Latest / Martin Animations / 3 Real HOME ALONE Horror Stories Animated

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3 Real HOME ALONE Horror Stories Animated · Martin Animations

0:01
Speaker 1: When I was a kid in the 90s, I used
0:02
Speaker 1: to seriously hate going to school. There would be at
0:05
Speaker 1: least one day a month where I would wake up
0:07
Speaker 1: and have it decided in my head that I was
0:08
Speaker 1: staying home. I'd do whatever it took. Pretend to puke.
0:12
Speaker 1: Blew myself to the toilet. Cry. You name it, I'd
0:16
Speaker 1: do it. I'd do it because it worked. My parents
0:19
Speaker 1: were working class, all-day laborers, and couldn't afford to stay
0:23
Speaker 1: home or argue with me. By the time I was
0:25
Speaker 1: in fourth grade, ten years old, they'd cave and just
0:28
Speaker 1: let me stay home alone. the days that I pretended
0:31
Speaker 1: to be sick. I remember one morning waking up and
0:34
Speaker 1: not having to fake it. My stomach was in knots,
0:37
Speaker 1: my throat was on fire, and I couldn't even keep
0:39
Speaker 1: my own spit down. Seemingly, anything had me throwing up.
0:43
Speaker 1: Because of my habit of staying home, I was hell-bent
0:45
Speaker 1: on having some fun, even at the cost of a
0:47
Speaker 1: little discomfort. I lounged in the recliner, what I considered
0:52
Speaker 1: a gaming chair, and played some of my favorite video games.
0:55
Speaker 1: The bathroom upstairs was around the corner from my room,
0:57
Speaker 1: at the end of the hall. For no particular reason,
1:01
Speaker 1: this bathroom creeped me out from day one. I personally
1:04
Speaker 1: believe in ghosts and stuff like that as a kid. Again,
1:07
Speaker 1: for no real reason. I cooked up the idea at
1:09
Speaker 1: the end of my head. Sometimes I saw things down
1:12
Speaker 1: there at the end of the hallway. The reality was
1:15
Speaker 1: there was a window way up high on the wall.
1:17
Speaker 1: It would cast odd shadows down at the base of
1:19
Speaker 1: the wall. I knew this, but liked to scare myself
1:22
Speaker 1: and my friends whenever they came over. Being home alone
1:26
Speaker 1: and needing to take a leak. I decided I would
1:28
Speaker 1: go downstairs to both use the bathroom and investigate our fridge.
1:33
Speaker 1: As I got up, I kind of sidestepped into the hallway,
1:37
Speaker 1: and of course saw something weird out of the side
1:38
Speaker 1: of my eye. It looked like a big, looming man
1:41
Speaker 1: in the corner of the hall. Now this spooked me,
1:44
Speaker 1: and I booked it downstairs and waited. Nothing. I figured
1:49
Speaker 1: if it was a real person, I'd hear them walking.
1:51
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, I was alone. I go into
1:55
Speaker 1: the bathroom and do my business, and then head to
1:58
Speaker 1: the kitchen. The fridge was right beside our front door,
2:01
Speaker 1: so as I'm looking inside, I'm parallel to the front doorknob.
2:05
Speaker 1: I'm looking around and not finding anything that I can stomach,
2:08
Speaker 1: but I hear something weird. A jingling. I look over
2:13
Speaker 1: and exactly what I thought was happening. That front doorknob
2:16
Speaker 1: was wiggling back and forth. It's locked, thank God. My
2:20
Speaker 1: parents were security prone. The deadbolt was even locked, but still...
2:25
Speaker 1: I knew immediately that this was not anyone that lived here.
2:28
Speaker 1: We lived in a pretty good neighborhood, average-sized suburb. But
2:32
Speaker 1: in my mind at the time, anything was possible. Beside
2:36
Speaker 1: the door is a big window, and something moves back
2:38
Speaker 1: and forth beyond the curtain. I watch in total horror
2:42
Speaker 1: as some skinny old guy leans over with his hands
2:45
Speaker 1: cupped to the glass and peers inside. His eyes go left,
2:49
Speaker 1: then right, and they fall on me. and this big,
2:53
Speaker 1: awful smile stretches across his face. He taps on the
2:57
Speaker 1: glass like I'm some animal at the zoo. I remember
3:01
Speaker 1: slamming the fridge closed, so hard that I could hear
3:03
Speaker 1: everything shift around inside. For some reason, probably adrenaline, I
3:09
Speaker 1: thought that my mom was going to kill me when
3:10
Speaker 1: she got home, and opened up the fridge and found
3:12
Speaker 1: the booby trap that I'd just made. I remember being
3:15
Speaker 1: more worried about that than the guy looking in the window. Again,
3:19
Speaker 1: I was like 10 or 11 when this happened. so
3:21
Speaker 1: I fancied myself a strapping young man in my head.
3:25
Speaker 1: I was also used to staying home alone, and I
3:27
Speaker 1: dealt with a lot of different people coming to our door.
3:30
Speaker 1: Electricity and water department workers, gas gauge checkers, Mormons, Jehovah Witness,
3:35
Speaker 1: and any other number of people prone to knocking. I
3:38
Speaker 1: ran through a mental checklist as I looked this creep
3:41
Speaker 1: up and down. He definitely wasn't here to see my
3:44
Speaker 1: mom or dad. Definitely wasn't on the clock. He wasn't
3:48
Speaker 1: even knocking. I mean, if there's a red flag... This
3:51
Speaker 1: guy was firmly holding it in his hand. Hey, why
3:54
Speaker 1: don't you come open up the door? He said, pointing
3:57
Speaker 1: down to the handle. I was just here yesterday. My
4:02
Speaker 1: head starts swimming. The hell is this guy talking about
4:05
Speaker 1: in here yesterday? Does he work for my dad? Does
4:08
Speaker 1: he know my older sister? I took a step forward
4:11
Speaker 1: because I was so caught off guard. He almost got
4:14
Speaker 1: me for a second. I was about to open up
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Speaker 1: the door out of denial, hoping there was some sort
4:20
Speaker 1: of rational explanation. I caught myself after that first step,
4:24
Speaker 1: shook my head. No way, dude. He then shook his
4:28
Speaker 1: head too, and then kicked the house siding hard as hell,
4:32
Speaker 1: hard enough to make me jump. The whole kitchen was
4:35
Speaker 1: behind me, and the stairs off to the right of
4:37
Speaker 1: the room where the living room began. On the far
4:40
Speaker 1: side of the kitchen, there was a little hallway that
4:42
Speaker 1: led back to my parents' room plus the laundry room,
4:45
Speaker 1: a bathroom, and then the side entrance for the garage.
4:48
Speaker 1: When I remember the garage, this entire plan springs into
4:51
Speaker 1: action in my head. To this day, I've never had
4:54
Speaker 1: a more clean, pragmatic line of thinking as I did
4:57
Speaker 1: that day. It kind of bums me out to tell
4:59
Speaker 1: you the truth. And I've been told it's because that's
5:02
Speaker 1: the only time my life has ever been on the line. Anyway,
5:06
Speaker 1: we kept a lot of things in the garage, like
5:07
Speaker 1: our camping and outdoor gear. This also included my cheap
5:11
Speaker 1: Walmart special paintball gun. It was one of those clear,
5:14
Speaker 1: gray pump-action pistols. It took the CO2 cylinder in the
5:18
Speaker 1: bottom of the handle and slung a paintball hard enough
5:20
Speaker 1: to break a window. I know that from experience. I
5:24
Speaker 1: grabbed it, immediately changed the cylinder out of habit because
5:27
Speaker 1: I knew whatever the hell was in there had to
5:29
Speaker 1: be dead. I slammed a couple of handfuls of paintballs
5:31
Speaker 1: into the hopper. Good to go. I looked down, though,
5:36
Speaker 1: and saw something else that we kept in the garage.
5:39
Speaker 1: A splitting log, which had a hatchet sticking out of
5:41
Speaker 1: the top. I yanked it out and tucked it into
5:44
Speaker 1: my pajama pants. I crept back down the hallway. Now
5:48
Speaker 1: I can hear the guy messing with the door, so
5:50
Speaker 1: when I peek around the corner, he's no longer looking
5:53
Speaker 1: in the window. I bolt as fast as my sick
5:56
Speaker 1: little body would allow me, through the kitchen and then
5:58
Speaker 1: up the stairs. The landing led right into my bedroom,
6:02
Speaker 1: where I planned on barricading myself. I figured I'd shoot
6:05
Speaker 1: the guy if he came upstairs, and if that didn't
6:07
Speaker 1: deter him, I'd have to use the hatchet once he
6:09
Speaker 1: got inside. In my head it was foolproof, but something
6:13
Speaker 1: told me to stop. Something better occurred to me then.
6:18
Speaker 1: Instead of my room, I went around the corner and
6:20
Speaker 1: towards the creepy bathroom at the end of the hall.
6:23
Speaker 1: It felt crazy, but something told me this was the
6:26
Speaker 1: best plan. I stopped and went to the bathroom. I
6:30
Speaker 1: slid the window open as quietly as I could. I
6:33
Speaker 1: knew if I could fit through the opening. I knew
6:35
Speaker 1: the roof was easy to walk over from there. I'd
6:38
Speaker 1: snuck onto the roof a number of times this way,
6:41
Speaker 1: and I know if I crept around, I'd be able
6:43
Speaker 1: to see the front door. I pulled myself through, tiptoed
6:48
Speaker 1: along the roof careful not to stand too tall or
6:50
Speaker 1: step too loudly honestly the guy was an adult he
6:54
Speaker 1: might be able to just climb right up the roof
6:56
Speaker 1: without a problem I wanted to get the drop on
6:59
Speaker 1: this guy though after a few steps I came around
7:02
Speaker 1: and lo and behold there he is still working on
7:05
Speaker 1: the door he's got a screwdriver a credit card a
7:08
Speaker 1: code hanger literally a kit the guys would have from
7:11
Speaker 1: home alone it was cartoonish the guy even had crazy
7:15
Speaker 1: hair and goofy clothes like pants that were way too
7:17
Speaker 1: high It was obvious this person was a stranger. In
7:22
Speaker 1: the moment, I wish I'd grabbed the telephone just to
7:24
Speaker 1: dial 911, and I realized that I had no idea
7:26
Speaker 1: what this guy was actually capable of. He was desperate
7:30
Speaker 1: enough to get inside our house. It sounds crazy, but
7:33
Speaker 1: I swear it's the only thing that I could think of.
7:36
Speaker 1: I began shouting video game quotes at this guy, the
7:39
Speaker 1: toughest ones that I could remember from whatever games were
7:41
Speaker 1: out at the time. Obviously, I added a string of profanities,
7:45
Speaker 1: and when I first started shouting, Guy almost jumped out
7:48
Speaker 1: of his skin. Seeing him scared in just that brief
7:51
Speaker 1: moment opened up a whole new confidence in me. I
7:55
Speaker 1: started pelting him with paintballs. The chest, the hands, the face,
7:58
Speaker 1: the throat. I shot him everywhere. Black and blue. Literally.
8:03
Speaker 1: He was only 15 or 20 feet away. And I
8:05
Speaker 1: shot that thing every day at that point in my life.
8:08
Speaker 1: I could hit a dog turd at 50 paces. A
8:10
Speaker 1: full grown man was an easy target. I'll never forget
8:14
Speaker 1: how he started screaming. Like top of the lungs screaming.
8:17
Speaker 1: I think he thought I was shooting him for real,
8:19
Speaker 1: as those old single pump paintball guns were loud as
8:22
Speaker 1: hell when they fired. Add that instant sting that he felt,
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Speaker 1: he probably thought it was real for a second or two.
8:29
Speaker 1: Either way, he danced out of my sight. He composed himself,
8:33
Speaker 1: then started hollering threats of all kinds. He was saying
8:36
Speaker 1: them all in this deep creepy voice that he didn't
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Speaker 1: have before, when he was asking me to open up
8:40
Speaker 1: the house. I ran around to the other side of
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Speaker 1: the roof, and by God, there he was. stalking around
8:46
Speaker 1: the opposite corner. I didn't even need to tell you
8:50
Speaker 1: that I let this guy up again, but this time
8:52
Speaker 1: he just booked it and jumped over the fence. He
8:56
Speaker 1: walked back to the little creek that separated some houses,
8:59
Speaker 1: rinsed the paint off of him, then wandered up the road.
9:02
Speaker 1: And you can believe I watched him for every step
9:04
Speaker 1: of that. Once he disappeared, I ran fast as hell inside,
9:08
Speaker 1: never dropping my weapons and got a hold of our phone.
9:12
Speaker 1: I wanted to call the cops, but just opted to
9:13
Speaker 1: call my mom instead. She worked much closer and would
9:17
Speaker 1: be able to get home at least a little bit quicker.
9:20
Speaker 1: I told her everything, and she called my dad. They
9:23
Speaker 1: both showed up not much later. I broke down at
9:26
Speaker 1: this point, as the reality set in that I was
9:28
Speaker 1: actually in danger. The story actually gets kind of crazier.
9:33
Speaker 1: The guy that was looking in the window? Someone had
9:36
Speaker 1: been in our house the day before, and my parents
9:38
Speaker 1: were keyed into it because some stuff had been moved
9:40
Speaker 1: around the house. They noticed an open window in their bedroom.
9:44
Speaker 1: Some of the books were moved around. Close move two.
9:46
Speaker 1: And someone had a cigarette out in their bathroom sink.
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Speaker 1: They knew it wasn't us kids. Obviously, neither of us smoked.
9:53
Speaker 1: They made sure to lock the doors, but other than that,
9:55
Speaker 1: but other than that, they really didn't know what to
9:57
Speaker 1: make of it. It turns out that that guy who
10:00
Speaker 1: peeked in our window had been casing houses up and
10:02
Speaker 1: down our neighborhood two or three had already been robbed
10:06
Speaker 1: and a fourth summer home but over a dozen had
10:08
Speaker 1: been probed and valued including ours he would come up
10:12
Speaker 1: to a house go through as much of their belongings
10:14
Speaker 1: as possible before being discovered then come back the next
10:17
Speaker 1: day right when everyone was leaving and get what he wanted.
10:21
Speaker 1: He didn't account for me staying home that day, my
10:23
Speaker 1: parents locking everything up after having that first weird experience.
10:28
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that I live in the time that
10:29
Speaker 1: I do, as you can imagine. I have cameras everywhere now,
10:33
Speaker 1: security to the max, and a big. 357 revolver instead
10:37
Speaker 1: of that paintball gun. All thanks to that childhood weirdo.
10:43
Speaker 1: I was around 16 years old at the time. It
10:46
Speaker 1: happened in the suburbs of New Jersey. It was about
10:49
Speaker 1: 8 p.m. and completely dark outside. I was alone in
10:52
Speaker 1: the apartment where my aunt and I lived on the
10:54
Speaker 1: fourth floor of a very old apartment building in a
10:57
Speaker 1: very tiny complex. When you looked out the living room window,
11:01
Speaker 1: they looked down on the parking lot. The walls were
11:03
Speaker 1: paper thin and the windows seemed to be single pane
11:07
Speaker 1: because you could hear everything going on out there. You
11:10
Speaker 1: could especially hear when a car arrived. It was second
11:13
Speaker 1: nature to look out the window at the sound of
11:15
Speaker 1: a car because, well, we're so nosy, I guess. That
11:19
Speaker 1: night I heard the sound of a very loud pickup truck.
11:23
Speaker 1: My uncles lived just down the road and both drove
11:25
Speaker 1: pickup trucks and visited regularly. So I got up to
11:29
Speaker 1: check the window to see if it was one of them.
11:31
Speaker 1: This time it was not. It was a beat up
11:34
Speaker 1: old Chevy truck with rust all over the place. Inside
11:37
Speaker 1: were two teenagers. The second I came to the window,
11:41
Speaker 1: the driver pointed straight at me as though he absolutely
11:44
Speaker 1: knew who he was looking for and where I was.
11:47
Speaker 1: Now that freaked me the hell out and I took
11:49
Speaker 1: a step back. I was about to walk into the
11:52
Speaker 1: other room and just try to shake it off when
11:54
Speaker 1: there was a pounding on the apartment door. All I
11:58
Speaker 1: could think was, the hell? I walked over to the
12:02
Speaker 1: door as quietly as I could, trying to step on
12:04
Speaker 1: the rug and not the wood floor. I leaned to
12:07
Speaker 1: the door without touching it. I held my breath as
12:09
Speaker 1: I looked through the peephole. I couldn't believe what I
12:12
Speaker 1: was now seeing. Out there in the stairwell were two
12:16
Speaker 1: very agitated-looking teenage boys. They were twitchy and jumpy, clearly
12:21
Speaker 1: on something, and one of them was holding a Home
12:24
Speaker 1: Depot bucket. And here's where my brain must have snapped
12:28
Speaker 1: into some sort of dissociative panic mode that would come
12:31
Speaker 1: back to haunt me later. In the bucket, there was
12:34
Speaker 1: duct tape, a rope, a hammer, some wood, and a long,
12:38
Speaker 1: serrated-looking knife, like the kind you use to cut spray
12:42
Speaker 1: foam to make it smooth. I pulled back from the
12:45
Speaker 1: door immediately. My brain was going a thousand miles an hour.
12:48
Speaker 1: For just the briefest of moments, I thought, there's no
12:52
Speaker 1: way this is real. There's no way they're just carrying
12:55
Speaker 1: a bucket of these murder tools right out in the
12:57
Speaker 1: open for me to see. It's so stupid. This has
13:00
Speaker 1: to be some sort of joke. Yeah, it has to be.
13:05
Speaker 1: I went to the people again to try to get
13:06
Speaker 1: a good look at them. I didn't recognize either one.
13:11
Speaker 1: Let me tell you how significant this was for me.
13:13
Speaker 1: I was pretty well liked in my high school. I
13:16
Speaker 1: moved between social groups very easily. I got along with everybody.
13:19
Speaker 1: I got to know pretty much everybody, and everybody got
13:22
Speaker 1: to know me. Part of this, I believe, is because
13:25
Speaker 1: I came into high school with my self-confidence guns blazing.
13:28
Speaker 1: I had spent horrific years in middle school, being bullied
13:31
Speaker 1: relentlessly for being a lesbian. When I got to high school,
13:34
Speaker 1: I swore I would never let anyone use that weapon
13:36
Speaker 1: against me ever again. So on the first day of
13:39
Speaker 1: ninth grade, when it was time to get up and
13:41
Speaker 1: introduce ourselves in the class... I said, hi, my name is,
13:45
Speaker 1: insert name, I like girls. People were really impressed. They
13:50
Speaker 1: actually loved it. They loved how open I was, and
13:53
Speaker 1: they loved that they could ask me questions about anything.
13:56
Speaker 1: Looking back, part of me wonders if all my confidence
13:59
Speaker 1: blinded me to the fact that perhaps I made myself
14:02
Speaker 1: a target. When I realized I didn't know either of
14:05
Speaker 1: these guys, and that they were not friends playing some
14:07
Speaker 1: kind of weird prank, my heart sank even further. Now,
14:11
Speaker 1: you would think the most common sense thing to do
14:13
Speaker 1: at this point would be to call the police. And
14:16
Speaker 1: you're right, it would be. But, of course, that's not
14:19
Speaker 1: what I did. You see, I knew that if I
14:21
Speaker 1: called the police and my aunt found out about this,
14:24
Speaker 1: I would never have a moment to myself ever again.
14:27
Speaker 1: My aunt was already hyper-paranoid about child abductions. Pretty much
14:31
Speaker 1: anything she could ever watch on a Lifetime movie turned
14:33
Speaker 1: into concrete fear for her every day. I can't tell
14:37
Speaker 1: you what it took to convince her that I, a 16-year-old,
14:39
Speaker 1: would be okay in an apartment by myself for a
14:41
Speaker 1: few hours in the evening. But of course, my selfish,
14:44
Speaker 1: stupid teenage brain put that in priority over, you know,
14:48
Speaker 1: staying alive. Through the peephole, I could see that one
14:52
Speaker 1: of them had stopped bouncing and twitching long enough to
14:54
Speaker 1: slowly lean his head towards the door, trying to listen
14:56
Speaker 1: for movement inside. I knew this was my chance. The
15:00
Speaker 1: second his ear touched the door, I pulled my hand
15:03
Speaker 1: back and slammed the door right where his ear was.
15:06
Speaker 1: and let out the deepest, most guttural shriek that I've
15:08
Speaker 1: ever made in my entire life. He fell backward. His
15:12
Speaker 1: friend tripped over him. They grabbed each other and started
15:15
Speaker 1: fumbling down the stairs. I got all the way to
15:18
Speaker 1: the floor and peed through the very bottom blinds of
15:20
Speaker 1: the front window to see the truck peeling right out
15:22
Speaker 1: of there, tire smoking. Not one neighbor came out to
15:26
Speaker 1: see if I was okay, and I know they heard me.
15:29
Speaker 1: That was just as terrifying as the experience that I
15:32
Speaker 1: just had. I could hear on a regular basis when
15:35
Speaker 1: my neighbor to the left would sneeze too loudly, but
15:37
Speaker 1: none of them heard me screaming, yeah, okay. I never
15:42
Speaker 1: saw those guys or that truck ever again, and despite
15:44
Speaker 1: how long I've made this story, the entire incident couldn't
15:47
Speaker 1: have taken more than eight minutes from start to finish.
15:51
Speaker 1: I completely believe that seeing that bucket full of murder
15:53
Speaker 1: weapons was the moment my brain went into self-preservation mode.
15:57
Speaker 1: And because there was no aftermath, because there was no repercussions,
16:01
Speaker 1: and because I didn't talk to this about anyone, It
16:04
Speaker 1: started to feel even less real as time moved on.
16:07
Speaker 1: I questioned it over and over. Did this really happen
16:10
Speaker 1: to me? But I know it happened. It was just
16:13
Speaker 1: so damn weird and unexpected that my brain didn't have
16:16
Speaker 1: the neat little compartment to put it in. The pestering
16:19
Speaker 1: question is why? Was it actually random or was it
16:23
Speaker 1: actually targeted? And they even know that I was home alone.
16:29
Speaker 1: I'm retired now, but I worked as an inspector for
16:31
Speaker 1: both private companies and the county throughout my career. I
16:34
Speaker 1: was asked by a private home builder to inspect a
16:37
Speaker 1: house halfway through its construction, and then they would submit
16:41
Speaker 1: my inspection to the county. I get inside and start
16:44
Speaker 1: doing my job, wandering around with a clipboard and a flashlight.
16:48
Speaker 1: It's pretty routine, up until I get to the back
16:50
Speaker 1: end of the house. I can hear something. There seems
16:54
Speaker 1: to be trash scattered in some of the rooms, and
16:56
Speaker 1: I hear it buzzing, like a radio or something. Then
16:59
Speaker 1: it hits me. There's probably a contractor here. Someone finishing
17:03
Speaker 1: up the drywall or something to that effect. I peek
17:07
Speaker 1: into the master bedroom and inside I spot a woman.
17:11
Speaker 1: She's dirty, somewhat around 30 or 35. She's definitely not
17:15
Speaker 1: working on the property. Excuse me, are you supposed to
17:18
Speaker 1: be in here? I asked, hoping she was the homebuyer's
17:21
Speaker 1: wife or something. Of course I am. What are you
17:25
Speaker 1: doing in my house? She replied. Uh, I'm the home inspector.
17:30
Speaker 1: I scheduled with her husband and the contractor to do
17:33
Speaker 1: a full walkthrough. I guess I didn't realize anyone would
17:36
Speaker 1: be here. She grumbled and gave me some kind of response,
17:40
Speaker 1: then vanished into the bathroom area. Not all of the
17:44
Speaker 1: drywall was up, so I could still see her feet
17:46
Speaker 1: and arms as she shuffled around, continuing to make these
17:49
Speaker 1: weird noises. At this point, I was kind of creeped
17:53
Speaker 1: out and was ready to get the hell out of there.
17:56
Speaker 1: This was well before pocket cell phone so I was
17:58
Speaker 1: on my own out there at least until I could
18:00
Speaker 1: get back to my car. I hadn't encountered much in
18:04
Speaker 1: the way of weird at this point in my career
18:05
Speaker 1: and this lady was about to culture me with a
18:07
Speaker 1: great deal if you catch my drift. She came back
18:11
Speaker 1: from the bathroom with the biggest kitchen knife that I've
18:13
Speaker 1: ever seen and planted it right through a piece of
18:16
Speaker 1: hanging drywall. I took a step back out of pure
18:20
Speaker 1: instinct and did my best to ask her what the
18:22
Speaker 1: hell she was doing. What came out sounded something like, what, why,
18:28
Speaker 1: what is it you're doing? She didn't miss a beat though.
18:33
Speaker 1: I don't have a husband, so I think you need
18:35
Speaker 1: to leave. I look around the floor. I see the
18:38
Speaker 1: trash for what it really is. Pack rat stuff, food wrappers, tissues,
18:43
Speaker 1: toilet paper. This lady is crazy and homeless and she's
18:47
Speaker 1: just moved in. By the look of it, she's been
18:51
Speaker 1: crashing here for at least a couple of days. probably
18:53
Speaker 1: hasn't had a care in the world. Now, the only
18:56
Speaker 1: thing to piss her off is me, and I'm stuck
18:59
Speaker 1: here with her. Alright, simple logic prevails. Time to go.
19:04
Speaker 1: I tuck my clipboard up on a shelf, check my
19:07
Speaker 1: pockets for my car keys, and begin back up towards
19:09
Speaker 1: the exit. Don't leave your pictures here. They'll want those
19:14
Speaker 1: back at the station, she says, pointing at my clipboard.
19:18
Speaker 1: I shake my head and raise my hands to show
19:20
Speaker 1: them that they're empty, and I keep moving backward. She
19:23
Speaker 1: doesn't like this. She starts breathing weird, like super hard
19:27
Speaker 1: and deep. I take my own deep breath, and go
19:30
Speaker 1: back to grab that clipboard. Anything to mediate the mood.
19:34
Speaker 1: This triggers her even worse somehow. This lady starts screaming
19:38
Speaker 1: like a banshee. She takes a run at me, and
19:41
Speaker 1: it scares me so bad that I almost fall backwards.
19:45
Speaker 1: I only caught myself by the threshold of the door,
19:47
Speaker 1: which I can firmly say held my weight. I for
19:50
Speaker 1: construction on my inspection so far. Thankfully, she stopped short,
19:55
Speaker 1: didn't really charge fully at me, but her screaming has
19:58
Speaker 1: created another sound, something out of place. I turn to
20:03
Speaker 1: find a man, a little older than the girl, shambled
20:06
Speaker 1: out from a closet, or some partially finished nook. He's shirtless, tattooed,
20:11
Speaker 1: and gaunt. Definitely a junkie. You woke me up, he said.
20:17
Speaker 1: You shouldn't be here. Why'd you wake me up? I
20:21
Speaker 1: tried to answer, but what the hell was I going
20:23
Speaker 1: to say to this guy? I could tell by his look, logic,
20:26
Speaker 1: it wasn't going to speak to him. Then the woman
20:29
Speaker 1: came back down the hall from where they were standing
20:32
Speaker 1: and had me kind of cornered. He says my husband
20:35
Speaker 1: sent him, he said. Threw me right under the bus.
20:40
Speaker 1: Then the guy starts to lose it, flexing, bugging out, hyperventilating,
20:44
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. He starts pressing me about how
20:47
Speaker 1: her husband found them, where he was, and if he
20:50
Speaker 1: was close. Total druggie paranoia. I assured them that I
20:55
Speaker 1: didn't know the guy. I had no business with them.
20:58
Speaker 1: I was just there to simply look over the house.
21:01
Speaker 1: I made a mistake and got the wrong address, and
21:03
Speaker 1: I would be on my way out without any more issues.
21:05
Speaker 1: They'd never see me again. Apparently, at least from what
21:09
Speaker 1: I gleaned, They were on the run from this lady's husband.
21:13
Speaker 1: He was a drug dealer, and they owed him a
21:15
Speaker 1: boatload of cash. They were on their way out of
21:18
Speaker 1: the city on foot, and they spotted the partial build
21:21
Speaker 1: on its own. It became their little cracked-in haven for
21:24
Speaker 1: at least 48 hours. It didn't matter, though. They wouldn't
21:28
Speaker 1: let it go. They were beyond convinced that I was
21:31
Speaker 1: a resp for her husband. I'd found them, and now
21:34
Speaker 1: someone needed to make a move. It was by far
21:37
Speaker 1: the scariest standoff that I could imagine. as I wasn't
21:40
Speaker 1: prepared to take on not one, but two agitated crackheads.
21:45
Speaker 1: As they closed in, it occurred to me that the
21:47
Speaker 1: only ace up my sleeve was the crap that they
21:50
Speaker 1: were telling themselves. I had to go with a lie,
21:53
Speaker 1: and the second that I did, they completely changed gears.
21:57
Speaker 1: Your husband isn't going to like any of this. You
21:59
Speaker 1: know he's outside, right? Both of their jaws immediately hit
22:03
Speaker 1: the floor, and then they sprinted over to the window
22:06
Speaker 1: to do what junkies do, peep through the blinds. Worked
22:09
Speaker 1: that window like a true crazy person. See what's out there.
22:13
Speaker 1: I proceeded to back to the house until I made
22:15
Speaker 1: some distance. Then ran as quick as I could to
22:18
Speaker 1: get back to my car. I was horrified when I
22:21
Speaker 1: looked up to find them chasing me across the front yard.
22:25
Speaker 1: They were much paler and thinner than I first pegged
22:27
Speaker 1: them for inside the house. Out in the sun, they
22:30
Speaker 1: were even creepier. Because of their look, I dropped my
22:34
Speaker 1: keys in the dirt before I could even unlock my car.
22:38
Speaker 1: All I could do was snatch them up and start
22:39
Speaker 1: running again, aiming for the next cluster of new builds.
22:44
Speaker 1: I saw a couple of trucks parked near them earlier,
22:47
Speaker 1: so I was praying to myself a construction crew would
22:49
Speaker 1: be nearby, anyone normal to help me even out the teams.
22:55
Speaker 1: Fortunately for me, I didn't have to run very far,
22:57
Speaker 1: and I stayed well ahead of the junkie house dwellers,
23:00
Speaker 1: but they still didn't give up the chase. I spilled
23:03
Speaker 1: into the nearest house, and right there, A crew of
23:06
Speaker 1: five guys met me with hammers and saws, asking me
23:09
Speaker 1: what the hell I was up to. It was exactly
23:12
Speaker 1: what I wanted to see. I explained that I was
23:15
Speaker 1: a home inspector, was working next door. Some druggies inside
23:19
Speaker 1: caught me off guard and chased me over here. They
23:22
Speaker 1: gave me the green light, and they went outside to
23:24
Speaker 1: confront the duo on the lawn. It went exactly how
23:28
Speaker 1: you would expect it to. The crack twins started telling
23:31
Speaker 1: some crazy ass story. and the construction guys snapped them
23:34
Speaker 1: both up and put them on the ground, called the
23:37
Speaker 1: nearest police station. They sat on top of them until
23:40
Speaker 1: the cops arrived, at which point I had to clarify
23:43
Speaker 1: my story a little bit more. The whole thing was
23:47
Speaker 1: absolutely wild, and they got hauled off with their belongings.
23:51
Speaker 1: I said a big thanks to the work team that
23:52
Speaker 1: saved me, even dropped a few gift cards off for
23:55
Speaker 1: them later on that week. There was minimal damage to
23:59
Speaker 1: the house, except for the bathroom that they were hiding
24:01
Speaker 1: out in. It had the craziest graffiti that you could imagine.
24:06
Speaker 1: I swear it looked like it was painted in blood,
24:08
Speaker 1: carved out with a knife, and straight burned into the
24:10
Speaker 1: wood and drywall. It was something out of a movie.
24:14
Speaker 1: All insane devil worship stuff, I think. I've always felt
24:18
Speaker 1: like I got away pretty lucky that day, as they
24:20
Speaker 1: both seemed pretty strung out as I did my walkthrough.
24:23
Speaker 1: Had I caught them when they were more coherent, who
24:27
Speaker 1: knows what could have happened.