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It's just after 3:00 a.m. on Black Friday in 2016. But in the small town of Benson, North
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Carolina, no one's lining up to snag a deal on the latest iPhone or the biggest TV. It's quiet. Most people are asleep,
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and the streets are practically empty. [music] Which is giving time for a couple of
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officers to finish up some paperwork in the police department parking lot. And it's in that quiet moment when two
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men walk up. Their names are Julian Vaio's Jr. and Jeremy Carpenter. Now, they're not panicked or screaming or
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anything like that. They just need a little bit of help. They're passing through after visiting Julian's family
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for Thanksgiving. They were on their way back to Minnesota, where they both work.
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But now they don't have keys to their car. And the story of how that happened is
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[music] weird. They say that they were traveling with a third buddy, Christopher Thomas, who goes by Cole,
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and he's the one who was driving. But out of nowhere, he started acting paranoid. And before they knew it, he
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pulled over, took the keys, jumped out, and then like ran until he dropped out of sight. They don't know why or where
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he went. I mean, Cole couldn't have even known where he was, because he's not from around there. He's from Florida.
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The only half explanation that Julian offers up is that he had heard rumors that Cole might have {quote} mental
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problems, but he wasn't even really sure. They said they tried looking for him themselves, but they can't find him, and
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now they're just stuck. Now, the story is a bit odd, sure, but not enough to like set off alarm bells for these
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officers. Because even though it's an ungodly hour, these guys don't appear to be under the influence or anything like
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that. So, the officers do what they can. The guys point them in the direction of
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North Johnson Street, where they say Cole ran off. They check [music] the few places that might still be open for gas
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or coffee, but there's just no sign of him.