In 2015 I was working as repo man for small car dealership in Ottawa. I had been doing it for months at that point, and had already seen some pretty crazy things in my short career. I had become quite familiar with the local police in many of the area towns, and already had a library of crazy stories to share with friends in family. Up until this point however, the strangest thing I had seen in my career was some of the things the customers left in the back of their car. It always surprised me the condition people left their property in, and more often then not, I was retrieving a garbage dump disguised as a car.

                I had bought ford explorer with the money I made repossessing cars, and with every vehicle I retrieved I added little upgrades here and there until I had quite the little bug out vehicle. I had recently brought in a vehicle from a customer that was almost a year late in payments, and I was looking forward to collect so I could install my next upgrade to the explorer. I had found a cheap CB radio and a portable CB walkie talkie at a local hobby shop, and the owner told me he would give me a good deal if I bought them together. He even threw in a free PA System.

                After collecting my pay from the repo, I immediately turned around and gave it to my mechanic to install my new hardware. I didn’t quite have enough cash to cover the installation of the radio and the PA system, but my mechanic told me he had another job for me that would cover the difference. He told me to follow him into his office and he would get me the file.

                I had been in his office dozens of times before. It was a miracle he found anything, with papers scattered all over his desk, boxes filled with car titles, bills of sales and miscellaneous documents. He sat at his desk and began rummaging through his files looking for another customer that was at least six months behind in payments. After a moment of skimming, he pulled out a thin file folder and slapped it down on the desk in front of me.

                I grabbed the file and leaned back in my chair as I started to go over the vehicle’s information. I was looking for the year, make, model and color, the things that would make the vehicle stand out to me. Included was the license plate number and the vin number so I could verify it was the correct vehicle before taking it. As I was looking over the customer’s name and location, the mechanic spoke out. He told me he wanted this car, BAD.

                I remember him telling me he doesn’t care what condition the vehicle was in when it returned, as long as I brought it back. The customer had given him some sob story, made one payment and vanished. That was six months ago, and he hadn’t responded to phone call since. The mechanic was a good guy, but his big heart would get the better of him one day, one day soon if he kept giving out vehicles for a couple of hundred dollars and a signature.

                He told me this one would be a tough one, it was located just north of Streator somewhere on one of the country roads. I had been to Streator a few times, so that wouldn’t be an issues, but the situation was made more complicated once I learned there was no spare key for this car. I either had to convince the customer to give me the key, or call the tow truck to bring the vehicle home.

                After familiarizing myself with the file, and waiting for my new CB radio to be installed, I popped the address into my GPS and hit the road. My partner had been sitting in the passenger seat, no doubt bored as ever sitting around the shop for hours. In the back seat another friend of mine was eager to help out on a repo. They would be useful if I had to bring the vehicle back myself, as I couldn’t drive both of them. However I would have to split the pay too, or at least buy dinner.

                We hung around town until sun went down, by this point in my career I had a pretty solid system, and it worked most of the time. I would wait until 2 or 3 a.m. and verify the car is at the address. If the car was there, and I had the key, I would call the police department to notify them of the repo. The customer would wake up in the morning with no car, but I would be able to avoid any kind of confrontation. However, I would not be so lucky on this trip.

                According to the GPS I was about a minute away from our destination at about 2:30 in the morning. It was dark, and there was no moon or stars in the sky, making it even more difficult to find my way in the endless gravel roads surrounded by cornfields on either side. As I drove down the road the gps announced I had reach my destination, but there was nothing in sight. I continued down the road a ways looking for a driveway, house or barn, but there was nothing.

                I turned around and retraced the route slowly looking for any sign of an address, growing ever more frustrated realizing the customer had provided us a false address. My partner points out a small  drive way on the side of the road, so small and crowed with corn I almost passed it a second time. I stopped in the middle of the gravel road and grabbed my maglight out of the center console. I knew by this point the address was fake, but I figured I would at least verify I was in the right place. As I was digging around for my repo order my partner asked if I heard something off in the distance.

                I told her we are literally in the middle of nowhere, with miles of nothing but corn. The nearest house is at least a mile away, and you couldn’t see civilization in any direction, especially this time of year. As I began to get out of the SUV she handed my new CB walkie talkie so at least I could try it out on this trip. I turned it on as she turned CB in the car. We calibrated the channels and made sure they worked before I made my way down the short drive way, barely wide enough to fit a person, let alone a vehicle. I was less than ten feet away from the car when I heard a blood curdling scream.

                I jumped as my partners voice boomed over the radio asking me if I had just heard that too. I quickly fumbled with the volume to lower it, and whispered back into the radio. I confirmed with her what we had both heard. My partner and friend in the car, and me just a few feet outside of the car could hear a woman’s screams somewhere in the dark cornfields.  My first instinct was to run to the aid of the person screaming, with no idea what I would do once I got there. But I wasn’t able to move at all. I was frozen in fear.

                I scanned the dark skyline looking for any source of light to indicate there was a house nearby. I wondered if some kids partying in a barn somewhere, and I shuttered to think of the alternatives. I heard the shriek again, but it was coming from all around me and I wasn’t able to determine the direction. I took a deep gulp, and made a decision I hoped I would not regret. I shouted into the darkness, asking if someone needed help.

                The air went silent, and there was no response. After a few moments, I could hear a woman yelling, but she was farther away now, and I couldn’t make out what exactly she was saying. I radioed to the car telling them to lock the doors and call the police. I paced up and down the gravel road listening for any signs or clues as to what I was hearing. My partner’s voice came over the radio, there was no reception, and they were unable to place the call.

                With a cold fear I got back into my Explorer and tried to catch my breath. At this point the three of us realized there was nothing we could do, and no way to locate the woman who was screaming. We did the only thing we could, we drove away with the faint sound of voices somewhere in the distance. To this day we don’t know if it was some kids partying, or something else all together. We reported the incident to the police, and kept an eye on the news for the next few weeks looking for any missing person reports. We never heard anything else about it, and we never did find the car.