As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 058 - Creepy Coworker, Australian and Retail Stories - 12 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

Hello and Welcome to the 58th episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today we have some intriguing and terrifying stories submitted by everyday people. In Today's Episode we will have stories about... ➤ Want your story featured? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/Submit ➤ Want to know where to follow me on the internet? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/the-nevermore for all my links! ➤ You can also get EARLY ACCESS By joining my Patreon! https://patreon.com/astheravendreams Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in today's Video...  NatsGotBeef, Techsupport, We’llAllFloatOn, Petey, UnfamiliarWords, GoldFishBrain, GoToDunkinInstead, and any authors that requested anonymity. ➤ All stories within are used w/ Either direct permission from the author- or under some level of CC license (where noted) True Stories are not verified, and should all be considered 'supposedly true'.  And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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of 10 dollars. Veye to pay If you have a story you would like to hear featured on this podcast, please go to ashtheravendreams.com and click the button to submit your story. Also, if the platform you're listening on has the option to rate this podcast, please consider doing so. And thank you. This actually happened to me in 2019. And with the pandemic right around the corner, it gave me a good reason to stay. inside afterwards.

I always enjoyed the holidays, especially when my family had big gatherings with my siblings, grandparents and the sort. We all exchanged gifts, and it had become a bit of a tradition. I got meaningful gifts or something that everyone would like, but my older brother and I would always try to get each other the most absurd things that we could think of. One year, he couldn't think of anything to get me, so he got me a spatula and gave me his old toaster, because I told him that it would match my kitchen's theme. So, that year, I actually had Black Friday off, and I thought I would try to get some good deals and gifts.

I usually wasn't one for that kind of thing, but thought that it couldn't hurt to see what was out there. Now, I had no intention of getting up super early to wait in line in the cold, but I did go to a few places starting around midday. I didn't have a whole lot of luck at the first few stores, but I did get a good deal on my lunch that day. I decided to try one more place, which was at a popular department store nearby. I shopped there often enough to know that I would at least find something. So I grabbed one of those half-carts and started checking out all the sale displays. I got through a couple of aisles and was surprised the amount of people that were still there shopping frantically. It was probably around 5 or 6 p.m. at this point, so I figured it would have died down for the most part.

This caused me to look around every time before I pulled anything off a shelf to make sure that nobody was near. nearby to tackle me or try to fight me over an item. I wasn't into all that. There is no deal ever worth an assault charge. So, honestly, I would have just handed it over. While I was in the houseware section, I saw a nice coaster set that I knew my mother would like. And, as I reached for them,

I saw a guy reaching on the shelf for something right below me. It startled me at first because I had just, looked around and didn't see this guy, yet he managed to silently approach me from the side. He chuckled and apologized for scaring me, and I laughed back saying that it was fine. I noticed that he had grabbed some similar coasters, and he attempted small talk, joking about a gift for someone he hardly knew. After just a few minutes, I walked off, continuing on in my own little world. after the houseware section was the pet section.

I had a small puppy with short fur at the time, so I had her wearing sweaters to stay warm in our northern winters. She was actually the puppy to my grandmother's dog, so I thought that it would be cute to get them matching sweaters, so that's where I ended up. While I was looking at the options, I heard someone say, He got a dog to.

I looked over to see the same guy, now standing at the front of the aisle that I was in. I said that I did, and explained what kind of dog she was, and he told me about his. Again, a small conversation took place, and I walked away. As I walked to a few more departments, I coincidentally ran into this guy each time. I know it's entirely possible that it was just a coincidence at first, but if you saw the same person, would you try to start up a conversation with them each time? Because he certainly did. And it was just awkward having to walk away each time. I didn't want to be mean, but I didn't know what to do

or say after like the third time. So instead of feeding into the conversation, I would just smile, give a light chuckle, and keep on moving. I ended up skipping around a bit and actually went into the intimate section thinking that surely he wouldn't just coincidentally end up there too. Unfortunately, he did. However, two things were different at this point. He no longer had his basket with his items in it, and he didn't approach me. I circled the same area and went back to the same rack that I had been looking at, and he did the same thing. That's when I really started feeling paranoid and followed. At that point, it was time to leave. So I picked up my phone pretending like someone had called me, and I made the comment

that I would be there soon, acting like somebody was expecting me, but in hopes to scare this guy off maybe, I said out loud what store I was at, and that I felt like I was being followed. While still acting like I was on the phone, I left that area and made my way to the checkout, weaving through different aisles in an attempt to lose him. To my disappointment, I looked around and saw that same guy looking at the different lanes. I tried bending over into the cart, nearly looking like I was putting my head in my purse, I'm sure. I assumed the guy saw me because he ended up in the lane next to me, holding just a soda and staring at me. I was panicking at this point, and I wanted to get to my car fast and possibly call to.

someone for real this time. While the cashier was ringing up the person in front of me, I pushed my cart to the side a bit, made it look like I was looking at the impulse stuff, and instead swiftly left the store without purchasing anything. As I was fast walking, nearly running to my car, I again pulled my phone out and dialed 911, because if I saw him again, I was calling, no matter what. I looked back as I crossed into the parking lot and didn't. see him, so I picked up my pace. I started digging out my keys from my purse when I suddenly

heard shuffling, like someone was running towards me, and of course it was the same guy. As he got closer to me, I hit dial on my phone, yelled out, leave me alone, and turned back around. But the guy grabbed me by my arm. I started shouting some more, hoping that someone was nearby and would do or say something, While I'm trying to get him to let me go and flailing my other arm, he said that he's with AP, asset protection, for the store and demanded that I go with him. He was basically accusing me of stealing. I completely changed my mentality at this point and became angry.

This guy was following me around the store because he thought I was a thief. I had shopped there on many occasions, never had problems and never had a criminal record. "'On what grounds did he have to think I was going to steal some coasters, "'a dog sweater and some popcorn? "'And how would I even have managed that? "'I kind of chewed him out about this "'and mentioned how he was harassing me when he let go of my arm. "'He then made a comment along the lines of,

"'well, then we can just go into my office, "'check your belongings to confirm that, "'or I can let it slide if you go get some drinks with me.' This guy was standing in front of me with this annoyingly smug grin and really thought that this was a valid option. I told him to hell with both those choices and said that I was going back into the store to talk to the manager. This seemed to piss him off as he grabbed my arm again,

squeezing it harder, and demanding that I come with him before he called the cops. That was when I remembered that I had dialed them on my phone, So I started yelling things like, let go of me and shouted where I was, hoping that they would get the hint and be there. The guy tried putting his hand over my mouth, pushing me against some random car, so I bit him. Finally, with us both screaming at this point, another lady noticed us and began walking up and asking if we were okay or needed help.

I shouted that I didn't know this guy, which caused her to speed up, coming to my side. I was worried the guy may try to do something to her, but to my surprise, he instead took off. She approached me and was holding me and asking what happened, and I started explaining to her. I grabbed my phone and noticed that it was still with the operator who told me police were on their way and should be there soon.

The lady then walked with me back into the store. I waited inside for the cops, but I still asked for a manager to confirm what I'd already thought was the answer. That guy was not with their asset protection team. They explained that if they suspected someone, they weren't allowed to approach them the way that he did with me for sure, and stated that they would have already have called the police as well. When I explained what happened to the police,

I was shocked to find out that this wasn't the first time they had heard about this happening this year. Apparently, there had been several reports of a guy stopping girls in parking lots, accusing them of stealing and then offering them alternatives. The description they had even matched the same guy. That angered me and worried me even more. I knew there wasn't much I could do, but I felt bad that I wasn't able to keep him around for them to catch him. They took my contact information and asked if I would do a line-up if they caught the guy, and

I agreed. I still haven't received that call to this day. It honestly still terrifies me to this day because sometimes I dwell on it too much thinking what would have happened if I actually went with him. Hell, what would have happened if I agreed to a date? And since he still hasn't been caught, is he even still in the area? I just hope that he never got further than confronting someone at their car, but to the creeper, be fake asset protection guy, now that I'm armed with pepper spray, maybe we should meet again. A few years ago, I had started working at a bookstore that was across the street from a university. It was a cozy little place with a small study area and a cafe. Of course, most of the customers were students as we sold a lot of the textbooks, as well as had rental options. The pay wasn't great, but hey, it was a perfect place to work because they worked with students' schedules. And at the time, I was going to the same university.

The work was also simplistic. Other than ringing people up, we put away books that were returned or left out, processed the rentals, and just ultimately kept the store tidy. We also had magazine issues come in weekly, so we had to bring them in and store or stock. them, whatever the manager said. When there was downtime, we were free to do what we wanted, as long as we didn't leave the register unattended and didn't disturb the other guests shopping or studying. I loved this time because I was a bookworm. If I wasn't finishing my homework, I was reading something. There were usually a few of us working there at one time, and most of them I even typically got along with. There was one manager that was,

pretty evil, but she didn't last long. Anyways, most of us got along fine, minus the occasional bickering about how someone organized books, or something petty like that. But the atmosphere changed a bit when we got

a new employee. Most of the people that worked there were familiar with her from the school. I'll call her Sarah. To put this in the nicest way possible, Sarah was a bit strange. I never really saw her talking to anyone outside of a few instructors.

She always took a bus or someone dropped her off, but she would promptly walk straight to the classroom without looking up from the ground. I don't know how she never managed to run into anyone either. Once she got to class, she laid her desk out the same way. Textbook in the top right corner, notebook opened to an empty page, black pen, highlighter and pencil all lined up perpendicular from her textbook. You could see her furiously writing throughout the class, but anytime somebody walked by, she quickly covered it up with something. People did tease her, calling her aloof and awed, but I just kind of felt bad for her. I thought maybe she was an only child and didn't have a lot of friends or something.

I wasn't one to make fun of people because I did have a younger brother with disabilities. but I was also too shy to approach her as well. So, when she started working there, I was the one that was chosen to train her. I thought perhaps this would be a good opportunity to get to know her. Her demeanor didn't change for the first few days. She was quiet and said very little, mostly just nodding and responding with, Okay. She seemed to catch on to the filing system extremely fast without any questions.

which was great, as I had a few people not understand it for a while. She seemed to prefer working alone, though, so I tried not to bother her too much. It was probably a month or so into her working there that I finally got to talk to her a little bit when she let me sit by her in the cafe for lunch. She agreed, but then I saw her quickly close up her backpack. I swear that I was probably pretty awkward in her opinion, too, Because I just sat there, not talking through most of my meal. Before I was going to leave, she actually spoke up and thanked me for helping her at work.

I told her she didn't have to thank me, that I was glad to help her any time, even outside of the store. She got quiet again, so I cleaned up and told her that I would see her later. She actually started talking to me a bit more while in the store, usually small talk, but it was still better than nothing. Long story short, we ended up being the two people other than the manager, Jackie, to close on this one night. She chose to put back the last of the books while I filed the returns and closed out the register. She was also really quick about the filing, so when I finished everything except taking the money back to Jackie, I was surprised but thought that maybe she had seen a book that had caught her attention. I've been there before too, so I walked the bag back to Jackie and chatted with her for a few moments

and then returned to the front, expecting to see her there waiting. Yet she still hadn't come back. So I figured I would go and help her or at least make sure that she was okay. When I got there, she was facing away from me with a book on the ground, like it had fallen from her hand, and a cart almost still full. She was standing completely still with her arms down to her side, but for some reason, I immediately felt like something was wrong. I called out her name, and when she didn't respond in any way, I started approaching her, slowly. I went around to be facing her, and this may sound mean, but her face terrified me.

Her eyes were bulging. She was seeming to hold them so wide open. and her mouth was slightly hanging open, too. The way that she was facing was just a wall, with a TV mounted on it, which had been turned off, and the lounge, so I couldn't imagine there being something over there causing this reaction from her.

I then gently put my hand on her shoulder and said her name again, when her eyes shifted to look at me, and the only thing she said to me was, I'm going to die now, and she then collapsed to the floor, floor and began convulsing. I'm incredibly thankful that I approached her, because

I had to move the cart to get around her. If I hadn't, she would have busted her head on it on the way down. I freaked out. I didn't know what was happening at first, so I screamed for Jackie, and she quickly came running into the room.

Thank God Jackie confirmed that she was having a seizure, so I quickly called 911 as she took care of her. laying her as you should when a person is seizing. Also, thankfully, they got there quick, as we did have a fire department close by. But by the time that they got there, she had stopped seizing but was completely unconscious. I don't know anything about her family, so I agreed to go to the hospital with them so that she wasn't alone.

And Jackie said that she would contact the superintendents to get her family contact information. Thankfully, Sarah did make it out okay. She actually had a grandparent show up who thanked me for staying with her. She also told me that she suffered from seizures, but since she had started taking medication for them, they had become far and few in between. I told her it was no problem and left for the night. Let me tell you, it was not easy to sleep that night.

All I could see was the look on her face, her telling me that she was going to die, and then collapsing over and over. Long story short, Sarah didn't work for the rest of that week, but she did come in and gave me a bag of chips. I always ate the same chips during lunch, and a thank you card attached to it that said, Sorry I'm weird and scared you.

I felt bad afterwards, but I did laugh when I read it. And then I immediately apologized to her, but she even smiled a bit. She explained to me that she can usually sense when she's about to have one, but what she does or says beforehand is never expected. This was also why she didn't drive, but she said that she remembered feeling scared when it started because she couldn't recall what, if anything, she said, or what she looked like. But the look on my face was sheer terror.

Then everything went black for her until she woke up in the hospital. I told her what she looked like, and then what she had said, and it actually made her laugh, too. She again apologized and said that she has no idea why she would have said that. I learned a lot more about her after this, and we actually became good friends. But I still tease her about it to this day, and that face that she was making, it still haunts me. I used to work at a popular women's clothing store in Wisconsin. I found that I liked working the evening shifts too, because the night manager was super chill.

There were also less customers, and I spent a lot of my time playing around on my phone. It was in a fairly populated area, along an outdoor sort of strip mall, alongside a few other businesses. The area was actually growing as it had just been a grassy field a few years prior. They built a few commercial places, as well as some of those huge copy and paste houses. You know the type.

But anyways, because it was just growing that meant that there wasn't a lot of activity around, which also meant there was little to no crime. This was also a reason that I liked working at night. Sometimes we had sidewalks. sales and promotions to try to drum up business, and no one was really worried about theft. It was actually quite nice at the time. So, my story took place one of those nights. I was working late.

I was actually going to be the closing manager, as I had just started doing that week prior. It hadn't been long. This time of the year, we were busier than normal, so we usually had two people on closing, and this night it was me and a girl named Nora. Nora was always a very perky and happy girl. I swear she didn't have a mean bone in her body. She was a sales associate mainly, which meant that she typically walked the floor and helped the customers,

and she was great at it too. I used to work alongside her, but I went to be a cashier and up from there. So she'd been folding and putting away clothing that was left out or thrown around. I was at the register counting down one of the tills since we were going to be closing soon. Nora was just about to take the claim items, which were items that were damaged or defective to the back room, and I asked her to drop the bank bag in the back too. While she was in the back, there was a couple that came in. So again, it's probably close to nine, because that was when the store closed and it was dark.

Most of the other stores are closed, too, and the parking lot was pretty big with minimal lights in it, so I didn't even see them approach or walk by the window, until they opened the door. I greeted them, as I do, and the woman smiled at me and continued walking towards the first rack by the door. The guy, however, didn't even even. even look at me and kept looking around at the walls, like he was specifically looking for something. The way they were both acting immediately put me on edge, though. The fact that he wouldn't make eye contact and how she went straight for a rack and started

messing with stuff made me think something bad was going to happen. I guess the guy must have noticed, too, because as I was trying to walk towards the farthest register, where I'd left my phone, the guy called me over, claiming that he'd had a question. I tried grabbing my phone first, but he jumped over the counter before I could do anything other than Yelp, and he grabbed it from me. We had a small struggle before he pulled out a knife, making me give up. He then took out some zip ties, tied my hands behind me as his partner in crime walked over to us. She was watching this take place with her wide bloodshot eyes and snickering.

If I wasn't pinned to the wall with a knife to my face, I would have thought that she was pretty terrifying alone. I offered what I had in the register if they just left there, but the guy ignored me and told the girl to start grabbing. She pulled a trash bag out of her jacket, and as she started laughing, she grabbed everything she could and shoved it into the bag. All I could think was if I just sat there and let them finish,

They would leave, and we would be safe. But then my mind kept going to the worst-case scenarios. These people walked in without any masks on, and they didn't even try to cover their face. What were the odds they would actually let us go? Then I remembered there was an us, and I feared that Nora would walk back in here and her life would be in danger. I tried to think of anything I could to keep them for. from going into the back, or to get me back there with her. Unfortunately, there was some kind of noise or something,

because they both froze and looked towards the back room. I don't think they even considered that there could have been someone back there. The guy asked me if I was alone, and I said yes, but he called the girl over directing her to watch me. I pleaded with him to not go back there, but he continued on holding his knife to his side. The next thing I heard was a blood-curdling scream that had to have come from Nora and a loud slam. That scream still haunts me.

I was starting to go into a panic attack and was feeling sick to my stomach terrified of what could have happened to her. When he came back out, I didn't see the knife on him, but he ordered her to continue grabbing. As she continued to feel the bag and seemingly talked to herself, the guy was patting me down. It was like he was trying to find more valuables, but the look on his face also told me that he was enjoying what he was doing. I felt disgusting. I couldn't protect my employee and friend. My store was being robbed shortly after I became the manager, and now this. The damage this event had on me affected me for years.

After what felt like hours, the two of them started fighting, as she had only brought two bags, one of which had started ripping, and she wanted to get more. He told her that what they'd had was enough and started heading out for the door. For some reason, though, he came back over to me, cut the ties off, and then said that after counting to a hundred, I should call an ambulance. Then he ran out the door. I laid their motionless on the ground, counting out loudly in case they were listening. In between numbers, I yelled out to Nora saying that it was safe,

hoping that I would get a response. I never did. After rushing through my numbers, I quickly got up and ran to the back as fast as my shaking legs would let me. My heart dropped when I found Nora laying on the floor with blood near her head.

I softly rolled her over on her back and, thank God she was breathing. I didn't see a knife anywhere or any real wound. so I didn't know where she was bleeding from at first until I saw the spot on her head. There was a cordless phone in the back room, so I called 911 and explained what had happened. The rest of that night hardly existed in my mind. The cops and paramedics arrived.

They took us to the hospital where we were treated and had to give our statements. I couldn't leave Nora's side. I felt like I was to blame and I didn't want her to be alone. Nora and the guy apparently had a bit of a struggle too, and he was choking her until she passed out. As he let go of her, she fell to the ground hitting her head on the desk. She'd actually had a concussion, but was going to be okay. Her fiancé and mother showed up shortly after,

so I left her in the room, and I went to go speak to the store owner, that had come out to find out what had happened. I actually had to go back to the store to make a report and help determine what all was taken. I didn't get home until nearly midnight because the owner was insistent on doing it all that night. We had cameras in the store,

and the detective even suggested that he lock up the store, and that we could continue this the next day. But the owner didn't even bother to ask if we were okay. The store managers were awesome, but the owner, I despised him, and I'm sure you can see why. So, overall, those two ended up stealing around two grand worth of clothing and accessories, and nothing else. We found my phone on the floor as well as Nora's. They never took the money from the register, nor did they touch the bank bag that Nora took to the back,

that was still sitting on the desk. I still have no idea their reasoning, because, They did get caught when they found some of the items for sale on eBay. We'd been doing a special on these charm bracelets that were unique to our store, so they were pretty easy to trace. If they were wanting to make money, why not take the money? The only thing I can think of between that and the guy telling me to basically check on her, it makes me think that maybe he was remorseful and or this was their first attempt. Either way, it was an event that I will never forget.

I have healed and moved on from then, but I do still have some anxiety when going out alone, especially at night, so I try to avoid it. Nora was also okay, and thankfully neither one of us works there anymore. If anything, be safe this holiday season. Be aware of your surroundings, but also, don't be too hard on yourself. Life is too short to not enjoy it. This story may or may not come as a surprise to people who live in the U.S.,

and I'm not sure whether I believe what I saw either, or whether I was mistaken. I'm also not sure about any Aussies who also may be aware of this. At first, I used to believe it was one of those urban legends going around. Australia doesn't naturally have any big cats or anything like that. There were some carnivorous marsupials that are now extinct. I'm not talking about those, though. I'm talking about an actual big cat. This experience changed how I thought of them.

I was out bushwalking with a group of friends in an area close to farmland. Each of us had our backpacks filled with the supplies that we would need, along with the camping equipment. This happened in the early 90s, so mobile or cell phones weren't as common as they are now. The area that I'm talking about now has been built up on for a while, and over time it has gotten worse, so I'm not even sure it's the same.

I actually moved interstate after this incident. A lot of the country areas of New South Wales are losing the bushland and forestland, farming land for housing. People need somewhere to live, sure, but it's a shame that it's happening, too. So, anyways, we set up the tent and other things for the campsite. We settled in and began to organize dinner for the evening. It was a beautiful night, and it was fantastic being out in nature. We took some photos that would need to be developed later. As I said, this was the 90s. The crickets and the other insects went dead quiet every so often.

We really weren't sure what the reason was, but none of us let it get in the way of enjoying our night. We were drinking, chatting, and enjoying life. I looked over in the long grass, and I saw something. It was difficult to see, and I nearly missed it. I swore that it was maybe a big dog or something like that. I never would have believed it could be a big cat. I stared at it,

My friend nudged me laughing and asked just how much zombie I'd had. I know the term isn't used much today, but zombie is short for cannabis. I laughed and pointed in the direction of what I saw. I told him that I thought I saw a big cat or something. He laughed even louder at me. We packed up and left, and when we were driving away, I saw what had to be a big cat. It had rounded ears.

Rather than pointed ones, though, maybe I did indulge a little too much. But I was nosy, and I wanted to learn more about what I had seen. I knew that feral cats could grow to be quite large out in the bush, but whatever this was had curved ears. I found some forums and tried to find any docos on it. I heard local yarns about how there had been circuses that went bankrupt, and just let the animals go. or rich pricks who did the same back in the 1800s or so.

Even some saying that U.S. soldiers had them as mascots or something, only to release them back into the wild. Again, there's no set story about what exactly happened or how the story originated. I haven't heard any of the stories about livestock being taken, and I'm pretty sure something like that would have gone after sheep. Mind you, animals die anyways that can't be accounted. for. The more that I researched, the more that I found. There was also the Blue Mountain Panthers and the Lithgow Panther. In a rare turn of events here, the person that sent this actually

did send a follow-up email with some further information. So, here are some updates about my story. Actually, these are other people's stories, but they are relevant to what I initially sent in. In the early 2000s, there were more investigations into the big cats, and there were several sightings of them. Hell, even in 2002, there was a person who said that they were actually attacked by one out in the bush. So, I guess that made my encounter with my mates a close call. A lot of police officers and firees have all seen them as well. A vet even took fur and scat samples and controlled. affirmed than it was a big cat.

A report in 2003 said that there were no big cats currently, but it was likely that a big cat was around. In 2005, government officials were quiet about it and told us that they couldn't speak about the situations. Again, another report in 2008 said that the big cats were more likely than not, but it was changed before being released into the public. So, I guess that tells you something. It makes you wonder why exactly they don't want to make this information clear to the public. Why and what are they hiding? But there is even more. In 2011, I heard about an alpaca being taken down by something that left massive wounds in its skull.

Too big to be a dog and nothing native here that could do that sort of damage. A ranger apparently said that it could have. have been a big cat. It sounds like the people that are in the area know about it, but for some reason the government wants to hide it from us. In 2013, a mate told me about the study by some feral species specialist that denied it all, but apparently in private he said small populations were possible. These reports are nearly a decade old now, and it has been a long time since I've heard

any more about it. Maybe they've gone deeper into the bush or got better at hiding from people. Maybe the population was so small and inbred that they went extinct. Who knows? But I'm always going to remember my experience. I know what I saw, and nothing will tell me otherwise. I hope that someday we find proof that this is true or was true at some point. And I hope that you enjoyed my story.

short as it was. I worked as a CO, or prison guard, at one of the oldest jails in New South Wales. For those who don't know, it is the state that has Sydney in it. Paramatta is one of the bigger cities in the state, I suppose. Since it's closed, I may as well name the place, since I don't have to protect anyone. It was the Parramatta Correctional Center, but it was originally called Paramada Jail. I don't know a lot about the history, but I think things happened, and it had to be rebuilt a couple of times. I worked there in late 2010 to 2011, when it was finally shut down for good.

It was a freaking crap hole. It was understaffed, filled with rats, and there were issues with the plumbing. A lot of parts weren't upgraded and still had the old cots in it. Some parts weren't being guarded properly, and some people had managed to escape or come close to it. I remember one bloke was actually stopped a day before he plans to escape. It was built in the late 1800s, and as you can imagine, it did have a lot of history and was a pretty dangerous prison.

murderers, sex offenders, gang members, one of the guys who murdered Anita Cobby was in there too. All sorts of criminals were housed here at different stages. The inmates even managed to get their hands on guns at one point, so you have to wonder how they managed to do it. One of the inmates arrived from a different prison, only to be murdered something like 15 minutes later. it's pretty unbelievable the things that happened there. I don't think a lot of the Australian public know about how bad this prison could be. Over the history of the jail, it served as an asylum after or just before World War II. I can't remember all the history before that.

Now that the explanation's out of the way, I'll tell you what I experienced while I worked there. I was one of the recent hires, and there were times when you could hear footsteps down the long corridor that did not come from a prisoner or the other COs. One of the old-timers told me that this was a common occurrence, and to just not let it bother me. At first, I would brush it off, but then it kept happening. I can't tell you how often it would happen. It wasn't every single night when I was on duty. Occasionally it would happen during the day also. Some of the prisoners and other staff members would say that they saw people out of the corner of their eye, only to look again and have nobody standing there.

Some of the cells were pretty unsettling. I never felt comfortable going in them, so I couldn't imagine what it was like to be a prisoner stuck inside of one unable to escape. Some of them would even get worse behavior-wise if they went to, into certain cells. I would sometimes feel like I was being followed by something unseen, and you know that feeling that something or someone is standing over you, wanting you to leave and trying to tell you to get away? Yeah, I felt that.

I felt that all the time while I was working there. I would frequently feel nauseous and sick there. There were days when I hated going to work, and I like working, and I rarely, if I'm ever took sick days at my previous jobs. My GP thought that I was developing some kind of anxiety disorder. It makes sense. I was working with some of the most dangerous men in the country. I've grown up in rough areas, housing commission, and I attended some rough schools with

bad reputations, and I knew a lot of gang members. Hell, I grew up with some of them. I understand the culture. not to get involved but be firm and fair with the inmates. Don't be a push-over and there was a good chance you would be fine. This, however, was a completely different feeling altogether. You could feel the pain and the hatred within the prison. I didn't believe in ghosts until I started working there,

and this job changed how I saw the world. I didn't normally get anxious about anything until I started working there. I had trained in a different prison with no issues. There were times when I needed to step outside and vomit. It felt like somebody was trying to strangle me, but no one was there. I'm not proud of it, but yeah, it is what it is. There are now ghost tours that take place at the jail, and they're pretty popular, too.

I've been asked a couple of times to go back there to tell people my experiences. I've declined each time. I've been trying to close that chapter in my life. My wife and my kids want to go on the tours, though, and I can't really tell them what to do. I have asked them not to go, and so far they have agreed. I get nightmares about that place. It isn't every night or anything like that,

just once in a blue moon, so to speak. Shadows following me from the dark, whispering and hands reaching out of the cell. at me. It could be because I was in a high-stress workplace, and I knew about the history of the jail. Maybe it's a form of PTSD. I don't know. But that's my story about the Paramedic Correctional Center and some of the things that I've experienced while I worked there. If I can remember some more experiences, I'll send them to your site if people like listening to them, because I do have some more. From my time working there,

I soon decided that the career choice wasn't for me, and that it was time to pack it in. I hope you enjoyed my story, and thank you as the Raven Dreams. I'm a big fan of your channel. Keep up the good work. My missus would love it if you said hello. Oh, well, hello to this person's misses. And also, don't go on those prison tours, because it sounds like that place was pretty terrifying. I used to work for a local donut shop that was staffed by, for the most part, three people.

Myself, the owner's son, and then one other guy that I pretty much never saw because he only worked on days that I was off. The store was open at 5 a.m., and we either closed when we ran out of donuts, or we closed at 1 p.m., whichever came first. We typically ran out around 9 or 10 at the latest, so really that was when we closed. It was a decent gig. It paid well, and while the short hours meant that I never really had a full check, I did get free donuts, and I didn't have to work a full day. Honestly, I was in my early 20s, so this was an ideal job for me, because I didn't really want to work full-time hours, and, well, I loved.

loved donuts. Enough about the shop, though. That's not the important stuff. What's important in this story is the employees. As I mentioned, it was myself most days, and when I was off, Jeff would take the same shift. However, the owner's son, Hunter, worked every day. All seven days of the week, he was there. The thing about Hunter was that he was obviously just there to get a paycheck.

and he did not care about the business, even though it was literally owned by his parents. Every now and then when his mom or dad came into the store, he would actually do work, or at least pretend to, but the minute they left, he would be back to doing a whole lot of nothing. So, needless to say,

he was getting paid more than me for more hours a week, and his idea of working was sweeping the back office for five minutes, and then sitting in the office chair for four hours on the computer. The worst part of this was that Hunter was also a pervy creep. While he was on the computer in the back, he would quite frequently watch adult-oriented content. At first, he was trying to be sneaky about it. He kept it muted, would click off of it quickly if I had to go to the back, but it was pretty obvious what he was doing.

after a couple of months of this though he started getting more bold with it he would leave it on while i was in the back and he knew that i was cleaning or prepping there and could see it then after a while he started playing it with the volume on and as expected it started on low but he quickly started playing it louder and louder until it was on full volume it got to the point it that the customers could hear it, and that was where I drew the line. I was working the front, and a lady came in with her two kids, neither of which could have been older than eight years old. She was asking me about the specifics of some of the donuts. I was explaining which fillings we had, and out of nowhere, the very obvious ambient sounds of two people enjoying each other's company came playing from the back room. She looked back with her eyes wide. Her two kids looked back laughing and asked what that was, and I could tell that I was beat red.

I apologized profusely. I gave her all of her donuts for free and apologized a second time. The whole time I'm trying to get this transaction done, the noise is just playing from the back, as if he didn't know it was happening or as if he didn't know it was that loud. As soon as the lady left, I grabbed the phone and I called his mother to tell her what he was doing. And, much to my surprise, she didn't really seem to care. Her solution was that I should go to the back and tell him to turn it down or ignore it. I told her that the customers could hear it,

and that the last lady had kids that were subjected to the common adult content profanities and sounds. She laughed. She actually laughed when I said this and said that she would have a talk with him, but until then, I needed to do my job and just ignore it. I was honestly shocked. The owners had always been decent people, and I had never been hit with this level of apathy from them.

But it was also the first time that I had to report an issue involving their son. After I hung up, up, I decided that I would do what she said. I would go to the back and tell him to turn it down. I walked to the back and knocked on the door at first, just in case, but he didn't respond. I took a deep breath, and I braced myself for whatever I was going to see on the other side of that door. If I told you that I wished I hadn't done that, it would be the understatement of the century. I won't get into full detail because it's honestly disgusting, but I have to explain a good amount of what was going on to highlight how messed up it was. I will say that it was creepy and disgusting, but I also know that some people will find humor in the whole thing.

And that's okay because I did laugh after the fact. when I opened the door, the first thing I saw was Hunter sitting in the chair, undressed as the day he was born. I had expected that he would possibly have his pants down, but I didn't expect him to be completely naked. After I noticed that he was naked, I noticed something else. And again, I won't put it into fully detailed words, but I will say that he was naked, I noticed something else. detailed words, but I will say that he was enjoying a donut, if you can put two and two together. He attempted to turn and cover himself and yell at me to get out, but it was honestly like a train wreck.

I think that's the best way to explain him, though. Hunter was a train wreck. I think you would have to be to sink so low as to pleasure a donut. at work with customers and a co-worker in the other room. I immediately shut the door, took off my apron, tossed it on the counter, and I left. I was not dealing with him or with that situation anymore. I got to my car, grabbed my phone, and I called his mom again. She asked me what I needed, and I told her that her son was in the back office, naked,

and then explained to her in very great detail what he was doing to the donut. I could tell by the fact that she didn't know what to say that she no longer thought it was funny. I wrapped up the call by telling her that I quit, and that this was officially her problem, not mine. After I hung up is when I literally burst out laughing. It was gross. It was really, really messed up. but also how low do you have to sink to do that to a donut?

Anyways, that's my story about when I worked at the donut shop. I will say that I never went back, and I asked them to mail me my last check because I did not want to look at Hunter and to have that image come back into my head. They closed the shop a couple of years later, mostly because they had a lot of bad press, when Hunter decided to get drunk at work and then sexually harass several customers,

which tells me that he was pretty much on that downward trajectory for a while. There wasn't anything his mom could talk to him about that would fix his issues, and I'm pretty sure he caught a charge at one point, hopefully. Anyways, I hope you found some humor in this truly disgusting tale, and I hope that Hunter and I never, ever meet again. Hi. Okay, so I guess I'm bringing you a ghost story,

or maybe several, depending on how much I can write. At least, I think they were ghosts. It happened in an area called The Rocks, and some explanations about it are necessary. Otherwise, you're not going to understand what I'm talking about. The Rocks is an area. area in Sydney, it has some of the oldest pubs in the country, and it's a real touristy area, too. It was one of the first building sites used by the early British settlers, and originally there

were the Catechal Aboriginal people. It has had a rocky past, pun totally intended. I think over a hundred homes were destroyed in order to make room for the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There have been plagues, gang activity, and it's had convicts, prostitutes, and recently it has been gentrified a lot. But it still has times when it can be pretty rough. Essentially, the area has a lot of history, and not all of it has been pleasant. There are even ghost tours that take place around the area, however, I've never been on one personally.

I thought that ghost stories were just to try to add another tour. forest cash cow to the area. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the stories I've heard or what ones have been promoted. Nor will I be telling you about the local legends or anything like that. You wanted true experiences that people have been through. I also haven't bothered to see if anyone else had gone through something similar either. So, here's mine.

I was walking down through the rocks at nighttime. Keep in mind, the city is still active during the night, and it isn't strange to see people walking around. I was walking to get a drink after catching up with some friends at one of the local restaurants. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay out late and completely enjoy the evening with them, because I had to work the next day. Part of the joy of dealing with a bunch of adult schedules, I was enjoying looking out at the water, and at the boats, it was so peaceful that people often forget the history that comes with the place. Then I heard giggling, and I saw a couple of kids hanging out by the water. It was pretty late, and most of the children would have been asleep by this time.

I looked around for any sign of their parents or adults that they would have come with, and I walked toward one of the cafes that was in the area. there was no one to be found that could be their parents. I didn't want these kids to fall in or deal with any danger, so I decided to approach them to see what was happening. I knew they would likely be wary of strangers, which, who wouldn't be, right? When I walked toward them, I had this feeling that I was intruding, and I wasn't wrong.

These kids didn't act like they were scared or otherwise in danger. They were minding their business. and, well, I sure as hell wish I would have been minding mine. I walked up and asked them if they were all right. It was quiet. I could have sworn that time had almost stopped for just a moment. The children froze, and they didn't look at me. I gulped.

I wish that I took the hint and just left it alone, but I asked them again if they were all right, and if they wanted me to call somebody. but nothing. I decided at that moment that they were probably warned about strangers, and it was only now that I realized that something wasn't quite right with the children. They were dressed in old-style clothing. Maybe 1920s?

Earlier or maybe a little later, I'm not sure. I don't know a lot about these sorts of things. The clothing was rotten and torn, and there was a disgusting smell coming from them. They were sickly, blotchy, pale in color, and, looking at them in the mixed light, I could have sworn their hair had seaweed and shells in it. I must have whispered, what the hell, or something like that, and one of the boys slowly turned his head to look at me. I fell backwards at the sight. It was absolutely awful.

His face was hollowed out, like the skin had been red. ripped off by something, and his eye sockets were empty. There were no eyes to be seen. I couldn't tell if he was smiling or sneering at me. Either way, I didn't care. I needed to get out of there as fast as I could. I turned and ran as quickly as possible in the opposite direction. I could hear those damned kids giggling in the background.

I ran until I reached to the nearest bus stop to wait for my bus to get home. My body finally gave up, and I was hunched over, casping for air. Hell, I was heaving, and all of my limbs ached from running. I did get home safe, and nothing weird happened, although I was jumpy for ages after this. You know when there's any slight noise that freaks you out? Yeah, that was what was happening to me. I haven't really told anyone about what I saw or what happened. I don't think that the ghost kid was trying to hurt me,

just trying to get me to respect their space. And I learned my lesson. I'm never going to try that sort of thing ever again. I haven't stopped going to the rocks. I'm not the sort to stop living my life because it made someone else unhappy. I don't like looking at the water as much anymore, and I think about how many bodies must have been thrown in there over the years. I haven't done any research into who those kids could have been when they were alive either.

It's awful that they died while they were so young. You could say that I have had another encounter or a few encounters afterwards. I have seen the kids once in a blue moon. They seem to be watching me, but otherwise, they don't bother me and I don't bother them. We just show mutual respect. So, yeah, don't annoy the ghosts down at the rocks. Who knows what might happen if you don't give them the respect and space that they deserve. I have a really messed up story to tell about when I worked at an office building for a decently funded software startup.

I'm not going to name the company, and I'm going to use fake names throughout the story, but I will say that the company was essentially a software and server load testing or stress testing firm. We would stress test products and networks for corporations to give them an overall idea of how their systems could stand. It's not important, but it wasn't an interesting job. However, the company no longer exists, and this story is kind of the reason for why. The startup was, as I mentioned, pretty well funded, and the owner, CEO, president, or whatever his title was, was a guy named Jeremy. Jeremy was wealthy from another startup that he had founded and sold a few years back. He was an incredibly attractive and charismatic young man.

He was also smart when it came to business and tech, but he was socially inept, and he would have anxiety. just talking on the phone with people. I know that sounds really strange, charismatic but anxious. It was more like he was charismatic for the camera and the company, but when it came to talking to new people, he would freak out. Because of this, he would oftentimes ask one of us, the technicians, to make calls to clients, or for us to be on conference calls to answer questions. At one point, we all got kind of.

of fed up with him asking us to be front and center on those calls, and I mentioned to him that he should consider hiring a communications person, or someone to just do that job full-time. It did take a bit of convincing, but after a while, us techs actually got him on board with the idea, and one of the other techs, Dylan, actually had a cousin that was into technology and was wanting to get into the field, but wasn't formally educated or trained, like us. Even better, she was currently looking for a job. He offered to bring her in for an interview, and after just one chat, Jeremy said that she was hired. He seemed to be impressed with her enough to give her the job, so I figured things would work out. When she started, things were going pretty well.

Amy took her job seriously. She sat with all of us when she wasn't making her. calls to understand the process for how we did the tests, and she was doing everything she could to become much more knowledgeable about the product and the company. But things pretty quickly got awkward. Jeremy started spending a lot more time with her in his office, and when I say a lot more time, I mean entire work days. The only thing about Jeremy's office was that half of it was glass. And you could see it out back from the Smokers deck. So we all knew very well why he was spending so much time with her. We knew what they were doing.

At first it was one of those things you could laugh at, but after a week or so of this going on, and the talk's getting pretty well to the point of, okay, this is getting sort of gross, I decided to talk to him. I ended up calling him and asked if we could chat for a moment. He said, sure, and we went over to one of the one-on-one conference rooms. As soon as we sat down and he asked what was up, I pretty much just let him have the truth.

I told him that almost the entire office knew what was going on with him and Amy, and he tried to play ignorant, but I told him that we could literally see him from the back of the building. At first he seemed like he was curious, but I think it clicked that what was. While there were trees in front of his office, it was still a pretty clear shot. After talking with him about it, he apologized and mentioned that their conduct was inappropriate. I agreed, but I told him I didn't really care if him and Amy were a thing. Just that he needed to do it away from the office. He agreed and said that he would take that into consideration.

I thought that this was the end of it, really, and that they would take it. their relationship off company property. Well, I was apparently incorrect with this. Instead of correcting himself, Jeremy had just decided to move his office to that same one-on-one conference room, a room that was half the size of his original office because it didn't have any windows, and the door locked. So things pretty much just kept going as they were,

just without us being able to physically see it. Now, I know that none of this is creepy yet, and it's more so just gross, but it's how things fell apart that make this story creepy. We all knew what was going on, and we were all talking about it. But there was one person that didn't know for sure what was going on between Jeremy and Amy, and that was Dylan, her cousin. We never talked about it around him, and he didn't smoke, so he didn't go out on to. the back deck. I'm sure that he had his suspicions, but he didn't know for sure, and we didn't really want to have that awkward conversation. He would ask where Amy or Jeremy were when they were in his office, and we would just say that we didn't know. Dylan was a good guy, but he also had a bit

of an anger issue. He was the type to get mad and scream at things when something didn't work, or smack his desk and shout whenever he got frustrated. He was smart, but I think he had some mental issues that he really needed to work through, and I'm sure that it was really starting to bother him with what was going on there. Unfortunately, that is where things get messed up. It was about a week or so after Jeremy had moved his office to the small room, when we all got into work and noticed that Amy wasn't at her desk, and Dylan also wasn't there.

At first I thought that maybe Dylan had called him, or maybe he was sick. Amy was a bit more odd, though, as she wasn't at her desk mostly because she and Jeremy weren't typically together. That's early in the morning. I just shrugged it off and got started with my day. By 10, we were all kind of concerned. No Amy, no Dylan, and no Jeremy, which was definitely odd.

10 a.m. on Mondays was when we had our team huddle, so we all got together and we were waited for about 15 minutes to see if Jeremy would show up. He didn't, so we just started going on with the meeting, talking about what we were doing that week and such. After we got through the discussions, I got up to get some water, and I looked over at Dylan's desk. I noticed that Dylan's phone was on his desk, just sitting there. I mentioned it to the guys, and one of them rolled over to pick it up.

He then commented that the battery was dead. This was really weird, because he wouldn't have left it there over the weekend. That just didn't seem normal. All of this was strange, but none of it was a huge cause for concern, until I went over to Jeremy's office to see if he was there, or if he was okay. I knocked on the door and waited for a response, but there was nothing. I knocked again, but a lot harder, and said Jeremy's name, basically giving the two of them time to get decent if they were doing what I thought they were doing.

But again, nothing. At this point, I just said screw it, and I opened the door. If I saw something I didn't want to see, that would be my fault. I did see something that I didn't want to see, but it was not the two of them. Instead, I saw Dylan lying on the floor, and, by the looks of it, I could tell that he was not alive. I flipped out. I grabbed my phone and ran out to the guys yelling that Dylan was dead and that I was calling the cops. The rest of us all got out of the building while I explained to the dispatcher what I had found.

The cops showed up, alongside the paramedics, and they confirmed what I had thought. He was definitely dead, and it definitely looked like murder. Based on what information they gave us while asking us questions, he had been bludgeoned by a metal trophy that was in Jeremy's office. They found the weapon covered in blood sitting next to his body. We reported everything to them, the affair, that Dylan had a temper, that this felt like Jeremy may have killed him.

They took all the information, and we were all of, held for a while while they swept the place for any additional evidence. After they were finished, we were escorted back in to gather our personal belongings from our desk and told that we were not to come back, that this was an active crime scene. None of us really knew what to do. We were all now unemployed, our friend was dead, and our boss was now a potential murderer and on the run with his girlfriend. We all kind of just kept in touch with each other for a few weeks after this happened,

but none of us had any new information. After about a month or two, I did get a call from a detective that was assigned to the case, and I went in to talk to them about things. I was also shown a picture and asked if it was Jeremy and Amy. It was, and the detective mentioned that this was the last they had seen them. This picture was taken from a security camera at a bus depot and taken about an hour after when Dylan would have died. Basically, they were on the run, and they'd had about two days to get out of town. I really have no idea if they were ever caught, but my guess is that they fled the country.

Like I mentioned, Jeremy had a significant amount of money, and he had the means to get out of the country, and I would think that they would have contacted us if they had caught them. I know that this story doesn't have the happy ending that it should, and there hasn't been any justice for Dylan. It's still really hard for me to believe that they killed him, and if I had to speculate, Dylan probably showed up on that Saturday to do some overtime work, and he probably walked in on them in Jeremy's office.

This probably led to some sort of, some kind of fight, and Jeremy ended up murdering Dylan. It's hard for me to believe that he would be capable of doing so, and it's just a difficult to think that Amy is okay with the fact that Jeremy killed her cousin, but it kind of just is what it is. I really do hope that they catch them someday, and maybe they'll slip up, but I'm also not going to hold my breath. All right, so I...

I live in an area that has a lot of Bogans in it, or Eschase. I think they're called Chavs in the UK, and I'm not really sure about the U.S. It can get really rough at night, and it's known for not being a safe place to spend time. I won't name the suburb, but it has been on the news more than once. The younger Bogans, they like to go to the local Maccas late at night, and hang out in the car park with their cars. A lot of them are too young to get into clubs or have already been kicked out of them.

The local sporting oval is another spot that they like to go and smash beer bottles at. I think it was mostly because they were cashed up to get some food, but not enough to really do anything. Most of the time, they're out the back, smoking dearies, drinking and acting like a bunch of gala. It's also a place where drug deals go down. I guess, for legal reasons, I'll say that it happens, allegedly.

Occasionally, they will try to roll people for their money or phones before the pigs come to drive them off. They always come back, though, and they loiter. I mean, they walk in and buy stuff, so I guess that's why they're tolerated. They're the types to go in and throw food, abuse the stuff. staff and throw things around. It isn't good to judge people, I know, but still. Anyways, I went there with my mates, and it was after we were having a good time at one of the clubs. It was closing, so I'm guessing it was around 15 to 2 in the morning, or thereabouts.

I'm not really sure, to be honest. We needed to sober up and figured some greasy Macass would be the best way to fix it. It was either that or Dirty Bird, or KFC as it's called in the U.S. Other than a kebab shop down the road, they were the only places open besides the servo, but that was even further away. We landed on getting some macus, and maybe if we had gone to the KFC, things would have been a bit different. There were about eight of us there.

We walked together in a loose group and were laughing. It had been a fun night. We had walked past a group of a chaise, and they called out to us. We called out back to them as we walked in to the Macass, and it went on for a bit. The Macus was dead quiet with only a few people working there, and occasionally some people going through the drive-thru. They didn't follow us inside. We went and ordered our food, got our orders, and had decided whether we were going to eat in, or eat in the car park. We had decided that we wanted to eat outside in the car park and went back out again.

They then called us, I'm not going to read the exact words that this person wrote, for the sake of pleasing the YouTube gods, so I will say, they called us effing sea words. We called back to them, but both of us went to our own ends. We were partly responsible, I guess. We could have kept walking away. We sat on top of our cars, minding our own.

business and eating our food, when one of the Ashes screamed something at us and threw a drink at us. The drink went all over one of my friends, completely soaking him. I can't remember what my friend said in response. Again, we could have walked away, but they were arching up at us. One of the distinct things that I remember that was said was, if censoring for the YouTube gods again here. Oi, effing dog, seaward. There was no mistaking what was likely going to happen at this point. We stood up and we got into a fight with them. It was fairly evenly matched, even though there were more of them. It didn't seem like it was going to be too serious, but then one of them pulled out a knife and stabbed my friend in the stomach. His mate started swearing at him, surprisingly. All of my

attention was on helping my friend and trying to make sure that he stayed alive. All I can remember is his scream in the sight of blood on my hands afterwards. I actually still have nightmares about it. After we got them away, we saw the blood and tried to stop him from bleeding out. The Macus workers came out to help us. I'm pretty sure they called the cobs and the ambos, too. Of course, the Ashays ran away, and we were waiting for the cops and the ambos to get him to the hospital. Making the drunk call to his parents late that night, it wasn't good, and really we were lucky that we weren't arrested. Each of us had to give a statement to the cops about what happened. Thankfully, he didn't die, and he did go on to make a full recovery with only a scar that he shows off

whenever he can. He has, however, stopped drinking, and he's begun to clean up his act, so that's one good thing. You can say that he got lucky, and we've all still gone back to that local macas, and, yes, the ishays still occasionally hang out there. We're not going to let them win. My mate refused to go back for a while, and, yeah, I can understand it, but we also couldn't let him get scared of it. We told him to harden up and went back there. He did, and we're all proud of him for that.

Since then, there have been the occasional bashing, or people have been rolled for their wallets or whatever. There haven't been any more stabbings, though. It is still technically being investigated by the cops, so I don't want to potentially ruin the case. It's not a ghost story, but I guess you could still call it scary. No one has any idea why it happened. So keep your guard up when you go out drinking,

and remember to avoid certain things. Maybe it wouldn't have happened if we had just walked away from them. I worked at an electronics store for four years when I was in my 20s, with no other experience than retail. For the most part, it was a decent starting job, except for the holidays. I despised being anywhere near that store from November to February, between the sales, the excessive returns being done,

and how horrible people are to one another. I have a few memorable stories to share, and I just hope people take something good out of it and maybe make a change for the better. We were closed on Thanksgiving during the time that I worked there, but we opened around 4 in the morning for Black Friday. I never understood it, but we had people camping out front on Thursday night. We had a rewards and membership club too,

so while we had weekly newsletters that people could grab on their way in, we also sent them via email to our members. Around this time, it also included the deals for Black Friday and the benefit of being first in line as long as you brought your membership card for proof. This caused some anger for some of the people that had been waiting outside. They always made us push the member thing, especially around that time, including the benefits of first access. The membership was free, too. The most annoying thing about it was probably the amount of emails you got.

So, I got there early Friday morning. saw the line of people waiting outside and went in to begin a very long day. When we went to unlock the door, we started explaining the two-line method. People were confused and angry about not getting to be in first, even though they had been there, as they put it, all night. We explained that this wasn't new because we had been doing this for years prior. We started checking everyone's member cards and letting them in. Some of them thought they would be sly and sign up for the membership on their phones. However, the membership had to be at least 72 hours old.

And it shows when you sign up for the card. Even the digital one or on the app. So we have some people swearing they will never come back to our store, some people stewing in their own anger on the side and some still trying to get in. claiming they have a membership, but our system must just be messed up. Another guy tried to take matters into his own hands by pulling out a pocket knife, walking up to my coworker, and stabbing him in the side. My coworker went to grab his side and kind of doubled over as he was in pain, of course.

I noticed this and tried asking if he was okay, what had happened, and as soon as we both looked down, people ran past us and into the store. including the stabber. I had to block off my co-worker just on the outside to prevent people from stomping on him. We called for help and thankfully the wound wasn't too deep, so he just needed some stitches. He did describe the guy that stabbed him, and, shockingly, he was still in the store, arguing with another guy over a printer. He was arrested, too. He stabbed my coworker, thankfully, not hitting anything. major, all so he could get a $73 printer.

He left with multiple charges, and I'm sure the cost was way more than that. Another Black Friday, I started out on the floor to make sure the lines were in order. The shelves weren't too disorganized, and to hopefully answer questions and calm any potential disputes. We had a pretty big display on video games for a console that had just been released. We didn't have any more of the consoles, though, and thought it would be way too dangerous to try and sell only four or five, because that would be all we could really get.

So, instead, we just sold the games for Buy One Get One Half Off. There were several people surrounding the display and aisle, grabbing one or more of each game, and several of them were on the phone asking the person on the other side which ones to get. Some were taking pictures of them, and others even tried to take multiples. They were one each per person, though, so we tried to stop them while in the aisles, but they were mostly stopped at the register. Apparently, they didn't believe the salespeople.

So at this same display, I saw probably a middle-aged man shuffling through the games, like he was casually looking, or maybe just looking for one particular game. He was moving out of the way for others, not taking any other games, just browsing. I did my normal asking if he was finding everything okay, and he smiled and said that he was just looking, but he thanked me. A few people seemed to be getting irritated but were walking away from the games, so I let it go, thinking that someone in that department would handle it. It wasn't long after this that I was called to the front to be a cashier, as they were forming quite a line and someone needed to go to break and honestly I would have preferred that anyways.

So I rang people up, argued a lot, and called a manager a lot to explain the terms of the sales. After some time, I heard more yelling coming from one of the aisles, but I definitely couldn't do anything about it then, being stuck in the front. After ringing up a few more customers, I remember noticing that it seemed quieter than normal. I could clearly hear the repetitive Christmas music playing, but very little talking or laughing from the customers. It was something that I subconsciously noticed, but I was so busy that I didn't bother looking around for a reason.

That is, until the reason was directly in front of me, I had just finished closing my till when I heard the familiar sound of someone laying an item on my counter. But the hand holding the item was covered in blood. I looked up, holding back from yelling some expletives to see that same middle-aged man with a slight smile on his face saying, I found the game I was looking for.

That wasn't the scary part. It was the fact that his head down to his shoulder was drenched in blood. People were frozen in place looking at him or us, taking pictures and talking on their phone. I asked the guy if he was okay and what had happened, and he seemed oblivious that he was covered in blood. He said that he was looking for the game,

felt something hit his head, knocking him to the floor, but he had gotten right back up. He said he rubbed the back of his head and just wiped the little blood he saw on his pants. I immediately called for a manager and then called an ambulance, and we then followed the blood trail back from the checkout to an aisle with console accessories and the game display.

The guy was adamant about feeling fine, though, and he really wanted to make his purchase, but he wasn't like the other crazy shoppers. The whole time he was soft-spoken, patient, smiling, saying he really wanted the game for his grandson. We gave him some paper towels to hold on his head, and we completed the transaction for him. When the ambulance got there, they cleaned him up a bit and found a huge gash on the back of his head. It looked like he had been bashed in the head with something.

His wife and daughter actually came in later that night, asking for a replay, too. We explained what we had seen, and they also gave us a little more information. He apparently had been hit with something that had a single person, point, almost like the back end of a hammer, or maybe a meat tenderizer. It had broken open his scalp, but thankfully his skull and brain were fine. The guy even told them that he didn't feel any pain after he stood up. He was completely unaware of the blood pouring from his head. They also wanted to thank us for calling an ambulance, and not letting him leave alone and said

that they did file a police report, and that we would probably be contacted. for the camera footage. We were, and our security team gave it to the police. I talked to one of the guys who watched it with the police, and they said that the guy had just pulled a game from the shelf, flipped it over to look at the back, when the guy on the other side of the display walked around and bashed this guy in the head.

He then grabbed the game the guy was looking at, threw it back on the ground, walked over this guy and continued looking at other, games. He didn't even take the game the victim had, and the game wasn't limited. When I walked back there that night, there were several still on the shelf. I remembered the game from when I checked the guy out, and I checked to see if it was the last one or something. We were told to contact the police if this dude ever showed up again, but we didn't see him the rest of the night. I never checked him out, so I don't even know if he bought anything.

or if he just left or even stole something. I never saw the guy again, but I'm unsure if they ever caught him. But still, this POS bludgeoned this guy for a $60 game that he didn't even take. He could have killed him for nothing, not to mention the fact that other people walked by this man on the ground and did nothing. I finished that season out, but I quit the following year, before Thanksgiving, I was unwilling to cater to people that showed that level of ungratefulness after a holiday about being thankful.

Some people just suck. I do ask that if you go shopping at any point in time, try to look out for one another, because being compassionate and making a difference to others, retail workers included, is way more important than a potential deal on your kid's presence. Just try to take care of each other out there. I want to start off by saying that I'm not someone who hangs out in the bush very often. If ever, I've only been because I was dragged out there by my partner. I prefer being in the city, and after this, I'm in no rush to go into the bush or any rural areas.

I hate the heat, the bugs, the sunburn, and being away from all. of the modern luxuries. My partner is the complete opposite. He loves nature, always has, and going out into the bush. It's like the Australian version of a forest, and I'm not really sure what the technical name is. We were going out around the Katumba area. It's close to the Blue Mountains,

and I admit that some of the scenery is beautiful, since it has some nice little boutique, Airbnbs, and nice restaurants too. Since it's in the mountains, the temperature tends to be quite cool, and, of course, my partner decided to take me camping there out of the blue and didn't think to tell me.

Sure, he packed the basic items that I would need, but I wish he would have told me, mainly so that I could have avoided going and trying to come up with some other plans. But after huffing on my part, I decided to give it a go to see how it went. So, we went camping. And not the kind where there is a toilet block and you're in a field with modern amenities. No, to my partner, that isn't even real camping.

So we had to drive, leave the car, and walk a long way to the campsite. It was one of those Go Out Into the Bush to Do Your Business Kind of places. While we walked to the campsite, my partner told me how happy and excited he was to try this out. I was... Happy that he was happy, I guess.

We found the area, and it was nothing but dirt. There was a campfire site further down the pathway, but that was it. I groaned and watched while my... partner enthusiastically put up the tent that we would be sleeping in. I told him that I was going to have a look around, and he told me not to wander off. He had absolutely no need to tell me that. The site was maintained, so it wasn't quite bushland. There wasn't a lot of leaves or twigs everywhere, and there were signs up. Mainly, it was about how to manage fires, to clean up

after yourselves and that sort of thing. There were warnings about cliffs in the distance, and after that, I stopped paying attention. After a while, I started getting a creepy feeling. It was too quiet for me. I didn't want to say anything and ruin the good time that my partner was having, but I kept having the feeling that I was being watched by something. I hated that feeling.

I also hated how I wouldn't be able to sit on my phone either. I needed to maintain the charge in case of an emergency, and my partner wanted to be disconnected from it all. We went for a walk, came back, got dinner ready, chatted, ate, and this is a little personal, but we made love under the stars. I don't know how much you want me to go into detail, and I guess I should censor it.

It was beautiful. I have to admit that I was enjoying it. It was starting to get colder, so we moved into the tent, keeping the light on while we did what we did. It was nice, and we didn't have to worry about the neighbors complaining about us again. We went about it when I thought I saw the shadow of a person watching us from the corner of my eye. In the blink of an eye, it was gone. My partner thought that it was funny and, like the cheeky prick that he is,

started teasing me about it. I laughed about it with him until I saw it watching me again. It was far too big to be a human. It looked like a giant ape of some kind. I couldn't see what color it was because it was dark, but it was hairy and it had those big arms. Kind of like how gorillas do.

It wasn't bearing its teeth or anything. It was just watching. But it isn't every day that sometimes, something like that happens. I let out a scream, and it scared the crap out of my boyfriend. In a panic, I told him what he saw, and he, like an idiot, went out with a baseball bat to threaten whoever it was. He said that he saw it run into the bush, but he couldn't see exactly where it went.

I told him that we were going home at first light. I was done. I didn't want anything to do with going camping, and, my monthly curse had come. I only say this because it is needed later on. We left, and I wanted to completely put the incident behind us. Before we left, my partner looked at the bushes and things like he was a tracker. He said that he saw a footprint out there that was huge,

not that I saw it, nor wanted to see it. My partner, on the other hand, wanted to know everything about it. Now, there are different names for it, but the Yowie is the most common one. As he researched more, he also told me that Yauis were interested in women and tended to appear more when they were on their cycles. They have quite a large range, and there were some other sightings in the area that we were at. There was one as recent as about six months to a year ago. Not that he told me that before we went.

He told me that they could mimic bird sounds, and some sites said that they could mimic voices. I didn't hear anything, so I don't know any of that. It did scare me, though, and it confirmed all of my beliefs that I should never, ever go camping ever again. I don't know what to think. But, yeah, that was my encounter with a yawi while I was camping with my partner. I never want to go anywhere near the bush. ever again. And you will never catch me camping again either.

I used to work for a small electronics repair and sales shop that was directly connected to a small coffee shop. By directly connected, I mean that it was pretty much one business. There was just a wall with a cut-out door frame separating us, and they were both owned by the same couple. The idea was that we could potentially offer our repair services to the people that liked to sit at coffee shops, or sell them new devices like chargers, mice, and such.

For the most part, I don't really think the businesses had a lot of crossover when it came to the clientele, with the exception, of course, of cables and chargers. We were located fairly close to a hotel, and we were a decent work spot for people that wanted to do work at a coffee shop that wasn't Starbucks. We had high-speed Wi-Fi, at least for the time, and back then there weren't many places that offered free Wi-Fi yet. As mentioned, one of the services that we offered was device repair. This included computers and cell phones,

and we were pretty good about getting things fixed and back to the clients within a day or two at most. The time that I worked there, I fixed a number of systems. And while it was always mildly humorous to see things that were adult in nature on a system that was given to us by a little old lady, I never judged anyone based on what they did on their systems. A lot of people look at adult content, even those in their late 70s. So I would just chuckle to myself and continue on with the reports. pair. However, there was a policy both within the company and, personally, that if we ever found

illegal content on a system, we had to report it. I don't want to say what content specifically, but I'm sure that you can guess what I mean. Thankfully, that never really came up, and we'd never had to contact the police about anything we found. One day, whenever I was working, a guy came into the store and asked me if I knew how to fix computers that were locked. I wasn't really sure what he meant, so I asked him if he was just locked out of the system or if something else was going on. He then placed a laptop on the counter, opened it, and showed me what he meant. His system was actually locked out by a crypto locker. For those that don't know what a crypto locker malware is, it's basically a virus that locks you out of your system and files and tells you that in order to get to your files, you have to pay them X amount of Bitcoin, and then they'll give you the pass key to unlock it.

They are pretty aggressive computer viruses, but depending on which one you got hit with, you can get around some of them if you know what you're doing. assuming that it hasn't completely encrypted your drives. I told him that it was a possibility, but that it was going to take more than a few hours and quoted a two-to-three-day repair time. We usually didn't quote days like that, but we also didn't usually get crypto-locker cases. The guy seemed to think about it for a few moments,

glancing at me and then back to the laptop, tapping his foot quickly while mulling it over. He then asked me how much it was going to cost, and I gave him the standard quote, but then mentioned that depending on how bad it was, it could be a bit more. He nodded and then agreed to leave it with us. I wrote up the paperwork,

he quickly signed the quote and page, and then thanked me for my help. I said, of course, and told him that I would call him if we were able to get anywhere with the recovery. The day went on as normal, and after a few hours, I decided that I would take a look at this laptop while I had some downtime.

I got it booted up and connected to what I needed to connect it to, and then started attempting the recovery. To my surprise, this was a very basic malware, and it hadn't really done any actual damage to his files. It was more of a permanent, overlay that was just blocking the screen. It basically just looked like I could go ahead and copy his files over, just do a full clean Windows installation, and it would be good to go.

When I got to this point, I went ahead and called the guy that left it at the store. The conversation went like this. Hello? Hey, this is my name from the store. You left your laptop here earlier today for repair. I wanted to let you know that I was able to get into the files, and we should be able to get this done today. Would you be able to come pick it up tomorrow? You got into my files?

His voice changed a bit, sounding a bit more concerned. I was able to get to them, yeah. I have them copying over to an external drive right now, and then I'll just do a clean install of Windows, and you should be good to go. He then went silent for a few moments, like he was thinking of what to say to me, and then hit me with a, what did you see? I paused, a bit confused. You mean like with the virus? No, I mean in my files.

What did you see in my files? This question was one that I was dreading. If he was asking me what I saw, then it was likely that he was. hiding something illegal. I mentioned that I hadn't really seen anything that I was just copying them over to a drive, but then mentioned that I would have to scan them to make sure we got rid of the malware. He then asked, What is your policy if you find illegal contents in my files?

It was at that point that any uncertainty was removed from my mind. I mentioned that it was policy to find. report the illegal content to the police. As soon as I said that, he hung up the phone without saying anything, leaving me just sitting there staring at this laptop as it was backing up. I wasn't really sure what to do, because I personally had not seen anything illegal yet, but the way that he acted told me that if I had clicked through his documents, I most likely would.

Part of me was holding on to the slight bit of hope that maybe it was just some pirated music or a cracked version of the Sims or something, but deep down I knew that that wasn't the case. At this point, I decided to go ahead and just leave the computer backing up and opted to deal with it in the morning as it was getting pretty late. Odds were that I was going to have to report this all to the police in the morning, and I really didn't want to do that. to deal with that right then and there. I know that may sound dumb, but the computer wasn't going anywhere. It was going to be locked down in the back, and I would leave a note on the system that said do not touch. Plus, the files were all going through the backup and scan, and it was going to take a couple of hours anyways. I locked up the store, did the closing tasks, and I went home for the night.

I even made sure that this guy wasn't standing outside the store waiting for me to leave or something, but there wasn't anyone there. I assumed that that was going to be the end of it, until the morning at least. And it kind of was. But imagine my surprise when I showed up to open the store the next morning, and the store was nothing more than a blackened and burned out husk. When I got there, I saw the owner and asked him, what the hell had happened. He then tells me that at some point in the early morning, someone had apparently come into the store, broken in through the cafe's back door, and burned it all. At that point, I knew what this was.

The guy actually had broken in, and not only that, he went full nuclear on the store. I mentioned the situation to the owner, and he told me that he would need me to give a statement to the police. I agreed and said that I would. To wrap this up, the obvious, the guy burned the store down. There was camera footage of him breaking into the store, and while he did wear a mask, the police were able to at least get a vague idea of what he looked like. I told the police that he had left his computer in the store, and mentioned that, when I called him, he seemed really anxious about what we would do if we found illegal files.

I think they saw where this was going, and they asked if I knew his name. I remembered that his first name was Brian, but I couldn't recall his last name beyond that it was an uncommon name. It was something similar to Strombole or something like that. They took the information that I could give and said that that they said that they were the same. they would look into it, but then mentioned that if I could remember anything to please call them. After they left, my boss and I went into the building to see what, if anything, could be salvaged. We went over to the repair room and everything was completely destroyed. I saw what looked like a laptop, but it was completely melted and gone.

I put it off to the side, though, just in case they could get to. data from it somehow, I know data forensics analysts can do some pretty crazy things. Unfortunately, the dock with the drive that it was backing up into was completely destroyed as well. After rummaging around a bit more, it clicked in my head that he had signed the quote when he dropped off the system, and that I put all the quotes with the cash in the safe in the back at closing. The owner popped it open, and sure enough, everything was sitting there, none the worse for where. We ended up calling the police back out and gave them the work order that he signed, as well as two very heavily damaged hard drives. At this point, the whole case was out of our hands.

The police had the information and the drives, and if they could pull anything from them, they would. Unfortunately, I have no idea if this guy ever got caught or arrested. The owner didn't reopen the store after this either, so obviously I didn't work there after that. The building did get rebuilt and turned into a Jimmy John's, I think, which great, but I do kind of miss working there and doing the repairs. Either way, that's my creepy story of when I worked at that tech store. And all I can do is hope that the police did get that guy because God only knows what was on that hard drive. Hey there, friends. That was today's episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast.

And I really hope that you all enjoyed this collection of scary stories. If you did, please do consider checking out my YouTube channel where I do these same stories, but a little bit earlier than I do them here on the podcast form, and also in slightly different collections. If you really enjoy the podcast, please do consider giving it a rating of any sort if the platform you're listening on has ratings. Any honest rating is appreciated by me,

be it five-star, one-star, however you want to do it. Just know that rating the podcast helps tremendously. And if you would like to support further, I do have a Patreon and channel memberships, you'd like to do things on the YouTube side, where for as little as a dollar a month, they get early access to my content. Never, ever expected, but always appreciated. That said, friends, I hope that I do see you on the next episode of this podcast. And of course, until then, sleep well.