“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.”—Bill Moyers
From birth to grave, society has sent us mixed messages about strangers. Is every stranger really just a friend we haven’t met? Or were the grade school assemblies about “stranger danger” really not far off? Not every person is worth getting to know, as the following people would tell us. Altogether, the people of Reddit paint a truly unsettling picture of social life in the age of the stranger. From the babysitters with no boundaries to unexplained soundtracks in the night, the terror of human interaction comes in all shapes and sizes. Lock the door and don’t get too scared with these 26 stories about people we would not like to meet again.
1. What’s the Postage On Anthrax?
The other day at work we were basically told to look out for ourselves and others, wait for a security guard etc. Now this was a normal thing for the suburb we live in but it was still a bit strange. My friend from night fill told me why. Their friend and coworker finished up at around 12 and was approached by this guy when he was at his car.
The guy looked pretty normal, tracksuit and all, and gave him an envelope claiming there were free Fringe tickets inside. (Side note for clarification: Fringe is an art festival, like music and comedy and dancing etc. in the CBD) There was some sort of white powder on the ticket, but he just assumed it was cocaine or something (again not uncommon in this area) so he just grabbed it, planning to throw it out later because it was probably counterfeit.
His mates came out around 12:15 to see him with something like burns on his hands (where he touched the powder) and felt like he was burning on the inside and couldn't breathe properly. Luckily, he was still conscious and told them to take him to the hospital which luckily wasn't that far away. They got there and practically everyone that came into contact with him felt like they were burning under their skin and were all having breathing difficulties within minutes. They had to call HAZMAT/the fire department and everyone was decontaminated. Luckily everyone is okay. Knowing that this is so close to home really is unnerving, it was like the anthrax issue except there were no deaths.
2. Bum Rush
It was my friend Maggie’s birthday and we were going to a concert in our town (Vegas). I rustled up 3 other friends and we piled in Maggie’s van and headed to hear good music and then to a casino for drinks and food. We left at 3 am after filling ourselves with $10.99 breakfast platters, and various drinks. We had parked a few blocks away so we all linked arms and set off for the van.
We had made it one block when we saw a figure pushing a shopping cart. We couldn’t tell if it was a woman or man...but it didn't matter, because in a moment they were literally sprinting at us. Heather whips out her cell and we encourage Maggie to get her keys out, so we can make a mad dash to her car. I hear the figure kicking up rocks and I know they’re literally behind us now. Maggie hits her key fob to open the door and we all dive into the car. I’m slamming it shut when the figure reaches the door. I’m holding it shut screaming for someone to hit the locks, Maggie is freaking out as she’s attempting to start the car.
Heather is dialing 911 and the other two were trying to find things to use as weapons. The door is locked, and the figure pushes his face against the window. I can see now it’s a man, anywhere from 40-60, scraggly long hair, unshaven, and he had maybe two teeth and he’s grinning a crazy toothless grin as he bangs on the window. Luckily Maggie gets it together and guns it and we peel out of there the guy jumps backward and I can hear him screaming “crazy witches!!” Heather tells the dispatcher we are ok and gets a lecture that maybe next time we should just park closer.
3. The Dead Are Rising and They Went to Med School
I was sitting on the wall outside my building smoking and messing around on my phone. I had probably been sitting there for about two minutes when I finally notice a guy on the corner about 20 feet away staring intently at me. He’s hunched over facing me in the classic zombie pose wearing a large coat, a surgical mask, and gloves. I went back to looking at my phone but kept discreetly glancing in his direction to see if he was still there. He didn’t move or stop looking at me for probably another minute of a half, just sunken shoulders with his unblinking eyes pointed directly at me over his mask.
Finally, I notice an older man walking towards us and my cigarette is almost finished so I assume worst comes to worst, this guy will be near if anything happens. Before I have a chance to look up, the surgical zombie is sitting within an inch of me on the wall.
I’m a polite girl, so I give him a vague smile while my inner self and personal space are screaming at me to get up and leave. He asks me for a cigarette. I can’t fight my manners, so I ask him if he needs a light, and he gives me a gloved double-thumbs up and stares at me.
I ask him if that meant he had one, to which he responds with another double thumbs up. I assume that was him saying he did, so I turn back to my phone planning on taking one more drag before getting up to leave. He then says “Yes, I need one” so I give him my lighter. He hands it back and I put my smoke out and stand up. He then begins laughing, like full belly laughing. I didn’t really know how to respond so I tell him to have a nice day and walk into my building.
4. When a Stranger Knocks
It's Friday night at around 8:45 pm. There's a loud bang. I turn the volume on my computer down and freak out a bit, but ultimately calm down. It's quiet for a while, so I return to playing the game and talking to my friends. That's when I hear rustling. I think it's coming from the game, despite the volume being super low, but to be on the safe side I turned the sound on the computer off completely. The rustling's still there.
Fast forward half an hour and the noises have stopped, and my cat's begging me to be let outside. Little bastard (I love him, really). I hate opening doors/curtains/windows at night. Paranoia at its finest. But tonight, I had a reason to be paranoid, at least. I kept the chain lock on the door and let the fat fuzzball squeeze out, and had a bit of a peek through the crack, seeing if anything was amiss on my front lawn.
Nothing out of the ordinary, so I lock the door and head back to the lounge. Five minutes later, someone tries the door handle. Finding it locked, I hear a laugh, and they start scratching on the glass as I frantically grab my phone and call the police. Whoever it was had left by the time they answered the phone, and police couldn't find evidence that anyone had been on the property. They did a sweep of the neighborhood, but couldn't find anyone on the streets, either.
5. Nightmare Date
I met this guy, let’s call him Rick, on a dating website. He was a couple of years older than me--ex-Marine, cute, and good at making conversation. We decided to meet up. Our first date was awful: he took me on a motorcycle, drove like a psychopath, and was generally way too intense. But I was young and confused---the next day comes and I told myself that maybe I was just overreacting, and he was harmless and decided to agree on a second date a few days later. We met up at a sports bar for dinner and a couple of beers, so we can watch the hockey game. The entire time we are sitting there, Rick has his arm around me and has me literally attached to his hip, constantly trying to make out with me, and is acting extremely possessive. At this point, I’m completely freaked out because I barely know this guy and all he is talking to me is about our future and how he would be such a protective boyfriend because he was an ex-Marine. At this point, I knew I was done with him, but unfortunately, my car was at his house.
When we are done and head home, he insists that I come inside and hang out for a bit. I decide to walk in and stay for five minutes (yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking). We walk into his room, and he immediately pounces on me, making out with me and trying to feel me up. I kept pushing his hands away and kept telling him that I needed to get going but I could tell he wasn’t going to give up until he got what he wanted, especially after I realized his little friend was aroused. He told me that he would not let me leave until we “did something.”
I had no idea what he would have forced me to do if I kept rejecting his advances, so I decided that my only way out of there was to finish him off. So I did. And the entire time I’m trying to act like I’m enjoying it while dying inside and hoping he would hurry up and finish, so I can quickly leave. Luckily, I only used my hands and luckily it took him a few minutes to finish before I literally ran out that door and sped home.
6. Dumpster Drivers
Around 9pm, I heard the tell-tale rumble that meant the forecasted storm was about to start. I couldn't recall if I had rolled up my car window when I got home, so I went out to check. It was already dark out, and I live in a part town that isn't big on street lights so at night sometimes it's hard to even stay on the sidewalk without crashing into bushes.
The dumpsters are about 200-300 feet from my car on our U-shaped street, tucked into a corner that backs into trees and a small creek. I live on the back of the building, so once I round that corner you can't see me from my car nor the dumpsters. I got out to my car. As I rounded that corner, I could see what looked like a flashlight in the dumpster. I turn to see someone climbing out of the dumpster and start shining the light in the other dumpster.
My daughter had left her window down too, so I walked around to her door and rolled her window up too. I slammed her door shut a bit harder than I meant to, and since I was then facing the dumpsters I could see the dumpster man freeze and swing his light in my direction. He immediately switched it off and right as I started to walk back inside, he started full on sprinting toward my direction.
My usually sedentary ass has never moved so fast as I noped back on to the sidewalk and to the back of the building. I quietly opened and shut my door, locked in hopes that with eight apartments back here, he wouldn't know where I was. Or maybe he was running for reasons entirely unrelated to me. Or maybe he was just screwing with me and is now having a laugh with his friends about the lady he just scared the snot out of.
7. Doggone Deadly
It's about 10:00 PM and my wife Alexa and I are lying down watching a film in our living room when the neighbor's dog goes off. After five minutes, I get up off the couch and decide to walk over to our neighbor's home and say something. As I headed outside and made it to their driveway, unfortunately, I noticed that the neighbor wasn't home; their only car not there. I decided anyway to walk up to the door and ring the bell. After a minute of no one answering, I gave up and went home
Of course, not long after that, the dog starts up again. This time, it sounded vicious. I got up, went outside and approached our neighbor's fenced-off backyard and saw the dog, who must've heard or saw me coming. It stopped barking, walked up to me and began to pant in the cute way dogs do. I chuckled and said the dog's name, to which he looked at me and sat down. Such a good animal, even if he's so loud.
I then heard something that sounded like somebody walking through leaves coming from behind me and to the right. I turn around to see somebody looking at me from behind a gravestone in the cemetery next door. The dog must've heard this as well, as it sprung up and began to bark in the direction of the gravestone. I looked towards my house where I saw Alexia standing near her car, looking at me with a confused look on her face. Then thee person reveals himself from behind the gravestone; his forehead and cheek were stained red with blood, dripping down off of his chin. In his hand was some sort of dagger.
I yelled to Alexa to call the police. She said "Why, the dog?" to which I replied, "He's freaking armed." Probably confused, Alexia went inside to grab her phone as I continued to watch on as the person now began to back off, the dog now going berserk. It was going to take a bit of time for someone to reach our home, so I readied myself to go into self-defense as I watched the man finally turn around and walk away towards the back of the cemetery and towards the woods.
When the police finally arrived, the person was long gone, and I was stuck there explaining to a couple of skeptical officers about my encounter. When the police left after finding no trace of anyone, Alexia and I didn't feel much better.
8. Creepy On Rye With No Lettuce
I went to high school in a big city and left around 4 pm with my friends like any regular day. We walked to the subway and stopped to get some food on the way. I got a sandwich to go and we continued walking to the train. We parted ways since we all took different trains to get home and I walked all the way to the end of the platform so that I would get on at the front of the train when it arrived. I was starving so once I got to the end of the platform I sat down and started going at this sandwich.
I heard the train coming so I went to take my last bite and this giant man appeared literally out of nowhere and smacked the sandwich right out of my hand before it reached my mouth. I saw my sandwich skid across the platform in slow motion and I just sat there with my mouth open and hands frozen in shock. He just stared at me for a second, didn’t say anything, then kept walking down the platform.
I jumped up and ran onto the train and it was pretty crowded, so I ended up standing and facing the platform. The doors took an eternity to close and this man walked back and forth a few times with his eyes locked on me but didn’t get onto the train (thank God). To this day I have no idea why this random man felt the need to ruin a perfectly good sandwich and scare the snot out of me.
9. From Playdate to Child Abduction
I was kidnapped as a child.
We had a babysitter named Vicky, who helped out with us a lot. She'd play games with me, and do my hair, play dress-up, pretty basic stuff. So anyhow, one day I had gone with friends down to the park. I remember there was a ball field at the time, and a sandlot next to the field. My friends wanted to play on the monkey bars, but I wanted to play in the sand. I looked at the sandbox and my babysitter Vicky was standing there. I told my friends I was going down to the sandbox and ran off.
We played in the sand, building a castle, and then she asked me if I wanted to go get something cold to drink. It was stifling hot, and I, of course, said yes. So she takes my hand and we start walking to her place. She starts telling me about her puppies and asking if I want to play with them. Of course, I get giddy and now can't wait to get to her house. This was where my memory had stopped and after my mom told me what happened, the rest of it flooded back.
Vicky took me to her house and locked me in a crate with her dogs. She screamed at me to be silent and threatened to have the dogs eat me. I was there for what felt like hours. I was only rescued because my parents went to the police immediately, and the friends who I'd been with gave a description of the young woman I'd walked off with. As far as I know, Vicky is still in prison for attempted kidnapping.
10. I Could Do Without the Soundtrack, Thanks
I moved into a brand-new house in a brand-new building estate in Australia. All the roads around us had been partially completed and all the other properties were marked out, but no other houses were built, excluding one that was directly opposite mine. I'd only been living there for a while when I started to hear creepy violin music late at night. But I was the only one who lived in the neighborhood...
I tried to ignore the music, but it freaked me out. And then things got weirder. At night I would see a faint flicker in the window of the empty house across from me: the flicker of a candle. What happened next was horrifying.
One night when I was gaming, I got up and walked into the dark kitchen and got a beer out of the fridge. It was dead silent excluding the faint sound coming out of my headphones. As I closed the fridge and turned around to face the desk, and saw someone's pale eyes peering into my house.
They didn't blink. They didn't move. My entire body locked up, all I could do was simply stare back as my brain was still comprehending that there was an actual person looking at me in the scariest way I could possibly ever imagine. I don't know what happened, either my head kicked into gear or my muscles loosened but my body automatically collapsed, and I fell to the floor, scurrying to hide against the wall away from the window.
The lights were still off, and I wanted to get up to turn off the PC screen, so I couldn't be seen, but my whole body just wasn't ready to cooperate. And the violin sound was back...but it sounded like it was being played with frustration, notes been missed frequently and the strings screeching. The pace of it was getting faster and faster and by this time, my dog Jeb out in the backyard had picked up on the situation and registering an unfamiliar sound, gave one solitary, deep bark.
The violin instantly stopped, and the house was finally dead silent excluding my headphones which I could hear quietly working away. I was still frozen to the carpet and it wasn't until Jeb gave a second menacing bark that I heard the figure outside the window start to walk away in the direction of my yard.
Once that first footstep hit the ground, I instantly thought of the welfare of my best mate and finally, my head connected with my extremities and my entire body kicked into overdrive. I leaped from the ground and slid across the laminated floor to the backdoor where Jeb was standing, staring into the backyard. I ducked to keep low and quietly unlocked and slid open the door.
I yanked at his scruff and as I did, he emitted a bark like I'd never heard before, a deep, bellowing "screw you right off" sound that elevated my nerves to an all-time high. We both just stood there, waiting for some form of reply and I couldn't remember how long we both just froze there, but eventually, I heard footsteps from around the side of the house begin to walk away. But not a simple walk, almost like whoever was doing it was slowly dancing in a circle, the footsteps keeping to a beat as they drifted away from the house into the distance.
I didn't sleep a wink that night. That was the last time I ever saw or heard the violin player. The following morning when the sun finally came up, I called into work sick and called the police. They scoured the lot next to mine and found footprints in the dirt, but there were so many there that it was impossible to tell whose were whose. They also told me that they've never received a report of anyone playing a violin in the area or anyone been in the fenced-off hill either. I essentially looked like an insane person, but the officers were very nice about the whole thing and offered to patrol the area for the next few nights which helped put my mind at ease. Nothing else has happened since then.
Pixabay
11. A New Meaning to Ride or Die
I’m female and I drive for Lyft at night. I’m on the shorter side at 5’4” tall and have been driving for nearly six months. I tend to drive downtown Denver especially on weekends when there is the most money to make. In this time, I’ve only had a couple truly scary encounters and I drive seven nights a week at least a couple hours a night.
The first scary one started out normally enough for that late at night. I had just dropped off a passenger in Aurora and was marking my way back towards Market Street since the bars hadn’t closed yet. I get a pick up that’s on the way. It’s a nice enough area that I don’t feel uncomfortable but anyone who knows Aurora CO knows it’s not really the best even with the few nice areas.
A couple of guys hop in, one in front one in back. Both have on hoodies and are carrying backpacks, but this is Colorado and almost 1:30 in the morning so not that odd. Where it gets odd is after they get in. I give my normal greeting, but they completely ignore me shove their backpacks onto the floor and pull their hoods up while shielding their faces from the windows with their hands. I was instantly uncomfortable, and I could feel something was off.
It was only a 10-minute drive and we were in a secluded area so I decided the safest thing I could do was complete the ride. I could feel my fight or flight instinct kicking in. Within about a minute I had decided if they tried anything I was going to crash my car. Neither one had put on a seat belt, so I figured that would be my best chance. Once we arrive at the location they wanted to be dropped off at I could tell it was not a good area. Bars on all the windows, trash everywhere, and cars in disrepair.
They get out but don’t shut my doors and start whispering to each other while glancing at me. One of them has his hand in his pocket fidgeting with something (I have no idea what). At this point, I’ve had enough and step on the gas driving off with the doors open. I have no idea what they were planning but I do know I was terrified from the moment they pulled their hoods up.
12. The Ninja Turtles Wouldn’t Stand for This
I had an argument with my girlfriend, so I decided to take a walk and cool off. Live in a small city and it was around midnight so not many people around. Most of the walk was normal. I had calmed down about half way and just wanted to get home, so I was walking down a sparsely lit street and a figure with a hood on was standing on the edge of the sidewalk across the street from me with a parking lot behind him. I'm on the opposite side of the road, but as soon as I noticed him, my heart begins to pump faster, and fight or flight kicks in instantly. As soon as he's out of my immediate line of sight, I notice he has silently made it halfway across the street towards me. It freaked me out.
I was just getting to a line of apartments on my left, and each apartment had small porches with lights on each one. I could see my shadow in front of me, and the figure's quickly closing in behind me. My mind is racing, I'm fast walking, and I see the shadow within arms distance. This entire encounter has been five seconds, six at most. I've decided fight is my only option, so I twist up the plastic bag in my right hand with a big Gatorade in it and I'm about to duck and swing high while turning right to surprise him and hopefully catch him off guard, so I can run while he regains his stamina.
Just then, as I'm coming up to the end of the line of cars parked to my right, a woman holding a baby and a child following her (four years old or so) turn the corner from behind an SUV. She made eye contact with me and I felt instant relief. Still no sound from shadow guy behind me. As I'm passing the family, I turn to look behind me and see nothing, anywhere. I continue looking behind me the entire jog home, but nothing. Nobody. I didn't even see where the woman with the kids went. I'm not deaf, no hearing problems at all. I know somebody or something was about to attack me that night, but the complete lack of sound from it freaked me out to my core and still bothers me today.
13. My Phone Died so I Could Live
It was the summer after junior year, and we were dumb. Our friend, Sam, rolled up with a trunk full of fireworks, and we decided that it would be fun to go set them off in an empty field a mile away from the house. As we all piled into Sam’s car and started driving, a man stepped into the road and blocked our way. He was huge and covered in tattoos. Probably 6’3" or so, with long dark hair pulled back into a ratty ponytail. Sam honked the horn as the man stood in front of our car yelling obscenities at us. Finally, my friend has had enough and whipped the car around him while flipping the guy the bird.
A couple minutes later we got to the field and set up the fireworks. As we all hid around the edges of the grass, Sam stepped forward and lit the fireworks up. Seconds later, the firework ignited and exploded, much louder than any of us had expected. I panicked and ran back to Sam’s car with him, and he slammed on the gas and flew out of the parking lot onto the main road. As we neared the entrance to my friend’s neighborhood, it dawned on Sam that he had left the rest of the guys back at the field.
So, he stopped the car and made me get out, so he could go retrieve the other guys. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go with him, but it didn’t matter. It was a nice summer night and I sat down on the sidewalk near the entrance of the neighborhood and pulled out my phone. After a couple minutes of phone games, it died in my hands. I sat back and enjoyed the weather, waiting for the headlights to come back down the road, when I heard a slight noise behind me.
I turned my head, expecting to see a bird or windblown branches or something, but the streetlight outlined the figure of the man from earlier. He had crept up behind me while I was sitting there. He locked eyes with me and I was immediately struck by the wild look in them, like he was both looking at me and looking through me at the same time. I got up and backed away slowly, then turned and started walking away from him. He kept pace behind me and began to yell at me. “HEY YOU! GET BACK HERE!”
I increased my pace and he continued to match it, screaming at me the entire way. Eventually, I was full-out sprinting away from him and I heard him slow down. I tore down the sidewalk back to the parking lot of the field and reunited with my friends before relaying the story to them. As we drove back, we searched the area for him, but he was nowhere to be found. It dawned on me that if my phone hadn’t died, I probably would not have noticed the footsteps of the man and probably would have not had such a fortunate outcome. So, crazy tattooed man, let’s not meet.
14. Never Too Young to be Creepy
There was this little boy in my class who had a huge crush on me. He always cheered for me. If the class had an assignment for giving a presentation, he would cheer for me the loudest. One time he had mistaken another girl with the same name's birthday as mine. He was so excited, clapping his hands and saying happy birthday. When given a choice for partners he'd always choose me. Learning from my teacher that it's impolite to turn someone down I never did. When I was younger I didn't know what it was, but I was always creeped out by him. When he chose me for his partner, I was uncomfortable.
One day after lunch we waited in the halls as my class took a bathroom break. It usually took a while so people usually sit down. We would play all sorts of little games in groups. However, that day I decided I didn't want to play games, so I sat alone. A few moments later, he walked up to sit beside me without saying anything.
A few seconds go by and he slips his hand under my butt! I knew it was wrong and that I didn't like it at all. I was so disgusted, but I kept quiet. From then on my fear of him tripled.
15. You Won’t Find a Gym There...
I never paid much heed to walking home at night, until one Friday evening in late July. I was on my way home from work at around 9:15, it was still semi-bright out as I lived fairly north in Canada; It wasn’t a huge town at about 55,000 people at the time, so it was fairly busy on Friday nights. As I was walking along the sidewalk parallel a parking lot with my headphones in, some dude in a truck is trying to get my attention and motioning me to come to his window. I pulled my headphones out and he was asking me something about a gym.
Now being a young dude working at a pizza place with adults of varying ages, I didn’t think anything of this mid 40s guy asking me for help. It wasn’t until I actually approached his window and he grabbed my pants by the belt that I realized what was happening. Like I said earlier, I was sort of a skinny dude, thank God I had my belt on super tight.
He was asking me where the closest gym was, asking if I worked out, telling me I sure looked like I worked out...all while trying to get his hand down my pants. I was pretty shaken up, but I kid you not, I had a flashback to those Bert and Gert PSAs (a little late mind you...) and remembered the stuff about making an excuse to stop talking to some stranger.
So once I got a grip and could stop stuttering about not knowing where a gym was, I told this dude I was diabetic and needed to get home to take my insulin! I felt his grip on the top of my belt loosen and I booked it home. I didn’t tell my parents when I got home, or my friends at school or work. I actually don’t recall telling anyone about it. So I guess the moral of the story is... STAY ALERT, STAY SAFE
16. Do You Have the Wrong Number?
I used to get phone calls from a private number at night. Whoever it was would just stay on the line and breathe.
Now you may be wondering why I would still answer these creepy calls. My phone number is a digit away from a local police line. So I usually got calls from people trying to reach the police and would direct them to the right number. I figured the calls were wrong numbers at first, but after a few months that was obviously not the case. It didn’t bother me until one night.
I was out with some friends around 9 pm when I got a call from an anonymous number. I step aside to answer and am greeted with the ever so lovely, “You freaking b****” etc. etc. I quickly hung up. This wasn’t my callers usual MO. About 20-30 minutes later when my boyfriend and I got back to his place, I started getting call after call, getting screamed at.
The person on the line would be screaming saying they were going to get me, kill me, you name it. At one point my boyfriend picks up the phone—he was incredibly angry and screamed back (I’m not with this person anymore). He’s silent for a minute and hangs up. At this point, my boyfriend tells me to call the police. The caller told him that they knew where we were, where I lived, and that they were going to kill me and my family, along with other threats.
So now we’re pretty spooked and decide to call the cops. Since we live in a pretty safe town with not much for the cops to do, so they come to us and basically say there’s not much to do in this situation. It’s obviously a gross prank going too far. At this point, another call comes in. The officer picks up my phone, interrupts their screaming and answers with, “Hello, yes this is officer ______.” The caller hung up and never called again.
17. Armed With Nothing but Confusion
Here’s a little bit of backstory. This happened back in the fall of 2016. I was a newlywed, 18, and moved halfway across the country to live with my husband. I was in a new town and had no friends. My husband deployed in the early spring of 2016. A few months into deployment I was lonely and wanted to head home.
I decided to make the 16-hour trek home, alone. I packed up my essentials and my cats. I left at 11 pm because I couldn’t sleep. I was about four hours into my drive and I was growing tired. I pulled into a well-lit public rest stop so I could catch some shuteye. I pulled my car into a spot right under a light and I made sure cars were nearby.
It’s about three in the morning at this time and I fall asleep. Next thing I know I hear a knuckled tapping on my driver’s side window. Sleepily I wake up and see an older man (about mid-forties) kneeling down to my window. Stupidly I open my driver side door.
Man: “Please don’t shoot me!”
Me: “Um, I won’t. What do you want?”
Man: “My wife and I are stranded here. We need money. Do you have some? We’re right over here (points to the van parked in the dark off behind him) if you want to follow me.”
Me: “Uh...no man, I’m good. I don’t have any money, I’m sorry.” (At this point I’m beginning to feel like something is wrong).
Man: “Aw, come on. I swear I’m up to no harm. Come over to my van, my wife is in there.”
Me: “Sorry, but I have no money. I’m using the rest of my money to go home.”
Man: “Alright miss, God bless. God bless.”
With that, he stumbles off to the next car on my right to do the same thing. By now I’m wide awake and I’m feeling scared. I turn on my car and peel out of the lot. I don’t know what he wanted. I didn’t see a woman in the van he kept pointing at, but I didn’t want to find out. Man in the rest stop parking lot who most likely wanted to kidnap me, let’s not meet again.
18. This Isn’t My Stop…
The school bus driver was always friendly enough. He was an overweight, white man, probably in his 50s.
I got on the van one morning as I always did. I think it was March. (In Minnesota, so it was still quite cold outside). I was looking at my iPod, not really paying attention. When we stopped, I looked up, assuming we were at the next stop. I looked up to discover that we were at his house. He didn't say a word to me. He got out of the vehicle and went inside.
I was alone, and absolutely petrified. Until that point, I always thought that people were exaggerating when they said they were "paralyzed with fear," but I absolutely was. You hear those stories, you know, of young girls getting kidnapped. I really thought he was going to rape and/or kill me. A million thoughts were running through my head. Do I call 911? Do I hide? Do I get out and run? (I knew someone who lived nearby). But instead, I just sat there, frozen. I have no idea how long he was inside, but it couldn't have been very long, because he came back (again, still not saying a word) and we continued on the route.
I told my parents about it when I got home. They thought it was odd, but figured he probably had just forgotten something or really had to pee. They told me to tell them about it if it happened again. It did. The second time (I think it was a few weeks later), I looked up, and saw that we were at his house again. It was the same—no explanation, he just parked and went inside, leaving me in the van by myself.
In the end, nothing happened. But the whole thing left my utterly freaked out.
19. I Don’t Like This Song
So this is one of many stories my dad told me when I was a little girl about his adventures hitchhiking when he was a few years younger than my age now (28.) He’s a super deadhead and him and a friend named John followed them on the road with nothing but their acoustics and some cash. Apparently, they got to Georgia at one point and were getting tired but needed to make it a few towns over in order to see the Dead the following day. They walked miles and tried to catch a ride for hours to no avail, and started to lose hope when a beat-up pickup truck stopped and let them in.
My dad got in the front and John got in the back, thanked him and fell asleep, leaving my dad awake with this guy driving them. According to him, things were bad right from the start. The driver asked where they were headed and why they had guitars and asked if my dad knew how to play well. My dad told him about the Grateful Dead and how he did play and usually picked a banjo but left it back home. So the guy gets super creepy and says, “I’ve always wanted to kill me one of them guitar boys.”
My dad started freaking out at this point and said he just laughed it off but tried to be as unnoticeable as possible while attempting to wake up John. Things kept getting more tense; he asked the guy if he’d mind pulling into a gas station, he said no. He asked how long until they would get to the next town, no response and he eventually went completely silent.
After a few HOURS of driving (with John waking up in the meantime,) the guy got really eccentric and asked if they’d ever seen a “bad death.” He started driving the truck into mailboxes and street signs, and eventually HIT A STRAY DOG WHILE LAUGHING MANIACALLY. My dad and John laughed right along with him until he finally stopped at a gas station and they were able to get their things and take off. They ended up missing the show, but I’m glad my dad wasn’t the "guitar boy" the guy was looking for.
20. No Star Diner
So this happened when I was 17. I was working at a failing seafood restaurant.
To make things easier I’ll just call the creepy chef “creep.” He’s in his mid-to-late-40s, salt n pepper hair, nothing throws you off by just seeing his physical appearance. I deeply love everything 60s and 70s, and so creep and I would sometimes talk about music especially rock n roll. He seemed like a cool guy, someone who claimed he saw so many of the bands that I drool over daily. It seemed nice to work with someone who generally shared the same interests. We bonded over the fact we both had pretty messed up family lives. So we instantly became work buddies.
The restaurant was slow. Me and the busgirl were having a conversation. Laughing, smiling, and joking in the kitchen. This changed in less than five seconds when creep came right behind me and says by my ear “this wouldn’t be so funny if I had chloroform.” I turn around and look at him thinking "freaking weirdo, who jokes about things like that?" His eyes were blank, he was staring at me, but it felt as though his eyes were burning an imprint on my face. The staring lasted a couple of seconds but eventually, I just turned and just walked away. I really didn’t know how to react.
Throughout the next week creep would stare at me through the kitchen window while I was working. I tried to avoid going to the kitchen but that was nearly impossible when it was my job to transport dishes from the tables back to the kitchen. Twice more while in the kitchen the situation repeated itself. I was talking to a fellow coworker and creep would drop whatever he was doing and interrupt the conversation with “Well it wouldn’t be so fun if I had chloroform on me.”
At this point, he had mentioned chloroform to me three times. I was freaked out. Luckily, I stopped working there a few weeks later because I was leaving to travel Europe for the summer. When I returned the restaurant was already shut down, so I didn’t see creep ever again after this. I wish I would’ve told my manager at the least, I don’t know what I was thinking. I clearly wasn’t. No one should have to feel that threatened at their workplace.
21.
Smile, You’re on Camera
My dad went out and bought an AV transmitter/receiver. It was basically a two-piece bit of hardware where you would plug this tiny box into the cable TV in the lounge room and it would transmit a video signal to the receiver, connected to the TV in my room. So one Saturday, I decided to connect it. My younger sister (16 at the time) was the only other person home at the time, upstairs in her room (my room was downstairs).
So I turned it on, but the signal got mixed up and I ended up getting video from someone else's camera nearby. As I realized the box was off, the picture fuzzed in, and I saw a bed. I FREAKED out, as at first, I thought it was my bed.
Eventually, my parents came home, and we concluded that it would have to be a neighbor, or someone living close by, for us to be receiving the signal. We waited around until about 6pm, and then someone came onto the screen. My dad recognized it as one of our neighbors. We still didn't know what the camera was for, but we assumed it had something to do with fidelity. Either his wife or he had set it up to watch the other and see if they were cheating. That was our assumption...until one day, we turned it on, and realized what we had discovered.
Our neighbors were having a bunch of renovations done to their house. We started watching the feed during the day while they were out, and saw a man walk into their room. It was the plumber that had been there regularly for the renovations. We didn’t think anything of it, until he started opening drawers. He slowly walked over to the camera and look right down the freaking lens. We were CONVINCED that he knew we were watching. Mum immediately called dad. I kept watching. He started fiddling with it and then put it back down. I told mum that I don't think he knew we were watching, but he's definitely the guy that put the camera there. Dad came home, and by this time the plumber had left. Much to mums pleading, dad went over to the neighbors to tell them what we saw. Mum wanted to completely stay out of it and was terrified, understandably.
When we told the neighbors, they had NO IDEA what we were talking about. They allowed dad to go up to their room, and what he found (that was holding the camera) was an installed device in the wall that was designed to monitor water usage (which was completely normal, at the time, as Brisbane had been hit with a drought recently and there were lots of water restrictions, still is now I think).
The plumber had installed this into the wall but had fitted a camera behind it in the wall to watch the bed. Immediately they called the police, who came over and conducted an investigation. For the next week or so we didn't hear much about it. I spent most of this time just telling my friends, showing them pictures, but truthfully my whole family was scared every night. It was just very creepy thinking that we could have stuff like that hidden in our house.
It still scares me so much that it was just this creepy plumber sitting back in there on a laptop watching a hidden camera stream of my neighbors. Anyway, that's my story. It's all true, and still creeps me out to this day, but my friends and I have a good laugh about it.
22. Nothing Says Fraternal Bonding Like Fear for Your Lives
My brother is a Green Beret. Tough guy. Just before he went away for a tour of duty, he thought it would be nice to take me on a backpacking trip in northern Alabama (the Sipsey Wilderness for those familiar with the area) before he left for nine months. I think we made a mistake.
The trip went smoothly up until the third night we were camping out. Around 8 pm, we had our camp set up, eaten dinner and were sitting by the fire talking about typical boy stuff—guns, girls, etc. For some reference, our spot was about 50 yards from a large stream, and about 50 yards downhill adjacent to the large path. Our camp, the stream, and the path formed a triangle of sorts.
Eventually, two guys came up to our site and asked if we had seen any hogs while we were hiking around. Given that this is rural Alabama, we actually had seen some farther into the wilderness area and told them so. They were polite (my brother called them "good ole boys") but I got a seriously creepy vibe from them—dirty clothes, greasy hair, scraggly facial hair, etc. I think they probably looked like they belonged in the movie Deliverance.
Fast forward three or four hours. My brother and I had gone to sleep and were nestled in our tent when I woke to the sound of multiple dogs barking. I've always been a heavy sleeper and they sounded like they were only about 100 yards away. My heart immediately started pounding and I kicked my brother through my sleeping bag and asked if he was awake/had heard the dogs.
He responded, "I'm awake, they've been getting closer for the past hour or so, just lay still and don't make any sounds." Needless to say, 12-year-old me was about to poop my pants. We would also hear sporadic shouts from several different sources but neither came any closer. A few minutes later my brother whispered, "Wake up, put your shoes on quick and follow me, be as quiet as you can."
My heart immediately went back to racing because I heard the dogs and voices in the distance, farther away than before but still distinct. Not asking any questions I did what he said and as soon as we were out of the tent he told me to get on his back (this was a breeze for him after rucking with God knows how much weight in the Army). We snuck about 50 yards into the woods towards the junction of the path and the stream and crawled into some bushes. It was up a hill so we had a pretty good elevated view of our campsite.
I remember as we were laying there how loudly I was breathing and how quiet he was when I heard the very distinct sound of a pistol slide racking. I looked over and my brother had his pistol (an HK USP that he gave to me a few years after this story took place) and was watching the campsite and surrounding area. I started to whisper to him when he put his hand over my mouth and pointed at the campsite.
The group of hunters had been steadily approaching our camp and by this time (30 or so minutes) had reached it. There were five of them and like three or four dogs. They all looked relatively young but two had either rifles or shotguns and the dogs were going crazy, obviously having smelled our scent.
They lingered for about 20 minutes shining flashlights around and talking to themselves when my brother put his mouth to my ear and said "If they come towards I want you to turn and run as quickly as you can, don't stop, don't look back, stay off the trail, and look for the flashing lights" (I didn't know what he meant by this but that'll come later). I knew I could make it back because he had taught me "land nav" pretty well. He then handed me a flashlight and told me not to take the red filter off. He told me later that the red filter helps preserve night vision and cuts down ambient light, so it would be harder for someone to see from a distance.
At this point, I was so scared I almost started crying, but at the same time had a rush of adrenaline and what I think now was confidence that he thought I could handle myself. We laid there for a while longer when out of nowhere they started screaming "WHERE Y'ALL AT?!?!" and firing into the woods at random. My brother dragged me back behind the crest of the hill and threw himself on top of me. Thankfully our position on top of the hill we were protected from any gunfire.
They shot maybe five or six more times and then started walking back the direction they had come. They got maybe 100 yards away when I heard a blaring siren and saw emergency lights flashing through the woods. Turns out my brother had called the Forest Service Office on a satellite phone my family has for emergencies while I was asleep and they had sent out Forest Service officers and game wardens to our area of the wilderness. The Sipsey Wilderness is about 25,000 acres in size, so it took them a while to get there on the dirt roads.
When we saw the game warden truck, my brother signaled them with the light and pointed them in the direction the hunters had gone and the guy sped off shining his spotlight through the woods. As soon as they were all gone we went back to our camp, packed up our stuff and waited by the path for the game warden to come back, who then gave us a ride in his truck bed back to the main staging area.
On the drive back my brother told me how brave I had been and that we would talk about it with our parents the next day if I wanted to. I asked him not to do that because I thought they might never let me go camp again. Creepy rednecks in the woods, let’s not meet again, you might get shot next time.
23. Prince Charmless
I worked at a camping resort in rural western Virginia. At 17, it was my first job. One day, a big burly mountain man type came into the store. He was in his late 40s/early 50s, probably 6’5”, and about 280 lbs. He looked dirty, like he worked outside a lot; his clothes were sort of tattered and he had a long beard. He bought some basic items, one of which was one of our homemade bars of soap. When he came to the register, he looked me up and down carefully. He didn’t talk for a minute, just stared. His people skills clearly needed work.
“Did you make this soap?” He asked gruffly. “Sometimes,” I replied. “Bet the boys 'round here are itchin’ to marry you,” he said as he smiled to himself. I said nothing. I told Krista (mom’s friend/boss) about the bizarre encounter and she laughed it off; so did my family and friends. There was a whole bunch of other creepy, disturbing comments in the next few months, but what really pushed things over the edge happened one night about 6 months after I met him.
I was closing up, and it was late, around 10 at night. Krista had left about an hour before, and I was leaving by myself. The only two cars in front of the store were an old blue pickup and mine; I was immediately alarmed because I knew Mountain Man drove a blue pickup. But I didn’t see him in the lot, just his car, so I walked quickly to my car and checked the backseat before I started her up. But then when I first turned the key into the ignition, I got nothing but sputters. I tried several more times and got scared quickly. Just as I was reaching for my phone to call for help, there was a loud pounding on the driver’s side window. I’m shocked that I didn’t piss myself.
I immediately knew it was him. He smiled a big grin at me, showing me exactly which teeth were missing. “Need some help?” He said loudly through the window. I shook my head furiously. He started pounding on the window, and I screamed. He clearly wasn’t getting the message, so I pulled out my phone and called 911. I must have sounded hysterical to the dispatcher, and I knew she could hear him pounding. She said she would have officers out ASAP, but out here, that could be a while. In the meantime, I screamed at him to “GET AWAY FROM ME!” He started swinging at the driver’s side window with the crowbar. I ducked down into the passenger seat on the floor and covered the back of my neck like they teach you in tornado drills. I heard the sickening crack of the window but not for long; suddenly, I heard male voices shouting, telling MM to get away from the car. I sat up and saw two men approaching, one with a shotgun pointed at MM.
Anyway, eventually the police showed up, they took him away and I gave them my statement; I was pretty shaken up for a while afterward.
24. A Doctor Should not Make Housecalls
A week or so before my 10th birthday, I walked to the corner store with a $5 bill and picked up a jar of Ragu for my mom. On my way home, a man I'd never seen before fell in step with me and began talking. I walked along silently, not replying and fervently hoping he would take that as a sign he should leave me alone. Subtleties were not his strong suit, though, because he kept right on chattering. Thankfully, we were nearing my house, so I ran forward, up the back steps and into through the kitchen door. I didn't know it then, but that was the beginning of a very long, very scary ordeal. It didn't take long after that for "Dr. Ramsey" (which is what he called himself) to begin showing up. At first, it seemed benign enough...at least to a kid. He would drive by nearly every day, smiling and waving. I told my mom, who said maybe it was on his way home from work. But then, the phone calls began.
Then one day dad called me into the living room, and sat me down. He asked about the day Dr. Ramsey followed me home, and if I talked to him. He said I wasn't in trouble, but that I needed to tell him the truth. I told him no, and he asked if I was sure...could I be forgetting something? I told him no again, and he frowned, then asked: "Then how does he know your name?" I didn't know.
Things got complicated after that. My dad had called the police, but as this was before there were any stalking laws, there was not a lot they could do. They told my parents to call back if he "tried anything." When access to me was completely denied, things escalated. It was around this time he began threatening my sister as well.
Then one afternoon my sister, two of my brothers, my mom and I were in the kitchen. One of my brothers saw a glimpse of someone in the garage; they'd seen him too. Dr. Ramsey came bolting out of the garage, my brothers chasing after him. They ran all the way to Cherokee Park, where he lost them in the trees. My parents called the police again, but nothing came of it. The only information they had was a description and a name that was almost certainly fake.
My parents had to go to a company event for my dad's work. My older brothers were at Saints West roller-skating rink. My sister was on the phone with her best friend. My little brother was on the floor asleep. I was watching Devo on the Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack. It was late. Suddenly, the top of the French doors swung inward, and in the few milliseconds before the nails in the bottom caused them to snap back, I could see his silhouette.
My sister whipped the phone at the television, and we ran up the stairs. About halfway up, we realized our little brother was still asleep on the living room floor. As quietly as we could, we slipped back down the stairs to get him. We all went into our bedroom and didn't turn on the light; this way we could see outside. We watched out the window for a while, and when we didn't find him, we crept down the hall to our brothers' room to look.
We looked down and could see someone standing at the backdoor. He knocked, loudly. "What do you want?" my sister asked out the window. He stepped back and said "Is this the Mercy residence? I have a pizza for delivery. Can you come to the door?" She scoffed at him, declaring she was not stupid, she could see he didn't have a pizza, and she was calling the cops. He left.
We were at the table playing crazy eights, and my brother was restless. My sister asked him what's wrong, and he said he always felt like any minute now there would be a 'boom boom boom!' on a door or window. Almost immediately after he finished his sentence, "BOOM BOOM BOOM!" on the window right behind him. In the chaos, the two eldest ran out, but he was already gone.
A couple of weeks later, I was at school and we were outside on the playground during recess. I was swinging upside down when I saw that now-familiar blue Ford Galaxy cruising by, moving slowly. There he was, smiling and waving. He called my name, and I ran to the teacher and told her. The school had been told all about him, and she took me inside right away and called my mom. That same day my mom had gotten a call from the school office asking her to verify that my dad was picking me up, as he'd called to say he was on his way. He wasn't.
These events, and many more, took place over a period of around 18 months. Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. He had vanished from our lives; the phone calls, the drive-by with the creepy waves, everything. For a long time, during and after the Dr. Ramsey days, I would have a recurring nightmare in which I would wake up to find him standing over me as I slept. It took a long time before I felt like a kid again.
25. Unwelcome Visitors
One night after having a few drinks, I came home to my small house where I lived with two other girls, probably around 2:30am. That night my roommates had had a few people over whom I didn't know, and I saw when I returned home that one of them had opted to sleep on the couch from the shadow that I saw there (I didn't turn the light, so I wouldn't wake anyone up). But as I was passing the couch to enter my bedroom, I noticed that the figure was lying very stiff--like he was putting all of his energy into lying as still and rigid as possible. I paused, and the guy quickly jerked his head to face me, without moving his limbs, so quickly that it startled me. I could see his wide-open eyes glinting in the dark.
Figuring that I'd startled him or that he was drunk or maybe on some kind of stimulant and unable to sleep, I just hurried past into my bedroom and locked the door. The dude made me nervous and I wasn't taking any chances. I fell asleep. At 4:30 am I woke up. There was a strange sound at the door almost like somebody was drumming their fingers against the wood very quietly.
I lay still and listened. There were more quiet sounds like someone scratching the door with their fingers, which got louder and louder until it was clear that he was using both hands and scratching as fast and as hard as possible. It created an extremely loud and intimidating sound that filled me with fear.
I got my cell phone and texted my roommate because I was afraid to make a sound. "Your friend is freaking me out, is he coked out? Can you talk to him? He's banging and scratching on my door." She didn't text me back, probably because she was asleep. I texted my other roommate to the same effect, covering all my bases. Keep in mind that the scratching has been going on at this point for a couple of minutes. I have no idea how he could have sustained it, scratching a wooden door with your fingernails can't feel good. He also grabbed at the knob and jiggled it super forcefully.
Because neither of them answered, I decided to call and really wake them up, though I was scared to make a sound. I know it sounds stupid but there was something seriously horrifying about being teased like this through the door. I knew that he was trying to terrify me. I felt like a little kid but I could tell this guy was up to something and maybe the police needed to be called, and I wanted to loop my roommates in since it was one of their friends.
The scratching stopped abruptly, and I called my roommate, who answered sleepily. "Yo, your friend is messed up, can you please deal with it? Do we need to call the cops? He's seriously scaring me and he was scratching at my bedroom door, really weird." She didn't say anything for several seconds and when she did speak, her voice had no sleepiness in it at all. "What friend?" She said.
"That guy that was sleeping on the couch!" I said. She was quiet again. "We didn't have any guys over," she said. "Call the police." My adrenaline surged, and I told her to please lock the bedroom door as quickly as possible. I realized that I hadn't heard scratching in a while and I had no clue where the dude had gone.
Suddenly I heard a loud banging in the other end of the house, where my roommates, Lauren and Monica, shared a bedroom. The bangs were followed by the sound of them screaming in fear. I quickly dialed the police as this maniac proceeded to bang against the (luckily) locked bedroom door of my two roommates as they screamed. The heaviness of the blows left no doubt that he was trying to break the door down.
I'd told the 911 operator the situation and she'd dispatched two squad cars. At one point the banging stopped and everything was quiet for a while. I talked with the dispatcher and suddenly looked down to see that this guy had slipped his fingers through the 1-inch gap between my door and the floor and was just kind of waggling them around, making this weird growling sound. I screamed and backed away, which is my biggest regret about this situation, since when I look back it would have been so awesome to just stomp the heck out of those fingers and hear the guy howl in pain.
When the cops rolled up, I heard running and the sound of our sliding glass door opening and closing, and then he was gone. The cops never caught him. He had broken in through our side door by jimmying the lock somehow. My door was covered in what turned out to be huge gauges he'd made using a pair of scissors, which he discarded on the ground before he left.
What terrifies me most about this was that I walked right past him. I looked him right in the face. I realize now that he was not trying to sleep or on drugs but was lying so stiff like that because he was hiding. He probably heard me open the door and freaked out because he hadn't realized there was another girl living there and tried to blend into the couch in the darkness.
26. Leave It, Don’t List It
Amanda is my brother's girlfriend. At the time of this story, she was looking for her first apartment. Browsing Craigslist, she found an ad titled something like "Roommate Wanted: Females Only." The listing was for a room in a house for about $225 a month, which was quite cheap compared to most of the places listed. The occupant listed herself as a 23-year-old college student. When Amanda arrives for a viewing, she knocks on the backdoor and an older man opens up. The man reassures her and says that the occupant (I forget the name) was out and he was the landlord. He seemed pleasant and offered to show her around.
Alarms start going off but aren't at red alert yet. First, the guy was clearly in his 40s, unshaven, and looked like he lived in his car. Also, only the kitchen light was on. As they walked around the house, Amanda noticed one huge red flag: No furniture. Nothing. The landlord was polite about answering questions but seemed irritable to keeping lights on for too long, rushing her around and only letting her look at rooms for a few moments.
There was a single room that the landlord wouldn't open, telling her that it was the occupant's room and he didn't want to invade her privacy. As they walk down the hallway into the living room, she notices the front door has a plank nailed across it. "Broken" for sure. Amanda's creep-o-meter is started to ding so she decides to wrap up the walk-through and leave but trying to polite.
As she's giving the guy her "thanks for the showing" bit, he perks up and states that he forgot to show her the basement. It's recently furnished and would be a great rec room...and she should take a look down there. At the time, Amanda and the landlord are standing in the small hallway between the front living room and the back kitchen. In this little hallway was the basement door. When he opens the door, it opens outward to create something of a barrier between Amanda and the backdoor. The basement is pitch black. He smiles, motions down the stairs, and says "Ladies first."
What happens next is nothing more than a stroke of luck. Amanda got a text just as some random person parks in front of the house. Thinking on her feet, she pretends it's a phone call and answers her phone. "Hey! Yeah, are you here? I'll come out from around back and let you in. It's great, you have to see it." With a motion of confidence, she excuses herself around the landlord and walks out of the back door. She says the guy just looked at her like he was confused. Once outside, she sprinted to her car and sped like hell out of there. When Amanda got home, she told her mother and my brother everything. Cops were called, they took her statement, and went to investigate. The house had been foreclosed over six months earlier and the property had been abandoned. When the police investigated, they found that the closed room the "landlord" didn't want her to look in was where the man had been staying. There was a pile of old dirty blankets, rotten food, and empty gallon jugs everywhere. Creepier was he had plastered ripped up pages from porno mags on ALL the walls in the room (where do they even find porno mags!?).
Sources:
