Episode 78

Hate waiting a week for the next episode of Radio Rental? Subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus to get early access to episodes, ad-free listening, and bonus scary stories. 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, horror 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. Um, hello? Hi. Hi. Welcome to Radio Rental. Um. Which I guess is actually a video rental shop. There's an exclusive collection of tapes with true stories all told by real people. Sorry. This is probably really jarring for you. Clearly, I'm not Terrence. Uh, my name is Ed. Ed Gary. Hi. It's nice to meet you. Sorry. I hope I'm doing this right. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. I got. I got this strange voicemail, actually, totally out of the blue. Um, well, maybe it's b. I'm just gonna play it for you. Hey, pal. How's it going? It's very good friend, Terry Carnation, from work from like 31 years ago. You remember me, don't you? I worked a few cubicles down from you. Back then, I wasn't going by Terry. I was going by Terrence. Do you remember? Of course you do. We had such. We had such great fun, big fun. All the laughs about all those very specific jokes that we used to laugh about. All the passionate discussions about all the local sports teams in whatever area that was in. Remember that one joke we always loved? Oh, that one always gets me. Anywho, I need a little favor. Now, when I tell you. That I was surprised to get this voicemail, I mean, I haven't seen Terry since the day he packed up his cubicle and was escorted out by security. And honestly, I'm just so honored to get this voicemail. You know what I mean? I didn't know that I made such an impression on him. He always called me the wrong name at work, to be clear, and oh, maybe that's the joke that he's referencing. Right? Oh, I never got it until now. Maybe we were actually really close friends. Awesome. Anyway, Terrence, uh, Terry, he was just the coolest guy at the office. Everybody loved him. He had the best stories, he had great hair. Anyway, he's a super busy guy. So. I'm just happy to know that he's actually been thinking about me all these years. And, and clearly, he deeply trusts me. Anyway, Terry left some instructions on, on how to run the store for a little bit. So let me just see right here, pretty comprehensive, Terrence, always a comprehensive guy. Then I think someone else is going to take over after me. Oh, hi. Whoa, I guess Terry left his cat too. Hi. Hi, kitty. You know, I'm going to be honest, I'm not much of a cat guy myself, but a friend of Terry's is a friend of mine. Hi. Kitty, kitty. Be good, kitty. Okay. Um, well, uh, I'm going to go get some food. a cat guy myself but a friend of terry's is a friend of mine hi kitty kitty be good kitty okay um well all right reading through the instructions i guess i just need to play you a couple of these tapes cool i love movies so just not just not anything scary or or anything dark you know as long as they're not scary or dark then i am great because i love movies okay um I guess this is the box here, and I am supposed to play you this one. Simple. Enjoy your radio rental. This happened in 2005. just finishing up high school, about to go to college. I had a girlfriend at the time. Routinely, we would fight quite a bit. This specific night, I ended up going to a party with my girlfriend. We sort of got into it again, just like a little spat, and I wasn't really feeling it. I just said, you know, that's enough, enough. So I decided to just go home. I wasn't drinking, smoking, none of that stuff, and I immediately turned around and said, "You know what, I'm just gonna go home." So it's like pretty early in the night, probably like 10 o'clock at night. I make my way home. I go to my parents' house. The way my parents' house is set up, the garage opens up and then the driveway, and then it's like an intersecting street, and on the other side of the street is my neighbor's house, and my whole life I knew who lived in that house. It was Miss Hawkins, some new family had moved into that house. I'm in the garage, I'm smoking a cigarette, kind of bummed out about the situation with my girlfriend that just happened. I just look across the way. You can see on the back of this house, there's this massive window and you can see like a light on in the background through that window. and i look over and i can see the silhouette of a human being not a man not a woman just a shadow of a human being the shadow is like bouncing around erratically from side to side in this window super radically that it's almost like drawing attention to itself and i know who lives in that house at this time miss butler and her two children live in that house i'm thinking like what the heck is going on kind of stare at it for a little bit and then i sort of walk to the edge of my driveway and it's still doing this erratic movement behavior quick ducking and weaving back and forth back and forth i just started kind of going yo hey trying to get his attention i do this a couple times and then all of a sudden the figure just stopped dead in the center of that window just stopped and stared at me and i say stare but like there was no eyes i honestly would be able to tell you if that was the back of someone or if it was the front of somebody it doesn't move again it just stops so still it's almost like kind of off-putting how it just stayed there and I kind of back up into the garage I put my cigarette out and I closed the garage door and then I just started walking back into my parents house and I kind of look over to my left one more time and it's still there just staring at me and then I go inside I go to bed the next morning I wake up I tell my mom basically what I saw last night in the garage and she didn't really think anything of it and then a week goes by and she's at the grocery store and she talks to Miss Butler and she tells Miss Butler oh Ryan was out last friday night and basically saw this like weird shadow figure in the house and miss butler proceeds to tell my mother that they weren't home that night they were at her mother's her and the kids and then she goes on to tell my mother that her and the kids are moving out of that house because whatever room the kids are in the twins the doors are slamming shut the lights are turning on and off, and the kids were speaking to something that wasn't there. They're moving out because of the things that are happening with the children on such a frequent basis that she can't handle it anymore. She said that's why she's not in the house on that Friday night. She said they spend more time at her mom's house than they do in that own house. She's so uncomfortable being in that house by herself with just the kids. They got to split. Two years later, I'm living in St. John's, Newfoundland, and I'm going to college out there. I've sort of forgot about this. This has just become like some kind of story I tell at like a campfire. I'm in the Avalon Mall with my friend Robert, and we're walking through the mall, and all of a sudden I see Miss Butler in this jewelry store. I run up to her, and I'm like, Miss Butler. And she gives me a hug, and she's like, Hey, how's it going, Ryan? How you been? And I'm like, Oh, I'm great. I'm good. And I'm like, We have to talk. And she's like, We have to talk about what? I'm like, We have to talk about what I saw in your house that night. And she just kind of steps back, and she goes like white in the face. She didn't expect me to say that, and that was the only thing I wanted to talk about. She said, Ryan, I don't speak about that house ever to anyone. And I told her, I said, I know, but I need to know. I need to know what I saw that night. She said, Ryan, I don't talk about that house, I'm sorry. I can't talk about that house. I don't talk about that house at all anymore. And I'm like, Miss Butler, I need to know what I saw in that house that night. And she gets visibly upset and runs out of the mall and runs away from me. And I've never seen her since. I have no idea what I saw that night in the window. And the scariest part of the whole thing was her reaction. Physically running away from me in the mall was bonkers. It was such a traumatic experience for her and those kids in that house that she could not speak to me about what went on in that house. It made me terrified. I go home now. If the sun is down, I don't look at that window. I just walk straight into my parents' house. I won't dare look left into that kitchen window ever again. I always think I'm just going to see that shadow again. Terry, Terry, Terry, Terry, you are a joker. You remembered that I hate anything remotely scary, and then you snuck that one in there as a good old prank. Good one there, buddy. Thank you. That was. I thought that was going to be like a coming-of-age story at first or something like that. Like a sweet girl-next-door love story. Yeah, it says here that we need to take a break for the ads. I don't really know what that means, but let's do that. Let's do the ads thing, guys. I could use a break. Could you? Hopefully we have a different kind of tape when we get back. So, yeah, then we'll be back after the ads here with a totally different kind of tape. Sorry about that. Roll the. Roll the ads. We're back from the ads. That was fun. Okay. So, let's see here. This is the next tape. Here, supposedly. Let's hope this one is a little different. Am I right? Come on, Terry. Give us something fun. Raunchy comedy, maybe. Yeah, I'd like for it to be a raunchy comedy. Let's roll the raunchy comedy. Please. My husband and I had been married about three years. We had moved back to West Virginia from Tennessee. It was me, my husband, and our one-year-old daughter, and I was about seven months pregnant with my son. We were laying in bed, playing a video game one night. We had no air conditioning in the house, so we had our window open with a box fan in it. We heard some arguing going on outside, so my husband went to check on it. He said, "It's probably just some drunk people. Why don't you call 911, and we'll get them out of here, so that way they won't come further into our yard." I called, and the operator said that they would send someone out, and the officer would come talk to them. I called, and the operator said that they would send someone out, and the officer would come talk to them. talked to us after they had gotten the people out of our yard. We laid there for a little while longer and we didn't hear anything anymore. We never heard anything from the police so we just kind of moved on with our night. A few moments later my husband starts hearing the neighbor's dog bark and he's not one to bark at a lot of things. He's used to people and larger animals and things like that but this bark sounded different so my husband went out back to check to see what was going on. He heard the dog barking in a way that just wasn't normal for him. He sounded almost scared. He was looking behind one of our buildings in the backyard and he was jumping backwards while he was barking at them. My husband was like okay it must be like a really large animal. Maybe like a bear or something or it could be one of the drunk people has wandered up into our yard. So he came back in and he asked me to call 911 again and they said well we've already sent someone out there so we're not going to send anyone again. There's probably nothing out there so we just kind of left it alone. My husband went back out to double check that there was no one messing around in our buildings and he said, we saw a figure run from behind one building on one side of our yard to behind another building on the other side of our yard. And he thought to himself that looks human. Looked too big to be an animal but he thought maybe it might be too small to be a person. Maybe we should call the police again. About that time he heard this growl. growl. It didn't sound human, it didn't sound like any animal that we'd ever heard of before. He came back inside. He said it doesn't sound human and it doesn't sound like an animal. And I said so you mean it sounds demonic? And he said that's it. He grabbed his gun. He was like I don't know what's in our yard but I need you to go ahead and call 9-1-1 again because it could be a person or it could be a bear and we're gonna need some help. Someone or something is in our yard. I'm not really sure what it is. I call 9-1-1 and I walk into the kitchen where the back door was with him. He's got the gun in his hand and he's looking and he sees this figure walking toward us. Toward our back door slowly and creepy with his head cocked to the side. My husband thought that that meant the person had a gun and was aiming it at him. So he just kind of stood there for a minute and was watching. At this point we could tell that it was definitely human and it was just walking very slowly toward us. My husband was watching it while I was on the phone arguing with 9-1-1. As the figure got closer he said they don't have a gun and then he just went quiet. He was just staring at this figure. The 9-1-1 operator is like we've already sent someone out there. We're not going to send someone again. You got to stop calling us. And I hang up. I'm talking to my husband. I'm like close the door. Move away from there. If they're coming up this way you've got time to close the door. And he was like hypnotized almost. He was unresponsive to me. So I ran over to him and I grabbed him and pulled him away. And I slammed the door shut and locked it right as this person was reaching up to grab the door. We could make out that it was human-like and female. But it was so dark that it just looked like a black figure. But we could tell that it was female because of the long hair and like the outline. The way she's growling she might be able to knock that door down. What should we do if that happens? My husband has the gun pointed at the door. the whole time. She's growling, she's scratching, she's shaking the door trying to get in. I was freaking out and shaking. We walked back into the living room where my daughter was sleeping and we're talking about what needs to be done. She's scratching at the door and she's growling. 911 has told me that they're not going to send anyone else. I walk over to check on my daughter. I put my hand on her to make sure she's okay and sleeping well. The growling had stopped. Everything fell silent. So we're just standing there waiting for the next thing to happen. And I look up and straight ahead of me I can look out that open window in our bedroom and I see this figure walking back and forth. It starts growling and then it starts clawing and scratching at the screen. While it's growling at me, we both just stand there watching. I'm panicking. I need to figure out a way to grab my baby, run upstairs or out the door or something in case this thing can get into our house. I turn to my husband and I say, "Hun, you have to call that officer that you did the ride-along with last month." So he calls this person. He's in the northern part of the state. He's like, "I will be there as soon as I can." At this point, this figure had moved away from our bedroom window around our house to our front door where she was still scratching and growling and trying to beat the door down. We're standing there. We're listening to this. I'm prepared to run with my baby if necessary. And it all gets silent. You could hear a pin drop. There was no noise at all. Did she leave? What happened? And we look at each other and then we see the police lights pull up into the driveway. The officer that my husband had called went to the girl who was on our front porch who had been clawing and growling. And his partner came inside to talk to us. And he's like, "When we pulled up, she was passed out on your porch." We had concrete stairs going up to the porch and her head was on the top stair and her body was on the porch. She had just passed out. It was like mid-claw. She just fell. It took a while for them to get her to come to. They had to, like, rub her sternum. They talked to her and she said that she had no idea where she was. She thought that she was three towns over and she was trying to get into her own house. The other officer gets her in the back of the car. They come and tell us she must have been high on bath salts. So we're going to take her to the hospital, let the high wear off of her. And then they would take her back home. Have a good night. We, however, think that she was demon-possessed. That growl was just so not human, not animalistic in any way. I felt like we were in a horror movie. She was absolutely possessed as far as we are concerned. Are you kidding me, Terry? Hell no! No, that was even more unsettling than the first tape. Don't, don't, don't do that, kitty. Just don't, don't make that sound right now. It's, you know, am I crazy or is this cat doing that on purpose? Is this even his cat? Where, whose cat is this? Alright, let's, um, let's take another break for the ads. The ads is fun. I've, I've, I've had just about enough. Hey, hey guys, uh, we're back from the ads. Sorry, as you can see, I'm just packing up here because, um, because I got an urgent call. My sister is having a baby right now. I was just called to help her with the birth and, and that's really important. So I, I, I gotta go. Deliver a baby? So what can you do? Anyway, sorry to do this to you and to Terry to leave so suddenly. I, I really like Terry and all, but I, I also really don't know the guy. And now that I think about it, his stories at work were really off-putting and he was really selfish when it came to the communal office snacks. That really, really bothered me. Anyway, I'm gonna head out early. I'm gonna text Terry. I'll let him know. I'll let him know the whole baby thing and, and me delivering. And so just, if you follow these instructions right there on the clipboard, you could lock up, right? You know your way around, I'm sure. And, um, yeah, I'm sure someone else will be here next week. Don't know who, don't care. Yeah. So see you around. This is Radio Rental and yeah, bye forever. 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 as his character, Terry Carnation. Written by Meredith Stedman. Additional writing by Mark Laughlin. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set with additional score by Jay Ragsdale. Editing by Eric Quintana. Steven Perez, Meredith Stedman, Tristan Bankston, and Sean Nerney. Sound design, mix and master by Steven Perez and Cooper Skinner. Additional editing by April Ruha and Dayton Cole. Our production manager is Jordan Foxworthy. Our social media manager is Caroline Orajema. 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 Oren 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 [email protected]. Or contact us via the form on our website, radiorentalusa.com. Follow us on Instagram @radiorental. On behalf of the Radio Rental store, we'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate, and review. As always, thanks for listening.