Waved Down

Truck drivers out on dark roads frequently report seeing unusual sights. The following 1^st person account is one of my favorite guardian spirit stories.

It was a rainy night and I was on a tight schedule as I impatiently made my way through a slow construction zone just west of Detroit, Michigan.

Around 2:00 a.m. I spotted an elderly lady standing by a broken down old car. The rain had saturated her thin coat. I ignored the fact she was desperately waving me down.

Without stopping, I passed where she stood, I justified my action by telling myself there where plenty of other people who had the time to help. But as I wound my way around to the next exit a feeling of regret I still can’t explain gripped me.

I felt compelled to turn off. And to my surprise I found myself steering my rig back around headed once more for the stranded car.

When I pulled up I saw two small heads pop up in the back seat. Then a young man approached my rig. I offered to take him and his family to a gas station so they could get help.

I watched as he gathered up his children and young wife. But where was the elderly lady? As they piled through my passenger door I asked if that was all of them.

They looked at me puzzled. I then asked about the older lady. They didn’t appear to know what I was talking about so I tried once more. Didn’t you see the overweight lady with the snow-white frizzy hair standing out in the rain.

They replied no. The wife asked if I had noticed anything else about her. I told her the lady was tall but stooped over. She then began to cry. It was my turn to be puzzled.

The wife wiped her nose and told me that I had just described her grandmother who had died recently.

She turned to her husband still sniffling. She stated, "I have always heard relatives sometimes return as guardians in times of trouble but I didn’t believe it until now."

This encounter still gives me chills even though it has been over 10 years. For some unknown reason that night I felt compelled to go back.

I guess the wife was right. I encountered a force that was not of this world.

The A3 Ghost Crash

This story set off hysteria over twelve years ago in Surrey, England.

On December 11, 2002, the police celebrating their annual Christmas party received multiple phone calls from witnesses reporting they had seen headlights veering off the A3 highway near Guildford.

Car accidents are a common occurrence on this British highway so the police responded to the scene fearing the worst.

When they arrived at the scene, however they found no evidence of a crash. They continued to search the area and they discovered a wrecked maroon Vauxhall Astra which had landed nose-down in a ditch.

Crashed car down in ravine.

This car, which apparently careened off the highway, was covered in leaves and undergrowth. The police discovered a decomposed human body inside this car. *

So this was not a recent accident. The police determined it had actually occurred five months before they found the car.

Rumors fueled by the media were circulated that the lost soul in this car had drawn attention to his final resting place by reenacting the accident—where his car lost control.

So was it phantom headlights that all these witnesses saw heading off the highway?

The reporting by the national press set off hysteria over this supposed ghost car sighting. The Surrey Police however have never connected the Vauxhall Astra they discovered to paranormal activity.

Despite this, the story is now firmly embedded in British ghost folklore.

Witnesses to this unexplained sight in 2002 still state that they think about it every time they drive on this stretch of the A3.

*  The body found in the car was determined from dental records to be 21-year old Christopher Brian Chandler from Middlesex. The police wanted him for robbery.

A Wall of Angels

Newsweek Magazine first published this story in December of 1993.

Chantel Lakey and her fiancé Dale were driving along the Pacific Coast Highway when Dale abruptly pulled the car over to the side of the road. The sun was beginning to set and he had spotted a trail that he knew had a spectacular view of the ocean.

The two young lovers managed to climb to the top of this trail through a dense forest that grew on a steep cliff overhanging the coast. After admiring the view they started the decent back down the cliff’s side to their car.

Dale spotted an animal trail that he felt would be easier on Chantel. But the pair soon found this was a mistake. For the path they were on quickly turned into a steep cliff covered in loose shale and rock. To compound their situation the sun set and it started to rain. The path they were on became even more slippery.

The two found they could not climb back up so they had no choice but to continue down. Dale walked in front so that he could turn around and help Chantel when needed. Tragically, the last time he turned his foot slipped and he fell off the cliff, to his death.

Chantel was now terrified. In shock and clutching the loose rock near her she was unable to move. Later she stated that she did not believe in a “higher being” but desperate she cried out to God for help.

What happened next she is firmly convinced saved her life. She saw a bright light and then a “gateway between heaven and earth” opened up. She looked around to see that Angels now surrounded her. She described them as a “wall of protection” that was holding her close.

Within minutes she realized that she was now looking up at the cliff from the roadside. “Somehow she had managed to descend” but she did not remember how.

When the recue team went to retrieve her fiancé’s body they found they could not go down the same trail Chantel had descended. They stated the path was impossible to climb down --even with all their combined experience and equipment.