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Transcript

Policing the Paranormal Dispatch · Bedtime Stories

0:06
Speaker 1: Experience tells us there are certain professions in which people
0:10
Speaker 1: are far more likely to encounter the unexplained than others.
0:14
Speaker 1: As the many accounts featured on our sister channel, Wartime
0:16
Speaker 1: Stories clearly demonstrate, one such group is military personnel. But another,
0:23
Speaker 1: just as frequently, is the world of law enforcement, where
0:27
Speaker 1: officers across the globe have reported experiences that defy logic,
0:31
Speaker 1: reason and training alike. In this episode, we'll be exploring
0:35
Speaker 1: some of those accounts. Cases where those sworn to uphold
0:38
Speaker 1: the law found themselves policing the paranormal. Law enforcement has
1:30
Speaker 1: always occupied a strange position in society, one that sits
1:34
Speaker 1: somewhere between order and chaos, the living and the dead
1:38
Speaker 1: hours of the night. Police officers are, by the nature
1:42
Speaker 1: of their duty, often required to step into situations and
1:45
Speaker 1: spaces that most people would instinctively avoid. abandoned buildings, remote
1:51
Speaker 1: country roads, empty industrial estates and silent residential streets. These
1:57
Speaker 1: are their workplaces, and whilst most of the population sleeps,
2:01
Speaker 1: officers patrol through darkness, quiet and isolation, chasing calls into
2:06
Speaker 1: the forgotten corners of the world. Their role demands that
2:10
Speaker 1: they enter without hesitation the very environments that heighten human vulnerability.
2:16
Speaker 1: When a light flickers in an empty factory, When a
2:19
Speaker 1: noise is reported in a derelict home, when a figure
2:22
Speaker 1: is seen lingering by the roadside at three in the morning,
2:26
Speaker 1: it is the police who go to investigate. They do
2:30
Speaker 1: so not because they want to, but because duty dictates
2:34
Speaker 1: they must. And in those quiet, unguarded hours, the normal
2:39
Speaker 1: rules of reality can seem to fray. Anyone who has
2:43
Speaker 1: worked a night shift will tell you that the world
2:46
Speaker 1: feels different after midnight. Familiar places take on an eerie stillness.
2:52
Speaker 1: Streets that are bustling by day become hollow and unreal.
2:56
Speaker 1: Sound carries differently. Shapes at the edge of vision seem
3:01
Speaker 1: to move. For police officers, that atmosphere is not an
3:05
Speaker 1: occasional experience. It is routine. They live their professional lives
3:11
Speaker 1: in the threshold between safety and danger, light and dark,
3:16
Speaker 1: the seen and the unseen. The psychological strain of that
3:20
Speaker 1: environment is difficult to quantify. Officers are trained to rationalize
3:25
Speaker 1: what they see, to measure, to record, to verify. But
3:30
Speaker 1: there are occasions when even the most disciplined mind cannot
3:33
Speaker 1: find a rational explanation for what it has witnessed. Over
3:38
Speaker 1: the years, police forces around the world have quietly accumulated
3:41
Speaker 1: stories of encounters that defy reason. Apparitions glimpsed in rearview mirrors,
3:48
Speaker 1: footsteps echoing through deserted corridors disembodied voices over the radio
3:54
Speaker 1: many such reports never make it into official documentation they
3:58
Speaker 1: circulate instead by word of mouth shared between officers in
4:03
Speaker 1: quiet moments not as jokes but as uneasy confessions perhaps
4:09
Speaker 1: what makes these stories so compelling is the credibility of
4:13
Speaker 1: the witnesses themselves Police officers are, by training and temperament,
4:18
Speaker 1: practical people. Their job depends on assessing evidence and dismissing falsehood.
4:24
Speaker 1: They are not easily fooled, nor prone to hysteria. When
4:28
Speaker 1: they admit to seeing something they cannot explain, it carries
4:31
Speaker 1: a weight that few other professions can match. Skeptics will
4:36
Speaker 1: argue that long shifts, sleep deprivation and stress can distort perception.
4:41
Speaker 1: And there is truth in that. The night does strange
4:45
Speaker 1: things to the mind. But to those who have had
4:47
Speaker 1: their own unexplainable experiences on duty, such reasoning provides little comfort.
4:54
Speaker 1: They know what they saw. Law enforcement officers are, in
4:59
Speaker 1: many ways, the gatekeepers of the unknown. They are the
5:03
Speaker 1: ones who enter the scene first, often alone, before the journalists,
5:07
Speaker 1: the paramedics, or the daylight. And it is in those
5:12
Speaker 1: quiet early hours, in the margins of routine patrols and
5:15
Speaker 1: emergency calls, that strange things are most often said to occur.
5:21
Speaker 1: The stories that follow were either sent into bedtime stories
5:24
Speaker 1: by former and serving members of the police force or
5:27
Speaker 1: have been sourced from other reports. Each account reflects a
5:31
Speaker 1: moment when the rational world briefly gave way to something else.
5:36
Speaker 1: Something that even the most seasoned of officers could neither
5:38
Speaker 1: predict nor nor explain. In the early hours of a
5:45
Speaker 1: February morning in 2003, Chicago emergency dispatcher Trudy Wakelin received
5:51
Speaker 1: a call that would remain with her for the rest
5:53
Speaker 1: of her career. It was shortly after 1am, a time
5:58
Speaker 1: when emergency lines were still active with routine calls, noise complaints,
6:02
Speaker 1: disturbances and minor domestic incidents when a new call came
6:06
Speaker 1: through the system. The caller was identified as a 14-year-old
6:11
Speaker 1: girl named Emily, who lived in a quiet suburban neighbourhood
6:14
Speaker 1: on the western edge of the city. She reported that
6:18
Speaker 1: she was home alone and could hear someone moving around
6:20
Speaker 1: inside her house. Wakeland followed protocol, immediately dispatching a patrol
6:26
Speaker 1: car to the address whilst keeping the line open to
6:28
Speaker 1: reassure the caller. The girl stated that she had taken
6:32
Speaker 1: refuge inside a bedroom closet and was using her mobile
6:36
Speaker 1: phone to make the call. At first, the noises she
6:41
Speaker 1: described seemed distant. Faint creaks, doors opening and closing, the
6:46
Speaker 1: sound of movement on the lower floor. But over the
6:50
Speaker 1: next few minutes, the intruder appeared to move upstairs. The
6:54
Speaker 1: dispatcher could hear the faint thuds and scraping sounds in
6:57
Speaker 1: the background growing steadily louder. The girl reported that drawers
7:02
Speaker 1: were being opened and slammed shut, and that the noises
7:05
Speaker 1: were now coming from directly outside her room. She told
7:10
Speaker 1: the dispatcher she could hear someone moving about as though
7:13
Speaker 1: searching for something, knocking items from tables and shelves. The
7:18
Speaker 1: dispatcher reassured her that police units were en route and
7:21
Speaker 1: instructed her to remain silent and stay hidden. Seconds later,
7:27
Speaker 1: there was a sudden increase in background noise. The sounds
7:31
Speaker 1: were sharp and chaotic, a series of heavy bangs followed
7:35
Speaker 1: by a long pause. the girl whispered that the intruder
7:40
Speaker 1: was now inside her bedroom. Moments later came the sound
7:45
Speaker 1: of a brief scuffle, and what investigators later described as
7:49
Speaker 1: a high-pitched distortion of unknown origin on the recording. Then
7:55
Speaker 1: came the final words the dispatcher would hear from Emily.
8:00
Speaker 1: His feet aren't touching the floor. After that there was
8:05
Speaker 1: a sharp burst of static, followed by a cacophony of
8:09
Speaker 1: noise that sounded like rushing wind, before the line abruptly
8:13
Speaker 1: went dead. Police arrived less than two minutes later, having
8:17
Speaker 1: not witnessed anyone leaving the scene. The house appeared to
8:21
Speaker 1: have been ransacked, with drawers emptied and furniture overturned. The
8:26
Speaker 1: girl's mobile phone was discovered on the floor inside the closet,
8:29
Speaker 1: still connected to the dispatcher's line. There was no blood,
8:34
Speaker 1: no fingerprints, and no evidence of a forced entry. The
8:39
Speaker 1: family's valuables remained untouched, and nothing appeared to have been stolen. Emily, however,
8:46
Speaker 1: was never found. The next account comes from Poland, and
8:54
Speaker 1: was reported by a serving member of the ambulance service.
8:58
Speaker 1: On the night of December 31st, 2022, Officers were dispatched
9:03
Speaker 1: to a small village located several kilometres outside the city
9:06
Speaker 1: of Bidgosh, following a report from a concerned neighbour. The
9:11
Speaker 1: caller claimed to have heard what they described as animalistic
9:14
Speaker 1: growling and inhuman screams, coming from an abandoned farmhouse on
9:18
Speaker 1: the edge of the settlement. When the officers arrived, they
9:22
Speaker 1: were surprised to find another emergency unit already at the scene,
9:26
Speaker 1: a paramedic crew who had been requested by two men
9:29
Speaker 1: waiting outside the property. Both men appeared shaken and informed
9:35
Speaker 1: police that a woman who had accompanied them inside had
9:38
Speaker 1: suddenly begun behaving in an erratic and violent manner. The
9:43
Speaker 1: three of them, it later transpired, had entered the abandoned
9:47
Speaker 1: residence earlier that evening to conduct a seance using a
9:50
Speaker 1: Ouija board. What had begun as a bit of New
9:53
Speaker 1: Year's Eve fun had quickly descended into something far more disturbing.
10:00
Speaker 1: The property itself already carried a dark reputation amongst locals.
10:05
Speaker 1: Decades earlier, it had belonged to a family suspected of
10:08
Speaker 1: cannibalism and ritualistic murder during the post-war period. The house
10:13
Speaker 1: had been empty ever since, and villagers tended to avoid it.
10:19
Speaker 1: According to the witnesses, their friend Kamilka had appeared perfectly
10:23
Speaker 1: normal at first, laughing and joking as the board was
10:26
Speaker 1: set up on the floor of the living room. But
10:29
Speaker 1: as the session continued, her behaviour changed. She stopped responding
10:35
Speaker 1: to them and began growling softly under her breath. Within
10:40
Speaker 1: minutes she was screaming, thrashing and hissing at the others.
10:46
Speaker 1: When police and paramedics attempted to approach her, she reacted violently,
10:51
Speaker 1: throwing items across the room and producing deep, guttural noises
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Speaker 1: that several witnesses later compared to those of a wild animal.
11:19
Speaker 1: Holy shit!
11:19
Speaker 2: Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!
12:09
Speaker 1: The short clip, recorded by one of the paramedics, shows
12:12
Speaker 1: officers standing in the doorway whilst the woman moves erratically
12:16
Speaker 1: inside the room. She continues to emit inhuman sounds while
12:20
Speaker 1: striking nearby furniture. Eventually, the officers managed to restrain her
12:26
Speaker 1: with assistance from medical staff. She was transported to a
12:30
Speaker 1: nearby hospital, where she remained under observation for several hours.
12:35
Speaker 1: Toxicology tests later confirmed that there were no traces of
12:38
Speaker 1: drugs or alcohol in her system. Following a psychiatric evaluation,
12:44
Speaker 1: Kamilka was declared mentally stable and released. Her friends insisted
12:49
Speaker 1: that it was not in her nature to act this way,
12:52
Speaker 1: or even play pranks like this, and they were baffled
12:55
Speaker 1: by her actions. She reportedly had no memory of the
12:59
Speaker 1: incident or of her behaviour inside the house. The following morning,
13:05
Speaker 1: police sealed off the property once again. The official report
13:09
Speaker 1: lists the event as a psychotic episode of unknown origin. Unofficially,
13:15
Speaker 1: the attending officers maintain that what they saw and what
13:19
Speaker 1: they heard was not human at all. In the late
13:26
Speaker 1: hours of a warm summer evening in 2019, Sean McCorry,
13:31
Speaker 1: a serving police officer in the suburbs of Oakland, California,
13:35
Speaker 1: responded to one of the most unsettling calls of his career.
13:40
Speaker 1: Although not paranormal as such, it is a stark reminder
13:43
Speaker 1: of how normality can quickly unravel. At 9.47pm, a 911
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Speaker 1: dispatcher received a call from a trembling voice. A young boy,
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Speaker 1: only six years old, claiming there was a zombie outside
14:00
Speaker 1: his house. He wasn't alone. His twin sister could be
14:05
Speaker 1: heard quietly crying somewhere nearby. Their mother, a single parent,
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Speaker 1: had gone to the grocery store less than ten minutes earlier,
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Speaker 1: leaving the children home together. The boy said the creature
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Speaker 1: had first appeared at the kitchen window and was now
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Speaker 1: walking around in the street. The dispatcher tried to calm
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Speaker 1: the frightened child whilst relaying the information to patrol units
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Speaker 1: in the area. Calls from children describing monsters or intruders
14:35
Speaker 1: were common, but the urgency in his tone was impossible
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Speaker 1: to ignore. Procedure dictated that any threat to child safety
14:43
Speaker 1: had to be treated seriously. so McCrory and his partner
14:47
Speaker 1: were dispatched to the scene. The address lay within a
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Speaker 1: quiet residential cul-de-sac, rows of idyllic family homes set back
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Speaker 1: from the road, the kind of neighbourhood where nothing dramatic
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Speaker 1: usually happened. As their cruiser turned the corner, the headlights
15:05
Speaker 1: swept across the asphalt. At first, the street looked empty. Then,
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Speaker 1: out of the darkness, a lone figure stumbled into view,
15:16
Speaker 1: It moved unsteadily, arms extended, head lolling from side to side.
15:23
Speaker 1: Its gait was uneven, almost puppet-like, and its hands seemed
15:28
Speaker 1: to be groping at the air. McCrory slowed the car,
15:32
Speaker 1: uncertain whether he was looking at an injured man or
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Speaker 1: someone under the influence. But, as the lights fell fully
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Speaker 1: upon him, the truth became disturbingly apparent. The man's face
15:50
Speaker 1: was streaked with blood, his eyelids were missing, leaving two
15:54
Speaker 1: gaping sockets that oozed and glistened in the glow of
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Speaker 1: the headlights. His bare chest was smeared with dirt, and
16:02
Speaker 1: his mouth twitched as he muttered incoherently. He appeared completely blind,
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Speaker 1: shuffling forwards with his palms outstretched, occasionally brushing against parked
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Speaker 1: cars for guidance. The officers stepped out cautiously. When McCrory
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Speaker 1: called out, the man turned towards the sound with a guttural,
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Speaker 1: animalistic scream, wildly flailing his arms around. His fingertips were shredded,
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Speaker 1: nails torn down to the flesh. He resisted violently before
16:34
Speaker 1: collapsing to his knees, mumbling disjointed phrases about strange voices,
16:39
Speaker 1: bright lights and insects scratching at the inside of his head.
16:45
Speaker 1: the patrol subdued him using non-lethal force until paramedics arrived.
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Speaker 1: Even whilst restrained, the man thrashed against the pavement, bleeding
16:55
Speaker 1: heavily from his eyes. It was later confirmed that he
16:59
Speaker 1: had been high on methamphetamine, and had used a spoon
17:03
Speaker 1: to gouge out his own eyes during a psychotic episode.
17:08
Speaker 1: When McCrory returned to the house, he found the boy
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Speaker 1: and his sister being comforted by a neighbour, The mother
17:15
Speaker 1: had arrived minutes earlier, horrified to discover emergency vehicles lining
17:19
Speaker 1: her street. Both children were shaken but unharmed. The man,
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Speaker 1: whose identity was withheld, survived and was committed to psychiatric care.
17:32
Speaker 1: The official report classified the event as drug-induced self-mutilation, but
17:38
Speaker 1: for the officers and dispatchers who witnessed it, the memory
17:42
Speaker 1: remained unnervingly literal. The boy had told them a zombie
17:47
Speaker 1: was outside, and in its own grotesque way, he had
17:51
Speaker 1: been telling the truth. Route 210 in Pender County, North Carolina,
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Speaker 1: cuts through a quiet stretch of farmland, pine forest and
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Speaker 1: marshland on its way towards the coast. It's a lonely
18:07
Speaker 1: road at the best of times, particularly after dark, when
18:11
Speaker 1: the trees seem to lean inward, and the night air
18:13
Speaker 1: grows thick with humidity. But for locals, it is known
18:18
Speaker 1: for more than its remoteness. The highway passes a small
18:23
Speaker 1: historical site known as Patriot's Watch, a preserved section of
18:27
Speaker 1: Revolutionary War battlefield where hundreds of soldiers on both sides
18:31
Speaker 1: of the conflict lost their lives in the late 1700s.
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Speaker 1: The site attracts a modest number of tourists by day,
18:39
Speaker 1: but by night it has become the subject of enduring folklore.
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Speaker 1: Drivers travelling along Route 210 after sunset frequently report seeing
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Speaker 1: ghostly figures standing near the roadside, some dressed in tattered
18:52
Speaker 1: colonial uniforms, others barely visible except for the faint glint
18:56
Speaker 1: of metal buttons or a musket barrel catching the light
18:59
Speaker 1: of passing headlights. A few have even claimed that one
19:03
Speaker 1: of these apparitions bears obvious signs of mortal injuries. its
19:07
Speaker 1: bloodied uniform torn open to reveal a horrific wound to
19:11
Speaker 1: the chest or neck. The local sheriff's department has long
19:16
Speaker 1: dismissed such stories as imagination and coincidence, the tricks of
19:20
Speaker 1: headlights on mist or the reflections of nearby signage. But
19:25
Speaker 1: one particular incident, which took place in the early hours
19:28
Speaker 1: of the 31st of July 2022, has continued to puzzle
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Speaker 1: investigators and terrify those who have heard the recordings. At 2.15am,
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Speaker 1: an anonymous male driver was travelling alone along Route 210,
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Speaker 1: heading eastbound towards the town of Rocky Point. He had
19:51
Speaker 1: just crossed the narrow bridge over the Black River, a
19:54
Speaker 1: meandering stretch of water that cuts through the swampland south
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Speaker 1: of Patriot's Watch. As he approached a long bend in
20:02
Speaker 1: the road, his headlights illuminated a figure standing on the
20:05
Speaker 1: shoulder ahead. At first he assumed it was a pedestrian,
20:10
Speaker 1: perhaps someone injured or a stranded motorist in need of help. But,
20:16
Speaker 1: as he drew closer, the details came into sharper focus.
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Speaker 1: The person appeared to be male and was covered from
20:25
Speaker 1: head to toe in what looked like blood. His clothes
20:29
Speaker 1: were in tatters, clinging to him as though soaked through,
20:33
Speaker 1: and his posture was unnervingly still, head slightly bowed, arms
20:38
Speaker 1: limp at his sides. Alarmed, the driver passed by, peering
20:43
Speaker 1: through the passenger side window as he did so. The
20:47
Speaker 1: figure never moved. Instead, it seemed to watch him, its
20:51
Speaker 1: eyes unfocused, its mouth slightly open as if mid-breath. Convinced
20:58
Speaker 1: that he'd just come across the aftermath of some terrible accident,
21:01
Speaker 1: the driver continued on his way and dialed 911 to
21:05
Speaker 1: report what he'd seen. The dispatcher who answered the call
21:09
Speaker 1: later described the man's tone as concerned but coherent. The
21:14
Speaker 1: caller explained that he had just crossed the Black River
21:17
Speaker 1: and had seen someone injured on the roadside, possibly a
21:20
Speaker 1: crash victim. He estimated the person was about a mile
21:25
Speaker 1: west of Patriot's Watch and might be in need of
21:28
Speaker 1: immediate medical assistance.
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Speaker 2: Kinder County 911, what's the address of your emergency? I'm
21:48
Speaker 2: driving on 210. I just crossed the Black River, and
21:51
Speaker 2: I thought I saw a guy standing on the side
21:54
Speaker 2: of the road bleeding. Okay.
21:58
Speaker 1: Where are you at, sir?
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Speaker 2: I'm on 210. I just crossed the Black River. I'm
22:04
Speaker 2: heading towards 53E. I just passed Patriot's Watch. Okay, so
22:12
Speaker 2: you're over near Morse Creek? Yes.
22:17
Speaker 1: Okay.
22:20
Speaker 2: And did you, you saw a man standing on the
22:22
Speaker 2: side of the road? What the?
22:26
Speaker 1: What was that, sir?
22:28
Speaker 2: That's not human!
22:30
Speaker 1: That's not human!
22:33
Speaker 2: Sir, are you okay, sir? There's something in.
22:37
Speaker 1: The back of my truck!
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Speaker 2: Okay, what's in the road? No, it's not in the road,
22:41
Speaker 2: it's in my truck, in the bed. There's something in
22:44
Speaker 2: the bed of your truck? Yes, ma'am, I just turned
22:46
Speaker 2: on my bed light for my truck and there's something
22:49
Speaker 2: in my bed. Okay, sir, when you say something, what
22:52
Speaker 2: do you mean? I just knocked it off of the
22:56
Speaker 2: bed of my truck and went over my roof.
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Speaker 1: Okay, what was it? According to the subsequent investigation, deputies
23:05
Speaker 1: arrived on scene roughly 20 minutes afterwards. They found no
23:09
Speaker 1: trace of an injured person, only skid marks along the
23:12
Speaker 1: shoulder and fragments of broken glass scattered on the tarmac.
23:16
Speaker 1: The driver was later located at a fuel station several
23:20
Speaker 1: miles away, visibly shaken. He told officers that shortly after
23:25
Speaker 1: making the call, something had leapt from the roadside directly
23:29
Speaker 1: into the open bed of his pickup truck. At first
23:32
Speaker 1: he assumed it was an animal, perhaps a deer or
23:35
Speaker 1: a coyote. but when he looked in the rearview mirror,
23:39
Speaker 1: he realised whatever it was had stood upright. He described
23:44
Speaker 1: it as spindly, with long limbs and pale, almost luminescent skin.
23:50
Speaker 1: Its face, he said, looked almost blank, like a person
23:53
Speaker 1: who had stretched a sheet of white elastic over their face.
23:58
Speaker 1: It was hairless, featureless except for shallow impressions where the
24:01
Speaker 1: eyes and mouth should have been. The driver claimed that,
24:06
Speaker 1: as he watched in disbelief, the thing pressed its face
24:09
Speaker 1: against the rear window of the cab, peering in at
24:12
Speaker 1: him with a strange, deliberate curiosity. When it realised he
24:16
Speaker 1: could see it, it began pounding on the roof with
24:19
Speaker 1: alarming force, the sound echoing through the cabin. Panicked, he
24:25
Speaker 1: accelerated to over 60mph, hoping the airflow would knock it loose.
24:31
Speaker 1: When that didn't work, he slammed on his brakes. The
24:36
Speaker 1: sudden deceleration threw the figure forwards into the road. He
24:40
Speaker 1: saw it land in the pool of his headlights, a
24:42
Speaker 1: blur of limbs and white skin, before it scrambled upright
24:46
Speaker 1: and bolted towards the treeline, vanishing into the darkness of
24:50
Speaker 1: the forest. Deputies who examined the truck found several dents
24:56
Speaker 1: along the roof and tailgate, consistent with heavy impacts, but
25:00
Speaker 1: no trace of blood, hair or prints of any kind.
25:04
Speaker 1: The caller refused to have his name released publicly, but
25:08
Speaker 1: he told investigators that he had no history of drug use,
25:11
Speaker 1: mental illness or sleep deprivation, and insisted that what he
25:15
Speaker 1: had seen was real. In the weeks that followed, a
25:19
Speaker 1: handful of other motorists claimed to have experienced similar sightings
25:23
Speaker 1: along the same stretch of Route 210. Pale shapes moving
25:27
Speaker 1: at the roadside or the sensation of something running alongside
25:30
Speaker 1: their vehicles before vanishing. None, however, have been verified. The
25:37
Speaker 1: official report filed by the Pender County Sheriff's Office lists
25:41
Speaker 1: the event as a disturbance call, unfounded. Some commentators believe
25:46
Speaker 1: it to be the restless spirit of a revolutionary war soldier,
25:50
Speaker 1: mutilated in battle and condemned to wonder the root of
25:53
Speaker 1: his death. Others are convinced it is something far older,
25:58
Speaker 1: an apparition born of the swampland itself, feeding off the
26:01
Speaker 1: fear of those who pass through after dark. Whatever the truth,
26:07
Speaker 1: one thing is certain. On the 31st of July 2022,
26:10
Speaker 1: a man driving through rural North Carolina placed a terrified
26:16
Speaker 1: call to emergency services, claiming that something inhuman had entered
26:20
Speaker 1: his truck. And whatever that something was, no one has
26:26
Speaker 1: ever found it. Of all the accounts featured in this episode,
26:33
Speaker 1: Each carries its own set of unanswered questions, and, inevitably,
26:38
Speaker 1: a number of possible explanations. Some cases lend themselves easily
26:44
Speaker 1: to logic, whilst others resist it entirely. The first account
26:49
Speaker 1: concerning the 911 call received by dispatcher Trudy Wakeland remains
26:54
Speaker 1: one of the most debated. Trudy, a respected and long-serving
26:59
Speaker 1: dispatcher in the Chicago area, has always stood by her story.
27:04
Speaker 1: She maintains that the call took place exactly as she described,
27:08
Speaker 1: a frightened teenage girl whispering from a closet, the sounds
27:12
Speaker 1: of someone or something moving through the house, and that
27:16
Speaker 1: chilling final line before the connection went dead. The difficulty, however,
27:22
Speaker 1: lies in the lack of verifiable evidence. Trudy was never
27:27
Speaker 1: given permission by her superiors to retain or release the
27:30
Speaker 1: audio recording, citing department policy regarding active investigations. Without that record,
27:38
Speaker 1: there's no official trace of the call in the public domain.
27:42
Speaker 1: Some have argued that this opens the door to scepticism,
27:45
Speaker 1: that perhaps the story has grown over the years, passed
27:48
Speaker 1: along and embellished by others until fact and fiction blurred. Yet,
27:54
Speaker 1: it would be unfair to accuse Trudy herself of fabrication
27:58
Speaker 1: as she came across as entirely genuine when recounting her story.
28:03
Speaker 1: The case of Kamilka, the Polish woman allegedly possessed by
28:07
Speaker 1: a violent spirit, presents a different challenge. On the surface,
28:12
Speaker 1: it could be dismissed as a case of performative hysteria
28:16
Speaker 1: or an attention-seeking act. a claim supported by those who
28:20
Speaker 1: suggest she may have been under the influence of drugs
28:23
Speaker 1: or alcohol. Yet, toxicology screens return negative results, and multiple witnesses,
28:30
Speaker 1: including her two companions and a responding paramedic, reported behaviour
28:34
Speaker 1: that seemed far beyond conscious control. Her friends, who knew
28:39
Speaker 1: her well, are adamant that she was not the sort
28:42
Speaker 1: of person to stage such an event. They described her
28:46
Speaker 1: as shy, private... and easily embarrassed, hardly the type to
28:50
Speaker 1: throw herself into the spotlight, let alone in such a
28:53
Speaker 1: disturbing way and in front of police officers. If she
28:58
Speaker 1: truly wasn't acting, then the incident raises uncomfortable questions about
29:03
Speaker 1: temporary possession or dissociative trance states, phenomena recorded in numerous
29:08
Speaker 1: cultures but poorly understood in modern psychiatry. Whatever the cause,
29:15
Speaker 1: Kamilka herself has no recollection of the episode, and subsequent
29:19
Speaker 1: psychological evaluations found her entirely sound of mind. Then there
29:25
Speaker 1: is the Pender County incident, the anonymous man who claimed
29:29
Speaker 1: to have encountered a blood-covered figure near Patriot's Watch, and
29:32
Speaker 1: later reported something in the bed of his truck. On paper,
29:37
Speaker 1: the simplest explanation would be a hoax called. False emergency
29:41
Speaker 1: reports are far from rare, particularly in the era of
29:45
Speaker 1: viral storytelling. A convincing 911 call could easily be staged
29:50
Speaker 1: to attract attention or create an urban legend. But in
29:54
Speaker 1: this case, the responding officers found the driver in a
29:57
Speaker 1: state of extreme distress. and photographs reportedly showed claw-like marks
30:02
Speaker 1: along the paintwork of his pickup. Forensic examination was inconclusive.
30:08
Speaker 1: No blood, no prints, just damage consistent with something physically
30:13
Speaker 1: gripping the vehicle's exterior. Skeptics point to wildlife, perhaps a
30:19
Speaker 1: large bird or stray animal startled by the vehicle. But
30:23
Speaker 1: the driver's description of a pale, humanoid shape with featureless
30:27
Speaker 1: skin has no obvious parallel in local fauna. Could it
30:32
Speaker 1: have been a prank, a figure in costume, or even
30:35
Speaker 1: the driver's imagination amplified by fatigue and fear? Possibly, yet
30:41
Speaker 1: the audio recording of his call suggests genuine terror, a
30:45
Speaker 1: man reacting in real time to something he truly believed
30:48
Speaker 1: was happening. Plus, someone being thrown from a speeding vehicle
30:53
Speaker 1: would likely have resulted in serious injury. When it comes
30:58
Speaker 1: to cases like these, the explanations often sit uneasily between
31:02
Speaker 1: the rational and the inexplicable. Some people see what they
31:06
Speaker 1: expect to see, and fear has a way of shaping perception.
31:11
Speaker 1: But it's equally true that the world produces experiences that
31:14
Speaker 1: don't fit neatly into any category, events that leave even
31:19
Speaker 1: the most sceptical observers questioning what they know. Perhaps in
31:24
Speaker 1: trying so hard to explain the unexplained, we risk missing
31:28
Speaker 1: the deeper pattern. That the unknown still walks beside us,
31:33
Speaker 1: whether through malfunctioning phone lines, abandoned houses, or dark country roads.
31:39
Speaker 1: And whilst each of these stories can be rationalised to
31:42
Speaker 1: some degree, there remains that small part of the human
31:45
Speaker 1: mind that is reluctant to dismiss them completely. Because sometimes,
31:51
Speaker 1: when the lights are out and the world falls silent,
31:55
Speaker 1: logic feels like the least convincing answer of all.
32:34
Speaker 2: So so Thank you. Thank you.