I’ve been waiting a long time to tell Reddit the full story of The Whistler

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I’ve been waiting a long time to tell Reddit the full story of The Whistler. This story requires many details, but it is unexplainable, creepy, and 100% true. I also have video evidence.

When I was about 8 years old I was taking my dog for a walk through the neighborhood with my mom. It was maybe 11pm. We live next to a swamp/woods area on the edge of our neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan. I remember it being very silent and slightly windy. From down in the swamp we heard somebody whistling at us. It sounded sort of like a bird, but each whistle was different enough where the lack of consistency made it human-like. The whistle sounded higher, then lower. I can’t really describe it. My mom had a concerned, slightly terrified look on her face and grabbed my hand and said that we should go inside quickly. I didn’t understand because I was too young, but seeing my mom freak out made me freak out too. After a while, though, I kind of forgot about it.

Two years later, I was taking my dog out again, late at night. There is a large bush that could easily obscure a person behind it just next to the front door. As I was finishing the walk, the whistling noise started again, same pitches, same inconsistent, human-like tones. As soon as I heard it, a chill went down my spine as I remembered exactly the feeling of seeing my mom, terrified, looking down into the swamp at something I couldn’t see (maybe she couldn’t either). I ran inside as fast as possible.

Years went by and I thought about it less and less. I told only a handful of people, and eventually it slipped from my mind.

Fast forward to last summer: I’m 24, started dating my girl Sarah. We moved out to South Dakota for work. For Independence day, we decided to go to Pierre, SD and watch the fireworks along the bank of the Missouri river. There was a free camping spot behind a hospital where you could pitch your tent, hang out, and see the fireworks up the river. We were near the end of the campground and there were very few people around us. As it was getting dark, the fireworks began. They were pretty far away, so the illumination they brought was very little. Thus, we had to sit right at the edge of the river to be able to see them. A huge thunderhead was moving in and a storm was imminent, so the air seemed electric and the wind was picking up. The atmosphere was eerie to say the least.

The police boats herded all the other boats off of the river and had left our area to do that elsewhere. Most of the other campers walked up the river to have a better view of the fireworks, but Sarah and I stayed back and were drinking PBR tallboys and kicking it. Suddenly, we heard the sound of a paddle methodically dipping into the water. We saw a figure steering a canoe about 20m off shore. Sarah decided to go get more beers from the car, leaving me alone to stare at this mystery person. And then, of course, they whistled at me. My entire body was frozen and covered in goosebumps. It was the exact same whistler from my childhood, more than a decade earlier. I looked at the figure, but it was much too dark to discern who it could be. They were wearing a hat. When they were perpendicular to the shore from me, they stopped paddling, turned the canoe to face directly at me, and whistled right at me. I was so frightened I stood up and shouted at them “who are you?!?” They didn’t say anything, just whistled a couple more times, turned the canoe 180 degrees, and paddled out of sight.

I’m a videographer, so I already had my camera by my side and was taking video of the fireworks. As the canoe was almost out of sight, I grabbed my camera and got a shot of them whistling as they went away. When Sarah came back from getting beers, she was very confused as to why I was so freaked out. When I explained, she was freaked out a bit too. I was convinced we would both be murdered that night. How did this whistling person follow me, after 14 years, all the way to South Dakota? Was it a coincidence? Why was it the same whistling noise?! Who was that person and where did they go?!?! So many questions still unanswered. To this day I’m more afraid of being outside in the dark where I might hear that whistling again.

I’m open to any explanations.

If there is interest, I will find a plug and edit a little video of the fireworks and the whistling noise and the canoe disappearing. I’m in Uganda currently and the internet is spotty where I am, so I’ll do my best.

tl;dr whistling person has haunted me since I was a boy. Can’t explain. Halp.

EDIT: Video is coming, I promise. Where I’m at in Uganda the power goes out sometimes so if you don’t hear from me either that happened or the Whistler finally got me.

EDIT 2: OK! Finally. I spent all afternoon uploading this video. Here is the link

When I was still getting shots of the fireworks I heard the whistling starting. I was too afraid at that moment to point the camera directly at the canoe, so I just turned my microphone towards it and kept a low-key shot facing down river towards the fireworks. If you wear headphones you can hear it better. It’s the two note whistle, high then low. You can hear me ask my gf “Are you whistling? Is that you?” She said no but I wasn’t sure so I told her “Stop it!” because I was getting scared.

The last shot I boosted the brightness as much as I could and still make out the person in the canoe. It looks like they’re wearing a red sweater or something.

** EDIT: It’s been a while and I apologize for that. I’m back in the US now and I asked my mom about it. I sat her down and played the video for her. She honestly doesn’t remember anything like that happening. I wish I had something more exciting to say. Alas, it must remain a mystery.**

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