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Field Trip Experiences That Went Terribly Wrong · True Horror Stories

0:00
Speaker 1: When I was fourteen, my high school thought it would
0:03
Speaker 1: be a good idea to take a bunch of us
0:04
Speaker 1: New York City kids into the Cat's Skills for a day.
0:08
Speaker 1: The idea was to introduce us to nature, since some
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Speaker 1: of us had spent our entire lives living in the
0:13
Speaker 1: concrete jungle that is New York City. Seriously, a lot
0:17
Speaker 1: of us had only ever seen forests and farms on
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Speaker 1: the TV or in movies. And now that I'm older,
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Speaker 1: I realize how potentially damaging that is. I honestly feel
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Speaker 1: like human beings are supposed to be in contact with nature,
0:30
Speaker 1: that it makes us happier, healthier, and gives us a
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Speaker 1: sense of place. But I'll quit my rambling and get
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Speaker 1: on with the story. So one super early morning, we
0:39
Speaker 1: load onto our school bus for the drive out into
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Speaker 1: the Catskills. This isn't like November too, so it was
0:45
Speaker 1: still dark when I got up, and the sun had
0:48
Speaker 1: barely risen when the driver got us on the road.
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Speaker 1: I was excited at the time. I had aspirations to
0:54
Speaker 1: be in the military, and the idea of getting to
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Speaker 1: wander around the woods was such a cool concept to
0:59
Speaker 1: me at the time. In the end, it actually turned
1:02
Speaker 1: out to be pretty boring and really tiring. We walked
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Speaker 1: for hours and hours with our teacher telling us about
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Speaker 1: different kinds of trees, animals, and weather systems that the
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Speaker 1: area was home to. But we didn't even really get
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Speaker 1: to see any of those animals, aside from the odd
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Speaker 1: squirrel that was squirreling away nuts. It turns out some
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Speaker 1: of them don't hibernate at all, unlike a lot of
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Speaker 1: woodland creatures. Like I said, it was all much more
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Speaker 1: boring than I first thought. That was right up until
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Speaker 1: I saw something carved into a tree. It was carved
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Speaker 1: in really deep, obviously with some kind of knife or something,
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Speaker 1: right through the bark and into the wood. I never
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Speaker 1: seen anything like it before, and it wasn't like I
1:43
Speaker 1: wasn't a smart kid. I used to read about different
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Speaker 1: religions and occult stuff quite a lot, so I was
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Speaker 1: pretty confused as to what it was. To describe it,
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Speaker 1: it looked like a rough figure eight, but with like
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Speaker 1: dots and lines carved around it certain places, so that
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Speaker 1: they kind of looked like an octopus, only not at all.
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Speaker 1: At the same time, I know that makes literally zero sense,
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Speaker 1: and I wish this was when camera phones were a thing,
2:11
Speaker 1: because I'd probably still have the pictures with me to
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Speaker 1: link people to. Out of curiosity, I call my teacher
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Speaker 1: over and ask her if she recognized it. She gives
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Speaker 1: the thing pretty much the same look as I figured
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Speaker 1: I had, just having no idea what she's looking at,
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Speaker 1: then obviously tells me no that she's never seen anything
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Speaker 1: like it before, but that in all likelihood it's something
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Speaker 1: a hunter carved into the trees so they wouldn't get lost.
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Speaker 1: I had not really heard of anyone doing that before,
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Speaker 1: but I kind of figured she knew best, so I
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Speaker 1: dropped the whole thing and just followed the group as
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Speaker 1: we walked on. After a little while, we ended up
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Speaker 1: walking right to the edge of a cliff face near
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Speaker 1: a mountain. It was this huge wall of rock that
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Speaker 1: just seemed to rise up out of the earth, covered
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Speaker 1: in moss and stuff. Our teachers star pointing at the
3:00
Speaker 1: rock and telling us how we can tell how old
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Speaker 1: it is by the different kinds of rock that the
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Speaker 1: thing was made up of, but few of us were
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Speaker 1: really listening. I only really started paying attention myself as
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Speaker 1: we walked along the cliff face, and I saw something
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Speaker 1: familiar on it something big too. It was the same
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Speaker 1: symbol we'd seen carved into the tree, only like I said,
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Speaker 1: this one was much much bigger. Again I showed our teacher,
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Speaker 1: only this time she didn't seem so calmly curious, and
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Speaker 1: she seemed as freaked out as I did. Not only that,
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Speaker 1: but the entire class saw at this time, But with
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Speaker 1: it being the first time seeing it, they weren't nearly
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Speaker 1: as scared, just the same curious I was. I asked
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Speaker 1: the teacher quietly, who might carve something like that into
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Speaker 1: the rock? Who might have the time, or the skills
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Speaker 1: or the equipment. She just told me she didn't know,
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Speaker 1: but not to mention the ones that we'd seen carved
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Speaker 1: into the trees plural, she used the plural, and it
4:01
Speaker 1: honestly scared me more than it should have. I'd only
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Speaker 1: seen the one carved into the tree, but she'd obviously
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Speaker 1: seen a lot more than I had. I just found
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Speaker 1: myself hoping we'd be heading back soon. It was early
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Speaker 1: afternoon by that time, and I wondered just how scary
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Speaker 1: the woods would be after dark. Thankfully, I started heading
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Speaker 1: back towards the bus not long after eating lunch. A
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Speaker 1: little while into our walk, one kid stops the teacher
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Speaker 1: and tells her he needs to go to the bathroom.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't an ideal situation by any means, but with
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Speaker 1: the kid being a dude, it was pretty easy to remedy.
4:35
Speaker 1: Teacher just tells him to go into the bushes nearby
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Speaker 1: and deal with it, so he does. A few minutes later,
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Speaker 1: we hear him tearing through the bushes back towards us,
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Speaker 1: panting as he ran. He emerges with his terrified look
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Speaker 1: in his eyes, like I've never seen anyone so scared before,
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Speaker 1: not in real life. The teacher runs over and starts
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Speaker 1: asking him what the deal is, but he can hardly
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Speaker 1: get his words out. He breathing real fast in and out,
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Speaker 1: like rocking back and forth on the spot like he
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Speaker 1: was losing his mind. The teacher is telling him to
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Speaker 1: breathe calmed down and focus and tell us what he saw.
5:12
Speaker 1: What he said shook our group to the core. There
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Speaker 1: was a man, a real old man of not so old.
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Speaker 1: He had white hair and a beard, and he he
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Speaker 1: didn't have any clothes on, but he was covered in
5:28
Speaker 1: like tattoos. Oh God, Loka, what if he saw me?
5:33
Speaker 1: What if he's following us. The teacher had to quiet
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Speaker 1: the kid before a full blown panic attack took over
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Speaker 1: the group, and we hurried back to the bus without
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Speaker 1: stopping to look at anything at all. Nothing else happened
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Speaker 1: on the walk back to the bus, but thank god,
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Speaker 1: but I remember being really curious as to what the
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Speaker 1: kid thought he saw when he went to the bathroom,
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Speaker 1: and I foolishly asked. He told me exactly the same thing,
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Speaker 1: only went into a little more detail about the tattoos
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Speaker 1: and stuff. I asked him if he remember what they
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Speaker 1: looked like, to draw one of them if he could.
6:12
Speaker 1: He took out a note book and pen closed his
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Speaker 1: eyes for a moment so he could really recall. Then
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Speaker 1: he drew something rough that I couldn't quite make out
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Speaker 1: at first, but when he showed it it was clear.
6:25
Speaker 1: It was a bunch of dots and lines with a
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Speaker 1: clear figure eight in the middle. For a good few
6:39
Speaker 1: years I was a teacher at Lansdown Middle School in Victoria,
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Speaker 1: British Columbia. I loved my job. Teaching wasn't something I'd
6:47
Speaker 1: ever really seen myself doing. It certainly wasn't a career
6:51
Speaker 1: I'd talked about with high school guidance counselors. I kind
6:55
Speaker 1: of fell into it by accident. Long story short, I
6:58
Speaker 1: couldn't get into the college I wanted to, so I
7:00
Speaker 1: had to basically choose between that and nursing. So I
7:03
Speaker 1: chose the one with less blood and guts involved. Every
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Speaker 1: year we take a bunch of Grade eight students up
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Speaker 1: to a place called Camp Barnard at Otter Point, just
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Speaker 1: west of Souk. It's a scout camp built on land
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Speaker 1: gifted by Senator George Henry Barnard, who was a prominent
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Speaker 1: advocate of hunting and outdoor activities in general. There are
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Speaker 1: a lot of fun things for the kids to get
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Speaker 1: up to up at the camp. There's a playing field
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Speaker 1: and nature trail, a swimming pool, a lake for canoeing
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Speaker 1: and paddle boarding, even an archery range and disc golf course.
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Speaker 1: The kid's absolutely a door heading up there for a
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Speaker 1: few days and there's always a palpable feeling of excitement
7:42
Speaker 1: every year and the run up to the field trip
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Speaker 1: up there, and I'd be lying if I said I
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Speaker 1: didn't look forward to it too. That kind of stuff
7:49
Speaker 1: really brings out the big kid in me, you know.
7:52
Speaker 1: It was the last week of the school year when
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Speaker 1: we poled onto a bus and drove over to the
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Speaker 1: camp to begin our few days of fun. The weather
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Speaker 1: is normally pretty peachy during that time of year, but
8:02
Speaker 1: last year there were some unusually strong winds blowing through
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Speaker 1: the camp. This was very disappointing, as it meant that
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Speaker 1: some of the activities would be totally out of the question.
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Speaker 1: He can't play disc golf when the winds can effectively
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Speaker 1: blow your disk right off the entire course, and neither
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Speaker 1: can you paddle board when your board keeps getting flipped
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Speaker 1: over by choppy waters. That only really left a handful
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Speaker 1: of activities open to the kids, one of which was archery.
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Speaker 1: The other was orienteering. I'll be honest, I was excited
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Speaker 1: to try archery again. I'd tried it the year before
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Speaker 1: the first time, and I'd actually fought to get a
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Speaker 1: signed to it again since I'd just found the whole
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Speaker 1: thing so cool. I had my reservations about the wind,
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Speaker 1: but they were purely minor concerns about it affecting the
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Speaker 1: kid's accuracy. It did really suck if a few of
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Speaker 1: the more talented archers were unable to nail a bulls
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Speaker 1: eyre to thanks to the winds, but these were thin
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Speaker 1: polycarbon project dolls. I doubted the wind would have any
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Speaker 1: serious effect on them. But it wasn't the wind I
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Speaker 1: had to worry about. You See, we had this one
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Speaker 1: kid with us who was a real klutz. They sucked
9:12
Speaker 1: at sports. Always seemed to be that kid who ended
9:14
Speaker 1: up in the nurse's office from falling in the school yard.
9:17
Speaker 1: Everybody knows a kid like that, right, and this was
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Speaker 1: our clumsy kid. So the kid, who I won't name
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Speaker 1: to protect their future reputations, steps up to the firing
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Speaker 1: line with their bow and arrow in hand, fires off
9:30
Speaker 1: a couple of terrible shots, but I'm quick to offer encouragement.
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Speaker 1: The instructor even takes a little more time to show
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Speaker 1: him the correct stance at a stand just right so
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Speaker 1: that the arrow flies straight and true towards its target.
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Speaker 1: But when the kid tries to imitate the instructor, he
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Speaker 1: takes up the goofiest pose I think I'd ever seen,
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Speaker 1: body turned sideways, legs spread way too far apart, and
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Speaker 1: they even instinctually squatted down as if to try to
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Speaker 1: lower their center of gravity, as if that was going
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Speaker 1: to help in the slightest Then, just before they were
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Speaker 1: about to shoot off, another arrow. This huge and I
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Speaker 1: mean huge gust of wind starts tearing its way through
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Speaker 1: the camp, and I watched in horror as the kid
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Speaker 1: began to sway, falling backwards and shooting his arrow way
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Speaker 1: off target. The instructor kept us cool, managed to keep
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Speaker 1: the kids from freaking out, but immediately shot me a
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Speaker 1: look as if to say time to call it a day.
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Speaker 1: Next came the orienteering, about the only truly safe thing
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Speaker 1: to do during this kind of weather, at least that's
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Speaker 1: what I thought anyway. Sure, the maps were flapping away
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Speaker 1: in our hands as we tried to navigate our way
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Speaker 1: around the course, but it was still pretty fun despite
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Speaker 1: the weather. Fun right up until I heard a crashing
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Speaker 1: sound coming from just over a rise. The kids I
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Speaker 1: was supervising looked around in confusion, their eyes full of
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Speaker 1: fear as they wondered loud what the sound was. I
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Speaker 1: told them I wasn't sure, and we'd have to wait
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Speaker 1: to check it out once the course had been completed.
11:05
Speaker 1: But that was a lie. I knew. I knew well
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Speaker 1: what it was. I'd heard it before. It was the
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Speaker 1: sound of a tree falling in the woods. It's frankly unmistakable.
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Speaker 1: A deep wrenching sound, then the clacking of the lumber
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Speaker 1: hitting other upright trees, before the final crash as it
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Speaker 1: hits the dirt. I had this horrible feeling in my gut.
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Speaker 1: There were kids all over the area, all taking part
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Speaker 1: in the orienteering exercise in small groups, each overseen by
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Speaker 1: a member of the camp or teaching staff, and it
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Speaker 1: was probably the worst moment of my life so far
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Speaker 1: to realize that my worst fears had come true. I
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Speaker 1: saw a kid bounding over the rise, his eyes these
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Speaker 1: big white circles beaming out from his terrified face. I
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Speaker 1: called after him, trying to get him to tell me
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Speaker 1: what had just happened. He didn't say anything. He just
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Speaker 1: sprinted back towards camp as fast as his little legs
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Speaker 1: could carry him. I tried to keep the kids from
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Speaker 1: worrying too much, but they couldn't concentrate on the task
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Speaker 1: at hand. They seemed to know something was horribly wrong
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Speaker 1: just as clearly as I did. So after a few
12:13
Speaker 1: more minutes of trying to control the situation, I just
12:16
Speaker 1: walked us all back to camp to try to get
12:18
Speaker 1: them settled in their bunks. I'll just cut to the
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Speaker 1: chase at this point, the fallen tree had landed right
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Speaker 1: on one of the kids, who I won't name to
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Speaker 1: protect their family, and believe it or not, he was
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Speaker 1: dead just moments later from massive chest trauma and asphyxiation.
12:37
Speaker 1: The school district's critical Incident Response team was deployed on
12:40
Speaker 1: the Wednesday afternoon to support students, staff and families, but
12:45
Speaker 1: with a yearly graduation ceremony that was only a week away,
12:49
Speaker 1: it was completely ruined for a lot of families, and
12:52
Speaker 1: even those that attended felt a sense of pervading sorrow
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Speaker 1: and loss. And as for me, I've never really got
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Speaker 1: no the fact that such horrifically random tragedies can occur
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Speaker 1: to completely innocent children. I took advantage of the free
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Speaker 1: counseling services provided by the school district, but they just
13:10
Speaker 1: didn't seem to help. I found myself looking at kids
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Speaker 1: wondering what completely random accidents would take their lives before
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Speaker 1: they even blossomed and the fully grown adults.
13:31
Speaker 2: This happened when I was in the fifth grade. I
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Speaker 2: was in a science class and one day we all
13:36
Speaker 2: took a field trip to a science museum. It had
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Speaker 2: a bunch of exhibits and things like that. I really
13:42
Speaker 2: wasn't much of a science fan, but I will admit
13:44
Speaker 2: that I always liked going to the museum because it
13:46
Speaker 2: was pretty fun. We left school and drove down to
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Speaker 2: the museum, which was about thirty minutes away.
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Speaker 1: Once we got there, we did the usual stuff.
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Speaker 2: We were able to kind of split up as a
13:57
Speaker 2: group as long as we made it back a few
14:00
Speaker 2: of my friends in the class from one spot to another. Eventually,
14:04
Speaker 2: it was time to get lunch and then we would leave.
14:06
Speaker 2: Shortly after that, our teacher went around letting everyone know
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Speaker 2: we would be leaving in ten minutes and to meet
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Speaker 2: back at the entrance. I had seen everything I was
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Speaker 2: going to see, so I decided to just go back
14:17
Speaker 2: and get on the bus. That way, I could play
14:19
Speaker 2: some games on my phone until we were going to leave.
14:23
Speaker 2: I left the building into the back parking lot where
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Speaker 2: our bus had dropped us off. I got out there
14:28
Speaker 2: and saw a couple of buses. I started to walk
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Speaker 2: over and saw the bus driver wave me over to him.
14:34
Speaker 2: I got on the bus, but as I did, the
14:36
Speaker 2: bus driver stopped me. He told me there would be
14:38
Speaker 2: no phones on the way back. I was pretty upset
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Speaker 2: to hear this, and I didn't understand why, but I
14:44
Speaker 2: gave him my phone and then sat down. The bus
14:48
Speaker 2: driver then started the engine. I looked out the window
14:51
Speaker 2: and tried to think of why we weren't allowed to
14:52
Speaker 2: have our phones. Sure, sometimes the kids would get out
14:55
Speaker 2: of control with them, but I found this a little
14:57
Speaker 2: bit unreasonable. Then I felt the bus start to move.
15:02
Speaker 2: I looked and saw the driver was driving out of
15:04
Speaker 2: the parking lot and down to the street. I called
15:07
Speaker 2: out that the rest of the class was still inside,
15:09
Speaker 2: but he ignored me. Then I got a terrible feeling.
15:13
Speaker 2: I asked him to stop the bus and go back,
15:15
Speaker 2: but he just turned around and yelled at me to
15:17
Speaker 2: shut up. The bus was driving down the street and
15:20
Speaker 2: headed for the freeway.
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Speaker 3: All I could do was.
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Speaker 2: Look out the window and wonder what exactly was going on.
15:27
Speaker 2: I wished that I hadn't gone to the bus by
15:28
Speaker 2: myself and went back with the rest of the group.
15:31
Speaker 2: The bus driver merged onto the freeway and we started
15:34
Speaker 2: going at a fairly high speed. The longer we drove,
15:38
Speaker 2: the more scared that I got. Now I knew the
15:40
Speaker 2: real reason he had taken my phone from me. We
15:44
Speaker 2: continued down the freeway for I would say about five minutes. Suddenly,
15:48
Speaker 2: I heard the noise of a police sermon. I looked
15:51
Speaker 2: behind me and saw a flashing light. The bus started
15:54
Speaker 2: to move to the side of the road, and I
15:56
Speaker 2: saw a police car go with it. That was one
15:58
Speaker 2: of the greatest feelings in my life. The bus driver
16:01
Speaker 2: then opened the door and took off, running into the
16:03
Speaker 2: field beside the road. I saw several police officers run
16:07
Speaker 2: after him, and another run to the bus. They were
16:10
Speaker 2: able to get me back to safety, and the bus
16:12
Speaker 2: driver was caught a short time later. Back when I
16:26
Speaker 2: was a kid, we took a school field trip to
16:28
Speaker 2: the zoo one time. My school was really small and
16:31
Speaker 2: basically the entire place went. It took us over an
16:35
Speaker 2: hour to get there, but when we were there, it
16:37
Speaker 2: was a day long event, which was nice for us
16:39
Speaker 2: because we didn't actually have to do any school work.
16:42
Speaker 2: I think I was like eight years old and I
16:44
Speaker 2: was one of the younger people there. The first part
16:47
Speaker 2: of the day we spent looking for a bunch of animals,
16:49
Speaker 2: then we got food. After that we started looking more
16:53
Speaker 2: at plants and things like that. I was more into
16:56
Speaker 2: the animals, so my friend Matt and I went back
16:58
Speaker 2: over to them got back to the exhibit of sea lions,
17:02
Speaker 2: and when we got there, one of the zoo workers
17:04
Speaker 2: asked us if we wanted to help feed the animals.
17:07
Speaker 2: Of course, we said yes because as an eight year
17:10
Speaker 2: old kid, it seemed like something super fun to do.
17:13
Speaker 2: He told us to follow him and then let us
17:15
Speaker 2: into a doorway and down a dark and quiet hall.
17:19
Speaker 2: It was really weird to be in the back of
17:20
Speaker 2: an exhibit, but it got me really excited to feed
17:23
Speaker 2: the animals. We followed the guy deeper in and into
17:27
Speaker 2: a storage type of room that was even darker. He said,
17:30
Speaker 2: this is where they kept the food. He told us
17:32
Speaker 2: to wait there for a second and left the room.
17:35
Speaker 2: Then we saw the door shut and heard it lock.
17:38
Speaker 2: We immediately knew something was wrong. I went to the
17:41
Speaker 2: door and tried to open it, but it was in
17:43
Speaker 2: fact locked. It was a really strong and thick door,
17:46
Speaker 2: and neither of us would be able to break it.
17:49
Speaker 2: We banged on it, but I don't know how anyone
17:51
Speaker 2: else outside would be able to hear. After a while
17:56
Speaker 2: of that, with no response, we decided to examine the room.
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Speaker 2: It was very dark with no apparent lights, and we
18:02
Speaker 2: could barely see. It was probably just about fifteen feet
18:05
Speaker 2: by ten feet and had basically just junk lying around.
18:10
Speaker 2: It just seemed to be another storage closet. We waited
18:13
Speaker 2: and waited, but of course the guide never came back,
18:16
Speaker 2: and nobody else did either. This was kind of a
18:19
Speaker 2: long time ago, and neither of us had cell phones
18:22
Speaker 2: we could take out to call anyone or anything like that.
18:25
Speaker 2: We just waited in the dark room for what felt
18:28
Speaker 2: like forever. Occasionally we would yell or bang on the door,
18:32
Speaker 2: but nothing would ever happen. We did this for literally hours.
18:37
Speaker 2: At one point we stopped and actually fell asleep on
18:39
Speaker 2: the floor for some time. Eventually we got back up
18:43
Speaker 2: and went back to banging on the door and yelling.
18:46
Speaker 2: At last, finally we could barely hear someone from the
18:49
Speaker 2: other side. We both yelled as loud as we possibly could.
18:54
Speaker 2: The door tried to open but was still locked. Then
18:57
Speaker 2: whoever was there went away. We got really disappointed and
19:01
Speaker 2: thought that was it, until a few minutes later we
19:03
Speaker 2: saw the door open. There was another zoo worker and
19:06
Speaker 2: she asked us how we had gotten in there. We
19:09
Speaker 2: told her the story and she seemed really surprised. By
19:12
Speaker 2: that time, we saw that the sun was almost set
19:15
Speaker 2: when we got back into the zoo. By that time,
19:18
Speaker 2: we saw that the sun had almost set when we
19:20
Speaker 2: got back into the zoo. Apparently everyone had been looking
19:23
Speaker 2: for us for over two hours. We were able to
19:26
Speaker 2: get back home later that day, but the guy that
19:29
Speaker 2: worked there and locked us in had left and nobody
19:31
Speaker 2: could find him. It turns out he was caught a
19:34
Speaker 2: while later and had been addicted to some drugs or
19:36
Speaker 2: something like that. They said he had been acting really
19:40
Speaker 2: strange lately. I really don't know why he locked us
19:43
Speaker 2: in there, but we were very lucky to get out
19:45
Speaker 2: because that closet wasn't really used by the zoo anymore.
19:59
Speaker 2: This story happened many years ago when I was a boy.
20:02
Speaker 2: I was probably about nine or ten, and I remember
20:05
Speaker 2: for class we went on a field trip to one
20:07
Speaker 2: of the state parks. It was just a field trip
20:09
Speaker 2: where we were going to walk around and look at
20:11
Speaker 2: the sites and the wild life. We went on these
20:14
Speaker 2: trips about four times a year, and it was always
20:16
Speaker 2: pretty fun. On this day, we went to a park
20:19
Speaker 2: that had a bunch of hills and different types of trees.
20:22
Speaker 2: We were going to walk on a path all around it.
20:25
Speaker 2: There was about twenty of us in the class, and
20:28
Speaker 2: after we all got to the park, our teacher told
20:30
Speaker 2: us to follow him and then let us down the path.
20:34
Speaker 2: I was with my best friend Daryl, and we were
20:35
Speaker 2: talking during the walk. At one point we saw a
20:39
Speaker 2: cool looking mushroom a little bit off the path, so
20:41
Speaker 2: we stayed back to look at it. The rest of
20:45
Speaker 2: the class was going uphill and before we knew it,
20:47
Speaker 2: they were out of sight. We went to run to
20:50
Speaker 2: catch back up with them, but we heard a noise
20:52
Speaker 2: coming from behind a tree off the path. I expected
20:56
Speaker 2: to see an animal, but when we looked, there was
20:58
Speaker 2: a boy there around ara. He had a red shirt
21:01
Speaker 2: and jeans and he was hiding behind the tree. He
21:05
Speaker 2: wasn't in our class. We asked him who he was,
21:07
Speaker 2: but he didn't answer. We thought maybe he was with
21:11
Speaker 2: another school field trip over here or something like that.
21:14
Speaker 2: Darrel asked him if he was on a field trip,
21:16
Speaker 2: and the boy stepped out from the tree and said no, Darrel.
21:20
Speaker 2: Darrel was really surprised that the kid knew his name,
21:23
Speaker 2: and he asked him how he knew. The boy then
21:25
Speaker 2: looked at me and said my name. It was a
21:28
Speaker 2: little strange, this whole thing, and we said we should
21:31
Speaker 2: all go back with our groups. The boy then went
21:33
Speaker 2: back behind the tree. He was definitely sketchy, but he
21:37
Speaker 2: told him he should come with us because we figured
21:39
Speaker 2: he wasn't supposed to be off the path by himself
21:41
Speaker 2: out here. He didn't come out from behind the tree, though,
21:46
Speaker 2: so ME and Darrell walked over to him. But when
21:48
Speaker 2: we got behind the tree, the boy wasn't there. It
21:52
Speaker 2: was as if he just vanished in the thin air
21:53
Speaker 2: and was gone. Darrell and I looked around for a bit,
21:58
Speaker 2: but then we knew we had to get back to
21:59
Speaker 2: our groups. We ran back. We told our teacher about it,
22:03
Speaker 2: and I know we ended up telling people who worked
22:05
Speaker 2: at the park about the kid, but I never heard
22:07
Speaker 2: anything about it after that. Darryl and I still talk
22:11
Speaker 2: about it sometimes to this day.
22:15
Speaker 3: This happened a while ago. I have since been diagnosed
22:19
Speaker 3: with PTSD because of this incident. I'm currently on medication
22:23
Speaker 3: to suppress the reoccurring nightmares. For some background, at the time,
22:28
Speaker 3: I was only nine years old. I am a female
22:31
Speaker 3: from Georgia. My mother met my stepfather out of church.
22:35
Speaker 3: We recently started attending with her best friend when this happened.
22:40
Speaker 3: They were just dating It was a fairly normal church
22:43
Speaker 3: for the most part. It was a somewhat run down
22:46
Speaker 3: building with an outdated interior and an old basement. The
22:50
Speaker 3: pastor was an ex drug addict turned man of God
22:54
Speaker 3: who was honestly one of the nicest people I've ever met.
22:58
Speaker 3: It was a cold winter night, Saturday church service had
23:01
Speaker 3: just ended. We left the church and headed towards my
23:04
Speaker 3: mom's old Pontiac Vibe. It was the kind of car
23:08
Speaker 3: that didn't have electric locks or windows. Each door had
23:12
Speaker 3: to be locked and unlocked on its own. We sat
23:15
Speaker 3: in the parking lot talking for some time. Since my
23:18
Speaker 3: stepfather lived in a different city back then, he and
23:21
Speaker 3: my mom wanted to maximize their time together. They were
23:25
Speaker 3: discussing upcoming holiday plans when I noticed a figure wearing
23:28
Speaker 3: a green coat moving between the cars parked nearby. I
23:33
Speaker 3: didn't think anything of it at the time, as it
23:35
Speaker 3: could have been our pastor or another church goer. My
23:39
Speaker 3: stepdad got into the passenger seat and we were about
23:42
Speaker 3: to take off when his door was suddenly pulled open.
23:46
Speaker 3: There was a man in a green hoodie that none
23:48
Speaker 3: of us recognized. He had dark skin, bloodshot eyes, and
23:53
Speaker 3: a shaved head. He looked completely deranged. He shoved a
23:58
Speaker 3: gun into my stepdad's abdomen. Give me your wallet, he demanded,
24:04
Speaker 3: mind you. My stepfather is a Hispanic man. He speaks
24:07
Speaker 3: English well now, but he wasn't fluent back then, and
24:10
Speaker 3: he had a thick accent, so he simply responded to
24:13
Speaker 3: the man.
24:15
Speaker 1: No.
24:16
Speaker 3: My mom began freaking out. I was so scared that
24:19
Speaker 3: I kept trying to get out of the car. I
24:21
Speaker 3: started crying because my mom told me to stay put.
24:24
Speaker 3: Then the man began screaming. I said give me your wallet,
24:29
Speaker 3: but my stepdad stood firm no. The man then directed
24:34
Speaker 3: his attention at my mother. Tell him I said to
24:36
Speaker 3: give me his wallet, thinking that he couldn't understand him.
24:41
Speaker 3: My mother tried to get my stepdad to comply, but
24:43
Speaker 3: he refused. I'm looking frantically through our fogged up windows,
24:47
Speaker 3: trying to find someone to get their attention, but the
24:51
Speaker 3: man looked at me, then back to my mom. He
24:54
Speaker 3: then hit my stepdad with his gun, causing him to
24:57
Speaker 3: lean forward. He then pointed the gun at me, a
25:02
Speaker 3: nine year old girl in a pink and black dress
25:05
Speaker 3: who was talking about Christmas dinner just five minutes before.
25:09
Speaker 3: Somebody better give me something coorse she dies, I lost it.
25:14
Speaker 3: I got out of my seat and exited the car.
25:17
Speaker 3: That's when I saw two other hooded men across the
25:19
Speaker 3: parking lot. They were walking towards the car, also carrying guns.
25:25
Speaker 3: I started screaming and immediately got back in the car.
25:29
Speaker 3: My mom yelled at me for getting out, and the
25:31
Speaker 3: man with the gun was still screaming at my stepdad.
25:34
Speaker 3: Are you listening to me?
25:35
Speaker 2: Man?
25:36
Speaker 3: I'm going to shoot her right between the fucking eyes.
25:40
Speaker 3: My mom then offered him all the cash she had
25:42
Speaker 3: on her. She handed him seventy five dollars from her wallet.
25:46
Speaker 3: The man ripped away the cash from her, then assaulted
25:49
Speaker 3: my stepped out again with his gun. The mugger then
25:52
Speaker 3: slammed his arm against the car door to close it,
25:55
Speaker 3: but in the process the gun went off. The bullet
25:59
Speaker 3: went into the well of my mom's car. The three
26:02
Speaker 3: men ran off into the night. We sat there crying
26:06
Speaker 3: and trying to console each other. After about thirty minutes,
26:10
Speaker 3: we calmed ourselves down and left. We immediately went to
26:14
Speaker 3: the police station and filed the report. They said it
26:18
Speaker 3: was most likely gang activity and it would be very
26:20
Speaker 3: difficult to track down the perpetrators. The men could have
26:24
Speaker 3: killed my stepfather right in front of my mother. There
26:27
Speaker 3: was no justice. I was only a child when this happened.
26:33
Speaker 3: It's been thirteen years and I still wake up screaming
26:36
Speaker 3: and sweating for the nightmares. I'm just glad that my
26:39
Speaker 3: mom had her grocery money on her that day. Heaven
26:43
Speaker 3: knows what would have happened if she didn't.
26:48
Speaker 4: So for context, I'm a twenty two year old male
26:52
Speaker 4: and I live in a large city in the Midwest.
26:55
Speaker 4: Now I drive for a lift while putting myself through
26:58
Speaker 4: trade school for other similar companies. But that's besides the point.
27:04
Speaker 4: I have many many horror stories from those as well,
27:07
Speaker 4: but I'll tell those another time. It was Christmas Eve
27:10
Speaker 4: twenty twenty. I was out driving for a lift for
27:14
Speaker 4: a few hours before heading to my mom's with my
27:16
Speaker 4: new baby and wife. Nothing really special going on for
27:20
Speaker 4: the night, just the usual. I get a ride request.
27:25
Speaker 4: It happened to be a pickup from this kind of
27:27
Speaker 4: lower income apartment complex. No big deal. I arrived on
27:33
Speaker 4: my passenger and he has all of his belongings with him,
27:37
Speaker 4: like several boxes of stuff. Now my cars are two
27:40
Speaker 4: thousand and six Chevy and Paula, so it's not really
27:43
Speaker 4: too big. We get all of his stuff loaded up
27:47
Speaker 4: barely and we're on our way now. During the ride,
27:51
Speaker 4: the guy was crying and saying that his girlfriend was
27:53
Speaker 4: cheating on him and he had apparently walked in on
27:56
Speaker 4: them earlier that night. He couldn't stay there because her
28:00
Speaker 4: name was on the lease, so I was taken him
28:03
Speaker 4: to a hotel. Now in my city, we happen to
28:06
Speaker 4: have a street that is pretty well known for having vices, hookers, drugs, gangs, weapons,
28:13
Speaker 4: and shady motels, you know the works. We get to
28:18
Speaker 4: the motel and he asked me to wait for him
28:20
Speaker 4: to check in and get his key. No problem. Then,
28:24
Speaker 4: I say, I'll confess I break the rules a little
28:28
Speaker 4: when it comes to lyft. I have a gun hidden
28:31
Speaker 4: in a concealed holster secured to the underside of my
28:34
Speaker 4: driver's seat for protection. Reason being driving lift and other
28:38
Speaker 4: contract apps. I've had knives and guns pulled on me,
28:42
Speaker 4: as well as having people trying to fight me, rob me,
28:44
Speaker 4: and all kinds of other things. But like I said,
28:48
Speaker 4: stories for another time. This motel was on that street
28:52
Speaker 4: that I had mentioned before. Homeless people were everywhere. There
28:56
Speaker 4: was a dude on the far corner of the complex
28:58
Speaker 4: that still had a needle in his own passed right
29:01
Speaker 4: out against the building. And I'm a pretty big fan
29:03
Speaker 4: of true crime and horror narration, so I'm on edge
29:08
Speaker 4: he gets his key. The whole motel is ground level,
29:11
Speaker 4: so to help the guy out, I drive to his door.
29:15
Speaker 4: As I mentioned before, he had a lot of stuff,
29:18
Speaker 4: so I started to help him unload his stuff. While
29:21
Speaker 4: on my second trip getting stuff, I had saw a
29:24
Speaker 4: guy come out of a room just south of my car,
29:27
Speaker 4: then followed by two ladies. They came up to the room.
29:31
Speaker 4: I was next to. One of the ladies then pounded
29:33
Speaker 4: on the door, then opened it. That's when I then
29:37
Speaker 4: saw the guy raise a fucking shotgun right out of
29:39
Speaker 4: his long coat and then storm into the room. The
29:42
Speaker 4: two ladies followed him, then slamming the door behind them.
29:46
Speaker 4: Following I heard a lot of yelling and shouting. I
29:50
Speaker 4: was honestly just waiting for shots to ring out out
29:53
Speaker 4: of nowhere. My passenger came up behind me. I can
29:57
Speaker 4: take this man, go ahead and take off. I have
30:00
Speaker 4: a merry Christmas, and he gave me a cash tip
30:04
Speaker 4: I didn't even notice that he took the boxes out
30:06
Speaker 4: of my hands or sort a five dollar bill in
30:08
Speaker 4: my pocket. I was frozen. I knew what may have
30:12
Speaker 4: been going down in that room. I had to leave,
30:15
Speaker 4: or at least go to where I could get my gun.
30:18
Speaker 4: I know that the guy and the ladies both saw me,
30:21
Speaker 4: and I know that they knew I saw the gun.
30:23
Speaker 4: I just had to get the fuck out of there.
30:26
Speaker 4: You know how it goes no witnesses. I got in
30:30
Speaker 4: my car and then sped away as quickly as possible.
30:33
Speaker 4: I got a block or so away and then called
30:36
Speaker 4: the cops. They gave them every detail I could. After
30:40
Speaker 4: I got off the phone with the police, I signed
30:42
Speaker 4: out a lift. I hadn't made much money, but I
30:46
Speaker 4: was done. I got a call later that night. The
30:50
Speaker 4: cops investigated. They never found the gunmen or the women.
30:54
Speaker 4: They never answered the door that I saw them come
30:56
Speaker 4: out of, and the occupants of the room they went
30:59
Speaker 4: into said nothing happened and that I was full of shit.
31:02
Speaker 4: Well I definitely wasn't I know what I saw