Radio Rental - Episode 80

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

Welcome to Radio Rental, a mysterious video rental shop with a collection of VHS tapes with TRUE scary stories narrated by the people who experienced them... On today's tapes... >> Liminal Store > Walk Around the World

You're listening to a 10-foot TV podcast. This episode is brought to you by Intuit Turbo Tax Business. Introducing Turbo Tax Business, a brand new way to file your T2 with confidence. Maximize every credit and deduction for your business as you file with help from our experts. Whether you're running a food truck, a fitness studio, or a flower shop, Turbo Tax experts can help you find write-offs you might miss and credits you never even heard about, ensuring you get the most from your return. Intuit TurboTax business, new from TurboTax Canada.

Some regional exclusions apply. Learn more at TurboTax.ca slash business tax. Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart Starts Pounding, Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kalen Moore. Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends, bizarre true crime cases, chilling tales of backwoods horror, and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of the darkly curious, check out Heart Starts Pounding on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay curious. visit tenderfootplus.com for details.

The following podcast includes scary stories with content that could be triggering to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Take a break from the same old boring blockbusters and experience a new kind of movie night with Radio Rental. At Radio Rental, our videos come to life in your living room, defy all logic and reasoning, and make you question your own reality. This is not your ordinary video rental store. At Radio Rental, we carry one-of-a-kind videos

so frightening, so mind-bending, you won't be able to sleep at night. You've gone Radio Rental. Wait a second, so... Aw man, I just finished up my jigsaw puzzle. It took me about 6.75 hours of all my exotic birds and I got my cause, I got a cockatoo, I got a parakeet, some finches, I got a quaker parrot, but I'm missing a piece. Where the heck is that thing? I don't know. Aw man, you know what calms me down?

A slurp of my slush. Whoa, that is a flavor explosion in my mouth. I did a suicide at the slushy machine. I got every flavor they had. Mango, cherrycola chocolate freeze pineapple banana cherry-cola and then brown water I thought it was a flavor, but it was genuinely just brown water

anyways Welcome back to Radio Rental Video rental shop with an exclusive collection the scariest stories you've ever heard. All told by real people. If you don't know me, that's cool, cause I'm the new guy, but it's Cherpie Fitzhammer, and I'm gonna be your host for today. I'm also Terry's former massage therapist slash acquaintance.

Oh, hey Malachi. I gave him that nickname. That's Malachi. He's a kitty cat. Anyways, just want to give a shout out to my buddy, Tare. Thank you, man. This is a really sick gig. I've just been playing my old Game Boy.

I chew on my gummies. I slurp on my slush. I keep my Tamagotchi alive. I'm just playing with my jigsaw puzzles. And then you life is good. Whoa, whoa, I do not like that. The lights have been flickering like crazy lately, man. I hope I don't have that thing where I pass out when lights flicker.

What's that called? Anyways, don't really know what's up. It's pretty freaky. I hope I'm not supposed to pay the electrical bill or something. Let me look at the instructions. No, no, no. Well, even if I had to, I'd put it on my stepmom's credit card, because we don't get along. Anyway, I'm sure you're here to explore our exclusive collection of true horror tapes.

Haha, you freak! You nasty freak! You nasty-minded freak! Last week we popped in a couple tapes involving some touring bands with bad luck. That's three D's on that bad. Let's see what we have in a couple tapes involving some touring bands with bad luck. That's 3 D's on that bad. Let's see what we have in store for you this week. I bet it's cool. And get it? In store?

Cause I'm in a store. Whoa! I'm kinda getting the hang of this thing. Rad! Enjoy! And try not to sweat too much cause this is so scary. And then you got sweaty pits but then you gotta somewhere important, like over to your dad's house, but your stepmom's there and then she calls you

out for having sweaty pits. And you're like, come on, Sandy, lay off me. I'm just trying to do my thing. And then... She's such a dick. My son had just turned one. We decided, hey, let's go take a trip to Monterey. So we took a trip to Monterey with me, my wife, and the baby.

It was a good little trip and it was a cool little three days away from everything, from work and all the stress. When we got back, we noticed the baby started coughing. And then the cough got really bad. Our baby was really sick. I'm about to leave for work one morning. She tells me, hey, the baby needs medicine. I forgot to pick us pick some up at work.

Can you go grab some? So I go, yeah, of course. There's a Walgreens right across the street. So I figured I'm going to drive over there real quick. Come back, drop it off.'s about 11 11 30 it's a busy street it's a main street there's a red light right there and you know I see traffic all backed up plenty of cars in the parking lot but nothing too crazy and I get out of the car and already I forgot the medicine that my wife told me to buy

So I called her on the phone. I go hey, what was the medicine again? And she goes oh, yeah, it was this brand that the pediatrician said was okay. Just remember this one. I'm like, okay cool And I got her in my ear. I hear the baby crying I'm walking towards the front and I see a woman and she's Struggling putting her baby into the back seat of the car and I look over and I feel for her cuz I'm walking towards the front and I see a woman and she's struggling putting her baby into the back seat of the car. And I look over and I feel for her because I'm like, oh man, I'm in that same situation. I know exactly what that's like. My wife is still talking in my ear and I make a right into the Walgreens. The doors open up.

I saw a checker at the front waiting for customers and I hear distant talking over the aisles. I hear people towards the back. I hear regular conversations that you would hear in a pharmacy. As I walk in, I hear three beeps in my ear that the call failed. Mid-conversation with my wife, the call drops. And then the door shut behind me and I look up. Everything changed. The checker behind the register was not there anymore. The music that was playing stopped.

The normal warm lighting of the Walgreens? Gone. Any ambient noise that I heard from customers? Completely silent. The cars outside and any noise I originally heard when I first walked in, completely gone. And I was just alone. Alone in the store, alone in the situation, alone. Just alone. It felt like I was not supposed to be there in that moment. It wasn't a subtle change, it wasn't

anything that gradually faded out, it was like a completely different place. The noise from any talking from the customers had gone completely silent. The lighting which was normally just a yellow lighting, was now blue. The whole store just felt dead. I look over to the aisles. I don't see anybody. And I look at my phone and my phone is off. I look out the doors and all the cars that were just there are gone. The woman that was just putting her baby in the car is not there

anymore. So I stop and I just kind of assess the situation like what what's going on? I kind of looked down a couple aisles I don't see anybody so I yell I go hello hello twice and I remember when I said that I'm like dude this this feels like I'm in a horror movie. No response from anybody. I look up at the mirrors that Walgreens has up on top and I don't see anybody in the aisles. I peek my head around the corner. Don't see a single person. I grab my phone cuz I'm like I should film this so in case my wife asks me or if no one believes me

and of course it won't turn on. The screen is black I'm playing with the button nothing's happening. It was really weird and I'm just thinking to myself like what what is this? I go down the aisle and I make a sharp left and just like that the lights turned their normal yellowish color. There's people in the aisles I can see again. There's music playing on the speakers. I hear one man talking on the phone. I hear pharmacists. And I look up at the front and I see a checker there

mid-transaction with somebody. That same checker that was there originally ringing up someone mid-transaction. There was life again in the store. The life that was missing for the past 30 seconds was there again. And I kind of just stopped and I just sat there for a second and I was like, what just happened? What just happened right now? I look over you know at the people in line I'm like were they all not talking? Were they all just quiet?

But one of the guys was on the phone. I would have heard him. I look over behind me, there's people in the other aisles now. I just feel confused and I feel alone in this moment because clearly none of the customers around had the same experience. I didn't know what to do, so check my phone and my phone's working again. I have three missed calls from my wife.

I go okay I'm gonna call her in a second. I go I get the medicine and I get rung up at the front. The man at the register asked me, can I help you with anything else today? I just kind of stared at him and I was like No, I I guess not As I'm just standing there like thinking that there's got to be a logical explanation for this. I Leave I drive the car back to my house. I'll drop the medicine off with my wife and the baby. She goes you okay I go yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna call you and we'll talk later. I Get to work and I called her a little later on

and I say uh, hey, what what happened today? She goes, yeah, you look kind of shaking when you came home. Filter in on what happened. I go, hey, do you think maybe the cars got a green light and then that's why there was no cars there? But why were all the cars in the parking lot gone? And why was the cars parked on the street gone? Maybe the woman got her baby into the car just right, right when I turned around and drove away.

Maybe everyone in the aisles was just one aisle over and for some reason, no one was talking. My wife goes, well, maybe you were stressed out. I go, well, maybe you were stressed out. I go, yeah, maybe. And she goes, how long were you in this weird place? Or how long did you feel like this? And I say it was about 30 seconds. Well, maybe I had some sort of episode. She goes, yeah, but the call dropped.

They called you about three times, but every time it said that your phone was out of service, she was it didn't even ring until the last time I go. And how long was that for? She was about 30 seconds. OK, well, I would think I was completely crazy, maybe, but having my wife on the phone with me and her timestamp with that call dropping perfectly lined up with this weird experience that I have. And I wouldn't accidentally turn off my phone, I wouldn't do anything like that. It was just weird. I didn't know what to do, what to think, I didn't know who to tell besides my wife and my friends, and they all agreed it was weird and

drive myself a little crazy thinking about what happened. What rational explanation do I have for this? Maybe I had some sort of anxiety or a panic induced episode. You know, for this brief 30 seconds in time. I am a very rational person. And my wife would call me a skeptic when it comes to most things. I had asked my brother, I go, what do you think? And he goes, do you know what liminal spaces are?

You went into a liminal space. spaces are, you went into a liminal space. From what he described, it was like when you slip into this alternate universe or timeline. He said it's usually things like an airport or rooms that are empty or things that are nostalgic from your childhood or places that are like mundane to you that you're not supposed to spend an extended amount of time in. Except when you're in this place, something feels wrong and off and there's almost a feeling like you're not supposed to be there. And I thought, well, that's interesting. I think that's also far-fetched, but I also can't think of a rational explanation for

everything. Maybe for one or two things I could maybe. All the things combined, it's a little difficult for me to try to be rational about it. I don't know what happened that day and I don't think I'll ever find out. Damn, that was trippy, man. Did anyone else's eyeballs just pop out of their skull because that was so fricking trippy man did anyone else's eyeballs just pop out of their skull because that was so freaking trippy it kind of reminded me that one time I went to the pharmacy to get my ED slash ADD meds and the pharmacist is like hey sir what's

your birthday and I was like I don't know and so then I went to reach in my pocket and grab my ID and I realized I wasn't even wearing any pants. And then I was like, is this a dream? And he's like, no, no, it's not a dream. Whoa, there goes the lights again. Man, what is up with that? I may or may not have taken my medicinal gummies like a half an hour ago. So I'm like not in the mood for any like flickering trickery, right? All right, you know what? Let's reground ourselves, take a little grounding break,

maybe do some meditation. Let's listen to some ads and we'll be right back. No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFrills.ca. Whoa, you guys are back so fast! Okay, moment of truth, did you guys fast forward through the ads? Be honest. I knew it! Nah, I don't care. That's cool with me. Although buy their stuff, because it helps fund my Venmo.

You know what time it is. It's tape time. Here's the sequel to the first tape that has nothing to do with the first tape. Here it goes. I grew up in a small town. Population was like 900. Obviously not a lot of exciting things happened growing up. By the time I was, I think, 17, I had pretty much explored every square inch of that town.

I really did, as cliche as it sounds, know it like the back of my hand. I was, I think, 16, 17, and every day trying to figure out something to do. I was with a friend of mine. We reached out to another friend and was just asking them what they were up to. They're like, yeah, come over, we're going to watch some movies later tonight. And we were like, great. There were pretty much two ways to get to our friend's house. There was a long way through the town, but it ended up leading down a kind of precarious, sketchy path alongside of a road.

And there was another path that was almost like a shortcut that we had taken 101 times. So obviously we chose to do that. We started like we always would. It was just a couple minutes right up from my parents' house where I grew up. The place we would always start was a very small kind of chain-link fence. On the opposite side of the road was a little driveway that ran to kind of like a farmhouse that we're pretty familiar with. We'd been there a couple times. We started walking towards our friend's house and the shortcut was really kind of just through a golf course and a little bit of forest but again we had walked it 101 times. It didn't take more than 15 minutes 20 minutes tops and it was just

a straight line from road A to road B. Started just seeing all those familiar landmarks there's the sand trap on hole 15. A couple of minutes later, there was just like a utility shed, and we're like, great, we'll be there in no time. As we kept walking, we started at 5.30 or 6.00. We're fully expecting to be there, sun setting around 6.30. But the more we walked, we noticed sun was going down, moon was coming up. coming up and we're like okay no big deal maybe we

walked later than we when we thought. When we were supposed to get there fully expecting to see that other road we still hadn't. We saw kind of a thicket of trees right on the other side of those trees, there's going to be the road that's right across the street from our friend's house. And at this point, it was dark. We got to this thicket of trees, and as soon as we did, we started seeing these blinking red lights. Multiple of them, almost like lightning bugs,

and they were flashing up in the trees above us. They were almost fluorescent, like a Christmas tree bulb almost. They were coming almost like through the trees. Maybe we had tripped a flood light that people have outside their house. As we got closer, we started noticing that there was more of them appearing.

It was accompanied by the strangest alarm, but it sounded more like a siren. The siren was so unlike anything I'd ever heard before, not like an alarm, not like an ambulance, like a shriek. High pitched and so loud. Almost like a frequency, like when you have tinnitus. Like a ringing in your ears, but coming from some place outside of you.

It was all around us. It was consuming. Still looking up at the trees, the lights were almost surrounding us. That just immediately set in a panic. We didn't know what it was, but we knew that it wasn't anything normal. It was completely unlike anything we had ever seen or heard before in that small town. With that, it was fight or flight or freeze and we flew. We ran out of there as fast as we could and it was hard to think about anything other than those lights and that sound.

We ran and ran and ran. Still looking up above us in the tree line, still seeing those red lights flashing. We see a road ahead of us and we're like, okay great, we're here. As we approached that road, we were standing looking at that small chain-linked fence that we started walking on. We looked behind us, we looked in front of us again, looking back at that chain link fence.

What just happened? We were walking just a straight line. It was all start to finish. Golf course, utility shed, everything that we had noticed in the past up until that line of trees. At no point did we ever make a U-turn and start walking back. Even more significantly, we never crossed any other road, any other path. It was all just golf course and forest. We kept trying to rationalize and the more we did the more it didn't make sense. Who has red flashing light alarm system outside their house?

At no point did either of us get lost. It was again a walk we had done hundreds of times. Crazier theories started to go through our head like maybe we walked through some sort of portal. But the weirdest part, I think, was after we calmed down, talked a little bit, we noticed that it was 9 o'clock at night. We had effectively lost three hours. Really was a walk that was from point A to point B, a straight line that really should have only taken 15-20 minutes at tops. A walk that we had done so many times before and even since then done that walk. Somehow we ended up back looking at that chain-linked fence without ever turning around, without ever walking back,

without ever crossing any other roads. That forest, that golf course, that straight line, and yet somehow we were back where we started. Like, we had walked entirely around the circumference of the world. And the look on our faces said everything that we were both thinking. We were walking back home, because at that point we were just completely wiped out, exhausted with fear, panic, and anxiety and the more we talked the more things didn't make sense, the more things didn't add up.

It would be one thing if I was by myself and this happened, I experienced it with somebody else, which was just confirmation that something strange had happened. Him and I both, especially the following weeks, retraced our steps dozens of times. Went back to that fence, started walking in that same direction. We walked in the morning, we walked in the afternoon, we tried walking at night. But it was always road A to road B.

It was never back to road A, it was totally normal. We even tried walking the opposite direction. We tried finding that patch of trees and sure there were forests and woods and trees and stuff, but we didn't see any floodlights or sirens or alarms or red lights. We never saw anything like that again. The thing that me and my friend both keep coming back to is that we were abducted. I think it explains the lights, the sounds, and the loss of time. Losing time is a big factor in abduction. Maybe these things abducted us and got confused about the location where they got us and they picked us up and dropped us off at the wrong

place. That's like the thing that makes the most sense to both of us. Nothing else really explains what happened that night. The more I listen to other abduction stories, the more that it makes sense, the more I have in common with these stories. I wish it weren't true, I wish it didn't make sense, but that's what I keep coming back to. That's the thing that makes the most sense in my mind. I truly believe that that night we were abducted and put back in the wrong place. Whoa, I am missing tons of brain cells after that one because it blew my mind. I don't know man. You guys think aliens are real?

I think it's a pretty strong theory, you know. I think I was graced by the green gods myself You know when I was 17 I was hanging out in the Michaels crafts parking lot next to the dumpster and the streetlights started to flicker Right and then bang boom I get sucked straight into the air and not the good kind of suck either Oh, man, next thing, you know I'm having like these weird flashes of being like on a cold table and these things are surrounding me. I can't really remember anything after that except that I was so sore it felt like I was doing like the Jean-Claude Van Damme splits for hours on end. Whoa! No, not cool man. These lights dude, it's like, it's too much.

Especially after telling you my Michael's Craft story. Too close for comfort, dude. I think that's enough for me. Let's reground ourselves, okay? And take a little break for ads. Oh. The Blue Crew to the rescue. It's smurfing time. Hefty. Can you even lift, bro? Grouchy. I hate the radio. Quiet.

There's something important to tell you. I have no idea what he just said. And smurfette. That's how it's done, boys. Smurfs, only in theaters July 18th. Hey, guess what, guys? I found it. I found my puzzle piece.

It was down in the bottom of my box of goobers. And although it was covered in chocolate, it was the tip of the tail of a cockatoo. Anyways, thanks so much for joining me today. I really liked getting to meet you. You guys seemed like great people, good vibes. I hope you liked today's stories and that you didn't ruin too many pairs of undies.

Again, I'm Cheruby Fitzhammer and this has been a trip down Radio Rental Road. Well I'm heading out to my next gig, which isn't really a gig, I'm just gonna use my stepmom's credit card to fund my Venmo for a few weeks. I don't know who's gonna be here with you next week, but best of luck to you all. And hey, Malachi, I'm gonna miss you little man. Give me a fist bump. Dang dude, you got me good. And cat scratcher fever.

Oh man, I'm gonna have to get some shots. Radio Rental is created by Payne Lindsay and brought to you by Tenderfoot TV. Showrunner is Meredith Stedman. Lead producer is Eric Quintana. Executive producers are Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright. Our main host is Rainn Wilson. Guest host is Tony Cavallaro. Written by Meredith Stedman. Additional writing by Mark Loughlin. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set with Additional Score by Jay Ragsdale. Editing by Eric Quintana, Stephen Perez, Meredith Stedman, Tristan Bankston, and Sean Nerney.

Sound Design Mix and Master by Stephen Perez and Cooper Skinner. Additional Editing by April Ruha and Dayton Cole. Our Production Manager is Jordan Foxworthy. Our social media manager is Caroline Orojema. Video editing by Dylan Harrington. Cover artwork by Trevor Eiler and Rob Sheridan. Radio rental merchandise by Byron McCoy. To shop radio rental merch, visit shop.tenderfoot.tv. Special thanks to Orin Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, as well as the Nord Group and the team at Odyssey. If you have a Radio Rental story that you'd like to share, please email us at yourscaristory at gmail.com.

Or contact us via the form on our website, RadioRentalUSA.com. Follow us on Instagram at Radio Rental. On behalf of the RadioRental store, we'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate, and review. As always, thanks for listening.