OT: Personal Unsolved Mysteries

[LETTERL]

I went through the archives and didn't see a thread about this so if there is one...feel free to delete/close this one. I'm curious if anyone on the board has ever had experience with an unsolved mystery.

I have told very few people about a very strange episode that happened to me back in the summer of 1998. My family knows and a few close friends but I have kept it pretty much to myself over the years because I don't want people to think I'm crazy or out of my mind. But I figured with this board, I might be around some people who might offer plausible explanations or be willing to share some unusual events that have defied explanation through the years.

Back in late summer of 1998, I was driving home with my dog to spend some vacation time with my parents. I was driving a Buick Regal and on I-95, just north of Florence, South Carolina, I got a flat tire. Having trouble getting the wire-rim hubcap off so I could remove the flat, I was getting a little upset and was strongly thinking that I really needed someone to help me. This was in the days before cell phones were ubiquitous and I did not have one.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a tan jeep pulled off and stopped behind my car. I was grateful to have someone stop to offer assistance. A young guy, about my age (I was 32 in 1998) got out and came over to me. I explained the situation and he said he would help me if I would do him a favor. I do remember a whole slew of ideas running through my mind as to what this person wanted me to do but with little leverage and really needing to get back on the road, I was willing to do anything I had to to get assistance.

The young man said that all I needed to do was be quiet and listen to what he had to say. I got my dog out of the car and stood, oh, maybe 10 feet away and sat there. The guy squatted down and started taking off the hubcap and removed the tire. Up to this point, I had no reason to feel uneasy.

Then, the episode took on a bizarre turn. When the guy turned around to look at me, he said "Why don't you tell me about Steve?"...and when I looked at his face, his eyes glowed a bright yellow; they were not human eyes at all. It was a hot summer day but I remember at that instance, getting a very cold chill running through me because I had never told him what my name was and I just felt like I was in the presence of something I did not understand.

Interestingly enough, my dog never acted weird at all.


The guy proceeded to quote Bible scriptures and delivered a brief sermon on living life the right way. During this sermon, a state trooper did pull over to see if he could offer assistance but before I could say anything, the guy changing the tire took charge, telling the trooper that everything was under control and the trooper left the scene.

Then, after completing the act of changing the tire, put the flat tire in my trunk and closed the lid. Then, after I thanked him for helping me, he got in his jeep and drove away. Still a little unsettled over the whole episode, I did manage to drive to my parents' without any further incidents.

When I told my mother about this, she broke down in tears and said
"You were touched by an angel!" I didn't feel that way; I felt like I had met something that defied explanation. My return trip back to SC was uneventful and I thought that was the end of it. Then, the story got even stranger.

About a month later, I received a postcard in the mail. It was postmarked from North Carolina and all it said was "Did you make it to your parents? I hope you will think about what I told you." That was all. I got the chills all over again because how did whoever, or whatever it was that had changed my tire, found out where I lived? I certainly had not given that information.

Very strange, indeed. I'm not one given to flights of fancy, don't really believe in ghosts or spirits and always look for a plausible explanation for things. I still have the postcard so I know I'm not imagining it but for me, personally, this is the greatest unsolved mystery of my lifetime.

Do any of you have anything weird that has happened to you?

[bigsir58]

[QUOTE=LETTERL
About a month later, I received a postcard in the mail. It was postmarked from North Carolina and all it said was "Did you make it to your parents? I hope you will think about what I told you." That was all. I got the chills all over again because how did whoever, or whatever it was that had changed my tire, found out where I lived? I certainly had not given that information.

[/QUOTE]

It's possible the person got your address from your license plate number.

[justins5256]

I think I have posted this story before, but I can't recall. My Dad told me this story.

Many years before I was born, my Dad used to run with a "rough crowd." A good friend of his (I'll call him "Mike") turned up dead, and the police ruled his death either an accident or a suicide (I can't recall which) but my Dad is absolutely convinced the guy was murdered.

Mike was an occasional drug user. One day, Mike showed up at my Dad's apartment with a gun ranting about how he had been ripped off on a heroin deal and that he was going to go confront the dealer - a guy known only as "Candyman." Mike wanted my Dad to help him, but my Dad didn't want to get involved and declined. Mike left intent on finding and confronting Candyman himself.

A few days later, Mike's body was fished out of a local river. The police determined he had taken a shot of heroin and gone swimming and drowned. My Dad thought this was suspicious because he knew Mike was going to confront Candyman; the gun was never recovered; Mike's wallet and some jewelry he had was never recovered; and Candyman left town, never to return after the incident with Mike.

My Dad theorized that Mike went to confront Candyman. Candymaan always traveled with a gang, most likely for protection. My Dad thinks Candyman's cronies got the gun away from Mike, gave him an injection of heroin to induce an overdose, and put him in the river. Because Mike was a known drug user and had numerous prior run-ins with the law, the police didn't investigate Mike's death too deeply.

I never knew what to make of all of this, but want to believe my Dad was right.

[MegtheEgg86]

^ The man pulling your address from your license plate information is probably the most likely explanation, I think.

Regardless, that's an AMAZINGLY creepy thing to do, IMO. I don't blame you for feeling really unsettled by it instead of "touched"! Today it is relatively easy to obtain a name and address from a license plate with the Internet, but back in 1998, I'm thinking you probably had to submit a paper request to the applicable state DMV. Although it seems rather unlikely, it is also possible the man who changed your tire was an off-duty law enforcement officer who would have been able to later run your license plate. That someone would make such an effort to do this, however, seems pretty creepy.

I'm familiar with the interstate and location you mentioned. It seems like the closer you get toward the Myrtle Beach and South of the Border exits, the stranger the folks are you encounter on the road.

[TracyLynnS]

I've had A LOT of supernatural experiences. I've posted about them in detail in other threads, so those stories are around here somewhere. Mostly about time spent in my grandmother's house, which was definitely haunted, but other experiences too.

I actually had one today. My daughter is 8 weeks pregnant. Yesterday, at her doctor's visit, they couldn't find the baby on the ultrasound. The doctor said the hospital had better equipment, and she was scheduled to go there today at 1:00pm.

This morning, I was home alone, and woke up to the sound of my daughter's
voice in my ear. She said, "He's not on sonar" or something equally negative that sounded similar to that. It gave me the creeps, but I still kept thinking positive about the appointment at the hospital.

She had two ultrasounds and three doctors and they still can't see the baby on the sonogram/ultrasound. They think the baby stopped developing and are expecting her to have a miscarriage soon. I don't know if I overheard her thoughts, or if I was hearing part of a conversation she was having at the time, but it turned out that the voice was right.

I have heard other voices before. One time I heard my grandmother and mother having a conversation when they were six miles away. When they came home, I repeated the conversation to them and they said that it was exactly what they had said to each other.

When my son was a child he didn't know anything about the conversation I heard while miles away. About 20 years ago, he heard a conversation between me and his dad. He's 27 now and that's the only time it ever happened to him.

UM Category Miracles: I know people are gonna laff at me for this one, but it's one of the things I've experienced that makes it impossible for me to question if God really exists. Here goes... I get debilitating migraines that sometimes last for days. No drugs work to prevent them or dull the pain. A few years ago, I was on the third day of a horrific migraine. I was in bed with the blinds drawn, hadn't eaten or bathed, still wearing the same nightgown from a few days prior, when all of a sudden, I felt the pain leaving out through the top of my head, as if a hand hovered over my head and pulled the pain out. It was a physical sensation that I can't really describe. I could actually feel it being pulled through my brain and out of the top of my head. (I know, brains don't have nerves to "feel" things). Anyway, I was 100% better immediately.

Then my husband called from work and asked how I felt. I said, "Did you pray for me?" (Which is not a question I normally ask, it was just a spontaneous thing.) He said yes, he'd gone into a locked storage room, closed the door so he wouldn't be interrupted, and prayed specifically about my condition. It was at that exact moment that the pain left me.

UM Category Ghosts: When my grandmother died in 1988, she didn't have a viewing or a funeral service. One night, not long after she died, she came to me in my room and stood at the foot of my bed. She reached out to me, wanted me to take her hand, and tried to convince me that she was there to say a final goodbye. But it WAS NOT HER and I knew it. It's face looked exactly like the blank, black face on Resurrection Mary and it had an obvious evil presence. I don't know what it's purpose was or what it was trying to do but it was a terrifying experience, especially because I've had positive supernatural experiences and I knew for certain that this thing was impersonating my grandmother with some kind of evil intent.

UM Category Unexplained Phenomena: About 15 years ago, my husband had left for work, and I was sleeping in that morning. I had a dream about our dog, who always slept in the bed with us. I dreamed that he and I were in the kitchen on the floor and there was a little mouse there. He was playing with the mouse and I was encouraging him to play with it. We had fun, no mouses were harmed lol, then I woke up. My dog's forehead was pressed up against my forehead. He woke up at that moment too. I looked in his eyes and the way he looked at me, I knew we had both had the same dream at the same time.

Something similar, but scarier.... When my daughter was 4 she often had nightmares that scary creatures were chasing her and trying to get her. She never described to me what the things looked like, just that she was being chased by monsters and she was scared. One night, I dreamed that a hideous looking creature was chasing my daughter. It had a long pointed face with a huge mouth full of teeth. I ran after the thing and grabbed it away from her. I grabbed its upper jaw with one hand and its lower jaw with the other, then I wrenched as hard as I could in opposite directions. I could feel the flesh and tendons stretching and ripping. It was very realistic and scary.

The next day, my daughter told me she had another nightmare and described exactly what had happened. She dreamed the thing was chasing her, and I grabbed it away and killed it, just the way I had dreamed it, too.

UM Category Lost Loves: When my dad was in high school, he had a baby girl with his girlfriend. He was never in her life, so I never met her. She's 11 years older than me, and as an only child, there have been many times I've thought about trying to locate her, but so far, I haven't followed through.

[MegtheEgg86]

As far as personal mysteries go, a person I knew and grew up with disappeared over South America co-piloting a survey plane in 2008. He, nor the rest of the crew, nor the plane has ever been found.

My dad tells a story about my younger sister carrying around one of those tiny Gideons pocket New Testaments one day when she was very little--maybe about two and a half years old, so this would have been around 1990. The New Testament didn't belong to either of my parents and it certainly didn't belong to me as I was a toddler myself. When my dad asked her where she had gotten the book, she clearly stated, "Papaw gave it to me", referring to my paternal grandfather. He died the year before of cancer, and from my sister's birth in 1988 until his passing a year later, he was in nursing care almost the entire time. We never did figure out where that little New Testament came from, but as far as I know my sister still keeps it around.

[isotope]

Originally Posted by LETTERL

Then, the episode took on a bizarre turn. When the guy turned around to look at me, he said "Why don't you tell me about Steve?"...and when I looked at his face, his eyes glowed a bright yellow; they were not human eyes at all. It was a hot summer day but I remember at that instance, getting a very cold chill running through me because I had never told him what my name was and I just felt like I was in the presence of something I did not understand.

Interestingly enough, my dog never acted weird at all.


The guy proceeded to quote Bible scriptures and delivered a brief sermon on living life the right way. During this sermon, a state trooper did pull over to see if he could offer assistance but before I could say anything, the guy changing the tire took charge, telling the trooper that everything was under control and the trooper left the scene.

Wow, enjoying this thread - particularly this story.

A couple of questions:

Who, if anyone, was "Steve"?
Can you remember what scripture he quoted (I'm not religious - just curious)

As for getting your adress, are you certain that you didn't tell him anything about yourself ( even your first name). Alternatively, even if he didn't have any info on you, he may have serruptiously followed you to your parents (unsettling I know, but its a long time ago now)

[WishfulDreamer]

I don't have any really fascinating stories, but one that sort of perplexes me to this day. I was sitting in an alcove at a bookstore one evening, leisure reading. The store was relatively empty; family members I was with were on the opposite side. No one was in the alcove with me and there was nothing on the other side of the shelves but walls, if I recall correctly. The point is, no one was nearby at all. Suddenly, I hear my name whispered. It seemed to be right next to my ear, really close. I looked all around. No one was there. I left the alcove and looked around. This was a Borders so a pretty big store. I saw people at a distance checking out CDs and DVDs, but no one could have been "the whisperer." I wondered if I imagined it but it was just so vivid. I still get weirded out when I think about it.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by LETTERL

I went through the archives and didn't see a thread about this so if there is one...feel free to delete/close this one. I'm curious if anyone on the board has ever had experience with an unsolved mystery.

I have told very few people about a very strange episode that happened to me back in the summer of 1998. My family knows and a few close friends but I have kept it pretty much to myself over the years because I don't want people to think I'm crazy or out of my mind. But I figured with this board, I might be around some people who might offer plausible explanations or be willing to share some unusual events that have defied explanation through the years.

Back in late summer of 1998, I was driving home with my dog to spend some vacation time with my parents. I was driving a Buick Regal and on I-95, just north of Florence, South Carolina, I got a flat tire. Having trouble getting the wire-rim hubcap off so I could remove the flat, I was getting a little upset and was strongly thinking that I really needed someone to help me. This was in the days before cell phones were ubiquitous and I did not have one.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a tan jeep pulled off and stopped behind my car. I was grateful to have someone stop to offer assistance. A young guy, about my age (I was 32 in 1998) got out and came over to me. I explained the situation and he said he would help me if I would do him a favor. I do remember a whole slew of ideas running through my mind as to what this person wanted me to do but with little leverage and really needing to get back on the road, I was willing to do anything I had to to get assistance.

The young man said that all I needed to do was be quiet and listen to what he had to say. I got my dog out of the car and stood, oh, maybe 10 feet away and sat there. The guy squatted down and started taking off the hubcap and removed the tire. Up to this point, I had no reason to feel uneasy.

Then, the episode took on a bizarre turn. When the guy turned around to look at me, he said "Why don't you tell me about Steve?"...and when I looked at his face, his eyes glowed a bright yellow; they were not human eyes at all. It was a hot summer day but I remember at that instance, getting a very cold chill running through me because I had never told him what my name was and I just felt like I was in the presence of something I did not understand.

Interestingly enough, my dog never acted weird at all.


The guy proceeded to quote Bible scriptures and delivered a brief sermon on living life the right way. During this sermon, a state trooper did pull over to see if he could offer assistance but before I could say anything, the guy changing the tire took charge, telling the trooper that everything was under control and the trooper left the scene.

Then, after completing the act of changing the tire, put the flat tire in my trunk and closed the lid. Then, after I thanked him for helping me, he got in his jeep and drove away. Still a little unsettled over the whole episode, I did manage to drive to my parents' without any further incidents.

When I told my mother about this, she broke down in tears and said
"You were touched by an angel!" I didn't feel that way; I felt like I had met something that defied explanation. My return trip back to SC was uneventful and I thought that was the end of it. Then, the story got even stranger.

About a month later, I received a postcard in the mail. It was postmarked from North Carolina and all it said was "Did you make it to your parents? I hope you will think about what I told you." That was all. I got the chills all over again because how did whoever, or whatever it was that had changed my tire, found out where I lived? I certainly had not given that information.

Very strange, indeed. I'm not one given to flights of fancy, don't really believe in ghosts or spirits and always look for a plausible explanation for things. I still have the postcard so I know I'm not imagining it but for me, personally, this is the greatest unsolved mystery of my lifetime.

Do any of you have anything weird that has happened to you?

That was very creepy.

[TracyLynnS]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

That was very creepy.

I agree.

I've been trying to analyze it and was thinking that with it happening in the south in the 90s, I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a religious off duty cop helping out a motorist and spreading the Good News.

That would explain the sermon and why the actual uniformed trooper left so willingly, after the man told him that he had everything under control, but before LetterL could let the cop know whether she actually was safe or not.

It would also explain how he got her address. My father in law is friends with a cop and during the 80s and 90s, even though they're not supposed to do it, he would run any license plate my father in law asked about and would give him all the info associated with it. (I believe there have also been some cases of bad cops running plate numbers of women for their own purposes, stalking etc, and not for any legitimate reason.)

But then I keep going back to how did he know who "Steve" is, or is it just a common name and he made a good guess, like a cold reader? And then there's the yellow eyes. The only time I've experienced a human's eyes changing to an unnatural color, it was not a nice person and he was not interested in bible quotes, sermons, etc, tho he pretended to be.

[elg0rd0]

I have a couple, that I'm still trying to find an explanation for. Sometimes I think or feel like my imagination was mistaking something ordinary for something out of the ordinary. Ever since that day I've noticed small little things out of nowhere. It's not something I like to go into detail about for fear of being labeled a crackpot.

[Necco]

TracyLynn,
I'm sorry to hear about your daughter's pregnancy.
-necco

[TracyLynnS]

Originally Posted by Necco

TracyLynn,
I'm sorry to hear about your daughter's pregnancy.
-necco

Thank you so much necco! She's coming for a visit today. She's trying to keep a positive attitude, which will definitely help her if the worst happens.

BTW, I finally asked her about her conversation that morning and told her what I heard. She said she was talking to her husband about ultrasounds and sonograms, which must be the "sonar" part of the garbled words I heard.

I guess my long distance/remote hearing skills are declining in my old age lol, or maybe she was too far away for me to hear clearly. She lives about an hour away and the convo I heard back in the 80s was only 6 miles away.

These experiences have made me wonder what I've said that I thought was private, yet it was overheard by someone far away who wasn't even trying to listen in.

[rerungirl]

I hope my story fits into this category. It’s actually something that happened to my mom many years ago. I get a little emotional when I think about it because I know how much this experience meant to her. My mom’s mother, my grandmother Baker, died of kidney failure at a fairly young age. She had eight children and, in the hours before she died, talked to each of them individually. She told them how much she loved them and that even in death, she would never be far away from them. My mom was 17 when my grandmother passed. Thirty years later, mom was woken up from a deep sleep by her mother’s voice calling her name. She looked around the bedroom and saw that my dad was still asleep. She got up and checked on my brother and me, but we were sleeping too. She went back to bed but couldn’t sleep because she felt very strongly that something was wrong. She got up again and looked around the house, trying to see if anything was amiss. In the last room she checked, a spare bedroom, she smelled smoke. She opened the closet and some linens on the top shelf were on fire. The closet was lit by a single light bulb with no shade and the light had accidentally been left on. There was a new pillow, still in plastic wrap, on top of the linens, and the hot light bulb had melted the plastic and started the fire. Luckily it was caught in time before anything serious happened to the house or, most importantly, my family. This is the only time my mom ever heard her mom speak to her after she died. I absolutely believe this happened. There was no reason for her to make it up.

[TracyLynnS]

Rerungirl, I've heard stories very similar to that: a passed relative alerting a loved one to danger so they can be spared. I think that even though we can't yet explain why these things happen, they are real.