MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Trespassers Be Warned Vol. II

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Today’s podcast features 3 unique stories that all involve trespassers. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- "Grad Night" -- A group of teens lose 1 of their friends at an amusement park (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQFYw9sRGzc)#2 -- "Under the Pier" -- They all stood and watched anxiously as it floated by (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6apkM24DhGI)#1 -- "Hide & Seek" -- A family vacation in Mexico takes a horrible turn for the worst (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWzGEIQdChM)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. Today's podcast features three unique stories that all involve trespassers. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Rad Night, and it's about a group of teens who lose one of

their friends at an amusement park. The second story you'll hear is called Under the Pier, and it's about one man who should have taken the bartender's warning. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Hide and Seek, and it's about a family vacation in Mexico that took a horrible turn for the worst. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious Deliberate 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, the next time you're working at the county fair selling ice cream and the Amazon Music Follow button comes up to you to buy a vanilla cone, sell them one, but instead of using vanilla ice cream, use vanilla mayonnaise.

Okay, let's get into our first story called Grad Night. 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. react. 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. Okay, 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? Okay, 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 Wondery app. In the early 1980s, John Harder was the classic, athletic, popular kid at his high school in Delaware, Ohio, which is a relatively small town just outside of the state's capital. But unlike most stereotypes that paint high school jocks as being these total jerks that bully people and they're kind of stupid, John was none of those things. He was incredibly friendly and very warmhearted and seemed to get along with everyone.

John also was known for having a great sense of humor. In particular, he liked to play these kind of harmless pranks that would make people smile, like the time he very enthusiastically joined the cheerleaders during a high school pep rally, despite not actually being a cheerleader himself. John was set to graduate from high school on June 5th, 1983, and his plan was to study accounting at Kent State University the following year. A few weeks before his graduation, John's high school began selling these tickets to a grad night at a huge amusement park called King's Island.

King's Island was located about two hours west of John's High School and it was home to dozens of roller coasters, water slides, and many other attractions. During their so-called grad nights, this amusement park would shut down their public operations and not let anybody into the park that did not have these special student tickets that they gave to local area high schools. John, who was 17 years old at the time, was very excited at the idea of going to this grad night, and so he went and purchased tickets along with about 20 other students from his high school. At about 3 30 p.m on Friday, May 13th, John and the other students who had bought grad night tickets met up outside of their high school. While this was a school-sponsored trip, these students were responsible for driving themselves to the park. And so after all the

students were accounted for, they all piled into a couple of their cars and they began their journey to the park. After a few stops along the way to get food and go to the bathroom, these students finally arrived at the park at about 7 pm. And on the drive, John, who had been a passenger, had drank half a bottle of rum and about three to sixm. And on the drive, John, who had been a passenger, had drank half a bottle of rum and about three to six beers. And so when he got out, he could barely stand. He was so drunk. And so the students made their way over to the front gate. They showed the attendant their grad night ticket and they were allowed inside. And surprisingly, despite it being this special night where only people with these tickets were allowed in, it was still pretty crowded. There were lots

of students that apparently wanted to come to this event. Once John and the rest of the students from the Delaware High School had come inside the park, there was no rule that they had to stick together for the duration of their time there, and so they all kind of broke into their separate groups and went their separate ways. In John's particular group was his girlfriend Pam, and for the first hour they were in the park together, all they did was bicker and fight. Onlookers would say John looked visibly upset and very emotional and very drunk. By 8.30 p.m., when John's group had gotten in line for this roller coaster, John was now openly saying, I don't want to be here anymore. I just want to go home. It was pretty obvious he was still just mad at Pam. And that's why he was saying all this, was just trying to make Pam feel bad. And so some of the group members told John just, hey man,

calm down, you're overreacting, just try to enjoy this ride, and then afterwards we'll get some food, it'll be fine. But it was pretty clear that John was really worked up and seemed incapable of having a good time at this point. But regardless, John and the rest of the group, they got on this ride at about 9 p.m., and then after the ride was was over they disembarked and they walked away from the ride to regroup and figure out what was next and they're looking around and john is nowhere to be found and so after waiting for a few minutes and actually walking around looking for him they decided that you know what he was really upset before he got on this ride he probably just wanted to walk away and be by himself for a bit i'm sure we'll see him later in the night so john's group without john just continued going around the park going

on different rides and for the next few hours they kind of forgot about john it wasn't until the end of the night when over the loudspeaker the park officials said okay we're closing the park now that they started walking out and wondering where john was and they were convinced you know what i'm sure he's back at the cars he's probably waiting for us because he just wants to go home. So they leave the park. They get out to their cars in the lot and John's not there. And so at this point, the group's starting to get a little bit concerned because no one knows where he is. They're meeting up with the other groups from their high school. No one's seen John. And so they're all just kind of staring at the front gate waiting for John to come out, but he doesn't. And then eventually the lights in the park start

shutting down and the security guard comes out front and locks the front gate. And that's when the group knew they had a problem. After an extensive investigation by police, this is their best guess as to what happened to John. After John and his small group rode that roller coaster around 9 p.m., John very quickly disembarked the ride before anybody else in his group could see him, and then John stumbled his way towards the replica Eiffel Tower that this park was famous for. This tower stood at about 300 feet tall and was built to be an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, but this one at Kings Island was only a third the size. It had three elevators that went

up the center of the structure, and the elevators would stop at a 50-foot platform and a 275-foot platform where guests could look out and have a great view of the park. While today the only way to access these two viewing platforms is through these elevators, at the time John was at the park in 1983, the park actually had a flight of stairs that went from the ground all the way to the very top of the tower that went right up the middle of the structure. And the public was allowed to take these stairs all the way up to the first platform, that 50-foot platform. And while the stairs did actually continue beyond that up to the 275-foot platform, the public was not allowed to go any higher on the stairs than that first platform. And so if you took these stairs, once you got to the 50-foot platform, there would be a big fence right on the stairwell preventing you from going any farther. And it says,

authorized personnel only, don't go any farther. And so the only people that would walk up those additional flights of stairs were staff that had a special key. When John stumbled his way over to the base of this replica tower, he did not get on an elevator. Instead, he took the stairs. So he made his way up to the 50 foot platform. And then when he got to the six foot tall gate preventing him from going any farther, he just climbed up and over it and continued walking up the stairs and nobody stopped him. He finally came to a stop just below the 275 foot mark and so he's on the stairwell and at this point he turns and faces the inside of the tower. It's all these metal beams

all over the place and he climbs over the railing of the stairs he's on and he climbs onto this narrow beam that's actually a part of the support structure of this tower and he grabs onto the beam above him and just begins walking along this beam towards the center of the tower where the three elevator shafts are. Now there's no safety net on either side of John so if he slips and falls he's falling hundreds of feet to the ground. And if he keeps walking and actually gets into the elevator shaft there's nothing protecting him from being struck by one of the elevators because the people who built this tower were not thinking about people walking on these exposed beams hundreds of feet up into the air. This is a totally dangerous and unauthorized area. But John just continues shimmying across this beam until he does get to

the middle of the tower and now he's literally standing looking down into the elevator shafts. And as he's most likely looking around, admiring where he was, one of the elevator cars below him began to start moving. To understand what happens next, you need to have a rudimentary understanding of how this elevator worked. A large metal rope was attached to the top of the elevator car,

and from there it was thread up the elevator shaft all the way to the top, where it was thread up the elevator shaft all the way to the top where it was fed through a pulley that was anchored to the ceiling and then that rope was fed right back down the shaft to the bottom where it was attached to a counterweight. A counterweight is just a large heavy weight that's designed to balance this elevator car on this pulley system. Without the weight the elevator car would just slip off of that pulley. And so anytime the elevator car moved up, the counterweight would move down, and vice versa, making sure that car was always balanced. And so John is standing right on the edge of this elevator shaft, presumably just kind

of looking around, admiring where he was, when down below him, that elevator car starts to move, and it starts to actually descend away from John. And so the car itself is not necessarily a threat to John. However, its counterweight is because if the car is going down, its counterweight is going up and it's right in the path of John. And so as John is leaning out over the shaft looking around, this counterweight comes screaming up and picks him off of the beam he's on and carries him up into the shaft. The impact on John was so strong that it's believed he was actually impaled on some of the exposed metal wiring on top of this counterweight, and he got totally tangled up in all of the cables on top of there.

And so as John is desperately trying to free himself, the elevator operator, there was always a staff member inside of these elevator cars, he actually noticed when John got stuck on the counterweight. But of course this worker would have no idea that's what it was. They would later recall it just felt like the car suddenly jumped. And so this worker, fearing that something had gone wrong with the elevator car itself, he decided he would ride it all the way to the bottom, let everybody get out, and then ride back up to the top totally empty to make sure that the car actually worked before allowing people back on. And so the worker went to the ground, everybody

got out, he closed the doors, he began his ascent, he got to that first platform at 50 feet, no issues, he got about 10 feet above that first platform, so at about 60 feet, when all of a sudden he hears an unbelievably loud thud on the roof of his elevator car, causing his car to immediately come to a stop. And then blood began pouring over the sides of the car over the windows. After getting stuck on the counterweight, John probably did everything he could to try to free himself, but he just couldn't do it. However, when that elevator worker decided to go back up again to test the capacity of the elevator car, it reversed the direction of the counterweight that John was stuck on. And so as that car was going up, John began going down,

and it was on this descent that parts of John's body must have been dangling off of this counterweight, and they must have struck one of the beams as he was going down, and that beam effectively pried him off of whatever he was stuck on and threw him over the edge into the center of the shaft. And so John would fall 200 feet and he would land on top of that elevator car, dying instantly. The park was very quick to block off the ride and the whole scene and got police involved very quickly. So only a very small number of guests and employees were aware an accident had even happened, and very few of them were aware that it had been a fatal accident. As for the police, they knew they had a dead body, but they had no way to identify the body. There was no ID cards on John, and so they had no way to let his friends

know that were in the park or to tell his family. And so it wasn't until that night when John's friends are out in the parking lot waiting for John to come out again that they got really worried, and they went up and spoke to a security guard at the front of the park and that security guard after hearing their story would tell them that actually there had been an accident in the park and there was a body and the police are still trying to identify this body and so maybe you guys want to go over to the hospital and see if it's your friend. So sure enough the friends went to the hospital and they would confirm that the body was John Harder. To this day, no one knows for sure why John did what he did. Some say he was just drunk and it was a dumb decision that led to

his death. Others say he was suicidal, but many of the people that were close to him say, no way, he was not suicidal. And other people say, you know, John, he loved attention and so perhaps this was a dangerous stunt gone too far. But regardless of his reasons, John had clearly, intentionally entered an area that was off-limits and it got him killed. I'm Peter Frankopan. 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. Hey, Mr. Ballin fans. Did you know you can listen to episodes of this very show ad-free and one month early on Amazon Music with your Prime membership?

That's right. All your favorite Mr. Ballin episodes can be heard on Amazon Music ad-free, and one month early on Amazon Music with your Prime membership? That's right. All your favorite Mr. Ballin episodes can be heard on Amazon Music ad-free, and you'll always be the first one to catch our new episodes. But that's not all. You get access to other amazing shows like Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Morbid, 48 Hours, and 2020, all ad-free too. And you know what that means. Uninterrupted listening, so no more cliffhangers.

Amazon Music is your home for all things true crime and offers the most ad-free top podcasts, so we definitely have something for you. And it's already included in your Prime membership. To listen now, all you need to do is go to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash ballin, or download the free Amazon Music app. It's just that easy. Our next story is called Under the Pier. In the 1960s, Alan Burkhart opened a riverfront restaurant in Beaumont, Texas. And for the next 50 plus years, his customers would eat burgers, drink beers, and on super hot days, they would jump off the pier into the river to cool down.

But one day in June of 2015, while Alan was in his restaurant looking out the back window, he saw something strange in the river. When he went outside to get a better look, he noticed his customers who were eating outside had also noticed this strange thing, and now they were standing up and nervously watching it as it floated by. Allen immediately yelled out to everyone to not go swimming, obviously, based on what they were seeing, and then he went back inside and made a sign that said no swimming and he posted it on the pier. A few weeks later on July 2nd, a 28-year-old local man named Tommy Woodward and his girlfriend Victoria LeBlanc arrived at Alan's restaurant for a fun night out. After several hours of drinking and playing pool, Tommy and his girlfriend made their way over to the bar and had a seat.

At which point Tommy began telling his girlfriend that he planned on going swimming in the river that night. The bartender overheard him and said, Tommy, you can't go swimming in the river anymore. But Tommy was a bit of a rule breaker and said he didn't care, he was going to go anyways. The bartender began pleading with him and even got other staff members of the restaurant to talk sense into Tommy that he should not get in the water. But eventually Tommy just stood up, he grabbed his girlfriend's hand, left the restaurant and began walking down towards the pier. The bartender at this point just kind of rolled her eyes and thought, I can't do anything to stop him.

And so she went back to her bartending duties. When Tommy and Victoria got down to the pier, the black water was quiet and calm as Tommy took off his shirt and removed his valuables from his pockets. Right before Tommy was about to jump into the water, Victoria stopped him and said she thought she saw something moving underneath the pier. But Tommy just laughed and said he didn't care and jumped into the water and disappeared below the surface. Immediately, the water around Tommy seemed to erupt like a bomb had gone off underneath him. When Tommy came back up to the surface, he was screaming

and trying to swim back to the pier. But before he could get there, something pulled him under the water. And then a few seconds later, Tommy came back up again. And this time, Victoria could see the left side of his torso was bleeding profusely. And so she instinctively leapt into the water to try to save him. And Tommy, even though he knew he needed help, he said to her, get back on land, save yourself. And so she obliged. She climbed back onto save him. And Tommy, even though he knew he needed help, he said to her, get back on land, save yourself. And so she obliged. She climbed back onto the pier. And when she turned around,

she caught a final glimpse of Tommy as he was pulled back under the water. And this time he did not come back up again. The bartender had heard screaming and so ran down with a flashlight to the pier. And when she got there, Victoria was hysterical and she was yelling Tommy's name and looking out over the water and so the bartender at this point is reasonably certain she knows what happened to tommy but if by some miracle he's still alive

she wants to find him and so she raises her flashlight and she begins scanning the now totally calm black water and as she's scanning she finds him he's floating face down way off in the middle of the river and as soon as the she finds him. He's floating face down way off in the middle of the river and as soon as the flashlight hits him something pulls his body under the water and he disappears from view. It was no secret that the river that ran next to Alan's restaurant was home to alligators but these alligators were small and they didn't bother anybody and so the locals really didn't have any issues swimming with them. In fact, they had nicknamed two of the alligators that were seen the most often. They named them Cheeto and Marshmallow.

But on that day in June of 2015, when Alan and the other guests saw this thing out in the river, what they were seeing was a monster alligator, the likes of which they had never seen before in this river. It was at least 11 feet long and over 400 pounds, and that summer, it decided to make the underside of Allen's Pier its home. And so that night, when Tommy leapt into the water, it was this monster alligator's feeding time, and so Tommy became its dinner. About two hours after Tommy was attacked, what was left of him was recovered from the river. Tommy became the first alligator-related fatality in Texas in nearly 200 years. The next and final story of today's episode is called On or around June 10th, 2021, Jennifer Buell and her two sons, 12-year-old Charlie and

7-year-old Johnny, touched down at Cancun International Airport in Cancun, Mexico. The family, who lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was there for a nice long vacation during the kids' summer break, which had started just a few weeks earlier. After getting off the plane and getting their luggage, the Buell family made their way out of the airport and they hopped on a shuttle that brought them to their resort. They were staying at Club Med Cancun, which is a very popular all-inclusive family resort that's located right at the tip of the Riviera Maya. And the Riviera Maya is just stunningly beautiful. It's this stretch on the western side of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico that's basically all white

sand beaches and beautiful clear turquoise water. But Club Med Cancun's fabulous location was not the only reason why families loved going there so much. Club Med, the huge hotel company behind this particular resort, is known for their gentil organisateur. They call them GOs for short, and basically these are staff members employed by Club Med at all of their locations everywhere in the world, Club Med, at all of their locations everywhere in the world, whose sole job is to make sure the guests staying at their hotels have a truly unforgettable experience. And so these really friendly GOs are always walking around these hotels and talking to the guests and pointing them to the different places they can go within the hotel, and they encourage the guests to interact with each other and to participate in resort activities. And so a stay at a Club Med hotel, whether it's Cancun or anywhere in the world, is known to be very upbeat

and highly interactive. So Jennifer and her two sons, they get off the shuttle at Club Med Cancun, they go inside, they get checked in, they make their way to their room, they drop their bags, and then they head out to explore the hotel. And pretty much right away, there were G.O.s all over the place coming up to welcome them to the hotel and pointing them to the best restaurants, the best places to go swimming, and what activities were coming up that night, and what to look forward to that week. And right away, what stood out to the Buell family, specifically Charlie and Johnny, was the kids club slash teens club. Basically, the GOs organized really fun games and activities just for the kids, depending on what age they were. And so this was really

appealing to Charlie and Johnny to go play with other kids. And it was appealing to Jennifer because this would mean she could go off and actually relax because she would have childcare. So starting that first night and over the next week they were in Cancun, Jennifer made sure they always were around the resort so that the boys could just take off and go hang out with this kids club teen club whenever they wanted. And so the routine that the Buell family adopted over the course of their vacation was they would get up early, they would go to the white sand beaches right outside of their resort, and then after coming back to the resort, Charlie would almost always cut loose and go hang out for the rest of the day with the kids in the teen club

kids club, and Johnny, he mostly stayed with his mom, but over the course of the day, he would leave and do one-off activities with the club. And then at 9 15 p.m. at night, the trio would always link up on the pool deck, and they would make their way in to see one of the shows that the Geos were putting on, ranging from comedy sketches to circus tricks. And so all in all, the Buell family vacation to Cancun, Mexico was really going as well as it could have been, until a simple game of hide and seek changed everything. On June 18th, so roughly one week after the Buell family had arrived in Mexico, the family got up and they began their typical vacation routine. They headed to the beach and then afterwards Charlie broke off and went to spend time with the kids at the teen club kids

club and Johnny and Jennifer, they mostly stayed together for the rest of the afternoon. That evening around 8 30 p.m. after all three of the Buells had had dinner, they decided to split up before rejoining at 9.15 to go in and see a show. Johnny wanted to head downstairs and go see a kids-only show, Jennifer wanted to head up to the second level to have chocolate fondue dessert with a friend she had made at the resort, and Charlie wanted to meet up with his friends from the Kids Club Teens Club out on the pool deck where the G.O.s were organizing a big game of hide and seek. And so after watching his mother walk upstairs to the fondue restaurant and watching his younger

brother head downstairs to the kids only show, Charlie turned and ran towards the pool deck. And when he got there, he immediately linked up with his best friend from the vacation, a 13-year-old named Cyrus. And very quickly after that, the GOs who were on the pool deck with all these other kids that were out there, they said, okay, we're going to start counting. You guys all hide. And so the GOs, they walked to the side of this big pool deck. They covered their eyes. They began counting. And all the kids, Charlie and Cyrus included, scattered to find the best hiding spot. And right away, as Charlie and Cyrus are looking for places to hide, they're seeing the other kids are taking up all the best hiding spots. And so for a second, they're panicking.

They're not going to have a good spot. Then both of the boys looked over to the side of the pool deck and they realize there is a perfect hiding spot that nobody's taken. Around the side of the pool deck, and they realize there is a perfect hiding spot that nobody's taken. Around the outside of this huge open-air pool deck was a metal fence. It was only a couple of feet tall, and it was made up of metal bars, so you can see right through it. It was basically in place just to denote the edges of the resort property, and on one length of this perimeter fence, the south side of this fence, there was a gate built into this fence. And this gate was almost always closed and locked. The only time it was opened was when a GO or another hotel staff member would open it to lead guests out of the

resort property to go off and do some excursion. But for some reason, on the night of June 18th, this fence was wide open. On the other side of this fence was just a small rectangular platform that jutted out about 10 feet from the pool deck, same level as the pool deck. And if you were standing on this platform with your back to the pool deck, on your left side would be a very small flight of stairs, just a couple of steps going down. And so Charlie and Cyrus, they look over and they see this gate is open and they know there are those stairs kind of tucked down below the platform. And they're thinking, if we crouch down on those steps, no one will see us from the pool deck. We'll be obscured from view. And so Charlie and Cyrus,

they run over to the open gate, they go through, they walk down a couple of steps and they kind of tuck themselves down so they can barely look up and over onto the pool deck to see if anyone's coming. But they can tell there's no way anyone is going to see them unless they literally walk through the gate and are looking down the steps at them. And so Charlie and Cyrus, they're giggling with excitement because they know they have found the perfect hiding spot. And they're listening as the GOs are calling out, okay, ready or not, here we come. And after a couple of minutes, they're hearing the sound of the GOs finding all the other kids all over the pool deck. You know, there were some really good hiding spots, but eventually all the kids are found except for Charlie and Cyrus. And so Charlie and Cyrus, they start looking at each other and they're

really excited about this, but they know no one's going to find them. But right before Cyrus and Charlie stood up and revealed themselves, Cyrus happened to notice there was a hose, like a garden hose, that was draped down the steps that they were on. And for some reason, the water was turned on. And so Cyrus grabbed the hose. And as he stood up, turning away from Charlie, he began spraying the water

onto the pool deck, onto the GOs and all the kids who didn't know where they were. And so everybody on the pool deck is suddenly laughing and running away from the water. It's totally chaos and Cyrus thinks it's hysterical. He's still just spraying everybody down. And then at some point Cyrus stops and turns to see what Charlie's reaction is to this absolute bedlam that he's created on the pool deck. But when Cyrus turns around, Charlie's not there. Meanwhile, two other hotel guests who had nothing to do with this game of hide and seek, it was a mother and her adult son, they were having a meal up in the second floor restaurant that overlooked the pool deck. And as they're sitting there enjoying their meal, they suddenly hear the sound of boys screaming. Now, immediately, they both can tell this is not a play scream. Someone is actually in danger. Someone is hurt. Something's going on here. And they try to look down onto the

pool deck where these screams seem to be coming from, but they can't tell. It's dark out there. They can't see what's going on. And so acting on instinct, the woman and her son just stand up and start running through the restaurant and making their way downstairs. And as they're doing this, the woman's husband actually sees her charging through and he, along with two other boys that happen to be near him, just start running after them, knowing that whatever's going on, it's bad. So they have to go help. And so when these five people get down to the pool deck, they hear the sound of the boys screaming again and they can tell it's coming from that open gate that platform area where Charlie

and Cyrus had been hiding and so these five people charge through these still open gate they go out onto this platform and they look down the little flight of stairs and they see Cyrus they don't see anybody else on the platform it's just this boy, and he looks totally shaken up, totally hysterical, and it's clear he is one of the boys that was screaming. And then before they could even ask him what was going on, they hear a sound coming from somewhere below the steps, and they all turn, and literally out of the darkness, Charlie just suddenly emerges, and he looks up at the adults and just says in a very calm voice, save me, save me. This normally completely off-limits, fenced-off platform that jutted out past the pool deck where the boys were hiding, that was actually a dock that sat over a swampy

lagoon. And underneath that dock was a nest of crocodiles. And when Cyrus and Charlie were on that lower step, the crocodiles had noticed them. And when Cyrus had stood up and begun spraying the water onto the pool deck, one of those crocodiles, a 13-foot monster, had come out of the water, turned around, and literally leapt up onto those steps, bit Charlie by the leg, and pulled him into the water. The screams that woman and her son had heard while they were in that restaurant were Cyrus's and Charlie's, because initially when Charlie was pulled into the water, he didn't go directly under. And so Cyrus had managed to grab onto Charlie's arms, and he was trying to pull Charlie out of the crocodile's mouth, and the two of them were screaming for help.

But by the time that woman and the other four people got down to the platform, Cyrus lost his grip on Charlie and the croc and Charlie went under the water. And so those five people were standing there when the crocodile and Charlie just came back out of the water. And that's when Charlie was saying, save me, save me. He was in the crocodile's mouth. And that's when Charlie was saying, save me, save me. He was in the crocodile's mouth. And when these five people saw Charlie and understood what was going on, without any hesitation, the adults lift into the dark lagoon waters that are clearly infested with crocodiles and began beating the crap out of this crocodile. And while this melee is happening in these dark murky lagoon waters with

crocodiles everywhere someone had gone into the fondue bar and told jennifer your son's being attacked by a crocodile and she instantly leapt up and just ran across the restaurant knocking anything over that was in her way and finally she got downstairs to the pool deck she went through that gate out to that platform and she saw her boy. Charlie was laying on his back, surrounded by totally frantic and hysterical adults. Charlie's leg looked like it had been through a meat grinder. But Charlie was awake, and he was talking to the adults near him. In the time it took Jennifer to run through the restaurant and get down to the pool deck,

those adults who had leapt into the murky lagoon water to fight with this crocodile had literally beaten it so badly that it released Charlie. And according to the people who watched this happen, this crocodile was putting up an unbelievable fight. It was whipping its head side to side, tearing into Charlie's leg. It kept pulling Charlie deeper and deeper into the water, and these adults just didn't stop. They were yanking on this crocodile, punching its eyes, gouging its eyes, and finally it worked. When Charlie was finally pulled to safety and was laying on the dock, he was in rough shape, and no one knew if he was going to survive or not. But luckily, there just happened to be a trauma nurse who was staying at the resort who

came outside, she assessed the situation, and she took charge. She stopped the bleeding in his leg and she stayed with him and kept him calm until paramedics finally arrived. Charlie would be rushed to the hospital where he would immediately undergo several surgeries that would save his life. Also, surgeons were able to miraculously save his leg. Initially, it seemed like he might have to have it amputated. As for Club Med, their response to this incident was enormous. Not only did they pay for all of Charlie's medical bills, but they also invested a lot of money into securing not only that fence and gate that led to the dock where he was attacked, but also just generally speaking around the resort to make sure there were no more attacks. Today, Charlie is back in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his family,

and considering the horrible trauma he went through, he's remarkably well-adjusted. In fact, in the Halloween that followed this attack, Charlie dressed up as a crocodile. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you got something out of this episode and you haven't done this already, the next time you're working at the county fair selling ice cream and the Amazon Music Follow button comes up to you to buy a vanilla cone, sell them one, but instead of using vanilla ice cream, use vanilla mayonnaise. This podcast airs every Monday and Thursday morning,

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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. 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.