The world is full of urban legends.
Remarkable stories that spread like viruses around the planet.
Mutating and evolving until no one can remember
which ones are true, and which ones urban legends.
In this episode called Best Laid Plans, you'll see
three stories all linked by schemes gone terribly wrong.
First up, when a California couple confront
a blazing inferno, they are faced with a sickening
life or death decision.
Stay away from me!
Then, a small town mayor gets a delivery
of unimaginable terror.
Get up on your feet and face away
from me.
And finally, the story of a jilted lover
who comes up with a twisted plot for revenge.
== sync, corrected by elderman ==
Watch all three stories and decide which urban
legends are true and which ones are false.
Find out if you guessed right at the end of the show.
First, it's a story we like to call Out of the Frying Pan.
Meet Ronnie Blake, a woman who knows how to play with
fire and not get burned.
But it's a lesson she had to learn the hard way.
I don't think I could ever live
through that again.
In 2002, Ronnie and her husband Derek set
up their dream home in the beautiful hills of
San Diego, California.
Derek designed this particular
house and because he grew up not too far away he
wanted to live there.
The Blakes' home was perfect apart from
one small detail.
They built it in a notorious fire zone.
It was something that we had to
accept and live with, that if we were to build there
that there was always a threat of a fire.
Luckily, Derek Blake is well aware of the
dangers and has taken every precaution to
protect their home.
Derek was a MacGyver type person.
He was very well read on the, all the codes in
order to be able t prevent fires from
reaching the house.
But in the scorching summer of 2007,
Derek's preparations are put to the ultimate test.
A massive fire is raging only twenty miles away
from their neighbourhood.
The fire marshals came to the house
several times to let us know that it was time to go.
But Derek has other ideas.
And Derek was there each and every time
letting them know that he could certainly manage this.
Can you have a word with your husband,
maybe talk some sense into him?
You know what? Thank you.
We're not, we're not leaving.
This house will not be here tomorrow.
He made me believe that he knew what
he was doing.
at the door
saying you have to go and I didn't want to leave
Derek home alone with the house.
There was no way he was going to leave the house.
Thanks.
The fire is now only five miles away but
somehow Derek convinces Ronnie to stay and help
him prepare for the fight of their lives.
The fire was very intense.
It was all around them and it was obvious that it was
gonna, it was going to be a problem for them.
It's too late to escape.
The Blakes and their precious home are about to
experience the full force of a raging forest fire.
The winds were blowing towards their direction.
Okay turn around.
It's freezing!
Turn around.
And it was a very, very dangerous situation.
I saw the roof catch fire and it was
spreading quickly so I grabbed my phone and
I called 911 right away.
I don't know. I don't know!
We had asked them if they had a
pool or a pond on their property or anywhere close
that they could get to.
But with no pool or pond, the Blakes are
left alone with a burning problem.
Hours later, with the fire under control, the fire
fighters move in.
But there's no sign of Ronnie and Derek Blake.
I found the house to be burnt
completely through.
We didn't expect to find anyone alive due to the
severity of the fire.
Hello?
We did search the whole property
and then I noticed an open hatch on the lawn so
I went to investigate that.
Jack can't believe what he finds.
The Blakes are alive inside their full and
putrid septic tank, but how did they get there?
The house had caught fire.
The roof was engulfed in flames and there was
nothing that we can do for the house.
I'd been disconnected from the fire fighters.
Derek started running around and saying no we
can't, we can't stay here.
We need to hide out and he thought of the septic tank.
I was burning. I felt ill and I was choking.
The smoke was, was unbearable so he literally
forced me, pushing me down the ladder.
I was shaking. I was crying. I was screaming.
Derek at this point is saying absolutely nothing.
Um I don't know if he was in shock or, or, or what but
I certainly wasn't um wasn't having him anywhere near me.
Stay away from me.
I was so relieved when I heard the
fire fighters' voices.
I was very surprised that they
actually had hid in there but it was smart thinking
given their situation.
It's horrible.
I mean we stayed in that septic tank for about an
hour and a half but that was the only place.
Incredibly, Ronnie and Derek emerge
alive, covered in stinking sludge.
They've just survived a raging California wildfire.
Unfortunately, their marriage will not.
I just found it totally irresponsible
that he felt that the house was more important
than ourselves.
Did this husband's act of stubborn
pride flush their home down the drain, or can you
smell a fake?
We'll let you know at the end of the show.
But before then, take a look at this mini myth.
Mini myth number Junkyard Jinx.
An elderly couple ditched their old car at a Berlin
scrap yard and were walking away when it started pouring.
With no umbrella, they hopped back into the car
to escape the downpour, just when a crane operator
swooped in to drop their car into the crusher.
The crane driver stopped when he heard a woman's
screams but it was too late for her husband.
So were this German couple really crushed
in their own car?
Sort through the debris after the break.
Welcome back to Urban Legends.
Before the break, we showed you a mini myth
about a German couple crushed in the very car
they were trying to get rid of at the junkyard.
So was this a true story?
It was...
totally fake.
No one would be quite that stupid, would they?
On Urban Legends, we show you three stories.
You have to decide which ones really happened and
which ones are merely legends.
So far, you've seen the story of a California
couple forced to hunker down in their own waste.
But is it fact or fantasy?
Find out at the end of the show.
Now it's time for our next story.
It's called Deliverance.
Small town mayor Cheye Calvo is a simple man.
He loves his dogs, his wife and his hometown of
Berwin Heights, Maryland.
But not even the mayor's seat could protect Cheye
from the terror that would descend upon his home in 2008.
You know, it was, you know, not a pretty sight.
I mean he had um three bullets in him.
But what makes this tragic tale truly
bizarre is it was caused by a harmless looking box.
It began on a summer evening when Cheye took
his dogs for their regular walk.
But tonight the walk is cut short.
Cheye has to rush to an evening council meeting.
Arriving home, he notices a delivery that has been
left on the stoop.
I picked it up.
It was a, you know, a fairly large but not very
heavy white box and I really thought nothing of it.
I went back upstairs to get back into business
attire for my meeting.
I was sitting on the edge of my bed when my
mother-in-law yelled out, screamed and I heard an
explosion and it was followed by immediate gunfire.
Bang, bang, bang.
Okay clear.
There's no sound from Cheye's mother-in-law
or his dogs.
Then there were boots running through
my home um followed by yells and more gunfire.
Upstairs, upstairs.
Don't shoot. I'm upstairs.
I remember just screaming I'm up
here, I'm up here.
Please don't shoot, please don't shoot.
Don't shoot! Don't shoot!
Let me see your hands!
The men tell him neither who they are or
what they want.
On your feet, get your hands up.
Keep coming to the sound of my voice.
Look ahead.
He's marched backward down the stairs.
It's then that Cheye gets his first look at the masked men.
They look like a SWAT team.
But that makes no sense.
Why would police break into your home?
But if it's not the police, who is it?
Cheye is too scared to ask.
There's nothing like being forced
to kneel at gunpoint on your own living room floor.
As the masked men ransack his home,
Cheye makes a heartbreaking discovery.
You guys shot my dog?
They had just unloaded on my two black
Labradors and killed them.
My mother-in-law who can't weigh much more than a
hundred pounds had been thrown to the floor.
Cheye then notices something else:
Police officers on the lawn.
This can't be a home invasion.
Cheye demands his rights.
I don't think I have to answer any -
I haven't even seen a warrant.
We have a warrant.
Its on it's way. Don't worry about that right now.
I said I'm the mayor.
Then one member of the SWAT team said, you know,
this guy's crazy, thinks he's the mayor.
You're the mayor?
I'm the mayor.
Hey, you guys are gonna be in a lot of trouble
when this is over.
You guys shot my dog, okay?
I am innocent. I haven't done anything.
You guys...
I think I got a rise out of him because
he, he pointed to the box and he said do you know
what's in this box and it wasn't until that moment
that I had put any connection between what
happened and the box.
You tell me about that box.
I don't know. It showed up the same day you guys did.
Certainly there was something, you know,
in that box that implied criminal behaviour.
Finally, Cheye gets his answer:
Thirty-two pounds of marijuana, which has
nothing to do with him.
All I did was bring it unopened and set
it on the table and the notion that we would
be involved in this is absurd.
After four hours of questioning, the police
finally accept that Cheye is not a criminal.
I think somewhere they went into
cover your tail mode.
They had found nothing to connect us to that box.
But why was a box of drugs delivered
to a local mayor?
Further police investigation revealed
that a Jamaican drug gang had shipped the grass to
Cheye's home and were planning to collect it
from his doorstep.
But when police intercepted the package,
the dealer's plan was foiled and Cheye's life
turned upside down.
I kept saying, you know,
why didn't you knock?
Why didn't you knock? We would have let you in.
But what Cheye gets is far from an apology.
One of the police officers actually
said to us that, you know, your house is lovely and
houses we raid don't normally look like this.
A normal day turned into terror and
chaos all because of one box.
But did it really happen?
You'll have to wait to the end of the show to find out.
But before them, take a look at this mini myth.
Mini myth number 3,441: Cured by Suicide.
A retired British army major was suffering from
severe depression.
One morning he reached his limit and shot
himself in the head.
His wife came in later to find him tucking into a
plate of bacon and eggs with a hole all the way
through his head.
Instead of killing him, the bullet had actually
lobotomized him.
After three months, he was cured of his depression
and denied ever having suicidal thoughts.
Discover the truth after the break.
Welcome back to Urban Legends.
Before the break, we told you about the man who
miraculously cured himself of depression with a
gunshot through the head.
Is this true or false?
It was completely true.
But totally not recommended.
On Urban Legends, we show you three incredible stories.
Your mission is to sort the totally true from the
fantastically false.
So far, you've seen the tale of the Blakes who, facing death,
were forced to marinate in their own bio-waste.
This is all your fault!
And the story of Cheye Calvo, the small
town mayor who ended up in big time trouble after
bringing in a surprise delivery.
But which ones are real and which ones are fake?
All will be revealed at the end of the show.
In the meantime, watch our final story.
We've named it: With Friends Like These...
Reporter Florence Loyie has covered some strange
cases but the story you're about to hear takes the prize.
Utter disbelief is how people
react when I tell them this.
It's a revenge plot so strange, with a twist
so bizarre that even police had trouble believing it.
It all began in Edmonton, Canada, 2009.
Derek Thibert-Ayers and Michael Hancock were once
best friends but something has come between them.
Derek trusted very few people and one of
the people he trusted was Michael and Michael had
breached that trust.
You slept with her, didn't you?
No.
Michael has been sleeping with the woman
Derek loves.
I trusted you!
It's all too much for Derek who already
has a history of depression.
Derek had suicidal tendencies in the
past and had attempted suicide and failed.
Derek decides Michael must pay, and his
punishment for the betrayal will be to help
Derek kill himself.
This is your punishment!
To kill you?
Yes!
Michael agreed to help Derek
commit suicide.
The pact was that Michael would stab him in the
heart and make it look like a suicide.
Come on!
Buwill they actually go through with it?
Just do it man.
Ready?
But the knife wasn't lined up right.
Michael only punctures a lung.
Derek didn't die instantly like he
thought he was gonna die.
Call 911!
In agonizing pain, Derek decides he wants to live.
Michael got very nervous and was
thinking oh my god, maybe he set me up this whole time.
Thinking Derek's real plan was to frame him
for attempted murder, Michael decides his only
escape is to kill Derek and cover up the crime.
That's when someone spots the fight.
I couldn't tell if it was a real
fight or if they were just fooling around.
Michael flees the scene, believing he's
killed his best friend.
Derek is in critical condition.
At one point he coughed and you could
feel the air come out of his chest.
As Kerry desperately tries to save
Derek's life, Michael's stab at escape backfires.
He ends up locking his keys in his
car where he's supposed to get rid of all the evidence.
Clearly no criminal mastermind,
but he knows he's in deep trouble.
So he goes to the only person he knows he can, his father.
We don't know exactly what Michael told
his father, other than he stabbed his best friend.
Michael's father persuades him to turn
himself in and the police arrive to question him.
Michael confesses to stabbing Derek but he
insists that Derek set him up for murder as
punishment for his betrayal.
He tried to frame me!
But Michael isn't the only one talking.
Derek is still alive.
Derek said that yeah I wanted to die.
It was, it was what I wanted.
Derek denies he set up Michael.
He insists he really wanted to die, but neither
of them know that in the eyes of the law it makes
no difference.
There's no charges to Derek um as
it's not against the law to try to kill yourself.
It's not against the law to ask someone to kill you.
But it is against the law to assist
in a suicide.
Michael gets seven years in jail while Derek walks
away, his romantic rival out of the picture.
So is this tale of buddy betrayal terrifyingly true
or murderously misleading?
Find out the truth about all three stories after the break.
Welcome back to Urban Legends.
It's time to reveal the truth about our three
incredible stories.
First up, it's the story of Ronnie and Derek Blake,
whose quest to save their home from a California
forest fire ended with them seeking refuge in
their own refuse.
But is it fact or fiction?
My name is Lizette Petichelli
and this story is a load of crap.
The story of septic tank survival is totally fake.
Although there are many urban legends of people
forced to make disgusting choices to save their
lives, it's physically impossible to survive in
a septic tank due to the gases.
Next, it's the tale of a squeaky-clean mayor whose
dogs were killed and home torn to shreds after a box
landed on his doorstep.
But did it happen?
My name is Cheye Calvo and
unfortunately this is a true story.
These cops really did shoot first
and ask questions later.
The box was part of a drug smuggling operation, but
Cheye had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Which leaves the story of Derek Thibert-Ayers and a
revenge plot so strange even local police were dumbfounded.
But did this story betray your trust?
My name is Detective Dan Jones and
this is a true story.
This unbelievable story of a troubled
young man and his misguided friend is totally true.
That's the end of our episode called Best Laid Plans.
Were you able to split the tellingly true from the
fictitiously false?
Don't worry if you couldn't.
You'll get another chance to separate fact from
fiction in the next installment of Urban Legends.
== sync, corrected by elderman ==