Radio Rental - Episode 05

Episode Date: November 19, 2019

On today’s tapes… >> Ham and Swiss > White Truck

Thank you. stories we tackle next. Plus, you could win a nice prize just for sharing your thoughts. Head over to tenderfoot.tv slash survey and let your voice be heard, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card plus a Tenderfoot merch pack. It only takes a few minutes, and it makes a big difference. Thank you for being part of our community. We can't wait to hear from you. Hey guys, I want to thank you so much for all your support for Radio Rental. We hope you're enjoying it. And thanks to all those who subscribed, rated the podcast, and left a review. In case you're wondering, our contest is still going. We're giving away 10 real-life Radio Rental VHS tapes

and a Radio Rental Store Manager action figure. We'll be announcing all the winners in Episode 6. To enter, all you have to do is subscribe, Thanks again guys. rate and review and you might win a real-life VHS tape from Radio Rental or a store manager action figure Thanks again guys There you go, good boy good boy good Malachi Good boy. Good Malachi. Good boy. Good Malachi. There we go. There we go. Oh, Jesus Christ! Don't you know not to sneak up on people like that? Damn it, you've made me spill my coffee on my turtleneck.

And you've scared my cat, Malachi. He's very sensitive. Come here, boo-boo. Come here. Actually, this is quite funny. Malachi thinks he's a squirrel. Put the mic up to his little face. Or maybe it's a raccoon he thinks he is. Listen, listen. Or a ferret. I'm not really sure what that sound is.

Adorable. Come here, Malachi. Come here. Have some egg salad sandwich. It's your favorite. Here you go. Ow! Shit!

Son of a bitch! The little asshole bit my thumb. Ugh! So if anyone would like to adopt a cat that thinks it's a rodent, please write us on the Twitter Twitter at Radio Rental USA. Oh, son of a... Shall we get to the tapes? Where's the next one?

Which one would you like to listen to? Oh, here it is. Case number 111. Enjoy, my dearies. I'm like 17. I get this job. It's at a sandwich shop. You know, I'm working nights. It's in like a kind of a dead shopping center. There's only like a Jack in the Box and not much else.

We get a lot of characters in there. And it's kind of in like a more sketchy part of the town. So you kind of always have your guard up it was late it was maybe an hour before we closed maybe we've had like six customers in the last three four hours it's like really dead so this guy he comes in he looks nervous and that makes me nervous. He's avoiding eye contact, but when he does make eye contact, it's really intense. Kind of like when you look into a dog's eyes too long, it kind of makes you feel weird.

And I'm young, like I'm not this big adult who's seen things. I'm like a 17-year-old kid, like nothing bad's really ever happened to me, you know? This guy, you know, he comes in, I'm asking him, how could I help you? Welcome to Subway, you know, that kind of thing. He's got his hand in the back of his waistband in a way that would imply that he's clutching onto something.

Kind of played out in my head, like the best case scenario for the worst case scenario, like, okay, he's going to rob me, I'm going to tell him, dude, all we have is, you know, not that much money. Take it, it's yours. Don't kill me. So that kind of gets your mind racing already. Kind of, like, really fidgety. And I'm just like, oh, you know, what can I get for you, sir? Get a Hamm and Swiss. The way that he kind of threw out ham and Swiss, it was just kind of like, I don't really care.

Like, do whatever you want. You know when you just get a vibe that a situation's off? The triggering mechanism for that vibe was the way that he was so disinterested in what seemed like the point of him being there, which was getting a sandwich made. And it just seemed like he was so ambivalent about the process, so disinterested in the type of bread. It's like really weird.

He kind of looked like he was up to no good. Kind of had this do-something look. He kind of looked like me in the sense that he kind of had, like, the dark features, like the bushy eyebrows and, like, the dark hair. He was taller, and he was wearing baggy sweatpants and then a coat, like a leather coat. I was paying attention to the tiny details cuz like adrenaline's kind of running like am I gonna get robbed it's kind of a serious thing when you're like 17 years old and it's it's intense so I'm laying in the cheese I was asking him like oh

you know I just got off work no okay well you, how's your day been? Good, fine. The thing is, he never took his hand out of his waistband. That whole time. Just kind of wanted to get him the hell out of there. You know, a big kind of part of this is if he wants it toasted. Because after we lay the cheese, do you want it toasted as the next thing? Got to turn my back to him. I got really nervous. So I asked the guy, do you want it toasted as the next thing? Got to turn my back to him. I got really nervous. So I asked the guy, would you like it toasted?

He kind of said, like, yeah, yeah, sure. But, like, he looked like he didn't really want to. Or, like, he was really just quick and curt about it. I got to turn my back to him for three to six seconds. And, like, I kind of didn't want to do it. I don't know if you can imagine it but like if you have like a whole foot long sandwich like this they put it on like a wax paper like a white paper and you take that paper and you put it in the toaster. Done it a million times. I grab it and I

just didn't do it right. Just falls to the side and then I do that thing where you're like kind of try to catch it with your knee. I'm like panicking. Cheese kind of splatters on the ground. The bread's on the ground. I dropped the whole sandwich. When you have like a deja vu moment, it's the details that really click it.

It was really weird, because I was taking really intense note of how the cheese landed. It's in triangle slices. Perfect, like, adjacent with the corners of the tile on the ground. Just a weird rush of deja vu. I was kind of like alarmed. I was like, dude, dropped a sandwich that I've never done before. Didn't have any condiments on it. It's not like onions and bell peppers and then maybe there's some meatball marinara sauce that weighs it down and you kind of mess it up. Just bread, ham, and Swiss.

I dropped it. I felt like I was in danger. I felt like something bad was gonna happen to me on the watch of somebody I don't really care about, the guy who owns my subway. I mean, he's a great guy. But, like, I might die here for three months' work. And I have to look up. And I have to look up at this guy.

I just dropped his sandwich. And then, boom. I look up. He's not there. He's gone. He's just not there. He's gone. He's just not there. It was almost more jarring to see him gone than to see him there, angry. Tip jar's still there, it's not like he stole anything.

Nothing's broken, nothing's gone. I go outside, there's no one to my left, no one to my right, no cars driving away. There's one car in the jack-in-the-box drive-through. And I'm just like, what? There's a high traffic-ish stop sign right outside the plaza. I kinda walked all the way to there,

maybe, I don't know, 100 feet, to get a better view of the entire intersection. And not only is there no one walking around, there's just no cars. Did he get into a getaway vehicle? No. There's no cars driving by left or right. There's no tires screeching, nothing. It seemed improbable that this happened.

I kind of just chalked it up to, you know, like they say, like when someone's going to rob you, they're like fidgety and like they're nervous. And I chalked it up to this guy was going to rob me and he chickened out or something. Like I felt like that was a safe assumption. But there is more to the story. Somehow, the weird fidgety man trying to order a ham and Swiss seemingly vanished in the blink of an eye. He turns to toast the sandwich, drops it,

then looks up and he's gone. People don't literally evaporate into thin air. The more rational explanation is that he quickly aborted a robbery and then scurried out the door somehow unseen. But something about it just bothered him more deeply, that intense feeling of deja vu he had. The whole experience replayed in his mind for weeks.

So what happens next is arguably even creepier. Couple weeks go by, this older gentleman comes in. Same general description, he kinda looked Middle Eastern, maybe could have been like Mexican, Latin American kinda look, like the bushy eyebrows, like the balding hair, but still there. Kinda had like an intense, like, I'm here for food, don't try to talk to me kid Kind of don't bother me look.

Older gentleman, I figure, I don't know, he just had a rough day, whatever. Like, let me just get this guy out of here. What can I get for you, sir? Get a ham and Swiss. Just the way he said it, know was so reminiscent that nonchalantness was so reminiscent of the first guy just the way it brought back like this way he's enunciating his words, it's just really weird. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when he was reaching behind him, back of his waistband.

Same way the other guy was doing. Couldn't believe it. I was like, there's no way that this is that much of a coincidence. There's no way. So he orders the ham and Swiss. Same as the other guy. The way I'm peeling off the hams and the cheeses and the way it's sitting, it's hard to describe, but you know when you've done something so many times, you stop paying attention to when it's the same as before.

It's just when it's off, you kind of realize it. Like, you know, you always have your phone wallet keys in your pocket. You never really remember when you check and they're there. You remember when you check and they're not there. I've done this a million times, but this time just feels weird. And I'm nervous.

The adrenaline's pumping. Pumping, pumping, pumping. So I'm laying the cheese and I'm thinking, I gotta ask this guy if he wants a toasted. I felt like the determining test, the climactic moment as to whether or not I was about to die that night, was me asking him if he was gonna have it toasted.

Because I don't want to turn my back to him, I don't want to relive what just happened a couple weeks prior. So I asked the guy, would you like it toasted? Toasted, toasted, toasted. And he's like, ah, nah. Boom, automatic relief.

Kind of looks at me, has like a kind of nonchalant demeanor. He's really chill about it. Not in the mood for a toasted sandwich. For me, automatic, this must be safe. Like, it's just a coincidence, just chill out. Like, everything's fine. I wrap up the sandwich, cut it in half,

put it in the bag, couple napkins, as I always do. When we repeat the order back to the person just to ensure that it's the way they want it, we verbally know whether or not the sandwich was toasted or not. And I don't know if you guys know, but in California there's actually a hot food tax, and if you do get your sandwich toasted and you opt to eat it in the restaurant there's a tax I think it was like seven or eleven cents or something like that there are people who have looked at the receipt and they go what's this ten cents right here like what is this oh well you got it toasted well I didn't know it was ten cents oh you know we've started repeating it to

the customer I'm feeling kind of on top of the world I'm not gonna die today everything's good and I'm telling the guy, cool. So, you know, you got a ham sandwich, not toasted with a bag of chips and a drink. And he's like, why do you specify that it was not toasted? Like, did it really bother you? Should I have got it toasted? Like, he's just joking around with me. I kind of explained this to him. And he was kind of just like, I did not get my sandwich toasted to avoid paying the tax. And I was like, oh, you know, obviously. He was kind of telling me, like, I'm not that much of a cheap bastard, you know. And I'm just like kind of, you know, joking around as he's kind of exiting the door.

And the door is a push to get out. He holds the sandwich up, curls his foot up against the door to kick it. He kind of looks at me. He says, I just didn't want you to drop it. As he said it, he, like, broke eye contact and just walked away. Like, I got you, you son of a bitch. Immediately, I was like, what? Did he just say that? So rattled. Probably the most I've ever

been. Like he knew, like the whole time he had the situation under control and he knew he was going to just completely like ruin my life with that final comment. And he gave me this feeling inside of being watched. Or like somebody knows about me. And it was just this weird all-knowing. He kind of had this aura of I'm watching you. I got you. And I felt trapped.

Just with that one sentence. I don't know. I couldn't figure out what the deal was. And who or how I was being messed with. I don't know, I couldn't figure out what the deal was and who or how I was being messed with. I don't know, I don't know. It seems really silly to say this guy was a time traveler and he was the same guy from a couple weeks ago, obviously.

But I don't know, I think I got kinda lucky. Nothing happened to me in this body of mine. Maybe in another world I got robbed. Who knows? Get ready for Las Vegas-style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas-drift excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions. Or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette. Download the BetMGM Casino app today. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.

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A trick of the mind or a rip in the space time continuum. Perhaps, you know, I witnessed the ripple of time itself once. I saw time repeat itself right in front of my eyes. I saw the loose fabric of time hanging in front of my face, and I ripped it open with my teeth. All I can tell you was I was in Peru

and accompanied by a shaman named Roger. Yes, I was on ayahuasca at the time, but I think that was a mere coincidence. Have you, dear listener, ever taken part in the sacred journey of ayahuasca, a truly beautiful, life-transforming experience? I mean, besides the vomit and the diarrhea, of course, and all the hippies and the terrible cell phone coverage.

Other than that, transportative. So this would be probably July of 2001. My girlfriend was still in college. She was still attending LSU and still lived very near the campus. We'd been together since early 2000, probably a little over a year, year and a half, yeah. I'm at home having just gotten off of work and my roommate is there with me with some

Kevin Costner movie had just come out on VHS and Blockbuster was still the thing and so we were going to do that that evening and then probably about 7pm, maybe 7.30. It's just starting to get a little darker, and my girlfriend gives me a call. She lights me up and says, hey, I left Walmart, and ever since I've noticed there's a white pickup truck following me. You know, everybody has their moments,

but she was a fairly rational woman. You know somebody, you know, when you're in a relationship that long, you kind of know somebody enough to know, everybody has their moments, but she was a fairly rational woman. You know somebody, you know, when you're in a relationship that long, you kind of know somebody enough to know, all right, well, this isn't a typical reaction. This isn't like, hey, there's something a little weird. The tone in her voice is changing with every turn and every step of the way. She's like, baby, I'm really scared. Ultimately, I didn't want to keep her on the phone. I wanted her to focus on the vehicle.

And my hope was that somewhere along the way, she's like, oh, you know what? He just turned. He just turned off. All right, never mind. She thought if I turn enough, the situation's going to resolve itself. The dude's going to hang a left.

I'm going to hang a right or something like that. He'll pull over at a house, or maybe he'll realize he thought he was following a friend or something, and just realize, oh, I'm following the wrong car. She was taking the direct path home, which is winding. As she took those turns, every step of the way, she's like, no, he's still with me. No, he's still with me, and you could hear it in her voice as it's building. It's occurring to her. This might be something more than just coincidence.

She was a pretty tough individual. She wasn't easily intimidated. She was a very tall woman. For her to break down about somebody following her, for her to start crying was for me to take it seriously and have to say, we've got to get out the door and do something. Once we had figured out, all right, somebody is following her. At that point, we hustled on across town to try and intervene, interact, help any way we could. My roommate and I worked together at the time. And every now and then, if he slept in, he would just put the pedal to the metal.

He would just fly across town. He was like, she's in trouble. Like, dude, let's go. Pedal to the metal. We made probably what would normally be about a 30-minute drive in a little under 10 minutes. Yeah, he was a beast behind the wheel. We're on the phone with her. Hey, at the governor's mansion curve hey we're exiting on dow ripple right now and at that point she's like okay i'm i'm heading toward the house is he still behind you yeah he's still behind you we kind of coordinated it over the phones like all right where are you we're here we got to the end of the street just in time to see her turn

and to see the white pickup truck make the turn behind her at that point i'm expecting the truck's just going to keep on going and as we're following in line behind we're the third vehicle in this little caravan. We see her car as we're approaching the street. She makes the turn. We're on the phone with her. Okay, we see you. Yeah, it's still behind you. Go ahead and pull into your aunt's house. Two houses away, the white pickup truck pulls in on the lake side of the street

and comes to a stop. I didn't know what was going on. I pulled in behind her and she's in the driveway in tears. She's in tears like is that the truck and point to it she's like that's that's the truck. It was a workman's truck. It was a little beat up, which is kind of out of place on a street full of Lexuses. The truck is off. The lights are off. He's there and chilling. Facing my girlfriend's house.

My girlfriend was in the house and I encouraged her like, Hey, it's okay. We're here. You're going to be fine. Nothing's going to happen to you. And I encouraged her to go inside, lock the doors, stand by your phone, and if you hear anything go wrong, call the police. The way the lighting situation is on the lake at that time of day, it was very, it had gotten very dark. If you're not in the light from the streetlights, you're pretty well concealed. And that's where we were. My roommate was on the lawn, kind of hidden in the shadows behind me. And so I just tell my roommate, hey, you kind of hang back, just kind of watch what happens here, and if anything goes wrong, jump in.

And he's like, oh, yeah, man, I got your back, I got your back. I'm just like, I got to end this. And so I just marched to the end of the driveway where he could see me and I could see him and made a line straight for him. Just kind of make myself seen at the end of the driveway, raise a hand, and start walking that way. It's after hours, so why is a workman's truck parked here on the lake?

He's either following her, or he's either just a dude who needs to park and contemplate some stuff, maybe he's having a rough day and needs to sit by the lake, or it's the worst-case scenario. I'd be off on his left. I'm out the driver's window. I approach the vehicle and make eye contact with him. I was like, Hey dude.

And he doesn't turn to me at all. He doesn't engage me at all. At this point, I can see the occupant who's an African-American male. He's wearing a white colored, like a T-shirt, like an undershirt. He's kind of sitting in kind of a rigid position to where he's not trying to turn his head to look at me. He's kind of following me side-eyed. He's trying to follow me out the corner of his eye,

but keeping himself really kind of like in a rigid body posture. He ain't looking at me full on. He doesn't turn his body. He doesn't reposition himself. He doesn't roll the window down. But I just approached it and said, hey, man, I don't know what's going on. I don't know what this is. I don't know what you want. You're freaking her out. I don't know what this is, but you've got to go. You've got to leave right now. He doesn't engage me at all. He doesn't turn his head to look at me. He kind of gives me a side-eyed look, pauses for maybe 5, 10 seconds,

and then cranks his truck and rolls out. The man in the white truck, whoever he was, had followed his girlfriend for miles. And after driving all the way into her neighborhood, he parks and just sits there, watching. Even with a man directly outside his driver's side window, he doesn't move a muscle. A few moments pass, he starts his truck

and peels out of there. Though he didn't know the man driving the white truck, he had a sneaking suspicion of who it might be. From 2000 to 2003, it was pretty well known that there was a serial killer on the loose in Baton Rouge. The Baton Rouge serial killer, he was called at that time. If you've ever seen like Zodiac or I think it's Summer of Sam, the paranoia they try and portray in the city is like, they don't underplay it. It's real. Every conversation about everything was the killer. Weird car at the end of the street. Maybe it's the killer. Somebody broke a window at my job today. Maybe it was the killer. As more cases of missing women started popping up, police formed a task force. Their goal, to find the man who had spread so much fear across South Louisiana. So many ladies buying guns, tasers, pepper spray, and taking self-defense classes.

A simple knock on the door put fear in people. I believe one of the victims, they found her stuff with her groceries still on the counter. It's possible she may have been followed from a supermarket. It was typically brunette women. And at the time, my girlfriend was, she fit that profile in that she was in her early 20s and brunette. He was believed to be driving a white pickup truck or a white SUV. Behind the scenes, the South Louisiana Serial Killer Task Force mobilized, hunting down every lead as women kept turning up murdered. I don't see him again in person ever,

but I did see him again about 18 months later when he was perp-blocked on the news. This was the moment when a team of detectives realized they had matched DNA to South Louisiana serial killer Derek Todd Lee. He was on the front page of every paper, every website, everything in the region. The face of the man I saw in the truck that night, Derek Todd Lee. On lunch break at my job, they've got a copy of The Advocate out on the table. I'm kind of glancing through the article and reading the details of it. And every now and then my eyes flick back to his face. I'm bad at names. I'm good at faces. If we run into each other on the streets, probably going to click, hey, don't I know you? Did we meet at so-and-so?

Help me with your name again. That's right. Names I'm not great at, faces I'm good at. In that moment in the break room, I get a little shaky, I get at him pretty rigidly in profile. You see the profile picture right up there with the mugshot. That's the guy. That's the guy who didn't want to look at me. That's the guy from the truck. Derek Todd Lee was the gentleman's name. I'm just kind of stumped and stymied and shocked and kind of off balance all at once just because it's... Man, I'm getting shaky a little talking about it.

You get kind of weak all at once and kind of overwhelmed all at once because it's just like, it's a human being with no qualms about murder. What's to stop him from cutting through me? There's so many ways that an individual like that could kill you that it's just, it's staggering. Even though you're human, you're nothing to them. These are murderers. This is a killer. That could have gone bad in so many ways. One of the victims was abducted from their home, probably within maybe five miles of the home that my girlfriend lived in at the time.

We never think that we're going to cross paths with a monster that the whole city's watching for, looking out their windows for. What are the odds that I'm going to run into this one person who's stalking people, who's hunting people? What are the odds that that's going to be me? You don't know who the stranger on the other side of the glass is. Ooh, a very close encounter. You know, I was once nearly in the grasp of a cold-blooded killer. Ted Bundy and I met in a bar in 1977. I know I don't fit the general stereotype of his victims, but I can assure you it was him

buying me drink after drink, a close brush with death. At least I think it was him. I'm sure it was him. He said his name was Ted. It might have been a different famous Ted. I was pretty sloshed at the time. Danson, Turner, Koppel, Nugent, Talks.

I barely escaped with my life, whoever it was, drunkenly stumbled out of the Pelican Bar and Grill, woke up in a ditch with sangria covering my serape, and this particular peculiar note in my pocket. Thanks for letting me show you my cigarette burns. Call me yours, Ted. The number was smeared with sangria. Anyway, I'll never do that again. Wait, what is that do you hear? What is that god-awful noise? God damn it, Malachi! No, get off!

Just peed on my favorite cardigan. Oh well, I'll have to deal with that later. Well, this is an appropriate transition because I have some cat piss of news to share with you. We are going to be going on a hiatus for a while. Next week will be our last week together and Radio Rental will be on hiatus for a while. Next week will be our last week together, and Radio Rental will be on hiatus. We'll be back, though.

Don't you fret. Don't you fear. It's simply that I need a vacation. I am going to sail away to the Dominican Republic. Rates are very low there for some reason. Also fantastic Mai Tais. And Malachi enjoys the chorizo. So I will miss you, dear friend. You have been a loyal fan of the genre,

and I thank you for that. Perhaps I'll send you a postcard. Perhaps I will not. Perhaps I'll send you a dead cat. I don't know, but I'll see you next week for one last hurrah. This has been Terry Carnation for Radio Rental. Radio Rental is created by Payne Lindsey and brought to you by Tenderfoot TV in Atlanta.

Executive Producers Payne Lindsey and Donald Albright. Hosted by Rainn Wilson as his character, Terry Carnation. Produced by Payne Lindsey, Mike Rooney, and me, Meredith Stedman. Written by Meredith Stedman with additional writing by Mark Laughlin. Sound design by Cooper Skinner. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set. Additional production by Christina Dana and Mason Lindsay. Cover art by Trevor Eiler and Rob Sheridan. Voice acting by Ryan Jones, Casey Willis, and the Tenderfoot TV team. Shout out to Tiny Doors ATL for the creation of our real-life miniature radio rental store.

You can check that out and more on their Instagram at tinydoorsatl. Special thanks to Grace Royer and Oren Rosenbaum at UTA, as well as support from the Nord Group, Station 16, Beck Media and Marketing, and the team at Cadence 13. If you have a radio rental story that you'd like to share, please email us at yourscarystory at gmail.com or contact us via the form on our website, radiorentalusa.com. Follow us on Instagram at Radio Rental and on Twitter at Radio Rental USA.

You can also follow the beloved Terry Carnation on social media. Just search at Terry Carnation. On behalf of the Radio Rental store, we'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate, and review. And don't forget to share our show with a friend of the genre. Thanks for listening. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for 20 years and have taken people into haunted places

to uncover macabre tales and dark secrets. On my podcast, Haunted Canada, I share bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening right now. Then join me if you dare.