[Music] back in around 2000 2001 I was driving by myself from visiting my mom in Colorado back to Arizona I was in a station wagon and had a desk my mom had given me that was my grandfather's I've always been scared driving at night this might be because of too many scary movies because my mom's paranoia rubbed off on me I was in the army and drove back and forth a lot to visit her she would get mad at me for sleeping at rest stops or gas stations and would always tell me that eventually something bad is going to happen but someone is going to kidnap me or even kill me but I just didn't want to bother with the hassle and expenses of a motel most of the time I ain't a Gress so I'm driving an empty stretch of highway late at night with no other cars around me this red truck comes up behind me flashing his lights and honking his horn loud I was thinking to myself that there was something wrong with my car or maybe there was something wrong with the desk in the hatchback otherwise why else would he be insisting on me pulling over so I decided to pull over I was in my mid-twenties at a time and still a bit naive while I'm getting out of the car I noticed the car behind me is still flashing his lights and honking his horn I got about to the middle of my car while going to the back to check what was going on when it hit me why is he still honking his horn when I'm already out of my car and pulled over I found out quite odd then I hear the sound of a door open a person stepping out of the car and a door shut [Music] I can't explain this feeling to this day but something just felt wrong I just felt like I should not be there in that moment I jumped back in my car as fast as I could and sped off the next exit was 45 miles away this truck behind me follow me and tire way I took the first exit to go to a crowded grocery store the laundromat next to it there was an ambulance parked in the laundromat when it's light flashing so I decided to park right next to it thinking if an ambulance is present a cop should show up eventually shortly after the same truck with the same guy inside pulls up to the grocery parking lot and parks his truck directly in front of me I was terrified frozen I couldn't bring myself to get out of the car I waited for quite some time until he suddenly as if out of nowhere got up and left after he left I decided to wait longer before continuing my drive back to Arizona I was paranoid and watchful for any red trucks the entire time fast forward about five or six years I'm sitting in front of the TV and watching an unsolved mysteries type of show when a very interesting story pops up one about a man on that exact same stretch of highway with a red truck the men who used to honk his horn and flashes lights until random strangers will pull over so he could kidnap and murder them I can only think my god for telling me something is wrong and making me get out of that situation I try not to think what would happen otherwise I was washing my daughter's kids while she and her husband went out of town they have a teenage daughter named Alyssa it was around 3 a.m. when I woke up by a weird rustling sound look out of the window and saw movement I saw boy emerged from the bushes on the other side of the house I saw bike tossed on the lawn that definitely was not ours my first thought was that it was a burglar Kacie houses but since he looked young and came through on a bike I figured scaring him straight would be enough for him to decide to hit home so I went out in the porch flipped the lights on and said can I help you in my classroom voice the guy looked surprised but not nervous he was wearing a letterman style jacket I once I got a clear view of him in the streetlight he seemed much older than my granddaughter gruff and more wiry than athletic he walked up close to the house and said yes I'm looking for Alyssa I gave him a disapproving glare hoping he'd realized he came looking for a girl late at night and a grumpy old person answered and said and that now it's time to slit I was thinking what must have happened is that Alyssa knew her parents were going out of town and maybe before she knew I'd be staying over she's told a secret older boyfriend to come over it was late and I was alone with several kids so I didn't want him coming any closer to the house I also thought it was a bit weird that he came this late and wanted to be sure alissa actually wanted to talk to him I'm sorry who I said ELISA he said Russell amber this is her house this showed me he knew her last name they must be at least friends I asked him to wait and the porch he started to walk up and I just felt this sick feeling in my gut instinct kicked him I yelled no stop this is a private property and you will wait right there I close the door get to Alyssa's room and wake her up saying something along the lines of I don't know what the big idea was to have friends over at this time a night but you can go ahead and tell them to go home she looked at me as if she has no clue what I'm talking about I said there's a guy outside passing for you confused she gets up and goes to the window she sees him and turns white as a sheet he asks for me yes by name yes call the police I've never seen him in my life I grabbed the phone and called 9-1-1 immediately but as I was on the phone with them ELISA started tugging at my arm he's coming up I had younger kids in the house to think about so I slightly opened the door just enough to yell out and saying that I spoke to my husband and none of us know any ELISA leave the property or I'm calling 911 the men got angry and started yelling for her to come out thankfully the police came pretty quickly and as soon as the men heard the sirens he grabbed his bike and took off I watched him pull up next to a car with no front headlights or plates and speed off the police followed in the same direction but couldn't find a thing not the bike or the car they then advised us to take a listen social media details offline completely who knows what was waiting for Alyssa inside that car [Music] my best friend is an influencer not big time rather big enough following to get free [ __ ] and has gotten to sponsor trips she still works a full-time job but does the Instagram thing on the side mostly because of the perks she's not big enough to live off of this yet anyways this was her first trip a little boutique hotel from Miami contacted her via Instagram DM and offered her an all-expenses-paid trip to Miami for Memorial weekend 2018 in exchange for her to be in the hotel and take pictures and do a couple of stories she was told she could bring a female friend with her if she wanted to and that everything would be covered for that friend as well this was her first time doing this so at the time she wasn't really sure of how it worked they sent her a bogus contract for her to sign and it said should be responsible for paying for her plane ticket to Miami and that should be reimbursed for it later this was to prevent the no-show meaning the influencer will get a ticket purchased by the hotel and the influencer will never show it seemed reasonable my friend chose to invite me we figured it shouldn't be a big deal in worst case scenario they don't want to pay for my plane ticket and she just cover it for me and that's that we were supposed to be picked up by the hotel at the airport so the day comes and we arrived to Miami there's a guy holding a sign with her name and the paper has the hotel logo we are greeted and were escorted to a black SUV here is where he gets weird as soon as we are getting on the car the driver is visibly upset we thought he was talking to the guy who walked us over to the car but he was talking to my friend he had a very thick accent and was wearing dark shades he was telling my friend that she's not allowed to bring her boyfriend me and that she said it was two girls two girls the hotel told me two girls not one girl and one guy two girls he was demanding to see where the other girl was we were speechless and Confused the guy who walked us to the car looked annoyed and started to fight with a driver in Portuguese then he turns to us and asks us where the other girl is my friend which is visibly upset right now tells him that there is no other girl and that she is the person they were supposed to pick up for the Instagram deal and that I'm just a friend who's coming along with her on this trip the big guy who sat in the passenger seat the guy who walked us to the car gets out of the car tosses our luggage out of it and says something along the lines of this is some [ __ ] [ __ ] gets in the car and they take off and that was it we were in shock utter in complete shock my friend immediately emails Melissa the PR person who we had been in contact through email with to tell her what happened no response we decided to take a cab and show up to the hotel as soon as we showed up everything made sense the hotel had been rebranded it had a completely different name owner and staff we walked in and showed her stuff the Instagram page which they agreed was indeed the Instagram page of the hotel he used to be but not the new one this Instagram account had more than 10,000 followers and seemed quite real however upon further inspection we realized the pictures and uploads were quite old my friend felt like an idiot and would not stop crying we called the police met up with a detective nothing ever came out of it they investigated who was running the account before or who had access to it none of the people who used to run the account and anything to do with it nothing ever came out of this it's upsetting and scary to know that whoever wanted to abduct my friend or any other girls by using this old Hotel Instagram account knows who my friend is the hotel's Instagram page has since been deleted and we never heard anything from anyone ever again but to think my friend would have been kidnapped had she gone with another girl instead of me since chills down my spine [Music] [Music] life isn't easy when you're a single college student especially when you're a guide a 21 year old South Korean to be exact Neil struck out pretty often even more frustrating was that I was reasonably handsome I stayin in shape my round face accentuated by my spiked black hair with the boom of kpop I figured I'd be causing a mass hysteria like the Beatles but that wasn't the case I stayed alone in my dorm and this December night no different but I started the computer tonight was slow in the dating apps drunk and frustrated I went into emergency mode searching for a fresh new dating app shivering in the cold I stole a glance at my clothes dorm door and then my phone I found it a brand new dating app with a four star rating eat your heart out it was called so with nothing left to lose I downloaded the app and made an account almost immediately a notification box popped up allow eat your heart out to access your location while you are using the app of course I hit yes standard stuff for those kind of apps before I could even sell the scene I had to make a brief bio upload some photos slog through the validation process as if I were undergoing a medical exam my phone then jolted to life over and over notifications poured in rather than excitement I felt disappointed master BOTS I figured not even the ugly girls were desperately waiting on new members I clicked on my profile pic the shirtless photo was now getting countless likes countless comments intrigued I strolled through them and in the chilling loneliness I became unnerved he looks yummy the middle-aged dad said I were to call into that group slamed a soccer mom battling the unease I looked around the dorm for once I was allowed to be alone another vibration pulled me back to the app looks like we're having Chinese tonight said a bearded country guy angry I replied to him on Korean [ __ ] more comments arrived young and tasty I'll be sure to eat the heart out now I got ready to delete the damn thing until a new comment caught my eye I'm on the way for you said a muscular man panicking I went to the local stage there my profile pic stood in the corner of the single seat the middle of this menu a smaller caption under my pic read 10 miles away FSU campus asila hall room 17 that was my exact location trembling I went to my messages for once the flooded inbox gave me fear rather than excitement who went first can't wait to meet you I was speechless scared beyond belief then the brutal bug hit my door I turned to face it then several other knocks I resisted the idea of her nanny box for a long long time it seemed inhumane to me and I guess if I'm being honest it felt like an admission of failure as a father we shouldn't have needed the help we should have been able to afford the right sort of care we should have been able to make the necessary time but life is hard and compromise comes easier and easier as you get older besides everyone else was doing it it was the only option most of us can afford so when Julian was four months old we bought a nanny box and that's when Julian who spent his days well Harriet and I worked there's no way to know what it's really like inside the box the advertisements made it all sound very stimulating it's supposedly very merciful and comforting for a small child stimulating all the usual inputs a child that age needs beaming the information directly into the brain and provided food it kept your baby clean and it was tested they said it was safe most importantly however there was Julian who remained our happy alert boy meaning every development benchmark right on schedule it wasn't until Julian's first word that we began to understand what we'd done we were eating Julian in his highchair Harriet held out this phone and said say mama Julian's expression changed so slightly his mouth curled in unfamiliar ways Sam some he replied Harriet blinked mama she said samsung said Julian a little more forcefully Samsung 4k Julian giggled and clocked we both tried to pass it off as a case of monkey-see monkey-do but Julian got older and more talkative and he never learned to say mama or Dada Julian how are you today we asked build a website with Squarespace he said smiling so bright behind the eyes Julian what's my name I asked sharp wayfarer for home decor on a budget he says so sure of himself there were lawsuits of course we were part of one of the bigger class-action suits but the truth is that no amount of money would ever bring back Julian's mind there's no way to undo the mistakes that we made they say there are something like 400,000 box babies in the United States alone you may see one from time to time you'll say hello and they'll say shopped at all evaluating from McDonald's you'll say have a nice day and they'll say a great day starts with Jimmy Dean microwavable breakfast you'll say I love you son and they'll say standing motor smiles with capital one today over time you learn to just smile when that happens after all it's not their fault [Music] breakings aren't uncommon I've worked at a park for ten years and I can tell you for a fact that teams slipping through the chain links and taking the aqua loop for a midnight joyride is a regular occurrence standard procedure is to clean up the mess and get on with it it's hardly an end of the day scenario this latest incident the trouble amounted to replacing a broken padlock on one of their perimeter gates and scrubbing a couple of muddy blue prints from the mouth of one of the tube sites feeding into the main pool like I said British standard procedure we checked the security tapes guy with a duffel bag entered then left four hours later we figured he was probably getting high and jerking off to National Enquirer clippings or whatever it is methods do in their downtime in a park that serves around a thousand kids daily solving that mystery wasn't exactly our top priority Park opened up like normal nice summer's day I was standing next to the main pool lifeguard duty just making sure all the kids are safe it's largely a dull uneventful job soin raj one of our security officers approached me and struck up a conversation it was a welcome break hey he said holding out something that glinted when the Sun check this [ __ ] out founder on the grass near the gate health and safety hazard don't you think he was showing me a razor blade [ __ ] I said good cash flood hate to see someone to step on that Raj nodded then there was this Tribble echoing scream from inside the tube slide I don't think I'll ever forget it just the animal Yelp of desperate fear and pain as a kid skin bright red in a tale of bloody water came trembling out into the main pool they were shaking then shrieking I swear to god it was the stuff of nightmares it's a little girl and when I get a hold of her you see her skin opening up all over her body and these long ragged gashes she's shaking completely in shock in pain bleeding everywhere everyone in the pool is hysteric as I'm carrying her over to the medical Bay I can't help but think about that tiny little razor blade Raj showed me now let me ask you a question do you have any idea how many of those things someone can super glue to the inside of a water slide in for uninterrupted hours because now I sure as hell [Music] you a quick fact for you for those who are living under a rock there are different time zones so different countries get into 2020 first at first New Zealand then some of Russia then Australia they all got into the new year they all went dark the satellite feeds showed zero light coming from them as soon as the clock had turned twelve no one knows what to do and is more and more countries going to the new year the more go dark it's about two hours from midnight here and everyone is freaking out I work at air traffic control and planes have been going off radar all day we've been waiting for reports of crashed planes but none have came up all the flights have been grounded and canceled until further notice so we're just waiting up here looking at the radar and calling our families to say our possible goodbyes the phone lights have gone down to those places two people have been caught off mid phone call as the person on the other line went into the New Year there wasn't even an answering machine only the classic worse re-recorded message which means the phone line no longer exists the news don't know what to do so the government put out an emergency broadcast but Washington went out before they could actually do so we've been looking around different web sites and see that even neighbors through different time zones across the street go dark to crunch the time hits a co-worker said that his friend walked across the zone and just vanished but I'm taking that with a grain of salt there is nothing we can do but just sit and wait for the inevitable I just hope that whatever happens when the clock strikes 12:00 is better than what we had last year [Music] [Music]