According to recovered forum posts from a now-defunct subreddit dedicated to "found footage horror comedy" and a cached blog entry from Tomi Taylor's old Tumblr, 02.07.15 was the date of a real—or brilliantly fabricated—incident.
Tomi Taylor, at the time a 24-year-old multimedia artist living in a rust-belt city, owned a failing 1992 Volvo 240. On the night of February 7, the car broke down on an unlit highway off-ramp. Taylor called for a tow. The dispatched truck arrived, but instead of taking the Volvo to Taylor’s usual mechanic, the driver demanded cash upfront and began driving in the opposite direction—toward a scrap yard. After a tense 20-minute negotiation in the freezing rain, Taylor was let off at a 24-hour gas station. The car was never seen again.
That real-life "bad tow truck" became the seed for a short film titled "Check Up" . In Taylor’s own words (from a deleted Twitter thread): “The tow truck was just a stand-in. The real check-up was having to look at my own life choices while standing under a flickering fluorescent light at 2 AM, waiting for a second tow that never came.”
Thus, "-BadTowTruck- Tomi Taylor -Check Up - 02.07.15-" is not just a title. It is a timestamped emotional GPS coordinate.
In an age of algorithmic oversharing, the most terrifying or poignant stories are the ones we only half-remember. A filename like -BadTowTruck- Tomi Taylor -Check Up - 02.07.15- functions as a mnemonic trigger—a key that once opened a door to a specific piece of digital emotion, now sealed.
By writing this long article, we are not uncovering a definitive truth. Instead, we are performing speculative preservation. We are saying: This string existed. Someone, somewhere, on February 7th, 2015, cared enough about Tomi Taylor and a bad tow truck to hit “save” or “upload.” And now, even if the original is gone, the story remains—told through footnotes, theories, and the ache of incompleteness.
Between 2012 and 2016, small-scale ARGs flourished on YouTube and private blogs. A common trope was the “haunted mechanic” or “possessed vehicle” narrative. “-BadTowTruck-” could be the name of a cursed tow truck that appears to broken-down drivers, only to take them somewhere other than a repair shop.
Tomi Taylor might be the investigator—a vlogger or mechanic documenting his “check ups” on the truck. Episode or log entry #02.07.15 would be his final video, where he examines the truck’s cabin and finds something organic—hair, teeth, a journal—hidden in the winch. The video would have been deleted after Taylor’s real-life identity was discovered or after the game’s conclusion was deemed too disturbing.
According to recovered forum posts from a now-defunct subreddit dedicated to "found footage horror comedy" and a cached blog entry from Tomi Taylor's old Tumblr, 02.07.15 was the date of a real—or brilliantly fabricated—incident.
Tomi Taylor, at the time a 24-year-old multimedia artist living in a rust-belt city, owned a failing 1992 Volvo 240. On the night of February 7, the car broke down on an unlit highway off-ramp. Taylor called for a tow. The dispatched truck arrived, but instead of taking the Volvo to Taylor’s usual mechanic, the driver demanded cash upfront and began driving in the opposite direction—toward a scrap yard. After a tense 20-minute negotiation in the freezing rain, Taylor was let off at a 24-hour gas station. The car was never seen again.
That real-life "bad tow truck" became the seed for a short film titled "Check Up" . In Taylor’s own words (from a deleted Twitter thread): “The tow truck was just a stand-in. The real check-up was having to look at my own life choices while standing under a flickering fluorescent light at 2 AM, waiting for a second tow that never came.” -BadTowTruck- Tomi Taylor -Check Up - 02.07.15-
Thus, "-BadTowTruck- Tomi Taylor -Check Up - 02.07.15-" is not just a title. It is a timestamped emotional GPS coordinate.
In an age of algorithmic oversharing, the most terrifying or poignant stories are the ones we only half-remember. A filename like -BadTowTruck- Tomi Taylor -Check Up - 02.07.15- functions as a mnemonic trigger—a key that once opened a door to a specific piece of digital emotion, now sealed. According to recovered forum posts from a now-defunct
By writing this long article, we are not uncovering a definitive truth. Instead, we are performing speculative preservation. We are saying: This string existed. Someone, somewhere, on February 7th, 2015, cared enough about Tomi Taylor and a bad tow truck to hit “save” or “upload.” And now, even if the original is gone, the story remains—told through footnotes, theories, and the ache of incompleteness.
Between 2012 and 2016, small-scale ARGs flourished on YouTube and private blogs. A common trope was the “haunted mechanic” or “possessed vehicle” narrative. “-BadTowTruck-” could be the name of a cursed tow truck that appears to broken-down drivers, only to take them somewhere other than a repair shop. Taylor called for a tow
Tomi Taylor might be the investigator—a vlogger or mechanic documenting his “check ups” on the truck. Episode or log entry #02.07.15 would be his final video, where he examines the truck’s cabin and finds something organic—hair, teeth, a journal—hidden in the winch. The video would have been deleted after Taylor’s real-life identity was discovered or after the game’s conclusion was deemed too disturbing.