If you woke up tomorrow and discovered the secret to time travel, what would be the first thing you’d do? While I’d be tempted to say something highbrow like “see the construction of the Titanic” or “meet Albert Einstein, ” lets be honest, I’m gonna be tempted to fuck around with history, and make the present better for myself. It’s human nature.
I mean, sure, every movie about time travel ever, cautions against small changes in the past, that ripple through time and make the future a dystopia. But who am I? I’m not anybody important. If I’m poor now, but go back in time, make some wise changes, and end up being quietly rich, who cares?
At least, that was the idea behind the mysterious Andrew Carlssin.
Back in March 2003, an article appeared on Weekly World News and was shared on Yahoo, that announced that a man named Andrew Carlssin was arrested on insider trading charges.
When captured and interrogated, he claimed that he was 44 years old, and was from the year 2256.
According to the report given by the Security and Exchange Comission (SEC), Carlssin started with an investment of only $800, and in two weeks, turned it into a portfolio valued at $350 Million. Every trade he made, was capitalized on unexpected business developments. According to them, there was no one anyone could luckily make those investments, without an inside track.
Unless you’re a time traveller, and all this already happened in the past.
It’s pretty much the plot of Back to the Future II, with Carlssin taking a page from Biff’s handbook.
Some of the trades were so high level and secret that there was no one anybody could have known about them. As well, at the time, stock prices were nose-diving and most investors were losing money. Then there’s this one guy who makes 126 high-risk trades and never loses a cent.
The SEC and the FBI were convinced he was a pathological liar.
Carlssin was captured and interrogated. The SEC and FBI figured they’d get some lucrative info on an insider trading ring, but instead got a 4 hour confession from the man, claiming that he had come from 250 years in the future. It was no secret in the future that this era was one of the worst times to be buying stocks. But someone armed with knowledge of how it was all going to go down, could make a fortune.
His plan was to buy a little here, lose a little there, but he got caught up in the excitement and just made a windfall.
The more they pressed him, in his videotaped confession, the more he insisted that it wasn’t a matter of secrets, but commonly known information in his time.
He also made a bid for leniency, saying that he’s been all throughout time and can share “historical facts” with them, including the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, and the cure for AIDS.
He even offered this famous picture as proof. Remember the anachronistic sunglasses guy? Apparently Carlssin is there too.
It’s not known if he actually shared his secrets, considering that Bin Laden wasn’t found until 2011. Or perhaps he shared even more valuable secrets that are still classified to this date.
All Carlssin wanted, was to be released and go back to the future with his “time craft.” He refused to reveal the location off the machine, or talk about how it works, for fear that it’d fall into the wrong hands.
Even more curious is that there is no record of Andrew Carlssin prior to Dec 2002, and shortly after being arrested, a mysterious man posted his $1 Million bail. He was due in court again on April 3rd, and disappeared on the way to his hearing. He was never heard from again.
Since then, people have debated if this really happened, or if it was a hoax.
Personally, I think it might be plausible. I think a lot of time travellers come back to change things and never get caught, and we’re none the wiser. Their changes become the history we’ve always known and there’s no way to tell the difference.
Go on. Prove me wrong. Can you think of any way to disprove my theory? No? Hurt’s your noggin, doesn’t it?
Just a thought. Anyways, my ride is here.
Via Snopes, Web Archive & Infinity Explorers
