• What major U.S. city had to investigate an incident where 15 animal parts were nailed
to trees?
What random discovery caused an entire neighborhood to be evacuated and the Air Force to be called
in?
From the disgusting to the supernatural to the dangerous, here are 10 of the scariest
things to be found in the woods.
10 – Inbred family • The Colt family of Boorowa, Australia
is the result of four generations of inbreeding.
• And this isn't just a simple case of people who accidentally slept with their cousins.
This is an entire family of 38 people living on a secluded farm, and every one of those
people is the result of a woman having either her brother's, or her father's baby.
• Many of the people in the family were unable to speak coherently, some were deformed,
and many of the children didn't even know how to use a comb or toilet paper.
• Authorities discovered the family when one of the children was overheard at school
saying, “My sister is pregnant, and we don't know which one of my brothers is the father.”
9 – The Devil’s footprints • Footprints in snow wouldn't normally be
anything to get creeped out about.
But one woman found a set of cloven hoofprints in her backyard.
• Still nothing weird, right?
• Well, it wouldn't be, except that the pattern of the footsteps clearly shows a two-legged
creature, and the prints match a mystery from 150 years ago.
• And what animal has cloven hooves and walks on two legs?
Nobody knew 150 years ago, or now.
8 – Exploding cameras • Walking on a trail can be a relaxing experience,
where your biggest concern SHOULD be twisting an ankle on uneven ground, or at WORST a random
attack by a wild animal.
• One man had cameras installed on a trail on his private property, but apparently someone
else didn't much like that idea, so he rigged the cameras to explode.
• And not just a random explosion either.
He actually rigged the cameras to explode when the batteries were changed, to ensure
it exploded ON someone.
7 – Suicide bridge • The Overtoun Bridge in Scotland has a
unique feature – it's a popular site for suicides.
• Of course, people jumping off bridges is nothing new.
It's sad, but not unusual.
• But the Overtoun Bridge isn't a place where people jump to their deaths.
It's a place where DOGS jump to their deaths.
• Now, the concept of an animal suicide makes no sense, so something is most likely
luring them off the bridge, and has been doing so since the 1960s.
• Some dogs who survive the fall from the bridge will actually climb back up the bridge
to fall again.
6 – Nazi saboteur treasure • A set of five mysterious canisters were
dug up in the woods of Latvia, and while the contents weren't dangerous, they definitely
would have been, 70 years earlier.
• It turned out it was a saboteur kit, complete with ammunition, magnetic mines, detonator
cords, and an explosive disguised as a lump of coal for a steam engine.
• Nobody knows exactly who it belonged to, or why it was never used.
But it does have Nazi markings, and the equipment dates back to World War 2.
So it definitely belonged to a saboteur, tasked with destroying factories and infrastructure.
5 – Skull in a suitcase • If you find a suitcase in the middle of
the woods, what would you expect to see in it?
Clothes, maybe?
Money?
Drugs?
• How about a skull and other bones from the remains of a human body?
• That's exactly what a construction worker found in 2016, out in a random patch of woods
in Buford, Georgia.
• Authorities had no idea who the remains belonged to, and had to cross-reference the
dental records and DNA with known missing persons cases.
4 – Confederate land mine • Matt Bell thought that the thing thrown
out of a ditch at the construction site he was working was an old Civil War cannonball.
• He thought it was cool, so he scooped up the hunk of metal and put it in his truck
to take home.
• It wasn't until later that he realized it wasn't a cannonball – it was a 32-pound
landmine, and it still contained live explosives.
• He called the police, who brought bomb disposal experts and even personnel from the
nearby Air Force base.
The entire neighborhood was evacuated, just in case.
3 – UVB 76 • You don't need to be in the woods to receive
a radio signal from UVB 76.
But you might need to head into them to find the source.
• UVB 76 is a radio station that, for more than 40 years, has simply sent out a buzzing
sound at regular intervals.
Rarely, every couple of months, a voice will break the silence, saying “U-V-B-7-6,”
followed by a string of code words.
• The purpose of these messages is a complete mystery, and the code has yet to be cracked.
But it's strongly assumed that the frequency is used by the Russian military to broadcast
coded information.
2 – Hundreds of dead animals • Finding a dead animal or two in the woods
is pretty normal.
Gross, maybe.
But normal.
• But what if you found a pile of about 250 dead, rotting animals?
And not just dogs and cats, but deer, rabbits, raccoons, foxes, and even an exotic bird?
• That's exactly what was found near a small town in West Virginia.
It's suspected they were dumped there by a company that was SUPPOSED to cremate them
and dispose of them properly.
• Some of the animals were dumped with IV tubes still attached.
1 – Tongues nailed to trees • Here's the scene.
You're walking your dog through Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York.
Everything's super normal.
• You look around at the trees in the park, and you see something odd on the trunk.
It looks... fleshy.
It's gross.
You keep walking.
There are more.
• There are, in fact, 15 trees around you with cow tongues nailed to them.
Let's say that again.
THERE ARE 15 COW TONGUES NAILED TO TREES IN BROOKLYN.
• That was a real thing that happened in 2009, and it may not have been a simple prank
or act of vandalism.
• In some cults and fringe religions, cow tongues are used in sacrificial rituals.
The practice of nailing a tongue to a tree is a symbolic gesture that is meant to silence
one's enemies.
• And that actually makes it even creepier.