Latest / Crime and Horror / You'll never order takeout again... Campfire Stories with MrBallen - MrBallen

Transcript

You'll never order takeout again... Campfire Stories with MrBallen - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: So Tonight's story is a classic scary story. It's a
0:04
Speaker 1: great story, it's very unsettling, got a great plot twist
0:07
Speaker 1: at the end. But this story, it's sort of so
0:11
Speaker 1: unbelievable that I think a lot of people are going
0:13
Speaker 1: to have a hard time actually believing it. But I'll
0:17
Speaker 1: tell you that when this happened, the story happened in
0:20
Speaker 1: Hong Kong. This story got picked up by many major
0:24
Speaker 1: news outlets and was covered extensively, so that suggests there's
0:28
Speaker 1: some real credibility to this story.
0:31
Speaker 2: But ultimately it's up to you to decide what you
0:34
Speaker 2: actually believe.
0:35
Speaker 1: But before we get into Tonight's story, if you're a
0:38
Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
0:41
Speaker 1: then you've come to the right campfire, because that's all
0:44
Speaker 1: we do, and we upload two, three, even four times
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Speaker 1: of our weekly up. Okay, let's get into Tonight's story.
1:19
Speaker 1: One evening in December of nineteen eighty nine, a young
1:22
Speaker 1: waiter named Zhao was bussing a table at the restaurant
1:25
Speaker 1: he worked at in Hong Kong when he heard the
1:27
Speaker 1: restaurant's phone ring, and the sound really stressed Zoo out
1:32
Speaker 1: because the restaurant was really busy that night, and it
1:35
Speaker 1: was only Zoo and one other waiter working along with
1:38
Speaker 1: the manager who was in back.
1:40
Speaker 2: And so Zoo, you know, he's bussing this table.
1:42
Speaker 1: He began looking around for the other waiter to see
1:44
Speaker 1: if maybe they heard the phone and they could go
1:46
Speaker 1: take the call. But he saw the other waiter and
1:49
Speaker 1: she was busy actually taking another table's order, and the
1:52
Speaker 1: manager was, you know, somewhere in back and would not
1:54
Speaker 1: normally take the call anyway, and so Zoo, you know,
1:57
Speaker 1: he sighed and you know, stopped busting the table and
1:59
Speaker 1: when over and he picked up the phone and right
2:02
Speaker 1: away he can like barely hear the person who's talking.
2:05
Speaker 1: It's a voice of what sounds like a very frail,
2:08
Speaker 1: older woman, and she's practically whispering into the phone, and
2:11
Speaker 1: so Zoo had to like block his other ear because
2:14
Speaker 1: it's so loud in the restaurant and he's straining to listen,
2:17
Speaker 1: and he's asking this person to speak up. But finally
2:19
Speaker 1: he can hear, you know what this woman is calling for,
2:22
Speaker 1: and she's calling because she's trying to place an order
2:24
Speaker 1: for delivery. But this is in the nineteen eighties, so
2:28
Speaker 1: this is before there were things like uber Eats and
2:31
Speaker 1: you know, door dash and in Hong Kong at the time,
2:34
Speaker 1: if somebody called in to a restaurant for a delivery order,
2:37
Speaker 1: what it meant was people like Zoo had to take
2:40
Speaker 1: the order and then literally take the food and actually physically.
2:44
Speaker 2: Bring it to the person who had called it in.
2:46
Speaker 1: So this is like sort of a very tedious thing
2:49
Speaker 1: for somebody like Zoo. And so as soon as Zou
2:51
Speaker 1: could tell that the reason this woman had called was
2:54
Speaker 1: for a delivery order, he's like, oh, my goodness, couldn't
2:56
Speaker 1: get any worse, Like, I have so much to do here,
2:59
Speaker 1: it's so crazy, and now I have to literally run
3:02
Speaker 1: this woman's order to her and then come back and continue.
3:05
Speaker 2: My work, Like, man, what bad luck.
3:07
Speaker 1: But it wasn't like Zou could do anything else, Like
3:10
Speaker 1: he couldn't tell the woman no, So you know, as
3:13
Speaker 1: best as he could, he listened, and he told the
3:15
Speaker 1: woman to like repeat her order, like let me write
3:17
Speaker 1: down what you want, and so eventually he heard that
3:20
Speaker 1: what she wanted was stir fried rice noodles with an
3:23
Speaker 1: extra egg, an order of beef chow fun, and a
3:25
Speaker 1: couple servings of fried rice.
3:27
Speaker 2: And then after he took down her.
3:29
Speaker 1: Order, he told her that he'd be there in about
3:31
Speaker 1: half an hour, and then he hung up. About fifteen
3:35
Speaker 1: minutes later, the bell rang in the kitchen, and so
3:37
Speaker 1: Zou walked over and he saw that the food was ready,
3:40
Speaker 1: the takeout food, and so he.
3:41
Speaker 2: Grabbed the bag.
3:42
Speaker 1: He grabbed the receipt that showed the address of this
3:44
Speaker 1: woman's apartment, and he stapled it to the bag. And
3:47
Speaker 1: then he found the other waiter who was working that night,
3:49
Speaker 1: and he told her to please look over his tables
3:51
Speaker 1: while he was gone.
3:52
Speaker 2: He'd be right back.
3:53
Speaker 1: And then, with the food in hand, he left the
3:55
Speaker 1: restaurant and began running across the city to get to
3:59
Speaker 1: this apartment. And so he gets outside and he looks
4:01
Speaker 1: at the address and he starts running in the direction
4:03
Speaker 1: of this apartment, and you know, after several minutes, he
4:06
Speaker 1: gets to the apartment complex. He makes his way up
4:09
Speaker 1: and he finds the door of this woman's apartment and
4:12
Speaker 1: he knocks on the door, and he just waits and
4:15
Speaker 1: nobody answers the door, and so, you know, he's looking
4:18
Speaker 1: at the time. He knows he needs to get back
4:20
Speaker 1: to the restaurant as soon as possible. He has people
4:22
Speaker 1: that are waiting for him, and so he knocks a
4:24
Speaker 1: bit louder this time and sort of calls out like,
4:27
Speaker 1: hey delivery.
4:29
Speaker 2: Now answer. It's still just quiet inside this apartment.
4:32
Speaker 1: And so he looks at the receipt on the bag
4:34
Speaker 1: that again shows the address of this woman's apartment to
4:38
Speaker 1: make sure he's at the right one, and he's like, yep,
4:41
Speaker 1: I'm definitely at the right apartment. And so, after a
4:43
Speaker 1: few more moments of silence, zao, he just gives up
4:46
Speaker 1: trying to be polite here. He really needs to get
4:48
Speaker 1: back to the restaurant, and so he just starts wailing
4:50
Speaker 1: on this door, yelling like hey delivery, like get out
4:54
Speaker 1: here and get your food. And now this time he
4:58
Speaker 1: hears some movement inside of the apartment, and so he
5:00
Speaker 1: stops banging on the door.
5:02
Speaker 2: He hears, you know, the locks being unlocked.
5:04
Speaker 1: And then the door it opens inwardly, but only a
5:07
Speaker 1: tiny bit like a crack, and it's dark inside the apartment,
5:10
Speaker 1: and it's bright in the hallway, and so from his perspective,
5:14
Speaker 1: Zoo's looking into this crack and he can't see anything.
5:17
Speaker 2: But eventually, out of this darkness of this.
5:19
Speaker 1: Little crack, a little hand shows up, and in this
5:22
Speaker 1: hand is money, and through the crack, the hand reaches
5:26
Speaker 1: with the money, and so Zoo he reaches out, he
5:29
Speaker 1: takes the money, and then a voice comes through the
5:32
Speaker 1: inside of this apartment, and it's that same very quiet,
5:35
Speaker 1: frail voice of the woman who had called and placed
5:38
Speaker 1: the order, and she just said for Zoo to leave
5:41
Speaker 1: the food right there, just drop it, take.
5:43
Speaker 2: The money and go.
5:44
Speaker 1: And so Zao He's thinking, how bizarre this is, like
5:47
Speaker 1: why is this woman acting the way she's acting, Like
5:50
Speaker 1: why can't you just open the door all the way
5:52
Speaker 1: and literally take your food inside, Like you asked me
5:55
Speaker 1: to come here with your food. You basically invited a
5:58
Speaker 1: stranger to your apartment, Like why would you now be
6:01
Speaker 1: so cagy? Just it was odd, But at the same time,
6:05
Speaker 1: za didn't really care. She had given him the money
6:07
Speaker 1: which covered the order, and at this point he could
6:10
Speaker 1: just leave the food and go back to the restaurant.
6:12
Speaker 1: And so That's what he did, dropped the food, left
6:14
Speaker 1: the apartment complex, ran back to the restaurant, and continued
6:18
Speaker 1: his night and basically forgot about this woman.
6:20
Speaker 2: So later that night, after the.
6:22
Speaker 1: Restaurant had closed, Zoo and the other waitress were cleaning
6:26
Speaker 1: up and getting ready to leave when the manager came
6:29
Speaker 1: out of the back office looking really upset about something,
6:32
Speaker 1: and he sort of strolled over to Zoo and the
6:34
Speaker 1: other waiter and they both stopped instinctively when they saw
6:37
Speaker 1: the look in his face, and they're sort of looking
6:39
Speaker 1: at him, and he comes in and sort of out
6:42
Speaker 1: of nowhere, he's like, I know one of you two
6:46
Speaker 1: has been stealing from this restaurant.
6:47
Speaker 2: I know it.
6:49
Speaker 1: And immediately Zoo he looks over at the other waiter
6:51
Speaker 1: and she looks back at him, and they're like, what, Like,
6:55
Speaker 1: Zou knew he did not steal any money.
6:57
Speaker 2: There was no way he was talking about him.
7:00
Speaker 1: Then, from the looks of it, the other waiter she
7:02
Speaker 1: definitely did not seem like she, you know, had just
7:05
Speaker 1: been caught stealing. And so the two of them kind
7:06
Speaker 1: of looked back at the manager and they're.
7:08
Speaker 2: Like, what are you talking about?
7:10
Speaker 1: Like, we didn't steal from you, like, what do you mean,
7:13
Speaker 1: Like what are you talking about? But the manager was like,
7:17
Speaker 1: I know one of you did it. I don't know who,
7:19
Speaker 1: but one of you did it, and I'm telling you
7:21
Speaker 1: right now, if it ever happens again, you're fired. And
7:25
Speaker 1: then the manager just turned around and he walked back
7:28
Speaker 1: into his office, and so Zoo and the other waiter
7:31
Speaker 1: are just left standing there like what just happened, But
7:35
Speaker 1: at the same time, like Zoo anyways, he knew he
7:37
Speaker 1: didn't take any money, and he's just like, you know what,
7:40
Speaker 1: I just want to go home, like this has been
7:42
Speaker 1: a long day.
7:43
Speaker 2: I want this to be over.
7:44
Speaker 1: And it seemed very much like the other waiter felt
7:46
Speaker 1: the same way, and so the two of them just
7:48
Speaker 1: kind of shrugged and they're like, I don't know what
7:50
Speaker 1: he's on about, but I didn't do anything.
7:52
Speaker 2: And they finished cleaning up, and then before long they
7:55
Speaker 2: had left for the night.
7:56
Speaker 1: The next day, Zoo was back at work, and once
7:59
Speaker 1: again it was extremely busy, and once again they were understaffed.
8:03
Speaker 2: It was just Zoo and another.
8:05
Speaker 1: Waiter, a different waiter than the day before, but still
8:08
Speaker 1: it's just the two of them and the manager who
8:10
Speaker 1: was in the back office.
8:12
Speaker 2: And so it's just another very stressful day.
8:14
Speaker 1: And all day, you know, Zoo he's thinking about the
8:17
Speaker 1: fact that the manager had effectively accused him of stealing
8:20
Speaker 1: the night before, and that really hadn't been resolved just
8:24
Speaker 1: from the perspective of the manager hasn't talked about it again.
8:27
Speaker 2: So it's like the elephant in the room.
8:29
Speaker 1: But you know, at this point, Zao was just doing
8:31
Speaker 1: his job because, you know, he didn't steal anything. He
8:34
Speaker 1: knew he didn't steal anything, and so he figured it
8:36
Speaker 1: was just a misunderstanding. If it gets brought up again,
8:39
Speaker 1: there's definitely an explanation here. And so all day and
8:43
Speaker 1: into the evening, Zoo's just working like mad, so is
8:46
Speaker 1: the other waiter. And then at some point in the evening,
8:49
Speaker 1: the phone in the restaurant rings. This is in the
8:51
Speaker 1: middle of you know, the busiest time of the night,
8:54
Speaker 1: and once again Zao like he's hearing the phone ringing
8:57
Speaker 1: and he's hoping the other waiter is available to take
9:00
Speaker 1: the call, because the last thing he wants to do
9:02
Speaker 1: is do another delivery order. But just like the night before,
9:06
Speaker 1: his coworker was busy taking orders from other people, and
9:10
Speaker 1: so it fell on Zoo to take the call, and
9:12
Speaker 1: so Zao, you know, he trudged his way through the
9:14
Speaker 1: very busy and very loud restaurant to the phone. He
9:18
Speaker 1: answered it, and immediately he recognized the voice. It was
9:21
Speaker 1: the same woman who had called the night before, the
9:24
Speaker 1: woman he could barely hear. She was talking so quietly,
9:27
Speaker 1: and so again he had to block his ear to
9:29
Speaker 1: hear what she wanted. And again she was placing an
9:32
Speaker 1: order for delivery, so again Zoo would have to be
9:35
Speaker 1: the one to literally go run to her apartment and
9:38
Speaker 1: drop off her food and then hustle back and finish
9:40
Speaker 1: a shift. And so feeling sort of annoyed and a
9:42
Speaker 1: little frustrated because he can barely hear this woman, He's.
9:45
Speaker 2: Like, hey, can you please repeat your order?
9:48
Speaker 1: Like I need to write down your order, and so,
9:50
Speaker 1: feeling annoyed, Zao, you know, he took down her order,
9:53
Speaker 1: which was the same as the night before, stir fried
9:55
Speaker 1: rice noodles with an extra egg, an order of beef
9:58
Speaker 1: chow fun, and a couple servings.
9:59
Speaker 2: Of fried rice.
10:00
Speaker 1: And after writing it down, he told her he would
10:02
Speaker 1: see her in about thirty minutes and then he hung up,
10:05
Speaker 1: and then fifteen minutes later, the kitchen bell dings, Zoo
10:08
Speaker 1: walks over, he grabs the bag of food, he attaches
10:11
Speaker 1: the receipt. Out he goes, and he runs across the
10:13
Speaker 1: city over to this woman's apartment and up he goes.
10:16
Speaker 1: He gets to her door, which he knows is the
10:18
Speaker 1: right one because he had been here the day before,
10:21
Speaker 1: and he pounds on the door right out the gate
10:23
Speaker 1: because apparently this woman takes forever to come to the door,
10:26
Speaker 1: and so he's.
10:27
Speaker 3: Pounding on the door saying, hey, I'm here, delivery, delivery,
10:31
Speaker 3: And eventually he hears the sound of movement inside the apartment,
10:34
Speaker 3: the sound of locks turning, and then the door opens
10:37
Speaker 3: just a crack, and then out comes a little hand
10:40
Speaker 3: with some money.
10:41
Speaker 2: Zoo.
10:42
Speaker 1: He takes the money, just like the day before. He
10:44
Speaker 1: hears the sound of this woman saying to just leave
10:46
Speaker 1: the food.
10:47
Speaker 2: Outside in the hall. He does just that, He places
10:49
Speaker 2: it down. The door shuts, and Zoo turns and he
10:52
Speaker 2: leaves and he goes back to work.
10:55
Speaker 1: Later that night, after the restaurant had closed, Zao and
10:58
Speaker 1: his other coworker were cleaning up, you know, happy that
11:01
Speaker 1: the day was finally done. And as they're doing that
11:04
Speaker 1: again at least from Zoo's perspective. This is the second
11:06
Speaker 1: time this has happened. The manager comes storming out of
11:09
Speaker 1: the back office looking really upset. Now again the other
11:13
Speaker 1: coworker was not here the night before, but the other
11:16
Speaker 1: coworker could see, like clearly there's an issue. And Zoo
11:19
Speaker 1: had stopped as well, you know, waiting to hear what
11:21
Speaker 1: the manager had to say. And the manager comes over,
11:24
Speaker 1: but instead of addressing both of them, the manager looks
11:28
Speaker 1: right at Zoo and he just says, I know it
11:31
Speaker 1: was you. You are the only one who was here
11:34
Speaker 1: yesterday and today. And I'm telling you there is money
11:37
Speaker 1: missing from the register.
11:39
Speaker 2: It's you. You're the one stealing it.
11:42
Speaker 1: Now, Zao like he knows he didn't take any money
11:45
Speaker 1: from the register.
11:46
Speaker 2: This didn't happen. There's no way that this is true,
11:50
Speaker 2: Like it can't be true.
11:51
Speaker 1: And so Zoo like he needs this job and so
11:53
Speaker 1: he can't just like fight with his manager. But he said,
11:57
Speaker 1: like that's not possible. I don't know what you're talking
12:00
Speaker 1: talking about.
12:00
Speaker 2: Can can you please explain what you mean?
12:03
Speaker 1: Like, I don't know, I don't know how this could
12:05
Speaker 1: have happened, but I'm telling you it was not me. Now,
12:08
Speaker 1: the manager, he's sort of staring at Zao, you know,
12:10
Speaker 1: trying to size him up to see if maybe he's
12:12
Speaker 1: lying or not, and he can't.
12:13
Speaker 2: Quite tell, and he just he says.
12:15
Speaker 1: To Zoo, well, well, you know what, the reason I
12:17
Speaker 1: know that somebody is doing this, that this is not
12:20
Speaker 1: some mistake, is because the money from the register is
12:23
Speaker 1: not just missing, it's that the money has been replaced
12:27
Speaker 1: with counterfeit money. Like someone is taking money you, Zoo
12:31
Speaker 1: and putting counterfeit money back to sort of make it
12:34
Speaker 1: seem like no money is missing. But I know it's
12:37
Speaker 1: counterfeit money, like I can spot it. I know it's
12:39
Speaker 1: counterfeit money. You're doing that, Zoo. You did that, you
12:43
Speaker 1: stole from me, and if you don't give the money back,
12:45
Speaker 1: you're fired. And so Zao at this point he's like,
12:49
Speaker 1: what I didn't do that. I have I have no
12:52
Speaker 1: idea what you're talking about. There is there is no
12:55
Speaker 1: way that's true.
12:56
Speaker 2: I did not do that.
12:57
Speaker 1: At this point, the manager just turned around and went
13:00
Speaker 1: into the back office, and then when he came out again,
13:03
Speaker 1: he was holding the counterfeit money and he showed it
13:05
Speaker 1: to Zoo, and right away Zou could tell like, yeah,
13:08
Speaker 1: that's blatantly counterfeit money, like it would.
13:11
Speaker 2: Never pass as real money. He knew right away what
13:13
Speaker 2: it was.
13:14
Speaker 1: So this was not just typical fake money. It was
13:17
Speaker 1: something known as ghost money. In Hong Kong, some people
13:21
Speaker 1: will literally burn this fake money, this ghost money at
13:25
Speaker 1: the funeral as sort of an offering, and the belief
13:28
Speaker 1: is that by doing that, this money somehow goes to
13:32
Speaker 1: the deceased person and they can use this money in
13:35
Speaker 1: the afterlife.
13:36
Speaker 2: So it's sort of part of a funeral ritual.
13:38
Speaker 1: And so Zoo knows like this is ghost money, he
13:41
Speaker 1: would recognize it as not real money. And so the
13:45
Speaker 1: idea that this was put into the register to somehow
13:49
Speaker 1: dupe the manager into believing that, don't worry, no one
13:51
Speaker 1: stole any money here just seems sort of absurd, And
13:54
Speaker 1: so Zoo he says to the manager like, well, wait
13:57
Speaker 1: a minute, I didn't do this. But if I were
14:00
Speaker 1: to take money from the register, I wouldn't have left
14:03
Speaker 1: behind this obviously fake money.
14:06
Speaker 2: I would have just taken the money I didn't.
14:08
Speaker 1: But why would I put this obviously fake money back
14:12
Speaker 1: in the register. That definitely wouldn't fool you. It didn't
14:16
Speaker 1: and the manager, you know, he was thinking.
14:18
Speaker 2: About it, and he was like, yeah, actually, you're right.
14:21
Speaker 1: But then he was like, well, you know what must
14:23
Speaker 1: have happened then, is you know, you must have accepted
14:27
Speaker 1: this counterfeit money from you know, a customer and not.
14:31
Speaker 2: Realized it, Like this is your mistake.
14:33
Speaker 1: You must have allowed someone to pay with this this
14:37
Speaker 1: ghost money and just not noticed it.
14:38
Speaker 2: You know, you're very busy. Maybe that's what happened.
14:41
Speaker 1: And Zou's like, no, like, there's no way I would
14:44
Speaker 1: have accepted clearly fake money. I would have said, no,
14:47
Speaker 1: this is not real money, Like, there's no way I
14:50
Speaker 1: would have made that mistake.
14:52
Speaker 2: And so the manager is.
14:53
Speaker 1: Like, well, then how could how could this money have
14:55
Speaker 1: gotten into the register? Like were there any strange customers
14:59
Speaker 1: here over the the past two days? I don't know,
15:01
Speaker 1: like maybe somebody, somehow, some way managed to pay with
15:05
Speaker 1: fake money and you didn't notice it or something. Do
15:07
Speaker 1: you have any memory of strange customers or seedy customers
15:12
Speaker 1: over the past two days? Now, Zao like he wasn't
15:16
Speaker 1: immediately thinking, oh, I wonder you know what criminals I
15:19
Speaker 1: ran into in the last couple of days that maybe
15:21
Speaker 1: paid with counterfeit money, because like, in his mind, there
15:25
Speaker 1: was no one like that, Like over the past two days,
15:27
Speaker 1: it was just normal people. Except he did just immediately
15:31
Speaker 1: think about that woman who had called on both nights
15:34
Speaker 1: and had the same delivery order that he had taken
15:37
Speaker 1: to her apartment, and he thought, how weird it was
15:39
Speaker 1: that she had only opened the door a crack and
15:42
Speaker 1: handed out a little bit of money and.
15:43
Speaker 2: Told him to leave the food on the ground, and like,
15:46
Speaker 2: for just.
15:47
Speaker 1: Whatever reason, even though in some ways he knew, like
15:49
Speaker 1: there's no way that woman has anything to do with
15:52
Speaker 1: this counterfeit money, he just found himself telling the manager.
15:55
Speaker 2: He's like, well, actually, there.
15:57
Speaker 1: Was like this one woman, like I delivered food her
16:00
Speaker 1: the past couple of nights, and he sort of described
16:02
Speaker 1: the whole thing and just kind of how weird it
16:04
Speaker 1: was that she would have him leave the food in
16:06
Speaker 1: the hall and she was he.
16:08
Speaker 2: Could barely hear her, and he sort of was confused.
16:10
Speaker 1: About the whole thing, and so like this didn't explain
16:13
Speaker 1: the counterfeit money at all, but it was like the
16:15
Speaker 1: only weird thing that Zoo could think of. And the
16:19
Speaker 1: manager by this point did believe Zoo, like he had sort.
16:22
Speaker 2: Of changed his tone, and he.
16:23
Speaker 1: He sort of believed that something weird was going on
16:26
Speaker 1: here and it wasn't Zoo, like he was now sort
16:28
Speaker 1: of working with Zoo to figure it out. And so
16:31
Speaker 1: the manager was just like, Okay, well, you know, if
16:35
Speaker 1: this lady calls again, let me deliver the food to her,
16:38
Speaker 1: let me see if maybe I can talk to her
16:41
Speaker 1: and see if somehow, some way I can figure out
16:43
Speaker 1: if if she's the one giving us the counterfeit money.
16:46
Speaker 1: And so the next day, Zoo is back at work
16:49
Speaker 1: and again it's a busy day at the restaurant, and
16:52
Speaker 1: all day it's just him and one other coworker and
16:54
Speaker 1: they're busy all day. And then in the evening, around
16:58
Speaker 1: the same time that this woman had called the past
17:01
Speaker 1: two days, the phone rings, and this time when the
17:04
Speaker 1: phone rings, Zao immediately runs over and he grabs it
17:08
Speaker 1: like he doesn't care about what he's doing. He was
17:10
Speaker 1: waiting for this call because he was told to, you know,
17:13
Speaker 1: if she calls, hand it over to the manager. And
17:15
Speaker 1: so he picks up the phone, he answers it, and
17:18
Speaker 1: sure enough it's the same woman, the woman he can
17:20
Speaker 1: barely hear, and she orders the exact same meal to
17:24
Speaker 1: the exact same address, and once again, Zaho takes it
17:27
Speaker 1: down and he says, we'll be there in thirty minutes,
17:30
Speaker 1: and he hangs up, but this time, after giving the
17:33
Speaker 1: order to the kitchen, Zao went to the back office
17:36
Speaker 1: and he told the manager that, hey, she called again,
17:39
Speaker 1: so the food will be up in about fifteen minutes,
17:41
Speaker 1: and if you want to take it over there and
17:43
Speaker 1: see for yourself, you're welcome to.
17:45
Speaker 2: And the manager was like, great, I got it, I'll
17:47
Speaker 2: take it.
17:48
Speaker 1: And so, sure enough, about fifteen minutes later, the bell
17:51
Speaker 1: rings in the kitchen. The manager goes out, he grabs
17:54
Speaker 1: the food, He looks at the address on the receipt
17:56
Speaker 1: for where this lady lives, and then he leaves the
17:58
Speaker 1: restaurant and he his way across town.
18:01
Speaker 2: He gets to the apartment building.
18:02
Speaker 1: He gets up to the door and he knocks, and
18:05
Speaker 1: after a few moments there's silence, and so he knocks again,
18:08
Speaker 1: and he checks the receipt again to make sure he's
18:11
Speaker 1: at the right place, and he knows he is, and
18:12
Speaker 1: so's he's knocking some more and he's calling out, you know, delivery, delivery,
18:16
Speaker 1: and eventually he hears movement inside of the apartment and
18:20
Speaker 1: he hears the sound of locks turning, and then just
18:22
Speaker 1: the way Zoo described, the door opened just a crack,
18:26
Speaker 1: and then a little hand came through that crack holding
18:30
Speaker 1: out some money.
18:31
Speaker 2: And for the manager, it.
18:33
Speaker 1: Actually was pretty disappointing because for whatever reason, he just
18:37
Speaker 1: felt like, this is gonna be it. This person is
18:40
Speaker 1: gonna hand me the ghost money, the counterfeit money. This
18:43
Speaker 1: is gonna explain it. Maybe it's like a senile old
18:46
Speaker 1: person who's confused and you know, they're they're accidentally giving out,
18:50
Speaker 1: you know, the wrong money here.
18:51
Speaker 2: Maybe that's what's.
18:52
Speaker 1: Going on, and somehow Zoo just didn't recognize it or something,
18:55
Speaker 1: even though he claims he would have seen it.
18:57
Speaker 2: But maybe that's what happened.
18:58
Speaker 1: But no, the money that was coming through the door
19:02
Speaker 1: was definitely real money, and so the manager he just
19:05
Speaker 1: took the money, and the woman told him to just
19:08
Speaker 1: you know, leave the food in the hallway, which he did,
19:11
Speaker 1: and then the door shut and the manager put the
19:13
Speaker 1: money into his pocket. He left the apartment complex and
19:16
Speaker 1: he walked back to the restaurant. And so later that night,
19:19
Speaker 1: after the restaurant closed, you know, Zoo and his coworker
19:22
Speaker 1: were cleaning the restaurant and the manager was in the
19:25
Speaker 1: back office counting the money from the register, and as
19:28
Speaker 1: he's counting it, he realizes he's short, except this time
19:33
Speaker 1: there was no counterfeit money in the till.
19:36
Speaker 2: It was just it was just short, and he's thinking, like,
19:38
Speaker 2: what's going on. He kept checking the receipts.
19:40
Speaker 1: He was looking for maybe money that had been misplaced,
19:43
Speaker 1: but then he remembered that the exact amount that he
19:47
Speaker 1: was short was the money that he himself had collected
19:50
Speaker 1: from the woman at the apartment from the delivery order.
19:53
Speaker 1: And so he reached into his pocket where he'd put
19:55
Speaker 1: the cash and just forgotten, and he pulled it out
19:58
Speaker 1: and he was about to just, you know, drop it
19:59
Speaker 1: into the TI bill when he gasped because the money
20:02
Speaker 1: that he had just pulled out of his pocket was
20:05
Speaker 1: ghost money.
20:06
Speaker 2: Like the money that he knew.
20:08
Speaker 1: When it had come through the door from this woman
20:10
Speaker 1: it had been real money.
20:11
Speaker 2: That money that he looked at confirmed was real put
20:14
Speaker 2: in his pocket.
20:15
Speaker 1: Now he's looking at it again and it's ghost money,
20:18
Speaker 1: Like how can this be? But right at that moment,
20:21
Speaker 1: that's when he realized what must be happening. They were
20:25
Speaker 1: dealing with a professional counterfeitter.
20:28
Speaker 2: She must be.
20:29
Speaker 1: Using money that has the appearance of real money when
20:33
Speaker 1: it's given to the other party, but then maybe like
20:36
Speaker 1: there's like paint or something on it that sort of
20:38
Speaker 1: wears off and it eventually reveals that it's fake money.
20:41
Speaker 1: But by that point, the transactions already happened and the
20:44
Speaker 1: con is done, and so he's thinking, that's what's going on.
20:47
Speaker 1: That explains the whole thing. That's why Zau didn't realize it.
20:51
Speaker 1: When he was taking this money, it looked real, and
20:53
Speaker 1: it wasn't until later, when you know, whatever they did
20:56
Speaker 1: to the money wore off, that it became clear it
20:58
Speaker 1: was ghost money. So at this point point, the manager
21:01
Speaker 1: picked up the phone and he called the police. Later
21:04
Speaker 1: that same night, two police officers arrived at the apartment
21:07
Speaker 1: complex where this woman who kept ordering delivery food lived,
21:11
Speaker 1: and they made their way up to her apartment and
21:13
Speaker 1: they knocked on her door and they called out that
21:15
Speaker 1: it was the police and they were here to talk
21:17
Speaker 1: to her, but nobody answered the door, and so after
21:20
Speaker 1: a few moments, the police knocked again, much louder.
21:23
Speaker 2: This time, but still there was no answer. Nobody came
21:26
Speaker 2: to the door.
21:27
Speaker 1: And it was around this time that the officers noticed
21:30
Speaker 1: there was this horrible smell coming very clearly from this apartment.
21:35
Speaker 1: At first, when they had walked into the hallway, they
21:37
Speaker 1: had sort of smelled it, but they had chalked it
21:39
Speaker 1: up to maybe being just the way the whole building smelled.
21:42
Speaker 1: But no, as they were standing here, it seemed pretty
21:44
Speaker 1: clear that this awful like rotten food smell was coming
21:48
Speaker 1: out of this apartment. And considering the fact that they
21:51
Speaker 1: were here for a potential like you know, counterfeiting ring
21:56
Speaker 1: inside of this apartment, and just the weirdness of the
21:58
Speaker 1: smell and the Island says they're pounding on the door,
22:02
Speaker 1: the officers decided, like, we got to go in there,
22:04
Speaker 1: we got to see what's going on, and so they
22:07
Speaker 1: kicked the door down, and as soon as they did,
22:09
Speaker 1: they were hit with an even more powerful horrible smell,
22:13
Speaker 1: like rotting food smell, and they covered their noses and
22:16
Speaker 1: they went into this apartment. They start calling out like police, police,
22:20
Speaker 1: and it's dark inside the apartments. They can't really see anything.
22:23
Speaker 1: They try the lights, but the lights don't turn on,
22:26
Speaker 1: and they're looking around and there's a little bit of
22:28
Speaker 1: light coming in through the windows. They can kind of
22:30
Speaker 1: see that it's a small apartment. There's a kitchen, there's
22:32
Speaker 1: a living room, and what appears to be a bedroom
22:34
Speaker 1: over here, and they cut through the kitchen and they're
22:37
Speaker 1: sort of calling out they don't see anybody in the apartment,
22:40
Speaker 1: like there's no movement whatsoever. And they eventually make their
22:43
Speaker 1: way around to the living room.
22:45
Speaker 2: And by this.
22:46
Speaker 1: Point they basically searched the apartment and there's nobody here,
22:49
Speaker 1: like there's no counterfeiting equipment or any sort of criminal
22:53
Speaker 1: operation happening in here.
22:56
Speaker 2: But they eventually get to.
22:57
Speaker 1: The living room where the most light was coming in
23:00
Speaker 1: from the outside, and when.
23:02
Speaker 2: They looked for the first time really closely.
23:04
Speaker 1: At the living room, they realized there was like this
23:08
Speaker 1: horrible scene inside of this apartment. There were four very
23:13
Speaker 1: decomposed dead bodies sort of lying around the living room.
23:17
Speaker 1: They were draped on the furniture and on the ground
23:20
Speaker 1: and sort of strewn about the dead bodies were all
23:24
Speaker 1: these wrappers and bags of takeout food, like trash from
23:28
Speaker 1: takeout food. And so the police, after seeing this awful scene,
23:33
Speaker 1: they backed out of the apartment and a full scale
23:36
Speaker 1: investigation was launched into what happened here and Ultimately, what
23:41
Speaker 1: they discovered was these four people had died because of
23:45
Speaker 1: an accidental carbon monoxide leak inside of this apartment, but
23:50
Speaker 1: the leak had occurred at least a week before their
23:54
Speaker 1: bodies were found, and so that in and of itself
23:57
Speaker 1: created a whole bunch of questions for the police and
24:00
Speaker 1: certainly for Zoo and his manager, because it's like, wait
24:04
Speaker 1: a minute, We've been delivering food to this apartment to somebody.
24:09
Speaker 2: Somebody keeps opening the.
24:10
Speaker 1: Door and handing us this money that is apparently counterfeit money,
24:13
Speaker 1: you know, ghost money.
24:15
Speaker 2: Someone's been doing that.
24:16
Speaker 1: And clearly there are bags of takeout food that were
24:19
Speaker 1: literally the bags that they brought from the restaurant. It
24:22
Speaker 1: turned out it was the same stuff. Like, who's been
24:26
Speaker 1: in here? It doesn't make any sense, Like there must
24:28
Speaker 1: be somebody else that was maybe in here with the
24:30
Speaker 1: dead bodies or something. However, there was one other truly
24:34
Speaker 1: confounding discovery that had been made already, that was made
24:38
Speaker 1: during the autopsies of these four people that really added
24:42
Speaker 1: a pretty awful twist to the story that to this day,
24:46
Speaker 1: like nobody can understand, nobody has a good explanation for this,
24:50
Speaker 1: and really this is the reason this story went so
24:53
Speaker 1: viral at the time and was covered by so many
24:56
Speaker 1: news outlets. So, in addition to the autopsies discovering that
24:59
Speaker 1: these people died from a carbon monoxide leak. During the autopsies,
25:05
Speaker 1: they cut open the stomachs of each of these four people,
25:08
Speaker 1: and you know what they found inside of their stomachs.
25:11
Speaker 1: They found the takeout food, the stir fried egg noodles,
25:14
Speaker 1: the beef chowfon, the fried rice that was brought over
25:18
Speaker 1: by Zoo and his manager from their restaurant.
25:21
Speaker 2: That was the food inside of their stomachs. And the
25:24
Speaker 2: food was.
25:25
Speaker 1: Determined to be about maybe one or two days old.
25:29
Speaker 1: So literally the food they brought over these dead people
25:34
Speaker 1: consumed even though according to their own autopsies, they were
25:38
Speaker 1: dead by the time the food arrived, and Zoo and
25:42
Speaker 1: his manager would.
25:43
Speaker 2: Confirm they brought the food over like a day ago.
25:46
Speaker 1: These people would have been dead by then, So how
25:49
Speaker 1: did the food get into their stomachs? Now, to a
25:52
Speaker 1: lot of people, the only explanation here was that whoever
25:57
Speaker 1: ordered the food, whoever called that frail sounding old woman
26:00
Speaker 1: who then paid with ghost money, was literally a ghost.
26:04
Speaker 1: The four dead people's spirits must have been in some
26:07
Speaker 1: kind of limbo, stuck inside the apartment where they had died,
26:11
Speaker 1: feeling bored and hungry. This incident, which now is just
26:15
Speaker 1: known as the ghost Takeaway incident because takeaway is another
26:19
Speaker 1: word for delivery food, it has been written about extensively
26:23
Speaker 1: in major publications all over Hong Kong, and it's been
26:26
Speaker 1: picked up in other parts of the world. And so
26:28
Speaker 1: there are plenty of people that say, you know, this
26:31
Speaker 1: really happened.
26:32
Speaker 2: This is true. We don't know what to make of it,
26:33
Speaker 2: but it's true. This happened. But other people say this
26:36
Speaker 2: is just an amazing urban legend. It's up to you
26:40
Speaker 2: what you think is really true.
26:46
Speaker 1: All right, thank you all so much for joining me
26:48
Speaker 1: tonight at the campfire. And if you enjoyed this, remember
26:52
Speaker 1: we actually have a whole playlist of Campfire episodes that
26:56
Speaker 1: are ready for you to binge right now. If you
26:58
Speaker 1: want to do that, go ahead and click right here
27:00
Speaker 1: and give them a watch. All right, until next time,
27:03
Speaker 1: I'll see you