbors had gone away for the weekend and they had
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: left their old parents to look after their two year
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: old kid, and they didn't have a car, and so
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Wal's like, oh my gosh. He runs next story, pounds
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: on the door, and the grandparents they come out and
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: they're scared as well. They have the two year old,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: and Will's like, come on. They grabbed a couple of
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: necessities they hopped in Will's car, and before long all
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: of them were peeling down the road evacuating. One week later,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Will returned to his neighborhood, this time in the passenger
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: seat of a police cruiser, because you needed an official
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: escort to be able to go into this area because
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: of how dangerous it was. There was debris everywhere. When
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the police officer stopped in front of Will's address and
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Will got out, he looked at where his house used
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: to be and it was just gone, like every other
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: house in his neighborhood. It was completely leveled by this fire.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: That fire burned for four days, destroyed thousands of homes,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: including basically Will's entire neighborhood, and it killed twenty five people.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Will walked towards the rubble that used to be his home,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: and as he stood there surveying the area, he was
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: hit with this epiphany. He didn't really care that he
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: had lost all of his things, like everything he owned
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: basically had been destroyed by this fire, but he just
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: didn't care. Instead, all he cared about, and all he
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: was grateful for was his family, Like they had survived,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: they'd escaped the fire. That's what mattered. And so as
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: he's standing there, sort of a little bit numb to
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: what's happened here, he looked down and he saw ants. Now,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: remember he was developing this video game about ants and
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: so had done tons of research about ants, and he
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: saw these ants that definitely were destroyed by this fire
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: as much as the people were. I mean, their colonies
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: were all burnt up and destroyed as well. But he
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: saw these ants and what they were doing was gathering
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: supplies and rebuilding, you know, brick by brick. That's what
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: they were doing. That's what what ants do. They simply
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: go forward and rebuild, no matter the tragedy, and this
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: gave Will an idea. Nine years later, Will finally released
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: his video game, but it was not the game he
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: had been developing, the one about ants. Instead, it was
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: inspired by the ants he saw marching through the rubble
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: after this horrible fire. In this game he made, you
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: could create characters like avatars who could live entire digital lives,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: complete with homes and neighbors and spouses and kids and
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: friends like it really was an actual universe in this game.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: But this game is not set in a perfect fantasy world. Instead,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the universe that these characters live inside of is meant
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: to mimic the real world that we live in, where
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: tragedies can strike and often do sort of unpredictably death, destruction, wildfires,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: you name it. That's just kind of part of living
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: in this world. And so in this game, you know,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: characters periodically would just have horrible things happen to them
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and they would have to rebuild, just like the ants
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: had to rebuild. And just like Will and his family
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: and everybody else affected by that fire, you just have
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: to move forward and rebuild. Will's game wound up being
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: a massive success, selling tens of millions of copies worldwide,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: and today hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of people
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: still play it. Will's full name was Will Wright in
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the game he created was The Sims. In case you
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: haven't heard yet, our newest graphic novel, Mister Bollin Presents
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Where Nightmares Live, is available for pre order right now.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: It contains another nine heart stopping, strange, dark and mysterious stories,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: all based on real events. This was a passion project.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: It took a lot of time, a lot of people involved,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: from the artwork to the storytelling. I mean, this is
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: a beautiful piece to add to your collection, so you
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: got to check it out. The book comes out on
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: September thirtieth, but again, you can pre order your at
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: book dot ballinstudios dot com or you can click the
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: link in the description below. There are a limited number
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: of hand signed copies available, but those are going to
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: sell out very quickly, so please pre order today because remember,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: your nightmares are waiting. Thank you so much for watching.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: the comments, and remember we have hundreds of videos for
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: you to binge right now. But if you're looking for
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: a recommendation for me of that one video that's worth
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: your time, well it's this one right here, so give
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: it a watch, all right, Until next time, see y