An Argentinian man has been making news headlines all over South America for experiencing a bizarre paranormal phenomenon.
A hitchhiker he picked up from the side of the road allegedly disappeared from the front passenger seat of his truck, leaving behind only a burnt smell and melted shoe marks in the rubber car mats.
Pedro Peirone, from the town of San Jose de la Esquina, in Santa Fe, was driving home on February 26th, when he saw a young man hitchhiking on the side of the road. As he often did on his business trips around the province, Peirone pulled over and offered to give the boy a ride. Although the hitchhiker was a bit shy and reserved, Pedro says he seemed to be a regular teen the likes of which he often picked up. But while he can hardly remember the faces of most of the people he has given rides to throughout the years, the memory of this particular boy will probably stay with him for the rest of his life.
When asked if he was going all the way to San Jose de la Esquina, the boy said “no”, adding that he will let Peirone know where he’d like to get out.
“Finally, he asked me to drop him off at the junction with the road leading to the cemetery, and, as soon as I got there, I sensed an awful burning smell,” Pedro Peirone told reporters. “I stopped to see if something had caught fire, got out to check the back of the truck, and as soon as I turned around, I noticed there was no one inside.”
The startled driver went to check the front passenger seat more thoroughly, but all he found was two footprints melted into the rubber car mat and that lingering burnt smell. He looked around to see if the boy had just ran out faster than he could spot him, but there was no sign of him anywhere and no other footprints. Some friends of Pedro happened to drive by moments later and helped him look for the hitchhiker for a while, but they couldn’t find anything.
Unable to explain what had happened, Pedro Peirone went to the police and told them the whole story. Word of his experience spread around San Jose de la Esquina, and soon the man was contacted by dozens of TV and radio stations for interviews. He even took some of the reporters to the place where the hitchhiker allegedly vanished from his truck and showed them the burnt shoe prints melted into the car mats.
The media did a little digging on Peirone as well, to find out if he was the kind of man who would make up such an unusual story, but everyone they talked to described him as an upstanding member of the community, a hard-working man and a good Catholic.
Peirone himself admitted that he had always put his faith in the Blessed Virgin Mary, and never really believed in paranormal activity and unexplained mysteries, but that the bizarre occurrence he experienced last month has left him a bit confused.
“I’m a little stressed, nervous. I’m not afraid, but I just cannot explain what happened,” the man said in an interview.