Stranger Than Fiction Vol. X

MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Ballen Studios

True Crime, Mrballen, Mysterious, True Story, Storytelling, Strange, Dark

4.9 • 27K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. And today’s podcast features 3 stories that demonstrate that. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.

Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:

#3 -- "Rest Stop" -- You never know who you might run into (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIvIBKiQhVM)
#2 -- "Luggage" -- A real life James Bond is found in an impossible place (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWWWMdm9ZY4)
#1 -- "The Bear, the Plane, and the Duffel" -- The crazy true story of the rogue bear in Georgia (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrkrdozOMoQ)

For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen

If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:08.0	Download the Amazon Music app today.
0:10.6	Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and today's podcast features three stories that demonstrate that.
0:16.7	The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.
0:22.7	The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.
0:25.7	The first story you'll hear is called Rest Stop,
0:28.7	and it's a stark reminder that you never know who you might run into.
0:31.9	The second story you'll hear is called Luggage,
0:34.8	and it's about a real-life James Bond who is found in an impossible place. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Luggage, and it's about a real-life James Bond, who is found in an impossible
0:38.1	place.
0:39.1	And the third and final story you'll hear is called The Bear, the Plain, and the Duffel.
0:43.9	And it's about the crazy true story of a rogue bear in Georgia.
0:47.9	But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious,
0:52.4	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.
1:00.4	So, if that's of interest to you, please offer to make the Amazon Music Follow button a ham and cheese sandwich, but when you make it, don't unwrap the cheese slices.
1:08.9	Okay, let's get into our first story called Rest Stop. In October of 2002, Mark and his wife Kathy were on their way to a baby shower in Baltimore, Maryland that was being held for them by Kathy's
1:44.3	family. It would be a seven-hour drive from their home in Ohio, so Mark and Kathy tried to
1:49.6	get out the door as early as possible, but one thing led to another and they got a pretty
1:53.6	late start. By midnight, they were only about an hour away from their final destination, but
2:00.5	they both
2:01.0	desperately needed a bathroom break.
2:03.1	And so they pulled into a rest stop in Frederick County, Maryland, which is about an hour
	...

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