[Music] [Music] I was 16 in my junior year of high school I had nine periods in a school day fifth period was lunch and straight from there was my astronomy class my astronomy class was actually held in one of the two basement classrooms of the school my high school was big there were three floors and even that wasn't enough to accommodate all the classes offered so the school built two classrooms in the basement it was honestly kind of creepy down there when nobody else was around it used to be a janitorial area however it was
remodeled to better resemble a typical hallway the only thing there were no intercoms or loudspeakers down in the basement at that time for that reason no classes were held down there first period for the morning announcements everyone referred to this little second of the basement as the chamber and everyone always tried to get classes down there just because it was air conditioned and the classes were typically easier plus it had its own bathroom down there we had a quiz in astronomy that day usually I was one of the first done just because I found the
class easy after I finished my quiz I texted my friend who was in the other basement classroom to meet me in the bathroom because I was bored he told me okay I walked out of the classroom and down the small hallway to the bathroom a few seconds later the door opened and my friend JJ entered the bathroom we were joking around for a while until JJ checked his phone and said someone texted him saying the school was going on lockdown we both looked at each other with the same grins neither of our teachers saw us
leave the classrooms that meant we had free range of the school while it was on lockdown we agreed to sneak upstairs and look around the hallways just for the hell of it the worst that would happen is that we'd explain how we couldn't hear the announcements in the basement classrooms upon opening the basement door to the main floor we were surprised to find all the lights had been turned off so the hallways were pretty much pitch black aside from the light pouring in from the doors in the lobby this was legit because usually the lights
were left on in the hallways during lockdowns something was going down and we didn't know if we were even comfortable walking around now JJ stepped out a little further into the hallway and I followed suit JJ then looked down the hall and said who's that I looked and emerging from the darkness was a man at first we couldn't tell if he was a teacher or not but as he got closer we realized this guy wasn't dressed at all like any staff member he was dressed like a bum all right let's go I told JJ as
we hurried back down to the basement he surely saw us whoever he was we saw both classrooms had their door shut and lights off so to avoid making a scene we decided to hide in the bathroom I shut the light first thing and then we both went to hide in the corner stall there was complete silence in the room no ventilation no heaters nothing just the sound of me and JJ breathing and an occasional drip from the sink the door to the bathroom suddenly opened and light from the hallway poured into the bathroom for a
brief moment the door shut and the bathroom was once again pitch black me and JJ tried our best to control our breathing the room was so silent that we could hear somebody walking over to our side of the bathroom the person stopped and started breathing really heavily as if they were out of breath me and JJ were both scared to death JJ did something very dumb he whispered in my ear we have to crawl out through the other stalls the room was so silent however that even JJ's whisper could be heard from across the room
the heavy breathing outside the stall stopped and the person tried pressing the stall door in that was when I whispered go go to JJ we both crawled under the sidewall to the next stall over and then the next stall and then finally out to the other side of the bathroom the person was now full on banging on the stall door me and JJ hopped up off the floor opened the door door and as the light filled the room again we saw the guy from upstairs in the corner we pounded on the door to JJ's class
the teacher let us in within seconds JJ explained everything as the teacher locked the door mentioning a gun sticking out of the Man's Pocket I was shocked to hear this because I didn't see a gun but I went along with it anyway usually a bunch of high school students would be laughing their asses off at two students causing a scene like this but I noticed all the kids sitting in the corner looked concerned a sudden bang at the door made everyone jump and a couple of girls squeal out of fear JJ the teacher and I
could see the man standing at the door looking through the window while trying the door knob after a few bangs on the door out of what seemed to be anger he turned and walked down the hallway back to the stairs we don't know how much longer the lockdown went on for but for over an hour we sat in silence in the room other than the teacher occasionally asking me and JJ questions in a very concerned tone shaking his head after everything we would tell him eventually somebody from upstairs called the teacher and he instructed all
of us to single file walk up the stairs and out of the building where we would be greeted by cops me and JJ did the best we could at describing the man to the cops and to the dean one of the cops patted me on the back and we were sent off to go home after this incident the school installed cameras everywhere and ramped up the security budget this incident never got media attention so honestly we never found out if police caught the guy I'm convinced that man had no other intentions but to kill us
then and there in that bathroom stall I'm a retired New Jersey police officer throughout my 20 years in the force the most disturbing call I ever received was for a school lockdown happening at a nearby Middle School of which I'll leave out the name for legal reasons it happened on a stormy dark day my car number was called on the radio to respond to a lockdown where a suspicious looking man was seen stepping out from a white van parked behind a school and walking into the the back door by the boy's locker room I pulled
up to the back parking lot of the school right next to the white van nobody was inside and all the doors and trunk were locked I opened the red back door that entered into the gym hallway right by the locker rooms the main lights had been turned off so the whole inside of the school was dark I unholstered the flashlight from my belt and used it to navigate the halls I made it to the lobby of the school where a woman emerged from the front office was quietly telling me to check the boy's locker room
but to be careful because the person might be armed I called for backup on my radio and was assured backup was already on the way I made it back to the hallway I entered from where I found the boy's locker room right next to the exit I pushed it open very quietly there were no windows in the rooms therefore there was no light whatsoever in that locker room only the light provided by the flashlight there was a white noise in the room some kind of vent on the ceiling blowing air but even over that I
was hearing faint scratching type noises or little dings on the locker doors from the other side I was supposed to make my presence as a police officer known but honestly I was just too scared the tension in the room was insane I held my flashlight in one hand and my gun in the other as I snuck to the other side of the locker room it seemed like wherever I was in the room the dings and thuds would be coming from the other side I was standing in the corner of the locker room right by the
door to the bathroom when the sound of someone slamming a locker door from another room made me jump out of my skin I went in the direction where I heard the slam to find out that it was from the boys football team locker room there was no door separating the main locker room from the football locker room the Lockers in here were also three times the size I finally had the nerve to make my presentence known by shouting police after shouting a kid started screaming help from somewhere in the room it was very muffled though
the kid pounded on a locker door on the other side of the row I was in when I found out that the boy was trapped inside of a locker I felt sick in my stomach I told him I'd be right back once again calling for backup while running outside to where the white van was it was gone my biggest mistake was not getting the plate number first thing I told dispatch to be on lookout for a suspicious white van I ran back into the school and instructed the staff in the front office to end the
school day and to send somebody with a key to the locker room to get the boy out of the locker the boy was held by the man with a knife on his back as I speculate the man was quietly trying to get the 12-year-old boy to his van the boy was bleeding on his arm from the man cutting him while resisting the man's van was spotted a week later in a 7-Eleven parking lot where he was arrested after being properly identified I was staying in a Hampton in in New Jersey when I was visiting Rowan
University a college I potentially wanted to attend my family couldn't come with me so I was on my own after attending campus tours I went to get a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant and then went back to the hotel at around 8:00 p.m. planning on going back to campus again the next day about an hour after returning to my room a strange alarm started going off in my room along with a white light flashing from the corner of the ceiling a message started looping shortly after as well saying something along the lines of
all Hampton and guests please remain in your rooms this is a lockdown I'd never heard of a lockdown in a hotel I never even knew hotels had a alarms like this I found it more interesting and exciting than anything else eventually the sound of the alarm stopped but the light kept flashing and every 20 seconds or so the message would repeat it was only like 9:30 so I turned on the TV just as background noise while I started changing clothes and brushing my teeth I shut the lights when I was done and hopped under the
covers I watched TV for half an hour before shutting it off the light was still flashing with an obnoxious bright white every few seconds it was definitely going to hinder my sleep I was starting to consider calling the front desk to ask what was going on when the phone rang it was someone from the front desk I was expecting them to tell me something about the alarm and when it would shut off but instead the person on the other end spoke in a very concerned voice she told me to remain calm and walk out the
door I took that opportunity to ask her what exactly was going on she went on to tell me that there was somebody in the room with me and to get out immediately I dropped the phone and instinctively started looking around everywhere part of me was curious to see if somebody was in fact in the room I checked under the bed looked into the empty bathroom nobody in either spots then I noticed the closet door right next to the bathroom it was one of those closets with a wooden sliding door it was open just a tiny
crack and through that tiny crack I could see a person's face at first it didn't sink in what I was seeing but when the door slid shut that was when I freaked out and ran out the door the people at the front desk showed me security footage from an hour earlier of some sketchy looking man walking around the hallways apparently looking for a certain room when he got to my door he opened it with the card he somehow Acquired and that was it I stayed around as the authorities took the person out in Chains it
was a man of course on the shorter side easily 40s he looked at me as he passed as if he knew who I was immediately it's scary thinking back that he may have been watching me for more than an hour from that closet [Music]
