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The Box of Oddities

The “Ball Cutter” Is Real (And It’s Worse Than You Think)

The Box of Oddities

John Elliott and Kat Walls

Comedy, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.83K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if the most terrifying creature in the water… isn’t hunting you—it’s just making a terrible mistake? In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat returns from a sun-soaked (and slightly overcooked) girls cruise, only to dive straight into a story that’s equal parts cryptid legend and biological nightmare. Along the murky banks of Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River, villagers whisper about a mysterious attacker known only as *“The Ball Cutter.”* Men wade into the water… and emerge in agony—or not at all. The bite marks? Disturbingly human. The attacks? Precise. Targeted. Unnervingly consistent. But what begins as folklore takes a sharp turn into reality when researchers uncover the truth behind the legend: a powerful, invasive fish with human-like teeth and a taste for… well… unfortunate confusion. It’s a story of ecology gone sideways, mistaken identity, and why you might want to think twice before taking a dip in unfamiliar waters. Then, in true Box of Oddities fashion, things take a turn—from terrifying to wildly hilarious—as Kat’s cruise companion Erica joins us for a Thing in the Middle you won’t forget. From bird-induced near-death hikes to dog-hunting in the Dominican Republic and a near-mutiny during a shark excursion, it’s a chaotic highlight reel of “Most Kat Things Ever.” And if that’s not enough, Kat brings us a jaw-dropping historical tale from the Caribbean: a hurricane, an earthquake, and a tsunami that literally picked up a U.S. naval warship and dropped it 300 feet inland. The unbelievable true story of the USS Monongahela and the 1867 disaster that reshaped an island—and possibly altered the course of U.S. history. *In this episode:* * The horrifying truth behind the “Ball Cutter” river attacks * A fish with human teeth and a very unfortunate diet * Cruise chaos, shark swims, and peak Kat behavior * The 1867 Caribbean tsunami that stranded a warship on land * History, humor, and just enough nightmare fuel to keep you out of the water Subscribe, follow, and join the Order of Freaks for more strange, fascinating, and hilariously unsettling stories every week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Coming up on the box of oddities, something is lurking beneath the surface of a remote river in Papua New Guinea,

0:06.0

and it's not hunting what you'd expect. The locals call it the ball cutter.

0:11.0

The bites are disturbingly human, and when the truth is finally uncovered, it somehow becomes even more unsettling.

0:18.0

Then, from the calm Caribbean waters,

0:22.2

total devastation,

0:25.1

a hurricane, an earthquake, and a tsunami,

0:27.9

no storm warning, no time to react.

0:30.3

Coming up on the box of oddities.

0:33.3

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1:00.8

Now, are all the traitors present?

1:03.3

Let's get started, shall we?

...

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