S18 Ep39: Rock throwing bigfoot, a green-skinned creature and a life saving ghost (Sn. 18 Ep. 39)
01:01:43 Share

You're so coy, alluring, angel with a wicked smile. Sleeping 20 hours a day, never lay a paw on dusty clay. I'll keep your litter natural, no chemicals in your nostrils. Just corn below, so every time you go, you'll know your shh don't stink. World's best cat litter for the world's best cat.

What you're hearing is Hardy Fiber Cement Siding living up to its reputation as the siding that handles hail impact with ease. James Hardy knows how important a reputation is, especially when you're a contractor. That's why Hardy Siding withstands severe weather better than vinyl siding, with styles to match its strength, so you can be sure you're providing your clients with the best. Protect your reputation with exterior products by James Hardy.

Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I'm your guide, Derek Hayes. Hello folks and welcome back to another spooky installment. I have all sorts of madness slated for this evening. Ghostly animals, spirits, creatures, and even Bigfoot. But here's the deal.

We're still battling radon issues here at the house. I highly suggest you test your home, especially if you live in an area known for radon poisoning. I've actually spent more time in our tiny crawlspace this week than I did working on this week's shows. And we have seven inches of rain coming over the next 30 hours or so. So I've been outside all morning securing things and getting ready for that storm. So in short, I flat out ran out of time this week.

So full disclosure, tonight's calls are downright awesome, but my commentary might not be. But I doubt most of you came here to hear my rambling anyway. You're here for the calls, and those I have in spades. So I'm not going to waste any more time in getting started. So from the great state of California, please welcome Brian to the program.

Hi Derek, this is Brian from San Diego. I'm a big fan of your show. I heard about you through the BCC boys, Bryce Johnson and Michael McMillan, and your work with the Borrego Triangle. It was awesome. So I got a quick ghost story for you. About 10 years ago, my wife and I were newly married and living below our in-laws house, kind of an apartment.

below their house, they had gone away on vacation. So the upper part of the house was locked up and we were just watching over things, doing our usual stuff. One night around 3:00 AM, of course, you know, typical high strangest hour, both of us were awoken suddenly.

by the door opening above us, which was crazy because the place is locked up. So we both look at each other and look up. We hear clear, heavy footsteps walking across the floor right above our heads.

So immediately we think, oh no, someone has broken into the house. What do we do? I tell my wife, you know, get your phone. I'm going to go see what's going on. You know, we're both very scared. I grab a baseball bat or something. I don't know what I think I was going to do with it, but I was scared.

I grab a bat. I go up around the stairs to the front door, see what's going on. Front door is wide open. No sign of broken locks, forced entry, nothing like that. I go into the house. I yell, who's there? Try to scare them. I think I even yelled, oh, I've got a gun, just to scare them.

I look around and nobody's in the house. There's no side door. There's no back door. There's no open windows. There's no explanation of how they could have got out. I look around. Nothing's gone. Nothing's broken. I'm shocked. It's incredible. There's no way this person could have opened the door without breaking the deadbolt,

without some kind of evidence of forced entry. I look around again, I'm shaking. I've always been into paranormal stuff. I've always been a believer.

My wife, on the other hand, couldn't care less, would never give it a second thought. But after that day, I told her I went down, told her what happened. There's no one there. The lock's not broken. We clearly both heard heavy footsteps walking in the ceiling above, which would be across their entryway. Someone or something went into the house and disappeared.

There is a little history on that house. There is something strange that had happened before. I had multiple experiences in the home while dating my wife because it was my in-laws place. Disembodied voices, feeling of getting watched, tops of stairs. It looks like a little girl is looking down on you when nobody's up there. Weird noises.

Funny enough, moving out of that place and buying our own first home, which happens to be about five houses down around the corner. Years and years later, I couldn't help myself. And I happened to be walking by and I had asked a new owner, you know,

kind of weird to just bring up something like that out of nowhere. But I had talked to the guy before and I said, hey, you know, I happen to have lived here, you know, a number of years ago and I heard some strange things, saw some strange things and I'm just wondering, you know, if you guys have experienced anything weird or out of place in the house. And

The guy stared at me for like 10 seconds and said, yeah, as a matter of fact, we hear knocks, we hear footsteps, we hear things a lot. And I'm surprised that you brought it up. Well, you know, I was living in your basement apartment for a number of years and I had recounted my story to him.

And he just was shocked because he said, absolutely, we see and hear strange things in this place a lot. It's just crazy. I would love to hear more about what he hears and experiences, but I didn't want to pry into

Anyway, that's my story. Haunted burglar, whatever you want to call it. I'm really enjoying your podcast and currently going back through the back catalog. And I love it. I love hearing all the other stories that make me think I'm not crazy. So have a good one. Thank you so much for listening to my story. Thanks, Brian.

You know, I couldn't help but wonder if you've heard those ghostly footsteps dozens of times and just assumed it was your in-laws causing the disturbance. Something you didn't even realize until they finally went out of town. Now, regardless of what took place there, we thank you again, Brian, for taking the time to share those experiences here with us. Now, folks, it's already time to take a quick break, but I'll be right back with more spooky stories right after these messages.

In other words, I think they'd have to take a seat. I'm feeling better about how you're doing it, too. Here's the number. It's 855-5100.

Are you putting more focus on your nutrition this year? Well, I've been trying to clean up my eating and Vactor has chef-made gourmet meals that make eating well so much easier. They're dietitian approved and ready to heat and eat in two minutes. So you can fuel your body right without spending hours in the kitchen. Vactor arrives fresh and fully prepared, which is extremely helpful when life gets really busy.

They have 40 options across 8 dietary preferences on the menu each week. So I'm never bored and I'm eating healthier with options like Calorie Smart, Protein Plus and Keto Meals. Plus I'm avoiding expensive and unhealthy takeout. They have delicious options for breakfast, lunch, snacks and more. I really like their cold-pressed juices myself. My favorite is the Apple Beet Ginger.

Some of the factor meals I've really enjoyed lately are loaded mashed potato pork chops and cheesy garden herb chicken. Both are part of the Protein Plus menu. Reach your goals this year with ingredients you can trust and convenience that can't be beat.

Eat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com forward slash MAU50OFF and use code MAU50OFF to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. That's code MAU50OFF at factormeals.com forward slash MAU50OFF.

to get 50% off your first box, plus free shipping on your first box. Now our next entry takes us up to Wisconsin. Heather, welcome to the program.

Hi, Derek. This is Heather from Wisconsin. I've been wanting to write in for a while, but I haven't. But then I heard a story that sounded somewhat similar to my daughter's. Before she was born, we started doing house renovations, and we pulled up the carpet, we painted, we changed some things, we put in wood floors just to get ready for her arrival. And we had her whole room ready. And there was one day where I was walking past her room, and I heard...

a toy in her room that you had to manually turn. The door was shut, I couldn't see in, but I could hear it. And you could hear this little like tinkling sound from this toy being turned. I didn't open the door, I just kept moving. And like maybe I just was hearing things. But then once my daughter arrived, she was about a year and a half, maybe two, when this started again. So she would tell me that she could hear someone laughing. So I thought it was the neighbors because our houses were kind of close together.

And it kind of progressed more where she would get really scared. She could talk pretty well, so she was telling me that she could hear a "haha" in her room, is what she called it. And I'm like, "Well, it's probably the neighbors. You're just hearing things. Just try to go back to sleep." So I'd sit with her, she'd fall asleep, and she'd come back in saying the "haha" was in her room again.

And she described it as having green skin, dark hair, and a long nose. And it would either be in her closet or outside of her window that she would actually see this thing.

So it just continued that the ha-ha was there, and in the end, I just let her stay in my room to sleep. And it stayed that way for two years until we moved out, that she never went back in there after that because she just couldn't handle hearing the ha-ha, and I probably wouldn't either. So thank you very much. I've enjoyed your podcast, and I loved hearing all the stories. Thanks. Bye. Thank you, Heather. Ooh, I'll tell you what.

This creature might sound like something no one has ever heard of before, but that might not be the case. Because have you ever heard of West Virginia's Veggie Man? In 1968, Jennings Frederick was hiking in the woods near Fairmont, West Virginia. After some time, he started to hear this strange jabbering, just like the RPMs of a record player were going way too fast. Jennings decided to follow the noise, and that's when he came face to face with something unearthly. It was the West Virginia Veggie Man.

He described it as this seven foot tall, sickly thin humanoid creature that appeared to be plant-based with green skin, large leafy ears, and eyes that changed from yellow to red. And perhaps more concerning was its three fingertips that were more like suction cups with these thorny bars sticking out of them. This being then communicated with Jennings, saying, "You need not fear me. I wish to communicate. I come as a friend. We know of you all.

"Peace. I wish medical assistance. I need your help." Just then, the Veggie Man lunged at Jennings and pierced his skin with one of his finger thorns and began to drain fluids from him. All the while, Jennings was locked in the hypnotic gaze of this creature's eyes. And before he knew it, the Veggie Man ran off up a nearby hill. He then heard this deep humming noise and figured that this creature must have been an alien and that the sound was probably his UFO taking off.

Another clip comes to us from friend of the show, Strangeology, found all over social media. And if you're into this kind of thing, and of course you are, and you frequent social media, which you probably do, you need to be following Strangeology. Trust me on this one. And trust me when I say it sounds like what Heather's daughter described might have been one of these strange veggie men. The description certainly sounds familiar.

And the similarities get even stronger when you look at the original drawing from the witness, Jennings Frederick. Because the video doesn't mention it, but a few of the original Vegeman sketches depict the creature with a long nose and dark black hair, very similar to what Heather's daughter described. Now, Delaney managed to dig up a few of those drawings, and you can see them in tonight's show notes at MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com.

Now I have no idea why one of these veggie men would be in a little girl's closet. Stranger things have happened. Regardless of what it was, we can't thank you enough, Heather, for telling us all about it. And folks, if you have a story you would like to tell us about, give my hotline a call at 888-608-NIGHT.

That's 888-608-NIGHT. Or you can record your story as a voice memo on your cell phone and email it to me at MonstersAmongUsPodcast at gmail.com. Now next up is a bit of a touching tale about a dog named Blue. Please welcome Kelsey from the state of Virginia.

Hi, Derek. This is Kelsey from Virginia. I just have a little story about a dog of ours that had passed away. So we got this dog. He was a blue tick, goon hound, not from the pound.

We named him Blue. We had him for about three years before he was diagnosed with a tumor, an ear cancer. And the treatment surgery for this type of cancer was pretty brutal, and it would really, you know, take away his quality of life pretty much completely. So my husband and I decided that we were going to just let him

feel good, why he felt good and, you know, make the best out of whatever time he had remaining. So we did just that and when he started getting bad, he got bad pretty quickly and we ended up having to get him put down, which was absolutely awful. I never wish that on anybody ever.

But at this time, we had a six-month-old. Our daughter was six months old at this time. So I highly doubt she remembers Blue at all. So about, I would say, a month or so after Blue.

he passed away. I was up getting ready for work and I had walked downstairs, I was the only one awake, and I had passed our spare room which my husband used as his man cave and that's where Blue pretty much hung out all the time on the couch on the other side of the room from the door.

And if you don't know much about blue ticks, they have a very strong scent and odor about them. And I remember that morning I was walking at the bottom of the stairs and I went to walk past the room to go to the kitchen and his smell just smacked me in the face so hard. Like he had just walked right in front of me. And it was such a strong smell.

Since and since that he was there, I actually immediately turned on my heels into the extra room and went over to the couch, actually like held my hand up, thinking that I was going to feel him laying there. It was such a strong sense of him being there. And then about, I would say,

My daughter was six months when he passed. I would say this is probably about she was nine or ten months and she was starting to say a few words. And one of the first words she said was dog. So me and her were going, I was carrying her to go upstairs, I guess to take a nap or something. And we were going past the spare room and we were walking by it and...

As we were walking by, she immediately stuck her hand out and was pointing to the couch and said, Doc, Doc, like adamantly, Doc.

going right to where he always laid, where I felt like he was, you know, months prior, going to that couch and saying, dog, just adamant. Like I said, I highly doubt she remembers him or even remembers that he used to lay there, but she was adamant that he was there. And I just thought that was kind of neat, him, you know, coming to visit, coming to say hi. But,

But yeah, that's my story. I hope you enjoy it, and I love the show. Thanks. Thank you, Kelsey, for that heartwarming story. We need more of these in our lives these days. And as someone that's lost several cats that I was extremely close with for the past few years, I hope your story is a precursor to an experience that I'll get to have later on down the line, because I sure do miss them. But either way, we thank you again for the touching tale.

And I hope for your sake and for all the pet parents out there that it was Blue that comes back every once in a while just to say hello. What you're hearing is hardy fiber cement siding living up to its reputation as the siding that handles hail impact with ease.

James Hardie knows how important a reputation is, especially when you're a contractor. That's why Hardie's siding withstands severe weather better than vinyl siding, with styles to match its strength, so you can be sure you're providing your clients with the best. Protect your reputation with exterior products by James Hardie. Alright, so this next entry just might be a cautionary tale.

When someone tells you what they want done with their body after they pass, you better listen to them. Zach from Ohio. Welcome to tonight's program. Hey Derek, this is Zach Miller and I'm from Deerfield, Ohio. I have a story involving a paranormal activity, if you want to call it that.

So this happened about, I'd say like two weeks ago from me calling you now. And my grandma had just recently passed away. So what all happened was my mom was going to originally get her buried. And my grandma has always been very, very claustrophobic. So fast forward, she ended up calling the funeral home later that day saying she wanted to get her buried. And later that night,

She ended up waking up in the middle of the night and everybody was sleeping. And then she went in the kitchen, all the cabinet doors wide open. And then what really got spooky is when she told me that,

She goes back to bed, and 15 minutes later, she comes back out and hears the TV on full volume playing one of their favorite shows. And she told me this, and I'm like, really? Holy crap. And me, I live in my own house. So the next day, I get home from work around 4 o'clock. My fiancee was not home at that time. She was still working. And I'm taking a shower, and I have a small dog, but he was sleeping as sound as could be.

No windows were open in the house and the doors weren't open. Nothing was open. No breeze. No, nothing was going through that house. And we have a dividing wall between our living room and our kitchen. And between that wall, there's a door. So when I had that door shut and I was taking a shower and I'm not kidding you about five minutes into my shower, this door slammed is so hard. It shook the wall.

And I'm like, what the heck? And I called my mom directly after that. And she's like, oh, my Lord. And then she had this weird feeling that it was my grandma. I didn't have no weird vibes or nothing about it. It was just it startled me because you're by yourself at home. No one's home. And then a door just slams out of nowhere. You kind of are like, whoa, is somebody here?

But I told her and she called the funeral home immediately right after that. And then she said, I don't want my mom buried. And I'm not kidding you. Right after that, everything stopped. I think that she was trying to say that she doesn't want to be buried in that way. So, yep, that's my story. And I love everything you do. I love the podcast. And I hope I could hear my story on your podcast here soon. Love the show, Derek. Keep it up. All right. Bye.

Thank you, Zach. You know, I don't blame your grandmother. Though I'd prefer to be buried myself. You know, just in case they find some way to bring you back in the future. There might still be some usable dust down there in that box. It's a long shot, but better safe than sorry. But cremated or buried, both seem to be better than what happened to a man in Redding, Pennsylvania, who died some 130 years ago.

He's just now finding the resting place that he deserved. Of course, I'm speaking of Stoneman Willie. And here's his story. Courtesy of WPVI, ABC News, out of Philadelphia.

Here at Almonds Funeral Home lies the body of the man known since 1895 as Stoneman Willie. All week long, the funeral home has been holding special visitation hours. Last weekend, Willie's body was driven around Reading in a hearse.

during the town's annual parade. So why so much attention for a man dead for 128 years? Well, Willie is considered a legend, even a longtime tourist attraction. Researchers know that in 1895, he was arrested for pickpocketing, gave a false name and later died in jail. He was then embalmed with untested techniques that

Weirdly worked. Stoneman Willie has been pretty perfectly preserved ever since. About 10 years ago, the funeral home started really researching Willie's past and decided it's

And get this on Saturday will finally learn the mummified man's true identity. Following a police escort to the cemetery, his tombstone will be unveiled to reveal his real name. It's something reading historians spent years researching and are confident enough now to engrave it on his grave site. And his name you might be wondering.

Well, they determined that his name was James Murphy. And you can visit his grave there in Reading, should you be so inclined. But I guess Willie, or James rather, is cool with the way he was treated. Because unlike Zach's grandmother, he never came back to share his concerns. Thank you again, Zach, for sharing that entry.

Now folks, this will likely be your last reminder that everything in our merch shop is 20% off. The sale will be ending very soon. So visit MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the shop tab to take full advantage of the savings today. And don't forget you're helping the show out as well. Okay, our next entry takes us back to Wisconsin and comes to us from our second Brian of the evening. That's my bad.

But don't let that take away from this intriguing experience with some sort of UFO. Brian, welcome to the program. Hey, this is Brian from Stevens Point. My story takes place in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.

And the year was, I believe, 96 or 97, and I was like 9, 10 years old at the time. It was summer, and it was clear as it can be, blue skies, and the time was, I guess, around like a little after dinnertime, so it was pretty light out, but yeah, the sun was setting.

and was going upstairs and I was going to use the bathroom. I let my dad know and I was staying with dad at the time and I was like, "Hey, I'm going to use the bathroom and be back down because we're playing some board games." And on the top of the stairs there's a window that you can look out of and when I looked out this window I guess I was able to see trees and some houses

And when I looked up in the sky, I saw a big, bright, shiny object. I mean, it was bright. I mean, it was like an LED bright. And at this time, I didn't know there's any type of LED lighting for being that bright, especially that time period.

So I was looking at this object, it was slowly moving across the sky. It was kind of like going towards me, but yet not at the same time. And it stopped. It literally stopped in the sky. And it was a DC-sized object. It was like an oval, circular shape, I'm guessing. I'm saying I'm guessing because it's been such a long time. And when I think about it, when I'm trying to jog my memory on this,

I see like a circular and oval object in the sky. And it's just sat there. And I was like, what the, what is that? And I just kept on looking at it.

And I don't know how much time has passed, but it felt like hours by just looking at that object. I didn't know who I was, because I was never introduced to, like, aliens or UFOs at that point in time in life. The only thing I knew was, like, zombies and stuff.

you know but at that point in time i didn't really know much of ufos so it just outside just took off like a speed of light just frickin took off and now it's the direction i was just standing there like what was that so i've done my business and went downstairs my dad looked at me and said hey brian you okay i'm like yeah i just uh

I just saw something. He's like, "What did you see?" And I explained to him what I saw and he's like, "Man, I think you saw a UFO." I'm like, "UFO? What's a UFO?" And he explained to me what a UFO was. And I'm like, "Oh man, really?" And he's like, "Yeah, you saw a UFO."

I thought it was pretty cool. It was my first encounter of a UFO. Anyway, keep up the good work. I appreciate you taking calls and have people explain to their stories what experiences they have. It's wonderful, dude. So keep up the good work. Thanks. Have a nice night. Thanks, Brian. Could you imagine the first time you hear about the concept of a UFO is because you actually saw one? Talk about being lucky.

And as I prepared for this call, I tried my best to recall where I first heard of the term UFO. And like Brian's first time, I think mine too might have been a personal experience. Not mine, but my mom's and the rest of her family growing up.

The details are scant on this one, but apparently, while my grandfather was the chief of police in our tiny village, he got a call reporting some strange flying object hovering outside of town. Now he was off duty when the call came in, so he loaded the whole family into the car and went out to look at it. And according to my mother, the craft chased them all the way back to their house in the middle of town, sending the car full of two adults and four children.

into a downright panic. So I think the first time hearing the term UFO was when my mom told me this story. I vaguely remember her telling me what UFO stood for. And my grandfather actually passed away just a few weeks ago. And thinking back, I should have asked him about that experience when he was still with us. I completely missed that opportunity. So maybe that should be a lesson to a lot of you listening out there. But either way, it sounds like you took full advantage of your opportunity, Brian.

and it sounds like the experience still sticks with you to this day and thank you again for taking the time to share with us and that's where you know they went to the change up the curveball they have it's it's your guillotine guy and more and more these days especially people are realizing all right for this next one we head to the state up north please welcome paul to the program

Hey Derek, this is Paul calling back from Michigan. I wanted to share this story because I was just going back and re-listening to some old stories and I heard one from, I believe it was in a Beyond episode, and it was a gentleman in Las Vegas and he had felt compelled not to walk in a certain area on the street and then a car accident had happened right after that, that I believe he witnessed. And

That literally sparked a memory in me, and I thought I would call in with this story. And maybe there's a simple answer for it, or it's all in my head. But the story goes, it was a Friday night, and the subdivision where I was living didn't really have sidewalks where I could run. And the area just wasn't really...

set up for running and I used to like to go run at night and especially on Friday nights when the kids were young and so put the kids to bed and I had mapped out this area at a nearby school parking lot where I could go and run a 5k so I had kind of GPS out this loop inside this parking lot that was exactly a 5k and

And it was a really hot August night. And it was probably about 1130 at night. Kids were finally asleep. And I told my wife, I'm going to go up and go running. And she's like, okay, have fun. And she knew where I ran because I had told her about it. And it was really interesting because this school was kind of set in the middle of a greenbelt area. So you go up a long driveway and then you turn the corner. And as soon as you turn that corner, it was bam, there was this traffic.

decent sized parking lot and a middle school but it was completely surrounded by woods like old growth oak and elm and maple just these huge towering trees so and I had like I said mapped this out I'd run this before I'd like to do it at night it was the summer so I knew you know on a Friday night I would be

all alone and could just run and I put podcast on at the time Monsters Among Us didn't exist so at that time it was Mysterious Universe and I was listening to that week's episode and I just started running my loop that I had mapped out and it was just hot and muggy but nice like

abnormally peaceful. And the episode of Mysterious Universe that I was listening to that week's episode was about sentient plants and do, you know, do plants have some kind of sentience? So I didn't think anything of it, but I was just really in the zone listening to the episode. And the first mile went by really easy and steps just felt really light that night. And I remember as I was running, listening to the episode, looking up at the trees, thinking like,

man, do these super old trees that are way older than me, do they recognize that I'm here running right now and sharing this area with them? And long story short, I kept running and running. And all of a sudden, I just came around one of the bends in the parking lot around the curve. And I felt like something was shoving me from behind.

not hard shove, like trying to push me down, but something started to, like, almost like on my whole back, turn me to start running back towards the middle of the parking lot where I had parked my car. And,

And I thought it was almost like there was something that was taking control of my movements. And I was like, this is weird. Like what's going on? It just, I couldn't understand what was happening because the run was going so well and I was in the zone and it was just like this perfect atmosphere. And then next thing you knew, it was like this force just kept pushing me from behind all the way to the car. And I just didn't even know what was going on. This is so, I just was,

I'm still, when I think about it to this day, it was so weird. So I'm like, I didn't understand what was going on. And it was almost like robotic. Like I opened the car, I got in the car, I started it up. Okay, I guess I'll just head home. And I didn't, it was still so confusing. I didn't know what was going on.

And right as I was pulling out of the parking lot, I told you there was a long driveway. And when you came around that last bend, it was just boom, there was the parking lot right there. So I'm coming up to that bend to get back on the driveway out of this school. And right as I'm coming up to that curve, a car full of teenagers, this little white car, comes squealing like tires squealing into the parking lot, just absolutely flying in there.

and goes blowing by me and like the windows are down and you can hear music and they're screaming and I mean I slammed on the brakes and I thought whoa that was a close one you know like I said I slammed on my brakes and so I'm pulling out of

the parking lot that was going down that long driveway and literally like right as I'm going down that driveway I begin to think like holy cow if I had been running right there when that car came flying around the corner like I would have been smushed like it would not I would have never had time to get out of the way they didn't have their headlights on you know and the parking lot was not that well lit and I didn't plan on anybody being there so I didn't have like you know any kind of

reflective gear on. And literally I was like, man, that's crazy. I could have very well been set in the literally like hitting like a ton of bricks. I was like, Oh my God, I wonder if like something new that was going to happen. And I know that sounds crazy. And so maybe somebody has explanation, but literally something pushed me to my car and I,

I left and I would have still been running. That car came flying into the parking lot. And I don't know if something potentially, if I would have been hit, if something else would have happened, but it was just such a weird thing. And I was so overwhelmed. And then as I, as I drove home, you know, the handful of miles back to the house, it was like that. I kind of almost returned to normal, came out of the zone, that feeling kind of drifted away. And then it was back to normal. And like I said, I've, I've always had that experience and,

Still to this day, I have no explanation for it. But I just thought I would share that with you. Again, just another unexplained phenomenon. So really interesting. Derek, as always, you're the best. The podcast is the best. Listen to it with the boys every week. Don't know what we'd do without the show. So thanks a lot, Derek, for everything. You and the whole team. Bye. It certainly seems like you owe someone or something big time.

And you know when I hear stories like this I often wonder about the person that it happened to and what their role is here on the planet. I get Terminator vibes from all of this. Somehow destiny has changed to allow the survivor to go on to do great things. Otherwise, why them? What makes people like Paul special enough to get this little assist? Maybe it was just the right time at the right place.

Maybe he just got very lucky. Either way, whatever the cause, we're glad you're still with us and in one piece, Paul. And we're awfully glad that you shared your story here with us. So thanks again for calling in. And folks, that brings us to tonight's final installment. Unless you're a fan of the secret entry, of course. So Josh from Pennsylvania, go on ahead with your story.

Hi, this is Josh, I guess from Pennsylvania now. My story started back in 2009. You kind of need a little bit of a lead up to even get why I was out there. It was my second year at the University of Maine, and I was on academic probation, so I was killing it. I had just kind of assumed that things would work their way out, and I was still a kid, so I didn't really get that I'd have to put the work in to get the grades up. So

So naturally, when summer break came around, my grades came in and things had indeed not worked out.

That summer was pretty rough. I had a girlfriend who was really great. I had a home life that was pretty not great. So I spent a lot of time down in York, Maine with her rather than Sanford where my justifiably upset family was. So I spent the whole summer working at America's second favorite burger place and then immediately driving down to her house and just kind of living out of my van until it was time for my next shift.

Sent a lot of emails that summer. Turned out UMaine would let me enroll in classes even though I technically failed out, but wouldn't be eligible for financial aid, housing, or a meal plan until the next semester when my suspension ended.

So I was 20. I figured I'd buy a parking pass. I'd live in the commuter lot, work the Orono location of that burger place for food and fun, and then just take out personal loans for tuition. So like that was the plan. I loaded up my van, drove to Orono and started the semester.

As one would expect, this did not work out. Not only did I not secure the loans, I couldn't even land a fast food job. So I ended up kind of haunting the parking lots for a week before I accepted that there was no chance I was going to make that work. So...

I was in a pretty bad predicament. I couldn't go back down south. I had already called my family for advice and the consensus was, "Don't come home." So as I was about to beg them to reconsider, they shut my phone off. So south was out. Couldn't really stay in central Maine because I was technically not a student.

and I knew I would eventually just rack up parking tickets until I got into some real trouble. So North ended up being my option. Didn't have much of a plan there, kind of the theme of that part of my life. So I said goodbye to everyone, just got in my van, went north, drove for a while, I was

I was vaguely aware of Holton, Maine from my high school girlfriend, so I kind of followed the signs for that and just kept going. I just drove, taking turns kind of wherever until I ended up this like abandoned logging road and then I just kind of went down as far as my van could safely go.

Like, my goal was to just park there and like cry it out. Figured that eventually someone would come yell at me and then I'd say sorry and I'd leave. But that did not happen. By the third day, I kind of drank all my soda and started looking around. There was a creek, there was water. It actually didn't taste bad. It was better than the river water back at home.

I figured I'd just brainstorm until someone kicked me out, and then I'd go. I kinda had everything I needed, all my stuff was there. I mean, sure, my iPod and my laptop weren't super useful, but the blankets and the guitar were. So I was basically just camping.

I'd run the van for a little bit every few days to make sure the battery didn't die. And, like, I'd been really into hatchet as a kid, so I'd built a few bows in the past. So, yeah, so I did. Like, I know it was illegal, but, like...

didn't really know what else to do, and turkeys were pretty much just asking to be eaten. So, like, life actually wasn't too bad. I'd make sure I had food, I'd fill my water jugs, and then at night I'd hang out in the back of the van, play guitar by a fire, and I didn't see anybody all fall. It was actually exactly what I needed. I'd gotten way too obsessed with, like, what people thought about me and who was disappointed and all that. It's

This happened a few nights after the first frost. It was getting colder for sure. I was starting to think that I'd have to wander back to civilization sooner or later. And like, running away into the woods for a while is one thing, but Maine has some beautiful, brutal winters. And they can get down to about negative 40. And I've seen that a few times, and I wasn't going to deal with that for the sake of my pride.

I'd broken a guitar string earlier that night, so I was really just sitting by the fire wondering what I was going to say to the people when I got back when a rock flew in.

It was about the size of a crab apple. And it hit the fire with a pretty loud crack, lots of sparks. And I, like, jumped right up. I grabbed my Bowie knife, and I'm, like, just searching the night. I got my knife in my hand. I'm looking for anything and everything. And I have no idea what the hell threw a rock at me.

And at this point it was still a who and I'm not seeing him. Just I'm starting to doubt myself. A bigger rock rolls in behind me. This one's more like a basketball. And I turn and I don't see anything. Trying to get like really nervous. And then absentmindedly I kind of move my body so the fire's now between me and like the nebulous dark. And there it was. I saw eyeshine.

Now that I wasn't blocking the light with myself and it was high. I'm just under six feet tall. And honestly, I've always been pretty self-conscious about like not making that critical mark. So I'm always pretty aware of how tall other people are.

This thing was about 6'5" to 6'10". Huge, but not as big as that one guy on the hockey team I would always see. It was bipedal, it was dark, solid, maybe only about 50 feet away. I could see a hand and I could see these orange eyes reflecting the firelight. And I could see this grapefruit-sized rock, it was just palming like it was nothing.

I have no idea how long we were standing there staring at each other. Like, it could have been five seconds or five minutes, but neither one of us moved an inch. I wasn't bad with a blade, like I'd never been in a knife fight, but I did, like, martial arts and stuff, and I was reasonably confident I could scare off a bear. That was nothing. I was dumb for sure, but smart enough to know I didn't stand a chance against, like, a moose. But, like, this thing was not a bear or a moose.

So it was definitely closer in size to a moose. But yeah, no, man-shaped thing with a rock. And it's been chucking big rocks and it's got glowing eyes and I like it.

I was reasonably sure that I wasn't looking at a person, or if I was, it was a giant dressed as an ape and they could throw rocks like a Neanderthal sniper, so my knife wasn't going to do anything here. Not really knowing what to do, I made, like, slow, deliberate motions to sheathe my knife and toss it back into my trunk. And luckily, he, or it, decided to drop his weapon too. Then it turned away and just wandered off.

I had a pretty good idea that it hadn't actually left, but I got in my van and I got the hell out of there. I was terrified. I drove and I drove until I found a gas station and just parked there at the pump. In the morning, eventually they opened up, turned on the pumps, I filled up and I headed back down south.

I did end up having a difficult few weeks with my family, but the suspension ended, I got back into school, and I eventually graduated with my Master's in Counseling. So, things did work out. But yeah, that's my story. Uh, yeah, best of luck. Bye. Thank you, Josh. You know, of all the times and places to encounter something like this, living in a van on a deserted logging road is not ideal. Now, as far as the main Bigfoot connection goes...

It's not the first place I would go to find the big guy. I did several searches for states with the most sightings, and Maine didn't crack any of the top fives, tens, or fifteens. But that sort of makes a little bit of sense, actually. It's not a very populated state. Maine ranks 42nd in population with just over 1.3 million souls. And as I always say, one element you need in order to have a Bigfoot experience is an actual experiencer. The point being...

Bigfoot might be up there, but there are just so few people that it's rarely reported. But I will say the behavior reported by Josh falls in line with other encounters I've heard in the eastern half of the continent. Snell Grove Lake comes to mind, and I've linked to a MonsterQuest episode describing those events. But essentially it was a cabin in the woods that was frequently bombarded by rocks from the treeline. And of course there is this report.

out of Josh's current state of Pennsylvania, courtesy of Good Morning America. Police in central Pennsylvania are investigating an alleged vandal in these woods, but this is no ordinary criminal. This one's tall, hairy, walks hunched over, and goes by the name of Sasquatch. Oh, no!

That's according to John Reed, who claims he saw a Sasquatch walk past his motorhome window while camping with his girlfriend. Reed says the creature threw rocks at his mobile home's outside light to escape discovery. Reed gave chase, jumping into his truck alongside his girlfriend. The two even made special Bigfoot calls in an effort to locate the creature. And as soon as I did it, something stood up on her side of the truck.

something stood up she's seen the eyes glaring in the light of the truck stood up and went up this way into the woods reed's bigfoot encounter left his motorhome with smashed taillights and windows and while police believe it may have been vandals for john reed it was a warning from the sasquatch to get off his territory now this story instantly came to mind when i first heard josh's account

Though I will admit, I have a hard time believing this one for some reason. But the same can't be said for Josh's claims. Something about his story makes it sound very genuine to me. I can't say for sure that it was a Sasquatch, but I feel that something visited Josh that night. And I can't thank him enough for telling us all about it. Alright folks, that's it for the main section of tonight's episode. But be sure to stay tuned to hear more spooky stories.

Monsters Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes and Delaney Powers. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Be sure to give us a like and follow on our social media accounts and follow us on YouTube as well. We sure could use all the support over there that we can get our hands on.

Don't forget you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 11 p.m. Eastern on the UnX Digital Network. Just visit unxnetwork.com to learn more. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu, Apocalypse, Co.agmusic, and Carl Casey at White Bat Audio. As always, it was great hanging out with you here this evening, and it was a pleasure to have you with us. Now before I dug out a little update on next week's programming...

Sarah and I desperately need to take a week off. So next week, we will be dark on Tuesday. And Thursday's episode will be another Patreon unlock. And if you're not a Patreon subscriber, it'll be brand new to you. And if you are a Patreon subscriber, we'll be back the following week with brand new bonus content just for you. So keep that in mind when no Tuesday episode drops next week. But don't worry, I'll be back soon.

Now don't forget to stick around for more content, but for now, I'll pretend to end the show. So keep it spooky, and have yourselves a good night. Over a month period of time, admitting that they in...

You did it. You stuck around until after the credits and the outro music and the final ad and everything else. And as a reward, I have one more scary story for you. A creepy little number from Maurice out of the country of Canada. Hi Derek, this is Maurice from British Columbia, Canada. Love your podcast. I've been binge watching it for a few weeks now. Love it.

Anyway, my story, it takes place during 94, 95. It's in my hometown of Dawson Creek, British Columbia. It's in the northern part of the province. Anyway, a friend of mine, Robert, and I, we moved into a small house with two bedrooms. The layout of the house is almost a rancher style house.

but it's like in the shape of a C. You have to imagine it as like, just put your hand as a C and you come into the house and you walk through like a boot room and you see the bathroom to the left and you go to the right and you walk through the kitchen and deliver them. The

bedrooms are all upstairs and when we first moved into the house we would notice like things moving like we would put down like a spoon that we're using and then we go back to it a couple minutes later and it'd be in a different spot or not there entirely

And this happened all the time. And we're like, okay, this is kind of weird, but whatever. I'm kind of a skeptic myself. My friend Rob, he was maybe skeptical a little bit too, but he was like, you know, we got something going on here. And I was like, oh, whatever. It's just a weird old house. And we started seeing doors, like the cupboard doors left open. Like we would like go into the room and come back out and then go back in a few minutes later and there'd be a door open. We're like, okay, well, it's...

old house, probably built in 1930, 1940. And I just shrugged it off as like, it's on the level or whatever. Okay. But we were there probably, give or take about two or three months. And we were both going to bed. We both had to get up and go to school or work. I can't remember which one. I did both. And I left my water that I would usually take to bed with me. And

We all went upstairs, and I remember that I left it downstairs and went back downstairs. And every single, and I was like, whoa. And I called Robert down, and he's like, holy cow, oh my gosh. Okay, this is kind of cool. We got something here.

Anyway, a few weeks go by, and him and I are in the living room. It's later at night. We're trying to finish off this Final Fantasy III. It was on the Super Nintendo. Wonderful game.

Anyway, I went to the bathroom, but you have to go through the kitchen and, you know, past the upstairs stairway. And then I come back, and on my way back, I got myself a pop, right? Or soda. And I got that, and I have to tell you that the stove to the left, and then there's like a little small cupboard, and then there's the fridge. And I got my drink, and I went into the living room, and he says, oh, hey, um,

I wouldn't mind one of those. And I said, well, here, there you go. You have this one. We'll get another one. And I come back to get my drink. And this is a gas stove we have. All the burners are on. Every one of them on high, just blaring. And it's the gas stove where you have to turn and click and push in in order to start this gas stove.

On the top of the burners. And I was just like dumbfounded. I was like freaking out. But I was like, okay, whatever you are, whoever you are, I don't care. This is not cool. That's very dangerous. You could start a fire, burn down this house. You could kill people. Don't do that again. I just thought that out loud.

And after that, that never happened again. We were in the house for probably another, oh, I'd say about a year. And, yeah, it never happened again. It still had weird stuff, you know, things disappear, you know, the washer and dryer start on their own, stuff like that. But, yeah, nothing dangerous like that. I guess the dryer's probably not very good. But, anyway, that's my story. I hope you can use this. Oh, goodbye. Thank you, Maurice. This subject might be one of the scariest for me.

The thought of ghosts, spirits, or unseen forces lighting fires in your home terrifies me. Because how do you defend against it? What do you do to prevent it? And how do you even stop it? Maybe you attempt what Maurice did. You scold the spirit. After all, it seemed to work out just fine for him. But anytime I hear a story like this, it gets my anxiety going. Because obviously, fire. Bad.

Well, thank you again, Maurice, for taking the time to share tonight. And thanks for giving me anxiety for the next week. All right, folks, it's time to go beyond. And if you'd like to join us here this evening, you can do so easily by joining our $5 level on Apple subscriptions or the $5 level over at Patreon. It's the exact same content, but you can get all the main show content completely ad-free over on Patreon for only a dollar.

that's the only difference between the two either way you get more content we get to buy food and keep the show on the air and it's a win-win for everybody and don't forget there's a seven-day free trial on both platforms if you're unsure if you'd like to commit or not but honestly why wouldn't you because it's in the beyond that you get to hear calls like joseph's out of the state of wisconsin hi derek my name is joseph i'm calling from madison wisconsin

I

I think the show and community you've created has given so much to a lot of individuals going through similar things and tough situations in their lives. And you've given them a place of belonging. I am certainly one of those people. So I hope you truly realize how amazing of a job you do and how much you are actually helping people. So I've always been fascinated by the paranormal. And I've had a series of events happen to me that have left me searching for answers. And that's how I discovered your podcast.

The story I wanted to share with you today is actually about owls and the idea of spirit animals or messengers. It's nothing scary or anything like that, but I hope you'll find it interesting. A couple of precursors to this story.