Pale Crawlers: Reddit Creation or Historical Nightmare?

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[instrumental music] Just before 11
o'clock on the night of July 31st, 2021, a
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man driving north on Highway 210 in
Pender County, North Carolina, called 911
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to report an injured man on the side of
the road.
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Seconds later, something landed in the bed
of his pickup truck, and the dispatcher
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heard him start screaming, "That's not
human." That recording is real. The
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sheriff's office said so. And the thing he
described, pale, stretched, and far too
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thin, looks almost exactly like a monster
that a bunch of anonymous strangers
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supposedly made up on an internet message
board 16 years earlier. So, either a lot
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of people are seeing something that
doesn't exist, or somebody on the internet
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described something that already did.
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I'm Karen Lane. Welcome
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to The InBetween. [instrumental music]
Most people call them
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crawlers or pale crawlers because of the
way they move, low to the ground on all
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fours, fast. The descriptions shift a
little from witness to witness, but the
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core stays creepily consistent. Hairless,
grayish white skin pulled tight over the
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bones, long spindly limbs, dark sunken
eyes, and a habit of showing up at the
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edge of your headlights or the edge of the
tree line, and then doing things no
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animal should do. Today, we're walking
through some of the most unsettling
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crawler encounters on record. A teenager
alone at his family's cabin on Lake
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Superior, a moose video out of Quebec with
a cameo appearance nobody noticed until
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later,
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that 911 call, and a miner in the
Northwest Territories of Canada who went
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hunting for the thing that chased his
truck.
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And
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we're gonna tackle the elephant in the
room.
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The most common argument against crawlers
is that the internet invented them. We
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know the year. We know the website. It's a
pretty good argument. But don't think for
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a second that the other side doesn't have
good arguments too.
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And stick around, 'cause I've saved a
piece of security camera footage out of
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California for last. It's been around
since 2007, and it still makes me lean a
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little closer
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every time I watch it.
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So, let's start this crawler party by
diving into the deep end with an encounter
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story that sparked this whole episode. It
comes to us thanks to the Dark Wilderness
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channel. If you haven't found his channel
yet, go take a look. You will not be
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disappointed.
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The encounter was submitted by a guy named
Chris who grew up in the woods. His
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family owned a cabin in northeastern
Minnesota, right on the western shore of
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Lake Superior. When they weren't at the
cabin, they were camping off-grid, as far
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away from other people as they could get.
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His parents taught him how to take care of
himself in the woods, and they spent so
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much time at the cabin that it was like a
second home to Chris. He loved it there.
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He knew every tree, trail, and track
around. The summer after he graduated high
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school, around the year 2000, Chris had
no idea what he wanted to do with his
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life, so he made his parents an offer. The
cabin needed a new deck and a new roof.
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He said, "I'll go up and do all of it if
you stay off my back about finding a
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better job." His parents said, "You got
yourself a deal," and Chris headed to the
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cabin for the summer. Pretty sure he got
the better end of that deal.
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Now, the cabin has neighbors in kind of
this loose-knit development, and a lot of
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those neighbors are Chris's aunts and
uncles. It's the kind of place where
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everybody knows everybody. But that first
week he's there, it's just him. So he
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spends his days working on the deck and
his evenings by the fire,
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looking out at the lake.
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Pure existential perfection.
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And then
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little things start happening.
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He'll leave something outside at night,
and in the morning, it's across the yard
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or in the woods. He chalks it up to the
wind or a raccoon with sticky fingers,
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until the ax.
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He'd left a pretty big ax sunk into a log
out back. The next morning,
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it's gone.
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He finally finds it about 100 feet into
the woods from the back door,
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not on the ground,
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buried in the trunk of a tree
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about seven feet up.
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His first thought is that it's gotta be
one of his buddies messing with him. So he
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hops on his bike and rides the whole
development. Cabin after cabin, nobody's
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home, until the very last road, where he
finds his cousin Sarah has just come up
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with a friend.
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Chris asks her point blank, "Did you bury
my ax in a tree?"
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She says, "Good to see you too, and I have
no idea what you're talking about. We
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just got here this morning." They chat a
little longer, and she invites him over
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the next night for a movie and a bonfire.
And Chris says yes, because he has a
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little bit of a crush on her friend.
Priorities. Later that evening, around
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8:00-ish, he's sitting in the gazebo when
something catches his eye. Movement in the
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trees. Looks like a person, and Chris
thinks, "Gotcha." He starts calling out,
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"Very funny. Come on out, have a beer. I'm
not even mad."
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Nothing. He walks the 200 yards down to
the lake for a better look, scanning the
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trees the whole way. Nobody. Once he gets
to the lake, something feels off. The air
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is heavy. It's too quiet. He stood in this
spot like a hundred times, and it's never
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felt like this. "Huh? Okay."
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He doesn't see anybody, so he turns around
to go back. He gets to maybe 200 feet
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away, and he sees somebody moving around
the side of the cabin. He books it back to
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the cabin and around the corner where he
saw them. Nobody.
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That's the moment it stops feeling like a
prank. If it were one of his friends,
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they'd have taken the free beer by now. He
goes inside, locks the door, and
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eventually falls asleep on the couch.
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At about 2:00 AM, he wakes up to a sound
at the front door.
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Someone is turning [doorknob jiggling] the
doorknob. He's up off that couch before
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he's even fully awake. He yanks the blinds
open.
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Nobody.
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He hits the floodlights and the Christmas
lights running down the driveway, and the
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whole yard lights up like a stadium.
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Nobody. The next morning, he takes his
dad's 12-gauge out of the closet, loads a
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couple of rounds of buckshot, and walks
the property.
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Nothing has been touched. He rides back to
Sarah's, a lot less casually this time.
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If this is a joke, it isn't funny, 'cause
he's actually scared.
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Sarah swears they've been inside the whole
time.
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That night, he goes back to Sarah's for
the bonfire anyway. Around 1:00 in the
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morning, he decides he probably should
head home. If somebody really is trying to
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get into his cabin, he wants to be there.
Sarah offers him a ride, but he says no,
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he's got his bike.
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She offers him a flashlight, but he turns
that down too. He doesn't need one. He's
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ridden these trails in the dark a thousand
times.
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There's a full moon that night, so Chris
does what he's always done. He doesn't
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look at the ground. He looks up at the gap
in the tree canopy, which shows you
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exactly where the trail goes.
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He gets through the first short trail,
then a half mile of gravel road, and then
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onto a second trail. This one runs well
over three-quarters of a mile. Hilly,
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rocky, thick brush, but no big deal. He
knows it by heart.
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Partway through, there's a little bridge
over a stream, and as he rolls onto it,
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something in him says, "Stop." He can't
explain it. He just knows he needs to stop
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and listen.
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It's quiet. Not unusual for that time of
night, but this particular quiet doesn't
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sit right.
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After about 30 seconds,
[footsteps crunching] he hears something
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walking in the woods,
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something on two legs.
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But the rhythm is wrong. It isn't step,
step.
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It's step and then drag, like one leg is
being pulled through the leaves behind the
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other.
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So he calls out, "Hello?"
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And almost immediately,
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something answers him
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in his own
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voice.
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Chris is gone, pedaling as hard as he can
down the pitch-black, rocky trail, doing
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his best to stay focused and concentrate
on the gaps in the treetops, trying not to
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hit any one of the million things that
could send him over the handlebars. He can
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hear whatever this thing is running
through the trees, pacing him.
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Chris starts screaming for help. And
whatever is out there screams, "Help,"
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right back
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in his voice,
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then in Sarah's voice,
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then in his parents' voices.
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He's maybe 300 yards from the road when
the thing cuts out of the trees and steps
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into the middle of the trail in front of
him. He brakes hard, and the bike skids
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sideways and stops 10 or 12 feet away. And
Chris can't help but get a good
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look at it, and it is definitely
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not a person. It's about six feet tall,
but hunched over like it's sick. It's
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emaciated, long, skinny arms, long, skinny
legs,
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no hair at all. It turns its head toward
him, and in the moonlight, he can see its
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eyes, dark and sunken into its skull.
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Then it opens its mouth,
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rows of sharp teeth,
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and it starts to talk. "Help me. Help me.
Help me."
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This sends Chris into a whole new level of
panic. He abandons the trail and goes
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off-roading through the woods, over logs
and rocks, and the whole time behind him,
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he can hear it. "Help me.
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Help me." He finally bursts through onto
the gravel road and looks back. The thing
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is standing on the road, just standing
there. And when Chris is about 50 yards
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from his driveway, it starts sprinting
straight at him. He screams, [screams]
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pedals faster till he gets to the house,
dumps the bike at the back deck stairs,
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fumbles the key into the lock,
[lock clicks] slams the door behind him,
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and rips the blinds open.
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Nothing there.
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He stands at that window for an hour
before his body finally gives out and he
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falls asleep.
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The next day, he doesn't leave the cabin.
The day after that, his parents, who are
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coming up for the weekend, pull in the
driveway.
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Chris beelines it out of the cabin, climbs
into the back of his dad's truck, and
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tells them, "We have to go
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now." He tells them everything that
happened, but
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they don't believe him.
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They stay the whole weekend anyway, and
Chris doesn't set foot outside. He's been
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back to that cabin since this happened,
but never after dark. To this day, he will
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not go into the woods after dark. So,
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if these things are really out there,
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you gotta ask,
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has anyone ever caught it on camera?
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And the answer is
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yes,
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and I'm gonna show it to you. But you know
my favorite thing about cryptid videos? A
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lot of people don't even see the thing
when they film it. They only notice it
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later watching it back, which honestly
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is my camera roll every December.
[upbeat music] All year long, I snap
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pictures of gift ideas, a scarf in a shop
window, a book my sister would love.
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Then December comes, I scroll back, and
there it is, lurking between 400 pictures
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of our dogs. And I have no idea who it was
for.
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Don't even get me started on the gifts I
buy early and hide. They do exactly what
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crawlers do, they vanish, and then they
turn up in the back of the linen closet in
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March.
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A while back,
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Mr. In Between got tired of hearing me
complain about all this, so he built me an
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app called Gift Flow. And big news, it's
finally on iPhone.
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Every person on your list gets their own
spot, add the photo, add the link, and
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that gift idea is filed under the person
it's for. Then
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you just move it along.
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Idea, bought, arrived, wrapped, given,
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so you always know what's hiding where.
And it's not just Christmas. Birthdays,
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anniversaries, the whole year. Nothing
sneaks up on you like something at the
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edge of your headlights.
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The core app is free. No ads, no account,
no login. It all lives on your phone and
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nowhere else. Scan the QR code on the
screen or hit the link in the description.
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It'll figure out if you're on iPhone or
Android and send you to the right place.
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[chime] Because this year, the only
mystery lurking in your camera roll should
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be whatever unexplainable thing you saw
on the side of the road.
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Now,
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let's go take a look at some footage.
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At the end of July 2018, Audrey
Tanguay-Fréchette pulled over on Quebec's
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Gaspé Peninsula to film a moose on the
side of the road.
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Nothing weird about it, at least not at
the time. Only later when she watched it
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back did she notice what she called the
strange shape at the back left.
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Behind the moose, near the tree line,
there's a pale figure about six feet tall
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with no face anyone can make out, and it
almost looks like it's creeping up behind
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the moose,
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stalking it.
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Meanwhile, the moose is completely
oblivious, living its best moose life.
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She posted it on YouTube and asked if
anyone could tell her what it was.
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That clip got close to 100,000 views in
just a few days, and by early August, Fox
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News and IB Times had picked it up.
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Commenters compared it to The Rake. Others
said Gollum, which
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fair. Master's my friend. The skeptics'
answer? Some viewers spotted a little
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white spot above the figure that moves
right along with it, which suggests dirt
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on the windshield or the lens. Ashley
Cowie, writing for Ancient Origins,
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explained that moving a camera just a few
millimeters can make a speck of dust seem
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00:14:58,156 --> 00:14:59,436
to travel several feet.
218
00:15:00,136 --> 00:15:05,056
One commenter noted how stiff the figure
is, writing that it doesn't move like a
219
00:15:05,056 --> 00:15:06,076
living entity.
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00:15:06,716 --> 00:15:11,776
Now, it's true that there is a white spot
that moves with the figure at about the
221
00:15:11,776 --> 00:15:13,956
1:00 position from the thing's head,
222
00:15:14,696 --> 00:15:18,916
but it doesn't look like something on the
windshield. The thing looks like it's
223
00:15:18,916 --> 00:15:24,456
moving and the windshield does not. But
camera focus at two different distances
224
00:15:24,456 --> 00:15:26,236
can do funky things.
225
00:15:26,876 --> 00:15:27,836
So what is it?
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00:15:28,496 --> 00:15:33,696
I have no idea, but it sure looks like it
has a head and shoulders. Still,
227
00:15:34,496 --> 00:15:37,056
a blurry shape behind a moose is one
thing.
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00:15:37,756 --> 00:15:41,636
What if the evidence was a phone call you
could actually listen to?
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00:15:42,456 --> 00:15:46,956
Let's go back to Pender County, North
Carolina. Highway 210 cuts through thick
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00:15:46,956 --> 00:15:51,116
woods near the tiny community of Curry,
not far from Moores Creek National
231
00:15:51,116 --> 00:15:55,576
Battlefield, where a Revolutionary War
battle was fought in 1776.
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00:15:56,296 --> 00:16:01,516
Just before 11:00 PM on July 31st, 2021,
Tyler calls 911,
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00:16:02,156 --> 00:16:05,756
not about a monster. It's about a man at
the side of the road wearing an old
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00:16:05,756 --> 00:16:11,676
military uniform, bleeding from the head
with red streaks down his torso, just
235
00:16:11,676 --> 00:16:16,976
staring at Tyler as he drives past. So
Tyler gets on the phone to try to get this
236
00:16:16,976 --> 00:16:17,696
guy some help.
237
00:16:18,236 --> 00:16:22,796
He's on the line with 911 dispatch,
looking for a safe place to pull over when
238
00:16:22,796 --> 00:16:24,556
there's a heavy [thud] thump.
239
00:16:25,296 --> 00:16:29,836
Something has landed in the bed of his
pickup. He flips on the bed light and
240
00:16:29,836 --> 00:16:35,496
looks back, and this is what the
dispatcher heard next. [thud] What the f-
241
00:16:36,376 --> 00:16:37,456
What was that, sir?
242
00:16:38,296 --> 00:16:42,496
That's not human! That's not human!
Staring back at him through the back
243
00:16:42,496 --> 00:16:48,476
window of the pickup is a super skinny
creature with a long body and abnormally
244
00:16:48,476 --> 00:16:54,616
long arms and legs, a white face, deeply
sunken eyes, and skin stretched tight over
245
00:16:54,616 --> 00:16:55,316
its skull.
246
00:16:55,956 --> 00:16:57,216
Sound familiar?
247
00:16:57,996 --> 00:17:03,436
Tyler slams on the brakes, throwing the
thing forward over the truck and onto the
248
00:17:03,436 --> 00:17:06,576
road. Then it stands up and runs into the
woods.
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00:17:07,376 --> 00:17:12,596
Still on the phone with 911, he keeps
driving. [laughs] He's not stopping now
250
00:17:12,596 --> 00:17:13,936
with that thing running around.
251
00:17:14,536 --> 00:17:18,876
He eventually makes it to a convenience
store parking lot where he waits for help.
252
00:17:18,876 --> 00:17:25,216
Deputies and EMTs respond and reportedly
even search with a thermal imaging drone.
253
00:17:25,216 --> 00:17:25,856
No creature,
254
00:17:26,496 --> 00:17:31,856
no injured man. The only proof is scratch
marks on the roof of Tyler's truck and the
255
00:17:31,856 --> 00:17:33,136
911 recording.
256
00:17:33,896 --> 00:17:38,316
The YouTube channel Carolina Case Files
obtained the full audio and interviewed
257
00:17:38,316 --> 00:17:44,436
both Tyler and the Pender County Sheriff,
Allen Cutler, who confirms, yes, this
258
00:17:44,436 --> 00:17:45,436
really happened.
259
00:17:46,036 --> 00:17:47,016
As Sheriff Cutler put it...
260
00:17:47,616 --> 00:17:50,456
I'm afraid it's probably just one of those
things in this world that we may not ever
261
00:17:50,456 --> 00:17:51,276
know the answer to.
262
00:17:52,696 --> 00:17:57,376
The skeptics have fair points. How does
anything board a pickup moving at highway
263
00:17:57,376 --> 00:18:01,416
speed? And just the idea of running into a
bleeding man on the side of the road at
264
00:18:01,416 --> 00:18:07,636
night in a normal world will get your
blood pumping. So maybe Tyler's already
265
00:18:07,636 --> 00:18:11,896
high adrenaline made his perception of
what was staring back at him through the
266
00:18:11,896 --> 00:18:14,656
window different than what it really was.
267
00:18:15,484 --> 00:18:20,124
But on the other side, you've got a
documented emergency call, scratches on
268
00:18:20,124 --> 00:18:25,244
the roof, and a description that lines up
with crawler reports from all over the
269
00:18:25,244 --> 00:18:25,724
country.
270
00:18:26,424 --> 00:18:30,344
And Tyler isn't the first person to report
one of these things going after a
271
00:18:30,344 --> 00:18:31,804
vehicle. Apparently,
272
00:18:32,444 --> 00:18:38,524
the crawler has some anger management
issues. Don Herbert is a miner from Hay
273
00:18:38,524 --> 00:18:43,124
River, a remote town on the southern shore
of Great Slave Lake in Canada's Northwest
274
00:18:43,124 --> 00:18:47,784
Territories. He shares his story with the
website Mysteries of Canada, and what
275
00:18:47,784 --> 00:18:53,204
makes it interesting isn't just what he
saw, it's what he did afterward. One night
276
00:18:53,204 --> 00:18:59,084
in mid-August of 2018, Don's driving his
truck on the Hay River Highway, a lonely
277
00:18:59,084 --> 00:19:04,764
stretch of road with nothing but thick
pine trees on either side that go on
278
00:19:04,764 --> 00:19:10,324
forever. He's only a few miles from home
when something shows up in his headlights,
279
00:19:10,324 --> 00:19:16,984
a pale figure crouched on all fours in
the ditch. Don has seen plenty of
280
00:19:16,984 --> 00:19:20,764
wolves and wolverines out there. This is
not one of them.
281
00:19:21,364 --> 00:19:26,944
Its skin is grayish white and completely
hairless. Its bald head doesn't seem to
282
00:19:26,944 --> 00:19:31,564
have ears. Other than a pair of dark eyes,
the only feature on its face is a
283
00:19:31,564 --> 00:19:37,404
creepy-looking beak-like mouth, and its
legs are long and spindly.
284
00:19:38,244 --> 00:19:38,664
And then
285
00:19:39,384 --> 00:19:41,184
it notices Don.
286
00:19:41,784 --> 00:19:47,004
It bares its teeth, digs in with its front
legs, and launches itself at his truck.
287
00:19:47,644 --> 00:19:53,004
Don braces for impact, but at the last
second, it turns on a dime and starts
288
00:19:53,004 --> 00:19:58,044
running alongside him, keeping pace. Don
floors it,
289
00:19:58,684 --> 00:20:03,224
leaving the terrifying creature in the
dust, and manages to make it home.
290
00:20:03,924 --> 00:20:07,644
But he doesn't just try to forget it. He
goes
291
00:20:08,284 --> 00:20:14,144
looking for it. Don said it struck him as
at least highly intelligent, if not
292
00:20:14,144 --> 00:20:20,564
out-and-out demonic, so he resolves to
find it and kill it. He finds an abandoned
293
00:20:20,564 --> 00:20:25,024
gravel pit about a mile from where he'd
seen the creature that every animal in the
294
00:20:25,024 --> 00:20:26,564
area traipses through,
295
00:20:27,324 --> 00:20:30,064
and he goes back morning after morning.
296
00:20:30,744 --> 00:20:36,884
After 12 days, in frost-covered soil, he
finds tracks that he can't identify. Two
297
00:20:36,884 --> 00:20:39,344
sets, one larger and one smaller.
298
00:20:39,964 --> 00:20:44,804
Then he finds an old drainage culvert with
fresh plants piled over the opening.
299
00:20:45,424 --> 00:20:49,924
He sets up a game camera to track anything
coming in or out, but gets nothing.
300
00:20:49,924 --> 00:20:56,224
Eventually, he crawls inside himself,
[laughs] which is a level of commitment I
301
00:20:56,244 --> 00:21:01,464
personally do not possess. It's empty, and
oddly, very clean.
302
00:21:02,124 --> 00:21:04,724
When expert trackers looked at his photos,
303
00:21:05,464 --> 00:21:10,804
they said one track was clearly wolf and
the others looked a lot like wolverine.
304
00:21:10,804 --> 00:21:15,944
But Don is convinced those tracks are from
something different, something flesh and
305
00:21:15,944 --> 00:21:22,884
blood that science just hasn't caught up
with yet. Now, go back eight years, clear
306
00:21:22,884 --> 00:21:28,904
across the country. In 2012, a Reddit user
called Toss-O posted about something he
307
00:21:28,904 --> 00:21:33,804
said happened in the summer of 2010 in a
national park in Newfoundland. Driving
308
00:21:33,804 --> 00:21:40,064
through a valley on a moonlit night, he
sees a large, hairless humanoid crawling
309
00:21:40,064 --> 00:21:46,744
fast toward the road ahead. Its skin is
deathly, nauseatingly white with a greasy
310
00:21:46,744 --> 00:21:53,304
shine, and its face looks rubbery, almost
a look of hate or like a permanent scream,
311
00:21:53,304 --> 00:21:54,824
and black eyes.
312
00:21:55,604 --> 00:22:01,444
And just like Don's creature, it seems to
be on a collision course with his car. He
313
00:22:01,444 --> 00:22:02,944
braces for it to hit his door,
314
00:22:03,724 --> 00:22:04,604
and then it's just gone.
315
00:22:05,284 --> 00:22:06,484
Nothing in the rearview mirror.
316
00:22:07,164 --> 00:22:13,464
Toss-O ends his post by saying he suspects
it was a demon, the same fear Don had
317
00:22:13,464 --> 00:22:18,584
wrestled with. Which brings us to the big
question every skeptic asks.
318
00:22:19,584 --> 00:22:20,884
Did the internet
319
00:22:21,544 --> 00:22:22,484
make this whole thing up?
320
00:22:23,244 --> 00:22:23,384
Well,
321
00:22:24,184 --> 00:22:30,324
I gotta admit that the case for that is
pretty strong. In late 2005, on the image
322
00:22:30,324 --> 00:22:35,524
board 4chan, an anonymous user starts a
thread with a simple idea. "Let's make a
323
00:22:35,524 --> 00:22:36,163
new monster."
324
00:22:36,824 --> 00:22:42,964
Users join in, voting on the details as
they go, and what they come up with is the
325
00:22:42,964 --> 00:22:43,304
Rake,
326
00:22:43,944 --> 00:22:48,884
a humanoid about six feet tall, usually
crouched and moving on all fours. Very
327
00:22:48,884 --> 00:22:54,904
pale skin. In the original version, no
nose and no mouth, but three solid green
328
00:22:54,904 --> 00:23:01,264
eyes and a mouth that opens up when it
attacks, revealing many tiny but dull
329
00:23:01,264 --> 00:23:05,904
teeth. And to make it feel real, it gets a
fake paper trail,
330
00:23:06,524 --> 00:23:12,884
a mariner's log supposedly from 1691, a
Spanish journal entry dated 1880, a
331
00:23:12,884 --> 00:23:19,664
suicide note from 1964. And by 2006, the
pieces have been stitched together to a
332
00:23:19,664 --> 00:23:20,964
single creepypasta,
333
00:23:21,804 --> 00:23:27,444
and it spreads everywhere. So the skeptic
says, "Of course people are seeing pale,
334
00:23:27,444 --> 00:23:30,944
emaciated things on all fours. We built
one."
335
00:23:31,504 --> 00:23:34,884
And now, every time somebody sees
something odd at the edge of the
336
00:23:34,884 --> 00:23:40,984
headlights, their brain grabs the closest
file it has, and that file says, "Rake."
337
00:23:41,504 --> 00:23:41,624
So,
338
00:23:42,684 --> 00:23:44,464
gavel down, everybody go home?
339
00:23:45,504 --> 00:23:51,144
Not so fast. The website Mysteries of
Canada raises a haunting alternative, the
340
00:23:51,144 --> 00:23:57,064
possibility that the creator of the Rake
meme, through some mysterious process,
341
00:23:57,084 --> 00:24:00,984
unconsciously contrived an entity that
already existed,
342
00:24:01,664 --> 00:24:01,964
or
343
00:24:02,664 --> 00:24:07,384
that the human imagination somehow willed
these beings into existence.
344
00:24:08,224 --> 00:24:09,124
That second idea
345
00:24:09,804 --> 00:24:11,004
may sound far-fetched,
346
00:24:11,684 --> 00:24:12,844
but it's not a new one.
347
00:24:13,704 --> 00:24:14,624
It's called a tulpa.
348
00:24:15,204 --> 00:24:19,064
The word comes from Tibetan, but the
version most of us know comes from the
349
00:24:19,064 --> 00:24:25,896
French explorer Alexandre David-Néel. ...
who described tulpas in her 1929 book,
350
00:24:25,896 --> 00:24:31,476
Magic and Mystery in Tibet, as magic
formations generated by a powerful
351
00:24:31,476 --> 00:24:36,976
concentration of thought. She even claimed
she made one, a jolly little monk who
352
00:24:36,976 --> 00:24:42,816
started acting on his own and turned kinda
evil-looking. It took her months to get
353
00:24:42,816 --> 00:24:48,396
rid of it. Now, to her credit, she fessed
up that it might have just been her own
354
00:24:48,396 --> 00:24:49,296
hallucination.
355
00:24:49,996 --> 00:24:55,576
When Slender Man went from a 2009 forum
post to something people all over the
356
00:24:55,576 --> 00:25:02,076
world claimed to have seen, some observers
called it a tulpa effect, enough people
357
00:25:02,076 --> 00:25:07,816
pouring enough fear into the same image
until it takes on a life of its own. Maybe
358
00:25:07,816 --> 00:25:09,116
the Rake is the same thing.
359
00:25:09,816 --> 00:25:15,076
I'm not saying I believe that, but it's a
super intriguing theory, and we have a
360
00:25:15,076 --> 00:25:19,796
whole episode on tulpas if you wanna go
further down that rabbit hole. Link in the
361
00:25:19,796 --> 00:25:24,536
description. But whether the internet
invented the crawler, taught us what to
362
00:25:24,536 --> 00:25:27,216
see, or thought it into existence,
363
00:25:28,056 --> 00:25:31,096
all of those explanations share the same
starting line,
364
00:25:31,876 --> 00:25:37,876
2005, and that's a problem. Because if
this creature was invented in 2005,
365
00:25:38,516 --> 00:25:43,716
why are there reports from before that?
Chris's encounter happened around 2000,
366
00:25:43,716 --> 00:25:48,616
and the Mysteries of Canada article also
collected a report from Northern Ontario
367
00:25:48,616 --> 00:25:52,536
in the 1990s, where a witness on a canoe
trip spotted a pale,
368
00:25:53,176 --> 00:25:56,596
lanky figure on the shore that he
described as white,
369
00:25:57,216 --> 00:25:58,976
almost like the texture of birch.
370
00:25:59,636 --> 00:26:05,356
The researcher, who writes as Osiris
Paranormal, went at this with numbers,
371
00:26:05,356 --> 00:26:08,736
compiling over 200 crawler sightings from
the US and Canada.
372
00:26:09,356 --> 00:26:11,176
He found that nearly half,
373
00:26:11,856 --> 00:26:18,376
48.9%, were dated to before the Rake
supposedly existed. And the details line
374
00:26:18,376 --> 00:26:24,016
up, mostly white or pale, often gray, an
average height over, just over six feet,
375
00:26:24,016 --> 00:26:29,056
with seven the most common estimate. And
more than half of the sightings happened
376
00:26:29,056 --> 00:26:31,215
within five miles of a cemetery.
377
00:26:31,835 --> 00:26:33,416
I'll just leave that right there.
378
00:26:34,256 --> 00:26:40,556
Now, to be fair, a lot of those pre-Rake
sightings were written down after 2005.
379
00:26:41,096 --> 00:26:46,576
Somebody remembers a strange thing from
1994 and posts about it in 2016.
380
00:26:47,336 --> 00:26:53,876
Memory is squishy. In 20 years and a few
crawler stories later, the details can
381
00:26:53,876 --> 00:26:56,196
quietly morph themselves to match.
382
00:26:56,816 --> 00:27:00,616
Doesn't mean the witness is lying. Our
brains just aren't video cameras.
383
00:27:01,236 --> 00:27:03,556
But there's another side to that coin.
384
00:27:04,356 --> 00:27:09,136
Where exactly were you supposed to report
a pale, hairless thing crawling on all
385
00:27:09,136 --> 00:27:12,036
fours in 1985? The police?
386
00:27:12,696 --> 00:27:13,436
The local paper?
387
00:27:14,156 --> 00:27:18,956
Not if you wanted to keep your job and
your reputation. There was no database, no
388
00:27:18,956 --> 00:27:24,356
forum, no subreddit. Most of these
stories stayed at the kitchen table, or
389
00:27:24,356 --> 00:27:30,856
worse yet, locked in someone's memory to
play over and over with no way to exorcize
390
00:27:30,856 --> 00:27:36,096
it. Be gone, demon spirit! Be gone! It
wasn't until the internet came along and
391
00:27:36,096 --> 00:27:41,476
people started collecting these accounts
that witnesses had anywhere to put them.
392
00:27:41,476 --> 00:27:47,496
So a 1994 sighting written down in 2016
doesn't mean it automatically or even
393
00:27:47,496 --> 00:27:52,496
inevitably had to have been influenced by
this new internet meme.
394
00:27:53,076 --> 00:27:59,536
It may just mean 2016 was the first time a
witness found someone who would listen.
395
00:28:00,356 --> 00:28:03,836
And the folklore is way older than 1994.
396
00:28:04,516 --> 00:28:08,796
Osiris Paranormal also went looking for
traditional creatures that matched the
397
00:28:08,796 --> 00:28:11,876
crawler and found a few that are pretty
hard to wave away.
398
00:28:12,476 --> 00:28:18,656
The best match is the Wendigo, gaunt, pale
or grayish, tall, with inhuman eyes.
399
00:28:19,476 --> 00:28:20,296
In China, though,
400
00:28:20,916 --> 00:28:22,576
there is the jiangshi.
401
00:28:23,236 --> 00:28:27,396
You may have heard it called the hopping
vampire, but it's really a reanimated
402
00:28:27,396 --> 00:28:30,596
corpse, and its name comes from a word
meaning stiff.
403
00:28:31,236 --> 00:28:35,216
It can't bend, so it moves in a rigid,
unnatural way.
404
00:28:35,816 --> 00:28:38,636
Traditional descriptions give it a
greenish-white skin,
405
00:28:39,336 --> 00:28:43,415
and it doesn't drink blood. It feeds on
the life energy of the living.
406
00:28:44,035 --> 00:28:48,836
We actually gave this guy a brief mention
in our episode on vampires, link in the
407
00:28:48,836 --> 00:28:53,276
description, but Osiris put it in the
crawler category both because of its pale
408
00:28:53,276 --> 00:28:58,616
skin and its stiff, janky movements. In
Japan, there's the jinkininiki,
409
00:28:59,416 --> 00:29:06,056
great name, the human-eating ghost made
famous in Lafcadio Hearn's 1904 book,
410
00:29:06,056 --> 00:29:11,936
Kwaidan. Jinkininiki are close cousins of
the gaki, the hungry ghosts of Buddhist
411
00:29:11,936 --> 00:29:18,296
tradition, usually pictured emaciated, all
ribs and bone, starving
412
00:29:18,296 --> 00:29:24,716
forever. Osiris noted its humanlike but
still terrifying appearance,
413
00:29:25,316 --> 00:29:30,096
the fact that it comes out at night, and
its tendency to hang out around humans
414
00:29:30,096 --> 00:29:36,176
while trying not to be seen, with a hunger
that never ends and a body to match.
415
00:29:36,896 --> 00:29:38,216
Sound familiar?
416
00:29:38,776 --> 00:29:39,416
And last,
417
00:29:40,056 --> 00:29:45,436
but certainly not least, in Markazi
Province in Iran, in the villages around
418
00:29:45,436 --> 00:29:51,496
the city of Saveh, people tell stories
about a jinn called the gajeh sharie, the
419
00:29:51,496 --> 00:29:52,756
guardian of the night.
420
00:29:53,396 --> 00:29:57,056
It's described as a very tall and very
thin spirit.
421
00:29:57,776 --> 00:30:01,276
It goes after people who are out after
dark, farmers in their fields,
422
00:30:01,896 --> 00:30:06,496
goat herders tending their goats. It
follows them home, and it calls out to
423
00:30:06,496 --> 00:30:10,076
them with a phrase that translates to,
"Run,
424
00:30:10,736 --> 00:30:11,836
or I'm gonna catch you."
425
00:30:12,836 --> 00:30:19,276
A tall, thin, ghostly thing that stalks
people at night and talks while it chases
426
00:30:19,276 --> 00:30:19,476
them
427
00:30:20,136 --> 00:30:23,336
sounds a lot like whatever it was that
chased Chris through the woods.
428
00:30:23,976 --> 00:30:28,576
And if you look at the artwork that
depicts this thing, it sure looks like a
429
00:30:28,576 --> 00:30:34,804
crawler to me. In fairness, the Gaji
Sharri doesn't actually hurt people. It
430
00:30:34,804 --> 00:30:39,464
just likes to scare people who stay up too
late. So if you're watching this past
431
00:30:39,464 --> 00:30:45,864
midnight, consider yourself warned. And
yes, the body of folklore is
432
00:30:45,864 --> 00:30:51,064
enormous. Dig long enough and you can find
a partial match for almost anything. But
433
00:30:51,064 --> 00:30:55,624
the same core beings keep showing up in
places that had no contact with each
434
00:30:55,644 --> 00:30:59,044
other. Definitely no contact with 4chan.
435
00:30:59,664 --> 00:31:04,924
Tall, thin, pale, out at night, hungry or
hunting.
436
00:31:05,564 --> 00:31:06,124
So maybe
437
00:31:06,744 --> 00:31:08,244
the internet didn't invent this thing.
438
00:31:08,844 --> 00:31:10,884
Maybe it just gave an old thing
439
00:31:11,384 --> 00:31:12,144
a new name.
440
00:31:13,044 --> 00:31:13,404
Then
441
00:31:14,284 --> 00:31:20,704
sometimes something turns up that doesn't
fit any name at all. Just after midnight
442
00:31:20,704 --> 00:31:26,444
on November 5th, 2007, a security camera
on a garage in South Fresno, California
443
00:31:26,444 --> 00:31:31,904
recorded something that has been argued
about ever since. The homeowner, known
444
00:31:31,904 --> 00:31:33,384
publicly only as Jose,
445
00:31:33,964 --> 00:31:36,984
had put up the camera because his dogs
kept barking at night.
446
00:31:37,584 --> 00:31:44,184
For about five minutes, from 12:41 to
12:46 AM, it watched two small white
447
00:31:44,184 --> 00:31:46,524
figures walk across his front yard.
448
00:31:47,364 --> 00:31:48,264
When I say small,
449
00:31:48,884 --> 00:31:51,204
I mean two to two and a half feet tall,
450
00:31:51,924 --> 00:31:58,444
and almost entirely legs. No arms, no
visible upper body, no head. Just
451
00:31:58,444 --> 00:32:04,324
long white legs moving with a loose,
gliding walk, one after the other along
452
00:32:04,324 --> 00:32:05,044
the same path.
453
00:32:05,704 --> 00:32:10,084
People have described them as a pair of
white pants out for a walk on their own,
454
00:32:10,664 --> 00:32:17,504
like white walking Zubaz. [upbeat music]
Zubaz.
455
00:32:17,924 --> 00:32:22,884
Jose was freaked out. His family took the
footage to the local Univision station,
456
00:32:22,884 --> 00:32:28,424
which brought in Victor Camacho, a
paranormal investigator and host of Los
457
00:32:28,424 --> 00:32:33,884
Desvelados, or The Sleepless Ones. He
later said the station wanted him to call
458
00:32:33,884 --> 00:32:39,623
the figures aliens, and to his credit, he
refused because the evidence just wasn't
459
00:32:39,623 --> 00:32:39,903
there.
460
00:32:40,664 --> 00:32:46,524
He described Jose as scared and looking
for answers, not attention, and he has
461
00:32:46,524 --> 00:32:48,184
stood by the footage ever since.
462
00:32:48,724 --> 00:32:53,664
For me, the video is real. Jose didn't
make it. Neither did his brother.
463
00:32:54,624 --> 00:32:55,584
The frustrating part?
464
00:32:56,424 --> 00:33:01,964
The original recording is reportedly lost.
What circulates online is thought to be
465
00:33:01,964 --> 00:33:05,484
someone filming Jose's monitor, a video of
a video.
466
00:33:06,304 --> 00:33:06,484
Jose
467
00:33:07,284 --> 00:33:13,344
never gave his full name or showed his
face. The footage hit national TV in 2010
468
00:33:13,344 --> 00:33:18,424
on Syfy's Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files,
and accounts of their verdict range from
469
00:33:18,424 --> 00:33:25,204
inconclusive to difficult to fake. In
2012, YouTuber Captain Disillusion showed
470
00:33:25,204 --> 00:33:28,344
how editing could produce a similar
effect.
471
00:33:28,984 --> 00:33:34,584
And yet more footage turned up in 2011
from Yosemite Lakes Park, a gated
472
00:33:34,584 --> 00:33:40,224
community about 30 miles north of Fresno,
not the national park, showing two similar
473
00:33:40,224 --> 00:33:45,824
figures, a bigger one leading a smaller
one. Some sources call that one a fake.
474
00:33:46,444 --> 00:33:52,084
Today, the Nightcrawler has plushies,
stickers, TV appearances, and its own
475
00:33:52,084 --> 00:33:58,464
episode of PBS's Monstrum. The Weird
Fresno blog calls it part of Fresno's
476
00:33:58,464 --> 00:34:01,964
identity, a town mascot that nobody can
explain.
477
00:34:02,664 --> 00:34:09,004
I can. It's adorable. And here's why I
saved it for last. The Fresno Nightcrawler
478
00:34:09,004 --> 00:34:14,624
shows up in 2007, two years after the
Rake. If people were just seeing what the
479
00:34:14,624 --> 00:34:18,264
internet told them to see, it should look
like the Rake,
480
00:34:19,044 --> 00:34:23,784
but it doesn't. It looks like nothing
anyone had described before. There are no
481
00:34:23,784 --> 00:34:27,204
creepypasta for walking white legs with no
body.
482
00:34:27,804 --> 00:34:33,024
Whatever was in Jose's yard that night, it
wasn't a story he picked up on a message
483
00:34:33,024 --> 00:34:33,304
board.
484
00:34:33,944 --> 00:34:34,184
So
485
00:34:35,004 --> 00:34:36,564
what's the final score? Well,
486
00:34:37,284 --> 00:34:42,704
the skeptics have a real point. The Rake
was built on a message board in 2005, and
487
00:34:42,704 --> 00:34:47,204
once your brain has a picture of
something, it's awfully good at finding it
488
00:34:47,204 --> 00:34:50,824
in the dark. And some of this evidence
can be picked apart.
489
00:34:51,564 --> 00:34:51,804
But
490
00:34:52,664 --> 00:34:55,404
then there's the stuff that doesn't pick
apart so easily.
491
00:34:55,984 --> 00:35:02,244
A real 911 call with a real man screaming
in real terror and scratches on his roof.
492
00:35:02,864 --> 00:35:08,704
A miner crawling through culverts trying
to prove what he saw. A teenager on a
493
00:35:08,704 --> 00:35:15,144
Minnesota trail years before any of this
was a meme, hearing his own voice call
494
00:35:15,144 --> 00:35:17,024
back to him out of the trees.
495
00:35:17,704 --> 00:35:22,664
And a description that keeps showing up
from Newfoundland to North Carolina.
496
00:35:23,264 --> 00:35:29,804
Gaunt, pale, skin pulled tight over the
bones. The same words an Ojibwe scholar
497
00:35:29,804 --> 00:35:35,564
used for a creature his people had talked
about for generations. The same tall, thin
498
00:35:35,564 --> 00:35:39,764
shape that farmers in central Iran say
follows them home at night.
499
00:35:40,464 --> 00:35:42,784
Maybe the internet taught us what to see,
500
00:35:43,564 --> 00:35:44,444
or maybe
501
00:35:45,064 --> 00:35:51,804
back in 2005, a bunch of people on 4chan
sat down to invent a monster, and without
502
00:35:51,804 --> 00:35:52,564
realizing it,
503
00:35:53,284 --> 00:36:00,264
described one that was already out there.
[upbeat music] If you're
504
00:36:00,264 --> 00:36:04,324
interested in diving deeper into the
crawler phenomena from a research point of
505
00:36:04,324 --> 00:36:04,564
view,
506
00:36:05,244 --> 00:36:09,404
I put a link in the description to the
Osiris Paranormal Research article on
507
00:36:09,404 --> 00:36:15,864
Medium. It's well worth the read. But if
this episode left you just wanting more
508
00:36:15,864 --> 00:36:20,284
encounters, we've got a whole collection
of crawler encounters told by the people
509
00:36:20,284 --> 00:36:23,724
who swear they lived them. Just click
right here.
510
00:36:24,524 --> 00:36:26,224
Be careful out there,
511
00:36:27,084 --> 00:36:28,304
and I will see you here again
512
00:36:29,164 --> 00:36:34,624
on The InBetween. [upbeat music] Thanks
for tuning in to The InBetween podcast.
513
00:36:34,624 --> 00:36:39,704
Enjoy the full visual experience with me
over on YouTube. Just search for
514
00:36:39,924 --> 00:36:44,424
@theinbetweentales. I'm Carol Ann, and
until next time,
515
00:36:45,044 --> 00:36:51,484
be careful out there. [upbeat music]