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Phantom Hitchhikers & Road Ghosts

And conversly, travelling a route you know you haven't been on before and it all seeming familiar.

I have had the situation where things that should have been on the route weren't there, but I put that down to memory conflation. And I'm sure I've had the full on 'where the heck am I' experience on a known route - I remember having it, but I can't remember the circumstances! Old age, I'm afraid.
 
smokehead said:
My brother told me a bloke told him he was cycling along the towpath of the Tame Valley canal when a dog suddenly ran out from the scrub at the side
The bloke said he didn't hit it, he went straight through it!
I feel only confident enough to say I do have a brother. He did tell me that story. The Tame Valley canal does exist.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tame_Valley_Canal
 
Kudos to somebody, they have done a stirling job of that Wiki page.
When we were young and stupid, me and my mate Hughesy went fishing up the cut.
Sub zero temperatures meant it was frozen solid, and the only place clear of ice was the motorway bridge after it turns off towards Rushall.
Obviously we didn't catch anything, we also didn't see a soul all morning.
It started snowing and I had to answer a call of nature.
Perhaps I was less guarded than usual, even brazen, but I heard a snicker behind me.
There was on the opposite bank a young woman on a horse, the only person we saw all day. Her reaction I've forgotten but I will go to the grave swearing that horse was laughing at me.
 
Cochise said:
And conversly, travelling a route you know you haven't been on before and it all seeming familiar.

I have had the situation where things that should have been on the route weren't there, but I put that down to memory conflation. And I'm sure I've had the full on 'where the heck am I' experience on a known route - I remember having it, but I can't remember the circumstances! Old age, I'm afraid.
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I was on the 79 to Wolverhampton and saw some houses my memory insisted weren't there before, not new builds either.
Travelling home on a dark winters night on the bus with all the windows steamed up can be disorienting, I've often wiped a patch of window clear and wondered where the heck I am.
 
I had that two weeks ago. Looked up from my book on my daily train commute and couldn't recognize the view from the window. Somehow in all those years I never noticed this area. Admittedly, it's a very boring view and very forgettable. Still, a nice experience.
 
I must have driven up the Calder Valley from Hebden Bridge to Todmorden Lidl countless times in the nine years I lived there. But these houses on the left, in front of the medical centre, came as a tremendous shock to me seven or so years after we initially moved to the area. They have clearly been there longer than either the medical centre or the supermarket. But I had never paid conscious attention to them before, and I was genuinely quite perturbed when I finally did notice them. It's not like they're easy to miss...

streetview
 
JamesWhitehead said:
It sounds too obvious but was there something on the site of the carpark? I guess they were originally part of a whole street that has otherwise gone. :confused:
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I think that's right - the medical centre and supermarker have been there at least since 2006. My assumption is there were mills between the road and the Rochdale canal (not visible, but between the medical centre on far left and the tree line), and probably a terrace of houses lining the road, of which these two are survivors. The mills probably "went on fire", as so many buildings from that era mysteriously did, and were subsequently cleared, leaving brownfield sites for medical centres, budget retailers and the like.

What I'm trying to say, though, is that there were no major changes during the period I lived in that part of the world. But for some reason those houses never impinged on my awareness, until suddenly they did.
 
GNC said:
Here's a goodie reported in the latest FT:
http://www.odditycentral.com/tag/pedro-peirone

Phantom hitchhiker disappears - but leaves evidence! His smoking footprints on the mat on the passenger side! Explain that! There's picture and everything!
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The Oddity Central version of March 7 states the hitchhiker disappeared "from the front passenger seat", and claims Peirone stepped out to check a burning smell upon arriving at the place where the young man asked to be dropped off, and only then noticed the passenger had disappeared.

This March 8 version from Spain / in Spanish:

https://blogs.20minutos.es/becario/...ista-fantasma-hasta-un-cementerio/#more-21646

... states Peirone stopped, the boy got out, and only then did Peirone notice the burning smell. It was after checking his truck for an overheating issue that he noticed the boy was nowhere in sight.

This sequence of events is also given in this other Spanish language article (from Argentina) on March 1:

https://translate.google.com/transl...fombra-camioneta_0_H1DM-qV_M.html&prev=search

Neither account claims the shoe prints were 'smoking', but only that they were visibly melted into the floor mat.

The incident apparently occurred back in February. It's summer in Argentina, and it's been quite hot in Santa Fe Province.

Did anyone check to see if the melted shoe prints matched Peirone's shoes or shoe size?

P.S.: The Google Translate translations of those Spanish language articles (particularly the 2nd one) contain some truly bizarre phrasing.
 
The Oddity Central article was all I could find in English, I'm afraid. I'm never sure how far to trust Google Translate to be accurate. You get the gist, but the details can be fuzzy.
 
Hospitaller said:
road wraiths

Anyone ever heard of road wraiths? I heard of them from a colleague from Ulster who told me of her brother's experience with one.
Apparently they appear as half of a human body. The split can be in any plane, so you can just imagine the horror! He ran one over as it popped up in front of him, and of course when he got out of the car :eek!!!!: it was gone.
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Slightly different take on the road ghost meme.

The A27 between Worthing and Brighton was the site of an odd event told to me by a mate of mine.

He used to buy and sell old classic cars and had purchased a Daimler Sovreign at Shoreham car auction. He was on his way back home and had just passed the Southwick hill tunnel when he happened to glance in the rear view. He saw an old man with grey hair sitting on the back seat, apparently he saw the guy was wearing a light tan expensive looking overcoat and a collar and tie but, as soon as their eyes met, the old boy "slid" a cross the seat and out of sight.

Obviously my friend started shouting at the passenger who he thought must have crept in their for a nap at the auction and immediately pulled over...you guessed it. There wasn't anyone in the car with him.

This is a sensible guy who was genuinely perplexed and quite shaken up as the old boy was as solid as you or I.

He sold that car the next day making no profit.
 
Nick Smith said:
Slightly different take on the road ghost meme.

The A27 between Worthing and Brighton was the site of an odd event told to me by a mate of mine.

He used to buy and sell old classic cars and had purchased a Daimler Sovreign at Shoreham car auction. He was on his way back home and had just passed the Southwick hill tunnel when he happened to glance in the rear view. He saw an old man with grey hair sitting on the back seat, apparently he saw the guy was wearing a light tan expensive looking overcoat and a collar and tie but, as soon as their eyes met, the old boy "slid" a cross the seat and out of sight.

Obviously my friend started shouting at the passenger who he thought must have crept in their for a nap at the auction and immediately pulled over...you guessed it. There wasn't anyone in the car with him.

This is a sensible guy who was genuinely perplexed and quite shaken up as the old boy was as solid as you or I.

He sold that car the next day making no profit.
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What a wussy!
Techy looked in his rearview mirror and saw a bloke sitting in the back, a few years ago. He was driving past the cemetery at the time. He didn't care, nothing scares him.
 
Got a related tale i think - not sure if its supernatural but i couldn't figure it out. I live in Birmingham and a good 10 years ago my job got me using the M42 southbound by the NEC (i had to exit at the NEC/Airport junction). This happened about 3 times to the point i stopped using it to get home - wasn't especially scary but made me nervous and stressed.

Anyway on a couple of occasions i'd be in the last 5 minutes of my journey before turning off when i'd be hit by a bright light in my rear-view mirror. I'd look behind and it seemed to be a bike or a car with one headlight out about 10 car lengths behind me so not tailgating but very irritating on the eyes. It's just a light as far as I can tell and i can't make out any shape behind the light but its in the middle of the road behind me. The weird thing was, if i looked in the wing mirrors there was nothing there at all, but glance back in the rear view mirror and there it was again. My first thought was that it was a reflection off something as it was late afternoon/evening in the summer but just before the exit it disappeared. Anyway i was more curious than anything, and as i travelled along that road each evening i waited for it to happen again but nothing. A few weeks or so later and i've forgotten about it and bam its behind me again. Same thing, like a main beam on when its still light but not the sort of blinding white light you get when something is reflecting off shiny metal or glass. Again it goes as i approach the exit. I don't know if this relevant but on the first two occasions there was very little traffic.

Well i'm starting to get a bit puzzled by this but again, nothing for a good while. Then one day i'm coming back and its a good hour later , and its dark, when i get hit by this light behind me again. It's quite busy on the motorway but apart from this light there's nothing close behind me in the left-hand lane. This time i'm sure its not a reflection because there's more yellow like a headlamp and it seems a good deal closer. Same thing, nothing in the wing mirrors and i'm even looking over my shoulder but can't see anything. Well it seems worse in the dark and it's starting to get to me (one of my pet hates is people driving with one extra bright headlight when the other bulbs gone).By the time i've had it behind me for 5 minutes i'm dying for my exit to appear. I finally get off (don't know if it disappeared, i moved the rear view mirror the other way so i couldn't see it:)) and after that i either didn't use the M42 or got off a junction early.

I did tell a few friends about it and one used to drink with WM traffic police officers. They seemed to think there was something "odd" about that stretch of the motorway and that they'd been a lot of unexplained accidents happening there but that could just be UL as i'd imagine there not many stretches of motorway that hasn't seen its fair share of accidents. Obviously used this route since over the years and seen nothing more. In fact before i saw this thread i'd forgotten about it.
 
Was it a vehicle behind you, or was it a light being shone from a bridge? Maybe somebody trying to cause an accident?
 
As far as i could tell it was behind me at road level and looked like a headlight on full beam but only visable from the rear view mirror. it was far enough back for it to be seen from my wing mirrors but nothing. Looking at google maps you don't pass under any bridges from the previous junction (7) till you get to the exit ramp for junction 6.
 
escargot said:
What a wussy!
Techy looked in his rearview mirror and saw a bloke sitting in the back, a few years ago. He was driving past the cemetery at the time. He didn't care, nothing scares him.
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Techy sounds like a god amongst men.

If it was me I would have asked the guy if he needed a lift real or not.
 
As we were passing through the Bluebell Hill area today dad wonder what if we caugh the famous ghost on the NavCam (its both Satnav and dash cam). We didn’t but I do wonder if we will get any road ghosts now more people are getting dash cams.
 
MorningAngel said:
As we were passing through the Bluebell Hill area today dad wonder what if we caugh the famous ghost on the NavCam (its both Satnav and dash cam). We didn’t but I do wonder if we will get any road ghosts now more people are getting dash cams.
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You never know... :)

I think the thing with Road Ghost sighting is that they tend to be a once in a blue moon thing. Decades can go by without a sighting on a stretch of road. Enough time that people genuinely can be unaware that road has *had* sightings of this kind in the past.

It's also rare that a road ghost is seen by a person more than once. The only one I can think of off the top of my head was one guy who (according to his daughter) saw the A15 road ghost twice in his life. Once in fields near the road. Once on the road itself. But it is rare.

Dashcams could potentially be very useful in this regard. Especially if we are talking about a route driven regularly. If the camera is always on while driving a route then should you be lucky/unfortunate to see something while driving, then you have the camera footage to review afterwards.
 
Telly Savalas, a well-known American film and television actor, had an extremely unusual experience in which he was the hitchhiker and the man who gave him a ride seems to have been a ghost. Read the story here:

http://www.journalofthebizarre.com/2016/07/the-paranormal-experience-of-telly.html

I am really not sure what to make of this episode. Seeing a ghost is one thing, but interacting with seemingly material objects and beings is something quite different. Assuming it's is not a fabrication, it's hard to even make a guess at the true nature of his experience.
 
SkepticalX said:
Telly Savalas, a well-known American film and television actor, had an extremely unusual experience in which he was the hitchhiker and the man who gave him a ride seems to have been a ghost. Read the story here:

http://www.journalofthebizarre.com/2016/07/the-paranormal-experience-of-telly.html

I am really not sure what to make of this episode. Seeing a ghost is one thing, but interacting with seemingly material objects and beings is something quite different. Assuming it's is not a fabrication, it's hard to even make a guess at the true nature of his experience.
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That was a good read. And extremely interesting, and I too am not sure what to make of it. It seems a strange story to make up, years after the event, and for no obvious reason, so I think Mr Savalas was likely telling something that really did happen.

I'm not aware of any similar stories where there is 'evidence' left behind though, that's the puzzling thing. To think that the scrap of paper remained afterwards... I'd have expected it to have mysteriously vanished like these things so often do.

But who knows.
 
Schrodinger's Zebra said:
That was a good read. And extremely interesting, and I too am not sure what to make of it. It seems a strange story to make up, years after the event, and for no obvious reason, so I think Mr Savalas was likely telling something that really did happen.

I'm not aware of any similar stories where there is 'evidence' left behind though, that's the puzzling thing. To think that the scrap of paper remained afterwards... I'd have expected it to have mysteriously vanished like these things so often do.

But who knows.
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Echoes of the receipt from the transdimensional gas station.... :)

It is an interesting story. I'd agree that it would be an oddly specific thing to make up. And if Savalas *had* made this up, to what end it would have been intended to serve.

So he was telling this story in 1993? Granted, yes, some of the details don't appear to match up as he says, as the article points out. But a good number of years had passed since that incident. Getting the city wrong, when you'd lived in multiple cities, is not implausible some 40 years after the event.
 
CuriousIdent said:
Echoes of the receipt from the transdimensional gas station.... :)

It is an interesting story. I'd agree that it would be an oddly specific thing to make up. And if Savalas *had* made this up, to what end it would have been intended to serve.

So he was telling this story in 1993? Granted, yes, some of the details don't appear to match up as he says, as the article points out. But a good number of years had passed since that incident. Getting the city wrong, when you'd lived in multiple cities, is not implausible some 40 years after the event.
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I think the author at that blog is confused, but I didn't take the trouble to sort it out. The author seems to be confused about who was a baseball player, who answered the phone at the bar, and so on. Or maybe I missed something. Anyway, it was a great story.
 
Someting here that may be of interest to Hermes/Sean... I found this on another forum - an army one where there's a thread asking about peoples' spooky experiences. About half-way down the page and posted by 'eodmatt' it refers to the ghost of Bluebell Hill:

Yeah. I was guard commander at IPB one night and a bloke stopped his car at the gates and asked the sentry to call the police as he had "hit someone coming down the old road". He was a nervous wreck. He said that a girl appeared in front of him and he had no time to stop. Said he felt her go under the car, but when he stopped there was no body. This would have been around 1976.
"

There's a bypass there now so few people use the old road these days."

This may refer to an incident that Hermes is already aware of, but even if so it might provide him with a potential new source of information.

 
CALGACUS03 said:
Someting here that may be of interest to Hermes/Sean... I found this on another forum - an army one where there's a thread asking about peoples' spooky experiences. About half-way down the page and posted by 'eodmatt' it refers to the ghost of Bluebell Hill:

Yeah. I was guard commander at IPB one night and a bloke stopped his car at the gates and asked the sentry to call the police as he had "hit someone coming down the old road". He was a nervous wreck. He said that a girl appeared in front of him and he had no time to stop. Said he felt her go under the car, but when he stopped there was no body. This would have been around 1976.
"

There's a bypass there now so few people use the old road these days."

This may refer to an incident that Hermes is already aware of, but even if so it might provide him with a potential new source of information.
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Some of that wording sounds familiar.

IPB, in case anybody was wondering, is the Invicta Park Barracks in Maidstone.

It isn't so very far from the foot of Bluebell Hill.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invicta_Park_Barracks
 
Yithian said:
IPB, in case anybody was wondering, is the Invicta Park Barracks in Maidstone.
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Ah, thanks for that Yithian; I was wondering!
There are a couple of other threads on the same forum with similar personal tales:

Haunted Depots, Barracks and Training Areas

and

(inspired by our very own IHTM)

It Happened to Me ghost stories

As always, the quality of the accounts varies enourmously, and there's a lot of dreck to wade through, but here and there there's a thought provoking story if anyone's interested.

Sorry BTW if this seems a bit of a derail from the subject of the thread; if the above links would be better put somewhere else please do so!:dunno: It just seemed that they led on logically from the Bluebell Hill mention.
 
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