1999

“The year is nineteen-ninety-nine.”

That sentence brings me back to my senior kindergarten class when I was five years old, where we used to read out the date on the blackboard every single day. The year 1999 exists as a stain in my mind, however, as a memory that will not go away no matter how I try to forget it. 1999 marked the year I lost my first tooth, my first time on a plane, and unfortunately the early loss of my childhood innocence.

That one memory that refuses to be wiped, it all started with that new (or old) TV. At that time Pokémon was the latest fad to hit the school. Pokémon cards, games, stickers, and the most popular, the TV show. So, of course, every time I came home from school, I would stay glued to the TV until Pokémon came on at five. The only problem was that my dad watched the news at 5:30, and Pokémon episodes were back-to-back, which meant I had to miss an episode every day, something I whined on and on about. My dad got tired of hearing me complain every day, that must be why he went and bought another TV.

My dad put the TV he bought in my room. Unfortunately, it was just an old, small boob tube, with rabbit ears even. It also only had 20 channels available; not including the channel Pokémon was on. I recall I didn’t care, though. I was just thrilled I had my own TV in my room. After surfing through the channels, I came to the conclusion that only channel 2 (TVO kids) was worth watching so I watched that for a while. It wasn’t for another few months until I discovered channel 21. One day in April, I was flipping through the channels, trying to see if Pokémon was on. I pressed channel 21 into the remote, hoping there were more channels, and to my delight there was. My dad was surprised too, but he let me watch it because it seemed to have kid's programs on. The channel was called Caledon Local 21 and later I found out it was indeed broadcasted from the town of Caledon, Ontario, a town very close to my city.

The shows I saw on Caledon Local 21 looked poorly made, and I never understood what was going on in them half the time. However, as I grew up, every time I thought of that channel, I realized more and more how messed up the shows were and I had to ask myself, “What the fuck was I watching?”

The following is a list of shows and episodes I remember seeing on Caledon Local 21, how I remember such detail even disturbs me, but I guess things like this stand out in your mind for a while. The channel only ran a few shows, probably because it was only operational between 4:00 pm and 9:00 pm.

## April 1999

Mr. Bear’s Cellar – Episode 12: Very sketchy name if you were to look at it nowadays. The show featured a guy wearing a bear mascot costume who would get a new visitor into his cellar every day. (It was always a kid) The show was filmed with a camcorder, and not a very good one either. The police asked me a lot of questions about this show. This episode started with Mr. Bear sitting at a table playing checkers by himself. He sat there playing for a bit until there was a knock on the door. The camera was then looking up the stairs at the door, where there was another knock. Mr. Bear climbed the stairs and opened the door to reveal two young children. One was a boy about my age, and the other was a girl who looked about eight.

Mr. Bear danced in delight, and then started talking to the kids; I couldn’t hear any of them that well, I remember. Mr. Bear then led the kids into the cellar, which was quite dark, only lit by a small oil lamp on the table. I can’t really remember that much more, except him singing a song which I couldn’t hear too well either (Probably because of that large bear mask). The episode ended with them playing hide-and-seek, with the kids hiding in a closet and Mr. Bear counting.

## May 1999

Soup and Spoon: I don’t think this was even a show, I think it was more of a special movie thing. All I know is I stopped watching Caledon Local 21 for a while because I thought this show was too stupid, especially since Pokémon now came on at 4:30 and 5:00. I don’t remember much of this, but it showed a can of soup and a spoon both attached to strings, swinging back and forth, as if someone was holding them and dangling them in front of the camera. Interestingly enough, the show was shot in a basement, which looked just like the one used in Mr. Bear’s Cellar. Like I said, I can’t remember much, the only thing I can remember clearly was the end.

The entire thing was only half an hour, and just included stuff I found stupid, such as the spoon chasing the soup around trying to “Eat him”. The ending showed a table and about seven kids sitting around it, each with a bowl of soup in front of them. They were sitting and looking at the camera, but with confused, almost frightened faces. The cameraman then held the can of soup in front of the kids and said, “Spooooons ready?” And then it just stopped.

## July 1999

It was summer, and I hadn’t watched channel 21 for a while, until one day when I slept over at my friend’s house, and I decided to check it out again. My friend had gotten a TV in his room for his sixth birthday, so we stayed up very late (for us, 9:30 was very late) and watched TV. That’s when I remembered channel 21 and brought it up to my friend. We decided to see if it was on, and to our surprise it was (they must have changed the broadcasting time).

Mr. Bear’s Cellar – Episode 23: This episode was entertaining for my friend and me, mainly because it had swearing. However, now when I think of this episode, I realize something was definitely wrong when it was filmed. The episode started with the camera on its side, while it was facing Mr. Bear, who was walking upstairs to the cellar door. The camera then blacked out for about a second, before fading in, back upright, and facing Mr. Bear. There was also another kid talking to him, but this kid looked about eleven or twelve.

He was talking to Mr. Bear for a while, but I couldn’t hear well (Again with the crappy camcorder) until the kid started raising his voice. The kid was saying how it was late and his sister had to go home, you could also hear more voices in the background. I remember Mr. Bear clearly saying “Get the fuck out, you’re not invited.” with a deep voice muffled by the bear mask. I remember my friend and I looking at each other and laughing at the mention of the forbidden F word, but the episode got weirder. The kid began climbing the stairs before turning around and saying how he was going to call the police. Mr. Bear began breaking into a run towards the kid, who started screaming and running as well. The camera then cut out, and that was the end of the episode. The channel then turned to static shortly after.

## August 1999

I didn’t want to watch channel 21 after that. In August I grew more curious to see Mr. Bear’s cellar for some reason though. The last episode I saw of Mr. Bear was weird and had swearing, which also made me think the show was meant for teenagers. Nonetheless, I flipped onto channel 21 when my dad was busy.

Mr. Bear’s Cellar – Episode 28: Apparently this episode had been playing the entire month of August. It was studied a lot by the police. The entire episode was just Mr. Bear sitting in a chair talking to the audience. “Hello, kids! Do you want to visit my cellar? If you do, please write me a letter at this address!” The screen then switched to a white screen with multi-colored letters reading the address, and that was what remained for the rest of the episode. This repeated for five hours every day until September came.

And guess what I actually did? I sent “Mr. Bear,” or that sick bastard who portrayed him a letter. I did it out of curiosity mostly; my dad was OK with it because he thought it was a legit kid show, but then again, he never saw any of what was on channel 21. So, I wrote a letter using my best writing possible, I think I just said how I wanted to meet Mr. Bear. So, my dad sent the letter to the address Mr. Bear said on the show (it stayed on all day anyway for some reason).

It took about a week to get a response, which I was surprised I did. I still have the letter I received on August 15, 1999. The letter read:

> *Dear Elliot,*
>
>
> *Thank you ever so much for your letter, I would love to have you in my cellar! We play games, watch movies, and go fire camping in the middle of the woods!*
>
>
> *Come to my house at (the police cut out this address), Caledon, Ontario, Canada.*
>
>
> *I look very forward to having fun with you!*
>
>
>
> *Love, Mr. Bear*
>
>

I cannot believe my dad never found this sketchy, because he actually took me to the house. And then that’s when the police became involved, those endless questions, those pictures of terrified kids, the woods…

That brings me to why I’m writing this blog. That psycho and his friends did some fucked up shit back then, and now it seems he’s trying to get into contact with me again,. The entire police thing is coming back. That has brought 1999 back to me. Over a decade later, it is happening again.

## [Update] – November 14, 2009

People have been emailing me asking what exactly happened in 1999, I will get to that. Those weird TV shows I was watching apparently were meant to attract kids to Mr. Bear’s house, what Mr. Bear did shock the entire town.

My dad actually drove me to Caledon along with the address Mr. Bear left on the letter. The house was actually in the outskirts of the town, in the open farmland. I still remember that house. It looked like an older farmhouse that looked to have been built in the early 1900s. The windows were all boarded up, and the house looked in a state of disrepair. As we walked up to the house, I remember my dad checking the address over and over again and looking at the house in disbelief. Then the door opened.

I expected Mr. Bear to be at the door, but I was surprised to see a police officer emerge from the creaking doorway. The officer began talking to my dad, while I quickly asked if that was Mr. Bear’s house. The officer’s face cringed slightly, and he muttered, “Oh God,” or something like that. He started talking quietly to my dad so I couldn’t hear, although my dad told me to go to the car anyway. And then we just went home. My dad was quiet the whole way home. I felt something strange had happened.

My dad never told me what happened for a while, I forgot about it anyway too. Channel 21 no longer came on, and when I asked about it my dad would not acknowledge its existence. I think it was when I was 13 where I learned the truth. I remembered channel 21 one day and asked my dad about it. I guess he finally decided I should hear the truth.

Caledon Local 21 was a local TV channel that ran from October 1997-August 1999 in the Peel Region of Ontario. The entire channel was made from a house in Caledon (The one I visited) and run by a man who was not really known by anyone in the town. The channel was only available to older TVs because the signal was one only picked up by rabbit ears (Weaker frequency). The man created all the shows on the channel, all of which were kid shows. He was Mr. Bear, and he was the mysterious cameraman. The real reason he created the channel was more disturbing than what was originally thought. As you might have already guessed, he kidnapped kids and held them in his cellar. But while most people thought he was a serial child molester, he really wanted to use the kids for another purpose. The day I arrived, the man had fled his house the night before, the day before the police went in for their investigation. I wasn’t the only one who was watching.

## [Update] – December 2, 2009

Sorry for not answering any questions for so long, I haven’t accessed my email account for some time. Anyway, let me finally set things straight about what I know. Back in October, I visited the house previously owned by the man who ran Caledon Local 21. Two women lived there, operating a daycare business… how ironic. Now to answer the questions you guys emailed to me:

*Q: Who else watched Caledon Local 21?*

*A: I know other people watched it for sure, including those kids who wound up at Mr. Bear’s house. After some Google searches, I found a few people on the Neoseeker forums who were discussing shows from Caledon Local 21. They talked about the two shows I watched, but also another two shows I had never seen before. A user named iamreallife seemed to know all the shows that were broadcasted on channel 21; here are the two I’ve never heard of:*

*The Fallen Angel and Life – iamreallife described it as a fairly boring show about a guy rambling on and on in front of the camera about how we must please Satan and appease him before it is too late.*

*Paint with the Soul – iamreallife and another user called sigy92 were discussing this show. They described it as “Blair Witch like” as it consisted of the cameraman wandering around a forest at night, doing nothing particularly interesting.*

*I’ll go looking for the conversation and see if I c*an get the link.

*Q: Where is Mr. Bear, or the guy who wore the costume?*

*A: If I did know, I would have said earlier. I have no idea where this guy is, or if he’s dead or alive (hopefully dead). When I see my dad’s friend next time I will ask him about this, maybe I can get a more definite answer.*

*Q: What did Mr. Bear do to the children?*

*A: This is by far the most common question I’ve been asked. I found this out in October as well, via my dad’s friend who is a retired Caledon regional officer. Apparently, the man playing Mr. Bear took the kids out of the house and into the forest nearby. What he did there, police are not exactly sure how it happened, but 16 charred bodies of children between the ages of 4-13 were found in a 15-by-15-foot ditch deep within the forest. My dad’s friend did not want to go into exact details, but I’m seeing him next Thursday anyway, so maybe I can extort more information from him then.*

That’s all I have for now. Thanks for keeping an interest in my blog. I will try to gather as much information as I can for my next post. I’ve actually been getting pretty interested in this myself. It should be my right to know what the hell happened.

## [Update] – January 14, 2010

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while, I kind of lost interest in this blog since I hit a standstill while looking for more information about the identity of the owner of Caledon Local 21.

However, a few weeks ago, I struck gold. I found some answers surprisingly from the father of a kid I used to babysit. He lives just across from my street, and I used to look after his kids when they were younger, he currently doesn’t have a job either. He used to live near the woods outside of Caledon and witnessed the owner’s activities in the woods. His name is Anthony Pollo.

When he lived in the small bungalow outside the woods, he would often venture in to smoke a joint of marijuana or two before returning to his work as a wood craftsman. Pollo described that sometimes he would hear voices of children coming from deeper within the woods, as well as a glowing light off in the distance. Pollo told me these events started in late 1997 (*Note: This is around the time Caledon Local 21 began airing*). He apparently became annoyed by this happening every once in a while, and actually went to investigate.

Pollo then described what the whole scene looked like when he got there. There was a group of kids (He said about 13-17) and ages 5–12 gathered around a large fire pit with a burning fire. With them was a single adult. Pollo talked to the man (Noting his unusual unkempt appearance of a crack addict, as well as his constant twitching) and asked what he was doing out in the forest with children. The man said they were on a camping trip, something they did frequently. Pollo, not suspecting anything (Caledon has one of the lowest crime rates in Canada) simply left it at that and told them to be quieter. Pollo then paused for a while before telling me that they never became quieter, in fact sometimes he heard loud chanting from the children in an unknown language. He didn’t bother meeting with the man again, as he was moving anyway.

I told Pollo that the man was probably the owner of Caledon Local 21, but he doubted it, as he heard that the man was moving to Pickering by several other residents near that area.

Here is what I know now:

* The Man would take kids into the woods regularly for “camping”
* The fire pit Pollo described may be the hole the bodies of the children were found in.
* The children Pollo saw are probably the ones found dead.
* The man moved to a city called Pickering (a smaller city east of Toronto)

I will discuss this with my dad’s friend (the ex-cop) and see if this matches anything the police knew about the man. I also want to see if he has any other knowledge of what was aired on Caledon Local 21.

## [Update] – February 10, 2010

Good news guys, I talked to my dad’s friend, and he disclosed a lot of information for me. First, I asked if the police had any information on the man who ran Caledon Local 21, he replied that they have only had the same leads for years and never found a suspect. However, the Peel regional police do have some of the tapes found in the house Caledon Local 21 was broadcasted from, he took me over so I could watch a few. I guess I haven’t said much about him yet, my dad’s friend’s name is Mitchell Wilson, a pretty nice guy, he seems to understand my thirst for knowledge on what happened during the late 90s in that house. He feels it was wrong that my dad went so long without telling me much.

He took me to the Davis Road police station (if you don’t know, it’s the largest station in Caledon, and one of the largest within the Peel region itself). Each of the main stations around Peel have some of the tapes. I was able to watch all of the footage that the Davis Road station has. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take any tapes home for obvious reasons.

Paint with the Soul – Episode 10, “Garbage Thrown Away”: Paint with the Soul was one of the shows that iamrealife and sigy92 discussed on neoseeker. I told the police about this, and they informed me that 12 episodes of the show were made and broadcasted between December 5, 1997′ and ‘January 8, 1998.’

Exactly as iamrealife and sigy92 described, the episode opened with the cameraman wandering around in a forest. It appeared to be during the evening as it seemed the sun was setting. The cameraman walked along a path until he got to an area where there was a lot of garbage lying in the leaves.

The camera looked around at the various wrappers, bottles, bags, and boxes, making sure each item got a few seconds of screen time. The camera then focused on a single area before the man spoke. I recall he spoke in a very timid quiet voice, and I swear I’ve heard it somewhere else before, like on another Caledon Local 21 show. I could barely hear what he was saying, but he mainly talked about how humans are garbage, or something that had to do with saving ourselves by cleaning up the garbage (us). It actually sounded really stupid, but still a feeling of dread came over me, I mean that forest was possibly where those bodies were found, right?

Mr. Bear’s Cellar – Episode 25: When the police administrator brought this tape in, I actually said “Ohhh, shit,” and chuckled a bit out loud. Of course, I got stares from the staff, but Wilson explained to them about my little experience with Mr. Bear and how I still kept the letter he sent me. Like the previous episodes, this one included a guy wearing a bear mascot costume.

The episode began with Mr. Bear waddling over to his cellar door with a bottle of orange juice in his paws. On the ground were sixteen shot glasses as well as a small bottle that contained an unknown liquid. Mr. Bear poured an equal amount of orange juice into each glass before opening the smaller bottle and depositing one drop into the glasses. Mr. Bear then went off-camera, there were some minor sounds such as shuffling, and then Mr. Bear emerged from behind the camera’s location.

Following him were 16 children. Some looked as young as four, while others looked like they were practically teenagers. As the children entered, the administrator commented that this is the only episode that showed all 16 victims.

The kids all looked rather content except for this one who had visible bruises on his face, and unlike the other kids, he had a more fearful expression. He also looked about 11-12, which caused me to recognize him. He was the kid who had asked about his sister and subsequently met an unknown fate at the end of episode 23, that one episode I watched during July 1999.

When I told the administrator this, he confirmed it was the same kid. He was also featured in episode 24, an episode that only aired once at 3:00 in July 1999 (the police have still not found the tape). Mr. Bear then broke into song, singing about citrus fruits and how good vitamin C was for you (I could barely hear the lyrics as they were muffled by the bear mask). The kids all drink their juice (the one from episode 23 doing it rather reluctantly), and the episode ended.

After viewing the tapes in possession of the Davis Road police station, I’m satisfied but only temporarily. I still want to know the full story. The police just keep giving me the same crap about the creator of Caledon Local 21 being a fetishist pedophile as well as an apparent cultist. I will sign off for now, get into university first, and get information later. Hopefully, I will get back to this blog as soon as possible.

## [Update] – May 8, 2010

Last month, I finally got my G2 license (in Ontario, Canada, this allows you to drive in a car by yourself as well as with some passengers after 6 months). I, of course, took advantage of this and drove into Caledon for a little “Sunday drive.” Since I haven’t updated this blog in a while, I figured I might as well visit the house where the infamous channel of my childhood was located. The house looked different than when I last saw it in October. The place was no longer used as a daycare, and just sat there abandoned. However, it did have a “For Sale” sign showing that someone still owned it, wanting to get rid of it, though.

The abandoned house drew fuzzy memories from my mind, mainly of that day my dad took me to visit Mr. Bear. A feeling of dread came upon me. What happened to the children while they were living in that house? I walked up the steps to the front door and peered through the window. Inside I could see a nearly empty hallway with a few boxes at the end.

At the end of the hallway to the right was an open doorway presumably leading to the kitchen. To the left were two doors, both apparently leading to the rooms visible through the windows outside. I wondered where the cellar entrance was located and whether it had been sealed up. I walked around to the back of the house and found my answer. Two wooden doors lying at an almost flat angle were padlocked shut; this had to lead to the cellar. Not wanting to hang around (you cannot imagine what was going through my mind at that time), I departed.

Behind the house, the empty field continued on until it reached a dense forest that lined the horizon. I wondered if that was the forest where the bodies of the children were found. I thought to myself “Fuck it” and proceeded to walk across the field behind the house into the forest. The forest was oddly quiet, save for the few periodic sounds of a woodpecker drilling into a distant tree. I cautiously made my way deeper into the woods, not really caring about the fact that I had no idea where I was going. I don’t know how to explain it, but it felt like there was something I had to find. I came to a thinner part of the woods and few small houses in the distance. Pollo’s house crossed my mind, and I wondered if one of these homes had belonged to him. I neared a small clearing in which I could see 3 adequately sized logs gathered around a black, charred area (showing a small fire had been lit there recently).

“HEY! GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR FORT!” Those words nearly gave me a heart attack. I turned to my left and saw two dark-clothed people running towards me. My initial thought was to run, however as they came closer, I saw they were really just kids in their early teens, possibly 13 or 14, maybe even 12. As they approached me, they realized my size as well. I’m 6’ 1”, while they could have been no bigger than 5’ 8” (one might have been 5’ 7”).

“We said… get the fuck out,” the larger one who was wearing a Slipknot shirt said half-heartedly. I stood my ground and shrugged. The shorter one who was wearing a Metallica shirt swung out a butterfly knife and held it in my direction.

“No, you wouldn’t want to,” I said in a deep, serious tone (trying to sound as badass as possible). I pulled out my cell phone.

The two kids withdrew, the one in the Metallica shirt putting away the knife. “Look, dude, we don’t like people in our fort, so can you just go?” the one in the Slipknot shirt said, obviously intimidated. I had no business in the forest anyway, so I uttered out a simple “fine” and turned before I realized I had a great opportunity.

“Did either of you hear of a guy who murdered a bunch of kids in these woods about… 13 years ago?” I asked the kids. The two looked at each other in confusion, before the one wearing the Metallica shirt answered.

“Yeah… *everyone* knows about that guy,” he said to me as if I were stupid. The kid in the Slipknot shirt continued, “He still lives around here, in the storm drain… my big brother’s friend says he saw him in a bear costume once, wandering around the forest at night.”

My instincts told me this was probably a lie, and the owner of Caledon Local 21 is probably long gone, only existing as folklore in this smaller isolated community. However, as a human, the thought of the mysterious unknown sparks interest within. “And where is the storm drain?” I asked (Just out of curiosity, I don’t actually believe the kid’s story). The Kid in the Metallica shirt stared at me for a few moments, his eyes seemingly full of annoyance, yet curiosity for me. “You’re not from around here, are you? Why did you even come here?” Now, I do admit I was slightly startled by the nature of his question. However, I figured I might as well explain why I was there, just in case people mistook my intentions. I told the two kids about my experience with the man and Caledon local 21, and that I had to come to maybe seek out some sort of closure (although though even I wasn’t exactly sure).

The kids seemed familiar with the channel as they smiled and looked at each other when I mentioned it. They also became more understanding and gave me a detailed description on how to get to the storm drain. Shortly after, I decided to just turn around the way I came and head back to the house, leaving the kids at their fort. But now you’re probably wondering why I left out such detail about what the kids told me just now, it is it because I’m choosing to conclude what I have gathered now.

Here is what the kids told me in detail:

* The storm drain lies ahead of the kids’ fort, the same direction I was heading.
* The drain ends at a small river, where access water is drained out. Near here is a small playground (the kids told me people rarely use it).
* The man supposedly lives in the large pipe that rainwater drains out of. People have seen him, although always either wearing a bear mask or the mask and a full body bear costume. *Note: I do not believe this is true, and in fact simply a myth made by the residents of Caledon. The story does not seem plausible in any way, why did no one call the police? Didn’t this guy look suspicious? And other questions like these leave the story invalid.*
* I may visit the storm drain. Not because I believe the story, but because I want an excuse to visit Caledon again, so this blog doesn’t die (With no more tapes to watch, I don’t know what to talk about anymore!).

Thanks for continuing to support me and my blog. I know many are looking forward to more information about what happened in Caledon during the year 1999, and I will do my best to continue my research into the topic. Elliot out.

## [Update] – October 7, 2010

Wow, nearly five months since I last updated. I’m guessing everyone pretty much thinks I was dead right? Thankfully I’m not. But in all my seriousness, I really have been busy these past few months, and a blog about something that could have killed me as a kid is a little low on my current priorities list. As of now, I am living in Waterloo, Ontario, attending the University of Waterloo for computer engineering (yeah, I’m a keener). As you can imagine, engineering is no walk in the park, so obviously I nearly forgot about this blog. But as you can see now, I am back.

I remembered to visit the storm drain the kids from the Caledon Forest told me about. It was out in a clearing between the wooded areas, nearby a marsh. Unfortunately, I found absolutely nothing; save for a turtle that retreated into its built-in home when it saw me. I snapped some pics of the pipe which I have posted as well. Also, let me tell you it was NOT a storm drain like they said it was.

What I saw was a simple pipe, possibly to channel the access water from the marsh. When I returned from Caledon however, I simply kept putting off uploading everything until I forgot all about my blog. It just didn’t seem important anymore (Please forgive me). It wasn’t until only recently that I am now interested in my case again. On September 10th, I received an email from this email address: returntheb@hotmail.com

Funny, am I right? Well, it gets better. I’m going to copy and paste the exact email this guy sent me:

> *Dear Elliot,*
>
>
> *My dear, dear boy,*
>
>
> *You see this story may or may not be true, but it could happen. There are many slots for airtime, if you have money, you can have a public access TV channel. Some public accsess channels share airtime like EWTN (Religouse channel based out of Michigan) That shows Catholic based programming but during off air hours have independant shows or just blue screen. Cable networks have emty channels available for rent space. So, the scenario of a pedo renting a channel on basic TV is not far fetch at all. However public access TV is widley reveiwed and can be teminated at any time. (These are the rules for the United States not for Canada where this story took place) So if this happened in the US the pedo would be tracked and arrested emedatly. Yes, this story could happen, but it is unlikely.*
>
>
> *100 fuzzy hugs,*
>
>
>
> *Mr. Bear*
>
>

Now obviously this letter is fake and sounds almost corrupted, but still, I would like to thank whoever sent it — though they could use some English lessons. Just reading this letter creeped me out, but because of it, I am now full of this new interest to continue my blog. I guess it’s just funny trying to pursue the mysteries I’ve always questioned. Now my roommate knows about all of this. He thought the letter was real and actually seemed more scared than I was for a second. But then I shrugged it off, so he did too. I mean, what are the chances of this being real? How would “Mr. Bear” know all this about public access TV, and about when I went to Caledon on those occasions? More or less know my email or me still be interested in his cellar. Ha.

I’m going to send a reply to “returntheb.” Wow, just looking at the email address, you can tell someone wanted to freak me out. It didn’t really work, though. Although, to whomever you are, thank you for sparking my interest back into the full matter. Maybe I can find out more about what happened to “Mr. Bear,” hopefully, because although I don’t buy that email, a part of me still feels anxious. Thank you to all those who are still following me and have become avid fans, you are also why I am choosing to continue this!

Thanks, guys.

## [Update] – November 7, 2010

Wow, I can’t believe this blog hasn’t been deleted yet, I haven’t posted anything for so long. I have my reasons and I’d rather not discuss them just yet, it has been a rather… traumatic year for me. Some of you were right, I shouldn’t have gone back trying to relive the mysteries of my childhood, but I couldn’t resist. It has been over a year since my last post and a lot has happened. Let’s recap where I’m at right now with regards to the whole “Mr. Bear” incident.

* returntheb@hotmail.com is no longer in use, I tried replying to the email, but I got no reply. I tried again a while back, still no response.
* I’ve actually moved up to Ottawa (Capital of Canada for those who don’t know) for university so I haven’t been back to Caledon or back home in the Peel region for a while. I had my reasons for leaving as you could guess why.
* I’ve had to make a new email account because people keep prank mailing me pretending to be Mr. Bear. Thanks a lot, guys (not).
* Why have I ventured back to this blog? Mitchell Wilson (Remember my dad’s ex-cop friend?) gave me a phone call on October 23 about a tape that was found in a branch of the Brampton public library. Brampton is my hometown in case you haven’t picked up on that. He claims he isn’t allowed to discuss the contents of the tape with me as it is still in evidence, but he asked me to come check it out when I return home. That tape got the gears grinding again because we all know what was on the last tapes I saw. I can only imagine what can be on it; I’m guessing it must have something to do with Caledon Local 21.

I guess I just wanted to say I am continuing this blog and thank you for everyone who still follows it. I don’t know when my next entry will be, but when I see that tape, I’ll write what I find. I don’t know what to expect, but the idea of seeing another tape has gotten me interested in this whole mystery all over again.

– Elliot

## [Update] – January 21, 2011

It has been a long year for me. University has been giving me the usual sleepless nights especially since I transferred to Ottawa which is *the* place to party (sarcasm). But now I’m back home with my dad in Brampton, the town I grew up in. I got home on the 18th of December and have been visiting with friends and family, or at least that’s what I would rather have done. Now that festive holiday cheer that I usually have at this time of the month is absent.

To answer the hundreds of emails and comments I got – yes, I did see the tapes that my dad’s friend (Mitchell Wilson) promised to show me. These tapes, however, act as a curse; I want to know more, yet I want to forget everything. I couldn’t help it; I *needed* to see those tapes. Not only for myself, but for all of you guys who are just as intrigued as I am by that ominous man in a bear suit from my past. However, after viewing those tapes, I feel that pit of dread deep inside me once again, that feeling where I know that all those kids in those videos are dead, that I could have been one of those kids, and that humanity is a dark, dark place. If you haven’t skipped this paragraph for the “juicier” details below, thank you for listening to my rambling.

On January 1st, I called Mitchell Wilson and asked if there was a time where I could come by and view the tapes. Things were pretty slow at the station because of a snowstorm so he said I could come down anytime that day. The tapes were located at a branch not too far from me. So, I braved the slushy roads and terrible Brampton drivers and made my way to the Peel regional police station located at the Bramalea city center.

I met Wilson at the front desk where he then led me up to the second floor and into a small office. He instructed me to have a seat and wait while he went and got the tapes. Before leaving the office, he turned to me and said, “I know you’re curious but… are you sure you want to do this?”

Of course, I did, or at least thought so. Besides, Wilson’s friend had pulled a lot of strings to get me in there and I didn’t want to waste the opportunity. This particular station had two tapes on hand. I was only able to watch a few minutes of footage, however, because the second tape was apparently too damaged to be played on a VCR.

Mr. Bear’s Cellar – Episode 30: Mr. Bear never ceases to disturb me, especially after what almost happened when I was younger. This episode took place outside in a forest at dusk, making it slightly hard to see especially considering the quality of the film (A trademark of anything from Caledon Local 21). The episode started with the camera being held in the “paws” of Mr. Bear aiming it at himself.

That bear mask… it looked more sinister in the shadows of the trees. The unmistakable muffled voice spoke up; “Hello children! Today I will be doing a wonderful thing for my friends, I will be delivering them to a faraway land where they will surely be happy!” Mr. Bear turned the camera around to show an ATV with an attached trailer, but what stood out the most was that the trailer contained seven motionless children lying side by side. “T-this here is the first load, but more will be on their way soon!” Mr. Bear turned around and pointed the camera at a large burlap tarp spread on the ground.

He picked the tarp up revealing a large hole that must have been at least 12 feet deep and maybe about 15 feet wide. The rest of the episode consisted of Mr. Bear taking each kid and dropping them into the hole. I asked Wilson if they were dead to which he shook his head and replied, “Not yet.” Soon all the kids were in the pit. Some were in awkward positions due to being tossed in, but they remained unconscious. “The vitamin C will surely help these children on the great journey that awaits them!” Mr. Bear mentioned as he panned the camera towards multiple bottles of gasoline beside a bush. The camera zoomed into the bottles as Mr. Bear hummed before the episode ended.

Wilson revealed to me that these were 7 of the 16 victims found burnt to a crisp. The gasoline is what the man playing Mr. Bear used to light them on fire. A pit full of burning children… who the fuck would do that? That feeling of dread found me once again when I realized that I could have been one of those kids.

Wilson then explained to me that he had previously lied. The other tape confiscated by the Bramalea police branch did indeed work and contained the filming of the actual burning. However, he felt that I wouldn’t be able to handle the “disturbing and graphic” nature of the episode. And you know what? Maybe I can’t. I don’t even want to see it. I’m satisfied for now, but I just need some time to get myself together. The thing is the man who ran Caledon Local 21 is still out there.

More to come soon.

– Elliot

INRI

> *Once upon a time…*
>
>
> *There lived a boy named Elliot.*
>
>
> *Elliot was a clever boy who loved playing with his friends.*
>
>
> *One day, he watched a lovely television show about a bear and his children's friends.*
>
>
> *The children loved helping each other as good children should, but they also loved the bear.*
>
>
> *The bear loved the children since the children were so good at helping him and the fallen angel.*
>
>
> *The children and the bear wanted to play together forever with the help of their angel friend.*
>
>
> *But the fallen angel needed even more help, so the children had to give the ultimate sacrifice.*
>
>
> *Because that’s what friends do, Elliot.*
>
>
> *They help each other.*
>
>
> *Help us, Elliot, burn with us, Elliot.*
>
>
> *I want you, Elliot, he wants you, Elliot.*
>
>
> *Come back to my cellar.*
>
>
> *Pretty please with sugar and icing on top!*
>
>
>
> *– Mr. B*
>
>

INRI

## [Update] – April 5, 2011

I wanted to update more, I truly did. However certain circumstances had turned me off the whole Caledon Local 21 thing. I’ve since then had hundreds of emails about my blog and was even in contact with a magazine about my story. But now is the time to come clean to everyone, where have I been for an entire year? The story of Pandora’s Box is true, and I opened it. I opened it when I watched the second tape in the possession of the Bramalea police branch. The other subject I’d like to address is the number of joke/fake emails I’ve been getting from people claiming to be Mr. Bear. Let’s start with the second tape, as that is what traumatized me into stopping my search temporarily.

After a few weeks of playing silent, I decided to ask Mitchell Wilson if I could view that infamous second tape he had talked about. I don’t know why. I just felt that viewing that tape would give me some closure. Wilson was obviously reluctant to show me, but I was persistent. He gave me an offer. If I was still interested by the time, I turned 20 he would show me the tape. Not being able to do much else, I just played the waiting game. By the time my 20th birthday rolled around, I was definitely still interested in viewing the tape. I gave Wilson a call, during which he admitted that he had hoped that I would forget about asking him again, but I was not taking no for an answer. “You really don’t need to see it,” he kept telling me, but I *did* need to see it. I *had* to at this point. Sure enough, he invited me to the Bramalea branch one Monday afternoon. Having watched every *Saw* film, and a video of animal slaughterhouses in my ethics class, I was sure I would be able to handle whatever the tape could throw at me. How naive I was…

Mr. Bear’s Cellar – Episode 31: When Wilson went to collect the tape from evidence, the officer in charge of the evidence room shook his head at me, his face saying, “What are you doing?” Wilson explained that this tape includes the last known episode of Mr. Bear’s cellar. I rightfully assumed that I would be seeing the fate of the children and began to feel a sense of dread.

The episode opened inside a forest, the usual one from the previous episodes. This fact took me a while to realize because it was night, the trees and leaves just looked like shapes dancing around in the darkness. A faint glow of light was present on the right side of the screen. There wasn’t any apparent audio, it appeared to be a windy night, yet the trees weren’t making any noise. Slowly, the camera began to pan towards the glow, revealing smoke rising from a hole with the tips of flames peaking over the top. Wilson paused at this point; “Are you sure you want to see this?” he asked me. I insisted on it, even though a voice in my head was telling me not to. The video continued, the cameraman moved towards the hole, showing a pit of fire. This was the hole that I had seen in the previous episode. Only this time it was filled with shapes. I could see shapes moving around, fluttering, flailing…some motionless. I knew perfectly well what they were. The camera began to adjust to the light and… burning flesh. Red, black, a blur of surreal movement and colors.  I wish I could forget what I saw, but you can’t forget a scene like this. This was not a horror movie, this was reality. Human beings were being killed in a horrifying way, a fate that I could have potentially met.

The video suddenly cut to dawn; the camera now positioned farther away from the hole. The fire was out. However, there was still smoke rising up. A figure was up ahead. I recognized it right away; the Mr. Bear suit was laid out on the ground. Empty, it looked just as unnerving. The suit was laid out in the shape of a cross. The cameraman did a lap around the suit, treating it like a treasured artifact. Placed at the head of the suit was a sign. In bold red letters, INRI was printed. The cameraman moved back to the end of the suit, zooming in to the bear’s face. The episode finally ended.

I was speechless. It was like a dream. You can find a lot of terrible things on the internet, but I had never seen *anything* like this. Wilson asked if I was okay and I replied with a shaky “yes.” I assured him as we left that I was fine and that the video gave me some closure over the whole incident. He didn’t seem too confident in me, but he left it at that. He was right, though – I had nightmares for weeks. I gave up. I didn’t care about the whole thing anymore. A sick man burned a bunch of kids alive, attracting them with a fake kid’s TV channel. I could have been one of his victims, yet I’m still here. I suppose I should be grateful, but I feel guilty. Am I still here only by pure luck? Ten months later I’m back, but now I need to address something else.

My email has been flooded with messages. Some people ask for more details, some ask if I can upload the tapes, and some people email me claiming to be Mr. Bear. First, I cannot get the tapes uploaded as they’re A) in police possession as evidence and B) I have no idea how to transfer VHS onto a computer. As for people pretending to be Mr. Bear, you’re not fooling me. When you have dozens of people pretending to be the same person, it doesn’t work. I’ve even seen a fake Caledon Local 21 YouTube channel, which is cute but still not real. Even more annoying is the fact that someone hacked my account just to put up some demented poem about me on this blog. I’ll leave it in the entry above this one, just to show you guys. I have contacted my webmaster about the entry and was told that it was posted on Halloween (oh, spooky!), attached to the email paintwithb@aol.com, which I assume is another joke email.

I’m over episode 31 now. The images of what I saw will stick with me for a while, but I want to do one last hurrah. I will get into contact with Mitchell Wilson again and hopefully get set up with the tapes in the possession of the other Peel Police branches. I’ll try to update you guys as soon as I can (I’m sure this won’t take so long again). Thank you to everyone who still reads this.

–  Elliot

## Appearance

Whilst 1999 is a full story rather than an individual character, the main antagonist in the story Mr Bear is the image most commonly associated with the story. In most depictions, the very small scale of the show is reflected in the fact that he is shown to be wearing a very low budget, moth eaten bear suit. In some versions eyes are missing or the mouth is unusually distorted, for example appearing more circular than an actual mouth and being full of more human looking or broken teeth.

## Origin and Development

1999 differs from the majority of popular Creepypastas in that it makes no claim to have a supernatural or ‘monstrous’ element, other than the human ‘monster’ in the form of a disguised child murderer.

Where it does share traits with other creepypastas is in its concept. 1999 is an example of a recognised subgenre within creepypasta, known as ‘Lost episode’ narratives. This particular form of creepypasta story is usually concerned with missing, hidden or sometimes secret episodes of popular television shows (most often kid’s shows) that have some sinister, disturbing or altogether less wholesome tinge to them. This subgenre also covers tales of shows that only a few witnesses claim to have seen or which many can partially recollect but which are not officially recorded.

In many of these stories, such as in 1999, the shows in question are said to have had very small viewerships and are often public access television shows. This plot device is intended to make it more plausible that the show has only been seen or will only be recollected by a small number of people.

An initial draft of 1999 was posted by its author Camden Lamont on november 14th of 2009. The story, which was posted to his Slack Lalane blog would be revised and improved from this point on until April of 2011.

The story was posted to 4chan’s /X/ paranormal board on September 9th of 2012. Interestingly, the anonymous poster submitted the story whilst stating that he wanted to ‘look back’ on the story and suggested that he was posting it to enquire as to whether there was ever any follow up or resolution after the cliffhanger ending.

The manner in which this post was made is unusual. The allusions the poster makes to the story would not only seem to suggest that the poster expected the community to already be familiar with the story, as if it was already widespread, but that they would be familiar enough with the tale to know that it ended on a cliffhanger and even potentially be aware of some continuations of the story.

Most of the conversation about the story after this point centred around the ‘what happened next?’ scenarios and readers did head back to the original Slack Lalane blog looking for answers. Though some might suggest that this would be a clever way for Lamont to drive attention to his story if he were the one to post it 4chan (suggesting that the story is already well known and starting a discussion about it to drum up interest) especially if a sequel or continuation was planned, no official resolution has ever come from Lamont and the story remains a cliffhanger, which would seem to indicate that it was not him who posted it to 4chan.

In fact, the story gained far more traction and popularity in 2014 after it was read aloud on youtube by such popular channels as CreepsMcpasta and SomeOrdinaryGamers. Some channels have even uploaded supposed episodes of the fictional series from Caledon local 21, complete with distortion and tracking lines intended to indicate that video has been taken from an old VHS (despite the aspect ratio giving the piece away as a far more modern creation). The same year the story appeared on creepee and Creepyasta websites respectively.

The fanmade Wiki for the 1999 creepypasta features detailed  breakdowns and overviews of each episode of this fictional television show (something which also occurred for that other famous creepypasta show ‘candle cove’) and displays images supposedly of Mr Bear, though there are many variants and little consistency in the appearance.

In another turn of events remarkably similar to Candle Cove the fictional television show went on to feature in an actual television show when 1999 was adapted in 2017 for a show on Amazon. The adaptation which remains faithful to the source material was produced in collaboration with Lamont and he is listed as the executive producer.