A lot of horror movies seem to focus on the same tropes, be it haunted houses, supernatural creatures, or relentless, faceless killers. This doesn't take into account that for many of us, the most unsettling experiences are with regular people—well, at least they seem regular at first glance. The world is full of strange folks, but these people go beyond just being a little weird. Redditors came together to share their stories of the creepiest people they've ever met, and their stories left us sleeping with the lights on. Read on...if you dare.
1. Coming In Handy
My sister's bedroom was on the second floor of our childhood home. Late one night, she suddenly screamed and said she saw a hand on her window. We thought she was just having a nightmare and told her to go back to bed. The next morning, when we all woke up, we made a truly chilling discovery. We found a ladder leaning up against our house by her bedroom window…
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2. An Evil Man
I occasionally worked with a man who always seemed a bit "off" to me. I could never really place it. I thought maybe he was just kind of slow. I felt bad for being judgemental and just did my best to be nice to him. I later came to find out that he'd spent time behind bars. He told everyone it was for substances, but then, the disturbing truth emerged.
In reality, it was for abducting a bunch of kids and some other messed up stuff. This all came to light after he abducted two young girls from our community. One of the girls escaped from his place and told the authorities what had happened. Tragically, he took the life of the other one before taking his own life. Always trust your gut.
3. She Longs To Be (Close To You)
In Toronto, there is a subway system run by the “TTC,” or Toronto Transit Commission. They often close off certain parts of the subway route in order to do some upgrades or fix bits. Lately, they've been shutting down the subway rides into the downtown area on the weekends. Anyway, they were doing some upgrades on the tracks one time while I was on one of their trains.
When we got to the area where the folks were working, we were going by pretty slowly and making sure not to run over anyone while they scampered out of the way. Then, out of nowhere, the power cut out. Now, I should say that I wasn't the only one in the train car. The cars are decently long and I was at one end. Some woman was at the other end.
When I first walked onto the train, there was a giant bubble of empty seats around her. She was displaying the typical signs of a crazy person and everyone was avoiding her. But by the time the lights went out, she and I were the only ones left on the train. Even though we were sitting on opposite ends, I became very nervous.
She was laughing audibly, and I tried to tune her out by listening to some music. But that never really worked. It was so chilling that my brain sort of just kept ignoring the music and focusing on her. So, eventually, I just unplugged the music and sat back, trying not to poop my pants. When the power cut out, she immediately stopped laughing.
In fact, she stopped making any noise at all. When the lights came back on about five seconds later, what I saw made me want to jump out of my skin. She wasn't at the far end of the subway car anymore. She was now about three seats away from me. Staring at me. The second the train stopped at the next station, I bolted for the door as fast as I could.
After she “relocated,” she didn't make another sound the entire time. She just kept staring at me. It was the single creepiest moment of my entire life.
4. An Unsolved Mystery
My friend is a female who we’ll nickname "Mystery." Last year, Mystery gets her first car. She takes it on her first drive alone, to McDonald’s. Afterward, Mystery drives a few hours to her best friend’s house, who had moved away upstate a few months earlier. Halfway through the drive, it happens. She feels a tap on her shoulder as she’s driving.
Some stranger pops up from under the back seat and asks her if her name is Mystery. She slams on the brakes and jumps out of the car. All the surrounding cars stop too to see what the fuss was all about. In front of this whole crowd, the guy gets out and jumps off the low bridge they were on. He was never seen again or identified.
5. The Long Haul
I was a truck driving trainer. I picked up a student who within the first 20 minutes asked me about a shooting at a company yard, and how much damage a fully loaded truck and trailer would do at full speed. I sat next to him for literally seven hours while he drove. He didn’t say anything. I’d ask him questions, but I’d get two sentence answers, and then nothing.
I have never been so scared or uncomfortable in my entire life. I dropped him off the next day. He said that he had been recording me texting when I was sending my fiancé GPS locations and selfies to let her know I was still alive and ok. He said he was going to send it to my company. I had been recording the entire exchange myself because I was so scared of what might happen.
I sent it to my company and he was fired the next day. I couldn’t sleep for a couple of days because I don’t know if he had followed me home or not. He was recently rehired, and not even a day with a trainer, he was dropped off in another state. I was told he is no longer eligible to work for my company.
6. Glass Ceiling
I live on the second floor of a three-level apartment building. We have a crawlspace that connects all the apartments. We aren't sure why it's there, but we all have stuff in it and none of us would ever even attempt to go inside of it. So it’s never posed any issue. The other night, the sun was setting but it wasn't pitch black out yet.
I'm walking through my living room when I see a short woman on my fire escape looking into my windows. This is extremely bizarre, considering it's still semi-light out and she had literally climbed onto our fire escape somehow. We have two windows that the fire escape reaches. She was looking in both but didn't see me.
I crawled onto the ground and my heart was racing as I watched her try to open the windows. I didn't know what to do because my phone was in the other room. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally left. I went into my room to get my phone to text my landlord and call the authorities. I came back into the living room and was looking out the windows to see if I could locate her.
All of a sudden, I hear a weird noise coming from the ceiling. We have one of those tile ceilings made out of separate slabs of cork. I look up to see one of the slabs lifted up and two eyes staring down at me. I have no clue how she got into the crawlspace so quickly, but I grabbed the nearest thing, which was a broom, and started hitting her with it through the ceiling.
She crawled away. An officer soon showed up and searched the place. They found her a few days later, when she was on someone else's fire escape. The officer said she was definitely on some illicit substances and that she had been violent towards them. I'm glad she's gone and that she won’t be coming through my ceiling again any time soon.
7. Man’s Best Friend
My family has a Bernese mountain dog called Ava, who is very big. She’s a quiet and lazy dog, but she also seems to be alert at all times. One night, my parents went out for dinner and left me at home with Ava. I was downstairs watching TV and my lounge is right next to the front door. At around 8:00 PM, the doorbell rang.
I opened the door to see a guy in fairly plain clothes standing there. He told me that he had a delivery for me. I was confused because he didn’t look like a delivery driver, and he had no parcel. Suddenly, I turn my head and see another guy around the side of my driveway which goes to our back door. This other man is clearly walking towards my back door.
I freak out and the guy at the door notices this. He barges through, shouting for the other guy. This is when Ava wakes up and begins to let out the loudest bark I’ve ever heard, making the guy stumble back. She rushed towards him and jumped up, grabbing his shoulder and literally throwing him out the door. His buddy came along, but saw Ava and started to run.
The other guy managed to slip out of Ava’s grip and run down the road. I somehow managed to get Ava to stay so I didn’t lose her, and they got away. I was so shaken up. I called my parents and then the authorities, and I gave them a statement. It’s safe to say that Ava got plenty of treats from then on, and I always keep her nearby when I am on my own.
8. A Taste Of His Own Medicine
I was standing in line at the local pharmacy to get my prescriptions. This is a small town and I am a regular there, so they know me on sight. I was behind a couple of other people in line, and there were a couple of people behind me. I kept feeling a tickle in my hair in the back of my head, but every time I looked behind me, the guy there was a few steps back and looking at the floor.
This happened several times by the time I reached the front of the line. The pharmacist told me she wanted to talk to me about my medication in the consultation room. I thought this was weird, because we both knew I had been on this medication for years and would be for life. Nothing new. I get back to the room and close the door, and she comes in from the pharmacy.
She told me that the man behind me had been stepping forward, sticking his nose in my hair, and smelling it before stepping back and looking at the floor. This shook me pretty badly as this is such weird behavior, especially in my little town. The pharmacy staff insisted on having me wait there until the guy was distracted by another pharmacy employee.
They then had a security guard walk me to my car and watch me drive off, to make sure I was gone before Hair Sniffer came out and saw what car I was driving or what direction I was going in. I still use this pharmacy and some of the same people still work there. I will always be grateful that they took the initiative to make sure I was safe that day.
9. Grin And Bare It
A few years ago, I was living alone in a little house. It had a heavy back door that would swell up after it rained. This always made it get really tough to open, and it would make a lot of noise. Late one night, I had passed out on my sofa in the living room on the opposite side of the house. But I suddenly woke up to a strange sound. Netflix was still blaring away on my laptop, but I guess I had felt a vibration or movement.
As I slowly squinted my eyes open, I realized the outline of someone was standing still in the hallway looking down at me. They were not very large or tall based on how much space they took up in the door frame. Being completely disoriented in my not-quite-awake-yet state, my mind assumed that it must be my girlfriend.
I was naked at the time, so I pulled back my blanket with my legs sprawled apart and called to her in my best deep voice "C'mere baby!" I guess once they realized I was a naked 200-pound man beckoning to them with my junk out, the person immediately turned on their heels and booked it for the back door. By the time I stumbled up to the door, all I could hear was them taking off into the darkness at a full sprint.
10. Getting Up Close And Personal
I drove my sister to get sushi in a not so good part of town one time. We were in the car about to get out, and I reached down to get my wallet. I looked back up to find the creepiest, most strung-out looking human being I've ever seen in my life. He had his face against her window, licking the glass. He then pulled his sleeve up to show us some scars on his forearm, face on the glass all the while.
I don't drive out to get food at that restaurant anymore...
11. Power Struggle
When I was about 14 years old, my parents were out one night. They left me and my little sister home alone. It was about 10:00 PM when the lights suddenly went out. This used to happen sometimes in my country, since it’s a new country and really poor. But that time, I noticed something out of the ordinary. Only the lights in our house were out, and my neighbors’ lights were still on.
I had a bad feeling, so I quickly locked all the doors and closed the blinds. I told my little sister to hide behind the couch and not to go out no matter what happened. I hid somewhere else with a knife and tried to call my mom. She didn’t pick up, so I waited. After some time, I thought it was over, so I got out of my hiding place and headed to the kitchen to look out the window.
Before I could even get close, I heard a terrifying sound. It was the doorknob turning. It didn’t open, so the person tried it again, now violently. That’s when I panicked and I shouted: “WHO ARE YOU? GET AWAY FROM MY HOUSE. I JUST CALLED 9-1-1!” I heard footsteps and then nothing. I went to the other room and looked out the window. From there, I saw someone running out of my backyard.
My sister was crying so I comforted her while we still stayed hidden until my parents came home. We told them everything and my dad said that whoever it was, he had intentionally cut the house’s electricity to scare us. To this day, every time the electricity goes out, I get kinda scared and I’m glad we are all safe and well.
12. Mother Goose’s Creepy Uncle
Today, I was standing outside of my dentist's office waiting for my wife. I was minding my own business and having a smoke when this old guy walked up to me from out of nowhere. With seemingly no emotion in his eyes, he looked straight at me and asked me “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”
I was about to start laughing it off when I started to realize that he was being fully serious and didn’t mean this as any kind of a joke. I awkwardly said that a woodchuck could chuck as much as it felt like. He just stared at me silently for a few seconds, then turned around and walked away. I just stood there watching him go and thought the whole thing was downright creepy.
13. A Dog’s Life
When I was quite young, I was out at the park walking my dog one day when I realized it was getting quite late and I was the only one left in the park. A man dressed in a dark hooded top and a black scarf covering his face jumped the fence that leads into the alleyway behind the park and started marching towards me. But he hadn't spotted my dog.
My dog had been off sniffing around or doing whatever dogs do. When the guy approached, my dog got between us and there was a kind of stand-off for a while. My dog was really tense and growling with his hackles raised, and I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if my dog was going to attack the man, so I just kind of froze.
After a while, the man backed away, jumped back over the fence, and ran away down the alley. I put my dog back on his leash and went home, but he was still tense the whole way back. I was a little freaked out, but perhaps not as afraid as I should have been looking back on it now. I didn't know what that man wanted, or what he was doing there, or what would have happened if my dog wasn't there with me.
There would have been no legitimate reason that I can think of for him to have come into that park by himself and walked towards me like that. I shudder to think about it. I think if the man had made a move towards me, my dog would have attacked him. I was very lucky to have such a loyal pet at my side. He may have saved my life!
14. Late Night Visitor
One night, around three in the morning, I was fast asleep with my ex-boyfriend next to me. All of a sudden, I heard a voice inside my house asking if anyone was home. I woke up my ex and told him to go see what the heck was going on. He was a total chicken and he made me go. I got out of bed and couldn't find my glasses, but the guy was still shouting.
I came out of my bedroom in my pajamas and see a big bald dude in what looks to be a law enforcement uniform standing in my entryway. I'm squinting trying to get a good look at him. He looked at me and said, "I just wanted to tell you that your door was left unlocked and you should lock it." I mumbled something to the effect of "Uh, thanks?" and he left my apartment.
I was still as blind as a bat, but then I noticed something that scared the living daylights out of me. I saw that he walked away instead of getting into a car. No policeman would have ever been patrolling the random woodsy area that I live in on foot. The next day, I called the local station and asked if any officers had reported this incident. They said they would check with their officers and get back to me.
They called me back the next day and informed me that none of their guys had done this. So we have no idea who that guy was. I still get freaked out whenever I think about this happening and I wish I knew what that guy was really up to. I mean, what motive could someone possibly have for entering someone’s house in a costume and then just leaving?
15. The Long And Winding Road
When my high school sweetheart’s father found out that I had taken his daughter's virginity, he asked me to come along with him but didn’t tell me where we were going. He ended up taking me for a long drive to an empty field to have a chat. He's a good father and she is an only child. But his behavior that day was extremely creepy. I thought I was a goner.
16. Salt And Pepper
I was standing right outside my apartment when an unknown person snuck around a corner and sprayed me with pepper spray while I was looking at my phone. I could make out a tall, thin man with a backpack walking away with his hands in his pockets before I lost the ability to keep my eyes open. There were no other people on the sidewalk in either direction.
I didn't see his face. He didn't say anything or try to take anything from me. He didn't even stick around to watch me be all messed up. Just walked away. Like nothing happened. I'm very thankful that I was able to feel for my keys and get back into my building, but then I started to realize that I could have permanent damage if I didn't get to a sink.
I couldn't find the key to my apartment. I was starting to not be able to breathe. I pounded on every door I could feel until my neighbor, whom I had never met before this moment, opened up for me. She let me bust into her bathroom and toss water everywhere. I felt so terrible for just commandeering her bathroom and bringing in that smell to her place.
But I will be eternally grateful to this lady for helping me. The officers that showed up didn't find the guy, and now I'm wondering whether this was a random attack or if this dude had been waiting for me for some unknown reason. At this point, I have no reason to suspect that I’ll ever learn the real reason behind this bizarre incident.
17. An Uninvited Guest
When I was nine years old, my sister and I were doing swimming classes together at our community pool. One evening, after my mom had picked us up from the pool, she told us to get ready to go to the grocery store. So, I went upstairs to shower and get the chlorinated water off me before we left home. My sister was changing in our room. While I was in the shower, I heard someone come into the bathroom and start rummaging through the drawers.
I asked what my sister was looking for because I couldn't see through the frosted glass and, at that point, I assumed it was her looking for something for her hair. It wasn’t. All of a sudden, this strange man jumped into the shower with me, pulled off his shirt, and draped it over my head. I screamed at the top of my lungs and crouched down into a ball to protect myself.
My incessant screaming and squirming scared the guy off after a few seconds. He jumped out and ran out the back door. Seconds later, my dad came bolting into the room to see if I was okay. I was scared out of my mind, but thankfully I was okay. Unbeknownst to us, earlier in the day, an employee of ours had left the front door open while doing some work outside and a man snuck into our home. This man had secretly been hiding inside our house all day long. I was too traumatized to go into the bathroom by myself for like a year and a half after that.
18. You’ve Got Company!
I was watching my daughter’s kids while she and her husband were out of town. They have a teenage daughter, who we can call Alyssa. In the middle of the night, I‘m woken up by a weird rustling sound. I look out the window and see movement. I see a boy emerge from the bushes on the side of the house. I then see a bike tossed on the lawn that definitely wasn’t ours.
My first thought was that it must be a burglar casing houses. But since he looked young and came through on a bike, I figured scaring him straight would be enough for him to decide to head home. So I went out on the porch, flipped the lights on, and politely said “Can I help you?” The guy looked surprised, but not nervous.
He was wearing a letterman style jacket, but once I got a clear view of him in the streetlights, he seemed much older than my granddaughter. He walked up closer to the house and said “Yeah, I’m looking for Alyssa.” I gave him a disapproving glare, hoping he’d realize that looking for a girl late at night and getting a grumpy old person meant it was time to split.
I figured Alyssa must have known that her parents were going out of town and, before she knew I’d be staying over, told a secret older boyfriend to come over. It was late and I was alone with several kids, so I didn’t want him coming any closer to the house. I also thought it was weird that he came so late and I wanted to be sure Alyssa actually wanted to talk to him.
I said: “You wait there.” He started to walk up and I felt a sick burning feeling in my gut. Instinct kicked in. I yelled: “NO. STOP. FREEZE.” I readjusted and said, “You stay right there. This is private property. Don't take a step closer. Wait. There.” So I go in and Alyssa is asleep just one room over from where the rustling first occurred.
I wake her up and say something to the effect of “I don’t know what the big idea was to have friends over this time of night, but you tell them to go home.” She has no clue what I’m talking about. I say “There’s a guy outside asking for you.” Confused, she gets up and goes to the window. She sees him and goes white as a sheet.
“He asked for me?” “Yeah.” “By name?” “Yes.” Her reply made my blood run cold. She told me: “I’ve never seen him before in my life!” I called the authorities immediately, but as I was on the phone with them, Alyssa started tugging at my arm. “He’s coming up!” I had younger kids in the house to think about, so I kept the door latched and pulled it just open enough to yell “None of us know an Alyssa. Leave my property immediately.”
He got angry and started yelling for her to come out. Thankfully, an officer came pretty quickly. When the guy heard the sirens, he grabbed the bike and ran off. I watched where he was running to and he jumped into the passenger side of a car without headlights or front plates and sped off. The officer followed in the same direction, but couldn’t find him.
19. A Shot In The Dark
My older brother and I were once playing in a cemetery in a small Texas town. The cemetery sat next to some railroad tracks which led into an unfamiliar part of town. It's a huge cemetery and there was no one around. Then, we suddenly heard these little popping sounds, and pieces of the headstones began flying off around us.
We looked toward the railroad tracks and, off in the distance, there was an old man shooting at us. So scary.
20. It’s A Mall World After All
This happened about eight years ago in Germany. My daughters were four and two years old, respectively. It was a very nice morning, so I decided to take my girls to a little mall to walk around and do some shopping. My girls are and always were very well behaved and never ran away from me. Usually, we always held hands walking around in areas with many people.
On this day, the mall was almost empty. Still, the girls stayed on my hands. I noticed a man passing me. He looked at my daughters with a very stern look that gave me a bad vibe. I just brushed it off and kept walking. We wanted to go to a shoe store. This store had a very cute play area that the girls liked to go to.
As we entered the store, they asked if they could run ahead to the play area. I could see it from the entrance, so I told them yes and they took off. At that exact moment, that same strange man burst into the store and speed-walked past me towards my daughters. It didn’t even take me a second to realize that he was up to no good.
He was absolutely focused on getting to them, and fast. I instantly started yelling while running past him. I told my girls to come back right away. I am never very stern with them, so they knew that something was serious. He got thrown off by my yelling. I got to my daughters before he could, so he turned around and ran out of the store.
21. He’s Not Who You Thought He Was
A man just got convicted for breaking into multiple people’s houses, tying them up, and violently assaulting them. Although he only got caught recently, the attacks were 33 years ago. When the story was in the news, my dad and I were shocked. This man worked at the ticket booth at our nearest big train station. We both used to say hi to him every day, because he was so friendly.
I just found out about this today. I'm fairly creeped out.
22. On The Road
I was driving home when I realized a truck had been behind me for miles. Just to be precautious, I made an abrupt last second U-turn. He did too. It was then that I realized he was following me. While on the phone with an officer, I made sharp turns and ran red lights to try to lose him. He wouldn’t stop. He literally almost hit my car a couple of times as he sped up trying to catch up.
The operator instructed me to go to a local grocery store and wait for help to arrive. I parked right in front of the store’s entrance, in front of the surveillance cameras, and waited. He decided to park his car at a distance and waited for me to get out of my car. All of a sudden, I heard a hard knock at the window. I freaked out.
It turned out to be the grocery manager, letting me know that the officer had just notified him of the situation. He asked if I wanted to go inside the store and have him protect me until law enforcement arrived. I honestly feared the worst and told him no. I was shaking, but I thought: “This maniac might be dangerous. He could shoot me and everyone in there.”
The officers arrived and cornered him in the back of the parking structure. I was shaking as they came to my car. My hand was gripping the wheel very tightly. They took him away soon after and charged him with driving while under the influence. I didn’t know who he was. Apparently, he lived a couple of miles away from me.
23. Dining And Diving
One time many years ago, I was sitting in a McDonald’s in New York City eating a cheeseburger and minding my own business. All of a sudden this big fellow comes right up to me, pats me on the head, giggles enthusiastically, and then runs away. I have no idea what this guy’s deal was, but he creeped the heck out of me.
24. An Offer You Can Refuse
My son looks nothing like me and I have a babyface. So when people see us together, they typically see babysitter rather than a mother. One day, I'd just gotten off work at McDonald’s and my husband was waiting for me with our son, who was four months old at the time. We ordered something to go and my husband went to use the bathroom while my coworkers cooed over my baby at the counter.
I see this older man watching us, but I dismiss it because my son usually gets a lot of attention. Plus, this guy came to the McDonald's pretty regularly and never raised any red flags. He came up to us and smiled at my son. He then asked if he could hold him, which I politely declined. He pulls a twenty out of his wallet.
"Why don't you take this, get yourself a sandwich, and leave the baby with me," he said, while trying to hand me the money. "No, thank you," I replied. I tried to be polite. He came back with, "Aren't you hungry? It's so hard to work two jobs. I'm sure if anything happened, the parents wouldn't blame you." When he said that, I was about to go off on him.
Just then, my husband came out of the bathroom and placed himself between the man and me. "Oh, you must be the father." He offered my husband the money but didn't talk about taking our son. We made our way out of the store and the man followed, offering us money the entire way. After a while, my husband abruptly stopped and stared the man down until he went back into the store.
A few weeks later, he came back to the store. He ranted about how he could have given that baby a better life than that young man could. I told him that I was the baby’s mother and that he could get his sausage biscuit somewhere else from now on, because he wasn't welcome here anymore. I’m glad I never have to see that guy again. What a creep!
25. If I Only Had A Hammer
One time, I was on a late-night Greyhound bus ride from Sacramento to San Francisco. There was a creepy-looking dude sitting right across the aisle from me. In his hands, he was holding a hammer. He had no luggage. Just a hammer. Nothing else. He had this weird look in his eyes, too. I have never had a more awkward moment than when he and I made eye contact.
26. In Hot Water
When I was around six years old, I was with a bunch of people from my church having a barbecue at a river. All of the kids were swimming in the water. I didn't know how to swim yet, so I was just staying waist-deep in the shallow part. At some point, this girl came up to me and was playing with me. We were splashing each other and stuff.
The weird thing was that she was probably 13 or so and I didn't know who she was, even though I knew everyone else there. Apparently, no one was paying attention to us. She started pushing me out deeper and deeper, to where I couldn't touch the ground anymore. She just kept laughing the whole time. My head kept going underwater.
I tried grabbing onto her arms when she would push me, but she easily knocked my grip loose each time. The slight current slowly pulled me away from my friends and family while I struggled to tread water. I was panicking, but she wouldn't stop pushing me and laughing. I could not possibly have looked like I was having fun. I would try to yell, but was only ever above water long enough to take a breath.
Every time my feet touched the mud for a split second, she would just push me again. I couldn't believe she was laughing. I was sure I was going to drown. No one seemed to notice. Of all people to intervene, it would happen to be my childhood tormentor, Zachary. He had always been a jerk to me before. But I still feel like he saved my life this day.
He came up and told her to get away from me. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up to where I could stand again. Then, he ran off and continued to play with the other kids his age as if nothing happened. The girl was already far away by that time. I went on playing, and I don't think I ever told anyone until I was much older. Pretty sure I never saw that girl again.
27. Car Trouble
When I was five years old, a guy popped up out of nowhere and threw my mom out of the car as she was entering the door. I was in the back seat at the time. The man shoved his way into the car and was about to start the engine. He didn’t know that he’d messed with the wrong person. My mom ripped the door open and fought the guy off. She saved my life. I love her more than words can express.
28. Keep Your Friends Close And Your Dad’s Frenemies Closer
I have known my father's best friend and his wife since I was a baby. But they always unsettled me. The wife hated me, like she hated all kids, and the man would obsessively pay attention to me the entire time he was around. He would constantly watch me, even if I ignored him. By the time I was twelve, I knew things about him that I shouldn't.
The kind of stuff one would expect someone to tell their best friend in confidence, though usually not with their best friend’s daughter around. When I turned 16, there was a night where he was over and I was about to go to bed, saying goodnight to everyone in the house. My dad had gone to the bathroom and this guy's wife wasn’t there.
He got up from the table and went to give me a hug goodnight. This was really weird, since I never initiated any hugging and he would never have initiated one with me in the past. This hug lasted forever. My arms were at my sides, and his arms were trapping me against him. He finally released me from the hug, but placed his hands on my arms and looked at me.
This look still makes my skin crawl. He looked down at my chest and whispered, "Wow, you are getting so much bigger!" His thumbs were ghosting over my arms and closer to my chest. I was so startled and unnerved that I just froze. I couldn't think to move. This man, a man that helped my dad change my diapers, was lusting over the size of my 16-year-old chest.
Thankfully, before anything got worse, my father came out of the bathroom and this guy immediately backed away from me. I would never go around him again from that day forward. I haven’t seen him a single time since. Right after this incident took place, I told my dad that whenever he would be over, I was not going to stay there. Marvin, let's not meet again.
29. This Is My Stop
My friend and I were once building a treehouse in the woods behind my house. And by treehouse, I mean nailing some boards to a tree to use as steps. That is as far as our treehouse plans got. But I digress. There we were, nailing cut up 2x4s to the tree, when we suddenly heard a clanking metal sound. We turned around to look.
Behind us, on an old ten-speed bike, is this tall, lanky fellow who is as white as a ghost for lack of a better term. He sees us and stops, turns his bike around, and bolts off. It freaked us out and we came tearing out of the woods, leaving the tools and everything behind. We went back later to get them, like we were medics going in for someone wounded, running and ducking behind stumps and trees, grabbing the goods and bolting.
30. A Helping Hand
My boss has four children. When they were younger, she was driving along when her van broke down on the side of a motorway. She pulled over onto the hard shoulder and put on her hazard lights. She got the kids out of the car and took them to stand behind the barrier. She called roadside assistance and her husband. All standard stuff.
About 10 or 20 minutes later, a car pulls up behind her with a rather good looking chap in it. He says he lives just off the next exit and had seen her, so he decided to circle back to see if she needed any help. All the way through this interaction, my boss says he didn't throw up any red flags. He just seemed genuinely concerned about the kids being on the side of the road.
He offered to take her back to his place for a cup of tea while they waited. He even said she could call her husband to tell him where she was, just to be safe. Again, my boss is very sweet and kind and thinks the best of people, and there were still no red flags. Nevertheless, she turns him down only because she had four kids with her.
She said if she had been on her own, she probably would have taken him up on the offer since he seemed so genuinely kind. She turned him down because she didn't want to take the children back to a stranger's house, not because of mistrust. He sort of pushed it a little bit more but eventually shrugged and left the scene.
A couple of weeks later, she saw his photo in the paper. Apparently, he had stopped to help another woman whose car had also broken down, and he had attacked her and taken her life after offering her a lift. To this day, she maintains that she genuinely didn't see any red flags when she spoke to him. She insists that the only reason she's alive is because of her kids.
31. A Little Tied Up At The Moment
My cousin and I went out drinking in Ohio one night. I was totally intoxicated. I stepped outside for some fresh air from the crowded bar. There was this guy outside who was kind of lanky and having a smoke. Feeling disoriented, I sat on the bench to rest my head a bit. The guy immediately came up to me and started talking.
He said: “Dude, you ain’t ever gonna make it in the real world. If I had my way, I'd take you back home with me to my tool shed where I'd tie you to the wall and torment you for as long as you live.” Alright then. Thinking on my feet, I said: “You know what? That sounds like a lot of fun. I definitely want to do that! Let me just go use the bathroom first real quick.”
I went back into the bar, marched straight over to the men's restroom, and locked the door. I stayed in the stall for a few minutes until my head cleared up. It took me a while to register what had just happened and my faculties were still not at their full capacity. After calming myself down, I exited the bathroom and told my cousin that we should leave right away.
32. The Sound Of Silence
When I was around 13 years old, I was granted the privilege of staying home alone. Every now and then when I was home alone, I’d hear sounds coming from upstairs, and so I would instinctively call my mom. She then told me a story of how she used to hear things in her old house all the time and how it’s just the house “settling.”
Fast forward to many instances of sounds later. I decided that the very next time I was going to be home alone, I was going to be completely silent and make as little noise as possible. Within the first half an hour, there was nothing. Not a peep out of the entire house. I eventually got bored and felt safe, so I went to grab the TV remote to watch something.
But a few seconds before I grabbed the remote, I heard a sound that I’ll never forget. There was a huge crash upstairs and running footsteps. I was more sure than ever that someone was inside the house. By now, there were plenty of consistent sounds coming from upstairs. I decided to hatch a quick plan. Being the skinny, non-threatening little girl that I was, I first grabbed a kitchen knife.
Then, I grabbed a shoe and propped open the front door. After a few moments of some deep breaths, I yelled out in the deepest voice I could, “I know you are upstairs! I am giving you a chance to leave now without me reporting you. I have propped the front door open and I will be in the bathroom. Be aware that I am armed and ready to take immediate action if you refuse to leave.”
Sure enough, I walk into the bathroom, absolutely terrified that someone is about to attack me. I wait and wait until I hear the one unforgettable sound. I heard the front door close and the shoe being moved. I quickly locked the door and turned on the alarm system. I hope to never see this person or even hear this person again.
33. The Bad Guy Next Door
When I was a kid, my grandparents lived next door to this creepy couple who kept trying to get me and my cousins to come and sleep over in this little shack that they lived in. None of us ever went, and we all thought that these people were scary as heck. Years later, this couple was in the news for having kidnapped a bunch of children…
34. Room Service
I once worked as a live-in staff member in a college dormitory. During the summer, we housed the few summer school students who remained on campus. They totaled about 30. It may be significant to point out that these students tended to be highly academically-motivated, often high-stress students. They also tended to be more on the quiet side.
One warm day in late June, my office received a call from a concerned sibling, saying that she and her family had been unable to reach her brother. Her brother apparently lived by himself in a room on our summer school floor. This wasn't unusual, as our office frequently dealt with students avoiding their kin due to frayed nerves or general social awkwardness.
Since I was on my own, I decided to ignore the usual protocol for this situation and just pop up to his room to check on him. When I arrived on his floor at around 2:00 in the afternoon, the floor seemed deserted as I had expected. I found his room number and immediately noticed the sound of a movie playing on a TV or computer from behind the door. I knocked three times and announced that I was a staff member checking on his health and safety. There was no answer.
This is when my instincts started to buzz. I had worked in residence halls for a number of years as a professional, and something about all the pieces of this puzzle weren't adding up. The family concerns about his health and safety, the electronics running, summer school students, and their idiosyncratic behavior, something wasn't right.
I knocked on the door one more time for good measure and again announced myself as the hall director. I finally keyed into the room and my spider-sense went off even stronger. The room appeared relatively vacant. The student appeared to be living out of a suitcase, which is unusual for someone staying no less than eight weeks for a summer school session.
I turned to leave, planning on trying to reach the student later in the afternoon or evening. As I turned to leave, I noticed another odd piece of evidence that caught my attention…The old, creaky accordion closet doors were closed. Odd. I couldn't remember the last time I had actually seen someone use those dysfunctional old doors. Then, my intuition spiked higher than ever.
OH NO. I realized that I was alone in a room with a potentially unstable student who may, in fact, have just taken his own life. Ugh. I felt like I was talking to myself when my voice cracked as I spoke to the closed doors and announced my name and title and that I would be opening those accordion doors in three seconds.
I fumbled with the latch on the doors, and finally managed to get them disengaged. As I slid the doors apart, I was unprepared for what came next. I don't know what I really expected to see, but I'll tell you what I didn't expect: a seven-foot-tall student staring at me embarrassingly as though I had found his secret hangout.
We stared at each other for a good 15 seconds without blinking, breathing, or speaking.
I finally realized what was going on and my natural emotion was disbelief. All I could think to say was, "Umm, are you in here hiding from me?" He looked at me and said, "Yeah." My heart was still racing. I turned to leave and, before I shut his door, I turned back to him and said, "Call your sister, she's worried about you. And, frankly, I am too."
35. Mountain Music
When I was a kid, I used to often go up to the Smoky Mountains and stay with my friend and her family for a few days to a week. One time, my friend's dad drove me and my friend down to Asheville, North Carolina, which was about an hour and a half away. My friend and I had put on a lot of makeup that day, because we were preteen girls who enjoyed having fun with makeup.
Even with the makeup, it was still very obvious that we were children. We went into a pizza shop to sit down and eat, when a man in his 30s or 40s started talking to my friend. The situation quickly turned sinister when it became apparent that the man thought my friend's dad was a pimp, and he was interested in my friend.
I'm pretty sure that my friend's dad threatened to disembowel the guy, and then we all promptly left and drove back to the mountain home. My friend's dad had to explain to us later what happened, and why we went home so abruptly. We were too young to understand it completely. It was definitely a very strange experience for both of us...
36. Fortress Of Solitude
This story is 100% true. I experienced it myself in the summer of 1991. When I was about 10 years old, I lived on Woodway Drive in the Fox Harbor Apartments in Paducah, Kentucky. If you look up the address, you will see some woods just to the north of the apartment complex. My friends and I played in those woods every day after school and all day on the weekends.
During the few years I lived there, we cleared a small area in the woods and created a fort from various things we got out of dumpsters. It was our own place that no one else knew about, and it was awesome. One day, as we were walking to our fort, off in the distance we saw a man walking through the woods. He was walking parallel to us, but in the opposite direction.
We stopped talking and halted dead in our tracks when we saw him. We never saw anyone in the woods, especially not adults. When we stopped moving, he did too. He turned towards us and looked right at us. As I stared at him and was able to make out the details of what he looked like, I felt my heart stop in my chest. Not only was he was wearing what looked like a Halloween mask, he was also carrying an ax in his hands.
We stood there in silence and motionless for what was probably about 10 seconds, him looking at us and us looking at him. Then, he started sprinting straight at us. We did the only thing we thought to do, run straight to our fort. We were probably about 50 yards from the entrance to the fort and, in those 50 yards, he gained a lot of ground on us.
When we finally made it, he was upon us. All of my friends scurried up a tree and were screaming, but I was the last in line. By the time I could try and climb the tree, he was standing right there by us. He was screaming like a lunatic and waving the ax in the air. I was scared, had no idea what was going on, and my mind was blank on what I should do.
I grabbed a large stick and took a nice big baseball-style swing and cracked him on the face with it. He stumbled back a bit, moaned, and took the mask off. The craziest part? I recognized the face. It was the landlord and manager of the apartment complex. A man who was probably about FIFTY years old. He wanted to play a joke on us and thought this was the most appropriate thing to do. He was insane.
37. Low Key
Someone just tried to break into my house while I was home alone for the weekend. I am the only one in my family who uses the spare key that was hidden in my garden, and no one but me would have known where to find it. Yet, I saw this attempted burglar walk right up to the hiding spot and pick it up, which makes me think he had been stalking me beforehand.
Thankfully, my dog scared him off before he could do any damage.
38. Hate Thy Neighbor
When I was about five years old, my mom and I lived in this duplex that was off the main road and in a wooded area. We lived on one side and on the other was a woman and her son. He was studying to be a teacher. My mother had me young, so she was about 25 and the guy in the other unit was in his early 20s. He would often come by to talk to my mom.
My mother said he would ask a lot of questions about me. He once even asked if he could take me for a walk in the woods. My mother declined. One night, while I was sleeping over at my grandma’s house, my mom came home from work late at night. When she got into her room, she made a chilling discovery. She a pair of feet wearing socks sticking out from the end of her bed.
She grabbed her bedside lamp and was about to hit the intruder with it when all of a sudden he identified himself as that guy from the other unit. He couldn’t explain why he was in our apartment, nor why he was naked and only wearing socks. But he begged my mother to not tell his mother about the incident. My mother, of course, called the authorities.
She ended up going to court and making a victim impact statement against this guy, because she was terrified that he would become a teacher and be around children. We ended up moving immediately, because my mom couldn’t stay another night in that house. She is very thankful that I was out of the house that night, because for all we know he could have been trying to target me.
39. Peeping Tom
I once lived in a sort of bad neighborhood, in a very tiny house with just myself and my brother who was rarely there. It was an old house, so it was a little creepy and also felt like anyone who wanted to could have broken in. One night, I was getting ready for bed. It was pretty late on a hot summer night and we didn't have A/C, so I opened my bedroom window.
I began to slip out of my clothes and change for bed. As soon as I put my pajama shirt on, I heard something that will forever stay seared into my brain. A low, masculine voice said, "Let's see that chest again." I think my whole body stopped working for at least five seconds while I absorbed the fact that there was a creepy man spying on me from right outside my window and I was alone in a house that he could easily get into if he so wished.
It was the first and only time in my life that I have ever called the local authorities. I had a full-blown panic attack while waiting for the officers to show up, and the very nice dispatch lady had to calm me down on the phone while I waited. On the bright side, it was an apparently slow night for the officers and they sent no less than three cars to come and help me.
I was so happy when I moved out of that house...
40. Eye Of The Tiger
I work in a grocery store in a very rural area. When my son was an infant, I would take him with me to work most days. One day, this soldier comes in and he's just as nice as can be. Then, he sees my son and starts talking to him in a cutesy baby voice, saying how cute he is. Then, out of nowhere, and in the same cutesy voice, he says to my son "Oh you're so cute! I just wanna gouge your little eyes out!"
It caught me way off guard. I just laughed nervously before picking my son up and walking into the back room.
41. You Saved The Day
When I was 17, my friend and I were walking down the street near my house at about 1:00 AM. We lived in a dense neighborhood dominated by three-story houses. We came around a corner to see this huge man on his knees, standing over a woman. He was furiously smashing her head into the concrete sidewalk. His muscles were huge and bulging.
He reminded me of the Hulk. Only, he was not green. He was red. Red as if he was having heatstroke. We screamed at him right away. He looked up, and I will never forget that face. There was snot pouring out of his nose. Long strands of it hung all the way down to the woman's head. His eyes were bright white, crazed, wide, and far too circular.
His face expressed a murderous fury that I had never seen before, and hope I never see again. He lifted the woman's head by her hair, and with a loud "crack" spiked it into the cement like a football, and screamed, "You want some of this, huh!" I had not seen my friend pick up the rock he had, but he threw at the guy's snarling face. He hit him right in the nose.
It was a big rock, but it did not even phase the guy. The guy lunged at my friend, who took off running. The guy took off chasing my friend. I knew there was no way a guy that size would be able to catch up to my buddy who was a track and field athlete. I ran to help the woman. Her hair was all over the place, and dark red blood was gushing from a huge deep gash across her forehead.
I could not believe she was still conscious. I tried to tell her I was here to help and she became combative. She started punching me, screaming to leave her man alone. I was afraid that her screaming would bring that monster back to us. With that thought, I said "screw this" to myself. I grabbed her wrists, dragged her to the nearest door, and started pounding on it.
I was scared that the guy would be back before I got to someplace safe. Two men opened the door and pretty much freaked out when they saw that I was restraining a small woman covered in blood. I think they were about to take me out, but I screamed "Call an ambulance!" I told them that we needed to get inside before the abuser came back. I told them "He WILL come back!"
We quickly dragged the woman into the hallway, then shut and locked the front door. One of the guys called the authorities and they showed up in what seemed like seconds. An ambulance arrived soon after. My buddy, seeing the lights of the squad cars, returned to the scene. He had outrun the guy and gotten to a store where he could call for help.
So I guess they were already on the way before we made the call. The officers had a lot of questions, of course. We had no idea who the guy was. We never saw him or the woman before. In the end, they gave us a card and said that if we ever see this guy in the area again, we should call them right away. Like I would even hesitate!
The next day, the events of the night before were in the paper. I read the article sitting on my porch. It said that the woman was in critical condition. It mentioned my name as well as my buddy. It also said that the man was yet to be identified, and was yet to be apprehended. Here is the part that really messed with my head.
The place where this happened was one block away from my porch. I looked up and could see the spot where he had been smashing her head. I remember thinking, "That evil man is still out there!" and then, looking down at the paper, "He knows my name." Two weeks later I turned 18, and I immediately boarded a plane to boot camp. This guy scared me THAT much.
42. A Real Headbanger
Several years ago, I had to spend the night in a psych ward. I couldn't sleep the entire night that I was there for because this creepy woman, who was also staying overnight, was banging her head against the wall and shrieking at the top of her lungs all night. It was a very strange and horrifying experience...
43. Hall Pass
I was in Las Vegas on a business trip many years ago. If you’ve ever stayed on the strip in Vegas, you know that the hotels there are absolutely huge. The hallways are mazelike and extremely long. I am a small lady, and I was in my early 30s at the time. I had just left a meeting downstairs and was heading back up to my room.
I pushed the button for my floor when I got onto the elevator, and I got off when it reached my floor. There was a man walking towards me down one of the long halls. We passed each other. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see him turn around. I take a right. He takes a right. I go left. He goes left. I determine that he is definitely following me.
No one is with me on this trip and I’m staying alone in my room. But he doesn’t know that. I pick up my cell phone and make a fake call. Loudly, I spoke into the phone: “Hi babe. What are you doing? Oh, you’re back in our room? You finished your workout super early. Okay. I’m almost back at our room, so I’ll be right there. Love you.”
The creepy guy following me immediately turned around and headed in the direction we had just come from. Whew. I made sure he was extra gone, then got into my room as fast as humanly possible and bolted the door. I never had any more issues for the rest of the trip, and I was happy that I learned a new trick.
44. There’s No Place Like Your Home
When I was younger and we had just moved to this town, the lady who lived down the block from us attempted to break into our house. She banged on the windows but couldn't get in. Fast forward about six years, and there she is again outside of our new house on the other side of town, asking us if we can help her with some gas money.
45. Limits Officially Reached
Here is a very creepy thing that happened to me. One winter, I was pushing my limits and winter camping a lot, but I had this crazy tent with a fireplace. The limits part was just the fact that I was solo and pretty remote in these places. This was rural southwestern Colorado canyon country. There wasn't that much snow at all on the ground, but it was zero degrees that night.
Well, it was a full moon and I was restless. So at about 2:00 in the morning, I got out of my tent with the fire still going and went for a long walk. I ended up climbing up some stuff that was probably a quarter or half a mile from my tent and vehicle, but up above it so I could still see down on my tent and campsite clearly.
It was really beautiful down there, dimly lit from the inside by the stove's fire and dimly lit from the outside by the big moon. I was enjoying myself and just about to head back down when I suddenly heard distant gravel crunching. I had been there since noon that day and not a single vehicle had driven past, so I was kind of put off and decided to stay up there until whoever it was drove past.
The noise slowly grew louder and, eventually, I could see that it was a car on the same road. So, I stayed put and watched. It was going really slow. I could see a lighter being used quite a bit by the driver. It appeared to be a really old car. So I'm just watching, still in a very wistful mood and feeling somewhat powerful from my perch.
They approach the bend where they'll be able to see my tent from, and round the corner. Their brake lights immediately come on. They slow way down and seem to pause and stare at my tent for an eternity. I was now on high alert and feeling very nervous. I had nothing to defend myself with, just a hatchet down by the tent for firewood.
But they eventually start driving again. I'm pretty relieved but still shaken up. I’m now thinking about what to do if they come back. So, I decided to chill for a little longer and make sure I see them actually exit the area. Nope. They turned around a bit down the road and came back. I watched as they parked a ways down the road, got out, and started walking down the road towards my camp.
I watched the distant shadow approach my tent, look all around the outside, mess with my vehicle, and then walk back to its car and leave. I did not go back down to my tent for the rest of the night. I just stayed where I was and never took my eyes off the tent until the sun came back up in the morning. By then, I had already started to wonder whether I had imagined the whole thing.
As I approached the campsite, I saw that there were clear footprints in the snow on the outside of my tent, indicating that it really did happen. I kept imagining what it would have been like to have just woken up and not known what happened, just seeing the footprints. After that incident, I never went camping again unarmed.
46. Mechanical Mind
When I was around 12 years old, a neighbor had a party where I met a girl my age. My mom was happy to see me making friends, so we headed to my house to play games. My dog was very sweet and had never been angry or growled ever. This girl walks up to him to pet him, and he immediately growls and barks at her.
I couldn't believe it, but even at that age, I believed you don't just ignore a dog's intuition. So, I take note of the sign, and we go play and then go for a walk. Not even ten minutes into the conversation, I made a disturbing realization. It was clear that this girl is an obvious sociopath. I realized what I and the dog had felt about her. She was empty and fake, in a very visceral way.
She starts talking about assault, and saying things like “Doesn't that sound interesting? How do the logistics of it work?” She specifically wondered how one could assault another person while also holding a knife to their neck at the same time without losing their balance. Her parents invited me to spend the night at their house. I declined.
47. On The Road Again
I lived in a rather rural area, but on a road that takes you to the local gas station and Walmart. It's just gotten dark, and I'm pulling into my yard after getting gas. Walking on the road is a man with a bag and a young girl. There is no sidewalk, so they are literally walking in the middle of the street. It seemed very odd right from the start.
They came from a direction where there isn't a store for 10 miles, and the direction they were headed in didn't have a store for another three. I'm still in my car, but in front of my house. I think about going in and telling my parents, but instead, I just go over and ask if they are okay. I ask if they had a car breakdown. The man says no.
He doesn't take the opportunity to elaborate. The whole thing is weird, and I'm the cautious type. Since he has a kid with him and I want to make sure nothing sketchy is going on, I volunteer to give them a ride. I ask where they're headed and he says, “Just up the road a bit.” How informative. The girl gets in the back seat and the man sits up front with me.
I forget the name he used, but he then says to the girl: "Stacy, I mean Amber, isn't it nice that this girl is giving us a ride?" He got the girl's name wrong. This whole time I've been trying to judge her demeanor to see if she feels safe and if this is her father, so that didn't help. It's fully dark now and he tells me to take the turn away from the gas station and street lights.
At this point, I'm thinking the joke is on him, because if he tries anything I'll floor it, without hesitation, into a tree that will hit his side first. We are coming up on an abandoned restaurant now, and he tells me I can let them off in the parking lot. He still hasn't told me anything about them, so I ask “Do you live around here?” He just says “Yup” and I let them out.
They thank me and I go on my way. In retrospect, it's pretty funny because I'm sure he thought nothing of it, but I spent the entire ride contemplating every paranoid violent possibility. I've never seen them again since.
48. A Long Commute
My friend's mother was walking home from the train station and became aware that she was being followed by a man. She took all sorts of detours and the man continued to follow her for the entire journey. After about 25 minutes, she arrived at her house but had the good sense to walk straight past it and continued on to the local detective station.
Once inside, she turned around to see the man walk past. But first, he stopped to give her an extremely creepy wave. That story still terrifies me.
49. Cookie Cutter
When I was 11 years old, I was staying home alone with my little brother who was seven. At that time, it was about 9:00 at night. It was dark and rainy outside, and we were reading in our room right next to the front door, with a big window and open blinds. That's when I heard the front doorbell ring, followed by repeated rounds of knocking.
I thought my parents had arrived home, but found it strange that they didn't use the garage or their keys. I looked outside to try and see their car. I saw nothing but rain. As I approached the door, I heard a man's voice that was not my father's yell through the storm: "Would you like some cookies? We're selling Girl Scout cookies!"
I was shocked at this, considering the weather and time of day. Saying nothing, I checked the peephole and peered through the side window only to see that it was not a father with his girl as I had expected. My heart dropped. Standing there was just a fully grown man, maybe in his late 50s, with no box of cookies in sight, soaking on my doorstep.
I can remember the gut-wrenching feeling of having to check the locks while he was right on the other side. He heard this for sure. The two locks were the only thing separating myself and my brother from a potential monster. He continued to knock on the door and mention his cookies, as I considered calling the authorities.
That's when I remembered that the blinds were open in my room where my brother was, with the light on. As I turn the corner into the doorway, I see the man carefully peering into our window, possibly eyeing my brother who was focused on his book. My heart was pounding now as I began to panic. Using all of my willpower, I quickly turned off the lights and shut the blinds, in full view of the man.
As fast as I could, I double-checked all the locks in the house, closed all the blinds, and told my brother to go hang out in one of the big closets in the interior of the house with no windows. I didn't tell him what was going on so that he wouldn't be frightened. For some reason, I never did call law enforcement or my parents. I just waited in the hallway until the man left.
Thinking about it still gives me shivers. So many things could have gone wrong that night. My worst fear to this day is strangers getting to an unlocked door before I do.
50. None Of His Business
When I was maybe seven or eight years old, I went to a local Burger King with my mom. I was impatient to eat, so I went to go play around in one of those plastic playground things that are about 20 feet high. There were no other kids in it, so I just started to climb to the highest point. But things got really weird, really fast…
A businessman in a white shirt and tie looked at me climbing up, then calmly put his burger down and proceeded to climb up after me. He didn't say anything as he did it. I was old enough to think that this was weird, and had flashbacks to our school counselor talking to the class about getting kidnapped and such. I rushed to the slide and ran straight to my mom.
I gave her a giant hug. I didn't tell her about the incident until later.
51. Drive My Car
I don't have a car, so Uber is my main mode of transportation to get to work. This morning, I requested an Uber a half hour before I had to be there and the pickup was supposed to take less than five minutes. But, for some reason, my Uber driver kept going around in circles. He ended up calling me asking for directions and I was telling him exactly where he needed to go.
But he just wasn’t listening. At that point, I was irritated and asked if there was a way he could cancel because I was going to be late. He said he couldn't, and ended up finding his way to my apartment at the time I was supposed to be at work. He kept apologizing and I would mumble, "It's fine, I just need to get there."
He ended up taking me to another store that was on the way and asked "This is it, right?" It took all of my patience not to just blow up at that point. I calmly gave him the directions to the actual store I work at and just told him to please listen to the GPS. We finally get to my job and I'm nearly 20 minutes late. I muttered, "Thanks," got out, and bolted to the office to clock in.
An hour or so into my shift, one of my managers came up to tell me that my Uber driver has been harassing the people in the front of the store, trying to get a hold of me or my manager to take fault and apologize for my being late. He tried four or five separate times to come inside. An hour later, a different manager lets me know that the driver is now blowing up the store's phone and begging to speak to me.
My manager suggested that I not leave alone that night, and that I be on the lookout in case he came back. I contacted Uber support multiple times to let them know. You wanna know what they did about it? They gave me a three-dollar credit! I made sure to give him a one-star rating so that I wouldn't get him as a driver again, but it's just scary to think that he knows where I work and live.
52. A Strange Enemy
When I was a youngling, my brother and I once went for a walk in the woods behind our new house. We came upon an unfamiliar area and noticed plaster body parts thrown around willy-nilly. We kept walking and discovered a mannequin that appeared to have been destroyed. Then, we discovered dozens of lifelike plaster mannequins lying around in various states of disarray.
Some had burn marks, some were tied to trees with forks and knives stuck into them, and others hung by their necks from high up branches. The mannequins were all dressed in human clothes and featured detailed facial expressions of pain and fear. We left terrified, and wondered who in the world would have done this and why.
Whoever did it was by far the creepiest person I have ever encountered, even indirectly.
53. Bathroom Break
About four years ago, I was living with an ex-boyfriend, his aunt, and her boyfriend Len. I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee. My ex was asleep in bed when I got up. I walked across the house and his aunt’s door was open. She and Len were both passed out. I made my way sleepily to the bathroom and saw that the light was on.
Since I knew everyone was asleep, I innocently assumed the aunt had left the light on. So I opened the door. I was wrong. I saw multiple things in a few seconds. The first thing I remember is that it smelled horrible, like poop. I also immediately noticed that someone had just taken a shower based on the steam. Then, I spotted a pile of clothes folded up and organized on the ground.
There was a random man on the toilet. I, having manners, and very much still half asleep, jumped, apologized, and closed the door. I panicked, went to my room, and texted the aunt. I said: “Hey, there is a man in the bathroom!” She texted back, “I know, it’s okay. He’s a friend of mine.” This calmed me down and I went back to sleep.
The next day, I bring it up when everyone is around. I was still shaken…but this is where it got so much worse. The aunt says she never texted me, as she was completely passed out. We soon realized that this guy had taken her phone into the bathroom, and that he himself had sent me that text. What in the world?? I was so confused and freaked out by this whole thing. It was the weirdest experience I’ve ever had.
54. A Pocketful Of Miracles
When I was 18 years old, I worked the evening shift at a convenience store. For three nights in a row, three stores from the same chain had been violently held up in my small city, so my manager had basically been prepping me all week to get robbed. I was, understandably, on edge all night. I thought my life was at risk.
I was down to the last few hours of my shift and I was finally starting to calm down a little bit when a guy with his hat pulled down low walked in, came right up to the counter, and started reaching into the inside of his jacket. He said "You know those days when you should've just stayed home? I think today is one of them."
Time immediately started moving in slow motion at this point and my heart was beating out of my chest. After what felt like an eternity, the guy pulled his wallet out of his jacket and asked for a pack of smokes. Anticlimactic, I know, but scary nonetheless. It was the most scared I have ever been of another person.
55. Calling Card
When we were both really young, my parents once left me and my brother at home while they went out. The two of us were all the way down in our basement, playing video games. We had the home phone in between us, just in case one of our parents called. About an hour goes by, and the phone starts to ring. We look down and the caller ID shows it’s our uncle calling.
We decide to just let it ring. Now, this phone usually rang four times when someone called, but I noticed that it stopped in the middle of the third ring. I couldn’t understand why this would have happened, unless someone else in the house had picked up one of the other phones. But no one else was in the house with us, right?
I got really suspicious and my paranoia got the better of me. I took my brother upstairs. We see that the phone is still there, but there is still a phone on the third floor in my parents' room. So we walk towards the stairs. What we saw next chilled us to the bone. A man in his late 40s was standing by the door of our parents' room and staring back at us.
The second we saw him, we both screamed, ran out of the house, and went straight to our neighbors’ house. We tell them what happened and they proceed to call the authorities and then our parents. They come fast and I don’t know what was wrong with the man, but he never left the house. He just stood there and let the officers take him away. I later heard he was taken to a mental hospital.
I shudder to imagine what could have happened to my brother and me if my uncle hadn’t decided to call at that exact moment.
56. Center Of Attention
This happened a week ago. My blood still runs cold when I think about it. My brother wanted to get a drink from a place we both love to go to. It was going to close soon and he had work to do, so I went by myself. It wasn't very late, but it was already dark and my parents had drummed into me since birth about the dangers of walking alone at night.
I went and got both drinks and, for some reason, didn't get a bag. As a result, I was walking along with both hands full. As I was walking towards the street where my house was, I suddenly became aware of two men near me. One was in front of me, wearing a maroon pullover, and the other was behind me, wearing a grey zipped up hoodie with the hood pulled up.
I only turned around for a flash of a second, so I couldn't describe his face to you. I was weirded out, because I was walking between them and I was beginning to feel uncomfortably like they were trying to herd me. And just as I was telling myself that I was clearly overreacting, I came across a garage that was down an alleyway and a black Subaru was coming out.
I had time, so I crossed before they reached me. The person inside clearly wasn't counting on me doing that, so they swung around and parallel parked next to me, at most two feet away. So now I was between three men and a wall. When I saw the car door open, that was it for me. I bolted and didn't stop running until I reached my house.
57. Bargain Basement
My mother used to work in real estate when she was younger. Once, she was asked to go out, alone, to a creepy and strange house in the middle of the country with a seeking buyer. This buyer was an equally creepy and strange man. My mom kept getting a bad feeling from this guy, and he seemed nervous and kept jumping around the whole time they were speaking.
Eventually, he asked her to go down and see the cavernous, unfinished basement with her. Very calmly, she responded, "Oh, no, I'll just wait up here while you check it out." The more she thought about that afterward, the creepier it got. When she told her boss about it the next day, he said that under no circumstances were you supposed to ever go out to a house like that alone with any customer.
58. Window Shopping
This happened a few weeks ago and I’m still a bit shaken up by it. My husband and I like to take long drives in the desert with our dog. We live outside Las Vegas and are fortunate to live in a city with abundant beautiful areas to stargaze. My husband just got a new telescope for his birthday in October, so he was excited to try it out.
We drove our Kia up to a popular overlock, and he pulled out the telescope. He showed me a bunch of constellations and we saw a shooting star. Our pet dog sat in the car with two of the windows rolled down. At one point, my hubby had to pee. He told me to wait in the car for him. So, I got in and locked the door. After a few seconds, I hear gravel moving.
Thinking it’s my hubby, I remark “That was fast.” Suddenly, my dog goes berserk. She’s snarling and barking like crazy. So I turn around and see this dude standing there that’s not my husband. I then see that the dude had stuck his hand into my car window and that my dog had latched onto his arm as soon as he did so.
The guy was screaming in agony as my dog bit into his arm. I was screaming in terror. My husband is now yelling as he runs towards us with his pants half on. The dog finally lets the guy’s arm go and he takes off. I immediately call the authorities. My husband tries chasing after the guy, but he manages to get away. The doggo got a cup of Dairy Queen that night.
59. Got Any Plans This Evening?
This complete stranger approached me in Hollywood once. He was super tall and bald. On top of that, he had an absurdly protruding belly and super-long arms, like a wax figure that's started to melt. Then I noticed that one of his eyes was clouded-white and he was missing a tooth or two. But that was just one part of what terrified me.
He walked up to me as I was drinking coffee on a patio, stopped inches away from my face, smiled at me, and said, "I might get rid of you tonight" in a low voice before walking off.
60. Taking You For A Ride
This happened last year, at the peak of my partying stage. I was at a friend’s house drinking one night. At around 2:00 AM, I was pretty intoxicated and decided to call an Uber to take me home. The car pulled up, and I have this habit of sitting at the front with the driver. He was a young man in his 20s. I don’t remember too much about what we were talking about.
However, I do recall his compliments going from “You’re really pretty,” to “You’re really hot,” and he also kept saying that I reminded him of his mom. I found it really strange, especially considering that I was 19 years old, but I tried to laugh it off because I didn’t want to appear rude. I asked him to swing by the drive-thru at a burger spot because I was hungry.
We got the food and he was supposed to take me home, but I noticed he was driving in the complete opposite direction of where my house was. I looked at his map and it kept telling him to turn around. I asked him where we were going, and I remember him looking over at me and saying, “Oh, you don’t wanna come over to my house?”
I remember I completely sobered up in that instant and said “No. Please take me home.” I don’t recall if we continued talking after that, but luckily he took me home and I never heard from him again. I also reported him the next day. What really upsets me is that he clearly knew I was inebriated and yet he tried to take advantage of me.
It’s safe to say I won’t be Ubering alone at night anymore.
61. Cooking The Books
A co-worker's cousin who I met at a cookout was the eeriest person I have ever encountered. He had no emotion whatsoever in his eyes when he spoke, and he just gave off a generally weird vibe. He looked at everyone kind of oddly, but the way he looked at women felt predatory. Any time I broke from conversations with others, he appeared.
He kept bringing up how people are touch-starved these days, especially men. I just kept saying, "that's deep" and would then dart off to find someone else to talk to. The fourth time he brought up men being touch-starved, he asked what I thought guys should do about it and got way too close to me. I told him he should get out my face and go get a freaking massage.
62. I Want You Back
When I was seven years old, I went to a small school in our little town in Alberta. There was this guy named Daniel. Daniel had slept with my mom ages before I was even conceived, yet he somehow had in his brain that I was his child. Full-blown delusional. So, Daniel decided that the smart and rational thing to do was to stalk me.
He apparently plotted out a map to my school, he knew my name, he knew how old I was, and he knew what I looked like. I have no idea how he got this information. My mom never really used Facebook, and he lived in a different province. I had never met this man before. As if that wasn’t bad enough already, Daniel decided that one day he wanted to take it a step further.
He had been ranting to his wife about me. He kept telling her that I was his kid, and that he was going to drive from British Columbia all the way to Alberta to bring me back. He was convinced that I was conceived earlier than I was, and that my mom had made some kind of conspiracy to hide the fact I was his kid from the world.
He had a whole plan for how to kidnap me, right down to the date he was going to do it. His wife decided to call my mom and warn her. My mom put safety measures up, like making sure I was always in groups and that I was home by 4:00, etc. I was only told about all this when I was about 14, and still don’t know all the details. Obviously, Daniel never successfully went through with his plan.
63. Taking You For A Ride
The scariest person I ever met was a cab driver. The drive with him was so terrible that I actually considered getting out at a stoplight. But I couldn’t because I was in a hurry to get to where he was driving me. From start to end, he was loudly sniffing and saying I smelled so good he could "eat me up." He also kept trying to make up his mind about what kind of flower I smelled like. He was sniffing audibly all the while.
64. A Devoted Follower
I was 13 years old and on vacation with my parents in Turkey. We were at an all-inclusive hotel and enjoying the holiday. The hotel was full of tourists from different countries. There was this one guy, around 20 years old, who was staring at me for some time. I felt uncomfortable and asked him how he was doing. Wrong choice.
The next few days, everywhere I went, he also suddenly appeared. Not flirting, just lurking for hours and watching me. He had a really strange vibe around him and I felt I shouldn't be alone with him. Now, I was still young and my parents didn't want to leave me alone in a foreign country. So he couldn’t really bother me at any point.
But one night, there was entertainment in the hotel, which became boring to me after some time. I told my parents I wanted to go up to our hotel room and that I would see them in the morning. I left and walked to the elevator. I didn’t know it, but I was making a dire mistake. The guy who had been watching me for days saw me leaving, and he had followed me.
When I saw him also coming into the elevator, I was shaking with fear. He looked at me silently with a sinister smile. "This is it." I thought. Who knows what horrible plans he had for me. And just before the doors of the elevator were closing, someone stuck his boot between in order to prevent the doors from closing. I am not kidding, all I could see was a boot.
The doors opened and it was my dad. He saw that the creepy guy was leaving at the exact time I had left and didn't trust it. He looked the guy in the eye and said hello. My dad took me to my hotel room. To this day, I am so glad for the rescue because I don't want to know what would've happened if he didn't.
65. Just Passing Through
I was with my cousins playing in the woods circa age seven when this guy in an all-black outfit just sprints right past us. Two minutes later, about 15 uniformed officers come and question us about the guy. I wonder what would have happened if he had thought he had gotten away from them, and that we were alone there with him…
66. Home Sweet Home
When I was 13 years old, my family moved from a village to a city. This city had a fairly high homelessness rate, so of course, there were always a lot of people looking for somewhere to stay. An old family friend of mine is a letting agent, so he often lets me use some of the unoccupied houses as a sort of recording studio for music that I create in my spare time.
He is totally fine with me using the houses for this purpose as long as I keep them clean and clear out for a while whenever there are viewings. This arrangement works fine for me. One night, after recording at one of the houses, I realized that I had forgotten my wallet there. So, I cycled back, got my wallet, and decided to check the rooms since the door hadn’t been locked properly.
I go upstairs and open the door to one of the bedrooms. Lo and behold, there was a man in his mid-30s lying on the bed like it was his own home. Both of us just looked at each other, completely startled. Neither of us said anything. I guess we came to some sort of non-verbal agreement, and I showed him out. Definitely a creepy experience…
67. Van Life Gone Wrong
One day I was walking home from somewhere around 7 AM. Two vans began to circle around the block while I was walking home. This continued for about five minutes until one of them stopped behind me. That’s when I knew something was really, really wrong. One of the men got out and stared me down. He was in his 50s with long white hair and a beard. As soon as the other man started to open his door, I ran away as fast as I could. That was a very close call.
68. After Hours
When I was in high school, I spent the better portion of my junior year being grounded. I was always in trouble for something and fighting with my parents. During one of these timeouts, a friend wanted to hang out. Being a teen, I wanted to hang out with my friends. I explained that I was in trouble, and he suggested that we wait until my parents were asleep so I could sneak out.
There was a park right next to my apartment building and it seemed innocent enough, so I agreed. My parents fell asleep and I could hear my stepdad snoring, so I tiptoed out of my house and met up with my friend. It was late, about 1:00 AM. As planned, we went to the park to smoke and hang out. We were sitting on the jungle gym, just talking, when we spotted another person walking around.
After a few moments, the person sees us and approaches us. He started asking us a bunch of questions, like: “Are you guys together?”, “What are you doing?”, “Where do you live?”, “Why are you here right now?”, “How old are you?” The person was obviously on some kind of substance and we politely tried to answer him without revealing any information about ourselves.
After a few minutes, the guy asked us if we wanted to come and see his house. Despite it being the middle of the night, we quickly said we had somewhere to be and rushed back to the car. We just sat there for a minute, not sure of what we avoided. All I could think about was that this guy could have done something terrible to me, and my parents would not have known what happened because I had snuck out.
Needless to say, that was the first and last time I ever snuck out of my house.
69. Curbside Pickup
I was walking to the parking garage on campus late at night after studying for my finals. As I am walking to the pedestrian overpass leading to the garage, I notice a girl, maybe 18 or 19 years old, walking alone in her bare feet. It strikes me as odd, but I keep walking until she sits down on a curb and puts her head in her lap.
Concerned, I walk over to her and say, "Excuse me, is everything alright?" As soon as I speak, she stands straight up and starts walking towards me, but looking past me with a glazed look in her eyes. By this time, I don't know what to do. So I just stand there while she walks directly by me, almost touching shoulders with me, all the while looking directly ahead.
Eventually, she walked out of sight. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen.
70. Changing Things Up
I'm a 14-year-old girl, but I’m often mistaken for 18 because of my shape. One time, I was at the YMCA with my sisters. We were swimming for a while and then I started to feel sick. My younger sister said, "You don't look good, maybe you should sit in the changing room for a while." I agreed. I went into the changing room for some peace and quiet, and luckily no one else was there.
I sat on one of the benches and closed my eyes. A few moments later, I heard someone come in. It was a guy who was tall, muscular, and genuinely good looking. I brushed it off thinking he was probably waiting on his girlfriend and came in to check on her or something. That is until he approached me and sat right next to me, so close our thighs were touching.
I was really surprised. I scooted over and gave him that “What do you think you're doing?” look. He smiled at me and said, "Don't worry girl, I'm not gonna hurt you." He proceeded to put his hand on my back. I stood up and slowly backed away. I was scared to run because he seemed athletic, so he probably could've caught me.
He asked me "How old are you baby?" in a sickeningly sweet tone. I say 14 and he nonchalantly says "Cool." So I asked how old he was, and he said "23." He then stood up and started walking over to me. I backed away from him. This was the turning point. That was the moment when I heard a bathroom stall open and there, standing in all her glory, was the lady who I'll call my hero.
She stepped out and I know she heard everything. That dude hightailed it outta there. The lady was nice and stayed with me for a while. Her name was Stacy. Thank you Stacy!
71. A Lesson You Won’t Soon Forget
When I was around six years old, my family and I were just leaving the supermarket. I was begging my mom for some candy. By the time we left, I didn't get any. So I threw a huge fit. I started stomping and crying at the exit and threatened my mom that I wouldn't leave without getting the candy. She said, "Fine, stay here then." She left me by myself at the exit to teach me a lesson.
This made me cry and scream even louder. As she was getting closer to the car, a man approached me. He just said these simple words: "Get in my van boy, we will catch her." I stopped crying immediately, as I knew what stranger danger was by then. I just looked at the guy and knew that something bad was going to happen.
My mom quickly rushes back, grabs my hand, and yanks me away. She didn't say a word to the man, but she gave him a dirty look. Needless to say, I was quiet the whole ride back home. I'm not sure what would have happened if my mom had decided to pack the groceries before she came back to get me from my little fit.
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72. I Spy With My Little Eye
In December 2018, my ex and I split up after seven years in a relationship. I was new to the dating game so I didn’t want to just jump into it. In February, I met a guy at the bar. The second time I met him, we exchanged numbers. By the end of March, I was feeling pretty comfortable with him and invited him to a party at my house.
He stayed after the party and one thing led to another. After it was all said and done, I had a weird vibe from him. He was too pushy and it made me uncomfortable. So I asked him to leave. I planned to never speak to him again, that is until he started to text me from random numbers. He would say things like “Hope you have fun fishing” when I didn’t post on any social media about going fishing.
“I hope the movie was good” when I hadn’t posted anything online indicating that I was at the movies. He would text me and ask how I liked the bar whenever I was at the bar where I had met him with my friends. I had never told anyone or posted where we were going. We had no mutual friends who he could be getting the information from, so he was obviously following me.
The final straw came when my friends took me to Washington, DC for my 25th birthday celebration. We barhopped all over the city. Around 2:30 in the morning, we came out of a bar and decided to get cookies across the street. As we were coming out of the cookie shop, guess who pops up. You guessed it! He does. And I am not amused...
He goes “I hope visiting the monuments was fun earlier! I wanted to say hi earlier but since you haven’t been replying to my messages I didn’t wanna freak you out.” I was TERRIFIED. Thankfully, my friend's husband stepped in and called him out. He threatened to report him to the authorities. I changed my number and moved. Thankfully, I haven’t heard from him since.
73. Getting The Message
I first got social media when I was about 13. I wasn't very smart about using it, so I was always talking to these random people that I didn't know. One day, some guy who claimed to be from my school sent me a message and we started talking. Being 13 and naive, I talked to him for days and developed a "crush" on him.
He asked me if I wanted to meet up to "hang out" and we even planned a specific time and place to do so. But as the time approached, I became a little skeptical. I made the smart choice to ask my older sister, who was the age the guy claimed to be, if she knew him. She didn't, which was a red flag to me, since the school is small and it's impossible to not know someone there.
I decided not to meet the guy, and I blocked him on social media too. I was creeped out that he had obviously been lying to me. The scariest part? About three years later, I saw a news article with that guy's name. Turns out he didn't lie about that, or the fact that he was from my town. But he was really 25 years old.
Why was he in the news? He was convicted of assaulting three young girls who he'd lured to his house through social media.
74. Toying With Your Heart
I used to work for Macy's in their beauty department. We had all kinds of weird customers that came in. Guys who would come rub lotion all over their legs, women who would take perfumes and spray them down their pants, all kinds of stuff you wouldn’t believe. I literally would never use a store tester under any circumstances. But one interaction was by far the strangest thing that happened to me.
I was standing at my counter and was approached by a guy who looked like he was in his late 30s. He asked if I had any kids and I told him I didn't. He said he was giving away free toys at the old Big Lots parking lot the following morning. I was like, that's cool but I don't have any kids. He asked me if any of the girls I worked with had little girls who would want free toys.
I told him that they didn't have any kids either. I was getting super creeped out and walked behind the counter. He was like, "Tell your friends if they have little girls to come tomorrow morning and get their free toy." I called my husband on my lunch break and told him about it. He agreed that it was super weird and that I should for sure not to tell any of our friends about the free toy event.
I also called our local security office and they were basically like, what are we supposed to do about it? Yesterday, one of my girlfriends shared a story about a local guy who is being investigated for human trafficking and a string of unsolved murders. I looked at the photograph and immediately recognized the suspect. It was the creepy toy guy!
75. He Bit Off More Than He Could Chew
I remember back in high school, I was hanging out with a new group of friends. What was weird was that they warned me to "never touch Fergie's hat." I didn't get what that meant, but okay. Fergie was a big tall guy with red hair. He was nearly twice my size. Well, one day, Fergie was being annoying and obnoxious to me, and at one point he got all up in my face.
Irritated, I bat my hand at him. I didn't intend it to hit him. I just wanted him to instinctively flinch away. Well, he did flinch away. But, in doing so, I managed to accidentally knock his hat off of his head. “Uh oh,” I heard someone in the group literally gasp. Fergie glared at me and suddenly darted forward. He bit me on the shoulder.
I was too startled to fight back because I couldn’t believe what had just happened. Suddenly, he pushed me backward until I was sitting on the wall behind me. He lifted my leg up and then bit me on the shoe. And then he started laughing. I tried to kick at his face but missed, and he kept laughing. I grabbed my backpack and left the group.
I never hung out with them ever again. A week later, one of the girls spotted me and started talking to me. She said, "You know, you should come back and hang out with us again. Fergie really misses you." I got chills and said, "Um, thanks but no thanks." I then quickly walked away to my class and never spoke of this whole matter again.
76. Living Happily Ever After
Me and my ex were together for two months. Within that time, he swiped money from me and blamed it on me when I asked him about it. We actually broke up after I asked for advice on Reddit. Now, everyone who knows me knows my daily routine. I go to college for most of the day, then go to my work, go home, and do homework. And repeat.
One day, I was at my job, doing my work. All of a sudden, I get an alert on my phone that there’s someone at my house. I figured that I would watch the cameras after I got home. But then, over the next two hours, I got three more alerts. As I was taking the bus back to my home, I watched the cameras. And I saw my crazy ex taking a hammer to my back door!
I kept on watching as he struggled against the deadbolt, and then I saw him enter my house. I called the authorities faster than I thought I could and told them there was a break-in at my address. I continued to watch the video after that. 15 minutes after he entered, he left with a duffle bag. I arrived back at my house and officers were already on the scene.
I identified myself as the homeowner and went inside to check the damage. The place was trashed and, along with my duffle bag, some jewelry was missing. I gave the officers the evidence that it was my ex. And I gave them the address of the place he was crashing at. I then arranged to get a restraining order against him.
Not long after the incident, they caught him at a nearby pawn shop trying to sell my jewelry. When questioned, he claimed that he was trying to “get back” at me for dumping him. I am now happy to announce that the restraining order is officially in place, and my ex is also behind bars for a year for breaking and entering.
77. Tarzan The Ape Man
I took my ex-girlfriend to Red Rocks one evening. It's a natural amphitheater that is sometimes used for concerts just outside of Denver. If there isn't a concert going on, it's just a park that you can run around in. We got down to the stage without being bothered. Then, we see this silhouette of some guy not too far away.
He is creeping around and trying to be quiet, but I could make out his shape while my ex could hear him breathing. We go up a few rows of steps and make a big circle around him to get to the steps. The guy is following us. We climb the stairs looking back at him. He'd creep from seats to the side of the wall. He must have thought he was being stealthy and he followed us up like that.
We didn't let on that we knew he was there until the last few steps. I had my ex run for it with the car keys while I half ran, keeping myself between her and the guy. At this point, the guy is following us while doing an ape impersonation. He was literally running with his hands on the ground and grunting loudly with every step.
When we get to the car, he is hiding from us. My ex unlocks the doors while I look around. But it wasn’t over yet. We get in and the guy jumps out at us from behind another car just as I start my engine. He beats on my windshield a few times, yells something that I don't understand, and then just runs off. He was probably on something pretty powerful…
78. Phoning It In
When I was 17 years old, my older sister took me to the mall to get a cell phone. The guy who sold it to us showed us several options and let me choose from a selection of phone numbers. He then set us up with a plan and we left. Pretty standard stuff. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary…until I got a text later that evening.
"Hey, it's the guy who sold you your new phone." I don’t remember how I replied to that. What I do remember is that the guy kept texting me and calling me non-stop. He kept telling me how attractive I was and that we should be together. I told him that it wasn't a good time for me and that I was about to leave town for the entire summer.
He asked where I was going and offered to come along. He then offered to quit his job and leave the state with me on a whim. Again, he had only ever spoken to me in-person for around 15 minutes. I asked him to leave me alone, and to stop calling and texting me. He kept calling, I kept not answering. We eventually had to file a complaint and change my number.
79. Stranger Danger
In 2012, I was just north of Erwin, Tennessee while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail in the Roan Mountain area. While at our campsite maybe 25 yards off a dirt forest trail a blue F-150 pulls up and a man gets out and says he's an “undercover forest ranger.” He says there's been a lot of kids causing trouble up around these parts and did we have any illicit substances.
It was myself and another older gentleman from New Orleans who also said he was thru-hiking and two off-duty Coast Guard who were making a weekend hiking trip together. Before that evening none of us had ever met. We discuss and decide that the guy was fairly creepy and decide to split up and scout out maybe a replacement place to camp.
We agree to each hike 15 minutes north and south and come back and report if there was a more suitable spot where we were away from the road and the guy would have a harder time finding us. After our little recon trip, we come back and decide there really was nothing all that suitable and decide to just push our tents a little deeper into the woods so as to not be spotted as easily.
Around 9pm and everyone is in bed, asleep, or nearly, and three shots ring out and they're not “off in the distance.” A truck comes screaming down the path with the high beams on and the same guy from earlier gets out; brandishing a Glock with an extended magazine. He's ranting and raving and tells everyone to get out of their tents and on the ground.
For the next nearly 45 minutes he kept up the charade that he was an undercover game warden and/or fish and wildlife person, the story would change. A few minutes into the ordeal, it was fairly obvious he was unstable or on something. That didn't change the fact that he had a piece pointed at us. He would rinse and repeat the same lines over and over, “Do you have guns or money?” or, “You don't have CASH??? HOW WILL YOU SURVIVE OUT HERE?!” or, “I'm just trying to keep you guys safe,” and, “There's four of you and one of me. You're going to try and jump me!”
All the while, swinging his piece around and brandishing it wildly. This whole “cycle” would usually last 6-8 minutes at a time and nearly the entire 45 minutes we were either laying on our stomachs or on our knees. Fairly early on, the guy from New Orleans jumped up and ran into the woods. We found out later with a cell phone and called law enforcement.
They said it would take them about 45 minutes to make it out to the woods and to hold tight. Of course, I didn't know any of this, and more importantly the guy holding us up lost his mind. Undercover Man shouted into the woods and said that if New Orleans didn't come back, the rest of us would be sorry. The guy actually came back.
Seriously he didn't know any of us, and even today, I genuinely don't believe if I was in his shoes I would walk back into that situation. It's the bravest thing I've ever seen someone do. The situation ended when the man demanded to search our backpacks for the aforementioned substances or money. He was kind of easing into stage three where he's “just trying to keep us safe.”
He leans down to search my backpack and the two Coast Guard guys jump up simultaneously and tackle him. I knocked the piece out of his hand and quickly dropped the mag and discovered that there was a live round in the chamber the whole time! We tied the guy up and waited for law enforcement, who showed up about 20 minutes after.
I was incredulous that their response was essentially, "Ooohhh that's just crazy John, he's really done it this time!" and "Oh John, they would have been within their rights to shoot you dead." Here's the best part of the story: in his truck, there was obviously empty bottles of liquor, a film canister with crushed something in it, and a cell phone with FOURTEEN missed calls from his apparent son.
That’s not even the craziest part. While his truck is being searched, it's explained to me that he was a former minister WHO GOT STRUCK BY LIGHTNING and became a pill popper and weirdo ever since. He was known for messing with people, but never to that degree before. I ended up finishing my thru-hike but that was without a doubt the scariest thing that happened while I was doing it.
80. Barking Up The Wrong Tree
I'm a 30-year-old female who lives with my fiancé and our two dogs. My huskies are not guard dogs. They never bark or howl. These dogs just love people so much. My brother-in-law and friends have walked in unexpectedly on multiple occasions, and the dogs don't make a peep. But on this one occasion, it was 8:00 PM and dark out, and I was home alone.
I was in the bathroom with the door closed and I had the blow dryer going, so I couldn't really hear anything going on around me. But when I suddenly heard one of the dogs howling, my ears perked up. I stopped the blow dryer and listened out. Then, I heard a faint knock and the dogs started going insane. Barking, howling, jumping into the window so loudly that I thought they'd break it.
I’m wondering what the heck is making them go crazy like that, maybe a skunk or something. I look out my bedroom window and see two men in hoodies standing at the front door. They start knocking louder. This time, one of the dogs jumps from the side window to the front door and starts growling and ramming his body into the door at full force.
I'm watching this from my bedroom window. As the dog jumps into the door, one of the men jumps back startled. He looks at the other guy, and then they just walk away. I called my fiancé and told him to get home right away. I watched the men walk away down the road. They weren’t selling anything, as they didn't stop at any other houses. I have no idea who they were.
81. Fairy Tale
When I was way younger, I had gone into my bedroom alone to change into pajamas. Apparently, I then came back and asked my mom why Peter Pan was at my window and if we could let him in. She, of course, ran to my bedroom. Sure enough, someone had pulled the screen off my window and had opened it slightly. Needless to say, we moved shortly after that.
I was oblivious as to what was wrong because, hey, I got to meet Peter Pan!
82. Big Plans
When I was a student teacher, I was 21 and working with mostly seniors in high school, many of whom were 17 or 18 years old. One day, the mentor teacher I was working with pulled me aside from teaching my class to inform me that other teachers had overheard some students telling each other what they "wanted to do to me."
While disturbing, my friends and colleagues insisted that this was just a fact of being a young teacher working with high schoolers. The next day, a few girls in my class informed me that three specific boys were no longer just talking about what they WANTED to do, but were graphically describing what they were PLANNING on doing to me in the coming weeks in the parking lot after school.
I went to the administration immediately, and they handled it very quickly and professionally. I was very grateful for their support. I was never touched nor harmed by any of these students, thankfully. What scared the absolute wits out of me, however, was that less than a week later, one of those boys was pulled out of school by an officer.
I didn't find out immediately, but I eventually learned he was being held for the alleged assault of his younger sister. It still makes me sick just thinking about it. I genuinely hope to never meet him again. It's terrifying to think of what could have happened had I not had some wonderful staff and students looking out for me.
83. I Wanna Hold Your Hand
I was at college one day and had an hour break between classes. I decided to take a spot at a huge empty table in a quiet courtyard just outside my next class and catch up on some reading for one of my other courses. A creepy looking guy approached me and asked if he could sit with me.
Since there were three other empty tables and no one else around, and the fact he was asking to sit with me, I thought he might be trying to sell me something. I decided to be polite and said yes. He took the bench RIGHT next to me. Our arms were touching. I moved away to get some personal space, and I was for sure creeped out, my radar was going ballistic at this point.
As I moved, he grabbed my hand, laced his fingers in mine and told me to relax. I was so scared, but he had like 100 pounds on me and I couldn't get my hand away. He started going on about how amazing he was and all this other nonsense. I wasn't 100% paying attention because I was hoping someone would come by and help me.
After about five minutes of him rambling on, he asks for my phone number. I told him no. He thought I was flirting with him. Then he got upset. I truly believe he would have tried to hurt me, too, if another student hadn't come by at just the right time and sat down at the table next to us. I got out of there. Two days later when I came back for that same class, I saw him doing the same thing to another girl.
I went up to her and acted like we were best friends and I was coincidentally running into her. I was thankful I got her out of that situation. She told me she was terrified. We went to campus security and reported him. I don't know what ever happened to him but I never did see him hanging around that area again.
84. Keep Your Eye On The Ball
I had just fallen asleep when I heard my dog outside losing his mind. I then received a notification on my phone, stating: "There is motion detected at your front door." I open my phone to the live view of what's happening outside, only to be greeted by an eyeball staring directly into the camera. The man standing there was mumbling to himself.
He proceeds to knock and ring the doorbell. Now, I live in a suburban, quiet town, with wholesome neighbors who are all good people. I had decided to actually lock my door that day, which wasn’t always the case. That was a lucky thing, because the man started trying the doorknob, and then attempted to climb in through the window.
I turned on the microphone of my security system and told the man that he would be behind bars within the hour if he didn’t leave immediately. He got all huffy and puffy, and started talking about how he was just looking for his dog "Fido." Uh-huh, by trying to enter my house and acting like a creep on video? I’m more careful to always lock my door nowadays.
85. Like A Moth To The Flame
I have always been a lanky and non-muscular man. Needless to say, when I came face to face with a big dude holding a knife in the middle of the night, I was pretty much screwed. I was walking home from my closing shift on a warm summer night last year when he stepped out of the shadows and demanded my wallet. I didn't immediately reach for it, as I guess I was in shock.
He stepped closer and yelled at me to empty my pockets. When the realization set in that this guy was ready to take my life over the meager $20 I had on me, a white moth fluttered between us. To my surprise, the mugger began screaming and swinging his knife at the bug, which only caused it to fly around more sporadically.
Those fierce eyes which had been looking at me just a few seconds ago were now shrouded in terror and not breaking their focus on the moth. I took karate lessons for a few years when I was a young boy, so I took advantage of the large man desperately flailing at a small insect and performed the number one move recommended by all reputable martial arts schools. I ran like a madman.
I ran all the way back to my house, occasionally glancing behind myself, but I never saw him following. He had other matters to attend to, I suppose. So, an important lesson for all you wannabe criminals out there. Before attempting to commit a mugging, go see a therapist first who can help you get over your dumb phobias.
86. Tunnel Vision
I was leaving college and about to take a train to visit my family as I used to do every weekend. Usually, my best friend and her friends would join me at the exit of a pedestrian path which takes the shape of a tunnel. This day, they were late, so I walked through the tunnel on my own. As I was passing by an opening in the tunnel, a car suddenly approached me.
The car was black and its windows were tinted. Yet I could see who was inside because the driver had his windows opened. The car parked right in front of me, almost reaching my legs. I did not move. I was tired anyway. And I saw two guys inside of the car. The passenger opened the door and tried to reach for me.
That's when I got extremely lucky. At the precise moment when he tried to grab me, I saw my best friend and her friends emerging from the tunnel. I loudly screamed "Hello!" to her. The dude turned back and saw my group of friends approaching. He went back into the car and drove away quickly. My best friend looked at me and said: "Were you just about to be kidnapped?"
I said yes and we laughed it off very nervously.
87. Message Delivered
I was around 10 or 11 years old when this happened, and I was home alone. The doorbell rang while I was watching TV, so I hastily moved my bowl of cereal and got up to answer the door. It was the mailman, who said we had gotten a package. But it was so big that he needed help carrying it in. Something felt off about him, as he wasn’t wearing a uniform, but a dirty white shirt and jeans.
I asked him where his truck was, because I didn’t see it parked out front. He said it was around the corner, and that I should just follow him out to grab my parcel. He kept telling me to go with him, but I politely said I wasn’t feeling well and that we would just get our mail from the post office. He said that would be a big hassle, and that I should just go out and get it then and there.
I said I had to get my shoes on from upstairs and he waited outside. I locked the door and bolted upstairs, closing all the windows. I called my mom and asked her to come home, explaining everything. The man was still outside and he shouted at me, asking if I’d gotten my shoes. I replied that my mom was coming because she’s much stronger and could help carry the package.
Once I’d said that, he was quick to run away. And I never saw him again. They never caught him and I hope that he never lured any other kids or tricked them into going near that van.
88. Bus-ted
One Sunday afternoon, I was waiting at the bus stop alone after an outing with a friend. I saw a driver get onto an empty bus, so I asked him if he was going to be stopping at my stop. He said that he was not, so I said okay and continued patiently waiting for the right bus. A few minutes later, he pulls up beside me and motions to me to come onto the bus.
I figure that he has changed his route or something and wanted to let me know that he would now be passing by my stop, but as soon as I approached him he started making a whole bunch of creepy comments about my body. He was also making really awkward eye contact with me the entire time he was speaking. I started to climb back off the bus to get of there, but he grabbed my hand.
I wiggled myself free and ran away as fast as I could. I immediately reported him to the authorities.
89. The Negotiator
When my cousin was a teenager, maybe 18 or 19, she and her friends went out to party a lot. In my country you can legally start drinking with 16/18, so most teenagers start going to clubs at 16. Back then, hitchhiking was still pretty common and most teenagers did it to get home or to the city, since only very few had cars of their own.
My cousin and her friend want to go home after a night out and get picked up by a middle-aged guy. He's nice enough and they make small talk while they drive—but in an instant, it all changed. Suddenly, he takes a turn onto a remote road leading into the woods. He locks the car from the inside and his friendly facade falls instead he's suddenly tense, quiet and determined.
My cousin's friend started crying quietly, but my cousin stays calm and starts talking to the man. She tells him about her family, her mom and dad, her brother and sister and asks if he also has a family. When he tells her that he has a wife and two children, she asks for their names and how old they are, which school they go to, what their hobbies are, all while he drives them deeper into the woods.
It must've triggered something, because after talking with him for a couple of minutes, he stops he car and breaks down. He starts crying and tells them that things are going well at home, that his marriage is pretty bad and he fears he'll lose his kids. My cousin comforts him during his break down and lets him spill his heart out.
Eventually, he starts the car again, turns around and drives them home, saying he's sorry. They get out once they reach the street my cousin lived on and when he drives off, my cousin sees him put a knife on the passenger seat that he had kept hidden next to him. They never hitchhiked again.
90. Defying Evil
I worked downtown Houston for 9-1-1 on the overnight shift. On a break I went out to my car. While sitting in there a homeless guy came and knocked on my window, which wasn't at all unusual. He rolled his fingers like “roll down your window.” I cannot explain what came over me but all of a sudden, my hair stood on end and I was flooded with the strangest feeling.
I felt fight or flight come over me. I didn't know where it came from, didn't even feel like my voice, but I yelled no! And I was pointing my finger at him. I sat there shaking all over, but his face was seared into my mind. So, a few days later on my day off was watching the news and the SAME homeless dude had been detained that morning because he was the suspect for this horrific case that they had been searching for.
There had been a string of strangulations of mostly homeless women downtown. I could not believe it when his mugshot popped up on my TV. I just went cold. I'm so grateful though for what I assume was my intuition or guardian angel alerting me to danger.
91. Cover Up
When I was a child in New Hampshire I went exploring by myself and got lost in the woods. I was not worried about it in the least and was just walking around. All of a sudden, I noticed someone standing about 25 feet away from me, and he was just standing perfectly still facing me. He was all bundled up in a bunch of shirts and jackets one over the other over the other, and his face was completely hidden by what looked like dirty rags. He was wearing big flat lensed goggle. He just stood there staring at me.
I stared back for a few seconds and then turned and ran. Maybe 30 minutes later I managed to find my way back to the edge of the lake, and was able to get back to where we were staying.
92. Near Miss
I worked for a rent to own furniture place between my junior and senior year in college. I'm 6'3" tall and 280 lbs., so I'm built for lifting. The other delivery guy was a prison guard before, so he was fairly well built as well. Now, 95% of the job is delivering furniture. However, since rent to own requires, you know, rent, you tend to get those who get behind on their payments.
If they get too far behind, we pick up their stuff. Most people are actually happy since that's means the phone calls from the manager stop. Some would rather run and hide. We've tracked people across town, to different towns, even one that moved across the country, no idea how the manager and corporate did that.
One day, we get told that after we make a delivery, we are supposed to check out an address. Supposedly, this girl and her baby daddy are eight months behind and keep moving to avoid us. The place is out in the country, but we live in a rural part of the world so that's no big deal. We find the place, with a half mile long drive way, leading to a trailer house.
There's a truck in the yard, doors open, hood up, lights on, someone was working on it, recently. We also notice that the front door to the house is wide open. Odd, when its 95+ outside. There is absolutely nobody around this place. Then, on the picnic table just outside the front door, we see a pretty new box of shells. It's open, and a few are missing.
Now, we had pulled up to this place, got out of the truck, but hadn't said a word. We just looked at each other, got back in the truck, and drove back to the store. We both just had that feeling that something bad was in the air. A couple of months later, after I had quit and went back to college, I saw that that girl and baby daddy had been picked up for their part in selling illicit substances. Crazy enough to shoot us? Probably.
93. Close Up
I was working a closing shift with a female coworker and she was trying to lock the door, but the key wouldn't lock it properly. Then I hear her screaming my name so I run over to see what was wrong, this homeless guy had apparently locked eyes with her and was running for the door like sprinting for it. I held it shut and she managed to properly lock it right before he made it to us, and he just gave us a nasty look and walked off.
I don't know what that guy wanted or if he just wanted to scare two young girls but I'm just glad I'm leaving that place soon for a better job.
94. Barking Mad
When I was very visibly pregnant, I ran to the grocery store one evening. For some random reason, I took my dog with me. She wasn't big or intimidating, all black but short like a corgi and super sweet. She never growled at anybody. I guess I just thought she would enjoy the car trip, not something I usually did for a quick grocery run.
Anyways, I bought my groceries and noticed nothing unusual in the store. It was just after dusk and I rolled the cart full of groceries out to the car. As I walked out, I noticed a man sitting in the driver's seat of a car facing my vehicle, but one parking lane over. He looked as though he was waiting for someone, but something about it creeped me out.
To this day, I can't tell you what about him creeped me out specifically. I just unlocked the back of my Jeep and started putting my grocery bags in. I hear a car door and turn to see he is out of the car and asking if I need help. I said no thank you and just kept going, making sure to not turn my back to him.
But he keeps coming towards my car saying, "Are you sure? I can help." I keep saying no thanks, but he keeps coming. At this point, I am trying to check if anyone else is in the lot and even though it's full of cars, no one else is out there. He is almost at the back of my car and my sweet doggy, in what seemed instantly, left her spot on the front passenger seat and was over the back seat and standing on the back bumper, teeth bared and growling at this guy.
Even though it seemed like only a half beat, it seemed like he considered whether this short dog was a serious threat or not. He held up his hands and said "nevermind" and walked away back to his vehicle. I drove home with no trouble and told hubby what happened and gave my doggy extra treats and snuggles.
The rational part of my brain says it was probably nothing, but what if my dog hadn't been there?! He clearly had no regard for my no thanks answers. It still creeps me out, 15 years later.
95. Hide and Squat
I was at my uncle’s house in some countryside with my sister and we were playing hide and seek. My uncle went out to buy some food for us. I was hiding downstairs in this weird closet/attic thing I found. I heard a little banging noise and got a little spooked. I then chalked it up to a little rat or something and continued to hide.
I then heard a snore and a groan. I immediately got out and ran to my sister. We both sat at the door together, crying, until my uncle got home. My uncle just laughed it off and we were relieved. A decade later, an old man’s body was found when my uncle tried to sell the house. Soon after, we learned the dark truth.
He had been squatting there for almost a decade, and he had written in a notebook how he was going to get rid of my uncle and keep the home for himself. I really think that would've happened if he hadn’t passed on first.
96. I Can See It in Your Eyes
My boyfriend’s younger brother and I were taking a bike ride down the street to the shops late one afternoon. As we get onto the main road, we notice a dude across the street heading in the opposite direction. He is walking with a limp, his head is bowed, and he’s got a plastic bag in his hand. We're only a few meters away from him when he crosses the street onto our side.
As the bro rides past him, this stranger lifts his head up and smiles in his direction as they pass each other. I'm a little while behind, so I don't pay too much attention to this—that is, until the bro stops, turns around, and gives me a funny look, just as this guy is passing him by. I still don't think too much of it at this point, assuming that he had just stopped to let me catch up.
As soon as I myself passed the stranger and made eye contact with him, I realized that this was not the case. When the stranger looked over and nodded at me, I saw nothing in his eyes. When I say nothing, I mean like black pits where his eyes should have been, or just an eyeball that looked entirely black. I don’t know how else to describe it.
When I finally catch up to the bro, we stop around the corner and he says to me "Did you see that???" "You mean his eyes?!" I asked. "Yeah, it looked like they weren't even there!" he replied. We then kind of sat there for a while processing what we had both just seen. Had the bro not related the same feeling and experience to me as I had felt when the stranger looked at me, I doubt I would have ever thought anything of it.
I probably would have just assumed it was the light angles playing tricks on me or some such thing. It was a sunny afternoon, so glare certainly could have played a part. He could've been wearing contacts, I don't know. But none of those explanations feel like they fit. We got home later on and told everybody what had happened, but no one believed us. They still don't to this day.
97. Day Care Blues
I worked at a daycare. One of the mothers gave me the heebie-jeebies. She would show up randomly and be like “my baaaaaaby, i neeeed my baaaaby.” Like, moms love their kids and miss them, but her obsession with her daughter really made me feel weird. She ended up strangling her daughter so that she could be an angel. It really messed me up when I found out.
98. Coming In Handy
This happened when I was around five years old, but I remember everything like it happened yesterday. We had gone to a funeral for my mom's cousin in another town a couple of hours out. We got to the house and my mom went to see her aunt. She gave her condolences and I followed, holding her hand. I guess during the hugging and crying, my mom let go of my hand.
I started looking for her hand but not really looking up, just keeping my hand out for her to grab it while calling her name. There were a lot of people and the house was small, so I could only see the people standing around me. A couple of minutes later, I found her. Or so I thought, because she took my hand and started walking towards the door to leave.
I thought to myself as I was putting on my shoes that it seemed weird to come such a long way just to be here for five minutes. That thought led me to look up at the lady holding my hand. I instantly realized it wasn’t my mom. I have no idea where the woman was planning on taking me. I jolted my hand away from her and ran towards the room I had lost my mom at.
99. All The Lonely People
Growing up, I always wanted to go on a bike ride at night. Something about it just seemed really cool to me. It wasn't until I was 13 that my mom finally let me. She told me to wear my helmet, take my phone and flashlight, and follow the parameters she had set for where I was allowed to go. She gave me about four miles, which was a lot to me.
So, right after the sun had set, I was off. I loved it. I rode along this path for 10 minutes before the only thing I could see was some of the lights from the houses on the inside of the limits. After 15 minutes of riding along this dirt path, I suddenly hear singing. It sounded like it was just a few feet in front of me. I stop riding to hear it better. It was a woman's voice.
She was singing “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles. But she wasn't singing the words, just the melody. Her voice was strange. You know how when you have phlegm in your throat, your voice gets kind of scratchy? That's what her voice sounded like. I inch forward to try and see her. I get close enough to see the silhouette of her hair bouncing up and down, like she was headbanging.
I decided to get my flashlight out. I'm thinking that maybe this person is in need of help or something. Or maybe this is an insane person and the light will scare them away. So I take the flashlight out of my pocket, point it at her, and turn it on. The moment the light hit her, she stopped moving completely. She was facing away from me.
She had disgusting hair that seemed to be sticking together in clumps. Some of her hair was ripped off, too. She was wearing a very oversized, bright red hoodie. I was almost too scared to move. I think she was, too. I conjured up as much bravery as I could and said "Sorry" in a very, oops-this-is-the-wrong-room kind of way. She didn't respond.
I turned off the flashlight and put it back in my pocket. Just as I was turning my bike around, she screamed. She screamed in an awful, horrifying high-pitched voice. I nearly pooped myself as I threw myself back onto my bike. I heard her voice getting closer to me. I booked it as fast as I could. I didn't once look back behind me, and I didn't stop pedaling.
Her screaming eventually grew quieter and quieter until it dissolved into the howling of the wind.
100. Dog’s Best Friend
My first semester at university, I got stuck taking all night classes and didn't get out until about 10:00 PM most evenings. I then would walk from the campus to the New Jersey transit station. Not too far a walk, but it starts to feel spooky in that area at night and I wasn't 100% sure where I was going since I was still new to the school.
So here I am, already a little on edge, when all of the sudden I hear a sound that will haunt me until the day I die. There was someone barking at me. That's right, barking. I look up and discover a man sitting up in the tree barking and growling down at me as I walk by. I was freaked out, but afraid that if I ran it might provoke him to follow me. So, I speedwalked to the corner, then ran across the street and didn't stop till I was at the train platform.
101. Something Much Worse Than A Ghost
I was about seven years old. My brother was about 10. It was well past our bedtime when our mom woke up off the couch to put us to bed. Our dad worked construction out of town back then, so it was often just us three at the house for weeks at a time. Up the stairs and to the immediate right was our parents' bedroom. Going left put you in the middle of a hallway.
Taking another left down that hallway led to my brother's room. The opposite end was my room, which was also across the hall from our upstairs bathroom. At either end of the hallway are windowed doors that we always kept locked and rarely used. The door on my end led to a balcony overlooking our front yard, and the door on my brother's end opened to our back porch.
My brother and mom both had a habit of waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I only knew this because I was always a light sleeper and they just couldn't help flushing with the door wide open. This night, however, my brother stopped on his way to his room and came back towards the bathroom. That’s when he made a comment that chilled me to the bone.
He told me: "I'm gonna try to pee before I go to bed tonight. The past few nights, I've been too afraid to walk to the bathroom. I keep seeing a man wearing stripes at the end of the hallway." I don't know if my mom wrote it off as my brother telling ghost stories to try to scare me, or if she was already half asleep and didn't catch it, but she didn't react at all to my brother's confession.
I, on the other hand, was terrified by it. The fear of seeing a ghost-like that at the end of the hallway or through the windows is the reason I started running from the stairs to my bedroom at night. Years later, when I was about 18, my mom and I were having a conversation in her car about a dog named Max that we’d had for a very short time when I was little.
We were sharing stories about Max's tendency towards destroying my shoes and other unruly behaviors, when my mom blurted out, "Do you remember that time I opened the front door for law enforcementk and Max ran inside to the kitchen and started tearing open that big bag of dog food we had?" This really caught me by surprise.
In all the years I lived in that house, we never once called law enforcement as far as I was aware. I asked her what she was talking about and she looked equally surprised, as if she had just revealed something by accident. Then, she said: "Oh, that's right! I never told you about this because you were too young at the time…”
She continued: "One night, I woke up hearing noises outside my window and, when I looked outside, I saw a man staring into my bedroom." She went on to describe how turning on the lights caused him to take off running, and how she had grabbed my dad's pistol before calling the authorities. I started to ask some more questions about the experience until something clicked in my head.
My mom said she couldn’t remember all the details she gave them when they showed up, but she remembered describing the man as a tall white male, wearing a striped shirt and jeans, with short dark hair, or something like that. They said it matched the description of a man they were looking for in the area. It turns out he had just escaped from behind bars, where he’d been charged with murder.
Now, I know it sounds so obvious hearing those two stories back to back, but it wasn't until a few years ago, in my mid-20s, that I pieced together that my brother had unknowingly warned us about a murderer who had spent multiple nights staking out our home. Who knows what he had been planning to do…
Sources: Reddit, , , , , , , ,
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