No Way Out Vol. X

0:00Today's podcast features three stories that involve people who got trapped with no way out. 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 A Crush on a Cruise, and it's about a cruise ship's very unexpected catastrophe. The second story you'll hear is called The Gauge, and it's about a critical error that leads to a horrifying fate for several saturation divers. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Teapot, and it's about a freak accident turning a vacation into a nightmare.

0:38But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Fridays. So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Follow Button's house and open up all of their cereal. And make sure when you do this, you open the bag up really messily and you tear down the side of the bag, not along the seams at the top. Okay, let's get into our first story called A Crush on a Cruise.

1:26Adobe Firefly is the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video generation for today's creative process. Built for creators of every kind, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast. Because the asks aren't getting smaller, the budgets aren't getting bigger, and the timelines, ugh, yeah, still tight. With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Unlock a better way to make with Adobe Firefly. Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why drivers have trusted Progressive's Name Your Price tool for years. Just tell Progressive what you want to pay, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget.

2:07Visit Progressive.com to find a car insurance rate that works for you. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company & Affiliates. Price and coverage match, limited by state law.

2:20Just after 6 p.m. on December 27, 2015, a woman named Sarah Robinson was getting ready inside of her cabin on the seventh floor of a massive cruise ship. She and her boyfriend were going to dinner that night with Sarah's parents in one of the restaurants on board the ship. And in fact, this entire trip, this whole vacation, was actually a big gift from Sarah's parents to Sarah and her boyfriend. And so far, the trip had been totally amazing. I mean, all four of them, Sarah, her boyfriend, and Sarah's parents, had got to go swimming and drink great drinks and have great food. And it was just like a total dream.

2:53But now they only had one night left tonight, and they wanted to make the most of it. And their plan was to go to the big buffet that the ship offered and just totally indulge on the amazing food and just have some laughs, share stories. And then the next day they'd wake up in the Florida port that they left from, and the trip would be over. But for now, they had this one dinner left. And so after Sarah and her boyfriend were all ready, they left their cabin and they met Sarah's parents out in the hallway. And then Sarah led the way towards the stairwell that would bring them up to the 10th floor where the restaurant was that they were going to.

3:25Once they reached the 10th floor, Sarah could see right in front of her the entrance to this restaurant. And so she, her boyfriend, and her parents all behind her began walking towards the restaurant. And to get there, they would have to walk past this sort of lobby right in front of the restaurant where there was this elevator bank that would go down to the lobby and all the other floors. And so, you know, Sarah and her family, they walked past these elevators, and as they did, Sarah began to hear what sounded like rain hitting the outside of the ship. But that didn't make any sense, because that whole day, the weather had been beautiful and clear, and Sarah, when she heard this sound, she instinctively kind of looked around the corner out one of the windows, and she looked out into the night, and it was still clear and beautiful out.

4:06So this could not be rain. And so Sarah, she turned around, and she looked at her boyfriend and her parents with a sort of quizzical look, being like, do you hear this? Like, what is that sound? And they clearly had heard it too, and were looking back at her like, I don't know. But before they could even start to discuss whatever this was, a woman who they didn't know, who was standing near these elevators as well, began to scream. It would turn out, just a few minutes before this woman began to scream, the cruise ship's chief electrician, 66-year-old Jose Sandoval Opazo, had begun doing routine maintenance on the elevators that were located a few floors below the 10th floor, but still within that same elevator bank that could bring you up to the 10th floor where that restaurant was.

4:48And while Jose was performing this very routine and quick maintenance on the elevator, something strange happened. But to understand why this happened, you need to understand a little bit about Jose and the other electricians on board this cruise ship. So there was oftentimes a lot of very quick and easy maintenance that would need to get done on these elevators, which would involve going into the elevator shaft to do it. But again, these are very short bursts, in and out, you know, very easy to do. All the electricians know how to do it. And the procedure was to actually fully shut down that elevator, like completely, and then go inside and do the maintenance, and then go through the process of starting the elevator all over again.

5:28But that was so disruptive to the flow of traffic on the ship each day, and it was just kind of a hassle. And so Jose and the other electricians had come up with this sort of workaround that didn't require them to shut down the elevator. Because again, that was just a huge pain and they didn't want to do it. And so what they would do is they would wait until the elevator car within the shaft they needed to do maintenance on was at some other level, like on floor two, and they would go into the elevator on like floor eight and then quickly do the maintenance on the inside of the shaft or whatever it is they had to do.

5:58Or sometimes they would actually have to do repairs on the elevator car itself, you know, in which case they would just kind of go in real quick, do the repairs, get out again. But all of it was predicated on just kind of knowing where the elevator car was in the shaft and being really quick, you know, in and out. And so Jose and the other electricians had done this many times and there was no issues. But on this day, Jose, he got into the elevator shaft to make these simple repairs. And so he actually was standing inside of the shaft on top of the elevator car that was down, you know, a few levels down from 10 and he began making these repairs and suddenly the car lurched into action because a guest unknowingly had walked into the elevator car and pressed floor 10.

6:38And so Jose is on this elevator car that starts moving and before he can even figure out what's going on, the little opening that he used, the kind of service entrance into the shaft, had been covered up by the elevator car. And so his exit was now gone and he was now relatively slowly moving up the shaft. Now Jose would have no idea when this car was going to stop but if it went to the top he'd get crushed and he knew it and so in kind of a moment of panic jose attempted to step to the side to like somehow go between the wall and the elevator it was like he had nowhere to go and he knew it and he just took that path but there was like an inch of space between the wall and the car and so the second he did that the car kept going and it sucked him down into that space and just destroyed him And so by the time this elevator car reached its destination, the 10th floor, and that guest got off the elevator car, by this point, Jose's body had been totally destroyed, and all of his blood was dripping down the elevator shaft, splattering into the walls and hitting the ground, and it sounded like rain hitting the outside of the ship.

7:44And so that's what Sarah and her family were hearing, and then the reason that woman started screaming is she was the first one who turned and saw all this blood coming down the front of the elevator doors. Medics would arrive quickly on the scene, but there was nothing they could do. Jose was deceased.

8:07You can predict the Summer Soccer Showcase action all the way to the final match with FanDuel Predicts. All you have to do is sign up to get your$25 bonus. I didn't expect FanDuel Predicts to change how I watch these matches, but it really does. It's easy to use, and once you've made your predictions, you start paying a lot more attention to big moments throughout the tournament. Instead of just, you know, kind of casually checking scores along the way, you find yourself following along the entire time to see how everything plays out, which just makes watching way more fun. Sign up now for your$25 bonus on FanDuel Predicts.

8:43Go to fanduel.com slash predicts to sign up. That's fanduel.com slash predicts to get your$25 bonus. Offered by FanDuel Prediction Markets, LLC, a registered futures commission merchant, 18 +, bonus is non-withdrawable and expires 7 days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with their consumer protection tools. Restrictions apply. See terms at fanduel.com slash predicts slash bonus dash offer dash terms. Summer is a great opportunity for kids to review challenging concepts, strengthen core skills, and head into the start of the school year feeling more prepared.

9:22And this is where IXL can help. A couple of things that I like about IXL is that it's really easy to fit into my kids' busy summer schedules, and the instant feedback helps them understand what they missed instead of just moving on. My kids also like how engaging it is, which makes a big difference because they actually want to use it instead of it feeling like just another assignment. IXL is an award-winning online learning platform that helps kids truly understand what they're learning. IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the U.S., and studies show kids who use IXL score higher on tests proven in all 50 states.

10:00Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now. And Mr. Ballin Podcast's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories listeners can get an exclusive 20 % off IXL membership when they sign up today at IXL.com slash MrBollin. Visit IXL.com slash MrBollin to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Chime is banking built for you, not the 1%. They have thousands of fee-free ATMs, because why pay to get your own money? Plus, with the Chime card, get travel perks like airport lounge access and 5 % cash back on things like gas or groceries. Upgrade to America's number one choice for banking with a Chime checking account.

10:40Chime is not just smarter banking, it's the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free today. Head to Chime.com slash ballin. That is Chime.com slash ballin. It only takes a few minutes to sign up. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services for Chime Card provided by Chime's bank partners. Optional products and services may have fees or charges. Stated cash back for Chime Prime only, no minimum balance required. Checking account ranking based on a J.D. Power survey published October 20, 2025. For more information on travel perks, go to chime.com slash disclosures.

11:18Our next story is called The Gauge.

11:31Around 10 p.m. on September 9, 1975, a 24-year-old man named Roger Baldwin and his co-worker, 29-year-old Peter Holmes, frantically crawled on hands and knees as fast as they could down a hallway towards the door of their apartment. And the reason they were crawling and not standing and walking or running is because this was no ordinary apartment. This apartment was basically like a metal box with a bunch of interconnected metal tubes that was located 200 miles off the coast of Scotland, basically out in the middle of the ocean, and it was also underwater. And the reason for that is it was connected to an offshore oil rig.

12:09And oil rigs often need divers, like deep sea divers, to work on the rig down deep in the water. But if you know anything about underwater diving, especially deep underwater diving, is that it's not as simple as just throwing on some scuba tanks and going down into the water and doing your work and coming back up again. No, if you're working on an oil rig down at depth, like an underwater welder or anybody who does work for a while deep underwater, there's lots of risks associated with going from the surface down deep where there's really intense pressures and you're breathing in different mixed gases that can interact with your body in sort of very terrible ways.

12:44It's dangerous. That's the reality of it. Going down to depth and then coming back up again is a very dangerous process, unless you know what you're doing. It's more efficient for owners of oil rigs to construct these pressurized apartments underwater for their deep sea divers to live in, so that when they go out to the rig, they only have to go down to depth once, live in the apartment, which imagine a cup that you just push down into water. There's like an air pocket, right? You push it deep into the water. They basically would swim up under into this apartment deep underwater, and they live there and dive back out of there, do their work, come back into their apartment, but their bodies never really leave the working depth until the end of their shift, whether it's weeks or months or however long they're out there, and then they only have to decompress one time.

13:30So in essence, you get to work, you go down deep, and you stay there effectively for a long time, and then when you're done working, you go back to the surface. And so that's why that apartment existed, and that's sort of the setup for these two guys. They've been living underwater. But at that moment, Roger and Peter were not thinking about their diving responsibilities. They were rushing down this metal tube hallway that led to their apartment because over the intercom, the folks on the surface, their supervisor, had communicated down to them that there was some sort of leak happening in the hallway.

14:02And so they basically had to rush into their apartment and seal the door behind them before the air basically vanished in the hallway and they suffocated. So they're crawling as fast as they can. They finally get to their apartment door. They open it up. They go inside. They shut it and they seal it. And now they're sitting there with their backs against the door, hoping that the leak was contained to the hallway. And they're looking up into the corner of their small metal room, their main living space where there's bunks. And there's also the entrance down into the water, basically right in front of them.

14:30And there's this camera up in the corner of this room looking down at them and they, you know, they have no way to directly communicate with their supervisor on the surface, but they know their supervisor has access to that camera and he's looking at them on his monitor and his black and white, you know, monitor. And so they're looking up at this camera, hoping that their supervisor is watching them and is doing everything he needs to do to officially contain this leak. Basically, Roger and Peter, they can shut their door, but they can't fully seal it. The full seal comes when somebody on the surface, their supervisor, injects helium into their room, basically adds more pressure to their room, which then sucks the door fully sealed and then they're safe.

15:10And so Roger and Peter, they're listening carefully for the sound of that injection of helium into the room and eventually they hear it and there's some creaking on the door and it sounds very much like their door is fully sealed and now they're safe. And so Roger and Peter, they step away from the door, they sort of look up at the camera and say thank you and they're like, all right, you know, I hope that leak out in the hallway is our only issue here. Now, it's worth pointing out that things like this, as terrifying as that would be, you know, you're deep underwater and over the intercom, they're saying there's a leak, like that would be horrifying, but this is a really dangerous job.

15:42And unfortunately, leaks and other things like that just sort of happened. And so Roger and Peter were kind of accustomed to things like this happening. And they just had to, you know, hope that the folks on the surface would do their best to, you know, mitigate the problems and, you know, keep them safe. At this point, though, Roger and Peter knew that, you know, it didn't seem like there were any other emergencies here. You know, whatever leak was happening in the hallway, that could be dealt with. You know, if they had to, they could actually just leave their apartment with their diving equipment on and make their way back up to the surface.

16:10Like, there were ways for them to get out of here. And they're thinking, okay, you know, our room has been fully sealed off. We heard the helium be injected into the room. The door's shut behind us. Like, we're good. And again, they can't directly communicate to the supervisor. The supervisor's not saying anything over the intercom. And so they think, okay, you know, it's good for us to just take our stuff off and go to bed. And so that's what they do. They take off their diving equipment, and they climb into their beds, and they turn out the lights. At the same time they were climbing into bed, their supervisor up on the surface, a guy named Reed Arnold, who'd been talking to them over the intercom, he was sitting there looking at this big control panel with all these switches and gauges and monitors that controlled their underwater apartment.

16:49And unfortunately for him, you know, even though it did seem like the leak in the hallway was relatively contained, although it still was leaking, he was also now noticing that there was another problem that he wasn't telling Roger and Peter about yet. And that was, apparently, the door to their apartment, despite them closing it clearly and him injecting helium into the room, you know, following all the steps, it appeared like the door somehow did not fully seal, which meant there was a slow leak. And over time, if this wasn't fixed, the pressure would drop so severely in that room that, you know, that could be fatal for Roger and Peter.

17:23Like, this is an emergency, but it's sort of a slow one. And so Reed took a minute and kind of assessed the situation. And, you know, the only thing he could do to try to close this door to fully seal it, let's say, is to inject more helium into Roger and Peter's room. Not enough to harm them, but just enough to further push that door closed. And so he did that. He injected a little bit more helium, and he's watching the gauge of their room, you know, become even more pressurized. But the indicator that showed whether or not the door was sealed continued to show that it was not. And so as Reed is sitting there wondering what he's going to do next, he looked over at the monitor that was the live feed into the room, where he could actually watch Roger and Peter, that camera in the corner of the room.

18:06And he sees the two men are laying in their beds, but then sort of out of nowhere, they both get up, climb off their beds, and they hustle over to the door, the leaky door. and they start trying to open it. But from the feed, as he's looking at it, it seems very apparent that they can't get the door to open. It's like it's stuck. And Reed's thinking to himself, that doesn't make any sense. I have this indication light that says the door isn't sealed. So even if it was a challenge to open the door, it's not pressure sealed. They should be able to open it. So what is going on here? And so Reed, like he's beginning to panic a little bit because he just doesn't understand what's happening here.

18:41And as he's watching Roger and Peter, they go from frantically trying to open this door to almost in unison, stopping, turning around, walking over to their bunks, and then grabbing their mattresses, taking them off, and then Roger and Peter climbed on to their metal bed springs and began rolling around on the metal. Now, it's worth pointing out that there are some diving-related injuries, like from being at depth for too long or, you know, hypercapnia where you have too much CO2 in your system. There's a whole bunch of things that can basically mess with your mind. And so Reed's thinking, oh my goodness, something's happened that's given these guys some sort of diving related injury.

19:19Like they're acting crazy. This must be a product of something wrong. They're breathing the wrong mixture of gas. Maybe there's too much helium. Maybe there's too much CO2. Like I don't know what's going on, but there is an issue here that's messing with their brains. Like that's the only explanation for why they could be doing something so bizarre. And so at this point, Reed decides all he can do is just continue to put more helium into that room to try to seal that door. You know, maybe there's some sort of toxic gas that's getting into their space that's causing them to hallucinate or go crazy or who knows what.

19:50And so he's just firing off this button, adding more and more helium into the room. And after doing this for several minutes and still watching on the monitor as Roger and Peter continue to do this weird writhing around on their bed frames, That was around the time that Reed really focused on his controls, like, am I missing something? Is there some other indication on here that gives away what's going on here? And that's when he realized he had made a terrible mistake. It would turn out Reed had misread the control panel. There really had been a leak in the hallway, and he was right to tell Peter and Roger to rush into their apartment.

20:25But once they were inside the apartment and they shut the door and then Reed injected helium into their room, he actually did seal that room off. There was no issue in their apartment. They were totally safe. There was no problem. He was just misreading the control panel. He thought when he saw this additional indication that, you know, the apartment door had not sealed, that that was indicative of a leak in their apartment. But no, the controls were really trying to tell him that, hey, there's still a leak in the hallway right outside of their apartment. And so basically what Reed ended up doing by injecting more and more helium into the apartment where Roger and Peter were is he was creating a deadly pressure chamber.

21:05And the reason the men began acting the way they were is because the room was getting hotter and hotter and hotter from all this pressure. They could feel it, you know, building inside of the space. And so they didn't know what was going on. They tried to get out, but they couldn't open the door because it was pressure sealed. and then they took their mattresses off their bed and began rolling around on the metal to try to cool down. But it was so intensely hot and it was so pressurized that you can imagine the chaos and panic these two men felt. Like, yeah, maybe theoretically they could have thrown on all their equipment and dove out of there, but you've got to remember this is happening abruptly and they're basically boiling alive.

21:42And so it's like full-blown fight-or-flight mode and these men are just trying to cool down. They can't. And so every time Reed injected more and more helium into that room, he was raising the pressure and therefore the temperature in that small space. And eventually, he boiled Roger and Peter alive. In the end, the supervisor, Reed, did not actually face any criminal charges because, one, it was a genuine mistake. But two, the mistake was one that many people would have made. There was basically an issue with this control board that sort of presented problems in a sort of ambiguous way. And so it really wasn't read being negligent, it was just a flaw in the control panel.

22:25Everybody learns a language for different reasons. Maybe you just want to watch K-dramas without subtitles, or you want to talk with family members but in their native language. Your life is unique, so your language learning should be too. I remember trying to learn a new language before a trip, and most of the systems that I tried felt pretty generic. But with Rosetta Stone, it was completely different. It adjusted to how I was learning, so it felt more like I was actually preparing to use this language, not just, you know, learning how to regurgitate it. Rosetta Stone Sapphire is designed for personalized learning, helping you go beyond generic lessons and focus on the topics that matter most to you.

23:01If you want to take your language skills to the next level, don't wait to try Rosetta Stone Sapphire. Mr. Ball and podcast listeners can get 20 % off their Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription when they sign up today. You'll get unlimited access to all 25 Rosetta Stone languages, plus all the new Sapphire learning tools. Visit rosettastone.com slash mrballin to redeem your 20 % off. Again, go to rosettastone.com slash mrballin and start learning a language for real. We all have our own time-saving hacks for everyday life, and I'm always looking for little ways to save time. Whether it's just ordering things online instead of making another trip to the store, or taking care of a few small tasks while I'm already waiting on something else.

23:41Those little time savers add up pretty quickly. But if you're a business owner, how can you save time hiring? ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter has a new feature that quickly lets you see the most interested, qualified candidates first, so you save time by meeting the right people faster. And right now, you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash ballin. Their powerful matching technology finds qualified candidates quickly, and these candidates can tell you in their own words why they're interested in your job. No wonder ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site based on G2. Save time and meet great candidates sooner with ZipRecruiter.