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Old 07-16-2004, 11:05 PM
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Ugly Joe Ugly Joe is offline
Going bump in the night..
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Huntington Beach, California
Posts: 2,926
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I have an unexplained story that's true, but not necessarily scarey (actually, it's a bit dull)

While in college, I worked at Disneyland (school all day, work all night).

On this particular summer night, I was working the Jungle Cruise and had just gone to the backstage area for a break (it was around 11-11:30 at night.
There were two other cast members in the break area at that time, one reading a newspaper at a table, and the other on a nearby payphone - neither one was up for conversation with me at that time.

As I sat at a table, resting my chin on my hands and trying to read the back of the newspaper, I noticed something on the floor about 2-3 feet behind the guy with the paper that was a little unusual.

It was one of the spent rounds from the Jungle Cruise ballancing on it's round end...

(just to fill the gaps for those who have never been on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, during the course of the ride, the "captain" of the boat "shoots" at the hippo's - it's an actual .357 caliber pistol that fires blanks.
The blanks are about an inch long, made of red plastic, flat on the primer end, and very round on the powder end - where the exploding gunpowder comes out. They're actually cut to ensure no plastic bits break off and fly anywhere - safety first)

I was intrigued, as I had never seen one of these left laying around (the ride is supposed to keep count of all of them, as they are explosive devices), and never thought to try to balance one on it's round end.

I wasn't certain if it was actually touching the floor at first, and was staring at it and above it, all the way to the ceiling, to see if it was dangling from a piece of fishing line or thread - sometimes Disney cast members become real bored and do odd things.

I must have been looking at this thing for a good 10-12 seconds, when it started to wobble, and then fall down - it had actually been spinning on its' round end so quickly, that it appeared to be immobile.
(time to add: these spent rounds are quite light, and as such have little angular momentum - I have yet to make it spin for more than a second or so...)

My first thought was: the guy with the newspaper (which I had been reading from the other side) must have leaned over, and spun this casing with his fingers (like spinning a quarter with a snapping motion) and sat back up smoothly enough that I didn't notice him doing it, so I said to him, "Hey, that was a great trick!" - he lowered the newspaper a little, asked if I was speaking to him, I related what I had watched, he listened a little, looked back at the round and said flatly, "I didn't do that".

I tried to interrupt the guy on the phone, asking if he had seen what I had, but he was in a fight with someone on the phone and hadn't been looking that direction or seen it...whichever.

I went around the tables to see if I had been imagining things, but the casing simply lay on the floor with nothing attached to it. I picked it up, went back to a table, and prompty began trying to spin it like I had witnessed - with one hand and with two.
(please note: the table was quite smooth, while the floor is rough for traction)
I spent the remainder of my break trying to get it to spin, but never had much luck.

I have kept the spent round, and have occasionaly tried to get it to spin like I remember - nothing yet.

Conclusions? Either the newspapaer guy lied and was EXTREMELY skilled at spinnnig spent casings, or I hallucinated the entire thing, or (and this is where I'm most skeptical) something other than the three of us was also in that break room that night, playing with a spent Jungle Cruise round it had managed to procure - and bastard that I am, I took it away (but I didn't know! I'll whine if I ever have to answer for my behavior).

Like I said: True, Unexplained, and Dull.

"Kiss me, Fatboy!" - Pennywise the clown
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