The Best of 2024 Special Part 1 (Sn. 18 Ep. 26)
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Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I'm your guide, Derek Hayes. Happy New Year, everyone. It's a real pleasure to be celebrating with you here this evening, and I hope that 2024 was as kind to you as it was to us.

We had a pretty big year here at MAU. Several benchmarks met, a few personal records broken, and tons of new listeners. But more on all that later. For now, welcome to our year-end episode. And you already know how we wrap a year up around here. But just in case you forgot, this is the best of special episode, the 2024 edition.

now of course i'm not disparaging any other callers that called in this year we had a lot of amazing entries submitted over the past 12 months but there were a few dozen this year that really stood out for one reason or another those are the stories that we'll be sharing here tonight and let me tell you i have a lot of calls to get through because it was really difficult to narrow it down as far as we did like i said there were a lot of amazing calls this year

but these were the ones that the team and i landed on our favorites so to speak so dim the lights crank the volume put on your party hats and pour some champagne we're about to get this thing started beginning with this gem of an entry by a fella with a great handle derek from the uk welcome back to the show hey derek it's derek from the uk here

Just started listening to the podcast, loving it, doing it a bit weird, listening from the latest episodes going back in time, so that's fun. Yeah, I've got a story for you relating back to a time when I was working on the London Underground as an electrician. This was about, I'd say, maybe year 2000, maybe a bit later. I was working at Aldgate Station and just doing some electrical work, preliminary work for a big contract that was going on.

There was me and one other electrician in the team.

Yeah, and well, basically what happened, we were working in electricity, one of the electricity rooms that they have all over the underground station. And through a moment of lack of concentration, shall we say, I received an electric shock, which I found out later threw me backwards and I was knocked out. The next thing I remember was being woken up by paramedics. And yeah, and then, you know, I was put in an ambulance and taken to one of the local hospitals.

Where I was looked after and put on monitoring for 24 hours is the way we do things over here. So after the shift, my colleague who was working with Chapwood Allen, very straight up and down, Chap came to check on me.

check on me see if i was all right it was about five o'clock in the morning so we worked night shifts on your engineering hours so yeah it was very early it was all very quiet and uh he came into the cubicle where i was and um you know after checking that i was okay and everything else i could see something was wrong with him he wasn't you know he wasn't himself he was you know something was bothering him so i asked him i said you know what's the matter i'm okay there's nothing for you to be worried about i'm fine and he said yeah it wasn't it wasn't that he said uh

he explained to me what had happened, how he found me. I mean,

I need to explain a little bit about the systems they used on the underground in London. At the time, I mean this was 20 years ago so it might now change, but at the time we had key holders and to be a key holder, to get into these electrical rooms and the signalling rooms and the communication rooms, you had to do several courses and things like that so not everybody had sets of keys. Generally it was one person in a team that had sets of keys. So we had a set of keys between us obviously and I was working in this electrical switch room

He explained to me that when I received the shock, I was thrown backwards and I hit the door, closing the door behind him. Now, the keys were inside, locked inside the room with me then, because these doors self-lock. They don't... There's no kind of... Once they close, they lock up and you have to open them again. He explained that he heard the bang, he came, he was in the next room, he came running round, checking if I was all right, and the door was closed. But there was a porthole window in the door.

So he could see into the room and he said what he saw was strange. He could see that I was leant up against the door but he could also see a figure in there with me. He described it as, I mean it's a second hand account, I mean I was unconscious at the time but he described it as a little old lady and he said she was kneeling at my feet and she had a hand on my leg.

and he said he was banging on the door and trying to attract her attention, obviously trying to open the door so he could get to me. By this point he was getting quite worried and quite panicked and he said he was banging on the door and she was getting no reaction from this lady that was in this room with me.

So realising that she wasn't responding to his bangs and there was no way he could access me or get through the door, he went to get another set of keys which you have to go to the station supervisor for who will hold a set of keys. He got these and it was about two minutes, two, three minutes journey to go to the station supervisor's office then coming back down to the electrical switch room. He said by the time he got back down there, everything was gone. There was no one in there, it was just me, you could see me in there.

He said there was no way the person could have got out. He couldn't understand it. He's a very straight-laced bloke. He's very straight up and down. He couldn't understand it, that I was leaning up against the door. My body was propped up against the door. And how could she have got out of a door that opened inwards when I was blocking the doorway? There was no physical way that she could have got out and then removed me and put me back up there. So he just didn't know what was going on. He was very, I don't know, shocked, I suppose. I suppose the word you'd used. And he couldn't understand it.

So anyway, the upshot is he managed to open the door, pushed me away from the door, got in there, the paramedics got me, I was kept in the hospital for 24 hours for observation. But yeah, when I got out the next day we had to go back to the station to fill in the accident book, obviously because there was an accident we had to fill it all in. So we were filling the accident book in. The station supervisor asked me what had gone on, asked both of us what had gone on, and Alan, being straight and honest, told him the truth.

The station supervisor then did something which I thought was quite odd. He took out another diary apart from the accident book, another book which he recorded things in and he took down the story and

I asked him, I said, "Well, you know, was the accident book not enough? You know, why are you recording this, something else?" And he turned around and he said, "Well, this isn't the first time this has happened, apparently. This figure has been seen around the station. There was another incident, apparently a good while beforehand, that another electrician or another worker had fallen across the rails, and the same figure was seen stroking his hair, or the same figure of an old lady was seen sitting with him stroking his hair.

Whether this entity or apparition is just... I don't know, really. I don't know. Who knows? Who knows anything? But something similar has happened before. So an Allgate is known as quite an active station. Yeah. So that's my story. Keep up the good work. I think your show is brilliant. And yeah, speak to you again soon. Cheers, mate. Bye. Thank you, Derek. That little old lady. This was an incredible story.

And if I didn't say it the first time we shared your story, Derek, we're happy to hear that there were no lasting effects of your accident, save for the mysterious old lady. And before I forget to mention it, that story originally aired on Season 17, Episode 13. And thank you again, Derek, for kicking us off. Now, folks, I have all kinds of creepiness in store for you tonight. But first, we have to make a couple of bucks. I'll be right back.

with a monster story. Don't go anywhere.

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This episode is brought to you by United Airlines. When you want to make the most of your vacation, book with United. They're an airline that cares about your travels as much as you do. United is transforming the flying experience with Bluetooth connectivity, screens, power at every seat, and bigger overhead bins to help fit everyone's bag. And with their app, you can skip the bag check line, get live updates, and more. Change the way you fly. Book your next trip today at United.com.

now as promised a monster story a giant story well a giant monster story i suppose either way from season 17 episode 1 the government worker special please welcome back this anonymous caller from parts unknown

Hey, Derek. I'm going to go ahead and start this off with saying government. Listening to your previous episodes, you want that as a header, as a government employee. I'm a land management law enforcement officer. I'm not going to say which agency. It's one of the federal agencies, be it Park Service,

Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, you know, they all have their various law enforcement divisions. So I'm a law enforcement officer in that aspect. And this took place in, let's say, somewhere in California. So I was fairly new, was getting ready to go to the academy, riding around with a veteran officer. And, you know, this officer showing me around this certain public land, again, I have to be kind of careful with what I'm still currently active. And

And I'm riding around with him. He's showing me the ropes, showing me the areas, things like that. You know, what the wilderness area is, what we're looking for, this, that, and the other. And as we get to this area, I noticed off to my right, about three to five football fields away,

is what appears to be a man. You know, how did a guy get all the way out there? Because, you know, one of the things we're responsible for is people's safety. Now, this is an area where no human being can get to unless you're, I mean, I guess it'll take you days if you keep going horseback, but there's no trails, there's no roads or anything like that. I mean, it's way out there. It was a big cliff, basically a cliff.

What dawned on me is how big this person was. I'm aware of Bigfoot Sasquatch, this and that and the other. It catches my attention. It startled me. The first thing that caught my attention, this is a safety issue. The veteran officer, hey, look, man. What's that guy doing over there? Hey, look. He looks exactly to what I'm pointing to. He sees it. He turns pale. His

His hands started shaking and his lips turned like pale. Like I can't explain a lot more paler than his face did. He didn't acknowledge. He didn't say anything. He immediately turned the vehicle around and started driving out of there. And I'm like saying, Hey dude, that ended dawned on me that he had to have seen this before.

It was my first time seeing what I think was a giant. I mean, I don't know what else it could have been. It looked like a normal person somewhat. No clothes. Just huge. And this is somewhere in California. I can't get any more specific than that.

But, you know, fast forward, I've been with the agency for about five years, and let's just say that's the tip of the iceberg with what I've seen doing this job. A lot of us have stories. A lot of us won't ever say anything. But, yeah, what I believe I saw was some form of just really giant humanoid type of being standing on a cliff. And this veteran officer who had been doing it for at least 20 years, he was terrified.

That's the story. But get to the point, got a lot more since I've been doing this job. So if you're interested, let me know. We're definitely interested, caller. If you have others like that one, you know we want to hear them. Just give us a call. 888-608-NIGHT. That's 888-608-N-I-G-H-T.

or record your story in the form of a voicemail and email it to me at monstersamonguspodcast at gmail.com. Now, let's visit a call from all the way back in Season 16. From Season 16, Episode 26, please welcome back Alex from New York.

Hi, Derek. This is Alex from Broome County, New York. So back in October, my wife went to the casino for a little bit. She's the type of person who she'll go to the casino with $100 and come back with $5. And this is something she does to relieve stress.

So I don't think much of it. She calls me on her way back and she's a mild panic, I would say. Her car had died briefly and there was no traffic on the highway for like 10 or 15 minutes, I think she said. And then her car started back up. Like at this point, her phone had also died.

But then it started back up again. And this, I don't want to say it's a well-traveled road, but like it's a highway. At the hour she's driving, I've never seen it be empty for that space of time. Like there's always somebody there.

So she's calling me, she's kind of panicked, and she stays, like we stay talking until she gets home for like 15 minutes. And so, you know, I'm talking, trying to calm her down, because, well, it's pretty obvious, like, I'm thinking, like, alright, well, that's weird, that's super weird, she's also thinking it's weird, I don't want to say, I don't want to say aliens, but that's not uncommon for cars to lose power in that situation.

According to the stories. Anyway, I don't think too much of it until the next morning when I reference what happened last night. And she has no idea what I'm talking about. Like she thinks I'm pulling her leg. She has no memory of anything weird happening on the drive back. She has no memory of calling me of talking until she pulled back into the garage.

I'm fairly freaking out because, like, am I losing my mind? So I go in and I look at my phone and I check. Like, yeah, there was a call here, 15 minutes, October 13th. I know because I just checked it and it's still on my phone. And at this point, like, the hairs on my arms are sticking up. I am freaked out.

You know, I could easily explain, like, you know, some weird car trouble, just a quiet night on the highway or whatever. But her not remembering any of that, it got me pretty weirded out. That's my story. Thank you, and I hope you can use this. Have a good one. Thank you, Alex.

Now if memory serves me right, Alex's wife also called in to share her side of the story, and I will say that it was equally as wild. Now I don't recall which episode that one was in, but it aired a few weeks after Alex's version did, which again would be 1626. Now before we move on to this next entry, time for some gloating.

Would you believe that Little Old Monsters Among Us charted as high as number 68 in the Apple Podcasts, Society, and Culture category? And we peaked at number 29 in Spotify's category of the same name. That's pretty amazing considering there are millions of podcasts out there, and ours just being an independently produced paranormal podcast, not exactly mainstream. But anyways, speaking of millions...

Thanks to all of you, we hit nearly 7 million total listens this year. That would mean we received at least 7 million hours of listening time in 2024. Simply incredible. And we thank all of you out there listening that helped make these numbers possible. Okay, enough bragging from me. Let's lock and load this next entry, a ghostly story from a gentleman named Nick Holtz.

from season 18 episode 1 the amusement worker special hey derek this is nick i absolutely love the work you've done with your podcast and i just wanted to let you know it helped get me through plenty of night shifts i wanted to share an experience that took place in december 2009 in a small town called erie pennsylvania during this time i was performing in a local metal band and just to paint the picture we were certainly not your satanic goth style band

We were more interested in playing metal just for the incredible energy and aggression release. In other words, our lyrics were not meant to be something to conjure up any malicious spiritual behavior. I performed quite harsh vocals though for this band, in addition to playing guitar. As college kids, we were all low on funds and took it upon ourselves to record a DIY album.

Most of the recording sessions took place in our bass player's college dormitory with his iMac computer and a litany of improvised sound equipment. As we finished recording the instruments, we figured it would be best to move to a more isolated location to record the vocals. Had we stayed in the dorm room, the campus police would have likely been called when students in the other rooms heard the harsh sounds.

Instead, we decided to venture to our bass player's parents' house in Erie, Pennsylvania. The home was several generations old and gave off an ominous presence as we arrived that winter day. We felt an unsettling energy as we climbed the stairs to his childhood bedroom. He had mentioned that his old room always gave him the creeps, and he was relieved to have moved out. But luckily, it was just the space we needed to record this final component of our album.

In an attempt to have a completely isolated recording space, I set up a microphone in a nearby coat closet. It was literally the smallest closet you could imagine. We didn't even bother to remove all the coats and clothing items due to lack of time. The microphone wires were pulled through the crack in the door and strung down the hallway to our bass player and his computer down the hall. I crouched on my knees and began the recording process.

Something about the closet made me feel very unnerved. The pitch blackness and lack of oxygen certainly didn't help matters, but I was focused on getting the task done as quickly as possible so I could get out of there. Once all of my vocal parts were recorded several hours later, we saved the audio files, packed up our gear, and left. It wasn't until years later that I received a phone call from my bandmate who had recorded the album.

He sounded extremely confused. He told me he had been deleting some old files on his computer and stumbled upon my old vocal recordings. As he was clearing out the files, he noticed something peculiar and sent one piece to me. Although my vocals appear scary in their own right, just after the words "over our head" were screamed, a strange childish voice is heard giggling from within the closet. We were all perplexed upon hearing this sound file.

I recalled the precautions we took that day to ensure the closet was totally isolated for recording. The only sounds picked up by the computer in a distant bedroom would have come from the microphone I was using. While this may have easily been some sort of recording artifact, I can't help but think that an entity might have been sharing that space with me that day. To think it was having a laugh at the outlandish noises I was making while intruding upon its hiding place. Thank you, Nick.

You know, it's always fun when there's an EVP involved. And Nick here didn't let us down. Now here's the EVP he was just telling us about. Played several times and even slowed down a bit there at the end. Now a warning. Like Nick said, the vocals are a bit jarring. Out of context. So you might want to turn your speakers down for a second. Rover! Robin! Sound of silence! Sound of sil-

I don't know. Sounds like a child's giggle to me. Thank you again, Nick, for sharing that intriguing entry. Screwball peanut butter whiskey? Why the hell not? A little salty, a little sweet, a little savory, and always smooth. Screwball, the original peanut butter whiskey that's unexpectedly delicious.

Visit screwballwhiskey.com to learn more. That's screwball with a K. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2023 Screwball Spirits, LLC, New York, New York.

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Now many of you might remember this story about a creepy psychic prediction coming true. But for those of you that don't, you're in for a treat. From Season 17, Episode 10, please welcome Christine back to the program.

Hi, Derek. My name is Christine. I'm calling from Washington, but my story or my experience took place in Southern California. I only think that this would be a supernatural story based off of what has happened since then, but it might be a let's not meet story because it has to do with a medium and something that they told me a few years back. So this happened in the summer of 2004, and I remember that because I turned 18 and I was working at a pool as a lifeguard.

I was, you know, checking everyone in, which means I was in the front of the building. Mind you, I'm 18. I'm wearing a bathing suit and pretty much nothing else, and I'm by myself at the front. So I was very cautious of people. And as I'm checking everyone in, a family comes in that I don't recognize, and a man with long hair, dark skin, and he came up, and he was kind of creepy, but I think he was just trying to be nice, and I just...

that's not comfortable. I mean, he said...

I need to read you. And I was confused. And he's like, I'm a medium and they're telling me I need to talk to you. And I was like, okay. And he had to be in his 30s or something. But he then followed his family and said, I'm going to come back and talk to you. And I was like, no, thank you. But he left and the lines died down. Everyone was going inside. And I had about like 20 more minutes till I needed to

close cash and go out and I called my manager on the walkie-talkie and I was like, hey, I got creeped out. Can I close up early, 15 minutes early? He's like, yeah, sure. Do you need me out there? And I'm like, no, it's okay. I'm just going to close out early to let you know.

So I was closing out 15 minutes earlier and this guy comes running back out from the showers, right? And he runs... He says, I'm glad I caught you. I need to talk to you. And I was like, what? So I'm alone with this older man and...

and I'm, you know, uncomfortable, I'm in a bathing suit, I'm nervous, right? And he starts telling me all these things, and he starts, he's like, can I read your palm? And, you know, I was, ladies, especially young girls, if you feel uncomfortable, tell them no, it's okay. And I was not in that kind of mindset, and I gave in, I just handed my hand over to them, and he starts reading my palm, and he starts, like, rubs my arm, and I'm feeling so uncomfortable, and I'm thinking, this guy's just a creep, he's just a creep. Well,

He starts saying some stuff. The first thing he says was, well, you're not a virgin. And I was like, well, that's like, of course, like what a creepy thing to say. Like, you're just creepy. Right. And I'm like, okay,

I didn't really give a confirmation. I just said, okay, move on. And then he said, okay, so it looks like you're going to have like a nice life. Like your lifeline is healthy. You're going to have a good life. I see that you're going to get married, but you're going to get married twice.

And the problem is I can't see whether it's by death or divorce, but you are going to get married twice. And I was like, well, that doesn't give me any answers. That tells me nothing. Like you can't tell if it's death or divorce, but you're just saying I'm going to get like something has to happen. Right. So I just, okay, this is kind of crazy. Like, well, that's weird. And then he gets really somber and he says, I'm really sorry to tell you this, but you're going to have three children and one of them is going to die.

And I just, my heart kind of dropped and I was like, why are you doing this to me? You know, like, you're such a weirdo. You're so creepy. Like, why are you doing this? And I'm thinking, this man is like, just here to make me uncomfortable. And he did tell me other things. He read other things on my palm, I guess. And I don't remember them because I was so upset and like,

I'm shaking now just remembering, like, that feeling. But he did tell me other things. I just don't remember them. So I was obviously upset because who says that to an 18-year-old? Like, your kid's going to die. And so I went to my manager, and I was visibly upset, and I was crying. And I said the guy came back, and I told him all the things that he told me. I told him that, you know, he said, kid's going to die, and, like...

I was just very upset. And my manager, who is atheist and he does not believe in anything, and he was like, you have to ignore that. Like, that guy was just a weirdo. Like, he's just, why would anyone say that to someone and upset, look how upset you are? Why would someone, like, that was, don't worry about it. He's just messing with you, essentially. Yeah.

Well, I kind of shake it off and I move on and, you know, years start passing and I start dating my now husband and we've been together. We're celebrating our 15 year anniversary this year, but

you know, a few years after that, I would say three to four years after that. And I'm talking with one of my friends and she's telling me we're, we're swapping like paranormal stories essentially. And I was like, yeah, I had this, I had a supernatural thing. I'd say, well, I guess, I don't know. I don't know if I believe in mediums because you might think it's not supernatural that it's just, yeah, there's mediums in the world. And then you might,

see it how I see it where I didn't believe in them and then something happened and we were telling and I started explaining what he said to me and relaying this story again and when me and my husband got married he was being deployed he was he was in Afghanistan and I planned the wedding he was gone and he called me and said we have to cancel I am not coming home

So I canceled the wedding. Luckily, he did actually come back fairly close to our original date. But I had canceled the wedding because I didn't know when he would be back. So we ended up having a courthouse wedding. And it was really quick. It was just family. And we just got it done because I was like, well, we already plan on getting married. I want to get married. And anyways, we did. And then...

The same year I was pregnant and my daughter, I became preeclampsic and I went into, she was prematurely born through, uh, via emergency C-section and she did not survive. I almost didn't survive. She lived about a week in the NICU. Her body just wasn't developed enough. And so we had to let her go. And so she passed and, um,

Sorry. So anyways, I was telling my friend about that and I was explaining, I was like, when I got a tattoo of my daughter's name, I put one big flower and then I put two smaller flowers. And I don't know why. I think I just aesthetically I liked it. But I had always said like, oh, well, we're going to redo our

our wedding because we had to have a courthouse wedding and now it's coming up on we're celebrating 15 years this year and we were just talking about how on our 20th anniversary we're going to do a renewal of our vows and that would be a second wedding that wasn't because of death or divorce I have two children surviving children right now so I had three children and one passed

It's strange because it took so many years for this all to come to pass, and I didn't believe it at first. I was wanting to shake it off as a person who just wanted to make someone uncomfortable. But now I see that it was supernatural, and it was years and years coming. So I guess the point of the call is that sometimes you have these experiences, and it just takes years and years for you to see it. I appreciate it. Love your show. Big fan. Thanks again. Bye. Thank you, Christine.

One of our creepiest calls of the year by far. Whether or not the dude meant it to be or not. And heartbreaking as well. Again, we're sorry for your loss, Christine. Now if the details Christine just laid before us happened by mere coincidence, that's pretty incredible. But if a prediction was made because a strange man had some sort of ability, that would be pretty incredible as well.

Either way, another big thanks to Christine for sharing her gut-wrenching experience. Now folks, another call that really intrigued me this past year was one sent in from the state of New York not that long ago. Season 18, Episode 5. It involved what some might classify as ghost children, or as I'm starting to suspect, a slip in time. Regardless of the cause, Michael's eerie entry was one of this year's best calls.

Please welcome him back to the program. Hello, Derek. Michael here from Central New York. First time caller and big fan of the podcast. It's my favorite and I listen to it weekly while I'm at work. So I'd like to submit my own what I believe to be a paranormal experience in which I was reminded of after listening to The Bloody Stranger of Season 17, Episode 4.

I was roughly 11 years old when this took place. I'm 34 now, so this happened quite some time ago. My parents were heavy chain smokers, so they would drag me and my sister along to a reservation in Pembroke, New York, for cartons of cigarettes. And we lived in New Haven, New York at the time, so it was quite a hike there and back.

We would get back to our house really late at night from anywhere 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. at night and the dirt road in which our house was located on also led to our dirt driveway, which mind you was a mile and a half long and had absolutely no lights at all, no street lamps and was a heavily wooded area. And the night in which this event took place was a nice clear night

but was still incredibly dark because of the trees and the road was only illuminated by my dad's Chevy Blazer's headlights. So as we turned onto the driveway, about a quarter mile in, all we see is a set of lanterns ahead. And as we approached the lights, there were three kids dressed in very odd clothing to me at the time. Later on, I learned that there was quite a bit of Amish folk that lived in the area, and I made the connection of the style of clothes they were wearing.

One thing I noticed with the kids is that they were extremely pale. We're talking like liver mortis type pale. My father rolled down the window as we pulled up to them and asked what they were doing in our driveway so late at night. And neither kid answered. They simply stared at my father and continued walking by the vehicle. My father was incredibly confused and concerned, but pulled away heading towards our house.

Now, as we pulled away, my father looked in the rearview mirror and myself, my sister and my mother all looked back in the back window. And to our surprise, the kids disappeared. It was wild. My dad put the car in reverse to make sure the kids didn't venture off into the woods because there were no trails or anything like that. And sure enough, the kids were nowhere in sight. There was no sounds, nothing.

And they literally walked by our car seconds ago. I texted my sister a few days ago to see if she remembered

since she was really young at the time. And she replied back, "Sure do remember it. It was super late at night and they had their lamps." To this day, I cannot explain what that experience was all about. I can confidently say that they were not black eyed children because they didn't have that characteristic. Anyways, thank you for the work that you do and the merch is incredible. I just ordered the Campfire Bigfoot t-shirt and the Ghost Beanie and super stoked for their arrival.

Thanks for airing my story on the show and take care. Thank you, Michael. Something about this one really stuck with me. So many different theories to explore. And thank you again, Michael, for the merch shout out. If you want to check out our virtual shop yourself, just visit our website, MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the shop tab. Now I'd list all the items we have up for sale, but I don't have that kind of time. I have calls to get through.

Hi there, I'm Samantha from Canada and I was just calling because of something that happened in my family about two, three years ago.

Just a little back story, my great grandparents were living at home with their abusive, emotionally abusive son. My grandmother, their daughter, went over to visit them and as she was leaving she seen in behind the garage a figure walking by that she describes looks like a humanoid but had the face and the structure of an anteater.

It was walking on its hind legs and his face looked like an anteater and a long tail. And she said it was moving really quickly and it looked at her and looked shocked and then it just disappeared. So she said it was surprised to see her there. So we were telling my mother and her friend about this experience that she had today, actually. And she said that she also seen this

the same anteater figure. And I asked her what the circumstances was around the event that took place. And she said at the time she was being harassed viciously by these people. She had to go get a restraining order and everything. It was that bad. But she said the exact same description and they were both just...

Thank you, Samantha. Now, I love a good monster story, especially when the creature that's described is something new to me and an anteater man.

or whatever the hell this was, was certainly that. So thank you again, Samantha, for sharing the incredible story and for teaching this old dog a new track. Now, folks, time for another break, but I'll be right back with more Best of Calls on this New Year's Eve special. Don't touch that dial. Hey, guess what? Clean slate. It's by a restaurant owner.

Awesome.

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free professional measure during the blinds.com year on blowout rules and restrictions may apply. I got a lot of dirty laundry to air out. Seven, six, seven, 1000 degrees. And just now this next one is from earlier in season 18 from episode two, please welcome Steven out of New Jersey. Hi,

Hi, Derek. This is Steven Cole from New Jersey. I've called several times. This one hits different, and I don't really know how to, like, get into it without really being affected. All right, so long story short, I called on an experience that I had when I was around 8 and 9 years old. So this past Friday, my son, who was 8 years old, comes in my room before we go to bed. He's like, hey, Dad, Mom, can I sleep in your bed tonight? I'm like, nah, nah, not tonight. I'm not really trying to sleep uncomfortable tonight.

you sleep in your bed. And normally he don't really ask to sleep in our bed unless it's like we're watching a movie or something like that. So whatever, he goes, my youngest son, they

They both go in their room, they go to sleep. My son wakes up, I don't even know what time it is, it's in the middle of the night. He wakes up crying, they both come in my room crying. My oldest son says, "My leg hurts, my leg hurts, can I please sleep in here?" I'm like, "Steven, no, like you sleeping in my bed is not going to make your leg feel any better." I'm like, "Just go to sleep in your bed, lay on the opposite side so you're not putting pressure on that leg and you're

And you'll be fine. You know, he finally goes in his room with his little brother. I get them situated. I lay back down. I don't know if it was like a half an hour or hours. Like one of those sleeps where, you know, an hour could have went by, but you like, you feel like you're still up. You're still, you know, awake, but you sleep.

I don't know how to describe that, but I just hear him scream hysterically, screaming. I jump up out of my bed, run in their room, bust in their door. He's pointing at the closet, hysterically crying, shaking. And my youngest son is crying, shaking, looking over in the same direction, but he's more so frantic because his brother's screaming.

I'm like, what happened? What happened? What happened? He was standing there. He was standing there. It was a man. It was a man. I'm like, what? He was six feet tall. He had long arms. He had a hat on. He was reaching out for me. I'm like, wait, what? And then when he's saying this to me, it brought me back to my experience because, one, I've never told my son about this experience that I had at a young age.

And two, he doesn't even know about hat man, assuming because he said the thing had a hat on. And it really brought me back. And it really like kind of like not broke me down, but like it brought me back and it like it shook me up. But I had to gather myself because I need to make sure my son is good. So I'm like, are you sure that's what you're saying? He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He had long arms. He had long fingers. He was just reaching out for me.

And now me and my fiance, we was thinking to ourselves, like, how does he have, you know, all these details? I started thinking, I'm like, well, his closet is right up on his bed. Like it's right near his bed. So if he's seen it near his closet, it's close enough where he can get a description and point out details. If he can make anything out. And I'm like,

Everything that he described is everything that I've seen as a young kid. So I called my brother immediately. I was like, bro, you remember what happened, you know, us in the Bronx? And he's like, come on, man, you really talking about that again? I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, it's not that. It's Stephen said he's seen the same exact thing.

last night. And then he just stopped. He's just like, what? I was like, yeah. And I've never told Steven this story. So how did he have the same exact details of the thing that we've seen years ago? And it's just weird because, you know, he's a junior, but he sees it around the same age that I've seen it. And then when I vote for my room, because at that point I'm like, I'm real compassionate. I'm like, all right, just come on. I got you. Nothing's going to happen. They

They come in the room, and then my youngest son, he's like, Daddy, Daddy, the superhero's coming. He's going to come in here. He's coming. I'm like, the superhero? I'm like, no, don't worry. Daddy got you. And from that point on, I stood up for like an hour and a half just watching the door.

making sure nothing happens. And then what's weird is my daughter, my youngest child, my daughter has a push toy and is real sensitive. So even if you make a slight vibration on the floor, it starts going off. And all of a sudden I hear out in the hallway, let's start walking.

that's her toy. And I'm like, where it's situated, it's up in the toy chest because I don't like to have it on the floor because the dog roams around and sometimes he bumps into it at nighttime. So for that to go off after this whole thing happened, it's very weird, but I'm holding it together, but I had to get this off my chest. If

I finally talked to, you know, other than telling my brother this, I finally talked to my dad. But when I was telling him about my son's situation, you know, he was taken back a little bit. And I told my cousin, who me and him enjoy your podcast, you know, I told him finally. And yeah, it's just crazy.

I hope y'all enjoyed the story. I mean, I didn't really enjoy it, but thinking back on it now, I could breathe a little bit easier. So y'all stay up, everyone. Be safe out there. Thank you, Steven. You know, calls like this one make me happy I don't have children of my own. If Sarah and I have monsters in our house, we thankfully sleep right through those experiences.

Because there's no one here to bust into our room in the middle of the night to tell us about it. And no talking toys going off at night either. Kudos to you, Steven. Because it sounds like you handled a difficult situation perfectly. And I bet having experienced it yourself many years ago played a big part in that. Thank you again for sharing the call.

Now, I'd mentioned a few different Spotify statistics earlier in the episode, but I have a few more that I think you might be interested to hear, especially if you're a fan of their New Year in Review feature. We had nearly 8,000 top fans on Spotify this year. Those are people who statistically listen to us more than any other podcast this calendar year. And our streams on Spotify grew by 51%.

And our listeners on Spotify grew by 85%. And 69% of our listeners on Spotify were new this year. So welcome to all the newbies. And get this, we grew our Spotify followers by 35% this year. And a huge thanks to everyone that helped make that possible. But to be honest, most of that is my wife, Sarah. A lot of this growth is thanks to her. And I shouldn't have to tell you, but growth means more stories.

and we need it to survive so like i said a huge thanks to her any big thanks to anyone else out there that helps keep this show on the rails now enough with the numbers let's share some more stories like this recent submission that had a lot of people guessing on social media and over at patreon please welcome kim from williamsburg virginia back to the show

Hi, Derek. This is Kim, and I'm calling from Virginia. This is my own experience that comes from, I'd say, 2008, 2007, somewhere around there. And it was in the month of October. I know that. My family and I, and at the time, that was my husband and myself and our two children, who at that time were about 8 and 11 years old.

We decided to take a weekend trip to Colonial Williamsburg, which is about three hours away from us. So I had gone to school in Williamsburg. Every summer that I was there, I worked in Colonial Williamsburg, either doing hostessing at taverns or that kind of thing. In any case, I knew Williamsburg very well, and it was always a place that I enjoyed going back to. And still to this day, I do.

So at that point, we were interested in taking a ghost tour, which was sort of a new feature at that time. And we started out walking with, I guess, about 15 other people, maybe. It started, I think, around 7.30ish, so it was getting on the dark side if it wasn't already dark. And it was a really good tour. It was all walking tour up and down the streets of Williamsburg.

And toward the end of the tour, I got a pebble in my shoe and it was driving me nuts. So I told my family to go on with the group and I would sit down on a bench and untie my shoe and get this thing out. So they went on ahead and I sat down on a bench and proceeded to untie my shoe so I could shake it out.

So I want to just let you know where I was sitting at the moment. That was if you are standing on Duke of Gloucester Street, which is the main drag there in Colonial Williamsburg. It's commonly called Dog Street. And you're facing the Capitol where Patrick Henry made his impassioned speech. I was sitting in what was then a sort of a vacant lot that acted as a crossroads to the left of the Capitol.

And that area was sort of an open area at the time. I think it still is. I haven't been down there recently. But in any case, I was sitting on a bench that was facing the Capitol. So I was facing one side of the Capitol and I'm dealing with my shoe. I finally get it tied and everything is set to go. And I look up.

And there I saw the most bizarre thing that I've ever seen in my life. I have no idea what it was. I can only describe it to you. It was roughly the size of a small movie theater screen and sort of that shape, sort of a rectangular shape floating about four feet off the ground.

It was static in the sense that this frame didn't move, but inside of it, there was a very dynamic... I don't know how to explain it. There was a lot going on. A predominantly current of what looked like molten lava...

that glowed fluorescent green and occasionally some yellow as it moved around within this frame. And I thought, okay, I'm on a ghost tour. This seems like a trick or a practical joke. I don't know how anybody could pull this off. So I know just to kind of clear my mind, I closed my eyes and

And I opened them again and it was still there. And it must have been about 40 feet away from me. I watched this thing, this sort of glowing currents of stuff flowing around, flashing, mostly green, but flashing yellow here and there because of dynamic changes that were happening, movements that were happening in this substance that was inside this frame.

And I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was just surreal. I thought, you know, this is not a projection. I kept trying to reason with it. Is it a projection? No. There were no light beams coming out. There were no light beams going in. There was nothing behind it that could have been supporting a screen. It was outside in the middle of Colonial Williamsburg. There weren't any apparatus devices.

type things that set up lights that would create an effect like this. The only thing that I think was providing light at that time may have been the torches that they do light occasionally at the nighttime when it gets dark in Williamsburg. So I looked at it and I stared at it and I kept thinking, what is this?

A little voice came into my head. It could have been my own voice that said, go put your hand in it. Go up to it and put your hand in it. And I decided that I wasn't going to do that, that that wasn't probably a good idea. And the more I looked at it, the more comfortable I became because I kept wondering what it was, why it was there, why

why it appeared that I was the only one who could see it. And at the time, there really weren't many people around. But there were people around, kind of milling around, not necessarily right close to me, but, you know, up on Duke of Gloucester Street, there were people. But you kind of have to be facing this thing because it's flat in order to see it. So...

I wasn't aware of anyone else in the area that would have seen this or could have seen this. And of course, my cell phone at the time was not capable of taking pictures or if it was, I didn't know how to do it. So I kept staring at it. I didn't hear anything. I didn't smell anything. I didn't feel trepidation or fear until I guess a couple minutes after I stared at it. And I thought there's something not right here.

I kind of felt like it was staring back at me, which is kind of a, I'm sure it's, you know, some kind of psychological phenomenon, I guess, when you don't know what you're looking at and it doesn't go away and it's right smack in front of you. So I turned my back. I was so uncomfortable and I left. I didn't even look back to see if it was still there. I caught up with the group.

And I didn't talk about it with anybody for a while. I did mention it to my family later on when I was able to talk about it, but it was just too weird. I don't know if anyone else has had an experience like this. I couldn't call it a UFO, but I would call it an unidentified floating object.

I also would like to know if anyone has had any experiences similar to this in Colonial Williamsburg. I'd spent a lot of time in Williamsburg and I'd never had any paranormal experiences. The only strange experiences I had were with people who visited Williamsburg. So I hope that you're able to use this for your show, Derek. I really, really appreciate it. And hello to all you Monsters Among Us fans out there. Thanks. Bye. Thank you, Kim.

Now that story originally aired back on season 18 episode 13, if you want to check out all the commentary that I did. And it's quite the head scratcher you have there, Kim. I don't know what it was, but I thank you for calling it in. They need someone to come in. Happy New Year to you and your amazing family.

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Now, for another call that makes me happy to be childless. Wes, from Season 18, Episode 4. Welcome to tonight's program.

Hi, Derek. My name is Wes. I have a little story for you from Baraboo, Wisconsin. When my kids were seven and four, they're now 11 and nine. We lived in this little duplex and it was upstairs, downstairs duplex and we lived upstairs.

And we moved in. It was a month-to-month rental agreement, so we could give the guy two weeks' notice and move out. We were just moving in and getting settled in, and the kids had one bedroom, and me and my wife had the other bedroom. And some strange things started happening pretty soon after we moved in, maybe two weeks later.

We would find things out of place and maybe pictures knocked over, just weird things like that. And eventually it got so bad to the point to where the kids were scared all the time. They would not sleep in their bedroom. We actually had to take their mattress from their bed and throw it on our bedroom floor because we just couldn't get them to go in their bedroom. Their bedroom was always cold. We couldn't get their bedroom warm.

It was just the weirdest thing and told a friend of mine about it and he says, "Oh, it sounds like you have some kind of unwanted entity in your house." And he gave me a Bible and he highlighted some verses to read.

Which we did. We all sat in a bedroom one night and we just read and things didn't get any better. They actually got a lot worse. The attic, I guess you could say, of the house was in the bedroom and there was a thin little board covering kind of like the ceiling of a hospital that thin cardboard with the holes in it.

covering the attic and pretty soon that board in the middle of the night or whenever it happened would come off of there every night. We'd always put it back. Eventually I nailed up a piece of wood. We'd wake up the next morning and the nailed piece of wood would be off. So I told my friend about it once again and he got a hold of his church and he actually had a priest come over and anoint the room with oil.

And this priest came over and he did his thing and he was spreading oil throughout the house and things still got worse after that. The children began to not respond like they would normally. And my friend, when he found out after I told him,

He came over and he kind of did some Bible reading from some verses that weren't highlighted that he gave me the Bible of. And he told me that this room, that there's something wrong with this room, that it was really uneasy. And...

He told me that maybe we should consider moving and I thought, you know, I'm not a huge believer in this stuff and just probably new house jitters. I don't know what you would call it, but the kids one night we were reading from the Bible and my four year old son looks at me and he starts crying and shaking. And I looked at him and I said, what's wrong? And he said, the dark man is here, dad, the dark man. And I said, the dark man, who's the dark man? He said, he's standing right behind you. And I

And I turned around to look, and there was nothing there. And I looked over, and my son, who is four years old, was pouring tears out of his face, shaking, and just started screaming. And he said, don't look at him, don't look at him. And in the weirdest voice, he looked at me and he said, you're going to die two Saturdays from today if we don't get out of here.

A four-year-old said this to me, which I couldn't believe. And that was when we just kind of gave the guy a notice and told him that we were leaving, and we were only there for about a month and a half before we got chased out of this house. And I just wanted to say thank you very much, Derek. And I've only been listening to your podcast for a couple weeks now, but...

I mean, it feels like a nice place that I could call and kind of tell somebody the story where people aren't going to think I'm crazy. And congratulations with the success of your podcast, and thank you very much for everything. Take it easy. Thank you, Wes. Kids say the darndest things, and apparently the most terrifying things as well. But that's the sort of thing that makes this one of our best of worthy entries. Thanks again, Wes, for sharing.

Well, folks, the holidays are almost over. Winter is setting in and we have nothing but long, boring evenings ahead of us. Why not fill the void with my paranormal documentary, Shadows in the Desert High Strangeness in the Borrego Triangle. Along with fellow adventurer David Flora, I take you through a little-known window area we've dubbed the Borrego Triangle. You can watch the film on Amazon Prime or for free on Tubi or visit borregotriangle.com.

to learn more now for tonight's next best of entry one that's from out of this world please welcome this anonymous caller from florida whose story originally aired on season 17 episode 14.

Hi, Derek. I am from Pensacola, Florida. I'm not going to leave my name, but I just heard, I think it was season seven, episode four, of this girl who said she had beans come into her room and try to give her a vial of liquid. When I was in my early twenties, I'm so sorry, this is so traumatic, but yet it didn't scare me.

I literally woke up on a ship. I had laid down to take an afternoon nap. And I know the difference between a dream and lucid dreaming because I am an avid lucid dreamer and I can walk around the damn thing and tell you when I'm dreaming. I looked over to my right. There were two other people about my age. It was a male and a female on two other metal tables.

Looked over to my left, there was the most beautiful alien I had ever seen in my life. And it kept saying to me, without opening up its mouth, everything's going to be all right. You're fine. The being that was sitting to my left, it was definitely alien by far. And I couldn't make out whether it had skin or scales, but it was some of the most shimmering, brilliant things

I guess you would call it opaque that I had ever seen. And I had absolutely no fear, none whatsoever. As a matter of fact, well, I keep hearing people say that they have all this fear when they have this happen to them. I never have. And I've had quite a few experiences. This one being one of the most standout of all of them.

Next thing I know, I'm hearing what sounds like an airlock door open. And in comes a human being with a duffel bag. Took me into a room across from the table that I was laying on. When I went into the room, he said, here, I need you to take this. It was a vial of red powder. He said, I need you to add this to the water and I need you to drink it.

And before I did, I said, so what happens if I don't? He said, well, you won't make it. You'll die. I couldn't understand that. What does he mean? So I took it. The next thing I know, I'm waking up on the bottom of my bed, which is not where I laid down. And I'm feeling like this vibratory feeling running throughout my body. And I'm still hearing this creature, this sound.

Beautiful creature going, don't worry, everything is all right. I have never known what to make of it. Throughout the years afterwards, it had to have been a decade at least, I started looking at documentaries and I was finding more and more people who were saying, this has happened to me as well. This is the first time I have heard this on your show. I just recently started listening and this has, it's touched me because at least I know I'm not the only one.

Thank you. I appreciate your show. Thank you again, caller. Now, I know you said you weren't scared, but I think I probably would have been because Unsolved Mysteries really messed me up back in the 80s. The segments they shared about alien abduction downright terrified me, but fascinated me at the same time. And I guess our caller's story here does the exact same thing. So thank you again, caller, for ringing in.

Now folks, this next one is a bit on the longer side, but that didn't stop it from being one of my favorites of the year. From season 17, episode 4, and from parts unknown, Aiden makes his return. Hey Derek, my name is Aiden, and this story happened to me in southwest Arkansas. So something that some of my friends and I used to do for the past year, but we stopped about two months ago, was train hopping.

which gets a pretty bad stigma. Obviously, it's kind of dangerous and possibly not technically legal, but we recently stopped doing it because it's something that happened this most recent time. This was about two or three months ago, and we got on a train in our town in Texas, and the train went north for a bit and then eventually turned east.

towards Arkansas. And when you get on a train, especially train hopping, you really have no idea where it's going. And so, you know, we had a week or so scheduled out to do this. And so the train went east to Arkansas and we crossed the Arkansas border at about 11 o'clock at night.

And the train car, it was me and three friends. The train car we had gotten was one without a roof. It looked kind of like a big dumpster where it had four walls and no roof. And this was really good because you could stand and look out. But also at night, you could just lay down.

And the wind wouldn't be getting to you and you would just be laying there at night sleeping. So it was about 11 o'clock at night that we crossed the border and about one o'clock at night, all four of us were laying there trying to sleep. And I'm pretty sure three of my friends were asleep, but I was awake and I was laying there looking at the stars and

When you're on a train, the train has a rhythm. And every train kind of has a different rhythm. They're pretty similar, but it depends on how fast it's going, like the mechanical slight differences of each train. But you get used to the rhythm of your train, like the constant like...

It's like a rhythm. So I was laying there listening to the rhythm of it with my head on the metal so I could really hear it. And all of a sudden, I just kind of started hearing something else.

Like along with the rhythm and I couldn't really even hear what it was All I could hear was that the rhythm had changed and this change It came about kind of suddenly so I was laying there and I didn't think too much of it and I just kind of thought we had like Hit something or we're dragging something or some of the cargo had shifted. Although like this train was mostly empty so

I was just listening to this and I was trying to figure out what it was as it kept going as the noise kept going and one thing about trains is a lot of train tracks are one way or like just there's just one train track and so if you're going one direction and there's a train coming right at you from the other direction one of the trains has to get off and stop and pull over because they have little spots to do this where you can pull over in the train the other train goes past you and then you can keep going and so

This happens a lot when you're train hopping that it just kind of stops and it had happened before. So we were laying here and I was listening to this noise and the train started to slow down and we were in the middle of nowhere. So I was figuring it was just another one of these common like stops. Usually they're about, you know, one to three hours and they're in the middle of absolutely nowhere. So this train started to slow down to stop.

And I could instantly like tell that this noise wasn't coming from the train. Like it wasn't part of the actual train mechanics because as the train was slowing down and stopping and the rhythm of the train was, you know, slowing down, and

As it was slowly stopping, this noise that I had been hearing stayed the same volume and the same speed, I guess, but it wasn't changing along with the train. And I was like, that's weird.

Normally, if we weren't on a moving train, I would think this was like something in a field or something. But since I'd been hearing it for quite a while, I knew it was on the train. And as we slowed down, I started to be able to tell what the noise was. It was like this deep wailing, like somebody was crying. But it was like just so much anguish and like pain.

I don't really know how to describe it. There's, I know you like to have examples to hear. So the best thing that I can say it was like was the movie Midsommar. And there's a scene where like the main girl is like crying these deep anguish wails. And it kind of sounded like that, just so you have an idea of what I'm talking about. So it was these loud noises and I could tell it was coming from like

couple cars in front of us and I can't quite remember if I woke my friends up or if they woke up on their own because of it and because the train was stopping but we were all listening to it just frozen like what on earth is this and we started like whispering we were like it couldn't be an animal because an animal wouldn't be on the train and if there was an animal on the train it would have like

jumped off or by now because the train wasn't moving we were thinking maybe it could have been a person that was also on the train that had gotten like seriously injured but that just didn't seem right it just nothing really was making sense on what this noise could have been and it was definitely not mechanical because obviously the train was stopped and it sounded like somebody wailing and crying

So after about 10 to 15 minutes of listening to this with the train stopped,

I really wanted to kind of find out what it was, especially if maybe it was a person. And I was, I guess you could say more attached to the sound just because I'd been hearing it this whole time. And so we were already kind of ballsy, I guess, doing train hopping. So going to find out what this was, wasn't like a huge step in courage, I guess. So we climbed over the edge of our train car and started walking along the tracks towards the noise and

and I was in front and there's like the wooden planks and we were walking on those and I kind of pointed and was like hey don't step on the rocks because you know that makes quite a bit of noise so walk on the wooden planks and we were holding onto the train

there were no lights, it was dark, it was like a field or a forest or something like that, but there were no houses, no lights, really anything, and we were just feeling our way, and as we got closer, like, I could see what car it was coming from, and this was a car, a train car that had just two walls, one on either end, and usually they'd put, like, planks of wood or, like, logs or something, and so I could tell as I got closer to this car that

I could see one of the walls of the ends of the train and there was the wall closest to me. And it was, I could tell it was kind of behind this wall that this noise was coming from.

And we got closer to it until it was just the next car. And it was just same volume, same intensity, same loudness, just this wailing. And I had been a little creeped out this whole time, but I was pretty scared. And my friends were probably too. But I think it was definitely, if I was alone, I would have never checked it out. But it was good that we had some friends and we all...

Kind of, you know, had already been through some scary stuff with train hopping. We were a good team to do this.

I was in the front and I kind of moved forward enough to where all I had to do was just move my head around the wall and see what it was. Like I could tell it was like six, seven feet just around that corner. And I can't remember how long I sat there waiting, like trying to get the courage to just literally just move my head, move my eyes around and look and see what it was. I was expecting kind of like a lady face.

It sounded like a female voice. I'm sorry. I'll say that. And I was fully expecting something to be there, something, a human or something. I had no idea what it was. And so I really quickly, after a second getting the courage up, I just moved my head around, around this wall to see what it was, to see on this car. And the very second that my eyes went around the corner, just the absolute...

millisecond that I would have been able to see it, the noise just absolutely stopped. Like dead silent mid-wail just completely stopped.

And there was nothing there, nothing at all. It was the car was completely empty. And that terrified me, terrified all of us more than anything, just complete silence. And when we were being quiet and out there was quiet, the silence was just deafening. And we were like, what was making this noise? Where was it?

It's hard to explain, but you can tell like where a sound is coming from. And it wasn't coming from behind the other side of the train. It wasn't coming from under the train. It was coming from on that car. And I was so close to it that I could tell like it's coming from right next to me. The moment I turned my head around the corner, completely silent.

I still have no idea what it was. None of us have any clue what that could have been. We got our tails over to our car as quickly as we could, got in and we made it through the night and got off and really just decided to quit train hopping for good. Our parents had been pushing that on us for quite a while, but this was kind of the final straw of just something so strange and weird.

I know that this story might not sound completely believable. I do have videos from that night of us getting on the train, being on that car. So I can send those over along with this, just a little bit of everything.

I guess we didn't video that noise because we didn't even think terribly much of it and didn't even think to video. So sorry about that. But I hope maybe somebody else has heard this sort of thing or I don't really know if you have an idea what it could be because we certainly don't. We've been thinking about it for quite a while. If I'd call in and listening for about a month now, really enjoying it. So thanks for the podcast and hope you can use this. Have a good one. I still want to know what was on that train car.

The timing of the sound stopping is nothing short of eerie, whatever it was. And I'd received some comments when this story first aired, and one person with trained experience suggested that it might have been some sort of braking system that was jammed or stuck. That's all well and good, but why did it stop exactly when Aiden poked his head around the corner? Like I said, the timing is just too good. Either way, we love the story.

So thank you again, Aiden, for sharing. Someone that's got a little bit of skins on the wall that knows... Looks like I do have to. Thanks, Jamie. Reporting beneficial ownership information. More importantly, the worry works out of your financial future...

Well folks, I have one more story for you tonight. But this is far from the end of the best of New Year's festivities. I'll be back on Thursday with the second half of this special collection. A couple dozen more stories to share with you. A monster-filled episode that you do not want to miss. But first, to wrap this installment up, a call that received all sorts of chatter after it aired on Season 17, Episode 2.

The Government Worker Special Part 2 Welcome back to the program, Mr. Officer. Hello. This incident occurred in July of 2019. My background is in law enforcement. I am a 15-year intermediate SWAT officer and lone wolf operator in the state of Idaho. Now, this day was my day off. However, I just finished a block of training in weapons qualification for SWAT.

and I picked up an overtime shift over the night shift. Covering down is the on-duty supervisor. So I just checked into services about 8 o'clock, and looking over the calls for the day on the CAD in my patrol vehicle,

to see if anything needed to be followed up with or what my officers in my quadrant of the city that night are doing when dispatch messaged me and requested that I respond to one of the officers at a suspicious circumstance case. For us in the system that we use that classifies our cases, anything kind of odd, unexplainable,

or out of the ordinary is classified as a suspicious circumstance until we can determine otherwise. The officer at that call is a fellow SWAT officer of mine that I've known for several years. I'm going to refer to him as Six, as that is the last digit in his badge number. Six requested I respond to him to assist him.

So I quickly looked up the call notes and saw that there is a son at his mother's home. He could hear noise coming from the basement. Also had these power of attorney over the home and his mom and wants officers to go in the basement and take a look at it.

Now, that time of night with the distance that he was away and with nighttime traffic, it took me about 15-20 minutes to get to him because it was the outskirts of the city at an old farm home. And when I pulled up, I observed it was an old yellow stucco farm home with a rock foundation. You could even see the old knob and tube wiring coming off the home.

As I pulled in the driveway, I noticed 6 was at the end of the driveway talking to an adult male. And there was an elderly female on a porch on an old bench. I'm not looking super pleased that the police were there, but truthfully, most days people aren't pleased when the police are at their home. So I updated dispatch that I was on scene. I took my patrol vehicle and made my way over 6 and this individual and asked what had been going on.

And the son explained to me that he'd come over to his mom's house to visit. And while they were talking, he heard some noises coming from the basement, some kind of bumping, like maybe something getting knocked over. And he didn't think anything of it at first. It's an older home and maybe there's some kind of an animal down there. So he just kind of shrugged it off. But as it happened more frequently and then started to hear voices coming from the basement, he became concerned and asked his mom if anyone was down there.

and she gave him an answer that he didn't like. He kept saying she would just say it was the others and she wouldn't give him a straight answer. And he pulled out of his back pocket his paperwork saying he's the power of attorney.

I quickly looked over the paperwork and it all seemed to be in order. And as I was doing that, his mom started to get up and walk over toward us. And he asked that we search the home to make sure that no one was squatting down there taking advantage of his mother. And also told us that the basement isn't habitable. It's an old dirt floor with no power down there. And when he wanted to go downstairs and take a look, his mother became very agitated with him.

It was around that point that his mom had got to me and walked over and asked if I was the supervisor. And I told her I was and gave her my name. And she grabbed my hand and looked at it and held it and just said, you're a nice boy. Both of you are nice boys and I don't want you to go in the basement. And I asked why and she got kind of irritated and rolled her eyes and huffed a little bit. And I told her I understand.

I understand that she's told her son, that she's told my officer, now I'm asking her to tell me too. But we were called there and we're only trying to help to the best of our abilities. So she explained that it's the others. And when I said, "What do you mean by others?" She got irritated again and said, "Well, they're the others. They were here before me. They'll be here after me. They won't want you there. And it will cause problems if you go downstairs."

And I kind of looked over at Six, who had this look on his face. And I've learned to trust Six and his gut feelings and premonitions that he gets. He and I have served as SWAT officers together for years. I've been his commanding officer. It's been his gut feelings that have gotten us both out of some bad incidences alive.

He always says it's because he's in tune with his surroundings and his heritage of being Native American that he credits these gut feelings or promptings. And I politely explained to the older woman that her son does have power of attorney and he's asked us to be there and to clear the property.

And she threw her hands up and said, I know, I know. I understand he's in charge. And then I thanked her for her understanding. And I asked the folks if they'd stand off to the side while I had a moment to visit with six. Because again, I could see that he was feeling something. And so when they're away out of your shot, I asked him, I said, what is going on? And he just said, sir, there is a fog. There is a mist of blackness surrounding this property.

And there is something in that home. And so I acknowledged his statement, let the folks know we were going to be heading into the home and update a dispatch that would be in the home and made our way there. We opened the front door and as he walked in, it kind of led us into a

kitchen greeting area. Past that was a double swinging door into a living room, but we were taking a left through the kitchen and over to where the garage was. So we get over the hallway where the garage was and have our weapons at a low ready because as we're in the home, we can hear voices which sound angry coming from the basement.

And, uh, so six opens the door. I stand off to the side on the side that it opens from. So I can take an advantage of seeing through the door first. It opens and, you know, just like any old basement, uh, opens, you can feel the cold air coming, uh, kind of the damp mist or odor coming from it. And I started to make my way toward the doorway, activated my, uh, light on my weapon. And, uh,

And as soon as I crossed through the threshold of that doorway down the stairs, it felt like every bit of exposed skin on my hands, neck and face were under attack by pins and needles. And it wasn't unbearable. It was absolutely uncomfortable. And I made my way down the steps and the steps were very narrow, very, very steep, very similar to like a boat.

where the ladder or steps going from different floors you have to turn around and go down backwards because they're so steep. And many ways when I get to the bottom I see off to my left are some old boilers and again there's no light so it's just the light that we brought with us and old boilers off to the left where the home was converted over the years from wood to oil and then later on whatever kind of heat.

And then to our right is steps going up to a bulkhead out of the basement. But in between those is a very small doorway. I call six down to me and he comes down. And as he breaks through the doorway, he says, do you feel that? I told him I do. I do and I don't like it. And so he came down.

went down past me and around and then moved off to the left and then I moved off to the right. And we're standing at roughly 45 degree angles from those doorways so we can cross cover each other through that doorway.

and don't hear anything at this point. I give him the nod and I go first. I compress my weapon into me, step through at a 45 degree angle and he does opposite of me because like I said, we're cross covering into a small rectangular room. And if you split that room down the center saying 12 is at the top, six is at the bottom, six is in the number, not six is my backup officer.

I cover the 6 up to 12 area, and then Officer 6, if you will, covers from the 12 down to the 6 area. Now, we both notice that there's a few little wooden trinkets here and there, cardboard boxes, but nothing stacked, nothing where a human being could hide. But at the 12 o'clock of the room is a small wooden box.

rocking horse a white rocking horse with the paint has been faded and chipped over the years i remember the tail and mane were just a dingy white from being used over the years and i remember seeing that rocking horse and just becoming fixated on it and not knowing why and just kind of this feeling of uh kind of a heavy feeling coming over it's almost a

a depressive or depressing feeling or hopeless feeling coming over us. And then a few moments later, my radio went off with my dispatcher.

doing what's called a security check on us, wanting to make sure they were safe. And I kind of shook it off and thought, well, that's weird. We've been in the home for under a couple minutes. They're aware of what we're doing, and it's not ordinary for them to security check us in these incidents so that we can keep our total attention on clearing a structure and what's potentially around us.

And so I responded back with my badge number that both units are code four and looked over at six and shined a little splash over light on him. And he seemed kind of dazed, kind of wide eyed. And I shook him and kind of brought him back to reality, if you will. And he looked at me and he asked if I was okay. And I said, I am. And he said he was okay. And we started to work our way out together.

back out of that room and up the stairs and out of the home. And as we got further away from that room, that hopelessness, that depressing feeling, that heaviness that was on us got better. It minimized as we moved away. And so up in the kitchen, we took a moment to kind of gather ourselves and thought, that's really odd. When we're done with this, we're going to visit on what happened. And then exited the home and

where we met again with the son and the elderly female that lives there. And she had this very smirk look on her face and she recognized maybe the looks on our face. And she said, didn't feel good, did it? You should have listened, shouldn't you? And I just smiled, acknowledged her statement respectfully and looked at the son and explained that we didn't find anyone, that there's no one down there.

And he thanked us for our time and we moved on, notified dispatch that we're clear and headed back to our vehicles. And the old lady just continued to smirk at us as we walked away. Now, when I got to my patrol vehicle, my CAD, my dispatcher sent me a message and said, what took you so long? And I had no clue what she meant. Six was standing right next to me and I wrote back, what are you talking about? We're in the home for a few minutes.

And she said, I security checked you at 10 minutes. You were in the house for 10 minutes before I checked on you. And I looked at Six, and he looked at me. That's not possible. We weren't in the home that long. We were only in there for a few minutes. And we have a lot of years of clearing buildings together, and we moved quite quickly as we did it. So we looked down at my watch, and I realized, well, a significant amount of time had actually gone.

So we went back to the office and took our watch guard body cameras off, popped them on the dog. And a few minutes later, they both uploaded and we looked at them. Now, when we cleared that small room and both of us turned toward that wooden rocking horse, we both froze. We both stood there for seven minutes. We both stared at that wooden rocking horse.

Not moving, not seeing a sound. You could hear us breathing in and out, in and out, until my dispatcher security checked us and kind of brought us back to reality. Neither of us had any kind of recollection of that amount of time going by, but it is what it is. There's a lot going on in the city that night, and so we moved on to the next calls and classified as suspicious circumstance, building clear, open inside.

That's not where the incident ended though. A few months later I checked into service again on a patrol shift and I just happened to be driving through that area because I remember the incident.

And as I drove by the property, that son that we visited with before was out front. And he was pushing one of those really thin wire metal for sale signs in the front yard. So I updated dispatch that it would be out of my patrol vehicle and at a certain residence and exited and walked up to him. And I said hello and introduced myself and asked if he remembered me. And he said, absolutely, I remember you. You guys were great when you came over.

And I thanked us again for what we did that day. And I acknowledged his statement and pointed down at the for sale sign and said, you're selling the home? And he said, yes. He said about a week or so ago, he called his mom and she was up and moving around and told her that he would be over later in the afternoon to come check on her.

And when he had got there that afternoon, he couldn't find her in the home, but the door to the basement was open. And when he went down to the basement, he had found her and she had passed. And I extended my condolences to him. And he thanked me again for my time. And I parted ways. And that is where this incident ends. Thank you for your time.

Really enjoy listening to your show. Found it recently. And hope you enjoy the rest of your day. Bye. Now that one still gives me chills. So thank you again, caller, for sharing. Now outside of one other call I received this season, this particular submission got the most buzz. All sorts of chatter on social media and the comment section of Patreon. This entry really seemed to stick with people.

Well, what was the most popular call of 2024, you ask? Well, you'll have to tune in on Thursday to find out. Until then, 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. Please give us a like and follow at Instagram and Facebook.

Be sure to follow us on YouTube as well. And don't forget, if you join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions, you not only get a ton of new content, but you get access to our Discord server as well. Now, if you're bored this Saturday evening, at 11 p.m. Eastern, Monsters Among Us airs on the Unex Network. Just visit unexnetwork.com to learn more. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse. My, you...

Co.agmusic, and Carl Casey at White Bad Audio. Now, folks, due to the new year, we'll be taking this week off. Fury, Monsters Among Us, Junior Listener. But Delaney and I will be back next week with brand new material. Now, Happy New Year, keep it spooky, and I'd better see you on Thursday for part two. Until then, have yourselves a good night. ♪

Bye.