MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - When Your Eyes Deceive You (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Today, I’m going to tell two stories that highlight how the world around us – and even people’s own eyes – can play tricks on them. Sometimes, what people think they see isn't what's really going on at all. But once people have convinced themselves of something, it can be hard for them to change their minds... and that can lead them into deadly situations. You can WATCH all new & exclusive MrBallen podcast episodes on my 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 @mrballen Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, I'm going to tell you two stories that highlight how the world around us and even our own eyes can play tricks on us. Sometimes what people see is not what's really going on at all. But once people have convinced themselves of something, it can be very hard for them to change their minds. And as you'll see today, sometimes that can lead people into deadly situations. 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 place.

because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, please offer to, for free, beautifully detail the follow button's car. But instead of doing that, once you have their car, just bring it to a huge cliff, put the car in neutral, and push it off. Okay, let's get into our first story, which is called Her Smile. Around 1.30 p.m. on the afternoon of May 18, 2007, a 57-year-old woman named Yvonne De Horde, arrived at a park in Rotterdam, which is a city in the Netherlands. She was there to meet up with her friend, and she had to cut through the park to get to his house. Yvonne went to her friend's house almost every day. And usually, when she walked through the park during the week, there weren't that many people around. But

on this day, it was really crowded, because it was the Friday of a long weekend, and there was just a lot of families and visitors that were enjoying the spring weather, which meant the playground, the pathways, and the park's little cafe were all packed. But Yvonne didn't pay that much attention to the crowds because she was busy thinking about her friend. They'd known each other for years, and they had what she considered to be a very special connection that Yvonne didn't think she had with anybody else. Now, Yvonne knew that a lot of people might say her and her friend's relationship was sort of more strange than special. In fact, some people in her life actually openly disapproved of it. But for Yvonne, it seemed like the main reason for that was, you know, Yvonne was generally

pretty friendly and social and sort of an outgiveness. going normal person, but her friend was extremely reclusive and never left his house. And so it just seemed like an odd pairing. Her friend was originally from Germany, but even though he'd lived in the Netherlands now for years, he'd never learned the language. So he really couldn't communicate with anybody, including Yvonne, at least not in her native tongue. But for Yvonne, if anything, the fact that people didn't necessarily think this was a good idea for them to be friends just made her feel more protective of her friend. And also, she was especially sympathetic to the fact that her friend had actually been abandoned by his mother as a child. And so in a way, she sort of felt

like she was stepping in as sort of a maternal figure in her friend's life. And so Yvonne, she rounded a corner on the park's path, and up ahead, there was her friend's house. And she could actually see her friend through one of the windows. And he did not look particularly happy. He looked sort of dejected. And so as she approached, you know, she made a big see. scene to be very smiley and happy and she's waving to her friend. And sure enough, her friend at some point turned and looked out the window and saw Yvonne approaching and he broke into a big smile and he waved back. You know, it's like even though they didn't speak the same language, there clearly was a connection there. And Yvonne was just filled with happiness, you know, so glad that she was here to see

him. And so Yvonne, she made her way over to her friend. And that day really was spent the same way they spent all their other days together, which, again, they don't speak the same language. So it was just sort of a lot of, you know, body language and gestures and sort of just sitting together and just sort of enjoying each other's company. There wasn't really any direct communication happening, but this was a unique relationship. And for Yvonne, whatever it was, was enough for her. And she felt like for her friend, it was reciprocated. He appreciated their time together, and that was enough. But even though Yvonne in particular, really looked forward to these visits, and was having a really nice time on this particular day, she couldn't stay forever. She had a family and other things she needed to get done.

So at around 2.30 p.m., after having spent about an hour with her friend, she said goodbye to him, and then she turned and left, knowing that the two of them would see each other again soon. And so Yvonne, after turning and leaving her friend's house, she only got a few steps down the path she came in on when two things happened at once. The first thing was, She noticed there was a group of kids in the park who were throwing rocks. And she knew instinctively, like, the kids should not be throwing rocks. So that's sort of registered. She wasn't doing anything about it, but she was just aware that there are children throwing rocks nearby.

And then the second thing she noticed is she heard splashing coming from behind her. She didn't think it was coming from the kids throwing rocks. She's thinking it didn't rain anytime recently. So there's no reason that there'd be splashing sounds around her. There's no puddles or anything. the only splashing that made sense was it was coming from the stream that was sort of off limits in the park.

Nobody had access to it. There was no reason to get down there to that stream, but it sounded very much like that was the splashing that she was hearing. And so Yvonne, she's just consciously aware of these things happening. This was not something that was alarming. She's just aware.

And so she found herself turning around to see in particular what that splashing sound was. And as she turned, around, something huge, smashed into her, pinned her to the ground, all she could hear was screaming throughout the park, and the last thought she had before she blacked out was, oh my God, I'm about to die. Not far away, a man named Arveid Hendricks, who had also come to the same park with his wife and his two kids, heard the screams echoing through the park. He was right outside the cafe that Yvonne had been walking towards, and he had just been about to go inside

when all this commotion had started. So this particular cafe sat on a path that cut through the park itself. It was a small place, almost like a glorified snack bar, and it had a big pavilion right in front of it with outdoor seating that looked out over the park. And from Arvid's perspective, as he was standing on that pavilion near the cafe entrance, he could hear these people screaming and actually started to see them running in his direction. But Arvide had no idea what they were screaming about or what they were running from. It just seemed like all of a sudden everybody's panicking and coming this way.

And so instinctively, R.V.D.'s thinking, okay, there's something threatening going on, and he needs to make sure his family is safe before he even knows what the threat is. So he grabbed his kids and his wife, and he ran into the restaurant along with everybody else. And remember, this restaurant, this cafe, was not huge. Inside, it sort of felt like a dining hall with large communal tables. And so with all these people rushing inside, this place quickly, became chaotic. And then after all these people came inside, a few of the people went forward and did their best to barricade the front doors, even though they were glassed and would be

pretty easy to break through. They did what they could to sort of block them off. After this, despite there still being this really intense energy sort of buzzing around the room, things actually kind of calmed down. You know, RV'd and probably many other people in this cafe did not know what was going on. They had just sort of reacted instinctively and went in here, assuming there has to be some real threat out there, let's take shelter. And so there's this weird lull period where everyone's kind of looking around, RV'd included, trying to figure out, is there really a big threat out there, or are we overreacting here?

And as they're all sitting there kind of wondering what's going on, the front doors, the glass doors, suddenly shatter. And once again, the whole group is thrust into absolute chaos once again as all the parents are grabbing their kids, And even though they still don't really know what's going on, they're trying to rush towards those shattered doors to get out, get out of this place, which now feels like it is dangerous, in some ways worse than outside.

And so it's this huge bottleneck as the door, as everyone's screaming, there's just madness happening. And RV'd, he could tell there was no way he could get through this cluster of people desperately trying to get out. And so he just grabbed his wife and his kids, and they went under one of the tables, and they hid. And for the next couple of minutes, everything all around RV'd and his family continued to be absolutely chaotic and madness.

But then eventually, everything just went quiet as everybody else made their way out of the cafe. And it was just RV'd and his family sitting there wondering what the heck is going on. And for a moment, RVed felt like, okay, I'm safe. You know, I don't know what's going on, but me and my family, we are safe. However, before he instructed his kids and his wife to come out of their hiding spot, He heard the sound of more glass shattering, and then he heard these loud, stomping sounds as something huge was making its way through those front doors into the cafe. And suddenly, it hit RVed when he looked out and saw what it was,

why everybody was running. And he also realized that he and his family were now trapped. It would turn out all the people in Yvonne's life who frowned on her special friendship had been right to do so. Because although Yvonne loved her daily routine with her friend, her friend did not actually feel the same way. Every day when Yvonne went to visit, she would sit with her friend and keep him company. And Yvonne's friend would smile back at her. This was sort of the rapport they had developed, at least in Yvonne's mind, the smiling back and forth suggested they were friends.

What Yvonne didn't realize is that them smiling back and forth was actually something her friend's. hated. And on that particular Friday afternoon, her friend was already in a very bad mood. The park that surrounded his house was so crowded and so loud, and those kids who Yvonne saw throwing rocks when she left, had been doing it earlier. They were throwing rocks that whole time that she was visiting with her friend, and some of those rocks were hitting her friend's house. And it was making him so agitated and mad. And then the whole time, through this interaction, Yvonne is smiling over and over at her friend thinking this is so great, and it just totally sent her friend over the edge. And so when Yvonne finally left and walked away,

the friend, you know, should have felt relieved because now, you know, one of the things that was really agitating him was gone. Yvonne, she was gone. But the friend knew she wasn't really leaving for good. She would just come back tomorrow, like she always did, with that same enraging small. on top of all the other things that were so annoying. And the friend just could not take it any longer. So he snapped. He stormed out of his house, splashing through that off-limit stream in the park

to get to Yvonne as she walked away. And just before he reached her, she turned around and saw him. This time, he smiled at Yvonne before she could smile at him. And for once, she didn't smile back. Instead, she looked terrified. And this was because Yvonne's friend was a 400-pound silver-back gorilla named Boquito.

And the park he lived in was a zoo. To silver-back gorilla's smiling is not a sign of friendship. It's a sign of aggression and hostility. So it's very likely that from Boquito's point of view, almost every day, for years, Yvonne had been coming to his enclosure, in essence, to threaten him. at least that's very likely how he interpreted it. And he had been basically threatening her back whenever he smiled by showing his teeth. And he thought maybe that would get her to go away, but it never worked.

She always came back and just continued to threaten him. And so eventually, like the story goes, it became too much. Luckily though, Bokito didn't harm really anybody except for Yvonne. He bit her over a hundred times and broke multiple bones, but Yvonne did survive. but no other guests were harmed. Including Rvide and his family, you know, they were trapped in that cafe with Bokito, who after attacking Yvonne

had charged in there and was walking around, but Bokito never attacked, and so at a certain point, Rvied and his family were able to run to safety. After she recovered, Yvonne would tell the media that Bokito was still her darling. That's what she called him.

And in fact, she would go back to the zoo to see Bokito after that, but this time she didn't smile. The next and final story of today's episode is called Off the Bus. At 3 a.m. on August 11, 1965, a 19-year-old student named Ali Dogen sat in the front seat of a passenger bus as it headed down a dark, narrow road in northwest Turkey. Ali, and about 50 other passengers were on their way from the city of Ankara to Istanbul, which is the largest city in Turkey. And they were about three hours into a five-hour trip. Ali had passed the time so far by speaking with the man who just happened to be sitting next to him.

He was an Air Force lieutenant. The lieutenant told Ali that originally he had actually been booked to take a flight to Istanbul, but he had missed the flight, and so here he was on the bus. But he told Ali that actually he was really enjoying this bus ride. He had never been on a long bus ride before, and critically, he had scored the very front seat in the bus, so he could basically see out the front window of the bus. And so for him, that was kind of exhilarating. And for Allie, he had actually switched spots with a previous passenger who had been sitting next to the lieutenant when they first boarded.

He had switched with that person because Ali, the reason he was switching, was he wanted that view too. And so he and this lieutenant were sort of bonding over their shared excitement over, you know, watching the road as they drove for hours on end. Allie and the lieutenant spoke in very quiet voices since almost everybody else on the bus was fast asleep. But, you know, these two, they're pumped, they're watching the road. they're talking about it quietly. But at a certain point, Ali, despite his enthusiasm for this ride, he started to feel pretty drowsy too.

Ali was on his way back to Istanbul where he went to college. And later that day, because right now it's 3 a.m., later that day, he had a big exam. And he knew that as much as he wanted to stay up and sort of enjoy the ride, he really needed to get some sleep. So he took his sweatshirt and rolled it up like a pillow,

put it behind his head, told the lieutenant he was going to sleep for a bit, And then he put his head back and closed his eyes. However, about 15 minutes later, when Allie was just really beginning to actually fall asleep, the bus was suddenly filled with screams. And Ali, he opened his eyes and he was looking out forward in the direction the bus was going.

And he saw these bright headlights bearing down on the bus, and he knew they were about to collide with somebody on the road. And then the bus hard swerved to the right, and Allie's trying to hold on to the partition to keep himself seated. Then he's getting ready to smash into this other. vehicle, but right at the last second, the bus turns and slams off the road and comes crashing down in this ditch right off the side of the road, and then the bus kind of lurched to a stop because the bus driver was able to stop the crash. And for a second, you know, Allie's looking around,

everyone's so shaken up by this, and he's feeling, you know, very relieved that they did not smash into an oncoming car. But despite feeling that relief, Allie quickly realized they had another problem. The bus was starting to fill with smoke. And so Allie and the lieutenant, in virtue of sitting at the very front of the bus, were the closest to the door leading off the bus. And now clearly, everybody needs to evacuate. There's some kind of fire that's happening because of the crash they've just been in. And so Allie and the lieutenant, they stand up, and the bus is kind of at a slant here because they're in this ditch, and they go up to the very front of the bus. And they actually look out the cracked front windshield, and they see there's

this huge truck also in the ditch on the side of the road, and they're figuring that they must have collided in some way, like that was the truck that forced the bus off the road. And so it's like, okay, they've gotten into this accident, there's clearly a fire, we just got to get off this bus. And so Allie and the lieutenant, they get to the door and they try to open it, but the way the bus kind of crashed into this ditch, it sort of warped the frame of the bus. And so the lieutenant, he got down there and he began smashing on this door to try to open it up. And as this is happening, smoke is getting much more intense inside of this bus and all the people on the bus, the 50-some-od passengers behind them, they're starting to panic. Everyone's rushing forward, bumping into Ali and the

lieutenant trying to get off this bus. And then finally the lieutenant, he manages to force open the doors. And the second he does, this additional rush of black smoke comes pouring into the bus. It's like you can't even see anything. Everyone's choking and screaming. And the lieutenant, he just yells to Allie to go, get out, jump out. And so Ali, he's the first one off the bus. He climbs down the steps. All he sees is smoke everywhere. He really has no idea where the fire is actually coming from. And so instinctively, he just jumps out of the bus, just jumps as high and as far as he possibly can. And he actually hits the other side of the ditch. And he kind of stumbles and climbs up and gets away from the bus. And as soon as he did, he turned around and he's looking at the bus. And it's nighttime.

But even still in the darkness, he just sees the bus is completely engulfed in all this smoke. He can't quite tell where the fire is. He's thinking, you know, the engine must have caught fire and it's spreading across the undercarriage of the bus, but it's getting so bad. And he's hearing all the people on board desperately trying to get off out that door

the lieutenant had forced open. But there's some kind of bottleneck. They're not getting out. It's like they're stampeding towards the front of the bus. People are screaming. It's chaos. And then Ali hears some of the windows being pushed open, people start jumping out the windows. I mean, they are desperate to get off

this bus. And at first, what Ali hears are screams of what sounds like desperate and scared people, just trying to evacuate. But quickly, those screams when the folks started coming out of the bus, turned to pure agony. But as Ali is listening to this and watching this disaster unfold, he's thinking, okay, well, the reason they're screaming is because it's possible they could be catching on fire here, or maybe, you know, they're jumping off and breaking bones or getting hurt from leaping out the window, and that's all terrible. But people are getting out of this bus, and before long, they're going to come up and over that side of the ditch, and they're going to join me.

Like these people, they're coming out of the bus. I'm seeing it happen. But all that happened is the screams of agony got louder and louder and nobody. came over that ditch. It was Ali all alone, and he had no idea why. All he sees is smoke, and all he hears is screams. And then at some point, authorities show up, and they clearly are right into the fray, trying to extinguish whatever fire is going on and trying to get people out and away from the bus. But despite this huge effort that Ali's watching happen right in front of him, granted it's obscured by the smoke, still nobody, including the lieutenant, came over the ditch to come

come be with Ali. He was all alone. But eventually, Ali noticed a few of the authorities that had shown up to assist in this emergency were walking away from the smoke and the bus carrying what appeared to be bodies. But as Ali stared at these people carrying these bodies, he realized they weren't whole bodies. They were body parts. It would turn out most of Allies and the rest of the passenger's assumptions about exactly what happened in that crash, were correct. The bus they were riding in did swerve after seeing the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. And it did hit that big truck they saw on the side of the road when Allie and the lieutenant first got to the front of the bus and looked out. That was the truck they hit.

Now, it was not a head-on collision. It was sort of a glancing blow as the bus swerved to avoid a head-on collision. But that crash sent the bus off the road into the ditch, and it was that crash into the ditch that ultimately prompted all that small. but they were all wrong about what was causing that smoke. There was no fire. The truck that the bus narrowly avoided the head-on collision with, but did ultimately strike, causing both the bus to crash and the truck to crash, that truck was a shipping truck,

and it was transporting a huge amount of freight to Istanbul. And the collision burst the truck shipping containers, and so the contents of those containers, the freight itself, poured out into that ditch. And that ditch that basically the bus had landed inside of, that Allie had sort of jumped over on his way to get out of the bus and that others were sort of falling into when they were coming out of the bus to avoid this, you know, fire or so they thought,

it already had some water in it when that freight entered into the ditch. So the freight and the water combined. And that combination caused a chemical reaction and that chemical reaction caused the smoke. because that freight was nitric acid, a highly corrosive, highly toxic liquid chemical that now, despite being diluted by the water in the ditch, had basically filled the ditch. The ditch is now effectively an acid bath that's smoking, giving the impression the bus is on fire. And so all these folks are leaping out of the bus and landing in the ditch, which again is an acid bath,

and they're being dissolved by the acid. Ali, when he left the bus first, he leapt out of the bus. He thought there was the fire right there and he jumped up and out trying to clear the fire. And what he really did is he cleared the acid bath and landed on the other side, avoiding dissolving in the acid.

But virtually everybody else in the bus was going right into the acid. And so in the end of the nearly 50 people on board that bus, 26 literally dissolved to death. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events. But we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved,

and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen. Our head of production is Zach Levitt, produced by Jeremy Bone, Story editing by Evan Allen. Research and fact-checking by Shelley Shoe, Samantha Van Hoose,

Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan. Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacasio and Cole Lacasio, Perry Crowell and Jordan Stidham. Mixed and mastered by Brendan Cain. Production Coordination by Samantha Collins. Production support by Antonio Manata and Delana Corley. artwork by Jessica Klogston Kiner,

theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballin podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballin YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. If you want to listen to episodes one week early and ad free,

you can subscribe to see. SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts, or visit SiriusXM.com slash podcast plus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see you.