Latest / Paranormal Activity / 6 Christmas Nights That Became Terrifying Memories

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6 Christmas Nights That Became Terrifying Memories · Paranormal Activity

0:01
Speaker 1: On May eighteenth of nineteen thirty five, George and Laura
0:05
Speaker 1: Laurius joined their friends Albert and Tilley Hayberer on the
0:08
Speaker 1: cross country road trip of a lifetime from their home
0:12
Speaker 1: in southern Illinois. The group planned on driving across two
0:15
Speaker 1: thousand miles of plains and desert before finally finishing up
0:19
Speaker 1: on the coast of California, and by May twenty first,
0:23
Speaker 1: they had arrived in the small town of Vaughan, New Mexico.
0:27
Speaker 1: After piling out of George Laurius's Nash Sedan, the two
0:31
Speaker 1: couples checked into the Vaughan Hotel before sending off several
0:34
Speaker 1: postcards to friends and family. Then, after a small dinner
0:38
Speaker 1: at a local diner, the group retired to their rooms
0:41
Speaker 1: for the night before continuing west the following morning. In
0:45
Speaker 1: their postcards, the group seemed to be in high spirits
0:48
Speaker 1: and reported nothing untoward occurring during their most recent drive,
0:53
Speaker 1: But after the couples continued driving west on the morning
0:56
Speaker 1: of the twenty second, neither was ever heard from again.
1:01
Speaker 1: The morning of May twenty sixth that the Laurius's car
1:04
Speaker 1: was found abandoned in the business district of Dallas, Texas.
1:08
Speaker 1: The vehicle's keys were still in the ignition, the gas
1:11
Speaker 1: tank was full, and numerous postcards lay in the passenger seat,
1:16
Speaker 1: but there was no sign of any of the Illinois
1:18
Speaker 1: road trippers. Gas Nation receipts confirmed that mister Lorrius had
1:22
Speaker 1: purchased fuel in the place called SoCoRo on May twenty third,
1:26
Speaker 1: but after that their fate was anyone's guess. The following week,
1:31
Speaker 1: the couple's families were notified of their disappearance and an
1:34
Speaker 1: official investigation was launched. Police initially believed that the absence
1:39
Speaker 1: of four hundred dollars worth of traveller's checks indicated that
1:43
Speaker 1: a violent robbery had taken place. However, investigators soon discovered
1:48
Speaker 1: that the couple's car had been involved in the minor
1:50
Speaker 1: accident shortly after arriving in SoCoRo. Since the accident could
1:55
Speaker 1: have angered someone enough to do harm to the road trippers,
1:59
Speaker 1: police began the handful of witnesses to the crash. Instead
2:03
Speaker 1: of describing the vehicle as containing two middlewaged couples, witnesses
2:07
Speaker 1: stated that the lone occupant was a young man with
2:11
Speaker 1: dark colored hair. Detectives managed to track the vehicle from
2:15
Speaker 1: the scene of the accident to a small local repair shop.
2:18
Speaker 1: Mechanics changed a tire on the vehicle and completed other
2:21
Speaker 1: minor repairs than Whoever was driving the car paid with
2:24
Speaker 1: one of George Laurius's traveler's checks. Detectives then followed the
2:29
Speaker 1: trail of cash checks to a motel in Alpasso and
2:32
Speaker 1: then a Dallas, which is where the vehicle was found
2:35
Speaker 1: abandoned on May twenty sixth. The investigation briefly stalled until
2:40
Speaker 1: June twenty ninth, when report came in of a small
2:43
Speaker 1: desert bush fire on the outskirts of Albuquerque. The fire
2:47
Speaker 1: department arrived to discover a piece of burning luggage inside
2:51
Speaker 1: with the smoldering belongings of George and Laura Laurius. With
2:57
Speaker 1: the man responsible for the couple's disappearance still actively dis
3:00
Speaker 1: coposing of their belongings, law enforcement rushed into action in
3:03
Speaker 1: the hopes they might still be recovered alive. The FBI
3:07
Speaker 1: headed up a multi agency task force which searched rivers, lakes,
3:12
Speaker 1: mine shafts, wells in numerous spots around the desert. Yet,
3:16
Speaker 1: despite the vast reach of the well staffed search teams,
3:19
Speaker 1: not a trace of the missing couples could be found.
3:23
Speaker 1: Unable to apprehend a suspect, detectives found themselves diverted to
3:27
Speaker 1: other investigations, and the case eventually went cold. But as
3:32
Speaker 1: recently as twenty ten, the case files are still revisited
3:36
Speaker 1: by various state police officers, each hoping for a flash
3:39
Speaker 1: of inspiration. According to one such officer, Agent Norman Roads,
3:44
Speaker 1: the case has never been officially closed, but the low
3:47
Speaker 1: probability of a being solved means that the new Mexico
3:50
Speaker 1: State Police can rarely afford to pay it any mind. Yet,
3:54
Speaker 1: despite the perceived difficulties of the case, Agent Roads has
3:58
Speaker 1: since made it his personal mission to discover what happened
4:01
Speaker 1: to the four Illinois road trippers. Rhoades stated that perhaps
4:06
Speaker 1: his most daunting task has been trying to locate the
4:09
Speaker 1: remains of the road trippers' bodies, which are most likely
4:12
Speaker 1: nothing more than desiccated bones. Today, it will also be
4:17
Speaker 1: no small fee to locate the couple's killer, who will
4:20
Speaker 1: have probably died of old age since the crime took place,
4:23
Speaker 1: but such a prospect hasn't seemed to have deterred Agent Roads.
4:28
Speaker 1: Perhaps his zeal comes from the ongoing support and assistance
4:31
Speaker 1: provided by Laura Laurius's great niece Barbara Ashcraft, who is
4:36
Speaker 1: desperate to see the family mystery finally solved. When pressed
4:40
Speaker 1: on win her theories regarding his relative's fate, Ashcraft believes
4:44
Speaker 1: they were murdered in Vaughn, possibly in the very same
4:47
Speaker 1: cafe that they had their breakfast in on the morning
4:49
Speaker 1: of their disappearance. The purpose of their stop in Vaughn
4:53
Speaker 1: was so that the Laiuses could visit an old friend
4:56
Speaker 1: who just so happened to live there, but it's unclear
4:58
Speaker 1: whether or not this friend actually met with them. Not
5:01
Speaker 1: only that, but in nineteen sixty three, a private investigator
5:05
Speaker 1: named Walter Duke received a letter from a woman claiming
5:08
Speaker 1: to have witnessed the murders. The woman said she watched
5:11
Speaker 1: the two couples being escorted into the basement of a cafe,
5:15
Speaker 1: and that she had later heard that they'd been robbed, murdered,
5:18
Speaker 1: and then buried in wet concrete. The tip has led
5:21
Speaker 1: Barbara Ashcraft to suggest that the investigation should focus on
5:25
Speaker 1: the concrete slabs lining the site of the former Vaughan Hotel,
5:29
Speaker 1: but agent Norman Rhodes has another theory. After combing over
5:33
Speaker 1: stacks of reports in the State Police Records Division. Rhodes
5:37
Speaker 1: has created a timeline of events and interviews that's an
5:40
Speaker 1: incredible one hundred and forty one pages long. According to him,
5:45
Speaker 1: two postcards, in particular, have convinced Rhads that the couples
5:48
Speaker 1: actually left Bond on the morning of May twenty second
5:51
Speaker 1: with the intention of driving to Albuquerque via Santa Fe.
5:55
Speaker 1: A postcard marked May twenty second was mailed to Albuquerque,
5:59
Speaker 1: and a clerk at out Mukerkey's Sturgis Hotel told investigators
6:02
Speaker 1: that the couples visited her hotel that afternoon to ask
6:05
Speaker 1: about renting rooms. Agent Rhodes believed that the couples rented
6:10
Speaker 1: one of the smaller rooms at this hotel so that
6:12
Speaker 1: each of them could take a shower, and intended to
6:15
Speaker 1: travel over to Gallop by nightfall. Yet shortly after leaving
6:19
Speaker 1: town they suffered their run in with their mysterious killer.
6:23
Speaker 1: It's very possible that the couples misjudged the distance to
6:26
Speaker 1: Albuquerque and had ended up driving around in the dark
6:29
Speaker 1: when it's much harder to properly navigate. Rhodes believed that
6:33
Speaker 1: this is how they became vulnerable to a potential predator,
6:37
Speaker 1: and that the couples simply misplaced their trust in someone
6:39
Speaker 1: who brutally and violently betrayed them. Although spotted by a
6:44
Speaker 1: handful of witnesses, the police are no closer to identifying
6:48
Speaker 1: the man who took George Lorris's car as they were
6:51
Speaker 1: almost ninety years ago. But even if this person was identified,
6:56
Speaker 1: they're probably in no fit state to answer questions about
6:59
Speaker 1: something that occurred back in nineteen thirty five, and it's
7:02
Speaker 1: unlikely that there's any surviving forensic evidence. The truth behind
7:06
Speaker 1: the disappearance of George Laurius, Laura Laurius, and their friends
7:10
Speaker 1: Albert and Tilley might well have vanished along with them,
7:14
Speaker 1: and the mystery of how four regular, wholesome people simply
7:18
Speaker 1: disappeared one day is unlikely to ever be unraveled. Back
7:27
Speaker 1: in my early twenties, me and my Besty went through
7:30
Speaker 1: a phase of going on road trips every other weekend,
7:32
Speaker 1: and this one time we planned on driving all the
7:35
Speaker 1: way to San Francisco with a few stops in between.
7:39
Speaker 1: So first they were about four hours into the drive
7:43
Speaker 1: and we're going along I seventy in Colorado, coming up
7:46
Speaker 1: on the state line. Around eight pm, we pull over
7:49
Speaker 1: at a gas station, and while I'm fueling up by
7:53
Speaker 1: notice these other two girls pumping gas. They looked around
7:56
Speaker 1: the same age as us, like they could have been
7:58
Speaker 1: on a road trip just like we were. But just
8:00
Speaker 1: behind them at the other pump was this guy. He
8:05
Speaker 1: looked like he was in his late thirties early forties,
8:07
Speaker 1: and the girls can't see him doing it, but he's
8:10
Speaker 1: just staring at these two girls with a blank expression
8:12
Speaker 1: on his face, eyes darting back and forth between them
8:15
Speaker 1: as they pumped their gas. It was really creepy. But
8:19
Speaker 1: after a while the guy went back to seeing to
8:21
Speaker 1: his car and I went inside of the gas station
8:23
Speaker 1: to grab some snacks as fuel for our night drive
8:26
Speaker 1: up to Salt Lake City. When I walked back out
8:29
Speaker 1: of the gas station, the girls are just leaving in
8:32
Speaker 1: their car, and when I take a look around for
8:34
Speaker 1: the creepy truck guy, he's staring at their car again. Then,
8:39
Speaker 1: in a move that seemed so full of bad intention
8:41
Speaker 1: that it actually freaked me out, he suddenly jumped in
8:44
Speaker 1: his truck then went speeding off in the same direction
8:48
Speaker 1: as the girls did. I'm like, no, if that happened
8:52
Speaker 1: to me and my friend, I'd want someone to have
8:55
Speaker 1: our back too, even if it was just to trail
8:57
Speaker 1: us while dialing nine one one or whatever. By the
9:01
Speaker 1: time I caught up with them, the guy was riding
9:03
Speaker 1: their butt with his high beams on, flashing his lights
9:06
Speaker 1: every so often, like he was trying to get them
9:08
Speaker 1: to pull over or something. Then right there in front
9:11
Speaker 1: of me, the guy speeds up around the side of
9:13
Speaker 1: the girl's car. Then I can see him leaning over
9:15
Speaker 1: in his seats so he can shout stuff over to them.
9:19
Speaker 1: The next thing I know, the girl's car starts to
9:22
Speaker 1: pull over, and I'm thinking, oh God, no, don't do it.
9:26
Speaker 1: But the guy in the truck just passes them and
9:28
Speaker 1: keeps going, maybe because he saw me in his rear
9:31
Speaker 1: view and knew that he couldn't do anything with witnesses.
9:35
Speaker 1: Let me and my friend also pull over right up
9:38
Speaker 1: behind where the girls are parked, and after putting my
9:40
Speaker 1: hazard lights on, we got out to see if they
9:42
Speaker 1: were okay, and they were not okay. The guy was
9:47
Speaker 1: so obviously not a cop, but apparently he'd been yelling
9:50
Speaker 1: at the girls that he was a deputy and that
9:52
Speaker 1: if they didn't pull over, they'd be going to jail.
9:55
Speaker 1: That was when they decided to actually do as he
9:58
Speaker 1: was asking, and if they pulled over without us being
10:00
Speaker 1: behind them, there's no telling what would have happened that night.
10:04
Speaker 1: I think it says everything that the guide just fled
10:07
Speaker 1: once we realized that they weren't alone. He must have
10:10
Speaker 1: known that his little cop impersonation wouldn't have stood up
10:13
Speaker 1: to scrutiny. But then he obviously wasn't planning on keeping
10:16
Speaker 1: his little charade up if he actually got the girls
10:18
Speaker 1: to pull over. If he'd gotten his hands on them,
10:22
Speaker 1: they would have been in a whole world of hurt.
10:25
Speaker 1: We told the girls that they were welcome to stick
10:27
Speaker 1: behind us until we reached the next gas station or
10:30
Speaker 1: any place they could stop and link up with the
10:32
Speaker 1: cops to tell them what happened. They took us up
10:35
Speaker 1: on the offer, and we parted ways not long after,
10:38
Speaker 1: but not after some very grateful hugs. Stuff like that
10:42
Speaker 1: made me wonder just how safe me and my friend were.
10:45
Speaker 1: Some one else had gotten unlucky that time, but how
10:48
Speaker 1: long would it be until it was us that had
10:50
Speaker 1: attracted the attention of some highway psycho. We tried to
10:55
Speaker 1: cut down on the amount of time we spent driving
10:57
Speaker 1: at night after that had always made it much easier
10:59
Speaker 1: to get around, what with the roads being less busy.
11:02
Speaker 1: But I think we can all agree that there's something
11:05
Speaker 1: about the darkness that makes creeps feel more comfortable being creeps.
11:10
Speaker 1: There's a wilder point in there, too, and it's something
11:12
Speaker 1: that will always scare me as a young woman. We
11:15
Speaker 1: can take all the safety precautions we want, go on
11:18
Speaker 1: as many take back the night marches as we can organize. Heck,
11:22
Speaker 1: we can go ahead and carry a gun if we're
11:24
Speaker 1: so inclined, but we'll never be able to stop people
11:27
Speaker 1: wanting to hurt other people. Some are born that way,
11:31
Speaker 1: some are made that way, and sometimes when they really
11:35
Speaker 1: want to inflict pain or misery, there's really nothing anyone
11:39
Speaker 1: can do about it.
11:53
Speaker 2: Over the ten years that I have been driving shipments
11:55
Speaker 2: across the country, I've seen a lot of things. Some
11:59
Speaker 2: of them were really beautiful sites, while others might end
12:03
Speaker 2: up haunting you for the rest of your life. For instance,
12:07
Speaker 2: you never really know what to expect when you enter
12:09
Speaker 2: a truck stop or gas station bathroom. On a good day,
12:13
Speaker 2: the restroom might be recently cleaned out and is entirely
12:16
Speaker 2: empty aside from you. But on a bad day, let's
12:20
Speaker 2: just say they can get pretty bad. I'll never forget
12:24
Speaker 2: the time that I was driving through Louisiana making my
12:28
Speaker 2: way to Florida to drop off a shipment. At the time,
12:31
Speaker 2: I had been doing a lot of overnight driving and
12:34
Speaker 2: sleeping during the daytime. It was a really efficient method
12:38
Speaker 2: for a while because of how empty the roads were
12:40
Speaker 2: after midnight, I never really had to worry about a
12:43
Speaker 2: traffic jam. My biggest issue on those night drives was
12:48
Speaker 2: either one or two things. One where am I going
12:51
Speaker 2: to stop for food? After eleven pm? It becomes increasingly
12:54
Speaker 2: harder to find a fast food place that's open. And
12:57
Speaker 2: the second issue was often the more serious of the two.
13:01
Speaker 2: Where can I find a good place to use the bathroom?
13:05
Speaker 2: That night? I was mainly dealing with the second problem,
13:09
Speaker 2: and at this point it was around one in the morning,
13:12
Speaker 2: and it started looking like I was going to have
13:14
Speaker 2: to pull off on the side of the road and
13:16
Speaker 2: run into the woods to use the bathroom really fast.
13:19
Speaker 2: But luckily I was saved by a sign. The sign
13:22
Speaker 2: pointed out that there was a shell gas station half
13:25
Speaker 2: a mile down the road, and according to the sign,
13:28
Speaker 2: it also had a truck stop attached to it, which
13:30
Speaker 2: told me that there was a restroom there. I continued
13:33
Speaker 2: to make my way down the road toward the gas station,
13:36
Speaker 2: and when I finally made it there, I was surprised.
13:39
Speaker 2: Most of the shell stations that I would stop at
13:42
Speaker 2: were larger than most gas stations, especially if they supposedly
13:45
Speaker 2: had a truck stop attached to them, but not this time.
13:49
Speaker 2: As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw one
13:51
Speaker 2: of the smallest, poorly lit gas stations I had ever seen,
13:55
Speaker 2: and after taking a second look, I could tell that
13:57
Speaker 2: this gas station had been abandoned for at least a
14:00
Speaker 2: year or two. I thought about continuing on down the street,
14:03
Speaker 2: but I decided I couldn't wait any longer. I parked
14:07
Speaker 2: the truck off to the side of the parking lot
14:09
Speaker 2: and got ready to hop down from my seat. When
14:12
Speaker 2: I hesitated, something struck me as odd about this gas station.
14:17
Speaker 2: Asign from the fact that it looked like there was
14:20
Speaker 2: no one around for miles, there was also this strange,
14:24
Speaker 2: distinct smell in the air. All I could do was
14:28
Speaker 2: prey that it wasn't coming from the restrooms. I continued
14:31
Speaker 2: to get out of my truck and locked the door
14:33
Speaker 2: behind me. As I made my way toward the gas station,
14:37
Speaker 2: and as I got closer to the building, I kept
14:39
Speaker 2: my eyes glued to the floor to make sure I
14:42
Speaker 2: didn't step in anything. That was when I noticed a
14:46
Speaker 2: slight discoloration in the pavement. Most of the ground was
14:49
Speaker 2: a dull, dark gray color, but there was a section
14:52
Speaker 2: of the parking lot that looked like there had been
14:55
Speaker 2: some sort of oil spill or something. I just walked
14:59
Speaker 2: right past it. It made my way around the back
15:02
Speaker 2: of the gas station in hopes that the restrooms were
15:04
Speaker 2: still unlocked. When I got to the restroom door, I
15:07
Speaker 2: couldn't help but notice more markings on the ground that
15:10
Speaker 2: looked like the same stain that was in front of
15:12
Speaker 2: the store. Once again. I ignored it, though, and began to
15:16
Speaker 2: open the restroom door. That was when it hit me.
15:20
Speaker 2: As soon as I opened the door, a scent came
15:23
Speaker 2: pouring out of the bathroom that sent me practically stumbling
15:27
Speaker 2: backward gagging from how horrible the stench was. I knew
15:31
Speaker 2: that I still needed to go, whether it was disgusting
15:35
Speaker 2: or not, so I took my bandana that I always
15:38
Speaker 2: kept in my back pocket and wrapped it around my
15:40
Speaker 2: face to try to help the smell. I took a
15:43
Speaker 2: deep breath before opening the door again and tried to
15:46
Speaker 2: be as quick as possible with getting in and out
15:48
Speaker 2: of the restroom. And as soon as I stepped inside,
15:51
Speaker 2: I realized what it was that I was smelling. Laying
15:56
Speaker 2: in the center of the bathroom floor was the body
16:00
Speaker 2: of a man who appeared to have been dead for
16:03
Speaker 2: quite some time. As soon as I saw the body
16:06
Speaker 2: and realized that the horrible stench was the smell of
16:10
Speaker 2: a decomposing corpse, I ran out of the bathroom as
16:14
Speaker 2: fast as I could and began throwing up. I quickly
16:17
Speaker 2: made my way back to my truck and began calling
16:20
Speaker 2: the police, who came and examined the body. After giving
16:23
Speaker 2: them my statement, I was able to be on my way,
16:26
Speaker 2: which was good because I couldn't be late with my shipment.
16:30
Speaker 2: But as quick of an experience as that was, I
16:33
Speaker 2: will never forget that horrible smell. When I first got
16:41
Speaker 2: into truck driving as a career, my father used to
16:44
Speaker 2: tell me about these stories about guys that he knew
16:46
Speaker 2: that used to drive big rigs. According to him, a
16:49
Speaker 2: lot of them used to have firearms with them in
16:52
Speaker 2: their trucks to keep them safe while they were out
16:54
Speaker 2: on the road. Nowadays, though, at least for the company
16:57
Speaker 2: that I work for, you're not allowed to carry weapons
16:59
Speaker 2: in your truck because if someone got hurt, it would
17:03
Speaker 2: end up being the company that got into trouble. That
17:06
Speaker 2: being said, I can understand why drivers feel like they
17:09
Speaker 2: need something to protect themselves. You never know what sort
17:13
Speaker 2: of situation you might find yourself in. I learned the
17:16
Speaker 2: hard way that you never know what to expect when
17:19
Speaker 2: it comes to being out on the road. It all
17:22
Speaker 2: went down when I was out delivering a shipment for
17:24
Speaker 2: a coal's distribution center that had me driving through Illinois.
17:28
Speaker 2: I found myself passing through the Chicago area, and by
17:32
Speaker 2: the time the traffic had dialed itself down a lot.
17:34
Speaker 2: It was probably around nine point thirty at night when
17:37
Speaker 2: I found myself being re rooted by the truck's GPS.
17:40
Speaker 2: Apparently a road had been closed up ahead, so I
17:43
Speaker 2: had to take a short detour. The GPS said that
17:47
Speaker 2: it was only supposed to tack on an extra thirty
17:49
Speaker 2: five minutes to my trip, but along the way things
17:52
Speaker 2: got really hairy. As I was making my way through
17:55
Speaker 2: the new route, I couldn't help but notice it was
17:58
Speaker 2: taking me through a residential neighborhood. Now it was dark out,
18:02
Speaker 2: so I couldn't quite tell, but from the looks of things,
18:05
Speaker 2: it was like I was driving through a ghost town.
18:09
Speaker 2: Hardly any of the homes that I slowly passed by
18:12
Speaker 2: appeared to have anyone living in them, and many looked
18:15
Speaker 2: like they were in the process of being demolished. For
18:18
Speaker 2: a minute, it was like there was no life around me.
18:22
Speaker 2: That changed the second I turned a corner onto a
18:25
Speaker 2: different block. There were only a few people outside, but
18:28
Speaker 2: I could see a group of friends hanging out on
18:31
Speaker 2: the sidewalk in front of one of the houses. It
18:33
Speaker 2: was nothing too out of the ordinary, so I just
18:36
Speaker 2: continued to drive. However, I would learn that those kids
18:40
Speaker 2: that I saw hanging out were actually lookouts for some
18:44
Speaker 2: of the local gang members in the area. I only
18:47
Speaker 2: found this out when I ended up filing a police
18:50
Speaker 2: report about what happened next. As I continued driving, I
18:55
Speaker 2: started to notice what looked like tail lights up ahead,
18:58
Speaker 2: which I assumed was just someone that had stopped at
19:00
Speaker 2: an intersection. However, as I approached the vehicle, I began
19:05
Speaker 2: to notice some things that made me feel a bit uneasy.
19:08
Speaker 2: I noticed that there were multiple men with their hoods
19:11
Speaker 2: up standing on either side of the street, and to
19:14
Speaker 2: make matters worse, as soon as I passed one of
19:17
Speaker 2: the cars that had been parked on the side of
19:19
Speaker 2: the road, it started up and pulled out right behind me.
19:23
Speaker 2: I was blocked in. I brought the truck to a
19:26
Speaker 2: stop behind the car that was sitting at the intersection,
19:29
Speaker 2: and within a matter of seconds, I had people at
19:32
Speaker 2: both of the doors of my truck, one of which
19:35
Speaker 2: was pointing a handgun of sorts through the driver's side
19:37
Speaker 2: window right at my head. I lifted my hands off
19:41
Speaker 2: the steering wheel as one of the men began to
19:44
Speaker 2: order me to get out of the truck. I didn't
19:46
Speaker 2: question him at all and began unbuckling my seatbelt and
19:49
Speaker 2: hopping out of the vehicle. As the men continued to
19:52
Speaker 2: point his gun at me, I saw another hop into
19:55
Speaker 2: the truck and get into the driver's seat. All the vehicles,
19:58
Speaker 2: including my truck, pulled away from the scene, and I
20:01
Speaker 2: was left there surrounded by five men, all grasping their
20:04
Speaker 2: firearms tightly. I thought I was done for. I couldn't
20:09
Speaker 2: even begin to figure out a way for me to
20:11
Speaker 2: make it out of this situation, but to my surprise,
20:15
Speaker 2: they took my wallet and cell phone and then sent
20:18
Speaker 2: me in the direction that I had come in. With
20:21
Speaker 2: every step away from them that I took, I was
20:24
Speaker 2: worried that I might hear the sound of gunshots, but thankfully,
20:29
Speaker 2: all I could hear was the sound of the men
20:31
Speaker 2: getting into the other cars that had been parked on
20:34
Speaker 2: the side of the road and then driving away. I
20:37
Speaker 2: made my way to the nearest police station and reported
20:39
Speaker 2: the incident, and honestly, the officers didn't look surprised. I
20:44
Speaker 2: guess carjackings are a normal thing in that area. All
20:47
Speaker 2: in all, they never found the merchandise that was taken,
20:51
Speaker 2: but thankfully I managed not only to keep my life
20:54
Speaker 2: but also my job. Do you remember remember that show
21:01
Speaker 2: Ice Road Truckers. I used to love that show, especially
21:04
Speaker 2: as a driver myself. Now, I was never in a
21:07
Speaker 2: scenario where I had to drive my massive rig over
21:10
Speaker 2: a frozen lake or anything like that. But I will
21:13
Speaker 2: tell you right now that an icy road can be
21:15
Speaker 2: a debt trap for anyone in a truck. It only
21:19
Speaker 2: takes one little slip and you can end your life
21:22
Speaker 2: or the life of somebody else. Driving in the winter
21:25
Speaker 2: is a truly terrifying thing in some states, and I
21:29
Speaker 2: will never forget the time that I almost lost my
21:31
Speaker 2: life on the road that I must have driven down
21:34
Speaker 2: almost one hundred times. It was back when I used
21:37
Speaker 2: to drive trucks for a local company, which meant that
21:40
Speaker 2: I was typically only ever driving from the distribution center
21:43
Speaker 2: to the stores in my area, and it was a
21:45
Speaker 2: great gig. I mean, it's one of the few times
21:48
Speaker 2: as a trucker that I actually got to spend almost
21:51
Speaker 2: every night with my family. It also meant that I
21:53
Speaker 2: was driving the same route over and over again, and
21:57
Speaker 2: after a while, they sort of became like second eight.
22:00
Speaker 2: That is until winter hit. This year was projected to
22:04
Speaker 2: be a particularly cold one, and almost every day there
22:08
Speaker 2: was warnings about black ice accumulating on the roadways, so
22:12
Speaker 2: I knew that now more than any other time in
22:15
Speaker 2: the year, I had to be vigilant and pay attention
22:18
Speaker 2: to the street in front of me. That being said,
22:21
Speaker 2: you can do everything right and still end up slipping.
22:26
Speaker 2: On the day of my accident, everything started out just fine.
22:30
Speaker 2: I knew the roads had the potential to be bad,
22:32
Speaker 2: so I made sure to prepare myself and drive a
22:35
Speaker 2: bit slower than usual, especially when I made it onto
22:38
Speaker 2: one of the main roads in our area, known as
22:40
Speaker 2: Crawford Street. Crawford was a very scenic mountain road that
22:44
Speaker 2: was absolutely beautiful to drive down under the right conditions. However,
22:49
Speaker 2: due to how windy the road was, I knew that
22:52
Speaker 2: it was going to be a problem for me that day.
22:54
Speaker 2: As soon as I made it onto Crawford, I could
22:57
Speaker 2: see the patches of ice lining the shoulders, and right
23:00
Speaker 2: away I began slowing down and driving very carefully. I
23:04
Speaker 2: must have made it about halfway down the road without
23:07
Speaker 2: an incident before I felt it. More than one of
23:10
Speaker 2: the tires on my passenger side must have touched the ice,
23:14
Speaker 2: because I could feel them sliding out of nowhere. I
23:18
Speaker 2: felt the steering will begin to pull to the ride
23:20
Speaker 2: as I continue going down the road. I tried to
23:23
Speaker 2: correct it, but that coupled with more than one of
23:26
Speaker 2: my tires being unable to crip the road, my truck
23:29
Speaker 2: began to fishtail. I tried not to panic, but there
23:33
Speaker 2: was nothing I could do as I began barreling toward
23:36
Speaker 2: the guardrail on the side of the road, knowing full
23:39
Speaker 2: well that there was no way that I would be
23:41
Speaker 2: able to stop my truck from going off the side
23:43
Speaker 2: of the hill. As soon as my truck broke through
23:46
Speaker 2: the rail, I felt it pulled the side as the
23:49
Speaker 2: trailer hooked to the back began to roll down the hill,
23:53
Speaker 2: taking the cab and myself down with it. I had
23:56
Speaker 2: been buckled in and the hill wasn't too large, so
23:59
Speaker 2: the truck only rolled about one and a half times. Thankfully,
24:03
Speaker 2: my only injury came from the shards of broken glass
24:06
Speaker 2: from all the windows shattering around me. It left me
24:09
Speaker 2: with a few lacerations, but when the truck finally came
24:12
Speaker 2: to a stop, I was able to unbuckle myself and
24:15
Speaker 2: crawl out of the cab before anything serious happened. I
24:19
Speaker 2: looked up to the section of the guard rail that
24:21
Speaker 2: I had torn through and was simply happy to be alive.
24:24
Speaker 2: I will never forget the feeling of being flipped around
24:28
Speaker 2: as the truck began rolling down the hill, and driving
24:31
Speaker 2: through the windy road will be forever something that puts
24:35
Speaker 2: me on edge.