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[Applause]

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welcome to the best of first person

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episodes of phantoms and monsters

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please like subscribe and hit the bell

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so you'll be notified of all future

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uploads

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the dark walker when i was a boy my

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mother and i lived with my grandfather

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who had a farmhouse in a rural location

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in southwestern pennsylvania

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my grandfather was a handyman who also

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worked a small blacksmith shop in his

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old barn

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my grandmother had died before i was

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born and my father had also passed away

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while serving overseas in the u.s army

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beginning in the summer of 1946 we

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noticed strange howling sounds coming

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from the woods that surrounded the

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property

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the activity came at night and was very

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frightening when the howling came close

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the sounds didn't seem to bother my

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grandfather though my mother and i were

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shaken when it would begin

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the sounds continued off and on for

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about a year but we never noticed any

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animals

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my grandfather and i would hunt for deer

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and squirrel in the woods during the

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colder months but we never saw signs of

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unusual animal activity

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one late afternoon in the spring of 1947

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i was helping my grandfather in his shop

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when i noticed something moving around

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the edge of the woods near an area where

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my grandfather had a few jump cars and

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other items

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it was about 200 feet from our location

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but i clearly noticed someone or

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something moving around

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i told my grandfather to look he walked

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to the door

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lit his pipe and said nothing after a

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minute or two he turned around and got

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back to work

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about that time this thing moved into

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the woods and disappeared

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i couldn't judge how big it was but it

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sort of reminded me of a magazine

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picture i had seen of a large ape that

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was said to inhabit in the asian jungles

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later that evening i told my mother what

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i had seen she was shocked because she

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knew i wouldn't lie to her and that the

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howling sounds had been closer lately

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i also told her of my grandfather's

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response when i pointed the creature out

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to him

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she immediately stood up and walked into

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the sitting room in order to ask my

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grandfather what it was

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he started to shake his head slowly and

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said that he was hoping that we wouldn't

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see it

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because he was worried we would be

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scared and leave him after assuring him

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that we'd never leave him my mother

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again

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insisted that he tell us what this

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creature was he looked away

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took a deep breath and said it's a dark

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walker and said that it had lived in the

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woods for many years

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he said the native indians called it

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stone spirit and they thought that it

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was an evil spirit who would appear when

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someone was about to die

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the last time he had seen the dark

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walker was the night before my

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grandmother died

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my mother was skeptical of the harbinger

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of death angle but she sensed that there

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was something unnatural nearby

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the howling continued each night though

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we hadn't seen any signs of the dark

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walker

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one warm evening we were sitting on the

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back porch there were a few howls but it

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seemed like the sounds were further away

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we were listening to the radio when all

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at once my grandfather stood up and

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looked out towards the barn

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he turned to me and said john go get my

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pistol and ammo

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hurry now i ran into the sitting room

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and grabbed the 455 webley revolver and

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a handful of bullets from the old

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steamer trunk

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i handed it to him and watched him load

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the gun he then picked up a hatchet and

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slid it in his pants belt

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now both of you get into the house now

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we were in the kitchen looking through

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the screen door and watched my

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grandfather walk slowly towards the barn

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we saw him turn and walk out of sight

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into the dark i decided to grab my

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shotgun and keep it nearby

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after my neuter so we heard three

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gunshots and a blood-curdling scream

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emanate from the woods near the barn

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then it suddenly stopped and there was

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complete quiet we were frozen and

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wondering if we should go look for my

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grandfather

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a few seconds later we heard him yell

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stay in the house until i come back

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i heard the pickup truck start up i

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looked out the storage room window and

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saw my grandfather drive to the back of

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the barn and park

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several minutes later he backed up and

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drove by the side of the house out onto

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the road

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i could see that there was something in

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the back covered up with a tarp

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it was getting late so my mother told me

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to go to bed

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the next morning i came downstairs and

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sat beside my grandfather

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who was reading the newspaper and

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drinking a cup of coffee

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my mother was sitting at the other end

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of the table staring at my grandfather

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not long later she said well dad tell

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him my grandfather put the paper down

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and looked at me

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i killed the dark walker that was all he

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said my mother told me not to tell

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anyone and that the matter was closed

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we never talked about it again my

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grandfather lived another 15 years and

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my mother stayed with him until his

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dying day

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when i grew older i moved away and

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raised a family i would return home to

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visit each summer

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did the loveland frogman return we

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bought a little house down by the

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loveland castle museum back in 2000

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it was perched above a ravine in creek

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and the back of the house dropped off

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very steeply

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there would have been enough room for a

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man or a bipedal person to

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stand behind the house but the basement

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windows were eye level

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and the first floor was quite far up

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from the place where one could stand

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the reason i point this out is that

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because it was a very small house

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we had to use the basement for our two

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boys bedroom

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they kept complaining that something

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kept looking in the window at the man my

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husband and i laughed it off at first

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it was a wooded setting very rural and

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beautiful and very dark at night

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having no street lights out there so it

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seemed funny that they were thinking

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something was watching them

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we just told them maybe it was a deer

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they are plentiful in the fall

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and went about our business one night

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however

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i woke hearing a weird sound just

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outside our bedroom window on the first

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floor

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it faced out back of the house and i was

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puzzled as to what it could be because

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it sounded like a man

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breathing heavily i started to sit up

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and realize that whatever it was

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it was looking in my window just inches

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from my head

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and i was terrified i did not look out

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because i knew that i would see it

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and i kept feeling something urging me

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to look we often would hear squeaking

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noises

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screeching not like an owl and a crying

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baby

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i woke my husband up and he said

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whatever it was

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it would have had to be ten feet tall to

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look in our window

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i couldn't sleep that night but whatever

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had been there had moved on

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i didn't mention it to the kids the next

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day the boys came

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up from the basement shaken from seeing

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the red glowing eyes the night before

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they were every bit as big as red road

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reflectors and they heard heavy

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breathing

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and the hair on their bodies stood up on

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end this was only one experience we had

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out there in loveland

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it's right down by the little miami

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river only a stone's throw

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many weird things out there green glows

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orbs something very large and black on

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top of the roof of the house very late

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at night

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when light was shown on it it did not go

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through whatever it was on the roof

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and it looked like a huge dark figure

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i'd like to know if you have any more

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weird stories about this

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area we moved a few miles away but still

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go past that area often

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fall smelling dear man encountered in

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northeast arkansas

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this happened to me in january 2014 on a

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back road in northeast arkansas

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at the time i was a newspaper delivery

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driver i picked up my papers from the

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press usually at 12

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15 am and it was a 45 minute drive to

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get to the start of my route

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at the time i was a cigarette smoker so

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after i backed up enough newspapers to

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sustain my route for a while i'd light

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up a cigarette and roll the window down

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being cold i tried to keep it up as much

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as possible because my car back then

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didn't have ac

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there's a really long stretch of gravel

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road called old military road near

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harrisburg arkansas

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on the left side of the road are mostly

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houses and on the right is fence posts

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and open pasture with barns and troughs

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for horses and cows

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it is in the middle of nowhere though

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there are no streetlights

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some people have floodlights in their

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yard so i'm driving along with my

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windows down smoking a cigarette

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it's about 2 2 30 a.m and begins

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smelling a combination of burning hair

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and urine

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like not a mixture of the two but one

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and also the other

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it isn't a great smell i toss the

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cigarette and roll my window up but can

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still smell whatever this awful smell is

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the further i go down the road the worse

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the smell gets

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usually see some of the cows sleeping

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outside your horses chilling sometimes

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but nothing tonight so i know that i'm

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not the only one that picked up on

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something being weird that night

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as i'm coming up to a fork in the road i

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have to take the left

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there is a big open field to the far

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right i see what looks like a man

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with a deer's head it was too dark for

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me to tell whether it was a man wearing

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a deer skull or an actual human deer

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cross

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but it was definitely the source of the

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whatever the smell was

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it scared the fck out of me and i didn't

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want to hang out long enough to figure

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out exactly what it was

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to my perception he was a shoulder

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height seven feet tall

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the head probably added a foot of height

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i don't know but he was massive

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they were definitely deer antlers and

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the smell was disgusting

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i saw him stretch his arms imagine

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flexing your arms and chest by making a

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white sea with your arms

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his movement for the two to three

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seconds i saw him look to be human

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i found a new chop by late january and

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started by february

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was not interested in ever being out in

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that area again creepy dear man

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this is lon strickler if you like this

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program

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it would help us if you would give it a

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thumbs up

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then subscribe and click the bell icon

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so you

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get notification when we upload new

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first person encounters

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we have many more to come very soon and

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by the way if you have a suggestion