Scary True Stories Told In The Rain | Ep. 492

Scary Stories and Rain

This episode features an anthology of terrifying true stories ranging from paranormal encounters to violent criminal events. The narrator re

Key takeaways

• The Whaley House in San Diego is noted for historical tragedies including hangings and shootings.
• A 2008 Detroit 911 call led to the rescue of two sisters kidnapped by Derek Smith.

Main topics

• Haunted landmarks
• 911 emergency rescues

Notable quotes

There is no afterwards.

Conclusion

A chilling collection of accounts that highlight the thin line between

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain. Do you want to listen ad-free? Just subscribe on Spotify for $2.99 a month. Now turn out the lights, enjoy the stories, and enjoy the rain. This story is 100 % true, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about this terrifying experience. This happened a couple of weeks ago. I live in San Diego, and for those of you who don't know, there is a place there called Old Town. Old Town was a settlement from 1821 through 1872. It lost its dominant position downtown and became a tourist site. There is a lot to see, but one of the biggest attractions is the Whaley House. It is also known as one of the most haunted places in San Diego, and there were many tragedies and violent deaths in the house and in the courtyard. These are a few of the events that took place there. A man was hung in the courtyard. A young girl ran into a low-hanging clothesline and broke her neck. A woman ended her life by shooting herself in the head, and Thomas Whaley himself died in the home. Moving on to the story. It was around 2 a.m., and my friends and I decided that it would be a good idea to sneak into the back of the Whaley house and have a drink in the courtyard. In the courtyard, there are very tall hedges, but the bottom of the hedges has about a foot open so you can see through them. While we were drinking, I had the brilliant idea to tell scary stories. At the beginning of our time there, nothing happened. We took a break from the stories and decided to shotgun some beers. All of a sudden, we heard what sounded like metal dragging across the brick pathway on the other side of the hedges. I looked through the open space and saw what looked to be men's shoes walking down the path with a sharp object. Then it disappeared behind a wall where the hedges ended. I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me, so I turned to my friends. Their faces showed me that they were in utter shock, eyes wide and their mouths slightly hanging open. I asked, did everyone else see that? and everyone did a slow nod. We were all waiting to see if anyone came out of the other side of the wall. No one did, and the sound stopped. I once again looked at my friends and caught a glimpse of a silhouette out of the corner of my eye. I jerked my head in the direction of the shadow, and my friends turned to see what I was looking at. A chill went down my spine. Near a lamppost, there was a silhouette of a large man. I was unable to speak. Everyone was completely silent. All of us stared at the figure for what felt like an eternity. He started walking slowly toward us. I was paralyzed and in disbelief. He stepped into the light of another lamppost that was only about ten feet away. He was a very large man dressed in olden day clothes, holding what looked like to be a noose in one hand and a sword in the other. He let out a blood-curdling scream and yelled out, Get out. Right after he yelled, a huge gust of wind hit us, almost knocking us off our feet. We turned and ran as fast as we could, looking back to see if he was following us. He wasn't. He was just staring at us as we ran as fast as we could, head turned to the side with a huge smile on his face. We got to the car and practically jumped inside. I locked the door and turned to look into the backseat at my friends. My heart was racing, and it was hard to breathe. All of a sudden, one of my friends yelled, Oh my gosh, turn on the car and go! I turned around to start the car and saw the man speedwalking towards us. A sword in one hand and a noose in the other. My friends were yelling, Go, go, go! I attempted to turn on the car, but my hands were shaking and I kept fumbling with the keys. I finally got the engine started. When I looked up, he was standing right in front of the car, holding up the noose and smiling. I put the car in reverse, slammed my foot on the gas pedal, and peeled out of there. While I was driving out of the dirt parking lot, I looked back, and the man was gone. The worst part is, I loved going to Old Town, but I don't think I'll be able to go back for a while, and I will never go there at night again. Speaker 1 (5:21) In January of 2008, a 911 dispatch center in Detroit, Michigan received a terrifying call from a cell phone somewhere in the city. But when the operator answers, asking what the caller's emergency is, it initially seemed like there was no one on the other end. But this is not a classic accidental case of butt-dialing 911, as the horrified dispatcher began to hear something hideously unnerving. coming from the other end of the line. Let us go, a female voice screamed. Hello, is there anyone there? The dispatcher asked frantically, but still, there is no direct reply. However, what she heard next made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. So you're gonna kill us and then put us in the trunk? I'm not gonna kill you. I'm not going to put you in the trunk. A voice is heard to say. It's a gruff male voice, full of malice. Then what about afterwards? The female on the other end of the line is heard to ask. Speaker 1 (6:34) There is no afterwards, comes the ominous reply. The dispatcher then heard the man mention something about going to prison forever, then something sexual, along with another garbled piece of speech that seemed to reference some kind of murder weapon. The dispatcher acted fast. Since the call was coming from a cell phone, the dispatcher was able to make a note of the longitude and latitude that the call was being received from, before passing the information along to their lieutenant. The coordinates showed it was coming from Pinewood Street, near Hoyt, in the city of Detroit. But suddenly, the phone call cuts out and the dispatcher feared the worst. Yet thankfully, just minutes later, another call came in from the same number. with the same girl crying in the background. Only this time, it came with a different set of coordinates. This happened over and over again, a repeating cycle of calls and hang-ups, until police were able to fix the cell phone at a stationary location, immediately sending units out to patrol nearby streets. I'm not trying to sneak out! The same girl screamed in the background of yet another call. Don't hit me, please. I'm sorry. Just please don't hit me again. The dispatcher who received the call worked frantically to relay as many details as was possible to nearby units, listening intently for anything that could end up saving the girl's life. But all he could hear is a girl screaming, over and over again, as if suffering through an ungodly amount of pain. Then suddenly... Switch off the hazard lights. The male on the other end of the line begins to roar. In a flash, the dispatcher relays the information to nearby police units, quickly telling them to look for a stationary vehicle with its hazard lights flashing. Help us, please help us. The girl begins to scream, seeming like she can actually see police officers from wherever she is. A wave of relief washes over the dispatcher at the next thing he hears, over his radio contact with the Detroit Police Department. Unlock the car! Police officers! Unlock the car now! They scream. Show me your hands! Don't move! Do not move! The girls are heard screaming. There is a brief scuffle as the kidnapper is put into cuffs, while the dispatcher listens the entire time. One of the girls had managed to call 911, while keeping her cell phone hidden in a pocket to hide the fact that she had attempted to contact emergency services. This is what helped guide the police onto their location, probably saving their lives. We have this under control, an officer is then heard to say. Thank you, dispatch. Then both the radios and the cell phone go quiet. East Point and Detroit police took the suspected predator, a man by the name of Derek Smith, immediately into custody. Smith had apparently only just gotten out of prison just a few months before, after serving a prison sentence for sexual assault. The two women that police found kidnapped in his vehicle were actually sisters, who said they had met Derek Smith that very same evening at a local nightclub. And it was down to the quick thinking of one of them, as well as the actions of the 911 dispatcher that received their call, that their torturous kidnap and assault was cut short. before Smith had time to do any permanent injury. It's an ironic twist that today's seemingly intrusive surveillance technology is not used for society's detriment, and that the same technology that can be used to infringe on human rights can actually be used to preserve human life as well. So right when I was fresh out of college, I managed to land myself a job with an engineering firm over in Pennsylvania. It kind of sucked having to move away from Rochester, New York, where all my friends and family were, but the salary this firm was offering was so sweet, I just couldn't turn it down. So I went online, and got looking for apartments just outside of Philly, eventually finding an advert from a guy who was looking for a roommate for his super swanky apartment. I mean this place was really nice, and I could get why the guy would be looking for a roommate to split the rent with. especially since he seemed to be a younger dude who was probably in a similar position I was. However, I didn't have the time to drive down to actually look at the place or meet the guy in person, so I pretty much made all of the arrangements by phone, which maybe, now that I look back on it, was my first big mistake. So I move in with this guy Daryl, who was super chill, and pretty much spent all day playing 2K since he worked