Latest / Crime and Horror / These places look normal… until they KILL YOU - MrBallen

Transcript

These places look normal… until they KILL YOU - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Both of today's stories are about people who made big
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Speaker 1: choices that they thought would improve their lives, but neither
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Speaker 1: of them really took the time to actually learn exactly
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Speaker 1: what they were signing up for that led to disaster.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's stories, if you're a
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Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into our first story
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Speaker 1: called Dreamcar. At eight am on June eighth, twenty fifteen,
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Speaker 1: seventy two year old James Lee Rogers parked his beautiful
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Speaker 1: red Corvette in the parking lot of a waffle house
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Speaker 1: in Port Arthur, Texas. And as he pulled that car
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Speaker 1: into the lot, I mean, James, he just felt so
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Speaker 1: proud to be driving this vehicle. This was a two
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Speaker 1: thousand and seven C six Chevy Corvette, pristine condition, and
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Speaker 1: it was exactly the car that James had been dreaming
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Speaker 1: about like his whole life. I mean, it drove amazing,
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Speaker 1: it looked incredible, and more than that, hadd all these
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Speaker 1: these modern elements to it. I mean they didn't even
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Speaker 1: have regular door handles. Everything was like push buttons and
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Speaker 1: electric I mean, to him, owning this car was like
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Speaker 1: owning a really flashy sports car. And he thought that
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Speaker 1: you know, anybody who saw him driving it, they knew
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Speaker 1: this guy had made it. And on top of having
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Speaker 1: this really cool car, James also had like a pretty
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Speaker 1: awesome life here in Port Arthur. I mean, he had
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Speaker 1: lots of family in the area, he had grown up here.
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Speaker 1: He loved living here. But he also really loved this
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Speaker 1: particular waffle house. It was where he went basically every
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Speaker 1: morning in his flashy car to get his coffee. But
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Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't just their coffee that he was
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Speaker 1: drawn to it. It was the wait staff. It was
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Speaker 1: the regulars who went to this waffle house. This had
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Speaker 1: become like a sort of second home for him, and
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Speaker 1: he really looked forward to coming here basically every day,
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Speaker 1: and so he parks his corvette. He gets out, and
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Speaker 1: before he walks into the restaurant, he has to tell
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Speaker 1: his dog. He'd brought his dog along, Leah, this cute
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Speaker 1: little dog, to stay in the car because the dog
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Speaker 1: was not allowed in the waffle house. You know, this
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Speaker 1: was something he knew, but it was going to be quick.
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Speaker 1: So he told Leah, you know, to be a good
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Speaker 1: girl and stay in the car. Don't rip it up.
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Speaker 1: You know, this is his dream car. She was a
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Speaker 1: very good dog, and so she sat down. He shut
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Speaker 1: the doors, you know, used the electric push buttons to
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Speaker 1: do it, and then once he knew his was secure,
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Speaker 1: into the restaurant, he went. Once he got inside, James
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Speaker 1: took his usual seat at the counter, where his friend
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Speaker 1: Mjay was already sitting. Mj was in his sixties and
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Speaker 1: like James, he was also a fixture at this swaffle house,
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Speaker 1: and so the two immediately began chit chatting about the
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Speaker 1: weather and their kids. And then at some point James
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Speaker 1: ordered his coffee and use that as a chance to
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Speaker 1: catch up with some of the weight staff that he
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Speaker 1: spoke to every morning. And then eventually more regulars began
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Speaker 1: filtering in and out, and James made a point to
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Speaker 1: chat with them and laugh with them as well. I mean, again,
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Speaker 1: this was like his his second home. And in fact,
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Speaker 1: on this particular day, there were so many people that
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Speaker 1: he wanted to talk to coming in and out of
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Speaker 1: the restaurant that he decided, you know what, my dog's
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Speaker 1: find out there. You know, I've only been in here
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Speaker 1: for a few minutes. I'm gonna order some food as well. However,
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Speaker 1: right after James ordered his food, he turned and he
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Speaker 1: looked out the window into the parking lot, and even
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Speaker 1: though he couldn't actually see his corvette, he could see
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Speaker 1: that it was extremely sunny and very hot outside. Like
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Speaker 1: he knew that when he showed but I mean, he's
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Speaker 1: looking out there and it just looks like a desert
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Speaker 1: out there. It's so hot, and like there's nobody out there.
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Speaker 1: It's just cars getting blasted by the sun. And he's thinking,
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Speaker 1: like Lea's out there. And even though he had had
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Speaker 1: the ac on when he pulled up, and so you know,
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Speaker 1: likely his his corvette was still a little bit cool,
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Speaker 1: there was no way that it was particularly comfortable in
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Speaker 1: his car right now. And so before his food showed up,
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Speaker 1: James turned to MJ and just said Hey, I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: be right back. You want to just like hold my seat.
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna go out and check on something.
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Speaker 1: And MJ who was kind of busy talking to other people,
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Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, go ahead, I'll I'll save your seat.
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Speaker 1: And then James left the restaurant to go check on Leyo.
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Speaker 1: And so James after leaving the waffle house, he sort
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Speaker 1: of ran around the corner out of view of where
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Speaker 1: he had been sitting, and he went over to his
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Speaker 1: beautiful dream car. And as soon as he walked up
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Speaker 1: to the window, he could see that Leo was you know,
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Speaker 1: very excited inside, happy to see James again, and you know,
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Speaker 1: just for good measure, even though he now knew his
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Speaker 1: dog's okay, he climbed inside the driver's seat and shut
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Speaker 1: the door, and he turned around and he pet his
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Speaker 1: dog and just he could tell the temperature inside the
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Speaker 1: car was not that bad and so he was only
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Speaker 1: going to be in the restaurant for another fifteen twenty
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Speaker 1: minutes tops she'd be okay. However, after only having sat
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Speaker 1: inside his car for a matter of maybe like thirty
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Speaker 1: or sixty seconds, he felt himself getting really hot. I
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Speaker 1: mean it was definitely not cool inside the car, and
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Speaker 1: the sun's burning through the windows, and he just was like,
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Speaker 1: you know what, this is not responsible to leave my
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Speaker 1: dog in here. I can't do this. And so even
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Speaker 1: though he had placed his order for food, he figured
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Speaker 1: he could go in there cancel the order. He was
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Speaker 1: a regular, they'd understand, you know, he could have one
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Speaker 1: more sip of coffee. But that was it. He needed
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Speaker 1: to get back out here and basically put the ac
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Speaker 1: back on and get him and his dog back into
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Speaker 1: the comforts of their own home. But when James pushed
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Speaker 1: that super fancy button on his car door that he
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Speaker 1: was sort of so proud of how modern his vehicle was.
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Speaker 1: When he pushed it to open his door, nothing happened,
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Speaker 1: and so James like, he's just staring at the door
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Speaker 1: in confusion because this has never happened before, and so
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Speaker 1: he starts pushing it a few more times, but again
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Speaker 1: nothing happened. And then after a few moments, when this
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Speaker 1: car door was not budgeting, James reached across and started
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Speaker 1: pushing the button on the passenger side door to see
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Speaker 1: if maybe it was just an issue with you know,
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Speaker 1: his door. But no, that door wouldn't open either, and
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Speaker 1: so finally he decided he would just try to turn
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Speaker 1: the car on to see if maybe that would help.
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Speaker 1: But he couldn't get his car to turn on. The
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Speaker 1: Corvette was completely dead and James had no idea why,
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Speaker 1: but he knew this was not good because you know,
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Speaker 1: this car, because it's so modern, didn't have normal handles.
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Speaker 1: They really were all electric, all buttons, and so if
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Speaker 1: these buttons aren't working and all the windows were up,
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Speaker 1: like what do you do? How do you get out?
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Speaker 1: And so James he's starting to stress out about like
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Speaker 1: what's going to happen here? Like is he going to
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Speaker 1: have to break a window of his beloved vehicle here?
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Speaker 1: Is that what he's going to have to do? And
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Speaker 1: also how crazy is that? How could he have wound
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Speaker 1: up in this position? But also the sun is just
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Speaker 1: burning through the glass and he's suddenly becoming really aware
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Speaker 1: of just how hot it was getting inside of his car,
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Speaker 1: Like this is sort of becoming an emergency really quickly,
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Speaker 1: I mean, because again he can't even turn on the car,
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Speaker 1: so he can't turn on the AC. He's like inside
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Speaker 1: of an oven at this point, and so James instinctively
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Speaker 1: reached for where his phone would normally be, but it
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Speaker 1: wasn't there, and that's when he remembered he had left
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Speaker 1: his phone inside the waffle house when he had gone
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Speaker 1: in earlier. It was low on charge, and he had
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Speaker 1: handed it off to one of the weight staff to
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Speaker 1: go plug in somewhere, and so his phone's inside, he
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Speaker 1: has no way to contact anyone. But luckily, right at
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Speaker 1: that point, James looked out the corner of his eye
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Speaker 1: and he saw a couple walking out of the waffle house,
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Speaker 1: and he's like, oh, thank goodness, someone's coming out. I
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Speaker 1: can get their attention. They can come over here and
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Speaker 1: get me out of here, or at least, you know,
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Speaker 1: call someone who can't. And so he starts waving, you know,
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Speaker 1: through the front windshield at this couple as they're sort
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Speaker 1: of walking generally in his direction, but they clearly didn't
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Speaker 1: see him, Like the sun is glaring off the glass
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Speaker 1: kind of making it hard to see inside, and so
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Speaker 1: James is sort of realizing this, and he's becoming more
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Speaker 1: and more desperate as he and his dog are getting
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Speaker 1: more and more overheated, and so he began leaning on
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Speaker 1: the horn to get their attention that way, but no
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Speaker 1: sound came out of his corvette because the horn was
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Speaker 1: powered by electricity, and again the car is dead, and
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Speaker 1: so James now is getting frantic. He's banging on the windows,
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Speaker 1: he's screaming to them. But this is a this is
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Speaker 1: a nice car. It's totally soundproof. Inside. Again, there's the
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Speaker 1: glare from the sun and the glass the windows are
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Speaker 1: partially tinted. They can't see or hear him. And so
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Speaker 1: this couple eventually comes right near his vehicle. They climb
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Speaker 1: in their car, and they drive away without ever noticing him.
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Speaker 1: Once they were gone, James told himself that, you know what,
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Speaker 1: this is a busy area. Lots of people come in
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Speaker 1: and out of this waffle house. Someone's gonna see us,
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Speaker 1: someone's gonna get us out of this car. And so
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Speaker 1: for the next several minutes, James looked all around him,
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Speaker 1: looking for anybody walking through this parking lot, looking for
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Speaker 1: people come out of the waffle house, and anybody who
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Speaker 1: came even close to his vehicle. He would scream and
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Speaker 1: yell and bang and do anything he could to get
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Speaker 1: their attention. But nobody noticed him. Like no one could
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Speaker 1: see or hear him. And now James and his dog
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Speaker 1: were really starting to struggle with the heat inside of
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Speaker 1: this vehicle. It really was like they were trapped inside
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Speaker 1: of an oven. And so eventually, when it seemed like
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Speaker 1: no one was going to notice them, James just began
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Speaker 1: frantically looking around the interior of his car for a toolkit.
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Speaker 1: He thought he had left a toolkit in here somewhere,
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Speaker 1: you know, in case of emergencies, and he's thinking, you know,
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Speaker 1: maybe there was a tool in there he could use
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Speaker 1: to maybe jimmy open one of the doors, or if
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Speaker 1: he had to, he could maybe use something heavy in
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Speaker 1: the toolkit to break a window, just to get out
9:49
Speaker 1: that way. And so eventually, in the back seat near Lea,
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Speaker 1: he found this toolkit. But when he cracked it open,
9:55
Speaker 1: he was disappointed because it really didn't have anything that useful.
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Speaker 1: Some pliers, there were some jumper cables and the flashlight.
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Speaker 1: But you know, James, he still took the pliers and
10:05
Speaker 1: he jammed the head of the pliers into the crack
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Speaker 1: of the driver's side door to attempt to to basically
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Speaker 1: wrench open the door. But the pliers were very thin,
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Speaker 1: and so he didn't budge the door at all, and
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Speaker 1: he used a lot of energy trying to you know,
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Speaker 1: force the door open. And remember it's like blisteringly hot
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Speaker 1: inside of the vehicle at this point, and it's getting
10:27
Speaker 1: harder and harder to breathe. Like Lee is struggling to breathe,
10:30
Speaker 1: James is, you know, drenched in sweat, and so he
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Speaker 1: drops the plyers and he just has this huge wave
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Speaker 1: of anxiety come over him that like, oh my goodness,
10:39
Speaker 1: like is this it? Are we gonna die in here?
10:47
Speaker 1: And so as like this crushing reality is coming down
10:50
Speaker 1: on him, James has this this adrenaline surge and he
10:53
Speaker 1: leans back in his seat and he starts kicking as
10:56
Speaker 1: hard as he can against the glass with his feet
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Speaker 1: to try to break open the windshielder kick open the
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Speaker 1: driver's side window. But amazingly, despite all of his energy
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Speaker 1: going into this, he didn't crack the window at all,
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Speaker 1: Like it felt like he was kicking a concrete wall.
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Speaker 1: There was no budge, nothing. And so again, after exerting
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Speaker 1: even more energy and now sweating even more and it's
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Speaker 1: getting harder and harder to breathe, James took those pliers
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Speaker 1: and he's like he's really gassed. He can barely breathe,
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Speaker 1: and he starts smashing the head of the plyers into
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Speaker 1: the window that didn't do anything. So it's like, I
11:29
Speaker 1: can't do anything to get out of this vehicle. And
11:31
Speaker 1: so James he sort of just like lays back in
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Speaker 1: the driver's seat, which he had reclined at this point,
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Speaker 1: and he's just he's panting, he can barely breathe. He's
11:38
Speaker 1: opened up his shirt a little bit, and he's looking
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Speaker 1: back at his dog and she's really struggling, and he's
11:43
Speaker 1: just like, I can't believe this is happening. And as
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Speaker 1: he's laying there, he sort of looks towards the front
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Speaker 1: of the car and his eyes land on the glove
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Speaker 1: box in front of the passenger seat, and it was like, oh,
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Speaker 1: my goodness, how could I forget there's a manual inside
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Speaker 1: of there. There's got to be instructions for what to
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Speaker 1: do if your car dies. There's got to be a
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Speaker 1: way to get out, like it's got to be in
12:07
Speaker 1: that manual. And so suddenly, having all this energy, James
12:10
Speaker 1: sat up. He opened up the glovebox and he pulled
12:12
Speaker 1: out this manual that he had never read before. I mean,
12:15
Speaker 1: he had no reason to, but he opened it up
12:18
Speaker 1: and he began looking through it, looking for you know,
12:20
Speaker 1: the section that would explain what to do in case of,
12:24
Speaker 1: you know, total power outage and you're stuck inside the vehicle.
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Speaker 1: But like as he's looking at the pages, like his
12:30
Speaker 1: vision swimming. It's so hot, he's so tired, and he
12:34
Speaker 1: just it's all this little text. It's hundreds and hundreds
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Speaker 1: of pages, and like nothing explained the situation. It was
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Speaker 1: like so not user friendly, and so James, he's flipping
12:45
Speaker 1: through all these pages and even just the act of
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Speaker 1: turning the page was becoming so laborious, like he is
12:51
Speaker 1: just beginning to shut down. I mean, he's basically dying
12:54
Speaker 1: inside of an oven. Then he can barely turn the page.
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Speaker 1: And then before long after about a quarter the way through,
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Speaker 1: it was like he couldn't see anymore. And he literally
13:03
Speaker 1: just like he couldn't turn the page anymore. He had
13:06
Speaker 1: no strength left. MJ. So James's buddy, the guy in
13:10
Speaker 1: his sixties who was also a regular at the waffle house.
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Speaker 1: He's inside the waffle house, he's having his breakfast in
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Speaker 1: his coffee. He knew James had stepped out. You know,
13:18
Speaker 1: he was going to be right back, and he did
13:20
Speaker 1: not come right back, but he figured no big deal, Like,
13:22
Speaker 1: you know, he probably got caught up with something. Maybe
13:24
Speaker 1: he forgot that he had ordered food. But you know, MJ,
13:27
Speaker 1: he's got all these reasons for why James has not
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Speaker 1: come back to the restaurant. And also MJ being a regular,
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Speaker 1: he's he's chatting it up with other people. He's not
13:35
Speaker 1: really even aware of the fact that James has not
13:37
Speaker 1: come back inside the waffle house. And eventually, after MJ
13:42
Speaker 1: had had his coffee in his food, he's getting ready
13:45
Speaker 1: to maybe make an exit himself when two employees come
13:49
Speaker 1: running in the front door of the waffle house, and
13:51
Speaker 1: so everybody turns to these employees who clearly are sort
13:54
Speaker 1: of making a scene here, and they're like, what what's
13:56
Speaker 1: going on? In the employees they're like, we we just
13:58
Speaker 1: saw James. He's asleep in his car and we can't
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Speaker 1: open the doors. We slammed on the windows, but he's
14:05
Speaker 1: not reacting. At this point, MJ felt sick to his
14:08
Speaker 1: stomach because he suddenly realized when he looked at his
14:11
Speaker 1: watch it had been four hours since James had gone outside,
14:16
Speaker 1: saying he'd be right back now. MJ. You know, he
14:19
Speaker 1: got caught up doing other things and he was in
14:21
Speaker 1: here all the time. He loved being here. Time flew
14:23
Speaker 1: when he was in here, but even he like didn't
14:26
Speaker 1: understand how much time had passed. And he's thinking, like,
14:29
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, what's happened to James? And so MJ.
14:33
Speaker 1: Jumps out of his seat and he runs outside into
14:36
Speaker 1: the blistering heat. He goes around the corner to the
14:39
Speaker 1: red Corvette. He sees, you know, through the tinted glass,
14:42
Speaker 1: there's James inside of the vehicle. He starts hitting on
14:45
Speaker 1: the window, but there's no answer. You know, James isn't moving,
14:49
Speaker 1: and so MJ calls nine to one one. It would
14:52
Speaker 1: turn out. When James bought the Red Corvette, I mean,
14:55
Speaker 1: it really was like his dream car. He fell in
14:58
Speaker 1: love with it. I mean it was beautiful, flashy, it
15:01
Speaker 1: oozed status and at all this new tech it looks
15:04
Speaker 1: so expensive. I mean it was. It was perfect. And James,
15:07
Speaker 1: I mean he didn't just you know, buy this car
15:09
Speaker 1: and that was it. I mean, after he had it,
15:12
Speaker 1: he obsessed over it. He learned every little detail about it.
15:16
Speaker 1: He took great care of it, He drove it everywhere.
15:19
Speaker 1: I mean, this was like his child. But despite you know,
15:24
Speaker 1: really obsessing over the car. He never learned one really
15:29
Speaker 1: important thing about this car, which is what do you
15:33
Speaker 1: do if you happen to be inside of the vehicle
15:36
Speaker 1: with the windows rolled up and your power goes out?
15:39
Speaker 1: Because the doors are not regular doors, they're powered by buttons.
15:42
Speaker 1: They're electrical, and if you have no power, you can't
15:45
Speaker 1: open them. As he found, well, it turns out there's
15:48
Speaker 1: actually a lever under the driver's seat that once you
15:50
Speaker 1: pull it up, it pops open the driver's side door
15:53
Speaker 1: and you can get out, no matter if there's electricity
15:55
Speaker 1: or not. But that information was buried on page eighty
16:00
Speaker 1: of that owner's manual that he had pulled out and
16:02
Speaker 1: begun flipping through. But he was so delirious from heat
16:05
Speaker 1: exhaustion he couldn't get that far into the manual. He's
16:08
Speaker 1: like combing through all this really dense text. He made
16:11
Speaker 1: it about a quarter the way through when unfortunately he
16:15
Speaker 1: and his dog, Leah died from heat exhaustion. James's family
16:20
Speaker 1: filed a wrongful death case with Chevrolet, the maker of
16:23
Speaker 1: the Corvette, in twenty eighteen, but the case was dismissed.
16:27
Speaker 1: Chevrolet still makes Corvettes with these special electric doors, and
16:31
Speaker 1: there have been numerous additional incidents of people getting locked
16:35
Speaker 1: in and trapped, but in more recent Corvette models, the
16:39
Speaker 1: manuals have the information about the door's release lever much
16:43
Speaker 1: closer to the front of the manual. On the morning
17:05
Speaker 1: of August twentieth, eighteen sixty two, a seventeen year old
17:08
Speaker 1: farmhand named Jean LaRue carried his axe over to a
17:12
Speaker 1: stack of logs by a barn on a farm in
17:14
Speaker 1: Ottawa Township, Minnesota. As a farmhand, Jean was responsible for
17:19
Speaker 1: lots of different odd jobs like splitting the firewood and
17:22
Speaker 1: feeding the animals and helping with the crops. Basically, Jean
17:26
Speaker 1: had to know every single inch of the farm and
17:28
Speaker 1: the woods that surrounded it and had to take care
17:31
Speaker 1: of it all. But even though he was basically constantly busy,
17:35
Speaker 1: Jean still found his mind wandering to a place that
17:38
Speaker 1: was sort of difficult, which was he felt a lot
17:41
Speaker 1: of times pretty homesick. So Jean was actually from France
17:45
Speaker 1: and he had left behind his whole family and his
17:48
Speaker 1: previous life to come here to America where there was
17:51
Speaker 1: supposed to be more opportunity. However, America was turning out
17:55
Speaker 1: to be a pretty violent place. The country was currently
17:58
Speaker 1: fighting the Civil War, and on top of that, the
18:01
Speaker 1: area specifically where Jean lived was pretty much like the Frontier,
18:05
Speaker 1: and so there were these constant territorial disputes and virtually
18:09
Speaker 1: no law enforcement, so just a really dangerous place. But
18:13
Speaker 1: more than any dangers he faced, Jean just really missed
18:17
Speaker 1: his family, especially his mom. So he spent basically every
18:21
Speaker 1: spare minute he had, which was you know, few and
18:23
Speaker 1: far between, sitting out in the woods by this one
18:26
Speaker 1: particular just huge, beautiful oak tree, and he would sit
18:30
Speaker 1: at the base of it and he would make journal
18:32
Speaker 1: entries about basically everything he was doing so he could
18:35
Speaker 1: track it all and know what to tell his mom
18:38
Speaker 1: when he finally got to see her again. He just
18:40
Speaker 1: wanted to tell her all about his experience. Also, just
18:43
Speaker 1: for context, Jean had saved virtually all the money he
18:47
Speaker 1: had worked so hard to acquire, and his whole plan
18:50
Speaker 1: was to eventually send that money to his mother, who
18:53
Speaker 1: he loved so very much and missed so much. But
18:57
Speaker 1: more and more like, the more homesick he became, the
19:00
Speaker 1: more he wished he could actually just go back to
19:02
Speaker 1: France and get out of America and literally hand the
19:05
Speaker 1: money to his mom and just see her again and
19:07
Speaker 1: be done with this whole America experiment. But for now,
19:11
Speaker 1: John raised his axe over his head and he brought
19:13
Speaker 1: it down on the log that he was going to split,
19:15
Speaker 1: and it did. It split open, and he raised the
19:18
Speaker 1: axe again to chop another log, but as he did,
19:22
Speaker 1: he froze because off in the distance he could hear
19:25
Speaker 1: a series of repetitive booming noises, like really loud, and
19:29
Speaker 1: for Jean, I mean, immediately his heart started to race
19:32
Speaker 1: and he was so scared because he knew what those were,
19:36
Speaker 1: I mean, those were gunshots, and he was terrified that
19:39
Speaker 1: the thing that he and really everybody else in his
19:42
Speaker 1: town had been scared of for days was now finally happening.
19:47
Speaker 1: So right on the other side of the woods that
19:49
Speaker 1: surrounded the farm was the Minnesota River, and over the
19:53
Speaker 1: last decade, lots of people had settled along this river,
19:57
Speaker 1: and there'd been a town established right nearby, and new
19:59
Speaker 1: homes were being built constantly. However, all the expansion had
20:03
Speaker 1: literally forced out the indigenous tribe who had previously lived
20:07
Speaker 1: in the area, the Sioux, and after being displaced, the
20:11
Speaker 1: Sioux had struggled to find food in a place to
20:13
Speaker 1: live while the settlers just continued to expand and take
20:17
Speaker 1: more of their land. So finally, just two days earlier,
20:21
Speaker 1: the Sioux had had enough and they finally retaliated, attacking
20:26
Speaker 1: settlements along that river. It was being called the Sioux Uprising.
20:30
Speaker 1: And the attack so far had been horrific. A lot
20:34
Speaker 1: of farms along that river had been burned to the
20:36
Speaker 1: ground and their occupants had been killed right alongside it.
20:40
Speaker 1: And then just yesterday, the Sioux had attacked a city
20:44
Speaker 1: that was just fifty miles down the river from where
20:46
Speaker 1: Jean was right now. And so Jean and everybody else
20:50
Speaker 1: in this particular area had really been terrified the last
20:53
Speaker 1: twenty four hours that the violence was moving in their
20:57
Speaker 1: direction towards Ottawa Township. And so now Jean he'd put
21:00
Speaker 1: his axe down and he just stood there, you know,
21:02
Speaker 1: trembling as the sound of gunshots continued. I mean, this
21:06
Speaker 1: was not just a few stray bullets. This was this
21:08
Speaker 1: was a barrage of gunfire. And so this could only
21:11
Speaker 1: mean one thing, the seue we're here now. Jean couldn't
21:15
Speaker 1: tell exactly where the shooting was coming from, but he
21:18
Speaker 1: could tell it was pretty close. And so Jean knew
21:21
Speaker 1: that he'd likely only had maybe several minutes to gather
21:25
Speaker 1: up whatever he could of his possessions and get to
21:27
Speaker 1: safety before the Sioux arrived. So Jean he bolts over
21:31
Speaker 1: to the farmhouse, goes inside, and he goes to the
21:34
Speaker 1: area inside where he slept, and he grabbed his rifle,
21:37
Speaker 1: and he also grabbed his notebook and all that cash
21:39
Speaker 1: he'd been saving for his mom, and he jammed the
21:42
Speaker 1: notebook and the cash into a satchel, and with his
21:45
Speaker 1: rifle over his shoulder, he ran back outside. And then
21:48
Speaker 1: once he was outside, he sprinted right towards the tree
21:50
Speaker 1: line at the edge of the property, and after running
21:53
Speaker 1: for a little while, Jean finally stopped to catch his
21:55
Speaker 1: breath and to listen to see if there was more gunfire.
21:58
Speaker 1: And as he sat there listening, he couldn't hear anything.
22:02
Speaker 1: But that's when he realized, like, he's all alone out here.
22:05
Speaker 1: If the Sioux came charging through the trees right now,
22:08
Speaker 1: he wouldn't stand a chance, even with his rifle. But
22:12
Speaker 1: Jean had an advantage. He knew these woods like the
22:14
Speaker 1: back of his hand. He was in here all the time,
22:17
Speaker 1: and because of that, he knew exactly where to go
22:20
Speaker 1: to find safety. About an hour later, Sean's boss and
22:26
Speaker 1: the owner of the farm, Edward Gleek, hustled from his
22:29
Speaker 1: farmhouse towards town. Mister Gleek had also heard the gunshots.
22:32
Speaker 1: I mean basically everybody in town had, and he had
22:35
Speaker 1: come running out of the barn just in time to
22:38
Speaker 1: see his farm hand, Jean LaRue, bolting off into the woods.
22:42
Speaker 1: And you know, mister Gleek, he didn't blame the kid.
22:45
Speaker 1: He was also horrified by the recent attacks and was
22:47
Speaker 1: also very worried that those shots they were hearing were assigned,
22:51
Speaker 1: that trouble had finally arrived in their town. But after
22:54
Speaker 1: all these gunshots, no Sioux warriors showed up in town,
22:58
Speaker 1: and so now was heading to the town center to
23:01
Speaker 1: see what had actually happened, Like, what were those gunshots? Now,
23:05
Speaker 1: mister Gleek had sort of accepted that this could have
23:08
Speaker 1: been something totally benign, or it could have been the Sioux.
23:11
Speaker 1: He didn't know, but he was just going to find out.
23:13
Speaker 1: He was rational, he was calm despite the risks here.
23:18
Speaker 1: But when he got into the town center, I mean,
23:20
Speaker 1: all he could see was just chaos. Many of the
23:24
Speaker 1: area's residents were out running around carrying trunks and bags
23:28
Speaker 1: and all their belongings like they were fleeing the area,
23:31
Speaker 1: much like mister Gleek's farmhand, Jean LaRue, had looked like
23:34
Speaker 1: he was doing. However, it didn't take long for mister
23:37
Speaker 1: Gleek to hear what had happened, and it was not
23:40
Speaker 1: an attack by the Sioux. Those people running around like maniacs,
23:44
Speaker 1: you know, fleeing the area, they just hadn't heard the
23:46
Speaker 1: real story yet. They were sort of operating like there
23:50
Speaker 1: was an attack coming. So apparently a group of American
23:53
Speaker 1: soldiers had been riding on a boat up the Minnesota
23:56
Speaker 1: River and for some reason they'd just gotten overly excited
24:00
Speaker 1: and began firing their guns repeatedly. So those were gunshots,
24:04
Speaker 1: and unfortunately, because they were gunshots, they completely freaked out
24:10
Speaker 1: all the residents around the river because of this growing
24:13
Speaker 1: threat of the Sioux attacking. But fortunately, at least in
24:17
Speaker 1: this case, there were no attacks. This was just you know,
24:20
Speaker 1: an unfortunate event. And so after hearing this, mister Gleek
24:23
Speaker 1: went back to his farm to find John and tell
24:26
Speaker 1: him that, you know, everything was actually just fine. But
24:29
Speaker 1: when he got there, Jean still had not come back yet,
24:32
Speaker 1: and when mister Gleek went into the woods to go
24:35
Speaker 1: look around for him, he couldn't find him. Now, mister
24:38
Speaker 1: Gleek figured that Jean would eventually find out what happened,
24:41
Speaker 1: much like everybody else in town, I mean, not everyone
24:44
Speaker 1: had the news yet, and so at some point that
24:46
Speaker 1: day he was bound to return. But by the time
24:49
Speaker 1: night fell, Jean still had not come back. And then
24:53
Speaker 1: the next day Jean didn't come back, and the next
24:56
Speaker 1: day and the next day he just didn't come back.
24:58
Speaker 1: And so finally, after repeatedly searching his property and asking
25:03
Speaker 1: all over town if anybody had seen Jean, mister Gleek
25:07
Speaker 1: finally came to the conclusion that Jean must have fled
25:11
Speaker 1: because of this the Sue attack, and then likely gone
25:14
Speaker 1: back to France to be with his mother, something he
25:16
Speaker 1: knew he wanted to do. Anyways, maybe this was his excuse.
25:20
Speaker 1: Fifty seven years later, on a morning in July of
25:24
Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen, mister Gleek sat on his porch looking out
25:27
Speaker 1: over his farm, the same farm that Jean had been
25:30
Speaker 1: a farmman for fifty seven years earlier. Mister Gleek was
25:33
Speaker 1: old now and so he could no longer actually physically
25:36
Speaker 1: work on the farm himself, so instead he had to
25:39
Speaker 1: hire entire crews to do various jobs. And in fact,
25:43
Speaker 1: right now he had a whole bunch of workers out
25:45
Speaker 1: in the woods clearing away some dead brush for him.
25:48
Speaker 1: And so as mister Gleek is just kind of surveying
25:50
Speaker 1: his property, he notices a worker come running out of
25:54
Speaker 1: the tree line and starts waving at mister Gleek really
25:57
Speaker 1: frantically like he had something really important to say. And
26:00
Speaker 1: then as the man got closer, mister Gleek could see
26:03
Speaker 1: that this worker looked terrified. And before mister Gleek could
26:08
Speaker 1: ask what had happened, the worker, whose face was you know,
26:11
Speaker 1: white as a ghost, said mister Gleek needed to come
26:14
Speaker 1: and see something. And so mister Gleek, who was very
26:16
Speaker 1: intrigued at this point, managed to haul himself up and
26:20
Speaker 1: he slowly hobbled off into the woods with this worker.
26:23
Speaker 1: And as he got to where the rest of the
26:25
Speaker 1: crew was inside the forest, he saw that they were
26:28
Speaker 1: all mostly gathered around this very large, recently downed oak tree,
26:32
Speaker 1: and the whole group was very quiet and tense, and
26:36
Speaker 1: they were all just staring at a section of this
26:38
Speaker 1: tree that had split open. When mister Gleek joined the
26:41
Speaker 1: group and looked at this particular section of the trunk
26:44
Speaker 1: of this tree, this hollow part At first, he didn't
26:47
Speaker 1: even know what he was staring at. It was just
26:49
Speaker 1: this this hollowed out, sort of split section of the tree,
26:52
Speaker 1: and there was a few items that didn't belong there
26:55
Speaker 1: that were inside of it, like a cachet of sorts.
26:59
Speaker 1: But then he sort of fixated on one particular item,
27:03
Speaker 1: and that's when he understood why the group was just
27:06
Speaker 1: so stunned. And as he stared and sort of took
27:09
Speaker 1: in what he was seeing, he suddenly became utterly horrified.
27:14
Speaker 1: It would turn out. When Jean ran off into the
27:16
Speaker 1: woods fifty seven years earlier, he used his intimate knowledge
27:20
Speaker 1: of the farmland and the surrounding woods to escape what
27:24
Speaker 1: he thought was a very dangerous situation, and he did
27:28
Speaker 1: that by hiding. Jean knew that that oak tree, where
27:31
Speaker 1: he would always go when he would write in his notebook,
27:33
Speaker 1: happened to have a hollow trunk, and he figured he'd
27:37
Speaker 1: be just the right size to crawl inside there and
27:40
Speaker 1: stay in there hidden until the Sioux were gone. And
27:43
Speaker 1: so Jean had made it to the tree and he
27:46
Speaker 1: had wedged himself inside of there, totally out of view,
27:50
Speaker 1: and then unfortunately he got stuck from inside the trunk
27:54
Speaker 1: of the tree. Jean had managed to write one last
27:57
Speaker 1: letter to mister Gleek saying that he couldn't get out,
28:00
Speaker 1: he was stuck and if he did die here to
28:03
Speaker 1: please give all his money to his mother in France.
28:06
Speaker 1: And so decades later, when mister Gleek's workers cut that
28:09
Speaker 1: big oak tree down, what they found inside of the
28:12
Speaker 1: hollow trunk was Jean's gun, his money, his notebook, and
28:18
Speaker 1: his mummified body. Thank you so much for watching today's episode.
28:27
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of it in the
28:28
Speaker 1: comments below, And remember we have a whole playlist of
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Speaker 1: them a watch. All right, until next time see it