Den stora tråden om spökliftaren, Jesusliftaren och besläktade fenomen

In Communist Romania during the late 1970s, a young man, a laborer in his 20s searching for work, is hitchhiking along the road to Ploiesti. A Trabant driven by an attractive woman in her thirties, with an equally cute friend in the front seat, stops and picks up the young man. He hits it off with the two women, and presently they invite him to spend the night with them in Ploiesti at their apartment.

The next morning, the man wakes up early and remembers his appointment to visit the labor authority (or registration office, etc.). Since both ladies are still sound asleep, he decides to dress quickly and slip out of the apartment to avoid getting involved with them any further.

A few minutes later, as he’s walking down the street, he realizes that he has left his wristwatch in the women’s apartment. In the Communist era, wristwatches were scarce and costly, so he decides to go back and fetch it.

After climbing the two flights of stairs, he arrives at the door of the apartment, only to discover that it has been sealed off with police tape. Even more peculiar is the thick coat of undisturbed dust on the door. Puzzled, the young man speaks to the building’s superintendent, who vehemently informs him that he must be mistaken. After some back-and-forth, the superintendent calls a policeman, and all three of them enter the apartment.

Inside the apartment, too, everything is thickly coated with dust; it’s obvious that the dwelling hasn’t been occupied for months. The young man insists that he has just spent the night there, but both the police officer and the superintendent are equally adamant, telling the young man in no uncertain terms that he is either crazy or lying. They finally explain to him that the apartment had indeed been occupied by two remarkably attractive women—both of whom, however, had been brutally murdered on the highway while driving back to Ploiesti several months earlier.

The young man finally relents. As the policeman and the superintendent are ushering him out of the apartment, they pass the open bathroom door—and spot the young man’s wristwatch lying on the sink.