Creepy - I Found a Laptop Connected to the Deep Web

Episode Date: February 10, 2020

It was just sitting there...***Written by Mike Maxim***New Creepy decal can be found at etsy.com/shop/decalsbydanny***Check out our reward tiers at patreon.com/creepypod***You can also subscribe to us on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/creepypod***Produced by Steve Blizin***Title music by Alex Aldea***Intro/Outro Narration by Joe Stofko Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Creepy Presents. I found a laptop connected to the deep web. Written by Mike Maxim. My local internet cafe is not much of a site to behold. I think that's what may have contributed to it shutting down for a couple months back in June. The exterior was reminiscent of an abandoned shack with its dilapidated appearance and broken windows. However, after they cleaned up the inside, I definitely saw some improvement. Sparkly clean tile floors and beautiful mahogany countertops filled the cafe with a sense of ease and elegance.

I always got plenty of work done in there, so the shop's grungy look never bothered me much. but it was nice to have a change of scenery once the cleanup was done. I was probably the only regular at the cafe, venturing in on almost a daily basis. Plenty other folks cycled in and out, but nary a familiar face would show up. This was fine, since I only went there to edit my vlogs and website on occasion. Striking up a conversation with someone recognizable as not on the agenda. Ever. I was there for so much need a peace and quiet, not small talk.

Though I had Wi-Fi at home, the thin walls there did little to muffle my father's drunken ramblings. The cafe was my escape from the unwanted noise. I strolled in on a Saturday morning, just five days after the grand reopening. I was feeling pretty groggy, stro-covering from a cold I caught during the week. The humid August air didn't help matters. Because at this, I decided to grab coffee. before getting my things set up. I walked across the glimmering, newly replaced floors, and heard them squeak under my sneakers.

I laughed a little to myself, almost tempted to start turning in place just to hear the sound a few more times. No, I told myself, grow up. I heard my coffee and took a look around the room while I waited for it. I took a metal note of how many faces were in the cafe with me. I was surely going to grab a little quiet table in the corner away from these strangers. Small iced regular? The barista held out my coffee and straw.

Thanks, I said plainly. I threw down a couple of quarters as a tip and strolled on over to the table I wanted. I spent the next few hours clipping and splicing my videos from the days previous. I was doing a week-long series about the gym I go to. Basically workout tips and some comedy bits with my buddy. Jake who works at front desk. I found myself laughing out loud over protein shakes get we done. I may have drawn some attention to my little corner of the room.

Though the staring eventually subsided, I felt the best for me to leave, as I've been there much longer than usual. I reached down and unplugged my laptop charger, and that's when my hand brushed up against something. Confused, I looked under my table to investigate. A 16-inch black bag sat just beyond where my feet were settled. It had pockets in a shoulder strap, as well as an abundance of dust-coating the leather. Holy crap, I thought to myself.

Someone must have left their laptop behind or something. At first I was going to do the right thing. I very easily could have handed it to the barista and called it a day. I guess maybe that would have been the smart thing to do. However, a mixture of curiosity and stupidity came over me, keeping me from being honest. Instead, after packing up my own things, I swung the mystery bag over my shoulder and swiftly exited the cafe.

Stupid. I pulled into my driveway at about noon, hot summer sun beaming down on my front lawn. My father was doing his usual half-assed inspection of the plants in the garden, beer can in hand. I tried to get into the house without a word to him, but he stopped me just as I opened the storm door. Hey, hey, why are you in such a hurry?

He asked, taking a swig of his drink. Dad, I don't have time, important website business. Well, well, don't stop on my account. But you just stopped me, I thought to myself. I pushed through the front door, passing my sleeping mother on the couch, and darted upstairs to my room. I shut my door hard behind me and locked it immediately. I tossed my belongings and newly found goods. down to my bed and make my shoes clear across the room.

I was excited to dig into this lucky hall. Carefully and slowly I unzip the top of the bag and pulled it open. I gasped a little to myself. Despite the appearance of the bag, the contents were no joke. A shiny, brand-new-looking laptop was nestled nicely inside. I pulled it out and observed it with awe. It was certainly nicer than my basic 500-gig HP from the Big Box store. I couldn't believe what I was holding.

I flipped it open and began feeling the keys in the monitor. It was in mint condition. I had to be the luckiest guy in the world. Everything was there, including a charger and wireless mouse. I even found a bag of screen wipes at the bottom. I also dug into the pockets, curious as to what treasure I might find in there. What I found was a cell phone. Nothing special, just some cheap Android phone.

It was still powered on and I had no screen lock on it, exploring it further. I noticed there were no text and only one recent call to an out-of-state number. Being into electronics, I wanted the settings to see what an operating system it had. It was vastly out-of-date on software, still set in some variation of the lollipop OS. That's all right, I thought. I could still flip it for a quick 10 bucks or so. I placed it on the bed next to the laptop and sat for a moment, trying to take in what I had in front of me.

This was such a great find. But I needed to power on the laptop and figure out what I was working with. To my excitement, there was no login screen. I was in, immediately after booting it up. I was never as into laptops as iPhones as iPhones. But I could tell right away I was not working with your standard stock operating system. The thing resembled more of a modded setup that I'd seen kids working with back in high school. But I couldn't name it off the top of my head.

Luckily, it was simple enough to navigate. I sat it up with my Wi-Fi and dived right into the file storage to get some idea of whose computer I had. I was disappointed for just a few moments. But after clicking around a bit, I did find a folder labeled A. Inside was one JPEG titled One by One. Intrigued, my stomach did little flips out with the image. I was puzzled by what I found. It was a screenshot from a website.

It looked like a post in some forum from a user named an Onendun N4, with nothing but phone numbers listed in zero replies. Underneath the list was a tagline. list was a tagline. You know who you are. Scanning the image for answers, I noticed the address bar for the site. It seemed to be a nonsense string of characters followed by a dot onion extension. Wasn't that a parody news site or something? I wasn't too sure, but I decided to dig a little deeper. I clicked on the X at the top, taking me back to the desktop. That's when I noticed another folder. This one was labeled Picks.

I started up some more thrills in my bones. I cheered to myself. This would more than likely reveal the owner's identity. I became disappointed as I clicked through the pictures. There was no human life. Just shots at different places and scenery. This included a dark image of a barber shop, a path in the woods somewhere,

and even someone's garage. What really caught my eye was the last pick. It was the cafe. My stomach started doing acrobatics now, my heart racing. Why were there random pictures in this thing? Why was there a screenshot of a message board with a list of phone numbers? The files just weren't adding up for me. But I hatched a half-big plan.

I didn't know if it was going to end the mystery, but I couldn't help but pry. I pulled up to pick with the phone numbers, grabbed the Android phone, and dialed the first number at the top of the list. After only two rings, I was great. It was silence. Strange, I thought, but I pressed on. I dialed the next number on the list. This time, it rang five times before I got a generic inbox greeting, with a phone number listed.

Interest in, but I hung up before I heard the beep. I grew bored of dialing the random numbers. I decided to take a break and put the laptop and cell phone away for a little while. I knew I'd come back to it later. Once the evening rolled around, I waited for my parents to go to bed, and I fixed myself up to snack. This was pretty much a nightly routine of mine. I clicked on the TV, as I usually did, and settled on the first news channel I scrolled to.

This is when things took a turn for the weird. A breaking news story was displayed on the screen, one from the next town over. Young barber, age 25, phone murdered at work. That sucks. A female news reporter was on the scene outside the barber shop where it took place. Wait a second. I couldn't believe my eyes. That barber shop?

It was the same one from the pick on the laptop. I was sure of it. I put my plate down on the coffee table and raced upstairs to grab the computer. I booted it up, clicked down the folder of pictures, and then the photo in question. I ran back downstairs with a laptop in hand and held it up to the TV. TV screen. The same barbershop. What were the chances of that?

I was shaking my head in amazement. I finished watching the news story and began feeling tired. I was about ready for bed, so I grabbed the remote. The news story just after grabbed my attention before I could hit the power button. Old murder in local forest. This one was also nearby, just over the bridge in the opposite direction. This world is terrible, I thought. I hadn't seen two stores like that back to back in a long time.

That's when it hit me. I scrolled over to the picture of the woods in the same folder. Then I waited to see if the news story included the location of the homicide on the video. Though I didn't get anything solid to compare to. I was definitely getting weird vibes. First a barbershop and now a forest. I had to be grasping at straws though, right? I decided it was bedtime.

I had a pretty restless night of sleep, tossing and turning and kicking my covers to the foot of my bed. It was hot and humid and I kept waking up with the sweats. Needless to say, I was in dire need of coffee the next morning. I was probably smart to leave the strange laptop at home, grabbing my own equipment as I headed out the door. I drove rather quickly to the cafe, eyelids still heavy. I got my regular coffee and sat down at my favorite booth in the corner. Only one other person resided in the building, apart from the barista's at work. It was nice and quiet and felt peaceful.

A good contrast from my evening snack and sweaty night of interrupted rest. Still, my mind couldn't help but wander. The web address from the screenshot I found came rolling into the forefront of my thoughts. What was that onion domain all about? Why did the web address make no sense? It was something like code in flux with random numbers and symbols after it. This was meaningless to me. I decided to do some research.

I couldn't recall the exact website, but I remember the dot onion extension. So I started from there. I was immediately blown away. Apparently what it pertains to is web address is not reachable on normal servers. It takes you through something called. called Tor, and is used for some pretty shady activity. I guess it involves what's called the dark web. I'd heard a little about this before.

I was beginning to feel sick. The websites listed on the wiki were pretty revolting to say the least. Nothing I would ever want to be involved in. The worst part? I was beginning to think the laptop I found was used solely to access this part of the internet. I couldn't bear the thought of being in possession of it any longer. I had to do something. I stormed out of the cafe ready to spring into action when I was stopped by a tap on my leg.

I looked down to see a homeless-looking man in a black tattered leather jacket sitting up against the front of the building. His face looked rough, complete with a badly shaving beard and cracked lips. He looked miserable. He held out a small plastic cup, looking up at me with desperation in his eyes. Spare change, sir. I'm in a hurry, dude, and I don't carry cash. Please. He begged some more.

He reached out and grabbed my pants like. No, get away from me! I kicked his hand away. The guy looked upset. His eyes were actually watering a little bit. I felt a little bad, but damn, don't grab me. That's when the guy did the strangest then. He took out a phone and started taking pictures of me.

What are you doing now? Confused his all hell. He didn't answer. All I could do about it was run to my car and leave as fast as possible. The guy's deal. I called my friend Peter on my way home. I knew he'd have some more insight on this whole thing. I was hoping I could bring him to my house and have him wipe the computer clean.

Then I could sell out to a random Yahoo and be done with this whole misadventure. Once I picked up my friend, I sped back to the house and showed him what I'd found in the cafe. He was blown away. This thing is lethal. He laughed. Looks pretty customized, honestly. Yeah, I noticed that. But take a look at these.

I clicked through the photos, showing him the ones I compared with the news stories. So you think this laptop has some sort of connection to the murders? I don't know, man. But I think there's something fishy going on? He shrugged and took over the most for a moment. Where's the picture with the phone numbers? It's somewhere in the file storage. Yep, click there and...

Pingo. Peter stared intently at the list and address barring the screenshot. He also checked the file description and saw that the screenshot originated from the laptop. So it was taken from within the device. My hairs were at attention all up and down my skin. So you tested these numbers out? Yeah, with this phone. I handed him a cell phone that came in the bay with a laptop and he scanned through it rapidly.

Definitely a track phone. Something bought as a burner. Possibly for some sort of business task? Shall we try another phone number? I nodded and pointed to one just below the numbers I'd tested out. He dialed it and threw it on speakerphone so we could both listen in. It rang. and rang and rang.

It didn't stop ringing, so we hung up after the eighth ring. Peter looked at the phone funny, and then up at me. I honestly don't know what's up with all this. Do you want me to just factory reset everything? Yeah, I mean, is that going to take care of my problem? Not sure, but I think I'd like to have some fun with this before we call it a day. I gave him a look, a glance of disagreement. I didn't think that would be in our best interest.

I don't think we should be messing with this, dude. Come on, what could go wrong? You could even film it. This could go viral. Well, I'm not going to vlog me hanging around with a stolen laptop. Just do what you got to do with it, and let's move on. Peter smirked, looked at the screen again, and then dialed another phone number from the list. Again, we got nothing.

This time just another generic one. voicemail box greeting. He continued on to the next phone number and halfway through dialing, he stopped. His eyes were scanning the screen. His face was now wet as a ghost. What? Why'd you stop? You okay?

This is... This is my phone number. My heart panged like a club to a gong. That can't be. I scooted over next to Peter and observed the screen. He was running. Right. Just to be sure he finished dialing it and hit send.

He put the phone up to his ear and waited. Just as he suspected, his pocket lit up and his ringtone, saying away. We both looked at each other in shock. My hands were shaken, and my mouth is gaped so far I think my jaw was brushing my bedsheets. Is all Peter could muster up from his racing thoughts. This is unreal. This is unreal. I don't like this at all.

Just wipe the hard drive and let's be done with it. Wait! He shouted while looking at the screen again. My heart sank some more. I had a feeling about what he was about to say. What? Don't tell me. He didn't say a word.

All he did was start frantically dialing another number. That's when I felt it. My pocket. I gulped so loud that I flinched. I reached down and pulled out my phone and answered. I held it up to my ear. Peter. I said through the receiver, looking at my visibly shaken friend across from me.

This is messed off. He responded through the burner phone. I ended up driving Peter home shortly after. He had handed the phone over and told me he wanted to leave and take everything in. He left the laptop with me and told me he'd rather not mess with it. We decided to meet up at the cafe and drop it back off right away in the morning. We'd wake up early and hopefully be the first one's in. However, I missed my alarm.

Apparently, I also missed ten calls from Peter. I opened my messages and noticed the four texts he'd sent. Damn, I had to get going and fast. I'd already packed up everything the night before. So all I'd do really was thrown a T-shirt in shorts and out of the cafe. As I turned the corner where the cafe was, I had to hit the brakes pretty quickly. What I saw on the road was nothing but cops and ambulances. There were roadblocks set up on either side of the ambulances, and the cafe was barricaded.

What in the? I was thinking out loud. This was crazy. There were people with their hands on their faces, looking scared and sad. I pulled over into the grocery store, parking lot across the street and then walked over to the scene to get a closer look. I assumed Peter was doing the same thing. I ended up in a crowd of onlookers next door, looking at the scene before us.

There was blood splatter on the front doors of the cafe and some papers, among other belongings, strewn all about. More blood covered the ground. Jesus. This was a damn massacre. I could hear the people beside me whispering to each other about what was going. on. They're talking about a possible serial killer.

One woman said to a friend. The kid was about to walk in, and suddenly bullets came in from over there. Nobody saw how fired the shots. The guy filled his wife in about what he witnessed. I was too curious to just be craning my neck from back there. I needed a closer look. I peered over at the cops who were busy questioning a barista by the ambulances.

I crept past the barricade carefully. I slipped past a couple of other baristas and made my way to a second ambulance by the other barricade. The stretcher was in view now, but I couldn't tell who was in it. I decided to kneel down beside the ambulance and hopefully catch some conversation between the EMTs. I took up my phone and started recording. We lost him. He wasn't hanging in there much when we got here, but I was hoping. Jan, it's not your fault.

You saved the girl. You can't save them all, you know. I wish I could. I heard him talk before he let go, you know. He told me his name was Peter. My hand jumped over my mouth as I let out the weirdest sound. There was a gasp combined with a confronted disbelief. Yeah.

We have all his information already. Guess it was an IT guy for a local business. Good, early 20s. I stumbled back on my heels, dropping my phone in the process. I bumped into something solid behind me and set up quickly. I turned around and saw the same homeless guy from the other day. My face was still contorted from the information I just received from my eavesdropping. The guy was just staring at me, stoic.

He didn't even react to me bumping into him. He was glaring at me from behind an unchecked. changing expression. I couldn't help it. I booked across the street to my car. I could feel tears forming. My eyes twitching in the wind from the open driver's side window. Why did I have to wake up so late?

Maybe Peter would have been spared from whatever this was. That drive-by and assassination of some kind? My head was dizzy. My heart was pounding. But I was beginning to make some connection. The pictures on the computer, the phone numbers, the murders, everything. I was getting an idea as to what I was dealing with, the stuff about the dark web, the strange laptop, and the phone numbers. It's sick as all hell.

My friend was murdered today, and I couldn't stop it. Maybe if I never grabbed the computer from the cafe, it'd still be alive. Maybe if I hadn't been so stupid, I could have handled this whole thing differently, and he wouldn't be dead with me. right now. To top it off, I realized I left my phone at the bloody scene. I groaned and threw my head back in the driver's seat. Now what? Well, the phone is near some cops and EMTs. Maybe if I call, I'll believe I dropped it before they got there and I won't get in trouble. I reached back and grabbed a burner phone out of the bag and started to dial my number when I suddenly had a thought. If the phone numbers redialed somehow had something to do with murders,

that must mean I grabbed a laptop out of my bag, my heart racing and body profusely sweating in fear. The whole thing was unreal. The fact that I was right in the middle of it was even worse. I clicked on the folder of pictures of scenery from earlier. Again, my eyes scrolled across the picture of the barber shop, then the forest. Finally, my eyes got to the picture of the cafe. Yes.

The phone numbers in these locations have to somehow be tied together, but I didn't know how. Why was this happening? I was about to leave the folder, but then a small thumbnail at the end of the list of pictures caught my eye. I hovered the cursor over it and opened it up. With some cloud service, the image was revealed. My jaw dropped in utter horror. A picture of my house. I was looking at a picture of my front yard and home.

I hadn't noticed this before. I noticed this. Over in the top corner was a link, one that opened up the full cloud folder from some email made up of more gibberish characters. This folder contained more picks. Picks that were very different from the others. No way!

Face contorted and anger and fear all at once. pictures of me looking directly at the camera, others in my car. The last ones were of me sneaking into the crime scene at the cafe, that homeless-looking guy from the other day. And behind the ambulance, I have his laptop. He was watching me. How did he tie into these murders? My silent tirade was interrupted by the sudden sound of a jingle to my right.

The phone was ringing in my passenger seat. I picked it up. appeared at the phone number. I couldn't handle this anymore. I decided to swipe and answer the call. Who? Who is this? I stammered.

A gravely voice answered from the other end. For more information, including pictures and videos of the stories told on this podcast, or to suggest stories for future episodes, please visit us. creepy pod on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email us. All stories told on this podcast can be found at creepypasta wikiya.com and are protected by a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved unless otherwise stated. Bloody disgusting podcast network.

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