The Man in my Basement | Teen Ink

The Man in my Basement

December 9, 2011
By brooke112345 SILVER, Scottdale, Pennsylvania
brooke112345 SILVER, Scottdale, Pennsylvania
9 articles 5 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
In the end, it's not the years in your life, it's the life in your years.
Be who you want to be; not what other want you to.


Most, If not all have some sort of crazy experience that happened in your life. Whether it’s something like falling off your chair or someone dying or like me, not locking you door. Now I see what you’re thinking, what does not locking your door have anything to do with a experience, but I’m here to warn you to make sure all of lock your doors because you never know who or what will come in.

It was just a normal night and not in a million years did I think it would ever be different, until, my grandma wakes up about twelve o’clock one night to hear some noises coming from the other side of the basement. She looks out the door to see who it was, but she had no clue. She ran upstairs to my dad’s room. “Lex… Lex, There’s someone down the basement, wake up, Lex!”

My dad sprouts from the bed, “Uh, what, what’s going on?”

“Lex, there’s someone down stairs, in the basement, by the door.”

“Alright, let me go check it out.”
Before going to get his gun, he peeked down the basement, he looked harmless. Calling the cops may have been a good idea, but we lived in the middle of nowhere and usually for mishaps like this, they took almost an hour to get there. My dad crept down the steps and just when he reached about the third to last step, he stopped and the man looked up. He had a scruffily, almost dirty looking gray beard, a black shirt, and red baggy sweat pants. “Hey buddy, what are you doing in my basement?” My dad yells across the barley lighted room.
“Wha…Wha. Well, I’m supposed to meet my buddies here.” He says in a scared tone while shaking his hand.

“What? No, you’re not, this is my basement, you need to get out of here. “
“Hold on man, let me just finish cleaning the rest of this up,” He said while picking up the little stranglers of dog food that fell out of the bag.
“Don’t worry about that, where’d you come from?”
Ugh, Well I was born and raised in Michigan, but now I’m here to meet my buddies.
As my dad got closer, the man started to shake more.
Great, now, get out!”
Al-al-alright man, but where do I go?
“Just walk out those double doors turn right and follow the light, just follow the light.”
“Okay, Thanks you so much man, I’ll visit you later.”
“No you won’t, I don’t know you, get out of here.”
He walked out the door, and he was finally gone. Well that’s what we thought, at first. My dad came upstairs to find me and my gram in his bedroom looking out the window.
“Hey dad, what was going on?”
“Some guy must have been drunk or something and was cleaning in the basement looking for some men.”
As my dad thought about what the man said, he went down the basement and around the house to make sure none of his “friends” where there to be safe.
At first, I thought it was very funny, but then when my dad didn’t return for a while, I was more scared than ever imaginable.
Finally, I get a call from my neighbor, Randy.
“Hey, I’m over Randy’s house checking something things out; apparently that guy was over here too, I’ll tell you the story when I get back. For now, you and grammy lock the doors and go in your room, I got the spare key. ”
“Alrighty dad,” I said in a low trembled voice, “Please be careful.”
“I will, just stay there, I love you.”
“I love you too dad.”
I shook uncontrollably from fear on my bed with my gram rubbing my back. I was so scared that someone or something would hurt my dad.
I almost fell asleep when I heard my dad yelling for me. I jumped up and went to see him.
“Dad, you’re all right!”
“Of course, but this guy I think is delirious, there not a soul outside, no need to worry.”
“Okay, but how did he get here and what happened at Randy’s house?”
“Well before he even first came to our house, his truck broke down in front of Randy’s. He heard someone on the porch and whet outside to see what the heck this guy was doing. The man told him he needed some gas and Randy filled up his tank and gave him 10 bucks to get on his way. Then right before Randy walked in, the man said he would leave soon, he just had to get his buddies, which is how he got in the basement. Then, after we sent him on his way, he stopped at Randy’s once more. When he heard the man talking to himself on the porch again, he called the police and when outside. The man looked back and said hey to Randy. Randy walked out on the porch, and told the strange man he called the cops, then suddenly, the man started yelling, common man, we gotta get outs here. The Police are coming, common directly to the cat. Then, the man picked up the cat and started to run, leaving Randy confused and scared.

I finally laughed; getting a kick out of the man took his cat, who takes a cat? Anyways, as I continued to laugh, I saw Randy’s cat outside the window, and coming out behind the tree was the man, chasing his new friend. I yelled for my dad and we both watched him for a minute. Then my dad opened the door and yelled across the huge yard, “I told you to get out of my yard, if you don’t turn around and go back to where you came from, I’ll shoot ya.”

The man whipped one foot around and went back towards the road without hesitation.
“Dad, maybe we should call the police again, to make them speed up this “saving” process. “
All of a sudden when I looked out the window, two men in police uniforms jumped out of the car and tackled the man. I ran out on the front porch and watched as the handcuffs snapped around his hands. They shoved them in the car and came down our long driveway.
“Howdy guys, look like you got him,” my dad sighed in relive.
“Ahh, yes we did, now we already talked to your neighbor, Randy, and now, we need to story for you. “
My dad told the two men the whole story as I watched the man in the car. The police officers agreed that it was almost the same story Randy had told them.
The officers looked confused, “Wait, he told you he was from Michigan?”
“Yes Sir, why?”
Well, your neighbor got the impression he was from Virginia, but on his license, he is from Ruffs dale. The men looked around and chuckled again.
“We assure you he isn’t harmful, he is just in some depression problems, he lost his wife, and he’s off his pills.” Then they started cracking jokes about the man.

One of the officers said,” I thought we were going to take someone to jail, but we just make to him to a metal hospital.”

They all laughed, and to my surprise, the men pulled out their snuff cans and started chewing. Afterwards, they left and took the man to a mental ward, poor guy. When we went in the house, we checked out the basement once more, and there sits the man leather jacket. We ended up burnt it in the next bonfire we had. Anyways, we have been broken in and robbed many more times after that. We never learned not to lock our doors, but know when we look back; it would have been a smart thing to do living in the middle of nowhere. Two years later, we moved from that house to a new one in Ruffs Dale, hopefully the crazy man is still locked up, like our doors.



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