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Oh boy, do I have a story.
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I do.
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I have a story for you.
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And I know what you re thinking.
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Emma, a scary story?
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You must be running out of podcast topic ideas.
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A scary story?
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Come on.
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What are we in?
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You know, the third grade?
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Coming up with fake scary stories just to have something to talk about?
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No.
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No.
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This is real.
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This is true.
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And to further back that up, I can almost promise you that I m not gonna have another scary story to tell you for a few years.
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Because shit like this just doesn t happen to me very often.
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I feel like my day to day is very consistently not interesting.
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It s very rare that these types of things happen.
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I ve always been very curious about how story time YouTubers, story time podcasters keep it going because
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Like crazy shit just doesn t happen every day.
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You know what I mean?
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So don t get used to this.
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This is like a rare treat for all of us.
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Okay.
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This is a rare treat.
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Emma has a crazy story.
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What a rare treat.
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So without further ado, let me walk you through something that happened to me a few days ago.
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Okay.
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So it was a casual Monday night.
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I m in bed at around 8 p.m., very early, already did my skincare, already brushed my teeth, already put on my PJs, fully in bed for the night, right?
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But I m not ready to go to sleep.
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It s too early.
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So, you know, I m not fully in bed for the night.
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At around 8.20 p.m.
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I get up to go pee and I go to reach for the toilet paper and I m reminded that I haven t had toilet paper in my bathroom for the last 24 hours.
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Now you might be wondering what I was doing instead.
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I was using a wet wipe, even when I was peeing, to wipe every time I went pee because I was too lazy to go get more toilet paper.
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I sat on the toilet for a second and I was like, okay, I m either gonna go and get toilet paper now or I m gonna go do it tomorrow morning.
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It was a tough decision, but I ended up deciding to go downstairs and get the stupid toilet paper now, tonight.
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I thought of it as sort of a gift to myself the following day.
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You know, what a joy it s gonna be.
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to wake up the next day and have fully stocked toilet paper in the bathroom.
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What a joy.
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So I finish up peeing and I walk down to my garage.
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That s where I keep the toilet paper.
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Now, fun fact about my house.
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Every time I open a door or a window, there s a chime sound, like a ding that goes off every time a door or window opens.
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This is for security purposes, right?
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It s a part of my security system.
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So when I open the door to the garage, it makes a little chime sound.
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This will be relevant in a moment.
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Open the door to my garage.
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Chime sound goes off.
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Walk into the garage.
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Grab the toilet paper.
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Walk back to the garage door.
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Open it again.
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Chime sound.
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Close it.
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Start walking up the stairs.
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I hear another chime sound.
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But I didn t open a door.
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And I didn t open a window.
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So what the hell was that?
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Now, every once in a while, there s a little fault in my security system.
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One of the sensors is too sensitive.
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And so a chime will just go off on accident.
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That happens every once in a while, but usually it happens as a result of something loud happening close to one of the sensors.
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Like I might slam a door on one side of the room and it makes a sensor on the other side of the room go off.
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Because the sensor also goes off if it thinks glass broke.
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So that s why that sometimes happens.
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So I was like, OK, it might just be a fault.
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This happens sometimes.
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Whatever.
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It s no big deal.
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All my doors are locked, I think.
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So it s probably nothing.
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I m a little freaked out though, like my gut starts to turn a little bit.
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Something feels off in me.
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And most of the time when there s a little fault with my security system, my gut tells me that it s nothing and it is nothing and then everything s fine.
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But my intuition felt something was off.
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So I walk upstairs and I sort of scan around my house.
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Pop my head into every door, just making sure that no doors are wide open or windows are wide open.
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It was sort of a ballsy move, but I was like, there s no way someone s in my house.
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Like, there s no way someone s in my house.
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There s no way.
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There s just no way.
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But I want to look just in case.
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But it s one of those things where it s like, you re not going to go and look unless you don t think anyone s there, because if you really do think someone s there, then you re not going to look.
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You re going to go hide.
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But I was like, no, there s no way.
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Like, rationally, I was like, there s just no way.
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There s just no way.
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Mind you, I m fully home alone, OK?
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There is.
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No one around.
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It is just me.
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There is no one.
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It s all me.
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Okay.
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I don t see anything.
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So I proceeded to go to my primary bathroom, the bathroom in my room, and put my toilet paper away as though nothing was wrong.
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So I m putting the toilet paper away and all of a sudden my cat, Declan, sprints into my room and then into my bathroom, makes a complete ruckus, okay, is like slipping and sliding on the hardwood floor, like ran into the door a little bit of the bathroom, like freaking out and jumps up onto the countertop in my primary bathroom and pushes himself against the wall.
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frightened beyond belief, okay?
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His tail is puffed up triple the size.
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His eyes, I ve never seen this look in his eyes.
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I ve seen him look scared before because sometimes there ll be like a bird outside or he ll be fighting with my other cat, Frankie, and he ll get all freaked out and his tail will get all puffed up.
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But I ve never seen this look in his eyes.
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I saw terror in my cat s eyes.
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Terror.
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And I freaked the fuck out, okay?
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I froze dead in my tracks.
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I stare at him.
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frightened standing on my countertop for probably 30 seconds just trying to process what he could have seen because again I ve seen him freaked out before from mundane things this happens but something was different something was very different I ve never seen this look in his eyes but I was like you know what Emma you re
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You re freaking yourself out.
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You know, you have a tendency to catastrophize things.
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It s probably nothing.
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He probably was just playing with the other cat.
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Or he probably just saw a raccoon outside.
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It s fine.
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So I walk out of my bathroom, and he follows me.
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And he runs in front of me.
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And he starts peeking his head outside of my bedroom door, as though he was looking for something.
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And I was like, no.
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No, something s off.
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Then I see my other cat with the same look in her eyes, though her tail was tucked underneath her belly.
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Like, she was frightened too, but her body language was a little different.
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They both were so scared that I was like, there s no way something is not happening right now.
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Something s happening.
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Something really fucking weird is happening.
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Someone s in my house.
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So I run to the safe room in my house.
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I shut the door, I lock it, I deadbolt it.
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My cats are not with me.
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I did not have the time to secure them in there with me.
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But my safe room has security camera panels, a panic button, you know, you press it and the police come, all these other technical security related things.
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And I m still not fully convinced that there s someone in my house.
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Like, I know something s off, but I m like, how is this possible?
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How is this possible?
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All my doors are locked.
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I didn t hear any forced entry.
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And I would have heard that.
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Like, what s happening?
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So I call my mom and I m like, something s really off.
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Like I, I explained to her the story and I m like, I don t know, am I being crazy?
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Like maybe you should,
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drive over because my mom lives about 15, 20 minutes away.
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So I was like, maybe you could drive over and just look around with me.
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I don t really feel good about being here alone, but I also don t think that there s anything dangerous going on.
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So we re sort of deciding whether or not she should come over.
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Meanwhile, I decide to arm my house, which basically means if any door opens or window opens or breaks, a really loud alarm will go off and the police will be dispatched immediately.
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I arm this alarm all the time.
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This is an alarm that I almost always have on and it doesn t go off from movement.
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So I can have that alarm on while I m home if I know that I m not going to be going in and out of the house because it doesn t go off from movement.
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So like I can move around, my cats can move around, it won t go off.
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It ll only go off if a door or window opens or breaks.
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So I turned the alarm on and my thought was, if there s someone in my house and they try to leave or they try to let someone else in, at least now I ll know.
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So I set the alarm
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And in my head, I m like, there s no way this alarm is going to go off.
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Okay.
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I have this alarm on for hours and hours a day and it never goes off on accident.
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So I was like, if this alarm goes off, I know I need to call 911 and we really need to take this seriously.
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But I was like, there s no way the alarm is going to go off.
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There s just no way.
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There s no way.
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Well, two minutes after I set the alarm, it goes off.
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blaring.
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Beep, beep, blaring.
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I m on the phone with my mom and I m like, someone s in my fucking house.
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She s like, call 9-1-1.
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Hang up with me.
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Call 9-1-1.
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I m doing all the shit.
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I pressed the little button to dispatch police, but I couldn t tell if it was working.
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I was like, is the battery dead?
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Fuck.
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And I hide behind the door.
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If the door were to have opened to this panic room, I hid behind the door.
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And I call 911 and I m on the phone with the operator and I m like, listen, I think someone s in my house.
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I explained the story and they were like, have you seen anyone?
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And I was like, no.
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And I open up my security camera app.
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I have an app on my phone with all my security cameras on it.
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I open up the app.
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Guess what?
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It s disconnected.
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I check my cameras all day every day on my phone.
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All day every day.
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I m on that app constantly.
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I cannot name a time in the last, I don t know, three to six months where it has been disconnected.
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It s always connected.
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Now all of a sudden, it s disconnected.
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The crazy part about it is that the system
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that my security cameras are on are separate from the system that my security alarm is on.
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So it s not like, oh, the alarm went off and it somehow made the cameras glitch.
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Like, they re disconnected completely.
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They re not related.
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Does that make sense?
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So me going on this app and seeing that all of a sudden my cameras are down, I m like, someone cut some wires or some shit.
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Something s fucking happening.
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Something s happening.
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Something really bad is happening.
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I get hysterical, okay?
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I m like, oh my fucking God, this is it.
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I cannot express to you the terror that I was feeling in that moment.
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I have never, I m so grateful that I ve never felt that before.
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I ve gone my whole life without feeling that level of terror.
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It s kind of your life flashing before your eyes.
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You re in survival mode.
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You re like, I might die right now.
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I really might die right now.
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This was a new feeling for me.
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I had never felt this feeling before, this level of terror.
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I m locked in a room in my home, not sure what s happening outside of that room, certain that something bad is happening because the series of events paint a bleak picture.
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I become sort of hysterical on the phone with the 911 operator.
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He s reassuring me that police are on the way.
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I am a fucking wreck, okay?
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I m like, should I break out of this window that s in this room and climb up onto the roof and, like, get into the chimney?
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Like, what should I do?
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I felt so trapped and powerless in this room.
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But the 911 operator was like, don t fucking move, you idiot.
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No, didn t call me an idiot, but should have.
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Was like, don t move.
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Stay still and be quiet and just let the police come.
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I m crying.
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I m full body shakes.
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I m like clutching my hand over my mouth, trying not to make sounds because I was so hysterical that I was like, whatever.
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I m texting my mom.
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My mom s rushing to me, driving to me as fast as she possibly can.
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And then all of a sudden, the alarm in my house goes off.
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So now, if there is someone in my house, they think everything s fine because the alarm just went off.
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And I go on my app in my phone to try to make the alarm go off again.
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Oh, would you look at that?
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It s not working.
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It s not working.
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So I m on the phone with the 911 operator and I m like, my alarm is not going off again.
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I need my alarm to go off again because it just stopped.
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And because, you know, the alarm is going to scare off anybody who s doing something bad, right?
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They re going to be like, oh shit, it s drawing attention.
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I need to get out of here.
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So I m freaking out, trying to figure out if I can make the alarm go back on.
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I couldn t.
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This scares me even more.
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Then I realize that my phone is on 7%. 7%.
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And I m like, if this doesn t last me until the police get here, like, I don t know what I m going to do.
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I don t have a phone charger in this room.
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Like, I was so unprepared for a moment like this at the time.
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I ended up in the panic room waiting for the police for 20 minutes.
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A lot of this is a blur for me because I was so deeply frightened that I couldn t even function properly.
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I wasn t thinking straight.
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I was completely in a fog, but also my brain was moving at a thousand miles per hour.
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I m on the phone with the 911 operator asking every 30 seconds when the police are going to arrive, trying to figure out if I can reconnect my phone to my cameras so that I can see if anyone s in my house.
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Nothing s working.
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What the fuck is going on?
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Meanwhile, my phone is going down in percentage 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
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At this point, it s probably been 15 minutes of me hiding in this room and my phone s at 2%.
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So I tell the 911 operator this, my phone s at 2%.
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He tells me that the police have arrived, but that they have to search the perimeter of my house before they go inside.
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So I m like, okay,
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This is not good.
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Because, you know, who knows how long it s going to take to search the perimeter of the house.
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I understand it.
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But I was like, I want somebody to come in and grab me and save me now, you know.
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But knowing that the police were there made me feel so much better.
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Meanwhile, my mom shows up.
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She s talking to the police.
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My phone gets down to 1%.
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I m on the phone with the 911 operator and I m like, you need to send someone in here because my phone is at 1% and I will not be able to communicate with you or anyone moving forward once this dies.
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so we need to figure something out please i m crying i m so i m i m freaking i m sobbing at this point because i m like i m so close yet so far like i feel better knowing that they re here but also like come on like let s just
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Save me already, you know?
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I go to text my mom that my phone is dying.
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It s at 1%.
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It s gonna die.
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And as I m about to send that, a text comes through from my mom that says, come to the front door.
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And I was like, wait a minute.
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What?
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Then, I kid you not, like a fucking movie, my phone dies.
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I can t make this up.
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I know you think I m lying.
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I know that you think I m lying.
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I know that this sounds like a fucking- it sounds crazy.
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But no, this is what happened.
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This is the truth.
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Right as- so I couldn t ask my mom, what are you talking about?
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And I couldn t ask the 911 operator if I should go to the front door.
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This is like a crazy request.
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We think that there s an intruder in my home, and the police have yet to enter my home, and they re telling me to come down to the front door.
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I m like, what s happening?
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I m convinced that someone bad has kidnapped my mom, taken her phone, and started texting me from her phone saying, come to the front door.
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But at the same time, I m like, I know that my mom is with the police, but then I was like, what if somebody
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snatched her, grabbed her phone, and is, like, holding her hostage in a car, and they re texting me from the phone.
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Like, you know, there were so many different scenarios that could be unfolding.
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Like, I didn t... Maybe she had never crossed paths with the police.
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You see what I m saying?
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I was really struggling with what to do.
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But my gut told me that my mom was with the police, and that they had told her to tell me to come to the front door.
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and I felt kind of stupid for doing it but I mustered up the courage I took a few deep breaths and I opened the door and I bolted I mean bolted to my front door swung it wide open there s my mom there s like 10 police officers
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And I just start sobbing.
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I mean, sobbing, sobbing, sobbing.
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I ve never felt the level of gratitude.
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I could like, I m like choked up right now.
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I ve never felt that level of gratitude in my life to just be safe and alive and to have the support from my mom and the police officers that, you know, got there as soon as they could.
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I was the level of gratitude.
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I like, I, again, I m choked up right now thinking about it because I was,
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just so grateful that that was over and I m like hysterically crying and I ve always seen in movies people being so afraid that they re dry heaving like they re like about to throw up I always just thought it was like a fake thing like that was just something that happened in movies uh-uh I was fully
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dry heaving, crying, like about to throw up everywhere.
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It was one of the most bittersweet feelings I ve ever felt.
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Meanwhile, the police are searching my house.
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My mom and I are outside and I realized in this moment, whether someone s in my house or not, whether I was really at risk or not, those 17 minutes of me in that room thinking I was going to die has changed my life forever.
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It doesn t matter what even comes of it because those 17 minutes in that room felt so real.
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I will never be the same.
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Lo and behold, the police come out and they say, there s no one here.
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There was no forced entry.
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Nothing happened.
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Must ve just been a faulty alarm.
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I feel horrible.
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Okay, I feel horrible.
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I feel stupid.
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I feel gullible.
2
SPEAKER_00
I apologize to them profusely.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m like, I m so sorry.
2
SPEAKER_00
But I also can t blame myself for reacting the way that I did.
2
SPEAKER_00
Because the whole series of events was so, so insanely unusual.
2
SPEAKER_00
The odds of all of those things happening back to back, it s like one in a hundred thousand that all of those unusual things would happen back to back within a five to 10 minute period.
2
SPEAKER_00
One faulty alarm and then both of my cats being really freaked out in a way I ve never seen them before.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then another faulty alarm once I armed my house, like what are the odds of that happening?
2
SPEAKER_00
That never happens.
2
SPEAKER_00
And oh, oh God, and my camera s shutting off and like the alarm s not working.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like it was like, what?
2
SPEAKER_00
Like what are the odds of all of those things happening?
2
SPEAKER_00
I never have issues with any of those things.
2
SPEAKER_00
And all of a sudden they re all not working.
2
SPEAKER_00
In my rational mind, I said, there s no, it s more rational to think that something bad is happening.
2
SPEAKER_00
We send the police on their way.
2
SPEAKER_00
I feel intense guilt.
2
SPEAKER_00
I feel so bad.
2
SPEAKER_00
I ve just wasted their time.
2
SPEAKER_00
I feel horrible.
2
SPEAKER_00
But I m also like, I had no other option.
2
SPEAKER_00
So someone from my security team comes to my house that night trying to figure out what happened.
2
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
2
SPEAKER_00
So we look through the database to see what caused the faults, what made that chime go off.
2
SPEAKER_00
And we can t figure out what happened after I shut the garage door.
2
SPEAKER_00
That first fault, we can t figure it out.
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SPEAKER_00
nothing showed up in the database.
2
SPEAKER_00
Normally every time a door or window opens, closes, breaks, et cetera, it shows up in this database.
2
SPEAKER_00
That first one just didn t show up.
2
SPEAKER_00
The one that went off after I armed my house that caused the alarm to go off was a random window that never gets opened, literally has never been opened and just for some reason faulted.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m not kidding.
2
SPEAKER_00
That window has never opened, okay?
2
SPEAKER_00
The little chime for that window has never had to go off and it never has because that window never gets opened.
2
SPEAKER_00
The security guy examines the alarm that s connected to it.
2
SPEAKER_00
Nothing seems wrong with it.
2
SPEAKER_00
Nothing about it seems faulty.
2
SPEAKER_00
He does a bunch of tests to see if it goes off on accident easily because sometimes
2
SPEAKER_00
the little sensors on the alarms will shift a little bit, and then they go off easier, you know?
2
SPEAKER_00
Like, even if you tap the wall, it ll make the alarm go off.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like, there s all these different little technicalities.
2
SPEAKER_00
He basically tests this alarm in every possible way, and there s nothing wrong with it.
2
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, this is really weird.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like, it s really weird that this alarm just went off out of nowhere.
2
SPEAKER_00
That these sensors had a mistake.
2
SPEAKER_00
This is very unusual.
2
SPEAKER_00
And my mom and I are thinking about this for a while and we re like, what the fuck happened?
2
SPEAKER_00
Like, what in the world could this be?
2
SPEAKER_00
And she says, Emma, I think it was the ghost.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, now this is when you re going to think I m fucking with you.
2
SPEAKER_00
I know you think I m fucking with you right now.
2
SPEAKER_00
I know that you think I m fucking with you right now.
2
SPEAKER_00
Because I don t know, what do people do when they run out of ideas for their podcast?
2
SPEAKER_00
or for their YouTube channel or for whatever, they start coming up with stories about ghosts, okay?
2
SPEAKER_00
I get that you think I m selling out, okay?
2
SPEAKER_00
I get that you think I m a liar and I m just doing this for clickbait.
2
SPEAKER_00
I get it, but it s- I m not fucking with you!
2
SPEAKER_00
I m not fucking with you.
2
SPEAKER_00
So let me explain.
2
SPEAKER_00
When I first bought this house, it was kind of run down.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was kind of old.
2
SPEAKER_00
It kind of had a creepy vibe.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was built in the fifties.
2
SPEAKER_00
It hadn t been renovated in a long time.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I immediately felt its history in the walls.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like this house feels old.
2
SPEAKER_00
Do you know what I mean?
2
SPEAKER_00
It didn t necessarily feel haunted to me, but upon falling in love with this house, I felt its history in the wall.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_00
I obviously tore this house apart and updated pretty much everything.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s a very different house now to what it was when I first bought it.
2
SPEAKER_00
But a lot of the things are the same, still the same flooring.
2
SPEAKER_00
The layout is pretty much the exact same.
2
SPEAKER_00
All the wood is pretty much the same.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s not like we tore the whole house down and rebuilt a brand new house.
2
SPEAKER_00
My interior designers got me a gift when we finished renovating the house.
2
SPEAKER_00
And the gift was a session with this spiritual woman where she comes into the home and she sages it and she talks to ghosts and asks them to leave.
2
SPEAKER_00
Basically getting rid of all of the bad energy and bad spirits, et cetera.
2
SPEAKER_00
Now I have an open mind, okay?
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t necessarily believe in ghosts.
2
SPEAKER_00
Why is my basement alarm going off?
2
SPEAKER_00
Did my security guard just get here?
2
SPEAKER_00
Okay, I think it was just my security guard accidentally made the alarm go off, but that never happens.
2
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
2
SPEAKER_00
Sorry.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m a little freaked out from the alarm going off in the middle of me talking.
2
SPEAKER_00
I have PTSD now from that.
2
SPEAKER_00
So that s all.
2
SPEAKER_00
What a coincidence.
2
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m very neutral when it comes to ghosts.
2
SPEAKER_00
I am very open-minded.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t strongly believe in them, but I also don t strongly not believe in them.
2
SPEAKER_00
I thought that this was a very generous gift, and I was open-minded about this person coming in and clearing all the bad energy from my house.
2
SPEAKER_00
So, I wasn t there the day that this woman came in and cleansed the energy of my home, but my mom was.
2
SPEAKER_00
She was at my house.
2
SPEAKER_00
And she told me later that the woman who saged my house told her that I did, in fact, have a ghost.
2
SPEAKER_00
And this ghost is a young boy, around 12 years old,
2
SPEAKER_00
And he s completely harmless, but he likes to play pranks.
2
SPEAKER_00
So if things ever go missing or anything unexplainable that occurs, that feels like a prank could be this 12 year old boy ghost.
2
SPEAKER_00
But she did say that she asked him to leave.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so it shouldn t be a problem.
2
SPEAKER_00
But if things like that ever start to happen, it s because it s him most likely.
2
SPEAKER_00
Now, we d only had one unusual occurrence prior to the saging, which was we had this ladder go missing.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like we had this huge ladder and it went missing and we couldn t explain it.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like, how do you lose a ladder?
2
SPEAKER_00
But then again, you know, the way that we rationalized it was there were a lot of people working on construction at the house.
2
SPEAKER_00
Somebody might ve taken the ladder on accident and taken it.
2
SPEAKER_00
back to the I don t know like we were like there are so many different construction teams here somebody must have taken this ladder on accident whatever and that could still be the case but I remember my mom was like oh my god that might be where the ladder went who knows
2
SPEAKER_00
Fast forward to a few months ago, maybe four months ago, my mom was in my garage doing something.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t even know what she was doing.
2
SPEAKER_00
And she misplaced her glasses.
2
SPEAKER_00
And she knew for a fact that she was wearing her glasses when she was in the garage, but she either put them down somewhere or they fell off her head.
2
SPEAKER_00
She couldn t remember, but she knew that she was wearing her glasses in the garage because
2
SPEAKER_00
she used them to read a label or something in my garage like she used them at some point in my garage and then at some point while she was in the garage they go missing she s like this is so weird like where could they be like did I did I bring them upstairs into the house like could they be in the kitchen or on Emma s desk like where are they
2
SPEAKER_00
She tells me about this.
2
SPEAKER_00
She s like, Emma, I lost my glasses.
2
SPEAKER_00
I cannot find them anywhere.
2
SPEAKER_00
I literally can t find them anywhere.
2
SPEAKER_00
It makes no sense.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was only in these few areas.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know where they could have gone.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s like they just poof, disappeared.
2
SPEAKER_00
This is so weird.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, all right, I ll keep an eye out.
2
SPEAKER_00
I ll let you know if I find them.
2
SPEAKER_00
I look around, I don t see them anywhere.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then during the weeks to follow, my mom and I are like constantly looking for these glasses.
2
SPEAKER_00
We re like, how did they go missing like this?
2
SPEAKER_00
Like where in the world could they have gone?
2
SPEAKER_00
We searched the whole house.
3
SPEAKER_00
We didn t just stick to the garage and the kitchen where she was that day.
3
SPEAKER_00
We start looking everywhere, and we cannot find these glasses.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then one day, randomly, probably a month after they d gotten lost, my mom and I are talking in my closet room, and we were talking about these glasses and how it was crazy that they went missing.
3
SPEAKER_00
And in this closet room, there s like sliding closet doors that open up to a small closet that hold my hoodies.
3
SPEAKER_00
And while I m talking to my mom about how her glasses went missing, I was like, you know what?
3
SPEAKER_00
I am kind of cold.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m going to open this closet and grab a hoodie and put it on.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I opened the sliding door to this closet.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I reach up to grab a hoodie and I pull it down.
3
SPEAKER_00
And in this closet, there are shelves below the hoodies.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like there s like a shelf separating the top level from the bottom level.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I look down and there are my mom s glasses folded up perfectly, just sitting right there.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I turn around and I say, look, and my mom looks and we start crying our eyes out.
3
SPEAKER_00
We start bawling our eyes.
3
SPEAKER_00
We re like, what the fuck?
3
SPEAKER_00
How did they get in here?
3
SPEAKER_00
Literally, I was like, is there any way?
3
SPEAKER_00
I m like screaming at her.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m like, is there any way that you were in this closet?
3
SPEAKER_00
She s like, no, there s no way.
3
SPEAKER_00
And even if I was, the glasses would have never been put down right there so perfectly.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, wait, but I ve gone into this closet at least a few times since this whole thing, and I never saw them here.
3
SPEAKER_00
How is this possible?
3
SPEAKER_00
She s like, I never went into this closet.
3
SPEAKER_00
We re crying.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then we start screaming at the ghost.
3
SPEAKER_00
Is it you?
3
SPEAKER_00
Were you the one who pranked us?
3
SPEAKER_00
We seemed like we were really going through it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like if somebody were to be a fly on the wall to see this whole spectacle, we were hysterical because we were like, this is so weird that the glasses are right here.
3
SPEAKER_00
And we were talking about it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then they showed up right there.
3
SPEAKER_00
It was like, the ghost heard us and put them right there.
3
SPEAKER_00
And we were like, what the fuck?
3
SPEAKER_00
Like, it was just, it s like, what, how did that even happen?
3
SPEAKER_00
Like, it s not like that s where I store my glasses.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t even store glasses there.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s not like I would have accidentally taken her glasses thinking that they were mine and put them in that closet because that s where my glasses belong.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, no, no.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s a closet I use for hoodies, okay?
3
SPEAKER_00
Glasses have never gone in that closet.
3
SPEAKER_00
It makes no sense.
3
SPEAKER_00
We could not figure out how the glasses got in there, and it did not make sense.
3
SPEAKER_00
It also didn t make sense that I hadn t seen them any sooner.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like, yeah, I don t grab a hoodie every day.
3
SPEAKER_00
I definitely don t.
3
SPEAKER_00
And especially not that time of year, too, because this sort of happened during the summer months.
3
SPEAKER_00
But we just we could not explain it.
3
SPEAKER_00
We simply could not explain it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it made us feel
3
SPEAKER_00
Like we were losing our minds.
3
SPEAKER_00
We couldn t figure out how this was possible.
3
SPEAKER_00
But ever since then, my mom and I believe that this 12 year old prankster ghost lives in my house.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it sort of explains why my cat got so scared and why the alarm decided to go off two minutes after I armed the house out of nowhere in a way that is unexplainable to my highly trained security team.
3
SPEAKER_00
I think I have a ghost.
3
SPEAKER_00
And you know what?
3
SPEAKER_00
It actually doesn t bother me, which I know sounds wild, but it really doesn t bother me as I spoke to this ghost and I don t know how to speak to ghosts.
3
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
3
SPEAKER_00
Cause I don t even know if I believe in them.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like, I don t know what, I don t know what s real.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t know what s not.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t.
3
SPEAKER_00
Again, I m open-minded, so I don t think it s dumb to try to speak to a ghost, because none of us know if ghosts are real.
3
SPEAKER_00
None of us.
3
SPEAKER_00
Not one of us.
3
SPEAKER_00
Not scientists, not anyone.
3
SPEAKER_00
We don t know what we don t know.
3
SPEAKER_00
So, ghosts could be real, and so I tried to talk to the ghost, and I said, listen, you can live here.
3
SPEAKER_00
You can live here.
3
SPEAKER_00
And you can even play little pranks on me.
3
SPEAKER_00
The whole thing with my mom s glasses, that was fine.
3
SPEAKER_00
That was innocent.
3
SPEAKER_00
Just don t make me think that I m going to die.
3
SPEAKER_00
That was too serious.
3
SPEAKER_00
If you re real and you re here, you can live here.
3
SPEAKER_00
You can hang out with me.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t mind.
3
SPEAKER_00
But just don t do that shit again because you took it too far, buddy.
3
SPEAKER_00
I literally was alone.
3
SPEAKER_00
in my house like talking to this ghost like dude cut it out all right simmer we re gonna have to take this down to a better level because where you re at right now uh-uh you re getting too brave with it you re getting a little bit too brave with it i m not gonna kick you out you know what you live here too maybe you lived here when you were before you died i don t know this can be your house too but you just need to respect me and my and my well-being because that was too far
3
SPEAKER_00
listen maybe it was just a crazy coincidence maybe uh this just i don t know like maybe this was just a rare series of events that s possible too i m open to that but whatever it was it definitely changed my perspective on things forever because even though i was totally safe the whole time without even realizing it i was so sure that something bad was happening that
3
SPEAKER_00
it almost feels in a weird way like something bad did happen.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_00
Even though nothing bad happened.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m so fucking lucky.
3
SPEAKER_00
I can t even express to you my gratitude that nothing serious happened and that this was all just a weird fluke or maybe it was a ghost.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_00
But in a weird way, my body still feels like it happened.
3
SPEAKER_00
And that s what I ve sort of been struggling with, like ever since.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m sort of traumatized by it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it makes sense because the level of fear and terror that I felt for those 17 minutes was so real.
3
SPEAKER_00
So my body went through a process as though it was happening.
3
SPEAKER_00
And that s been really fascinating to observe within myself how even though it didn t end up being a threat to me at all, my wellbeing at all, everything was fine.
3
SPEAKER_00
My body is processing it as though it did happen.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I ve been having horrible anxiety.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m tense.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I have a bunch of like back pain and neck pain because I ve been so tense.
3
SPEAKER_00
And my mental state has been really bad.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like I ve been very sensitive and irritable.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_00
And what is a positive takeaway is number one, updated security measures.
3
SPEAKER_00
You have no idea.
3
SPEAKER_00
That experience was like, okay, no, we re taking this more seriously now.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s number one.
3
SPEAKER_00
But number two, this new level of gratitude for being alive.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like I ve never experienced the reality of, oh my God, every day could be your last until that moment.
3
SPEAKER_00
And even though again, it wasn t real.
3
SPEAKER_00
I felt that so deeply and so vividly that
3
SPEAKER_00
I think I just have a new level of gratitude for being alive and I m much more aware of how fragile life is and in a lot of ways that makes me uncomfortable.
3
SPEAKER_00
It gives me a sense of existential dread, but on the other hand, it makes me feel more inspired to protect my life and every life around me because
3
SPEAKER_00
In a second everything can change and I m so lucky that I had just a false alarm And that wasn t even real and it was just my little ghost friend, but my god did it leave me with?
3
SPEAKER_00
Profound realizations.
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean the realizations that I just shared now are just scratching the surface.
3
SPEAKER_00
I think it permanently changed my brain and
3
SPEAKER_00
I m actually very grateful for this experience because I feel like my brain expanded from the experience without even experiencing the trauma that comes from something like that to the fullest.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I almost feel guilty about that in a way where I m like, okay, I had this profound experience through this, but I was safe the whole time, even though I didn t know that.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it made me empathize with those who have experienced anything similar.
3
SPEAKER_00
you know, a moment where your life is at risk like that.
3
SPEAKER_00
I, I had never experienced that feeling before.
3
SPEAKER_00
And so I could empathize with people, but not all the way.
3
SPEAKER_00
And now I, I have a whole new level of empathy.
3
SPEAKER_00
And for all of you who have experienced that feeling and for people who experienced that feeling and they were right in something bad was happening and maybe something bad did happen.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_00
This is, this whole thing has really, really moved me.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I m just so grateful that I m okay and that everything s fine and that, oh, but I just, oh my God.
3
SPEAKER_00
If we could have anything we want in this world, I would wish that feeling upon no one.
3
SPEAKER_00
No one, not even my worst fucking enemies.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t care.
3
SPEAKER_00
That is one of the worst feelings in the world.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh God, okay, I m done.
3
SPEAKER_00
So moral of the story is I think I have a ghost in my house, but maybe I m being dramatic.
3
SPEAKER_00
Maybe I m reading into things too much.
3
SPEAKER_00
Maybe I m creating a narrative around coincidences.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_00
But let me know what you think.
3
SPEAKER_00
Do you think I have a ghost?
3
SPEAKER_00
Do you think this is just a weird string of coincidences?
3
SPEAKER_00
Like, let me know on the Instagram at anythinggoes.
3
SPEAKER_00
You can follow me on Instagram at Emma Chamberlain.
3
SPEAKER_00
You can check out my coffee company, chamberlaincoffee.com.
3
SPEAKER_00
See if we re in a store near you or just order online, straight to your door.
3
SPEAKER_00
Boom.
3
SPEAKER_00
Coffee, matcha, cute little accessories.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s all happening on chamberlaincoffee.com.
3
SPEAKER_00
New episodes of Anything Goes.
4
SPEAKER_00
Thursday and Sunday.
4
SPEAKER_00
Video episodes exclusively on Spotify.
4
SPEAKER_00
Audio can be streamed wherever you stream podcasts.
4
SPEAKER_00
I love you all.
4
SPEAKER_00
I appreciate you all.
4
SPEAKER_00
Thank you for hanging out with me and listening to the story.
4
SPEAKER_00
And you might think that I m a little bit loopy for this one, but
4
SPEAKER_00
I feel like I m being pretty rational.
4
SPEAKER_00
So let me know what you think.
4
SPEAKER_00
And maybe I ll talk to you soon.
4
SPEAKER_00
Hey, I don t know.
4
SPEAKER_00
Maybe I ll talk to you soon.
4
SPEAKER_00
You down or no?
4
SPEAKER_00
Well, listen, you can come and hang out anytime.
4
SPEAKER_00
Just know that you re always welcome here.
4
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
4
SPEAKER_00
You re always welcome here.
4
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
4
SPEAKER_00
I love and appreciate you all.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I ll talk to you very, very soon.
4
SPEAKER_00
goodbye from me and my little 12 year old ghost.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m going to go play Monopoly with him or something.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I m going to go play Monopoly with him or something.
4
SPEAKER_00
All right.
4
SPEAKER_00
Talk to you later.
4
SPEAKER_00
Love you all.
4
SPEAKER_00
Bye.