Latest / Crime and Horror / Stay away from the “Big White Glob” - MrBallen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: So today is going to be a little bit of
- 0:02Speaker 1: a change of pace. I'm going to tell you four
- 0:04Speaker 1: stories that are all strange but true, but they all
- 0:08Speaker 1: have very atypical endings relative to the types of stories
- 0:14Speaker 1: I usually tell. But before we get into today's stories,
- 0:18Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious
- 0:20Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right
- 0:22Speaker 1: place because that's all we do, and we upload two, three,
- 0:25Speaker 1: even four times every week. So if that's of interest
- 0:29Speaker 1: to you, The next time you're leaving the like button's house,
- 0:32Speaker 1: be sure you first rub Vaseline on both sides of
- 0:36Speaker 1: their doorknob. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn
- 0:39Speaker 1: on all notifications so you don't miss any of our
- 0:42Speaker 1: weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories. On the
- 1:02Speaker 1: night of March 9th, 1974, a 44-year-old man named Don
- 1:07Speaker 1: Yearwood stumbled down the sidewalk in Key Largo, Florida. Two
- 1:11Speaker 1: of his friends were trailing right behind him, and they
- 1:13Speaker 1: were all taking swigs of a bottle of wine. Now,
- 1:15Speaker 1: on top of drinking out on the sidewalk, this trio
- 1:19Speaker 1: had been drinking all night. And now, Don, in his
- 1:23Speaker 1: drunken state, was in the mood to do something really
- 1:25Speaker 1: fun and really exciting.
- 1:27Speaker 2: But he just couldn't decide what to do.
- 1:29Speaker 1: But soon, the opportunity kind of presented itself when they
- 1:33Speaker 1: passed by a mechanic shop that was closed for the night,
- 1:36Speaker 1: and Don spotted a nice car parked right outside the garage.
- 1:40Speaker 1: Don was really into cars, so just out of curiosity,
- 1:44Speaker 1: he wandered over to get a better look at this car.
- 1:47Speaker 1: And when he got close enough, he saw that there
- 1:50Speaker 1: actually were keys that were left.
- 1:53Speaker 2: In the ignitions. And Don, he just couldn't help himself.
- 1:57Speaker 1: He thought, man, now I have a great idea for
- 2:00Speaker 1: how to have an exciting finish to the night. We're
- 2:03Speaker 1: going to go on a joyride. And so he tried
- 2:06Speaker 1: the door handle. Sure enough, it was open. He piled
- 2:09Speaker 1: into the car and his friends followed right along with him.
- 2:11Speaker 1: Ten minutes later, drunken Don is behind the wheels, speeding
- 2:16Speaker 1: and weaving down an empty back road. The radio was
- 2:19Speaker 1: blasting and his friends were laughing. They're drinking their wine.
- 2:22Speaker 1: They're all having a great time. when suddenly Don noticed
- 2:26Speaker 1: flashing lights in his rear view mirror. And immediately Don
- 2:30Speaker 1: began to panic because he knew that if he got
- 2:32Speaker 1: caught speeding and driving under the influence in a stolen car,
- 2:36Speaker 1: he'd be in a lot of trouble. So naturally he
- 2:40Speaker 1: hit the gas and sped up thinking what he will
- 2:42Speaker 1: do here is just outrun the sheriff's patrol car, easy.
- 2:46Speaker 1: And so he's speeding along, he's weaving and he's taking
- 2:50Speaker 1: crazy turns, but despite his, in his mind, expert driving,
- 2:55Speaker 1: the sheriff's car pretty easily kept up with him. I mean,
- 2:58Speaker 1: the sheriff's car had a pretty powerful engine in it,
- 3:00Speaker 1: so he just kept right in pace with Don here.
- 3:03Speaker 1: But Don, he just kept doing his best, trying to,
- 3:06Speaker 1: you know, outmaneuver this cop, but it just, it didn't work.
- 3:09Speaker 1: And finally, the patrol car not only just kept pace
- 3:12Speaker 1: with Don, but when there was a chance, it whizzed
- 3:15Speaker 1: right past him and came to a stop in front
- 3:19Speaker 1: of Don, basically completely cutting him off, at which point
- 3:22Speaker 1: Don knew, you know, the jig was up here and
- 3:24Speaker 1: his only choice was to pull over and talk his
- 3:28Speaker 1: way out of this.
- 3:29Speaker 2: So Don, at this point, pulls.
- 3:30Speaker 1: Over to the side of the road and he tells
- 3:33Speaker 1: his friends in the back who are laughing still, they
- 3:35Speaker 1: think this is so hilarious because they're all drunk. He's like, hey,
- 3:38Speaker 1: be quiet, be quiet. And so he rolls down his window.
- 3:41Speaker 1: And when the deputy walked up, Don, you know, even
- 3:44Speaker 1: though he's drunk, he was very composed and he was
- 3:48Speaker 1: very polite and friendly and he apologized for speeding. And
- 3:51Speaker 1: he said, look, you know, me and my friends were
- 3:54Speaker 1: fishermen from Key Largo, and we were just going out
- 3:56Speaker 1: for a night on the town, you know, sorry, you know,
- 3:59Speaker 1: we'll take it easy the rest of the night here.
- 4:01Speaker 1: But the deputy seemed completely unfazed by the story, like
- 4:05Speaker 1: this wasn't even registering. And the deputy just kind of
- 4:08Speaker 1: calmly looked inside the car and then looked at Don
- 4:11Speaker 1: and just said, is this your car? And Don said, no,
- 4:17Speaker 1: we borrowed it from a friend. And the deputy kind
- 4:21Speaker 1: of stepped back for a second and looked at the
- 4:23Speaker 1: whole car, kind of sized him up. And then he
- 4:26Speaker 1: leaned back in and he asked Don, is your friend
- 4:30Speaker 1: Al Lanken? Now, Don had never heard of Al Lanken, but,
- 4:35Speaker 1: you know, he just went along with it and.
- 4:37Speaker 2: Smiled and said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Al's a good
- 4:39Speaker 2: friend of mine. He let me have the car for
- 4:42Speaker 2: the weekend.
- 4:43Speaker 1: Yep.
- 4:43Speaker 2: And so the deputy nodded and he's like, okay.
- 4:46Speaker 1: And then he leaned in close to the window and
- 4:48Speaker 1: he asked Don if he would take a look at something.
- 4:51Speaker 2: Don's like, okay.
- 4:53Speaker 1: But then the deputy pointed at his name tag.
- 4:57Speaker 2: And when Don read what his name tag said, his
- 5:00Speaker 2: stomach dropped.
- 5:01Speaker 1: It would turn out this car really did belong to
- 5:04Speaker 1: Al Lanken. Deputy Al Lanken. The man who pulled over Don.
- 5:11Speaker 2: That was his car.
- 5:12Speaker 1: And so Deputy Lanken immediately arrested Don and his two
- 5:15Speaker 1: friends for possession of a stolen vehicle. And also Don
- 5:19Speaker 1: was charged with driving while intoxicated and driving.
- 5:21Speaker 2: Without a license.
- 5:28Speaker 1: This episode is sponsored by DraftKings. The football season is
- 5:31Speaker 1: heating up and every week feels bigger with DraftKings. DraftKings
- 5:36Speaker 1: is now live in all 50 states, one app, all
- 5:39Speaker 1: the football nationwide. New DraftKings customers, sign up with code BALLEN,
- 5:44Speaker 1: spend five bucks to get $ 150 in rewards within 14 days.
- 5:49Speaker 1: Includes all markets. That's code BALLEN. In partnership with DraftKings,
- 5:53Speaker 1: the crown is yours. Gambling problem?
- 5:55Speaker 2: Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET.
- 5:59Speaker 1: Connecticut, call 888-789-7777. Visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill
- 6:06Speaker 1: Casino in Kansas, bet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois.
- 6:10Speaker 1: 21 plus, void in Canada. Bet with DraftKings Sportsbook to
- 6:14Speaker 1: get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade
- 6:17Speaker 1: with DraftKings Predictions to get predictions dollars that expire in
- 6:21Speaker 1: one year. Event contract trading involves risk of loss. Predictions
- 6:25Speaker 1: offer void in New York. Non-withdrawable rewards issued as $ 50
- 6:29Speaker 1: click-to-claims every 7 days for 14 days. Terms at dkng.co.offer.
- 6:36Speaker 1: Limited time offer, nationwide based on sportsbook, predictions, and free-to-play
- 6:41Speaker 1: sports contest availability.
- 6:43Speaker 2: Varies by state. Around 6 a.m.
- 6:55Speaker 1: On October 23, 1978, a man named Ernest Houle was
- 6:59Speaker 1: going for a run, along.
- 7:00Speaker 2: With his dog, in the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
- 7:03Speaker 1: He was following his usual route through Slater Park, which
- 7:06Speaker 1: was this huge park that covered nearly 200 acres and
- 7:09Speaker 1: had all kinds of attractions, like baseball fields, there was
- 7:12Speaker 1: a zoo, a carousel.
- 7:14Speaker 2: And a duck pond.
- 7:15Speaker 1: And Ernest and his dog were actually jogging towards that
- 7:17Speaker 1: duck pond right now. And as they got closer... Ernest
- 7:21Speaker 1: thought he saw something in the water floating out towards
- 7:24Speaker 1: the middle of the pond that just sort of seemed odd,
- 7:27Speaker 1: like it didn't belong in the pond. It was still
- 7:30Speaker 1: too dark outside to really see what it was, but
- 7:32Speaker 1: it almost looked like a small white glob.
- 7:36Speaker 2: Of some kind.
- 7:37Speaker 1: Ernest thought, you know, maybe it was a dead duck
- 7:39Speaker 1: or a fish or something, but he was curious. So
- 7:43Speaker 1: he slowed down and he walked off the path toward
- 7:45Speaker 1: the pond to get a better look.
- 7:48Speaker 2: And his dog, Ella.
- 7:49Speaker 1: She trotted ahead of him and started sniffing around. And
- 7:52Speaker 1: at first, you know, it's just the two of them
- 7:54Speaker 1: walking towards this pond.
- 7:55Speaker 2: It's quiet. No one's really out here.
- 7:56Speaker 1: It's just this weird, you know, glob in the pond.
- 8:00Speaker 1: But then as Ella the dog got close to the
- 8:03Speaker 1: edge of the pond, like right up alongside the water,
- 8:06Speaker 1: Ernest saw this white glob suddenly rise out of the
- 8:11Speaker 1: water until it was so tall it was towering over them.
- 8:15Speaker 1: And when Ernest realized what this thing actually was, he
- 8:19Speaker 1: was horrified. He didn't even know this was possible. And then,
- 8:23Speaker 1: of course, Ella the dog starts barking, and this creature
- 8:27Speaker 1: starts moving through the water right towards them. Ernest was
- 8:31Speaker 1: frozen with fear as he watched this massive creature reach
- 8:34Speaker 1: the edge of the pond and actually lurch out of
- 8:37Speaker 1: the water and up onto the grass. Ernest finally kind
- 8:40Speaker 1: of snapped out of his terrified trance and saw Ella
- 8:44Speaker 1: take off running, so he called her name and sprinted
- 8:46Speaker 1: off after. About half an hour later, a captain from
- 8:50Speaker 1: the Pawtucket Police Department led a team of about 20
- 8:53Speaker 1: officers towards this duck pond at Slater Park. They just
- 8:57Speaker 1: received this absolutely bizarre 911 call from a local jogger
- 9:02Speaker 1: about something huge lurking.
- 9:04Speaker 2: In the pond.
- 9:06Speaker 1: And the captain couldn't even be sure if this was
- 9:08Speaker 1: real or a prank. But if this was real, he
- 9:12Speaker 1: certainly would need all the backup he could get. Up ahead,
- 9:15Speaker 1: the captain saw the pond. And in the pond, sure enough,
- 9:19Speaker 1: he could see what appeared to be this white glob
- 9:22Speaker 1: sort of barely poking out of the water in the
- 9:24Speaker 1: same spot where the 911 caller had reported seeing this blob,
- 9:28Speaker 1: which ultimately got much, much bigger. And as this happened,
- 9:31Speaker 1: the captain's signaling to the others to fan out and
- 9:34Speaker 1: encircle the whole pond so this thing can't escape. And
- 9:37Speaker 1: then as this white blob, this creature, actually rose up
- 9:43Speaker 1: out of the water and climbed.
- 9:44Speaker 2: Out of the pond.
- 9:46Speaker 1: The captain then gave the cue to an officer who
- 9:49Speaker 1: was standing by holding a gun, and that officer fired,
- 9:53Speaker 1: and the creature fell to the ground. And so once
- 9:56Speaker 1: this thing was down, the police captain stepped closer to
- 9:59Speaker 1: get a better look. And he saw the creature's dirty,
- 10:02Speaker 1: matted fur and its black eyes and its huge tongue
- 10:06Speaker 1: hanging out of its mouth. And he realized this mysterious
- 10:09Speaker 1: white glob was indeed a polar bear. The bear, whose
- 10:15Speaker 1: name was Frosty, belonged to the zoo that was in
- 10:18Speaker 1: Slater Park. But overnight, a group of vandals had broken
- 10:21Speaker 1: into that zoo, cut the locks on Frosty's cage, and
- 10:25Speaker 1: let him out. And Frosty had wandered as far as
- 10:28Speaker 1: this duck pond and had spent the next few hours
- 10:30Speaker 1: hiding in the water, with just the top of his
- 10:32Speaker 1: head peeking out, giving the impression of a white glob
- 10:36Speaker 1: in the water.
- 10:37Speaker 2: But don't worry, Frosty, he made it out okay.
- 10:41Speaker 1: The gun the police shot him with was just a
- 10:42Speaker 1: tranquilizer gun, so after being tranquilized, He was carefully returned
- 10:47Speaker 1: to safety in the zoo before he or anyone else
- 10:49Speaker 1: got hurt. On the morning of September 20, 1909, a
- 11:04Speaker 1: man named Terry Rooney strolled down a busy street in
- 11:07Speaker 1: San Francisco, California. As he walked, he passed by a
- 11:11Speaker 1: bunch of shops and restaurants.
- 11:12Speaker 2: And cafes, and then suddenly.
- 11:15Speaker 1: he noticed something that just made him stop in his
- 11:17Speaker 1: tracks right away. There was a display set up outside
- 11:21Speaker 1: of a shop front, and in this display was something
- 11:24Speaker 1: Terry felt like he just absolutely had to have. Now,
- 11:29Speaker 1: Terry knew there was no way he could actually afford
- 11:32Speaker 1: to buy it, but this item was so special he
- 11:36Speaker 1: couldn't bear to just walk away from it. He'd regret
- 11:39Speaker 1: it for the rest of his life. So, in his mind,
- 11:41Speaker 1: he only had one choice. He had to steal it.
- 11:45Speaker 1: And so Terry's heart began to race, and he looked
- 11:47Speaker 1: around and didn't see anybody watching him, so he knew
- 11:51Speaker 1: he had to act now before it was too late.
- 11:53Speaker 1: And so he walked up, he grabbed the item off
- 11:55Speaker 1: the display, and took off running. And as soon as
- 11:58Speaker 1: he did, he heard this high-pitched voice start shrieking, stop thief!
- 12:04Speaker 1: And so Terry, who didn't know who was yelling it,
- 12:06Speaker 1: he just kept on running down the block, but he
- 12:08Speaker 1: kept hearing that same voice calling out louder and louder,
- 12:12Speaker 1: stop thief, over and over again. It was like the
- 12:15Speaker 1: voice wasn't getting any farther away. It was like they
- 12:17Speaker 1: were right with him. And then when Terry turned a corner,
- 12:20Speaker 1: the voice called out again as if it was on
- 12:22Speaker 1: this street, like right on top of him. And of course,
- 12:26Speaker 1: there's a police officer right nearby, who sees all this happening,
- 12:31Speaker 1: clearly can see Terry is the thief, and the officer
- 12:35Speaker 1: begins to pursue him. And so Terry's like, great, I
- 12:37Speaker 1: have a foot race against a seemingly pretty fit cop
- 12:41Speaker 1: here who's chasing me down. And so he turns into
- 12:43Speaker 1: an alley, adrenaline surging through him, but immediately he sees
- 12:47Speaker 1: there's a tall fence at the end of it.
- 12:50Speaker 2: He was cornered.
- 12:51Speaker 1: I mean, he did try to climb the fence with
- 12:53Speaker 1: one hand, you know, while keeping this precious item he
- 12:55Speaker 1: had just stolen in the other, but He just couldn't
- 12:58Speaker 1: do it, couldn't move fast enough. And before long, the
- 13:00Speaker 1: cop had caught up to him, grabbed him, and that
- 13:03Speaker 1: was it. The following day, Terry was sitting handcuffed inside
- 13:07Speaker 1: of a courtroom. All the previous night, he had been
- 13:11Speaker 1: absolutely seething in his jail cell.
- 13:13Speaker 2: He knew if it hadn't been for that witness who kept.
- 13:16Speaker 1: Calling out, you know, stop, thief, everywhere he went, it
- 13:19Speaker 1: seemed like, very likely that cop wouldn't have caught him
- 13:23Speaker 1: and he wouldn't be here shackled in a courtroom anymore.
- 13:26Speaker 1: facing grand larceny charges, which, by the way, if he
- 13:29Speaker 1: was convicted, he would go to jail for years. But
- 13:32Speaker 1: however it happened, you know, Terry was here now, and
- 13:35Speaker 1: he was just hopeful that somehow or another he might
- 13:38Speaker 1: be able to get out of this one. But just then,
- 13:41Speaker 1: Terry heard the courtroom door open up behind him. And
- 13:44Speaker 1: then an all-too-familiar voice began to chatter.
- 13:48Speaker 2: And he realized it was the same.
- 13:50Speaker 1: Voice that had shouted,' Stop! Thief!
- 13:52Speaker 2: at him. It was the same witness.
- 13:55Speaker 1: And so Terry whipped around and he saw the witness
- 13:58Speaker 1: being led right up to the front of the courtroom
- 14:01Speaker 1: where the prosecutor was sitting. Terry started to sweat because
- 14:04Speaker 1: he knew this witness clearly had seen the whole incident.
- 14:08Speaker 1: Once the witness was all the way up at the
- 14:10Speaker 1: front of the courtroom, the prosecutor gestured to the witness
- 14:14Speaker 1: and told the judge that this individual was both an
- 14:18Speaker 1: eyewitness and evidence in Terry's case. It would turn out
- 14:23Speaker 1: that the very special item that Terry just, he had
- 14:27Speaker 1: to have, the one that he stole, was a parrot.
- 14:31Speaker 1: And while Terry was running away with the parrot in
- 14:33Speaker 1: a cage tucked under his arm, the parrot had begun screeching, Stop! Thief!
- 14:39Speaker 1: And so the parrot was literally brought to Terry's trial
- 14:43Speaker 1: as a witness.
- 14:44Speaker 2: And even though it couldn't.
- 14:45Speaker 1: Tell the full story of what had happened, it did
- 14:48Speaker 1: repeatedly call Terry a wine bum. and so he was
- 14:51Speaker 1: found guilty and went to jail. One afternoon in late
- 15:08Speaker 1: November of 1976, a 27-year-old man named Gary Gagne sat
- 15:13Speaker 1: in the small cabin of his boat in the middle
- 15:15Speaker 1: of the Tasman Sea near New Zealand and bracing himself
- 15:18Speaker 1: as the boat rocked violently back and forth. He was
- 15:22Speaker 1: trying to read his Bible and stay calm, but doing
- 15:25Speaker 1: that was pretty much impossible since there was a storm
- 15:28Speaker 1: just absolutely raging outside. So Gary was from Canada, but
- 15:33Speaker 1: he did a lot of open sea exploration all over
- 15:36Speaker 1: the world in his small 31 foot wooden boat. And
- 15:41Speaker 1: right now he was two weeks into the solo voyage
- 15:44Speaker 1: from Fiji to New Zealand, when he was in the
- 15:46Speaker 1: final days of his journey, which had been going great
- 15:49Speaker 1: until this massive storm hit. So really for the last
- 15:52Speaker 1: couple of days, Gary had been dealing with pretty severe weather.
- 15:55Speaker 1: He dropped his anchors and he had lowered his sails
- 15:57Speaker 1: to try and wait it out, but the waves and
- 15:59Speaker 1: the wind were just so intense and they'd thrown his
- 16:02Speaker 1: boat around so much that he was now starting to panic.
- 16:05Speaker 1: He didn't know if his little boat would survive this one.
- 16:08Speaker 1: But since Gary was a deeply religious person, he turned
- 16:12Speaker 1: to his Bible for comfort.
- 16:14Speaker 2: As he had done, you know, many times.
- 16:15Speaker 1: When he was out alone on the sea and it
- 16:17Speaker 1: seemed like things were taking a turn and it always
- 16:19Speaker 1: seemed like he'd find his way again. But now, as
- 16:22Speaker 1: he turned yet another page of the Bible, he suddenly
- 16:25Speaker 1: heard this loud roaring sound from outside and he felt
- 16:29Speaker 1: the whole boat pitch sideways really violently and everything inside
- 16:33Speaker 1: the cabin, including Gary, went airborne. Gary felt the Bible
- 16:37Speaker 1: fly out of his hand as the boat fully flipped over.
- 16:40Speaker 1: And then seconds later, he slammed back down into the floor,
- 16:43Speaker 1: which was actually the ceiling of his cabin.
- 16:46Speaker 2: And then he just lay there, dazed for a moment.
- 16:49Speaker 1: But he barely had time to even catch his breath
- 16:51Speaker 1: before seawater started rushing in. And so he staggered to
- 16:55Speaker 1: his feet trying to get his bearings. But by now,
- 16:58Speaker 1: the water was already up to his knees. And so
- 17:00Speaker 1: at this point, Gary knew this ship is sinking, like
- 17:04Speaker 1: he's doomed here. And so all he could think to
- 17:07Speaker 1: do was just frantically run around the cabin and gather
- 17:10Speaker 1: up any food, any water, any supplies, anything really that
- 17:13Speaker 1: he could, that he could find, that he could bring
- 17:15Speaker 1: with him out of the boat before it sunk into
- 17:19Speaker 1: the ocean. Two days later, Gary was amazingly still alive,
- 17:24Speaker 1: and his boat actually had not fully sunk. His boat
- 17:28Speaker 1: had capsized completely and basically flooded with water, but there
- 17:31Speaker 1: was enough of an air bubble that that his boat
- 17:34Speaker 1: had stayed at the surface. And so Gary was now
- 17:37Speaker 1: sitting on the upturned side of his boat as it
- 17:40Speaker 1: bobbed gently in the waves. Now, despite the fact that
- 17:43Speaker 1: his beloved boat was currently upside down, Gary actually felt
- 17:48Speaker 1: like things were kind of looking up. I mean, after all,
- 17:50Speaker 1: the boat had not fully sunk. And so he'd managed
- 17:53Speaker 1: to continue to pull out quite a bit of stuff
- 17:56Speaker 1: from inside the cabin below, like six gallons of fresh water,
- 18:00Speaker 1: There was some dry beans, some rice. There was also
- 18:03Speaker 1: a few flares. We could actually try to get in
- 18:05Speaker 1: touch with other ships in the distance. He even found
- 18:08Speaker 1: some dry clothes, his passport and his Bible. But despite
- 18:13Speaker 1: finding these things, ultimately, Gary knew that his biggest issue
- 18:17Speaker 1: was the amount of food and water he had just
- 18:20Speaker 1: simply wasn't going to last.
- 18:22Speaker 2: Him for very long.
- 18:23Speaker 1: Like, realistically, he only had maybe a couple of days here.
- 18:27Speaker 1: So he sat there and scanned the horizon. praying that
- 18:31Speaker 1: he would see another vessel and could use, you know,
- 18:33Speaker 1: those flares to signal them and get rescued. But the
- 18:37Speaker 1: day passed, and Gary didn't see another vessel anywhere. And
- 18:41Speaker 1: then another day came and went, and then another, and
- 18:43Speaker 1: still nothing. And at the same time, Gary's food and
- 18:47Speaker 1: fresh water supply dwindled, and he started losing that optimism.
- 18:52Speaker 1: He was becoming more and more desperate. But then finally,
- 18:55Speaker 1: on his sixth day of being stranded out here, he
- 18:58Speaker 1: saw a boat off in the distance. And he immediately
- 19:01Speaker 1: grabbed a flare and he jumped up and he set
- 19:04Speaker 1: it off. But even after the flare shot into the air,
- 19:09Speaker 1: the boat didn't stop or slow down at all. And
- 19:12Speaker 1: so Gary kept setting off more and more flares to
- 19:15Speaker 1: try to get its attention, but the boat just continued
- 19:18Speaker 1: on and eventually disappeared altogether. And so Gary, of course,
- 19:22Speaker 1: was completely crushed by this. Not only did they obviously
- 19:26Speaker 1: not see him or rescue him, but He'd also wasted
- 19:28Speaker 1: this really valuable resource, these flares. Now if another vessel
- 19:33Speaker 1: came by, he didn't have that many left.
- 19:35Speaker 2: This was his lifeline.
- 19:37Speaker 1: But he kept scanning the horizon because he knew all
- 19:40Speaker 1: he needed was one boat to see him one time.
- 19:44Speaker 1: And chances were good, you know, he'd probably see another.
- 19:47Speaker 2: And he was right.
- 19:49Speaker 1: As the days turned into weeks, he saw four more ships.
- 19:54Speaker 1: But like the first one, none of them noticed his flares.
- 19:58Speaker 1: And the worst part was, by the time that fourth
- 20:01Speaker 1: ship had not seen him and drove off into the distance,
- 20:05Speaker 1: at that point, Gary was completely out of food, and
- 20:08Speaker 1: barely had any fresh water left. He could literally feel
- 20:12Speaker 1: the strength leaving his body, to the point that he
- 20:14Speaker 1: didn't even have enough energy to read his Bible anymore.
- 20:18Speaker 1: Gary realized he was starving to death. Pretty soon, all
- 20:22Speaker 1: Gary could do was just lie on his back and
- 20:24Speaker 1: stare at the sky as he floated in and out
- 20:27Speaker 1: of consciousness. But while he was in this half-awake, delirious state,
- 20:32Speaker 1: he suddenly had an idea for how he might be
- 20:35Speaker 1: able to actually survive this. Now, he wasn't sure if
- 20:38Speaker 1: it was a good idea. I mean, after all, this
- 20:41Speaker 1: is an off-the-wall idea.
- 20:42Speaker 2: It's disturbing.
- 20:44Speaker 1: It's crazy. It probably won't even work. But the idea
- 20:49Speaker 1: had sort of come to him like an epiphany with
- 20:51Speaker 1: such intense clarity that it felt like a message directly
- 20:56Speaker 1: from God. So Gary knew he could not ignore it.
- 21:00Speaker 1: Gary knew he had to try. On December 5th, so
- 21:05Speaker 1: about 17 days after Gary's boat had flipped over. A
- 21:09Speaker 1: helicopter pilot who worked for a nearby tuna boat flew
- 21:12Speaker 1: low over the Tasman Sea, trying to spot schools of
- 21:15Speaker 1: fish from the air. And that was when he noticed
- 21:18Speaker 1: a small, dark shape way out in the water. He
- 21:21Speaker 1: couldn't even tell what it was, but he knew it
- 21:23Speaker 1: looked out of place, so he flew down closer to
- 21:26Speaker 1: get a better look at it. And as he neared
- 21:28Speaker 1: this object, he suddenly saw flares shoot up into the
- 21:31Speaker 1: air in front of him, coming from this dark shape.
- 21:35Speaker 1: And then when the pilot got down low enough, he
- 21:38Speaker 1: could see that the shape was actually an upturned boat
- 21:41Speaker 1: floating in the water, and there was this ragged-looking man
- 21:45Speaker 1: standing on it. And so the pilot, he lowered the
- 21:47Speaker 1: helicopter even more to get a really good look at
- 21:50Speaker 1: this guy to make sure he was really seeing what
- 21:52Speaker 1: he was seeing. And this guy, he was like, completely sunburnt,
- 21:57Speaker 1: totally exhausted looking.
- 21:58Speaker 2: He looked completely.
- 21:59Speaker 1: Emaciated, but the man was smiling ear to ear, and
- 22:03Speaker 1: he seemed like he was in really good spirits, probably
- 22:05Speaker 1: because he was being rescued here. And then also this man,
- 22:08Speaker 1: he was clutching a book close to his chest, like
- 22:11Speaker 1: the book was really important to him. He was holding
- 22:13Speaker 1: on to it. But then, you know, at some point,
- 22:16Speaker 1: the man sort of opened his arms and waved to
- 22:18Speaker 1: the pilot, probably signaling like, please rescue me. And when
- 22:22Speaker 1: he did, that book he was holding fell to his
- 22:25Speaker 1: feet on the upturned side of this boat he was on,
- 22:28Speaker 1: and it fell open. And the pilot just, he got
- 22:31Speaker 1: a quick look at it, and he realized there were
- 22:34Speaker 1: no pages in this book. So obviously, this shipwrecked man
- 22:39Speaker 1: was Gary. And so Gary's big idea to save himself worked.
- 22:44Speaker 2: And his big idea that, you know, was given.
- 22:46Speaker 1: To him by God was to draw strength from God.
- 22:51Speaker 1: But literally, his plan was to eat the Bible because
- 22:57Speaker 1: his Bible, the word of God, was made of rice paper.
- 23:02Speaker 1: And so by eating them, he was able to live
- 23:04Speaker 1: long enough that he was picked up by the helicopter
- 23:07Speaker 1: pilot and he was ultimately delivered safely to New Zealand.
- 23:16Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
- 23:18Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
- 23:20Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have hundreds of videos for
- 23:23Speaker 1: you to binge right now. But if you're looking for
- 23:26Speaker 1: a recommendation from me of that one video that's worth your.
- 23:29Speaker 2: Time, well, it's this one right here. So give it
- 23:32Speaker 2: a watch.
- 23:33Speaker 1: All right, until next time, see ya.