h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We visited a friend today and she started the following with the statement, "This is not a joke it actually happened."

She then went on to tell us the story which went something like this:
Her friend has a son with Down's syndrome. He is an adult now and does most things for himself but they have a pull cord at home, which, in an emergency, phones her mobile directly. She saw that the special number was calling her and her son's voice said, "I'm frightened of the Troll!"
"Have you been watching videos again? You know some of them frighten you. stop watching the videos. Just sit down with the telly off and you'll be fine"

The emergency number rang again. "The Troll is under the stairs and I'm frightened of it!It's trying to get out!"
"Don't be silly, you are imagining things! Just be calm and I'll see you after work."

By now her boss could see that something was going on and when the third call came saying, "Mum! The troll is trying to hurt me you must come home!" Her boss told her that she should go and see to her son.

She headed home and when she got to the front door she was greeted by her son with scratches to his face and arms and torn clothing. "It's the Troll under the stairs! He's been hurting me!"

She could hear noises under the stairs and thought that there must be a cat or dog trapped in there.

Tentatively she opened the door and a very angry person of restricted growth jumped out saying words to the effect of "What in blazes is going on here? I'm going for the police!" and out he went.

On investigation it appears that her son had seen this person in the street and thinking he was a troll picked him up and carried him home kicking and screaming.

The police are investigating.

Oh my. Don't know what to say, really.

This happened for real:

As a 14 year old, I was invited to help out at the local youth centre once a fortnight. This was a night for people of all ages and disabilities to gather and chat or play.

This particular evening my RE Teacher was in charge, and we were chatting about something from school. A downs syndrome boy of the same age as me came over and stood beside me.

As the conversation went on, this boy asked me to play with him, 'In two minutes' says I and carried on talking.

The boy asked another question - 'Yes, in a minute', I replied.

Nearing the end of my conversation with my teacher, the boy asked another question to which I replied 'Yes'....

...Wham!.... I was flat on my back with this boy on top of me, and could I hell has move him!

My teacher looked dumbstruck and stood there ... After what seemed like a long time (probably no more than two minutes), this boy's mother came across, slapped him and dragged him off, telling my teacher he 'should knows better!' and stormed off.

My error?

Never ignore a child, no matter what age or ability.
Two minutes feels more like 2 hours when having to wait.
Never say yes to; 'Play cowboys and indians with me'

Vestie, have you Googled that story?

Now I'm feeling suspicious, but my friend is an ex-social worker with a brother with Down's syndrome and she didn't say "friend of a friend", she said she directly knew the mother of they young man.

When we rolled round laughing at the story she was really cross with us for finding it funny in any way.

I'll not say anything further, in that case

It's a pretty crazy story, but also plausible. I feel guilty for smiling at the story

We all had a go at my friend for starting with something like "This isn't a joke." What sort of response are you asking for when you say that this isn't a joke?

I feel a bit like a cynic, but I am still suspicious about the veracity of this story, since this is a pretty well-documented urban legend. http://www.snopes.com/embarrass/mistaken/troll.asp
I kinda have a feeling that if you asked your friend, and if _she_ in turn asked _her_ friend (the one whose son is apparently the subject of the story), it would turn out that she wasn't really talking about her son, but about something she heard happened to somebody else... and that if she, in turn, tried to locate the source, it would keep getting farther away.
But like I said, this makes me feel bad for being so cynical, especially since I really don't know the people in question.
What do I know, eh?

As I said before, M'lud, my friend said it was her friend's son and no further away than that.