On June 8, 1989, FBI informant Susan Daniels Smith stood outside on the second floor of a motel in Pikeville, Kentucky, smoking a cigarette and staring down at the parking lot. Then suddenly, Susan saw a car pull up, and the driver stepped outside. Susan’s pulse quickened, she flicked her cigarette to the ground, and she ran downstairs to meet the driver. And soon after, Susan and the driver got into the car together, and sped off into the night down a dark mountain road. But when Susan didn’t r...
Jul 24, 2023•37 min•Ep. 153
Today's podcast features 3 workplace horror stories. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "Scavenger" -- A sailor goes missing right before departure (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ8EGOEc7uw ) #2 -- "Wrong Door" -- A black cloud was spotted outside of a bu...
Jul 20, 2023•27 min•Ep. 152
On December 13, 2001, 35-year-old Tracey Roberts was running a bath upstairs in her house in the rural town of Early, Iowa. But then, Tracey heard the front door open and footsteps downstairs. And when she walked into the hall to see what was happening, she saw two men rushing upstairs towards her. So in a panic, Tracey ran to her bedroom, but one of the men grabbed her from behind and started strangling her. But Tracey fought him off, grabbed a gun she kept in her room, and fired at h...
Jul 17, 2023•41 min•Ep. 77
Today's podcast features 3 stories about people who, by all accounts, should be dead. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "The Void" -- One of the greatest survival stories of all time (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPE84ZJBJWk&list=PLgRgJrlop--N6fsOHUHVHSatGDo5k7zO9&index=4 ) #2 -- ...
Jul 13, 2023•30 min•Ep. 151
On the night of January 12, 2003, 85-year-old millionaire Anna Mae Branson heard a knock at the door of her home in Madisonville, Kentucky – a place residents had nicknamed “The Best Town on Earth.” So, Anna Mae opened the door, and smiled at her visitor. But before Anna Mae knew what was happening, the visitor entered the house and started shouting at her. Anna Mae tried to get them to leave, but the visitor kept shouting, and chased Anna Mae through the house and ...
Jul 10, 2023•39 min•Ep. 150
This story is a fan favorite that was previously published as Episode 50. In the late 1800s, a very strange hotel was constructed in Chicago, Illinois. From the outside, it looked perfectly normal, but the inside of the hotel was anything but. Hallways were a maze of twists and turns, and there were trap doors, sliding walls and secret stairwells everywhere. But the shock factor of this hotel was part of its allure. Walking around and getting lost could actually be kind of thrilling. But, what g...
Jul 06, 2023•51 min•Ep. 149
This story is a fan favorite that was previously published as Episode 40. Around 2:00 am on April 6th 2018, a mysterious person walked down a snowy suburban street in Wadsworth, Ohio. At some point, this person came to a stop in front of a modest two story home and then looked around to make sure no one was watching them. Feeling satisfied no one was, this mystery person turned away from the road and walked down the driveway toward the backyard of the property. What they did next was unspeakably...
Jul 03, 2023•36 min•Ep. 148
Today's podcast features 3 stories that will make you never want to go swimming again. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "What Lies Beneath" -- Something lurks below this hospital (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6IgVVi8TtI ) #2 -- "What Lurks Below" -- One of the most dangerous jobs i...
Jun 29, 2023•28 min•Ep. 147
On the night of May 31, 2003, a short bearded man was sitting in his car, holding a rifle, in the parking lot of the Green Iguana Bar and Grill in Rocky Point, Florida. The man opened the window, aimed the rifle at the back door of the bar, and waited for his target – a 37 year-old bartender named Sandee Rozzo. Then suddenly, Sandee stepped outside, so the man took a deep breath and FIRED, but he missed. And in a panic, he threw the rifle in the backseat, hit the gas, and drove away. But he woul...
Jun 26, 2023•37 min•Ep. 146
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. And today’s podcast features 3 stories that demonstrate that. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "Double Plot Twist" -- As the name suggests, there are 2 big reveals in this story... considering how insane they are, it's shocking how few people know about th...
Jun 22, 2023•37 min•Ep. 145
On the morning of July 18, 2014, in a wealthy neighborhood in Florida, a married couple in their 70's were sitting on their couch, trying to figure out how to use their brand new iPad. As they did this, suddenly, coming from the property next door, they heard a loud popping sound. The man got up off the couch and walked over to the window to see what was going on, and he saw a car he didn't recognize peeling out of his neighbor’s driveway and speeding off down the street. Not sure what to make o...
Jun 19, 2023•36 min•Ep. 144
This story is a fan favorite that was previously published as Episode 30. In May of 2009, someone in Guatemala uploaded an 18 minute long video to YouTube titled, “YouTube Murder." Within hours of it being published, the video had gone massively viral to the point where YouTube’s servers began to crash, and in Guatemala, angry crowds of people began forming up in the streets demanding justice. When the president of Guatemala reluctantly authorized an investigation into what the video actually&nb...
Jun 15, 2023•44 min•Ep. 143
On the morning of Sunday, November 17th, 1991, two brothers were driving in their pickup truck down a road in the small town of Conway, South Carolina. The older brother drove, and the younger brother scanned the surrounding woods, looking for the perfect spot to go deer hunting. But as they rolled along, suddenly, the younger brother began shouting that he saw something, so the older brother quickly pulled the truck over to the side of the road and parked. The brothers got out of the truck, but...
Jun 12, 2023•37 min•Ep. 142
This story is a fan favorite that was previously published as Episode 56. In 2016, a woman had just pulled into her driveway in her quiet neighborhood in Missouri, when suddenly her passenger door flung open and in jumped a man she didn't recognize who was wielding a knife. The woman froze in terror hoping this was just a robbery, but when the man spoke, she knew this situation was much, much worse. Ten minutes later, the police arrived at the woman’s house, and what they saw in the hallway of t...
Jun 08, 2023•42 min•Ep. 141
On a cold and snowy day in January of 1994, a land surveyor for the North Carolina Department of Transportation parked his car at the edge of Highway 421 in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. After walking just a few yards away from the side of the road, he was already swallowed up in the deep woods that stretched for miles into Watauga County. Given the cold air and snow underfoot, the surveyor was paying close attention to where he was walking, and hoping that the job would not take l...
Jun 05, 2023•43 min•Ep. 140
In 1985, a group of hikers were making their way down a trail in this big forest in southern California when one of them looked through the trees off to their side, and they saw there was a stream running down parallel to the trail that they were on. And in this stream, the hikers saw something that just didn’t look right. And so, the hikers left the trail and made their way down to the stream, and when they actually saw the thing that stood out to this hiker that was in the stream, they just st...
Jun 01, 2023•33 min•Ep. 139
It was a freezing cold morning in mid-January 2004 when a repair crew for the local electric and gas company in Princeton, NJ decided to take a break and go get some hot breakfast. The two men had been out all night fixing power poles and lines that had come down in a recent snowstorm. On their way to the diner, they saw a dark green SUV – engine running – sitting with its front wheel submerged in six inches of water in a creek that ran alongside the road. Thinking the car had been parked there ...
May 29, 2023•44 min•Ep. 138
Today’s podcast features 3 stories about historical legends. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "Smoke" -- During WW2, one man redefined what it means to have a "high pain tolerance" (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzm-T_btfa0 ) #2 -- "Mad Jack" -- His weapon ch...
May 25, 2023•32 min•Ep. 137
On March 22nd, 1994, four people were sitting in a circle inside of a dark hotel room. In front of them was a homemade ouija board, which is something people use to try to communicate with the dead. It's basically a rectangular board or paper with letters and numbers on it, as well as the words “yes” and “no” on it. The four people in the hotel room reached out one finger each and placed that finger on a glass cup that was flipped upside down resting in the middle of the board. After looking aro...
May 22, 2023•38 min•Ep. 136
Today's podcast features 3 "underwater diving" horror stories. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "Devil's Hole" -- 2 divers disappear inside an underwater cave (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8swB7qMU7gk ) #2 -- "No Limits" -- An extreme version of an alre...
May 18, 2023•27 min•Ep. 135
In January of 1994, two teenagers were sitting in a bedroom in Texas studying for their one of their classes. At some point, one of the teens picked up a copy of Shakespeare's play called "Hamlet," and began reading lines out loud. And at some point, the teen who was reading read aloud a particularly famous section of the play that deals with death. And at this point, the teen who was listening started rocking back and forth before finally starting to sob. The teen who was reading stopped and as...
May 15, 2023•24 min•Ep. 134
Today’s podcast features 2 stories about people who survived seemingly certain death. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #2 -- "Life Line" -- The Earth equivalent of being lost in outer space (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhgBeoviM8Y ) #1 -- "The Torngats" --&nb...
May 11, 2023•30 min•Ep. 133
Today’s podcast features 3 unique stories that all involve trespassers. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "Grad Night" -- A group of teens lose 1 of their friends at an amusement park (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQFYw9sRGzc ) #2 -- "Under the Pier" -- They ...
May 04, 2023•33 min•Ep. 131
On the night of June 17th, 1977, Chuck Morgan, the father of four young girls, sped down a dark road outside of Tucson, Arizona, and as he drove, he constantly checked his rearview mirror to make sure no one was following him. Chuck was wearing a bulletproof vest, on his hip was a .357 Magnum revolver, and in his pocket was one of his own teeth, wrapped up in tissue paper. And by the end of that night, Chuck would drive his car way out into the desert, and become part of a mystery that has baffl...
May 01, 2023•30 min•Ep. 76
Today’s podcast features 3 stories about people with shared delusions. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "The Weird World" -- A girl believes something is “off” about her family (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUOehfFdj1Y ) #2 -- "Family Road Trip" -- A bizarre and abrupt exit&nbs...
Apr 27, 2023•29 min•Ep. 130
In the early 1990s, a teenager snuck into the barn right outside of his family's property and climbed up into the rafters. Once he was safely tucked away in his secret spot where no one could see him from the floor below, he pulled some rolling papers out of his pocket, along with a bag of marijuana, and rolled a joint. A few minutes later, and he was enjoying a nice high and staring out the nearby window at the moon up above. But as he smoked, he suddenly heard the barn doors opening down below...
Apr 24, 2023•40 min•Ep. 129
Today’s podcast features 2 stories about “dysfunctional families.” The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #2 -- "Morning Routine" -- One of the most brutal true crime cases ever (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUOehfFdj1Y ) #1 -- "Lost Cause" -- 70 year old man makes a SHOCKING confession on Reddit that quickly goes...
Apr 20, 2023•28 min•Ep. 128
On the night of January 16th, 1984, 9-year-old Annie Swartz woke up suddenly to the sound of voices coming from somewhere outside of her door. When she got out of bed and walked into the hallway, she realized those voices were coming from downstairs, and they weren't people talking, they were people screaming at each other. However, just as quickly as the yelling started, it stopped, and the house went quiet. Annie was still curious what was going on, so she tiptoed her way down the stairs, but ...
Apr 17, 2023•37 min•Ep. 127
Today’s story is about a typical middle-class American family that had everything going for them. Mom and dad were still totally in love 25 years after getting married. Their two kids were happy, successful, and poised to do huge things in life. But then, in 2021, it was like things just started to go so badly for this family. It was like they hit this stretch of unfathomably bad luck. But their misfortunes had nothing to do with bad luck. Their misfortunes were the result of someone in their mi...
Apr 13, 2023•36 min•Ep. 126
Colon, Nebraska is one of the smallest and safest towns in America. So, back in June of 2003, when a few Colon residents received a call asking them to check on one of their neighbors, they weren't worried, but they still hurried over to make sure their neighbor was okay. After finding the neighbor's house empty, they wondered if maybe she was in her garage, which was located across the street. But when they entered her garage and flipped on the overhead light, what they discovered was so horrib...
Apr 10, 2023•37 min•Ep. 125
