Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, fans of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. I'm here today to tell you all about what it actually means now that we've moved over to the SiriusXM family. Big picture, it means we are going to make more content for you. Right now, you get one YouTube video a week on Saturday.
Well, what we're going to do now is we're going to have the Saturday upload be the same, but then also the Mr. Ballin podcast. Well, we've begun already filming those episodes like a YouTube video. So that's a second piece of content every week.
Then there's two other shows that you guys don't even know about yet, which means on any given week, you could have up to four new video pieces of content on the Mr. Ballin channel. And also, all these pieces of content will double as podcasts as well. This new content schedule is going to start early next year.
Also, there's one other thing I want to clarify, which is the state of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Redacted. Those shows were created in collaboration with Wondery, but now we're partnered with Sirius, and so we're not going to be making any new episodes of either of those shows.
For now, if you want to hear my podcast episodes one week early and ad-free, make sure to subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com slash podcast plus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. Keep on the lookout for more announcements in the coming weeks. Thank you. In today's story, a family uncovers a secret on a laptop.
And after that, everything spirals completely out of control. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right show because that's all we do.
So if that's of interest to you, the next time the follow button lets you look through their prized 1970s family photo album, make sure you aggressively lick your finger and flip the pages each time so you smudge all the edges. Okay, let's get into today's story.
On the night of January 3rd, 2008, a 21-year-old man named Part Engel had just poured himself a beer and sat down on the couch next to his girlfriend to watch some TV when he heard a knock at the front door of his apartment in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
It was late, around 8 p.m., and Part was not expecting any company, and so before he got up, he looked over at his girlfriend to be like, are you expecting anybody? And she looked at him and kind of shrugged, and so Part just put his beer down and stood up and walked over to the front door to see who was there.
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Chapter 2: What shocking secret does the family uncover on the laptop?
And so standing there in his bedroom, totally horrified about everything he's heard and, you know, now kind of second-guessing everything he knew about his dad who suddenly seemed like this combative, kind of disorganized guy, Part suddenly felt like, I have to learn more here. I have to figure out if my dad really is a threat.
So Part quietly left his bedroom and made his way to the kitchen where his laptop was, and he loaded up that software that spied on his dad's computer. And as he began logging into this program, Part was thinking, you know, maybe I'm going to find something that will show that my mom is clearly just overreacting and misinterpreting what she's seeing.
That, you know, my dad is not, you know, out to kill us for some insurance payout. But after loading up this program and kind of scanning through some recent activity, Part realized that actually the situation with his dad was way worse than his mom had made out on that call he overheard.
He not only found all these multi-million dollar insurance policies taken out on him, his sister, and his mom, but also he discovered the stash of fraudulent looking paperwork.
There were all these passport photos of his father, but then connected to these photos was a passport application that was using somebody else's name, as if his father was trying to forge paperwork to create a phony passport for himself.
And so at this point, Part felt like his mother was certainly not overreacting here, that in fact it really did seem like his father was, you know, preparing to kill his family and collect millions of dollars in insurance money, and then using this, you know, fake passport he was making, he'd be able to flee the country.
For the next several days, Part's mom stayed at Part's apartment, but she barely ever left the guest bedroom. And then when she would leave the bedroom, Part would go up to her and try to ask her, you know, hey, what's going on, without giving away how much she knew already. But Part's mom was like, nope, I don't want to talk about it.
And she would just go right back in the room, shut and lock the door. And so finally, after several days of this, Park just went to his mom's bedroom door, he knocked on the door until she answered, and then before she could kind of shoo him away, he said, Mom, stop. I know what's going on.
I read the emails, and we have to figure out what we're going to do because our lives literally depend on it. I agree with you. It looks like Dad is going to kill us and then flee the country.
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Chapter 3: How does Part Engel react to his mother's unexpected visit?
And this woman was certainly not his mother. And in this email, his dad told this person that he had a big contract coming up and he was going to make a ton of money from it. And then also at the end of this email, he told this woman that he loved her. And so right away, Part's thinking, okay, my dad is obviously having another affair because this is not my mom and he's saying he loves her.
And also, what's my dad talking about with this big contract coming up? Is he talking about the insurance policies? Does he expect those to pay out soon, indicating that I, my sister, or my mom might be dead?
And then also the other thing that Part noticed that morning as he's checking through his dad's computer activity is he found another message his dad had sent out recently where he communicated to somebody that his father had died, so Part's grandfather had died.
And also in this message, Arun Kumar is telling this person that he's going to go to his dad's funeral alone, that his wife and two kids were not invited to this funeral. And so Part's reading this and he's totally devastated by the fact that his grandfather's dead and the fact that, what, he's not being invited to the funeral?
But again, he's thinking, oh my gosh, is that because my dad thinks I'm not going to be alive? Is this all connected, you know, between the big contract and the fact that we're not going to be at the funeral? Is this my dad thinking he's going to enact this murder plot soon? Part didn't know, but he felt like he and his mom and his sister were running out of time and he needed to act right now.
And so Part got off his computer, he called his mom, and they made a plan. That evening, at around 9.15 p.m., Part got in his car and began driving towards his parents' house to go confront his dad. This was the plan he and his mom had come up with.
Basically, his mom would stay at Part's apartment, and Part would go and tell his dad, you know, we know about what you're doing, and you gotta stop. And even though Part was totally jacked up on adrenaline as he drove towards the house, he felt like he really had the upper hand going into whatever this confrontation was going to be.
Because, number one, Part was showing up totally unannounced at night to his dad's place. I mean, his dad's gonna be caught off guard when he sees him. And also, Part knew he was much physically bigger than his father. Part was over six feet tall and over 200 pounds, and so he had the physical angle as well.
And so Part really felt confident driving towards the house that he was going to come out the victor in whatever ensued. At around 10.45 p.m., Part finally arrived in front of his parents' house. He parked the car, he got out, he walked up the front steps, and he knocked on the front door.
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Chapter 4: What troubling behavior does Part notice about his father?
To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya.