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 are...
urban legends.
In this episode called Stranger Than Fiction,
you'll see three stories that will make you wonder
which is stranger: fact or fiction.
First up, the story of a Peruvian woman who
experiences a grizzly night of horror.
== sync, corrected by elderman ==
Then, a Florida fisherman reels in a whopper of a
tale no one can believe.
And finally, an All-American football team
seriously fumbles rookie night.
I don't want to do this. Ahhh!
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 Skin Deep.
As a young woman living in a small South American
village where everyone knows each other, Susana
Juarez never imagined anything bad would ever
happen to her.
Until it did.
In the small village of Huanaco, Peru,
strangers are few and far between.
But in the fall of 2008, everyone notices that
there's outsiders hanging around the town.
When they do come to town, the
Brazilians like to throw money around buying
drinks and winning over the locals.
One night, Susana's friends decide to cash in
on the free drinks, but Susana's reluctant.
No, no quiero.
Susana gives in.
She's soon having a good time hanging out with her
friends and the Brazilians.
As the night wears on, Susana and her
friends agree to go back to the Brazilians' camp in
the jungle for more drinks.
Susana and her friends have been drugged.
Two hours later, she wakes up to a nightmare.
Susana is forced to watch what the men have
in store for Tito, something even more
disturbing than murder.
Is there a purpose to this bizarre ritual?
Susana realizes that she's likely to die as brutally
as her friend.
But remarkable luck gives Susana a chance.
The men leave the room.
But can she act fast enough?
She has no idea where the men have gone or when
they'll return.
Susana is faced with a terrible dilemma:
Save herself or die trying to help Tito.
She chooses life.
At the police station, no one believes
her crazy story.
Still doubting Susana, Sergeant Alvarez
contacts his boss and relays what she's told him.
The reaction is stunning.
It's a shocking revelation.
The Brazilians have been killing locals and
harvesting their body fat for use in beauty products.
Highly sought after because of their
anti-aging qualities, these illegal cosmetics
can fetch thousands on the international black market.
Sadly, it's too late to save Tito, and his
murderers have disappeared.
Against the odds, Susana Juarez
escaped alive but with terrible memories that
will haunt her forever.
Beauty comes at a high price, none higher
than the lives of Susana's friends.
But did this story actually happen?
Or is it a big fat lie?
We'll let you know at the end of the show.
But before then, take a look at this mini myth.
Mini myth number 965: The cow jumped over the moon.
On finding her roof seriously damaged, Meryl
Jones of Somerset, England first thought her house
had been robbed.
But there's no sign of burglars and no
explanation, until a neighbour came forward
with a bizarre story.
He was looking out the window and saw a cow leap
two meters up in the air and land on the roof.
Holy cow!
Did this really happen?
Find out after the break.
Welcome back to Urban Legends.
Before the break, we showed you a mini myth about
a British woman whose roof was damaged by a leaping cow.
So did this happen or will we claim next that
pigs can fly?
It was...
...totally true.
It's a little known fact cows can jump two meters
or higher.
Why they would still remains a mystery.
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 Susana Juarez and her
narrow escape from becoming an illegal beauty product.
But is it true or false?
Find out at the end of the show.
Now it's time for our next story.
It's called A fish Tale.
When Eric Bartos gets too caught up in life,
he knows there's one sure release.
I like to think that my worship is
while I'm out fishing.
I think that's where I find the most peace.
But in January 2005, that peace was
shattered when Eric reeled in a mysterious creature
from the deep.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
If I wasn't there on board I, I still, it still gives
me chills.
Unbelievable.
This story begins off the coast of Florida.
It was 2002, the worst year of Eric Bartos's life.
Remember Eric, you are the father.
Start acting like one.
I've got a divorce pending.
I was probably a wreck at the time.
Fishing was Eric's only escape and
there was nothing he liked more than fighting with a
sailfish, the fastest fish in the sea.
But today, Eric plans to do something with this
catch no angler has ever done before.
Eric said, you know, I'm pretty
much divorced.
I don't want this ring anymore.
Hold it up guys. I got a great idea. Here we go.
Look at this.
It, it dawned on me it would fit
nicely on a tapered bill of a sailfish so why not
release it on a sailfish and, you know, move on
with my life.
Say cheese.
You know, this is where his love is.
It was more on the water than I guess with his wife
at the time.
But Eric's impulsive act will bring
new meaning to the saying 'what goes around comes around.'
Two years later and Eric is officially divorced.
The strange ceremony with his wedding ring seems to
have cursed him.
Dealing with my ex-wife wasn't the most
pleasant experience.
It was a very bitter divorce and my kids, they
see that their parents aren't getting along and
it's gonna have some negative impact on them.
At least there's still fishing.
But today's trip is turning into a disaster.
With nothing biting, they resort to superstition.
And he did his little Costa Rican
tradition.
Eric actually kissed the fish.
It will be a kiss he never forgets.
I remember a black shadow coming up.
Come on boys. We got one here.
It grabs the lucky bait but it's
putting up one heck of a fight.
As I starts coming up I started
to see a sailfish, seemed like a normal sailfish
until the bill was shining gold and I said holy, it's
the bleeping ring fish.
I couldn't believe it.
It's the ring fish!
I was going to laugh.
I didn't even know what to say or do.
We all looked at each other like
is that really your ring?
It seems impossible.
The same fish and the same fishermen ending up in the
same spot.
If we had been out there a day later
or a day earlier the fish could have been twenty
miles north or twenty miles south of us.
Wow.
You know, the odds of this is just crazy, you know?
I need to buy a lottery ticket.
But with the fish onboard, the boys
face a bigger problem.
We gotta throw her back guys.
What are you, nuts?
I said kill the fish.
I said no one's gonna believe the story. Kill the fish.
No.
Eric refuses.
I just feel that that fish deserved to
be back in the ocean and swimming around.
But Eric does want his ring back.
I actually put it on my hand just so
I wouldn't lose it and I just was perplexed about
the whole situation.
Back on land, the recapture of the ring
fish is about to have serious consequences.
Eric's wife reads about the story in a local paper.
She was not aware that I'd put my ring
on a sailfish and let it go.
It was just shared with a few close friends.
And then something remarkable happens.
My wife phoned me after she heard
about the story.
Is it true?
Eric is about to get a big surprise.
His ex-wife isn't angry with him.
Hearing her tell me that hey I think
this is a sign and it's a sign for peace, I was very
relieved and I felt that my relationship with her
and my kids would benefit and my life would be better.
But how could this happen?
A man puts his wedding ring on a fish.
Then the same fish brings the ring back two years later,
just in time to heal the scars of a bitter divorce.
Did it really happen?
You'll have to wait till the end of the show to find out.
But for now, take a look at this mini myth.
Mini myth number 213: Smells Like Death.
One night over drinks, a friend told Gary Preston
that heart attack survivors report smelling
burnt toast just before collapse.
Gary returned home drunk and was greeted by - you
guessed it - the smell of burnt toast, despite
the fact that he didn't own a toaster.
In panic, Gary grabbed his chest and collapsed to the
floor, only to discover his wife had bought a new
toaster oven and was cooking up a sandwich.
But it was too late.
The fright had provoked a genuine heart attack.
So is it true or have we cooked up a lie?
We'll let you know after the break.
Welcome back to Urban Legends.
Before the break, we showed you the mini myth
about a man who was tricked into a heart
attack by a toaster.
Was it true or false?
It was...
...false.
There are many urban myths along these lines but
there's no scientific evidence connecting burnt
toast and bad hearts.
On Urban Legends, we show you three incredible stories.
Your mission is to sort out the totally true from
the fantastically false.
So far, you've seen the tale of Susana Juarez
forced to watch as her friends were harvested
for their body fat.
And the story of Eric Bartos.
His incredible fishing fortuity
brought him back his wedding ring.
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 Crazy Hazing.
Gray Richards lives and breathes football.
For the last fourteen years, he's devoted
himself to coaching high school football in
Falls City, Oregon.
The day comes when you cannot play
anymore and you want to be involved as much as you
can and uh for me coaching is the way to do it.
But no amount of success on the field can
erase his memory of a tragedy that happened
twenty-one years ago.
In 1989, Richards was entering his senior year of college.
From the start of the season at training camp,
Richards is at the top of his game.
He's not going to let anything bring him down,
least of all a lowly freshman.
But hotshot Ricky Whittle is no average rookie,
and he knows it.
Right from the beginning, he refuses to accept his
position as low man on the totem pole.
Sometimes the seniors might look at
a player like this and think well maybe he thinks
he's too good.
That's how the rookies do it, baby.
The seniors will soon have an opportunity
to put Ricky in his place at the dreaded rookie night.
Y'all can't take a joke?
Rookie night's coming up.
anyway.
Rookie night is the culmination of
training camp, where the seniors take the rookies
out for an initiation to the team.
And we all went into the rooms of the
rookie players and we uh blindfolded them and,
for lack of a better word, kidnapped them.
Hazing is a tradition for many sports teams,
meant to build camaraderie and trust among players.
But while the others go along for the ride, Ricky
is being a poor sport.
Sometimes that will get you, you know,
a rookie player into difficulty so the seniors
might point him out.
Trust building stunts are the heart of
hazing and meant to be harmless fun.
We had the uh players sit on a
ladder, a length of toilet paper clenched between their
butt cheeks and we'd light the toilet paper on fire.
But once again, Ricky is standoffish.
His attitude problem will cost him during a stunt
that no one will soon forget.
We walked the players up to a flat roof.
You're not afraid of heights, are you?
Which was probably two hundred feet high.
The players stand on the roof blind to
what's in store.
No I can't see.
I don't want to do this man!
One false move and the rookies could
plummet sixty meters.
We asked them to stand on their
toes for thirty seconds and hope that they didn't
fall off the roof.
Ricky was very reluctant.
The seniors have a plan.
They'll show Ricky who's boss.
If you looked at the box, you know,
it's, they're not in any danger at all and, you know,
we all thought oh we're really gonna get him now.
Come on now, tippy toes.
Ahhhh! Good job.
But Ricky doesn't get up.
It looks like he's pulling a prank of his own.
We waited a few seconds to see if he
was actually playing a joke on us and we were
laughing and pointing at him and thinking this was,
you know, fantastic.
But is it really a joke?
Or has an age old bonding tradition gone terribly wrong?
Get him up.
We nudged his shoulder a little bit
and he wasn't moving.
Somebody tried to perform some CPR on him.
That wasn't working.
It wasn't till the paramedics came when we
knew for sure that he was dead.
He had a weak heart, which couldn't handle that,
that sort of surprise if you will.
We thought he was playing a joke on us by not
getting up uh but he didn't.
A night meant to bond an All-American
football team ends in tragedy during a
supposedly harmless prank.
So did you fall for Ricky Whittle's terrible end at
the hands of the hazers?
Or did we betray your trust with a tall tale?
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 Susana Juarez who
barely escaped becoming an ingredient in a high
priced beauty product.
But is it fact or fiction?
It's a big fat lie.
This popular Peruvian folktale stems
all the way back to a distrust of foreigners
from the time of the Conquistadors.
Next, it's the tale of Eric Bartos and the
sailfish who returned his wedding ring.
But did it happen?
My name is Eric Bartos and this is
a real fish tale.
No one believed the fishermen but Eric
showed them by passing a polygraph test in 2005.
Yes.
Which leaves the story of Gray Richards and
a night meant to be a harmless bonding ritual
between teammates, which ended in a foul.
But is it true?
I'm not Gray Richards,
and this story didn't happen.
This story is completely fake.
It's just one of many urban legends involving
the theme of college pranks gone wrong.
That's the end of our episode called
Stranger Than Fiction.
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 ==