Craziest stories of The Sentry

Street bird steppin’ with sass.
Photo: Taelar Pollmann · The Sentry

The Sentry staff can’t always share their personal stories in the newspaper, but sometimes stories are too crazy not to share.

Frankie Spiller: Last summer, I had the pleasure of gaining a hands-on learning experience about raccoons. One, raccoons are pretty cute. Two, the sounds raccoons make are also pretty cute. And three, raccoons and their sounds are not cute when they are trying to break into your house. I had been woken up by a fuzzy fat raccoon trying to break into my second story window at 3 a.m. I only managed to run it off by playing grizzly bear noises on my phone and banging a bat against the wall. This night was not a singular occurrence either. That raccoon, whom I lovingly referred to as Chubbs, terrorized me for weeks on end. His cute appearance masked his true intention of stealing my food, and I must ask, will I ever trust again?

Austin Bolton: Every year, my dad, brother, and I used to head to our hunting property in the backwoods of Michigan (where I grew up) for opening day. We would usually stay a weekend in our camper trailers down about 20 minutes of sand roads in the middle of nowhere with no cell service. We had bought the property cheap because the previous owner had been mauled to death by a bear while asleep. Knowing that story, bears were always a fear of mine while we were there. One night, I heard something outside and woke my dad. We opened the door, and standing no less than three feet from us was a large black bear and two cubs, apparently searching for food. My dad closed the door slowly. We grabbed our guns and sat frozen, hoping beyond hope that they didn’t try to get in. Thankfully, they didn’t, but the experience has always stuck with me. The fear was unbearable.

Kennedy Erhart: A few weeks before moving into my current apartment, I was taking a nap at home. Shortly after I fell asleep, I received a phone call that abruptly pulled me from my sleep as I groggily answered the phone. On the other end was my new apartment complex asking if I would be willing to switch to a different apartment with the same floor plan, no big deal. The reason, however, is the interesting factor of this story. The reason for the request was because the girl in the present apartment would need to move due to her struggles with asthma and her future roommate would have an “emotional support pigeon” in the room.

The staff members at The Sentry look forward to the crazy stories 2020 will bring about.