15 March, 2010

"Mom, I Caught a Troll"

From the "hard to believe file": The following is an actual *true story. My brother in-law had told me this story on the phone this weekend, and today I received an email from my sister telling the story. Amber in this story is my niece.
I present to you, the email.
* Since posting this earlier today, it has come to my attention that Amber's friend may have told a bit of a lie on this one, as there is a story originating in Sweden about a year ago that something very similar happened. It may not have been true that it happened with her friend, but apparently it did happen somewhere.



This is a true story.

One of Amber's friends recently was switched to an evening supervisory management job at Wal-Mart. Her main concern was that she is a single mom of a mentally challenged 20-year-old son who would be home alone while she worked. Her boss understandingly said she could carry her cell phone because the young man would need to call her as he prepared his evening meal, got ready for bed, if he had questions, etc.

Night before last she got an excited call from the youth, "Mom, I caught a troll!"

"A troll," she replied, knowing how much he enjoyed movies about them. "That's great. Just put it in the closet and I'll look at it when I get home."
The boy said he would.

The mother arrived home to find her son had not gone to bed. All his bedroom furniture was piled against his bedroom closet door.

"He kept hollering to let him out," explained the young man.

The mother rushed to the closet and she and her son un-piled the furniture. She slowly opened the door to discover a "little person" dressed in a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase sitting in the floor of the closet.

"I'm a magazine salesman working my way through college," he explained. I was going door-to-door in your apartment building, and accidentally left my cell phone in my car. When I came to your door, your son seemed so happy to see me. Then he grabbed me under arm and carried me into your apartment."

The mother asked if he had yelled, and he said he did at first. Then he realized the more he yelled, the more furniture the boy piled in front of the door.

"You can't get out, Troll, until my mother gets home to see you."

With that the "troll" sat down to wait. He had been in the closet 7 hours. The wonderful little person did not press charges because he knew the young man did not mean any harm.


11 comments:

Darrell said...

OK, I posted this having believed it to be true, and I believe the information was passed on to us as being true, but I think Amber's friend lied about this one. I had someone tell me that they'd heard this story before, which made me question the validity of it, so I Googled, "I caught a troll" and sure enough, there is a similar story that supposedly took place in Sweden more than a year ago. I doubt seriously that this same thing happened twice. So, the story is still funny, but I believe Amber's friend told a lie to her that she believed.
Just don't want to leave it out there as truth when it appears otherwise.

Damien Beeby said...

Yep, sounds like this one is doing the rounds again... my mate tried to convince me of the story, apparently having happened last week.... similar facts, except the son was on his way home from his work at a sheltered nursery.

Anonymous said...

This story has made its way to The Adirondacks! Just heard it last night, remixed so that the little person was a census worker.

Anonymous said...

just heard this one in wisconsin with the little person as a census worker as well.

Anonymous said...

Just heard this last night at a funeral of all places, in Glasco NY. The principal of a local school was telling the story saying the mother was one of his teachers..

Unknown said...

Census worker in Howard County.....story was 37 year old high functioning autistic with mental capacity of seven year old.

Unknown said...

This story recently reached the OBX of NC, however instead of the small man being a census worker, he was a Jehovah's witness, and the mentally challenged son had fed him skittles under the door like in ET.

Anonymous said...

I'm in NC too, I heard this one in Wilmington. Like OBX I heard the Skittles part too, but in Wilmington the "troll" was a census worker

Unknown said...

I've just been told this true story too.. and googled it to check

Anonymous said...

I heard this story as "true" and it was the same story except for the fact the "little person" was a Jehovah's Witness.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha I was told this just a couple of days ago! This was in Victoria, Australia!!! It was an autistic boy who was sent to the shops for milk and bread. Came back with clothes torn etc muttering about a troll. The mother followed him to the garage where a height challenged person was taped to a chair!!