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This-story-will-save-your-life · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today's story is a stark reminder as to why you
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Speaker 1: should always read the fine print. But before we get
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Speaker 1: into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange,
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Speaker 1: dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come
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Speaker 1: don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get
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Speaker 1: into today's story. On the morning of August seventh, nineteen
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Speaker 1: eighty one, a thirty four year old wildlife photographer named
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Speaker 1: Karl McCunn stood on the edge of a lake in
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Speaker 1: the Alaskan Wilderness and chucked a box of ammunition into
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Speaker 1: the water. Bush it made was surprisingly loud in the
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Speaker 1: total silence that surrounded him. Carl was on the last
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Speaker 1: day of a five month long solo camping trip in
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Speaker 1: a very remote area of northern Alaska that was actually
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Speaker 1: inside the Arctic Circle. A plane had dropped him off
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Speaker 1: here in early spring, and he had set up his
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Speaker 1: tent by this lake, which was surrounded on all sides
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Speaker 1: by forest and huge snowy mountains. And during this five
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Speaker 1: month trip Carl had not seen or spoken to another
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Speaker 1: person the entire time. There were no phones, no roads,
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Speaker 1: no rangers, no people around for at least one hundred miles.
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Speaker 1: I mean, this is true isolation. Carl looked up into
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Speaker 1: the sky and listened carefully for the low roar of
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Speaker 1: the plane that was supposed to pick him up today.
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Speaker 1: But as he listened, he couldn't hear anything. But this
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Speaker 1: didn't worry Carl because he actually had only arranged for
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Speaker 1: his pickup date, not the pickup time. So it was
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Speaker 1: just at some point on this day he was going
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Speaker 1: to get picked up. He didn't know exactly when, and
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Speaker 1: so as he anxiously waited, he just kind of puttered
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Speaker 1: around his campsite and continued to pack up things. And
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Speaker 1: as Carl did this, he remembered that the type of
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Speaker 1: plane that was going to be picking him up today
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Speaker 1: it was his buddy Rory's plane. It was really small,
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Speaker 1: and there was a chance that he couldn't actually fit
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Speaker 1: all of his belongings on the plane, and so in
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Speaker 1: anticipation of this, he had identified that he didn't need
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Speaker 1: all of his ammo, and so that's why he was
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Speaker 1: chucking his ammo into the lake, basically in preparation for pickup.
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Speaker 1: Just then, a breeze kicked up, and so Carl zipped
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Speaker 1: his parka up to his chin. This was actually the
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Speaker 1: so called warm season in the Arctic Circle, but warm
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Speaker 1: in the Arctic Circle meant still near freezing temperatures at night.
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Speaker 1: And as much as Carl loved being out in the
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Speaker 1: wilderness doing these solo camping trips out in the middle
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Speaker 1: of nowhere, he really was excited to get back to
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Speaker 1: his home in Anchorage, Alaska and see his friends and
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Speaker 1: call his dad and be in a nice, warm house
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Speaker 1: for once. Carl was about to chuck his sixth and
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Speaker 1: final box of ammunition into the lake when he heard
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Speaker 1: the loud sound of a wolf howling on the other
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Speaker 1: side of the lake, and it made him stop for
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Speaker 1: a second, and he decided that, you know what, maybe
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Speaker 1: until the plane gets here, I'll hold on to at
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Speaker 1: least one box of ammunition. So he stuck this final
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Speaker 1: box into his bag, he picked it up, and then
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Speaker 1: he walked along the shoreline up to where he had
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Speaker 1: rigged a net to catch some fish, and when he
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Speaker 1: got to the net, he saw he had caught two trout,
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Speaker 1: and so he scooped the fish out. He went back
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Speaker 1: to his campsite. He made a fire, cooked the fish,
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Speaker 1: and as he sat down to eat them, he just
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Speaker 1: kept looking up to the sky and listening, hoping for
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Speaker 1: this plane to arrive soon. When he was done eating,
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Speaker 1: Karl made a quick entry into his diary, kind of
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Speaker 1: detailing the last day at camp, and then he finished
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Speaker 1: packing up all his stuff and he brought it all
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Speaker 1: down to the waterline ready to be picked up, and
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Speaker 1: then he sat on his trunk again, just kind of
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Speaker 1: waiting for his friend to show up. And by this
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Speaker 1: time it was about mid afternoon and still no sign
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Speaker 1: of the plane. But nonetheless Karl sat there kind of
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Speaker 1: taking in the scene, this beautiful lake in nature. I mean,
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Speaker 1: this is the last time he's going to be here,
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Speaker 1: and so he's trying to appreciate it. After all, this
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Speaker 1: had been a really successful photography trip. He had shot
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Speaker 1: five hundred rolls of film that he knew he could
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Speaker 1: sell and that would make enough money that he'd be
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Speaker 1: able to do this again. The following year, and so
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Speaker 1: as Carl sat there, taken in the scene and daydreaming
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Speaker 1: about next year's trip, he noticed the sun was beginning
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Speaker 1: to set. And when he noticed this, this was kind
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Speaker 1: of like the first time that Carl actually became worried.
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Speaker 1: This far north, the sun stayed out for nearly twenty
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Speaker 1: hours a day in the summer, and so if the
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Speaker 1: sun was setting right now, that meant it had to
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Speaker 1: be near midnight. And so his friend Rory, who was
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Speaker 1: supposed to pick him up today at some point today, Well,
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Speaker 1: now that we've hit midnight, Carl knew his friend had
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Speaker 1: officially missed the date, and Carl had no way of
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Speaker 1: contacting him to see what had happened or when he
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Speaker 1: would be here. And so as dusk fell and still
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Speaker 1: there was no sign of Rory, Carl continued to get
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Speaker 1: more and more anxious, and finally he had to reset
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Speaker 1: up his tent and he crawled inside, got in a
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Speaker 1: sleeping bag, and went to sleep, praying that his friend
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Speaker 1: would be there the next day. The next day, Carl
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Speaker 1: got up early and packed up stuff and waited by
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Speaker 1: the shoreline for his friend. But all day he waited
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Speaker 1: and the plane still never came, Carl tried to convince
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Speaker 1: himself that, you know, maybe his friend got mixed up
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Speaker 1: on the dates, or you know, maybe something came up
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Speaker 1: that's delayed him a couple of days, but he'll be here.
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Speaker 1: But then another day came and went, and then another
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Speaker 1: and still no plane. And it was around this time
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Speaker 1: that Carl remembered something that made him feel sick to
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Speaker 1: his stomach. On the night six months earlier when he
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Speaker 1: and Rory had discussed pickup plans, Carl remembered that night
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Speaker 1: had been filled with drinking. I mean, these guys were
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Speaker 1: just laughing and having a good time, and at some point,
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Speaker 1: as the beers were flowing, Carl had asked Rory, Hey,
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Speaker 1: can you pick me up on August seventh, at the
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Speaker 1: end of my trip? And Rory had said, yeah, I
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Speaker 1: can probably do that. But Rory had also said that
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Speaker 1: he would have to check his schedule first before he
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Speaker 1: could one hundred percent commit to this, and Carl, in
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Speaker 1: his excitement about going on this trip and get ready
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Speaker 1: for it and all that, had just forgotten to follow
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Speaker 1: up with Rory and make absolutely sure he could pick
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Speaker 1: him up. And so now Carl was realizing that Rory
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Speaker 1: wasn't delayed or mixed up about the dates. Rory wasn't coming,
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Speaker 1: and Carl knew there was zero chance of another plane
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Speaker 1: just happening to fly over the area and that plane
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Speaker 1: picking him up. I mean, for the entire summer Carl
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Speaker 1: had been out here, he had literally not seen any planes.
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Speaker 1: His best hope was that his dad or maybe one
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Speaker 1: of his friends would report him missing, but he knew
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Speaker 1: that was unlikely and it actually was his own doing.
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Speaker 1: Carl traveled constantly and almost never told people where he
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Speaker 1: was going or when he'd be back. And on one
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Speaker 1: trip recently, Carl had gone out and missed his return
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Speaker 1: date and his dad had been concerned about him and
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Speaker 1: so called the police. And when Carl had come back
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Speaker 1: and realized what his dad did, he told his dad
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Speaker 1: to never do that again. Never contact authorities. If I'm late,
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Speaker 1: I'm fine. And all of this meant now Carl was
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Speaker 1: going to face a brutal elastin winter, all by himself,
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Speaker 1: with limited supplies and only a single box of ammunition. Hey,
7:02
Speaker 1: it's mister Ballin here, and I am so excited to
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Speaker 1: tell you all about a brand new podcast from Ballin
7:07
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7:13
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7:42
Speaker 1: of your seat. Stories like the mind bending truth behind
7:46
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7:50
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7:54
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8:01
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8:08
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8:14
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8:18
Speaker 1: the Wondery app or on Spotify. A few weeks later,
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Speaker 1: at the end of August, Carl was still stuck out
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Speaker 1: in the Alaskan wilderness. By now, Carl had fully accepted
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Speaker 1: that Rory was not going to come pick him up,
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Speaker 1: and Carl was doing his best not to fixate on
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Speaker 1: a stupid mistake. He figured he had two choices. The
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Speaker 1: first one was that he could just stay put and
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Speaker 1: hope to be rescued. This was the conservative option. He
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Speaker 1: knew how to get food and also firewood near his campsite,
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Speaker 1: so he wouldn't starve to death and he wouldn't freeze,
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Speaker 1: but this would only keep him alive. This would not
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Speaker 1: actually get him rescued. The other choice was that Carl
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Speaker 1: could pack up his campsite an attempt to basically hike
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Speaker 1: out of here seventy five miles to the nearest city
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Speaker 1: called fort Yukon. Now, this could get him home, but
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Speaker 1: with it came a much higher chance of death. If
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Speaker 1: Carl did the hike, well, those seventy five miles would
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Speaker 1: be over extremely rough terrain with absolutely zero human made trails,
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Speaker 1: and so one little slip up and he could fall
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Speaker 1: and get hurt or get lost. And also finding food
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Speaker 1: was sort of a toss up, and the weather at
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Speaker 1: best would be brutal and at worst would be fatal.
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Speaker 1: Plus the entire region those seventy five miles were in
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Speaker 1: was absolutely teeming with woltz. Carl knew both of these
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Speaker 1: choices were bad, but he was running out of time
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Speaker 1: to make a decision. The brutal Arctic winter was fast approaching,
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Speaker 1: and if Carl was going to attempt this horrible hike,
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Speaker 1: he would really have to do it soon. And so
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Speaker 1: as Carl thought about what he was going to do,
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Speaker 1: he trudged his way over to one of his rabbit
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Speaker 1: snares and he was so happy to see he had
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Speaker 1: caught a rabbit. And so he took the rabbit back
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Speaker 1: to his camp and he cooked it over the fire.
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Speaker 1: And as he's eating it, he's thinking, you know what,
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Speaker 1: this isn't so bad. I caught food for now. I mean,
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Speaker 1: this will keep me alive at least for a couple
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Speaker 1: of days. You know, maybe I should just stay here.
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Speaker 1: But deep down he knew the staying put option was
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Speaker 1: not a real option. I mean, even though yes, by
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Speaker 1: staying here he could keep himself from starving. You know,
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Speaker 1: he knew how to get food and all that, well,
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Speaker 1: he'd still be a sitting duck for all the predators
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Speaker 1: in the area, and there were many. And remember he
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Speaker 1: only has one box of ammunition. But just then Carl
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Speaker 1: heard the most glorious sound, the distant whine of a
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Speaker 1: small plane engine. At first, he thought he must be
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Speaker 1: hearing things. Remember he has not seen a plane at
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Speaker 1: all since he got here. But sure enough, he looked
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Speaker 1: up into the sky, and a second later he saw
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Speaker 1: a plane flying directly towards his camp, low and slow.
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Speaker 1: Carl ran in his tent and grabbed the most brightly
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Speaker 1: colored thing he could find, his sleeping bag, which was
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Speaker 1: bright orange. He ran outside of his tent and began
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Speaker 1: waving it back and forth to get the pilot's attention.
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Speaker 1: Ow the plane belonged to the Alaska State Troopers, and
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Speaker 1: so he figured his friends must have reported him missing,
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Speaker 1: and now the police were out to rescue him. A
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Speaker 1: moment later, the plane passed directly over Carl's camp, so
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Speaker 1: low to the ground that Carl could actually see the
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Speaker 1: pilot looking back at him. Carl looked right at the
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Speaker 1: pilot's eyes, and when Carl was nearly certain he had
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Speaker 1: just made eye contact with the pilot. He threw his
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Speaker 1: fist up in the air in excitement and jumped up
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Speaker 1: and down. He couldn't believe it. He was saved. The
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Speaker 1: pilot was going to land and take him home. With
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Speaker 1: a big grin in his face, Carl watched as this
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Speaker 1: plane sure enough made a big U turn, and then
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Speaker 1: Carl watched the plane make another pass over the camp,
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Speaker 1: low and slow, which Carl figured meant, you know, the
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Speaker 1: pilot was looking for a place to land. And so
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Speaker 1: as the pilot was doing that, Carl rushed to his
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Speaker 1: campsite and began packing everything up, and as he did,
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Speaker 1: he's kind of keeping an eye out watching the plane,
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Speaker 1: looking for it to land. But it didn't. The plane
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Speaker 1: just kept on flying straight away away from Carl's campsite
12:00
Speaker 1: until it disappeared over the horizon. For the rest of
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Speaker 1: the day, Karl just stared off into the distance, hoping
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Speaker 1: for this plane to come back, but it didn't. Lying
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Speaker 1: inside his tent that night, Karl couldn't sleep. He was
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Speaker 1: so shaken up by what had happened that day. He
12:15
Speaker 1: didn't understand, you know, he saw the pilot the pilot
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Speaker 1: seemed like they were looking back at him. Why didn't
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Speaker 1: they land? Why didn't they stop? Carl told himself that,
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Speaker 1: you know, maybe the terrain was too rough and there
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Speaker 1: was no way for the pilot to land. You know,
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Speaker 1: that was possible, and so perhaps this pilot was flying
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Speaker 1: back and getting another plane, maybe a floatplane, to land
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Speaker 1: on the water. Karl didn't know, but he felt like
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Speaker 1: that could be a possibility, and it sort of made
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Speaker 1: him feel a little bit better. But he still couldn't
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Speaker 1: relax enough to sleep, and so, knowing he was just
12:42
Speaker 1: going to lay there all night, he sat up, turned
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Speaker 1: on his flashlight and began looking for something to read,
12:47
Speaker 1: just to occupy his mind. Now, at this point, Carl
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Speaker 1: has been out in the wilderness all alone for months
12:52
Speaker 1: and months, and he's been stranded for weeks. He has
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Speaker 1: read all of his books and all of his magazines
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Speaker 1: like a million times. He's even read his diary day times.
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Speaker 1: I mean, he's read everything. And so as he was
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Speaker 1: looking around his tent, he was looking for literally anything
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Speaker 1: else to read, and suddenly he found something his hunting license.
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Speaker 1: It was like the one thing he had not closely read,
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Speaker 1: not an exciting thing to read but new it was
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Speaker 1: just a little paper certificate with some rules and regulations
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Speaker 1: and safety tips about hunting. And so Carl just began
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Speaker 1: reading the front and he read it all the way down,
13:23
Speaker 1: and then he flipped it over and he continued reading.
13:26
Speaker 1: But then he saw something that made his heart practically stop.
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Speaker 1: At first, he thought maybe he misunderstood, but no, he
13:32
Speaker 1: read it over and over again, and it was very clear,
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Speaker 1: and so Carl looked up in shock. He suddenly understood
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Speaker 1: why that pilot had left him. For weeks, Carl stayed
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Speaker 1: close to his camp, just hoping and praying that somehow,
13:46
Speaker 1: someway that plane would still come back. But it never did,
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Speaker 1: and by the time Carl had actually accepted this fact
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Speaker 1: that really the plane's not coming back, well, by that
13:56
Speaker 1: point it was too late to try to hike out,
13:58
Speaker 1: so all he could do was stay put. However, the
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Speaker 1: lake had frozen over, so he couldn't fish. His snares
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Speaker 1: all sat empty because all the wolves and foxes got
14:08
Speaker 1: to his catches before he could. By October, Karl was
14:11
Speaker 1: getting really skinny. By November, Carl was genuinely starving. On
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Speaker 1: November twenty sixth, Thanksgiving Day, Karl laid inside of his
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Speaker 1: tent and made a diary entry. There would be no
14:22
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving feast for him today. His food stores were totally gone,
14:26
Speaker 1: and the Arctic winter was getting so so bad, in fact,
14:30
Speaker 1: his fingers and toes were turning black from frostbite, and
14:33
Speaker 1: he was sick all the time and constantly had chills.
14:37
Speaker 1: And as Karl wrote in his diary, he looked out
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Speaker 1: the tent flap at his dying fire. Knowing he had
14:42
Speaker 1: no more firewood, he knew he only had one choice
14:46
Speaker 1: left to make. He scratched a final sentence into his diary.
14:50
Speaker 1: He wrote, they say it doesn't hurt. Then he set
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Speaker 1: his diary on the floor of the tent near his
14:55
Speaker 1: rolls of film. Then he reached for his rifle and
14:58
Speaker 1: his last box of AMMO. While later, a single shot
15:01
Speaker 1: rang out across the lake. A couple months later, in
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Speaker 1: early February of nineteen eighty two, Alaska State troopers would
15:08
Speaker 1: find Carl. Carl was deceeased. He had taken his own life.
15:12
Speaker 1: What Karl had only realized later was that when he
15:15
Speaker 1: made that fist pump, when he was so excited, when
15:18
Speaker 1: that pilot had flown overhead, and he thought he was
15:20
Speaker 1: going to get rescued. Well, that fist pump had sealed
15:23
Speaker 1: his fate, because, like it said on Carl's hunting license,
15:27
Speaker 1: a single arm raised in the air is the universally
15:31
Speaker 1: recognized body sign for all okay, do not wait. And
15:35
Speaker 1: so when that Alaska State Trooper pilot flew over Carl's camp,
15:39
Speaker 1: he did make eye contact with Carl. He saw him,
15:43
Speaker 1: but he also saw Karl raising his fist in the
15:45
Speaker 1: air and thought he was okay, And so he turned
15:48
Speaker 1: around and he left. If Karl had only read that
15:51
Speaker 1: hunting license a little bit sooner, he would have known
15:54
Speaker 1: to have raised two hands in the air as the
15:56
Speaker 1: pilot flew over, for the universal sign that means pick
16:00
Speaker 1: me up. And now here's a clip from the latest
16:07
Speaker 1: episode of Redacted Enjoy.
16:12
Speaker 2: On May second, nineteen forty five, a US Army private
16:16
Speaker 2: stood guard at the base of a remote mountain in Austria.
16:20
Speaker 2: He was still riding high from the news he'd heard
16:22
Speaker 2: on the radio recently, German leader Adolf Hitler had committed suicide.
16:27
Speaker 2: The soldier knew it was just a matter of time
16:29
Speaker 2: until World War II was over and he could go
16:32
Speaker 2: back home to America. Just then, he noticed someone barreling
16:37
Speaker 2: down the mountain on a bicycle. The soldier realized it
16:39
Speaker 2: was a young man with blonde hair and civilian clothes,
16:42
Speaker 2: but he couldn't tell if the man was friend or foe.
16:45
Speaker 2: He pointed his gun at the man as he hurtled
16:47
Speaker 2: toward him. He wasn't about to risk anything in the
16:49
Speaker 2: last days of the war. He ordered the man to
16:52
Speaker 2: drop his bike and put up his hands. The man
16:55
Speaker 2: did as he was told. Then, in broken English, he
16:58
Speaker 2: said he was one of hundreds of scientists that worked
17:00
Speaker 2: for the Nazi regime who had gone into hiding because
17:03
Speaker 2: Nazi leadership had ordered them to be executed. The man
17:06
Speaker 2: said the Nazis would rather kill them than risk them
17:09
Speaker 2: being captured by the Allies and revealing their knowledge of
17:12
Speaker 2: Hitler's secret weapons. The man insisted the scientists wanted to
17:15
Speaker 2: surrender to the Americans, and not only that, they wanted
17:19
Speaker 2: to help the Americans by sharing with them the secrets
17:21
Speaker 2: of the Nazis deadly new Missal the V two rocket.
17:25
Speaker 2: The soldier looked the man up and down, taking in
17:28
Speaker 2: his fancy gray leather overcoat. He was making a very
17:31
Speaker 2: bold claim, and the soldier couldn't tell if he was lying.
17:34
Speaker 2: He was a Nazi after all. But if what the
17:36
Speaker 2: man said was true, it could potentially change the future
17:40
Speaker 2: of the world.