MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Checkerboard

Episode Date: October 5, 2023

In 1967, a man was digging for gold in a forest in Canada, when behind him heard this sudden commotion. It sounded like geese getting really startled and flying off in different directions. And so he put down his pickaxe, stood up, and turned around. And what he claimed happened next is referred to as the “Falcon Lake” incident, and it’s considered to be one of the most credible, paranormal stories of all time.Story name, preview & link to original YouTube video:#1 -- "Checkerboard" -- One of the most credible “paranormal events” ever (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5t2XNO8ZH0)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. In 1967, a man was digging for gold in a forest in Canada when behind him he heard this sudden commotion. It sounded like geese getting really startled and flying off in different directions. And so he put down his pickaxe, he stood up and he turned, and what he claimed happened next is referred to as the Falcon Lake Incident, and it's considered to be one of the most credible paranormal stories of all time. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please borrow the Amazon Music Follow Button's favorite DVD, but instead of watching it, just use it as a frisbee with your dog and then give

it back. Okay, let's get into today's story. Hello, I'm Emily and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No? Short shorts?

Free cocktails? Careless whispers? OK, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's Stone Cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom.

From the outside, it looks like he has it all. But behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making, with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Wanderie Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wanderie app. I'm Peter Frank-O'Pan. And I'm Afua Hirsch. And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy, covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone. Full disclosure, this is a big one for me.

Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time. Somebody who's had a huge impact on me, who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle, that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is.

So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. Just before 11 p.m. at night on May 20, 1967, a 50-year-old man named Stefan Mikalik staggered into the Misericordia Hospital in Winnipeg, Canada. Stefan was so physically weak that his oldest son, Mark, was there with him, physically holding him up, carrying him into the hospital. When the nurses at the front desk saw the pair walk in, they immediately got up and walked around their desk over to these two guys and said, hey, what's going on? What's wrong with him? And so Stefan at this point is so uncomfortable he can barely talk, but he takes a deep breath and then he tells the nurses that earlier that day he had been burned on his chest and stomach and now he had this blinding headache and he was so nauseous and he could barely walk. The nurses knew clearly this

is an emergency and so they quickly ushered the pair down the hall to an exam room and then a couple of minutes later doctors came into the room and they asked Stefan to show them his burns. Stefan, who was already lying on his back on the exam table, slowly reaches down and grabs the bottom of his shirt and he lifts it up and the doctors are stunned at what they see on his stomach. There was a very strange burn pattern that none of them had seen before. And so the doctors, they move in to get a better look at his injury and as they're staring at it, they ask Stefan to explain how he got this burn. Now, what the doctors didn't realize is that Stefan was very conflicted. He knew if he told the truth

about how he got this burn, then he would open himself and his family up to ridicule and skepticism. But as he's laying there and the doctors are waiting for his answer, he finally decides that the right thing to do here is just tell the truth. And so he takes a deep breath and then tells the doctors what happened to him. And by the time he was finished telling this story of what happened to his stomach, the doctors had stopped looking at his injury

and instead were just standing in the middle of the room staring at Stefan with eyes wide and their mouths open. They were all literally speechless. Within 24 hours, Stefan's story had made news all over the world, and his story had attracted the attention of numerous U.S. and Canadian secretive government agencies who were keen to interview Stefan one-on-one to really find out what he knew. In short, what Stefan claimed happened to him, dubbed the Falcon Lake incident, was a very big deal. However, the farther this story went and the more people that heard it,

the more people started to question the validity of this story. It just seemed too unbelievable that maybe Stefan is just lying or this is a hoax. And so before I tell you Stefan's actual account of what happened at Falcon Lake, I'm going to give you a little context about who Stefan was prior to the incident. Because ultimately, Stefan's credibility in your eyes will determine if you really believe what happened to him. Stefan was born in the early 20th century in Poland and when World War II broke out, he was captured by the Nazis and put into one of their concentration camps. It was called the Gross Rosenkamp and it was located in Poland. During his time at that camp, Stefan would bear witness to the Nazis perpetrating some of the worst atrocities ever committed against humanity. In total, approximately 125,000 people were held prisoner at the Gross-Rosen camp, including Stefan. And

of those 125,000, 40,000 of them would be killed primarily on site at the camp or on a Nazi-led death march. After the camp was finally liberated in early 1945, Stefan worked as a translator for the U.S. Army, helping them continue to liberate other concentration camps across Europe. But by 1946, Stefan was ready to leave Europe and start a new life somewhere else and put World War II behind him. And so he and his wife, who also was held in a concentration camp during World War II, fled Poland with their three young kids and resettled in Winnipeg, Canada. And for the next 20 years, the McCullochs lived a very peaceful life. Stefan would find work as a mechanic at a cement factory, and his wife and his kids would make many friends and fall in love with the Winnipeg community. However, the McCullochs' life would take a sudden turn for the worst on May 20, 1967. That was the day of the Falcon Lake incident.

Stephan was a very passionate amateur prospector. A prospector is someone who searches the earth for mineral deposits, usually gold or silver. Stephan would spend much of his off time traveling all over Canada to different wilderness areas to basically hike around the forest and up over the mountains, stopping to hack into the earth with his pickaxe in hope of discovering treasures underneath the surface. Now, Stefan almost never found any treasures on any of his prospecting journeys, but he wasn't really in prospecting for the riches. Stefan just loved being outdoors and being in nature. It was very calming and peaceful for him, and considering how traumatic his earlier life had been, being in the concentration camp during World War II, finding moments of peace in his life was very important to him. And so, in May of 1967,

Stefan decided to go out on another one of his prospecting trips, this time to an area called Falcon Lake. Falcon Lake is a fairly large lake located about a hundred miles to the east of Winnipeg. And surrounding this lake was a big forest that Stefan had heard contained silver deposits tucked away in the hillsides. And so on Friday, May 19th, Stefan was ready to go on this trip. And so he packed up all of his prospecting equipment. He said goodbye to his wife and his kids, and then he left the house and made his way to the bus stop where he hopped on a Greyhound bus. Two hours later, he got off the bus at the stop closest to Falcon Lake and from there he made his way to this cheap motel that was right on the side

of the highway. He got a room, he got a quick bite to eat in their cafe, and then returned to his room and went to bed. The next morning, May 20th, 1967, so the day of the Falcon Lake incident, Stefan woke up early, right around 5 a.m. And by 5.30 a.m., he had all of his equipment either in his backpack or on his belt, and he was making his way out of the motel's front doors. Right outside of this motel was the highway that ran left to right, and on the other side of that highway was this huge forest that Falcon Lake was deep inside of. And so after Stefan left the motel, he crossed over that highway and began walking into the woods. And for the next several hours, Stefan just kind of meandered his way through the woods.

He wasn't on a trail. He was just using his compass to make sure he was generally walking in the direction of Falcon Lake. At around 9 a.m., so he's been hiking now for several hours, he looked up ahead and he saw there was a clearing on the side of this hill. And so Stefan walked into this clearing and two things became immediately apparent. One, he was right near Falcon Lake. From his perspective on this clearing, he could look down just a couple of hundred feet and there was the lake. And two, the reason this clearing existed and why no trees were growing on it at all

is because under his feet was just a huge rock face, like a quartz vein that was running across this hillside. And so this was like the perfect place for Stefan to begin prospecting. And so he set his things down, he got out his pickaxe, he got his welding gloves on, he put on his welding goggles as well. They protected his eyes from any rocks that were flying as he was hacking into the ground. And then he got to work. For the next couple of hours, Stefan very diligently hacked away at this big rock, but he didn't find any silver or anything else of note. And so around 11 a.m., Stefan was hungry and tired. And so he put his pickaxe down, he took his goggles off, he took his gloves off, and he sat down on this rock facing the lake to have some lunch.

And as he sat there enjoying his food, all he could hear in the distance were the sound of a few geese down on the lake making some noise, but other than that, it was totally quiet. After he was done eating, he put his gear back on and got back to work. About an hour later, at around 12.15 p.m., Stefan was still hacking away at the rock when, despite all the noise he was making as he smashed the ground with his pickaxe, he could hear a really loud commotion coming from behind him. And it turned out when he stopped the pickaxe, the commotion sounded like geese honking and going wild. And so he dropped his

pickaxe, he took his goggles, put them up on his forehead, and then he stood up and he turned around and he looked down towards the lake where he heard all these geese going crazy. And the first thing he noticed was there were some geese on the lake that appeared to be flying off in different directions like they had been startled. But what really immediately caught his attention was not the geese but what had very likely startled the geese and that was two bright glowing red objects that were flying slowly across the lake towards him kind of roughly over where the geese were Hello, I am Alice Levine and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast, British Scandal. On our latest series, The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round-the-world sailing race.

Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history. To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red

wound on his arm and he seemed really unwell. So she wound up taking him to the hospital right away so he could get treatment. While Dorothy's friend waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car to pick him up at the exit. But she would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott. From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and so many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try and discover what really happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener.

Follow the Generation Y podcast on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. And now these objects, they were cylindrical. They appeared to be about maybe 30 or 40 feet wide. They didn't have any sort of emission coming off of them. They weren't making any noise. They were just kind of slowly making their way over towards where Stefan was. Now, as Stefan is watching this happen, he wasn't fearful. He assumed those have to be military aircraft. As it was, this part of Canada, Falcon Lake, is very remote. There's not many people around. And so, logically,

it made sense that perhaps there's a military that's doing training exercises in this area. And so feeling much more intrigued than fearful, Stefan just continued to watch as these red aircraft got closer and closer to his side of the lake. And then when these two craft were about 200 feet away from where Stefan was standing, they came to a stop and they were just hovering in the air. And then one of the craft suddenly turned orange and began going up into the clouds and then at some point just vanished. And then the other craft, instead of going up, just continued descending very slowly, now very clearly towards this open rock face that Stefan was standing on. Now again,

this open rock face that Stefan was standing on. Now, again, Stefan was totally convinced that these were military aircraft, you know, conducting some sort of exercise. And so he's not fearful. He is just intrigued by what he's seeing. And in fact, by this point, he had convinced himself that this second aircraft that was now coming down to land on these rocks must have experienced some sort of issue and they were landing in order to fix it and Stefan even thought to himself well hey I'm a mechanic maybe I can help the pilot or pilots with whatever's going on with their craft. Once the craft finally did touch down on the rocks about 150 feet away from Stefan it changed colors from red to stainless steel with an orange glow around the outside of the aircraft. And inside of this craft, a really bright purple light came on that Stefan

was only aware of because there was a couple of small holes on the outside of this craft where this purple light was coming through. But these little rays of purple light coming out of this craft were so bright that it actually was hard for Stefan to look directly at the craft. And so his welding goggles were still on his forehead. So he pulled them down, put them over his eyes, and his welding goggles had a kind of tint to them. So it was like he was looking through sunglasses. And with those on, he was able to continue looking at the craft. And so through his goggles, Stefan is still just standing in the

same spot where he first saw these craft, and he's watching this craft that's now landed 150 feet away from him, and he's fully expecting any minute for the pilot or pilots to come out of the craft and explain what's going on. But at first, nothing happens. And so Stefan is just standing there waiting for something to happen when he realizes he has his sketchbook in his pocket. Stefan liked to bring his sketchbook along on his prospecting trips because he liked to sketch things. And so he figured while he waited for the pilot or pilots to emerge,

he would sketch the craft. And so for the next couple of minutes, that's what he did. And then after he was done sketching it, he put his sketchbook away and then really nothing happened for about another 30 minutes. He just stood there and the craft remained motionless. But after about 30 minutes of the craft having landed, it opened. There was like a sliding door on the side of the craft facing Stefan and it revealed the beautiful, bright, purple interior of this craft. But from Stefan's perspective, because of how bright the lights were and how far away he was, he couldn't tell what was inside of the craft. But Stefan's thinking,

okay, clearly now the pilot or pilots are coming outside. And so Stefan felt really relieved, and he was just standing there waiting to talk to whoever was inside. But again, nothing happened. And so now feeling just plain curious, Stefan decided, you know what, I'm going to walk over there and I'm going to yell into this open door to the pilot or pilots inside and make sure they're okay. And so he starts slowly making his way across the rock face towards this craft and this open door. And when he gets about 60 feet away from the craft, he suddenly stops because now he can hear from inside of this craft, the sound of two voices talking to each other. He can't really tell what they're saying, but very clearly there is communication happening inside of this craft. And so Stefan

assumed that must be the pilots. And so he called out to them in English. And the second Stefan yelled out to this craft, the voices immediately came to a stop and they did not respond to Stefan. And so Stefan is calling out to them in English, you know, hey, are you okay? What are you doing in there? And when English didn't work, Stefan called out in Russian. He called out in German, Italian, French, Ukrainian. And when all of those didn't work, he went back to English and just continued kind of calling out, trying to get them to please come out and talk to him. But he got no response and no one came out of the craft. And so at this point, Stefan thought, okay, I'm totally committed, so I need to keep going and make sure the pilot or pilots are okay. And so he continued walking closer and

closer to this open door of the craft. And when he got about 10 feet away, he was suddenly struck by the incredible craftsmanship of this craft. He couldn't see any rivets anywhere on this amazing piece of machinery, meaning this craft appeared like it had somehow been carved out of one enormous piece of steel, which seemed totally impossible. Also, Stefan noticed there were no insignia on the outside of this craft. There was no flag or anything kind of denoting who was flying it. There was really nothing on the outside of the craft. But Stefan just kept on going until he was standing right outside of this open door. He's only a couple feet away from it, and now he's looking directly inside, and he doesn't see the pilot or pilots. And in fact, because of how bright this purple light is

coming out, even with his goggles, it's really hard to see what's inside of this craft. But he can clearly see inside there is some sort of panel in the back of the craft with lots of flashing lights, almost like a computer. And there were other kind of columns of light moving around inside the craft at different angles. But after looking in this craft for only a few seconds, the door suddenly slid shut. And then Stefan, without really thinking about it, reached out and touched the craft. And the second he did that, two things happened. One, the hand that he touched the craft with, he was wearing a big welding glove. And the second he made contact with that craft, the leather glove began to melt, not even catch on

fire, it just instantly began to melt. And so he began frantically ripping the glove off to get it off of him to avoid injury. And then the second thing that happened is the craft began rotating counterclockwise until this vent that was on the outside of the craft, one of the very few things that was on the outside of the craft that actually Stefan had noted in his sketch. He had drawn this grate that sat on the outside of the craft. This grate rotated around until it was aimed directly at Stefan. Now to picture this grate, picture like a vent you would see inside of a building where air conditioning blows air out of, right? It's kind of like that same size, the size of a license plate on a car. And instead of there being vertical slats along the vent, like you would see with an air conditioning

vent cover, on this vent, on this craft, it was like a checkerboard pattern with little button holes all over this vent. And so Stefan is looking at this vent and then suddenly something shoots through the vent, like an explosion that hits him square in the chest and lights him on fire. His shirt is literally in flames, and so Stefan is frantically trying to rip off his shirt. He throws it on the ground, he's stomping the flame, and as he's doing that, he looks up and sees this craft has somehow immediately shot into the sky and is now disappearing into the clouds. Now Stefan had no idea what just

happened. All he knew is his chest and his stomach now hurt tremendously. But before he could deal with that, he developed this unbelievable headache, he suddenly felt so nauseous, and he felt delirious like he was drunk. Trying not to panic, Stefan, who now is shirtless and badly burned, he ran over and grabbed some of his things, and then he began heading back into the woods to make his way back towards the motel. It would take him several hours of stumbling through the forest, stopping periodically to vomit, but he would eventually reach the highway,

he would cross over, and he would make his way into the motel right around 4 p.m. And when he got there, he made his way into the cafe, and he asked the staff if they knew where the nearest doctor was. These staff members would later tell investigators that when Stefan came tumbling into the cafe without his shirt on, looking totally horrible, they assumed he was drunk. But after talking to him, he didn't smell at all like alcohol. Instead, he reeked of this horrible sulfur smell. The staff would tell Stefan that the nearest doctor was 45 miles away. And so at this point, Stefan decided his best bet was actually to just get on a bus and go back to Winnipeg where his family

could take him to the nearest hospital. And so somehow, Stefan managed to make his way to the bus stop, he hopped on a Greyhound bus, he went to Winnipeg, and then his oldest son Mark met him at the bus stop and practically carried him into the hospital. The very strange checkerboard burn pattern found on Stefan's abdomen, where he claims this craft turned its vent and fired on him, were determined not to be thermal burns, meaning he didn't get them from something hot touching his skin like everyone initially suspected. Instead, they were determined to be chemical burns, but literally no one, doctors, scientists, government agencies, no one could figure out what chemical actually burned his skin. In fact, no one was ever able to actually identify what was causing all of these ailments that Stefan was complaining of,

from the headache, to the nausea, to the the weakness to these burns, and he was tested for basically everything, from radiation poisoning to very common ailments and illnesses, and everything came back negative. Experts would go out to Falcon Lake to the area that Stefan described seeing this craft, and sure enough, they would find an open rock face, and right around the area that Stefan described was the circular burn pattern as if something had been perched right there that shot some sort of exhaust into the ground, and the area around this landing site was determined to be highly radioactive. Although it is assumed that the reason that area is radioactive is because there is a vein of radium that runs underneath the rocks near the

area. However, what no one could explain away were the three identical pieces of what looked like metal, which actually turned out to be a very rare type of silver, that were located near this burn circle. Now, even though the Falcon Lake area was known apparently for having silver deposits up in the hillsides, this silver, these three pieces of silver, were not from the hillsides of Falcon Lake. This silver was heavily manufactured. Someone, something, some machine had manipulated the metal to bend and be cut in a very particular way. And all three of these pieces of very rare silver were highly radioactive. They would also find traces of this very rare type of silver that seemed to have seeped into some of the loose rocks that were inside of that burned out circle, almost like the silver had

melted into the rock. But despite these pieces of evidence that do seem to suggest that Stefan really did see some craft land on these rocks, and despite the fact that the US government and the Canadian government both thoroughly investigated this case and they were not able to debunk it, they basically said, well, something happened, but we don't know what. Despite all of that, Stefan and his family's lives were forever upended after this incident. Stefan was ridiculed and accused of lying and of being crazy, and his kids were unfortunately bullied at school. Shortly before Stefan died in 1999 at the age of 83, he was asked if he regretted coming forward with this story. And he would say, yes, I wish I never told anyone. But he would also say, at the time,

he really felt like he had a duty to tell the world about what happened. Stefan never changed his story, and he never came out and said, I think this craft came from another world, another planet, another universe. He just said, look, I think this craft came from another world, another planet, another universe. He just said, look, I think it was an experimental aircraft. That's it. He also never made a dime on this experience. If anything, he lost money because he paid to write a 40-page pamphlet that explained what happened to him, and then he left all these copies on his porch. So if news people showed up, or if nosy neighbors showed up and had questions, he would just point to the stack of the books and

say, take one and read it. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you enjoyed today's story, be sure to check out our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin, where we have hundreds more stories just like this one, but many of them are not available on this podcast. They're only on YouTube. Again, the channel is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music.

Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of the Strange, Dark and Mysterious. And if that's the case, then I've got some good news. We just launched a brand new Strange, Dark, and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome. In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

Each story is totally true and totally terrifying. Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a Prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music.