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Incredibly Creepy Airbnb Experiences · Stories from the Dark

0:23
Speaker 1: They say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
0:26
Speaker 1: But screw that. I need to share this story with
0:29
Speaker 1: the internet. So all of this happened about 10 years ago.
0:33
Speaker 1: Me and two of my best friends used to take
0:35
Speaker 1: a yearly trip to Vegas... We were approaching our late 20s,
0:39
Speaker 1: so we knew our annual girl getaways were coming to
0:42
Speaker 1: an end soon. Spouses, kids, and careers were starting to
0:46
Speaker 1: take priority in all of our lives. We'd always find
0:50
Speaker 1: a cheap but cheerful-looking place on Airbnb. And so far,
0:54
Speaker 1: we'd never been let down. Everyone who goes to Vegas
0:57
Speaker 1: wants to stay somewhere to brag about. So at least
1:00
Speaker 1: back then, it was surprisingly easy to find an Airbnb
1:03
Speaker 1: near the Strip. That year, though, it was like everyone
1:06
Speaker 1: had decided to avoid the big hotels. We had a
1:09
Speaker 1: hard time finding an Airbnb that all three of us
1:12
Speaker 1: could agree on, and in the end, we settled on
1:14
Speaker 1: a place that was priced a little higher than our
1:16
Speaker 1: original budget. It looked alright, nothing special, but it had
1:21
Speaker 1: enough rooms for everyone, and I was 90% sure that
1:23
Speaker 1: it wasn't roach-infested after seeing the pictures online. Eventually, the
1:28
Speaker 1: big day came and we arrived in Vegas early in
1:31
Speaker 1: the morning. And Vegas at 10am isn't that spectacular, really.
1:36
Speaker 1: Everything looks like it's shut down for the day, and
1:38
Speaker 1: many of the people on this trip are stumbling around drunk,
1:40
Speaker 1: but nobody goes to the Vegas trip to take in
1:43
Speaker 1: the daylight atmosphere. And so we headed excitedly to the
1:47
Speaker 1: Airbnb to get settled in and ready for our first
1:50
Speaker 1: night in Sin City. The route to the Airbnb was
1:54
Speaker 1: further from the strip than I originally thought. As we
1:57
Speaker 1: made our way, our surroundings seemed to get more dangerous
2:00
Speaker 1: and crack addled the closer we got to our destination.
2:04
Speaker 1: We all looked at each other like, what have we
2:06
Speaker 1: got ourselves into? Thankfully, after we continued for a few
2:10
Speaker 1: more minutes, we seemed to exit the rougher side of
2:13
Speaker 1: the city and we found ourselves in a much nicer
2:15
Speaker 1: looking area. What surprises me about big cities is how
2:19
Speaker 1: you can walk a few blocks from a post-apocalyptic looking
2:22
Speaker 1: neighborhood and suddenly find yourself somewhere that looks like Pleasantville.
2:27
Speaker 1: The condo we were staying in looked pretty clean and
2:30
Speaker 1: We were on the ground floor. We got our first
2:32
Speaker 1: red flag when we opened the door and found a
2:34
Speaker 1: bunch of trash bags piled in the hallway. Either the
2:38
Speaker 1: owners or the previous guests had decided it was our
2:40
Speaker 1: job to put their trash out in the dumpster. One
2:43
Speaker 1: of us went off to do that immediately because the
2:45
Speaker 1: bags smelled awful. Afterwards, we went to explore the rest
2:49
Speaker 1: of the condo. It wasn't the absolute worst thing I've
2:53
Speaker 1: ever seen, but it wasn't the Ritz either. There were
2:56
Speaker 1: a couple of plates in the sink that hadn't been washed,
2:58
Speaker 1: and the carpet clearly needed vacuuming. The owners had been
3:02
Speaker 1: a little generous with their description of the rooms. It
3:06
Speaker 1: seemed like one of the bedrooms and the living room
3:08
Speaker 1: were one and the same. One of us would have
3:10
Speaker 1: had to sleep on the couch, which was frustrating because
3:12
Speaker 1: the listing said three bedrooms, and that was the main
3:15
Speaker 1: reason for us spending a little extra money on this Airbnb.
3:20
Speaker 1: I double-checked the listing on my phone, and there was
3:22
Speaker 1: definitely a photo of another bedroom. I sent a message
3:25
Speaker 1: to the owner and to customer service about the missing room,
3:28
Speaker 1: hoping for a discount, but the owner never replied and
3:32
Speaker 1: support was giving me the runaround. The more we explored,
3:35
Speaker 1: the worse it seemed to get. The TV in the
3:38
Speaker 1: living room was some old CRT that must have weighed
3:41
Speaker 1: more than all of us combined. The bathroom was absolutely disgusting.
3:46
Speaker 1: The air was heavy with mildew and the bathtub was
3:49
Speaker 1: stained with what looked like black mold. Of course, the
3:52
Speaker 1: bed I found in the first bedroom had no sheets.
3:55
Speaker 1: The mattress was stained with God knows what mixture of
3:58
Speaker 1: dried fluids. And thankfully, we always brought our own bedding
4:02
Speaker 1: on our trips. But I wasn't sure if the sheets
4:04
Speaker 1: we packed would be thick enough to contain this biohazard
4:07
Speaker 1: of a mattress. The only nice room was the one
4:10
Speaker 1: opposite of the first with a bed that looked actually usable. Naturally,
4:15
Speaker 1: this would be going to the birthday girl. My friend's
4:18
Speaker 1: birthday always fell during the trip and it was Kind
4:20
Speaker 1: of the reason that we started the tradition in the
4:22
Speaker 1: first place. At the end of the hall was a bookshelf.
4:25
Speaker 1: It had a bunch of old horror books and at
4:28
Speaker 1: least three shelves of books about very erotic photography. And
4:32
Speaker 1: I flipped through one of them just out of curiosity,
4:35
Speaker 1: but they weren't exactly the kind of artsy books that
4:37
Speaker 1: you'd leave out on a coffee table for guests. We
4:41
Speaker 1: decided that before doing anything else, we'd give the place
4:43
Speaker 1: just a deep clean, you know. And we were going
4:46
Speaker 1: to be there for about a week, so we might
4:48
Speaker 1: as well make it livable. Well, the cleaning took us
4:51
Speaker 1: a lot longer than anyone was expecting. Even though we
4:53
Speaker 1: had arrived pretty early, it took until late evening before
4:57
Speaker 1: we made much headway. And it didn't help that we
4:59
Speaker 1: decided to take a break for dinner and try out
5:02
Speaker 1: a very expensive but luxurious buffet on the strip. And
5:06
Speaker 1: my final task when we got back to the condo
5:08
Speaker 1: was cleaning the kitchen. And after I was halfway done,
5:11
Speaker 1: I took a spray bottle to clean the counters. It
5:15
Speaker 1: felt full, but when I tried to spray it, the
5:17
Speaker 1: liquid was sort of stuck. I unscrewed the spray head
5:21
Speaker 1: and found a little plastic baggie towards the bottom of
5:24
Speaker 1: the bottle. After a few frustrating minutes of trying to
5:27
Speaker 1: fish the bag out of the bottle, it finally came loose.
5:31
Speaker 1: I half expected the bag to contain someone's old drug stash,
5:34
Speaker 1: but when I opened it up, a piece of paper
5:36
Speaker 1: fell out that was filled with writing. And when I
5:40
Speaker 1: read the words on the paper, written in a sort
5:43
Speaker 1: of shaky, barely legible scrawl, I became just as much disgusted.
5:49
Speaker 1: I was confused. Obviously, I don't remember the exact wording,
5:54
Speaker 1: but the note seemed to be some kind of incoherent
5:57
Speaker 1: warning for future tenants. The note said that the owner
6:00
Speaker 1: of the Airbnb only rented to women because he was
6:04
Speaker 1: a sleazebag, apparently who would come up with excuses to
6:07
Speaker 1: visit his guests and take advantage of them. The note
6:10
Speaker 1: said something about him showing up to fix the AC,
6:13
Speaker 1: poking around the place for a few hours and trying
6:15
Speaker 1: to make small talk. He'd offer the guests drinks or
6:19
Speaker 1: to show them the local spots after he made himself comfortable.
6:22
Speaker 1: And he went even as far as offering to get
6:25
Speaker 1: drugs for the guests in exchange for favors from them.
6:28
Speaker 1: I'm sure you don't need me to tell you what
6:31
Speaker 1: kind of favors. And the author of the note then
6:33
Speaker 1: ranted about how you should never agree to any of
6:36
Speaker 1: the owner's deals. Apparently she had fulfilled her end of
6:39
Speaker 1: the bargain and he left her high, dry, and sober.
6:43
Speaker 1: Initially it seemed ridiculous. How had someone been getting away
6:47
Speaker 1: with this for however long without anyone reporting it? Then
6:50
Speaker 1: I thought about it for a moment. This had to
6:52
Speaker 1: be some kind of prank. I mean, it would be
6:54
Speaker 1: just as easy to give the guy a bad review
6:56
Speaker 1: on the app or report him. Who would go so
6:59
Speaker 1: far as to even think about taking him up on
7:01
Speaker 1: one of his deals anyways? Now, in hindsight, this was
7:06
Speaker 1: obviously another red flag. But at the time, I just
7:09
Speaker 1: couldn't take the warning seriously. I even showed the note
7:12
Speaker 1: to the girls, and we had a little bit of
7:14
Speaker 1: a laugh about it. We even made jokes about which
7:17
Speaker 1: one of us would have to be the sacrificial lamb
7:19
Speaker 1: for this dirtbag. Was I supposed to call the cops
7:22
Speaker 1: and tell them that I found ramblings of some nutjob?
7:26
Speaker 1: I didn't even have a clue how long that note
7:28
Speaker 1: had even been in that bottle. With the note forgotten
7:32
Speaker 1: at this point, we spent the rest of the night
7:34
Speaker 1: finishing up the cleaning and wore ourselves out. The place
7:38
Speaker 1: was finally habitable. We still hadn't heard back from anyone
7:41
Speaker 1: about the missing room, but... I decided to play the
7:44
Speaker 1: part of the good friend, and I agreed to sleep
7:46
Speaker 1: on the sofa in the living room. Since we were
7:49
Speaker 1: all pretty exhausted, we chose to stay in for that
7:52
Speaker 1: first night. That didn't mean that we wouldn't party. One
7:55
Speaker 1: of us would just have to run out to get drinks. Now, Katie,
7:59
Speaker 1: the birthday girl, drew the short straw and would have
8:02
Speaker 1: to be the one to pick up the drinks. Luckily
8:04
Speaker 1: for us, Vegas has just about as many liquor stores
8:07
Speaker 1: as casinos, so there were a few to pick from
8:09
Speaker 1: within walking distance. I insisted Brittany, my other friend, accompany
8:14
Speaker 1: Katie on her trip because it was getting pretty late.
8:17
Speaker 1: About half an hour goes by and just when I'm
8:19
Speaker 1: about to text the girls not to forget the ice,
8:22
Speaker 1: there's a knock at the door. Look, I know I'm
8:25
Speaker 1: an idiot. I'll check the comments. And I really don't
8:28
Speaker 1: need anyone else to confirm that if my story gets read.
8:32
Speaker 1: The door even had a peephole which I didn't check
8:34
Speaker 1: at the time. I assumed my friends were back and
8:36
Speaker 1: we were about to get our drink on. And so
8:39
Speaker 1: I opened the door and stood face to face... Well,
8:41
Speaker 1: the guy who looked to be in his 30s. Now,
8:44
Speaker 1: the best way to describe the guy would be disarming.
8:47
Speaker 1: He wasn't some movie villain or a crackhead with bags
8:50
Speaker 1: under his eyes and the shakes. He looked like a
8:53
Speaker 1: tech bro, if anything. He wasn't tall or particularly fit
8:57
Speaker 1: or fat, and the dude just looked normal. I asked
9:00
Speaker 1: if there was anything I could help him with, and
9:02
Speaker 1: he told me that he was there about the missing room.
9:06
Speaker 1: He explained that he was the property manager, and there
9:09
Speaker 1: was actually three rooms in the condo. Well, I wasn't
9:12
Speaker 1: going to let some random dude in that night that
9:15
Speaker 1: late when I was by myself, so I asked him
9:18
Speaker 1: to tell me where the mystery room was. He told
9:21
Speaker 1: me it was behind the bookshelf at the back of
9:23
Speaker 1: the hall, but there was a trick to moving the shelf. Now,
9:26
Speaker 1: sure enough, when I asked him to wait outside while
9:29
Speaker 1: I check, I discovered a gap behind the shelf and
9:32
Speaker 1: a door on the other side. After a couple of
9:35
Speaker 1: minutes of trying to slide the shelf out of the
9:37
Speaker 1: way with no luck, I went back to the man
9:39
Speaker 1: and asked about the trick. It turns out he was
9:42
Speaker 1: the son of the owner and was the one who
9:44
Speaker 1: installed the shelf when he lived at the property. He
9:47
Speaker 1: explained to me that he was inspired by some posts
9:50
Speaker 1: that he saw and it was a personal project of his.
9:53
Speaker 1: Now once again, I know I'm an idiot, but I
9:55
Speaker 1: just wanted to get access to the room so I
9:58
Speaker 1: wouldn't be stuck on that couch. And so I invited
10:01
Speaker 1: him to show me the trick. He really looked normal
10:05
Speaker 1: and acted normal so my guard was down. It didn't
10:08
Speaker 1: seem like there was any way that he was the
10:10
Speaker 1: guy the note had warned us about. We got to
10:13
Speaker 1: the bookshelf and he got down on his knees. He
10:17
Speaker 1: started to lift on the bookshelf from the second shelf
10:19
Speaker 1: from the bottom, and there was a loud pop, and
10:22
Speaker 1: the left side of the cabinet swung towards us, and
10:25
Speaker 1: he rotated the whole bookshelf against the sidewall. It didn't
10:29
Speaker 1: really seem like a fluid motion. The whole setup didn't
10:32
Speaker 1: seem that impressive or well-engineered. I opened the newly revealed
10:36
Speaker 1: door and was pleasantly surprised that the room was the
10:39
Speaker 1: nicest in the house. There wasn't much in the room
10:42
Speaker 1: other than a single bed and nightstand, but no weird
10:45
Speaker 1: stains or garbage. We made some small talk and I
10:48
Speaker 1: let the man know that the room was in much
10:50
Speaker 1: better condition than the others. I thanked him for the
10:53
Speaker 1: help and just as it seemed like he was about
10:55
Speaker 1: to leave, I made light of the note that I
10:57
Speaker 1: found earlier. I can't remember exactly what I said, but
11:01
Speaker 1: it was something along the lines of, glad he didn't
11:03
Speaker 1: turn out to be some kind of pimp. We found
11:06
Speaker 1: this weird note saying the owner was a creep. And
11:10
Speaker 1: that's when his demeanor completely changed. It was like I
11:13
Speaker 1: flipped a switch or something. Now, I still have never
11:17
Speaker 1: seen anyone become that enraged since that day. But he
11:20
Speaker 1: spun around and started yelling at me. What note? As
11:25
Speaker 1: I backed away from him into the room, I tried
11:27
Speaker 1: to explain that it was just some trash that I
11:29
Speaker 1: had found. He wasn't having any of it, though. He
11:33
Speaker 1: just kept screaming that it was BS, and he kept
11:35
Speaker 1: demanding I give him the note. I didn't even remember
11:39
Speaker 1: what I had done with the note, and I was
11:40
Speaker 1: getting really scared. My fight or flight kicked in, and
11:44
Speaker 1: as I tried to rush past him, he grabbed me
11:46
Speaker 1: by both of my wrists and told me I wasn't
11:48
Speaker 1: going anywhere until he got that note. I started screaming
11:53
Speaker 1: back at him to let go of me, and we
11:55
Speaker 1: began to struggle. He pinned me to the ground and
11:57
Speaker 1: would not stop yelling. His face was getting redder and redder.
12:01
Speaker 1: And after about a minute of struggling for my life,
12:04
Speaker 1: I heard Katie scream, What the hell? The girls had
12:08
Speaker 1: finally returned from their outing to discover me being assaulted
12:11
Speaker 1: by a stranger. Surprised by the outburst, the man released
12:15
Speaker 1: me and jumped to his feet. And just as he
12:18
Speaker 1: turned to find where the noise had come from, I
12:20
Speaker 1: witnessed one of the most heroic moments of my life.
12:23
Speaker 1: Katie had taken a bottle of wine that she had
12:25
Speaker 1: just purchased and thrown it towards my assailant. The throw
12:29
Speaker 1: was perfect and he had no time to react as
12:31
Speaker 1: he turned towards the girls and the bottle met his head.
12:35
Speaker 1: You'd think that throwing a bottle like that would force
12:37
Speaker 1: it to maybe break, but it stayed in one piece
12:40
Speaker 1: as it bounced off of his skull and rolled to
12:42
Speaker 1: the carpet, and his yell became shrieks as he started
12:45
Speaker 1: having blood coming down from his face, the newly made
12:49
Speaker 1: cut now on his brow. Everyone was still screaming when
12:53
Speaker 1: he bolted out of the front door while covering his wound.
12:57
Speaker 1: He jumped into a van parked outside and shot out
12:59
Speaker 1: into the night. Of course, the first thing we did
13:02
Speaker 1: was call the police. The neighbors of the property were
13:05
Speaker 1: woken up and came over to see what all the
13:07
Speaker 1: fuss was about. Katie and Brittany and I were crying
13:10
Speaker 1: and everyone just kept asking me if I was alright.
13:13
Speaker 1: We explained everything that happened when the police arrived and
13:16
Speaker 1: they got a kick out of Katie's heroics. Now they
13:19
Speaker 1: explained that we should find a place to stay for
13:21
Speaker 1: the night while they tried to locate the property owners.
13:24
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be safe to stay at the condo because
13:26
Speaker 1: the man could return with a set of keys in
13:28
Speaker 1: the middle of the night. and we wound up staying
13:31
Speaker 1: at a hotel that was way out of our price
13:33
Speaker 1: range for the remainder of the night. My credit was
13:35
Speaker 1: going to take a hit, but it couldn't really be helped.
13:39
Speaker 1: A couple of days later, the girls and I had
13:41
Speaker 1: a sit-down with the actual property owner. The man who
13:44
Speaker 1: assaulted me, his name was Alan. His mother told us
13:48
Speaker 1: that she could explain what had happened and wanted to
13:51
Speaker 1: convince us to drop the charges that we'd filed. She
13:54
Speaker 1: told us all about Alan's anger issues and After he
13:57
Speaker 1: told her about the note, she understood why he threw
14:00
Speaker 1: a fit. Alan's father, recently deceased, was the man that
14:04
Speaker 1: the note spoke of. She told us about how Alan's
14:07
Speaker 1: father was accused by several women about the behavior described
14:10
Speaker 1: in said note. She didn't make excuses for the father,
14:13
Speaker 1: and it seemed like she was convinced that the women
14:15
Speaker 1: were telling the truth about him. She begged us to
14:19
Speaker 1: make an exception for Alan, though. She said that he
14:21
Speaker 1: was only that upset because he loved his father so much.
14:26
Speaker 1: He seemed very genuine and I didn't have any lasting
14:29
Speaker 1: injuries so me and the girls were willing to make
14:31
Speaker 1: a deal. Alan's mother would not only refund us the
14:34
Speaker 1: cost of our Airbnb, she would also pay for our
14:36
Speaker 1: hotel for the remainder of the trip. I didn't want
14:39
Speaker 1: to be involved in a case across state lines anyway
14:42
Speaker 1: so we just accepted the deal. And the rest of
14:45
Speaker 1: our trip was thankfully uneventful. We spent our time blowing
14:49
Speaker 1: the money that we saved on lodging up and down
14:51
Speaker 1: the strip and everyone we met wanted to hear about
14:54
Speaker 1: Katie's wine throwing technique and Now she uses the story
14:57
Speaker 1: to threaten anyone giving her a hard time. Putting all
15:01
Speaker 1: of these events in writing is making me nostalgic and
15:04
Speaker 1: makes me want to plan a trip for the 10th
15:06
Speaker 1: anniversary of our wild trip. Even though it started off
15:09
Speaker 1: as one of the most terrifying times of my life,
15:12
Speaker 1: I wouldn't trade whatever that trip was for the world.
15:39
Speaker 1: So this is the story of how me and my
15:41
Speaker 1: family ended up sharing a home with a couple of
15:44
Speaker 1: disgusting depraved perverts. They were the worst kind of people.
15:48
Speaker 1: The husband and wife may have seemed like a kind-hearted
15:51
Speaker 1: old couple, but that's only because they had learned to
15:54
Speaker 1: hide their insidious nature. It always surprised me that the
15:58
Speaker 1: octogenarians never crossed the wrong guy throughout their miserable lives
16:02
Speaker 1: and ended up in a ditch. Now this incident happened
16:06
Speaker 1: around 2012. and you would have never had guessed that
16:10
Speaker 1: our Airbnb hosts were that type of person. Elderly folks
16:14
Speaker 1: who collected china and knickknacks and supported 70s decor throughout
16:18
Speaker 1: their home didn't seem like the type to engage in
16:21
Speaker 1: predatory behavior. And so you can't blame us for being
16:25
Speaker 1: immediately at ease when the Thompsons invited us into their home.
16:29
Speaker 1: As we entered our Airbnb, Mrs. Thompson greeted us with
16:33
Speaker 1: bony hugs while Mr. Thompson offered a few frail handshakes.
16:38
Speaker 1: The old couple really gave off a grandparent kind of vibe.
16:41
Speaker 1: I never knew my grandparents, and they passed before I
16:44
Speaker 1: was born, you see, and the Thompsons reminded me of
16:47
Speaker 1: my wife's parents, a beloved older couple who me, my wife,
16:51
Speaker 1: and kids adored, the exact kind of people that the
16:54
Speaker 1: Thompsons emulated to lower their guest's guard. Now, sorry if
16:59
Speaker 1: I'm all skewed around and out of order here. I'm
17:02
Speaker 1: still angry about our visits all these years later. And
17:06
Speaker 1: due to some rash decisions on my part, the pair
17:08
Speaker 1: of degenerates never really faced justice. Let me just start
17:12
Speaker 1: at the beginning. I hope that by the end of
17:14
Speaker 1: the story, you hate the Thompsons as much as I do.
17:17
Speaker 1: Everyone knows about the danger of trusting a wolf in
17:20
Speaker 1: sheep's clothing, but my story can serve as a reminder
17:23
Speaker 1: if you ever run into a pair of beasts. It
17:27
Speaker 1: all begins when me and my family were going on
17:29
Speaker 1: a road trip to see my sister Mary. She was
17:32
Speaker 1: the quintessential wine aunt. living out her 40s in luxury,
17:36
Speaker 1: irresponsibly blowing the inheritance our parents had left us. We
17:41
Speaker 1: were polar opposites, though. I invested my half of that money,
17:44
Speaker 1: started a family, and settled down. Mary was always a
17:47
Speaker 1: wild card, but I couldn't help but love her even
17:50
Speaker 1: more because of it. And that's why we were prepared
17:53
Speaker 1: to make a cross-country trip to visit her, even if
17:56
Speaker 1: it meant three days of driving and staying at fleabag motels. Now,
18:01
Speaker 1: I'll introduce my family really quick. There's my wife, who
18:04
Speaker 1: for some reason doesn't want to be named, probably because
18:06
Speaker 1: she knows that I'm going to gush about her, our
18:09
Speaker 1: son Kenny, who would have been 12 around the time
18:12
Speaker 1: of the incident, and my son was the one who
18:14
Speaker 1: got me hooked on listening to scary stories from the internet.
18:18
Speaker 1: And last, but not least, is our daughter Susie. She
18:21
Speaker 1: was 18 back then and was way too excited to
18:23
Speaker 1: head off to college after our road trip. College paid
18:27
Speaker 1: off for Susie, and now she's an editor at a
18:29
Speaker 1: fairly big publisher these days, and I'm really proud of
18:32
Speaker 1: all of them. Now, I'm telling you all this because
18:35
Speaker 1: I really want to stress how much I love my family.
18:38
Speaker 1: It may help explain some of the regrettable decisions in
18:40
Speaker 1: dealing with the Thompsons. The Thompsons never faced any real punishment,
18:44
Speaker 1: which still keeps me awake some nights. I'm certain they
18:47
Speaker 1: aren't amongst the living anymore, so hopefully they're keeping each
18:50
Speaker 1: other company in hell. Is that Christian of me to say?
18:53
Speaker 1: I'd like to believe it is. Hell is for people
18:56
Speaker 1: like them. And when we entered Thompson's Airbnb, treating ourselves
19:01
Speaker 1: on the final night of our journey... I was immediately
19:03
Speaker 1: trusting of these people. I dismissed the weird decor, musty smell,
19:07
Speaker 1: and the way Mrs. Thompson would hold her hugs just
19:11
Speaker 1: a little too long. And the house was like a museum,
19:14
Speaker 1: if the museum was filled with little dolls and porcelain
19:18
Speaker 1: figures and knickknacks. And I mean filled. The trinkets covered
19:22
Speaker 1: just about every surface of the house. The Thompsons gave
19:26
Speaker 1: us a tour of the downstairs levels of the property,
19:28
Speaker 1: which was the area we had agreed to rent. I
19:32
Speaker 1: remember being impressed with the home's decorations at first as
19:35
Speaker 1: they seemed to shed light on the lives of the
19:37
Speaker 1: people who'd done everything and been everywhere. The Thompson's apartment
19:41
Speaker 1: was upstairs behind a locked door that blocked off the staircase,
19:45
Speaker 1: and so there was no chance of the kids wandering
19:47
Speaker 1: into the couple's private area. Not that either of them would.
19:51
Speaker 1: They were pretty well-behaved kids, and they were absolutely fascinated
19:55
Speaker 1: by the eccentric rooms on the ground floor anyways, and
19:58
Speaker 1: that was keeping both of them busy. The refrigerator in
20:01
Speaker 1: the kitchen was covered in postcards. Susie began reading a
20:04
Speaker 1: few and remarked that they were all sent from different
20:07
Speaker 1: people all around the world. The Thompsons proudly told us
20:11
Speaker 1: that this was kind of their thing, and then they
20:14
Speaker 1: gestured to a single sheet of paper on the kitchen
20:16
Speaker 1: table which they jokingly called the rule book. And I
20:20
Speaker 1: looked over it. The rules were all things like don't
20:23
Speaker 1: rob the place, don't break our stuff, and remember to
20:26
Speaker 1: put the toilet seat down. At the bottom of the
20:29
Speaker 1: page was a separate message. We collect our trinkets from
20:32
Speaker 1: past guests, so if you enjoy your stay here, then
20:35
Speaker 1: we would love it if you provided us with a memento.
20:39
Speaker 1: We received everything from a postcard to a cursed doll,
20:42
Speaker 1: although we'd prefer that you left off the curse. And
20:46
Speaker 1: we all had a good chuckle about this, and before
20:48
Speaker 1: I knew it, my wife was promising the Thompsons we'd
20:51
Speaker 1: surprise them with a gift after our stay. And meanwhile,
20:55
Speaker 1: Kenny was wandering around the kitchen, studying various trinkets that
20:58
Speaker 1: lined the shelves. Then he made his way into the hallway,
21:01
Speaker 1: which you could barely walk down without brushing a bookshelf
21:04
Speaker 1: filled with trinkets and ornaments. And to me, the place
21:08
Speaker 1: reminded me of five old people's homes all smushed into one.
21:12
Speaker 1: Every old person I've ever visited had a house like this,
21:15
Speaker 1: and it just wasn't quite this packed. What's wrong, buddy?
21:20
Speaker 1: I asked Kenny. And Kenny is very mildly autistic, and
21:23
Speaker 1: the level of sensory overload in the home had me
21:26
Speaker 1: worried that it was a little too much for him.
21:28
Speaker 1: And that didn't seem to be the case here, though.
21:32
Speaker 1: He explained some weirdness that he picked up on. For
21:35
Speaker 1: one thing, there was no visible TV anywhere on the
21:37
Speaker 1: first floor. Not that odd, I figured. Maybe there was
21:41
Speaker 1: a TV in one of the bedrooms. And then he
21:43
Speaker 1: pointed out that there weren't any books to read either,
21:45
Speaker 1: and I told him not to worry. I had some
21:48
Speaker 1: books out in the car if we couldn't find anything
21:50
Speaker 1: laying around. We ended up in the room that would
21:53
Speaker 1: be Susie's first, and I had to admit that it
21:56
Speaker 1: was a little weird. Her bed was one of those
21:58
Speaker 1: hospital beds that let you recline and adjust with a
22:01
Speaker 1: remote control. and there were also no windows in the room,
22:04
Speaker 1: no natural light at all. And instead, more shelves filled
22:08
Speaker 1: with trinkets and dolls lined the walls. It was all
22:10
Speaker 1: very strange. The room was pretty cramped with all the shelves,
22:14
Speaker 1: so you were only able to walk a path in
22:16
Speaker 1: between the bed and the closet. I didn't notice at
22:19
Speaker 1: the time that whoever was using the room would have
22:22
Speaker 1: to change clothes in a very specific location because of
22:25
Speaker 1: the layout. Now, we left Susie's room, with Kenny telling
22:28
Speaker 1: me that he had a weird feeling about the place,
22:30
Speaker 1: like it wasn't comfortable. In the master bedroom, it turns
22:35
Speaker 1: out that I had been wrong. There were no books
22:37
Speaker 1: or TV, and it was very similar to Susie's room.
22:40
Speaker 1: I was surprised to discover that this room had two
22:43
Speaker 1: beds inside of the double bed that we were expecting,
22:46
Speaker 1: and there were also hospital beds. When I tried to
22:49
Speaker 1: move them together, I saw that they had been bolted
22:51
Speaker 1: to the floor. There was a single path between the
22:54
Speaker 1: beds and no other room to navigate. Just like Susie's room,
22:57
Speaker 1: the windows were blocked off by a ridiculous amount of
23:00
Speaker 1: knick-knack-filled shelves. The more we explored our environment, the more
23:04
Speaker 1: I became unsettled. It was like the house wanted to
23:08
Speaker 1: funnel you to your assigned position, a position where you
23:11
Speaker 1: could be spectated by all the creepy dolls that filled
23:14
Speaker 1: the walls. Susie said what I was thinking. Why did
23:18
Speaker 1: all the dolls and trinkets look like they had come
23:20
Speaker 1: from the same era? Surely if guests sent gifts from
23:23
Speaker 1: across the globe to the Thompsons, there would be more
23:26
Speaker 1: variety among the knickknacks. Maybe a few modern pieces sprinkled
23:30
Speaker 1: throughout the home, and instead, the collection of junk looked
23:33
Speaker 1: to be sourced from a sole antique shop or something.
23:38
Speaker 1: And when we went back out into the hallway, there
23:40
Speaker 1: was no sign of the Thompsons. Kenny found a note
23:43
Speaker 1: on the kitchen table which just read, Our afternoon shows
23:46
Speaker 1: are about to start, and we wouldn't miss them for
23:49
Speaker 1: the world. We've never missed an episode of Judge Judy,
23:52
Speaker 1: and we're not about to start now. Sorry we had
23:54
Speaker 1: to run, but we'll come back down for family dinner
23:57
Speaker 1: in the evenings. feel free to explore the town if
23:59
Speaker 1: you find yourselves bored. Then there was a little PS
24:03
Speaker 1: explaining that the towels had been left out for all
24:05
Speaker 1: of us and were free to use the shower if
24:08
Speaker 1: we wanted to freshen up. It wasn't exactly the kind
24:11
Speaker 1: of note that I was happy to find after noticing
24:13
Speaker 1: the lack of televisions on the ground floor. I assume
24:17
Speaker 1: the old couple was anti-TV or something but clearly that
24:20
Speaker 1: wasn't the case and in hindsight the little bit about
24:24
Speaker 1: taking a shower was weird as well. It was the
24:27
Speaker 1: middle of the day and none of us came off
24:29
Speaker 1: as being sweaty or stinky or anything. We decided to
24:32
Speaker 1: head into town to grab lunch and do some local
24:34
Speaker 1: sightseeing as the Thompsons had suggested. It wasn't like there
24:38
Speaker 1: was anything to do in the home other than admiring
24:40
Speaker 1: the couple's collection. It was also a good opportunity to
24:44
Speaker 1: get some fresh air. It hadn't bothered me that much
24:47
Speaker 1: at first, but the old people smell was starting to
24:49
Speaker 1: get to me. After a regrettable trip to Arby's, we
24:54
Speaker 1: headed to the center of town to explore some of
24:55
Speaker 1: the local shops. Most of them were pretty unremarkable, but
24:59
Speaker 1: when we decided to visit a local antique shop, I
25:02
Speaker 1: once again started questioning the authenticity of the gifts our
25:05
Speaker 1: hosts had been receiving. The shop was filled almost exclusively
25:09
Speaker 1: with the same type of knick-knacks our Airbnb was furnished with.
25:13
Speaker 1: The same brands from the same era were scattered across
25:16
Speaker 1: the store. The funny thing was that I was pretty
25:18
Speaker 1: sure that the Thompson's collection was larger than the shops.
25:23
Speaker 1: And I asked the woman at the register if she
25:24
Speaker 1: happened to know the couple because we were staying with them,
25:27
Speaker 1: and It wasn't hard to guess that they had visited
25:30
Speaker 1: the store more than a few times. She said that
25:33
Speaker 1: she absolutely knew our hosts and that they were the
25:36
Speaker 1: reason that she had been able to stay in business
25:38
Speaker 1: so long. And I was certain some of the guests
25:40
Speaker 1: could have made the same trip that we had and
25:43
Speaker 1: had gotten gifts from the shop. But the woman at
25:46
Speaker 1: the counter really emphasized how many items the couple had
25:49
Speaker 1: purchased over the years. A few hours had passed and
25:52
Speaker 1: we headed back to our Airbnb to get ready for dinner.
25:55
Speaker 1: Once we arrived back at the home, I saw that
25:57
Speaker 1: our host still hadn't come downstairs. I headed to the
26:00
Speaker 1: bathroom to wash up and finally saw the oddest room
26:03
Speaker 1: of the home. I assumed the bathroom would have been
26:06
Speaker 1: spared the tacky decorations, but I was proven wrong again.
26:10
Speaker 1: Just like the other rooms in the home, shelves with
26:13
Speaker 1: knickknacks crowded the room. There was a musty smell that
26:16
Speaker 1: filled the room as well. A steamy shower and old
26:19
Speaker 1: dolls with fabric dresses will cause that over time. And
26:23
Speaker 1: the oddest feature of the bathroom was the shower, though. Now,
26:26
Speaker 1: this was before open-concept showers were popularized, as far as
26:30
Speaker 1: I know. The only walls that were clear of shelves
26:34
Speaker 1: were in the corner of the shower occupied, and there
26:36
Speaker 1: was no curtain or even glass door to keep the
26:38
Speaker 1: water in. And there was just a cement enclosure to
26:41
Speaker 1: catch the water from the showerhead that sprouted from the ceiling.
26:45
Speaker 1: I started to suspect that the Thompson's home had been
26:48
Speaker 1: a care facility at one point. There were just so
26:52
Speaker 1: many weird features, like the locker room-looking shower, the hospital
26:55
Speaker 1: beds inside the home. And I hit the head and
26:58
Speaker 1: left the bathroom. It wasn't even five minutes later when
27:02
Speaker 1: Kenny grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back
27:05
Speaker 1: into the bathroom, and he was acting frantic. I thought
27:08
Speaker 1: that he was maybe having a hard time with all
27:10
Speaker 1: the clutter in there, and he could also be particular
27:13
Speaker 1: about using public restrooms so that maybe that was the case.
27:18
Speaker 1: And then he walked me to the toilet. grabbed the
27:20
Speaker 1: little doll that was resting on the tank and shoved
27:23
Speaker 1: it at me. Kenny told me that the doll had
27:27
Speaker 1: a camera inside of it. He said that he was
27:30
Speaker 1: playing with the doll while he was on the toilet
27:31
Speaker 1: and saw that its left eye seemed to be different.
27:36
Speaker 1: I quickly turned the doll over to inspect its eyes
27:38
Speaker 1: under the light and sure enough, there was a lens
27:41
Speaker 1: visible in the pupil of the doll. After removing the
27:45
Speaker 1: doll's bonnet, I was able to see where a hole
27:47
Speaker 1: was carved into the back of the toy's head. I
27:50
Speaker 1: was able to dig out a camera from the doll
27:54
Speaker 1: and was immediately filled with rage. The layout of the
27:59
Speaker 1: house finally made sense to me. If there was one camera,
28:03
Speaker 1: I was certain the house was filled with them. There
28:06
Speaker 1: were probably hundreds of little trinkets and dolls that could
28:08
Speaker 1: hide one of those spy cams. In mine and my
28:12
Speaker 1: wife's room, it would focus entirely on the area where
28:15
Speaker 1: we'd climb out of bed and change. But it was
28:18
Speaker 1: Susie's room that bothered me the most. Of course, it
28:21
Speaker 1: wasn't aimed at her specifically. It was aimed at whoever
28:24
Speaker 1: would be likely to stay in a single room. That
28:27
Speaker 1: would be a son, a daughter, or someone vulnerable. The
28:30
Speaker 1: Thompsons were creating their own amateur photography of whoever stayed
28:35
Speaker 1: in their Airbnb. Illicit images, no matter the age, gender,
28:39
Speaker 1: or whatever. I couldn't even guess what the old couple
28:43
Speaker 1: was planning on doing with the footage of my family,
28:45
Speaker 1: but I was damn sure going to find out. I
28:48
Speaker 1: stormed out of the bathroom and my wife could see
28:51
Speaker 1: that I was ready to murder someone. The idea of
28:53
Speaker 1: Susie coming so close to exposing herself from every angle
28:57
Speaker 1: or Kenny being used for someone's pleasure. It sent me ballistic.
29:03
Speaker 1: My wife, unaware of what I had discovered, demanded that
29:06
Speaker 1: I calm down. As I made my way to the
29:09
Speaker 1: upstairs door, I saw Susie standing in the hallway. And
29:12
Speaker 1: that's when I realized. I hadn't really noticed before because
29:15
Speaker 1: her wardrobe all looked the same to me. but sometime
29:18
Speaker 1: shortly after arriving, Susie had retreated to her room and
29:21
Speaker 1: gotten changed. This meant that somewhere, potentially, the Thompsons had
29:25
Speaker 1: footage of my teenage daughter. The Thompsons' whole story about
29:30
Speaker 1: filling their home with gifts from guests was obviously a lie.
29:34
Speaker 1: My trip to the antique shop had confirmed that. This
29:37
Speaker 1: disgusting old couple had rigged their entire house to film
29:40
Speaker 1: their guests in the most intimate, revealing manner possible. It
29:45
Speaker 1: couldn't have been a sex thing. They were in their
29:48
Speaker 1: late 80s. Surely none of that stuff worked. Was it
29:51
Speaker 1: a power trip thing? The only thing I could think
29:54
Speaker 1: of was maybe blackmail. That they were using the footage
29:56
Speaker 1: to blackmail certain guests... ones who had money perhaps, or
30:00
Speaker 1: ones who had children they were willing to do anything
30:02
Speaker 1: to protect. The only thought that ran through my mind
30:06
Speaker 1: was that I was finding the footage of my family
30:08
Speaker 1: one way or the other, and if I couldn't do that,
30:11
Speaker 1: I would burn their little library to the ground, consequences
30:14
Speaker 1: be damned. I didn't want to risk scaring the couple
30:18
Speaker 1: before I could get my hands on them, and so
30:21
Speaker 1: I gently knocked on the locked door that led upstairs.
30:24
Speaker 1: A couple minutes later, Mr. Thompson came down the stairs
30:27
Speaker 1: and greeted us with a, very coy smile. He asked
30:32
Speaker 1: if there was anything he could help us with, or
30:34
Speaker 1: were we ready for dinner? I didn't even reply. I
30:38
Speaker 1: pulled my punch, but I smacked the old man in
30:40
Speaker 1: the face so hard that he fell onto his ass.
30:43
Speaker 1: My wife was shocked. She had never seen me hit
30:45
Speaker 1: anyone before, and she quickly realized why I had when
30:49
Speaker 1: I started shaking the man by his collar and demanding
30:51
Speaker 1: that he give me the footage of my family. Now
30:55
Speaker 1: from upstairs, I heard Mrs. Thompson call down in her
30:57
Speaker 1: deceptively frail, friendly voice. Everything okay down there? Mr. Thompson
31:04
Speaker 1: was so dazed that I left him on the floor
31:06
Speaker 1: and stormed up the stairs. I was ready to subdue
31:09
Speaker 1: the frail old woman if I had to. But when
31:11
Speaker 1: she saw me, she cowered against the wall. It was Walter,
31:16
Speaker 1: she said. It was his idea. I led her downstairs.
31:22
Speaker 1: Just as her husband was beginning to recover and told
31:25
Speaker 1: her that now was the time to tell me where
31:27
Speaker 1: the video was. If she wasn't going to play ball,
31:31
Speaker 1: I would start beating the man to death. And that
31:34
Speaker 1: was about the time my wife grabbed both of the
31:36
Speaker 1: kids and went to wait out in the car. After
31:39
Speaker 1: a couple more slaps to her husband's face, the old
31:42
Speaker 1: woman told me that everything was in the upstairs bedroom
31:44
Speaker 1: at the end of the hall. I went upstairs and
31:47
Speaker 1: found a computer sitting on a desk with a dozen
31:50
Speaker 1: of those spy cams. I found them piled alongside it,
31:54
Speaker 1: and there was also a TV and VCR setup next
31:57
Speaker 1: to the desk, presumably so the impotent old pervert could
32:00
Speaker 1: watch as much as he wanted. I grabbed a cane
32:04
Speaker 1: that I'd seen in the hall and I began to
32:05
Speaker 1: smash the entire setup into bits. I found a cabinet
32:10
Speaker 1: in the room that held VHS tapes. There weren't as
32:13
Speaker 1: many as I expected, and the most recent one seemed
32:15
Speaker 1: to be dated the prior weekend. I don't think they'd
32:18
Speaker 1: gotten around to filming my family yet. It was a
32:22
Speaker 1: cold comfort, and I yelled out for Mrs. Thompson, demanding
32:25
Speaker 1: that she bring me a garbage bag. I gathered all
32:29
Speaker 1: of the tapes and spy cams in the bag and
32:31
Speaker 1: made my way downstairs. I paraded this twisted couple through
32:35
Speaker 1: each room downstairs so they could point out where each
32:38
Speaker 1: camera was hidden. Every cam we came across pushed me
32:42
Speaker 1: closer to the edge, and once I was sure that
32:44
Speaker 1: I had collected all of the surveillance equipment, I walked
32:47
Speaker 1: into the backyard. In the middle of the yard was
32:49
Speaker 1: some shabby fire pit surrounded by a couple of lawn chairs.
32:53
Speaker 1: My wife had mentioned the fire pit after she booked
32:56
Speaker 1: our Airbnb, and I had never imagined this is how
32:59
Speaker 1: I was going to put it to use. I don't
33:01
Speaker 1: know if you know this, but VHS tape is very flammable.
33:06
Speaker 1: The old couple was even kind enough to provide me
33:08
Speaker 1: with some lighter fluid and a lighter after some not-so-gentle coaxing.
33:14
Speaker 1: I watched. T-shirt over my mouth to protect myself from
33:17
Speaker 1: the acrid fumes as the Thompsons' disgusting little perversions went
33:21
Speaker 1: up in black smoke. I didn't think about the rest.
33:24
Speaker 1: I didn't think about the consequences. I was pretty sure
33:27
Speaker 1: there wouldn't be any. If the couple was being honest
33:30
Speaker 1: about the remaining spy cams, which I believe they were,
33:32
Speaker 1: I had just burnt all the evidence of their sick operation. Mr.
33:37
Speaker 1: Thompson had severe bruising all over his face from where
33:40
Speaker 1: I had smacked him and I didn't want to risk
33:42
Speaker 1: explaining myself to the police. You had an accident, I said.
33:47
Speaker 1: We had to find an alternative accommodation, and if I
33:50
Speaker 1: ever hear anything from you again, you don't want to
33:53
Speaker 1: know what will happen. You see, I knew they wouldn't
33:57
Speaker 1: get prosecuted. They would pretend that they had no idea
34:00
Speaker 1: who put the cameras there, or they'd ditch all the
34:02
Speaker 1: evidence by the time I convinced the cops what they
34:04
Speaker 1: were actually up to. And when I asked Mrs. Thompson
34:08
Speaker 1: if she understood, she nodded, and the couple were sobbing
34:12
Speaker 1: and clinging to each other. They weren't getting any sympathy
34:15
Speaker 1: from me though. I knew what kind of people they
34:17
Speaker 1: truly were after all. I assured them that I knew
34:21
Speaker 1: their address and if I saw any listings posted from
34:23
Speaker 1: it on Airbnb, I'd return and finish what I started.
34:28
Speaker 1: I gathered the rest of our things from the home
34:30
Speaker 1: and brought them out into the car. There was no
34:32
Speaker 1: way my family was ever going back into that home.
34:36
Speaker 1: My wife kept asking me if I was alright to
34:38
Speaker 1: drive after I got in the car. And once I
34:40
Speaker 1: saw how my kids were looking at me, I forced
34:42
Speaker 1: myself to calm down. I needed to put a couple
34:46
Speaker 1: of hours between me and the Thompsons, and we ended
34:49
Speaker 1: up staying at a crappy hotel a few hours away
34:52
Speaker 1: and finally made it to my sister's place the next afternoon.
34:56
Speaker 1: I spent the next few years worrying that I did
34:58
Speaker 1: the wrong thing, and I kept thinking that my life
35:01
Speaker 1: was about to be over because of these creeps, had
35:03
Speaker 1: I been through enough that night. And as the years
35:06
Speaker 1: continued to pass, I was finally given the closure that
35:09
Speaker 1: I needed. I kept my word about keeping tabs on
35:11
Speaker 1: the Thompsons, It wasn't something I did often, and usually
35:15
Speaker 1: after a hard night of drinking, and there hadn't been
35:17
Speaker 1: many of those throughout the years. I remember the night
35:21
Speaker 1: I found Walter Thompson's obituary online, though. It was about
35:24
Speaker 1: five years after this whole ordeal. One down, I remember
35:28
Speaker 1: thinking to myself. His obituary informed me that he was
35:32
Speaker 1: survived by his wife of 57 years, Mary Ann Thompson.
35:36
Speaker 1: And now that I had her name, I was able
35:38
Speaker 1: to confirm that she had croaked a few months after
35:40
Speaker 1: her husband died. You shouldn't make it a habit of
35:43
Speaker 1: celebrating someone's death, but the Thompsons are the one exception
35:47
Speaker 1: I make for myself. It always surprises me how easy
35:50
Speaker 1: it is to forget those cautionary tales we're told when
35:53
Speaker 1: we're young. They make for great stories, but I think
35:56
Speaker 1: you have to experience something out of the ordinary before
35:58
Speaker 1: you start to take them really seriously. I'm so proud
36:01
Speaker 1: of my family and how they came through it all.
36:03
Speaker 1: It was the most bizarre and traumatic moment in our lives,
36:06
Speaker 1: but it helped remind me that not everyone is as
36:09
Speaker 1: trustworthy as they appear. Hey Joel, so a few years
36:37
Speaker 1: ago I took my wife and two kids on a
36:39
Speaker 1: road trip to visit some state parks. The kids were
36:42
Speaker 1: at the age where literally everything caused an argument between
36:45
Speaker 1: the two. They'd argue about billboards and diners we drove past.
36:49
Speaker 1: They'd argue about who was in charge of the radio.
36:52
Speaker 1: And they even managed to get into an argument about
36:55
Speaker 1: which one of them was our favorite. You get the idea.
36:59
Speaker 1: In the end I could see a vein twitching on
37:01
Speaker 1: my wife's forehead and this was never a good sign.
37:05
Speaker 1: I love my wife, but she would agree with me
37:07
Speaker 1: that the kids get their tempers from her. I could
37:10
Speaker 1: see that she was about to explode, which is why
37:13
Speaker 1: I was surprised when she pulled out her phone and
37:15
Speaker 1: began scrolling like nothing was wrong. But after five more
37:18
Speaker 1: minutes of the kids arguing, she yelled shut up at
37:21
Speaker 1: the top of her lungs. There was the woman I loved,
37:25
Speaker 1: and she's lucky I'm used to her outbursts because I
37:27
Speaker 1: damn near veered off the road. Shut up and listen,
37:31
Speaker 1: she said. I have news. And I asked her what
37:33
Speaker 1: was up. And it turned out that the small town
37:36
Speaker 1: we were coming up to had a curiosities museum. And
37:40
Speaker 1: not only that, it had an Airbnb for rent. We
37:44
Speaker 1: planned on staying at a hotel in one of the
37:46
Speaker 1: towns we were passing through later in the day, but
37:48
Speaker 1: I could tell that the wife was fed up with
37:50
Speaker 1: our afternoon of driving. We arrived at the small town,
37:54
Speaker 1: and it was more of a main street than a
37:56
Speaker 1: town itself. Just a line of buildings, all cozy and
37:59
Speaker 1: kind of Victorian looking. The main street was a no-traffic zone,
38:03
Speaker 1: so the kids expended their energy running up and down
38:06
Speaker 1: that street. I had to scold them for almost knocking
38:09
Speaker 1: over an older man exiting one of the shops we
38:12
Speaker 1: went past. The man introduced himself and was really kind
38:16
Speaker 1: about the whole situation. He hadn't recognized us as locals,
38:19
Speaker 1: so it wasn't hard for him to guess that we
38:22
Speaker 1: were in town to check out its only attraction, this
38:25
Speaker 1: curiosities museum. We exchanged a few pleasantries and he offered
38:30
Speaker 1: me his card before he went on his way. This
38:33
Speaker 1: gave me a good laugh because the card informed me
38:36
Speaker 1: that the man was a personal injury lawyer, probably the
38:39
Speaker 1: last guy that I'd want my kids to run over
38:41
Speaker 1: and give a broken hip to. The outskirts of the
38:44
Speaker 1: town featured a beautiful countryside forest. And as you may
38:48
Speaker 1: have guessed by our kids' super saiyan level energy, we're
38:52
Speaker 1: an active family. We enjoyed our outdoor sports, mountain biking,
38:56
Speaker 1: and most of all, hiking. And so this town was
38:58
Speaker 1: a little slice of heaven for us. As a city-dwelling
39:01
Speaker 1: office worker, I was already eyeing the for sale sign
39:05
Speaker 1: posted outside one of the homes we passed. And the
39:08
Speaker 1: town seemed like just the kind of place that I
39:10
Speaker 1: wouldn't mind actually settling down in after retirement. And we
39:15
Speaker 1: made our way to the Curiosities Museum. And of course
39:18
Speaker 1: we arrived the only day it was closed. That was fine.
39:21
Speaker 1: It gave us something to do the following day, since
39:23
Speaker 1: it didn't look like the town had a vast selection
39:26
Speaker 1: of activities. The kids were still bursting with energy, though.
39:30
Speaker 1: Being stuck in the car since early morning hadn't really
39:32
Speaker 1: helped any of our temperaments. And you'd have thought that
39:35
Speaker 1: the constant screaming, bickering, and fighting might have tired them out,
39:38
Speaker 1: but it seemed to have the opposite effect. Right now
39:41
Speaker 1: they were running up and down Main Street, pretending to
39:43
Speaker 1: dodge imaginary traffic. Now the next story was going to
39:48
Speaker 1: be actually bookings, the Airbnb. And my jaw dropped when
39:52
Speaker 1: my wife walked straight up to the lockbox on the
39:55
Speaker 1: wall outside the property, entered the code, and let herself in.
40:00
Speaker 1: Apparently she'd booked everything online while I was chatting with
40:03
Speaker 1: that lawyer. So we settled into our Airbnb, which was delightful.
40:08
Speaker 1: The kids were so wowed by the rustic cottage like
40:11
Speaker 1: they actually calmed down for a moment, and I started
40:14
Speaker 1: lugging in our bags while the wife got things ready
40:16
Speaker 1: for dinner. After dinner, as the sun was setting, we
40:20
Speaker 1: decided to go for a walk. There was a nice
40:22
Speaker 1: stretch of woods behind the cottage that I was looking
40:25
Speaker 1: forward to exploring. And so with a smile on my face,
40:29
Speaker 1: the family and I headed out back and started making
40:32
Speaker 1: our way down a lightly traveled path through a cluster
40:35
Speaker 1: of trees. Now this was perfect, because the kids absolutely
40:39
Speaker 1: loved forest explorations. Now I had to make sure to
40:43
Speaker 1: keep a close eye on the kiddos. The last thing
40:45
Speaker 1: I wanted to deal with was dragging them out of
40:47
Speaker 1: a bush of poison ivy. Now the area was new
40:50
Speaker 1: to us, but the path we followed looked straight and narrow,
40:53
Speaker 1: so there was no chance of getting lost. Unfortunately, we
40:58
Speaker 1: got lost. And now you might be thinking that I'm
41:01
Speaker 1: a pretty crappy survivalist, but I assure you that it
41:03
Speaker 1: wasn't really my fault. We'd been walking for around half
41:06
Speaker 1: an hour when Meadow, my daughter... began to dance around
41:11
Speaker 1: while yelling out that she had to pee. And the
41:14
Speaker 1: path was extremely overgrown this far out and we were
41:17
Speaker 1: just planning on heading back. My daughter said that she
41:20
Speaker 1: couldn't wait though, so she was going to have to
41:23
Speaker 1: take care of business outside. It had gotten pretty dark
41:26
Speaker 1: out and my wife had been using her phone as
41:28
Speaker 1: a flashlight for the last five minutes. My daughter was
41:32
Speaker 1: obviously creeped out by the darkness and took my wife's
41:34
Speaker 1: phone as she walked out to the trail to pee
41:37
Speaker 1: and This didn't seem like a big deal. I told
41:40
Speaker 1: Meadow to watch out for poison ivy and to hurry up.
41:43
Speaker 1: As I was fishing a flashlight out of my pack, Hunter,
41:48
Speaker 1: my son, decided to make one of the stupidest decisions
41:51
Speaker 1: of his life. And as soon as he saw that
41:53
Speaker 1: I was distracted, Hunter crept off the trail after his sister.
41:58
Speaker 1: Seeking revenge after one of the day's earlier arguments, Hunter
42:01
Speaker 1: decided to push Meadow over as she was squatting in
42:04
Speaker 1: the middle of the woods taking care of her business.
42:07
Speaker 1: And to this day, I can't really blame Meadow for
42:09
Speaker 1: her reaction. Hunter was going through a bit of a
42:12
Speaker 1: mean streak and she genuinely deserved to give him a
42:14
Speaker 1: grade A ass kicking. She hiked up her pants and
42:18
Speaker 1: began to scream bloody murder at Hunter as she began
42:21
Speaker 1: her chase. My son recognized the fury passed down by
42:25
Speaker 1: his mother in his sister's eyes and bolted further into
42:29
Speaker 1: the woods while laughing like some maniac. Chasing after two
42:33
Speaker 1: preteens in an unfamiliar forest is no easy feat. My
42:37
Speaker 1: wife trailed behind as I tried to catch up with
42:39
Speaker 1: the kids. A few minutes off the trail can be
42:41
Speaker 1: extremely disorienting, and it didn't take long before we were
42:44
Speaker 1: all lost. My wife and I kept yelling for the
42:47
Speaker 1: kids to come back, but kept losing sight of them
42:50
Speaker 1: as the brush got thicker. And the chase continued on
42:53
Speaker 1: for a few minutes until I finally got my hands
42:56
Speaker 1: on my son. Now, I've always prided myself on being
42:59
Speaker 1: the cool head of the family, but when I saw
43:02
Speaker 1: that Meadow wasn't with Hunter, I lost it. I began
43:06
Speaker 1: shaking him by the shoulders, yelling in his face, asking
43:08
Speaker 1: where his freaking sister was. My wife pulled me away
43:12
Speaker 1: and unsuccessfully tried to calm me down. I was absolutely terrified.
43:17
Speaker 1: Losing track of one of your kids is one of
43:18
Speaker 1: the worst feelings you can experience as a parent. And
43:21
Speaker 1: as I started to finally calm down, I grabbed my
43:24
Speaker 1: wife and son by the hands and told them to
43:27
Speaker 1: help me call out for Meadow. My wife held out
43:30
Speaker 1: our flashlight and scanned our surroundings as we made our
43:33
Speaker 1: way to the clearing just ahead of us. As we
43:35
Speaker 1: broke through the trees, I saw a couple of properties
43:38
Speaker 1: off in the distance. We yelled out for Meadow in
43:42
Speaker 1: a rhythm so that she would be able to answer
43:44
Speaker 1: us if she heard us. I grabbed another flashlight from
43:47
Speaker 1: my pack to help with the search, and then I
43:50
Speaker 1: remember my daughter still had my wife's phone. Of course,
43:53
Speaker 1: I was smart enough to bring multiple flashlights on our
43:55
Speaker 1: trip through the woods, but dumb enough to leave my
43:58
Speaker 1: phone at the cabin. My wife was always glued to hers,
44:02
Speaker 1: and so most of the time my own phone is
44:04
Speaker 1: an afterthought. There was still no sign of my daughter
44:08
Speaker 1: and we needed a plan. I asked my wife to
44:10
Speaker 1: take Hunter and head to the homes in the distance
44:13
Speaker 1: to ask for help. If any of the homes were occupied,
44:16
Speaker 1: she could use a phone to call Meadow or even
44:18
Speaker 1: the police. I would stay behind and keep listening and
44:21
Speaker 1: looking for my daughter. I didn't think that she could
44:24
Speaker 1: have made it far from where we were and I
44:26
Speaker 1: didn't want to lose our spot. As they made their
44:29
Speaker 1: way towards the homes, I continued my search. I could
44:32
Speaker 1: just make the two out in the distance as they
44:34
Speaker 1: wrapped around the first house. The outside light on the
44:37
Speaker 1: home revealed their silhouettes. And that's when I heard one
44:40
Speaker 1: of the most frightening sounds of my life. It doesn't
44:43
Speaker 1: matter who you are, a primal fear will rise up
44:47
Speaker 1: in your guts if you're out in the woods after
44:49
Speaker 1: dark by yourself and hear a sound like this. It
44:53
Speaker 1: sounded like a zombie or a rabid animal. A dry
44:56
Speaker 1: rasp that sent a jolt up the back of my neck.
45:00
Speaker 1: My flashlight scanned the woods, but I couldn't make out
45:03
Speaker 1: where the sound was coming from. If something were to
45:05
Speaker 1: jump out at me, I wouldn't have been surprised. I
45:09
Speaker 1: kept yelling for my daughter until I saw several beams
45:11
Speaker 1: of light approaching me from the clearing at my back.
45:15
Speaker 1: My wife arrived with the occupants of the home she
45:17
Speaker 1: visited for help. The couple my wife brought looked to
45:20
Speaker 1: be in their 50s and were willing to help with
45:22
Speaker 1: our search. My wife confirmed that our daughter hadn't answered
45:26
Speaker 1: when she yelled out to her, but the county police
45:29
Speaker 1: were on the way to help. Maybe my daughter had
45:32
Speaker 1: dropped my wife's phone while she was being chased by
45:34
Speaker 1: her brother through the woods. I told myself we would
45:37
Speaker 1: find Meadow any minute now, especially with more people searching
45:41
Speaker 1: for her. But as each minute passed, a dread was
45:44
Speaker 1: watching over me with increasing intensity. The county police began
45:49
Speaker 1: to show shortly after the neighbors had joined us. The
45:52
Speaker 1: first officer on the scene began taking details and asking
45:55
Speaker 1: where we had come from. As I saw another officer
45:58
Speaker 1: beginning to set up lights, I felt sick to my stomach.
46:02
Speaker 1: It really hit me how much of a big deal
46:03
Speaker 1: this was, and it started to look like an actual
46:06
Speaker 1: crime scene. Anything could have happened to my daughter. I
46:10
Speaker 1: began to picture her tripping in the woods and hitting
46:12
Speaker 1: her head across some rock. Maybe she stumbled into a pond.
46:16
Speaker 1: I knew she couldn't swim at that time. And then
46:19
Speaker 1: I thought of that wild sound that I had heard earlier.
46:23
Speaker 1: Was it possible an animal in the woods could have
46:25
Speaker 1: attacked Meadow? I looked over at Hunter and the expression
46:29
Speaker 1: on his face was stone. I'd never seen him look
46:32
Speaker 1: so guilty. I was the last nail in the coffin
46:36
Speaker 1: and I broke down. I began to sob in front
46:39
Speaker 1: of my wife, my son and the officers that were
46:42
Speaker 1: there to help. My wife grabbed me around the back
46:44
Speaker 1: of the head, pulled me close and told me that
46:47
Speaker 1: everything was going to be okay and I couldn't believe
46:49
Speaker 1: that she was holding it together so well. Never was
46:52
Speaker 1: I so certain that I picked the right woman to
46:53
Speaker 1: share my life with than then and As it began
46:57
Speaker 1: to calm down, I heard a scream coming from a
46:59
Speaker 1: few feet in front of the tree line. Damn it,
47:03
Speaker 1: somebody help me! An officer that had been making their
47:07
Speaker 1: way towards the woods had fallen over, and as we
47:10
Speaker 1: rushed over to see what had happened, we could barely
47:12
Speaker 1: make out where the officer had fallen in the knee-high grass.
47:16
Speaker 1: Two other officers approached the man and began to help
47:18
Speaker 1: him stand up. Found her. The officer had fallen over because...
47:25
Speaker 1: He had taken a step into the same well that
47:28
Speaker 1: my daughter had about half an hour earlier. Thankfully, he
47:32
Speaker 1: fell forward to not end up in the abandoned well
47:36
Speaker 1: on top of her, and my wife, who had been
47:38
Speaker 1: keeping it together, let out a shriek when she saw
47:41
Speaker 1: the state of Meadow. I thank God to this day
47:44
Speaker 1: that the well was a shallow one. Meadow was crumpled
47:47
Speaker 1: up at the bottom of that well, covered in cuts, bruises,
47:51
Speaker 1: and a mixture of muck and mold. She was obviously
47:54
Speaker 1: in some state of shock. Her eyes moved up towards
47:57
Speaker 1: our lights, but the only other movement from her was
48:00
Speaker 1: the rising and falling of her chest. And now that
48:03
Speaker 1: I was directly above the well, I realized that the
48:06
Speaker 1: rasping sound I had heard earlier was not coming from
48:08
Speaker 1: a wild animal, but from my daughter herself. Paramedics had
48:14
Speaker 1: arrived shortly after the police had, and they were able
48:17
Speaker 1: to evaluate the best way to bring my daughter up.
48:20
Speaker 1: Once Meadow was above ground, she was placed on a
48:23
Speaker 1: stretcher to be taken to the closest hospital. And I
48:26
Speaker 1: rode with her in the ambulance, and my wife and
48:28
Speaker 1: son were given a ride by the neighbors who had
48:31
Speaker 1: helped us with the search. My daughter's condition was stable
48:34
Speaker 1: on the ride to the hospital, but it was obvious
48:36
Speaker 1: that she had injured her legs. And after a few
48:39
Speaker 1: hours at the hospital, we discovered that Meadow had broken
48:42
Speaker 1: one of her ankles and had severely sprained the other.
48:44
Speaker 1: And that was a wrap on our trip. Don't get
48:48
Speaker 1: me wrong. I was just happy that she was in
48:50
Speaker 1: one piece, but we weren't going to be exploring or
48:52
Speaker 1: hiking as a family anytime soon. God bless that couple
48:57
Speaker 1: that helped us. They drove my wife back to our
48:59
Speaker 1: Airbnb so she could pick up the car and come
49:02
Speaker 1: back to take us to the cottage after my daughter
49:05
Speaker 1: was discharged. It was almost four in the morning as
49:08
Speaker 1: we drove back to the Airbnb. It was the quietest
49:11
Speaker 1: ride I had ever taken with my children. They both
49:14
Speaker 1: slept in the back seat until we arrived at the
49:16
Speaker 1: cottage and I held my daughter inside with the wheelchair
49:19
Speaker 1: that we were given and carried her to her bed
49:21
Speaker 1: as she fell in and out of consciousness. Since we
49:25
Speaker 1: weren't going to explore any more parks on this trip,
49:28
Speaker 1: we decided to extend our stay at the cottage for
49:30
Speaker 1: a week. It didn't seem like the worst place for
49:32
Speaker 1: Meadow to start recovering. I decided to put off Hunter's
49:36
Speaker 1: punishment until we had arrived back home. His attitude was
49:39
Speaker 1: pretty subdued and I could tell that he actually was
49:41
Speaker 1: pretty torn up about the night's events. And the next
49:44
Speaker 1: day I visited the couple who had helped us and
49:47
Speaker 1: made sure to thank them and asked them if there
49:49
Speaker 1: was anything I could do to repay them. Now throughout
49:52
Speaker 1: the week we were visited by many of the town's residents.
49:55
Speaker 1: It wasn't exactly hard to figure out where we were
49:57
Speaker 1: staying and word travels fast in a small town. Even
50:01
Speaker 1: the personal injury lawyer that we had met on our
50:03
Speaker 1: first day in town dropped by. and he assured me
50:06
Speaker 1: that he wanted to check on us and he wasn't
50:08
Speaker 1: trying to drum up business. Apparently, the abandoned well my
50:12
Speaker 1: daughter fell down was on state-owned land, so it wouldn't
50:15
Speaker 1: be an easy case for him to take. And I
50:18
Speaker 1: told him that I wasn't interested in anything like that,
50:20
Speaker 1: but I would take the get-well gifts that he had
50:23
Speaker 1: brought for my daughter. I'd like to say the rest
50:26
Speaker 1: of our stay was uneventful, but things did start to
50:28
Speaker 1: get a little weird before we left. Almost every night
50:31
Speaker 1: we stayed in that cottage, Meadow had woken up in
50:34
Speaker 1: the middle of the night with her nightmares about that well.
50:38
Speaker 1: She hadn't remembered even falling down the well when we
50:40
Speaker 1: asked her about it the morning after, and I just
50:43
Speaker 1: chalked it up to her state of shock. Now though,
50:47
Speaker 1: she told us that in her dreams, someone was leading
50:50
Speaker 1: her to the well and insisting that she jump down it. Yeah,
50:54
Speaker 1: I know, creepy right? And I did my best to
50:57
Speaker 1: calm her down every night but it was clear that
50:59
Speaker 1: being away from home was having an effect on her.
51:02
Speaker 1: And we ended up deciding to leave a couple of
51:04
Speaker 1: days early and get the family home. Now the reason
51:08
Speaker 1: I decided to write in was the phone call that
51:10
Speaker 1: I had a couple of weeks ago with that lawyer
51:12
Speaker 1: that we met on the trip. Now we initially started
51:15
Speaker 1: keeping in touch when I called him about six months
51:17
Speaker 1: after the well incident. I wanted to let him know
51:21
Speaker 1: that Meadow was walking again and it was the least
51:23
Speaker 1: that I could do after the gifts that he gave us.
51:26
Speaker 1: We'd chit-chat every now and then, probably about every six months,
51:29
Speaker 1: and talk about the town. And after all, I was
51:31
Speaker 1: still interested in maybe settling down there after retirement. But
51:35
Speaker 1: that's not the case anymore. Last time we talked, that
51:39
Speaker 1: old lawyer told me that he had something funny to
51:42
Speaker 1: tell me about the well. A couple of years after
51:45
Speaker 1: our trip, another kid ended up down that well. The
51:48
Speaker 1: lawyer suspected it was because Meadows' incident made everyone in
51:51
Speaker 1: town aware of it. The thing is, though, after Meadows' accident,
51:55
Speaker 1: the The town had installed a grate over that well,
51:58
Speaker 1: so it was odd that a kid would have been
52:00
Speaker 1: able to pry it up and get down there somehow. Now,
52:04
Speaker 1: I had already heard this story from him last year,
52:06
Speaker 1: but he told me that he had an update. After
52:09
Speaker 1: the grate failed to keep the town's children out of
52:11
Speaker 1: that well, it was decided that it would just be
52:13
Speaker 1: filled with cement. And that went off without a hitch,
52:16
Speaker 1: but a couple of weeks later, people in town started
52:18
Speaker 1: sharing around a picture of the filled well. Someone had
52:22
Speaker 1: decided to vandalize it and spray paint a message for
52:25
Speaker 1: the town residents. and it just said five words, but
52:28
Speaker 1: what the lawyer found funny, I found very disturbing. You
52:33
Speaker 1: can't keep us out. Superstition isn't really my thing, but
52:39
Speaker 1: after the dreams Meadow had told me about, I'm not
52:41
Speaker 1: interested in visiting the town ever again, let alone retiring there.
52:46
Speaker 1: There are plenty of towns across America where I can
52:48
Speaker 1: settle down. God knows I don't need to take my
52:51
Speaker 1: chances on that one. And you might even hear your
53:13
Speaker 1: story featured on the next video. And if you want
53:41
Speaker 1: to support me even more, grab early access to all
53:44
Speaker 1: future narrations and bonus content over on Patreon or click
53:48
Speaker 1: that big join button to hear about the extra perks
53:50
Speaker 1: for members of the channel. And check out the Let's
53:53
Speaker 1: Read podcast where you can hear all of these stories
53:55
Speaker 1: in big compilations located anywhere you listen to podcasts. I
53:59
Speaker 1: also have a true crime channel called Saturn Soul. All
54:02
Speaker 1: links in the description below. Thanks so much, friends. And remember, Bye. Bye.