[Music] I've been a trucker for close to 15 years now this happened to me in 2017 I was driving an overnight Hall through the Mojave desert in California headed for a destination in Arizona I think I was delivering appliances I don't really remember it was pitch black darkness in every direction the headlights on my sem me were really dim at the time and I'd been putting off getting them fixed forever usually I couldn't tell the difference but since there were basically no other cars on the road it was much more obvious I remember having to
strain my eyes every few minutes to make out the road in the distance that could have been a horror story in of itself I was debating ping over for a couple hours and waiting for Sunrise but I didn't want to waste my time I desperately needed the money at the time so I kept driving even though it wasn't fully safe I figured since it was basically a straight line it would be okay I think it was about an hour before Sunrise when I saw something approaching fast in the distance worried about hitting an animal I
slammed on the brakes as my truck screeched to a stop I realized what was in front of me a car with its hazards on the weird thing was that it was in the exact middle of the road like literally on the double yellow what was even weirder was that the passenger door was wide open my truck stopped maybe a foot before hitting it not to toot my own horn but I'm a pretty Fearless guy and I know my way around a bar fight because of this I wasn't really scared when I saw the car I
was more Curious than anything I thought maybe someone needed a jump or something so I reversed the semi and pulled over I thought about throwing some flares down but decided against it since I hadn't seen a single other car on the road besides this one I got out of my truck and made my way over to the car it was a warm still night I remember thinking how strange it was that there was almost no wind it was also really quiet that night the faint click of the hazards was the only sound in what felt
like the entire desert I got a little closer to the car I vividly remember that it was a new looking red Ford Fusion I approached the car a little cautiously like I said the passenger door was wide open I walked around the car and stopped in my tracks it was completely empty I made sure of it too check in the back seat and anywhere someone might be laying down there was literally no one inside all of a sudden I was much less sure about the situation I was expecting someone to need help of some sort
maybe even someone who took a nap in a really dumb spot I certainly wasn't expecting this though the car was literally empty I cast a few glances over my shoulder feeling a lot more uneasy now I kept whipping my head around looking in every direction I felt like someone was going to charge me or something the problem was it was so dark that I couldn't see that far in front of me except for what was lit up by my truck's headlights it was Eerie I waited a while longer thinking about getting back in my truck
and forgetting about this whole thing someone was out there somewhere against my better judgment I decided to keep investigating I looked inside the car but everything seemed completely normal the key was even in the ignition although the engine was turned off I got back out of the car and made my way over to the trunk might as well have a look I figured I went to open it but it wouldn't budge locked I grabbed the key out of the ignition and unlocked the trunk still though the thing wouldn't budge it was jammed from the inside
somehow I opened the back door and tried getting at the trunk through the back seat to my surprise it actually opened there were three squish garbage bags back there along with a rope that was tying the trunk closed I remember glancing one more time over my shoulder before reaching for them the coast was clear I must have been within 5 in from one of the bags when the loudest gunshot I've ever heard rang out into the night I slammed my head on the roof of the car in shock I didn't even think I threw the
keys on the front seat and got out of the car as fast as I could as I was climbing into my semi I heard a grungy voice voice yelling in the distance he yelled hey a bunch of times and his voice seemed to be quickly approaching I scrambled into the semi and turned it on I threw it in gear as fast as I could I remember cursing a bunch of times as the engine initially stalled and that's when I saw it as my truck began pulling out I saw a person standing at the trunk of
the car it was a short husky guy with red hair he was wearing overalls and shinh high boots in his left hand he was holding a small shovel in his right though was an old looking hunting rifle we locked eyes for a few seconds as my truck began to drive past him he didn't move I remember him not looking crazy or anything he had this worried look on his face as I passed him he dropped his shovel and started waving his hands he yelled weight a few times but I wasn't staying there another second as
I drove away I watched in the rearview mirror as he ran after my truck for a few seconds before sprinting back to his car it was clear he wanted me to stop but there was absolutely no way I was going to do that I stepped on it pushing the semi much faster than I should have I drove for like 5 minutes and started to think I was in the clear but then I saw headlights fast approaching behind me I remember feeling more scared than I've ever felt in my entire life I called the police and
told them what happened to the best of my ability that's when the car was basically right on my tail it started honking like crazy at me I honestly didn't know what to do so I just kept driving praying to God he wouldn't try and RAM me after like 15 minutes of this he cut in front of me and hit his brakes forcing me to slow down I was just about to crash into him when finally some flashing police lights appeared ahead the Ford veered off to the right and sped into the desert disappearing from sight
I pulled over and waited for the officer to show up I frantically told him what had happened but the useless cop decided to get a report from me rather than chase the guy down I was so pissed about that I told the guy like twice that he could probably catch up to him if he left now the cop told me not to worry and that they' do a thorough search as soon as backup arrived he sent me on my way and said they'd call me if they ever had an update for me they never did
none of my buddies have a story this crazy and I've told it more times than I can count I know what you're probably thinking that guy was definitely burying bodies that doesn't really explain why he had such a small shovel or why he tried to follow me the bags in his trunk were also too small for that although some of my buddies think he might have done some dismembering for my own sanity I like to think that he was burying some other kind of animal maybe putting a diseased dog out of its misery or some
dangerous snakes I really have no idea either way I've never been totally comfortable driving through deserts late at night after this experience [Music] I'm sure you've seen some of the more modern videos online where truckers will document their daily routines and provide tips for each other or maybe you haven't but being as I'm on the younger side in this industry every time I open Tik Tok or YouTube shorts that's all I see I won't get into it but I had to drop out of a pretty prestigious University for some personal reasons and people always tell
me I could have been more than a trucker it's honestly not a that gig though I've been making deliveries for north of 2 years obviously the only strenuous part of the job is the long hours you can never truly gauge how the isolation will affect you without experiencing it firsthand my only advice would be to make peace with whatever demons might be lurking in your subconscious because they'll definitely eat at your brain in the lonely hours that's what happened to me anyway this happened to me 3 months after getting employed by my first company I
was basically as new in this trade as one could get I was driving from Southern New Jersey to Lafayette Indiana a 12-hour drive 12 hours driving might not seem that crazy but factor in the fact that I just completed an 8-h hour trip and that should put things into perspective I wanted to get deliveries done as quickly as possible so I opted to drive through the night I'd get to Lafayette just before 300 a.m. things were going smoothly there were virtually no other cars on the road so I was able to push the send me
a little faster than normal about halfway through the drive I remember reaching down at the center console to chug a Red Bull but there weren't any of course I had forgotten to restock my truck after completing my previous delivery after slapping my dashboard a few times I groaned in frustration knowing I'd have to stop somewhere there was nothing I hated more than having to make stops during my drives I might be unique in this but I always get exponentially more tired when my vehicle is in Mobile even if I'm only stopped for like 20 seconds
after glancing up at the navigation I figured I had no choice either fall asleep on the road or stop and get an energy drink in my brain those options were pretty much equivalent reluctantly I pulled into the first service stop I saw I had literally no clue where I was probably somewhere in Ohio at this point too late I realized this wasn't actually a service stop it was what looked like an abandoned gas station and a repurposed conven store not sure if there's any better way to describe it either way it looked like there was
another Quick Stop store not far up the road so I figured I'd go there if anything I parked the semi and made my way over to the First Convenience Store to be completely honest I was expecting one of two things to happen either the place would be open or the door would be locked you can imagine my surprise then when the door swung open into a pitch black store I looked around hoping maybe I'd get lucky and there there would be a drink or snack left behind just before I was about to turn around my
eyes adjusted to the darkness and I picked up on a faint glow emanating from the corner of the room I made my way over to it and the glow turned out to be coming from a back room of some sort curiosity got the better of me and I opened the door slowly to my pleasant surprise there was a plugged in refrigerator against the wall eagerly I opened the door but found nothing literally nothing the shelves had literally been removed like the whole Appliance had been gutted as I was shutting the door I was 90% certain
I heard a clatter from the main room like something hitting the floor I froze for a good 10 seconds had I imagined it there was no way quietly I walked back into the main room and looked around nothing part of me wanted to keep investigating I didn't have time for this though I walked out the entrance door and basically jogged to the other shop it was open thank God I paid for my drink and made it back to my truck something about this whole stop felt wrong I needed to get back on the road as
soon as possible I took one last glance at the abandoned store and noticed the door was now open I was 100% positive I had shut it behind me it wasn't my job to figure out what was going on here though so I started the engine and merged my semi back onto the highway the caffeine started started kicking in and snapped me out of my tired Haze pretty quickly my mind began to wander and I started thinking about how bizarre that whole thing had actually been I guess a squatter or an abandoned building wasn't the strangest
thing in the world but my brain couldn't explain that refrigerator no matter what theory I thought of I tried to forget about it and kept driving it was then that I started noticing weird movements in the curtain behind me sweat started dripping down my forehead I watched in the rearview mirror as the curtain seemed to Billow and move even though I didn't have the air on I thought the worst there was someone in my truck I didn't have any weapons on me or anything so I discreetly punched in the nearest police station on my phone
the drive there was the most tense and horrifying 20 minutes of my life I kept imagining that person reaching out to grab me or trying to crash my truck finally I approached the police station I stopped the semi as close as I possibly could get and basically ran over to the police station in seconds my truck was surrounded by police and after I opened the back what I saw will stay with me for Life the police pulled out three Homeless looking people two men and one woman they were wearing rags and were wrapped in nasty
looking blankets one of the men was armed with two switch blades all three of them refused to talk but stared menacingly at me as they were getting cuffed I have no idea what they wanted I don't think I'll ever know [Music] my name is Kevin I've been a trucker for variant companies for the better part of 15 years now things have become pretty routine at this point pick up the goods and materials verify them for accuracy and deliver them as instructed we're not paid by the hour so efficiency is the most important thing in this
line of work for someone like me who's been doing this forever I like to think I can outwork all these young guns that are snapping these jobs up this isn't always great though usually I push myself to the absolute limit when it comes to functioning on barely any sleep 4 years ago I was working for a warehouse based in North Dakota for anyone who doesn't know North Dakota is one of the flattest states which makes Trucking a little easier this also meant that skipping out on a few hours of sleep could mean the difference between
employment and getting the sack it was a chilly Tuesday morning in May the beginning of the week meant that more loads needed to be shipped which meant more work for me I wanted to KN it all out in one shot so I traced my route into Montana accordingly planning on not stopping even once to sleep I hit the road a few hours after lunch expecting to reach my destination very early the next morning I pushed the semi as much as possible doing maybe a couple over the speed limit it was getting late and I remember
rubbing the crust for my eyelids as the clock ticked past midnight I was having trouble keeping my eyes open but I only had about an hour left in this drive so I gritted my teeth and kept going my buddy Tristan who was also a trucker introduced me to smelling salts when I first started out if you don't know smelling salts are basically some kind of crystals in a little bottle one Sniff and you're wide awake you had to be careful though too many backtack uses could be dangerous or at least that's what Tristan told me
they burn your nose a little bit but whenever I needed a boost I'd reach for the smelling salts first this was one of those times I took a big whiff and shot my head back my reflexes taking over I felt the adrenaline coarse through my body and I hoped the feeling would last the rest of the drive a half hour shot by and I was really struggling I felt myself start to doze off and the blare of my truck drifting into the shoulder jolted me awake this was getting dangerous I thought I had to pull
off I was all alone on the highway but there was nowhere to pull off there was just Woods on either side of me I slowed the truck down searching desperately for somewhere to pull over at this low speed my headlights pierced through the darkness and I was able to see a lot more as I looked around I saw something that confused me there was a purple dress lying in the middle of the road what the hell I thought rubbing my eyes was I hallucinating I blinked like six times just to make sure I wasn't going
crazy it was real I approached the dress with my truck and stared at it as I rolled by in hindsight this should have been more of a red flag but I think I was just too exhausted to process what was going on about 200 or so yards away I passed a pair of shoes now I was starting to freak out what the hell was going on I passed the shoes praying to God there would be a place to pull off soon my old man David was a super religious guy so I clutched his old cross
and hoped he would come through for me a little further up the road I saw a bunch more random clothing some of which looked like little kids clothing this time I stopped the truck the Panic started to set in something was very very wrong I sat in the driver's seat with the truck at a standstill I was expecting something to happen but it never did so I did what my instincts told me to do I stepped out of the truck and went to inspect the clothing I still remember remember the feeling of the chilly morning
air piercing my skin which definitely helped my exhaustion I approached the pile as cautiously as I could it was indeed kids clothing it looked like there were both boy and girl pieces of clothing in the pile I looked around into the woods but I couldn't see much of anything in the darkness I had my head on a swivel worried that this was some kind of trap I decided it was not my business to figure out what was going on so I made my way back to my truck just then I heard a crunch from the
left I whipped around trying to see what was there I stood there waiting to hear another sound after about 30 seconds there was another crunch but this time from the opposite side of the road my survival instincts kicked in and I sprinted towards the truck I jumped into the front seat but just before I slammed the door I heard a child scream ring out I froze my heart bursting out of my chest I was caught in a Crossroads I wasn't going to fight some random people in a pitch black woods but I couldn't just abandon
some helpless kids either before I could make a decision another almost identical child's scream rang out without thinking I turned the truck on and pointed its nose toward the spot in the woods where I heard the noise my headlights lit up about 30 yards into the woods there were three or four people one of whom was holding a massive speaker they ducked behind a couple trees as my truck lit them up but I had exposed them for just enough time to make out what they were doing they hid from the light before I could really
make out any distinctive features but I swear on my old man David's grave they were holding up a speaker trying to lure me into the woods with a fake kid screaming I was just in shock I just sat there staring at the trees those people had just hid behind I reached for my phone to call the police but before I finished dialing I heard a thump from the body of the truck someone had thrown something from the other direction ction I was done I turned back to face the road and slammed on the gas as
I sped off I could make out a person on the other side of the road he shouted something I couldn't understand before launching something at the truck that cracked the glass of my passenger side window I drove the final hour in silence I was too scared to process what had just happened but there was no way in hell I was stopping to sleep in those woods I completed my delivery and then knocked out I must have slept for 10 hours straight when I woke up the first thing I did was call the police who told
me they'd investigate those woods and give me any updates I then thought about the whole thing and how stupid I was to get out of my truck I should have just minded my own business but the thought of some kids being kidnapped or Worse was just too much for me to ignore to this day I still have no idea what those people were trying to do I don't know why they didn't just rush me when they had the chance or what they were planning to do to me if I ran out in the woods after
the kids screaming and all my years of being a trucker nothing has ever come close to being as strange or downright terrifying as this experience
