These friends got the shock of a lifetime when their little river vacation turned the whole group into an anxious mess. Do yourself a favor, and avoid peeking into things you should be peeking into...
What a Weird Thing...
Imagine, you're enjoying a relaxing day on the river with your close friends, then suddenly, you and everyone you know is in danger. One particular object caused this massive disurbance for this perfectly normal group of friends. This could have happened to anyone, maybe even someone like you.
What Do You Think?
If you and your friends discovered a mysterious vessel left behind by mysterious river travelers, would you open it? What if there was something dangerous in there, something illegal, maybe something incriminating? These friends decided to find out the hard way, and there was no turning back once they committed to it...
How it All Began
It was September in New Jersey. Millie Radcliffe and her friends were just concluding a successful tourist season in the shore town they called home. Millie and her friends never really got to experience the summer like the people who visited her little town, so she and her friends planned a trip to go up north and spend a day floating in the Pine Barrens.
Just a Normal Day
The group of five 20-somethings decided to spend a few days up there on the river. They brought tents and chairs, plenty of food and beer to last them through the warm evenings. However, on the first day of their river journey, the group found something bizarre floating around a clearing...
A Suspicious Box
This white box seemed to be floating on its own a little way down the river. The group figured it was just litter, and they cursed the tourists that most likely dumped it into their home state's natural waterway. However, when they approached the box, the object piqued the group's curiosity.
Fughetta' Bout It
The group docked nearby to have a snack and relax in the sunshine. The presence of the mysterious box loomed as they tried to enjoy themselves on the shore, but the current kept pulling it closer and closer to them. After 10 or so minutes, the box had almost washed up next to them.
Not So Easy to Ignore
The gang started making jokes about the box. It was clearly vandalized and had most likely been sitting there for a long time. They assumed that it was full of empty beer cans, half-chewed food, maybe some clothes that people left behind as a time capsule for the people who visited the river.
Pretty Weird...
The only thing that really concerned them was the fact that there were no names on the box. It was clearly a somewhat expensive cooler, and nobody had come back to claim it. It was even built into a handmade floating mechanism. As the cooler washed up, the gang decided that they were going to crack it open and check out what was inside...
Here It Comes...
The cooler lodged itself in the sand near the beach that the friends were hanging out. They took this as a sign to walk over and grab the cooler out of the water. The thing was practically taunting them to check it out at this point.
Something Foul
The gang didn't know what to think when they pulled it up. A foul smell was coming out of the box, it was very clear that nobody had touched it for a long time. A thin film of slime-covered the bottom of the box, the group got a little nervous about what could possibly be inside of it...
Get It for the Gram
Naturally, the group pulled out their phones and started recording the experience. After all, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to find a weird box on a river and discover what was inside of it. One of the boys from the group approached the box to give it a closer look and got pretty much immediately too disgusted to look at it.
Colby to the Rescue
One of the men in the group was a nursing student who had seen significantly nastier things. He was desensitized to touching nasty objects, so he felt confident approaching the box to try and figure it out. He discovered something about it that hindered his crew's progress in opening it, something strange that he didn't expect...
Wait, It's What?
Colby yelled "It's taped shut!" back to the group. He asked one of the members of the gang to bring him a knife to bust through the tape for him. Why would something be packaged so tightly in this cooler? The group of pals absolutely needed to find out.
Colby Cutting Through
Colby had to take a second to compose himself. He had seen some nasty stuff working in a hospital for his student residency, but he had never expected to discover something terrifying during his vacation away from home. He took a deep breath and cut into the tape, silently hoping that it was nothing wild...
Thar' She Blows
Colby broke through the tape with his trusty pocketknife and recoiled at what he saw. His first reaction was to the wild smell, then he took a closer look. His friends watched in horror while he gazed into the box, stunned in confusion and disgust.
It Was Not What He Expected
This whole time, Colby had been assuming that the cooler was full of rotten food. It wasn't uncommon for river-dwellers to tape their coolers shit to ensure the structural integrity of their vessels to not burst. However, what lay inside was like nothing he had ever seen before...
Colby Won't Tell
Colby's friends begged him to tell them what was inside. Colby backed off and stated, "If you want to know what's inside, come find out for yourselves." His friends reluctantly gathered around the cooler, terrified of what they were about to see.
Open Wide
Colby's silence spoke volumes as to what was going on inside the box. He seemed disgusted, disturbed, and unwilling to relinquish the information for good reason. However, curiosity dominated the group's mentality and they had to check it out no matter what...
They Were Not Prepared
All joking and laughing stopped with the group. An air of anxiety flooded over the 5 young adults, they were not ready to see what was inside. This was sketchy, this was really really weird, and they did not know what to think.
Revealing the Suprise
Colby dramatically peeled back every piece of tape. Instead of pleading with him to stop, the group sat in silence, tensing up as the protection got methodically removed. Colby opened the chest to reveal something that nobody in the group had ever seen, nor did they ever want to see...
What Did You Think It Was?
The inside of the box reeked of old swamp water. It had clearly been sitting out in the hot sun for at least a week. Colby was audibly disgusted, and as the group got closer to figuring out what was inside, they got disgusted too...
The Group Reaction
Millie forced Colby to slam the top of the cooler shut. The man who was operating the camera started yelling profanities and walked away. The rest of the group stood shocked, slowly taking steps away...
Others Get Involved
A group of people that were also floating down the river saw the group's reaction and started floating up to the beach. They were curious as to what the group had just found. To their horror, they didn't want to see what was inside either...
Millie Was Next Up
Millie was the only person who didn't take a significant look at what was inside the cooler. She felt the pressure to gaze inside when she saw the reactions of the strangers who had also peeked in. She bent down and plucked open the lid, totally unsure what she was about to find...
What is That?
Millie popped open the hatch to reveal a childlike figure in the box. She recoiled and immediately thought it was a dead baby. The stench from the stagnant water overwhelmed her nostrils, but she leaned in to get a better look...
This Was Likely a Prank
This cooler had a baby doll stuffed inside of it. Nobody knew why or how this thing got in there, but it was clearly intentionally placed. The doll was super creepy, but everyone was thankful that it wasn't a dead creature or rotten food...
Shock Turns to Laughter
The gang didn't know how to react after this fear turned into something completely different. Their shock turned to laughter, and they were openly thankful that this wasn't what they had feared it would have been. It was a blessing that this event didn't ruin their vacation...
What Kind of Person Does Something Like This?
Whoever came up with this idea clearly had a sick mind. A prank is a prank, at the end of the day, but when someone goes this far to scare strangers enjoying the rushing river in the sun, that changes the dynamic. However, Millie and her friends were an accepting group. They chose to laugh this whole thing off and go about their days as usual...
Viral Recognition
The gang brought the cooler back home with them to show their friends, and they shared their videos on streaming platforms all around. The video took off on Facebook and Instagram people were shocked and intrigued by the strange floating cooler prank. There were even some knockoffs floating around the internet, repeat offenders wanted to get in on the joke...
Guess That Was the Intended Purpose
At the end of the day, the person who wanted to prank Millie's friends surely managed to get it done. As funny as this was for everyone, the potential that this could have been something really bad was huge in this experience. This just goes to show, don't open any random coolers you find on a river, or you might become a viral sensation.