Transcript of Prey

Hey, Prime members. You can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballon podcast one month early, and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature three chilling horror stories that serve as a stark reminder. We are not always at the top of the food chain. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called The Hand That Feeds, and it's about a man who has a deadly secret inside of his apartment. The second story you'll hear is called Modern Day Dinosaurs, and it's about a man who sneaks into a predator's territory. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Cat and Mouse, and it's about a hunter who encounters something terrifying inside of a Russian forest. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

So if that's of interest to you, the next time the Amazon Music Follow button is writing something very important, go up and nudge their elbow. Okay, let's get into our first story called The Hand That Feeds.

The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea, and sex. But lately, life on the Coast has taken a strange turn. The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption. His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant. Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting. I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.

As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all. Legal proceedings have been initiated.

Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Chic for The Mystic and the Mayor, as we investigate a story of power, corruption, and magic. Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mayor, exclusively and add free right now on WNDRI Plus. Start your free trial in Apple podcast, Spotify, or the WNDRI app. Hello, I'm Jon Robbins, comedian and host of WNDRI's How Do You Cope podcast. I'm also, Plot Twist, an alcoholic. I've written a book, Thirst: Twelve Drinks That Change My Life, published by Penguin. Thirst is a book about alcohol. It's mystery, it's terror, it's havoc, it's strange meditations. But, John, I hear you cry. Isn't that a rather odd book to write for a sober man who, more than anything, to stop thinking about alcohol? Well, yes, but I had to go back to find out why the one thing I know will kill me still calls out across the night. It's the story of what alcohol did for me and what alcohol did to me. If that's of interest to you or someone you know, Thirst, 12 Drinks That Change My Life, is available to pre order now online and from all good bookshops.

On the evening of January 13, 2002, a 42-year-old man named Ronald Huff walked in the door of a studio apartment in the city of Newark, Delaware. He had just come back from visiting his grandmother, and now he was feeling really sick. Inside of his apartment, it was blazing hot, but that was by design. That's how he kept the temperature. Ronald took off his coat and threw it over one of the many handmade wooden cages that were strewn about his living room. Then he dragged himself over to his house phone, picked it up, and he called the auto dealership where he worked. When the office manager answered, Ronald told her that he would not be able to come into work the following day because he was feeling so unwell. He hung up the phone and then leaned on the counter for a second, feeling light-headed. Then suddenly, from behind him, he heard a hiss. Right away, Ronald turned around and walked over to his fridge, and instinctively, he reached out his right-hand to open the door. But as soon as he grabbed the handle and squeezed, he felt a shot of pain in his right-hand. He had forgotten that his right-hand was all bandaged up because it was injured.

And so grimacing, Ronald reached out with his left hand and he opened up the fridge that way. Then, after shutting the fridge, he walked over to the kitchen counter and he reached into a jar and he pulled out a whole fistful of live cockroaches. They were about two inches long each, and they wriggled around inside of his hand. He threw the cockroaches onto the ground and then watched as they scattered. Now that Ronald's chores were finished, he decided he would just go lay down because, again, he's feeling horrible. But as he walked across the kitchen towards his bedroom, that dizziness he was feeling earlier came back, and suddenly it was like the whole world was spinning around him and he could barely stay on his feet. He kept trying to walk towards his bedroom, but he just couldn't do it. And eventually, he stumbled and began to fall. Ronald lurched sideways and blindly stumbled to the right trying to catch himself, and the first thing he touched with his outstretched arm was the door to his apartment. And so he grabbed it and he tried to stay on his feet, but he couldn't. And so he turned his body around and pressed his back up against the door to steady himself.

But he was just so woozy and weak that eventually, he just slouched down to the ground, back against the door, feet out in front of him. Slow he let his eyes close. As Ronald passed out, all he could hear were the sounds of roaches scurrying and chicken bones crunching. Three days later, Ronald's neighbor heard the crackle of police walkie-talkies out in the hallway. He opened his door and he saw two police officers and the superintendent of their building standing in front of Ronald's door. So this neighbor liked Ronald and knew him to be a nice, quiet guy, and so he couldn't imagine why police would be at his door. But then he thought about it, and he actually hadn't seen Ronald in several days. The neighbor watched as the police officers knocked on Ronald's door, waiting for Ronald to come out, but the door never opened. And after a few minutes of knocking, the police finally stepped back from the door and gestured for the superintendent to step forward and use his key to open the door. Then after the superintendent had done that, the neighbor watched as the police officers tried to open the door but couldn't.

It was like there was something really heavy blocking the door from opening. Finally, both police officers leaned hard enough on the door that they got it to open up just a little bit. The neighbor watched as the officer stuck their heads into the apartment and then jumped back with their hands on their guns. Then one of the cops grabbed their radio and began frantically talking into it, and then the neighbor watched as the officers and the superintendent quickly walked down the hallway out of sight, leaving Ronald's apartment door partially open. And as the neighbor heard the sound of sirens wailing outside, he took a cautious step into the hallway and realized he could actually see into Ronald's apartment through the open door. And what he saw inside of there was so horrifying that for a second, the neighbor just froze. And then a second later, he backed into his own apartment and slam the door behind him. Hours later, this neighbor could not get the image of what he had seen in Ronald's apartment out of his head. So he grabbed a piece of paper and just began sketching the bizarre scene. It would turn out Ronald had a secret.

And on the evening of January 13, 2002, right after Ronald had called in sick to his work, that secret killed him. On the floor is Ronald's dead body. His face, his ears, his hands, and his internal organs had all been eaten. And surrounding Ronald were the giant monitor lizards that he was secretly keeping as pets. He had seven of them, which he fed roaches and raw chicken, and allowed to just free roam his apartment. They ranged in size from 2 feet to 6 feet long. These are massive lizards. And unfortunately for Ronald, not only are monitor lizards carnivores, but also their mouths are filled with deadly bacteria. The reason Ronald's hand was bandaged up, his right-hand, is because one of his lizards, a week prior to his death, had bit his hand and the bacteria had given him this horrible staff infection. And it was that staff infection a week later that very likely caused him to pass out inside of his apartment. And then after that, he was eaten by the lizards. Now, it's assumed he died from the staff infection and then was consumed. However, the autopsy couldn't prove that. And so it is possible he may have been still alive when they began to eat him.

After Robert's death, his lizards were taken from his apartment and placed in the Catocton Wildlife Preserve and Zoo in Thurmont, Maryland. Our next story is called Modern Day Dinosaurce. Off the Coast of mainland Southeast Asia in the Indian and Pacific oceans lies Indonesia, which is the world's largest archipelago. It's made up of 17,508 individual islands that if you were measuring from the westernmost point on the westernmost island to the Easternmost point on the Easternmost island, it would be 5,000 kilometers right across the equator, so it spans one eighth of the world's circumference. Many of these islands are tiny, uninhabited, and unremarkable. At first glance, you might think that about one particular island that's located 2,500 kilometers north of Australia. I would tell you the name of this island, but if I did, I would be giving away the island's secret. Living on this island are 2,000 people who are direct descendants of former convicts who were exiled to this island. They share this island with a particular predator that is endemic to this island who is a direct descendant of flesh-eating dinosaurs. It can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh up to 350 pounds, and its taste buds are so immaculately developed.

It can taste blood in the air up to nine kilometers away. These creatures are so good at smelling blood and death that any time there is a burial on this island, they have to put big boulders over the gravesite Otherwise, these creatures will come running out of the jungle and dig up the freshly deceased and eat them. This creature's bite is savage, and they certainly have the ability to rip a person in two, and in the past, they have, but they don't typically bite to kill. They bite to create a massive flesh wound so they can inject venom into the wound site. This allows them to not expend a ton of energy waiting for their prey to die so they can eat it. They basically bite you, poison you, leave, come back within 24 hours, and then they eat you. These creatures are strict carnivores and have a voracious appetite where they will eat up to 80% of their own body weight in a single day. They've been known to bite goats and eat them whole by opening up their mouth and ramming the body of the goat into a tree to force it down their throats.

But when goats and sheep and Buffalo are not enough to feed their appetite, they start eating each other. In fact, cannibalism is so common that their young will hide in the trees for the first four years of their life, hiding from their own parents, because if they're spotted by an adult, they'll be eaten. On top of all this, they can climb, run, and swim faster than a human can. These apex predators are called Komodo Dragons, and they live on this one island in Indonesia called Komodo Island. In 2009, a 31-year-old fisherman named Mohamed Anwar, who had grown up on Komodo Island and was living there at the time, decided he wanted some fruit. He normally would just eat the apples that were right outside of his house, but he had always been tantalized by the sugar apple trees that were inside of the fenced off section of Komodo Island, the so-called forbidden section. This section was, of course, teeming with Komodo Dragons. And so as a result, the locals basically fenced it off and said, We don't go over there. They don't come over here. But Mohamed had always wanted those sugar apples. He had grown up here, and he never got to have one.

And so this day, for whatever reason, he decided, Today is the day I'm going to get one. And so he goes over to the fence, and he's looking out, and there's some fairly tall grass, so he can't see what's on the immediate other side of this fence, but it's pretty open. Then he can see the trees. They're a little bit off in the distance. And so after looking around and feeling like the Coast was clear, he hopped the fence and he ran out to the sugar apple tree. Muhammad's neighbor, Theresa Tawa, was outside and happened to look over at Muhammad right as he hopped the fence into the forbidden section. And so she ran over to the fence and yelled to him to come back, but he didn't hear her. And so she's standing at the fence, looking out, scanning herself to see if there's any Komodo Dragons out there, and she didn't see any. And so she turns her attention to Muhammad, and she's watching him hoping that he just gets the apples and comes back without incident. And as she's watching, she sees he's reaching out and extending his arm just far enough.

He wants to get one more apple, and he loses his footing, and he falls to the ground. From her perspective, she couldn't see Muhammad on the ground because the tall grass obscured him. So she didn't know if he's laying there unconscious or if he's just rolling around and he's in pain and he's about to stand up. And so she's just looking anxiously hoping he stands up soon. And then she hears the sound of two Komodo Dragons running through the tall grass. She can see the grass moving as these two massive creatures are running and grunting at full speed towards Muhammad. Muhammad, when he fell, he had cut himself, and they smelled his blood. And they charged over, and Theresa could only scream and yell for help as these two Komodo Dragons ate Muhammad. The authorities were able to get out there pretty quickly, and they were able to get the Komodo Dragons off before they actually consumed him, but he was already dead. Today, you can actually go to Komodo Island as a tourist, but it costs you $1,000 US dollars to get a membership fee. And then once you get there, you're only allowed to be in a couple of different sections that are totally regulated, and you're really not anywhere near the Komodo Dragons because it really is extremely dangerous.

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I'm John Robbins, and on my podcast, I sit down with incredible people to ask the very simple question, How do you cope? From confronting grief and mental health struggles to finding strength in failure. Every episode is a raw and honest exploration of what it means to be human. It's not always easy, but it's always real. Whether you're looking for inspiration, comfort, or just a reminder that you're not alone in life's messier moments, join me on How Do You Cope. Follow now wherever you get your podcasts, or listen to episodes early and ad free on WNDRI Plus. How Do You Cope is brought to you by Audible, who make it easy to embark on a wellness journey that fits your life with thousands of audiobooks, guided meditations, and motivational series.

The next and final story of today's episode is called cat and mouse. On the afternoon In the morning of December 6, 1997, a man named Yuri Trush drew his rifle and crept silently through a remote forest in Eastern Russia as he and his team of three other armed men and his dog followed this trail of pink snow. All of the men and the dog were on very high alert because they knew someone or something was out in these woods watching them. After walking for a while, Yuri and his crew spotted a small cabin up ahead in this clearing. This cabin, they knew, belonged to a guy named Vladimir Markov, who was a hunter who had gone missing recently. And that was actually why Yuri and his crew were out here. They were searching for Vladimir. But as Yuri and his crew got closer to this cabin, Yuri couldn't help but feel really terrified. Yuri was a 47-year-old big-time weightlifter, an ex-military guy who was also a seasoned hunter. I mean, this is a tough, strong guy. But as he walked up on Vladimir's cabin, It was super obvious that something horrible and violent had happened here.

All around the scene was pieces of broken furniture. There was a ceramic sink that was shattered outside, and the pieces were everywhere. There was a bunch of beehive boxes that had been badly damaged. There was the shed that clearly had been ripped to pieces. And also all over the area outside of this cabin was blood. And this pink trail of snow, this blood trail they were following, led right up to the front door of this cabin, where there was also a big streak of blood on the front door. Now, even though Yuri was scared to go any further, he knew he was in charge, and he had to go and look inside that cabin to see if maybe Vladimir was there. And so When Yuri walked into the bloody clearing, he made his way up to the front door of the cabin, and with his crew right behind him on the porch, he used his rifle and pushed the door inward. Now, at first, Yuri didn't see anything inside the cabin because his eyes hadn't adjusted and there were no windows, so no light was coming into the cabin. But after a second of Yuri standing in the doorway with his rifle to make sure there was no threat inside the cabin, his eyes adjusted and he realized Vladimir was not in there, and in fact, the cabin looked abandoned.

So Yuri stepped inside, and he looked around, and immediately he noticed all the walls inside this cabin were covered in these deep gouges and scratches. And then he looked on the ground, and he found more wrecked furniture and lots more blood. But in a weird way, this actually gave Yuri some hope that maybe Vladimir was alive. He might be badly hurt, but if he's not here, he must be somewhere. And so Yuri turned around and he walked out of the cabin and right as he stepped onto the snow with his men and his dog right behind him, three things happened, practically all at once. The first thing was, Yuri's dog began whining uncontrollably and running in circles. Number two, there were all these crows in the trees nearby that just all at once suddenly flew into the sky and disappeared. And the third thing was this unbelievably loud, growling sound that seemed to be coming from somewhere really far away and also somewhere really close. It was like the forest itself was growling. Five days earlier, on December first, the soon-to-be missing hunter Vladimir Markov decided to give up on another unsuccessful hunt, and he slung his rifle over his shoulders, and he lit a cigarette under his big bushy mustache, and he and his three dogs turned around and began the slow walk back to their small cabin in the middle of the woods.

Vladimir was really frustrated because he had been staying in this cabin in the woods, away from his wife, away from his family, to try to hunt some game and bring some meat back. But so far, he hadn't caught anything. But as his three dogs rounded a corner in this forest, he spotted something up ahead that was like an answer to his prayers. He saw there was a dead boar just lying out in the middle of the forest, and it was in this big pool of blood, and there was still steam coming off of the body, which meant this was a fresh kill. Vladimir Vladimir raised his rifle in case whatever had killed this animal was nearby. But when he didn't see anything, he just went with his dogs over to the carcass, and he pulled out a hatchet, and he cut off two big haunches of meat from this boar. Vladimir knew it was totally in bad form to steal another potential hunter's kill, although he didn't know if a hunter had killed the spoor or if another animal had killed the spoor, but he still felt bad about what he was doing. However, Vladimir was desperate.

He didn't have any meat, and here it was, so he took the opportunity. After Vladimir had wrapped up this meat and put it in his bag, he and his three dogs jogged the last few miles back to the cabin, and when they got there, it was basically pitch black outside. Now Vladimir was not scared of the forest at night, but he knew there were predators out here at night, so he needed to act quickly. So he rushed over to his small shed that was right outside of his cabin, and he put the boar meat inside, shut the door, and locked it, and then he turned to go into his cabin to retire for the night. But after taking only a couple of steps towards his cabin, he realized his three dogs had not followed him. And so he turned around and he saw the three dogs were totally on edge, looking out beyond the shed where he had just put the meat. They were looking out into the dark forest. Now remember, he's all alone in the middle of the woods here. It's nighttime. There's no visibility. And so Vladimir grabbed his flashlight, and he shined it roughly in the direction that the dogs were looking, like they had seen something.

And he's shining his light, but all he sees are just dark trees and nothingness. There was nothing there. Vladimir did his best not to panic, but he couldn't help but feel like there was a predator nearby, and his dogs had picked up on it, and so he just wanted to get inside the cabin and shut and lock the door as quickly as possible. And so he began backing up towards the door of his cabin while calling his dogs towards him, and two of the dogs followed. But a third dog just stayed where she was and continued to wine and growel and look out away from the cabin in this direction that all the dogs were looking. But eventually, this dog just took off running into the forest. Vladimir, who loved his dogs, screamed and screamed for this dog to come back, but the dog didn't. And so Vladimir just stood there with his two dogs in front of his cabin door, listening to the bark of this third dog getting farther and farther away into the woods. And then suddenly Vladimir heard his dog start to wimper. And then it was like the forest erupted with the loudest growl he had ever heard in his life.

And then there was silence. Vladimir was horrified and just instinctively grabbed the two other dogs and stumbled into his cabin and shut and locked the door behind him. Now Vladimir adored his three dogs. Those were his closest friends in the world, and all he wanted to do was run out there and save that third dog. But just based on how loud that growl was, he knew whatever was out there would kill him. And so this was a suicide mission if he went out there. And so he decided he would just stay put with the two dogs, and he just hoped that his third dog somehow survived its encounter with whatever was out there. But after sitting in his cabin for only a couple of minutes, consoling his two other dogs, Vladimir heard more activity outside of his cabin. He heard what sounded like woods splintering and breaking. Now, there were no windows in Vladimir's cabin. However, he had drilled a a couple of holes, very small holes, in each of the walls of the cabin so he could look out and use them as hunting blinds. Vladimir ran to the hole that looked out the front of his cabin towards where his shed was and where this wood-breaking sound was coming from.

And when he looked out through this hole, remember, it's the middle of the night. There's no lights outside, so we couldn't really see anything. But even in the darkness, when he looked roughly in the direction of the shed where the boormeet was, he could clearly see this huge shadowy creature moving around really violently, like its body was jerking in different directions. And it was obvious to Vlad that whatever this creature was, it was ripping his shed two pieces, breaking all the wood apart, probably to get in and get the boar meat. And that's when it dawned on Vladimir that whatever this creature was, it very likely was the creature that killed the boar that he stole. And now this creature was back to reclaim its meat. And so as Vladimir realized that, he just hoped that whatever this creature was, once it had its boar meat back, that it would just leave and not come after him. However, after this creature had totally decimated the shed, and so by default had clearly reached the boar meat inside, the creature didn't leave. It just sat down and stared in the direction of Vladimir and the cabin.

And for several hours, Vladimir just continued to stare out this hunting blind hole at this shadow creature that not moving. And after a while Vladimir got tired. The creature wasn't moving. It's the middle of the night. He'd been really busy all day. And so at some point Vladimir and his two dogs dozed off. And when they woke up a couple hours later, when it was still dark outside, Vladimir looked out the hole again and he saw the creature was actually now gone. For a second Vladimir was relieved. He's thinking, great, this thing's gone. I'm safe now. But just to make sure, he wanted to go to the other holes he had drilled in the walls of his cabin to look out in all four directions and make sure this creature really was gone. So he stood up and he walked over to one side. He looked out that hole and all he saw was dark forest, nothing there. He walked to the other side of the cabin to another one of these holes. He looked out it and again, just dark forest, no creature. Then Then he goes to the back of his cabin and looks out that hole, and this time, again, he does see just dark forest.

But then suddenly something slammed into the wall that he's looking through. And then just as suddenly as this huge collision has happened, as Vladimir is still looking out the hole, this massive yellow eye suddenly lowers down and looks right back through the hole right at Vladimir. It was the shadowy creature that had broken into the shed and it had never left. And this creature, after quickly looking at Vladimir through the hole, it backed up a little bit, exposing its entire face to Vladimir. Vladimir, who's so scared, he can't move. He's just looking out the hole the whole time. He sees this enormous face with all this fur that's covered in blood. It's got these enormous teeth and its mouth is open, and it's staring right at him like it wants to jump on him and kill him. And then this creature winds up and swipes at the hole and literally rips a bunch of wood off the side of the cabin. And reflexively Vladimir just grabs his rifle, raises it, and fires a shot through the hole at this creature, and the creature wimpers, turns around, and runs off. Vladimir would stay up the rest of the night, anxiously looking through each of the holes around his cabin, just anticipating this horrible thing to come right back and try to attack him again.

But eventually, the sun came up and the creature did not come back, and so Vladimir was thinking, Okay, now I'm safe. I can go outside and figure out what's happened here and figure out my next move. Vladimir grabbed his dogs. He went to his door. He opened it up. He stepped outside and looked around. He didn't see anything. As a precaution, he fired his rifle into the air to scare off any animals that could be nearby. When clearly the creature wasn't here, there's nothing here, he's all alone, he stepped down onto the snow and he noticed these huge prints in the snow, which had to be from this shadowy creature that had tried to attack him. But now that it was daylight, Vladimir can look at these prints up close and he knew what creature this was. This was a Siberian tiger, and this was an enormous Siberian tiger. But that was not the most terrifying part of this discovery. Instead, it was what Vladimir saw these prints doing. These prints circled around the cabin over and over and over again, which meant the night before, after Vladimir fell asleep, this tiger had come up and basically begun stalking him and his two dogs.

It It must have known they were in the cabin. Then at some point, maybe the tiger saw Vladimir's eye inside of that little hole he was looking through, and the tiger tried to pounce. But Vladimir is thinking to himself, something's wrong with this Siberian tiger. While Siberian tigers are certainly dangerous to people, they are not known for actively hunting people. That's not something they do. But based on these prints, and just generally based on what Vladimir saw the night before, it seemed very likely that this Siberian Tiger was actively stalking Vladimir. But even though Vladimir was totally terrified by this point, the only thought really going through his mind at this point was going out and trying to find his missing third dog. He knew the chances of his dog still being alive were slim, but he had to go look. However, he knew he would need backup in case he ran into this Siberian Tiger. So Vladimir put his two dogs on leashes, and then with them in hand, he began running towards his neighbor's house. It would take Vladimir and his dogs about one hour to run the four miles to his neighbor's cabin.

And when he got there, he knocked, and his neighbor, whose name was Ivan, he opened the door, and Vladimir practically ran Ivan over just trying to get inside of his cabin to safety. And then once Vladimir was inside, and Ivan had shut the door, and he's looking at Vladimir, and then Vladimir just vomited out all the stuff that had happened over the past twelve to 24 hours. And at the end of telling Ivan the story, Vladimir asked him, Would you please come with me to go find my dog? And Ivan, he just stared at Vladimir and eventually just said, No. And then, after a long, awkward silence, Ivan backed up from Vladimir like he didn't want to be near him. And then Ivan told Vladimir that Vladimir had been marked by the tiger, and now the only hope he had was getting as far as humanly possible away from this tiger, because that tiger is never going to stop, and it's going to eventually track you down and kill you. Vladimir felt totally let down, but he couldn't force Ivan to go with him. And so he said, Okay, I understand. And then Vladimir left Ivan's cabin.

He went back outside, and the instant he was back on the snow, one of his two dogs suddenly acted like they had heard something or seen something, and they took off running. Vladimir didn't have a chance to grab the dog's leash, and so he's watching as, yet again, one of his dogs is disappearing into the forest. Now Vladimir did not chase after this second dog because he knew there was this Siberian Tiger out there, and he couldn't risk running into it by himself. Again, it totally pained him to watch his beloved dog vanish into danger, but he really couldn't do anything about it right then. And so instead Vladimir spent the rest of this day going cabin to cabin all over this area, asking all his neighbors, please come with him to help him track down his dogs. But each of the people he spoke to just said no for the same reasons Ivan did. They said, Vlad, you have been marked by the Tiger. I'm not going out there with you. And so finally, as darkness began to fall, Vladimir and his one remaining dog just gave up trying to get help, and they turned around and began walking back towards their cabin.

It was nearly pitch black by the time Vladimir and his dog arrived at the cabin, and when they got there, even though he could barely see anything, Vladimir knew something was terribly wrong. Vladimir's outdoor sink, which sat right outside of his cabin, was broken to pieces like something had smashed it, and then also all of his beekeeping boxes had been broken apart, and there were obvious teeth marks all over it. Now, these two things had not happened when he had left that morning to try to go get help, which meant very likely, these Siberian Tiger had come back and done this damage, and very likely was still in the area. And so all Vladimir is thinking is, I have to get in my cabin as fast as possible and shut and lock that door. And so Vladimir grabbed his last dog, and very carefully, he maneuvered his way through all the wreckage. He went up to his front door, and as he's about to open it up, he hears wimpering. And it sounds like one of his dogs who's gone missing, and the wimpering is coming from inside of his cabin. Without Without any hesitation, Vladimir flung the door the rest of the way open, and he looked inside, and he couldn't see anything at first.

But then he noticed there was this pile of broken up furniture from the day before, and the wimpering appeared to be coming from underneath it. And so Vladimir rushed over, and he began moving the furniture out of the way. And sure enough, underneath it, he finds one of his missing dogs who's been very badly hurt, but who is still alive and who is Wimpering. And so Vladimir, he's so happy that one of his dogs is okay, and he grabs his dog. But unfortunately for Vladimir, this was a trap. Now, we don't know this for sure, but the leading theory is this Siberian Tiger actually set this trap on purpose to catch Vladimir. It's believed that this Tiger wounded the dog, so the dog would begin to wimper, luring Vladimir out, at which point the Tiger could pounce. Four days later, that armed search party led by Yuri, arrived at Vladimir's cabin. They found it destroyed with blood everywhere. They went inside. There was nothing there. They came back outside. And that's when Yuri's dog began running in circles and the crows flew into the air, and they heard that deafening roar like The whole forest was roaring.

Well, that was the sound of the Siberian Tiger. Luckily, though, Yuri was not just some rugged outdoorsman. He was actually a member of something called the Inspection Tiger Unit, which basically is like a SWAT team that responds to Tiger attacks. And so when Yuri heard this unbelievable roar, he just started walking straight towards it. But with every step Yuri and his team took into the forest, the roars coming from this Tiger faded farther and farther away from them. But at the same time, Yuri began to notice on the ground little straps of clothing. And so Yuri and his team, instead of trying to follow this roar, they just began following these bits of clothing. And these straps eventually led them to a big clearing in the forest, and in this clearing were these two big red circles in the snow. And so Yuri and his men carefully approached these circles, and when they realized what was in them, they just stood there in silence. In the center of the left circle was a heap of Vladimir's clothing, and then underneath them were just bits and pieces of Vladimir, like he was ripped apart into different pieces and piled up in this circle.

And in the other circle, the right circle, was Vladimir's head, and it had been completely skinned. And after seeing this, Yuri and many other people have come to the conclusion that this Siberian Tiger attacked Vladimir just for revenge, that This tiger felt like Vladimir was encroaching on its territory. It stole its boar kill. And then also Vladimir had shot the tiger, wounding it, which only incited the tiger more. And so finally, the tiger laid a trap and caught Vladimir and ripped him to pieces and then displayed him for the search party to find. Yuri and his team would eventually find and kill this Siberian tiger. But by this point, the tiger had actually managed to kill at least one other hunter, and very much in the same way it killed Vladimir, by luring this hunter into a trap, and then pouncing, and killing, and ripping the hunter to pieces, and then displaying them, basically warning other hunters not to come in here. And while the death of this Tiger certainly made Yuri and other people living in this area feel more safe. At the same time, Yuri has been told by other locals that unfortunately now, because of his brush with this tiger, he has been marked by the tiger, just like Vladimir.

And so, according to legend, at some point, unless Yuri goes far, far away, he's going to be tracked down and killed by a tiger. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballen podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive-produced by me, Mr. Ballen. Our head of writing is Evan Allen. Our head of production is Zack Levet. Produced by Jeremy Bone. Research and fact-checking by Shelle Shuh, Samantha Van Hoos, Evan Beemer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan. Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen E. Er. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacassio and Cole Lacassio. Additional audio editing by Jordan Stidham. Mixed and mastered by Brenda Cain. Production Coordination by Samantha Collins. Production support by Antonio Monada and Delaina Corley. Artwork by Jessica Clogston-Kyner. Theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugdon. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Balin podcast. If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. There's this one, the Mr. Balin podcast, as well as Mr. Balin's Medical mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Full, Redacted, Late Nights with Nexbo, and A Twist of History.

All you have to do is search for Balin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Balin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time. See you. Hey, prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballen podcast one month early, and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondry. Com/survey.