John in Ohio told of his weird encounter at a store in 1992:
“This happened back in '92. I only told a few people about this and they look at me like I'm crazy. I had a regular place I would stop and pick up pop or, you know, soda or water, whatever. I went to the cooler, got a water, walked and got in line, got in line behind this guy and I never smelled anything so much like gutted deer. I'm a hunter, it didn't compare to this. It was close but it didn't compare to this. You know if you got a kid or whatever, you know when the kid is really sick you can feel the fever coming off of him? That is what I felt. And I was like, surely the guy knows that other people can smell this. I looked and there was three or four other people in line behind me and they are all nonchalant, fiddling with their purchases or whatever they are doing. I looked at the guy behind the counter. I looked at him and he looked like nothing was going on.
The guy in front of me steps up, he got a pack of cigarettes, they were Marlboros in the box, I remember that. He got a pack and I'm like, I'm almost gagging. Okay. Like I said, I gutted a deer before and it didn't... It's close but not quite smell the same and the heat was like you were standing in front of one of those heat lamps at Burger King or something. And I'm thinking like, I'm sure everyone can smell this. Right then he turned...I'm facing the counter. I guess you'd call it quartering. His right shoulder was kind of lined up with my left and I'm standing about two feet behind him. I'm 6'1 so he was probably 6'4, and as he turned, have you ever had a joke, like a private joke between you and a friend, you give each other that look? He did that out of the corner of his eye. He kind of just sort of turned his head, cocked his lips and he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye like he was smiling at me. And, uh, I didn't tell your screener this but (he is talking about Clyde Lewis' call screener) it looked like his mouth didn't fit his teeth. Now they weren't pointy or jagged but it was like the skin was stretched.
He turned, kind of sorta cocked his head at me and gave me this sort of weird, half-lit grin and walked away. (Lewis tells the caller that he believes that he encountered 'The Grinning Man') It scared me. To this day, this was '92. I mean I even had nightmares about it. I never smelled anything like that. As I got closer to it, the heat was like an infection. And I looked at the lady behind me and she was messing with her, whatever she had in her hand, and I thought I know she would wince but... I don't know, it was the most bizarre thing. To this day I still think about that. He was wearing Levis, a pair of cowboy boots, a black braided leather belt, a nice Oxford shirt that was tucked in and he had really short short hair for '92, I remember that.”
Source: Ground Zero Radio with Clyde Lewis - October 30, 2018
Beyond Creepy
Phantoms & Monsters: Unexplained Encounters
Phantoms & Monsters: Mysterious Encounters
Phantoms & Monsters: Bizarre Encounters
Phantoms & Monsters: Strange Encounters
Phantoms & Monsters: Cryptid Encounters
Lon's Suggested Reading List - Books & Films / DVDs
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