18 People Describe The Creepiest Non-Paranormal Thing That’s Happened To Them
- 11,462 VOTES
An Arsonist In The Darkness
From Redditor /u/BridgetteBane:
When I was a kid, we'd go to these beach cabins in Maryland, right by the Chesapeake. They were small and rustic with basic comforts - nothing fancy like TVs or air conditioning. Two bedrooms and a cot in the kitchen. My siblings and I rotated on the cot so that no one got too sore from it.
A small tradition was that my mom and I would have a hot cup of tea before bed in our summer jammies. This was just our way of relaxing while everyone else went off to read or listen to music. Well, one night, I was settling onto the cot when she picked up the tea kettle to fill it. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her flinch, then say in a steady voice, "What are you doing there?" My head whipped over to the kitchenette to see her looking out the window. Then she jumped back and started screaming for my father.
Somehow he knew sh*t was getting real. He ran from the back bedroom and barely paused to see my mom point towards the left side of the house. He burst out the door and towards the left of the cabin. I'll be the first to admit I ran like a motherf*cker and baseball-slid under my parent's bed... I was 10, and that's what kids do when they're terrified. I still remember the smell of the old wood and the feel of my teddy bear shielding me from whatever the hell was happening. I remember seeing my 14-year-old brother, then a medium-ranking karate student, following my dad out of the cabin at full speed. The rest of the story is an amalgamation of what I heard and what my family filled in for me.
My father, a former Army Sergeant and MP with a Bronze Star, managed to tackle the guy that had been peeping into our kitchen window. He put him in an elbow lock facedown on the ground. My brother stood sentinel over both of them while my mom ran to get the cell phone we'd bought just two weeks earlier (this was in '95 when those suckers had cords and everything).
While my mom called 911, I remember hearing the guy talking. He was saying things like, "The Ouija board f*cking told me," "I want the devil to suck my f*cking brains out," "Satan is in cabin 10, I have to get to cabin 10," "The devil wants me to [end] myself," and so on. We were in cabin three, over half a mile from where he apparently intended to meet the devil.
My dad kept a grip on him for probably a good 15 minutes until the cops showed up. The first thing out of the one cop's mouth was, "Jamie, when'd they let you out?"
He'd been released from jail just two weeks earlier for arson. You know where he was standing when my mom was at the sink in the kitchen? Right beside the propane tank.
- 21,253 VOTES
The Man In The Woods
From Redditor /u/jake0818:
I was out hunting in Northern Ontario. There were no roads (except for a logging roads) within 130 kilometers - it was late on the bear season, so no one was out hunting in my quadrant. I found a nice campsite alongside a river and hunted from there. On the second day of my hunt, I came across the bear tracks. I tracked them for about two hours, then turned around.
This is when sh*t got very f*cking weird. I always track on one side of the tracks and return on the other. About 200 meters down the east side of the tracks, I ran into another human footprint which disappeared across the trail and into the woods on the west. My dog (Czechoslovakian Wolfdog) didn't seem to smell anything, so I returned to camp with minimal concern.
I got back to camp at around 7:30 at night. I made a quick dinner and had a cigar by the camp. At around 12:00, I heard a snap of a branch. After hunting for 20 years, I know only two things snap branches - bears and humans. I grabbed my firearm and a flashlight and went out after the noise. Every 100 yards, I would scan with the flashlight. My dog freaked and started growling and advancing into the woods slowly. I pulled back on his leash to slow his advance and switched on my flashlight. I saw a pair of eyes looking right back at me - they stared for about five seconds and disappeared into the woods. On the walk back, I felt anxious, scared, and uncomfortable, and I could feel someone watching me.
The next night, the same thing happened. My dog went wild like I have never seen... He was whimpering, growling, and clearly very anxious. At this point, I was terrified. I didn't go hunting that day and didn't close my eyes once. That night, I sat up with my flashlight constantly scanning the tree line. I guess I dozed of at around one and woke again at three. I was sweating, confused, and very scared. I scanned the forest and just barely visible, about 25 yards away, there was a man and his dog. He was looking right back at me. I stared to approach him and shouted to him. I got within 10 feet. He looked awfully disheveled and stunk. The worst part was that he just stared and smiled. His eyes showed zero emotion as he whispered, "Good night."
I ran back to my tent, packed it into my pack, loaded it onto the trailer of the ATV, and drove out of there.
- 31,134 VOTES
The Subway Stranger With Murder On His Mind
From Redditor /u/[deleted]:
A few years ago, I was visiting my girlfriend who had newly moved to New York.
We had a long wonderful weekend but we really didn't want it to end. The whole subway ride back to her place, on the last day, we were making out and generally canoodling.
Anyway, we finally get to her stop (I'm staying on to head to the bus station); as she gets up so does a large male passenger. She gets up to the door and he stands right behind her. I wave goodbye as she steps off the train. Then he (the large, male passenger) looks at me with a demonic smile, points at my girlfriend's back, and mouths the words "I'm going to kill her."
I jump up and try to get to the door but it's closed by the time I get there. I try desperately to call the police but I can't get a signal. At the next stop, I bound through the station to the surface where I call my girlfriend. She was fine, but freaked out. I ran the 14 blocks to her place and stayed with her all night rather than going home.
- 4847 VOTES
The Bag By The Side Of The Road
From Redditor /u/psychohistoric:
The summer after I graduated from high school, I worked as a highway litter crew supervisor (I drove two younger teens around and had them pick up litter on the side of the road). One day, one of the kids flagged me over to him and showed me a weird bag he'd found. The bag was a very thick, semi-translucent plastic, double-bagged, and tied off at the top with black electrical tape. It was down in a ditch covered with brush, so the kid and I dragged it to the side of the road for closer inspection. It was really heavy, and it took two of us to get it out of the ditch. Once we got it to the road side, it became apparent that the bag was filled with a reddish-brown slush and a bunch of hard pieces... bones. It was then that I realized that this was a sack filled with a rotting corpse of some kind.
I called my boss, and he told me to call the police. The police showed up pretty nonchalantly, but became visibly upset once he'd inspected the bag himself. He took down my statement and contact information then shooed us along as he called into the station for assistance. We never heard anything back from the police, and I never did find out what, or who, exactly was in the bag.
- 5740 VOTES
The Open Door
From Redditor /u/bernadactyl:
When I was a young child living in one of the high crime areas of town, I woke up in the middle of the night out of nowhere. This was something that never, ever happened to me, given how sound of a sleeper I was. I left my bedroom, went down the stairs and past the front door to get to the kitchen.
After getting a drink of water, I turned around to go back upstairs to my bedroom. The front door was open. It hadn't been open just a moment ago. Our car had been broken into a day earlier, so I was already on high alert. I stood, completely frozen, staring at that door for a good 10 minutes before I could bring myself to move.
When I finally did go over and shut the door, our porch creaked in the background as though someone was walking on it as I closed it. It was the scariest moment of my childhood. I still get the willies thinking about it.
- 6629 VOTES
Watch Out For Wally Booger
From Redditor /u/planeteater:
When I was younger, my aunt used to say (when she watched us) that if we were not good, she would take us to Wally Booger's house. One day while we were driving, we called BS on her. We were acting like little *ssholes, so she said, "That's it!" She turned around and drove to what she thought was an abandoned house to show us were he lived. When she pulled up in the driveway she said, "Do you want me to drop you off here?" All of a sudden, some skinny old man in just sweatpants came running out of the house screaming and waving a big knife. We started screaming (including my aunt), and she got the f*ck out of there. We cried for an hour and begged her to never take us there again.
Years later, I found out the gentleman had lived in his home for 15+ years without electricity. He died about five years ago, and they found some creepy sh*t in his home including bones of animals he had butchered and set up in a shrine in one of the rooms.
- 7805 VOTES
The Sleepwalker At The Campfire
From Redditor /u/DSice16:
One of my friends has some land out in the country, and he invited a group of about eight of us to go up there for the weekend. One night, we're all sitting around a fire kind of near the edge of the woods. There's been some smoking and drinking, but not enough that we were crazy or anything. Anyway, we're all joking and talking and just having a good time when suddenly, one of the guys, let's call him Mike, looks over at the woods and freezes. His face goes dark as his eyes widen and mouth slowly opens. By now, we've all frantically glanced at the forest, but see only trees. Finally, one of us breaks the silence to ask him what's wrong, and he cuts us off mid-sentence to alert us of the "hooded man in black" that's standing at the edge of the forest.
We all look over again, hoping to see nothing, but expecting to see something. Again, only trees. We reassure him that there's nobody there to which he responds, "The hooded man. He wants to kill y'all." Now, this isn't exactly what you want to be told around midnight in a remote location, especially when we're all a bit under the influence. Starting to get panicked, we joked about it, saying, "Oh, yeah, here he comes!"
But Mike's expression doesn't change. He says, "He's walking over here! He's going to kill us! TOUCH MY SHOULDER AND END THIS!" Now we're really starting to get freaked out. Plus, we have no idea what the shoulder bit means. Mike's anxiety and hostility continue to increase, and he keeps repeating "the hooded man... the man in black... he wants to kill you... touch my shoulder and end this." Finally, he bursts into tears. We sat in silence for a few minutes while he sobbed, and then his trance was broken.
After this pleasant encounter with unseen hooded murderers, Mike's buddy tells us that Mike has had a reoccurring dream his entire life of a hooded man in black killing his entire family. Then, right before he kills Mike, he touches his shoulder, and Mike wakes up.
Either way, that was the creepiest night of my life.
- 8731 VOTES
The Guests Who Wouldn't Leave
From Redditor /u/rhenzel:
I had a party at my apartment with my friends from college. We had music, beer pong, drinks... a typical party. Pretty low-key. There were only like 12 of us, just looking for something to do on a Sunday night since we had the Monday off. We live in a complex that has rows of townhomes and a huge parking lot. It was about 11:30 pm, and there was a knock at the door. Figuring it was one of our neighbors, I opened the door. There was a very pale, skinny, bleach-blonde girl standing there. She looked sickly, like a serious drug addict. She asked if any of us had a lighter, and my friend Nick gave her one. She walked into our apartment and lit her cigarette in our kitchen while everyone stood there silently and awkwardly watching her. She stood there for a minute, looking around, abruptly said, "Thanks," and walked out the door.
Our window was open, and we saw her walk down the steps to the parking lot and get in a car directly in front of our window, watching us. There was another girl and a guy in the car with her, equally sickly looking. We laughed it off, and the party went on. Every so often, however, we would look out the window, and the same car would be there - the people were always watching us.
This carried on until about 1:30 am when the three got out of their car and knocked on our door again. Nick opened it to see what they hell they wanted (he's an extremely intimidating-looking guy), and the blonde girl said with virtually no expression, "We just wanted to know if we could come in. You guys look fun. Like, beer pong fun." We politely declined, since it was late and people would be leaving soon, and she got irate and started screaming at us that we were idiots. We closed and locked the door. They walked back to their car and watched us again.
Everyone started to leave around 2:30 am. The only people left were my roommate and I, two 20-year-old females. The car was still there. Still watching. My roommate and I sat at the kitchen table, talking about what we should do, and the car started flashing their lights into our window, which went on for a few minutes. We shut the lights off and closed the blinds, but peeked through them to see what was going on. The car sat there for a few more minutes, then drove away. It was one of the most bizarre moments of my life.
- 9666 VOTES
The Bathroom Disappearance
From Redditor /u/[deleted]:
I was visiting a school in New York a few months back; I'm from the West Coast. My mom and I are on the train from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie, and this train had a bathroom on it. When we got on, it was standing room only, so we and about five other people were standing by the bathroom. This older man, about 45, starts chatting with us. He asks where we're from (we had our bags with us), what brings us to New York, and talks about how this was his daily commute. He was very kind to me and my mother.
So, as we're riding along, a man comes out of the bathroom in quite a huff, and the kind man we'd been talking to excuses himself to go to the bathroom. Remember, the train is moving at full speed at this point.
A couple of minutes later, a woman and her small child ask if the bathroom is occupied, so all of us who were standing around the bathroom answer, "Yes." Five minutes pass, then 10 minutes, until she becomes skeptical. She pulls open the door, and it's unlocked. The bathroom is empty.
There are no windows in this bathroom. There is only one door. We all agreed we hadn't seen him leave, and all of us who had been there when he went in were dumbfounded. Where had this guy gone? I never found out. I never saw him again. I still have no idea what happened.
- 10645 VOTES
A Much-Needed Oil Change
From Redditor /u/CreepyCarbs:
Being the manager of a clothing store, I sometimes help other stores out, too. A few weeks ago, I was asked by my boss to work a night shift at a store located in a different mall. I've never been to that mall before and figured working there would be interesting, so I took the shift.
The mall closed at 10:00 pm, and I left the store by 11:30 pm. Walking back to the parking structure was kind of creepy. The concrete structure was dimly lit. There were still several cars left in the structure, probably belonging to mall employees.
I had completely forgotten where I had parked. So there I was, aimlessly wandering the parking structure looking for my car. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an elderly homeless man coming towards me. He asked me, "You looking for your car?" Not wanting to be rude I responded, "Yes."
The homeless man nodded and beckoned for me to follow him. Not really knowing what to do, I decided to follow. We walked for about five minutes across the structure and up a flight of stairs.
Then he stopped right in front of my car and told me, "It's not safe to drive a car that's low on motor oil, you know." Then he proceeded to walk away.
After getting into my car, I noticed that it WAS low on oil. I have no idea how he knew where my car was or how he knew it was low on oil.
- 11529 VOTES
The Gas Station Attendant's Warning
From Redditor /u/1_point_21_gigawatts:
I was getting gas in Portland, OR, about six years ago, shortly after leaving the Horse Brass Pub after having dinner with a couple of friends. I don't remember which gas station it was, but I recall it being a few blocks from Horse Brass. (It should be noted that in the state of Oregon, you're not allowed to pump your own gas.)
The station attendant was an old, bearded white guy with a steely look in his eyes. I told him to fill up the tank, and he did so, saying nothing. After he was done, he leaned in close to my window and whispered in a gravelly voice, "You see that guy over there?" He motioned toward the corner of the building where a young Black man was pacing nervously. "He's getting ready to kill me."
I said, "Really? How do you know?"
"I can see it in his eyes. I ain't afraid of him. I already been dead once."
I had no idea what to say, so I just paid and got out of there. My friend who was in the passenger seat was really stoned, and it freaked him out so bad, he was on the verge of tears. I am still completely dumbfounded and creeped out by that experience.
- 12497 VOTES
A Late Night Visitor
From Redditor /u/[deleted]:
I was watching TV in the media room (home theater type deal, no windows, etc.) of my parents' house when I was 13-14. It was probably about 2:30 am when I heard the doorbell ring. Mind you, I grew up in a relatively rural area, not the "country" necessarily, but houses in our neighborhood were on five-acre lots. Our house was situated a couple hundred yards off the road, at the end of a long, winding driveway that went through a pretty thick patch of woods. My point being it required effort to get to our door - it was very unlikely that somebody would just wander up.
But I digress, back to the media room where 13-year-old me is p*ssing his pants.
So, I'm laying there on the carpet scared sh*tless because who rings a doorbell at 2:30 am with good intentions? My parents' room is on the opposite end of the rather large house. To get there, I have to run through our kitchen, entryway, and living room. All of which have floor-to-ceiling windows, because my mom likes natural light.
I make it to the kitchen and duck behind the island in the middle with my back towards the front of the house, where presumably the axe murderers/rapists are. Except they weren't there. At least not both of them.
I looked out the back window at the silhouette of a man with his hand cupping his face so that he could get a better look inside. I got up and made a mad dash for my parents' bedroom. As I did, the man at the back illuminates me with a flashlight following me as I run. I can hear him knocking on the glass as I reach the hallway to my parents' bedroom.
As I rounded the corner, I ran directly into my dad who had obviously been woken up by the commotion and was going to investigate. (Side note: I didn't know my dad owned a gun until that night when I saw him walk out of his room with it.) He grabbed me, and with a very stern and serious tone said, "Get in the room with your mom, lock the door behind you, and don't open it for anybody but me." I locked the door and hid in the corner.
Time seemed to slow down. I heard the sound of the front door unlocking, my dad twisting the handle, the door opening, then, "Holy, sh*t. Sorry, officer. I didn't realize...."
After a short conversation between my dad and the police, I heard my dad open the door again. The police wanted to have a quick look around to make sure everything was normal. You know, being as a man had just answered the door wearing nothing but boxer shorts with a loaded pistol in his hand.
They looked around, surmised that all was as it should be, apologized, then left.
Apparently, the phone lines in our neighborhood were f*cked up or something because we were the fifth house in a week to "ghost call" 911. They said they figured the same thing had happened to us, but they were still obligated to investigate every call as if it was an actual emergency.
- 13452 VOTES
A Terrifying Detour Via Google
From Redditor /u/[deleted]:
A friend and I were driving across the state (Michigan) to pick up another friend and go to a concert. We got lost on our way because Google Maps told us to get off the highway and take backroads. Long story short, by the time we got to my friend's college to pick him up, the concert had started, and we had a 45-minute drive to the venue. We bailed on the concert and just hung around Rochester.
It got to be around midnight, and the drive home takes three hours, so we said our goodbyes and hit the road. Once again, Google Maps told us to get off the highway and take some kind of backwoods road. The first sign that something creepy was going to happen was the "don't pick up hitchhikers" sign. We made a joke about it and kept driving.
The directions told us to turn right onto a road and, because we didn't look ahead on the list, we followed the turn. We wound up on a dirt road that quickly narrowed down to a little less than two proper lanes. If a car had been coming from the other way, I'm not sure how we would have squeaked by.
On our right, there was a big, open field. On our left, trees. None of the trees had any leaves on them, even though it was one of the warmest Octobers we had had in years. Mid-70s all through September and into October. We drove up this road for a while and came to a stop sign, pulled through, and saw some spooky farm houses off to our right. We're talking run-down two-story homes with burned-out barns and long driveways.
Only one of the houses had any lights on - one light at the top of the house. An attic, maybe, or an upstairs bedroom. After that house, there was a cemetery. And not a little country cemetery with a couple dozen graves. We're talking rows and rows of dead people stretching into the dark.
Oh, did I forget to mention that it was pitch-black along these roads and we just had my high beams for light?
After the cemetery, we were supposed to take a left onto another dirt road. We did so in complete silence. I had turned the music down because it seemed way too loud for what was happening. We drove down this new dirt road, now totally surrounded by bare trees. Then we came to another street, and our directions said to turn left again. A weight grew in my stomach. Another street, another left.
Those of you playing along at home may have realized by now that we were driving back towards the original street... Sure enough, we got back to that road at that stop sign we drove through originally. The directions had us turn right onto that road, then take another right back onto the same highway going in the same direction we were to begin with.
We didn't speak until we were miles away from there.
- 14421 VOTES
The Abandoned House Filled With Creepy Art
From Redditor /u/Stealyourdonkey:
A few weeks back, my friend moved into a new house. Tim is an anarchist and - due to some connections with other anarchists - he found this place that has been empty for years. He just packed his bags and moved in. He invited a few friends over to check the place out and just chill. (We live in the Netherlands.) The house was all but empty. Obviously an artist used to live there - there were a lot of portraits, mannequins, instruments, books, and other materials. The place had a creepy vibe with pics of [unclothed], screaming women and such. Since he just moved in, we were curious to what else might be laying around.
We found some diaries and discussed if we should read them or not. Why not? Since this person wasn't there, reading his/her diary would be just. Otherwise, why would he even have one if not to have someone read it when he's "gone"? A few pages in, we realized it's a poetry book with creepy poetry - some pages looked bloody, some just had "DIE" and "I'm all alone" written in them. There were some interesting and emotional stories (mostly in English) that always ended up with someone dying or just ending randomly. We kept reading, and the more we read, the more creeped out we got. The cover of the books themselves were all creepy - skulls, corpses, and whatnot. This man might have been suicidal, insane, or just artistic as hell.
We kept snooping around, and we found cassettes, but couldn't find the means to play them. We found a sh*tload of vinyls, but no player. We found a box full of sunglasses and a room full of mannequin heads and got more creeped out.
I found a box, and all I saw in it was hair... I pulled it out. It was all attached to a mannequin helmet.
That was it, actually. But - there's this one room upstairs. It's cemented shut. I want to see what's in there.
- 15381 VOTES
The Formation Of A Tornado
From Redditor /u/Indosay:
There was a really bad storm as my girlfriend and I were driving up Interstate 69 in Indiana toward Muncie. It hadn't rained here in like a month so we were pretty pumped. Anyway, this storm kinda built up really quickly and just started pouring.
We didn't think anything of it at first - we were happy for the long-due rain. But suddenly, the wind picked up really, really badly. Dust and debris in the fields around us suddenly lifted into the air and began swirling around in a giant funnel-shape around the car - maybe a football field-length on either side of the car. My girlfriend, who is terrified of storms, was freaking out thinking there was going to be a tornado that dropped on top of our car. I kept it together, but definitely laid on the gas pedal.
For a few moments, the wind blew from left to right, then a few seconds later, it was blowing right to left. Anyway, we made it through with no problems. When we got to where we were going, some of the guys said they watched as a funnel cloud dropped about halfway to the ground for about 30 seconds right over where we were. Later that night, it was confirmed on the news, a spotted funnel cloud, again, dropped right where we were.
We had driven through what was almost a tornado, and it was intense as f*ck. Creepiest feeling I've ever had, knowing that if I had merely looked up, I would have seen the start of a tornado dropping down onto my car. Probably would have p*ssed myself, to be honest.
- 16328 VOTES
Crying From The Pale Green Light
From Redditor /u/Dtoppy:
One day, my friends and I were climbing this large pine tree in the state park. When we got near the top, we stopped on a couple branches and looked out across the lake and into the trees.
Suddenly, a subtle flash of pale green light went through my vision. It flashed in an electric kind of way, somewhat like a lightning pulse, except greenish. There were also no storm clouds in the sky. It was around dusk.
I'm not exactly sure why, but automatic fear tears were produced upon seeing this flash. I mean, I wasn't noticeably shaken up or even alarmed to be honest; my eyes just reflexively welled up (not crying, though).
The weirdest thing about it was that my two other friends saw it as well. And not only did they see it - I looked over, and they were misty-eyed as well. We hadn't said anything to each other except for "You saw that, too?"
"Yup."
- 17297 VOTES
A Close Lightning Strike
From Redditor /u/TheDutchGuy87:
This happened three years ago, on a VERY, VERY hot summer day. We could see some dark clouds forming on the horizon from our garden. So my little brother and I fired up our PC and checked the weather radar. There was a pretty bad patch of rain and thunder on a collision course with our town.
When the clouds were finally over our heads, the whole family was in the yard looking at the lightning that was cracking some miles away. Out of nowhere, lightning hit our greenhouse, which I was two to three meters away from. I could actually feel the static on my arm hair and saw my own shadow in the whitish-blue light as I ducked out of reflex. The buzzing sound was intense as an arc of lightning crawled across the iron gutters of the greenhouse.
This all happened in one and a half seconds. In the next moment, all of my family members were with me under our back porch. All were quite literally shocked, but no one was hit. Creepiest thing I can recall by far.
- 18307 VOTES
The Little Girl In The Window
From Redditor /u/Pandoraexpress:
A few years ago, I was eating at a restaurant with a few friends. Our table was seated next to a window that went floor to ceiling with a divider between the two. As everyone is talking and joking around, I casually look out the window. Below the divider, there is a little girl crouching and staring at me. She isn't smiling, she isn't frowning - just has a stone-faced stare. After a few minutes of uncomfortable eye contact, the mother takes the girl by the hand and tries to lead her away. The girl doesn't move; she just continues to stare. After two or three tries, the mother finally picks the girl up and walks away. I never told my friends, and I still think of that girl's little face sometimes.
