Warnings (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

0:00Today, I'm going to tell you four stories about people who thought they had a handle on the situation they were in, but they would find out way too late that they'd completely misjudge things. 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, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So, if that's of interest to you, please tell the follow button that you have a really, really important secret to share with them. And then lean in really close to their ear, and at the last second, just turn and sneeze directly on their face.

0:37Okay, let's get into our first story, called The Porch Problem.

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1:35That was so fun. But I did win the best gig ever. Hosting the Dancing with the Stars official podcast. Get ready for all the inside scoop from the cast. All right, well, let's get to work. Behind-the-scenes secrets and more from every episode. That was smoldering. It's gonna be iconic. All my dreams are coming true. Dancing with the Stars official podcast. New episodes every Thursday on Disney Plus and Hulu and wherever you get your podcasts. One afternoon in August of 2012, a woman named Carlotta Robinson sat behind her desk at her condo complex's main office in Dallas, Texas. And as she was sitting there, she was listening to an elderly tenant who was seated across from her rant about his upstairs neighbors.

2:17Carlotta was the property manager and president of the homeowners association for this complex, which was called Sable Ridge, and she actually also lived in this complex herself. So basically every hour of her day was spent wrapped up in the various issues and projects that came up here. And today, that involved resolving a dispute between two neighbors. The man in front of her was a 75-year-old condo owner named Chung Kim. He lived in a ground floor unit, and he felt like the couple that lived right above him were ruining his life. They had five kids and a dog, so it was incredibly noisy all the time, but the worst part was the dog upstairs would go to the bathroom on their porch, and then the couple would hose it off so all the waste would run down onto Chung's porch.

3:02Now, Chung said he'd already told them repeatedly to stop, but since they hadn't, he was now here asking the HOA to do something about it. So Carlotta knew that Chung had a habit of fighting with basically all of his neighbors, so she took what he was saying with a grain of salt. But Chung and his wife had owned their condo at Sable Ridge for more than six years, while this upstairs couple that they were so upset about, they had just moved in last year, and they were also renting. And so in terms of the hierarchy of sort of importance to Sable Ridge and tenure, Chung was higher on that list. And, you know, if what Chung was saying was true, then what the couple was doing was totally unhygienic and did need to stop.

3:45So Carlotta told Chung she would speak to the couple and inform the HOA, and she was sure they could all figure this out. However, the issue did not get resolved at all, even though Carlotta and the HOA both tried to mediate it. Over the next few months, the disagreement between Chung and his neighbors only escalated, with both sides constantly lobbing complaints with the HOA about one another. It was like this ongoing drama that just had no end in sight. According to Chung, his neighbors upstairs had continued to be noisy and continued to wash their dog's waist onto his porch, and he'd even contacted the police and the health department about it, and still nothing had been done.

4:27But the couple upstairs, I mean, they had complaints of their own. They said Chung was harassing them, and he kept cutting some of their condo's cable wires to mess with them, or at least they were pretty sure it was him doing that. And Carlotta, I mean, she kept trying to help. She talked to both sides, and she emailed Sable Ridge's board of directors and its management company repeatedly, not just once, but all the time, you know, trying to figure out what to do here, asking for help on how to resolve this thing. And there was a lot of back and forth, but no one could actually figure out any real solution.

5:04And the neighbors, Chung and the upstairs neighbors, they just kept going at it. Until finally, when Carlotta was just at her wits end with this whole thing, she actually reached out to the owner of the upstairs unit that the couple was renting from. So Sable Ridge managed the property. This is the actual owner of that unit that the couple was renting from. She asked the owner, would you please just evict this couple because it's just causing all these issues here? And the owner said, sure, I will. Fast forward to February 4th, 2013. This is now about six months after the initial complaints began between Chung and the upstairs neighbors.

5:42And at about 8 a.m. on this day, Carlotta, she's bedraggled. She walks back inside of her apartment. She shuts the door behind her and just collapses on the couch. She's already just so wiped, already so annoyed about how the day is going. Because today, that morning, she was already dealing with more complaints from the upstairs neighbor about Chung. So the upstairs neighbors, that couple, they had been told they were being evicted, but they had not actually been evicted yet. It had been six months now, and they're still just here, and the drama's still unfolding between Chung and the neighbors.

6:18It was just still going the same way it had been. But Carlotta knew that today, finally, like within the hour, hopefully, this couple was finally actually going to leave. And this whole thing was just going to finally be done. And so she's sitting on the couch and she's just over it when she hears somebody suddenly start pounding on her door. It startles her. She jumps up. She runs to the door. She opens it up. It's not Chung. It's not the upstairs couple. It's this other resident of the Sable Ridge apartment complex. And he's ashen-faced. He looks completely terrified. And he begins to tell Carlotta this story of what's just happened, something he just saw, something he just witnessed, and he can't even believe it.

7:05And after Carlotta hears this, like, her heart's racing. She's just as scared. And she runs, grabs the phone, and calls the police. It would turn out basically everybody knew this couple was about to be evicted from the time they were notified six months earlier all the way to now. It was like all the people in the know were well aware this was happening. You know, Sable Ridge, Carlotta, the couple, lots of people inside of the actual complex. This was sort of a known thing. It was just working its way towards the day they finally actually left. Everybody knew. Except for one person. Chung. Chung somehow Mao had no idea that this couple was leaving today.

7:47He had no idea. His family had no idea. They felt like still nobody's doing anything. And so on the day that that couple was literally going to leave and be out of Chung's life forever, Chung, again, not knowing that, got so fed up when he saw the dog waste being sprayed down onto his porch that he marched right upstairs, barged into their apartment, and murdered the couple. And so ultimately, Chung was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for capital murder. Murders that very likely never would have occurred if somebody had just thought to tell Chung, hey, by the way, your mortal enemies upstairs are leaving today.

8:29But nobody did that. And so we have this tragedy.

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9:19They taste great and the individual packs are super convenient. They're easy to grab whether I'm at home, traveling, or just heading out for the day. Generic multivitamins only contain around 7 to 9 vitamins, while Gruens have more than 20 vitamins and minerals and 60 ingredients, which include nutrient-dense and whole foods. Save up to 61 % with free gifts with code MRBALLIN at GRUENS.CO. That's G-R-U-N-S dot C-O. This is a paid ad by BetterHelp. If I could wake up tomorrow morning and be better at one thing, it would be being more present in my personal life. I'm always thinking about the next story or something that needs to get done for it.

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10:39See for yourself. Find a therapist who gets you and is in your corner. Sign up and get 10 % off at betterhelp.com slash mrballandpod. That's betterhelp.com slash mrballandpod. A good detective connects the dots, and so does a good healthcare advocate. And at Solace Health, an advocate connects the dots between your providers, so nothing falls through the cracks. Did you know that research shows patients spend an average of eight hours a month coordinating their own care? Time spent on hold, tracking down records, and chasing test results. In eight hours, I could do a ton of storytelling research.

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11:50Must be 18 years or older. Our next story is called Rise, Stephen Rise.

12:02Around noon on December 8, 1976, a 59-year-old man named Orik Bovar stepped into the elevator of a luxury apartment building in New York City. He was carrying a bag of groceries and Once he was in the car, he turned and pressed the button for the 17th floor. So Oric was here visiting his friend, Stephen, who lived in this building. Stephen had been living with terminal cancer since the summer, and recently his doctors had told him that there was nothing left to do, and they had discharged him from the hospital. But Stephen was from Greece, and he didn't have any family around to take care of him, and so Oric had ultimately stepped up.

12:37Oric was the leader of this non-denominational prayer group that Stephen also belonged to, which was how they had met in the first place. And when Orik had heard Stephen was sick, he'd organized a group of their members to come by every day and help Stephen out. They spent time with Stephen, and they prayed for him, and even pulled money to pay his bills since he couldn't work anymore. And they made sure the apartment was always stocked with food, which was why Orik had brought this bag of groceries today. Orik was really proud of all the people that had volunteered to help with him. He was just sort of amazed to see what his community was capable of.

13:11And so now, the elevator door opened up, and Oric got out, and he walked down the hallway to Stephen's studio apartment. As soon as Oric opened the door, he immediately was hit with this wave of incense, and then he saw five of his friends from the prayer group that were gathered at Stephen's bedside in the corner of the apartment saying a prayer. Oric set the bag of groceries down on the counter, and then walked over to join them. Now, because Oric and these others that had, you know, come together to rally around Stephen all really believed in the power of prayer, they thought their prayers would literally cure Stephen.

13:47They were not here just to comfort him. They were here to make him get better. However, when Oryk walked over to the group and looked over at one of his friends, a guy named James, he saw that James just looked totally demoralized. And then a second later, James broke down and began saying that this whole thing just felt pointless. Stephen seemed to just be getting worse, and it just seemed sort of obvious that their prayers were not working. And Oryx suddenly felt this knot in his stomach, because honestly, he sometimes had doubts too about the ability of their prayers to do anything. But he was the group leader, and everybody looked to him for guidance, so he had to put on a brave face and keep on going.

14:24So his response was to kneel down and clasp his hands together and pray even louder. And one by one, James and the rest of the group all joined in, and they chanted a prayer in unison as loudly and forcefully as they could. An hour later, Ork and his friends were all still praying really loudly when there was a knock on the door. Ork told the others to keep praying, and he got up to go answer it. When he opened the door, it was a police officer, and the officer said they'd gotten multiple calls about a disturbance in this apartment. And Ork quickly apologized and explained that they were praying for a sick friend, and he didn't realize the noise had been bothering the neighbors.

15:04He said they were being loud, but, you know, they'd stop. The officer nodded and said, well, can I just come in and have a look around? And Oric said, yeah, of course, and then moved aside till it let him in. And so the officer steps inside the apartment and he sniffed the air and then looked over at Stephen's bed and he froze. And Oric is watching the officer. He's seeing the reaction to his friends and Stephen in the bed. And Oric was about to say something, but before Oric could explain the situation, the officer grabbed his radio and called for backup. It would turn out the non-denominational prayer group that Stephen and Oric and their friends all belonged to was not just a casual get-together.

15:46It was a small but very devoted circle of members who literally worshipped Oric as their supreme leader. Oric and his followers believed that Oric had supernatural healing powers. And so when Stephen had first been diagnosed with terminal cancer, he'd come to Oric for help. And so Oric and his followers had prayed over Stephen every day as he lay there in his apartment, and they continued to do this even after Stephen died. And then for the next two months, Stephen's corpse slowly rotted, but Oric continued to insist that he could still heal him if they just prayed harder and louder. And so when the officer walked into Stephen's apartment, he found Oryx's followers frantically chanting at Stephen's rotting, decomposing body.

16:33And they kept saying, rise, Stephen, rise. And so Oryx and the other five people involved in this cult, if you will, that were praying over this dead body, were all cited for failing to report a death. After this happened, many of Oryx's followers abandoned him, and this prayer group, this cult, if you will, sort of dissipated. And Oric presumably didn't take it very well, because just a few months later, Oric leapt out the window of his 10th floor apartment and died.

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18:11Our next story is called 18 Feet Away.

18:20Around 5 p.m. on February 9, 1920, a 46-year-old gold miner named Albert Anton walked down a muddy road in the small village of Edgewood, Illinois. It was pouring rain outside, so the rest of his mining crew had all taken the day off. But Albert, he had a shovel in his hand, and he was ready to work, even if he had to do it alone. So Albert was part of a small mining crew from a nearby town, and they'd been in Edgewood for weeks digging for gold in the caves outside the village. The leader of their group had heard there was gold in one of these caves, which they hadn't found yet. But he'd been doing this job a whole lot longer than Albert, who was actually kind of new to mining, so Albert, like the others, had believed him.

19:02But again, so far, they had not found anything. And the men were all starting to worry that maybe they were working on bad information and there was no gold here after all. And if that were true, Albert was really in trouble. If his crew didn't find gold, he didn't get paid, and he'd have to go home to his wife and six kids empty-handed. And since Albert was his family's only source of income, I mean, if he didn't come home with anything, I mean, there was a chance that his family would literally starve. So this is like borderline life or death situation here. So instead of just sitting around waiting for the rain to pass like the rest of the mining crew, Albert had spent all day in town asking around for any information that might help him figure out if there really was gold here or not.

19:52And after a while, he'd started to worry that this was in fact a lost cause. It seemed like no one knew anything about gold. But finally, at a certain point, he'd gotten a credible tip from an unlikely source that there actually was gold here. And it was buried in a spot where Albert's crew hadn't looked yet. It was just 18 feet away from where they had been digging this whole time. And so Albert had told his crew about this tip, but they hadn't believed him. And they had even told him not to go out and look for it, especially in this terrible weather. But Albert had ignored them. He'd laced up his boots, and he'd grabbed his equipment, and he had set out into the rain to go look for this gold.

20:32And in some ways, it was actually better for him if nobody else wanted to come along, because if he did find this gold and he was alone, he could take it all for himself. And so half an hour later, Albert stepped into the cave where the crew had been digging the last few days, and he turned on his headlamp, and he followed the footprints in the dirt deep into the cave like he had done so many times before until he came to a hole that his crew had recently dug. This was sort of their main digging area. And then from there, again, because of this tip, he slowly began walking away from the hole deeper into the cave.

21:07And as he did, he was counting his steps very carefully to get 18 feet away, because that's where the tip had told him to go. And so he walked, and when he got to the right spot, he stopped. And he's like, okay, this is it. This is the right spot here. And if the information was correct, the gold had to be around here somewhere. At that point, he raised up his shovel, and he struck it into the ground. And he began digging into the dirt again and again and again until he heard this loud crack, because his shovel clearly had hit something hard. And Albert's heart immediately began to race. He knew that sound could be a rock, but it also could be the gold that apparently was right here.

21:45And so Albert continued to dig and dig, and he's hearing crack after crack after crack. Then at some point, he must have realized those cracking noises were not really coming from where he was digging. They were coming from right above him. So the reason why nobody else in Albert's mining crew was excited about this tip was because the unlikely source he'd gotten it from was a Ouija board. So Ouija boards are board games that can supposedly contact the dead. And even though they were originally marketed as just novelty items that were really just for fun, there were a lot of people at the time, like Albert, who believed they could actually communicate with dead spirits through the Ouija board.

22:26So, Albert, in his desperate state, had asked the board, where could he find gold? And he believed the board had spit out an answer. Go 18 feet away from where you've been digging. I don't know how he came up with that on the Ouija board, but that's what he got out of his interaction with this board. And so, Albert, he thinks he's got this amazing tip. He tells the crew. They're like, no, we're not doing that, especially in this weather. This is a bad idea. But Albert said, I'm going alone. Now, we have no idea if where Albert ultimately went to go look for gold, you know, 18 feet away from the original dig site.

23:02We don't know if there actually was gold there or not. But what we do know is that because of this tip he got, which sent him 18 feet deeper into the cave, that put him in an area that was really hazardous, except Albert didn't know. It would turn out that that particular section of the cave, the ceiling was not stable. It was very soft. and because of all the rain outside, it was getting even softer by the second. And as Albert's digging into the ground right beneath it, this is a tight space, right? He's shaking the earth and he's maybe bumping into the ceiling and wouldn't you know it, eventually those cracking noises, that was the sound of the ceiling collapsing and eventually it just completely collapsed, buried Albert and he died.

23:47So if Albert had just listened to his experienced colleagues instead of listening to a Ouija board, He very likely would have ultimately found gold eventually, because apparently his crew of miners did go on to find gold there. And then he could have gone home, provided for his family, and lived.