Lethal Leisure (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Today we have three stories about people who found a really amazing pastime that they thought had changed their lives for the better, but they would come to realize that this new pastime actually changed their lives for the worse. 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 offer to put new windshield wipers in the follow buttons car. But actually just use motor oil. Our first story is called The Gamer. One night in November of 2009, a man named Mikhail looked down a sniper scope at this dusty street that was running in front of a tan brick building. Through the scope, he saw a man who was wearing black tactical gear come out from around the corner. Immediately Mikhail trained his sights on this man and he pulled the trigger. Immediately when the round impacted, there was a spray of red pixels and a chime, like an audible chime that sounded to tell Mikhail that he had just scored a kill. So Mikhail was not a real soldier out in the middle of a real battle. He was a gamer, so he was a virtual soldier. And right now in real life, he was sitting at his computer at home in the city of Combrae France playing a video game called Counter Strike, like he did virtually every single day. So Mikhail loved this game, Counter Strike, because it was like his escape from the real world, which in the real world, you know, he basically had all sorts of stressful things going on all the time, like bills and work and family conflicts. But whenever Mikhail booted up this game, it's like those problems disappeared and he vanished into this virtual world. So Counter Strike, which even today is still like this unbelievably famous game, I mean millions and millions of people play this game all the time, it's very popular. It is an online military game where two teams of live players from all around the world, they face off against each other for these short rounds where they just basically try to kill each other or carry out various missions, but it's like a real-time first-person shooter with random people across the world. And so Mikhail, after coming home from work, something again, he sort of hated, he would immediately boot up this game, he would match up with whatever group of strangers, you know, around the world that he was going to play with, and they would automatically get grouped into teams. And then Mikhail would spend hours and hours playing well into the night just playing with these strangers. And they'd, you know, new people would come on, people would drop off, but there was a steady stream of people, again, all strangers, that Mikhail would be interacting with because he had his headset on and, you know, there was some camaraderie there, you know, whether it was, he was talking to people on his team to, you know, hey, take cover or I got the shot over here, or if it was like talking trash to the people on the other side, like the interaction on the headset was like a big part of this experience, you know, for a minute, it was not just that he was, you know, looking down his digital scope and taking shots where appropriate, it was like for a moment in time, Mikhail really was, like, immersed in this digital world, like he had a whole community of people that were right there with him. And so now, on the screen, Mikhail controlled his character as the, the soldier, the digital soldier ran through the map, taken out one enemy after another, like he's, he's on this massive kill streak, like better than usual, he's having a great run. And at some point, after basically wiping out the whole other team and like in his, in his headset, he can hear the people that were on his team that have died, but they're, they're still chiming in. They're like, yeah, you're doing great man, keep it up, like when this for us, he realizes there's one more adversary left on the other side of the map. And so Mikhail, you know, he channeled all of the skills he had, he had learned from playing this game for so long and he maneuvered through the map and he could see the other guy was like trying to, you know, outflank him, but at a certain point, Mikhail, he got the jump on this last lone enemy. And Mikhail actually didn't have any ammo left, he had used it all to, to build up this huge kill streak, basically when you die, it resets your ammo and he hadn't died yet. And so he's out of ammo, he's got this one guy left, but he's got his knife. And so Mikhail, he positions himself just right and he leaps around the corner, he surprises this guy and Mikhail in this game, digitally stabs the lone enemy, kills him and they win the game. It's like this amazing moment, Mikhail's the man, you know, his team's thrilled and the guy who got stabbed, he's also on his headset and he's, he's so mad, he's so frustrated, he's like, you're not even that good, like this is garbage, like he's just so mad that he got killed, but this was like a moment of elation for for Mikhail. I mean, this is sort of like the peak for him and this part of his life. And so this was a great night for him. After this round, Mikhail actually jumped out of that lobby and he, he ordered some food and he, you know, he ate some food, then he came back and he continued to play Counter-Strike for a few more hours, but he never had another generational run that culminated in sort of an iconic stabbing like he did in that last round, but he played well, it was fun and then eventually he went to bed. And in his mind as he drifted off to sleep, he was just thinking about how amazing he did. This was like his best day ever on Counter-Strike. Six months later, on an afternoon and spring of 2010, Mikhail got home from work and he ordered some delivery food and then like he always did, he went to his computer and he logged on to Counter-Strike. And he very quickly got so absorbed in playing that he lost track of time. And at some point, he, he heard the doorbell ring and he realized it was, you know, the food, the guy delivering it was here. And so he runs over the door, he opens it up and there's, there's a guy standing out there who very much appears to be a food delivery guy. He's like in his 20s, he's, you know, looking up at Mikhail sort of expectantly and Mikhail's looking back at him and there's this awkward pause for a minute where it's like nothing's really happening. These are just two guys staring at each other at the doorway and then Mikhail, he just reaches back for his wallet and he's like, how much do I owe you? And the young man standing outside his door, he didn't respond, he just kind of stared back at Mikhail and some Mikhail's like standing there waiting for this guy to tell him how much to give him, but then he realizes something that this guy, this food delivery driver, wasn't carrying any food. And so Mikhail was about to say something like what's going on here when the stranger reached into his pocket, pulled out a kitchen knife and then before Mikhail could do anything, this guy plunges it into Mikhail's chest. And so the stranger flees, Mikhail is like, what's going on? Mikhail drops to the ground, he's dying amazingly, somehow or another, the paramedics are called out, he gets scooped up, he's brought to the hospital and amazingly, Mikhail would actually survive this, despite a, you know, a pretty severe stabbing to his chest. The blade actually just barely missed his heart, which obviously likely would have killed him. And so he survives the stabbing and Mikhail comes to find out why this happened and it's sort of unbelievable. So the guy who stabbed him was 20-year-old Julian Barrow and he was that counter-strike player six months ago who was the lone adversary that ultimately Mikhail got the best of. He had chased him down on the map with his team cheering him on in his headset and he stabbed him digitally, you know, with his, his avatar, he stabs Julian's character to win the match. And you know, it's a video game and, you know, Mikhail and the others, they're trash-talking and whatever, but it doesn't feel serious, it's just like, hey, we got the best of you, okay? But Julian felt totally emasculated in part because of, you know, the peanut gallery in the headset of all these people be like, oh, you suck, like he got the best of you, he was so mad that he spent basically every second from the end of that match for six months figuring out who Mikhail was in real life. He started with his avatar and he began going down rabbit holes and trying to figure out who he was until he figured out what his name was, where he lived, and then he showed up at his door and he returned the favor in real life. Pulled out the knife and stabbed Mikhail, except, you know, luckily he survived. As for Julian, who perpetrated this crime, he was arrested and a court sentenced him to two years in prison with anger management classes. Our next story is called Out for a Walk. Just before 6.30 p.m. on January 16, 2004, a 30-year-old woman named Jody Lane led two dogs on leashes out of her apartment building in New York City. So it was freezing outside, it was the middle of winter, and Jody was incredibly busy as a PhD student at Columbia University. But Jody would never miss a walk with her two dogs, Riley and Mikko, she loved them. So these two dogs were basically like Jody's kids. She had pictures of them all over her apartment. And basically no matter what, she always made sure that above all else, they were happy and healthy and taken care of. Even if it meant, you know, her making quite a few sacrifices to make that happen, like going out in the freezing cold regularly to give them their exercise. And so now, once she was outside, Jody pulled her coat tightly around herself to try to keep warm, and then she walked down her buildings front steps, and she was immediately glad to see that the sidewalks had recently been salted. So even though there was still snow on the ground, it basically was just on the edges of the pavement. And so the middle was basically clear, not too slippery. And so she and her dogs could head off down the sidewalk, basically unobstructed. As Jody's dogs walked happily on down the sidewalk ahead of her on their leashes, Jody found herself just sort of taking in the neighborhood. She lived in East Village, which is a part of New York City, and it was very lively, and it changed a lot with each season, and in New York City, there are all four seasons. And so even though Jody had done this walk many, many times with her dogs, I mean, this was a well-trodden path for them, it still just felt new every time. I mean, it just never really got boring around here. It's one of the main reasons that Jody loved living in East Village. It was just constantly changing and exciting. Eventually, when Jody and her dogs had gotten about a block from her apartment, Jody looked up, and she saw there was a man walking his dog on the same side, the same sidewalk, in their direction. And while Jody loved her dogs, and she viewed them as very sweet creatures, the reality was, these two dogs really only got along with each other. They did not get along with any other dogs, didn't matter what dog it was, they were going to have an issue with it. But Jody was used to that, and so any time she saw other dogs approaching, she would just, you know, step across and get in the road and cross the street if she had to. She would just get out of the way. She wouldn't put it on the other owner to get around her dogs. She would just remove her dogs from the situation. And so Jody just naturally turned and stepped over the mound of snow that was pushed up on the side of the sidewalk to step over it and get on to the street, to cross the street. But as she's like stepping over the snow, again, to avoid this dog, she's trying to get her two dogs to come with her, but they're not. They're actually starting to like freak out, the two dogs are. They're barking and yapping, and she's thinking that's so weird, like her immediate reaction is, it's like, what are they doing? That other dog is so far away. How could they be already upset about it? But then she looks down at them, and the dogs were like, fighting with each other, which was just so unusual, these dogs, which really they did get along well. They're barking and yapping, and they're slashing at each other. They're going nuts, and then it was like they panicked the two dogs, and they start running in opposite directions. And so Jody's got each of the leashes, she's getting yanked in either direction. The other dog at this point, nowhere near. It's like her dogs on their own are in full panic mode. All she's thinking about is just getting these crazy dogs back to her apartment, just get back home, that's all she wants to do, and she's trying to pull one in, and as she's doing that, remember, it's pretty slick outside, and she trips, and she falls onto the ground, onto the sidewalk, and the second she hits the ground, everything goes black. It would turn out, despite how observant Jody was on all these walks that she would do with her dog, you know, within East Village, there was one thing that she never actually noticed about her walking route that she did all the time. And that was, right next to the stretch of sidewalk, where she ultimately fell on the ground, so over by the curb, there was this, not back and specuous, but a pretty large metal plate that was sort of embedded in the pavement, it was sort of off to the side of the pavement. And there was good reason why Jody had not ever recognized this plate, because it really didn't matter in her day-to-day life, and also these plates are all over the city. They're on lots of sidewalks, not just an East Village, but everywhere in New York City. They are used to cover up things like manholes and subway vents, like holes you don't want to fall into, they cover them up with these plates that can come off and on as people need to go down and access what's underneath, and there's lots of stuff under the sidewalk in New York City that needs access points. But sometimes, those metal plates, like this one in particular that she walked right near, and covered up electrical wiring. And unfortunately, some of that salt that was placed on the sidewalk over and over again to make sure no snow would get in the way of people like Jody and their dogs going on walks, some of that salt found its way through the crack of this plate down onto the wires, and it corroded the wires to the point where some of those wires were fully exposed and touching the metal plate right above it, meaning they were conducting electricity directly into this plate. And so when Jody is getting ready to cross the street, you know, because the other dog is coming, and her dogs are panicking and barking and fighting each other, they weren't actually fighting with each other. They were standing on this metal plate, they were being electrocuted, and they were panicking, they were trying to get off the plate, but it's slick and icy, and they're trying to get off, and it looked like they were fighting. And so in her panic state, it's like Jody's trying to control her dogs, who have bolted from the plate, and she falls just because of the tug and pull that's going on with her dogs and the ground being sort of slick, and where does she land on the metal plate? And so unfortunately, Jody would be electrocuted to death, but her dogs at least would run away and they would survive. In the end, Jody's family filed a lawsuit, and they reached a settlement with the electrical company who owned that service box under that plate, and the family received about $7.2 million, and they would ultimately set up a scholarship in Jody's name at Columbia University. The next and final story of today's episode is called The Beat of His Drum. On the afternoon of July 4, 2006, a 50-year-old man named Pascal Norris took a seat in front of a drum at a community center in the village of Smalem, Scotland. So there were a bunch of other drums in this room set up in a big circle, and there were a dozen or so people sort of trickling in and choosing their spots in front of their drums. And Pascal knew pretty much all of them, because for the last few months, he'd been a regular at this drumming class. So professionally, Pascal was a woodworker, and he actually specialized in making musical instruments, not drums, but pretty much violins and guitars, those were his specialty. But beyond just being a woodworker who attended a regular drum class, something that really stood out about Pascal is that he recently had dealt with leukemia. And now he was in remission, this was like a huge deal in his life. And after having gotten sick and not really sure what a future held, he had begun playing music himself, and it had become this amazing creative outlet. And he was sure it was at least partially responsible for helping him heal after finishing chemotherapy. So like drumming was way more than a hobby. This was like a new way of life for him. And also since Pascal literally built instruments, not again, not drums, but musical instruments, he knew how much time and labor and care went into producing the sounds that these instruments made. And so now he felt like the connection he had to music was both physical the way he would make instruments and also spiritual. He really felt like music was his calling for the second half of his life. So the next few minutes, Pascal chatted with a couple of his classmates who were just getting settled around next to him. And then eventually their instructor came in and she's very serious and she took her seat in the center of the drum circle and everyone immediately went quiet. And at the instructor's cue, Pascal took a deep breath and then began to strike his hands against the surface of the drum. A couple of hours later, Pascal got home from drumming class, feeling both very calm and also energized. So Pascal lived alone in this old stone house out in the middle of nowhere and he also worked there too. He had a workshop on the property where he would build his instruments. And prior to discovering drumming, he used to feel really isolated out there. But that was another reason why this drumming class had been so huge for him. Because now he had a bunch of new friends from the drumming class and really a whole community of people that he really genuinely connected with. And so now, feeling really good about his life, with a grin at his face, Pascal, he went out to his garden and he gathered up some veggies for dinner and he went inside and he made some food, he ate, and then it was still light outside. So he went out to his workshop because he had some work to get done and he sat down and he kept working on an instrument that he was building and he got so absorbed in building this instrument that pretty quickly he lost track of time and then at some point he looked up, saw it was dark out and decided to call it a night. So he put the instrument down, he cleaned up after himself and then he walked outside, made his way back into his home and he climbed into bed feeling clear-headed and just plain grateful to be alive. However, the next morning when he woke up, Pascal did not feel good physically. He felt like there was just something wrong. He had that sense that he was about to get sick. even felt like he was starting to get warm, like he had a fever. But Pascal, having been through leukemia and going through chemo treatments, I mean, he knew what really bad sickness felt like and he was like, this is nothing, like this will pass, whatever it is. And so he just went about his day. He went to his workshop, he was doing his thing. But all day long, this fever just got worse and worse and he was just feeling so bad. He eventually goes to sleep. He wakes up the next day, hoping he's gonna feel better, but he doesn't, and then it just continues. That whole second day, he's getting hotter and hotter, he's feeling totally gross, like he's starting to experience minor, but noticeable chest pain. And so finally, the next morning, when he gets up, so now three days after that, that last drumming class, he wakes up and he's sweating bullets, he knows he's really ill, he's really struggling to breathe because of the chest pain. He's like, okay, this is not a minor bug. I need to go see a doctor. And so he goes to his doctor and the doctor's like, this is serious, we need to get you to the hospital. And now by this point, I mean, Pascal isn't a bad way. He's even becoming sort of delirious while he's sitting at the doctor's office. And so not long after, the doctor has said we need to get you to the hospital, an ambulance shows up and Pascal, he's being put on a stretcher. And as soon as he laid down, the room began to spin, so we had to close his eyes just to avoid that spinning sensation, he's got that really intense chest pain, it's hard to breathe. And it's just like sudden chaos, like what is going on here? And he gets rushed to the hospital. And then once he was at the hospital, again, Pascal's got his eyes shut and all he can tell is that there are lots of people talking and yelling all around him, doctors, nurses, paramedics, he can't even tell who's around him. It's just madness. But eventually he gets moved to a triage room or something and he kind of tries to open his eyes a couple of times, but it's just nauseating that that pain in his chest is so extreme and then he starts hearing this pounding in his ears and then everything just fades into silence. The next morning, a doctor stood over Pascal's hospital bed as a team of nurses moved around the room, unhooking Pascal from the various machines he had been attached to from the previous night. Because just a few moments ago, Pascal had died. And so now all the doctor and the rest of the team could do was just stand there, totally baffled, because nobody knew what actually happened to Pascal. I mean, they had tried everything to save him and they had run just about every test they could think of to try to identify what was happening, but the x-rays and all the tests, all the things they did, none of it yielded any results. It just seemed like he had some crazy, really aggressive mystery illness that did ultimately kill him. And what's worse is that because Pascal, when he showed up, he very quickly just fell unconscious, they really hadn't had a chance to even begin to ask him what was happening before you felt this way. He was just a guy who showed up, basically delirious, passed out and then died. And so they really had no clue what happened. However, they had taken his blood and they figured at this point they would send off the blood and then when the blood came back from testing, perhaps there'd be something in his blood that would give away what actually happened to him. And so now they just had to wait for results. About a month later, that same doctor who was baffled by Pascal's death, got a call about Pascal's blood work. And while he was bracing for some weirdness to show up in the testing because this was a mystery illness after all, they still had no idea what happened, even now a month later, he was expecting something odd, but what he was told about what was found in Pascal's blood was truly shocking. It would turn out that the very thing that made Pascal feel so alive during his cancer recovery was actually what killed him, his drumming hobby. Because the drums that he had used in his drumming class were made out of animal hides and one of those hides, or several of those hides we don't actually know for sure, had been made from an animal from a cow that had been infected with anthrax. Anthrax is a naturally occurring bacteria that turns into these little spores and it floats around in the air. And for some people, if they come in contact with it, it can kill them, so it can be fatal. And so every time Pascal banged his hands on one of those drums that had the anthrax on it, well, the vibration would cause those tiny spores of anthrax to float up into the air and he would inhale them. Now, others in the class also had this experience, but unlike Pascal, their immune system was strong. Pascal, he had had leukemia, he had had chemotherapy, and so he was immunocompromised. And so when he played one of those drums, that tiny amount was enough to be fatal for him. A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange Dark and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Jeremy Bone and Colacasio. This episode was written by Andrew Kelleyer, Kate Murdock and Kate Gallagher, story editing by Kate Murdock and Luke Barats. Research and fact-checking by Shelley Schoo, Samantha Van Hoos, Evan Beamer, Abigail Schumway, Camille Callahan, Alex Paul, Ben Fasiano. Research and fact-checking supervision by Steven Ear, audio editing and post-produced by Whitlacasio and Jordan Stidem, production support by Antonio Monada and Delana Corley, artwork by Jessica Clogston Keiner, theme song, "Something Wicked" by Ross Bugden. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballin podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballin YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. If you want to listen to episodes one week early and add free, you can subscribe to Sirius XM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com/PodcastPlus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So that's gonna do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. (upbeat music)