Latest / Luke's English Podcast / Chaos on a Transatlantic Flight

Transcript

Chaos on a Transatlantic Flight · Luke's English Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: This episode contains real narrated experiences. Listener discretion is advised.
0:18
Speaker 1: Good evening and welcome into Disturbed. This week, I've got
0:25
Speaker 1: four true experiences that are sure to keep you up
0:29
Speaker 1: at night.
0:31
Speaker 2: So join me.
0:35
Speaker 1: As we explore the realm of true horror. Our first
1:00
Speaker 1: experience comes from Reddit user redclock four thirteen and introducing
1:07
Speaker 1: new guest narrator Leah Marie Green. Just remember at night,
1:14
Speaker 1: always close your blinds.
1:32
Speaker 2: So I'm a twenty three year old female. I live
1:34
Speaker 2: in a townhouse with my two children, two and six
1:37
Speaker 2: months old. My fiance did live with us until two
1:41
Speaker 2: weeks ago when I caught him trying to fuck other
1:43
Speaker 2: women and made him move out. That's important to the story.
1:48
Speaker 2: I'm a stay at home mom, and when he did
1:50
Speaker 2: live with us, my ex worked evenings. Let me set
1:54
Speaker 2: the scene. We live in a tiny town in northern Pennsylvania.
1:58
Speaker 2: My line of townhouse that sits in a big fear
2:00
Speaker 2: that runs to a line of woods. As far as
2:02
Speaker 2: I'm aware, these would stretch for at least a few miles,
2:05
Speaker 2: and I'm not aware of any houses in there or
2:07
Speaker 2: any roads that lead through them. My living room has
2:10
Speaker 2: three windows that looked to the field, and my bedroom
2:13
Speaker 2: on the second floor only has one window that faces
2:16
Speaker 2: that way as well. People do tend to walk their
2:19
Speaker 2: dogs back in the field and kids sometimes play back there,
2:22
Speaker 2: but I rarely see anyone close to my house. For
2:25
Speaker 2: that reason, I tend to leave my blinds and curtains
2:27
Speaker 2: open because I guess I just enjoyed the view. So
2:31
Speaker 2: in July twenty nineteen, I was laying in bed trying
2:34
Speaker 2: to fall asleep. All of the lights were off, but
2:36
Speaker 2: I had my window and blinds open since it was
2:38
Speaker 2: so warm. I was looking out the window and I
2:42
Speaker 2: noticed small red and white lights just outside. I got
2:46
Speaker 2: up and looked to realize that the lights were coming
2:49
Speaker 2: from a drone. I ran downstairs to where my fiance
2:53
Speaker 2: of the time was sitting in the living room and
2:55
Speaker 2: ran to the window. I told him what I saw,
2:57
Speaker 2: but of course when he went to look, it was gone.
3:00
Speaker 2: I was paranoid that the drone could have had a
3:02
Speaker 2: camera on it and some one was watching me with it.
3:05
Speaker 2: I kept my blinds closed for a while after that.
3:08
Speaker 2: Fast forward to January of this year. I guess I
3:12
Speaker 2: stupidly got comfortable and assumed that whoever was flying the
3:15
Speaker 2: drone was a one time creep. My blinds were open
3:19
Speaker 2: and I had just gotten out of the shower. I
3:22
Speaker 2: was sitting on my bed, pretty much naked except for
3:24
Speaker 2: my underwear, scrolling on my phone, when out of the
3:28
Speaker 2: corner of my eye, I saw lights again out of
3:31
Speaker 2: the dark window. It was that damn drone again. I
3:35
Speaker 2: ran out of the room and waited for a few minutes.
3:38
Speaker 2: I peeked back into my room and it was gone.
3:41
Speaker 2: I quickly shut my blinds and got dressed. Honestly, I
3:45
Speaker 2: felt sick at how stupid I was to leave my
3:47
Speaker 2: window open again, especially when I was practically naked. Now
3:51
Speaker 2: for the really disturbing part, my two year old son
3:54
Speaker 2: and I were out in the field two weeks ago,
3:56
Speaker 2: three days after I kicked out my boyfriend playing ball.
4:00
Speaker 2: I had my six month old strapped to me on
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Speaker 2: a baby carrier. Probably about a half hour after we'd
4:05
Speaker 2: been out there, I heard a slight whirring noise coming
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Speaker 2: towards US. I looked up and saw that damn drone
4:11
Speaker 2: flying towards US. I looked around and didn't see any one.
4:16
Speaker 2: It stopped right over US. I freaked and grabbed my
4:20
Speaker 2: son and dragged him into the house, looking back at
4:22
Speaker 2: the tree line every so often as we went I
4:25
Speaker 2: knew they had to be hiding in there. I went inside,
4:28
Speaker 2: closed the blinds and called my mom and told her
4:30
Speaker 2: about the situation. She told me to just keep an
4:33
Speaker 2: eye out, I said I would. My son likes to
4:36
Speaker 2: line up his toys along the window sill, so I
4:38
Speaker 2: figured it wouldn't hurt to open them up just an
4:40
Speaker 2: inch or so. A little while later, after we ate
4:43
Speaker 2: dinner and it was almost dark, I was feeding my
4:45
Speaker 2: six month old and my son was playing. He was
4:48
Speaker 2: standing over by the window lining up his toys. He
4:51
Speaker 2: started saying dad a, dadda. I assumed he was just
4:56
Speaker 2: missing his father and dismissed him by saying, we're going
4:59
Speaker 2: to go see him that week. He kept saying Dada, dada.
5:04
Speaker 2: I looked up and saw him pointing to the window
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Speaker 2: under the little gap the blinds didn't cover. I froze.
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Speaker 2: I remembered that he calls any man with facial hair
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Speaker 2: dada because it reminds him of his father. But there
5:19
Speaker 2: was no way someone would be bold enough to actually
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Speaker 2: come up to my window, not when my neighbors are
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Speaker 2: literally right there. Anyone could see them but there aren't
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Speaker 2: any lights back there, so unless someone actually stepped out
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Speaker 2: of their house, I guess nobody would see them. Maybe
5:35
Speaker 2: it was my axe, but he should be at work
5:38
Speaker 2: at that time. I ran to the window and moved
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Speaker 2: my son. I didn't want to lift the blinds, but honestly,
5:44
Speaker 2: I was sure it had to be the person who
5:46
Speaker 2: had been creeping on me for the past year, and
5:48
Speaker 2: I wanted to see who it was. I pushed the
5:51
Speaker 2: blinds up and was looking at a man who I
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Speaker 2: had definitely never seen before, crouching in front of me.
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Speaker 2: He was bald, with a muff stash and go tee.
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Speaker 2: I have no idea how old he was. He could
6:03
Speaker 2: have been anywhere from thirty to fifty. When he saw me,
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Speaker 2: he smiled and stood up. I yelled and told him
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Speaker 2: to fuck off and that I was calling the cops.
6:13
Speaker 2: He just stood there, smiling at me like some freak.
6:17
Speaker 2: I was about to close the blinds again when he
6:19
Speaker 2: said something I couldn't hear. I told him to leave again,
6:22
Speaker 2: and he said, louder this time, I just want to
6:25
Speaker 2: talk to you. I shook my head no and yelled
6:29
Speaker 2: the same thing to him. He started slapping his hands
6:32
Speaker 2: on the window, yelling no, no, no, over and over.
6:37
Speaker 2: I grabbed my phone, scared he was going to try
6:39
Speaker 2: to break in. I dialed nine when one my kids
6:42
Speaker 2: were crying from the yelling, and I was on the
6:44
Speaker 2: verge of tears. I told the operator what was going on.
6:47
Speaker 2: The Whole time I was on my phone, the man
6:49
Speaker 2: was pounding on my window, screaming. Now. He was yelling
6:53
Speaker 2: all kinds of nonsense, and I only caught some of it.
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Speaker 2: He said he's been watching me for months. I'm beautiful
7:00
Speaker 2: me to come with him. He'll kill my children if
7:03
Speaker 2: I don't. The operator told me to go to an
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Speaker 2: upstairs room and hide until the police arrived. My town
7:09
Speaker 2: doesn't have a police department, so we rely on state police.
7:12
Speaker 2: She said it would be about twenty minutes, but stay
7:14
Speaker 2: on the phone with her. The man was practically punching
7:17
Speaker 2: my window now and was just screaming like a maniac.
7:21
Speaker 2: I was about to grab the kids and run upstairs
7:23
Speaker 2: when I heard someone else screaming. The man bolted. I
7:26
Speaker 2: looked out and saw my neighbor and his girlfriend. I
7:29
Speaker 2: opened the window and my neighbor said he'd heard the man,
7:32
Speaker 2: so he ran around the building. He said. When the
7:35
Speaker 2: guy heard him, he ran back to the woods and
7:37
Speaker 2: disappeared in the tree line. They said they also called
7:40
Speaker 2: the police. I thank them a hundred times. The police
7:44
Speaker 2: arrived ten minutes later. They did a quick search around
7:47
Speaker 2: the buildings and in the trees, then obviously didn't find anything.
7:51
Speaker 2: I've been super paranoid since then and stayed at my
7:53
Speaker 2: parents a few nights after it happened. I don't know
7:56
Speaker 2: why that guy targeted me, or why he waited so
7:59
Speaker 2: long to do something. I'm just happy my neighbors were
8:02
Speaker 2: there to intervene, or who knows what would have happened.
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Speaker 2: So the creep who's been stalking me and my family
8:07
Speaker 2: for the last year, I genuinely hope we never ever
8:12
Speaker 2: meet again.
8:20
Speaker 1: If you enjoy what you're hearing, consider supporting us as
8:24
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8:35
Speaker 1: Find out more at Disturbed podcast dot com slash fan club.
8:42
Speaker 1: In our next experience, we meet Reddit user mamba Chow
8:47
Speaker 1: with narration by yours Truly. This experience has been independently
8:53
Speaker 1: verified by Reddit's team through supporting evidence and has been
8:58
Speaker 1: given the exclusive Verify tag when you're on a plane
9:03
Speaker 1: over the middle of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, there's nowhere to hide.
9:18
Speaker 1: This was a long time ago, so the timeline might
9:22
Speaker 1: be a little bit off and some details are fuzzy,
9:25
Speaker 1: but I've written it out exactly as I recall it.
9:28
Speaker 1: In the early two thousands, my family was living in Europe,
9:32
Speaker 1: and in December of two thousand and one, we were
9:34
Speaker 1: coming back home to Latin America for Christmas vacation. My
9:38
Speaker 1: brother and I, both in high school at the time,
9:41
Speaker 1: and my dad were flying together from Paris to Miami.
9:45
Speaker 1: My dad was seated in business class, while my brother
9:48
Speaker 1: and I were both in coach, sitting in the middle
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Speaker 1: two seats of the middle row. The flight was pretty
9:54
Speaker 1: normal at first, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. About
9:59
Speaker 1: four or five into the flight, I was reading a book,
10:03
Speaker 1: almost dozing off, when I heard a woman start to
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Speaker 1: repeat the word no, over and over. At first, it
10:11
Speaker 1: was really quiet, almost inaudible, but it quickly got very
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Speaker 1: loud and urgent. Before I realized what was happening. She
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Speaker 1: was screaming no, no, no, at the top of her lungs.
10:26
Speaker 1: I looked up and saw a flight attendant a few
10:29
Speaker 1: rows ahead of me to the right, hunched over someone
10:32
Speaker 1: sitting on the window seat. My first thought was that
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Speaker 1: a passenger was having a heart attack or some catastrophic
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Speaker 1: health problem, but her yelling was so unsettling that this
10:43
Speaker 1: couldn't be it. There was a strangely long delay in
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Speaker 1: people's reactions. Nobody did anything. I completely panicked and frozen
10:53
Speaker 1: my seat. My brother, on the other hand, jumped up
10:57
Speaker 1: out of his seat, jumped over the person sitting on
10:59
Speaker 1: the aisle seat to his right, and ran up to
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Speaker 1: see what was going on. He was up there in
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Speaker 1: a matter of seconds, and as he approached suddenly everyone
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Speaker 1: around us stood up to see what was going on
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Speaker 1: and or try to help. She kept screaming, and now
11:17
Speaker 1: she was struggling with this passenger. He was really tall,
11:21
Speaker 1: so tall that his whole head was visible over the
11:24
Speaker 1: back of the seat, and he had long, curly black hair.
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Speaker 1: My brother came back to our row and said something
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Speaker 1: is wrong, before going back up to get a closer look.
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Speaker 1: Passengers close to her began struggling with the guy as well.
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Speaker 1: A bunch of people jumped on him and started pulling
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Speaker 1: at him, and someone in the row behind him even
11:44
Speaker 1: pulled his hair back so hard his face jerked towards
11:46
Speaker 1: the top of the plane. He let out a really
11:49
Speaker 1: loud moan or scream, and then there was chaos. The
11:55
Speaker 1: aisles were so crowded nobody could move, and I saw
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Speaker 1: a fire extinguisher being passed hand to hand from the
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Speaker 1: back of the plane. I immediately thought there was a
12:03
Speaker 1: fire and that we were all going to die. It
12:07
Speaker 1: was an incredibly hopeless sensation to know that there's nowhere
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Speaker 1: to run and no way to escape the situation unfolding
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Speaker 1: in front of you. They passed the extinguisher up to
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Speaker 1: a male flight attendant near the guy, and the flight
12:19
Speaker 1: attendant hit him with the butt of the extinguisher really
12:22
Speaker 1: hard on the face. They started asking for belts, headphones, straps, etc.
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Speaker 1: Anything they could use to restrain him. My brother took
12:32
Speaker 1: off his belt and gave it to them, and they
12:33
Speaker 1: wrapped everything they could around the passenger's arms, shoulders and torso,
12:38
Speaker 1: securing him to the seat. I saw the male flight
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Speaker 1: attendant who had hit him with the extinguisher carry a
12:44
Speaker 1: pair of large black tennis shoes to the back of
12:46
Speaker 1: the plane, which at the time seemed kind of strange,
12:51
Speaker 1: but I didn't think much of it. The flight attendants
12:54
Speaker 1: asked if there was a doctor on board to sedate
12:56
Speaker 1: the guy. People kept asking if there was a flight
12:59
Speaker 1: marshal on board, but nobody came forward. I can't remember
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Speaker 1: exactly how or when things calmed down, but eventually everyone
13:07
Speaker 1: was told to return to their seats. A small group
13:10
Speaker 1: of people that helped restrain the guy were asked to
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Speaker 1: keep guard. On rotation. There were always at least a
13:15
Speaker 1: few people sitting behind him and or next to him
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Speaker 1: keeping an eye on him. I think there was even
13:22
Speaker 1: some one behind him holding a fistful of his hair.
13:24
Speaker 1: For the rest of the flight, the pilot announced over
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Speaker 1: the PA that there had been a security breach. I
13:31
Speaker 1: can't remember exactly what he said, but it was vague,
13:34
Speaker 1: and that they were being diverted to Boston Logan Airport.
13:38
Speaker 1: He said they didn't know if the person was working alone.
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Speaker 1: So quote, get to know your neighbor end quote. We
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Speaker 1: were in the middle of the Atlantic with maybe four
13:49
Speaker 1: more hours to go before we could land. Things were
13:52
Speaker 1: a bit ominous and tense, but for the most part,
13:56
Speaker 1: everyone was friendly and in a pretty good mood. Nobody
13:59
Speaker 1: knew what had actually happened. We weren't allowed to get
14:04
Speaker 1: up from our seats, and if you had to use
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Speaker 1: the bathroom, you needed to call a flight attendant to
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Speaker 1: escort you to the lavatory, where you weren't allowed to
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Speaker 1: lock the door. I remember a grumpy old Frenchman a
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Speaker 1: few rows from us got really annoyed after a while
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Speaker 1: and kept getting up without permission, just to annoy the
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Speaker 1: flight attendants. They were not happy. After a while, they
14:25
Speaker 1: put on a movie, Legally Blonde, to distract the passengers.
14:30
Speaker 1: My brother and I went up to business class to
14:32
Speaker 1: talk to my dad. Apparently they didn't hear the extent
14:35
Speaker 1: of the chaos in the back of coach, and they
14:38
Speaker 1: were all going about business as usual. A few hours later,
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Speaker 1: as we approached the US, we saw fighter jets outside
14:45
Speaker 1: of the windows on both sides of the plane. The
14:48
Speaker 1: pilot announced that they were escorting us to Boston. A
14:51
Speaker 1: few little kids got really excited watching the jets. I
14:55
Speaker 1: later learned that these were a last resort security measure
14:58
Speaker 1: to prevent hijacked planes from repeating nine to eleven style attacks.
15:02
Speaker 1: They were supposed to shoot us down in case of
15:05
Speaker 1: a major threat. We landed and we were told to
15:08
Speaker 1: stay seated. A swat team came on board carrying assault
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Speaker 1: rifles and tons of body armor, cut off all the
15:15
Speaker 1: guy's restraints and took him off the plane. I saw
15:19
Speaker 1: everything in detail, since we were seated only a few
15:22
Speaker 1: seats behind him. We were parked in the middle of
15:25
Speaker 1: the tarmac for a long time before we were allowed
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Speaker 1: to disembark. I remember seeing pieces of my brother's belt
15:31
Speaker 1: on the guy's seat as we left, and thought about
15:34
Speaker 1: taking one as a souvenir, but thought better of it.
15:38
Speaker 1: We were escorted to a baggage claim area and Boston
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Speaker 1: Logan Airport that was surrounded by a large metal fence
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Speaker 1: to keep us all in one place. We were there
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Speaker 1: for what felt like three or four hours, just waiting anxiously,
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Speaker 1: and nobody would explain anything to us. Passengers were getting
15:54
Speaker 1: really agitated, shaking the metal fences and yelling at airport
15:58
Speaker 1: personnel that this was inhumane tree there was no food,
16:02
Speaker 1: nowhere to sit, and children were crying. Dozens of people
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Speaker 1: were trying to sleep on the baggage carousel. They finally
16:10
Speaker 1: ordered a bunch of pizzas and led us into the
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Speaker 1: waiting area with actual chairs, where each passenger was interrogated
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Speaker 1: by the FBI. They were astonishingly unfriendly. I guess they
16:21
Speaker 1: were trying to discern if the guy had any partners
16:23
Speaker 1: on board. They then shuffled us to our baggage, where
16:27
Speaker 1: security officers thoroughly hand searched every single passenger's shoes, suitcases,
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Speaker 1: and carry on bags and patted everyone down. We were
16:36
Speaker 1: finally allowed to make a phone call and I called
16:39
Speaker 1: my mom. The rest of the family was completely hysterical.
16:43
Speaker 1: They had been watching the news all day and they
16:46
Speaker 1: knew that an Islamic extremist terrorist had tried to blow
16:51
Speaker 1: up our flight with a bomb that he had smuggled
16:54
Speaker 1: on board in his shoe. We had absolutely no idea
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Speaker 1: what had really happened tell this moment, as we were
17:01
Speaker 1: kept completely in the dark. It was a very strange sensation.
17:06
Speaker 1: Up until this point, my dad, brother and I had
17:10
Speaker 1: actually remained pretty relaxed considering the circumstances, and we were
17:14
Speaker 1: more annoyed about the inconvenient changes to our travel itinerary
17:18
Speaker 1: than the crazy experience on the plane. We had no
17:22
Speaker 1: idea how bad the security breach really was and how
17:26
Speaker 1: close we came to being killed. After about twelve hours
17:30
Speaker 1: in Boston, we were put on another flight home. My
17:33
Speaker 1: brother made the mistake of giving a few interviews to
17:36
Speaker 1: CNN and other networks while we were in Boston, so
17:39
Speaker 1: when we landed in our small country, he was immediately
17:42
Speaker 1: swarmed by the press and gave a bunch of interviews.
17:45
Speaker 1: Despite being exhausted, I was happy to finally sit and
17:49
Speaker 1: relax with my family after the longest and most stressful
17:52
Speaker 1: trip of my life. We later learned that the bomber,
17:56
Speaker 1: Richard Reid, had actually tried to board the same flight
17:59
Speaker 1: on the previous day. He was detained and questioned by
18:03
Speaker 1: French security because of multiple red flags. He had no
18:07
Speaker 1: luggage and purchased a one way ticket with cash, causing
18:11
Speaker 1: him to miss his flight. They put him on the
18:14
Speaker 1: next day's flight and put him up in a hotel
18:17
Speaker 1: kind of far from the airport since everything nearby was booked.
18:21
Speaker 1: The following day, it rained and on the walk from
18:24
Speaker 1: the hotel to the airport, his shoes got wet. This
18:29
Speaker 1: might have been why he had trouble lighting the wick
18:32
Speaker 1: in his shoe. His plan was to light at midflight.
18:37
Speaker 1: He waited until the passenger next to him went to
18:39
Speaker 1: the bathroom, then tried to light his shoe with matches.
18:44
Speaker 1: The female flight attendant that first engaged him had smelled
18:47
Speaker 1: the matches and was walking up and down the aisle
18:50
Speaker 1: looking for a passenger who she assumed was trying to
18:53
Speaker 1: smoke a cigarette. She saw him with the shoe in
18:56
Speaker 1: his lap and immediately tried to take it from him. Struggled,
19:00
Speaker 1: and he bit her hand. Richard Reid, aka the Shoebomber,
19:06
Speaker 1: is now serving three life sentences in prison. Just a
19:25
Speaker 1: reminder that we take your true submissions. If you've had
19:29
Speaker 1: a terrifying experience and want to share it, leave us
19:32
Speaker 1: a message on our hotline at seven zero one seven
19:36
Speaker 1: one two eight zero zero eight. In our next experience,
19:46
Speaker 1: we're introduced to Reddit user guitar Girl five zero one,
19:51
Speaker 1: with narration by Leah Marie Green. No matter where you are,
19:58
Speaker 1: you should always be aware of your surroundings.
20:16
Speaker 2: So this happened about a year ago and it's still
20:20
Speaker 2: pretty freaky. For context, my friend and I are both
20:23
Speaker 2: twenty two and female. My friend Anna and I were
20:26
Speaker 2: bored one weekend and decided to go to a popular
20:29
Speaker 2: beach to take some pictures and just mess around. So
20:31
Speaker 2: we took pictures and had a really lovely day. Then
20:34
Speaker 2: on the way back, we were starving, so we decided
20:37
Speaker 2: to stop at a McDonald's in the Beach Town. This
20:39
Speaker 2: town is like really really famous and nice. All the
20:43
Speaker 2: celebrities live there and it's beautiful. There's also a super
20:46
Speaker 2: famous restaurant right off the highway on the beach that's
20:49
Speaker 2: known for celebrities and rich people going This McDonald's was
20:53
Speaker 2: directly across the street from the restaurant. Since so many
20:56
Speaker 2: famous people go to this restaurant and it's on a
20:58
Speaker 2: pretty busy road, most of them have drivers that take them,
21:02
Speaker 2: usually in big black escalades. The drivers would usually hang
21:05
Speaker 2: out in the parking lot of that McDonald's while their
21:08
Speaker 2: bosses ate across the street. Anna and I didn't know
21:11
Speaker 2: this at the time. We just wanted to mcflurry. So
21:14
Speaker 2: we go to McDonald's and right when we get out
21:17
Speaker 2: of the car, she starts acting really weird. She like
21:20
Speaker 2: triple checks that the car doors are locked and grabs
21:22
Speaker 2: her fancy camera to bring inside. Ask her what's up,
21:26
Speaker 2: and she says, there's a group of guys, the drivers,
21:29
Speaker 2: standing in front of McDonald's, smoking and staring at us,
21:32
Speaker 2: and it was just giving her the creeps. I'm a
21:35
Speaker 2: pretty chill and trusting person, so I don't think much
21:38
Speaker 2: of it. It's a busy place in a super nice town.
21:42
Speaker 2: I'm not worried. We go in and there are a
21:45
Speaker 2: few other people in there about our age. We get
21:47
Speaker 2: our food and sit at the table to eat. One
21:49
Speaker 2: of the drivers comes in and sits a few boosts
21:52
Speaker 2: down with his back to the wall, right where he
21:55
Speaker 2: can see us. My back is to him, but Anna
21:59
Speaker 2: gets really creeped down well and wants to leave. This
22:02
Speaker 2: guy isn't eating nor anything. He's just staring at us. Again.
22:08
Speaker 2: This is a pretty crowded McDonald's in one of the
22:10
Speaker 2: nicest towns in southern California, so I feel pretty safe.
22:15
Speaker 2: Living in South Central you get used to the odd creek. Still,
22:19
Speaker 2: Anna was freaked out, so I agree to go. I
22:22
Speaker 2: just have to run into the bathroom first. It was
22:25
Speaker 2: one of those McDonald's where the counter and main dining
22:28
Speaker 2: room were in one big room, and then there was
22:30
Speaker 2: sort of a hallway off to the side of the
22:32
Speaker 2: counter with more seating and the bathroom at the end.
22:36
Speaker 2: Way in the back. There was also a door going
22:39
Speaker 2: outside right next to the bathrooms. The bathroom only has
22:42
Speaker 2: two stalls. I just walked into the first stall, not
22:46
Speaker 2: really paying attention to whether or not anyone else was
22:48
Speaker 2: in there. So I'm in there doing my thing and
22:52
Speaker 2: I hear the door open and I hear Anna call
22:54
Speaker 2: my name. At this point, I'm very confused since she's
22:58
Speaker 2: supposed to be watching her stuff, and I'm like, yeah,
23:02
Speaker 2: what's up? She asks, are you okay? Yeah? Just peeing?
23:08
Speaker 2: I reply, She was like, oh okay and just stands
23:15
Speaker 2: there in the doorway. After a second, I hear her leave,
23:18
Speaker 2: and I'm thinking that's very weird. So I walk out
23:22
Speaker 2: of the bathroom and see her waiting by the door
23:24
Speaker 2: with all of our stuff in her hands. I ask
23:27
Speaker 2: her what's going on and why she came into the bathroom,
23:30
Speaker 2: and she just looks at me really panicky and is like,
23:33
Speaker 2: we need to leave right now. At this point, I'm
23:38
Speaker 2: still not afraid, just confused. We rush out to the
23:42
Speaker 2: car and she starts telling me what happened. Turns out,
23:45
Speaker 2: when I walked into the bathroom, the creepy driver followed
23:49
Speaker 2: me in just a little while after. I don't remember
23:52
Speaker 2: hearing him come in, but maybe I didn't. Just assume
23:55
Speaker 2: someone had either been in the stall next to me
23:57
Speaker 2: and was leaving, or had just come to check their
24:00
Speaker 2: makeup or something. I'll be honest, I wasn't really paying attention.
24:04
Speaker 2: I know for sure. I wasn't aware that anyone had
24:06
Speaker 2: entered the stall next to me because he didn't close
24:09
Speaker 2: the stall door when he came in. She was on
24:12
Speaker 2: her phone, so she didn't see him follow me either.
24:15
Speaker 2: A young guy noticed it and went up to my friend,
24:18
Speaker 2: asking if we knew the driver. Frantic, she told him
24:20
Speaker 2: we did not. I ran to check on me. He
24:23
Speaker 2: was in the stall next to me with the stall
24:25
Speaker 2: door open. It was the large handicapped stall, not making
24:29
Speaker 2: a sound. She came in and didn't see him, so
24:32
Speaker 2: she called my name to make sure I was still alive,
24:35
Speaker 2: and he rushed out of the stall past her. She
24:38
Speaker 2: was in shock and didn't know what to do other
24:40
Speaker 2: than gather our things and prepare to run. When we
24:43
Speaker 2: went to her car, he was sitting in his big
24:45
Speaker 2: black car with tinted windows next to us, still staring.
24:50
Speaker 2: We sped off, and when I got the story, we
24:53
Speaker 2: called the McDonald's to let them know what happened. They
24:55
Speaker 2: didn't really care and then we called the non emergency
24:58
Speaker 2: sheriff line to report it well, which was closed. Thank
25:02
Speaker 2: you Malibu for nothing. Eventually, my mom went full on
25:06
Speaker 2: Mama Bear and threatened to blast it all over social
25:09
Speaker 2: media if they didn't take my report seriously and got
25:12
Speaker 2: hold of someone at corporate. From there, they checked their
25:15
Speaker 2: cameras and they saw the guy follow me in. A
25:18
Speaker 2: police report was made, so hopefully this never happens to
25:21
Speaker 2: anyone else again. Thank god nothing happened, but it was
25:25
Speaker 2: really scary. The guy was sitting in his car staring
25:28
Speaker 2: at us when we left. Who knows what he was
25:31
Speaker 2: planning on doing. So guy in the McDonald's bathroom let's
25:36
Speaker 2: not meet. A family friend who used to be a
25:39
Speaker 2: cop told us this isn't all that uncommon. A lot
25:42
Speaker 2: of the time, they just film the girl in the stall,
25:46
Speaker 2: which is obviously creepy, but not violent. In this case,
25:50
Speaker 2: the red flag is that he didn't close his stall door,
25:53
Speaker 2: and I never saw anything which made us think he
25:56
Speaker 2: was waiting to catch me off guard when I turned
25:58
Speaker 2: to wash my hands. Scary. No matter what, always be
26:03
Speaker 2: aware of your surroundings and trust your gut or in
26:06
Speaker 2: my case, your friend's gut.
26:21
Speaker 1: In our final experience, we hear from Reddit user t
26:26
Speaker 1: Bug four to eleven, and I'm excited to announce new
26:30
Speaker 1: guest narrator, Nina Instead. You may recognize her as the
26:34
Speaker 1: host of the Already Gone podcast. If you haven't already
26:39
Speaker 1: done so, make sure you check it out and subscribe.
26:44
Speaker 1: If you've always thought your hotel room was a safe space,
26:49
Speaker 1: think again.
27:01
Speaker 3: This past Monday, my coworkers and I returned to our
27:04
Speaker 3: hotel from a day of work out in the field.
27:07
Speaker 3: Rebecca and I walked to our rooms and as we
27:09
Speaker 3: stood outside of our rooms, I opened my door and
27:12
Speaker 3: I saw someone in the bathroom. I said, hullo. No
27:17
Speaker 3: one answered. My first instinct was that it was a
27:20
Speaker 3: cleaning lady in there for some reason. Then I saw
27:24
Speaker 3: my bag with my clothing in her hands. I said
27:29
Speaker 3: to my coworker, there's a woman in my room, and
27:33
Speaker 3: then I asked the woman, what are you doing with
27:36
Speaker 3: my stuff? It gets a little fuzzy here because I
27:40
Speaker 3: can't remember everything I said and what she said. But
27:44
Speaker 3: she kept mumbling about how her key still worked, how
27:47
Speaker 3: it still worked, and that's how she got in. I
27:52
Speaker 3: was in shock, and she was obviously very flustered having
27:55
Speaker 3: been caught mid robbery, she dropped my bags and fumbled
27:59
Speaker 3: around with her purse in a white plastic bag. By
28:03
Speaker 3: this time, my coworker was behind me, watching all the
28:05
Speaker 3: insanity unfold. This woman was scrambling and walking toward the door,
28:10
Speaker 3: and I said, what's in the bag, thinking it's probably
28:14
Speaker 3: my stuff? She said, no, no, it's just my things.
28:18
Speaker 3: It's just my things. I'll show you, and so she did.
28:23
Speaker 3: I looked, and I didn't see anything of mine, and
28:26
Speaker 3: so since I'm obviously in shock at this time, I
28:28
Speaker 3: let her leave. I went into my room and it's
28:32
Speaker 3: been ransacked. I did a quick look around to see
28:35
Speaker 3: if anything had been taken. All of my electronics were
28:38
Speaker 3: still there. Then I went into the bathroom and I
28:41
Speaker 3: saw my underwear, my bikini, and my clothing shoved into
28:44
Speaker 3: my own bags randomly. Even my passport was shoved in there.
28:50
Speaker 3: Then I looked on the counter and I saw that
28:52
Speaker 3: she got into my medication. I'm not sure what was
28:56
Speaker 3: going through my hat at the moment, other than I
28:58
Speaker 3: wanted it back, So I ran out the door to
29:01
Speaker 3: go find her. I ran to the laundry room downstairs
29:04
Speaker 3: and out to the sides of the hotel, and I
29:06
Speaker 3: didn't see her. I realized I was never going to
29:09
Speaker 3: find her, so my co worker and I went down
29:12
Speaker 3: to the lobby to tell them what had happened, and
29:14
Speaker 3: then we called the police. We went back up to
29:18
Speaker 3: my room to wait, and I noticed that there is
29:20
Speaker 3: a metal bat on my bed. The bat was a
29:24
Speaker 3: little larger than one of those novelty wooden bats you
29:26
Speaker 3: can get at a baseball game, but there's also a
29:29
Speaker 3: flashlight on the end. She must have left it behind
29:32
Speaker 3: in her rush to leave. She also left behind a
29:36
Speaker 3: necklace that must have fallen out of her bag when
29:38
Speaker 3: she was scrambling with mine. I was freaking out at
29:42
Speaker 3: this point because I thought she'd gotten away with my medication,
29:45
Speaker 3: medication that I need. Then the police arrived and took
29:49
Speaker 3: our statements and looked around the room as well. One
29:53
Speaker 3: thing that I noticed was that there were bits of
29:55
Speaker 3: dry wall in the sink, and I pointed that out
29:57
Speaker 3: to the cops, but none of us really knew where
29:59
Speaker 3: it came from. We started looking at the door and
30:02
Speaker 3: at the windows to see if she pried her way
30:05
Speaker 3: in somehow, but there was nothing. We just kind of
30:09
Speaker 3: went with the idea that she had a spare key
30:11
Speaker 3: or something, even though the hotel's front desk was adamant,
30:15
Speaker 3: there's no way that was possible. The officer that responded
30:19
Speaker 3: to my call brought two more officers in as back
30:22
Speaker 3: up because he thought the woman might still be in
30:24
Speaker 3: the vicinity, but after our statements were taken, there was
30:28
Speaker 3: nothing else they could do, so they left. I sat
30:31
Speaker 3: down to make some calls to tell people what had happened,
30:34
Speaker 3: and as I'm on the phone, I'm thinking about the
30:36
Speaker 3: drywall and the sink, and it still doesn't make sense
30:40
Speaker 3: to me. So I'm on the phone and I'm looking
30:43
Speaker 3: at the drywall, and I'm looking at the mirror on
30:45
Speaker 3: the wall above the drywall, and that's when it hit me.
30:50
Speaker 3: I got my coworker and I asked her to help
30:52
Speaker 3: me pull out the mirror on the wall, and we
30:55
Speaker 3: took the mirror down and there's a hole there, just
30:59
Speaker 3: big enough for a desk sprit junkie to squeeze through.
31:02
Speaker 3: I asked Brian and Rebecca if I should call the
31:04
Speaker 3: cops again to let them know that I found this,
31:07
Speaker 3: and my boss said there's still two cop cars in
31:10
Speaker 3: the parking lot, so I went down to tell them,
31:12
Speaker 3: and the female cop kind of rolled her eyes, but
31:15
Speaker 3: the young guy said, hey, I'll come check it out.
31:19
Speaker 3: They both came back upstairs. They looked in the hole
31:22
Speaker 3: and they found a pillow, blankets, cigarettes, clothing, toothbrushes. This
31:28
Speaker 3: woman had been living in the wall behind my bathroom
31:31
Speaker 3: mirror for god knows how long. She had access to
31:34
Speaker 3: me and to my room at all times. And yeah,
31:38
Speaker 3: I know it might be hard to picture, but there
31:40
Speaker 3: was a crawl space about two feet wide between the
31:42
Speaker 3: two rows of rooms. One of the officers called the
31:46
Speaker 3: original officer to come back so they could take pictures.
31:49
Speaker 3: She explained to him what was going on, and all
31:52
Speaker 3: I hear over the radio is no fucking way. So
31:56
Speaker 3: he comes back, he takes pictures and is just as
31:59
Speaker 3: mind blown as the rest of us. Obviously, we packed
32:02
Speaker 3: up and left that hotel immediately. What's even crazier is
32:08
Speaker 3: that she'd probably been there a long time. The last
32:11
Speaker 3: time we stayed at this hotel, I would randomly smell
32:13
Speaker 3: cigarette smoke and I just assumed someone was smoking in
32:17
Speaker 3: their bathroom and it was traveling through the ventce. But nope,
32:21
Speaker 3: some junkie was smoking just on the other side of
32:24
Speaker 3: my bathroom mirror, and she had access to other rooms too.
32:29
Speaker 3: The holes in the walls they were from a renovation,
32:32
Speaker 3: and the hotel had not properly patched things up. They
32:35
Speaker 3: just covered up the holes with mirrors. Think how long
32:39
Speaker 3: she could have been hanging out in people's rooms when
32:41
Speaker 3: they were gone, or watching them sleep when they didn't
32:45
Speaker 3: know she was there. I'm Nina Instead, host of the
32:49
Speaker 3: Already Gone podcast. I hope you enjoyed this story. Thanks
32:53
Speaker 3: for listening.
33:09
Speaker 1: Before we end this week's show, I'm going to be
33:12
Speaker 1: taking this time each week to read one of your
33:14
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33:20
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33:29
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33:33
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33:38
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33:41
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33:44
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33:49
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33:55
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34:00
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34:08
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34:13
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34:32
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