15. Pizza Delivery
When a woman in Avon Park, Florida sent in an order to Pizza Hut online, the message
they found in the comments was more than your average pizza order. It read: “Please help! Get 911 to me. 911 hostage help.” The woman, Cheryl Treadway, and her children
were being held hostage by her boyfriend, Ethan Nickerson. They’d been arguing all day, when Nickerson
took her cellphone from her. Treadway managed to talk Nickerson into giving
her cellphone back for a moment so that she could order dinner online. That’s when she sent her secret cry for
help. Nickerson retained the woman’s cellphone
after that. All she could do was hope that the Pizza Hut
employees had seen her message. One of them did. Alonia Hawk, a pizza chef, read the message
and reported it to her manager, Candy Hamilton. Hamilton, who knew Treadway as a regular customer,
immediately sprang into action and called 911. Hostage negotiator, Lt. Curtis Ludden, arrived
to find Treadway racing out of the home with one of her children. Two more were still inside with Nickerson,
who was armed with a knife and refused to open the door. Although it took about twenty minutes to convince
Nickerson, police managed to get everyone out of the house unharmed. Nickerson was arrested and charged for his
actions. 14. Prisoner
Imagine, in the bottom of your shopping bag, you discover a message from a Chinese prisoner. “HELP HELP HELP,” it reads. What do you do? 28-year-old Aussie, Stephanie Wilson, discovered
this plea in her bag, written in blue on white paper. Accompanying the message was a passport photo
of Tohnain Emmanuel Njong, along with his email address. Although the investigation led nowhere, a
man claiming to be Njong came out as the author of the secret message. “I am just happy that someone heard my cry,”
he said. 13. “Help Me”
How observant are you? Would you notice if someone in their car mouthed
a secret message to you? One convenience store clerk did, in Florida
- in Jacksonville at a Kangaroo Express. It was 1 in the morning, when the store clerk
looked out the window and saw a woman in the vehicle parked outside mouth “help”. The clerk immediately called police and described
the vehicle, enabling them to broadcast the description. Sure enough, the car was spotted by an officer
on Atlantic Boulevard. But when the officer tried to pull him over,
the driver - later identified as Jose Ramos Sandoval - sped off. Police pursued, and the driver was then arrested. The victim said that Sandoval pulled over
after finding her walking from one beach bar to the next. He asked her if she wanted a lift. Mistaking Sandoval for an acquaintance. And the real hero of this story - the convenience
store clerk - was thanked for his efforts on social media. 12. Pain Problems
Imagine you’re traveling to a foreign land. Without a thought, you pack pain killers for
your boyfriend’s back pain. You arrive at your destination, ready for
some rest and relaxation when, without warning, you’re placed under arrest and imprisoned. That’s what happened to Laura Plummer, a
British tourist who traveled to Egypt. Her boyfriend had recently been in an accident,
and she was visiting him in Egypt. But before she could, Plummer was arrested
at the Airport on the Red Sea. The 33-year-old tourist says she didn’t
know she was breaking the law when she brought the medication into the country. Carrying 290 pills, Plummer feared she might
be charged with trafficking. Plummer received the meds from a friend in
the UK who had a prescription. In a desperate plea, she passed a note to
The Sun from behind bars that read: “Please help me get out ... I don’t know
what’s happening. I’m scared. I had no idea that what I was doing was wrong. I thought I was doing a good deed.” Plummer is being kept in a 15-by-15 foot cell
with 25 other female prisoners. Having signed a 38-page statement written
in Arabic, Plummer assumed she’d be permitted to go. Instead, she’s been issued a three-year
jail term - a term which was recently upheld in appeals court. 11. Lifesaver
This message in a bottle saved the lives of over 80 migrants off the coast of Costa Rica. In 2005, the crew that was smuggling the migrants
abandoned ship, leaving the migrants - most of whom were teenagers - to sink or swim. Literally. They sent an SOS message in a bottle, setting
it adrift and praying that someone would find it. “Please help us,” they wrote. Fishermen found the bottle, read the message,
and delivered it to the workers at a World Heritage site island nearby. They raised the alarm at the site’s headquarters,
and rescue crews were sent out to save the drifting migrants, who were then brought back
to the island to mend. A harrowing rescue, all due to a secret message
in a bottle. 10. Chatsworth House
There are some who write secret messages seeking immediate help, and there are some who want
the future to know about the hardships they’ve suffered. The workmen of the Chatsworth House in the
UK belong to this latter group. When the British stately home of the aristocratic
Devonshire family underwent a £32m restoration program this year, secret messages were found
carved into the wood by the workmen who built the home 170 years ago. Part of their inscription read: “Many out
of employ and starving. This winter will be a severe one. So down with the Tory rascals.” While they may not have lived to see their
message heard, the men created a beautiful gem in the Chatsworth House that lives on. 9. Pizza Savior
Yet, again, pizza is credited for saving another captive’s life. The couple in question had started dating
in 2016 and then moved in together. But when they broke up in 2018, the woman
moved to a new place. And her boyfriend followed. When the abusive ex-boyfriend entered her
house without invitation, his intent was to hold her captive. 55-year-old Dean Hoffmann took his ex’s
phone, and attempted to drag her upstairs. After allowing her to tend to her nose, he
bound her hands and feet with a vacuum cord and shoved a towel in her mouth, leaving her
there for thirty minutes. He then released her from her binds, but kept
her captive for several more hours. Hoffmann texted the woman’s children on
her phone to say she was sick and not to visit for a while. Then, he ordered a pizza. When the pizza delivery guy, Joey Grundl,
showed up, he probably didn’t expect to find a captive person in the home, mouthing
“help me, call police.” But, he did. And he followed her instructions. Joey Grundl said of the ordeal: “It's kind
of scary. She pointed to a black eye that was quite
visible.” Grundl made the call, and police soon showed
up to the home. Though, at first, Hoffmann tried to prevent
the woman from answering the door, officers convinced him to open up, and he was arrested. Hoffmann was charged for his actions. And, hopefully, he lives a lifetime of the
pain and fear he caused his ex. She is quoted as saying, “I truly believed
[he] was going to [take my life] that night.” 8. Zara
When workers go unpaid, they have two options: rise up or accept their fate. That’s what some sweatshop workers did when
they slipped secret messages into the clothes they were making for the clothing company,
Zara. “I made this item you are going to buy,
but I didn’t get paid for it,” read a note in place of a price tag at a store in
Istanbul. An investigation into the matter uncovered
that Zara had outsourced their garment-making to Bravo Tekstil, a manufacturer who shut
down overnight. After the shutdown, they refused to pay three
months’ wages to their employees, nor did they compensate them with a severance package. Factory workers took matters into their own
hands, printing these messages on clothing tags and placing them on garments. If Bravo Tekstil didn’t pay up, they expected
Zara to. Controversial reports have revealed that the
Spanish company doesn’t have the greatest ethics. From ripped-off designs to environmental damage,
Zara has also been charged with ignoring poor factory conditions. I’m guessing they’ll try to avoid paying
up at all costs. 7. Primark
Irish clothing company, Primark, also experienced an incident of sweatshop labor sewn right
into their clothing. Extra labels were found on items that said:
“Forced to work exhausting hours,” and “Degrading sweatshop conditions.” While Primark planned to investigate the matter,
it’s known that the sites at which their products were manufactured were not up to
code in the past. The Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh - a company
Primark (and other retailers) outsourced to - collapsed in April of 2013, leaving 1,134
passed away. A compensation fund was set up for the families
who lost a loved one. Primark has contributed to this fund. But these secret messages discovered a year
later, in 2014, seem to indicate that things haven’t changed. 6. BBC SOS Messages
This one’s a rather interesting historical callback to the early broadcast SOS message. In 1923, the BBC began broadcasting personal
messages directly to individuals from people who needed help. The messages usually regarded the health of
loved ones. This practice lasted seventy years. One example of this SOS message in action
involved the great-grandfather of writer Kathleen Hawkins in 1954. She wrote that her grandfather discovered
that his father was passing away through one of these BBC SOS messages. “Please head to Dublin where your father
is dangerously ill,” the message said. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it there before
his father passed away. 5. Knitting Needle
In the 1910s, spies used knitting, believe it or not. Women would knit codes into fabric, with bumpy
stitches acting as coded messages. The Belgian resistance used this tactic against
the occupying Germans. Knitting involves two types of stitches: a
purl stitch in the form of a bump or a short dash, and a knit stitch, flat and in the shape
of a “v.” The result was that a pattern of stitches
in a simple scarf or other piece of fabric could act like braille, delivering messages
between spies. One spy, Phyllis Latour Doyle, was an operative
for Britain. Parachuting into Normandy in 1944, she implanted
herself amongst the occupying German soldiers and gathered information to send back to her
people, coding it on a piece of silk. Extraordinary. And, yet, completely ordinary. 4. CQD & Other Last Words
When the Titanic set off on its maiden voyage, wireless was a fairly new technology. Being a prestigious ship, the Marconi company
- a top tech brand at the time - installed its wireless operators aboard the ship. In fact, the Titanic had what was described
by the BBC as “the biggest and best wireless equipment in the world.” While first class passengers were the primary
users of the technology, sending their friends and family messages back home, they wouldn’t
be the only ones to use it by the time their journey came to an abrupt end. When the Titanic hit the iceberg on that fateful
night, the wireless operators sent out their first coded message, requesting assistance. “CQD.” This was the popular distress signal at the
time - although “SOS” was also in rare use. They then sent a more direct message to a
ship called the Carpathia, “Come at once. We have struck a berg. It's a CQD, old man.” They sent a similar message to another ship,
the Frankfurt. These messages were forwarded onward to ships
that might be closer. The messages from the Titanic continued, describing
how the passengers were disembarking in boats, the power was shutting down, and the engine
room had flooded. A sister ship, the Olympic, responded, saying
they were “lighting up all boilers as fast as we can.” A few minutes before the Titanic sank, one
last urgent message was sent out in code: “Come quick. Engine room nearly full.” This left the rescue ships to try and navigate
to the Titanic’s location and coordinate rescue efforts. Once rescued, the survivors of the ship sent
out their own personal messages to family and friends. “Completely destitute, no clothes,” one
wrote. “Meet me dock with two hundred dollars,
underwear, cap, big coat - am well but slightly frozen,” wrote another. Unfortunately, many did not get to send out
a final message. 3. Black Dot Campaign
This grassroots movement involves drawing a tiny black dot on your hand to signal to
others that you are struggling. Either to connect with other survivors or
to cry for help. According to caepv.org, one in four women
in America has been abused by an intimate partner. The campaign seeks to enable survivors to
deliver a message to friends, relatives, and agencies that they’re in need of help escaping
an abusive relationship. The campaign does have its critics. Kim Gandy, stated: “Secrecy is actually
an important element to safety planning for a survivor, which could be jeopardized if
the abuser sees the dot, or sees the remnants of it, and knows it is an attempt to get help.” Survivors, however, have utilized the dot. According to the campaign, not only has the
dot already helped dozens of survivors escape their situations, but it is also a source
of comfort to those who’ve been silent. It helps them voice their experiences. One example of this secret message in action
came from a pregnant woman who was being abused by the baby’s father. The man wouldn’t let her out of his sight. After reading about the Black Dot Campaign,
she took a risk at a hospital exam. She jotted a note on her hand that simply
said, “HELP ME,” which was signal enough for her healthcare professional to take action. The woman said she didn’t have to say anything,
and the consultant was able to move her to a safe place, just in time for her baby to
arrive. At least some sad scary stories have a happy
ending. 2. Halloween SOS
Yet another forced labor message, found this time in a Halloween toy. The letter was discovered by Julie Keith in
Oregon in a “Totally Ghoul” toy set she purchased at Kmart in 2011. The author wrote in broken English:
“If you occasionally (sic) buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World
Human Right Organization. Thousands people here... will thank and remember
you forever.” The letter continued, detailing the abuses,
the long hours, and worse experienced by those in a China Labor Camp. After contacting human rights groups to no
avail, Keith posted the letter on Facebook, and it was picked up by the media. It wasn’t until much later that Mr Zhang
came forward in CNN’s Beijing office to share his story. Zhang was imprisoned by the Chinese government
for being part of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. He spent two and a half years in a labor camp,
which is when he wrote the message. “For people who have never been there, it's
impossible to imagine,” he said. “The first thing they do is to take your
human dignity away and humiliate you.” Before we get to number 1, my name is Chills
and I hope you’re enjoying my narration. If you’re curious about what I look like
in real life, then go to my instagram, @dylan_is_chillin_yt and tap that follow button to find out. It's a proven fact that generosity makes you
a happier person, so if you're generous enough to hit that subscribe button and the bell
beside it then thank you. This way you'll be notified of the new video
we upload every Tuesday. 1. Airline Trafficking
If you see something, say something. That’s what this flight attendant on Alaska
Airlines did, when she saw a 14 or 15 year old girl who appeared “disheveled” on
her flight. The older man who accompanied her was well-dressed,
and the disparity struck a chord. Sheila Frederick was working her flight route
from Seattle to San Francisco, when she felt in her gut that something was off. Their appearance together and their behavior
confirmed her suspicions. When she spoke to the pair, the young girl
remained silence and the man seemed defensive. Because the girl wouldn’t speak to her,
Frederick took matters into her own hands. She left a note for the girl in the bathroom
of the plane. The girl responded, writing: “I need help.” Frederick sought help from the plane’s pilot,
who contacted the San Francisco police. They were there to arrest the despicable trafficker
when the plane landed. Frederick said: “I’ve been a flight attendant
for 10 years, and it's like I am going all the way back to when I was in training, and
I was like, I could have seen these young girls and young boys and didn't even know.” Luckily, she was at least able to save
this person.
