Welcome to another Halloween edition of Dear Steve.

So let's see what we have in the proverbial mailbag for you today.

I'm in a band, and we had a gig a number of Saturdays ago.

As we chilled in the Green Room, killing some time before we were due on stage, my bandmate Stevie,

a pragmatic, skeptical, no-nonsense type of person who doesn't lend himself to tall tales,

and is completely disinterested in all things paranormal, after a firm nudge from the other singers,

told us this account of a strange incident that happened to him a few years ago.

I have his permission to post this. I'm curious to know if anyone has experienced anything similar

in the area. Stevie was on his way to a vocal rehearsal at the home of one of our other singers

who lives near Tutbury. Stevie himself was

quite familiar with this area as he lives some distance away near Stoke and was using the

sat-nav to find his way. He was driving down a long straightish country road with fields on either

side. It was a summer's evening and still light. He said it was

actually still sunny. He saw the open, clear road ahead and was going to accelerate, but he became

aware of something by the side of the road up ahead, so decided to maintain a more cautious speed.

As he approached, he described feeling an eerie atmosphere,

and what he saw was a dishevelled-looking man by the side of the road, dressed in sandy-coloured

camouflage clothing, carrying what looked like a backpack in one hand. Most strikingly, he described the man's head as not right, mischapen,

as if part of his head was missing. He was confused and the whole scene felt very surreal,

and Stevie started to question whether he was imagining things. The man was glaring at Stevie

as he approached. Stevie got a better look at him

and could see dirt and what looked like, possibly blurred on him. Stevie maintained a cautious speed,

...