Scuba Steve

When they were a kid, a YouTube user named ‘*Lerpado*’ used to live in Colorado near a place called Ridgeview Glen Park, and would walk past it on the way to school each day. They would also often play in it with their brother and his friends. There was a large entrance to a storm drain in the middle of a field in the park, and it had a pool water in front of it. Once, as they were walking by the drain – their friend Ben told them a strange story.

## The Incident

‘*He said that there was kid that lived in the neighbourhood near the park named Steve and one winter, he fell into the pool of water in front of the storm drain. Since it was winter, lots of snow melted and the pool was very deep. Anyway, apparently Steve drowned and now his ghost haunts the park and the storm drains, and the locals apparently call him “Scuba Steve”*’.

Lerpado said that they looked into the local history and failed to find anyone named Steve, but apparently ‘*it’s not unheard of for people to drown in storm drains in the area*’. When they were young, and presumably shortly after hearing the disturbing story, they asked Ben’s father about the tale and he had said that it was true, but Lerpado recognises that it is possible that he was simply playing along with the story. ‘*Ben was far from trustworthy… However, there were three strange occurrences that I witnessed that made me think that there might be something more to this story*’.

The first anomalous event occurred when Lerpado and their friend Elliot were exploring the storm drains one summer, when the water level was lower. They had seen an episode of the Animal Planet found-footage television show ‘*Lost Tapes*’ talking about Lizardmen, and how they apparently live in storm drains and sewers. The two kids were wandering the storm drains in search of a Lizardman. What could go wrong? What could indeed go wrong went wrong pretty quickly – as one day, the children encountered something potentially paranormal and clearly hostile. ‘*We were walking through and, in the dark, we thought we could see the silhouette of a person*’. When they moved slightly closer to the entity, it began running towards them and so they rapidly retreated from the drains.

Another bizarre encounter was soon to be faced by Lerpado and Elliot. On another of the presumably numerous days in which they were planning to explore the drain tunnels, they looked into the entrance to one of the drains and found that the water was ‘*far too deep for us to go inside*’ So, instead of going into the labyrinthine drainage network, they decided to entertain themselves by throwing rocks into the water and mocking Scuba Steve using all sorts of childish insults. They continued to do this until the water suddenly started violently splashing. They paused for a moment, both staring in awe and trying to make sure that the effect wasn’t the result of one of the rocks they had thrown. The water continued thrashing around ‘*as if some invisible being was splashing around in the water*’, and so the pair fled in terror.

The third and final anomaly took place at Ben’s birthday party. Lerpado, their brother, Ben and another friend called Preston were all ‘*begging Ben’s parents*’ to let them go out and hunt for Scuba Steve. Ben’s parents first pointed out that it was too late at night (wisely) but then (arguably unwisely) relented and let them go. They went down to the park and saw another kid there. Lerpado doesn’t remember the child’s appearance very well but does recall that ‘*he was very skinny and though it was dark, thanks to the streetlight nearby, I could tell that he had dirty blonde hair*’. They decided to stay and play with the blonde kid for a while, completely forgetting about their search for the submarine spook. Eventually, the kid said that he needed to go home – and so said goodbye and left. However, Lerpado said that the kid – instead of going down the sidewalk – ‘*walked into the field and into the storm drain*’. They believe that was the only time they have witnessed what could’ve been the legendary Scuba Steve.

## Urban Legend or Hometown Horror?

Apparently their friends also ‘told stories’, but they didn’t include them in their overarching tale because they came from children, some of whom were deemed to not be particularly trustworthy. Another strange thing about the locale, Lerpado points out, is the behaviour of the surrounding wildlife. In particular, the foxes, which are usually expected to be very shy, but were instead very hostile – and ‘*even chased us from time to time*’. Lerpado ends with the question of if ghosts can affect the behaviour of animals.

## Source

https://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2018/04/scuba-steve.html