Searching for an Invisible Intruder

Hate waiting a week for the next episode of Radio Rental? Subscribe to Tindnderfoot Plus to get early access to episodes, ad free listening, and even some bonus scary stories. Visit Tnderfootplus d. com for details The following podcast includes scary stories with content that could be triggering to some listeners Listener discretion is advised from the same old boring blockbusters and experience a new kind of movie night with the radio rent alone At Radio Rental, our videos come to life in your living room, defy all logic and reasoning, and make you question your own reality. This is not your ordinary video rental store. At radio Rental we carry one of a kind videos so frightening, so mind bending, you won't be able to sleep at night You've gone Rayo Ritol Hey everyone. Welcome to Radio Rntal s Sorry, it's a little rank in here like cigies. My bad, I'll crack a window. And let me just hit a little fabreeze Wow. smmells like a nice fresh pine forest in here now. Oh, sorry about that Mala guy I'll do a little less next time Anyway, friend, caught me on a bit of a rough day. Sliced my hand up real good yesterday I was folding laundry. forgot to take a tag off a new blanket. Gnarly needed to go for a little smokeer to ease the pain Moving a bit slow Anyways, let's pop in one of these scary stories for you A few years ago, I moved back to my hometown in rural Oregon I was struggling financially and a couple of my friends knew that So they offered me to rent the tiny house on their property The layout is kind of important because they rent the main house and then there's a separate tiny house with a separate yard. It's a super high fence around it with a gate that opens into the alley in the back. I was excited because it was super private And it was also super affordable To me, it was a great deal And I was just really excited to kind of get my life together. And have my own place and not have to have a roommate. Probably three or four days into living there, I started to feel weird about it I really can't explain exactly what gave me that feeling, but everyone knows what it feels like when you feel like you're being watched Even when I had my dog with me, I just felt uneasy Sometimes I would be getting ready for bed and I started to smell cigarette smoke in my bedroom I really brush it off because Maybe someone was walking through the back alley But we live in rural Oregon. It's not a super populated area. Not many people even know that alley is there Someone would have to know it's there and be walking through there every single night smoking. You know, I grew up there. I always felt really safe there It was unusual that someone was going through the alley at night I started to notice The cigarette smoke every night. I started to think perhaps it was my friends smoking in their backyard because their fence butts up against my fence I know them personally and I knew that they didn't smoke. so I thought unless one of them is secretly smoking in the night, that would be unusual I just kept trying to justify it That coupled with the feeling that I was being watched, just made me really feel uncomfortable in that place. I tried to kind of dismiss this feeling because I really wanted to make this my home. I wanted to make it cute I saw it set I could get settled there for a while So I kind of pushed my feelings aside Bye Sometimes the cigarette smoke was so intense that it felt like someone was in the room smoking with me That was a strange thought I just tried to justify every way I could because I thought it was either someone walking through the alley at night Or my friends, one of them could be secretly smoking every night Things kind of went on like this for a while I started to notice some other weird things. A couple times I came home in the evening and it was dark outside My gate was open I just tried to justify it any way I knew how. I thought I must have left my gate open I can be forgetful I also noticed that sometimes when I let my dog out go to the bathroom at night She took a while to come back. And she is the world's best behavave dog And I would call her multiple times and she wouldn't come back right away My dog was growling and looking towards the door And I shushed her We were in a new place. I just thought we can't be growling and barking at every sound We live in Oregon. there is nature, there's wildlife. you know, there's squirrels and birds and All kinds of animals. It's not unusual to hear. cats or, you know, whatever. two months into living there It was really late at night, It was dark I was wearing a t shirt and mayaybe just some socks I just stepped outside to take my dog out to go to the bathroom I smelled the cigarette smoke just like pretty much every other night And I thought I'll take my dog out to go to the bathroom. So I went to step outside. As soon as I went outside the door There was a man standing in my yard He was smoking and he was staring in my bedroom window Neither of us reacted very quickly. You would expect him to see me seeing him and run really quickly away That's not what happened He had this glazed look in his eye like he was out of it and he was just staring into my bedroom to say hey for him to even fully register that I was there And then as soon as he registered that I was there That's when he kind of pivoted and started jogging out of my yard Even his job was not very fast And just instinctively, I started jogging after him which I know is insane It was just this spur of the moment He's running. I can't let him get away because I knew. They weren't going to catch him And it was up to me. I just took off after the guy into the alley And I remember stepping on like pine needles and pine cones I saw him get away in the dark And he was just gone Just like with the smoking, just like with the gate open, just like with my dog not coming back It felt like there had to be some reasonable explanation for this because there was no way Like statistically How is this happening to me I started to kind of gaslight myself into thinking Why would I assume that it's a stranger? And then standing there in the alley With no shoes on, with a t shirt on in the dark That was actually when I realized what was happening Not only did I realize that there was a man in my yard and that I just chased him But I also realized that he had been in my yard many times before. My mind was flashing back to every time. I was smelling the cigarette smoke in my bedroom because I knew that he had been watching me was like awful to know that I hadd gotten out of the shower or whatever was walking around my room, getting dressed like a normal person But other times It was boring. Like mundane things I would have my friend over and we would watch the Bachelorette or something She was like, wow, that cigarette smoke is really strong For two months or more, I had just been systematically watched by this person every night. And there were even a few nights that I woke up to the smell. like I woke up coughing because of the cigarette smoke The realization that this person had watched me sleep was too much for me mentally I called the police and I told them everything They did a patrol, but They didn't find anything Obviously he had gotten away Nhing was going to happen to him After this happened I looked at everyone with suspicion becausecause I saw him, but I didn't see him because it was dark And I started to see him and everyone I saw That sounds crazy, but it was honestly like I felt like I was losing my mind This had to be someone close Obviously that was a really uncomfortable and scary thought becausecause this person also got away very quickly How quickly Can you get away unless you live closely That was a horrifying thought that this person had easy access to me and knew exactly who I was. I started to think about all the times that I didn't lock my door and how things didn't feel right And to this day, I will never know if he was ever in my house. I will never know When I was gone for hours at my job He could have been in my house and I wouldn't know it That's an answer I'll never get After this happened The smell of cigarette smoke made me physically ill It was such an obvious trauma response because Even though I'm not a smoker, I knew immediately which brand it was whenever I smelled it Anytime I smelled the kind of cigarette he smoked It just made me feel sick I would be out running errands And I would smell cigarette smoke and my heart would start to race It was hard to function for a long time after this happened People would assure me that These kinds of people don't escalate, but I know that that's not true No one good watches someone sleep every night Uh, okay, wait, hold on. Um In case you're thinking kinda, like thinking what you're thinking like what I'm thinking and connecting the dots. That wasn't me in the story. I I actually quit smoking recently. I mean, I never even smoked to begin with I don't know why it smells like smoking here. Okay, we're back. let's play another tape. Hold on, let me grab it. o, dang it I open the wound on my hand. It's seeping It's killing me. Here we go. I guess I've gotta be a lefty from here on out I was probably fifteen or sixteen I grew up in a house that was built in the fifties, sixties Freaky boards and stairs that made noise on their own, whether people were on them or not I'm middle of three kids and both my parents still lived in the home. so I knew everybody's footsteps in the house It's one of those things you just kind of You know, people's footsteps when you hear them you get used to it It was middle of the night My parents sleep down the hall. My brother shares a wall with me. My sister slept in the basement bedroom downstairs. We all got to bed about the same time. We got in our rooms at about nine o'clock It wasn't unusual to hear people like turning over in bed But walking out in the hallway was uncommon I'm sitting in my bed, lights on, computer, notebook or whatever And I hear footsteps in the hallway And it was one of those moments where you kind of stop and you listen. And I heard them and I figured it's nothing. It's probably my dad. He woke up, get a drink of water or something, midnight snack But the footsteps sounded off. It didn't sound right He didn't really wear heavy boots. He wore dress shoes. And so I assumed maybe he's got a different pair of shoes on or something. He just put something on so he wasn't walking barefoot But then I kept hearing it pacing up and down the hallway I kept listening. I hadd had music playing in my headphones, but at that point, I hadd taken my headphones off because I was like, I need to know what's happening. I can't quite tell And then finally, the footsteps kind of stop outside my door. Okay, maybe he's just trying to see if I'm asleep. Maybe he's trying to check in on me. Maybe he's mad that I'm up so late on a school night. So I kind of held my breath and waited And nothing. He didn't knock, he didn't say anything. He didn't acknowledge that, you know I was still awake. I'm going to bed. I'm not going to deal with this. This is scaring me Maybe it was just nothing. I'm imagining it. I'm scaring myself for no reason So I'ming to go to bed, and I'm laying in the dark and I'm just like, Okaykay, I don't hear footsteps. this is fine. I'm safe. The alarm is on in the house, we're good. I woke up the next morning And I could hear my parents talking in their bedroom I wouldn' to go see what they've been talking about because my mom sounded upset. I walked down the hallway And I kind of push the door open. I stepped in And then It was like my dad. was kind of just staring at me waiting for me to say something like I knew something that he didn't. And then my mom waved me over and was like, comeome here, I want tona make sure you're okay. And I'm confused. I walk across the bedroom, you know, like what's going on? Why wouldn't I be okay She's turning me around, checking my arms, checking my legs, trying to make sure that I haven't hit my head, that I'm not bleeding, and she won't explain why. and then She turns me and I can see the door frame All of a sudden it's not are you okay it did you do this? Is this supposed to be a joke I'm just sat there trying to process what elses happening because I've been awake Maybe ten minutes And'm I'm staring at the door frrame. There was a handprint Kind of like a smudge at first until you look closer And you realize it's not a blob, it's Individual fingerprints And then we open the door and it continued through the doorframe onn this bright white paint, this dark brown red, rusty color. These are Dult handprints These aren't a child. this wasn't my brother messing around. This wasn't a hurt animal in the house. This was somebody Delliberately leaving a mark My heart dropped out, my stomach dropped My dad's always been a very straightforward serious, so he assumed it had been a joke or something And so he was upset about it. My mom was just scared My siblings came into the room, my mom was checking them over, trying to make sure none of us had been bleeding or injured of of any kind and like had come to talk to the middle of the night and they just didn't wake up or whatever But what scared us the most was that it was too high to be from like the pets or anything bumping into something and injuring themselves because we looked them over there, we were all fine, no blood, no cuts, no no injuries. And that's when I turned my head and saw blloody hampint on It's the door jam of the sliding glass door. The hamperon itself was positioned in a way that looked like somebody had braced themselves against the door frame to step over the threshold into the house The entire backyard is fenced in, gates everywhere with locks and things. It would be difficult but not impossible to gain access to the backyard The house was fairly heavily alarmed. We had two gu dogs, two big dogs And so it's that sense of, oh, I'm safe, the house is fine, Nobody's gonna even try and get in Well, my mom iss a heavy sleeper, my dad is not He'll wake up at anything You breathe wrong, he wakes up We were like, did somebody get into the house? And then we took a look down the hallway It's not just the one hand print. There's more hampints down the hall. among these family photos that my mom has in the walls. Fingerprints, handprints as like someone' bracing themselves throughout the house Is there somebody in the house somewhere? The door had still been locked. The alarm had been armed. And there was, besides the handprints, no signs of anybody else in the house. It was like somebody had just disisappeared after gaining entrance to the house somehow. We talked the alarm company, they saw no waivers in the alarm. The alarm company never lost contact with the system. it never called police, nothing And this was a system that if you hit a window when the alarm was set, it would set off every alarm in the nearest like three houses It never went off. It was terrifying All we could think was is there somebody in the house somewhere What do we do if there is My mom had my siblings and I and the pets all in her bedroom. My dad went to check the house, check the basement, you know, check everywhere, He checked the garage for the attic access to make sure nobody had gone in there. and There was nothing. nothing Every time we try to bring it up, my parents were like, oh, it was nothing. It was probably just, you know, one of you guys cut your hand and didn't realize it But these were bright white walls that like you saw the moment you looked at it. It had happened in the middle of the night You know, maybe there was a way that the door had relocked itself somehow And the dogs just happened to not realize it. And so nobody barked and nobody was woken up or anything like that. But the dogs were usually pretty good about strangers, not being in the house Even if we just knocked on the front door, they'd They'd freak out. They'd bark and You'd have to kind of put your foot in front of them to hold them back from strangers So the house was well protected But Obviously Nothing's impossible. o This is uncomfortable just to be crystal on this that also was not me in this story either I know the pallels seeme very parallel. Let me put a little purpa dick spin on this and say that you're crazy for even thinking that. I hurt my hand yesterday. Chopping veg or folding laundry Or maybe reloading a new cartridge in the stapler. I can't remember. Let's take a break for ads Oh, hey, so I know the storory seemed pretty suspicious But I promise I'm a really good guy I mean, Terry would have never hired me if I wasn't really buttoned up Come on, Bud, you're not helping me at all here Anyway Many thank yous for visiting us today, multiple Mucho grraciuses. Hope you had a most delightful visit to our humble retail place. May you have a wonderful day and many blessings upon you. Smalachai, I need this job. Hold on Wne How long has there been a bird in here What the Is is that a Is that bird? What the fuck is that bird Radio Rental is created by Payne Lindseay and brought to you by Torfoot TV. Showrunner is Meredith Steedman. Lead producers are Eric Qintana and Stephen Perez. Executive producers are Payne Lindsseay and Donald Albright This episode is hosted by Tony Cavallero Writing by Meredith Steedman. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set, with additional score by Jay Ragsdale. Sound Design Makes and Master by Stehven Perez and Cooper Skinner. Editing by Eric Kintana, Sean Nerney, Stehven Perez, Meredith Steedman, and Cooper Skinner. Our production manager is Jordan Foxworthy Cover Artwork by Trevor Eyler and Rob Sheridan. Radiontal Merchandise by Byron McCoy To shop rado rental merch, visit shop. tennderfoot.tv. Special thanks to Orren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, as well as the Nord Group and the team at Odyssey If you have a radiontal story that you'd like to share, please email us at your scary story at gmail. com or contact us via the form on our website radiorentalusa dot com Follow us on Instagram at Radio Rental On behalf of the Radiontal store, we'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate and review As always, thanks for listening.