dancin'hamster Posted November 4, 2003 #1 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Okay - I know I posted this back in September, but - what the 'eck ! And, dammit, spent ages typing it up and my connection crashed so I've nicked Tom Slemens' account to post..........*mutters someting rude about computers and BT * 'During the early hours of a rainy autumnal morning in 1958, a long-distance HGV driver named Harry Unsworth was driving his vehicle along the A38 motorway towards a depot in Cullompton, Devonshire, England, when he noticed the silhouette of a man about three hundred yards in front of him, standing in the middle of the road. Unsworth declerated his vehicle and stared beyond his busy windscreen wipers at the figure ahead. The stranger was middle-aged, with a mop of curly grey hair, and he wore a saturated grey raincoat. The man produced a torch from his pocket and flashed it at Unsworth, who responded by pulling his lorry up. Unsworth wound his sidewindow down to get a better look at the hitch-hiker. The man stood there on the macadam, looking up at the driver with a dripping, expressionless face. "Come on then!" Unsworth shouted, impatiently. The man climbed into the driver's cab, and in a well-spoken voice he asked Unsworth to drop him off four miles down the motorway at the old bridge at Holcombe. The lorry drove on into the night down the deserted motorway, and the hitch-hiker suddenly started to chuckle. Unsworth glanced at him while he laughed, but the stranger turned his face away and looked out the passenger window, sniggering to himself for no reason . Unsworth asked him what was funny, and the man suddenly turned to face him. His face was contorted with an eerie smile. "Did you know there was a real tragic pile up here a few years ago? Arms and legs everywhere." said the hitch-hiker. And he continued to recount grisly stories about all the traffic accidents that he'd witnessed on the stretch of motorway. Unsworth had seen a few disturbing automobile crashes in his time, but the gruesome blow-by-blow accounts of the fatalities told to him by the hitch-hiker really turned his stomach. Unsworth told the man to shut up, and was only too glad to be rid of his morbid passenger when the lorry reached the drop-off point at the old bridge. Three days later, Mr Unsworth was driving his lorry through the dead of night along the same section of the A38, when he came across the same hitch-hiker again. As before he stood in the middle of the motorway flashing a torch and waving his arm. With an impending sense of deja vu, Unsworth pulled up beside the man, and again, the hitch-hiker asked to be dropped off at the old bridge at Holcombe. This time the man said nothing throughout the journey, but kept smiling and looking at Unsworth out the corner of his eye. This behaviour made the lorry-driver's flesh creep. When the man got out at the bridge, he didn't offer a word of thanks. He walked away into the darkness. A month after that, Unsworth was again heading along the A38 to the lorry depot - when he saw the dreaded hitch-hiker again, standing in the road on the same stretch of motorway as before. The weather was even the same as it had been on the two previous occasions; torrential rain. And the hitch-hiker's request? To be dropped off four miles down the road at the old bridge. Understandably, Mr Unsworth was rather reluctant to give the man a lift, but decided to take him to the confounded bridge for the last time. Once more, the hitch-hiker remained silent during the journey, but occasionally burst out laughing. On the following night, Harry Unsworth was on the same route to the depot. As his vehicle neared the section of the A38 where the oddball had a habit of appearing, he anxiously scanned the road ahead. But on this occasion, the hitch-hiker was nowhere to be seen. Three months later, Unsworth was whistling in his cab as he drove along the stretch of the A38 where he had first set eyes upon the hitch-hiker. He remembers smiling as he thought about the crazy man with the torch, and he also remembers the sight that wiped the smile off his face. Standing in the pouring rain in the middle lane of the motorway was the grey-haired man waving his torch frantically. Unsworth braked by the lunatic, and was astonished to hear the same hackneyed request from him. But Unsworth was more intrigued than scared, and he dropped off the man at the bridge again - but this time the hitchhiker broke the repetitive pattern by asking Mr Unsworth to wait for him whilst he went to 'collect some suitcases,' because he wanted to go to a destination further down the road this time. But the man didn't return to the lorry after twenty minutes had elapsed, and Unsworth was running to a tight schedule and couldn't afford to wait. So he started the vehicle up and drove on. Three miles down the road, the lorry-driver's heart jumped when he saw the hitch-hiker waving his torch in the middle of the motorway. Unsworth was baffled as to how the man could have travelled such a distance in so short a time. The man obviously hadn't hitched a lift, for no vehicles had passed along the deserted motorway, and this fact gave Unsworth the creeps. He tried to drive around the sinister man, but the hitch-hiker dived head-first into the path of the heavy-goods vehicle! Unsworth slammed on the brakes and almost jack-knifed his vehicle. He leaped out of his cab and looked for the body of the madman in the road. He expected to find a flattened corpse, but there was none. Forty feet away stood the hitch-hiker, swearing at the lorry-driver. He started to jump up and down with derision and waved his fist at Unsworth. And then he simply vanished. Unsworth ran back to his vehicle and drove off at high speed. He never encountered the A38 apparition again. But others are still seeing the solid-looking ghost. In December 1991, a woman driving to Taunton via a stretch of the A38 was rounding a bend near the village of Rumwell when she saw a man in a grey raincoat flashing a torch at her in the middle of the road. The woman couldn't brake in time, so she was forced to swerve her vehicle into a ditch. She left her Vauxhall Astra fuming, ready to give the suicidal jaywalker a piece of her mind, but she was amazed to see that the road was completely deserted in both directions. The man with the torch had mysteriously disappeared. Psychical researchers who have investigated the case say that the A38 hitch-hiker is probably the earth-bound spirit of one of the numerous people who have perished on the stretch of motorway in car accidents over the years.' Oooohhhhhhhhh..........it's a bit creeeeeeeeeeepy innit? If I ever - EVER see some old geezer in a mac with a torch, I'm just gonna floor it! Hammy x x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algernon the 3rd Posted November 4, 2003 #2 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Boy was I glad to find out this wasn't the A38 around Bristol... My Dad used to live in Dorset & Somerset, and most probably used the A38 to get to a small village just outside Wellington where my Grandad worked. He used to give lifts to hitch hikers when he was younger as well but far as I know none of them were ever ghosts. Good story though Hammy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted November 4, 2003 Author #3 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Algie ~ was talking to my friend on MSN. She lives in the States and was telling me that her brother and his friends used to scare hitchers. One would climb into her brothers' boot, and they'd drive off along lonely roads. When he saw a hitcher, the brother would stop the car and let them in. After driving for about 10 mins, his friend would start screaming and banging from the boot.................. Rotten buggers .............. it did make me squeal though Hammy x x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nxt2Hvn Posted November 4, 2003 #4 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Hammy - I had never heard that before... CREEPY!!! And I'm with Algenon... I would Floor it too!!! Thanks for sharing! Nxt2Hvn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algernon the 3rd Posted November 4, 2003 #5 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Hammy your friends brother is very naughty doing horrible things like that still it's a scary and rather funny trick to play Reminds me of my drunk uncle climbing into the boot of my cousins sierra for a lift into town as there weren't enough room in the car mind you the only spirits that story had anything to do were the drinking kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted November 4, 2003 Author #6 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Algie ~ have a phantom Hitcher story from North Wales somewhere..........pesky thing clung onto the van and wouldn't let go........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algernon the 3rd Posted November 4, 2003 #7 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Algie ~ have a phantom Hitcher story from North Wales somewhere..........pesky thing clung onto the van and wouldn't let go........... Hammy - that makes me very glad to be in South Wales Would be interested to hear the story though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent_21 Posted November 4, 2003 #8 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Algie ~ have a phantom Hitcher story from North Wales somewhere..........pesky thing clung onto the van and wouldn't let go........... Oh boy, is that a good one! Creeepyyy! Wardrobes are quite good for spooky tricks too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted November 5, 2003 Author #9 Share Posted November 5, 2003 Dammit....can't find it I should really used this time off to re-organise my books.........*grumble*........but honestly, I've got squillions of 'em.........promise I'll do my best and post it soon! Hammy x x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Sutcliffe Posted November 8, 2003 #10 Share Posted November 8, 2003 I first read about this story a couple of weeks ago. I didn't really think any more of it, until tonight I was driving along that very stretch of road, remembered the story and told my wife about it. Then just as we got into Taunton, there was an old bloke in a long dark coat standing by the side of the road thumbing a lift. Coincidence maybe, but it's still a bit creepy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moe eubleck Posted November 8, 2003 #11 Share Posted November 8, 2003 If I ever - EVER see some old geezer in a mac with a torch, I'm just gonna floor it! I would pick him up. It would be fun. I would try undressing him just to see what his reaction would be. If that didnt work, I would put a hand on his lap and make occasional naughty suggestions. Then , once The bridge was in sight, I would turn around and drive back the other direction. Of course I would need to be blasting some really annoying music on my stereo as well. Perhaps something by "the Wiggles" would suffice. " fruit salad- yummy yummy! " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreyKade Posted November 9, 2003 #12 Share Posted November 9, 2003 i heard a story similar to that...i dont rememer much of it...but thi hitchhiker was a woman...and sometime later, the person picking her p found out she was dead....i think they were having conversations and stuff......how spooky is that. you talk to somone loads and find thyere dead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam Posted July 31, 2004 #13 Share Posted July 31, 2004 not sure if this is a coincidance or what but back in march a friend and i experienced something odd on the A38 going through Bromsgrove towards Worcester. we were driving home about 1.00am when we both saw a man on the side of the road (to be honest at first all i could see was a pair of legs). anyay he vanished, now considering i'm into witchcraft and i am convinced that ghosts exist, i knew what i had seen but did not expect the following to happen to us. he jumped into my mates car and it wasn't until i gathered the courage to tell him to bugger off and that he wasn't funny that he left! yes i know it sounds completely mad but it did happen and after reading this thread i thought wow, too much of a coincidance or what! bb sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted August 5, 2004 Author #14 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Hi Sam The last reported sighting of this hitcher was last year........ I seem to recall it being on the local news site on-line........perhaps it's still hanging about.....? And can I ask, as a witch why do you believe in ghosts? What ever happened to the Summerlands? Hammy x x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted August 5, 2004 Author #15 Share Posted August 5, 2004 (edited) Oppppssssss! Posted twice *blush* Edited August 5, 2004 by dancin'hamster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelS Posted August 5, 2004 #16 Share Posted August 5, 2004 "The Phantom Hitchhicker" phenom is intriguing in that it's part documentation, and part Urban Legend. Documented consistantly in various parts of the world going back even before automobiles in some cases. Urban Legend because it's hard to find a town or city that DOESN'T claim one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wozzigruv Posted August 13, 2004 #17 Share Posted August 13, 2004 not sure if this is a coincidance or what but back in march a friend and i experienced something odd on the A38 going through Bromsgrove towards Worcester. we were driving home about 1.00am when we both saw a man on the side of the road (to be honest at first all i could see was a pair of legs). anyay he vanished, now considering i'm into witchcraft and i am convinced that ghosts exist, i knew what i had seen but did not expect the following to happen to us. he jumped into my mates car and it wasn't until i gathered the courage to tell him to bugger off and that he wasn't funny that he left! yes i know it sounds completely mad but it did happen and after reading this thread i thought wow, too much of a coincidance or what! bb sam No way? My house is right on that road towards worcester, just by the Avoncroft Museum. It's no surprise that you saw something like that on the A38. It's a very old road, and I think's its the oldest in the country. It must have been there for a real long time, becuase my house is over 100 and its built next to it. Due to the large amount of paranormal activity in my strange little rural town, I was kinda intrigued to hear your story. About where on the road did it happen? What were the weather conditions like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loonboy Posted August 14, 2004 #18 Share Posted August 14, 2004 (edited) From my old webpage: 1978 Good Friday, 9:35pm - The N9 road, South Africa. Corporal Dawie Van Jaarsveld rode along the road on his motorbike heading towards Uniondale. It was a wet night and when he reached an intersection he saw a woman standing at the roadside waiting for a lift. He pulled over and asked if she wanted a ride into Uniondale. She climbed on the back of the bike. Dawie handed her the spare helmet and gave her an earpiece to listen to music for the duration of the ride. Together they set off but after approximately 2 kilometres the cycle twitched and Dawie thought she had fallen off. He stopped and looked but she was nowhere to be seen. Puzzled, he saw the helmet on the back of the bike with the earpiece just lying there. Scared, he drove into Uniondale and to a cafe there where he spoke to those present about the odd event. He gave a description of the woman as being short, with brunette hair, slacks on and a jersey. Strangely, when he examined the headset he had handed to her, he found the jack was damaged, as if melted. 1976 Good Friday, 7:15pm - The N9 road. Two years earlier Anton Le Grange drove south along that road heading out from Willowmore and was 13 kilometres from Uniondale when he spotted a woman standing alone at the roadside. The woman was fairly short with dark brown hair and had on dark trousers. It was a cold night so Anton decided he would stop to give her a lift. The woman climbed into the back of his car and he drove onwards towards the town. Anton began a conversation with the woman but had no reply, so he looked over his shoulder only to find she had vanished. He slammed on the brakes and got out of the car to see if she where she was but to no avail. The female hitchhiker had disappeared. Unnerved, Anton drove into Uniondale and directly to the police station there where he was met by PC Snowy Potgieter who was on duty at the time. Initially the officer thought this upset man had been drinking, but Anton impressed upon him his sobriety and PC Potgieter decided to drive out with him to the spot to see if he could find the woman. Upon nearing the location, PC Potgieter (travelling behind in his patrol car) saw the rear door of Anton's car open and close. Both cars pulled over and there followed a heated debate wherein the officer accused Anton of messing around and opening the door himself. Anton was adamant - he had not done it. Instructing him to leave his interior lights on and to lock all his doors, PC Potgieter got back in his car and followed Anton further down the road. The same thing happened again. The men got out of the vehicles, Anton frantic and the PC unsettled, and they decided to drive directly back to Uniondale, whereupon the officer locked up the station and went home, such was his state of mind after the events of the night. The incident played on PC Potgieter's mind and he started checking into the history of the road, and his search led him to a former officer who had worked in that area many years before. 1968 April 12th - The N9 road. Pat McDonald was the first police officer to the scene of a crash on the N9 road a few kilometres north of Uniondale. A Volkswagen Beetle had been blown from the road and off an embankment. Of the two passengers only the driver, an off duty lieutenant in the Air Force, survived. His fianceé, Maria Rue (22 years old), lay against the embankment, dead from head injuries. They had been driving to see Maria's mother to finalise plans for their wedding and Maria had been asleep when the accident happened. She was a short woman, with dark brown hair, wearing dark green trousers and a duffel coat. 1976 Easter - Uniondale An investigating journalist Janie Meyer contacted Maria's mother and obtained a photograph of the unfortunate woman, which was shown, along with some others, to Anton Le Grande. He picked Maria's photograph as the woman to whom he had given a lift that night. 1980 Good Friday - The N9 road. Another motorcyclist, André Coetzee, rode down the same stretch of road. Riding out from Johannesburg, he was in search of a friend he thought might have run out of petrol. He did not see any female at the side of the road, but suddenly felt something around his midriff. Looking down, he saw a pair of hands gripping his waist. Terrified, he accelerated and when he had picked up considerable speed he heard some knocks on his helmet and the sensation vanished along with the hands. It seems the phantom hitchhiker of the N9 road between Willowmore and Uniondale might very well be the unfortunate woman killed in that accident in the late sixties, and for some reason, she is intent on reaching her destination still. Other Phantoms Another road made famous for its phantom hitchhikers is the A38 between Wellington and Taunton in Somerset, England. Reports of various encounters have been commonplace since around 1950. The earliest report of any roadside phantom came from Miss Louisa Scott who saw a man wearing black striding along a road near to St.Boswells. The date for this encounter was 1893 Edited August 14, 2004 by Loonboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic1967 Posted October 22, 2008 #19 Share Posted October 22, 2008 Okay - I know I posted this back in September, but - what the 'eck ! And, dammit, spent ages typing it up and my connection crashed so I've nicked Tom Slemens' account to post..........*mutters someting rude about computers and BT * 'During the early hours of a rainy autumnal morning in 1958, a long-distance HGV driver named Harry Unsworth was driving his vehicle along the A38 motorway towards a depot in Cullompton, Devonshire, England, when he noticed the silhouette of a man about three hundred yards in front of him, standing in the middle of the road. Unsworth declerated his vehicle and stared beyond his busy windscreen wipers at the figure ahead. The stranger was middle-aged, with a mop of curly grey hair, and he wore a saturated grey raincoat. The man produced a torch from his pocket and flashed it at Unsworth, who responded by pulling his lorry up. Unsworth wound his sidewindow down to get a better look at the hitch-hiker. The man stood there on the macadam, looking up at the driver with a dripping, expressionless face. "Come on then!" Unsworth shouted, impatiently. The man climbed into the driver's cab, and in a well-spoken voice he asked Unsworth to drop him off four miles down the motorway at the old bridge at Holcombe. The lorry drove on into the night down the deserted motorway, and the hitch-hiker suddenly started to chuckle. Unsworth glanced at him while he laughed, but the stranger turned his face away and looked out the passenger window, sniggering to himself for no reason . Unsworth asked him what was funny, and the man suddenly turned to face him. His face was contorted with an eerie smile. "Did you know there was a real tragic pile up here a few years ago? Arms and legs everywhere." said the hitch-hiker. And he continued to recount grisly stories about all the traffic accidents that he'd witnessed on the stretch of motorway. Unsworth had seen a few disturbing automobile crashes in his time, but the gruesome blow-by-blow accounts of the fatalities told to him by the hitch-hiker really turned his stomach. Unsworth told the man to shut up, and was only too glad to be rid of his morbid passenger when the lorry reached the drop-off point at the old bridge. Three days later, Mr Unsworth was driving his lorry through the dead of night along the same section of the A38, when he came across the same hitch-hiker again. As before he stood in the middle of the motorway flashing a torch and waving his arm. With an impending sense of deja vu, Unsworth pulled up beside the man, and again, the hitch-hiker asked to be dropped off at the old bridge at Holcombe. This time the man said nothing throughout the journey, but kept smiling and looking at Unsworth out the corner of his eye. This behaviour made the lorry-driver's flesh creep. When the man got out at the bridge, he didn't offer a word of thanks. He walked away into the darkness. A month after that, Unsworth was again heading along the A38 to the lorry depot - when he saw the dreaded hitch-hiker again, standing in the road on the same stretch of motorway as before. The weather was even the same as it had been on the two previous occasions; torrential rain. And the hitch-hiker's request? To be dropped off four miles down the road at the old bridge. Understandably, Mr Unsworth was rather reluctant to give the man a lift, but decided to take him to the confounded bridge for the last time. Once more, the hitch-hiker remained silent during the journey, but occasionally burst out laughing. On the following night, Harry Unsworth was on the same route to the depot. As his vehicle neared the section of the A38 where the oddball had a habit of appearing, he anxiously scanned the road ahead. But on this occasion, the hitch-hiker was nowhere to be seen. Three months later, Unsworth was whistling in his cab as he drove along the stretch of the A38 where he had first set eyes upon the hitch-hiker. He remembers smiling as he thought about the crazy man with the torch, and he also remembers the sight that wiped the smile off his face. Standing in the pouring rain in the middle lane of the motorway was the grey-haired man waving his torch frantically. Unsworth braked by the lunatic, and was astonished to hear the same hackneyed request from him. But Unsworth was more intrigued than scared, and he dropped off the man at the bridge again - but this time the hitchhiker broke the repetitive pattern by asking Mr Unsworth to wait for him whilst he went to 'collect some suitcases,' because he wanted to go to a destination further down the road this time. But the man didn't return to the lorry after twenty minutes had elapsed, and Unsworth was running to a tight schedule and couldn't afford to wait. So he started the vehicle up and drove on. Three miles down the road, the lorry-driver's heart jumped when he saw the hitch-hiker waving his torch in the middle of the motorway. Unsworth was baffled as to how the man could have travelled such a distance in so short a time. The man obviously hadn't hitched a lift, for no vehicles had passed along the deserted motorway, and this fact gave Unsworth the creeps. He tried to drive around the sinister man, but the hitch-hiker dived head-first into the path of the heavy-goods vehicle! Unsworth slammed on the brakes and almost jack-knifed his vehicle. He leaped out of his cab and looked for the body of the madman in the road. He expected to find a flattened corpse, but there was none. Forty feet away stood the hitch-hiker, swearing at the lorry-driver. He started to jump up and down with derision and waved his fist at Unsworth. And then he simply vanished. Unsworth ran back to his vehicle and drove off at high speed. He never encountered the A38 apparition again. But others are still seeing the solid-looking ghost. In December 1991, a woman driving to Taunton via a stretch of the A38 was rounding a bend near the village of Rumwell when she saw a man in a grey raincoat flashing a torch at her in the middle of the road. The woman couldn't brake in time, so she was forced to swerve her vehicle into a ditch. She left her Vauxhall Astra fuming, ready to give the suicidal jaywalker a piece of her mind, but she was amazed to see that the road was completely deserted in both directions. The man with the torch had mysteriously disappeared. Psychical researchers who have investigated the case say that the A38 hitch-hiker is probably the earth-bound spirit of one of the numerous people who have perished on the stretch of motorway in car accidents over the years.' Oooohhhhhhhhh..........it's a bit creeeeeeeeeeepy innit? If I ever - EVER see some old geezer in a mac with a torch, I'm just gonna floor it! Hammy x x x Well seeing this on here brings a slight tear to my eye. You see Harry Unsworth was my father, he died in 1995 and is very missed by my mum and all his children. He would be over the moon to know his story is still chilling people after all these years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIMMAH Posted October 22, 2008 #20 Share Posted October 22, 2008 wow thanks for posting. Can you confirm the story then? Did he tell it to you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiddglock Posted October 23, 2008 #21 Share Posted October 23, 2008 I thought maybe it was gonna be the ghost of a flasher, since he had an overcoat on and all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regency Posted October 23, 2008 #22 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Dancing Hamster had the best ghost stories - I miss her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiddglock Posted October 23, 2008 #23 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Dancing Hamster had the best ghost stories - I miss her. Like Barek, another one bites the dust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustNormal Posted October 23, 2008 #24 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Dancing Hamster had the best ghost stories - I miss her. What ever happened to her Reg? JN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now