S18 Ep36: Dogman, mirrored men and highway ghosts: Tales from the Road (Sn. 18 Ep. 36)
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Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I'm your guide, Derek Hayes. Good evening folks and welcome back to the program. Now I've been doing this for a long time. It'll be nine years in a little over a month. And in those nine years I've noticed some patterns with some of these submissions.

Certain places, certain types of people, certain situations tend to produce more unexplained events than others. And I couldn't tell you the cause, but I can point out the connection. And there is one place on this planet where more strange things seem to happen than any other. And it's a place that all of us venture to frequently. I'd say most of you encounter these liminal spaces on a daily basis.

It's not hospitals. It's not prisons. It's not cemeteries and it's not the deepest, darkest parts of the forest. I'm talking about the road. The veins and arteries of our society. The thoroughfares. The highways. The streets, lanes, alleys and dirt roads of the planet. And I don't know why these experiences are so frequent. Maybe it's because there are so many roads and so many people on them. So it's just a statistic thing.

Or perhaps roads are the only way most of us reach these rural parts of the planet. Places that would otherwise go unseen by human eyes. Or maybe there's some magic in the idea that these thin strips of asphalt and concrete can transport us almost anywhere. Whatever the cause, the correlation is real. And I have the stories to prove it. And to put my money where my mouth is.

Tonight's themed episode will be chock full of stories from the road. Tales of ghostly encounters, strange things witnessed overhead, and otherworldly creatures just off the berm. So to kick us off tonight, we begin with a classic from the state of Ohio. Please welcome Slice back to the program. Yo, what up son? This is Big Slice Man from Hamilton, Ohio.

So when I was about 17, which would have been about 21 years ago, me and friends, we liked to just cruise around all hours of the night. You know, you hear tales of something haunting, crap like that. So we'd cruise out to places where that stuff goes on. So one night, we're just driving around aimlessly. It's probably about, I don't know, 2, 3 in the morning. And we're coming up to a four-way stop in the middle of nowhere, Ohio.

It's like farmland type deal, but on like the left side of the road is like woods. And on the right side of the road is a farm field. And on the stop sign on the right, I'm riding in the back of the truck with a couple buddies. And I, you know, I'm kind of looking forward. And I see a guy leaned against the stop sign. One foot on the ground, one foot against like the post.

And he's dressed in, like, black, baggy clothes. Well, I think they're black. He was dark, so I don't really know what color they were. But, like, baggy, like, tattered-type clothes. It looked like he had some kind of satchel on his back and a big old hat, you know, big, full brim, like a hat they probably would have worn, like, the Wild West. Not like a cowboy hat, but a flat, full brim, like, big brim.

Trying to tuck down, but I could see he had a big defined nose and a long defined jaw. And it was so weird that anybody would be here at this time of night just hanging out. If we were on the interstate, I'd have figured he was a hitchhiker or something like that, but we weren't. We were in the middle of nowhere.

So, I'm thinking we're coming to this four-way stop, and I'm thinking there's no way he's going to stop at this because this guy's standing there. Well, he starts to slow down, and I'm like, ah, s***, here we go. There's no telling what this guy, he's got to be whacked out on something to be standing out here like that, just chilling.

So, as we start to slow down, I'm no longer looking at him. I'm going sideways because at first I'm thinking, well, maybe if we don't make eye contact, he'll just stay over there. So, we get closer, closer. We're slowing down, and like an interfere just starts to get a hold of me. It's so weird. When we get to the stop sign, I look over. He's just gone.

So I start like scanning the field, the other side of the road, anywhere he could have went. But he's just nowhere. It was like he just vanished into thin air. I can remember this to this day like it just happened yesterday. And I asked my buddy driving later if he saw that fool. And he was like, who are you talking about? He had no clue what I was even speaking of.

So I don't know what it was, but that's what my story is. Dick Slice Hamilton. Church! Thank you, Slice. A disappearing stranger on a dark, remote back road. That's exactly the type of stuff that I'm talking about here. Now, to play devil's advocate, I grew up in Ohio, and throughout the state we have many Amish communities. In fact, I worked with many Amish fellas back when I was in and just out of high school.

And I'd give them a shout out here, but something tells me they're probably not listening. Anyway, my point here is that the description fits the bill. That sounds like an Amish style hat to me. Amish men typically wear these felt or straw wide brim hats. Very similar to what Slice just described. The timing is also correct.

Those guys are hard workers and their day typically begins super early, sometimes even 3 or 4 a.m., the time of Slices' encounter. And lastly, they famously drive buggies pulled by horses, or usually just one horse. So if they're working away from home, either building a barn or helping to plant fields, they often have to hitch a ride.

So what if this was just a young Amish guy waiting for his ride to work and when he noticed the truck stop filled with rowdy young Englishmen maybe he did the wise thing and ducked into the shadows when no one was looking because it's always better to avoid trouble than to figure out how to deal with it. So could Slice's strange encounter be that simple? Just a Amish gentleman waiting for work.

Well, as you're about to learn this evening, many strange things are seen out there on the road. So it's entirely possible that my simple explanation has stalled in the passing lane. So explainable or not, we appreciate the call as always, Slice. Thank you for calling in. Now, folks, there are plenty more where that one came from. And I'm going to get right to them right after this quick message from tonight's sponsors. If you hit your ball through here, it's going to make its way...

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Now after you purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. So please support the show and tell them that Monsters Among Us sent you. Enhance your every day with F.I.A.A. Now we can't have a spooky episode all about the road and not play a story about a terrifying road trip. So here to help us out is Jamie from Nevada.

Hi Derek, my name is Danny and I'm calling from Reno, Nevada. My wife and I recently found out that she was pregnant and that we were going to be having our first child together. Because of this great news, we decided to drive down to the LA area where both of us grew up and where most of our families still reside. It's a great time seeing everyone and sharing our news with them. So that's not what I'm calling about. That's just a little backstory.

On our return trip to Reno, we encountered a lot of bad weather. This last winter in general had been insane. The most snowfall that we've seen in the Sierra Nevadas for at least a decade. Unfortunately, I know you know what that's been like this winter as well, Derek. Again, due to the intense winter and snowfall, many of the roads were either closed due to avalanche warnings or

simply decaying due to the impact of the severe weather. In any case, we're required to change up our normal route of taking 395 north all the way from Mojave to Reno to now needing to go way east on the 6th and find our way up the Interstate 80 west.

While going east over roads we were unfamiliar with, we were only getting more enveloped by weather issues. Heading east took us out of snow potential, but it didn't take us out of extreme winds. We experienced driving through a sandstorm for the first time, which honestly was more terrifying than driving through a whiteout blizzard.

We couldn't see more than 15 feet in front of our vehicle, causing us to drastically reduce our speed and contemplate pulling over until the storm had passed. But you couldn't see if anyone else was on the road, let alone pulled over. You truly couldn't see anything. We kept moving on through the storm until something caught our eye.

To our right, just off the road, there was a strange break in the storm where we could see maybe 30 feet just to the right of us. I don't know what caused us both to look over at that moment, but through the sandstorm, just where the break occurred, a small creature came sprinting out of the storm towards the road. It saw us and immediately turned around and sprinted back into the storm. I don't think it expected to see us. And my wife and I were both yelling, did you see that? What was that?

The creature looked to be canine-esque. We originally thought it may have been a coyote that had a really bad case of mange. But the more we thought about the size and the weird body shape the creature had, we began to grow skeptical of reason and ventured more into the realm of the unknown. This creature was hairless.

dog-like, but seemed to have an elongated snout and almost a sunken back. Potentially, it could have been a disformed coyote with mange, but the research we've done into chupacabra seemed almost too coincidental. No wings though, and again, we only got a quick glance at it, but we were both drawn to the area of the storm it came out before immediately running back into the abyss.

I don't know if anyone else has ever driven on the 6th or had any other encounters in that area. Like I said, this was our first time on that road. I also don't know if it had anything to do with us literally listening to the Monsters Among Us podcast while our experience occurred and if that affected us mentally at all. But it was a polarizing occurrence to not be able to see anything and have this break where a creature happened to run out towards us.

Such a strange happening. Anyway, love the podcast. My wife showed it to me and I am hooked. Think they can keep up the good work. Go Bucs. Thank you, Jamie. And go Bucs. No, I'll be honest, this story sounded awfully familiar to me. And there's a good reason for that. Because I received a similar call just a few short months ago. A call from Jordan that aired on Season 18, Episode 25.

Now Jordan was helping with a biological survey in the Humboldt-Toyabe National Forest, the Table Mountain Wilderness specifically. Well, Jordan and his friend Mitch decided to take a short sunset hike when they encountered something unusual on the trail. Here's a brief segment of that call so you can hear for yourself just how similar these two stories are.

All of a sudden, right in front of us, we saw something dart out from the bushes into the middle of the trail. We both, I remember this very clearly, we both looked at each other, looked back at where the thing was, and we raised our flashlights to try and see it. And in the middle of the trail was a very large, black, almost kind of Great Dane-sized thing.

dog creature, but its legs were a little bit longer than its front legs. Its hind legs were a little bit longer than its front legs. And as we're looking at it, it was just completely frozen. It was hairless. It had black skin and

sickly, almost like a jaundiced yellow eyes. And I remember a low growl. And then it stood up on both its hind legs and ran off the trail and into the darkness.

Well, as I'd mentioned, Jordan's encounter occurred in the Table Mountain Wilderness, a desolate swatch of land right in the middle of Nevada. There are no towns in this area, and very few roads. But there is one road that passes nearby. I'm talking 30 or 40, maybe even 50 miles. But it's the closest road to that area. And it's a road that is known as the loneliest road in America. Or as you'll find it on the map, US 6.

The exact same road that Jamie had his experience on. Now maybe it's just a big coincidence. The two creatures described weren't exact matches. There seemed to be an obvious size difference here. But I will remind you that even the biggest monsters likely began as small ones. So regardless of what was witnessed either time, I have my eye on the situation. And if I find any more connections, I'll be sure to let you know.

But in the meantime, thank you again to both Jamie and Jordan for those unsettling submissions.

Now, folks, if you too would like to leave a story for me to share, maybe a story about an upright canine in the Silver State, give my hotline a call at 888-608-NIGHT. That's 888-608-N-I-G-H-T. Or record your story as a voice memo and email it to me at MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com. We can't wait to hear from you.

Now, for another story about a mystery canine in the middle of the road. Please welcome Kat from Alabama. Hi, this is Kat again. I'm driving right now. I know that's kind of against the rules, and I really hope my signal stays viable. I'm in Alabama currently, and it is foggy, like Silent Hill foggy.

I'm calling in because this just happened not even five minutes ago. I came up over a hill. The fog had gotten thicker. And it's a two-lane road. I'm on Alabama 5 heading north. I saw headlights in the fog. And they flashed bright at me like someone had flashed their high beams at me.

And suddenly it just disappeared. Headlights and everything just disappeared. There was no way to... It just... Anyways, sorry.

The reason why I'm so freaked out about this is because not half a mile down the road, there's just this huge, gigantic... I've never seen a boxer this big. But I guess it was a stray. He was skinny-looking. I'm sitting here thinking, I'm like, huh, that's weird, because the stray, when I slowed down enough to pass him without hitting him, just sat there in the middle of the road, like, looking at me as I passed, and I'm just like...

Well, holy crap, did a ghost car just warn me that there was a dog in the middle of the road? I don't know. I just wanted to share. Love the podcast. Gonna go back to listen to it now. It was just really creepy. Thank you. Bye. Thank you, Kat. What do you guys think? Was a dog's life spared by a ghost car? Or was this all just a trick of the eye brought on by foggy conditions?

whichever it was. We can't thank you enough, Kat, for sharing it with us. So my suggestion... I'm a person over 14. Horror movie fans better listen up. Clive Barker's Hellraiser is newly remastered in 4K and returns to theaters nationwide for two days only on February 5th and 6th. The film also features an archival interview called Under the Skin, Doug Bradley on Hellraiser.

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And they ended up awarding this guy. Again, you and I know. Now our next entry explores yet another stranger on the road. Please join me in welcoming Sean from here in California. Hi, my name is Sean and I'm in Southern California. And I heard one of your shows about somebody in California years ago who saw a

ghost or some apparition off the side of the road where no one should have been able to be. And then the description was a greaser type, I guess is what he said, you know, from those old days, how guys used to dress. My grandpa used to dress like that back in the old days. When I heard that, I just, I don't know. I was a bit gobsmacked. I remember for

something very similar that happened to me probably back in 2014 in Southern California in the city of Whittier there's like this place where people have all these urban legends about it's called Terrible Canyon and I

I used to run there every day after work. I'd get in, you know, five, ten miles of trail running and it's really beautiful and I used to love running there. It got this kind of notoriety but I loved it. I'd never experienced anything weird, any bad vibes and I would be in the canyon, you know, running out at night after it gets dark and I'd be by myself with just like a headlamp or a flashlight or something and...

I never even got the creeps. It was just always a really beautiful place and really nice despite all these urban legends and stuff like that. And I'm not really one that, I don't think I'm super superstitious, but anyway, this is the story. One night I was there, it was a summer night, probably around 2014, and I was running with a friend of mine.

We got out of the canyon at night. It was probably 8 or 9 at night, and my friend was driving the car. We were parked at the top of the hill, and we had to drive down the hill to get into the town and go home. And it's

It's kind of a windy road, and it's always been popular with guys who are racing or motorcycles or cars ever since my grandparents' days back in the 40s and stuff. And there's no sidewalk or anything like that. The twisties are kind of made in a way over this hill that on one side you've got a canyon, on the other side you've got a cliff.

And we're driving down, getting towards home, and all of a sudden, like, we turn and the headlights catch this kid.

where no one should be. He was kind of like scanning off the embankment. There's a cliff there. And he wasn't wearing running clothes or anything like that. I noticed his clothes right off the bat. He was dressed like a greaser kind of kid. He had the haircut and everything like that. I don't know. He kind of looked like a Morrissey fan or something. You know what I mean? And

And he was motioning for us to come over and we passed them. And just a few moments later, I told my friend like, Hey, did you think that kid needed help? And my, my friend was like, what kid? You didn't see that kid. He's right in our headlights. And my friend was like, uh,

No, I didn't see anybody. Do you want to go back? And like right then it kind of hit me like why I usually stop right away or I see somebody who needs help, but I don't, you know, I just stopped right away. But this time I hesitated because there was something kind of off about this guy. He didn't look like he needed help. He was young. He must've been a teenager, maybe 18 or so. Next thing you know,

Mexican-American looking guy, which is normal for the neighborhood. I mean, I'm from a Mexican-American family myself. And when my friend said, let's turn around and go back, or do you want to turn around and go back? And I said, no, because, you know, for one thing, it was a really dangerous spot. Like there's no way to walk there. And the thought crossed my mind, like maybe this kid was like racing and his car went over the side or something like that. So I was like, well, I can't just do nothing. Right.

So I called the local fire department or something like that. Like, you know, I think I called, maybe I even called 911 and they transferred me. And I tried my best to explain exactly at what point this was at on the road, uh,

So they went out with a helicopter and they really, they looked, I mean, they scoured and they kept calling me back and telling me like, "Are you sure it was here?" And they didn't find anything. And this had to have been within 10 minutes of me seeing this that I had made the call and they were mobile.

It's serious business on this road. I'm sure people die there in car accidents. It's dangerous, and people do hot-dogging stuff there. So that's why I made the call to see if there was an emergency, if the kid needed help. They didn't find anything. I called the fire department the next day and verified it. The thought just crossed my mind. They never found anything, and it always just kind of gave me the chills. Something about it just wasn't right.

The guy shouldn't have been there. There was no way for him to be there. What did he want? You know, it's miles away from any pedestrian area. He looked like he was gesturing for us to come over, like, to the drop, and

on this hairpin turn over this cliff. It was just like he was standing right there on the embankment. So when I heard the story of somebody telling something pretty similar, I was like, whoa, that's kind of weird. And anyway, like everybody says, I don't tell this story to a lot of people. I don't want to add to the negative connotation this beautiful part of the town has. I don't really think it's spooky, but...

Thank you, Sean. Spooky stuff. And you're right. Your story does sound familiar. Now, luckily, I happen to know exactly what story you're referring to.

Mickey T's tale from season 15 episode 17 and here is a brief portion of that phone call to jog your memory at a certain point in the road what my mom says she saw was two people standing on this hairpin curve and at first as she started to come upon them

She thought they were just two people in need and they were dressed oddly though at first it just looked like regular people so she thought they were needing help. They were waving their arms, "Come here." And it was a male and a female. The male was dressed in 50s/60s outfit.

You know, kind of the greaser type with blue jeans and the cuffs were rolled, white t-shirt, and the cuffs on the sleeves were rolled on his shirt and his hair was slicked back. And the girl was wearing what looked like a poodle skirt, a dress of that kind from that period of the 50s and 60s.

But what really freaked her out was when she got closer, she realized they had no feet and she could see through their eyes, see the sky, the stars and moon behind them. And then she realized they were hovering out over the edge. They weren't actually on the shoulder. They were out over the cliff.

Pretty darn similar, if I do say so myself.

And if you remember Mickey T's entry, there were other witnesses to this event. A truck driver and a carload of college students. All of which met up with and discussed the encounter with Mickey T and his parents afterward. And I don't know that this is the exact same location. Although it sounds like it could have been. Whittier and Pasadena are only about 20 miles apart. And there are plenty of mountains behind the city of Pasadena.

Now sadly, parts of those mountains were recently burned during the Eaton fire, I believe. But with a little luck, the greaser ghost remains. Now before I move on here, Sean, if you happen to be listening, please reach back out to me and let me know the exact location where this entity was seen. Not only could that help me tie these two stories together, but it's likely close enough that I can make a drive down there myself to see if I can't experience the exact same thing.

Thank you again to both of those callers. That story gives me large Marge vibes for some reason, and I love it. Well, folks, this next story gives me Island of Dr. Moreau vibes. Please join me in welcoming Marie to the program. Hi, this is Marie. I'm calling from California. I have a lot of different things that I could talk about, but I have a monster one, I guess, or other dimensional. So...

I live in the high desert area of Southern California, and we're used to a lot of stray dogs running around all times of the night. There was a night, it was a Saturday night, and I was driving home from being about an hour east of where I live.

And it was about two something in the morning. I was just a couple of blocks from my home on the main street, but where I live, it's rural. So main street is still rural, barely any lights, lots of dirt, plants, and yeah, middle of nowhere type thing. And

And as I was driving down the street about two and a half blocks from my home, I started to get this sensation to look to my right-hand side at the road. On my left-hand side, there's houses. On the right-hand side, there's houses. And then there's cross streets the whole way.

So I got the sensation to look to my right side. And when I looked towards my right side at the corner that I was approaching, I saw what looked like an animal laying on the corner underneath the streetlights.

But I felt weird because something just felt super, super off. I was like, okay, this is a large dog just laying there. Like, why is this feeling so weird? But as I was looking at what I was seeing and driving by it, because I started to slow down because it just felt weird, I noticed that the thing saw me looking at it. And what was looking back at me from that creature had the head of an owl.

or what I can best describe as an owl. So now I'm seeing what looks like a large dog with an owl head looking at me. And I'm creeped out beyond belief, totally horrified and amazed at the same time. The head is moving in a very owl-like manner. I got this sensation immediately that I'm not supposed to be seeing this.

like it's a surprise to see me just as much as I'm surprised to see it. And I got completely scared that this thing was all of a sudden going to appear in my back seat. I don't know why. So I decide I need to speed up. And I'm looking at this thing through my rearview mirror now, so I just couldn't keep my eyes off of it.

And it was just staring, what felt like it was staring like a hole in me. And I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. And I kept checking my back seat like a weirdo in the rear view mirror. Needless to say, it never came in the car with me. I made it home successfully. But to this day, I don't know what that was. It was like a dog owl or something. Like I said, it was like the body of a large dog, face of an owl, head moved like an owl.

I don't know of anything that has been discovered by man that looks like that. So I'm calling because I want to see, does anyone know of any mythical creature that's in Southern California or the desert area that exists like that or anywhere or any culture? All right. Thanks. Love your podcast. Bye. Thank you, Marie.

and that's an area I know all too well. And it's certainly a land full of magic. So I guess I'm not all that surprised that you saw something weird while driving around out there under the stars. What that something is, however, I haven't the foggiest. But I did ask Delaney to do some digging on the subject, and she sort of came up empty. Though she did point out one interesting common thread.

It is worth noting that both these animals, dogs and owls, are considered to be psychopomps, guides whose primary function is to escort souls to the afterlife. Cultures from across the globe have associated each of these animals with death, dying, bad omens, witches, ill intent, and the underworld or afterlife. So take that however you'd like, Marie. And thank you for sharing. I'll be sure to keep my eyes open the next time I'm down there.

No open houses and no inconveniences. DRE 0155. We get it. You're busy. Now next up, we venture down to Texas. Brandi, welcome to the program. Hi, Derek. My name is Brandi. I'm from southeast Texas. And I have listened for a long time, and this is my first call-in. So I'm calling in with an alien black cat story just for you.

I moved into a new house and I moved in in August and this happened around November. I work nights. So I leave work at about 6 a.m. I get home at about 630, 635. So this would have been about 620, 625 in the morning. Still dark, like I said, November. So longer nights, still full on dark, more or less at six in the morning.

So I was driving home and I take a back road that kind of circles around my hometown and

It's kind of tightly packed with people up until a certain point, and then the yards get bigger, the spaces open up. But it stays a little narrow two-lane road. Now, this road circles back around my town past like a big drainage ditch that runs from the middle of town out into the fields. And between the neighborhoods on one side and a big cemetery on the other.

Now, there's a little bridge that goes over, like I said, this giant drainage ditch. And coming around the corner on my way to the drainage ditch. So there's still houses on my left-hand side. And there's the cemetery on my right-hand side almost to this bridge. And this really big, for a cat...

Black cat, about the size of a good-sized German Shepherd, but it didn't move like a dog. It moved like a cat. Jumps from down in the grass on the left-hand side of my car straight through my headlights. So it's not like I couldn't see what I was looking at. Straight through my headlights. Dark, dark black.

little, like, cubby ears. I know that sounds stupid, but like little cat ears, but rounded, like panthers, kind of like that. I cannot for the life of me remember if it had a tail or not, but it cleared this two-lane road in one jump. Like, it had front paws on the street on the left-hand side, back paws in the grass, and

and jumped and made it to front pause in the grass and back pause on the paved part of the road on the other side and then it was gone.

I mean, it's weird because it was still in the middle of town, but on that side of town where the yards start to open up and the houses aren't quite as tight together, we do see a lot of deer. So, I mean, it wouldn't be weird that something that, you know, could eat deer would be out there.

But it was the only time I've seen it. I haven't seen anything since. I didn't hear anything around the time about, you know, like pets or anything going missing. Nobody else that I've talked to in town has ever seen anything like it. So, I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy. But I just wanted to call in and tell you about it.

Thanks so much for the podcast. It's a great platform for us weirdos to call in and let other people know about the weird stuff that we see. Good luck. I hope you and Sarah are doing okay. And that's all. Okay. Bye. Thank you, Brandy. Sarah and I can't complain. We're taking it one day at a time, just like everyone else. But with fun calls like this one, some days are brighter than others.

Now it's funny that Brandy would mention that the big cat was seen in town and that she thought maybe that took away a bit from the credibility. Well, I come from a very small town myself, so small that they don't even call it a town. They refer to it as a village. But my brother was police chief there for several years and my mom lives right there in town to this day.

and both my brother and my mother have claimed to see something similar. A large, black, big cat within village limits. In fact, I'm pretty sure both stories were featured on the very first episode of this program, back when I had to hunt down stories. Thankfully, they now come to me. And thankfully, they're almost always amazing tales, just like Brandy's. So thank you again for taking the time to share.

Now folks, I think this sale is about to dry up, so you don't want to miss out. Right now you can get 20% off anything and everything in our merchandise shop. Just visit MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click that shop tab. Soon we're going to ship everything we have left out to Ohio, where my mom is going to resume shipping duties. But we're hoping to ditch some inventory first, so our loss is your gain. Visit our shop and pick up something nice for yourself today.

MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the shop tab. Now this next entry takes us north to Illinois. Mac, welcome to the program. Hey Derek. Wow, long time listener, love the podcast. And I've been planning on calling in for a while. This is, I'm going to go say Mac from Northern Illinois. Hey.

I've been planning on calling in about a few things, but didn't expect this to be how my first call would be because I just had something happen to me on the road tonight. So I'm not an over-road driver, but I definitely put in probably about

anywhere between 600 and 800 miles a week on the road, driving a week. And up in Northern Illinois tonight in November here, it's our first snow, but I was driving a stretch of road I'm very used to right near my hometown. And the craziest thing is, as I'm coming around this one corner,

that we normally have. And I'm used to there being all types of lights from all types of vehicles. We get a lot of farm equipment out there and stuff. And this was not a light I've never come around the corner to. And for just half a second, it was way more encompassing of everything being bright than I'm used to. And then I swear in my future as I'm driving up,

*Sigh*

It looked like this light almost transformed. It's really hard to explain, but it's like the light almost folded in on itself. And then it came out to look like a light more like the front lights of kind of like a truck with maybe some extra LED tops on it or something when you're thinking some of the just guys with the raised trucks to look something more normal, but...

It went from a form and a shade of light as I was turning in this corner that I said, and I have goosebumps just around this because I just drove up the road and pulled over because this is weird, but oh my gosh. I saw it.

I swear that light just transformed right in front of me to make it look more like a car. And I don't know if this is some trickster thing. I don't know. But just ever since I started driving around that corner almost before the lights, I swear I've just had my...

Goosebumps up and my skin crawling, feeling like something is in the air, like an electricity, and this was weird. I don't know what to classify this as other than weird lights on the road, but I don't know what to say. I did not expect to see this on the road tonight. Be safe out there. Keep doing what you're doing because we need places where we can talk about this weird stuff. Man, this is crazy on the streets. Have a good day.

Thank you, Mac. Now, I don't know this as a fact, but it sounds right to me. I bet a majority of UFO sightings are made by people in vehicles, especially drivers. Because think about it. They're surrounded by windows. They're bored out of their gourd. And their eyes are glued to the landscape in front of them. Or at least they should be. So you would think that that combination would make them more susceptible to sightings. So I suppose none of this surprises me, Mac.

But regardless, thank you again for sharing your experience. Now then, next up is another mystery man in the middle of the road, this time out of the state of Texas. Please join me in welcoming this anonymous caller to the platform.

Hello. I'm calling from San Marcos, Texas. I wanted to share an eerie experience I had this past October 2024. I

I walk regularly each day for exercise. However, I had some medical skin treatments and was to stay out of the sun for three weeks. So I decided to walk a half hour before dawn for that time. I started out by walking down a semi-steep street. The street terminates at a T-intersection.

which has a lone street light. There appeared to be an unusual person in the middle of the street walking down towards the T intersection. He was not quite two thirds of the way down the street. He or what seemed to have a wide stance and the legs were much longer than normal, very much disproportionate to the body. He was tall, he had a jerking, shaking movement.

I was scanning on him and I was wondering if he was using stilts or something. Got a little closer, maybe about 60 feet from him. I could see white legs at the end of the pant legs and socks and shoes.

His pant legs looked a little too short for the leg. Maybe about a foot short, I say. An animal started scattering in all directions from him. Cat started to the right, deer to the left. Other animals were too blurry to identify. I started to feel...

I had a hair raised on the back of my neck and goosebumps on my arms. Strange person made it to the T intersection before me. His back was to me and appeared to be standing still looking at the house on the left. As I approached, it sensed that I was there. Its head started to turn about 10 degrees only.

Then the whole body started turning in a staggering shuffling motion. My eyes were locked on the back of his head. I was terrified and my gut instinct seemed to warn me not to look at his face. I turned right quickly at the T intersection. That street goes up a steep incline. I was up to the top quicker than ever before. I stopped doing the pre-dorm walks and still have uneasy memory of the event.

Thank you caller. You know years ago I shared a story about a woman jogging with her dog that encountered a 10 foot tall praying mantis or grasshopper like creature just standing there under a street light. Now I believe that was season 3 episode 1 if you want to try to check it out. But anyway the story somehow reminds me a bit of that entry.

Different creatures, but a similar scenario, and the same spooky results. But you know there is one thing out there that's worse than a jerky, lanky man that frightens animals, and that is three of them. Here with the latest installment of the Meerdman Saga is Dustin out of the state of Oregon.

Hey Derek, this is Dustin from Central Oregon. I thought about calling for a long time because I saw something when I was probably 10 or 12 hunting with my dad in the Ochicos and I wasn't sure if it pertained to the mirrored men but

But the more I listen to stories, the more I'm kind of thinking about it and it kind of scares me a lot. When I was little, the first time I went hunting with my dad, we went out into the Ochocos and we went with my grandfather, my mom's dad, and he had a trailer

And in the back of the trailer, there was a bunk bed, and I slept on the top bunk. And there were two sides to the trailer, and...

Both sides had like a little porthole window so you can like look out. Well, two or three days in, I can't really remember to the trip. It started snowing really bad, like blizzard style. And we were in the mountains and we didn't really have anything. And so my dad was kind of just waiting to figure out whether or not we would need to go back into town and cancel our trip or if we could continue hunting. And

And that night I was just, I don't know if I was asleep at that point or if I had woken up or if I had still been up, but I was like up and...

I looked over towards... Because the campground was only maybe a couple hundred yards away from the gravel mountain road that led out into the woods. And then there were campgrounds on either side of the road. So we were only a couple hundred yards away from the road and...

It was pouring snow outside, not like heavy, like where it was like heavy wind. It was just like there were huge snowflakes falling like consistently, probably about a foot of snow outside. And I saw three identical figures walking down the road and they looked like they had like towels, like big black towels on their shoulders.

They all looked exactly the same. Nobody had anything in their hands like in previous stories.

They were just walking together down the road and I felt very, very, very, very strongly that they could see me and that they knew that I was looking at them. None of them looked at me. And like so many of the stories say, like one or all of them will like turn their heads to look. I felt very strongly that they were going to do that at any moment, but they never did.

and just walked back by the camp and then down the road. And I always thought, you know, they're probably more

More hunters, like, going to the camp, like, they had been hiking all day and then they were just going back. And then they had black, like, shawls on because of the snow. Like, and then, of course, they would all have, like, sort of the same thing. But the more that I hear these stories about the mirrored men, the more it...

terrifies me and for some reason that's always terrified me that experience and the more I hear about the mirrored men the more it terrifies me and it keeps making me remember that story so yeah I'm in central Oregon we were hunting in the Ochoco mountain range and that's it thank you so much thank you for calling in Dustin

Well, there are a few parameters to a sighting that I think constitutes it as a true Meerdman experience. Whatever the hell that is. And those details are as follows. Three men, dressed the same and walking in unison. Check. The feeling of dread or that you're being watched. Check. Bad, strange or inclement weather. Also check.

Which means the only characteristic I think is missing in this account is the absence of missing time. One of the key elements of a mirrored man encounter. Now that doesn't mean what he witnessed that evening was not the mirrored man, but it is something worth noting. And whatever it was he saw, it certainly sounds downright terrifying.

So thank you again, Dustin, for taking the time to ring in. And thank you, dear listener, for spending part of your evening here with us. It's been a real treat to share the airwaves with you.

Now Monsters Among Us is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes and Delaney Bowers. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Be sure to like and follow our social media pages. Hop on over to YouTube and help us out as well. And if you're feeling generous, maybe leave us a rate and review wherever that sort of thing is possible.

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