Every Town - Listen Now - MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

A young woman opened the door to her place of work, a sporting apparel store in Washington DC, and immediately realized something was wrong. Too afraid to investigate what she saw and heard, she ran from the store and called 911. When police arrived and entered the store, they heard a sound coming from a hallway in the back, and they began to move toward it... This is just one example of an unbelievable story you’ll hear on the MrBallen Podcast. Follow the MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Prime members can listen to new episodes 1-month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey there, I got something a little different for you today. I've been listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, because like you, I like strange, dark, and mysterious true stories, and I cannot get over how meticulously crafted each episode is. And seriously, I'm hanging on every word into the final chilling twist. This chart-topping series is hosted by Mr. Ballin, who is one of the most immersive storytellers out there.

Whether he's covering true crime, paranormal encounters or unexplained disappearances, every story he tells is deeply researched and seriously compelling. I've been listening to both his newer episodes and also past episodes too, the quality never ceases to amaze me, and every episode has just the right amount of suspensive mystery that keeps me guessing until the very end. I could tell you more about it, but there's nothing like hearing Mr. Ballin podcast, strange, dark, and mysterious stories for yourself. I'm about to play you a clip from Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories. While you're listening, be sure to follow the show on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcast.

Prime members can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin Podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. So in late 2010, when Brittany and Jaina found themselves working at the same Lulu Lemon shop in Bethesda, they were aware of each other, but really didn't know each other. Their only interactions were when their shifts happened to overlap, which did not happen very often. But when it did, they were perfectly nice to each other. They would chit-chat, but they were co-workers, not really friends. However, a terrifying event was about to link them together forever. On the evening of March 11, 2011, Jaina and Brittany were working together at the Lulu Lemon.

It was an uneventful shift. They chatted. They helped customers. and in between all of that, they would knock out whatever closing duties they were responsible for so that when closing time came, they could leave quickly. And then when it was closing time at 8 p.m., the pair did one last sweep of the store to make sure everything was neat and put away and locked, and then they both grabbed their things and headed out the front door.

Once they were outside, Jaina turned around and she pulled the keys out of her pocket and she locked the front door, and then Jaina hopped in her car and she drove off, and Brittany, she turned and began walking down the sidewalk toward the, metro train station. But after only a few minutes of walking, Brittany swung her backpack off of her shoulder right in front of her, and she reached inside to fish around for her wallet because her metro train pass was inside of her wallet. And so she's fishing around her bag, she's still walking towards the train, and she can't find it. And so she comes to a full stop, she unzips her bag completely, and she looks inside, and her wallet is not in there. And as soon as she sees that

it's missing, she remembers she left it on the break room table at the Lulu Lemon store. And the only way she could go back and get her wallet was if Jaina came back with the keys and unlocked the front door. And so Brittany just stood there for a minute wondering what she should do. She kind of felt bad about calling Jaina to drive back and open the store for her, but she really needed her wallet for a whole bunch of reasons. And so finally, she picks up her cell phone and she calls Jana. And when Jana picks up, Brittany says, you know, I'm really sorry, but I left my wallet in the store. Would you mind coming back and just opening the doors for me?

I'll run in and I'll get it. Be super quick. And Jaina, surprisingly, was totally fine with this. She actually laughed and said, you know, I left my laptop in the break room, and I was going to get it tomorrow, but this is an excuse to go back and get it now. And so Jaina told Brittany she would be back at the front of the store in just a couple of minutes. And so Brittany thanked her, they hung up the phone. And then Brittany turned and she began running back towards Lulu Lemon.

When Brittany arrived at the front of the store, Jaina was already there. And Brittany immediately said, I'm so sorry, thank you so much for coming back. And Jaina said, really, it's no big deal. and then Jaina pulled her key out and she opened the front door of the store and they stepped inside. The layout of the store was basically just a big square where the front door entered the square right in the middle of it. So you step inside, you're in this kind of main shopping area, it's just this one square and then all the way at the back kind of lined up with the front door behind the cash registers was this employee only hallway that went straight back about seven or eight feet and

then it reached this T intersection where if you turned left, there would be another hallway that went straight for maybe 10 or 15 feet, and it would come to a dead end at a door, and that door would lead to a bathroom. And then if you were standing in front of that bathroom door and looked left, there would be another door that led into a very small kitchen. And then if you went back to the T intersection and turned right and looked straight ahead, you would see another stretch of hallway that was about 10 or 15 feet long, and it would look exactly like the left hallway, except at the end of the right hallway, there was no door to a

bathroom. It was just kind of a dead end. But at the end of the right hallway, if you walked all the way down it and then turned right, you would see there was a door that led into the break room. So the break room and the kitchen were kind of oriented in the same position at either ends of each hallway. And so the two women go inside the store with Brittany in the front. They get inside. Jaina flips on the lights and they walk across that square main shopping area. They go past the cash registers into that employee-only hallway. They go straight down, they turn right, they make their way down the right hallway, and then they open the door to the break room, and they go inside.

Brittany very quickly found her wallet. It was on the table. She grabbed it. And so after she had her wallet, she just left the break room and began walking back out towards the main shopping area and the front door. Jaina was only a couple of seconds behind her. She grabbed her laptop, and then she left the break room, she walked back down the hallway, and as she turned back,

back into the main shopping area, she kind of had her head down. She was fiddling with her laptop and her phone, but even though she wasn't looking up, just looking down, she could tell right in front of her, Brittany had come to a full stop in the middle of the main shopping area. And so as soon as she saw that, she stopped what she was doing and she looked up and immediately she could see why Britney had come to a stop. There were now two men wearing all black with black ski masks on that were standing between them and the front door.