Radio Rental · Tenderfoot TV & Audacy

Episode 76

·49 min·3 clips

Shannon screamed as she froze face-to-face with a stalker in her driveway at night.

1. Radio Rental Episode 76 presents two first-person accounts of home intrusion — one by a human stalker in 1990s Utah, one by an entity of unclear nature in suburban Melbourne — both involving prolonged proximity and lost time. 2. Host Terry Carnation (Rainn Wilson) introduces the episode from his fictional video rental store; his comedic interjections are woven around the serious first-person narratives. 3. The episode's central tension is whether both experiences represent human predation, the supernatural, or something that resists either label. 4. The first story is set in Ogden, Utah around 1998-1999, told by Kay, the youngest of 11 children, who lived at home at the end of a dead-end street while attending Weber State University with two older sisters. 5. The stalking begins with anonymous phone calls to the house landline that stop when the family gets caller ID — the caller apparently knew when people were home alone and when they were not. 6. Kay's car is broken into but nothing stolen; her driver's license is moved to the dashboard and her wallet is handled and returned, smudged with dirt, suggesting an intruder wanting to be known rather than to steal. 7. The narrator is awakened three times one night and, on getting up for water, hears someone jump down from outside her second-floor bedroom window — the window sits seven feet off the ground above a basement window ledge. 8. The family installs sensor lights as a response; weeks later, Kay returns home to find the driveway floods have had their bulbs removed and every other exterior sensor redirected skyward with a broom handle left on the patio. 9. After a winter pause they nickname the 'Fair Weathered Stalker,' activity resumes in spring — the returning signature is smashed sensor lights, described as feeling 'more aggressive, with teeth behind it.' 10. Just after 1am before a planned camping trip, Shannon screams after encountering a man in the driveway; police arrive promptly and reveal a woman two blocks away woke to a man standing above her in bed, and another came home to find someone had been cooking in her kitchen. 11. Police describe the family as a 'hot spot' for stalking activity and say the caller-caller-schedule pattern suggests someone the family had encountered somewhere. 12. A week or two later, Kay wakes to find someone in her room she initially mistakes for her sister Shannon — the person stands in the bedroom closet area, shifts, then goes to the doorway and leaves when the phone rings; Kay realizes her sister's car is not in the driveway. 13. Kay barricades herself in her bedroom with the window open and one foot against the screen, calls 911, and hears the doorknob twist and push before the person walks down the hall and out the front door as police arrive. 14. The stalking stops entirely after Kay's brother Chris returns from law school and nephew Adam moves in — the case was never solved. 15. The second story is set in a suburb of Melbourne; an 18-year-old working late shifts walks home one evening to see a tall, thin silhouette on the corrugated iron carport roof looking through his bedroom window — the Rhodesian Ridgeback in the kennel below does not bark and no footsteps can be heard on the metal roof. 16. The next night, the narrator wakes at around 2am to find the hallway light on and his door handle rattling; he pretends to sleep as the door opens, light spills in, and the door closes again. 17. Moments later the blanket goes tight around his feet, the mattress sinks at the foot of the bed, and his foot contacts something solid — he stares at the dark TV screen trying to see a reflection, and notes he cannot hear breathing or movement. 18. The weight remains for roughly four hours; at just before 6am it lifts, the door opens and closes again with the same rattling handle noise, and the narrator waits ten minutes before checking the house — all interior doors are still closed, no windows disturbed, no sign of entry. 19. The narrator speculates whether the roof silhouette and the bedroom presence are the same entity, but says he prefers not to entertain that thought. 20. Both stories end unresolved; listeners interested in real stalking cases and unexplained nocturnal experiences would find both accounts compelling, while those expecting resolution or investigation will find neither provided.

As heard by us

A house story where the smallest ordinary noises keep turning into something wrong.

This Radio Rental story makes a quiet house feel unsafe without needing much theatrics. The dread comes from ordinary things staying ordinary just a little too long: footsteps, phone calls, half-seen movement, and the way the story keeps circling back to domestic details until…

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Why you'd press play

You want a home scare that starts with a ringing phone and the feeling someone else is in the house.

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