Speaker 1: Hello friends, Steve's talkton here with you. Welcome to Listener Stories,
Speaker 1: a chilling series where we delve into the depths of
Speaker 1: the unknown through spine tingling tales submitted by you, our
Speaker 1: listeners from erie encounters with a supernatural to inexplicable phenomena
Speaker 1: that defy all logic. Join us as we navigate the
Speaker 1: shadows of the human experience and explore the darkest corners
Speaker 1: of the imagination. Each episode promises to leave you on
Speaker 1: the edge of your seat, questioning what lurks in the
Speaker 1: darkness and what secrets lie hidden in the night so
Speaker 1: dim the lights. Settle in and prepare yourself for a
Speaker 1: journey into the realm of the unexplained. Unsettling event I
Speaker 1: encountered in the woods of North Idaho. I grew up
Speaker 1: in the rural woods of the Midwest. My grandparents had
Speaker 1: a cabin on one hundred and sixty acres in the Ozarks,
Speaker 1: and my family home was in the woods of Ohio.
Speaker 1: And now live out west in a large city with
Speaker 1: my husband and kids, but his family has a cabin
Speaker 1: in northern Idaho where we spend a lot of time
Speaker 1: in the summer. That's where this all took place, so
Speaker 1: when I say I know the woods, I really do.
Speaker 1: This happened a few years ago in the middle of summer.
Speaker 1: We had arrived at the cabin, only to realize my
Speaker 1: husband somehow had totally spaced and forgot to pack my
Speaker 1: hiking boots. I was livid because all I had on
Speaker 1: were cheap flipflops and I'd been so so looking forward
Speaker 1: to hiking that weekend. He kind of put a sour
Speaker 1: mood to the evening and we settled in. The cabin
Speaker 1: isn't much and though in the woods it's part of
Speaker 1: a community or a cluster by the cabins. The one
Speaker 1: perk to ours is that it's right against a large
Speaker 1: field surrounded by woods. It's private property and there's some
Speaker 1: weird stories in history with the family that owns it,
Speaker 1: but that field is mostly abandoned. We have a four
Speaker 1: foot barbed wire fence that runs the link to the
Speaker 1: field to separate AirLand from that. It's not too far
Speaker 1: from the cabin. I'd say maybe twenty feet from our
Speaker 1: porch to the fence line. That night, after dinner, I
Speaker 1: made up the air mattresses for the kids, bolted out
Speaker 1: the sofa bed for us. Soon everyone else was asleep,
Speaker 1: but since I have horrible insomnia, I was still up
Speaker 1: around two am, reading my kindle and sipping wine when
Speaker 1: I heard the most god awful noise. I slipped my
Speaker 1: flip flops on and poked my head out the front door.
Speaker 1: There was a sound coming from the field. I stepped
Speaker 1: out onto the porch to listen more intently. It's the
Speaker 1: sound of a coyote being heard. At first I thought
Speaker 1: possibly I was stuck in a trap, and I got
Speaker 1: so angry. My husband's family or known for our dogs,
Speaker 1: and the idea of someone was trapping near us made
Speaker 1: me so angry. I cannot tell you or why, but
Speaker 1: every cell in my body was screaming for me to
Speaker 1: help it. I ran inside to get a flashlight. It
Speaker 1: was a new moon, so a zero light outside, and
Speaker 1: once again found myself upset. I didn't have my boots.
Speaker 1: There was no way I was going to make it
Speaker 1: even to the fence line in my flip flops between
Speaker 1: the woods and terrain. It was happening near the corner
Speaker 1: of our property. It can best be called a trash sheet,
Speaker 1: an abandoned camp, or a woodpile, metal drums for burning, etc.
Speaker 1: I had no idea what I could even do to help,
Speaker 1: but I just so badly felt like I had to
Speaker 1: do something, So I went back outside and all I
Speaker 1: could do was listen. The more I listened, the more
Speaker 1: I realized it was being attacked by something. And that's
Speaker 1: when the hair on my next it up. I realized
Speaker 1: everything was dead quiet. I have never before or after
Speaker 1: heard the woods like that. Whatever was attacking the cooty
Speaker 1: was also doing it silently, no snarl, no bark or yip,
Speaker 1: no growl. And as I stood there, frozen and listening,
Speaker 1: I heard the final noises as the cowoty died. I
Speaker 1: had tears in my eyes because it was such an
Speaker 1: awful sound. As soon as it died, I was hit
Speaker 1: with the force of the sounds around me. Suddenly the
Speaker 1: neighbors dogs were howling and barking, the bugs and crickets
Speaker 1: started up. It was like a switch had been flipped.
Speaker 1: It went from no sound to all the sounds in
Speaker 1: the blink of an eye. And that's when I heard
Speaker 1: the footsteps. Whatever had attacked the kyote was suddenly on
Speaker 1: our side of the fence. It was walking along the
Speaker 1: fence line, and it clearly was my pedal. I cannot
Speaker 1: stress this enough. I grew up in the woods. Humans
Speaker 1: and animals sound different, and this sounded human. It was
Speaker 1: clearly walking on two legs. I kept staring along the line,
Speaker 1: trying to see whatever it was. But as the footsteps
Speaker 1: grew closer to the middle of the property and I
Speaker 1: still couldn't see anything, I panicked and ran quickly back
Speaker 1: into the cabin. I locked the door and grabbed a
Speaker 1: hatchet and woke my husband up. I couldn't believe he
Speaker 1: was able to sleep through everything. He hadn't heard a thing.
Speaker 1: The next morning, we went directly to where I told
Speaker 1: him the sound was coming from the attack, but couldn't
Speaker 1: see anything. Though the field at that time of year
Speaker 1: is like four foot tall grass, and we didn't expect
Speaker 1: to see anything, and I was not about to hop
Speaker 1: the fence to go looking for trouble. I will say
Speaker 1: I had never been so thankful to not have had
Speaker 1: boots that weekend, because without a doubt I would have
Speaker 1: tried to hop that fence that night. I just know
Speaker 1: I would have. Something in me was screaming out to
Speaker 1: make it stop. Anyway. I'm sure this is rambling a bit,
Speaker 1: but I felt so alone on this for years. My
Speaker 1: husband believes me, but I mean, we have no logical answers.
Speaker 1: Thank you Anonymous, My story of little people. My story
Speaker 1: occurred in Jedito, Arizona. This incident occurred during the summer
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty three, when I was eleven years old.
Speaker 1: I remember I was eleven years old because that's the
Speaker 1: summer my father quit racing horses and started staying home.
Speaker 1: So this particular evening, I went for a walk with
Speaker 1: my siblings and my two dogs. My dogs would always
Speaker 1: be way ahead of us in the woods somewhere chasing
Speaker 1: squirrels or something. I was ahead of everyone too, trying
Speaker 1: to beat them to the hill. Right before the hill,
Speaker 1: there's an old house down in the little valley. As
Speaker 1: I was walking past the old house, I saw something
Speaker 1: move out of my peripheral vision to my right. So
Speaker 1: I looked to my right down to the ground. I
Speaker 1: saw small people, about ten of them, maybe more. They
Speaker 1: all stopped in their tracks and stared at me in shot.
Speaker 1: I was in shock too about what I just came upon.
Speaker 1: I remember they were about a foot tall, with black,
Speaker 1: short hair, maybe shoulder lengked and bushy. They were all naked,
Speaker 1: no clothes on, but they had no private parts, so
Speaker 1: I don't know if they were all males. Two of
Speaker 1: them were carrying a can, which was a spam can.
Speaker 1: One was in front and the other was in back
Speaker 1: carrying the back end of the can. Those were the
Speaker 1: ones I spotted first, and then I saw the rest.
Speaker 1: They all were carrying something in their hands. They all
Speaker 1: had long, skinny arms and long skinny legs. As I
Speaker 1: started walking towards them, they all dropped what they had
Speaker 1: in their hands and ran together towards a single area
Speaker 1: by a big sage bush. One by one, they all
Speaker 1: sank into the ground. I stopped in my tracks too
Speaker 1: when I saw them going into the ground. I couldn't
Speaker 1: believe what I was seeing. When they had all gone
Speaker 1: into the ground, I ran to the same area and
Speaker 1: started digging. I dug out sand about a foot deep,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't find anything that particular area of sandy
Speaker 1: because the water runs through there when it rains. As
Speaker 1: my siblings walked up to me and asked what I
Speaker 1: was doing, I told them what scene, and I show
Speaker 1: them the small footprints and what they'd left behind. I
Speaker 1: went back there every day for the whole summer, but
Speaker 1: I never saw them again. I even sat on a
Speaker 1: big boulder nearby and watched if they would come out.
Speaker 1: Never did. My family still owns that land, so when
Speaker 1: I go there, which is once in a great while,
Speaker 1: I go by and check for footprints. Nothing. Yet I
Speaker 1: will never forget what I saw that day. I'm glad
Speaker 1: I got to experience something so incredible like that. I'm
Speaker 1: glad my dogs never came upon them because I don't
Speaker 1: know what would have happened. I've never told my story
Speaker 1: to anyone before. Only my parents, my siblings, my husband,
Speaker 1: and my kids know about my experience. My father told
Speaker 1: me to stay away from them because they're a part
Speaker 1: of Mother Earth too. I don't remember what he calls them.
Speaker 1: He said it in either Spanish or navahole, so I
Speaker 1: don't remember. Thank you for allowing me to share my story.
Speaker 1: Renee Yosemite Half Dome. This happened around August of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what we experienced or if there was
Speaker 1: anything odd about it, but whatever, it's also a bit
Speaker 1: of a long story, Sorry about that. So this was
Speaker 1: a high cup to half Dome. We had a campground
Speaker 1: about a twenty minute drive away from the trailhead, and
Speaker 1: the group was composed of me, an eighteen year old male,
Speaker 1: my uncle, a thirty two year old male, and my
Speaker 1: uncle's friend, whom i'll call D. There were two girls
Speaker 1: with us, but they aren't relevant to the story. My
Speaker 1: uncle and his friend are both Christian, so there were
Speaker 1: no substances consumed that could induce the feelings I will
Speaker 1: be talking about. We get their campsite, set up camp,
Speaker 1: and go to sleep after eating. We planned to wake
Speaker 1: up at four am and start the hike by four
Speaker 1: point thirty. I randomly wake up at three thirty am,
Speaker 1: like completely wide awake and look out of my hammock,
Speaker 1: and I remember fitting this odd feeling, as if I
Speaker 1: was woken up by something, and I remember looking out
Speaker 1: at the moonlit scene. The moon was very bright for
Speaker 1: some reason, and thinking to myself, it looks like a dream.
Speaker 1: I lay back in the hammock but can't go to
Speaker 1: sleep and end up waking up my uncle and friend
Speaker 1: at three fifty am. My uncle asked me, were you
Speaker 1: walking around at night? This is important? And I say
Speaker 1: no and ask why. He says he woke up for
Speaker 1: some reason and could hear someone walking around, not like
Speaker 1: an animal? But a person. I say, huh, weird, and
Speaker 1: we brush it off. We get to the trailhead around
Speaker 1: four thirty am. As everyone is unloading from the car.
Speaker 1: He says he's going to use the bathroom, which there
Speaker 1: are a couple of before the trailhead. I walk behind
Speaker 1: him for some time before falling behind and waiting for
Speaker 1: my uncle, who forgot something in the car. The short
Speaker 1: straight road from the parking lot runs directly into a
Speaker 1: t intersection with the road to the trailhead, and the
Speaker 1: bathroom is directly across from the intersection through a field
Speaker 1: a little ways. Those who have been there know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. We get to the intersection and wait
Speaker 1: for d to come out of the bathroom. We wait
Speaker 1: about ten minutes before I go and check the bathroom
Speaker 1: and he isn't there. I get back to my uncle
Speaker 1: and tell him that. He says weird, Maybe he went
Speaker 1: back to the car or something. We decide to wait
Speaker 1: a little bit more. Ten we were beginning to worry.
Speaker 1: My uncle goes to check the car while I wait
Speaker 1: at the intersection to make sure we don't miss him
Speaker 1: if he went down the road away from the trailhead.
Speaker 1: My uncle returns says, he isn't there either. We decided
Speaker 1: maybe he went up to the trailhead without us for
Speaker 1: some reason, and walk up there in about ten minutes,
Speaker 1: he isn't there either. We're kind of baffled now, because
Speaker 1: there are no other logical places he would go. I
Speaker 1: decided to run back and check the car in the
Speaker 1: bathroom again. I meet him halfway before I get to
Speaker 1: the intersection. He's sweating and disheveled, with a weird look
Speaker 1: in his eyes. I say, where have you been? He
Speaker 1: says that he went to the bathroom and when he
Speaker 1: got back to the intersection that we weren't there, and
Speaker 1: then he just assumed we went to the trailhead and
Speaker 1: started walking and then he met me. I said, what
Speaker 1: do you mean. We waited at the intersection for over
Speaker 1: half an hour, checked at the car, bathroom, and trailhead,
Speaker 1: and you weren't there. He says, well, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I went to the bathroom. He then asked me where
Speaker 1: my uncle is. I say, at the trailhead, and he
Speaker 1: asked me again, and I tell him again, and note
Speaker 1: that it was weird that he asked me twice. As
Speaker 1: we're crossing the bridge to the trailhead, he sees a
Speaker 1: light off on the river bank and exclaims, Oh, maybe
Speaker 1: that's him, and I just look at him and keep walking.
Speaker 1: I thought his behavior was very strange, like he wasn't
Speaker 1: thinking straight. We finally get on with a hike and
Speaker 1: it goes by as normal, except that we seem to
Speaker 1: keep losing things such as my uncle's small red flashlight,
Speaker 1: well the girl's gloves, a water bottle, etc. It's like
Speaker 1: we just simply forgot about the items and couldn't remember
Speaker 1: where we could have left him. On the way back,
Speaker 1: it got dark and we turned on our flashlights. And
Speaker 1: as we near the end of the hike after the
Speaker 1: two waterfalls, it begins to seem if we've been walking
Speaker 1: far too long. My uncle confirms this, asking me, doesn't
Speaker 1: it seem like it's taking way longer to get back?
Speaker 1: I say, yeah, but I was just thinking that. We
Speaker 1: keep walking, but it still seems like we're not making
Speaker 1: any progress. I've been on that trail many times. As
Speaker 1: I was walking, I couldn't spot any familiar landmarks. It
Speaker 1: was weird. There was this odd feeling in the air,
Speaker 1: sort of a slight, menacing feeling. It's hard to describe.
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, it feels like the woods are alive.
Speaker 1: We remark three more times about how long the hike
Speaker 1: is taking and begin to laugh at it because it
Speaker 1: felt so ridiculous. After a bit, we finally and suddenly
Speaker 1: find ourselves on the final stretch and make it back
Speaker 1: to the car. And all this seemed odd at the time,
Speaker 1: but I just brushed it off. Only realized how weird
Speaker 1: those events felt after we got home and my aunt
Speaker 1: asked my uncle, were you camping? And he says, yeah,
Speaker 1: how did you know? As we didn't tell them we
Speaker 1: were going since it was kind of last minute. She
Speaker 1: says that she had an odd dream or she saw
Speaker 1: my uncle in a tin in a forest and someone
Speaker 1: is outside of his tent. She says she couldn't see
Speaker 1: who it was, but knew there was a presence there.
Speaker 1: She says she woke up around three am and had
Speaker 1: a strong urge to pray for him, and she did.
Speaker 1: My uncle kind of looks at me after that, like,
Speaker 1: are you hearing this shit? Thank you for allowing me
Speaker 1: to share my story. Ten strange experience in starved Ark
Speaker 1: State Park, Illinois. I had a very strange experience twelve
Speaker 1: years ago in Starved Rock State Park, Illinois. It was
Speaker 1: so bizarre at the time I never discussed it. I
Speaker 1: began reading the Missing four to one one stories a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago and realized what I encountered fits into
Speaker 1: the Missing four to one to one profile. Additionally, since
Speaker 1: many of the Missing four to one one stories border
Speaker 1: on the unexplainable and bizarre, I feel what I encountered
Speaker 1: was not unique, that it was part of an actual phenomena.
Speaker 1: Here's my story. I was visiting my girlfriend in Chicago
Speaker 1: on a Sunday and calm winter day. We decided to
Speaker 1: go for a hike at Starved Rock State Park. I'm
Speaker 1: an avid hiker, and being on leave from Iraq, I
Speaker 1: wanted to take in some cool, fresh air. We hiked
Speaker 1: the park for several hours. In late afternoon, we started
Speaker 1: heading back to the car. About a half mile away
Speaker 1: from the parking lot, we came into an area where
Speaker 1: tree branches were broken and pulled towards or over the trail.
Speaker 1: Most of the branches were broken high up I'd say
Speaker 1: eight feet and more off the ground. I lived in
Speaker 1: Washington State before going to Iraq and knew something of
Speaker 1: Sasquatch areas, so I told the girlfriend, it looked like
Speaker 1: a squatch area, dude. The branch is broken off up
Speaker 1: high and pulled over the trail. That's about the time
Speaker 1: things started to get strange. Soon after mentioning this, I
Speaker 1: felt like someone was staring at me. It's like if
Speaker 1: you go in a room with a lot of people
Speaker 1: and someone is focused on you, you get an uneasy
Speaker 1: feeling and can tell you're being watched. It was like this,
Speaker 1: but stronger. I started to look around to see who
Speaker 1: was watching me. It was winter and the forest was
Speaker 1: visible one hundreds of feet in all directions. There was
Speaker 1: a group of walkers several hundred feet by behind us,
Speaker 1: and no one in front of us. But I saw
Speaker 1: no one staring at me. As we passed through the
Speaker 1: squatch area, I began to have the feeling someone was
Speaker 1: behind me following us. I looked around and listened, but
Speaker 1: saw and heard nothing. There was just people four hundred
Speaker 1: feet or so back on the trail, and they were
Speaker 1: talking amongst themselves. They weren't looking our way. The sense
Speaker 1: of someone being behind me was persistent, so I kept
Speaker 1: looking behind me. I'd say at least twice a minute,
Speaker 1: but there was just a group way back there. The
Speaker 1: feeling of being watched is one thing. The feeling like
Speaker 1: someone is close behind you as something else, it is
Speaker 1: more disturbing. I told the girlfriend to go further in
Speaker 1: front of me and let her go about twenty feet
Speaker 1: in front because I had a strong sensation of a
Speaker 1: nearby presence just behind us. So I turned around not
Speaker 1: more than thirty seconds since the last time I looked back,
Speaker 1: and there's this woman there. She was walking, but coming
Speaker 1: up on me fast. There was something way off about
Speaker 1: her speed. She was walking when I spotted her, but
Speaker 1: her speed was much faster than her gait. It was
Speaker 1: if sirona people move her escalator like in an airport.
Speaker 1: She was coming up fast and was i'd say, no
Speaker 1: more than fifteen or twenty feet behind me. When I
Speaker 1: saw her, I was rather alarmed and glared at her.
Speaker 1: She stopped when our eyes met. I gave her a
Speaker 1: look like, wtf are you doing coming upon me like that?
Speaker 1: We stood there staring at each other. Neither was smooth.
Speaker 1: She had her head cock back turr left and looked
Speaker 1: at me from the corner of her eyes and slightly alarmed.
Speaker 1: You caught me type of look. She was completely normal
Speaker 1: looking like a local Chicago lady, late fifties, wearing a
Speaker 1: bright red winter coat, gloves, slacks, et cetera. In hindsight,
Speaker 1: there are a few other things besides her speed, which
Speaker 1: stand out. The first thing is there was no sound,
Speaker 1: no footsteps, no rustling in the woods, nothing to tell
Speaker 1: me to turn around, other than the strong sense of
Speaker 1: something behind me, which I'd had for a bit. At
Speaker 1: the speedch she was moving, she would have had to
Speaker 1: have been running hard, but I heard no footsteps, she
Speaker 1: was not breathing hard, and her mouth was closed. Her
Speaker 1: gate was a walking gate. She was not running. However,
Speaker 1: she was moving towards me at a running speed I
Speaker 1: mean fast. When she stopped, I'd say she was less
Speaker 1: than twenty feet from me. At the speed she was moving,
Speaker 1: in one or two seconds, should have been on me.
Speaker 1: The next thing that stands out is her features. She
Speaker 1: had no distinguishing features, none in her hair, skin, or clothing.
Speaker 1: No shadowing or skin hues, dimples, etc. As a former
Speaker 1: Army criminal investigator, I know to look for distinctive mark
Speaker 1: on people in clothing. There were none. I'd estimated her
Speaker 1: height at five foot ten inches. Her clothes were of
Speaker 1: uniform coloring and indistinct. It was like she just stepped
Speaker 1: out of a department store. Her bright red coat was pristine,
Speaker 1: with a uniform hue to it. There wasn't even shading,
Speaker 1: which there should have been given the clear sky and
Speaker 1: a low sun. After staring at each other for I'd
Speaker 1: say five to ten seconds, I felt like I got
Speaker 1: my point across, so I turned around and continued walking.
Speaker 1: The girlfriend had not noticed anything and had continued walking.
Speaker 1: I took about three steps and realized there was no
Speaker 1: way she could have come up from that group in
Speaker 1: the thirty or so seconds since I'd last looked back.
Speaker 1: There was also nowhere to come from on either side.
Speaker 1: Visibility at that point was one hundreds of feet all around.
Speaker 1: I said to myself, no way, and spun back around.
Speaker 1: She was gone on simply vanished. I checked the group
Speaker 1: behind us, and no one had a red coat on
Speaker 1: or was looking at us. There was no one else around,
Speaker 1: and there had been no sounds other than my footfalls.
Speaker 1: The woman just vanished. From that point, it took us
Speaker 1: about ten minutes to reach the car, but the remainder
Speaker 1: of the walk I did not feel like I was
Speaker 1: being stared at or followed I've never been back to
Speaker 1: Star Rock State Park and have no intention of going back.
Speaker 1: The whole thing was bizarre. How was I supposed to
Speaker 1: tell anyone about that? So I never have? My mental
Speaker 1: state was fine. I have a high IQ and a
Speaker 1: twenty year career in a stem field following army service.
Speaker 1: At the time, I was working add contract in Iraq.
Speaker 1: I was well rested and relaxed, being on vacation with
Speaker 1: the girlfriend. There were no drugs or alcohol in Paul.
Speaker 1: These are strictly prohibited in my line of work and
Speaker 1: were grounds for media termination under mnfi's G ONE, which
Speaker 1: I was subject to at the time. I've carried this
Speaker 1: experience around for twelve plus years, being unable to talk
Speaker 1: about it because it was so exceptional and unexplainable. It's
Speaker 1: a relief to read similar stories of unusual encounters and disappearances.
Speaker 1: After reading many missing four to one one accounts and
Speaker 1: the profile of disappearances, I believe I narrowly averted being
Speaker 1: snatched by whatever that thing was. I do not think
Speaker 1: it was the woman I saw. I think it was
Speaker 1: something different which I could not see. Thank you anonymous
Speaker 1: eerie footsteps behind us when I was around twelve years old,
Speaker 1: my girlfriend and I went with my parents to an
Speaker 1: isolated cabin that was only accessible by boat in northern Ontario, Canada,
Speaker 1: near my dad's reservation called Serpent River. Anyway, my brother
Speaker 1: was swimming in the lake, so my girlfriend and I
Speaker 1: decided to hike up a hill that ended up being
Speaker 1: quite steep with cedar trees all around us. So as
Speaker 1: we were making our way up, we decided to sit
Speaker 1: down and take a rest, as the ground was covered
Speaker 1: in cedar needles and quite comfortable. As we were sitting there,
Speaker 1: we were chatting because we could see my brother swimming
Speaker 1: in the lake from quite up high on the hill
Speaker 1: we climbed, Then all of a sudden, the ground was
Speaker 1: shaking underneath our butts, like something so heavy was running
Speaker 1: behind us. It scared the daylights out of both of
Speaker 1: us and we high tailed it down that hill. We
Speaker 1: did look behind us, but we could only feel it
Speaker 1: and could not see anything. To this day, I've always
Speaker 1: wondered what it could be. We thought the only possible
Speaker 1: thing that could make the ground vibrate like that might
Speaker 1: be a moose, But then again I just couldn't see
Speaker 1: how or why a moose would be so high up
Speaker 1: on a hillside with rocks and cedar trees. It's still
Speaker 1: what plexes me to this day. Anonymous, unexplained invisible or
Speaker 1: cloaked being slash humanoid. When I was about five years old,
Speaker 1: I was playing by the edge of the woods behind
Speaker 1: my grandmother's house. I played there often, and my grandmother
Speaker 1: just kept an eye on me from the kitchener living room.
Speaker 1: Because the house had huge windows that faced the woods.
Speaker 1: She would come out every once in a while just
Speaker 1: to see what I was up to. I was obsessed
Speaker 1: with digging in the dirt and collecting unusual rocks and
Speaker 1: arrowheads that littered the land where my grandmother lived. I
Speaker 1: should mention this as midwest Illinois, not too far from
Speaker 1: Kahokio Mounds, so finding aarheads was actually not that uncommon anyway.
Speaker 1: That day, I remember picking out a spot to dig.
Speaker 1: I'd been out there for quite a while because I
Speaker 1: remember I had a pretty decent sized hole going when
Speaker 1: something caught my eye up in the tree that I
Speaker 1: was next to. I almost don't know how to explain it,
Speaker 1: but it looked like almost a heat wave coming off
Speaker 1: the branch of the tree. It was fall I remember
Speaker 1: this because I had my pink jacket on. I remember
Speaker 1: thinking my mom was going to be pissed because I
Speaker 1: had dirt around the bottom of the arms from digging.
Speaker 1: I also remember there being a lot of leaves on
Speaker 1: the ground. Anyway, I'm staring at this heat wave and
Speaker 1: realize it has a human shape. So here I am
Speaker 1: five years old and wondering why there's an invisible man
Speaker 1: in the tree. I remember feeling scared but unsure what
Speaker 1: to do. Then it started moving and making a faint
Speaker 1: clicking sound. This is about the time that I decided
Speaker 1: that I was not supposed to be seeing this, and
Speaker 1: I tiled it back to the house. My grandmother saw.
Speaker 1: I was pretty shaken, and I remember telling her that
Speaker 1: I just saw an angel. In my five year old mind,
Speaker 1: I didn't know what else it could be. I'd never
Speaker 1: heard of aliens or ghosts or monsters, so to me,
Speaker 1: it had to be an angel, because that's all my
Speaker 1: little mind could think of. Fast forward to when I
Speaker 1: was about twelve years old. By this time, the encounter
Speaker 1: was way out of my mind. I loved watching action
Speaker 1: and sci fi movies. My dad rented a movie called Predator.
Speaker 1: I'm watching it with him, and the first time you
Speaker 1: see the predator invisible slash cloaked, I about shit my pants.
Speaker 1: All the memories from that day digging in the dirt
Speaker 1: came flooding back. I even asked my dad if predator
Speaker 1: was real, if he knew if anyone or any animal
Speaker 1: that had cloaking ability that I didn't know about. He
Speaker 1: told me it was all fake. It wasn't like it
Speaker 1: is today where I could just google it. I had
Speaker 1: no access to the internet, so again I just put
Speaker 1: it out of my mind. Again. Fast forward to about
Speaker 1: the year two thousand and four. I'm grown now, I
Speaker 1: have three small children. I just went through a separation
Speaker 1: from my husband. I moved to the next town over
Speaker 1: to an apartment with my kids. These apartments are all
Speaker 1: one level duplexes, with there being five buildings. I'm at
Speaker 1: the very last apartment of the last building. The apartments
Speaker 1: are considered in town, but are on the outskirts. There's
Speaker 1: a deep ditch that runs behind the buildings with a
Speaker 1: chain link fence that separates the backyard from the ditch.
Speaker 1: There's about six or seven trees on our side of
Speaker 1: the fence, and if you followed the ditch a little
Speaker 1: bit you hit a small force that eventually leads to
Speaker 1: the country with a larger forest and farmland. I'm a
Speaker 1: smoker who would not smoke in the apartment because of
Speaker 1: the kids, so often went out to the back porch.
Speaker 1: One night, I was up late doing laundry and stuff.
Speaker 1: After the kids went to bed, I decided to take
Speaker 1: a smoke wreak before I myself went to sleep. So
Speaker 1: I'm back there on the porch and I started hearing
Speaker 1: this faint clicking sound. I immediately looked to the ditch
Speaker 1: because I'd seen a groundhog out there a few days
Speaker 1: before and thought perhaps he was out there again. The
Speaker 1: artist faintly lit from the outside light that's by the
Speaker 1: playground that is to the right of my back porch.
Speaker 1: I didn't turn on my porch light. I didn't normally
Speaker 1: if I was just going out for a quick smoke.
Speaker 1: I didn't see any groundhog or movement from the ditch,
Speaker 1: so I go back to smoking my cigarette. The faint
Speaker 1: clicking sound keeps happening, and a slight shift of movement
Speaker 1: makes me look up into the tree to the left
Speaker 1: of my porch. It's there, the same invisible thing I'd
Speaker 1: seen when I was five. It's like a distortion and
Speaker 1: in a humanoid shape. It's crouched down on the branch
Speaker 1: with an arm out holding onto the trunk of the tree.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. I was like, is this happening?
Speaker 1: Has it come to kill me? From me seeing it
Speaker 1: all those years ago? All I could I think about
Speaker 1: was my kids in the apartment sleeping. I ran in
Speaker 1: and slammed and locked the door. I ran to the
Speaker 1: kids room and made sure all the windows were locked.
Speaker 1: Then I just turned out the lights in the living
Speaker 1: room and stared out the blinds at the tree to
Speaker 1: see if I could catch another glimpse of it. I
Speaker 1: sat there for a good ten minutes and couldn't see anything.
Speaker 1: I began to think I was just tired of my mind,
Speaker 1: who was playing tricks on me. Just as I was
Speaker 1: finally talking myself down, a neighbor's dog comes running across
Speaker 1: the yard and starts barking at the tree at the
Speaker 1: same branch i'd seen this predator thing on. That pretty
Speaker 1: much freaked me out because this dog was not a barker.
Speaker 1: I've actually never heard him bark at anything, even if
Speaker 1: the groundhog that had been hanging out at the ditch.
Speaker 1: This barking went on for a few minutes until I
Speaker 1: hear the neighbor lady who owns the dog, calling back inside.
Speaker 1: The dog reluctantly turned to go back home, stopping every
Speaker 1: few feet to look back at the branch of the
Speaker 1: tree until he was out of my sight. I didn't
Speaker 1: sleep that night, and I've never seen anything like it again.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to think of it. I'm a
Speaker 1: grown woman, I have kids, in a good career. I
Speaker 1: just want to know if anyone else has ever had
Speaker 1: an experience like this. I know what I saw, believe
Speaker 1: it or not. Also, just to change a little side
Speaker 1: note about my obsession with digging. When I was younger,
Speaker 1: I had an uncanny ability to just know where to
Speaker 1: dig for stuff. Like I said, I used to dig
Speaker 1: up arrowheads and unusual rocks and geodes all the time.
Speaker 1: It was kind of strange. I remember this one time
Speaker 1: I was fishing with my dad and when we got
Speaker 1: back to the camp, I just started randomly digging in
Speaker 1: a meadow off to the side of the camp. I
Speaker 1: dug up a whole bunch of marbles. It was weird.
Speaker 1: They were all pretty deep too. My dad was pretty
Speaker 1: amazed by it. Thanks for taking the time to read this, Anonymous.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what happened to me in the woods.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is the same kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: but someone said I should post this here. Okay, So
Speaker 1: I know this is going to sound crazy, and honestly,
Speaker 1: I've spent a long time reading stories on here and
Speaker 1: called bs on stories half as crazy as what happened
Speaker 1: to me. I'm no writer, so I apologize in advance
Speaker 1: if I don't explain this well. I love creepy stuff
Speaker 1: and spent a lot of time listening to stories on
Speaker 1: YouTube and reading them here in various other places. A
Speaker 1: friend of mine came to me because she knows I
Speaker 1: love stuff like this, and told me she had a
Speaker 1: strange experience the other night with her boyfriend where she
Speaker 1: parked nearer woods on the edge of town, and just
Speaker 1: as they were about to start fooling around, something made
Speaker 1: a creepy, giggling noise from the woods. Her boyfriend got
Speaker 1: out and threw stones into the woods, thinking someone was
Speaker 1: playing a prank or something. She said. He shined his
Speaker 1: phone light into the woods and they both saw what
Speaker 1: looked like tiny people scattering back into the woods. I
Speaker 1: asked how tiny. She said about the size of her dog,
Speaker 1: which is a little white, fluffy thing. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what the type is, but they're really small dogs. I
Speaker 1: drove up to the woods that night to check it
Speaker 1: out and partner where she said she parked, but didn't
Speaker 1: hear anything. So after a while I got out of
Speaker 1: the car and went into the woods to look around.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to go far in, and I swear
Speaker 1: I took less than twenty steps into the woods when
Speaker 1: I heard it laugh. It sounded like a little girl
Speaker 1: but off. I'm not really sure how to explain it,
Speaker 1: but I spun around and pointed my torch to where
Speaker 1: it had come from, and there was nothing there. Then,
Speaker 1: as I was looking around for what had made the sound,
Speaker 1: I realized I was really far into the woods, like
Speaker 1: seriously faring them, and I couldn't see my car or
Speaker 1: even the road. I know I hadn't walked that far.
Speaker 1: I was confused as hell, and when I went to
Speaker 1: head back to the where I came from, I wasn't
Speaker 1: even on a path. I weirdly didn't panic, though, I
Speaker 1: remember being what I would call drunk calm, like when
Speaker 1: someone kicks off a problem in a bar, but you've
Speaker 1: had a few, so you just have no reaction to it,
Speaker 1: Like part of you knows you should be reacting, but
Speaker 1: you're just not. I just looked around and started walking,
Speaker 1: and what I felt was the right direction. But the
Speaker 1: more I walked, I felt like I was dazed, and
Speaker 1: I kept thinking it was because it was so hot.
Speaker 1: It was pretty late at night, so it shouldn't been
Speaker 1: but I felt like I was on a beach on
Speaker 1: holiday somewhere, and I just kept thinking I need to
Speaker 1: cool down to clear my head, so I started stripping.
Speaker 1: I'm seriously not the kind of girl who just strips off,
Speaker 1: by the way, Like I'm not shy, but I don't
Speaker 1: do stuff like that. But my head was just fuzzy,
Speaker 1: and I was convinced i'd feel better if I took
Speaker 1: everything off, and I was just dropping everything as I walked,
Speaker 1: even dropped my torch as I just felt like my
Speaker 1: eyes would see better without it. I don't fully remember
Speaker 1: what was going on after that. I felt like I
Speaker 1: was walking for ages, like everything just felt like a dream,
Speaker 1: but I felt comfortable even though I was naked, I
Speaker 1: still felt like it was really warm. I don't know
Speaker 1: who I was, but I remember finding a small pond
Speaker 1: and trying to cool off by splashing the water over
Speaker 1: my head, and then sitting on the edge and dangling
Speaker 1: my feet in the water. It felt deep, like I
Speaker 1: was on the edge of a pool, like it was
Speaker 1: just a straight edge going down, even though it looked
Speaker 1: like it was a little more than a large buddle.
Speaker 1: I remember it being really nice and cold. When I
Speaker 1: felt a hand around my ankle, and then the second
Speaker 1: one around the other, everything still just felt normal, though,
Speaker 1: like I was thinking I should slide forward and lower
Speaker 1: myself into the water because it was so nice and
Speaker 1: cool like. Even trying to remember it all, as much
Speaker 1: as I'm freaked out, feels like just such a peaceful memory.
Speaker 1: I could feel the hands around my ankles, and I
Speaker 1: started laughing as something started tinkling my feet. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how long this went on for, but in my
Speaker 1: memory it feels like it was happening for hours. I
Speaker 1: was just giggling and thinking about getting all the way
Speaker 1: into the water. I'm not sure what broke me from
Speaker 1: my days, but I feel like someone else was there
Speaker 1: who said something to me. I remember pulling my feet
Speaker 1: out of the water. The hands, letting go without a fight,
Speaker 1: and then turning around and walking away. Everything is blank,
Speaker 1: though after I started walking away, the next thing I
Speaker 1: remember is being back in my car, suddenly very uncomfortable
Speaker 1: about being naked and starting to panic. I seriously have
Speaker 1: considered going back in the woods to find my clothes,
Speaker 1: but thankfully decided against it, as I imagine a few
Speaker 1: awkward moments getting home more better than risking the woods again.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what to think about what happened,
Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure no one was going to believe me,
Speaker 1: but I had to tell people about this. I mean,
Speaker 1: has anyone experienced things like this before? Thank you anonymous
Speaker 1: dog man or unknown cryptid encounter. My name's John, and
Speaker 1: I spent much of my childhood with my father, who
Speaker 1: taught me how to hunt and fish. We had land
Speaker 1: in Franklin County, which is the outskirts of Laurel, Indiana.
Speaker 1: My father built her home and it was located just
Speaker 1: about twenty yards from the deep woods off Bulltown Road,
Speaker 1: which was named that because when the farmers would take
Speaker 1: their cattle tour from the market, that's the path they
Speaker 1: would travel. That's now our road. We fished for everything
Speaker 1: from bluegill to trout to bass, and the most fun
Speaker 1: the infamous Blue channel and flathead catfish. Hunting was no
Speaker 1: different from squirrel, rabbits to deer. My dad also showed
Speaker 1: me how to noodle for snapping turtles, although I never
Speaker 1: really had the nerve for that. My best times with
Speaker 1: him showing me what Jenseng bloodroot and rhubarb all looked like.
Speaker 1: I would go on those adventures, although not having much
Speaker 1: luck finding them as it did the morrel mushrooms. I
Speaker 1: spent more days and nights in the woods at river
Speaker 1: banks and lakes than I had ever had or wanted
Speaker 1: to in some city setting. In these places were my
Speaker 1: comfort zones where I felt at peace, where I truly
Speaker 1: felt alive and closest to my creator, And never ever
Speaker 1: had I experienced anything like what I had in this
Speaker 1: January of twenty ten. It was early when I got
Speaker 1: up and ready to head out squirrel hunting off some
Speaker 1: property over by my uncle's house, which is really the
Speaker 1: same romping grounds I ran with when I was just
Speaker 1: a kid out hunting with my pop. I was going
Speaker 1: to use my twenty two Marlin, which was a good
Speaker 1: rifle with a Casco scope, instead of a shotgun, because
Speaker 1: to me, there was nothing worse than picking out bugshot
Speaker 1: when you're trying to enjoy a hot plate of fried
Speaker 1: mushrooms and biscuits with squirrel gravy. I got out in
Speaker 1: the general area be where I wanted to begin my
Speaker 1: hunt and found a nice hickory to lean up against,
Speaker 1: and just as I usually do, I leaned back, got
Speaker 1: really comfortable and began to rest my eyes. Catch a nap,
Speaker 1: I figured really quick before I get serious with squirrel hunting,
Speaker 1: So I listened for about five minutes to see if
Speaker 1: I heard them cut in this direction, for that which
Speaker 1: a squirrel lon. A cut is what we called them
Speaker 1: chewing and breaking open hickory and walnut. Just as my
Speaker 1: usual routine, I fell asleep. I remember when I woke,
Speaker 1: it was as if I was startled away, like if
Speaker 1: someone had clapped loudly to get your tension next to
Speaker 1: your face. I opened my eyes and was wondering did
Speaker 1: I actually hear that or was that just in my head?
Speaker 1: I looked up and straight ahead of me and saw
Speaker 1: something duck down behind a brama bush that was about
Speaker 1: sixty seven feet tall and about fifty yards out from me, again,
Speaker 1: I wondered, am I saying things as well as hearing them? Now?
Speaker 1: I grew up here in aunts and uncles, cousins and
Speaker 1: other trusted people telling stories of UFOs, No close encounters,
Speaker 1: just lights in the sky. And as for Bigfoot, Aaron
Speaker 1: the Henderson's came out when I was nine in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty seven, and it was something I thought. Sure, I
Speaker 1: combine on that. This is me as a child, thinking
Speaker 1: the earth was much bigger than it actually is, the
Speaker 1: endless redwood forest and the Amazon with Tarzan and the
Speaker 1: tribes that have never seen civilized man. That's where these
Speaker 1: creatures roamed. But what I saw, this was something out
Speaker 1: of a Hollywood movie. I couldn't see very well. Still
Speaker 1: hadn't quite came up over the horizon. As for everything
Speaker 1: going silent, I was used to that because the birds
Speaker 1: were barely even awake at this hour. I took my
Speaker 1: gun and, thinking I'm about to catch someone trespassing on
Speaker 1: the land, I moved the scope up to my left
Speaker 1: eye and began to scan the width of the briar bush,
Speaker 1: which was about ten to fifteen feet, followed by a
Speaker 1: huge oak tree that ran parallel with the bush. I
Speaker 1: couldn't make anything out. It all blended in until I
Speaker 1: made out a sharply pointed ear. At first, I thought
Speaker 1: it was a bobcat because the tassel of hair that
Speaker 1: was protruding out of the ear. But as my eyes
Speaker 1: finally focused in more and trying to decipher what was
Speaker 1: just bush and leaves to what was hair and facial features,
Speaker 1: when I saw an eye on the right side of
Speaker 1: his face looking at me. Registered to me. There's no
Speaker 1: branches or limbs for any animals such as a bobcat
Speaker 1: or county to be able to appear. That's positioning itself
Speaker 1: upright on which I saw when I opened my eyes.
Speaker 1: I know the moment when I was looking at something
Speaker 1: I'd never seen before, because it felt like a bucket
Speaker 1: of cold water had been dumped over my head, and
Speaker 1: almost simultaneously, my teeth began to chatter. At that moment,
Speaker 1: I knew what I was looking at, and it was
Speaker 1: most definitely looking at me, had been standing upright. I
Speaker 1: lowered my rifle because there was no way on God's
Speaker 1: green earth that I was going to try to fire
Speaker 1: on this animal lack of anything I'd never seen before
Speaker 1: and upright canine. I didn't turn my back on him,
Speaker 1: but I slowly stood up. I was about maybe one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards into the woods. My mind was
Speaker 1: clear and focused though, just don't turn you back, and
Speaker 1: I walked slowly back to the road in my car.
Speaker 1: It never showed itself fully, and I'm glad since this
Speaker 1: has happened, I can't bring myself to hiking park salone.
Speaker 1: I don't go fishing at night if the area is secluded.
Speaker 1: And those are just the long lasting effects. I was
Speaker 1: about thirty two when this happened, so it's been ten years.
Speaker 1: I would damn near have panic attacks taking out the garbage.
Speaker 1: What I grew up loving to do with my father
Speaker 1: was now something I'm scared to do by myself. My
Speaker 1: dad had passed away in nineteen ninety nine to a
Speaker 1: drunk driver, and this encounter actually happened about twenty days
Speaker 1: after I lost my mom in twenty ten to cancer,
Speaker 1: so I never had the opportunity with the two people
Speaker 1: I've been raised by out in the middle of the
Speaker 1: sticks for their theoryungness. I do remember my father telling
Speaker 1: me one night he went out to the wood shed
Speaker 1: to grab a wheelbearer load of firewood with a stove.
Speaker 1: I was young, so I didn't ask him to elaborate,
Speaker 1: but he said when he had reached the shed he
Speaker 1: heard a growl, a growl that made the hair on
Speaker 1: the back of his neck stand up put him in
Speaker 1: another rush to get back into the house. I'll explained
Speaker 1: other than that was it sure wasn't a bob katter
Speaker 1: or coyote. Looking back, I wish I would have pressed
Speaker 1: for more, because this man noodle snapping turtles and was
Speaker 1: the only one the old bull of Grandpa's would respect.
Speaker 1: In closing, I've only heard of dog Man in about
Speaker 1: the last five years. I haven't shared my story but
Speaker 1: maybe with five people, and I'll only ever say I
Speaker 1: saw something in the woods that I can't explain, because
Speaker 1: that sounds much more rational than you guys, I saw
Speaker 1: a wearwalf. But I know I've come about as far
Speaker 1: as I can to recover from this encounter, with stories
Speaker 1: of aliens, bigfoot, dog Man, missing people, as well as
Speaker 1: the plethora of other cryptids I've not mentioned. But I
Speaker 1: can tell you now as I write, if you were
Speaker 1: to tell me you've seen something in the woods, describe it,
Speaker 1: can't explain it, I believe you because I've had my
Speaker 1: encounter too signed John Creature in the Woods. This only
Speaker 1: happened several days ago, so my mind is still pondering
Speaker 1: what happened. My friend and I are avid outdoorsman, primitive camping, hiking,
Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera. There's this local county park with
Speaker 1: a weird, spooky history, lots of people with odd sightings,
Speaker 1: menacing experiences, reportedly witchcraft. You get the idea. Well, we
Speaker 1: were hiking there and decided to follow a couple of
Speaker 1: game trails. We wanted to get away from the casual
Speaker 1: hikers and really explore the more unexplored parts of the forest.
Speaker 1: We'd gone several miles in and came to an area
Speaker 1: with the lower bush line, so our visibility was pretty good.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, the storm of acorns erupted around us,
Speaker 1: with no wind to speak of. After this incident occurred,
Speaker 1: we had this overwhelming sense of being watched. We'd gone
Speaker 1: another several hundred yards when my friend calls out, what
Speaker 1: is that? And when I look towards what he's pointing at,
Speaker 1: we see this dark humanoid shape standing by a tree.
Speaker 1: It was around four feet tall, dark brown to black
Speaker 1: in color, and seemed to get highly agitated when I
Speaker 1: took notice of it. The only way to describe its
Speaker 1: movement was that it was lightly bouncing back and forth,
Speaker 1: giving off an aggressive vibe. Instinctively, we both pull out
Speaker 1: our knives. My friend also pulled out his axe, and
Speaker 1: we felt combat was inevitable. It kept watching us, emanating
Speaker 1: this aggressive energy. For some reason, we decided to move
Speaker 1: towards it. What happened next I cannot explain. It simply disappeared.
Speaker 1: Once we both saw it disappear, we made a beeline
Speaker 1: to the tree. It was that we can be stupid brave,
Speaker 1: and there was no sign or sound of anything having
Speaker 1: been there. We look around and nothing. There was no
Speaker 1: way for it to have gotten away without making a
Speaker 1: sign or even making noise, as the brush wouldn't have
Speaker 1: allowed that. Sheathing our weapons, we stood there, dumbstruck, not
Speaker 1: sure what had just happened. Thank you, Anonymous. Well there
Speaker 1: you have it our first batch of Listener stories. Let
Speaker 1: us know what you think about these stories in the
Speaker 1: comments below, but please be respectful opinions of others, and
Speaker 1: if you have any strange stories you would like to
Speaker 1: see featured in an upcoming video. Email them to National
Speaker 1: Park Mysteries why Tea at gmail dot com. We're very
Speaker 1: interested in stories that detail encounters with ghosts, humanoids, cryptids,
Speaker 1: or any type of other unknown entity that is beyond explanation.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening, and please be sure to give
Speaker 1: us a like on the video and to share and
Speaker 1: subscribe for more strange stories. Meanwhile, be good to yourselves
Speaker 1: and each other. I'm Steve Stockton and I'll talk to
Speaker 1: you next time.