and i think that's the most concise way to view what happened. gripped by fright. from the unexpected to the downright horrifying. terror on a mass scale as bombs tear through trains in madrid. >> the train cars themselves just blown open. how absolutely terrifying it must have been for people on these trains. >> any parent's nightmare. a child trapped and submerged.

>> he was screaming out the baby was in the washer and he needed help. >> those with nerves of steel confront what's most petrifying, from dizzying heights to hair-raising creatures and insects. >> her house was infested. they were coming out of the coffee maker, the toaster, the microwaves, the ovens, the stoves. crawling out of every crack and crevice. >> caught on camera: fear". a washing machine locks trapping a baby inside. and each passing second brings him closer to a dangerous spin cycle. may 11, 2012.

at the federal laundromat in camden, new jersey, a babysitter sorts laundry while her boyfriend puts the child she's caring for, 1-year-old zamir, inside the washing machine as part of an unusual game of peek-a-boo. but when the man turns the handle to close the door, their play time quickly turns to panic. the washer locks and water starts rushing into the machine. the babysitter and her boyfriend frantically pull at the door, but the lock, by design, can't be opened until the end of the wash cycle. the laundromat owner explains. >> there was a cart that was white in that washer washing with zamir. about one hour before it ends. and they will use it. so the guy who put zamir in the washer, he never realized once he put the baby in there, that the washer was going to start. because he did not know that the money was in the washer.

he was just, like, i can open it anytime after i locked it. and he was mistaken. >> fearful the baby will drown, the man runs to the back to get help from the laundromat worker. >> he found mr. ain cleaning the dryers. he was screaming at the same time that the baby was in the washer and he needed help. >> i'm very scared. i hear the baby inside the washer. i'm scared of the baby dying. >> zamir has been in the washing machine for nearly one full terrifying minute. his tiny shoes can be seen through the glass door thrashing around on the inside. >> when the washer starts, the water is coming, and the cycles go very slow. for the first two minute and once again into the third, the fourth, the fifth minute it just go like this.

>> when time running out, ain rushing towards the washing machine and does what he is trained to do. >> the first day all the employees who start here, we walk them through and show them where the circuit breakers are. just in case the customer put the clothes in and they get the clothes trapped at the door and the water is leaking. and as soon as as mr. ain realize there was a baby in the washer, he rushed to cut off the circuit break. >> after they turn off the circuit breaker, it takes an additional nerve-racking few seconds for the door to unlock. when it does, ain pulls out zamir, unsure of what condition the baby will be in. >> when i pull the baby out, i saw the baby had a lot of wet. everything wet. the shirt, everything wet. then when i pull the baby out,

the baby was still alive. >> zamir is very lucky because mr. ain stopped the washer right before the two minute cycle. they did not intend to put the baby into a very dangerous situation. it was just their head wasn't there with them when they did it. they wasn't thinking when they do it. they should have thought a little bit more before they did it, but they didn't think of it. >> after reviewing the security footage of what took place in her laundromat that day, she gives the video to her son. >> he says, i think a lot of people is going to want to see this. i didn't take him seriously. i thought he was joking. when the news reporter got here, i was like wait a minute. how did you hear about the incident? he said, well, you put it on youtube. i said, no, i didn't put it on youtube. i didn't put it on youtube. i just asked my son to save it for me. >> i was the one who uploaded the video. i was surprised on how fast it

took off, i guess, because i knew it was going to take off because that's something you don't see every day, but i didn't expect it to go on the news two days after and for there to be a big search for our laundromat. >> i even get call from, you know, china from relative and from cambodia. they said, i saw this thing here and i know you in this business. i hope it didn't happen at my place. i said, yes, it did. >> baby zamir is reunited with his mother zakira david after the babysitter had him checked out at the hospital claiming he had fallen downstairs. david sees the video on the news but still doesn't realize it's her son, as she told ann curry with nbc news. >> i was like i knew that ain't my child. i just kept saying i know that ain't my child. i was like, oh, my god.

i didn't know until the next morning until the police came knocking on my door. >> when they confirmed it was your son. >> that it was my child. >> the guy who saved him, the young immigrant, have you met him? >> no. i never got to meet him. >> you're smiling. what would you like to say to him? >> i would like to tell him thank you. >> no charges are filed against the babysitter or her boyfriend after police find there was no intent to cause harm. the owner is taking steps to make sure nothing as frightening as this happens in her laundromat, including pointing out what seems obvious to most. >> i'm going to put up a real professional sign. when i first call the sign company and told them i want to put up this sign, they was laughing at me. they said, you're wasting your money. there's no need to put up this sign. it's common sense. everybody know washers only for washing clothes. not to put baby. the sign company called me back after he saw the news broadcast. he said, you know what? i change my mind.

coming up, a rush hour commute turns to horror. >> each backpack filled with nails and screws and various shrapnel so there would be maximum damage when they exploded.

terror erupts inside four trains. sending desperate passengers running for their lives. >> the train cars themselves just blown open as if a can opener had just gone around in a circle, just revealed everything inside. how absolutely terrifying it must have been for people on these trains. >> march 11, 2004. in madrid, spain, thousands of people are on board busy commuter trains during a typical morning rush hour.

gonsalo viamoran is living in the city and getting ready for work. >> translator: it was a regular morning like all the other mornings. i goot up, had breakfast. i ran to the track. i was running like you usually do in those circumstances. and i rushed into and boarded the train. >> just before 7:40 a.m., without warning, an explosion rips through one of the train cars. security cameras are rolling as frightened and confused passengers scramble up the stairs. >> translator: it was right after i got on. i grabbed the train's metal rail just as the doors were closing. and at that instant, the explosion happened. the sound cut through my ears. it was this pain, and it was so strong that it seemed like it went right through my brain. >> but this nightmare is only beginning. less than a minute later, two more explosions tear through the station. in total, ten timed explosions

blast through four commuter trains across the city in a calculated act of terrorism. donna friezen covers the story as a correspondent for nbc news. >> these weren't suicide bombers. they were backpacks placed in the trains by terrorists who placed them, then got off the train and left them. there were roughly 20 pounds of explosives in each backpack and also filled with nails and screws and various shrapnel so there would be maximum damage when they were exploded. and they were all detonated by cell phones. so they had cell phones in them that the perpetrators then dialed the numbers of the cell phones. >> viamoran is standing in the same train car that is carrying one of the backpacks. shortly after the explosion knocks him unconscious, he begins to regain his senses. >> translator: i started to feel the pain of not being able to move. i was paralyzed.

my body was almost totally burned. i can only move my right arm. i was feeling the pain of not being able to breathe because my lungs had collapsed. my face had also been burned. and amid other people's blood, my own blood, the skin that fell on top of my eyes. i saw everything in shades of black or red. i had no sensation of time. i just know that, for me, it was abysmal, the amount of time i spent conscious in there. >> viamoran must endure an agonizing wait to receive medical attention, along with the nearly 2,000 others who are injured. >> the medical ambulance and fire in madrid were completely overwhelmed because nothing like

this had happened before. the injuries were horrific, from, you know, arms and legs blown off to internal injuries. they just ran the gamut. >> on the edge of death, viamoran finds hope inside his train car. >> translator: i heard this person say, come over here. someone's alive here. then this person stuck their hand inside. they held my hand and i heard them say, don't worry, we'll get you out. i don't know if it was a fireman, if it was a policeman, or if it was one of the volunteers who were around the site. you realize that each second that went by your life was slipping away. but then this person shows up and holds your hand. you realize you could live again.

>> viamoran escapes with his life, but the ten bombs kill 191 people. >> i remember the coroner saying the most disturbing thing for him was the sound of cell phones ringing in the pockets of the dead because their loved ones were so desperate trying to find them. >> two years after the bombings, the shock waves are still resonating. friezen returns to madrid and visits viamoran who is struggling to move past his painful memories. >> that was his first time back to the train station. he found it emotionally overwhelming but he said, i'm going to get on the train. i'm going to do it. but you could see in his eyes how difficult it was and how he was going to be living with this for the rest of his life. >> in 2012, six years after that

first difficult return to the station, viamoran is riding the trains regularly. >> translator: now i take the train all the time because i don't want to give up. i don't want to give up on public transportation. i still carry with me what i lived on that train. it's just as strong as on the first day. the images have not faded. you carry those memories because they are simply there. they have already become my companion. we live together. they will be with me until the day that i die. >> the investigation into the bombings uncovers three backpacks that had failed to detonate. >> what was key to the case and the evidence was finding these unexploded bombs. so when the police came upon these three backpacks that hadn't detonated and they were able to dissect them, find the cell phones, find the sim cards, follow the trail of where the sim cards had been purchased, that clearly led them to this

shadowy group of islamist terrorist, many of them moroccan. >> in 2007, more than a dozen people are convicted on a variety of charges for their involvement in the bombings, with some being sentenced to as many as 43,000 years in jail. however, spanish law limits time served to 40 years. >> translator: for those who were responsible for the attacks, i give them all of my condemnation, my repulsion, my hatred. to those who have suffered through something similar to what i have suffered, life is very beautiful. hang on to it. life can be lived even if you can't have all that you did before. coming up, a performer walks a thin line between life and death. and next -- >> each guy that you hire is

like literally a crazy person. they're not afraid to do anything. >> daring exterminators take on the truly ghastly. >> her house was infested including her bedroom with including her bedroom with cockroaches. so there's moisturizing relief for everyone. biotene, for people who suffer from a dry mouth.

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fast-moving, unpredictable, and just plain gross. >> oh, my gosh. >> the creepiest and crawliest of creatures can manage to unhinge even nerves of steel. and when their numbers grow to infestations, getting rid of them becomes a daunting task. but these unnerving scenes are all in a day's work for matt favery. owner for 25 years of town and country pest solutions in rochester, new york, matt and his daring staff, including his son caleb, tackle the critters that strike fear into the hearts

of their customers. >> each guy that we hire is, like, literally a crazy person. they go out and they're not afraid to do anything. they've had every insect and animal bite them, sting them, you name it. we just have fun doing this every day of our life. >> this cute little snake, we're going to take that home to the kids. >> the team lives up to its slogan -- we fear nothing but god. taking on nearly everything that goes bump in the night, from a wayward alligator in a lake to a massive infestation of bats in an attic to raccoons, spiders, bees, and even a 15-foot pet albino python slithering too far from its owner. some things can be relocated. >> just don't go to the same home. >> but others must be eliminated. that's the case for one that's the case for one universally frightful creature that is one of the staff's specialties. cockroaches. and when they invade in skin

crawling numbers, this crew likes to capture it all on their camera. june 2009. in one of the staff's most unsettling cases, they are called to the home of a nurse who had informed her landlord about sightings of the pest. >> she said that she just saw some roaches and no big deal to her, like just a few here, few there. she sprayed, she used baits, tried anything. and if you can see a couple, that's a bad sign. they're mostly nocturnal. that means they're getting used to coming out at any time during the day. >> so far we see nothing in this house, not a single roach. take a good look for yourselves. >> inside the kitchen you'll always find them in the condenser motor in the refrigerator because they like to have access to that water. electrical outlets, baseboards, door frames, inside doors if there's a crack in it they'll crawl in there and live. curtains, behind walls that have holes in them. anywhere. >> matt begins by spraying a chemical compound that irritates the cockroaches and flushes them

out of their hiding places. the nurse is luckily not home to see a sight that could cause any tenant to come unglued. >> a crevice you didn't think could hold anything, all of a sudden you'll treat that area and they'll just start pouring out one after another. it'll blow your mind. >> we are back. i want you to take a good look at what's behind me. >> after only a few minutes, matt has smoked out hundreds of thousands of roaches that were hidden in the nurse's home sending them into a panicked scatter. >> they're running for their lives. they just don't know what to do. >> they were coming out of the coffee maker, the toaster, the microwaves, the ovens, the stoves. as you could see on the video, they were crawling out of every crack and crevice. >> her house was infested including her bedroom with cockroaches. i'll never forget the coffee pot. they were just dive bombing out of the coffee pot. >> while the number of

cockroaches may seem shocking, it doesn't take long for an infestation of this size to develop. >> they have to start with one or two. and most people don't know this the thing about a cockroach -- and most people don't know this -- they have an egg they carry around on their rear end. it's about the size of a grain of rice. and it has 14 babies in there. and they drop that off in a nice dark crevice. then those 14 babies hatch within a week or two. then you've got 14. then three weeks, four weeks later, you've got 14 that are having babies times 14. that's how fast it multiplies. in six months you can have well over a million cockroaches if you're not careful. >> after about 20 minutes have passed, the chemical assault that the team has launched takes its toll on the roaches. >> they start dropping off the ceiling and walls and counters and dying everywhere. they land on their back and start twitching their feet. she was pretty infested with roaches and in total shock when she came home to find every single one of those dead on her ground.

>> it was like a roach graveyard. >> then i come back in and videotape just for the fun of it, just to show people what can really be living in the secret and dark places of your kitchen and bathroom. coming up, the team battles thousands of insects that can turn bedtime into a nightmare. >> it's as if somebody burned his skin with fire. that's how bad it is. and later, when you least expect it -- >> she didn't know she was looking me directly in the eye. like, i saw fear.

hi, i'm richard lui. the trial of jdzhokhar tsarnaev starts monday. tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty in the april 2013 boston bombings. hundreds of police officers

are attending the wake of officer wenjin liu. he and his partier wener were k december 20th when they were ambushed. now back to "caught on camera." father/son duo matt and caleb favery operate town and country pest solutions in rochester, new york, raiding homes of the critters that make the customers' hair stand on end. they specialize in treating one particular pest that many people are too afraid to even admit they have until it's too late. >> look how big they are. these are not blood stains. these are actual bedbugs. >> a bedbug basically hides in any crack, any crevice, hitchhikes onto your body,

hitches onto your laptop, your luggage, and you bring it with you. for the people that react to the bites, which is only 20% of people, they literally go crazy. i mean were they're constantly itching. they know they have bugs. they're embarrassed. you almost need some type of counseling besides extermination just to get through your everyday life until the problem is gone. >> the staff uses cameras to record some of their most extreme cases. and there are many. if you think you're hearing more stories about bedbugs lately, you're right. >> you talk to anybody that's 80 years or older, they'll remember bedbugs in the united states. but they just became a cute little nursery rhyme, don't let the bedbugs bite, before you put your kids to bed. >> up until three years ago they were considered to be wiped out. they got rid of a product called ddt. it wiped out the bedbug population. since that was removed from use in america, bedbugs have become

a huge part of everyday life. >> every apartment and high-rise in america have bedbugs. some to a worst degree than others. most of them get a bad case or will get a bad case in the near future. >> july 2010. one of the team's most alarming cases of bedbugs is discovered during their inspection of a 600-unit apartment building in syracuse, new york. >> in total, out of the 600, we found nearly 90 units that had bedbugs. this particular one we walked into the room, i remember opening up the door and going, oh, my gosh, this is going to be bad. >> right here. >> you could smell that odor right away and knew if you can smell it and you're not a dog, then you know there's going to be a big problem here. >> look at the feces. dude, this has been going on for months and months and months. >> there had to be over a year's worth of bedbugs. from there we went into the room and we just started carefully pulling everything apart. >> these are actually bedbugs

crawling right here on the sheets. we got to be careful in here. they are everywhere. you're going to pick them up. >> and bedbugs did get on us. they were under our shirts. i mean, they were in everything. folded chairs infer t s under t every nightstand he had. there had to be 10,000 bedbugs easily in this apartment. i'm like, how has this never been called in? nobody's ever treated or inspected it. >> what's even more shocking, the elderly man living in the apartment tells caleb and his crew he had not noticed the bedbugs in his home. the team carefully continues its initial inspection uncovering the mattress. >> that's all poop right there. >> it was one of the worst ones we'd ever seen. the black stains you'll find very commonly on the seams of the mattress, any white sheets on your bed they stick out really easily.

those black stains are the feces. so after their suck your blood, they come back out and excrete the blood. >> the team bags up the contents of the apartment and says they are able to successfully rid the home of bedbugs using only one treatment of their own mix of pesticides. they're told by the landlord the tenant is relocated to an elder care facility. >> he was one of the 80% that don't react to the bite, apparently, because you could look at his body and he didn't have any bite marks on him. for somebody like that, he should be like eaten alive. >> here's a frightening thought. since bedbugs can become resistant to pesticides, the team maintains its own supply of insects to test those new treatments on. and if you're afraid of bugs, this story gets even more cringe inducing. the bedbugs need to be fed. >> all i do is i put a stocking in here, a pantyhose, and put my hand inside of there. and they poke their straw

through the pantyhose and into my pores. i feed about 30,000 of them at a time for half an hour every two weeks. and the reason for that -- i know it sounds nuts and crazy -- we decide about three years ago that we either have to figure out how to kill bedbugs or get out of the business completely so we don't have to worry about a lot of callbacks and complaints from people. the downside is somebody's got to feed these things every two weeks to keep them alive and keep them multiplied. >> matt washes his arm to minimize the chance of reacting to the bites and escapes feeding time without any physical markings. but one of matt's customers is not so lucky. may 2012. after being ravaged by bedbugs in his home for two years, the man finally calls the team to save him from being devoured in his home. >> he got up, he came out and showed us his body, different body parts like his arm.

it's all eaten alive. i mean, there's no skin left showing. it's just all chaffed as if somebody burned his skin with fire. that's how bad it was. he would have had hundreds and hundreds of bedbugs on his body while he was sleeping and they'd be feeding. >> the man had tried defending himself from the feeding frenzy using pesticide products from his local garden store. >> as you see in the videos, it didn't change one thing. i don't think any of them were dead when we got there. they were all still very much alive. >> they're running like roaches. >> we walk in, and there were literally piles of bedbugs. probably well over a million in just one bedroom. and in the video you'll see the shells that they shed. a bedbug sheds six times before it becomes an adult, and the skins were in piles. they'll pick them up with their hand or with a credit card and just -- it's just like dust. it looks like tobacco.

and then we lifted up the mattress and box spring which you'll see really is just loaded with thousands of bedbugs. >> you may not sleep tight knowing this bone-chilling fact about bedbugs. they sense exactly how and when to best attack their host each night. >> once you go to bed at night and you shut off the lights, they can sense the co2 coming out of your mouth and the body heat off of your body. that causes them to crawl out of the cracks and crevices. and they find a perfectly level spot like on a sheet and they reach forward and they actually just plunk in with a numbing agent and then reinsert a second straw to suck the blood. they'll usually suck on your skin for anywhere from five minutes to fifteen minutes until they're full. and you could have 50 of them on your body and not even know it. perfectly still at night. within six months of not knowing, bedbugs can populate into almost 50,000 bedbugs.

and that's happened over and over. >> despite the massive size of the infestation, the team is able to successfully treat the man's home. within only a few weeks, the damage to his skin heals. it's outcomes like these that are the biggest reward for the team at town and country. >> we have the same sympathy for the homeowners to realize that we wouldn't want those things in our homes and neither would they. so when we go to these jobs and we have a ton of fun doing it, but at the same time we carry that passion to know that we're going to stop this problem from getting worse and that they can have a pest-free place to live. and that's really our ultimate goal. coming up, terrifying moments hundreds of feet in the air. e e one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas

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a high-wire performer takes on a challenge at staggering heights that may be too daunting even for him. 41-year-old aisikaier is a sixth generation performer. a master in the ancient chinese art of high-wire walking known as dowaze. he started training at the age of 6 and performs across his native china without a safety harness. >> translator: it's not exciting if you put on a safety belt. no dowaze person would use insurance methods.

it loses its point if you put one on. for those of us who walk the tightrope, if you get up there, you succeed. if you fail, then god bless you, you might die. >> july 8, 2012. on a scorching summer day, aisikaier prepares to give a death-defying performance that will be broadcast live on television. the location for the stunt? a vast ravine in the south of china extending 2,100 feet across. instead of the wire normally used in his acts, aisikaier is challenged to walk the existing cable car wire slick in areas with oil, positioned 700 feet above the ground. increasing the risk of this feat, aisikaier is walking not only backward, but blindfolded. >> translator: the skill of walking the tightrope backwards and blindfolded, we want to spread it.

we want to amaze our audience of dowaze. the plan was i walk backward and blindfolded until i reach the middle 200 meters where there's water beneath. i said, please notify me once i reach the middle part so i can turn and walk forward. they agreed. my plan was simple at the time. when the performance started, they changed their mind. they think that when you turn around it announces your failure. what they said put a lot of pressure on me. i don't want to fail. >> tasked with walking the entire length backward and blindfolded on the cable wire that is just over one inch in diameter, aisikaier begins to feel the effects of the more than 100 degree searing heat. >> translator: because it was very hot at the time, my hips were burning. breathing was hard and the sweat flowed into my eyes. and i had to do this.

>> the elements overwhelm him. aisikaier loses his balance and slips. he sits on the wire momentarily to regain his composure. aisikaier stands and begins walking backward again. he continues to gain distance one step at a time across the ravine. maintaining balance is a challenge as the existing stabilizing wires on the cable car line are spaced farther apart than aisikaier is used to. after he has been walking for an astonishing 50 minutes, with less than 150 feet to go, a gust of wind blows him off balance. and this time, calamity. >> translator: the wind came. i stumbled and my balance was almost vertical.

i touched and it was the wire, but it was oily. i thought i was done. as i was falling, i wasn't thinking of anything. as i landed, i thought to myself, when would i die? i didn't know what's down below. i couldn't see. i was blindfolded. i thought i was dead. >> with an unbelievable stroke of luck, aisikaier has fallen on to a cliff about 30 feet below. park manager luong gihong is watching nearby. >> translator: i felt that my heart was going to pop out of my mouth. it was scary. if he had fallen earlier, according to our survey of the area, if he fell before the cliff right to the bottom, there'd be absolutely no chance of him surviving. >> security personnel rush to rescue aisikaier from the cliffside.

>> translator: we found him, and he already fainted. we helped him stand up. >> translator: they bound him to a rope and dragged him up slowly. i saw that he was not well at all. we dragged him up step by step. we asked him, how are you? he answered, i'm okay. i'm okay. don't worry. all of us were very happy when we saw him sitting there. we knew that he's fine now. it was only scratches. we were all very happy. >> aisikaier's injuries are more than physical. in the days after the fall, aisikaier's confidence as a high-wire performer is rattled. but his trepidation doesn't last long. >> translator: i was still upset after i got back so i tried out walking the tightrope and then i was assured. i started giving performances again. now i'm no longer afraid. there are always successes and

failures when you challenge something. although i failed a challenge attempt, i survived. and this is the biggest success. i will continue my attempts to challenge. coming up, it may look innocent until -- >> i just like the pure terror, really. like, just fear. >> it's funny. ♪ you're only young once. unless you have a subaru. (announcer) the subaru xv crosstrek. symmetrical all-wheel drive plus 34 mpg. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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♪ bye! [ screaming ] oh, my god. >> there are many scary things in the world. but what happens when something seemingly harmless turns on you? the fear is real. but the snowman, not so much.

scaring people has become a profession for jason lichtenberger. after coming up with a simple prank that would change his life. >> i've been scaring people since i've been a little kid hiding behind doors or under the bed and just popping out on people. it's just fun to scare people. so i wanted to go out and actually have my buddy brian jump out of a pile of snow and scare someone on the sidewalk. my uncle said you're crazy. you're going to get hypothermia doing that. i'll make you a costume. a couple days later he said i've got the costume ready. >> creating the snowman was an easy job for lichtenberger's uncle. as owner of extreme costumes, he's used to creating large scale costumes much more complicated than his simple

snowman design. >> i found some chicken wire. i then supported those with aluminum. i then coated that with expanding insulation foam. i said if you're going to try to scare people, let's try to make him an evil guy. i took down parts of sunglasses and created interesting shapes and embedded them. your menacing look comes from the slanted eye view. then i gave him a grimace with the mouth. it creates a good field of vision. >> a camera mounted inside the chest of the snowman captures reactions up close while a camera placed nearby shoots the scene. [ screaming ] >> the only thing needed to bring the snowman prank to life is someone willing to climb inside and scare the bejesus out of people. for that, he recruited his friend brian and it doesn't take

a lot of convincing. >> i'm a professional snowman. basically, he puts the suit on me, i stand there, and i just wait for people. if i see them like they look like they're going to react, i basically jump at them. it's awesome. >> whoa. >> so got the costume, went out, tried it, within ten minutes we had a girl scream. and so we kept shooting and we got more and more footage. put out one video and it went viral. since it went viral, i thought this is something people like. i'm going to brand it and make it its own channel. and the rest is history. >> freaky the scary snowman gains massive success online with more than 33 million views on youtube. >> i don't think i could have guessed how successful he would be. something that took the least

effort is going to become one of the most popular things i've ever made is funny to me. i make things that takes ten months at a time to make. that took three days. >> the key to the success of the prank is knowing the exact moment to make a move. >> what the [ bleep ]. >> to do that lichtenberger is in constant communication with his friend inside the snowman. >> i am behind the camera. we use a headset bluetooth. we do speak to each other and communicate. i'm just looking out for brian and letting him know if anybody's coming up behind him. >> he'll do a count down like a one, two, three turn. and i'll get the people. they're really not expecting it because they think they're sneaking up on me. >> jesus [ bleep ]! >> i just like the pure terror, really. like, just fear. it's funny. >> after taking hundreds of passers by off guard, they've noticed some distinct trends in

how the opposite sexes react in a fright. >> best reactions are when the girls scream and run away. [ screaming ] men -- >> oh, my god! it moved! >> -- typically scream like a girl and then swear at us. >> scared the [ bleep ] out of my ass. that was good. >> oh [ bleep ]. >> for men, they've got to be doing something else and kind of walking by and ignoring it. then i kind of jump in the way of them. then they see this big thing coming at them. anything in your peripherals coming at you, you freak out no matter what it is. >> oh [ bleep ]. >> those who let curiosity get the better of them may regret trying to figure out what the snowman is about. [ screaming ] >> what i'll do is i'll pretend like i'm not even there. >> there's no one in there. >> they'll come walking up and

push. and push around. like see, there's nobody in there. i'll deal with it and rock back and forth. then i'll jump out and get them. [ screaming ] >> it's good fun but there's some people even the pranksters won't risk scaring. that is unless the temptation is too great. >> i don't usually scare older people because we don't want to create a health risk. they seemed like they could handle it. she didn't know it, but she was looking at me directly in the eye. like, i saw fear. it was pretty bad. it was like time slowed down. i saw her as a child. we talked to them for like 20 minutes afterwards explaining the youtube thing. bringing the videos up on our phone. they were all about it. they were saying they were going to tell their granddaughters and all this stuff. they wanted more cards. yeah, they loved it.

>> it's one thing to scare the elderly. it's another to take on a dog. >> the dogs, if they're well trained, no reaction. they'll just sniff it out and make sure it's safe. but a lot of the dogs kind of freak out and do flips and try and get away as fast as they can. >> the success of the stunt has allowed freaky the scary snowman to take on bigger cities around the country from anaheim to orlando, even to new york. >> you just scared the [ bleep ] out of my kids. [ screaming ] >> people love to go see horror shows. they like to be scared. in the end, freaky is basically turning and moving towards somebody a few inches. and who could really say that

that was such a bad thing to do? all of our stories have been "caught on camera." they're situations no one wants to find themselves in, situations no one wants to confront. but what would you do if you came upon a man trapped inside a burning car, engulfed in flames? >> i knew eventually the car was probably going to explode. >> or if you watched a woman silently slump to the floor of an emergency room. >> this was so not violent, but so violent. >> what if you witnessed a life